>> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> part of the corporation'st small ship line offering seven day cruises to three cities in cuba, exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites. more at family.org. lincoln financial, committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> the polls have closed in newe york state and as expected it's a big night for donald trump. the front runner will win a commanding victory over texas senator ted cruz and ohio governor john kasich. he's hoping his win is big enough to sweep the delegates at stake. on the democratic side there's no projection at yet.t hillary clinton was hoping for a big win over bernie sanders for 291 democratic delegates. both trump and clinton have suffered a string of de feats recently so the candidates kept at it today even as new yorkers turned out to have their say. >> reporter: who are you voting for? >> easy decision! >> sreenivasan: donald trump-- casting his new york primary ballot this morning in midtown manhattan a few blocks from his namesake tower. but the republican frontrunner also had to address the churning within his political team. including new roles for veteran political operatives brought in as advisors and the resignation of a top aide, in reaction he acknowledged the shakeup during a phone interview this morning with "fox news". >> when you bring other people in, i could see some people--me their feelings get a little bit hurt. frankly, you know, we're in a position where i'd like to see if we can close it out. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile,w trump's closest rival-- texas senator ted cruz-- turned his attention to next week's contests with a stop in philadelphia this evening. so, too, with john kasich. he's in maryland tonight, after an earlier stop in pittsburgh. the two democratic contenders started their days in new york state. hillary clinton voted in the town she now calls home: chappaqua. later, she made a quick trip to washington to court labor. >> and here's my promise to you. if i'm fortunate enough to become your president, organized labor will always have a champion in the white house. >> sreenivasan: her rival-- bernie sanders-- began with a morning stroll near new york city's times square. this afternoon, he made his pivot to pennsylvania, stopping in erie. >> let us see pennsylvania have the largest voter turnout of the history of their primaries. and let's see the great state of pennsylvania lead this country into the political revolution. >> sreenivasan: pennsylvania figures to be the keystone of next tuesday's contests, with 71 republican delegates and 210 on the democratic side. we'll take a detailed look atoo today's new york primary-- and what lies ahead-- later in the program. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a two-man taliban raid shook the heart of afghanistan' capital city, killing 28 people and wounding hundreds more. the combined bombing and gun battle raised new questions about the government's ability to secure the country. we'll look at the taliban's strength in afghanistan, right after the news summary. >> sreenivasan: hundreds of international rescue workers fanned out in ecuador today, looking for earthquake victims. the weekend disaster killed att least 433 people. soldiers and volunteers joined those digging through the rubble on the country's pacific coast. the military also dispenseden food, water and other supplies to survivors. >> woodruff: another strong aftershock rattled southern japan, and the death toll rose to 45 in last week's twin quakes. meanwhile, a key airport re- opened, allowing the first passengers and relief goods toli land. most outbound passenger flights are still canceled. >> sreenivasan: in cuba, raul castro and the country's old guard will keep top positions in the ruling communist party-- despite calls for reform. the government announced today that castro-- at 84-- will stay on as party first secretary and cuba's president. 89-year-old fidel castro also made a rare appearance at the party congress. >> woodruff: president obama left for a trip to saudi arabia today, at a time of tension between the two nations. the saudis have criticized the nuclear deal with iran. and in a recent interview, mr.ie obama said the sunni kingdom needs to "share" the middle east with shi-ite iran. he departed today after trying to clarify his meaning, in an interview with pbs's charlieha rose: >> saudi arabia and the gulf states generally have to bey guarded against iran. they have to be in a position where they can defend themselven against iranian mischief in the region. but that in the end, iran is a large country in the region. and that a proxy war between saudi arabia and iran is in nobody's interest. >> woodruff: the trip also comes as congress considers letting families of september 11 victim1 sue the saudi government over any role it played in the attack. the white house opposes the senate bill, but senior members of both parties voiced support s for it today. texas republican john cornyn is the main sponsor: >> now the president seems to want to use the leverage of the 9/11 families in order to some how mollify or cure that rift that the president has created himself as result of iranian nuclear deal. i think that's entirelynt inappropriate. and as i tried to point out, we actually need to deter people from facilitating and financing terrorist attacks on our own soil. >> woodruff: both senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and house speaker paul ryan said today they still need to revieww the bill. the saudis have threatened to pull billions of dollars from the u.s. economy if it becomes law. >> sreenivasan: major parts of houston were still under water today, after widespread floodinn that's killed six people so far. school was canceled again in the nation's fourth largest city, and hundreds of people were in shelters. emergency teams worked around the clock to evacuate homes flooded by the deluge. more than a foot of rain fell monday, and a flash flood watch remained in effect. >> woodruff: the nation's largest health insurer will puln out of insurance exchanges in most states by next year. united health said today it's losing too much money on the system, established under the president's "affordable care act". the company covers just under 800,000 people in exchanges across 34 states-- about 6% ofbo the total. >> sreenivasan: intel has announced it's cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide-- about 11% of its workforce. the computer chip maker says it needs to cut costs as sales of p.c.s decline. and on wall street: the dow jones industrial average gained 49 points to close at 18,053. the nasdaq fell 19 points and the s&p 500 rose six. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: special envoy brett mcgurk on the decision to send more troops to iraq, how new york's primary could shift the momentum in the presidential race, schools across the u.s grappling with lead-tainted water, and much more. >> woodruff: we return to our top story, the upsurge in taliban-driven violence in afghanistan, nearly 15 years into the american involvement there. smoke over the kabul skyline signaled the capital was under attack. >> ( translated ): it was a big blast, dust covered all the area, i wasn't able to see what was happening. later i saw lot of damage.la >> woodruff: one insurgent blew up a truck bomb outside a security agency that protects top officials. a second attacker ran into the compound, and started shooting. >> ( translated ): after the car bomb exploded, a suicide bombera was trying to enter the building, he came under fire from inside the building as well as from police forces who were outside, who did not give him the chance to enter. he was killed. >> woodruff: the attack caused extensive damage just a few hundred yards from the presidential palace. meanwhile, fighting continued in the northern part of the country, where government forces around kunduz have battled this week to repel a taliban assault. last year, the militants captured the city and held it for three days before afghan forces backed by u.s. air a strikes drove them out. but afghanistan's chief executive abdullah abdullah said kunduz and kabul show the taliban's latest spring offensive has failed. >> ( translated ): they were defeated all over the country after they carried out their attacks and have suffered lots of causalities. so by carrying this suicide attack they wanted to take revenge. >> woodruff: still, by most reckoning, the taliban is at its strongest in years: likely a a concern for president obama, when he reversed course last fall, and announced the u.s. will keep 10,000 troops in afghanistan through this year-- drawing down to 5,500 in 2017. for more on today's attack in kabul, and what it says about the over all security situation in afghanistan, we turn to seth jones, director of the international security and defense policy center at the rand corporation. he's written extensively about afghanistan, and in 2011 was a special advisor to u.s. special operation forces there. seth jones, welcome back to the program. so what does this attack today in kabul say about the taliban?b is it stronger than it's been, or, as abdullah abdullah says, is what it's doing failing? >> well, judy, i think what it shows is the taliban does have the ability to conduct attacks in most any part of the country, and they actually said this in their twitter feeds today and in their internet announcements after the attack of the purpose of doing this. at the same time, it's probably also worth noting that the taliban does not control urban terrain like isis does in iraq, for example. they don't control kabul. they don't control any major provincial capitals. so these kind of urban attacks are done more for psychologicaly operations rather than criminal of territory. >> woodruff: what's the distinction? you say they don't control urbaa areas, but they're able to pull off something like, this almost 30 people killed, hundreds badly hurt. >> what it shows, they do control a fair amount of rural terrain. they also have cell structures that operate in cities. so while the government controls most of the urban terrain and cities like kabul, the taliban does have an ability to push in resources and conduct attacks. and it certainly has an effect on the population there, which believes the government can't secure it at all times. >> woodruff: and so that psychological effect, why isn't that the same or almost the sam as having actual control? >> well, it's different because the taliban does a lot. it administers justice in areas that it controls, it taxes the local population. it has a political structure, almost a political state apparatus in areas that it controls. it does not have that in cities like kabul. what it has is really a military and intelligence infrastructure, but it wants the political architecture to go with that. so this is part of a longer-term campaign. >> woodruff: what does this say, send -- seth jones, about w the standing of afghan security forces, which we know the u.s. has been trying to build up for years now? >> look, there are plenty of t challenges with the afghanfg national security forces. the higher-end forces that responded to this today, the intelligence forces, the afghan commandos, some of the higher-end army forces are pretty good, but the general state of the police and a lot of the army are mixed quality. i think the problem we're seeing is they're not very proactive in pushing out against the talibani in rural areas. and so the fight is now comingfi to them in the cities. >> woodruff: how do you assess what the u.s. is doing? we know the president decided to keep american troops in afghanistan longer, but what is... what role is the posture... is u.s. postureu playing right now in this battle between afghans... the afghan government and the taliban? >> well, first of all, the u.s. president has said that the number of troops that will continue to come down through january of 2017. so now we're roughly 10,000. he said they're going to go down to about 5,5. -- 5,500. he's also restricted the ability of the government to conduct strikes against the taliban unless there are good examples of those forces conducting attacks against americans. so the u.s. has limited its ability to impact this except in response to these kinds of attacks. >> woodruff: well, we are continuing to watch this story, seth jones. we thank you for joining us.fo >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: now, to another major american military campaign against isis. yesterday, secretary of defense ash carter announced that some 200 more american troops would soon go to iraq, pushing the american strength there to over 4,000. the u.s. will also send apachee fast-attack helicopters, which will help protect the iraqi army as it begins its advance on the isis-held city of mosul.. the u.s. also announced more than $400 million in aid to the kurdish peshmerga forces in northern iraq. for more on all this and the wider war against isis, i'm joined by president obama's special envoy to the coalition fighting isis, brett mcgurk.k. welcome back to the program. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and why is the president sending these additional u.s. advisers? >> well, the president instructed our team about four our five months ago to do all we can to accelerate the campaign. it took a while, judy to, getju particularly the iraqi forces if place to be able to stand up, maneuver, conduct offensive operations. we're now seeing some success. they liberated ramadi just last week. they liberated a really critical strategic town just to the west of ramadi in the center of the euphrates valley. it's been a stronghold of isil. they liberated that last week. what we're now in a position to do with the iraqi security forces is apply pressure on ice until multiple fronts, the euphrates valley, from operations will continue, and now beginning up toward mosul. so this is a package that's within in development for somede time, and we think it will give the iraqis some unique capabilities as it moves on mosul. mostle is a little different than ramadi. logistically the iraqis have the travel a it will further than they're used to, so we'll be helping with logistics, sustainment, and when they come into combat, we'll be ready to support them with apache helicopters and other enablers. >> woodruff: but sending u.s. forces or u.s. advisers closer to the front line, is this an acknowledgment the iraqi military is really not able toe do the job alone? >> no, it's really... you have to look at the topography of thv battlefield. in ramadi, for example, when ramadi fell, the president ordered a detachment of u.s. special forces to an air base sandwiched right in between ramadi and fallujah. it's only 25 kilometers or so from the front line. mosul, we have to be with the iraqis in their headquarters, and their headquarters as they move toward mosul will change. they will be kind of mobile. so we'll be with the iraqi commanders, advising and assisting what they're doing, which is very similar to what we did in anbar province. but in anbar where we had two facility, it's a little more stationary. we're on base. we're advising and assisting. in mosul it will be a little more dynamic. we want to make sure our best advisers are with the headquarters, with the iraqi commanders as they're planning and conducting their operations. >> woodruff: is it fair the call this "mission creep"? >> no, it's the exact same mission in mosul that we've been doing in anbar province. we're moving into that phase in mosul now. it's the same mission. the only difference is apaches helicopters. we were prepared to use apache helicopters. the president authorized it for ramadi, but given the situation, given the fact the iraqis were having an awful lot of success and given the urban environment, we determined that it really wasn't needed, but in mosul, it's a complex terrain. it's the citadel. c they're well defended there. we think apaches can make a difference. we discussed this with the iraqi government. everything we do in iraq with ii with the consent of the iraqi t government. this is something the prime minister wanted. we found a formula we think will be effective. >> woodruff: let me ask you about some criticism we're hearing from the other side. the "newshour" spoke today with retired army colonel david army. he told us he thinks these steps represent insufficient resources in the first place by the administration and poor execution. poor execution by the administration working with the iraqis. >> i worked with david petraeusw in those days, too. it's a different time now. we're in the fighting a war. the iraqis are fighting a war. we're in the middle of liberating all of anbar province. again, we liberated ramadi. that was done with iraqis. we're moving west up the you euphrates valley. this is critical because it opens up an expressway from ramadi to haditha. haditha has been under siege for almost two years. we're now in a position to break that siege. we're having an awful lot of success. it's a different campaign than it was in 2007/2008. you know, americans are not doing the fighting. we are advising. we're assisting. we're providing devastating air support and special operations. you know, there are things we don't talk about much. we have special operations and special forces in northern iraq. they're very effective against the leadership of dash. and so, you know, they're doing a great job. everything we do, again, judy, is with the consent of the iraqi government. this is not a situation in which we're an occupying force. it's a very, very different, much more complex, much more challenging situation than 2007. but we believe that the most sustainable way to do this is to get the iraqis fighting, to empower locals. >> woodruff: you can understand why people look atle this and they see more troops going, they see apache helicopters going, and they want to know what's going on, but just in the time we have left, i want to ask you about syria, the fight against isis there. first of all, do you see real evidence that the russians have begun to go after isis rather than going after the rebels who are fighting the assad regime? >> well, we have seen a bit of a shift, and if you look at the statistics that we talk about,, when russia came in, they claimed to be going after isil. that simply wasn't true. about 80% of their strikes weree against opposition, moderate opposition forces. since the cessation of hostilities came in place, their air strikes have shifted quite a bit. at one point it was about 70% against isil. and they helped the syrian forces retake palmyra, but look, we have a very listening way tos go in syria. there is no question. president obama spoke with president putin yesterday. we'll be traveling with the president and secretary tonight to saudi arabia to meet with thh gcc and discuss the situation in syria. but in the war against ice until syria, we're very focused again, east of the euphrates river, moving down and constricting raqqa, the center of operations. that's something we're also looking at accelerating some of our efforts there. we're also working again to close off that last 98-kilometer strip of board they're isil still controls with turkey. there's very active fighting ongoing there now which we'reer supporting. it's a very complex, very dynamic situation. there are no shortcuts. there are no easy answers. but we're doing... when we see something that works, and what we've seen in the euphrates valley and anbar province, the advising and assisting, that's work. now we will replicate that as we move on to the campaign to liberate mosul. >> woodruff: a lot of frontsts to keep track of there as well as in iraq. brett mcgurk, special presidential envoy, you're off the saudi arabia later today. where president obama will be. thank you very much for joining us. >> judy, thank you so much. great to be here. >> sreenivasan: now, for more on today's empire state primary we're joined by tamara keith of the in albany is karen dewitt capital bureau chief for new new york state public read oh. welcome to you. if you are the results that we know at this point. the associated press predictse donald trump has a resounding trick tree 59% to kasich 19 and it's too soon to call the democratic race between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. so let me start with you first. what do you read from the exit polls. >> what we see it's very interesting. the gop says they're divided. these people were asked, do youu feel like the campaigns have divided you or energized you. on the gop side 57% said divided. on the democratic side 68% said energized. that's fascinating to me. 26% of the republicans said they would they are vote for trump. with hillary clinton, 85% of democrats said they would vote for her, only 13% said they wouldn't. what this shows is a unified party on the democratic side not so much on the gop side. and you had ted cruz in his speech just now in pennsylvania saying we unify over and over again. he said this is just a politician donald trump winningn his home state. he dismissed it and he went on to give this very up liftinmi message about how he wants to unite the pier. that's the theme of the night for the republicans trying to unite. >> sreenivasan: karen dewitt. >>a were kasich and cruz able to pick up any delegates from trump's big win. this fight was fought inñi 27 separate districts and cruz and kasich knew they weren't going to win but they focused on particular districts where they thought that if trump under the rules didn't get above 50% they might be awarded some delegates. it's starting to look now like they might not have gotten very many. i will be very interested to see that as the numbers come in.. on the hillary, bernie race, i'm not surprised it's as close as it's coming out to be. hillary has the party establishment in new york so she had a leg s up but just talkingo democrats that i know and covering various things in new york state it justw seemed like the imurnburnerysupporters weree enthusiastic. they had to vote and some of them didn't. it seemed like they were more motivated to go out and vote. i want to see the margin if she did win, how much did she win by. is it less thann 10%. i'm very curious about that in the hours to actual. >> sreenivasan: how important is that margin for the democrats. >> it's huge. hillary clinton wants to roll out of bed tomorrow morning as the presumptive nominee. they want to be able to say this is really over, enough is enough. the people still have a lot of passion. are we going to see bernie sanders even if she comes out withñi a huge margin are we goig to see him bow out of the race probably not. she has won 18 states, he has won 16. he's won seven of the last eight races. he's had this enormous crowds even in new york where she'd had much smaller crowds.r they still say, in the national polls there's a new nbc washington journal poll that shows he's just 2 points behind her nationally with democrats so they feel like they still have the momentum. things are going to start getting recover nex rougher on , hillary clinton is expected toto do well on those.. bernie sanders might be riding the last of his wave. so that margin, if she really crushes him is going to be a big blow for the campaign.pa >> sreenivasan: karen one of the interesting things from the polls i was reading is just the electability question just on the republicanon sider when vots were asked do you care on the list of things that you care about that your candidatete whoever you vote for tonight wins this president z that actually ranked pretty low for them. >> yes. well i>> think they are very dedicated to whatever candidates that they are for. i know a lot of democrats that i know personally have voted for bernie sanders in the primary and said but yes i would vote for hillary clinton in the general election.io the thing about donald trump though he's just very polarizing and there's things he said about immigrants and various other things, there are certain people even one quarter of republicans in new york according to the exit polls who would not vote for him if he were the republican party candidate. >> sreenivasan: this is where kasich has this opportunity. do you see that playing out in the numbers as well.l. >> right. it sounds like kasich might have come in in second place here but inhe exit polls they asked was this a vote for your candidate or against your opponent, and 42% of the people who voted for kasich said they are voting against someone else. with donald trump, he still is the presumptive nominee at this point although it's unclear whether he's going to get to that necessary magic delegate number. but i'venu heard a lot of republicans say he's got this dr. jekyll and mr. hyde thing going on, they never show which candidate they're going to get.n but he's gone two weeks now so it's possible he's turned the corner. >> sreenivasan: also in thein numbers he won across all educational backgrounds, all income levels, all ideologies. thisol is a clean sweep any way you wanted to measure.as >> ne new york state showing him some love and this is a state that knows him the best so he survived the pressure cooker of all those tabloid newspaper headlines. they know all his flaws and yet they're still coming out and saying they love this guy.y. >> sreenivasan: karen so far -- go ahead. >> i was going to say i think it shows there was less of a chance now of a brokered convention. we just heard so much about that on the news channels and it looks like with this win it seems a little bit less likely that's going to happen and maybe that will reach his magic delegate number of 1,237 which i think everybody in politics knows that number by now. >> sreenivasan: karen dewitt and puree chief and jennifer jacobs ofñi bloom imer bloomber, thanks so much.mu >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us.s. coming up on the newshour: the economic toll of the migrant crisis on the greek island of lesbos, and a look at the in- depth coverage of police shootings that won the "washington post" a pulitzer prize. but first, worries over lead in the water in school districts around the country. the outcry over flint, michigan has brought a new spotlight to problems elsewhere. communities are becoming more sensitive to the issue, but mane schools are having a hard time dealing with something so complicated and expensive. the newshour's april brown reports for our weekly education series, "making the grade." >> reporter: across the nation, there has been a lot of news coverage on a growing problem in many schools. >> anxiety, parents at newark's monday night meeting had a lot of it-- mostly about lead in the schools drinking water. >> and wny continues to follow-t up on high levels of lead in the ithaca school district's waterdi sources. >> reporter: but that isn't newn to second grader cyrus schillenback, who knows a lot more about lead than most kids his age. >> it's very dangerous and ifif you eat it you'll get poisoned quite quick. >> reporter: and if you drink it? >> and if you drink it it's the same. >> reporter: cyrus and his brother cazimer attend carolinea elementary, just outside ithaca, new york. their school was one of two in the area where high levels ofls lead were found in the water last august. but parents, including cyrus' mom rebecca, say it wasn't until january they were told their kids might have been exposed for months to a neurotoxin that is especially harmful to children. >> we got a letter home. it was kind of cryptic. it said there has been elevated lead found and we're sure you want to talk about this,u basically. so come to this parent meeting this information parent meeting. >> you wouldn't give me a call. you sent me papers. >> reporter: the district wouldn't make anyone available to speak with us, but administrator david brown spoke at the community meeting: >> we should have reported, we should have re-tested-- we didn't. we waited for the county health department-- that was in september. i can't go back to september. that is where we are right now. >> neither can we. >> reporter: caroline parent melissa hoffman felt the district should have takenve action much sooner.er >> i was very alarmed.ar my heart was just exploding with fear for my child, for all the children, for the teacher and ii felt helpless because i was unaware. >> reporter: over the past few decades, districts in los angeles, new york city, seattle, washington d.c. and elsewhereew have found higher than acceptable lead levels in school drinking water that's cause for concern according to lynn goldman, a former regulator with the environmental protection agency and now dean of george washington university's school of public health. >> lead is quite toxic to children, and especially when it comes to the development of their nervous system and the brain, but also the cardiovascular system. >> reporter: in fact, the e.p.a. warns that exposure to even low levels of lead can cause low i.q., hearing impairment,ai reduced attention span and poora classroom performance. so, how does lead get into schools' drinking water? many school buildings in the u.s. are old and were built when lead pipes, solder or fixtures were allowed to be used. when water is in contact with these materials for extended periods of time-- over weekends and holidays, for example-- the toxin can leach into it. water can also become contaminated if small particless containing lead break off. >> reporter: yanna lambrinidou, who teaches at virginia tech and has studied lead in water nationally, says finding lead contamination can be tricky. >> the nature of the beast is that lead levels in water areat unpredictable and exposure is really like a russian roulette. you might hit a very, very high lead in water sample and then you might hit no lead in water for the rest of the samples you take. >> reporter: the e.p.a.'s safe drinking water act originally created in 1974, does not require all schools to perform regular water testing. only schools and child care centers with their own water supplies-- such as wells-- are required to do so. lynn goldman says that, and the fact no one agency is responsible for removing lead from school drinking water are big gaps in the regulatory system. and she says this is a national problem that we really don't yet know the scope of. >> until fairly recently it wasl allowed in so many materials, >> reporter: and according to the e.p.a., for schools that must test, the amount of lead allowed in their drinking waterw is higher than what's allowed in homes. if schools that must test their water find lead levels higher than 20 parts per billion they must then start follow-up testing, treatment and public education. >> the only level of lead in l drinking water that is safe is zero and in fact e.p.a.'s lead and coppers rules states verye clearly that when it comes to health and a health based standard zero is our number. >> reporter: last month officials in newark, new jersey began offering to test thousands of children and shut off water in more than half its 67 schools after finding lead levelsin exceeding the e.p.a.'s safety threshold. but the newark teachers' union believes some in the districtct may have known about the problem earlier, and shared an advisorya from 2014 with instructions on how to "reduce the risk of possible lead contamination."a the district told member station njtv remedial actions are takenn when elevated samples are detected. newark mayor ras baraka recently asked for the community's help' to deal with the situation: >> we need at least 2,000 to 3,000 people to bring one to two cases of water a piece and drop them off at all of our to community centers. >> reporter: using bottled water has been the solution for baltimore city public schools for years. do you know why you can't drink the water? >> because there's like,e' something wrong with it. >> reporter: that "something wrong" is lead contamination. in 2007, after years of lead testing and remediation, the district decided to shut off all drinking fountains and food preparation sinks in cafeterias and move to bottled water. it reportedly costs about $450,000 a year. erika brockman runs theun southwest baltimore charter school, which is housed in a baltimore public school building. she says, in a district dealing with tough choices she can understand not wanting to potentially spend millions of dollars on repairing and replacing lead pipes and fixtures in schools. would the money that the district gets be better spent giving me a great teacher in my classroom or fixing the pipes in my building, in a short term basis i'm going to say give me the teacher. any day hands down. >> reporter: and for rebecca schillenback in ithaca, lead is now one more thing she must add to her parental worry-list. >> we weren't thinking about this before. it was just something we were taking for granted wherever we w got we're going to have clean safe water. and of course when we send our kids to school it will be clean safe water you wouldn't even think about it. i wasn't thinking about it. so this is a wakeup call. >> reporter: for the pbse newshour i'm april brown in ithaca, new york. >> sreenivasan: tourism businesses on the greek island of lesbos are asking for protection from bankruptcy as they face a potential economic catastrophe: tens of thousands of vacationers-- normally expected on one of greece's more idyllic spots-- are staying away because of the island's centrala role as a landing zone for refugees. now, the islanders are appealing for what they call "solidarity tourism." special correspondent malcolm brabant reports from lesbos. >> it's a cormorant i've seen a repose warbler. i've see a blue wark thrush. >> reporter: every year, spring in lesbos lures millions of migrating birds, and british pensioner helen stedman. unlike other tourists, troubled by images of suffering and misery, she and her keen bird watching partner jeff bailey have remained faithful to an island they believe typifiesli unadulterated greece. >> i feel sad for the islanders. the economy is suffering. and we've noticed that restaurants that we've favored before have closed. they're not there anymore, they've gone bankrupt. the locals can't afford to pay wages and they're just not opening. tourism is their biggest income in this island, and if we don't come and support them, then they're not going to survive, >> reporter: seasonal worker nikos paspalatelis is helping his former boss prepare the hotel for the summer. married with two small children, paspalatelis has worked here for almost 20 years, but he's been laid off this summer. which means his state insurance won't be paid. which means he won't be entitled to unemployment benefit in the winter when there's no seasonal work. >> i'm not going to say angry because angry is something you do if someone make you-- very big damage to you. but i hope this only for one year this damage. maybe if you ask me in two or three years should this situation continue, yes, i'll be hungry-- angry, sorry. s >> reporter: this hotel was on the frontline. the owners estimate more than 1,000 boats landed on the beach next to their taverna, most during the peak season. german water sports instructor wolfgang punke has come to say farewell and remove his gear. >> i have to pack up because in europe, on the television, youio get almost every two, third or fourth day you get information about lesbos, about the refugees and you think lesbos is full of refugees and so the booking numbers are going down to zero. >> reporter: hotelier dimitrios vatis, whom we met at the start of the refugee crisis, shows us the difference between bookings for last year, which started so promisingly, and this. >> this year the difference between the two of them is minus 88.28%. >> reporter: this business, along with hundreds of others on lesbos, could be in serious trouble. they face double the pressure: extra tax demands to help with greece's other crisis, its debt burden. the hotelier is appealing to the government to protect vulnerabln enterprises from bank foreclosures as they try to survive. but his prime concern is for loyal employees that he's been forced to let go. >> in a little while, these people they may end up asking jobs somewhere else so they'll be refugees. i feel badly, terribly when i'm talking about the rest of there people that work in the hotel and they're not going to be ablt to have a job this summer. >> reporter: day trippers from turkey, who've taken the legal ferry to cross the aegean, climb one of lesbos's main attractions: the chapel in petra-- the rock. but their custom in no way replaces the 90,000 foreign visitors the island anticipated before the crisis. the islanders were being talkedd about as potential nobel peace prize nominees for their generosity and hospitality. the sense of rejection pains cafe owner stelios chiotellis, who is a stone's throw from the chapel. not only is his business being jeopardized by the tourists staying away, but also by foreign package holiday companies, which are trying to force the islanders to cut their prices still further. >> all the locals here did the best they could to help the refugees last year. when they first came out there wasn't n.g.os here there was nothing, so we gave them food drinks, many people helped ael lot. a lot. i would not say, "me, i helped a lot," but we do our best. and then instead of people appreciating that and saying, "oh, these people help" they tend the buck to us now, they cancelled all the flights. >> reporter: this is eressos, home to sappho, the ancient greek poet who wrote of romantic love between women. this village is one of the world's leading lesbian destinations. its location on the west of the island, shielded it from t armada of rafts. despite its prominence in a niche market, eressos is also facing a bleak future. local tourist chief fani gallinou. >> we don't how long we'll be this season. we have guests that they want to come, but they don't know how, or it is very expensive for theo because there are no more charter flights. we had 25 charter flights per week, and now we have only ten. >> reporter: for a place that has had such a turbulent year and whose geographical position has guaranteed it prominence in 21st century history, lesbos can be disarmingly tranquil. >> reporter: bird watcher jeff bailey has great sympathy withea the people escaping war, oppression and poverty, and has this message for holidaymakers worried about the migrant crisis. >> well i think the island is looking as wonderful as always. i would urge anyone who wants to come to the island, to please come to the island. there's no issues with the migrants, the vast majority of the island you won't experience that, and so there's no reason for you not to come. >> reporter: last summer, lesbos was inundated as the authorities failed to cope with the refugee crisis. but now the system is much more organized as europe tries to control its external borders. irrespective of the rights and wrongs, the reality is that refugees and migrants are beinge kept away from the main tourist areas. the village of molyvos, with its medieval citadel, has endured a torrid 12 months and witnessed significant tragedy. but the apocalyptic scenes in its cobbled streets have evaporated. although she has to work two jobs, 15 hours a day, seven days a week, restauranteur ioanna stipsanou takes a longs historical view and isw optimistic. >> it's famous, everybody knows lesbos. and also the good things we have. it's the people, the hospitality, and how beautiful is the place and how beautiful the people are and how secure and safe you are when you're here with us. >> reporter: while the islanders' short term plea is for tourists to return, their more substantive desire is for the world powers to bring peace to conflict zones, so that people no longer need to use these shores as a stepping stone. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in lesbos. >> sreenivasan: and now some news about our own reporting. today the pbs newshour won a 2015 peabody award for "desperate journey," our extensive reporting on the european migrant crisis. malcolm brabant, who just reported our story from lesbos, has led much of coverage on the ground from across the region. you can find all our reports online, on our homepage at pbs.org/newshour. >> woodruff: and speaking of awards, let's look at some investigative reporting honored by this year's pulitzer prizes. "the washington post" won two pulitzers yesterday, including one for national reporting for a series on police shootings of civilians. there had been little national data about those kind of shootings. "the post" created its own database that included these findings: 990 people were fatally shot by police last year, one in sixx officers had been involved in a prior shooting. in three-quarters of the cases, police were under attack or defending someone who was. wesley lowrey is one of the lead reporters and part of a team of more than 60. he joins me now. congratulation, wesley lowrey. let's see, how many years have you been reporting? >> a few. a few. handful. 25. i've been at "the post" for two years. w reaction? >> i was really excited. this was a project that really was a newsroom-wide effort.r it involved a lot of different staff, our investigative staff, our national desk, which i work for, our graphics and data development staff, as well. it was a really great team win. >> woodruff: how did the idea for this come about? >> so this idea, this project was born in a lot of ways out of ferguson, missouri. i was one of our lead reporters on the ground in missouri, as well as in baltimore when there was unrest there. in ferguson they were having this conversation where you had the police unions and the police chiefs saying at the time, this is a one-off anecdote. we almost never shoot anybody. most officers never fire their guns and you had the civil rights groups and activist and protesters saying young black men are being executed in the streets every day. this is an outrage and we're being killed. smart editors asked an obvious question. we should be able to provide some clarity to this debate. it turns out we couldn't because no one was keeping track at the national level and also at statv level, no one knew exactly how many people were being killed by police. >> woodruff: so what did the post do? as you said, 60 or 70 people involved? >> so what we did, and this part of the effort was led by julie tate and jen jenkins. systematically, day by day, we would search for local news reporting of police shootings.ot that's the place where you most consistently see some type of public acknowledgment of a police shooting, of a local television station, a local newspaper. we would build a database out. for every shooting we found,ng that was one line, one name. we would go in and report out 20 or 30 different, you know, pieces of data points about it, race, age, gender, mental illness, for example. >> woodruff: whether they were armed or not. >> whether they were armed or not, what they were armed with, was it a toy weapon, a knife, a sledgehammer, that kind of stuff. >> woodruff: this took how long? >> a when year. we launched in january and we're still to date still working.l but this was a year's worth of reporting. >> woodruff: it really made a huge splash when this story came out, continues to be looked at, wesley lowrey. what struck you as most... what surprised you most? i know we said that three-quarters of those who were killed by police were armed or were attacking officers. did that surprise you? >> it wasn't come ploatsly surprising to me. a lot of the conversation we have is perhaps the cases wherea that didn't happen or there is some question, but in some ways we expect that. we hope and know that most police officers out there are not being faced with these situations and in many cases when someone is shot and killed, there is some type of legal justification or some type of extenuating circumstance, but the sheer number did surprise us. the fact that it was almost 1,000 over the course of a year, and that very many of them, even in cases were people were armed or were unarmed, you had issues of mental illness. you had people who had fives instead of guns perhaps, cases that seemed that perhaps there was something that could have been done to prevent this person from being killed. >> woodruff: i was struck that one quarter of the cases the individual was having a mental episode or they were mentally ill. >> yeah, one out of every four shootings, that person is eithee explicitly suicidal or in thein midst of some type of mental crisis. sometimes that's compounded by drugs or alcohol. very often you are seeing people with depression, people who are manic depressive, people who are bipolar and who are suffering from some type of ailment, some physical, mental ailment. that's leading them into these confrontations with policeo officers. >> woodruff: do you believe this has had an impact?n >> i do. one of the most obvious way is we embarrassed the federal government into announcing they're going to try to keepto some of this data. previously, this wasn't out there. we had to count them case bynt case. and i think as we wrote these stories, people got outraged and said, that's ridiculous. we should know, in a country c where we count everything, barrels of quarterback and number of shark attacks and thee statistics from the movie that premiered last night, we knoww how many people saw it and howpe much popcorn we ate, but we didn't know how many people wery being killed by police. now the f.b.i. announced they'ly start doing a project similar to ours that should launch nextex year to track this so we can keep having this conversation, we can have this conversation with information and data and facts instead of us having the conversation with emotion and anecdotes. >> woodruff: last question. in a time when we see so much focus on social media, which is how people communicate, less resources put into raw reporting, what do you think a project like this says? >> this speaks to the power that we still have as journalists and that newsrooms still have whenne we decide to pivot on an issue and focus our resources into it. as a political reporter previously, i was someone who did a lot of real-time social media reporting, doing things, you know, as they break, and this was, you know, for me a great experience getting to wori on many longer-term kind of enterprise pieces, but it speaks to... it's very inspiring tog work at a place like "the post" that can devote this kind of man and woman power to this. >> woodruff: congratulations to you and your entire team at the "washington post." wesley lowrey, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. updating our top story the results in the new york presidential primary.ltri the associated press now project hillary clintonc has defeated bernie sanders in the democratic contest and donald trump is the projected winner on the republican side. a short time ago trump emerged at his headquarters at manhattan trump tower to claim his victory. >> all over ne new york state, e went to syracuse, we went to albany. 20,000 people. on average we had 15-20,000 people. we went to rochester. we pent t went to beth pain we l over and do you know what the people of this country and the people of this state truly are great and amazing people.e. we are going to be so strong again, we are going to be really, i mean legitimately so great again, and i just can't wait. >wait. >> woodruff: tonight on charlie rose, more of charlie's interview with president obama focused on foreign policy. in this preview the president explains his decision to keep u.s. troops out of syria. >> probably the area where i've gotten the most criticism from some of the foreign policy establishment here in washington is around the syria situation. >> rose: yes, and the red line situation. >> and there, what you have is people who i think instinctively feel that where something is going wrong, where we have a problem, the solution is for the united states to send its military in and impose order. and surely, what we've learned not just from iraq, but even the great challenges that we've had in places like afghanistan, where we've now been there for 13 years, devoted enormous resources, lives lost. and i can tell you from visitini afghanistan, talking to our troops, they are the best of th best. i mean, these folks know what they're doin'. they are outstanding at what they do. and yet, it's still a very challenging environment. so the notion that while we are still busy in afghanistan, still trying to keep iraq together, that we would now then potentially involve ourselves in another military excursion in syria. that's the kind of unwise decision making that i think leads us to make big mistakes and ultimately also miss out on opportunities elsewhere in the world. >> woodruff: that's tonight on "charlie rose." >> sreenivasan: and that's the newshour for tonight.e on wednesday the supreme court hears arguments about whether police officers can give blood or breath tests to suspected drunk drivers without a search warrant. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:n r ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.in lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge ofto your future. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york.co supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and p security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> 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 newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. inside intel. right now it's not looking so pretty. the company is cutting 12,000 jobs and shaking up its management ranks as it transitions away from its traditional business. one-two punch. first the oil rout, new houston's businesses big and small are tallying the cost of the relentless rain. exchange exit. the biggest health insurer in the u.s. as it plans to drop out of most of the state exchanges by 2017. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for tuesday, apr good evening and welcome. the dow and the s&p 500

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