so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, the wrath of winter: millions remain without power in frigid temperatures as the u.s. continues to grapple with the effects of a major storm. then, a crisis of care: the governor of new york admits under-reporting the often deadly impact of the covid-19 pandemic in the state's nursing homes. and searching for justice: the simple task of obtaining identification becomes a major roadblock to re-entering society for former prisoners. >> you knew who i was when you sentenced me. so, you kept me there 27.5

years. you kept me there knowing who i was. right. then you sent me out there like you don't know who i was. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has 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. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway.

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporion for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: some of the worst winter weather on record is disrupting much of the nation's life again tonight. extreme conditions have claimed at least 15 lives from a variety

of causes-- including a tornado. stephanie sy has our report. >> reporter: in southeastern noh carolina today: downed power lines and homes ripped off their foundations. >> this is going to ta a lot of hard work and effort, between clean-up, rebuildi. >> reporter: officials say at least three people were killed and ten others injuredy a tornado that ripped through brunswick county just after midnight. it struck with little warning near ocean ridge plantation, a coastal community some 45 miles south of wilmington. >> we have a lot of hard work to do as a community to get it back to normal, to make the community safe to go back into the parts that were unaffected, but it's definitely a very hazardous situation with debris, homes damaged, stuff all over the place. >> reporter: elsewhere, more chaos from an unrelenting weather pattern that's gripped much of the country. winter storm advisories by the national weather service again today stretched from coast to coast.

bitter cold engulfed cities across new england and the eastern great lakes. chicago woke up to more than a foot of snow-- with more falling by the hour-- and dangerous wind chills. >> you really have to hold your ground, i mean, seriously, you have to stand sturdy. >> reporter: in the southern plains, record cold temperatures extended to another day. the surge in demand for energy has prompted more utilities across central and western states linked to the same power grid to initiate rolling blackouts. today, in oklahoma, more than 130,000 homes and businesses were without power. in texas, largely on its own electric grid, four million were in the dark. >> it's cold. kids are around, trying to stay warm, fireplace. you know, there's no firewood anywhere, no stores are open. >> reporter: many rushed to hotels to keep warm... >> the temperature being so low, it gets so cold in my house, so fast. >> reporter: ...while others turned to shelters.

but, in houston, mayor sylvester turner said space is running out. >> because of covid and the healthcare protocols, we simply can't take anymore. we've gone significantly over and above what we had scheduled, what we had planned. >> reporter: texas governor greg abbott deployed the national guard to conduct welfare checks until power is restored. the weather brought covid vaccine distribution to a halt in some places, amid icy road conditions and widespread airport shutdowns. and, it closed the houston ship channel and gulf coast refineries, spiking the price of oil. >> sy: just to underscore the scale of this deep freeze, the national weather service put out a list of 20 cities from the gulf coast up through the great plains that are seeing record low temperatures today. the demand is taxing the capacities of energy grids, most significantly in texas. to help us understand what's happening, i'm joined by michael wara, director of the climate

and energy policy program at the stanford woods institute for the environment. >>sy: michael, thank you for joining us. you know texas is the largest energy producer in the entire united states. how is it that residents there are in a situation of multiple days of power outages? >> well, a combination of two factors. one is really unprecedented demand for electricity during the winter time. the demand for power has exceeded the grid planners' worst case scenario by a significant degree. also, power plants are snoot -- are not performing as expected. especially natural gas fired power plants in texas right now. >>sy: you know it's interesting because some have actually used the energy crisis in the last couple of days in texas to point out that texas's turn towards renewable energy namely wind power is more the issue. why do you say natural gas is

the problem? >> well, i think let me just say it's a complex set of ftors. but what we know right now is that the wind power plants are mostly meeting their expected performance levels. but what is not happening in texas is that many of the thermal power plants, the plants that boil water to make electricity, like natural gas fired power plants, coal fired power plants and at least one nuclear unit are not producing energy. they're suffering outages. and that dwaives the amount of -- dwaives the dwarfs the amount of wind power. it is not a clean energy problem. >>sy: okay but this is texas. and they are not used to in february having peak demand for heating for electricity. could this have been anticipated in any way? and what is the say about the need to perhaps update

infrastructure? >> well, i think this raises really important questions about how grid planners think about extreme events in the context of climate change. we saw in california this summer unprecedented heat waves that led to outages and now in texas in winter we are seeing an unprecedented cold snap. this kind of extreme weather is what scientists believe is most likely to occur during climate change. it suggests to me that planners need to be updating their forecasts to take a look at the extremes that are likely to coms our way. >>sy: and what can be done in the near term that is realistic to update the nation's power grids, as you points out, climate change is expected to bring more of not just in texas but in california and the east coast as well? >> stephanie, i think you used exactly the right word there when you said with what-done

with the power grids? the most important step the united states could take is build a truly national power system. that is what president biden suggested might be a stimulus policeman. there is no question that having a national architecture for our power system would help us to avoid circumstances like what is happening in texas and in the midwest as well right now. if we had wire stretching from coast to coast, the places that had problems could lean on the places where there isn't bad weather. like where you and i are today. >>sy: and are you confident that renewable energy sources like solar, like winds, that the technology exists to store those energies, the same way that natural gas would be, so those transmission lines could reliably and flexibly carry that energy to customers? >> there is no question long term storage is a really big

technological challenge in the twhairnt we don't have yet. but we could certainly produce a lot more of our electric power from clean resources that we do today and do it rely guilty bli and safely if we had aa more robust transmission system. in the long run we're going to have to solve technological problems, but that's in the long run. we're going to have to build a morrow business mechanism for getting that power to where it's needed. >>sy: there are a lot of people in freezing cold temperatures now in texas and elsewhere in the country that are hoping for some solutions. michael wara with the stanford woods institute thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: in the day's other news: officials in some cities

scrambled to use up covid-19 vaccine doses after refrigeration units lost power in the storm. at the same time, the federal disaster agency, fema, opened mass vaccination sites in los angeles and oakland, california. meanwhile, the president's top medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci, said it could be late may or early june before vaccine is available everywhere, due to limited supplies. president biden is on his first official trip outside washington tonight since taking office, and he's pushing his pandemic lief bill. he headed out this afternoon for milwaukee and a cnn town hall event with an intation-only audience. the $1.9 trillion relief plan will top the agenda when congress returns to work next week. in iraq: the u.s. began investigating an overnight attack that killed a coalition contractor and injured a u.s.

service-member and iraqi civilians. rockets struck at a military base outside ur-beel. the u.s.tate department condemned the attack, but did not go further. >> it would be premature to speak in specific terms about retaliation before we know precisely what happened. we reserve the right to respond at a time a place of our choosing consistent with our partnership with the people and government of iraq. >> woodruff: a little-known shiite militant group claimed responsibility. the government of iran denied any role in the attack. police in myanmar filed a new charge against deposed leader aung san suu kyi today. it accused her of violating covid-19 restrictions and could keep her detained indefinitely without trial. meanwhile, protesters again turned out in yangon, chanting slogans against the military coup while lying down to block rail tracks. others occupied streets near the

central bank. back in this country: a top democrat in the u.s. house of representatives sued former president trump for allegedly inciting the capitol insurrection. mississippi congressman bennie thompson chairs the homeland security committee. his suit seeks unspecified damages. it could be the first in a wave of new legal action against mr. trump. the former president attacked senate republican leader mitch mcconnell today as a political hack. in a statement, he blamed mcconnell for losing the senate majority, and said if republicans stay with him they will not win again. mcconnell voted to acquit mr. trump in his senate impeachment trial, but condemned his behavior. a cold and quiet "mardi gras" passed today in new orleans. the pandemic and the weather canceled parades, closed bars and kept bourbon street blocked off. instead, homeowners had elaborately decorated their

houses and fnt yards as stationary floats for people to visit. they ranged from life-sized gardens to dinosaur exhibits. and, on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 64 points to close at 31,522-- but the nasdaq fell 48 points and the s&p 500 slipped 2 points. still to come on the "newshour," the governor of new york admits under-reporting the often deadly impact of covid-19 in nursing homes; yemen faces a tenuous future amid war, the pandemic, and changing u.s. policy; former president trump faces an uncertain future as multiple legal challenges lie ahead plus, much more.

>> woodruff: from the earliest days of the pandemic whenew york was an epicenter of covid, governor andrew cuomo often has been in the spotlight. that's partially because of the very public manner in which he first addressed the crisis. but, increasingly, there are questions about whether his administration was transparent enough about disclosing how many nursing home residents died. as amna nawaz tells us, the governor is now at the center of significant criticism. >> nawaz: judy, the governor admitted yesterday that he made mistakes when it came to not disclosing key data. nationwide, by some estimates, more than 160,000 residents of long-term care facilities have died from covid-related issues. that's about a third of all covid deaths. about 15,000 of those were in new york state. but just a few weeks ago cmo's

administration reporteonly about 8,500 of them, meaning thousands of nursing home residents who died in hospitals were not included in that nursing home tally. jesse mckinley is the albany bureau chief for "the new york times" who has been covering this story and the fallout. he joins me now. jesse welcome to the newshour and thanks for making the time. let's just start with why we're learning about this right now. what d to these revelations? >> this actually dates back to a report from the state attorney general letitia james about three weeks ago which showed the quomo administration had been undercounting nursing home dets by about 50%. they began to release thousands more deaths which raised the death toll here in new york from about 8500 to over 15,000 which ishere we're sitting now. the quomo administration said that the reason they were slow to put out this data is they were worried about an investigation from the trump doj which they thought was

politically motivated. but lawmakers have been skeptical about that because the quomo administration had responded to that request back in september but didn't give up data until february. so there's been a lot of skepticism about that explanation. >>nawaz: of course, governor koh mo has been addressing a lot of this, first from a press conference. here is what he said. >> i am in charge. i take responsibility. we should have provided more information faster. we were too focused on doing the job. and addressing the crisis of the moment. and we did not do a good enough job in providing information. i take total responsibility for that. >>nawaz: jesse, the governor there taking responsibility, notably stopping short of apologing even when he was expressly asked to. just in new york how is that response going over?

>> i would say amongst common new yorkers it would be tough to say. in albany amongst lawmakers the response hasn't been a slam dunk. the governor didn't go far enough for lawmakers tastes. similarly republicans in new york who are a minority of course have been outraged of course, calling for resignations, even on the democratic side there are similar calls. i mean a lot of people at the kind of elected official level are quite upset about this and they don't think the governor went far enough yesterday to kind of quell that sort of anger. >>nawaz: what about reaction from family members who lost family members? any reaction from them so far? >> i think particularly that's where the rubber meets the road. because keep in mind this wasn't just data for data sake. people were making decisions for their loved ones depending on whether or not they felt that nursing homes were safe. that the death rates if they

were being suppressed artificially by the data not being up to date or not being complete could have affected someone's decision whether to put their mother or father or grandparents into a nursing hme. so those sorts of reactions who either advocate for the elderly or have elderly grand participants, since the very beginning. >>nawaz: there was this policy that quomo faced a long time ago, to about send people who had been data or suppressing those numbers to deflect attention from that policy, is there any evidence of that? >> well, since the very beginning that policy which was instituted in a march 25th memo from the state department of health has been controversial. the governor pushed back on that saying look we were just following guidelines. the problem is because the data has now been shown to be

withheld, can incomplete, a lot of people took that as an admission of guilt and the governor suggested yesterday that he had failed, his major failing was in not batting back those sources of report, in creating a void is the way he presented it with which allowed thee other theorize from -- theoriesto be presented. our publication and other publications will look at whether there was a spike as a result of the mrch memo. >>nawaz: it's worth reminding people new york was the epicenter of the pandemic. health care workers overwhelmed and governor quomo was held up as a pandemic hero. he weighs hailed for his response back then. he wrote a book on it. what do these revelations have as impact on those? >> well i tell you, he was

getting enormously great reviews from a lot of peple saying he was handling the situation in a way that the federal administration was not. that he was being forthright, at he was being honest, he was following the data, following the science when the trump administration sometimes wasn't doing that. now however, with these revelations, no nonsense straight shooter political brand that he had built up through the early stages of the pandemic, that's really taken a hit, you know, because at its core, what we were -- had been looking at is a government, a state government that was not willing to be straight with the people who elected it, or the people that cover it like myself, or its lawmakers, by telling them the truth about you know how many people died in these homes. >>nawaz: jesse mckinley, albany bureau chief for the new york times. thank you so much for joining us. >> of course.

>> woodruff: today the biden administration officially lifted the designation of the iranian backed houthis in yemen, as a global terrorist organization. that announcement comes within a larger review of the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia, which has a six-year campaign against the houthis. it's one of the most significant foreign policy shifts of the biden administration. nick schifrin reports on the prospects for diplomacy, and speaks to the new us envoy to yemen. ( cheers ) >> reporter: when yemen's new government cabinet arrived to fanfare six weeks ago, it was supposed to be a step toward ending the war. instead, a houthi rocket hit the tarmac. there was chaos and smoke. parts of the airport were pulverized. for six years a saudi-led campaign tried to unseat the iranian-backed houthis from the capital, sanaa.

it failed. the houthis are currently attackinthe internationally recognized government's final northern stronghold. and last month, the houthis hit another airport, in saudi arabia, and ripped a hole in a civilian airplane. ( baby crying ) but the campaign, and houthi intransigence, have succeeded in transforming the arab world's poorest country into a humanitarian catastrophe. the u.n. warns yemen is in“ imminent danger of the worst famine in decades,” and this year, two million children under five will suffer from acute malnutrition. last month, the trump administration labeled the houthis a global terrorist organization to try and cut off their funding and weapons, in part supplied by iran, over the objection of humanitarians including world food program director david beasley. >> it is literally is going to be a death sentence to hundreds of thousands, if not millions. it needs to be reevaluated, and quite frankly, it needs to be reversed. >> reporter: today the biden administration officially made

that reversal. tim lenderking is the new envoy to yemen. >> ending this war through a lasting political solution is the only way to end the humanitarian crisis. >> reporter: lenderking is leading a new push for diplomacy. last week he visited saudi capital, riyadh, with u.n. special envoy martin griffiths. and griffiths visited tehran. ( applause ) but diplomacy has been tried before. a 2018 deal largely fell apart. and today, yemen is even more splintered, and both sides have more than enough weapons, and incentive, to keep fighting. the biden administration is trying to put pressure on saudi arabia. it froze the sale of arms the kingdom uses in yemen and it ended the targeting assistance the u.s. military argued improved saudi precision. during the campaign, president biden warned saudi arabia that as president, he would hold them accountable. >> we were, in fact, going to make them pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. >> reporter: but today the administration pledged to help protect saudi arabia from houthi

attacks. >> we are not going to allow saudi arabia to be target practice. saudi needs to be able to defend itself. >> schifrin: and to discuss this more, i'm joined by tim lenderking, the u.s. special envoy to yemen. riyadh, welcome to newshour. secretary blincon said today houthi acts are not the action of a group that claims to want peace. how can you negotiate a settlement if one of the sides does not want peace? >> i think certainly we see the houthis in a pretty aggressive stance right now. if you look at just even the last couple of days they are cross-border attacks on saudi arabia, and the defenses that they are apparently launching on a northern town in yemen and also has oil platforms that's been fairly aggressive. there are movements on bot of these fronts and i think we're going to have to test the fro position. they have sent messages

indicating that they are prepared to do the heavy lifting for peace. certainly what we have seen in the last couple of days nt doesn't auger well. >> schifrin: does i it matter if there is public messaging or ongoing attacks? >> we have multiple ways of sending messages to organizations and in the yemen context we do want to keep the various channels open. they're going to be very important to us going forward. >> schifrin: have the houthis sent private messages? >> as i say they have ways of getting messages to us and so we have taken those. and we will do our best to work constructively with those messages and with the various groups of yemen who are supportive of a peace process. >> schifrin: your critics say that lifting the global terrorist organization label on

the houthis before they had to make any concessions meanings you've lost a chance for leverage to try and get them back to the negotiating table. do you believe that you've lost some leverage by lifting that global terrorist organization label? >> i don't in the end think so. i think there was a decision, a realization by the new administration that the fto designation was really a mixed bag. that on the one hand, it memorialized certain activities of the houthis that were terrorist in nature. their attacks on civilian infrastructure, their kidnapping of u.s. citizens, the close relationship with irgc but the new administration asks, well what does that give us in terms of benefit to the political process and benefit to other speacts of yemen? it's the quick realization that it was the net negative on the humanitarian space and if we are going to make improvements in the humanitarian sphere bear in

mind that yemen is the world's greatest humanitarian disaster in the moments. we can't stretch that any further. that is a key factor in why the administration decided to undo this designation. it doesn't remove every sanction from the houthi, it doesn't make them safe at all. >> schifrin: they continue to launch attacks both in yemen and across the border. you have put pressure on saudi arabia with some recent moves. what pressure is there on the houthis to make concessions? >> i think the houthis need to be tested in terms of their stated commitments and the messages that they've sent that they are committed to a peace process and to the betterment of yemen. and i think there are international actors here that we're going to be leaning on and

who have influence over the houthis, this is nt something the united states can do alone. it is going to require very closing coordination with the u.n. envoys, with martin griffettes with the saudis and others as well. >> schifrin: one that has the most influence ownership the houthis is iran. injured five aricans including one u.s. service member and those were rockets that we have seen before from iran. so do you believe that attack was by iran and what does it say to you, about iran's willingness to conduct diplomacy in the region? >> swhernl we look at iran's actions in the region, it is antithetical toss peace efforts that many much of the world is trying to engender. when you look at iraq or syria and other places that iran uses

proxy forces, yemen is not a bad plagues for them to start and that involves their relationship with the houthis and the arming, the trading, the training and the embedding that the houthis that they do. it would be an excellent way for iran to show goodwill by working in the in this diplomatic space that i've described to bring about the kind of result in yemen that we're all seeking. >> schifrin: during the campaign as we saw in the story president biden referred to saudi arabia as a pariah and vowed to hold the can kingdom accountable for jamal, how will the administration responsible for jamal hashoggi's death,. >> they'll have to play a

leading role. this is their backyard, this is the gulf region's backyard and just as we follow things that happen in our backyard very carefully, so must the saudis and so will the saudis. they will be a partner in this effort i'm convinced and will be able to maintained the president's commitment with regard to saudi arabia while ensuring that the yemen conflict the brought to a close. that is very much the goal. >> schifrin: tim lenderking, special envoy for yemen, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the new lawsuit we reported earlier against donald trump over the capitol riot adds to the former president's legal challenges now that he is out of office. for the most part, they are state criminal and civil

investigations-- or lawsuits like the one today filed by private parties. but what conduct is still being looked at, and what, if any, consequences may result? andrea bernstein of wnyc has been reporting on trump finances as part of their "trump inc." project. the and andrea bernstein, welcome back to the nirs. my first question, 90 that donald trump is identity of office is he in more legal trouble or less? >> well, he's certainly in a lot of legal trouble. i mean we do know the impeachment trial that the argument was he coun't be convicted because he was out of office. but that's the only case that i know of where it's better for him to have not been president. he has been arguing to great effect in the last several years that for various reasons under arm 2 in his argument he couldn't be in some cases even investigated because of the presidency. he also used the power of his own justice department in many cases to file briefs along with

his private business interests and in one case he argued that the justice department was able to are defend him in a private defamation suit brought buy former gossip columnist. so now, trump as a private citizen has to defend himself as private citizens do. now, while that may sound like justice may be more quickly delivered, when he was a private businessman he was so notoriouslnotoriously litigiousy cases went on for over a decade. >> woodruff: there are so many legal actions surrounding the former president it's hard to keep track of. you are telling us the criminal investigations may be most serious. explain what those are about. >> well, president trump and before that businessman l donald trump has been in involved in

thousands, literally thousands of lawsuits. but he has never been criminally charged. what he now face necessary at least two jurisdictions that we know of are criminal charges. to most far along is the manhattan district attorney's investigation which has not resulted in an indictment because donald trump has effectively gone to the supreme court twice to prevent the manhattan d.a. from getting his tax returns. but if that case is resolved as it is expected to be, the man at an district attorney is looking to possibly indict donald trump for bang fraud, tax fraud. we don't know if he has enough evidence, if he wants to indict to his associates. but the d.a. has said on the record he was very serious to bring charges. the second criminal investigation is much more recentfulton county, georgia where the strict attorney

there is looking at whether president trump then president trump violated racket egg and other statutes when he tried to overturn the election in georgia. and that case white much more recent is in theory less complex than the white collar crimes that the manhattan district attorney is looking at. so either of those charges could result in charges in some time in the not too distance future. >> woodruff: and you mentioned, andrea bernstein, the number of civil lawsuits and then there are the personal filing today, the naacp on behalf of several members of congress including bennie thompson, tell us about the course that something like that could take. >> well, this is a very interesting case because it's using a statute that dates back to the 19th century which was basically to use as a private weapon against the ku klux klan by lawmakers who weren't allowed to carry out their official

duties. and while the a case like this can't result in jail time, what can haen is that through the discovery process, and through depositions and possibly even a trial, we learn a whole lot of information that we don't know. and in these civil litigation cases the parties, the private parties, can use the power of the court system to bring forth information, which can otherwise remain hidden. and we saw many, many questions left after the impeachment trial. so this would be an example of the kind of private litigation that could ferret out inrmation that would not only potentially give the plaintiffs the relief ey seek but also, give a lot more information for us as journalists and also for the history book about what actually happened leading up to the insurrection on january 6th. >> woodruff: is it possible to say what the odds are that former president trump could end up through one of these verdicts, one of these

decisions, in prison? >> you know, it's so hard to say. because there haven't even been any charges brought. but we do know foexample, in manhattan that the district attorney is looking at some conspiracy fraud charges which are b felonies,arry up to 25 years of prison time in new york. so it's very, very serious. and because this investigation has been going on for two years, the suggestion is, the district attorney really believes that he has evidence that crimes were committed. and when he gets all the documents he is seeking, that is when we might know what kind of charges the president or his business or his associates are facing >> woodruff: well, so many to keep track of. the defamation -- >> so many. >> woodruff: from e-jean carol, who accused the president of rape, she says he defamed

her. but we thank you andrea bernstein for keeping track of all of this. thank you very much. good to see you again. >> thank you, it's always great to talk to you. >> woodruff: for men and women coming out of prison every year, one of the first steps to re- entering society can be one of the most difficult: simply getting a valid i.d. william brangham examines the many hurdles returning citizens face trying to rebuild their identification. this story is part of our ongoing series, "searching for justice." >> reporter: after 27 years behind bars for armed robbery, in september, kenneth taylor became a free man. free from jail, yes-- but stuck in limbo. >> i feel invisible, i do.

>> reporter: why? because taylor left a louisiana prison without any form of valid identification: no social security card, no birth certificate, no way to prove who he actually was. >> nobody knows i exist right now. >> i remember this picture vividly. >> reporr: he's been out more than four months like this. his son, ken mackie, and lawyers at a local new orleans nonprofit are still helping him piece his life back together, one document at a time. >> it's been just obstacle after obstacle trying to get his i.d., his social security and birth certificate. >> reporter: they've been in frequent contact with louisiana's department of corrections trying to get this fixed. >> they attempted to send me a birth certificate and a social security card, which was totally not me. >> reporter: they sent you identifications that they thought were supposed to be yours and they were not yours? >> they were not mine. >> reporter: taylor later received his actual birth certificate.

that'll help, but he still doesn't have a social security card. that means he can't apply for many jobs, or social services like food assistance. and-- in louisiana-- you can actually be arrested for not being able to provide proof of identity. >> my biggest fear is being stopped by the police department and taken to jail because i don't have an i.d., that's one >> reporter: not having an i.d. is a problem that thousands of people face every year re-entering society. and during the pandemic it's only gotten worse, according to martin horn. he used to be the head of corrections for both new yk city and the state of pennsylvania. >> the offices are closed. even the people who might be able to assist them in prison are often either absent because they're ill or working remotely, not to mention the fact that prisoners, by and large, do not have easy access to the kinds of internet connections that would be necessary. >> reporter: and without

identification, horn says, it's impossible to reintegrate into society. >> getting out of prison or jail, the most crucial element to success is being able to support yourself. and without the documents, you can't support yourself. you can't get a job. >> do you have your passport, social and two proofs of address? >> reporter: just navigating the bureaucracy can be overwhelming. >> two proofs of address? i only have my birth certificate and social security card. >> well, we're still missing one more proof because we don't have anything on file for you. >> reporter: marlon jackson just got out of prison a few weeks ago. he served 24 years for robbery and sexual battery. >> the only thing they gave me upon my release was this right here? they gave me no other form of i.d. nothing. >> reporter: he's at a mobile d.m.v. office in richmond, virginia, trying to prove he's who he says he is, and to get a legitimate, legal i.d. >> i wont be able to accept this because this is an original

document and give you and the >> this is not sufficient because i need a primary proof of address. >> reporter: sarah scarborough is the founder of a nonprofit called “real life.” they organized this makeshift d.m.v. because of the massive backlog created by the pandemic. >> so, if our folks got out of jail, they would have to wait for about five months to be able to get an appointment at d.m.v. to get an i.d., which means five months until they can get a job, five months until they can find a place to live and sign a rental agreement or anything. >> reporter: after more than an hour of waiting and pleading, it looked like jackson would be turned away. it seems he needed more evidence of his housing. >> okay, so, we need one just like this, but you probably won't be able to get that today because we're only here until 11:30. this moment right now is big.

it's important. it's imperative. so, if i don't receive what i did today, which i don't know, maybe i got 15 or 20 more nutes to get it, but-- and hopefully i will. >> reporter: but otherwise you might have to be waiting three or four months? >> otherwise, i'd be waiting 90-120 days. >> reporter: but, at the last minute, with scarborough and her colleagues help, jackson got his i.d. >> it's just picture saying, "hey, this is marlon. this is where i live at." but it'll unlock one door. >> reporter: the last hurdle though for many formerly incarcerated people is what's considered the gold standard i.d.: a driver's license. >> wow, i can't believe it. i can drive. >> reporter: anthony gomez was released from prison in september after doing 23 years for a murder he committed when heas 17. he's just passed the virginia driver's test, after waiting weeks to get a d.m.v. appointment >> you couldn't get a d.m.v. appointment to save your life. >> reporter: sce his release,

he's found a job as a paralegal, working with a lawyer he met while he was behind bars. he's now living with his mom outside of richmond. he's hoping to also get some construction work, but can't take a job that he can't get to. >> and so, you know, with those type of jobs, you have to move around. you know, you have to get from point a to point b, and then when that job is done, you have to get over here and you can't be dependent on the people that's hirinyou, you know, to come pick you upnd then take you. >> reporter: and i can tell from where you live it's not like there's a bus or a subway at the corner. >> yeah. i really want my license. it doesn't mean that i will be getting in a car and disappearing every day, but i think just the thought that if i want to go somewhere, i don't have to be dependent on someone, you know, that's part of the freedom. >> reporter: but kenneth taylor is still searchingor that freedom. he found work as a personal trainer at a boxing gym, but he remains frustrat that the

department of corrections released him with no real way to start over. >> you knew who i was when you sentenced me. so, you kept me there 27.5 years. you kept me there knowing who i was. right. then you sent me out there like you don't know who i was. >> reporter: we reached out to louisiana's department of corrections for comment on kenneth taylor's case. a spokesman responded, saying,“ despite the pandemic, last year 96.7% of inmates who were released from louisiana's state institutions walked out of prison with at least two forms of identification. cases like mr. taylor's are the exception and not the rule.” generally speaking, do prisons and prison officials help people returning to society get those documents ahead of time? >> some more than others? i think there are very few that actually invest time, effort and money in providing assistance in doing that because there is a cost to providing that

assistance, but thcost of them being unemployed, the cost of them being homeless and in need of shelter, the cost of their admission to the emergency room or the cost of a new crime and their imprisonment is going to be far greater than whatever we spend to facilitate their success. >> reporter: kenneth taylor says he can't fully start a new le until he can prove his old one existed. >> it's like a ball and chain. it is like i'm still connected to the prison. i don't want to be connected to prison system ever. i'm trying to chop the chain off, you know, and move about freely and not be scared of anything. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: in the aftermath of police killings of black men and

women, and amidst renewed calls in congress to consider a reparations commission, american institutions of all kinds have looked to their pasts-- and presents-- to understand their own relationships to race and racism. that reckoning continues at colleges and universities, many of which have direct connections to the history of slavery. jeffrey brown has our report, part of our "race matters" series and our arts and culture coverage, "canvas." >> reporter: on the campus of the university of virginia, a new memorial to the thousands of enslaved people who helped build the school and then worked there-- craftsmen, construction workers, cooks, domestic servants. some of their names are known. most-- more than 3,000-- remain anonymous, honored by so-called "memory marks" in the stone. historian kirt von daacke helped lead the effort to uncover his

school's past. >> this story has to be visible on our landscape in a way that the casual visitor will understand when they visit here. and we have to acknowledge the humanity, the skill, the life, the labor of the enslaved, and do it in a way that responds to current community concerns. and i think our memorial really does a fantastic job of that. but it's not an end. it's a beginning. >> reporter: it's a story often hidden in plain sight, as in this 19th century engraving, intended to capture the campus in all its glory. there on a balcony: an enslaved woman holding the child of a professor. the campus was designed and founded in 1819 by thomas jefferson,- drafter of the declaration of independence and slave owner, the embodiment of the contradictions of u.s. history. >> the american academy writ large, not just u. va, has been built on money from the slave trade, built by enslaved people.

it has a very long financial and human history tied up in this story that universities in some ways are now coming to terms with. >> reporter: it's not just in the south. higher education's look within began early in the 2000's at several schools, including brown university in providence, rhode island. >> what can we do? >> reporter: then-president ruth simmons, the first african- american to serve as president of an ivy league school and herself the great-granddaughter of slaves, says when she looked for the history, she found little. >> and so, what's the reason for that? i think slavery was an uncomfortable topic for people for so long in this country, and rather than deal with the issues involving slavery people simply

deleted the reference. and if you delete it long enough, of course, what happens is that there is this systematic forgetting of the history. >> reporter: as documented in a landmark 2006 report, the history was all around, including lists of slaves trafficked in ship's owned by john brown, one of the school's founders. his former home across the street from the president's residence. >> that's the thing, is that we were surrounded by evidence of brown's relationship to slavery at one time, and yet we chose to igre it and we basically built a new narrative around it. >> reporter: with a more painful past revealed, brown took a number of steps, including creating a new center for the study of slavery and justice to further explore the history through scholarship and exhibitions. and it commissioned a public art work, titled “slave memorial” by

prominent black artist martin puryear. >> to me, it always seemed the most important element of it was the truth telling. if one wants to atone for it, for lying for so many decades, centuries even, the clear indication is that you should atone for that by telling the truth. and so the report to me was the most important. and i think that has been borne out by what followed because that report has become the document that so many other institutions have used to follow that same course. >> reporter: a consortium founded at the university of virginia, “universities studying slavery,” has grown to morehan 70 members from five countries, in some cases moving beyond slavery times to study jim crow

era racism. and injustices against native americans, their lands taken for use by western colleges. importantly, historically black colleges and universities are also looking at their histories and, in some cases, partnering with majority white schools on research and other projects. ruth simmons is now president of one prominent "hbcu," prairie view a&m university in texas. >> one of the things that we are committed to doing is making sure that these matters enter curricula and the people stop being afraid, afraid of the truth, afraid to teach what really transpired. >> reporter: but after a year of protests, in the wake of the police killings of george floyd and other black men and women, universities-- like other institutions-- face renewed calls to go beyond research and teaching. >> this is the recurring question: what now? i think the "what now"s there's no simple solution, but

it's an awareness and a consciousness and a working through of the problem. >> reporter: leslie harris, an historian now at northwestern university, has studied both the past and contemporary efforts to seek redress. the movement for direct monetary reparations has grown, but remains controversial. harris and others propose another way in. >> i want to remind people that the root of that word "repair." how do we repair? how do we make whole, relationships and communities that have been driven apart? and that can come in many different ways. >> reporter: colleges are often the largest landowners and employers in their cities, with direct influence on housing costs and jobs. they employ their own police and security forces, in some cases exacerbating tensions with the surrounding community. >> i could do the history all day of how we got here in terms of policing, how we got here in

terms of real estate. the question, though, then becomes-- and this is definitely a question for higher education institutions-- it is not simply about studying and understanding and then putting the book on the shelf and then saying, "phew, now i understand!" it is about, "how do we move forward differently?" >> reporter: study andemember what happened, and seek repair. at a pivot point for american institutions of all kinds, scholars and activists are saying universities have a unique role to play. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: continue to ask the questions. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ask do what we do best.

now more than ever, we seek answers to the tough questions. >> united states is still not testing per capita. >> woodruff: and get you information you can trust. we are the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: weeknights on pbs.

hello, everyone, and welcome to “amanpour & company.” this is what is coming up. the world view on trump's acquittal. he was britain's man in washington and ambassador peter westmacott joins us. >> i voted to convict president trump because he is guilty. >> a bold move by the senator from baton rouge. senator cassidy tells us what he did against his party and voted to geech trump. >> and britney spears' new documentary and shattering everything that we knew about the pop icon.