jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: common core was initiated in 2009 by the nations' governors, seeking national standards for math and english literacy. u.s. secretary of education arne duncan supported the move, spending $350 million to develop common core tests. >> i believe this new generation of assessment is an absolute game-changer for american education. >> brown: in relatively short order, nearly every state, plus the district of columbia, agreed to create curricula based on the common core guidelines. but more recently, a backlash has begun. last month, indiana became the first state to drop the common core standards it had already adopted. governor mike pence explained the move in an indianapolis radio interview. >> hoosiers should be very proud and take every opportunity to be engaged in the fact that we're the first state in the country that's really going back to the principle that education is a state/local function. >> brown: now, oklahoma and other states are moving to follow indiana's lead. the criticism initially stemmed from republicans leery of federal involvement w

. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, also ahead tonight: jeffrey brown reports from the asian nation of myanmar. a country taking small steps toward healing after years of war and rebellion. >> brown: not long ago, this was an area of violence. home to what was often called the world's longest-lasting civil war. but a cease-fire is now in place, offering the chance for peace and a possible model for this long closed-off country.

jeffrey brown recently traveled to myanmar for a look. here's the first of his reports. >> brown: it is a land long shrouded in mystery. kept isolated from the world for more than 50 years. now, as myanmar begins to open up, its wonders and beauties become clearer. but so do it's complexities and huge difficulties. one place to see it all is here in karen state in the southeastern part of the country. where signs of the past are a reminder of the tenuous political situation. not long ago this was an area of violence, home to what was often called the worlds longest- lasting civil war. as ethnic karen people fought the central government for independence. but a cease-fire is now in place, offering the chance for peace. and a possible model for this long closed-off country. >> brown: for these young girls, their faces adorned with the traditional tree bark cream that women here use as sun block. that means the possibility of coming to paan, karens capital city, to attend a government accredited school. these are the children of rebels who lo

. >> ifill: plus, the second of jeffrey brown's reports from the asian nation of myanmar. tonight, the struggle to preserve it's grand architecture and cultural history, in the face of rapid change. >> the city once called rangoon is often said to be frozen in time. that's changing and quickly. the key question is how to preserve something of the past while moving into a 21s 21st century future. >> ifill: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber- operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. that's bae systems. that's inspired work. >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on.

. >> ifill: plus, the second of jeffrey brown's reports from the asian nation of myanmar.night, the struggle to preserve it's grand architecture and cultural history, in the face of rapid change.

also ahead, jeffrey brown and poet laureate natasha trethewey travel to mississippi and alabama to find "where poetry lives," and discover how song and verse were instrumental in the civil rights struggle. >> words meant everything. words, music! what's not word? what's not the spoken word? selma and the movement would haven

jeffrey brown has that story. >> brown: the report cites incidents dating back to 2010: 37 people shot by police, 23 of them fatally. the most recent occurred just last month and was caught on videotape: the fatal shooting of james boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness. that led to a violent street protest against alleged police brutality. gene grant, host of "new mexico in focus" on new mexico public television, has been covering this story and joins us tonight from albuquerque. well, gene, the justice department cited a pattern of excessive force, so they're seeing something that links all these shooting, right? explain that. >> you for example it's interesting, as you mentioned there were 37 incidents, 27 of them fatal and what they were looking for quite specificallyly f there was an unconstitutional pattern of fourth amendment rights being violated here. and they were quite strong in their opening statement right off the bat of the hearing this morning, that in fact they're findings did find in fact that the albuquerque police department had a number of

. >> ifill: jeffrey brown picks up the story from there. >> brown: we look at the new guidelines with bill mccollum, former attorney general from florida and-- he is now a lawyer in private practice in washington and vanita gupta of american civil liberties unit and from the aclu center for justice, what is the problem addressed here by the president and attorney general holder. >> sure, well, vince 1980 our federal prison system has grown by about 800%. and about half are serving time for drug offenses. the attorney general put it better than anyone, our nation's top law enforcement ferr, back in august, when he said too many people are serving too much time in our federal prison system for low-level o february-- offenses. it's coming at a huge cost to taxpayers. the federal prison system right now is about 35 to 40% overcrowd. and it's over 70% ofs this serving name our federal pli sons are black and hispanic. the federal prison system has been racially disproportionate in its impact so this is part of the problem that the attorney general is seeking to solve. >> brown: bill mccollu

. >> reporter: for more, we turn things to jeffrey brown. >> brown: joining us now, neal katyal, the former acting solicitor general of the united states and legal adviser to the broadcasters. and gary shapiro, the president and c.e.o. of the consumer electronics association. his organization filed a brief with the supreme court in support of aereo. welcome to both of you. thrash out a little bit of what marcia was just saying. why should a.e.r.e.o. be subject? why can't it use antennas over public airways to offer services to consumers? >> as the justices pointed out, everyone else who grabs content has to pay for it and the broadcast companies spend each year billions of dollars, creating, acquiring and distributing content and if an interlocher can come along like a.e.r.e.o., and a.e.r.e.o.'s business model is essentially grabbing those signals over the air, bundling them together and selling them for a profit, well, then, the entire model and promise of copyright law is going to be disrupted. so i think the debate today in the court really properly focused on the question, it was

jeffrey brown has our book conversation. >> reporter: nazi scientists, some tied to war crimes including horrific concentration camp experiments left the u.s. in a secret program to advance american security interests during the cold war. it sounds like the plot of a film drama but actually happened and on a large scale. the story is told in the new book operation paperclip: the secret intelligence program that brought nazi scientists to america." annie jacobsen joins us. they were sought out by the military as the war was coming to an end. >> these were hitler's top weaponmakers and operation paperclip became a military program to bring them to the united states and also had a public face. there was on the one hand the truth about the program kept secret and the other hand the idea that we'll tell the public that these are the good germans. >> brown: but they were dedicated nazis, the ones you write about. there were 1,600 in all. >> yes. >> brown: you document about 21, dedicated nazis, some involved in horrific stuff. what they did was known to the americans seeking them out? >> certa

jeffrey brown kicks it off with a look back at anderson's groundbreaking performance. >> 75,000 are here at the lincoln memorial to hear marian anderson, a contralto, who is making her debut at the emancipation shrine. >> brown: april 8th, 1939. marian anderson made her statement against racism through the power and beauty of her voice. >> ♪ my country tis of thee sweet land of liberty >> brown: three quarters of a century later, young people gathered at the same spot to honor marian anderson and commemorate her easter day concert. >> ♪ he's got the whole world in his hands ♪ >> brown: the washington performing arts society's "children of gospel choir" sang. anisse murillo, a junior at eleanor roosevelt high school in greenbelt, maryland, told us why she'd wanted to take part. >> this event today could show all these young people today to go home and find out who marian anderson is and the word will then spread. it taught me actions speak louder than words and you don't have to get all angry. you just have to keep going and kill people with kindness. >> the light in her beautiful voice o

jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: crowds flooded the vatican today ahead of sunday's historic canonization of popes john paul ii and john xxiii. more than a million people are expected to pack st. peter's square as two of the 20th century's most beloved pontiffs are declared saints. >> ( translated ): they were both great popes. they changed what was the course of the church throughout centuries. so i think that they will do a lot as saints, too. >> brown: john paul ii will achieve that status faster than anyone in modern times. the polish cardinal was elected pope in 1978, at the height of the cold war, and stood as a firm opponent to communism. he became wildly popular, and was greeting the faithful in st. peter's square in may 1981 when he was shot by a turkish guan. he recovered and ultimately reigned for 26 years until his death in 2005. since then, though, there has been continuing criticism over the handling of sexual abuse by priests under his watch. >> the sex abuse affair is a dark page of his papa in my opinion, during the last year of his papacy, john paul ii wasn't informed en

jeffrey brown has the story, part of his series, "culture at risk". >> the 4,000 year old temples of karnak in egypt are now being restored. these first pictures show the amount of work being carried out by the egyptian authorities. >> brown: for decades egyptian and international archeologists have worked to carefully excavate and preserve some of the world's most treasured historical sites and objects. the ancient pyramids of giza. the valley of the kings. the tomb of king tut. and others, thousands of years old, many yet to be unearthed. in the aftermath of egypt's january 25th, 2011 revolution, which threw out longtime leader hosni mubarak. competing interests have jockeyed for political control, there's a security vacuum in parts of the country, tourists have largely stayed away. and egypt's antiquities have been increasingly under threat from looting, vandalism, illegal development and violence. just in january, a car bomb targeting cairo's security directorate did major damage to the museum of islamic arts across the street. and last summer, thieves broke into the malawi natio

jeffrey brown has our report >> you may see me wearing a blue suit or blue pants and a blue shirt but the reality is that my journey began inside of a jail cell just like this, 26 years ago. >> brown: michael santos is back behind bars. >> i feel a real kinship with every guy in this room. every man wearing orange. >> brown: but this time, it's his choice. santos was just 23 when he was convicted of trafficking cocaine in 1987. >> brown: his operation was big enough to drew a 45 year sentence. and with credit given for good behavior, he served 26 years in federal prisons. now he's telling inmates his personal story of transformation. >> the vision that i always had that i would be able to come back to society, put on a suit and tie, and have nobody know that i ever served a day in prison. and that's the vision that i want to instill in every man in this room. >> brown: santos had support from his family. but he also had an inner drive that's apparent to this day. here's you as a very young man. >> yes, i'm 23 years old, locked inside of a pierce county jail >> brown: from the moment h

jeffrey brown has the story, as part of our american graduate project, a public media initiative funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. >> brown: in fact 81% of american high schools graduated on time in 2012. that is up from 73% six years earlier. the report is based on statistics from the u.s. department of education and complied by a coalition called america's promise alliance. joining us now is john bridgeland president and ceo of civic enterprises, one member after this group and awnlor of today's report. he has been advisor to the american graduate project. wewelcome to him. >> thank you. >> brown: what is driving got news? how did we get there? >> the significant gains in graduation rates have been among hispanic students and african-americans since 2006. these students, half african-americans and 40% of hispanics were trapped in the dropout factory schools where it was 50-50 proposition where whether you graduated or not. >> brown: you use the term dropout factory? >> we did. it's a tough term but i think it's appropriate. you go into these places and half of classma

jeffrey brown has that. >> reporter: in 2008 california voters pass the proposition 8 a ban on same-sex marriage. latest turn in a long running battle over the issue largely waged state by state. it led to a federal pursuit of a federal lawsuit to overthrow prop 8 that ended in a major decision by the supreme court. the story is told in the new book "forcing the spring: inside the fight for marriage equality" by author jo becker the pulitzer prize winning reporter for the "new york times" and i have to add long ago a young staff person at the newshour. welcome back. >> thanks for having me brunchts to go back to where this started for you you saw a story in 2008. you managed to embed yourself with part of that effort. tell us how it started. >> i wrote a story for the "new york times" about ted olson, a guy liberals loved to hate. he won bush v gore for bush, how he had come to embrace this cause. i was hooked. you had rob reiner, the movie direct, chad griffin, a young political op pra active and the pairing up of these super lawyers ted olson and david boies who was his adder have usa

jeffrey brown has more on the struggle to contain it. >> brown: one of the concerns is that ebola has crossed borders. guinea is where the outbreak began and was first made public in march. more than 100 deaths and 150 cases have been reported there. another troubling aspect: the disease has turned up in a wide area. from tropical forests to the capital of conarky to the liberian border. in liberia, investigators believe there are at least 10 deaths. health officials are now investigating possible cases in both in mali and ghana. more than 60% of infected people have died. laurie garrett of the council of foreign relations has tracked outbreaks in the past as a journalist and author of several books on global health and disease. she joins us now. lori, welcome back to the program. first, remind us a bit about what ebola is and exactly how it's transmitted. >> thank you. yeah, ebola is an rna virus, a very small virus that attacks the endothelial linings that maintain the blood veins, capillaries. first, a microscopic holes through which blood and fluids leak until they're larger and l

jeffrey brown has our remembrance. >> mooky rooney was born joel yule in 1920 to vaudeville performing parents an began his own career while still a toddler. >> brown: by his teens he was the top box office star in the world, playing the all-american boy andy hardy in a series of films, including "a family affair" >> if you think you're going to make a plow jockey out of me, you got another coming! >> brown: and a troublemaker reformed by spencer tracy in the 1938 film "boys town." >> brown: he sang and danced alongside judy garland in their "let's put on a show" musicals, including the 1941, "babes on broadway." >> i am a yankee doodle dandy. and appeared with elizabeth taylor in "national velvet." >> you'll be disqualified at the end if they find out you're a girl. >> brown: after serving in the army during world war two, his life became one of professional and personal ups and downs, he married eight times and lost his fortune to gambling, lavish spending and bad business decisions. but the irrepressible performer kept popping up in one comeback after another. he showed his comedic

i mentioned them by the way, thank you for jeffrey brown, but i mentioned them to gwen ifill on the "newshour" the other night and got a real double take. i said that the greatest unexamined question in american politics today is to what degree the underpinnings of partisan gridlock our racial? white -- [applause] and as we get out of this, she kind of danced around a little bit and we came out and she said, do you mind if i as president obama faq to interview him, whether he thinks the underpinnings of gridlock that he's suffering with so much and that is threatened to shut down our government and everything else right now our racial? and i said, of course do. she said i'm going to throw you under the bus, and sure enough the very next day she got an interview with president obama and said, this historian says this, and obama danced all around it. [laughter] it is dangerous, it is a delicate, but raise throughout american history has been the gateway to the advancement of freedom into the blockage of freedom. it's a gateway where we go through. two ways of looking at it. 1963, 50 yea

pamela brown is here along with our cnn aviation analyst, peter goles, tom fuentes and jeffrey thomasratings.com. thanks to all of you for joining us. i guess we shouldn't be surprised this piece of metal turned out to be not related to the plane. >> no, it was disappointing but not a surprise. and i think if anyone experienced it looked at the piece right off the bat, they would have been skeptical of it. >> it shouldn't take very long to see if it's part of a plane or part of a ship or part of something else. it's just a piece of junk. it took for hours and hours and hours, and there were these public statements, tom, suggesting, you know, this is something of interest. we've got to watch it. we're sending it to perth to a lab. it gave it the credibility that it obviously didn't deserve. >> no, that's true. and i don't understand why they couldn't have had experts there, you know, more quickly to look at that and discount it because it would be so important to determine if it was a piece of the aircraft and where that would lead to the rest of the air search and moving the air searc