tom foreman in decoding that data. it's so, so interesting. tell us so much about who voted and what they thought about things. john has more on that. >> tom touched on one of the big stories of this election, which is just who voted. i want to look at this right now. this so-called gender gap. this was the split. 51% of the people who voted were women, 49% were men. remember this number. i want you to look back at 2012. it was 53% female, 47% male. so a bigger gender gap in a presidential year. but a more important number might be this one. of the women who voted two years ago, it split 55% to 44% for president obama, an 11-point margin for the democrats there remember that number. let's look at what it was today. 52% to 47%. the democrats only enjoying a five-point boost right there. another thing that is fascinating. let's talk about race here, shall we? 75% of the vote this election day was white. 12% african american. latino, 8%. let's look at latino compared to two years ago. two years ago, latino was 10%. so a greater proportion of the v

tom foreman breaks it down for us. >> there are three key things we're watching in this midterm. the first is right here in the u.s. senate. the democrats have been in charge. we're showing them here in blue along with the two independents who caucus with them in purple. the republicans are expected to gain some seats here. the democrats are expected to lose some. but control of this chamber will come down to nine or ten very close races and the democrats have to win six or more of them if they want to remain in power here. on the other side of the rotunda, the second thing we're looking at which is the u.s. house of representatives. the republicans have had the majority here. that is not expected to change. the question is will they lose some seats or more likely will they pick up some. and if so, how. if they do it with tea party help, that can set up divisions within the republican party that the democrats might be able to exploit even from their minority position which brings us to the third thing we're looking at which is the white house reaction to all of this. if the presi

so let's get some virtual realities while we do that, tom foreman. tom, break it down for us.ight now, tom foreman, and more importantly, what may be? >> well, chris, what is right now, is a congress that looks nothing like the congress that barack obama started with. look at the u.s. senate first. we fly it up high here. back when he took over in 2008, the republicans were on the ropes. they had 41 seats. the democrats had 57, plus two independents that caucused with them. in 2010, they lost six seats here in the democratic side. gained aly bill in 2012 but then came the deluge. look what happened overnight. the republicans 52 at least as we go through the counting here. democrats down to 43. a couple of independents one of whom changed sides. nonetheless, republicans in part, this chamber has changed in a dramatic way. if you go across the rotunda in the capitol over to the u.s. house of representatives, their numbers are even more stark. let's change everything over here and look at the house and take it up high. 2008 when barack obama took over, republicans, 178 seats. dem

cnn's tom foreman is joining us from the magic wall. tom?ke a look at these black dots that we're showing here. this report shows 40 encounters over the past eight months have rattled nerves to a cold war level. you mentioned the close call that jim mentioned as well between a passenger jet and russian jet along in here. there are many others from the russians. they staged a simulating bombing attack on a danish island, russian jet made threatening movements towards a u.s. reconnaissance plane. russian planes have buzzed ships and even out in this area practiced a cruise missile strike within range of new york, washington, and chicago. jake? >> tom, how close have any of these incidents been to the united states or american troops? >> well, if you look up here on the northern part near alaska and canada, september 6th, russian jets were spotted up in this area. russia is suggesting full radar surveillance of this area by year's end. that is not really that uncommon up there. but in june, four russian planes were coming down along the coast h

tom foreman will explain. tom? >> how can the democrats hold on to the u.s. senate?ow can the republicans take it? look where we start. remember, republicans 45 seats in red and 53 in blue and the 22 who caucus with them. we could come down to a narrow race, 50/50. if that's the case, kansas, the sun flower state, could be a big deal. the reason is, the incumbent there, pat roberts, is in the fight of his life to try to hold on to a seat against not a democrat but an independent greg orman. now, the problem with greg orman, for purposes of figuring out who controls the u.s. senate, is that orman is so intent on being independent here that he won't say if he's going to caucus with and vote with the republicans over here or if he might jump across the aisle and caucus with the democrats over here. and that one wildcard, if this is as tight as it might be, jake, could make it as such that every question is answered tonight, we may yet not know who will control the senate when it comes back to town. jake? >> fascinating, tom foreman, thank you so much. orman refuses to s

we have more from tom foreman. >> ground control lost contact around 10:00 pacific time. the half billion dollar rocket craft could seat six passengers. during the test flight, two pilots on board. the spaceship is carried beneath the airplane. >> there was a huge explosion. it didn't occur. i didn't see it. >> reporter: the company says the mission was going as planned. they were trying a new rocket fuel mix there were no signs of trouble until the massive failure. >> flying a rocket loader today that had been thoroughly tested on the ground and through a qualification series. >> reporter: what went wrong is anyone's guess. the ship is designed to fly 62 miles above the earth. the wreckage a problem. authorities say one pilot was killed and the other seriously injured. >> it's a large area. the aircraft is in several different pieces. we found one person who obviously was deceased immediately. the other was transported to the hospital. i do not have the condition. it appeared to be major injuries but we don't know what that means, yet. >> reporter: it's a far cry from th

tom foreman is joining us. what have you learned about google's new mission?well, this is right around the google headquarters. they have been using it for their google jets. but they are going to pay $1 billion to rent this facility for 60 years. that suggests some big plans may be in the works. >> liftoff. space shuttle "atlantis." >> this stunning image was assembled by a french filmmaker but it could become the corner office view for google. that is, if the internet giant wants to build a space program and with $50 billion a year in income, piper jaffray says they sure can afford it. >> i think they want to invest in things that have long-term growth opportunities. that's at the core of what technology is all about and ultimate long-term opportunity is space. >> reporter: the air field is tied to a nasa air field and space is so large they sometimes develop fog banks inside. google will restore the hangars, open a museum and then, according to nasa, begin using the historic facility for research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space expl

tom foreman found out what the problems are. tom. >> hey, fredericka, this new report from the pentagon is certainly dismaying the many people in the military and frankly alarming to others. >> reporter: in the dangerous world of nuclear missiles and strategic bombers, it's hard to imagine a simple hand tool could be a problem. but the pentagon review found supplies were so neglected, workers at three nuke sites were sharing a single specialized wrench for more than 400 missiles. >> now, how did they do it? they did it by federal expressing the one wrench around to each base. they were creative and innovative, and they made it work. but that's not the way to do it. >> reporter: the pentagon is now acknowledging many such troubles including an inspection regimen that nitpicked insignificant details while ignoring potentially serious issues like leaky seals on aging missile blast doors, making it impossible to close them properly. a culture of inefficiencies, micromanagement, and daily shortages in equipment, qualified personnel, f

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> joining me now to talk more about this, richard quest.angerous, richard, is all of this air traffic? >> if you believe the faa, it's extremely dangerous. the list of 25 near misses with drones was just published and when you read some of the accounts, for example, at new york where a delta air lines 737, a virgin atlantic, 747, delta reports that the drone came within 12 feet of his left wing. a jetblue plane in new york says the drone flew under the nose of the aircraft. 1500 feet beneath them. the airline says it's a real problem. it's an accident waiting to happen. the drone enthusiast says not so. the drones cannot do that much damage anyway and it's being put out of proportion. but the industry is firm and the aviation industry says, do something. >> as the law is catching up here, what are we expecting from these new drone regulations? >> well, there we have a hornet's nest. the faa is trying to balance between the hobbyists who love to fly the larger drones with those who fly big drones and others who want to use larger drones and

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> president obama is gearing up to announce a plan to overall u.s.on policy. the move has been the subject of months of anticipation and debate and there is plenty at stake as we learn from cnn's dana bash. >> reporter: presidential fighting words for republicans on immigration from his trip halfway around the world in asia. >> i would use all the lawful authority that i possess to try to make the system work better. and that's going to happen. >> reporter: that is going around congress and issuing an executive order allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay legally. republicans are united in opposing the move calling it a declaration of political war. >> there's a lot of people on our side that think he's trying to bait us into some sort of fight. you know, we're trying -- >> reporter: are you going to take the bait? in are we going to fight it, yes. >> reporter: there's no gop consensus on how to fight it. some want to use congress' main constitutional weapon funding the government to stop his immigration policies. >> look like using the

here's tom foreman for a closer look. >> reporter: in 1986, congress passed a huge overhaul of immigration. giving about 3 million people who had come illegally a right to stay. but there was a hole. it gave some parents citizenship but not their kids. so, ronald reagan used his power to adjust the impact. >> future generations of americans will be thankful for our efforts. >> reporter: a few years later, president george h.w. bush expanded, bringing the family fairness program. it broadened the rules further, to keep families from being split up from immigration policy. >> it credits the special role of immigrants to america. >> reporter: supporters of president obama point to both of those cases as proof that he is doing nothing unusual. and for republicans to be outraged is hypocritical. but opponents say not so fast. reagan and bush were tinkering with laws passed by congress, whereas say they, obama, failing to get the reform he want, is in effect, enacting a law of his own. >> tom foreman, there. >>> henry quar has a constituency in texas. i spoke to him about the president's plan. >

tom foreman exmains the disturk findings of a new pentagon report.he is. >> this new report from the pentagon will be dismaying to many people in the military and flat out alarming to others. in the dangerous world of nuclear missiles and strategic bombers it's hard to imagine a simple handtool will be a problem but supplies were so neglected workers were sharing a single specialized wrench for more than 400 missiles. >> now how did they do it? they did it by federal expressing the one wrench around to each base. they were creative and innovative and made it work but that's not the way to do it. >> the pentagon is now acknowledging many such troubles including an inspection regiment that nitpicked details while ignoring serious issues like leaky hydraulic seals on blast doors making it impossible to close them properly. micromanagement and daily shortages on personnel, facilities and funding. even badly outdated helicopters being used to service operations. choppers that came into service under president nixon during the vietnam war. >> we have taken

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >>> well, many wonder now how the virgin galactic tragedy will affect the company's future plans for space travel. former washington post correspondent was a friend of the pilots. having covered the company's space program for several years, brenner is quite critical. >> i have to tell you that the enthusiasm that has been shown outwardly by virgin galactic and by sir richard certainly does not match at all with the technology behind the scenes and there's a big gap there. and there has been for quite some time. the space ship's last powered flight was back in january of this year, and after that there was a realization on the part of virgin galactic that the rocket engines that they were using really had some very difficult problems and that they were going to need to rethink the way that they were approaching the flight to space and so they shut things down for a long time looking for a different solution. >> but not everyone agrees with brenner. former nasa astronaut mark kelly is taking issue with the journal's comments. here he is. >> flying in space i

tom foreman has more for you. >> reporter: as the majority leader, democrat harry reid enjoyed a certainenate because his party also held the white house. that tends to tamp down the presidential ambitions of other people in the party. but mitch mcconnell, if he indeed becomes the majority leader, will not have that advantage. he loo look out on an ocean of people with big presidential ambitions. he'll see his own fellow kentucky senator rand paul. last year it was not clear at all that rand paul would back mcconnell for reelection. so there could be hard feelings about that. in the corner, ted cruz is back there. he gets a lot of headlines that republicans have trouble managing and he didn't even want to jump on board, saying he thinks mcconnell should be the majority leader right now. marco rubio also has presidential ambitions. from outside the chamber there are people like paul rye kran f the u.s. house of representatives. and what about those governors and former governors? people like bobby jindal and jeb bush and chris christie and even sarah palin and muike huckabee? put them all

tom foreman has a look at the probe's journey. >> just even imagining there are human beings capableoing this invigorates me with hope for the whole human race. this is incredible. >> it really is. this is speed dating like you've never seen it before. these things hooked up going 41,000 miles an hour. if you could drive that fast you could drive from new york to l.a. in four minutes and the first two minutes would be just getting through jersey. this is what it was trying to hook up with. this comet out here. 67p. the comet is not still. it's moving in these big loops through the solar system. and so when this probe was launched ten years ago when facebook was just starting, it started making big loops through the solar system, too, all with a plan of hooking up in space. 311 million miles away. kind of in the cosmic neighborhood of jupiter. and take a look at this thing. the overall craft called rosetta is the mothercraft. it got close to this. from there it let go of fillet. and fillet went dropping down. after this incredible journey of ten years it had to drop for seven hours, f

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tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> coming up next, how this year's midterm elections will likely impactat lessons did republicans learn that will help them retake the white house. john king will explain. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. toasty or frosty? exactly the way you want it ... until boom, it's bedtime! your mattress is a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the sleep number bed. right now, you can save $400 on the c4 mattress set. he's the softy. his sleep number setting is 35. you're the rock, at 60. silent night not so silent? elk bellow sleep number's even got an adjustment for that. give the gift of amazing sleep, only at a slee

here's tom foreman. >> reporter: here's the rule of thumb.t of snow equals about one inch of water. so a cubic foot of snow would weigh about five pounds. and a five foot column like this in buffalo would weigh about 25 pounds. that on top of a modest-sized home if you spread it out over the whole surface, would amount to somewhere around 19,000 pound of weight up there. most homes in buffalo are designed to bear that. but what they may not be able to bear is this. when that snow has time to compact and to drift, you could have all of that weight from a five-foot column in a single square foot of snow. and then you put more squares on top of it of the same weight. now you have a whole different equation. if you cover the roof five foot deep of this suddenly that number could jump up to 95, 96,000 pounds. that's very hard for any house to withstand. now granted, the structure is meant to disperse that weight. all the trussing, studs in the wall are meant to make sure none of that weight bears down on one side of the house. but with the rain an

here's our cnn's tom foreman. >> reporter: new york's busy airports appear to be the epicenter of dangerousial vehicles or uavs. the alarming new faa report says recently three aircraft on the same day reported a very close call with a uav near laguardia. another pilot said he almost hit one. yet another spotted one just below his right wing and two commercial jets almost struck a trash can-sized uav 5,000 feet in the air. the worry is rising coast to coast. remotely operated aircraft have unexpectedly popped up over government buildings, national parks, sports stadiums, highways, and even at the airfield where air force one is based. with the faa working up new rules to cover commercial uav operation the report could set the stage for tough regulations and mark donbroff said it should. he's an attorney that specializes in aviation issues. >> if nothing is done we'll have a midair collision in which a lot of people lose their lives. >> reporter: enthusiasts have imagined a brave new world where they deliver medicine and chase down criminals and even drop down purpose chases from retailers.

tom foreman, we'll have a really interesting conversation with the leader of the college republicansnd the young democrats. that's coming up later in the show. theret minute they're the mille that's can make a huge difference. get all your election coverage this tuesday at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >> isis is adept at recruiting fighters. how do they do it so well? we're going to show you how it uses one important tool to look for a cause and why it's so different. also, we want to talk about this tragedy at sea. it's off the coast of san francisco. a rogue wave crashes into a boat full of passengers who were not wearing lifejackets. ine, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® feet...tiptoeing. better things than the pain, stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologi

tom foreman breaking it down live. tom?ke a look at this, because if you take nothing else away from this election, take this away. this was the map in 2008 when barack obama was at the height of his popularity, swept to power. look at the blue intermingled with red out here. big happy nation, everyone working together. by 2010, watch the blue start fading. by 2012, even more. and here we are now. look at that difference again. 2008 -- now. that is a gigantic change out there. there are so many places that did buy into the idea of this democratic revolution of barack obama changing everything. all of a sudden seem to have really given up on it. you ask the question, is it about barack obama? well, let's take a look at what we saw in our exit polls throughout. nationwide of all the people who voted, 55% of those people disapproved of barack obama so they went in the opposite direction. and what happened in specific states as well, with congress, congress is 78%. but if you look at what happened with president obama, north ca

tom foreman has more.avs, three aircraft the same day reported a very close call with a uav near la guardia. another pilot said he almost hit one, and another was spotted just below his right swing and two commercial pilots almost struck 1500 feet in the air. the remotely area controlled area, the faa working up new rules to cover up commercial uav operation, and could set up the stage for tough regulations. he's an attorney who specializes midair issues. >> if we have a commission, a lot of people will live their lives. >> there's new world in which they drop off medicine and purchases from retailers. >> but federal approval for any commercial use has been extremely rare. a man used a uav to shoot commercial video in 2011. the faa fined him $10,000 and the ntts adjust confirmed the agency's right do that up until now, it's more like a model. it's not really like an airplane, but that gray space is going away. the faa has defined black and while. >> amateurs will be able to to fly with existing rules, set

tom foreman gets through that. >> maybe president obama's agenda, his ability to move the discussionn he would like to see. here's some specific examples. there was a great outcry for more gun control in this country from some people. the democrats were unable to turn that into workable legislation. there's very little chance emboldened republicans will take that up now. what about immigration reform? this is abissue again upon which democrats and republicans have fundamentally disagreed as to the approach to it. in this case, the republicans may say to president obama you've got to come to us if he won't change their point of view, that could also be a nonstarter. the president says that he thinks he can work with republicans on infrastructure knowing that republicans, too, like bridges and new dams and new roads, power grids, that sort of thing. here's the sticking point. many republicans are going to say yes, but that must be paid for without new taxes. you'll have to cut social programs. democrats will balk at that. and of course, there's obama care. a lot of top republicans are

tom foreman has more. >> this report underscores 40 different encounters between the russians and otherilitary and civilian forces around the world over the last eight months, some of them considered quite dangerous. for example, the close encounter between a russian jet and a commercial flight. but there have been others, there have been buzzes of displaying ships and russian jets and other forces over here in north america. some of the concern has been up along the alaska northern canadian border where there have been multiple sightings of russian planes coming very close to things. you move further south here to the california coast, two jets were spotted there within 50 miles of the coast. that is the closest fight since the cold war. in some cases it is done by russian fighter jets. in other cases they're also bringing in the russian bomber developed back in the '50s, modified several times since. it may look very old but is still a significant weapon with a maximum speed of almost 600 miles an mile-per-hour, maximum combat range of more than 5,000 miles. it can carry long-range cr

cnn's tom foreman has more on that, as well as the future of the program. >> the spaceship rosetta threw over 300 million items for a speed date with comet 67-p. the approach looked good as the landing probe called philae was released. still, everyone in the european space agency waited breathlessly during the seven-hour unguided free fall to the comet's surface. >> yes, yes, good. [ applause ] >> reporter: and finally -- >> we are on the comet. >> reporter: touchdown. >> we can be happier now. we definitely confirmed the lander is on the surface. >> reporter: almost immediately there was a complication. the probe was supposed to instantly anchor itself to a comet with a set of harpoons which malfunctioned. but it was not enough worry to dampen the excitement president the probe, about the size of a dishwasher is now going to perform experiments never before accommodate taemted. it will analyze the temperature, chemical makeup and behavior of the comet as it sweeps towards the sun, even drilling about a foot down to extract material that will then be heated in a robotic oven for analysis

they say obama failing to get the reform he wants is in effect enacting a law of his own. >> cnn's tom foremanbig question is, did president obama overstep his bounds. i explored that angle a little while ago with cnn's legal analyst. did he have complete legal authority here? or was there some kind of overreach? >> i don't think there was an overreach at all, zain. i've been reviewing the legal opinion that was issued by department of homeland security giving him sort of the legal road map as to what he could do and really could not do. he really seems to have stayed within that road map and not overreached at all. so i think he certainly is within his executive power to do what he says he is going to do. because remember, an executive order is a presidential policy directive. he's not making new laws. he's not changing the law. he's simply enforcing the law with a policy directive. and i think that is perfectly within his ability as the executive in chief. >> you know, it's interesting, because the president himself has said multiple time he is didn't necessarily have the authority to do any

tom foreman, thank you. >>> and i want to bring in valerie plain, former cia covert officer and authorburned. now valerie, when we see that, let's make sure everyone knows your story. you didn't want your name public but your identity was leaked. but mr. o'neal put his name out there and he is going to be the subject of a documentary, his name was included. what do you make of him going public with the story. >> thank you for having me on, erin. it is a pleasure. it is baffling honestly. i know when my identity was betrayed by officials in the bush administration, i was terribly concerned about the security repercussions to me and to my family. there is a lot of deranged people out there, not to mention terrorists that would take great pride in killing a member of the u.s. intelligence community or a navy s.e.a.l. so i don't understand the calculations that robert o'neill made in his own mind. surely there is financial gain to be had. if you were known publicly as such a hero. and on the other hand, at what cost, truly to himself and his family? >> and let me ask you about that. so you

and you can imagine the relief when they got confirmation of today's landing and let's talk to tom foremanff and for a mission like this you don't get a practice run, right? no, this is pure science and it's magnificent. think about that, ten years for a 41,000 mile an hour speed date. if you could travel that way you can go from new york to l.a. in four minutes and of course the first two is just getting out of jersey. this is flying through space to meet out with this comet, 67p. the comet is not sitting still and it's in this great orbit which we'll show you in blue whipping around the sun. and we'll show you the space probe in red, and they did rendezvous about 113 million miles from earth way out here, cosmically kind of near jupiter and take a look at this thing. this is remarkable. this was launched back when facebook was a new idea and so the mother ship is called the rosetta and after all of that travel it launches the philae which is the landing probe and for seven heart-stopping hours they had to wait until it went into freefall on to this comet that's two and a half miles wide.

cnn's tom foreman has more for you. >> reporter: for all of the campaigning, all of the voting, all theound this midterm, when the night is done we may yet not know who is in control of the u.s. senate. for three reasons. the first one, louisiana. democrat mary landrieu there is in a very tough race against three other democrats, three other republicans, and an independent. by state law, if no one gets more than 50% of the vote, that automatically goes to a runoff in december. over in georgia, a similar situation. there you're talking about the seat vacated by retiring republican saxby chambliss. the fight is on between michelle nunn, the democratic candidate who's been statistically tied with david perdue, the republican. and in the mix also, libertarian amanda swafrd. again, if nobody can get more than 50% of the vote, that automatically goes to a runoff in january. and don't forget about kansas in all of this. in kansas the incumbent, pat roberts, the republican, is up against an independent challenger greg ormond. here's what makes this tricky. if he wins nobody knows who he'll vote

and as cnn's tom foreman shows us, those white house ambitions could make leading the senate a pretty tough task for republicans. >> reporter: as the majority leader, democratic harry reid enjoyed a certain advantage in the senate because his party also held the white house. that tends to tamp down the presidential ambitions of other people in the party. but mitch mcconnell, if he indeed becomes the majority leader, will not have that advantage. he will look out on an ocean of big with big presidential ambitions. right across the chamber, he'll see his fellow kentucky senator, rand paul. last year, it was not clear that rand paul would back mcconnell for reelection. there could be hard feelings about that. in the corner, ted cruz is back there, he gets a lot of headlines that republicans have trouble managing. and he didn't even want to jump on board saying he thinks mcconnell should be the majority leader right now. marco rubio back there from florida also has presidential ambitions. from outside the chamber, people like paul ryan from the u.s. house of representatives, a lot of idea

major revamping and it's going to cost billions of dollars to fix it over the next few years our tom foremane. tom? >> reporter: hey, credkristi, h yo, this may be dismaying to some and alarming to many others. in the dangerous world of nuclear missiles and strategic bombers, it's hard to imagine a asimple hand tool could be a problem. but the pentagon review found supplies were so neglected, workers at three nuclear sites were sharing a single specialized wrench for more than 400 missiles. >> how did they do it? they did it by federal-expressing the one wrench around to each base. they were creative and innovative and made it work but that's not the way to do it. >> reporter: the pentagon is now showing many troubles including knit pick. ed details while ignores serious issues like leaking doors on ageing blast doors. making it difficult to close properly. micro management and daily shortages in equipment, qualified personnel, facilities and funding, even badly outdated helicopters being used to service nuclear operations. choppers that came under you service under president nixon during th

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> our thanks to tom. joining us for more is former nasa astronaut michael massmino, veteran of two space flights, four spacewalks and logged 571 hours ins space. he knows a lot about this industry and live in cooperstown, new york. i know this must hit close to home for you. what was your reaction when you first heard about the recent disaster? >> well, you know, these things happen. interestingly enough i was on the phone with another cnn program yesterday afternoon when the news came in ha people were actually and my heart just sunk. it's terrible. we had the -- the scientists had the cargo ship problem earlier this week but i kept saying the good news there is that we didn't lose anybody. in this case it's a bit different and the reason it hits close to home is because we've had space flight accidents before with nasa where we've lost people and that puts a completely different tone to the whole thing. it's just a nightmare for the friends and family of the people who were lost. >> you know firsthand h

tom foreman is joining us with more now. >> they certainly hope it's secure, wolf.mstrong is winning his sixth tour de france and facebook was a new idea. that was 2004. that's when this rocket took off and has been flying all this time just for this day. the spaceship rosetta flew ten years over 300 million miles for a 41,000 mile an hour speed date with comet 67p. the approach looked good as the landing probe called philae was released. >> still everyone in the european space agency waited breathlessly during the sen-hour unguided free fall to the comet's surface. >> yes, yes, yes. good. >> and finally. >> we are on the comet. >> a tweet from the team, touchdown. >> we can't be happier than what we are now. we definitely confirmed that the lander is on the surface. >> almost immediately there was a complication. the probe was supposed to instantly anchor itself to the comet with a set of harpoons which malfunctioned, but not enough worry to dampen the excitement. the 220-pound probe about the size of a dish wash is now positioned to perform experiments never befor

tom foreman is here to tell us about it. clapper is talking. >> this was a nerve-rattling visit for the head of national u.s. intelligence. but there was no certainty that anything good would come out of it. on the ground in pyongyang, the situation was still so murky, even america's top spy told cbs's bob schieffer he was nervous. >> i was quite apprehensive. >> reporter: clapper's mission? bring back americans kenneth bae and matthew todd miller, both held for supposed crimes against the government. in return, it was clearly hoped for substantially better relations with the u.s. >> i think they were disappointed, frankly, that i didn't have some breakthrough. >> you did bring a letter from president obama -- >> it generally was a pretty short letter which basically identified me as the president's envoy and characterizing their willingness to release our two citizens as a positive gesture. >> reporter: where was leader kim jong-un? nowhere to be seen. the country's state-run news agency has just released these pictures of

let's go to tom foreman. he's joining us now from our virtual studio. tom, what dpung?hink about it, senate majority leader harry reid has had a unique advantage by having a president in the white house, barack obama, in the white house. when you have a president in the white house, it tends to quiet down people in your own party. they don't make too much noise about becoming president and they fall in 4r50i7b a little bit better. that is not going to be the case for mitch mcconnell. all he'll have to do is look across the room and see people with a lot of ideas about the white house in 2016, starting with his fellow kentuckyian rand paul. remember just last year, it wasn't clear if rand paul would endorse mitch mcconnell for reelection. back in the corn e, ted cruz, he has a way of getting headlines that republicans really don't know what to do with. marco rubio from florida is also back there. he has a way of getting attention. and what about the people outside this chamber. if you look across the hall and paul ryan comes in, you have to consider what ideas he has abo

. >> i want to go to tom foreman. he is in a virtual senate studio taking a close look.d be while indeed, what we're about to see. >> because of the wild cards. we just mentioned louisiana. that could push us into a run-off which would make it impossible to know who is really in charge. same thing with georgia. add in kansas, the sunflower state. you do have the incumbent, pat roberts, in the fight for his life. and orman has not been willing to say whether he would caucus with, vote with the republicans over hear or jump across the aisle and vote with the democrats over there. another independent to keep in mind. angus king from maine. he is not even up for election and he has swroetd the democrats in the past but he has suggest that had if this dust settles for all this, and he feel it is better for maine, co-jump to the republican side. all of which could make it very hard when the voting done to know which party is in charge of the chamber. >> amazing. this can also come down to a 50/50 tie. explain to our viewers what that would mean. >> in one sentence, it means th

tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> all right, thank you, tom.s he mentioned the faa is in the process of formulating new rules governing commercial drone flights. let's bring in cnn aviation spirit mary schiavo on the phone with us also the director of the department of transportation. mary, good to have you. this gray space that is becoming more black and white. will this black and white include more training required for drone pilots? >> yes, victor, and good morning to you, christi. it will and also include limits and requirements, and probably even categories of vehicles for the uavs. they'll have different weight classifications. and different ways of controlling them. right now, there are many ways to control uavs. you can actually have what they call remote flying. you can flying them with a visual or remote fencing. there will be training requirements and restrictions. what the government has said if you're under 400 feet and a hobbyist, you can continue to fly like a model aircraft. and if you're over that, then you have to get faa appr

cnn's tom foreman has more. >> reporter: the rule of thumb, one foot of snow equals about one inch of. a column of this about 25 pounds. that on top of a modest size home if you spread it out over the surface would amount to around 19,000 pounds of weight up there. most homes in buffalo are designed to bear, that but what they may not be able to bear is this. when that snow has time to compact, and to drift, you could have all of that weight from a 5-foot column in a single square foot of, snow and then you put more squares on top of it of the same weight, now you have a different equation. you cover with five foot deep of this suddenly that number could jump up to 95, 96,000 pounds and that's very hard for any house to withstand. granted, the structure is meant to disperse that weight, all of the decking, all of the trusses, all the studs in the wall are meant to make sure that none of that weight bears down on just one part of the house. but if it silt as long time f rain gets into it gets so heavy it has to do damage. so how can you check? a few simple things you can do if you live

to spell it out, let's bring in tom foreman live from washington, did i get it wrong, tom or right?you nailed it, chris. i've been looking at the numbers from voters all night long. and look at what jumps out at you here. 42% strongly disapprove of how president obama is handling his job. 42%, now this won't surprise you if you look at the graph. 90% of that is republicans. of course these disapprove of how he's handling his job. somewhat approve of the job, 24% somewhat approve. that's his own party, the democrats. that's a measure of the dissatisfaction out there and the frustration. how is that going to translate into the voting that comes up along the line here. if you look at nationwide, how people feel about congress, look, they really dislike congress. strongly disapprove of what congress is doing out there. and that's pretty well divided. everybody feels the same way about that. when it comes to voting, what that's going to mean is for hillary clinton, the democrats, they seem really agreeing on the notion that the solution to this is get behind hillary clinton. 66% in iowa,

tom tillis in the most contentious senate race ever. >> that's freedom. then there was senator pat roberts in kansas on his way to a fourth term after dispatching greg foreman. >> i heard my marching orders loud and clear. i will be bold, i will be conservative and i will be constructive. i promise you this, we will get things done p. >> and in iowa hawkeye state voters picked joanie ernst. she beat democrat bruce braille. ernst came out on top and will become the first women iowa has ever sent to the u.s. house or senate. >> working together that is the america that we are going to build. we are going to build. >> the u.s. senate is going to look a lot different come january with several new members like tillis and ernst. also a new majority leader harry reid out mitch mcconnell likely in. back to new york. >> peter doocy, thank you. >> we have the senate cliff hangars we were talking about. virginia and alas taw too close to call. leland vittert is live for us with more on these nail biters. leland, what's the latest? >> good morning. in alaska things are still tight. hours after the polls closed there. it looks good for diane sullivan. stopped short of d