wear traditional vietnamese clothing. hop on a vespa, even try the famous lion dance. >> it's fun to see what vietnam is like. that plane ticket is much more expensive. and then come in to the children's discovery museum. >> the exhibit is open through the end of the year. >> this is like the new year. another new year celebration for that culture. >> it looks like fun. >> all right, pretty good weather. >> it will be great. we can't complain. sunny and warmer tomorrow. >> all right, that's it for us. we will see you back here at 6:00 for an hour of news. >> local news continues streaming on cbs news bay area. tonight, trapped in the desert. heavy rain and mud leave thousands stranded at nevada's burning man festival. one death under investigation.

organizers tell attendees to conserve food and water, it could be days before roads are passable. >> can you set the mood as far as what it's like right there right now? >> there are people here who are really struggling and who are just itching and aching to get out. also tonight, september sizzle. much of the country is in for a new round of potentially record-breaking heat. we'll have your labor day forecast. plus, manhunt update. a convicted murderer in pennsylvania spotted on this security camera less than two miles from the prison where he escaped. tonight, a warning from police. nationwide recall. the popular brand of meat products being pulled from store shelves. what you need to know. record card of many of america's children are playing catch-up in school. tonight the post-pandemic challenges for educators, parents and students. and later, perfectly imperfect. a lesson for humans from pets

commanding our attention. >> she's as happy as can be. so nobody has to feel sorry for him. >> announcer: this is the "cbs weekend news." from new york, with jericka duncan. good evening and thank you so much for joining us. tonight millions are under flood alerts as life-threatening monsoons swamp the southwest. in nevada police are investigating a death at the popular burning man festival. thousands are still stranded in the mud-soaked black rock city where two months' worth of rain fell in just two days. organizers are warning people still in the desert area to conserve water and fuel. and in san bernardino, california several roads there are impassable, even for big rigs like these, after storms swept through that area. cbs's elise preston starts us off tonight from california. elise? >> reporter: jericka, the burning man festival is a celebration of art and creativity that has every year.

but heavy rain swamped the event, leaving many stuck and sheltering in place. tens of thousands stranded at the burning man festival, forced to hunker down in the nevada desert as authorities tell them to conserve food and water. >> we are not allowed out of the playa. the gates are locked. we're okay. we have enough tuna for a week. >> reporter: as crews work to clear a safe path out of the makeshift town, cell phone equipment is being brought in to help those who got stuck after heavy rain trapped them in flooded camp sites. >> this is my front door. these are my very, very muddy boots. >> reporter: justin schuman is one of the many trudging through the mud. he's on his tenth day at burning man. can you describe the mud? >> it was really, really wet and really, really slick. but it's also very alkaline. so you do have to be careful for no prolonged exposure of your skin to the mud because it

apparently actually can start to really gently burn your skin. >> reporter: schuman and his friends have enough supplies to make it through a few more days and are sharing whatever they can with others. >> what i have seen personally is resilience. i've seen a huge amount of people coming together. i have seen strangers hugging strangers. i have seen people gifting things to others. >> reporter: more rain could hit the southwest deserts. thunderstorms already caused flash flooding in arizona, las vegas, near the california-arizona border. now, some burning man festivalgoers are trying to slog their way out in pickup trucks and rvs. organizers say if they can clear the way tomorrow that traffic jam could be longer than 12 hours. jericka? >> elise preston for us. thank you. well, the flooding in the southwest is just one example of the extreme weather this holiday weekend. let's check in with meteorologist lynette charles from our partners at the weather channel. lynette, good evening. >> good evening, jericka.

we are talking about the monsoon thunderstorms back off toward the west here, and with all that rain we do have some flood watches up for all these areas here shaded in the green coloring. we're also watching the tropics. yes, from the monsoons to the tropics it is brewing. and we are watching invest 95l. this has a few days to really get its act together. but again, we're going to continue to monitor that for you as well. and then we do have potential record highs across much of the nation as we head through the mid-week. so again, the heat is going to be quite dangerous in places like the mid-atlantic, down off toward the south as well. make sure everybody stays safe. jericka? >> lynette charles, thank you. the man who escaped from a prison in the suburbs of philadelphia has been spotted on camera. danelo cavalcante broke out from the chester county prison on thursday. yesterday he was spotted here on security cameras about a mile and a half from the prison. people in that area have been advised to remain indoors while the search is under way.

last month he was convicted of first-degree murder for the ftal stabbing of his former girlfriend, debra brandeo, 38 times in front of her two young children. well, turning now to politics, lawmakers are worried fema and other federal agencies could run out of money by the end of this month. cbs's skyler henry is on capitol hill tonight with more on what's being done to provide funding that? lawmakers say is crucial. skyler, good evening. >> reporter: hey, jericka, good to see you. well, cox has that end of the month deadline to fund federal agencies including securing money for disaster relief as both time and resources are running out. in florida over the weekend president biden called on lawmakers to guarantee more funding to assist disaster response work. >> i'm confident because i can't imagine the congress saying we're not going to help. there are going to be fights about things that don't relate to this, trying to connect this to other money or not.

>> reporter: but the fight over spending will continue as congress returns to capitol hill, looking to avoid what could be a partial government shutdown when the current fiscal year wraps up at the end of september. the white house wants a stopgap funding bill passed to temporarily keep the lights on at federal agencies. >> speaker mccarthy should have the independence to be able to make and negotiate with his team on that side and to bring together enough votes to pass it. what we do know is a government shutdown is not good for anybody. >> reporter: several house republicans insist there's a need for a slew of cuts in order for them to support a series of bills that would prevent a spending freeze. the most conservative are also putting pressure on speaker kevin mccarthy, pushing for an impeachment inquiry into president biden and his possible ties to his son hunter's business dealings. >> if funding is stalled, if there is a government shutdown, that would stop all of these investigations. that's absolutely the wrong

thing. >> reporter: now, to be clear, house committee chairmen have not uncovered any evidence showing that president biden benefited financially from his son hunter's businesses. as for the president, he heads to india this week to take part in the g20 summit where he will meet with other world leaders to discuss a range of issues including the global economy, climate change and ending poverty. jericka? >> skyler henry reporting tonight from capitol hill. thank you. now to the war in ukraine. today several people were hurt after russia launched a drone attack in ukraine's odesa region. it comes a day before president putin is set to meet with turkey's president. they're expected to resume talks about a deal that could ease a growing food shortage impacting ukraine and other countries. cbs's debora patta is in kharkiv where rows of graves are growing by the day as fighting intensifies. >> reporter: these young boys have come to bury their father. yevgeny hutznik who died

fighting in donetsk ten days ago. their grief is still so raw. it is hard to let go. his casket is lowered into the ground alongside other fallen soldiers from kharkiv, the piece of land carved out for them at the cemetery just keeps on growing. in the short space of time that we've been here two new bodies were brought to be buried, and that's an almost daily occurrence here. ukraine never released figures of their losses, but in the three months since their counteroffensive kicked off there's been a sharp increase. oxana's husband was taken out by an airstrike. "it's hard to accept he's gone," she sasays. "it's only when i am here that it sinks in. i feel as if he's still alive somewhere on a mission." she was married to pavlo for five years.

they agreed if he was killed in action s she'd take his place. now she's fighting in bakhmut. hunting h here for a russian anti-tank unit. this is just one mortuary near the front line where unknown soldiers are brought straight from the battlefield. it is margo's job to help put names to the fallen until one day it was personal. "the worst day was when they brought m my husband here," she said. "it was the hardest day of my life." the trail of death passing through these doors seems neverending. and every day young children are learning that war is not some distant historical event, it's right on their doorstep. and they are living through it in the worst possible way. debora patta, cbs news, kharkiv. pope francis today became the first pontiff to celebrate a mass in mongolia.

the pope presided over a ceremony attended by most of the central asian nation's 1500 catholics. pope francis used the occasion to urge mongolia's neighbor china to relax restrictions on religious activity. well, as we celebrate labor day, here's a new term to consider. companies are experiencing what some are calling the great gloom. according to a recent poll, employee happiness dropped 16% since the height of the pandemic and this summer many workers hit the picket lines to express their dissatisfaction. cbs's astrid martinez has the very latest. >> what do we want? when do we want it? >> now! >> reporter: if 2023 is the summer of strikes, then we're now in the dog days. in the latest move by lalaborer onee of america's biggest union is ready to walk off the job. automakers gm, ford and stellantis have less than two

weeks to strike a deal with workers. >> there's no excuse at the end of this if we get to the 14th and they haven't delivered we've got to do what we've got to do. >> reporter: the union is demanding significant pay raises to match the pay increases of corporate executives. >> when we go through these negotiation seasons, the reality is this. we're still wanting. >> reporter: in response gm released a two-minute video saying if the contract expires both sides can agree to extend the current contract to allow more time for negotiations. an option rejected by the union's president. in hollywood the writers' strike is entering its fifth month. the dual protest along with screen actors is costing california's economy an estimated $3 billion. and oregon health and sciences university says it will keep working toward a new contract with nurses after they voted to authorize a strike of their own. >> you have an institution that wants to honor you and treat you like you're the best thing in the world, and then turn around and tell you but you're not worth it in wages.

>> reporter: here in new york city bus drivers with the nation's largest school district say they won't go on strike during the first few weeks of classes but they're still awaiting a long-term deal. jericka? >> so much to sort out. thank you. astrid martinez. straight ahead on the "cbs weekend news," the post-pandemic wake-up call for schools across america. plus the popular meat product being recalled. and cooking up an alternative to a popular oil rooted in controversy.

as schools reopen many teachers are finding themselves playing catch-up before the first bell even rings. cbs's mark strassmann explains how the pandemic is impacting learning across this country. >> reporter: across america the three-year pandemic erased decades of incremental gains in public schools and widened gaps between top and bottom performers. >> i hope that results like

these are that wake-up call. right? my kids, our kids weren't in school. >> reporter: harvard professor andrew ho is talking about widespread learning losses. in one study today's third through eighth-graders need roughly four months more instruction in math and reading to catch up to pre-pandemic students. >> the declines that we saw because of the pandemic won't just automatically undo themselves. >> reporter: another post-pandemic issue, a doubling of chronic absenteeism in some states. after years of remote learning millions of parents and kids see little point in going to school. of particular concern -- >> how to make sure that extra inequality that the pandemic caused doesn't become permanent. for many schools it's shaping up as a daunting exercise in catching up. pressure on teachers, pressure on schools. because there's no way kids can learn if there's no one to teach them. >> we are starting the school

year with classrooms that do not assigned teachers. it is a very real crisis. >> they post a job and no one will apply. >> reporter: in 2021 the biden administration gave school districts another $122 billion. 20% of that was earmarked for helping students recover academically. among the spending, in-person and online tutoring. but experts say real gains will only come by working harder, faster, longer. >> the challenge right now is how to make that more appealing and to give the public a sense of urgency that we don't seem to currently have. >> reporter: a tough report card for america's kids. mark strassmann, cbs news, atlanta. still ahead on the "cbs weekend news," t the crew gegea up for a an out of t this world retuturn.

separation is confirmed. >> today a spacex crew began their journey back home.

the spacex dragon undocked from the iss this morning. it spent six months at the space station and is expected to splash down overnight off the coast of florida in the atlantic ocean. well, we have a recall alert this labor day weekend. hillshire farms is recalling more than 15,000 pounds of its ready to eat pork, turkey and beef smoked sausage. the company says the products, which were shipped to seven states including california and new york, could contain bone fragments. flamingos have a flamboyant return to florida. locals spotted as many as 70 of them on florida's west coast. some scientists believe the birds were traveling from mexico to cuba when hurricane idalia blew them off course. florida's wildlife officials say flamingos were once native to the state. however, they started to disappear in the 1920s. next on the "cbs weekend news," the company on a mission to solve a probem you may not even know exists.

here's something you probably didn't know. palm oil is the most popular vegetable oil on the planet. nearly 2 million tons were consumed in the u.s. alone last year. but harvesting palm oil can have detrimental effects on our environment. cbs's nancy chen shows us one company offering a sustainable alternative. >> reporter: what scientists are brewing up inside this new york city lab could dramatically change the products you use every day. >> yeast is really the heart of what you're doing. >> yeast is everything. >> reporter: char tique,

co-founder of 16 bio sciences took us inside the lab where they're growing an alternative to palm oil. >> palm oil is responsible for making hand soaps foam and cleanse. it makes the color stay on your lipstick and on your lips. and it helps create a smooth spreadable emulsion in peanut butter. >> reporter: but it can be as destructive as it is versatile. the world wildlife foundation says large-scale palm oil harvesting destroys rainforests and pollutes communities. still, it's found in half of all products on supermarket shelves. in a statement to cbs news a trade group for the palm oil industry says, "curbing the immediate impacts of palm oil production will require solutions that are already scalable." c-16 bio sciences won't give specifics but says it produces metric tons of palm oil every week. now it's partnering with beauty companies and hoping to expand to food. granat wagner is a climate economist.

could the solution to this be found in a lab? >> big question of course, is this sort of approach the one that will in fact be scalable and that doesn't have its own negative broader environmental, societal costs. >> reporter: for tique the proof is in the process. >> our process today takes about six days from when we start the process until we extract the oil. if you plant that today, it takes seven years. >> reporter: seven years to six days, that's a huge speedup of this process. >> that's the power of biology. >> reporter: a power growing in potential. nancy chen, cbs news, new york. when we return, unleashing positivity. the picnic celelebrating u uniq pups.

finally tonight, finding a loving home is often no walk in the park for shelter dogs, especially those with disabilities. but being different is paying

off for a group of resilient rovers. here's cbs's janet shamlian. >> reporter: with an impressive turnout, this san francisco dog picnic is just about perfect. even if the dogs themselves are not. take a closer look. trip, scruffy, rocco, slow-mo and luna bean to name a few, are often referred to as tripods, dogs who on three legs live their best lives. >> even though they're three-legged, they do everything we do. love to run, jump and play. >> reporter: the annual three-legged picnic is a celebration of uniqueness and inclusiveness. deaf and blind pups are welcome. even like this good boy, the mer merely tricurious. >> so many fans in our neighborhood. everyone wants to know about him. >> reporter: they may never win a fancy dog show award. >> he's as happy as can be. so nobody has to feel sorry for him. >> reporter: but in a world

where people are often excluded for shortcomings, perceived or otherwise, maybe we can all take a cue from these perfectly imperfect best friends. >> he means everything to us and he inspires us to be far more positive than we would be otherwise. >> reporter: janet shamlian, cbs news. >> good job. >> that's what i call a perfect ending. that's the "cbs weekend news" for this sunday. i'm jericka duncan in new york. from all of us here thank you for watching. good night. now at 6:00, a long-time farmers' market forced to change locations in the name of cleaning up a part of the city, but day one came with some growing pains. this kind of change was

drastic to us. >> i had a hunch that it was going to be problems and it was. plus the first part of the holiday weekend, feeling a lot like fall. we'll tell you what you need to know about your labor day plans. it's all about surviving through this time. labor day travel reaching prepandemic levels nationwide. but local businesses don't appear to be getting a bump. live from the cbs2 studios in san francisco, i'm brian hackney. >> i'm andrea nakano. we start in the city where major changes are happening at the u.n. plaza to clean up the open air drug market. >> but to do it, they moved the popular farmers' market that had existed at the same site for more than 42 years. john ramos reports on the big transition. >> reporter: when the city announced it was moving the farmers' market, a lot of outrage and dire predictions, so we came out to find out how things went on the first day in the new location. with united nations plaza