john: good evening. i'm john yang. geoff bennett is away. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” our focus on the midterms continues with a look at the tightening race for north carolina's senate seat. then, we look ahead to monday's supreme court cases focused on race in college admissions decisions. and, civic health -- a nonprofit that uses healthcare providers to register new voters. >> some of the issues that are plaguing you as a patient are things that i can't fix with a speech on diet and exercise or with surgery referral or with a prescription. john: all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend.

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broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening there is grieving and confusion in south korea tonight, after a fatal crowd crush in downtown seoul saturday evening. on twitter, president biden said at least two americans are among the dead. we begin with a look at how a vibrant halloween celebration ended in tragedy. today, normally a hub for real ring -- for revelry, it was a memorial site. 153 people killed in a saturday night crush. 133 more were injured. it unfolded during halloween celebrations in a tiny overcrowded alleyway. i witnesses report people pushing which began the stampede. >> there was panic coming towards us.

some shouts of fear but also confusion. we did not really know what was happening to us. john: people waited for news of missing loved ones. nathan said he got separated from his friends in the crush. >> so many people. i turned around and i told the crowd, you cannot come way. people are dying. john: today, the alleyway was littered with remnants of the facilities. the south korean president toward the site and announced a week long period of mourning. he says the government will thoroughly investigate south korea's deadliest disaster in a decade. today's other headlines, somalia's president confirms that at least 100 people were killed, and 300 more injured, in yesterday's o suicide blasts in the capital, mogadishu. the al-qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al-shabaab has now claimed responsibility for the attack.

it's the deadliest terror attack in the country since two truck bombs killed nearly 600 people in 2017. indian government officials say at least 80 people have died, and many more are unaccounted for, after a cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river in western india. video shows people clinging onto the dangling bridge, others swimming to safety. the bridge was built in the 19th century and had just reopened this week after renovations. polls have closed in brazil in the runoff presidential election between the far-right incumbent jair bolsonaro, and the leftist former president luiz inacio lula da silva, known to the people as "lula." bolsonaro has maligned democratic institutions, and weakened environmental protections for the amazon rainforest, while da silva was once imprisoned for corruption. most onion polls give da silva the lead, but those margins have tightened recent weeks. and in lebanon today, president

michel aoun left office one day before the end of his term, leaving the country with no leader. aoun presided over lebanon's ongoing financial meltdown, but ended his presidency with a breakthrough agreement with israel to share energy resources in the mediterranean sea. still to come on "pbs news weend," we get an update on the ongoing baby formula shortage. and a nonprofit bringing voter registration to the exam room. >> this is "pbs news weekend," from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs. john: with just eight days left until the midterm elections, we turn to north carolina where a type race for an open senate seat has marginally ayed under the radar. republican congressman ted budd faces shry beazley, a

democrat. jeff to beery is the capital chief covering the race and he joins us now. from your vantage point on the ground, what is the state of this race right now? jeff: it is relatively sleepy if we are being honest. compared to 2014 and 2020 when at the time north carolina had the most expensive u.s. senate races in the history of the country. compared to the amount of spending we have seen in some other states, pennsylvania and georgia, it is relatively quiet. john: relatively sleepy this is a democrats the -- a race of democrats have high hopes for. why should they be hopeful for this race? jeff: this is as close to a 50-50 state as you are going to find in the country. it is slightly right of center, to be clear. but at the same time there is a two-term democratic governor here and the margins are such that we have seen some extremely close races.

easily the democrat in this race lost a bid for state justice of the supreme court two years ago. there were millions of votes cast. she lost by 437 votes. so the margins here in recent election cycles have provided very narrow margins. that is part of the reason the mike krantz are bullish to a degree as it pertains to the john: what seems to be resonating with the voters? jeff: i am not entirely sure what is resonating with the voters, or if this is just the latest in tribalism and hyper partisanship. oh, it's an r or d next tohe name and people have staked out their positions months ago. but the issues have not been surprising, not to say they are not important. there has been a pivot to the issue of abortion, as we have

seen in many of these marquee races. on the right, a regular beating of that campaign drum is economic issues, inflation, and to a lesser extent -- john: what about the national leaders on both sides? donald trump barely won north carolina in 2020. his margin actually went down from 2016. president biden having difficulties of his own. have they been playing a role in this ways -- race? jeff: not so much, is the short answer. both candidates have been trying to keep a safe but healthy distance. budd was vaulted in this race a year ago after an endorsement from president trump but he has not been seen on the stump with him and has tried to position himself as more of a moderate down the home stretch of this election.

i would be remiss if i did not note this is to replace retiring richard burr. he is someone who voted to convict donald trump. so whichever major party candidate wins here, there will be a shift from the status quo. john: this has also been an election cycle where we have seen hyperventilated rhetoric in close races around the country. this is a close race that could determine control of the senate but it has been pretty genteel. jeff: it has been. and i think viewers of viewers who have been around long enough might member some u.s. senate contest in 1990 and 1996 in north carolina. those unfortunately turned racist towards the end and had some very questionable campaign tactics. we fortunately have not seen

that yet to this point. perhaps we will not and hopefully we do not see that here. but yes, historically the campaign rhetoric has been far more gentle. john: jeff, thank you very much. jeff: my pleasure. john: the national baby formula shortage began after safety concerns forced the shutdown of a major supplier's flagship plant. that company, abbott labs, has since reopened the plant, and the white house has tried to alleviate supply chain logjams. but as ali rogin reports, almost nine months later, parents are still struggling to find some brands of baby formula. ali: statistics show that formula stocks are almost back to where they were before the crisis began. but ask most parents of young

children ithey're now easily able to find their pferred brand and you're likely to get a mixed response. soow is it that baby formula needs are still not being met? here to discuss that is journalist helena bottemiller evich, who runs the food fix newsletter. helena, you've been tracking these numbers very closely, but you've also been doing a lot of anecdotal research in stores, and we're not seeing the stocks on the shelves match what the statistics seem to be bearing out. how do you explain that discrepancy? helena: yeah, it's one of the most confusing things i've ever covered. so, i mean, the good news is it's getting better. we have enough formula to feed all of our babies. we have enough calories. so the volume is there. so that's the good news. but that said, as you mentioned, a lot of parents are still seeing shelves that look pretty bad. it is not hard to find barren shelves. even my local grocery store, which is about two miles from the capital itself, has been maybe 50% stocked throughout

this situation. so i think when parents see an infant formula section that looks, you know, largely empty, it also encourages them to buy more. it's normal human response. and so i think until the formula sections look better we're going to see, you know, stress from parents and also some over buying, frankly. ali: so what formula are we seeing on the shelves and what formula isn't quite back to where it was prior to this crisis? helena: so right now, the iri worldwide retail data, which is sort of the gold standard, that data shows that we're 87% in stock right now on average. most parents wld tell you they're not exactly experiencing that. and that is because a lot of the variety has come down a lot. so infant formula makers are actually making far fewer types of formula to try to bmore efficient to meet volumes and sort of meet this disrupted moment we're in. that kind of helps parts understand, you know, you're seeing way less variety and you're not seeing as much of the particular brand or type that

you might be looking for. and i think that makes it el like a shortage, even though we have enough right now. ali: a big contributor to the shortage was abbott labs, which controls about 40% of market share. it closed its biggest facility in sturgis, michigan. that facility reened in july following the recall. how much did that affect the shortages that we have been seeing? helena: yeah, i think there's no question that the massive recall in february made the situation very disrupted and a lot worse. but i'm actually convinced that we would have had some level of shortage even without that recall, because stocks were starting to get off before that, months before that. and so certainly, though, if you shut down the largest manufacturing plant for infant formula in the country, that plant was responsible for about 20% of infant formula production. it's going to be really disruptive. and the good news is we are back to producing more infant formula than we were before that shut down. but everyone i've talked to is

really surprised this has gone on this long. if you had asked me in may, would store shelves still look disrupted in the fall, in the winter, i would have said absolutely not. this will get worked out. and so the fact that they still look quite bad in many places is shocking to a lot of people. ali: let's talk really quick about the white house's actions here. they've taken a number of them, operation fly formula. they were flying in formula from overseas. they invoked the defense production act. they opened up the market to some foreign manufacturers. how have those things helped or not? helena: ah, i think all of those things have helped. i mean, they put in a lot of new policies in place to, as you mentioned, you know, get more imported formula on store shelves before this crisis 98% of formula that we consumed in the u.s. was domestically produced. so if all of a sudden you knock out a big part of your processing, it's not like we can seamlessly bring it in from other countries. so we have made it easier to get imports on the shelves. those formula flights have

actually broug in almost 100 million servings of formula. so it's been, i think, a significant impact. but again, going back to the fact that we are eight months into this and ore shelves still look bad in many places, i think tells us that more needs to be done and we are not out of this yet. ali: bottom line, helena, does anybody have an idea of when this is going to end and things get truly back to normal? helena: i really don't know. every time a biden administration official has tried to predict when this is going to end, they have been wrong and it has still been an issue far past the deadline they have set. i really don't know. i think, you know, best case scenario into next year, into early next year, we'll still see some disruption, but hopefully it will get better and better because this has been really stressful for a lot of parents. ali: helena bottemiller evh, who dominates the formula beat and runs the food fix newsletter. thank you so much for your time. helena: thanks for having me.

john: tomorrow, the supreme urt is to hear oral arguments in two cases that asked the justices to erturn decades-old precedents that have allowed colleges to consider race as one factor in admissions decisions in order to create diverse student bodies. opponents of that practice say that any decision based on race is wrong. angel perez is ceo of the national association for college admission counseling, a national group of college admissions and counseling professionals. the group has filed a brief with the supreme court defending the use of race in college admissions. angel perez, thanks so much for joining us. and from your perspective, what's at stake in these cases tomorrow? angel: i think there's a lot at stake. i think the ability for institutions of higher education to diversify is at stake, as well as for students of color in particular to gain greater access to higher education. it's a pretty big moment in history. john: the driving force behind this is an organization called

students for fair admissions. it's run by edward blum. we asked him what his aim is in these cases, and he said, we believe that a student's race should not be used to help or harm that student's chances of being admitted to a competitive college. what's your response? angel: i disagree. i think it's important for the american public to know that most institutions of higher education use race as one factor of many, many factors in what we call holistic college admission. and so it's really important for institutions to be able to tak into account the entire lived experience of a student, and that takes into account race. i's very difficult to actually evaluate a student's entire life without really taking that into account. john: how do youeconcile that, or to the ideal that we're being taught of a race bnd society where race doesn't matter? angel: yeah, i think that should still be the goal. but the reality of the matter

is, and we have certainly seen this in the past several years with a racial reckoning in this country, is that we are not there yet. race still matters in this country. and also it's very car that we have many marginalized populations. there are many students with fewer resources. the majority of those students do tend to be students of color. and so taking all of these factors into account is really important so that we can continue to try to ensure that as many students who deserve to be at institutions of higher education haveccess to do so. john: if the students for fair admissions were to prevail and the supreme court were to say that colleges cannot consider race as a factor in making decisions, how big a change would this be to the college admissns process? angel: i think it's important for students to know that they probably will not see a change in their process. what will change is how colleges and universities diversify their applicant pools, the way they might reach out to students, the way they might recruit students.

and certainly what's going to change is that when admissions officers are evaluating applications, they will not be able to take race into consideration, but they will continue to use holistic college admission. john: there are two states, california and michigan, where the voters have said by ballot initiative that race and ethnicity cannot be used in admissions decisions at state universities. what's the track record? how have they done? angel: i think we can learn a lot from michigan as well as california. and the one thing i think is important for people to know is that both of those states have now been successful in recruiting diverse populations into their institutions. but when prop 209, for example, happened in the state of california, there was a very large drop in the enrollment of students of color for several years before institutions were able to recruit those numbers. and so a big part of where the focus is going to be in the future is recruitment. john: so aren't you sort of

acknowledging that the other side has a point, that you can achieve diversity without using race as a factor in admissions decisions? angel: you certainly can, but it is very, very difficult. and one of the things that the university of california has stated very clearly is that they still have not achieved the numbers that they had before of students of color, even though they are in, you know, the most diverse state in the nation. for me, this is really important because it's not just about college admissions. this is about the future of a nation. this is abhewhou nr eteotor w differences, to be able to learn from each other. we're already a deeply divided nation. imagine if college campuses become less diverse. john: angel perez of the national association for college admission counseling. thank you very much. angel: thanks for having me.

john: according to census data, fewer than three quarters of americans who are old enough are registered to vote. since 2019, a nonprofit called vote e.r. has taken voter registration efforts into medical exam rooms across the country. health care providers checking on patients' civic health. one of them is tionya lawrence. she's a family nur practitioner in athens, georgia. tionya, thanks so much for joining us. we should state off the top that even though it's called vote e.r., you don't do this in emergency rooms, right? tionya: not necessarily when they first come in. i'm actually in family practice, but a lot of our volunteers and health care providers are actually in the e.r. john: so how does this work? how do you bring this up in your conversation with patients? tionya: i think it has to be a conversation that's done not just during an election year, but something that's done year-round all the time. i think it's important for health care workerand health care providers because we already have that rapport with our patients.

when you come into our offices or clinics or hospitals, we're already asking you very invasive questions already -- sexual history, smoking, do you drink? and so i think it's important to implement that extra question in there. do you drink? do you smoke? are you registered to vote? john: what's the reaction like? tionya: we've had some great, awesome outcomes. i personally have had some awesome outcomes. i think initially it'a shocker to patients in general because you're there to talk about an illness or a chronic condition, and we're asking you about your voter registration status. it's been very well received, and any time i have any patient that seems a little bit puzzled, i always pause and give my little speech about how civic health is important to your physical and mental health and how some of the issues that are plaguing you as a patient are things that i can't fix with a speech on diet and exercise, or with surgery referral or with a

prescription. john: give us a little bit of that speech if you will. draw the line between physical and mental health. tionya: absolutely. i'll paint a picture of a patient i had. a 67-year-old african-american female discussing diabetes, and it was an easy diagnosis. it's something that any provider could have done. and you pat yourself on the back because you've made the correct diagnosis and you've given them a speech about diet and exercise, and you've given them a wonderful prescription for a medication that they saw on tv that's going to work wonders for their condition. but then you realize that that patient can't ford any food changes or dietary changes because they're already living paycheck to paheck. you realize they can't exercise because their neighborhood isn't safe, or they work two jobs and they don't have time when they get off work. you also realize that that woful prescription that you've written, that patient can't afford that either. and so that's when we talk about

how the social determinants of health, which are things in the vironment where people live, work, play, and interact, are directly correlated with their civic health. and so that's when we talk about voting and how i can't necessarily change those things from the inside of my office, but as a patient, you can with your vote. john: do you ever get pushback or have you gotten pushback either from a patient, someone maybe accompanying a patient, or someone else outside the exam room? tionya: i wouldn't necessarily say pushback. i've got a lot of, i will say, being ignored at some times. i think when you try to implement it here in certain areas, a lot of people psume partisanship. but the cornerstone of vote e.r. is that we are a non-partisan organization. our job is to make sure that the democracy is reflected best when every voice is heard. john: and you do see this is an

extension of caring for your patient. tionya: absolutely. this should be something that is implemented in everyone's practice. i believe in june of 2022, voting was implemented as a social determinant of health, as a health crisis. so it is super important. john: tionya lawrence, family nurse practitioner from athens, georgia, who helps register her patients to vote. thank you very much. tionya: thank you so much for having me. john: and that is "pbs news weekend" for tonight. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you soon. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by. and with the ongoing support of the individuals and institutions.

this progr 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 institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

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