passenger. >> senators both democrats, sent letters to all major u.s. airlines demanding flight credits, especially those issued in the pandemic, never expire. >> the airlines should refund the price of their ticket. they are not doing that. the least they should do is extend the expiration of the ticket and the airlines don't want to do that. >> passenger levels are below 2019 level-ss and american airlines are losing $100 million a day. many airlines created voucher pauses exceeding the department of transportation's guidelines. and she said she will be flying a different airline moving forward. >> we will just, you know, make them suffer with using our monies at one of their competitors. >> now, airlines in the u.s. did

give about $13 billion in refunds last year, up 72% from 2019, but we are talking about, billions of dollars in vouchers. and estimated at least $10 billion in the flight vouchers and some of them are starting to expire and that's why the senators are saying the airline industry has to do better or they will look to write legislation to require it. >> you are watching the "cbs overnight news." oh, i've traveled all over the country. talking about saving with geico. but that's the important bit, innit? showing up, saying “hello! fancy a nice chat?” then we talk like two old friends about sticky buns and all the savings you could get by bundling your home and car insurance. but here's the real secret. eye contact.

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your smile will always be brilliant. crest 3d white brilliance. 100% stain removal, 24 hour stain resistance to lock in your whitest smile. crest. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. stacey abrams gained fame as a tireless defender of voting rights and has been mentioned as a possible future democratic presidential contender but she is also a prolific writer. where does she find the time? >> reporter: rising again, avery carefully folded the pages in her hand and crossed to the door. this time, when her hand closed on the brass handle, the rage was steady and cool. >> if you don't know the name, selina montgomery, here's a hint. it's the pen name of a best selling author who has written eight romance novels and now,

her first thriller. >> she had been a lot of things in her life, some legal will, some questionable. i don't remember not writing. as soon as i learned to read and write, i was hard at it and this book, while justice sleeps, bears her real name. stacey abrams. yes, that stacey abrams. i think people will be surprised if they didn't know i have written fiction before. and yet, it should not surprise anyone. that this 47-year-old yale educated tax lawyer, long time georgia politician an, and voting rights active visit could dream up a complicated plot that involves gene therapy, a corrupt american president and a clerk. how do you have time for the books and the research involved? >> i'm, so i'm the daughter of a

research librarian, i learned to dive in. think gs.>>r char is always a wop of color who is smart and gutsy, and cool under pressure. in short, stacey abrams. >> well, i try to emulate my characters. >> reporter: abrams grew up in mississippi sand georgia, her parents encouraged the six children to have eye goals and big dreams that sometimes ran in to hard reality. in 1991, abrams as validictorian of her high school class was invited to meet the governor of georgia. >> my parents and i arrived on the marta bus, because we didn't

have a car. we go up the driveway of the governor's mansion and we get to the guard gate and the guard stops us and said, we don't belong here, this is a private event. i remember watching him watch the bus pull off and -- >> were you mortified? >> of course, one they were not going to let me be denied the honor i had achieved and see my responsibility is to not let someone else tell me who i am and where i belong. >> reporter: she has never fr forgotten that lesson. she was the first female in 20 hopedo g b mon by running for governor. >> i don't want anyone to elect

me because i'm black. i don't want anybody to elect me because i'm a woman. but we need to elect me because i'm better. >> her opponent was brian kemp, at the time, the georgia secretary of state who ran the election. he won the governor's race by less than 2 percentage points. youe you admited that the new governor was elected but you did not concede. >> to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in the state baldly pin his hopes on the election on the suppression of the democratic right to votes that been appalling. >> according to the brennan center of justice, conform during his time in secretary of state, purged 1.5 million voters from election rolls.

he said that that he was eliminating ineligible voters to protect the integrity of the election. and abrams said by doing that, kemp stole the election. you mow peknow people are sayin is the difference between abrams not conceding the election, and trump not conceding two years later? >> words matter. what i have fought for consistently, and what they will admit, i have never filed a challenge to make myself the governor of georgia, i have fought to make certain that every vote was counted and everyone's opinion was included. >> reporter: were you upset? >> i did the stages of grief and i spent a lot of time in anger. that was my favorite stage, i came back several times. built a small condo. >> reporter: and then you may say she got even. she started fair fight, a voter registration group that is widely credited with helping president joe biden win the

state of georgia in the 2020 election and in a docrats. wcoine, oneter, protesters stormed the u.s. capitol, some carrying the confederate flag. >> that flag has always been a declaration of domestic terrorism against communities they thought were not worthy of being able to call themselves citizens. and so, yes, there's absolutely a through line from what we accomplished in georgia to what happened on january 6th. >> reporter: the wins were the impotus of new election laws pushed by republicans in state legislators which abrams said are denied to deny poor and older voters of color a voice in elections.

>> people say they take voting for granted. whent hink the hardship of m, e than 7 minutes in line, it's nearly impossible to imagine the poor black people that stand in line for eight hours. miss an entire day's wages, risk losing their jobs simply to cast a ballot, in an election that may or may not have any benefit in their lives. who loves dwa ga? >> reporter: ensuring that that right to vote, may some day help abrams achieve her greatest dream, running for president. >> do i hold it as a goal? absolutely. and more importantly when someone asks me if it's my ambition, i have a responsibility to say yes, for every young woman and person of color and young person of color who sees me and decides what they are capable of based on what i think i'm capable of. again, it's you cannot

ose ts you refuse to dream of. >> reporter: with georgia, florida and most recently texas passing laws that limit voting. abrams is expanding fair fight's efforts around the country. and she has a virtual book tour planned for her new novel and more books to write, which leaves little time for anything else. >> how do you have any time for a personal life? >> fair fight, fair count. writing -- >> reporter: you are making my point for me. you are making my point. >> here's my point. i would love to give priority to my personal life. i was dating somebody before the pandemic hit and it ended before thepandemic -- >> reporter: because you were too busy ?

>> that was a reason. hopefully there's another guy out there for whom those are not squalifiers. >>

for more than a year, the pandemic with the social distancing and stay-at-home orders have created a mountain of west. it's not just the plastic packaging from food delivery. a company in japan is going the extra mile to turn tons of discarded material in to the a r recycling oasis. >> reporter: this might look like just another serene patch of woodland with a pond full of

tadpoles and turtles and a flock of chickens but it belongs to an industrial waste treatment plan where garbage gets a new lease on life. it starts with truckloads of concrete, mountains of lumber, and other debris hauled in from building demolition sites. this is the guts of the operation. sorting and sorting down the trash until there's little left that has to be put in to a landfill. >> call it extreme sorting. trash is separated and sorted again and again and again. handling garbage this way is expensive and slow, but it's enabled the company to achieve a recycling rate of 98%. while staying in the black. our green initiatives have won us supporters and new customers. italwa so. back in the 1990s, the company

incinerated the trash and the residents threatened to drive the company out of town. unfortunately people look down on the industry, she said, when i was a child i was ashamed of my dad being a garbage man. so they have embraced recycling and so they have created carefully tended landscape that used to be an illegal trash dump. when it comes to garbage plants, homeowners usually say, not in my backyard. but sthey have built their own backyard, one that its neighbors can get behind. cbs news, japan. and that's the overnight news for this wednesday. for some of you, the news continues. for others check back later for cbs this morning and follow us online any time at cbs news.com. reporting from the nation's capitol, i'm jan crawford.

it's wednesday, may 12th, 2021. this is the "cbs morning news." panic buying. gas stations run dry as drivers scramble for fuel. how the government is trying to help out after a major pipeline cyber attack. breaking overnight, new explosions rock gaza and israel as fighting in the middle east escalates and the death toll rises. last stand. liz cheney gives a scathing speech ahead of her expected speech ahead of her expected removal from gop leadership. captioning funded by cbs good morning. good to be with you.