captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: good evening. i'm gwen ifill. b.p. ramped up its oil collection efforts today, siphoning nearly a half million gallons per day from the damaged well. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, with hundreds of thousands of oily patches in the gulf, and tar balls on the shore, we look at cleanup efforts likely to stretch into the fall and beyond. >> ifill: then, as two new jersey men are accused of plotting violence with suspected terrorists in somalia, we look at home-grown conspiracy.

>> this is a very real danger. it's one of the department of justice and our law enforcement partners take very seriously. >> brown: ray suarez gets a mostly "good news" update about cancer treatments, unveiled at a meeting of specialists in chicago. >> ifill: fred de sam lazaro reports on a housing program in kenya, helping the very poor escape nairobi's slums. >> to houses like that, that are cheerful and airy with bathrooms. to me it was almost a sign of you just got to keep going. >> brown: and judy woodruff previews tomorrow's coast-to- coast primary contests with amy walter of "hotline" and dan balz of the "washington post." >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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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. >> ifill: the gulf oil slick extended its reach today, staining beaches from louisiana to florida. officials said cleaning up the spill will take months and years. >> ifill: oil continues to lap at the shores of the gulf coast today as b.p. and federal officials announced the amount of oil escaping from the broken well on the ocean floor is beginning to slow. 452,000 gallons were

collected sunday and pumped to a ship on the surface. that is up from 250,000 gallons a day last week. >> thanks. appreciate it. >> ifill: at the white house today coast guard admiral thad allen who is in charge of the federal effort said a second ship is on its way. >> b.p. anticipates moving another craft in that can actually handle additional production. and the combination of these two vessels, it is called the q-4,000 combined will have a production capability of about 20,000 barrels a day. >> ifill: but allen said government scientists have not yet settled on a firm estimate of how much oil is actually flowing from the well head. >> we're no longer dealing with a large monolithic spill, we're dealing with aning aregave of hundreds of thousands of patches of oiling go in different directions. we have had to adapt and need to adapt to meet that threat. >> ifill: allen said about 100 large ships and 1500 small fishing boats are now involved in the cleanup. skimming and in some locations burning oil from the surface. for fishermen up and down the coast h that help can't

come soon enough. >> the area we're in right now this is some of the best fishing in the whole region and the oil's coming in, just wave after wave. it's hard to stomach t really is. >> ifill: and for swimmers in pensacola, florida, there were signs the oil is seeping ever closer. >> i got a tar ball on my leg today while i was swimming at pensacola beach. i didn't expect this when i came to florida. >> ifill: the impact on wildlife continues to grow. at a bird clean facility in fort jackson, louisiana, veterinarian sharon taylor says the damage to wildlife is more widespread than it even appears. >> this is an unprecedented spill. we have never seen anything like this. and this is a fragile ecosystem t is a marsh ecosystem t is very challenging to get in and clean, you know, or to deal with and it is, it is a travesty. i have small children. my children say can't they turn it off? >> ifill: in washington president obama said government efforts are working.

>> this will be contained. it may take some time and it's going to take a whole lot of effort. but the one thing i'm absolutely confident about is that as we have before, we will get through this crisis. >> ifill: the president also predicted that the region would bounce back once the cleanup is complete. for a for a closer look at the scope and complexity of that cleanup effort, we turn to ralph portier, professor of environmental sciences at louisiana state university's school of the coast and environment. and aaron viles, campaign director for the gulf restoration network, an advocacy group.wú alph portier, professor portier i want to start with you. what will it take for the gulf coast, to as the president put it, bounce back? >> well, fortunately we are not like alaska. we are in a nice warm climate. ideal for the environment to slowly but quickly, more quickly than not, recover. oil is biodegradable, particularly this oil.

and so if we manage the microbiology, we manage the approaches to cleanup, i think it's very possible that we'll turn this around quicker rather than longer. >> ifill: what do you mean by particularly this oil. what is it about this kind of oil? >> well, in oil fields we've worked on in the past, we've worked with heavier grades of crude oil. lots of heavy ends, we call it asphalt. this particular oil does not have as much asphaltanic material in it. so that means as a whole most of the oil as it comes to shore, almost all fractions of it can be degraded and that's very important. >> ifill: aaron viles i'm curious if you agree about that with the nature of the kind of oil and how do they begin to clean up a spill like this, how should they be cleaning it up. >> the problem is it is stretching over such a broad expanse. we have so many different habitats being exposed. clearly louisiana's marsh is

a tricky area to clean. you can't get into that area. you shouldn't be walking around through it to try to access the oil. so we'll need to be flushing it out to pushing it into absorbent boom. and then as it stretches on into august and even into early winter perhaps some burning, burning the actual marsh grass could help. as it is over in alabama and florida, the physical removal process is easier, you can just pick telephone up with a physical process like shovels, et cetera. but we've also got eggs out there, turtles are nesting at this time of the year so that's a challenge. it really is a mess. and while clearly the type of oil may be better than they experienced newspaper alaska 20 years ago, the type of habitats that we are dealing with are far more diverse and unfortunately, a bit more sensitive. louisiana's marsh isn't doing well now. we are losing 25 square miles every year of louisiana coastal wetlands, there part because of oil & gas activity. this is likely going to speed that up. >> ifill: professor portier

when thad allen, admiral allen said today that this is like a massive collection of smaller spills instead of a single big spill, does that change what you do to help clean it up? >> it does because normally we have operated from a position of having a few night amount of oil so-- finite amount of oil so we know what we are dealing with. here we have repeated oiling events. so the ability to clean an area particularly on our coastal marshs in south louisiana, knowing that additional oiling will probably occur as we go through the summer, late fall and even early winter months, the strategy has to be very flexible in order to take advantage of the climate, take advantage of areas that are not oil, protect them once we clean them. and then have a very aggressive strategy of going after oil, areas that are repeatedly oiled. >> ifill: repeatedly oiled, so when admiral allen says

things like, i think the words were "adapting to an enemy that's changing", that is what we are talking about, you can clean it today and it will be back tomorrow. >> correct. one of the challenges with alaska, of course, was the sheer amount of real estate that had to be cleaned. but it was one event. it was a single oiling event. here we anticipate oiling for months, really. and so when we have a very fragile ecosystem like the coastal environments of louisiana, mississippi, alabama and florida, we have different times of the year fresh insults of fresh oil, of weathered oil coming in. that poses real challenges in terms of the nursery and the lifecycle of, particularly the commercial fish rees in our area. >> ifill: ar roll viles, we've learned a lot in the last several weeks about burning and skimming and booms and chemical dispersant. is that the full panaply of

options open for this kind of cleanup? >> unfortunately, yes, by and large. we can vacuum some of the oil up as well. but we don't have a lot of tools in our toolbox, unfortunately. and they're really the same tools we've had since the valdez 20 years ago. they didn't work terribly well there. so this is one of those things that i think is most concerning is that as we have moved into deeper and deeper water and pushed the envelope as far as the drilling and how to get it more and more remote fields we haven't really done anything to keep up with cleanup and containment technology. >> ifill: is there a health hazard involved in this cleanup for the people who are actually doing the cleanup? >> oh, absolutely. and i've talked to friends of mine who are shrimpers who are in the vessels of opportunity program who are getting sick. and who are exposed to the dispersant. they're exposed to the oil. they are in really just a giant science experiment out in this marsh area and are reporting the health impacts directly. so that is a big problem. and i think we need to be far more proactive about making sure that those vessels of opportunity

program, the shrimpers and out of work fishermen who are being put to work to protect their marsh have the property safety gear. >> ifill: professor portier, i know we have been comparing to this to alaska, the val easy, to mexico, shallower water spills contained spills. but looking back on those now can we say that they were ever completely cleaned up? >> no, they were not. if you look at the data, particularly in alaska, better than 50% of the oil is still there. it's just bloat surface where the microbeial community will slowly but surely degrade some of it, but not all of it. not mentioned a minute ago is bioremediation as a tool for cleaning up oil spill. essentially is what happened in alaska, at ixtoc, and more-- . >> ifill: what does that mean. >> the use of microbeal populations to degrade the oil. oil is just carbon in the wrong place.

and microbes the degraders in the carbon cycle will attack that oil. and if you optimize the setting in which this attack takes place, you can get significant reductions. our group at lsu has for years been using bioremediation methods for sunday fund sites and other industrial sites. so this is a type of strategy we will need to use here as well. >> ifill: even at great depths. that seems to be the thing that confounds so many people is that this is a mile underwater. >> well, at great depths we're focusing on looking at the microbeal community that is viable at depth with the dispersed oil. that research is just started at lsu. we hope to get a better answer for it. but with oil coming ashore, oil coming particularly into our marsh habitat, where you have as mentioned a very difficult environment, you can't walk in it, you can't disturb it.

but you want to protect the root systems which, of course, keeps our wetland in place. as mentioned we lose well over 25 square miles of wetland a year. and rather not lawing for additional erosion and loss to the gulf of mexico the microbial component chewing away at that carbon as quickly as possible will protect those root systems and allow for that wetland to have at least a chance not being washed out to sea. >> ifill: and aaron-- aaron viles, do you expect that this is the kind of damage that will be difficult to assess long term because as professor portier says it may be there long term? >> i think ultimately this is going to be a years and decades problem, not a weeks and months problem. but it will be a challenge to assess the ongoing impact. what i know is that shrimper friends of mine who are out there in the areas there shrimping find oil from spills from time to time because it is stuff are you not going see. it is not in the marsh, not

on the beach, not areas you will be able to get at and clean it up. it is going to be in the bottoms of these areas. and that is going to be a real problem for quite a long time i think. >> ifill: something we'll be monitoring for quite a long time. aaron viles and ralph portier, thank you 3w09 very much. >> thank you. >> brown: an still to >> brown: still to come on the newshour, americans facing charges of international terrorism; new progress on cancer treatments; finding homes for the poor in kenya; and a preview of tomorrow's primary contests. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman in our newsroom. >> holman: at least ten people are still missing after an explosion in north central texas. the incident happened in a rural town some 50 miles southwest of dallas. officials leave believe the line was struck by a dig machine. people in three northwestern states began cleaning up much people in three midwestern states began cleaning up today

after severe thunderstorms and tornados struck over the weekend. the lake township area, southeast of toledo, was particularly battered. at least five people died. storms there carved a path of destruction some 300 yards wide and ten miles long, destroying dozens of homes. the community's high school was badly damaged, forcing postponement of sunday's graduation ceremonies. twisters also hit michigan and illinois, but no deaths were reported. bank of america agreed to pay $108 million to reimburse 200,000 homeowners who were charged improper mortgage fees. the overcharges were levied by countrywide financial which was bought by bank of america in 2008. the payment settles a complaint by the federal trade commission which said countrywide targeted homeowners facing foreclosure with exorbitant fees. it's one of the largest settlements in the commission's history. for the record, bank of america is an underwriter of the "newshour." in other financial news, stocks tumbled on wall street today over continued concern about u.s. consumer spending and the european credit crisis. the dow jones industrial average

lost more than 115 points to close at 9816. the nasdaq fell 45 points to close just under 2174. seven american soldiers were killed in afghanistan today. they died in separate attacks in the east and south. three other nato soldiers also were killed. the violence came as the afghan government defended its decision to oust two of the country's top security officials. on sunday, president hamid karzai removed the intelligence chief, amrullah saleh, and interior minister, haneef atmar. he said they must be held accountable for last week's failed taliban attack on a peace conference in kabul. none of the delegates was hurt, but two attackers were killed. today a spokesman for karzai justified the move. . >> this could have been a national chaos. a national crisis. someone has to take responsibility for this. while we understand that this was a loss for the

government, losing two important people, in the meantime it's a gain for the people of afghanistan. >> holman: u.s. defense secretary robert gates reacted to the removals while en route to london. he said they do not signal trouble for the afghan government, but urged karzai to appoint successors "of equal caliber." officials in egypt today declared israel's blockade of gaza a failure. an egyptian security official said his country will keep its border with the palestinian territory open indefinitely. meanwhile, the israeli navy shot and killed four palestinian divers off the coast of gaza today. they were believed to be planning a terror attack on israel. the militant group al-aqsa martyrs' brigades said the men were members of its marine unit training for a mission. chrysler recalled some 600,000 minivans and jeep wranglers in the u.s. and 100,000 abroad. the vehicles have brake and wiring problems that could lead to partial brake loss and fire, the national highway traffic safety administration said.

the recalled wranglers were built from may 2006 through august 2009. the minivans were assembled between february and september 2007. chrysler said neither problem has caused any crashes or injuries. one of the most prominent members of the white house press corps, journalist helen thomas, retired today in the wake of widely publicized comments she made about israel. in an impromptu video interview last month, she said israelis should "get the hell out of palestine" and that jews could "go home" to germany, poland, and the united states. her remarks were denounced by white house spokesman robert gibbs, who called them "offensive and reprehensible." the 89-year-old columnist is leaving her employer, the hearst news service, immediately. known as the dean of the white house press corps thomas has been sharply questioning successive presidents since john f. kennedy in the 1960s. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown:and we turn to the arrests once again of americans linked to foreign terrorist

groups. >> brown: they called themselves the youth, a band of al qaeda linked jihadists who waged a campaign of violence in somalia. at new york's kennedy airport saturday two american citizens were arrested for allegedly trying to join them and attack americans. and today mohammed mack houde allesa and carlos eduardo el monte appeared in federal court. neighbors in new jersey were shocked to hear the news. >> it's scary because i was here for 9/11. i was in to we are 2. so it's really scary that there are possible terrorists living across the street from me. >> brown: officials say the two drew inspiration from radical american born cleric al-alaqwi the same fan linked to faisal shahzad arrested for trying to set off a car bomb in times square.

and to major hassan, the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at ft. hood texas last november. outside the courthouse today the prosecuting attorney told reporters that the phenomenon of home-grown terrorism is a growing threat. >> you've seen this and a number of other cases in which people who are in the united states are alleged to have been radicalized, to use the word somebody just used a moment ago, and have decided that what they would like to do is engage in violent activity either against americans or against people overseas. and that's obviously not something that the united states government thinks is appropriate or is going to put up with. >> brown: in fact, the number of such cases has increased sharply and includes the group of five men from northern virginia arrested in pakistan last december for plotting terror attacks. and the 14 men from minnesota charged last year with helping young somali americans join terror groups in east africa. the two men arrested this weekend had no training and were hoping to be embraced by radicals once they

arrived in somalia. they're to be charged with conspiring to kill, main and kidnap persons outside the u.s. and are scheduled to return to court for a bail hearing on thursday. just last month just last month, addressing some of the recent cases, president obama added "homegrown threats" to his administration's top national security priorities for the first time. we look at this phenomenon now, with jessica stern, a former national security council staffer for president clinton. she has been a professor at harvard law school and has written extensively on terrorism. and fathali moghaddam, a professor of psychology at georgetown university. his latest book is called "the stern, il-- stern i will start with you. to what extent is this a growing phenomenon. what do you see happening? >> well, actually, i think it a growing phenomenon. since september 11th there have been about 50 incidents in the united states. somebody getting picked up

either for an attack in the united states or abroad. about half of them in the united states. but 13 of them occurred in 2009. so we see a kind of blip. and it is quite distressing. >> brown: professor moghaddam what do we know about what drives these people? >> well, the most important aspect of this, i think, is the sort of cyberjihad, the extensive reach of the electronic media which is reaching the young people there. so that is the first aspect of it to focus on. >> brown: the internet. >> yes, the internet. and also the fact that these are most ly younger men. and we know that young men in all cultures are risk-takers. and it's a matter of which direction does the risk-taking take. >> brown: before we get to the internet are there common, are there any common traits, is there such a thing as a common profile?

>> i don't believe there are characteristics that are going to be easily identified. the one common theme i think we can pick on is identity. these are all individuals who in one way or another lack a strong robust healthy identity. and in most cases they are seeking their identity through connection with the jihadi network. >> brown: professor stern s there a common thread that you see? >> well, i think that's exactly right. one common thread that we see is the use of the internet. and another is that these are mostly youth who are seeking a kind of identity with dignity. i think that humiliation is a really important factor here. and they're tryi to find a way to join a group that will give them an identity, something like why kids join gangs in other situations

and other times. >> brown: and staying with you, are they then-- i mean should we think of them as committed already or amateurs or, you know, in the parlance wanna-bes, how do you-- again we're trying to-- maybe we're stereotyping too much here but how do you think about them generally? >> well, i think that while they may look like not very effective terrorists and quite a few of them have not been very effective, i think their intentions are quite serious and it would be possible even with a quite rudimentary attack to have a major economic and psychological impact on united states. the goal of terrorism is the psychological. it's to get us to overreact. and one could imagine quite a few small attacks it that would have that kind of impact. >> brown: you're nodding your head here. >> yes, i completely agree.

i think the aim is psychological impact. and that's why it's important for the united states to develop collective resilience here. it seems to me that we have become too jumpy. we have reacted in a knee-jerk fashion to these threats. and we need to build up a sort of dankirk spirit. >> brown: which means what. >> which means that collectively, and i don't just mean as individuals but collectively as a society, we need to become more resilient, we need to be able to react better to these kinds of threats. because the fact is they are not going to decline in the near future because cyberterrorism is just one aspect of the new global insecurity. it's going to increase rather than decrease in the next few decades. >> brown: explain a little bit more about what you see in cyberspace.

i mean how does it work. these sites are all out there to be found. >> yes. they are all out there to be found. and one of the dilemmas is whether to try to shut down sites or whether it would actually be worse because they would spring up in new places. at the same time we have to be careful that we don't limit our own freedom when we want to limit theirs. the cyberwar that is going on, on the one front it's hundreds of thousands of attacks on places like the pentagon. but on the other front, there are many, many attacks in terms of cyberjihad. so that is the front we have to take more seriously. i think we're doing very well in that war. we don't want to overreact. >> brown: jessica stern, you've looked at this a lat-- a lot. the internet allows law enforcement to watch what's going on.

what issues does it raise for law enforcement? >> well, there are pros and cons both for the terrorists and for law enforcement. it does enable law enforcement authorities and scholars to monitor how terrorists are thinking, how they are recruiting. who they're trying to go after. it's possible to actually converse with them as a colleague of mine jarrett brackman does. but we cannot do what, for example, the saudi government does. the saudi government directly engages youth who are active in jihadi chatrooms. we-- our government really can't do that. >> brown: well, jessica stern, staying with you, what kind of efforts are there, if any. and i don't know how possible this is to reach these young people who might be tempted by foreign terror groups. >> well, one thing to

remember is that these are generally young men so far. and the people who are most concerned about young men, for example, joining al-shabob in somalia are their parents. their parents are very up set about it. and they'll do anything they can to stop them, in most cases. there are a few cases where parent and child were both involved but mostly the elders in the community and the parents are very actively involved in trying to put a stop to young men getting on a plane, going to somalia and joining. >> brown: and a quick last thought on that. >> that's an excellent point. that the community has to set the norm. at the same time i would remind you that we try to do the same thing with problems like drugs. and we don't always succeed. that's why it's important to build up collective resilience here. >> brown: fathali moghaddam

and jessica stern, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> ifill: next, the latest developments in the treatment of cancer. ray suarez has that. >> suarez: researchers reported progress in the treatment of breast, skin, lung, and ovarian cancers at a major cancer conference this weekend. for a summary of some of the top findings from the annual meeting of the american society of clinical oncology, we turn to the group's president, george sledge. he is a breast cancer specialist and professor of oncology at the indiana university cancer center. he joins us from chicago. dr. sledge let's begin with lung cancer. a big killer. and investigations into the effectiveness of a drug called crsatanid, what do the results show? >> this is a fascinating result. in the past we have treated patients with nonsmall-cell lung cancer with kbijss of

chemotherapy and these combinations benefit some patients but not most. now investigators have been able to detect a gene mutation for what's called a fusion gene in a fairly small number of lung cancer patients, about five percent. that when you treat the patients with a drug that blocks this particular gene product, you get stupendous results. somewhere around 70% of patients will have an active response to the drug and we know that these responses last for prolonged periods of time. this is a real sea change for this type of lung cancer. >> suarez: so you mentioned it is true of a small number of patients. how would you figure out who to treat in this way before commencing with that treatment? >> well, you can take a piece of the patient's tumor tissue and do specific testing for this gene product. and in doing so will tell you very rapidly whether or not someone is likely or not likely to benefit. this is part of the general trend towards individualized medicine, matching the right patient to the right drug.

>> suarez: let's move on to melanoma, another very serious form of cancer, especially when it leaves the concentrated area of the skin. what does new research show there? >> well, here we have another very interesting finding from a large phase 3 trial that was performed that compared a more standard therapy to the use of a new drug that mobilizes the body's immune system. this mobilization of the immune system has been shown in this study to sickly prolong the survival of patients with advanced disease. this is particularly exciting because this has been a disease where for nearly a generation, we've had no real advances. so in contrast to the earlier lung cancer study, this may be a case where we're seeing a more general benefit for a population of patients with melanoma. >> suarez: now i understand from this test you found that you could induce patients to live ten months instead of six and a half months yielding an extra three and a half months of

life on average. now i don't want to minimize that but is that really that significant a result, and why? >> well, it's a significant result because this is a fairly advanced population of patients with melanoma. of course most patients with melanoma present with earlier stages of the disease and the risk there is that they will eventually develop a metastasis or distant spread. so when we see this high level of activity, and indeed the first improvement of survival in a generation from this population of patients, doctors immediately think about moving this to an earlier stage of the disease where perhaps we might have an increase in the cure rate for patients with melanoma. >> suarez: so you will have to do another research protocol to find out if, in fact f you start the treatment earlier it will yield even better results? >> that's absolutely correct. this will undoubtedly lead to new trials in earlier stages of patients. >> suarez: okay, moving on to ovarian cancer. there has been big news about the results of a test

of long-term use of the drug avastin. >> that's correct. so avastin is a drug that blocks new blood vessel growth. and it's been used in a number of different human tumors. we know it shows ben effects in colorectal cancer and breast cancer and a variety of other cancers. this is the first real test of this drug in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. and in this trial patients either received standard therapy with chemotherapy or received chemotherapy plus avastin. and the combination of the blood vessel drug with the standard chemotherapy drugs prolonged the time to which patients had progression of their disease. >> suarez: so by establishing long-term use it's safe you have accomplished something pretty significant but avastin is a very expensive drug and using it even longer means, you are talking about perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars per individual patient. >> yeah. i think cost is a real issue here, ray. and i think the challenge to us in the oncology community is to find out exactly which

patients are likely to benefit from the addition of avastin so we can narrow the focus of our treatment for patients with ovarian cancer and other cancers. and of course there is a great deal of research going on right now to find exactly that. >> suarez: finally are you a breast cancer specialist. how did anybody think oh, let's try a drug extracted from sea sponges. >> well, the national cancer institute and a number of the pharmaceutical companies over the years have done exactly this. so one of the standard drugs we've used for many years in breast cancer comes from a fungus. another one comes from tree bark. so building from a sea sponge isn't that much of a reach for breast cancer doctors. >> suarez: and the result? >> the results were that in patients with fairly heavily pretreated advanced breast cancer the addition of this drug compared to the doctor's choice of the best approach resulted in improvement in survival of several months for this population of patients. and i think as with some of the earlier trials we discussed, this means that we'll be moving this drug

into an earlier stage of the disease to see whether or not it might up the cure rate rather than just simply prolong survival by a few months. >> suarez: dr. george sledge of the annual meeting of the american society of clinical oncology, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, ray. >> brown: now to kenya, and a story about helping the poorest of the poor find homes and hope. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports. >> reporter: in the shadow of one of africa's most modern cities the sprawl of slums. almost 2 million of nairobi's 3 million residents are jammed into just five percent of the land. they've come from the country's rural areas, tens of thousands have poured in from neighboring somalia. and most ended up in slums like metari, desperate, unsafe, unsanitary places that lack the most basic amenities.

poverty is so entrenched that families have lived here for two, even three generations . >> . >> reporter: that was the case with jane, one of a small but former slum dellers that found a way to escape. she somehowed jacqueline around her new home recently. she heads the new york-based ac, men fund which invests private capital in entrepreneurial projects to help the poor like the community where angori lives. >> i love the color. this is so great. fresh water, clean. >> fresh water , clean. beans, peanuts, onioles,. >> reporter: a third generation slum dweller jane has running water inside her home for the first time in her life. >> and then i open the top, no struggling. >> no buckets outdoors. >> yeah. >> i have a kitchen.

if i want to eat -- so-- . >> reporter: angori who is hiv positive used to be a prostitute but sowing classes opened up a whole new world. she began buying up old clothes to recycle into children's dresses that she now sells. >> this is beautiful. >> reporter: even with a stable and increasing income, buying a home is normally out of the question for someone like jane. >> it's very difficult to get any access to bank credit. as jane, for instance, is hiv positive, ex-prostitute who does informal tailoring and lives with no legal address. not exactly your perfect candidate for a bank. >> reporter: so jane turned to a microfinance group called jomy bora which gives housing loans to low income people. they must demonstrate the ability to handle credit and save money regularly.

as jane did by saving for a down payment and paying back a sewing machine loan. impressed by its sound lending practices, the group decided to invest $250,000 acumen fund dollars in j in its group. >> it completely based in the community. they now have people with 7, 8 years of credit experience. is who are repaying on a regular basis, who buy using incrementally larger loans, having increased their businesses to the point where they are making 4 or 5 or 6 dollars a day and where they can afford to buy a house. if you can structure the mortgage for a long enough time so that the monthly payments are equal to or less than the monthly payments that people were making in the slums. >> reporter: in other words, by stretching out the length of the mortgage, jane pays the same here for her house as she did for renting one room in the slum. she saved for five years to

make the down payment of 10%. her home is in the suburb of a new development of affordable eck logically friendly homes that were built from scratch. community members are helped by some engineering experts but they do much of the building themselves. they even make the bricks and roof tiles here. >> this is our new town. the general layout plan. what we have, we have a composite of eight neighborhoods. and in between, we'll have our light industries, our market, our police stations and all other social amenities. >> reporter: so far they've built 700 homes. for all its successes the town has far to go. the local economy is not yet able to sustain itself. and the road to markets in nairobi is in bad shape. they hope such services and development will eventually

come, especially if the government decides to help . it is seen as a model for housing developments worldwide. one that can be scaled up to serve many more than the 2,000 families planned here. but to her it is a reminder of another critical element in helping the poor. >> we need hope in the world. and that you can move people from the slum to houses like that, that are cheerful and airy with bathrooms and have those sun flowers standing right there to me was almost a sign of, you just got to keep going. and that we scale these, we have the numbers, but don't forget the hope. because we need that as well. >> reporter: jane herself is full of hope for the next generation. >> now my daughter is in high school, she will

complete her high school this year. so i see this, she would like to become a doctor. and i hope she will. >> reporter: and perhaps the most hopeful sign of housing developments like this can work is that last year jommibora paid back its entire loan to the acumen fund. >> brown: fred's report was part of a collaboration with the undertold stories project at st. john's university in minnesota. >> ifill: finally tonight tea parties, endangered incumbents and >> ifill: finally tonight, tea parties, endangered incumbents, and runoffs. tuesday will have it all. judy woodruff previews the biggest primary day of 2010. >> woodruff: voters across the country will head to the polls tomorrow. ten states are holding primary contests. there's also a runoff primary election in arkansas for a senate seat and a special house election in georgia. here to walk us through some of the key races to watch is amy walter, editor-in-chief of the "hotline," "national journal's"

political daily, and dan balz, senior political reporter for the "washington post." thank you both. amy and dan, amy let's start with you. we're going try to run through five raises-- races, let's start with arkansas. with you had-- you have this runoff in the senate primary, incumbent blanche lincoln being challenged by bill halter and she's run into some trouble. >> she's run into a lot of trouble. the fact that she got into a runoff in the first place was a sign of trouble. and usually when an incumbent is held under 50% of the vote in the first round it's very hard for them to get any of those votes back in the second round which is this runoff that we have against bill halter. the interesting thing is this is for all the talk about the insider versus outsider dynamic going on, clearly blanche lincoln as the incumbent is the insider, it's really hard though to call bill halter the clear outsider. when first of all, he is the lieu trant governor, so it is not as if he didn't come from some establishment background. but the fact is, outside groups are really a big key

to his campaign. they've funded him through the internet and mostly labor unions pouring millions of dollars in attack ads against blanche lincoln have been a big part of this. >> woodruff: dan balz, how much of an issue is this insider, outsider thing. what does it is a if blanche hundred con loses here? >> i think the most important thing it is as is that labor has really flexed its muscles in arkansas. certainly there is an anti-incumbent issue involved in this. and an insider-outsider. but as amy said it is the outside influence of the labor unions in particular in some progressive groups. i mean labor has put close to $9 million into this state, into this race s away way to send a message. and when bill clinton, former president, went down to campaign for blanche lincoln he said that the labor unions are trying to make an example of her. which is exactly what they are trying to do. they are trying to show that those democrats who don't advance the issues that they want and in their estimation aren't working for average

working families, ought to pay a price. and they're trying to make an example of blanche lincoln in this campaign. >> woodruff: dan let's pick up on this outsider theme and talk about california. you have got two races for the senate and for governor, both instances a woman, former corporate ceo in the senate race, carlee fiorina who was the head of hewlett-packard up against two more familiar figures in politics in california. >> yes. in this race at that point carlee fiorini is the favorite to win the republican nomination to go against barbara boxer the incumbent democrat in november. this las been an interesting race in part because it has been a test of what people think is the best profile to go against barbara boxer in the fall. carlee fiorina is conservative on economic and social issues. tom campbell former house member who is her leading opponent is conservative on economic issues but moderate on social issues. and there was a recent poll that showed that he was running stronger against barbara boxer in november

than carlee fiorina wood. carly has worked very hard and very aggressively to corral the conservative vote in a primary where conservatives are dominant. she's got the sport of sarah palin, for example. it looks as though she is going to win. but the question is whether someone with that profile can win statewide in california. it has been two decades since californias have elected swb somebody who is pro-life and pro gun, anti-gun control, in the way that she is. so this will be a very interesting test if she survives the fight tomorrow. >> woodruff: and amy, pick up on that and then bring in the governor's race where you have meg whitman the former ceo, founder of ebay. >> picking up on dan's point, which i think they are all very important. the question really for carly fiorina is one whether she can tack back to the center after move together right in the primary but also whether ideology is going to be as important in an election year where incumbency, the economy are really the touchstones for

so many voters. and obviously if are you barbara boxer you will spend a lot of time saying she is out of step with the views of the state but barbara boxer also has another arrow in her quiver and i think that is the thing that carlee fiorina likes to talk about a lot which is her tenure at hp. it was very rocky, very controversial app she got a very big buyout package when she left in a year where we have been talking about bonuses on wall street, that may not play so well. >> woodruff: meg whitman. >> meg whitman this is a question we've seen this in politics in california too. those folks who have tried to buy campaigns, we've seen millionaires, come in. >> woodruff: she spent a lot of money. >> she spent $80 million thus far. the question is here we have in some ways, she is the outsider. she is a new person against jerry brown who will be the democratic nominee. >> woodruff: assuming she wins. >> assuming she wins which she is very far ahead of steve poizner, her opponent. in some ways it started off as an outsider, insider jerry brown has been in politics in california forever. the brown name is sin om muss with democratic politics in the state.

but remember for many voters in california, especially those under 40, they don't remember that he was the governor and they've sure seen a lot of meg whitman on tv for the last couple of months. unclear who the incumbent is at this point. >> woodruff: i'm going to move on to nevada. republican senate primary harry reid in danger-- endangered incull bent, the senate majority leader and the ground is shifting in this republican primary. >> this has been a post interesting race in nevada. as you say, senator reid is quite vulnerable. his poll numbers have been weak all year and republicans have been itching to take him on and try to defeat him. what has happened in the last few weeks is that the candidate that many in the republican establishment had thought and assumed would be the nominee, sue lowden has stumbled. she's had some things to say on the came pran-- campaign trail that caused her trob. in particular that one could go back toy a system of barter, for health care and as she put it trading chickens for health care. that has allowed sharron angle, who is the favored candidate of the tea party

movement, to surge into the lead. now this is still a close race and there's a third candidate, danny tarkanian who is the son of the former basketball coach at unlv. but at this point sharron angle appears to have an edge. many democrats are delighted at this because they think in the long run, she would be a weaker candidate against senator reid than would sue lowden or perhaps even danny tarkanian. >> woodruff: we will see if she is a candidate and if she would be weaker. but amy we've only got a little more than a minute. i can't leave out south carolina where it just gets interestinger and interesting her. >> so you know, this race has been fascinating to watch in part because we have a woman running against a essentially the establishment. she has been attacked on charges that she has been involved in extramarital affairs. this looks very mark sanfordesque. endorsed by jenny sanford, she is ahead right now, likely to go into a runoff. the bottom line is for a state like south carolina, likely to nominate a woman

of indian heritage, she is the daughter of an indian immigrant and a woman to the head of the government in south carolina is a pretty impressive feat. >> woodruff: i have a feeling all of you at the "washington post" are going to be watching that one closely too. >> indeed. >> woodruff: we are going to have to leave it there. dan balz, amy walter, thank you both. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day. coast guard admiral thad allen said oil collection efforts are gradually improving. b.p. is now siphoning nearly a half million gallons per day from the damaged well. an unknown missing are-- unnumber number are still missing and officials fear the missing could rise. the newshour is always online. kwame holman, in our newsroom, previews what's there. kwame. >> holman: our oil leak ticker now includes b.p.'s projections of the amount of oil it's siphoning from the ruptured well.

a follow-up to ray's report on obesity in china last week. we posted answers to your questions about how developing countries are dealing with the crisis. and a look ahead to the world cup soccer tournament in south africa. find a reader's guide to blogs and resources about the games. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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