captioning sponsored by cbs >> mason: something's fishy. that's what congressional critics are saying about the no-bid contract awarded the whitefish energy company to rebuild puerto rico's electrical grid. also tonight... >> we have great unity. >> mason: the president denies his party is divided. >> i called it a lovefest. >> mason: the postman always rings twice, but the amazon man will walk right in. ♪ i'm walking. yes, indeed ♪ i'm talking ♪ and we're talking about one of the founding fathers of rock 'n' roll, fats domino. ♪ oh, you are my thrill on bluebury hill ♪

this is the "cbs evening news." >> mason: good evening. i'm anthony mason. five weeks later the power is still out in most of puerto rico, and now lightbulbs are going off in the heads of members of congress. they're calling for an investigation of the deal that awarded a big contract to a tiny company to get the power back on. the company happens to be headquartered in the hometown of a member of the trump cabinet. julianna goldman is looking into this. >> reporter: it's been more than aman since hurricane maria ravaged puerto rico, leaving its power grid in shambles. today 75% of the island is still without power and lawmakers in both parties are asking why a small montana company was granted a $300 million no-bid contract to help rebuild transmission and distribution lines. >> my biggest concern is we don't have enough information as to the process that went through that. >> reporter: republican

congressman rob bishop chairs the house committee that oversees puerto rico. the government power company known as prepa signed the contract with whitefish energy, a two-person two-year-old company whose largest previous federal contract had been for $1.3 million to upgrade lines in arizona. prepa filed for bankruptcy in july amid the island's ongoing debt crisis. it bypassed a network of utilities and a mutual aid system that is usually activated for storm recovery. the $300 million contract is the biggest yet for puerto rico's recovery effort, and for whitefish, which relies on subcontractors for their work. >> this appears to be a pretty small company. are they capable of doing the job that they have? >> reporter: republican senator lisa murkowski chaired the energy committee. she expects a hearing on puerto rico in the next week. and democratic senator maria can't -- cantwell is calling for an investigation. >> we're getting ready the light up puerto rico.

>> reporter: the company's subcontract rates are calling up questions. $319 an hour for a lineman. and its ties to the administration are under scrutiny. whitefish is backed by hbd investments. its founder and general partner delaney colaio gave $33,000 to the campaign of then-texas governor and now energy secretary rick perry. colonetta and his wife gave $28,200 to president trump. >> hi. i'm andy andy techmanski, founder and c.e.o. of whitefish energy. >> reporter: techmanski knows ryan zinke. whitefish is based in his hometown. the interior department and whitefish says zinke played no role in the contract. whitefish officials say they were willing to $2 million up front while the other company prepa was considering wanted $25 million. tonight puerto rico's governor says that he's going to be reviewing the contracting process. anthony? >> mason: julianna goldman.

thanks, julianna. hurricane maria also disrupted production at puerto rican factories that make critical drugs and medical supplies. dr. jon lapook found hospitals on the u.s. mainland are already seeing shortages. >> this is slated to go for a patient for infusion. >> reporter: these small bags of intravenous fluid deliver life-saving medications like antibiotics and chemotherapy. regine villain's job at nyu health is to manage supply and she's worried. the bags are in short supply. >> we have been practically hand-to-mouth counting by the drops how much we have in house. it's just really nerve-racking to think about not being able to have those bags available for the patients. >> reporter: her concern is echoed by hospitals and pharmacists around the country. the american hospital association told cbs news the shortage is quickly becoming a crisis and threat to public health. there was already an existing shortage for several years, made

worse by facilities being damaged by the hurricane. on top of that villian says the three major manufacturers usually shut down for maintenance before the end of the year. >> this is a thing that keeps me up at night, because i feel that if those shutdowns go on as planned, we could be experiencing unprecedented issues around i.v. solutions. >> reporter: meaning what? >> meaning that we may be in a situation where we have run out of a lot of those necessary i.v. flaw winds for the hospital. >> reporter: salt water, sugar solutions. >> that's correct. >> reporter: that's meat and potatoes stuff. >> first thing that we do, we hang an i.v. and that's how we tart taking care of you. >> reporter: we've been told that patient care has not been compromised so far but it's unclear how long that can last given the strain on the system. anthony? >> mason: jon lapook. thank you, jon.

as president president donald trump is also head of the republican tarty, and he denied today that it is party divided, despite evidence to the contrary, including prominent republicans yesterday calling him an habitual liar and a danger to democracy. here's chief congressional correspondent nancy cordes. >> members of congress ought to speak out. >> reporter: arizona republican jeff flake's call the arms was met with mutiny today as g.o.p. colleagues refused to open fire on mr. trump. >> i'm still on very good terms with the president. >> he's very focused on getting results. >> our job is to put our head dunn and start legislating. >> reporter: they're holding back partly because the trump white house is key to their agenda on issues like tax reform. >> we now have a president that will sign it. >> the yeas are 50. the nays are 50. >> reporter: just last night vice president pence cast a tie-breaking vote enabling republicans to block an obama-era rule that would have hey butted consumers to band together to sue banks for wrongdoing.

>> the vice president votes in the affirmative, and the joint resolution is passed. >> we have great unity. >> reporter: the president insisted today that party friction has been overblown. he repeatedly mentioned the standing ovations he got at yesterday's lunch with senate republicans. >> i think the press makes me more uncivil than i am. you know people don't understand. i went to an ivy league college. i was a nice student. i did very well. i'm a very intelligent person. >> reporter: as for flake... >> his poll numbers are terrible. he's didn't terribly for the great people of arizona, a state that likes donald trump very much. >> almighty god. >> reporter: but the senate chaplain, barry black, hailed flake's courage and asked for some divine intervention. >> lord provide us with more patriots who will stand for right regardless of the

consequences. >> reporter: flake's decision to retire was hailed as a victory by presidential allies like steve bannon, but senate republicans argue that is short-sighted. they worry, anthony, that his seat could now get scooped up by a democrat. >> mason: nancy cordes at the capitol. thanks, nancy. with the republican president under attack by both of arizona's republican senators we talked to republican voters in the state. here's jim axelrod. >> i will not be complicit or silent. >> reporter: arizona senator jeff flake went after donald trump in washington. >> for the sake of some half-baked spurious nationalism. >> reporter: john mccain's criticism last week was in philadelphia. did you vote for president trump? >> i did. >> reporter: 2300 miles from both cities, there are no clear winners in arizona. >> it's absolutely a lose-lose. >> reporter: what do you mean lose-lose? >> i think the president loses

credibility when he does this stuff. >> reporter: we gathered four republicans at the henry a coffee shop in phoenix. >> i feel like our senators lost, because president trump has a very loud base a loud and aggressive and somewhat angry base. >> reporter: carrie coretta scott king and kristin demong side with their senators. >> the bigger thing i see is he is fighting for unity. he's asking us to unite. >> reporter: frank says... >> i think he walked away from a fight he shouldn't have walked away from. >> reporter: and manny ciprot would have liked flake to hang tough. >> i was disappointed he threw in the towel. it's somewhat premature. >> reporter: but all four want the name-calling to stop and all said their patience is starting to wear thin with the president, not his policies, his demeanor. >> i personally agree that the president is more divisive than he is uniting. >> we vote for these people we give them our proxy to represent us and when president trump

attacks people personally he's attacking all of us. >> reporter: all four of these republican voters say they are now a bit more concerned about the 2018 senate race here. as well as unpopular as flake is, his departure opens the door to a possibility of a candidate that could have a tougher time holding on to a senate seat that has been in republican hands for two decades. >> mason: jim axelrod in phoenix. thank you, jim. president trump told reporters today he did not specifically order the military mission in niger in which four american soldiers were killed. he said his generals made the decision. we've also learned the pentagon deployed elite commandos to search for one of the soldiers. margaret brennan is following. this. >> reporter: sources describe the ambush as a complex attack involving rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. investigators are still trying to determine how or when sergeant la david johnson an army mechanic, got separated

from the 11 other u.s. troops. it's also unknown whether he was alive when the wounded troops were evacuated. his body was recovered two days later. on the morning of october 4th, the soldiers were on a joint parole with 30 nigerian forces near the village of tongo tongo where they had just met with elders and loaded up on supplies. they were at the end of a 24-hour mission when the attack began, an hour into the fight the patrol called for help, and french forces arrived 30 minutes later. the military soon declared a dust one or duty status whereabouts unknown for sergeant johnson. a request was made the chairman of the joint chiefs, joseph dunford, for more u.s. personnel. u.s. commandos based in the region were launched. >> at that point knowing that we had a missing soldier, we made a decision to make sure that all of the resources including national assets were available for the recovery of that operation. >> reporter: it is still unclear whether the attack was preplanned, but investigators believe it was carried out by an isis offshoot operating in the

area. according to military officials the group is run by this man, adnan abu al-sahrawi. he commands just 40 to 60 fighters but has allies throughout the region. al-sahrawi is wanted by u.s. and french authorities, but u.s. intelligence has not established a direct link between him and the isis militants that the u.s. is already fighting on the battleground in iraq and syria. anthony? >> mason: margaret brennan at the pentagon tonight. thanks. president trump today called it a disgrace that democrats helped pay for some of the information in as the -- in a dossier of allegations against him. jeff pegues has the latest on that. >> reporter: the 35-page dossier details some of the most explosive allegations now under investigation by special council robert mueller. president trump continued to dismiss the document today. >> it was made up, and i understand they paid a tremendous amount of money. and hillary clinton always denied it. the democrats always denied it.

>> reporter: the law firm that represented both the democratic national committee and the hill for america campaign has confirmed that it paid in april of 2016 to perform a variety of research services. until now some top clinton campaign officials have denied knowing who was behind the effort to dig up dirt. former campaign smokesman brian fallon. >> i'm sure a small group of folks were aware of the decision the hire fusion in the spring of 2016. but it was kept for reasons i understand to a very select group, given the sensitive nature of who they hired. >> reporter: fusion hired christopher steele, a former british spy who compiled as the yea containing unsubstantiated information, including president trump's alleged connections to the kremlin. alex conant, now a cbs news consultant and worked for marco rubio's presidential campaign. >> every competent campaign does

research on their opponent. you want to know your opponents' liabilities. hiring foreign spice is aggressive, and that's not normal, but it is normal to do opposition research. >> reporter: republicans paid fusion to initiate the research during the primary. later as the f.b.i. found some of the information credible it considered hiring steele, but when his role became public, that deal collapsed. anthony? >> mason: jeff pegues, thabs. coming up next on the "cbs evening news," would you give amazon the key to your home?to sorcery is that? it's not the magic-wand kind. it's the rfid-collar-and- internet of things-kind we created with chitale dairy. so every cow can let farmers know how she feels and what she needs to be healthier- (phone vibrates) all with a simple text. tah-dah. magic can't make digital transformation happen. but we can. that's the power of vmware

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>> mason: to prevote packages from being stolen from your mailbox or your doorstep, would you give a delivery service access to your home? starting next month some amazon shoppers will have that option. here's anna werner. >> reporter: amazon's cheerful video presents the new amazon key program as a simple convenient way to have your

packages dropped off inside your home. here's how it works: for $249 you buy a special smart door lock along with an in-home wireless camera aimed at the door. when the delivery driver arrives, amazon gets a notification. the company then actty interest rates the camera and unlocks the door remotely. so the driver can open your door and put your package inside. he then steps outside and asks amazon to relock the door. you can watch the delivery happen live or view a video sent later. convenient? in theory, sure, but on twitter one user called it a hill lairly is bad idea. another asked "convenient or too creepy?" and a third said tongue in cheek, "what could possibly go wrong?" cyber security expert john sileo says hacking. >> the biggest risk is the hackers who get ahold of the database of door codes. quite literally, if they can hack the n.s.a. they can hack a database of, you know, entry

codes into an entire block's worth of homes. that part is what scares me, not how amazon will use it. how the hackers will use it. >> reporter: but with 11 million packages stolen every year yahoo technology writer and cbs sunday morning contributor david pogue says... >> to me the comparison is not should amazon be allowed to open the front door and drop off ag=q/ package and possibly then ransack my house. the question is: is that a better option than leaving my expensive order on my front porch when i'm in the home. to me that's the risk of theft. >> reporter: the service is available the amazon prime members only. the company says if anything were to go wrong it offers a satisfaction guarantee. anthony? >> mason: what could possibly go wrong? anna werner, thanks. coming up, a "60 minutes" investigation into contaminated flooring leads to a multimillion dollar settlement.? kimchi bbq. amazing honky tonk?

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>> mason: lumber liquidators has agreed to pay $36 million to settle lawsuits over contaminated wood flooring. a "60 minutes" investigation found that laminated flooring made in china contained unsafe levels of formaldehyde, which can cause cancer. the flooring sold between 2009 and 2015 has been discontinued. there is news about this broadcast. cbs news president david rhodes announced today that jeff glor will be the next anchor of the "cbs evening news." jeff is an experienced journalist, a good friend to all of us here at cbs, and we'll be proud to pass the baton to him next month. the broadcast will be in the best hands, you can be sure of that, and i will finally get a day off. congrats, jeff. up next, remembering fats domino a 5'5" giant of rock 'n' roll.

growing up, we were german. we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com. after a dvt blood clot... i sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment.

eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding. both made eliquis right for me. ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you.

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>> mason: music came alive in the 1950s thanks in great part the antoine domino, jr.,, better known as "fats." fats domino died yesterday at home in louisiana. he was 89. he helped create a new style of music called rock 'n' roll. >> once again fats domino. ♪ i'm in love with you ♪ >> reporter: fats domino was a show-stopping piano player with a soothing baritone voice. ♪ i'm walking. yes, indeed ♪ i'm talking ♪ the most powerful and most popular of a generation of keyboardists, domino rocked into public consciousness in the 1950s with "the fat man."

his dynamic style and war vocals drew crowds and inspired musicians, some who began as fans would later perform with him. "rolling stone" likened him to benjamin franklin, beloved for the revolutionary changes he brought to r&b, a blend of new orleans parade rhythm and rock 'n' roll. ♪ i found my thrill ♪ perhaps best known for his rich rendition of "blueberry hill." the song entered pop culture as an anthem for young lovers ♪ i found my thrill on blueberry hill ♪ ♪ ain't that a shame ♪ fats domino sold 65 million records in a career that spanned five decades. along the way he broke racial barriers and tran sengded genre, crossing over into country

music. a global star he never forgot his new orleans roots, almost dying at home in the lower ninth ward during hurricane katrina. >> i'm sorry it happened to me and everybody else. ♪ all over the country people want to know ♪ whatever happened to fats domino ♪ touched by the outpouring of concern, he reminded fans he was alive and well in the title track of his last album. ♪ and i'm where i want to be ♪ >> mason: i wouldn't say i started rock 'n' roll, fats domino said, but i don't remember anyone before me playing that stuff. that's the "cbs evening news." i'm anthony after 8 years of chris christie, is kim guadagno the change new jersey really needs? guadagno

is christie's hand-picked successor. says she's "proud to be part of the christie administration." guadagno was chris christie's right hand as our schools came under attack, critical services were underfunded and our credit rating was downgraded...11 times. from the bridge to the beach we've seen it all, and we've had enough. kim guadagno isn't the change we need.

just released. missing mom 911. and the new sketches. >> new information in the case. do they believe sherry was kidnapped, or was it an elaborate hoax? then, was this actress inappropriately touched by former president george h. w. bush? and new information on the five teens charged with throwing a bolder through a windshield. and it happened to this woman. the warning for women everywhere. >> long hair and cars. how they can be a potentially dangerous combination. >> oh my gosh. and does this halloween display go way too fa