. >> feinberg is a good man, but he's a lawyer. we have had a lot -- not a lot, but with some dealings with lawyers. who knows? one man can only do so much. you know, you see all the p.r. campaigns. like mr. feinberg, i respect and appreciate him coming, but really it's p.r. that's why he came here today is p.r., really. >> feinberg told us their skepticism is understandable. >> talk is cheap in doing this. they're absolutely right. it's all well and good to give people a comfort level that you will respect their claim, that they make a credible argument that they will be paid. until the check is in the mail, i must say everybody has a right to be skeptical and question the legitimacy of this and will it work? and that is fair and i understand that. >> reporter: with the fishing fleet still in port and no new seafood flowing through the system, the towns along the gulf wait for feinberg to make decisions that may ultimately spell financial life or death for thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of people. >> ifill: now,

gulf oil spill victims from jefferson parish president john young and fund administrator kenneth feinberg. >> brown: ray suarez wraps up his series of stories from africa with a look at the suspected link between illness and intelligence. >> does being sicker as a child make it harder to learn for the rest of your life? we're asking that question in heavily disease burdened and very low-income mozambique. >> lehrer: we examine the options for u.s. policy after north korea's artillery attack on a south korean island yesterday. >> brown: and judy woodruff looks at the future of space exploration with science correspondent miles o'brien. >> 500 people have flown to space for so far. in the his of the space program. the notion is there will be 500 a month flying or maybe even more than that if the power of the entrepreneurial spirit is opened up. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> this was me-- best ribs in nelson county. but i wasn't winning any ribbons managing my diabetes. it was so complicated. there was a lot o

. >> reporter: kenneth feinberg was appointed by both b.p. and the goverment to administer the fund. he says he is completely independent of both, but some people we talked to didn't think so. among them, walton kraver who attended one of feinberg's meetings last summer at bayou la batre, just across mobile bay from gulf shores. kraver owns several seafood- related businesses. >> we're running out of money quick, ok? and we have already closed one business, ok? >> i will check on that claim, even though i'm not up and running yet, and try and accelerate the payment of that claim. >> reporter: kraver's son, patrick, and daughter-in-law lillie say feinberg promised to personally get back to their family--but never did. >> mr. feinberg promised us personally at a meeting with my dad and he pointed his finger at him and mr. kraver he said you are directly affected we need to get you some money quick. six months later after we had to call him and say look this is getting out of hand we've got to have some money now and we submitted a figure that w

what was feinberg's assignment? >> basically, he was asked to look at the window in which banks were taking t.a.r.p. money, but before they had passed some tough executive compensation rules, so they weren't playing by any rules but were getting government funds. he was asked to see whether the banks and the financial firms had made any payments that were inconsistent with the public interest. >> we have a graphic to show our audience, but it includes the likes of bank of america, citigroup, j.p. morgan chase, big guys. >> yeah, the biggest firms. you'll remember back in october of 2008 when t.a.r.p. was first passed, goldman sachs, they took money from the government. some needed, some didn't. they were making big payments. >> ken feinberg said that they were unwarranted and ill advised but he says he can't get the money or won't get it. what strictures is he working under? why not go after the money? >> he has very limited authority. congress gave him the ability to go back and look and look at the payments that w

ken feinberg. pay czar, compensation czar. >> thank you very much. >> ifill: finally tonight, another take on the financial crisis and the bubble that popped. jeffrey brown talks to michael lewis about his new book. >> when the stock market tumbled and major financial institutions collapsed in late 2008, it was a surprise and shock to many americans. but for a few people deep inside the world of mortgage-backed securities and complex derivatives, it was just what they expected and even bet on. some of their stories are told and a larger financial drama explained in "the big short." the author is michael lewis, a journalist and writer who's previous books include "liar's poker" and "the blind side". >> thank you. >> your way in was against the few characters running against the pack. >> first, it was a fantastic story i couldn't believe hadn't been told. the financial world had essentially between 2005 and 2007 organized itself around a giant bet. and the entire financial system, but for a few, were

ken feinberg is a hero, he'll be honest and straight.i'm worried about the erosion of the rule of law, which is the president using the vast powers of the federal government to strongarm a company no matter how unpopular and no matter how badly they may have behaved. >> lehrer: you see it the same way, mark? >> i don't, jim. i think david's one-third is interesting but now persuasive. this was not the president brutallizing anybody. b.p. made a corporate decision , its leadership dat the outset to acknowledge accountability and responsibility, to assure that they would, in fact, pay the full cost, and make people whole. and what the president does-- and i think it can be said of the presidenciy-- he may not have been jack kennedy in the oval office but he was lyndon johnson behind closed doors at the white house. i think he took that and put bones and flesh on it and said, "okay, this is what it's going to be. you can come up with $20 billion and they could have delayed the process. they could have gone the legal due process and all the

feinberg, your formula doesn't take into account extraordinary circumstances. i've heard some cases, one lady has lived for ten years with a felony conviction for reckless driving because no one knew at the time, they blamed her. nobody knew at the time it was the switch. that lady has extraordinary claim here, and we will go outside the formula and take a look at those unique characteristics. >> brown: this is a case, and i think b.p. was also, where you were hired by the company to help settle. gm, of course, has been under extreme criticism for keeping this to itself. what is your relationship with gm? what is your experience so far in terms of their cooperation? >> first of all, they've been extraordinarily cooperative. mary barra has lived up to her promise in terms of cooperating completely with me and the team that we've assembled in trying to design this program. i have no complaints whatsoever. i think the plaintiff's lawyers around the country, bob hilliard and lance cooper and elizabeth cabrese and others have been extremely cooperative. the center f

attorney ken feinberg has been named the fund's administrator. overseen similar efforts befo for 91; the shootings at virginia tech and aurora, colorado and after the b.p. oil spill. he joins me now. ken feinberg, welcomeack to our pogram. one keecision,obvisly, who will be eligible? what can you tell us so far? >> well, how much money is there in all of these programs that i administer. first you have to determine how much there is to distribute. then who's eligible, how much should eligible claimants receive? how quickly? these are the tough decisions have that have to be made once a fund is established and certain individuals are deemed eligible to receive the funds. the >> brown: is insurance coverage a factor either way? wheer pple have i or do't have it? >> no. these are programs in which donors voluntarily, private donors, submit funds to a central fund and basically say "we want to help the victims. " the funds would get bogged down terribly if you started asking questions about need, collapse ral sources of insurance. the nature here is

plus an interview with kenneth feinberg, the government's pay czar. >> lehrer: ray suarez wraps our series on the recession, from a small tourist town in the pacific northwest. >> the speculators are in the town like the romans, you know. >> lehrer: that's patchwork nation: tonight, in lincoln city, oregon. >> woodruff: then, from europe, margaret warner's latest dispatch on attitudes toward afghanistan. >> germany has the third largest contingent ofo troops in afghanistan but so far has resisted on sending more. i will explore way in a special report from berlin. >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. that's coming, on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: monsanto. producing more. conserving more. improving farmers' lives. that's sustainable agriculture. more at producemoreconservemore.com. >> chevron. this is the power of human energy. intel. supporting coverage of innovation and the economy. and by toyota. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and aroun

evan feinberg is president of generation opportunity. last year he made an unsuccessful run for congress as a republican. also joining us is anya kamenetz. she's the author of "generation debt." welcome all. >> thank you. >> brown: matthew segal, let me start with you. before the president and the congress, what in a nutshell do you think is the best approach right now? >> i think first of all we need to put this in a larger context and go after the source of the problem which is the spiraling cost of education in the first place which is far outpacing the cost of inflation. it's far outpacing the cost of any good. and until we really rein in on the cost of education, look at the states, 47 states have cut higher education, look at the fact that colleges are not necessarily spending their money on learn bug, in fact, on the college experience, investing their money in the wrong sorts of priorities that are for prestige as opposed to the core competency of the school. and improve the job market so there's not such a monopoly on needed to

feinberg, welcome to the "newshour".conversation as we were saying, about whether this accident could have been prevented with some sort of safety mechanism. is there a mechanism or or device or system that could have prevented it? >> well, thanks for having me, judy. you know, we don't know the cause of the accident yet. the ntsb is the lead investigative agency into what caused this accident. we'll know more soon. but to the extent that speed could have been a factor here or was a factor here, we know that positive train control can have a huge impact on speed and can really keep trains from going over speed. so it's a really important technology that needs to get implemented along the country's rail system. >> woodruff: why is it implemented? if it's known it can make a difference in a situation like this, why isn't it in all passenger trains? >> congress passed a law requiring it to be implemented by december 31 of 2015, so the end of this year. amtrak has said they will meet that deadline. other commuter railroads a

i think it's a very positive move to hear that they have hired ken feinberg because consumer groups asked mary barra in a letter to set aside a $1 billion fund to compensate others, people who were injured or killed in crashes that occurred before july 2009, which is the date of the bailout. what happened in the bailout, it was quite unusual, in my view, is that they said any crash that occurred before the bailout is the responsibility of the old general motors which has no money and, therefore, people are not going to get any money, in i compensation for their injuries. >> ifill: so there's a liability pre-2009, a liability shield? >> there's a liability shield, that's right. the fact that she's now talking about having ken feinberg look at this and see if there's a way to compensate these individuals, i think that's a very positive move and i hope that that occurs. >> ifill: david shepardson, i want to ask you about the national highway traffic safety administration as well, their role, they were also testifying today, they were also pressed on these questions. did lawmakers seem to bel

. >> kenneth feinberg will oversee the payments. he ran the 9/11 victims' compensation fund and is currently the government's pay-czar, setting salary limits for bailedded out companies. in addition, b.p. upon contribute $100 million to help oil industry workers who have been idled by the federal moratorium on democratsea drilling. after today's talks, the b.p. chairman also announced the oil giant will suspend dividend payments to its shareholders for the rest of the year to ensure it meets commitments to the gulf coast. >> i would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the american people on behalf of all the employees in b.p. many of whom are living on the gulf coast. i hear comment sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care. but that is not the case in b.p. we care about the small people. >> woodruff: since the spill began 58 days ago, b.p.'s stock has been hammered down to half its previous value, and in recent days, talk of a claims fund raised new concerns in britain. prime minister david cam

>> reporter: this jewish restaurant in berlin has frequently been the taf abuse that owner yorai feinberg did not consider worth reporting to the police. but the most recent episode,lv ing a drunken man from former east germany, has provoked nationwide alarm aboutt growing anti-sm. >> ( translated ): why are you even here after 1945, if six million people of your kind were murdered? what are you doing here? >> ( translated ): no one protects you, no one protects you. they wilall end up in the gas chamber. all back to your stupid gas chambers. nobody wants you here, nobody wants you. >> ( translate): no one wants you here in your small jewish restaurant. >> most of my family was murdered. it's not pleasant to hear something like this. >> reporter: the video triggered a torrent of further threats and abuse, most, reportedly, from muslims, that are now being investigated by german police. >> the day after, two arabic guys threw fireworks at our guests, at us. some people called to say they were coming here to eat dead jews. we are often facing anti-semitic attacks. vandalism, phone calls wit

kenneth feinberg, president obama's choice to administer the claims said the payouts will be more generous than if victims go through the courts. feinberg also stressed it was his idea to include a "no sue" rule for anyone who receives a final settlement from the $20 billion compensation fund. stocks fell on wall street today over concerns the economic recovery is stalling. the dow jones industrial average lost 39 points to close at 10,174. the nasdaq fell 20 points to close above 2159. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: now, the pakistan floods. the waters continue to spread south, while the damage left in the waters' wake to the north create new challenges for an area still coping with fallout from the fighting between the taliban and pakistani government. special correspondent saima mohsin reports from the town of nowshera. >> reporter: these scenes speak volumes about people's desperation. it's one we saw again and again. women and children don't stand a chance. these young eyes have seen too much. fleeing from the taliban, witnessing public beheadi

sarah feinberg, thank you very much for beingere. you just heard some of those voices of transit workers all over the country and the concerns they have about going back to work in this pandemic. can you help us-- how do you guarantee that those workers will be safe so that we n reopen? >> yeah, thank you for having me. so, look, it is this has been unprecedented for the city of new york, for the state of new york. but this has also been an unprecedented crisis for new york city transit. so new york city transit is made up of 53,000 men and women who show up every day to operate buses and to operate trains and to get people safely from one place to the other. i mean, look, the reassurances that i can give is that we are doing everything we can possibly do to keep people as safe and healthy as we as we can. so we are distributing massive amounts of personal protective equipment, gloves, masks, suits, face shields, hand sanitizer. we are cleaning and disinfecting our stations and our trains and our rail cars. you know, sometimes two, f