captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, february 6: president biden says former president trump should no longer receive intelligence briefings. vaccination efforts ramp up as the u.s. marks the one-year anniversary of its first covid-19 death. >> right now, the nets are underdogs, getting 6.5 points. >> sreenivasan: and, the growing popularity of legal sports betting. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine

foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooy fund. we try to live in the moment, to not miss at right in front ofs. at mutual of america, we believe taking carof tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goahas been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. on the weekend before his predecessor will face a cond

impeachment trial, president biden is making clear that mr. trump should not continue to receive intelligence briefings. mr. biden headed to his home in wilminon delaware for the weekend yesterday. in an excerpt from a pre-taped interview that will air tomorrow before the super bowl, the president told cbs news anchor norah o'donnell the former president should not have access to classified information, citing mr. trump's “erratic behavior.” >> what's your worst fear if he continues to get these intelligence briefings? >> i'd rather not speculate out loud. i just think that there is no need for him to have that intelligence briefing. what value is giving him an intelligence briefing? what impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something? >> sreenivasan: on monday, white house press secretary jen psaki said the issue was "under review." the biden administration did not say when the intelligence information would stop being sent but the president does have unilateral autrity to deny intelligence access to anyone he chooses. there was no comment from mr. trump, who is now living at

his mar-a-lago club in florida. today marks the one year anniversary of the first covid- 19 related death in the u.s. that fatality occurred in santa clarita county in california, though it was not attributed to covid-19 until last april. one year later, nearly 460,000 deaths in the u.s. are now linked to the coronavirus and more than 26 million cases have been reported in the u.s. in california, one of the states hit hardest by the pandemic, a ban on indoor church services was partially struck down by the u.s. supreme court late last night. in orders on two separate cases, the court's conservative majority ruled the state could not stop indoor religious worship, though it could cap attendance at 25%. the court also left in place california's ban on indoor singing and chanting. we'll have more on covid-19 vaccation efforts after the news summary. in myanmar today, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce military

rule after a coup earlier this week. the protesters are demanding the release of their toppled elected leader, aung san suu kyi, who won by a landslide in the november 8 elections. military generals refused to recognize the results, claiming fraud although there is no evidence backing their claims. lawyers say they have been unable to meet with suu kyi, who is being detained. facing a risintide of protests,the military junta has cracked down on twitter and instagram use, and cut internet access across the country. the u.s. is considering sanctions against the generals. yesterday, in a phone call with a top chinese diplomat, secretary of state anthony blinken pressed the chinese government to condemn the coup. suu kyi spent 15 years under house arrest after leading pro-democracy protests against the military junta in 1988. protesters say they will demonstrate again tomorrow. thousands of farmers blocked highways across india today in protest of the country's new agricultural laws. the protesters stopped traffic for three hours today, using

trucks and tractors. rallies were held in favor of repealing laws that india's government says will modernize the nation's agriculture indust, but which critics say favor large corporations over independent farmers. the blockades are only the latest development in the face- off between agricultural workers and the government. for more than two months, tens of thousands of indian farmers have camped on roadsides surrounding the capital of new delhi to protest the laws passed late last year. for the latest national and international news visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: equal access to vaccine has been a challenge. yesterday, the pentagon committed to sending more than 1,000 active duty troops to help with vaccination efforts across the country. the announcement came on the heels of the white house promising to open community vaccination centers increase

availability of vaccines to communities in need. i recently spoke about the difficulties of getting vaccinations to communities who need it most with dr. julie morita, executive vice president of the robert wood johnson foundation, which is a funder of newshour. dr. morita, we know that the virus itself has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. when it comes to vaccinations, are we seeg disparities again? >> hari, yeah, the challenge that we're experiencing right now is that the data that are available related to who's getting vaccinated are very limited. the c.d.c. issued an m.m.w.r. earlier this week where they demonstrated that just a little bit under 50% of the data, that vaccines that are administered actually have race and ethnicity data associated with it. and so as a result of that, we don't really have a complete picture of who's getting the administered vaccines and who's not. so it is critical, having this aggregated data by race, by

ethnicity, by geography, and occupation, are critical for us to know our frame is working, are we being successful? >> sreenivasan: you're kind of pointing at two problems here. one is the actual disparity based on the data that we have. and then that second problem is the data that we have. are all the places, we have vaccination centers popping up all over the country, are they all making sure to collect that information, to figure out who's getting it at what time, what day and so forth? >> so, it seems so easy to be able to just report by race or ethnicity who's getting vaccinated. but in order to do that, the data systems actually have to have the fields to collect that information, and they have to do it in a standard kind of way. in addition to that, the data systems have to connect to each other, so that a mass immunization clinic or a retail pharmacy or a hospital can actually report the same information into one system so all the data can be analyzed. so, there's personnel challenges in terms of having enough people to do this kind of data collection, and there's actual

a system levelhallenges that are in place that make it difficult to actually exchange the kind of information so it can all be in one place. >> senivasan: this also gets to that kind of real estate adage, location, location, location, right? i mean, you have to make this available where communities already exist that you know demographically. >> that's right. so, i think one of the challenges is there's a coue of aspects in terms of how we can make sure that the communities at highest risk for dying or being hospitalized are actually having access to t vaccine. and the first part of it is really the accessibility or the location of where the sites are. are they in the right places? and then also, are they easily accessible? can people pick up the phone and make an appointment? can they walk in, are they available after hours or on weekends or do people have to try to take off time from work? so all those factors come into play in terms of how accessible a vaccine is. but in addition to that, in some of our communities that are at highest risk for getting sick and dying, those communities also have hesitancy or distrust

of the vaccine, of health care systems, of the government. and so they may not want to get the vaccine so simultaneously to making the vaccines available in the right communities and making them easy to get appointments, we have to also be working with the communities to understand what are their questions? what are their concerns? what information do they need? who do they want to hear from? having those kinds of questions answered and then working with the community to address those issues will help us to overcome this distrust and hesitancy that some of the communities actually have. >> sreenivasan: the irony is that there were stories in new york, for example, that there was a vaccine location in washington heights, a predominantly latino and spanic neighborhood. but the people that were getting the vaccinations there were predominantly white, and they were coming from outside the area because that was one of the most accessible places. so, you know, it's frustrating on two fronts. >> so we experienced this in the past when i was health commissioner in chicago, i was responsible for the h1-n1

vaccine clinics and rolling those programs out. and what we saw was in our predominantly blacknd latino communities, we were having people coming from alover the city to get the vaccine because the demand in those communities was just not that high. and part of it was those same kinds of challenges. if the clinics are scheduled during work days or if you have to make an appointment online and you don't have high speed internet, or if you have to drive a car to get some place, those kinds of barriers make it very difficult for the people from within the communities to take advantage of the opportunities. but also these communities and indivials have questions or concerns about the safety or the efficacy of the vaccine. and we really have to be making sure that they're hearing from trusted messengers, doctors from their community, faith leaders in their communities, community leaders saying that these vaccnes are safe and effective and that they got their vaccines and they did well with them and they want other people to get them because they're so important. so it's multiple things have to be happening to make sure that we don't end up with continued problems with higher rates among communities of color. >> sreenivasan: all right,

dr. julie morita of the robert wood johnson foundation, thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: it's been more than eight months since the police killing of george floyd. next month, the former police officers charged in his death will go on trial in minneapolis. earlier this week, the marshall project, in partnership with t "new york times," found new, firsthand accounts that former officer derek chauvin, who was seen with his knee of floyd's neck for more than eight minutes, had acted with that same kind of for before. i spoke with the marshall project's jamiles lartey and abbie vansickle, who interviewed several who say they were also victims of chauvin's use of excessive force. when you look back and talk to other people who have had these interactions with officer chauvin, what is the picture that we get? >> yeah, i think the picture

that we get is-- from a number of folks who have had other interactions with law enforcement, the way derek chauvin treated them, the way he interacted with them, was beyond the pale. it was different. that was something that i heard in-- in every interview, really, that thereeemed to just be maybe a heartlessness, a callousness to their pain, to their-- their cries for-- for air, or help or-- or even just the-- the feeling that this is unnecessary, right? this is so over the top. >> sreenivasan: how many peopl came forward, and what was it like when you all spoke to them? >> yeah, so we were able to identify six instances where the attorney general had concluded that chauvin may have used excessive force, and we were able to find three of those people, and then we were able to find the witness to a fourth-- a fourth incident.

>> sreenivasan: abbie, what was the conversation like with some of these individuals when they're telling you that they also were struggling to breathe under the offer? >> so, one of the things that surprised us in the reporting is that they had not told their stories before. they had-- we were the people explaining that this was the same officer from the george floyd case. like, for example, the witness who i interviewed, he said that he had seen this arrest happen, and as he was recalling it, he said, you know, one of the weirdest things is how they just kept this man's head in the puddle. this one officer kept his face down. he was just mentioning it so casually, like it's the thing that's always bothered him, but no one had ever askedim about it. i thought people would have

already talked with them and-- and they would know what had hapned and their place in this, you know, enormous case. >> sreenivasan: the stunning thing is not just that you spoke to these individuals that had found themselves in the same situation, but that somehow nothing happened to t officer, tht he was still on the force. >> when we look at derek chauvin's behavior in real time, there was-- there was no official discipline for any of these. minneapolis does have what's called a "coaching program" in its police department, where officers can be sort of corrected in their approach to use of force, rather than a reprimand. and those records are not public, so we would not know if officer chauvin was coached in any of these instances. but what we do know is that there was no official determination of wrongdoing by

the department in any of these. and the majority of them happened after the minneapolis police department had voluntarily worked with the department of justice to revamp its accountability measures, including that coaching program. so i think it's a-- it's a good reminder that departments can be doing-- can be making efforts that look productive and look progressive and still have a lot of potentially criminal or potentially-- acts that are violating people's civil rights or violating use of force principles going unchecked. >> sreenivasan: so, abbie, one of the stories that you dove into is going to show up in the court proceedings against officer chauvin. but you also write that the prosecutor is picking a case where officer chauvin did the right thing. why? >> he and the other officers received a commendation for the way that they handled a case.

and the prosecutors, in their court filings, have pointed to wanting to show he knew how to use force. he had been trained in the appropriate use of force, that he knew how to do it. and so, that's why it looks like this other case may be something that the jury hears. >> sreenivasan: were either of you surprised when you found these individuals? what was that moment like when they recognized that this could have been them? >> none-- none of the fol who we spoke to were sort of surprised that this officer had other instances that we could point to that may have been excessive uses of force. none of them were surprised that there were officers on the minneapolis police department who routinely engaged in excessive use of force and were t punished for those things. none of that was surprising. yeah, and i'll say, you know, in zoya code's case, she remembered chauvin. she also knew philando castile.

so i think zoya's story is-- is really powerful to me because, in a sense, it is the connection point between these two fatal incidents-- philando castile in 2016 and george floyd in 2020-- that, you know, were flashpoints inur national conversation about policing. >> sreenivasan: jamiles lartey, abbie vansickle, both from the marshall project, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thanks for having us. >> sreenivasan: it's super bowl weekend, which means that in addition to two teams playing for the n.f.l. championship, it's also the biggest betting event of the year. 23 million people will wager an estimated $4.3 billion on the game, according to industry estimates. betting has always been part of sports, legal or not, but since the expansion of legal

sports betting outside of nevada in 2018, it's suddenly much more visible. st over the hudson river from new york city, at the fanduel sportsbook at the meadowlands in new jersey, capacity is limited to 35% as a covid precaution, but that doesn't mean that it's not busy. >> we've done our best to create an environment where they're able to at least feel comfortable being in here and be socially distanced, so i don't think the excitement is any different. i think, if anything, the excitement is more this year than it was last year. >> sreenivasan: andrew kleiman is the senior director of operations for the sportsbook. it is the largest sports betting operation in the country and part of the dramatic growth of the industry in new jersey since becoming legal. last year, new jersey sportsbooks took in nearly $400 million in revenue. it was nearly $100 million more than 2019, despite the pandemic. and it generated more than $50 million in state taxes. >> when we were able to open up,

it almost was like a perfect storm where all the sports came back at the same te, and people actually wagered more than they did last year. so, needless to say, it was a really good year for us. >> sreenivasan: the growth has also been driven by the fact that in new jersey, you don't have to physically be here; you can just use your phone. in fact, more than 90% of the wagers in new jersey are done online. it's part of a huge change since new jersey led the effort nationally to legalize sports gambling outside of nevada. as newshour weekend reported back in 2015, boosters of sports betting in the garden state had been pushing to legalize the practice for years. in central new jersey, one racetrack even preemptively built out this space in anticipation of the rules changing. in may of 2018, the supreme court struck down a 1992 law that had prohibited it. and within months, new jersey governor phil murphy was placing a legal bet in that same sports book that had been built years earlier. today, 20 states and washington,

d.c. have legalized sports gambling in some form, with another 19 either considering legislation or working on regulations to actually start operations. >> we're unlikely to see another expansion of gambling that occurs this rapidly for a generation, if not more. >> sreenivasan: chris grove is a partner at eilers and kreijek gaming, an independent research firm that follows the industry. >> it's certainly possible that we could see the number of states where sports betting is available crest over 30 by the end of the year. some of that increased interest in state legislatures does come from the budgetary pressures brought about by the global pandemic. but, to be honest, much of that momentum was already existing in state capitals. >> sreenivasan: new jersey is currently the biggest market in the count, with more than $6 billion in wagers in 2020. but grove says this will change as the industry matures and more states legalize sports betting. >> it is a temporary crown unfortunately, for the good

folks in the garden stat generally speaking, with some exceptions on the margin, the largest states from a sports betting revenue perspective are going to be the states with the largest populations. >> sreenivasan: grove also says that the growth has come as media and sports leagues themselves have embraced gambling. both espn and fs1 feature daily shows devoted to sports betting. information on betting odds are now displayed on the tickeon networks like espn, and media companies and teams have official gambling partners, and feature betting content during games. >> right now, the nets are underdogs, getting six and a half points. >> i think you're also going to see those partnerships continue to deepen, and you are going to see increased integrations, whether it's some of the more subtle things or more all-in integrations like custom blocks of content that are gambling first and sports second. i don't think it's overstating it to use the word "ubiquitous." i think you are going to see that kind of ubiquitous integration. >> sreenivasan: grove believes

it is in this area where we could see new regulation in the future. >> it's going to be an interesting dialog between sports teams, leagues, betting operators, consumers and, of course, regulators who do have a history in the u.s. of weighing in on what kind of advertising in what context is appropriate. >> sreevasan: back in new jersey, despite the availability of online betting, andrew kleiman says many people still prefer to place bets in person, which is the only way to use just cash. while there's a lot of focus on who will win the game, kleiman says, keep an eye on the pregame coin toss; it's one of the most popular bets not related to the game's outcome. >> it's a 50-50 opportunity. and it's just one of those things that you sit there and you just hope for the best, but you also want your custome to win, too. >> sreenivasan: and in case you're wondering, as of yesterday, the heavy favorite, in terms of money wagered at least, was tails.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: this weekend i your last chance to apply for a very unique job in the united kingdom: bison ranger. bison became extinct in britain more than 15,000 years ago. two conservation groups are about to bring europe's largest land mammal back to live in a semi-wild state. the kent wildlife trust and the wildwood trust are looking for two people to take care of a small herd of european bison coming to the blean woods near canterbury. the bison will help manage the woodland habitat naturally under the watch of the new rangers. >> these people will be involved in all the day-to-day care of the bison, but very much hands- off. we want these animals to be kept as wild as possible. so it's a case of monitoring these animals from a distance and-- and making sure that they are healthy and happy and they're doing the right jobs in the environment. >> sreenivasan: tre are bison at the conservation site now, but they are domesticed and dependent on humans.

>> they've become sort of very habituated to people and sort of are fairly reliant on the supplementary feeding, or food, that is offered to them. bringing in semi-wild bison from different grazing projects, they have that sort of behavior and they're not going to be too habituated to people, and they know where to forage and find food. >> sreenivasan: the massive mammals will help manage their woodland habitat by rubbing up against tree knocking them down, and even eating the bark, creating space for other species to thrive. >> they are sort of ecosystem engineers. they can manage habitats in a way no other animal can, but and this is all about trying to find nature-based solutions to solve the biodiversity crisis that we currently face. >> sreenivasan: the new bison herd will be in a more than 1,200 acre-fenced area. before they arrive, the new bison rangers will get several nths of training in the netherlands where bison were reintroduced in the wild in 2007.

>> sreenasan: finally tonight, tomorrow is super bowl lv. it's also puppy bowl 17, the discovery channel's show featuring the antics of rescue puppies on a pretend football field. >> sreenivasan: during breaks in the puppy action this year, the biden family's first dogs will make an appearance to help promote covid-19 safety measures. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari senivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation.

the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're wating pbs.

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