finding solutions. >> we are going to get answers for you in real time. today, paradise burning. six confirmed dead and one of mao's most popular towns is largely destroyed -- maui

popular towns is largely destroyed. travel to maui is being discouraged as the state of emergency has been extended on maui and the big island. we are getting a look at the devastation. incredible and sad video the situation in one of the most popular areas for tourists. it is almost unrecognizable. coming up, we will get a first-hand account from david ono who is in maui right now. it is back-to-school time and skimmers are busy trying to cheat parents out of money meant for school supplies. we will talk with the better business bureau and get you details. dianne feinstein is in the

headlines again for her health. she went to the hospital yesterday after falling at her home. she had a brief examination but did not stay in the hospital overnight. there are still questions over her fitness. joining us is rick klein. senator feinstein was not in the hospital for long. let's talk about the impact. normally this would not be alarming but this comes after other health concerns. >> there are concerns about her basic ability to do her job. she was gone from the senate for months with a case of shingles. seemed disoriented. she has the right to serve has been elected to a that does not end until next year.

but the question about able to serve is real and those questions will continue if she is out of the senate for a while, it is sent -- especially because of the split in the senate right now. so it is not just an academic question. the come up for mitch mcconnell. so it is on both sides. kristen: there are time something materializes in terms of a health episode for her to step down. needs to keep voting and if she steps down there might be a pause. is that the major role of a

senator today, essentially the main thing we want out of our senators? >> the most important thing is to vote on the senate floor. constituent services and drafting legislation [indiscernible] but in terms of effective representation is a congress people have raised the question about if she should continue to serve. it is an uncomfortable conversation but it would happen to all of us who are lucky enough to live to an advanced age. it is an awful conversation but one worth having. kristen: at 90 years old she is

currently the oldest senator. we are glad she is out of the hospital. in terms of the republican primary debate august 23, how is it shaping up. will trump partake? >> we won't know two hours before because he enjoys the drama. he has signaled he won't show up and told others he will. if someone is as someone is running as much as he is a dozen make any sense to participate in the debate but he does not like avoiding the spotlight and people will also pylon him and it -- file on -- pile on him and wonder why he

not here. i expect all the other candidates to be there to debate. some might not qualify. kristen: trump does certainly like to add to the drama. how important would this debate be to ron desantis? >> a big moment because so much of this primary you can think of as trump and someone else. desantis looked to have the best shot of taking on trump but his numbers have dropped. if he is going to be the main alternative he will have to show that. on the flipside you would have a divided field. if there are six or seven candidates, they will divvy up the smaller part of the pie.

kristen: taken up the challenge to debate desantis. when do you think it would happen and what is in it for both of them? >> i think there are questions about the ground rules both governors are engaged in but i think it would be mutually beneficial. for desantis it puts him in the conversation appeal of th gng after each other. governor newsom has been called out by desantis as a bully and i see upside for him and i look forward to it. kristen: get your popcorn. [laughter] an issue gop candidates might concerned about, abortion, came

in ohio last night. what did voters decide? >> in november voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortion but yesterday they had to vote to basically change the rules to make it harder to pass and it would 50% to pass but that failed to so the effort to amend the state constitution in november will only need 50% of the vote and if you look at the exit polls in ohioio and national polling on abortion rights it's much more achievable bar so if you continue the pattern in montana and kansas where voters have come down on the side of protecting rights for women. kristen: normally in a

presidential election year you like to see the parties put on the ballot other issues that would drive what they think would bring their voters but in this case do you think republicans will not want abortion on the ballot? >> for republicans about the best way to do it. ballot initiative has not worked for them. in ohio conservatives tried to change the rules to make it harder to amend the constitution. there are a couple of states battleground states, that might have roughly similar votes on abortion rights next year but at this stage conservatives will try to do their best to [indiscernible] kristen: trump trying to overturn the 2020 election results, any clues on his legal strategy? >>'s strategy will mainly

that it was just words and he was not really trying to incite anything. he also will not stop using those words. he continues to say the election was stolen and he will keep attacking as long as the judge lets him. we will see what the judge says. kristen: great talking with you, rick, thanks. coming up, more on the wildfires devastating maui. six people are dead and widespread evacuations are underway. we get a first-h

kristen: now to the powerful wildfires raging on hawaii and the big island. six people have died. more than 1800 acres have been scorched by wildfires. hospitals are overwhelmed in maui. power and 91 service are unavailable to thousands. one town -- power and 911 service are unavailable to 1000. at one town was hit very hard with people jumping into the water to escape fire. >> hurricane which did not impact our islands would cause this type of wildfires. on certain parts of maui we have shelters that are overrun and resources that are packed. -- resources being taxed. the state is providing any

support we can to support maui and the big island. kristen: the historic town of lahaina is mostly gone. our station k abc has a first-hand look. >> we are a couple miles look of lahaina. you can see the smoke coming out. out of that area. the wind has died down significantly. it was blasting yesterday which was part of the problem. a tremendous amount of smoke coming from that area. the smoke has dissipated quite a bit but the damage is apparently done and a huge area of lahaina is lost. if you come to maui and hawaii,

you know the significance of that one small area of this community and it is devastating news that it is lost. if you were here in person, it was a lot of movement, thousands of being evacuated from various resorts along the beach. the tourists behind me, thousands of them in resorts being told to voluntarily evacuate and they have nowhere to go and the airport is inundated so as the firefight is going on, they have no food and no shelter. that north of lahaina. kristen: thank you to david ono from sending -- for sending that report. the acting governors said they

never anticipated in this state that a hurricane that did not impact the island would cause these sorts of wildfires. what does she mean? >> she's talking about hurricane dora, a category four hurricane that passed far south of the islands. so it is not having a direct effect but an indirect effect on the fires. looking at the map, this is hurricane dora in the circle. it is nearly 800 miles southwest of honolulu. but the problem is the counterclockwise circulation on the outer perimeter is combining with the clockwise rotation this system and so it is generating wind gusts 70 to 80 miles an hour. you can imagine how strong the wind would be closer. but that far away it is still

generating 80 mile-per-hour wind. the white area is clouds but this is maui. this represents smoke where i am pointing down to lahaina. the wind is driving the fire there are dry conditions. you think of hawaii as being humid because it is tropical but much of maui is in severe drought right now. on the lower edge of the islands, the orange area is severe drought. kristen: i read about water restrictions for some of the islands and maui certainly impacted. but it seems like there was an element of surprise, even though

they were in drought and they knew they would have some strong wind. spencer: many advisories we here have come after the fire developed. there are red flag warning's for high fire danger across a good portion of the islands and winter advisories but you would think that even though hurricane dora was not expected to directly impact that someone would have considered the effect of the winds in the outer periphery and the kind of gusts they could generate across an area in drought. but here we are and we are dealing with it now. kristen: look at this devastation shot by a helicopter pilot. just devastating. low height -- lahaina is just beautiful with 150-year-old trees. this is so sad. how quickly will conditions subside?

the wind and smoke? spencer: there will be a decline in air quality for sure. i do not know how widespread it will be. it depends on when they can get the fire under control. as hurricane dora moves away, and it is moving due west, the effect on the wind across maui will diminish and that should be felt in the next 24 hours but the big high i showed you some of the high pressure system to the north of the islands is anchored there and the circulation will continue generating some gusts, but not as strong as now with combined circulation. kristen: looking at what has happened here, i know one summer does not tell the whole story but when you consider all the severe weather events that have been happening, miami has 114°

today on the ocean, phoenix, over 110 every day in july. europe is sizzling. what should we take from this? spencer: we are climatologists call the tipping point. for decades climate scientists have been telling us about global warming and predicting these extreme weather events that will become more frequent and of greater durations. all the extremes. storms, heat waves, droughts. the predictions are coming true and coming to fruition faster than predicted because we have not been doing what we need to do globally to reduce the emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere. it locks in the heat, the greenhouse effect creates global warming, and now we are stuck in

what many experts are calling and existential threat. kristen: spencer, thank you up next, the aware of back-to-school shopping scams. ♪ heatin' up the kitchen ♪ ♪ we got somethin different ♪ ♪ spreadin' good vibes all day ♪ ♪ todos a la mesa ♪ ♪ que buena la mezcla ♪ ♪ it don't get no better ♪ ♪ livin' in the golden state ♪ ♪ lovin' this land everyday ♪ ♪ norte a sur lo puedes ver ♪ ♪ nada se puede comparar ♪ ♪ livin' in the golden state ♪ ♪ vive en el estado dorado...yeah ♪

kristen: back-to-school season is in full swing. bay area as families are busy buying things kids need for the school year but the bbb warns that skimmers are also busy. it joining us is a spokesperson for the better business bureau. nice to see you. it is back-to-school. and skimmers are busy. what kinds of scams are you seeing now? >> right now we see imposter scams. we find replica websites of very well known name brands like

birkenstock. it's in our service area here in nevada and california and we have seen reported two different websites pretending to be birkenstock and many parents are trying to find the best deal at best available prices, especially for popular items like birkenstock. another popular shoe dude. those are new to me. when i was researching this it was interesting to see how authentic the websites look and if you are not careful you can be a victim of fraud. kristen: i think this is the fake site. can you talk about the pricing or url and what is different? dan: if you -- >>

that says birkenstock.us.co. the real one is birkenstock.com/u.s. unless you are really looking, you are going to think it is the real one. there were no grammatical errors or distorted images. it looks real. if you scroll to the bottom and click on contact us, you will find that the company is located in london. and birkenstock is headquartered in novato, california. and emailed looked real. it was -- and the email looked weird. when you receive a email, consumers are mentioning the product they purchased is going to another state than where they live.

a consumer from utah bought a pair of four $47 and the fake tracking number provided mention the product was going to some fake address in hawaii. a lot of the times we do not really consider the tracking number to be fake so we always want to make sure we are checking that. but the one red flag to be on the lookout is the price. i went on to birkenstock to at the prices. the cheapest sandal was $34. the most expensive was $260. so $19 for a pair of birkenstocks is extremely cheap. be aware of the product you are purchasing and make sure you understand the prices. kristen: these tips are so important and there are a few weather so we put together a graphic so viewers can easily

see. beware of deals that seem too good to be true. run us through the rest of the warnings. >> verify the website correct company. it is simple to create a website with a fake domain. it looks real. think before you click. especially with social media ads. 70% of shopping social media. kristen: we have someone falls victim to a scam, or suspected, how do they report? >> go to kristen: you can get breaking ws, weather, and more with

kristen: thanks so much for joining us for getting answers today. we will breaking news as we come on the air. maui in flames. the death toll