homes are in danger. clouds of smoke across southern california. there are new concerns about arson and looting. donald sterling fighting back. he hires a lawyer, tells the nba he won't pay his fine. rejects his lifetime ban for racist remarks. and word that iran is defying the united nations by secretly developi developi developing ballistic missiles. >> we're following the breaking news the wildfires burning out of control across san diego county for a third consecutive day. evacuation orders are in effect right now for 11,000 people with about 20,000 acres burnt so far. the charred remains of one body has been found. damage at this point is put around $20 million. there's now growing concern about looting. let's begin with cnn ted rollins. he's been working the story for

us. he's at the area of the coco fire in san marcos fire. it's doubled in size in the past 24 hours. what's the very latest? >> reporter: well, wolf, the winds have kicked up within the last few hours here which is grave concern for firefighters. they have been attacking this fire all day long. there are 11 fires, there were 11 fires total in southern california, all in san diego county. now it's down to five and three are of concern. this one here, we're in escondido, the san marcos fire and two fires burning in camp pendleton. all three of those are still out of control. this was only 10% here. they had a great day early on attacking from the air. but now the last two hours the within has picked up, this fire has increased in size. we've seen air drops throughout the day. they are trying to gate headway. mother nature should help out in the back end of this into tonight and tomorrow. this is a crucial time here with the winds picking up. >> ted stand by.

i want to get right back to. but we have the information officer for cal fire. thank you for joining us. what about the weather is it helping contain these fires today or too early to tell? absolutely the weather is definitely cooperating with us. over the last several days we've seen strong santa ana winds low humidity and high temperatures. that combination is what allowed these fires to grow so quickly. today the winds shifted overnight that allowed us to start seeing an onshore flow bringing cooler temperatures and higher humidity. definitely aiding us in this fire fight. conditions here in california are dryer than we've ever seen them. and as we move into the summer months unfortunately conditions will only get drier. that badly burnt body that was found, can you confirm that it was directly related to these fires? >> that's still being investigated. when you have santa ana winds blowing 60, 70 miles per hour a fire moves very quickly and hard

to outrun that. we're very fortunate that the sheriff's department, police department worked very hard to get as many people, thousands of people out of harm's way before this fire approached. obviously a very devastating. investigators determining how this body was burned and how they died. >> there's still plenty of people out there who have been evacuated, right? >> there still are evacuations primarily on the fire out in san marcos. that continues to give us trouble. cooler weather is definitely helping us out but that fire was very aggressive yesterday. we saw fire activity that we would often see in late summer early fall. santa ana winds in san diego county are really no stranger but to have them this early in the year in may goes to show you how dry it is. >> do you have the resources to fight these fires that you need? >> we started staffing up in january. in fact in southern california fire season never ended. just this week before these santa ana winds blew the

governor here in california gave us the ability to hire 300 additional firefighters. authors above and beyond our normal staff so the extra staffing and even the preposition of resources moving fire engines and crews down southern california heavy santa ana winds allowed us to make a quick attack. story nobody heard we responded to over 120 fires over the last several days. ten of those, major ones due to winds. five remain very active. >> five remain active. what about this notion that arson may have been responsible at least for some of these fires. >> investigators are following up on several leads. whenever we have conditions like this with santa ana winds there's always the concern that arsonists will take advantage, intention jalgly set fires. right now we're trying to get information on all the fires making sure that anybody in the area who may have seen something, who may know something, one of our fires near rancho bernardo, it was from a construction site. it doesn't take much for a fire

to spark when conditions are dry. one less spark means one less fire. >> so what do you expect in the next few days. will people have to heed more evacuation orders? >> fortunately the weather has been cooperating. we're expecting much of the same in the next several days. cooler temperatures. higher humidity. the likelihood of a lot more bigger fires this weekend is going to diminish from where it was. now in just week or so we're expecting again more santa ana wind conditions in southern california so come the holiday at the end of the month here we could be racking back up. we could see more fires with the dry conditions, the likelihood of more fires is pretty high. >> this could be a serious problem throughout these summer months that's upcoming. thank you very much. cal fire information officer. let's go to our meteorologist jennifer grey. she's tracking these conditions in the fire zone. these crews are facing some serious problems even if the weather does improve a bit, jennifer. >> yeah.

still a huge problem. it's still very, very hot. we still have breezy conditions. however those winds should start to shift as we go through the weekend, should get more of an onshore flow. that should push more moisture more humidity into southern california. these are images from space and you can see the smoke just coming in off of those fires blowing offshore. it's blowing and in more of those heavily populated areas. these are the winds i telling you about. we were getting those strong santa ana winds east and west winds and now more of an onshore flow. it will increase the humidity and the moisture and that's what you want when you're trying to battle these blazes. of course, temperatures are still going to be warm. they will be coming down, though, and that's good news. we're running 20 to 30 degrees above-normal. as we enter into the weekend temperatures should slip back down into the 70s, mid-70s, still above-normal but cooler, san diego 72 on sunday and

possibly in the upper 60s as we go through monday or so. so we are still in store for a long weekend. it's still going hot and still be breezy but the onshore flow should help things considerably. >> we've seen a lot in the past couple of days what we call these firenados. we're showing some video. this is terrifying. explain this phenomenon. >> these firenados, we've seen a lot of them. basically you have got intense heat. it's rising and pulling in the brush and dry vegetation around it. those winds are very, very strong. it is going to spiral inward and then as we see this debris and this brush pulling in it creates that column. it's combustible. it's searching for oxygen. so it's going to create that long column that you see and site looks just like a tornado.

imagine an ice skater when they start to spin and they pull their arms in you get all that momentum and that's where we get that spiraling, that intense spiral you see with those firenasdaqos. >> thanks very much. we'll continue to check in with. ken is joining us right now the director of the california department of forestry and fire protection. he's joining us from cal fire's northern operation center where firefighters are being mobilized to help with these fire fights in southern california. ken we've been talking to you in the past couple of days. what your seeing and what's the most important message you want to convey to our viewers? >> good afternoon, wolf. well you heard daniel say it earlier -- the key is the message, defensible space. we need property owners to be aware of what's going on around them. they need the ready, set, go. they need to be prepared for their evacuation planning.

you've seen in san diego where they have a reverse 911, notify homeowners what they need to do in terms of evacuation. pay close attention to all of those things. >> if people resist these requests for evacuation what can you do about that? >> can you hear me? i think we lost our connection with ken. the director of the california department of forestry and fire protection. we'll check back with ken. ted rollins is still with us. he's on the front lines of this battle. maybe you know the answer. if people resist they say i'm not leaving my home, i'm not leaving my possession, i'm afraid of looting because that potentially could be a serious problem. what can law enforcement do or firefighters do about that? >> nothing, wolf in the state of california you have every right to stay and protect your own home. we met a lot of people,

neighbors here. we're at a house that's completely demolished it was wiped out by the san marcos fire yesterday right around this time. behind this house, we met a guy by the name of al said. he stayed. he stayed and fought the fire with his garden hose. he was wetting down his roof. he said he was just about to leave when three fire trucks pulled up and then they saved his house. he said he pushed it to the limit. this is the problem authorities have. i'll sit here and save my own home. then when they need help they are calling please get me out. if a few people do that that's not a huge concern. if everyone were to do that it would be a massive problem. so by law people do not have to leave but they are strongly encouraged to leave because it could end up saving their life. >> ted, thanks very much. we'll have more on these fires later. there's other news we're following including defiance from donald sterling, the l.a.

clippers owner telling the nba he won't pay his fine, he won't accept his lifetime ban. and is iran secretly developing ballistic missiles? blisk ballistic ballistic

. donald sterling is fighting back, fined and band by the new brunswick for racist remarks. the l.a. clippers owner informed the league he won't pay or go away. o our correspondent suzanne malveaux has been looking into this. >> despite admissions to anderson cooper he made a mistake he's not giving up his team without a fight. his attorney has now officially

notified the nba that sterling has no intention of accepting any of the league's terms. >> reporter: the clippers failed to advance to the next round of the nba playoffs it's game on now between clippers owner donald sterling and the nba. cnn has learned sterling has hired prominent antitrust lawyer maxwell bleacher who fired off a letter to the nba rejecting sterling's punishment on all fronts. first, on the lifetime ban. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life. >> reporter: sterling is threatening to sue the nba if the lifetime ban is not lifted insisting he's done nothing wrong. >> i'm also fining mr. sterling $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed under the nba constitution. >> reporter: second, sterling is refusing to pay the $2.5 million fine. two likely arguments sterling's

lawyer will make sterling's racist rant didn't violate any article of the nba constitution. and that he was denied due process before he was punished. >> his position is that the nba did an inadequate investigation, they reached this conclusion without giving him really an opportunity to be heard. >> reporter: sterling was heard with cnn's anderson cooper contradicting himself numerous times over whether the league's punishment is appropriate. >> well, i think it's a little bit harsh, you know, but what is the league supposed to do? they are in a storm. and a stupid owner has created all these problems. maybe it's fair. i mean, for all the aggravation, all the embarrassment, all the humiliation i caused them maybe it's fair. >> reporter: what is fair could soon be debated in a court of law. one sign that sterling is

serious about his fight with the nba is his pick of maxwell bleacher as his attorne. he's considered a leader in antitrust area of litigation having taken on and won against another major sports franchise, we're talking about the nfl. so this is the real dale. >> this could be a huge legal battle. i want to bring in don't lemon and granderson. what's your reaction to these developments? >> we knew he was going to fight. we didn't know he was going to fight the fine. but i guess you can't pay fine and then try to say then that you're innocent because if you pay the fine that's some level of admission of guilt. but he's coming with the heavy guns and i'm assuming commissioner silver knew that when he came down with the decision. >> are you surprised, don't? >> i'm not surprised at all. i wish we had one of our legal analysts here. i want you to hear this.

this is a side we've not heard. someone with knowledge of the nba. former wnba owner and said this is what's going to happen now. the nba will now vote to disenfranchise the clippers. now that the loss of the thunder and clippers are out of the contention the board of governors can now take action without accused of distracting the team. sterling can fight the nba for requiring him to sell his property. i would argue the nba's ruling is unconstitutional. however the board of governors, wolf, can vote to kick the team out of the nba, my prediction is that many nba players say they will boycott next season if sterling tones team. the league will cite sterling as negatively impacting the entire nba franchise and for that they can and vote the clippers out of the nba. sterling will own a team with no club in which to compete. no club in which to compete. he'll have a team but no players. players are contracted to play on an nba team. if clippers no longer are in the

nba players are no longer under contract and become free at. next move nba will move franchise to seattle. again this is according to a source that has great knowledge of the nba. is a information wnba owner. and says if donald sterling continues on the path se, that he looks to be continuing on this, is what will probably happen next. >> would be a huge development. what do you think about that? >> well, it sounds -- i don't have the legal know how to you know the nuances of that will work. but i think what is intriguing is the notion that if they are disassociated from the league you have all these fantastic players then that become available through free agency and could spark a whole new conversation within the nba. maybe your wizards can accommodate that scoring out there. if nothing else, you know, it's interesting sort of debate to have but in terms of just being

an nba fan it's one in which you go wow that's great because all of a sudden we get to pick these good players. >> he does seem, suzanne, sterling to go back and forth in that interview say lone with anderson it was an hour and 20-minute interview. he basically said yeah it's time move to on and then said it's time to fight. he keeps going back and forth in his own mind. is this a letter that was written by his new attorney to the nba. is that really the final word or negotiating posture. >> some people i spoke with today believe this is somewhat of a peacocking move, this is something to show his hand. you know what? if you're going vote me out this, is what i got. so it really is a threat, if you will. but they have this letter. they have it now. they have to deal with it. the folks i talked to said look they will point and use article 13b of the constitution in the nba to make the argument that he's a detriment to the team, he's damaged the league and he signed agreements in the past,

contracts in the past that he's now violated because of his bad behavior. you got the advisory committee that will meet next week. they met this week to talk about the tv appearances. >> don't lemon wanted us to bring in a legal analyst so jeffrey is joining us now our senior legal analyst. what do you make of this latest legal step by the donald sterling new legal team? >> well, certainly it was to be expected. he's not someone who was going to go quietly without hiring a lawyer. i think fundamentally it's a negotiating tactic. a lot of people want to buy this franchise. he can now say to prospective buyers, i've got this great legal claim this franchise is not for sale. that will indues a higher price. they will say no, no, please take our money. please take our wheel barrows full of money and he'll sell the team. i'm confident.

primarily because if this case ultimately goes forward he's going to lose. this is the nba's candy store. they wrote the constitution. they decide who gets to own teams and who doesn't. and their players won't play if he's the own. so the question is when. >> wolf, what about this idea, though, because if this all drags out in court it could drag out for a number of years. i think there's possibility of de-franchising the clippers a real one they don't want the players wait that long and the players don't want to play under donald sterling. this is probably the thing that's going to happen if donald sterling stays in court. they will figure out the nba owners whether they should disenfranchise the clippers. if they do these players become free agents. and the team will move somewhere else. >> that's posturing on the part of the nba. there's a perfect stlougs this problem. don sterling will get an enormous amount of money for

this franchise. there will be a lot of posturing by both sides in advance but when you have lots of people out there with money burning holes in their pocket. >> give us a value. you bought the clippers back in what 1981 for about $12 million. he could easily get, i think, a billion dollars right now, a hot media market like l.a. if milwaukee went for $650 million they recently sold the bucs there a much more modest media market. . l.a. could get a billion dollars. why not just take the money from his perspective, split it with his wife, give to it his kids, give to it charity, do whatever he wants. he's lar billionaire. >> well, you know, i was thinking the one thing we haven't talked about is the ego. this is a man with an ego. back in the '80s he was being pushed by own towers sell his

team and be kicked out of the league and he fought that off. he's a fighter. he has the ego. he's the oldest owner in the league right now. in a lot of ways -- >> he has nothing to lose. >> he's 80 years old. oldest owner in the league. why wouldn't he fight it? you're right he has plenty of money. why not try to prove something. >> i know don and suzanne, everybody wants to weigh in. we'll continue this conversation. one reason why he may decide not to fight it, he's 81 years old now, he's not in his 40s. stand by, everyone, we have a lot more to discuss donald sterling's possible new legal strategy. could this case wind up before the supreme court? plus why critics are now accusing hillary clinton rewriting history when it comes to sanctions on iran. i began losing my sight to an eye disease when i was 10.

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the battle lines are already now being drawn. we're back with jeffrey, suzanne, don lemon and mr. granderson. when we left the last part of this conversation, don you wanted to weigh in. >> jeffrey says it won't happen. i think it's a real possibility. in this particular situation this is unprecedented. the easiest way to get rid of donald sterling, he's 80 years old with nothing to lose the easiest thing to do is kick the team out of the league. but the nba even if they kick the team out of the league, jeffrey, they won't leave those players hanging without jobs. the quickest and easiest way is to get rid of the team. he'll have a franchise but no team. >> john, i don't think the nba constitution necessarily allows for the solution you're

proposing. there is a very simple solution which is forges the nba to conduct an auction for the franchise. basically forcing him to put it up for sale. that's what we've been discussing since this story broke. the idea of disbanding the franchise and starting it again i don't know what that accomplishes, and the nba, especially the players, they want jobs for these players so they don't want this team to go away. >> what it accomplishes the clippers are still there. donald sterling still owns the clippers. but there are no team members on the clippers. the clippers players, former clippers players can go somewhere else and play for whatever team. >> potentially, this proposal that don is talking about could wind up costing sterling and his family a billion dollars if they lose the team, they can't sell it, they have to walk away, the team moves some place else, the franchise is gone. he doesn't even get that billion dollars. >> there you go. >> well, i think we're getting

way ahead of ourselves. it sounds fantastic. almost like an episode of "scandal". the best thing is to figure out what will happen. one is the public still be interested in this story after the end of the nba finals. that's an important part of it. two, because if the public is not interested then the advertisers maybe start sneaking back known the clippers wouldn't us noticing or caring. three, how long will the players stay focused on this conversation as well. those are variables that will help us decide whether or not the nba will have that kind of wind power to go towards donald sterling to start a sale. if players start wavering and the public stops caring, what stops the dollars to keep flowing in. >> i think we have case. don't they already have enough? don't they have enough evidence

from him to begin with that he's made all these statements to anderson cooper that he's sorry, he realized he damaged the team, that he's done wrong here. do they need much more? can't they vote and get it over with. >> that's the process that's been going forward behind-the-scenes. remember what lebron james said in his interview with rachel nichols because i thought it was very sensible and i think a good sna signal of how this will unfold. lebron james said as long as we the players see the nba is making every effort to get rid of this guy we're going to continue playing. now we understand the legal process may slow things down but as long as the nba is moving forward with getting rid of him we're going to keep playing. but if they don't then all bets are off. >> jeffrey, you're an author of the supreme court, your excellent book. i take it you do not believe this case will wind up before the justices of the supreme

court? >> no. this case will wind up with somebody writing donald sterling a check with so many zeros on it it will make all of us sick. that's how it will end. >> all of you will be back with us in our next hour. don't go too far away. be sure to watch donald sterling/magic johnson exclusive back-to-back interviews with our own anderson cooper. it's an "ac360" special report, sex, lies and basketball. 9:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. up next a very different subject. is iran secretly developing new ballistic missiles even as it negotiate i want as with the united states? and others on a final nuclear deal. and hillary clinton takes credit for tough iran sanctions. critics suggesting she's rewriting history. so who's right?

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check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. there's new word out of the united nations that iran is secretly developing long range missiles, building launch sites at the very same time that it's talking with world powers about a final nuclear deal. cnn national correspondent jim sciutto has been looking into this. >> the administration is reviewing this report. the latest report sirn is continuing its missile program quite broadly. u.s. officials have said repeatedly today in response to questions about this that these nuclear talks do cover ballistic missiles and have to reach agreement on these missiles for these talks to continues. but it's another sign of how many issues still have to be

worked out calling for tough concessions from both sides before reaching a broader nuclear deal. even as u.s. and iranian officials negotiate iran's nuclear program in vienna, back home iran is continuing to develop ballistic missiles according to a new u.n. report, missiles with ranges up to thousands of miles and the potential of carrying nuclear war heads. the report found iran has developed a new missile launch site and is close to finishing another at the country's space center. just this week iran's supreme leader vowed iran will never give up the missile problem dismissing the possible face stupid and foolish. u.s. officials were quick to offer reassurance that iran's ballistic missile program remains an issue of concern for the u.s. and a key part of the ongoing nuclear negotiations. >> ballistic missiles fall into the topics under discussion that would need to be part of a

comprehensive resolution of this dispute and this challenge. >> reporter: reaction from the most vocal opponent, namely israel was swift. >> we've been saying all along that iran is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community. so i wasn't surprised, we must not let the ayatollah win. we must not let the terrorist state of our time iran develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons. >> reporter: analysts say a comprehensive deal limiting iran's nuclear program is still possible without ending iran's missile program. >> if we can get a good nuclear deal and the price for doing that is giving up on the missiles, we should take it but it has to be a good deal. the worst of all worlds would be to get a bad deal on the nukes and have them continue with their research on missiles so that at the end they have both. >> reporter: the scope much these current talks and current

u.n. security council resolution cover only nuclear capable ballistic missiles. they don't cover ballistic missiles which are not capable of covering a nuclear pay lod and that opens the possibility that iran and u.s. can reach deal in july that allows iran to continue a missile program. >> what are you hearing about those negotiations in vienna right now two months before the end of the so-called deadline. >> about a week ago i heard from people with direct knowledge of the talks. like the iraq plutonium facility. and the other military site. they were coming close to a deal where iran could keep them but to have monday, to restriction, what they can produce. more recent days i'm hearing expectations from management, i think it was a tough week there and just a reminder you got a long way to go. one question that hasn't been addressed is the number of

centrifuges that iran can keep. >> iraq nuclear facility is arak,. it's iran itself. stand by. hillary clinton has been taking a good share of the credit in recent days for the tough sanctions on iran. but josh rogan wrote hillary clinton resisted those tough measures. josh is here with jim and me. tell us what you're reporting. >> right. hillary clinton raised eyebrows when she took credit for the crippling sanctions that brought iran to the negotiating table. lawmakers were quick to point out that the white house and treasury department worked hard to dilute those sanctions for four years that hillary clinton led the state department. state department had its own view on how sanctions could be i

believe pleamented. looking back it's hard for hillary clinton to take credit for the most crippling of the sanctions. >> she took credit in a major speech. but the real initiative for those sanctions, really emanated from accommodation. they faced resistance from the obama administration. >> bitter resistance. we see this to this day. there are efforts in congress to push for more sanctions against iran especially if they fail to stick to the deal they make. administration doesn't believe congress should thread way. they want congress's help but only in a way the administration prefers. this is an issue for hilary if and win she decides to run for president. >> i think it's more nuance. certainly we know there were members of congress even in the democratic party pushing for more stiff sanctions even as this most recent interim deal

came forward. that said, it was not just congress. the treasury department was very forward leaning on this and instituted and followed through on and pushed hard for some of the most punishing sanctions against iran and also the state department squeezed some of the most difficult allies to reduce their imports. allies like south korea that had to ratchet down. that want really extracted one of the biggest economic cost from iran. at the end of the day you'll have -- she wouldn't be the first politician in washington to seek more credit than before but you'll have sniping. when you look at the whole scope of the program, this program pushed iran hard. i've been there a lot of times and clearly the government there is concerned about their economic short fall. hit an effect. are there folks who wanted to push harder? no question. but i don't think it's fair to say it was only congress. >> josh, i think it's fair to say also if there's a deal and that's a huge if, if there's a

deal it may be in part because iranians appreciate the benefits of some easing. relatively modest but some significant easing of those sanctions. >> i agree with jim the administration deserves credit for rallying for support, for implementing the sanctions once they were passed over the administration's objections. that's true. moving forward what will hillary clinton say about the final deal when it comes out? will she support it even if most congress is against it. will she support more sanctions. this is not over for hillary clinton as her book comes out and she gets asked these questions. the story of hillary clinton's record on iran will be a major part of her campaign. >> i agree. fair point. this is a difficult sensitive deal for any politician running for office to come out of because it's a risky deal. >> let's see if there's a deal. if they don't reach it in the next two months they can extend it for another six months. i suspect whenever they have those clauses for a second six

months they usually use them. >> unless there's political pressure in the mid-term. >> thanks very much. just ahead a surprising confession by late night david letterman about monica lewinsky. stand by. more breaking news. we're going back to the fire lines in southern california. five major blazes there burning right now. mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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very candid confession by the late night host david letterman revealing a surprising major regret of his long career. cnn's brian todd is here. he's got the details. it has to deal with monica lewinsky. lot of the jokes he used to tell about her. >> absolutely, wolf.

david letterman says he genuinely regrets all the jokes he made about lewinsky during the height of the impeachment scandal. may seem disingenuous since letterman built his career, made his living off that humor. the window on how feelings have changed about lewinsky is telling. monica lewinsky's venture back into the spotlight has made david letterman wistful as he fades from that spotlight. nearing the end of his run as host of the "late show" on cbs, letterman had a reflective chat with barbara walters. they brought up lewinsky's recent essay, how lewinsky wrote she'd had trouble finding employment instead of a letterman punch line. >> i started to feel bad because myself and other people with shows like this made relentless jokes about the poor woman. she was a kid. 21 or 22 or something. i feel bad about my role in helping push the humiliation to the point of suffocation.

monok you have to feel sorry a little bit for monica lewinsky. she's a kid right out of college, you know, looking for a good job at the white house. and -- [ laughter ] apparently so was clinton. >> reporter: lewinsky ruminated on her own sense of shame in the "vanity fair" piece. 15 times she used some form of the word humiliation, a feeling she also described when she spoke to cnn in 2002. >> it was humiliating to give those details under oath, so just even being deposed and asked questions like that. but for them to be disseminated in a way knowing that people were reading them, you just -- you just feel naked in front of the whole world. >> reporter: lynn sweet covered the impeeachment scandal for th chicago "sun-times" and believes two decades later views of

lewinsky have evolved. >> people female more sympathy because years later the clintons are doing just fine, her life has been ruined. >> reporter: it's not just lewinsky's story where letterman seemed to reflect. speaking about the recent incident between jay-z's and beyonce's sister posted by tmz. >> is it funny because they're just famous or overall with some perspective do you realize this is a sad human situation? >> letterman's not alone in the angst over the lewinsky scandal. columnist maureen dowd wrote in "the new york times" lewinsky's, quote, bullies were the clintons and attack dogs who turned lewinsky into a scapegoat. we reached out to clinton loyalists from the white house years, excuse me, to talk about lewinsky and the political tone in washington at that time. we couldn't get any of them to speak to us, wolf. it was surprising or maybe not so surprising how many of those folks clammed up over this. >> thunderous silence. they have something to do with 2016, right? >> absolutely, it does. political analysts are saying, you know, with hilly possibly

poised to run in 2016, no one in their camp is going to want to speak now about the lewinsky era. that could be poisonous. once a clinton loyalist, always a clinton loyalist. we find the people in that circle don't want to be cut out of it. you speak about lewinsky, you'll probably be cut out of it. >> david letterman was getting reflective at the end of his job over there at cbs. he's beginning to think, well, maybe i went too far. >> right. >> telling some of those jokes. >> that's right. >> thanks very much. breaking news. we're going back to the fire zone in southern california. evacuation orders are out right now for 11,000 people. as crews battle five major blazes. plus, new questions about critical satellite tracking data. some passengers' families believe it holds the answer to the mystery of malaysia air flight 370. we asked people a question,

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we're live in the hot zone. thousands of people are under evacuation orders. hundreds of firefighters are battling to save homes and lives. plus, donald sterling fighting back. he's rejecting the punishment by the nba. he's threatening a lawsuit, but will that allow the l.a. clippers' owner to keep the team? and new confusion. finger pointing in the flight 370 mystery. who's holding on to critical satellite tracking data and keeping it from the public? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." this is cnn breaking news. >> let's get to the breaking news this hour. a fiery nightmare is dragging on for a fourth horrific day in southern california. at least five wildfires are burning right now. several of them are still very active and very dangerous. 31 square miles of land has already been scorched. more than 1,000 firefighters are battling the most threatening blaze. that doubled in size overnight. that fire is keeping 11,000 people away from their homes

right now. and the first death possibly linked to the fires has been reported. our correspondents are in the fire zone. we're tracking the heat, the winds, and cnn's severe weather center. let's go first, though, to cnn's ted rowlands in escondido, california, the main focus of the fire disaster right now. what's the very latest where you are, ted? >> reporter: well, wolf, the winds picked up a few hours ago which is causing some issues. more water drops have been ensuing because of it. five fires are burning throughout san diego county. this one is one of the most serious one. the one in escondido, san marcos area. it ripped through this area and it is still going strong. he was in his backyard when a wall of black smoke and flames were coming straight for his house. >> first flame that i saw was a neighbor's tree that just went poof. >> reporter: thinking he was about to lose his home, sayed says he was getting ready to leave when firefighters pulled

up in three engines. >> they were here and i opened up gates for them. the back gate area to make it easier for them. and quite frankly, i said, guys, save my house if you can. and, they did. >> reporter: the home behind said was lost. everyone got out okay. when you consider the wall of flames which included mini tornado-like spirals, it's amazing more homes weren't lost. >> those firenados or fire tornadoes you're looking at is an example of the critical fire weather and the explosive fire growth that we're seeing out here. our fuel conditions are at critical level and we're in may. these are levels that we normally wouldn't see until august/september. >> reporter: time lapse video shows the san marcos fire going from bad to worse in minutes. so far it scorched 3,000 acres and still going. meanwhile, there are questions on what or who might have started the fires. >> i just have my suspicions.

it's six in a day. even though the conditions would allow for that, usually when a fire spreads, it will spread by its own embers or it will spread close to one another. that didn't happen here. >> reporter: a 19 -year-old man is one of two teens arrested for starting two small brush fires. as of now, though, neither has been linked to the larger blazes. and, wolf, that's a big concern for people living here. if, indeed, these fires were started by an arsi isonist or arsonists there's a concern after the weather gets better this weekend and worse down the line they could be going through this again. wolf? >> certainly is a real serious problem, ted. thank you. san marcos residents were shocked how quickly the fire spread across bone-dry neighborhoods swallowing up homes. national correspondent gary tuchman is in san marcos for us. gary, you're at the ruins of a house we saw burning live during

our coverage yesterday. how sad this whole story is, but give us the very latest from your location. >> reporter: wolf, i will. not only are we in san marcos, we're about 500 feet above san marcos on a hilltop. we have a great vantage point of another fire down there, that's camp pendleton to our west and that fire is still active. one of several fires still burning here. where i'm standing right now on this hilltop, yesterday when we were talking to you on your program, we showed fire blazing right where i'm standing. it was an intense blaze. this is what's happened. this is the house we saw on the air that caught fire. we'll tell you, the most important thing, the family that lived here had evacuated. nobody was hurt. you can see it is still white hot, the wreckage, of this million-dollar home. beautiful home, beautiful neighborhood. right over here if you take a look, talk about white hot, it is still smoking. i can look under here and still see flames under this area right here. so it shows you how hot it is. i would never touch this with my

bare hand. you'd burn your hand. that's how hot it is. i touched it earlier with a glove. the winds are picking up this afternoon so they're very concerned, firefighters over northern san diego county where we are, about the possibility of flames being rekindled and we've seen some flames since we've been standing here rekindling slightly. that's why firefighters are on the scene. one interesting thing we can tell you, wolf, just like a tornado, when a tornado destroys one house but leaves another one standing nearby, the street that we're standing on on this hilltop, every other house is fine, but this house utterly destroyed. the good news, nobody killed. nobody hurt. >> and the people who lived there, have they been back? have they seen this destruction? >> reporter: the people who lived here came back. they saw their house was destroyed. they were obviously devastated. but, of course, grateful that they weren't in the house when this all happened. everyone knows this area is vulnerable to brush fires, wolf. that's why they know to get out when they get the evacuation order. >> they got to heed those orders

when they come in. all right, gary, thanks very, very much. firefighters have been counting on milder winds, lower temperatures today. they struggle to try to make some progress against these numerous blazes. let's check in with our meteorologist jennifer gray. she's watching these conditions. what are they like right now, jennifer? >> well, luckily, wolf, we are getting the onshore flow. that should continue as we go into the weekend. we've been talking about those strong santa ana winds from east to west. the very dry, very hot winds. now we're starting to get more of an onshore flow. that will pull in more moisture, more humidity and that's going to be better news in fighting these fires. any winds in any direction is not a good thing. at least when you is those winds pulling in off of the coast, it will pull in more humidity and raise those -- more moisture and raise those humidity levels. also temperatures are going to be falling. we were running 20 and 30 degrees above normal. now we'll see temperatures slide into the low to mid 70s. some areas like san diego will slip into the upper 60s by

monday. a little closer to where they should be, however, we will start to see those temperatures still above normal. i want to show you one thing. this is last year. state of california in the middle of may. 46% of the state in severe drought. 0% in exceptional drought. look at this year. we're starting to see, look at that, 1 00% in severe drought, 25% in exceptional. this year is drier than california has ever seen, wolf. and as we get into what's considered the dry months of california, july, august, that's when we're going to see a serious problem unless they can get some rain in the next couple months. >> you're saying it could even be worse in july and august, the normal season, for these kinds of droughts and fires. but explain, because you and i talked at length, you've been explaining to us and viewers all about the so-called firenadoes. mow unusual are they? they seem so destructive,

powerful. >> they're actually pretty common. we have seen more of them. i think it's just because of twitter and facebook and all of the means of getting these pictures out there is why we're seeing so many of them right now. basically you're getting some intense heat and heat rises at an incredible rate. you also get this air that's spiraling inward. you get some of that burning brush, that debris to get sucked in there and it's combustible. it's searching for oxygen as it's rising. so we're continuing to see these spins. think of it as an ice skater that pulls their arms in as they're spinning and getting some of that momentum. that's what we're seeing when you see these so-called firenadoes. just incredible spin with its heat rising. and that's who we're seeing in those pictures. >> jennifer, thanks for that explanation. jennifer gray, our meteorologist. just a little while ago, the san diego county district attorney announced a first arson charge in connection with these wildfires. joining us now on the phone, the sheriff of san diego county, bill gore.

sheriff gore, thank verizs very for swro for joining us. give us the latest on the suspicion of arson. what do you know? >> thanks first of all for having me on, getting the word out to your viewers. you know, we share the suspicions of a lot of people when you have nine separate fires started in the course of two days, but we can't let that suspicion and speculation take the place of really hard facts. so as soon as we can get into those fire areas, we started parallel arson investigations at each one of these working with san diego police department arson investigator, the sheriffs department arson investigators and the various fire agencies. collaborative efforts, sharing information to try to determine first of all, we haven't determined the origin of the fires and then more importantly the cause. that's the more difficult part of any arson investigation. we have not -- the people that have been arrested so far, we have not tied in, there's no indication that they're tied in to any of these other nine

blazes that we've had around stake county at this point, anyway. >> we know that some people, even after they get an order to evacuate, they resist. they don't want to leave their homes. for one thing, they're afraid of looters. some looting has been going on. how serious of a problem, sheriff, is this? >> no, what i've continually told the people here in san diego county is that when you're told to evacuate, evacuate. get out of that neighborhood. it's for your safety. it is for the safety of police officers, sheriffs deputies, cops that need to be able to get into those neighborhoods and more importantly the firefighters. we don't want them running into people and when they have to go into backyards and maybe put down those fires. i have just in the san marcos area, i have almost 200 deputies in there to secure those neighborhoods, make sure there are no looters, no vandalism and you'll return hopefully to a safe neighborhood and your home will be safe and you'll be safe, more importantly. so most the people in san diego in the fire areas have obeyed

the requests and the orders to evacuate. although we can't force them. we've had really good compliance because they know there's enough law enforcement to keep those neighborhoods safe. >> has there been any looting going on as far as you know, sheriff? >> we had one case last night. in fact, san diego police department working with the escondido police department made an arrest of a person in escondido in an evacuated neighborhood who clearliton belong there, stopped by police, questioned, found out he had prior arrest records and he was arrested for being in the evacuated area. he had not had a chance to do any vandalism or lot anything, but that's the one arrest that i know of. >> quickly, sheriff, what are your experts telling you? should we expect more of these fires in the coming weeks and months? >> i tell you, you were talking about the conditions, and they are unprecedented. usually our fire season's in september/october after a very dry summer. to have this in may is really unusual. there's so much fuel out there. the grasses that we have on our

mountainsides is just like kindling and it can be set off by a variety of things. you know, unfortunately, a lot of times lightning strikes. if you have a thunderstorm. catalytic converters on cars. careless cigarette thrown out of a car window. it doesn't take much to ignite this kind of fire. we're keeping our fingers crossed and preparing, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. >> good luck, sheriff, sheriff bill fwogore of san diego count. we're hoping certainly for the best for everyone in that dangerous zone. we're going to have a lot more on the wildfire disaster coming up, but there's another major story we're following here in "the situation room" right now. l.a. clippers owner donald sterling fighting his punishment for making the racist remarks. cnn has learned sterling has hired a new lawyer. sent a defiant letter to the nba rejecting sterling's lifetime ban refusing to pay his $2.5 million fine. that's a maximum allowed by the nba. the source now saying sterling is also threatening to sue the league if it doesn't back down. earlier this week, sterling

suggested his penalty was tough, but he also suggested it might be fair. listen to what he told anderson cooper in an exclusive int interview. >> it's a little bit harsh, you know -- >> which part of it in. >> -- what is the league supposed to do? they're in a storm. and a stupid owner has created all these problems. they have to show that they're not going to stand for that. the league won't stand for that. they won't stand for racism. i'm telling you. and i did it. >> pretty blunt talk. at least in that part of the interview. l let's bring in senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, don lemon, suzanne malveaux, and our commentator l.z. granderson. if he says he did it, jeffrey, you're the legal analyst. is he admitting guilt? is he pleading guilty?

there let me parse that like a lawyer. what his lawyer would say i'm certain -- >> here we go. >> -- is that he apologizes for generally offensive conduct. generally an offensive statement. but what he said is not a violation of the nba constitution and thus is not grounds to take his franchise away. that's certainly the way a lawyer would parse that. whether anybody believes that is a separate question, but that's certainly the way they're analyzing. >> argument made against them, don, i've heard this from sources close to the nba repeatedly, is that, yes, there is an nba constitution. and it stipulates part of the constitution that the owners have to agree to all the various agreements they've made in order to get that franchise. over the years, going back 30 years including within the last decade, donald sterling signed various agreements with the nba that includes those so-called morals clauses that you can't do anything that's going to

embarrass the nba. as a result they say they have the legal standing to go ahead and get rid of him. >> not even just embarrass, wolf, but bring negative light on to the franchise he owns and thus the nba as well. there's no doubt he has done that. that's what people don't understand, especially people in the general public. they'll say, in what world can you take someone's, you know, team away from them or property just because they are something? when you have a contract or a number of contracts that have different clauses, jeffrey, you know this, you have to abide by those. and if you don't abide by those, then the consequences are they can take it away from you or you have to pay for whatever consequence it. so, they can punish you, fine you, they can do whatever which they have done. and the ultimate end is that they will take this franchise away from him. yes, he agreed to something. he broke it. >> suzanne -- >> end of story. >> suzanne, you've been looking at this talking to experts about this new legal strategy he's putting forward. what are you hear?

>> maxwell bleacher is one of the top lawyers when if cot como antitrust. he took on the nfl and actually beat them here. he's serious about the case he set up. the first thing they're saying, look, they don't believe he violated the nba constitution, he didn't do anything wrong, they can't find anywhere in what he believes is his private personal conversation that took place that would violate that nba constitution. he doesn't specifically talk about article 13-d which the nba addresses. the other thing that this letter and his attorney is arguing here is that he doesn't think he got due process. that, you know, there wasn't a real formal process by which it was a four-day investigation with the nba. they did talk to him. they interviews him. they don't think that was enough time to really get to the point where he would have this kind of punishment, this kind of fine. so they are showing that they're serious about it. there are some people who say, look, they've seen this and think it's what they call peacocking which is simply like, you know, it's an empty threat. you're going to take away my

team, well, look, this is what's going to happen, this is what's going to follow. >> what do you think, l.z.? >> you know, when the initial press conference was had by commissioner silver and he said that the punishment was not reflective of his past behavior, only based upon those comments, i thought that was a mistake. might not have been a mistake in terms of the legal aspect but h terms of public opinion. you have a group of people saying this man should not lose his franchise based upon possibly an illegally taped conversation with which, you know, you can certainly argue in that right. but the fact is that they have 30-plus years of documented examples of racist behavior that certainly violated the moral clause of their constitution. in which case i felt that if commissioner silver had said that during the initial press conference, we'd probably be having a different conversation in the general public. right now i think people just are disgusted by him but if they really knew how long -- he didn't just say things but did things that kept people out of safe neighborhoods and kept kids

out of good schools because of housing discrimination, i think this would be moving along a lot lift swifter. >> can i add something? >> hold on, one at a time. jeffrey, go ahead, respond to what we just heard from l.z. >> i think problem with what l.z. said, if you look at the actual facts on the record, you have a lawsuit charging him by the federal government with discrimination that was settled without an admission that he did anything wrong and he was sued by baylor for racial discrimination and sterling won that case. >> won. >> so if they had evidence of, true evidence of racial discrimination, the question for the nba would have been, what took you so long? so i think silver made the only decision available to him which he said this is only about these comments and, frankly, i think that's enough. he's not -- >> my question is -- >> jeffrey, there's -- >> i want to ask -- >> hold on, hold on. >> does it matter how they

got -- how it became public? >> i think it doesn't matter how it became public. it is public now. it's already out in the public, right, jeffrey? so -- >> absolutely. >> -- the nba is not concerned with how the tapes were acquired. that's something for donald sterling to deal with in a court of law. it's already out as far as they're concerned. doesn't matter to them how it got out. >> that's right. people are throwing around free speech and first amendment. >> it's not a free speech -- >> the first amendment applies against the government. the government can't punish you for saying stupid things, but, you know, we work for cnn. if we say things publicly that embarrass the company or are totally inappropriate, we can get fired. that's what happens when you're a public figfigure. it applies to donald sterling as well. >> the $2.5 million fine the nba wants from sterling, if he doesn't pay, can they just deduct $2.5 million from

revenue, tv rights, for example, that were supposed to go to the clippers and say we're not going to give you the $2.5 million? >> i think that leads to more litigation if they try to do it that way. i think the best thing the clippers, that the league can do is continue to press in the manner in which they've been pressing. i just want to touch based quickly on what, you know, jeffrey said earlier about things being settled out of court. that might be true, but the nba has a good history of punishing players who weren't formally charged legally but because it was an embarrassembarrassment, bad, they found ways to punish plays though it didn't go through in court. there's a precedence in the league for finding based solely upon optics. there's 30 years of optics there including in punishment of mr. sterling and not just based upon comments that were taped recently. >> l.z. granderson, don lemon, jeffrey toobin, suzanne malveaux, good discussion. thanks very much. this important programming note to our viewers. later tonight, please be sure to

watch "donald sterling & magic johnson" with anderson cooper in an "a.c. 360" report entitled "sex, lies & basketball." only here on cnn. still ahead, we're going to bring you the newest information, most dramatic pictures we're getting from the fire zone as they come into "the situation room." plus, could answer the question, are searchers looking in the right place for flight 370? there's conflicting information right now about who's keeping that raw satellite data under wraps.

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there's another element of mystery surrounding flight 370 right now. we're hearing conflicting accounts about who has the satellite data that's been pivotal in trying to figure out the plane's flight path. passengers' families have been demanding that information be released amid growing questions about whether searchers are looking in the right place at all. our experts are with us to discuss this new controversy. let's bring in aviation correspondent rene marsh first for the very latest. rene? >> wolf, we know this raw data is critical. millions of dollars in resources sent to search a specific area all based on this data. but only a select group has seen it with their own eyes and that is part of the second mystery unraveling here. why can't anyone else examine it? and why is the malaysian government and the company behind the data dodging responsibility for its release? the answer to where malaysia airlines 370 may be located appears to be buried in data. data that's being held close to the vest. >> the world has the right to

have that data released to third parties. >> reporter: the raw data, a handful of pages detailing satellite connections the plane made, has not been publicly released. the malaysian government and inmarsat, the company behind the data, are punting the responsibility of who should release it. >> raw data is within inmarsat, not with malaysia or australia. if there's request for the raw data to be made available to the public, it must be made to inmarsat. >> the data belongs to the malaysian authorities, not something inmarsat can release. >> reporter: flight 370 checked with a satellite once an hour. the angle of the transmissions led to these two arcs where the plane could have been, but which one? similar to how the change in sound of a train can tell you if it's coming toward you or moving away from you, frequency shifts and satellite connections helped engineers track the plane. measured on a graph, it looks

like this. a predicted track to the north and one to the south. mh-370's actual satellite connections most closely matched the path to the south. and that's where the focus remains. it's this data that both sides say only the other can release. >> i don't know who to believe, but isn't it awful that it's quite evident somebody is lying here? somebody is lying. we're talking about something that involves a missing airliner now 70 days. lives lost. families shattered. and there's people lying about this. this is absolutely reprehensible. >> reporter: but some experts say a wide release of the raw data would do more harm than good. >> it gets to the point where too many cooks spoil the brew. there are experts, quote/unquote, out there that have their own theories and gets to a certain point where you could be chasing your own tail. >> reporter: experts who have seen the data are apparently

confident enough to return to search where it led them. inmarsat cannot release the data because it belongs to a separate contracting company, so there are some proprietary issues, and under international rules, they aren't allowed to release it. but the country leading the investigation can. and that's malaysia. makes absolutely no sense when malaysia's transport minister is calling on inmarsat to release the data when under the rules it's crystal clear they don't have the authority to do it. >> fascinating subject. i want to go in-depth. rene, stay with us. i want to bring in aviation analyst miles o'brien. you saw him in rene's piece there. peter goelz also joining us. mile,s, what's your suspicion? who has the satellite data? why isn't it being released? >> i suspect the malaysians do have the information as inmarsat suggests but i'm just not in a position to decide who's telling the untarnished truth here.

the question i have to ask is why is there some apparent stalling here? it seems to me there's two ways to look at this. there is an investigation under way as to what happened on that airplane. and we all understand that's a sensitive thing, as it's quite possible there was some sort of human input in that. and it was a deliberate act, if you will. but the separate issue is the search. there's still a search. and this is talking, we're talking strictly about finding this airplane, and that should be treated in an entirely different way and the information doesn't have to be as closely guarded in my opinion. as a matter of fact, to hold it back at this juncture when the whole world wants to know where this aircraft is and in particular those families do, it's hard for many people to stomach. >> let me let peter goelz in, former ntsb managing director. what's your take on this controversy? >> the malaysians have mishandled the structure of this investigation from the very t