well, tonight, this news, a white house official and an aide to house speaker nancy pelosi have tested positive for covid. both were vaccinated and reportedly came into contact with a group of texas lawmakers who fled to washington last week to make a political point. here s cbs nikole killion. (cheering) reporter: tonight, those texas legislators who fled to washington are trying to contain a covid breakout among their own. we don t regret coming to d.c. at all. reporter: as two new cases surfaced with an administration official and a staffer for house speaker nancy pelosi. both of whom, reportedly met with the texans and were fully vaccinated. the spread forced the white house to defend its own covid protocols, adding, the infected staffer was now working offsite and showing only mild symptoms and acknowledged other breakthrough infections. the white house medical unit has conducted contact tracing interviews and determined no ano cl close contacts among white house principa
inaugural committee he led is still under investigation for allegedly misusing charitable funds. o donnell: some stunning news today. nancy cordes, thank you. and tonight more than a million acres of the west is in flames, or has been reduced to ash. several major wildfires are sweeping across 13 states. satellite images show how one fire scarred a tremendous area near sacramento and smoke drifted all the way across the country. here s cbs jonathan vigliotti. reporter: fanned by high winds, california s tamarack fire south of lake tahoe has split, now burning in multiple directions. a break in the smoke is giving firefighters time to attack from the air. more than 80 major wildfires are burning in the west, several creating their own weather systems, the intense smoke now drifting east, reaching even new york. firefighters are also battling northern california s dixie fire which has grown to nearly 60,000 acres and is not far from the
are up by more than 120% nationwide. that s in the past month. and the situation in florida is reaching a critical point. cbs manuel bojorquez reports tonight from miami. reporter: tonight, florida is preparing for the worst, as cases of the delta variant surge. and while nowhere near the pandemic highs, a fourth mostly preventable wave is appearing. it s frustrating. it s beyond sadness. reporter: a 111% jump in covid patients over the last two weeks at miami s jackson health system means most hospital visitors will be banned. 95% of the patients with the virus being treated here are unvaccinated. the amount of disease process they go through is incredible. it s terrible. it s absolutely terrible. reporter: nurse manager alix zacharski says the patients are coming in younger and, with the delta variant, they re getting sicker, faster. a very young patient, in her 20s, she has asthma. a little history of asthma, did
all right, disgraced movie mogul harvey weinstein was extradited from new york to california today to face additional sexual assault charges. weinstein could appear in court as early as tomorrow on charges including five women in los angeles. he was already sentenced in new york last year to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. we re going to turn now to the sticker shock many parents are seeing as they begin to buy back-to-school items. this summer more than half of shoppers have started buying supplies and what they re getting is a painful lesson in economics. here s cbs omar villafranca. reporter: in the middle of summer, these fort worth, texas, parents are already thinking about the fall. and the rising cost of school supplies. it s kind of crazy just to see how the prices have gone up so exponentially. reporter: maray elliott is one of hundreds in line for free pencils, notebooks and paper. the fort worth school district will spend more than $4 million on school
i truly, honestly, i know in my heart they won t. reporter: tonight, a new lab study found that johnson & johnson vaccine elicited lower levels of protective antibodies against the delta variant dens the delta variant compared compared to the pfizer or moderna vaccine, but it s unclear whether the shot still provides enough protection in people, or whether a booster may be needed. norah? o donnell: manny bojorquez, thank you so much. and late this afternoon, we got the news from the justice department that an ally of former president trump who ran his inaugural committee was arrested on charges of working as a foreign agent. we get the details now from cbs nancy cordes. reporter: trump confidant tom barrack is charged with using their long-time friendship to unlawfully influence the trump administration and to obtain information about the foreign policy positions of the united states government. prosecutors say barrack was working at the direction of senior officials from the