Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140101

Sreenivasan those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org 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. Sreenivasan on wall street today, the end of 2013 went much like the rest of this record setting year stocks kept rising. The s p 500 had its best year since 1997, up 29 . Other major indexes also scored big. The Dow Jones Industrial average added another 72 points today to close at 16,576. The nasdaq rose 22 points to close at 4,176. Well look at what drove the yearlong rally right after the news summary. Two new reports rounded out the year in economic news. Housing prices rose again in october for a yeartoyear gain of 13. 6 , the most since 2006. Thats according to the standard and poors caseshiller index. And the Business Research Group Conference board reported that consumers moods brightened in december with better outlooks for hiring and growth. It had been down for three straight months. The number of enrollments in the new Health Care Law has topped two million. The Obama Administration announced the figure today. Its based on numbers from the federal web site healthcare. Gov covering 36 states plus individual web sites serving the other 14 states. The administration initially hoped to have 3. 3 million enrollments by now. Its already 2014 in some parts of the world, with millions of revelers welcoming the new year with celebrations and futuristic fireworks. We have a report from neil connery of independent Television News. cheers and applause reporter auckland was the first major city to ring in the new year as new zealand welcomed 2014 in style. cheers and applause in sydney, there was a breathtaking start to new year. More than one Million People crammed onto the shores of sydney harbor as the city bathed under the glow of a spectacular 11minute firework display. Australia, as always, determined to show the world how new year should really be celebrated. cheers and applause in tokyo, monks rang the bell of time housed at the buddhist temple to mark 2014s arrival. The ancient traditions greeted by a modern welcome with everyone determined to get a picture. cheers and applause more than 850,000 revelers in tapei savored this spectacle as tawian marked the midnight hour. Qc a cheers and applause hong kongs harbor played host to a mesmerizing start to the new year. cheers and applause and the great wall of china near beijing was lit up with lasers, providing the dramatic backdrop for celebrations and thrilling the crowds. Sreenivasan later, the Persian Gulf Oil city of dubai boasted the nights biggest fireworks display. Organizers said it set a world record. The show used half a million shells and lasted six full minutes, centered on the worlds tallest tower and synchronized by 100 computers. Officials of the Guinness World record book witnessed the event. In russia, president Vladimir Putin vowed today that those behind the bombings in volgograd will face complete annihilation. The attacks sunday and monday killed at least 34 people. Security was ramped up today across the city once known as stalingrad. Police detained dozens of suspects, but it was unclear if any of them were tied to the bombings. The attacks raised security concerns about the winter olympics, set for february in sochi, some 400 miles away. The government of south sudan and rebels have agreed to attend peace talks in ethiopia, in an effort to end the fighting between ethnic factions. But hours before the announcement, the rebels took control of nearly all of the city of bor, in jonglei state. At least 1,000 people have been killed in south sudan in two weeks of fighting. Evacuated residents of a small north dakota town were allowed to return home today, 24 hours after a milelong crude oil train derailed. The train went off the tracks on the outskirts of casselton. It triggered a thunderous explosion that sent a huge fireball and thick black smoke into the sky. No one was hurt, and officials said today the air has cleared. We have not detected any of the products of combustion like Carbon Monoxide or sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide that could come from burning crude oil in the community, so were really encouraged by that. We havent detected any other volatile, organic compounds. Sreenivasan a spokeswoman for the rail company said a separate train transporting grain derailed first. That, in turn, knocked several of the oil trains cars off their adjoining tracks. Still to come on the newshour the stock markets blockbuster year; the challenge of eliminating syrias chemical weapons; the battle in maine over importing Prescription Drugs; the man who moved ole miss away from its segregated past; restoring sight to people blinded by cataracts in rural india; plus, translating 14th century persian poetry for the modern masses. Sreenivasan 2013 was a year of huge gains on the stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial average gaining almost 26 , the nasdaq about 37 . But what about the rest of the economy . Jeffrey brown recorded our end oftheyear look yesterday. Wall street was up in 2013, way up, by any and all major market measures. In the meantime, the outlook for main street, Economic Growth in jobs was better but hardly great. We discuss what is going on with hugh johnson, a market analyst who runs his own Investment Management firm, robin faz ed and Harry Holtzer from Georgetown University and welcome to ail of you. Hugh johnson, start us off. How good a year was this for stocks . Theres no word that i think no superlative that is Strong Enough to really describe how good of a year it was. It was not only a good year. Its one of the better years we have had. If you go back and look at the records since 1890 but i would say the biggest thing was it was a big surprise. I dont know anybody that had been forecasting, a lot of people forecast and up year but nobody forecasted anything over 12 to 15 percent so a big year and big surprise. Robin was it a surprise to you . Youre going to have to toast mr. Ben bernanke on new years eve because when the Federal Reserve threes 3. 5 billion at the recession of ours something is bound to happen. We have seen real estate reinflate and junk bonds have such an amaze guess time. Michael mill ken would blush and the stock market has had its best year since 1997. I dont think anybody expected this. Last year at this time people were saying maybe high single digits, teens at best but to be at almost 30 percent in terms of total terms is excite. And harry holzer, as a labor economist and you work from the street level up, what did you see . The the economy has not been that strong as you said earlier. Overall gp growth has been 2579 percent so far this year. Thats only slightly better than the little over 2 percent that it has been throughout this recovery. Job growth was decent, again by the standards of this recovery, close to 200,000 a month, but not great. So i wish that those games had been more widely shared by workers in the economy. So lets pick up on some of these things. First of all, what sectors were doing i guess were all sectors going gangbusters or what do you see happening . Every sector, if you look at sectors of the market, was up. But what was happening was the economically sensitive sectors of the markets, these are a little technical consumer cyclical industrials, Technology Sectors were up. The safe sectors of the market, the sectors that do well when the economy is in a recession or worse, such as utilities, telecommunications, consumer staples, they were up but they werent up as much. So what the message of the market was is that, yes, the economy was not doing particularly well in 2013, certainly worse than it did in 2012, but the message of when you take a look at the sector performance, now well just stick around because conditions are improving. In 2014 it will be better, maybe considerably better than in 2013 when you luke at the sectors. Robin, youre suggesting a lot of this is due to the fed. Yes, financial aid. Financial aid . Five years, zero Interest Rate policy. Youre not getting anything for your money in the bank, and the opportunity cost is that over five years. Borrowing costs have been high at a time of deficits and people are looking for returns. When they maximum out the opportunities in the bond markets they look at real estate or junk bonds, and then increasingly equities, versus high quality equities and then junk equities and next thing you know facebook is worth as much as disney. This is how these things happen and theres a vernacular and they call ate meltup when everybody realizes they have to get in and they pile money in and you get situations acoin to what we saw in late 99, much of 86 and 87 and you know how those two episodes ended. Is that what you see happening . People are worried about it to the extent for the first time in 13 years this volume of cash and retail money is coming into the market. How is that going to be resolved if theres an exogenous shock or if the Federal Reserve has to slam the breaks in 2014 . We dont know because at no point in the history of the Federal Reserve have they thrown nearly 4 billion at a problem. How do you see the disconnect . This warm up happens at a time of slow growth in the job market, slow growth in the economy, government shut down, all kinds of link. I believe rob said, what he said a partly true rts, what you might call a financial bubble but not all of it. Stock prices today reflect peoples expectations of corporate profits tomorrow and down the road. And i think that people are expecting strong profits. They experienced fairly strong profits even if the weak economy. I think most economist press experiencing and predicting an uptick in growth, two and a half or 3, 4 percent over the next few years and that would justify some of the increase in stock prices. The other thing that we have learned is that people can do well if you own Financial Assets or businesses, even when American Workers arent being hired very much to produce goods and services here. And when we say people are doing well, one question is who is doing well . The people that own those Financial Assets or the businesses of the american economy. And this is a longer term. This is a story of over the last 30 years, very powerful forces Like Technology and globalization, they have created opportunities for those owners to make money. But a lot of that benefiting the average American Worker in the economy. You take this line from passover and say what makes this recovery different from others . Its not quite this season but im getting ahead of myself. Ok. Never, i dont think, in the recent history have you had unemployment this chronically high for so long with the market having done this well. Theres a step that obamas gold market just beat ronald reagans. If you asked the man on the street no one would guess that we beat the decade of decadence. What is interesting to me, professor, at what point do you see companies feeling so flush that they see their stock prices and market capitollizations up that they have to go out and hire . Theres so much stlak in the economy right now they can name their terms and bring on temporary workers. Let me hugh back in. I dont think hiring workers is based on the capitalization. The decision to hire works is when they need more goods and services. At 3 and 4 percent Economic Growth if we get that they will need more workers and that will mean some of the money will be more widely spread. At 2 percent they havent needed many. Hugh johnson, you sound liked you are telling a more positive story about what is happening here. Had theres no question this is a different kind of a recovery. Theres no question that were seeing that fundamental shift in the economy from a laborintensive economy to a knowledgedriven economy and theres going to be a big difference of separation between the haves and the havenotes but i think its important to remember, yes, this recovery has been very anemic but its not the first time we have seen an anemic recovery coming out of a bubble, the previous being the 20042005 housing bubble and we have been cutting the excesses, the mortgage debt from the 2004, 2005 bubble and thats likely to do exactly what it is doing and that is a serve as a drag on the growth of the employment and the economy. But kind in mind, all of this, the deleveraging process is getting healed. Were working our way through it and therefore i think the message of the market is, were successfully going through the process and were successfully eliminating those excesses and in times you will get better employment numbers n time you will get better economic numbers. Just be patient. This is the way it works when youre coming out of a mania of the sort we saw in 2004, 2005. Looking ahead, roben first, what key indicator do you look for to know how this is going to go. Im fixating on the Federal Reserve. People are underestimating how important this is. The ben bernanke unprecedented experience and now he is leaving office and yellen is coming in and few people recall when Allen Greenspan came in and increased the rates and wall street took a powerful shock and some firms failed. If things speed up fast ever than expected and they will have to backtrack on quantitative excesses of one, two, and three, is the world prepared for Interest Rates to go up . This is five years where Interest Rates have been near zero. What key indicator do you look for . I look for employment and earnings and then beyond that, whose employment and hues earn rehabilitation rising. Hugh is right, when we finished the deleveraging process that will help the broader economy grow, maybe if we have less madness in washington, d. C. And we reduce uncertainty. But if you look at the last 30 years, except for the late 1990s, you have had output growth and productivity disproportionately in the hands of high income people and it has been hard. If you look at the entire cycle of 2000 to 2007 workers share relatively little in the outward growth that occurred. Im hoping that is the case this time. And if the 3 to 4 percent prediction of growth holds true somewhat more of it will end up in the pockets of workers but not necessarily a lot or all. All right. Im happy and its the end of the year. Half half, hugh johnson, roben farzad, thank you very much and happy new year. Thank you. Sreenivasan in syria today, at least ten people were killed when a missile was fired into a bus in a rebelheld area in the city of aleppo. Meanwhile, the countrys government missed a Key International deadline, pushing back the destruction of some of its deadliest weapons materials. So far, the Syrian Government has dismantled chemical weapons equipment and structures under a u. S. Russian agreement approved by the United Nations. The regime also had until years end to remove precursors to sarin and other nerve gases from its borders. But the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, overseeing the operation, says Winter Weather and fighting across syria delayed moving the chemicals. Security i think all parties agree that this is, of course, a big concern, always. But it also impacts the safety of any convoy and the safety of any effort. So, you need to plan to make everything as secure and safe as possible for the civilian population, for those who need to conduct the operation. Sreenivasan the original plan was to have the chemicals destroyed on land outside of syria. However, a number of countries refused to participate, including albania, where there were street protests over the prospect. The latest plan calls for Russian Armored vehicles to deliver the chemicals from 12 storage sites across syria to the coastal city of latakia. Danish and norwegian ships will then transport the material under naval escort to a port in italy that has not been made public. There, the bulk chemicals will be transferred to a u. S. Naval vessel and then taken to an undisclosed location at sea to be destroyed. For now, danish and Norwegian Task forces continue training at cyprus to make sure nothing goes wrong. It could also be a worst Case Scenario like, for instance, a container slipping over and some spill has occurred and some contamination has occurred. Should the need be, we can go onboard the mission vessels, we can take out the persons which might be contaminated, and we can clean them, we can stabilize them and we can evacuate them to a hospital. Sreenivasan theres no word on exactly when the chemical agents will be shipped, but syria has until the end of june to complete the destruction of its chemical arsenal and everything tied to it. A short time ago, i spoke to angela kane, the United Nations high representative for disarmament affairs, about the missed deadline and progress so far in securing chemical weapons inside the war torn country. Its been about three and a half months since syria agreed to do away with its chemical weapons. What has been accomplished so far . Well, its been a tremendous amount accomplished so far. They have actually declared all of the sites that they have, they declared not only what they profess in terms of chemical agents but the production facilities, the munitions facilities and they have already destroyed a great part of those facilities meaning they have complied with the deadline in advance of the deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention and by the secure kreunl of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, the opcw. What deadline wasnt met today. What is the expectation of when it will be . What has to happen is that the materials will be transported outside of syria, at least what we call the priority one chemicals and those are the most important, most dangerous chemicals. The timeline is extremely ambitious as set up and nothing has ever happened before in a country that is actually torn by conflict, so the Syrian Government has said to us, and to the International Community, we do not have everything in place to transport these materials. We need armored trucks, we need loading capacity. We need Packing Material and so forth. So what the International Community has done with the assistance of several very generous other countries is they have given these materials but not right now everything is in place but we feel a start can be made soon, within days i hope. What are all of those duties that are required to move tons of dangerous chemicals across a war zone . Well, that is basically a problem. For example, they asked for armored trucks and its difficult to get Armored Vehicles much less armored trucks. Theres not a big supply in the world. It has to be procured and there was a tremendous effort to retain the materials asked for and big drums were needed, specialized Packing Material, and a lot of that has been procured and a lot of that is already in place and what we feel now is that a start can be made to start transporting these materials to the portal. But on the other hand what also has not helped is theres been very adverse weather conditions in the region. As you have harydz theres been snow in the region and so the weather condition has not particularly helped as also the unstable situation and the fighting in some of the areas has already given rise to security cons isolations. Speaking of the security considerations what happens if one of these convoys gets attacked . We know the convoys have to move and so do the fighters on the ground . What i think that we should remember is that an appeal has been made to all sides to let the materials leave the country unhindered and i do hope those who may have had plans to attack any convoy have abandoned them and i think the extra precaution, again, is that these will be armored trucks and they will be well protected, well protected inside the trucks and also well protected with the Packing Materials and the drums and there are really special precautions taken in order not to endanger any possible accidents or attacks. Lets say best Case Scenario, they make it all on to the ships. What happens on the u. S. Vessel and how do these get destroyed at sea . Well, the first thing that has to happen, they have to be offloaded from the port and they will be unloaded on to ships. And then they will have to be trance loaded on to a ship that has been outfitted with a hydrolosus materials and this is something that can happen safely on board of ship. It will be a company and verified also by officials from the opcw, by people who verified that destruction takes place and that at one point also what needs to happen is that there will be materials like industrial waste as a biproduct and that needs to be off loaded and taken care of by an industrial commercial facility in order to be disposed of. And what about the environmental risk, regardless of where it is in the international waters, why is it happening out there and is there a risk to those seas or oceans that its happening on . Well i have full trust in that whatever is going to happen is done with the entire control of the environmental risk. Also i should tell you that we have consulted the United Nations sphrirnl Protection Agency to see what can be done in order to minimize any risk that can happen but im very confident that no risk will evolve. But i think we should keep in mind this has never happened before. Normally when a country exceeds with the Chemical Weapons Convention the country says we will destroy the material on our territory and then they basically have to build facilities to do that. But syria right away, when they joined, said we will not be in a position to do that, you have to help us, you, the International Community and particularly the United States which helped broker this agreements. In the uns last report it said there were at least three cases where syrian soldiers were attacked with chemical weapons so theres some question as to whether rebel groups have access to it. As the un or opcw been able to find or has there been a dupe active conversation with everyone, all of the parties on the ground . I think there have been lots of conversations. Sometimes they call the un the talk shop. In a way we are. But basically its to deep the channels open and talk to all sides. We have ascertained that there were there was one largescale attack with chemical weapons in hota in august and several other incidents of chemical weapons used but we have not said who actually has used those chemical weapons, who is responsible for those chemical weapons. That was outside of the mandate of the investigation mission. It was their mandate to only determine whether or not chemical agents or chemical weapons were used and they did so and its a very comprehensive report and i think that they have been very much lauded and very much praise dizzy for a report that was so impartial in many ways and im very happy that the United Nations did the service for the International Community and also for the people who were affected. So finally i have to ask what is the situation on the ground, what kind of chemical weapons, what chemicals are still left in syria . Basically all chemical not the chemical weapons. The weapons have been destroyed. The facilities have been destroyed and also they have destroyed factories where some of these materials were being held and possibly used for mixing materials. So what is left now is the chemical themselves. They are the ones that need to be taken out of the country and there are two categories and the first category is priority one as we call it. Thats the most toxic chemicals and that deadline was the 21st also established by the opcw in their meetings together with the Syrian Government and the next deadline would be february 15 when the next batch would be taken out. Angela kane, thank you for joining us. Thank you harry. Sreenivasan Prescription Drugs are more expensive in the u. S. Than anywhere else in the world. The state of maine is trying to make it easier to buy cheaper medication from abroad, but Drug Companies are fighting that plan in court. Thats the subject of one of the signature pieces from the newshour weekend program. We are featuring them this holiday season. This report is by newshour correspondent rick karr reporter the battle between the state of maine and the pharmaceutical industry started in portland when the city found a way to cut its health care costs. By the time the battle ends, the whole country might feel the effects. If maine wins, it could get a lot easier for americans to import cheaper Prescription Drugs. If the pharmaceutical companies and their allies win, importing drugs could be harder than ever. One side in the battle is made up of employers and their employees. They say theyre fighting for the right to spend less on health care. How much money does this save the Company Every year . About 400,000. Thats our savings per year. Reporter the other side includes maines pharmacists and retailers and the pharmaceutical industry. They say theyre fighting to protect the safety of consumers who might be tempted to try imported Prescription Drugs. The problem is, is that these medicines arent safe. Reporter the battle started in 2004, when portland offered its 1,400 employees the option of a new Prescription Drug plan. Instead of going to local pharmacies to get their prescriptions filled and paying a share of the cost they could get the drugs by mail from licensed pharmacies in australia, new zealand, canada, and the u. K. Without paying a penny. City employee jeff tardif signed his sevenyearold son up for the plan this year to get asthma meds. My big thing is, im saving money. So, you know, its 100 that im saving monthly through this program. Reporter Karen Percival gets drugs that treat chronic pain and a. D. H. D. Every three months, a fresh supply from a pharmacy halfway around the world lands on her doorstep. It shows up in a box like that. Its odd that it comes all the way from australia and it still costs less money. Reporter the programs managed by a Canadian Company called canarx. It tracks the prices of Prescription Drugs in four countries. Whichever country has the lowest price on a drug supplies it from licensed, brickandmortar pharmacies. Take the example of a three month supply of the asthma drug advair. Under the citys regular health plan, at portland pharmacies, it costs a little under 600. The canarx plan imports it for a little over a 150, shipping included. With discounts like that, the city of portland saves 200,000 a year on health care, and theres no copay for employees. Two years after the city launched its program, the largest employer in one of maines poorest counties followed suit. Hardwood products makes food sticks, the wooden handles that go into popsicles, ice cream bars, corn dogs and so on. Chief Financial Officer Scott Wellman says the familyowned company can do a lot with the 400,000 a year it saves on the plan. That money can be used for employee raises. That money can be used to offset the cost of their health care. It also can be used to invest in equipment so we can produce new products. Reporter early last year, the state of maines Employee Health care program decided to offer the canarx option. Overnight, the number of people eligible for the plan in maine went from about 3,200 to more than 33,000. And thats when maines pharmacists decided they had to do something to stop it. When we found out that the Maine State Employees Union was going to be contracting with this organization, canarx, we realized that it was against both state and federal law at that time. Reporter maine pharmacist Amelia Arnold and other opponents of mailorder drugs say the imports violate the federal food, drug and cosmetic act and that they ran afoul of state law because maines pharmacy board hadnt licensed the foreign pharmacies to practice in the state. Arnold admits that maine residents have been crossing the border into canada for years to get cheaper drugs from retail pharmacies, like these seniors did in the early 2000s before the federal government expanded medicare benefits. But she says mailorder pharmacies in canada may operate with no oversight and low standards. Whos going to police that . Whos going to find out that the pharmacys legitimate . Those companies can participate in what we call parallel importation. So, they can get their drugs from other countries. Just because its coming into the u. S. From canada doesnt mean that it started in canada. Reporter arnold says the medicines might be old, ineffective or even counterfeit. In september of last year, maines thenattorney general agreed with the pharmacists that importing drugs violated state law. So, canarx suspended all three of its programs in maine. We were very angry, would probably be the best way of putting it. Reporter Scott Wellman says the ruling inflicted a lot of pain on the employees of Hardwood Products. They had to make the decisions on, okay, do i turn the heat down in the winter . What do i do . Because they stopped taking one while the program was suspended. Reporter wellman decided it was time to push back, so he reached out to a local firewood dealer. You dont get to take advantage of people. I have this drug, this pill, and it will save your life. What will you give me for it . Is that the way we do business in the United States . And, of course, youre going to pay whatever you have to, to save your life. And thats not right. Its real close, i think, to holding a gun to peoples head. And its wrong. Reporter doug thomas sells firewood and serves as a republican state senator. He calls himself a conservative, says he hates unions and believes in Free Enterprise and competition. He also thinks the pharmaceutical Industry Needs more regulation. The Drug Companies have done a very good job at telling people that they need all this money for research and development, and if we dont give them everything they want, then were not going to have these new drugs. And thats, i just. I absolutely dont believe it. The canadian system works. The australian system works. The Drug Delivery system in new zealand works. And it can work better here. Reporter thomas introduced a bill that legalized pharmaceutical imports. So did one of his democratic colleagues. They rolled their bills into one and joined forces, and both sides of the issue sent their lobbyists to work. I believe there were four of us that were lobbying on behalf of the bill; there were at least 12 lobbyists from. Representing pharmacies and big pharma. Reporter the pharmacists and Drug Companies argued the bill would endanger the people of maine. But in june, the bill passed both houses with bipartisan majorities. Maine became the first state in the nation to legalize mail order drug imports. In september, a month before imports could resume, the pharmaceutical industry and its allies filed a federal lawsuit to strike down the law. Theres several things wrong with the maine law. Not least of which is the fact that it violates the federal food and Drug Administrations laws prohibiting the importation of Prescription Medications outside of the f. D. A. s regulatory construct. Reporter john murphy is a staff lawyer at pharma, the drug makers trade group and one of the plaintiffs in the suit. He says federal law gives the food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate drug imports, and that authoritys illegally undercut by the maine law. Effectively, it permits patients to go onto the internet, which is completely unregulated, and bring Prescription Drugs into the United States outside of even the f. D. A. s large federal preview. Its very concerning. Reporter like maine pharmacist Amelia Arnold, whos one of the lead plaintiffs in the suit, murphy says stopping mailorder imports is all about safety. They say most drugs have cheaper generic equivalents, so theres no need to take a chance on foreign pharmaceuticals. Murphy says that in 2003, the f. D. A. Warned canarx that it was putting the health of the American Public at risk after the company mailed an order of insulin, a perishable drug that has to be refrigerated. Canarx says as soon as that happened, it stopped offering perishable drugs and that it has safeguards in place to protect its customers. What a lot of the people in maine have been saying to me theyre saying, these are the same drugs that are available in the u. S. These are drugs that theyre getting that are made by members of your organization. And theyre able to test those drugs when they come home and verify that they are . Or that they just have a label on them that indicates that they are the same drugs . I mean, thats the interesting question, right . I mean, no one whos personally importing a drug into the United States and bringing it to their home has really any idea whats in that drug. And in fact, weve seen even in the past that drugs that came in through canada, certain cancer drugs, were sold to physicians. And physicians werent able to verify the authenticity of those products. Reporter the response that we get from phrma and the Pharmacist Association is you never know for sure how reliable these pharmacies are. And its too late if somebody gets sick on account of this. Does this concern you at all . With our experience, it doesnt. The pharmacies that were having to fill these prescriptions are licensed retail pharmacies. If youre getting, for example, crestor, you get crestor in the astrazeneca package labeled with all their information, with a pharmacy label on it, with the seal on the outside of the package, lot number, date code, everything is on the package. You can trace the pedigree just like you can in the u. S. Reporter wellman says he knows what hes talking about because hes also c. F. O. Of Hardwood Products sibling company, puritan products, right across the street. It makes medical supplies. We have lots and date codes. We have expirations. We make f. D. A. Registered devices here. We have f. D. A. Audits that come in here. We understand how that process works. Reporter wellman says he hopes the state of maine prevails in court so more of his neighbors can take advantage of the lower prices on foreign drugs. If maine does win, other states are likely to follow its lead by allowing mailorder imports. The date of opening arguments in the case, when the battle moves to the courtroom, hasnt been set. We turn to the man who ushered in a new era at the university of mississippi, ole miss 20 generations of students and alumni. His name is Robert Khayat, the fortunatelier chancellor of the university. This image from october 1962 is seared in our national memory, a lone black man, james meridith, escorted by federal agents enrolled at the university of mississippi in oxford, and a riot ensued. 34 years later, Robert Khayat dedicated this statue of meridith on the campus, one of the many actions he took to erase the segregated past. Robert khayat, born and raised in mississippi returned to list alma matter in 1995 and retired in 2000 final. Judy talked to him recently about his new memory other the education of a lifetime woodruff Robert Khayat, thank you very much for talking with us. Thank you. Woodruff so, youre an unusual combination of former Football Player college football, professional football, who went onto teach law, run a big university. How did athletics shape who you are . Judy, athletics is always a part of my life. As a child, my father had been a coach, and so the lessons of the athletics discipline, practice, repetition, commitment, loyalty, teamwork, those sorts of values were just a part of growing up. I was also in a family of six, and we operated as a team because we had to. And so, team became engrained in me, and i think the lesson i learned as a child, as a semi adult playing professional football and then later really served me well when i became the chancellor of the university. One of the rules of football that people often overlook is that every 25 seconds or 30, or 45 it keeps changing is that the ball is going to be snapped. And so you really have three choices. You can either play, you can get stepped on or you can get off the field. When you found it was a lot harder. I did. That was about the intensity of the emotion and the traditional southern summers. I knew that there were problems for us, national problems, because perception is to song important in 1962, when we had the riot at ole miss over the integration of the school, and it became international news, the perception of ole miss was established. And i decided that as chancellor of the Flagship University of the state. Woodruff 30 years later. Yeah, 30 years later. I think ive learned a lot through the years. I knew that we could address it. I didnt know what we could do with it, but i knew we had to address it. And by it, i mean racism, and poverty, and literacy and really the fundamental value of respect. One individual respecting another individual. Woodruff the reaction was really was not just negative, some of it was ugly, there were death threats, what did you learn going through that . Tell us about some of the ways people responded. Well, the most shocking of all of them, i think, was the death threat letters that came from all across the country. There were people who lived in far west states and far Eastern States who wrote letters saying you wont live to see this effort completed, your family will neither and neither of you will see us coming. I was stunned by the level of hate and anger that surrounded that particular issue. And it was so interesting as i looked back it wasnt interesting at the time it became interesting afterwards, when i looked back and i thought about how much emotion is invested in symbols as opposed to substance. I mean, i think of the university in terms of a place where people go to think freely and speak freely and experiment and challenge. And that fear of that kind of reprisal, but when you get into that symbol business, nothing changes. Woodruff and you also write, Robert Khayat, about what you learned about human nature from this. You said people say theyre for progress but. Thats right, thats right. I developed this little saying that most everybody wants progress, but hardly anybody wants change. Because change is always a little traumatic. Woodruff do you think the south has moved beyond where it was . Oh, lord, i mean, i was born in 1938. And from where we were in 1938, to where we are now, its just two different worlds. And the statement is always made, but theres more to do. But of course there is more to do. As long as were human beings, and we interact with each other, there will be more to do. But insofar as opening doors, treating people with respect, making people feel worthy, providing opportunities at ole miss, which was sort of the epicenter, i guess, of that Higher Education fight back in the 60s, at ole miss, no student, because of race or religion or gender, any of that, can feel anything but welcome. I mean, there are times where there are conflicts, but nothing resembles the way it was when James Meredith came to ole miss in 1962. Woodruff Robert Khayat, is the author of the book, education of a lifetime. Thank you. Thank you. Sreenivasan now, to india, where medical advancements are changing the way some rural poor see the world. John irvine of independent Television News has our report. After years of darkness, they have just seen the light, and they are thanking the american doctor who brought them the gift of sight. The sunglasses are to ease the transition out of blackness. She is saying that suddenly she can see properly and she is so happy. He is a doctor, changing lives overnight. Jeff founded the hem layion cataract project that sends him to africa and asia to carry out a simple but transformational eye operation. The curse of cataracts is a blight on millions of the worlds poorest, and no one more so than in rural india, places like here. For people not used to any kind of medical attention, the current type of surgery is nervewracking. Anyway are on a production line that recreates eyesight in the five minutes it takes jeff to remove the cataract and implant a new lens. She is totally she is blind . She would not see the motion an inch in front of her face. A series of breakthroughs over the years has made this procedure possible. The lens itself is an unlikely product of the second world war. A british ophthalmologist made an important discovery while treating spit fire pilot whose had pieces of glass lodged in their eyes after their cockpit canopies were shattered. He discovered that the fragments were accepted by the eyes in the sense that there was no infection, even over time. So he deduced the material was perfect for artificial lenses n short, these people are seeing again by looking through spit fire glass. In the space of three days, jeff and two other surgeons enabled more than a thousand people to see again. Reflected in the lens of our camera, these people saw something they havent seen for years. Themselves. All told, the cost of their sight restoration was about 15 pounds a head. The result is priceless sreenivasan for the record, 15 pounds is roughly 25 u. S. Dollars. Sreenivasan finally tonight, a reminder that iran was once the center of the remarkably sophisticated persian civilization, one that produced some of the most enduring poetry in the world. Jeff brown talked recently with the man responsible for making much of that poetry, written in the 14th century, accessible to western readers. Brown however old, incapable and heartsick i may be, the moment i recall your face, my youths restored to me. The first lines of a new collection titled faces of love, of the work of hafez, the medieval persian considered one of historys greatest lyric poets. Translator dick davis is a leading scholar of persian literature and himself a poet. Faces of love is the latest in an extraordinary undertaking by davis of translating many of the masterworks of persian civilization, including, most recently, ferdowsis shahnameh the persian book of kings. And welcome to you. Thank you. Brown i want to set the scene a little bit. 14th century persia, in the city of sheraz, that you compare in your introduction to venice. Yes. It was a trading city. It was the center of a very flourishing aristocratic civilization. Because it was a trading city, it had a very wealthy upper class as it were, and this upper class was able to provide the money for a lot of artistic patronage. And so, the were a great many poets in shiraz during the 14th century. And in the previous century as well, the 13th century. Brown and the greatest of them came to be hafez. Now, tell us about him. Who was he . What do we know . Hafez was a poet who was at the court which ruled shiraz at the time. Hes a court poet. Hes a poet who. Hes a bit like bach. People say that bach sort of gathered together everything that had gone before him in music and brought it into a new kind of stage. Hafez did the same with the conventions of lyric poetry. And so, the lyric poem is seen to reach its highest point in hafez. One of the great things in hafezs poetry is that its extremely ambiguous often and that it can be read in different ways. And his poetry can be read in a secular way or in a religious way, and this has meant that he has become sort of all things to all people that are interested in persian poetry. Brown of course, theres love, theres enjoyment of life, theres a lot of drinking the wine flows. Theres mentions of the heart, and, of course, theres sorrow and loss. Theres a great deal of sorrow and loss. True, yes, true. And the wine makes you forget the sorrow and loss. Brown people in our audience who would know persian poetry they think of most famous is rumi, and yet i understand that hafez in iran itself is by far the most famous in Popular Culture today. Thats true. Brown why is that . What explains his appeal today . He speaks to almost all the possibility ones emotional and almost intellectual life, whereas rumi speaks to one side of life. Very emphatically, very strongly, very persuasively and he has his own very strong following. But hafez is a much more universal poet than rumi is. Brown and what role does he play in the contemporary . These are lines that are memorized by people and used all the time . Oh, hes absolutely canonic. I mean, hes like shakespeare and milton and wordsworth and tennyson rolled into one. Brown really . He is the major great poet, and almost anybody who has any pretentions to an interest in poetry at all which is most of the population of iran its a very poetry loving culture. Brown see, explain that, because that is not the iran that we usually talk about on a program like this. That is true, im aware of that. Different cultures put their energies into different arts at different times. In the medieval period, for example, you can think of painting in italy or music in germany, that kind of thing. But in the medieval period, the artistic energies of iran went largely into poetry, and poetry has become part of the persian cultural identity in a way that is true of very few other cultures. Even english culture, which prides itself on its poetry so much, poetry is not so central to the identity as it is to iran. There are very few literate iranians who cant quote off by heart poems or at least many lines of hafez. Brown i mentioned in the introduction that this is one of a number that youre doing. It sort of feels like a mission that youre on. Is that a right way to do it, and, if so, what is it that youre trying to convey, especially to a western audience . Well, i went to iran in my twenties. I went for two years, but i ended up staying for eight years and i married my wife is iranian whilst i was there. We had to leave iran because of the islamic revolution, and the place where i was teaching was closed down and so forth. When i got back to england, i realized that i had had this extraordinary privilege of getting to know to some extent this culture which is almost unknown in the west. I had begun to learn persian seriously. When we came back to england, i did a ph. D. In medieval persian, and i thought there is all this marvelous literature. And as you said in the beginning, im a poet myself, and theres all this wonderful poetry, most of which is unknown in the west, or if its known its known in very obscure scholarly translations that very few people read. And i thought, i have the opportunity to bring something of this culture which i absolutely fell in love with, utterly, i had this opportunity to bring it over to a western audience. And so, thats what ive done with the past 30 years of my life, really, and im very happy to have done it. Its been a wonderful odyssey, going from poet to poet. Brown all right, well, the latest collection is faces of love. Dick davis, thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan you can watch dick davis read a selection of hafez and other persian poets work on our art beat page. Again, the major developments of the day. The stock market scored new gains to finish a big year. The dow industrials were up 26 in 2013 while the s p 500 rose 29 , and the nasdaq jumped 38 . And 2014 began arriving around the world with huge fireworks displays in sydney, australia, and the persian gulf city of dubai. On the newshour online right now, if you could put ten items from 2013 into the smithsonian, what would they be . We asked one of the museums top curators, and he gave us his wish list from a samesex marriage certificate to the curiosity rover. See his suggestions and tell us yours on the rundown. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. And thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, a look at new laws like Recreational Marijuana in colorado that take effect in 2014. Im hari sreenivasan. Well see you online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and happy new year. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. 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. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org  this is nightly Business Report with tyler math son and su matheson and susie daly. Our Ratings Service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4,300 stocks. Learn more thestreet. Com. On a high note stocks rally ending at record highs on the dow and s p putting a capper on 2013 and huge gains for investors. The nasdaq up nearly 40 . The s ps best year since 1997. The dow, best since 1995. The january effect. Old man winter may be rough on us, but the first month of the year tends to be kind to