. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the surging flood waters from memphis mayor a.c. wharton and steve stockton of the army corps of engineers. >> brown: then we examine the growing tensions between the u.s. and pakistan after the killing of osama bin laden. >> suarez: special correspondent john tulenko reports on teacher layoffs in hartford, connecticut. should they be based on seniority or achievement? >> i want to be able to choose the faculty who work in this school not because they have ten years of service or maybe six years of service but in fact they are the best fit for our children. >> brown: and margaret warner looks at massive protests in mexico, inspired by a poet who lost his son to drug violence. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> in 1968, the first recordings of hump back songs were released. public reaction led to international bans. whale populations began to recover. at pacific life, the whal

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, tom bearden reports from louisiana on the decision to divert the river away from major cities, a move that's affecting families along the way. >> reporter: a number of small towns are bracing for what could be record high water. >> ifill: then we analyze the fallout from the arrest of i.m.f. chief dominique strauss- kahn on sexual assault charges. >> suarez: we talk with binyamin appelbaum of the "new york times" about raising the federal debt ceiling as the government hits its limit for borrowing today. >> ifill: in advance of tonight's pbs documentary about the "freedom riders," judy woodruff talks with two who reenacted the trip. >> you believe in something that is so right, so good and so necessary that you're prepared to stand up and be willing to die for it. >> suarez: plus, as the space shuttle launches, we profile poet tracy k. smith, who writes about exploring the universe and ourselves. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding

ray suarez spoke to foley yesterday about the ordeal. >> suarez: james foley, welcome. let's begin when you were taken. how were you captured? >> there was four of us, myself, manu, claire and anton. we were riding in a rebel vehicle, we exited the vehicle. about a few minutes later two heavily armed qaddafi vehicles came over the hill firing and shortly after that we were all captured. >> suarez: so you realized right at that moment that this was something more serious than simply being stopped, having your papers checked, being momentarily detained? >> oh, definitely, the level of fire towards us was something i hadn't experienced before and i was in afghanistan. accurate fire directed at us. we pressed our bodies to the ground and they got out of the vehicles and came closer firing. >> suarez: sco so you identified yourself as journalists. how were you treated by the soldiers? >> i had to jump up and say "journalist." i wasn't sure if they knew we were journalists. we were certainly unarmed. we were hit a couple times, struck with the butt of an a.k.-47 and punched a

ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: we are joined now by two senior correspondents for "fronteras: the changing america desk," a network of public radio >> in embracing america you can become american. that is what makes this country great and enriches all of us. >> suarez: an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now live in the u.s. and the president said it made sense to offer them a path to citizenship. in addition to securing the borders. and he challenged republicans to join him. >> we have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. all the stuff they asked for, we've done. but even though we've answered these concerns, i've got to say i suspect there's still going to be some who are trying to move the goal post on us one more time. maybe need a moat. maybe they'll want alligators in the moat.ab they'll never be satisfied. >> suarez: republicans charged today the president is only now resurrecting immigration to win hispanic voters in the 2012 elections. texas senator

and to ray suarez. >> suarez: the end of an eventful week found the president praising troops at fort campbell, kentucky, after a very public victory in the long war against al qaeda. >> thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals-- intelligence, military-- over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten american again. >> suarez: but elsewhere on the sprawling base, well beyond the cameras' reach, the president earlier met with members of the special operations team that killed bin laden. >> it was a chance for me to say, on behalf of all americans and people around the world, "job well done." >> suarez: among them, operators from the naval special warfare development group-- often called "seal team six"-- and pilots from the 160th special operations aviation regiment, nicknamed "night stalkers". along with comrades from other so-called special missions units-- like the army's delta force-- they work for the secretive joint specialle operations command or j-soc. j-soc was created after the disastrous 1980 attempt to free

let them. >> suarez: ron, you heard richard clarke mention elvis sightings. did it seem there was even much pushback on this story. a sizable number of people who were doubting, in fact, that osama bin laden was dead and that these photos were a necessary antidote to that? >> well, i don't think there's such a weight of pressure that that drove any element of this decision. i think dick is right. there are always going to be conspiracy theorists out there and that shouldn't necessarily drive a decision making. and i also agree you don't want to create the mythology of a martyr here. w bin laden. and i think images have a way of doing that. i just worry that the images are going to get out anyway and perhaps one way of handling this is to control the types of image. the way it gets out. the white house the torn on this though, because in in m ways the messages coming out of the white house, the images that came out, for example, in the iraqi context, were often done either by cabinet officials or in the field. you recall the zarqawi pictures that were done act

on the "newshour" tonight, ray suarez gets reaction to the on the "newshour" tonight, ray suarez gets reaction to the decision not to make the very graphic images public. >> woodruff: and we assess what the al qaeda leader's death means for the war in afghanistan. >> brown: then, fema chief craig fugate updates the recovery efforts, after deadly tornadoes and flooding ravaged the south and midwest. >> woodruff: from libya, alex thompson of independent television news has the story of an aid ship that defied a deadly attack to rescue migrant workers and refugees. >> to get in and get out of misurata port involves congregating around 1500 people in the middle of a shelling zone for anything up to five or six hours. it is not an easy call. >> brown: and paul solman has a conversation with the academy award-winning director of "inside job"-- a documentary on the financial crisis, economics professors and conflicts of interest. >> unfortunately, this issue is now pervasive in american academia and in my view, it's a grave threat to the independence of academic research in the university sy

people of every race and religion. >> suarez: in afghanistan where the u.s. and nato are still at war with al qaeda and the taliban, president hamid karzai welcomed the news. >> osama bin laden received his due punishment during an operation in abbottabad of pakistan. bin laden was the one whose hands were dipped in the blood of thousands and thousands of children, youth and elders of afghanistan. >> suarez: but from the pakistani taliban came a warning that bin laden's death would not go unavenged. a spokesman vowed there would be new attacks against pakistan and the u.s. >> ifill: now, to reaction in pakistan. for that, we go to newshour special correspondent saima mohsin in abbottabad, pakistan. jeffrey brown spoke with her a short time ago. >> brown: welcome. tell us a little bit more about the situation there at the compound right now and also a bit more about the town itself. >> well, the compound has tonight been sealed and cordoned off. this is as close as we can get to it. it's about a thousand meters down this road. i don't know if you can see the p

ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: the justices ruled five-to-four that the packed living conditionsthreatened inmates' health, and violated constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment. california has two years to cut its inmate population from 143,000 to 110,000-- still well over capacity for facilities designed to house 80,000. in a rare move, justice anthony kennedy incorporated black-and- white photographs into his written opinion. the images of crammed sleeping quarters and walkways depicted what he referred to as "violent, unsanitary, and chaotic conditions" in california prisons. marcia coyle of the "national law journal" was in the courtroom, and joins us now. marcia, this is an old case. what was the original complaint and what were the petitioners asking of the state of california? >> well, ray, this case stems from two class action lawsuits. one filed in 1990 involving substandard care for prisoners suffering from serious mental illnesses. the second lawsuit filed in 2001 generally for deficient medical care for prisoners. the lawsuits claim that these condi

ray suarez has our story. >> suarez: for five days in april last year, the community around the upper branch mine in west virginia and the rest of the country awaited the fate of 29 trapped miners. >> all we can do right now as a community is just come together praying. because if you're from here we're all coal mining families. >> suarez: a prolonged rescue attempt could only bring two men out alive, after an explosion 1,000 feet inside the mine. 29 others were killed in what was the worst mining disaster in the u.s. in four decades. the mine is operated by massey energy corporation. in the five years leading up to the disaster, massey had been cited by the government for more than 1,300 safety violations. but massey c.e.o. don blankenship claimed he ran a tight ship. >> massey has probably the safest record, probably about 18 of the last 20 years, we've been safer than the industry average. >> suarez: early on, officials pointed to bad ventilation and coal dust buildup as key problems. >> i have heard stories, in no way confirmed, of unsafe methane and dust buildups. >> suarez: toda

ray suarez has our coverage of the day's events. >> suarez: across syria, thousands of people again risked death to demand that president bashar al assad step down in rallies captured on cell-phone video. activists said demonstrators in damascus and homs came under fire after friday prayers. security forces also shot into crowds outside the city of daraa and in the town of mayadeen. the deaths added to estimates of up to 850 protesters killed since the uprising there began. that's already prompted president recep tayyip erdogan in neighboring turkey to denounce the killings. and in istanbul today, protesters marched to the syrian consulate, where they burned photos of assad. >> the regime killed more than 1,000 people in syria, and they blockade a lot of cities. almost all the cities in syria are blockaded. >> suarez: there were also huge new protests today in yemen, and troops there killed at least three more people in ibb, a city south of sanaa. embattled president ali abdullah saleh drew his own crowd of supporters in sanaa. he accused his opponents of sabotage. >> ( translated ): these