the covid party as this point. and we know how that ends. very badly. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there, tuesday august 10th and this morning we're following several major stories. in just about 30 minutes from now, the senate is set to gavel into vote on the nearly $1 trillion infrastructure package. the bill is expected to pass despite 11th hour holdouts from a few republicans. we'll be speaking to senator elizabeth warren. and also job openings are surging above 10 million for the first time ever. with so many open jobs and sonl americans out of work, we'll dig into what is causing this major disconnect. and as students return to the classroom, a new debate over

masks. we'll speak to a superintendent defying the texas governor's ban on masks. and that is where we begin with covid, 36 million cases nationwide. overall the numbers are starting to look a lot like they did last winter before we had the vaccine and they are adding up very quickly. monday the u.s. saw nearly 207 ,000 new cases on par with mid-january. average hospitalizations are now over 60,000, the first time that has happened since february. and i want you to look at this map on your screen. it shows 40 states in red, all of them have seen their covid cases rise double in the last two weeks. i want to dig into the numbers with marra barrett in memphis, tennessee, courtney kube on the latest with the military's plan to vaccinate, and with us to explain all of it, william schaafner at vanderbilt

university medical center. hospitalizations for kids under 17 are up 20% in the last week. what are they seeing where you are? >> reporter: well, here in memphis and across the state of tennessee actually week over week those pediatric hospitalizations are up 65%. so when you look at that difference nationally, the cases among kids in tennessee really devastating. here in memphis, there are six kids at this children's hospital in pediatric icu. and this is something that doctors are concerned about as hospitals are fuller than they normally are for children during the summer and as we lead into the school season. as kids were going back to school fully masked up to prevent these cases, but what we're seeing here in tennessee is that 10% of those new cases are coming from kids that are under 10 years old, the kids

that cannot get vaccinated. when i spoke with dr. randolph at the shelby county health department, he said that he is extremely disappointed because all of this could have been prevented if more people had been vaccinated. only 37% of people in the county here are vaccinated. and what is more, and more concerning, during the month of july, after the republican statehouse pushback, they were ordered to halt any outreach to minors when it comes to vaccination via social media, they canceled any vaccine events on school grounds during the month of july leading up to going back to school. and that has since been reinstated. but obviously doctors very concerned about the impact that that could have had as kids are going back to school. the state health commissioner warning that by the end of this week, all children's hospitals could be full. >> wow. doctor, we're seeing these headlines all over the country about hospitals being overwhelmed just like they were a year ago. your hospital i know has paused

all elective surgeries. last year around this time we saw the scramble for things like ppe and ventilators. are we about to be in the same boat? >> i certainly hope not. but it is increasing all over the country. and of course it is being fuelled by the transmission of this virus among unvaccinated people. yes, there is some spillover into the vaccinated, but those breakthrough infections are mild. what is driving this is serious illness among unvaccinated people. and the average age of the people being admitted to the hospital now is lower than it used to be. it is young adults and as you just reported, children are also increasingly involved. so, yes, we're all concerned. this is all preventable. vaccines can prevent this delta virus from spreading if everybody would get vaccinated. >> doctor, i want you to explain

this one to me. if you go back six months, the average number of cases roughly the same, a little higher now. hospitalizations also similar. but the number of average daily deaths was totally different. we're at about 500 a day right now, it was 2600 people a day in february. i mean, that is a huge difference, five times higher. you can explain why that may be? >> well, probably due to two things. one is better care. we're increasingly better at taking care of sick people and preventing development of more serious disease. here at vanderbilt, if you have a positive test, you will immediately be contacted and if you are in a high risk group, given monoclonal antibody which prevents evolution of the disease that is something more serious. so we're preventing an awful lot of hospitalizations and consequently deaths.

and then the other thing is, back then more older people were affected. now it is more younger people and of course as we treat them, they, because they are stronger and more robust, they are more likely to survive. >> kourtney, there is a whole lot more people to get vaccinated. talk to us about the military's plan to mandate vaccines and the backlash thus far. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. so this is expected. the president announced that he was going to ask secretary of defense to look into this and austin made it clear that he was not only open into looking into it but he was pretty confident that he would make it mandatory for service members. but now we know the timing. all active duty national guard and reserve service members, it will be mandatory for them to receive the vaccine by mid september. now, that doesn't mean that they have to be vaccinated by mid september, but that is when it will become no later than mid september it will become

mandatory for them to have it. so this becomes part of the 17 vaccines that service members have to get. and it will become -- it will go into their computer medical records, it will be man today toerks they will have to get it. the big question is what happens if somebody refuses. we don't have an answer to that yet. and i think what it will depend on is whether it becomes mandatory before one of the vaccines most likely pfizer, it passes through the emergency authorization stage and about beings -- the fda makes it fully authorized. if it is still an emergency authorization phase, then i think that there will be -- people will be thinking back towards when the anthrax vaccine was made mandatory for service members. people at the time, some service members, refused to get the vaccine and some were dishonorably discharged because of it. they were kicked out of the military. i don't expect that we'll see it at that same level of the anthrax vaccine, but again, the

big question is whether it alreadiable passed that emergency authorization phase or not. if in fact it has not become mandatory for service members by the time that the fda fully approved it, lloyd austin will still make it mandatory. and so then the question is how will the services handle it and they just don't have it worked out yet. >> all right. i hope our audience heard that when you said one of 17 vaccines that are mandated. this is not unusual. it is what we do to keep people safe. kourtney, marra, doctor, thank you all so much. and we have to turn to washington where it is a very, very big day on the him. the u.s. senate is about to take a vote that could affect all of the american people. the senate gavels in in less than 30 minutes from now. setting the stage for a final vote on that bipartisan infrastructure bill which is expected to pass.

it is actually finally infrastructure week. and leigh ann caldwell has been following the story from the hill. and also with us, co-founder of punch bowl news. how will this whole thing go down? >> and it is not just infrastructure week, it is actually infrastructure day because the senate is going to pass this $1 trillion bipartisan traditional infrastructure bill later this morning. what i'm going to be watching for, we know that all 50 democrats will support it, but how many republicans actually vote for this legislation. we got a bit of a preview the other day, that key procedural vote, when 19 republicans voted for this legislation. we expect that number to be similar today. but i'm going to watch if that number increases and also if republicans running for re-election in 2022 come down in favor of this legislation including senator john thune who is the senate's number two, a

member of mcconnell's leadership team. we know mcconnell voted for the procedural motion and we expect him to vote for final passage today. but the senate will complete its work today on the piece of legislation and then immediately after they will move to the beginning process of this $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill and then everything moves over to the house of representatives where things get even more complicated. >> pushing the human infrastructure bill but not necessarily linking it. john, once this passes in the senate i'm guessing the white house will put maximum pressure on progressive house democrats to get them on board. how hard are they going to fight the white house on this? >> i think progressives are concerned about it, but the thing is, what you have to remember is that this bill, nancy pelosi is going to hold this bill. she is going to hold this for what could be a month or two

because the way the procedure works, she is going to wait for what is known as this human infrastructure package. they have to pass a resolution and then they have to draft the bill and that is not going to happen until at least the end of september/october. and so she will hold it until she gets the other human infrastructure bill. she will try to say to her left and progressives and her moderates, you know, we'll vote for both of these together, we'll pass them both together. that is the way she will do it. and she will work with the white house. and this is critical to joe biden, this is -- you know, biden's agenda is this infrastructure bill, both portions, this is biden build back better, this is what he promised the american people he can do and he needs to deliver on this. >> john, senate republicans who are voting for the bipartisan bill 24re9enned to pull their vote if the bipartisan bill and

the bigger human infrastructure bill were linked. you just said speaker pelosi is going to link the two or that is her plan. once the senate votes on this, have republicans lost their leverage, she can do whatever she wants? >> well, i mean, remember, this is a procedural vote when they go to -- today they do final passage on the hard bill. and they start on soft infrastructure, the human infrastructure. so the human infrastructure will be a democratic only bill. and democrats have the narrowest of margins, 50/50 in the senate. only three vote margin in the house. republicans are betting that the democrats can't pass it and there is -- you know, there is a good chance that they will have problems with this. now, remember, this is only the beginning of this process on the human infrastructure bill. the actual legislation when we see it in the fall, that will get another vote. and at that point you will see

moderates sinema and joe manchin, they may have problems with what they are seeing. again, every vote is a veto. so they need every democrat. so this is on the human infrastructure, this will take a couple months and it will be a cliffhanger in the house and the senate. >> john, trump threatened to oppose republicans who voted for the hard infrastructure bill. are republicans getting more comfortable defying trump or will this be a one shot deal? >> you know, that is a very good question. right now this is -- you look at the core of the republicans who voted for this legislation or helped put this together. susan collin, mitt romney, bill cafferty, these are people who voted to impeach trump. some of the members who voted to

impeach him are the same ones voting for this legislation or behind it. so there is kind of a moderate faction in the senate republican conference. i think in broader legislation, i think this would be a difficult, you know -- this would be a difficult vote. tax increases, they will never go against trump, they ever go against republican orthodoxy. but voting for roads, bridges, highways, this is what people get atlantaed to -- elected to congress to do. we pay for internal improvements. mcconnell was talking about this. this is much easier do. other policy issues, that is completely different and i think that they will have to give into trump. and also the closer to the election, and if he is out there spending money on the election, he is out there appearing, it will be harder for them to ignore him. >> remember, it was infrastructure that former president trump said that he was going to get done.

thank you both so much. coming up, we'll be speaking to senator elizabeth warren, she is already talking about the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill and she will head into the is that the vote in a few. but first, andrew cuomo still hanging on as state lawmakers take the next step toward impeaching new york's governor. so when will we hear from him? that is next. that is next rtphon. and now get netflix on us. it's all included with 2 lines for only $70 bucks! only at t-mobile. get ready. it's time for the savings event of the year. the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon! at this homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon, there's no telling what we might bundle! homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon! bundle cars, trucks, colonials, bungalows, and that weird hut your uncle lives in. so strike up the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon band for the deal that started forever ago and will probably never end. homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon. -say it with me. -homeandautobundle--

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developing this morning the new york state assembly speaker says the impeachment investigation into andrew cuomo will be completed soon. the governor continuing to ignore growing calls to step down following the damning report by state attorney general accusing help of sexually harassing a total of 11 women. as of this morning the governor has not been charged with any crime. he disputes many of the allegations and denies any wrongdoing. live to kathy park in albany. what kind of time line is the state assembly looking at when

they say soon? >> reporter: good morning to you. so the state judiciary committee came together yesterday and we got a closer look as to how all of thiswill play out. ultimately the answer is weeks. and a lot of that will take place this month and they still need to get a lot of evidence, obviously from the governor. they say that they are also waiting for more documents from the a.g.'s office. and they mentioned two dates this month, the 16th and 23rd, they will be closed door executive sessions. and they will be reviewing all the information that is handed over to them. and then only after they to that will they produce, move forward, and potentially move forward with articles of impeachment. here is a little more from the judiciary committee chair. >> the committee is closely

reviewing the findings of the attorney general's detailed report. at the same time, outside counsel davis poll being is continuing to conduct its own thorough, i said and expeditious investigation. >> and if the governor is impeached, he will also have 30 days to prepare his defense and this will ultimately move to the state senate. they need a two-thirds vote to ultimately remove him out of office. and steph, this is significant because here in the state of new york, we haven't seen anything like this play out in over 100 years. so if he happened to step down or if he is impeached, lieutenant governor will be moving in. and that is also historic because she would be the first female governor of new york.

>> kathy park, thank you. turning to the latest in the fight over former president trump's tax returns. remember how lawmakers were supposed to see them last week? well, now they won't have a chance until at least november after trump asked a federal judge to permanently block the treasury department from handing them over, yesterday the judge said he would hear arguments from both sides on november 8, extending the two year fight at least a few more months. are we ever going to get those taxes 1234. coming up next, a record number of jobs open and millions still out of work. we'll dig into that discontent next. and senator elizabeth warren will be here as the senate gets ready to vote on that $1 trillion infrastructure bill. $1 trillion infrastructure bill

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if you are looking for work, turn up the volume now. our economy has more jobs open and available than anytime in u.s. history, soaring above 10 million in the month of june. it comes after a million jobs were added in july.

dom chu is joining us. if now there is plenty of work to be had, where are the workers? >> that is the million, billion, maybe even trillion dollar question. the economy continues to recover from the effects of the pandemic but many businesses are still struggling to find those workers. there is been a slew of different explanations for why ranging from fears of returning to the workplace because of health concerns to changing priorities in the household around who wants or needs to work to enhance unemployment benefits, providing an incentive to stay at home to the lack of good paying jobs. but whatever the reason, it led to the biggest worker shortage in history. what i can tell you is where the jobs are. yes nearly 1.7 million positions open in the hospitality industry, but also in trade, transportation and utilities.

nearly 1.8 million jobs in professional and business services as well. so what this could show us is that bigger problem is that so-called skills gap and it might take a lot bigger effort at retraining the american workforce to actually take advantage of all those open jobs that you just mentioned. >> we saw nearly 4 million people quit their jobs last month, we know gdp and consumer spending are above pre-paint levels. can the case be made that we have fully recovered economically? >> yes, you can make the case. it seems counterintuitive to say that we're fully recovered because there are so many folks out there still out of work or trying to make ends meet. but in aggregate the u.s. economy has recovered faster than many had expected. and that includes policymakers, politicians in washington, d.c. as well. it is even leaving some of the central bankers to look at the idea of trying to remove some of

that massive financial stimulus that has been put into place since the great financial crisis back in '08 and '09 and then of course made even bigger in response to the virus pandemic. but there are tougher times ahead. researchers say that the ongoing surge in both job openings and the quit rates suggest that labor shortages are actually still getting worse and not getting better. now, if that is the case, then the positive trends in the economy could actually be at risk. and remember, latest survey of small business owners still say nearly half have open positions to be filled, that means that there are still worker shortages that could take time to work out. >> and if that labor shortage is getting worse, anyone who is telling you inflation is going away real soon, it will not. dom, thank you. i want to head back to capitol hill where the senate is expected to pass the bipartisan

infrastructure deal. this morning senate democrats are already looking to pass their own budget proposal to fund $3.5 trillion for human infrastructure. senator warren proposing a minimum tax on our richest companies to help pay for this thing. it requires profitable companies to pay a 7% tax on earnings of over $100 million. and i want to bring in senator warren. always good to see you. we want to learn more about your proposal. we know that progressives like bernie sanders, they will be behind this. but what about the joe manchin and kyrsten sinemas of the world, are they on board? >> angus king is my partner in this. angus has been notable as one of the moderates in the senate. as you know, he is not a democrat, he is an independent who caucuses with the democrats. and has just come off helping negotiate this big bipartisan deal. i also want to remind you that

back when we were presidential candidates, there were many things on which joe biden and i did not agree on tax policy, but one that we agreed strongly on was the need to tax book profits of giant corporations. so i think that this will have a lot of support throughout the democratic caucus but i think a lot of support across the country. >> there is certainly a lot of support from the american people. the tax you are proposing would hit about 1300 companies. what would your plan be to make sure these companies don't flee to tax havens overseas? how do you avoid that? >> let me start by reminding you, this is not about raising the marginal income tax on corporations. there is separate work on that. i think much of that needs to be

done after the trump tax cuts. this one is different. this one says for the corporations that are reporting millions, $100 million is the minimum amount to trigger this tax. hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to their shareholders and can't turn around then and say to the irs, oh, irs, we actually made nothing in profits and we're not going to pay any taxes. this is a minimum tax of 7% and says that every corporation in america that is big and making big profits has to pay it. in other words, it is saying, amazon, you make $11 billion in profits as they did a couple years ago and pay zero in taxes, this puts a stop to that. so this is i don't think about trying to flee to another tax jurisdiction. this is just putting in a kind of backstop here. if you are paying full taxes at

the full marginal rate, this doesn't kick in in the same way. >> forget about even changing the tax laws. here is something that i would love for you to explain to me. the bipartisan plan originally wanted to fund the irs $80 billion just to enforce what is already on the books. this would have been the best return on investment out of anything in there. why on earth did it get dropped? >> you know, stephanie, this is like one of the things that makes your head want to explode. >> correct. >> exactly, give the irs enough money -- and i want to throw in a commercial on this. enough permanent funding so that they can invest vest the kind of teams they need to be able to [ inaudible question ] it folks at the high end. auditing folks with low incomes is actually pretty easy.

auditing those with multiple tax loopholes is always more complex and the irs struggles because they don't have enough money. so i think this is one of the key three things we need to do. we need a wealth tax, we need a real corporate profits tax which senator king and i have put in place, and we need to fund the irs. best return on investment that we can get. why the republicans ultimately rejected that, you got to get a republican here to explain it. because to me, it just makes no sense. this is about saying billionaires have to pay a fair share, it is about giant corporations paying their fair share, and it is about saying that everybody has to follow the law, even rich folks. >> well, rich folks can afford inflation, poor folks complaint. the human infrastructure plan is a massive investment that would create long term solutions, but it does run the risk of creating even more inflation and that is a huge problem right now.

are you okay with spiking to get things passed? >> you know, the way i see it, there are a lot of moving pieces whenever we talk about inflation. and keep in mind what we're himself proposing at the same time is to increase the tax rate on billionaires, to increase the taxes on giant corporations, so that means that there is money coming into the government at the same time that we're spending money. and enforce the current tax laws. that is a responsible economic approach. also, a lot of what is in this reconciliation package is about increasing productivity on the united states. you know, i was listening to the segment just before that talked about open jobs. one of the points that wasn't mentioned in it is about how many parents are at home because they can't find child care. we were in a child care crisis before the pandemic and now

post-pandemic with places having shut down, or those that are open having cut back on the number of available slots, you know, one in four women who said i'm out of the workforce said the reason for that is because they can't find child care. so when we put money into universal child care and universal pre-k, that means more people can get back to work. more people get back to work, that increases gdp, that is good for our economy overall. >> it absolutely is. but it is going to take time. if this gets passed, it would take a long time for us to actually see the results. you know firsthand what it is like to campaign for senate and for president. people vote for what affects them right now. we live in a world of short termism, good or bad, that is the state of play. the cost of everything right now is going up. if this passes, the human infrastructure bill, and democrats lose the midterms

because republicans are banging on about inflation, will it be worth it? >> look, these are the right things to do for our nation and we have underinvested for a long, long time. we've underinvested in fighting the climate crisis, we've underinvested in our children and child care and pre-k, in post high school kids, this one has two years of community college and makes investments in pell grants so that kids who come from poorer families will truly have access to higher education. these are the right investments for our nation to make. but i want to push back a little bit. one of the things that i'm fighting really hard for as we design these programs is to get as many of them up and working as soon as possible. so we're not talking about child care three years from thousand, four years from now, five years from now. we're talking about helping the

child care centers now. getting those spots open. we're talking about -- >> but senator, we actually -- let me push back. hold on. we did that. the american rescue plan had $39 billion for child care centers and all that money hasn't gone out yet and that is just in the immediate. and we know we have a child care crisis right now. so how can you say we'll get things up and running really quickly when we haven't even seen that with the last big slug of money? >> i hope we learn the lesson from that last big slug of money and that is don't hope that the states will turn around and pass it out. if the states aren't moving fast enough, then we need to find other vehicles. look at the ppp money. that stuff went out in a hurry, right? why? because people could apply directly. and say we want access to this money. in the case of child care centers, i want to make sure child care centers can get access to this money and get

access fast. i want parents to be able to get access to this money fast. the idea is not to do it years from now, the idea is do it now when the need is great, when people who need a chance to get back to work, when our babies need a chance to get back to where they are in good educational situations, the need is now. >> all right. senator, thank you for joining me this morning. always good to speak to you. >> good to talk to you. coming up, the texas governor says no school district can mandate masks. why? well, the dallas superintendent is defying that order because he cares about those kids and he wants them to be safe. he joins us next. he looked after his community. she built an empire. fought for his people.

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by republican governor ron desantis banning mask mandates in florida schools. the parents say the governor's order will cause the virus to spread even more putting their kids at risk. dr. anthony fauci issuing a stark warning to florida earlier today on "morning joe." >> the people of florida are going to suffer unnecessarily. they will be unnecessary hospitalization and tragically unnecessary deaths. that is exactly what is going to happen. it is entirely predictable on the one hand and entirely preventable on the other hand. >> kerry sanders is outside an elementary school in naples where the battle over masks and vaccines is raging. it is the first day of school. what are parents and kids telling you? >> reporter: well, of course first day of school is always exciting for the kids coming with their parents, new backpacks, new sneakers. and in this case, some kids

coming with masks. as you know, this is one of the communities where there is no mask mandate. the whole state has established from the governor's level on down no mask mandate. some communities are pushing back. but as we look at the kids arriving here and we see some of the fun that they are having coming in, the parents are the ones who are deciding whether their children will wear masks or will not wear masks. it means that you will have possibly your child sitting next to a child one with a mask, one without a mask. this is what the parents had to say. >> i want them to have a great year, you know, and if they are comfortable wearing it, i'll allow them to make that decision themselves. >> giving evan the choice. >> i am giving evan the choice. >> if everyone in my class is wearing a mask, i will wear a mask. >> faith over fear. i mean, there is only one man in control here and it is god clearly. i think it did more harm than any good really actually if you really think about it.

you know, wearing a mask all day long, being behind that, breathing their own toxins all day. >> reporter: so we just left a classroom, this is not statistically broadened out to the whole community, but in the one classroom, 15 students and the teacher was wearing a mask, six kids were wearing masks, all the rest were not wearing masks. and of course that is what parents who have their children masked up are most concerned about, that the kids have the masks, kids don't have the masks, they interact and potentially if there is the delta variant or the virus in the school system, it can easily spread. and as we know, there are increasing number of pediatric cases across the country and it is really showing itself in florida which has become an epicenter. >> kerry sanders, thank you. let head down to texas where students in dallas are also headed back to school. kids there are required to mask up after the school district's superintendent decided to

implement a mask mandate defying a ban by republican governor greg abbott. i want to speak to the superintendent of the school district. michael, you are blatantly defying the order. how are you going to enforce it? >> thank you for having me. the governor's responsible for the hole state of texas from economic development to jobs to everything else. i'm responsible for students and their well-being. and with the cases going up in our county, there are no more beds in dallas public hospitals for students that may have the virus. and so with those factors in play and knowing that i'm ultimately responsible for everything that happens in dallas isd, i thoi notified hig school board that i made this decision and i'll be held

accountable for whatever decisions i make. but i would rather be safe than sorry. and so that is what i'm doing at this point. >> what kind of reaction are you getting from parents, students, staff? >> well, overwhelmingly supportive reaction from the board, from the community, from many teachers. there have been a few quite honestly that are going to test us. and so i'm testing the governor. i mean, that is the way things work. and so it hasn't been unanimous. but it has been overwhelmingly supported from the business community and we're just dealing with what -- and my requirement for the mandate -- for the mask is temporary. and i say temporary, until our situation gets better. so when this thing gets better, i will lift the mask requirement. but i don't know when that is going to be. >> have you had any kids pulled out of your school over this mask requirement?

>> well, that is very interesting because it goes in to effect today. i announced it yesterday. i gave everybody 24 hours. we're asking people to be kind, but be firm. we'll do some progressive discipline, we'll give them a couple hours to comply. and then we'll ask them to voluntarily leave and if not, we'll do what we need to do. we'll be benevolent but we also need to be firm because safety is the most important. the parents will forgive us if we commit educational malpractice, they will never forgive us if something bad happens to their kids' safety and health. >> have you been in touch with the governor's office? >> no, i've been waiting for a call or a notice from the attorney general. i have not received anything yet. stay tuned. i mean, but you know, i've been in conversations with a lot of superintendents in texas and i get along with the governor. he has appointed me to a couple commissions. this is not personal. but this is something that we

strongly believe in and as superintendents, you'll see more superintendents -- not everybody, just us in the dire straits in the urban settings that have a lot of people close to each other. in ruralest texas, i would never expect there to be a mask mandate. this is something that is locally important to us and our community and we have to and wed accountable for our decisions, and so be it. >> masks are important but they're secondary. why not mandate the vaccine for teachers and eligible students in your district? that's the best way to lower the numbers and prevent this thing from spreading? >> i agree with you, and the feds say we can do that. the state said we could not. we can't ask who has the vaccine. if we had the tools to do that, i'll talk to my staff and present to the school, announce to the school board we're going to incentivize the behavior we want. we're going to compensate and we're going to be allowed to do

that with our stimulus dollars people who voluntarily get a vaccine and prove it to us and it will help them in their pocketbook and maybe we can grow that base so that we don't have to have masks in a few weeks, so stay tuned. i'm moving in that direction as well, but my hands are tied at the state level again and on top of that, we were standing up a virtual option but told we can't have virtual option, if we have a virtual option, we won't get state funding for it. i'm cornered in. i'm doing what i can to make sure that our students get an education and that they're safe and i'll keep looking for other creative solutions as we go down this path. >> good luck with the creative solution. please come back in a few weeks. i hope it goes as well for you. you deserve it. coming up, california's record-setting dixie fire destroys more than 900 buildings so far. we'll take you live to the ground as firefighters work to contain those flames.

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out west rising temperatures could fuel the fires in california. president dixie fire putting more than 13,000 people under evacuation orders. or ofishls say it burned an area twice the half of new york city. it is less than a quarter contained. straight to emily eckeda in california. what is it like on the ground where you are? >> reporter: good morning. you can see almost apocalyptic here. nearly 900 structures incinerated. firefighters say it's only 22% contained as you mentioned. there are more than 16 tnks

16,000 structures at risk and the homeowners are hoping they won't share a fate as this greenville town completely leveled. 75% of the buildings here destroyed. believe it or not behind me, that used to be a fire station. next to that, that is a fire engine. i want to show you take you to a rancher who describes the chaos as he continues to protect hundreds of acres, dousing 20-acre fires himself. listen here. >> we just barely get it out and another one would start. didn't seem like you could get on top of it. one point it was so bad i texted out in a group text to the fire department "help" if anyone can come but everyone was in the same predicament. >> reporter: these wildfires are burning faster, hotter and earlier and they're pointing the finger at climate change, a point underscored by a report out of the u.n. earlier this week.

back to you. >> wishing everyone out there safety. the images are extraordinary. emily thank you for the report and thank you for watching. this wraps up this busy hour. i'm stephanie ruehl. garrett haake picks up breaking news coverage on the other side of the break.

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