Its the right thing to do. Right now we have corporations making profits and employees making minimum wage. Its hard to adjust to that overnight. Ifill and not too cold, not too hot new Research Suggests there are tens of billions of planets just right to potentially support life. This is the 464 million question. Do these planets that orbit their stars in orbits that remind us of the earth, the size of the earth, do they actually have liquid water . Ifill those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. The william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. 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 the white house spent another day on the defensive today about whether it over promised on its health care plan. President obama said americans would be able to keep their existing insurance, but insurers are canceling thousands of policies. Lawmakers from both parties are now complaining about a process they say is at best unclear and at worst seriously flawed. Medicare and medicaid chief Marilyn Tavenner told a Senate Hearing today the troubled web sites performance is improving. We are now able to process 17 registrants per hour or five per second with almost no errors. Weve updated the site several times since october 1, fixing bugs and improving the healthcare. Gov experience. Weve added more capacity and weve doubled the number of servers in order to meet demand. Ifill in washington last night, the president told supporters he has one more campaign in him, to prove the Health Care Law will work for everyone. Hell take that pitch to dallas tomorrow, meeting with enrollment volunteers. Federal findings today raised major questions about day care. The Inspector General for the department of health and Human Services found that 21 states do not require a yearly unannounced inspection at day care facilities, and only 15 states require background checks on employees. 1. 6 million children rely on federal subsidies to attend programs at 500,000 Day Care Centers or homes nationwide. This was election day in a number of cities and states around the country. In new jersey, a strong reelection win for republican governor Chris Christie could boost his potential bid for the white house in 2016. He spoke after voting today. My children were asking me about it, why you know, what would this mean to you . I just said, you know, its an affirmation of the hard work that weve done and thats could happen tonight. That would be very gratifying for me personally given all the effort that ive put into the job. Ifill there was also a governors race today in virginia, and new york, detroit and boston chose new mayors. In colorado, a 25 tax on marijuana sales is on the ballot, and, in houston, a bond measure could determine whether the city renovates or razes the astrodome. The landmark arena opened in 1965, but its been closed since 2009. Illinois is about to become the 15th state to legalize samesex marriage. The statehouse approved it today and sent the bill back to the state senate for a final technical change. Meanwhile, the u. S. Senate moved ahead on the first major bill to bar Workplace Discrimination against homosexual, bisexual, and transgender americans. The measure cleared a key procedural hurdle last night and could come to a final vote by friday. It faces strong Republican Opposition in the house. Well have more on this later in the program. The mayor of toronto admitted today he has smoked crack cocaine, touching off new calls for him to resign. Rob ford has been dogged since may by allegations hed been caught on video smoking crack. He sidestepped questions, but, last week, Toronto Police said theyve found a copy of the video. Today, ford spoke to reporters outside his office. Do i . Am i an addict . No. Have i tried it . Probably in one of my drunken stupors probably about approximately a year ago. I answered your question. You asked the question properly ill answer it. Yes, ive made mistakes. All i can do now is apologize and move on. Ifill later in the day, ford apologized but said he will not resign. The video has not been released publicly, but police say it does not constitute enough evidence to bring criminal charges. Police in paramus, new jersey, tried today to piece together why a gunman killed himself in the states largest Shopping Mall last night. 20yearold Richard Shoop fired multiple shots into the mall ceiling, then retreated to a back corridor where he took his own life. Officers found his body after a lengthy search. Hundreds of shoppers and employees were trapped for hours before they could leave. Secretary of state john kerry acknowledged today that europeans have legitimate questions about u. S. Surveillance. Kerry spoke in warsaw, poland, where he said hes trying to address complaints about u. S. Spying on european leaders and their people. We have to strike the right balance between protecting our citizens and obviously privacy of all of our citizens. And we will work very closely with our friends in order to make sthaern the road ashed one that is understood and this is mutually agreed upon. Ifill kerry said its important not to let the issue affect u. S. Talks with the European Union on creating the worlds biggest freetrade zone. From poland, he flew on to israel in a bid to jumpstart peace talks with the palestinians. The kerry visit comes amid reports that israel, iran and arab states held a rare meeting two weeks ago on Banning Nuclear Weapons in the middle east. Diplomats said today the adversaries met in switzerland to discuss a possible International Conference on the issue. One official said the gathering was quite constructive, and there could be another meeting later this month. More than 1,400 works of art looted by the nazis and found in munich, germany, are turning into a treasure trove. Authorities announced today the paintings date from the 16th to the 20th centuries, and they include previously unknown works by Henri Matisse and marc chagall, among others. translated a total of 121 frames and 1,285 nonframed works, among them Famous Artists were seized. There were oil paintings, india ink, pencils, water, and color prints from others like Max Lieberman and others. Ifill the art was discovered last year in a munich apartment. Officials still have to identify all the works, find the rightful owners and determine the legal status of each piece. India has launched its First Mission to mars. The unmanned spacecraft lifted off today from an island off the countrys east coast. If it arrives in mars orbit next september as planned, it will make Indias Space Program only the fourth one to reach the red planet. On wall street, stocks mostly stalled over disappointing earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost nearly 21 points to close at 15,618. The nasdaq rose three points to close near 3,940. Still to come on the newshour the case of a toxic love triangle reaches the Supreme Court; changing attitudes toward protecting gay rights in the senate; a vote to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour in a Seattle Suburb; the legislative battle over a treaty to protect people with disabilities around the world; plus, a breakthrough to end the violence in the democratic republic of congo; and billions of planets in the universe might be able to support life. Ifill the Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case full of tabloid intrigue that could also carry consequences for the federal governments ability to enforce an International Treaty. The case involves carol anne bond, who was convicted of using chemicals to attack her husbands mistress. But the story only begins there. Marcia coyle of the National Law Journal was at the court today and is her with us now to explain the rest. This is really about treaties but tell us first back story. Carol an bond emigrated from barbados and lived in pennsylvania with her husband. She found a new best friend in another woman who emigrated from barbados and lived in a nearby town. But that friendship ended when she discovered that her husband had an affair with the other woman and impregnated her. That combination triggered in her a campaign for revenge against the other woman. She was a mrs. Bond was a microbiologist by training. She stole a chemical from her employer and downloaded another chemical from amazon. Com and over a period of about six, seven months 24 times she put those chemicals on the other womans mailbox, car door, front door of her house. Ultimately the woman suffered only a burn on her thumb because the chemicals changed color and she the other woman could see the chemicals. The other woman complained to the police several times and finally the police referred her to u. S. Postal inspectors because its a mill box. U. S. Postal inspectors mounted cameras around her home. They saw mrs. Bond take something out of a letter out of the mailbox and also put chemicals in the exhaust pipe of the other womans car. She was arrested, a grand jury indictment followed, she was charged with mail theft and also violating a federal law that implements the Chemical Weapons Convention i think of 1998. Ifill which is what brings us to the Supreme Court. An International Treaty, the same kind of treaty weve been discussing on this program applied to syria. Absolutely. In fact, syria came up during the arguments. Mrs. Bond brought the case to the Supreme Court challenging her conviction under this federal law and her lawyer, paul clement, basically had two arguments today and he did not have an easy time of it. He argued, one, that this federal law if it reaches conduct like mrs. Bonds which he said in essence is a domestic dispute its unconstitutional because it intrudes, interferes with powers that were reserved to the states. If there were no treaty involved here, gwen, mrs. Bond probably would have been charged under state law for assault or attempted murder. But he had a backup argument, too. He told the court if they wanted to avoid the constitutional question, they could interpret an exception in the convention and the federal law for the use of chemicals for peaceful purposes which he said really means nonwarlike conduct. Ifill killing your husbands mistress but not trying to go after a count industry absolutely. He snowed one who speaks normal english would see what happened here as deployment of a weapon. Ifill how did justices react to that argument . There was pushback. Some of the justices said, you know, the treaty power in the constitution gives exclusive authority to the National Government to enter into treaties and authority to congress to implement them. And the International Treaties once theyve been ratified and implemented are the law of the land. The court itself considered the states rights arguments here back in 1920 and ruled in favor of the National Government. Justice sotomayor raised concerns about syria saying this is now at the forefront of our Foreign Policy and what youre arguing could really hamper the United States in future negotiations. Ifill and the United States would have its sovereignty compromised by this International Treaty. Exactly. And some of the justices, for example justice kagan, pointed out that the backup argument by mr. Clement would force judges to get into line drawing about what conduct is covered and what isnt and in essence force them into the minds of treaty makers. Ifill Justice Alito made reference to trickortreating. You guys were all over the map today. laughs absolutely. The government was represented by the solicitor general of the United States, donald verrilli, and Justice Alito in order to show, i think, how he feels this law can cover such broad conduct said to him well, what would you say if i told you la that last week which was halloween my wife and i handed out a chemical that is dangerous under this convention to animals. The convention prohibits the harming or the killing of animals as well as individuals. So the solicitor general did have a tough time with his argument which basically is that there really are no hardandfast limits on congresss power here on the treaty power or the implementing power h. Chief Justice Roberts probed him repeatedly about whats the outer bounds. And mr. Verrilli said that really the constitution itself contains structural limits on this power. Treaties have to be ratified by the senate, implemented by congress. And those are the bodies that are going to protect state rights to ensure a treaty doesnt upset the balance in the constitution. Ifill the justices sounded a little desperate . Yes. In fact, at one point mr. Verrilli was give an hypothetical that he said was unimaginable and Justice Kennedy interjected and said its unimaginable that will you brought this prosecution. Ifill laughs marcia coyle, thanks for being here. My pleasure, gwen. Ifill late yesterday, in a rare bipartisan step, the senate moved toward approving a law banning discrimination against gay workers. As Public Opinion has continued to shift on gays in the military and samesex marriage, seven republicans joined with democrats yesterday to advance the employment non discrimination act. Jeffrey brown has more. Its now time to pass a national law brown supporters of the bill, including democrat ben cardin of maryland, pressed today for federal action to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. If were going to be able to adequately compete globally, we need to empower all of the people of this country. We cant leave anyone behind. Brown enda, or the employment nondiscrimination act, bans employers from using Sexual Orientation or gender identity to discriminate in hiring and employment. The bill cleared a key procedural hurdle monday evening, marking a turnaround from 1996. The ayes are 49, the nos are 50. The bill is not agreed to. Brown then, a similar measure failed in the senate by a single vote. That same year, congress adopted doma, the defense of marriage act, barring federal recognition of samesex marriage. 17 years later, the u. S. Supreme court has overturned doma, more states are legalizing same sex marriage and polls find the American Public increasingly accepting of gay rights. I think well finish enda this week. And theres been good work on both sides. Theres been trust, which is so very, very important. Brown Senate Majority leader harry reid and his fellow democrats are unanimous in supporting the employment discrimination bill. A majority of Senate Republicans are opposed, although none spoke today. It remains unclear if the bill will even come up in the house, where republicans are the majority. Speaker john boehner issued a statement yesterday repeating his longstanding view that such measures can only increase frivolous litigation and put a new burden on business. And we walk through the arguments and examine the divisions within the Republican Party on this issue. Gregory angelo is the executive director of the log cabin republicans. Peter sprigg is senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research council. Both groups have worked to lobby gop lawmakers on this issue. Pete per sprigg, let me start with you and start were the argument that has been raised by john baner that this will have an adverse business and litigation impact. Explain that for us. Well, whenever you expand the number of protected categories under these type of laws what youre actually doing is giving a license to sue to new groups that didnt have such a license before. Its almost an inevitable result that there will be further litigation, and that will impose costs in terms of time and expense, even in cases where the merits of the case may be relatively weak. So i dont think any republican should be supporting this kind of further intrusion into the practices of private businesses. Brown let me ask Gregory Angelo why he thinks republicans should support this . Well, first, to refute that argument that this legislation will be a boon to trial lawyers, the g. A. O. Came out with a report less than two months ago saying theyve studied states that have employment protections for gay and lesbian individuals and havent seen an explosion and upnick this legislation and a boon for trial lawyers. I dont like trial lawyers as much as the next republican. The fact is theres a strong conservative case to be made from employment nondiscrimination protections for l. G. B. T. Individuals. Its good for business, its good for the economy, great to attract American Workers and also great to make sure that gay and les