captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. b.p. used giant shears to slice a broken pipe on its damaged oil well. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight: officials said they'd know within 24 hours if the latest effort succeeds in capping the leak. we explain what they did today and what's next. >> lehrer: then, jeffrey brown

has an end-of-the-school year education update on budget cuts, layoffs and a new teachers' contract in washington, d.c. >> woodruff: betty ann bowser looks at the health implications of a shortage of fresh foods in the rural south. >> the mississippi delta has some of the richest farmland in the country. but a lot of what gets grown here, doesn't necessarily get eaten here. >> lehrer: ray suarez wraps up his recent reporting trip to china. >> woodruff: spencer michels reports on the campaign against hepatitis-b-- a deadly disease afflicting millions of asians worldwide. >> about one in 20 people in the world are chronically infected. one in 20. 10 times more than people in the world are infected with h.i.v. ♪ michelle, my belle... >> lehrer: and we close with paul mccartney singing for the president and the first lady at the white house. that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour."

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but the workings froze in the deep, cold water. after that, a hose was inserted into the leaking pipe to siphon oil. it sucked up some of the oil, but not nearly all of it . the efforts to clog the crippled blowout preventer and plug the well. after three days, they were

deemed a failure this past weekend. in today's "financial times," b.p.'s hayward conceded it was an entirely fair criticism to say the oil giant had been unprepared for this disaster. "what is undoubtedly true," he said "is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool kit." through it all, oil has continued to gush, over 40 million gallons to date by some estimates and the oily mass is moving east and could reach the tourism-dependent tkaefps of the florida panhandle within hours. >> this will probably be the last time for a very long time i tkpw tote see and enjoy the beach. >> and a new worst-case scenario from the national center for atmospheric research showed where the oil could travel eventually. by the four-month mark after the spill began. back in louisiana, coast guard liaison pat hanley is helping supervise b.p.'s cleaning of the beach at port fourchon.

he spoke with the newshour's spencer michels. >> well, that's the report card. well, i don't think i can give a report card per say. that is dynamic situation but certainly if we see that anything's not occurring, this year we need more resources. as a coast guard, we feel we need to bring things to bear that aren't here. we are going push back on that issue. we're going to identify those things, we're going to bring this to b.p. and say these with the things we must have. >> woodruff: the b.p. boss tony hayward insisted today his company will stay on the job. >> b.p. will be here for a very long time. we recognize that this is just the beginning. >> woodruff: but some local officials have already lost faith. john young is the chairman of jefferson parish, louisiana, which stretches south from new orleans. >> i mean, initially i advocate that b.p. should have been concentrating on stopping the flow of oil. and after a week the federal government should have come in and taken control of protecting

the shores, the coast, and the wetlands. now i think the federal government ought to come in and take control of the entire operations because b.p. has shown it's just not up to the task. >> woodruff: as the crisis continues, president obama will be back in louisiana tomorrow. his third trip there since the spill began. now a closer look at efforts to cap the well and at that computer model we just saw showing how far the oil may flow we have professor of petroleumy yo science at the university of houston. he spent 20 years in the oil business. and we hope to be joined by nancy keener, an environmental engineer and codirector of the coastal response research center at the university of new hampshire. first, tell us how difficult is this latest cut and cap effort.

should work much better than the containment effort did because they're going to be able to actually get a slight seal on to the lower marine riser package and in the past they just had a containment dome that was open up to the sea and in this case, they will actually have at least a bit of a seal to try to keep most of the water out and the biggest issue that they have to worry about right now are the ice crystals that could clog up the pipe. >> woodruff: what determines whether this works or not? what's the key here? >> the key will be if they're able to successfully position it over top the blowout. there's a significant amount of pleasure and flow coming out of that well head and they'll need to position this capping device on top of that lower marine

riser package and they'll need to stabilize it and clamp it down on to it and i think it's an advantage that they can clamp on to this lower marine riser package because it will help hold the... if you will, it's kind of like an upside down tea cup. it will help hold that tea cup upside down and in place so that it can capture most of the oil. >> woodruff: so at this point, professor, how confident are you that this looks like it's going to work ? >> well, they had a bit of luck being able to cut the pipe and i'm hopeful they can do it. this has never been done at this step so every step is another experiment essentially. i think it's important that they realize that they're trying to do everything they can do and this particular effort because they'll be able to handle some of the issues that caused the ice to form in this particular instance, that they'll have a lot better shot at it.

once they get the flow rising through the production pipe, they should be able to produce somewhere between 70% and 80% initially and my gut feeling is they ought to be able to engineer it to more like 95% of the flow. >> woodruff: so, donald van nieuwenhuise, you're saying maybe as much as 95%? >> that wouldn't be the initial. that would be my top-end guess on it. actually, they're going to have some flow coming out of the cap, and the reason that's actually a good thing is that if for example they were producing 105% of the oil, they would also be drawing water into the system which could then cause the risk of having ice formation from the gas rates. >> woodruff: if this works, can this hold for the two months or however long it takes until the relief wells are finished? >> i think there's a good chance that it will and one of the problems they could have is, as the pressure is extremely great

down at the reservoir and i know they've been producing some sand, you could have sand that could actually abraid the pipe itself. but based on what we've seen so far, it did not abraid the liner or the... excuse me, the riser where that was crimped. and consequently, i don't think they're producing that much sand. this should hold out to the two months they need. >> woodruff: i want to turn now nancy kinner at the university of new hampshire. i want to ask you, professor kinner, about this new model we showed a few minutes ago for the center for... national center for atmospheric research essentially showing how a liquid in the gulf of mexico with these currents could reach... go around florida and reach the atlantic ocean by the summer. how realistic is that scenario? >> well, i think you have to look at the model itself and understand a couple of caveats, a couple of things about it.

one thing, as you pointed out, this is just a model looking at if we put a dye, something that actually just moves with the water and doesn't degrade at all where it would go over time. and that's not really how the oil will behave. so what this model does is it looks at the oil in the top, about 60 feet or so of the water column. and it basically looks at a set of scenarios about where that water might move. now, over those kinds of time periods, many, many days, the oil actually what we call weathers, which means that the oil changes in character. so some of it evaporates, some of it actually breaks down in e light. some of it actually biodegrades, bacteria over the longer term like that, over in days to weeks actually start breaking the oil down. and what happens is it's very

different from what was a trusted part of your home remodeling team delled. the oil actually becomes stickier and starts to form what we call tar balls and you've seen some of those in the pictures of the gulf. there are anywhere from very, very tiny, small balls that you could barely see up to about the size of your thumbnail. and so they will travel very differently, as you can imagine, than would just the water itself. so that's one thing that we have to keep in mind and the second thing is that when you look -t at the visual of the model, remember that the color tells you something about the delusion of what's happening... dilution of what's happening. so this model is basically... when you see those yellow issue hues or colors, those are fairly low concentrations of the oil. so those are two very important things to keep in mind. >> woodruff: and i just want

to say, for one, just to look at that picture, it could be fairly alarming and we should say that the people who put this out at the national center for atmospheric research were careful themselves to say this this is just a scenario. that they don't... that they're not saying necessarily that this is what would happen to the oil. but based on what you said, could the oil end up doing anything like what you see in that form or that scenario they put together. >> well, i think that one has to understand that there's a lot of oil coming out of the well. and that it is quite likely that some small amount of that oil will get out into the atlantic ocean. i mean, i think most scientists think that that is going to happen. however, it probably isn't going to be large quantities of oil and it certainly isn't going to

be large slicks of oil. in fact, the oil as it keeps moving that what which is in the surface water, that oil starts to, as i mentioned, kind of break up and become what we call streamers or... and then ultimately these tar balls. so i think it is quite likely that some small percentage of the oil will get out into the atlantic. if the oil flow stops... k-p stopped down, i think it will be less and less oil going out there. >> woodruff: well, we will have many more days to think about that, but it's helpful to take a look at it right now -l nancy kinner, we thank you, and donald van nieuwenhuise, we thank you both for talking with us. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> lehrer: still to come on the "newshour": an education update; the shortage of healthy foods in mississippi; a china debrief from ray suarez; the campaign against hepatitis-b., and paul mccartney at the white house. but first, the other news of the day.

here's kwame holman in our newsroom. >> holman: there were services in turkey today, for those killed in that israeli sea raid off gaza, on monday. and the israelis were said to be considering changes in their blockade of gaza. thousands of people flooded the streets of istanbul, turkey, to mourn eight turkish activists including one who had u.s. citizenship. a ninth victim had a separate service. they were killed monday when israeli commandos raided six ships trying to break a blockade and ferry aid to gaza . the israeli military says its video proves people on one of the ships attacked the soldier. the head of the islamic charity that organized the flotilla insisted the activists were fighting back after the israelis opened fire. the raid sparked calls in turkey to re-evaluate its formerly close ties to israel. prime minister recep tayyip erdogan spoke today.

>> (translated): the israeli government has to reconsider itself attitude. they have to ask themselves what is they are doing. up until now, we have been trying to preserve this friendship, but unfortunately the israeli government has not recognized our effort. israel has made an historic mistake. >> holeman: 700 people were detained in the israeli raid, including some 450 turks, they returned to ankara yesterday and were greeted with cheers. meanwhile, the israeli government rejected a u.n. call for an international investigation, but promised to do its own. >> it is our standard practice that after all military operations and especially operations where there have been fatalities, that we conduct as thorough, professional, independent investigation. >> holeman: secretary of state hillary clinton also addressed the issue after meeting with the india foreign minister in washington. >> we are hope to different ways of assuring that it is a

credible investigation, including urging appropriate international participation. >> holman: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu met with cabinet ministers today on ways to enforce an arms embargo on gaza while allowing in civilian goods. in afghanistan, delegates at a k-frpb in kabul-- the peace jirga-- moved toward endorsing a plan to reach out to the taliban. but it was unclear which leaders the government could work with. meanwhile, eight afghan civilians died in violence in the south. and u.s. officials announced an american soldier was killed on tuesday. jury selection began today in the federal corruption trial of former illinois governor rod blagojevich. he allegedly tried to profit from his power to fill president obama's former senate seat. blagojevich arrived this morning at the chicago courthouse with his wife, patti. they stopped briefly before a phalanx of cameras. defense attorney sheldon sorosky said he will call white house chief of staff rahm emanuel, among others, as witnesses. >> i don't know if they're all going to testify.

i don't know who the government is going to call. they certainly haven't told us yet. but they would all acknowledge the governor didn't do anything wrong. >> holman: blagojevich faces 24 counts, including racketeering and bribery. jury selection is expected to take up to four days. maytag is recalling more than a million and a half dishwashers because of a fire hazard. the consumer product safety commission announced the recall today. it said there've been 12 reports of fires caused by electrical failures in the dishwasher heating elements. the recall includes dishwashers with the maytag, amana, jenn-air, admiral, magic chef, performa and crosley name tags. wall street had a relatively quiet day-- a day ahead of the latest report on unemployment. the dow jones industrial average gained more than five points to close at 10,255. the nasdaq rose nearly 22 points to close at 2,303. the commissioner of major league baseball will not reverse a call that cost detroit tigers pitcher armando gallaraga a perfect game.

the announcement came today. galarraga hadn't allowed a man to reach base last night, until two outs in the ninth inning. that's when umpire jim joyce ruled cleveland indian jason donald was safe at first. he later admitted the call was wrong and he apologized to galarraga. today, the pitcher accepted the apology, and said he's moving on. >> nobody is perfect, nobody's perfect, everybody makes mistake. and i'm sure he don't want to make a call that say... i sure like if you see that guy last night he feel really bad. >> holman: tigers manager jim leyland argued the call at the time. but later, he had only praise for umpire joyce. >> this is one of the best umpires in the game without question one of the great guys. i think how jim joyce handled it was also a big key. i think if he would have been defiant, saying, "no, i didn't miss it," been arrogant about it, the guy was a shambles, in tears. my heart aches for the guy. >> holman: the tigers played the indians again today and joyce shook hands with galarraga

before the game began. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: next, tough times ahead for teachers and school districts. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: as the school year comes to an end across the country and with state budgets facing tens of billions of dollars in shortfalls, cuts in the classroom are looming. education secretary arne duncan has said 100,000 to 300,000 public school employees are at risk of losing their jobs. unions put the number of potential teacher layoffs at 160,000, with the biggest cuts projected to come in states like new york, up to 16,000, and california, as many as 36,000. a year ago, states were confronted with the possibility of making similar cuts but federal stimulus funds helped avoid them. this year, no apparent relief is in sight. the threat of layoffs comes as school systems from coast to

coast seek to implement major education reforms, including the often contentious issue of how to weigh teacher experience against teacher performance. >> where's civilization? inside or outside? >> reporter: that includes washington, d.c., a reform effort we've been chronicling for the past few years where just yesterday the teacher's union ratified a new contract. it gives school superintendent michelle rhee greater authority to remove educators deemed ineffective. the agreement also sets a new standard for teacher pay, one based on classroom results instead of seniority. it also allows principals to use performance rather than longevity as a key determinant when reducing staff. but d.c. teachers will also see a 21% increase in base pay over five years at a time when other districts are freezing salaries to avoid layoffs. and we fill in the picture for

now with jennifer cohen, an education policy analyst at the new american foundation . and jay mathews, education columnist for "the washington post." jay, how big an are they facing right now? >> my view is it has no impact on the reform measures we're talking about. that most school districts will either freeze salaries or raise class sizes and that historically doesn't have much effect on student achievement. >> brown: before we get to reform effort, in the classroom and in terms of the numbers, the numbers are pretty big. >> well, you'll have one, two, maybe three more kids in the class. data we've got shows that kind of change in class size has no affect on achievement, no real affect on what goes on in the classroom. it's a fairly tr *euf kwralg effect. >> brown: what do you see? >> there are, of course, varying estimates as to the impact on the number of teachers likely to lose their jobs in this year. some people are saying 100,000 across the country. there was another city that came out with 300,000 across the

country which does seem overwhelming, to be honest. but it does seem that there are some alternatives to just firing teachers. that a lot of district have yet to really consider. >> couric: >> brown: before you get to the alternatives, i want to hit what the impact is. where do you see the impact that we do see? are they in particular states? are they in particular types of school districts? >> sure. generally, unfortunately, teacher layoffs do tend to affect lower-income schools a little more. a lot of that has to do with the fact that low-income schools tend to have more inexperienced teachers. and as you've discussed here on this program before, there's something called last hired; first fired. so the least experienced teachers are the teachers who most recently started working at that school or in that school district. they're going to lose their jobs first because of teacher seniority laws. contracts, i should say. and because those inexperienced teachers tend to work in low-income schools, because they

don't have the seniority to work in the more desirable, generally, higher-income schools, those are the schools that are hurt first. so across the country if a lot of these teacher layoffs end up happening, we'll see that happening in the lower-income schools across the board more so than in the higher income schools. >> brown: does that sound right to you in terms of the schools that are most impacted? >> absolutely. the wealthier the area, the less affect. in some cases, parents have enough money to pay the teacher if they don't want to lose ms. jones who's been the favorite art teacher for 30 years. >> brown: that leads me to another question because a lot of people wonder this. when budget cuts come is it programs hit first, is it afterschool programs, you just mentioned the arts teacher. arts, music, is it sports or personnel or both? >> some sports will be trimmed. if you have a club team in golf, you might take that off. often they will cut afterschool and particularly summer school. summer school is being cut in a lot of plays and that's a real problem, particularly in inner city schools where we know that summer learning loss is a huge

factor in student achievement. so that's a real blow if they do that. most of the time the smartest districts just raise class size slightly and that doesn't appear to affect achievement very much. >> brown: in a place like california which we mentioned as particularly bad, is it more than just raising a few kids... the class size a bit or what are they looking senate. >> that seems to vary by districts to a certain extent. they are talking about class sizes which is complicated in california because they have a categorical budget piece that goes particularly for keeping class sizes small in kindergarten through third grade and also in freshman english classes in high school. so theoretically if those districts choose to raise their class sizes for those particular grades, they could be losing some of that categorical funding, which they may be unwilling to do because of the additional funding loss that that will mean for them. in those places, they're going to be looking at more service cuts like jay was talking about, teacher layoffs as well. so it really depends on the grade levels of sort of how much

leeway they have and then also as we were talking before about inexperienced teachers usually get fired first, those are also the least expensive teachers because teachers are traditionally paid based on their years of experience and on their... whether or not they have master's degrees. and so that means that if you have an inexperienced teacher that's making $40,000 and a very experienced teacher making $80,000, you'll have to fire two inexperienced teachers to make up for the salary for that one very experienced teacher. so we're going to see places where if they have lots of experienced teachers, they're going to have to fire more teachers to make up for that budget deficit. >> brown: now, jay, this question of experience versus proficiency plays to the washington, d.c. story. one that we've covered a lot, as we said on this program. the contract yesterday. how significant is it? where are we in this story? >> it's extraordinary. part of it is unprecedented. the idea of

paying teachers $30,000, up to $100,000 a year if they agree to be judged by their effectiveness in the classroom, including test scores, just hasn't happened anywhere else in the country. the other part of it, which puts heavy emphasis on the future away from seniority and toward classroom effectiveness in terms of who gets fired when you have a downturn or change in programs, that's happening in some other cities, but it's really politically interesting that this was an agreement signed by randy weingarten, who's the head of the american federation of teachers. she also supported a change in the law in colorado at the same time that unions didn't like. she's actually taken her union in a very different direction from the larger teachers' union, the n.e.a., which is mostly suburban teachers. her union is mostly urban teachers. i think she's going in that direction because she has a lot of young teachers who are very gung-ho about reform and they know unions get in the way of some of the things they want to do and she's sensitive to that. so two teachers unions are becoming very different in terms

of policy toward reform. >> brown: so what we see in washington has some emanations or implications for other localities in the states? >> absolutely. >> brown: as well as big constituencies like the unions? >> and there are things that seem to be more popular in urban areas, as jay was saying. denver public schools is another great example where this ef a pay for performance or a merit pay system as well. so as we see urban areas move in this direction, it will be interesting to see if the suburban areas follow suit. beyond that, even the rural areas because that's also where we see students with great learning deficits who really need extra support as well. >> brown: because washington is able to do this, pay teachers more but at a time we started the conversation by talking about belt tightening, which is what most places are facing . >> they've been able to change the way they handle money. they've cut back severely on office personnel because they have a chancellor who has almost

absolute power and only answers to the mayor so she's had a lot of leeway to do things and she's gotten a lot of money for this amazing increase in salaries for people who want to go totally toward classroom effectiveness from foundations who are willing to bankroll this. it's so unusual. >> brown: jay mathews and jennifer cohen, thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now, the connections between obesity and geography. health correspondent betty ann bowser reports on the prevalance of so-called "food deserts" in the south. it's the second of her two-part report on america's obesity epidemic. the health unit is a partnership with the robert wood johnson foundation. >> reporter: the small towns of the mississippi delta have a tempo of life all their own. the landscape is dotted with rural enclaves like lambert, here in the northwest part of the state,

population 1,700. it's the kind of place where everybody knows each other . on sunday morning, the good book rules supreme. ♪ happiness is mine... >> reporter: so people here have no trouble getting their souls nourished. the problem is getting nourishment for their bodies. lambert is what's known as a food desert, because finding a place that sells good, fresh food is like looking for a need until a haystack. if you live in lambert and you need groceries, your only option is this convenience store. on the day we were here, there were no fresh fruits or vegetables, a few cold cuts, and the prices were high. the department of agriculture says 23.5 million americans, including 6.5 million children live in low income areas more

than a mile from a supermarket . life long resident jennifer hoskins says it's not easy to find healthy food for her family >> it's really hard. when i was coming up we had greens and gardens and all that. now you have to buy produce. so it's real hard for the kids. the majority of them they eat like pizzas and that's obesity. >> reporter: like so many delta town, lambert was once the heart of a thriving farming community. most of its residents are african american and and descendants of sharecroppers. as farm workers were replaced by machines, many found work in nearby textile mills, but over the past decade, those jobs have also dried up . today nearly half the town lives below the federal poverty line. >> first everything was here, we even had dry goods stores, with he a had a grocery storm, a pharmacy, a doctor's office.

but now it's nothing here . >> reporter: except in a few cases, the food that's grown here is rarely eaten here. that's because the rich farmland is used to grow commodity crops that are shipped out. the closest grocery store is over three miles away and even there produce is pricy and locals say often the pickings are slim. we weren't permitted inside with our cameras. it's more than a 20-mile drive to get to a store with better and less expensive selections. and in this part of mississippi, there is no public transportation, no taxis. in american food deserts, gas stations, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants are the only places to buy something to eat. and when money is tight, the dollar menu at the local fast food joint is tempting. at the only mcdonald's in whitman county, the salad menu

isn't served, so it'sburg burgers, mcnuggets and the like. >> the variety of the foods that are available are poor-quality nutrients. >> reporter: dr. al rausa is the district health officer for 18 counties in northwest mississippi. he's been working as a public health official in the delta for 40 years. >> i had a malnutrition problem when i arrived, i have a malnutrition problem now. back then it was the absence of food or the unavailability of food that was the problem. and now i've got this abundance of food. >> reporter: the problem now, rausa says, is that the food people eat is loaded with calories and fat and they're leading more sedentary lives. medical studies showed that people who live in these food deserts have higher rates of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes than those in areas served by mainstream grossers. >> we can't tell people to buy fresh food if there's no place

to buy it, right? >> reporter: first lady michelle obama has zeroed in on food deserts as part of her signature campaign to end childhood obesity . and the obama administration pledged $400 million to help underserved areas. last month, she visited the state's capital, jackson. >> if you've seen it, you know how hard it is, so we've got to make it easier. we've got to eliminate food deserts and make sure there are more grocery stores and farmers' markets in communities. >> reporter: but it's not all bleak. a group of local growers and community organizers is trying to expand farmers' markets in the delta and get their produce into local school cafeterias. farmer cornelius toole is part of an effort to help students grow their own vegetables. >> we just got to teach our kids about healthy eating and teach them where food comes from and teach them what they need to

know about it. >> reporter: and at the new mount zion baptist church in lambert, pastor michael jostle and his wife evelyn do their part. >> we don't just grow vegetables for ourselves because our children are grown, basically. we grow enough vegetables to feed the entire congregation, especially elderly. we have a healthier congregation initiative. we've partnered with other congregations in the community. we're growing a community garden. that's on a larger scale. it's not going to change it overnight but i think if we're consistent and we do it collectively and collaboratively i think we can make a difference. >> reporter: while locals pray government incentives will encourage mainstream grossers to come to their communities. they know the solutions to changing the food landscape of the delta won't come easy and won't come from washington alone. >> lehrer: obesity, of course, is not just an american problem. china, the world's rising superpower, is dealing with the rise of weight as well.

ray suarez reported on it in his reports this week from china for our global health unit. ray, what... did you come away with an impression of the state of the population's health in china? >> suarez: well, i'm not a doctor and i don't even play one on t.v. but you can see that people are better fed than they were at an earlier time in chinese history. it was common to see adults who were of larger stature than their own parents who they accompanied on the street. and had children who looked like they were on their way to being larger than they are. china gets a better-than-average diet. better than the one set by the u.n. as the base point for being properly nourished. so you're watching a country that's getting richer and has the chance of getting healthier at the same time. >> suarez: one of your pieces, of course, was about smoking. has there been any connection pralenf smokg andsmoking or the

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superlative in a country of 1.3 billion people that's getting rich fast. >> lehrer: and it is also superlatives? >> suarez: well, no. i mean, obviously these... all of this has an underside. all of it has a dark side. lots of people are being relocated. not necessarily with their informed consent. they're just being told to clear out. a lot of neighborhood are being torn down. -l. >> lehrer: to build these new... new everythings? >> right. to build new everything. and people who want to escape the terrible grinding poverty of the urban areas and get a little bit of that new affluence in the cities can do that easily as well. china is trying to forestall just a rush into already overburdened cities. there isn't enough housing. there's not enough jobs. how are you going to keep them down on the farm is not just an old punch line, it's a real question. >> lehrer: okay. ray, thank you very much. good stuff.

>> woodruff: : and to another story affecting millions of chinese, as well as one in 10 asian americans. "newshour" correspondent spencer michels looks at the disease called hepatitis b. >> good morning, how's your appetite? >> reporter: 46-year-old craig zhang is recovering from an operation to remove a taou ngor in his liver. a result of his life long infection of hepatitis-b. it's a disease that strikes asians 100 times more than non-asians. >> the incision is well healed. looks good. no problem. >> reporter: zhang surgeon, stanford liver surgeon samuel so was concerned about a c.t. scan that revealed several new growths. >> on this side, you can see one, two, three, four. >> reporter: the hepatitis-b virus is found in blood and bodily fluids. many people can live with the virus and never get sick, but 25% of those infected get severe

liver damage or cancer. the virus can be transmitted by unsafe sex and unsterile needles, but most people who suffer from the disease-- like zhang, who was born in china-- became infected at birth from their mothers. >> this is my brother with his two kids. >> reporter: his younger brother haiyang also became infected at birth but, like many of those with the disease, he had no symptoms until it was too late. to two years ago at the age of 42, he went to see a doctor about a pain in his side. he was told he had advanced liver cancer and there was nothing that doctors could do. zhang flew his brother to shanghai to try to get a liver transplant, but he died three days after arriving there. >> well, he passed away. my sister-in-law and his two kids were on a plane going from here to shanghai, didn't make it. >> this is a cancer which often affects people at the prime of

life, between 30 to 60 years of age. >> reporter: dr. so has been leading efforts in the san francisco bay area and around the world to raise awareness about help b. he has a research lab at stanford focused on finding new ways to diagnose and treat liver cancer. there's no cure for hepatitis-b, although the virus can be kept in check with antiviral medicines. those infected need to have yearly ultrasounds and blood tests to screen for early stages of liver cancer. dr. so is the founder of the asian liver center, dedicated to create awareness about hepatitis-b, both in the u.s. and overseas, especially in china. >> a hundred million people in china are chronically infected. so it's a huge burden of disease in china every two three minutes someone in china is dying from liver cancer caused by this virus which could be prevented by a vaccine.

and still most people in the world are not vaccinated against it. it's just ridiculous. >> reporter: an effective vaccine for hepatitis-b has been available for almost 25 years. newborns need a vaccination within the first day of life to prevent transmission of the virus from their mother. two more doses are needed within the first six months for full immunity. and about half the babies in the u.s. do get vaccinated. but in many countries where hepatitis-b is endemic, like china, vaccination programs for infants are often spotty. and there are hundreds of millions of adults worldwide born before the vaccine was developed who are infected. a recent documentary highlighted a program in china's quinghai province aimed at vaccinated more of the population, a campaign inspired by dr. so. but one big hurdle in enacting

reform in china has been the enormous social stigma associated with the disease . >> (translated): if our neighborhoods new knew our kids have hepatitis-b, they wouldn't dare let their kids play with our kids. >> reporter: those who test positive for hepatitis-b in china are often denied jobs and infected children can be rejectd from schools . along with the disease itself, that stigma has crossed the ocean with immigrants to this country. many asian americans don't want to discuss it or even learn their own status. what is unsettling is that many carriers of the hepatitis-b virus are unaware that they are infected because the symptoms don't appear for many years. but what also bothers health officials in san francisco and other cities with large asian populations is that many asians don't see the need to be tested for hepatitis-b. with one of the largest asian

populations in the u.s. and the nation's highest rate of liver cancer, san francisco is now waging an aggressive campaign to bring the disease out of the shadows at events like the asian heritage festival. >> there's free hepatitis-b screening to the right over here. it's free, they just take a little bit of blood. >> reporter: the city's hep-b free campaign offers free testing and vaccinations. >> i believe i don't have that problem but i'm just making sure. >> reporter: not only does the general population lack knowledge and awareness of the disease, but so does the medical community, according to a recent report from the institute of medicine. that's something that concerns janet zola, heading up the campaign for san francisco's department of health. she says everyone-- not just asian americans-- should be aware of the disease. >> it affects everybody. people intermarry, people have large employee base of asian employees who can get sick. so it isn't really just about

one isolated sector of the population even though they're at highest risk. >> one in ten asian americans is infected with hepatitis-b. >> reporter: a controversial ad now running on local t.v. stations and on billboards asks "which of these ten asian beauty pageant contestants deserves to die?" but in the asian community, such frankness is shocking. that attitude is something that california assembly woman fiona ma from san francisco, who is hepatitis-b positive, is working hard to change. >> my cousin who was born in china actually got very upset and said "please don't talk about it. people are going to think you're sick and they're not going to vote for you." and my message was i am a public figure, this is my responsibility. >> reporter: ma says san francisco's program is working well but the state needs to do more. she sponsored a bill to get the state to pay for hepatitis-b vaccinations and treatment but was unsuccessful.

>> we should be trying to cover hepatitis-b folks earlier in the process instead of later. in california, mehdi-cal only covers you if you're in your last stages of liver cancer or require a liver transplant. clearly that's too late and it costs too much. >> reporter: hepatitis-b is slowly starting to get more attention on a national level. participants at a recent rally on capitol hill called for more federal funding for the disease. but stanford's doctor so, whose mother-in-law died from liver cancer, believes there's still not enough being done by the global health community or in the u.s. he says other diseases get more public attention and therefore more money. >> one in 20 people in the world are chronically infected. one in 20. ten times more than people in the world intpebgted with h.i.v. there's huge advocacy for the

h.i.v. community and very few advocates for hepatitis-b. >> reporter: for now, the battle against hepatitis-b is concentrated in communities with large asian populations. philadelphia and los angeles are among a handful of cities planning to replicate san francisco's efforts . >> woodruff: spencer's story was part of a partnership with npr. their report will air on "morning edition" tomorrow. >> lehrer: finally tonight, a beatle comes to the white house. last night, president obama presented paul mccartney with the gershwin prize for popular song from the library of congress. it recognizes lifetime achievement. here is a sample from mccartney's performance in the east room. the next song we'd like to do is a song i have been itching to do at the white house.

and i hope the president will forgive me if i sing this one. (laughter) (applause) ♪ michelle, my belle, these are words. ♪ that go together well, my michelle. ♪ michelle, my belle ... ♪ ♪ let it be, let it, let it be, let it be. ♪ there will be an answer, let it be ♪ ♪ let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.

♪ whisper words of wisdom let it be ♪ ♪ hey jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song. ♪ and make it better , remember to let her under your skin. ♪ then you begin to make it better, better, better, better ♪ ♪ nah, nah, nah, hey jude ♪

♪ nah, nah, nah, hey jude ♪ >> lehrer: the entire concert will air july 28 on most pbs stations. it's part of the in performance at the white house series. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: b.p. managed to cut the pipe spewing oil deep in the gulf of mexico. the next step was containing the flow, and pumping the oil to ships. and thousands of turks mourned those killed when israel raided six aid ships, off gaza. the israelis rejected an international investigation of the incident. the "newshour" is always online. kwame holman, in our newsroom, previews what's there. kwame? >> holman: on those so-called -> holman: on those so-called atch a story about teaching students to grow their own vegetables and read betty ann's blog.

find out who's watching online video and why. we get an update on a pew research center study. learn about the mars 500 project in moscow. six people will be isolated in a simulated space ship for 520 days. and a reminder, our live video feed of the gulf oil leak is on our homepage. 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. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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