Part, i think, because it is so direct and so poetic, and the words carry so much meaning in such a short space. Ifill those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. 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. Woodruff the nations largest bank admitted today that it misrepresented Mortgage Backed securities that collapsed in the 2008 crash. With that, j. P. Morgan chase agreed to pay 13 billion, the largest settlement ever between a private company and the government. Well hear much more on the details of the settlement right after the news summary. The problems with the healthcare. Gov web site got a new going over today in congress. Newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman reports. Reporter the law came under fresh fire at the capitol, with the latest news accounts providing the ammunition. The Washington Post reported private consultants warned in march there were serious risks healthcare. Gov would not be ready for its october rollout. Republicans seized on the document at a house hearing. Louisianas Steve Scalise called it damning. If the president really didnt know about this. This report says the white house absolutely knew what was going on, and they didnt tell the president. He ought to be firing these people today. Reporter Administration Officials said they took action after the report. But henry chao, the Top Technology officer at medicare, said he was not briefed on the consultants findings. Pennsylvania republican tim murphy pressed the point. And so, this is a major report that went as high up as the secretary we dont know saying that there were Serious Problems with this. And youre saying that even though you were interviewed by this, you did not ever have this briefing yourself . No, i didnt. Reporter chao did say 30 to 40 of the system that supports the Online Exchange still needs to be developed and tested. At a separate hearing, one private security expert warned the healthcare web site has flaws that put consumer data at critical risk, but white house spokesman jay carney insisted today the information people give is safe. The privacy and security of consumers personal information are a top priority. When consumers fill out their online marketplace applications, they can trust that the information that they are providing is protected by stringent security standards. Reporter meanwhile, House Republicans pressed for Senate Democrats to take up a bill that lets millions of americans keep their existing insurance plans. Later, at a business forum, president obama acknowledged the challenge his Health Care Program now faces. We are going to have to a, fix the web site so that everybody feels confident about that. Were going to have to obviously remarket and rebrand, and that will be challenging in this political environment. Reporter all of that as the latest Washington Post abc news poll found the president s Approval Ratings and support for the Health Care Law have reached new lows. Woodruff a freshman member of the u. S. House was charged today with m. D. Cocaine possession. According to court documents, the republican from florida was arrested on october 29 in washington. If convicted, he faces up to six months in jail and a one thousand dollar fine. This evening, the former t. V. Anchor and radio talk show host said he is profoundly sorry and that he has struggled with alcoholism people younger than 21 wont be able to buy cigarettes or other Tobacco Products in new york city anymore. Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation today making new york the first major American City to make 21 the cutoff age for tobacco. Bloomberg said its outrageous for Cigarette Companies and Convenience Stores to oppose the law. This century, a billion people will die from smoking around the world, and we dont want any of the people who die to be new yorkers. Thats the one thing we can do. And the people that try to change the argument to an economic one really ought to look in the mirror and be ashamed. Woodruff the ban does have its limitations teenagers will still be able to possess tobacco but not buy it. It turns out the National Security agency has violated surveillance limits numerous times. The Obama Administration released a stack of heavily censored documents overnight showing repeated violations and repeated promises to do better. Today, the chief lawyer for the director of National Intelligence blamed complicated technology that amasses vast amounts of information. A pair of suicide bombings in lebanon killed 23 people today and wounded nearly 150 others outside Irans Embassy in beirut. It was the latest sign that the civil war next door in syria is spilling over. We have a report from Lindsey Hilsum of independent television news. Be advised some of the images may be disturbing. Reporter the Iranian Embassy was the target, but damage from this mornings attack spread across the neighborhood. The first blast killed the suicide bomber and possibly embassy guards, but it was the huge car bomb a few minutes later that killed and injured so many people. Some were hurt because they came out onto their balconies after the first blast to see what had happened; others because they rushed to the scene to try to help people. translated we work near here. First, i heard a small explosion near the Iranian Embassy. It looked like a suicide bomb. He blew himself up in front of the security. I went to help a guy there, and, within seconds, just ten meters away, i saw a car exploding. There were many injured and martyrs, so we started to help them. Reporter such a huge blast conjures terrible memories of the civil war here in beirut in the 1980s when bombs and attacks were a daily occurrence. But worse than that, people here fear that lebanon is becoming the new frontline in the war in syria. This is a largely hezbollah area. The young men hanging around are militants loyal to the shia group that has sent fighters to support president assad across the border. translated we cant separate what happens in syria from what happens in lebanon. This blast today contains not only a military but also a political message, because the syrian army is winning on the battlefield. Its also because of the iranian position on syria. Reporter todays bomb points up what everyone here knows lebanons peace is in peril. The countrys divisions mirror those in syria, and the war next door is a growing threat to this fractured, fragile state. Woodruff in syria, state tv reported the army recaptured a key town along a route linking damascus to the coast. The village of qarah lies near the lebanese border. Its capture closes off an arms smuggling route used by rebels. The towns capture follows recent Army Advances around aleppo and damascus. Theres conflicting news on whether the u. S. And afghanistan are close to a Security Agreement. The office of afghan president karzai said today theyve agreed on a framework to govern any u. S. Troops who stay on after 2014, but the u. S. State Department Said we are not there yet. A meeting of afghan elders convenes thursday to consider a possible agreement. President obama met with senators of both parties today not to push new sanctions on iran just yet. They met at the white house, a day before negotiations on Irans Nuclear program resume in geneva. Republican senator bob corker of tennessee said the president asked them to pause for a period of time. Corker said that seemed likely, at least for a few days. You can talk about whatifs, but i think one thing that is for sure will be is no amendments that will pass the United States senate, for sure, relative to this, anyway, until we come back from thanksgiving. Woodruff later, the said hes not sure if Nuclear Talks with iran will yeld an agreement but irans foreign minister says he think there iss every possibility of working out a deal in geneva. Recovery efforts began in earnest in the midwest today after sundays barrage of tornadoes and thunderstorms. Early estimates indicated damages could total 1 billion. Today, people combed through wreckage in washington, illinois, where hundreds of homes were flattened, and crews across the region worked to restore power to more than 320,000 customers. The cost of typhoon recovery in the philippines could come close to 6 billion. A Government Official estimated today that that is what is needed to rebuild homes, schools, roads and bridges. Meanwhile, muchneeded supplies continued to arrive from countries around the world. The u. S. Has now provided 37 million in humanitarian aid. Wall street edged lower today. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly nine points to close at 15,967. The nasdaq fell 17 points to close at 3,931. Woodruff still ahead on the newshour the big deal over bad mortgages; susan rice on talks with iran; curbing the cost of health care in massachusetts; what judicial gridlock means for the federal courts; and the legacy of lincolns most famous speech. Ifill j. P. Morgans 13 billion settlement brings months of delicate, high stakes negotiations to an end. Under the terms of the deal, 4 billion will go to struggling homeowners in the form of reduced mortgage payments, lower loan rates and other assistance, 7 billion will go to investors as compensation; the remainder will be fines paid by the bank. The agreement comes as investigators are said to be pursuing cases against other financial institutions. Some assessment now of the deals significance and its problems. Lynn stout is a professor of business law at cornell university. She closely watches financial regulation. And bert ely is a banking consultant. Whats your first sense of this deal . Was it a good deal for anybody . Well, i think as much as anything else it gets these problems behind jane morgan chase. They had a tentative deal a few weeks ago but now they can get this behind them and move on with their business. Ifill lynn stout, overall, what do you think . A good deal . I think its a great deal. This is the first time weve seen one of these big banks get hit with consequences large enough to get their attention so its a real breakthrough in a lot of the ways on the part of the government. Ifill let me ask you about this first, lynn stout. In your reading of the agreement does j. P. Morgan admit wrongdoing . Well, they dont admit to criminal wrongdoing directly, but theyve agreed to a statement of facts. Theyve agreed not to dispute what they did and much of it boils down to plain old fraud so thats a major concession thats going to have an effect on their ability to defend themselves against future civil charges by other parties. Ifill is that your reading of it, too, bert ely . I think its important to realize that a portion of this settlement actually is from actions by bear stearns and Washington Mutual before they were acquired by j. P. Morgan chase. So its important to realize that j. P. Morgan chase and its management is not responsible for the total amount of this problem. Ifill but theyre also not being excused from that in part of this deal which is what they want, right . Well, thats true. And as lynn pointed out, there could well be other litigation that grows out of this and thats one of the things we have to see how that plays out. Ifill lynn stout, one of the things we lose sight of is exactly how to fix people. So if you are an affected homeowner who got one of these toxic loans sold to them by this bank, do you get any kind of repayment for that . Well, theres about 4 billion set aside for homeowner relief. That sounds like a big number, but the fact is the Mortgage Market measures in the tens of trillions. So im sure there will be some homeowners who will be very glad for a little bit of relief but its not going to make that much of a difference for most homeowners. The big effect of this settlement is the possibility that its going to create an incentive for banks to behave better in the future. Its a real message. A real warning. Now theres the possibility of real consequences. Ifill does this actually make bank think okay, im not going to misbehave because look what happened to jamie dimon the c. E. O. Of j. P. Morgan chase . Its important to keep in mind these mortgages were originated when we had a bubble in housing prices. There was a tremendous push on to increase homeownership. The Regulatory Environment was very different then. And at least for the foreseeable future i dont see that problem emerging. Maybe ten, 15 years down the road it could again. But in the current environment, this kind of problem is simply not going to emerge. Ifill lynn stout, you were going to Say Something to that. Yeah, i wish i were as optimistic as bert is. But the fact, is theyve got real short memories on wall street. I think banks are going to behave better, be more cautious, theyre not going to commit these sorts of deceptions for four or five years but we still have basic structural problems. We still have not implemented affected financial reform and i can see us repeating this scenario five, six years down the road. Ifill i do have to ask you this question, bert ely. If you are jamie dimon with bank of america, do you feel like this is a sign that business has to be done differently or financial reform is going to be imposed on you . Well, first of all, an awful lot of financial reform has been imposed in the process of being imposed on the industry as a result of regulations that were authorized by the doddfrank act a few years ago. And those regulations are being put in place right now and, quite frankly, the consequence of these regulations may be to overly tighten the ability of mortgage credit, particularly for those who have less than pristine credit records. And so when you have a situation where a pendulum swings back and forth, right now it is swinging towards possibly excessive restrictiveness. At some point in time it may swing back. But for the short term, i dont see that type of problem emerging. Ifill when jamie dimon first went to the department of justice and started to negotiate that, he came to the table and said how about 3 billion . And they said i dont think so. Did he lose in the end . Well, first of all this penalty defined in settlement costs are being ultimately borne by the shareholders of j. P. Morgan chase. So i think we have to realize theyre the ones that are ultimately paying for this. And, you know, they are going to be suffering some because of this. But the important thing is they get the problem behind them, they can move on and i think thats very important for j. P. Morgan chase. Ifill lynn stout, could the government have gotten more . Could it have held out for more than 14 billion . Oh, you know, possibly in theory. But this is a real breakthrough on the part of the government. We havent seen anything of this size in terms of consequences imposed on banks. Earlier cases have been set settled for amounts in the hundreds of millions. That sounds like a lot but for the most banks its the cost of doing business. This settlement amounts to almost half of j. P. Morgans profits for 2012 and its not going to affect the shareholders nearly as deeply as its going to be knelt the declining bonuses for the employees. Thats where the hope lies in changing bank behavior. This is going to affect the bonus pool at j. P. Morgan and that will get peoples attention. Ifill theres still an outstanding criminal investigation which this does not take off the table, right . That is correct. This is just a matter of settling civil charges. We dont know how the criminal aspect of this is going to play out. Ifill and the loon don wail case we heard from, this is separate, to, right . That was trading losses and has nothing to do with the mortgage issues addressed here in this settlement. Ifill lynn stout, are you satisfied this is a civil agreement and the criminal case is yet to come . Yeah, i think so. This chapter is not finished for j. P. Morgan. Theres still the possibility of criminal investigations as part of the settlement the bank has agreed to cooperate in assisting those investigations. Theyve made admissions to facts that are going to make it easier for other investors who feel theyve been defrauded to bring civil action so this is certainly progress but this is by no means over for j. P. Morgan ifill lynn scout at cornell, bert ely thank you very much. Thank you for having me here. Woodruff as the u. S. Negotiating team readies for the next round of talks in geneva over Irans Nuclear program, president obama urged senators at the white house today to hold off on seeking additional sanctions on the country. Afterwards, six senators including democrats Charles Schumer and bob menendez sent a letter to secretary of state john kerry, insisting that the administration not accept an agreement that would be overly generous to iran or not tough enough on its nuclear program. A short time ago, i spoke to white house National Security advisor susan rice about todays meeting and the upcoming talks. Welcome. And we know that going into this meeting a number of the senators were saying they felt the