was it sold out? that's the key. making news in america this morning, a new state of emergency declared as the gulf coast braces for gordon. this morning, the hurricane warning, the damage already from the flooding rains and the heavy winds toppling this crane. meanwhile, in the plains the rainstorm being described as a 500-year event. also breaking overnight, the new records released just hours before supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearing is set to begin prompting protests from democrats. new details about whether nbc news tried to kill the harvey weinstein sexual assault story. this morning the reporter who ended up breaking that story speaks out. nike chooses former quarterback colin kaepernick as the new face of its just do it

campaign igniting controversy amid the nfl national anthem battle. plus, a whole new level of cruising. carnival shows off its biggest ship ever. and the two guys who decided to play a prank on mcdonald's and it worked. a good tuesday morning, everyone. we begin with tropical storm gordon gaining strength as it heads for the gulf coast. >> the storm is expected to make landfall later on today on the mississippi coast, but take a look at it there. it is gaining strength. it is expected to hit as a category 1. the temperatures there in the gulf, 86 degrees. now, states of emergency have been declared in mississippi and louisiana and in new orleans. public schools are closed as people race to prepare. tropical storm gordon intensifying in the gulf of mexico. >> i don't want to see another hurricane like katrina at all.

>> reporter: evacuations are already under way living outside areas protected by the levee system. the national hurricane center is warning of a life-threatening storm surge up to five feet in some areas. >> you don't take any of these lightly even though it may not be a hurricane. >> reporter: tropical storm and hurricane warnings stretch hundreds of miles as forecasters say the storm could dump up to eight inches of rain. many along the gulf coast say they're not taking any chances. >> i went to sam's and bought a bunch of water and stuff for my family and other than that, just kind of letting all my employees know to kind of prepare because you don't know what's going to happen. >> reporter: the storm already drenched parts of south florida. this time lapse shows the bands of rain moving through boca raton. farther south miami's famed beaches normally packed with tourists on labor day deserted. shut down on a holiday. meanwhile in the heartland, major flooding from a separate weather system. several days of rain inundated manhattan, kansas, in what's being called a 500-year event.

an estimated 300 people have been displaced because of the flooding there. >> just a little bit of panic just trying to get all my belongings together because i didn't have enough time, so i just took the baby and dog and wallet and keys, and that's it. >> and back to gordon, several airlines are now offering passengers headed to the gulf coast a chance to rebook their flights for free, and in just a few moments we'll check in with accuweather for the latest on the storm's track. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh faces a tough day of questioning as his confirmation battle gets under way today. overnight we learned about thousands of pages of records that have now been turned over just hours before that hearing begins. abc's emily rau has the new details from washington. emily, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. diane. those hearings start at 9:30 this morning on capitol hill, and a lot of senators are eager to start questioning this federal judge who could have a major impact on the nation's highest court for decades to come. as federal judge brett kavanaugh rounds out his intense preparation for this week's

hearings complete with interruptions by fake protesters, senate democrats are already making their case that the white house is withholding key information about kavanaugh's record. >> he chose the candidate who he thought would best protect him from the mueller investigation. >> reporter: already, some 400,000 documents have been released, but it's the 100,000 from kavanaugh's time as a close aide to president george w. bush that democrats want. senator chuck schumer tweeting late monday, the senate was just given an additional 42,000 pages of kavanaugh documents the night before his hearing. this underscores just how absurd the process is. in response, republicans on the judiciary committee saying the team will be able to go through the latest batch in short order pointing out the number of documents released about kavanaugh totals more than the last five nominees combined. >> he was very explicit in terms

of what he wanted in a supreme court nominee. >> reporter: another major concern, how kavanaugh might affect legal precedent on key rulings on abortion, affirmative action and gay rights. democrats are expected to grill the 53-year-old about his views on roe v. wade and whether kavanaugh would work to overturn it. now, democrats have also gone after kavanaugh for once writing that presidents shouldn't be distracted by investigations while in office. some accusing president trump of picking kavanaugh to protect himself. diane and kendis. >> all right, that's emily rah live from d.c. for us. emily, thanks. president trump is launching a new attack on attorney general jeff sessions. this time he's suggesting that sessions is putting republican control of the house in jeopardy. now, the president tweeted that two republican congressmen have been indicted just ahead of the midterms by the justice department that sessions runs, and trump says, two easy wins

for republicans are now in doubt. abc's kyra phillips is covering the story on the hill. >> reporter: he's referring there to new york's chris collins and california's duncan hunter. the first two congressmen to endorse trump's candidacy. collins now facing insider trading charges and hunter facing charges of campaign finance violations. now, with the crucial midterm elections approaching, the house could be on the line. critics slamming the president's tweet saying he's trying to politicize the justice department. it's not clear if he thinks the charges are misguided or if it's just the timing. no comment from the justice department or the white house. >> but there was comment from nebraska's republican senator ben sasse. he said the united states is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice. and the president is also mocking the former secretary of state john kerry amid reports that kerry may run for president in 2020. mr. trump tweeted, i should only be so lucky. pope francis is facing new

criticism this morning after he appeared to call for silence amid accusations he turned a blind eye to clergy sex abuse allegations. the pope said silence and prayer are the best way to answer people who seek only scandal and division. and he said, truth is humble and silent. the pope has refused to respond to allegations that he ignored allegations of sex abuse by cardinal theodore mccarrick. all right. let's return to our top story right now and take a look at your weather forecast for today. good morning. gordon has already emerged off the west coast of florida expected to target between mobile, alabama, and new orleans with flooding, gusty winds and a possibility of isolated tornadoes. look for heavy storms that could possibly strengthen to a category 1 hurricane going to affect up to wednesday strengthening and causing problems with rough seas, dangerous rip currents, beach erosion and minor coastal flooding then heavy storms throughout the center part bracing for the likelihood of severe storms even leaning into tuesday evening. difficult travel as well. i'm accuweather meteorologist

paul williams. well, coming up, carnival shows off its largest cruise ship ever. we're going to show you the penthouse suite. but first, the question that prompted monica lewinsky to storm offstage cutting short an interview. and nasa announces a big reward if you can figure out - ( phone ringing ) - big button, and volume-enhanced phones. get details on this state program.

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do you still expect that apology, the personal apology? >> i'm so sorry. i'm not going to be able to do this. >> and there it went. that would be monica lewinsky there who is now ananti-bullying off the stage during an interview in jerusalem, israel,

after being asked about former president bill clinton. lewinsky says she made it clear to the host the day before the interview that asking about clinton was off-limits. saying she left the event moren ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. the head of nbc news is firing back against claims that the network tried to kill a story about sexual assault allegations against harvey weinstein. a former nbc producer claims network officials ordered work to be stopped on ronan farrow's story which was later published by "the new yorker" magazine. nbc news chairman andrew lack issued a memo insisting after eight months of reporting at nbc farrow had nothing that was fit to broadcast. overnight, farrow called that statement misleading. he claims his story about weinstein was cleared twice by nbc's legal department. you can add aretha franklin's family to the list of people unhappy with the eulogy that was delivered by a pastor at her funeral. the singer's nephew released a

statement calling the eulogy offensive and distasteful. he says the family expected a eulogy focused on his aunt's life. at one point the reverend jasper williams described children living in a home without a father as abortion after birth and he said black lives do not matter unless blacks stop killing each other. nasa has just announced a big reward in the quest to colonize mars. it's offering to pay up to $750,000 to anyone who comes up with a way to turn carbon dioxide, which there is a lot of on mars, into more useful products like sugar, for example. those who up for the challenge need to register by january. okay, so carnival cruise line's biggest ship ever is about to set sail for the first time. it holds 6,600 passengers and includes 17 restaurants and 23 bars. there's also a waterpark, a casino on board along with a two-story penthouse suite with floor to ceiling windows.

carnival says it is a green ship, believe it or not, because it runs on liquified natural gas, not diesel like many others. >> i know you're not a cruise guy, but 23 bars. >> that's where they had me. 6,600 passengers. 23 bars. whoo. >> there you go. >> one for every night of the cruise. >> hook, line and sinker. coming up, the tiger woods look-alike fooling everyone on the golf course. but first when we come back, the vacation tragedy on the colorado river. we hear from one of the survivors of that deadly boat crash with three victims still missing. and later the mysterious light in the sky that has some people in north carolina believing in ufos. people in north carolina believing in ufos. ufos. r things than rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage,

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museum gutted. officials say 90% of the museum's collection is destroyed. >> wow. now to that horrific boat crash on the colorado river. we're now hearing from a woman who survived the crash. >> authorities say two boats collided at 50 miles an hour, and this morning divers will resume the search for several people who remain missing. here's danya bacchus. >> reporter: an urgent search continues. police helicopters and divers looking for boaters who are still missing. officials say two recreational boats, one carrying ten people, the other with six, collided head on sending all 16 people into the colorado river in california before the boats sunk. >> all of a sudden i hear, excuse my language, i hear, oh, [ bleep ] and i look up, and i see the boat, the other boat and the next thing you know, i'm in the water. >> reporter: witnesses say one boat was speeding on the wrong

side of the river saturday night with no lights on smashing into the other boat. passing boaters were able to pull a few of the injured out of the water, but some were swept nearly five miles downstream. >> the current was so strong, it was moving me around, and all i could think about is get air. i don't know -- i can't tell you how long i was under water, but i know that it was long enough to where i couldn't hold my breath anymore. >> reporter: monday morning rescuers recovered the body of 51-year-old christine lewis. she's one of the four boaters who vanished. three others, two women and a man, remain missing. nine people were taken to the hospital. the sheriff's office saying none of the boaters were wearing life jackets. the sheriff's office is now investigating the crash trying to determine if alcohol or speed played a factor. danya bacchus, abc news, los angeles. a facebook post is being credited with saving an american man's life when he was thousands of miles from home. michael lythcott of new york was traveling with a friend on a scooter in bali when they swerved to avoid a truck and

ended up in a ravine. now, both of them were badly injured but lythcott was able to post a message on facebook saying, help, in danger, call police. >> my left arm is like at the wrist was broken, couldn't move. what i started doing was sharing my live location on facebook. you can do a check-in. >> after he shared that, one of his friends on facebook contacted the u.s. embassy, and they sent help to him and his friend in that ravine. >> well, luckily this didn't happen while he was looking for help. facebook is blaming a networking issue for an outage that knocked the site off line monday along with instagram and whatsapp. the outage was reported on four continents. facebook says it lasted fewer then 90 minutes. in other news people spoke to each other for 90 minutes yesterday. it was weird. all right, time for sports now starting with a stunning upset at the u.s. open. five-time champion roger federer lost to australian john millman

who is ranked 55th in the world. millman moves on to face novak djokovic. and a big surprise in college football overnight. virginia tech dominated florida state rolling to an easy win.th. >> ouch. and tiger woods had a great time posing with fans at a pga event near boston, or did he? turns out the real tiger was busy on the 12th green while this guy was schmoozing with the crowd. quite a look-alike there. check it out. look-alike on the left, but the guy on the right, big difference, took home more than $71,000 for playing in the tournament. >> fake tiger just being fake tiger. up next in "the pulse," the decoration at mcdonald's that has people talking. also the response after nike chooses colin kaepernick as one of the faces of the just do it campaign. and later, the unlikely way a diamond ring was returned to its owner thanks to a worker at starbucks. a worker at starbucks. moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal.

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♪ time to check "the pulse." and you have to wonder how the nfl feels about nike's new just do it campaign. >> one of the new faces of that campaign is former quarterback colin kaepernick. now, you'll recall he's suing the league claiming owners colluded to keep him sidelined since he started kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. well, now he'll star in ads for the company that outfits the league. >> you've got the nike swoosh on all the uniforms for all 32 teams and all the sideline apparel. the nike swoosh is everywhere in the national football league, and now nike has decided that colin kaepernick is going to be the face of its 30th anniversary just do it campaign. if you wrote that as a script for hollywood, they would toss >> n, ws cs after an arbitrator ruled that

kaepernick's case against the league can continue requiring team owners to testify under oath. reaction to nike's decision has been mixed. country star john rich of big and rich posted on twitter saying his sound man who is a former marine cut the nike swoosh off his socks. serena williams tweeted, especially proud to be a part of the nike family today. and two friends in houston have made their statement at a local mcdonald's after noticing there was an empty wall that needed a little decorating. they decided to make a fake corporate poster featuring themselves as the models. >> then they snuck into the restaurant and hung it up. it's still hanging there nearly two months later. >> they said they did it because there were no asians in any of the corporate artwork on the walls. well, now problem solved. there you go. >> crazy smart asians. now to a mystery that's hovering over the sky of north carolina near charlotte. some insist it's a ufo. javion hill took pictures and

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good morning, east bay. let's get up and get going. >> this is abc 7 mornings. >> hi, there. good morning. it's tuesday, september 4th. >> yeah, some of you are just off vacation, so welcome back to your real life. hope you're doing well. never more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. here's mike nicco. >> a warmer day than yesterday. isn't that fitting? we say good-bye unofficially to summer and try to warm things up just a little bit. here's a look at some of the temperatures that are out and about. and you can see around san francisco, we're mainly in the mid-50s to upper 50s right now. let's look at some of our other temperatures out there and what you're going to see is pretty much the same thing, upper 50. a few 60s around hayward and mountain view. let's see what's going on with our highs today. 60s along the coast into san francisco. mid to upper 70s around the bay. mid 80s to a few low 90s inland. let's get a check of the morning

commute. any busier this morning than yesterday? >> quite a bit busier, but we don't have any major blocking issues so that's good news. off to a quiet start there. those volumes already much heavier than 24 hours ago. 20 miles per hour once you make it to 580, so typical crawl is back there getting out of the tracy stretch, and the bay bridge toll plaza, a lineup in the cash lanes once again. wewent to entire morning yesterday without the metering lights turned on. they should flip those on around 5:25. >> developing this morning from plaster county, a wildfire has forced evacuations in the tahoe national forest. >> the north fire started late yesterday afternoon near immigrant gap. several nearby campgrounds were evacuated. traffic was very heavy due to labor day and officials were asking drivers to avoid interstate 80. 650 acres have burned so far and officials say the fire is spreading aggressively.

additional aircraft to help fight the fire will arrive today. >> developing news on tropical storm gordon. the gulf coast is on alert as this storm is now barreling toward land. it's picking up speed. it could hit louisiana and mississippi as a category-1 hurricane. you're watching video of the storm drenching parts of south florida yesterday. people along the coast are not taking any chances. >> i don't want to see another hurricane like katrina. at all. >> i went to sam's and bought a bunch of water and stuff for my family. and other than that, just kind of letting all my employees know to kind of prepare. you don't know what's going to happen. >> the national hurricane center is warning of a life-threatening storm surge up to five feet in some areas. forecasters say gordon could dump up to eight inches of rain. and mike, it's not coming up at 4:30, when we see new orleans as a part of the coverage area, we get concerned. >> memories of katrina, and the way it buried the ninth ward and

half the other part of the city also come to mind, but that is not going to happen out of this storm. gordon right now, 65-mile-per-hour winds. let's see where it's going. you can see it heads up just to the east, more like gulf port is going to take a direct hit, but new orleans will be on the weaker side, which means they'll get less storm surge and less rain tonight into tomorrow morning and then it will head to arkansas where the marshy land in the southeast could flood and even the mountains could flood in the northwest corner because of heavy rain from that. for us back here at home, let's look at what's going on. you can see it's cloudy. marine clouds are back and they'll hang around. look for more sunshine at noon, a little haze, and 4:00, we're in the 60s at the coast. mid 70s around the bay. upper 80s inland. close to average. here's alexis. >> good morning, mike. overall, the commute average too. we're looking live at our walnut creek traffic camera. southbound 680 starting to fill in, and of course, e