>> reporter: an hour north, julie taylor mills has conner haved her property into a mini animal sanctuary. the rescue group wires receives up to a thousand help requests a day, treating severely burned brush tail possums, kangaroos with burned feet, koalas in need of care, and fine foxes pushed out of their habitat. what do we have here? >> this is a redneck wallaby. >> reporter: mills is carrying for two wallabies and a pair of joeys just arrived today. what would you want americans to know about what's going on over here? >> this is climate change, and it has just hit us like a freight train. the drought is underpinned by the fundamentally changing climate. >> reporter: the volunteers say it doesn't matter to them how the fires started, whether it was a lightning strike or arson. they've been calling for a climate change action plan for years amid the country's three-year drought. the u.s. army insists it has no idea who has been sending out text messages, telling people they've been drafted and to

immediately report for duty. the messages say the recipients will be headed to iran and threaten them with jail time if they don't contact their local recruitment office. they even include the name of the recruiter. of course, these texts are fake and could be part of a more elaborate scam. catherine herridge has the stor >> reporter: the army is investigating the texts. they appear to start on monday. they don't have a source or motive, but the scam seems designed to capitalize on the conflict with iran. imagine getting a text that threatens jail time. if you fail to report to a recruitment center to be drafted into the u.s. military. >> got me really nervous because i'm still in high school. >> reporter: 18-year-old george barnes received this text that read "you've been marked eligible and must report to the nearest branch for immediate departure to iran." except military drafts ended after the vietnam war. >> have a completely volunteer

armed force. >> reporter: and were abolished by congress in 1973, making the u.s. military volunteer only. the texts have been received in states across the u.s. and don't seem to be targeting a certain age or gender. and come after the deployment of more than 3,000 additional troops to the middle east following last week's u.s. strike in baghdad that killed iran's most important general. >> i was just really in a little bit of disbelief that people out there would take advantage of the situation that's going on in the world right now. >> reporter: commander david henning is an army recruiter in jacksonville, florida, where at least 50 cases have been confirmed by cbs news. he was listed as a contact on some of those messages. >> it would take an act of congress with presidential approval in a really global international emergency to necessitate a draft. and they should just disregard the text message. >> reporter: the army said it's not contacting anyone regarding

the draft, and the texts are not official communications. >> this is a trap. they're trying get you to respond, and then at some point when they've got you in a more compromised position, they'll request money. >> reporter: wired editor-in-chief nicholas thompson says it's a scam designed to make people panic during a tense time and not to fall for it. >> there is no doubt in my mind that it's a bunch of people who have run a bunch of other scams and know how this works and how the psychology works, and they're sitting there saying, hey, what's the issue with the most emotional intensity right now? oh, it's the killing of soleimani. let's get in on that. >> reporter: there is no evidence yet that anyone's been compromised, hacked or had anything stolen. the army told cbs news to all of the sudden go to an official website for information and not to click on any links and to delete the messages. >> the "cbs overnight news" will be right back.

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here is jeff glor. ♪ rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey i cry ♪ >> reporter: the original rise of rye coincide was the rise of america. a spirit born out of rebellion against british rule. >> back in the colonial days, rum ruled. >> reporter: britain in the 1700s was fueled in part by the production and taxation of rum until the american revolution. >> i mean, this building is so historic. >> i know, i love it. >> reporter: ryan schta is the head brewer. it became the first distillery to open in new york city. >> from a bank to a booze factory? >> yes. >> once we had that separation from the british, all things british went out of fashion, rum being one of them. >> reporter: and this is when america really stamped itself with rye? >> yes. >> reporter: americans in the

early days of the republic drank a lot. an estimated 14 to 20,000 distilleries were operating in the united states. the average american consumed almost two bottles of spirits a week. even our first president, george washington got in the game, at one point becoming the largest distiller of rye whiskey in the country. rye was dominant for more than a century. it wasn't until prohibition that distilling dried up. >> american rye tends to be shorter and has its own distinctive flavor. >> reporter: alan katz is an expert on american cocktail culture. >> world war i, post world war i into prohibition, rye whiey std far. butll ptld w ii in a classic s of markeng rules all,onehe prefd spirit future a cultured set of people, and rye

whiskey was thought of more blue collar and it wasn't the cocktail sensibility of the 19th century number. >> reporter: rye continued to sit in the cellar of america's appetite for more than two decades. clay ricen has written two books about whiskey. the third will be exclusively about rye. >> this has been a fast pickup of how quickly rye has returned. >> absolutely.% in the last ten years you've seen rye jump 1,098%. >> reporter: from 2009, revenue from rye tolled $15 million. by 2018, that had risen to $205 million. so why is rye returning so strongly? >> the first thing is really the success of bartender culture in driving consumer tastes. so early on, you saw a lot of bartenders going back to preprohibition recipes, finding a lot of things that were rye-driven. and consumers jumped at it. so that was one thing. and i think the other is there

is a lot of curiosity out there these days. people want to try different whiskeys. there is no brand loyalty. there is no style loyalty. something like rye comes along and people say that sounds great. i want to try something new. >> immediately you smell it. it just smells spicier and cleaner. >> reporter: at kings county and new york distilling, we sampled a number of different ryes. let's give it a shot. >> all right. >> cheers. happy new year. >> reporter: happy new year. at different stages in the process. >> this is a glass that allows you to take samples pretty efficiently. >> reporter: that's good stuff right there. so this has been sitting in the barrel for how long? >> this has been sitting in the barrel for about three and a half years? >> and now it's breakfast. >> it could be breakfast. this went into the barrel at 115 proof, and it's probably on just either side of that. >> reporter: it's pretty good. very good. >> we're really in the platinum age of american cocktail culture, coast-to-coast and everywhere in between because people are taking the time to pay attention to their ingredients and how they're

using them in mixed drinks. >> reporter: if people are reluctant to try rye or intimidated when they hear about it, what do you say? >> first of all what i recommend is they go for something that is what you would call a relatively low rye. so something like jim beam basic rye. something like wild turkey. i also recommend that people try it in a drink first. >> reporter: drinks like the old-fashioned. >> one of my absolute favorite cocktails. >> reporter: or the man hasn'hu >> and you can't really forget a classic manhunt recipe. it's two ounces in our case of rye whiskey, half an ounce of sweet vermouth, and a little bit of bitters. bitters adds another dimension, almost a fourth dimension to cocktails. i'm going add two dashes there. and we'll give it a nice stir. not only chilling it, but we're diluting it because we would like you to have more than one cocktail. >> reporter: and i smell the bitters. >> it's the last ingredient. it's really sitting up on top of

the ice a little bit. you can't really overstairwell made manhattan. and we'll put it in a chilled cocktail glass. >> scrumptious. scrumptious. >> cheers! ♪ rye whiskey >> reporter: producers like katz and ryan believe rye is in the midst of reclaiming its rightful place as america's historic spirit. as any spirit has the roller coaster ride that rye has? >> i'm not sure any has. that's a great analogy, roller coaster ride. and i hope that coaster is seemingly soaring and is never going to fall again. ♪ i'll drink this rye whiskey until i'm laid in my grave ♪

seems like half of great britain is up in arms over prince harry and his wife meghan to leave the royal family. the other half of britain not so much. but the tabloids are having a field day. they're calling it mexit, like it's meghan's fault. mark strassmann has the latest from buckingham palace. >> reporter: meghan and harry were known to be unhappy. now everybody. they had been discussing how to distance themselves from the royal whirlwind, but went ahead and issued their statement on their own, and without clearing it with the upper reaches of the royal food chain, particularly the queen. "we intend to step back as senior members of the royal family" their statement said. "we now plan to balance our time between the united kingdom and north america." the palace counters,

"discussions are at an early stage," the royal family said. "these are complicated issues." code for not so fast, kids. this is not how we do things around here. for meghan and harry, it was like a declaration of independence. they were just back in london after a carefree six-week holiday escape in canada. family time with young archie away from the palace pressure cooker. they went to the canadian embassy in london to say thanks. >> my goodness, it was such an incredible time that we were able to have here. >> reporter: and they wanted more. it's been a stormy time for the couple since that sunny wedding day 20 months ago. meghan may have been a tv star used to the public glare, but as her friends had warned her, nothing prepared an american, especially one with a biracial background for the kind of scrutiny she would endure. >> my british friends said to me i'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it because the british tabloids will destroy

your life. >> reporter: harry, who had lived through his mother princess diana's battles with the tabloid press, became increasingly defensive. >> i will always protect my family. and now i have a fily t protect. >> reporter: it's been described by royal watchers like roya nikkhah as a palace civil war. >> i think harry and meghan going their own way on it have really, really put the cat amongst the pigeons and have caused perhaps an irreparable rift with members of the royal family, including the queen. >> reporter: it hasn't taken long for harry and meghan to go from being a breath of fresh air the royals desperately needed to becoming a storm that threatens to blow the roof off the house of windsor. so from brexit to mexi is the way it's being described here. but this sun charted territory. how will it work? the couple say they want to be financially independent. will she go back to work? will he? what can he do? it is uncharted territory and nobody knows. >> and that's the "overnight news" for this friday. for some of you, the news continues.

for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news and of course "cbs this morning" >> it's friday, january 10th, 2020.'s friday, january 10th, this is the "cbs morning news". shot down, u.s. claims iranian missiles brought down a passenger jet killing 176 people. iran denies it but federal officials point to evidence found near the crash scene. iran policy, power struggle. the house votes to limit the president's military action after the u.s. killed a top iranian general but president trump not backing down. we had to make a decision. we didn't have time to call-up nancy. >> and royal drama. the new fallout that prince harry and meghan markle face now that they announced their plan to step back from their royal duties. meghan markle face now that they announced their plan