Thats why were your retirement company. Additional support has been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios at Lincoln Center in new york, hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan good evening and thank you for joining us. The Trump Administration is offering europe a message of reassurance. Attending an annual security conference in munich, germany, today, Vice President mike pence said the u. S. Has an unwavering commitment to the 27 other nations who form the postworld war ii Nato Alliance whose motto is, an attack on one is an attack on all. We will stand with europe today, and every day, because we are bound together by the same noble ideals freedom, democracy, justice, and the rule of law. Sreenivasan but pence bluntly told allies theyre falling short of nato guidelines to spend an amount equal to 2 of their Gross Domestic Product on their military. In fact, according to natos own figures, only the u. S. And four other nato members meet that goal, while france, germany, the netherlands, and italy are among nations that spend less. The truth is that many let me be clear on this point the president of the United States expects our allies to keep their word, to fulfill this commitment, and for most, that means the time has come to do more. Sreenivasan german chancellor angela merkel, who spoke before pence, said germany is increasing its military budget. translated the goal of 2 . I am able to say here, same as the defense ministers, we will do everything possible. We feel obligated to this goal. Sreenivasan pence also told the gathering, russia must honor the 2015 agreement to end fighting in Eastern Ukraine between Government Forces and russiabacked separatists; and russias foreign minister responded. The United States will continue to hold russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which as you know, President Trump believes can be found. translated we count on common sense prevailing. What kind of relations do we want with the United States . Pragmatic relations, mutual respect, understanding of the increased responsibility for global stability. Sreenivasan for more perspective on the u. S. russia relationship and the role of nato, i am joined from munich by James Jeffrey, who has served in republican and democratic administrations as u. S. Ambassador to turkey and iraq, and as Deputy National security adviser. Hes now with the Washington Institute for near east policy. So, ambassador jeffrey, why are european leaders unsettled with President Trump . Why were todays reassurances necessary . They were necessary because of things that the president said during the campaign against nato, possibly forming some sort of alliance with the russians, and basically, calling into question the validity of underlying values that everybody we say in the west, the atlantic community, shares. This made people very nervous because here in europe, this is like a civic religion for the Political Class and much of the population, and its the anecdote to half a century of devastating war and totalitarian regimes that they experienceed in the early 20th century. So they were really frightened when they heard this, and thats why the effort over the weekend to clear things up with washington. Sreenivasan do they believe what Vice President pence has said, or defense secretary mattis has said, is the last word, that they can trust thats the u. S. Foreign policy . The europeans will never be completely satisfied or completely reassured ever with america, and particularly now because donald trump is such a different president and such a problematic president for europeans. But if the president wants to point to a welloiled element of his administration machine, its the efforts by Vice President pence secretary tillerson, secretary kelly, secretary mattis here in germany over the weekend. They hit every worry that the european had, and they gave all kinds of assurances, not coming from them, but particularly the Vice President said again and again, this is what donald trump believes, hat nato is really important, that russia will have to account for its actions in ukraine and elsewhere. This is exactly what they wanted to hear. Well see whether they believe it. Sreenivasan europe is also at a crossroads right now. We all remember that the United Kingdom decided to depart the e. U. , the brexit event. We have a rise of the far right. We have several important elections coming up. And then theres, also, this i think this tone that perhaps the United States and russia will be more closely allied, which changes the balance of power there. It startedly with the great economic crash of 2008, which ironically, hurt europe far more than it did the United States and they have not yet recovered. Combined with that is this huge refugee flow from the middle east, and the set of terrorist attacks against germany, against france, against belgium. This has them unsettled, nervous. Theyre questioning their future. Brexit, the british decision to leave, was a terrible blow. And so on top of this, the Trump Administration, they were really rattled. Theyre less rattled now, and thats a good thing. Sreenivasan speaking of the refugee situation, President Trump has been very critical of germanys policy. He calls it an open door policy, and he in response has a travel ban for the United States. Now, there are some plans the travel ban will come back in a different form to address some of the concerns of 9th circuit. How is that sitting with the European Community . There are many, many people in europe who think exactly the way donald trump thinks about Angela Merkels decision to let in a million refugees, in many cases without any screening whatsoever. That doesnt mean that the initial travel ban that the u. S. Government imposed was a wise thing. Theres nothing merkel can do to really reverse the damage she has done to her party, to her reputation, and to European Solidarity with that decision. In a way, trum donald trump is t saying what many people here believe. Sreenivasan all right, James Jeffrey joining us from germany tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan a powerful pacific storm is blasting california this weekend with its heaviest rainfall in six years. The National WeatherService Forecast a total of ten inches of rain in parts of southern california. Utility crews today worked to restore power to 78,000 homes in los angeles. One man was electrocuted by a downed wire. 20 miles east of l. A. , 180 homes were told to evacuate because of potential mudslides. In victorville, flash floods washed away cars, and one man drowned in his submerged vehicle. Near sherman oaks, a sinkhole swallowed up two cars. More than 300 flights were delayed or canceled at Los Angeles International airport, and amtrak canceled service along the states southern and central coast. One of the most notorious terrorists ever convicted in the United States, and serving a life sentence in prison, has died. The bureau of prisons announced today that the muslim sheik, omar abdelrahman, of egypt, died at a prison hospital in north carolina. He had diabetes and coronary artery disease. Known as the blind sheikh, abdelrahman was convicted in Manhattan Federal Court in 1995 for the conspiracy behind the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing. That first radical islamic terrorist attack on u. S. Soil killed six people, injured hundreds more, and caused 800 million in property damage. The terror conspiracy included a subsequent foiled plot to bomb the George Washington bridge, the lincoln tunnel, the United Nations headquarters, and the new york f. B. I. Building. Omar abdelrahman was 78 years old. The woman known as jane roe, the plaintiff in the supreme courts 1973 roe v. Wade case that established a womans constitutional right to an abortion, has died. Jane roes real name was norma mccorvey. She used the pseudonym to protect her privacy. Shedding her anonymity years later, she became an abortion rights advocate, but in 1995, she declared herself a bornagain christian and opposed abortion rights. Mccorvey died today of a heart ailment in katy, texas. She was 69. Sreenivasan the federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, or about 28 of the land that forms the u. S. Most of that is in the western u. S. And alaska, and held for preservation, recreation, and development of natural resources. In tonights signature segment, we look at how that Land Ownership equation occasionally creates conflicts between states and washington. Our focus is a swath of land in nevada, one that presents the Trump Administration another avenue to reevaluate the obama legacy. Deep in nevadas mojave desert, 100 miles from the las vegas strip, the rocks provide glimpses into the lives of native americans who inhabited this area for thousands of years. Hundreds of their petroglyphs, or etchings, are carved on the rocks in this area, now known as gold butte. They also can date them by comparing them to other otect this stretch of desert. O so on this panel here you see a lot of abstract shapes, so, honeycombs and squiggly lines, and then if you look over here on this panel, you see more representational forms, so, humans, sheep. Sreenivasan while petroglyphs have been found all over the world and in other parts of the southwest, the concentration of images and this drawing of a man appearing to fall help make gold butte unique, according to jim boone, an ecologist and volunteer with friends of gold butte. I think of the artist who did this as perhaps the michelangelo of his day. Sreenivasan boone says, unlike the stick figures found nearby, the falling man petroglyph is more lifelike. So it has real motion to it, and the arm is out as if to brace himself for a fall. Sreenivasan a decade of advocacy by friends of gold butte, local native american tribes, like the moapa band of paiutes, and other groups, paid off last december, when president barack obama, in one his final acts of environmental conservancy, used his executive power to designate gold butte its petroglyphs, along with 300,000 surrounding acres of land owned by the federal government as a National Monument. The president s proclamation cited gold buttes ancient gnificant geologicalitat,al formations, and remnants of mining and ranching heritage. Nestled between lake mead in the west and the grand Canyon National monument in arizona, the designation of gold butte permanently limits any commercial development, but doesnt change existing recreational uses. Its assured that we are going to have this land for our enjoyment and for the health of the landscape itself, and the plants and animals that live here. Theres no timeline that ends this particular designation. Sreenivasan the senior u. S. Senator from nevada at the time, democratic minority leader harry reid, had encouraged the president to make the move. Is this worth protecting . Is this worth preserving . Of course it is. Sreenivasan to protect gold butte, president obama relied on a law from 1906 called the Antiquities Act, a law he used 34 times during his two terms in office, designating 553 million acres of land and sea as National Monuments, the most ever by any president. University of Nevadalas VegasLaw School ProfessorBret Birdsong served during obamas second term as deputy solicitor for Land Resources at the bureau of land management, or b. L. M. , the federal agency tasked with managing gold butte. President roosevelt in 1908 protected the grand canyon for the first time because it was under threat of miners who were establishing claims there using the Antiquities Act, and didnt need to go through what can be a very long and lurching legislative process. And then, as weve seen, the public support tends to grow around those designations. Sreenivasan birdsong says obama took action after the Republicanled Congress failed to pass legislation to protect gold butte, despite broad public support. A 2016 poll found 71 of nevada voters supported creating a National Monument. What the president was doing is using a lawful power to provide the benefits and the protection for these areas that he thought were warranted, because congress was really unable to act, despite significant support to do so. Sreenivasan but there was and still is strong local opposition to the National Monument designation, and fear it will restrict access to the area. It all sounds great to the public out there. What they dont understand is, it is public lands right now, and its public lands for the use of me, my children, other people. Sreenivasan Cresent Hardy represented the gold butte area in congress and the state legislature. A republican, hardy calls the designation an overreach. If you want to protect the petroglyphs, and you want to designate that as the monument, thats what the Antiquities Act was set up to do, is protect the minimum possible footprint of that, of what youre trying to designate. Not an extra 300,000 acres on top of the 50100 acres that you could have protected. Sreenivasan the tension over control of federallyowned land has simmered since many western states were formed. The federal government owns almost half of these 11 western states. And no state has a greater percentage of federal land than nevada, which is 85 federally owned. Former congressman hardy would like to see states have much more control of their own management. Give us the money that you spend out there across the country on every state, and let us manage our land. Let us do our planning processes instead of going to this heavy bureaucracy where you duplicate the same thing nevada does, the federal government does and takes longer doing it. Sreenivasan conflicts over federal land have also boiled over in this corner of nevada and made national news. Woodruff . Where a standoff between the federal government and a local cattle rancher, involving an armed militia, almost turned violent. Sreenivasan just north of gold butte, rancher cliven bundy, his two sons, and hundreds of their supporters engaged an armed confrontation with federal officials over cattle grazing fees in 2014. While bundy and his sons are facing federal charges over the incident, since the standoff, there has been almost no federal presence in the area. Since then, friends of gold butte has worked to document existing and new damage including illegal water tanks and vandalism of petroglyphs, even a few bullet holes. We dont want to see those continuing degrading effects impact the land and erase all of these wonderful treasures that we have out here. I mean, when a petroglyph is shot, thats it, its there forever. Sreenivasan jim boone says offhighway vehicles frequently damage habitat by veering off the morethan300 miles of designated trails. These fresh tracks during our visit marked where a vehicle drove around a fence meant to protect a plant species found only in this part of nevada. So everybody gets their piece of the desert to do what they want, but people cant go everywhere and do everything. If there aint a road; im not going there. Sreenivasan bob adams is the president of a local allterrain vehicle club. Hes ridden thousands of miles in and around gold butte in hi side by side a. T. V. , and says the area is generally respected by people that use it. If you got a network of roads already that goes to those places, why would you want to go over and travel on Something Like that, just to say you did . Sreenivasan the designation does not roll back driving in offroad vehicles, camping, hiking, or hunting, but adams worries conservationists will exploit the rare acts of vandalism to put future limits on recreational access. Why did they feel they needed to designate it as a National Monument . Unless they then use that to, you know, put restrictions on it in some way, shape, or form. Sreenivasan native american tribes like the moapa band of paiutes consider gold butte to be sacred land, and see the National Monument declaration as an important step to preserve their cultural legacy. William anderson is the tribes former chairman. Every attempt we tried, to go ahead and preserve the land, failed. Sreenivasan last april, he helped organize an 11mile culture walk through gold butte to raise awareness of the federal funding comes with National Monument status. And the b. L. M. Had a maintenance backlog of about 600 million in 2016. Former congressman hardy wants the Trump Administration and congress to reexamine the