to the family of another firefighter, michael ottin, the only person in quinn's town to die in the 9/11 attacks. quinn returned the bris let to otten's widow. thanks for joining me. the next hour of "cnn newsroom" begins right now with poppy harlow in new york. hi, everyone, you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm poppy harlow joining you from new york. president obama will reveal his strategy to defeat isis this week. the president will outline his game plan in a speech to the nation on wednesday. he says that the u.s. is preparing to go on the offensive in the next phase of the fight against isis. and he also explained today, on nbc's "meet the press" what his plan does not include. >> this is not going to be an announcement about u.s. ground troops, this is not the

equivalent of the iraq war. what this is, is similar to the kinds counterterrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years. >> we're going talk about that a lot this hour. erin mcpike first joins us from the white house. erin, what do we know at this point about the president's plan to combat isis? and also, he did talk in the interview about going to congress, what does he want from congress? >> reporter: okay, poppy, first, we know the president wants to equip and train iraqi and kurdish forces so they can be the ones fighting on the ground there. he also wants the u.s. and other countries find ways to choke off the funding that isis has. what we don't know, what we expect the speech to answers is, will the u.s. seek to undertake air strikes in syria? it will be trickier if that's the case than it was in iraq because the u.s. government has

been working closely with the iraqi government but the u.s. does not support the government of al assad. how will they do that if they do? as far as congress is concerns, the big question is, will president obama seek a congress. authorization, will he put it to a vote? with those land two months to go before midterm elections many members may not want to seek a vote. some do want to be on the record. feinstein does think the president needs to go about this legislatively. he made need a vote as far as funding goes but expect the speech will answer just how involved he wants congress to get, poppy. >> interesting to hear from diane ffeinstein, the chairman f the senate intelligence committee saying, the president may be too kaubs, saying this morning, she's congratulating him, saying he's on the offense. we'll be watching this closely. erin mcpike, thank you very much. one thing is for sure, the president says there will be more air strikes. what he calls going on some offense.

here with me to talk about the details of what we could see, what the u.s. strategy could be, and should be, robert mcfadden, former u.s. military intelligence agent, and foreign editor with "the daily beast." thank you for being here. >> pleasure. >> bob, you first. when you talk, the president is going to need a strong coalition of the allies in the region to help, iraq being foremost in that. do you think that having the iraqi presence, boots on the ground is coordinated enough at this uppoint to work with u.s. r strikes and other actions on the u.s.' part? the president made clear three times in interview, no boots 0 the ground from the u.s. >> that's right. brief, no, it's inadequate up to this point. but with the upward of 1300 military advisers in country if iraq there's a lot of work in that respect going on right now. so that's a crucial component of combatting isis. >> don't you need it soon? even if we have our best and brightest on the ground, it takes a while. >> that's right.

we have to put in the prosecutor perspective on the time sequence, which there is a great urgent sip you have air strikes and air cover, intelligence surveillance reconnaissance flights to continue in iraq and syria. preparation of battle space. on a daily, if not hourly basis, there that is coordination and assistance in advisory mission going on with iraqi forces, as well as kurdish forces. >> to you, chris, you brought up an interesting and important point lately, there's only so far, so much you can do with air strikes. what you cannot do, you cannot hold ground that you have won, you can't do that. is that where the weakness is for the united states right now? >> that's the big question. if you're not going to put american boots of the ground to hold the ground, who's going to hold it? not just iraq. who's going to hold it with syria? >> do you work with the syrian army and maybe down the road assad's forces? >> that be a contradiction in terms but these things happen in the middle east. but in fact, no.

i think the idea is that they will work with the free syrian army. whether they'll be able to get enough press sense on the ground from the free syrian army, i doubt. i think the big question mark here is turkey. turkey has, i think, 650,000 men and women under arms, it's nato army. it is will the border not only with syria and iraq, it's on the border with isis. so, what are the turks going to do? up until now they had been facilitating support for a lot of the jihadists and anti- asas groups. are they going to be able to cut off isis? will they be able to threat. military pressure against isis? all that's up in the area and second of defense will be in an cora tomorrow. i expect talking about those issues. >> you heard the president, you bob talking in the interview, on "meet the press" today saying, look we need our coalition, our allies to step up, they're at risk as well. outside of turkey, you look at

saudi arabia, you look at jordan, you look at uae. what can the u.s. bet on? >> well, as pointed out, the second priority of the president outlined besides going after the islamic state for the sunni gulf arab states to set aside the secular divide and get in the fight, paraphrasing. they have so much at stake when it comes to regional actors, as christopher said, turkey's a key. but jordan, saudi arabia, uae, kuwait. for example, stopping their sons from going to those places and forces laws of going there the financial aspect. >> who is the most reliable partner for the united states? >> jordan, wouldn't you say? >> right out of my mouth, jordan. >> absolutely, jordan the most reliable partner. >> and capable. >> very good army. smart intelligence operations. and very loyal friend of the united states. >> what we also heard the president say in the in-depth interview this morning is that they need to get a moderate sunni opposition.

what does that take? >> you know, one of the things that they're hoping, certainly, in the fight against isis is that a lot of the sunni groups that are affiliated with isis but not part of isis will turn against it at some point. now, one of our correspondents in baghdad last month was talking to sunni there's who were saying, we're waiting for the moment to turn against isis. well they're not going to do that unless they see momentum on the side of the enemies of isis. >> what would inspire them to do ta? >> this happens in a lot of the war zones, people, groups that supported the taliban when the americans started to put military pressure after 9/11 on afghanistan they turned on the taliban like that. there are groups in iraq that might turn just as quickly against isis. right now, they're working with them. they have their own grievances against what was the maliki government in baghdad and against iran. it's a very complicated picture there. but certainly the hope that is some of the sunnis will turn

against isis. and already, there are sunnis fighting against isis. >> bob, this week we heard defense secretary chuck hagel in an interview say, you know, we better be taking isis seriously. this is an army. we heard the president in his language of late in the interview that aired this morning saying the same thing. but there are also some that say, look, al qaeda still has more international intentions than isis does. do you believe that to be the case or should we be treating isis as though they have every intent to do as much harm as possible to the western world? >> on the latter part, you can't rule that out. it's too dangerous of an animal. yes, it's hyper focused on the region and holding on to territory. the number of foreign fighters going back and forth, in small numbers, that's a danger. but to the earlier part of question with the statement this week about a new franchise in india, we can't rule out, in fact, u.s. intelligence

officials at top continue to speak about the foremost international terrorist threats stel represented by al qaeda and continues to be its mission. its lethality remains to be seen with the pursuit of al qaeda leadership but it's still there. >> important for intelligence officials to keep a close eye on both. >> sure. one of the big issues whether al qaeda will one-up isis. thank you both for being with us. you'll join us later in the hour. thank you for being here. coming up next, a big story developing, owner of the atlanta hawks selling his team because of an e-mail he sent about his team fans two years ago with remarks he now says were, quote, inappropriate and offensive. we'll tell you what the e-mail said. also the stars turned out in droves for joan rivers' funeral. stay with us for highlights. ♪ eenie. meenie. miney. go.

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new controversy involving offensive remarks by team owner, atlanta hawks owner bruce levenson says he will sell his majority stake in the team after reveal he wrote an e-mail xlanging about the hawks' failure to attract more white fans. i notices the following, 70% black, cheer leaders are black, music hip-hop, bars it's 90% black, few fathers and sons at games. it went on to read, quote, we are doing aftergame concerts to attract more fans and concerts are either hip-hop or gospel. my theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to bill a significant season ticket base. levenson's self-reported this e-mail last month. just as the nba was dealing with its punishment to then-clippers owner sterling for his remarks. back in may levenson told wolf

blitzer he could not work with someone like donald sterling. listen. >> donald sterling, what he said, i'm his partner, i can't be partners with somebody who shares those views. i was voted into the league by my partners. i can be voted out of the league by my partners. i think i speak for all of my partners when i say, we were all deeply offended, we all quickly spoke out against these words that we heard on that tape. >> rachel nichols, host of "unguarded" who follows the nba in this closely joins me from the u.s. open so, we know that bruce levenson has apologized, he self-reported this. he's going to sell the team. how's the nba responding? >> reporter: there's been a lot of shock around the nba today. you've got to remember, donald sterling had a history of being accused of racism. in fact, sued for racial discrimination by our own u.s. government. bruce levenson has never faced

any kind of public accusation of racism. in fact, he was one of the most vocal owners to come out against sterling. you just played that clip on wolf blitzer's show and i was on with wolf that day, and levenson was very strong saying, there has to be a zero tolerance policy. well, that zero tolerance policy, in this post-sterling era, now of course applies to him as well. and he knows that it's why he self-reported the e-mail. i'm told that's why he called adam silver last night and told him he did not want to go through the court of public opinion with his family dragged through the mud, his decisions and words being questioned, that he knew he was wrong and that he decided it was in everyone's best interests to sell the team. this is the kind of thing, this e-mail coming out, they released the e-mail itself. this is a transparency issue. nba and bruce levenson in this case, specifically decided instead of allowing for witch hunt for this e-mail, because you know the e-mail's going to

come out anyway, they would get ahead of it, he would admit he's wrong, and he does apologize, that goes a long way with people but he's going to ing ting to . >> i don't know if they'll get the answer why he decided to self-report this. additionally, you have said, rachel, this is the reality in the post-donald sterling world for the nba. >> reporter: yeah, look, it's unclear. only bruce levenson knows and he hasn't shared it yet. i asked someone at nba offices if they know why he decided in the middle of the summer to self-report a 2-year-old e-mail and he they said they didn't know his thinking, i don't know if he had a moral crisis of conscious, i don't know if someone would do it if he didn't do it himself. he knows it's a more sensitive time. things have changes since donald sterling's incident earlier this spring. i think the nba had to declare a

portion on this, they made it clear, this is not okay. we will not tolerate this at all. and that means at all. so instead of dealing with potential player boycott, which is what they were dealing with potentially in l.a., instids of dealing with sponsors who may pull out, a double standard they launched the independent investigation and bruce levenson came to them before the investigation was completed and said, i realize it's in everyone's best interest for me to walk away. he's going to walk away a rich man we saw the clipper sell for $2 billion. at least half of that, probably more. he's going to be owe okay, too. >> zero tolerance from the nba. we'll be following. you'll be all over the story. thank you. next in the newsroom, joan rivers, with celebrities, bagpipes and a song from hugh jackman. highlights next.

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joan rivers died thursday a week after she suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest during a medical procedure at a clinic. alexandria field has been covering the story throughout. you were there today. i know press was not allowed inside. what can you tell us about it? >> an invitation-only service. but there's a wonderful moment at the enwhen the doors of the temple swung open and the new york police department's bagpipes and drummers spilled out on to the street and it was that moment that the fans who lined up and waiting there for hours, they would enjoy it and feel like a part of. it's one thing that joan rivers' friends said she would have really enjoyed. ♪ a stylish send auoff with a bagpipe salute for keen of comedy, joan rivers. her daughter and grandson cooper saying good bye surrounded by thousands. >> a private moment and i think that melissa handled it with dignity and refinement and the way that the mother joan would really wanted this to be.

>> it was a-list all the way. it was like regale, elegant. >> reporter: but not without laughter. a lot of it. >> howard stern started off by talking about how dry joan's vagina was. it's a classic example of how she could take a sad process and make light of it. >> reporter: hugh jackman performed a song, lifting spirits. >> like a new orleans revival by the time we were done. for everybody, it was a cathartic moment, allowed us to let go. >> reporter: remembered with words from her daughter melissa and closest friends, among them cindy adams and deborah norville. >> oh my god, it was joan all the way. the sanctuary is filled with orchids. you can't see the altar because there's so many flowers. she planned every step of it. >> reporter: new york city's gay men's chorus thrilling the crowd

singing "big spender" celebrities in the audience, donald trump, whoopi goldberg, and audra mcdonald performing insigh. media stars filling the pews, diane sawyer, barbara walters, kathie lee gifford, kathy griffin there to send off a comedy legend. >> she influenced all comedians not just women xheed yecomedian. she stayed relevant into her 80s. she's like my comedy aunt. there's a god, i hope she or she is well-dressed today. >> reporter: joan rivers' fgs place co-stars came together. >> it went off exactly as i planned it exactly as i envisioned. it happened sooner than i wanted it but it was perfect when it happened. >> reporter: designer herrera was escorted by her husband. >> howard didn't know if he wanted to live in a world without joan rivers. i feel the same way.

>> reporter: a celebrity studded send-off fitting for a star among them. >> poppy, you and i were laughing hearing about howard stern up there cracking jokes. and that was very much the tone of the service according to everyone in there. just totally irreverend but poignant moments. melissa rivers got up there, spoke about her mother. i asked people in the audience, show did she do? such a tough position to be in. so composed and stoic. and she had them laughing. you know, the thing that few of her friends said she truly is her mother's daughter. >> just what her mother would want. >> joan rivers telling larry king, if you laugh with it, you can deal with it. saying there's nothing off limits and if you can laugh about it, it makes it easier for you to deal with. so i'm glad people got laughs there. >> fitting words for today. >> great story.

thanks. appreciate it. we'll speak with tim timmon he conducted the last interview with joan rivers. she shared with him her biggest fear of dieing and fascinating details. >> coming up the newsroom, a closer look at leader of isis and his interpretation of islamic law. we'll delve into that, next. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. thebut in the case of the s to evethlexus ls...oment when tomorrow becomes real. ...which eyes? eyes that pivot with the road... ...that can see what light misses... ...eyes designed to warn when yours wander... or ones that can automatically bring the ls to a complete stop.

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president obama will address the nation on wednesday about the threat posed by isis and how this country will combat. he's already offering some hints about his game plan in an interview that aired this morning on nbc's "meet the press" the president said the key to defeating isis will be to form a broad-based coalition. >> we're not looking at sending in a hundred thousand american troops. we are going to be as part of an international coalition, carrying out air strikes in support of work on the ground by iraqi troops, kurdish troops, we are going to be helping to put together a plan for them so that they can start retaking territory that isil had taken over. what i want people to understand is, though, over the course of months we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of isil, we are going to

systemically degrade their capabilities, shrink the territory that they control, and ultimately we're going to defeat them. >> a contributing editor of the new republic. thank you for being with us. you wrote a fascinating piece talking about the leader of isis, a many are learning, abu bakr al baghdadi and wrote that isis is quote, almost pandantic. you go on to say the most, it is isis is the most monstrous squad of historical reenactors of all time. a group that is so brutal, they are willing to kill and torture fellow muslims. how much are they following islamic law? >> well, they do have a particular interpretation of islaming law is that rooted in the history of islam and in particular things that were either said or attributed to the

prophet muhammad. they have their own view of things and it's not widely shared by muslims or radical jihadist muslims. their view of things if they re-create thoorly days of islam a golden period, they will have the fashvor of god and run thei state in mess popotamia in the t possible way. >> when you look at al baghdadi versus bin laden, what difficult reasoniates them. >> one, they controls real estate. bin laden was pretty much on the run for most of the time, he was well known to americans. baghdadi controlled a small fledgling state in syria for most of the time. but there's one other thing that's particular to his interpretation of islamic law and that is that he is from a particular tribe and in islamic law there's a kalif, the head of

the caliphate and you have to have that lineage. bin laden did not have it but baghdadi does. >> you note that they doesn't have the support of even majority of the ultraradical muslims. does that -- does he have a risk in terms of how effectively they can stay in power? >> right now he really does control the territory, he controls quite well. but there is a risk, certainly, he'd be alienating huge numbers of people, not everyday muslims who have no interest in fighting but the radical old guard of al qaeda and really the older they are, the less likely they are to be signing on to his claim to be the only true rightful leader of muslims. >> you write about him saying, quote, given baghdadi more time might make him more plausible in the role and allow him to draw more fighters to his state. if that is true, one concern western collar told me we'd be wise to kill him fast. right now only an infinitesimal

number of muslims have sworn to him, the biggest danger is letting that number grow. how do you take him out? is this one who hiding in a cave? hiding like osama bin laden hiding, more in plain sight than many thought? what should the tactic be here? >> well, there are people in the defense department working very hard to take him out right now. i don't know exactly how they're going to end up doing it. but one thing that differentiates him from bin laden is that he has a return address, that is, he controls a particular piece of land. and so if we can take that area under our control or find him in one of places he has to be, then finding him and assassinating him will be something we can do. >> quickly, before we go, in terms of successor, does isis have a successor in mind? >> we don't foe who that successor is but they have someone in mine then have to have requirements of a caliph

lined up and because they i have strict view of islamic law, those requirements are quite specific. so it might be more difficult than some might think for them to find a particular person who fits all of the requirement for the new caliph. >> someone sharply in focus among intelligence officials around the world. fascinating article. still to come in the newsroom, doctors have never seen anything like it. a respiratory virus so bad sending children to the hospital in ten states. you're driving along,

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liberty mutual insurance. doctors in the midwest are calling it unprecedented. a respiratory illness striking children so hard it's sending more kids to intensive care than one doctor has seen in 30 years in pediatrics. hundred of suspected cases have been reported in ten states. the cdc warning this could be just the tip of the iceberg. one city seeing a large number of the hospitalizations is denver. >> pediatric floor is full of patients with pretty severe respiratory distress. >> to go from a cold to, you know, being probably minutes away from death is -- that's kind of scary. >> some children are really, really more vulnerable to this virus and doctors have so many questions. let's bring in senior medical

correspondent elizabeth cohen. she joins us now. a lot of questions, not a ton of answers what do doctors think they're dealing with here? what kids are most at risk. >> doctors think they're dealing with a virus, d-68 and don't know why the virus has chosen this year to sort of make this big appearance, they don't know why this type of virus decided to appear in the midwest and the southeast. it's a still a bit of a mystery. what they do know is that children who have asthma or children who have a history of asthma are particularly susceptible to getting very, very sick top give you sort of a feeling for the scope of this, we spoke to one hospital in kansas city, missouri, they've had 60 children in intensive care with signs of this virus in less than a month. in less than a month. >> and again, these will kids just starting out school which makes in terms of spreading this a bigger issue. in intensive care, for parents watching what are symptoms to look for?

>> it can start out as a cold, so a child is sneezing a lot, or has a runny nose. but then very quickly, a child sometimes will get a fever, sometimes will get a rash, and i asked a pediatrician, how do you know when to sort of basically flip out about this? and he said, when your mommy or daddy antenna go up, when you child doesn't look right, when this looks like more than the common cold especially if your child has difficulty breathing. that's a do not pass go, do not collect $200, go right to the pediatrician. >> an obvious question but important one what can parents do? they're not going to keep their kids back from school for this now, so what can they do to try to keep their kids healthy? >> right. the only thing to do is advice we give during the flu season, wash your hands, don't touch your nose, eyes, mouth with unwashed hands, avoid contact with people who are sick, disinfect surfaces and watch your child. if a cold starts to become difficulty breathing, get your

pediatrician, emergency room. act quickly because this can get very bad very quick. >> i no deaths yet tied to this, yet. >> correct. speaking with an expert who said, interro viruses don't kill. he expects in the most unusual of cases children will get better, that's one piece of good news here. they are able to treat it. but again, intense everybody care for a number of children. those is serious. coming up in the newsroom next -- the journalist who did the last major interview with joan rivers and it is absolutely fascinating. we'll have him on live, talk to him about what she said about her career highs and lows and her own mortality, next. (vo) ours is a world of passengers. the red-eyes. (daughter) i'm really tired. (vo) the transfers. well, that's kid number three. (vo) the co-pilots. all sitting... ...trusting... ...waiting... ...for a safe arrival.

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second? since -- there's no big deal to have a woman in the white house, john f. kennedy had a thousand of them. i am telling you right now. he said, god bless him, you're going to be a star. changed my life. you look at this, and look how nice my legs are good, breasts are in the right place. >> is there any area you would not go to? >> no. if i think i want to talk about it, then it's right to talk about. and i purposely go into areas that people are still very sensitive and smarting about. >> why? >> if you laugh at it, you can

deal with it. >> can we talk? joan rivers, a legend, remembered today in new york city. he was called sassy, witty, even downright vicious in some of her jokes at times, as you heard nothing off-limits. a household name. you know her stand-up routines were legendary. today the world got to say final good-byes to the comedian in a way that looked, frankly more like a hollywood movie premiere than a funeral. let's bring in tim teamen, culture editor at "the daily beast." you got the last major interview. >> i did. >> hysterical. >> thank you. >> first, you just came from her funeral. >> i did. i was there today. it was an amazing mix of extremely funny and moving at certain points. audra mcdonald the broadway star sang "smile" and howard stern got up -- i can say his opening line -- >> we heard. >> brought the house down. a succession of people speaking from the heart.

>> melissa, her daughter. >> read out this letter that she left under joan's door addressed to her saying, you know, dear mother, you are a paying tenant in this house, please stop taking my son to strip clubs. it was brill lent. some of her friends spoke as well. very funny stories being told. >> classic joan? >> it was classic joan. she did leave instructs what she wanted for her funeral, a wind machine blowing into her casket and things like that. >> did they have that? >> she already had been cremated but something we're not sure been she had pretty much, a real production, a real performance. it was graceful. it was funny. very moving as well. all elements were really well balanced. >> you see in the clips we played she could be utterly hysterical, have impeccable timing in her jokes and thoughtful to larry king, she'll go anywhere, talk about anything no matter how hard it is, if you can laugh about it, you can

start to deal with it. and that has always been something that struck me. let's talk about her life was very high at moments, very low, lost her hub to suicide, right around the same time she lost her show. her relationship with johnny carson in term of professionally completely fell apart. she really had some very difficult times. and bounced back. >> that was a recurring theme at funeral today, as well as a roller coaster nature of her life. the thing about joan and the thing that came about three times that i met her, she worked. the bouncing back things absolutely true. an old school

time. she liked the fame, most keen in the mix, doing e's "fashion police" red carpet, reinventing herself, qvc, new online shows, doing in bed with joan, things like this, she just wanted to reach a new audience, i met her about eight weeks ago now, she was really into vines and she had, you know, 2.15 followed -- million followers on twitter. >> always relevant and always in the latest technology. >> she really -- didn't like the idea of being, like, left out. >> at all. >> in no way frail in no way fragile. >> when you saw her. >> not at all. >> play a clip from her viewers and you when she was guest hosting "the tonight show" in 1 983. let's roll that.

♪ but it's you i like ♪ every part of you [ laughter ] ♪ ♪ your skin, your eyes, your feelings, whether old or new ♪ >> what do you make of how she reacted to that when people would pay her compliments? >> she was quite humble, you know? people don't really realize this because of her brash, public image. i can tell you off camera, she was just as funny during all the interviews i did with her, just as funny, but you know, she was very kind of humble as well and her voice was slightly quieter, but she had the most amazing library at home. she read political biographies a massive history fan. her jokes were filed awake literally filed away in a filing you cabinet. she worked on those jokes. >> index cards? in a filing cabinet. quite an astonishing approach. did mention during this interview, talked about mortality, it came upship. he made the joke, famous joke she made was she didn't want to be revived unless she could do

an hour of standup. that was the funny thing. >> of course. >> the serious thing around melissa and cooper. >> she didn't want to leave them. >> they'd survived edgar's suicide, been estranged, melissa and her, for a period, extremely close, melissa produced her show she was doing on reality tv and she really, really, really didn't want to leave melissa. knew they were so yoked together and adored cooper. people spoke so movingly about her adoration and devotion to cooper today as well. >> 13 years old, i believe he is now, he at least will have these memories, these memories of his grandmother. lastly i tim, how do you think that she will want to be remembered? we will all have our own memories, how would she want the world to hold on to her? >> introduction, people claim she was mean and vicious and said things that seemed not just on the edge but a feather boa wrapped around her neck. she thought she was truth telling. i said you have been mean and ruthless about people. she said, no, it, no, i have

told the truth. her career was an extended exercise in truth telling. wherever you could take that truth or couldn't was a matter of taste but she carried on and carried on fighting and working right to the very end and she went out, most importantly, on top, which is so appropriate, i think. >> she certainly did. someone who has made us all laugh. so, thank you, joan rivers, for the laughs. thank you for a fascinating interview. >> thank you. >> if you haven't read it tough go, tough read this interview, because you should see some of the questions that tim asked. they are very classic joan rivers. thank you for coming in. we appreciate it. good to have you on. coming up next here in the newsroom, going to talk about a very serious issue in california, the drought there is so bad, experts say it could actually cause earthquakes. devastating crisis for the golden state, next. try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief.

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in today's american journey, we take you to california, a very dry california right now. entire communities with no running water, river and lake levels down hundreds of feet. and as if things could not get any worse, scientists believe the depletion of groundwater could lead to increased earthquake activity on the famed san andreas fault. dan simon shows us the most dramatic images of the california drought. >> reporter: a healthy and full lake in northern california. there's only one problem. this picture is three years old. and now, i'm walking on top of that very same bridge. take a look. it is a virtual desert. this is what drought looks like in the state of california. here's another before and after, side by side. and just when this drought couldn't seem any worse, new research indicates that the depletion of groundwater in the state may actually trigger earthquakes. more on that in a moment. first, this is lake orville.

a boater's paradise, at least when it's full. more importantly, it's a reservoir storing water, ultimately piped into homes and for agriculture, helping to grow much of the nation's fruits and vegetables. >> we have 167 miles of shoreline. >> reporter: johnthe pretoe took us on a boat to see that shoreline and it's even more astounding up close. the lake seems more like a narrow river, the drought has created a canyon, a hill side of rock that's normally covered by water. the water level is down by more than 200 feet. it's a common sight throughout the state. most of california's major reservoirs are less than half full. what would we be seeing? >> we would be seeing the water up probably halfway up that hill side at this time of the year. >> reporter: more than 80% of the state is either in the extreme or exceptional category, the highest levels. it's meant things like no showers or running water for

several communities, an increase in wildfires, brown and neglected public parks and farmers losing their crops. >> it's like mourning. it's dead. our product is dead. >> reporter: jesse rodriguez grows table grapes and estimates he will lose 40% of his crop this year due to the drought. >> water is the main thing here. without water, we cannot survive. >> reporter: with low reservoirs, farmers are having to pump water out of the ground. and as if all that weren't bad enough, there's new information from researchers who believe the depletion of groundwater in california's central valley could destabilize the infamous san andreas fault and trigger earthquakes. the study, published in the journal "nature" concluded that removing so much weight in the form of groundwater cause the earth to spring upward and the change in pressure can cause those quakes. >> the earthquakes are mysterious things that happen under our feet, so, having a way

for people to cause these earthquakes to happen is unsettling. >> reporter: experts say the quakes would be small and unlikely to cause any damage. still, it's yet another example of why this drought is causing so much stress to both the land and the mental well being of nearly an entire state. dan simons, cnn, orville, california. good evening, everyone, you're in the cnn newsroom, i'm poppy harlow joining you from new york. in three days, president obama says we will know how he plans to, in his words, systematically degrade the militant group that calls itself isis. without giving details though today, the president said he intends to hurt the group economically and at the same time, those air strikes will continue. and the president says when this new phase is enacted, do not expect a re