jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: peanut allergies are one of the most common forms of food allergy among american children. and the last two decades have seen a dramatic rise in the number of cases. it's estimated that today two percent of all children are allergic to peanuts. four times the number as recently as 1997. and it's the leading cause of death from food allergies. for parents, of course, a key question: how to avoid the risk to their children. now comes a new twist: a study published in "the new england journal of medicine." it finds that exposing higher- risk infants to peanut products greatly reduced the risk of developing an allergy later on. the study was sponsored by the national institutes of health. joining us now is dr. andrew fauci, director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. dr. fauci, what was generally thought up to now that exposure to peanuts early on was a bad thing, that was wrong? >> indeed, as we've seen from this case this study that you just mentioned, is that earlier exposure of a child does what we call tolerizing the chil

jeffrey brown recently traveled to houston, to see how one group there is fighting to protect its communityistory through art. >> brown: on a recent saturday, neighbors from houston's third ward came out to celebrate the life of the flower man. cleveland turner, who died at age 78, was a beloved folk artist who turned found objects into art and made his own home a kind of gallery. rick lowe was one of the speakers. >> the thing that makes it not so sad is that this neighborhood is full of people that are creatively expressing themselveses in different ways and we see them. they walk through our doors all the time. >> reporter: "the doors" are those of project row houses, an effort to rejuvenate and energize a neighborhood and its people through art, economic development, and social services. last year, lowe, who raises funding from foundations, corporations, and individuals, was recognized for his efforts with the mcarthur fellowship, the so-called genius grant. lowe told me it began in the 1990s when he was working as a traditional painter and sculptor. >> i had a group of high school stud

> woodruff: now a closer look at what's driving those surprisingly upbeat jobs numbers; here's jeffrey brown>> brown: not only did today's labor report show that more people found work in january, it also revised the numbers upward for november and december. making 2014 the strongest year for job gains since 1999. more good news: the increase in wages last month was the largest in six years. diane swonk is a senior managing director and chief economist for mesirow financial and joins me from chicago. diane, it looks as hoe the though the upswing is bringing more people back into the job market. can you tell us what age groups for example? >> one to have the biggest encouraging points about the job participation rate is that younger people were rejoining the labor force. many people had been sidelined for many years. 25 to 34-year-old men, in fact, had the highest labor force participation rate in two years a big jump there. we also saw an increase in the 35 to 44-year-old age group. this is a group that the federal reserve had been watching carefully because they had been sidelined by the re

from the northern coast of maui, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: this week: thengton over how to talk about the islamic state militant group, jeb bush lays out his approach to foreign policy and a texas judge temporarily blocks president obama's immigration action. we look at it all with the analysis of shields and brooks. syndicated columnist mark shields and new york times columnist david brooks. welcome gentlemen. great to have you. all right. so david let's start with the summit the whitehouse held on they called it confront levi length extremism. looking at how do you prevent terrorist acts from happening in the first place, local communities. the criticism the whitehouse got was they're bending over backwards going out of their way not to use the term islamic extremism. >> the islamic state is islamic. in some sense it's a stupid debate. is it true islam or perverted islam. it's all intrurpd. we have interpretations within christianity, within judaism and islam. if you call yourself a muslim you're a muslim. they have different interpretations but it's all

jeffrey brown sits down with an opera standout. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brown: deborah voigt has made headlines fortar performances on the world's greatest opera stages. >> when everything's working you don't feel it at all, it just happens, you're very much in the moment, the voice is working, the acting is working, you're playing with a character and you're not thinking about anything else. >> brown: she's also made headlines for something else: her size-- most famously in 2004 when she was dropped from a london production because she couldn't fit into what became known as her little black dress. >> when i walked out on stage at that time i was, as i say in my book, a poster child for obesity, it wasn't just, "oh, she's a big girl." i was a big girl, and that's something that i realize now they decided they didn't want in their production. >> brown: voigt's new book titled "call me debbie: true confessions of a down-to-earth diva," takes readers through her ups and downs. growing up in illinois, she was a child who loved to act out and dress up. a challenge for her strict southern baptist parents

jeffrey brown has our book conversation. >> brown: cuba, 1997. calcutta 2000. before and after the taliban. iraq with american forces in baghdad. famine and war in darfur. and libya where, in 2011, she was bound blindfolded and held for six days with three journalists by soldiers of gadhafi. linsey addario one of four girls from a connecticut suburb traveled the world and tells her story in a mesm woirks it's what i do, a photographer's life of love and war. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> brown: you tell of an exhibition where you see photography can be art and journalism. >> yeah, it was a moment. i had no training in photojournalism or photography so i really was learning as i went along. i remember walking into this exhibition and i walked in and the prints were massive. they were just wall-size. i looked around and i was so overcome by not only the beauty of the images but the power of the images and the fact they were showing the lives of these workers. >> brown: what does it make you want to do? >> it made me want to do that. it made me want t

jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: "the imitation game" tells how british mathematician alan turing an early computer to crack the german code and helped allied forces win world war two. >> well the judge gave me a choice. >> brown: it also shows how turing, played by benedict cumberbatch, suffered under britain's anti-homosexual laws in the 1950s, and was forced to take hormone therapy as punishment. >> yes, chemical castration, to cure me of my homosexual predilections. >> brown: alan turing died at age 41, an apparent suicide. in november, cumberbatch told me how turing's story had moved him. >> the reality of then what happened to him in the 50s hits you and, you're winded with emotion of this injustice this man who was served by the very government and democracy it saved from fascism with estrogen injections to cure his homosexuality, which was punishable by either that or imprisonment. and i was really upset and then angry. >> graham moore, the imitation game! >> brown: last night graham moore, the film's screenwriter, won the oscar for best adapted screenplay. moore, who late

jeffrey brown picks it up from there, part of our series, "the newshour goes to the movies." >> my namerd snowden. i go by ed. >> brown: the documentary "citizenfour" brings us into a hong kong hotel room as former national security agency contractor edward snowden reveals secrets that would make for blockbuster headlines beginning in june 2013: the large-scale collection of phone and internet data by the u.s. government. >> even if you're doing nothing wrong, you're being watched and recorded. >> brown: news organization would public stories of a massive database, assembled since 2006, under the patriot act, collecting call data from millions of phone company customers, and tapping into the central servers of major internet companies. for some, snowden was a free speech hero. others, including president obama, called for him to come back to the us and face charges for espionage. others including president obama called on snowden to come back to the u.s. and face charges for espionage. >> no i don't think mr. snowden was a patriot. so the fact is, is that mr. snowden has been charged wi

here's jeffrey brown. >> brown: it's a mystery that goes back to 1994, when a bomb ripped through a jewishter in buenos aires and killed 85 people. for the last decade, prosecutor alberto nisman tried to prove iran was behind the bombing, a charge the tehran government repeatedly denied. >> my only guarantee is to tether myself to the law and whatever happens, happens. i'm here and i'm absolutely calm and i'm going to continue on with my work. >> brown: then, last month, the case took a dramatic new turn, nisman accused argentina's president, cristina fernandez de kirchner, of covering up iran's involvement. >> brown: president kirchner dismissed the allegations, which nisman was set to detail in front of congress days later. but on the eve of his testimony nisman was found dead of a gunshot wound in his apartment. police ruled that he killed himself, nisman's supporters demanded answers. it has since been ruled a suspicious death, and president kirchner herself has voiced doubts that it was a suicide. this week, the drama continued to unfold. on sunday, an argentinian newspaper reported t

here's jeffrey brown. >> brown: in the video, islamic state militants knock statues to the floor.sledgehammers to centuries- old artifacts, even employ a jackhammer to reduce a work to rubble. released through social media thursday, the five-minute video uses music and slow motion to dramatize what appears to be the destruction at northern iraq's mosul museum. >> ( translated ): to all muslims, these statues are idols of the people in previous centuries, which were worshipped other than god. god almighty says: and we sent a messenger to you just to reveal that no god but i, so worship me. the prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him. >> brown: the mosul museum reportedly housed more than 170 genuine antiquities. others were replicas, and it's unclear how many original works were destroyed. but the act fits into a broader campaign by the islamic state, to brazenly and publicly destroy cultural relics in the name of religious purity. since its incursion into northern iraq last summer, the group has l

here's jeffrey brown. >> brown: there has been no shortage of initiatives in recent years to try to curbroblem, and last year the government reported some progress in that fight. the rate of obesity among children 2 to 5 years old has dropped from about 14% in 2004 to 8% in 2012. the robert wood johnson foundation has been a key player in all of this, committing half a billion dollars since 2007. today it pledged another $500 million over next ten years. its president risa laviso mourey made the announcement at an event with the first lady in new york today. she joins me now, and for the record, the foundation has been a funder of the "newshour" in the past. so welcome to you. as a starting point, there really has been progress, right? so why the renewed effort? >> there has been progress indeed. you quoted some important statistics, a leveling off after 30 years of relentless rise in childhood obesity rates and actual decrease among our youngest children but these gains are fragile. they are not evenly distributedment we see more gains in white children and in children from higher incom

jeffrey brown has our book conversation. >> brown: alexandra fuller grew up in southern africa: rhodesia, now zimbabwe, malawi and zambia. this backdrop of war, beauty, hard living and two almost larger-than-life parents has been the inspiration for two best selling memoirs: "don't let's go to the dogs tonight" and "cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness". now comes a third, "leaving before the rains come," about her move to the u.s., the end of her marriage, and her continuing connection to all she left behind in africa. alexandra fuller, welcome. >> thank you. >> brown: let's start with that last thought about connections to place because part of this or at least it struck me about blonding and not belonging. that's something you wanted to explore and gnaws at you? >> i knew that's just part of the condition of being a white southern african. particularly at my age you're just possessed at birth and very aware of it particularly when you have parents like mine who sort of fought on what i consider the wrong side of history, but then felt the connection to that land that they sta

jeffrey brown has our conversation. >> brown: journalists nicholas kristof and sheryl wudunn are well-knownheir prior collaboration, "half the sky," first a book and then a series, took viewers around africa and asia. this time, they've co-authored the book, "a path appears," which focuses on problems such as sex trafficking and abuse, including in this country. it's also led to a series that's been shown on pbs's independent lens, the latest episode airs tonight. nicholas and cheryl join me from new york. nick, let me start with you. one thing you have done in this series is put a spotlight on abuses here at home. is that a particular concern to bring it home, so to speak? >> yeah, it was. half is focused on women's rights abroad. people kept asking what about the u.s.? that seemed a fair question. the atroughscies in many ways are worse in afghanistan or yemen but we have real problems right here and seemed to us what, while the discussion about gender and equity is often about pay or representation of women in congress or on boards, that the two massive issues are sex trafficking 100,000

jeffrey brown has more. >> brown: though rooted in a tark chapter of american history, the paintingsre rendered in brilliant colors and together convey a story of triumph over one of the worst forms of adversity. >> these men had been captured as it turned out illegally, had been taken against their will to cuba where they were destined to be enslaved on sugar plantationing which was the worst fate you could have. >> brown: "rising up" an exhibition in atlanta and now at the smithsonian in washington showcases what are known as the talladega murals. they were commissioned in 1938 by talladega college in alabama. one of the early historically black colleges founded after the civil war. to tell the story of the amstad, when 53 africans revolted on a spanish ship carrying them to slavery in the americas in 1839. i spoke with jaclyn sawyer, the chief curator of the soon to open african american history and culture museum. >> you see these are people who have taken control, who have decided what has to happen and they're willing to risk their lives to do it. >> announcer: it's a story mad

jeffrey brown reports. >> i can't tell you how relieved i am at being free, i really didn't expect itrown: it was the first full day of freedom for peter greste, the "al-jazeera" journalist released yesterday after 400 days in a cairo jail. but in cyprus today, he said his own joy at being released is mixed with fears angst for two colleagues who remain imprisoned in egypt. >> amidst all of this relief, i still feel a sense of concern, a real sense of worry, because if it's appropriate for me, if it's right for me to be free, then it's right for all of them to be free. >> brown: greste, along with canadian-egyptian mohammed feh- mee and egyptian national baher mohamed, were arrested in december 2013 over their coverage of a crackdown on islamist protests. the three were accused of providing a platform for president mohammed morsi's muslim brotherhood after morsi was overthrown by the military. separately, in a cairo courtroom today supporters of the brotherhood chanted in protest, as a judge sentenced all 183 of them to death. they were convicted of playing a role in killing 16 police

here's jeffrey brown. >> brown: the quesiton: how is congress reacting to the proposal, the first suchowers request from this president? we get that from two senators: virginia democrat tim kaine, who's pushed for a resolution granting war powers to go before congress. and nebraska republican deb fischer, who's just returned from a briefing and discussion on this issue for senate republicans. and senator fisher, tell us what kinds of concerns you're hearing from your colleagues. some have already expressed, for example, that they think this is too narrowly drawn, not giving the president and the military enough flexibility. >> what i'm looking forward to is a discussion by congress on the resolution. we're going to have committee hearings. we're going to be calling witnesses. really get some facts from the administration. i would like to say, if we're going to do our jobs it's going to be open and transparent so that the public understands what the president is asking for, how congress is responding to his request and have that open process. >> brown: senator kaine, we heard you earlie

jeffrey brown has our look, the latest installment of "newshour goes to the movies." >> brown: stunninggo street scenes from the 1950s on. they were never exhibited, never even known of until the last few years, when they've become a sensation. >> vivian was a very private woman. >> exhibitions in l.a. and chicago. >> we've had more interest in this work than any other. >> one in particular which i love. >> brown: the photographer, too, was largely unknown. vivian maier worked much of her life as a nanny and kept her own past and her photography secret. >> she was awesome. closed person. vivian was my nanny! she was our nanny. we certainly had no idea she took photographs. >> we didn't know she was this creative person. >> she took so many photos. around 100,000, seven roles of undeveloped color film. >> 8-millimeter and 16-millimeter movies. >> we would walk in the worst parts of town. >> i think she liked that. >> brown: unraveling this story is the focus of the oscar- nominated documentary, "finding vivien maier." its co-directors are charlie siskel and john maloof, who first came up

jeffrey brown looks at the film and its subject, part of our occasional feature, "newshour goes to the movies." >> man has an instinctive tendency to speak as we see in the basketball of young children. >> reporter: rose anne brown when we first meet alice she's 50 years old, an accomplished professor of linguistics but something is happening. >> i hope we convince you by observing these baby steps into the... into... i... i knew i shouldn't have had that champagne. >> reporter: we watch as alice loses words, gets lost in familiar places, forgets appointments. eventually she's diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's. >> why won't you take me seriously? >>rose anne brown it's an up-close and sometimes raw portrait shown from the perspective of someone with a disease that today affects more than 5 million american including some that have early on setd. >> sometimes i can see the words hanging in front of me and i can't riviera beach them. i don't know who i am and what i'm going to lose next. rose anne>> reporter: julianne moore played alice. the movie is based on lisa genova. maybe we c

jeffrey brown profiled him in 2010-- here's a look.arts with levine reading one of his poems about waiting in line for factory work. >> we stand in the rain and a long line waiting at ford highland park for work. you know what work is. if you're old enough to read this, you know what work is, although you may not do it. this is about waiting. shifting from one foot to another. feeling the light rain falling like mist into your hair, blurring your vision, until you think you see your own brother ahead of you, maybe ten places. when i was a young guy, working in these places and didn't see a way out as yet, and i certainly didn't think the way out would be poetry. >> brown: what were you doing? >> usually, five people would take an enormous piece of hot steel, which four of us would hold with tongs, and put it into a huge press. >> brown: so, what was poetry, then? i mean, where did the poetry come from? >> no one knows where poetry comes from. i had been writing poetry from the age of 14. it was just something i loved doing. i loved lan

jeffrey brown tells the story. >> brown: word of harper lee's plans generated buzz throughout the literary world. the new book, "go set a watchman," is actually an old one. lee wrote it in the 1950s, but at an editor's advice, set it aside and turned to writing "to kill a mockingbird." published in 1960, that treasured classic about race and coming-of-age in alabama in the 1930's won a pulitzer prize. and would go on to sell some 40 million copies. >> you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. >> brown: it became an oscar- winning film in 1962, starring gregory peck as atticus finch. the earlier manuscript was largely forgotten until, according to a statement released today, lee's lawyer discovered it last fall. set in the 1950's, it features "scout," a girl in "mockingbird," but now a grown woman, returning home to alabama to visit atticus. in today's statement, lee, now 88, said of the new book: "i thought it a pretty decent effort, i am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years." the famously reclusive author did

say farewell to the horses we welcome the ram and then mayor ed lee also former mayor willie brown and jeffrey will say it in chinese. >> thank you doris. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> and everyone in mandarin. >> all right. right. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> >> first of all, everybody welcome to the kickoff of our wonderful chinese new year the year of the ram i'm so happy to joined by former mayor willie brown give willie a hand (clapping.) supervisor christensen is here thank you julie for being here and sxhaifshg thank you for being here did i miss any other supervisors or rams here gosh what a wonderful kickoff this just gets more eloquent every year i want to say thank you to the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce for their leadership we're going to have a wonderful two weeks of celebration actual very much to the asian presiding officer's you saw their display along with the chinatown youth center the youth fair with their we have displays you'll be seeing repeated and more eloquent during the parade how about those the rams for the chinatown community children's cent

joining us is our senior legal analyst ron brown. jeffrey, what happens legally, next?o the fifth circuit court of appeals in new orleans. it's a court of appeals that's been very unsympathetic to the obama administration. their chances of getting it overturned initially are not great. >> potentially going to the u.s. supreme court, right? >> wolf, i think this case is on a rocket ride to the supreme court even though the term is well along. this could certainly wind up before the supreme court this year before the term ends in june which would mean that both of president obama's signature achievements could both have life or death cases before the supreme court this spring. >> marriage equality same-sex marriage is before the supreme court. we'll have a decision oenn that before the end of june. they have to fund the department of homeland security by tend of february. this judge's decision this district court judge in texas, how is that going to impact this debate over funding for the department of homeland security. boehner and the republicans want to tie it to avoid

brown. let's bring in the st. louis alderman antonio french don lemon, tom fuentes and jeffrey toobin.in what it means for the ferguson police department to be complying with the justice department? cot justice department still sue? what's going on? >> certainly, the threat of a lawsuit is what's hanging over this whole situation. clearly, the justice department believes that there are certain policies in place in ferguson that are racially discriminatory. we don't know all the details, because the suit hasn't been filed. but there's been a lot of investigation. and in these situations which happen with some regularity cincinnati new orleans have all been sued for these sorts of issues. is the training racially discriminatory? are there policies about whom to arrest and when that are discriminatory? are any of the people at the top -- should they be removed? all of these issues are up for debate and possibly settlement in advance of a lawsuit. but if the justice department isn't satisfied with the changes that ferguson is prepared to make they will sue and get a judge to force it or a

jeffrey toobin. let's talk about what he said. federal prosecutors are going to be charging one individual with arson at the ferguson market and this is in the protests after the michael browncision not to indict officer darren wilson, and what do you make of this before we talk about it? >> well this is a monstrous crime. what these folks did to the businesspeople and what they did to the community, and the danger they put individuals in, and i think that it is very good that people are being prosecuted, and we will see if they are guilty obviously down the line. but these were serious crimes, and very serious from the legitimate protests that went on in ferguson. >> and you say this is one reason that we have the fbi, right? >> absolutely. these are dangerous crimes, and they should be investigated and prosecuted prosecuted. >> and we heard from the fbi director james comey on the sensitive issue of police and race e relations. we will talk after this statement. >> after years of police work officers can't help but be influenced by the cynicism they feel. a mental shortcut is in some instances rational and the two young black men on one side of the street looks like so ma

brown shooting. but this potential lawsuit goes beyond all of that, draegs the broader issue of how police deal with perhaps even target minority communities. joining me to talk about this is jeffreyest. good to see both of you. so you have this group of low income people claiming officers are targeting minorities for traffic violations and putting them in jail when they can't pay the fine. isn't this bigger really than michael brown? >> it's definitely bigger than michael brown. this is something the justice department has done a number of times. basically what they say is there are systemic problems with a police department and they negotiate with the department to make changes in training, in hiring, in how people interact with the police. they can even demand changes in leadership. now usually these are worked out in a settlement with the police department, but if there is no settlement, the justice department can go to court and have a judge demand that settlement -- that changes are made. >> i'm curious how likely it is we'll see this lawsuit. because the ferguson police chief said any time anybody has come to them, the justice department has suggested changes in the past, t

jeffrey toobin and our tom fuentes fuentes. >> before the attorney general leaves office in the next couple of weeks, we expect he will wrap up a couple of matters on the michael browning a pattern practice investigation of the ferguson police department. we expect that they will announce findings, the attorney general will announce findings there was a pattern of discriminatory policing by the ferguson police department. this includes the practice of doing traffic -- targeting minorities. in some cases, some of the people were not able to pay their fines and ended up serving time in jail. in addition to that at the same time they announced these findings against the ferguson police we expect they will announce that there will be no charges against darren wilson the officer who shot michael brown. those two findingsing will ss will be a big deal to wrap up the attorney general's tenure. >> what will they say was there racism? we know missouri is predominantly african-american. they had a tiny number of african-american police officers. >> the findings will target the department for a pattern of behavior against minorities especially african-americans who live in tha

jeffrey toobin tom fuentes and don lemon. you spent a lot of time there in ferguson don. was your reaction to the news that one of the fires in the wake of the michael browns cause even more unrest? what do you think? >> it could. we know it's a tinder box there. i don't think it should. i think anyone who burns someone's business down or tries to take someone's livelihood or take lives, they should be prosecuted prosecuted. i don't think it should cause unrest. they should be prosecuted. >> tom, from a law enforcement standpoint the timing of this is significant. it has taken a while. what do you think in. >> in this case where you have eyewitnesses who actually see the individual trying to light the fire use an accelerant they put out the fire to save the business and save their own lives, since they were inside i think it's at the point where they were able to bring the indictment they brought it. >> legally, obviously, it doesn't surprise you that they are doing this. maybe there's going to be more indictments down the road? >> absolutely. this is why we have an fbi. this is why we have federal prosecutors. arson, riot these are monstrous crimes which