captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: aspirin warning. top medical experts now say that bleeding risks for some older americans likely outweighs the benefits of taking an aspirin a day. then, show of force. north korean leader kim jong-un displays a new missile technology made to strike the u.s. mainland, and names the united states as his country's greatest adversary. and, the impact on education. overall college enrollments drop in the wake of the pandemic, but more americans seek careers in health care. >> i kept seeing the nurses on the news, and they were, like, sitting in the hallways and they were just, like, crying. i was just, like, really

driven to go see if i could help in any way. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ >> pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> 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. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway.

>> b.d.o. accountants and advisors. >> fidelity wealth management. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> a with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> woodruff: adults who are 60 years old or older should not necessarily take a daily aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. that is according to a draft recommendation from the u.s. preventive services task force, a government-backed panel of independent experts. the task force is revising several key guidelines, and warning that, for some people, the risks of aspirin may outweigh the benefits. i'm joined by dr. john wong, a member of the task force. he is a primary care expert at tufts medical school in boston. dr. wong, thank you for being with us. i want to be as clear as possible about what exactly is this advice for people oaf 60 and not yet taking a daily aspirin. >> thank you for your question. this has to do with stroke and heart attacks which account for one in three deaths so it's an

important recommendation for all people in this country stay healthy and live longer and better. based on new information, made substantial changes, but, in particular, we used to recommend that people in their 60s speak with their clinician whether starting aspring would be right for them. we find the bleeding risk cans also out the benefit. bleeding risk increases as people get older and thus we've changed our draft recommendation to recommend not starting aspring in their '60s. >> woodruff: are you saying people should not talk to their doctor about this? what is your advice? >> anytime anyone is concerned about their stroke or heart attack risk, we would encourage them to speak with their clinician who can help them assess what their indivual risk is for a stroke or heart attack as whether or not saparin

is appropriate for them. when we look at the evidence, risk for people in their 60s or older cancels out or balances out the benefits so that we would not end up recommending it. for people who areounger, we used to recommend starting aspirin but now recommend they speak with their clinician about it because the balance of harms is closer. people in their 40s in 2016 with respect sure if they should or shouldn't. so some would be of benefit. so thank you, everybody have the discussion to see if it's right. >> woodruff: if there's any question in people's minds, they should be talking to their clinician and, again, this does not apply to people, as i understand it, who are already on a daily dose of aspirin, is that correct? >> that is certainly correct. if you are already taking

aspirin, this recommendation really focuses on people who are thinking about starting aspirin. if you're already taking aspirin, you should speak with your clinician about whether or not that is appropriate for you. >> woodruff: to continue doing it. and another question, you -- and you pointed to this -- this is a change in guidance and it's still a draft recommendatn, but it sounds like you're saying it's enough of a serious point in the research that people should go ahead and take this advice. >> for anyone who's concerned about their heart disease risk or their stroke risk, we would encourage them as you mentioned to speak with their clinician because it's a balance of what is your risk for having a stroke or a heart attack and as we've discovered with new information, what is your risk for a bleeding complication from aspirin? and thinking about that balance of benefit versus harm and then coming to the right decision for

yourself. for people who are 60 and older, when we look at the evidence, we find that the risk of bleeding, which increases with age and exceeds the benefit for those who are 70 and older and basically cancels out the den fits for people -- benefits for people in their 60s. >> woodruff: dr. john wong, a member of this task force making this recommendation, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. house of representatives was on track to approve raising the federal debt ceiling by $480 billion. democrats favored the move, while republicans were opposed. the action averts a national default, at least

until early december. the bill passed the senate last week, and now goes on to president biden for his signature. the white house challenged texas governor gregg abbott today over banning covid-19 vaccine mandates. the republican issued a ban last night. it came as the biden administration is about to issue rules for a federal vaccination mandate for larger employers. at the white house today, press secretary jen psaki challenged abbott's action. >> i think it's pretty clear, when you make a choice that's against all public health formation and data out there, that it's not based on what is in the interests of the people you are governing. it is perhaps in the interest of your own politics. >> woodruff: also today, the state of florida fined leon county $3.5 million for making its employees get vaccinated. the county is home to tallahassee, the state capital.

and in new york, a federal judge blocked a state vaccine mandate for health care workers, unless it includes religious exemptions. record numbers of americans quit their jobs in august, driven in part by paemic-related fears. the u.s. labor department reports that 4.3 million people resigned. that was the most in nearly 21 years. job openings were down as well. in britain, a report by parliament today charged that a delay in imposing a covid lockdown caused thousands of unnecessary deaths. in response, a cabinet minister defended the ruling conservative party's actions. >> we took the decisions based on the evidence before us. but course, we've always said, with something so unprecedented as the pandemic, there will be lessons to learn. we're keen to learn them. that's why we've committed to an inquiry, and that will be the opportunity to look at what could be done differently and what lessons we take into the future. >> woodruff: britain did

impose a lockdown in late march of 2020, when infections threatened to overwhelm the health care system. the european court of human rights ruled today that the vatican cannot be held liable for sexual abuse by roman catholic priests. two dozen alleged victims had attempted to sue the holy see. the court found that the vatican's status as a sovereign state gives it legal immunity. in iraq, a pro-iranian leader is rejecting election results that show his party and its allies lost seats in parliament. hadi al-amiri says the results of sunday's vote were "fabricated." meanwhile, supporters of shiite cleric muqtada al-sadr celebrated in baghdad last night after their coalition came out on top. >> ( translated ): we congratulate the iraqi people on the victory of the reform project, led by the leader muqtada al-sadr. today, we feel that iraq has been liberated. we haven't had this feeling since 2003. today, iraq is truly liberated

from corruption. >> woodruff: the various factions now have to form a coalition government, and that could take months. back in this country, a former u.s. navy engineer and his wife appeared in federal court, accused of selling nuclear submarine secrets, in an f.b.i. sting. diana and jonathan toebbe allegedly thought they were dealing with an unnamed foreign power. the toebbes heard the charges in martinsburg, west virginia, but entered no pleas. the judge ordered them to remain in custody. and on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average lost 117 points to close at 34,378. the nasdaq fell 20 points, the s&p 500 slipped 10. still to come on the newshr: the rth korean leader shows off his country's missile technology, some that can reach the united states. house intelligence chairman adam schiff weighs in on the tenuous

state of america's democracy. one judge's decades-long pattern of wrongfully arresting and jailing children of color. plus, much more. >> woodruff: today, the u.s. and south korean national security advisors are meeting in washington to discuss north korea. it was earlier today when north korea's leader, kim jong-un, surrounded by missiles and other weaponry, put his nuclear-armed state front and center, and the biden administration on notice. nick schifrin explains. >> schifrin: the stars were out on pyongyang's red carpet. intercontinental ballistic missiles. a new surface-to-air missile. a new hypersonic glide vehicle. and, behind kim jong-un himself, what north korea calls “new type

gigantic rocket.” a flashy flaunting of years of north korean military and nuclear advancement. and outside, human weapons. demonstrations of taekwondo, and north korean soldiers' toughness. fighters flying by, to the delight of kim and a sea of military leaders. the audience for the weapons exhibition-- both global and local, says ankit panda of the carnegie endowment for international peace. >> kim has been quite open about the fact that these are not good times for north korea. >> schifrin: but despite all of this, their national defense program continues. their defense scientists continue to be innovative. that's really the message here for the internal audience, that kim jong-un continues to ensure that north korea will sustain its autonomy. >> schifrin: these weapons are the highlights of north korea's missile and nuclear program so far-- but they're also previews of future weapons that are today still untested. >> i think kim is trying to really indicate that he is

working his way through a long list of military modernization objectives. this is about leverage, for the next time the north koreans come back to the diplomatic table. and kim really wants the u.s. to appreciate what they're capable of doing, and what they've been capable of doing over the last few years. >> schifrin: last month alone, pyongyang conducted three tests, including the hypersonic missile, the new cruise missile, and a train-based ballistic missile, all designed to improve north korea missile and nuclear survivability, and responsiveness. >> by placing these missiles on rail cars that can be placed in tunnels that can simply be rolled out, erected, and launched, and so that enhances the survivability, in principle. and similarly, with responsiveness, unlike truck- based missile launchers, which needs to be driven around the countryside on, you know, sometimes going off-road, rail mobility is quite stunning. >> schifrin: the north isn't the only one advancing its missiles. last month, south korea tested its own missile, launched from a submarine, watched by president moon jae-in. the regional arms race isn't

new, b it comes after a may summit in which the u.s. lifted decades-old missile restrictions. meanwhile, south korea is trying to upgrade inter-korean communications. the two sides recently reopened a liaison office, that, last year, north korea blew up. but ever since kim and president trump met in hanoi in 2019, u.s.-north korean diplomacy has been stalled. the biden administration wants direct diplomacy with north korea, officially known as the d.p.r.k. >> we remain prepared to meet with the d.p.r.k. without preconditions. anytime, anywhere. >> schifrin: but north korea says it won't meetith the u.s. while the u.s. continues to hold training exercises with south korea, including this one in august, and maintains korean sanctions-- what the north calls the u.s.' “hostile policy.” for more on north korea, and toy's meeting between the south korean and u.s. national security advisors, we turn to frank januzzi. he was a state department analyst, where he focused on

north korea. he is now president of the maureen and mike mansfield foundation, a non-profit group focused on improving relations among countries in asia, and with the united states. frank jannuzi, welcome back to the "newshour". north korea says the u.s. has a "hostile policy" that it needs to give up. for north korea what does that mean? >> well they define it usually, nick, to refer to sanctions as well as the criticism of their human rights record. the ct that the united states maintains forces on the peninsula and nulear arm ma meant which the north koreans consider to be a threat. but the north koreans have long desired the united states to lift this so-called hostile policy and in recent weeks have been turning more and more to addressing the strait of war on the peninsula and a desire to see that state of war ended as one of the measurements by which they'd evaluate whether or not the united states had lifted its hostile policy. >> reporter: that's what

north korea wants. south korea is in washington today. what does it want the u.s. to do? >> the national security advisor has met with the north koreans almost more than any other south korean diplomat and what he's looking to try to get out of the biden administration is a willingness for the biden administration to put something new on the table in order to get dialogue with north korea started, perhaps sanctions relief, perhaps an end of war declaration. the moon administration is in its final months in office. they're really desperate to get something going with north-south diplomacy and u.s.-north korea diplomacy before that term expires. >> reporter: you have the north koreans and south koreans both wanting the u.s. to consider lifting sanctions and consider the official end of the korean war. where is the biden administration? is it willing to listen to those requests? >> well, the biden administration has pursued what i call a goldilocks approach to

north korea policy, not too hard, not too soft, trying to strive for something in the middle just right. but the problem for biden is that that policy lacks a degree of creativity necessary to really command north korea's attention. the biden administration hopes that by offering talks without prconditions that they could lure the north koreans into dialogue. but, unfortunately, the north koreans essentially are demanding that the biden administration move first, move first on sanctions relief, move first on aid, move firsonn end of war declaration and, frankly, i don't see any appetite in the biden administration for those kinds of concessions. >> reporter: there are some analysts who would say the biden administration should not give concessions to north korea because north korea as it has in the past would pocket them and not actually take steps to denuclearize. >> indeed there's every reason for the biden administration to

be distrustful of the drk's intentions. at the same time i would hope biden would remember the attitude he adopted in 2001 when kim jong un's predecessor his father kim jong il made overtures to the south and the united states. at that point in his career, senator biden said it's vital for the united states to test north korea's intentions through dialogue. so one way or the other the biden administration needs to find a formula by which they can engage in the dprk to test whether or not north korea is prepared to take meaningful steps toward peace and denuclearization. and if they can't do it through sanctions they should do it through another mechanism. >> reporter: ad we're seeing a confident speech by kim jong un last night and a display of years of military modernization. >> i was struck by the fact kim jong un is approaching his tenth year in office as leader of north korea, and this is a more

confident kim, one who is willing to both admit his failings of his domestic development programs at the same time he celebrates what has been meaningfulrogress in the development of nuclear weapons, more advanced weaponry, and delivery systems for nuclear weapons that can now reach the region if not all the way to the united states. so kim jong un is perhaps less desperate for dialogue with the united states than he might have been five or six years ago, and i think this is one to have the reasons why he has set the bar higher in terms of conditions on dialogue. >> reporter: frank jannuzi, thank you very much. >> thanks, nick. >> woodruff: he is best known

probably for being the chief prosecutor in former president donald trump's first impeachment trial. that case ended with an acquittal. but in his new book, "midnight in washington: how we almost lost our democracy and still could," house intelligence chairman adam schiff connects that episode to others in our recent history, including the january 6th capitol riot. chairman schiff joined me here just a short time ago. congressman adam schiff, thank you very much for joining us. if the title weren't jarring enough, you've also been saying that the risk of authoritarianism in this country has never been greater. do you mean that? >> i do there's this dangerous flirtation in the republican party withutocracy. you see it reflected in some of their preeminent spokespeople like tucker carlson extolling the model of the wanna be hungarian dictator, demonstrations in budapest and republicans around the country attacking the independent

apparatus of our democracy, these elections officials and tryingo strip them of their powers and give them to a partisan appointed officials or boards and that is a direct threat to our democracy and the pathway to authoritarianism. >> woodruff: i'm struck in the book by obviously you focus a great deal on president trump but by how much you focus on republican members of congress and you describe how many are good people who are persuaded to abandon their beliefs. this becomes a theme of the book. give us an example of how you see their minds changes and their hearts changing. >> it is a running theme in the book and it goes back to something robert caro, the hiss tore yen observed, is power doesn't corrupt as much as it did reveals. in the last five years we've seen how power reveals who

certain people are. bill barr is a perfect example. under the george h.w. bush administration, he was surround bid integrity, the former president, we didn't get a sense of who he was, but later tethered to a man without scruples like donald trump, we found bill barr was also without scruples, that he would do anything to have a seat at the table ofower. and there are so many other cautionary tales along those lines. but i also wanted to tell the story in this book about the heroes that emerged, th marie yvonneovichs, bill taylor's, vennamens, who is who showed great courage because their example will lead us out of this darkness. >> woodruff: do you see an end to the influence of donald trump? >> i do, and what really i think is such a terrible tragedy is, after we went through that

horrible ordeal of the insurrection, there was a window when the republican party might have recaptured its identity as a party of ideas. you could see in mitch mcconnell the struggle about whether to throw donald trump overboard. with kevin mccarthy the pangs of conscience lasted about 30 second, but with mcconnell, you could see he recognized what a disaster donald trump was for the country but concluded ultimately if he tried to throw trump overboard he himself would be thrown overboard. at the end of the day, you have to ask why are you in office anyway if you're not going to do the right thing when the country really needs you. >> woodruff: you are clearly engaged in a number of things going on right now in congress but in particular the january 6th committee attempting to bring people who were close advisors to president trump and potentially president trump himself to testify. they don't seem to be

cooperating, most of them. how do you plan to bring them before the congress? i know there's talk about bringing, you know, saying they're in contempt of congress, but do you really believe that, in the end, they're going to testify? >> i believe we're going to force them to testify if they don't do coo willingly -- do so willingly. the rea thwartheso ln aw is f for yearsy have been allowed to. steven showed up with 25 questions he would dane to answer written by the white house, and when even the republicans expressed outrage at this, he knew that -- steve bannon knew the attorney general would never enforce the law for those covering up for the president of the united states. but a different justice department with merrick garland. it understands the rule of law, that no one is above that law

and if people don't come before our committee when they're subpoenaed or don't turn over what they're suppod to we will vote to hold them in criminal contpt in the house, we will refer them for -- prosecution and we expect the justice's office to uphold the principals revealed in the law. >> woodruff: you referred to lessons learned as you move through the process, the impeachment process. are any of those lessons things you can apply to what we you're engaged the in right now? >> well, there are many lessons learned and some we can certainly apply very easily and that is moving very quickly to criminal contempt. other less sense, bigger lessons are much more difficult to effectuate, and i say that because one of the most powerful lessons to me was there's no flaw in our constitution, there's no problem with the remedy of impeachment. the problem isn't in the draftsmanship, the problem is that we don't have enough people

in congress willing to give the spirit of the founders, live up to the spirit of the founders in executing those provisions. if people don't appreciate the difference between right and wrong, if they're not willing to be truthful, if they won't give content to the oath of office, doesn't matter how brilliant the laws or constitution are, our democracy will founder. that's where we are. one party has given up the party of being an ideology, has become a cult around the former president around as long as that is the case we're at risk. >> woodruff: a pretty discoveraging conclusion. >> it is, but the remedy is engagement. there's nothing more debilitating than to think we're powerless to affect our circumstances. we can't be al marie ivanovic, first in the preach to stand up to the most powerful in the world, but we can do everything in our private and public and

civic life at a time when our democracy needs us. >> woodruff: congressman adam schiff, "midnight in washington," how we almost lost our democracy and still could. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: a new investigation by propublica and nashville public radio has uncovered an alarmingattern of arresting and detaining elementary school children in one tennessee county. lisa desjardins has the story. >> desjardins: rutherford county, tennessee has detained a record number of children, some as young as seven years old. some were arrested for playground fights. others for cursing. in one 2016 case, four elementary school-age girls were detained for failing to intervene in a fight. a disproportionate number of the children arrested were black. meribah knight from nashville

public radio is the lead writer on the report. she joins me now. thank you so much, meribah knight. the focus is on rutherford county. an attorney told you at one point some 500 kids, he thought, had been arrested by mistake and another 1,500 detained over a point of time as part of a jailing system that seems like it was subjective. essentially, at one point, polices and judge were deciding on how the kid looked or was acting in a moment, whether they would be detained. at the center of your story is the arrest of eleven children surrounding that idea of a fight who intervened, who didn't. can you explain exactly what happened with this and how? >> yeah, thank you so much for having me. essentially, you set it up really well. there were eleven children in all that were arrested for watching a fight. the two that were actually involved in fighting were so

young, five and six, that they weren't cullable for their actions but the other children were, and they were arrested under the charge of criminal responsibility, which as we outlined in the story, was not even a ral charge. it's a prosecutorial theory. so one can't be charged with criminal responsibility. one can be, say, charged with assault under criminal responsibility. but that's just the beginning of kind of the myriad of mistakes that happened in this case. so, yeah, they wound up arresting eleven kids in total, using this charge. there were an eight-year-old with pig tails arrested and handcuffed, a sixth grader fell to her knees. a fourth grader threw up in the assistant principal's office when she found out she was being arrested. it was a terrible terrible experience for these children and a terrible moment for this system, but it really shined a light on what was happening. >> help us understand the role of those in power who seemed to even create this system, an

elected judge and also police officers, how did this happen? >> yeah, so these arrests as you outlined took place in rutherford county, which as we write in the story had been illegally arresting and jailing kids for years all under the watch of one judge, juvenile court judge donna scott davenport, she has been the county's only juvenile court judge since 2000 when the court began, and she has a really outsized role. she oversees the courts, and she oversees the juvile jail. and up until this incident, she directed police on what she called "our process" for arresting kids, which basically was every child who was arrested even for something minor like this or like truancy, they must first go to the jail. the judge told law enforcement this explicitly in a memo. then the second part of this is

that, once they got to the jail, they were subjected to something called the filter system, which was implemented by the jailer lynn duke, and that was an overly broad assessment of what a child was deemed -- whether a child was deemed a true threat. i can talk more about that, but it was overly broad, it was illegal and it was happening for decades. >> reporter: you know, there's alot of discussion about this topic of what incarceration does. the judge in this case has argued on radio shows tt ldthsi character and that kids would come out of this detention system better. what did you find about how kids were affected? >> i had an interview with one child who simply said to me we're not coming out better. this has affected children in so many ways. we open the story with this mass arrest. the children involved in that, many of them had to do to

counseling, they were lucky enough to get settlements from the county where there was money ear madam speaker for counseling, but i talked to them and they had bad dreams, they were scared they were going to get picked up at school and arrested again at any moment. there was another young man we spoke to who was kept four days and denied his medication for bipolar. after he was released he was put on house arrest and tried to mmit suicide three times in the coming year. so the impact on these children is real, ever present and widely ranging. >> reporter: is this still happening and have there been repercussions for the people who put this policy in place? >> there have been noerer cursing cogs -- there havbeen no repercussions except the settlement. some stopped when judges have ervening. nen iass action lawsuits they

hatve forced the filter system and solitaire confinement to stop. ue is still the judge, is jailer is still the jailer, and there's also other mechanisms of oversight that are woefully inadequate that we outline in the story. just one example is the tennessee department of children's services, they license juvenile jails across the state. they inspected this facility twice a year and never once did they flag this illegal system, and it was right there in black and white in the manual for this facility. so, yes, there's been some consequences as far as money and payouts to families, but the architects are still there, and the systems of oversight are still inadequate. >> reporter: such important reporting, meribah knight of nashville public radio. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me.

>> woodruff: the covid-19 pandemic laid bare many vulnerabilities in america's healthcare system-- including a worsening shortage of nurses and physicians. but recent data indicates a new surge of interest in nursing, medal, and other health-related career programs. stephanie sy has this report, for our series, “rethinking college.” >> sy: at 55, debi kinder is taking a new path. last year, the mother of two-- plus dog diva-- was seiredeta p. then the pandemic hit, and she was laid off. el gad p that needed filling >> i kept seeing the nurses on the news, and they were, like, sitting in the hallways, and they were just, like, crying. they were exhausted. and, i don't know, i was just, like, really driven to go see if

i could help in any way. >> sy: so, she started training to become a licensed practical nurse, and got a full-time job at a local home spice. when she finishes her program in december, kinder will take more courses to become a registered nurse, or r.n., a role with more responsibility and pay. full-time school on top of full- time work is no easy task. but, kinder says she's prepared for the long road ahead. what else do you think it takes to be a front-line worker during a pandemic? because we're still in it. >> endurance. >> sy: endurance? >> i definitely have the endurance. i've done three ironmen. i've done an ultra run. and so, i think that gives you the stamina. i'm not fast, but i never stop. >> sy: kinder is part of a new trend. last year saw record interest for many health-related programs nationwide. medical schools saw plications soar by about 18%.

public health programs reported spikes in interest for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. and kinder's school, gateway community college in phoenix, arizona, saw a 15% rise in interest for its licensed practical nurse and nursing assistant programs. >> i love seeing the people that are coming in because they really want to be in someone's life at a time when they can make a difference. >> sy: margi schultz is the director of nursing at gateway. >> a lot of students have cared for their family members who had covid, and some of them were extremely ill. and they realized they weren't scared by it, or, if they did home care, they liked it, and they were drawn to that. >> sy: she says that some applicants are also attracted to the field because of the high demand for nurses at all levels. >> there are more jobs than there are people to fill them. >> s the unprecedented interest that schools like gateway saw last year has been dubbed “the fauci effect,” after prominent physician dr. anthony fauci, who, along with other frontline healthcare

workers, emerged as heroes during the pandemic. ming lian and her fellow classmates are some of the lucky few accepted to the university at buffalo's aorst yeadr,l, ecfr r saw ah oool 40% surge. >> during the midst of the pandemic, i had to focus on just getting by, day by day, and the task at hand. >> sy: lian was working as a medical scribe, assisting doctors at a hospital in brooklyn. when new york city became the u.s. epicenter of the pandemic, she felt powerless. >> i was very disappointed in myself, not knowing enough to help anyone, or wasn't able to. so going through medical school will allow me to directly participate in patient care. >> sy: she had worked on her medical school applications for two years, and was ecstatic when she found out she was accepted. >> that was incredible. it was an incredible feeling. >> sy: dr. dori marshall is the director of admissions at

the university at buffalo's medical school. she says that like lian, many first-year students were inspired by frontline doctors, but did not apply on the spur of the moment. >> it's really a process that takes years to get themselves ready to apply for medical school. >> sy:he says last year's spike in applications is more likely attributable to other reasons-- like moving the entire process, including interviews, online. >> the expense of flying here was, you know, was gone. with covid, was-- there was no overnight in a hotel. there was no travel expenses. the only expenses last year were really the application and then taking an hour for each of the two interviews. so i think that that had a lot to do with it. >> sy: fully-online applications meant aspiring doctors could afford to apply to more medical schools. >> being able to do it virtually and at home, saved me quite a bit of money, so that i can

actually use those money to apply to more school. >> sy: these changes meant university at buffalo saw a 59% increase in applications from first-generation college students like lian, who moved the u.s. from a village in china when she was 13. but, this rising interest won't mean more physicians anytime soon. medical schools and hospitals have not increased class sizes and residency programs to meet demand. back in arizona, gateway community college has enrolled more nursing students. but, students need hospital experience to complete their training, and those spots, as with physician residencies, are limited. while students can practice in simulations like this one, it's no substitute for the real thing, says nursing director margi schultz. >> you absolutely must get in there with real patients. and, you know, patients do different things than a

simulator does. and you really have to be vomited on and you have to really experience it up close and personal to be a nurse. >> sy: student debi kinder is eager to join the fray. what most excites you about the prospect of being an r.n.? >> being done with school. ( laughter ) but i think just that-- honestly, i hate to say it, that feeling of accomplishment, you know, of doing something i didn't think i was able to do. and then being able to help-- help patients and interact with them and-- and get that quality time. >> sy: she's got the bedside manner part down. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix, arizona. >> woodruff: one of the n.f.l.'s most well-known head coaches--

jon gruden of the las vegas raiders-- is out of a job, after a series of highly-offensive emails were publicly disclosed by the "new york times” and the "wall street journal.” william brangham has the story racist, anti-gay and misogynistic language. they date back to as early as 2010, when gruden was an analyst for espn. he re-joined the raiders as head coach in 2018. as reported, gruden was communicating with, among others, bruce allen, who is the one-time president of the washington football team. in one exchange, gruden used a racist stereotype to describe demaurice smith, head of the n.f.l. players association-- who is black. using an anti-gay slur, gruden complained when, in 2014, an n.f.l. team drafted michael sam, the first openly gay player. carl nassib, who's the first active n.f.l. playero come out as gay, plays for the raiders,

gruden's former team. william c. rhoden is a columnist for the sports media site, the undefeated. bill rhoden, great to have you back on the "newshour". what was your reaction when you first heard about this whole saga. >> i was surprised not because i was surprised by what gruden said and that he said it but more that i know that he is very popular, people like him, he's kind of known in the business as a guy's guy, and the owner likes him a lot. he gave him ths unprecedented ten-year contract, and i know that he did not want to see him leave. so i thought that he was just going to try to run out the clock and play it out, ut it just got to be too much. if it had been just demaurice smith and the racism, maybe he could have walked with that, but calling the commissioner a slur, he checked every single box of bigotry and racism. and in this the n.f.l. when

they're talking about diversity and inclusion, he could not survive that. so i was surprised they did it so quickly. i was not surprised at what he said. >> reporter: in your column for the undefeated, you wrote not just about gruden but grudenism and how this represents a much larger culture within the n.f.l. what did you mean by that? >> the n.f.l. is very regressive despite all the efforts of being open. there are a lot of people who really agree with everything grudenen said. they're not crazy about women becoming officials or anything in a position of power. they're not crazy about athletes getting their voice. you know, they don't say anything, but this is an attitude that's there, and i'm also really curious about these others. going forwd, who did he write these e-mails to? who's on the receiving end? and what was their reaction? you know, i really would hope the players association will force n.f.l. to give us more

information. who are these people and what was their reaction? because, you know, gruden was an enabler and i want to find out who the enablers were. when i refer to grudenism, i talk about that sensibility that he represents which i feel is alive and well, not just in the n.f.l., but as we've seen in the past few years throughout our country. so that's what's a little disturbing. i mean, he's gone, sort of like the nail is gone but the hole is still there. >> reporter: the n.f.l., as you pointed out, has decried these comments and has tried over the years to push what it argues are anti-racism efforts. from a management and a leadership perspective, what would you like to see the league do to make sure that this is more of an aberrant type of event? >> well, you know, that's hard because it's hard to legislate what's in somebody's heart. you know, you could pass all the

type of rules but if you're homophobic, you're homophobic. if you're not crazy about women in position of power, that's what it is. i'm not sure what the n.f.l. could do except in this case find out who were his enablers, who are the people he was writing to? who were the people on the receiving end? who are his sort of -- his guys, his clan? and, also, by the way, let's get beyond having three or four black coaches, let's get black executives because actions speak louder than words. you can say all ths stuff, but if you don't do business with black vendors, if you don't promote black executives, that's really the sell of the sale. and this with groupen is where the rubber hits the road. i'm interested in deeds, not just words. >> reporter: these e-mails came out as part of an investigation into culture within the washington football

team. do you think we're ever going to find out who are about that? because that seems to have hit something of a dead end. >> well, i'd like to and i think that's absolutely the point, it can't just stop here. like i said, the players association wants to get more, and i know at there are probably a lot of people around the league who are holding their breath. they want it to stop here because no telling where this can go. you know, where there's smoke, there's a lot of fire and it's easier just to get rid of gruden and let's call it off. i would like this to be the beginning point, and i think that this will be a season like no other. >> reporter: bill hoden of the undefeated. always good to see you. thank you very much. >> pleasure is mine. take care. >> woodruff: in recent months, a lack of quality, affordable child care in the united states has moved front and center to

the political conversation in this country. it is a key part of the agenda for many democrats, including president biden, whose original build back better plan aimed to ensure that families pay no more than 7% of their income for child care; offer universal preschool for three- and four- year-olds; and make an existing expanded child tax credit permanent. republicans are almost uniformly opposed to the measure, but many say that an overhaul of child care in this country is long overdue. that issue is the subject of a new documentary airing later tonight on pbs, titled "raising the future: the child care crisis." it highlights the struggles parents and child care workers experience every day. >> "floating in the sea along came a whale and took them home for tea" the child care experience as a whole has been challenging. it was really stressful, because we didn't really know our options.

like, we didn't really ever think about, "are we going to ve a nanny? are we going to do group care?" it was things that we just kind of thought-- when she needed care, we were just like, "bring her someplace," which i guess is such a naive way of thinking now. >> woodruff: and our own amna nawaz, and special correspondent cat wise, who worked on this special program, joins me now. hello to both of you. and cat, i'm going to start with you-- this is born from a series that you and your producer worked on, as we said this summer. what led you to want to tell these stories? >> yeah. before the pandec, judy, the u.s. child care system was often described as fragile and broken, and as-- over the years, as kate mcmahon and i have traveled around the country covering different stories, we've met many parents who've really struggled with child care. and what we've learned is, it boils down to four main issues: access, affordability, quality, and workforce pay. and those are huge issues for families around the country.

we know that child care workers earn on average $12 an hour, or just $12 an hour. there are fast food workers who earn more than that these days. and we know many families cannot afford the cost of child care. so when the pandemic hit and the child care system all but collapsed, these were some of the key issues that were really highlighted. >> woodruff: what you do in this hour is, you're not only looking at where we are right now, but how we got here. to what extent is child care always been inrisis here? >> nawaz: you know, it was really interesting to find out that i actually didn't know about is, in past times of crisis in this country, the government has stepped in. in world war ii, for example. men went off to fight. women went in the factories to work. hundreds of thousands of american children needed care. congre funded and set up a national system of child care centers with quality, reable child care. those went away when the war ended. and there have been efforts at reform.

even under president nixon, there was a bipartisan effort to reform child care, do a kind of national system again. it went through congress, but then under conservative pressure, president nixon ended up vetoing it. so what we have today, as cat alluded to, there is this very fragmented system. ntufoo>>ndf:dr, a communities are doing, how they're trying to tackle this, how to fix it. tell us a little about what you found. >> yeah, i mean, communities across this country are pacted by a lack of child care, especially in rural america. they're very concerned about young families moving away, and they see this as a critical economic development issue. we went to one small town that decided to tackle their child care shortage by adding an infant and toddler program to the public school. we also spoke to the coffey family in nebraska, and like many families, they want to see more government funding for child care, but they want to maintain local control over those dollars. >> nobody wants to be taxed more. but, you know, dollars had to come from somewhere. if it's a boon to society, i think it makes sense to take

money from taxes for that. >> early childhood and education funding, it-- it definitely doesn't need to be, you know, run and managed by the government. as a former superintendent of schools, it is extremely important to communities to continue to have that local control. >> that was the view we heard from a number of people that we talked to. we heard over and over again that the child care system in this country should be fixed. but there's just a lot of opinions about how to do that, judy. >> woodruff: and amna, finally, i guess this leads us to ask, where does this leave us today? >> nawaz: like you heard from cat, you heard from some of the families we profiled there, and you will hear in the hour, good, quality child care costs money. the big debate is who is going to pay for it, and how we're ing to fund it. that political debate you obviously mentioned, the biden plan for reconciliation, the democrats fighting to get that child care funding in that build back better plan, could come from there. could come from some of the examples that cat examines. we also look at some examples

overseas. the french, for example, have a very interesting system we unpack. but even here in the u.s.-- we look at the u.s. military. we put in a billion dollars every year to make sure there is a quality, reliable child care system in place for our service members. maybe there are some answers in there for us. but right now, the big question is, it's broken. how do we fix it? >> woodruff: and i remember what a great series it was last summer. i am so looking forward to tonight. thank you, amna nawaz. thank you, cat wise. and i also want to thank the producers who worked with both of you, rachel wellford and gretchen frazee. and you can watch "raising the future: the child care crisis." that's tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern, 9:00 central on your local pbs station. and in a relate stoyr, on the newshour online, experts say bias against those caring for family members is a powerful driver of discrimination in the

work force. and, while the pandemic and resulting child care gaps have received more attention, are these workers any better off now? we explore that question on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll 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 ahead to future ones. resilience is the ability to pivot again and again, for whatever happens next. >> people who know, know b.d.o. >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular.

>> johnson & johnson. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> bnsf railway. >> carnegie corporation of new yo. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. >> 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. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watch

-mariachi music. it's one of the things jalisco is most famous for. and jalisco's food, i think you're going to love it more with each and every bite. music and food come together when i share a classic lunch with angel martinez, leader of one of the most famous mariachi bands, not only in guadalajara, but all of mexico. [ conversing in spanish ] -back in my kitchen... mmm! the heat. yum. ...sami will join me as i re-create a tapatío specialty... and add a twist on the familiar... now we need a lot of whipped cream. -oh, boy. -...starting with that classic lunch i eat with angel, carne en su jugo... nobody outside of guadalajara that i know has heard of carne en su jugo. yeah? -until now. -mm-hmm.