latest efforts to stop the illegal migrant crossings, border buoys in the rio grande. hey, casey. >> good to see you. abbott is joined by four other governors, and take an aerial tour, a section of the rio grande river where texas has deployed those giant floating barriers in the water to help deter migrants from illegally crossing. the justice department suing texas arguing the buoys have to be removed because they violate river protection laws. the doj officials claim the buoys are unauthorized and obstruct u.s. waters. texas has argued they do not obstruct that part of the river, therefore the law doesn't apply. governor abbott also contends the federal government has failed to defend the southern border adding the state has a federal constitutional right to defend itself against invasion from non-state actors.

according to cbp data, more than 183,000 migrant encounters were recorded for the month of july, up from january when apprehensions topped 157,000. in all, more than 1.9 million migrant encounters along the southern border since october 1st when the fiscal year began. this wild video, hot pursuit of a load vehicle in hidalgo county. you can see the driver and multiple passengers then bail from the car running in all directions trying to hide. the 17-year-old driver and three illegal immigrants were arrested. meantime, new york city has opened a new migrant shelter on randall's island. six tents will be used to house up to 3,000 people there as the city grapples with how to house all of the migrants being sent

to the big apple. sandra. >> sandra: casey, thank you. john. >> john: all right, sandra, the count down is on. two days to the first republican debate. voters will hear firsthand from the candidates, all the same time on issues like the border, china and crime. and of course, the issue impacting every single american, the economy. and that is something the president is still struggling to sell. welcome back to "america reports," i'm john roberts in washington. good to have you back from vacation. >> sandra: good to be back with you, john. president biden betting his signature bidenomics spending plan will be a winning message in 2024, but voters are not feeling so good about the economy. don't ask the white house about that. >> they are tired of paying

higher prices and think the president is at least in part to blame. >> look, i hear where you're coming from and i get this question all the time but i feel like that line of questioning is starting to get a little bit stale. >> john: that was the chairman of the white house economic council dismissing a question of inflation. inflation is on the minds of voters, very much so. a whopping 67% of americans are not happy with the president's job on the economy. and at the polls are not clear enough, hear it from the voters. >> all the prices are going high, can't afford it. >> and i think it's time for a change. >> i see nothing he has done for the american people. >> griff jenkins kicking off a brand-new hour for us, reporting from washington on this issue. you know, you go back to the exchange, the line of questioning might be stale but still extremely relevant to

those living through this, griff. >> that's right. good afternoon, sandra. and what jared may have forgotten, no issue hits voters harder than the ones who hit their wallets directly. consumer prices up 16%, voters are feel pain everywhere they turn. >> everything is literally through the roof. you have to be a millionaire to live in d.c. >> i'm middle class and i am concerned about like the inflation issues and interest rate hikes. >> inflation has raised the cost of a lot of things. it's more expensive to eat or pick up food at the grocery store. >> sandra, eight out of ten registered voters see the condition of the economy in bad shape, only 35% of voters see their personal financial situation in good shape. florida voter steve redman tells fox news this economy touches everything he does.

>> the economy, the way it is, it affects everything from driving to work, putting tires on the car, buying insurance, pharmacy bills, i mean -- it affects everything no matter how you look at it. >> meanwhile, alabama grandmother jessica mccabe is worried the nation is too divided to find the solutions. >> we are fighting each other who is better, trump, biden, whatever, we are not actually seeing what's going on in the white house, what laws are being changed that hurt us because we are fighting ourselves. >> ultimately she like other voters want solutions and you can bet this issue will be front and center with bret and martha is he debate on wednesday, hear from the candidates what the policies will be to fix the economy. >> john: kick it around with our panel, jason chaffetz and robert

wolf, both are fox news contributor. robert, start with you. put up the latest fox news poll. the condition of the economy is good, 20% of people say yes. 80% say no. that's right around the ballpark of where it's been for most of the year and minority voters are apparently giving biden poor grades as well. politico interviewed a group of voters of color, used words like discouraged, pessimistic, pathetic to describe the plight of the economy for them. so i'm wondering, when biden talks about bidenomics and the economy and growing the middle class out, he says it's working. so why the disconnect? >> john, thanks for having me on, hi, jason. i mean listen, we still have inflation even though it has come way off its peak it's stim impacting everyday americans.

with that being said, polls all over the place, consumer confidence the highest in two years, gdp is run by the consumer, a household survey that said job satisfaction is near record high. the labor market is the best it's been in forever for the most part, and wages are finally ahead of where inflation is, and most sectors that got hit most by covid like hospitality and leisure. we still have inflation tail and so it's hard out there and we have to keep working hard and make sure, i do think bidenomics will work with infrastructure and manufacturing and we have to tell the story. >> john: despite the rosie report, when asked, biden's approval on the economy, only 36% of people say that they approve of the job that he's doing. and a question that we have around here is as we look toward the debate on wednesday, why aren't more republican

candidates seizing on that? >> yeah, i agree with you on that point. but you know, to hear the solution as we need more joe biden telling the story, that's not going to solve the problem. you cannot have a thriving economy, a growing economy with high energy prices. they need to be reasonable to low. they used to be that, but then biden and harris changed the policy and guess what, why you will pay nearly five bucks a gallon in california this labor day weekend and 4 dollars the rest of the country. you can't -- and to suggest, the labor participation is abysmal. we have too many people accepting welfare and on the dole and not participating in the economy. inflation is still too high. it's -- there is no plan -- the number one job growth, by the way, that bidenomics like to talk about, number one category,

government jobs. that's not a thriving economy. that's just becoming a government state. >> inflation is coming down, but the things that aren't included in the core inflation, things like energy and food prices, they are still very high and as we know, gas is going up. jason, you wrote a column on fox news.com saying you don't believe ultimately biden is going to run for re-election. kim strassel and her potomac watch column says is joe biden electable. democrats bet on a weak horse in 2024 presidential race sure his opponent is even weaker. goes on to say it's increasingly difficult to tip toe and the president's disturbing decline. long vacations, early nights, confusion, mumbling, bizarre statements. a june poll found 71% of likely voters, including half of democrats think mr. biden is too old to be president. robert, do you agree with jason that biden may end up not running? >> absolutely not. i was recently at the white

house, he's absolutely running. he's showing his first ad into the gop debate that fox is running in the eight swing states. i saw the article and those points really have nothing to do with him being president. he's president biden today, he's not candidate biden and campaigning does not start for an incumbent until towards the end of the year so you will not see the whole idea of candidate biden that jason kind of was referring in his article and kimberly was, you know, for a while. he has a day-to-day job and that's being the president of the united states and we should be talking about what he just came out of south korea and japan on the summit, great things going on. unlike trump that had infrastructure week that never happened, we passed a bipartisan solution, i think we should talk more positive about it. >> john: jason, final thought to you. i thought he does not have an legitimate challenger out there,

he has the power of the presidency and the bully pulpit. why does he need to spend money right now. an at the end of the last quarter he had four employees and the first primary is five months away. and i love that he came to utah, but he didn't spend time in nevada or colorado, states that would matter in the next election. he was on the beach, could not give the coach an answer on helping the people in hawaii and now extended vacation in lake tahoe. he's not exactly working hard. >> john: jason, robert, good to get your thoughts. appreciate it. >> it closes us down completely. all of our streets that are leading into the valley are closed right now. we are trying to get them open as quickly as possible. i think we have one lane open on our major highway 111. >> sandra: still a lot to deal with, that was the mayor of palm

springs, california after a tropical storm hit southern california the first time in more than 80 years. this is new video out of the area of people trying to get through the floodwaters, extremely dangerous conditions all over. what's left of hilary drenching the area causing mudslides, flooding and power outages, and an earthquake hitting the los angeles area during the storm. jeff, how do things look right now? >> yeah, sandra, the sun is out, the rain has finally stopped but we are still in the very early stages of understanding the impacts of tropical storm hilary, and right behind me this visual says it all about what this area has been through over the last 24 hours. that is the l.a. river, normally just a small stream but the rain and run-off water is flowing down at a good speed. inches upon inches of rain over the past day.

so much so, people were stuck in their vehicles. palm springs, surrounding desert communities as well, flooded roads, and one hospital had to pump water from the building. and you often get mudslides. no reports of serious injuries or death, a huge relief, considering the power of this storm. >> we've gone through emergency response. we are now in emergency recovery but we should also now be in emergency reassessment. we came through it with minimal impacts considering what we endured. for most cities a tropical storm combined with a hurricane would be a catastrophic event. for los angeles and for our first responders, it's just another day at the office. >> and if the first tropical storm to make landfall since 1939 in l.a. was not enough to deal with, there was an

earthquake, a magnitude 5.1 shook the l.a. area followed by several weaker aftershocks. the mayor here in los angeles, karen bass, spoke a short time ago and says her crews has been out assessing any potential damage from the earthquake. so far they have not seen anything and have not had any reports of any injuries. sandra. >> sandra: jeff paul on all of that for us. thank you. >> it's terrifying waking up and thinking that you don't know if your environment is safe. 50% of us are below poverty guidelines so you know, this is not an area that can just pack up their things and move across the country or get an apartment or, you know, wait and see. >> john: people living in east palestine, ohio are still waiting for government testing and clean-up months after the toxic train derailment and spin. and also waiting for a visit from president biden. >> sandra: and waking up to the

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>> this is really kinds of hands down case for special treatment in this hunter biden case. it shows you the confidence and arrogance the hunter biden defense team had in dealing with the justice department, they felt confident they could actually threaten the justice department and apparently it was working. >> john: byron york in our last hour on new reporting about hunter biden's defense team

strategy. threatened to put president biden on the stand as a means to help hunter's case, several new reports from the mainstream media, and learning more about the collapse of the plea deal and when hunter's brother beau was working closely with then acting u.s. attorney david weiss. we have fox team coverage, professor jonathan turley with his thoughts in just moments. first to our congressional correspondent aishah hasnie, and can you tell us about the threat to the president on the stand? >> so many reports came out this weekend, trickling out, drip by drip by drip and you wonder if we would have learned any of this had this plea deal not fallen apart. so, particularly let's start with this letter, this 32-page letter that has been obtained by politico that was written in 2022 by hunter biden's attorney chris clark. and in this letter, politico

reports that clark warned doj prosecutors that president biden now unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial. so, basically they were saying they were going to put biden on the stand if the doj filed criminal charges. what followed, of course, john, is that plea deal that republicans call this widespread, wide scale sweetheart deal that eventually fell apart. >> you have these big bad justice department prosecutors are not supposed to be afraid of anything but they are scared because they don't want to charge joe biden's son. >> this is what access to joe biden is. why people were willing to pay millions of dollars to get it. that's what the scheme was. >> washington is waiting to see what special counsel david weiss does next but some republicans already doubt his ability to be unbiased, john, and now have to

contend with the fact he worked at one point with president biden's late son beau when beau was the attorney general in delaware. and that is why goppers are truging along with their own probes. james comer is demanding the national archives hand over unredacted records that related to then vice president biden and ukraine and they uncovered that biden was sending official emails, official emails using three different aliases and hunter was often times copied on those emails and chairman comer tells fox news he is planning on issuing subpoenas for more bank records, he says, wait 'til you see what happens next, john. >> john: we will wait and see what happens next, aishah, thank you. bring in sandra again. >> sandra: jonathan turley is with us, george washington university law professor and fox news contributor. jonathan, great to see you. roughly half of americans say

they have no confidence in the hunter biden investigation. you were writing about exactly that. they are losing face -- losing faith in merrick garland and the justice department. there was not a whole lot of faith in the justice department to begin with. but it's dropping to new lows. where does that leave us? >> garland could not have selected anyone with the exception of possible hunter biden worse at this moment than david weiss. it's not that weiss might not be able to defend himself, to counter these allegations. but he just appointed someone who is under this cloud of suspicion, who has been accused by his own team of running a fixed investigation. and by the way, the only way garland could do that was to violate his own regulations which require him to tell -- mandate that it's someone outside the justice department who should be assuming these

positions. so there's not much doubt as what's fueling the doubts in the public realm. >> sandra: no, understood. andy mccarthy made this prediction on fox news earlier today on hunter's charges disappearing, something you've been talking a lot about, due to the statute of limitations. listen. >> they won't charge him, the case is disappearing, statute of limitations is running. every week we talk about this and every week i say another week has gone by and no indictment, charges are dispg a. 2016 is gone, 2015 is gone, 2014 is gone. most crimes prior to 2018 are gone. >> sandra: do you predict the same, jonathan. >> well, the really terrible thing about this is that when the statute of limitations were running, many of us were writing columns saying they are running, why aren't you charging, you are about to lose the ability to prosecute. it turns out that those same objections being raised within the team.

the irs whistleblowers really testified in disbelief, they said there was an agreement on the table that would have extended the statute of limitations but weiss and the department of justice let them lapse anyway. why would any prosecutor do that? and part of the problem with appointing weiss as special counsel is that a new special counsel would have looked at all the available crimes that could have been charged. weiss has a vested interest in this to show that he didn't fix this case. that's the type of luggage you don't want a special counsel carrying. >> sandra: fair enough this. is analysis on cnn this morning criticizing the justice department and special counsel david weiss and saying that they made an unholy mess of this hunter biden investigation. listen to this. >> the take away is doj has made an unholy mess of this whole hunter biden situation and i

fault david weiss who i've spoken positively about on this show, given his long service as a u.s. attorney. >> sandra: that's really interesting, professor, in your piece you write it's not to say that weiss is indeed compromised or complicit, we have not heard from him, you say. however, the regulation is designed to avoid such questions or doubts with the appointment of someone without prior history or lingering allegations. can you please explain that? >> well, you really have to lay this one at the feet of merrick garland. he has failed again to take a step that would have reinforced public trust in his department. he has done this consistently throughout his tenure. every chance he had to make a clean break to show the public that there's going to be an independent review of this he's failed that test. and this is perhaps the most serious of them all. not only did he reappoint weiss, he violated his own regulations

to do it and there's a lot here that is deeply troubling. many of the moves made by weiss and his team don't make any sense to me. i can't come up with a rationale for why they would have done it this way except that there was special treatment afforded to the president's son. >> sandra: really, really interesting stuff as more and americans say they are not confident in the justice department to investigate. john. >> john: more kids heading back to school sandra as the fight over parents' rights heats up in several states. a major ruling just came down in new jersey. those details coming up next. >> sandra: plus virginia's largest school districts defying the governor's orders, a fed up parent is running for school board in fairfax county, virginia, about that fight.

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>> sandra: a judge blocking three new jersey school districts from enforcing new gender notification policies, at least for now. the rules would have required school staff to tell parents if their children indicated they want to identify as a different gender. eric shawn is life. what are we hearing? >> this is happening in new jersey right now and for the moment, new jersey school districts will not be able to tell parents if their children, some as young as five years old, want to change their gender or seek a different gender expression. the three school districts decided that parents should be told if their child expresses a different gender, pronouns or name or use another gender's bathrooms. but democratic state attorney general sued to stop that. he claims parental notification would wrongly out transgender

students and he says cause irreversible harm. a judge agreed with that and issue add temporary injunction. that for now blocks schools from sharing gender information from parents. a lawyer for one of the districts tells us parents have the legal right and should be told. >> this is not about outing students if they have a confidential discussion with a school guidance counselor or teacher about feelings they might be having. our policies in middletown said if you wanted to change your formal student record or use a different restroom or play on a different team other than your biological sex, that we would notify your parents. >> lgbtq groups are against that, they say the rights of students come first and there have been protests. the attorney general says in part this, the state is not targeting parental rights. all our lawsuits seek to do is reinstate the same policies the

districts found acceptable with little protest for years. the district lawyers say it could take several years before there is a final ruling on note fishing parents whether they should be told or not. right now they say they are working on appeal to try to get around all this, sandra. >> sandra: a lot of people will be watching to see how all this goes, eric, thank you for reporting on it. john. >> john: the first day of school for many kids across the country, that includes fairfax county, virginia, across the potomac from us, the school district is defying governor glenn youngkin's rules about gender policy. the school district says it will not comply for students to use facilitates in accordance with the sex they were born or inform parents if a child identifies as a different gender. let's bring in debra tisler, former fairfax county teacher, whose children graduated from fairfax public schools, now running for the school board. good to have you with us. full disclosure, my kids attend

fairfax county public schools but fairfax county is one of several counties in virginia defying the new model policy that the governor laid down. give us the case why you believe it's important for parents to be notified of these issues. >> well, parents have the fundamental right to the upbringing and education of their children. it is a liberty long recognized and one of the oldest liberties by the supreme court, and we know from search and evidence when the parent is involved there are better outcomes for the child, both functionally in life and academically. it is nonsensical to eliminate the parent from the child's life. >> john: what michelle reed says about the policies, we have concluded our detailed legal review and determined that our current fairfax county school

policies are consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws as required by the new policies laid down by the governor. what do you say to that? >> i say fairfax is going to do what it wants to do. whether or not it's in the best interest of children, and whether or not it's sound and evidence for the best interest of children. they have a long history of denying the civil rights of children, specifically those with disabilities, and they act in a very haphazard manner. they intend to completely ignore the governor and we need to make our voices known as parents to the school system and the school board members that have been elected that you listen to us, to the voice of the people that elected you and that parents' rights needs to be upheld. >> john: you know, in new jersey there are three counties that did that, the school board said we think there should be parental notification, a state judge issued a temporary injunction against the policies

they are pursuing, but what jacqueline tobacco, the vice president of the middletown school district said why she thinks parental notification is important. listen here. >> people are concerned that this policy will somehow harm trans children and i think, you know, speaking for myself and our policy committee, we were all more concerned that there could be negative tragic outcome and a parent would have never been alerted there might have been a crisis with their child or need their -- their child needed mental health. >> john: the state of new jersey said one in ten children who come out to their parents suffer from parental abuse, which is why it need to be kept a secret from everybody. what do you say to jacqueline's argument that parents need to know here, it's the parent that should be dealing with the issues with their children, not the school. >> absolutely. the parent needs to be involved. like i said, the research has shown that when the parents are involved the children have

better outcomes academically and functionally. the parents must be involved. end of the story right there. and eliminating them puts the children at risk of not receiving the appropriate services that they might need during a very difficult time and life changing decisions that have to be made. look, the school systems are not able to teach how to read. we see the scores right now. are we going to trust the systems that can't teach children how to read? fairfax county public school scores are low. found in direct violation of students with disability rights by the biden administration this past november, 28,000 children that they denied their rights to. are we really going to trust a system that does not truly put the children first. >> john: my understanding is the governor has very little recourse if the county school boards defy him. it will be up to the parents to do it or people like you who are running for the school board

themselves. we'll keep watching your race. thank you for checking in with us. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> sandra: really good discussion. thank you, john. just days away from wednesday's republican debate here on fox. what does each candidate need to do to make the most of their moment? kayleigh will join us next. >> john: and people in ohio still suffering almost -- after almost seven months after that toxic train derailment. live from east palestine as they demand answers.

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>> john: people in east palestine, ohio pleading for the federal government to step up its response to that devastating train derailment. nearly seven months since toxic

chemicals spewed out in the small town and burned and clean-up efforts are not expected to be done until next year. garrett tenny with more on this. and why is the clean-up taking so long when some people are still getting sick from the chemicals? >> initially epa said it would be done by june, then july, then august, and now not until some time next year, and those delays are not because of norfolk southern railway but because of the epa. how long it takes to take the tests and get the work done. 200 families are unable to return to their homes and others like jess and chad say they still don't know if it's safe for them and their three kids to be here and the epa is not doing enough to address that. >> i think that the epa has exceeded their capability. epa has done what they can do,

it's time for them to raise the white flag and say look, these people need medical care. these people need indoor air monitoring. >> the epa has said that kind of indoor monitoring is not necessary because of the data from its outdoor testing shows there aren't concerning levels of toxins and disputes university researchers suggesting there are ongoing health risks. east palestine's mayor says there is probably more the white house could do to expedite the clean-up, but 170 days now since president biden said he would visit and there are no plans in place for that visit to happen. >> they are a no-show here and have not been around, have not heard from them. but now that everything has calmed down it would be nice to have him come show that he cares about the village and he can see what is actually going on here. >> president biden is also getting pressure now from

members of his own party with the democratic senators from both ohio and pennsylvania urging him to sign a presidential disaster declaration for east palestine sitting on his desk now for more than a month. >> john: garrett, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: a live look at milwaukee where republican candidates already gathering a short time from now. just two days away from the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle. eight candidates have qualified for the debate stage and will pitch their policies to american voters. so, where do they stand two days out? kayleigh is here, co-host of "outnumbered." so good to have you here today. help us dig into all of this. whose moment will this be, do you predict? >> kayleigh: all eyes are on ron desantis. i think he has the highest expectations. you never want high expectations going into anything, you want to be under and rise to the moment,

he has a lot to prove, reports of donors being jittery. vivek ramaswamy soared to number two right there with ron desantis, a huge target on his back. but i think someone underestimated is senator tim scott. he has not had a national platform to share his optimistic positive message and i think it will stands in contrast to other barbs flying across the stage. >> sandra: interesting analysis, and one person you have not mentioned, your former boss, president trump, says he's going to skip the debate but leading big time in the polls. the iowa poll, trump at 42%, desantis 19%, scott at 9% in the des moines register poll. i believe you called it earlier a miscalculation on the former president's part not to show up at the debate. >> i think it is. you never want to let someone else stand in the center podium this. is going to be the

biggest audience of any republican event that we have seen this year. could be the biggest audience ever, the first gop debate. you are giving the center podium to someone else, allowing the other candidates to have time to share their stories. and two hours of attack. you will get attacked even if you are not there and no one can answer better than president donald trump himself. he's good at it, masterful in that place. and finally, if he does go on to be the nominee, donald trump, joe biden does not want to debate him. there is reporting about that. he is not wanting to take the stand at that presidential debate. you are giving joe biden a card to say i'm going to use the trump debate standard and not show up. you are giving a card to your opponent that he could pull if he tried. >> sandra: fascinating analysis and you mentioned whether or not we'll see the candidates directly attacking each other or will they be focusing their attacks more on the people not in the room, like former president trump or president biden.

here is vivek ramaswamy, perhaps a shot at the sitting president, i'll ask you how. he posted this just a couple hours ago, i believe it was attached to a twitter feed that said three hours of debate prep this morning with his shirt off, and showing us his forehand on the tennis court. >> kayleigh: what immediately comes to mind is joe biden sitting on the beach, he's on his second vacation, although today he's going to visit maui but still going to return to the vacation. a very big contrast. enormous night, it's going to take a lot to dethrone former president trump, he has a huge, huge lead, and the candidates have two hours. >> sandra: patrick weighed in on vivek's tennis swing, props for him, good stuff, bring it up higher on the back swing. quickly final thought. the issue, do you believe that will differentiate the candidates on the stage.

what do you think that will be? >> i think the social issues. you have people who can differentiate from president trump and say i'm tougher on some issues, social issues matter immensely in a place like iowa. >> sandra: we'll be watching. >> john: sandra, recovery efforts in maui ramping up as they blast local leaders for their handling of the crisis. president biden is en route to the island right now. will it be viewed as too little too late? live on the scene in hawaii coming up next. pain was keeping me off my game. and now i'm winning again. blue-emu is the powerful relief i need.

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>> john: president biden is on his way to maui right now to see the wild fire devastation, killing 114 people. matt finn is live in maui with the latest. there's hundreds still unaccounted for, matt. >> yeah, right now the latest numbers from maui county's mayor, there's more than 850 people unaccounted for here in the area of lahaina. the governor says that could include any number of children. right now we cannot get in the town. there's road blocks.

we were able to get a view from the ocean. >> one of the only ways right now to get an up close look of lahaina's famous waterfront is by boat. with more than 1,000 people still unaccounted for, the fire zone is barricaded. hawaii's governor says it could take weeks to complete the search. the coast guard kept us a few hundred yards away from the shores. we could see lahaina's most famous restaurants and the 15-year-old banyon tree. one of the only surviving structures is the property that is the highest. this man has owned a rental company for 36 years. we tried to see what is left of one of his stores and his children's homes. >> the best way to remain sensitive of what is happening in lahaina town is to penetrate

the barriers. you do everybody a great favor by supporting the economy, the community that lives here and works here. 99% of maui that is still pristine. >> and john, the locals and business owners that we have been talking to say they're very upset with any message that was sent that maui is closed. they are encouraging us to relay the message that you can visit maui with respect right now, john. >> john: yeah, i was wondering about that. isn't there a campaign doing done by some celebrities that say stay away from maui? it would seem to me that, you know, lahaina obviously tremendous devastation there. there's so many other areas of the beautiful island that are probably open for business to bring tourism back there and inject money in to the economy would be a positive thing. >> yeah, john. there was an official that after the disaster, you know, advised not to come. there was a celebrity on social

media. the locals i've been talking to want to let our viewers know that you can visit areas of maui respectfully. they're asking us to relay that message, john. >> yeah, i was there in 1988. my one and only time. it's an amazing place. it needs so much help right now. matt finn with the latest. if you want to help victims of the hawaii wild fires, use the q.r. code on your screen right there or visit redcross.org/fox. you can make a text to hawaii at 90999 and make a $10 donation there. >> sandra: now this alert to the border. eagle pass, texas. greg abbott is set to speak there at the top of the hour. he's giving an update on operation lone star with gop governors and texas officials. the crisis is spreading. far beyond the border.

new york city's new megashelter took in the first migrants. the multimillion dollar complex will house up to 3,000 people who will have access to a 24/7 dining center and laundry service. this is that controversial facility on randall's island. critics say they're worried about safety and the loss of athletic fields for children in the area. john? >> john: the nba in more controversy now. a seven described former nba employee reportedly hacked the league's facebook account to criticize how it treats the social media team. the person be rated the company for allegedly overworking its employees. they took aim at the league's salary and benefits offering. the people on the social media team make less than $50,000 a year after taxes and do not receive healthcare right away. the user calls out adam silver.

no public response from him yet. sandra? >> sandra: a new report shows dogs are better than cats when it comes to communicating with humans. making it easier to recognize their emotions and understand them. cats are harder to read unless they're angry. then the claws come out. i'll let everyone at home debate. >> john: you've got a dog, right? >> sandra: i do. >> john: we have a dog. luhansk him to death. >> sandra: i've never had a cat. i can't compare. >> john: i had a cat a long, long time ago. it was a cool cat. i'm a dog person. our dog got to meet a six-point buck when we walked around in our neighborhood. interesting encounter. >> sandra: john, i heard you had something to say about that vivek video of him debate prep training this morning. >> john: i mean, clearly he looks good without a shirt. maybe that's the new fashion for

wimbledon next year. >> sandra: do you play, john? if you play, you're looking at and say this is a legit forehand. >> john: i do. not like that. my wife and i played pickle ball with our 12-year-old twins for the first time. they killed us. they beat us three games in a row. it's a fun game. >> sandra: a great sport. >> john: abe grieve with peter doocy on that front. >> sandra: never mind us, "america reports." dvr. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. the story with martha in milwaukee starts right now. >> martha: hi, guys. good afternoon, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. "the story" comes to you today live from milwaukee which is the site of the first republican presidential debate, if you haven't heard. you might have heard something about that. it's a big deal. two days away now. we have governor ron desantis joining us in moments and a lot to get to with him in a huge