captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: after the shooting. the parents of a student who killed four at a michigan high school are charged with involuntary manslaughter. then, omicron. the director of the national institutes of health weighs in on the uncertain road ahead. plus, supply chain woes. we turn to the nation's busiest port to see what's causing major shipping delays. >> it's important to recognize that the supply chain is fragile. we, i think, as a country should really take a hard look of how dependent we are on imports. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. david brooks and jonathan capehart consider the future of abortion rights at the supreme court, and

congressional brinksmanship over government funding. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> fidelity wealth management. >> johnson & johnson.

>> financial services firm raymond james. >> the john s. and james l. knightoundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> 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: there have been some dramatic twists and turns today in tuesday's shooting attack at a michigan high school. james and jennifer crumbley, parents of the accus 15-year- old killer, were charged with

involuntary manslaughter this afternoon. soon after, authorities in oxford township declared them fugitives, and launched a manhunt. still later, their attorney said they had left town for their own safety, but were returning to face arraignment. john yang picks up the story from there. >> yang: judy, oakland county, michigan prosecutor karen mcdonald says the charges stem from what she calls "egregious acts." she says the father bought the gun used in the shooting last week for their son, 15-year-old ethan crumbley. on tuesday, they were called to the school, before the shooting, but after the son drew an image of a gun, a bullet, a wounded person, and the words "blood everywhere." >> james and jennifer crumbley were shown the drawing, and were advised that they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours. both james and jennifer crumbley failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him, or where his gun was located, and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun which he had with him.

james and jennifer crumbley resisted the idea of them leaving the school at that time, of their son leaving the school at that time. instead, james and jennifer crumbley left the high school without their son. >> yang: the prosecutor also said that the day before the shooting, a teacher reported that the accused was researching for ammunition on his phone. for the latest on all of this, i'm joined by russ mcnamara, host of "all things considered" for detroit's public radio station, wdet. russ, thanks for joining us. what's the latest, as we've heard that there was a question of whether the parents were going to turn themselves in. are fishers confident that they are going to turn themselves in now? >> well, i'm not exactly sure at this point because their attorney shannon smith says, yes, they left town shortly after the shooting for their own safety and were going to make their way back for the arraignment, but the arraignment was supposed to be at 4:00 p.m. today. oakland county sheriff michael bouchard says the family is fleeing and the u.s. marshals

are hunting for the couple as well, as well as a fugitive task force in the city of detroit. so we still don't know where the family is. >> reporter: and whether they're going to show up. we learned a lot from the prosecutor's news conference today. for instance, there's evidence she described that suggests this gun was a christmas present for this young man. >> yeah, the child was there when the gun was purchased, and he essentially picked it out, and his father purchased it for him. teenagers cannot own a handgun here in the state of michigan and, so, it would be a gift, and the kid took it to the range and tried it out over the weekend withis mom. >> reporter: and he also sort of showed it off on social media. >> he did that as well. he was very active on social media and that was part of the case that karen mcdonald laid out today against the parents that this kid had a thing for

guns, combined that with the violent imagery in the drawing and the fac that he was searching for ammunition in class at school, all kinds of red flags along the way for both school officials and his parents. they should have known something was going on, i would think. >> reporter: russ, tell us about the detailed drawing and the parents' action when the school tried to reach out to them to tell them they'd found their son searching for ammunition there in class? >> essentially blood stick figures and "help me" in this drawing, and given the fact that he was just given a gun days before, the parents, at that meeting on tuesday morning, saw no reason to take their kid out of school. the school recommended that the child seek psychiatric help within the next 48 hours. the family opted not to do that. so the child, there with the backpack in the room, the backpack was not searched, he goes back to class and later the

shooting happened. >> reporter: and the day before, a teacher spotted him searching forum a anything on his phone. they reached out to the parents, and what happened or what didn't happen? >> well, the mom basically texted her son saying, lol, i'm not mad, just don't get caught next time. which is, i don't know, kind of surprising, to say the least, that given all that information, the parents still decided to do nothing on tuesday morning. >> reporter: and, russ, as i understand it, the parents never responded to the school's calls and messages about this. >> it wasn't till the second call that they went in and met with school officials and their son at the same time and then, after the shooting happened, both parents texted their son and told him not to do it. the father went home, and then called 911 after he realized that the gun was missing. >> reporter: russ mcnamara

of npr station wdet. >> thanks, john. >> woodruff: this week's shooting, the deadliest school shooting in three years, has led to fear, anger, and anxiety in school districts around the state, and so have closings in dozens of districts in michigan because of threats and out of an abundance of caution. our student reporting labs talked to educators about this week, and how they are talking to students. >> national news is hearing about oxford. they heard about parkland. they heard about sandy hook. the story that's not out there, and i think a lot of people don't know about, is the story of the surrounding communities, and how an event like oxford high school's shooting is affecting more than oxford. >> my wife, everybody, we all, like, took that moment to be, like, wow, i can't believe this happened. it is happening very close.

it's something you always see on the news, but now you see it and you're like, wait a minute, i know that building. i see people i know. >> and we've all been just deeply, deeply touched by this, and it's going to take some time to heal. and i think the best thing i can do right now is listen to people and to help them feel their feelings. >> throughout michigan and many schools in the tri-county area, there were threats of violence in other schools, and so, scared kids stayed away. many schools in the metro detroit area were closed today. superintendents called off. we were in session, and attendance was at 50% at best. so, but for the kids that we're here, you know, we're here to support them. >> the easiest way for me to process this is not to ignore it, but just to full steam ahead in regards to, you know what my job is here. >> students want to talk about it; they want to voice their

opinions about it. they're being very smart about it. they are having pretty profound conversations. they're following facts. they're not following the social media hype or rumors. >> we've talked a lot about how important it is for them to help each other feel safe by paying attention to those loner students, or the ones who are a little bit more quiet. we had some group activities going on this week, and i noticed they seemed to be a little bit more open to paying attention to those kids who didn't have a group, who weren't selected for their own group. you know, i too have been encouraging them to open up and pay attention to the kids around them. >> and i can't tell you how many people i've talked to over the past few days, that started off really angry or mad about something.

and in the end, they-- they really-- it wasn't about being angry, it's about the fact that they are so sad; sad and almost scared, you know, for what might have happened to their own child. and that's really touched me. so i think we just have to be really compassionate right now, and-- and just listen to one another and be kind. d-- and more importantly, have some grace, because that's what people need right now. >> woodruff: in the days' other news, a man accused of killing ten people in colorado last march has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, for now. ahwad al aliwi alissa allegedly opened fire at a supermarket in boulder last march. prosecutors asked today that he be sent to a state mental facility for treatment. the news out on jobs today is a

mixed picture-- some very good, some less so. the november u.s. hiring report indicates that fewer jobs were added last month than expected. the net gain of 210,000 jobs was the smallest monthly increase since last december. however, a separate survey of households shows five times that many people reported finding work. the unemployment rate dropped from 4.6% to 4.2%, the best it's been since the pandemic struck. the two surveys typically are reconciled later. in addition, average wages rose nearly 5% from a year ago. president biden signed a short-term spending bill today that averts a government shutdown this weekend. the legislation funds federal agencies through mid-february, mostly at current spending levels. it passed the u.s. senate last night, after a handful of republicans lost a bid to block

federal vaccine mandates. on the pandemic, maryland, missouri, nebraska, and pennsylvania and utah are the latest states reporting cases of the new omicron variant. and worldwide, omicron has now spread to more than 40 nations. but at the white house, the president said today, it is enough for now to require stricter testing for people who enter the u.s. >> i thi i know a fair amount about this issue, but i am not a scientist. so i continue to rely on the scientists, and asking them whether or not we have to move beyond what we did yesterday-- right now, they are saying no. >> woodruff: the president sounded husky during his appearance, and said that he has a cold that he contracted from a grandchild. his personal physician confirmed that the president does not have covid. a recount in virginia has confirmed a republican sweep of the major races in the november elections.

a three-judge panel today certified a recount that gave the g.o.p. control of the state house of delegates. the party also won races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. in afghanistan, the taliban announced a ban on forced marriages of women. a new decree said that women should be treated equally, and not as property. but, it made no mention of access to education and employment. a number of nations have demanded such steps, before they recognize the taliban government, or restore financial aid. china's real estate giant evergrande warned today that it may run out of funds to cover $300 billion in debt. its default could trigger a financial crisis in china-- possibly with global repercussions. back in this country, wall street gave ground as investors tried to parse the november jobs report. the dow jones industrial average lost 59 points to close at 34,580. the nasdaq fell 295 points,

nearly 2%. the s&p 500 dropped 38. still to come on the newshour: why a surge in spending is overwhelming u.s. ports. david brooks and jonathan capehart break down the week's news. plus, much more. >> woodruff: the c.d.c. director said today that the omicron variant could become the dominant covid strain in the u.s. this winter. she also said that delta remains a major problem. i sat down with dr. francis collins, the director of the national institutes of health, to talk about those concerns. dr. francis collins, thank you very much for talking with us. >> judy, i'm really glad to be

here and welcome to n.i.h. nad you came out here. >> woodruff: very glad to be here. as we sit here, on december 3, covid very much still with us. is your greater concern at this moment the cases, the variant that are still out there, or omicron which is now arriving in this country? >> well, the one we know about is delta, and delta is still very much with us, even though we've seen some decrease in the number of cases, it's still tens and tens of thousands every day. while the omicron sort of new variant we're all focused on is a potential threat, delta is a real threat now. we're still seeing 800, 900 people dying every day from this tallet outbreak and, sadly, almost all of those are unvaccinated. so we have not gotten to the point with we could have been in this country of being better protected. but omicron is clearly an interesting beast. this virus is throwing another

trick in our direction. it's a wiley virus, and it has now these 50-some mutations, almost 30 of which we haven't even seen in any previous version of sars-cov2. >> woodruff: given all these questions, and president biden was here at n.i.h. yesterday, you were with him, he announced new initiatives, more at-home testing, making that easier, more vaccination sites. there are still are no major steps. there's no shutdown. people can still travel freely in the united states. are you concerned that enough precautions are being take nnt country? >> i think we're doing it about right right now. shutdowns are obviously draconian measures, an it's not clear that that much gets accomplished by those sorts of steps in communities, and there's obviously lots of consequences there for businesses, for schools. so eng the president's right to -- so i think the president's right to sort of take those off

the table right now, but also to emphasize the things we can do. and he must be fr -- frustrated because i know i am. we have so much evidence to know what we can do as a nation to try to fight off this pandemic, yet there are still 60 million people who have yet to get their first vaccination dose, and a lot of people who have gotten the initial immunization haven't yet gotten the booster which we know will greatly improve your resistance to delta and probably to omicron as well. >> woodruff: i know you're saying we're at least a week away from knowing more about omicron. my colleague william brangham on the "newshour" reviewed last night a doctor from the world health organization, who noted 10%, she said, of the people in south africa who've come down with omicron have had to be hospitalized. does that tell you anything? >> it's hard to make a whole lot of sense of that. i've seen those same numbers. i don't know if those were people who were vaccinated or

not. south africa's vaccination rates are not as high as ours, so it may be those getting hospitalized are those who are totally unprotected, but we don't know that. i will have tomorrow an opportunity for direct interaction with the leaders of south africa who have been incredibly willing to be transparent about all of this data. they may know a bit morabito more abo exactly what's happening beause they have 11,000 cases of sars-cov2. most are omicron because it spread so quickly in their population. americans in general want answers, i want answers but we've just got to be sure they're right. >> woodruff: you mentioned the unvaccinated, and the doctor my colleague spoke with last night was saying, from the perspective of the w.h.o., the united states is putting too much emphasis on boosters. her point was it's all well and good, but there are still so many millions of americans who don't even have the first shot, that that should be where the

emphasis is, as well as around the world, rather than trying to get -- wore quick people about getting the second, especially the third shot. >> well, i don't think this has to be either or, i think this has to be both/and. we've seen the data that, in fact, initial immunization of the vaccine, pfizer or moderna, does wane over time. that's why the decision was to offer boors, now, to anybody over 18 to build that immunity back up. america is not having a small problem with sars-cov2. we are one of the countries hit hardest. i don't know how i or anyone could justify saying we're not offering boosters to the community when we know people are actually in trouble here. so we have to to that, but we have to think about the rest of the world. we've already out 275 million doses, we'll be over a billion in the next month. we're doing that. but it doesn't make sense to say

we have to do boosters, we have to do everything. we have to save lives, that's what this is all about. >> woodruff: testing, the president announced yesterday, they're going to make more at-home testing kits available. people would be reimbursed through insurance. i'm sure you're already hearing criticism about this, people saying it's complicated, burdensome, bureaucratic, so forth, that the united states should make these test kits very low cost or even free. what about that? >> n.i.h. has been very engaged in the testing effort. we have a program called rad x, rapid acceleration of diagnostics. the testing on the pharmacy shelves, we have a lot to do with the fact those fete developed, expanded and distributed, so i'm right there in this space of saying testing ought to be available to everybody. it's a tool we haven't fully utilized. >> woodruff: i'm asking again because, as you know, there has been criticism. president biden spoke early on

about testing and here we are months later, it's not easy to get a test in this country. >> it should be easier. the fact that they are available on the pharmacy shelves now is a big step forward. >> woodruff: last question -- how long will covid be with us, something that we have to think about every day? >> judy, i gave up trying to make predictions about exactly what the course of this pandemic was going to be. i don't know whether it's going, but i do know we are not powerless to determine the outcome. it's not the government that's going to fix this, it's not some magic public health measure that we haven't thought of, it's all of us taking advantage of the tools we've got and being consistent about that. i know people are sick of this, i know they're probably sick of people like me saying you should get your vaccine, but it's true, it's how we're going to get through this. if we had 90% of americans fully vaccinated and boosted, we would be in a very different place. >> woodruff: dr. francis

collins, thank you very much. >> nice to be with you, judy. sphrrchlts >> woodruff: the latest jobs report today offered mixed signals about the state of hiring. but one thing was clear-- more people are trying to get back into the labor force. supply chain issues are one key challenge, as companies compete for workers. economics correspondent paul solman visited one of the busiest ports in this country, the port of los angeles, to find out more about what's happening. >> reporter: the supply chain symbol of 2021: container ships, languishing off the california coast, waiting weeks on average-- some, for two months-- to get a berth at the ports of los angeles and long beach. this ship's main use at the moment? a sea lion's sun spot. >> i've been doing this for 25 years, and this is unprecedented times.

>> reporter: port x logistics founder brian kempisty. >> containerized shipping started in 1956. we've never seen anything like this. >> reporter: pre-covid, ships rarely anchored offshore. now, they're commonplace, many dozens of them, loaded with thousands of containers per ship, each capable of holding as many as 800 artificial christmas trees, 7,500 santa suits. but there's simply no room to dock, given the record cargo coming in each month. >> more than 900,000 container units, on average, have been coming through this port since july of last year. >> reporter: gene seroka runs the port of los angeles, the busiest in america. but never this busy. >> the cargo coming in from factories in asia is at all-time highs. >> reporter: why? well, since the pandemic, americans have been on a buying spree. so many goods have been getting here that the system is overwhelmed. >> once the cargo ships get here to los angeles, it's like taking ten lanes of freeway traffic and putting them into five.

you're still moving record volume, but you need even more throughput than you had before. >> reporter: but who in the supply chain is to blame for being unable to handle the“ throughput?” depends who you ask. >> as you can see here, we have stacks of containers. >> reporter: alan mccorkle is c.e.o. of yusen terminals, y.t.i. >> and the stacks continue to go, mountains of containers, for the length of our marine terminal. >> reporter: 17,000 containers were sitting here when we visited, more than double the usual number, nearly half of them empty-- since we export so much less than we import. y.t.i. has leased another 32 acres to make room for them all. this may look like the source of the bottleneck, but it isn't, says mccorkle. >> so, the problem we have is, the boxes aren't moving out the gate as they should. and that's what's leading to the congestion that we have today. we're a three-berth marine terminal, which means we can berth three ships at once. we have two here now. because the boxes aren't moving

out fast enough, we're not able to work the third ship today. >> reporter:o you have enough excess capacity to handle the huge tsunami of imports; you just can't get them out of the port fast enough. >> yes, sir. the imports just aren't moving out at the pace they need to, to keep up with the amount coming in off the ship. we're delivering 50% of what we're capable of delivering, because the truckers aren't showing up to pull the boxes. >> reporter: so then are the truckers, or “drayage drivers,” who transport the containers short distances from the terminal, the main bottleneck? >> do we have enough drayage drivers? >> no! >> reporter: there's already a nationwide trucker shortage. nimesh modi of freight firm book your cargo says the longer waits to pick up containers are making the job especially unappealing at the ports. >> they have to be in the lines for hours. that's a huge problem they're dealing with. >> reporter: like this driver we met at the port of long beach. >> there's a lot of lines, big lines. >> reporter: and you have to wait a long time. >> yeah, like two hours to go

in, one hour, depends, you know. >> reporter: and that hurts their income, says modi. >> more they drive, more they earn. if they don't drive, and sit at the terminal, wait for the container, they don't make money. if my life is becoming difficult, then i'm going to look for something else. >> reporter: but a driver shortage is not the main problem, says harbor trucking association c.e.o. matt schrap. >> we are the easiest scapegoat in this entire supply chain. >> reporter: you may be the scapegoat, but are you actually also the main point of congestion? >> no, because we have over 14,000 drivers that are operating down here daily. we have drivers right now who are not being dispatched. we have trucks that are parked because, literally, we don't have a chassis to move the import off of the dock. >> reporter: too few chassis. they're the wheeled metal frames that containers are mounted on to be driven away. and logistics expert brian kempisty agrees. too many chassis are now stuck under containers waiting to be sent back overseas. >> that means that chassis is unusable for 60 days, and that's

the issue that we're having right now, is, there's no available chassis to pick up the full containers. >> reporter: and there's yet another bottleneck further down the supply chain, says y.t.i.'s mccorkle: >> while the marine terminals are running predominately two shifts, seven days a week-- first shift, second shift-- i think you're seeing some warehouses only working first shifts and partial second shifts. >> reporter: so we went to the brand new seko logistics warehouse in carson, california, which brian baskin oversees. how much of this stuff comes from china? >> a significant portion. probably 70%. >> reporter: trucks haul containers stuffed with goods here to be off-loaded and stored, or reloaded onto different trucks to be transported elsewhere. but baskin says there's no bottleneck here. >> the second we have that container in the door, we're turning that product out on the road back into the u.s. within 24 hours. so the delay is not in the

>>by expanding hours doesn't necessarily mean you're expanding capability. >> reporter: and it's hard enough to find workers to cover daytime shifts. how does the labor shortage impact what we're talking about? >> if you're talking about the general warehouse market right now, labor is obviously tight. the rates per hour have gone up $2 to $3 for peak season, just to attract people to come work. >> reporter: and real estate prices for more warehouse space have gone up even more-- over 30% since baskin acquired this space in february. >> the landside real estate markets have gone crazy, so there's not a lot of available space to go into to expand any of the shoreside options that you would have normally. >> reporter: so, in the end, did any link in the supply chain have enough slack to handle the surge? >> we were moving in a direction where the growth in the ports every year was getting harder and harder to manage. covid just kind of put a nuclear bomb on top of all that, with the volume.

>> reporter: and why so little cushion? because extra space at the port costs money; extra trucks and chassis cost money; extra inventory and extra warehouses cost money. thus, for maximum efficiency, american business moved inexorably to a just-in-time supply chain. >> just-in-time and creating lean supply chains was the focus for the better part of three decades. >> reporter: but, says the trucking industry's schrap... >> it's important to recognize that the supply chain is fragile. we, as a country, should really take a hard look of how dependent we are on imports, and then we have much more realistic expectations about what we're able to achieve within our supply chain to begin with. >> reporter: the good news, perhaps? importers may be changing how they operate. >> i think people are starting to look at how they source their product, and move away from what has been a just-in-time supply chain, into a let's get it way-- well ahead of time. >> now, what we see is just-in- case.

on our docks today, we may see patio furniture and lounge chairs. orders have been put in factories ahead of others to build up on inventories across the board. >> reporter: even so, everyone we talked to expects kinks in the supply chain, well into next year. for the pbs newshour, paul solman, up in the air, in and around los angeles. >> woodruff: with the omicron variant, a near government shutdown, and a major abortion case before the supreme court, it has been a busy week in washington. to examine it all, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart. that is "new york times" columnist david brooks, and "washington post" columnist jonathan capehart. hello to both of you. haven't you both together in a long time. it's good to have you here. let's start with the supreme court, jonathan, that

long-awaited mississippi abortion case, intense oral argument. once you started listening, it was hard to turn away. a lot of people are saying they think they know what's going to happen based open that. what did you make of it? >> you don't know what's going to happen based on those arguments. we have been down this road before with the affordable care act when people listened to the or arguments and thought, for sure, obamacare was going to be the declared unconstitutional and the decision came out months later not the case. but i think the concern after list fink to the oral arguments about what's going to happen to roe v. wade, whether roe v. wade will be overturned is real and it's serious primarily because, when donald trump was president, running for president, he said he would appoint justices to the court who would overturn roe v. wade. that was during the campaign. he got three appointments to the bench. there are now a 6-3 conservative majority and that is why, after

listening to those oral arguments, i'm concerned and a lot of people are concerned that a constitutional right could be on the verge of being overturned, and i think that's why justice sotomayor's question is the defining one for me where she asks will this institution survive the stench this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts? >> woodruff: a lot of people are quoting that "survive the stench" line. >> i think roe is in danger at some point. i think eventually they will get around to it. i have always supported the overturn of roe, not necessarily because i'm pro-life, i think the court shouldn't decide it, i think it should be decided by the democratic process. i used to believe that if it went back to legislatures, e

legislats or the american people would settle the majority of american people do not want to ban abortion, they want to restrict it in some way and some states restrict it, and i assume we would wind up where europe is with tighter laws than we have but not a ban. i'm not our political system can handle a massive debate over an incredibly hard and complicated question, and i say that with the awareness that majorities don't seem to rule anymore, polarized minorities rule in our politics very often and, so, we may wind up, if roe is overturned this year or next year with just vicious cultural, moral, political battles at a time when our democracy is extremely fragile and that has got to be worrying. >> woodruff: what do you see the ramifications as, john delaneyen? we don't know what's going to happen if it goes in the direction it seems to be headed, even if its something short of completely overturning roe. >> the political ramifications

are huge and for part of the reasons david was talking about. for democrats, to get baldly political, for democrats, it could be the way of galvanizing the base at the time when midterm elections are coming, democratic turnout is generally lower during midterm elections and they could be on the verge of losing the majority in the house. for republicans, this could be a galvanizing thing for them in 2022 and 2024. but, you know, in addition to all the things that david said, the question then becomes it's also a very personal decision. when we're talking about a woman's reproductive health, it's not just whether does she have access to abortion, no, this is one of the most personal things that she might have to endure or will have to endure, and i look at the possibility of the overturning of that precedence and i look at other precedents out there with a 6-3 conservative minority that could

be in danger. i'm thinking about obergfell, where may marriage could be in danger of the supreme court, upholding same-sex marriage. what happens in the mississippi case, and we haven't even talked about texas, and we're still waiting to hear what the court has to say about that which actually has even more implications for, i think, you know, things like same-sex marriage and other precedents. >> woodruff: david, your point about whether the country can withstand that kinof a -- can the court withstand the perception that decisions are made based along party lines. justice breyer and others have said, oh, no, that's not what's going on here. >> those on pro-life think this court got into this in 1976 with roe and politicized it and that will be the argument and since then the court has become

hyperdivided and hyperpolarized because basically of that issue. can the credibility of the courd barrett said we're not political creatures. that may be true because a lot of the decisions we talk about are not the major decisions that a 7-2, 8, 9, 0. i have to say, when i reflect back on the major decisions that affected history from bush v. goer and things to come, i think the court has become predictable and parton lake the rest of america. >> woodruff: speaking of partisanship, jonathan, congress this week, i des the democrats just barely got out of town, at least for the weekend, without having the government shutdown.

they were able to reach an agreement over government spending. the democrats and the president still have big agenda items before them this month. what does it look like is going to happen? >> chaos, judy. chaos. so we avoided a government shutdown actually a day early if you really think about it, but we now have a debt ceiling deadline, december 15th, according to the treasury secretary. the national defense reauthorization, that's supposed to be at the end of the year. build back better, chuck schumer says we're going to get it done by the end of the year or crips, sure, okay, if you say so -- by the end of the year or christmas. and that's the stuff on the table. you have republicans who, in all of these things, basically are not there. they're not a governing partner. the problem comes when you've got democrats talking to democrats and especially with build back better. so i said chaos -- i have no

idea how this is going to turn out, but if it does turn out, it's just going to be messy, and it will bleed into next year, into 2022, and that's a problem for democrats because -- well, for the country because, once 2022 is on the calendar, everything's going to grind to a halt because nobody's going to want to get anything done. >> woodruff: what does it look like to you? >> i saw an unnamed quote from a hill staffer saying the odds of getting build back better bill are 20, 21. you have to figure out what they want. that will be bad for democrats. joe biden was elected to be competent, showing calm, the master hand on the tiller, blah, blah, blah, and the longer the democrats go on, the worse that claim looks. but in defense of the democrats, it's a 50/50 congress, that's hard. if you look back at history, the

great society took years to pass, the new deal took years to pass. our nation is not built for speed. with the gun safety shutdown, they're now capable of going legislative activities and you feel they're barely doing that. i had a dentist once in my mouth saying i'm on the edge of my skill level here. >> woodruff: what? (laughter) >> so i feel like the skill lev on capitol hill is not where it should be because they don't have experience of successful legislation. teddy kendi did it. back in those days they really knew how to do this stuff, and, so, that's the big worry to me. >> woodruff: that's an image, jonathan, we're going to keep that in our minds. but members of congress, you may know, may remember the nursery school level. the president, jonathan, has one other thing on his plate right now and that, of course, is the new variant. on top of delta, we have

omicron. it's everywhere in the world, it's in multiple states. he's done a few things, travel ban, we're going to have increased testing. how does it look, how does his management of this look? how much is riding on his management of this? >> well, a lot is riding on his management of this, but i do think he is striking the right tone. when we were talking about this last week, it was, like, oh, my god what is this thing? it's super contagious. i even mispronounced it because it was so new. >> woodruff: a lot of us did. right, but the president comes out and says, don't panic, get vaccinated, get your booster, wear your masks, basically saying to the american people, look, we have the tools to be protected against this. and i also think that the american people, after a year and a half of doing this, no one wants to go into a shutdown, not the president, and certainly not the american people. so we know how to protect

ourselves. so i think if the president and the administration, as much as it can, project calm but also clarity in what we need to do to protect ourselves from omicron, he'll be okay, but, yeah, everything is riding on this because, if we do get to a situation where he has to come to the american people and say, we've got to lock down again, even if it's for a good reason, i don't know how that's going to go over. >> woodruff: that was something n.i.h. director francis collins who i talked to today said it's something they don't want the do. >> and francis said we're not powerless. that's the biggest thing to me. we're not where we were a year ago. and we have millions of doses of pfizer and moderna regimes. you get five tests, take 30 days of pills, the pfizer one, has 25% chance of reducing your

hospitalization or death. so we're not going to kill covid the way we wish but learn to live with it the way we live with the flu and i think we're at that point. if you're fully vaccinated and under 50, you know, your odds are quite good. it's still the folks who need the continued care. and, so, i think we're just going to be in the country with a lot of covid around for a long time, but we have tools now to make it a lot safer. >> woodruff: we do have the tools and, again, director collins saying, as you said, he said, you know, we just need to keep doing what we know how to do, which is the testing and the pillsch we'll leave it there, jonathan capehart, david brooks, so good to have you back again. >> great to see you, judy. >> woodruff: thank you. >> woodruff: and we'll be

back shortly with a "brief but spectacular" take from one of the stars of broadway's "hadestown." but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it is a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations staying with us, an ongoing exhibition in los angeles is using technology to rethink art, and who it honors. jeffrey brown has more. >> reporter: life in los angeles' macarthur park, but not as you have ever seen it. this is a digital tribute to the workers who have lined the streets of this immigrant neighborhood for decades. an otherworldly portal between past, present, and future worlds, exploring the continuing presence of an indigenous people native to l.a.

in a new exhibit, "monumental perspectives," at the los angeles county museum of art, or lacma, five artists were tasked with reimagining monuments through new technology-- augmented reality, an interactive experience that overlays digital information with the real, physical world. >> i had to learn all these terms, because i wasn't familiar with all these terms. i had to learn how to navigate snapchat. so you have to capture the snap-code, then you can start using vendedores presente. >> reporter: one of the five is los angeles-based artist ruben ochoa, whose piece, vendedores presente, pays homage to street vendors, many of whom are working-class immigrants from mexico and central america. >> it's essentially like a magical realism. whimsical lens of vendedores falling-- floating down. eloteros flying around, to a paletero cart approaching you, and paletas popping up, to a towering bucket of flores

spouting out flower petals. >> reporter: the technology was new for ochoa, but he comes from a family of street vendors, so his monument was personal and political. >> for me, it was like, how do i address what's happening presently in l.a., what i'm seeing around me, what's occurring? you know, i talk about my roots of my family, the informal economy, and street vending. how-- how do we pay tribute to that? but not just to one particular vendor or object, but it was more like the social fabric of vending. >> black lives matter! >> black lives matter! >> reporter: in the height of 2020's social justice uprisings, many monuments were pulled down. many more raised questions. why do they exist? whom or what do they honor? do they need to be here? michael govan, lacma's director, wondered about a different approach. >> how do we move forward and to talk about celebrating figures

that hadn't been celebrated? what should we monumentalize in the 21st century? or who? >> reporter: lacma partnered with snap, the social media company best known for its snapchat messaging app, to create this exhibition. but why augmented reality, instead of something more physical or permanent? >> monuments do augment our reality. they change the way we think of a place-- that might remind us of something. a monument might be there to allow us to remember something. so, whether it's in a virtual space or a real space, i think, you know, it can serve exactly the same function. >> when i think about monuments, i think about how they're often a singular moment or a singular person. and it's kind of-- often, for indigenous people, these histories that are really kind of traumatic for us. >> reporter: mercedes dorame is an l.a.-based artist who created portal for tovaangar, a monument that pays tribute to her ancestry, the gabrielino-tongva

indians of california. >> it's about this continuum of presence in los angeles of the tongva people and other indigenous people there. what do we want to kind of understand or reconnect with? and, for me, that is-- like, that is the cosmos, the sun, the stars. like, what is inscribed in the land? the history of the land, the plants, the people, the kind of legacy that is still here, still in los angeles. >> reporter: she worked with an australian artist who goes by the one name, sutu, an expert in virtual reality and other technologies. >> she does paintings. she works with, like, artifacts and stones and shells and different things like this. and i wanted to make sure that we could bring all that into the digital world. she created a painting and took it on site and photographed it on site, which was super helpful. i was then able to take those photos and extract the-- just the painting from them, and bring that into the program.

>> reporter: he used a combination of 3d modeling, animation, and other tools to create the augmented reality of the portal. >> there's no law of physics there. you can have anti-gravity. you can have things floating. one of the things that augmented reality lends to the world, i guess, is that it's-- you're bringing to life a physical place, with the digital art. so, the digital art can provide context to that physical place. >> reporter: that led to a question for museum director govan. this whole project sort of raises a question of permanence, right? does it have a life beyond-- beyond what we see in snap? >> absolutely. you think about monuments, they don't have to be a statue. monuments can be written in books. they can be put on media. what are monuments? monuments are ways to remember things that are useful to us, to help us think about our past and hopefully think about our future, too. because there's a heroic aspect

to-- to what you want to remember to guide you forward. so, it is also about the future. >> reporter: for ruben ochoa, his monument has led to an advocacy project. he's raised $60,000 through direct donations and the sale of limited edition prints to support vendors hit by the pandemic. >> because a lot of them are you know, this is their only means of survival, only means to put food on the table. >> reporter: and mercedes dorame sees another benefit to this kind of project. >> the reason why i made artwork, the reason why i wanted to engage in a project like this with an institution such as lacma and snap, is to push this story forward, to make our people more visible. and for me, that goes into a lot of these pushes into institutions, where we're thinking about representation and whose voice is heard. >> reporter: new technology, new monuments, new ways of mixing art and history.

for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: for over five decades, actor andré de shields from "hadestown" has shared his talents with new york theatre audiences. with tony, grammy, and emmy awards already under his belt, de shields is still looking forward to what's ahead. tonight, he shares his "brief but spectacular" take on living his most authentic life. >> i play hermes, messenger to the gods, in the tony award- winning for best musical broadway show, "hadestown." this is a line from "hadestown." "so, here's the thing

to kw how it ends and still begin to sing it again as if it might turn out this time." i learned that from a friend of mine. >> i am the guy who won his first tony at age 73. i was not surprised that it took seven decades for me to arrive at this particular zenith in my career. this simply means there are many more golden steps for me to take on my journey. i've only begun. i am the manifestation of my parents' deferred dreams. i made a vow to myself that if i

was going to have any personal success in life, the first thing i had to do was make education my beacon, to master the language of those who would oppress me. why? so that i could always understand what was being said to me, and about me. and i could always make myself understood. i'm a hard-working black man. all audiences enjoy hard-working black men. drop on your knee, sweat, a little, smile. but the legacy that i'm creating, the legacy that i want people to embrace, is black man

majesty. there isn't enough of it in the world. it got smothered during enslavement. it's time for it to come back. my name is andre shields and this is my "brief, but spectacular" take on living my most authentic life. >> woodruff: we'll remember that one. and you can watch all our "brief but spectacular" videos online at www.pbs.org/newshour/brief. on the newshour online right now, the pandemic changed the landscape of school nutrition, and in maine, it became an opportunity to strengthen benefits for children. read how the state became a

model for providing school meals on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. for more on the politics of the omicron variant's arrival in the u.s., and analysis of the supreme court's hearing on mississippi's restrictive abortion law, join "washington week" moderator yamiche alcindor and her panel tonight on pbs. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here on mony evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and have a good weekend. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years,

advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> 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

hello everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's comin up. >> we walk away from this, we're basically telling the world that not addressing sexual assault with the respect and seriousness it requires is okay. >> the women's tennis association pulls out of china in support of champion player peng shuai. i asked wta chairman steve simon what this means for women's rights and for his bottom line. then as nuclear talks be removed while u.n. inspectors report ramped up uranium production there. i speak to mohammad mar an dee, and to journalist roe anyone bergen about secret cyber skirmishes