. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we examine the growing scandal, a problem president obama said he wouldn't tolerate. >> brown: then, as south korea's new leader visits the white house, we assess continuing tensions on the korean peninsula. >> suarez: spencer michels visits san francisco's exploratorium, a science and technology center with a hands- on approach that peaks the imaginations of children and adults alike. >> we know we have a good exhibit when the person laughs and turns around and says to anybody passing "hey, look at this!" that's a good exhibit. >> brown: how much are across- the-board federal spending cuts hitting programs around the country? we check in with public media colleagues in three states. >> suarez: and we have a story about preserving the nation's culturaldentity, contained in millis of pieces of film, video, and audio gathered over more than 100 years. >> there's a belief among the younger generation that everything has been digitized, that that ever existed befo

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we explore the options on the table for the u.s., amid growing calls for international intervention in syria. >> brown: then, as the u.s. government weighs new regulation, we debate whether publicly traded companies should have to disclose their political donations. >> suarez: special correspondent john tulenko visits a middle school in maine where students are trading in their notebooks and pencils for robots and wind turbines. >> brown: we turn again to the subject of guns in america, as a texas man proves technology has made it possible to easily make your own pistol at home. >> anyone can create it in the privacy of their garage with a couple of clicks and some software and a download from the internet. anywhere there's a computer and an internet connection, there's a promise of a gun. >> suarez: and we close with a report on poland's embrace of fracking, despite concerns from some residents about land rights and the environment. >> brown: that's all ahead

suárez: sí, angel... angel castillo. raquel: ¿son cartas de rosario? suárez: sí.o: rosario. ( campanas de iglesia suenan ) raquel: "estancia santa susana". al día siguiente, raquel sale en busca de rosario en la estancia santa susana. ¿ud. conoce la estancia? sí. conozco toda la zona. ahora estamos por escobar, cerca de los cardales. ud. no es de aquí, ¿no? no. soy de los angeles. este es mi primer viaje. ilos angeles! yo tengo un amigo en los angeles. se llama carlos lópez. claro, ud. no lo conocerá, ¿no? no hay ninguna señal. no se preocupe. falta poco. la estancia santa susana ahora es un lugar para turistas. los turistas escuchan la música folklórica disfrutan de una comida especial y miran los juegos de los gauchos. ♪ llegando está el carnaval quebradeño mi cholitay ♪ ♪ llegando está el carnaval quebradeño mi cholitay... ♪ por fin, raquel llega a la estancia santa susana. en la estancia raquel se encuentra con un señor joven. el señor le dice que rosario no vive allí y que la única persona que posiblemente sepa algo de rosario es cirilo. tal vez cirilo la sep

. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on today's congressional hearing, where republicans renewed charges of a cover-up and democrats said the issue was being politicized. >> brown: then, we update the remarkable story of three cleveland women freed after being held captive for more than a decade. >> suarez: paul solman talks with the new treasury secretary, jaclew out jobs financial reform and the partisan divide over automatic federal spending cuts. >> the thing that i find truly amazing is that there are members of congress who are calling the sequester a success. a victory. their policy. they can have the policy. nobody at the time thought it should take effect. >> brown: miles o'brien reports from guatemala on the forensic science used to document charges of genocide that wiped out thousands of indigenous mayans in the early eighties. >> this skeleton shows evidence of four close range gunshot wounds to the head. the mans hands were tied behind his back: an execution. >> s

and to ray suarez. >> suarez: it's critical to the debate over immigration reform: security along the united states' nearly 2000-mile border with mexico. nogales, arizona is a case in point. a long stretch of fencing separates the 20,000 residents there from more than 200,000 people just across the border in nogales, mexico. it's one of the busiest ports of entry between the two countries, and u.s. border patrol agents process millions of legal crossings each year. but more than 124,000 people were caught crossing illegally last year. millions more have not been caught over the years. and republicans say they should not be given a path to citizenship until the border is secured. republican senator john mccain of arizona helped author the immigration bill now headed to the senate. >> we've confronted the reality of de facto amnesty for the 11 million or more people who came here illegally by proposing a lengthy path to citizenship that doesn't place lawful immigrants at a disadvantage and it and is contingent on doing everything possible to make our border secure and discourage future

ray suarez has the latest. >> all rise. >> suarez: ariel castro kept his head bowed and buried throughout early morning appearance in cleveland municipal court. it was his first public appearance since he was arrested monday in the kidnapping of three women-- amanda berry, gina dejesus, and michelle knight. all had been held captive in castro's cleveland home since their separate disappearances between 2002 and 2004. prosecutors said today the former school bus driver repeatedly beat and sexually assaulted the women. >> this child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city. the horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension. >> suarez: "the new york times" reported today that, according to a police document, the women were chained in the basement for years before finally being moved to the second floor. it also said knight told police she'd been impregnated by castro on multiple occasions and that each time, he starved and punched her until she miscarried. castro did not enter a plea today to the four coun

ray suarez has that story. >> we appreciate your efforts >> suarez: at the white house, president obama greeted the president of myanmar, thein sein-- the first leader of his country welcomed to washington in nearly 47 years. >> we want you to know that u.s. will assist you >> suarez: for a half century, a military junta ruled myanmar, also known as burma and home to some 48 million people. then, in 2007, thein sein-- himself a general and junta member-- became prime minister and began gradual reforms. three years later, the country held its first elections in 20 years, and a week after that, the government released longtime opposition leader aung san suu kyi from years of house arrest. in the following months, thousands of other political prisoners were freed. then, in late 2011, u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton made a landmark visit to myanmar, meeting with both suu kyi and thein sein. >> i made it clear that he, and those who support that vision which he laid out for me, both inside and outside of government, will have our support as they continue to make progress, and that th

ray suarez has that. >> suarez: tonight's focus: the number of highly skilled foreign workers allowedenter the u.s. we examine how the visa program known as h-1b is structured now and the proposed changes with vivek wadhwa, a fellow at stanford law school and author of the book: "the immigrant exodus: why america is losing the global race to capture entrepreneurial talent." and ron hira, associate professor of public policy at rochester institute of technology. professor hira, the united states admits about a million immigrants a year. is it a relatively small share of that million that we're talking about with the h-1b visas? >> well, actually, we admit about 1 million permanent residents each year, and about 140,000 or so are high-skilled permanent residents, that's green cards. the h-1b is actually a guest worker program, and in there, in the guest worker program we admit about 115,000 a year. there's a cap of 85,000. i think there are actually two separate numbers and separate programs. one is a guest worker program, one is a green card program. >> suarez: vivek wadhwa, why do com

ray suarez has more. >> suarez: as we reported earlier, the top diplomats from germany and the united states said russia's supply of advanced air defense systems would only prolong syria's bloody civil war. meanwhile, senator john mccain said syrian rebels battling bashar al-assad need ammunition and heavy weapons to counter the damascus regime's tanks and aircraft. mccain said the current battlefield situation favors assad's forces. during a trip to syria, the arizona senator met with the head of the free syrian army salimidris. margaret warner is in lebanon continuing here series of reports on the syrian war spillover effects in the region. earlier today she spoke to general idris and she joins me from beirut. margaret, the general had been involved in serious fighting near the lebanese border. fighting you could see in the distance. how does he see the situation on the ground in and around cue ai? >> he said the situation is really quite desperate in the sense that they've run out of food and medicine. many civilians are dead, many fighters are dead, many wounded they can not get o

could i finish. >> suarez: please do. but as a proportion of the population, it's still actually about the same or a little lower. but the other point i want to make is that there is unemployment today. there are many native-born workers and people of immigrant background who are struggling economically. that's absolutely the case. the cause of that is not immigration though. the cause of that is a restructuring that we've had of the economy, some people call it globalization, a vast increase in the disparity between the very rich and the very poor. those are the causes for economic stress not immigration. >> suarez: professor swain, go ahead. >> i disagree because the individuals that i mentioned that are in that age group from 18 to 35, these are people that are competing in the same labor market as many of the people that are undocumented. certainly there's been some data to suggest that 75% of the estimated 11 to 12 million undocumented persons, they have a high school education or less. they will take jobs and they w

ray suarez reports on the recent surge in violence and what's behind it. >> suarez: twisted wreckage shattered glass strewn across central iraq, the aftermath of all-too-familiar bombings. four coordinated attacks monday in four shiite cities south of baghdad killed more than 35 people. multiple attacks yesterday killed 22 more. >> ( translated ): do allah and prophet mohammed accept this? no one is safe. you do not know if you will come back to a house or not when you go to work! >> suarez: the attacks-- dozens in the last month-- are the most-serious spasm of violence since american troops left nearly 18 months ago. today, the unitedations mission in iraq said april was the deadliest month since june, 2008: more than 700 people were killed, almost all in baghdad. coupled with the sunni-shiite bloodletting in neighboring syria, all this has rekindled fears of sectarian war in iraq. years of such violence tore the country apart after the american invasion, and killed tens of thousands. >> ( translated ): the explosions have escalated nowadays in the south and the middle of the countr

ray suarez has more. >> suarez: the analysis looked at data compiled over a little more than a decadeperiod ending in 2010 that included the financial prices and the great recession. in 2010 there were more suicides in the u.s.-- 38,000 plus-- than there were fatal motor vehicle accidents. most disturbing, that spike among the middle aged. a 28% rise overall. the 40% jump among white americans and among men in their 50s suicides increased by more than 48%. guns remained the leading method used in all suicides followed by poisoning, overdoses and suffocation. some perspective on all this from dr. thomas frieden, the director of the c.d.c. dr. frieden, the morbidity and mortality report is a technical document. can you tease it what stressors might explain this tremendous spike in the number of people taking their own lives? >> we don't know what specifically is causing it but the trend has been consistt andf anythingreumbe would undereimate the gravity of the problem. and, of course, even one death from suicide is a terrible tragedy and many of them are preventable. we know that in tim

ray suarez reports. >> suarez: demands for higher pay and better working conditions brought out thousands of low-wage workers across southeast asia. they marched in indonesia, cambodia, the philippines, and elsewhere. >> ( translated ): for wages, we call on the new government to increase pay for all garment workers and for civil servants, police and military personnel of at least one million riels. >> ( translated ): the change in the rotten system prevailing in society is really in the hands of the workers and ordinary people. >> suarez: this year, the annual "may day" rallies were fueled by outrage over the deadly collapse of an eight-story building in bangladesh. the illegally-built structure housed several garment factories that employed thousands of workers. the death toll has now passed 400, but it remains unclear how many are still missing. today, bangladeshis filled the streets in the capital of dhaka, carrying the memories of those lost in last week's tragedy. >> ( translated ): the workers who were killed in the building collapse, we protest and we demand that the owner of the