Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions ifill a massive winter storm disrupted travel today for tens of thousands of americans across the country. Good evening, im gwen ifill. Warner and im margaret warner. On the neho tonight, we t the latest on the snow sleet and rain that have snarled roads, knocked out power and delayed flights. Ifill then, with images from the connecticut massacre still raw, Spencer Michels looks at a California Law that aims to head off such violence. Reporter though no one knows the diagnosis of the perpetrator of the shootings in newtown, the killings have raised once again the issue of forcing the mentally ill into treatment. Warner as Congress Comes back to washington to resume fiscal cliff negotiations, we ask, what happens if they dont reach a deal . Ifill we talk with a repsentative of egypts Muslim Brotherhood about the new brotherhoodbacked constitution signed into law today. Warner and we have another of our conversations with retiring members of congress. Paul solman sat down with the always outspoken massachusetts democrat barney frank. The notion that people would not go along with an important Public Policy because i hurt their feelings, i dont think thats true. Ifill thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by 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. Ifill a major winter storm surged into the midwest and northeast, fouling flight schedules and ruining Road Conditions on this day after christmas. The huge weather system left a trail of destruction in the Gulf Coast Region and at least six people dead. Oh, wow, oh jesus, look at that tornado. Ifill the calm of christmas night was shattered by tornadoes dropping from the sky across much of the deep south. This one hit near downtown mobile, alabama, ripping apart a church, a high school and a number of homes. At least 34 twisters struck in texas, louisiana, mississippi and alabama, tearing walls from homes and tossing cars onto one another. By this morning, heaps of debris dotted the gulf region. This use to be a really big, as you can tell by the size of the slab, use to be a huge feed store, metal. It wasnt a weak building at all. You can see what it did to it. Amazing. Ifill the same system that spawned the tornadoes dropped record snow on arkansas and texas, turning Christmas Lights into icicles and forcing wouldbe travelers to think twice. My mom and dad live in el paso and i was planning on going to el paso, but i think ill be staying home now. Ifill in oklahoma, the icy conditions led to this 21car pileup last night. From there, the huge storm front lumbered on, bringing blizzard warnings in indiana and ohio. To the northeast, more than a foot of snow was expected from new york state to maine. By last night, it was already on the way. The winds were fierce it was blowing the cars around and you could see the semis were swerving. Ifill the storm also forced cancellation of hundreds of flights and the ripple effects reached as far west as san francisco. After i found out my flight had been canceled after four hours of waiting in the airport, i had to wait another three Hour Customer Service line, which i didnt even get to the end of before the booth closed. Ifill about a 1,000 people spent christmas night on cots at Dallas Fort Worth international airport. By dawn, patience was wearing thin. One fedup pilot apologized to his passengers over the loudspeaker, after they were forced to wait on the tarmac for almost five hours. Ifill by this evening, the worst of the weather was moving into new england. But in its wake, nearly 200,000 customers had lost power across the southeast and midwest, making home for the holidays unexpectedly cold and dark. Warner still to come on the newshour courtordered treatment for the mentally ill; deal or no deal; whats next, the view from the Muslim Brotherhood and massachusetts congressman barney frank. But first, the other news of the day. Heres kwame holman. Holman Toyota Motor Company agreed today to pay more than 1 billion and settle claims of sudden acceleration. Court filings in california said the auto maker will install a brake override system in more than three million vehicles. It also will make direct payments to affected customers. The agreement is subject to approval by a federal judge. Reporter thousands of sunni demonstrators in western iraq staged a mass protest today against the shiitedominated government, the third in less than a week. Protesters filled the streets in ramadi in Anbar Province chanting topple the regime. The demonstrations began after Police Arrested ten bodyguards assigned to the sunni inan minter. Reporter the parliament of japan has elected shinzo abe as the countrys seventh Prime Minister in six years. Abe was sworn in today after being chosen by his conservativeleaning liberal democratic party. The party won power in this months elections, for the First Time Since 2009. Abe has called for bold measures to bolster japans ailing economy. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007. Russian lawmakers gave final approval today o a ban on americans adopting russian children. Its part of a series of reactions to a u. S. Sanctions law targeting russian human rights abusers. In washington today, a state Department Spokesman called the ban misguided. And adoption groups in moscow said it would harm children most. translated today we dont have that number of russian families who are willing to adopt, and the children who go to adopted families abroad are the children that russian families wouldnt take. There must be at least five refusals by russian families for the child to go to foreign parents. For that reason i dont see within this law an improved situation for these children. Holman russian president Vladimir Putin defended the legislation last week, without saying directly that he would sign it. In economic news, a mastercard report said u. S. Holiday sales so far have been the weakest since 2008. And wall street failed to get any momentum today. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 24 points to close at 13, 114. The nasdaq fell 22 points to close at 2,990. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to margaret. Warner we turn to the difficulties of Getting Mental Health care to those who need it. Its a subject getting more attention in the wake of the several recent shootings. Its not known if the gunman in newtown, connecticut suffered from Mental Illness. But the man who shot four firefighters in webster new york this week killing two of them who were remembered at a procession yesterday left a disturbing note in which he pledged to burn down the neighborhood and quote do what i like doing best, killing people. Politicians and commentators have used these and prior attacks to call for improved Mental Health screening and treatment. But one such program in california has proven hard to implement, as newshour correspondent Spencer Michels reports. I wanted the world to know what a wonderful, incredible person she was. Reporter for more than a decade, nick and Amanda Wilcox have been advocating timely treatment and Early Intervention for the severely mentally ill in the hopes they wont become violent. Twelve years ago, their 19year olddaughter laura wilcox, a college sophomore, was murdered by while she was working over christs break at a Mental Health clinic in Nevada County, california. At about 11 30 a client at the clinic came in and shot laura four times at point black range through the glass. What we know now after the fact is he had late onset paranoid schizophrenia. Reporter lauras murderer, scott thorp, killed two others, and then went home and took a nap. He was eventually sentenced to a locked Mental Hospital for life. We felt that lauras death was a result of a failed Mental Health system. We wanted to help prevent people from being so mentally ill that they would commit a violent act. Reporter helen thomson, a former psychiatric nurse, was a california legislator at the time, working on a law to get treatment and social Services Like housing for reluctant and sometimes dangerous mentally ill individuals. People who were not covered by existing laws. They were resistant. They didnt want to go to the clinic, or they didnt want to take their medicine or they just simply werent lling to participate. We were answering the frustrations of families who, were told they didnt need help; they called the police. The police would take them to the hospital or the jail. Theyd be released back on the street and it became a rotating, circular activity. Reporter thompson named her law for laura wilcox. After much contentious debate it passed in 2002. A major aim is to provide aggressive treatment for those existing laws miss; people who may not have committed a crime, yet, but have a history of prior hospitalization and appear to be on a downward spiral. Lauras law provides Court Ordered outpatient treatment for the seriously mentally ill for up to six months. The court must find the patient is likely to become dangerous to himself or others. The patient must have a history of not complying with treatment. The process can be requested by parents, roommates, siblings, a spouse, as well as Mental Health workers and police. I think this is a perfectly good way to go. It beats doing nothing. Reporter for patients who dont comply, the court has the power to send them to the hospital for an assessment, which is a threat designed to convince them to comply. Legislators never funded the law; they said that supervisors in each of californias 58 counties had to implement and pay for it. Only one county Nevada County where laura lived has opted in. With fewer than 100,000 residents, it sits in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, a center of mining during the gold rush. Nationwide, 43 states other than california have laws permitting some form of involuntary outpatient commitment. Though no one knows the diagnosis of the perpetrator of the shootings in newtown, the killings have raised once again the issue of forcing the mentally ill into treatment. It was raised when lauras law was passed and remains an point of contention. Coercive programs, fears of things like involuntary treatment, fears of having your dignity and your rights taken away, drive a lot of people away from things that would help. Reporter eduardo vega suffered from Mental Illness when in his 20s. He is the executive director of san franciscos Mental Health association and took part in a News Conference with legislators to boost support for Mental Health programs in california and across the country following the newtown shootings. But vega is opposed to the involuntary treatment programs in lauras law. Ive had some bad experiences in Mental Health services. Theres so many people who, precisely because theyre afraid of things like coercion, things like being locked up, being labeled, they dont receive any services, they dont talk to anybody, they become more isolated. Reporter vega says that in the wake of a tragedy, politicians often rush to pass unhelpful legislation. The lauras law project was driven by this example of a tragedy and spoke to peoples needs to want to try to do Something Different. And in this case it wasnt the right thing. But yet it can be that we rushed to create a solution before really thinking about what the implications are of it. Reporter the debate over involuntary treatment is familiar ground at the non profit turning Point Community programs in nevada city, which provides services for the countys mentally ill, including those who fall under lauras law, and many who dont. Some of the patients, like 36 yearold Jonathan Maurer here for a long acting injection for his paranoid schizophrenia, and to meet with a psychiatrist resent being ordered to receive treatment. Today maurer accepts voluntary treatment, for his paranoia; though he claims to have been mistreated previously. They gave me a catheter, and strapped me down naked on the hospital bed and then sedated me. They strip you of all your rights. I just dont see how they expect to logically assume that treating people with violence is going to cure violence. Reporter but Debra Simmons mother of a very disturbed son who gets treatment here praises lauras law and involuntary treatment for essentially saving his life. She didnt want his name used. He gets angry and agitated, doesnt sleep, doesnt eat, just goes through a whole cycle of events that just kind of spiral downward until hes become a concern to the society if hes out in public. We had to call the police, and he struck my husband; physically weve had to lock ourselves in our room. Hes torn our house apart. Reporter her son, she says, refused treatment until it was ordered under lauras law. He doesnt think hes ill. He doesnt recognize even when hes at his worst. He doesnt recognize that he has an illness. He thinks everyone else in the room or the community has a problem, not him. Reporter for simmons, lauras law, has been a game changer. Without that, i believe he would have injured someone else, or himself, and i dont believe we would have him today. Reporter still, many in the Mental HealthCommunity Like rusty selix say the law builds up false expectations. Selix, executive director of the Mental Health association of california, says it applies to very few people. The belief that every Single Person out there who has a Mental Illness and doesnt, you know, seek treatment for it is going to be helped by lauras law is just nonsense. Theyre not a danger to anybody. The irony of course is it wouldnt have applied to any of these mass shooters. None of them were in that situation, or if they were, they were very good at hiding it from everyone around them. Reporter selix says Nevada County, where the law is in effect but has been used in just 54 cases is too small to be a model for big cities with vast Mental Health populations. Besides, he argues, much of what it does is covered by other laws; its the funding thats missing. Its a very expensive and cumbersome process. Maybe in a small rural county like nevada its not that expensive and cumbersome, but in all the larger counties to go through this enormous Court Process to get people into an Outpatient Program that we already have, and that we have hundreds of people on the street that are desiring of it, and we dont need a court order to get, what do we get out of it . And the feeling is that it doesnt really add that much. Reporter but at the Nevada County courthouse, presiding judge Thomas Anderson says the law has been very effective with two thirds of the cases, avoiding time consuming court hearings. Its saving tons of time, getting people into treatment when they need it, and the results have been very, very good. In the first couple of years, we saved a half a Million Dollars in our small county, which is a huge factor. This is a tool thats been missing forever from our Mental Health providing statues. Reporter anderson says the law tries to prevent psychotic patients from acting out and getting worse. The purposes of lauras law and the goal here is to catch them before that happens, engage them in treatment, hopefully voluntarily, and allow them to get some stability and then build on that stability to get back into a more normal lifestyle. Reporter the California Legislature recently extended lauras law, but still hasnt funded it. Outside Nevada County, los aneles has started a very small Pilot Program to implement lauras law, and several other counties have debated it. But with budgets tight, implementation by cashstrapped counties appears problematic. Ifill president obama heads back to washington tonight, as House Republicans call on the senate to come up with a plan to avert the fiscal cliff. With prospects still murky for a deal before years end, what can government workers, wall Street Investors and taxpayers expect if lawmakers miss the deadline . For that, we turn to stacy palmer, editor of the chronicle of philanthropy. Jackie simon, Public Policy director of the