captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: pain at the pump. the president taps the strategic oil reserve to try to ease gas prices, as millions of americans travel for the holidays. then, the verdict. a jury finds white nationalists liable for the violence perpetrated at the deadly 2017 rally in charlottesville, virginia. and, vaccinating kids. how disparities highlighted by the pandemic are now preventing children of color from getting the covid-19 vaccine. >> there aren't the systems of a lot of other health care facilities. there's a lot of poverty. there's a lot of people working several jobs; there's a lot of

multi-generational families. >> 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, designedo 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. >> and 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: president biden is tapping an emergency national

stockpile of oil, to try to stem a rising tide of energy prices. his order today draws 50 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. william brangham begins our coverage. >> brangham: with rising energy prices, president biden was under growing political pressure to make a move. >> today, i'm announcing the largest-ever release from the u.s. strategic petroleum reserve to help provide the supply we need as we recover from this pandemic. >> brangham: five other nations, including china, have agreed to make similar withdrawals from their own stockpiles. >> it's a major effort. >> brangham: all of this comes after pandemic lockdowns had slashed the demand for oil last year, but when the u.s. economy revv back into gear, renewed demand outpaced supply. nationwide, average gas prices

have spiked to nearly $3.40 a gallon, according to the u.s. that's up more than 50% from a year ago. republicans have blamed the president for the climbing prices. >> people for several weeks now every time you go fill your car up with gas, you wonder if you're going to set your own personal high that day. is this going to be more than i've ever paid for gas before in my life? >> brangham: democrats, like senate majority leader chuck schumer, put the blame elsewhere, but they, too, pressed mr. biden to address the issue. >> we need immediate relief at the gas pump, and the place to look is the strategic petroleum reserve. >> brangham: president biden is not the first to tap the strategic petroleum reserve in an emergency. in fact, the reserve was birthed from a crisis. in 1973, after the middle eastern members of opec cut off oil exports to the u.s., president gerald ford signed a law creating the emergency stockpile. the u.s.' reserves are located along the gulf coast, in

underground salt caverns, at four major facilities in louisiana and texas. they hold more than 600 million barrels of petroleum. over the years, various but mr. biden's move comes at a complicated moment-- with his administration trying to strike a balance between boosting the economy, while also cutting oil and gas use because of its impact on climate change. days before last month's u.n. climate summit, the president was asked if he's being inconsistent. >> on the surface, it seems like an irony, but the truth of the matter is-- you've all known; everyone knows-- that the idea we're going to be able to move to renewable energy overnight and not have-- from this moment on, not use oil or not use gas or not use hydrogen, is just not rational. >> brangham: the question now is whether these temporary actions boosting oil and gas supplies will make enough difference for consumers to see. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: the president's move today comes at one of the

busiest times of the year for drivers, as many prepare to travel for thanksgiving. bob mcnally is president of rapidan energy group, an energy policy and consulting firm, and he's a former energy adviser to president george w. bush. mr. mcnally, thank you very much for joining us. so this is the first time the united states has done this, a president has done this in coordination with other countries. how much difference do you believe it will make? >> it is -- judy, it's great to be with you. it is the first time he's done this in coordination with other countries without an emergency. we've had coordinated releases duduring the first gulf war and katrina and after the olivia destruction, but this is a coordinated release of some producers, about six, without an actual supply interruption. as for the impact, i expect what most people expect and what the

president himself has said, not much overan impact from this. it's going to wash away in a few weeks to a few months. it's, in a way, a drop in the ocean. the global oil market is enormous, and shaken by huge trends in supply and demand, and this injection of oil is just one factor. we think it will maybe bring gasoline prices down a dime, maybe 15 cents, and really that is arrived from the last few weeks because the price of oil has fallen, the crude oil price has fallen over the last several weeks and that is what drives the price of gasoline. >> woodruff: and at this point, there's some expectation that the oil producing countries around the world, the opec countries, they may -- they may reduce their production in order to offset this. what's your expectation about that? >> well, that is what they are, sr. considering right now. there's no question they are considering that. they signaled yesterday, if we did this, they might react.

now that would be a very provocative event. were they to meet next thursday -- and they do meet next thursday, december 2 -- and decide to stop their increases, that would be quite provocative. i think there's a good chance of that. however, they may choose to lie low a little bit, especially as we saw today the crude oil price rallied, it went up on the decision by 3%. if oil prices continue going high, the smarter move for opec plus may be to lay low for a while and gradually start to reduce maybe the increases starting next year. that is what i think they wi do. >> woodruff: so you're seeing a minimal affect on prices. what other options does a president have at the like this? >> the only good option is plan a that president biden tried which is to rally opec plus, really saudi arabia, to increase oil. because everyone in the white

house know the only way to get a lot of oil quickly is to ask opec plus to increase, but they've said no. so we're at second best. other options we've heard talked about would be counterproductive. you hear a lot of discussion of banning crude oil exports. six members of the house democrats and 11 senate democrats have called for that. that would be an authentic policy error and actually, we think, cause gasoline prices to go up and do nothing but hurt shale oil production. but that is on the table and reported it's on the table. he can threaten to sue opec under the sherman antitrust act, used to bring up standard oil in 2011. i don't think that would be productive either. things he can do like adjust the renewable fuels lik ethanol man date. he can bring a little relief with these things. but there is no short-term solution to high gasoline prices other than to get opec plus to

put a lot more oil on the market fast and this they won't do. >> woodruff: a number of people are pointing out today this is a president who said fighting climate change, reducing carbon emissions is a priority for him. this is a move in the opposite direction. >> you know, that's right, and i'm sure you've heard, too, in washington there is this myth that democrats or environmentalists love high oil prices because it gets folks to buy more fuel efficient and electric vehicles, and that's true, it does. but i think what we're seeing today is elected officials do not like high oil prices and president biden is taking every step he can take to get prices down and there is a disconnect, and the president acknowledged that. there really is a question whether political leaders are willing to see their consumers' face, the types of cost increases that will be needed to decarbonize the energy sector down the road today suggest they may not be willing to do so. >> woodruff: bottom line, the

question william brangham asked at the end of his report, and that was will there be enough of a difference here for consumers to see? >> i don't really think so. i think you will see squiggles, a nickel here and a dime there, in the coming weeks. most of that is baked in the cake over the last several weeks with crude oil prices dropped. i think it's not quite enough, i'm afraid, no. wish i had better news. >> woodruff: we all do. bob mcnally, president of rapidian energy group. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a child has died of injuries suffered when a car drove into a christmas parade in waukesha, wisconsin on sunday. that raised the death toll to six, as the suspect, darrell brooks jr., made his first court appearance. he entered the courtroom in manacles, and listened as the charges were read, and as the

presiding official set bail at $5 million. >> detectives, not only tried to stop this, but rendered an opinion that this was an intentional act. you're presumed innocent, sir. but that's what the allegations are. i've not seen anything like this in my very long career. >> woodruff: police have said that brooks was speeding away from a domestic dispute when he collided with the parade. a black kansas city man, kevin strickland, was exonerated today of three murders, and released. he had spent 43 years behind bars. strickland was wheeled out of prison in cameron, missouri, hours after a judge ruled he had been wrongfully convicted by an all-white jury in 1979 strickland was 18 at the time. he is now 62. a federal jury in cleveland has found three retail pharmacy

giants liable in the opioid epidemic. the panel said today that cvs, walgreens and wal-mart recklessly dispensed huge amounts of pain pills in two ohio counties. a judge will decide later on damages. the biden administration asked a federal appeals court today to uphold a covid vaccine mandate for large employers. the rule is suspended, for now, after republican state attorneys general and others argued that there's no federal authority to mandate vaccines. the u.s. justice department says that the policy would cut transmission of the virus. jury deliberations began today in brunswick, georgia in the trial of three white men accused of murdering ahmad arbery last year. the lead prosecutor, linda dunikoski, had the last words today, saying that the defendants cannot claim self-defense because they chased arbery and started the confrontation. >> they were the first, unjustified aggressors, and they

were committing felonies against mr. arbery. and therefore, they don't get to claim self-defense, and you can go directly to the charges in the indictment. when they do something like this, they have to be held accountable and responsible. nobody gets a free pass. >> woodruff: the defense says the three men thought arbery might have stolen something from a home under construction. at least 45 people are dead after a bus full of tourists crashed and caught fire in bulgaria early today. it happened near sofia, as several buses headed back from istanbul, turkey to north macedonia. in the aftermath, officials inspected the remnants of a charred bus near a damaged guard rail. the cause of the wreck was under investigation. in hong kong, a former pro-independence leader has been sentenced to roughly 3.5 years in prison. tony chung was charged with secession and money laundering

under an ongoing crackdown by chinese authorities. back in this country, several far-right organizations and their leaders were subpoenaed today, in a probe of the january assault on the u.s. capitol. a select congressional committee ordered documents and testimony from the proud boys, the oath-keepers, and another group, plus their leaders. on wall street, a mixed day of trading. the dow jones industrial average gained 194 points to close at 35,813. the nasdaq fell 79 points. the s&p 500 added seven. and, australia's christmas island was crawling with crabs today. millions of red crabs are migrating to the sea during mating season. it is the largest migration by any crab species in the world, and roads are closed to let the swarms travel undisturbed by humans who cross their path. >> yeah, you get some very different reactions. some people were quite freaked out by the fact that they're surrounded by millions of

crawling arthropods, whereas other people are just immersed, basically do a little red crab angel-- they'll lie on ground and let themselves get covered in red crabs. >> woodruff: the crabs are found only on christmas island. after mating, each female can deposit up to 100,000 eggs in the ocean. still to come on the newshour: tensions rise, as russia amasses more troops near ukraine's border. schools around the country struggle to find enough teachers. a new documentary draws attention to the many black people who have gone missing. plus, much more.

>> woodruff: a civil court jury in charlottesville today found the main organizers behind the deadly 2017 "unite the right" rally liable on four counts, but deadlocked on two key charges. lisa desjardins explains. >> desjardins: a jury in a nearly month-long civil case involving the violent "unite the right" rally ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay more than $25 million in damages. but, the jury deadlocked on charges of a federal conspiracy in the lead-up to the rally, which led to the death of a counter-protester. heather heyer. the rally was planned in part to protest the removal of a statue of the confederate general robert e. lee. the plaintiffs described emotional trauma, broken bones, and bloodshed during the rally. for more, i'm joined by ian shapira, an enterprise reporter at the "washington post" who has been covering the trial. ian, the jury decided this after

a month-long civil trial. can you tell us exactly what we know about that decision? what did the jury decide? >> the jury handed down a pretty stinging rebuke to the people who organized this rally. they meted out millions of dollars of punishments to participants, awarded $26 million in damages against 12 individual defendants, five white nationalist organizations at the trial. it was a message sent by the jury this kind of violence cannot happen in today's day and age. >> reporter: still, what about those federal conspiracy charges that i know the plaintiffs also hoped to prove? why do you think that those were tougher for the jury, an what does it mean that those were left unaddressed? >> that's actually a great question, and that's something the plaintiffs attorneys want to continue fighting for. they told at the end of today's

hearing that they plan on appealing those or bringing back those charges again. these are important counts, very crucial to the plaintiffs' attorneys and to all but advocates who wanted to see real serious reform, they had sued the defendants under an old -- an old old law meant to protect enslaved black people from the kkk in the late 1800s, and in that respect, this case was considered kind of like a landmark case under those particular counts. the plaintiffs, instead, though, won on state claims, instead. so that's where we are right now. it's still a pretty big victory for the plaintiffs and those actors who did not want to send a message to these white nationalists and white supremacists. >> reporter: the jury instructions were 77 pages long. this resolves around really a

simple and dangerous divide that this country is experiencing right now, in large part over race, over identity, over the past. what did you hear in this trial about where the white nationalist movement is now and if they are standing by racist beliefs? >> the white nationalist movement that inspired this particular event has been -- has largely cratered. i mean, it's disbursed. many of the finances of the organizations are nonexistent. several of the organizations have gone underground. so for that component of this story, you have seen a real victory for the folks who want to see those forces eradicated and gone. but as we all know, white supremacy and white nationalism still exists very much in the united states we see this every day, basically. so this event -- this lawsuit

was important in beating back the forces that prompted so much violence, and, so, on that day, and it could be -- and these kind of lawsuits could be used in the future in other events if i have them. >> this particular case has been watched for years. what happens next here? do we think that the plaintiffs in this case will get this money anytime soon? >> it really remains to be seen. what's going happen next is defense lawyers will ask the judge to reduce the penalties and the punitive damages, and there are state laws that limit -- or that actually put a cap on punitive damages, depending on certain cases. so they're going to go for that. and it sort of remains to be seen how quickly the money can be extracted. it also remains to be seen how much money these corngzs or

individuals have in the first place. i mean, they could extract future wages, impose liens on their properties. it all depends. we're trying to figure this out right now. >> reporter: one last question e in charlottesville. i know how tense it's been in the past couple of years. what's the feeling now with this? >> i think the sense in charlottesville is exhaustion. they're exhausted with everyone -- with the story, with the news media, frankly, and they are, of course, exhausted with lawyers and for white nationalists and the white nationalists themselves constantly showing up in court all the time for various hearings. we've gone through so many different criminal cases, and this particular civil litigation has dragged on for a while now, so i think they're quite relieved that at least part of this is over. what we're trying to find out now is whether the plaintiffs will file a new lawsuit trying

to lean on those two federal claims they didn't get a verdict on today, so that remains to be seen. but the sense in charlottesville is that they still have issues they're dealing with in terms of rates and inequality, and they're just exhausted. >> reporter: at times difficult but a very important story. ian shapira, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for letting me be here. appreciate it. >> woodruff: american and european officials are growing increasingly alarmed by a russian military build-up of more than 100,000 troops along the border with ukraine. as john yang reports, there is concern that a full-scale russian military invasion could be on the horizon. >> yang: judy, u.s. officials are closely watching that russian military build-up. today, joint chiefs chairman mark milley spoke with his

russian counterpart, valery gerasimov. the region has been a flashpoint since 2014, when russia invaded and annexed crimea, and supported separatists in two provinces of eastern ukraine. since then, there's been fighting between those separatists and the ukrainian army, and more than $2.5 billion in u.s. security assistance to ukraine. now, there are reportedly more than 100,000 russian troops along much of ukraine's northern and eastern borders. andrew weiss worked on russian affairs in both the george h.w. bush and clinton administrations. he is now vice president for studies at the carnegie endowment for international peace. mr. weiss, thank you so much for joining us. what is vladimir putin up to and why is he doing it now? >> ukraine is the single most importance piece overunfinished business in vladimir putin's more than two decades as

russia's leader. he bears the distinction of being a person who's lost ukraine twice. he lost it in 2014, in 2004, and he's sending a message right now which i think no one should underestimate that he is thinking about undoing the unstable cease fire that's been in place since the war 2014 and 20 is a was its bloodiest and he seems a smell an opportunity when the west is divided, when the biden administration has other priorities and russia has overwhelming military superiority. >> reporter: you say the distinction of lost it twice, but there's almost an emotional attachment for him, doesn't it? >> sure thing. so we tend to think of putin as this great chess master who's obviously very tactical, he's smart and very cunning. there's also a side of him which is quite emotional and when it cometo ukraine, it's an issue that cuts very close to the bone

and that he feels is a huge stain on his record. losing ukraine, which is probably the single most important former component of the former soviet union and seeing ukraine move decisively westward after the revolution in 2014, he now is saying is a red line for russia's own security. he's looking at whatsd happening inside ukraine, particularly the increase of u.s. and n.a.t.o. military activities in and around ukraine as a threat to russian security. he's saying it's a red line for the first time since this totally avoidable conflict began more than seven and a half years ago. >> reporter: you mentioned earlier, he looks at the united states and seems emboldened. what does he see in the united states domestically and in the biden administration that makes him think this is a good time to do this? >> vladimir putin knows that joe biden came into office not wanting to have his presidency dominated by dealing with russia. he notice president biden's priorities lie elsewhere, he's

focused on overcoming the pandemic, getting the u.s. economy back on track, and then when it comes to national security, retooling our national security apparatus to focus on the major threat that we're facing long term which is china. russia in some ways is benefiting from the fact that the biden administration would be perfectly happy to park the u.s.-russian relationship and get on with business that it thinks is more important. but putin sees that in some ways as an opportunity. it's a chance to once again force western leaders into a reactive posture, to get us off balance and show he cares about ukraine more than we do and he believes that because russia is a nuclear weapon state that no one will tangle with him or challenge him directly. in recent history. people like former president obama said the united states is not prepared to go to war over ukraine. i don't care anything's changed. >> reporter: you mentioned what's going on internally in ukraine. talk about the ukrainian

president zelensky and how what's going on there may be emboldening putin. >> zelensky was going to be more russia friendly and take away from the intense acrimony that's been in place since the revolution in 2014. instead, zelensky has squandered a very strong popular mandate and become more antagonistic towards russia in ways that definitely irritate kremlin sensibilities. they're a no way a pred kit for russia military action bu are becoming a broader russian excuse of why something has to change and they point things like changes to the language law in ukraine, they point to the increase in western military support for ukraine's military, for its security apparatus, and for the increased n.a.t.o. military presence in and around the black sea. the russians are claiming in a

theatrical and unconvincing way that president zelensky is planning to invade eastern ukraine and they will not allow that to happen. they said things like that similar to that many march and april of this year when the was an earlier war scare, they been're putting together the pieces to justify military intervention in ukraine. >> reporter: the biden administration says the united states commitment to ukraine is ironclad. what does that mean? what short of war would the united states do or what should they do if russia invades? >> the biden administration is in a bit of a box right now. it is on the one hand wanting to send as many signals as it can of support for ukraine and the bolster multi-lateral responses to what they are seeing as a credible threat of military russian intervention sometimes in the coming months. on the other hand, they don't want to do anything that needlessly provokes russia or gives them an execution for military action. if they back away from ukraine,

they will be seen as having been too timid and if they lean in too far they will be seen as provoking the bearer. they're trying to play it straight and steady. our top military commanders general millie and general gerasimov have spokessen earlier today. that channel has been the most important one between the two countries. there's expectations presidents biden and putin will get together in coming base days as well. there's probably going to be in the coming months an elevated sense of tension in and around ukraine. the russians can turn that level of tension upside down. they will do things that throw us offbalance. that's the name of the game for vladimir putin. >> reporter: andrew weiss for interest carnegie endowment for international peace, thank you very much. >> great to be here, thank you. >> woodruff: public schools

across the u.s. are taking a break for thanksgiving, after a more traditional fall semester that saw students largely back in their classes in-person. but, it is still a long way from the usual. many teachers and staff did not return this year, and that's meant a shortage of teachers, substitutes, bus drivers, custodial staff, and more. in some cases, it's even led to virtual classes. our student reporting team reached out around the country and asked educators and students about how this was affecting them. here is some of what they told us. >> i was waiting, like, 30 minutes for my bus driver to come pick me and my classmates up to go to school, but they ended up never coming and we had to call the office, and they ended up sending an extra bus. >> my school had a lot of vacant spots for teachers. the sixth graders only had one teacher available, so other

staff members had to fill in. >> i don't even have an english teacher and it makes it really hard to learn with no one in the classroom. >> i had to go to the auditorium here at our building because our teacher wasn't here and, in the auditorium, there was three other math classes. >> we largely don't have enough substitutes. at the beginning to have the school year, i believe that the administrative team including our principal and the three assistant principals were covering about 20% of the absences. >> a lot of them may not know, like, the topic that we're learning so it's really hard to keep learning in school. and you sort of feel stuck. being a junior in high school, this is a very important year for us, and to not have the right teachers is really frustrating. >> you're on your own. you have to read the material to the projects and the quizzes and the exams on your own, and you kind of lose motivation. you get tired of sitting there for so long and doing it on your own. >> people want to go into

education but they can't because they feel like they're choosing between their passion which is educating and inspiring and, you know, just growing up and paying bills. >> if i had known 20-something years ago that i would be stuck in the same pay scale, more or less, i probably would not have made this choice. >> the pandemic has made me change my mindset on what a good teacher actually is. what the pandemic, a lot of people developed, like, mental health issues and aren't like really coming back as themselves, and a teacher who understands that we were just in a pandemic and we are just high schoolers, that's really to, me, what makes a good teacher. >> a good teacher has to be born. you can't just make them come into the business because they have some resolve or the pay is good. so to attract new teachers, i mean, i guess we would have to go with salary and hope that people that are born to teach

fallnto the career. >> woodruff: our communities correspondents have been tracking how this is playing out where they are based, and two of them join me now. gabrielle hays is in st. louis, and frances kai-hwa wong is in ann arbor, michigan. and hello to both of you. gabrielle, i'm going to start with you. you have been talking to education officials, you have been looking at schools in missouri. tell us what you're hearing and seeing there. >> so we're seeing these shortages across the state, and here in st. louis, one of our school systems tells us that they've experienced over 200 vacancies, and that includes teachers and other support staff. and, so, i think the way that we're really able to see how this is affecting our state is kind of through the solutions that districts are coming up with, so everything from some school districts paying their bus drivers more to be custodians when they're not driving. we have one district in missouri that's now hiring some of its own high school students to fill

in some of those nonteacher roles. but it's is a state issue, right, so our state pledged $50 million over the next couple of years to try to fill in some of the gaps and also try to ract more teachers because the state says that it has seen a dip in that and, so, they've created tools and they're putting money towards it. it continues to be a real issue. .>> woodruff: and frances, you have been looking at the schools and talking to people across michigan, and you're seeing some similar challenges. >> yes, here in michigan, winter has just started, which is also the beginning of flu season, and covid is spiking. michigan is currently number one in covid cases, in new covid cases, and, so, schools are trying to balance the traditional teacher shortages, substitute shortages as well as increasing cases. so some of the things that school districts are doing include shifting the schedule to four days in person, one day

remote, and, during that time, they have the support staff, like bus drivers and food service people, double up on custodial duty to help deep clean the schools on thse fridays but with the electrostatic sprayers and you've -- uv liepghts. other school districts are closing on days they anticipate there will be substitute and teacher shortages, so they call ahead of time so parents can prepare, so thanksgiving instead of the regular three days, they've added monday and tuesday off as well. and that gives them a chance to disrupt the covid cycle. >> reporter: and frances, you were telling us some of these staffing issues existed even before the pandemic hit. >> these are long-standing issues. salaries in michigan have -- if you account for inflation, salaries have actually gone down 16% over the last 20 years.

retirements have gone up due to covid in the last year. retirements were up 40% over what they had been the previous four years. and the number -- and most pressing, the number of college students who are studying to become teachers in the state of michigan has gone down 50% over the last six years. >> woodruff: and back to you, gabrielle. i know in your reporting you've looked at whether these schools are financially prepared to deal with the kind of challenges that are now facing them. >> yeah, you know, i thinkist important to remember, and we learned this through our interviewing, that while some school districts, and a lot of them were able get cares funding and are using that to do different things, a lot of these issues existed before the pandemic started, as frances said, so when we're talking about teacher shortages, a lot of that in some cases has to do with teacher pay, and missouri

is not alone in that. i mean, we've seen that across the country and it's a thing in missouri as well, but also the amount of funding that school districts get from the state, and that matters especially if we're talking about issues that happen before the pandemic when the pandemic hits, and not having those funds and maybe not being funded adequately, will it matter as maybe -- more than it did before. >> reporter: frances, have you seen the same thing with regard to financing in michigan? >> yes e in michigan the educational revenue both, in michigan, is 50th out of 50 states. and, so, teachers are trying to increase pay rates for substitute teachers, they're trying to increase pay rates for support staff, and they are also offering, you know, whatever benefits they can offer their teachers, they're extending to substitutes, so such as vaccination clinics, and also they are trying to promote these grow-your-own teacher programs

where they can encourage and help para-professionals and support staff who want to become teachers, help support them so they can become teachers as well, in the schools they're already a part of. >> woodruff: it is such a difficult set of issues, and it is facing so many of our public schools across the country. we thank you to frances kai-hwa wong and to d gabrielle hays, to of our community's reporters. thank you so much. and you can read more about this and you can read more about this issue from our reporters across the country on our website. that's www.pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: since the f.d.a. granted emergency authorization of the pfizer covid vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, more than two million children have been vaccinated. public health officials are highlighting the importance of providing vaccine access to low income and minority

communities that have been hit hardest by covid. stephanie sy visited one of those communities in phoenix, arizona. >> sy: it's a busy saturday morning at the mountain park health center in the maryvale neighborhood of phoenix. a few dozen parents have flocked to this vaccine clinic to get jabs for their children. some kids made it look easy. others were understandably nervous. especially the youngest ones, which included five-year old gustavo carrazco. he's a cancer survivor who's currently in remission. ( applause ) his mom, janet esparza, wanted to be there on day one to get him vaccinated. the pandemic upended her life. she quit her job, worried about bringing the virus home. >> ( translated ): he never left he was in the house unless it was absolutely necessary to leave. >> sy: ten-year-old rosalinda ibarra, who has asthma, came with her two younger brothers and mom, janet villa.

>> my grandpa, he's the one that got covid. >> sy: her grandpa wasn't vaccinated, and died earlier this year. >> that's why i came in, and brought them in so they could get the vaccine. i got it because of what happened to my dad. at first, i didn't know when to get it, because i was scared. >> sy: so many families have lost loved ones in this low-to- moderate income, largely latino neighborhood. this community health center is on the frontlines. janey pearl starks is director of equity, diversity, and engagement at mountain park health center. >> it's a very vibrant community, and it's also a lot of a community that has a lot of needs. and so, there aren't the systems of a lot of other health care facilities. there's a lot of poverty in maryvale. there's a lot of people working several jobs; there's a lot of multi-generational families.

>> sy: at one point, in the summer of 2020, arizona had the highest rate of covid cases in the nation, and maryvale was particularly hard-hit. now, public health officials worry that the systemic barriers that led to that may prevent parents from getting their children vaccinated. >> i go to work like 3:00 in the morning, and i get up about like 2:30, 3:00 in the afternoon. >> sy: with a truck driver's schedule, and caring for multiple grandchildren, the vaccine simply wasn't top of mind for ray dixon. >> i've been talking to some people about the vaccine, you know, a lot of them saying, ray, yeah, go ahead and get it, it's just all right to get into some say, well, man, you don't need a second, you don't need it. i'm, like-- so they got me, like, confused. i don't know. >> sy: what about the kiddos? did you know they just approved the vaccine for children five to 11 years old? >> i didn't know that. >> sy: this is the challenge in neighborhoods like maryvale-- people may not have time to go

out of their way to get the vaccine; and health officials say patients are getting mixed messages about it, and rumors are spreading faster th facts. it's why mountain park health center is sending outreach workers to knock on doors. they're connecting people with providers that can answer their questions, and even help make appointments for them to get the vaccine. they've met mixed success. >> we're going to be talking to people and trying to further that trust, because just as-- just as the folks who are already vaccinated want their kids to get vaccinated, we also know there's a lot of adults who aren't vaccinated yet, who don't want their kids vaccinated. >> sy: benigno martinez was just getting back from his job when outreach workers approached him in his driveway. he said he was worried about the virus and its spread, but still hadn't been vaccinated. >> ( translated ): i have friends who have gotten sick after getting the vaccine. >> sy: the language barrier with maryvale's large latino population is another barrier, according to pearl starks. >> we have seen that, where in english, a lot of the

misinformation and disinformation gets fact-checked and gets blocked out on social media; that doesn't happen in spanish. >> sy: just more than a third of latinos in arizona have received at least one dose of the covid vaccine, compared to more than half of white arizonans, according to the kaiser family foundation. as dusk approached, we met artemiza castro with one of her five children. joan is five, and she plans to have him vaccinated as soon as possible-- but her husband is adamantly refusing the vaccine. >> ( translated ): some people say that they are putting a chip in your arm. i don't know, to be honest. there are so many rumors, and my husband believes all of them and not that the vaccine is actually working. >> sy: the microchip conspiracy theory is just one bit of misinformation dr. mandy oliden battles. microchips are not in the vaccines.

>> i think for me, and a lot of our providers or physicians here, has been being able to battle the false news or false information that's being heard out there. i want to meet them in the middle, but also let them know, as your pediatrician, this is why my recommendation is what it is. it does sometimes come down to a lot of frustration. >> sy: frustrating, because the pediatrician has seen how covid has ravaged this community. >> aside from the number of cases we've been seeing-- also, parents get affected from even, like, a work standpoint, schools being shut down. i've seen it hit across multiple levels. one of the areas, i think, that i've seen it really hard that has struck me, is the adolescents-- our teenagers and their mental health. >> sy: public health experts say vaccinating children is also important for protecting the

most vulnerable, as the delta variant continues to threaten the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions-- even those that have been innoculated. five-year-old cancer survivor gustavo carrazco can relax, now that the jab is over. his mother has that vaccine card in hand. for her, and countless other parents, the child covid vaccine was long anticipated, and offers a path toward some much-needed normalcy. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix. >> woodruff: a third of the almost 300,000 girls and women reported missing in 2020 were black. that is according to the national crime information center. yet, those cases are often marginalized or ignored by law enforcement and national media. now, a four-part documentary

series on hbo follows the lives of two women, working to bring awareness to these cases. amna nawaz has the story. >> nawaz: the new series tells the story of natalie and derrica wilson, co-founders of the black and missing foundation. the sisters-in-law rally communities and help families as they search for their missing loved ones. here now is a clip featuring derrica wilson. >> being a former law enforcement official, i've dealt firsthand with missing person cases. back in 20 -- back in 2002, i was hired on with the police department as the first african-american female police officer in the history of the agency. my goal and aspiration initially was to work for the f.b.i. and get into forensics. i spent six months in a police academy, and we dedicated, what, an hour or two to missing

persons cases. i actually had a case where there was a young lady, and i didn't realize she was missing until i was able to recover her. we received a call, and i was the primary officer responding to that call, of a domestic violence situation in progress. as i'm driving to the scene, i notice two people walking really fast, and it just looked out of the ordinary. i stopped, and this young lady ran to me. it was the young lady that was the domestic violence victim, and her hair was pulled out, she had bite marks all over her body, had to take her to the hospital to get a rape kit. she had been missing for days. she was stuck in a motel in the city of falls church with her abductor. she was reported missing in our

neighborhood jurisdiction, and her flyer never crossed my desk, and she was a young black female. i don't want these cases to be handled sloppy because our community matters. >> reporter: and soledad o'brien is the executive producer of black and missing and joins me now. welcome to the "newshour". thank you so much for making the time. tells us more about these two women, natalie and derrica wilson. why did you choose to center the story around them and their work? >> we started this documentary process about three years ago because we found the work they were doing fascinating. we were hearing from derrica talking about being in law enforcement and trying to use her expertise to help families who have missing loved ones who can't figure out how to break through the barrier of disinterest in a lot of cases where no one seems to actually really care enough about the person who's missing that they

go the extra mile or maybe just go the basic mile to make sure that there is a missing persons flyer that is circulated in areas outside of just that one jurisdiction. for natalie, who's had a background in public relations, she was interesting in leveraging in what she does in her day job in p.r. for helping families navigate the system. how do you make media not care about women of color missing make them care? sometimes that's the information and press conference you give. how to reach out by phone and who do you address? h. so the two help communities that are communities that are very often ignored pi media, by law enforcement and sometimes by their own community when they go missing to help them get a leg up. >> reporter: this issue of the media not caring, not paying as much attention as other stories.

a phrasing missing white women syndrome which the late great gwen ifill is supposed of used, it means the stories ofissing white women get a lo are the of attention and the media stays with those stories in a way they don't in the stories of missing black and indigenous and latina women. why? >> i don't think people thought why do we not care? is it people in the media are cold and don't care? i don't think that's true. i think there's a lot of bias involved. missing white woman syndrome as gwen called it and penned it originally, i guess, also includes the wall to wall coverage that gets communities up in arms to the point where you have people flying themselves to aruba to help look for natalee holloway. so it's not even just the media, it's this idea of why do people as a whole just not care in our

documentary we profile a beautiful young woman who's black who goes missing and a couple of weeks later natalee holloway goes missing and her aunt describes what it's like to watch the attention natalee holloway -- i covered the natalee holloway case, what an horrific story for her mom to go on newscast after newscast to beg for information about her daughter, but at the same time her aunt who is looking for her niece says why does no one care about my niece? she's reaching out to the news organizations. she's a tv producer but can't get any attention. i think it's why do we care about some but not others? i personally leave it's a lot of bias. i know when i've done documentaries that focus on people in color, black and latin-in america, i have been told don't make it too black, make sure you don't push away the audience we really care about which is to say the white audience. it's a sense, our audience is

this, this is a person who's appealing, attractive, interesting to me as a producer and, you know, that's what should get the focus versus thinking about what are the communities you serve and how do you serve those communities? in our doc we talk to a former news president who says race is not a factor. that is absolutely not true. the data does not hold that up. and, so, i think until news rooms are willing to say, why do we not care? maybe we should examine that. i don't know that you're going to get a lot of movement. >> reporter: soledad, in the law enforcement angle, same issue there. >> i think so and also a bit about run aways. people told us in the process of the documentary people would push back and say she's probably a runaway, she probably is staying with her boyfriend. the idea someone can be in a motel with her abuser d covered in bite marks and all

because of a chance call to be saved is too horrible to wrap your head around, people should be searching. if you call somebody a runaway, suddenly there's much less of an interest in thinking maybe you can help find them, they've run away. the folks at black and missing foundation would say nobody should be characterized as a runaway. if you're missing, you're missing and that search should start immediately. people shouldn't be sent home to say let us know if they turn up in a couple of days. the first 48 hours are critical in gathering information about a person who may be missing. >> reporter: fascinating. "black and missing" debuts tonight on hbo and hbo max. executive roder soledad o'briend o'brien, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: it's a story that deserves so much more attention. we're so glad it's getting it. and that is 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.

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♪ ♪ hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> as afghanistan verjs on a humanitarian catastrophe, zalmay khalilzad, the former u.s. envoy who struck america's deal with the taliban, joins me. then -- >> ♪ don't let me down ♪ >> get back director peter jackson shows us the beatles as we have never seen them before. >> the wordld is not going to change. >> tom morello from rage against the machine talks to hari sreenivasan about social justice and making music througvoice memos.