light-up heart. the program's director telling us students learn more than just coding here. >> it's kind of a social robotics, so they're really thinking about how to make the world a better place and how to improve lives. >> this is the fourth year of the robot petting zoo. many of these students will compete in robotics in high school. thanks so much for joining us! the cbs evening news with maurice dubois and john dickerson is next on kpix. we have local news always streaming on cbs news bay area. we're back here in 30 minutes with cbs news bay area at 7:00. we'll see you then. ♪ ♪ >> announcer: from cbs news headquarters in new york, this is the "cbs evening news." ♪ ♪

>> john: the fog of trade war. good evening. i'm john dickerson. >> maurice: i'm maurice dubois. the financial markets were rattled today by the commander in chief and general confusion. >> john: conflicting signals from the president about his trade war sent stock prices tumbling. the dow lost a full percent, the nasdaq more than 2.5%. >> maurice: president trump granted more exemptions today to his 25% tax on imports from canada and mexico. for one month, goods covered by the usmca trade agreement will not be subject to the tariffs. he gave that same exemption yesterday to detroit's big three automakers. >> john: this is not the first time the president has threatened or imposed tariffs and pulled back. and the uncertainty goes well beyond wall street. ed o'keefe is at a curling center in toronto. ed? >> reporter: john, good evening. the on-again off-again tariffs are mostly off again, except for here in canada's largest

province, which is warning of economic pain for at least some americans. >> we have to put an end to this. this is mass chaos right now around north america and actually around the world. >> reporter: doug ford is premier of ontario, the hub of canada's economy and home to 40% of canadians. he dismissed president trump's pause on tariffs. >> he said that before, and he switched his mind a few days later, a week later. so, once i touch a stove and i get burned once, i don't touch that stove again. he needs to drop all tariffs. >> reporter: and if he doesn't drop them for good, ford says ontario, which transmits electricity to the united states, will put a 25% tariff on power sent to minnesota, michigan, and new york starting monday. ford got into a heated phone conversation this week with the u.s. commerce secretary and has banned the sale of american-made spirits in ontario liquor stores. so right here you are turning

off the lights and you are running the bourbon dry in response to what the united states -- >> the last thing i want to do is turn out the lights or put a tariff, but let's straighten this out. >> reporter: and to the american homeowner in minnesota or new york or somewhere else that gets its power from electricity, they are going to see the electric bill in a month and realize, whoa, a lot more expensive than it was. that's what you're telling me? >> and there is one person to be blamed, and that's president trump. >> reporter: even if the tariffs are temporarily off, the anger has hardly subsided. at the private royal canadian curling club, where members stopped drinking american bourbon and california wines on the premises weeks ago. >> this is one small thing that we can do. >> reporter: and danielle brown says growing canadian anger isn't about the american people, just the american president. >> it's really just sad and a shame that leadership is actually maybe propositioning, who knows why, kind of trumping up these allegations that we're up these allegations that we're maybe not as good partners as we actually are.

>> maurice: now, ed, we usually think of canadians and kindness, but in this case they seem pretty angry right about now. why are they digging in so hard? >> reporter: well, maurice, in their view -- and the reality is -- there have been free-trade agreements between the u.s. and canada in place since the late 1980s. many may remember nafta, more recently the u.s.-mexico-canada free trade agreement that was negotiated in part by president trump. they are sick of being pushed around, and they're not quite sure what it is the president wants done by early april to call off this trade war entirely. >> john: and, ed, if these tariffs stick, what other kinds of products or what other ways will americans be affected? >> reporter: well, let's walk our way across canada to give you an example. in british columbia, the lumber from there helps build american homes. in alberta, the oil and gas gets pumped into american cars. fertilizer from saskatchewan gets scattered across the heartland. and we went to a steel manufacturer here in ontario who makes window wells and garden beds that get bought up all across the american suburbs. and then, of course, there is the produce.

blueberries, tomatoes, and yes, maple syrup. the cost of them would go up, as well. >> maurice: okay, ed o'keefe tonight in toronto, thanks so much. >> john: the mass firing of federal workers is starting to come into focus. a report out today says more than 62,000 u.s. government jobs were cut in february. that brought the overall job losses to 172,000, the highest total for any month since the pandemic. the department of government efficiency, which is behind the firings, does not put out a complete accounting, but our teams here at cbs news have found that cuts by d.o.g.e. have affected at least 18 federal departments and agencies. the social security administration said last friday it is cutting about 7,000 workers. the department of defense announced plans to cut about 5400 probationary employees. and in the most significant job reduction so far, an internal

memo from the department of veterans affairs revealed the va plans to cut 15% of its workforce by the end of september. carter evans in los angeles spoke to a combat veteran who is worried about the impact of the va cuts. >> you know, these are my two meritorious service medals. >> reporter: u.s. army veteran rob ham was 18 when terrorists attacked on 9/11. >> i remember watching it and just feeling like, whoa, this world has changed, and it's violent and scary. >> reporter: and you felt like you needed to do something? >> i did. >> reporter: he served several tours in afghanistan as a paratrooper and combat photographer, his unit often close to highly toxic pits used to burn waste. >> i definitely had some chest stuff when i came back. >> john: are you worried that it might become an issue? >> when i look at the statistics, the odds of me getting some kind of related cancer that i will need help

from the va is very high. >> reporter: ham had produced videos for the va documenting medical professionals caring for cancer patients and treating homeless veterans. >> rolling back the level of employees that cover all of these different services is going to impact care, 100%. >> look, the va was never perfect, and it will never be perfect. >> reporter: a message posted on x by va secretary doug collins explained the massive layoffs authorized by d.o.g.e. would shrink the number of va employees by 72,000. >> we will be making major changes, so get used to it. right now, va's biggest problem is that its bureaucracy and inefficiencies are getting in the way of customer convenience and service to veterans. >> reporter: the va has been plagued by scandals in recent years, but the agency did have someone overseeing the organization. inspector general michael missal was fired. >> we identified fraud, waste, and abuse every day of the year. it's really hard to come in and just start cutting positions without really understanding the implications of those cuts. >> i believe we are going to overcome this. i believe, when you start to piss off veterans, we rise

together. we should rise together. when we as a country send people to war, we have a sacred obligation to take care of them when they come home. full stop. >> john: and carter evans tells us many of the new va employees were hired during the biden administration to provide services under the pact act. it expanded benefits for soldiers who, like rob ham, were exposed to toxins. >> maurice: now some of the top stories from around the world in tonight's "evening news" roundup, beginning with another possible death from measles. the new mexico health department says an adult who died recently had tested positive for measles and had not been vaccinated. tomorrow, omar villafranca reports from west texas, the center of the measles outbreak. >> john: pope francis, still battling pneumonia, thanked well-wishers for their prayers in a message recorded in his native spanish. >> [speaking spanish]

>> john: the pope is 88. he is in stable condition. >> maurice: and a federal judge ruled president trump did not have the power to fire gwynne wilcox from the national labor relations board and ordered her reinstated. the case is now likely to reach the supreme court. >> john: the president is expected to sign an executive order as soon this week dismantling the education department. >> maurice: nancy cordes joins us now from the white house, and nancy, why is the president o focused on putting this one department out of business? >> reporter: well, maurice, president trump says this is all about sending the power back to the states so they can make their own decisions about education. one problem with that, though, is that the department of education actually doesn't have any say right now in what is taught in local schools. by law, that is left to the states. here's what the department of education does do, though. it's essentially a pass-through for billions of dollars that go to help schools educate students with disabilities, help schools

in low-income areas, and of course billions to help low-income students go to college through grants and loans. we have seen a draft of the executive order that he is expected to sign, and it's still very unclear how all those funds would get dispersed if this agency is radically downsized. >> john: nancy, the agency was created by congress, funded by congress. can he do this? >> reporter: technically, he can't close it entirely. congress created the agency, so congress would have to eliminate it, but even linda mcmahon, the secretary of education, while acknowledging that that is true, is saying that she wants to radically downsize, and as we have seen with usaid, john, you don't have to officially shutter an agency in order to essentially gut it. if you cut thousands of staffers, if you cut thousands of programs, you can achieve the

same effect. and just like with usaid, all of this is likely to end up in the courts. >> maurice: nancy cordes at the white house, thank you so much. >> john: still ahead on the "cbs evening news," lonnie quinn on the return of atmospheric rivers bringing rain to the west. >> maurice: plus, i talk with a fired fema executive who says she was targeted by elon musk. ♪ ♪ >> i feel betrayed, not by my colleagues, but by a department and agency that i gave my life to. ♪ ♪ >> john: and "eye on america," saving forests and native american families. >> that's a lot of wood. >> yeah. like you know to check the game is actually over, - we won. - [cheering] before you storm the court. ♪♪ ♪okay, okay, okay♪

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for any taste, or any diet. at prices you love, delivered fast. for low prices, for life with pets there's chewy. ♪ ♪ >> john: president trump's firing of federal workers has been so rapid and so haphazard, it's been hard to figure out what the impact might be on the rest of us, but we could find out the next time there's a natural disaster. >> maurice: because among those fired are more than 200 workers at fema, including the chief financial officer. in her first interview, mary comans told me her firing came after she alleges elon musk spread false claims about her work.

>> my name has been slandered. i have been personally attacked. my family has been harassed. >> president trump denied me of my rights. >> maurice: for two decades, mary comans was an unknown bureaucrat at the department of homeland security, until one tuesday afternoon, when the world's richest man posted her photo on x to his 219 million followers, calling her actions criminal. >> i'm apolitical. i've served both republican and democrat presidents, with honor and integrity. >> maurice: most recently, as the chief financial officer for the disaster relief agency, fema. in early february, comans says one of elon musk's top lieutenants, brad smith, zeroed in on a program approved by congress to reimburse cities and states for housing undocumented migrants. >> he specifically asked, he said, have you paused payments to state and local entities? and my colleague who oversees the grants program responded,

no. and brad smith said, that's the right answer. payments to state and local entities should continue under the normal process and procedures. >> maurice: so you are thinking at that point... >> that we were squared away. >> maurice: squared away, until five days later, when musk posted, the d.o.g.e. team just discovered that fema sent $59 million last week to new york city to house illegal migrants, saying the agency violated the law. >> that really came as a surprise to me and my colleagues. >> maurice: did you document all of this? what happened? >> i did. >> maurice: but it didn't matter. the next morning, a colleague delivered the news: comans had been fired at the direction of the president. the official department of homeland security had put out a press release here. it says you were fired for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury new york city hotels for migrants. >> that is not a true statement.

i was fired illegally by the trump administration for doing my job. >> maurice: in that same press release, the agency called comans a deep state activist. >> i feel betrayed, not by my colleagues, but by a department and agency that i gave my life to. >> maurice: now, brad smith, a d.o.g.e. official, did not respond to our request for comment. neither did a spokesman for the department of homeland security. mary comans has filed a lawsuit against the department, asking for damages, alleging defamation and that her firing was illegal. >> john: maurice, targeted by the richest man in the world on twitter and all of that, does comans feel physically in danger? >> maurice: she absolutely does. she feels threatened. she feels that other people are out there using her name badly, saying terrible things about her. she's called the local police, changed her movements, she's got the police keeping an eye on her and her family. >> john: phew. >> maurice: yeah.

tough woman. >> john: yeah. thank you. now to the weather, the atmosphere rivers are back. >> maurice: and lonnie quinn here now to tell us that that means rain in our west. lonnie? >> yeah, and we need rain out west. an atmospheric river, guys, is exactly what the name suggests. it's a flow of air in our atmosphere that holds a lot of rain, basically traveling over the same path. this very sort of unclear picture, is huntington beach, california, unclear because it is raining right now. they need the rain. and the first part, the very first part of this atmospheric river is just coming on shore as of right now, thus the rain i just showed you in huntington beach, and boy do they need it. huntington beach is in extreme drought conditions, depicted by that red color. wherever you see the flashes of deep red, that is exceptional drought, extraordinary drought, the type of drought that really brings a lot of problems. we have areas that need rain, and there will be more bouts to come. so there is a little atmospheric river setting up today. there's going to be much bigger bouts of rain that come in next week. so there is your first system. behind it, system number two is even bigger. this is next week, so the big

show is next week, and system two, system three, the biggest of all. the grand total here looks to be about 4 inches of rain for areas right now that are 5 inches below where they should be, so that should bring them back to about average. and each storm i showed you goes from coast-to-coast. gentlemen? >> john: lonnie quinn with all of the systems. thank you, lonnie. >> maurice: a program to preserve forests has become a lifesaver for some native americans. >> john: "eye on america" is next. sease like ckd, slow is good. and believe me, i know all about slow. that's why i'm here to tell you about jardiance - it's a little pill... proven to slow the progression of ckd... and reduce the risk of kidney failure, which can lead to dialysis. serious side effects include increased ketones in blood or urine, which can be fatal. stop jardiance and call your doctor right away... if you have nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, trouble breathing, or increased ketones. jardiance may cause dehydration that can suddenly worsen kidney function

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the way eileen mazy, a washoe elder, has always lived. without the stove, what access would you have to heat? >> without the stove, at this time, we would have no heat. >> reporter: the custom is harder to hold onto in modern life, as most tribes don't control the land around them and can no longer take the trees for firewood. but now, a creative solution through a partnership between the national forest foundation and eight tribes across five states. a win-win. wood beds created from trees cleared for fire prevention that otherwise would have gone to waste. this is what they brought you? >> yeah. >> reporter: it goe to native american communities, where poverty rates are almost twice the national average and where a cord of wood lasting 6-12 weeks can cost a budget-busting $400. >> when you don't have it, it's life or death. >> reporter: we visited a national forest near mazy's

home, where kaitlyn lonergan of the national forest foundation told us too much wood can be dangerous. why does this wood have to be taken out of the forest? >> we are dealing with an% overgrowth problem. we are taking this material off the landscape so there is not as much fuel to burn. >> reporter: on average, a california fire season burns close to a million acres. january's los angeles fires burned more than 16,000 structures. lonergan showed us this snow-covered pile that's been cut down. the forest thinning reduces tinder that can drive a wildfire. >> it's material that we need to get rid of, but it's not much value in more traditional markets. >> reporter: but it's of immense value to indigenous communities across the american west, facing bitter winters with limited access to affordable heating. what is the significance of a partnership between tribes and a federal agency? >> over the past 150 years, the washoe tribe has been shut out from a lot of its historical lands, and now being able to have some influence on what is

actually happening in the tribe's ancestral lands. most of this is jeffrey pine. >> reporter: kenneth cruz oversees distribution to the washoe tribe, a community of about 1500 near reno, where elders like violet pete get the wood for free. what was it like that first time they delivered to you? >> it was nice, and i didn't have to worry about wondering where my next wood was going to come from or how much i could use. >> we want to be able to preserve that beauty and continue to pass it down for not necessarily just our children, but for everyone that's here. >> reporter: the land's original stewards now allies with the government, preserving forests and sustaining native tribes. for "eye on america," janet shamlian, dresslerville, nevada. >> john: tomorrow at about this time, steve hartman will be here with "on the road." maurice and i will be right back with some of the most beautiful creatures on earth -- quickly disappearing.

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i did that for about five years with no real traction, and i decided i needed to pivot. so i personalized the outer packaging of the coffee and i made a tiktok. when i went viral, i had over 1200 orders and over $25,000 in sales. tiktok changed my life for the better and allowed cafe emporos to thrive and to continue. had it not been for tiktok and those viral videos, cafe emporos would not be around today. (♪♪) >> maurice: we end tonight with one of nature's masterpieces, the butterfly. >> john: enjoy watching them now because they are disappearing at an alarming rate. >> maurice: one of the most comprehensive studies published

today said that over the past two decades, the butterfly population in the continental united states has fallen more than 20%. >> john: for some species, it is even worst, with losses more than 90%. >> maurice: butterflies are like canaries in a coal mine, warning of threats to the environment. but there is hope. the authors of the study note that butterflies are capable of rapid recovery. >> john: with conservation efforts, we can be the wind beneath their wings. a small price to pay for so much beauty. that's the "cbs evening news." i'm john dickerson. i'll see you soon on "evening news plus." >> maurice: i'm maurice dubois. we'll see you right back here tomorrow night. have a good night. ♪ ♪ ♪ right now at 7:00 another late night raid on a suspected

open-air drug market in san francisco but this time neighbors say it was a fail. >> a couple of hours . when they left, they come back again. same thing. >> they say trouble returned as soon as the cops left. has city leaders are defending their strategy. plus >> the issue of fairness -- i completely align with you. >> governor newsom catches heat from some fellow democrats. his comments about transgender athletes. plus a new use for seaweed. >> we are using seaweed as a replacement for plastic. >> we will show you how this plant may one day replace plastic bags. this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> good evening. it is part of san francisco's new strategy to break up open-air drug markets