March 12, 2021 - PBS NewsHour full episode

The winter storms that devastated Texas last month led to a major water crisis. But for weeks afterward, there weren't enough plumbers to help customers with the damage. All of this underscores the need for more of these skilled workers. But for women and workers of color, there can be even greater obstacles. Paul Solman has the story for our series "Work Shift."

Imagine discovering that a painting on your wall is a long, lost masterpiece. In two recent cases, the story centers on Jacob Lawrence, a pioneering American modernist painter. Lydia Gordon, of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is our guide, as part of our arts and culture series.

President Biden moved up the timeline for vaccine allocation Thursday by ordering all states, tribes and territories to make every U.S. adult eligible for the COVID vaccines by May 1. And on Friday, he also vowed to expand the vaccine supply globally in an unprecedented meeting with world leaders from India, Japan and Australia. Nick Schifrin and William Brangham join Judy Woodruff to discuss.

Christie’s, the auction house, sold a work of art Thursday for a record-breaking $69.3 million for a piece that exists only digitally. The sale, reportedly made to an investor known by a pseudonym, is seen by many as history-making development in both digital art and cryptocurrency markets. Jeffrey Brown reports for our arts and culture series, "CANVAS."

New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Biden's primetime address to the nation, the historic $1.9 trillion COVID relief law, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's future, and living the last year amid the pandemic.

We are now into the second year of this global pandemic and since it began more than 530,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. As we do every week, we take a moment to share the lives of five extraordinary people lost to this virus.