captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, january, 4: funeral services for the second of two murdered new york city police officers. the latest on the search for that downed airasia jetliner. lawmakers return to washington with republicans now in charge of both houses of congress. what's next? and demonstrators chanting "black lives matter." a former police officer and a local civil rights leader explore tensions between police and the african-american community. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening thanks for joining us. bad weather continues to slow the efforts of divers searching for the wreckage of airasia flight 8501 and for the bodies of most of the 162 people who were on the plane when it went down last sunday. >> ( translated ): some rescuers tried to dive but were hampered by visibility and underwater currents that forced us to suspend operations. >> sreenivasan: before the operation was suspended, divers

recovered four more bodies, bring the number to 34. officials say they have now identified five large objects at the bottom of the sea thought to be remnants of the plane. this weekend the "wall street journal" quoted indonesian meteorological experts as saying that icing inside the jetliner's engines may have contributed to the crash. israel has withheld the payment of $125 million in tax revenues to the palestinian authority and threatened further retaliation. this, in response to the palestinian government's decision to try to join the international criminal court and try to prosecute israel for alleged war crimes. prime minister benjamin netanyahu said today israel would resist any efforts to prosecute its soldiers. >> ( translated ): we will not allow the dragging of i.d.f. soldiers and i.d.f. commanders to the international criminal court at the hague. the ones who should face justice are the heads of the palestinian authority who entered an alliance with the hamas war criminals. i.d.f. soldiers will continue to defend the state of israel with

determination and might. just as they defend us, we will defend them with the same determination and the same might. >> sreenivasan: at the vatican today pope francis named 15 new cardinals to the group that will choose his successor, many of them from asia, africa and latin america. the selections were seen as part of the pontiff's efforts to diversify the church hierarchy. observers say today's decision makes it more likely that the next pope will be from some part of the world other than europe. back in this country, thousands of police officers from around the nation turned out for the funeral of wenjian liu, one of two new york city police officers murdered two weeks ago. for the third time since the ambush killings last month, some police turned their backs on mayor bill de blasio, even though police commissioner william bratton had warned them not to. some accuse the mayor of creating an unsafe environment for officers by supporting anti- police demonstrations. later in the program, we'll get the perspective of two african- american figures on policing of minority communities. during a television interview today, the new senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell said his

focus would be on the economy. >> well, i think jobs and the economy are clearly what the voters are concerned about. we need to do everything we can to try to rein in the regulatory onslaught, which is the principal reason that we haven't had the kind of bounce back after the 2008 recession that you would expect. >> sreenivasan: and stuart scott, a longtime fixture on espn, has died after more than a seven year struggle with cancer. scott joined espn in 1993 and appeared regularly on its signature broadcast, "sports center." scott was known for introducing the terms "booya" and "as cool as the other side of the pillow" to broadcasting. president obama, a fan of the show, said today, "over the years, he entertained us and in the end he inspired us with courage and love." stuart scott was 49. >> sreenivasan: as we mentioned, congress returns to work tuesday with republicans in charge of both the house and now the senate.

what's in store? for more we are joined from washington by niels lesniewski. he's a staff writer with "roll call." so different power players now as all the committee heads shift? what's likely to happen? >> well what we're going to see in the senate where these big changes are happening obviously with the party control switch most particularly is we're going to see the republicans get right down to one of the agenda items that they've had on-line for a long time. and that's approving that keystone xl pipe-line from canada. the pipe-line project can is going to come up for committee consideration wednesday and thursday of this week. and so by the end of the week that bill should be out of the committee an be well on its way to the floor. now of course as you noted would be the chairmanship's switching lisa murkowski of alaska is the republican who will be the chairwoman of that panel el. and we're going to see that

all over the place. and we'll see it not just on legislative issues, but we'll start to see a lot more oversight hearings as well in ways that maybe the administration would not like to see. if you are's the white house you're going to have people on the hill all the time to consider things. >> srennivasan: so does this set up a veto test for the president? whether it's keystone or other pieces of legislation where it's almost a kind of strategic trap if let's say republicans can get lots of legislation passed get it to the white house's door and say look, here's the guy that is the obstructionist here is the guy using his veto power and not getting anything done in washington sm. >> absolutely. the test, keystone will be the first test. i think everyone sort of expecting that the president would, in fact veto that item. the test really will be how far can the republicans go down the road of sending things to the president that

he's going to veto given the fact that there's still the 60 vote requirement to overcome a potential filibuster in the senate. and you know if you do things that are too against what the wishes of the president that you're not going too get the handful of democrats that would be needed to overcome those procedural barriers. so there sort of is this balancing act. what is the sweet spot where you can find five or ten democrats in the senate to go along with something that the house republicans and senate republicans want to do and cause a tough decision for the president. >> srennivasan: well what about things like immigration or the affordable care act? is there some give-and-take that could be happening? >> well, i think particularly on the health care law that's a perfect example of what i was just referring to because what you'll see is votes that everyone knows are doomed on repealing the aca outright.

but then you'll also see what some people have termed little rifle shot type measures where there are provision of the health care law that have broad opposition like an excise tax on medical device manufacturers that probably if you put it up for a vote in the senate could get maybe 70 votes. i don't know exactly the numbers. i haven't counted with the new senate. but it did get an overwhelm magazine jority. and that's the kind of thing that could actually cause a tough test for its president because it would actually get down to the white house. >> srennivasan: an this doesn't happen in a vacuum there is still kind of in the looming prospects of 2016. there are senators an members of the house perhaps that are posturing and positioning themselves to make a run for it so this is really the republican's opportunity to show off what they can do and how they can govern when they do have congress, right? >> right. and so what we see which will be a bit of a test as well, if you are's the

republican leadership in the senate particularly is dealing with the number of your members who might be posturing or thinking about seriously running for president. and there are times when political interests and the need to get attention will not align with trying to get actual legislation on the president's desk. you can see situations where a senator who is running for president sort of seizes the senate floor and sort of tries to attraction-- attract attention in a way that is not what senator mcconnell or the republican leadership would want. and that will be another balancing act that we'll see going into the next year or so before people start really heading in earnest-- i know they have already gone some but before heading into earn toast iowa and new hampshire. >> all right niels

lesniewski from roll call, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: as we already reported thousands of police officers turned out today for the funeral of slain new york city policeman, wenjian liu. the murder of officer liu and officer rafael ramos came after weeks of nationwide protests against police. former new york city mayor rudolph giuliani has said those demonstrations created an anti- police environment. >> i don't think it goes too far to say the mayor did not properly police the protests. he allowed the protestors to take over the streets. he allowed them to hurt the police officers to commit crimes and they didn't arrest them. the psychologically troubled gunman who murdered the two new york city officers had mentioned the police killings of michael brown and eric garner in a social media posting before he ambushed and killed liu and ramos. here to take a deeper look at relations between police and minority communities are l.joy williams, president of the brooklyn chapter of the

n.a.a.c.p. and julian harper, he is a retired new york city police lieutenant and with the organization, 100 blacks in law enforcement who care. so throughout this we saw demonstrations not just in new york city but around the nation. and you saw protestors holding up the sign that said black lives matter. why do you think that is? >> the black lives matter focus and the young people that are doing that are trying to raise attention that this is happening to us more frequently than anyone any other communities. and then why is it that in other communities they can have policing that does not result in the killing of unarmed people. let me say also you know from a general perspective everyone is making the connection between the protests and the tragic death of a police officer but there is no direct connection. it is not protestors that went out and sort of committed this crime. we already know who

committed the crime. and we certainly want to mourn all deaths and that is certainly what we are doing both for the officers and unarmed men being killed by police officers. >> now the nypd will say liss only, we have one of the most diverse police departments in the country in one of the most diverse cities on the planet. is it different for african-american police officers and how they treat young black men or regardless of whether you are black, white brown you become blue once put the uniform on? >> well, i think it depends on the individual. because there are many officers that are of color that still have that same mind-set of us against them. so when they spond to certain jobs when they respond in certain communities, they still have this very heavy-handed way of enforcing so when you start trying to determine whether it's a officer that's white or officer that is black or hispanic sometimes that's not the problem. the problem is that there is a mind-set and that is why these problem os kur. >> we know that communities of color are overprisd-- missed

we know that men of color are overarrested overcharged. we know all of these things to be true. and so it's going to take a long road and a lot of policy changes and mind-set changes. and that's really the hard work. it's changing people's mind-set. and i have no doubt that the majority of officers who are going to their job every day are going they have a commitment to the community to the city, to the job and do their uniform and want to go and do the best job and make it home safely to their families. i have no doubt that that is the truth. however these small biases these small prejudices things that people leave actually has an impact on how they serve the community. and so what we're saying is that we want the police department to be able to police all communities including communities of color with the same level of respect, with the same even hand that they do every other community. and that's not anti-police. >> so what you might call

overpolicing, the nypd says is effective policing. they will pull out the crime statistics and say look, we are getting safer and safer as a city. and isn't that actually better for communities of color who might be disproportionately affected by these same crime numbers. >> definitely we have seen a decline in murders. but to be an effective law enforcement, you have to have the trust and commitment and cooperation of the community. and so if you can't do that effectively f the community does not have trust in you, listen i've had instances just in this past year where i have had a grandmother call n.a.a.c.p. office with her young grandson that she takes care of at 14 years old, and that a local gang is making him keep guns in her house. she does not feel comfortable calling the police department because she doesn't trust them. and she's also afraid of the gangs that are in the street. what kind of predictment does that put her in to be able to not only save her grandson but also protect

her life. >> this brings up the conversation, right t was very interesting the day that the grand jury refused to press charges against the officer who had the chokehold on eric garner was a part of the press conference that the mayor had. where he basically mentioned a conversation that he had at some point with his biracial son. >> we have had to literally train him as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him. >> when you were a police officer even now did you have to have that conversation in your family? >> yes absolutely. after the eric garner incident, my son calls me and he says dad he says i'm afraid. he says it's against the law to be a large black man. and my son is a rather large man. and i mean that really really bothered me. i have to be concerned about my son's safety.

and i have to be concerned about his perception of him being a large black man. and you know we have to have these conversation. now si have a younger son that is 13 years old that is a pretty big 13-year-old. and he's very innocent child. so he wouldn't even understand an interaction between him and the police. he understands that his father is a police, he understood stands he has taken photos as a child in her father's uniform and he was proud of that. but unfortunately the way that police respond and interact with our young black youth is problematic. our children are afraid. and it is totally against anything relative to policing that our youth should be afraid of law be en-- law enforcement. >> you realize someone is going to watch the program and say how is it that a police officer has to have a conversation with his son warning that son about interactions with his fellow police officers because those police officers including myself we see how

the interaction goes between the community young black males and the police department. i remember me recently going to a police officer i went to ask him a question. this guy gave me a look that was so attorney like he gave me a real strong hard look. and i had to identify myself before anything goes wrong the first thing i do is listen i'm retired lieutenant from the job. this is what is happening this is what i want to tell you. and then he still was a little distant but he came down a little bit because hi to explain listen i'm a part of the community. i'm coming to you for help. >> we have heard about these conversations that mothers have with her teens even post ferguson post garner. what was different about this, was there an added legitimacy because it was a white mayor standing at a podium saying that he had to have this conversation. >> yes. >> whereas african-american families says well that's not news to us. >> yes absolutely. definitely, this conversation that we have is not new but the difference here is there is a white mayor who is standing by all

of the power that comes with being mayor and saying that he had the same conversation. and so it somehow legitimizes so certain communities and certain people that this happens or at least brings it to the forefront that something like this has to be addressed. >> all right l. joy williams and julian harper thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: if you've gone to a broadway play recently, you know just how expensive a ticket can be. staging a play is also very very pricey. now, to save money and to create a new experience, some producers are putting on performances in some very unlikely locations. one play was even performed this past fall on the gowanus canal in brooklyn. a body of water much better known for sewage overflows and industrial pollution than anything connected to the theatre.

the newshour's zachary green reports. >> reporter: come to times square in new york city, and this is a site you're likely to see: people lined up at the tickets booth to buy discount tickets to popular broadway shows. there's a reason this line is so long. going to see a play in the theater-mecca of new york is an expensive proposition. the average cost of a broadway ticket is now over $100. you can chalk that price up to the high demand to see certain shows, but also to high production costs. and in new york, one of the biggest line-items in a play's budget can be summed up in one word. >> space. i think space is the toughest one. >> reporter: john gould rubin is a theater director and producer who has been producing theater in new york for almost 15 years. he says that even working off- broadway the actual performance space often makes up the biggest cost in any production's budget. >> getting a theater is the most expensive expense. that'll be four, three-- four

or $5,000 a week. >> reporter: a week? >> yeah. a week. for the theater that you're performing in. >> reporter: the cost of space isn't just driving up ticket prices. it's also driving artists and performers to some unlikely locations in the search to find cheaper or even free spaces to perform in. the e.p.a. added the gowanus canal to its list of superfund clean-up sites in 2010, and it says the canal is one of the nation's most seriously contaminated bodies of water. so it's not the first place you might think of for recreation, let alone putting on a play. but that's exactly what a group of local performance artists did in october. for three weeks this past fall the gowanus canal was transformed by night into the styx, the river that runs through the underworld in greek mythology, as part of a new play called "the dreary coast." >> i tend to work with sites. and i tend to look for sites that will on their own engage an audience. >> reporter: jeff stark is a new

york-based artist who devised "the dreary coast." the play follows charon, the boatman in greek mythology who ferries souls through the afterlife as he encounters demons, gods, and the dead on his trip down the river. >> you are not my friend, hermes. >> reporter: for just $35 audience members could not only watch from the boat, but also take part in the performance itself, dressed as dead souls being shepherded through the underworld. the play is part of a growing art form called site-specific theater, audience immersive productions that are built around the space they're performed in. we spoke with stark during the run of his show, and he said the reason for this is partly about economics. >> one of the things that's great about our show is that we actually don't have to spend any money on a theatre. we are out working in public space. >> reporter: this isn't the first time stark has done this kind of work. his first site-specific play "i.r.t." was performed in 2009 on the new york city subway.

he followed it up with "the sweet cheat," a play about a post-apocalyptic new york that was performed in an abandoned warehouse north of the city. and he's not the only one making site-specific theater. in fact, one of new york's more popular long-running shows is "sleep no more" an avant-garde retelling of shakespeare's "macbeth," performed in three adjoining warehouses in manhattan designed to look like an old hotel. john gould rubin has also used the site-specific format in his own work. >> i did it because it was much less expensive and because it would endow the audience, which- - with an entirely different experience. you're in an experience if you go to the theater which is one that you're accustomed to. but if you go to a place, the address of which you've been given that morning by a telephone or an e-mail, you're already primed for an unusual experience. and so, it is economics. but it's also a way of endowing the audience with an unusual experience. >> we are not here for you. we are here for them.

>> mazel tov! >> sreenivasan: a programming note. tomorrow night on many pbs stations, the film "rich hill" airs on independent lens. it follows three teenaged boys who are growing up poor, struggling with isolation and lack of opportunity. the film was the winner of the 2014 sundance prize for best documentary. here is an excerpt. >> i was thinking about moving to china. moving to china and becoming an art teacher.

cuz paintings and stuff-- i would be thinking about dragons all day. >> i pray to him every night. >> this is what goes through my mind. god has to be busy with everyone else. >> that's what comes to my mind. i hope it happens.

it's going to break my heart if it don't. >> some more news before we leave you tonight texas republican louis gomer says will challenge john boehner for speaker of the house when congress gets back to business. he says we fight amnesty for undocumented immigrants tooth and nail. overseas in nigeria islamic militants from boko haram overran a military base and seeds the last town in the northeast of the country reportedly under government control. members of a multinational force there are said to have fled after the militant as tacked. join us on air and on-line tomorrow. i'm hari sreenivasan, have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.