Ifill plus, could building more dams be a solution for droughtstricken california farmers . Ifill all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by n an on board explosion, and there are reports of mysterious debris at the crash site. Said not to be passed. Its hoped the examination of flight recorders due to start tonight could turn rumors into answers. All thats known at this stage is that the russian airbus appeared to break up in midair after leaving the egyptian red sea resort of Sharm Elsheikh and that all 224 on board perished. Egyptian investigators say they will solve this mystery but warn it could be a long process. They announced today that chinese president xi jinping and taiwanese president ma yingjeou will meet saturday in singapore. Its the first such meeting since 1949, when communists won chinas civil war. Woodruff the head of u. S. Pacific forces played down tensions with china today, over disputes in the South China Sea. Last week, the u. S. Navy sent a warship past chinesebuilt islands, through waters that beijing claims. At a meeting there today, admiral harry harris said the move wasnt meant as a threat. But a top chinese general complained it soured relations. translated i had planned to have a good talk with you on the South China Sea issue. However, regardless of the solemn representations of the chinese side, the incident has created a disharmonious atmosphere. We are resolute in our determination and will to safeguard our sovereignty and maritime rights. Woodruff at a separate meeting in malaysia, chinas defense minister told u. S. Defense secretary ash carter that theres a bottom line on challenges to chinas territorial claims. He did not elaborate. Ifill the iraqi politician who played a key role in promoting the u. S. Invasion in 2003, has died. State t. V. Reports Ahmad Chalabi had a heart attack and passed away in baghdad. After 9 11, the exiled leader helped persuade officials in the Bush Administration that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. That turned out to be false. Chalabi later served as iraqs deputy Prime Minister. He was 71 years old. Woodruff the vatican faces new exposes today in book form about gross financial mismanagement. The Associated Press reported merchants in the temple, tealings of wasteful spending, outright greed and entrenched resistance to pope francis reforms. A second book claims that money from a Hospital Foundation went to renovate a vatican officials plush apartment. Ifill back in this country, republican president ial candidate donald trump dismissed his rivals complaints about debate formats and questions today, but he did not confirm reports that his campaign plans to negotiate its own debate terms with tv networks. The billionaire celebrity was asked about the issue at a News Conference in new york. Ill go anywhere they want. I dont care too much about the debates. Look, im the one that gets all the nasty questions anyway. I like the debates. I think theyre good for me, but we have to be treated a little bit fairly. But as far as im concerned, i really dont care that much. I just want to debate. I think debating is a good thing. Its healthy. It gets everything into the open. Ifill separately, trump accused the u. S. Federal reserve of keeping Interest Rates low at the request of president obama. The white house flatly rejected that claim. Woodruff japans Takata Corporation will pay 70 million in u. S. Fines for mishandling a hunting air bag recall. It could reach a record 200 million if the Company Fails to comply with terms announced today. Takata now admits it delayed recalling more than 20 million air bag inflators that can explode with too much force. Ifill the u. S. Auto industry is now on track for a record year in sales. Most major automakers saw doubledigit gains last month. Gm led the way with sales up nearly 16 from a year ago. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 89 points to close at 17,918. The nasdaq rose nearly 18 points, and the s p 500 added more than 5. Still to come on the newshour, from legalizing marijuana to lgbt rights, voters go to the polls to decide. The controversial Keystone Pipeline, is it effectively dead . The woman in charge of the upcoming Global Climate change summit and much more. Woodruff the president ial election may still be a year away, but a handful of states voted today to elect state and local leaders and decide on a number of important ballot measures. Issues ranged from the legalization of marijuana to the expansion of lgbt protections. For a look at the big races and voter initiatives around the country, we are joined by reid wilson of the web site and newsletter the morning consult. Welcome, reid wilson. Lets start out talking about some of these major ballot measures around the country. Ohio looking at legalizing marijuana, but in a limited way. Tell us about that one. Ohio would become fifth state along with the District Of Columbia to legalize marijuana for recreational use, but there is a little twist here. As states create new laws about marijuana, they have to come up with new regulatory structures. Nobody has ever regulated marijuana because its always simply been illegal. So what ohio is thinking of doing is allowing ten groups, ten businesses to control production for the first four years or so. It seems a way to sort of control what makes it to the market and to sort of demand some quality, however, there are a lot of people who are worried that theyre essentially handing over monopoly control of a major industry and it is a major industry, there are millions at stake here to a small handful of people. Woodruff so if it passed, it would set a precedent . Well, every state who has legalized marijuana does it in a different way. Washington state regulates it like alcohol. Colorado does it in a slightly different way that allows sellers to grow their own marijuana. Everyone is trying to figure out whats the right way to do these things. The big question is with what is going to come on the ballot in 2016. There are at least 17 states considering some kind of marijuana legislation or ballot initiative, including ten alone in the state of california. Woodruff you were telling us thats a way the look at several of these ballot measures. Lets talk about two of the city measures. In houston you have voters looking at nondiscrimination protection for lgbt individuals. This has become very controversial, and a lot of focus on public restrooms. It has. Last year a nondiscrimination law passed the city of houston. This measure, if it passes, would repeal that previous nondiscrimination measure. And the focus on restrooms i think sort of hints at the next step in the fight over gay rights. The focus on restrooms has to do with those who are transgender. Now, theres public support for nondiscrimination against those who are transgender has lagged behind public support for nonrim nation against gays and lesbians. So this is a way to sort of shift the focus from a question that opponents of this nondiscrimination law would lose to some other element that they might have a better pathway toward a majority public opinion. Woodruff again, hotly controversial there in houston. Meanwhile, San Francisco is looking at an initiative on air bnb. This is the company that helps you rent out a room in your house, rent out your apartment. Tell us about that one. What this legislation would do is limit the ability of homeowners to rent out their apartments on a shortterm basis, their apartments, their home, whatever room they have to rent, it would limit it to 75 days a year. Currently most homeowners can rent out their place for 90 days a year. So its a small little change, however, it does have to. It does speak to this larger battle between the traditional economy and the rising sharing economy. Weve seen big legislative fights in cities across the country over uber, as uber takes on the taxi industry. Now weve got air bnb taking on the hotel industry, both of whom have millions of dollars at stake in this. Woodruff as far as we know, first time air bnb has been on a ballot. First time we know. Woodruff lets look at these races. You have a contested governors race in kentucky. You have interesting state senate races in virginia. Lets look at those. So in 2010 and 2014, one of the overlooked consequences of the republican wave that swept power in congress back toward the republicans was that it swept even more power back to republicans in state legislatures. There are very few Democratic State legislators in the country these days compared to before the last election. In ducky, one of the very few democrats who still governs a Southern State is term limited, so the two candidates who are running, attorney general jack conway, the democrat, is probably slightly favored, but only slightly, over the republican businessman. You may remember him. He ran against Mitch Mcconnell two years ago, last year rather in the primary. Matt bevin has run a very poor race at the moment, but its a very heavily republican state. What really matters to the outcome of this race is what voters are thinking about when they head into the polls. Are they thinking about National Issues and president obama, his Approval Rating is at 34 in kentucky, or are they thinking about how the outgoing governor, steve bashir, the democrat, has run the state. His Approval Rating is at 59 . Democrats want to focus on statewide issues. Republicans want to focus on the national. Woodruff finally, a word, reid wilson, about the senate races in virginia. Right now both houses in virginia are controlled by the republicans. And the senate is only narrowly controlled by republicans, just by one seat. There are about four races were all closely watching, a couple down near richmond, a couple down here in the washington suburbs. This is a case where democrats lost so many legislative seats, they have a chance to win back a chamber tonight. Its. Maybe this is a preview of 2016 and how democrats can do that. Woodruff Governor Terry mcauliffe doing a lot of pacing tonight. There you go. Woodruff reid wilson giving us a preview of all those races. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ifill the longrunning debate over the Keystone Pipeline has taken another sharp turn, as the Company Behind its construction asked to suspend a review of its plans, triggering many questions about whether the Obama Administration is planning to reject it anyway. Given how long its taken, it seems unusual to me to suggest that somehow it should be paused yet again. Ifill White House Press secretary josh earnest expressed skepticism today over trans canadas abrupt request to suspend the keystone application process. The company said it wants to wait for statelevel reviews and litigation to play out. But earnest said another motive may be at work. Theres no doubt that this debate has been heavily influenced by politics, and the president is doing his best to try to shield the actual process that will consider the merits of the project from those politics. Ifill earnest said the president still plans to decide the issue before he leaves office in early 2017. If approved, the pipeline would connect oil sands in alberta, canada to refineries along the gulf coast, passing through six u. S. States. It would carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day. The application process began in 2008, but a final decision has been delayed time and time again. The president has remained publicly noncomittal about the project, but, in South Carolina earlier this year, he offered some pointed criticism. Were not going to authorize a pipeline that benefits, largely, a foreign company, if it cant be shown that it is safe, and if it cant be shown that overall it would not contribute to Climate Change. Ifill in february, the president also vetoed a republican bill to force construction of the pipeline. Environmental groups opposed to keystone argued today that transcanada is now hoping a president friendlier to the project will be elected next year. Wyoming senator john barrasso, a leading republican and pipeline supporter, agreed. By putting the pause button now that allows things to stay active, in my opinion, until after the 2016 election, when we may have a republican president in office who can then approve it. I think the fear right now is that the president was getting ready to oppose it and put a final closedown on it and this just keeps it alive. Ifill for now, the state department continues its review of the project, with no end date announced. Ifill how much this latest twist in the pipeline is driven by politics, and how much by policy . For that, we turn to Juliet Eilperin, who covers the white house for the washington post. You also cover the environmental matters, juliet. So we know. We heard what josh earnest said. The president is going to decide before he leaves office, but theres a listening period of time between now and then. Where do we know or where do we think, what does your reporting tell us that the administration is in this process. My sense is the administration has been debating whether to give a final decision in advance of the u. N. Climate negotiations that are at the end of this month. Theres an argument one way or another. You could say this would help give added momentum for the global fight against Climate Change, or they could wait until after this period. The move by transcanada is a little unexpected. It throws more uncertainty in the process. Thats one of the things theyre awaiting. My sense is from my reporting is that the review is finished, the determination is made, and its a question of when are they going to announce what theyre going to do. Ifill the assumption amongst many parties is the decision thats been made is against the pipeline. Yes, thats my sense of where they are, and its certainly interesting to hear senator brasso and others to say they assume thats where it is and they would like this decision delayed so the next president who could be a public could decide it. Ifill whats behind transcanadas decision to request the pulling of the plug . How would a delay for them affect the outcome here . Really the only question is that it would give them an opportunity to potentially make the case before a different administration. Ifill thats it . Aside from that, theres no real benefit, and when you talk to them, they say theyre not interested in withdrawing the application, which would be ultimately. Ifill they could do that if they wanted to. They could do that, but i talked to them just today, and they have no interest in doing that. So given, that it seems very unlikely they would do that. Ifill a lot of environmental organizations you would think would be dancing a victory dance arent. No, theyre worried it could be put over to the next administration, where they dont have a commitment, particularly if its a republican. If its a democrat, all the democrats are opposed to it. But thats not the case in the g. O. P. So they really want the president to reject this so thats done before he leaves office. Ifill are they pressuring the white house at this stage . They are not letting up on the previous pressure of the white house to go ahead and make this decision. They are pressing very fiercely. All the groups opposed to it issued statements. Whence transcanada asked for a delay, there is no variation. Theyre all saying, this pipeline needs to be rejected by president obama before he leaves office. Ifill part of transcanadas reasoning is there are still unresolved issues, especially the path of the pipeline through nebraska. What is that challenge and where does it stand . Its kind of complicated, but the easy way to put it is they had a route through nebraska, which essentially was thrown out over procedural grounds stemming from a lawsuit. They have detailed three possible routes, all of which have been on the table before with a couple slight alterations. And so a state commission has to approve that, and that process could take between 7 and 12 months. Ifill theres a southern route thats already approved. Exactly. Were talking about this upper route, which is 1,179 miles that goes to steel city. The connection from steel city down to the gulf coast was approved by the Obama Administration. The president went out and talked about t increase accessibility to oil. So thats been up and running and its profitable. Ifill pardon me. In canada, we now have the potential of different leadership. Stephen harper, the former Prime Minister, was very much in favor of. This now we have justin trudeau. Is there a different Political Climate many. Theres a slightly different Political Climate, although incoming Prime Minister trudeau has said hes in favor of this pipeline. That said, when he talked to the president right after his reelection, he emphasized that he thought the relationship between the u. S. And canada is broader than one pipeline and also talked about the importance of balancing economic interests against environmental priorities. So clearly theres a little wiggle room on that front. Ifill what role does the state department play in this decision process between now and the end of the president s term . They need to issue a National Interest determination to essentially say whether or not this cross border permit is justified on the basis of the u. S. National interest, which is a very broad issue. At that point the president could intervene if he wanted to or not. So at this point it is seen that whatever the state department does it would be in concert with the white house. It woul