captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: two major stories tonight: first, conflict at the crash site. we update the international push to control and investigate the wreckage of the downed malaysian plane. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. then we turn to the middle east this monday, where the death toll continues to climb, as pressure mounts for a cease-fire between israel and hamas. >> ifill: we head to miami, where gloria estefan joins graffiti artists in a push to restore a decaying cultural landmark. symbolic, because the cubans came here after the revolution and we really built a big part of the city in many

different ways. >> woodruff: and, my conversation with army staff sergeant ryan pitts, who today received the medal of honor for his actions during one of the most ferocious battles of the afghan war. those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

>> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> 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: there were small signs of progress today in the wake of the malaysian airlines disaster over eastern ukraine. after an international outcry, rebels finally allowed remains of many of the 298 victims to leave the crash site. their plane was shot out of the sky last week. neil connery, of independent television news, reports on the day's drama over the fate of the bodies.

>> reporter: nothing prayers you for the scene inside this train. the gut-wrenching smell hits you first, and then the sight of the body bags. more than 200 victims from flight mh17. dutch forensic experts joined the small team of international observers granted ac, but it's the pro-russian militia who are in control of what happens here. the observers plead for the militia commander to allow the train to move so the victims' final journey home can begin. th>> we need to move the train. >> reporter: the refrigerated carriages containing the bodies struggled cope with

temperatures approaching 30 degrees celsius outside. the bodies of flight mh17 which are inside these refrigerated carriages have become some source of bargaining chip, a grotesque response to what has happened here over the past few days compounding the anguish of their families. the outside world seems powerless to influence what happened to it and the militia like to keep it that way. can we come with you now? >> yes. >> reporter: thank you. the observers then head to the crash site where bodies and human remains are still being found. while some have their first chance to take in the scene, fresh fighting in the nearby city of donetsk threatened to delay any movement of the train carrying the bodies. some of you have seen the donetsk raleway station, explosions there today, so i think that's complicated matters somewhat in terms of logistics.

the train finally set off heading away from this he rebel area toward a city under control of the ukrainian government. their final journey home seems to be underway. >> ifill: on the diplomatic front, claims and counter-claims continued to fly over who was responsible for the shoot-down. and, russia and its ukrainian rebel allies faced new demands to allow a full investigation. >> ifill: four days in, and international teams are still pressing for unfettered access to the crash site, as malaysia's prime minister announced a deal to retrieve the flight recorders from the rebels who control the area. >> the two black boxes will be handed over to a malaysian team in donetsk, who will take custody of them. >> ifill: but there were new accusations that the site has been hopelessly compromised. ukrainian president petro poroshenko.

>> ( translated ): three notorious crimes were committed. the first crime is a terrorist attack committed from russian weapons by russian terrorists and russian mercenaries. the second crime, i can't look calmly at how the terrorists treated the bodies of those who died. thirdly, destroying the evidence is absolutely unacceptable. >> ifill: in moscow, russian president vladimir putin continued to insist the real blame lies with kiev, for it's offensive in eastern ukraine. >> ( translated ): i believe that if military operations had not resumed in eastern ukraine on june 28, this tragedy probably could have been avoided. at the same time, no one should and no one has the right to use this tragedy to pursue their own political goals. >> ifill: putin insisted his government is doing everything possible to promote a full investigation. but in washington, president obama said he is not doing enough. >> the separatists are removing evidence from the crash site, all of which begs the question, what exactly are they trying to hide?

given it's direct influence over the separatists, russia, and president putin in particular, has direct responsibility to compel them to cooperate with the investigation. >> ifill: other leaders issued similar statements. british prime minister david cameron. >> the world today is watching russia, the world is watching putin, and they want to know, everybody wants to know, that he will do everything in his power to make these separatists open up that site so there can be a proper investigation. >> ifill: and in new york this afternoon, the u.n. security council approved a resolution demanding international access to the site. >> woodruff: the governor of texas is sending up to 1,000 national guard troops to the mexican border. they'd join some 3,000 border patrol agents already working the area. republican rick perry announced the move today, to help stem a surge of children entering the u.s. illegally. he's a possible 2016 presidential candidate, and a vocal critic of president obama's immigration policy. >> i will not stand idly by

while our citizens are under assault and little children from central america are detained in squalor. we are too good a country for that to occur. >> woodruff: white house spokesman josh earnest did not directly criticize the governor's move. but he urged republicans to support the president's call for $3.7 billion in emergency funding. >> it seems to me that a much more powerful symbol would be the bipartisan passage of legislation that would actually make a historic investment in border security and send an additional 20,000 personnel to the border >> woodruff: the spokesman also said the numbers crossing the border have dropped by half this month. president obama plans to meet friday with the leaders of guatemala, el salvador and honduras, where many of the children are coming from. >> ifill: the city of chicago suffered another violent

weekend, with at least 40 people shot, and four killed. an 11-year-old girl was among the dead. she was shot during a slumber party when someone fired a gun into the house from outside. over the july fourth weekend, more than 50 people were shot, with 17 killed. >> woodruff: a friend of the boston marathon bombing suspect was convicted today of obstruction. he's one of two men charged with taking dzhokhar tsarnaev's backpack from his dorm room after the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260. the backpack contained fireworks that had been emptied of their explosive powder. tsarnaev goes on trial in november. >> ifill: in libya, chaos in the capital city worsened, as rival militias renewed their battle for control of tripoli's airport. 47 people have died in a week of intense clashes that left charred remains of airplanes on the tarmac, and terminals severely damaged. at least 120 people have been wounded. >> woodruff: firefighters in washington state got some welcome relief today, calmer winds and cooler temperatures.

in just a few days, the biggest fire, in the north-central part of the state, has burned across nearly 400 square miles. it's destroyed 150 homes and is blamed for one death, and it's only 2% contained. more than 1,600 firefighters are working on the fire, and improved conditions could help them make headway. >> ifill: the heat that's helped fuel those wildfires comes as the earth is experiencing some of it's hottest months ever. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration reports the average global temperature in june was just over 61 degrees. that's more than a full degree warmer that the 20th century average. the month of may set a heat record as well, going back to 1880, when global data was first recorded. also today, the national weather service said california had its warmest winter and spring on record. the state is struggling with it's worst drought in decades. >> woodruff: president obama has ordered new protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and

transgender workers in the federal government. employees of federal contractors are also covered under today's action. the issue has been held up in congress in a dispute over granting a broad exemption for religious organizations. >> ifill: detroit's plan to emerge from bankruptcy got a mixed review today in a key report commissioned by a federal bankruptcy judge. the report found the city's plan is basically feasible. but it also expressed concern that settlements with creditors may hurt the city's future finances. still to be released: results of voting on pension cuts by 30,000 retirees. >> woodruff: wall street started the week on a down note. the dow jones industrial average lost 48 points to close at 17,051. the nasdaq fell seven points to close at 4,424. and the s-and-p 500 slipped four, to 1,973. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: russia's role in investigating the malaysia airlines plane crash;

challenges to brokering a cease- fire between israel and hamas; miami residents' push to save a cultural landmark; improving education outcomes for young african-american and latino boys; and, medal of honor recipient, ryan pitts. >> ifill: when the malaysia airlines flight 17 was shot down, the stakes in the fight for the future of ukraine went up. at the center of what has rapidly become a global flash- point is the deteriorating relationship between the u.s. and russia. but what, if anything, can the u.s. or russia do in the face of international grief, recrimination and derailed diplomacy? stephen sestanovich was u.s. ambassador-at-large for the former soviet union during the clinton administration. he's now senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. and eugene rumer was the

national intelligence officer for russia and eurasia during the obama administration from 2010 to 2014. he's now director of russia and eurasia programs at the carnegie endowment for international peace. stephen sestanovich, how much -- how much good can international pressure do? >> well, there's no doubt that russia faces the most appalling public relations predicament that it's been in in decades, and it is going to be responding to international pressure. no government wants to have the kind of criminal reputation that the russians are acquiring for their handling of this, and the result is you already see, is a kind of backing off of some of the positions they've taken. they supported a u.n. security council position today, the

separatists have been urged to release the bodies. there is a minimal level of cooperation that is meant to rescue their international position right now. >> ifill: eugene rumer, is there room for more cooperation? >> there is, but we need to keep in mind mr. putin has to speak to several different audiences. one is the audience steve talked about of international pressure to do the right thing. but he has a domestic audience. russia has been very different about this disaster as well as the relationship between russia and the united states and the crisis in ukraine and what we have been hearing here in the united states. in moscow last week in every meeting i went to, it is very clear the russians have a very different view of this situations, that it's not as black and white as portrayed.

it's more black and white to their favor. putin has to speak to that, has to take into account what's been broadcast on russian television and media and i think, to the te extent he wants to comply with international pressure, we have to be aware of the fact that he doesn't control the situation on the ground 100%. so he doesn't want to be embarrassed if he gives orders to the separatists and they say you're not in charge, we are're in charge here. >> ifill: stephen sestanovich, you may have noticed in the last few days whether the president has been tough enough his scolding of vladimir putin and his position on. this what do you think? >> i think there is criticism in his tone. it is clipped and affectless and he is clearly urged to take a slightly edgier, more emotional

approach to this. you saw that in his statement today. >> ifill: would that make a difference? >> i think it is probably going to silence the critics who say he's not hands-on enough, he's not feeling the pain of the victims and their families, but i think there's a bigger problem for the president here, apart from just laying the blame at the russian doorstep for access to the crime site, for example, that's a passing issue. the fundamental issue here is russian support for separatism in eastern ukraine. >> ifill: let me ask you about that, eugene. i wanted to touch on that point which is does vladimir putin have the leverage some people think he does to get the pro-russian separatists as we have been calling them to back off? >> i believe he does have some leverage, but i'm not all that

convinced he can get them to back off because this is not a regular army. there are all kinds of actors with different aagendas reporting to different commanders with different interests. the time when he was encouraging the cease fire was bad mouthed in the russian press and in the right wing press he was portrayed as a traitor and he was not doing what he was supposed to do as president for national interests. i wouldn't bet on him being able to control them. >> putin is in a fix largely of his own making. the national hysteria eugene talks about that dominates the russian media now has been encouraged by putin. it is the consequence of the campaign he's been on to stoke russian nationalism as a source

for his domestic popularity. that is something that does limit his maneuvering room, but he can't let himself be in a position where he makes russia so isolated that it has severe consequences for the economy and for russia's political stance. >> ifill: that's what the u.s. is counting on and europeans are counting on more now than before and it's certainly what we have heard which is sanctions and tougher sectoral sanctions are going to change the calculus here and that's what the president should be walking out and talking about. will that change the calculus? >> i don't think it will change the calculus. maybe in the long term. but i don't see putin stepping away the course he's on now under the pressure and the sanctions. and the sanctions, with be they

sectoral or a demand for europe to stop buying russian gas are simply not realistic in a practical policy tone frame. it's not in the cards. >> ifill: okay, so what anybody should be doing here to force an action in the wake of this tragedy, is there something the u.s. could be doing? is there some sort of diplomacy? is there some sort of arming the rebels or the ukrainian government? what is the solution? >> a lot of support for ukraine is coming at us. that will be the issue faced by the administration. they've indicated they're prepared to do a lot of support, give a lot of supporto to the ukrainian economy. they've offered a lot of diplomatic and political support in recent days. security assistance is probably the next issue on the agenda. it used to be said, you know, the ukrainian military is so pathetic they can't even use the help or use it irresponsible. the record of recent weeks has

been that the ukrainian military has been able to make advances against the separatists and they probably need further help. >> i don't think there's really a solution to this crisis. if the they win and the separatists push them into smaller and smaller areas, putin will have no choice but to open the spigot again even more so and that could actually push them to the option that i believe he doesn't want to pursue and that is more of a military intervention that he's going to pursue so far and frankly i don't see a solution to the crisis other than for all parties to say enough is enough, let's negotiate, let's all come to the table without any conditions and start -- i know it's a bad term -- but free of this conflict and looking for a way out of the situation. >> ifill: all right, stephen sestanovich and eugene rumer,

thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the death toll from the fighting between hamas and israel continued to mount today. in total, more than 500 palestinians and 27 israelis have been killed since the conflict began nearly two weeks ago. meanwhile, the u.s. push for a cease-fire accelerated. chief foreign affairs corespondent margaret warner has our report. >> warner: rescue crews scrambled to find survivors as israeli air strikes blasted parts of gaza city and khan younis. local health officials said at least three families were buried in rubble. palestinians also reported israeli tanks shelled a hospital in the central gaza town of deir el-balah, killing at least four people. the israeli military said it was aiming at anti-tank missiles stored nearby, and, israel's defense minister vowed to keep

up the fight. >> ( translated ): we are prepared to continue the operation as long as necessary. if there is a need, we will recruit more reserve combat forces until we bring quiet from the gaza strip. >> warner: the israelis say they're focused on destroying hamas rockets and the network of tunnels used to store them and infiltrate militias into israel. the military said it foiled another such attempt today, shown in this video, and killed ten militants. all this came a day after the first major ground battle of the conflict, in gaza city's shijaiyah neighborhood. 65 palestinians and 13 israeli soldiers were killed. funerals for the soldiers were held today, as the military announced more soldiers died in fighting. hamas also claimed late sunday that it captured an israeli soldier, but there was no confirmation.

meanwhile, sirens sounded over tel aviv today as militants fired at least 50 more rockets into israel, damaging a house, but causing no casualties. in a televised speech, the top hamas leader in gaza, ismail haniyeh, insisted his group won't stop fighting until there's an end to the israeli- egyptian blockade of the territory. saying "we cannot go back to the silent death" of the blockade. >> warner: as casualties mount, so do the numbers of gaza residents forced to flee their homes, estimated in the tens of thousands. the pressure to end the fighting is building, too. president obama spoke of the human cost today. >> we have serious concerns about the rising number of palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of israeli lives. and that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting and that can stop the

deaths of innocent civilians both in gaza and in israel. >> warner: to that end, secretary of state john kerry traveled to egypt to try to revive cease-fire efforts. he's scheduled to meet there with u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon and others. the new american involvement came a day after kerry was caught on an open microphone, questioning the toll taken by israel's offensive. >> it's a hell of a pinpoint operation. >> warner: the u.n. security council voiced similar concerns last night. the 15 members demanded an "immediate cessation of hostilities." >> woodruff: and margaret joins me now. margaret, what's the game plan in cairo. >> the game plan was to first try to get another one of these humanitarians in place that might last more than the five hours last week. and during that time if passions

cool, start working on the cease fire. beyond that, it's complicated. it depends on hamas playingle ball. israel says it's always ready to play ball, hamas will have to agree. unlike 2012 when the president of egypt, president morsi, had direct leverage with hamas, this time he does not. so even given that humanitarian pause is a challenge. >> woodruff: so what does the administration believe kerry brings to the table all other players can't or don't have. >> great question. the egyptians, the israelis, hamas, mahmoud abbas, all have been in cairo this week to get this going and moved around and so far it's dead in the water so far. what u.s. and palestinian officials think he brings is he has leverage and relationships with all the players who count in the way president sisi does

not. president sisi has no leverage with hamas because he helped oust morsi. and qatar and turkey are upset and they have a great rivalry with egypt. so if anything the israelis think they've frustrated the egyptian cease fire efforts. kerry has careful relationships with the qatari foreign minister, with sisi, and president obama has a good relationship with the turkish primprime minister erredo. >> woodruff: you reported when he thought he was off the mic yesterday, the comments he made about pinpointing the operation.

>> it reflected really his unhappiness and his frustration at, of course, the civilian death toll and he's understanding there's no such thing as a pinpoint operation. i am told that this actually reflected the view of people in the white house and state department. last week we saw the term of the administration's comments changing which is whatever israel is saying they intend to do and are trying to limit civilian casualties, they say, and it's not possible and this is the slippery slope they're going down and it's time to come to a cease-fire. >> woodruff: is there daylight and how much daylight between the u.s. position and israel? >> officially on the record, we hear none, which is president obama and secretary kerry always say israel has a right to defend itself and they do believe the

tunnels in particular are a real security threat to israel because as israeli officials said, those militias could come in and get behind our lines and then we're squeezed on both sides. so even the u.s. agreed with getting up the tunnels. but what i was hearing today from u.s. officials was okay the israelis say they've got an lot of the tunnels, we think it's time to work on a cease-fire. what israeli officials said to me today is we've discovered lots more tunnels and it's a spider web of tunnels and there are a lot more. here's the thing, judy, this official said there are a loot of other neighborhoods, densely populated ones, like yesterday, where it's essentially a network of tunnels underneath and terrorist leadership cells and exphand centers and we know where they are and if the cease fire isn't reached, we can see more of the sort of civilian

mass casualty with we saw yesterday. >> woodruff: kerry is in cairo. where does he go from there and how long is he prepared to devote in. >> the game plan with no date certaino of when is go to delhi. they're tamping down exepg expectations today of how hard it would be and how long it would take. someone said he could stay two weeks. i>> woodruff: we'll be talking to you throughout. margaret warner, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: now, we travel to miami for a story of architecture, graffiti, and a city's identity. jeffrey brown explores, in the latest report in his series, "culture at risk.

it sits abandoned on a thin stretch of land called virginia key overlooking a manmade basin between miami channel and biscayne bay, a magnificent setting, downtown miami in the near distance. today the 6500 seat stadium is littered with garbage, every inch covered in graffiti forgotten by many, but not those who leb it as a cultural centerpiece for a rising city. one is miami's own music star gloria estefan. >> this is one of those things in the city that has history. it's almost 50 years old. >> brown: that's not long in. miami, it is. >> brown: the stadium turned 50 years old last tees and estefan is joining a grassroots efforts to give it new life. in the '50s and '60s, miami

was still finding its identity as something more than a seasonal tourist destination. when castro took power in cuba in 1959, waves of cubans began leverage for south florida, seeking new lives and ready fining the city's culture. >> absolutely no work. >> brown: one of the exiles was an architect named candella. he was asked to create a simple steel grand stand as a venue for power boat races. >> i wanted it to be special because i realized it was fantastic and, therefore, i was facing a fantastic responsibility. >> brown: he had a far more ambitious work boasting a 360-foot long cantilevered roof made from poured in place concrete. you think of this as a scrumture?

>> i do. >> brown: it's a piece of art. i believe that strongly. in terms of materials, this is a very honest material. >> brown: what does th mean? it means, if you think about it, a lot of architectural and structural process you use a variety of materials that are covered, have another skin, but behind the skin is the true bones of the building. when you use poured in place concrete, the true materials of the building is expressed on the outside. >> brown: the stadium on the december 1963 and while serving the purpose for boat races broadened uses to rigatas, religious services and a set for a 1960s elvis movie. >> elvis with the wild pressley beat! ♪ >> brown: and political rallies where sammy davis, jr.

embraced richard nixon in 1972. most of all a popular concert venue. jimmy buffett jumped off the floating stage. ♪ and then a rising star cuban american gloria estefan played a show there in the mid '80s. >> water behind me, boats all around me, a 360 geeing experience. to me, it's very symbolic, this building, because the cubans came here after the revolution and we really built a big part of the city in many different ways. >> brown: in 1992, hurricane andrew ripped through south florida leaving more than $25 billion of destruction in its wake. the city not wanting to continue with the upkeep claimed the stadium was damaged beyond repair and attempted to have it torn down. >> it was close to being torn

down not because it was in a bad state of repair, it's just that politically they wanted to use the land for something else. >> brown: a valuable spot. yes, sir. >> brown: but an engineering study confirmed the stadium was sound. so instead of being demolished outright, it was locked up, and left to it time. >> we enjoyed the surfaces, the privacy and the shade. >> brown: about for street artist louis barros who is involved in a kind of urban gymnastics. >> the first time we painted, it was a crew, a group of us. you had the lookout. everybody had a job to do. >> brown: look out for security, i guess. >> yeah, look out for police or whoever. we weren't supposed to be in the building. >> brown: vandalism then. now much more. >> they kept it alive. >> brown: kept it alive? yes.

they brought new life to the building. >> brown: you like it? oh, i like it. >> brown: the friends of miami marine stadium the group who performed in 2008 to save the structure embraced graffiti art as part of it's history and a way to raise money for its future. on the day we visited, the group brought in artists around the world to create new works which once complete would be photographs with the print sold off. one star of the graffiti older flew in from los angeles and is happy to be part of the effort. >> we tend to look at urban scapes as beautiful. a place like this is really cool because it has been brought back to life with art. >> brown: the architect who's seeing restoration plans wants to incorporate the graffiti, the question remains how much to keep, what form and how to remove the rest. >> i would say in this spot here we have probably about 200

layers of paint. >> brown: rosa is leading a study on how to expose the rock concrete. >> these thick layers come off fairly easily. you can literally peel these upper layers. you can steam them off. you can pressure wash them off. when you get down to the floor, to these areas where the graffiti is embedded intothe surface or deep into these layers, that's where the tricky part is. >> brown: support for this from the national his torque preservation, which is in 2009 put the place on the list of most endangered space and it goes beyond the stadium itself. candella showed me the plans for a grand new public space including the now empty parking lot. >> 50 years later you're as

energized as 28. >> well, i hope i am. i don't like to talk about the past. i only want to think about the future and i want the future to be as quick as possible. >> brown: and cande lla means it. the city has given the friends group a limit amount of time to raise $30 million to restore and reopen this piece of miami history. >> woodruff: from stadiums to highway overpasses, watch jeff's extended interview with graffiti artist, "risk," on the evolution of his art form. that's on art beat. >> ifill: next, a major expansion of a national program aimed at improving the lives of disadvantaged young men, known as "my brother's keeper." >> ifill: greater access to early education, reducing school suspensions, and recruiting mentors, 25,000 of them around

the country. those steps are part of the expansion of the president's effort to improve life chances for young men of color, often more likely to be expelled from school, than to succeed. sixty of the country's largest public school systems, who educate nearly three million boys of color, joined the effort today, as well as mayors, corporations like at&t, non- profits like the emerson collective, and the national basketball association. los angeles clippers point guard chris paul: >> with the my brother's keeper initiative this is our opportunity to stand together as athletes, as parents, as mentors, and as leaders in our communities to show our young men and boys of color with our action that we are behind them and that their success matters. >> ifill: no federal money is involved in the expanded multi- year effort, but the companies and foundations have pledged an additional $100 million to the effort. that follows $200 million pledged when the program was

announced last winter. >> ifill: two participants in the expanded initiative join us now. john deasey is the superintendent of the los angeles unified school district, which enrolls nearly 650,000 students at over 900 schools. and david williams is the c.e.o. of deloitte financial advisory services. he's working closely on the private sector portion of the plan. thank you, gentlemen, for joining me and glad you're both in town for this. let's talk about the graduation rates piece of this. how would a program like this include graduation rates which i know is a big concern of yours. >> absolutely. youth can't graduate if they don't stay in school. the focus is the report on suspension where the district is sending students out of school which is a huge part of this. when the administration began four years ago, we realized there was a disproportionality in terms of mostly black and

latino young men. we looked at policies and work of the district and took our suspension rate, nearly 49 how incidences of suspension, to below 9,000 incidences of suspension, and we ended using willful defiance as a reason you could use for suspending a child. >> ifill: you've talked about something already done. what difference does it make if the administration, if the white house is doing something like this? >> so we begin ticking through this asen amazing example of collective action. more than 67 superintendents across the country signed pledges and we delivered to the president today we would all do this and do more, access to education, physical health in terms of clinic, and the power across the system and country is what makes it so special. >> ifill: david williams, what is the corporate piece of this and why do the public and private sector oftentimes not

see the same goals? >> we definitely see the goals. it's about productivity and using the human capital resources that are availability us and this group of people are extremely important to us. young men of color are an important part of what we need to do going forward to make the u.s. workforce more productive. >> ifill: you're saying you're trying to build on the supply because it would help serve your demand. >> ifill: absolutely. these are communities we live and work in so there is a thrill philanthropic portion for us as well, a citizenship portion. >> ifill: how would this close the gap you see that exists in the publ schools right now? >> in a number of ways. it was a powerful day when you take a look at what some of the students have and some do not have. one of the things we did building up to this is institute a student funding formula. schools and communities who had the least amount of investment

now in los angeles get the most amount of investment so that schools and communities where students have struggled, historically struggled for resources, are the places that with our funding formula, the ones who are getting the most resources as we begin to build back. the second thing has been to invest in the families. it was one of our unions, s.i.u., the majority of the workers, more than 30,000, are parents, and we just signed our contract, which brings the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the highest in the country in doing this, so we're trying to deal with the growth and support of homes and schools so that -- it's how we're distributing them. >> ifill: what's the convening council? that seems like a bureaucratic term for something where you meet twice a year, talk and go your separate ways. how is this different? >> if that's what happened, that's a problem with us. what we want to do with the convening council is to take the

message into the community, into the places where these young men live and hopefully where they work in order to drive the messages that the president talked about today into those communities because that's where the services that are going to impact their lives will be performed. >> ifill: you must be familiar, since this was announced, one of the big conversations is why only boys? why not girls? what is especially disadvantaged about young men? >> two things. first, this is an insubtractable problem for a young men of color and it hits that demographic more slightly than others. that's the first point. the second point is lots of things we're trying to get done with the initiative in cities around the country will benefit young women and other people besides young men of color. so we're trying to do as much as we can for everybody but we're recognizing this demographic young men and boys of color is unique. >> when we look at achievement

and attendance and discipline with young men of color, very early on, special education identification rates and one of the powers is we just need to stop talking about these issues and do something about it from who's being identified in special education, being suspended, not getting into ap courses, and in all those cases the greatest disproportionality is young men of color. >> ifill: in the los angeles school system, there has been discussion lately about teachers resisting the changes you would like to implement which involve changing tenure rules. will this get in the way of what you're trying to accomplish, that dispute? >> i don't think so. the teachers in los angeles are amazing individuals. the tenure issue came from a judge's decision around students getting access to the best teachers and there are laws preventing that happened. he ruled there were and that's not taking a legal approach. but by and large our teachers

work in difficult situations and getting results. >> ifill: there are some who argue $300 million is still a drop in the bucket, but the bigger question and threat might be that, after this president, who has taken -- is taking this personally, leaves, it leaves. what's to stop that from happening? >> it can't be something we let die. there are lots of things to drive it forth. that's one of the reasons the convening council is in place to make this lasting and it has to be a generationalle thing. >> ifill: how? how? how? >> we're trying to make sure the programs we but in place structurally have their own momentum. so we're doing it in places, place based so they're not governmental programs, but programs that take place in the communities where the kids live

and hopefully work and hopefully have a lasting impact. >> ending schoolhouse to jailhouse goes beyond the presidential necialtive and why it's embedded in the community. >> ifill: thank you both some. thank you. >> woodruff: president obama awarded the medal of honor today to a 28-year-old who performed heroically, and at times single- handedly, in a battle that was not only one of the deadliest of the afghanistan war, but also, as it turned out, one of the most investigated. >> woodruff: afghanistan's eastern provinces had long been the scene of fierce fighting with the taliban, when in july, 2008, the army's second platoon, chosen company, of the 173rd airborne brigade combat team was assigned to set up a new outpost, in the village of wanat.

sergeant ryan pitts, then 22 years old, and nearing the end of his second tour in the country, had already seen a lot of combat when his team started the operation. >> this was in the valley, very close to the village, basically kind of integrated among the village somewhat by the river. it, wasn't the low ground, but there's always a balance between accessibility and security that we try to strike in terms of being able to support and reinforce and get supplies via ground. >> woodruff: did you and your unit feel extra vulnerability because of where you were? >> our entire battalion had been facing enemy attacks all year long for that entire deployment so i don't think, i certainly didn't feel any more vulnerable there than i did any other point in my deployment. >> woodruff: on a ridge to the east of the main base, sergeant pitts and others manned a surveillance system, seen here in a photo taken on july 12. just after four the next

morning, their situation took a dramatic turn. >> it started with a machine gun burst from the north and they had moved in with approximately 200 fighters at a high ground, element of surprise, had us surrounded. and they initiated a large scale attack on us. we had about 48 americans on the ground as well as 20 to 30 afghan national army soldiers. >> warner: grenade shrapnel hit sergeant pitts in both legs and his left arm, but he and his fellow soldiers fought on. >> that valor was everywhere. i mean it was incredible to see these guys, i mean we were all young. and everybody just doing their jobs without anybody having to be told and just trusting one another that we would do our jobs.

allowing reinforcements and air strikes to come in. >> cameras on arriving helicopters captured the scene on the ground. burning structures dotting the landscape as pilots fired on enemy targets. the fighting raged on for several more hours before the area was finally secured. in the end, nine soldiers were killed and 27 others wounded in the deadliest single fight yet of the afghan war. an army investigation followed, standard procedure with any battle. no wrongdoing was uncovered. but because of the high casualty count and pressure from family members of the fallen, in 2009, general david petraeus, then head of u.s. central command, ordered a separate investigation: in january 2010, central command

concluded that commanders at the battalion, company and brigade level, were neglectful and derelict in their duty in the planning and execution of the operation. initially, the three officers were issued letters of reprimand, but several months later, after appeals by members of the unit, including sgt. pitts, the army announced the reprimands were withdrawn. throughout that process, sergeant pitts defended the actions of his superiors. >> i think a lot of that attention came about from not all the facts coming out initially of understanding there's a lot that went into our battle space that led commanders to make the decisions that they did. we had a certain amount of resources. we were trying to set up the next unit for success. i have complete confidence in my command teams. i would still serve with them. i'd follow them anywhere. >> woodruff: pitts, by now a staff sergeant, was medically discharged from the army

following his recovery from walter reed army medical center. today at the white house, he became the ninth living recipient of the medal of honor for actions in iraq or afghanistan. president obama praised pitts courage and referred to lessons learned. >> this is a story ryan wants us to remember. soldiers who loved each other like brothers and fought for each other and families who've made a sacrifice our nation must never forget. ryan says, i think we owe it to them to live lives worthy of their sacrifice, and he's absolutely right. as commander-in-chief, i believe one of the ways we can do that is by heeding the weapons. when this nation sends our troops into harm's way they deserve a strategy and well-formed mission and services and support to get the job done and that's what we owe the

soldiers like ryan and all the comrades that are lost. >> woodruff: do you think all this changed you as a person? what has it meant to you in terms of how you've lived your life? >> the biggest change is not necessarily in me as a person, but the appreciation that i have for life. you know a lot of men sacrificed a lot that day. so the rest of us could come home, sergio abad; corporeal. jonathan ayers; corporeal jason bogar; 1st lieutenant jonathan brostrom; sergeant israel garcia; corporeal jason hovater; corporeal matthew phillips; corporeal pruitt rainey, corporeal gunnar zwilling. they made the ultimate sacrifice so the rest of us could come home. and they gave us all a second chance. and i have an appreciation of life that i didn't have before. and i'm not going to waste it. >> woodruff: pitts graduated from college, now works for the oracle corporation and lives in nashua, new hampshire with his wife amy and their young son lucas.

>> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. a train carrying victims of the airliner disaster over ukraine finally left the crash area. and pro-russian separatists have now handed over the plane's "black boxes" to malaysian experts, who said they were in good condition. the fighting in gaza entered it's third week, with more than 500 palestinians and 27 israelis killed so far. secretary of state john kerry arrived in egypt, in a new bid to broker a cease-fire. and texas republican governor rick perry ordered up to 1,000 national guardsmen to the mexican border to help stem a surge of migrant children. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, being homeless in america can be a crime, making it illegal is a growing trend in cities across the country, according to a recent

report from the national law center on homelessness and poverty. with restrictions on begging and sleeping in public becoming more widespread, the organization argues that certain laws make it harder for people to get back on their feet. read the details of that report, on the rundown. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, ten years after the landmark 9/11 commission report, we revisit the state of american security today. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. 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:

>> 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. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> 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.

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this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. >> battling back. it started out ugly, then got a little less so after president obama made it clear that, as of now, there will be no new sanctions against russia. turning investor attention back to roft. netflix milestone. 50 million subscribers now use the service. helping profits double. but is it enough to keep the stock firing on cylinders? >> as wall street turns, what are the business world's biggest soap operas just took another twist as the chase for allergan grows increasingly hostile. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for monday, july 21st. good evening, everyone and welco welcome. i'm tyler mathisen. >> i'm sue herera filling in for susie gharib. it was a wild day in the markets with ss