captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: sunni militants continue their push to seize key cities in iraq, taking another one today near the syrian border, as the u.s. opened the door to direct talks with iran, to help stem the insurgency. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. judy woodruff is on assignment. also ahead, in a five to four decision, the supreme court ruled gun buyers must disclose who they are buying the weapon for, upholding a ban on so- called straw purchases. plus, the business of recreational marijuana, now legal in just a few states, but generating a great deal of buzz among innovators and investors alike. >> i was an investment banker who focused exclusively on the internet and new media back in the late '90s and mid '90s.

and this is a bigger opportunity than that even was. >> ifill: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs nehour has been provided by: >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> when i was pregnant, i got more advice than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust, on how to take care of me and my baby. united healthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get

care and guidance they can use before and after the baby is born. simple is what i need right now. >> that's health in numbers, united healthcare >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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: gunmen went on a rampage in kenya, killing at least 48 people and burning down two hotels. some of the victims had gathered to watch the world cup. the attacks happened in the coastal town of mpeketoni, and the somali militant group "al shabab" claimed responsibility. witnesses said the attackers targeted non-muslims and met little resistance from kenyan security forces. the kenyan government vowed to crack down on militants. >> i wish to assure the country of the government's commitment to deal with political incitement and caution political leaders inciting the public to desist from destructive politics and ethnic profiling that may be responsible for this heinous act. >> ifill: a state department spokeswoman today reiterated its warning to american citizens traveling to kenya, citing terrorist threats in nairobi and along the coast. russia cut off natural gas deliveries to ukraine today. "gazprom," the russian state gas

authority had demanded nearly $2 billion for ukraine's past due bills. and it wanted up-front payments for future supplies. in kiev, ukraine's prime minister rejected the move, likening it to russia's annexation of crimea, and the ongoing separatist insurgency in eastern ukraine. >> ( translated ): it is not about gas. it is a general russian plan to destroy ukraine. we are not going to subsidize russian gazprom. ukrainians are not going to pull out of their pockets $5 billion every year for russia to buy weapons, tanks, and planes to bomb ukrainian territories. >> ifill: ukraine says it has enough reserves to last until december. meanwhile, ukraine's president petro poroshenko said he's offering up a peace plan that includes a cease-fire with pro- russia rebels. but he noted ukraine's armed forces have to get the border with russia under control first. the u.s. army launched an investigation today into the 2009 disappearance of sergeant

bowe bergdahl. bergdahl was captured and held by the taliban for five years. but former members of his unit have said he walked off on his own. a two-star general is in charge of the probe. bergdahl, who is now recovering at an army medical center in texas, will not be interviewed until his caregivers give the go ahead. one of the candidates in afghanistan's presidential run- off has called saturday's vote a "fraud." former foreign minister abdullah abdullah decried initial reports that his rival, former finance minister, ashraf ghani, was leading by a million votes. final results aren't expected until july 22nd, but abdullah said the early numbers can't be right. >> when the commission announced that the turnout is over seven million people there is no collaborating evidence at all throughout the country. that is something that is questionable and what we are concerned about is once again engineered fraud.

>> ifill: in april's first round of voting, abdullah led with 45 percent of the vote. ghani lagged more than 13 points behind. the latest talks on the future of iran's nuclear program are underway in vienna. an interim agreement with six world powers comes to an end in late july. under that deal, iran cut back on parts of its nuclear program in exchange for reduced economic sanctions. the number two u.s. diplomat, deputy secretary of state bill burns, will be among the u.s. officials partipating this week. starbucks is offering its employees two years of free or reduced-cost college, in a new partnership with arizona state university. it applies to any of the 135,000 u.s. employees who work at least 20 hours a week. and it's for online undergraduate courses. at the announcement in new york, education secretary arne duncan told the company's workforce to take advantage of the opportunity. >> it's not easy working. it's not easy raising a family,

taking classes online. if you do this, if you invest in yourselves, what you'll do for yourselves, your kids, your families, for the next 40 or 50 years, you'll absolutely change that trajectory. i urge you to take advantage of this. i urge you to work hard to support each other in this new journey. if you guys can do this well, think of the example it will set for the rest of the nation. >> ifill: employees who take part in the tuition plan will not be required to stay at starbucks after earning their degrees. g.m. announced another whopping new recall today: 3.2 million cars in the u.s. for possible ignition switch problems. the company said it will change or replace the keys on the cars from the 2000 to 2014 model years involved in the recall. g.m. is in the midst of a major safety review of problems with ignition switches the company failed to disclose for years. it was a mostly quiet day on wall street today with slight gains. the dow jones industrial average added five points to close at

16,781. the nasdaq rose 10 points to close at 4,321. the s-and-p 500 gained more than a point to close above 1,937. san antonio spurs fans had a lot to celebrate today, five national basketball championship titles. last night, the spurs defeated the two-time defending champs, the miami heat, 104 to 87. the spurs captured the title in front of the home crowd in game five of the series. outside, thousands partied in the streets of san antonio, in mostly peaceful celebrations. formula-one racing legend michael schumacher has emerged from a coma, and was moved to a swiss medical center today. he was in a skiing accident late last year in the french alps, and has been hospitalized with brain injuries since then. his manager said schumacher will continue the process of rehabilitation and recovery in switzerland. baseball hall of famer tony gwynn died in california today of cancer.

gwynn played 20 seasons with the san diego padres, earning his nickname "mr. padre." he had 3,141 hits over his career and won eight national league batting titles. in 2010, he had the first of two operations to remove tumors in his right cheek. gwynn attributed his cancer to using smokeless tobacco throughout his career. he was 54 years old. still to come on the newshour: militants in iraq extend their gains, taking a town near the syrian border; the supreme court weighs in on gun sales and campaign ads; high hopes for the business of recreational marijuana; a story of murder and mercy in texas; plus, a well-known jazz musician becomes its mainstream champion. >> ifill: the crisis in iraq continues to escalate, with reports of mass killings by sunni extremists, as government forces lose more territory.

jonathan rugman of independent television news is on the ground. some viewers might find elements of this report disturbing. >> reporter: this is iraqi air force video of helicopters attacking i.s.i.s. militants outside tel afar. but it was not enough to stop the city falling to jihadists overnight. a city official said families have been trapped in their houses by the fighting and many people were killed. and from i.s.i.s. another shocking video of another apparent atrocity. five iraqi soldiers in all seen pleading for their lives in the desert. a man identified as jafar zaki is ordered to swear allegiance to an islamic state. when he refuses, the footage goes on to show that all the men are shot dead. "god is great. i killed a shiite," says a voice on the tape.

we can't verify this appalling scene, nor these photos of a mass execution of soldiers which appeared on the internet yesterday. but as more volunteers flocked to baghdad to enlist, an army spokesman said the photos were authentic. but of 170 troops killed he said, not 1,700 that i.s.i.s. claimed. >> ( translated ): false news has been circulated about an exaggerated number of soldiers and volunteers killed by isis gangs. this news is baseless and baghdad military operations command has denied it. >> reporter: and in this escalating spiral of violence, hundreds of thousds are believed to have fled the fighting in the last week alone. the combination of reported atrocities by islamic militants and government air strikes is continuing to drive iraqis from their homes. and with no sign of a new coalition government being formed in baghdad, there's no

political solution either to iraq's widening sectarian divide. we headed into the city of kirkuk, where kurdish peshmerga fighters have been battling isis on the outskirts. a school had been taken over by families fleeing from tikrit, which had been fell to isis last week. the mussa family saw their local mosque badly damaged by fighting. "it's not you we've come to hurt," the jihadists told them, but the iraqi government. mr. mussa seemed terrified by both sides, so i asked him if the time had come for separate states with sunni and shia apart. >> ( translated ): yes. they are getting further apart because there are so many provocations. as there are no wise elders, everyone is enflaming the situation. >> reporter: the u.n. is expanding its operations here and planning for a humanitarian

crisis, as evidence of atrocities continue to mount. >> ifill: the u.s. is sending additional military assets to the region. the u.s.s. mesa verde, a transport dock ship entered the persian gulf today. it joins the aircraft carrier u.s.s. george h.w. bush, which moved there on saturday. secretary of state john kerry told katie couric of yahoo news this morning that the president is still considering military options. and he did not rule out the possibility of talks with iran. >> we're open to discussions if there's something constructive that can be contributed by iran if iran is prepared to do something that is going to respect the integrity and sovereignty of iraq and the ability of the government to reform. >> can you see cooperating with iran militarily? >> i-- at this moment, i think we need to go step by step and see what, in fact, might be a reality. >> a lot of analysts over the weekend were talking about the fact that air strikes are not

going to be effective because there are members of this organization scattered among the pulation at large. so what's your response to air strikes just aren't the answer here? >> well, they're not the whole answer, but they may well be one of the options that are important to be able to stem the tide and stop the movement of people who are moving around in open convoys, in trucks, and terrorizing people. i mean, when you have people murdering, assassinating in these mass massacres, you have to stop that. >> ifill: the administration later sought to clarify kerry's comments, saying there are no plans for military coordination with iran. but u.s. and iranian officials may discuss the region's security on the sidelines of unrelated nuclear talks in vienna this week. republican senator john mccain of arizona said such collaboration would be "the height of folly." the white house said the president's national security team will present the president with options tonight. the latest sectarian uprising in

iraq has caused the u.s. to move some embassy employees out of baghdad and, accoring to the associated press, consider sending special forces in. tonight, we look at the insurgents behind the violence. the group is known as i.s.i.l., the islamic state of iraq and the levant, also referred to as i.s.i.s. for more on who they are and the threat they represent, we turn to brian fishman, a counter- terrorism research fellow at the new america foundation. he's also a research fellow at the west point military academy. and rania abouzeid, an independent journalist who has written for the new yorker and time magazine. she's spent time with sunni militant fighters in northern syria. welcome to you both. brian fishman who is, who are i.s.i.l. and why do they feel, seem more dangerous? >> well, i.s.i.l. is the modern incarnation of the organization that was originally founded in iraq by al czar caw oui, it began

in the early days after the u.s. occupation of iraq, it turned into al qaeda and iraq in 2004, was later after his death in october of 2006, an entity called the islamic state of iraq was declared. and that was the first time that this organization really wanted to attempt to govern large areas in iraq. the isis at that point was largely defeated in the tribal uprising against al qaeda and u.s. forces. but with the beginning of violence in syria with the civil war, the isis was able to regain strength and in 2012 began calling itself i.s.i.l. or islamic state of iraq and the levant. fundamentally this is the organization that was begun by al zarcawi back in 2004. >> rania a buz ed this

organization seems to have great expectations of what it can competition even bound the borders of iraq. how does it compare to the al nousra front, for instance. >> well, the al nousra found was formed by the isis. the leader sent a group of men into form al nusra front in late 2011 just a few months after the start of the syrian uprising. it became quite a potent force in syria. and in you know april 2013 the isis leader decided that he was going to form isis or i.s.i.l. and merge al nousra with isis. the leader rejected this move. now the two groups are very different. even though they basically share the same ideology which is that they want to see-- they want to establish an islamic state in syria and in iraq. and they want to restore th

the-- they differ however in terms of who should lead their operation in terms of strategy and their tactics. al nousra for example are very careful not to antagonize the local populations in which it is based. isis, however, doesn't seem to share that concern. and it actually imposes its rather harsh ultra conservative understanding of islam on the local people in the areas in which it is based. >> ifill: brian fishman what we keep houring is abu bakr al-baghdadi, tell us about him. >> he was born in samara which is a town north of being dad. -- baghdad. and he's sort of exalted in an interesting way by the jihadi that support him. he is a rags to riches story of a very poor boy that wound up going to study perhaps for a doctorate at a university in baghdad, studying islamic theology and poetry. we know for a fact that he

was imprisoned in a u.s. facility during the insurgency back in 2005. exactly when he was released and the conditions, the circumstances of that release are not exactly clear. but what is clear is that he was radicallized in prison and then rose through the ranks of the isis and i.s.i.l. and he is somebody that unlike other jihadi leaders very much is willing to stay out of the limelight. he seems very focused on sort of the practical application of force. and the movement towards his strategic objectives. as rania said that doesn't mean that the i.s.i.l. hat those-- has not been bruts all. it has been extraordinarily brutal but it is significant that al-baghdadi as opposed to zawahiri-- is very focused on his long-term objective and does seem to

be more flexible in herms-- terms of how he applies his understanding of islamic law in various places. so you see i.s.i.l. taking a much harsher approach in syria than it has in iraq, for example, where it has been able to rebuild some relationships with tribal groups and other sunni militant organizations that it had alienated previously. >> rania abouzeid who pays for all of this. how did this organization suddenly bloom or at least to us it seems sudden? >> well, in syria, for example, isis or i.s.i.l. has taken over vast waves of the eastern part or the oil-producing part of the country. it also finances itself via racketeering, via imposing taxes on some of the people who live in its facility. and just general criminality. in addition to also having sponsored individual funders, you know, sheikhs in gulf country for example. >> ifill: brian fishman is nouri al-maliki is he

quipped to handle this uprising? can we tell yet? >> well, you know, i think nouri al-maliki has fed this uprising with what i think is a very sectarian a againa. he has driven some of the sunni tribes and the bathist organizations back into the arms of i.s.i.l., isis. and you know, maliki's approach now which is really a stopgap is calling out shi'a militias to help blunt the isis approach on baghdad, that may work in a military sense. but the more that this fight becomes framed as a sectarian one between sunni and shi'a the more that i.s.i.l. gains over the long run and the bigger threat they will be not just in the region but to the west. >> ifill: is that the same way you see it from there? >> i think that while i disagree somewhatment i think that while isis has been able to take advantage of the fact that many sunnies feel disenfranchised

because of maliki's increasingly sectarian rule, i don't think that that relationship may last. i think that we would have seen already in mosul, for example, just two days after the isis took over the city it declared its rules for a life in mosul and they were extremely harsh. they included things like, you know, women must now wear the all enveloping black cloak. they must wear the face veil. they can only leave their homes when necessary. people it is imposed obligatory prayers five times a day in the mosques. so it's basically imposing its very harsh ideas on the people. and if we recall just a few short years ago that's exactly the same approach that lead to the tribal awakenings when sunnies with the aid of the u.s. military rose up against the then al qaeda affiliate in their midst and removed it. so isis doesn't seem to have

learned from its recent history. because it is taking the same approach in some regards in terms of holding territory that it has now won. >> ifill: rania abouzeid of time and new yorker and brian fishman, thank you very much. earlier this evening the white house released a letter that president obama sent to the speaker of the house john boehner and to the president pro tell of the senate. the president informed them that up to 275 u.s. armed forces will be deployed to iraq. the troops will be in country to protect american citizens and property >> ifill: two supreme court decisions today. one on purchasing firearms and the other involving political speech. jeffrey brown has that. >> brown: as it happens, both cases involve when the 'truth' must be told. in a 5-4 decision the court ruled that the federal government can enforce its ban on so-called "straw gun" purchases. under that law, buyers must tell

the truth when they are buying guns for someone else. in a separate ruling, the court looked at an ohio law that bars the making of false statements about candidates in a political campaign. the court unanimously ruled that a legal challenge to the w can go forward. here to tell us more, as always, is marcia coyle of the national law journal. >> marcia, let's start with the gun case first. >> okay. >> this involved the purchase of a gun by a man for his uncle. >> right, exactly. >> what happened. >> bruce a branski was a former virginia police officer. offered to buy the gun for his uncle who lived in pennsylvania because he thought he could get a discount on the price given his law enforcement background. the uncle gave him the money. he wanted to buy a glock. a programski went forward, bought the gun and later transfered to his uncle in pennsylvania, but the problem for abrahamski when he bought the gun he checked a box on the form that ised if he was the actual buyer.

and the form made clear that if you are buying the gun on behalf of someone else are you not the actual buyer. you are what is known as a straw purchaser. he was later arrested and convicted of making a material false statement under the federal gun control act. >> brown: and this case, we should say, they were both legal -- . >> very important. >> brown: gun owners, right. >> they were both legally eligible to buy a gun. >> brown: right. so the lower court upheld the conviction and justice kagan today writing for the majority agreed. she said allowing this argument by the plaintiff to stand would virtually repeal the gun laws corrpro vision on background checks. >> not only background checks but documentation, recordkeeping by gun dealers that is essential for a gun dealer to know who is-- to know who the buyer is in order to determine whether the sale is legal, and also critical to law enforcement, that claim they need this information in order to trace guns that are committed in crimes.

>> brown: kagan also wrote that only a numb skull, i have to ask you this, a technical legal term she's using her, only a numb skull would provide a paper trail for violating the law. >> yes. justice kagan does write colorfully at times. she for the named descenter justice scalia an justices thomas and alito. he said you look at criminal laws and interpret them by their ode meaning. if he gave his sun $10 to buy milk and eggs at a store, the store wouldn't claim that the actual buyer was justice scalia, it was his son. and he said congress never intended to make criminals out of people who were legally entitled to purchase guns. >> brown: so he is saying this is a misinterpretation. >> he said it may have been a compromise that congress came to, it was dealing with a controversial area. but he still did not believe that the law as written would cover these two men in this particular purchase. >> brown: it is a rare case. i was looking at the

reaction to it from various sides. it is a rare case where the gun industry and gun rights advocates are actually on the losing side. >> that's right. in fact, i think something like 26 states came in on the side of mr. abrahamski supporting him in this. so as you can tell from the 5-4 division t wasn't the easiest case for the justices to resolve. >> brown: and it was justice kennedy, we often talk about as the swing vote who went -- >> the decision divided them idea logically. justice kennedy at this point went over to the side of the more liberal justices. >> brown: case number two is an ohio law that says you cannot make a false statement about political candidates. >> a law that probably a lot of people don't know exists, right. >> that's true. and believe it or not something like 13 states have similar laws on the books. the susan b. anthony list is an antiabortion political action committee.

they made it clear in 2010 that they were going it to run adds, some on a billboard attacking then congressman steve dryhouse for his vote in favor of the affordable care act. although they were going to say on their billboards shame on steve dryhouse, he voted for taxpayer funded abortions. he filed a complaint with the ohio commission that enforces this law. they found probable cause that the susan b. anthony list was violating this law. >> brown: he said he is opposed to abortion himself. >> right, exactly. he later, they both agreed to put it aside until after the election. he lost the election. withdrew his complaint. but the susan b. anthony list had filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. and so the issue before the court today was really whether that lawsuit could go forward. the lower court said hey this is over.

>> and the supreme court today unanimously disagreed. >> so the lower court is basically saying there's no case any more. >> that's right. the complaint had been withdrawn. the susan b. anthony list brought the appeal to the supreme court. and today justice thomas writing for the entire court, the unanimous court said that there is something to go forward here. he found that there is a credible threat of prosecution. that the susan b. anthony list planned to do these ads in the future, attacking other candidates and other organizations also wanted to do similar ads. the ohio commission enforces the law, does continue to handle these complaints. say 25-40 per year. and it's very possible that the susan b. anthony list would be found again to have cause to violate the law. and so right now it means that the case is going to go back to the lower court and the susan b. anthony list

gets a chance, an opportunity to prove that the law is unconstitutional under the first amendment. >> all right, and maybe it will come back to the supreme court. >> it might very welcome back. >> brown: marcia coyle of the national law journal, thanks as always. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> ifill: with recreational marijuana already legal in colorado and washington, and efforts to legalize it's use underway in as many as a dozen other states, start-up businesses, and their financial backers, are scrambling to get in on the ground floor of a newly legitimate industry. paul solman recently met up with a few. it's part of his ongoing reporting, "making sense of financial news." >> this is a unique moment in history and these days will never return again. >> this is like the wild west right now, right, unfolding before our eyes >> reporter: a flock of gung-ho investors, who've traveled to a hotel north of boston to hear product pitches in an "industry"

that, until recently, was strictly illicit. >> it's a really, really beautiful scene, to look out and see the people who are shaping the next great american industry, the cannabis industry. >> reporter: troy dayton is co- founder of arcview investors, which vets and funds canna-biz entrepreneurs. just a year ago, dayton noted, >> we had 40 people in a conference room. and now we have over 200 people out there today. the last few months, the interest level from investors has been astounding. >> reporter: presumably, that's because legal recreational pot is finally here. >> got some legal weed! >> reporter: only in colorado and washington for now, but says the marijuana policy project's rob kampia. >> we expect to legalize marijuana in rhode island and alaska this year, and we'll probably end up with about 12 states over the next four years. >> reporter: this sets the stage for a gold rush that could conceivably rival the repeal of prohibition. in colorado alone, state

officials predict a billion dollars in sales, and over $100 million in tax revenues, this very first year, despite the fact that because of federal drug laws, banks and credit card companies are still keeping their distance. now there were no actual product samples at this recent conference outside boston, massachusetts allows only medical marijuana, but plenty of buzz nonetheless. >> would you like a drink, or perhaps an ebbu? >> reporte jon cooper and dooma wendschuh had an old- fashioned sales pitch for their new-fangled product line. >> we're just months away from being the first cannabis company that can guarantee a specific, consistent response to our products. >> so these would be feelings like energy, or chill, or giggles. >> reporter: chill as in "relaxed," one of five branded highs ebbu will offer, via five different delivery mechanisms, if and when marijuana is fully legalized.

people here were pitching from the stage, in the hallways, during speed dating sessions with would-be investors. and the products they were pitching ranged from the most mundane business and financial services to paraphernalia long the sole province of head shops, augmented by high tech, jason levin and jessica riley were here with their spyre, sort of an e-cigar. why is it better than a joint, or in this case a blunt? >> for one, it's vaporization, so you're not taking in carcinogens and you're not creating any kind of that tar, or residue, that's going to clunk up your lungs and cause you to cough and wheeze. >> reporter: well, without necessarily buying the health claims, the aim seems straightforward enough: a standardized, regulated product. arcview co-founder steve deangelo. >> sadly, today, the cannabis consumer in most places around the world is in the same position that the meat consumer was in before upton sinclair

wrote the jungle, and we had modern sanitary regulation. >> reporter: it's a problem one significant segment of this budding industry addresses. >> my-dx will empower manufacturers, distributors, regulators and consumers to test the safety and potency of cannabis. >> reporter: daniel yazbeck helped invent my-dx, a portable pot analyzer. >> now that's going to vaporize the sample and start sniffing the chemicals. like thc and cbd, which determine how you feel or what ailments you relieve. >> reporter: pretty much what the ebbu guys are going for with their branded highs. >> we're creating a lot of intellectual property associated with how a person actually is experiencing that ratio of cannabinoids and turpenes. >> reporter: investor todd steinberg was impressed. >> i think what mondavi did for the wine industry in the united states, a product like this and a company like this could do. >> reporter: fortunes seemed to beckon to tse who place the right bets early enough, just as

with computers and the internet, where investors like these made their own first scores. >> this really does resemble the i.t. industry and the computer industry in the 1980's. >> i was an investment banker who focused exclusively on the internet and new media in the late '90s and mid '90s, and this is a bigger opportunity than that even was. >> one of the things i've learned from doing zynga is that you can tell when something's, like an industry's going to be big. >> reporter: tom bollich made his millions investing in and helping run the video game titan zynga. >> experience a completely new farm filled with all new activities. >> reporter: who could have dreamed that at its peak, farmville would boast 84 million users and spawn a brood of similar digital diversions? so why not invest in his new venture, surna, which makes energy efficient climate control systems for indoor cultivation. >> this is the next big industry, so it's, might as well be in it.

>> reporter: what do your billionaire, entrepreneur hi- tech friends think about you in the marijuana industry? >> they think this is the best idea i've ever had. >> reporter: nate ames, co- inventor of a machine that distills plant oils, is a good example how far this industry may reach. >> we actually started the business for decaffeinating and then the cannabis industry found us. >> reporter: their sales have since shot up ten-fold. so now, were you guys marijuana users in college who thought: "hey, we can take this technology we've learned and apply it to something we care about?" >> no, sir. in fact, nobody in our company partakes in cannabis use. it's illegal in our state. we're from ohio, so far as i'm concerned, it's still illegal. >> reporter: fair to say, though, that most at this conference were as much devotees of the herb as economic opportunists. >> oh well, i've been a cannabis activist and entrepreneur since i was about 15 years old. >> reporter: in addition to co- founding arcview investors,

steve deangelo is head of the harborside health center in oakland, the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary. for deangelo, it all started nearly half a century ago, at age 13, when a friend turned him on, and he had what he calls a life changing spiritual experience. >> the way that the sunlight filtered through the leaves, and the way that the guppies swam in the water, and the way that the wind blew in my hair. i felt all of these things simultaneously, and felt connected to them in this really profound way that i never had been before. >> reporter: i myself first smoked grass, excitedly, in my late teens. but i quit a few years later when it began to freak me out. i know others who've had much worse reactions. >> it's not a panacea and it's not harmless. i do think that some people have challenges with it. >> reporter: so, possibly dangerous, says troy dayton, but compared to what? >> with cannabis, i don't think we're going to see even remotely a fraction of the social costs

that we see from alcohol. and one of the things i think cannabis is so great for, for so many people, is it gives them a moment to relax and reflect, and to think about what really matters to them. >> reporter: but what if they get too relaxed, asks california governor jerry brown. >> how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? the world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. i think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together. >> reporter: of course, most of these folks would disagree. >> cannabis stimulates my mind. >> reporter: but some seemed to sympathize with jerry brown. long time marijuana user? >> on and off, right now, off, because it turns out running a startup takes a lot of time and you can't exactly show uto one of these stoned. >> reporter: because if you do, you might just get weeded out, in this new frontier of, to use our last obligatory pot pun, high finance.

>> ifill: what if someone tried to kill you? if you could face him again, what would you do? hari sreenivasan has our book conversation. >> sreenivasan: after september 11th, a lone gunman went on what he called "arab hunting" in texas. he shot three separate south asian mini-mart workers. one of the victims, who was shot in the face, survived and later went to lead a charge to spare his attacker from the death penalty. it's the true crime that new york times columnist anand giridhardadas uses to examine much more about america in his new non-fiction book, "the true american: murder and mercy in texas." let's talk about these two very distinct ca,, one from bafgaresh and one from texas. tell us about it. >> in a way they each typ ify their world, one is an immigrant from bangladesh, a muslim who comes to this country not fleeing a terrible life but a perfectly decent life that

still didn't feel enough to him. so he is an air force officer? his society. but comes to america wanting to get in on the it revolution. and is working in a gas station in dallas as a kind of way station to that goal. the other is a product of a kind of ailing white working class in texas that has done progressively worse over each generation as in his own family. and had always mark sturman's goal wrestled with meth and being in and out of prison as many of our young men are. and in the aftermath of 9/11 became possessed of this idea that he, mark would have to avenge these attacks and do so by gos on strike against three different south asian clerks. >> so he thought he was being patriotic. >> he called himself the true american. part of the reason to write this book is to ask what is really a true american.

>> srennivasan: so razz who comes from the third world technically into the first world gained access to this land of opportunity that we all think about. and yet he's face-to-face with somebody who is almost in a third world inside america that we don't think of very often. the class conversation that you have in this book. >> absolutely. and you know, he-- if he had had the typical immigrant story, i come from an immigrant family that originated much like his story. i think he might have, had his path been normal, never even realized that there was another america besides his kind of upwardly own as operational america that worked for him. and despite being shot, it still worked for him. he was still able to rise up, get education, work at the olive garden, get more education, make six figures in it. but because he was shot and had to go to the trial of the man who shot him and then had to work at the olive garden instead of it for a little while and work with native born working class americans who he might not have worked with otherwise, he got an exposure to another america.

as you say a third world america right beside the first world america that he had accessed. and he decided eventually that he wanted to do something about the hurting country that had produced a man who attacked him. >> srennivasan: so how do we get to and i will use your description here, to the point where a half blind immigrant using islam to challenge texas on not to execute the white racist who tried to kill him. how do we -- >> he, two things happened. one, you know, a religious epiphany. as a muslim, a very devout muslim, when he thought he was dying in the gas station that day, he looked to the sky and said to his god, if you save me now i will dedicate the rest of my life to helping others. well for several years he didn't because he was so consumed with eye surgery and getting $60,000 into debt after getting kicked out of the hospital on day two to any other number of depression, and other problems. but eventually years later on a pilgrimmage to mecca he kind of had that awakening

that now is the time. god wants me to repay that favor now and i need to serve others. but the second part of that epiphany was becoming an american over that same period. he became a citizen also that same year 2009. and being a citizen filled him with the sense that now he had equity in the republic. and it wasn't just something to complain about or analyze it was something to fix if he didn't like what was going on. and he didn't like the fact that there was this undernation of hurting people beneath the for fortunate country that he had accessed. the conversation of the wanting to serve and the diagnosis of all these americans, native born americans trapped in an underclass came together and made him say i want to forgive this man. i want to fight for his life. fight the texas authorities to save him but then i really want to use that case and the conversation to save millions of others who are not murderers but are trapped in circumstances that leave them with no hope. >> one of the interesting things in this book is

comparing two different poverties or two different underclasses. it's almost that your central figure comes to the realization that in bangladesh it's pretty crappy to be poor but at least we're poor together. and here when you're poor you're alone. >> it's the most striking part of it for me and i have spent time reporting on poverty here and poverty in places like that. and it is a very striking difference that part of, i think what we don't understand about the specialness of poverty in america is that our poor people in this country, if you are's poor you are less likely to be married. you are less likely to have people around you, to have communities that are intact. in most societies, it is the poor without despite not having resources at least have community. and in a way people understand in the poorer parts of the world that if you are poor, solitude is an extravagance. and too many americans who are poor pay the unfortunate tax of also being alone.

>> srennivasan: so what happened after mark strurman's execution. it seemed that this guy even reached out to his children, to be a resource for them and went on speaking tours, kind of update us on where he is. >> right after the execution which he failed to prevent though he tried valiantly, he reached out to the daughters and specifically to amber, mark's eldest daughter. and he said to her something that i will never forget. he said you may have lost a father, but you have gained an uncle. and if ever i can do anything for you, call. and she did call. and she needed money. and he started wiring money to her until her family actually asked him to stop because they suspected it was fueling a meth habit. >> the book is called the true american, thanks so much. >> thank you >> ifill: finally tonight, a major voice in and for jazz.

jeffrey brown has our report. >> brown: pianist and composer jason moran is one of today's best-known younger jazz musicians. performing solo and with his trio around the world. he's a true believer that his art form can transport and transform an audience. >> there's a power that kind of starts to stir in the body, you know. molecules start to, start to want to jump around. it has a possibility to change how a body feels, how a mind feels. and that is something that you can't quantify. so when the music hits, when it hits the audience, when it hits the space, the air, it has the possibility to change everything in that person's being. >> brown: now the thirty-nine year old has a distinctive

public perch here at the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts in washington, d.c., where he's been named artistic director for jazz. with a goal of both preserving a tradition and building new audiences, a prestigious position previously held by renowned musician and educator billy taylor, who died in 2010. it would seem an uphill challenge: jazz accounted for only 2% of overall album sales last year, trailing 10 other genres. but moran has seen it happen. first, in himself. he'd studied classical piano as a child growing up in houston. then, just into his teens, he heard a recording by jazz legend thelonius monk, and his world changed. >> i'd been playing, i love mozart, i love bach, brahms, but at 13 i didn't understand any of that that i was playing. and there was something very

pure and, i don't know, it resonated with me. thelonious monk's playing that i thought oh, this has the depth and the simplicity and the rigor that i think makes great art, great music. >> brown: explain that, depth and simplicity. >> if you hear thelonious monk play a run that goes from the top of the piano, he has opened up the grand canyon with that. he's the river that's carved this entire space that we call the grand canyon. he does that with one run. he lets you know what the possibility of the sound of the piano can do. >> brown: moran went on to the manhattan school of music and made his first album at age 24, on the famed blue note label. seven others would follow. the most recent in 2010. titled "ten", it celebrated the 10th anniversary of his trio,

"jason moran & the bandwagon". that same year he earned a macarthur genius fellowship. now, moran wants to bring more people in to the jazz experience. >> i think it's important that we consider how they can, if they do not have an entryway into the music, how they can make an entryway. once you step on stage, the people are actually looking to be transformed. that's why they showed up, that's why they spent some money. and great performances do that. and they figure out that balance of how to like grab you and how to like fling you, let you free fall. and then they catch you. >> brown: toward that end, moran has helped organize a number of public events at the kennedy center, including an "election night jam" in 2012. and a showcase for young artists as part of "betty carter's jazz ahead," an educational program.

at a recent celebration of blue note's 75th anniversary. he performed "boogie woogie stomp" with robert glasper. in fact, he's intent on highlighting the 'get up and dance' aspect of an earlier age of jazz to rev up today's audience. with that in mind, he's organized some 30 "fats waller dance parties" around the country, honoring the great pianist and composer from the first half of the 20th century. >> having a fats waller dance party is trying to understand how music engages an audience that shows up to actually get down, you know. not sit in a chair but like let me get down on the floor. and can i make music that can have people do that, it's really challenging. >> brown: a further challenge is to bring music into non- traditional spaces and collaborations with other art forms.

in 2012, for example, moran performed with his wife, soprano alicia hall moran, as part of the whitney museum's biennial exhibition of contemporary art. >> it's not just a conversation about jazz that's important. it's a conversation about art and arts that are important. the whole thing, the entire thing. and it's important that the art forms communicate, whether it's the dance program, the jazz program or the classical program or opera program, that these conversations becomes fluid. >> brown: moran says the jazz conversation will continue with what he calls a series of "listening parties," in which he and fellow musicians will join the audience in discussing classic works. his own next work, a new album titled "all rise: a joyful elegy for fats waller," is due out this fall.

>> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. sunni militants took over another key city in iraq near the border with syria. president obama told congress in a statement that under the war powers law, the u.s. is deploying about 275 u.s. troops to iraq for support at the embassy in baghdad. u.s. and iranian officials discussed iraq on the sidelines of nuclear talks in vienna, according to a senior state department official. and somali militant group al shabab claimed responsibility for killing at least 48 people in attacks in a coastal town in kenya. on the newshour online right now, just like the bowl of porridge in "goldilocks and the three bears," it appears that dinosaurs' body temperature was just right. new research suggests that the pre-historic animals were neither cold nor warm-blooded. read what scientists are

learning from this new revelation, on the rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are seven more.

and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at the latest efforts to stem the tide of insurgency in iraq. i'm gwen ifill, we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years.

bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> united healthcare, online at uhc.com. >> support also comes from >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org mathisen and

suzie guerin. >> greener pastures. metronic becomes the latest company to spend a lot of money for a better corporate tax rate buying covidion. >> global hotspots as investors watch what's happening in iraq. there are a number of high risk areas where american energy companies operate keeping oil prices high. and another recall. gm calls back more than 3 million cars, again related to an ignition switch problem. all that tonight for monday june 16th. >> good evening, everyone, three big issues dominated trading on wall street today. more violence and political turmoil in iraq. and also positive data ahead of the federal reserve meeting this