this morning on "world news now," historic conditions. the fires burning across several western states. why some firefighters are saying it's the worst they've seen since the 1920s. today's battle and who's ready to help. >> political fight. hillary clinton and a fox news reporter. a combative exchange. the tough questions and how the democratic front-runner responds. and from a political fight to a courtroom fight. >> new this half hour, a brawl right in front of a judge. what led up to this violent scene. >> and later, comedy scandal. the funny guy known as big fat jewish accused of stealing. find out who is not laughing in "the skinny" on this wednesday, august 19th. from abc news, this is "world news now." good morning. i'm reena ninan.

>> and i'm phillip mena. let's get started this half hour with those wildfires in the west. some of the most serious burning around chelan, washington where nearly 1,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation. >> in idaho fire conditions the worst since 1926. here's abc's brandi hitt. >> with at least 90 large wildfires now burning in the west, the 30,000 firefighters on the ground are stretched so thin, the army is now being called in for the first time in nearly a decade. >> soldiers, you know, we're hard workers and it just comes natural to us. >> reporter: 200 active duty soldiers from joint base lewis-mcchord have been deployed in washington state to battle relentless flames tearing through chelan. here you see a black hawk helicopter crew gathering water and just seconds later making this air drop over a northern california wildfire. that military might also

desperately needed to save hundreds of homes threatened in washington. >> we had a really big, big living room. >> carol jenkins' home is one of dozens destroyed. >> i didn't take any family pictures or anything like that. i did not think anything was going to happen. >> reporter: in northern idaho, more than 40 homes are gone. another two dozen lost in oregon. in drought stricken california where 18 wildfires are tearing through hot dry terrain, firefighters are using these weather balloons to coordinate their attacks and keep fire crews safe. on top of the army, national guard troops have already been caused in to help fight these fires in several states. there are also talks to ask for assistance from as far as australia and new zealand. phillip and reena. >> turning into an international effort. brandi, thank you so much. there's more rain in the forecast for the southeast today. there could be more scenes like this one in charleston, south carolina. more than 3 inches of rain clogging the streets turning

roads into rivers, part of a storm system dumping rain as far north as west virginia. in new york, it was the third straight day of temperatures over 90 degrees making it the big apple's first official heat wave in more than two years. today's heat indexes could be in the triple digits in the northeast. here's justin pavek with the latest from accuweather. morning, justin. >> phillip and reena, thanks and good morning to you. in the pacific northwest, fire fighting conditions unfortunately not looking to improve but rather to deteriorate throughout the next couple of afternoons. increasing winds expected along with low humidity and lots of heat not to mention the extreme drought which continues. so fires will continue to burn from near spokane southbound to boise. northeast, more heat and more humidity. that's the big news later on this afternoon. i think it could feel like 95 to 100 degrees around our nation's capital as far as north as boston. a few showers and thunderstorms possible, as well. then tropical storm danny is in a favorable area to strengthen

into a hurricane. phillip and reena, back to you. >> thank you, justin. >> one more note about the bone dry conditions in the west. citrus growers squeezed by four years of drought are taking drastic new measures. they're bull dozing thousands of acres of citrus groves and selling off the trees. in their place, growers are planting less thirsty trees that produce more profitable crops. now to a rough landing aboard a us airways plane in charlotte, north carolina. the 159 people on board are safe but shaken. investigators want to know what happened. here's abc's david kerley. >> a near disaster in charlotte, wind shear slamming a jetliner to the ground. >> we bounced it, went around. he's the one that had tail strike damage. he had a tail strike. he might have dropped some pieces all the way down the runway. >> reporter: this is what it looks like when a plane is trying to land and is hit by the sunday downward burst of air.

wind shear. it can be sudden and strong. the pilot of the a-321 with 153 passengers on board approaching charlotte from atlanta saturday was hit by wind shear. he an bores the landing, hits the power to go around and try again. >> we had about a 20 knot wind shear, laut loss of speed at about ten feet above. >> what the pilots don't realize at the time is that they hit some of the landing lights, damaged the underside of their jetliner. >> it tells me this came as close as you possibly can to having a major catastrophe. he hit the ground. he hit the lights. he ran the tail along the ground before he was able to get airborne again. >> once the jet was on the ground, damage apparent and the runway with debris from those lights shut down. this is a serious incident. the national transportation safety board is investigating. it already has both black boxes from that aircraft to find out what happened in those last couple of seconds and how the pilots reacted.

david kerley, abc news, reagan washington airport. target will pay $67 million to visa over that security breach in 2013. the accounts of about 40 million customers were hacked in one of the largest breaches of a u.s. company in history. afterward, many customers asked banks and credit card companies for replacement cards. visa sued target to recover those costs. to presidential politics now and hillary clinton continues to be dogged with questions about her e-mail account as she campaigns. the latest was in las vegas where she got into a heated exchange with fox news reporter ed henry. >> fbi believes that you tried to wipe the entire server. did you try to wipe -- so there would be no personal, no official -- >> we went through a painstaking process and turned over 55,000 pages of anything we thought could be work related. >> donald trump is campaigning today traveling to new hampshire where he and jeb bush will have dueling town hall meetings. now to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man

in charlotte, north carolina. the first full day of deliberations is getting under way in the trial of randall character. jurors must decide if he used excessive force when he shot jonathan ferrell 10 times. prosecutors say ferrell was in a car accident and knocked on a door for help. but she called police. character insists he called for help to protect himself. >> a courtroom descended into chaos. watch this. >> back up, sir. sir, back up. >> probably not the day in court people expected. the man who was attacked there is it charged with kill is his niece. the guy who went after him was the victim's boyfriend. several people who tried to get into the action were kicked out of the courtroom. which was briefly locked down. the hearing was postponed and will likely be held in a closed court. >> good idea. now to a health alert.

as children are about to go back to school, researchers say drug resistant head lice are spreading. in at least 259 states, they found these super lice with gene mutations that make them resistant to most over the counter treatments. their recommendation, switch to stronger medications. in southwest florida, a warning out for a bigger and perhaps scarier critter called the argentine tegu lizard. biologists are calling the four-foot long reptile public enemy number one. so far a few have been spotted around fort myers. they are not known to attack people, but they do upset the ecosystem by eating smaller lizards and birds. now the story of a real labor of love from a husband in wisconsin to his late wife. don and babbett were married and she died from cancer last november. >> to honor her, don started babbett's seeds of hope. he planted more than four miles of sunflowers an along a highway

and all of those sunflowers are blooming this month. >> so don's plan is to sell the sunflower seeds and donate a portion of the proceeds to hospitals and cancer research. i love this idea. how many times do you buy flowers for your garden or just a pot to put in your apartment? you can get these seeds apparently from their website. babbett's seeds of hope.com. babbett's seeds of hope.com. there's also a facebook page for the whole thing. what a beautiful display of love to honor his wife. i just thought this was a remarkable story. >> absolutely. it's beautiful to look at and a beautiful gesture. shows how much he loved her. great, great cause. coming up in "the skinny," the scandal involving a comedy star accuse ood of stealing. find out who and what. also ahead, the pressure many couples face when they want to get pregnant when stress interferes with family planning. and later the schoolboy who needed help tying his tie on his first day of school. how a couple of police officers were eager to help. you're watching "world news now."

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there was a deadly accident here at a construction site in new mexico. six stories of scaffolding outside of a medical center suddenly buckled and collapsed. trapping several people underneath. a construction worker was killed and seven others injured. three of them remain in critical condition this morning. and breaking news from washington state. where an explosion has leveled much of a motel 6 and critically injured a gas company worker. after reports of a leaking gas line behind the motel, guests were evacuated right away. some firefighters arriving at the scene were blown back 20

feet by the blast. the flames are now under control. good to hear that. now to the frustration of infertility. i tell you, this affects a lot of women of our generation. nearly 7 million to be exact each year find themselves unable to conceive. >> for those who can't, the emotional strain can become almost unbearable. abc's mara schiavocampo has some ways to cope. >> reporter: from headaches to high blood pressure, stress can take a toll. but now there are growing concerns that stress can even affect fertility. a study from ohio state university finding women with the highest stress lebts took 29% longer to get pregnant compared to other women and their risk of infertility doubled. >> we're making some progress in recognizing the relationship between stress and infertility. >> dr. alice doe mar author of "conquering infertility," treats women struggling to conceive and stress management is at the core

of her practice. >> you want to start looking at their stress levels, health habits. we challenge some of these automatic negative thoughts. >> melissa hogan says the struggle to get pregnant brought her stress level to an all-time high. >> the stress of the situation was getting to me so much that it was impacting my life. it was really starting to cause depression. >> she followed a mind/body regime consisting mainly of relaxation techniques and group support that she says allowed her to get go of the stress she felt for not being able to conceive. she's now expect'g baby boy. >> it was the right thing at the right time. >> reporter: according to the doctor, there areimple ways to reduce stress that could make an impact. separate tackles that need to be done from those that would be nice to be done. control intake that may stress your body. stop smoking and cut back on caffeine and alcohol. practice relaxation methods such as yoga or massage. >> there are a lot of things that they can doing within their control to increase their chances of getting pregnant. >> reporter: mara schiavocampo,

abc news, new york. >> a lot of women have spent so much money on ivf treatments and finally are lucky to have a baby and they end up getting pregnant naturally because i think the stress of finally having a baby is off of them. and they sort of learned to relax in some cases. it's not always the case for everybody. there is a lot of pressure i feel society doesn't acknowledge for women of chide bearing years trying to have kids. i think it's remarkable there are these mental exercises that you can do that might take some of the pressure off. >> it takes such a toll on your body. coming up, an instagram celebrity gets slammed for stealing material. >> and steven colbert shows off his moves like jagger. got to see this one. it's in "the skinny" next. >> "world news now" continues after this from our abc stations.

♪ skinny, so skinny >> all right. we begin with a scandal rocking the internet. >> social media star being called out for plagiarism. the man known as the fat jewish has become famous for posting funny jokes and memes. on instagram. his cultural impact so wide reaching he's even been interviewed by katie couric. >> now it seems the tide is turning against the media personality whose real name is josh ostrovsky. dozens of examples of him reposting material but not attributing the original poster are being discovered like this

picture right here. it's a caption of a bulldog eating with a man. the fat jewish cropping that image. >> but here, the poster even calls him out. he told couric on the internet, everything gets shared but his critics which include many comics and comedic writers point to his making a living off of other people's material through sponsored posts like this one for craftsman tools. the fat jewish currently has 6 million instagram followers. moving on to stephen colbert who was on the howard stern show yesterday when the radio host asked him about being in a rolling stones cover band when he was younger. >> colbert responded by singing a little of "brown sugar," but he didn't stop there. he got up to show off jagger's signature strut. ♪ brown sugar how come you taste so good ♪ >> keep going. the dancing is great. wow. ♪ brown sugar just like a young girl should ♪ >> i had enough of that. >> really? >> that was fantastic. >> am i turning you on?

>> he was good. admit it. he really does have moves. >> you got stern and colbert together, it's going to be magic. >> we produced that show. he said the band was called a shot in the dark but they changed shot to a similar sounding sh word. because they were so bad. >> yeah, yeah. we can watch that guy all day long. both of them now. we turn now from the rolling stones to the beatles and their first recording contract that is soon to be up for auction. the six-page document is expected to fetch $150,000 later this month. >> the contract was signed by the band in 1961 including john, paul, george and peter. that's right. not ringo or officially richard starkey. the contract included their first drummer pete best before he was kicked out. >> people are like who? >> what? >> paul and george were only teenagers at the time and the contract was for a whopping 80 bucks. >> wow, that is a steal. >> 80 bucks. rounding out our british rock theme english professor

deciding to live life as david bowie. we change rock 'n' roll by incorporating performance art through many of his personas and the professor will broker from kingston university, he's going to spend the next year method acting. that's when you really get into character by trying to be somebody else. he's go going to try to be the elusive rock legend. >> he will only consume media available to bowie back in the '70s. he's really getting into this here. he's dressing as each and every one of david bowie's characters including the famous ziggy stardust as you see here with the orange wig and all. that's him right there. he's also posted pics of himself as well as the man who fell to the earth, the thin white duke and aladdin sean. >> is this dude going to blog, this professor. >> >> follow him instagram. check out his costumes. coming up, the ties that bind. some helpful police officers

's really good. this one. stay with us. that tie a boy's tie. you've got to see this one. it's really good. stay with us. it's the "pungent gym bag stink" neutralizer. and the "prevent mold and mildew on the shower curtain for up to 7 days" spray. it's also the "odor causing bacteria" fighter. and even the "athlete's foot fungus" killer. discover more ways you can use lysol disinfectant spray to help keep your home healthier. what'in your intimate life? time is the key. with kids and schedules crossing like this. keeping things interesting can be hard to do. have you ever considered a pleasure gel? it's not something that i've ever needed.

pleasure gels are not just for lubrication. it feels warm. this is going to be interesting. ky love creates a new sensation. some playfulness, excitement, which is great for your emotional connection and your relationship as a whole. happy wifey? happy wifey. plagiarism. >> i'm alex trebek. if you're age 50 to 85, this is an important message. so please, write down the number on your screen. the lock i want to talk to you about isn't the one on your door. it's a rate lock for your life insurance that guarantees your rate can never go up at any time, for any reason. but be careful. many policies you see do not have one, but you can get a lifetime rate lock through the colonial penn program. call this number to learn more. this plan was designed with a rate lock for people on a fixed income who want affordable life insurance that's simple to get.

coverage options for just $9.95 a month, less than 35 cents a day. act now and your rate will be locked in for life. it will never increase. your coverage can never be cancelled as long as you pay your premiums, and your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. you cannot be turned down because of your health. call for your information kit and gift. both are free, with no obligation. don't wait, call this number now. ♪

finally this half hour, a boy ♪ finally this half hour, a boy headed to his first day of school in los angeles needed a little help. a necktie was part of his wardrobe but he didn't know how to tie it. kabc's lee and suit for reports who exactly was ready to step in and help him out. >> reporter: a simple act of kindness from cops to a concerned 14-year-old. i didn't know how to tie my tie and i had no one to tie it. >> christopher cazales and his mother were rushing to get to school for orientation and to get the teen's picture taken for his school i.d. >> the nervous freshman desperate to the fit in fully dressed in his uniform. >> it's really important because if not, you'll look different than anyone else because you're not going to have a tie.

you look segregated from everyone else. >> reporter: he was watching online videos as they hurried to school when his mom decided they needed to ask for help. >> of course we see some cops. i'm like son, flag them down. he's like, they're going to think i'm doing something bad. i'm like no, just flag them down. >> i was kind of -- i didn't want to do it. >> i heard him say can you help me with my tie? i heard them say, of course. pull over. i was like yes. >> lapd officers jonathan maldonado and alberto ledesma quickly jumped into action tying his tie. his mother capturing the kindness on camera, posting it on social media. the pictures quickly going viral. for the two veteran officers, the encounter was about much more than just a tie. >> this goes into having trust in your community and knowing that we are part of the community. and that we are there to help whether it's to tie a young man's tie or to handle the robbery that just occurred. >> reporter: for christopher, the lesson taught him more than just a windsor knot.

his outlook towards police changed. >> it's nice to know some of them are actually nice and will help. >> reporter: his school picture proud proof. >> it felt good. i was like yeah, a cop tied my tie. yes. >> reporter: leann suitor for abc news. >> cops can't tie everybody's tie so phillip is going to show us how to do it. >> we've got about 20 seconds. the thin side on the left. we have the wider side on the right. wider over the thinner and then it's under, not over -- >> okay. >> this way. >> and then over that way. see you can see how that works. up under underneath. >> up underneath. >> are we going to get it? >> we're going to get it. let's do it. we're going to put this on our facebook account. we're going to get it. >> three, two, one, perfect, nailed it. it takes some work. >> we're going to put the final product on our facebook account. >> cal

making news in america this morning, severe weather. tornadoes and powerful storms racing across the midwest. causing damage and knocking out power. where this is all heading right now. e-mail investigation. hillary clinton dismissing questions about her private server. >> my personal e-mails are my personal business, right? >> the presidential candidate in the heated exchange. we're live in washington. pink pill. the controversial viagra for women approved. when will it hit the market and will it cost more man the male version? hard knocks on the campaign trail. presidential candidate marco rubio with a pigskin mishap. well, good morning to yo