to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, july 25: bipartisan infrastructure negotiations enter another week. >> sreenivasan: jeff greenfield with analysis. and singer-songwriter jackson browne. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” ♪ ♪ ♪ >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund.

the estate of worthington mayo- smith. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. 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. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan 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. a big week for congress and the biden administration is looming with decisions on infrastructure legislation and on the investigation of the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. today house speaker nancy pelosi said she intends to name representative adam kinzinger, a republican, to the special committee investigating the capitol riot and attack. kinzinger is one of ten house republicans who voted to impeach former president donald trump. and the senate may vote on a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure spending bill this week. one of the negotiators, republican senator rob portman, said today he believes one key issue remaining is public transit funding. >> we're about 90% of the way there. i'm here this weekend. we're going to legislate the languageith colleagues and with staff, and i feel good about getting that done this week. >> sreenivasan: for analysis on the week ahead on capitol hill, newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield,

joined us from santa barbara, california. jeff, first of all, the past couple of weeks, to try to kp track of these different bills has been incredibly difficult, not only parsing where the support lies, but what's in which one. >> let me take a shot at this. first is the bipartisan infrastructure bill that would provide about $600 billion in new money for roads, bridges, rail, rural broadband, so-called hard infrastructure. that's the bill that a number of republicans in principle have saidhey'd like to support. the other one is a much more ambitious $3.5 trillion democrats only bill that provides for social spending from pre-k to two years of free community college, vastly expanded medicare for dental and vision services, help for child care, help for seniors. and there's not a ngle republican in the senate who will support it, so you need every democrat. and then kamala harris is the

tiebreaker. so, those are the two bis that are that are making their way or not through the process. >> sreenivasan: if on the bipartisan bill,ou get these ten republicans to sign on. is that a done deal? doou have the 60+ necessary to get this thing going? >> i think there are more potholes then in the streets of new york, because this is the congress you're talking about. you've got a couple of powerful democratic senators who say if our water projects are not in this bill, we will not support it. you've got a couple of democrats in the house who feel aggrieved that they weren't part othe negotiations and they're saying maybe we won't support it. just this morning, rob portman, one of the negotiators for the republicans, are saying, i don't think i like the level of public transit money. so, there are many ways that that infrastructure bill cannot work that nobody should assume that it's a done deal at all. >> sreenivasan: all right, let's talk about the big one, the $3.5 trillion one. in lots of ways, this is

unprecedented. why? >> well, it's always been my belief, and i think history confirms that thway democrats have gotten big social programs, that was after they won landslide elections. roosevelt in '32 with the new deal, l.b.j. wh the great society. in this case, you're talking about what bernie sanders accurately calls the biggest social program since the new deal being passed in a 50-50 senate. if it happens, it would be, as i say, absolutely unprecedented, but i wouldn't bet a lot on a result that winds up with nothing. you just don't know how this is going to play out. >> sreenivasan: here we've got these two pieces of legislation, but put that in context of what we're living through now and maybe some of the consequences we haven't thought through. >> well, the first is covid. if there is a resurgence of covid, not only could it really hurt economically, but the whole sense of optimism we were seeing a month ago where out of this i think will be replaced by, oh, no, here we go again.

and for an incumbent, you want an upbeat, buoyant country when the party is being judged in the midterms. the second one is this shortage of computer chips, which is worldwide and pervasive, has really put the auto industry on its uppers. you've got millions of orders literally that can't be filled and you've got thousands of workers idled. if this keeps going, that's going to have a real impact on the economy. and it is not exactly politics 101 to say that an incumbent party facing bad economic times does not do well in the midterms. >> sreenivasan: jeff, there's this movement now to take a closer look at the events of january 6, and nancy pelosi has essentially kept some of president trump supporters out. and now she's saying she might let one of his detractors on the committee. >> two of the people that that kevin mccarthy wanted on that panel are the most aggressive deniers of what happened on january 6. and along with liz cheney, adam kinzinger is one of the few

republicans who voted to, to impeach donald trump. so, they may be republicans, but this does not look like any more progress toward some kind of joint understanding, because the two parties have two very different views of this and some of those republicans views, it was a peaceful protest and george soros and antifa started it. >> sreenivasan: this week, we also saw several members of the republican party and even some members of fox news change their messaging around vaccines. will it work? >> i think it will work part way. it was really quite striking that you had what was a politically divided notion about vaccines like masks, which is really striking and unprecedented. and when you have the conservative governor of alabama telling the non vaccinated, this is your fault, that tells you that reality may be intruding here. >> sreenivasan: jeff greenfield joining us from santa barbara, california, thanks so much.

>> thank you. >> sreenivasan: iraq's prime minister says the country no longer needs american combat troop assistance to fight the islamic state. in an interview with the associated press ahead of his visit with president joe biden this week, iraqi prime minister mustafa al-kadhimi says the country will still ask for u.s. training and military intelligence help, but will no longer need combat support. in april, the u.s. and iraq agreed to end the u.s. combat role, but did not specify a timetable for withdrawal of the 2,500 troops currently stationed there. al-kadhimi is scheduled to meet with president biden at the white house tomorrow. at the olympic games was it was a day of firsts today-- some spoiler alerts ahead if you haven't watched yet-- in swimming, chase kalisz won the first american gold medal of the games in the men's 400-meter individual medley, while the u.s. women won the bronze medal in the 4 by 100-meter freestyle relay. in gymnastics, the u.s. women's team finished behind russia in its qualifying meet. the team is seeking a fourth straight olympic gold medal and will compete again on tuesday.

the u.s. men's basketball team lost their opening game to france, their first olympic loss since 2004. and in the newly-added sport of skateboarding, japan's yuto horigome won gold in the men's street skateboarding competition. american jagger eaton took home the bronze. for more national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in northern california, the dixie fire has destroyed more than a dozen homes and structures. pacific gas and electric acknowledged that equipment could have sparked it and announced a plan to bury power lines in high risk fire zones. pg&e equipment has sparked wildfires before, including the deadly 2018 camp fire.

as it emerged from bankruptcy last year, the company set up a multi-billion dollar fire victim trust for survivors. but an ongoing investigation found many fire survivors are still waiting for compensation. i recently spoke with reporter lily jamali from kqed d co-host and correspondent for the california report about their investigation. >> what we saw over the last half decade or so, is we really saw the impacts of climate change ramp up, we saw these fires sparking and not just sparking, but growing to catastrophic proportions. so, some of these fires were as far back as 2015, so six years ago. and the largest of the fires that pg&e caused were in 2017 and 2018. that last one was the camp fire, which you might remember ravaged much of the town of paradise. it killed at least 85 people.

it destroyed thousands of homes and left tens of thousands of people homeless. so, it's almost as soon as that fire happened, pg&e filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and what that did was it took all of these claims of 70,000 fire survivors and basically threw them into our nation's bankruptcy system. as a result of that, entually pg&e and these fire survivors, through their lawyers, they struck a deal in late 20 that called for a multibillion dollar settlement. but because half of that settlement is payable in the form of pg&e stock, think about that for a second. you know, you lost your home and now you are being asked to accept stock in the company that took your home or destroyed your life. that's the situation that many of these fire survivors are in. so, they now hold through this special trust that was created to distribute money to them,

these fire survivors now hold almost a quarter of pg&e shares 480 million shares of pg&e. very challenging to liquidate that kind of stuff quickly. and, in fact, they haven't sold a singlshare. so, that's largely why many of these fire survivors are still waiting for compensation from this settlement. >> sreenivasan: so, this is just two years, three years out. how are these people still managing to get by when most of them have not received a check? >> unfortunately, so many of them simply have not had the resources to move on. even now that we're approaching, three years later, we're seeing situations where a number of people that i've personally met and correspond with all the time are still living in trailers and campers, really in temporary conditions. and when you see temperatures reach the triple digits, which they often do in that part of california, in that region we

call the north state, it's really uncomfortable physically to have to endure that in a trailer and not to mention just having their lives be thrown into this limbo that is just continued on and on. i mean, we talk to people that are concerned about where their kids are going to go to school next year. they don know, because if they're one of the lucky few that have gotten any compensation from this trust, they simply have they don't have enough to rebuild. >> sreenivasan: so, what you're reporting also found was that while so many of the victims have not yet been paid or certainly not paid in full, that the administrators of the trust and the lawyers are getting paid their full rate. >> some of these numbers, hari, are eye popping. we have a trustee who is making $150,000 a month, a top claims administrator is making $1,250 an hour. there are a number of bankruptcy

attorneys and financial advisers who are making $1,000 an hour or more. and i think what fire survivors are saying is, look, if you're going to spend that kind of money, we want to see results. and the truth is, when you look at the reporting that's happened, we don't know exactly which firms and which individuals are getting how mu. you've been having that kind of transparency, i think would go a ng way, but these fire survivors feel like they have been burned on multiple fronts, both in the fire itself, many of them are upset with their lawyers for having agreed to this, what is clearly now a flawed settlement in the first place. and now they're having to deal with this administrative rigmarole without seeing the hard numbers of where every dollar that goes to those administrative costs is a dollar less for a fire survivor to rebuild their home to move on. and so, i think that that's where there's a lot of concern. after our report me out, there

was a group of state lawmakers here in california approached the attorney general and pointed to our story and said, listen, you need to review the process of this trust, how it works, as well as what the fees are, because they're pretty exorbitant from what fire survivors think. >> sreenivasan: li jamali, correspondent for kqed and npr's california newsroom. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, hari. >> sreenivasan: it's been 50 years since jackson browne's first hit "doctor my eyes," a song in which the world's troubles cause the singer's tear ducts to run dry. 15 albums, eight grammy nominations, countless benefit performances, and a slew of humanitarian awards later, browne has just issued his first new recording in seven years. special correspondent tom casciato visited browne in los

angeles to discuss his new work and the themes and subjects he often returns to on his songwriting journey. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporr: it's no surprise to learn from jackson browne that his new album begins with his telling listeners he's on a quest. ♪ i'm still looking for something ♪ i'm out here under the streetlight ♪ still looking for something in the night ♪ >> the songs are about personal experience and about a search. >> reporter: searching is one of several themes he has pursued throughout more than half a century as a singer/songwriter. though in one of his biggest hits, “running on empty,” he professed to be uncertain what he was looking for. ♪ i don't even know what i'm hoping to find ♪ >> reporter: many decades ago you sang, “i don't know what i'm hoping to find.” and then you start off this record saying, “i'm still looking for something.” so, there is a relationship between jackson of several

decades ago and jackson of today. >> i think so. i think it's the same. i think, in that in that respect, i'm sti i'm more than ever trying to do what i was trying to do then, and differentiate between the world i'm imagining and the world i'm in. >> reporter: his themes range widely. his early albums, for example, he wrote a series of songs seeking meaning in the passing of friends. ♪ i don't know what happens when people die ♪ i can't seem to grasp it as hard as i try ♪ >> i mean, there was a review at one point, i think it might have been my third or fourth record, and the reviewer started the review by saying, “has there ever been a jackson browne record where somebody doesn't die?” >> reporter: his new album is called “downhill from everywhere,” and it's filled with fresh takes on familiar subjects. ♪ but i will no longer need to tell them apart ♪ >> reporter: the man who once sang “doctor my eyes” now sings

about his “cleveland heart.” ♪ my cleveland heart ♪ >> reporter: inspired by an actual ohio plant that makes artificial hearts, the singer imagines replacing his own vulnerable heart with one of those that can withstand the worst. ♪ they never break they don't even beat ♪ and they don't ache ♪ >> reporter: you know, you write in the first person a lot, and your songs, i think, lead one to believe you are the “i” in the songs. >> sometimes i sin“you” and it's still “i,” you know. it depen on if i'm talking to myself, i suppose, or about myself. you know, it's like, you have to interrogate yourself to get to the end ofhe song. >> reporter: browne has long put his lyrics where his beliefs are, singing on behalf of a myriad of causes from native american rights to haitian earthquake relief. ♪ though the earth may tremble ♪ >> reporter: and he's also an

avowed patriot. ♪ i have prayed for america ♪ i was made for america ♪ >> reporter: he is, as well, a sharp critic of his country. in the '80s, for example, he notably opposed u.s. intervention in central america. ♪ there are lives in the balance there are ♪ people und fire ♪ >> reporter: he's also a longtime advocate for clean oceans and against plastic pollution. the new album's title song asks that we consider our seas. ♪ do you think of the ocean ♪ as yours? because you need ♪ the ocean to breathe ♪ >> plastic is now completely clogging our waterways and filling up the ocean and, and so invading our bodies, you know, newborn babies are born with the chemicals that are plastic in their systems; it's in the placenta, it's in the blood. so, that's what i'm talking about changing, in time to do

something. >> reporter: in your writing, time is a theme. i don't know you well enough to say it's a preoccupation of yours, but you seem to have figured out very young that this game is rigged and, you know, you only get so much time. indeed, time fuels a sense of urgency in a ¡70s song called“ the fuse.” ♪ through every dead and living thing ♪ time runs like a fuse and the fuse is burning ♪ >> reporter: in the title song from a 2008 album, he sings“ time may heal all wounds,” but al “time will steal you blind.” ♪ time the conqueror ♪ >> reporter: and then, in your song “black and white,” you're literally finishing the song and the record saying “time is running out, time is running out.” ♪ time is running out times running out ♪ >> maybe you could call it a preoccupation, i guess. i guess you could. it comes up a lot. >> reporter: time collides with another browne theme, justice,

on a song echoing america's current moment of protest and the activist group color of change. it's called “until justice is real.” ♪ what is the color the color of change? ♪ what is the reason these times are so strange? ♪ >> reporter: and i just want to quote one of your lyrics.“ time like a river, time like a train, time like a fuse, burning shorter every day.” in your lifetime, what do you think you're going to see in terms of the kind of justice you've been singing about these last decades, and desiring? >> many of us believed that we were on a track going forwar that civil rights have, have improved, but... nothing could be more obvious than that is really not actually the case. we're still, we're still settling the civil war. we're still, we're still talking to people who believe in white supremacy. they want to go backwards, and-- see, i don't know quite how to say this.

all the while i was thinking that we were getting somewhere, people were being ground up in the wheels of our society, and police were killing black motorists. there were injustices that went on and on and on and on, and that's what i'm saying. we don't have the time for these to go on and be swept aside. that's what the song is talking about. >> reporter: is justice going to win this race? >> we could have a society in which justice is real, yeah. we have opportunity to solve some of the problems that have beset our society and our country since its inception. the clock really is ticking, and we really have to, you know, we have to join together to do that. ♪ time rolling away time like a river ♪ time like a train time like a fuse burning ♪ shorter every day ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ >> sreenivasan: to watch jackson browne's entire, exclusive performance of his song “my cleveland heart,” go to pbs newshour's youtube channel. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, in south america, paleontologis announced that they have officially identified a 150 million year old fossil as the ancestor of current day crocodiles. the ancient remains may offer clues about how modern-day amphibious crocodiles made the transition from land to aquatic life. a team from argentina and chile working togeth found the fossil in the mountains of southern chile seven years ago. on friday, the argentine museum of natural sciences announced the skeleton as the“ grandfather” of today's modern crocodiles. >> ( translated ): 200 million years ago things were different. crocodiles were small and they were terrestrial, they did not live in the water. as paleontologists, we always want to know what the transition was between those ancient smaller crocodiles and the big

modern ones that live in the water we have now. we were lucky to make a fabulous discovery in chile in rocks around 150 million years old that show a lile of this transition. this new crocodile we found is small, but it has aquatic habits. >> sreenivasan: along with other fossil discoveries, this one supports the theory that south america was the cradle of crocodile evolution. >> ( translated ): what the burkesuchus it shows us is a series of unique features that no other crocodile has because it was one of the first who started to enter into the water, fresh water. this crocodile combines primitive features and features we find in crocodiles nowadays and it helps us understand how crocodiles became what they are now. >> sreenivasan: the first crocodiles are believed to have emerged at the beginning of the jurassic period, around the time of the first dinosaurs. today there are more than 20 crocodile species worldwide, including american alligators found mostly in florida and southeastern coastal states.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of “pbs newshour weekend.” for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/nehour. i'm hari sreenivasan. 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. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo- smith. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the rosalind p. walter foundation.

koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual 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: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporatn funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

ramin setoodeh: have you ever wished you could hang out with some of your favorite hollywood stars? regé-jean page: everyone was stuck in their houses, feeling a bit miserable, and we came with this joy bomb. ramin: variety studio invites you to listen in as today's biggest actors talk to each other about their craft. kaley cuoco: have you ever done a sitcom before? elizabeth olsen: no, it's so hard. female: obviously. male: exactly. ramin: with kaley cuoco and elizabeth olsen and emma corrin and regé-jean page. ♪♪♪ ramin: welcome to variety studio, "actors on actors." i'm ramin setoodeh. as you can see, we're still not back in our studio ts season but we know you'll enjoy these revealing conversations with some of the best tv performers of the year from locations around the world. ramin: kaley cuoco and elizabeth olsen play two of the most talked about heroines premiering recently