JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
On the "NewsHour" tonight:
immigration limbo.
Republican lawmakers' attempt
today to come up with an
immigration fix falls flat, as
children separated from their
parents hang in the balance.
Plus, we continue our
reports from the U.S.-Mexico
border with a federal
judge tasked with deciding
the fates of immigrant families.
And Making Sense of e-sports
-- inside the economics of how
the competitive video-gaming
world is changing
the sports landscape.
JASON LAKE, Founder, compLexity
Gaming: The beautiful thing
about e-sports and about gaming
is, you don't have to be
6'3'' and 220 to have a shot.
You don't have to
be 6'9'' to dunk.
Anybody can come, male,
female, any race, any gender.
As long as you have some
basic physical functionality,
it's a level playing field.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more
on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Immigration
and the plight of separated
families remain topic A tonight
in Washington and at the
U.S. southern border.
But Republicans are
still divided over how
to change immigration
law, and more than 2,300
children are still being held
separately from their parents.
Congressional correspondent Lisa
Desjardins begins our coverage.
LISA DESJARDINS: Mixed
reactions came from across the
country today, after President
Trump's reversal on
family separations.
From protesters in
Milwaukee, angry that entire
families will be detained.
WOMAN: This has long
term, devastated effects.
LISA DESJARDINS: To a sense
of relief from undocumented
immigrants staying in a private
shelter in McAllen Texas.
WOMAN (through translator): This
is good news for the Hispanic
community, because no one
has the right to separate
children from their parents.
Seeing so many kids crying
and asking for their
moms was simply unfair.
LISA DESJARDINS: From the
White House came a new
outreach on the issue.
First lady Melania Trump
made a surprise visit to
McAllen today, touring
facilities holding
unaccompanied minors, including
a few who were separated
from parents a result of her
husband's immigration
crackdown at the border.
MELANIA TRUMP, First Lady: Very
happy and they love to study.
And I love to go to school.
And I would also like to ask
you how I can help to these
children to reunite with their
families.
LISA DESJARDINS: The first
lady decision's to wear a
jacket while leaving Washington
today, with writing on the
back that said "I don't
really care, do you?"
prompted questions.
But her spokesperson
maintained that there
was no hidden message.
On her trip, Mrs. Trump was
joined by Alex Azar, secretary
of Health and Human Services,
the department tasked with
overseeing the children after
they're apprehended by Border
Patrol.
An HHS official confirmed that,
for now, children separated
from parents are still going to
foster care homes and facilities
all across the country.
As for President Trump:
DONALD TRUMP, President of the
United States: We don't want
to have children separated from
their parents.
LISA DESJARDINS: He defended
his actions in a Cabinet meeting
today, but seemed to give
conflicting statements on
whether families would stay
together, saying both this:
DONALD TRUMP: I signed a very
good executive order yesterday,
but that's only limited.
No matter how you cut it, it
leads to separation, ultimately.
LISA DESJARDINS: And this:
DONALD TRUMP: I'm directing HHS,
DHS, and DOJ to work together
to keep illegal immigrant
families together during
the immigration process
and to reunite these
previously separated
groups.
LISA DESJARDINS: U.S.
Customs and Border
Protection stated today
that it would now attempt to
keep families together, but
detained, as it continues to
refer for prosecution adults
who cross the border illegally.
But people those who deal
with the families involved
are deeply concerned.
They say the new order ignores
those already separated.
Sergio Garcia is a
public defender in Texas.
SERGIO GARCIA, Pardon Attorney:
To me, it doesn't mean anything.
And for my clients, it
doesn't mean anything.
LISA DESJARDINS: "NewsHour"
talked with Garcia
about the more than
2,300 children separated
from their families,
asking, what is the chance
that their parents will
ever see them again?
SERGIO GARCIA: I think
it's almost none.
And the reason why I feel like
that is because there is --
as you probably know, parents
who come and ask questions
about asylum, who ask questions
about immigration, they're being
detained right now.
They're being turned away
people who are actually
seeking information,
like asylum information,
which is a right that they have.
They have a right
to make that claim.
So, I would say zero.
LISA DESJARDINS: Still in
question, the legality of the
president's executive order.
The Department of Justice today
asked a federal judge to change
the rules governing the process
and all what families who enter
the country illegally to be
held indefinitely, for longer
than the current 20 days, in an
effort to keep them together.
Meanwhile, in the
legislative branch, the
House of Representatives
voted down one conservative
immigration proposal and delayed
a vote until tomorrow on a
Republican compromise that would
make the president's
new policy of detaining
families together permanent.
And, Judy, that compromise
bill doesn't just deal with the
topic of child separation, but
also a possible path to
citizenship for dreamers,
those kids brought here
legally as children,
and also money for the border
wall for the president.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Lisa,
tell us more about what's
going on behind the
scenes at the Capitol.
You have been there.
I know you spent today all
day today, yesterday there.
Why are they having such a
hard time coming together
on this immigration issue?
LISA DESJARDINS: Well, I think
we see the classic divide
the Republican Party has had
for a long time now.
This movement of this big
vote until tomorrow tells
us two main things, Judy.
It tells us that, one, they
do not have the votes for this
compromise tonight, but, two,
that they think they might
get them by tomorrow.
Key in this will be the
conservative Freedom Caucus.
However, they feel like there
is some conservative momentum, a
move toward limiting immigration
more than this
compromise bill does.
Now, if this compromise bill
fails tomorrow, that means that
attention turns to the Senate
and a possible narrower solution
for this child separation issue.
I think, overall, Judy,
in the past two days,
it's been so wild.
Today, the joke at the Capitol
was it felt like and really
was the longest day of the
year.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But it sounds
like they're not close to
pulling this off, to coming to
an agreement.
LISA DESJARDINS: Unclear.
This compromise bill
has a chance tomorrow,
but it's still uphill.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Very quickly,
the jacket the first lady
wore today got some attention.
You talked about
it had a message.
Or it sad on the back, the
style, "I don't care, do you?"
The White House said no hidden
message, but the president's
been tweeting about it.
LISA DESJARDINS:
Well, apparently, it
was an open message.
The tweeted just a minute
ago, that the jacket that that
phrase, "I really don't dare, do
you?"
refers to the fake news media.
He tweeted that Melania Trump
is showing that she no longer
cares about the media and what
the media says.
So, maybe not a hidden message.
The president says it was
a message about the media.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Interesting.
From different than what
her office had said.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
Yes, they did -- they said there
was no message, essentially,
there was no implication.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Lisa
Desjardins, thank you.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we
will have a conversation
with an immigration
judge near the border
in Texas after the news summary.
In the day's other news:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that states may legally force
online shoppers to pay
sales tax; the 5-to-4
decision overturned two
longstanding precedents
that allowed online
retailers not to collect
sales tax in many cases.
A number of states argued that,
as a result, they have been
losing billions of dollars
in revenue each year.
In Israel, the wife of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
was charged with fraud today.
Sara Netanyahu is accused
of using some $100,000 in
public funds to pay for
meals from restaurants
and celebrity chefs.
Her lawyers call the
charges -- quote --
"baseless and delusional."
The prime minister
also faces a series of
corruption investigations.
Turkey is headed toward a
crucial election Sunday and the
president today appealed for
support.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
wants a new term with
greatly expanded powers.
Early voting is already
under way, but polls
show the presidential
and parliamentary races
are tightening.
Erdogan's opponents are
warning against one-man rule.
Back in this country,
the Trump administration
proposed merging the U.S.
Departments of Education
and Labor.
Budget Director Mick
Mulvaney spoke at today's
Cabinet meeting, and
laid out an extensive
plan for reorganizing
the government.
He called for creating
a single Department of
Education and the Work Force.
MICK MULVANEY, White House
Budget Director: We think that
makes tremendous sense, because
what are they both doing?
They're doing the same thing.
They're trying to get people
ready for the work force.
Sometimes, it's education.
Sometimes, it's
vocational training.
But they're all doing the
same thing, so why not put
them in the same place?
JUDY WOODRUFF: The plan
also would create a
single food safety agency,
among other changes.
Many of them will first
need congressional approval.
The U.S. House of
Representatives narrowly
approved a new farm bill
today that sets tougher
work requirements for
food stamp recipients.
The larger bill renews
a broad array of crop
and nutrition programs.
It now moves to the Senate,
which favors a more modest
measure without the tougher food
stamp provisions.
The CEO of technology company
Intel has resigned over
a consensual relationship
with an employee.
The company said that
Brian Krzanich violated its
non-fraternization policy.
It gave no details.
Krzanich joined Intel in 1982.
He became CEO in 2013.
Trade tensions again kept
Wall Street on edge today.
The Dow Jones industrial
average lost 196 points
to close at 24461.
The Nasdaq fell 68 points,
and the S&P 500 slipped 17.
From New Zealand today,
word of a happy arrival.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
gave birth to a baby girl.
Later, she posted a picture
with her seven-pound
newborn alongside her
partner, Clarke Gayford.
The late Pakistani Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto was
the only other world leader to
give birth while in office.
And on a sadder note, Koko,
the famed gorilla who knew sign
language, has died at a preserve
in California.
She was born at the San
Francisco Zoo, and learned to
sign as part of a project with
Stanford University.
Her capacity to communicate and
show emotion gained renown, and
was featured in documentaries.
Koko the gorilla
was 46 years old.
Still to come on the
"NewsHour": how the
immigration debate is playing
out in court; Navajos seek
to draw new political
lines by rewriting the
election map; and much more.
Now: one judge's take on the
immigration debate and how the
Trump administration's family
separation policy has been
playing out in his courtroom.
Amna Nawaz sat down earlier
today with Judge Robert Brack.
He's a federal district judge
based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
AMNA NAWAZ: The vast majority
of the work you do here, of
the cases you see in your
courtroom deal with immigration.
You have a front-row seat
to how the changes in
policy affect what you do.
You said it looks like we're
in the death throes of a system
that's been on life support
way too long.
What did you mean by that?
JUDGE ROBERT BRACK U.S. District
Court of New Mexico: So, I
think we all agree and have
for many years that our
immigration system is broken.
And as heartbreaking as this
crisis along the border was
this last couple of weeks,
a guy that shows up here every
day and does this every day
has to find hope somewhere.
And I'm thinking, I'm hoping
that maybe the moral outrage
associated with what's happened
will be the thing that
finally -- the catalyst
that finally makes us look
hard at this immigration
system that we all
agree needs to be fixed.
And if that's the case, then
this was the last gasp, you
know, of that system, and maybe
we can replace it with something
that makes sense, that's
humane and compassionate, and
still addresses our security
needs and our labor needs.
AMNA NAWAZ: Most federal
judges, I think, don't speak
out about these kinds of things,
it's fair to say, but
you have been writing
letters over the years.
You wrote one first in
2010 to President Obama.
You have written
many since then.
Why?
Why are you talking
about this right now?
JUDGE ROBERT BRACK: I'm
not comfortable doing
it, and I never set
out to be the spokesman
for the federal
judiciary on this issue.
And the fact is, judges have a
constitutional lane that they
need to stay in, and I'm trying
to be sensitive to that.
I have been promised, we as
a nation have been promised
immigration reform ever since
I have been here, 15 years.
Fits and starts.
Never has happened.
In my view, I am just reporting
back from the front lines
about what I see and what
I know and how I experience
the immigration problem.
And I'm hopeful that this
information that I'm providing
will inform a debate that will
finally happen.
AMNA NAWAZ: No other federal
judge comes close to your
sentencing record, right?
Over the last five
years, I was reading that
basically you sentenced
nearly 6,000 defendants
for felony immigration
violations.
And your critics will
say you are then sending
them back to the same
system they were fleeing,
which is not necessarily
compassionate.
They say that that
will be your legacy.
What do you say to that?
JUDGE ROBERT BRACK:
Well, you know what?
There's some truth in that.
As a federal district judge,
I'm the only one down here
that can sentence the people
that come before me.
And I guess I could say, as
some of my critics have recently
said, if I'm conflicted in this
way, I should quit.
Well, maybe there's some
credence to that thought,
but here's the thing.
If I'm not sitting
here, somebody else is.
And those people are
going to be sentenced.
This system is -- it's a monster
that has to be fed every day.
AMNA NAWAZ: There's been so
much attention paid to the
family separation policy.
And there is also a
lot of conversation now
that the president has
issued orders for that
to end, that that crisis
is now sort of behind us.
Do you believe that it
is, based on what you have
seen in your courtroom?
JUDGE ROBERT BRACK: So,
I have seen an uptick
in cases involving
families separated at the
border in the last 30 days.
And I hope that I don't
see those anymore.
Obviously, there's an issue of
how to reunite the 2,000 kids
and their families, you know,
their parents, in the meantime.
Do I think that's going
to be the end of it?
I have seen -- as I said, we
have had fits and starts with
this immigration problem for
a long time.
And if it's not this,
it's something else.
The family separation
I'm talking about -- and
it is most heartbreaking
-- is the folks that
have been here for
10 years or 20 years.
We had one today 30 years.
They have lived here, you
know, most of their lives.
No criminal history.
They have felt so comfortable
under the prior system, the
prior non-criminal prosecution
system, that they
put down roots here.
And they have American citizen
children and they have American
citizen wives in many cases.
And I preside over a process
that tears them apart.
I'm a husband and a father.
And I'm saying to another
husband and father
just across the bench
from me, you can't ever
live with your family again.
And I thought, what must it
be like to hear those words?
Because I can't imagine hearing
-- have someone else tell those
words -- say those words to
me.
And I just -- it's
heartbreaking.
And if it doesn't
break your heart, then,
well, you don't get it.
AMNA NAWAZ: Judge Brack, thank
you so much for your time.
JUDGE ROBERT BRACK: My pleasure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Amna joins
us now from near the border.
Amna, that was such a powerful
interview with the judge.
You were in his
courtroom this morning.
You spent some time
watching him work.
Tell us about what you saw.
AMNA NAWAZ: Yes, Judy, we
spent about an hour-and-a-half
with him earlier today.
Just to give you a sense of how
these things generally work,
proceedings began at about
8:45.
They wrapped up by 10:20.
In that time, 13 cases were
heard by Judge Brack, all
men, except for one woman.
That, by the way, is
considered a light day
here in the district court.
To give you a sense of what it
looks like, all the defendants
were there in colorful
jumpsuits.
Those are -- they have
been issued in detention
and in county jail,
wherever they're being
held.
They're all handcuffed
at the wrist.
They're all shackled
at the ankles.
And what stood out to me really
was what they had in common.
None of the people presented
before Judge Brack today had
any kind of criminal history
prior to the criminal conviction
that led them to Judge
Brack's courtroom today, that
being an
immigration-related case.
But, of course, it's the
details in all of these stories
that really stick out to you
that separate these
stories from one another.
I will share some of
those with you right now.
We're not allowed to report
inside the courtroom.
I did take extensive notes.
But there was a 19-year-old
young man from Guatemala.
He had tried twice to
enter the United States,
both times unsuccessfully.
He was apprehended held
for 35 days, is now being
deported to Guatemala.
There was a young
mother from Honduras.
She left behind four children
with her sister there to
come to the States and work.
And she was doing so for the
last six years in Atlanta
before she was apprehended, is
now being sent back to Honduras.
And there was also, finally,
Judy, a 27-year-old man from
Mexico who came to the U.S. when
he was just 7 years old.
He lived here for 20 years,
went to school here, started
working here, earning for his
family.
He went back to get married and
then illegally with his wife,
who is now four months pregnant.
They are both now being
prosecuted and will be
deported back to Mexico.
Judge Brack today said he is
trying to do everything he
can to make sure they're at
least going to be both
deported together -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Wow.
One can understand how
he's developed some
strong views on this.
So, Amna, we heard him refer
to the fact that there's this
unanswered question about how
these children who have been
separated from their parents
are going to be pulled back
together.
And I should say, as I ask you
this, we just have learned in
the last hour or so that the
attorney general, Jeff Sessions,
said in an interview today
that it wasn't the intention
of the Trump administration
to separate families, to
separate out the children.
But what do we know at
this point about how that
process is going to happen?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, it may not
have been the intention, but
I guess anyone who is familiar
with the law would tell you
that that was sort of an
inevitable consequence, that any
parent or guardian who is being
prosecuted would inevitably
have the children they are
caring for separated from them.
I will share with you one
story that came up in the final
minutes of the docket here
in Judge Brack's courtroom.
It was a man named Federico.
He's from Guatemala.
He's 51 years old.
He and his son came together.
And when they were
apprehended, his son was
forcibly taken from him.
He's been held for 38 days
in government custody.
The father has.
And I had a chance to speak
with his public defender.
In all of that time, he has not
had contact with his son once.
Most of the time, he didn't
even know where his son was.
The lawyer was able to show me
60 pages -- that is 6-0 pages
-- of e-mails in which she and
other people on her staff, other
immigration lawyers they're
working with, have been trying
to navigate the government
system to figure out
where the son is.
Can they set up at least a
phone call at the very least
between the son and the father?
So, I called around to some
public defenders who tried to
figure out, is this normal, is
this kind of thing
happening a lot?
I asked one public defender
in another region along the
border, what's your success rate
of reunification with parents
and kids who are separate?
And I was told that is
right now zero percent.
Another one said to me that
this happens all the time,
because here's the thing, Judy.
There are still 2,300 children
in government custody who were
forcibly separated from their
parents.
And the children are now
in a separate system.
The parents are being moved
through the criminal system at
such a pace that they are being
prosecuted and deported
oftentimes before they have had
any chance to make contact with
their kids, and they don't
know when or if they will
be able to again -- Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Amna Nawaz
reporting from close to the
border, every one a human story.
Thank you, Amna.
The forcible separation
of children from their
parents at the U.S.
southern border has focused
attention on the conditions
of the detention of
all young immigrants.
And now John Yang reports
that there are troubling
allegations about one
facility housing immigrant
teens in Virginia.
JOHN YANG: Judy, today Virginia
Governor Ralph Northam launched
an investigation into claims
of severe physical abuse
of immigrant teenagers
at a juvenile detention
facility near Staunton,
Virginia.
Northam acted just hours after
the Associated Press reported
the claims made by immigrants
sent to the facility
by U.S. authorities.
One of the reporters who broke
the story joins us now, Michael
Biesecker, an AP investigative
reporter.
Michael, thank you very
much for joining us.
MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated
Press: Good to be with you.
JOHN YANG: First of all, tell
us who these young people
are in this facility and how
they got there.
MICHAEL BIESECKER: Well, the six
sworn statements that were filed
as part of this lawsuit were
from mostly kids from Central
America and Mexico who crossed
the border as unaccompanied
minors and then were picked
up by immigration authorities
and put into the system under
the Department of Health
and Human Services' Office
of Refugee Resettlement,
which essentially
puts these kids in shelters,
in facilities that will house
them while their immigration
cases, often, you know, seeking
refugee status, wind their way
through immigration courts,
which can take years.
JOHN YANG: And so these are
similar to the children who
have been forcibly removed from
their parents along the
border in the last few
weeks, but not the same.
MICHAEL BIESECKER: This lawsuit
was filed before the zero
tolerance policy was announced
in April separating parents
from their children.
However, once those children
are in the system now, they
are classified as unaccompanied
minors, and could end up at
some of these same facilities,
which is why we were looking
at them.
JOHN YANG: And these young
people were suspected
of being gang members?
MICHAEL BIESECKER: Well, in
many cases, they have mental
issues that can cause them to
act out, have behavioral
problems that may have made it
difficult for them to acclimate
to being in less
secure facilities.
So, what a program manager from
this facility in Shenandoah
Valley, Virginia, testified
to before Congress back in
April was that many of the
kids that are labeled as being
gang members, potentially
violent criminals, they get them
to the facility, they screen
them, and they find out that
they may not be gang members,
they may not have created
crimes.
They may just be young people
who have some behavioral
issues that need to be treated.
JOHN YANG: And what were
the allegations that they
made about their treatment?
MICHAEL BIESECKER: They're
pretty severe and consistent
between the six statements.
Several of the children said
that they were strapped to
what was called a safety chair,
essentially a restraint chair
with wheels, that a white bag
was placed over their head,
and that they were left in
there for sometimes days.
Other teens and children, they
ranged in age from 14 to 17,
said that they -- their clothes
were taken away, and they were
confined for days on end to
their cells, steel beds, told
that a window where people
could see in 24 hours a day,
and without their clothes in
the Virginia mountains.
And it was drafty.
JOHN YANG: And these
come in a lawsuit that's
been filed against them.
But you have got corroborating
evidence, someone else to
tell you the same thing?
MICHAEL BIESECKER: We were able
to speak to someone in that
facility who had been in that
facility who had met face
to face with these kids.
And that person reported seeing
bruises and in one case broken
bones, that, when she asked
what happened, she was told that
the guards had assaulted them.
And consistently, between the
statements, the children said
that they would be struck
while they were in restraints,
handcuffs and shackles.
JOHN YANG: And what's been the
response from the facility?
MICHAEL BIESECKER:
There's not been any.
In court documents, they
deny all the allegations.
However, we have been unable
to get any response from
them over the last two days.
Also, the Department of Health
and Human Services has yet
to respond to our story.
And we reached out to them
in advance of publication.
JOHN YANG: And, as you
say, this goes back to
the Obama administration.
And you did speak to
officials who served at that
time in the administration.
MICHAEL BIESECKER: We talked to
a top official who oversaw the
refugee resettlement program
under President Obama.
And these allegations
range from 2015 to 2018,
so a span of years.
That official said he was
unaware of any complaints
about abuse at Shenandoah
Valley, though he
did say that he heard
about them after leaving.
Had he heard about them while
he was still in charge, he
said he would have investigated
them, and potentially
terminated the contract,
the federal contract,
that pays approximately
more than $4 million a
year to house kids there,
about 30 at a time.
JOHN YANG: And there
has been congressional
testimony about this?
MICHAEL BIESECKER: There
has been congressional
testimony from someone who
worked at the facility.
And she said that, in some
cases, the children there have
behavioral problems that can be
difficult to treat in what
we could call a correctional
setting, a prison-like facility,
and that they would
be better served in
residential psychiatric
treatment facilities.
However, those facilities are
often hesitant to take a child
with a history of behavioral
problems or the
potential for violence.
JOHN YANG: You call this a
prison-like facility, but these
children have not been convicted
of any crimes.
MICHAEL BIESECKER:
That's correct.
They're housed in the
same facility with local
juvenile delinquents
that have been either
charged or adjudicated
with serious crimes.
However, they were largely
segregated from those mostly
white inmates, juvenile inmates.
And the Latino kids said that
their facility was much more
stark, they didn't have access
to cushy chairs, they didn't
have as good of food, they
didn't have access to video
game consoles, and some of
the perks that were afforded
to the mostly white detainees
they said they were deprived of.
JOHN YANG: Michael
Biesecker at the Associated
Press, thanks so much.
MICHAEL BIESECKER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: How voting
district maps are drawn can
help determine which political
party controls power.
The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly
ruled in two cases this term,
keeping in place boundaries
in Maryland and Wisconsin.
A fight is still raging in
one Utah county over current
district lines and their effect
on the voice of
Native Americans.
From the University of Southern
California's Annenberg Rural
Reporting Initiative, Tommy
Brooksbank has the story.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: San
Juan County is the largest
county in Utah, about
the size of New Jersey.
It stretches from the
predominantly white Mormon towns
of Monticello and Blanding in
the north, to the vast Navajo
Reservation in the south.
It is also the poorest
county in the state.
REBECCA BENALLY, Commissioner,
San Juan County: On the Navajo
Reservation, the unemployment
rate is around 72 percent.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: Rebecca
Benally's county district
includes the Navajo Reservation.
She is currently the only
Native American serving as one
of three county commissioners,
even though the Navajo
are a majority of
the total population.
But that could change when
residents go to the polls for
a special election in November.
Late last year, a federal
judge ruled that the
county voting districts
had been gerrymandered,
in violation of the
Constitution, by lumping
the Navajo into a
single voting district.
The ruling was a huge victory
for the Navajo Nation and for
Wilfred Jones, a plaintiff
in the lawsuit.
WILFRED JONES, Plaintiff:
There were some tears that
were shed at that moment for my
family on my side.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: Jones
decided to sue because,
he argued, Navajo
residing within the county
district that includes
the reservation had been
denied critical services.
His own sister died because
there was no ambulance
available like this one
in the north to take
her to a county hospital.
WILFRED JONES: And she had a
heart attack and they couldn't
get there until about an
hour later, which was too late.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: The old county
commission map placed most
of the Navajo population in
the 3rd District, which
guaranteed that the
other two districts
would have the final say
on county issues.
The new map, drawn up by a
court-appointed expert and put
into effect in December, spreads
that population around.
Reaction to the court's decision
in the northern part of the
county was swift and angry.
Kelly Laws is the Republican
candidate for county
commissioner in District 2.
That is the district that
could potentially swing the
three-member council majority to
the Navajo.
He is furious the new
district lines trisect
the town of Blanding.
KELLY LAWS, Candidate for County
Commissioner: This is a perfect
case of gerrymandering at
its very best.
And the part that's interesting
is, how many other counties
in the nation have had this
done to them?
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: But the
argument that gerrymandering
has been replaced with
more gerrymandering
has been rejected by the 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals,
which denied the county's most
recent appeal.
The court says the new district
boundaries fairly reflect
the overall population.
New voting lines aside,
the two parts of the county
are still worlds apart.
On the Navajo Reservation, some
people live without electricity
or running water and school
buses must travel over miles
and miles of dirt roads.
In the northern part of the
county, there are two big
libraries, a community center
on a golf course,
and two hospitals.
Navajo residents are hopeful
that the redistricting,
which affects both the
county commission and
the school board, might bring
more resources their way.
Curtis Yanito is a candidate
for the school board.
He lives on the south side of
the San Juan River, which he
sees as just one more barrier
to connecting with the
northern part of the county.
He hopes the new district
lines will mean more resources
for reservation children.
CURTIS YANITO, School Board
Candidate: I know that there's
funds out there, but it just
stops right there,
where the border's at.
It doesn't come this way.
And all these funds that I
have seen that happened in the
past, it's just been out on
that side.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: The
debate over redistricting
is playing out against
a long history of anger
by white conservatives
here over what they see
as federal overreach.
In 2014, it was a face-off with
the Bureau of Land Management
over ATV use in recaptured
canyon.
And more than a decade ago,
federal agents swarmed into
Blanding and arrested a number
of citizens for illegal trade
in Native American artifacts.
One of those arrested was
a local physician, who
later committed suicide.
Librarian Nicole Perkins
still gets emotional about it.
NICOLE PERKINS, Librarian:
The raids, when they came and
raided Dr. Redd and his family
and the other people here,
you saw all the local people
-- a lot of people said, well
- - they came in with guns
and vehicles and just like
we were ISIS or something.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: Today,
that anger over federal
intrusion continues, with
county leaders planning
to appeal to the federal
court yet again over the
new district boundaries.
If they lose that appeal,
the battle for political
control of the county
comes down to the race
for commissioner in District 2.
Wilfred Jones is optimistic
that a Navajo candidate will
qualify for the ballot and
win that seat.
WILFRED JONES: We're in
the 21st century here.
We should be able to vote as we
please and voice our opinion.
TOMMY BROOKSBANK: If the Navajo
win two of the three seats
on the county commission,
it would overturn more
than a century of political
domination by white residents.
For Jones, who was born before
Native Americans had the right
to vote in Utah, it would be
a personal, as well
as historic, victory.
For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Tommy Brooksbank in
San Juan County, Utah.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: the plans
to revitalize the newspaper
of note for the United States'
second largest city,
The Los Angeles Times.
Patrick Soon-Shiong
is a multibillionaire
surgeon, entrepreneur
and part owner of the
L.A. Lakers.
He has spent half-a-billion
dollars to buy the paper,
which has faced big setbacks in
recent years.
As critical as it has been
to the city of Los Angeles,
the L.A. Times has struggled
with huge financial losses,
two-thirds laid off over time,
three top editors replaced
in 18 months.
And there've been
multiple publishers.
Soon-Shiong is also an immigrant
born to parents who had fled
China during the occupation by
Japan during World War II.
And he joins me now
from Los Angeles.
Patrick Soon-Shiong,
congratulations.
And you're investing in a
newspaper at a time when few and
fewer people are reading them.
Why?
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG, Owner, The
Los Angeles Times: Well, I think
it's important for democracy.
It's so important for education.
It's so important
for this country.
And it's an institution that
I think we need to protect.
And, to me, I grew up in
apartheid, South Africa, and the
only thing that was my respite
was the newspaper, frankly.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, you know,
you and I had a little bit
of a conversation about this
not long ago when we talked.
What is it about journalism
today that you think
you can make thrive?
Because we look across
the country, newspapers
are struggling, people
are moving to digital.
What is your dream here?
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: Well,
the first thing is, there's a
fundamental need of this issue
of truthful news, right?
And I think that truly the --
and, as I said in my letter,
I think fake news is a cancer
of our times.
And, frankly, the
social media allows this
proliferation and metastasis.
I think the place where we need
to find truthful information
and journalistic integrity is
in the newspapers.
But I think we also recognize
that we have this problem of
where technology has now taken
over, where people want
news where they want
to read it, where they
can read it, whenever,
wherever they may be, and
the digital mobile platform.
I still am of the old school.
I still, as I said, love the
tactile feel of a physical
print and what I call leisurely
reading.
But we need to adapt and adopt
very quickly in real time
into this whole new world of
digital age.
So, today, I think
journalists need to have
cross-technology skill sets.
They need to podcast.
They need to do what I'm doing
here, TV interviews, and print.
And it's a very different
life for the journalists.
But without journalists giving
us good, real investigative
reporting, I think we will have
lost a lot in terms
of these institutions.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think you
can do this and be profitable?
After all, it's a business.
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG:
No, it is a business.
And I have said this is not
a philanthropic exercise.
This is not an
exercise of vanity.
This is an exercise where
this business has to now
as an institution survive.
The New York Times and The
Washington Post have shown,
in fact, if they create great,
important stories with great
journalists, they can adopt.
And we must.
And the answer is, I'm hopeful.
We are not concerned or
scared of technology.
Part of my work in cancer doing
genomic sequencing and cloud
computing and machine vision and
artificial intelligence, I
think we can bring all this to
bear and still create a model
that thrives.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you're
working with a newsroom
that has been -- that
has lost, as we said,
a large percentage of its
staff, of its reporters.
You're dealing with a place
that's been traumatized,
virtually, in recent years.
What's it going to take
to turn that around?
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: I speak to
my newsroom and I say this is
like a battered child syndrome,
right?
I completely get that.
They have been traumatized.
So, the first thing we did was,
yesterday, we announced Norm
Pearlstine as the executive
editor.
The day next, we -- Kris
Viesselman has come in as
the transformation editor.
I think the idea is to actually
strengthen the newsroom.
The journalists
are our lifeblood.
So, this is the first time
that we will have stability.
This is not a one-year
program, 10-year program.
I see this as a lifelong
program for us to
really create stability.
So, I think, if we actually
are able to attract best talent
-- and California is a unique
ecosystem to itself -- we
will be able to do fine.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You do come to
this, Patrick Soon-Shiong, as
someone who didn't come out
of journalism.
And you said yourself your
investments have been in
-- you're a physician.
Your investments have been in
health care, in pharmaceuticals.
The L.A. Times itself has
written a story about you
earlier this year, controversies
in your business career.
Were they accurate in those
stories, and do you think your
background is a fit for this?
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: Well, first
of all, that's one of the first
things I told The L.A. Times
newsroom.
They should feel to write
anything and everything
about me, completely
independent of me as
the owner, as long as
it is fair and truthful.
I think that should be
the standard for anybody.
Fairness, honesty and
truthfulness is all any
person could ask for.
But with regard to
my background, I look
upon journalists very
much like scientists.
They love discovery.
We love discovery.
We love the truth.
We want to find the
basis of the truth.
And we love publishing.
So, while my background
has been in discovery,
working with scientists
and physician scientists,
I look upon journalists as such.
If we're going to do opinions,
however, we should very,
very clearly say, this is an
opinion, and everybody should be
allowed to have their opinion,
whether it be right opinion,
left opinion, or
middle road opinion.
So I think the opportunity
for us now to create
an educational forum, a
forum that will inspire,
a forum that will inform,
and a forum that will
provide entertainment,
so to speak, even,
sports, arts, lifestyle.
So I'm really excited.
It's a steep learning curve
for me, but I'm really excited
about this next episode of
what I'm going to be doing.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Patrick
Soon-Shiong, the new owner of
The Los Angeles Times and The
San Diego Union,
again, congratulations.
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG:
Thank you so much, Judy.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As traditional
sports like baseball and
football struggle with stalling
viewership and an aging fan
base, a new kind of sport has
emerged with huge appeal for
millions around the world.
Economics correspondent Paul
Solman has the story from
Austin, Texas, where he went to
a three-day event for
what's known as e-sports.
It's part of his weekly
series, Making Sense.
PAUL SOLMAN: Pro sports, and
they don't get any hotter than
this, in the U.S, in France,
in Poland.
The fans are in ecstasy
and sometimes despair over
e-sports, electronic sports.
That's right.
They're playing video
games for money, big money.
Come on, you ask,
this is sports?
Well, the Olympics are
considering adding e-sports
because they have mesmerized the
digital generation,
while traditional sports
worry about decline.
MIKE VAN DRIEL, DreamHack: We're
not really concerned anymore
about this hangup of like,
is it sports or not?
PAUL SOLMAN: We're at DreamHack
in Austin Texas, Canadian Mike
Van Driel here from Sweden
to manage the event.
And while DreamHack Austin
drew a crowd of only 30,000,
$30 just to watch, $89 if you
also BYOC, bring your
own computer to play
in the amateur pen.
But you know how times many
fans will tune in online?
MIKE VAN DRIEL: I mean,
easily 100 million.
PAUL SOLMAN: A hundred million?
MIKE VAN DRIEL: Yes.
PAUL SOLMAN: The box
office take in Austin,
nearly a million dollars.
But this is just one of
the dozen or so events
DreamHack hosts every year.
MIKE VAN DRIEL: We're
doing two events in the
U.S., two events in Spain.
And then in two weeks from
now, we will be at kind of the
original event in a Jonkoping,
Sweden.
PAUL SOLMAN: And how
many people come to that?
MIKE VAN DRIEL: About 55,000.
PAUL SOLMAN: In Jonkoping.
That's standing room
only at Yankee Stadium.
Moreover, while we were at
DreamHack, a separate tournament
was taking place at a resort in
Wisconsin.
And there were others
all over the world.
MIKE VAN DRIEL: So many
events happen on the same
weekend, because there's
not enough weekends.
PAUL SOLMAN: Following the
fans, of course, the money.
Growing at 40 percent per year,
e-sports figure to gross nearly
a billion dollars by the end
of 2018, 40 percent or so from
sponsorships, 20 percent from
ads, another 20 percent from
media rights.
At DreamHack, signs of the
new money were everywhere,
high-tech cameras on cranes.
So-call casters call the action
play-by-play, streamed live
worldwide, as the pro gamers
play for rich prizes,
in addition to their
substantial salaries.
SHAHZEB KHAN, ShahZaM:
They're well over six figures.
And then the sky's the
limit with prize money.
PAUL SOLMAN: That's ShahZaM,
Shahzeb Khan, a star whose
pro e-sport is Counter-Strike,
where five terrorists try
to plant bombs and five
counterterrorists try to
deter them permanently.
Whoever neutralizes the
opposing team first wins.
ShahZaM plays for
compLexity Gaming, one
of scores of pro e-sports
teams in various leagues
playing different e-sports
video games, Dota 2, PUBG,
Overwatch, League of Legends.
They all compete for top
talent, like ShahZaM.
Last year, compLexity was bought
by Dallas Cowboys football
boss Jerry Jones, who's been
joined by traditional sports
moguls like Bob Kraft of the
New England Patriots football
dynasty, who's invested
in a league for the
video game Overwatch.
Team compLexity, which makes its
money from corporate sponsors
and its cut of tournament
winnings, provides
plenty of support.
SHAHZEB KHAN: We have
got a personal fitness
sports psychology coach.
He helps us with pretty much
everything we need, in terms
of like even teaching some
of the players how to
cook, getting advice on
like fixing your posture.
PAUL SOLMAN: Hey, posture is
key, if you sit as much as
these guys do, practicing eight
to 10 hours a day.
But, look, says the entrepreneur
who founded and then sold the
compLexity team, Jason Lake:
JASON LAKE, Founder, compLexity
Gaming: The beautiful thing
about e-sports and about gaming
is, you don't have to be
6'3'' and 220 to have a shot.
You don't have to
be 6'9'' to dunk.
Anybody can come, male,
female, any race, any gender.
As long as you have some
basic physical functionality,
it's a level playing field.
PAUL SOLMAN: There is
one physical hazard,
carpal tunnel syndrome.
Daniel Rodriguez, AKA ChuDat:
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ, ChuDat: If I
play for about one or two hours,
my fingers are pretty much
- - they just start to hurt.
PAUL SOLMAN: ChuDat is a star
at Super Smash Bros. Melee,
a mostly gun-free mano-a-mano
affair released way back
in 2001, but ChuDat's
e-sport was shelved for
a sequel, Super Smash
Bros. Brawl, and both he and the
game appeared to be obsolete.
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ: I tried
picking up the game.
I tried playing.
I was no good at it.
So I had to kind of like drop
Smash and I had to focus on
like my real life, so I got
a job and then I
went back to school.
PAUL SOLMAN: Luckily, a
2013 nostalgia documentary
revived Melee and
Rodriguez's career, for
the time being.
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ: People think
that this game will dry up and
it will just like completely
disappear.
PAUL SOLMAN: Well, what
do you do after that?
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ: I got to go
back to school and get a job.
PAUL SOLMAN: So, unlike baseball
or golf, video games go, video
games come, and sometimes
quickly.
The video game of the
moment, soon to become a
pro e-sport with a league
of its own, Fortnite,
a shoot-em-up featuring a battle
royal, 100 players drifting
down to an island and then
sniping away to emerge
as sole survivor.
With promised tournament prizes
of $100 million next year,
Fortnite threatens to become the
biggest e-sport of them
all and was plastered on
screens throughout DreamHack.
Released less than a year ago,
the game already has 50 million
players, in part because it's
free, while a typical video
game costs $50 to $60.
So how can it offer
$100 million in prizes?
Because Fortnite has
turned out to be a superb
virtual merchandiser.
Matthew Adams, playing Fortnite
at the BYOC area of DreamHack,
is one of its customers.
MATTHEW ADAMS, Gamer: You
can earn dances and buy them.
Like, here's a break-dance.
PAUL SOLMAN: A break-dance.
MATTHEW ADAMS: Like in
old times, like disco.
PAUL SOLMAN: And you
could either earn those
dances for your character
or you can buy them?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Yes, or you
can buy them in the shop.
PAUL SOLMAN: And how much
is a dance cost roughly?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Like two dollars.
PAUL SOLMAN: Two bucks a dance.
MATTHEW ADAMS: Yes.
PAUL SOLMAN: Skins, the
outfits players don,
are $10 to $20 apiece.
As a result, Fortnite grossed
$296 million on cosmetic
items and weapons upgrades in
the month of April alone.
How many hours a day
do you play this?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Maybe like five.
I play a lot.
ZAC ADAMS, Father: I think
that it will be as popular as
baseball, basketball, and those
sports.
It's just a matter of time.
PAUL SOLMAN: Matthew's dad
Zac Adams is a pro athlete
himself, a long-drive golfer who
has hit a ball 450
yards onto a fairway.
He's taken up Fortnite to
spend time with his kids.
But, now, wait a second.
Maybe Fortnite is
the next big e-sport.
But doesn't the violence
concern the father?
A 2015 review by the American
Psychological Association
linked video games to increased
aggression, though it found
no link to violent crimes.
ZAC ADAM: I think that the
parents that do allow them to
play should be responsible to
bring that to the
top of the list.
PAUL SOLMAN: Matt's dad
said he wasn't worried
about a Fortnite addiction.
But that was before the World
Health Organization pronounced
this week that such addictions
can be a gaming disorder
in extreme cases.
Do you worry at all about
the addiction factor?
I asked him if he was
addicted to the game.
And he said yes.
ZAC ADAM: Right.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, it's tough to like put
my finger on that, you know,
because if you balance your
life with exercise, proper
diet, and you're - - and you're
doing things to keep yourself
mentally healthy, you can
have a hobby that maybe isn't
necessarily an addiction, but
it's what you do, you know,
and it's what drives your life.
PAUL SOLMAN: I had one last
question for Zac's son.
Do you have any dreams of
becoming a professional gamer?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Yes.
PAUL SOLMAN: You do?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Yes.
PAUL SOLMAN: Do you
think you have a shot?
MATTHEW ADAMS: Maybe.
PAUL SOLMAN: For the "PBS
NewsHour" in Austin, Texas, this
is Paul Solman, sticking to my
TV economics career,
at least for now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, we
turn to another installment
of our weekly Brief
But Spectacular series,
where we ask people
about their passions.
Tonight, in honor of LGBTQ Pride
Month, we hear from YouTube
contributor Jackson Bird.
He hosts the podcast
"Transmission" and creates
videos for transgender
people and for everyone
to better understand the
transgender community.
JACKSON BIRD, Activist: I think
it can be difficult for people
to wrap their heads around
gender, specifically cisgender
people, people whose gender
identity is congruent with the
one that they were
assigned to them at birth.
It can be difficult for them
because they never had to
question their gender, which
is astonishing to those of us
who are trans, because we spend
so much of our time questioning
gender and thinking about
it in a very existential
way, and wondering why
is gender, and what
is gender, and how
did this happen?
When I was 25, I came out
as transgender, which means
basically I came out as a guy.
When I say that I'm a
transgender man, what
that means is that,
when I was born, I was
assigned female at birth.
I was socialized as
a girl growing up.
It never really felt right.
From a young age, I just
felt like I should've
been born a boy.
I didn't share it with anyone.
I didn't think I could
share it with anyone.
So, what I did instead was,
think, well, this is the life
I have to lead as a woman.
So, I will just try to be the
best woman that I can be in
whatever that means in a very
stereotypical way from society.
Hi, my name is Jackson Bird.
And I am two years
post-top surgery.
Why does he have
his shirt on then?
Isn't the point of these videos?
His shirt should be off.
Ain't happening.
Here's why.
I have been making videos
on YouTube for a long time.
And I started making them when
I was kind of dealing with
my gender identity and kind
of knew at the back of my head
that, if my audience continued
to grow on YouTube, I would
eventually have this
pressure of having to
come out publicly online.
There's something in the trans
community called living stealth.
And only some trans people
even have this privilege.
What it means is that you are
perceived enough, you are read
as the gender you identify as
that, when you go out and about
in your everyday life, people
aren't going to question your
gender.
For anyone who is not
consistently read as the gender
they identify as, it's so much
harder, because they're going
out in public every single
day just living their lives,
and having strangers on the
street, on the subway, the
cashiers at the grocery store
giving them weird looks,
maybe even dirty looks, making
them, like, explain themselves
anywhere they are.
So, that's an every single day,
multiple times a day coming
out process, on top of the very
turbulent, traumatic one
that you probably already had
when you told your family and
friends.
If you're watching this and
you're wondering what you can
do to help close the gaps of
an inequality that
exists between LGBTQ+
people vs. straight and
non-transgender people, I
think the biggest thing is to
just see the humanity in us, to
raise up our voices, especially
in so many places of media and
community and spaces where our
voices are under-represented.
I didn't have any transgender
role models growing up.
I hardly had any gay or
queer role models growing
up in Texas in the '90s.
I didn't even know that
transgender men existed.
That lack of representation
growing up made me literally
feel like I was alone in the
world and there was
no one else like me.
So to now get to be the role
model that I needed as a
kid is just indescribable.
My name is Jackson Bird, and
this is my Brief But Spectacular
take on providing a platform
for transgender people.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can
find additional Brief But
Spectacular episodes on our Web
site, PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.
And before we go, we're
sorry to share this passing.
Charles Krauthammer, the
syndicated conservative
columnist and FOX News
contributor, has died
after battling cancer.
He'd not been on television
for nearly a year, and wrote a
public letter earlier this month
announcing that he only
had a short time to live.
Krauthammer, a former
psychiatrist and paraplegic
since a teenage diving
accident, won the Pulitzer
Prize for his commentary,
and was a bestselling author.
Charles Krauthammer
was 68 years old.
And that's the
"NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Judy Woodruff.
For all of us at the "PBS
NewsHour," thank you,
and we'll see you soon.