captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. president obama asked the first lady to head a campaign against childhood obesity. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, almost one-third of all children in the united states are overweight. in a white house interview, mrs. obama told jim it's time to tackle the problem. >> it's not about demonizing parents, and it's not about demonizing business. it's just saying we know there's a problem; let's figure out what we can change. >> lehrer: then, toyota recalls another 400,000 cars worldwide.

>> woodruff: and spencer michels reports on the demise of a joint venture between general motors and toyota in california. >> i'm a single mom so it's pretty scary. it seems like there's, you know, lots of other people out there looking for jobs as well. >> lehrer: and rising debt burdens in europe have had an impact here in the u.s. jeffrey brown takes a look. that's all ahead on tonight's "pbs newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? every day, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human

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live a healthy productive life. 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. >> lehrer: first lady michelle obama launched a campaign today against a virtual epidemic of obesity among american children. newshour health correspondent betty ann bowser begins our coverage. >> michelle obama. >> reporter: at a white house ceremony, mrs. obama said the numbers tell the story. >> over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in this country have tripled. >> reporter: the first lady outlined a national campaign called "let's move." surrounded by local pee wee football champions. >> these guys are the national football champions.

right? ( applause ) >> reporter: today nearly one third of american-children are overweight or obese. later in life many will suffer from chronic obesity-related health problems like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. and a recent study found obesity-related illnesses cost the u.s. health care system $147 billion a year. >> today it's time for a moment of truth for our nation. it's time for a wake-up call for all of us. >> reporter: part of the wake-up call is a task force to be headed by the first lady. >> the task force is going to be comprised of representatives from key agencies, many of them are here today. and over the next 90 days, yes, more work for you, these folks will review every program and policy relating to child nutrition and physical activity. they're going to develop an action plan to marshal these

resources to meet our goal. >> reporter: initiatives will include programs to: make food labels easier to read and more user friendly for parents. and spend $10 billion to update school nutrition standards. the campaign also aims to help kids be more physically active. another $400 million a year will go to bringing healthier food options to communities without supermarkets. >> lehrer: to our interview with the first lady. i spoke with her this afternoon at her office in the east wing of the white house. mrs. obama, welcome. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> lehrer: why did you choose childhood obesity as your major project? >> i think i connected with it as a mother. because i remember so clearly life before the white house. it was a life that most working parents are dealing with where you're juggling

jobs and trying to get kids to and from. you're trying to make life easier. you're eating out more. you're probably moving less because you're car pooling and you're sitting. kids are watching tv. as a result of this lifestyle, this busy, hectic lifestyle, my pediatrician pointed out some changes in my kids' body mass index that, you know, he just sort of checked us on. i hadn't even thought about it. hadn't thought about our lifestyle. but the beauty of, you know, that situation for me was that i made some pretty minor changes over the period of months and saw what the doctor said were pretty remarkable changes that he usually didn't see in his practice. which is predominantly african- american, urban practice. so he was pretty floored by how quickly you could turn the tide on this issue by just removing juices from lunch

boxes and cooking a little bit more, maybe one or two more meals, you know, turning the tv off a little bit more. limiting desserts to the week ends. these were really not major lifestyle overhauls. so when i came here, i thought, if this... if it can be that simple, it's all about lack of information. and lack of focus on the issue. so i wanted to, you know, use the first lady spotlight to shine the light on this issue for many families that are struggling with this issue. >> lehrer: did you consider other causes , something more related, say, or directly related to the recession, unemployment, that sort of thing? >> well, there have been several issues that i've developed over the course of my first year. children's health and nutrition is one. planting the garden. that was really sort of laying the foundation and using that year to learn more. but i have and will continue to focus on supporting our

military families, national service will continue to be something that i'm promoting around the country. i'm still multitasking. it's really with childhood obesity that we saw an opportunity to really launch a major initiative that we thought could move the ball. so a lot of this effort results from the belief that this is something that we can do something about. >> lehrer: you feel that because you have made the decision to do it and you're going to get involved in this, that you really can change where the trends are? all the things that you have lamented and others have lamented that are going on among young people? >> well, i know i can't do it alone. and the solutions are not going to come from any one single solution. but i do have the platform to lead an effort to pull all of these resources together. and again shine a spotlight on this issue in a way that i

couldn't do as a regular mom on the south side of chicago. so i don't think that me alone will solve this. but i think if we're working with the governors and mayors all across the city highlighting important initiatives, if we get our pediatricians, the american academy of pediatrics is working to improve their practices around this issue , we've got the school lunch providers that are on board, athletes and the entertainment industry engaged as well as elected officials in congress and around the nation that, yes, if we're working with parents who ultimately have the responsibility that we can move the ball. >> lehrer: what about this word obesity? it's been suggested that that's a very accusatory, negative word. >> right. >> lehrer: it's not a comforting word at all. >> not at all. >> lehrer: do you use it that way when you.... >> well, you use it to describe the issue because the

trends are obesity-related trends. 30% or one in three of our kids are overweight or obese. that's a real statistic. so it's a real word that's important to describe the problem. we're spending over $140 billion a year on ... in this country dealing with obesity- related illnesses like heart disease and cancer and type 2 diabetes. you have to use the word to talk about the reality of the situation, but i agree. this isn't about looks. and it's not about weight. it's about how our kids feel. and those are really the implications of the problem and the words that tell a fuller picture of the challenges that we face. you know, kids struggling in ways that they didn't a generation ago. >> lehrer: in your announcement earlier today in the state dining room, you

made a point that the parents are going to have... if anything is going to happen, the parents are going to have to take control of this. how can you get that message over without appearing to be a scold of some kind to point fingers and use this word owe bias... obesity in a negative way? >> a lot of it is tone. and showing a level of understanding of how we got here. all parents, including me, care about our kids. we want to do the right things for them at all times. we have to start with that assumption. that parents aren't deliberately making bad choices. they're making the choices that they... that they can under the circumstances . i think we have to approach this issue understanding that. not just with regard to parents but with regard to our kids . we have to understand that they didn't create this problem for themselves either. but we have to be realistic

about how we got here in order to figure out how to solve it. and parents cannot do it alone. that's one thing. because it's one thing to identify a problem for parents and then just sort of leave them all alone to figure it out and they don't know why or how and the information is so confusing. so we have to give them the tools and the information that they need to make better decisions. we can't just point a finger. we certainly can't ask parents who are living in the midst of food deserts about the resources to buy the products and the items for their families. we definitely can't put them into that trick bag of telling them that they need to do something that is completely out of their reach. so this initiative has to deal with talking to parents in a way that makes sense. eliminating the accessibility and affordability issues in this country so that when we start talking about solutions , they're solutions that all families can access and not just the lucky few. >> lehrer: all kinds of things

on your list of things that need to be done. one of them caught my eye which is to eliminate as best that can be done sugary foods, bad foods from vending machines so kids in school... how in the world are you going to accomplish that? >> well, again this is something that schools can't do alone or parents. >> lehrer: they're not doing it now, are they? >> well, we have work to do. but today i also announced that we're getting some unprecedented cooperation from the school food supplyers who are ready to step up and play a role in figuring out how do you change the quality of food in the schools? the beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks. not just the ones in stores but ones in vending machines. you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play.

and have them come up with solutions that make sense. this isn't about demonizing any industry or any, you know... it's not about demonizing parents and it's not about demonizing businesses. it's just saying we know there's a problem. let's figure out what we can change, what's within our control and who is willing to step up, who can't for whatever reason, and we can move the ball. again this isn't about moving the ball 100%. because 20% worth of changes can change the nature of the central advertise ticks in pretty meaningful ways. >> lehrer: when this is all said and done, when the legacy of michelle obama, first lady of the land, is written , do you want it to say something about... is it very important to you that it say something about this issue of childhood obesity? >> this issue is critically important to me because it's critically important to the

health and success of our kids and of this nation ultimately. if i can play a role in helping move us forward on this issue, even a small bit, i will be proud and happy. but this isn't about my legacy. you know, i could care less if my name is ever mentioned in 10 or 20 years if we're looking back on a healthier generation. for me, i look at the faces of my kids and i think about the future that is going to await them and whether they're not just going to have the financial resources to be prepared for the challenge but whether they're going to have the strength and the stamina to live healthier, longer lives so that they can see their kids and grand kids. that's the legacy i hope to see. it can have nothing to do with me. i'd be perfectly happy. >> lehrer: how involved are you going to be in this cause? >> i'm going to spend a lot of time. i'm going to be visiting schools and i have over the years. it's really, you know, again this is an official launch.

"let's move" is now a name that's connected to an effort. but i'm going to continue to work in the garden and get children engaged. i'm going to be visiting schools around this country that are meeting the healthy school challenge to highlight the work they've done. i've already taped a public service announcement that will air in connection with nbc. i've appeared on sesame street. i will go wherever i need to go to help spread the word. i'm committed to this. >> lehrer: and finally i assume the president is on board with you on this? >> yes, he is. >> lehrer: he's going to knock some heads for you in the federal government. >> today he signed a memorandum creating the first ever federal task force on childhood obesity. that was a pretty major step . that memorandum is going to urge several key agencies to focus for the next 90 days on coming up with a long-term plan and some concrete

benchmarks to get us on a long- term path. so, yes, he's on board. i'm happy to have his help. >> lehrer: mrs. obama, thank you very much. good luck. >> thank you. thank you. thanks for taking the time to focus on this. >> woodruff: and still to come on the newshour, new troubles for toyota; a plant closing in california; and european nations in the red. >> lehrer: but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: president obama issued another challenge to republicans today to cooperate on a host of issues. he met with leaders of both parties at the white house. it was the first time republican leaders had been there in two months. later, mr. obama said he's ready to do his part-- on health care, for instance. >> i'm going to be starting from scratch in the sense that i will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals. what i will not do, what i don't

think makes sense-- and i don't think the american people want to see-- would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues. >> sreenivasan: republicans sounded skeptical. house minority leader john boehner said democrats are still wedded to their health care legislation. >> it's going to be very difficult to have a bipartisan conversation with regard to a 2,700-page health care bill that the democrat majority in the house and the democrat majority in the senate can't pass. so why are we going to talk about a bill that can't pass? it really is time to scrap the bill and start over. >> sreenivasan: there might be more room for compromise on a jobs bill. the president said getting agreement on aiding small business could build momentum for larger steps. and the top senate republican, mitch mcconnell, said the two sides share an interest in expanding nuclear power and finishing trade deals. the president also had a warning for iran over its nuclear program. he said the u.s. is working on a "significant regime" of new sanctions in the u.n. security council.

he gave no timetable for action. iran announced today it's begun enriching uranium to a higher level. that could be another step toward developing nuclear weapons, a goal iran denies having. wall street rallied sharply today on hopes of an aid plan for greece, which is heavily in debt. the dow jones industrial average gained 150 points to close at 10,058. the nasdaq rose more than 24 points to close near 2151. a huge new snowstorm blew across the u.s. midwest today, and took aim for the already snowbound mid-atlantic region. roads from minneapolis to chicago to indianapolis were slick with up to a foot of new snow. hundreds of flights were canceled in chicago, and washington braced for up to 20 new inches, on top of last weekend's blizzard. in southern california, another rainstorm raised fears of new mudslides in the los angeles area. officials ordered more than 540 homes to be evacuated by this morning. in afghanistan today, more than 60 people were feared dead after

a series of avalanches. cascades of snow and ice engulfed the salang pass after days of heavy snow. it links kabul with the city of mazar e-sharif. the incident buried more than two miles of highway, trapping hundreds of cars. rescue crews recovered at least 24 bodies, and evacuated 430 of the injured. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's website. but for now, back to judy. >> woodruff: toyota's reputation took another body blow today. for the record, toyota is a newshour underwriter. the latest recall involves 437,000 cars worldwide. including almost 150,000 in the u.s. the world's largest auto maker acknowledged a software glitch could lead to braking trouble in bad driving conditions. most of the affected models were toyota's 2010 gasp electric hybrids, including its marquis prius.

the lexus hs-250-h sudan was also on the list. one prius driver in dallas said he had complained about the brake issue since august when he nearly ran over a pedestrian. >> the car lurched forward and the guy jumped out of the way. he called me every name in the book. >> woodruff: toyota had already recalled nearly eight million of its vehicles. most of those were flagged for a sudden acceleration problem that the company linked to faulty gas pedals and floor mats. toyota apologized last week for his name sake firm quality control problem. today he pledged again to right toyota's wrongs. >> we tackle the issue in close cooperation with dealers and with the suppliers . together we will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers. >> woodruff: as part of the effort to rebuild trust,

toyota penned an opinion piece for today's "washington post." >> in recent days, our company hasn't been living up to the standards that you've come to expect from us. >> woodruff: and the company has also begun airing this television ad in an effort to own up and move forward. >> we're working around the clock to ensure we build cars of the highest quality. to restore your faith in our company. >> woodruff: at the same time state farm insurance said today it reported concerns about acceleration problems in toyotas in 2007 to the national highway traffic safety administration or. but a democratic congressional staff memo said neither toyota nor federal regulators have identified all of the causes of the uncontrolled acceleration. on top of that, news wires reported late today toyota will recall 7300 of its top-

selling camry sudans, 2010 models. they could have a steering problem. and here to discuss these latest bumps in the road for toyota are two people who cover the company and the auto industry: ken bensinger of the "los angeles times" and david welch of "businessweek." toyota declined our request for an interview. ken bensinger, david welch, thank you both. ken bensinger, to you first. of all the toyota models now, how many are involved in some sort of recall or investigation? >> i don't want to get the number wrong it seems to grow every single day. i believe it's approaching about 15 different models that are involved in one or more recalls. it's important to note there's some overlap there. some vehicles are in two recalls and some vehicles you can't even buy in the u.s. are now being recalled in japan, for example. >> woodruff: tell us what's behind this latest prius recall. what's the problem? >> apparently there's a problem with the braking system in this. it's computer-controlled

system that has to do with the high-tech brakes that a hybrid has. and they're anti-lock braking system. toyota is saying it's a software glitch they can fix. what's interesting about it is that toyota said they knew about the fix and had it implemented on the assembly line some time ago which raises questions about how long they knew about this problem. >> woodruff: david welch, in reading, these are the regenerative brakes. explain what those are. >> well, in hybrids, when a car brakes, it slows down... the car actually will recharge the bat batteries off friction from the regenerative brakes. you can keep driving with electric push and use less gasoline. >> woodruff: and toyota now has... we've been hearing about this for a week. do we know why it was not until today that they formally announced the recall? >> it's a good question because this is actually first flagged in japan. there were a number of complaints about the prius

over and japanese regulators started pushing for a recall. then we actually had... it started with 17 or 19 complaints in japan. the day that came out, i checked myself on the website and there were well over 100 complaints in the u.s. about the prius brakes and more having to do with the cruise control system. these complaints were piling up. and there was no recall or service bulletin or anything put out until some days after. >> woodruff: and ken bensinger, are there other toyota hybrids involved here and other models of cars involved? >> well, in the new recall, yes, there's a lexus. their brand new hybrid which is called the hs. it just came out this year, excuse me late last year. that seems to use similar technology for braking and is part of the recall in europe, the u.s., and japan. there's a model called the sai which you can only get in japan. apparently it has the same problem. separately there's this camry issue which is breaking but

not apparently software related. it seemed to be a braking line leak that can lead to loss of hydraulic pressure and braking problems. all tolled we're talking nearly 500,000 more vehicles added to the list. what's interesting is this is a problem that's distinct from the one we've seen elsewhere which is unintended acceleration. now it seems to be extending beyond that. perhaps we want to wonder, is this related or not? is this some kind of holistic problem that affects all these vehicles or are these truly discreet problems. >> brooks: and there's also the information about the corolla another model with an electric power steering issue. >> these recalls just keep piling up. what greg was just saying, there are different parts of the car so they have to be unrelated. first it was floor mats. then accelerator pedal. you're talking about regenerative brakes and you're talking about steering. you know, it looks to me like they've just taken their eye off the ball with quality

control or really with toyota, the company grew so fast over the past decade and they were building plants, adding workers all over the globe and adding a lot of new model lines that they didn't have. i think it's fairly safe to say and i've written this that may have overstretched their resources and really couldn't keep up with the growth they were having and the same levels of quality that had built the company's brand over the past several decades. >> woodruff: meantime, we know, i'll stay with you, david welch on this, the new information coming out about state farm insurance saying they notified in 2007, they notified the national highway traffic safety administration that there were problems. what's the story there? >> well, this could be trouble for both ntsa and toyota because you've got a congressional inquiry on this, looking into, one, whether toyota dragged its feet, and two, whether ntsa fail to identify problems. if the insurance company is saying it goes back to 20307

and there wasn't a recall until early this year, them didn't even really start looking into it until way 2009, then you can say, you know, possibly that both companies or both the company-a the government dragged their feet on this thing. you know, there's going to be some trouble for both i think. >> woodruff: there was to be i guess a congressional hearing today and they called it off because of the snowstorm coming. ken, you were telling us that there are staffing and budget issues at ntsa. >> yeah, i'd like to sort of add to what david said. it is troubling but a lot of the work we've been doing here at the times shows that this has been an issue that toyota has known about and that nstsa has known about, the highway traffic administration for quite a bit longer than 2007. in fact, ntsa investigated acceleration problems dating back to 2003. since then they've done eight investigations and it led to a

tiny recall on some mini-vans and a prior floor mat recall. now congress, which is going to continue to take a look at this issue in a couple weeks, congress is asking serious questions about ntsa was asleep at the switch on this issue and why is it they were unable to notice a problem when there was really abundant evidence that something serious was going on. why couldn't they spot a problem that suddenly toyota says is evident and obvious. >> woodruff: this is something we want to continue to look at because you were telling us ntsa has a very small staff compared to the number of complaints that they get. i want to quickly ask you both and i'll stay with you, ken, toyota today has been now launching this advertising campaign. what is the message that they're trying to get out? what are they doing? >> well, toyota is a company built entirely on trust and the idea that they make high- quality cars that don't fail and that are safe. that's the value proposition they've been giving people. all of a sudden for them to

come out with a series of sequential recalls in a way that makes people feel uneasy about how many more problems there are, toyota has some serious work to do to, to reestablish that position. they really have to. we're talking about their latest most modern vehicles affected in these recalls. they don't have other products to sell people. this is just about everything they've got. they've got to convince people to come back to buy these vehicles or they're sunk. the message is trust us, believe in us, we're there for you and we're going to give you service. that's a tough bill of sale right now considering all the challenges and the future stuff they're going to face. >> woodruff: david welch, is there anything you would compare what toyota... anything else that has happened in the automotive industry in the past with at toyota is going through right now? >> in some ways, this is fairly similar to what ford and firestone went through in 2000 and 2001. you recall back then explorers that were riding on firestone tires were rolling over. the tires were failing but

also it turned out later that the explorer itself wasn't all that stable. it took both companies a long time to recover from that in terms of their brand strength and getting people to trust them again. toyota has a real problem with this because, you know, like we just heard on this show, you know, they've built the brand on quality and on trust. they were the one big company that everyone thought they could really rely on. if that is shaken, they're in trouble. let's face it. toyota has made very good cars for a long time. you don't buy them because they're cute or have white knuckle performance. you buy them because of the safe, smart purchase. when consumers stop believing that, they'll start to look at other companies on a more even playing field. toyota will have to compete harder for those buyers. >> woodruff: we're going to leave it there. david welch with bloomberg business week and ken bensing we are the l.a. times. gentlemen, thank you both. >> lehrer: now a second story involving toyota. in california the company was making headlines even before

the safety recalls of the past few weeks. newshour correspondent spencer michels reports. >> reporter: at the same time toyota is dealing with the huge recall, it is about to shutter a major auto plant. in just a few weeks all this activity will grind to a halt. 4700 jobs will disappear and so will california's only auto assembly plant. and a unique joint operating agreement between general motors arch toyota will officially be dead. the two auto makers have been building cars at the new united motor ffering inc. plant or nvmmi since 1984. last year general motors went into bankruptcy and decided to pull out of the deal. then toyota announced it would halt production here on march 31, a date that toyota says remains unaltered by the brake

and accelerator problems some of its cars are having. the manufacturing manager has been with nvmmi 21 years. >> we are a victim of the times and the economy and the downturn. >> reporter: nvmmi spokesman says without g.m., the plant was no longer viable. >> unfortunately when general motors pulled out of the joint venture that's what precipitated the closure of the plant. >> reporter: you don't think one company like toyota could run this plant all by itself. >> when the joint venture was formed in '84 it wasn't built to survive without one of its partners. >> reporter: even though this plant closes soon, toyota and nvmmi are making use of every day, lending two shifts a day five days a week and cranking out corollas and tacomas, one every 54 seconds. a few changes were made in the corolla manufacturing process following the recall, but the line never shut down.

the plant is huge. 5.5 million square feet in free month, california, near san jose. since it opened about eight million new cars and trucks have rolled on to american highways. pontiac vibes, geo and chevy prisms, coroallas-pick-up trucks. toyota, a newshour underwriter, says a key factor in closing the plant was efficiency, especially in a depressed market. irv miller is vice president for corporate communications. >> the free month plant is the oldest plant that is operating in our system. we have new plants in san antonio that are building our pick-ups trucks. the move to take tacoma from nvmmi to san antonio is a common sense move. >> reporter: the idea of the joint operation 25 years ago was that g.m. would learn japanese production methods from toyota, and toyota would learn how to operate in an american environment.

u.k. berkeley business school professor robert cole who studied the auto industry says the collaboration was mostly successful especially for toyota which back in 1984 had several goals. >> to figure out how to manage u.s. workers, perhaps deal with unions. also they wanted to figure out how to replicate their "just in time" delivery system that they had in japan. and both of those objectives were accomplished . >> rooney: for g.m., cole says, the venture was less successful. >> for at least ten years, they show very little interest in serious learning from that plant. so a lot of the g.m. managers that were sent there were put back into low-level positions where they had no influence because people didn't want to hear that japan is doing things better. >> reporter: and for the auto companies, the cost of getting supplies to nvmmi sitting all alone on the west coast was becoming a burden since most supplies come from the midwest or elsewhere.

>> for example, all of the engines that go into the tacomas and the corollas come from west virginia. we have to in fact shift engines... ship across country to california and ship them back in ready-made products throughout the balance of the united states. >> reporter: wages for the workers here average $28 an hour. the work has been steady for people like jose and shea church. >> i was shocked. i mean i was expecting to retire from this place. it blew my mind away. the deadline has been set. that's what i'm going by. i'm hoping for the best and planning for the worst. >> i'm a single mom. so it's pretty scary and the ... it seems like there's , you know, lots of other people out there looking for jobs as well. >> reporter: which is why some employees like marcella alvarez are trying to keep the plant open. >> i have three kids . you know, it's been hard.

maybe lose my home. you know, having not being able to, you know, pay the bills and the mortgage. >> reporter: alvarez and fellow members of the united auto workers are gathering signatures around the country , threatening a boycott of toyota even in the face of toyota's troubles, hoping to persuade the company to keep production going in free month. some local union members disagree strongly with their own leadership as this amateur video shows recent union meetings have erupted in chaos. dissidents arguing that increased benefits, not keeping the plant open, should be the goal. union rep juan castillo spent 12 years on the assembly line. >> my opinion of the plant shutting down, we're more concerned about our medical benefits. we're concerned about whatever monetary aid that we're going to get after we get out of here. >> reporter: some members fear

toyota's recent troubles and drop in sales could affect negotiations over benefits. the leadership doesn't buy that. their concern is workers without jobs. adding to the job losses will be lay-offs, perhaps as many as 40,000 at san francisco bay area companies that do supply parts to nvmmi and lose much of their business. the impending closure has been portrayed in the press as a huge blow to the local community. but bob wasserman, the mayor of freemont who drove us around his town of 220,000 paints a brighter picture. he insists freemont with a median family income and on the edge of silicon valley won't suffer the way detroit has. >> in detroit the auto plantes were the center of the activity. that was never the case in freemont. most of the people lived outside of

freemont. they came to work and then went home. >> reporter: still union negotiator javier says the job lot shouldn't be dismissed so cavalierly. >> it may not be detroit but at the same time the jobs that we work are good-paying jobs with good benefits. it helps the economy. >> reporter: the mayor points to a new solar manufacturing plant as the kind of thing that could take up the slack in the local economy. >> this is a company that will employ 3,000 people. we're hoping if we can do it to try to put together some arrangement where employees from nvmmi can be retrained into some of the jobs that they'll have here. >> reporter: the town may not suffer, but the workers probably will. whether nvmmi's blue collar assembly line employees can find work in green industry is unclear. local officials trying to be optimistic see nvmmi's closing

as a chance to bring new, cleaner industry to the area. professor cole sees it as the end of california's large-scale auto industry, but also as a limited experiment that paid off for american business. >> when toyota learned to operate their system in the u.s. to treat workers with some respect that recognized that they had brains and not just physical skills, it got a lot of american companies to sort of rethink what is the contribution of workers to quality, to productivity . >> reporter: freemont and nvmmi are trying to figure out what to do with the huge site that the plant occupies. and toyota has more on its plate right now that reconsidering a firm decision to close this plant at the end of next month. >> woodruff: next, debts in greece that are sending tremors

throughout europe and as far away as wall street. we start with a report from john sparks of independent television news in athens. >> reporter: the people of greece are being watched. this is a country under surveillance. e.u.officials call it reinforced surveillance and they're worried, anxious that the government will default on its debt and drag down the euro. greek ministers are under special orders from the bureaucrats in burrus he wills to slash public spending, raise taxes and no excuses please. it's easy to say, much harder to do, however. yet today that ambitious program was tabled in the greek parliament. in this building behind me today, the long road back to respectability begins. but it will be a painful process and the greek people are afraid. the big question here tonight is whether they'll stand for it. has the public got the stomach for a new age of austerity?

the country's new socialist prime minister was told the country's annual deficit was two times bigger than previously thought. the finances such a mess, in fact, his party had to take back every campaign compromise it made. his finance minister has to find the savings. his new wage and tax measures are vicious. old style tough love economics from a socialist. the government can't can expect determined opposition. "our struggle will start with big strikes," says this man." and our slogan, the needs of the people come before the markets. our movement will spread through southern europe because government resistance is weak." successive greek government used those markets to borrow money with little thought given to paying it back. the debt was cheap. so why worry. >> woodruff: geoffrey brown takes the story from there. >> brown: we look more now at greece, europe and the connection to the u.s. with

nariman behreavesh. nariman, greece is the immediate focus here, but other european countries are facing a similar problem. correct? how widespread. >> that is correct. there are about five countries that investors are particularly worried about. portugal, ireland, italy, greece, and spain. the acronymn for this is the pigs, if you will, unfortunately. all of these countries have large amounts of debt. the recession that we just went through and some of is still going through like spain is still going through a recession have exposed the fault lines, if you will, and have made this problem far worse than it was before. unfortunately, as the story was said earlier, in the case of greece, they essentially lied about the numbers. so all of a sudden the picture in greece was looking a lot worse than it did just, you know, a pew months ago.

not only are the investors focused on greece but all of a sudden they're beginning to worry about the others especially portugal and spain. a little less worried about italy and ireland right now. but those three countries, greece, portugal and spain are particularly worrisome. >> brown: so you have these countries that have their own problems but then there is the further contagion worry, i guess, and the impact on the rest of europe. explain that. i saw one quote today that described this as the biggest test of the euro in its 11-year history. how does the problem in greece affect germany and other countries in europe? >> well, it's a very good question. in the sense that the big worry is that what if greece defaults on its debt? what will happen? what's the scenario? there are a couple nasty scenarios, one in which greece leaves the euro zone. it is one of the 16 members of the single currency area. that would give disaster politically economically for

the rest of the euro zone because it would start to put pressure on these other countries that are in trouble. you could start to see a big splintering of this sort of unified currency area. the alternative, which is in the end a better al alternative but to some extent unpalatable especially to the germans, is that they bail out greece. they save the euro zone but bail out greece. here i think the germans will probably eventually come around but they're very worried about the precedent that will set because greece has been quite ... in its behavior. they don't want to reward that and create what's referred to as poural hazards in the sense of again, you know, providing guarantees that only means that a few years from now they're going to do the same thing. they're left between two very bad choices here. >> brown: their citizens presumably would have to take on the problems of greece and these other countries. now we reported in the news summary that there was at least some sign, some talk

about a potential aid package. what... do you know anything more about that or how solid that is? >> there certainly were rumors today about that. and what we've heard is that what's the most likely scenario is that there will be debt guarantees, namely greece's debt will be guaranteed in some sense. of course, in return for very serious and hard concessions by the greek government in terms of cutting spending. if they do that, that will calm the markets. already today it did calm the markets quite a bit. but it will be something like that where essentially the euro zone and germany in particular, but the european union sort of backs greece, provided that these sort of major concessions by the greek government. >> brown: when you say calm the markets because we saw that's what happened today and that includes the u.s. markets. so that's what happened today. in recent days as you know, the u.s. markets have been taking a fall and largely put on these problems in europe.

explain the connection there. how does a budgetary problem in greece translate to problems on wall street? >> well, we are facing a global market . not just in europe but in the u.s. as well. of course our debt levels are rising. so i think markets are kind of jittery about this whole debt situation so they pushed down the u.s. markets as well. some of it is psychological. i often joke that there are times when the markets, you know, all news is good news regardless of how bad it is. well, in the past couple of weeks it's been all news is bad news regardless of how good it is. in the u.s., the news actually has been fairly good. so it's a little puzzling about why the markets took it out on the u.s. you can understand why they did it in europe but on the u.s. it's a little more puzzling. >> brown: now back to greece though. at this point as that piece showd there's going to be all kinds of political pressure against these austerity steps. this is not over by any means,

correct? >> that's correct. well, in greece strikes, especially public sector strikes are a national pastime, a national sport. the reason is very simple. in the last ten years, the public-sector spending on wages and pensions, which is about 51% of the overall budget, has doubled. so the public-sector unions were treated very nicely. they got lots of bonuses. some people say because they went on strike so much. we won't debate that. but right now what is going to have to happen is at a minimum, wage freezes for the public sector unions and they could go the route that ireland just did which is actually cutting wages. that's hugely unpopular. i suspect there's going to be a lot of political turmoil in greece as they try to push these kinds of measures through. i mean it's not going to be easy. >> brown: the next step i gather is a european union meeting thursday to consider what to do. we'll leave it there for now.

nariman ba ray verb, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> lehrer: finally tonight, the investigation into the crash of continental flight 3407. it happened last february just outside buffalo, new york. 50 people died. the plane was operated by a small carrier called colgan air. tonight, the pbs program "frontline" looks at the accident and at regional airlines. here's an excerpt. the correspondent is miles o'brien. >> today we are opening a public hearing concerning the accident that occurred on february 12, 2009. at clarence center new york. >> three months after the crash, the ntsb held preliminary hearings on its investigation of 3407. at the start they played a video depicting the last two minutes of flight. >> sitting there, the very tough part was watching the

video, the recreation of the flight. what i realized on that flight is the quiet part of the flight, you're descending, you're approaching, and they're five miles out of buffalo. it's a quiet time. all of a sudden, that plane-- and they showed that pitch and roll ... you count. if you count how many seconds of absolute terror must have been. it was horrible. it was horrible. >> reporter: during the hearings, the evidence suggested that cause of the crash was not icing but rather pilot error. >> so in your expert opinion what did this crew do correctly and what did they do wrong? >> obviously the initial reaction to the stall warning was incorrect. >> do you believe this was a recoverable

stall? >> my opinion is yes. >> reporter: here's what the black boxes told investigators in a nutshell. the airplane was on final approach to buffalo. the landing gear came down. it started losing speed very quickly. very soon a warning system came on. a wheel-shaker, to tell the pilot that the plane was going too slowly to fly. he is supposed to push on that wheel this that happens. instead he pulled back. the speed got even slower. and then another system kicked in, a pusher. which the plane tries to push the nose over itself to gain air speed. instead, the captain pulled back. and then the first officer put the flaps up. and that made matters worse. the plane stalled, spun, and crashed into the ground. the ntsb investigated the professional backgrounds of the pilots. the captain, marvin

renslo, was 47. he was hired by colgan in 2005 with only 618 hours of flying time, less than half the time required by most major airlines. the ntsb found that the captain had failed five performance tests or check rides, some of which colgan had failed to discover. the first officer, rebecca shaw, 24, joined colgan in january, 2008. she made less than $16,000 in her first year at colgan and spent the night before the crash commuting from her home in seattle . >> she commuted from seattle to memphis, stayed in a crew lounge in memphis from midnight until 4:00 a.m., commuted from memphis to narc from 4:00 to 6:30 and hung out in the crew lounge in newark until her 1:30 show time. >> the transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder

provided clues about other problems. the first officer seemed under the weather and concerned about the cost of calling in sick. "if i call in sick," she said, "now i have to put myself in a hotel until i feel better." and both pilots appeared tired. the transcript notes sounds similar to yawns. >> we are going to find out what happened here. >> reporter: the investigation through a spotlight on to the operations of colgan and raised questions about pilot qualifications, training and pay. >> woodruff: flying cheap airs >> brown: "flying cheap" airs tonight on "frontline" on most pbs stations. >> lehrer: again, the major developments of the day. haiti raise its estimate of heart quake dead to 230,000. that equals the number killed in the asian tsunami of 2004. first lady michelle obama

kicked off a campaign against childhood obesity. she told the newshour it's "critically important" to the health and success of the nation. and toyota recalled more than 430,000 prius sedans for possible brake problems. two corrections before we go: our story about the election in ukraine yesterday showed the russian-- not ukrainian-- flag. and on the winter olympics, we mistakenly used a toronto skyline. the games will be in vancouver. we regret the errors. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: we get a preview of what's next for health care reform from politico reporter josh gerstein. our conversation is the start of a weekly check-in on politico journalists. more on the european debt story from economics correspondent paul solman. that's on his "making sense" page. and a link to "frontline's" web site, where you share your thoughts on the state of the airline industry. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org.

judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: what has made grant thornton with access to resources in more than 100 countries? is it their global capabilities or is is it their passion for how they serve their clients? grant thornton. >> this is the engine that connects zero emission technologies to breathing a little easier. while taking 4.6 million truck loads off the road every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> chevron. this is the power of human energy.

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