geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: i'm amna nawaz on the "newshour" tonight, newly-released body camera footage of the police response to the nashville school shooting renews the debate over how to prevent these deadly attacks. geoff: congress investigates why recent bank failures were not prevented despite multiple warning signs. amna: plus, the disappearance of a woman in boston, and the little attention paid to her case highlights the broader plight of missing latinas. >> we are seeing this across the country, the lack of urgency around missing cases with women of color. ♪ >> major funding has been

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♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and five contributions to your pbs station from viewers like -- and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: good evening and welcome. authorities are still searching for a motive in the shooting at a christian elementary school in nashville, tennessee, that left six people dead. geoff: law enforcement said today the shooter bought seven guns legally, three of which were used in the murders. and nashville police released new video of their response. stephanie sy has the latest. and a warning, her report includes video that some viewers may find upsetting. stephanie: newly released surveillance video shows the shooter driving up to the covenant school, and gaining entry into the building by

shooting through a side door. it is 10:10 a.m. the suspect was through the halls carrying two assault style rifles and a handgun. police received reports of the shooting three minutes after entry, around 10:13. as police officers arrive at the scene, the assailant fires at their vehicles. >> i'm making entry on the front side. stephanie: body camera footage shows officers following the sound of gunshots to the second floor, where they confront and kill audrey hale. hale was a former student at the christian school. police have obtained writings and campus maps they say show hale calculated the attack. they also say hale had other targets in mind. police have given unclear and sometimes conflicting information about hale's gender. but they said today the guns used by the shooter were legally obtained. police chief john drake said investigators are in contact with hale's parents. >> we know that they felt that

she had one weapon, and that she sold it. she was under care, doctors care law enforcement knew nothing -- she was under care, doctors care for an emotional disorder. law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving, but her parents felt that she should not own weapons, they were under the impression that when she sold the one weapon that she did not own any more. as it turned out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house. stephanie: in nashville, mourners continued to gather at the elementary school today to lay flowers and pay their respects. >> it sends a message that things need to change and that thoughts and prayers alone aren't something that fixes or can aid this situation. stephanie: the student victims were evelyn dieckhaus, hallie scruggs, and william kinney-all , all nine years old. the three adults killed included the head of the school, katherine koonce. cynthia peak was a substitute

teacher. mike hill, a custodian. as voices rise for lawmakers in washington, d.c. to do something about the epidemic of gun violence, this morning the senate chaplain's morning prayer was a call for divine intervention. >> lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers. remind our lawmakers of the wos of the british statesman edmund burke, "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people do nothing." stephanie: a prayer as much as a call for action in the growing chorus of grief. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. geoff: amid the shock of the

tragedy in tennessee are renewed calls for leaders and lawmakers to do something. kris brown is president of brady, a gun-reform advocacy group, and joins us for more on what that something could be. thank you for being with us. kris: thank you for having me. geoff: the assailant purchased seven firearms, three of which were used in the murders he and as this person was being treated for an emotiona disorder. this person's parents did not know the guns were in the house. how do we solve for that? what piece of legislation, what policy would have prevented this from happening? kris: extreme risk protection laws in 19 states and the district of columbia have passed last year. president biden signed a bipartisan safer communitiesct to give funding to states and to cause other states to pass these lawshy is that relevant? because what that says is, as a

law, if you have someone in your household who is at risk of doing themselves harm or others, you can seek a protective order from the court to remove all firearms. in some states, that also means that person is put into the background checks systemo we need that kind of law. tennessee does not have that law so when i hear what the parents are sayg, it breaks my heart. i think they tried and did what they could but tennessee does not offer them other solutions that they should and they must because this is far too frequent in our life today and we need all of the tools that we can amass to stop gun violence. geoff: at the federal level, the gun reform debate appears to be frozen. president biden says congress needs to act. he says he has exhausted the range of what he can do unilaterally but there are a couple of things i want to point out that suggests congress will

not act onhis anytime soon. one is congressmen and the ogles whose district includes that christian school. he received widespread criticism from gun-control advocates for a christmas photo that he posted in 2021 of his family posing with ar-style rifles. today, he said he has nothing to apologize for and did not see anything wrong with that. tim talked to reporters yesterday and said there is no way to fix gun violence. m: i don't see any role that we can do other than mess things up honestly because the situation, like i said, i don't think a criminal will stop with guns page you can print them out on the computer now, 3d printing. i don't think you are going to stop the gun violence. you need to change people's hearts. geoff: is that what the public sentiment is question marked -- sentiment is? kris: no, it's a failure of

democracy. that is manifestly against what every poll tells us the american people want. 93% of americans want expanded background checks. why is that? because they know that background checks save lives. we have stopped more than 4 million through the brady law, 4 million sales of guns to prohibited purchasers but today, one in five guns is sold with no background check at all. why is that? over the internet and at gun shows, these guns can be sold with no background check by private sellersecause when jimmy and sarah brady passed the law, there was no internet nor no gun shows. president biden has talked about some other things we can do. for those who say we cannot do anything, let's look at the kind of things that they are actually doing in congress and in state

legislatures to reverse, to back roll the kinds of public safety that are important to us. today, congress was supposed to have a hearing in the house about certain kinds of devices that can be added to assault style weapons, to make them more deadly. they canceled that hearing. why? because of this shooting, because there are certain reports that indicate that the shooter used to those kinds of devices, brace stabilizers is what they are called. obviously, people like him who talk about we cannot do anything, they are the ones who are trying to rollback protections and i have to say, the issue that we as americans should really internalize is do we want a version of the second amendment that is a death sentence to our fellow americans? are we going to make this a key political issue or won't we?

we have to hold people like that lawmaker and others to account. they have blood on their hands. i cannot vote. i wish i could. i cannot vote in congress but i can vote at the ballot box. and every time i do, i make gun violence prevention a priority and that is what we must do if we want to change the trajectory of our country. this is a national shame. we cannot say we live in a country, the land of the free, the home of the brave, when our kids are dying at school and when gun violence is the number one killer of our children, surpassing automobile fatalities . we have to make a difference and we can. we can and we should. we are americans. geoff: thank you for your insights and thanks for being with us. kris: thank you.

♪ amna: in the days other headlines, a federal judge has reportedly ruled that former vice president mike pence must testify in the justice department's january 6 investigation. news accounts say he's ordered to appear before a federal grand jury. it's unclear if he will appeal. mr. pence acted as senate president on january 6, 2021, counting electoral votes. he argues that under the constitution, he cannot be questioned about any legislative duties. across france today, hundreds of thousands of people turned out again to protest raising the retirement age to 64. demonstrations were largely peaceful, but bands of leftist militants battled police in paris and other cities. special correspondent ross cullen is in paris, and has this report.

ross: paris is known as the city of light, but today in parts of the french capital it was the city alight. protesters clashed with police and thousands of people flooded the famous place de la republique, in the heart of the city. riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd after some black-clad protesters, the so-called "black bloc", pelted police with stones. paris police chief laurent nunez. >> there is a tense situation, but it's not an insurrection. law enforcement is present, they will still be present this afternoon to maintain republican order. ross: though the vast majority of protesters were peaceful, their anger was no less fierce. >> we're here to make the government give inith regard to pension reform. we can see that there is massive anger.

>> i can see colleagues who work in canteens, as school maintenance workers who at the end of their workday, although they're less than 60 years old, they already have physical difficulties. so you can't even imagine what it's li working until 64 years old. that's not possible. ross: rail traffic was disrupted with hour-long delays, and the iconic eiffel tower stood closed today. its staff joined the nationwide strike. protesters also blocked entry to the louvre. the government used a special constitutional powers to bypass parliament on a final vote of the contested pension changes. after more than two months of demonstrations, there could be some movement from the opposing sides. the unions have written a joint letter to the president calling for mediation in the prime minister says she is ready for talks with the opposition xt week. but the protests show no signs of dying down. for the pbs newshour, i am ross: in paris.

-- i am ross in paris. amna: garbage collectors suspended a strike that has left mounds of trash on the streets. there are growing signs that ukraine's military is revving up for a spring offensive. the defense minister said today is forces will soon begin using -- said today his forces will soon begin using modern battle tanks delivered by germany, britain, and others. and in washington, u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin told a sete hearing that russia is having to rely on older, soviet-era tanks. >> the ukrainians have inflicted significant casualties on the ruians and they have depleted their inventory of armored vehicles in a way that no-one would have ever imagined. and so now, we see russia reaching for t-54 and t-55 tanks because of the level of damage ukrainians have inflicted on them. amna: meanwhile, today, ukraine's president zelenskyy walked trenches in the "sumy" region of northern ukraine, where russian forces were driven

off last april. lawmakers in scotland today confirmed humza yousaf as first minister. he is the first person of color to lead the scottish government, and the first muslim to lead any western democracy. yousaf was elected monday to head the ruling scottish national party. he supports efforts to gain scotland's full indpendence from the united kingdom. in mexico, a late-night fire killed at least 40 people at a migrant detention center. mexican officials say migrants fearing deportation burned mattresses at the facility in ciudad juarez, just across from el paso, texas. ambulances, fire crews, and morgue vans swarmed the scene. dozens of men and women from central and south america had been held there, and relatives ited for news. >> [speaking spanish] >> nobody tells me anything. i ask, and they give us a rude answer or don't give us any information. i want to know what is happening because i worry about my wife. i want to know what is going to happen to her. are they going to deport all of

them? amna: many of those at the shelter were waiting for action on requests to be granted asylum in the u.s. the world health organization is out with new covid-19 vaccine guidance, and it's suggesting an extra shot for high risk groups. the recommendations say older adults or people with various risk factors should get another booster, 6 to 12 months after their last vaccination. the w.h.o. also says children and young adults who are healthy may not need an addional dose. back in this country, an appeals court in maryland reinstated the murder conviction of adnan syed whose case was chronicled in the , podcast "serial". the court ruled the murder victim's family had no proper notice of the hearing that led to syed's release last september. he remains free, pending a new hearing. federal prosecutors have unveiled a new indictment against sam bankman-fried, founder of the bankrupt ftx cryptocurrency exchange.

it charges that he directed at least $40 million in bribes to chinese government officials to unfreeze some of his business assets. bankman-fried now faces a total of 13 charges. and on wall street, stocks edged slightly lower on a relatively quiet day. the dow jones industrial average lost about 38 points to close at 32,394. the nasd fell 52 points. the s&p 500 slipped 6. still to come on the "newshour", top banking officials testify before congress on the industry's recent turmoil. vice president harris looks to strengthen u.s. ties and investment in africa. state legislatures move to limit teens' access to social media. plus, much more. >> this is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

geoff: this was the first of two days of hearings about the failure of silicon valley bank, and the role of federal regulators in all of this. we'll hear more in a moment about how lawmakers from both parties criticized top officials today, but first, let's break down some of the basics behind the second largest bank failure in u.s. history. economics correspondent paul solman is our guide. paul: the collapse of silicon valley bank. first, what happened? >> svb is a large bank that essentially failed. >> and why? i asked economist dana peterson. >> first of all, it was highly concentrated in an industry, the tech sector, that's really not doing that well right now. paul: and the depositors were? >> many of the folks who were vested in svb were very high net worth individuals, meaning they had tons of money. and you also had a number of startup companies in the tech sector. so you had companies that need money for payroll and cash.

paul: of course banks usually love such depositors. but svb didn't have enough corporate or individual borrowers to loan the money to. what does a bank do then? >> you can lend to the government. uncle sam and auntie sammy are very happy to borrow from the public. and they paid decent rates of interest, of course. paul: interest on sam and sammy's iou's, that is, their government bonds. but that was a few years back. but then the tech sector turned sour, and the depositors had to start withdrawing their money. to come up with the cash, svb had to sell some of those bonds. guaranteed safe by the government. but, says johnson -- >> problem is there is interest , rate risk, which means as interest rates go up, the value of the bonds go down. paul: why when interest rates go up, does the value of bonds go down? >> well, it is the value of the old bonds, the bonds that were issued at a previous interest rate, paul, because now the government is borrowing, paying

a higher interest rate. paul: i thought this might benefit from a bit of show and tell, at the treasury itself. simple when you stop to think about it. the bank had bought billions of dollars of u.s. treasury bonds at a low rate of interest. suddenly, it had to sell some to come up with the cash to pay off fleeing depositors. meanwhile, interest rates had gone up. today's bonds are paying a much higher rate of interest than these. so which would you rather have? obviously, this one, which means this one's worth less. the price goes down, the bank loses money. and, says sam johnson -- simon johnson -- >> depositors thought about that, noticed it in some fashion, and decided to pull out even more money. >> and that's what happened. >> every cent of it. >> just remember this thing is not as black as it appeared. >> it's a wonderful life

paul: as he told jeff last week -- >> we all saw that when the money had been invesd in mortgages. they did not have all the cash paid no bank does. every bank makes investments on some of their deposits. >> i will take mine now. >> no, but you are thinking of this place all wrong, as if i had the money back in a safe. the money is not here. paul: the bank has made loans. either you call in the loa or if you cannot do that, you cannot pay the depositors. either way, the bank is in serious trouble and may not survive. paul: so who done it? putting them all in one basket, long-term bonds, quick trigger depositors. inflation that hiked interest rates, killing the value of long-term bonds, and the likes of senator elizabeth warren loosening regulation starting

back in 2018. >> we need to learn from what has just happened with these banks and go forward by tightening regulations. it is just that simple. paul: simon johnson agrees. >> news regulation was very important. he changed the tone of supervision. the bank was very poorly supervised. amna: what is the fix -- paul: what is the fix? >> the federal deposit insurance corporation with the permison of the treasury secretary invoked a special provision of law and said that they would stand behind the deposits of every depositor at signature bank and silicon valley bank even if they had a lot more than $250,000 in the bank. paul: the federal reserve also came to the rescue. >> we have the tools to protect depositors when there is a threat of serious harm to the

economy or to the financial system and we are prepared to use those tools and i think depositors should assume that their deposits are safe. paul: so we are at the federal reserve. what is the fed's role in all of this? >> a lender of last resort. they lent hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks. paul: the key question, what does the future hold? >> the economy was already slowing down partly because the federal reserve has raised interest rates a lot now, the banking crisiss going to slow it further. banks are going to be more reluctanto lend and that means borrowing and less spending in the economy. paul: but that's what the fed wanted to begin with. slow down the economy. >> absolutely. as jay powell, the fed chair, said in his press conference the other day, the credit crunch that's caused by the banking crisis is somewhat going to substitute for interest rate increases. paul: thus concludes wessell. >> the fed won't have to raise interest rates so much. paul: because the banking crunch

may or may not squash inflation, on its own. for the pbs newshour paul solman , in washington. geoff: lawmakers also dug into what went wrong and the role of federal regulators both before the bank's collapse and since then. congressional correspondent lisa desjardins reports on the hearing. >> it looks to me like the regulators knew the problem, but nobody dropped the hammer. lisa: in the first formal congressional hearing on the collapse of silicon valley bank. , senators grilled top federal regulators on why they didn't do more to prevent the bank's demise. >> this does not take a highly sophisticated person to understand the risk, and it damn sure had to be known months before the chickens came home to roost. lisa: -- >> if the outside sector knew this was happening, you and the fed and the other 4000 other examiners should have known that as well. lisa: officials including the federal reserve's top regulator, michael barr, laid the blame primarily on the bank itself

saying svb grew too quickly and , rolled the dice, rather than acting, as rising interestates created high risk. >> this is a textbook case of bank mismanagement. lisa: but senators' gaze was pointed equally at the fed. >> mr. vice chair barr, did the fed drop the ball because it didn't see the risk that was building? >> fundamentally, the bank failed because its management failed to appropriately address clear interest rate risk and clear liquidity risk. the federal reserve bank brought forward these problems to the bank, and they failed to address them in a timely way. lisa: senators asked why fed regulators didn't act sooner, with some republicans noting that the agency saw signs of risk and flagged them asarly as 2021. >> the federal reserve knew well in advance that silicon valley bank had a problem with holding too much of its money in interest rates since xx -- since the government bonds,

didn't you? >> i think the investing public and the federal reserve, which cited it for interest rate risk problems knew that it had interest rate risk >> the federal reserve didn't do anything about it, did it? >> i disagree with that, senator, respectfully. the federal reserve did cite these problems to the bank and required them to take action. bank management failed to act on those. >> you didn't follow up, did you? lisa: some senate democrats like elizabeth warren are urging more regulation. but not all. jon tester of montana voiced his larger frustration. >> i am not a banker, i ain't even close to being a banker. i'm a dirt farmer. let me tell you, when they laid out what happened at this bank over the last two years, you didn't have to be an accountant to figure out what the hell was going on here. lisa: rafael warnock here's the bottom line. ordinary folks who just showed up and put their deposits, they shouldn't have to bear the brunt and burden of these bad decisions. lisa: the fdic is in the middle

of a review of what happened and how it insures bank customers. as for the fed, barr said it will consider stricter regulations for banks going forward. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. amna: vice president kamala harris is in africa this week for a three-country tour focused on economic development and security. over nine days, she'll meet with political leaders in ghana, tanzania, and zambia. geoff: her travel follows other high-level officials' trips to the ntinent, as pressure to counter chinese influence in the region grows. laura barron-lopez reports on the trip's historic and strategic significance. laura: for america's first black female vice president, a trip with deep political and personal meaning. kamala harris placing flowers in a women's dungeon at the cape

coast castle in ghana. and walking through the 'door of no return', where millions of africans were forced in chains on to ships bounfor the americas. >> so being hereas -- was immensely powerful. moving. laura: speaking off-script about the brutality of slavery, harris challenged growing efforts back home to censor black history. vp. harris: it cannot be denied it must be taught. history must be learned. laura: a solemn moment to recognize the past during a visit harris says is focused on the future. specifically for women and young people. reporter: --vp. harris: to witness firsthand the extraordinary innovation and creativity that is occurring on this continent. laura: on the fastest-growing and youngest continent, harris met with young artists at a

skate park and recording studio. vp. harris: around the globe, people hear songs that are moving. laura: joining her were actors coming together to highlight the power of music to unite the african diaspora. >> i know where my voice be, lord. laura: harris's trip folws the african leader summit, held in washington last year. pres. biden: the united states is all in on africa and all in with africa. laura: since then, she is the fifth high-ranking administration official to visit the continent in a sweeping effort to strengthen relationships in a part of the world where chinese influence runs deep. china has poured billions into infrastructure and development projects across africa, including a $2 billion deal in ghana to build roads and bridges.

on this trip harris announced , $100 million in security and conflict prevention assistance for the western coast, but said the goal wasn't to counter china. vp. harris: this trip is motivated i the importance of the direct relationship between the united states and ghana. laura: and ghana's president nana akufo-addo made clear he would work with both nations. >> there may be an obsession in america about the chinese activities over the continent but there's no such obsession here. china is one of the many countries with whom ghana is engaged, your country is one of them, virtually all the countries in the world are friends with ghana. laura: the vice president is expected to announce additional investments later this week to empower women-run businesses, enhance food security, and promote climate resiliency. in ghana, a model of democracy in the region, harris said the two countries must continually work to preserve freedom. the vice president will also travel to zambia, a place where her grandfather lived and where she spent time as a child.

geoff: there's so much symbolism wrapped up in this weeklong trip. multiple audiences, both abroad and here at home. what is the white house hoping to achieve? laura: they are hoping the vice president really uses her ability to strengthen ties with africa, that they talk a lot about the historical significance of her going there, but one personal political thing that she is also working on is gaining foreign policy experience. she met with more than 100 foreign leaders as vice president. this comes after her big trip to the munich security conference and this is showing she is very much part of the bite reelection plan. gef: the vice president's office has been aggressive and intentional about owning and trying to reshape public perceptions of her and how she is handling the job. how can we look at the trip in that context? laura: like prident biden, vice president harris has an uphill climb with the public, with voters.

it is a recent poll that shows harris's approval rating is at 30 6% and her disapproval rating is at 53% but i spoke to multiple sources that are close to harris and they argued that she is really key to the president's reelection, that democrats are starting to rally around her and say the backbiting needs to stop and they have really warned other democrats that if she were to somehow be set aside, that there would be a swift backlash. for the first year and a half of the administration, there was a lot -- there was very little time spent out on the trail. now, harris has recently traveled to tallahassee, florida, on abortion rights, traveled to iowa. it was her first trip to the state this year on abortion rights, and that is a big issue for her. geoff: the vice president was not on this trip alone. she was surrounded b friends, allies, celebrities had what was the idea behind that? laura: this was the idea.

she wanted all of those celebrities including spike lee, the film director, the president of the naacp, the president of the urban league, as well as a number of hbcu presidentshere with her because they said they understand that harris does not always get all the press they want her to get, that the vice president alone may not be able to create this echo chamber. they also said that bringing those people along, they bring their own resources and investments to the continent to really stress the importance of these ties with africa that the administration is focusing on. geoff: a bit of a signal boost. thank you so much for that reporting. laura: thank you. amna: now from the political landscape around the vice president's trip, to the realities on the ground in africa; and, the changing relationship between the u.s. and the 56 nations of the continent. gyude moore served as minister of public works in liberia, and is the director of the africa initiave at the center for global development, a think tank.

welcome to the newshour and thanks for joining us. vice president harris is now the fifth high-ranking u.s. official to visit africa from the biden administration. what message do you take away from that about how the u.s. views the continent right now? gyude: thanks for having me again. the first thing is that this is a stark change from the administration that came before. when the previous administration announced its africa policy, there was not even a cabinet level official. this is the fifth high-ranking official. we gauged the value of the relationship between any two places and how high the level of exchange is between them. this also falls from august of last year, the launch of t new u.s.-africa strategy, and then the african leader summit. it seems both in rhetoric, perception, and substance, that the u.s. is actually backing up president biden's declaration that the u.s. is all being in africa and will treat africa as partners.

amna: we saw vice president harris announce $100 million in investment and new support for a few countries. the ivory coast and togo. that follows a 55 billion dollars december pledge by president biden to the continent over the next three years. does that say to you that the u.s. is all in as president biden put it? gyude: absolutely. one of the things you notice about the vice president travels is a lot of focus on the creative industries. if you follow the continent in any way over the past decade or so, you will see outside of agriculture, the place with the greatest potential is t creators and the tech sector. she did homage to that, followed by celebrities who are active in that space. 55 billion dollars is an accumulation of american commitments on the continent, existing commitments and some new ones like chattel.

when japan had its meeting with africa, japan pledged there to billion dollars over the same three year period and now, we are seeing the u.s. with $55 billion over that period. it shows in my view that the americans are sort of stepping up the game because as you noted, for the last two decades, china has actually increased its influence on the continent and many in the foreign policy center field like it came at the cost to the u.s. stepping up its game. amna: tell me a little bit more about that. one of the three nations vice president harris is visiting is tanzania. the president of tanzania's first state visit outside of africa was to beijing to meet with president xi jinping. where does chinese influence fit into all of this? gyude: i think for a long time, at least since 2000, china has been the largest bilateral lender when it comes to infrastructure financing in africa and because africa lags

the rest of the world when it comes to transport infrastructure and electricity, most african governments turn china. the united states is heavily present on the continent but in soft issues. health, education. may needs to be a balance between the two. so as long as china continues to dominate in providing physical infrastructure, rail, ports, roads, airports, most african countries turn to that and over time, the united states have realized that by ceding the entire space, it was not the best thing so we are seeing a change. the dfc is more active in africa, especially judo infrastructure. for africans, this is good, the kind of competition won between two great powers to see who is a better partner to africa, so sort of a race to the top between the united states and china. amna: u.s. officials say they are not asking nations to choose between u.s. and china.

she says she wants nations to expand their options. given the competition between the u.s. and china, what does that look like to you in practical terms? gyude: i think africa is very large. in the scale and scope of the challenges of the continent means there is not a single partner who could meet all of that so instead of finding a partner of choice between china and the united states, most africans will try and expand the choice of partners they have to deal with. in the long run, because it is a zero-sum game between the united states and china, a game will be perceived as a loss for the other. -- a gain for one will be perceived as a loss for the other. they hope the rise and influence will come at a cost of their competitor. amna: that is the senior policy fellow at the center for global developing joining us. thank you for your time. gyude: thanks for having me.

geoff: last year more than , 270,000 women and girls went missing across the country. udies have shown that when women of color go missing, they are far less likely to receive media attention, and as laura barron-lopez reports, along with producers karina cuevas and mike fritz, the case of a missing immigrant woman in boston is raising new concerns about how fast police respond. laura: it's been nearly four months since anyone has seen 41 -year-old reina carolina morales rojas. it's been four months since -- security cameras captured this footage of reina leaving her apartment in east boston on november 26. she was picked up by a car service and later dropped off five miles away in somerville, massachusetts. >> she's an excellent mother and a great sister. we are very close as sisters. laura: reina's sister, alicia morales, lives in santa ana, el

salvador. reina crossed into the u.s. as an undocumented immigrant last may but she and alicia spoke to each other daily. so when reina's phone started going straight to voicemail, alicia became worried. did it seem odd to you that she wasn't answering her phone initially? >> i just felt something was wrong because she never rned her phone off, not even to charge it. she always told me she kept it on in case there was an emergency with her ks or someone in the family. laura: last year, reina's family says she quit her job as a local policewoman in el salvador and came to the u.s. alone. her goal, to one day bring her two children, now 15 and 13, to live with her. >> she left for the united states for a better future for her kids and i've been saying that instead of finding the american dream what she found was hell. because only god knows what she must be suffering.

laura: when alicia didn't hear from her sister, she immediately reached out to reina's landlord, francisco magaña. >> and this is reina's apartment? >> yes. laura: hrecently showed us where reina had been living at the time of her disappearance. magaña filed a missing person's report with the boston police department on november 28, two days after reina was last seen. but more than six weeks would pass before the boston police department issued a public notice about reina's disappearance. >> i have never heard of a case like this before. to be missing november 26 and not hear aut it until january 12, that's a long time to go. laura: julia mejia is the first latina elected to the boston city council. she recently introduced a resolution calling on police to treat all missing persons equally. >> in this case, ms. morales rojas is not only a missing woman of color but also an immigrant, which further makes her susceptible to dismissive treatment.

it is not just the case with reina. we are seeing this across the country, the lack of urgency around missing cases with women of color. laura: reina is one of more than 250,000 women and girls who go missing every year in this country. but exactly how many of these women are latina is largely unknown. that's because local and national law enforcement often don't gather data on missing latinos like they do for white and black people. >> as a criminologist, i can't say, oh, there are this percentage of missing people that are latino because the data actually isn't there to say that. laura: danielle slakoff is a criminologist at sacramento state university. >> so many of our major criminal justice databases actually lumped white and latino people together. so this is a community that often is not viewed on its own accord, and it's often lumped in with this other category. laura: when a person goes missing, local law enforcement will enter any details they have into the national crime

information center, or ncic, a database overseen by the fbi. but within the ncic, hispanic is only listed as an ethnicity, not a specific race, making it optional for police to include. last year, of the more than 271 ,000 total entries under missing females, 21,759 women were categorized as hispanic. but in the overall database, the optional ethnicity field was filled out in less than 20 % of cases. back in boston questions still , remain why it took the police so long to publicly alert reina's disappearance. >> it's a misstep that happened and we as a police department own it and it shouldn't have happened. laura: victor evans is a deputy superintendent of the boston police department. it taking six weeks is not standard protocol for an alert to go out for a missing person? >> no, it's not. i mean the public alert was sent , out six weeks later. but prior to that, a lot of

investigative work went into it. we've canvased the areas for public and private video from residential homes and businesses. we've utilized her photo through several law enforcement agencies, not only in massachusetts but around the country. we've utilized the access of drones that we have department -- we have a long with canes to locate ms. rojas. laura: but reina's disappearance remains a mystery. >> police detectives are looking for the 41-year-old. laura: and her case highlights another major issue, how the media covers missing persons cases. studies have shown that media outlets often take their cues from police. >> we hear from law enforcement and then we cover it, right. laura: marcela garcia a columnist for the boston globe and one of the first journalists to cover reina's story. she believes the case has largely been ignored by media outlets because of what's known as missing white woman syndrome, a term famously coined by the newshour's gwen ifill. >> tonight, the mystery deepens

in the desperate search for 39-year-old anna walsh. laura: it refers to the disproportionate coverage missing and endangered white women often receive. >> when white women go missing, there's just all this attention and resources and outpouring of support and everybody wants to know what happened and let's find her. i said, how is this possible that a woman can go missing for a month and a half and we don't pay the sa attention, we don't give the same resources to find her? laura: the columbia journalism review recently examined thousands of news articles about missing people to create a tool called are you press worthy? where people can enter their own information to calculate how much coverage they would receive if they went missing. a 41-year-old latina in massachusetts, like reina, that would get about eight stories but a ssing white woman in her early 20's would be covered in more than 120 stories. criminologists call the phenomenon the ideal victim stereotype.

>>he ideal victim is somebody who is viewed as blameless and as needing our protection, our societal protection. women and girls of color are not portrayed in that way. tentimes, they are portrayed as risk taking at the time that the disapprance or the crime ocrred. whereas white women and girls are often portrayed as being innocent and blameless. laura: alicia morales says she continues to search for answers from police. >> i do believe that because she is latina, because she is undocumented, because she is an immigrant, they never cared about her and i even told them that. laura: the boston police department say they have no updates in reina's case, which remains an active investigation. and they rejected accusations that missing undocumented people are treated differently. >> we're here to help anyone, regardless of their status. we want to know where she is. we want to know what happened to

her. and if something tremendously bad has happened to her, we want to bring the person responsible for it to opt for justice. laura: in el salvador, reina's children are holding out hope that they'll one day see their mom again. we have shielded their faces to protect their identities. >> we love her and miss her and we know that one day she'll be back with us here in el salvador. >> i have faith that she'll be found, that one day they're going to call her and tell us that they found he that would be the most beautiful thing to happen in my life. laura: it's a family now clinging to their faith as they wait for answers. for the pbs newshour, i'm laura barron-lopez in boston. geoff: a new law in the state of utah could dramatically limit teenagers' access to social media platforms. the law, which is the first of

its kind in the nation, requires anyone under 18 to get parental consent to join social media platforms. it forces platforms to give rents access to the children's posts and messages, and it sets a social media curfew for minors. it's scheduled to go into effect next year. republican utah state senator mike mckell introduced the legislation. thank you for being with us. parent are concerned about the way that social media affects their kids, from the content to which they are exposed to the way it might affect their ability to socialize normally. why was this sweeping set of restrictions necessary? what was the motivation behind it? mike: the concerns you have as a parent are the same concerns i have. social media is having a devastating impact on our kids. we have a mental health america today. it is interesting. this is a very big bipartisan

issue. president biden in his state of the union address -- he jumped in really strong and said, look, we need to stop this experiment on our kids. we need to stop allowing big tech to collect data on our kids. we need to stop lettingig data target our kids with targeted advertisement. it was ironic because all of those things were on our bill in the state of utah and as you look at what we are doing and what our congressional delegations are doing, both republicans and democrats, we are all in line. we see a very big problem with mental health. it is a crisis that is getting worse and we think social media has a lot to do with it and that is why we care. i am a father of four kids. i have two teenagers at home and i worry about it. i worry mike: about it everyday. mike:the tech industry -- i worry about it everyday. mike: the tech industry opposes this law. civil liberties groups say it infringes on people's first amendment rights and there are other concerns at the age verification mandate, they don't just affect children but it

affects millions of people who don'have government issued ids and also concerns about what happens to that data in the event of a security breach. how do you respond to that host of criticism and concern? >> that is nothing new. for example, we do age verification for dating sites, millions of americans who buy prescription drugs online. we have age verification fact, nothing new. we really want to get out in front of it. we have heard that there are first amendment concerns. what we do not do in the legislation is we do not moderate content. we simply say that we are going to verify your age and we are going to have some restrictions for minors. we have lots of restrictions for minors today. we verify age for minors all across the spectrum with different products and i think this is a step that makes a lot of sense. it is there to help empower parents to have tools necessary to help monitor and make sure

these -- this product is a product that is used appropriately for kids. mike: how will the state enforce these regulations? that was not clear to in reading the legislation. >> two ways. we allow some enforcement through our division of consumer protection. i think that is an important tool in our legislation. the division of consumer protection will take the next eight months to one year to develop what that looks like, working with big tech, the verification process. our verification process, one of the things we were really clear, it could not be limited to government id and they had to be other options available. the other way that we will enforce this legislation is through a private right of action. it is in theegislation. at the social media -- if a social media company decided to collect data on our kids or do targeted advertisement to our kids, parents could join together and bring a private right of action in and that is a powerful tool and i think social media companies will comply. mike: it seems like you have

very little faith that these social media apps can ever be safe for kids. am i wrong in that? >> no, you are not wrong. let me jump to cdc data. 17,000 kids were surveyed, ninth graderthrough 12th graders, and we have a serious mental health crisis. let me throw out a couple points that i think are important. 30% of our girls seriously contemplated suicide in that survey. 57% of our girls sustained feelings of loneliness and depression. we have a serious problem. that problem is almost like a hockey stick. it has gotten substantially worse since 2009, 20 10, when social media came online. all the research that i see points to social media as a big part of that problem and for that reason, i am not comfortable simply saying, you know, fix social media. they had the chance and they failed and it's time for congress and stays across this nation to take action. mike: state senator -- geoff:

state senator mike, thank you for being with us. mike: thank you for having me on. amna: later this evening, be sure to look up into the night sky. geoff: five planets are aligning and tonight is the best time to catch a glimpse. mercury, jupiter, venus, uranus, and mars will stretch from the horizon up into the sky near the moon. to see them, look west right after sunset. amna: they should be visible from anywhere in the world as long as there are clear skies. venus will be the brightest but to see some of the dimmer planets, you might want to gb a pair of binoculars. you can learn more about the alignment online at pbs.org/newshour. geoff: and that's the newshour for tonight. we have to go outside and look at the sky. i am geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding has been

provided by -- >> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i am legally blind, and yes, i am responsible for the user interface. data visualization. if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it is exciting to be part of the team driving the technology forward. i think that is the most rewarding thing. people who know no bdo -- know bdo. ♪ >> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in ucation, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org, 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 news station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

♪ christiane: hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour and company 's care is what is coming up. israel grinds to a halt to stop what people are calling prime minister netanya's controversial judicial coup. tzipi livni joins me live from there. plus -- >> retirement age outrage, protesters in france take aim at the government'plan to make them work two years longer. i asked sophie pedder why a pension reform is so taboo, in the form u.k. ambassador to france on king charles cancel state visit. plus -- >> we are able to control biology in ways we never have before. christiane: decoding disease. a journalist talks to walter isaacson about the life and

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