lisa desjardins begins our coverage >> desjardins: wking the halls of congress today, students turned activists from marjory stoneman douglas high, pressing for more gun control. their supporincluding democratic congressman ted deutch who represents them, said it's past time to listen: >> they're tired of people telling them that this is hard; what's hard for them is what they're dealing with, which is the loss of 17 members of their family. things that everyone knows can be done that aren't controversial, we ve to stop viewing them as controversial and take action right now. there's no log jam around. the only log jam is that the speaker won't bring them to the floor r a vote. >> desjardins: at his news conference, house speaker paul ryan pointed to a bill his chamber already passed to strengthen current background checks, and was asked how he responds to protesters in florida and across the country, saying congress must do more. >> this speaks to bigger questions, what are we teaching kids, violence in our culture, of course we want to listen to these kids, but we also want to make

lisa desjardins begins our >> there's no reason why we should not reach a bipartisanlu on this week. >> desjardins: in the first minutes of the day, senateea majorityr mitch mcconnell talked of a quick resolution on the fate of dreamers, despite the obstacle >> yesterday a number of my colleagues announced a reasonable proposal that i believe is our best chance to actually make a law. >> desjardins: mcconnell thiew weight behind that legislation, introduced by iowa senator chuck grassley and five other conservative-leaning republicans. it mirrors president trump's own proposal. the so-calle"secure and succeed act of 2018" offers a 10 to 12 year path toanitizenship fostimated 1.8 million dreamers, brought to the u.s. illegally as childre it also includes $25 billion for a border wall and other security measures, and it limits family- based immigrant visas to spouses and unmarried children under 18. the bill also would increase punishment for those who re- enter the country illegally after deportation. in the senate halls today, grassley spoke with a mily who had concerns about the bil

j i't leave it at that. >> desjardins: the end on this issue is uncertain. as is an end date for the daca program protecting dreamers. president trump ordered it to close march 5th, but two federal judges have temporary blocked that order.oo >>uff: at the center ofat the immin debate is the tyler paley of arizona pbs has the story of one dreamer currently protected under dacan and his uncertture. >> reporter: inside ng, anquility, comfort, focu art outside, a world of uncertainty and a f what tomorrow could hold, not just for one, but for many. >> i know that the consequences are not just for me. it's for my entire family. i feel like this in the place i ve my children the best future just like my parents were able to give me the best opportunities i could ever ask for. >> reporter: alexis zazueta arrived in the united states in 1996, brought to arizona by his parents from sinaloa, mexico when he waone year old. the zazuetas were undocumented, just like 11 million other people currently in the united states. >> i didn't even know much about, you know, being

lisa desjardins takes a closer look. >> desjardins: this memo, ten pages-long and partially redacted,uts a key claim made by the previous one: that federal law enforcement abused its powers when it sought to so- called fisa wiretaps on former trump campaign aide carter page in late 2016. in a weekend tweet, the president called this latestar memo, pr by the top democrat on house intelligence, representative adam schiff, a "total political and legal bust." jamil jaffer was senior counsel for the use intelligence committee from 2011 to 2013. also served atrthe justice dent's national security division during the george w. bush administration. thank you. there's much friendly here but let's cut to the main point. the original memo charged that theb.i. and d.o.j. put a hand on the scale early oin this russia investigation by not disclosing that one of their key sources had political motivation. what did this new democratic memo add to that? >> i think it's pretty clear noj that ttice department did in fact disclose to the court that there were politvaal moons behind the steele dossier. th

that had been a problem in thes texaoting, that church shooting several months ago. >> desjardins: in midst of all this, as congress is returning to town, i think i can hear their planes landing at washington international airplane, president trump has done something different and gotten out in front. he's had more republican leaders on this. he tweeted last week he wanted an age limit, now it's not clear, today back and forth on the n.r.a. what does president trump want and how does that matter? >> exactly: what the president wants sun clear because, asen we've n almost any major issue that hats gone in front of congress, whether it's healthcare or the daca issue or now on guns, the president takes ltiple positions in twitter, in front of the press, privatel to membersngress, privately to cost, and then it leaves folks on capitol hill, especially republican allies on capitol hill, really wondering what the marching orders are at are we supposed to advocate for, because we don't quite know where the presidents. and i think tam is exactly right. what's clear that's hapening on capitol

our lisa desjardins takes a closer look atunhe policy now r consideration. >> desjardins: judy, for a closer look at family- immigration, and how it compares " the president's preferred "merit-based system joined by art arthur. he served for eight years as an immigration judge atork immigration court in york, pennsylvania. he is now a fellow at the center for immigration studie a group that advocates for stricter immigration laws. and john c. yang of the group asian americans advancing justice,n advocacy group dealing with civil rights and immigration issues. >> not related to our john yang, by the way. let me start with you, john. the u.s. family based immigration, let's talk about how this works, if you were to ha a green card this country, you are able to bring your spouse and unmarried children right now under u.s. law and if you're a s. citizen you can petition in addition to that to bring your parents, any married children you have and your siblings. this has been in blais for many decades an resulted in aystem where the u.s. has more family-based migration than any country in t

desjardins begins our coverage >> desjardins: acongressional republicans gather at a west virginia retreat mnt to tackle big goals-- a controversial four-page memo is news, speaker paul ryan found at a news conference. nearly every question was about the so-called nunes memo, drafted by republican staffers for house intelligence committee air devin nunes. it alleges f.b.i. abuses of its surveillance powers, but its contents are classified and haven't been made public. the committee has voted to me it public and the white house, which must weigh in, indicating it will likely tell congress tomorrow that it agrees with release. president trump made no mention of the memo, during his address at the g.o.p. retreat today. but democrats have been very vocal, with the ranking democrat on house intelligence, adam schiff, charging that republicans changed the memo hofore sending it the white e to approve. today in philadelphia, bluntrd from schiff, that >> desjardins: schiff said making the memo public could liundermine the bureau's a to do its job. >> so when the f.b.i. fans out across the country

lisa desjardins reports. >> desjardins: at the capitol, hours away from another government shutdown, a sweeping solution with admittws. >> i am confident that no senator on either side of the aisle believes this is a perfect bill, desjardins: still, sena leaders pushed their mega-budget deal as a way to avoid a shutdown and end budget uncertainty. a >> io confident this is our best chance to begin rebuilding our military and make progress on issuesirectly affecting the american people. >> it's a strong signal that we can break the gridlock that has overwhelmed this body and work together for the good country. >> desjardins: but as the fdnight funding deadline drew closer, the senaor was mostly empty. that's because a single senator, republican rand paul of kentucky, objected to an immediate vote, saying he would keep objecting unless the senate had a chance to reduce the spending in the budget deal. this as most members were still digesting the dense 652-page final bill, released near midnight last night. it, a big boost in defense spending: over $160 billion over the next two years.

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: president trump personally announced the decisiono release the nunes memo. >> the memo was sent to congress. it was declassified. ngress will do whatever they're going to do. i think it's disgrace, what's happening in our country. a lot of people should be ashamed. >> desjardins: the memo, written by republicans on the house ilintnce committee begins with some stunning language. it speaks of "concerns with the legitimacy and legality" of how the d.o.j. and f.b.i. have worked with the fisa-- or foreign intelligence surveillance court-- as there is a "troubling breakdown of legal processes." what is that based on? the memo centers on et surveillance of carter page, who was an advisor to then-candidate donald trump for some six months in 2016. republicans charge that the f.b.i. and d.o.j., including top officials james comey, rod rosenstein and andrew mccabe, got permission to spy on page based on flawed sources that biased against trump, a that the agencies knew that and hid it. specificly, the memo says that officials did not disclose

lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: in washington, a tale of two issues, immigration and spending, colliding around one magnetic deadline: to fund the government by thursday night. >> my guess is, they don't want a government shutdown. onwe d't want a government shutdown. no one wants a government shutdown. >> reporter: first, spending. >> they must stop using our troops as politics.he game of >> reporter: republicans like speaker paul ryan want to erase defense budget cuts, known as budget caps. their case was bolstered by the defense secretary. appearing on the hill today, he also decried temporary spending bills, or continuing resolutions. >> our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of w larfare: aid, sea, cyber and space. under frequent continuing resolutions and sequesters' budget caps, ouonadvantages cnue to shrink. >> report bill to avoid a shutdown proposes funding the military through september 30 with a $30 billion increase to avert spending cuts. the rest of government would get a temporary six weeks of funds. but this partisan funding bill ings a whop15

explore what today's pleaem agt means for the special counsel's investigation, with our own lisa desjardin carrie johnson, justice correspondent for npr. lisa, paul manafort continues to maintain he is iinocent and is to defend himself. why did rick gates plead guilty? >> talking to those closest to the investigation, gates is a father of four, this is well known, and essentially felt with the new charges coming that a trial was going to be too costly and his chances of success weree not there were a tremendous amount of very serious charges with what seemed to beof a lo evidence and the latest indictments against gates. what's more, hari, a source close to the investigation tells me that gates' team is hoping for no jail time cause of this deal. that ultimately will be up ton the judge this case but they expect a prosecutor to make that recommendati and now, as a sult, he is offering to be a cooperative witness. that has very importaio implicforce the rest of thisnvestigation. >> sreenivasan: carrie johnson, the prospect of no jail time certainly seems to be a big lure, but what's in the

of course, there's a lot of concern about all that red ink as well. >> lisa desjardins.rything you could possibly want to know about the senate thanks a lot. >> my pleasure. >> yang: in the day's other maws, the tumult on wall street eased a bit, as thet spent the day trying to get its bearings the dow jones industrial average dropped 120 points at the open, then rallied back before finally in the end, the dow lost to close at 24,893. the nasdaq fell nearly 64 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 13. a top white house side is ing after his two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse,g includnching and choking. rob porter is staff secretary,ed overseeing sing andcu nt flow in the west wing. >> yang: mr. pence is in the region to lead the u delegation to the opening ceremonies of the winter olympics in south korea. he has not ruled out meeting with north korean officials at the games, but he also said he'll remind the wort north korea is the "most tyrannical and oppressivere me" on earth. in south korea, two days before the opening ceremonies, olympic organizers are scrambling t

carrie johnson, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at duke university, and our lisa desjardinsank you both. >> woodruff: now, to the analysis of marcus and brooks. that's "new york tim columnist david brooks, and "washington post" deputy editorial pageditor ruth marcus. mark shields is away. welcome tooth of you on this friday night. let's start, pick up where we left off, dav, listening to the last conversation about the mueller investigation. there have been a flurry of indictments, some guilty pleas. what's it all add up to no? >> ieal will have no ide gates san interesting story because he had access to theur administrationg the crucial period of the transition and during the campaign, and does he have some witnessing of collusion? i guess that's the million-dollar question. i remain a skeptic about that just because i think they're too incompetento have colluded, but it could be. but the other interesting thing to me is how big this instigation is. 19 people, the charges are on so do they stay with russia, go to some of the broader financiat issuat have been alleged with d

. >> yang: lisa desjardins, thank you very money. yamiche in the white house briefing room we heard the president talking about he would love a shutdown. why is he talking about this? >> the president is talng about a shutdown for several reasons. the first is he misunderstood at was going on on the hill today. the hill and lawmakers there are talking abending bill including military and non-military spending. this is not like thlast shutdown where people were really focused on immigration. democrats were saying theyg weren't go vote for the bill if it doesn't include something to do with the daca kids, the dreameose undocumented kids that were brought here as young people. this time around, that's just not the case. president trump,owever, really maybe didn't understand that he was sitting in this t immigration s ms-13 roundtable when he made that remark, so maybe that's why immiation was on his mind. the second thing is that he likely thinks he won the immigration messaging war and the shutdown messaging war the last time the gover

of course, there's a lot of concern about all at red ik as well. >> lisa desjardins.rything you could possibly want tknow about th senate budget deal. thanks a lot. >> my pleasure. >> yang: in the day's other news, the tumult on wall street eabit, as the market spent the day trying to get its bearings. the dow joneindustrial average dropped 120 points at the open, then rallied back before finallo settlinr. in the end, the dow lost 19 points, to close 893. the nasdaq fell nearly 64 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 13 white house aide is resigning after his two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse, including punching and choking. rob porter is staff secretary, overseeing scheduling and document flow in the west wing. white house press secretary sarah sanders praised his job performance. >> i can tell you that rob porter has been effective in his role as staff secretary. thffpresident and chief of s have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performanc >> yang: porter called the allegations against him "outrageous" and "simply false." he said he'll st o

lisa desjardins reports on some ethical questions raised by his visit. >> reporter: judy, the president's son says this trip is strictly business. he says he's there to promote and sell condominium u at four different trump-branded luxury properties-- sales that the president will profit from. but ethics experts say they're concerned nald trump jr. is also mixing busineaf with state fairs. he is set to deliver a foreign policy speech at the end of this week, an event that indian prime minister narendra modi is likely to attend. sumit ganguly is a political science professor at indiana universi-bloomington. i want to started, you just returnn from india. u take us through the role of trump business in india, where it fits and then also the politicsf a trip like this. >> right. to begin with, these aremassive investments and extremely high-end investments in real estate. some of the largest indian developers of real estate are working witp h trn developing these properties in four major metropolitan areas, including in the town where i grew up in, calcutta, with a population of m lion peopl

. >>> dennis desjardins and his colleagues discovered a yellow green species of mushroom in brazil in 2007. that mushroom emits light. the discovery is being featured on a special set of united states postage stamps. it's as rare as it is beautiful. >> there are 15,000 species of mushrooms in the world. around 100 of them that emit light. they emit light to one of the few groups of organisms that emit light 24 hours a day. >>> why the glow? researchers think is may attract bugs. the mushroom needs to help it pollinate. the series goes on sale tomorrow, the stamps. >> it would emit light for the moon. they should do this for this one. i know it's a lot of money. >> look at you with all the good ideas. >>> come pg up. 7 things to know o to start your day. >>> the new payment service rolling news special report. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> good morning, for those of you just joining us of the billy graham has died at the age of 99. preacher one of the most important spiritual figures. known as a friend to presidents and met with every american president starting with harry t

report, and today, there is nothing more important, there is no feature of our society that will desjardins determine opportunity more than technology. thenternet will be a platform for opportunity or a platform for further inequality. so we've got to focus on making sure that all americs have access to the internet, that we are ableot to replicate onhe internet, in the digital world, the prejudice and injustice that have in the analog world. so i believe that a key unlocking in the future, and a way to address some ofthese sooshz by focusing on technology. >> sreenivasan: all darren walker of the ford foundation, fred harris, one of the original members of the uerner commission, thank yo both. >> woodruff: so important to hear. a news update. walmart is announcing iwill raise the age to buy guns and ammunition to 21. in 2015, the gianretailer stopped selling modern rifles, including the ar-15. the gun used in parkland, florida, and other mass shootings. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again hereow tomovening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, tha