they can switch to different fossil fuels that make less pollution. and what they've done so far is they've actually shifted their workweek to work seven days, but not everybody works seven days. it's not monday through friday. some people work wednesday to sunday, some thursday to monday to spread out the pollution a bit. >> because you can't breathe the air. >> yep. >> chad, thank you, appreciate it. it's kind of sad actually. well, thanks for watching "around the world." "cnn newsroom" starts right now. have a good afternoon. right now a special committee, special council and subpoenas, it's a big day in the chris christie organization and both sides gearing up for a major fight. also right now hillary clinton under scrutiny, is she unbeatable in 2016, or could benghazi still cost her the presidency? and right now 500 firefighters are trying to contain a fire outside of los angeles. homes are in danger and mandatory evacuations are now underway. we're going to the scene for a

live report. wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we start with new information on chris christie and the traffic scandal investigation in new jersey. a special investigative committee will begin its first session at any moment now when we have learned that it could issue between 10 to 20 subpoenas today. the governor meanwhile spent the morning at the jersey shore talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on superstorm sandy recovery. he promised to stay focused on the job at hand. >> no one i can assure you ever told me or anybody on my team that it's going to be easy. hadn't been up to this point, and there's all kinds of challenges, as you know, that come every day out of nowhere to test you. but i want to assure the people

of new jersey one thing, i was born here, i was raised here. i'm raising my family here. and this is where i intend to spend the rest of my life. and whatever test they put in front of me, i will meet those tests because i'm doing it on your behalf. >> our erin mcpike is standing by. she's in trenton, new jersey, right now. erin, let's talk about the investigation specifically the powers this new committee we will have. do we know what the first order of business will be? >> well, wolf, as you mentioned that committee has just formed. they are about to start meeting. and they will vote so that they do have subpoena power. now, as you mentioned, we expect they will issue between 10 and 20 subpoenas, however our understanding from the head of that committee, john wisniewski,

is they will not be naming those names. we'll get the names in a press release later today. obviously top political advisors and other officials who were involved in the bridge closures. but, wolf, i would point out that last week david wildstein, who was that port authority official who was subpoenaed and appearing before the transportation committee, he chose to plead the fifth and they did not get much information out of him last week. we will have to wait to see what happens as this investigation goes forward, but that is something to keep in mind. >> yeah, they didn't get any information out of him because as you say he pleaded the fifth. erin, there's also a state senate investigation. are the investigations really different? are they looking at the same things? what's going on? >> well, wolf, we expect that committee will also have subpoena power. and that committee will be led by loretta wineberg, she is a democrat who represents ft. lee. so obviously she'll have an

interest in getting to the bottom of this investigation. but they will have about the same powers. and they will be looking at the same things. but we expect that the real action will come from the assembly and that committee hearing there was a special council appointed, reed shar, you'll see him pictured there, he was a former assistant u.s. attorney in illinois and he led two corruption cases against rod blagojevich who was the governor of illinois who is now of course in jail. the christie administration has also lawyered up. assistant u.s. attorney in new york he is there to lead the internal review that chris christie has ordered of his own administration as well as to help respond to the inquiries from the u.s. attorney of new jersey, wolf. >> erin, thank you. erin mcpike on the scene in trenton. let's bring in our chief national correspondent john king. john, you've been doing a lot of reporting on what's going on. reid schar, what do we know

about this special prosecutor right now? >> in a word, serious. he put rod blagojevich in jail. that was a very political investigation. you have a lot of politics involved in the new jersey investigation. he's serious. he's also tried some terrorism cases. has a lot of experience before grand juries, wolf. he's known as someone as a good digger, a good staff builder, very thorough, also viewed as very fair. so this is a very serious move by this committee to go outside of new jersey, hire somebody that a lot of federal -- a dozen years as a u.s. assistant attorney, now in private practice, this tells you this is a very serious investigation. and that's why today he's been working with the staff, members of the assembly, on these first round of subpoenas. a lot of them will be for documents but some will be for the members of the governor's inner circle including some names that haven't shown up on e-mails or text messages about the ft. lee traffic snafus. every governor has a body guy who carries his bag, puts his stuff on the post.

the committee believes when governor christie communicates with his staff he uses his body guy as his intermediary. it tells how quickly they're going to get to the governor to compel testimony. >> all these individuals unless they've pled the fifth and don't answer any questions, if they start answering questions, they have to be really, really precise. if there's any indication of perjury, these special prosecutors, they hate perjury. they're going to fwo after them. they may not have done anything wrong up until now, but if they lie about what they think happened and that's proven, that could be disastrous for them. >> always the risk in these investigations. again, politics, loyalty involved. that's why the committee wants to build a document case first. they want all the documents in then they'll bring the witnesses in. they'll be looking for any contradictions. governor christie's news conference said we're going to fully cooperate, he's brought in his own lawyers. when these investigations start, they're about covering issue a. they often become about other things as the investigation unfolds. the one interesting thing about this is everyone wants it over

as quickly as possible, but the document, the resolution empowering this special committee with special prosecutor reid schar, it has if necessary until january 2016. >> two years. >> this could go on. we remember the days whether it was the white water investigation of governor clinton, these things start with a narrow focus and sometimes this is the risk for governor christie, i'm not saying they've done anything wrong, the risk is it becomes a distraction even if you've done nothing wrong. it could go on a long time and a lot of people around you paying. >> he's out of the picture now. he skyrocketed in his popularity the way he handled superstorm sandy. this weekend he'll be in florida doing some political fund raising as the incoming chair of the republican governors association. >> major test of his political skills, his leadership skills, his focus and his discipline. in the sense he's trying to advance his second term agenda, school reform, tax reform, the continued recovery from superstorm sandy, some other

things. at a time when democrats right after his big re-election you would think they would be rolling over to support him, now they feel emboldened. can he sell his agenda at home? when he travels the country, is there any pause, any hesitation, any stepback from national fundraisers? 2014 is about electing other republicans, not chris christie. but if you can raise a lot of money and make a lot of friends, boy does it help when he goes into 2016. so he has to prove that as he cooperates with these investigations, which again could go on for months if not a year or more, they can also handle both state agenda and national ambition. >> if he were thinking and i think he is still thinking of running for president. >> oh, he is. >> going to florida, that's a pretty important state in a presidential contest whether in a primary or in a general election. >> you look at the three dozen governors races this year, he's going to go to all of the key states. >> john, thanks very much. john king reporting. in southern california meanwhile firefighters are pouncing on a quickly spreading wildfire just outside of los hangless. look at these flames fed by

dangerously dry conditions and hot dry winds. casey wian is joining us now about 20 miles outside of los angeles. casey, we just learned three people are now in custody. what's going on? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. the latest information we have from the glendora police department is that three people are now in custody in connection with this fire, which has been burning for a little over four hours now. officially still at about -- you can see some of the black smoke on this hill behind me and see the homes in the foreground, that's the concern. we've got 500 officially fire fighting personnel battling this blaze in the air mostly. helicopters and fixed wing aircraft dropping water and flame retardant on this fire which continues to advance, slowly i must say right now, toward these homes in this area. there have been some homes burnt to the east of here. we do not have an update on the number.

they say as i mentioned 500 personnel. i think that number's going to go up. i just saw two fire engines go by me from newport beach and huntington beach. if you know southern california, that's probably 50 miles from where we are. a lot of fire agencies coming in to try to knock this fire down as quickly as possible. the main concern unseasonably warm temperatures and high winds are forecasted for this afternoon. we've got temperatures forecasted in the 80s. and we're talking it's january. so obviously it's unseasonably warm, unseasonably dry. california now in its third year of drought. so authorities making a very aggressive push to try to get this fire contained and urntd under control before it hits some of these neighborhoods, wolf. >> yeah. pretty worrisome. i assume where you are, casey, you can smell the smoke. are you close enough to really feel what's going on behind you? >> reporter: well, i mean, we were in another neighborhood just a little while ago where the flames were about 100 yards from the homes there as people

were evacuating. and we were there for i don't know, maybe half hour, 45 minutes and i mistakenly left the window of our van open. the inside was covered in ash. you can see some of the ash falling from the sky. it's definitely a concern in terms of these neighborhoods, a health issue with all this smoke and soot and ash in the air. a couple of schools have been closed. so obviously authorities taking this situation very seriously, wolf. >> and quickly, casey, what -- once again, suspect arson? is that what they suspect the cause of this fire? >> reporter: there is a news conference scheduled in less than an hour. so we'll be able to find out hopefully at that news conference what the specific charge that these three people are being held on. we don't know. no one has mentioned to us the word arson. that's obviously the first thing you think about when three people are taken into custody in connection with the fire. but we just don't know what the specific charge is yet, wolf. >> all right. we'll clarify as soon as we know. thanks very much, casey wian on

the scene very disturbing fire outside of los angeles. meanwhile, here in washington anger and frustration on the u.s. senate floor today over a new report on the obama administration's handling of the attack in benghazi, libya. we'll bring you that. plus, a live interview with one of the senators helped write this highly critical report, dan coates is standing by live. ealty is a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend. with 20% fewer calories than purina dog chow. isn't it time you discovered the lighter side of dog chow. purina dog chow light & healthy. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® pore refining cleanser. alpha-hydroxy and exfoliating beads work to clean and tighten pores so they can look half their size. pores...shrink 'em down to size! [ female announcer ] pore refining cleanser. neutrogena®. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution

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heated reaction today to a new report on the 2012 attack in benghazi, libya. scathing report for the senate intelligence committee concludes that the attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound was most likely preventable. it says the obama administration was aware of security weaknesses in benghazi over the compound, was warned about the deteriorating situation on the ground. four americans including the u.s. ambassador to libya, chris stephens, were killed in the attack by militants described as being loosely aligned or linked to al qaeda. the senate report calls out the state department for failing to increase security at the facility. earlier today two leading republican lawmakers took to the senate floor insisting the report didn't go far enough.

listen to this. >> that in this intelligence committee report, which is very encompassing, that except for one mention in the minority views there is no one, no individual, who is held responsible. so now we have a situation where bureaucracies are responsible but individuals are not. i find that intriguing. >> you want to know what chris christie did? fine, absolutely fair game. we know what he did when he found out what his people did about the traffic jam, he fired them. and he got up in front of the whole world and said i'm embarrassed, it's my fault, i'm going to fire the people who did this bad thing. name one person that has been held accountable for this bad thing called benghazi. >> all right. let's get some reaction. joining us from capitol hill, senator dan coates is member of the senate intelligence committee.

thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> do you want to respond to what we just heard from your republican colleague, what lindsey graham and john mccain has said? >> well, it sounds like the 2016 presidential race has started. what happened here and what's reported in this report we spent hours and hours investigating and coming to the conclusion that this could have been prevented, there were pleas from those on the ground in libya who wanted more security that was denied. and this question about responsibility i think is an important one, what happened to the buck stops here? in this case a lot of finger pointing elsewhere as to failures of the process and failures of the agency, et cetera. but no one really has stood up and said i take responsibility for this. that's important. the american people want justice done here. and closure to this issue. and we've not gotten there yet. and this report i think just reaffirms what a lot of us have thought and that is there are still unanswered questions. >> listen to this exchange i had yesterday with the chair of the senate intelligence committee, senator dianne feinstein.

who should be held responsible for what clearly was a failure? >> well, let me say why the report says very likely preventable. and that's because there was adequate intelligence. i personally went through a stack like this of intelligence that forewarned. and we know there were a number of events -- attacks that took place in the six months prior to benghazi. we also know that there was discussion about added security. we know the ambassador did not want added security. we know there were concerns about benghazi. we know there were training camps around that area. and it is something that i think the state department has to really come to grips with. >> but clearly she's not blaming the secretary of state at the time, hillary clinton. she just issued a statement a few minutes ago saying

statements on the senate floor this morning intubate that the report assigns culpability to -- this is patently false. i want the record to be clear i condemn any effort to use this report for political purposes. do you agree? >> it shouldn't be. what's fact we lost senators -- and rejected by the state department. again, it is going to be looked at in terms of, well, who's in charge of the state department? and is somebody going to step up and take responsibility for this? just getting justice done and getting closure to this i think it's important. that's an important component of it. but the chairman's views show that this is not a partisan issue. this is a bipartisan report signed by the chairman of the committee who's a democrat and supported by republicans, raises

questions that i think need to be answered before we can put this to rest. >> well, what about chris stevens himself, the deceased u.s. ambassador? the report lays out a whole bunch of recommendations against increasing security that chris stevens himself put forward and that he was willing to go to benghazi even though some others said it was too dangerous. what role did he have in this entire affair? >> well, that's a good question. chris was known to be kind of an adventurer, someone who took risk on behalf of his country and representing his country. nevertheless once you submit requests for support and it comes through the channel, i served as a former ambassador, i know how it works, gets into the state department, you need responses. and if the response is we're not going to do that, then i suppose the ambassador has some role in terms of deciding where he goes and where he doesn't go. but it doesn't dismiss the fact that these requests were made, this could have been prevented. i hope we learn lessons from

this. but we also have to find closure to this and bring justice to those who perpetrated this. and then you have the whole video issue in the talking points. so it continues the thinking and the concerns that there were some politicalization of the decisions made here. that's what needs to be put to rest or it's going to continue to be a political effort and political responses. >> the report though, and you're a member of the senate intelligence committee, does blame the intelligence community for the mistake in talking points, if you will, about that anti-muslim video that may have sparked some of the riots outside that compound in benghazi when susan rice the then-u.s. ambassador to the united nations was on those sunday talk shows, she was reading from some of those intelligence reports. isn't that included in your own conclusion yesterday? >> that is included. and should be included. there's still some questions regarding how and who made the changes that caused susan rice

to go forward and say what she did about this was all the result of a youtube video when people knew at that time that that was not the case. we struggled with that question to find out just how all that happened. this is going to go before the senate foreign relations committee. i think they'll be asking the same questions. but again it points to the fact that this is not been resolved. and potentially could continue to be a political issue going forward. >> certainly could be. by no means over with yet. senator, thanks very much for joining us. >> sure enough, thank you. president obama urges congress not to pass any new sanctions against iran, at least not yet. what arguments did he make, how are the lawmakers likely to respond? we have details. we're going to the white house when we come back.

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president obama's urging democrats in congress not to impose any new sanctions on iran. he made the appeal during a closed-door meeting designed to rally democrats and fire up the base. our senior white house correspondent brianna keilar is joining us right now from the white house.

brianna, this is a pretty unusual meeting, the president invited all these democratic senators to the white house, they had some cocktails. what happened specifically as far as the desire among many members of congress to impose new sanctions against iran right now? >> reporter: yeah, wolf, they did talk about this, we're told by one senator who was in the meeting telling my colleague, dana bash, that the president gave a detailed impassioned plea for congress to not impose new sanctions on iran. the white house very much in odds not just with congressional democrats -- or pardon me, congressional republicans but also democrats. there's a bipartisan bill in the senate that would say to iran if you don't come to a deal here during this six-month time period, if you don't come to a longer term deal in that time, you're going to have sanctions come down on you after that. the white house and president obama feel very strongly that that's a bad idea, that that could actually make iran walk away from the table. so that's what we're told by senators in this meeting last

night, wolf, that the president made this case. that he said, hey, you can't do this, you're going to have president rouhani walking away from the table because he also has some hard liners in iran who are saying who don't really want to negotiate here. so president obama trying to win over some democrats here, wolf, but unclear if he was able to do that. >> because there are what, 16 senate democrats in addition to almost all of the republicans who want to go forward with the new sanctions against iran legislation right now. and the president is trying to whittle away that number. >> reporter: that's exactly right. we're told that the informal vote count on supporting what's a bipartisan bill that is authored in part by the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, a democrat, bob menendez, it's a big hurdle for president obama, but he's certainly trying to make his case. it would be a huge achievement if he's able to strike some sort of deal with iran in the next

six months as you're seeing the u.s. government agree to the lessening of freezing some overseas funds of iran's. and iran sort of curtailing in a small way its nuclear program trying to set the groundwork for a longer term negotiation. but it's really a difficult lift for president obama when he's facing a vote count like that, wolf. >> the argument that these senators, the democratic senators and republican senators, make is that these new sanctions wouldn't take effect for six months and would only take effect if the iranians didn't comply with the negotiations with the terms of this deal. and they say the iranians are bluffing, that if this legislation were to pass the iranians if they walked away they'd lose billions and billions of dollars in revenue that they're about to receive over the next six months as an easing of these sanctions take place. what's the white house response to that specific argument that the iranians won't walk away

from the deal? >> reporter: well, democrats think obviously that there's sort of a slippery slope, in a way, that if you start lessening sanctions against iran even in this small way that that could continue. the white house feels that if iran does walk away that you'll actually have international allies of the u.s. wanting to put more sanctions in place. that's their argument. so you're seeing these two completely countering arguments coming from the white house and congress, not just republicans but democrats, but at this point president obama feeling very strongly that it's in iran's interest obviously to broker a deal but that they're going to walk away if there is kind of this sword hanging over iran. the white house says that it's pretty obvious that there's a threat of more sanctions. you don't need to go as far as to pass legislation. the threat is enough in passing legislation may just force them

to walk and lose all of the progress that the white house feels they may have made for these negotiations for the long-term to keep a nuclear weapons -- to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon, wolf. >> we'll see what harry reid, the senate majority leader, decides to do about it. whether or not he'll even allow this legislation to come up for a vote -- >> reporter: oh, and wolf, if i can say to that, harry reid just saying to our congressional producer a short time ago he was sort of asked -- he asked him, are any democrats wonover here? and all reid would say is ultimately what's going to happen is iran is not going to get a nuclear weapon. so we're still trying to figure out if the president is winning over any democrats. >> good point, brian na's at the white house. thank you. waiting on hillary clinton to declare. is she already an unstoppable force on the democratic side? we're taking a closer look. coming up next "time" magazine's michael share standing by.

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three people are in custody in connection with a raging wildfire about 20 miles east of los angeles. hundreds of firefighters are trying to stop the flames from spreading. people in glendora have been evacuated, schools in the area are closed. about 1700 acres are burning, all this according to l.a. county officials. firefighters are battling this wildfire mostly from the air. here's what helicopter pilot

larry well k had to say about trying to save some homes. >> we understand that there are mandatory evacuations for some of these foothill areas here. we don't know that this was particularly one of them. however, by the, you know, by the look of the fire here engulfing this house, it looks like this may be one of the areas considered for evacuations. no, we don't see anyone in the house itself. we don't see anyone around the house other than that one firefighter we were able to spot a couple minutes ago. unfortunately, as you mentioned this house is going to be a total loss. the roof has collapsed. the flame's very active at this point. we can get a great shot of this fire here. and it is unfortunately consuming this house from top to bottom, left to right. and that is certainly some unfortunate news of the residents of the this place here. that at the very least they were able to get out and we hope firefighters are able to mitigate damage to some of the surrounding structures here and maintain some sort of order in the area here not allow this

fire to spread beyond the border of this particular home. under the most intense conditions fires can generate their own weather patterns. so having said that i would guess that winds down at the surface are probably whipping around pretty good. i will say -- we're at 6,000 feet at this point, and i will say at this point the fire, the smoke from the fire is basically lingering at about the 4,000 to 5,000 foot mark here. and it is blowing a little bit less intensely. for the moment the wind is starting to die out. i'm starting to look at some of the homes along just north of palm drive, just north of rose drive where some of the smoke just kind of lazily moving up. it looks like for the moment that the winds tend to be dying down. but we know from past experience that any shift in the wind or any change in the wind patterns can quickly kick this fire back up. >> amazing, amazing. pictures there. officials plan to hold a news conference within the hour. we're going to bring you the new information as we get it. we expect to hear more about the three people who are now in

custody as well. other news we're following, while chris christie has been dealing with the traffic scandal in new jersey, hillary clinton hasn't exactly been flying u iir the radar. there were reports about her so-called enemies list. we have a great article on cnn.com about her potential problems in iowa. and now she's the focus of "time" magazine's cover story. the article is entitled, can anyone stop hillary? "time" magazine's washington chief michael sheerer here with us right now. everything she seems to be doing, suggesting at least to a lot of us political followers, campaigning, is that your conclusion? >> yeah. there's no incentive for her to announce a presidential candidacy. her living looks a lot like a campaign. she travels the country for global initiative fundraisers and happens to be meeting with fundraisers for her campaign. she gives speeches at universities and happens to be

laying out themes that would work very well in a campaign. she's writing a book right now which will give her another book tour opportunity next year, which will be great for her campaign. so she's taking all the steps that she would need to take short of actually deciding. >> a lot of democrats really want her to run. they see this as an historic moment potentially, a first woman president of the united states. >> what's amazing right now in the ghktic party is how little opposition there is from any corner. even far to the left people opposed her in 2007-2008 when she last ran saying anything negative about her and lobbying her to take on their issues. historically you don't have uncontested primaries. it almost never happens. and it probably won't happen in her case. someone will come forward, but she's basically as close to an uncontested primary or looks that way. >> if she runs, what about joe biden? i'm sure he'd like to be president of the united states. >> i think he would. he's a guy who's never not running for the next job, but i think his aides have made clear that if she does run he's

probably not going to run. >> he wouldn't challenger you don't think? >> i don't think so. >> people ask me and they think i know but i don't know, is hillary going to run. i've always felt myself she will run unless she's not healthy. she had that blood clot in her brain about a year or so ago. if she's healthy and she looks great right now, what do you find out on that front? is she healthy enough to be president of the united states? she's 66 years old right now. >> there was a serious health issue several years ago. i think there are still unanswered questions about exactly what happened during that time and her health now. but if you look at her schedule and the way she's been traveling the country, like i said, very similar to a campaign schedule. she kept an incredibly rigorous schedule as secretary of state. there are no signs that her health is holding her back right now. so barring some disclosure revelation that we don't know about yet, i think all signs are that she is. >> listen to lindsey graham, the republican senator from south caroli carolina, speaking about hillary clinton and the attack in benghazi that killed four

americans earlier today. >> well, i think if she wants to be commander in chief she has to answer for her leadership as secretary of state when it comes to benghazi. she has a lot of accomplishments. she's a very accomplished woman. but under her leadership the consulate became a death trap. >> all right. so what about that? because on the republican side her critics, they clearly say she should take some of that responsibility for the disaster that occurred in benghazi. >> that's right. and she's going to keep hearing that. and what you see there lindsey graham's running for re-election right now. it's good for republicans to talk about hillary clinton right now. so they're going to keep talking about it and she's going to have to deal with it. i think a big part of her book and book tour when it comes out will be dealing head-on with this issue to try and get it out of the way before the campaign. >> her book is coming out this year. so she basically is doing what robert gates has now done, publish a book while the sitting president remains in office. i assume she's going to be writing about her time as secretary of state. >> we'll see if it's as tell-all

as robert gates. >> what do you think? >> i'd guess not. there's a great political alliance formed right now between hillary clinton and barack obama. a lot of people moving towards running her campaign, running the organizations on the outside of her campaign -- outside of the official campaign right now are former obama people. so there's a real potential for a unifying effect here. i doubt she will take too many -- >> on the other hand republicans probably want her to. give us some dirt, tell us what was really going on in those meetings leading up to the what, the killing of bin laden or whatever. take us inside that situation room. >> i doubt a call from a publisher that would change hillary clinton's strategy. >> her book would be a little more tame? >> i'm sure there will be news, but not of the sort that was in the gates book. >> do you know who's going to be in "the situation room" today? >> no, i don't. >> robert gates. we're going to have an extensive live conversation 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." thanks very much, michael, for that good article. we'll read more in "time" magazine.

some not so great retail news. a couple of well-known stores are rethinking their long-term strategy. we'll see what ripple effects are being felt on wall street in just a moment.

some big retail news today. best buy and jc penney didn't have quite the holiday season they expected.

our own zane asher joining us from the new york stock exchange. tell us what's going on with these huge big retailers and how it's impacting wall street. >> hey, wolf. it's been pretty much a bad day for jc penney and best buy, jc penney down about 3% right now on the word of store closures. i mean, this is a company that really has been bleeding money. so wall street taking the store closures as certainly a bad sign. also want to talk about best buy because they are having an event worse day. their shares are down 28% right now. and the volume, wolf, is particularly high. that means it's not just a few people sort of selling here and there. you have a lot of people selling those shares. it's partly because of holiday sales. holiday sales fell .8% this holiday season. it doesn't sound huge, and it really isn't, but wall street expected an krn crease. so that's where the shock is coming from. take a look at the trajectory best buy has been on over the past few years. they declined in 2011 and 2012, but 2013 was sort of a turnaround for them. in fact, they were the second

best performing stock in the s&p 500. and so now they're trying to restructure. they've got a new ceo, but this past holiday season has certainly been full with problems, fewer customers and heavy discounting as well. wolf. >> zain, thanks very much. >> of course. more water troubles in west virginia. the chemical company responsible for contaminating the water supply is now getting cited for additional violations at a second storage site. an epa report says freedom industries had five violations, one of them for not having adequate spill prevention barriers. meantime, a new advisory is being issued in the nine counties affected by the chemical leak. state health officials say pregnant women should avoid drinking tap water until they are absolutely no detectable levels of contamination. officials also say the decision is based on guidance from the cdc and is being made out of an abundance of caution. the do not use order for the tap water also remains in effect for about 150,000 people within the

so-called leak zone. not having clean water is a daily reality for millions of people around the world. that's something one movie star wants to change. our own chris cuomo shows us how matt damon is impacting our world. >> this celebration in india has a very special guest, matt damon. but the oscar winning actor isn't the big news of the day. the new water pump is stealing the spotlight. and damon's charity made it happen. water.org helps bring water and sanitation to those in need. >> water really underpins everything. every 20 seconds a child dies because they lack access to clean water and sanitation. every 20 seconds. >> this hits home for damon, who has four daughters. >> once you have kids, it's impossible not to see their face in every child you see. >> water.org provides small

loans to help people get access to water. >> people were paying money for water already. sometimes 15, 20 times what you or i pay for our water, right, to a local water mafia. if you can just front them the money to connect to the municipality, you'd give them their time back so they could work at their job and pay the loan off. they are now in control of their destiny in a way that they weren't. so it's not only about the millions of children who actually die every year, it's about the quality of life that somebody can have if they have access to clean water. a cheating scandal rocks the pentagon and involves almost three dozen u.s. air force officers in charge of maintaining the country's nuclear weapons and just the latest in a string of problems. we have the story straight ahead. ♪epic classical

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it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. >> an ohio prison has been put to death using a combination of a pain killer, a new protocol ohio is using. the european manufacturer of the

old drug banned the use by u.s. prisons. critics insist the new drugs will cause cruel and agonizing deaths. witnesses to his execution say it took him more than 15 minutes to die. they are in charge of maintaining the nation's arsenal of weapons. they have been plagued by scandals and many recently. the latest involves cheating at the air base in montana. 34 officers have been implicated in the incident has rocked the pentagon. looking into all of this for us, it's not just this incident, but a bunch of these worrisome incidents. >> you are talking about the air force base in montana being caught cheating. others knew about the cheating and didn't report it. that may not be reported so heavily on normally, but it's on the heels of several scandals rocking specifically america's

nuclear arsenal. last year two nuclear arsenal units failed safety inspections. also we reported this a few weeks ago, a top general enforcing the rules and one of the arsenals was removed from the post for womanizing and going on a drinking bunch and another vice admiral was removed from the post for allegedly using counterfeit chips at a casino and reports of mo hal problems. it's much deeper below the surface and leads you to question whether the arsenal is safe. that was raised yesterday. debra lee james, the secretary of the air force. given all these problems, is the arsenal safe. here's what she had to say. >> i want all of you to know based on everything we know today, i have great confidence

and the effectiveness of our icbm force. very importantly, this was a failure of some of our air men. it was not a failure of the nuclear mission. >> the officers involved have been removed or no longer able to conduct nuclear operations. a lot of questions about the arsenal and the people manning them. are they doing okay or is the morale good? there may be problems there. >> john kerry walked into the briefing room to speak about syria. it has been reiterated. the parties have signed up too. resolution after resolution. including most recently in paris

when both the london 11 and the russian federation and implementation of that objective. the implementation of geneva one. anyone seeking to rewrite this history or to muddy the waters, and more time it is about establishing those essential to the transition of a governing with full executive powers established by mutual consent. that process is the only way to bring about an end to the civil war that triggered one of the planet's most severe humanitarian disasters which has created the seating grounds for extremism. the syrian people need to be

able to determine the future of their country. their voice must be heard and any names put forward for leadership of serious transition must according to the terms and any of those being in the heart and soul of geneva too, those must be agreed to by both the opposition and the regime. that is the very definition of mutual consent. this means that any figure that is deemed unacceptable by either side whether president assad or a member of the opposition cannot be a part of the future. the united nations and the united states, russia and all the countries attending know what this conference is about. after all, 24569s the basis of the un invitation sent individually to each country. a restatement of the purpose of

je geneva one and they come only with acceptance of the goals of the conference. we too are deeply concerned about the rise of extremism. the world needs no reminder that syria has become the magnet for jihadists and extremists. this is the strongest magnet for terror for anyplace today. it defies logic to imagine that those whose brutality created this magnet, how they could ever lead syria away from extremism towards a better future is beyond any kind of logic or common sense. on the eve of the syrian opposition and coalition and general assembly meeting to decide whether to participate in the peace conference, the united states for these reasons urges a

positive vote. we do so knowing that it's not the end, but rather the beginning. the launch of a process. a process that is the best opportunity for the opposition to achieve the goals of the syrian people and the revolution and the terrible conflict that has taken many, many many too many lives. we will continue to push in the meantime for vital access for humanitarian assistance. i talked yesterday with russian federation foreign minster in an effort to push still harder for access to some areas where they played games of the convoys taking them around the route instead of directly in the way that the opposition had arranged for and was willing to protect them. it was important there be no games played with the process and we will continue to fight

for ceasefires where we could achieve them and continue to fight for the captive journalists and aid workers to try to improve the climate for negotiations. none of this will be easy. it never is easy. we believe this is the only road that can lead to the place where the civilized world is joined to lead the parties to a better out come and to the syrian people let me reiterate the united states and the international community will continue to provide help and support as we did yesterday in kuwait where we pledged $380 million of assistance to relieve the pain and suffering of the refugees. we will stand with the people of

syria, all the people in an effort to provide them with the new syria which they are fighting for. i would be happy to answer questions. thanks. >> there you see a strong statement from vk on syria, urging the opposition to the regime to show up at these meetings and these negotiations what he describes as the framework bringing together all sorts of parties to see if they can come up with some sort of other leaders to emerge and whether or not the regime would ever agree to anything along those lines. it remains very much up in the air. a relative ly angry secretary o state. there is an opportunity right now to bring these parties together in geneva and he hopes they take advantage of this

opportunity. we will have much more on cnn and "the situation room" later today. other subjects with the former secretary robert gates. thanks very much for watching. newsroom continues with brooke baldwin. >> this 23569 moving wildfire is devouring homes near los angeles. three people have been detained in connection with these fires. this fire so fierce it is burning out of control. people are trying to gather up whatever they can carry and get out of here. i want to you