judy: on the newshour tonight, the fight for the east. russian forces focus their fire on the contested donbas region of ukraine in the latest chapter of the war. then mask confusion. questions abound after a judge blocks federal requirements for face coverings on public transportation. and rethinking college. the pandemic exacerbates already stark inequities in college enrollments particularly for black men. >> black males are not the things that need to be fixed. it is the structures they interface with that needs to be disrupted. >> all that and more on

tonight's pbs newshour. >> 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 pipit again and again for whatever happens next. >> people who know know bdo. >> for 25 years consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can find a plan that fits you. to learn more visit consumer cellular.tv.

>> fostering informed, engaged communities. >> with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewer like you. thank you. judy: the russian offensive in eastern ukraine took shape today as moscow pushed more troops into the donbas region against

doug-in ukrainian forces. the u.s. says it believes this latest russian action is a prelude to an even larger offensive to come and in the coming days, president biden is expected to announce another military aid package, similar in size to the $800 million dollars in weapons the u.s. pledged last week. meantime, the united nations secretary general called for a four-day truce to observe orthodox easter, celebrated in both ukraine and russia, and to get aid to desperate people suffering under the russian onslaught. stephanie sy begins our coverage. >> as air raid sirens blare, those who remain in sloviansk - a city in the donbas -- go about their day. many have already left, but coffee shop owner ivan chose to stay.

his faith in the ukrainian army, unshaken. >> we were actually prepared for this. we believe in our army and our victory, and that the combat operations won't reach sloviansk. we will stay here till the very last moment. while those combat operations have not yet struck, a russian missile attack less than 10 miles away in kramatorsk killed at least one person today. it's part orussia's fresh offensive to seize the donbas region in eastern ukraine, an area moscow-backed separatists have been trying to capture for the past eight years. as the assault unfolded overnight, president volodymyr zelenskyy remained defiant. >> no matter how many russian soldiers are driven there, we will fight. we will defend ourselves. reporter: local officials have urged residents to evacuate, but for the third day in a row no agreement was struck to open humanitarian corridors. in this front-line village, the vulnerable and elderly bear the brunt of the hardship.

gregory is being evacuated by workers at his hospice. too weak to move by himself, he thanks those who helped him escape. >> the main difficulty is that people who cannot move had to be evacuated. very ill people, who are living their final days or weeks or months. reporter: in the first day of russia's new assault, russian forces have taken full control of kreminna, a sign moscow is planning a larger offensive in the donbas region. but a senior u.s defense official today said the key port city of mariupol is still contested, and ukrainian soldiers are not willing to give it up. officials said today russia is still bombarding the city's azovstal steel plant, where the last ukrainian defenders are holding out. they have refused another russian call to surrender. inside the plant, ukraine says no fewer than 1,000 civilians are also hiding. >> my youngest child cries that

everything. he and the oldest one are starting to get depression. it's been really frightening even to go out of the bunker to use the toilet. reporter: russia's defense ministry said today it struck over 1,000 military targets across ukraine, but civilian areas are not spared. last saturday, a russian rocket barrage hit a residential area of kharkiv. the attack also destroyed facilities being used by the world central kitchen, a non-profit that's provided millions of meals for ukrainians that can't leave. >> as you can see, tremendous amount of damage. reporter: a day after the assault, nate mook, the non-profit's ceo, gave an inside look at the wreckage. he said four of his staff were wounded. i spoke with him tay. >> there was complete carnage. pieces of cars were in trees.

there is definitely been an increase in attacks in kharkiv. it was constant shelling all throughout the night last nigh you're just hearing the booms, the booms, they shake you inside. reporter: the organization has already set up at a different kitchen in kharkiv so it can continue its mission-this one is underground. >> this is a city that is quiet because a lot of people who have left but there are still a lot of people here, in many cases unable to leave because of mobility issues. these villages and towns all around kharkiv, the world central kitchen team, our local partners are a lifeline to these communities. reporter: so even after this carnage that you witnessed right next to one of your operating restaurants still not shaken from your mission? >> what keeps me going is all of the ukrainians that i'm surrounded by. by their strength and resilience to keep going. the fact that some of those

injured staff told me they are ready to jump right back in and get back to work, that really keeps us going. reporter: meanwhile in the capital, key of residence -- e yiv residence line up to get their hands on a new stamp that shows a ukrainian soldier flipping off a russian warship. it depicts a moment of defiance from earlier in the war and a russian ship that ukrainians apparently sunk last week. the confidence of those moments has persisted. >> i've got the feeling that we are going to win. i don't know why but this feeling does not go away. the feeling that we will get our victory. reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. judy: for more on the russian offensive on the donbas and why this part of ukraine is so important to russia, we turn to samuel charap, a senior political scientist at the rand corporation. he is the author of "everyone loses: the ukraine crisis and the ruinous contest for post-soviet eurasia."

thank you for joining us. give us a sense of what the donbas we know there is industry but give us a sense how much of it is urban, the terrain and so mu: this is ukraine's industrial heartland. it has been a mining center since the 19th century. it is slightly smaller than the state of west virginia. in terms of its topography it is largely planes unlike the forests north of kyiv where the fighting was taking place. russia has controlled 30% of the territory to include the two biggest cities now for over seven year and it is trying to achieve control over the entirety of these regions that compose the donbas. judy: what difference would it

make for russia if they were able to control all of the donbas? what would it give them? samuel: the pretext russian president vladimirut geinave doh russian speaking, not exclusively ethnically russian, but to protect tm from what he called the genocide, evidence for which was nonexistent. nonetheless what he did in the day before he announced his attack on ukraine waso recognize the so-called independence of these regions of ukraine within their full administrative boundaries. not just the 30% russian-backed separatists controlled, but the entirety of those regions. basically one of the main operational objectives since the beginning of the war has been taking control over those regions. additionally, a significant

concentration of ukrainian forces has remained on the front lines that was previously the main front line of the conflict in the donbas. if russian forces can take those ukrainian military -- that military concentration out, it would be a significant blow to the ukinian military. judy: how difficult or how easy is it going to be for russia to swallow up this big area? you were telling us it is bigger than people realize. you have talked about we have all seen the ukrainian resistance has been fierce. samuel: absoluty. in some of these places they have had eight years to build fortifications and basically to dig in. a frontal assault was never going to be possible or at least it was going to be extremely

difficult. what they have tried to do is encircle the ukrainian forces coming from the north and from the south to the north from mariupol which is why taking that town was so important. but we are talking about a line from the north of ukraine to the azov sea that is hundreds of miles long so actual encircment is going to be difficult cutting off all lines of supply ukraine has. this is not going to be easy but it is more plausibly achievable than fighting five different fronts at the same time which is what the russians initially tried to do. judy: i ask about ukrainian resistance because we have seen how strong it is all across the country and we also know in the donbas region close to russia, many of the people who have lived there, some of them feel affinity with russia. do you have a sense of how many do? how would you say the public --

what the public attitude is toward russia? samuel: from what we know about polling that took place in the ukrainian government controlled areas, the parts that the russian backed rebels did not control before this latest phase of the war that began in february, there was not significant separatist sentiment or desire to join russia, to completely leave ukraine. people might have gripes with the government of key of but they did not want to become part of russia. thiss the paradox. to be russian speaking does not mean to be pro-russia or to want to leave ukraine. it just means different historical cultural identities. i don't think there is going to be widespread pro-russian seiment in a lot of these places. judy: meaning we can expect ukrainians to put up a fight. bottom line, we are in for what

could be a long and protracted battle for the donbas. samuel: it is certainly not going to be a matter of days. weeks at the very least and potentially longer than that. judy: we thank you. samuel: thanks for having me, judy. >> i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. the department of justice announced this evening it is considering appealing a ruling by a federal judge which avoided the pandemic mask mandate put in place by the cdc. in the meantime, president biden said people should decide for themselves whether to mask up. we will focus on the fallout after the news summary. in afghanistan a string of bombings targeted schools in kabul, killing at least 6 people and wounding 17.

explosions tore through a mostly shiite muslim area in the western part of the capital city. witnesses told of a series of rapid-fire detonations. >> we are close to the school. i quickly came to the site when the first blast happened to see if everything was ok. i was on the roof of my house and called my children to enter the home. suddenly the second blast happened and i got injured. stephanie: there was no immediate claim of responsibility but the islamic state group has targeted the area and shiites before. 14 people went on trial in belgium today for allegedly supporting isis attacks in paris in 2015. a court spokesman said most of the defendants are accused of terrorist actions before and after the gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people. >> that are obviously quite different stakes from the paris trial where the defendants are charged with directly involved in the attacks.

the accused are suspected of having provided assistance. for example helping people to go to syria or providing false documents or being linked to weapons. >> the paris attackers targeted six restaurants and bars, a concert hall, and the national soccer stadium. palestinian protesters confronted israeli troops after they led thousands of israelis marched to a demolished west bank settlement. palestiniaparamedics said at least eight protesters were hit by rubber bullets or tear gas canisters. in recent weeks, 26 palestinians and 14 israelis have died in rising violence. back in this country a new jersey catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to some 300 alleged victims of sexual abuse, one of the largest cash settlements involving the catholic church in u.s. history. the settlement needs to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. lawyers for patrick lyoya's

family says independent autopsy confirms he was fatally shot in the back of the head by a michigan police officer. they say results are evident the 26-year-old black man was executed by the white grand rapids officer. the official autopsy has not yet been released. high winds are fueling a wildfire in northern arizona that has closed a highway into the area. the tunnel fire is raging through grasslands north of flagstaff. it has burned 6000 acres into -- and is at zero containment. the u.s. energy department has launched a $6 billion program to keep troubled nuclear power plant's online. the agency cited the need for carbon free power to fight climate change. federal funds will go to financially distressed units. the governor of florida escalated a feud with disney today. the company has criticized a ban on teaching sexual orientation

and gender identity to young children. in response republican governor ron desantis called for repealing disney world's control of its zoning fire protection and utilities. netflix's customer base fell by 200 thousand subscribers between january and march, causing shares to plunge 20%. the company says it will introduce a lower-priced and ad supported version of its service, steps it has previously resisted. the international monetary fund downgraded its outlook for the local economy citing the war in ukraine. the imf projected growth at 3.6% this year, down from a january estimate of 4.4%. it slightly lower the outlook for next year as well. still to come on the newshour, new details emerge on the trauma migrant families are still experiencing after being separated under the trump administration. multiple mass shootings nationwide highlight the perpetual issue of gun violence a new hampshire community

embraces the architectural impact and legacy of frank lloyd vwright. plus much more. >> this is the pbs newshour from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university judy: for the first time in two years, many airline passengers and some staff are flying today without a mask. the change came quickly and unexpectedly after a judg's decision. john yang has our report. >> i just checked with the company, and the company's position is, delta position is, masks will be optional this evening for all crew and passengers as well. [applause] reporter: announcements yesterday met with jubilation. after a federal judge in florida struck down the national mask mandate on all public transportation.

within hours, all major u.s. airlines, american, delta, southwest, and united, stopped requiring masks on their flight. on a trip to new hampshire, president biden was asked about the ruling. >> should people continue to wear on planes? >> that's up to them. >> are you going to appeal the ruling the judge made striking down the mandate? >> i have not spoken to the cdc yet. reporter: at reagan national airport some expressed concern. >> it is worrisome because there is a constant surge that has encouraged me to approach safety even more since others are not. it has me really alarmed and wanting to distance myself even more. reporter: others welcomed the news. >> really exciting. who wants to wear a mask? i don't really care for the mask mandate to begin with personally

but i do not think it does any good. as long as you cough in your arm and wash your hands so ion't believe the mask mandate did any good. >> i might want to pu a mask on when i'm flying anyway but it is also nice to know i don't have to be required to wear a mask, it is my choice. and for me i think it is a lot about about having the freedom to choose to mask or not mask depending on what my situation is. reporter: amtrak also dropped its requirements but some regional transit systems such as new yor subway have chosen to keep it. >> mask mandates a coming down to quickly. people are getting it every day. >> i'm still going to wear my mask. >> i did not even know there was one. reporter: today, ride-hailing companies uber and lyft said

masks would be optional for riders and drivers, but that local regulations could still require them. the biden administration has been grappling with how long to keep the mask requirement on planes, trains, and taxis. just a week ago, the cdc extended its rule to may 3, while officials assessed covid trends. but yesterday's court ruling short-circuited that. judge kathryn kimball mizelle said that when a passenger is denied an airline seat for not wearing their freedom of movement is curtailed in a way similar to detention and quarantine. she ordered a nationwide injunction, despite noting that she shares some skepticism about the practice but said one was necessary to grant compete relief in the case. mizelle is a trump nominee who was confirmed by the republican controlled senate along strict party lines after the 2020 election. all this comes as u.s. infections have climbed more than 40% in the last two weeks although hospitalizations and

deaths have fallen. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. judy: and this update, the u.s. department of justice announced late today that it is considering appealing the federal judge's ruling depending on the view of the cdc. a new report out today indicates that a trump administration policy to separate migrant families at the border is still taking a toll years after it was officially ended. the group physicians for human rights has found many of the parents and children who were split up continue to experience intense psychological and emotional trauma. many are showing signs of post traumatic stress disorder.

hundreds of children have yet to be reunited with their families, all while the government navigates lawsuits around the issue and growing pressure around other border and immigration conflicts. to help us make sense of all this, i'm joined by our chief correspondent, amna nawaz. tell us about report -- about this report. amna: this is the first study that tries to look at the long-term impact of that separation policy. you and i remember it well, we reported on in 2018, this was the zero tolerance policy the trump administration put into place forcibly separating children from their parents. it was chaotic, it was cruel. they had no intention and no system to reunite them. this study conducted psychological evaluations of 13 parents who were separated at the border from their kids. some for months, some for years. two of them remain separated to

this day. the trauma is very real and very present. parents vividly remember their children crying and screaming being ripped from their arms. the first thing his son said was how could you let them take me? one mom said i do not think i will ever recover from this. clinicians saw ptsd, thoughts of suicide, nightmares, and the fear of being separated in all of tse parents. this is the key take away. they conclude each of the cases documented constituted torture and temporary enforced disappearance. those are violations under the national and domestic law and experts say they require redress. judy: what would that be? what are they looking for? . amna: they asked parents, what would they need? they want to work to continue to reunite families. hundreds of families remain

separated. they want laws that prevent this from happening again. they want a formal apology from the u.s. government which we have not seen. they also are seeking monetary compensation for psychological, therapeutic, support needs that experts say they will have in the years ahead. that is part of an ongoing lawsuit. the biden administration is fighting in court. we spoke with the aclu legal -- who is fighting. >> the biden administration thinks the policy was morally bankrupt and wants to fix it i do not think they are doing everything they can to fix it. they are allowing families to be reunified. that is critical. they have walked away from the negotiating table to provide monetary compensation. we still do not know whether they are going to provide a pathway to allow these families to remain in the country.

hope the american public realizes this is still going on. judy: -- amna: there is an assumption family separation is a thing of the past and it has been dealt with. the harm has never been reckoned with. there's actually no rules in place that would prevent this from happening again. judy: i think you are right. many people had no idea. this is going on as the number of border crossings continues to go up and as the biden administration is on the verge of doing away with this ruling, so-called title 42, which is expected to bring more people across the border. amna: border numbers are high, they have been high for several months, taxing an already stressed this to him. -- stressed syste the cdc pandemic rule expelled most people at the border.

homeland security officials, civil society groups say they are doing what they can to get ready. we have already seen the trafficking networks people who are in the business of moving ople ramping up efforts. we are seeing an increase not just from people coming from mexico, from central america, but much further afield, brazil, venezuela, india, ukraine. that makes it harder to process and enforce the border. we spoke to one sheriff from arizona, a border community east of tucson task what he has been seeing. here is what he said. >> we have seen a human smuggling, drug smuggling, cash, weapons, over my 38 years in law enforcement. i will say this is the worst it has ever been. the impact if you compare it to two years ago, we saw a maximum of 400 a month. now we are pushing 8000 per month. judy: sobering to hear that.

what about the politics of this? we are in the midterm election year. it is just months away when people go to the polls. how much of an issue is immigration expected to be? amna: so complicated because it is not democrats on one side and republicans on the other. a number of democratic senators are criticizing president biden and the border policies. we have put together a list of a few of them. they include senators kelly, warnock, cinema, mansion, tester, peters, and kunz. the white house has always said anyone who wants to work on immigration reform, you are welcome. we want a safe, orderly system. the system has not been changed in 30 years. congress has failed to act again and again so we end up where we have always ended up which is that people who are trying to enforce the border and people who are seeking sabr ground trying to cross it -- seeking

safer ground trying to cross it, and that is where we are. judy: thank you very much. there were several mass shootings across the country over easter weekend leaving many to question what can be done to curb worsening gun violence in america. reporter: this weekend two children were killed and eight others wounded in pittsburgh after a shooting broke out at a party. in south carolina, two mass shootings happened just hours apart, one at a shopping mall, d another at a restaurant. more than 20 people were injured.

that makes at least 146 mass shootings, where four or more people are shot, so far this year. for more on what can be done to prevent these tragedies, i'm joined by mark full moon -- follman. he's long covered this country's epidemic of gun violence, and is now out with a new book, "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america" great to have you on the newshour. these shootings over the weekend are not what we think about the sort of archetypal mass shootings. these are gatherings where there is armed people and things erupt. it seems like those are uniquely different in -- and difficult to disrupt. >> we tend to think of the mass shootings problem in monolithic terms and certainly politicized terms. this is a complex problem and there are different versions of it. what we saw with the violence over the weekend is one version of it which is more reactive in

nature where you have groups of people getting into heated fights and turning to guns. that is different than other public mass shootings that are so high-profile and traumatizing that we keep seeing as well. reporter: the supply of guns makes these more deadly, but they also fuel them in the sense that if i think everyone is armed, i convince myself i need to be armed and thus guns is how we settle things. is there any evidence to how we disrupt that particular cycle? >> it is difficult and we are experiencing a surge a lot of people are asking why. if we look at the increasing political volatility, rage, and polarization going on, the stresses from the pandemic of the past couple of years, and

there is been record gun buying as well. we have an estimated 400 million firearms in this country, easily accessible in many places. this issue with ghost guns that has been at the forefront recently. all of this together makes it very difficult to solve these kinds of explosive reactive events we are seeing a spate of now. reporter: your book zeros in on the more archetypal type of mass shootings like virginia tech, young man kills thirtysomething people. clearly a disturbed young person. you argue we have all sorts of myths we have built up around these types of shootings. what are those myths? mark: there are a couple of really big ones that fundamentally misunderstand the probm of mass shootings in terms of how the general public perceives them. one is that all of this should be blamed on mental illness. that all of the perpetrators of these attacks are crazy, they

just snap,hat is a term we use a lot in the media. the question is often asked what made the guy snap? that is not how these cases work. you study the research into these attacks as i have, and the field of prevention work i focus on in the book, all of these are planned attacks. this is predatory violence, distinct from what we were talking about which is more reactive in nature. these are people who are developing violent ideas over time, taking steps to prepare, then carrying out the attack. that is a different problem with different possible solutions and some potentially promising ones in terms of the window of opportunity to step in and try to prevent it before it is too late. judy: -- reporter: it does seem like if there are warning signs that stepping in in the moment is the

way, but there are obstacles to that. gun laws, privacy laws. the correct fear of stigmatizing mental illness. are there good solutions to addressing that? do we do a good job of intervening? mark: we can certainly do more and the focus of my book is on threat assessment which does have promise here. there is more of it going on now, it is a collaborative effort between mental health experts, law enforcement, education leaders, people in the workplace, and others who are working together to try to evaluate cases of concern and then step in and prevent people from going down this pathway to violence, the planning of these kinds of attacks we are discussing. there are quite a few successful examples where this has worked. i was able to gain access to cases where constructive prevention measures, getting people mental health help,

getting them educational or employment support over time can divert an individual from the violent thinking of this nature. reporter: the refrain that always follows is common sense gun control. magazine capacity limits, red flag laws, waiting periods, etc.. does your research indicate those things would have a meaningful impact on gun violence in america? >> i think they can. there is strong evidence at a state and local level that these policies are very effective. one that you mentioned, the so-called red flag laws is a tool that has grown a lot in the past few years and intersects very directly with threat assessment, this form of community-based prevention. you are talking about addressing specific cases where people are raising serious concerns that they are posing a danger to themselves or others. in that case the question

becomes, so this -- should this person have access to firearms? these laws provide to where family members and law enforcement can go to a judge and have a court proceeding to determine whether or not to take the firearm away. we are always asking, how did the mass shooting get a hold of a gun? how do we keep guns out of the hands of people who do this? this is one potential tool and it has been growing. reporter: thank you for being here. mark: thank you for having me. judy: enrollment in higher education suffered across the board during the pandemic. community colleges face the sharpest declines overall. more than 700,000 students, many of themow income, dropped

out or delayed school, 13% drop from 2019. black male students left in droves, down 21%. even before the pandemic there were concerns about black men completing degrees. stephanie sy reports on efforts in california to reverse that trend, part of our latest series on rethinking college. stephanie: every morning chris adams is in the zone-studying for the lsat, like his life depends on it. for the 34-year old recent ucla graduate, law school wasn't always in the cards. >> my parents moved a lot when was young, so i went to different hools and just being in different environments where they probably didn't understand, you know, where i came from, or who i was. stephanie: you were a child. >> yes. i was looking for guidance, really did not know how economic -- academic settings would be, did not know what to expect, did not have good studying habits.

reporter: adams school trouble led to him being arrested at 16 and juvenile detention. he dropped out of high school and became a dadhis educational prospects dimmed. >> what is more important, taking care of your family, payi the bills, or going to school? stephanie: his local community college in sacramento offered a gateway back into education. everything changed when he met edward bush, the president of the college. >> every student has the potential to succeed in college if given the correct support and tools necessary. so in the situation with chris, he had the passion, he had the intelligence to be successful, but was struggling just because he didn't have practical tools. stephanie: chris adams found a mentor in bush. >> i want to do all these different things and he just listens and gives me a nice little plan on how to achieve that. put in those hours, you know, how many units it says that you are completing, that's how many hours you should be spending, if it's three units, spend three hours studying. i never thought about it like that.

stephanie: he graduated with honors from consumnes river college and transferred to ucla. >> black males are not the thing that need to be fixed. it is the structures they interface with that need to be disrupted and changed. stephanie: bush co-founded a2mend in 2006, with a mission of fostering success for black men at california's community colleges. >> we focus on not only providing support to the student, but i think most importantly, we look at structures that have been barriers for our students. stephanie: students and educators from across the state recently attended a2mend's annual conference in los angeles. >> if this is your first time here i just want to tell you, this is a different kind of conference. [laughter] stephanie: it was as much about networking and learning as it was a celebration. >> people want to focus on oh, the uc or state systems, or private schools or this or that, it is about community colleges.

stephanie: this year was the first in-person gathering since the pandemic which took a disproportionate toll on communities of color. the racial inequities that were laid bare by the pandemic are also at play in education, says bush. correct many of our students can -- >> many of our students can go k through 16 and not have one black male teacher and that is not the case for other ethnic or raal groups. and so because there's a lack of connection, they don't have the same information poured into them over a period of time. that creates a gap in opportunity and knowledge necessary to be successful. stephanie: 70% of black men in california pursuing higher education attend a community college, but degree attainment and completion lag behind other groups. a recent analysis by the education trust found about 27 percent of black men held a college degree, compared to just over 44% of white men. that has impacts beyond the

ivory tower of college. higher levels of education often mean higher incomes, more spending power, and less likelihood of incarceration. bush also explains the black male achievement gap as rooted in historical discrimination and psychological. >> there's a lot of internalized negative stereotypes about who we are. for example when you get on the elevator and someone is in there they clench their purse. or, you're walking down the street, someone will go the other side. these are daily occurrences that sometimes we put in the back of our mind because the totality and the weight of it is difficult to carry. stephanie: broadly. but black -- during the pandemic, community college enrollment suffered broadly. but black men saw the steepest decline, continuing a downward trend that compton college has put resources toward fighting. with most classes still taught virtually under pandemic protocols, the campus was largely empty. but college president keith curry is particularly concerned about the absence of black men

in enrollment figures and in other metrics of success. >> my data is showing that the black men are not doing well, in retention within a particular course, they are not doing well, in persistence, coming back next semester. they are not doing well in regards to graduation rates we have to do something different. stephanie: compton college is located just south of downtown los angeles. the area has seen the black population decline in recent years, but black male enrollment at the college has fallen even more. enrollment of african american men plummeted from 919 in the fall of 2019 to 269 in the fall of 2021. >> it might not affect all of our groups on campus, but the particularly the black and male of color students are our priority based off the data. so what can we do as an organization to fix that? stephanie: using pandemic relief funding, he created the position

of blackened males of color success -- black and males of color success at compton college . >> for these individuals, they said, oftentim, it was just one person at the campus saying, hey, i'm going to take you under my wing and show you this is where financial aid is, this is where orientation is, this is what you need to do to get this resource. stephanie: antonio banks' role is to develop a system to help black male students navigate compton college. with more than half of its students food and housing insecure and nearly a quarter experiencing homelessness, he also tries to find ways to help students with stressors outside college. >> one of the biggest prohibitive factors for black men and men of color in community colleges have historically been food insecurity, right? housing insecurity and transportation issues. the market that we're in right now is only exacerbating these issues. stephanie: high prices for everything, >> high prices for everything. stephanie: banks attended the a2mend conference with compton college students.

organizers hope the kind of mentorship opportunities at these events lead to more black men in college reaching their full potential, the way connecting with dr bush did for chris adams. when you look at your impact on his trajectory what do you feel? is it pride? >> i mean a 3.9 gpa right? he can have his choice of law school. i cannot take credit because it was already inside of chris. it's really somebody validating you know what you've been doing, you know, and telling you, leading you in the right direction. stephanie: he is now doing that for his own 15-year-old son. keith was recently accepted into a top high school, that chris hopes will put him on the track to college. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy in los angeles. judy: the currier museum in

manchester, new hampshire, is where you'll find two homes designed by architect frank lloyd wright on the same street , a rarity. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh boston brings us story of how these homes came to be, part of our arts and culture series, canvas. reporter: on a new hampshire street dotted with traditional new england homes, there are two very different ones. built more than 60 years ago, when the neighbors cried there goes the neighborhood, at least it was going to architect frank lloyd wright. >> there was quite a stir at the beginning. they referred to it pejoratively as the chicken coop, but today they have embraced it. reporter: it is the zimmerman house built for a married couple in 1950, and echoed just a few houses down in a home built for the zimmerman's friends, the kalils five years later. both mark a moment when the aging frank lloyd wright, one of america's most celebrated architects, believed he still had much to say. >> he was influenced by prairie

architecture, but also by japanese architecture. reporter: alan chong is the director of the currier museum of art which inherited the zimmerman home, fully intact, in 1988. it purchased the kalil house in 2019. the first time it had ever come up for sale. >> we regard these two houses as works of art, so they're technically part of the collection. we maintain them for the public for the future. reporter: both couples busy, childless professionals working in the medical field-wanted homes that would be modern, but also feel warm. so they reached out to wright. then in his 80s, he was re-engaging in residential design. kurt sundstrom is the currier museum's senior curator. >> he saw this opportunity after world war ii with people buying homes, the getting out of the depression, that there was an opportunity to create beautifully designed homes for the middle class. reporter: even if from the front and to the neighbors' chagrin, it didn't look that way. >> if we look at the street

view, the facade of this building, it's like a militaristic building. it very much keeps the privacy of the individual. but then when you look outside, you have this magnificent open glass wall that leads on to these beautifully designed gardens, and those colors integrate beautifully with this building. so what is actually a small home feels expansive in this environment, but also very protective from the outside world. reporter: in all elements of the home, wright and his design team were all in. surviving letters reveal the couple gave the architect free reign right down to their stationery and a music stand for the music lovers. >> he designed everything. for him, it was the whole rather than, i'll just build the house and then you guys can furnish it . architecture, in a building like this, was a complete work of art. you can see, even in the woodwork, the level of detail is extraordinary. this is georgia cypress. he takes planks and the planks are married when they turn a

corner, so they're the same piece of wood. reporter: wright designed both the zimmerman and kalil homes while also working on the guggenheim museum in new york city. all three projects are similar in that they adhere to his philosophy of organic architecture. >> these houses are of the earth. the house almost seems to rise out of the landscape and you'll see in both uses, certain areas of the house go below grade. so that integration right into the landscape is essential for these homes. reporter: the houses were also studies in simplicity. or at least they were supposed to be. as the currier's andrew spahr explains, they were designed under a system wright called usian automatic. >> well, usonian was sort of his play on the united states of america, and usonian was his philosophy for building these houses and villages, cities. reporter: -- >> automatic was intended to imply that the owner could construct the house. reporter: by way of a builders roadmap not unlike legos. >> there are approximately 12 or 13 different, distinct blocks

that were designed to construct this house. there were only seven of these houses built, ultimately, and the owner or the contractor would construct molds, and would then cast these concrete molds to make the blocks. and you would do a tally as to how many of which kind of blocks you needed to construct the house. reporter: to be clear, both the zimmermans and kalils hired builders. and for the bsequent decades they lived in their homes, the couples kept them just as both they and the architect wished. so that two ofrank lloyd wright's final projects could also be lasting ones. >> their home, they recognized they were only temporary owners, and that it needed to be passed on. it's the way we buy a work of art. you know, someone, a private person buying a rembrandt, you're just a temporary custodian. and that's why the currier is so fortunate to have two homes showing two different aspects of a similar type of home that he was designing. reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in manchester,

new hampshire. judy: muslim women in the u.s. often experience discrimination in many aspects of their lives. that includes health care. through her work at at a national non-profit, sa-hare' perzada is working to curtail that mistreatment and advocate for reproductive justice. tonight, she shares her "brief but spectacular take on gendered islamophobia. >> i grew up in the san francisco bay area. i went to an islamic school from second to eighth grade. and 9/11 actually happened when i was at the islamic school, and i was quite young at the time so i don't think i had the language to really make sense of it, but, our school was shut down for like a week because we were getting death threats and bomb threats. i was still in a bubble though.

i was still sheltered from kind of the day to day microaggressions and discrimination that i know a lot of my peers and and community members were facing at the time. it's also become so much more normalized to experience islamophobia on a daily basis. at heart, i am the advocacy manager. heart is a national nonprofit, and our mission is to advance reproductive justice and uproot gendered violence by promoting choice and access for the most impacted muslims in the united states. as i was doing my research, i came to learn a lot about how during the time of the prophet, peace be upon him, people used to ask a lot of very explicit questions about sexual intimacy and sex in general, because it was part of their responsibility of taking care of themselves and taking care of the people that they're in relationships with. there were questions -- records of people asking questions about rights within a relationship

when it comes to pleasure. and so you could have have sex not just for the sake of reproducing and that is something i think is really beautiful and sex positive. at heart, we are a religiously informed organization but at the same time, we're a public health org, right? so we are not going to shame people for the decisions they make around sex, but we are gonna be there as a resource for them. when we're thinking about reproductive justice, it's including living in communities that are free from violence. and when you're looking at the muslim community, we're also specifically looking at gendered islamophobia. i myself am so passionate about this work because i've experienced gender islamophobia when trying to seek services for my reproductive and sexual health. for many years i lived with sexual dysfunction. i went to several gynecologists who all disregarded my pain and, said stuff around well you just need to relax, you need to have more sex. maybe it's just because of your religion and your culture. that was because of the narratives they were fed about me as a muslim woman who could

never be a person who is sex positive. and it wasn't until three years after that i got diagnosed and then started to receive treatment. i think this is a common experience for women of color in this country where our pain is invalidated. culturally, there aren't enough spaces where we can have these honest conversations in safety and in affirming ways. i think we can disrupt these cycles of generatial and institutional silence by creatinghe spaces that we've always wanted for ourselves. my name is sahar pirzada, and this is my brief but spectacular take on gendered islamophobia. judy: you can watch more brief spectacular deos -- brief but spectacular videos online. at pbs.org/newshour/brief. slowed supply chains, globalin y

food and energy disruptions and the russian attacks on ukraine. we take a quick look at how this will impact american consumers on our instagram. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and we'll see you soon. >> major funding has been provided by. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. the raymondjames financial advisor taylor's advice -- tailors advice to help you live life well planned. >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. th target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and

creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> jamie: hey! people everywhere are finally coming back together. so it's time to celebrate some of the love, friendships, and amazing moments that we've all missed out on. and what better way to show people that you care than to bring them around a table for some delicious food? so i've created easy-to-follow menus that will turn incredible dishes into epic feasts. >> life is about memories. and today we made a memory. >> jamie: and to make the most of the precious time with those that we love, it's all about getting ahead. i want to prepare a meal which is nearly all done, so when my friends and family get here, i can be spending more time with them. cheers, everybody! >> cheers! these are impressive menus made easy because i'll take you through them step by step, making them for my family and friends, so you can make them for yours. this is saying, "i love you," through food.