Areas. This is where we have to survive to the best that we can. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from Electronics Systems to intelligence analysis and cyber operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and Critical Infrastructure. Knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. Thats bae systems. Thats inspired work. 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. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. 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 new chair of the Federal Reserve bank signaled today shes largely keeping the policies of the man she replaced. Janet yellen made her first Public Comments since taking over last week from ben bernanke. She told a congressional hearing the fed will keep Interest Rates low, and gradually reduce stimulus efforts, as long as the economy improves. And, she played down the january dropoff in job creation. We have to be very careful not to jump to conclusions in interpreting what those reports mean. There were weather factors weve haweve, unseasonably cold temperatures, temperatures that may be affecting Economic Activity in the job market and elsewhere. Woodruff yellens testimony went over well on wall street. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained nearly 193 points to close well over 15,994 the nasdaq rose almost 43 points to close at 4,191. Some of the nations leading tech firms joined an international protest today against u. S. Government surveillance. Google, microsoft, facebook and others sent a letter to president obama and congress. They urged an end to collecting bulk data from Internet Communications and they call for greater oversight of surveillance programs. The house of representatives voted this evening to raise the National Debt ceiling again with no strings attached. That came after Republican Leaders gave up on a different strategy. Newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman has our report. Let his party give him the debt ceiling increase that he wants. Reporter Speaker John Boehner gave way this morning to president obamas demand to raise the debt limit through march of 2015, minus any conditions sought by republicans. Our members are not crazy about voting to increase the debt ceiling. Our members are also very upset with the president. He wont negotiate. He wont deal with our longterm spending problems without us raising taxes. Reporter boehner and his fellow leaders had hoped to add a provision reversing a cut in military pensions, but the republican rank and file reportedly balked. Well let the democrats put the votes up. Well put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed. Reporter as for the military pension issue, it will have to be dealt with in separate legislation. In the democraticcontrolled senate, majority leader harry reid applauded the republican decision today. I hope this common sense approach will continue throughout the year so we can actually get some things done. Boehner has said that hes going to pass a clean vote on not defaulting on the debt. If they do that im confident we will move over here as quickly as we can. Reporter later, there was word the senate might vote to raise the debt ceiling bill tomorrow. That would be well in advance of the february 27 deadline set by treasury secretary jack lew for congress to act, or risk having the federal government default. Woodruff what forecasters call a potentially catastrophic winter storm was sweeping snow and ice into the deep south today. President obama declared a state of emergency for georgia. There, the storm threatened to drop a crippling layer of ice, knocking out power for days. Supermarket shelves emptied in atlanta, although the city got mostly rain at first. Airports from dallas to charlotte canceled almost 900 flights. Woodruff the u. S. May wait for the next president of afghanistan to sign an agreement leaving some u. S. Troops there past 2014. So far, President Hamid karzai has refused and todays wall street journal reports u. S. Officials doubt he will ever change his mind. Director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper confirmed as much today, telling a Senate Hearing i dont believe that president karzai is going to sign it. Woodruff the syrian peace talks made little apparent headway today in geneva. In washington, president obama said the two sides are far from stopping the violence and reaching a political transition. Still, after meeting with french president francois hollande, mr. Obama said for now, at least, he does not see a military solution. Pblgtsdz we are continuing to explore ever possible avenue to solve this problem because its not just heartbreaking to see whats happening to the syrian people, its very dangerous for the region as a whole, including friends and allies and partners like lebanon or jordan that are being adversely impacted by it. Woodruff on a separate issue, the Syrian Ambassador to russia said the worst of syrias chemical weapons stockpile will be removed by march first. The assad regime already missed two deadlines. China and taiwan held historic talks today, and hailed a new chapter in their relations. Envoys for the two sides met in the eastern chinese city of nanjing. It was their highestlevel session since the mainland came under communist rule in 1949. Beijing still regards taiwan as a renegade province, but tensions have eased as trade between the two has grown. In the Winter Olympics in sochi, russia. It was a big day at snowboard and ski jump venues. A spoiler alert tune out for a moment, if you dont want to know who won just yet. In the mens halfpipe, american shaun white lost his bid for a third gold, and failed to medal. A swiss snowboarder won. And germanys carina vogt won the olympics firstever womens ski jumping competition. Shirley temple black, the darling of depressionera hollywood, died overnight at her home near San Francisco. As shirley temple, she started dancing at the age of two and acting when she was only three. From 1935 to 1938, she was americas Top Box Office draw, and even had an alcoholfree drink named after her. Her signature song, on the good ship lollipop came from the film bright eyes. On the good ship lollipop on the good ship lollipop on the got ship lollipop its a sweet trip to a candy shop where bonbons play on the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay the actress retired from the screen at the age of 21 and in later life, went on to republican politics and a diplomatic career, serving as ambassador to ghana and czechoslovakia. Shirley temple black was 85 years old. Still to come on the newshour; how the u. S. Targets terrorists; a neighborhood left behind in San Franciscos boom times; new worries over the safety of americas power grid; plus, the book behind the new film the Monuments Men. Woodruff in an unusually public exposure of an internal government debate, Obama Administration officials confirm they are deciding whether to target an american citizen living in pakistan, who is believed to be plotting terrorist attacks. The disclosure comes as the administration considers the extent of the president s powers and amid new revelations about the Technology Behind unmanned drones so often used to go after terrorists abroad. For more, we turn to Mark Mazzetti of the new york times, who wrote todays story about the american citizen abroad. Hes also the author of the way of the knife the c. I. A. , a secret army, and a war at the ends of the earth. Mark mazzetti, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me on. Pelley who is the person theyre targeting and where is he or she . We dont know the answer to both questions. We dont know the identity of the person under discussion and as we reported the person is if pakistan and the assumption is that he is in the western part of pakistan in the mountain which is is traditionally outofbounds for the Pakistani Soldiers and for pakistani policemen and so thats why the Obama Administration the debating whether to kill him versus try to have the pakistanis capture him. Woodruff and what has he done to make him a potential target . Again, thats a good question. Theres been information in the last 24 hours that he was involved in attacks across the border in afghanistan using i. E. D. S and that would sort of put him in the category of someone who potentially could be targeted because as obama explained in may the United States will target only people involved in ongoing attacks against americans. So for someone to be considered targeted to be targeted under the new rules they have to have some kind of a connection to attacks against americans and we believe it would be attacks against troops in afghanistan. Woodruff so what exactly is the debate going on . Whats the argument inside the administration on each side of this . Well, the real the biggest part of the debate is the fact that this person is an american citizen and theres this its very rare and an extraordinary circumstance for a president to order the killing of an american citizen overseas and the four americans have been killed during the Obama Administration and as the administration admitted last year, only one they had deliberately tried to target. So if they are going to make the deliberate decision to kill an american citizen, they have to get a signoff from the Justice Department and they have to really be quite confident that this is the right decision to sort of deny this person the due process and so thats the center of the debate. But theres other elements as well. Since president obama announced these new rules and restrictions in may he announced a preference to have the military versus the c. I. A. Carry out drone strikes. The rub here is that in pakistan its an entirely c. I. A. Operation. The pakistani government will not allow the military the to take over the mission because they want to still have the sort of veneer of secrecy that the c. I. A. Provides. So theres a few different elements here that make this sort of a policy conundrum for the administration. Woodruff is this something isnt it unusual to have this debate out in the open like this . Yeah, sure. And its been apparently going on for months but it only kind of we got a glimpse of it last week when mike rogers, the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee, really lit into the new rules that president obama laid out in may when he basically said the rules are so restrictive its making america less safe and people who were once able to be targeted cannot be targeted under the new rules. So then so then a little less than a week later it emerged what rogers was really talking about was in part the debate over this one individual. Woodruff so its been going on for months doesnt it risk alerting the enemy that theyre going to be targeted . Well, i think fact that its been going on for months probably indicates that theres really a split over whether this would be worth it and whether this person is even someone important enough and dangerous enough to be targeted. There was very little debate inside the Obama Administration about anwar alawlaki, the First American citizen to be killed during the Obama Administration. There appears to be far greater debate about this individual. I think that it also should be pointed out that its still very difficult to know here we are almost a year later since the new rules were put in place. How the rules are being put into place. What the ground ruleses are. Whether the rules are being followed. Theres still so much secrecy involved in these programs. There has not been a great deal of transparency since president obama announced these new rules in may and so its hard to really judge as an outsider what is different now than it was before may of last year. Pelley mark, do you get the sense that the administration is close to making a decision on this or that this could go on for some time . Its hard to know. Certainly im sure they were not happy to have this aired out in public that the internal workings of the debate are reported in the press so certainly this could go on for some time their argument was that this person might go to ground but as we have pointed out, president obama has made no secret of the fact that he will target remnants of al qaeda or al qaeda affiliates in pakistan so it would not necessarily be a huge surprise to this individual that the United States might be going after him. Woodruff one other quick thing. Theres a report at whether the president has the authority to expand targeting to Al Qaeda Affiliated groups to socalled isis, the iraq al qaeda in iraq and syria now that al qaeda central has split off from that group. Its a little bit complicated, but tell us in a nutshell what thats about and where its headed . Well, its an interesting debate because basically it goes back to the authorities that were instituted right after 9 11 when Congress Gave the president Broad Authority to go basically go get the people responsible for 9 11. Here we are so many years later and those responsible for 9 11 are largely either captured or killed and al qaeda as they existed on september 11, 2001, is very different and has different splinter groups so the question that now is presented is, is a group this group isis that now at least formally is no longer aligned with al qaeda, you know, does the president have the authority to go after them . As the one story today acknowledged its a little bit of an academic debate because we dont think theres a huge momentum in the Obama Administration to start doing lethal strikes in syria or iraq to take on this group but it does get to the issue of, you know, what are the authority eugauthoritiesgoing to be goingw that were out of the post9 11 age in this era where the threat is far different where it was so many years ago. Woodruff following it all. Mark mazzetti with the new york times. Thank you. Thank you. Woodruff American Cities often wrestle with redeveloping blighted areas, since longtime residents are often displaced in the process. Theres a seamy neighborhood in San Francisco, called the tenderloin, thats resisting change right now, despite a high tech boom that could upgrade the area. Special correspondent Spencer Michels has our story, co produced with public station k. Q. E. D. San francisco. Reporter no one is sure where the tenderloin got its name, but it has been the soft underbelly of San Francisco for decades drug dealing and drunks, prostitution, the homeless and mentally ill, troubled veterans and impoverished new immigrants. 28,000 people live in the 40 square block area in Single Room Occupancy Hotels and dingy apartments. The neighborhood is adjacent to the citys affluent booming downtown with its expensive hotels, upscale shops and wellattended theaters. Judy young, executive director of the Vietnamese Youth Development center, moved into the tenderloin from an asian refugee camp in 1981. I was eight years old and we lived in this crappy one bedroom i think it was haunted, apartment. And there was like six of us to a one bedroom. And the neighborhood was the worst you could ever find. Reporter 4,000 children still live in the neighborhood and more than 30 years later the downtrodden still line up for free meals at st. Anthonys dining hall in the heart of the tenderloin. Families do live here because it is one of the most affordable place in the city. People dont realize how high the housing is in San Francisco. And so if you can find a studio or one bedroom here now for 1200, thats pretty affordable compared to other places. Reporter but now a new wave of Tech Enterprises are moving into the city and nearby silSilicon Valley, bringing with them wellpaid workers who can afford to live in newer more upscale digs and patronize pricey bars and restaurants. Twitter, with 2,000 employees, recently opened its new headquarters just across the street from the tenderloin. And thats brought in a few new businesses and put pressure on the city to clean up the area. Ive spent most of my life in and around San Francisco and ive seen lots of changes, but somehow the tenderloin seems to have avoided that change. Its still not a Pleasant Place but its home for the poor. Many other cities have had places l