PBS News Hour - Full Show - September 28, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

Sunday on PBS News Weekend, Trump and top congressional leaders are set to meet in the Oval Office, trying to avert a government shutdown. Funding shortfalls threaten public transit systems across the country. Why renters are increasingly outnumbering homeowners in some suburbs. Plus, a special musician racks up millions of views online with performances tailored to help neurodivergent children. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, President Trump and top congressional leaders are set to meet in the Oval Office trying to avert a government shutdown that could result in even more mass federal worker layoffs. Then, why renters are increasingly outnumbering homeowners in the suburbs of some of America's biggest cities. And a special musician racks up millions of views online with performances tailored. to help neurodivergent children. I believe that's what music was created for to bring everybody together. And so to see that is something that wows me every day. Good evening.

I'm John Yang. The battle lines are drawn for tomorrow's high-stakes oval office. meeting between President Trump and bipartisan congressional leaders one day before the deadline to avert a government shutdown. Faring separately on NBC's Meet the Press, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer each said the other would be to blame for a shutdown. I think there would potentially a path forward. We have to see where it goes, but we can't do it while the American people are being held hostage

by the Democrats in a government shutdown. We need a serious negotiation. Now, if the president at this meeting is going to ram. and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that, and the other thing. We won't get anything done. Republicans want a short-term spending bill without any other provisions, while Democrats say the price of their support is restoring Medicaid cuts and extending subsidies that help low and middle-income earners buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Adding to the uncertainty, our administration plans to use a shutdown to fire more federal workers. Eric Katz covers federal agencies for the online publication government executive. Eric, tell us about these plans to use this shutdown to fire more federal workers. The White House, through its budget office, put out guidance this past week, advising agencies that they should develop plans to, instead of having the normal furloughs of, you know, employees that are sent home only until the shutdown ends, they would instead be sent home permanently. They would lose their jobs. The White House said the agencies should focus on any federal employee who doesn't receive special funding for their job, so anyone funded through the normal annual appropriations, and anyone whose work is not focused on Trump administration priorities.

So there would be certain areas that would be exempted from this, but large swathes of the federal government would be facing potential layoffs under this shutdown. How does this fit in with the president's goal of reshaping the federal government and making it smaller? President Trump has been focused on shrinking the size of the federal workforce and the federal government since he took office. Not too long after he took office, he ordered similar layoff plans from every agency. A couple agencies went through with those, health and human services, for one, laid off 10,000 people. But a lot of those got held up in court, and then they never ended up being implemented, at least not yet. but the administration has taken other steps to shrink the federal workforce through offering various incentives. I believe the administration has said that around two or three hundred

thousand federal employees will be off the rolls by the end of September compared to what they inherited in January. Then they also have a hiring freeze, so very few new employees are coming in and this is just the next step in that process to potentially further shrink the agency's workforces. In your conversations with federal workers, is this adding to the anxiety and the concern as we approach a possible shutdown?

It absolutely is. We've talked to a lot of folks over the last couple of days since this memo came out. Everyone is sort of panicked. There's always a bit of anxiety during a shutdown. Over half the federal workforce in a normal shutdown continues to work,

and they only on the promise of delayed pay. They face a lot of negative rhetoric from the administration over the last several months, and they've been incentivized and pushed, and in some cases, forced out of their jobs. And this is, like I said, the next step in that. And we've been hearing from folks over the last few months that their workforces are already trimmed back to the bone, and they're already struggling to carry out key functions. Some of these agencies are, you know, doing less enforcement or less oversight at national

parks, you know, there's bathrooms that are not being clean and certain services that are no longer being offered. We've reported on the Forest Service that they're really struggling to keep pace. You could really go down the gamut with this. You know, we've talked to people at Veterans Affairs who are saying that they're not able to provide the same care that they used to because of staffing issues there. And if there's further cuts, further layoffs, that would only exacerbate some of these issues that we've been hearing about. And And employees, you know, you talk about morale, the employees have been saying for months that because of this pressure to leave and because of some of the rhetoric that's being coming out

from the White House, that they just, they feel attacked or villainized. And this is, you know, as we're having these discussions over the last few days, they're saying this is just continuing to add to that. You know, a lot of people, when they hear federal workers, they think Washington, D.C., but it goes well beyond that, doesn't it? Yeah, about 15% of federal. workforce is based in the D.C. area. The vast majority is spread out around the country and around the world in some cases. We actually, before this memo came out, we had reported that the Interior Department, for example, is contemplating and preparing for widespread layoffs. And those employees are in national parks and regional offices all around the country. You can think through

Social Security Administration and VA and all sorts of land management agencies. In addition to Interior, and even like EPA enforcement, these people are not just in D.C., but they're in offices all around the country. And some of them would almost certainly be subject to these layoffs if they are seen through. Eric Katz, of government executive. Thank you very much. Thank you. In tonight's other headlines, there's been a shooting in a church in Michigan. It's left at least two people dead, several others injured, and the church in flames. It happened during worship services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blank, Michigan, which is about 50 miles north of Detroit. The police chief said a 40-year-old man rammed his vehicle into the front

door of the church, started shooting at worshippers, and then set the church on fire. We believe that that was deliberately set by the suspect. We do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure. Police said the two officers who initially responded to the scene immediately took the shooter out. His motive is still unknown. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ending his bid for re-election. The Democrat, who was running as an independent, made the announcement in a video posted to social media.

Adams' campaign had been hurt by his now dismissed federal bribery case and by liberal anger over his warm relations with President Trump. The remaining candidates include Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zoran Mondani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Oregon Governor Tina Kotech

is pushing back on President Trump's demand to send troops to Portland. Kotech, a Democrat, said she called Mr. Trump to say that Portland is not a war-ravaged city as he says it is. Kotech said sending troops to the city would only create conflict. Oregon is our home.

It is not a military target. Any deployment would be an abuse of power and a misuse of federal troops. The White House hasn't laid out a timeline for deploying troops or said where they would be stationed. Kotech urged the public to stay calm and said violence will not be tolerated. And the southeast is bracing for the effects

of newly designated tropical storm in Melda, which is churning away in the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center says Imelda is expected to further strengthen and bring tropical storm conditions to Florida beginning tomorrow. It's then forecast to move north, and while it's not expected to make landfall, it is likely to bring heavy rainfall, flooding, and dangerous surf to the coastal Carolinas into Wednesday morning. Still to come on PBS News weekend, public transit systems in crisis across the country, and the rise of renters in the suburbs of some of the nation's biggest cities. This is PBS News Weekend from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, home of the PBS News Hour. Weeknights on PBS. A shortfall in federal transportation funding is threatening bus and metro systems across the country.

When ridership dropped during the pandemic, the government spent billions of dollars to support public transit. but that money has largely run out. And now with inflation added to the mix, local governments are saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in deficits. That's leading to reduce services and increased fares. Ali Rogan explores the effect all of this is having beyond the morning commute with Philip Plotch, the principal researcher and senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation. Philip Plotch, thank you for joining us. How did regional public transit systems find themselves? at the edge of this financial cliff?

So you might remember when the pandemic first hit, there was a real concern about a potential for a real economic crisis in the United States. That's why the federal government pumps so much money into the economy. They lent a lot of money to small businesses, money was given to schools, local governments, and about $70 billion, with a B,

went to keep public transportation running across the country. The thinking was people need to be. needed to get the jobs, supermarkets, and hospitals. I remember, we wanted all of our frontline workers to get to work. The programs were, the economy kept chugging along, but now many agencies are running out of money because ridership is down. So compared to what it was before the pandemic, about 14% fewer people are taking the bus,

and about 28% fewer people are taking the train. So the transit agencies, they're making cuts, they've been stretching out the COVID fund, and they've just been hoping that the state and local governments are going to help bail them out before their money runs out. That's why many of them are now staring at the edge of a cliff without any good options. And how is this disrupting the average commuter who is still trying to get to work every day right now? If you're a transit rider, you might need it to get to a job or a medical appointment, school or a grocery store. You might not be able to get there

if you don't have the bus service or the train service. Or are they going to be more crowded? or you're going to have to wait longer. And sometimes the long wait, we're not talking about 10 or 15 minutes. So imagine you take one bus to another bus and you need to transfer. If that second bus is only running one every hour, your one hour bus ride could turn into a two-hour bus ride really fast. If we cut service across the country at transit agencies, it affects people who don't use transit. So there's more traffic on the roads.

It's harder to find parking spaces. When there's more traffic in a city, it slows down emergency vehicles. It really hurts everybody. So let's talk a little bit more about what we saw in Philadelphia. It's sort of a case study in how this is playing out. What's been happening there and what are the chances that it's going to repeat itself in other cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and the like. So Philadelphia has been staring down a $200 million annual shortfall, $200 million.

And they put a plan together to cut service, eliminate routes, and to stop service late evening and early in the morning. And a judge put it on hold, so they are going to continue their service. But what they're doing now is possibly worse. They're taking money that was set aside from improving their system. And now they're using it to keep running the same level of service they had. So it's sort of like if you set aside money to, let's say, fix up your roof to pay your grocery bills, the water's going to keep seeping in into your leaky roof. It might ruin the ceiling. it might ruin the wiring. So you can spend $1,000 now to fix up your roof,

but it could cost you $30,000 later if you're not taking care of it. That's going to happen at transit agencies if they start taking the money set aside for upgrading their system to use it just to run their day-to-day service. At some point, things just break down more often and they're more expensive over the long term, and they're not as safe. So the transit agencies are really trying to avoid

what they refer to as a death spiral. That means they cut service, so service is less attractive. And fewer people are going to be using it. And then because fewer people are using it, they have to cut service. And it's really sad for people who really need to use public transportation. But this is also happening or has the potential to happen in other cities, right? Some cities have already taken care of this problem. They've sort of gotten ahead of it.

So Massachusetts recently passed a millionaire's tax and money is going to be used for their transit authority up in Boston. In New Jersey, the state legislature is taking money from the tolls from the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. And Minnesota increased their sales tax and their gas tax to pay for more. But there are places that are really taking ahead. And San Francisco, you mentioned, that's going to be a big problem. So San Francisco has two things going on. The Bay Area, a lot more people work from home than any other region. So there's fewer people.

Also, they relied on their fare. The BART system, that's the Bay Area Rapid Transit, they relied about six. 70% of their expenses came from the fares and also from parking fees. Now, because the ridership has plummeted so much, only about 20% of their money is coming in. So they really have to look for the local and state governments for help. So it's really, it's different. Every city is different. Pittsburgh is facing a big problem while other places aren't necessarily going through that same thing. Philip Plach with the Eno Center for Transportation. Thank you so much. And thank you for informing all of your listeners.

As the cost of home ownership soars across the country, renting has emerged as an increasingly popular alternative, and not just in cities, but in suburbs too. An analysis of census data by 0.2 homes and online marketplace for rental homes found a steady rise in the number of renters in suburbs surrounding the country's 20 biggest metropolitan areas. Some of the big reasons, the shortage of affordable housing coupled with the rising cost of home ownership. Doug Ressler is a manager of business intelligence at Yardy Matrix, which is a sister company to 0.2 homes that creates software for the real estate industry. Doug, how big a piece of this is affordability? Or are there other factors driving this?

It's a very significant piece. This really has started since 2008 with the financial crisis when there were a lot of evictions and home turnovers. And exponentially, the demand kept growing, but the supply did not. So over the course of the last 10 to 15 years, this problem has been exactly. and will continue to grow until we find reasonable solutions to the issue of affordability. You call it a problem. What's the, what's an issue here? What's the problem, I guess, of people deciding to rent rather than buy? Well, the problem is prior to 2008, you would see a migration pattern of folks who rented moving out, starting households, and buying homes.

That has been abbreviated because of the cost of a home, the lack of supply, and the affordability of the home. So what you have is you have demographic groups renting longer and not being able to purchase a home. Now, I know your report said that of the roughly 1,500 suburbs you looked at, 203 were majority renters, renters outnumbered owners. Some of them were around military bases where you'd expect a transient population. But was there anything in common or a common thread among the other places? What you saw is typically student centers, academics, universities, what we found in addition to the military, that people drive their roots deep and they tend not to migrate great distances. Migration patterns are down from what they were three years ago with the pandemic. And so that mobility has decreased, and what people are looking at is where to find the best affordability

within a general geospace that is very small. You said that sort of the progression of starting out in the city, renting an apartment, moving out to the suburbs, buying a home is changing. Are the demographics changing, or is it just that the people who move out to the suburbs are renting rather than buying? It's certainly the demographics. What we find is that Gen Zier's typically like urban courts. They like the social environment.

They like the availability of restaurants and social amenities. What we find with millennials is that they are looking for starting a household. They have children. They're looking for better school systems. Other than that, the improvement of school systems, is they changing the culture or the nature of suburbs in any way? They are. And there's also pushback in terms of that. You have nimbism, which means not in my backyard.

that don't like to see rental communities established. What we have found is, though, through studies that have been conducted by a myriad of people, that the ability to create households, either rental or purchase, adds to economic vibrancy in a given area. It doesn't detract from it. Builders and developers have noticed this trend, and they're focusing more on multifamily residences rather than single-family residences. Could we reach the point where there's more choice, more inventory among multifamily residences instead of single-family homes? We're already beginning to see that inflection in terms of the BTR community, the build-to-rent community, is being established. So that whole niche market has grown and is continuing to grow.

What is it going to take to turn this around, to change this trend? It's going to take a collaboration between governance and business. and typically much of this is really situated at the local level. So we really see it as a collaboration of all three groups, not just necessarily one group in general. Doug Wessler of Yardy Matrix. Thank you very much. Thank you, a privilege.

Finally, tonight, a visit to Jari's World, a place where quirky costumes and silly songs are designed to create a sensory oasis for neurodivergent children. His videos on TikTok have gone viral, racking up millions of views. Earlier, I spoke with the man behind the music, Jerry Turner. I asked him how Jari's World got started. So it was by accident. I got asked, hey, do you want to work at a school? And I'm just thinking it's just, you know, a public. school, but come to find out, you know, it's working with children on the spectrum.

So I had to learn quickly and adjust to a new world. Jerry, I got to ask you, explain your costume. Okay. So I have a song called The Hot Halapeno. I'm a hot jalapeno. And it was the first performing video I did that went viral on TikTok. And I needed something cool to look in. Like, even though it's not a jalapeno, it's close enough to me.

See the wheels on the bus going around, getting round. So it was initially just for the video, but when I started performing at the schools, the children in the schools started getting excited about it. I go by Jari's World, but the children understood, oh, it's the pepper guy, the jalapeno guy, the chili pepper guy. And the children kind of picked the costume out. They made it into the entity that it is today. I noted on your website, you see, the primary goal is to help children learn. and retain basic academic and social skills. How do you do that?

As a child, I really struggled academically, but I've always had a interest in music and entertaining while educating. For me, it's pretty basic. It comes pretty easy, just finding a nice beat, a nice, cool melody and something that the children can get in touch with. because a lot of children, they grow up and they're just taught ABCs and counting shapes.

So when you make a song with those concepts, now they feel a part of the performance because we are making songs that are relevant to where they are. How does it feel when you see a child who may have been quiet before, maybe seem withdrawn, sort of get in touch with the music and you're singing. That's what I live for. When those moments happen, especially in the neurodivergent community, when they may not be able to necessarily be on one accord, somewhere in the music spiritually, there's an alignment,

I believe that's what music was created for to bring everybody together. And so to see that is, is something that wows me every day. It keeps it fun, spontaneous, and it keeps me humble and grateful. And what sort of reaction do you get from parents? So after the shows and the interactions, you know, there's parents that I see smiles

before they were coming in kind of upset, me, mugging, sad. But then at the end, a lot of comments is, I've never seen my child be able to interact this way with other children. I didn't know that they could sing. I didn't know that they could dance. I didn't know that they had these social skills. Jerry Turner, also known as Jari's World. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now on the NewsHour Instagram, we learn about the kissing bugs that have a sweet nickname, but a deadly bite. All that and more is on our NewsHour Instagram account. And that is PBS Newsweekend for this Sunday. I'm John Yang for all of my colleagues. Thanks for joining us. Have a good week.