Odonnell 2020, america decides. Tonight joe biden gives the speech 50 years in the making. The message he hopes will win over voters. Dangerous wildfires raging across california, firefighters scrambling to control the blaze, at least two killed in the rescue efforts. Plus heroic stories. How one family saved their neighbors homes. Dr. Fauci undergoes surgery. An update tonight on the health of the nations top Infectious Disease doctor. Opening schools safely tonight, the harvard scientist who wrote the playbook on how to get kids back in the classroom. Your questions answered. Putins poison plot tonight, one of the kremlins most vocal critics in a coma, fighting for his life. His aides say after sipping a poison cup of tea. And the waiting game one of americas beloved pandas could give birth at any time. Washingtons pandamonium. This is the cbs evening news with Norah Odonnell, reporting from the nations capital. Odonnell good evening to our viewers in the west, and thank you for joining us. Were going to begin tonight with breaking news on that bombshell federal indictment against steve bannon, President Trumps former chief white house strategist, who was once described as the president s ideological soulmate. Well, tonight, bannon is out on a 5 million bond after pleading not guilty to charges that he used a charity designed to bolster one of President Trumps signature policy goals to line his own pockets. Federal agents arrested bannon onboard this 152foot luxury yacht earlier today after prosecutors filed a damning indictment against him, accusing him, along with three other associates, of stealing more than 1 million from a Fund Raising Campaign designed to build a portion of President Trumps Mexican Border wall. Well, tonight the president is distancing himself from the former architect of his 2016 campaign, saying he hasnt dealt with bannon for a long time. The explosive charges come at a major moment in this years campaign, just hours before joe biden will take the stage on the final night of the Democratic National convention to accept his s partys nomination for president. Sources say biden will use his speech tonight not only to attack President Trumps handling of the coronavirus and the economy, but to lay out his vision for how hed handle the twin crises now affecting this country. There is a lot of new reporting to get to tonight, and we have a team of correspondents standing gy to cover it all. Cbs ben tracy is going to lead off our coverage tonight at the white house. Good evening, ben. Reporter norah, good evening. Tonight, the president is trying to distance himself from bannon and from this wall project saying he never supported it and he was not involved, but the president does have close ties to those who were. Law enforcement sources tell cbs news steve bannon was arrested onboard this 152foot luxury yacht called the lady may off the coast of connecticut. Bannon apparently was a frequent visitor on the 28 million boat owned by a fugitive chinese billionaire. Bannon was President Trumps former campaign c. E. O. And chief strategist in the white house, someone he often praised. I like mr. Bannon. Hes a friend of mine. Reporter prosecutors say bannon ripped off donors who gave to an Online Fundraising effort called we build the wall. The firstever privately constructed border wall. Reporter the group raised more than 25 million to construct small sections of wall in new mexico, in support of one of the president s chief policy goals. But prosecutors say bannon and three other defendants orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors. Bannon is accused of taking more than 1 million himself. Prosecutors say the groups founder, brian kolfage, a triple amputee veteran, took more than 350,000 in donations after promising donors he would not take a penny of compensation. Kolfage told cbs David Begnaud last year that his operation was clean. If we were doing anything wrong, gofundme would have shut this down in a heartbeat. Reporter prosecutors say tens of thousands of dollars were paid to kolfage through his wife who flaunted their extravagant lifestyle on social media. The money paid for cosmetic surgery, a luxury s. U. V. And a brandnew boat. Bannon once railed against the washington swamp to 60 minutes. The swamp is a business model. Reporter but hes now the sixth close associate of mr. Trump to be criminally charged by the president s own department of justice. I havent been dealing with him for a long period of time, as most of the people in this room know. Reporter today, President Trump distanced himself from bannon and the border project. I was not involved in the project. I have no idea who was. Reporter but several of the president s key supporters were on the groups board. Eric prince, the brother of trumps education secretary, betsy devos, former milwaukee sheriff david clarke, and former kansas secretary of state kris kobach. What you guys are doing is pretty amazing. Reporter and his own son, donald trump jr. , helped raise funds for the wall project last year. This is private enterprise at its finest. Reporter in another legal setback for President TrumpPresident Trump judge has ruled today, a federal judge h that he must turn over tax documents to the manhattan district attorney. Now, the president s lawyers say they will once again appeal that ruling, which means those documents likely wont be made public before the election. Norah. Odonnell ben tracy at the white house. Thank you. Tonight, were getting a sense of what joe biden plans to say when he accepts the democratic nomination for president without the traditional big crowds at the partys virtual convention. Senior advisers tell us bidens focus will be the battle for the soul of america. Heres cbs ed okeefe. Reporter on the biggest night of joe bidens political life, there wont be thousands of cheering democrats celebrating his nomination because of the pandemic. But hell take the mantle in his home town of wilmington, the highlight of his near50year quest for the white house. His acceptance speech will look ahead, rather than back at President Trumps tenure, outlining what he would do as president to beat back the pandemic and rebuild the economy. Cell be joined by his family, some by video, including son hunter, who has been the focus of g. O. P. Attacks. And hell get a boost from long range. N. B. A. Great steph curry will endorse his candidacy. Running mate Kamala Harris acceptance speech included frank e Kamala Harrise pandemic and racism. This virus, it has no eyes. And yet, it knows exactly how we exactly hower and how we treat we see each other. And lets be clear there is no vaccine for racism. President trump camrpest attacks on President Trump came from barack obama in a scathing assessment of his successor, unlike any delivered by a former president. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Reporter the president tweeted his rage as mr. Obama spoke, and today, he laid into biden on a visit to pennsylvania, just 15 minutes from the former Vice President s birthplace of scranton. Joe biden is a puppet of the radical Left Movement that seeks to destroy the american way of life. Reporter but today, more than 70 National Security officials from the reagan, bush, and trump administrations turned their backs on the g. O. P. And endorsed biden, saying that mr. Trump has demonstrated that hes dangerously unfit to serve another term. Norah. Odonnell ed okeefe from wilmington. Thank you. And this programming note cbs news live coverage of the Democratic Convention begins tonight at 7 00 pacific. We hope to see you again. Tonight there is breaking news in california. Deadly wildfires are raging through the northern part of the state. At least two people have died. More than 100 homes are destroyed, and some 50,000 more are threatened. And tonight, the state is asking other states to please send help. Heres cbs carter evans. Reporter tonight, 21 California Wildfires are threatening community after community, hundreds of thousands of people have been told to be e ady to leave. In the mountains above santa cruz, 20,000 were ordered to evacuate last night. There, firenadoes ravaged scores of homes. There are people that are unaccounted for. Reporter much of the greater San Francisco area now has the worst air quality in the world. This smoke is thick, and the wind is blowing it across the road right now as firefighters try to extinguish the flames. Efighterse, nasa shows most of try to extinguish the fla california, nevada, and Southern Idaho covered with sickening smoke. Fire crews are stretched thin, and as flames approached zach galvins neighborhood while everyone was evacuating, police had even more bad news. Nobody is going to be on that hill, no fire department, no calfire. Calfire cant show up, so we might as well do our own job. Reporter he and his sons hiked up the hill behind his home and started cutting a fire break by themselves. Good job, guys we probably cut 3 4 of a mile. Reporter they worked through the night and the flames worked right up to their fire break. All i can say is we did this, we stopped this. Reporter well, the flames burned this home to the ground. One one of many in this area. Firefighters still dont have a complete count. There is some good news, though. Those recordbreaking temperatures are beginning to come down a bit. Its 15 degrees cooler today than yesterday. Norah. Odonnell that sliver of good news. Carter evans, thank you. And now to the coronavirus pandemic, and new evidence of its toll on the economy. More than 1. 1 million americans filed for Unemployment Benefits last week, bringing the total since march to nearly 57. 5 million. Also tonight, colleges and universities in at least 17 states are reporting new covid cases. Heres cbs mola lenghi. D reporter defying covid guidelines, large, maskless parties last night at penn state university. Oh, my god. Reporter and at syracuse, that university responding to these videos, saying, the students who gathered on the quad last night may have done damage enough to shut down campus. Today, North Carolina state announcing 41 new covid cases. Undergrads are now being sent home. Cases of covid are now on College Campuses in at least 17 states. As an alarming study published today in the journal of pediatrics, children up to age 22 are much more likely to be silent spreaders than previously believed. And infected children had significantly higher levels of the virus than even Adults Hospitalized in i. C. U. S. This as schools across the country face challenges about reopening. cars honking in detroit, teachers protesting going back to the classroom and threatening to strike if forced to return. Resistance from teachers in arizona. Resistance from tea they know its not safe for my kids to be in class. I trust them with my kids life. Reporter now, new york city, the nations Largest School district, is preparing to reopen next month. It does seem like as soon as you open a school, you start to see covid cases rise. I dont want to see people catch covid before we say, oh, that was a bad idea. Reporter well, potentially adding insult to injury, thousands of new york city educators are facing layoffs due to city and state budget cuts fallout from the struggling economy. Citywide, more than 20,000 Public Sector jobs are currently in jeopardy, thanks to the pandemic. In jeopardy, thanks to the norah. Odonnell mola, thank you. Joining us now is Professor Joseph allen from harvards chan school of public health. His team wrote a playbook on how to safely open schools. Professor, thank you so much. In our backtoschool series, we have talked to teachers, bus drivers, custodians, all concerned about safety. How do we get our children back in the classroom . Yes, thanks for having me on. And i understand that anxiety. Im a parent of three kids myself. So i understand this is really difficult. It cant be schools as usual this fall. We can only go back when Community Spread is under control, and when aggressive riskreduction strategies are in place within the four walls of the school. Odonnell so lets talk about, then, those ways to mitigate risk. Number one, should mask wearing be mandatory for everybody in the school . Without a question. Even masks that are imperfect. Lets say its 50 efficiency, well it goes through my mask first, and then it goes through your mask. 50 and 50 will give you a 75 reduction. Not quite an n95 but pretty good. All of these other strategies matter, but the one that drives down risk the most is universal mask wearing. Odonnell one of the things you focused on is healthy lthydings. Bu what can schools do to make sure the building is healthy . With healthy building strategies we simply mean do the things that are necessary to reduce the risk of airborne transmission. One, you bring in more outdoor air to dilute whats in the classroom. Thats obvious and intuitive. The other is you want to clean the air through filters. Odonnell but youre talking about these intricate air filtration systems, ultraviolet lights. Violethools afford that . I think theres a bit of a misnomer that the healthy building strategies have to be expensive. Snen something as simple as opening the windows and door, to create a crossflow, let some of that air in. Any air thats recirculated has to go through a highefficiency filter. Its that simple. Odonnell one of our viewers texted us this question. Lori from new york city asks, what should we look for as a warning sign that our school isnt prepared to open . You should be getting communication from your school right now about what strategies are in place. My harvard Healthy Buildings team put out guidance for parents and teachers. 20 questions every parent should ask before you send your kid back to school. Hopefully everyone is wearing a mask. They must be wearing a mask. The thing that is harder to evaluate is Something Like ventilation air cleaning. Its invisible. So, whats going to be clear here is the schools are going to have to communicate effectively what strategies are in place, and if theyre not communicating it, its on us as parents to ask e not communicating it,d get its on us as parents to ask answers to them. Odonnell Professor Joseph allen, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Odonnell tonight theres a possible settlement in the long running legal fight over contaminated water in flint, michigan. This began when the state switched flints water supply to the flint river but did not treat it adequately, allowing lead to leach into the drinking water. Michigan is proposing a 600 qullion settlement with most of that money going to children. Gad exposure in children is linked to brain damage. Tonight, this incredible story the most Prominent RussianOpposition Leader is in a coma on a ventilator. Alexei navalny is the latest enemy of Vladimir Putin to fall victim to possible poisoning. And there may be a connection to the growing protests in neighboring belarus. Heres cbs chris livesay. Reporter the voice of russias opposition silenced and on life support after drinking a cup of tea his allies suspect was poisoned. Alexei navalny became desperately ill aboard a flight forced to make an emergency landing. Groaning can be heard in this unconfirmed cell phone video. Navalny has gained widespread support as an anticorruption activist with powerful enemies. None more so than Vladimir Putin, notorious for allegedly using radioactive nerve agents to target double agents, defectors and others who fall afoul of the kremlin. Navalny once warned the odds of him winding up dead were high, speaking to cbs news in 2017. 50 i will be killed or i will not be killed. Reporter but the plot thickens here in neighboring belarus, where president Alexander Lukashenko recently accused navalny of stirring up these protests against him. Protests against Police Brutality and recent elections widely seen as rigged by a longtime ally of Vladimir Putin. Chris livesay, cbs news, minsk. Odonnell and there is still much more news ahead on tonights cbs evening news. Dr. Anthony fauci temporarily silenced by surgery. The Urgent Health update tonight about the nations top Infectious Disease expert. And double trouble were tracking two developing tropical storms. Will they strike florida, louisiana, and texas . With less eczema, you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. 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