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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  September 12, 2011 6:00pm-7:00pm EDT

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captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: president obama sent his jobs bill to capitol hill today, and once again pressed lawmakers to pass it right away. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we explore one piece of the plan, new funding for infrastructure programs like repairing crumbling bridges, roads, and schools. >> ifill: then we look at new fallout in the financial world, as bank of america announces plans to cut 30,000 jobs, and markets slump in europe over the deepening debt crisis. >> woodruff: jeffrey brown gets
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an update from margaret warner in egypt about anti-israel demonstrations and simmering unrest in cairo's streets. >> warner: what we pickd up from egyptians we talked to here is is just incredible frustration. a feeling of impotence as opposed to the empowerment we felt when we were here in february. >> ifill: ray suarez examines some early promise for treating alzheimer's disease with an insulin nasal spray. >> woodruff: and we have the story of russian circus performers, whose extraordinary talents could be the ticket to permanent residency in the united states. >> for the russians who do manage to stay in las vegas, life is about more than tricks on on a rope. it's about bringing a proud tradition from one country to another where the pay is better and the audiences are bigger. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> oil companies have changed my
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country. >> oil companies can make a difference. >> we have the chance to build the economy. >> create jobs, keep people healthy and improve schools. >> ...and our communities. >> in angola chevron helps train engineers, teachers and farmers, launch child's programs. it's not just good business. >> i'm hopeful about my country's future. >> it's my country's future. moving the economy for 160 years.
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bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. 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: president obama's jobs bill headed down pennsylvania avenue to congress today. he challenged republicans not to let it languish, and he called again for a series of tax increases to cover the cost. >> on thursday i told congress that i'll be sending them a bill called the american jobs act. well, here it is. >> ifill: echoing many of his
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own arguments, this time while standing in the rose garden, the president demanded that lawmakers act on his $447 billion program. >> no gains, no politics, no delays. i'm sending this bill to congress today. and they ought to pass it immediately. >> ifill: the president surrounded himself with people from industries he said will benefit from this plan. law enforcement, construction, the military, and small business. the administration is proposing that a significant portion of the new spending be used to create jobs by rebuilding schools, transportation, and housing. >> i'm standing with construction workers. we've got roads that need work all over the country. our highways are backed up with traffic. our airports are clogged. and there are schools throughout the country that desperately need renovating. >> ifill: $30 billion of the new spending would go to
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modernize at least 5,000 public schools and $50 billion to be spent on improving highways, rail and transit. the proposal comes at a time when 28% of the nation's schools are at least 60 years old, according to the national clearinghouse for educational facilities. in response, house speaker john boehner promised a careful review of the obama plan, but he said we have a different vision for what is needed to support job creation. and house majority leader eric cantor said the new plan resembles the president's old 2009 plan that included $105 billion for public works. we've been there, done that, he said. the country cannot afford more spending like the stimulus bill. white house budget director jack loo said the plan calls for raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for it including limits on charitable deductions and closing loopholes for oil and gas companies. all have been proposed before and rejected by both parties
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in congress. we take a closer look at whether the president's infrastructure proposals we take a closer look at whether the president's infrastructure proposals would actually create jobs with robert reich, professor of public policy at the university of california, berkeley. he served as secretary of labor in the clinton administration. and matthew slaughter. he served on president george w. bush's council of economic advisers from 2005 to 2007. he's now associate dean of the tuck school of business at dartmouth college. our economics correspondent paul solmon who is breaking down the numbers in the president's proposal today. he said that there are 28 million unor underemployed people in the country right now and that this jobs bill might create jobs for a million of them. so what can... i'll start with you, robert reich... what can infrastructure spending due to close that gap? >> gwen, infrastructure spending on roads and transportation, also rebuilding america's schools, really is a two-for in the sense that we need to reform and certainly make sure that
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our transportation infrastructure system is good. there's been too much deferred maintenance for years, a fancy way of saying it's crumbling. and at the same time it could put many, hundreds of thousands of workers to work, one out of five construction workers today is unemployed. and this is the best time to do it because not only do you have all those workers unemployed and all that deferred maintenance but you have very low borrowing costs. the ten-year treasury bill has a yield of 2% or less. if we're ever going to get our infrastructure rebill, this is the time to do it. >> ifill: is this the time to do it, matthew slaughter? >> i think it is. i'll pick up on robert's insight of it being a two-for. some sort of infrastructure investment will create new jobs in the u.s. economy. i think it's important to temper that expectation. the 25:0028 million underand unemployed americans infrastructure spending alone will not address all those needs and job creation but the
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crisis in the united states is not just the number of jobs. the challenge also is creating the right kinds of jobs. one of the challenges that predates the financial crisis has been america's infrastructure has been crumbling for quite some time. the american society of civil engineers graded america's overall infrastructure at d a couple of years ago. and to grow the right kinds of jobs, high productivity, high- wage jobs linked to the global economy, we need to improve america's infrastructure. >> ifill: let me start with you and ask professor reich this as well. $50 billion is the price tag being put right now on the part of this bill which would feature high speed rail, highways, transit, the kinds of crumbling roads and bridges that you're talking about, matthew slaughter. is that enough? >> no, it's not. the american society for civil engineers, when they did their analysis a couple of years ago, adding up all the needs of our ports, our roads, our bridges, our airports, the shortfall they saw in spending over the next five years was $1.1
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trillion. i think this speaks to an important way that i think we need to think about improving our infrastructure. not just public tax payor dollars we need to put to work but also private capital as well. there's a lot of global companies, some based in america and many based abroad, that have expertise and experience on helping fund, build and maintain infrastructure projects. part of what our leadership needs to do in washington is figure out ways to bring the private sector into some of these needed investments as well. >> ifill: how much of this is about public sector involvement and private sector involvement? we've been here before. we heard the tale of shovel- ready projects which would immediately create jobs. is there a danger of overpromise something. >> there is a danger of overpromising, gwen. and the problem with infrastructure projects generally is that very few are actually, as we learned, shovel ready. it takes a number of years to get them going. even this year, there are tens of thousands of workers who have jobs because of the
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infrastructure spending that was in the first stimulus. but that first stimulus really didn't get geared up to provide those jobs for a full year-and-a-half after it was started. so infrastructure spending is critical. 50,000 is a good beginning. as dean slaughter said, it's a much larger challenge than 50 billion dollars rather. but we still have a very, very long way to go. it's not going to be instantaneous job creation. >> ifill: this bill, continuing with you, robert reich, is just not just about building roads and rebuilding roads and bridges but also about modernizing schools. it's even about renovating or refurbishing foreclosed homes as a way of jump-starting local economies. is that part of the overreach? >> i don't think it's overreach so much. the schools are a different category. i mean, we know what schools need repairs. that is closer than almost anything else to being shovel ready. we can get to work right away on those schools. there's no excuse for having substandard schools and so
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many substandard schools. with regards to vacant buildings or buildings that have been forfeited upon, if they are generally vacant and the government starts investing in them and takes an equity interest in them so the tax payers can get something back when those buildings not only are resold but also it improves the entire neighborhood, that's worthwhile to do but that also, like a lot of other infrastructure projects, is going to take a little bit more time to get done. >> ifill: matthew slaughter, what do you think about those two pieces of this, the schools and the foreclosed properties? >> you know, there's many needs to improve america's educational system. some kids in america do need to be in higher-quality schools so i see the value of that. i would stress though the value of the transportation and broader pieces of infrastructure that touches american business. the jobs crisis we face today is predominantly a job crisis of private sector job creation. we have about 109 million private sector jobs in the united states today. that's the same number we had
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12 years ago in the fall of 1999. and to build millions of private sector jobs linked to the dynamic globally engaged companies that traditionally have really played a big role in helping to grow the american economy and with lots of links to small business also, those are companies when you look at surveys of both large and small businesses one of the big hiring constraints that they cite is our crumbling infrastructure. >> ifill: but that sounds like a completely different approach than government money being spent on actually hiring construction workers to rebuild a crumbling underbelly of the country. trying to get the private sector to step up seems like a different approach. mr. slaughter? >> well, i would say the two can work together, but i think the important thing to keep in mind is rebuilding america's infrastructure and all these dimensions is in the future going to foster job creation in all kinds of industries. it will be industries like retail trade, wholesale trade. a lot of companies that are trying to export goods and services out of america. so in the future this could...
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like the national export initiative as well to build the ability of companies in america to sell things in the dynamic global economy. >> ifill: we heard eric cantor saying been here done that. did it work last time? >> it worked much better than many people think it worked because most economists, most analysts have shown that the first stimulus saved or created about three million jobs. now it's not large when you take into consideration of the 25 to 28 million people who are looking for full-time work. even if you actually had the impact that the president is talking about, we're still stuck with very high unemployment and we still have a huge problem of wages as well. as dean slaughter was saying a moment ago, we've got to attract global capital here into the united states to create good jobs and one way of doing that is by restoring our infrastructure, building a good first-rate educational system, generating a lot of jobs directly by doing that
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but also indirectly because global capital comes here, because it can get a high return on its investment. >> ifill: matthew slaur, what is different this time from last time? >> hopefully i think there will be a a sustained focus on thinking about infrastructure not just in terms of what it can do next quarter-- again, i don't mean belittle the real challenges and hardships of a lot of workers and families-- but telling the story that it will address a need that has been present for a long time. if you look around the world i sometimes call this the trains, planes and automobile task. you look at the airport and the quality of airports in places like shanghai and compare that to aate low of airports in america, you see that the ability of america to attract and sgro a lot of investment in jobs is more challenge today because part of the infrastructure progress that's been made in the rest of the world. that's something we can't solve in one or two months but it's something that hopefully we can start to do in the coming weeks and months. >> ifill: matthew slaughter, the associate dean of the
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tufts school at dartmouth and robert reich, former secretary of labor. thank you both very much. >> thanks, gwen. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour, bank job cuts and stock market woes; the unrest in cairo; a new drug trial for alzheimer's patients; and special visas for circus performers. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: wall street spent most of the day lower, but rallied in the end for only the second time this month. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 69 points to close at 11,061. the nasdaq rose 27 points to close at 2495. the rate of defaults on federal student loans jumped sharply last year. the education department reported 8.8% of borrowers defaulted in 2010. that's up from 7% in 2008. the numbers underscore concerns that higher tuition and the tough job market are leaving more students unable to repay their debts. defaulting can affect credit ratings and, possibly, job prospects.
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in the presidential campaign, republican mitt romney picked up the endorsement of a former rival. the one-time governor of minnesota, tim pawlenty, said he believes romney is the right person to turn the economy around. pawlenty dropped out of the race in august. and louisiana governor bobby jindal is endorsing texas governor rick perry, the current front-runner in the race. the republican field has another debate tonight, this one in tampa, florida. a leaking gasoline pipeline exploded in nairobi, kenya, today, touching off a firestorm that killed at least 75 people. the fire ripped through a slum, turning scores of shacks into smoldering ruins, and the burning fuel even sent flames leaping from a nearby river. more than a hundred people were treated at a local hospital, many of them severely burned. >> i just heard a big blast. that's when i started seeing people on fire. all around me there was fire and people on fire. many people were siphoning of fuel from the leaking pipeline when it exploded.
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>> sreenivasan: police said many of the victims leapt into the river, trying to put out the flames. the kenyan prime minister promised an investigation. the u.n. human rights council has opened an investigation of the killings in syria. that word came today as a u.n. count found at least 2,600 syrians have been killed since protests against the government began in march. an advisor to president bashar assad insisted the real number is 1,400, evenly split between police and the opposition. pilgrims were shot dead in the remote western desert. they had been on a bus heading to syria when they were stopped at a check point by gunman. police say the victims were killed one by one and their bodies were found hours later. afghan militias and local police were accused today of serious abuses against people they are supposed to protect. human rights watch issued a 100- page report that found evidence of murder, torture, and theft, among other crimes. the group urged the afghan government and the u.s. military to take immediate action. the u.s.-led coalition said it would review the report. those are some of the day's
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major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: the troubles of the financial world, here in the u.s. and abroad, played out anew today with more disturbing news. bank of america, the nation's largest lender, announced plans to shrink the company and its workforce by 30,000 people over the next two years. it comes as the bank's value has plunged this year by 48%, to just about $7 a share. meanwhile, on overseas markets, fears about the growing impact of the european debt crisis jumped again overnight. stocks tumbled as word spread of a possible greek debt default, and reports suggested that moody's ratings would lower the credit ratings of french banks exposed to that debt. we look at bank of america's troubles and the growing tremors over global financial problems with bert ely, an expert on banking and financial services. and simon johnson, a former i.m.f. chief economist, professor at m.i.t. sloan school of management, and fellow at the peterson institute for
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international economics. thank you both. it's good to have you both back with us. >> good to be here. >> woodruff: so, bank of america, they're eliminating 30,000 jobs over the next few years. they say they're going to cut expenses $5 billion a year. they're talking about cutting off so-called non-core businesses and assets. how much of a downsizing is this for them? >> well, it's a fairly significant downsizing, roughly 10% of their work force. and yet they still have been a little sketchy about many of the details of this downsizing particularly in what we call their non-retail businesses, their capital markets business, investment banking and so forth. while they've announced in broad terms the downsizing could take place, there's still being details that have not yet been released. they may not even know this entirely themselves but it will spread out over a period of time. it is not as if 0,000 people are going to lose their jobs tomorrow.
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many of these.... >> woodruff: they're saying a combination of attrition and lay-offs. >> and also i suspect that some of those employees will be... go with businesses that are sold to someone else. they may sell some of their branches and the employees in those branches would go with them. it's not like there are going to be 30,000 people or anywhere near that number actually laid off. >> woodruff: simon johnson, right now bank of america is the biggest lender in the country. this leaves it smaller. does it leave them healthier? >> i don't think so. i think this is rearranging the deck chairs on titanic. our biggest bank has got itself into terrible trouble. it needs to be broken up much more dramatically. they bought merrill lynch at a crazy price. they need to unravel this mega bank. it's too big to manage at this point. >> woodruff: today the head of bank of america sort of left it open about what they're going to do about countrywide the big mortgage lender. >> i don't think they have a plan. as bert said, they are fishing for something. warren buffet has come in to provide system.
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that has because a little time but not much. in this market, coming from the developments in europe. >> woodruff: what do they need to do, bert, to get themselves healthy? simon johnson is saying it's like a titanic. >> well, the problems that b of a has are similar throughout the banking industry. that is that revenues have been shrinking as interest rates have declined and stayed down. they've lost a lot of fee income and so they face the same problems that all banks do of dealing with a much less revenue and they have to cut expenses. the big uncertainty for bank of america is how much are the other mortgage problems going to cost them? they're facing lawsuits in the billions, maybe several tens of billions of dollars. there's this issue with countrywide and how much that will cost them. so they have the profitability problems that all the banking companies have, but they have those problems in spate.
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on top of that some of these continuing mortgage problems. >> woodruff: do you believe they can fix it? >> it's going to be a long, hard slog for them to do so. i think eventually they can, but the stock price is going to be depressed for a long time. simon said they have to do some further downsizing. one of the problems is that merrill lynch has now been sufficiently integrated into the rest of the bank that it's really hard to spend merrill... spin merrill lynch off. one of the questions if they're going to downsize it's going to be what divisions, what markets do they pull out of? on that we have no guidance whatsoever. >> woodruff: whatever happens to bank of america, what does that mean for the broader american banking industry? >> it means we're short of capital. there's not enough equity in these banks to buffer against potential losses from problems that come to them from europe, for example, the banks were put back on their feet in 2008-
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2009 by the bush administration and the obama administration but not with a lot of capital behind them. this is increasingly going to hold them back. what holds them back is most likely going to slow job creation as we try to keep that going. >> woodruff: is there anything to give us hope in all this? it sounds pretty bleak, what the two of you are describing. >> i think we need a shift in policy. i think you need to have stronger, more effective stress tests. the last stress test done the end of last year were too weak to be effective. they're letting the banks pay out too much in dividends, too much in bonuses. they should be rebuilding their capital. they need much stronger equity bases for these businesses in order to have strong banking going forward. >> woodruff: meanwhile, banks in europe are giving everybody a headache. there were jitters today about the banking system but much more broad than that. whether greece is going to default on its debt and questions even about the french banking system. what's your sense of, first of all, of greece? >> well, increasingly the
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speculation is that greece will default. simon can speak to that certainly. and, of course the, other question is will greece be able to stay in the euro or is it eventually going to have to bail out? of course these same questions can be raised about southern european economies: italy, spain, portugal. and so in many ways the problems in europe are much broader, much more basic. and in my opinion more troubling. as bad as they may be here, i think they're worse in europe overall. >> woodruff: do you agree with that? >> yes. our banking policy has not been good. >> woodruff: not that that should make us feel much better. >> it shouldn't make us feel better at all because we're owl inter-connected. the fear factor is what keeps coming back. >> woodruff: simon johnson, we keep asking this, it seems to me, this question over and over again. that is, are these countries going to default on their debt? people keep looking at greece. they've look at other european countries.
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why are they not able to resolve it one way or another? why has it been so drawn out, particularly when it comes to greece? >> the euro zone, the euro area is a curious combination of great weakness and serious strength. the great weakness is governments like greece that can't get their fiscal accounts in order although i must say they have tried. if they were to default which is what's happening in other countries, weaker countries, you would have a collapse of the currency and a lot of problems that maybe also a recovery. that can't happen in the euro area because it's a... because everyone wants to hold their rainy damony so that strength of the euro keeps the greeks from decisive resolution of the solution. >> woodruff: looking at it from this side, do you see... how much difference does it make to the overall global economic picture how europe resolves this? >> well again picking up on something that simon said, the
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global financial system is much more integrated than it was. trade is also... we should not be indifferent to what has happened in new york. if there are serious problems they are going to have spillover effects not just in the u.s. but in the rest of the world particularly if there's an economic slowdown in europe that's going to feed back in the u.s. for instance in lower exports to europe. so we have to be concerneded about what's happening there. and the thing is in europe a lot of these problems are deep, structural problems that resolve around government policies, unionized work rules and a whole range of issues. so in the countries like greece particularly are not adjusting. this gets back to a basic question that was raised years ago. should greece have even come into the euro in the first place or would it have been better off today had it kept its own currency? >> woodruff: without resolving that, simon johnson, one analysts i was reading today said there's still a fair amount of hype involved in all of this that expectations around debt in these countries that really has justate gotten
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out of control. but the countries are really not as unhealthy as some have written them off to be. >> i would not write off europe. there are some very strong countries there. there's very productive people. but the question is, to what extent they are hanging together? are they going to work together with the european central bank with the backing of the germans and other strong nations or to what extent are the germans in a game of chicken, where the greeks said we're not going to pay. the germans said in that case we're not going to help you. they're driving their cars towards each other very fast with that very scary look in both sets of eyes. we absolutely do not need this at this stage in the global economic recovery. >> woodruff: they're driving their cars toward each other. we're watching this but we still wait to find out. >> i think the american government is standing on the side lines and saying rather quietly don't do this. this is bad. that's not particularly helpful. >> woodruff: on that note, we will leave it. i know we're going to come back to both of these questions again. simon johnson, bert ely, we thank you both.
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>> thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: tensions in post- revolutionary egypt begin boiling over anew. margaret warner reports from cairo. >> warner: the pitched battle raged for 13 hours into saturday morning as thousands of enraged egyptians tore down the israeli security wall. high above the streets six israeli embassy staffers huddled in last secure room as rioters penetrated their offices. just above their windows the israeli flag, taken for a trophy, and replaced by an egyptian flag. after a pre-dawn rescue by egyptian commandos and an israeli military flight home all but one of israel's delegation here were gone. but it wasn't only the neighborhood around the embassy that had taken a beating. so had the cold but correct peace that had held between
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egypt and israel for 30-some years. the incident sparked mixed emotions on cairo's streets. >> the people outside the embassy are are paid thugs of the old regime. >> we cannot destroy the embassy because by doing that, we destroy egypt's reputation so we say we're truly sorry and we hope relations between us will improve again. >> does anyone in the world like israel? i'm pretty sure no one does. >> warner: but there was plenty of support for the assault too. >> we support the attack of the embassy. there shouldn't even be an israeli embassy in egypt. >> reporter: since mubarak's ouster seven months ago long suppressed anti-israeli sentiment has exploded here. tensions were inflamed last month when six egyptian border guards were killed by israeli military while pursuing terrorist suspects into the sign eye. but the weekend crowd's fury, which continued into late saturday, was also fueled by
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building rage and frustration over the slow pace of change under the military council that has ruled since february's peaceful uprising. last week even a quiet game of backgammon in a cafe erupted into heated debate. >> we are in a state of chaos especially because this has been planned by the military government. it's all done intentionally. >> you should go down there with the thousands and join the revolution. >> there should be no conflict. everyone should voice their opinions freely. >> considering this is egypt this is all just a little dust that will settle down. >> freedom is beautiful, guys. >> warner: on friday at the revolution's iconic birth place to rear square tens of thousands of egyptians gathered for another protest. this one for military trials against civilians.
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at first it seemed to capture the spirit of those early days bringing together young and owed, liberal and conservative and even families with children. but an undercurrent of discontent ran deep. >> all of our demands, none of them have been responded to. and i feel like things are actually even worse now than they were before the revolution. >> warner: her financee shared her view. do you think that the military council will listen to this demonstration today? >> the military council will not listen to any of our demands because that's their track record. >> warner: their frustration was echoed with menace by one contingent in the crowd a large group of soccer fans called the ultras. they came spoiling for a fight with police with whom they've tangled often. the chance soon morphed into calls to march on the interior
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ministry. that ministry, along with a police station and the israeli embassy, all targets of friday's rage. >> woodruff: geoffrey brown talked with margaret earlier today. >> brown: margaret, hello. so this outbreak of anti-israeli sentiment. what's your sense of how strong it is and what's unleashed it? >> warner: ever since mubarak, in fact since the camp david accord and before there's been strong anti-israel feeling here but people were not allowed to sprex he is it publicly. it was an undercurrent in the press but that was it. since mubarak's fall all free expression, almost all, is allowed. in fact now you're hearing a lot of it. there's a lot of israel demonstrating. there's a lot of expression of feeling about what israel is doing in gaza and also a sense that mubarak had sold israel short and also a sense that both mubarak had sold egypt short in the whole camp david peace agreement and the way it's implemented. this was all exacerbated by the incident that took place in sinai last month with the
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killing of the egyptian soldiers and the fact that the egyptian military said nothing and did nothing about it. and so this all erupted in part, i would say, and the u.s. diplomats believed in a way fanned by the military council as well which has allowed anti-israel sentiment and demonstrations to continue in a way to deflect attention from public unhappiness with their performance. finally it all erupted or as one u.s. diplomat said to me on friday night it all tipped over. >> brown: and this has implications for the egyptian government's policy toward israel going forward. >> warner: i think so, jeff. i think whatever new egyptian government is elected when we... when egypt finally has elections will have no choice. it will have pressure from all quarters to do some sort of amendment to at least the agreements that go along with the camp david accord. >> brown: you're saying this should be seen in the larger context of a general frustration there at the slow pace of change? >> warner: of course.
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the economy is even worse than before mubarak fell. jobs are scarce. tourism is down. even more importantly to the egyptians we talked to is the sense that the revolution itself, a democratic revolution, has not been achieved, that the people in mubarak's regime who were guilty of corruption or killing protestors have not been held accountable. meanwhile, protestors arrested during the time are being tried in civilian trials. the mubarak trial, mubarak was put in trial in part to satisfy these demands or to quell these demands. what we picked up from egyptians we talked to here is incredible frustration, a feeling of impotence as opposed to the empowerment they felt when we were here in february. >> brown: what about the security situation there generally now? does the government appear to have the ability to control things? >> warner: that is "the" question. is the security apparatus unwilling or unable to keep
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order? you sense a general lawlessness here. people now are free to drive wrong way around a round-about. the police seem toothless. one person compared them to persian cats. the army is try to go exercise more control but they're stretched very thin. there is also a feeling-- and it's a conspiracy theory among many egyptians-- that in a way the military wants some level of disorder either to justify their continuance in power or because they're allied with remnants of the old mubarak regime, remnants of the business community who really don't want a full democratic revelation to take place. elections to actually take place and be free and fair and open because who knows is going to take over then. i would also add that american diplomats are very concerned that the egyptian military was unable apparently to protect the israeli embassy. that's a sacred obligation of
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the geneva convention. and it seems odd to say the least that this embassy building which had been so well fortified or protected before was allowed over many hours that have on protective wall knocked down chip by chip and for people reportedly to penetrate into the building all the way to the upper floors. >> brown: in fact, you and your team got caught up in this yourselves the other day while trying to shoot the scene at the israeli embassy, right? tell us briefly what happened. >> warner: yes, jeff. that was saturday the day after we had driven by and seen all the wreckage. we wanteded to get back up to our interviews and film it. we parked across the street directly from where the wall had been and our camera, producer, and local producer, a young woman went in to that area. she and they, as they moved around, started to be hare anded actually by a woman and then a crowd yelling at our cameraman that he was an israeli spy, yelling at her
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that she was disloyal to egypt. as they tried to get away the mob pursued them all the way across the six-lane road and over this abutment or railing. and thanks to a local cnn producer who really rescued our local producer, finally managed to get her in the car. there were all these other people also clam bering in our van. we had no driver. we clambered into the driver's seat with the producer yelling at me to drive, i drove away. later we all hooked up together. >> brown: we're very glad everyone is safe. margaret warner reporting for us from cairo. thanks so much and take good care. >> warner: thank you, jeff. >> ifill: tomorrow margaret reports on the muslim brotherhood, long banned from politics, and now debating its future in egypt. >> woodruff: an estimated five
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million americans have alzheimer's disease, and there's no known cure. but a new trial offers some early promise for tackling the disease at its early stages, using a daily spritz of insulin. ray suarez has our update. >> suarez: the idea behind the trial was relatively simple: patients with alzheimer's disease lose critical insulin in the brain as their condition worsens. what if insulin could be supplemented? researchers at the v.a.medical center in washington state did just that. they gave patients with early stage alzheimers disease a nasal spray containing insulin twice a day for four months. early ruls published in the journal of neurology today were encouraging. insulin delayed memory loss and other problems. sues ann craft led the study at the v.a.and the university of washington school of medicine where she's a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. she joins me now. professor, a lot of people are familiar with insulin as the hormone that helps metabolize
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fat and car bow hydrate. what does it do in the brain and what led people to wonder if supplementing it might help with alzheimers? >> well, you're right. the most well known role of insulin is in treating diabetes. but in the last few years we've come to understand that insulin has a number of very important roles to play in the brain. in particular, it's very critical for memory, for memory to... memories to form. and it also protects against the toxic effects of proteins like the amaloid which is the protein that collects in the brains of patients with alzheimers disease. interestingly patients with alzheimers disease appear to have a deficiency of insulin in their brain or the insulin that is there doesn't work effectively. so that led us to wonder whether or not supplementing
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insulin would be of benefit to patients with alzheimers disease, possibly to improve their symptoms or to ameliorate their pathology. >> suarez: we're still early in the course of this study. it was a small one, right? how did you pick the people who were used in this research? >> you're right. it is early in the life of this area of research. our participants were patients with very early alzheimers disease. they either had the prodromal condition or they had very mild, very early alzheimers disease. so they were volunteers who came to our clinics to be in our study. >> suarez: once they used this insulin, what could you observe happening inside their brains?
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>> well, we had three groups. we had a group who received a placebo, an inactive substance. we had two groups who received different doses of insulin. as you said, they received insulin for four months. what we saw were significant improvements in memory for the participants who received the lower dose of insulin, and we also looked for some of our participants at the way the brain was able to use gluk os. we know that that is a problem for patients with alzheimers disease. we observed for the placebo group their brain used less glucose over time which is a common pattern in alzheimers, whereas for our insulin-treated folks, they had either no change in their glucose use in their brain or in some areas even an improvement. >> suarez: how do you test someone with mild cognitive
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impairment? how do you check whether they've improved or at least slowed down in their advance? what tools do you use? >> well, there are a number of different memory tests that have been developed. the test that we used is one of the most sensitive to the very earliest stages of memory loss. it's called a story recall test. so the participants hear a story that's read to them and then we ask them to tell us back right away all of the details of the story that they've just heard. and then we wait 30 minutes and ask them again to recall all of the details. so the amount of information that they're able to hold on to over that 30-minute period is a very good indicator of the state of their memory. what we observed was that the participants that were treated with the lower dose of insulin were able to remember more details over the 30-minute period after four months of
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treatment than with the placebo group. >> suarez: you had this promising initial result in this small group, in phase 2. where do you go from here? how do you ramp up? what are you looking for? >> well, the next phase is going to be very important. what we need to do is to administer insulin for a longer period of time than four months. we need to know that this is going to be safe when it's given over a longer period. we also have some reason to believe that it will be even more effective if it's given for a longer period of time. so that's a very important next step. and our plans are to give it for a year-and-a-half. and then the other aspect of this is that we need to bring this into a larger arena. we'll be proposing a study that will be carried out in many centers across the country, in centers where
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there are alzheimers research centers that are funded by the national institutes of health. so we will be... we will be improving the study in terms of having it be translated into a larger scale and for a longer period of time. >> suarez: there are already millions of people who are taking insulin routinely. is there anything we can learn from taking a look at them? >> well, that's a very good question. of course the people who are taking insulin routinely are folks with diabetes. and we know that sky beat he's is a risk factor for alzheimers disease. that if one has diabetes, one is more likely over one's lifetime to develop alzheimers disease. it's very important for folks with diabetes to control their diabetes well. and what we've learned is is that if you are able to control your diabetes well, then you are able to reduce
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the risk of developing alzheimers. >> suarez: stressing again that it is still early days, if all goes well and the results continue to be promising, how far out are we talking about? one, three, five years before we get this as a use for insulin? >> our hope is if we're able to start this next phase of study by next summer-- that's our plan-- if we are able to receive and funding, then within three to four years we should have a very good idea of whether this will work as a therapy in the current form that we're testing. but i also want to point out in terms of a proof of concept, what our study indicates is that therapies that are directed at correcting the insulin abnormality in alzheimers disease may be very fruitful lines of research. i'm sure that the study will
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also generate a large number of studies looking at other ways of improving insulin function in the brains of patients with alzheimers disease. >> suarez: professor suzanne craft, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> ifill: finally tonight, another of our occasional reports from journalism students around the country. this one explores a little-known piece of immigration law aimed at uniquely talented individuals who want to stay in the united states. lauren rosenfeld and caroline bins at the university of california berkeley's school of journalism are the producers. lauren tells the story. >> las vegas, sin city, a pirage of neon lights in the middle of the nevada desert. and a mecca for circus artists. it attracts extraordinary talent from around the world especially from russia.
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where gymnasts and acrobats are rock stars. and clowning is not just clowning. for some it's an art form. >> this is an american school. >> a lot of feelings in it, in the russian schools. >> reporter: oleg is what the russians call a musical clown. he and his wife tatiana came to las vegas with the russian ice show which eventually closed. >> but there is.... >> reporter: oleg might have to leave america. his only hope is to qualify for either an extraordinary or exceptional ability visa. last year the department of homeland security issued more than 3,000 of these immigrant visas to acclaimed scientists,
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athletes and artists. oleg's immigration attorney help him apply. >> we submitted an application. we got a request for evidence and we've responded to it. but what i want to do.... >> reporter: the application is a shoe-in if the petitioner has an olympic medal. without such a major award oleg must meet three criteria outlined by homeland security that prove he's an asset to the united states. >> now that you've shown exceptional ability, can you also show that your immigration is of national interest, that the benefit that you will bring to the united states will spread from east to west coast. it's going to be national in scope. >> reporter: oleg thinks he has what it takes. >> i can help a lot of americans to become more professional.
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and to expand their abilities. >> reporter: many russians have obtained this visa. this man represents the best of the circus tradition that goes back more than two centuries. >> i grew up in the circus in russia. i'm the fifth generation. in the circus we had horses. all generation was training horses. me and my sister the only one who left our tradition from horses and started to learn something new and explore something different. i decided to be an airalist and my sister is is a contortion it. on the airless gymnast and straps. basically i'm holding the rope. i push myself in the air. i did the double twist. nobody in the world does it yet. i had to prove to america what i am one of the best in what i
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do. >> reporter: to prove his extraordinary ability, his attorney sent immigration authorities photos of him flying, his many awards, newspaper clippings and expert testimony. his talent got him a green card. >> you became a part of this country. you actually live here and have a green card that gives you the opportunity to make a living easier. >> reporter: he came to america on a temporary contract with the circus but steady employment allowed him to put down roots in las vegas where he met his wife marina in a show. >> in the show we fell in love. we fell in love there. >> here we are. a new baby. >> one coming. >> hopefully when she delivers this child we'll try to work... start working again together. we'll see. >> reporter: igor may not be a
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rocket scientist or a nobel prize winner, but the u.s. government found his abilities exceptional enough to be in the national interest. sergei is a talenteded per rmer who did not get an extraordinary ability visa. >> i fly in the air. i do the tricks in the air. something crazy. finish it. and make other people happy. >> reporter: sergei holds the world's record for the longest flying trapeze act but he did not meet homeland security's criteria. he finally got a green card after marrying a u.s. citizen. now he coaches gymnastics. >> i had been thinking about it. listen, united states, i was told i would work my two years contract, make some money and go back home but i love the united states. i love to live here. i still do the circus show because i want to coach kids.
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i tell the friends from russia. and then kids go on to my classes. don't fly away. i would love to see them flying in the air. i would love to see them flip. give them what i love to do. what i used to do. >> reporter: for this person, the green card she got by proving her extraordinary ability is an insurance policy. without it, her injury could mean a one-way ticket back to russia. >> at this moment right now, you know, i'm injured. i just had two shoulder surgeries. you realize one day, you know, you can continue doing this all your life. it's really really hard to think about about that because this is your passion. this is what you love doing. >> reporter: but the injury has forced her to think about life after the circus. a passion she's had since childhood. >> that's how, you know, they find talent in russia. they come to kindergarten. they look for kids. when they came i was so happy.
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i was like, you know, i'm going to be a gymnast. >> reporter: she decided to trade the bars for the trapeze which got her to america and a job at the circus. >> they basically offered me a contract doing aerial stuff. here in las vegas for a show. i said yes. like i didn't even think twice. i'm doing a contortion on the rope. very calm. it's a role for a girl. there is no safety. there's no net under you. it's just you and the rope. >> reporter: no matter what happens to her, her extraordinary ability visa guarantees she will get to stay in las vegas. but oleg is still in limbo. >> if you have all the legal papers and if you really need something? >> you can live a brilliant life here. >> reporter: but if oleg doesn't qualify? >> i'll say good buy to america. >> reporter: for the russians
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who do manage to stay in las vegas, life is about more than tricks on a rope or ice skating in a clown costume. it's about bringing a proud tradition from one country to another. where the pay is better, the audiences are bigger, and the future often looks brighter. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. president obama sent his jobs bill to congress, and once again pressed lawmakers to pass it. bank of america announced it's cutting 30,000 jobs over the next two years. and a gasoline pipeline exploded in nairobi, kenya, touching off a firestorm that killed at least 75 people. there's more about egypt on our web site. hari sreenivasan has a preview. hari? >> sreenivasan: margaret gives jeff additional details about the angry crowd outside the israeli embassy that forced the newshour team to flee. on this week's political
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checklist, david chalian talks with gwen and judy about president obama's jobs plan and tonight's tea party debate among g.o.p. candidates in florida. that's on our politics page. plus every monday on our art beat blog, find a weekly poem. today valerie nieman reads from her work. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll review tonight's tea party presidential debate and provide a first look at jim lehrer's new book on moderating debates. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: chevron. we may have more in common than you think. bnsf.
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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
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