jeffrey brown looks at what's afoot. >> brown: it all has to do the way the e.p.a. government evaluates science underlying many regulations. earlier this month the e.p.a. and the interior department announced they would review and overhaul who served on key scientific advisory boards. the e.p.a. move attracted particular notice since its administrator scott pruitt decided not to renew the contracts for half the members to have the so-called board of scientific counselors. our scientific correspondent miles o'brien is here to help fill in the picture, so, miles, the board of scientific counselors. what is that? what do they do? >> jeff, a formerly obscure board at the e.p.a. made up of 18 scientists, most academics, a few of them from industry. their goal is to get really deep in the weeds with e.p.a. staff researchers and give them some sound advice on research priorities and equipment and techniques that allow them to do their work. they do not get involved in policy, however. >> brown: what exactly happened last week? >> well, nine of them whose term had come up,

in 2012, the newshour's jeffrey brown sat down with allman to discuss his storied career. revealed his doubts about his chances to become a rock star. >> reporter: there was, however, a realistic streak in young gregg allman. he writes that he had actually intended to go to college and medical school. >> i mean no pun, but everybody and their brother had a damn rock and roll band. >> reporter: so you're looking around saying-- >> i am, yes. >> reporter: we're not going to make it here. >> we're not going to make rent doing this. my brother said, "but, no, man, we're going to be the best. we're going to be number one." ♪ ♪ >> reporter: in 1971, the allmans recorded what is widely considered the finest live album ever made, "at fillmore east." ♪ ♪ it would be their ticket to stardom. but just three months after its release, duane allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in their adopted home of macon, ga. >> well, my brother died. and then it just started raining money. and, at first, you know, i screamed and yelled and shook my fist at the sky and yelled, shortchanged. >> re

you can watch jeffrey brown's 2012 interview with allman online at www.pbs.org/newshour. and hall of fame pitcher jim bunning has died at age 85. bunning threw a no-hitter in both the american and national leagues, and, after baseball, he represented kentucky for 22 years in the u.s. congress. tomorrow on the broadcast, "sgt. pepper" at 50 and j.f.k. at 100. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by

of hope are a rise in citizen efforts to take part in the nation's political and cultural life, jeffrey brown our story, part of his ongoing series, 'culture at risk.' >> brown: the medina of tunis, the old center of the city, dating back to the 7th century. its narrow walkways, vibrant colors, and grand architecture evoke a rich past. now nestled within a sprawling modern city, the medina remains a home to some 100,000 residents, 15,000 homes, 700 monuments, and abundant commerce within its sprawling souks, or markets. for hundreds of years, places like this were the heart of life in the arab world. the question today is how to preserve something of their old character, even as the society around them changes. architect zoubeir mouhli grew up here in the medina, now heads an organization to preserve it. >> ( translated ): when i was a student, i dreamed of working in the medina because i knew there were so many hidden things people didn't know about that are incredibly valuable. >> brown: for him this place represents a way of life, an alternative to the modern city. >> ( translated ): there

jeffrey brown has our report, part of our weekly series, "making the grade." >> brown: the reality of one 9th grade girl's life, told in the language of poetry, by nakia sales. >> black kid, black kid, you've been shot. black kid, black kid, why you have to die? never got to see you walk across the stage in a suit and tie. now your momma crying over your casket, asking god, why? >> brown: earlier, at her westside chicago school, she'd told me how she came to write her poem: >> when we came back from christmas break, i had just lost two of my friends. >> brown: lost them to violence? >> yeah. they was walking down the street one day and a car had rolled past and they had got shot, both of them in the head. and then when i got back to school that day and i got to writing, "black kid" immediately came to my mind. >> brown: this ceremony at the harold washington public library was the culmination of a year- long pilot program to bring poetry into the curriculum of about 40 inner-city chicago high schools. and a chance for students to read their work for juan-felipe herrera, the outgoing u

as she recently told jeffrey brown at the met, there's plenty of singing and much more to be done. ♪brown: it is perhaps renee fleming's most renowned role-- the ¡marschallin', a beautiful but aging noblewoman who loves and loses a much younger man, in richard strauss' opera, "der rosenkavalier." >> this has been my home house since 1992, and... >> brown: it's a pretty good place to be. >> people ask me, well, when people said where do you like to sing the most i always said the met, because it was my home. >> brown: this may be the last time renee fleming sings this opera, after some 70 performances over more than two decades. but let's make one thing clear: this diva is not departing. >> no, no, no. that's a very exciting headline, and certainly i'm saying goodbye to the marschallin and to the bulk of the repertoire that i've sung at the met. so that's already a sad farewell, and a timely one. but it doesn't change my schedule very much. i'm in great voice. i'm a lifelong gregarious experiencer of new things. >> brown: now 58 and the mother of two adult daughters, fleming will cont

jeffrey brown reports on what kind of welcome they'll be receiving. >> brown: a protest earlier thisr on the streets of tunis: a sign of democracy in the new tunisia, where past demonstrations would have been brutally suppressed. but also a sign of lingering political crisis. citizens rallied against the return of thousands of fellow tunisians who have fought abroad for the islamic state and other jihadi groups, and now want to return home. >> these people are not tunisian, they are monsters. >> brown: doctor naziha gouider helped organize the protests. she's a neurologist in a well- off suburb of tunis and fears the impact the returnees will have. >> they are people who have no nationality. they decided to go to a place to have another nationality because this place is called a state. >> brown: isis. >> yeah. >> brown: but family members of those accused of fighting for isis just want their loved ones home. >> ( translated ): my brother is one of tunisia's young people, who were marginalized, who got lost. >> brown: before dawn on a recent morning, this woman-- we agreed to conceal

and, preserving the heart of a very old city: jeffrey brown takes us to tunisia, a country with a newly democratic government, working to embrace the richness of its culture. >> civil society is very active today in investing. investing time, money, energy, vo

jeffrey brown talks with the winning author. latest in our newshour bookshelf series. >> a couple from west africa working for a wealthy new york family as the great recession is about to hit in 2008. the novel behold the dreamers is a story of the contemporary american dream through the lens of class, race and immigration. author imbelow mbue came to the u.s. in 1998 and became a citizen in 2014. this is her nurse novel and because of that more congratulations to you. >> thank you, jeffrey. >> you're working here in great american fiction tradition about immigration. what did you want to bring to that story. what did you want to tell. >> when i start writing this novel, it wasn't very much about immigration, it was about the financial crises. i was very interested in how the financial crises affected the customs and different economic. so i wanted to write about an immigrant, but of course an immigrant comes here for the american dream. i wanted to write about how that affected him and how this is explore like the dreams and ho

jeffrey brown takes a look at the business model that's driving hollywood. >> brown: it's a tried-and-truemula the hollywood studios bet on each summer: bring on a heavy dose of aliens-- they can be scary, friendly, even funny. add a group of charged-up superheroes, throw in a few raunchy comedies, plus some kids flicks, and make sure there are plenty of explosions. what's changing is how the summer season begins ever earlier. this weekend features the release of one of the bigger sequels of the year: "guardians of the galaxy, volume 2." the first movie was something of a surprise hit, grossing nearly $800 million worldwide. a mix of special effects, action and comedy and based on a comic book, producers say they are looking to tap into mass appeal again. >> i think audiences are going to love, first off, many of the things they loved in the first movie, the humor, the action, the scope, the characters. i think the key to keeping these movies fresh is being able to give the audience a new story that nobody expects but that still feels totally organic. a movie that's totally >> brown: the n

jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: "a hidden horror educators have long been warned not to ignorehat's the description of sexual abuse in schools by the associated press, which published its story today. a.p. reporters found that students were seven times more likely than adults to sexually assault another student. during a four year period, the a.p. tallied at least 17,000 cases around the country. these included many cases that were treated as bullying or hazing instead. emily schmall is a member of the a.p. team. she joins me now from dallas. thanking for joining us. one key point you're making is that this happens more often than we know, right? is it possible to say how pervasive it is? >> yes, it's absolutely true. it happens far more often, i think, than people realize. to say exactly how pervasive it is, it's difficult though. because just like rape and sexual assault perpetrated in other places, rape and sexual assault in schools is definitely underreported. so while we have been able to tally about $17,000 incidents over the four years, experts have told us it's just the

jeffrey brown has this latest addition to the "newshour bookshelf."w heard "black lives matter." >> yes. what do you think about that? >> brown: so owe political coldy, the work of w. kamau bell, host of cnn's united shades of america in which he does something unusual, seek out the america and americans we don't know or regularly interact with. >> come here. an you tell me a little bit? what you said is true, all lives should matter, but not right now. >> but they don't do. many people it does because all lives don't matter in the same way and all lives matter is an aspirational goal. white people, learn from her! >> brown: bell expands on his own view of the world in a new book the awkward thoughts of w. kamau bell with the subtitle tales of a 6-4, heteroamerican, cisgender, map ma's boy, dad and standup comedian. welcome. that says it all. >> that's the whole book. >> brown: we don't have to read the back anymore. awkward thoughts, the title. what does that mean? >> it comes from the fact that i realize the best things that have happened to me in l

but with so many books to choose from, jeffrey brown turns to two writers for some help making thoseks. its part of our regular "newshour bookshelf" series. >> brown: some of us go for lighter fare, some catch up on missed readings, and others go for re-readings of old favorites. we get some summer picks from two prominent writers who also own bookstores. louise erdrich is author of 15 novels as well as nonfiction and poetry. her most recent novel is "la rose," and the roundhouse was winner of the national book award for fiction. she's the owner of birchbark books in minneapolis. and emma straub's novels include "modern lovers" and "the vacationers," she is co-owner with her husband of the brooklyn, new york bookstore, books are magic. welcome to the both of you. i'm guessing that you both are year-round readers, but let me start with you louise. does summer reading have a particular resonance for you, things you go after? >> it does. i'm here in minnesota, so the i go to the lake, and i bring a load of books, and i sink into them, and read wherever i am around a lake. that's how we

jeffrey brown has this latest addition to the "newshour bookshelf." >> brown: few presidents we read in an early biography of richard nixon came so far, so fast, so alone, and we can add: few fell so far, so fast, so alone. more than that, as "richard nixon: the life" makes clear, so much of his political legacy continues to permeate today. author john a. farrell joins me now, and welcome to you. let me start there-- for some broad context, what fundamental way is richard nixon still with us in our political culture? >> nixon practiced what i call the politics of revance. he came from a very unfortunate background. almost a dickensian childhood, with a mean father, a very frosty mother, poverty and sickness in the household. and he had that ability to identify, in his audiences, in the electorate, their own resentments, and to tap them. and he didn't realize until the end, the famous speech where he talks about hate destroying yourself, how dangerous that was. and by then, this sort of politics of deliberate polarization that he pioneered had taken root. >> brown: what was so interes

. >> yang: and now, jeffrey brown takes it from there. >> brown: so what is likely to come of the trump-erdogan meeting? andhow serious are the tensions between the two allies? to help us answer those questions, we turn to: soner cagaptay of the washington institute for near east policy. he is the author of "the new sultan: erdogan and the crisis of modern turkey." and, ali cinar, president of the turkish heritage organization, who's just come from a meeting with president erdogan. let me start with you, ali cinar. let's get right to that question of the main dispute the u.s. decision to arm a kurdish militia fighting in syria. how much anger did that provoke in turkey? >> well, it was-- it was a really bad perception from the turkey side because since the terror attacks increase in turkey, the turkish people got upset with united states since u.s. support p.y.d. so the meeting today with president trump and erdogan, mainly focused on p.y.d., and extradition of fethullah gulen. so there were two important major issues that they discussed noontime. >> brown: and soner cagaptay, what did presiden

have a question -- >> cnn confirmed a lot of this is, pamela brown, jake tapper, a lot of this as well, gloria -- >> wai was going to ask jeffrey one question because he knows so much about this. does motive matter? if you take a look at president and you take a look at what happened in the oval office, if he did disclose classified information, he clearly some people will say didn't mean to disclose classified information. if in fact it is obstruction, did he mean to obstruct justice or did he just not know that that is what it was when he was asking for a favor on behalf of his friend, general flynn. my question to you is, where does motive come into all of this discussion? >> that's a very good question. you have to decide, are we talking about a political trial, high crimes and misdemeansor or criminal trial where the laws are very much more closely defined. the statute that i was talking about, session -- title 18 section 2,000, section 15203 an 1512, the defendant has to act corruptly. that is usually left up to the jury to decide, corruptly. but i suppose donald trump could say i was just acting out of humanitarian reaso

jeffrey has been best friends with the victim since they were in daycare. >> he was really funny. he was really outgoing. he was a friend to everybody. >> harrison brown killed three others slashed by the attacker. >> i have one white male college student. he's conscious. >> reporter: police say this man, another ut student, went bize bizerk armed with a hunting knife. witnesses say at first the stabbing spree seemed unreal. >> he grabbed this guy by the shoulder and stabbed him in the back. >> reporter: as video posted on social media shows, campus police wrestled the suspect to the ground. officials say the arrest coming just two minutes after police were first called. in custody this morning, 21-year-old kendrick >> the individual didn't actually just attack people that were right there. he walked a little ways and then stabbed another individual and so forth. >> reporter: one classmate of the alleged knife-wielding attacker said he noticed a personality shift after he was arrested for an alleged dwi last month. >> he was missing from class for about a month. he was pretty depressed. >> reporter: harrison brown's former school district remembering

brown himself, still under house arrest in dallas. then we look at black mama's bail out day, an efforto raise money jeffrey as many african-american women from jail as possible before mother's day. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump has once again changed his story about why he fired fbi director james comey. now admitting on nbc he made the decision in part due to comey's probe russia's meddling in the 2016 election. pres. trump: regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. just do it him i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. it is an excuse for the democrats are having lost an election that they should have one. amy: president trump's comment directly contradicts numeral matters -- numerous statements by white house aides in recent days, as well as trump's own claim he fired, over the handling of the investigation into hillary clinton and her use of private you now servers. according to "the new york times," comey was fired a