assignment. that's what's making news in america this morning. >> have a good thursday. >> have a good thursday. making news in america this morning, yet another shake-up in president trump's cabinet. this time he's replacing the v.a. secretary with his doctor. meanwhile, new questions this morning about whether the white house has offered pardons to key figures in the russia investigation. on the attack, apple's ceo tim cook slams mark zuckerberg over the facebook privacy scandal. accusing facebook of turning its users into products. what cook is proposing, plus facebook makes a new announcement about advertising on the site. a shocking scandal at one of the country's most historic universities. how school employees allegedly stole a million dollars in tuition money. scientists uncover the oldest human footprints ever found in north america. a woman plays a flute during brain surgery. we'll explain why. and no more headaches.

the new wine without the hangover. a good thursday morning to you all. i'm diane macedo. >> and i'm kenneth moton in for kendis gibson. we begin with the ousted veterans affairs secretary sounding off about washington politics hours after he was fired by president trump. >> in a "new york times" op-ed, david shulkin complained of a toxic environment writing, it should not be this hard to serve your country. meanwhile, the white house is denying a new report about a push for pardons. abc's serena marshall has the latest from washington for us. good morning, serena. >> reporter: good morning, diane, kenneth. while the dismissal of david shulkin from the v.a. came as no surprise, the wild card replacement did when the president appointed his personal white house physician, ronny jackson, to now oversee the nation's second largest bureaucracy. another member of president trump's cabinet gone. veterans affairs secretary david shulkin fired after misleading ethics officials over using more

than $120,000 in taxpayer funds for travel through europe with his wife. and a political tug-of-war inside the veterans agency. in a "new york times" op-ed this morning, the former hospital executive slams washington as toxic and claims he was entangled in a brutal power struggle with appointees saying they will privatize veterans care, something he says will hurt veterans. the president tweeting out his nominee to replace him, admiral ronny jackson, who said this following the president's physical. >> he might live to be 200 years old. i don't know. i mean, he has incredible genes. >> reporter: the active duty admiral served the past three administrations, but there is concern over his experience to oversee the second largest government agency tasked with serving 9 million veterans. the latest shake-up as "the new york times" reports the president's former lead lawyer, john dowd, raised the idea of presidential pardons for former national security adviser michael flynn and one-time

campaign chairman paul manafort reportedly before manafort was charged with money laundering and before flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. dowd denies there was ever a discussion. when asked about the possibility, the white house pointed to a statement from white house lawyer ty cobb. >> he's got a statement on the record saying that there's no discussion and there's no consideration of those at this time at the white house. >> reporter: dowd resigned last week frustrated that the president was no longer taking his advice. as for jackson, he's now added to the list of people who have to be confirmed by the senate and you can be sure they're going to ask him questions about his policy positions, especially his position on privatizing the v.a. kenneth, diane. >> serena marshall there for us live in d.c., serena, thank you. the trump administration is trying to clarify a presidential tweet about the border wall. president trump tweeted this message yesterday, great briefing this afternoon on the start of our southern border wall. and he also included several photos. but officials in california point out that wall replacement

project actually started nine years ago. the secretary of homeland security tried to clarify by saying that this is only one of the wall projects her department will be overseeing in the next year. for the first time the u.s. military has taken aim at al qaeda in libya with a deadly drone strike. officials say two terrorists were killed including a high ranking al qaeda leader. the attack marks an expansion in the american campaign in libya. u.s. forces had targeted isis operatives in the country in the past, but never al qaeda. the top executive at apple is slamming facebook. tim cook says the government should step in to help protect users' privacy. meanwhile, overnight we learned about changes at facebook this time concerning how it handles advertising and your data. new fallout this morning in the facebook data privacy scandal. in a surprise move, the social media giant announced it will now limit the data it makes available to advertisers, which could have a big impact on those targeted ads you see next to your feed. the company says it's also making it easier for users to

choose what data they share. >> you'll be able to download and understand more about what kind of data facebook has on you and facebook is going to make it easier to delete some of that if you want to. >> reporter: the changes come after the political consulting firm cambridge analytica allegedly misused information from as many as 50 million facebook users. a report this morning from britain's channel 4 says some of that data is still circulating despite assurances it was deleted. >> you are not our product. >> reporter: meanwhile, apple's ceo tim cook is calling for more regulations to protect privacy online. he's also slammed facebook for profiting off its users' data, something apple decided not to do. >> the truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer -- if our customer was our product, we could make a ton of money. we've elected not to do that because we don't -- [ applause ] privacy to us is a human right.

it's a civil liberty and is something that is unique to america. you know, this is like freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and privacy is right up there for us. >> reporter: facebook has acknowledged it has to do more to keep people informed. to see what information you've shared on facebook, go to settings while on your computer then click download for a copy of your facebook data. a producer here at abc tried it. our business correspondent rebecca jarvis explains what she found. >> this is just some of the files. she stopped printing to conserve paper, and in these documents, she's been a member of facebook since 2006, she found phone numbers of friends she hasn't spoken to in the last decade. >> the federal trade commission and the attorney general in 37 states are investigating facebook's privacy policies. mark zuckerberg plans to testify on capitol hill in the coming weeks. a developing story from northern california. police now believe all eight members of one family were inside an suv that plunged off a cliff.

so far search crews have recovered the bodies of the parents and three of the children near the coastal town of mendocino. water conditions have complicated the search for the others. the family is from the washington state area. one of the children, 15-year-old devonte, made headlines in 2014 when he was photographed hugging an officer during a police shooting protest. and security will be tight in sacramento for the funeral of stephon clark as outrage over his police shooting death spreads. protesters demanding charges against the officers disrupted rush hour traffic last night and during clark's wake, his brother angrily confronted members of the media before he was finally carried away from the scene. here in new york at least 11 people were arrested during a protest calling for justice in the clark case. heavy storms are sweeping across parts of the south this morning. an unconfirmed tornado tore the roof off at least one home in central mississippi and knocked down trees and power lines. heavy rain moving into the area is expected to cause flash

flooding. time now for a closer look at your weather this thursday morning. good morning. severe storms threatening mississippi, alabama, louisiana with the threat of flash flooding throughout the midsouth as well. but the targeted area for tornadoes throughout louisiana, mississippi in the morning time shifting over to mississippi and alabama, going into the afternoon, looking for damaging winds in excess of 65 miles per hour but not just that, river and flash flooding expected to occur from houston to little rock, jackson, mississippi, up towards nashville just shy of the ohio valley region. i'm accuweather meteorologist paul williams. coming up, a cyberattack at airplanemaker boeing. also ahead, the financial aid scandal rocking an historic university. how school employees allegedly stole up to a million dollars. and a judge dismisses the most serious charges in the

hazing death of a penn state student who was allegedly given 18 drinks in 90 minutes. we have reaction from his parents ahead.

we're back with in we're back with incredible images of human footprints from 13,000 years ago. that's right. 13,000 years ago. experts say that they're the oldest ever found in north america. they were uncovered on the coast of british columbia along the route humans took to migrate from asia. in today's world, a man from those footprints would wear a size 7 or 8 shoe. jury deliberations resume today in the orlando nightclub shooting trial. the shooter's widow is standing accused of helping him plan the attack, which left 49 people dead. now, in their closing arguments, prosecutors revealed omar mateen was originally planning to

attack disney world by hiding a rifle in a baby stroller. they say surveillance video shows him walking through the disney springs complex, but they say he lost his nerve when he saw police officers standing guard. howard university in washington has fired six employees in connection with a financial aid fraud. officials say the workers received tuition benefits to cover the cost of their classes but at the same time they were also receiving university grant money. together the benefits added up to more than the cost of full tuition. a whistle-blower claimed nearly a million dollars was stolen but the university has not confirmed that amount. boeing is downplaying a cyberattack against the airlinemaker. reports say the company was hit with the so-called wannacry virus. boeing is not confirming the source but says the attack did not affect any of its jet programs. that came hours after a panicked alert warning the virus could affect airplane software. and the white house says there are no plans to take action against amazon, but the company's stock has dropped after a reported claim that president trump wants to, quote,

go after the company. the president has made it clear in the past that he's not a fan of amazon founder jeff bezos and wednesday the new site axios reported the president wants to target amazon's tax payments and regulate its business model. the company took a $31 billion hit after that report was released. a 12-year-old boy's wish has been granted after he was able to ride with pope francis. the pontiff took peter lombardi around st. peter's square in the popemobile. peter was born with down's syndrome and has leukemia. cancer treatments kept him from seeing the pope here in the u.s. in 2015. volunteers from the make-a-wish foundation set up the very special audience. when we come back, the new discovery about what could make babies vulnerable to sids. also ahead, why this woman is playing the flute while undergoing brain surgery. and opening day is here from beer art to the dilly dog. see some of the strangest food at the ballpark this year. dog. see some of the strangest food at the ballpark this year. our bodies grow babies.

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[ playing the theme music to "roseanne" ] the ratings are in, and the reboot of "roseanne" blew away expectations, even among younger viewers with more than 18 million people watching the debut. that's 10% more than watched the finale of the original series back in 1997. >> yeah, curiosity about roseanne's political views in this trump era drove some of the interest. the show performed best in oklahoma and ohio. and just weeks after a teacher strike shut down schools in west virginia, teachers in arizona are now protesting for higher pay. thousands of educators swarmed the state capitol wearing red to show their level of frustration. they're demanding a 20% pay increase. while all teachers did get a raise last year, one second grade teacher says her raise was only $400, a little more than $1 a day. >> now, with two children and a family and a home mortgage

payment, i can't even afford to have my kids on my health insurance. >> the last two times the voters were asked to increase taxes for education, they said no. most of the members in these chambers campaigned on and were elected on a pledge of no new taxes because we don't want to take money out of people's pockets. >> now, recent studies show arizona ranks last in the nation for teacher pay. teachers at the rally wore stickers saying, quote, i don't want to strike, but i will. meanwhile, a teacher strike in oklahoma has been averted. the state senate has passed a bill to increase taxes that can pay for the teacher raises. the bill includes tax hikes on gas, cigarettes and hotels. a pennsylvania judge has thrown out the most serious charges stemming from the alleged hazing death of a fraternity pledge. timothy piazza died last february after falling at a penn state fraternity event that involved a lot of drinking. the judge has now dismissed involuntary manslaughter and other serious counts against five former frat brothers. piazza's parents are demanding justice.

>> they fed him 18 drinks in less than 90 minutes. they allowed him to go off on his own, and he fell down stairs. he got seriously hurt. they knew he was seriously hurt by their own admission. >> yeah, one of the most egregious accusations was about how long it took them to call 911, but those charges against the former fraternity members that were thrown out were part of a hearing to determine whether that case should go to trial. all 22 women in the u.s. senate have signed a bipartisan letter calling for debate on legislation to help sexual harassment victims who work in congress. now, this letter was directed to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and minority leader chuck schumer. it expressed, quote, deep disappointment that the senate has failed to act. mcconnell's office says the bill is being worked on but couldn't say when it would be completed. in medical news now, a new study has found genetics could play a role in some cases of sudden infant death syndrome. researchers found rare genetic mutations that can impair

breathing muscles, and they were more common in babies who died from sids than in healthy babies. nearly 2,400 infants die from sids every year in the u.s. surgeons in texas, meanwhile, have implanted an electrode in the brain of a flute player trying to relieve her tremor condition. now, she was awake and playing her flute through most of the procedure. before the surgery her tremors had become so pronounced, she needed to wear an arm sling in order to perform. now she says her tremors have been greatly reduced. it's baseball opening day, and the weather has already claimed one game. the nationals and reds won't play in cincinnati today because of storms. >> the season's official start kicks off with the cubs and the marlins in miami, but first let's check the menu, shall we. >> yes, the texas rangers fans can enjoy a dilly dog. it's a pickle and hot dog combo that's battered and fried, of course. >> sounds pretty good actually. the arizona diamondbacks are

offering the asada dog. it's a hot dog with fries and mexican-inspired toppings. >> and these beers have yankee players' pictures printed on them, imprinted on their heads but they're actually not permitted by major league baseball, so they won't be sold at the yankees games. >> but they're so cool looking. up next in "the pulse," why carnival is offering a teenager a free cruise just to get control of his social media account. also ahead, a close call with a cheetah on safari when it jumps right into that jeep. >> oh, hey there. and later, the new wine that comes without the headache. the headache. of your tooth surface. the thing that's really important to dentists is to make sure that that enamel stays strong and resilient for a lifetime the more that we can strengthen and re-harden that tooth surface, the whiter their patients' teeth are going to be. dentists are going to really want to recommend pronamel strong and bright. it helps to strengthen and re-harden the enamel. it also has stain lifting action. it's going to give their patients the protection that they need and the whiter teeth that they want. ♪

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with signs even using shaquille o'neal to try to woo the 15-year-old. that's because they desperately wanted his snapchat name, which was @carnivalcruise. darian finally gave it up for a two-week luxury cruise to spain with his family. >> now, darian calls himself a carnival super fan. he came up with that snapchat and claimed that handle when he was just 9 years old. >> smart kid. and a teenager in canada is truly exemplifying beginner's luck. charlie lagard bought her first lottery ticket ever to celebrate her 18th birthday. >> and she won a thousand dollars a week for life. lagard says she plans to use the money to travel and take lots of great pictures and has a passion for photography and has already bought herself a nice camera. >> maybe she'll join darian on that cruise. blue moon is making a new beer that won't get you drunk but will get you high. >> they're infusing it with the same chemical found in marijuana. developers say they'll produce the same intoxicating effect

as beer without the hangover. the brews will go on sale in the fall in colorado. most people who head to africa on safari hope to get a couple of close-ups to show their friends back home, but maybe not this close up. >> a washington state man was traveling through the serengeti when this cheetah jumped into his jeep. >> oh, hey. >> the guide warned him not to move and don't make eye contact. >> i think he did a pretty good job of that. >> yeah, i think so. i would try to pet it though. >> you think? >> i would. >> no thank you. his mom said he didn't show her the video until he got back home. >> oh, gosh. >> we'll be back. more news after this. more news after this. accept it from your allergy pills? most pills don't finish the job because they don't relieve nasal congestion. flonase allergy relief is different. flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and 6 is greater than 1. start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. flonase. this changes everything.

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good morning. it's thursday, march 29th. thanks for being here. 4:27. >> one step closer to a sunny weekend. never more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. >> a lot of compliments about yesterday. why not do it again today. >> yeah. >> make it a little warmer even. here's a look at live doppler 7. it is clear and dry this morning. so let's take a quick look at what's going on with your accuweather 12-hour planner. temperatures in the low to mid-50s through 7:00. near 70 everywhere by noon. 70s to 80s by 4:00 from the coast inland. 60 at the coast to 70s at 7:00. no need for a coat this evening. not much traffic when i came into work. that's actually unusual. hi alexis. >> if the folks aren't off for spring break, maybe it's a spring break day anyway, mike. it's so nice outside. san mateo bridge, still very

light volumes here at 4:27 in the morning. we don't have any major issues to talk about yet either. westbound 80. highway 4 to the maze looks great. eight minutes across the bay bridge. also looking good. you're wide open in ten minutes. >> alexis, thank you. 4:28. palo alto police stepping up control. >> the attacker pointed a gun at the jogger and sexually assaulted her. matt keller is live in palo alto for us. >> reporter: good morning. what a horrible crime. a high school student out for a jog on this path when a man pulled a gun, pointed it at her head, pulled her off the path and sexually assaulted her and he still hasn't been caught. this happened in broad daylight around 1:45 yesterday afternoon. this is a trail along deer creek road near tesla headquarters in palo alto. police searched the area for two

hours but couldn't find him. the at that attacker in his 30s, wearing a black sweatshirt with a bear logo on it. police are asking for the community to keep their eyes open for anyone acting suspiciously. >> at this point we're working the case and following up on leads. we're asking for anyone who has any information or saw anybody lurking in the bushes in that area at any point to please give us a call on 911 right away. >> reporter: the girl was treated at a local hospital and she's in stable physical condition. it's unknown if she'll be able to help detectives make a sketch of the suspect. meanwhile, police are increasing patrols in this area. reporting live in palo alto, matt keller, abc 7 news. >> terrible story. thank you, matt. the reverend al sharpton will deliver the eulogy for the unarmed african american man shot and killed by sacramento police. a wake was held for stephon clark yesterday. police claim the shooting came

at the end of a foot pursuit and he was a suspect in several car break-ins. officers apparently thought he had a gun when he was cornered in his grandmother's backyard. it was only a cell phone. >> he was a good child. he wasn't a bad person at all. he didn't deserve this. i'm going to say it again. he did not deserve it. >> the sacramento kings warned that there will be a significant amount of police in and around the golden one center tonight to keep protesters from reaching the plaza for a third time. marchers blocked fans from entering the arena for the last two games. it's now 4:30. if you're just joining us, you're never more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. mike? >> thank you very much, reggie. let's look at the visibility. i've overlaid it on live doppler 7. grab the sunglasses, going to be another bright sunny day. half-moon day, 45. danville, 49. everybody else in the 50s until antioch at 62. los gatos at 63 degrees.