geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” as the death toll rises in florida, we get the latest on how officis and residents are recovering after hurricane ian. then, it's political season in pennsylvania -- we dig into the top races in one of the most closelwatched states this midterm election. and, we go into the kitchen with award-winning baker bryan ford, whose recipes use a dash of his honduran roots and a bit of experimentation. bryan: baking is romantic. baking is like, it's like a meditation, it's simple. you know, you don't have to be so precise. i mean, that the dough is a living creature, too. geoff: those stories and the day's headlines on tonight's

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. geoff: good evening. it's great to be with you. the death toll in florida from hurricane ian reached 47, a number that's expected to climb. president biden and rst lady jill biden will visit the state on wednesday, after a visit to puerto rico tomorrow. the island is still reeling in the wake of hurricane fiona. for both puerto rico and florida, recovery is the now the primary focus. the sounds of hurricane recovery echoed around fort myers as the first heavy machinery got to work clearing storm debris. for now, the florida air national guard is moving the wreckage into piles to clear the streets.

the task at hand is enormous across southwest florida, given the sheer scale of devastation from ian. bridges destroyed, trees and lampposts tossed into pools, gutted hotels. damage estimates go as high as $100 billion. with 850,000 people still without electricity, the u.s. army has set up distribution sites for boled water and food. rickey anderson, a recent transplant from illinois, among those pleading for help. rickey: we have no power, no phone service, nothing. so, we'd just like a little help. i'd like a little help to get my home back in shape because i have nowhere to go. >> is anyone home? search and rescue. geoff:n demated sanibel island, rescue operations continue today. >> your son sent us. we're a rese organization. geoff: some are volunteers helping concerned family members.

>> so we've got this one clear and then we've got 28 and 68. geoff: others are with the fire department, going door to door checking for signs of life. >> you see people chipping in. they're not getting paid for it. there's even people whose homes are destroyed, but they're helping. geoff: on pine island, rescue operations arrived on the largest barrier island on florida's gulf coast, where the storm was ferocious. >> the water was at least eight, eight to 10 feet high for sure. and there was four foot waves in the streets, and the water just kept pounding the house, and we watched boats, houses, we watched everything just fly by. we've lost so much at this poin geoff: the head of the national guard said there have been more than 1000 rescues along florida's southwest coast alone. for more on the recovery in florida, i'm joined by nick pacho. he's the vice mayor of venice, which is about an hour south of tampa. it's great to have you with us.

and when we last spoke with you on the "newshour" on thursday, you told us that there was standing water in roadways, water in people's homes. people were without power, without cell phone service. what's the situation there today? nick: in veni, we're actually doing a lot better. we've got quite a bit of power back. we've got a good cell service. there's some cell towers that have been brought in, some mobile cell towers so that people can at least reach family outside of the area and let them know they're doing okay. not as much standing water. some of our rive did crest early this morning about 4:00 a.m. so we did have some outlying areas that had some major flooding and to the south of u in the south end of the county there's still a lot of standing water we hope will recede over the next few days. so you know, in all, i think we're doing pretty good right now. geoff: how is the recovery effort progressing and do you do you have a sense yet of what the rebuilding process will encompass? nick: yes. so, basically, you know, our state government, the florida division emergency management has been fantastic. we've got points of distribution

set up in the county. the federal government has been giving thewhat they need to give to us, you know, and then now it's just gonna be a matter of seeing how things go with fema and everyone getting the support that they need for the rebuilding, but i would say it's been a great response. d i mean, this could have been a lot longer to get power and self-service where we are. geoff: what's your message to florida residents who have been displaced by the storm? nick: you know, i think it's tragic and i just want everyone to know we will come back from this. you know, florida has been hit by hurricanes over the years and one thing about floridians is they're very resilient people. they're very powerful, and we will come back from this. we will build back stronger. and, just remember, florida strong. geoff: nick, our best to you and everne living in the affected parts of florida. nick: thank you so much. geoff: in the day's other headlines, at least 125 people are dead, and more than 300 are

injured, after a soccer match in indonesia descended into violence last night. unhappy fans storm the field after the game, hurling bottles and other objects at players and officials. police in riot gear shot tear gas into the crowd, causing tens of thousands of spectators to rush for a limited number of exits. some people suffocated in the chaos, others were trampled to ath. the use of tear gas is banned by fifa at all soccer venues. and indonesia's president has ordered a full investigation. polls have closed in brazil, as the world's fourth-largest democracy votes for its next president. voters will choose between the leftist former president da silva, known to e people there as "lula," and the far-right incumbent, jair bolsonaro. bolsonaro's administration has been marred by his handling of the covid-19 pandemic, and the worst deforestation in the amazon rainforest in years. recent opinion polls have shown

da silva with a substantial lead. and in ukraine, an official says russia attacked ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy's hometown today using suicide drones. the strike, which leveled a school, comes just a day after russian forces retreated from the city of lyman, inside territory russia illegally annexed on friday. president zelenskyy, in his nightly address, said that russia's retreat shows the annexation was not the will of the people. pres. zelenskyy: russia has staged a farce in the donbas, an solute farce. now, a ukrainian flag is there. during this week, there were more ukrainian flags in donbas. there will be even more in a week. geoff: lyman is russia's biggest battlefield loss since ukraine's counteroffensive started weeks ago. still to come on "pbs news weekend," with the midterms around the corner, we check in on two big races in pennsylvania. and, talking bread and heritage in t kitchen with award-winning baker bryan ford.

>> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. geoff: with just over five weeks left until the midterm elections, this week, we turn to pennsylvania and two high-profile races expected to have a significant impact on both the state and country's political futures. with control of the u.s. senate on the line, pennsylvania voters could determine if democrats maintain their majority. >> is the country headed in the right direction? geoff: mehmet oz, a tv doctor turned republican senate candidate, is running against the state's lieutenant governor, democrat john fetterman, to fill the seat of retiring republican senator pat toomey.

in this hotly contested race, fetterman is painting us as an out-of-touch outsider who doesn't care about pennsylvanians. >> can we get this room so loud that we can let him hear it in new jersey right now? geoff: while oz continues to question the health of fetterman, who suffered a stroke in may. and in one of the most watched races for goveor, pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro, a democrat, running against republican state senator doug mastriano. shapiro is facing questions about whether his low-key style will energize democratic voters. while mastriano is a leading voice advancing donald trump's lies about election fraud. he was also at the u.s. capitol on the day of the insurrection. in both races, issues such as reproductive rights, the economy, crime. >> public safety is why i ran for office. geof and education. >> they are indoctrinating our children in school of critical race theory. geoff: are expected to be deciding factors for voters. to help us dig into that and to help us dig into the dynamics of both races in pennsylvania, i'm joined by jonathan tamari,

national political reporter for the philadelphia inquirer, and candy woodall, congress and campaigns reporter for usa today. thank you both for being with us. and let's start with the senate race, because early this past summer, democrat john fetterman looked like he was going to cruise to victory over his republican opponent, mehmet oz. but the polls have tightened in recent weeks and now it's a more competitive race. so, jonathan, give us a sense of what's happening. jonathan: ye. so, i think what we saw in the summer was a function of the two different primaries that the candidates went through. oz went through a brutal republican primary with a ton of spending, both for him and also against him. there were a lot of attacks on him as being not really conservative. his opponents brought up some of his past statements on things like guns and abortion to say he didn't really believe in conservative values, and he ended up winning a little less than a third of the republican vote. so there was seven in 10 republicans, you know, who chose somebody else in their primary. and on the other hand, fetterman just cruised to the democratic

primary and won basically in a run. so he had the democratic primary, democratic electorate united with him from the start and oz had a lot of work to do to get even his base voters, the base republicans, on board with him after that primary. and what it looks like has happened is that those voters have now eventually started to come home to oz and are now supporting him. and look, it's pennsylvania. when both parties have their bases activated, it's pretty evenly split. and that's what we're starting to see in that senate race. geoff: and candy, while mehmet oz, the republican, has narrowed the polling gap, there is polling that shows pennsylvanians still seeing him somewhat unfavorably. there's still a lack of enthusiasm for him as a candidate. how is he trying to address that? candy: i'm not sure that he is addressing his deficiencies yet at this point. that's what analysts an pollsters are saying. and they say that's hurting him, that he's not addressing some of those things. instead, he seems to be taking the fight to fetterman, and he's running a ton of ads.

he's getting a lot of money and help and support from the national senatorial committee and also the senate leadership fund. they're trying to flip control of the senate. they want to be the majority party. and they're putting a lot of money, about $16 million in a month into tv ads in pennsylvania that they're trying to paint fetterman as soft on crime. so he seems to be addressing this by going on more offense. geoff: let's talk about the governor's race, jonathan, because polling in that contest shows democrat josh shapiro, he's still leading republican doug mastriano by double digits. so why are republican voters at the moment not coalescing around mastriano in the same way that they are around oz? jonathan: mastriano, you know, is kind of the opposite case. he won his primary much more easily than oz did. but mastriano is a much more extreme figure from the far right. an election denier. a leading election denier who

was at the capitol on january 6, although he says he did not go into the building. he says that he would ban abortion with no exceptions whsoever. he's tried to kind of walk that back, but in other tes he's reinforced it. and that does appear to be his posion. and he has really done no outreach to voters who are outside of his original base of support. he pretty much speaks only to very far-right media. his events are, until very recently, largely closed, and so he's only speaking to people who already support him. so there is even a significant segment of republicans, more moderate republicans and swing voters that are just not coming around to mastriano. and importantly, we talk about tv spending, he has not run a single ad on television and that's hard to win in a state that's as large as pennsylvania without being on television. shapiro has spent over $20 million on television. it's basically unheard of to see that kind of disparity. geoff: and, candy, on the issues, nationally, you have

republicans ying to ma the midterms about the economy, inflation, immigration, and crime. democrats are hoping that reproductive rights will be a dominant political issue. which seem to be resonating in pennsylvania in these o races that we're talking about? candy: i think it's, you know, not to be too cliche but it's kind of a base race. and, you know, the abortion issue is rallying a lot of democrats. but as we have seen in even other states during the primar it also is motivating independents and republicans. i think the question that even democrats are trying to figure out leading up to the midterms is, how motivating will it be on november 8? keep in mind, that's going to be the beginning of the holiday season. families that were already struggling are going to be squeezed even more. so how do people feel when they're voting on november 8 about their economic position? that could have a big impact, but i'm not sure we know that answer yet as to what is the most motivating.

i would also add that republicans nationally, like we're seeing with oz making the issue with fetterman about crime, that is definitely part of a national strategy. and we are seeing republicans in every battleground state and really across the map making trying to make the issue crime. geoff: candy woodall and jonathan tomori, thank you both for your insights. i appreciate it. jonathan: thank you. gef: time now for our weekend spotlight, my conversation -- and some time spent in the kitchen -- with award-winning baker and author, bryan ford. bryan ford catapulted to prominence during the pandemic's bread-baking frenzy, inspiring millions with his blog and instagram account, full of innovative twists on sourdough bread-baking, all while celebrating the baking cultures of latin america. bryan invited us to his home in queens, new york.

his kitchen is a baker's treasure trove, complete, of course, with vats of pungent sourdough starter. bryan: the most important part is just getting a nice whiff of it. geoff: whoa, wow. bryan: you got sho geoff: his first cookbook, released in the summer of 2020, "new world sourdough" sold out its first printing. that led to starring in his own cooking show, "baked in tradition," on chip and joanna gaines' magnolia network. bryan: all of a sudden, like, yeah, people just started baking. you already know, i don't even have to tell you. you kept up with the news. it just became a whole thing. everyone was baking bread. geoff: bryan says he's been cooking and baking for as long as he can remember, ultimately finding his calling after leaving behind his career as an accountant.

what about baking sort of drew you in? bryan: man, baking is romantic. baking is like a meditation, it's simple. it's, you know, you don't have toe so precise. i mean, that the dough is a living creature, too. i mean, every single time you bake is different. even if you use the same recipe, to the t, every single time, it's going to be different. i mean, the temperature variables and your emotions, your mood, how you feel is translated into the dough. you have a bad day and you bake, you're going to make some bread that's probably not great. when you're having a great day, your bread is going to be great. geoff: the child of honduran immigrants, bryan imparts lessons learned from cooking in his mother's kitchen. bryan: my parents worked so hard to get into this country. and my mom put herself through school. she put herself through three different colleges to ultimately get her accounting degree when she was, like, 46. and she became like she you know, she still works as like an accounting supervisor. she's very proud. but, during those days when she was working hard,

especially in the summertime, i would be home, taking care of my little sister, and would cook for my mom, you know, because she would wake up, she would go to an internship and then go to school at night. she'd come home exhausted. yeah, well, you know, and so i learned quickly from what she taught me how to cook. geoff: i read somewhere you said that, you know, you go to any bakery across the country and you're going to see croissts and baguettes. why can't the same be true for honduran food? bryan: i agree 100%. and and that and the reason i have that sentiment is not because i don't like the taste of croissant and baguettes. i think they taste great. like most bakers when i started, i was obsessed with making those things. when i was an accountant, i was like every day perfecting croissants at home. it was like i was like, i got to learn how to makcroissants. that's the gold standard. yeah, it is nothing wrong with that. but the fact remains that this kind of western european ideology seems to permeate people's thoughts when they want to open a bakery. i'm trying to be more in touch with, you know, the indigenous people of the new world, latin america. i mean, we are very,ery beautiful people.

we have beautiful baking traditions as well. i grew up eating semitas, rosquillas, you know what i'm saying? delicious, dunked in coffee, but everyone just wants to make some brioche. but, we don't play with no brioche, know what i'm saying? geoff: but alfajores are a different story. bryan: we're gonna make some alfajores, one of the most popular cookies you'll find in latin america. geoff: the recipe is simple. cream together butter and sugar. add egg yolks. bryan: you can see here it's creamy, smooth. that's the base. gef: incorporate the dry ingredients. bryan: flour, salt, and most importantly, i have cornstarch. geoff: lastly, add some vanilla extract and lemon zest. roll the dough, chill it, and bake the cookies until they're barely brown. bryan: we're gonna check the bottom, very carefully. that's a beautiful color. geoff: spread on some dulce de leche, sandwich them together, and roll them in shredded coconut. bryan: and, now we have an alfajore gigante.

geoff: definitely gigante. this is great. i'm wearing it, though. bryan: you make them for the kids, know what i'm saying? something fun you can do. teach a little abo history, some latin american history, and eat something delicious. geoff: through his baking, bryan encourages exploration. bryan: i think people just focus on the wrong aspects of baking, aesthetic stuff. instead of focusing on flavor, focusing on the fact that you made something with your own two hands that you should be proud of, like, focusing on sharing what you made with your friends and faly. those things should be first and foremost. then you can start to like, oh, well, it doesn't, doesn't have the big air pockets, and you know all that kind of thing. people get obsessive about crumb structure, which is crazy. it's bread. can you imagine, like, ancient civilizations when they started making bread that you imagine

them sitting down and being like, dang the inside don't look good, man, shoot. geoff: throw it out and start over. bryan:rgh, what did i do wrong? geoff: it takes some trial and error as bryan ford redefines what artisan baking can and should be. bryan: i'm just saying i tried to focus specifically on latin american baking, tapping into my culture and my experiences and trying to make the best possible breads and pastries around. a lot of patience, a lot of time down here in the kitchen. and a lot of messes to clean up. geoff: bryan's show "baked in tradition" can be streamed on the magnolia app, discovery-plus, and apple tv. finally tonight, tia kennedy is an indigenous rights activist in canada. but growing up, she struggled to access indigenous culture and practices. as an adult, kennedy says she realized those practices held

thousands of years' worth of wisdom to help improve individuals and society. tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on generational healing. tia: we grew up with a lot of health anxiety in my household. because of things like not having access to clean water. i remember there was one time i went to my friend's house, and they had offered me a glass of water. and then they took it from the tap. and my mom got really concerned about it. she had grown up in an environment where drinking from the tap was dangerous. and so in that instant, she feared for my life by drinking out of the kitchen sink. so, i come from two first nations communities from southwestern ontario. one of them is bkelwanong, which

is walpole island first nation, and oneida-deweeding nation of the thames. my grandmother passed away from cancer and we suspect it happened from the chemical dumping that was constantly happening close to our first nation and within the waterways. she died before the age of 40. her sister died before the age of 30. and her other sister died before the age of 30. and it just doesn't make sense how so much pollution can go into these waterways and take matriarc from our community at such young ages. currently, there's about 52 boil water advisories that are still in effect today across 33 first nation communities in canada. when we don't have access to things like clean water, it's really heartbreaking. to us, water is a medicine. when people cry, we collect those tears because it's a form of medicine to us. we live what's called the good life. it's to ensure that we protect

food for the next seven generations, and we're never taking more than we need. it's a huge part of who we are and our identity. because we carry ancestral wisdom that we've held for thousands and thousands of years, you're really just doing a disservice to yourself by not including us into these conversations. we are responsible to be the caretakers of mother earth. as a future ancestor, i have a role and responsibility to fulfill, and that is taking care of myself and taking care of my community, and taking care of the planet, so that i can ensure that the next seven generations will have a place to call home. my name is tia kennedy, and this is my brief but spectacular take on generational healing. geoff: and that's our program for tonight. i'm geoff bennett.

for all of us here at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your sunday with us. have a great week. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning stitute, which is responsible for its caion content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

i'm michael render. tonight, a conversation with hip hop legend, big boi. hard to believe it's been 25 years since outkast burst into the scene and propelled southern hip hop into the forefront of music. big boi tonight, on the continuing influence of outkast, and how his georgia roots have impacted his life and his career. thanks for joining us. a conversation with big boi, coming up right now. - love and respect with killer mike is made possible by: cadillac. monster energy. ledger. and by, the ressler gertz family foundation. together we are proud to bring more love and respect into our collective conversation. ♪♪