PBS NewsHour

What’s the cause of recent financial volatility overseas – particularly in the emerging markets of Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia – and how does the U.S. play a role? Jeffrey Brown gets analysis from Eswar Prasad of Cornell University and Liz Ann Sonders from Charles Schwab.

In the Congressional Budget Office’s economic outlook report for 2014, analysts predicted that as many as 2.3 million will stop working or work less as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Gwen Ifill talks to NPR’s Julie Rovner about the findings and the political reactions coming from the White House and congressional Republicans.

In our news wrap Tuesday, a new five-year farm bill has won final approval in the Senate. The $956 billion compromise cuts $800 million in food stamps funding. Also, activists and officials from West Virginia testified in a Senate hearing about a chemical spill that tainted the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Tonight on the program, we examine the deadly comeback of heroin as use of the dangerous drug in the U.S. has doubled since 2007. Also: Preventing accidents with "talking cars," South Carolina's battle over Medicaid expansion, new media models affecting traditional journalism, hiding concussions in high school football and remembering Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Sunday at the age of 46, defied ever being typecast. He’s played a detestable antihero and a brown-nosing manservant with equal skill and conviction. Jeffrey Brown talks to The Washington Post’s film critic Ann Hornaday about Hoffman’s honesty on screen, which she says was key to his connection with moviegoers.

Despite reports on the dangers of concussions and in the wake of recent lawsuits against the NFL for illnesses related to head injuries, even high school athletes feel pressured to hide their injuries in order to get back in the game. Hari Sreenivasan and PBS NewsHour’s network of Student Reporting Labs explore how concussions in football have affected high school players.

A slew of made-for-Web news sites are increasingly undermining the platform of print media. In this shifting landscape, how will journalism and storytelling survive, and what are readers to gain? Judy Woodruff talks to Re/code’s Walt Mossberg, VOX Media’s Jim Bankoff, and Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute.

After the Supreme Court ruled that states were not obligated to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, South Carolina was one of the first to opt out. PBS NewsHour’s Mary Jo Brooks reports on the effects for residents who are still uninsured, plus a small alternative program designed to reach some of them.

On some new car models, sensors can monitor outside surroundings and warn drivers of peril or kick in automatic braking. The Department Of Transportation is considering a mandate for all automakers to adopt this vehicle-to-vehicle technology. Gwen Ifill talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Dan Neil about how “talking cars” could improve safety on the roads but at the expense of drivers’ privacy.

Heroin is chemically almost identical to prescription painkillers. But the illegal drug is more dangerous and much cheaper than regulated opiates. Jeffrey Brown talks to National Drug Control Policy director R. Gil Kerlikowske and Los Angeles Times reporter Sam Quinones about why heroin use in America has doubled since 2007 and the deadly consequences for users and addicts.

In our news wrap Monday, The Washington Post reported that 22,000 appeals are still outstanding from customers whose attempts to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act were denied or processed incorrectly. Also, the U.S. abortion rate is at its lowest since 1973.

PBS NewsHour Weekend for Sunday, February 2, 2014.

A proposal to cut off public funding for national political conventions is gaining support across both aisles in Congress. How much do the conventions cost American taxpayers? Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Molly Hooper, a reporter for The Hill, about the details of the plan

NewsHour Weekend profiles an innovative probation program in Hawaii that has been so successful in reforming offenders and keeping them out of prison, it's now being copied in courtrooms across the nation.

Viewers respond to our report on food waste