judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight. democratic divide -- high-stakes talks are now underway as dueling factions of president biden's party threaten the survival of his legislative agenda. then. demanding justice -- the disappearances of indigenous girls and women get a new look, following one high-profile won's death. and. historic re-opening -- for the first time in its 138-year run, the metropolitian opera features a production from a black director and a black composer. >> i may be the first, but i sure don't want to be the last. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >> audrey is expecting. >> let's see what we can adjust. >> change in plans. >> are you painting again? you could sell these. >> let me guess, change in plans? >> they change in plans is always part of the plan. >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. financial services firm raymond james.

bdo, accountants and advisors. the william and fra hewlett foundation. advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. the chan zuckerberg initiative. working to build a more healthy, just, and inclusive future for everyone. 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. judy: democrats in the u.s. house of representatives are huddling tonight behind closed doors as their caucus remains divided over how to advance two major pieces of president biden's agenda. house speaker nancy pelosi promised a vote later this week on an infrastructure bill. but some members of her party are holding out, seeking more progress on a separate, larger bill that focuses on child care, health care, housing, climate, and more. lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor have been covering this story from both ends of pennsylvania avenue and they join me now. lisa to you first, right now, where does everything stand with these two major pieces of legislation? sa: right now, the house speaker is meeting with her democrats.

i passed several of them going to the meeting. this is a critical meeting teeing up the rest of the week. let me remind people of the to do list. the very tricky to do list. the first thing they have to do, probably the most difficult thing is sort out the size of that reconciliation bill, that is the one with childcare, climate, all those provisions. no agreement among democrats how large that should be. they have to decide what should go in it. the content of the reconciliation bill. how much childcare? how much climate change? all of those things are trying to be worked out this week if they can. if they can work out enough of that package, the third thing, they pass the infrastructure bill this week. the issue is that the infrastructure bl has the votes among democrats, but progressives are holding back their votes until the reconciliation package looks like it is cementing.

right now, it looks like it is anything but. we do expect action before this meeting and after this meeting to see that progressives will indicate what they need to get on board. all of these bills are in democrats' hands and we will see if they can get to the thursday vote. judy: over to you, president biden has a lot riding on this. how involved does he plan to be as the democrats work through all this? yamiche: this is a monumenthis week -- monumental week for president biden and his agenda to have the reality he has promised american people he can deliver on. the president is very involved in these negotiations. all weekend long, he was making calls to lawmakers. he was also on video calls, on zoom talking to his party about

how to make sure these bills make it through congress. this is really an all hands on deck sort of effort by the white use, i'm told. top aide's have told me there are top aides that will be calling lawmakers. those conversations go like this. resident biden gets on the phone and essentially says, what can i do for you to get you on this bill? this is not the president trying to deliver a smp speech, this is the president saying to democrats, what can we do to make sure that you get on this bill? the president said today he's very confident that he thinks this will go through. he was also very clear about the idea that there is a lot riding on this. he says victory is at stake. when pushed on what he meant. when i'm talking to white house officials, they understand this is coming at a critical time in his presidency because there is

still the aftermath of afghanistan, covid spiking around the country, strained relations with france, still somewhat angry at the president for his new defense deal. this is something white house aides tell me the president wants to get through in order to be seen as having a win here. the president ran on this idea that he could make deals, on this idea that he could deliver transformational change to americans, and now this is really being tested. we will see the president talk about this and be very involved in all the details. judy: quickly back to you lisa, this is not the only hot potato. government funding is due to run out in a matter of days. how likely is a shutdown? lisa: at this moment, not likely despite the fact that a bill to fund government would likely fail in the senate in the next few minutes. we expect democrats to pull out the funding part. we will have to watch it day by day. judy: for sure.

thank you to both of you for staying on top of it. thank you. a short time ago, i spoke with a key democrat in the week's negotiations, co-chair of the bipartisan problem solvers caucus and congressman from new jersey, josh gottheimer. congressman, thank you very much for talking with us. as we are speaking, you are about to head into that meeting that speaker pelosi has called with all of the democratic members of the house. do you believe that in the end when this is all worked out that both the infrastructure bill and the so-called build back better measure are both going to pass and become law? >> i tnk ultimately both will pass and become law and the great news is that thursday we will vote on a key part of the president's agenda, the bipartisan infrastructure bill,

that is going to come this thursday and it is a huge win for the country and we will continue working and i know we will continue to get done the reconciliation bill. judy: i hear you saying you are confident, but what everybody is focused on her what a lotf us are focused on is the back-and-forth between moderates and progressives in the democratic already -- party. you have leaders in the progressive element of the party saying that there is a lack of trust, that members say they cannot be confident that moderate democrats will support the larger reconciliation bill. how do you reassure them that moderates like you will be on board in the end? >> i've spoken quite a bit with the congresswoman and let me tell you whai said to her and what i said all week long, that for me, reconciliation is critically important to the country and my district.

there are resources to fight climate change. we will get taxes down in my district. there is childcare. what is also important is that we have to get done this first package that had 69 senators voted on it in the beginning of august and it has been sting in the house. and there are resources to fix road bridges, tunnels. we have the third worst roads in the country and there is a -- in jersey. we have to fix critical infrastructure. we have resources to fight climate change and climate resiliency. you probably saw the awful effects of hurricane ida. we have to get both done and it is 2 million jobs a year you are talking about on that infrastructure package, but that does not mean we can't do both. i'm incredibly optimistic we will get both across the finish line and i'm talking to democratic colleagues all the time and they both want both to

get done, but you can't hold one up while you are working on the other one. it does not make sense for the country. judy: they are saying, yes, we will go along with infrastructure, but only after we know we are going to be able to come to an agreement and pass the larger reconciliation bill. we know the top number is going to come down, the speaker herself has said that. what do you see being cut? what do you see the top line number being? >> one other point, the end of august, we all came together in the house and every single democrat voted to bring the infrastructure bill to the floor this week. let's not lose sight of that. ultimately, the bill we are going to settle on in reconciliation, whatever the ultimate number is, what is most important is what is in there. fighting climate change, texted action, we are not going to

bring a bill to the house we cannot get out of the senate. i know we can get there. i'm talking to everyone. there is an agreement to be had here. but the idea that any democrat would not vote for this infrastructure bill with a million other jobs on the line, and while it has been sitting here since the beginning of august waiting for us to act, that does not make any sense to me at all. when i talked to folks at home. judy: but my question is how do you get this done? if the number is going to be less than $3.5 trillion, what number are you looking at? >> obvious, i'm not going to negotiate here on television, but we are all sitting at the table and talking to each other, whether that is on the phone or on zoom, all talking about a place where we can get to where everyone feels comfortable and that is what we will continue to

work through. that is the kind of deliberation that will continue. i'm very optimistic and i can't say it strongly enough, that we are going to get to an agreement on reconciliation. we've got to get this first bill done on infrastructure and the idea that we would let any faction of the party stop the president's agenda on infrastructure and stop shovels in the ground and helping people doesn't make sense to me. judy: any sense of what is going to end up being cut? >> ion't see anything -- i think in the end, if certain areas come down a little bit, maybe that is how they work it out, but i don't see anything getting cut, there are too many important priorities. what are the levels, what are the areas? are there certain things we will be able to focus on? that is what happens in these conversations.

we will get there. it will have a huge impact on the country. let's get it done. let's take the win for the country and get reconciliation done, as well. judy: congressman, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me, judy. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west, we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. r&b singer r. kelly was convicted in his federal sex-trafficking trial in new york. he sat silently, with eyes downcast, listening, as the jury pronounced him guilty of racketeering and crossing state lines for immoral acts. afterward, prosecutors said justice wafinally done -- after decades -- for the young women and girls coerced into sex. >> no one deserves what they experienced at his hands, or the threats and harassment they

faced in telling the truth about what happened to them. we hope that today's verdict brings some measure of comfort and closure to the victims. stephanie: kelly has been jailed without bail since 2019. he could get 20 years in prison. the number of murders in the united states jumped last year by the most ever recorded. the fbi reports the total rose by 4,900 from 2019 -- with some cities setting new highs. the increase in homicides roughly overlapped the pandemic and coincided with a sharp rise in gun purchases. president biden today defended giving booster shots for covid-19 now that the cdc has approved pfizer's additional for certain groups. he received his shot at the white house, after acknowledging that many poor countries are still waiting for vaccines. >> we're doing more than every other nation in the world combined.

we're gonna have well over 1 billion, 100 million shots and we're gonna continue going. we're gonna do our part. we've also given a great deal of funding to covax, which is the vehicle that does this. stephanie: meanwhile, this was the deadline for hospital and nursing home workers in new york state to get vaccinated or be fired. and, in north carolina, the novant health hospital system did fire more than 175 workers for violating a vaccine mandate. after years of lawsuits, southern california gas company has agreed to a $1.8 billion settlement with victims of a methane leak. the leak in 2015 lasted four months, becoming the largest methane leak in u.s. history. as part of the settlement, the company denied any wrongdoing. the ford motor company announced today a plan to build three major electric vehicle battery plants and an electric auto assembly plant. the new factories in kentucky and tennessee will go online by 2025 and will employ almost

11,000 workers in a joint venture with sk innovation, a south korean battery maker. ford's president said workers at the plants would be allowed to unionize if they choose. in britain, dozens of soldiers are on standby preparing to help ease a fuel supply crisis that's left many gas pumps running dry. officials blame the pandemic and the departure of many foreign tanker drivers due to itain's exit from the european union. today, panic buying worsened the shortage, and for a fourth day, long lines of vehicles waited outside gas stations. >> i haven't been out and panic bought, like all the other sheep and idiots. so i waited here today on my way to work, got some fuel, and the price has gone up by nearly six pence a litre. stephanie: back in this country, a federal judge says the man who shot president reagan 40 years ago can be freed from all

remaining overisight next june. john hinckley jr. was originally found not guilty by reason of insanity. he remained at a washington, d.c. hospital until his conditional release in 2016. the judge says he shows no further sign of illness. still to come. why employers are still struggling to fill jobs. the high stakes political negotiations in washington this week. a preview of the metropolitian opera's historic new production. and much more. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: since she was first reported missing in wyoming earlier this month, until her remains were found later, the case of 22-year-old gabby petito has captured widespread media attention. but tens of thousands of people are reported missing or murdered

every year in the u.s. and people of color don't get nearly the same level of attention, particularly indigenous and native americans. amna nawaz has our conversation. amna: judy, in wyoming alone, 710 indigenous people were reported missing between 2011 and 2020. in fact, although indigenous people make up only 3% of the state's population, they accounted for more than 21% of homicide victims over the last decade. the problem is not limited to wyoming. native women are murdered at rates 10 times the national average, a pattern that's reflected in a report from abigail echohawk. she is the chief research ofcer for the seattle indian health board and the director of the urban indian health institute. she joins me now. >welcome to the newshour. you have called that a crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. give us a sense of scale and scope. >> we are talking about a crisis

that has been going on for hundreds of years. we've seen native women go missing and murdered at astronomical rates. despite knowing this, we see an underreporting in the data, which makes it harder for us to advocate for and show the disparity that exists in our communities and the loss of our loved ones. amna: tell me why that underreporting is happening. >> and 2018, my organization found that law enforcement agencies were not collecting race and ethnicity of victims, we found they would visually look at somebody and decide what their race and ethnicity is. as a result of that, we are finding a complete underreporting. i have seen native families having to fight to have their young relatives classified correctly because somebody mistook them for another race and they were not reported as american indian or alaska native.

as a result of that, we have all of the stories of our community, but we fight to show it in the data. amna: tell me about what you hear from families. what do you hear from them about the issues they run into in reporting this and getting justice? >> we will hear stories of individuals who attempt to report their loved ones missing and officers will tell them, maybe she just ran away, was she out drinking? does she do sex work? we see prejudices play out in the underreporting because nobody is listening to us. we also see in maze of jurisdiction that exists only for native people's in the country because of the laws that exist on tribal lands. one family spent three days with law enforcement trying to decide who had jurisdiction in that three days, their loved one remained missing. amna: a lot of people think jurisdictional issues are limited when you talk about

tribal lands versus non-tribal lands, but your report was based on 71 urban areas -- is this an issue regardless of where you live? >> absolutely. this is a result of institutional, structural racism. out of 94% of the women we talked to, 94% had been sexually assaulted in their lifetime, but only 8% of them saw a conviction of their rapist within the justice system. we see a lack of accountability, a lack of investigation. the systematic issues that place the blame of our victimization on our community instead of looking at why are we being targeted and why are we being victimized at such high rates? amna: we are talking about this because of this intense mea interest in the case of gabby petito. it is what someone referred to as "missing white woman

syndrome." your organization has actually studied that, the comparison between how the stories are treated. >> in our report, we found the cases that we looked at, 95% were not covered in the media. this did not mean there were not videos or active ways to put this in the media, it is just that nobody cared. i contributed to the report in wyoming that showed more than 700 people missing in that report again had very little coverage. has the indigenous community, we mourn for the family of anybody who's loved one goes missing and murdered, but we demand equity in this kind of coverage because the lives of our women also matter. amna: what does it take to fix this? >> we need to see changes in policies, we need programming and interventions to understand that as native women and native people, we are at a higher risk of going missing and murdered

because there are systems of inequity in this country that place us at higher risk and those of the systems we have to address and it is going to intake the entire community of the united states to come together and do that with us. amna: thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. ♪ judy: angela merkel is staying ons interim german chancellor after the election to pick her successor ended in virtual deadlock. talks to establish a new coalition government are underway, but that could take months. special correspondent malcolm brabant is in berlin for us tonight. >> judy, political analysts here believe it could be several months before the german people learn of the composition of their next government. the two main competing parties are now embarking on a long

series of negotiations during which they hope to be able to forge a governing coalition. after sixteen years of conservative angela merkel, the bells were signalling a change of german leadership, but how much differee were voters prepared to tolerate as they waited in long lines for the tightest election in years? >> i think it's quite important that there is some change. germany has been sleep walking over the past decade and i think that has got to change in terms of climate change but also in terms of other things like a vision for europe for example and for gmany's place in the world. >> in bavaria in southern germany, where some donned traditional dress for the ballot, voter franz bader signalled resistance to radical change. >> what the greens are up to is a bit too exaggerated for my liking. as a result, i voted for a party that puts the brakes on the greens a bit. the thing is, i have nothing against climate

protection. but we, small germany, can't do it alone. it costs too much. >> a marathon race caused significant disruption in berlin. swathes of the capital were sealed off, making it difficult for voters to reach polling stations. some people were still queuing to vote once theolls closed just before dusk. the loudest cheers came from the centre left social democrats who secured 26% of the vot which made theirs the most popular party. that means leader, olaf scholz, is most likely to be the next chancellor, as long as he can find sufficient coalition partners. >> we are a pragmatic party that knows how to govern. we are a confident party that wants to work to ensure that we have a better future in germany. but we have also shown that we have what it takes to govern a untry, that is unity supported by everyone, and that this was the case. >> it was a paful nighfor the man who replaced angela merkel as leader of the centre

right christian democrats. armin laschet had a lacklustre campaign and his party trailed by two percentage points in second place. but there's still a chance he might become chancellor, if he can forge new alliances. >> we will do everything possible to build a conservative-led government because germany, germany now needs a future coalition that modernizes our country. [laughter] [applause] >> there were mixed emotions among the environmentalist greens, they are certain to be included in a coalition government. but because their share of the vote was less than expected, leader annalena baerbock acknowledges they won't be as powerful. >> but tonight, i believe, we cannot just rejoice. for the firstime in this federal republic, we set out to shapthis country as a leading force. we wanted more. we did not achieve that, also

because of our own mistakes at the beginning of the election campaign. >> a bar popular with politicians and policy wonks buzzed as they watched german democracy take its course. but students maya ruerbeck and lukas willer were drowning their sorrows. >> there could have been much more change. what we see in this election is the older generations dominate our voting results, that we as a young generation have very little to say, and that there's a lot of people who still want the status quo. and i believe that the status quo cannot be upheld in the current circumstances. >> we cannot keep on living the way we've been living the last 50 years. and i feel like the older generation, the generation of my parents, but also my grandparents, they don't understand that massive changes in our living standards need to be made in order for us to keep this planet, basically. >> student henry axel brauer supported the business-friendly liberals who will demand concessions from the

environmentalists in a future coalition. >> we need to combine economic and climate issues and stand up for ourselves better in europe and on the international stage. >> after the selection, germany isn't likely to change much says jana puglerin of the european council on foreign relations. >> we are very much set up for a middle of the road approach. i think it will be increasingly difficult to govern because for the first time we will see a three party coalition on national level and more compromise, and it will be difficult to bridge some issues like on financial and economic policy. >> thirty two years after the berlin wall came down and germany was reunified, the country is once again split in two. the division is between the generations. it seems older germans don't seem to share young people sense of urgency over climate change. their desire for policies aimed at saving the planet may be watered down still further once the politicians cement their new uncomfortable liaisons.

for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brad benton in berlin. judy: as the american economy recovers from the worst impacts of the pandemic, questions remain about the labor force and the problems that plagued the economy even prior to the start of covid-19. in the final installment of paul solman's "workshift" series, he looks at what we've learned and what's at stake for workers and employers. paul: all around us, jobs going wanting. but it couldn't just have been pandemic unemployment benefits and low wages keeping workers in dry dock, because a host of high-paying jobs have gone unfilled for a very long time. >> i have got plumbers that work for me today that make $200,000-plus a year. paul: and yet seattle plumbing

contractor vinnie sposari has been unable to find workers for years. >> i could hire six, eight experienced plumbers right now. paul: so why the labor shortage? >> you're doing manual labor. some people tend to look down on that. paul: sarah schnabel, a cornell grad, became an electrician. >> for people my age, it's definitely more glamorous to think of the tech job, where you're in a really nice cushy office building. paul: high schoolers in southwest louisiana had an added explanation. >> that's not an option that's often presented to us, like, this is not for you. >> it's like, go to college, go to college. there's barely anybody saying, go to trade school. paul: right, said mike rowe, famous for his cable tv series dirty jobs. >> the push for one form of education, in my view, really was the beginning of a long list of stigmas and stereotypes and myths and misperceptions that to this day dissuade millions of kids from pursuing a legitimate opportunity to make six figures in the trades.

paul: a final reason the trades are underpopulated -- up until recently, some two thirds of americans were excluded -- women, people of color, or both. >> dead rats in my lunchbox. like the women before me, they wanted me to leave. paul: plumber adrienne bennett, who now runs her own firm. >> i was in a porta john one time. they picked me up with a crane. and you're bouncing around in there, and you and you got that sewage, it's splashing all over you. you're afraid. paul: electrician tonya hicks also has her own company. >> i had a foreman to tell me that all black women do is get fat, have a bunch of kids and collect welfare. paul: but it's not just the trades that can fill jobs today. tons of low-wage workers seem to be fed up with their pay and work and just aren't taking it anymore. and maybe they shouldn't says economist byron augeeste. >> during the pandemic, we saw tens of millions of essential

workers do amazing things, things that required skills, that required adaptability, that required problem solving, that required teamwork, that required communication under very difficult conditions. paul: and given data collected by his firm, opportunity-at-work, they could be earning a lot more >> 30 million today have the skills based on the work they're doing for jobs that pay at least 50% more than the jobs they're in. paul: so, how to get those tens of millions of low wage workers better opportunities? government job training programs are one route. like "back to work rhode island" -- where then-governor gina raimondo used federal cares act money to fund training programs in areas where employers couldn't fill jobs. >> we will tailor these training initiatives so that when you hire someone you have confidence they're going to be able to do the job. paul: some 4000 rhode islanders have already graduated into new higher jobs. but in general says professor doug besharov, government isnâ™t

-- isn't the ideal overseer. >> it doesn't learn fast enough. it fights the last war. and change is happening more rapidly as we speak. and it will continue to happen. and i think government wl be left behind. >> there is a huge body of research on government job training and overall, i would say the results are unfortunately disappointing. paul: economist ariella spitzer studies job training. >> the good ones, we are seeing 5% to 10% earnings increase. paul: moreover, government job training programs reach only a couple of hundred thousand people a year. so what about those coding camps we hear so much about? well, many of them cost money to attend. at theery least, they cost trainees the income they forgo while training. plus, they tend to be short-term. >> the idea is great. the execution is not. paul: in louisville kentucky, entrepreneur ankur gopal has hit on apprenticeships -- lengthy programs where trainees are paid -- as a way of staffing his mobile software firm interapt.

an especially stunning succe story -- single motheapril hickman, raised in foster care, homeless before she applied for an interapt apprenticeship. >> of l the foster kids, given the same kind of opportunity, same kind of training, what percentage of them could wha you're doing? >> oh, gosh, a great number. because it's problem solving. and if there's one thing that we' good at, it's problem solving, because we've had to. paul: alex hughes worked in the coal industry before making the switch to software. what percentage of people in the coal industry could do jobs as sophisticated as what you're doing here? >> that's 100%. it's a very technical industry. and so they're always having to learn and adapt. paul: in fact, every successful apprentice i interviewed for this series claimed that between 50% and 100% of those in their position could do the same, given the chance. ibm human resources executive

kelli jordan agreed. >> anybody can make that transition. paul: it can't be anybody, right? there's got to be a lot of people who just can do this, no? >> i think it's possible that anybody probably could if they've got the right motivation, but i think the other side of that coin is companies have to be more willing to think differently. paul: differently enough to look for talent among those without the usual educational credentials and experience. at ibm, that included rideshare driver adquena faine, nail technician mariana perez, dog trainer jennifer burgess, retail store manager ray rodriguez. they all turned underappreciated, underpaid skills into high skill/high paying jobs at ibm. how high paying? >> i have tripled in salary from what i've ever made in my entire life. paul: and though jennifer burgess was trained and credentialed as a project manager, she says her skill set

isn't that different from drug -- dog training. >> because it's about training the humans to be able to do what you need them to do. paul: but is jennifer burgess typical, or unusual? >> the answer is we don't know how many people can do it. paul: this is doug besharov. >> the more people see other people doing these jobs, the more they'll change their behavior in school, in the community. it is a dynamic process where people get expectations and decide, you know, i can be like him. >> the's an inclination to focus on the success stories. but we also have to be realistic about the fact that there are a lot of cases where this is not working. paul: on the other hand -- >> i think that just because prior job training programs have not been as effective as we had hoped they would be, doesn't mean that the next generation of job training programs can't be. paul: and so it could be that ibm for example or interaptave a model that could be replicated and could be, well, extremely effective. >> absolutely, and i think that it's important for companies

like that to be really transparent about what they're doing, so that we can make those strategies available to other people. paul: other people like formerly homeless single mother april hickman. >> this company is amazing because i came in knowing that they saw me, you know, and they wanted to help me. before i didn't have the skill. you know, to to get out of where we were, but i do now. paul: and she's already gotten her first promotion. for the pbs newshour, paul solman. ♪ judy: it is a critical week for the president's agenda on capitol hill as democrats try to reach a deal on two key measures. here to explain is our politics monday team.

amy walter of the cook political report and tamera keith of npr. hello to both of you another this monday. good to see your smiling faces. let's talk about what is going on on capitol hill. it is not just the infrastructure, it is this big reconciliation bill. it is not republican standing in the way, it is democrats. what is really going on? >> i think it is important for us to step back. there are some things that have not changed at all. we have known since the end of january that democrats have a narrow margin in the house and a zero seat margin in the senate, they need every single one of the democrats to get anything done. it has changed is the political environment. specifically the approval ratings of joe biden. if you go back and you think about where democrats were, where the white house was not that long ago, in early june,

the assumption was covert is going to be gone, the economy is gog to be good, i'm going to keep my approval ratings in the 50's, we have this legislation moving its way down the tracks, this is going to be great, i will bring my momentum to the legislation. except part one did not turn out so well. covid has not gone away. optimism is down. pessimism is up. then there w afghanistan. the president is not bringing momentum into this process. he needs his own party to give him momentum. it's a very different environment than they thought they were getting. judy: the party also needs this. the democrats are connected to the president. what is driving this? >> the margins are incredibly narrow and at this point, there hasn't been, though this week we

will get a taste of it, there hasn't been anything to force people to move off their positions. there hasn't been a heated negotiation. there have been people staking out their positions. one of the challenges of this is that they are spending a lot of time and we are spending a lot of time talking about how they are arguing about size and scope and using terms like reconciliation, and there is not that much talk about what is actually in this legislation, in part because they have not agreed on what is in the legislation. it is a little bit difficult to hold an event saying we will give you this thing, just wait, when it is not clear yet if it really will make it in the final analysis. judy: part of the issue is that there is a lot of different stuff? >> you are talking about transformational legislation. three point $5 trillion. this is the most expansive government spending bill ever.

there are a lot of moving pieces in this. the overarching reality is that democrats support that, but getting into the details, it becomes problematic. and i think back to other times where we had this last minute -- a kind of always feels like this. it comes down to the last minute. the result of negotiating, all the drama, then something can come together, but the debate is also between the house and the senate. if you are a house member and you have been there for a while, you know that sometimes things you pass and up dying in the senate. that is what progressives are desperate to not have happened. >> this is not just a lack of trust between republicans and democrats, there is a massive lack of trt between progressives and moderate

democrats, a lack of trust within their own party. that is a challenge. judy: i'm hearing from our producer that in the last few minutes senate republicans have blocked the bill to fund the government, which we thought might happen. another big headache. >> and not a massive surprise here. this is something that included raising the debt ceiling, republicans made it clear they don't want their fingerprints on that. they want to be able to blame democrats for that later. this is one of those things where there could be a government shutdown, or this could seem like everything is about to go off the rails until it jumps on the rails and the government doesn't shut down and joe biden can say, look at this, government can function. >> that is what is at stake here. joe biden's theory of the case that he proves that government can still function in america. judy: i want to ask you about elections past and present.

arizona, for months we have seen this republican effort to recount, re-audit or whatever election results from 2020. they have concluded that joe biden did win after all this time. people are still not accepting that. not only that, you have republican legislatures around the country looking at ways they can question voting in their ste. is this going to have a material effect? >> it absolutely is. it is a very jarring situation we have. this is not just about somebody having a theory of the case where they just are not likely the outcome of an election. this is after the state has certified and many of the states , the republican governor signed off on this, the republican attorney general signed off on the final vote count, these are rogue elements.

the goal of these recounts is to undermine the faith in the electoral system itself. that is the scarier part, because it does not reassure people who believe that this election was stolen. it takes people who do believe that their vote counted, it tells them, i don't know, maybe the next te you vote this is going to look different. judy: people are questioning is this going to change what happens next year? >> the questions that are out there, these audits put questions out there. maybe not -- definitely not genuine questions. the selections were certified. but then the existence of questions, the existence of concern becomes a pretext for laws, a pretext for candidacies of people who don't believe in the election system as it exists. judy: more misinformation,

disinformation. >> this is not good for democracy. the system works, losers, winners, agree. >> losers have to agree they lost for the system to work. judy: thank you. ♪ judy: history is being made tonight at the metropolitan opera. one of the country's most important cultural organizations and for several of the artists involved. a preview for our all -- arts and culture series "canvas." ♪ >> when the opera opens tonight at the metropolitan opera, the stakes will be incredibly high.

the first production in 18 months at the met, the country's largest performing arts company, after the covid shut down. the first by a black director, and a black composer. there is also a deeply personal side. >> when i was a kid, my father loved opera. he was a big fan. he played his recordings at the house and it was pretty funny. i would tell people all the time as soon as you would hear his records on, the doors would slam because people needed to find their peace and quiet. he did not care. >> everybody else running away and he is happy? >> yeah. ♪ >> terence blanchard would come to love opera himself. his father would be plenty proud of this musical renaissance man.

known first as a jazz trumpet player and composer, a six-time grammy winner. his 60 film scores, notably his work with spike lee, including two recent oscar nominations. ♪ this opera is his second with a libretto by casey lemmons. it is based on a 2014 memoir by charles lowe. the name taken from a verse from jeremiah in the old testament. it is the coming-of-age story. moving and poignant, but also at times harrowing, including childhood molestation. doesn't make sense to you that this is the stuff of an opera? >> of course, because it is the stuff of real-life. the thing aboutharles' book that makes it operatic is the fact that he says in his book

that he was born of a peculiar grace. it pulled me in because i knew exactly wh that means. i was never molested as a kid, but being as a kid who had terest in the arts, who was walking to the bus stop every saturday with his horn to go for a lesson while the other kids were out lying in the street looking at me, i knew what that felt like to be different in that way. >> i was so nervous the first day when he came into rehearsal to watch. >> because? >> because it is terence blanchard and i don't want to disappoint. >> camille a brown is co-directing with james robinson . and a claim to dancer and choreographer, this is her first time directing opera.

she wanted to bring her full experience and toolkit to the production. an unlikely showstopp, a college fraternity hazing scene she choreographed using traditional step dance. >> there is a lock on the stage that probably audiences, metropolitan body -- opera audiences have never seen before in terms of step dance, the black church. the issues. i think in anytng that you create, of course in the back of your mind you want people to like it and receive it, but that can't be the thing that is driving you. what has to drive you is your personal connection to it. if you believe in it, that is what you have to move forward with. >> the metropolitan opera itself has seen plenty of drama offstage. it $300 million see your

operation lost half that in earned revenues during the shutdown. furloughed workers. and wound up in bitter disputes with its unions that wer settled only recently. >> it is incredibly painful for the entire company. the most difficult part for us is not to get the local opera fans back. the hardest part is the tourists. >> a recent performance of verity's requiem, drew a packed audience and prolonged ovation. fire shot up in my bones was planned several years ago, but now the historic nature of the first offering is hoped to bring in a new, diverse, and younger audience. why did it take so long? >> that is a very good question. part of it also as opportunities for composers and african-americans in this artform have been limited.

one of the things we need to create greater pathways and pipelines of talents so that we can actually give opportunities to composers. >> it all points to new commissions and upcoming productions by black composers, as well as programs designed to diversify backstage leadership roles. >> there is no question that we are slow in terms of bringing works by african-american composers to the theater. but we are not going to be slow going forward. >> for her part, codirector camille a brown told us -- >> as i am in this position, i know that it is not just about me, it is not about the opportunity i'm given, it is about catherine dunham, it is about diane mcintyre, and all of those black women that came before me and struggled and

paved the way for me, and i feel like it is a responsibility to show up not just for myself, but for my community. >> terence blanchard had a similar response to his history making turn. >> i was shocked. it seemed a little crazy to me. i was totally caught off guard by it. my next thought was, i'm not the first qualified. the thing about my opera being here, still weird to say, it still does, i think the thing that feels weird about it is how i really don't want this to be a token, i wanted to be a turnkey. i may be the first, but i sure don't want to be the last.

>> and onstage stage story of personal trauma, a bigger story of an art form and one of its leading institutions going forward. to that end, the met is simulcasting opening night in times square and for the first time in marcus garvey park in haem. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the metropolitan opera in new york. judy: so exciting. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. for all of us, thank you, please stay safe, and we will see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> the landscape has changed and not for the last time. the rules of business are being reinvented with a more flexible workforce, by embracing innovation, by looking not only at current opportunities, but i had to future ones.

resilience is the ability to pivot again and again. >> people who know no bdo -- k now b. >> pediatric surgeon, volunteer, topiary artist, a raymondjames financial advisor taylors advised to help you live your life. life well planned. >> consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative ideas and leaders. ♪ >> supported by the john t -- d

and catherine t macarthur foundation. more information at macfoun.org. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corpotion for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is pbs newshour west from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at th walter cronkite school of journalism in arizona state university. >> you are w

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "cook's country," i'm making green goddess roast chicken. toni's diving into the history of green godde dressing, jack's telling us all about herbs, and ashley's making a potato, green bean, and tomato salad.