Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan American Consumers spent less, businesses invested less and Companies Exported less. As a result, the economy slowed markedly in the final quarter of 2015. Government data released today put overall growth at an annual rate of just 7tenths of a percent, from october through december. For the year as a whole, the economy grew 2. 4 , about the same as the previous year. Wall street rallied on the news, hoping that weak growth might delay Interest Rate hikes. Strong earnings by tech firms helped as well. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained nearly 400 points to close at 16,466. The nasdaq rose 107 points, and the s p 500 added 47. But for the month, the dow and the s p lost 5 . The nasdaq fell almost 8 . The state department confirmed today that Hillary Clintons private server held 22 emails that are now deemed top secret. The Associated Press reported that, as a result, state is withholding those email chains from a batch being released today. Clinton used her own server as secretary of state, and has said none of the material she received was marked classified at the time. Department Spokesman John Kirby said today its still not clear why that happened. Its certainly possible that, for any number of reasons, traffic can be sent thats not marked appropriately for its classification. That is certainly possible. I am not making any judgment about this. Thats why were doing a review here at the state department to look at the classification at the time the traffic was sent. All i can tell you definitively is it wasnt marked classified at the time it was sent. Sreenivasan a Clinton Campaign spokesman criticized the decision to withhold the email chains as over classification run amok. The announcement came three days before the iowa president ial caucuses. Well hear from judy, in iowa, after the news summary. Talks aimed at ending syrias civil war got off to a shaky start in geneva today. After days of uncertainty, the main Opposition Group announced it will send a delegation to meet with a u. N. Special envoy but not with syrian officials. Today, the envoy met with representatives from bashar alassads government, and he urged the opposition to engage, if it wants to be heard. We have been strongly suggesting to them that the best way to actually discuss the implementation of such type of discussion and therefore of improvement is to be done here and to do it with us, as proxy talks or directly. Whatever is the format. Sreenivasan the talks are the first since negotiations collapsed in 2014. The Syrian Civil War has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions. Theres word u. S. Military leaders will ask president obama to send hundreds of additional troops to iraq and syria. The New York Times reports top commanders believe it will take more trainers, advisors and commandos to defeat the Islamic State group. At the white house today, spokesman josh earnest rejected suggestions that the president feels the military has pressured him and he resents it. My eyebrows raised in the same way that yours apparently did when you read that. What i can tell you is the president is quite pleased with the kind of advice that he gets from his National Security team. I assure you that if anything it is the leaders at the department of defense who are feeling pressure from the commander in chief to find new ideas and new ways to further intensify those elements of our strategy that are working. Sreenivasan there are currently some 3,700 american troops in iraq and a small contingent of special forces in syria. The u. S. Navy has confirmed that iran flew a surveillance drone over the Aircraft Carrier harry s. Truman, in the persian gulf this month. Iranian state tv showed footage today, and said it came from the unarmed drone. An iranian commander called the pictures beautiful and accurate. U. S. Officials branded the move abnormal and unprofessional, but said the drone posed no danger to flight operations. In oregon, the last four armed occupiers were Still Holding out today at a National Wildlife refuge. But overnight, the f. B. I. Released drone video of the Fatal Shooting of lavoy finicum. He was the militia spokesman killed tuesday by oregon troopers. Special agent Greg Bretzing said finicum fled from a traffic stop, then ran into a roadblock, seen in this graphic footage. The truck gets stuck in the snowbank. Finicum leaves the truck and steps through the snow. Agents and troopers on scene had on at least two occasions finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun in that pocket. At this time, o. S. P. Troopers shot finicum. Sreenivasan finicum had said hed rather die than go to jail, but other members of the militia have claimed he did nothing to provoke the shooting. Ten other members of the group are already in custody. Late today, a federal judge ordered the occupations organizer, ammon bundy, and his brother ryan, held without bail. Operations stopped at the largest port complex on the east coast this morning, after thousands of longshoremen walked off the job. The Port Authority of new york and new jersey said it had no advance notice. A Union Spokesman said the longshoremen are rebelling against interference in Port Operations by an anticorruption commission. And, president obama has unveiled new efforts to close the pay gap between men and women. Proposed rules would mandate that companies with 100 or more employees report salary data by gender, race and ethnicity. The information would be used to enforce existing discrimination laws. Still to come on the newshour countdown to the Iowa Caucuses, why women could hold the winning votes for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders; and what last nights debate means for the g. O. P. Plus, barbies new look are toy manufacturers picking up on diversity . And much more. Sreenivasan and now to the race of the white house. Its crunch time for the candidates in iowa as they make their final push to mondays caucuses. Republicans, minus donald trump, battled on the debate stage last night. For the democrats, there is a last minute push for women voters. Judy woodruff joins us now from des moines. Judy, whats the mood as the clock ticks toward the caucuses . Hi, hari. I did just get here last night but its safe to say everybody in the state of iowa including the majority of people here who will not be participating in the caucuses monday night is very affair theres a president ial race under way. Whether they are a republican or democrat or something in between, theyre aware that this is a contest like no other. Youve got a tight race in both parties. On the republican side, thats phenomenon named donald trump has managed to up end the contest. Hes managed to define the way other candidates are seeing. You ask even if theyre not supporting donald trus7n theyll talk about their candidate in relation to mr. Trump. On the democratic side what was supposed to be a fairly predictable contest, Hillary Clinton presumed to be the fronf challenge from senator Bernie Sanders and that ones turned out to be a nail biter too. Sreenivasan theres Little Things that make that big difference. Here it is forty afternoon before the Iowa Caucuses. The state Department Says theres 22 emails from the private server she kept the emails that have been declared top secret and theres no release. Any comments from the clinton camp today. Well hari theyre pretty much reacting the way they have to all of these other email stories about the private server she had at her home in new york. They are saying first of all that all these emails whether they were received by second clinton or whether she sent secretary clinton or whether she sent them, theyu were not classified or top secret at the time. Repeatedly they said and theyll say it again today we want all emails released. We dont think any of these should be kept back. The Campaign Press secretary brian fallon put out a statement saying this is overclassification ru run awe amuck. Its clearly a distraction coming up right now just days before the caucuses. Now i want to tell you one angle in this democratic race we were interested in looking at is how women are dividing their vote here in iowa between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. So our team spent the last few days talking to democratic and independent leaning women across the state. Woodruff its three days out from the Iowa Caucuses and democrats here have an important decision to make. I need you. Get everybody you can to get out monday night. Woodruff go with presumed favorite former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, veteran of the Party Power Structure . Well, i may not be the youngest candidate in this race. But i will be the youngest woman president in the history of the United States cheers and applause and and the first grandmother as well. cheers and applause woodruff or defy expectations by sending vermont senator Bernie Sanders to the next contest in New Hampshire with new energy to behind his message of inequality . If you are a woman, you understand the history of change. The suffragettes and the people before the suffragettes who said that women will not be considered as second class citizens. Woodruff polls suggest the race is close. And political analysts here say women are a crucial demographic. The fact that, yes, hillary worked towards womens rights, but she was also indifferent about gay rights, lesbian rights, everything on that spectrum, it constantly changed. And bernie never did. I would be thrilled to see a woman be president. I think its time past for that to happen, but thats not a big factor with me. I want the quality of the candidate, and i think she has the qualities we need right now. Woodruff clinton has made women a main focus, but theyre proving harder to persuade than her campaign expected. A recent quinnipiac poll of Iowa Democrats likely to caucus shows women overall back clinton 54 40 . But sanders undermines that with his enormous lead with younger democrats 18 to 44 year olds supported him four to one. He is leading with women under 45, and that makes clintons job even harder. Twentyfive yearold gwen merz is one of those women. She plays in a weekly Dodgeball League just outside of des moines, where she just moved recently from illinois. Merz says she has already made up her mind who to support. Sanders won her over when he took her question at a recent campaign event. 100 he answered what i asked, and thats so rare in a candidate. If you look at the last town hall, bernie answered a lot of hard questions. They threw them at him and he took them like a champ and answered them all correctly. And hillary just danced around the issues and didnt have a straight word to say. Woodruff on wednesday merz attended this women for bernie luncheon in des moines. Where Actress Susan Sarandon urged attendees to get out to vote for sanders. Definitely a flip flopper. I want somebody who has the chutzpah that backs up what they say instead of saying, oh, now its popular, lets be for it. Woodruff Bonnie Campbell is the former attorney general of iowa. She ran unsuccessfully for governor as a democrat in 1994 and now works as a political consultant. Shes also a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton. When i was a young woman, there was no Birth Control and abortion was absolutely out of the question, it was illegal. Thats a battle weve been fighting and they think, i think many young women think weve won. I think their lens is different, its shorter. And they havent hit the Glass Ceiling yet. Theyre still in college. They havent gone out into the work world and discovered that, wait a minute. I dont get paid as much as that guy who does exactly the same thing that i do. Woodruff the fact that clinton would be the first female president could improve the lives of women in ways that are hard to measure, campbell says. I want all the little girls out there to look up and see a president take the oath of office whos a woman and say, ah, i guess i could grow up to be president. Its more than just how you are on issues. Woodruff but for many women voters in iowa, especially younger ones, it is issues and the passion about pursuing them, that matters more. One of the things that sanders has been able to do is sort of light a spark about the idea of income inequality, and he is the messenger that would be able to break up wall street and the monopoly and the Corporate America that he rails against. Whereas secretary clinton has focused in a more measured way on those issues, he has been more liberal and progressive. Bernie sanders really focuses in on giving everybody equal opportunity and giving everybody a chance, and i really believe in being just a humanitarian and treating people as people and not as just a statistic. Ive gotten more politically active since ive gotten older. And, you know, im retired now, and i think about my life and my grandchildrens life, and i think our country would really go forward with hillary. Woodruff both campaigns are working frantically to make sure their supporters show up to caucus monday night. But whatever happens, the clinton camp has learned here the contest for the nomination may not only take longer, but also involve a tougher fight for the votes of women than they had counted on. Woodruff from the democratic battle for womens votes, to the republicans battle for the spotlight. Political director Lisa Desjardins reports on the large g. O. P. Field, and last nights debate here in iowa. I did something that was very risky. And i think it turned out great, because im on the front page of every paper. Reporter donald trump, today in New Hampshire, crowed about what happened last night in des moines, iowa. He held his own rogue fundraiser for veterans claiming to raise at least 6 million. As just across town. Donald trump has chosen not to attend. Reporter seven other republicans gathered, to soak up the extra oxygen and try to move past trump. Lets begin by being clear what this campaign is about. Its not about donald trump. Hes an entertaining guy. Hes the greatest show on earth. This campaign is about the greatest country in the world reporter this debate drew fewer viewers than all but one g. O. P. Faceoff this cycle around 12. 5 million people. But it kept up in quality and quantity of punches. I would note that the last four questions have been rand please attack ted, marco please attack ted. Reporter ted cruz, center stage in trumps absence, tussled with the fox news moderators early on. If you guys ask one more mean question, i may just have to leave the stage. Reporter but before long, the texas senator was on defense, on immigration i dont want Immigration Reform to fail. Reporter . Confronted by videotape of what he said about a 2013 immigration compromise in the senate. But, but megyn, the bill was 1,000 pages. I introduced a series of amendments, each designed to fix problems in the bill. Reporter but cruz found no friends on stage. Senator rand paul rejected his colleagues words. Thats an authenticity problem. That everybody he knows is not as perfect as him because were all for amnesty. I was for legalization. I think frankly if you have border security, you can have legalization. So was ted, but now he says it wasnt so. Thats not true. Never have and never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty. Reporter marco rubio, too, had to confront his immigration achilles heel. Jeb bush reminded republicans of rubios past. Well, im kind of confused because he was the sponsor of the gang of eight bill that did require a bunch of thresholds but ultimately allowed for citizenship over an extended period of time. I mean, thats a fact. And he asked me to support that. Reporter rubio shot back at bush, his onetime mentor in florida you wrote a book where you changed your position from a path of citizenship to a path of legalization. And the bottom line is this, we are not going to be able to do anything on this issue until we first bring illegal immigration under control. Reporter in trumps absence, everyone had more time. Chris christie presented himself as a nononsense governor, and hit a conservative chord when asked to cut one government function. How about one that ive done in new jersey for the last six years. Thats get rid of planned parenthood funding from the United States of america. Reporter john kasich aimed to be the smart, grounded voice, and took o