captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: as many as 26,000 members of the military were sexually assaulted last year, that estimate from a new pentagon study released today. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we examine the growing scandal, a problem president obama said he wouldn't tolerate. >> brown: then, as south korea's new leader visits the white house, we assess continuing tensions on the korean peninsula. >> suarez: spencer michels visits san francisco's

exploratorium, a science and technology center with a hands- on approach that peaks the imaginations of children and adults alike. >> we know we have a good exhibit when the person laughs and turns around and says to anybody passing "hey, look at this!" that's a good exhibit. >> brown: how much are across- the-board federal spending cuts hitting programs around the country? we check in with public media colleagues in three states. >> suarez: and we have a story about preserving the nation's culturaldentity, contained in millis of pieces of film, video, and audio gathered over more than 100 years. >> there's a belief among the younger generation that everything has been digitized, that that ever existed before or will soon be and will be available on the internet and that's factually not accurate. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are

open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can all produce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved ecomic pforman andinanal literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> suarez: the problem of sexual assaults in the nation's armed forces is getting worse-- and maybe much worse. the issue drew the national spotlight today, and a presidential rebuke. >> we won't kohl rate this and there will be growing accountability. >> suarez: the news raised the president's hackles at a news conference with the president of south korea. >> let's start with the principle that sexual assault is an outrage. it is a crime. that's true for society at large d if it's happening inside our military than whoever carries it out is betraying the uniform that they're wearing. >> suarez: mr. obama spoke as an annual pentagon study reported sexual assaults in the military rose from just under 3,300 in 2012 to nearly 3,400 last year.

but it also found that up to 26,000 cases went unreported. >> i want to continue --. >> suarez: at a senate hearing this morning the air force chief of staff general mark welch struck sparks with new york senator kirsten gillibrand suggesting it's not always a commander's fault if victims don't come forward. >> the things that cause people to not report are primarily really not chain of command. it's -- i don't want my family to know. i don't want my spouse to know or my boyfriend or girlfriend to know. i'm embarrassed that i'm in this situation. it's the self-blame that comes with the crime. that is overridingly on surveys over the years the most reasons victims don't report. i don't think it's any different in the military. prosecution rates in the air force for this crime -- >> i think it's very different in the military. i think you're precisely wrong about that. everything is about chain of command. >> suarez: the president said the military has to pokes then usually increase its efforts to address the problem and chuck hagel announced he's issuing new

orders to change the culture in the ranks. >> today everyone. in this department at every level of command will work together everyday to establish an environment of dignity and respect where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned or ignored. >> reporter: the pentagon report came just days affluent connell jeffrey krusinski was himself arrested for allegedly groping a woman. and in february air force lieutenant general susan helms overturned a captain's conviction on aggravated sexual assault. now missouri senator claire mccaskell is holding up helms' nomination for vice chair of the u.s. someplace command she spoke at today's hearing. >> the general said no, no, we believe the member of the military. that is the crux of the problem here. because if a victim does not believe that the system is capable of believing her there's

no point in risking your entire career. >> reporter: in response, lawmakers are pursuing multiple kinds of legislation on the problem. one could strip commanding officers of their ability too reverse convictions. i'm joined now by mark thompson, the washington deputy bureau chief and national security correspondent for "time" and writinger of the battleland blog. mark, you've seen the pentagon's self-reporting on this. does that 26,000 unreported assaults a year look like a solid number? where does it come from? >> it's an extrapolated number from anonymous phone surveys done by the pentagon of military people so it's sort of squishy to begin with. what's particularly striking about the number, of course, is from 2010 to twelve that number grew by 35% whereas the hard number, the number of cases actually brought forward by people complaining about sexual assaults in the military only

went up by roughly 6% from 3,200 to 3,400. so even though they are getting more reports those that are unreported are going up even faster. >> suarez: a number of unreported cases nine times larger than the number of reported cases, is that bigger than the service chiefs realized? >> i think it's bigger than what you see in the civilian world where the proportion of reported is an order or two bigger than what you see in the military. but this is not a new problem. this is a long standing problem. i was on this show 16 years ago talking about it. it remains a problem, what's happening, you have about 14% of the military in uniform that are women and all of a sudden with these female senators, several of which we just saw, this is not being able to be ignored by the chiefs, secretary of defense or anybody else it seems like we may have reached a turning point

with the arrest of this air force officer. >> suarez: today at the news conference of the pentagon the general in charge of overseeing the management of this problem flped this on its ned a way and said that part of it is that there's more reporting. >> yeah, i think --. >> suarez: that they're changing the culture. >> to go back to what i just said, the math shows it's going up fastener the unreported realm than in the reported realm. we see this throughout the military whenever there's a bad problem, be it mental health issues, p.t.s.d., anything that has to be self-reported whenever the numbers go up the pentagon is quick to say "it's because we've removed stigma, put signs all over the bases and posts encouraging people to come forward." and i think there is some truth to that but essentially it remains a huge problem and they're getting at just a bit of it by reducing the stigma. >> suarez: at the same time, the arrest of the air force's senior officer in charge of getting

those numbers down arrested himself during an accused sexual assault? >> that is the problem. that's what stunned everybody i spoke to at the pentagon over the last couple of days. a couple of things about lieutenant colonel kruzinski's case. he was picked far job specifically and people i talk to suggest he couldn't have been -- you know? f someone is right for such a sensitive post. the air force put him in that post. a lot of people are asking questions about that now. the air force has asked to take this case away from arlington county which is where the pentagon is located and prosecute it on their own. we'll learn more about what happens on that store come thursday. >> suarez: you mentioned the female senators, there are also more members of congress willing to push back on this issue. including a legislative attempt to take the adjudication of these issues out of the chain of the command. what does the pentagon say? >> secretary hagel was asked

about that. he doesn't like it. he wants it to stay within the chain of command. the advocates of change are saying listen, we're not going to take it out of the pentagon, we're going to keep hit in the pentagon but it will be staffed for lack of a better word by a professional force of military sexual trauma advocates who will be fair, won't be affected because they won't be in the chain of command of the victim or the accused and victims there, the advocates believe will be able to get a fairer shot at their day in court. he. >> suarez: how is this handled in other country's militarys where they have an even higher percentage of women in the ranks? >> it seems to be particularly nagging problem in the u.s. military just as gays in the military were. a big problem here wasn't a problem anywhere else. i don't know if it's somethinging in the american psyche or something in the american military but it particular combination that has generated this for a long time. >> suarez: mark thompson, thanks a lot for being with us.

>> brown: still to come on the newshour, meeting korea's new leader; engaging students of all ages; feeling the pinch from spending cuts; and preserving recorded history. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the wall street rally of 2013 has passed a new milestone. the dow jones industrial average closed above 15,000 today for the first time. the dow gained 87 points to finish at 15,056. it's up 15% this year. the nasdaq rose three points today to close at 3396. three women in cleveland are free today after being captive for years. their discovery monday evening could close several kidnapping cases, but it also raised new questions for police. >> reporter: cheers greeted police after the three women who had long been missing were found alive and apparently well. it had started with a cry for help coming from a rundown home. neighbor charles ramsey. >> and i looked and i see this girl and she is just going nuts

on the door. we had to kick open the bottom. >> suarez: then a stunning 911 call. >> help me! i'm amanda berry! i've been kidnapped and missing for ten years and i'm here. i'm free now. >> suarez: amanda berry vanished in 2003 when she was 16. she is now 27 years old. a six-year-old girl is rescued as well, believed to be berry's daughter. but there was no word on the identity of her father. police also found gina dejesus, kidnapped in 2004 and now 23. the third woman discovered in the house is michelle knight, taken in 2002 and now 32 years old. investigators did not say if they had been restrained or otherwised harmed. instead, this morning, police chief michael mcgrath hailed the news of the rescue. >> thankfully-- and i mean thankfully, due to amanda's brave actions these three women are alive today. >> suarez: the owner of the house was identified as ariel castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, he was

arrested along with his brothers pedro and onil afterfficers searched the. >> rodriguez: residence. police had gone to the hous twice since 2004 but not about the kidnapped women. this morning, cleveland mayor frank jackson said the investigation is ongoing. >> we have several unanswered questions. why were they taken? how were they taken and how they remain undetected in the city of cleveland for this period of time. >> reporter: the three women spent the night at a local hospital. they have been reunited with relatives. >> sreenivasan: james holmes is due in court next monday. two new studies conclude that gun killings in the u.s. have fallen by a lot over the last 20 years. the justice department reported today there were just over 11,000 gun homicides in 2011. that was down 39% from the peak year of 1993.

the pew research center found a similar decline. the two studies also said non- fatal gun crimes have dropped nearly 70% in the same period. at least 20 people were killed and more than three dozen injured mexico ci ear today, after a natural gas tanker truck lost control and exploded in a suburb. mexican tv showed flames shooting from charred homes and vehicles. officials said some of the injured have burns over more than 70% of their bodies and may need treatment at a burn center in texas. in northwest pakistan, three bombings killed at least 18 people in political violence ahead of national elections saturday. in the worst attack, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near a vehicle that carried an islamist candidate. a dozen people died, but the candidate escaped unharmed. president obama warned today there are no easy answers to stopping the violence in syria. he also defended his deliberate approach to possible military action. he said he wants the best possible analysis of evidence that the assad regime used

chemical weapons. meanwhile, secretary of state john kerry met with president vladimir putin in moscow. kerry said they'll try to get the syrian government and opposition to attend a peace conference. china denied today that it sponsors cyber-attacks on u.s. defense networks. that accusation came monday in an annual pentagon report. for the first time, it directly attributed attacks on u.s. computer systems to the chinese government and military. today china's foreign ministry firmly rejected the charge. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: and we return to the situation on the korean peninsula, as the threat of further escalation loomed over a white house summit today. the day began with a new warning on north korean state television aimed at joint u.s./south korean naval drills in the yellow sea. >> (ranslated: first korean people are meeting in the

southwestern sector of the front will take immediate counteraction inn case a single shell dropped over the territorial waters on our side. second, in case the enemies recklessly encounter our counterstrike all forces will turn the five islands in the west sea of korea into a sea of flames. is. >> brown: the new threat of from the north and its young leader kim jong-un follows several months of talk and actions. while the u.s. and south korea conducted joint military exercises that we seen inurn as provocations by the north. in december, north korea test launched a long-range rocket in february it carried out another underground nuclear test, its third to date. and when the u.n. security council imposed new sanctions as a result the north renounced the armistice that ended the korean war and insisted it would fire off more mid-range missiles. despite north korea's threat, there were no launches and u.s. officials now report the north has removed the weapons from a

launch site. against that backdrop, president obama held a white house summit today with south korea's new president, park guen-hye followed by a joint news conference >> the days when north korea could create a crisis and illicit concessions, those days are over. our two nations are prepared to deal with north korea diplomatically but as president park has made clear, the burden is on pyongyang to take meaningful steps. >> ( translated ): we will be no means tolerate north korea's threats and povocations which have recent been escalating further and that such actions would only deepen north korea's isolation. >> suarez:. >> brown: park took office in february. she's the daughter of a man who took power in a military coup and ruled south korea in the 1960s' and '70s before being assassinated. the new president came to power

seeking to improve relations with the north but her tone has changed we vents. in an interview with cbs news yesterday, park warned that her country will meet any aggssio in kind. >> ( translated ): yes, we will make them pay. >> brown: still, president park said if the north relents on its nuclear program she's prepared to resume aid shipments and economic initiatives. we're joined now by two former diplomats with extensive experience dealing with north and south korea. kurt campbell was assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs during the first obama administration. he now has a consulting company. and donald gregg was u.s. ambassador to south korea during the george h.w. bush administration. he's now chairman of the pacific century institute. kurt campbell, i want to start with you. the north koreans come out with the a new warning today. you see president park say "we will make them pay." what do we make of the level of at least aggressive talk? >> well, look. there's clearly a ritual quality to this. this has been going on for

months. i think the more significant language is not from the north but from the south what's happening in south korea is that the tolerance for this kind of behavior has decreased very substantiallyinhe pst, e south has been prepared to take these indignities, these provocations sometimes in stride. it's difficult but to accept them. i think there is a growing sense in south korea that if they are presented with an opportunity to strike the this north they will take it and particularly madam park who's come to power with a clear determination to reach out to the north find herself in a circumstance where she has been really purposely undermined in that effort by the provocations of pyongyang. brow dald gregg, how do you see the situation? if you see it similarly,s where that coming from in south korea with that stance that we're seeing? >>

>> well, i was very sorry to hear some of the right wing groups in south korea talk about the desirability of having nuclear weapons develop inn south korea. when i was ambassador i moved to get our nuclear weapons out of the south and i'm appalled at the idea that there are people in the south who think they need them themselves. i think the meeting today between the two presidents gets them off to a good start. i think that's terribly important but there's an awful lot of work left to be done to restart some kind of contact with north korea and i would think the first thing that needs to be done is to reopen the case on the economic section just above the -- along the deem see where almost 50,000 north koreans were very effectively put to work by south korean economic firms. >> brown: you both met president park. i'll ask you, kurt campbell, what's the most important thing

for us to know about her? >> well, it's difficult to say. sy talked with her when she was a candidate. i was part of the delegation that met with her during the transition. we've known her for years. she's very sober, very careful. her whole life has been about service to south korea st. you touched on the tragic death of her parents. i think she came to power with a pragmatic sense she wanted tv constructive diplomacy with north korea. i agree with ambassador gregg that that's a desire first. i think she and her advisors have been a little bit surprised at how reluctant and difficult, if you will, the north koreans have been in the opening gambit. if you look historically, north korean leaders almost always test new south korean presidents during the opening months.

>>hey're bot new, aren't they? >> that's right, but frankly even though you might expect that historically, when you're in the midst of it and you're dealing with really a very unpredictable young leader it can be somewhat unnerving. >> brown: the donald gregg, when president park and president obama talked about the possibility still of talks with north korea where is the potential at this point? >> >> well, i think a lot of that have isnside pauen-hye. iet her first when i was stationed in seoul in the mid-'70s. i was there when her mother was shot by a north korean agent aiming at her father but missed her father and killed her mother. she went to north korea in 2001 and met with kim jong-il and i met her in south korea in 2002 and congratulated her for going and i'll never forget her

response. she said "you must look to the future with hope, not to the past with bitterness. i ink she carries that inside her. i think she has a lot more political leeway to make some moves toward the north to get things going. and i come back to kaesong as something that worked to the benefit of both of their sides there are also track two activities that can be encouraged. there was a scientific consortium and the north koreans came up with six or seven agriculturally related scientific issues that they would like to discuss with the west. so if we can get beyond this periodf shrl rhetoric i think there are ways of quietly starting some things which can act as confidence-building measures and create trust where absolutely no trust seems to exist. snupt kurt campbell? >> i would agree with that generally.

i think what ambassador greg has outlined is the right approach. i will say, though, that when the original conception of this economic engagement was discussed over a decade ago the idea was fornor/south economic engagement. if you look at caisson, it was a very contained effort in which workers work and they're kept apart from other north koreans and so it's really a contained -- >> pelley:. >> brown: so it never became what one might have thought? >> i don't think it has been as -- it has nod served as the kind of epping anyone had hoped for. what the north is still struggling with is that they're deeply wary of any kind of economic reform because of fear that it will undermine the leadership of the kim family. >> brown: donald gregg, in our last minute here, do we know more about the leader of north korea at this point? enough to know whether we can

get past this point? >> i think he's quite a high-stakes poker player. i wish we had invited him to the united states in 2009 as i suggested. i think his father made a wise choice in choosing him. i think he's smart. i think he's tough. i tnk his over-theop rhetoric has at least established his own stability within income. he's going to be around for a long time and we have to find ways to get in touch with him and move towards some form of trust poll teak to use park guen-hye's own term for her north korean policy. >> brown: donald gregg and kurt campbell, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> pleasure. >> suarez: next, the second of two stories on how to better engage students in the world of science. last night we reported on a science program in maine that

encourages problem-solving. tonight newshour correspondent spencer michels visits one of the nation's most successful science and technology centers, one that's recently moved and reopened in california. our story was jointly produced with our pbs colleagues at kqed- san francisco. >> reporter: popular science can be cool, intriguing and inspirational. that's the operating principal at the new exploratorium in san francisco, a $300 million building that just opened on san francisco's waterfront, designed to attract a million kids and their parents a year. some of the new exhibits have an artistic bent. and some are seemingly simple displays where you have to search to find the science. >> it's sand on top of a rotating disk. it actually shows the connection between linear motion and rotational motion.

>> reporter: physicist rob semper is associate director of the exploratorium. >> the point is having these experiences. rich experiences is key to really being excited about what you're doing. we don't know where it will happen, but there's so many exhibits here. we hope it will happen to everybody at one exhibit or another. >> reporter: the new exploratorium has 600 exhibits, 150 new ones. among them is a whimsical statue of frank oppenheimer, founder of the center in 1969, and the brother of j. robert oppenheimer, who pioneered the atomic bomb. for 44 years, the institution was housed in the landmark palace of fine arts. frank's idea-- revolutionary at the time-- was to take a new approach to science learning, outside of school. >> frank really felt that people need to explore science on their own, not necessarily in the classroom, in a curriculum. so i think frank had the idea that people would come to these places more than once. >> i don't remember every time since i've been a kid, but i think more than... definitely

more than 50 times. >> reporter: it was a new concept that spread across the country and the world. there are 800 science centers today-- places where you can touch everything, get your hands dirty, and experience scientific phenomena firsthand. >> it's just the ambiance, the openness, the warehouse feel. it's not manufactured. it's just a neat place to be. >> you could never do that with a regular magnet. >> reporter: paul doherty is a staff senior scientist who thinks he gets what frank oppenheimer was looking for. >> as soon as a person comes over and begins to interact with it, that brings the exhibit to life. we know we have a good exhibit when the person laughs and turns around and says to anybody passing, "hey, look at this." that's a good exhibit. >> reporter: as the exploratorium matured, it expanded, exporting its model around the world. and when it couldn't expand, it

sought space elsewhere. with much fanfare, the nonprofit organization launched its new high-tech, solar-powered building on a refurbished pier on the san francisco waterfront. tickets are $25 for adults, $19 for children. as before, the museum is a combination of fun and science. here you can see what happens if both sides of your face were the same. for all its success, the exploratorium-- and other science centers like it-- raise interesting questions. what is the best way for kids to learn science? do these centers supplement or replace what goes on in school? >> school is very important. reading and textbooks are very important to learn science. >> reporter: but, semper says, school is not enough. >> having a real experience is also important. so you actually need both.

and in fact, laboratories in schools often don't do enough to help people really experience some of the phenomenon on their own. >> reporter: take this tinkering clock, for example. can it teach kids science? >> i've seen people stare at the mechanism, get really intrigued by how does that work. why did it do it what way? >> reporter: one of the most popular exhibits at the old and the new exploratoriums is a huge mirror that visitors can watch for hours. >> it's a mirror that was actually built for nasa for a space shuttle for a flight simulator. when you walk towards it, all of a sudden your head appears upside down, because it's a curved mirror. it also makes your sound be magnified. we find people then try to figure out, how does it work? the museum floor is our experimental space, and we study how people learn. we study how to make better exhibits. >> reporter: but while big science and technology centers like the exploratorium can be exciting and attract thousands of people, some educators say a smaller, less expensive approach

to out-of-school learning, with more emphasis on poor and underserved kids, can be just as effective in supplementing what happens in school. dan sudran runs the mission science workshop in san francisco in a former high school auto shop. much of the material available here he gathered himself, on a tight budget. for the kids he serves, it is essentially free. its goals are similar to the exploratorium's, says its founder, but not completely. some people come in and say, "this is a mess." i said, "yeah, but it's a controlled mess." but when kids realize it's okay to have something of a mess, it's kind of like okay to just make mistakes, because the world is kind of a mess. i want all four of your guys to figure out your environment. >> reporter: sudran began his workshop two decades ago, and it seems more down and dirty than its upscale cousin across town. today a class of fourth-graders walked a few blocks from a nearby school, to learn about animal habitats.

>> aot of the teachers who come here feel somewhat overwhelmed, because they have so many other things to teach. many of them don't have a background that makes them confident in teaching it. they also realize that there's something special about science that it doesn't work to just download knowledge. fourth-grade teacher robert savant says he needs more support if he's to teach science in a robust fashion. >> i can teach and teach in class, and they'll get a portion, but here it really cements what i've taught in class. and you find that lots of kids are not just visual learners, they're not just oral learners. they need to be able to touch. this is a little more accessible for lower social economic kids than say the exploratorium. >> reporter: sudran's self- imposed mission is to reach kids in need and kids who live too far away to visit the exploratorium.

>> what we're doing is going into primarily poor neighborhoods and cities in california. the exploratorium has been helpful to us. they've given us stuff. but, like i say, i'm just a little bit of a nagger, a nitpicker, and i say, why such a concentration of resources? i'm working in east side of salinas, down in fresno county also, and those kids, they might as well be 10,000 miles away from san francisco. the exploratorium has this $300 million capital fund. if we could get 1% of that, 1%, $3 million, we could start 30 community science workshops in towns that i could name right now in california. >> reporter: for its part, the exploratorium sends educators into underserved communities in the bay area and beyond to bring hands-on science to children. it allows free entry to those who can't afford it, plus it has an extensive training program for teachers.

physicist linda shore directs the teacher institute. >> so they come to us and we teach them literally how to take these large $50,000 exhibits and make small table top versions of them for their classrooms, so that their students literally have an experience with any exhibit that they themselves have built. >> reporter: the wide goal of both the exploratorium and the mission science workshop is basically the same: not to replace school, but to inspire a keen interest in science by piquing the imaginations of children, parents, and teachers. and both institutions have existed long enough to show that they work. >> brown: online, see how the mission science workshop uses frozen roadkill and harvested whale bones to inspire students. >> suarez: now, an update on the impact of federal spending cuts known as the sequester.

the government must reduce spending in military and domestic programs across-the- board by $85 billion this year. the latest fallout: federal officials announced today they're postponing auctions for new oil and gas leases in california. those bids were planned for an area that features one of the largess deposits of shale oil in the country. staffing and budget problems were decided as one of the several reasons for the decisions but when it comes to tracking the effect of the sequester it's a tricky thing. while some cuts have already hit others are still to come and some may be avoided. one of the most immediate and visible changes: furloughs for air traffic controllers that led to flight delays ended within a week of when the cuts took effect. that's because congress and the president signed a bill quickly providing new relief for the federal aviation administration. some other furloughs such as at the ste partment have been avoided through budgetary

maneuvers. but the president maintains incremental fixes are the wrong approach to the sequester >> what's clear is the only way we're going to lift it is if we do a bigger deal that meets the test of lowering our deficit and growing our economy at the same time and that will require some compromises on the part of both democrats and republicans. >> with no compromise in sight, communities across the country are bracing for quester to kick in during the coming weeks. workers at this naval facility in the town of crane in southern indiana, for example, are protesting pending furloughs of civilian employees. the department of defense is facing the prospects of cutting more than $40 billion. social programs in other states are already taking a hit. in monomouth county, new jersey, the local meals on wheels program has halted hiring and taking on new delivery routes to needy seniors.

federal funding currently covers more than 60% of the program's costs. no officials are are waiting to see how much money is cut in the weeks ahead. in washington, some cutbacks are already visible. the white house began canceling tours to the public in march. would be visitors are now encouraged to take a virtual tour online. last week the smithsonian announce lead the exhibit areas would be closed through september citing a reduction in a security contract. for more we turn to colleagues from across the country. for more, we turn to colleagues from across the country. gene grant is with new mexico pbs, gretchefrazee is th wu at india pubc medi and flo jonic is a reporter at rhode island public radio. let's go from east to west and check on how the effects of the sqeser are being seen where you live and work. so we'll start in rhode island with you, flo. >> the effects of the sequestration cuts were first felt in rhode island by

8,000 long-term unemployment people. at two weeks ago they sustained a $40 a week benefit cut. that may not sound like a lot but it is when you consider we live in a fairly expeiveart the country. and the benefit in rhode island is only $3.69. most of are cuts are still ahead. head start will lose 200 of its 2,800 slots next fall. they're going to do it by serving the neediest children. that means a lot of poor children will be going to kindergarten without benefits to this program. 4,000 rhode islanders next winter will lose heating assistance. that's a big deal when you consider half of the state heats with heating oil, which is coting upwards of $4 a gall. i talked to a man who was trying to live on a $1700 a month social security check and he told me that help was the difference between eating and keeping warm. other cuts that are in the offing but have not yet been

imposed, 1700 rhode islanders will lose the federal nutrition program known as wic, rhode island will lose about $2 million in special education funds. they're still trying to figure out how that's going to be ab, soed and we stand to lose $15 million in programs for housing the very poorest among us. that includes the closure of probly one shelter next winter and this winter we had shelters with standing room only. >> suarez: we'll move next to indiana. gretchen, how does it look there. >> it's actually very similar to what we just heard about in rhode island. head start is probably the program that has and seen the biggest impact so far it's estimated that about a thousand of the children that currently go to head start programs will be cut. that's out of about 15,000 throughout the state and a lot of thoserogrs ar arting to cut back already some of their summer programs, for example having have been cut

back. they are only taking about a third of the students that they originally had estimated would be able to come into the summer program. we're seeing cuts to our long-term unemployment benefits. last month they were cut about 10% which doesn't seem like a lot but as we heard in rhode island when you are on that fixed income it canreally cut intoyour buet. one of the other things we're still waiting on is our defense industry. that's quite a big industry here in indiana and we're seeing it was estimated about 1,000 national guard technicians would be put on furlough for 22 days. we heard that that has been cut back to 14 days, it so that's good news. however there are a lot of people still waiting for news as you saw in the television story there are some employeesin crane, indiana about 400 of

those civilian contractors at the naval base down there are set to be put on furlough but they have not heard exactly when that will be how long that will be so we're in a wait-and-see mode in indianapolis. >> pelley: we. >> suarez: we head next to new mexico with gene grant. gene? >> very similar from what we heard from indiana. that last bid about the department of defense and department of energy cuts here. ray, in mexico we have so bigo much federal presence, los alamos national lab two hours north of albuquerque in los alamos and initially it looked like we were facing about $43 million in budget cuts that was between air force and army army being the bulk of that. but there are things that are turning over as possibilitys to sqeser that are giving people trouble, including our senate and congressional delegation who are fighting right now to move

monearound from reprogramming scheme with d.o.e. to continue with a deal they had made with the state that-to-clean up some acid and other wastes, nuclear waste up at los alamos. well, we're obligated to have that cleaned up. it's an agreement between the state and d.o.e. they're asking for $20 million more to ensure that happens. senator tom udall said if that doesn't happen we would predict furloughs as early as next week and i want to go back to something our guests from indiana meioneas wll tat cretary hagel is announced as we hear it out here what the deal is going to be on furloughs. we have heard about 22 days down to 14. we're not sure where it's going to level out. the mystery is the big problem at this point for new mexico. >> suarez: flo, if you're not in

head start or on unemployment insurance is it getting a lot of play? is it something people are talking about that these federal cuts are here and the effects are starting to be seen? >> it's t getng coverage or awareness. i haven't heard anybody talking about it. our legislature has been absorbed with same-sex marriage recently. i'm not seeing any movements on submitfield where our statehouse is located to alleviate any of these cuts. there's a lot of lobbying going on, particularly to restore the meals on wheels cuts that are anticipated which could affect 2000 seniors could be cut off the meals on wheels program here but i'm not seeing any movement to restore these cuts. and this is at a time when rhode island is in a better position financially than it habeen in a long ti for the fist tme in several years we don't have a huge deficit to face this year. >> suarez: gene, you opened by mentioning npl is among the states most dependent on transfers from the federal government is is there high

awareness there of the possible effect down the road of the sequester on a state like new mexico? >> on the street yes. in official new mexico, no, we just finished our session about 30, 45 days ago. it hardly came up, it was an amazing circumstance to watch happen. on the street it was a much different deal. portland air force base which sandia national labs is on their property in albuquerque, they've come up with a metric that shows one out of every 1 jobs in the entire state of new mexico are somehow associated with court land air force base. we're talking about a payroll annually of about 1.2 billion out of here and their predictions -- the predictions they're is a 50 mile radius around that base. so ybo tha's a civilian contractor, we've already had some contractors let go where we've had maintenance and janitorial services let go and

one of the interesting things i'm going to be watching here is how is this going to affect minority-owned business contracting? that's been a very big push here in new mexico for a lot of years for all of our federal outlets and some great progress has been made but all that could potentially roll back if in fact those most vulnerable contractors are the first to be let go so folks are wting and seeing which w thi will play out but if you're in someone's kitchen or dining room they know about sequestration. they hear it officially in new mexico from either the governor's office, the legislature, the mayor office here in albuquerque, very little at this point. >> suarez: gretchen, this was this titanic political battle for sequestration arrived. once it came did people believe it was that big a deal rohr these effects in indiana on the national guard, on a base in crane on people who have kids i adtartsoimid that it's

not widely felt here? >> i think the issue here isn't that it's so limited as much as who it effects. i talk to one economists who said the cuts we're seeing are too -- to be honest low-income services and that's not what you hear about a so a lot of people in the middle and upper classes aren't even phased that much by sequestration barring, of course, the contract -- the defense contractors and other people in the defense industry so we hen't heard muabo it as our other colleagues have mentioned we wrapped up our legislative session and it wasn't discussed hardly at all and we have heard a few things here and there from our u.s. senators, for example, especially when you were seeing furloughs backing up those airport bus we have not heard much going back to some people in the defense industry. they have been vocal about it but, again, those are a limited

number of people in the state being affected. >> suarez: gretchen frazee in indiana, gene grant inew mexico, flo january nick in rhode island, thanks to all of you. find out how the sequester affected a community near you. that's on our home page. >> brown: finally tonight, movies, music, and more: helping define and preserve our cultural history. the 1894 silent film, "annabel butterfly," created by none other than thomas edison himself in his new jersey studio, one of the oldest movies ever restored. as with other films from this period of experimentation, when frames were mostly colored by hand, the restoration is a painstaking process. it's all part of the work done here at the packard campus of the library of congress, the largest audio and visual collection in the world. >> movies and sound recordings were an essential glue that

helped create and form american culture just as important as any other cultural aspect in america. >> brown: patrick loughney heads the national audio visual conservation center, more th thee million sound recordings, a million and half films and video, occupying some 100 miles of shelves. the 45-acre campus is nestled in the hills of central virginia, a state-of-the-art modernized facility that once served as a cold war-era outpost for the federal reserve bank, designed to withstand a nuclear blast. today the treasure being protected is cultural, an effort born of a growing concern that audio and visual recordings were disappearing-- in some cases misplaced, ignored, or forgotten, in others due to film and tape literally disintegrating. gene deanna, who heads the vast recorded sound section at the library of congress, says cylinders invented by edison in the 1800's were the very first mass produced sound format. >> if columbia records, who

manufactured these, wanted to make ten cylinders, they would have to have ten recorders, and the singer of the band or the speaker would speak or sing into the horns and make ten, and then they'd reload and do it again. these would be mostly heard not in private homes, but in nickelodeons. >> brown: one example here: president mckinley's 1896 campaign songs recorded on wax cylinders. years later, technology had evolved. this 1936 louis armstrong recording was made on a nickel- plated copper disc. the goal here is to extract as much of the sound or sonic information as possible from the old format, in order to create a new high-quality digital version that can be preserved for the future. we watched that process-- stripng off the audio d.n.a in a sense-- undertaken on a lacquer disc of arthur smith's

"guitar boogie" from the 1940's; and american composer roy harris' "duo for cello and piano" from the 1970's. but a tremendous amount of material has been lost, even historic recordings by the likes of george gershwin, frank sinatra, and judy garland. the library was mandated by congress to develop a new audio recording preservation strategy, and brought out a plan earlier this year. among its goals: create a publicly accessible national directory of collections; develop a coordinated collections policy, including a strategy to collect, catalogue, and preserve recordings; construct storage facilities for long-term preservation; and simplify and clarify disparate copyright laws governing historical recordings. it's not an ea task, says the

librarian of congress, james billington, but it's a necessary one. >> yeah, there are all kinds of obscure places where things have been preserved, sometimes in people's attics, sometimes in depositories that no longer exist or have changed ownership. its detective work to reassembling what the original product was, as close as possible, and as permanent a new material of reformatting as can be made. and if you look at the recorded sound, well, it's so diverse, it's so interesting. it's not just music-- or, it's a lot of music, but it's also comedy or it's thsounds th we no longer hear, even the sounds of a fog horn or a distant train whistle. all of this is the soundscape of our world, and our country has been a very noisy participant and a very creative one. >> brown: when it comes to film and tv, the loss is also great. a recent study, for example, estimates that 80% of motion pictures made before 1930 have

been lost. at the conservation center, technicians work on those that have managed to survive, however damaged, in an effort to bring them back to a form that can be copied, preserved, and shown once more. that can entail cleaning of the old film, repairing of sprockets and splices, and resetting exposure levels. >> oh, you great big latin lover you! >> oh, you excited woman, you! >> brown: more recent films and video require repairs as well, like episodes of "i love lucy"; the only appearance by the rock band the doors on the "ed sullivan show"; and a 1975 documentary on the memphis blues, a technician rescanning the film version, toggling between the grainy original and the tweaked, vibrant version of blues great b.b. king. the 1940 year film "road to

singapore," with bob hope, bing crosby, and dorothy lamour, is taking months to fully mend, requiring extensive splicing. of course, technology has changed again, as video and music are delivered digitally. but even thenternet age, tri loughney says, the nation must take care to preserve its cultural heritage. >> there is a belief among the younger generation that everything has been digitized that ever existed before or will soon be and will be available on the internet, and that's factually not accurate. >> brown: in the meantime, a constant flow of new treasures-- about 150,000 sound and moving image recordings-- continues to be taken in each year at the packard facility. and there's a renewed focus on helping preserve the rich material held by other institutio, such as university archives, public libraries, and historical societies across the country. >> there are vast amounts of audiovisual history in the

united states that have not been preserved. they are being held by institutions or private collectors who should be acknowledged for recognizing the importance of those materials, but they need help. >> brown: to that end, the library has created a foundation to raise public and private funds to award grants to smaller archives for their preservation work. online you can see and hear more about the preservation efforts on our artbeat page. >> suarez: again, the major developments of the day. the pentagon reported up to 26,000 members of the u.s. military were sexually assaulted last year. president obama called it an outrage. the dow jones industrials finished above 15,000 for the first time. and three women kidnapped in cleveland years ago spent their first day of freedom after being rescued overnight. >> brown: online we track the best and worst countries to be a newborn. hari sreenivasan has the details. >> sreenivasan: one million babies die each year on the day they are born the organization save the children ranks countries that are best-- and worst-- for

newborns. that study is on our health page. and read about a solar-powered plane that cruises at 43 miles per hour with no fuel. that's on our science page. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll look at the high-tech forensic science used in the genocide trial of former guatemalan president rios montt. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thanks for joining us. good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> and by bp. >> macarthur foundation. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. an by ntritio to ur bs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org