♪ judy: good evening. i am judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, relief on the way. president biden's covid aid bill is one step closer to becoming law, as the house of representatives schedules a final vote on the legislation. an uncertain future -- in a rare interview, iran's top nuclear scientist discusses the iran deal and his country's controversial uranium enrichment program. and, youth at risk -- how the pandemic is intensifying depression and anxiety among teens. >> forced isolation, being cut off from their social contacts, that really makes it even harder

when you're struggling with any kind of mental health issues. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no -- has been to provide wireless service. we offer a variety of no contract plans. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. announcer: johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation, fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. announcer: and with the ongoing

support of these individuals and 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. stephanie: good evening. we will return to the full program after the latest headlines. president biden's covid relief package totaling nearly $2 moves another step closer to trillion enactment today. the u.s. senate sent the bill to

the house of representatives for a final vote tomorrow. democrats and republicans jousted again over the benefits and costs. >> this legislation represents the boldest action taken on behalf of the american people since the great depression and will give us the tools to build back better. it will put money in people's pocket it will cut poverty in half, cut child poverty in half, and it will give communities the resources needed to safely reopen schools. >> we could have had a bill that was, you know, a fraction of the cost of this one, it could have gotten bipartisan approval and support but the speaker decided to go in another direction so we're going to be saddled with a burden. a spending burden and a tax burden that is really indefensible from the perspective of what it actually accomplishes. stephanie:e will return to the covid relief bill after the relief summary -- after the news summary. a trial centered on the death of george floyd in minneapolis pushed ahead with jury selection today.

former police officer derek chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. the judge allowed lawyers to question potential jurors, while an appeals court considers reinstating an additional murder charge. but the world health organization reports nearly one in three women worldwide has suffered physical or sexual violence. it says one-quarter of young women in relationships experienced violence by their mid-20's. today's findings come from the largest study yet of the problem spanning 2010 through 2018. the biden administration faced growing questions today about a surge in migrants at the southern border. white house press secretary jen psaki declined to confirm the numbers or to say if the rollback of trump-era policies is a factor. sec. psaki: i know i am asked about our kind of change in policy but there are a couple of reasons why we think people are coming to the border. individuals and families, you know, are fleeing prosecution, fleeing violence, fleeing economic hardships and other

things. the region has also experienced 2 hurricanes in the fall, putting further stress on the conditions in these countries and the circumstances that are facing individuals. stephanie: yamiche alcindor will take a closer look at the challenges at the border, later in the program. on the west coast of central africa, the death toll neared 100 today from explosions at a military base in equatorial guinea. more than 600 others were wounded. rescue workers have been pulling bodies from the rubble since sunday. officials blame the military for mishandling dynamite at the base. the british royal family has now responded to allegations of racism by prince harry and his wife meghan, who is biracial. a statement from buckingham palace today said queen elizabeth and the royal family are saddened by the claims and the family will address the issues privately. and, longtime political correspondent and anchor roger mudd has died. he spent much of his career with cbs news before stints at nbc

news and then, with the "macneil-lehrer newshour," a predecessor of this program. roger mudd was 93 years old. we'll look at his career, later in the program. still to come, the house prepares to vote on the final version of the covid relief bill we talk to iran's top nuclear scientist as an agreement with the u.s. remains elusive. a surge of unaccompanied minors at the southern border tests president biden's immigration policy. and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: the house is set to pass the american rescue plan, the final sign-off before the bill lands on president biden's desk. last night, we heard from a democratic senator on the issue. tonight, a republican point of

view. congresswoman nicole malliotakis of new york joins me now. congresswoman, thank you for joining us. we appreciated. you have said you do plan to oppose the bill, to vote against it. please tell us why. rep. malliotakis: as a freshman member, one of my goals was to come here and make sure we provide relief to the community. this bill is completely bloated and puts in all sorts of spending that is unnecessary. there is still $1 trillion from the previous packages that remains unspent. ppp loans to support our small businesses. eventually that money turns into grants. 64 billion dollars was put in to open american schools. the center for disease control says only $25 billion is needed.

this bill actually, just to show you how bloated it is, less than 1% of the funding actually goes to our number one priority right now, which is vaccine production and distribution. you ask any local leader at the state or local let her -- state or local level, they will tell you that is the key to normalcy. the fact that it is less than 1% of overall spending just shows how much is in here that is unrelated. instead of cutting out the pork, we saw the senate take away from middle-class families. they lowered the stimulus payment so if you are an individual, you get nothing. but they did not clarify the bill to allow people who are sitting in jail to receive the stimulus check. i think there are major issues with this bill. i think it is unfortunate how

ncy pelosi would not let us thoroughly debated. she gives a half hour for the entire conference. judy: you have raised several issues. let me ask you about a number of them. on the education community, we have heard from a number of organizations, you mentioned schools, that they are counting on that money. they know that there is a delay about dollars are spent and they are counting on the money in this legislation that will allow them to be safe when they open their doors again for in-person classes. with regards to the faxing money -- the vaccine money, a lot of this is about economic relief for people who have lost their jobs, small businesses. it is more than pure vaccine distribution. rep. malliotakis: the cici had estimated it would cost -- the cdc had estimated it would cost

45 billion dollars to open school safely. the last package, they allocated $64 billion. much of that money is still sitting there. new york received money and many of our schools are not open. they want to spend another $130 billion in this bill. that money has already been there. our argument has been, once again today they denied allowing us to bring up the reopen schools act. within 100 days of him being sworn in, he says he wants to open schools just one day a week. that is not acceptable to most parents i have met. the money has already been allocated to do so. with regards to the assistance for families, we absolutely need to extend the unemployment. i support money being returned

to families who are taxpayers. the fact that a single person who makes $80,000 will not get anything yet somebody who sits in jail get something, i think that is an insult. judy: i think republicans were supporting that. they were saying that money was going to people at higher ends of the scale. one of my colleagues spoke to constituents in your district. one of them, a 32-year-old woman, she has been unemployed for a year, she is taking care of two daughters with health needs. one of them on the autism spectrum, one of tm had an injury. she said she is directly in need of the unemployment, the direct payment, and she said even this bill will not be enough. what do you say to her?

rep. malliotakis: that is the person i am trying to help in making sure this bill gets tailored. he has not made a commitment to not increase income taxes. to not increase property taxes, which if you are a renter, it will impact your cost of living. i want to make sure that money is getting back to the people. that is the concern here. we should be focused on extending unemployment we should be focused on providing taxpayer money, that money back in the form of a stimulus. but what we should not be doing is all sorts of other things. $3.5 million going to the global health fund to deal with aids and malaria. it should not be in the covid relief package and american taxpayers should not be picking up 88% of those expenditures.

what i have been pushing for is a bill that helps the unemployed, helps taxpaying families, our small business community, restaurants. if congress took the time to actually do this right, we could have spent the trillion dollars that has been sitting there. that trillion dollars should be going first. judy: but congresswoman, by your vote, these people will not get that additional aid they will need. rep. malliotakis: they will be getting in less of course this is -- judy: if you had your way, is my point. rep. malliotakis: if i had my way, it would be a much better bill. it would not be spending all sorts of other money. that is the problem. you can do all of these things probably with an $800 billion bill. you don't need to spend $1.9 trillion. this woman, her grandchildren

and great-grandchildren will be owing debt. we are saddling our future generations with debt when we could do a much smaller package that is tailored to the needs of those individuals that i represent and that are struggling, not doi this bloated package. i think that is a big difference here. we support tailored relief that gets to the people, not this bloated package that goes all over the place and hooks the taxpayer and future generations for that increased debt as we approach a $30 trillion debt in this nation. judy: congresswoman, thank you for joining us. one of the most pressing foreign policy decisions facing the biden administration is its promise to re-enter the iran nuclear deal,

officially called the joint comprehensive plan of action, or jcpoa. but the biden team is confronting obstacles, re-starting talks. nick schifrin introduces our revealing conversation today with iran's top nuclear scientist. nick: the 2015 nuclear deal made a fundamental trade -- the west relieved sanctions on iran, and iran froze its nuclear program. after the trump administration withdrew and reimposed sanctions. iran exceeded some of the deal's nuclear limits, and restricted required inspections. the biden administtion and europe are offering to sit down with iran, but iran refuses, until sanctions are relieved. that is the context with our reza sayah, who sat down with iran's nuclear head, and reza joins us now from tehran. first, the political context. reza: tehran is essentially

saying, washington, you are the one that undermined the agreement where five other countries were involved, a deal that took two years to hammer out. it is your move. tehran is looking for some sanctions relief. it is important to point out that initially, tehran was saying all sanctions must be lifted. now they are clearly saying that they would be fine with a step-by-step process whereby washington would ease some sanctions and iran would make a move. that is why we are still in this stalemate. >> that is the context for your interview. the head of the atomic energy association of iran, ali akhbar salehi, who is he and what did he say? reza: he has been part of the

leadership for a long time. one of the supreme leader's most trusted advisors. with the deal was initiated, he was very involved with the technical aspects. he felt the impact that president donald trump's maximum pressure campaign. you would think he would be happy that donald trump is no longer the president but that was not exactly the case. reza: my guess is that when joe biden was elected president, it pleased you. ali akbar salehi -- mr. salehi: do you read minds? this is not a matter of a

personal matter of being pleased or not pleased, we look at the, what are really actions are. reza: but you saw mr. trump's actions. and my impression is you wanted someone else in office. mr. salehi: so far that mr. biden has come, though, he has promised to sort of come back to the jcpoa, but he has not yet delivered to that promise. reza: he has not delivered from your point of view. but mr. biden has said he wants to restore the deal and he wants to talk. iran says we don't want to talk. isn't this the opportunity that iran was looking for? mr. salehi: the answer is the one who has left the jcpoa has to come back first. reza: but the biden administration is saying they don't want to negotiate the deal. they just want to discuss the mechanism, the sequencing with which both sides can restore the deal. mr. salehi: why do we want to complicate the issue? reza: because the issue is complicated. why not talk? mr. salehi: no, it's not really complicated. we already have the deal. it's a deal that was negotiated for over two years. and the us administration at one time felt that they want to leave the deal. you are the one who has left the

deal. you have to come back to the deal. and then we sit on the table within the framework of the five plus one and talk whatever issues that are deemed to be talked about. reza: while we're at this deadlock, iran's nuclear program is increasingly active, you're enriching more uranium, you're using advanced centrifuges, you're restricting iaea inspections. this is no longer about the nuclear deal and the needs of your country. you are clearly pressuring the biden administration. mr. salehi: you see this issue, the nuclear deal, as i mean, it's better to say the fabricated or manufactured issue of nuclear with the iranian nuclear deal. it is a technical issue, but it is politicized. so it seems we have to use political instruments to resolve. answering your question, i would like to say that we have not restricted the iaea inspections in iran, but the other part of the voluntary agreement that we

had committed ourselves within the jcpoa, and that was the additional protocol, those we have put aside. reza: part of the additional protocol was cameras. mr. salehi: the cameras are still there. those will keep on recording whatever they want to record. but the iaea will not have access to the information for up to three months. if t jcpoa is back, they will be given the information. reza: and if not, you said you're going to trash them. mr. salehi: yes. reza: and with trashing them, are you not trashing verification and transparency? mr. salehi: it's easy to resolve the issue, come back to the jcpoa and not let this happen. reza: iran is piling up enriched uranium. i think you're up to 3000 kilograms, around there, if i'm not mistaken. mr. salehi: it depends how you measure it. if you measure it in pure uranium, it is about 2500

kilograms, to the best of my latest information. reza: and you plan on moving forward with enriched uranium. if there is a deal -- mr. salehi: then everything stops, we go back to what we were. reza: what do you do with the excess enriched uranium? mr. salehi: then we can settle that. we can sell it, we can turn it into something that would be of mutual agreement like into fuel. reza: last month, the iaea said it verified the presence of 3.6 grams of uranium metal at a plant in isfahan, can you explain why uranium metal was produced in isfahan? mr. salehi: they are looking for new fuel that would increase the efficiency of the reactor. they have sort of propagated this in such a way as if we are producing metal in large scale for thpurpose of keeping the metal. reza: for the core of a nuclear bomb, that's what your critics are saying. mr. salehi: yeah, the metal has many uses. one use is non peaceful uses,

that we agree, but it has other peaceful uses. reza: accusations that iran is secretly building a bomb have persisted. they are still there. your government, the supreme leader has always said this is a peaceful nuclear program. they've said nuclear bombs are haram, but many argue that nuclear deterrence is effective. the superpowers have it, israel has a program, many believe, that it hasn't been declared. is there anyone within the government that says, let's discuss it, let's discuss the possible benefits of a bomb? mr. salehi: no. you see, the final wording on this is by the supreme leader. once the supreme leader has issued a fatwa, that fatwa is not only a religious fatwa, but it is something, a decree. reza: and that means there's not even a discussion. mr. salehi: no, there's no room for discussion. reza: no one can say, let's for our security.

mr. salehi: not that no one can say, you can speak your mind. i mean, you can speak whatever you wish. but in reality, when it comes to action, we do what the fatwa says, we do what the decree says. reza: are there people within the government and the leadership who think it's a good idea to go after a bomb. mr. salehi: there may be. i don't know. reza: what makes a nuclear bomb haram and long range missiles and not haram? mr. salehi: long range missiles, you hit the places that you wish to hit. but, you know, nuclear bomb as it was used in hiroshima and nagasaki, you know, inflict harm on innocent people. 200,000 ves were evaporated in matters of seconds. reza: mr. mohsen fakrizadeh, he was, your colleague, one of iran's leading scientists, he was assassinated.

reza: does it make you question iran's security structure, like how could this happen on your soil? mr. salehi: this is not a vy complicated issue. if you want to kill somebody and they can always hire some people to kill somebody. reza: your government accused israel of carrying out the assassination. mr. salehi: certainly it is israel, yes, with the support of the united states. reza: something they they both deny or haven't commented on. do you worry about your own safety? mr. salehi: i don't worry about it because we believe in destiny, destiny is in the hands of god. eventually we have to die, sooner or later. you die as a martyr, so much the better. judy: fascinating interview. that was special correspondent, reza sayah, in tehran.

the biden administration is struggling to respond to a new surge of migrant children at the country's southern border. our yamiche alcindor takes a deeper look at the recent increase, and how facilities to hold these children are becoming overwhelmed. yamiche: judy, the situation at the border is increasingly challenging. according to the new york times, the number of detained migrant children has tripled in the past two weeks. almost half are being held longer than permitted by law. in january, the number of unaccompanied children found at the border was more than 1000 more than in october 2020. to help break all this down, i'm joined by theresa cardinal brown. she is the director of immigration and cross-border policy at the bipartisan policy center. what is different and most concerning about what is happening at the border, and the

trauma unaccompanied minors are facing? theresa: he bided administration is trying to figure out how it can humanely treat and process the minors arriving at the border. the trump administration sent everyone back home without any process. the biden administration wants to do it differently. the challenge it has is that it didn't inherit an infrastructure that would enable it to process the numbers of arrivals in the way it wants to. and so it is scrambling right now, i think, to find places and that it can create new shelter environments that can treat the children well. the law has the process set out for what should happen to unaccompanied children. they first encounter a border patrol agent at the border. the border patrol agent woul take them back to a border patrol station, which is like a police precinct. it is a jail. it's not a place for families and kids. and they're not supposed to be

there for more than three days because the next place they shouldo is to a health and human services office of refugee resettlement shelter. those shelters are operated by licensed caregivers who are trained to deal with migrant children. they are around the country, but right now the network is below its capacity because of covid restrictions. and even if it were to change those covid restrictions, it has, you know, whether or not that shelter capacity is sufficient depends on how many children are arriving. so when any part of the system essentially gets backlogged, the children remain in the border patrol station. so that's what has to change, the biden administraon has to quickly it can safely expand that shelter facility and get those kids away from the border patrol stations as soon as possible. [00:11:36][66.6] yamiche: and the biden administration has said over and over again, this isn't the time to come. that message obviously is not reaching a lot of migrant.

what do you make of that? theresa: i'll be honest. i think government messages about coming or not coming have never been successful, no matter which administration has tried it. i think migrants, you know, they they decide to leave based on the situation they're leaving, that it's just become untenable where they are. and they're more likely to listen to the what they've heard from their network their social networks, their family networks, their fellow community members who've already come to the border. what's it like? those decisions tell them when it's time to come to the border, more so than any government messaging. and right now, you know, their colleagues are coming in and they're hopeful. i think you can't underestimate the factor that migrants have of just the idea of hope that coming to the united states is hope for them, and they will take any measure they need to to try to capture that hope. yamiche: and president biden has been talking about passing an immigration bill. i wonder what you make of whether or not there will be an impact with an immigration bill or whether or not this is really a people problem, a logistics

problem, a child problem. theresa: this problem is a logistics problem. the law is clear what should happen to children. what trump administration did was supersede the immigration law with its title 42 covid order to send people back to send the children back places to -- to the places they were fleeing. biden is trying to abide by the immigration order, but it's a capacity problem. his attempt at immigration reform wouldn't necessarily address this particular problem, other than that, it would or might create new legal pathways for people to come so they wouldn't be arriving illegally at the border. yamiche: what do you make of the republican party and how they've been talking about immigration, they've been saying that president biden is not handling the situation, that is untenable, they say they also say that there are immigrants being allowed in this country who might spread covid-19. what do you make that? theresa: there doesn't seem to

be any indication that the migrants are bringing covid at any greater rates than is already happening in the united states. but that's part of the logistics problem he has to work out. i think republicans are just going to be critical because that's what they do. and democrats were critical of trump. but i think really the focus has to be on how to best manage this issue at the border for the safety of the children. yamiche: a tough situation, thank you so much for joining us to talk about it. teresa cardinal brown of the bipartisan policy center, thank you. ♪ judy: it's been nearly a month since a deep freeze hit parts of the south, knocking out power and water in texas, mississippi , and elsewhere. but in jackson, mississippi, the largest city in the state, water service is still not totally reliable. john yang has the details. john: judy, much of mississippi's largest city is

beginning it's fourth week without safe drinking tap water. jackson residents, about 80 percent of whom are black, remain under a system-wide order to boil water, and some don't have any running water at all. joanne moore lives in south jackson. >> we just been taking it day-by-day, that's all we can do until we get full restoration of it's been hard, but we've been dealing with it, you know, but the infrastructure is just so old. john: since a mid-february winter storm, the city has had about 80 water main breaks. chokwe antar lumumba is the mayor of jackson. he joins us now. thanks so much. what is the situation right now as we speak and give us some idea of what life has been like for your residence for the past few weeks. mayor lumumba: life has been quite difficult for a residents.

it has created difficulty ability to drink and cook with in the water, to bathe, in midst of pandemic so all more alarming to not have water for hygienic recommendations that we have laid out in the midst of this pandemic and almost every conceivable way. where we are today, fortunately we can report that we are towards the end of our journey. we have somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 500 residents without water and the majority of those have low water pressure on account myriad of issues, breaks that happened in their homes, issues with the water meter. we will not be satisfied until the last resident has their water restored. john: you have talked to state and federal officials about help

to bring the system up to date. what has been the response? mayor lumumba: fortunately, we have been able to gain an audience with the leadership in the state house. members of the epa have reached out and expressed desire to be supportive of the city of jackson. we have made sure that we have put in our estimated damages, and we hope that the state and the county issues that to the federal government. we are hopeful, we are optimistic to get the support we need for this crisis. jackson's infrastructure is in dire state. the pretty city, where one of our plans is more than 100 years old. another is outdated.

we are in need of repairs because we face more extreme weather. we have hotter summers, colder winters, and more rain in the rainy season. john: for the past couple of weeks, the governor and lieutenant governor have made remarks about the water bills. this the tenant governor said the last time work and been done was under a mayor who happened to be the last white mayor of jackson. what was your reaction to that? mayor lumumba: i think it is a reality that there are equity questions to how infrastructure is supported we need to be able to build equitable models for what it means to build and support cities. as we look at the success of our state economy, it needs to be a dignity economy which expresses

the dignity of every community, not based on issues of race. it is not surprising. it has been the city of the history of jackson -- the history of the city of jackson to not have support. what i mean is we are the largest city by a factor of three, meaning we provide the overwhelming contribution to the city taxes. we are the capital city which means that many of our properties are nontaxable. we provide services to the state such as giving them water with no payment for water bills. where other cities get payment in lieu of taxes, we don't receive that. these are questions that have needed to be answered for a long time. city leadership has a responsibility to make sure we are ready better place, how we receive the city. the state as a responsibility as well.

we will never solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. paul: jackson city mayor lumumba, thank you very much. judy: this week marks a full year since the covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic. and experts are increasingly concerned about the toll it's taking on the mental health of young people in this country. with in-person classes closed for months for many students, there also are concerns the risks of youth suicide are being exacerbated. stephanie sy has this report. and a warning to underline, this story deals with sensitive subject matter. stephanie: since boyhood, toby gard needed to be on the move. growing up in a small ski town west of denver, he was

well-known and well-loved. >> he seemed to have a really bright future ahead of him and, you know, started his freshman year knowing somebody in every class and every group and he could have been in any group he wanted to. stephanie: but in his second semester of sophomore year, the coronavirus pandemic struck. his high school closed, sports were cancelled. he had had suicidal thoughts before. >> had it not gone into lockdown, he would still be here because he would have gone into lacrosse practice. he would have been getting the exercise, he would have been getting the connection with the team, he would have been getting those needs met and not dwelling on the negative. stephanie: last april, heather gard lost her first-born son to suicide. >> he said, mom, i just don't know what to do. it's the last thing he said to me. i went and got in the bath. came

out, see if he wanted to get in and found him, he was already gone. call 911. started cpr, but he was gone stephanie: experts are not yet drawg any direct lines between youth suicide and the pandemic, but they do say the pandem has added stress to young people while taking away some important stress relief. >> we don't know about the impact yet of covid-19 on kids and on the suicide rate, but we do know that there are some risk factors that are being exacerbated. stephanie: lisa horowitz is a clinical psychologist at the national institute of mental health and has studied suicide for decades. >> forced isolation and kids not being in school and being cut off from their social contacts, that really makes it even harder when you're struggling with any kind of mental health issues. stephanie: prior to the

pandemic, suicide was the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-24. for that same age group, the suicide rate increased by more than 50 percent between 2007 and 2017. since the pandemic began, local officials around the country have reported more youth suicides. certain youth are at even greater risk. >> it's really heartbreaking, i think is the word that i would use to describe the situations that young people find themselves in simply because of who they are. stephanie: tia dole is the chief clinical operations officer at the trevor project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lgbtq young people. >> a lot of young people are now being pulled back into the home where they would not normally be. it's much harder to keep secrets. i think that that's actually been super stressful because in

some ways, you're putting yourself back in the closet, as it were, in order to maintain peace in the home. stephanie: before the pandemic, lesbian, gay, and bisexual teens, were more than three times as likely to have suicidal thoughts than their heterosexual peers. dole says being a member of a racial minority can also raise the risk of suicide. >> if you are a person who is in a community that is marginalized, you're going to experience more stressors than other people. the research shows that young black boys, for instance, are much more likely to complete suicide than other populations. stephanie: for many young people, school is the only safe space. >> our students are speaking out about this issue. they are devastated by the loss of peers and friends. stephanie: superintendent kathy hoffman oversees arizona's more than two thousand public schools.

arizona's youth suicide rate has been consistently above the national average for years. are you seeing data of an increase? >> it does seem that there is an increase in youth suicides. stephanie: as coronavirus cases have surged up and down, schools have bounced between opening and closing. last week, arizona governor doug ducey ordered most schools to reopen to in-person learning by march 15. but throughout the pandemic, hoffman says she's been forced to thread a needle between containing covid and addressing the needs of students, that's been made even harder by policies that prioritize businesses over schools. >> experts have said that we should close bars and nightclubs before we closed schools, and that's not the decision that has been made here in arizona. we stephanie: psychologist lisa horowitz says regardless of when schools re-open, children and parents can learn how to help

prevent suicide. >> we teach them to read and to write and to do math and to do science. but when do we teach them what to do when you can't bear a disappointment or you feel so alone and isolated that you can't stand it anymore? stephanie: i think it's so taboo and a lot of parents don't even want to say the word because they don't want to even plant that in the mind of their young child. >> the number one myth of suicide is that talking to someone about suicide can put the idea in their head. the opposite is true. the best way to keep a teenager from killing themselves is to ask them directly, are you thinking of killing yourself and then listen to the answer. this part is really important. it's important to listen because sometimes the answer is scary. and so you listen to what they say and then you do your version of we're going to get through this together, i'm going to get you help. i want you to be prepared.

stephanie: horowitz says to make sure kids know suicide is never an option -- it's something, even parents need to remind themselves of as the pandemic drags on. >> we have to pay very close attention to our kids now, whether they're in school or online, because they're struggling. and not only that, but their parents are struggling and this might even be more important because the mental health of parents really affects kids. stephanie: back in colorado, heather gard grieves. >> it is tough. losing a child is the hardest thing that's ever going to happen to a person. i am here because my son took his own life in april. stephanie: she is trying to turn pain into purpose. raising awareness about suicide and the collateral damage caused by a pandemic stretching into a second year. >> it makes me feel better knowing that it didn't mean nothing.

he will touch others and his memory will live on. stephanie: until pandemic restrictions on gatherings are over, a memorial service for toby is on hold. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix. judy: so important to know that and to think about that. please stay with us as we remember a broadcast news legend and dear friend of the newshour, roger mudd. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs statio

♪ judy: now, we remember the career of roger mudd, a broadcaster known for his

incessant questioning and tough approach to news. he worked as a correspondent here at the newshour for several years. jeffrey brown has our appreciation. >> for almost 20 years beginning in 1961, roger mudd was a familiar face in american households. it was t era of three major networks and mudd stood out, covering congress and national election campaigns, including the famous moment in 1979 with ted kennedy. >> why do you want to be president? >> he was also primary substitute for anchor walter cronkite. among many memorable moments, mudd was present reported on the night when robert kennedy was assassinated.

he called his 2008 memoir of those cbs years "the pla to be." he told me why. >> it was a perfect storm. it was a collection of principled, talented, honest, hard-working, very tough perfectionists that all came together, that had written into the two decades violence, chaos, terrible stories to cover, crises, assassinations. we were there with a swagger covering every bit of it. the rule at cbs during those 20 years, first we cover the news, next you beat the hell out of nbc.

>> in 1980, mudd joined nbc, his longtime rival, when cbs chose dan rather ahead of him as longtime successor. he later spent five years with us has the newshour. and congressional correspondent. in one classic mudd moment, he found a way to sneak in a question to a congressman that he had been told was off-limits. >> i don't want to talk about that. >> i promised i would ask you. >> he also contributed essays. he as well as member is a colleague who seemed to know everyone of washington's nooks and crannies, and loved talking about them. his wife died in 2011. they had four children and 14 grandchildren.

roger mudd died of kidney failure in his home in mclean, virginia. he was 93 years old. judy: a man who left his mark in journalism. that is the newshour for tonight. join us online and again tomorrow evening. for all of us, thank you, please stay safe, and we will see you soon. announcer: 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 of

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. ♪ announcer: this is "pbs newshour" west, from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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