captioning sponsored by ♪ ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs >> axelrod: on the "cbs evening news" this wednesday, more than half a foot of rain and the worst is yet to come. new orleans and the gulf coast are now bracing for a possible hurricane. >> its crazy. i've never seen it this bad. >> the tropical disturbance already causing problems for new orleans. >> louisiana's governor has declared a state of emergency. >> this is going to be a very significant weather event. >> labor secretary alexander acosta is defending his role in a 2008 plea deal for jeffrey epstein. >> facts are being overlooked. >> axelrod: a new twist in the i.v.f. mix-up. a california couple sues after their baby was born to a stranger in new york. >> we just looked at each other and cried all day. >> axelrod: an american scientist is found dead in greece, and the coroner calls it

a criminal act. and a parade fit for the champions. >> it's my absolute honor to lead this team out on the field. there is no other place that i would rather be. >> axelrod: good evening. i'm jim axelrod. and this is our western edition. the storm that could become the year's first hurricane to hit the u.s. appears to be bearing down on the gulf coast tonight. late today hurricane watches were posted along the southern coast of louisiana, but the storm threat stretches from texas to florida. more than half a foot of rain fell on louisiana today, and there could be much more to come, up to another foot and a half by this weekend along with a surge of seawater. manuel bojorquez is in new orleans tonight. >> reporter: morning storms unleashed up to eight inches of rain within three hours over parts of new orleans, flooding neighborhoods as well as streets and businesses along the historic french quarter.

there was even a waterspout spotted on lake pontchartrain, and some were left to navigate streets by kayak. paula griffin snapped these photos before ditching her car in rising waters. how did you get out? >> i pushed my door open, and the water rushed in. >> reporter: how high was it? >> i walked in this high. >> reporter: so up to your waist? >> yeah. >> reporter: lauren morris didn't even make it into her dental office, which was flooded. >> it's gut wrenching. it's frustrating. you know, nobody wants to have to go through this, so not only myself, but the other businesses around here. >> reporter: the concern now turns to the tropical system in the gulf, which could dump up to 18 more inches of rain in louisiana over the weekend. latoya cantrell is the mayor of new orleans. >> it is still too soon to tell what the impact will be, but it is never too early to prepare. >> reporter: many of the area's levees were part of a $14 billion retrofit after hurricane katrina, but some have started to settle and may not provide

the intended protection. here in the lower ninth ward, the river is already swollen and is expected to reach 20 feet this weekend. that's the same height as some of the levees. jim? >> axelrod: manuel bojorquez on the hurricane watch for us tonight. thank you. let's move now to our chief weathercaster lonnie quinn of wcbs tv in new york. lonnie, what is this system looking like to you? >> it's looking like a big rain maker more so than a wind maker. the blue shows you where the moisture is. the red shows you the dry air is. the dry air is running out of time. it's just not being infused into this system. so the system is getting stronger. so now the question is: where is it going to go? take a look. we see it right now. it does not have name, it does not have a number, but we think by tomorrow this becomes tropical storm barry with 65, or, say, 45mph winds tomorrow and 65 on friday making landfall between texas and louisiana as a category 1 with 85mph winds, but it's really going to be about the rain and the storm surge with this system. now watch this. regardless of where the storm makes its landfall, stop it right there, okay.

here it is off shore. look at the flow around it, pushing all of that into the new orleans area. new orleans has already picked up four inches of rain. outside of new orleans they have already picked up seven inches of rain. the numbers are going to get way up there now. this white shaded area shows you a foot of rain, alright? right there around new orleans, that area in black, that is 18 inches of rain. and that doesn't even take into consideration, jim, the storm surge that comes with the flow on shore. so again, i think it's going to be more of a storm about the water than the wind. wind will be an issue, but i think the water is the big thing. >> axelrod: lonnie, thank you. now to labor secretary alex acosta, who is hanging tough tonight and rejecting calls to resign and insisting the plea deal he worked out with investor jeffrey epstein was the best he could get. epstein received an unusually lenient sentence in 2008 after being charged with molesting teenage girls. acosta was the u.s. attorney in south florida at the time. mola lenghi now on what acosta had to say today. >> he needed to go to jail. >> reporter: for almost an hour,

labor secretary alex acosta defended his actions as u.s. attorney in miami when he oversaw the controversial plea deal with convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein. >> we did what we did because we wanted to see epstein go to jail. >> reporter: acosta says the state charges would have meant epstein would get off, so acosta agreed to a federal plea, which led to a watered-down jail sentence of 13 months. >> there is a value to a sure guilty plea, because letting him walk, letting what the state attorney was ready to do, go forward, would have been absolutely awful. >> reporter: epstein's alleged victims were not informed of the plea or even consulted. a federal judge has since ruled the deal violated the rights of the victims. on monday the 66-year-old multimillionaire pleaded not guilty in new york to new federal charges of sex trafficking dozens of minor girls. court papers say unnamed epstein

associates recruited them to his homes in palm beach and new york. this week more women have come forward saying epstein abused them. jennifer araoz told nbc she was 15 when she was assaulted at epstein's manhattan town house in the early 2000s. >> did jeffrey epstein rape you? >> yeah, he raped me, forcefully raped me. >> reporter: today acosta was asked if he owed the victims an apology. >> these victims were traumatized. we can't begin to understand what they went through. and they look at this and they say, "but why?" and so you always look back and you say, "what if?" >> reporter: acosta's answers did not satisfy those calling for him to step down. >> nothing in secretary acosta's attempts to justify his misconduct changes the verdict. he must go. he must resign. >> reporter: cbs news has learned that president trump himself encouraged acosta to publicly defend his actions.

we've also just learned that more women claiming to be epstein's victims have contacted the f.b.i., jim, since monday. >> axelrod: so much to continue to track here. thank you, mola. tonight cbs news can confirm the department of homeland security is investigating a claim being made by a 15-year-old girl from honduras that she was molested by a border patrol agent at a facility in yuma, arizona. and we have learned a guatemalan woman whose child died in ice custody is suing the federal government. omar villafranca reports she told her story to congress today. >> ( translated ): there are days i just want to give up. it's been so painful for me to see so many children and not my little girl. >> reporter: 21-year-old yazmin juarez broke down while talking about the death of her one-year- old daughter mariee. juarez and the little girl came to the u.s. last year from guatemala to seek asylum. juarez told the house subcommittee that the ice

detention center in dilley, texas, where she was taken, was crowded with adults and children forced to sleep in a cold room with hard concrete floors. juarez says her daughter got sick there. >> ( translated ): the world should know what is happening to so many children inside these ice detention facilities. >> reporter: medical records obtained by cbs news show that on march 5, 2018, a nurse in dilley, texas, examined the little girl and found that she was healthy when she arrived. last year juarez described the conditions at the facility to "60 minutes." >> ( translated ): there were too many people, too many children, and they put us in, like, cages. >> reporter: and over the next 20 days, the girl did get sick. once juarez and her daughter were cleared to leave government custody, they joined family in new jersey. upon landing, the young mother took her daughter to the e.r., but her condition got worse. the little girl spent six weeks

in the hospital and was put on a ventilator. members of congress, as well as those in the gallery, wept as juarez talked about the day mariee died, which happened to be mother's day in her home country of guatemala. >> ( translated ): when i walked out of the hospital that day, all i had with me was a piece of paper that the doctors made with mariee's hand print. that's all i had left, her hand prints. >> reporter: juarez has filed a wrongful death and negligence claim against the u.s. government saying that facility in dilley was unsanitary and that her daughter received inadequate care. an ice spokesperson told us they can't comment on pending litigation. jim? >> axelrod: emotional testimony on capitol hill today. omar, thank you. the british ambassador to the united states resigned today after getting iced out by president trump for speaking his mind in diplomatic cables. now, the ambassador thought they were confidential, but they were

leaked. margaret brennan has more on this. >> reporter: sir kim darroch's resignation came after days of unrelenting criticism by president trump, who said he would no longer work with the british ambassador. in a statement, darroch said, "the current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as i would like." prime minister theresa may said she regretted that decision and hoped it won't prevent other diplomats from being candid. >> good government depends on public servants being able to give full and frank advice. >> reporter: in one of the diplomatic cables leaked to "the mail," darroch said the administration was clumsy and inept and doubted they will ever look competent, but warned london, do not write him off, referencing mr. trump's ability the survive scandal. the president fired back on sunday. >> reporter: and he continued to lash out on twitter, calling

darroch "wacky" and "a very stupid guy." the white house disinvited darroch from a high profile event this week, and british officials grew concerned the president might actually cut off all u.s. government contact with their top diplomat in washington. while the current british government gave a full-throated defense of darroch, the front- runner to become the next prime minister did not. >> i, and i alone, will decide who takes important and politically sensitive jobs such as the u.k. ambassador to the u.s. >> axelrod: margaret brennan joins us now. margaret, this kind of diplomatic dust-up, uncommon, extraordinary? how would you characterize it? >> extremely unusual. i mean, keep in mind, darroch is experienced, and he's really well connected here in washington. so it's important because what he said about the trump administration was based on what he had learned himself from u.s. officials and friends of the president. so, in short, he was doing the

job all ambassadors are asked to do, which is to act as the eyes and ears for their government and candidly report back. the u.k. is investigating how the leak happened, but because president trump took this personally and since it also became a political football in the u.k., ambassador darroch decided he just couldn't do the job any longer. >> axelrod: margaret brennan, thanks for your insight. there was quite a parade today through the canyon of heroes in lower manhattan. fresh off their world cup victory in france, the u.s. women's soccer team is using the bright lights and big stage to focus attention on women's equality. here's jericka duncan. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: it was déjà vu for the u.s. women's national team. >> u-s-a, u-s-a! >> reporter: but this new york city ticker tape parade was different than 2015, the signs, the chants... >> equal pay! equal pay! >> reporter: ...and the comments of fans centered around the fight for equal pay. >> my hope is that this isn't

one moment in time. >> megan rapinoe! >> reporter: outspoken forward megan rapinoe, who was honored as the top player and top goal scorer, addressed the topic this week. >> i think everybody realizes at this point, you know, all the top brass included, that it's time for that change. >> reporter: the 23 women who make up the national team say their fight is about helping the next generation of female athletes. what lessons do you learn by watching them? >> teamwork. >> reporter: with young girls like that looking up to her, rapinoe made calls for unity and inclusion. >> we have pink hair and purple hair. we got white girls and black girls. and everything in between. straight girls and gay girls. ( cheering and applause ) hey! we have to be better. we have to love more, hate less. >> reporter: a winning goal for all americans. jericka duncan, cbs news, new york.

>> axelrod: up next on the "cbs evening news," we'll hear from a california couple at the center of a fertility fiasco. >> for nine months a mother bonds with a child, but i was robbed of that. >> axelrod: and that was just the start of their troubles. and later, a mystery: who killed an american scientist who was visiting greece? s visiting greece? honey have you seen my glasses? i've always had a knack for finding things... colon cancer, to be exact. and i find it noninvasively... no need for time off or special prep. it all starts here... you collect your sample, and cologuard uses the dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers. you can always count on me to know where to look. oh, i found them! i can do this test now! ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers.

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on select ford models, plus earn complimentary maintenance through fordpass rewards. i wanted to consolidate my credit cards in to a personal loan to pay them off faster. lending tree made lenders compete for my business and i ended up with a loan that saved me over $9000 and no more credit card debt. i mean $9000! >> axelrod: earlier this week we told you about a huge mix-up at a fertility clinic in california. tonight we're hearing from one of the couples caught up in this heartbreaking mistake. imagine their shock when they learned their son had actually been born to a stranger across the country. today they told jamie yuccas they're suing. >> reporter: this video of a father and son is new, even though this baby was born almost three months ago. >> all those memories... they're never going to come back. >> reporter: california couple

anni and ashot manukyan's songew york after cha fertility center mistakenly implanted their embryo, as well as the embryo of another couple, into that same new york woman without anybody's knowledge. do you feel you were robbed? >> oh, yes, every day. i didn't get to hold him. i didn't get to have him inside of me. i didn't get to feel him kick. >> reporter: two babies were born march 31st to an asian couple who thought they had twins. >> reporter: they knew the day the babies were born because they had apparently called cha and told them, we're asian and these children are white, they're caucasian. these children are definitely not ours. >> reporter: the manukyans say a few days later they were asked by the fertility clinic to take a d.n.a. test. the next day they learned the stunning news. >> she said, think of it as a good thing. you have a son now. and i just burst out, like i just lashed out, "what about the

woman," you know, "what, is she going through right now?" >> reporter: you feel for them, though? >> of course. thank god we got our child back, but she ended up with nothing. >> reporter: it took another month and a legal battle before the manukyans could bring their son home. >> it was hard. not knowing where your child is. we just sat there and just looked at each other and cried all day. because we didn't know if we're ever going to see him. >> reporter: their attorney, adam wolf, has filed a lawsuit. >> i can't see how they could ever trust cha again. i can't see how anybody can trust cha again. this is just a failure of epic proportions. >> reporter: cha has not responded to our repeated requests for a comment. as for baby alec, he's bonding with his parents. how does he seem to be doing with the two of you? >> he's doing great. he's smiling. he's rolling over. >> reporter: jamie yuccas, cbs news, los angeles. >> axelrod: coming up, a serious cash grab on a highway. where did all that money go?

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>> axelrod: greek police said today the death of an american scientist on a trip there is being treated as a "criminal act." an official tells cbs news 59- year-old suzanne eaton was suffocated. her body was found monday in a cave on the island of crete. eaton, a biologist, had been there for a conference. it was raining cash in atlanta. the door of an armored truck popped open last night on i-285. at least 15 people grabbed what they could, about $175,000 in all. the police are warning they do have license plates on video and they want the money returned. they promise no questions asked. and the actor rip torn has died. during a career that lasted more than 60 years, torn won an emmy as the executive producer on "the larry sanders show" and was also agent zed in the "men in black" movies. elmore torn adopted the first

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>> axelrod: today marked the end of the road for one of the world's most iconic cars, and who better to celebrate the beetle than long-time v.w. owner don dahler. >> reporter: it wasn't just any car that rolled off the assembly line in puebla, mexico, today, it was the last of its kind. the beetle is an unlikely automotive classic, spanning eight decades with sales totaling more than $23 million. it was conceived by adolf hitler and designed by ferdinand porsche as the volkswagen or people's car to reinvigorate nazi germany's economy and make the country mobile. the type-1, its official name, became famous for its durability, ease of maintenance, and, well, there's no other way to put it, cuteness. this is a beauty. >> yeah, 1962 convertible. >> reporter: chris vallone of congress, new york, runs perhaps the last shop in the world dedicated solely to restoring bugs. what is it about the bug that appealed to you?

>> that happy look on its face. it's got a face when you look at it, right? it's got the little smile, that bumper there. >> reporter: in the '60s the beetle became a symbol for the counter-culture. over the years volkswagen embraced the car's quirkiness in a series of ads touting its diminutive size. with only two redesigns in its lifetime, unheard of in the car industry, the beetle never lost its personality, starring in movies and even recent tv shows. >> but look at that turn signal. >> holy mackerel! >> reporter: the end of the beetle marks a turning point for volkswagen, which now sees its future in electric cars. so for many who grew up loving this car, including me-- i still own the '67 bug my parents bought new-- it is with a sense of melancholy to say they just don't make 'em like that anymore. don dahler, cbs news, new york. >> axelrod: and that's the "cbs evening news." i'm jim axelrod. see you back

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