New type of Super Bowl Ad directed to your mobile phone. And its friday, mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the weeks news. Those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. 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. Woodruff supporters of the muchdebated Keystone Oil Pipeline project won a key round today. A state Department Review found completing the pipeline, from canada to the gulf, would cause no serious environmental problems. Well have more on the review, and its implications, right after the news summary. The state of california is cutting off statesupplied water to 25 Million People in the face of severe drought. The unprecedented decision today means 29 water agencies will have to rely on local sources of water. The head of the state water control board says its essential to conserve what little water is left in state reservoirs. This is the most serious drouted weve faced if modern times. And well have to face it head on and make many hard decisions in days, weeks and months to come. Everyone, farmers, fish and people is cities and towns will get less water because of the drought. Woodruff the cutoff also affects nearly one million acres of crop land in one of the nations richest farm belts. A global selloff sent wall street sharply lower. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost well over 149 points to close below 15,699. The nasdaq fell 19 points to close below 4,104. For the week the dow lost 1 . The nasdaq fell more than half a percent. Overall, it was the markets worst month since last may. President obama appealed to the nations c. E. O. s today to hire the longterm unemployed. The president urged them to create opportunities for nearly four million americans whove been out of work for six months or more. He spoke to leaders of ebay, boeing, mcdonalds and a number of others, at the white house. Folks who have been unemployed the longest often have the toughest time getting back to work. Its a cruel catch22. The longer youre unemployed, the more unemployable you may seem. Now this is an illusion, but its one that unfortunately we know statistically is happening out there. Wooduff nearly 300 Companies Made commitments to focus more on the longterm jobless. The president also signed a memo ensuring the federal government wont discriminate against such applicants in its own hiring. A former new Jersey Port Authority official now says theres evidence that republican governor Chris Christie knew about a major bridge closing while it was happening. Christie has said he found out after the fact the new allegation comes from an attorney for david willdstein who ordered the bridge closing, allegedly to punish a democratic mayor. Christie has denied any knowledge of a political motive. The first round of the syrian peace talks ended today in geneva, with little to show. The Syrian Government rejected opposition demands that president Bashar Alassad give up power. The regime also refused to commit to a second round of negotiations. Well get a full report, and explore what happens next, later in the program. Officials in thailand are warning they may close polling stations if violence erupts during sundays general election. The government is going ahead with the vote, despite protesters opposition. Today, the atmosphere at protest sites in bangkok was festive, and demonstrators tried to drum up support. Theyve threatened to disrupt the polling, to support calls for a boycott. translated im not going to vote on sunday, because if you do that means you accept that this election right. We have been defying this government for long time. We need to finish it this time. Wooduff the protesters are demanding the ouster of Prime Minister yingluck shinawatra. They say shes a puppet of her brother, who was ousted as Prime Minister in 2006. Members of the International Olympic committee arrived in sochi, russia today to view the security for themselves. Thousands of police and troops are being deployed, along with helicopters and radar sites. It comes in the face of threats by islamist insurgents. Meanwhile, president obama says hed advise friends its okay to go. He told c. N. N. the process of building an obama president ial library has formally begun. Major supporters announced today theyre forming a foundation to raise money, develop building plans and pick a site. The leading possibilities include hawaii, where the president was born and the chicago area, where he lived for many years and was first elected to office. Still to come on the newshour; new ammunition in the fight over the Keystone Oil Pipeline; Ben Bernankes economic legacy; some progress, other pitfalls at the syrian peace talks; Super Bowl Ads directed to your mobile phone; plus, shields and brooks on the weeks news. Woodruff as the proposed Keystone Oil Pipeline extension cleared a major hurdle today, it set off alarms in some quarters and lifted hopes in the world of energy and business. Jeffrey brown has more on todays developments. Brown the pipeline would stretch from the alberta, Canada Oil Sands to refineries on the gulf coast, moving more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day. There are concerns about leaks and spills, but some of the biggest Environmental Issues are focused on the extraction of the oil. Juliet eilperin has been reporting on this story for the Washington Post and joins me now. Juliet, fill in the picture a bit. What exactly was the state department looking at in this report . What was its key finding . They were looking the a whole range of impacts including whether rejecting the pipeline would make a different in global Greenhouse Gas emissions linked to Climate Change. They also looked at things like what would happen if there was a spill. And what about endangered species along the route, things like that. Their overall conclusion was that no one single Infrastructure Project makes a huge difference, a significant difference in terms of development in the oil region in canada. So the overall Climate Change impact theyre saying is not significant from this decision. Thats their broad conclusion. So this is, of course, highly contentious with environmentalists feeling that they have evidence of just the opposite. So just remind us of what the main concerns have been. Absolutely. So environmentalists have been arguing for years at this point that by allowing this pipeline to travel from the United States to gulf coast from canada to gulf coast refineries in the u. S. , youre accelerating Climate Change both because you are speeding development in the Oil Sands Region and also because youre increasing the United States dependence on fossil fuels. And one very interesting fact is that while this technical document suggests that this one project would not have a significant Global Carbon impact impact, the state department is making it very clear that theyre still looking at how this pipeline decision sits in to fits into the broader national and International Climate strategy that the president is pursuingment and so theyre making it clear that this is not the final word even on what is the Climate Impact of this project. So what are they going to be looking at Going Forward here. They still must decide whether its in the socalled national interest, right . How is that being defined. Thats a very broad line, actually. And so it can include everything including our energy security. In other words, what does it mean to have the supply coming from canada as opposed to other countries. They will look at things like our relationship with canada and what are the Foreign Policy implications of this. As well as again, as i mentioned, they still are going to use this kind of amorphous term which is how does this fit into the broad national, an International Climate policy that president obama is pursuingment and they will be reviewing this, getting input both from the public as well as from eight agencies that will weigh in on this question within well s so what was the response today . There was, you can imagine a lot of response. So for example, clearly the oil industry an other conservatives, for example, on capitol hill welcomed it asical as well as the condition dan government an transcanada, the company that has been pursuing this project for years. Environmentalists without exception criticized this, although again they emphasized that they did not think this was over. One interesting thing is we have just had a rail spill of oil in mississippi. And so people are seizing on that saying this is yet another example of what are the problems with the transportation of oil into the United States. The ultimate decision, of course, will be by the president. An theres been as you said so much pressure for several years on this now. Do you expect that to not only continue but ramp up now that were into what looks like maybe a final stage here . Absolutely. I think you will see an intensification of the pressure, particularly on the secretary of state john kerry. Since this is the moment that he gets involved in the process he has absolutely stayed out of it to this point as has the white house. And this is the first moment that, for example, both environmentalists as well as their opponents can appeal directly to a man who has made Climate Change and addressing carbon one of the central points of his career. So i think that this is going to become even more intense as we move forward. And the president himself last summer said he would approve the pipeline only if it didnt, quote, significantly exacerbate carbon solutions. So todays decision clearly plays at least partly to that. It does. Although again when reporters were trying to press the Senior State Department official, carie ann jones whether or not this report answered that question, she declined to answer it. So that is absolutely the central question. And while at this point the state department wont say what role the president will play in this, its clear that once a decision is made, the white house cant stay absolutely removed and that there will be at least some input. Finally, is there any sense of when a decision will come . That actually is still an open question which is interesting particularly in a Midterm Election year. So technically we could be looking at a process that would last about 105 days if you look at technically the calendar. But one of the things that they have been emphasizing is that both secretary kerry will take as much time as he needs to consider it. So it could be longer. But at the same time some of the officials warned that it could be shorter. That they will urge agencies to get engaged quickly and frankly because this is being done under the president s executive authority, there is considerable flexibility. So there is no deliberate end point that we can face. Juliet eil perrin thanks again. Thank you. Woodruff part of the turmoil in the markets of late, especially emerging ones overseas, has to do with the federal reserves decision to start pulling back on its stimulus. Thats led to worries about what may happen to capital and investment in some countries. But the feds decision comes after years of unprecedented moves to prop up the economy. The man at the center of that action, chairman ben bernanke, is ending his term today. Newshour economics corespondent paul soloman looks at his legacy and the questions awaiting his successor. Its part of his reporting on making sense of financial news. Reporter in 2012, still a hero on the cover of the atlantic. But as that magazines cover also asked why does everyone hate him . So hero . Or zero . Rather than trawl the darker corners of the internet, we thought wed ask two professional economists, on the right and left, to grade bernankes performance. I give him for his whole tenure an a. Reporter economics professor alan blinder, a past vice chairman of the fed, hired ben bernanke at princeton, so of course hes biased. But in his postcrash bestseller, after the music stopped, even blinder takes bernanke to task for letting Lehman Brothers fail, freezing credit worldwide. That lowers the grade from a straight a or a . The lehman episode just sticks in my craw, not to save lehman or put them to bed in a more gentle way, this is a joint mistake of ben bernanke and hank paulson, who was secretary of the treasury, but it was very consequential. I mean as you know, all hell broke loose the very next day. Reporter but at a town hall in 2009, bernanke told jim lehrer that the fed didnt have the Legal Authority to intervene in an Investment Bank like lehman. In the case of Lehman Brothers, there was just a huge 40, 50 billion hole that we had no way to fill and no money, no authorization, no way to do it, so we had to let it fail. We had no choice. Reporter to blinder, though, the government made up all sorts of tools during the crash. Guess what . They had the Legal Authority to save the money market mutual funds by using something called the Exchange Stabilization fund, which is supposed to be to support the dollar. Now how did that work . But somehow the treasurys lawyers koshered that when just a few days before nobody was koshering a saving of lehman, so i count that as a mistake. Reporter but the rest of his tenure you give him an a . My grading system says lets take lehman day plus three or something, just a few days after lehman, grade him from that point forward, yeah i give a . Reporter and thats pretty much the mainstream opinion of bernankes role in saving our economic bacon. I spent my entire academic career studying the great depression. Reporter the closest thing to flyonthewall footage of the crash Paul Giamattis portrayal of bernanke in the hbo film, too big to fail. If we do not act boldly and immediately we will replay the depression of the 1930s. Only this time it will be far, far worse. If we dont do this now we wont have an economy on monday. Reporter and so, starting that weekend, the fed, in conjunction with the treasury department, took historically unprecedented action. It reporter when push came to collapse, even conservative economist Charles Calomiris thinks bernanke saved the day. But how does he grade bernankes entire chairmanship, which kicked off exactly eight years ago tomorrow . Lets take it as three semesters. The semester that begins in september of 2008 and ends middle of 2009, i would say he gets very high grades, maybe even a straight a, but the semester before that, id give him, uh, maybe a c, and the semester since 2010 lets say, id say, incomplete. Reporter the c is for bernankes stint precrisis. Calomiris points out that he joined the feds board of governors back in 2002, became chairman in 2006, and yet never in all that time pushed to clamp down on the promiscuous lending that helped cause the crash. I think that the fed was far too late in recognizing problems after 2006 and doing something about them. The banking crisis was not a surprise, the banking crisis was the culmination of that erosion in the creditworthiness of the banks. Reporter so we asked alan blinder what about the charge that before the crisis when the housing bubble was obvious to a lot of people and the fed did absolutely nothing about it . Bernanke becomes chairman of the fed february 1, 2006 so this process had gone pretty far by then. In addition, try to put yourself in his shoes and ive thought about this a lot. Youre taking over from a person, alan greenspan, whos been deified. You become chairman of the fed. Are you gonna walk in the office and say, okay now everythings different . Right, im taking over from god and im changing everything. I think that would have been asking too much of anybody i dont think anybody would have done that. Reporter so, mixed grades before the crisis high grades during. But what about the feds policy ever since, socalled quantitative easing in which the fed continued the expansion of the nations money supply begun during the crash, an expansion that the fed is only now, gradually, tapering off . Mightnt all the new money, an lead to inflation and another crash landing, risks that the feds new chair, janet yellen, will have to contend with . Has expansionary policy since the crisis as you know many critics alleged including me. Reporter set us up for another fall . Reporter again, conservative economist Charles Calomiris. The fed under bernanke under the last two years has