making news in america this morning, the new allegation that threatens to derail brett kavanaugh's supreme court nomination. this as final preparations are made for today's historic hearing. the nominee and his first accuser facing a grilling from senators. this morning, we look at the evidence revealed including the polygraph test and that summer calendar. the new poll showing who americans believe and the growing mystery, who left this good luck note for kavanaugh's accuser inside the hearing room. an alleged serial killer in custody this morning accused of attacking people in their sleep with a baseball bat. authorities now revealing the suspect had been deported six times in the past. an alert for parents. the new message about kids and screen time. just how long children are now spending on their devices each

day and how it's harming them. those stories, plus should kids be required to stand for the pledge of allegiance at school. the new legal battle. and the young baseball fan scolded for cheering too loudly at a game gets the last laugh. how the stars on her favorite team are rallying around her. good thursday morning. i'm stephanie ramos in for diane macedo. >> and i'm kendis gibson. we begin with the high-stakes battle for the supreme court just hours away now. the back-to-back testimonies from brett kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault. >> kavanaugh will use his opening statement to dismiss the allegations as last-minute smears, and christine blasey ford will recount the alleged assault that she says drastically altered her life. and new this morning, a third accuser has now come forward with explosive new claims against kavanaugh. abc's lana zak has the new details from capitol hill.

good morning, lana. >> reporter: good morning to you, kendis and stephanie. with the country watching, two different versions of the young brett kavanaugh will be presented today, on one side, the choir boy, the high school virgin, on the other, the hard partying drinker and alleged sexual assaulter. brett kavanaugh and the first of his accusers, dr. christine blasey ford, will be grilled in an attempt to find the truth. >> i don't think there's any question in my mind about it. but i'm willing to keep an open mind. >> reporter: a new look at exactly what blasey ford will say paints an emotional picture beginning her opening statement with, i am here today not because i want to be, i am terrified. meanwhile, an excerpt from kavanaugh's statement reading in part, i drank beer on weekends with my friends, sometimes i had too many. in retrospect i said and did things in high school that make me cringe now but remaining adamant saying i have never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever. but there is another major development playing out. a third person coming forward.

julie swetnick. she's held security clearances from homeland security, state and the treasury departments and she claims in a sworn affidavit that she saw kavanaugh drink excessively and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior towards girls and she alleges that kavanaugh was present at a house party in 1982 when swetnick says she herself was a convict of gang rape. >> the details in this declaration are specific, they are shocking, but above all else they are true. >> reporter: abc news has been unable to corroborate swetnick's allegations, but judge kavanaugh says this is ridiculous and from "the twilight zone." i don't know who this is and this never happened. president trump says he'll be watching. >> are they liars? >> i can't tell you. i have to watch. i'm going to see what's said. i'm going to see what is said. it's possible that they will be convincing. >> reporter: and will they convince america? people today across the nation will decide. but it's worth noting that of the now three named accusers, only dr. christine blasey ford will testify today and that's

the only testimony from any of the accusers before the senate judiciary committee votes tomorrow. kendis, stephanie. >> evening with that said, lana, it is expected to last several hour, the hearing today. thank you. in the meantime, more evidence is being revealed ahead of today's hearing, and we're getting new poll numbers that show what the american people think of the accusations against kavanaugh. this morning, the picture now evidence in today's high-stakes hearing. christine blasey ford taking a lie detector test about the alleged assault by brett kavanaugh in the early '80s. as part of the test, which she passed, ford wrote down her account of what she says happened. ford writes, brett laid on top of me and tried to remove my clothes while groping me. he held me down and put his hand on my mouth to stop me from screaming for help. she writes, mark jumped on top of us two or three times before she escaped. ford's husband and friends have now given sworn statements saying ford spoke of the allegations several years ago identifying the assailant

only as a federal judge. meanwhile, kavanaugh has now submitted his own supporting evidence to the judiciary committee including a detailed calendar he says he kept as a teen. it noted beach week and college interviews for brown and yale. the evidence from both sides further inflaming the partisan battle on capitol hill. >> republicans need to immediately suspend the proceedings related to judge kavanaugh's nomination. and the president must order the fbi to re-open the background check investigation. >> but this is getting into the "twilight zone." you're talking about brett kavanaugh being a serial rapist during high school as -- >> reporter: today's marathon hearing with kavanaugh and ford being grilled is already being compared to the clarence thomas/anita hill scandal. >> there was an earlier case 27 years ago from which you might have thought we would have learned something. but the past couple of weeks makes it clear that we haven't learned much at all. >> reporter: today senators will each have five minutes to

question ford and kavanaugh. for republicans on the committee, all of whom are men, those five minutes can be given to rachel mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor they hired to question the witnesses. >> i think it's probably better for us to have a third party do it, because then people can't accuse of us being political. >> reporter: meanwhile, a mysterious handwritten note left for ford inside the committee room wednesday reading, good luck, dr. ford, is fueling speculation about its author and its meaning. some ford supporters took the note to be an intimidation technique. an aide first said the note came from committee chairman chuck grassley but staffers later confirmed it was not from grassley. millions are expected to watch today's hearing. one poll finds six in ten americans plan to watch. that same poll finds independent voters are split on the nominee with 36% having an unfavorable view of kavanaugh compared to 34% favorable.

make sure you stay with abc news live for coverage of today's hearing beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on air, online and on the abc news app. >> it'll be a busy day for the president because he's also planning to meet with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein today. he oversees the russia investigation and has been under fire after "the new york times" reported he suggested trying to remove the president from office. rosenstein denies that report and at his news conference yesterday president trump said he would prefer not to fire rosenstein. well, in the meantime, the president says that japan now has agreed to begin negotiations over a new trade deal. japan had previously resisted direct talks with the u.s. a key part of the negotiations will be expanding access for american cars in the japanese market. the undocumented immigrant accused in a string of brutal beatings in los angeles has now been charged with three murders and five attempted murders. police say ramon escobar attacked the victims with a

baseball bat and bolt cutters. most were homeless and were sleeping at the time. escobar was previously deported six times back to el salvador. he could now face the death penalty. well, time now for a look at your weather for this thursday morning. flash flood warnings are in effect for parts of eastern tennessee and many schools are closed. at least one person was killed near chattanooga after heavy rain caused creeks to overflow evacuate their homes in hamilton county. and looking at today's temperatures, low 70s in nashville. it'll stay in the 60s from washington, d.c. to boston on this first full week of autumn. 80s in southern california and it's still pretty hot in phoenix, 104 degrees. well, coming up, the new warning about screen time and your kids. how much time they're spending with their devices each day.

but first one year after the las vegas massacre, new technology to keep hotels safe. how it works. and the couple arrested for locking their son in the trunk. what was happening here? (boy) grandpa, look what i got! (woman) oh dad, wait 'till you see the bike we got for jake.

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we're back with some bad behavior from a parent which has now ended the season early for a youth football team in new mexico. a player confronted the ref about a call, and then the parent, as you can see there, ran onto the field and body slammed the ref. the league has banned the entire team for the season. it's been nearly one year since a gunman murdered 58 people in las vegas. one security company is now working to prevent a similar tragedy. patriot one technologies has developed microwave scanners that can reveal hidden weapons. the company's ceo says people entering a hotel would have no

idea that they're being scanned. >> they don't want to be subjected to metal detector arches, pat-downs, wand searches so the challenge for security professionals here is how do they keep people safer whilst preserving the ambience. >> you may remember last october 1st a gunman fired at concertgoers outside the mandalay bay hotel. killing those 58 people, he used weapons brought into his room inside suitcases. uber will pay $148 million to settle cases stemming from its massive data breach in 2016. the company paid the hackers to keep quiet about the breach instead of reporting it to the authorities and waited at least a year before publicly disclosing it. 57 million customers and drivers were impacted by that. there's a new warning about safety on the road even as cars get more advanced. a survey by aaa finds most drivers don't understand the limits of new safety features in their cars.

for example, about 80% of new car owners don't understand the limit reached by the blind spot detectors, and about 40% aren't clear on the function of automatic emergency braking. aaa is urging car dealers and rental car companies to better educate their drivers. overseas, one lucky kayaker says his face was in the wrong place at the wrong time when this happened. watch it as it plays out. a seal swam up and flung an octopus at him. watch again. it happened off the coast of new zealand. the seal was trying to grab lunch apparently at the time, and there is the smackdown. the octopus eventually swam off. >> it's like, here you go, have a taste of my lunch. >> yeah, exactly, and then, boom. well, coming up, what you need to know about the flu this year. also ahead, the supermodel gisele bundchen reveals a secret about her past and the struggles she faced. and how a young girl with special needs who was scolded for cheering too loudly at a baseball game is getting the last laugh.

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we come together tonight as a community praying for maddox. >> for the third straight night dozens of people gathered for a vigil in gastonia, north carolina, praying for the safe return of 6-year-old maddox ritch. the special needs child was last seen saturday during a walk with his father. >> now, dogs are now being used to search a lake nearby. steve osunsami has the new details. >> reporter: the search for this missing 6-year-old with special needs had fbi agents looking through sewers. maddox ritch was diagnosed with autism. his father joined investigators at a police briefing and explained that his son is nonverbal to strangers. >> it's been torture. i'm not eating, not sleeping. i'm just worried about getting my little boy back. >> reporter: ian ritch says he lost the boy saturday at this park west of charlotte when he was there with a woman police are refusing to identify. he says his son went chasing after a jogger, and he couldn't catch him because of the medical condition that makes it

difficult for him to run. >> i feel guilt for letting him get so far ahead of me before i started running after him. >> reporter: police are releasing the calls for help. >> it's been almost an hour now. we searched everywhere. >> reporter: the park employee who made that call says that when the boy's mother arrived, she was hysterical. >> she got out of the car and, you know, of course, one of the sheriffs had to come and calm her. >> reporter: he says the father was more quiet. >> he didn't act like a concerned parent like i would act or any concerned parent would act. >> reporter: the fbi has now brought out a special dive team to search the lake. steve osunsami, abc news, gastonia, north carolina. >> hopefully they find him okay. an illinois couple has lost custody of their son after the boy's father conducted what he called a social experiment. the man was arrested for putting the 3-year-old into the truck of his car while people nearby were watching. he says he wanted to see if they would stop him. some women did call police who then arrested the father and

charged him with child endangerment. we do have a health alert for you this morning. with flu season around the corner, the government says the flu killed more than 80,000 people last season. that, by the way, the highest death toll in more than 40 years. doctors are reminding everyone just how important they believe it is to get your flu shot. and this may not come as a surprise to parents. kids are not getting enough sleep, and they're spending too much time in front of screens, which can hurt their language skills and brain development. a study out this morning finds kids between the ages of 8 and 11 spend an average of 3.6 hours per day in front of a tv, phone, tablet or computer. doctors suggest no more than two hours a day. supermodel gisele bundchen is revealing intimate details of her past. she tells "people" magazine that a few years after becoming the world's best-known model, she started having panic attacks and she says she thought about taking her own life to avoid feeling like her world was closing in around her.

now, she says to avoid using medication, she started medicating, doing yoga and eating a super healthy diet. bundchen's new memoir is out next week. a young baseball fan is now feeling the love after a party pooper almost broke her spirit. 8-year-old chloe beaver was having a great time cheering on the astros until she was scolded by a woman who felt she was yelling too loudly. but now after hearing her story, an astros pitcher has offered her game tickets and other stars on the team are urging her to never stop cheering. she and her dad couldn't be happier. >> it's the best feeling to know that they're going out of their way to do this. >> i started crying because i was like sad, but i didn't do anything. >> hey, chloe, it's lance mccullers jr. of the houston astros. i saw your video on twitter and i know how big of a fan you are. i can't wait to see you and your family out for game one of the alds. i'll make sure to have vip passes waiting for you and a jersey for you on the field. i'm so excited you'll be there

to cheer us on. >> that's pretty awesome, so chloe suffers from an emotional disorder. her mom says people should think before they react because you never know what someone is going through. >> it's very true. looks like chloe came out on top. >> yes, she did, and hopefully the astros will as well for a second year in a row. up next in "the pulse," george jetson would be proud. big news about the flying car of the future. also ahead, the new legal battle over requiring kids to stand for the pledge of allegiance in school. and the man being called the raccoon whisperer. rer. pic dermatitis, you never know how your skin will look. and it can feel like no matter what you do, you're itching all the time. but even though you see and feel your eczema on the surface of your skin, an overly sensitive immune system deep within your skin might actually be causing your eczema. so help heal your skin from within. with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. at 16 weeks,

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for the pledge when she was 17. >> landry says the school secretary told her this is not the nfl. well, she's accusing the state of violating her first amendment rights. okay, cue "the jetsons" theme right now. ♪ do do do ♪ do do do >> nice, because the world's first flying car is about to go on sale. it's called the transition. >> well, there it is. so, the company that makes it says the hybrid electric vehicle switching between flying and driving modes in less than a minute, and it can fly at a top speed of 100 miles an hour. >> straight out of "the jetsons." sales start next month, but the price has not been determined yet. we head to upstate new york where the call of the wild for one man is a flute. >> he's known as the pied piper of raccoons, and here's why, he's playing a native american flute in a state forest, and here comes his fans. >> they've been conditioned. about 20 raccoons surrounded him heading banto the forest.ore he also serenades apparently birds and other animals.

he's got a talent there. >> yeah, and what are they feeding those raccoons? huge. >> they're hefty. >> yeah. so, lego is giving an injured turtle a new lease on life. >> the bottom part of the turtle's shell was broken, so a zoo in maryland designed a lego wheelchair. >> and the chair keeps the shell off the ground so it can heal properly and allows the turtle to keep moving during its recovery. >> very helpful. >> it works. >> yeah, very nice. >> turtles like it. more news after this. more news after this. ornings wer better things, than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once daily pill for psoriatic arthritis. taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain... ...swelling and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened.

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and live claritin clear. >> we are just a few hours away from the historic hearing in washington, d.c. what we know after a third woman reveals new alling gas stations against the supreme court nominee let's take you outside right now. warm weather was the story yesterday. this morning, the return of the fog, making it kind of a very blue. >> with the lights out there too. kind of creepy. >> yeah. we've still got traffic issues here in san francisco. that still hasn't gone away. >> it's not going away for a while. i'll have more info coming up shortly. >> it looks like hot temperatures will be going away soon. >> most of us comfort bible today. still inland. we're dealing with intense heat this afternoon in some of our spots away from the coast. this morning, though, the issue, like jessica just alluded to,

it's the fog out there. dense in spots. we dealt with it yesterday. we are doing it again today in the north bay and the coast. we have patchy fog in and around the coffee. decreasing clouds. however, it is still hot inland with temperatures into the 90s in the hottest spots. now traffic with alexis. good morning. good morning, drew. i will have more on the official closures and everything going on with the salesforce transit center in a few minutes. we're off to a fairly quiet start. san mateo bridge, that was one area that fogged up yesterday. right now i'm not seeing any major visibility issues there. as drew mentioned, it is out there today. i encountered quite a bit on my commute. slow down and drive for conditions. 580, tracy to dublin, still in the green at 31 minutes. westbound 4, antioch to concord, looking good at 13. and san rafael to san francisco, wide open at 16 minutes. thanks, alexis. developing news on capitol hill.

the supreme court showdown takes center stage in a few hours with back-to-back testimonies from christine blasey ford and brett kavanaugh. >> reporter: kavanaugh and the first of his accusers will be grilled today in an attempt to find the truth. >> i don't think there's any question in my mind about it, but i'm willing to keep an mind. >> reporter: rachel mitchell will be representing the republican men on the committee. >> i'm not interested in seeing ms. mitchell go cat anybody. >> reporter: a third person is coming forward, julie swetnick. she claims in a sworn affidavit

she saw him drink excessively and engage in abusive way towards girls. she said she herself was a victim of gang rape. >> the details in this declaration are specific. they are shocking. but above all else, they are true. >> reporter: abc has been unable to corroborate the accusations. judge kavanaugh said this is ridiculous and from the title zone. i don't know who this is. >> are they liars? >> i can't tell you. i'm going to have to watch. i will have to see what's said. it's possible they will be convincing. >> reporter: of the three named accusers, only dr. christine blasey ford will testify before the committee votes tomorrow. reporting from the senate, lana zak, abc news. >> the hearing starts at 7:00 a.m. our time.