want to make sure you're blending it in to look as natural as possible. this is the final look. i'm so obsessed. it looks so natural, like i used actual blush. if you're ever without blush, now you know your lipstick can do the job. drew: thank you so much. as always, we make this show for you, so take it with you. [upbeat music and applause] [audio logo] ♪ ♪ >> announcer: from cbs news headquarters in new york, this is the "cbs evening news." ♪ ♪ >> maurice: good evening. i'm maurice dubois. >> john: i'm john dickerson. we began last night with this amazing image of a jetliner belly-up on a runway at the toronto airport, and the questions: how did it happen? and what was going on inside that plane? >> maurice: tonight we begin with some answers.

we will show you how it happened with video of the delta airlines crj-900 hitting the runway hard on landing, losing its right wing, bursting into flames, and flipping over. and you will hear from one of the passengers, who were strapped in their seats upside down. >> john: all 80 people on board that flight from minneapolis-st. paul survived. 76 passengers and a crew of four survive. and of the 21 injured who were taken to the hospital, all but two have been released. >> maurice: kris van cleave has the latest on the investigation tonight. kris? >> reporter: maurice, we have learned that investigators have recovered the two black boxes, the data recorder and the voice recorder, from the airplane late today. those will be key in their ongoing investigation. those two people that remain in the hospital, we understand they are now described as having nonlife-threatening injuries. that's down from being transported as critically injured from the scene. so that's good improvement

there. we are also getting our first clear look at what went wrong here. we've got two piece of video i want to show you. the first from tmz, where you see the plane coming in from behind. you will see the plane come in and what appears to be a hard landing, and then the right rear landing gear seems to collapse right before fire is seen and the plane then becomes a bit of a fireball. there is a second angle, as the plane is coming in, shot from the cockpit of another plane, where you see the airliner. it looks like a fairly standard approach, but instead of flaring the nose up at the last minute to sort of feather in the landing, they keep that same attitude, come down hard, looks like they hit the right rear wheel first. it then collapses, the wing breaks off, and the fireball ensues. >> john: kris, what is different between that landing and the ten that preceded it in terms of whether or pilot? >> reporter: well, those are the big questions for investigators. they want to know why plane after plane after plane before this one was able to land without issue.

what changed for this landing? was it pilot-driven? was it environment-driven? we know what there were heavy winds. we know there were strong wind gusts. did that factor in or did the pilots' response to those winds factor in in is hard landing that appears to kickoff this crash? >> john: kris van cleave, thank you very much, kris. >> maurice: for anyone who has ever flown, it is frightening to imagine being strapped to a seat upside down. >> john: but also grateful to be alive. adrienne arsenault, our colleague at the canadian broadcasting corporation, talked to one of the passengers, pete carlson, who is an american paramedic. >> as we made our descent and made touchdown, it was just a very, um, forceful event, where all of a sudden everything just kind of went sideways, and then next thing i know, it was kind of a blink and i'm upside down, still strapped in. the one minute you are landing, kind of waiting to see your friends and your people, and the

next minute you are physically upside down and just really turned around, but it sounded, i mean, it was just cement and metal. you know? >> reporter: no time to be scared? >> oh, yeah, plenty of time. yeah. i think the absolute initial feeling is just, need to get out of this. took my seat belt off. which i had obviously left fastened for the landing. and as i took it off, crashed down onto the ceiling, which had become the floor because we were upside down. >> reporter: i mean, i see, you've got a cut here, you also -- >> yeah, a little balder than i was this morning. i'm okay. not really sure when this happens, whether it was during landing, i believe it was, but yes, everyone seemed kind of physically -- and that is what we did, you could see kind of row by row or area by area, people were checking one another out, making decisions about whether we would help one another with their straps, or if by doing that, would they be landing on somebody else? but everyone seemed like they were there to make sure we

helped each other and, you know, moved out of harm's way. >> john: now some of the top stories from around the world in tonight's "evening news" roundup. snow and ice in oklahoma and arkansas today caused a lot of accidents. the dangerous weather is expected to hit the east coast tomorrow. lonnie quinn will have details later. >> maurice: it was quite a sight in saudi arabia, top diplomats from the u.s. and russia met for the first time since the ukraine war began three years ago. the talks lasted four hours and laid the groundwork for peace negotiations. secretary of state marco rubio says ukrainian and european leaders will be involved. >> john: and pope francis is now being treated in a rome hospital for double pneumonia. the pope is 88 years old. a federal judge in washington refused today to block elon musk and his department of government efficiency from accessing government data. the judge said states suing musk and d.o.g.e. had built to

demonstrate "clear evidence of imminent irreparable harm." >> maurice: musk and president trump say d.o.g.e.'s mission is to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. and the white house claims d.o.g.e. has uncovered fraud, at least as the administration defines it. here is weijia jiang. >> reporter: this is what white house press secretary karoline leavitt pointed to as proof when asked about the fraud that elon musk's team claims to have uncovered. >> this is a dei contract. $36,000 for u.s. citizenship and immigration services. this is a $3.4 million contract, a council for inclusive innovation at the u.s. patent and trademark office. oh, i love this one, $57,000 for climate change in sri lanka. >> reporter: when pressed if those are simply things that don't align with president trump's policies, leavitt said... >> i would argue that all of these things are fraudulent, they are wasteful, and they are and abuse of the american taxpayers' dollar. >> reporter: last night, d.o.g.e. posted on its website what it called a wall of receipts to show its findings to

date. so far, it has identified roughly $14 billion with a federal program cuts, including at least 140 dei contracts and grants. but all the money allocated was approved by congress. and d.o.g.e. did not provide evidence of a single case of fraud, or even alleged fraud. president trump and the white house keep conflating fraud, waste, and abuse. does the distinction matter? >> it does matter, and frankly both sides are using terminology that is inaccurate and confusing to the public. >> reporter: dave walker led the government accountability office for a decade. the congressional nonpartisan watchdog that investigates how taxpayer dollars are spent. >> most of the things that have been identified so far by d.o.g.e. represent waste and mismanagement, although "waste" is in the eye of the beholder. very few things that they are talking about have risen to the level of being fraud. fraud is illegal. on the other side, people who

oppose d.o.g.e. are also using language that's inappropriate, saying that what they are doing is illegal or unconstitutional, without providing any support for that. >> reporter: last week, president trump cited a gao report which found the u.s. government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion a year to fraud. but that data was collected from 2018 to 2022, when fraudulent covid payments soared. how long does it take to find fraud? can you find billions and billions of dollars in one month? >> it would be difficult to find billions and billions of dollars in one month because, you know, you have to make a legal determination, which ultimately the courts decide. you can assert that something is fraud. but that doesn't mean that it is. it's ultimately a legal judgment. >> reporter: cbs news has repeatedly asked the white house for examples of the fraud it claims d.o.g.e. has found.

officials referred us back to d.o.g.e.'s website and social media accounts, and they did not make anyone available for an interview. >> john: so, weijia, why is this distinction important between what is merely waste and what is actually fraudulent? >> reporter: well, dave walker worries that repeating fraud claims undercuts trust in the government by the public, and critics are concerned that by alleging so much of it, trump and his team have a license to take drastic measures at a breakneck pace without the proper oversight and transparency, which leaves room for error. just tonight, the department of agriculture is scrambling to rehire staffers who are working on the response to the bird flu outbreak after they were accidentally fired. >> maurice: okay, weijia jiang at the white house. thank you. >> john: still ahead on the "cbs evening news," lonnie quinn with frigid temperatures setting records. >> maurice: and we will have these stories. >> i'm mark strassmann. here in los angeles in the aftermath of disaster, the question is whether to rebuild or retreat.

>> i'm jim axelrod with one promise president trump kept that has angered some supporters: fallout from the january 6th pardons. that's next on the "cbs evening news." ♪ ♪ at's next on the "cbs evening news." ♪ ♪ with who you love? it's time to get back out there with fasenra. fasenra is an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma that is taken once every 8 weeks and can also be taken conveniently at home. fasenra helps prevent asthma attacks. most patients did not have an attack in the first year. fasenra is proven to help you breathe better so you can get back to doing day-to-day activities. fasenra is not for sudden breathing oblems. serious allergic reactions may occur. get help for swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop asthma treatments without talking with your doctor. tell your doctor if your asthma worsens or you have a parasitic infection. headache and sore throat may occur. get back to better breathing.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> john: before he took office, president trump said there could be some exceptions to his campaign promise to pardon january 6th rioters. in the end, there were none. not even for at least 169 who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. >> maurice: everyone was pardoned, and those imprisoned were released. jim axelrod has the story of a woman who is now living in fear. >> reporter: when donald trump freed hundreds of people convicted for their roles on january 6th, shantelle holeton's fears turned back to this man. >> i'm just afraid that i'm going to come home from work one night, and he's going to be right there. he's going to be right there sitting on my porch. >> reporter: his name is peter schwartz, and a jury convicted him of assaulting police officers on january 6th. that's him with pepper spray and a baton. >> he found an opportunity to go

and be violent. >> reporter: on january 6th? >> yes. >> reporter: holeton, a factory worker, who does not want to reveal where she is living, dated schwartz back in 2019. that is when she says schwartz beat her. >> that man thrives on violence. he thrives on people fearing him. >> reporter: in holeton's case, schwartz was charged after making threats to kill her. 1 of 38 prior criminal convictions, including assaulting and threatening police, he racked up prior to january 6th. with that rap sheet, schwartz received one of the harshest sentences of any of the capitol rioters, more than 14 years in prison. this was something that let you exhale. >> oh, absolutely. it was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. >> reporter: and that's why this supporter of donald trump... you voted for him? >> three times. >> reporter: is not happy with the president's decision to release everyone who took pardon january 6th from prison.

>> and what i did was a great thing for humanity. they were treated very, very unfairly. >> most of those people should have been allowed to go home. but not people like pete. >> the idea of parting people who have criminal histories, violent histories, it's a really poor choice if you are thing about public safety going forward. >> reporter: former federal prosecutor jason manning worked on roughly 50 of the 1500 cases relating to january 6th. >> there were a lot of folks who had no criminal history. there were a lot of other defendants, however, who had extensive history of domestic abuse, histories of assaulting police officer, for whom assaulting police on january 6th was not the first time they had assaulted a police officer. >> reporter: and all of these people were in the pool of people released from prison just a couple of weeks ago? >> every single one of them. >> reporter: since the mass release, one parolee was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in indiana. another will head to trial for rape later this year.

>> so the people who were just pardoned for violent offenses are now returning to their communities under no supervision whatsoever. >> reporter: we made repeated efforts to reach peter schwartz. >> a lot of us that were jan 6ers were actually innocent. >> reporter: he's been vocal on white right-wing media per claim his innocence and citing an appeals court decision as proof, though that ruling only reversed one of his 11 convictions, and none of the assault verdicts. as for shantelle holeton, she is watching peter schwartz's publicity tour. online donors had given the self-proclaimed j6 political prisoner nearly $95,000. >> john: so jim, what did the white house have to say about the peter schwartz case? >> reporter: well, we did ask the white house directly if they had reviewed peter schwartz's case before issuing the pardon, and they wouldn't answer that question directly, saying only generally that president trump campaigned on a promise to

pardon j6 protesters, and that he delivered on that promise. >> maurice: makes you wonder how many other peter schwartzes are out there, or like him out there. >> reporter: well, jason manning, the prosecutor who we spoke with, says 170 other defendants were convicted of assaulting police officers. 100 of those convicted of assaulting police officers with a weapon. >> john: why did shantelle come and talk to you, jim? >> reporter: john, i think that is the most fascinating part of this story. she didn't want to talk to us. we asked repeatedly because she believed what she was told, what people like j.d. vance said, that if you were committing violence on january 6th, you shouldn't be pardoned. it was only after the mass pardons, when she was so angry, so furious, she said yes, i want to sit down and tell my story. again, a three-time voter for donald trump. >> john: jim axelrod, thank you very much, jim. >> maurice: now to the winter cold. records are falling along with the mercury. >> john: and lonnie quinn tells us snow is moving in across the middle of america, from kansas to the outer banks. lonnie? >> okay, talking about kansas,

here we have it, union station, kansas city, missouri. snow is falling. not their biggest snowstorm, picked up about two having 3 inches in kansas city, pick up another maybe two or three tonight. that storm marches to the east peered at one point we thought that was going to be the biggest storm for the nation's biggest city, new york, in about three decades. nope, it is going south of the area, the tennessee valley may be sees that 4-6-inch range but it is the mountains of west virginia that could see 8 inches to a foot of snow, and also look at that, that's crazy. a foot of snow potentially around norfolk, i mean, that's not normal for right there along the shoreline communities, and that is in the forecast, so if you look at the temperatures that are following this snow, it is not melting anywhere fast. zoom in tight on sioux falls because this is a number, they start off tomorrow morning at almost 20 below. they only get up to zero. all of that cold air will push into those eastern communities we talked about as we get to thursday. if you are looking for warm air, i will leave you with this one, guys. rio de janeiro set a record of 111 degrees on monday, and the

heat still lingers there. it's all yours. >> john: they are dreaming about that in sioux falls. lonnie quinn, thank you. >> maurice: thanks for that. well, southern californians who lost their homes to the wildfires now face a tough decision. >> john: and that's tonight's "eye on america" when we come back. ♪ ♪ "eye on america" when we come back. ♪ ♪ [window slamming] woman: [gasps] [dog barking] ♪ woman: [screams] ♪ [explosion] [explosion] ♪ [lock clicks shut] if have heart disease and struggle with ldl-c... even with statins and diet... listen to your heart. talk to your doctor about repatha. repatha plus a statin lowers ldl-c by 63%. do not take repatha if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can occur. get medical help right away

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>> john: the largest of the southern california wildfires started six weeks ago tonight. the palisades and the eaton. they are contained but still burning. 29 people lost their lives, thousands their homes, and even some who can afford to rebuild are wondering if they should. that's tonight's "eye on america" reported by mark strassmann. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: at pasadena's fire station 39, we met shen yu. did you know you were fighting a

losing battle? >> yeah, for sure. >> john: he's an 18-year firefighting veteran. >> keep going. >> reporter: yu showed us these videos from inside his fire engine last january 7th of l.a.'s eaton fire. for him, that losing battle turned personal. >> it came to our neighborhood. >> reporter: and you watched your neighborhood burn? >> in the back of my mind, just hoping that my house made it, you know? this would be where the front door was. >> reporter: yu took us to his house. it did not make it. >> initially we were like, we could bring the kids back for closure, but they don't need this image. >> reporter: he asked us to wear a mask because of potential lingering airborne toxins and carcinogens. l.a. county had put out warnings about an unhealthy air quality. also worrying yu, his family of four lost everything. >> everything is basically gone. >> reporter: and all of these people you think will rebuild? >> i'm hoping, yeah. >> reporter: state and city leaders here are pushing for a quick rebuild of more than

15,000 structures. char miller questions whether that makes sense. >> when you put 10 million people in and around the fire zones, sometimes they get burned. >> reporter: at pomona college, professor miller's expertise is fire management and urban landscapes. how much of greater los angeles is at risk for fire? >> it's virtually everywhere. >> reporter: on this map, miller showed us where america is exposed to wildfires. >> we will begin to see fires in places that we haven't tended to see, so the grasslands in the dakotas. >> reporter: in california, the fire line trend line is unmistakable. of the 20 biggest fires in state history, 19 have happened since 2003. 13 of them since 2017. would it be a huge mistake just to rebuild it the way it was? >> if you build back exactly the same way, expect the exact same result. >> reporter: miller has another idea: state and local governments should buy out homeowners in the most fire-prone neighborhoods.

>> it's a buyback policy, going to people and saying, would you be willing to sell? >> reporter: in 2017, hurricane harvey inundated houston. a $125 billion disaster. rather than rebuild in floodplains, the city used federal dollars to buy out more than 400 homeowners, demolish the properties, and use the land for flood control. l.a.'s disaster toll more than doubled houston's. without federal support, the buyback program is not realistic. >> yes. there is neither the political will, and we don't know about the money. >> this is where we lived for almost eight years, you know? >> reporter: another big ask, convincing homeowners to sell. like many fire victims in los angeles, shen yu wants to rebuild right here. >> so we want to be back. the kids want to be back. so... >> reporter: you are going back? >> we are going back. >> reporter: back into neighborhoods scarred by fire that may be threatened again. that may be threatened again.

for "eye on america," mark strassmann, in los angeles >> john: in tomorrow's "eye on america," we take you to loudoun county, virginia, to show you how artificial intelligence is changing the landscape. maurice and i will be right back. symptoms... ...kept me... ...out of the picture. now... ...there's skyrizi. ♪i've got places to go...♪ ♪...and i'm feeling free♪ ♪control of my symptoms means everything...♪ ♪...to me♪ ♪control is everything to me♪ and now... ...i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at... ...4 weeks with skyrizi. skyrizi is proven to help deliver remission... ...and help visibly improve damage.... ...of the intestinal lining at 12 weeks and 1 year. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions,... ...increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections... ...and tb. tell your doctor about any... ...flu-like symptoms,or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization... ...may occur when treated for crohn's or uc.

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or light-headedness, can come and go. but if you have afib, the risk of stroke is always there. if you have one or more symptoms, get checked out. making that appointment can help you get ahead of stroke risk. this is no time to wait. ♪ ("born to be wild" by steppenwolf) ♪ ♪ get your motor runnin'! ♪ (car horns blare) come on! ♪ head out on the highway! ♪ crowd: hey! hey! hey! b-12. bingo! (buttons snap) (inhaling furiously) (explosion) (car revs) (cheering and laughter) (♪♪) don't worry, girls! i've got weathertech. all together: ♪ born to be wild! ♪ for whatever comes your way, there's weathertech. >> john: when it doesn't snow in alaska in winter, that is the definition of news. >> maurice: so here is some news: it hasn't snowed in more than two weeks along a portion of the iditarod sled dog race, so the starting line is being

moved from anchorage to fairbanks now, cutting out the 20-mile snowless stretch. >> john: a break for dog and musher because it is a challenging section, with gravel sand bars, strong wind blowing the gravel, an icy canyon, oh, and a glacier. >> maurice: the race begins march 3rd. good luck. that is the "cbs evening news." i'm maurice dubois. >> john: i'm john dickerson. i'll see you on

>> john: welcome to "cbs evening news plus." i'm john dickerson. late tuesday, a federal judge turned back an effort by attorneys general in 14 states to slow elon musk's department of government efficiency saying they did not present clear evidence of imminent irreparable harm. chief white house correspondent nancy cordes has the latest on that and the president's blaming ukraine for the russian invasion of ukraine.