>> good evening and welcome. >> the federal reserve raises interest rate in the wake of multiple bank failures. amna: the political ramifications of former president trump's legal troubles widen. geoff: and doctors work to address the health care gap in rural parts of the country. they may not have a doctor. meaning they don't have a doctor? londner: correct. not only didn't have a doctor, they may not have had one as a kid growing up. >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by.

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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 and welcome to the "newshour." the federal reserve has raised interest rates again by another quarter of a percentage point. today's decision came against the backdrop of troubles in the banking industry. amna: the rate hikes are being blamed by some for weakening banks. but fed policy makers stuck to their stance that higher rates are essential for the moment to try bringing inflation under control. >> after announcing the fed's ninth rate hike, chairman jay powell suggested the might be a slow or pause future increases. >> we believe in events in the banking system are likely to result in tighter credit conditions for households and businesses which could affect economic outcomes.

it is too soon to determine the extent of the effects. >> the fed has been doing its share of damage control for nearly two weeks in the wake of the second largest bank failure in u.s. history. the collapse of a silicon valley bank followed by signature bank. that's part broader concern about the stability of america's small and midsized banks, like first republic where customers fled to larger banks. even before the bank failure, some economists and policymakers encouraged the fed to stop interest rate hikes over fears of a recession. the fed is weighing whether they could destabilize the economy. job growth remain strong and steady with more than 300,000 new jobs created in february. powell is facing fire from republicans and democrats on a

number of fronts, including banking oversight as it conducts its on review of the silicon valley bank failure. senators rick scott d elizabeth warren introduced a bipartisan bill that would replace the fed's internal watchdog with an independent one appointed by the president. moran called out the fed on >> i sunday. am calling for an independent investigation of the fed and the whole regulatory system. the fed does not just get to do its own investigation. >> powell today spoke to the issue. >> there is 100% certainty there will be independent investigations. when the bank fails, there are investigations. of course, we welcome that. >> the fed is reconsidering rules for midsized banks around stronger capital and liquidity. something warren and others say they strongly support. amna: chairman powell also repeatedly said today that he thought the banking system is "sound and resilient." for a closer look at these decisions and the state of the economy i'm joined by kenneth

rogoff. he's an economics and public policy professor at harvard university and former chief economist at the international monetary fund. he's also the author of several books on financial crises. welcome back to the "newshour." let's start with the news of the day. what do you make of the fed's decision? >> they pretty much did the only thing they could. a couple weeks ago, jay powell was warning everything that he would raise things 50 basis points. that is out the door. i think he was worried that if he set it at zero, everyone would think, what did they know that we don't? he said i will keep pushing with inflation. really, they are very nervous not knowing if inflation will go higher. will the banking crisis get worse? it is a tough place to be. amna: would this have been different, would we be having a different conversation today if

we had not seen the second largest bank failure in u.s. history and the entire banking industry was not on eggshells? kenneth: absolutely. inflation is still high. whatever people thought it would go away, it is not. there are a lot of different measures of it. it looks like it will last for quite a while, even for the most relatively optimistic fed forecast. they do not want that. if they allow that to happen, interest rates might creep up to take that into account and that is what they want to nip in the bud. but we have this banking crisis. amna: we have heard a lot about working toward a soft landing.

slowing of the economy enough to curb demand and slow down inflation but not enough to smart a rise in employment. do you see the soft landing as still possible? kenneth: honestly, i think what they will do now is fly over the airport. by now, i mean leave inflation higher for longer. if they raise interest rates as much as they might need to -- and they say they might -- w might make things worse in the banking sector. i don't think they are ready for that. even though we are being told left and right that everything is sound. deposits are fine. the real question is will they be making loans in the same way? will it be harder to get a mortgage, car loan? that is a real amna: you say deposits are fine but clearly people are nervous. the previous rate hikes help erode the value of many bank assets and bank failure to prepare for that partially led to some collapses. should americans be concerned

about small and midsize banks, about their futures? kenneth: i feel like the federal reserve and the treasury have broadcast that they will protect depositors, even ones with billions of dollars, bailed out silicon valley bank. that has a l of problems because bankers will do more risky things. it will lead to bigger problems in the future. they rlly telegraphed that. the problem is the other side of the coin is everyone is worried banks will not be able to lend as much. they will have to raise deposit rates and they will have less profits to lend out. for the moment, it looks like they have contained the panic

but, longer-term, bankers do risky stuff and they are certainly not raining that in, the more they regulated, the harder it will be. there are problems ahead. amna: some of the concerns from lawmakers about the fed's oversight ability. do you believe the fed is up to the job of monitoring the banks? kenneth: yes and no. it is a very professional grade staff but there are problems with the governance of the fed. there is the center in washington that everyone talks about. there are regional feds that have their own world of governance. typically the board of directors would have people from financial sectors. i was very concerned about that in 2008. the even appointed someone from goldman sachs to run the new york fed, the most important regional fed. i believe the ceo of silicon valley bank was on the board of directors of the san francisco

fed, regulating the silicon vaey bank. that has been a problem. i do not know what the fed has to say about that but i feel like that should be addressed. amna: that is kenneth rogoff, economics professor at harvard university. thank you for joining us. kenneth: thank you. >> here are the latest headlines. russian missiles and exploding drones slammed into residential targets across ukraine. security camera video showed a missile strike in an apartment building. at least one person was killed. drone attacks damaged a high school and two dormitories, killing at least eight people. police condemned the indiscriminate firing. >> the attack began after 3:00 a.m..

russia attacked civilian objects without any warnings or conditions. we see children and civilians suffering. >> the attacks came xi jinping left moscow. south korea's military says north korea testfired multiple cruise missiles today. the north has stepped up weapons testing as south korea and the u.s. hold joint exercises. tanks conducted live fire drills less than 25 miles between the demilitarized zones. back in this country, the head of norfork southern railroad faced calls for tougher regulations into the fiery and toxic to roman in east palestine. at a senate hearing, alan shaw avoid --

>> will you commit? >> we will commit to make sure the railroad operate safety. >> will you commit to a two person crew on all trains? >> senator, we are a data-driven organization and i'm not aware of data that links crew size with safety. >> other witnesses say they are still waiting to see if the railroad company will compensate them for damages. the faa issued a safety alert after several near collisions, six runway incidents have occurred since january. the agency says it is urging airlines to review safety procedures. abortion care is legal in

wyoming. a district court judge put the new abortion ban on hold for two weeks. the ban prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy, except in cases of rape or incest that are reported to law enforcement. or to save the pregnant person's life. wyoming has only one abortion provider in the entire state. at least five people have died in the latest from to batter california. heavy rain and fierce winds blasted the san francisco bay area and sacramento on tuesday. today a tornado touched down in southern california, damaging buildings and injuring one person. drone video showed extensive flood damage in the central part of the state -- with homes, roads and farmland left under water. still to come. the government announced plans to overhaul the organ transplant system. also, the supreme court hears a trademark case.

the head of the foundation on his new book about the way we think about giving. >> this is the pbs newshour, from w eta sdios from washington and the walter cronkite school of journalism at this >> manhattan grand jury hearing evidence in the hush money payments to an adult-film actress didn't meet today as regular scheduled with no immediate word on why leaving , open the question of whether mr. trump will be indicted. meantime, the former president is said to be "invigorated" by the possibility of an indictment. the new york times reports that he's told friends he "welcomes the idea of being paraded by the authorities before a throng of reporters and news cameras." all of raising questions, not just about his fate but that of the republican party which has largely tied its future to donald trump.

republican strategist doug heye is a former communications director to house majority leader eric cantor and the rnc. he joins us now. donald trump has fund raised off of what he says is an expected indictment. what do you make of this notion that he would use this as part of a campaign strategy is to mark >> donald trump uses anything to his advantage. the rules never really applied to him. in the short term because the primary calendar is entirely consistent with when he took his escalator ride in new york. long-term, if he is the nominee,

disaster. >> president trump allies in the house have used their majority to demand the testimony of alvin bragg and it reads too many people like an extraordinary effort to influence a grand jury investigation. this topic has consumed much of the gop street in florida. >> a look at it from this perspective. america should have equal justice. this was seven years ago. in your heart of hearts, you think that this is political. that's what the rest of the country thinks. >> is that the smart political move? in such as the manhattan case. it's also the case in georgia

and the two federal investigations. >> there is a lot going on. things can be true at once, was happening is political and donald trump might have committed a crime. we have seen this for years. if you want to play donald trump game, you have to back them up. donald trump does not give points, he only takes them away. you have to document manhattan, georgia. in one place he might have done something wrong which means he will be indicted. this is where republicans have backed themselves into a corner and is not going to change anytime soon. >> after months of waving off taunts. it is starting to hit back.

>> i don't know what goes into paying hush money to a born star. but i can speak to is if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many years ago to use something about hush money, that is an example of pursuing a political agenda. >> governor desantis new what he was doing. is there room for criticism? >> there is some room depending on how you do it where you can go after trump on certain things. republicans have been critical on policy things. lindsey graham, very difficult

and tough oa tuesday or wednesday. desantis is in a different position. he is potentially running against trump. the closer salon. these are soft close he is throwing. he can do this for a while. he is smart and strategic in taking on trump a little bit out of time. what is he doing there? taking the trump line that the system is rigged. part of what you are hearing is clintonesque. a lot of the democratic rhetoric was this is old news, move on. >> if you think about what happened in the 2020 election, independent, suburban voters

don't like donald trump. i won't bore to their break from the base? to attract a wider base of support? >> when i worked at the rnc in 2010, we knew that you do not win or lose races in washington. you do in congressional distct and states. the problems republican have is look at the candidates. a lot of the elections where winnable races were thrown away because republicans nominated the wrong candidates. that's difficult. the rnc does not get involved in primaries.

there started to flex muscles because they know the mistake. this is what mcconnell has borne the party. republicans will have the same problems. >> the biden administration announced plans to overhaul the network that has from the organ transplant systems nearly four decades. the organization has faced criticism. in 2022, doctors performed more than 42,000 transplants in the u.s. but there are still 104,234 men, women and children currently on the organ transplant wait list and every 10 minutes anoer person is added to that list 17 people die every day waiting

for an organ transplant. the proposal would open up a bidding process to possibly take over the network. to help us understand why this overhaul is crucial, i'm joined by the director of the division of transplantation at the heersink school of medicine for the university of alabama in birmingham. welcome and thank you for joining us there is a lot the plan seeks to do, at the heart is breaking up this network that has operated like a monopoly from most 40 years. help us understand how it came to be that way in the first place? in many ways, there has been inertia to overcome how the act

was written and some of the requirements there are in terms of administering the contract. it is great to see a desire to reflect on where we are and how we can get better so we can help our patients. amna: the system relies on a network of more than 50 local organizations to both procure the organs and help manage the transplant process. that network is responsible for increasing the number of transplants performed over the years. critics say that system has led to vast inequities. where have you seen that show up? dr. locke: for us in the southeastern u.s., when you look at things like kidney disease, there is no question that recently we saw an increase in

the number of transplants but that reflects sadly on the opioid crisis. what the numbers do not reflect is the results of some of the new allocaon systems. currently due to inefficiencies and logistics, 1 in 4 kidneys are actually discarded in the u.s., or not transplanted. that is 25%. those are lives that could have been saved. amna: there is the issue of the wait list, as well. there have been previous attempts to fix the system. hhs pointed out black people were four times more likely and latinos were 1.5 times more likely to have kidney failure but are less likely to be on the transplant waits lists. why is it so hard to get on the wait list in the first place? dr. locke: simply put, you have to have resources to complete your evaluation to make it to the waiting list.

there are about 700,000 americans that have kidney failure. fewer than 100,000 are currently wait listed. that certainly disproportionately impacts people who self identify as african-american or black. social determinants of health drive this. individuals who are om areas of high social vulnerability -- struggle to make it to the waiting list to achieve transplant. amna: dr. locke, you are on the front lines of this everyday. when you look at this plan, do you believe a competitive

process can help fix the system? dr. locke: i think it certainly can and it can't hurt. there is nothing worse than going to clinic and evaluating patients and knowing that even though the patients that qualify for wait listing will die before we can offer them a transplant. we know transplants are lifesaving, life-giving. they are associated with substantial lifesaving benefit. in many cases, organs are being discarded from logistical challenges. organs can only be out of the body for so long. they can only be on ice for so long before they are no longer good enough to transplant. no matter how good of a transplant center is at doing a transplant, if they do not get what they need quickly enough, the game is over. anything that can help our syst get better, to be more efficient so we can help those individuals waiting, that is a win. amna: there are more than a hundred thousand people currently on that waitlist. what does this proposal mean for

them? dr. locke: my hope is they have a renewed hope for the opportunity to achieve the gift of life in the form of a transplant. my hope is it gives them a voice. this is the biden administration and the senate and house saying we need to do better. we need to do more for these individuals who have been waiting. to let them know they are not forgotten and we need to do better collectively to help them achieve this extraordinary gift of life. amna: that is dr. jayme locke joining us from the university of alabama at birmingham. thank you for joining us. dr. locke: thank you. geoff: when it comes to health, rural america lags far behind the rest of the country. the reasons are complex. including the sheer distances people have to travel to see a provider.

the challenges are the focus of a series we start tonight. with support from the pulitzer center in collaboration with the and global health reporting center, we report from west virginia for our series, rural rx. >> this is where i grew up. i have lived in morgan county my entire life. you are one hour from the nearest walmart. [laughter] some people may not want to live that way but to us, this is home. >> this mountain, this slice of west virginia has been home to their family for six generations. she is visiting a family friend who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. she struggles to afford her medications and cannot live without her oxygen. the power in their house is unreliable so there is a generator at the ready so she can always breathe.

>> it is hard finding someone good around this area to help you. >> she says these kind of struggles are everywhere here. >> there might be an option to help. >> we take care of her. west virginians are all connected. we are all family. my mission is to advocate for people who are so vulnerable that they do not have a voice. when you look at west virginia specifically, you have the highest number of chronic disease, diabetes, heart disease. we are losing so many of our people to death, and early to death. >> on nearly every health metric, rural america fares worst of the rest of the country for life expectancy to maternal mortality. residents are a third more likely to die from diabetes, 20% more likely to die from heart disease and more likely to die of cancer or accidents. there are higher smoking rates and fewer people with health

insurance. in many health categories, west virginia, a heavily rural state, ranks dead last. these are the challenges that this doctor and his colleagues face. he is chairman of the emergency department at berkeley medical center in martinsburg. >> for as many of the myths are not urban legends, the reality. the idea somebody waited four they said they were having a heart attack and could not get transportation and did not call 911 because it cost too much but it is free. >> people in rural areas are less likely to have access to good, quality health care.

compared to urban areas, rural areas has fewer nurses and less than half as many doctors per person. people have to go farther to access care, unless they have someone like angie gray to help them. >> if you already struggle for transportation, or you live in a rural area where it will take you onever to access health care, some places in west virginia, two hours to access health care, you are less likely to make it there and get help. >> when people do come for care, they are using the emergency room as a doctor'office. something the doctor and his team have turned into a virtue. >> for a lot of those folks, we can use our emergency department as a primary care office at times. a number of those people are here with kids for fevers. we are giving antibiotics. on any given day, you have three rooms of eight euros with a flu, two overdoses and people who are elderly looking for admission with diseases. >> in some cases, he said, that emergency room visit is the first time a patient has seen a doctor in their entire life.

>> some of the folks i see have never had health care ever and they are in their 60's. >> they don't have a doctor? >> correct. they might not have had one as a kid. they might not have been vaccinated. for them, the opportunity to meet a physician for the first time or they comment and you say do you have a history of high blood pressure? they say no and they are hypertensive. you have never been tested before so you do not know. >> not going to the doctor for preventive care is not uncommon in parts of west virginia. the pattern that is repeated across rural america. >> if you want someone to come to the hospital, you might as will not write the prescription you give them $700 worth of medication, just realid it will not thrown away -- they will throw it away because they cannot afford it. places in the world were have done disaster work have been better off. a percentage of my people do not

have indoor plumbing, access to power. there are a lot of places that ambulances show up and say you cannot send them back. they will show you pictures, they are living in a place that is rat infested, there are raccoons in the house and you are like, this is where they live? it is the best i can do. >> we go out and meet them where they a. >> since getting to a hospital can be difficult for some money, she goes to them. delivering preventive and essential care straight out of for toolbox. >> it looks like you have had ear infections before. we probably prevented a couple urgent care visits today. it was awesome. we got to prescribe some antibiotics.

we are just going right back to old-school family medicine, which is what we love. >> urgent care out on the street. >> at times, practitioners here say the need can be overwhelming. >> hello. >> especially when it comes to mental health. rural americans report higher levels of depression and suffered suicide rates more than 30% higher than people who live in cities. and yet, for those people, it is harder to find help. rural areas have fewer than half as many psychologists per capita. >> it means we have a year-plus waitlist in our outpatient clinic. it was recently two years, we got it down to 1.5 years for adults. >> she is a clinical psychologist who works at the harpers ferry family medicine center. in a typical fashion, she embeds with this family practice to make it seem less for patients who. want mental health care elsewhere, people face big obstacles. >> kids are waiting a year-plus for specialty services like testing for adhd, developmental disabilities. a lack of services overall.

>> so people who could be in a crisis circumstance would call and say can i get help? and they are told -- >> go tohe emergency room. that is all we can offer. >> can new start browning the chicken while i get the vegetables cut up? >> yes i can. >> we caught back up with the nurse after she visited her friend. how typical is that circumstance of what we saw today? >> typical. very typical. a lot of people i know, personally, a lot of patients that we have are all dealing with that, trying to be able to afford to get their medications. trying to get to health care. >> hoping the power stays on? >> hoping the power stays on so you are not out of your oxygen.

>> she said these problems are ultimately fixable but not if we tackled them piecemeal, one patient at a time. >> there is a villager who walks into the river and there is a baby floating down the river. another one comes floating down the river so he pulls the baby out. all the villagers are gathering around the river and all these baby star comi down the river and they are jumping in and pulling them out until one villager walked upstream to see who was throwing the babies in the river. we need to get more upstream. >> she admitit is an uphill climb but it is one the are taking step-by-step. for the pbs "newshour," i am william in rural west virginia. amna: supreme court arguments often deal with weighty matters like abortion, religion and discrimination. today, as john yang reports, they focused on a chew toy for dogs in a case that raises questions about free speech and commercial trademark

protections. john: the maker of jack daniels whiskey has a bone to pick with a marketer of dog chew toys. the distiller of the iconic american liquor wants to muzzle the products. america's second-largest dog toy company and part of a $100 billion a year business. for more than 120 years, jack daniels has used a distinctive square bottle adorned with old number 7 and tennessee sour mash whiskey. beginning in 2014, selling a squeaky dog toy -- a replica of a jack daniels model that proclaims the old number 2 on your tennessee carpet.

>> a hilarious dog tour that will have everyone talking. john: part of their silly squeakers line. it says it is a playful parody. jack daniel sedin could confuse consumers into thinking it is their product. so now this dog toy tug-of-war has gone to the supreme court. questions the justices are being asked to decide is windows parody crossed the line from protected free speech to trademark infringement? free speech advocates lined up behind the dog toy company. defending parody as a recognizable form of social commentary. company such as nike and campbell soup support jack daniels, sing notable trademarks need protection. >> we will hear an argument this morning. john: the justices worked through the competing interestsin today's oral argument, which included references to a pornographic movie depicting the dallas cowboys cheerleader uniforms. attorney. >> the movie "debbie does dallas" was not aesthetically pleasing. it infringed on a trademark. they do not want to talk about the pornographic and poisonous

things that can be done. john: a justice worried about the case's first amendment implications and seemed spectacle that it could be confused as a product from jack daniels. >> could any reasonable person think that jack daniels had approved this use of the mark? let me envision this scene. somebody in jack daniels comes to the ceo and since i have a great idea about a product we will produce. it will be a dog toy and hava label that looks a lot like our label and it will have a name that looks a lot like our name. what will be in this dog toy is dog urine. do you think the ceo will say that is a great idea?

we will produce that. john: a justice questioned how a dog toy could be protected speech expressing a message. >> this is not a political t-shirt. it is not a film. is not an artistic photograph. it is a standard commercial product. i do not see the parody, but whatever. >> the distinction between goods and that is a nonexistent standard. >> dog toys are utilitarian goods. you are using somebody else's mark as a source identifier and that is not a first amendment problem. john: a supreme court analyst. >> this court is very strong on first amendment speech. ean there are justices who are concerned about not killing parody, which is a very useful and fun part of our lives and products. i do think that they are trying

to balance the first amendment concerns here with the actual parody and whether it does damage to jack daniels trademark. >> they will chew over -- for the pbs "newshour," i am john yang. geoff: in 1889, the industrialist andrew carnegie, one of the richest men of his age, wrote an say titled athe gospel of wealtha, calling on those with money to use it to promote the general good, and laying a foundation for philanthropy in this country. now comes afrom generosity to justice: a new gospel of wealtha that proposes shifting the focus of giving. its author: darren walker, president of the ford foundation which for the record, is a funder of the newshour. jeffrey brown spoke to walker for our arts and culture series, canvas.

>> this was the original. >> darren walker says the mission of the ford foundation is simple. he is a true believer in the mission and power of institutions like his to advance it. he also sees a problem. >> i wanted to say that while philanthropy is good and we should be proud of it, there is so much more we can do to move from the idea of generosity to the aspiration of justice for all. >> he became president of the $60 million foundation in 2013. he is in the business of giving away money in this country and abroad. he is part of a movement in recent years to shift philanthropy's focus. the renaming afford's manhattan headquarters to the center of social justice.

we spoke recently inhe foundation's atrium garden. what does justice mean and the context of philanthropy? >> we see too many people live without dignity, are stripped of their dignity, their humanity is ignored, while we do terrible activities. -- charitable activities. philanthropy needs to go deeper. part of the aspiration of this book is to lift up the voices and experiences of those philanthropists who are doing it in america and around the world. >> he is now part of the power elite but his roots go back to small-town east texas, where he was raised by a single mother. he said the opportunity to attend a publicly attended head start preschool program for lower income children changed everything. >> it changed my life. it put me on a trajectory where i could go to public schools, great public universities, texas, and then be off into the world.

that was because i lived in a country -- the potential for me to have a life with dignity. >> and you still hold that past, even though you are now a big player in the world of philanthropy? >> i see my role as an insider as understanding the plight of those who are outside, who are left out and left behind. yes, i absolutely believe it. i have to say, i believe in this country. i believe in the idea of america. when i feel angry at this

country, or rage for some injustice, it is because my patriotism, my belief in the words of our founding fathers is unwavering. >> one of the things you write in the book, you say wealthy people should ask themselves, where are my resources most needed? aren't they asking that question? is nothing question they normally ask? >> most philanthropy in this question goes to wealthy institutions that often serve the wealthy underprivileged. >> from wealth to wealth serving wealth. >> look at the percentage of philanthropy the goes to wealthy

colleges and universities. hospitals. independent private schools. these institutions primarily serve the wealth or certainly people who have more privilege. i am simply saying we should ask ourselves, how do we direct our philanthropy to those who are most eluded? >> is it hard to change that mindset of where the money goes? >> i do not mean to say that people need to have some foundational transformation change in thinking about philanthropy. what i mean to say is, get a little uncomfortable. when you look at organizations working on the front lines in homelessness, in building affordable housing, working on disability issues, these are areas that are heavily under resourced in philanthropy. >> that means inevitably some

are getting it now might not get it. >> i think if we are prepared to interrogate our privilege, we will conclude the philanthropy is not only about giving back, but it might be also giving up mething so that we can have america opportunity does exist for all. social mobility escalator that i was able to ride continues to go up. does not slow down. does not stop as it has for far too many americans. which is contributing to our political and civil unrest in the sense that too many americans feel left out. rural america, where there is not enough work going on in philanthropy, parts of our country that truly have been left behind, and whether people feel angry when they have every right to be angry. >> you know the critiques better than anyone. philanthropic organizations,

foundations are built on the fortunes of the very kinds of inequities you are critiquing in our society. and they enjoy many tax breaks that many of us don't and you yourself write they live off of and extend privilege and power. >> there is no doubt there is a contradiction in a foundation having billions of dollars in an endowment and talking about inequali. but i believe we have to talk about a different kind of economic system, or capitalism, which in my few is the best way to organize an economic system, produces less inequality. people like me, we need to ask ourselves, how do we deal with these contradictions of our privilege and our aspirations for opportunity? we have to be intentional. >> from generosity to justice, darren walker, thank you very much. >> thank you.

amna: opening day for professional baseball is just around the corner, and this year it wl be notably different. major league baseball has enacted a series of new rules intend to make the game more exciting. stephanie sy went to a spring training game in arizona to check out the action. stephanie: on a perfect 73 degree day, baseball fans flooded into scottsdale stadium. spring training is major league ball without the high-stakes, explains an 11-year-old. >> it is relaxing. they get to learn the new rules. if they make a mistake, it does not matter. >> the match up this game was between the san francisco giants and the milwaukee brewer's.

wii gives players a chance to find their groove before opening day. this season, it is particularly critical. >> you have new rules. >> he is the national baseball write for the san francisco chronicle. >> the pitch timer, the bigger bases, the ban and-- the biggest rule changes the pitch clock, which will make the pace of the game mh quicker. the pitch timer make sure the pictcher will throw the ball in time. >> the giants manager was initially indifferent about the new rules. now that he has seen them in action, he is sold. >> it has been a lot quicker pace. we have the same good brand of baseball. >> the average length of games during the first weekend of spring training was down 23 minutes. but not everyone is a fan.

what you think about the pitch clock? >> i think it is kind of stupid. >> why do you think it is stupid? >> it is an automatic ball if they do not throw it in 20 seconds. >> this 10-year-old likes to take his time when he pitches. for the giants pitcher who usually works fast on the mound, the rules are not that bad. >> i got my first violation in my first inning of spring training before i even threw a pitch. >> how did that feel? >> felt like i was at a little bit of a disadvantage to start. >> a week into spring training, this new york mets pitcher tried to push the boundaries of the rules to his advantage but he was called for a balk because he pitched too soon. the other major adjustment, the bases are bigger now. 18 inches across instead of 15. the distance between home plate and first base is three inches shorter. it is a change that favors runners and could lead to more aggressive stolen base attempts.

the giants manager said he is already singing payoff. >> we are seeing more stolen base attempts. fans want to see more action and the a stolen base is an exciting part of baseball. the rules are being set up so you see more of that. >> this giants fan, who watches more than 70 baseball games a year, said the bigger bases are an offense to history. >> you have to throw out all the stolen base records and some of the hits that will be achieved. rickey henderson, i am sure he is not too happy about it. [laughter] >> the giants first baseman sees the perks. >> the runner has more room to step on the bag and not step on your ankle. >> the last big change involves it how players stand on the field. long gone are the days of the infamous shift. players crowd onto one side to anticipate the direction a power hitter will direct theall. the new rules force two players to stand on each side of second base with all of their feet on

the infield dirt when it pitches thrown. that means more hits and more action on the field. running, fielding. >> some of the old strategy will be out of the mix and it puts the onus on the players to be more athletic. we are just not going to have that perfectly optimized defense of positioning. >> this brewers fan is taking in the game without much thought to the new rules although he says was about time. >> with all the other major leagues out there -- nfl, nba -- nhl, even -- the emphasis on maki sure there is more excitement in the game. mlb was long overdue to make some changes. >> it is the game folks in the 1960's and 1970's for up watching. the pitchers could not

stall and players took risks. >> it is a quicker pace and that is the game i wanted all along. >> opening day and a n era for major league baseball is march 30. i am stephanie sy in scottsdale, arizona. amna: what you think? geoff: there is nothing wrong with a four-hour baseball game. i am a purist. [laughter] amna: that is the "newshour" for tonight. join us tomorrow when the head of tiktok is set to testify before congress in the wake of growing calls to ban the app. i am amna nawaz. geoff: i am geoff bennett. thank you for spding part of your evening with us. have a good night. >> major funding for the pbs "newshour" has been provided by. >> for 25 years, the goal has been to provide wireless service to help people communicate and connect.

we offer a variety of no contract plans. to learn more, visit our website. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour," including jim and nancy and cathy and paul. >> you do not need vision to do most things in life. >> it is exciting to be part of a team. driving the technology forward. people who know know bdo. ♪ >> the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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