wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on "the newshour" tonight -- hurricane milton hits florida's west coast, with life-threatening storm surge and potentially catastrophic winds. >> the impacts of the winds is inevitable and we have to rebuild from that, but saving lives is the most important thing right now. geoff: with 26 days till the election, former president donald trump tries to win over voters in president biden's hometown. amna: and, a growing number of civilians in lebanon are displaced and in dire need of aid amid israel's ongoing offensive against hezbollah.

♪ >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular. this is sam. how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. well, somebody's pocket, thought i'd let you know that with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that's kind of our thing. have a nice day. >> a successful business owner sells his company and restores his father's historic jazz club with his son. a raymondjames financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you bring people together. life well planned. >> the kettering foundation , working to advance inclusive democracies. learn more at kettering.org. >> coming out of college, it can be very nerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether

you like your job or not, whether you make friends, whether you fit in. here i feel like it is so welcome, it is such an inclusive place to work. you just feel like you are valued. >> the judy and peter blum ko vler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. the walton family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together. supported by the macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at macfou nd.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 station from viewers like you.

thank you. amna: welcome to the news hour. hurricane milton will make landfall in florida overnight, potentially as a category three storm and poses a major threat to tampa and other coastal cities like fort myers, sarasota, and st. petersburg. geoff: milton's outer bands have already hit the state with rain , heavy wind, and triggered a few tornadoes. william brangham is in west central florida and starts our coverage. william: even from miles offshore, hurricane milton warned floridians of what is to come. the immense storm blew fierce winds across the state and dropped heavy amounts of rain. earlier today, residents braced for a brutal impact, boarding up buildings and stocking up on supplies and gas. >> scared but trying to prepare the best that i can at the moment. william: have you ever been

through a hurricane before? >> never in my life. i am from upstate new york. i have never experienced a hurricane and to see it being at this level. william: as it turneacross the gulf of x ago today, milton -- of mexico today, milton fluctuated between category 3, 4, and five. regardless, forecasters say it could be one of the most destructive storms on record. during a virtual briefing, president biden and harris pledged they would provide whatever federal support the state needs. >> in moments like this, there is no red or blue states, it is one united states of america. neighbors helping neighbors, volunteers and first responders are risking everything including their own lives to help their fellow americans. william: milton is expected to push a life-threatening surge of ocean water onto shore, up to 12 to 15 feet high in some areas , and trigger a flash flooding across a wide band of the middle of the state, including many areas still recovering from

hurricane helene just two weeks ago. >> the mitchell effects -- major effects for surge will be on the west but there is going to be impacts far inland and on the other coast in the state of florida. william: this afternoon, governor ron desantis urged residents in the worst part of the storm's path to leave. >> the conditions are starting to get bad. listen to your local emergency managers about when it is too dangerous to go out. in many parts of florida, you probably could still go to a shelter. you don't need to get on the interstate or anything. we still have a lot of space in our shelters. william: many have taken the one next to heart, leading to one of the largest evacuations in the state's history. in polk county, about 60 miles inland, juan manuel evacuated with his dog, blue, heading to one of the county shelters that allows pets. you were not going to evacuate and leave your dog behind. >> never. ever. i said better safe than sorry. i don't want to make a mistake on this one.

this is a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane and it is actually huge. william: michelle and her friends are here on vacation from iowa but will ride out the storm in a local shelter instead of their mobile home park. >> it is all weathered up. they put metal panels on the windows and everything. and just with the storm surge they are predicting, we are going to feel much more safe here. william: milton's powerful outer bands triggered multiple small tornadoes across the state including one that tore across a highway near fort lauderdale. today, the fema chief said she would travel to florida to help with recovery efforts. >> you need to prepare for catastrophic impacts. this is going to be a serious storm, one that could forever change communities that are still recovering from helene. william: millions of floridians are hunkering down, hoping for the best.

>> everybody is worried about the same thing. do you have a home to come back to? damage. william: there are 25 counties across florida that are under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders but time is running out for people to leave safely. meanwhile, millions of floridians are bracing for what could be the worst storm they have ever seen in this region and landfall is only a few hours away. geoff: william brangham reporting from orlando, florida. william, thank you. let's hear the latest about what we can expect from this storm and bring in michael brennan, the director of the national hurricane center. we have seen conditions deteriorate as milton bears down on florida. what is the expectation for tonight and tomorrow morning? michael: it will be a very dangerous night and much of thursday across the florida peninsula. we are expecting the center of milton to make landfall along the west central coast from the tampa bay area down to near the sarasota area and then move quickly across the peninsula.

we have already got very heavy rainfall, tropical storm force winds moving onshore now. storm surge is starting to occur , numerous tornadoes across portions of the central and southern portion of the peninsula. all those hazards are going to get worse through the overnight hours tonight. geoff: tell us more about the destructive tornado outbreak across parts of the state. are we expecting to see more? michael: yeah. you know, what we are looking at here, everywhere you see this sort of bright pink color is under a tornado watch which means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form. this watch goes until mid-evening and will likely be extended overnight. we have had the wind field associated with milton and some of the daytime heating across the peninsula where the skies are clear to allow thunderstorms to develop and quickly rotate. we have a few tornado warnings in effect on the treasure coast and up near the metro orlando area. tornadoes can be dangerous at night because they are difficult to see.

tornadoes associated with hurricanes can form very quickly without a lot of lead time so we want people in these areas to make sure they have multiple ways to get weather alerts overnight, through the weather radio or alerts on your phones for warnings issued for your area. geoff: the wind field has more than doubled since yesterday which suggests the impact of milton will be felt across a wider area. is that right? michael: that's right. we are expecting a big winfield. if you look at the hurricane force winds and conditions. tonight moving from west to east across the peninsula and onto the east coast on thursday so we are expecting to see widespread wind damage and power outages in this region. structural damage. it will be a very dangerous night.

people are going to be sheltering in place by now and should be prepared to stay in place on thursday. geoff: you told us we should expect storm surge as high as 12 feet. is that still the case? michael: we are still expecting to see a very significant storm surge from tampa bay to charlotte harbor to the fort myers area and we are really concerned about this area from ana maria island to local grand, nine to 13 feet of inundation , near where the center of milton makes landfall tonight. nine to 13 feet of gulf of mexico water being violently pushed onto normally dry land with dangerous waves on top you -- on top. you can see we have already seen flooding down to fort myers, down to naples, along much of the florida west coast given the sensitivity there. those water levels will continue to rise through the next several hours as milton approaches the coastline. geoff: michael brennan, director of the national hurricane center in miami. thank you for joining us. amna: let's turn to st.

petersburg, florida another , major city in the path of the storm. mayor ken welsch joins us now. mr. mayor, thank you for being with us. you are in st. petersburg now and i understand you are at your cities emergency operation center. tell us what is ahead. mayor welsch: we are playing the waiting game. we are tracking the storm as it comes toward us. we have evacuated folks. we have thousands of folks in our emergency shelters and many more have left the city or the county which is exactly what we asked them to do to move out of , the threat of the storm surge. we are waiting to see which way the storm actually tracks. a storm this size, you know, 20 or 30 miles difference can make all the difference in the world in terms of the impact of the storm surge but we know we are going to be impacted by the broad wind field from this hurricane. we are bracing for that and

ready to get into recovery tomorrow. amna: there's some predictions that say the storm surge, if it comes on a certain path, could be as high as 15 feet which is just really impossible to imagine. in a city like st. petersburg, what would that do? what does that look like? mayor welch: it would not be survivable. we saw from hurricane helene just two weeks ago what that impact would be. that was a record-breaking storm for us in terms of storm surge at six to seven feet. we had never seen it that high. as you said, hurricane milton has the potential to more than double that. so i think that really got the attention of folks who live in the low-lying areas. we evacuated areas a, b, and c, and folks have moved out of harm's way, which is a good thing. so as long as folks are responsive to what we asked them to do in terms of moving away from that storm surge, you know, not one life has to be lost from that and that is the most important thing. the impacts of the wind is inevitable and we have to rebuild from that but saving lives is the most important

thing right now. amna: do you think hurricane helene having come through in some ways made it more real for people, made more people heed the mandatory evacuation you -- evacuation who might not have otherwise? mayor welch: no doubt in my mind. i talked to folks who said they have never seen water in their neighborhoods before and that really convinced them that they needed to move this time. we have seen entire neighborhood that are in the low-lying areas where no one is there now. they heeded the call and i know it made a big difference. amna: there are always people who still don't want to evacuate and other people who cannot evacuate. do you know how many people are left in st. petersburg? what is your message to them now? mayor welch: we started very early in this process and this is a routine for us. we have special needs. we have transportation, you know, door-to-door transportation for folks who need it, who signed up on a special needs registry that is still taking names as late as

yesterday for that. our message is there's no reason to pay in an unsafe place. we have got shelter space, transportation to get you there. and folks have been very responsive to that. really good utilization of our shelters at this point. amna: do you have any idea how many people may have stayed and are still there? mayor welch: i do not. you know, the estimate for our county was half a million people. about half of the population were in the evacuation zone and asked to leave and the city is roughly the same thing, about 140,000 people asked to leave. from what we have seen and heard from folks who have been out in those neighborhoods, they have been responsive. for the ones who are left, our message is at a certain point, when we get 50 mile per hour sustained winds, there will not be emergency responders. we will not be putting first responders in danger at that point and help will not be available. amna: there has been a number of

reports about construction cranes and downtown st. petersburg, some as high as 600 feet tall, that were not dismantled before the storm. a lot of folks are wondering why not and also if people are in the vicinity of those cranes, are they at risk? mayor welch: we have done active outreach to make sure folks are aware of that issue. and again, this is a matter of the storm developing so quickly. it was a tropical storm just a few days ago. it became a powerful category five in 24 hours. it takes seven days to take these cranes down so it is just not possible within the time span of the development of this hurricane to take those down. so you know, it is a lesson learned about how we go forward and what we require in terms of the strength of those cranes if they cannot be taken down quickly enough to deal with a storm like this. amna: mr. mayor, storms like this, are they the new normal for st. petersburg and other areas around there? mayor welch: we believe in sea level rising and other extremes

in weather and those changes, we developed a tampa bay compact of local governments who have changed our investments, our infrastructure approach for years to come. but the pace of the change is much quicker than even we thought would happen. so we need to readdress the pace of our infrastructure improvements and how we deal with adapting to this new normal. it certainly is a new normal, these two record-breaking storms within two weeks of each other is evidence of that. amna: that is mayor ken welch of st. petersburg florida. , mr. mayor, please stay safe. i hope you stay well. mayor welch: thank you. ♪ amna: we begin the day's other headlines in gaza where israeli strikes on the center and north of the territory have killed dozens of people.

one of the attacks struck a hospital in a gaza refugee camp where palestinian officials say at least nine people were killed , including women and children. today, president biden and prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke by phone for the first time in seven weeks. vice president harris also took part. the white house called that 30 minute call productive and direct, and said the u.s. remains supportive of israel as it weighs how to respond to a recent missile attack from iran. >> i think what you have seen from this administration is the continued support of israel's security. you saw that over the past couple of days, past couple of weeks, when iran attacked israel. the president directed his military to protect israel. he was proud to be able to do that and that support continues. amna: on the iran attack, the israeli defense minister said today that the country's retaliation against iran would be "lethal, precise, and above

all, surprising." iran launched nearly 200 projectile's last week, increasing tensions between the two nations. here in the u.s., talks between boeing and striking workers have stalled after the plane maker withdrew its latest contract offer. it reportedly included a 30% raise over four years along with other benefits. the union says it surveyed its members who overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. boeing said the union's demands are "far in excess of what we can except if we are to remain competitive as a business." the strike by some 33,000 factory workers is nearing its fourth week. no new negotiations are planned. the nobel prize in chemistry went to three scientists whose work ushered in a better understanding of proteins. the building blocks of life. a committee in sweden recognized david baker of the university of washington in seattle. he created a computer program to design proteins that do not exist in nature.

the award is also shared by two men from google deep mind. their artificial intelligence model can predict the structure of previously discovered proteins, all 200 million of them. at google's ai lab in london where the pair is based, jumper explained just how powerful the technology can be. >> this is something done all the time by research biologists and it takes them a year or more to get a single answer. we have a program that gives an answer that is reasonably close in quality and does it in five or 10 minutes. amna: their work holds the potential to transform how medicines and vaccines are made and it is the second nobel this week honoring advancements in ai. tomorrow, the nobel prize in literature will be announced. las vegas said goodbye to the legendary tropicana today in an early-morning extravaganza. [explosion] the hotel and casino went out

with a boom in a controlled implosion. it's towers tumbled to the ground as drones lit up the sky. the farewell was just as flashy as the tropicana's early days. it opened in 1957 and was the most expensive hotel built in las vegas at the time. the tropicana was once known as the tiffany of the strip for its opulence and was a regular hang out the legendary rat pack. it was also known for its mob ties. the tropicana closed in april to make way for a new baseball stadium for the relocating oakland athletics. on wall street today, the major markets bounded higher thanks largely to gains in tech stocks. the dow jones industrial average jumped more than 400 points or about 1%. the nasdaq added 100 points. the s&p 500 closed at a new all-time high. finally, we have a passing of note. lily ebert, a holocaust survivor, author, and later in life, a prolific educator

through social media has died. her mother and two siblings were killed at the auschwitz concentration camp and she vowed to make her tale of survival a lesson for millions. her memoir, "lily's promise," was a new york times bestseller as she took her message online through a tiktok account she shared with her great-grandson, reaching 2 million followers. for her contributions to holocaust awareness, she was honored by britain's then prince charles and last year was made a member of the order of the british empire. she was 100 years old. still to come on the news hour, the supreme court hears a death penalty appeal. a look at the only county that has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1980. from underdog to undefeated, the inspirational story of a deaf school's football team, plus much more. >> this is the pbs news hour from the david rubenstein studio

at weta in washington and from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: early voting started in arizona today and both campaigns held events to persuade voters there. we have this report. laura: as another hurricane barrels towards florida, vice president kamala harris criticized donald trump for spreading disinformation about hurricane helene during a phone interview on cnn. vp harris: it is dangerous. it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled. laura: but in pennsylvania, former president trump continued to spread false information about the federal response to hurricane helene. mr. trump: we have another big one coming in. the one in north carolina, georgia, alabama, virginia,

pieces of florida got hit. it was incredible. the worst ever, they say. they had no money. you know where they gave the money? two illegal immigrants coming in, many of whom are killers. laura: harris left new york to day to campaign in las vegas after a series of media appearances. on the late show with stephen colbert last night, harris took aim at trump's relationship with russian president vladimir putin. vp harris: he gets played by these guys. he admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter him or offer him favor. laura: in an upcoming book, bob woodward reports that trump's -- trump sent covid-19 test machines to putin during a shortage and has had up to private phone calls with him seven since leaving the white house. vp harris: he thinks vladamir putin is his friend. what about the american people?

they should beer first friend. [applause] laura: the kremlin confirmed trump sent them covid-19 tests but denied multiple calls between trump and putin had taken place. on the other side of the country, the vice presidential candidates made their cases in arizona. trump's running mate, jd vance, held a rally in tucson. sen. vance: if you want a government that puts the interests of american citizens first, the only person to vote for is donald j. trump. laura: two hours north in phoenix, his opponent governor , tim walz campaigned with jim mccain, son of john mccain. gov. walz: it's not about politics. it's about leadership and character. laura: yesterday, in arizona's most populous county, election officials ran accuracy tests on voting equipment. >> there's so much attention to elections these days. maricopa county has been the center of a lot of exposure. laura: early voting in arizona

started today and all eyes will be on bellwether maricopa county. for the pbs news hour, i am laura barron-lopez. ♪ amna: thousands upon thousands of lebanese are fleeing israeli bombing across southern and central lebanon as hezbollah continues its rocket and missile fire into northern israel as fears of an all-out general war mount. special correspondent layla sits down with the lebanese official managing the humanitarian response in a country that was already on its knees before this latest conflict. leila: earlier today, 90 hezbollah missiles were launched across lebanon's border into israel. after what many here saw as a bold provocation yesterday, idf soldiers planting an israeli flag in lebanese territory on

the southern border. the israeli prime minister issued a warning to the lebanese people. >> you have an opportunity to save lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in gaza. leila: in the south, the idf continued its campaign by air, land and sea, laying waste to lebanese farming villages and hundreds of homes. as the sun sets in capital beirut, fresh waves of airstrikes. this has become the new normal for beirut's skyline at night. a larger strike has come in behind us in the southern suburbs, a ball of red fire and black smoke spreading across the sky. these strikes come in every hour overnight, bringing down huge high-rise buildings and decimating this part of the city. as the death toll in lebanon passes 2100 with more than 10,000 wounded, the news hour sat down with the man heading the crisis response, the lebanese health minister, one of the few politicians in the

country respected almost universally for his clean record and bipartisan attitude, who accused israel's military of targeting civilians. >> it is the definition of carnage. we have been in wars but we have never seen this level of indiscriminate attacks on civilians. whole residential buildings collapsing completely, killing everyone who is in that building. how can we have excellent intelligence, knowing exactly who we are targeting but at the same time claim that we don't know that there are civilians and that these were, you know, unfortunate collateral damage? the only logical explanation is that we know exactly what we are doing but we don't care. leila: israel says it is targeting hezbollah operatives in leadership and they have been able to eliminate a large number of hezbollah commanders and weapons depots in the strikes so does hezbollah not have a responsibility to remove civilians from those areas or remove themselves and their

weapons from areas where civilians are living? >> if you go back to the international humanitarian law, proportionality means that if, for example, you have a high-level target, let's say a terrorist on an airplane, you cannot say that, you know, i'm going to blow up the whole airplane to be able to reach that terrorist. and even if you want to consider that it is extremely irresponsible of the terrorist to be on that plane, it does not absolving you from the responsibility. that is why whether it considers that everyone in lebanon's hezbollah, which is not true -- there are a lot of people in lebanon who are not hezbollah or who are actually opposed to hezbollah. leila: the united states pledged another $8.7 billion to israeli military aid and it's one of the main funders of aid in lebanon.

we could have a situation where u.s. funded bombs are destroying infrastructure in lebanon that is then being paid for by usaid to be rebuilt in the country. what do you want the international community to do now to help lebanon? dr. abiad: a country like the u.s., which is a major backer of israel, whether it is with unconditional financial support, diplomatic support, you know, weapons, of course has weight, but the question is whether it wants to exert that pressure and up until now, we have not seen anything to suggest that the united states is willing to exert the required pressure on israel. the international community, more than sending aid, if they could just stop dropping the bombs, i think that would be helpful. leila: what do you fear could be coming next in this conflict? dr. abiad: lebanon, in my opinion, is really at an existential juncture in its history.

i think that, you know, for me as a lebanese who has lived through all of the past crises including the civil war, the 1982 invasion, to me, this is , you know, the moment in time where i really fear for the future of lebanon or at least for the future of the lebanon that i know and love. will lebanon truly embody what people say about them as the phoenix that rises among the ashes? i don't know. i know that we have the fire. we have the ashes. but whether we will be able to rise from this or whether this will prove to be really a bridge too far for us always to be seen. leila: across lebanon tonight, more fire and more ashes. for the pbs news hour, i am leila molana-allen in beirut. ♪

amna: the supreme court heard arguments today in a death row case from oklahoma that has garnered national attention. justices looked at whether the due process rights of a death row inmate named richard glasser were violated when the state suppressed information about its star witness who committed the murder. an oklahoma court of criminal appeals has denied glossip's appeal for a retrial. our oklahoma communities correspondent, adam cap, has been following this case and joins us now. adam, thanks for joining us here. remind us who is richard glossip and why is this case significant? adam: he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for a murder. the case had many ongoing developments over the years. in 26 years, he has faced nine different execution dates. he has eaten three last meals . today, he gets to go before the sueme court to have his case heard. it is also unique because

oklahoma's attorney general, a republican, is really leading the effort here to have him get a new trial. he has been a pretty staunch advocate that the due process was denied and that it should go through retrial. it is also unique the supreme court is hearing a death row case case at all. it has been a couple years since they have taken on any arguments. amna: that is really unique and you had a chance to be in the court today as oral arguments were own folding -- were unfolding. so tell us a little bit what exactly supreme court justices are considering. adam: two things, whether glossip's due process was denied. there is a lot of evidence that shows that the person who committed the murder lied under oath about his treatment for mental health issues. he's also the one that pointed the finger at glossip, saying he orchestrated the entire thing.

there's also a second question about whether the supreme court has the jurisdiction to overturn a state supreme court ruling. in this case, it is more about whether the attorney general, drummond, has the right to get a retrial when he asks for it from the state court. amna: that is so interesting. how do the justices seem to be grappling with that issue when you heard them? adam: it seemed pretty split. along party lines. the conservative justices really hammered home and questioned whether there would be a big impact from a jury knowing this lie in a trial, whereas the liberal bench questioned why would the supreme court not have jurisdiction over the state court? worth pointing out as well, justice gorsuch was recused from this hearing because he had previously served on the 10th circuit for the glossip hearing. it kind of seems like it might come down to justices kavanaugh

and barrett to make the deciding decision here. amna: so does the impact of a decision go beyond richard glossip? could it impact other death row cases? adam: we will get that decision in june. right now, we don't know what the impact could be. i did talk to some death penalty experts just about death penalty as a whole in the u.s. right now, and they believe that you are going to see more cases like this, that more people are going to challenge not whether the death penalty is right or wrong, but whether or not people are getting due process when they go through this. amna: fascinating story. great reporting by our oklahoma communities correspondent, adam kemp. great to have you here. thank you. adam: thank you. ♪ geoff: as donald trump and

kamala harris make their case to voters, they are spending most of their time in a handful of battleground states. but hundreds of miles from any swing state campaign stop, the pacific northwest is where you will find the only truly swing county left in the u.s. a videographer and reporter from northwest public broadcasting has more. >> i'm going to do a little yelling. reporter: in a far northwestern corner of washington state, billy is taking his flock of sheep out to pasture. delphine is the first to get moving. >> one of them will act like the bellwether and be the leader and , the rest will kind of follow along. reporter: in sheep herding, the bellwether is the lead sheep. shepherds put a bell around the neck to keep track of the flock . but in politics, it is a place to watch that usually reflects a

bigger trend. and in presidential politics, bellwethers are nearly extinct. of the more than 3000 counties across the country, only one has a 40 year long perfect record. the residents have voted for the national winner in every presidential election since 1980. in the city of port angeles, people say there is a reason this county of 77,000 has bucked national trends towards political polarization. >> people out here are really independent. i describe port angeles as the end of the road. >> there is a friendliness here as well. my neighbor is a person, not an enemy. reporter: every thursday morning at the local senior and community center, residents of port angeles gather around a big table to talk politics. >> white christian nationalists. >> immigration. >> fiscal responsibility. >> the border. >> trump. reporter: the discussions can be lively. people are not afraid to express

disagreement on hot button topics like immigration. >> why do we have drugs? they are coming across the southern border. [laughter] >> i am totally in favor of legal immigration but they do need to be vetted. >> people who are different can get along. reporter: though the political divides can be sharp, the participants are glad to have a place to sit down, to politely debate and to hear viewpoints that differ from their own. they agreed that is what makes this place special. >> one thing about in this community i feel is that when it comes to brass tacks, i can rely on any of my neighbors regardless of their political affiliation. >> these old newspapers, our rare books library, this is reference photos and we have hundreds of thousands of those. reporter: at the north olympic history center, historian david brown says the county's independence streak goes all the way back to its founding. >> there were all of these different political influences. from as soon as it became a

county. reporter: how do you think that has influenced the political landscape in this community? >> that is like a 30 minute answer. reporter: vast forest land and 200 miles of coastline attracted early settlers and helped fuel the timber, fishing, and service industries. >> instead of conservative and liberal, you can think of it more as pro-and anti-regulation. between those factors, i think that is kind of how we ended up in the fulcrum in the political seesaw. reporter: people will find out whether the county remains the last bellwether when votes are counted in november. for the pbs news hour, i am in port angeles, washington. ♪ amna: and stay with us. coming up on the news hour, a former nascar driver coordinates flyovers and rescues in the aftermath of hurricane helene.

but first to a team that defied expectations. in 2021, the football team at the california school for the deaf made it to the state championships but suffered a disappointing loss. in 2022 and 2023, they made it back and won. now, a new book chronicles that historic run and the abilities that make these players particularly formidable on the field. stephanie sy has a look for our ongoing coverage of the intersection of health and arts, part of our canvas coverage. stephanie: at the california school for the deaf riverside, the cubs are gearing up for a three-peat. coach keith adams, using sign language to call plays, has led the team to two state championships in their eight-man football division. but it was not always this way. the decades-old scoreboard harkens to a time when the cubs

rarely had winning seasons. that ended in 2021 when they entered the championship undefeated. >> you had all of these deaf players who when they were younger had played on hearing teams and it was very frustrating. so all of these players came together here and they felt this brotherhood. they felt this camaraderie and i think that was part of the winning formula. stephanie: thomas fuller started following the cubs in the fall of 2021. his new york times article described the rise of the all deaf team, which beat hearing teams time and again that year. >> under these friday night lights something special , happening. stephanie: the article attracted

national media attention by the likes of the kelly clarkson show and world news tonight with david muir. >> number two signing this. deaf people can do anything. we are not the stereotype out there. stephanie: soon after came a pledge to fund a 43 million dollar athletic complex at the school. >> i just wanted to have a camera shine on the feelings that these players had, being together, and the bond that deafness gave them. stephanie: now, full or has published a book about the cubs, "the boys of riverside." it is more than an american underdog to undefeated story. it looks at deaf culture, which encompasses an entire class of people and their way of life. at a book event at the school, the intergenerational bonds of deaf families was on full display and fervent applause greeted the journalist.

>> i came in and i said, i love this team. i love your story. stephanie: after the 2021 season, fuller took a leave of absence from his job at the new york times to write the book, following the cubs throughout the next season. game after game, he noticed something. >> the question of what is a disability. here is a team where everyone is deaf, all the players, all the coaches. and yet, they are using deafness as an advantage, as an edge. stephanie: his reporting included interviews with experts outside football, including a cognitive neuroscientist who explains why deaf people may have what he calls hyper abilities, starting with the way they take in what they see. >> for a deaf person, that span of attention is spread further out into the periphery. so it is like the flashlight is a much broader beam. stephanie: more like a floodlight?

>> yes, more like a floodlight than a flashlight. that is good. with the caveat that i do not mean it to be necessarily brighter but it is just covering a greater area. stephanie: vision essentially steps up to fill in blanks by the lack of auditory cues. quarterback hayden adams is a senior this year. he explained what it is like through his interpreter. >> we rely on our eyes. we see the movement a little bit ahead of time so we kind of think two steps ahead more so than a hearing team. we are much more alert. stephanie: karina says the science also suggests deaf people are more attuned to movement around them. that could be an advantage to a wide receiver. watch jory valencia intercept this pass in a 2021 game which the cubs won by 11 points. >> if you are able to detect that the ball is going to be headed in my direction, you might be able to pivot earlier

and actually catch the ball, than a hearing person who doesn't have the initial milliseconds of extra processing time. stephanie: and there is another hidden advantage. the team plus use of sign language, in this case, asl or american sign language. it is not only more efficient than jogging back and forth from field to huddle, it is unifying. a junior wide receiver recalled how it felt to play on a hearing team when he was younger through an interpreter. >> i do like playing on the hearing team but communication is always an issue. frustration when trying to deal with a coach and trying to communicate with the coach. if you have a deaf coach, that is better. stephanie: coach keith adams, who himself played on deaf and hearing football teams growing up, says the team's success comes from the supports unique

at being in a school for the deaf. >> they come from various backgrounds, different skin color, different status, family status. the commonality is they are deaf and i think that helps. i think those who experience may be mainstream education, it was a lonely time. they just have so much more opportunity as a deaf student going to a school for the deaf. stephanie: multiple generations of families have attended the school and come back to teach or coach. students range in age from 18 months to 22 years and all receive a bilingual education, meaning english and american sign language. by high school, well, the cafeteria is a hive of teen expression like you would see at any other high school. april macarthur is the school superintendent. >> one of the biggest challenges that deaf children face is language access. there is a stigma related to

sign language. so with this book and the attention that has been shown, it really does show that sign language in itself is a language just like any other language and deaf children have the right to have access to that. stephanie: macarthur says the attention brought by thomas fuller's reporting has led to an increase in interest and enrollment. for the author, writing the boys of riverside was what he called a tonic from his typical stories, covering homelessness, the pandemic, and politics. there is a great line in the prologue of your book in which you write, in reporting the book i came to see the cubs as a flesh and blood realization of the american dream. how so? >> so these kids, their parents were from all over the globe. they all came together in an environment that allowed them to thrive, in an environment that you could not have in tehran, that you could not have in a lot of other countries.

but america gave them this school and america gave them the opportunity to play together and to win. stephanie: in their season opener, the cubs won 68-28. for the pbs news hour, i am stephanie sy in riverside, california. ♪ geoff: as hurricane milton barrels toward florida, communities that were hit hardest by hurricane helene are still struggling to recover over one week later. western north carolina in particular. a former nascar driver is among those making a difference, using his personal helicopter to deliver supplies like food and water to people stranded, especially in hard-to-reach mountainous areas. >> for me, it is people helping people.

our motto in this country is, you know, we do not leave an american behind. i had the opportunity in front of me to help more people and bring awareness and it kind of snowballed. geoff: the nascar legend who has 20 years experience as a helicopter pilot says he first felt called into action when he got word of a family stuck in a vacation rental with supplies dwindling and no way out. greg: i was at my shop saturday morning, doing a few things, and a friend of mine sent me a text. do you want to go fly today? and a link to a facebook message with a family that was stuck in an airbnb. before that moment, i had no idea -- i knew some people were without power and the storm came through. we had a little bit of damage here, some tree branches down and whatnot. but i absolutely had no idea and i don't think the rest of the world did on how devastating this storm was. geoff: and that was just the

beginning of his helicopter relief missions. the first of more than 30, he estimates, so far. he says he is one of more than 70 private helicopter pilots flying critical supplies into areas unreachable by larger aircraft. biffle has shared most of his missions on social media including this incredible moment where he spotted a hurricane survivor from the air. a man stranded in the mountains, waving a mirror as a distress signal. greg: i just caught it out of the corner of my eye but the gentleman had taken the mirror out of his bathroom off the vanity wall and that is how he got my attention. geoff: he says it was one of the most challenging landings he has ever performed as a pilot. greg: we were at 4800 foot elevation, mountain peaks, and he was down at the very bottom of this ravine, a very steep entry down into this ravine, what looked like a fairly large grass area had power lines, two sets of powerlines going across it with some tall trees at the

beginning of it. so i made about five recon descents down into this area. the problem is it was so steep on either side, once i had committed to getting down into that elevation, i did not have enough power to get back out with the amount of goods and cargo i had on board. so my last time in, and i told my copilot that was with me, i said i am going to try to land this time. it gives me goosebumps when i think about it but i was committed. i had to land and get the stuff out of the helicopter in order to be able to get out of the bottom of that ravine. geoff: a harrowing moment for biffle but a lifeline for those stranded in a hard-to-reach stretch of the carolina mountains in the initial days after helene hit. greg: you know, these people are in dire straits and they were so happy that we were able to get them formula and diapers. things they needed. a woman around the corner needed insulin.

the people came running across the river, running up into that field, and they were wet up to their chest and i could see them soaking wet. they were coming to get any kind of supplies they could get. water, food. geoff: nascar has deep ties in north carolina. biffle is a 19 time winner in the nascar cup series and a nominee for the 2025 nascar hall of fame. he says he and his former teammates feel a special responsibility to pitch in. especially as the scale of the need grows. greg: i keep finding places that are so isolated and so ravaged and damaged. these folks here yesterday said the power company told them it could be three months to five months before they have power back on. the substation is gone. every power pole is down. the lines are gone. the road is gone. the bridges are washed out. the railroad tracks, completely gone, nonexistent. they have got a long road ahead of them.

winter is coming. it is supposed to be in the 30's this week. warm clothes, heaters, generators. those are still the biggest need as -- these are mountainous areas. they will have 10, 12, 20 inches of snow in less than six weeks, five weeks. so and no power until the spring. it is going to be tough. geoff: greg biffle says he is committed to helping however he can. greg: i would expect someone to do that for me and that is why i want to do that for these folks. geoff: you can see more of our coverage about helene's aftermath and keep up-to-date on hurricane milton on our website. that is pbs.org/newshour. amna: gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the u.s., but a lot of the news coverage about it is made by and for adults. geoff: that is why our journalism training team, student reporting labs, handed cameras to 14 student journalists from across the u.s.

to make stories about what it is like to grow up in this generation. their work is part of a new documentary premiering this week called "run, hi, fight: growing up under the gun." >> gun violence is the leading cause of death for young americans but this is not just another story about gun violence. more than a dozen student journalists have come together to explore what it is like to grow up in this generation. >> i survived and witnessed gun violence in downtown orlando. >> michigan. >> philadelphia. >> tennessee. >> washington, d.c. >> people have to wake up and realize this is bound to happen to everyone if there is no change. >> i don't care what the people in charge do but do something. >> he was there. and then he wasn't. >> after the shooting, they would not let me go outside to play because they think i would have got killed. >> i hate that we have to beg

for safety but i love that we can come together. >> i believe in the power of thoughts and prayers. prayers about action is not going to do anything. amna: "run, hide, fight" premieres tonight right after newshour, so if you are watching online, don't go anywhere. you can watch it at pbs.org, on the pbs app, and some pbs stations. check your local listings. geoff: and that is the newshour for tonight. amna: on behalf of the entire news hour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs news hour has been provided by -- >> on an american cruise lines journey, along the columbia and snake rivers, travelers retrace the route forged by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. american cruise lines' fleet of modern riverboats travel through american landscapes to historic landmarks where you can experience local customs and

cuisine. american cruise lines, proud sponsor of pbs news hour. >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and friends of the news hour, including jim and nancy bildner and the schiller foundation. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the frontlines lines of social change worldwide. funding for america at a crossroads was provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ ♪ ♪

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] ♪

wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ christopher kimball: welcome to milk street's my family recipe. we help home cooks rediscover and recreate lost family recipes. - my grandmother margaret's was the absolute best. - don't put any pressure on us or anything! christopher: we bring home cooks to our boston studio... i'm gonna stand back. ...where, along with our host and pastry chef cheryl day... - isn't it great how food can take you back? christopher: ...we teach them how to make their family recipe from scratch. - you're gonna be able to bake this cake. - i can do it. christopher: just the way it was made by, say, their grandmother. - beautiful! - grandma would not tolerate lumps. christopher: then we send them home to recreate that recipe for the toughest audience... - there it is. christopher: ...their own family.