[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> today's decision marks a turnaround for texas and our country. a win does not mean the struggle is over. first, clinics don't reopen overnight. we have a daunting task ahead of us. the most significant abortion ruling in a generation, the supreme court has struck down sweeping anti-choice restrictions in texas in a major victory for the reproductive rights movement. we will speak with the lead plaintiff in the case, amy hagstrom miller, founder and ceo of whole women's health in texas.

delivers a williams powerful address on racism at the bdt awards. -- bet awards. >> we have been floating this country on credit for hundreds of years, yo. extracting a coulter, i've dollars, our entertainment like oil -- black gold. amy: finally, climate chaos. record, we year on go to west virginia, where historic floods have killed at least 23 people. to california, deadly wildfires rage. all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the most significant victory for abortion rights in a generation, the supreme court

has struck down provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. justice anthony kennedy joined stephen breyer and all three women justices, striking down the restrictions as an undue burden on access to abortion. the lead plaintiff in the case celebrated the ruling outside the court. >> from day one, whole women's health rejected the insulting premise of house bill 2. we took on the bully politicians and we have struggled against anti-choice regressive politics and our opposition's efforts to shut us down and we won. today, we make history and tomorrow, we get back to work, so that everyone who seeks abortion services can get the health care she deserves with dignity and respect. amy: the texas legislature

passed the sweeping anti-choice law in 2013 despite a filibuster and an 11-hour standby state senator wendy davis. the supreme court ruling strikes down the costly standards of hospital style surgery centers and mandating doctors obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. already about more than half of texas' 40 abortion clinics have closed. if the law had gone into effect, 10would have left texas with clinics clustered in the four metropolitan areas. we will be joined by the lead plaintiff, amy hagstrom miller, after headlines. in another case monday, the supreme court ruled against two men who argued they should be able to buy or own guns, even though they had been convicted of domestic violence. attorneys for the men argued they should be exempt from a federal ban because their acts of violence were committed

"recklessly," not intentionally. but the supreme court disagreed, ruling 6 to 2 that even "reckless" domestic abuse counts. sonia sotomayor joined clarence thomas' dissent over issues with treating reckless acts as violent offenses, but declined to join his defense of the second amendment in the case. the ruling comes after the massacre of 49 people in orlando by omar mateen, who had a history of domestic violence. the fbi estimates at least 57 percent of mass shootings in recent years involved a shooter who killed an intimate partner or other family member. to see our interview with writer soaraya emaly about the connection between domestic violence and mass shootings go to democracynow.org. the supreme court also threw out the corruption conviction of former virginia governor bob mcdonnell, in a case that could make it harder to prosecute public officials for corruption. mcdonnell and his wife accepted

more than $175,000 in loans, vacations and luxury products in exchange for providing favors to a jonnie williams, a businessman seeking to promote his diet supplement business. but in a rulling written by chief justice john roberts, the court narrowed the definition of what constitutes corruption, saying it applies to formal activities, like filing a lawsuit or making an official determination, and not to acts like arranging meetings, hosting parties, or calling officials to discuss williams' business. in london, thousands of people rallied outside parliament to show support for opposition leader jeremy corbyn, who faces a no confidence vote amid a revolt within his own labour party after britain voted to leave the european union. addressing supporters, corbyn called for unity against racism. intolerance, and the violence often associated with

it and, sadly, this has increased over the last few days. are going toree we unite together as one people, one society, one community to oppose racism? amy: britain's vote to leave the eu continues to send shockwaves throught the global economy. on monday, standard and poor's downgraded the uk's credit rating from the perfect score of triple a down to double a. in the united states, massachusetts senator and progressive favorite elizabeth warren joined democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton on the campaign trail on stage with clinton in monday. cincinnati, ohio, warren took aim at clinton's republican rival, donald trump. senator warren: donald trump calls african-americans dogs, muslims terrorists, latinos rapists and criminals, and women bimbos. hillary clinton believes that racism, hatred, injustice, and

bigotry have no place in our country. us and we will fight for hillary clinton. [cheers and applause] meator warren: please join in welcoming to the stage our next president. amy: a new report has found a surge in the use of dark money donations at the state and local levels. the brennan center finds secret spending increased in recent years in , part because of so-called gray money from organizations funneling money through other groups in order to conceal where it's coming from. examples of local spending on races include "mining companies secretly targeting a legislator who opposed permits. food companies battling a ballot measure to add labeling requirements. and payday lenders supporting an attorney general who promised to shield them from regulation." because of the lower cost of state and local elections, such donations can have an even bigger impact.

in florida, a jury has found a former chilean army officer liable for the murder of folk singer and activist victor jara in 1973. jara was tortured and shot more than 40 times in the days after dictator augusto pinochet seized power in a u.s.-backed to -- coup. the verdict against pedro pablo barrientos nuñez marks what the called guardian newspaper called "one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victies against a foreign war criminal in a u.s. courtroom." speaking on the steps of the florida courthouse, jara's widow, joan jara turner, said, "what we were trying to do for more than 40 years, for victor, has today come true." barrientos could face extradition to chile, where he could be brought up on criminal murder charges. the u.s. military says it is investigating reports at least seven people held in a taliban

prison in afghanistan were killed in u.s. airstrikes over the weekend. as many as 16 people were killed , according to reports. afghan officials have denied the reports. president obama expanded the u.s. military's power to conduct airstrikes. undocumented immigrants and their supporters have staged actions across two states to call for a moratorium on deportation. the protests came after a split decision blocked president obama's plan to shield millions of people from deportation. in hartford, connecticut, protesters shut down main street outside a federal immigration office. in atlanta georgia, four people were arrested after chaining themselves to ladders at a busy intersection. in deming county, texas have rejected a proposed

500-family bed detention center. it rejected a plan to use a house women and children fleeing violence. commissioners did not join a bid to join federal officials and a british security form -- firm, which has faced scandals in australia and lobbied heavily to enter the lucrative u.s. market. volkswagen has agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion over its diesel omissions cheating scandal, marking one of the largest consumer class-action settlements in u.s. history. the payouts include buybacks for impacted vehicles and cash compensations. volkswagen has admitted to rigging some 11 million vehicles worldwide. regulators say volkswagen vehicles were committing up to

40 times more pollution than standard allowed. the former indiana versus the -- has taken atudent clean deal. john enochs was accused of repeatedly raping a woman while she told her to stop. he is accused in another case of raping a woman before blacking out. the plea deal, the rape charges will be dismissed and he will be sentenced for a year probation for battery. the case has drawn comparisons to brock allen turner. witnesses caught him in the active raping an unconscious woman and he was sentenced to six months in prison. judge aaron persky is presiding over a similar case in which a latino man is due to be sentenced to a much harsher term

for a similar crime. raul ramirezez -- faces three years in state prison under a deal overseen by judge persky. stanford professor who is overseeing an attempt to recall judge persky says the case vindicates concerns over the judge's bias. city, local, and federal officials gathered to unveil the stonewall in as the first national monument to lgbtq writes. was the site of a police raid that triggered an uprising and helped launch the modern-day gay-rights movement. new york city mayor bill de blasio thank to the obama administration for the historic designation. >> i want to report to you that the government got it right this time. something very good is happening

today here in new york city. i want to say, on behalf of 8.5 million new yorkers, thank you, president obama. thank you for helping this nation forward. because this monument is part of our healing, part of making us really one country. amy: pat summit, the trailblazing basketball coach who presided over eight national championships at the university of tennessee and won any other collegethan any other coach -- man or woman -- has died. she stepped down in 2012 after learning she had early-onset alzheimer's disease. she was 64 years old. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the most significant victory

for abortion rights in a generation, the supreme court has struck down provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. justice anthony kennedy joined stephen breyer and all three women justices striking down restrictions as an undue burden. the lead plaintiff in the case, amy hagstrom miller, celebrated the ruling outside the supreme court. ms. hagstrom miller: today's decision marks a turnaround for texas and our country. a wind does not mean the struggle is not over. clinics do not reopen overnight. we have a daunting task ahead of us to determine whether and how to reopen our health centers that were forced to shut their doors over the past several years. renewing leases, hiring staff, -- working with communities second, this decision only addressed to of the many restrictions that women face to

get abortion care in texas. now, we must redouble our efforts to end similar restrictions across the state. >> the decision was a complete and total vindication of the plaintiffs' claims. record was strong, the facts are there, it is clear the law was passed with the intent to shut down clinics that had that devastating effect and we are pleased that the supreme court could see through what was happening. this is going to make a difference. today's victory is going to make a huge difference. we hope that politicians who have been passing these underhanded laws will start to do the responsible things. amy: the texas legislature

passed house bill 2, the sweeping anti-choice law in 2013, despite a people's filibuster led by an 11-hour stand by texas state senator wendy davis. court rejected the ruling that they have to meet hospital surgery center qualifications and have admitting privileges. clinicstexas' abortion have closed. beene provisions had allowed to come into full effect, advocates warned it would have left texas with about 10 abortion clinics clustered in for metropolitan areas. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg wrote "it is beyond rational belief that house bill

2 could genuinely protect the health of women and is certain that the law would make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions." similar restrictions in other states are most likely also unconstitutional based on the ruling. oklahoma, alabama, arkansas, louisiana, mississippi. let's go directly to washington dc, we are we are joined by amy hagstrom miller, the founder and ceo of whole woman's health v. hellerstedt, the lead plaintiff in this landmark case. miller has been working in abortion care. welcome back to democracy now! first, your reaction. ms. hagstrom miller: i'm beyond elated. not only did we get a victory for the women and families

across texas, but the ruling was broad enough to give relief across the country. we were able to illustrate the undue burden put upon by onerous regulations and tell the stories of the women and families across the state affected directly. i'm proud of being able to lead the lawsuit and tell the stories and bring them to the forefront. amy: tell us exactly what this means in texas. what effect did this restriction have? ms. hagstrom miller: these restrictions closed down many facilities. what that means is women have rights on paper that don't exist for them in reality. they had to travel hundreds of miles to obtain basic health care. they had to take multiple days off work, go on multiple visits. the vast majority of women we serve are already mothers. they had two good child care and

arrange for transportation. manyhappened is you have women having to spend more, travel longer, and some people having to take matters into their own hands. 2013 when go back to texas' antiabortion bill was passed. it was temporarily blocked by a filibuster by state senator wendy davis, who spoke for nearly 11 hours. i want to go to the clip of senator davis speaking at a rally after the victory. senator davis: i know a great number of us -- some of us have felt mad, today is different, though. don't you feel it? , the opportunity to be inspired by each other's actions in our democracy.

we witness how much we can accomplish when we reclaim our power and require accountability. amy: state senator wendy davis stands on the floor for 11 hours and they run the clock out. hundreds of people, if not 1000 people in the texas capital. the law could not pass that night. governor perry then called a special session of the legislature and they passed it. what happened next in these three years? there werem miller: thousands and thousands of people in the capital that they. the law went into effect the next month and they were closed. the ambulatory surgical center requirement went into full effect and we went down to six facilities that were able to be open through the state.

this is the second largest state in population and land mass. there were six facilities and they were in the major metropolitan areas. they were the major metropolitan areas they were distributions of clinics that were locals before that. we were able to get an injunction that blocked the ambulatory surgical center requirements from going into effect and that blocked the admitting privileges from going into effect on behalf of the women in the rio grande valley and el paso. we were able to demonstrate that it had a disproportionate effect on those populations. this restored some access.

with today's victory that we had yesterday, on paper, we have the ability to reopen the facilities shattered by this law initially. my statementn yesterday, it is going to take time to restore the fabric of health care that was destroyed by this law. it will take time to rebuild those clinics. most of us had to let our leases go. i had to sell a building. you cannot pay a mortgage on a building for three years when you do not have any patience. have gotten other work, our staff have other jobs. the rebuilding of relicensing of the facility is going to take time for us to rebuild the community, but the victory is here, not only do we have the ability to reopen facilities, but we have stopped this wave of antiabortion legislation that

has spread across the midwest and the south for the years now. i think it sends a strong signal to politicians. amy: i want to go to a clip from the film "trap." "trapped." we can't have any freestanding oxygen machines. the section has to be in the wall. that is for every bed and rio -- pre-op. i don't know if we have used any of the things in the walls on the clinics ever. our pharmacy has to be locked up. the drugs always expire because we never used to them. to replace those drugs, we spend about $1100, throwing out

expired medications and replacing them. another thing you will see are the linen bucket. we have to have a linen company come out. we cannot use disposables. in a clinic, because it is such a quick procedure, here she has to get completely undressed and into a hospital gown before she can go into the operating room. room.s our operating the question we hear from patients all the time is are you going to cut me? that is what an operation is. we hear that more times than not, unfortunately. this is the same exact building and the same set up you would bring for someone who was having open-heart surgery. no different. same set up. amy: viewers can stream the film

online for free for a limited time at pbs.org. , having to turn away a patient seeking an abortion. >> in order to see her, i need to put her to sleep. i need a nurse and a assist -- a nurse to do that. it is impossible to find people to work with us. she is 13 years old and she is a victim of rape and sheep drove -- she drove to san antonio and we had to turn her away and there was nothing i could do to save her. if she has the procedure, that is a huge -- she will have to go all the way to mexico and pay $5,000 and get there and spend three days. it will never happen. we know it won't. "trapped"clip from

which premiered at sundance and is playing on pbs -- this means all of that stops as a result of the supreme court in texas? ms. hagstrom miller: i'm so proud of marva, it was delightful to talk to her yesterday. we had everybody on speakerphone. what this means is that we are no longer forced to provide abortion care in ambulatory surgical center environment only. we are allowed to resume care in clinics. we can have the appropriate physical plant. the onerous physical plant the complicated medical set up, it does not really apply to abortion care services. offer tea inle to

the recovery room, we will be able to allow loved ones into the room with them. amy: so there were 40 abortion clinics in texas before this began. to 20.e state is down you say it is going to take time. how quickly do you expect there to be more clinics overall? currently,m miller: there are 19 facilities open. none of them are ambulatory surgery centers. 10 clinics have made it through these last through years -- three years, this age of uncertainty. most of us who had other facilities that had to close have had to let the facility go,

has had to sever the lease or sell the building. many of us are going to be trying to figure aware we will , what will theen process be for restoring the building and the lease and the staff? what is the process going to be now for us to apply for a new license for abortion services in the state of texas after this win? none of us really know how the process is going to be. i think we will see a couple of us probably try as soon as we could. part of the abortion facility work is operational. we have to figure out how to raise funds for acquiring the equipment, the medicines, the stfing, those kinds of things

to run a top-notch facility. that is not something that can happen overnight. amy: what does this mean for other states? a mississippi, it hasn't been religious law that could shatter the last abortion clinic in the state. ms. hagstrom miller: we wanted to bring this suit because it was the right thing to do to stand on the right side of history and against these politicians that lied to the texas and american public. one of our hopes as we could get a good legal standard that would allow relief beyond the texas borders to our sisters and brothers in mississippi, alabama, wisconsin. yesterday, i was surrounded by other independent providers from other states who made the pilgrimage to stand arm in arm to talk about the cause. we were with some of the people you have seen in "trapped."

a lot of these people have gone through this kind of onerous regulation across the country. to all of us, this ruling has meaning. we saw the supreme court take a stand. they said the burden have gone too far. give us a definition of undue burden. we seldom eviscerate the idea that health and the was the purpose of what the texas legislature was up to. they really shed light on the sham and took our evidence and the evidence of science and fact and put it forward in this decision in a way that is going to give relief to many people. amy: we want to thank you for being with us, founder and ceo of whole woman's health. she is the lead plaintiff in the landmark case whole woman's health v. hellerstedt. she has been working in abortion care since 1989. tomorrow, we will speak with a woman who argued the case before the supreme court. it was her first time at the court. she will be our guest.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

found alorida jury has former chilean army officer liable for the murder of the folksinger victor jara, who was tortured and shot more than 40 times. the verdict against pedro pablo nunez.ls -- barrientos this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. now to jesse williams. he is best known for his role on the tv show "grey's anatomy."

on sunday night, he earned a standing ovation when he addressed the bet awards as he accepted the humanitarian award. he played homage to police , who would have turned -- including to mere rice, who would have turned 14 years old -- tamir rice, who turned 14 years old. i brought my parents up tonight. i want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension of her career, that they make sure i learned what the schools were afraid to teach. i want to thank my amazing wife for changing my life. this award is not for me. this is for the real organizers all over the country. this is for the activists, the struggling parents, teachers, students realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and therefore -- divide us cannot stand if we do.

all right? of basic mathematics. the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize. this is in particular for the black women who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. we can and will do better for you. , what we have been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow managed to de-escalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day. what is going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice or we will restructure their function and hours. -- ours. , i've got more. been tamirwould have

rice's 14th birthday, so i don't how farhear more about we've come when paid public onvants can pull a drive-by public television and then go home to make a sandwich. tell them how much it is so better to live in 2012 and 1612 or 1712. tell that to eric garner, sandra bland, dorian hunt. the thing is though, all of us here get money, that is not going to stop this alone. lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone's brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies and now we pray to get paid for brands on -- there has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of,

there has been no job we have not done, no tax they have not levied and we have paid all of them. but freedom is somehow always conditional here. you are free, they keep telling -- but she would not have she would have been alive for she had not acted so free. , freedom is always coming in the hereafter. but, the hereafter is a hustle. we want it now. let's get a couple things straight. just a little side note. the broom of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. that is not our job. if you have a critique for the resistance, then you better have an established record of critique for our oppression. if you have no interest in a rights for black people, do not make suggestions to those who do.

sit down. we have been floating this country on credit for centuries and we are done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind well extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil -- black gold, get a wising ,nd demeaning our creations gentrifying her genius, then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange frt. , the things, though is that just because we are magic does not mean we are not real. amy: that is actor jesse williams speaking at the det awards.- bet jesse williams stars in "grey's

anatomy." he is a board member at the advancement project and was the "stateve producer of woke." when we come back, climate chaos. the massive loads that have taken more than two dozen lives and we will go to california or the wildfires rage. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. weatherto extreme sweeping the united states. in west virginia, 23 people have died in a once in 1000 year flood.

governor has to cleared a state of emergency in 44 counties and has deployed the national guard to help with search and rescue efforts. a number of people remain missing. wildfires are raging up and down the state of california. two people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed. kern county fire chief brian marshall spoke out. >> this is going to go down as the most destructive wildfire in kern county history. these people have been displaced and they want to go home. today. why we are here amy: scientists confirm may was the 13th straight month to smash global temperature records. guests.oined by three

we are joined by michael mann, a professor of atmospheric science . in sacramento, we're joined by the director of the california department of forestry and fire protection and a 30-your fire service veteran. ridgewood, west virginia, we are joined by the mayor elect. richwood is one of the towns hardest hit by the flash flooding. we are going to go directly to west virginia. i just heard we are having a little trouble with the line. atwill turn to michael mann penn state university. can you talk about the significance of where you just

were, arizona. >> thanks, amy. it is good to be with you. i was talking about the reality of climate change and the fact that the impacts are no longer settle. , pointed to various examples some of which you listed. one of them is the fact that one or two days later, phoenix was going to be experiencing record heat. we have seen a doubling of the rate of record-breaking heat in the u.s. over the past several decades. we have literally loaded the dice so that sixes, twice as often as they ought to. we have double the odds of

extreme weather events. extreme heat and many other , unprecedented floods, droughts, superstorm's. amy: you were at the democratic platform committee that took place in phoenix. what did you tell them? was 106 and i told him that a day later it would be flirting with 120 degrees. it used to be the case that climate change was an abstract concept and you needed to really dig into the data and the model output. change with our own two eyes.

it plays out in headlines. that was a part of my message. part of my message was that it does not too late to solve the problem, but it is going to take concerted action. we need to put a price on carbon, we need to level the energy market playing field, so that renewable energy can more fairly compete with fossil fuel energy. i recommended that the platform embrace this. what kind of language had democrats put into the platform? >> it was a pretty strong platform. to a rapid de-escalation of every earning -- of our burning of fossil fuels. it commenced to meeting our energy needs with 100% renewables by the middle of the century. it is pretty tough in condemning fossil fuel interest that have

knowingly misled the public. stronght it was a platform. there are others who feel, who would have liked to see more specific language about a carbon tax. about policies about fracking. i think it's a good big picture approach. we will need to work out those details to tackle the problem. -- the need to tackle devil is in the details. amy: what do you say to the presumptive republican nominee, donald trump, who dismisses climate change -- human induced climate change almost entirely? it was one of the reasons he said he would not go to war the pope was because he talked about climate change and human beings exacerbating it. >> to use the language of winston churchill, this is an

age of consequences. it is an age for serious people and no problem is more serious than the threat of catastrophic climate change. we don't have time to squander or engage in silly debates about whether the problem even exists. unfortunately, donald trump evens that the problem exists. there is a worthy debate about policy to be had. there is no longer a worthy debate about whether the program -- problem exists. unfortunately, we have a republican party that seems committed to the notion that climate change is a myth. not all republicans. some real leaders even within the republican party on the issue of climate change. unfortunately, their party has

been seized by the koch brothers and fossil fuel interest who are doing everything they can to prevent progress from being made. q what exactly are the --amy: what exactly are they doing? >> they are poisoning the atmosphere and the public discourse. the koch brothers have literally spent tens of millions of dollars in a massive disinformation campaign to convince the public that climate change is a hoax. it is precisely what the tobacco industry did in decades past. industrye fossil fuel trying to fool the american public into thinking there is not a problem. that we don't have to incentivize this shift. we areeed to do that if going to avert catastrophic climate change. amy: in a moment, we will go to and california.

two dozen people have died in west virginia and in california, the wild raging fires. can you connect these two? >> yes. has literally changed the fabric within which all weather occurs. has 5% morere moisture than it did a century warmer air of the holding more moisture. we see more extreme precipitation events. these 1000-year floods that we are seeing in south carolina, in texas, around the world, that bears the fingerprints of human caused climate change. it might seemme,

contradictory, but it is not. even though you get more rainfall when it occurs. regions events in many become less frequent, especially during the summer. so you get more extreme drought, the unprecedented drought california is dealing with and the wildfires are a consequence of the unprecedented drought and record heat. we are changing the atmosphere in a way that we get more extreme rainfall events. often, the rainfall is fewer and farther between and we get more prevalent drought. amy: in addition to professor are joined bywe the director of the california department of forest street and fire protection. can you talk about where in california these fires are raging?

ande is the erskine fire what is happening? >> it is in kern county, which is in the south end of the san joaquin valley just north of los angeles. we have about the fires, eight large fires burning right now in the southern half of the state. conditions are changing throughout the state. rapidly dryings the vegetation throughout california. our fire activity is increasing throughout the state. last week, we had 300 new fires. several fires are escaping that. we anticipate fires to continue for the days to come.

it is parching already parched fuel. we are getting into peak fire season conditionright now. amy: how do these fires compared to the last 30 years? >> we are seeing several things. the most damaging fires -- about half of the state's largest fires have occurred in the last decade. we are seeing a significant change. fire seasons may add and flow from year-to-year, but the trend is larger, more damaging fires and more acres burned. amy: can you talk about the connection of the five-year drought that has been going on. >> the connection of the drought is profound. it has left the living fuels very dry.

even some of the rainfall we received last winter was not enough to change the condition of the vegetation. it helps prolong our winter period a little bit. these hot conditions have dried the vegetation back down to what it was. we are seeing fires burn at exponential rates. top 10two of the state's most damaging fires in our nations history. they were burning at rates that 30 your veteran firefighters have not seen. in one afternoon, we had a fire 27 acres. in 2014, the king fire nearly tahoe burned 15 miles in one afternoon. these fires are burning with intensities and that rate that have spread. temperatures in sacramento

-- it is like 105 degrees. >> yes. recordsot be breaking every day, but we are well above normal. we are flirting with 100 degrees in many locations or more. reading will be reaching 108 degrees. amy: we are going to go across the country to the mayor elect of richwood, west virginia. can you talk about what has -- this onces one in a thousand years flood. place where richwood is. you seem to be in the middle of it. >> richwood sits in a remote area. we were a mining town. we were one of the first towns to suffer from the loss of coal jobs. what else can i tell you?

us what is happening, the experience of this flood. when did it start? you believe 23 people have died. >> we were very fortunate in richwood, it turns out. that hadnursing home 90 people in it. we had nine inches of rain in 12 hours. the floodwaters came up so fast and so hard. we had 90 people in a nursing home that had to be literally, in their wheelchairs and bad, handed through water that was chest high. , our city is ripped in half, absolutely, but we did not have any loss of life. is where majorw loss of life has occurred and they even had more flooding.

it flooded last night again. amy: the governor expressed about many being out of jobs due to damaged businesses. >> there are thousands of homes thousands of homes will need rehab done to them. things that concerns me as much else considering our current economy in west virginia with the amount of people we have laid off. now, with all of these small businesses who employ about 90% you have peop without jobs. baber, youb henry are the first person to be elected to public office from the mountain party.

can you talk about what you stand for in the mountain party? we stand to putting an end for mountaintop removal, the worst thing that ever happened to west virginia, it is stripmining on steroids. we want to transition to a tourist economy, an economy that people have work in. we have no jobs. the state has been a colony for oil and gas companies for over 100 years. we have hard-working people, beautiful scenery, we are the colorado of the east and we are in a three legged race with mississippi to see who can be the poorest and unhealthiest in the nation. do you see that relating to the flooding you are experiencing now. >> we do have the mountaintop

removal site above ridgewood. there has been massive clearcutting. i do want to put the whole onus on it area we had a lot of rain. richwood was already completely devastated economically even before the flood came. 99% of our children are on free or reduced lunch. there is no work for anybody. thee few that get through schools under smart, they get their degrees and they are out of west virginia. amy: what are you calling for right now? >> for rich wood? amy: yes, for rich would, which used to be the clothespin capital of the world. >> we are unique among the 75 in westal towns

virginia, east kentucky, and southwest virginia in that we sit at the foot of the national forest. we had a wonderful historic district. the state has not been supportive of looking at any kind of alternative green visions. of anorship is a bit anomaly in the system. because theosity state has become redder and redder. it: we will certainly follow , but we have to leave it there. west virginia is experiencing a once in 1000 year flood. thanks for joining us.

that does it for our broadcast. that does it for our broadcast. we

(music playing) next, celebrity chef and offal expert chris cosentino joins hubert keller and demonstrates why offal, or cooking with organ meats, is a hot new trend. first he prepares a beef heart tartare puttanesca style that is loaded with extras. next it's an easy-to-prepare quail recipe that is enriched with browned butter, apples and chris' secret ingredient. starting now on hubert keller, secrets of a chef. ♪