Laura tearing through the caribbean, the hurricane now taking aim at texas and louisiana. Winds expected to top 115 miles per hour. Mandatory evacuations under way along the gulf coast right now. Were live from the storm zone tracking the very latest. Fall from grace. Top conservative evangelical leader Jerry Falwell jr. Entangled in a sex scandal. The sordid allegations emerging about he and his wifes alleged relationship with their former pool attendant. Overnight the powerful ally of President Trump, the president of liberty university. The fallout this morning. Back to School Battle. A florida judge striking down the order for schools to physically reopen siding with teachers demanding the right to work remotely. Ive chosen my students over so many difficult things but i cant put my family at risk. Measures to protect their students, and colleges cracking down, shutting down bars after scenes like this in alabama as cases climb to nearly 450 at notre dame. I had a fever. I had chest pain. Now the new concerns about reinfection this morning. And mamba mentality. All the way, lebron james. Lebron james chasing his fourth nba title, leading the charge in the lakers victory over the trail blazers and how he honored the late nba legend on kobe bryant day. Good morning, america. Morning theulcoast is bracing right now, bracing for that, laura. Texas and louisiana preparing for that powerful storm expected now to make landfall as a category 3 hurricane with winds up to 115 miles per hour. Yeah, frightening situation but we will have much more on that coming up. We want to begin with the outrage over the Police Shooting of jacob blake. Overnight you can see there riots breaking out in kenosha, wisconsin, the disturbing video of blake being shot at point blank range sparking another call for justice in cities across our country. Alex perez is there in kenosha with the very latest on this one. Good morning again, alex. Reporter hey, good morning. Kenosha is located between milwaukee and chicago. Now, i want you to take a look behind me here. You can see just some of the damage, that building still smoldering, one of several structures and cars that went up in flames. That overnight curfew did not stop protestors from taking to the streets. Overnight outrage igniting in kenosha. A city on fire. Rioters smashing traffic lights, storming businesses, looting, torching buildings and cars. Battalion 1, we have multiple cars on fire. Reporter as demonstrators faced off with police, tensions quickly escalating. Authorities pepper spraying civilians. The National Guard deployed to support local Law Enforcement after a second night of civil unrest following this disturbing video of a Police Involved shooting of an unarmed black man. Authorities say they responded to a domestic incident after 5 00 sunday evening. The video starts here. Watch as officers follow 29yearold jacob blake around this suv with their guns drawn. Blakes three children sitting in the vehicle. As blake opens the drivers side door and appears to lean in, an officer grabs his shirt and opens fire. Veshotring. Another neighbor, residents heard screaming in distress before the shots are fired. This morning blake is said to be in serious but stable condition. The officers involved now on administrative leave as the Wisconsin Department of justice investigates the incident. The Kenosha Police force is not equipped with body cameras. We have a standard protocol we follow for identifying officers that will be released in the days ahead. Reporter the eyewitness who shot this video telling abc news affiliate wisn that blake never acted aggressively. The police might say he was resisting arrest, but he wasnt attacking the police. They were telling him drop the knife. I didnt see a knife in his hand. Reporter the shooting sparking anger across the country. Vice President Joe Biden tweeting, enough, and calling for a full and transparent investigation. Let me be clear, this was not an accident. This wasnt bad police work. This felt like some sort of vendetta being taken out on a member of our community. Reporter we are also learning this morning from jacob blakes family that he remains in the icu in stable condition. His father says his son is paralyzed right now but it remains unclear if thats permanent. Cecilia . Okay, alex, thank you so much. Much more coming up in the next half hour with benjamin crump, the familys attorney. He will join us live for an exclusive interview. T. J. . We want to turn to that hurricane threat in the gulf coast. Laura is gaining strength this morning expected to make landfall as a category 3 hurricane and millions are on alert in texas and louisiana. Ginger is tracking the latest on ginger, we have a major storm on our hands here. And, t. J. , the last time we had a major hurricane, which is a 3 or above, to hit texas was harvey back in 2017. The last time louisiana had it was rita in 2005, so i want to take you to the satellite. Laura is now in the open gulf. Thats not good news. Nothing in her way. Shes got a lot of hot water to be fueled on and as the track takes you right up the state line, so were talking port arthur, beaumont, lake charles, all right in the cone. Houston, youre in the cone too. Making landfall early thursday morning as a category 3 hurricane. I want to point out the cone because i think the track will keep ticking westward and thats why anybody from houston and galveston who will be in that northeast quadrant, that northeast side where we see the worst of feet. Thats where we get real problems. Wind, over 100 miles per hour. Rain, more than a foot. Well take some good news. Thank you. Lets turn to rob in new orleans where they are prepping for this storm. Good morning to you, rob. Reporter hey, good morning, t. J. As quickly as marco dissipated laura is ramping up. It wont just be stronger but a much larger storm so communities far away from the center will be impacted. Here in new orleans the water runup we saw from marco is not draining so thats going to cause problems. Lake at this shot of lake pontchartrain. I want to show you what it looks like from our drone. Waterway along with waterways across louisiana remain high because of marco. Overnight Tropical Storm laura teing thro a wicked onetwo punch. Tropical storm marco making landfall near the mouth of the mississippi river. And now laura barrelling north right behind it with texas and louisiana in its path. All eyes from this point and forward will be on laura. Reporter laura already responsible for at least 11 deaths across haiti and the dominican republic, pounding both countries with torrential rain and flash flooding. Overnight Hurricane Hunters flying through the center of the storm monitoring the strength of laura as it closed in on cuba. It looks like its supposed to reach up to its maximum speed of 105 miles per hour. Reporter now mandatory evacuations under way along the gulf coast as millions brace for impact during the pandemic. Texas Governor Greg Abbott mobilizing the National Guard. Nursing and assisted living facilities in galveston racing to get residents to safety, made more difficult by the covid crisis. Theyre required to wear their face masks. Staff are required to wear their face masks as we do every day in the facility. Reporter theyre ready in grand isle, louisiana where memories of Hurricane Katrina haunt residents 15 years later. Since katrina, east of new orleans, designed to keep any gulf surge out of the city. It is huge. 26 feet high and nearly two miles across. Sand bags lining the beaches to protect the island and residents racing to board up and get out. That surge barrier will remain closed along with dozens of flood gates. Storm surge expected to be four feet and thats 200 miles from where this storm is expected to make landfall. Truly a massive storm coming. George . Okay, rob, batten down the hatches. Now to the Republican Convention that opened with appearances from President Trump, his son don junior. They had dark warnings about what joe biden would mean for the country and there were flashes of optimism from nikki haley and tim scott. Mary bruce is in washington with the highlights. Reporter good morning, george. Well, republicans here tried to make good on the president s promise of positive programming but that upbeat message was undercut at every turn by dark appeals to the base and apocalyptic predictions of what could come if trump is not reelected. Trying to deliver the optimistic tone President Trump promised, republican senator tim scott gave the speech of the night. We have work to do, but i believe in the goodness of america. Reporter a poignant and personal message. Our family went from cotton to congress in one lifetime and thats why i believe the next American Century can be better than the last. Reporter former u. N. Ambassador and South Carolina governor nikki haley speaking to her immigrant roots attacking democrats. In much of the Democratic Party its now fashionable to say that america is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country. Reporter President Trump pledged to put on a positive event with a more traditional convention feel. And, ladies and gentlemen of this country, the best is yet to come. Reporter but it was a promise republicans failed to keep. Earlier in the day, the president himself had trouble sticking to the plan kicking the week off with a baseless warning that democrats want to use mailin voting to steal the election. Theyre using covid to defraud the american people, all of our people, of a fair and free election. We cant do that. Reporter trump taunting his opponents. [ crowd chanting four more years ] if you want to drive them crazy, you say 12 more years. Reporter the night featured glowing reviews of trumps character and misleading reviews of his response to the pandemic. From the very beginning, democrats, the media and the World Health Organization got coronavirus wrong. One leader took Decisive Action to save lives, president donald trump. Reporter the reality over 175,000 americans have now died from the virus trump often said would just go away. The positive messaging all but disappearing replaced with dire warnings of a bleak future. Dont let the democrats take you for granted. Dont let them step on you. Dont let them destroy your family, your lives and your future. Reporter the president s son, donald trump jr. , pitching the election as a choice between law and order or total chaos. Its almost like this election is shaping up to be church, work and school versus rioting, looting and vandalism, or, in the words of biden and the democrats, peaceful protesting. Reporter now, the Biden Campaign responding taking aim at the tone of the night saying, quote, it was a parade of dark and divisive fearmongering designed to distract from the fact that donald trump does not have an affirmative case to make for his reelection. Tonight republicans will try to show a softer side of the candidate. The First Lady Melania Trump will deliver the marquee speech from the rose garden. George . Thank you, mary. Were joined now by former ambassador nikki haley. Thanks for joining us, ambassador. Good morning. You spoke last night about outicized democrats who you say called this a racist country. Joe biden has not said america is racist but he and other democrats have decried patterns of systemic racism in housing, education, Law Enforcement, employment, and the latest possible example, that shooting of jacob blake last night. Do those barriers exist and what specifically has President Trump done to address them . Well, what ive said is that america is a work in progress. You know, if you look at the fact that, you know, we were able to fight a civil war and end slavery, we got through the segregation system. We had an africanamerican president. We have an africanamerican female Vice President ial candidate so we are continuing to get better. But we have to always keep improving. I know about dirty cops. I dealt with one in South Carolina when we had a white officer shoot walter scott in the back. But we came together. We passed the first body camera bill in the country. Thats how you fix things, by coming together, by talking about it and getting to solutions. So, no, were not a racist country. Do we have racists in our country . Yes, but we are a work in progress. I asked you what President Trump has done to heal that racial divide. And, you know, you wrote that you were deeply disturbed by President Trumps comments after charlottesville. Since then hes tweeted out a video of his supporters chanting white power, praised the Confederate Flag which you call divisive in your speech last night. So ill ask the question again, what specifically has President Trump done to address this systemic racism and the racial divide . I will tell you first of all President Trump has passed criminal Justice Reform which obama and biden didnt do. We saw the lowest unemployments of africanamericans and hispanics which wasnt under president obama or biden. We have seen more funding go to the historically black colleges. That never happened under obama and biden. So this is more about opinions of you thinking that the president hasnt done enough. Im looking at results at what the president has done. I didnt say the president had done nothing. I asked you what he thought he had done. And do you stand by your previous comments . My previous comments of that we are continuing to be a work in progress . Responding to what the president said in charlottesville when you said you were deeply disturbed. Oh, of course. I wrote that in the book. I mean, there have been times where, you know, the president and i dont agree on necessarily on the style, but and hes not the most politically correct person. Everybody knows that. But whenever i saw something, i would talk to him about it and he would always listen and he would always work towards improving. And i think thats what we have to understand is at the end of the day the man that i knew in the white house was someone who genuinely cared about the american people. He cared about the status of all people. He cared about making sure that he left his mark on improving america for when he was done and i think that we have to look at that. To just think and to have, you know, Media Outlets say he is just a bad person is not fair. You spoke last night of your indianamerican roots and your parents and their immigrant story. On a personal level what was your reaction when kamala harris, another indianamerican, was chosen as a Vice President ial nominee . Look, any time we see someone do something that hasnt done it before, its a proud moment. You know, you want to see americans in general improve. So to see that now weve gotten past the barrier of an africanamerican or a minority female as Vice President , thats great. But the issues are that we disagree terribly on policy. But im not going to take away the fact that this was a huge step for her but it was also a huge step for women, a huge step for minorities. But at the end of the day, the policies of biden and harris dont help minorities. They dont help them improve when it comes to school choice. They dont help them improve when it comes to criminal Justice Reform. They dont help them improve when it comes to the economy and having more jobs in america. So thats really what this is going to talk about is, yes, its great when we cross a barrier. Its even better when we get good policies in place where everyone is advantaged. Ambassador haley, thanks for your time. Thanks so much. Our full coverage of the Republican Convention continues at 7 00 p. M. On abc newslive and ill be anchoring prime time coverage on the network starting at 10 00. T. J. . We turn to the nba playoffs. It was a bit of an emotional night on kobe bryant day honoring the late nba legend who would have turned 42 on sunday, honoring him and his daughter gianna. Lebron james and the lakers now in a commanding lead and beat portland while wearing black mamba edition jerseys. James led the charge with 30 points. Theyre now a game away from ating the game a watching youlectio n election be convention. The game was a blowout so watched more of you than i thought i would. Multitasking. Right. The game was a blowout so i focussed on george. Well keep t. J. Up tonight as well. Were following a lot of other headlines this morning including the latest on Jerry Falwell jr. s sex scandal involving his wife and former Business Partner who was once his pool attendant. Well talk about the fallout this morning. More on the Police Shooting of jacob blake, a black man shot multiple times in the back in front of his own children. Benjamin crump, the familys attorney, will be joining us live. First lets head over to ginger. I have to tell you Tropical Storm can watch is on from lake jackson all the way to southeastern louisiana. That hurricane watch from galveston to port arthur, beaumont included. We think these track also move west. A loele arting to tick that way. We will update throughout. Your local weather coming up in 30 seconds. The tuesday trivia sponsored by verizon. Well, coming up, the latest on the coronavirus emergency and the battle over back to school intensifying. Well be right back. Battle ove intensifying