The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

GWEN IFILL: Good evening. I`m Gwen Ifill.

On the NewsHour tonight: the news of this Monday; then, the aftermath of the deadly tornado that destroyed Greensburg, Kansas; a new president for France; Margaret Warner, in Paris, covering the French elections; a NewsHour report about the latest, fastest computer chips; and a look at leapfrog politics, as states try to beat each other to the punch on the presidential primaries.

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GWEN IFILL: Searchers in Greensburg, Kansas, kept at it today, three days after a devastating tornado. They reported finding a survivor last night and two more bodies.

The town was flattened on Friday night by a twister nearly two miles wide, with winds of more than 200 miles an hour. At least 10 people were killed.

Today, residents were let back in to survey the destruction, but the governor said recovery could be hindered because much of the state`s National Guard equipment is in Iraq. We`ll have more on this story right after this news summary.

Another U.S. soldier has died in Baghdad. That report today made 26 Americans killed in the first full week of the month. A dozen of them died just over the weekend, including six in a single roadside bomb in Diyala province on Sunday. An al-Qaida group claimed responsibility.

And today, in Ramadi, two suicide bombers attacked a market and police checkpoint about 15 minutes apart. At least 13 Iraqis were killed. In all, police reported nearly 70 Iraqis killed in attacks or found dead around the country.

The U.S. commander in Iraq warned today American forces must not sink to the level of the enemy. Last week, a Pentagon survey found many troops support torture and would not report killing civilians. Today, General David Petraeus said it`s time to remember American values. He spoke from Baghdad to members of the Associated Press news service.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, Commander, U.S. Forces in Iraq: We certainly believe in those values, and we believe in observing the law of land warfare and the norms that civilized nations have adopted governing the conduct of land warfare. Then, obviously, we have to live that. And so the first step is that we have got to revisit those and make sure that folks remember that, you know, that`s the foundation for our moral compass.

GWEN IFILL: Petraeus said he is drafting a memo to refocus the military on the issue of battlefield ethics.

An Afghan soldier who shot and killed two American soldiers on Sunday was mentally ill. The defense ministry reported that today in Kabul. The Afghan opened fire outside a top-security prison there. He was then shot to death by other Afghan troops.

The president-elect of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, began planning in earnest today for his new administration. The conservative defeated the Socialist candidate, Segolene Royal, in Sunday`s election, with 53 percent of the vote. We have a report from Robert Moore of Independent Television News.

ROBERT MOORE, ITV News Correspondent: As he emerged today, Nicolas Sarkozy virtually ran to his car. He is a man in a hurry with his agenda of radical reform. As his supporters celebrated, he also had a response for those who say he is a threatening and intimidating political figure.

NICOLAS SARKOZY, President-Elect, France (through translator): This evening, it`s a victory for France. There is only one France. Tonight, I ask you to be generous, tolerant, brotherly.

ROBERT MOORE: But as he was speaking, in many parts of France, brotherly love was in short supply. In Paris and in several other French cities, far-left activists and anarchists fought running battles with riot police. And this may be just a taste of the problems, if Sarkozy confronts students and unions.

But support came in an unusual format: Tony Blair posted a video on YouTube, saying he knew and liked Sarkozy and that Britain and France must continue to cooperate. Mr. Sarkozy has many enemies within France, but even they concede that, with his raw ambition and his bold agenda, this will be an eventful presidency.

GWEN IFILL: The election of Sarkozy is expected to lead to closer ties with the United States. In Washington today, White House spokesman Tony Snow said there are "real opportunities to work together." We`ll have more on this story from Margaret Warner in Paris later in the program tonight.

Queen Elizabeth arrived at the White House today on the final leg of her United States visit. President Bush welcomed her in a formal ceremony on the White House lawn. Thousands of guests witnessed the pageantry and even had a brief laugh when the president stumbled on a key date.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- in 1976.

(LAUGHTER)

She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.

(LAUGHTER)

GWEN IFILL: Tonight, the president and Mrs. Bush host the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, at a white-tie state dinner, the most formal the White House can offer.

Farm animals that ate contaminated feed pose little threat to humans. That word came today from Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. The animal feed contained scraps of pet food tainted with melamine, but Johanns said the amount of the industrial chemical in the feed was minute.

As a result, federal officials lifted a quarantine on 20 million chickens. It clears the way for the animals to be slaughtered and enter the food supply.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 48 points to close at nearly 13,313, another new record. The Nasdaq fell one point to close just below 2,571.

That`s it for the news summary tonight. Now: a ravaged town in Kansas; a winner in France; a more powerful computer chip; and the ever- shifting primary calendar.

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GWEN IFILL: Now, the disaster in Kansas and its aftermath. Ray Suarez has the story.

RAY SUAREZ: Three days after a tornado leveled Greensburg, Kansas, residents were allowed to return today to see the damage for themselves and recover what little belongings were left. The Stone family found that few, if any, of their family`s possessions are intact.

JUSTIN STONE, Tornado Victim: And when we come up, we seen everything was gone. But it didn`t all set in until -- I mean, we seen it on the news, but when we pulled up it looked so much worse.

THERESA STONE, Tornado Victim: It`s unbelievable, scary. We`ve been in this house for 16 years. And I raised my kids in it, four kids. And I`m glad that they`re all safe. I mean, I don`t care about the house or any of the other stuff. I`m just glad my kids are safe.

RAY SUAREZ: As Kristy Clark picked through the remains of her house, she found a soggy envelope filled with cash.

KRISTY CLARK, Tornado Victim: Hey, money!

TORNADO VICTIM: You`re buying drinks tonight!

RAY SUAREZ: The local bar and the grain elevator are the only structures left standing in the town of 1,500 people. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was at the scene hours after the twister hit.

GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, Kansas: The whole community is gone, the infrastructure of every bank, every business. Everybody`s home is just gone.

RAY SUAREZ: The tornado carved a path nearly two miles wide and 22 miles long and was the most powerful to touch down in the U.S. in eight years. A warning siren that blared 20 minutes before the winds slammed into the town allowed residents to seek cover.

TORNADO VICTIM: I`ve never seen devastation on this large of a scale.

SGT. RONALD KNOEFEL, Kansas Highway Patrol: Everybody has damage, every single person. And in most cases, not only do they have damage, they have nothing left.

RAY SUAREZ: This is what Greensburg looked like before Friday night: the main street, a bed and breakfast, and one of the town`s most popular attractions, the world`s biggest hand-dug well. Today, all the homes, churches and schools are reduced to ruins. The hand-dug well is filled with debris. Classes are canceled for the remainder of the school year.

GREENSBURG SPOKESPERSON: What this is, is this is what`s left of the junior high and the elementary school in Greensburg.

RAY SUAREZ: The tornado that devastated this town in south-central Kansas was part of a larger system that swept through three other states, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma. That same system left other communities in Kansas and Iowa flooded.

The National Weather Service classified the twister as F-5, its strongest classification, with winds that reached 205 miles per hour.

But amidst the rubble, there are stories of hope. Search and rescue teams pulled one survivor from the wreckage late last night, and others are overjoyed to see their family members are not hurt.

JESSICA GEORGE, Tornado Victim: He just ran up to the porch, because I was just so happy to see them. It was like, everything was OK, because they were OK, you know? It didn`t matter what the house looked like. It didn`t matter that there was a car in the front yard, you know? I just knew it would be OK, because I got to hug my mom and dad.

RAY SUAREZ: Jessica found her grandmother`s china undamaged in the rubble, along with her wedding dress. But many other belongings were wrecked.

MARVIN GEORGE, Tornado Victim: When you step out and you look at the devastation out there, you know, you ask yourself, "How in the world did I survive this?"

RAY SUAREZ: The community now must decide what, if anything, to rebuild.

GREENSBURG COMMUNITY MEMBER: Do you rebuild? Because this is a whole city.

GREENSBURG COMMUNITY MEMBER: It can definitely be rebuilt, if people hang around and help.

RAY SUAREZ: But there are already some residents who`ve decided to leave.

SANDRA GEORGE, Tornado Victim: I don`t know where they`ll be when we`re all done with all this. A lot of people are leaving, and I just hate that. I won`t leave. I`ll be here.

RAY SUAREZ: David Paulison, the Federal Emergency Management Agency director, toured the area today. After President Bush declared parts of Kansas a disaster area yesterday, that will free up federal money to rebuild.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: There`s a certain spirit in the Midwest of our country, a pioneer spirit that still exists, and I`m confident this community will be rebuilt. To the extent that we can help, we will.

RAY SUAREZ: State and federal officials talked to reporters late this afternoon.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), Kansas: It is a total disaster. It is a difficult thing to see. And I`m sure it is a much more difficult thing to live through, for the residents of Greensburg and the entire area. We wanted to make sure in getting here that they had all the assets they need on the ground.

We had a good meeting with the people emergency response here. They say they have all the assets that they need. If there are more, we want to do whatever we can to get them here.

The president of the United States will be coming out on Wednesday. And I`m delighted to see that he`ll be coming out, and also making a point that we`re going to do everything we can to see that Greensburg comes back, moves forward.

Our hearts go out to all the families that lost loved ones and that obviously have had this enormous impact on their lives, but you can`t help but to note the spirit, then, of people that want to rebuild and that are going to rebuild. And they`re going to rebuild Greensburg into even a better and stronger community into the future.

REP. JERRY MORAN (R), Kansas: There is a significant number of Kansans and Americans who care about the well-being of the people in this community. On Sunday, the prayers were offered across this state. The offering plates were passed. People stopped and asked all of us, all the time, "How can we contribute to the improvement and the well-being of the people of Greensburg?"

And, finally, there are Kansans who are waiting with hammers and shovels and will be here personally to help this community rebuild.

RAY SUAREZ: Officials said that search and recovery operations are ongoing.

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GWEN IFILL: Over the weekend, French voters chose a new president, who promised change at home and abroad. In his victory speech last night, Nicolas Sarkozy talked of how he would repair recently frayed relations with the United States.

NICOLAS SARKOZY, President-Elect, France (through translator): I want to issue an appeal to our American friends to tell them that they can count on our friendship, which has been forged in the tragedies of history, which we have faced together.

I want to tell them that France will always be by their side when they need it. But I also want to tell them that friendship means accepting that your friends may think differently and that a great nation such as the United States has a duty not to put obstacles in the way of the fight against global warming.

GWEN IFILL: Margaret Warner, continuing her coverage of the French elections, was at Sarkozy`s rally last night. I spoke with her this afternoon from Paris.

Margaret, it`s good to see you again. Nicolas Sarkozy sounded last night like he was extending an olive branch with one hand and a warning to the United States with another. What did it sound like in the room?

MARGARET WARNER: Well, in the room and also among French officials and American officials here in Paris, it was actually very much welcomed.

That is that France and the United States, while they`ve cooperated actually a great deal on terrorism, on Iran, on Afghanistan, it has not been a warm relationship ever since the rupture that occurred over the onset of the Iraq war, when France not only opposed the United States in the U.N., but tried to organize other countries to vote against the war resolution.

So both American and French officials have used the same phrase, which is "a page will be turned." And the view is that Sarkozy is not going to roll over for the United States, but he is saying that he wants a new kind of relationship in which the United States and France together try to approach some thorny problems and try to come up with common policies, rather than, really, what`s the case now, in which each country decides on its own national interests, and then they try to square the circle.

So it was really notable that, in such a short acceptance speech, that he, in fact, talked about the United States in the way he did.

GWEN IFILL: So is the president-elect also trying to turn the page, perhaps, of other nations, not just the United States?

MARGARET WARNER: He did say, you know, "I`m a Europeanist. I`ve always been a child of Europe." And, in fact, he really is a child of Europe.

It`s worth noting that three of his four grandparents weren`t even French. They`re all immigrants. And so he is very much committed to renewing the E.U. integration process that really ran on the rocks, when the French voters rejected the E.U. constitution in 2005.

And that`s been a concern to the United States, too, because France has been sort of absent from the E.U. table, and the E.U. has been drifting ever since.

So his people and, in fact, Angela Merkel of Germany`s group have already been talking privately about, in June, reviving a -- it was called a mini-treaty, now it`s being called a simplified treaty, something that could do a few of the things that the new constitution wanted to, like an E.U. president, an E.U. prime minister, changing the voting rules, but simplified enough that it was a treaty, would not have to go to the voters, but simply be ratified by parliament.

GWEN IFILL: Now let`s go back and look at the election. Your reporting has introduced us to so much about France in the last two weeks, but also to Segolene Royal, who was so soundly defeated in the outcome. What happened? Who voted for whom and why?

MARGARET WARNER: I think, Gwen, that what was great about this campaign is that people knew what it was about. It really was about whether they were ready to do what Sarkozy said France needed to do to join the global economy in a more robust way or whether they so loved the way of life that France has that it was reluctant to do so. And, resoundingly, 53 percent to 47 percent, the French voters said that.

If you look at the exit polls, Sarkozy did not win every age group. Tellingly, he won the 25- to 35-year-olds, the young people who are trying to get into the workforce, who know it`s a global economy. We met many of those young people last night along the Champs-Elysees, as we walked down to the celebration. And they are really impatient for him to produce.

He only broke even in the 35 to 45, and he actually lost what we call the baby boomers here, they call the `68 generation, the 45 to 60s, and then he won if you`re over 60.

But the Sarkozy people think it`s important that he did very well among all the different occupation groups, so not only business managers, not only wealthy people, he also got somewhere between 45 percent and 48 percent of people who are just workers.

He did very, very well with what are called artisan here, small business people, plumbers, electricians, masons, people who have been killed by the 35-hour workweek and all the extra taxes.

So the Sarkozy people believe they not only have a mandate for change; they have a challenge to make change. And they`re taking this election as a sign of that.

GWEN IFILL: He also won women voters, actually, considering the fact he was running against a very high-profile woman.

MARGARET WARNER: Yes, he did. He won women. At least the exit polls show he won 52 percent of the women, 54 percent of the men. So it was pretty much even.

In the end, she played the women card a little more, and the French were actually very excited that here was this groundbreaking event, that a woman had a serious shot at the presidency. But in all the polling, what seemed to have happened is a majority of voters thought, one, she just wasn`t really ready, and, two, they really voted for his brand of change.

GWEN IFILL: So what is the mood today? Is it rejoicing? Is it rioting? What is it?

MARGARET WARNER: The mood today is -- it`s jubilant, but also somber, and in the sense that the French are very proud, once again, they had 85 percent turnout. They still talk about the fact that ultra-rightists, you know, Jean-Marie Le Pen was resoundingly defeated. A couple of people said to me, "You know, at least now the world knows we`re just not extremists here."

And they`re excited at the prospect of change. But they are very somber about the prospects, as well.

As you may know, Sarkozy now still has another month of tough sledding ahead. He has to win the legislative elections to take place in two rounds in June. And without a really resounding win in those, he could be forced into some kind of an awkward partnership with the left in parliament.

And it`s amazing to me how sophisticated the French voters are. They fully understand that and will talk to you about it on the street. So expectation, yes, but kind of a sober assessment or understanding of how hard it`s going to be.

GWEN IFILL: The transition is so different in France than it is here, where we then go through months of transition and cabinet selection, whereas he effectively takes over fairly soon, doesn`t he?

MARGARET WARNER: Yes, next Wednesday. It`s very, very fast. He has gone off now to a retreat of some sort, though there are some who say he`s actually just in Corsica on vacation. But whatever he`s doing, he is alone or with just maybe family.

His advisers may join him later, as the thought was, according to his people, essentially he would leave Paris as a politician and return as a president. He`ll come back early next week. He`ll announce a new cabinet. It`s not known who is going to have what job, but the team operated in a very cohesive way during the campaign.

So you`re right. Unlike the United States, where after someone wins there`s these months of searching for just the right people and just the right jobs, here, it`s going to happen pretty rapidly.

But, again, he then has to win the legislative elections. Then he has to represent a new cabinet.

One interesting thing, Gwen. He has said he is going to have a streamline cabinet of 15 and that half, nearly half, seven are going to be women. So someone said to me last night, "There are going to be a lot of disappointed men in his party who aren`t going to get the cabinet posts they wanted."

GWEN IFILL: Margaret Warner, your reports have been terrific. Thanks so much for joining us again.

MARGARET WARNER: Thank you, Gwen.

GWEN IFILL: News organizations reported later this afternoon that Mr. Sarkozy and his family traveled to the Mediterranean island of Malta after his election victory.

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GWEN IFILL: Now, faster, more powerful computers are on their way. NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels of KQED San Francisco has our Science Unit report.

JERRY BAUTISTA, Director of Technology Management, Intel: Well, this is a simple game of your hands sort of...

SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour Correspondent: Human interaction between the real world -- in this case, me -- and the virtual world -- in this case, the bouncing ball stored on the computer -- is possible today using a standard personal computer.

JERRY BAUTISTA: It`s imaging the movement of your hand. It`s watching for surfaces that move along. It`s tracking the position of each ball. It`s also tracking the rotation. We`ve imposed gravity on these balls. You notice they sink.

SPENCER MICHELS: Technology manager Jerry Bautista runs an experimental lab at Intel, the world`s largest maker of computer chips. Those chips are the brains of a computer. And the more powerful they are, the more they can do.

Bautista considers this display, although impressive, relatively elementary. A more complicated task, like recognizing faces in a crowd, is what he`s working on.

This is a simulation of a program that recognizes facial characteristics of actors in a Korean soap opera. More than 20 computers were used to make it. Eventually, the company expects to use a single computer to achieve this effect. Nice for soap opera fans, but Intel`s Bautista says there are more serious applications on the horizon.

JERRY BAUTISTA: Now, think about security. So you`re in an airport. You have an Interpol database of people you`re trying to find. You have a sea of people walking around you, so you want to find a person.

Then you want to assess what they`re doing. What is their intent? Do they look agitated? And that level of artificial intelligence is much more sophisticated and requires a lot more computer horsepower than we have today.

SPENCER MICHELS: That kind of power is currently only available from so-called supercomputers that are so large they can fill an entire room. But thanks to some recent advances in chip technology, ever smaller computers will soon be able to do that high-level work.

Do you feel the big changes, I mean, and how important this place is?

PAUL OTELLINI, CEO, Intel: Oh, yes.

SPENCER MICHELS: Intel was the first to announce such a breakthrough. We caught up with CEO Paul Otellini in the company`s computer museum in Silicon Valley, named for the material most chips have been made from since 1959. Otellini said Intel is replacing most of the silicon used in both the chip base and in its transistors.

PAUL OTELLINI: We`ve gone from silicon to hafnium. We`ve also put in some other secret sauce that we`re not talking about yet that allow us to do this.

SPENCER MICHELS: The silicon used to insulate chips had to be replaced because, as chips got smaller and thinner, the silicon started to overheat, leak electricity, and waste power, so much so that scientists feared they had reached a limit in making faster chips.

But thin layers of hafnium, a metal used to cool nuclear reactors, don`t overheat or leak, so researchers are now able to nearly double the number of microscopic transistors, or gates, on a chip. They`re called gates because the flow of electric current opens and closes the gate, representing the zeroes and ones that make up basic computer language.

Intel`s Otellini says the implications are enormous.

PAUL OTELLINI: Our entire economy, not just the Western world, but the entire world, is increasingly built around information. Information flows through transistors. The transistor is the seminal invention of our generation. And I think being able to continue to make them, you know, better and cheaper and faster is something which is, you know, very, very forward-looking, in terms of where the world is going.

SPENCER MICHELS: The new chips due out later this year are designed for computers, but the breakthrough could also eventually impact consumer devices, like cell phones and music players, now a large part of the very competitive chip market. Officials at Intel`s main rivals, AMD and IBM, said they, too, were working to develop an equivalent chip.

BERNARD MEYERSON, Technology Officer, IBM: Imagine the 747`s engine. If you stuck a big bag over the front end of it and created a vacuum with it, that`s what`s going on in there.

SPENCER MICHELS: IBM`s leading technologist, Bernard Meyerson, said his company is constantly innovating to make its chips faster and more durable, with equipment such as this spintronic machine, which lays down a super thin layer of metal for use in chips.

BERNARD MEYERSON: The challenge of it is, is that when you`re working with things like a single atom, the purity of what you`ve got to do is unimaginable.

SPENCER MICHELS: In late march, IBM`s Meyerson unveiled a prototype chip that can transmit huge volumes of data by beaming light pulses through plastic fibers, an approach that uses far less energy than traditional copper wire. The chip will eventually make it possible to download a high- definition feature-length movie in a single second.

However, Meyerson said, just improving the chip as Intel has done won`t make a big difference in improving the computer. What IBM does, he says, is improve the whole computing package.

BERNARD MEYERSON: There`s a lot more to a computer than its chip. It`s a bit like saying, "I can drive down the road if I have gas." True, you also probably need a car. You see, trying to pretend that you can get away with just optimizing one aspect of an enormous problem, that misses the point.

SPENCER MICHELS: But officials at Intel insist their inventions will advance the entire industry. Otellini recently showed off a wafer, on which are etched the prototypes of several hundred newly designed chips, with 80 separate computing units, or cores, on each chip.

Currently, the most advanced microprocessors contain just four units. The new development will vastly increase the chip`s ability to handle complex tasks.

PAUL OTELLINI: But we think that the capability embodied by this prototype chip is going to be commercially available in a five-year window, and that allows us to do some very amazing things.

This kind of capability goes into solving some of the big problems of the world, modeling climate change. How do you deal with solving cancer? Curing cancer is not going to happen because of a miracle vaccine; it`s going to be because we have enough data, and enough markers identified, and then regress them through analysis, and find out what it takes to fix your problem or someone else`s problem, not the generic problem.

SPENCER MICHELS: The increase in speed will be exponential, according to Intel physicist and chip designer Mark Bohr, whom we met at a scientific conference.

MARK BOHR, Physicist, Intel: Now, this chip can perform about one trillion operations per second. Now, 10 years ago, Intel made a computer that could also do one trillion operations per second. That computer was the size of a room and used tens of thousands of watts of power. The chip that we reported at the conference is the size of a fingernail, and it uses less than a hundred watts of power.

SPENCER MICHELS: But AMD`s chief of technology Phillip Hester dismissed the 80-core chip as a science project with no practical use at present. And it would require the industry to develop a whole new way of writing software.

PHIL HESTER, Chief Technology Officer, AMD: Our approach is really different, in that we`re going to start with what the end customer wants and then work backwards from that to figure out what the technology needs are, not start with the technology and try to force that into a market, or a position that it really doesn`t fit.

SPENCER MICHELS: Instead, Hester says, AMD is focusing on the capability of its graphics technology that was used by Lucasfilm to create the Academy Award-winning graphics in the most recent "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Hester says AMD`s package of fast chips and specialized graphics processors can be used today for real-world problems. He pointed to this model of an Alzheimer protein which was developed with the help of an AMD chip. It helps scientists study the causes of the disease.

PHIL HESTER: So what previously may have taken, let`s say, three years to compute now can be done in a month.

SPENCER MICHELS: AMD insists it is gaining on Intel, which maintains three-quarters of the worldwide market. Intel insists it will expand its lead because of its innovations. Both agree that competition is ultimately good for consumers and is really driving the science.

But the game has moved beyond the industrial research labs. The demand for more power, thinner materials, and less heat has inspired nanotech chemists at UCLA and Caltech to search for an entirely new way to make transistors.

Dr. Fraser Stoddart, recently knighted by the queen of England, has invented molecules that can actually act as transistors. A ring of atoms on the molecule moves back and forth when electricity is applied, just like a switch.

FRASER STODDART, California Nanosystems Institute, UCLA: This is the actual molecule with the various different atoms picked out, black for carbon, red for oxygen, white for hydrogen, yellow for sulfur, and blue for nitrogen.

SPENCER MICHELS: Is it unusual to have a ring around a molecule? Or do some molecules have that?

FRASER STODDART: This is very unusual. These are relatively new molecules. There aren`t many of them in the world today yet.

SPENCER MICHELS: His molecules are just four nanometers tall, meaning 160,000 of them are the size of a single white blood cell.

FRASER STODDART: We will be generating much less energy than the present-day computers. And you put all of this together, in a situation where you want to have a device that is not big, and you don`t have to carry it onto an airplane in a bag, but rather it would be in your pocket or, in fact, may be just the size of your thumbnail.

SPENCER MICHELS: Stoddart says commercial chip makers who had first ignored his work have recently shown interest. Meanwhile, the competition over making fast chips and finding new uses for them intensifies, spurring on an industry that has already changed the way we live.

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GWEN IFILL: And now, who`s on first? The primary shuffle. Judy Woodruff explains.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The modern tradition in American politics has Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls spending much of their time in Iowa and New Hampshire. In elections past, victories in either of these earliest contests helped catapult candidates to their party`s nomination.

For 2008, Nevada moved quickly to insert itself in between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in January, joining South Carolina as one of the four firsts in the nation. In reaction, party activists in several other states, angling to play a bigger role in choosing the eventual nominees, have persuaded their legislatures to move their primary dates up, too.

California and New York, two blockbuster states on the electoral map, have advanced their primaries to next February 5th, a day which is fast becoming a new Super Tuesday of contests. Nine states have already moved their primaries and caucuses to that day, and 15 more are considering joining them.

But late last week, the Florida state legislature surprised the political establishment when it voted to leapfrog the pack and move its primary date from March to January 29th, the same day as South Carolina. Now, South Carolina officials say they`re considering advancing their primary date even earlier.

And in New Hampshire, where state law says that its primary is to be the first in the nation, officials have threatened to move its January 22nd contest into December of this year. Iowa officials say they might move their January 14th caucus earlier, too.

Nowhere is all this activity being watched more closely than among the 18 declared presidential candidates, who are busy calculating and recalculating where to compete, where to spend money, and when to start the costly process of television advertising.

For more, we are joined by Marco Rubio. He is the speaker of Florida`s House of Representatives. He is a Republican. Michael Mauro, Iowa`s secretary of state, he is a Democrat. And Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report.

Gentlemen, thank you all for being with us.

Marco Rubio, let me begin with you. Why did you want to move -- and I understand you were a leader in this effort -- to see Florida`s primary move up to January?

MARCO RUBIO, Speaker, Florida House of Representatives: Well, it`s good for Florida. Our taxpayers were paying for an election that didn`t mean anything. We didn`t have any delegates. We had a bunch of folks that got invited to a party in August and got to go to a balloon drop but had no role to play in deciding who the party nominee of either party was going to be.

So now candidates are going to have to come to Florida and answer questions which are important to Floridians and, by the way, closely mirror what are important to Americans.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, in the past, Florida`s primary has been -- at least the last few elections -- in March. That`s still four months -- at least four months before the national primary conventions. Why isn`t that early enough?

MARCO RUBIO: You know, well, in the intro to this piece, you highlighted exactly why, and that is all these other states moving forward, combined with the fact that, over the last three presidential cycles, all the nominations were, for all intents and purposes, wrapped up by early March, and Florida had no voice to play in choosing the nominees of either party, yet had a huge role to play come general election.

By the way, I think it`s good for the political parties. You know, Florida, is, by far, the largest single swing state in the country and, over the last few election cycles, perhaps the single most important. I think it behooves both parties to know that their nominee is someone who would be palatable to Florida voters.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Mauro, secretary of state in Iowa, what`s Iowa`s view of what Florida is doing?

MICHAEL MAURO, Iowa Secretary of State: Well, Iowa is moving forward. We have presidential candidates here every day, both on the Democrat and Republican side. They`ve opened offices. We`re excited about what`s happening here in Iowa, and we plan on being the first in the nation. And we`re still looking forward to that January 14th date.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So January the 14th is -- could that move even earlier?

MICHAEL MAURO: The only way we probably would move it earlier, if someone puts us in a position where we have to move. We intend on protecting our first in the nation status. We believe retail politics in Iowa and New Hampshire are good ways for candidates to get started. It gives lesser-known candidates an opportunity to get out and make a name for themselves, and we believe it works.

And I think the candidates think it works, too, because they are here every day. Believe me, there isn`t a day that doesn`t go by in Iowa where you`re not dealing with Democrat and Republican candidates for president wanting to be here. And the fact that they set up offices and are spending lots of money shows that they intend to make Iowa a big state.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Mr. Mauro, for people who don`t follow politics closely, what would you say to them about why it`s so important for Iowa and New Hampshire -- and, to a lesser degree, South Carolina and Nevada -- to be the first in the nation? Why is that so important?

MICHAEL MAURO: I think there are a couple of reasons. I think what you`re going to see on February 5th is a mass media campaign in these states, where the candidates are going to be spending lots of money on TV, getting their name out. I don`t know how much time you can spend in California, and in New York, and in Florida, and in South Carolina, and in all these other states who are going to be having that Super Tuesday.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, and to a certain extent Nevada, you`ll see retail politics at its best. Lesser-known candidates can come in here, without the money and big name, and make a name for themselves. It`s proven so, what happened in Iowa four years ago with John Kerry. It proved itself with John Edwards, his close finish here, how it catapulted him into the presidential race and has done it in years before with Al Gore.

So it does work here. And it works on both sides of the aisle, and I think that you`re going to see Iowa and New Hampshire. Because of that retail politics, where you actually come out, and they get into the living rooms. They get to talk to the voters. You get a real good feel for the political process. It sets the tone, to set the stage for future primaries.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Marco Rubio, why shouldn`t what has been continue?

MARCO RUBIO: Well, by the way, we respect New Hampshire and Iowa`s position, and that`s why we haven`t moved our dates even earlier. We think everything that`s just been outlined here earlier is absolutely accurate. And then, after that, we think it`s fair game.

In fact, we think Florida is important, because, after they leave Iowa and New Hampshire, they get to come to Florida, and they`re going to be asked questions about Latin America, a part of the world that we`ve neglected, in terms of our national foreign policy. They`re going to be asked questions about Israel, about immigration, about energy, about the care of the elderly.

They`re going to be asked about taxes. They`re going to be asked about a host of issues that only Florida is going to ask all these questions.

And so we respect Iowa and New Hampshire`s position. But thereafter, we think that Florida is an important voice and an important place for candidates to come and answer questions that have a national impact.

JUDY WOODRUFF: There was a Florida Democratic official, we noted, Marco Rubio, you are the speaker of the Florida House, you are a Republican. There is a Democratic official in Florida named Mitt Cesar (ph) who said, "Don`t blame the Democrats," he said, "for an act of the Republican-controlled Florida legislature." He said the Republicans may have been trying to do a good thing or they may have been trying to be Machiavellian. Was there politics involved here?

MARCO RUBIO: I`m not sure what he meant by Machiavellian. I mean, this measure passed in both chambers by an overwhelming margin, bipartisan support. In fact, it was sponsored by a Democrat in the Florida Senate. The fact of the matter is that Floridians were paying for an election that didn`t count, and that made no sense to us.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I`m going to bring you in, Stu Rothenberg, to help us understand what is going on here, because we haven`t even mentioned South Carolina, where the Republicans say they`re not happy with what Florida has done. They`re saying they want to move even earlier now than the 29th.

From the standpoint of somebody who`s been watching presidential politics for quite a few years, what`s going on?

STUART ROTHENBERG, Rothenberg Political Report: Well, there are a number of things, Judy. There`s front loading. If you look back to the 1992 presidential schedule for primaries and caucuses that I pulled out, the first contest was Iowa, February 10th. Now we`re talking about mid- January contests.

The first four contests in February in 1992 were relatively small states. We didn`t have a mega-state come until March 10th. Everything is moved up now. Plus, you have just chaos, sheer chaos.

Here we are. We`re in May, and we don`t know what states are going to be on exactly what days. There`s talk about New Hampshire wanting to leapfrog and move into this calendar year.

If you`re a campaign strategist, a campaign manager, the one thing you want is certainty. You want to be able to plan where you`re going to play and where you`re going to spend your dollars and spend your time.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What`s caused the chaos? I mean, what is...

STUART ROTHENBERG: Well, some of it is what we`ve heard, the desire to be relevant. There is a...

JUDY WOODRUFF: You mean, on the part of Florida?

STUART ROTHENBERG: On the part of states in general. We`ve seen this in many states, in Michigan, for example. Over the years, there have been complaints. "Well, why should Iowa and New Hampshire go first? They select the nominees, and we`re at the end, and nobody pays any attention to us." And so now a number of states have said, "We`re going to move up." Well, when one starts to move up, the whole system crumbles.

The Democratic National Committee and, to a lesser extent, the Republicans have been trying to kind of define choices here of when the states can have their primaries and caucuses, but really this is up to the states. And they`re just rushing forward.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Mauro, are you worried that the first-in-the- nation status that your state of Iowa, that New Hampshire have enjoyed for so long is now really in jeopardy? Or is it just a matter that everything is moving earlier? You`re still going to be first, but everything is moving earlier. And what effect does that have on the influence of Iowa in this election?

MICHAEL MAURO: Well, I think Iowa and New Hampshire are going to have all kinds of influence in this election. And it`s been shown by the activity from the presidential candidates.

I do think that, with all this leapfrogging and moving around, the domino effect that`s going into place, it could have a lot to say about the future of presidential primaries and caucuses in years to come. For this election cycle, I know Iowa intends on keeping its first-in-the-nation status and will do everything it possibly can to work with New Hampshire to make sure that those two states in particular keep their first-in-the- nation status as a caucus and primary state.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Mr. Rubio, I saw today a quote from some of the Republican officials -- in fact, I think the Republican state chair -- yes, the Republican state chair in South Carolina, who said, "South Carolina is going to name a date that will keep us first in the South." He said it could be as early as Halloween. He was prompted to say this when he saw what Florida had done.

MARCO RUBIO: Well, that`s their decision, and they pay for their primary. They can do it any time they want. We`re not competing with South Carolina, but I think, by and large, if you asked people across this country, what state looks more like the rest of this country? Is it South Carolina or is it Florida? They would tell you it`s Florida.

People move here from all over the country. And it`s an accurate reflection of what this country is about. The issues that you will be forced to answer in Florida are national-type issues.

And, with all due respect to South Carolina, that may not be the case in their primary. They have the right to hold it any day they want, but I can assure you that presidential candidates will be paying attention to Florida this time around.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Are you saying the same thing about Iowa and New Hampshire?

MARCO RUBIO: You know what? I think the gentleman earlier outlined exactly why it`s important that they go first and earlier, because you do get that retail level of politics you`re not going to get in other states.

But after that, isn`t it important to know where our next president stands on places like Venezuela, on Cuba, on Latin America, on immigration, on energy, on offshore drilling, on a national catastrophic fund, in light of all these natural disasters that our country is facing? And the list goes on.

And what other state in the country, particularly what other state that`s really going to be in play in November, is going to ask these questions? So I think that outlines our case for why Florida should be earlier in the cycle.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Stu Rothenberg...

STUART ROTHENBERG: Every state could say the same thing that Mr. Rubio just suggested, that their state, they have interests, they have concerns, and they want to be addressed. And that`s certainly the case. And that`s the problem. Everybody now wants to go first; nobody wants to go last.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Where does this end? I mean, it`s going to get settled one way or another.

STUART ROTHENBERG: Well, this cycle, states are going to pick their dates, and New Hampshire is going to decide if it has to leapfrog individual states. Judy, we don`t know when it`s going to end.

I mean, at some point, there have been suggestions, as you know, over the years, for regional primaries, national primaries, some rotating system. So far, it hasn`t worked. Right now, it is still the Wild West, and each state decides for itself where it wants to be. And we have a number of gunfights going on right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And earlier and earlier, is that best for the American voter?

STUART ROTHENBERG: Well, there are a number of things. It is earlier and earlier. It`s more compact, as well, so there`s less time between the first contest and these mega-contests. Many of us think it`s not a great idea.

Once the selection process truly gets under way, we`d like to see more time for candidates to be evaluated. Maybe somebody comes from a second tier and suddenly is in the top tier and, a week later, the voters have to decide, is this going to be the nominee or not?

The whole process has moved earlier. I don`t think it`s particularly healthy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Mauro, what do you say to that?

MICHAEL MAURO: Well, Judy, I think that there`s some considerations that have to be taken in place in both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican committee, who put some rules and regulations in place that could affect some of these states who move too early, could cost them some delegates.

I think there`s some rules and regulations that could cost them half of their delegates at the national convention and cost them all their super-delegates. So I think that both national committee on the Republican and Democratic side are trying to implement some rules to try to keep this thing in check.

And one of the rules they`re putting in place is that, you go too early, it could cost you some of your delegates. So that`s something that each of the individual states have to address.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Are you saying that could happen to South Carolina? I`m sorry to Florida, to Florida.

MICHAEL MAURO: I think it can. I`m not here to speak against Florida, but I think that that could be a situation that they`d have to address in Florida. As a matter of fact, I read an article just somewhere recently where both the Democratic and Republican parties were -- the national committees were concerned about this and were making overtures about this could jeopardize some of their delegates. Mr. Rubio could probably elaborate on that a little bit more.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes, Mr. Rubio, we`ve only got about 15 seconds. Are you worried about Florida being penalized, losing delegates?

MARCO RUBIO: We don`t have any delegates now, because all they get invited to is a party. They don`t get to make a choice. But I`ll tell you what: Both parties are going to have to come back to Florida and campaign, and it`s really hard to win the presidency of this country if you can`t win Florida.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Gentlemen, we are going to leave it there. And this is a story we are going to be watching very closely. Marco Rubio, who is the speaker of the House, the state of Florida, Michael Mauro, secretary of state in Iowa, Stu Rothenberg, thank you all.

(BREAK)

GWEN IFILL: Finally tonight, essayist Anne Taylor Fleming on addiction and rehabilitation.

ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING, NewsHour Essayist: They are proliferating up here in the lovely and expensive hills of Malibu, residential rehab centers, I`m talking about. With names like Promises, and Passages, and Renaissance Malibu, they are protected by gates and unlisted addresses.

They offer a well-heeled and often famous clientele a luxurious place to stare down the demons of alcohol and drug addiction while staring out at the luminous Pacific. The young pop star, Britney Spears, had her tabloid- chronicled, 28-day, $48,000 stay in Promises, this glamorous spa-like facility, complete with massage therapists, elegant sheets, and gourmet food.

There seems to be a veritable trail of celebrities signing on for a now-trendy stint in one of these high-end places, often after a very public fall from grace.

Think Mel Gibson after his arrest and racist chatter, or other high- profilers who confessed to being powerless over alcohol, like Congressman Mark Foley and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Then, it`s on to Oprah or Barbara Walters to tender an apology for bad behavior and complete the disgrace-to-redemption cycle.

It is easy to be a little cheeky about all this -- and hard not to be, at least a little -- given the vast majority of people who couldn`t possibly afford this kind of detox deluxe. Currently, addiction affects 22.2 million Americans, but only 10 percent of them get any kind of treatment at all.

Of the roughly 2.2 million prisoners in this country, at least half are alcohol- or drug-dependent and will be released back into society addiction intact. But even among the treated, whether they`ve gotten their help in prison or in an AA meeting in a church basement, or in Malibu`s lap of luxury, the relapse rate is huge. Only about 20 percent of first-time rehabbers will stay clean and sober for a year.

Addiction is daunting, as any of us know who have watched a loved one battle fiercely against it. It is understood now as an insidious disease with genetic, biochemical and behavioral factors, a fancy way of saying it seems to be a thing deep in, a craving of mind and body, a habit of self- anesthetizing that is extremely difficult to break and extremely easy to fall back into once broken.

The pharmaceutical companies are trying very hard to come up with a magic pill, but, meanwhile, one in four Americans must watch a family member struggle with addiction, and that is not an easy thing to do. There is so much wreckage.

That goes for the celebrities, too, and their families. They might start on the road to recovery up here in the opulence of Malibu, but down there it will be the same slugging, slugging, day-to-day fight to the finish, the same amends to make, the same repair work to do.

For some -- Britney Spears and the other party-girl of the moment, Lindsay Lohan, who has also tried a residential rehab program -- it will be plenty tough. They are still so young, so pampered, victims not just of their own party-girl appetites, but also of a celebrity worshipping culture that is, in effect, an enabler, to borrow the addiction lingo. And they and their loved ones will pay an unknown price of it for the rest of their lives.

Turned off as I have been by some of their antics, I nonetheless root for them, as I do for anybody and everybody trying to wrest themselves free of an addiction.

I`m Anne Taylor Fleming.

(BREAK)

GWEN IFILL: Again, the major developments of the day.

Searchers in Greensburg, Kansas, reported finding a survivor and two more bodies. A tornado destroyed most of the town on Friday night, killing at least 10 people.

And the United States military reported another U.S. soldier killed in Baghdad. That made 26 American deaths so far in May.

A reminder: You can download audio versions of our reports and listen to them on your computer, iPod, or other MP3 player. To do so, visit the Online NewsHour at PBS.org.

We`ll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I`m Gwen Ifill. Thank you, and good night.