captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on this thanksgiving day, americans celebrated at home and abroad. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, a look at how this day was observed: from the white house, to shopping centers, to troops in afghanistan and iraq. >> woodruff: then, reporter laylan copelin of the "austin- american statesman" has the story of former house majority leader tom delay's money laundering conviction. >> suarez: paul solman investigates who wins and who loses when homeowners modify their mortgages.

>> i don't think, and i thought it was murder. i think the people would tell you it's murder. >> woodruff: plus, two takes on hiv-aids treatments, we look at a new pill regime which could reduce transmission rates. >> suarez: and spencer michels reports on one company's approach to provide affordable aids medication here and in the developing world. >> this idea that you would charge full price for the developing world left a long time ago. >> woodruff: and jeffrey brown talks to food columnist and cookbook author molly o'neill about the best recipes from kitchens across america. that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> opportunity is a powerful force. set it in motion, and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy.

one opportunity leading to another and another. we all have a hand in it, because opportunity can start anywhere and go everywhere. let's keep it moving. this is the engine that connects zero emission technologies to breathing a little easier, while taking 4.6 million truckloads off the road every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us. 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. >> suarez: americans took time out to observe thanksgiving today. some got a jump start on the christmas shopping season, even as many were mindful of those serving overseas. for the more than 140,000 u.s. troops serving in iraq and afghanistan, thanksgiving meals were served far from home again this year. servicemen and women at this >> it means a lot to me and the guys; it give us kind of a taste of home. >> suarez: servicemen and women at this post in afghanistan celebrated with a traditional turkey dinner, the first meal

served in their newly-built mess hall. but the break was only temporary. troops continued to patrol the border with pakistan, where suspected taliban fighters were spotted nearby. >> here, you are dependent on each other for success and survival. >> suarez: back in the u.s., some soldiers were lucky enough to return in time to celebrate with their families. >> i love you daddy. >> i love you too sweetie, i missed you so much. >> suarez: in washington, president obama used his weekly radio address, released today, to thank those who are serving their country. >> to all of our service members stationed around the world, i'm honored to be your commander in chief. >> suarez: mr. obama-- who celebrated the holiday at home in the white house-- also phoned troops serving on the front lines. and, he urged americans to come together. >> this is not the hardest thanksgiving america has ever faced. but as long as many members of our american family are hurting, we've got to look out for one another. >> suarez: yesterday, the obama family volunteered at a local

washington charity, helping those still struggling to make ends meet. they handed out bags of food, complete with turkey, to people in need. but despite the challenges that face many americans, today was a time for giving thanks, with all the familiar celebration. this morning, in new york city, millions packed the streets for the annual thanksgiving day parade. and another american tradition-- shopping on black friday-- got an even earlier start this year. many stores opened today with special deals. >> customers that are coming out sears opened on thanksgiving day for the first time in a century joining stores like walmart, kmart, and the gap. some shoppers opted to spend their thanksgiving waiting in line for sales at stores that aren't open today. >> we've been here since last night, yeah, and last night was cold, very cold. >> suarez: as many americans searched for bargains, the national retail federation, the nation's retail trade group,

expects a 2.3% increase in holiday spending. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": tom delay's money laundering conviction; finding economic justice in mortgage modifications; lowering transmission rates of h.i.v.; pricing aids drugs here and abroad and celebrating america's cooking diversity. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: south korea's defense minister resigned today in the wake of a recent north korean artillery attack. tuesday's barrage targeted a small south korean island near the countries' disputed maritime border. two south korean marines and two civilians died. we have a report from john irvine of "independent television news." >> in the disputed part of the yellow sea since the disputed ilafrnisland of pyongy where war is a daily reality.

where south korea is now looking wounds. the main village here is largely deserted, abandoned by frightened people who 48 hours ago find themselves in a battle cound of dozens of artillery shells landed all around. several buildings have been gutted. in one cafe we saw cups of tea left behind by villagers who bolted into shelters, the bodies of two civilians found in the rubble were taken off the island this morning. the barrage was fired from over there. that's north korea. just seven miles away from the island. when you see the damage wrought here it's easy to understand why south korea is so reluctant to escalate things. north korea has far more artillery pieces trained on the massive city of seoul than it does on this small island. the south koreans are

scratching their heads, and the difference minister has had to resign for doing too little, and the government has announced strengthening of the garrison. and the rules of engagement changed with the side no longer limiting itself to a proportionate response to northern aggression. >> south korea and the. >> sreenivasan: both south korea and the u.s. are planning military drills sunday, in the waters south of this week's attack. iraq's prime minister formally began assembling a new coalition government today at the request of president jalal talabani. the move ends eight months of deadlock among the country's political factions, after disputed elections last march. prime minister nouri al-maliki-- who will remain in his post-- now has 30 days to select a new cabinet. he appealed for unity during a meeting with iraqi officials in baghdad. >> ( translated ): i call upon all iraqi people across the whole spectrum-- minorities, sects, religions and doctrines and all politicians, to work together and to exceed and overcome all the differences of the past that resulted in

previous conflicts and to put all these differences behind us. we have to open a new chapter based on cooperation and understanding, and to work together in building the homeland. >> sreenivasan: the new power- sharing government is expected to include representatives from all the major political groups, including the kurds, shia, and sunni arabs. after selection, the cabinet must be approved by a majority in parliament. russia has agreed to let nato troops take armored vehicles to afghanistan across its soil. the russian foreign minister announced the deal. the northern supply route will decrease reliance on routes through pakistan which have been volatile in recent months. it's all part of the thawing relationship between russia and nato, which includes combating the spread of drugs across central asia from afghanistan and participating in a european missile defense shield. more mexican troops and police are heading to the border zone next to texas to try and rein in drug violence. police said the goal is to reinforce government authority where there has been a split in two drug gangs, leading to a surge in violence.

the new effort also aims to keep the two cartels from regrouping, after some of their key leaders were killed or captured. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: a little more than five years ago, tom delay was one of the most powerful lawmakers in washington. late yesterday, a texas jury found him guilty of laundering corporate money into political donations. the verdict came last night, at a courthouse in austin, texas. moments after it was read, tom delay remained defiant. >> this is an abuse of power, it's a miscarriage of justice, and... and i still maintain eh... that i am innocent, that the criminalization of politics undermines our very system. >> woodruff: prosecutors charged that in 2002, delay funneled $190,000 of campaign money to texas republican state house candidates, using his political action committee. the money moved through the

republican national committee, the charge went, in order to skirt a texas state ban on direct corporate contributions to state campaigns. those candidates helped republicans take majority control of the legislature and thus power to control redrawing texas' congressional districts. as a result, in 2004, republicans picked up six more u.s. house seats from texas. once one of the most powerful men in washington, delay was known as "the hammer" for his hard driving leadership and prodigious fundraising. a former exterminator from suburban houston, elected in 1984, he rose steadily through house ranks, becoming majority leader in 2003. he resigned his leadership position two years later, after his indictment by the texas grand jury, amid allegations that he had also violated house

ethics rules in receiving all- expense paid trips from lobbyist jack abramoff. delay continued to serve in congress until 2006. >> and if given the chance to do it all again, there's only one thing i would change: i would fight even harder. >> woodruff: but gave up his seat in the face of a long-shot re-election campaign. we get more now on the rise and fall of tom delay from laylan copelin of the "austin american- statesman." he joins us from austin. >> thank you very much. you were in the courtroom yesterday. tell us what was tom delay's reaction? >> he was definitely stunned, as was his lawyer. i think they really thought that they were going to win the case, although when it went into the third day, the mood started to change, tom delay was always smiling and putting forth a brave face,

but once he food up and heard guilty, he obviously was stunned. >> tell us -- profile for us the case that was presented. was there a sense listening to the prosecution that they put a case together that was going to result in a conviction? >> well, it was extraordniarily complicated case, largely circumstantial. stlfs hundreds of exhibits, mostly emails and memos about his political organization that was delays idea, texans for republicans majority. it was a political committee out there raising money. delay raised a lot of mon i from corporations from this committee and the evidence was, you know, 11 days of testimony, and hundreds of exhibits. the law was -- the jury struggled wtd law because

stlfs a complicated money laundering case. and what did tom delay know and when did he know it. >> and what was his defense? >> he had a couple. primarily that he was hands off and his associates in austin, and jim allison in washington, d.c., and they were doing all the parts with the transactions, and that he only learned about it later on, and secondly, he always contended that it was a legal transaction, and that rpgt people, particularly political parties had done it before. that was his defense. >> you were telling us earlier that it was tom delay's own words and actions that helped do him in here? >> right. on the third day, everyone was trying to read the tea leaves as the jurors were sending in questions, and early on, it was about the law and so forth, and then it started asking about facts and so forth, issues, and right before they came back with

their verdict, i would say two or three hours before they came back with the verdict, the last three things that they asked for was his interview with prosecutors in 2005, his interview with me during a break in the trial, and his interview with fox news back in 2005. and because he didn't testify, i think they went back and looked at those intervueps to see what did tom delay say he knew and when did he know it. >> now that he's been convicted, laylan copelin, and the sentencing comes in december, what are the possibilities? >> well, technically he could get anything from two years probation to 99 years. he would be a first time offender. i don't see prison time. but the problem is the prosecution has subpoenaed peple that usesed to work

with tom delay and later with jack abramoff, the well known washington lobbyist who just got out of prison after conspiring to bribe public officials. you could sense this becoming a public airing of tom delay's inner workings of his political circles, and all the allegations that swirled around him for years. that could get played out again unless a judge tells prosecutors he didn't want to hear it because the judge is going to set the punishment, not the injury. >> how much of a comedown for tom delay is this? >> this has been a long fall. because at the time he was interiored the second most powerful texan in washington second only to president bush. i saw him come down there in 2003, and he certainlyly directed the texas state legislature on how to draw the

congressional districts, in what was a very controversial mid-decade redistricting. that was back when the texas democrats tried to boycott and stop it. so it was a polarizing event. he was at the height of his powers then, and he was riding very high, and then he was indicted. he was forced to resign, and then he later retired from congress. last night after the convention if he did what he told me he was going to be doing. he was driving home from austin in his rv back to sugarland, and i'm sure it was a long, loney ride realizing that he's a convicted felon. >> laylan copelin of the austin american statesman, thank you for talking with us. >> thank you.

>> suarez: next, the problem of foreclosures and the difficult questions surrounding mortgage modifications. our economics correspondent, paul solman, has been looking at those issues in a series of recent stories. tonight, he has a follow-up about some of the people he profiled and how viewers reacted. it's all part of his reporting on "making sense of financial news." >> when we said we need principal reductions people said, you guys are crazy! >> reporter: boston anti- foreclosure activist melonie griffiths. >> when we said we want to stay in the homes after foreclosure to keep our communities together people said, "you are crazy." those are the things we're getting done right now with people power. >> reporter: power enhanced by recent revelations of fishy, even fraudulent foreclosure documents which has government now stepping up its pressure on banks to modify more mortgages. >> there are servicers who have

>> reporter: iowa attorney general tom miller is leading a 50-state initiative. >> a lot more modifications should be made that aren't being made. >> reporter: modifications; reducing interest rates, even principal, to reflect lower home values that could give millions of distressed homeowners more affordable monthly payments. that's what antoinette coffi- ahibo was seeking when we interviewed her last year. she'd bought her house in jamaica, new york, in 2007 for $679,000. >> they told me the mortgage was going to cost me $4,000 every month, that i'm going to pay that for only one year, after a year, i can refinance so i can get a lower mortgage. >> reporter: coffi-ahibo was born in the ivory coast, is now a lenscrafters' optician. >> afterwards, i find out i have two mortgages. one was 6% and the other was

11%. >> reporter: but you didn't know that at the time? >> no, i didn't know that at the time. >> reporter: but did you read the paperwork? >> no, it was so many paperwork. it was a bunch of paper we had to go through and they said just sign. >> reporter: coffi-ahibo may have been intimidated by the task, and conned by the loan broker, who's now being sued left and right. but can the economy afford to bail her out? as it to some extent did, we learned, when we revisited her a few weeks ago. >> i got very good news, maybe not that good but i was able to get a loan modification on my mortgage. >> reporter: actually, she got two mortgages modified. the second mortgage was for $130,000 at 11%. >> and i settled it for $11,000. >> reporter: $130,000 and you just paid them $11,000 and that was the end of it? >> yeah.

>> reporter: a $119,000 loss that someone's taking. the primary mortgage was an adjustable rate loan for $543,000 originally at 6%, but scheduled to jump to 14%. and what happened to that one? >> the new terms of the mortgage is they gave me an interest of 4%, and they want me to pay that over 40 years. >> reporter: raising her principle to $556,000 on a house now worth about $450,000 but lowering her total payment from $4,000 to $2,600 a month. >> now i can afford to pay my mortgage. i am paying my mortgage every two weeks to be able to, be able to have a good credit. >> reporter: what about people who would say, "look, she got a better deal than i'm ever going to get. i also bought when things were too high. i paid a high interest rate. i can't get refinanced because my house is worth so much less now."

they'd say you got away with murder. >> i am a victim. so i don't think i got away with murder. i think the people who sold me the house got away with murder and i hope everybody realize that doing the loan modification to those homeowners struggling is a good thing. >> reporter: look, says lionel ouellette of the new york community group changer, who helped seal the deal, principal reduction would have been even better, but at least this modification will keep coffi- ahibo in her house. >> which goes to show you how much room there is within the economy for financial institutions to modify and cut deals. >> reporter: but here's a question that's been raised often; answered, rarely: is the coffi-ahibo deal fair? >> this is america. how many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills, raise your hands.

>> boo! >> president obama, are you listening? >> reporter: many credit this rant in february 2009 by cnbc's rick santelli, a former financial trader, for needling a national nerve, helping trigger the tea party movement. >> we're thinking of having a chicago tea party in july. >> reporter: and, we discovered, the anger is alive and well, as when we recently profiled loan modification recipient jeanette ford, whose original mortgage was $80,000. yet when the house went into foreclosure, she owed $240,000. so you took a lot of money out of the house in the form of home equity loans, i trust, when the house had risen in value. >> yes, over the years, i'd taken different equity loans. >> reporter: interviewees like ford prompted emails like this one: "where is the economic justice when she benefits from loans on the property and then effectively defaults on the property?" >> reporter: so we asked karl case, one of the country's top

housing economists and a long- time teacher of economics, to address the question. >> all of this gets to the real nub of what economics is about. if you can show that the total benefit when you carve it all up exceeds the benefit when you let it sit, you should do it. >> reporter: case cites the italian economist vilfredo pareto, who brought economics around to a common definition of the good. >> pareto said that if you can make some people better off without making others worse off, even potentially, that's an efficient change. that brought the whole profession together. >> reporter: and that's all economics can ask for here, is that what you're saying, that at least everybody is somewhat better off? >> that's exactly right. the worst thing that can happen is the foreclosure because then you stay in the house as long as you can, you don't make any payments on it, you let it deteriorate, when you move out the truck comes in and takes the copper out of it. the banks should like these alternatives to foreclosure because foreclosure has these

extra costs. >> reporter: and in fact, some banks do seem to picking up the pace on modifying mortgages. bank of america, a "newshour" underwriter, reports that it completed nearly 25,000 modifications in october, up 50% from the previous month. but with some two million homeowners now in foreclosure, $6 trillion worth of mortgages at stake, why aren't even more being modified? >> there's an incentive built into the system that's making it not work. right now, the incentive is the banks find it cheaper and quicker to go the foreclosure route than they do putting together a complicated deal. the other thing though that's blocking it is no one is considering the social cost. and so the neighborhood itself can go down as a result of the collective behavior of people. somebody has to put that social cost on the table. >> reporter: but then why not force banks to offer homeowners like coffi-ahibo deals they can surely afford: a reduction of principle to the current market

value, say? >> i love my house. i want to be here. so i'm not going to default. but i'm still going to fight the bank for them to give me the true value of my house. >> reporter: but just as her second mortgage lender accepted a loss, coffi-ahibo may have to be satisfied with a modification that leaves her underwater. >> to make everybody whole and take all the damage that's been done away from everybody is beyond the reach of the economy. i mean we can't go and absorb a $6 trillion loss completely. >> hi, i'm jeanette forde. >> reporter: so everyone gives up something. but as long as they're better off than if they didn't make a deal, then justice, in economic terms, has arguably been achieved. >> but thursday they called me and they want to sell the house back! >> woodruff: the magnitude of the foreclosure problem remains daunting. just last month, banks seized more than 90,000 homes. and analysts say three to four

million more foreclosures may be in store over the next three years. >> suarez: now, a two-part look at advances in aids medicine and the ethical and financial considerations that loom. we begin with a major finding this week about preventing aids. i spoke with my guests yesterday. >> people with aids have taken a cocktail of medicines to treat the disease, but for the first time there's now hope about using some of those drugs to prevent hiv. a study published in the new england journal of medicine found that healthy gay men who took regular doses of a drug combination reduced infections by more than 40%. among men who took it every day, the pill was 90% effective in preventing them from contracting hiv. but the findings raise

questions. we turn to more people more closely following this. a doctor tr the national institution of allergy and infectious diseases which funded the study. and the vice president of anfar, the foundation for aids research. doctor, 90% sounds like an important breakthrough. >> it is. the idea that you can give a drug that's commonly used for the treatment of hiv to individuals who are risk because of behavior in certain respects, you can block that possibility of infection and decrease risks by a substantial amount is really an important advance in giving us another another pofeshl tool in prevention. and no wonl prevention in and of itself should be considered in a vacuum. you have to do combinations of things, including skip scint us

use of condoms and decrease in sexual partners. >> who was in the test group. was it a group of people considered at high risk for contracting hiv? >> there they were men who had sex with men who put themselves intermittently at risk for hiv infection. the important aspect of the study people need to appreciate is that it was a rand myselfed controlleded study double blind. they didn't know if they got the drug or the placebo. there were 2500 people in the trial equally decided. one of this got travada and the other a placebo. but were all educated equal legal for using condoms, decreasing sexual partners, sgetding tested for hiv frequently and treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases. so the two groups were essentially the same except one got the drug and one got the placebo.

that's why the results are so compelling, because it was a randomized trial. but these were men who had sex with men. >> is it personality it wasn't just a pill, but a bunch of other interventions going on at the same time. >> it's important to know they got a package of interventions, including counseling, condoms and encourageed to use those. as we move forward and take the next step between the demonstration projects to see how we can use this in the field, we have to keep that in mind, providing interventions that we know work is a critical part of making this work. >> in the recent past when there's been this kind of a breakthrough, and we saw it with the morning after pill, there are those who say, well, i'm not sure this is the kind of thing we want to find because it will encourage people to be irresponsible because they'll know there's now a defense against it. is that a problem? >> i think it's something to

be aware of. people's behavior may change. one thing to point out is that in the trial, people actually got safer in terms of their behavior over the life of the trial. so we don't see any initial worries there. how that will play out, if this were delivered in the real world is something to look at. that again is why i think one of the next steps, in addition to continuing with all the research trials we're doing now, is demonstration project that is can look at how do we deliver this as part of the package with behavior change messages and mop tore whether there's behavior change. >> dr. fauci, what changes in medicine when you move it from a treatment for a chronic condition as people taking anti-retrol viral for hiv, to preventive medicine? >> there are a number of question that is come up that are prnltd. i want to point out just like when you are hiv infected, you

should be taking these medications every day. if you're talking about adding this as a truly effective prevention modality, the study already has told us that when you are taking the pill, you should take the pill, because there was a discrepancy between what people reported taking the pill, and whether they did or not, and that's the reason why the results of the decrease in risks varied if you look at the entire study. it was a 44% decrease in risk. if you looked at people who took it or said they took t 90% of the days when they were supposeed to take it, the decrease in risk was 72%. if you looked at people who actually had blood levels versus no blood levels, the efficacy was 90%. so the first thing you have to do is make sure you take the drug. the other more policy related issue is that if, in fact, after the demonstration

project and the analysis of the data and the discussion of whether or not this would be a feasible thing to actually recommend or make a art of the guidelines, if you look globally, people are going to ask the question, how can you be giving a drug to prevent infection in an individual who might be getting infected with hiv when we don't even have the resources to treat people who are already infected. and those kind of cost benefit analysis are going to have to be done country to country because the situation will be very different in one country versus another, in the developing world versus the developed world. so although they're the same drug used in essentially the same way given every day, there are a lot of implications that go along with using it as prevention versus using it as treatment. >> let's talk about cost, chris collins, because one quote as this at $12,000 a year as a therapy.

that's an expensive drug regimen, isn't it it >> in the developing world it's cheaper because it's licensed for generic production. i think cost is absolutely something we need to be looking at. one thing to keep in mind is investments in aids research are pay k off, and we have the tools to really change the trajectory of this epidemic. >> it's important on a policy level to realize that even tough budget times, tools like this used in combination can bring hiv infections down. the other thing to remember as dr. fauci was eluding to is people in the world should be on treatment and rntd. and every year there's more than 2 million new infections. so we have a long road ahead. this is one important element in doing that. we need to find out how powerful it can be. >> you also brought up how you figure out to whom to give this drug.

if it's people who indulge in high risk behaviors, isn't it cheap tore get them to stop doing the high risk behavior? >> it's different for every yx+*d. >> one thing is it's not for everybody. as dr. fauci said, we saw in the trial that many people didn't use the study drug. many people don't want to take an a.r.v. every day, and that makes sense if you're hiv infected so. so who would really benefit from this. who may be in position to not be able to insist on using a condom every time they have sex. who wants to be parted of this. not everyone will want to complay. who can -- in the beginning we need to monitor who can use it, and the effect of using the drug. >> and quickly, dr. fauci, what has to happen between now

and this becoming a readily available therapy? >> well, what will happen is that there will be intensive meetings with stakeholders, the cdc will get involved because they will likely be involved in making guidelines, recommendations, medical societies, constituency, individuals, the f.d.a. will get involved. in fact, if it does become a recommendation that people use it under certain circumstances for prevention, then we're going to have to see whether or not it will be paid for by insurance, the same way that when people are infected and they get treated that their medications are paid for. there are a lot of policy issues, and we're going to see these unroll over the next weeks to months, and probably even longer. there's a lot of good important discussions involving a lot of stakeholders that have to go on over the next several months. >> dr. fauci and chris collins, thank you both. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: next, a look at the company that makes truvada, and the broader approach it's taking with aids drugs here and in poorer countries. correspondent spencer michels reports for our global health unit. >> reporter: for san francisco advertising executive jay kerzner, life is pretty good these days, considering he found out he was h.i.v. positive 23 years ago. >> i considered it as a death sentence. your life flips and it bothered me even to hear people laughing, it was that traumatic to me. >> reporter: when aids drugs came along, he and other patients took dozens of them a day; the regimen was complicated and confusing. and many of the drugs had serious side effects. >> i mean, you couldn't escape the daily diarrhea. >> reporter: but slowly the pharmaceuticals improved and drugs were combined into easier- to-take cocktails. kerzner, who is now 66, is taking just five pills a day,

down from 20, and many patients are taking only one. >> i'm sure i wouldn't be here today if it weren't for the drugs. >> reporter: but those drugs can cost kerzner and others more than $20,000 a year, paid mostly through insurance or government programs, prices far too steep for most people in low income countries to pay. kerzner's doctor, paul volberding, was among the first physicians in the country to diagnose and eventually treat hiv/aids. in 25 years, he has seen death rates plummet in the u.s. >> we typically expect people to live a normal or near normal lifespan even with h.i.v. infection. >> reporter: but, he says, it's a far a different story in poorer countries. >> in most parts of the world, that are really facing this epidemic, the people simply can't afford it. the governments don't have the money to provide the drugs, and aids kills you if you're not in treatment.

so in most of the world people still die of this disease. >> reporter: enter bay area- based pharmaceutical company gilead sciences, which manufactures one of the world's best selling h.i.v. drugs. >> so the idea is to get all the component costs down and you can get to a range where it is accessible everywhere. >> reporter: during a recent meeting, employees were discussing plans that might seem counterintuitive for a for- profit company: how to get their drugs distributed in poor countries for a fraction of the cost in the u.s. estimates are that 14 million people in the world today-- mostly in poor countries-- need anti-retroviral drugs, and that number will increase to 55 million in 20 years. clifford samuel is the company's vice president for international sales:

>> most of these countries are at a point where they truly understand that everyone is trying to help, and bring some degree of treatment to patients who are really dying fast in their countries. >> reporter: samuel is leading gilead's global access program, an innovative tiered pricing scheme that sells drugs at full price in developed countries, 70% to 90% less in middle-income countries like brazil and at no profit in the poorest nations. so life-saving h.i.v. drugs cost $100,000 to $200,000 a year in 130 of the world's poorest countries hit hardest by the aids epidemic. gilead has researched, tested and produced several key anti- retrovirals, including atripla, an effective combination of three drugs that is taken once a day. coming up with a new drug can cost a billion dollars, which is why, the company says, the price

in the u.s. and europe is so high. but lowering the price in low income counties was simply the right thing to do according to ceo john martin, who inspired the program several years ago and watched it evolve. >> we actually didn't even think of it as a decision, because as we went along in the drug development process, we knew we wanted to make it available. the idea that you would charge full price to the developing world left a long, long time ago. >> reporter: gregg alton started putting together gilead's access program, at a time when most other companies were doing very little. >> we don't give the product away for free in any market. so our program's not a philanthropy. it's a sustainable program, but we need to make sure we price the product so patients can actually use the drug. we make the product available at our cost, so this is our manufacturing cost, the cost of distribution. >> reporter: in addition to selling its own drugs at cost, gilead has also begun to license its formulas to indian

generic drug firms, which then sell the drugs for an even lower price around $84 per patient per year. >> we give them all the manufacturing know-how to make our product, allow them to make both the active pharmaceutical ingredient which is the key component into the tableting, in india, sell it in india and to 94 other countries throughout the world. >> reporter: most of the money to pay for the drugs comes from the u.s. and international donor organizations. and that's contributed to a huge increase, nearly a million h.i.v. patients a day, taking gilead's drugs, in the developing world. >> i guess i wouldn't call it altruism; it's just doing what we're supposed to do, which is treat disease. you know, and where we do need profit to have our business model, and we do have profits, and very good profits. but in these markets we can't make profits. >> reporter: not making a profit off of aids drugs or any drugs in poor countries is becoming standard for global pharmaceutical firms.

most have accepted that they must recoup their research costs in the rich countries. nevertheless, low cost drugs still are not reaching millions of poor people, says sophie delaunay of doctors without borders. >> you still have two patients out of three in need of a.r.v. who don't receive a.r.v. we desperately need to get more medicine, to get new formulations, and to get lower costs and less expensive drugs for these people. >> reporter: one problem, she says, is that handing over drug formulas they've invented to generic drug makers goes against the grain for some companies. >> i think they're still reluctant, and even though there is some greater awareness of the need to offer licenses and to diminish patient barriers, on the other hand it's still very challenging to get drugs available. >> reporter: but other activists, like ben plumley are

encouraged that companies like viiv, a pfizer and glaxo smith klein joint venture have followed gilead's lead. plumley used to work in the pharmaceutical industry. today he is c.e.o. of pangaea global aids foundation. >> back in the early days, at the end of the last century, i got to tell you it was really difficult, almost like getting blood out of a stone. this was absolutely opposite to the way they thought. we had one price, one global price, and if you couldn't afford to pay that price, you weren't investing as a government enough in your health care. >> reporter: today, with more drug companies making arv's available cheaply, there's a new hitch: those drugs can eventually become less effective as patients develop resistance. so patients in developing nations need other, so-called second and third line drugs. and those drugs, says u.c.'s paul volberding, need to be offered at discount prices as well. >> the second and third line drugs are more expensive, and

there has been a progress there as well in reducing the cost of those drugs. they're not as cheap as the first line drugs, but i think that's where the next battleground will probably be. >> reporter: for its part, gilead says it will price the next round of drugs cheaply. and for their part, aids activists say they intend to keep the pressure on governments and drug companies, to insure those drugs are affordable and available where aids is still devastating the population. >> suarez: finally tonight, on this thanksgiving holiday, what better time to think about the huge variety of food, recipes and cultures that comprise american cuisine? jeffrey brown has just that in mind. >> you could make a meal of it, and what a meal. from biloxi, mississippi,

vietnamese shrimp pancakes, and berkeley, california, cathy farly's grilled figs, to massachusetts the portuguese kale soup. and from mt. ida, arkansas, squash casserole, and francis butler's tamale stuffed turkey. >> and a blue ribbon apple pie from apple valley, minnesota. these recipes plus hundreds more from all over the country can be found in the new book, one big table, portrait of american cooking by molly o'neill, the former food columnist for the new yorker magazine. what does that mean, molly? what were you after? >> i was trying to create the feeling and spirit and reality of this hugely diverse country that we have and how millions of different private lives come together around the table. >> and you didn't just collect recipes to do that, you

traveled the country. you talked to lots and lots of real people? >> i did. i spent about 10 years on the road, crisscrossing the nation. i tried to go to a lot of sort of off the grid places, and spent a lot of time collecting oral histories and food stories as well as recipes. >> so give me an example of someone who perhaps knocked your socks is off, either personality or food-wise? >> one of the most wonderful moments that i had was one in alabama with a visionary artist, named lonny holly. and lonny was talking to me about how he learned to make gumbo. he had been in an orphanage as a young child, ran away, went to new orleans, and when he was 11 or 12 talked himself into getting a job in a restaurant. he learned how to cook there. and by learning how to cook, he learned that he was an

artist. and it was something so moving that he was making his gumbo and talking about these tales of making a gumbo and art. it was a real eipiphany for me. it showed me americans are making more than dinner, they're making a life. a piece of their lives to share with people. >> and it's interesting because you're doing this in what some think of as the age of the celebrity cook, right? or the celebrity chef. these people are decidedly not celebrities. there are a few celebrities in this book, but most of these people are the glorious american amateur, they're every day people who spend a lot of time figuring out how to make a buefrl meal, and celebrate their place and their family, and their own personality, by what they cooked. >> a lot of people worry these days about a more homogenized culture. you know, we traveled to

different citys and get off the plane and see the same stores and a lot of the same chain restaurants. are you making case in this book that there is still a real diversity out is there and it can be accessed through cooking? >> essentially more diversity today than there was 10 years ago when i started this. the diversity has changed in america. it has gone from the inner urban areas to the suburban areas, from the sort of classic melting pot to the tossed salad, where they're separate was equal parts. and i saw a lot of that in the midwest and in unexpected places. in my home town of columbus, ohio, i went shopping at a vietnamese grocery for ingredients to bring back to new york city. another thing people worry about is the idea that most americans don't cook at all, or we just heat up take-out food.

is that true in your experience or what are you seeing out there? >> well, contrary to popular belief, there are still kitchens in private homes and there's still grocery stores, and people still eat dinner. i think we cook in different ways. i think our cooking has become more recreational. i think that people tend to cook on the weekends and make a few dishes that they can eat off of during the week. i think we supplement with prepared food. but there are still people who really want to take control of their dinner and really like to hang out in the kitchen and make something to eat. sit down, talk, eat, have fun. >> there was a line in your introduction that really jumped out at me. you said when cooks, people out in the county radio you met -- when cooks were conflicted about which recipe to offer to the project, i often said which recipe embodies nur life and times and your own personal america.

that's a lot of people >> it is, and sometimes it would stump people. and i'd say look here. if you could only give your daughter one recipe, what would it be? or if your grandchild only learned one thing in the kitchen from you, what would that be? that would bring people closer and closer to the one recipe that really expressed their lives. >> speaking of recipes, what about thanksgiving. what does molly o'neill do for thanksgiving? >> i do something different every year. last year i deep fried by first turkey. and i was so afraid of all of the reports i read about everything that could go wrong, i looked like i was in a hoffbraize uniform. i had on a coat and a hat and it was snowing, and a big apron and huge gloves. it was the greatest turkey. i couldn't believe how delicious it was. i tend to get my turkeys from

frank reece out in kansas who has been saving hearstage birds, and they're very different cooking birds than the modern bird. vu to cook them slowly. i wasn't sure how it would work in a deep friar, but i plan to do it again. >> but you do something different every year. that's interesting. you're talking to people about their traditions and the way they cook for their family. but your case, you try something different? >> l i'm a compulsive cook. but there are always a few thing that is stay the same. my pumpkin pie is always the same, and i always make one celery stuffing and one oyster dressing. so no matter you i cook the turkey, the things around it tend to stay the same. >> and finally, when you add all this up that you've got in this book, is there finally such a thing as american cooking and in american portrait that you're trying to build. what do you end up with? >> i think we're a nation in search of a cuisine, and i

think they're geting closer and closer and we're really only very, very young compared to some of the other great cuisines in the world. i think we're getting there, and i think that what's happening in food today is taking us there quickly. >> your book is one big table, molly o'neill, nice talking to you. >> you do. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: americans took time out to observe thanksgiving at home and abroad and south korea's defense minister resigned in the wake of the recent artillery attack from north korean. and to hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, for what's on the newshour online. hari? >> sreenivasan: we have a web only video about an art center in mozambique that is helping children who have lost parents to aids. there is a posting on president obama's plan to disarm the lords resistance army in uganda. and last, but certainly not least tonight, we have the "newshour's" recommended reading list for thanksgiving. 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. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. we'll see you online 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: >> opportunity is a powerful force. set it in motion, and it goes

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