captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. president obama sends congress a $3.8 trillion budget. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, the white house blueprint uses deficit spending to pour money into jobs programs while taxing the wealthy and placing new limits on some government spending. >> woodruff: then, a look at toyota's fix for its faulty gas pedals. >> ifill: the latest from haiti, where ten americans have been

detained after allegedly trying to spirit 33 children out of the country. jeffrey brown talks to npr's mandalit del barco in port-au- prince. >> woodruff: a tom bearden report from colorado on efforts to regulate the sale of medical marijuana. it's like trying to pick your teeth way rattlesnake. if you ever trieding that, you know how hard it is. >> ifill: and another of margaret warner's conversations about the strength of al qaeda. tonight: former c.i.a. officer marc sageman. >> it's inevitable that they will succeed in facing the plot. what we need to do is limit the number of people who may succeed. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

>> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? every day, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. bnsf, the engine that connects us. pacific life. 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

foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the obama administration submitted its budget today for the coming fiscal year that boosts spending for education and cuts taxes on the wealthy. >> ifill: but the budget deficit would grow to more than 10% of the u.s. economy, the highest since the end of world war ii. >> the president's budge blueprint delivered to capitol hill this morning is 2400 pages long, and chalked full of record-breaking numbers. there's the price tag, $3.8 trillion.

and the projected deficit, nearly $1.6 trillion. that figure would drop back to under $1-- 1.3 trillion next area if congress agrees to impose a three-year freeze in nonsecurity domestic spending, and allow the bush tax cuts for energy companies and families making more than $250,000 a year to expire. the president said today he also hopes a bipartisan commission will come up with other ways to continue shrinking the deficit. >> we simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences. as if waste doesn't matter. as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the american people can be treated like monopoly money. in order to meet this challenge i welcome any idea from democrats and republicans. what i will not welcome, what i reject is the same old grandstanding when the cameras are on and the same irresponsible budget policies when the cameras are off. >> but the president's proposal also includes new spending. he insists it's needed to

reverse a sliding economy. he highlighted 100 billion jobs plan including small business tax credits and increased funding for public works and clean energy projects. >> i think it's very important to understand. we won't be able to bring down this deficit overnight. given that the recovery is still taking hold, and families across the country still need help. we will continue, for example, to do what it takes to create jobs. that's reflected in my budget. it's essential. >> education spending would also go up, nearly doubling the pell grant program for college aid to $34 billion and adding an additional $3 billion for elementary and secondary education. the president also wants to overhaul the no child left behind program begun in the bush years. schools would be done on test scores at a time instead of for a single year. the budget would also include an additional $33 billion in war funding for

iraq and afghanistan in 2010 and another $160 billion in the next fiscal year. at the pentagon defense secretary robert gates said that's crucial. >> achieving our objectives in afghanistan and iraq has moved to the top of the institutional military's budgeting, policy and program priorities. we now recognize that america's ability to deal with threats for years to come will depend importantly on our success in the current conflicts. >> to save money the white house proposal would kill several programs including a plan to return astronauts to the moon. it was projected to cost $100 billion by 2020. instead, mr. obama calls for $6 billion over five years to encourage private space flight. last week the president endorsed new bipartisan efforts in congress but the reaction to his budget today split down party lines. >> this budget comes with a lot of zeros. its numbers are in the millions, billions and trillions.

it's easy to mischaracterize those numbers and what they mean. let's keep some perspective. when you look at this budget as a share of our entire economy, we'll cut the deficit by more than a half this just two years. it's not the last thing we'll do to slice the deficit but it's a good, good promising start. >> thed mrtion has been touting a spending freeze worth about $250 billion over a decade to help allay concerns about spending of debt. but it doesn't start for one thing until next october. and therefore to me it's a little bit like the alcoholic that says well i'm going to quit drinking right after i have my next drink. >> hearings on the budget proposal begin tomorrow. for more on the president's budget, we turn to two people who follow the process closely year-round. maya macguineas is president of the committee for a responsible federal budget at the new america foundation. and robert greenstein is executive director of the center on budget and policy priorities. welcome to you both. maya macguineas we know

there is always attention-- did the president in this plan make the tough choices? >> well, i think he framed it right. we have to focus both on economic recovery and not the stabilizing that recovery an make that big important pivot to dealing with the deficits. i would say it is a good first step in the right direction of starting to deal with deficits but at this point we should be a lot farther along. we need to be taking lot more steps. so much more is going to have to be done in terms of debt reduction. and i think the president's going to have to set the stage by preparing the country and helping the congress work together to have a realistic understanding that it's going to take some pretty significant policy changes which aren't yet contained in this budget. we're going to have to go farther. >> ifill: what do you think about this, right direction, wrong direction? >> right direction. we've got a two-part problem. we have a weak economy. and we have a risk that as the current stimulus fades out we could even go into a double dip recession. the budget steps up to the plate on that. it actually has about $265

billion in a combination of things like new jobs tax credits, continuing the unemployment insurance that we really need, continuing for a while. fiscal relief to states. it gives the kind of boost, bigger than some had expected, that we need to keep the economy from going back into a recession. at the same time, it starts to put in some deficit reduction. over ten years it has about $1.2 trillion in reduced deficits compared to what the deficits would be if we didn't have any current policy that is a good start is it enough. no, do we need to go much farther, yes. but here's to me the interesting part. as a bit of a deficit hawk i find myself thinking that it was a good decision that the president didn't go even farther on deficit reduction in this budget even though we need it because had he put even more controversial proposals in the budget, they'd have gotten shot apart by the interest

groups. >> ifill: let me ask maya about that, because in the long-term as bob greenstein puts it, according to his plan, the deficit would be halved. but it also would consume a greater percentage of gdp, of gross domestic product, right. >> right, i this there is-- there is no question that the numbers in the budget lead us on an unsustainable path. and i think the white house would agree with that. the deficits don't company down far enough and they start to grow again. at the end of the ten-year period the debt would be at 77% of gdp. nobody thinks that's a place where we should be. now i do think they are in a bit of a bind. as bob was just saying, if they were to go out with a budget that was really realistic it would contain all sorts of things that are basically politically that would to talk about. i can say them. we need to talk about reforming entitlements, social security, and medicare in big ways, talking about raise the retirement age, maybe means testing. we need to be talking about tax reform in a way that would raise revenues, perhaps a new tax. consumption taxes.

>> ifill: bob greenstein says even the bro budget he proposed isn't lickly to not likely to get shot down. >> if the president came out in this budget and put all of those things, what you would do is you would actually make a lot of good ideas politically impossible. so instead what i think the president needs to do is he's the president. he's going to have to lead on this. he has to set the stage and start preparing the country that spending freezes, again, a step in the right direction. but they're not nearly going to be enough to tackle the challenges we have. and we don't want to have long lists of tax cuts and spending increases. that's the fun stuff. >> ifill: should the president be trying to tackle things like entitlements, holy grail? >> well, actually, this budget does tackle some things that are a bit 6 holy grails. so it hits farm price supports, particularly for wealthy farmers. it closes down most of special interest tax breaks for oil & gas companies. it closes down a whole array of tax breaks for multinational corporations that shift jobs overseas and

that particularly book their profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of u.s. taxes. it has one thing like this after another. and they, themselves, will be very difficult to pass. now i asked the following question, that sort of has occurred to me. the last time we had a successful commission was the greenspan commission on social security in '82 /'83. if ronald reagan the president or chip o'neill, the democratic speaker of the house had put on the table at the beginning of 1982 the various social security changes that commission ultimately successfully recommended, they would have been shot apart. members of congress would have gone on record saying i'll never vote for x or y. and the greenspan commission probably would have failed. so the president put on the table a lot of deficit reduction here. but unfortunately, is probably beyond what the current congress, with all the filibusters, will achieve. the next step is going to

have to come out of this commission. and that's what i think is envisioned here. >> ifill: well, but does this commission or does this deficit reduction efforts in this budget, does it do figure about the thing people are talking about right now, which is job creation? does this budge go far enough? >> in terms of job creation i think it does a good job. i mean i think-- i think it's very difficult to say what the most effective policies in terms of stimulating the economy and job creation will be, one honest truth is that the government can only do so much. we have to go through the normal economic recovery. my reading of the policies contained is that they are well targeted, that they are thoughtful, and that they try to balance the need to deal with the competent and the fiscal considerations. i'm far less worried about the parts in the budget that deal with stimulating the economy, than i am about the parts that bring the deficit down in the long term. and again, those policies are much, much more difficult to get passed. and really we have to start setting the stage for just how difficult they're going to be. i feel like in some ways what we keep doing is moving the goalpost here, saying well, we can't get to a reasonable deficit limit because nobody in congress can get along.

so we'll just keep moving the goalpost. but it's too serious a problem to play that game. >> one of the goalposts had always been bending this health-care cost curve is there anything that we see in this proposal that speaks to this? >> but that's in the health-care bills that are on the hill. >> ifill: which are stuck on the hill. >> well, they're not dip dip-- they're still moving, we'll see. the budget reaffirms the president's commitment to getting health care passed. if you look at the long-term fiscal problems facing the country the single biggest driver is rising health-care costs. the single most important step we can pass, we can take, is to pass the health care legislation. it has some deficit reduction in it self but more importantly, that legislation launches a new generation of comparative effectiveness research. demonstrations and pilots to learn what we don't now know, which is what are the big next set of things to do to slow the growth of health-care costs without compromising health care

quality. the health-care bill would give us a platform so in five years some number of years, we could go farther. i also worry that if the health-care bills which do make some important efficiencies in medicare and in the health-care system as a whole, and they've been criticized by special interests, if the health-care bill falls a part, i don't know how many years it will be before policymakers have the guts to try to reform the health-care system again. >> ifill: let's talk about another tough choice. we talked about health care and the cost control. but also the issue of taxation. the president is talking about, essentially, raising the taxes for a lot of people who benefited from the bush era tax cuts. how do you raise taxes and not stunt growth. that's the argument so many republicans make. >> well, what he is actually doing is talking about keeping the-- the expiration of certain tax cuts in place. so i think we move the baseline here a little bit. really these tax policies are all supposed to expire at the end of this year.

and he was saying he will extend the bush tax cuts for everybody making less than $250,000. does it worry me that he would let some expire, not at all. i think overall if you look at the size of the deficit, this year, next year, we're not talking about overly contract rather policies, we are not going to throw the economy back into a double dip recession by letting the tax cuts expire. what worries me more is he would extend so many of them without trying to offset the costs, that is trillions of new dollars in borrowing because we're not even thinking about, if we are going to extend these, should we pay for some of it. and the answer in my mind should be absolutely. we just can't afford to borrow more for those. >> ifill: so middle class tax cuts in your opinion is a bad idea, allowing them to continue. >> we will hear this idea, allowing the tax cuts for people making a quarter billion dollars a year to expire will reduce job growth it is wrong. all we have to do is look at the report that came out last week from the nonpartisan congressional budget office. it looked at a dozen options for how to create jobs and

boost the economy right now. it raided-- rated extending the tax cuts for wealthy americans dead last. the reason being that those people will tend to save rather than spend a lot of tax cuts. what the budget does is it lets the tax cuts for the wealthy expire. in the short term, it effectively uses those savings for more effective temporary tax cuts like giving small businesses tax credits for hiring new workers. those would last for a year. and then after that, the savings for not continuing the tax cuts for the wealthy would go for deficit reduction. if we have a given amount of money to spend to try to boost the economy, wouldn't we want to spend-- use it for the approaches that create the most jobs. >> ifill: we'll be watching to see what approach congress takes as the hearings begin tomorrow. robert greenstein, maya macguineas, thank you very much.

>> woodruff: now, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: a suicide bomber in baghdad killed at least 54 iraqis today and wounded at least 117. many of the victims were shiite pilgrims on their way to karbala. authorities said the bomber was a woman who set off explosives hidden under her cloak. it was the first major strike this year against pilgrims ahead of a major shiite holy day. the u.s. government is now investigating whether blackwater worldwide tried to bribe iraqi officials with $1 million. guards with the security firm were involved in a baghdad shooting in 2007 that killed 17 iraqis. the "new york times" reported today the justice department has focused on whether blackwater authorized bribes to continue operating in iraq. the company had no immediate response today. a u.s. soldier and three other nato troops were killed in afghanistan today. the american died in a roadside bombing in the south. a total of 31 americans died in afghanistan last month. that's double the number in january of last year. in all, 978 u.s. service members have been killed since the

afghan war began in 2001. in u.s. economic news, the commerce department reported consumer spending increased in december for the third month in a row. and a private survey showed an increase in manufacturing in january. the new numbers sent stocks climbing on wall street. the dow jones industrial average gained 118 points to close above 10,185. the nasdaq rose nearly 24 points to close at 2171. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to gwen. >> ifill: and still to come on the newshour, the americans accused of trying to take children out of haiti illegally; colorado's new growth industry, medical marijuana stores; and a former c.i.a. officer's take on al qaeda. >> woodruff: that follows our toyota update. for the record, toyota is one of the newshour's funders.

>> for dealers with lots full of cars it was welcome news. toyota that announced repair parts to fix accelerator problems should be available by week's end. >> as soon as the customers get the recall notice we're going to be open 24 hours a day in service to take care of this problem. >> woodruff: toyota diagnosed the problem as excess friction in the gas pedal assembly. it estimated a 30 minute fix should take care of the trouble. in a company video, the head of toyota's u.s. division apologised to customers. >> we are truly sorry for letting them down. that nothing is more important to us than their safety and their satisfaction. and that we're redoubling our efforts to make sure that this can never happen again. >> woodruff: in all, 2.3 million toyotas were recalled on january 21st. five days later the automaker halted u.s. sales of eight models, roughly

two-thirds of its entire product line. the models included the toyota camry, the best-selling car in the country. as well as the rav 4, corolla, matrix, avalon, highlander, tundra and sequoia vehicles. toyota officially stopped building those cars and trucks today. but production is expected to resume next week. still the gas pedal recall has spread to europe and china. that action plus a separate recall involving pedals stuck in floor mats affected more than 7 million vehicles worldwide. >> if this continues, other problems surface, they could go from being, you know, having a solid reputation as an auto manufacturer to the gang that couldn't shoot straight. so for their sake, they better get it right this time. >> woodruff: toyota issued a full-page ad in 20 american newspapers yesterday trying

to reassure nsumers. "the wall street journal" reported today the recall and sale stoppages will cost toyota an estimated $1 billion. in the meantime, the company is facing consumer lawsuits, claiming the real problem is toyota's electronic throttle system and not the gas pedals. toyota denies that. at least two congressional committees also plan to take up the issue at hearings this month. >> woodruff: and for more on this story and for more on this story, we are joined again by micheline maynard, senior business correspondent at the "new york times" and author of the book, "the selling of the american for being with us. >> my pleasure, judy. >> woodruff: first of all, toyota is saying they are sending these parts out to dealers in the next few days. that part is going to fix the problem. tell us what the part is, how is it going to fix it. >> well, the part is just a little piece of stainless steel. and toyota describes the problem this way: that there

are two pieces of this accelerator pedal assembly just above where the car is. and the two pieces can sort of stick together the way two pieces of glass can stick together if you put a little bit of water on it. and they say that over time that's what is causing these pedals to stick sort of halfway down or halfway up. and drivers aren't able to get the car to slow down, essentially. so they are going to put in this little piece of metal and they say that that is the fix that they are looking for. >> woodruff: they hope. how confident are they that this is it? >> you know, this is an interesting question. because i-- full disclosure, i happen to own a toyota prius and the prius is not one of the vehicles involved in this, although it was involved in the floor mat recall. my prius has a part that is made by denso which is a big japanese part supplier and they actually are 24% owne owned-- owned by toyota. the denso part is different than the part made in

indiana by a company called cts. cts uses some plastic pieces involved in this pedal assembly. the denso part uses a bolt. and so you could say why do the american cars get the plastic pieces and why did the japanese cars get this bolt. and i really don't know the answer. but the fact is that the denso parts are not having this problem and the parts that are prescribed for the american cars are. >> woodruff: but toyota is saying they are confident that this is it? >> they are saying that they are confident that this is it. and they say that they-- for their understanding, what they call the embedding of these floor mats in the pedals, the taking out the floor mats and replacing those pedals will fix that problem. and putting this little shim, i guess you could call it, into these pedals will fix that problem. >> woodruff: an how long do they say this is going to take to get to all the cars? >> it takes about a half an hour per car. and here's the situation. they have millions of people who have these cars that

have been recalled. so if those folks choose to go to a dealership they've said that those people will be served first. at the same time, they have to modify the cars that are in showrooms that they can't sell because under american law if you have something that has a known defect you have to stop selling it. so those have to be fixed as well. and people are saying that it could take months for this all to be finished. but one of the big unknowns is whether owners will take all of their cars in and toyota said they are going to make a real effort to make sure people are notified and that they get their cars in to be repaired. >> woodruff: now separately mickey maynard we know there are lawsuits out there by individuals who say it is the electronic throttle system that is a problem. but what is toyota saying about that? >> well, toyota is denying that there is any problem with the electronics on the car, and that the electronic throttle controls are involved. and this is kind of an important point because you know, people who used to be able to fix their cars themselves they used to be

able to pop the hood and fix almost anything on a car. and over the last 10 or 15 years we've gone too much more software-controls on a car. it's kind of if you think about an airbus jet, it's controlled by a fly by wire system. it's kind of the same thing on an automobile. you're sending these electronic signals to the car. to go faster, go slower, break the car. so in this case, toyota is saying it is not the throttles, there are 11 class-action suits that have been filed and several attorneys who say that we believe it is the throttle. >> woodruff: i was on the phone call today that toyota had with reporters. i know you were on the call. i heard you ask a question. several of the questions were about the delay between when these problems cropped up and when toyota acted to do something about them. how did you think they dealt with those questions? >> i still think there are questions, judy, about the time line in this. and one of the things i find intriguing is the fact that in 20078-- 2007, the tundra

their big pickup truck was recalled nor an accelerator related issue. toyota said that they had fixed them sort of in-flight. they fixed them during production. and they went on. and the tundra from 2007 is one of the vehicles that has been involved in this recall. so i think toyota is going to continue to face questions. i think they're all hoping and certainly their engineers tell them that this fix works. and if if works and there are no more cases than they have nothing to worry about. but i have talked to lawyers today who have said if this doesn't work they're in big trouble. >> woodruff: well, are people saying that they underestimated the severity or what? >> that's a good question. because especially as a toyota owner, you know, when i heard about the floor mat recall i was very concerned myself. and immediately took out my floor mats. you know, got the recall notice that said you have taken out your floor mats, we'll give you a new pedal, everything will be fine. and a few months later came this recall. and i condition help but wonder if possibly they're

all a related situation and maybe just take out the floor mats isn't the solution to all of this. i'm not an engineer. you know, i have to believe what the toyota people say. but i know there are many owners out there, many americans who bought toyotas who are concerned about the situation. >> woodruff: last week the secretary of transportation said that the federal government had to ask toyota to recall these cars. toyota today was saying no, we did it voluntarily. how are people seeing that discrepancy? >> well, you know, transportation secretary ray lahood has been quite activist since he came into office. a few months ago he ordered that the people could no longer sit on an airplane no longer than three hours before the airline had to go back to the gate. that was one thing that the airline industry has been fighting. he's been very vocal in this toyota situation. very friendly to toyota. he gives them a lot of credit for what they've done. but he essentially said they stopped building and selling the cars because we asked

them to. toyota says it was voluntary. you know, i can see the politics in this situation. and i think it's just fascinating to see a transportation secretary take on a major carmaker. >> woodruff: micheline maynard of the "new york times", thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> ifill: now the latest on the relief operation in haiti, nearly three weeks after the quake. jeffrey brown has our story. >> reporter: the u.s. military's evacuation flights were back on schedule today for critically wounded earthquake victims. >> it's a great thing that the military transports have opened up again. we have had lots of patients who are critically ill that we have been caring for. but they need more care than we can provide here. >> reporter: the flights had been halted for nearly five days after state officials in florida warned that hospitals were becoming overwhelmed. they also raised concerns about getting reimbursed. >> it was a frustrating to no end. >> reporter: over the weekend doctors struggled to get just a few patients out

of the country on private planes. all across port-au-prince today aide groups handing out food ramped up efforts to prevent the chaos that marred earlier distributions. haitians stood in orderly lines at 16 locations after getting vouchers from the u.n.'s world food program. most went to women and the ellerly. >> in all our distributions, all around the world we always look to distribute food not hands of women. but in terms of giving coupons to women, to give them access to the site and then to collect food, this is a unique response to a unique challenge here in haiti. >> reporter: u.n. peacekeepers helped hand out bags of rice and other staples. before now young men often seized the food. but officials said the new system went smoothly. >> since this new program started, and addressing mainly asking women to come and receive the food and the system, it has been very orderly and we haven't had

any incidents. >> reporter: also today u.s. officials met with haitian authorities about ten american baptist missionarys who may be charged with child trafficking. they were detained late friday trying to take 33 haitian children across the border into the dominican republic without proper documents. >> we've been wrongly accused of something, i believe it is even trafficking which is completely, completely not the truth. >> reporter: one of the idaho-based missionaries, a diabetic is being treated for what she calls flu-like symptoms. she voiced hope today the charges would be dropped. >> i'm really praying that, that we'll be able to take these kids out and we'll be able to provide a safe and loving home for these kids who have nothing. >> reporter: for their part haitian officials said the americans may be sent home for prosecution . >> if we take into account that many buildings and institutions in haiti have collapsed, yes, in this case we are talking to the u.s. authorities because they might have to be judged over

there. >> reporter: since the earthquake the haitian government has clamped down on overseas adoptions, worried that some children have parents who are still alive. >> you can't just go an take a child out of a country no matter what country you are in. this is not what is done. >> reporter: for now, the children taken from the missionaries have been put in an austrian run orphanage in port-au-prince. meanwhile in areas outside the capitol there was a happy moment today. their schools reopened for the first time since the earthquake nearly three weeks ago. >> reporter: and more on the situation now from more on the situation now, from mandalit del barco of national public radio in port- au-prince. >> let's start with the case of the missionaries t sounds like the haitian government is taking this very certificate isuously what happened today sm. >> well, today the prime minister here in haiti said he believes that the americans knew that they did something wrong by taking these children, tried to take these children to the dominican republic. and he says that he thinks that they should be tried in

the united states. now here in haiti, all the government buildings are crumbled, spleetly. the presidential palace, supreme court, everything. so it's going to be pretty difficult, the thinking goes, to have any kind of tradition-- judician system although they were in hearing today. so that is what they're advising. we'll hear more about that. but the missionaries themselves say they don't-- they don't think that they were doing anything wrong it was just, you know, they were trying to help the people of haiti. but a lot of people around here think that was a very naive thing to do. it's not so easy just to take a child from another country and you know, and whatever circumstances, that is what the people from unicef and save the children were saying. in fact they said, the thinking is that they should be reunited with their parents. and these children who were taken by the missionaries, there is a fear that they, their parents are still alive. i mean there are some reports that that was the case.

so right now the government is advising people not to just simply adopt these children out or take them out of the country. in fact any child that wants to leave the country has to have the permission of the prime minister before they can leave. you know, there's a concern that children could be trafficked. they could become sex slaves or domestic servants. and that's what they are trying to avoid. in addition to that, you know, a lot of children who are kind of seemingly lost, there are a lot of orphan kids but there are some kids that have relatives still here in haiti. and the hope is to try to reunit them with their families. so these americans will have to see what happens to them. there was a hearing today. we haven't gotten the complete word about them but they are still being held at the police, the judicial police system here at port-au-prince. >> reporter: now let's turn to the food distribution, the system that was put in

place over the weekend, this voucher system. u.n. officials today were saying that they seem to be working pretty well. what are you seeing? >> well, you know, the sites sites-- the sites-- they are hoping to feed two million people in the next two weeks and they have u.n. and u.s. military out there patroling. but not everybody knows about these sites. i know that they tried to get the word out to folks in the different camps. and they have all these various food distribution sites around the city. what they did was as we've heard, they have handed out coupons for mostly to the women, so that they can get their 55 pounds of-- bags of rice. there is some food elsewhere too. but there's been problems in the past. people maybe more aggressive, some of the younger men trying to push the people out of the way to get their food. and so they were trying, they were hoping to avoid

this by handing out the vouchers to the women thinking that there would be less trouble that way. and there has been some trouble. in some parts of the city are quite dangerous. so it's not so easy to give out the this food. but i know there is that effort. like i said, though there is a lot of hungry people still here in haiti. they still don't have food. and even if they do, what happens when this, these bags of rice and the grains that they give out have run out. i mean people are looking at what is going to happen in the long term. the people are still living out in the open, under makeshift tents that they've made, in these tent cities. they're afraid that the rainy season is coming. it might start raining any time now. so there is still a lot of desperation here. still a lot of need for food but i know that there has been-- this effort to get, you know, things running a little more smoothly. and by some reports it has worked, and some reports say, you know, people are still needing this food. >> reporter: and i

understand today you were reporting on a funeral that you attended. tell us what you saw today. >> well, outside of port-au-prince , north of the capitol here of the city, there are mass grave sites. this is where bodies that have been found in the rubble were taken in trucks and just bull dozed. they're anonymous, you know, nobody knows who they are, where their families are. and today the supporters of former president aristide and the international lawyers bureau organized a mass funeral for these folks. this is the first time that i know of that there has been such a public event for the mass graves. now this is a site where in the past, past dictators used to use it, used to dump the bodies of the people who opposed them. so it's quite significant for that reason.

but in addition to that, people say that they have been hoping for some kind of closure and they wanted to honor the dead so that their souls could be put to rest. maybe this is an attempt to at least start that. >> reporter: all right, mandalit del barco of npr in port-au-prince, thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: now, new efforts to limit the sale of medical marijuana. last week, the los angeles city council approved an ordinance that would close many medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the city. the backlash is brewing elsewhere, too, including debate and a vote today in colorado's senate. newshour correspondent tom bearden has our report from denver. >> i feel like my life is in danger. i did not purchase a house right here to feel like i can't go outside my front door. >> reporter: for the past three months angry residents have gathered in town hall

meetings asking politicians to slam the brakes on one of the fastest growing businesses in colorado. >> we're gambling of our kids, our families, our own lives. why not just stop everything until we actually learn something about how to run this industry. >> reporter: the new industry is medical marijuana, specifically the commercial dispensarys that have opened in neighborhoods all over the state. at last count denver alone had over 300. more than the number of starbucks as the of the quoted statistic. some residents are concerned the shops could lead to increased crime and encourage loitering near their homes. the dispensary industry has blossomed virtually overnight with few regulations or rules. and left politicians at the state and local level scrambling to catch up. ten years ago coloradoans voted to amend the state constitution to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes. subsequent state regulations limited caregivers to five patients a piece. but it was still against federal law. and police continued to arrest people.

so for years only about 2,000 people registered as patients. then a court threw out the five-patient limit and last year the u.s. justice department announced it would no longer enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in the 14 states that allow its medical use. marijuana dispensaries began popping up everywhere and the patient registry exploded it to 40,000 people with 20,000 more waiting for approval in the coming months. that's created a huge business opportunity for people like ryan vincent. he's a medical marijuana user himself to relieve pain from a deagain rative eye disease. he hated buying the drug in what he described as a back alley environment. so in november he opened up the health centre which offers patients a variety of marijuana products from traditional leaves to brownies, to topical lotions. >> i have built a very safe environment for people. it would be very safe for my own grand moth tore come in here. that is kind of the idea of how we whether the this place.

>> reporter: but some people think too many dispensarys have opened up in far too many places. city councilman charlie brown recently lead the effort for a denver law that requires any new dispensarys to be located 1,000 feet from schools and day cares, and from other dispensaries. brown says he knows more needs to be done but it isn't easy. >> it's like trying to pick your teeth with a rattlesnake. if you ever tried that, you know how hard it is. you know, you are dealing with medicine, you're dealing with patients. er's dealing with the dispensary owners, you're dealing with neighbors, you're dealing with schools. you can't please everybody. and so you compromise. >> reporter: vincent says he welcomes more regulation and is working hard to show that he runs a legitimate business that not some front for dealing drugs to recreational users. for instance he accepts credit cards and will only pay growers and suppliers with checks. >> if we say you know we with like to write you a check and they say no, no, cash only, we're not working with them.

and the reason being is because we are a business. and we want those ratios, we want where our money is going. we want to have a paper trail. we, at the end of the day that is how you do business. >> reporter: one of the criticisms i've heard from people who are concerned about whether this is being sold indiscriminately are things like the names of the products like afghan diesel, durban poison, does that hurt your cause when you try to establish yourself as a genuinely legitimate business that you are selling a product that has a name like that. >> we are trying to move away from those names. one of the thins that we are actually work on doing right now with the growers is coming up with some names that might be more acceptable. something that more people can use and it would make more sense to the patient. >> reporter: but making marijuana use more acceptable is what has many residents like christine so up set. >> the more of these dispensaries pop up, the more we normalize this. the more that we mistake

this as a thing that doesn't have any problems. basically what colorado has done is using the medical community as a really cheap and easy and it's really cheap, easy back door to legalization of marijuana. >> reporter: as various local officials in both urban and rural communities wrestle with how to deal with the dispensary issue, most people are now looking to the state legislature for a more comprehensive approach. state senator chris roemer a democrat originally drafted a bill that would have required dispensarys to register their products in a database and provide other health services. but he says he couldn't get the support of other colleagues. so he scaled his bill back to one that would put an end to the practice of dispensaries paying physicians to write prescriptions for medical marijuana. >> you will no longer be able to have a dispensary that has a doctor onsite who is paid per prescription. because i can't think of another circumstances in medicine where actually pay doctors for each prescription they write. >> reporter: on the state house side republican thomasy is working with law

enforcement groups on a bill to reestablish the old five patient limit and apply it to dispensaries. >> i've had a number of concerns, complaints, questions, are we trying to put dispensaries out of business. and that's clearly not the goal of this. we're trying to make sure that we have a regulatory piece that works within the framework of the doctor-patien doctor-patient-caregiver relationship and honors the intent of the voter for the constitutional amendment. >> dispensary owner vincent says a five patient restriction with not only put him out of business, it would drive the marijuana business back into basements and back alleys. >> if you go all back underground again. which maybe is what his idea is. then we put it all back underground and tick off all of the neighborhoods and then they'll all vote it out. >> reporter: both republican and democratic lawmakers say they know whatever action they take the issue is not likely to be resolved this session. and they concede everything would change if the federal government decides to go back to enforcing marijuana laws.

how do you craft the state law or set of state laws to deal with an issue that is still fundamentally illegal at the federal level. >> well, it's difficult. but we're working on that. and the obama administration has clearly said the states can experiment with this and create our own model. i hope we ultimately can be the people who really create the best medical marijuana laws for those cronically ill patients. >> reporter: today the colorado senate passed the roamer bill it now moves over to the house . >> ifill: finally tonight, another in our series of conversations about the state of al qaeda. last week, we heard from a former c.i.a. field officer and top counter-terrorism official, who said he believes al qaeda is regaining momentum. tonight, a different view. margaret warner has that. >> warner: marc sageman has spent most of his career

studying terrorists and extremists networks like al qaeda. in the 1980 as a cia case officer in pakistan he worked closely with al qaeda precursor the afghan mujahedin in their fight against the soviets. sageman became a friendsic psychiatrist after that and began conducting studies on what motivates young people to join terror movements. he's produced two books on the topic, the second leaderless jihad in 2008 drew controversy for describing the global movement as increasingly disorganized. >> we see here is a number of plots over 20 years. >> warner: at his home in washington sageman showed us his latest research, a survey of all terror plots against the west in the past 20 years. his graphs show the recent peak actually came in 2004 with ten plots, including the madrid train bombs. the number steadily declined each year after that to just three in 2008.

he concedes that 2009 saw a split uptick with five plots including the failed christmas day airliner bomb attempt. i began by asking sageman whether that 2009 increase and the christmas day airline bomb plot showed al qaeda has redoubled its efforts to attack the u.s. homeland. >> i think central al qaeda desire to attack the homeland has always been very strong and has not diminished. the problem for al qaeda central is that its capabilities are very low. >> warner: what has al qaeda evolved into today? what we loosely call al qaeda, what is it really? >> al qaeda right now is a lot of leaders hiding for a time from predator missiles in pakistan. they still have a presence on the internet. they release audiotapes very rarely, maybe once every other month or so. but operationally, they are

very limited. and they really don't have the type of command and control that they did in 2001 or even 2006, a large-- the last large al qaeda plot, namely the liquid bomb case. >> warner: so what else is there in. >> there are many other terrorist organizations vying for control of this large movement . >> warner: self-starter off yotts shik al qaeda in the arabian peninsula based in yemin which claimed responsibility for the christmas day bomb attempt. sageman insists neither that group nor any of the other regional al qaeda inspired outfits has the ability to organize and carry out attacks of the size and lethality of 9/11. should we feel threatened by the fact that in a country like yemen now we've seen a plot directed at us? >> yes, of course you should feel threatened by all the plots emerging, not only from yemen but also there

was one plot emerging out of some ol-- somalia in australia this past summer. and so now we see plots not just coming from pakistan, but also from other parts in the world. but we have to understand that most of the plots are people from the west going to those places, some of them getting training, and then coming back to the west. >> warner: now you as a psychiatrist have really studied this phenomenon. what does account for this seemingly endless supply of recruits that you call the lone wolves. >> yeah, we see more lone wolves now. and they have a strong presence, strong participation in jihadi chatrooms. and that's where the radica radicalization really takes place. and by radicalization i mean a two-step process. one is joining this counterculture which right now is inspired by the

utopia projected by al qaeda. and then the second step is a rejection of the counterculture and turning to violence because they feel that these protest counterculture which is still legal in the western liberal democracy is just not efficacious enough. it is just talk, talk, talk. >> woodruff: . >> warner: so how does the west or should the west combat it? >> the west should focus on those that are about to turn violent as opposed to trying to suppress the protest counterculture. >> warner: but how in practical terms? >> you know t is a very difficult problem. there's no easy answer. and what we need to do is to monitor those people who emerge out of this protest counterculture that start behaving certain ways that becomes suspicious and you focus more on their activities. >> warner: . >> and once they cross the line, awe rest them. >> warner: are you talking about a major domestic

spying operation? >> i don't advocate a large domestic spying system. but when people start rejecting the old-- from the protest counterculture and start doing things odd, people within the protest counterculture know that they are up to no good, they often void them, they themselves separate themselves from the protest counterculture. in a sense we have to use these protest countercultures to help us defeat this political violence. >> warner: i asked him how worried he was that these regional groups training inexperienced young radicals like the failed underwear bomb wear one day carry it off. >> it's inevitable that they will succeed at least in one plot. what we need to do is to limit the number of people who may succeed and to limit the damage of any success. we have to be perfect 100 percent in order to prevent them from doing that. we're not perfect. let's not kid ourselves.

so it is very, very difficult to do. but with time the appeal of this type of utopia is going to diminish. >> warner: and what gives you confidence it will burn out. >> there are a lot of indications it's already burning out. the support for terrorism, for violence, both in muslim expatriots in the west and muslims in the middle east or south asia is diminute shalling. and dramatically diminishing. and strangely enough, ironically enough in the past when we have seen this contrast of a protest counterculture, the violence has increased at the tail end of that movement. so perhaps what we have seen this uptick, may be due to the last remnants who are in a sense frustrated by the

lack of effectiveness of the protest counterculture and decide to do things themselves out of, you know, certain moral outrage happening in the world. >> warner: marc sageman, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again the major developments of the day. president obama sent congress a budget for the coming fiscal year that tops $3.8 trillion. it includes a projected deficit of nearly $1.6 trillion. a suicide bomber in baghdad killed at least 54 iraqis and wounded more than 100 others. and the u.s. military resumed medical evacuation flights from haiti. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. president obama participated in a youtube interview today. he answered video and text questions about the state of the union address. we have a link to the full event, and later tonight on the rundown an interview with youtube news and political director steve grove, who moderated today's discussion.

there's more from our reporting team in haiti, including profiles of two haitians trying to leave their country. and view a slideshow from jacmel, an isolated city where it took a week for roads to be cleared after the earthquake. plus, you can watch both of margaret warner's conversations on the state of al qaeda. that's on "world view." and be sure to check out the newshour's site just for teachers and students, "newshour extra." it has lesson plans, daily video clips, worksheets, articles, plus a place for high school students to tell their own stories. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

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