. >> ifill: ray suarez talks with author rajiv chandrasekaran about the u.s. role in afghanistan, and his new book, "little america." >> it's the version of a sugar high.

ray suarez has our report. >> suarez: friday morning brought a new barrage of shelling in the city of homs. amateur video captured a series of explosions in one of the rebel-held neighborhoods, plumes of smoke rising into the sky. in damascus, u.n. observers again departed for the small farming town of mazraat al- qubair in hama province, where yesterday they came under fire. today, they were able to reach the site where activists say at least 78 people were killed earlier this week. deborah amos of npr news was with u.n. monitors earlier today and joins us now from damascus by phone. >> we walked into buildings, there were carpets that were blood soaked. there was gore still on the floor. you could see low shots and some of the witnesses who did step forward say that is where the children were shot. these were low down am you can imagine them crouching before they wereilled. there was dead animals in the dirt there, buildings were scorched. a couple of buildings had giant what looked like shell holes, big holes that sort of blew out ot sides of these places. so whatever happened in t

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we'll have the latest on the split verdict, which included acquittals on two other counts. >> brown: then, from syria, we go behind the front lines with the opposition forces, and look at who the rebels really are. >> suarez: paul solman talks with journalist and author rory o'connor about privacy concerns and social media web sites. >> its he a social network that didn't abuse our privacy and could be trusted comes along, we abandon facebook. >> brown: mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. >> suarez: and i sat down with veteran reporter lindsey hilsum. her new book chronicles the revolution in libya. >> i spent a lot of time up and down the desert roads reporting on the rebels. they were probably the worst guerrilla army i've ever come across. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> growing up in arctic norway, everybody took fish oil to stay healthy. when i moved to the

ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: much of the coverage about the supreme court's impending decision has focused on the political stakes. but it's being watched just as closely by the health care industry-- doctors, hospitals, insurers and employers among them. and of course, by patients. today, the country's largest health insurer, united healthcare, which serves 36 million members, said it would uphold several provisions even if the court overturns the law. aetna and humana followed with similar announcements this afternoon. for more, we turn to susan dentzer, editor in chief of the journal, health affairs. she's an analyst for the "newshour." susan, remind us where we're at right now. not all the provisions of the affordable care act have taken effect. but which ones have and which ones have proved to be popular? >> the ones that united said today it was keeping and that other insurers echoed are exactly those that have already gone into effect. first of all, for example, coverage of certain preventive measures. mammographies, colonoscopies without any cost-sharing or copayments o

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight: we explore the high court's decisions with marcia coyle of the "national law journal." >> brown: then, the latest from the campaign trail and an in depth look at the huge amounts of money being raised and spent already. >> suarez: special correspondent john tulenko reports on community colleges rethinking remedial classes and trying new approaches to help the least prepared students succeed. >> they're coming here with a great emphasis on making their lives better. the first thing we say to them is "not so fast there. you're not really in college, you can't take college-level courses, you've got to take these developmental courses." >> brown: we update the north carolina eugenics story as state lawmakers pass a budget without the compensation promised to victims of forced sterilization. >> suarez: from the west african nation of niger, we examine a once-in-a-generation famine threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of children. >> every child here is at

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on the mixed verdict on day nine of the deliberations. >> woodruff: then, we examine a plan to ban oversized sugary drinks in restaurants, movie theaters, and food carts in new york city. >> suarez: in his second report on stude loans, paul solman explores the idea of letting borrowers walk away from their debts. >> student loans are treated unlike any other type of debt in america meaning they have no consumer protections. no bankruptcy protections, no statute of limitations on the collections of those debts. >> woodruff: on our "daily download" segment, margaret warner compares how the presidential campaigns stack up on twitter. >> suarez: and gwen ifill talks to the authors of a new book about the most exclusive club in the united states with just five members, all former presidents. >> george bush said it to barack obama, at that amazing moment when all the living presidents were together at the white house. "we want you to succeed. thi

ray suarez will talk with some key players in the healthcare field. we begin with an overview from susan dentzer, editor-in- chief of the journal, "health affairs" and an analyst for the "newshour." so susan, in some sense it's status quo, right? things proceed rather than stop in their tracks. >> that's right. barring a change in the administration, a change in the composition or control of congress or overcoming the broad group of stakeholders that push to pass the affordable care act in the first place, barring all of that it's status quo and we move forward. >> brown: let's talk about what that means. what will happen and when. we'll keep talking about this idea of a mandate, it's a broad idea. what specifically happens and when? >> will what will happen is in 2014 when the exchanges that are going to roll out in various states are up and running individuals who don't currently have insurance who have to purchase it on the individual market or work for small businesses will be able to buy that coverage through the exchanges. if they do not do that

and take just a couple of minutes to set up what i think will be a terrific panel headed up by ray suarez and with some extraordinarily wide-ranging views to share. i am going to use a couple of slides. i know, generally speaking, people look and see a military guy from the pentagon with a power point presentation and that's created a fair amount of problems around the world. i assure you, this is a very easy presentation to get through and i'll do this in about ten minutes but i do like to use a couple of images. as i was saying to my very good friend, there is no part of the government in which the images frankly are more evocative than in the world of development. and so what i'll do today is just show you some of the challenges of thinking about development in a conflictual situation. then i'll try and talk a little about some of the -- what i hope are relatively creative ways we're thinking about it at the department of defense. so if i could have the first image. this is libya, which many of the people in this room were involved in. and i would offer this as an example of attempting

. >> ifill: and in the latest installment in our "american graduate" series, ray suarez talks to teachers about testing and accountability. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> growing up in arctic norway, everybody took fish oil to stay healthy. when i moved to the united states almost 30 years ago, i could not find an omega-3 fish oil that worked for me. i became inspired to bring a new definition of fish oil quality to the world. today, nordic naturals is working to fulfill our mission of bringing omega-3s to everyone, because we believe omega-3s are essential to life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: aftershocks from wisconsin's recall election were still resonating today after republican scott walker convincingly turned back a challenge from democrat tom barrett in a bitterly fought contest. >> the election i

ray suarez has our story. >> classical or traditional education is dead. it's failing our students. >> suarez: across america, teachers are talking, taking a rare opportunity to discuss their work lives, their joys and frustrations, and trade ideas on how to raise graduation rates and reduce the number of dropouts. they're venting, and sharing practical tips about what works in their classrooms, at a series of teacher town halls hosted by a dozen local pbs stations. it's part of the "american graduate" initiative, sponsored by the corporation for public broadcasting and the bill and melinda gates foundation, both funders of this program. >> in this country today, what we're focusing on instead is, can you answer a multiple choice test instead of how do we make you love education? how do we get you to feel that this is something that is meaningful to you? and if we don't do that, the rest of this is a waste of time. >> suarez: some topics have cropped up in nearly every city: the increased emphasis on testing, the importance of learning to read at an early a

ray suarez has the story. ( gavel pounds ) >> the committee on oversight and government reform will come to order. >> suarez: house republicans came to today's hearing ready to cite attorney general holder for contempt of congress. at issue: his refusal to turn over additional documents on "operation fast and furious," a botched gun-smuggling probe in arizona. but shortly before the hearing started, president obama invoked executive privilege to justify withholding the documents. in a letter to committee chairman darrell issa, a top holder deputy wrote: "we regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee's concerns." but issa said the committee would not be deterred. >> more than eight months after a subpoena and clearly after the question of executive privilege could have and should have been asserted, this untimely assertion by the justice department falls short of any reason to delay today's proceedings. >> suarez: democrats urged issa to reconsider. elijah cummings of maryland and others argued the contempt proceeding is a partis

ray suarez has two different takes on what's next for politics and health care policy after thursday'ssupreme court ruling. >> suarez: maryland governor martin o'malley is chairman of the democratic governor's association and a top surrogate for the president, governor, welcome. yesterday during his address following the release of the decision, the president kidded about the political value of the affordable care act, almost implying there wasn't much. but looking at it now s this a win politically for the president? >> i think ultimately it will be. what we have to do a better job of as a party is explaining the benefits and the rational here. i mean not only do we need to stop wasting money on a broken health-care system, but we need to improve wellness and bring down costs so that we can grow our economy. so that we can create jobs and so that we can expand opportunity. and that's the golden opportunity now that we have to better explain this important step in america's journey. >> well n advance of that explanation, the public opinion research implies that the law is still pretty