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contracts. order a tableau total system today an alleged claim of responsibility and a to do list. >> new evidence officials have against the man suspected of killing the ceo of unitedhealthcare. now, cnn has learned that fingerprints found at the scene match luigi mangione. >> plus, it has been five weeks since donald trump became president elect trump, and he's been busy selecting his cabinet. and now we have our first cnn poll about how americans feel, about how the trump transition is going so far. and people along southern california's coast facing a terrifying crisis as a wildfire sweeps through malibu, forcing mandatory evacuations, canceling classes and shutting down big stretches of historic pacific coast highway. we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central

for the first time, we're learning of forensic evidence that allegedly ties murder suspect luigi mangione to the assassination scene of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. >> sources tell cnn that mangione fingerprints matched those found outside the midtown manhattan hotel, where the 50 year old father of two was gunned down. mangione, who was arrested on monday, is now in a pennsylvania state prison fighting extradition to new york. the state has charged him with second degree murder and multiple weapons and forgery offenses. the 26 year old former engineer has two weeks to file the paperwork to challenge this process. his attorney explained why they are fighting extradition. on cnn last night in the constitution, permits that somebody in luigi's position has the opportunity to look at evidence, um, make sure the government follows through a

process. >> and that's what we're doing. so again, i've been in this case, probably about 12, 14 hours, maybe whatever, give or take. and i haven't seen a speck of evidence, uh, at all. well, i haven't seen any evidence that they have the right guy, i can tell you that much. so i don't i don't know anything about that. um, you know, there's, uh, you know. identification issues. >> cnn chief, law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller joins us now. john, one of the key pieces of evidence in this case that thomas dickey will soon be looking at are these fingerprints that were discovered and matched luigi mangione. tell us more about that. >> so these are fingerprints that were found at the scene of the murder along the pathway that the gunman fled in an alley before jumping on a bicycle. one fingerprint, a viable print lifted from a cell phone. a burner phone that was dropped or thrown by the gunman. another from a plastic water bottle that they also extracted dna from that was

purchased by the individual they believe was the gunman at a starbucks before that. but boris, knowing the way the nypd works, they probably also took numerous other fingerprints at the hostel where he stayed, and anywhere else where they thought he spent a good deal of time. they were able to run some of the recovered fingerprints against the prints that were taken pursuant to his arrest by the altoona, pennsylvania, police. when he was pointed out in that in that mcdonald's and we are told by sources in the nypd that some of those prints match so that they have a positive match. and that is really the first piece of forensic evidence as opposed to all the other evidence that takes the man who's in jail in pennsylvania and puts him and his fingerprints on the scene at the murder in new york. >> and, john, there's also this notebook pages of which apparently investigators are saying provide them with evidence for a motive. this is

separate from that handwritten manifesto that was discovered on him. what are the pages in the notebook say so. >> boris, it's so interesting because the manifesto, the three page handwritten document actually kind of directs police to the spiral notebook. you know, when i read his note, it said, you know, this wasn't so difficult to put together. fairly simple. um, and, you know, in in the spiral notebook, you'll find some other things to do, lists and some writings. well, in the spiral notebook, which i believe was in the backpack he was arrested with in the mcdonald's, they find notes about things that he has to accomplish. these to do lists of places he has to go, or things he needs to get in order to carry out this, this murder, but also writings about theodore kaczynski, the unabomber. and, you know, attacking corporate targets.

and that in his thinking, a bomb against the target that he's working on. brian thompson or unitedhealthcare, um, might actually injure innocent people who are not the target. and that, you know, a gun is probably a better choice. and then he muses in a fairly dark line, what would be better than gunning down the ceo of this company at his own beancounting conference, referring to the stockholders meeting, the investor conference that is going to be held at the hilton on the day that the gunman is planning to murder the head of the company. >> all right, john, stay with us. we want to discuss more now with our panel of experts. we have defense attorney misty marris joining us and cnn law enforcement contributor and retired fbi supervisory special agent steve moore with us, as well. steve, the evidence here appears to just be piling up against this suspect. how crucial are these fingerprints

in proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt well, as as john pointed out, the case right now has kind of a mountain of evidence linking him. >> but it's all circumstantial evidence. it's not it's not necessarily the actual forensic fingerprints that will say that the person who was holding this phone or in possession of this phone when they shot thompson is actually the person who they have in jail in, uh, in pennsylvania. and today's juries, by the way. i mean, even with all this evidence out there, they after watching tv and watching csi for decades, the juries kind of expect to have dna and fingerprints on speeding cases. much, much more so on cases like this. so the jury is going to have a high expectation of evidence, uh,

before they'll, they'll, um, want to convict quickly. >> so, john, how does the fingerprint match potentially affect mangione? extradition fight well, it plays into, you know, the core considerations in an extradition fight, as misty will tell us, is, you know, is the identification proper? >> do you have the right person? um, are the charges valid and, you know, are the documents prepared correctly? and in this case, when it comes to do you have the right, right person, the bar in an extradition hearing is very low. but at this point, to be able to say we have a person whose fingerprints were taken here in this police station by these cops and those fingerprints match prints found on the scene of the murder that brings the certainty of we have the right person up a much, a lot higher in that argument misty. >> obviously, there's so much

circumstantial evidence, but i also wonder if, from watching tv, people have this expectation that circumstantial evidence doesn't matter when actually you can secure a conviction on circumstantial evidence, especially if there's a ton of it. >> absolutely. circumstantial evidence does not preclude proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt, but certainly any time you can match the forensics or the ballistics, that is very, very helpful. and here this particular case, there is such a tremendous amount of video evidence. and to the extent that mangione and his attorney, who alluded to this last night, that it's going to be there's a misidentification, well, that argument is seriously undercut when you have a fingerprint or other dna evidence that can link where those images were captured to forensic evidence in that area, and link that back to mangione. so that's why there's such a tremendous push to ensure that any

forensic evidence, ballistic evidence matching that gun is done as the case in new york proceeds. >> misty, i'm curious to get your thoughts on what we saw unfold yesterday as mangione was taken into this extradition hearing, this outburst that he had yelling to cameras, apparently, when he was in court, there were reports that he was speaking out of turn and that his disposition was so irregular or uncommon that the da in blair county was asked about it by reporters. what do you make of that? could that potentially harm the defense moving forward? >> well, absolutely. that outburst itself leads me to ask the question, has he made other out of court statements? keep in mind, he had been in custody. he had been around other police officers. we all saw that very publicly as he was being brought in. but we don't know if there are other statements that are made and those generally fall under a hearsay exception called

statements against interest and can make their way into the courtroom to prove intent. so any of those statements that were to have been made that would tend to show guilt can absolutely be damaging. and when he was speaking out of turn in the courtroom, you saw his lawyer come in and immediately shut that down. now that he's represented, uh, quite frankly, the advice is going to be do not make any statements at all to anyone. let the lawyers do the talking. >> and steve, the suspect's attorney, confirmed to cnn he has received offers from the public to help pay for his client's legal fees. what do you think of that? >> well, i think it's it's the tip of the iceberg on what we're seeing with, uh, with a whole wave of people with anarchist tendencies or even aggrieved people from health. uh, from health companies that feel that justice was done. um,

which is, which is very disturbing. but you are going to find a large, well, a large minority, i would say, of people in america who actually do have these anti-business, anti-corporate, um, kind of anarchist leanings. uh, it's a small fraction of people, but they're they're out there and they're vocal and, john, we've pieced together his family background, his education, some of his movements around the crime, at least according to police. >> but there is a big gap in the luigi mangione story. how do investigators go about filling that gap? >> you know, boris, there is an investigators are going to be very interested in that because it may well play into motive, which they don't have to prove. but as misty will tell you, juries like to hear it. they want to know that there's a reason that there's a story

line. but i think the gap starts in honolulu, probably in 2023. going into 2024, he has the surfing accident during that course that he's taking at that ends up in the surgery and the back pain. then he ends up in san francisco. maybe because he was an engineer and he might be looking for a silicon valley job, or maybe because from honolulu to san francisco was the longest flight he could stand with the amount of pain and back trouble he was having. but in san francisco, he ends up staying in another youth hostel. this is really interesting to me because at some point he has a job with a car company he could probably afford better. how does he end up there and does that not foreshadow the idea that he learns these places are pretty cheap. you don't need to have a strong set of identification to get in there, and they take cash. maybe some of the things that formulated the idea when he turned into

this new york murder plot, about how he would maintain that anonymity, which, as we know, didn't quite work. >> yeah, some significant questions there, john. misty, steve, thank you all so much. appreciate the perspective. still ahead this hour on cnn news central. brand new cnn polling on how americans view donald trump's transition back to the white house. this as the president elect's administration begins to take shape. >> and a wildfire tearing through malibu, california, burning homes and forcing some residents there. famous ones even to flee i can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much. new year's day on cnn. >> i've been warned by celebrities, athletes and world leaders, but i've always felt most comfortable up here with

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election day. now out, it shows that most americans are pleased so far with the transition from president biden to president elect trump. according to this new survey, 55% of respondents say they approve of trump's handling. that's higher than during trump's first transition. in the meantime, trump's takeover of washington is taking shape, the power center gradually shifting from florida to the nation's capital. even as trump prefers to bask in the afterglow of his electoral victory from his mar a lago estate. cnn's kristen holmes is in nearby west palm beach, florida. kristen, tell us what you're learning. >> yeah, brianna. so what we know is that donald trump himself loves being here in palm beach. he likes being at mar a lago. we've seen him continuing to essentially have people come down and kiss the ring. it's foreign leaders. it's lawmakers. it's various billionaires. and silicon valley tycoons. they're all still at mar a lago, as is donald trump. now, the other

thing that's going on here in west palm beach is that's where they're actually doing the staffing. that's where the transition office is. they're bringing in people really in huge numbers to sit through these interviews that are being held by conservative media personalities, by business leaders who are going through a cycle of various interviews for different administration posts. and then essentially, they bring the finalists to donald trump at mar a lago, and he decides who goes into the administration. so there is still an operation on the ground here, but day by day we see less and less people who are actually here. donald trump makes those decisions as to who is going to go into the administration, and those people go out to washington. we've seen a number of his cabinet picks up on capitol hill. and it's not just the cabinet picks. remember, these people are having staff with them. they have media sherpas. they have regular legislative sherpas. they have people who are advising them that are all going to washington. we also know that several low level staffers are already down there. we know the advance teams are there because they're getting ready for the inauguration. they're doing

walkthroughs. they're meeting with secret service. a huge operation is in place, and i do want to read you a quote as to why we're seeing such movement from florida to d.c. at this time. this was given to our colleague alayna treene. he said part of the reason we're all descending on d.c. so early is because the nominees were landed quicker. the sub-cabinet is starting to form policy. teams are in place. so what's left is figuring out where the hell we're going to live and staffing up. everything is oriented to being as ready as humanly possible. and remember, this has really been the theme of this transition from day one. they wanted everything to be in place so that he could actually get moving on day one. this is very different from what we saw in 2017, when there was so much chaos around so much of the transition that he wasn't ready when he got to office. they want to avoid all of that, and that's why you're seeing so much movement of the epicenter of this transition, really starting to go to dc as they staff up the administration and build it out all right.

>> kristen holmes, thank you so much for that. let's talk a little bit more about what's going on with shermichael singleton. singleton, republican strategist and cnn political commentator, and megan hayes, democratic strategist and former biden white house director of message planning. i wonder shermichael, it seems like the thinking from trump world is that if they can get pete hegseth to at least to begin the process, get to a confirmation hearing, then he's going to be good to go. but i wonder if there is some jeopardy in the confirmation hearing and what could come out in it that could, uh, risk his nomination. >> i mean, if if something else comes out, in addition to the allegation that we've covered for weeks or just how he responds to it, how the questions that he's asked that it's going to be so high profile, what do you think? i think he's going to find i think he's going to respond fine. i'm not worried about that. i mean, the guy understands messaging. i think that's a part of the reason trump selected him. he was a host, and i'm not saying that he was a host to diminish why i think he could lead the department of defense, but he

does know how to communicate and communicate well in front of cameras. and so i suspect after having a slew of meetings, the team around him is going to prepare him for the onslaught that's going to come from democrats. that's just to be expected. i was a part of this process when doctor carson was ultimately confirmed as secretary of hud. it's a tedious process, and the other side is going to ask very detailed questions. are you prepared for the job? if there are any negative reports out there, they're going to ask you about these things to see how you can handle them. the veracity of those claims that have been alleged, and you go through the process of preparing that individual to answer as many of those questions as honestly as possible, but to really showcase knowledge of the agency that they are asking to lead. and if you can do that effectively, then even some democrats will come out, as they did with doctor carson saying, you know what? i think i'm going to give him a shot, at least out of confirmation. elizabeth warren was one who voted for carson at the time, so there could be some surprises out of that confirmation hearing. >> i think that's wishful thinking for pete hegseth, but we'll see. we'll see. >> megan, what do you expect democrats will go after him for? i imagine some of these allegations, but then also his qualifications. >> i think that and i also

think his flip flopping back and forth on women in the military and women in combat, how he said, you know, just in november that he didn't believe women should be in combat. and then on hannity show the other night, he said women should be in the military. so it's you know, i think they'll definitely go after that. i think they'll go after some of these allegations. i think they'll go after the operational side of these vets organizations that there's been rumors that he was not fit to serve, that he drove them into the ground and misappropriated funds. so i think that those are the things that they will they will bring out. >> yeah. >> if i could just reply quickly. i mean, i think there are two or multiple types of leaders. pete could be the type of leader that can energize and excite current enlisted. but potential individuals that we want to recruit into our military. and then you can have a deputy secretary who's really good at running the organization. so if i'm appointing someone and i say, hey, this guy is really, really strong here, but there are some weaknesses there. well, can i put him with someone else who can do the day to day while he goes out and excites the troops, excites individuals that we're trying to recruit to build up our numbers? i think that's a potential strategy that the president elect could look at. >> i also think that's a that's a great strategy for some of the other agencies. i

just don't think with our military and being so forceful in our in the world and our place in the world, that that is a good strategy to have. i think you need someone who can operationally understand the military and be able to run effectively, as well as be a commander in chief for those folks. i know that the president elect will be the commander in chief, but to be the leader of the military at the dod, it's interesting to watch the way that republicans, some specific republicans, have shifted in the way that they talk about pete hegseth as the head of the department of defense, i'm curious about the influence not coming from trump directly, but coming from folks like the heritage foundation on some of these republican senators placing ads in specific places like alaska. >> uh, lisa murkowski, iowa, joni ernst, maine. you see, you see where i'm going? susan collins. so so i'm seeing the pattern. >> yes, it's indirect influence, but it's influence coming from mar-a-lago. >> yeah. >> i mean, you know, this is interesting to me, guys, because i had long wondered how long before other outside republican groups would say, all right, how many meetings do

you need to have? you've had one, you've had two, you've had three, you've had four. and you're still saying, well, i hat i'm going to do. oh, well, i need another meeting at some point. i can't use the phrase i really want to use on family appropriate show, but at some point you got to get up and make a decision. and you guys know what i really want to say. and so the heritage and other groups are saying enough with the meetings, come out and say, you're going to support this guy or not support him. so at least the president elect has an opportunity to throw out someone else's name. but if you're not going to do that, then allow him to go before a committee to defend himself and have a vote before the full senate. >> i think the problem, though, with joni ernst here is she's being bracketed, definitely in her state. she has a primary and they're going to go up against her, but she also is being floated as a replacement. so she's kind of boxed in this weird spot that she can't come out the politics there for her is really uncomfortable, and a lot of ways she may want 100%. she may want, but it's like, do you want this? or do you want to lose your primary and your your senate seat next, next cycle? >> do you think, megan, the democrats are doing what they should do when it comes to messaging about these picks? >> i mean, i think that they are doing all that they can do

because at the end of the day, they don't have a majority to not not for voting, for voting, but they can put enough they can put enough salt in the wound to make this uncomfortable for people. and i think that the democrats and i think there are some republicans with some of these picks. you saw that with matt gaetz, who are also out here fueling the fire with some of these things and driving the media narrative. so i think that they are doing what they need to be doing to bring some of this attention to light in the in the public view. >> that was a loaded laugh when she asked that question why? >> i mean, i just have my thoughts on democrats. i mean, no surprise. i mean, you can you can only do so much. and i think at the end of the day, whether you're a democrat or republican, i personally believe this. if a president has been elected, we ought to respect that and we should give the nominees an opportunity to at least go through committee. that doesn't mean you're going to or at least come before the committee. it doesn't mean you're going to ultimately get through committee to go before the full body, but at least take this as an opportunity to not look for gotcha moments. but hey, if you want this job, prove to us and the american people that you're capable. show to us that you have done

your due diligence to understand the very nuances of a machine such as the pentagon, pentagon. and if you can do that effectively, then to me, that should earn someone their vote. >> all right. who do you worry, megan, about getting through this process the most right now i mean, who's your biggest concern? >> the what i think should be the biggest concern is tulsi gabbard. i think that she poses the most, um, the most controversy to our country. i think that the national security aspect and some of the people and being alleged as a russian asset and all these different things, i think that is actually a concern for our national security. and i think that we are going to have to turn to attention to that. but i do think pete hegseth right now is the one on the hot seat, but rfk will be up there next week, so we'll have to see what that brings. >> can i just say something on the russian asset thing? you hear some democrats saying that and then you hear others saying, don't say that. have we not learned our lesson? you can question someone's actions, but when you take the step that far, she's still enlisted. >> i mean, so clearly she cares a lot about this country whether you agree or disagree with the politics or not. no

not you. >> this was reported in the russian media. >> no no no no not not not not not you. but i'm saying the democrats have made that allegation against her. i do agree with megan, though, that i do think it's going to be tough for her. and you've seen some republicans who really care a lot about foreign policy, who are saying, i'm not really sure if i'm going to give my vote to tulsi gabbard. so it's going to be interesting to see how the transition team really gets some republicans on their side to ultimately get her over. i'm just not certain. so my advice to the president elect would be to potentially have someone else's name up for consideration, because from what i'm hearing, it's going to be really, really tough for tulsi. >> and lastly, megan, this new cnn poll that brianna walked us through, a majority of americans, 55% approve of trump's handling of the transition. what do you attribute that to? >> i think because we're just going through the process. right. and i think people are exhausted and not paying attention to what's going on. i think that the only thing that the there is a peaceful transfer of power here, right, that the biden white house is doing what they need to do. the trump administration is finally doing some what they need to do. but i think we're going through the process of what normally happens when they nominate people and we go through the the confirmation hearings. that's what the

transition really is. >> but, you know, i also think that people perhaps thought trump would have acted differently. and instead, i would suggest and argue that the president elect has actually given the senate republicans the opportunity to do their jobs. there are some individuals that he wants, and he's gone on record. he's put statements out on truth social. hey, i want this person, give him an opportunity. but in interviews, when asked, i believe the recent msnbc nbc interview, he did say, well, hey, look, i don't know. i think this is a good person. i support him, but let's see what occurs. and i think people the average person is looking at that and they're saying, all right, trump is you know, he's stepping back a little bit and let the process work out. >> he's playing relatively low key and quiet. he's not doing you know he did one interview last week 2.0 i don't know about that. we'll see. >> the process is young yet. >> yeah exactly. i'm not going to bet on that brianna. sure. michael. >> megan. thank you both. appreciate the conversation. coming up, the man accused of attempting to assassinate donald trump in florida last september is in court. why? he's asking a federal judge to delay his trial.

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presidential candidate and an assault on a federal officer. cnn crime and justice correspondent katelyn polantz is here with more on what's happened at this hearing today. tell us. >> well, this is a moment where the defense team for ryan ruth, some federal public defenders down in florida are overwhelmed and they've gone to judge cannon to tell them there is just so much evidence that the feds have gathered about ryan ruth, about this alleged attempted assassination of donald trump, that they just can't get through it and they can barely make out the time to meet with him in the prison where he's being held, or in the jail where he's being held in miami as he's awaiting trial. so right now, the trial is on schedule for february. february 10th. and that's five months from his being arrested and charged. that's not a lot of time. and the prosecutors even say, sure, we would be okay with you moving this trial date back. but the defense team, they want the trial for ryan ruth to not take place

until a year from now. so that is quite a long period of time. judge cannon didn't make a decision today, but one of the highlights in this discussion over the trial time and how much time the defense needs to prepare, is just the the incredible amount of information that the feds picked up on ryan ruth. they say that they were doing it because they needed to assess the threat against donald trump. but then he had a massive amount of electronics. 17 of his own cell phones that the fbi has had to go through. there were computers, tablets, additional things. and then, of course, a large amount of body camera footage of the law enforcement that tracked him down that day after he was found on the mar-a-lago golf course, or the international, the trump international golf course. >> yeah. it's boggling all of that. katelyn polantz thank you so much. we do appreciate it. and coming up, the leader of syrian rebel forces has a message for the world. what he's now saying about the possibility of another war

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enter $5 and get $50 instantly with code tv. >> i could have told you that. i could have told you that. >> i'm clarissa ward in damascus, and thiscnn. >> new today. syria's rebel leader is vowing to bring stability to the war torn country. mohammad al-julani, who was just appointed as syria's caretaker prime minister, tells reporters the assad regime is no more that his people are exhausted and that foreign governments should not fear a war with syria. but fighting continues in the country's north and east and across its borders. israel says it struck syria nearly 500 times in just two days, while turkish state media says this drone strike destroyed military

equipment that had been seized by a kurdish group. joining us now is retired lieutenant general mark hertling. general hertling, thank you so much for being with us. despite the ouster of assad, some of the rebel groups that joined forces to unseat him are directly opposed to each other. and with him out of the way. do you foresee a period of peace in syria, especially given that some of these kurdish forces and turkish backed fighters are at odds? >> well, giuliani has a couple of tasks in front of him, boris. the first one is to gather the groups together that have been fighting, and it has been an unbelievable spectrum of people who have been fighting in syria, all pointing guns at each other over the last ten years. so he's said publicly that he's going to try and pull all those groups together. some are extreme terrorists, others are just freedom fighters. but there's also right now, a whole lot of churn. russia has been sending their forces out of the area

drastically trying to get out of the area. as you just mentioned, the kurdish forces are bumping up against the turkish forces and turkey. turkey always considers any kurdish forces to be its enemy. so you're going to see some additional churn going on over the next several days and weeks. while giuliani tries and pull the government together. as i said the other day, you know, whenever you mention the two words, regime change, you're going to have a lot of chaos right after the the statues are pulled down and people are firing celebratory gunfire in the streets. that's what we're seeing right now. >> and often as we see that chaos, you see the attempts by foreign governments, perhaps to influence what happens and to and to seek opportunity to that point. do you think that recep erdogan sees this moment as a chance to hurt those kurdish rebels in the north? should we expect more from turkey and its fighters in the region, and

more aggression towards the kurds yeah, all all of that is happening. >> plus, you add to that the israeli strikes that have occurred over the last two days, 350 strikes by israel against key ammunition and naval targets of syria to ensure that they don't come back. but getting back to the turkish piece, yeah, i think you're going to see that having spent a little bit of time in northern iraq and see how much there is a desire to destroy some of the kurdish, the excuse me, the kurdish fighters by the turkish government. i think you're certainly going to see that from the political angle here in northern syria as as the kurdish fighters try and, you know, basically secure their autonomous region, which they claim goes all the way from syria through the northern parts of iraq and even into iran. i mean, they see this as a potential opportunity as well. but turkey is certainly going to oppose those over the next couple of weeks. >> yeah, that will be one angle

to watch for sure. i do want to ask you about the us's role, because the united states maintains some 900 troops in northern syria, and their mission has shifted over time. what role do you expect they're going to play now? >> i think they're going to continue to play a role of counterterrorism. those 900 forces there, along with some of their security forces, have always been geared toward fighting against isis, regenerating along the euphrates river valley. that's the concern. you know, boris, it's interesting because this area has a long history of shuttling terrorists to and fro between iran all the way to the western border of syria and into lebanon. it was there when i was there ten years ago, and it still exists that this is a terrorist rat line that goes all the way through syria and into the northern nineveh desert of, of iraq. and i think it's going to be very challenging to try and stop those terrorist activity, both shia and sunni, going into the

various countries in the middle east. this this is a hotbed of terrorism, and it's going to be hard to shut it down. and that's what the us forces are going to do. but in addition to that, i think the administration has said they're going to do everything in their power to help secure a new government within syria and work with the the new syrian government under gilani to bring about, you know, a normalization in ties. and i think that's a good thing as well. >> lieutenant general mark hertling, great to get your analysis. thanks for joining us now. >> thanks, boris. thank you. >> of course, brianna. >> and now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. it would have been the biggest supermarket marriage in u.s. history. but now albertsons is suing kroger after the latest court blocked their $25 billion merger, arguing that it would hurt competition. albertsons is alleging kroger did not do enough to support the deal, while kroger says albertsons is deflecting its own responsibility. and in california, officials are investigating a possible cause

a case, i should say, of bird flu and a child who drank raw milk. the child went to an emergency room last month with a fever and vomiting, and tested positive for influenza a. california health officials are warning about the risks of raw milk, which can carry listeria, salmonella, e coli and bird flu virus. and a kayaker who faked his own death and fled to eastern europe, leaving his wife and three children, is now in police custody in wisconsin, a local sheriff says he is cooperating. >> it was one thing that. that worked, worked in our favor. we brought. a dad back on his own accord the sheriff says. >> the district attorney is reviewing several possible charges. we do expect to learn more in a court hearing in the 3 p.m. hour. and still ahead, fire crews in california are struggling to get the upper hand on a fast moving wildfire

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4000 acres and destroyed a number of structures. that's forcing officials to issue evacuation orders and other warnings for about 18,000 people. fortunately, so far, no deaths or injuries have been reported. but at last check, this fire was just 7% contained. cnn's nick watt is on the ground with a look at how crews are fighting it around 1500 firefighters, as well as helicopters and fixed wing aircraft dropping water, all trying to get this fire under control. >> you can see the flames in the hills behind me. that is a seafood shack right there. this is the pch, the pacific coast highway, which is currently closed. pacific ocean, just a few feet behind us. now the issue, the terrain obviously, as you can see, and the winds, the santa ana winds whipping 60, 70 mile an hour gusts, that is the problem. those winds pick up, embers can carry them for miles. we have seen some people trying to spray down

water onto the roof of their houses so that if an ember doesn't land, it doesn't ignite the building. so the fire, we are told by fire officials, is stubborn because of the wind, because of the low humidity, and just because of all this fuel, this dry chaparral that just gets that fire going. at its peak so far, this fire was consuming maybe five football fields. structures have been destroyed. people have been forced to evacuate. amongst them, dick van dike and his wife and one of their cats. he turns 99 on friday. by then, officials are hoping that the conditions improve, that the humidity gets higher, that the winds drop, and that they can actually get this blaze under some sort of control. nick watt, cnn, malibu, california. >> our thanks to nick watt for that report. coming up, we have new details in the shooting death of the unitedhealthcare ceo. authorities piecing

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