Oxnard. Multiple injuries. A commuter train collision in Southern California. Fire department responding to the scene. Record lows in the southeast. Sleet, snow and freezing rain. Special forces. What years . The new Veterans Affairs secretary admits he lied. Mcdonald made the claim last month on the cbs evening news. Compromise could be in the works for the department of homeland security. They tried to separate the vote. The connecticut banking executive strapped with explosives. The manager forced to drive to the bank and empty the safe. We are considering all possibilities. Whether he was coerced or suspect. An operation to free manatees stuck in a storm drain in florida. A suspected drunk driver plowed into a safety barrier. The driver is expected to be okay. What was that . Bright lights. Nasa identified it as a piece of chinese satellite. A blind man just saw his wife for the first time in a decade thanks to a bionic eye. On cbs this morning. You are kind of upstaging me here. See what you do . Okay. Thats better. [ applause ] this mornings eye opener is presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. As you wake up in the west a commuter train accident in Southern California injured dozens of people. It happened over an hour ago in oxnard, northwest of los angeles. It knocked over three train cars. Jim axelrod is monitoring the story. Good morning. This story is unfolding. The metro link train headed south to los angeles. It came to an intersection in oxnard and ran into a tractortrailer about 5 45 this morning. The truck burst into flames on impact. The spokesperson said there are at least 30 injuries. Crews rushed to the scene and they were able to get everyone off the train. The Train Derailment tore up the section of track. As you saw, three cars ended up on their sides. The Train Service is shutdown in the area. We will follow this throughout the day. Thank you, jim. The Veterans Affairs secretary admits he lied about his military service during a visit to los angeles. Robert mcdonald appointed to the Administration Last year to clean up the agency. As the cbs camera was rolling, mcdonald said he served in the special forces. That turns out not to be true. Wyatt andrews is in washington. Reporter good morning. Good morning to the viewers in the west. Secretary mcdonald decorated for service, but admits he was not in the special forces. The man reestablishing the v. A. Credibility is apologizing for lying to a veteran. The exchange happened in january as our cbs news crew followed secretary mcdonald. Touring the streets of los angeles counting Homeless Veterans as part of the v. A. Program to help find them housing. Are you a veteran of military service . Really . Army . Army. What unit . Special forces. Special forces. What years . I was in special forces. Reporter but mcdonald was not in special forces. He served five years, but with the 82nd airborne as a paratrooper paratrooper. It was first reported by the Huffington Post and mcdonald admitted. He said, quote, while i was engaging a homeless individual to determine his veteran status i incorrectly stated i had been in special forces. That was inaccurate. I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement. My worst nightmare. I open up one of the tents and move one of the newspapers and i find somebody that i served with. That would break my heart because those guys looked out for me. I need to look out for them. Reporter the special forces are an elite fighting force that include among others rangers, green beret and navy s. E. A. L. S. They are deployed on special missions like rescuing hostages. Mcdonald is a west point graduate hand picked by president obama to clean up the Veterans Affairs department. After he took over, he admitted the v. A. Gave poor care to Service Members and covered up the wait times for medical appointments for more than 100,000 veterans. Last november, he told scott pelley about the department images. Those values are what . Integrity. Its advocacy and respect. Its excellence. These are the things we try to do for veterans. Reporter so far, both president obama and defense secretary ash carter say they accept mcdonalds explanation. This was just onthefly misstatement. He is a veteran respected in the community. Wyatt, thanks. It is warming up in the west while a huge winter storm gripping the south. People from texas to North Carolina are dealing with rain snow or ice and windchills below zero across the northeast. Even in the south, many cities are below freezing. Look at how ice is blanketsing jackson, mississippi. We have anna with the latest. Reporter we have sleet and snow. If you look at the streets behind me traffic is moving well right now. They expecting the precipitation to continue into the early afternoon, but temperatures will go up into the mid40s. They are hoping to avoid what happened in the rest of the country when the storm came through. There were literally hundreds of accidents. This truck was unable to stop bouncing off a median after this texas highway turned into a frozen slide. He slammed on his brakes. Reporter and a semi was left dangling over an edge of an overpass monday after skidding out on one of the states many sleet covered roads. Freezing rain and snow sent texas drivers pushing and piling up. More than two dozen cars skidding on interstate 40. It with look like it is passable an passable, but you could have black ice. Reporter the American Airlines flight skidded off into the grass after the nose gear ran off the taxiway. The conditions were not better on the oklahoma highway. A whiteout brought traffic to a crawl. Drivers were left helpless on the side of the road. In this red pickup began rolling backwards unable to make it up a hill. You never know when you will hit black ice. Reporter it only two 2 inches of sleet to cause problems in texas. Officials here in atlanta are hoping to avoid a repeat of last januarys storm when icy conditions and 3 inches of snow stranded people in their cars overnight and backed up traffic for days. Turning the citys busiest highways into parking lots. Some counties north of here are having accidents, but what they are worried about is the possibility for tomorrow where they are expecting possibly more snow. Anna, thanks. A resolution may be close in the battle to fund the department of homeland security. Senate republicans backed away last night from a bill that partially funds the department. That will not end the fight of the immigration action. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill with the next steps. Nancy, good morning. Reporter good morning. The idea of even a brief dhs shutdown was making more and more republicans uncomfortable given the threats the u. S. Faces. This means that the ultimate vert verdict on the president s plan granting status to immigrants will come from the courts. The change in course means members of the coast guard and tsa and secret he isservice will likely not work without pay. Mitch mcconnell will not block the immigration plans. This is a way to get this unstuck and move the debate forward. Reporter the republicans tried to pass the bill while holding up money for new programs given some undocumented immigrants the chance to stay in the u. S. Legally. On monday, democrats blocked the bill for the fourth time insisting it be fundsed fully. Our message to the terrorists cannot be we are going to shutdown the department of homeland security. That cannot be the message coming from the senate. Reporter the urgency increased over the weekend. When news broke about terrorists potentially targeting shopping malls. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson said this made it impossible to plan ahead. It like driving across country with no more than five gallons of gas in your tank. Reporter with or without funding, the president s plan remains in legal limbo. A judge blocked the plans last week. The Justice Department is appealing his decision and sought an emergency stay. This could quote harm the interests of the public. We still dont know exactly when the house and senate will vote to fully fund dhs. It will be before friday if they want to avoid a shutdown. A Court Decision on whether the president S Immigration plan can move forward can come as early as today. Gayle. Thank you, nancy. Human rights activists say isis kidnapped dozens of people in syria. According to the syrian observatory for human rights islamic militants raided a string of villages on monday. The area has seen an increase of fighting in days. The state Department Says a missionary from seattle was kidnapped in nigeria. The reverend has served there for a decade. She was captured monday near the school where she worked. Family and friends held a Prayer Service last night in seattle. A manhunt is underway for the suspects in a brazen but failed credit union heist. Police say they strapped a fake bomb on an executive and demanded he empty his own vault. Vinita nair is in new britain, connecticut where the apparent heist unravelled. Vinita, good morning. Reporter this is the second part of the convoluted story. According to the police the executive said he was forced to drive to the credit union fearing for his life and the life of his mother. Police lights and sirens lit up the streets of new britain, connecticut. The neighborhood was swarming with s. W. A. T. Teams after a plot involving a high ranking employee. Police investigating a report of a home invasion. Information was developed that linked that incident to the scheme to steal money from the credit union. Reporter two untruders stormed the home of the cfo of the credit union sunday afternoon. They strapped a device to him claiming it was a bomb. Next the invaders tied the bankers mother to a bed, attaching a device to her as well. They allegedly told yussman if he tried to take off the device they would detonate it. He was instructed to drive to the bank and empty the vault and bring the money to them. Yussman was able to alert the authorities to his location by phoning a coworker who called police. Police officers did respond to the credit union where they encountered an adult male in a Motor Vehicle who appeared to have an explosive device. Reporter police determined both devices were fake. The Connecticut State Police bomb squad was able to render the device safe. This person was not injured. The device has been turned over to the fbi. Reporter cbs news had a chance to speak with the executives brother yesterday. He said he had no idea why anyone would want to do harm to his brother or mother. As for yussman, he was taken to the hospital yesterday in handcuffs. It is still being determined his role in the investigation. Charlie. Vinita thanks. Gas prices that fell for months continue to creep up. The average gallon of regular gas costs 2. 31. It was 27 cents cheaper a month ago. Aaa says prices have risen for 29 straight days. The Largest Oil Refinery strike in 35 years is now in the fourth week. More than 6500 workers are off the job. They work at plants that make up nearly 1 5 of the refineries. Mellody hobson is with us here. Good morning. Tell us about the scale of the strike and impact. Okay lets give you perspective. There are 142 Oil Refineries in the country. The united Steel Workers represent workers at 65 of those refineries. 15 of them including some other plants, are on strike. 15. It represents. Yikes. As you said 20 . Bingo. Cleanup on aisle two. So thats to give you a sense of the scale. What is the strike about . The strike is not about money. That is the interesting thing. The workers are saying we actually make a good living about 62,000 a year with great benefits. The strike is about really related to security and how they feel about the safety of those facilities. As a consumer why should i care . Does it mean the end of cheap gas . Not necessarily. It depends how long this goes on and how broadly it start to expand. If we are sitting here six months from now and you are really going to care. Right now, the Oil Companies have patched together workers to basically keep the working at capacity. If this were to go on as i said before for a long time or we see 15 plants it is 30 or 50 then we have a different issue. To norahs point about the cheap gas, does it mean the end of cheap gas . I dont think it necessarily means the end of cheap gas. There are a lot of issues effecting gas prices. We switched to the summer blend, believe it or not. I love the summer blend. Less emissions. Or a cocktail. There are a lot of issues there. Thank you mellody. Mellody, get paper towels and clean up your mess. Okay. Thank you. 19 manatees are back in the wild thanks to a rescue operation that stretched into the night. The Large Mammals were freed from a storm drain where they were trapped. We have the story from our kmg affiliate in Satellite Beach with how the manatees were saved. Erica. Reporter this was a massive operation that involved the local police and fire departments, but crews from seaworld and the Wildlife Conservation rushing in to save the manatees to the now exposed storm drain pipe. It took heavy Construction Equipment and dozens of fish and wildlife crews to free the manatees one by one. Each release greeted by cheers from onlookers watching the rescue unfold. It is crazy. I have never seen this. Reporter 19 of the animals recently made their ay into the underground drain, but could not get out. One following the other. There was no place to turn around in the storm water basin. I saw ten of them go back through out. I thought they were coming in and going out. I didnt think anything of it until this. It was terrible. Reporter crews spent the night tearing up the ground and using a backhoe he toto hoist the creatures up. Some animals appeared in distress. After a checkup they were released back to the pond. Fish and wildlife Officials Say the manatees likely became stuck in the canal in the attempt to find warmer waters during floridas cold snap. Workers had checked on them every day and became worried when few of them were missing. You have the community here and agencies working together. That was awesome. Reporter believe it or not despite the ordeal all of the manatees made it out in good condition. The city has blocked the opening to the pipe to prevent anymore manatees. Norah. Thank you. Ahead, jim axelrod investigating millions of this National Weather report sponsored by disneys movie cinderella. In theaters march 13th. This local Weather Report brought to you by cinderella. Ever flown to devils lake, north dakota . Your tax dollars might have. Ahead, the federal program sending nearly empty commercial planes to americas back country. The news is back this morning right here on cbs this morning. This portion of cbs this morning sponsored by fast signs. More than fast. More than signs. Jacks heart attack didnt come with a warning. Today, his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. If youve had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before your begin an aspirin regimen. [richard] america. Did you file your taxes with someone else last year . If so,come into block and pay us half,what you paid them. Get your billions back,america that turkey looks good. Yeah im eating right, im doing the tough dodger. 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At the corner of happy and healthy. Focus to family a good morning. It is 26. 7 26. A commuter train derailed in oxnard around 6a the metrolink train was traveling stout l. A. When it struck two trucks on the tracks causing them to catch fire. Still gathering details and well update you throughout the morning. State regulators could decide to lower the state excise tax on gas today. The plan would reduce the tax in june from 36 cents per gallon to 28. 5. Right now california drivers pay a lot 64 cents per gallon in taxes and fees for gas. My name is bret hembree. I am an electric crew foreman out of the cupertino service center. I was born and raised in the cupertino area. Its a fantastic area to work. The