Blogsia

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Hollywood writers reach a tentative deal to end the monthslong strike that upended the industry.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congress barrels toward a deadline to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, as Republicans struggle to reach consensus.

GEOFF BENNETT: And a NASA spacecraft returns with samples from an asteroid that scientists hope could provide clues to the beginnings of life on earth.

DANTE LAURETTA, University of Arizona: It's incredibly dark, darker than asphalt.

And we believed that that meant it was rich in carbon, which is the essential element for all life on Earth and key to our origins investigation.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

Major Hollywood studios have reached a tentative deal with writers after nearly five months of striking.

GEOFF BENNETT: In coming days, members of the Writers Guild of America will vote to approve the new contract, which includes pay increases to keep up with streaming and protections around the use of artificial intelligence.

But when production on shows restarts is an open question, since actors remain on strike.

Janice Min is editor in chief of The Ankler.

That's a digital media company that covers the industry.

Thanks so much for being with us.

JANICE MIN, Editor in Chief, The Ankler: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we should say that neither the Writers Guild nor the studios have released the detailed terms of this three-year contract.

On the face of it, it appears the writers have won some concessions.

What are they, based on your reporting?

JANICE MIN: One of the big ones was about minimum staffing in rooms.

And one of the things writers were trying to get the studios to agree on was a certain number of people that could be in a room, so you couldn't have these situations where sole show runners were being asked to create and write shows.

They wanted to guarantee work for people in their union.

Another big concession seems to be in artificial intelligence.

And anyone who's been paying attention to the strikes probably has heard A.I.

thrown around a lot.

Writers obviously consider this a big threat, and actors who are still out on strike probably consider it even a larger threat, because their likenesses can be replicated and used in filmed entertainment.

And then pay increases.

Seems like they want a pretty big pay increase in terms of streaming residuals, in terms of pay in the room.

I think one of the really positive signs for the Writers Guild members is that even though those details haven't been released, their language in the press release or the e-mail sent to members yesterday was incredibly triumphant.

And, in 2008, when they last had a strike and settled with the AMPTP, the studios, they were much more sober about it, saying, we put in the fight, we got what we could.

Yesterday felt much more like a victory lap.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk more about the residuals, which you mentioned, because writers say that the streaming revenue model has really broken the residuals and that writers and even actors are now paid a flat fee, regardless of how well their show does on streaming platforms.

We spoke with a writer named Charles Dewey.

He's a staff writer for the TV show "Criminal Minds," and he identified that as his top concern.

CHARLES DEWEY, Members, Writers Guild of America: Historically, the big corporations have been profiting off of residuals, to no end with no real oversight.

Particularly, the show that I worked on was one of the most streamed shows in the world.

And for any residual payment, it was a flat fee.

It wasn't -- it wasn't watch-based.

It wasn't, because we kind of blew up during the pandemic, we were not compensated.

We just had our flat fees.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Janice, as you well know, in this feast-or-famine entertainment industry, residuals or royalties, that's the thing that keeps these artists afloat.

What has the guild outlined as an acceptable approach?

JANICE MIN: They have asked for data.

And this is one of the big issues that will impact Hollywood for the next 10 years.

When Netflix came into the ecosystem, they created this model that at first seemed great.

We're going to pay you basically more than the studios, the legacy studios, are going to pay you, and it's going to be an all-you-can-eat price.

And then what I think none of the writers and actors were planning on or were expecting was just how big streaming would come -- would become in this industry, how many millions and millions of people would be watching their shows, and how little information they would have about that to give them any leverage in knowing if they were getting paid enough, not enough, too much.

And so that is where the this gray area formed, which is the basis of so much of what was being negotiated.

GEOFF BENNETT: Our team also spoke with a writer named Jorge Reyes.

He writes for shows on streaming platforms.

And he expressed some concern about the impact of artificial intelligence.

JORGE REYES, Members, Writers Guild of America: They would just hire us to tweak things.

And that would reduce us to a gig economy.

It would reduce what a writer earns.

It would reduce our pension.

It would reduce our health care.

So it would decimate us, and in a way that we weren't willing to accept.

GEOFF BENNETT: So you can understand the ways in which the studios would want to expand into the realm of A.I.

What might a compromise look like on this issue?

JANICE MIN: I'm going to imagine there probably - - it sounds like that there are very specific guidelines around credits and the usage -- and the actual usage of A.I.

to originate ideas.

I think that it's also in the way that actors are looking to protect their likeness.

A.I., as you know, requires -- it feeds off original existing material.

I am going to have to guess some of this, there are provisions around using existing writers' material to generate future material, so, if you were a writer on, let's say, "The Office" for eight years, that your voice cannot be used to create the new "Office" spinoff that's coming out, that will come out in 10 years from now.

So, it's about protecting your original voice and not being replaced in the writers room.

And I think anyone who's played around with ChatGPT knows you can plug in, can you write me some Aaron Sorkin dialogue about Trump's potential second term in office, and it spits it out, and it's fairly convincing.

And that is probably one of the most terrifying things for writers today.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the less than two minutes that remain, what might an agreement for the writers mean for the separate actors strike?

Because those two sides have not spoken in more than two months.

And so far as I know, there's no talks that are scheduled.

JANICE MIN: There are no talks scheduled.

And one of the things that we should look out for is that the Screen Actors Guild leadership has been much more strident.

And they are asking for different things.

In some ways, they are asking for more.

So, Fran Drescher, the president of SAG, formerly the star of "The Nanny," she has come out with, even in these very heated times, especially loaded language against the studios, calling them land barons, being particularly insulting personally to Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney.

She has definitely made it much more, I would say, a true class war in Hollywood, taking it far beyond even some of the rhetoric of the writers.

So, bringing them -- getting these two to the table, and what we hear is that the CEOs are actually fairly stunned by the words coming out of SAG.

I think it's going to take a lot of -- both of them will have to cool down a little to make that happen.

But SAG is asking for something that the WGA is not, which is revenue sharing.

And what they're asking for is 2 percent of revenue generated by the shows where their actors star.

And, as anyone who knows, with these big data companies, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, they don't share.

They don't share data.

And that makes it almost impossible to figure out how they could come to some sort of conclusion there.

GEOFF BENNETT: Janice Min is editor in chief of The Ankler.

A real pleasure to speak with you, Janice.

Thanks for your insights.

JANICE MIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Ukraine says it killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet, in one of Kyiv's boldest attacks yet on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.

But Kyiv did not provide any evidence to support its claim.

That's as Russian drones and missiles pounded a string of cities across Ukraine.

Some of the worst violence was in and around Odesa, where port infrastructure, a grain silo, and an abandoned hotel were destroyed.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians are fleeing the Nagorno-Karabakh region to safety in Armenia.

The territory was controlled by separatists for three decades until Azerbaijan recaptured it last week.

Residents packed their belongings and headed for the border.

Azerbaijan said it would protect any Armenians who stay, but those leaving say it's no longer safe.

ALPINE MOVSYAN, Nagorno-Karabakh Refugee (through translator): We don't know what will happen to us next.

We don't know what's in store for us, but there's no chance we can go back.

If we could, we wouldn't have left in the first place.

It is very dangerous there.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hours later, an explosion at a gas storage depot in Nagorno-Karabakh injured more than 200 people.

There was no immediate word what caused the blast.

In Hawaii, residents began returning to what's left of their Lahaina properties today, after wildfires destroyed the historic town earlier this summer.

Authorities cleared the first zone for reentry in the northern part of Lahaina.

Officials supervised the temporary visits and warned that the ash might still contain toxic chemicals.

It was the first of 17 zones in the area to reopen.

The Biden administration announced today it's investing $1.4 billion into improving the nation's aging railway system.

It will fund 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C., and aims to increase capacity and improve safety.

Railway safety has been a major concern since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last February.

Free at-home COVID-19 tests by mail are back, as a wave of new infections continues to sweep the nation.

Starting today, the U.S. government will send up to four rapid tests per household to anyone who requests them on the Web site COVIDtests.gov.

The program has been on hiatus since June.

And stocks closed higher on Wall Street today.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 43 points to close at 34007.

The Nasdaq rose 59 points.

The S&P 500 added 17.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": President Biden meets with Pacific Island leaders to strengthen relations and counter China's influence; the family of a Black Texas teen sues, saying his school district discriminated against his hairstyle; and the co-founder of BET reflects on her groundbreaking career in a new memoir.

AMNA NAWAZ: As the clock ticks down to a government shutdown and union workers continue their strike against car manufacturers, there could be major implications for the U.S. economy and the political landscape.

Here to break down the stakes are Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Great to see you both.

Thanks for being here.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: We know five days left until that deadline to fund the government, or there is a shutdown.

Speaker McCarthy said today he is a believer that they can get a short-term stopgap funding bill done.

But, Amy, the holdup here is, it's just Republicans inability to reach consensus, right?

So if there's a shutdown, is that clear to the American public?

Is that how they're viewing this right now, that this is a potential Republican shutdown?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: I don't know if they're paying as close attention to this.

There's a lot of other news going on right now.

But I think the reality is that we're going to be spending a lot of time talking about one person in particular, and that's Kevin McCarthy, and the number of Republicans in the House who are saying, we're OK with the shutdown because we didn't get what we wanted.

So I think the fact that the focus will be on him will make that somewhat clear.

The real question is what the implications are in the months and weeks to come.

Does this last for a significant amount of time, so significant that it has a real impact on real people's lives, on the economy, and how people see the Republican Party, who's trying to run, obviously, in 2024, on, make us stewards of the economy because Biden has been terrible, Democrats have not done a good job at keeping inflation low?

If the conversation in the next few weeks is, well, actually, this is the Republicans who are creating some of this unnecessary damage to the economy, well, it makes -- that muddies the water, certainly, to their argument.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, what about the Democrats' role in any of this, right, in averting a shutdown?

We saw a number of them from the administration, from Congress asked about it at interviews this weekend.

Is anyone saying, we have a role or we should play a role in averting a shutdown?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: They feel as though they can play a role eventually.

But, first, Republicans have to figure it out.

And I talked to Congressman Colin Allred over the weekend in an interview, and others are out there.

And the basic message is, Republicans can't pass anything right now on their own.

Democrats are not willing to bail them out by passing a partisan measure.

So, only a bipartisan measure that can make it out of the Senate is something that Democrats in the House would be willing to support.

In the end, whenever the shutdown ends, and we don't know when that will be, a large number of Democrats are going to end up voting for it.

It's quite possible that more Democrats will vote for it than Republicans, because that's the way it always is with every government funding bill.

There are something like a dozen, maybe 15 House Republicans right now who have never once voted for funding the government.

And the challenge for Kevin McCarthy is that the majority that he has is so narrow that some people who have never voted to fund the government before would have to do it for them to be able to pass a partisan bill that would just get sent over to the Senate, where the Senate is not going to support it, and then you would be back at square one.

That's why a lot of people, a lot of House Republicans, in fact, and they don't even see that upset about it, are predicting that the government is going to shut down this weekend.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the clock is ticking.

We're going to keep watching that.

Meanwhile, the strike by United Auto Workers has widened against both General Motors and Stellantis.

They say there's progress in the Ford talks.

Tam, as you know, President Biden is going to be joining them on the picket lines in Detroit tomorrow.

Former President Trump will be in the state on Wednesday to address autoworkers.

But let's just take a look at how union households have viewed the parties in the past.

When you take a look back at 2020, union households make up some 20 percent of voters in that year.

And they broke decisively from Mr. Biden, 56 to 42 percent.

So we know unions make up a very strong part of the constituencies in a number of key swing states, Michigan among them.

So how are they viewing all of this?

And is there room for them to break one way or the other?

TAMARA KEITH: Michigan, Wisconsin, lots of very important -- Pennsylvania -- states.

The way the White House sees this, and I have talked to them about this, is, they're looking at a different poll.

They're looking at polling that says that union members and unions have never been more popular with the American public than they are right now.

And they really feel that the president being on the side of workers is something that is better for the president than being on the side of business.

And going to the picket lines is a very big way of showing that.

I interviewed Congresswoman Debbie Dingell recently of Michigan, very, very well-connected to the UAW.

She said that, in 2015 and 2016, she was shouting from the rooftops that Donald Trump was talking about trade and showing people in the union movement that he cared deeply about them.

Now, did he follow through on all the things he said he was going to do with trade?

No.

But she said that there is a real risk to Democrats if they don't come in a full-throated way and show support for union workers.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, the big picture here is that there's a government shutdown looming and an autoworkers strike and messages being sent to unions across the country about how this is unfolding.

And let's be clear, the economy has been improving.

Inflation has been coming down and employment is at historic lows.

But what does this mean ahead for Democrats, for President Biden, in particular, if the economy doesn't continue to improve?

AMY WALTER: And I want to also make really clear the difference -- in talking to some Democrats about this, the difference between what the challenges are for UAW unions and the realities of electric vehicles and what that means for those specific union workers.

And then when, I talked to them, they said, but the building trades are very, very happy with President Biden.

AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

AMY WALTER: Because they have so much work thanks to the infrastructure bill.

Each state is going to have different constituencies that are unionized.

And so when we see a big number like labor households, there are a lot of different types of workers and trades involved in that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Not all unions are the same.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

That's right.

And the issues are very different.

TAMARA KEITH: And we should say that the AFL-CIO, almost all of the members of the AFL-CIO came out and endorsed President Biden earlier than ever.

UAW held back, though they have also made quite clear they have no intention of endorsing Donald Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: No endorsement yet, though.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: But the bigger picture here on the economy?

AMY WALTER: But the bigger picture is for a president right now who's looking at a pessimistic public, anything that makes them feel as if there are headwinds, there are things that are continuing to drag down the economy, besides just the cost of things, is not going to be particularly helpful.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the two minutes we have left, I want to get to both of you, if I can, on this, because this is big news.

Just days after the DOJ indicted him on corruption and bribery charges, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez said he will not resign today.

He's saying, when the facts are all out, he will be exonerated.

We have seen a number of New Jersey Democrats, including the governor, call for him to resign.

Amy, there's been some who are silent, though, for instance, his fellow Senator Cory Booker.

AMY WALTER: Most of his -- yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What does the silence stay to you?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

It's really fascinating right now.

We have only had two Democratic senators come out, call for his resignation.

I think there's something of a reticence right now among many Democrats after what happened a few years back with Senator Al Franken.

This was at the height of the MeToo movement.

There were accusations that he had sexually harassed someone he worked with.

There were photos of this.

And almost immediately, many of his colleagues called on him to resign.

Many of those people looking back now say, maybe we jumped too soon.

We should have allowed this process to play out.

But I think this is a very challenging place to be for Democrats.

This is 2023.

We have Democrats running on a message right now in 2024 on, don't elect Donald Trump because of the corruption.

AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

AMY WALTER: To not come out and say that we have a member, when we say corruption, we mean both -- we mean everybody, no matter who you are.

I think that I'm very curious to see, now that we have seen two senators step out, if we won't see more.

And, by the way, he also has a challenge in his primary from a fellow congressperson in New Jersey.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's right.

Tam, how are you viewing on it?

We have got a minute left.

So... TAMARA KEITH: Yes, so this is not his first rodeo.

This is not the first time that he has been indicted on federal charges.

He went to trial last time.

And, ultimately, the jury was deadlocked.

There was a hung jury.

So, he has some experience with this.

He didn't resign then either.

And I think that might be some of the history.

Also, we're in a time in politics where shame and people calling on you to resign is not enough to make people resign.

Just look at George Santos, who is also indicted.

And, like, everyone on earth has called on him to resign for Congress for his many lies.

And he's staying put for now.

So there is this thing in the justice system where you are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

And you might lose your committees, but you can stick around.

AMNA NAWAZ: We will watch it as it plays out.

Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, always good to see you both.

Thank you.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: In Washington today, President Biden hosted a gathering of Pacific Island leaders that was equal parts about the U.S. growing its relationship and working to counter China's power in the region.

Lisa Desjardins looks at the tensions across the Pacific Rim.

LISA DESJARDINS: We are talking about some of the most remote and most beautiful places in the world.

These 18 Pacific Island countries cover an area as vast as the entire continental United States, and they hold an increasingly important position the map, potential military and economic footholds, as the titans of Asia, especially China, wrestle for power.

At the White House today, President Joe Biden promised economic and climate-related help dedicating a new Coast Guard mission.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: The United States is committed to ensuring the Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, prosperous, and secure.

We're committed to working with all the nations around this table to achieve that goal.

So, this year, we shall send the first U.S. Coast Guard vessel solely dedicated to collaborate and train with Pacific Island nations.

LISA DESJARDINS: Among the many watching this closely is Zack Cooper with the American Enterprise Institute.

He also served in high-level security posts during the George W. Bush administration.

Zack, let's start with these nations.

They're in the middle of a global climate disaster and in between two world powers.

How do they see their predicament, and especially the tensions between the U.S. and China?

ZACK COOPER, American Enterprise Institute: Well, interestingly, the U.S. and China didn't really come up at all so far in the public statements.

In the joint statement between the United States and these Pacific Islands, China is not mentioned once.

It also didn't come up when President Biden made his opening remarks with the leader of the Cook Islands.

But it's certainly in the background here, because it's a concern for the United States, and it is a concern for some of the Pacific Islands that fear China's increasingly active political role in the Pacific.

But I think you're right to note that, at the end of the day, for a lot of these islands, what's more existential is the threat of climate change.

And so that's really probably priority number one for most of them.

LISA DESJARDINS: As you said, sort of a notable lack of mention of China throughout, at least so far, this meeting.

But can you talk about what does the U.S. need to do long term in this region?

What's the real concern?

And what does it need to be looking to do?

ZACK COOPER: There's several concerns from an American point of view.

I think one of them is the need for military access in the Pacific.

And anyone who remembers their World War II history will remember that, about 80 years ago this month, some of the worst fighting of World War II happened in the Pacific in these islands themselves.

And, once again, if there was a conflict in that region, those Pacific Islands and access in those islands would be critical.

And so the United States is looking to maintain access in some of them.

This is going to require, though, not just a military commitment from the United States, but a economic and a political commitment, because what the islands themselves want is additional development assistance and a real long-term commitment from Washington.

And so that's what President Biden is trying to sell on this several-day visit of the Pacific Island leaders to Washington.

LISA DESJARDINS: These are both obviously critical pillars here.

But, ultimately, for the United States, is this more of a military priority or an economic one?

ZACK COOPER: Well, let's be honest.

The Pacific Islands, although they're important, are just not a giant economic generator of GDP for the United States.

So, at the end of the day, I think a lot of Americans are going to think about the Pacific Islands maybe from a military standpoint before they think of it from an economic standpoint.

But this is the bargain, right?

The United States is looking for additional military access.

And, in exchange, many of the Pacific Islands, they want additional diplomatic recognition.

So the president today has recognized Cook Islands and Niue as two states for the first time.

They're looking for additional economic assistance and development assistance.

So the Peace Corps is reentering the Pacific now.

So, in some ways, you could say this is a bargain.

The United States is offering some degree of economic development and diplomatic assistance in exchange for the promise of military access if there is a contingency in the region.

LISA DESJARDINS: You mentioned that recognition of the Cook Islands and Niue, new signs of new relationships in this region.

However, at the same time, this summit has had a couple of setbacks, namely, the Solomon Islands is boycotting this.

They're developing a very close relationship to China.

And it's been a real issue for foreign policy for countries throughout that region.

How serious is that idea that at least one major player in the region does not want to be here?

ZACK COOPER: It definitely was a different disappointment for the Biden team.

They were hoping that leader of Solomon Islands would be there and present in Washington.

And I think the challenge for many of the Pacific Islanders is, they want to be united.

They want to show that the Pacific Islands are together in how they approach not just the United States, but China as well.

And so when one of the leaders doesn't show up to a fairly significant summit, that's a bit of a disappointment, not just for Washington, but for some of the other Pacific Islanders.

At the end of the day, I think what you're going to see is a variety of views across the Pacific, some countries leaning a little bit more towards Washington.

The United States has compacts of free association with three of the Pacific Islands.

Those islands really lean towards Washington.

And then Solomon Islands and maybe a couple of others are leaning a bit towards China.

And the challenge for the islanders is to manage this dynamic without having a fracture among the Pacific Islands.

And that's going to be a challenge going forward.

LISA DESJARDINS: In just our last couple of seconds, a quick question about U.S. leadership.

You mentioned those compacts we have.

Three of those island nations depend on the U.S. for things like mail.

But we're heading into a possible government shutdown.

And that could be cut off.

Just quickly, do you think, is there a question about U.S. government leadership and stability because of what's happening here in Washington now?

ZACK COOPER: Absolutely.

So, in May, the president had to skip meeting almost all of these leaders in Papua New Guinea because he had to worry about the debt shutdown, the debt crisis.

And now we're talking about a government shutdown just a couple of days after they leave.

So, what many of these leaders want is sustained commitment.

And this is going to be a concern for them going forward.

LISA DESJARDINS: Zack Cooper, thank you so much for joining us.

ZACK COOPER: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: The family of Darryl George, a Black high school student in Texas suspended over his dreadlocks, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

His family alleges that Abbott and Paxton are not enforcing the CROWN Act, which went into effect in Texas on September 1.

It bans race-based discrimination at schools and in the workplace by saying there can be no action taken against someone based on their hair texture or hairstyles, including locs and twists.

Darryl George was suspended for violating his school's dress code and the way he wears his hair.

We're joined now by Texas State Representative Rhetta Bowers, who authored the Texas CROWN Act and is asking for the school district to end the suspension.

Thank you for being with us.

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS (D-TX): Thank you for having me today, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: California was the first state to pass the CROWN Act back in 2019.

Why was it important for Texas to have those same protections, in your view?

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS: There are so many students and individuals in business and in the workplace that were either being held from walking across that stage at graduation with their classmates, going to prom and celebrating these types of achievements.

But, more importantly, they have been held from classroom instruction.

And in addition to that, people on the work force, in the work force -- we have been talking with many corporations, IBM, Spring Health, and other corporate -- Hewlett-Packard -- where people are either held from promotion or they don't feel comfortable showing up as their authentic selves at work or for that job interview.

So this is why it was important here in Texas.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the specific case of Darryl George, the 17-year-old high school student, school officials say that his dreadlocks violate the dress code because they fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes if they're not pinned or pulled back.

The CROWN Act covers hairstyles.

It does not cover hair length.

So would the CROWN Act even apply in his specific case?

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS: It absolutely would.

It's a direct violation of the CROWN Act, because those protective hairstyles are listed in the legislation and in the law.

The fact that he wears his hair in locs, culturally, people grow their hair in locs.

So that is why.

The hairstyle itself speaks for itself.

Locs are grown long.

So it is a direct violation of the CROWN Act.

GEOFF BENNETT: Do you know if this specific school district or the school has disciplined white students for having hair that is too long, or has it only been enforced in this way against, in this case, a Black student?

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS: To my knowledge, it has only been enforced in this way.

And this is the first school district and school where this happened before in 20 -- when it was DeAndre Arnold.

And I know that that case is in litigation as well.

So it is the same school district.

And they have only been for students of color and African American students.

GEOFF BENNETT: The district superintendent says that he believes this dress code is legal and that it teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefiting everyone.

What do you make of that?

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS: At this point, the CROWN Act is law in Texas.

And, again, it's a direct violation.

And I believe that students should not be held based on race-based hairstyle discrimination.

And that is directly what this is.

I do believe that his dress code and grooming code policies need to be updated.

We are working with organizations, whether that's the Legal Defense Fund and TEA, the Texas Education Agency, to make sure that they are notifying school districts of the policy changes that need to occur.

I have been in direct contact with state board of education members that are helping to make sure that our school districts here in Texas are updating their policies.

GEOFF BENNETT: Texas State Representative Rhetta Bowers, thanks for your time this evening.

STATE REP. RHETTA BOWERS: Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: You may have heard about a NASA probe that yesterday successfully brought back to Earth some samples from a deep space asteroid.

It took four billion miles to get them, but researchers believe it'll be worth it.

You may also be wondering just why scientists want these samples from what's essentially a huge rock flying through space.

Well, Miles O'Brien is here to explain.

MAN: EDL milestone, we have confirmed parachute deployment.

MILES O'BRIEN: It looked like one of those nail-biting rover landings on Mars.

But the team in this mission control is savoring a safe arrival on this planet of some precious pieces of an asteroid.

The Utah Test and Training Range was the final stop on a seven-year mission to harvest a payload of rock and gravel, so-called regolith, from the surface of an asteroid named Bennu.

DANTE LAURETTA, University of Arizona: Then we heard "Main chute detected," and I literally into literally broke into tears.

And I'm probably going to do it again just thinking about it, because that was the moment I knew we made it home.

MILES O'BRIEN: University of Arizona planetary scientist Dante Lauretta is the principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx.

DANTE LAURETTA: And then these up here are the actual images that we acquired on the spacecraft.

MILES O'BRIEN: I first met him two years after launch, when the spacecraft was homing in on Bennu.

I caught up with him again a few weeks ago.

DANTE LAURETTA: Bennu is a very rare type of asteroid in the inner solar system.

It's incredibly dark, darker than asphalt.

And we believed that that meant it was rich in carbon, which is the essential element for all life on Earth and key to our origins investigation.

MILES O'BRIEN: Origins, as in the origins of life on Earth.

Asteroids are rocks left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago orbiting in the deep freeze of space ever since.

Anything mixed in, like water or organic chemicals, likely remains pristine.

Earth, on the other hand is a geologically active place.

In its early days, it was made up almost entirely of magma, not a cushy berth for life.

But what if vast swarms of asteroids like Bennu bombarded Earth just as it was cooling down, say, about four billion years ago?

DANTE LAURETTA: We believe they delivered the compounds that are essential to making the Earth a habitable world, the water that's in our oceans, the air that's in our atmosphere, and the organic material that makes up our bodies and all life forms on Earth.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's what makes Lauretta and the team so excited about bringing some asteroid regolith to Earth.

They cooked up a creative approach to collecting the sample, the touch-and-go method, kind of like a pogo stick.

DANTE LAURETTA: Just make a brief, maybe five-second contact, scoop up as much material as you can, and then back away with that treasure safely in hand.

MILES O'BRIEN: The Bennu bonanza is destined for hallowed ground in the world of space retrieval missions, NASA's Johnson Space Center, the keeper of the Apollo moon rocks.

Bennu's regolith will reside nearby.

Scientists are anxious to get busy running the rocks through a gauntlet of tests.

They have done several dress rehearsals to get ready.

They dress for a raging pandemic, but why?

Perhaps life might imitate art.

ACTOR: These people were cut down in mid-stride.

ACTOR: Everybody is dead!

MILES O'BRIEN: In the 1971 film "The Andromeda Strain," a satellite crashes in New Mexico and infects Earth with a virulent extraterrestrial pathogen, killing nearly everyone who comes into contact with it.

Great science fiction, but: ELAINE SEASLY, NASA Deputy Planetary Protection Officer: The science fact of it is that it's a very low risk for Earth.

MILES O'BRIEN: Elaine Seasly is NASA's deputy planetary protection officer.

And, yes, that is a real job.

Her office is on a mission to ensure extraterrestrial rocks don't unleash uncontrollable harm to Earth and its inhabitants.

ELAINE SEASLY: Most of our missions that explore the solar system are doing so in an unrestricted manner, so we can bring back samples from asteroids, samples from comets, solar winds, those types of particles.

All of those don't have a risk of biological contamination.

MILES O'BRIEN: Researchers say it's all but impossible that anything is alive on a small asteroid, which is bathed in deadly doses of radiation from the sun.

Seasly says the main reason scientists need to suit up and do their work in a clean room is to protect it from us.

ELAINE SEASLY: This is a case where Earth could potentially contaminate the samples once it lands.

And so that's why there are special protocols and special handling procedures in place to try to maintain the cleanliness of the samples through that delicate handling process.

MILES O'BRIEN: Bennu's rocks may be low risk, but the asteroid itself is a potential threat to Earth, a so-called near-Earth object.

Astronomers say its on course to whiz between us and the moon in 2135 and perhaps paint a bullseye on us in 2182.

While NASA monitors that threat, interplanetary contamination garners more attention, as the agency aims to grab and return rocks from the moon and Mars.

DR. LORI GLAZE, Director, NASA Planetary Science Division: When we bring these samples back, we are going to keep them very, very well-protected until we have assured ourselves that the samples are safe.

MILES O'BRIEN: Lori Glaze is NASA's Planetary Science Division director.

She heads the team at NASA that, along with the European Space Agency, is planning a mission to retrieve and return rocks from Mars in the next decade.

The first phase of the mission is under way.

NASA's Perseverance rover has been gathering and sealing up small pieces of the Martian surface for a few years.

Planetary scientists think its location, the Jezero Crater, was warm and wet 3.5 billion years ago, a great place to search for signs of ancient life.

But they don't expect to find anything that's alive now.

DR. LORI GLAZE: The current environment on the surface of Mars is incredibly harsh.

It's cold.

It's dry.

It is exposed to the suns radiation, which we know kills off organic materials and breaks it down.

So it's highly unlikely that there's anything alive there now.

But what we might see is the kind of fossil remnants of early microbes and pre-microbial life.

MILES O'BRIEN: A Mars sample return mission is the Holy Grail for scientists like Dante Lauretta.

He says it's all well worth any slim risk akin to "The Andromeda Strain."

DANTE LAURETTA: Finding life on Mars, especially an independent origin of life, would be one of the most profound scientific discoveries in human history.

It would be as important as when Copernicus showed us that the Earth was not the center of the universe and that, in fact, the Earth revolved around the sun.

It's that huge of a mind shift because, all of a sudden, it's like two planets, one system, both had the origin of life.

Life has to be everywhere.

MILES O'BRIEN: And maybe the best messengers of the ingredients of life were asteroids.

Bennu might help unlock that secret, once scientists begin their careful work, equal parts probing and protecting.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien.

AMNA NAWAZ: She made history as America's first Black female billionaire after co-founding the Black Entertainment Network, or BET.

Sheila Johnson has broken barriers and found success as an entrepreneur, a business leader, a hotel mogul, and co-owner of multiple professional sports teams.

But that success came at a cost, and it masked deep pain and trauma that Johnson carried for decades.

I sat down with her recently to talk about going public with her story for the first time, in "Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph."

Sheila Johnson, thank you so much for joining us here at the "NewsHour."

SHEILA JOHNSON, Author, "Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph": Thank you.

It's an honor to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: You stayed silent about much of this, much of your personal story, for years, your family, your marriage, all the behind the scenes of the power circles here in Washington.

Why share all this now?

SHEILA JOHNSON: Because the silence was killing me inside.

And it was time for me to open up those wounds, and it was time for them to heal.

It's been a journey.

I have been through three acts of my life, and each one of them carried certain problems, the second act especially, and unusually painful problems.

And now I'm in my third act, and I'm healing and I'm happier than I have ever been.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to talk about each of those acts.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: But let's start closer to the beginning.

Your father was a military veteran.

He was a doctor.

Your mother was an accountant.

Life seemed relatively comfortable for you growing up, but all that changed when you were a teenager.

And your father basically tells you flat out: I'm leaving.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Absolutely.

AMNA NAWAZ: You write about it in the book and you say: "That's how I learned after 18 years of marriage, after raising two children, buying a home, achieving what looked like the American dream, my father had decided he wanted something different out of life."

Why start with that story in the book?

SHEILA JOHNSON: Because that was the time I realized I had to grow up suddenly, because women back then, and I have learned this over the years, they had very few rights.

I mean, just to up and leave two children and a wife that depended on his income, she - - her bank account was in the name, in his name, credit cards, you name it.

She didn't know which way to turn.

And I think it just really manifested itself where I found her with a nervous breakdown.

And it just was the most painful thing for me to ever watch.

That has stuck with me for the rest of my life.

AMNA NAWAZ: You moved a lot as a kid too, right?

(CROSSTALK) SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes, 13 times.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thirteen times.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: And why?

SHEILA JOHNSON: Because my father, as an African American neurosurgeon, was not allowed to practice in white hospitals.

Also, he could only really work with patients that were of color.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

SHEILA JOHNSON: He couldn't perform operations unless they were Black.

And then, once he ran out of patients, then they moved us again.

It was about every 10 months, until we settled outside of Chicago.

AMNA NAWAZ: You talk about these hard lessons of racism.

And you write this one line that stuck with me.

You said: "I was always drawn to places that Black people don't usually go."

What did you mean by that?

Why do you think that is?

SHEILA JOHNSON: I just got tired of not being able to move forward.

And I think what happens in the African American race is that we're suppressed so much.

We're taught to not speak out.

We're taught to not talk about each other.

Communication is very little.

And even as a young person, they were saying you should be seen and not heard.

And it just went against who I am.

It's not in my DNA.

And I love challenges.

I'm a risk-taker.

So it was just important that I just -- these doors would open.

And I said, why can't I go through them?

And I decided I was going to go through every door that came my way.

AMNA NAWAZ: You do devote a lot of time in the book to your 30-year marriage to Bob Johnson, your co-founder at BET... SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... and to his infidelities.

And you write very candidly about the shame that you felt.

And you write about people coming up to you at parties and asking you to please stay with him, to stay together... SHEILA JOHNSON: That's right.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... because the community needs you.

What was that like?

SHEILA JOHNSON: I think, because of how successful BET was -- and you're the king and queen of media.

You're the first Black company on television.

And they were proud of the fact that there was that representation there, and for it to have scandal, where we would break up, it sort of shatters the image of what we were trying to build.

But, in the meantime, behind the scenes, there was so much going on that -- people knew it too.

They didn't really want to speak about it, but there were people out there that really loved watching what was going down.

They loved hearing about it.

There were digs made at me.

It was the ultimate betrayal.

And I was there really trying to shine a spotlight on him.

I was -- quote -- "the good wife," you know, and I was there pushing him forward and really wanting him to shine.

But I was doing so much work in the background.

And I was literally erased, literally erased out of that company.

And I got fired by my own husband because I found out what was really going on.

And as I -- when I confronted him, he wanted to get rid of me.

AMNA NAWAZ: You also write about the intense trauma of carrying and losing a child.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: About delivering and holding your son for the hour that he lived.

Why was it important for you to include that in the book?

SHEILA JOHNSON: When people read the book, the thread that kind of goes through that, because from the emotional abuse, I felt like a failure.

I felt like a failure in everything that I did, the way I looked.

I was either too fat or too thin.

I was too outspoken or I didn't speak enough.

It was this constant berating of who I really was.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is from your husband.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

And my identity was being stripped.

I was losing my power.

And it was just a case, I said, well, OK, once I found out I was pregnant and I had this child, and he died an hour later, there I was, a failure again.

I just couldn't do anything right.

I couldn't do anything to please him.

And this is what I lived with during that 30-year marriage.

AMNA NAWAZ: Divorcing Bob, selling BET, it launches you into this whole new chapter of your life.

You're now newly empowered, newly extremely wealthy.

You build a luxury resort from scratch out in Middleburg, Virginia, and you call it Salamander.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Why?

SHEILA JOHNSON: Because, when I bought my farm in Middleburg, I bought it from a man by the name of Bruce Sundlun.

And he was a World War II fighter pilot.

And he had been shot down over Nazi-occupied Belgium.

His entire unit was captured into a POW camp.

He was able to escape.

And he went into allied territory of France.

The U.S. came to him and they gave him the code name Salamander.

And he says, well, what does the Salamander mean?

He says, well, mythically, it's the only animal that can walk through fire and still come out alive.

But if you chop off its limbs, they regenerate.

All of that meant so much to me.

It really resonated in this part of -- that part of my life at the time of going through a divorce and still trying to figure out who I was.

It resonated.

And I said, can I have that name, Salamander?

He said, what are you going to do with it?

I said, well, I'm thinking about starting a company and I would like to brand it Salamander, which stands for perseverance, courage and fortitude.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sheila, you're a philanthropist.

You're, I think, the only Black female co-owner of three professional sports teams, including the championship 2019 winning Washington Mystics.

Shout-out to them.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: What's next?

What does this chapter look like for you?

SHEILA JOHNSON: The doors are still starting to open up again.

I'd like to get a couple more properties in my collection.

It's just whatever comes towards me.

And, instinctively, if it's the right thing, I will embrace it.

I just don't want life to be over, because I'm enjoying it more than ever now.

AMNA NAWAZ: I have enjoyed our conversation so much.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sheila Johnson, thank you so much for being here.

SHEILA JOHNSON: You're so welcome.

This was delightful.

AMNA NAWAZ: The author of the new book "Walk Through Fire."

SHEILA JOHNSON: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: I appreciate you being here.

SHEILA JOHNSON: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Writer Mary Otis' work grapples with issues of addiction, artistic purpose and mother-daughter relationships.

She recently performed excerpts from her debut novel, "Burst," at Lincoln center in New York City.

Tonight, she shares her Brief But Spectacular take on finding her voice.

MARY OTIS, Author, "Burst": I basically became a writer by accident.

When I first moved to Los Angeles and I was at a bit of a crossroads in my life, I only had one friend, and I would call this one friend every day.

And, at a certain point he said, why don't you take a writing class?

So, that's how I ended up completely changing the course of my life.

Tonight, we're going to be hearing the opening pages of my novel "Burst."

"Burst" is about Viva and her mother, Charlotte, and their untraditional, complex, sometimes fractious relationship, but one that could also be considered a kind of a love story.

"Her mother had two speeds, drunk or driven.

Here she is on an August afternoon in 1979 at the helm of their V.W.

van, laughing and waving her hands, alternating one and then the other on the steering wheel.

Momentarily, no hands on the wheel.

Then Charlotte's left hand flies out the window, slices the air carelessly, her fingers stretched wide as if she'd flung a fistful of pearls at passing cars."

Artistic purpose and addiction are two central themes in my book.

I think those themes can sometimes be intertwined because of the ability for art to take you out of yourself, no matter what the art form is.

When people are deep in addiction, I think they're in the throes of also trying to reach that place, but with a faulty method.

"'People used to drink wine for breakfast.

Did you know that?'

said Charlotte.

She was worldly and once toured with a band called Yesterday's Horoscope.

'What people?'

asked Viva.

'Renaissance people,' said Charlotte.

That past year, in the fifth grade melody makers, Viva had learned a madrigal, a fussy overwrought song that circled round and round.

A renaissance person wrote it, and it did make perfect sense to her that they might have been drunk when they did."

Writing from a child's point of view gives me access to a kind of clear consciousness radio where there's no filter, where there is no obstruction to the truth, because kids can often say whatever they think.

So I think it's wonderful to have kids come in and have their perceptions running counter to the adult perceptions.

"When Viva learned the planets in science class, Mrs. Kenmore said that when the Earth is closest to the sun, that point is called perihelion.

And that was how she thought of herself and her mother.

She was the closest anyone could get to Charlotte, maybe until the end of time."

Thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) MARY OTIS: I'm Mary Otis, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on finding your voice.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can find more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, tomorrow, right here on the "NewsHour," join us for an exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2BrtqWxzmiqnqikmrqjsdFmaW5lYmV%2FdHnPm6pmppWswKm71Ktkn62coXqmvMispp2dXWaDeoGVamttamFk