And can they really pull it off . Salvage crews in italy are ready to try to right the capsized costa concordia. That and much more on cbs this morning saturday, september 14th, 2013. Captioning funded by cbs and welcome to the weekend. We have some terrific guests for you this morning, including seventime grammy winner gloria is stefan who will be singing a Billy Holliday classic, a song from her new collection of american standards. Plus pastry chef who they call mr. Chocolate chef Jacques Torrez in studio 57. First our top story, the steady flooding in the rockies. The relengthless rain continues overnight into the morning pushing the rivers from their banks from the banks to Colorado Springs. At least four people are dead. 172 are unaccounted for, thousands had to evacuate and more rain is on the way. Rick salinger of our affiliate station kcnc is with us good. Morning, rick. Reporter good morning, vinita and anthony. Whats happening is its all pushing further, cutting off towns and roads there as the crisis continues. The biggest thing is looking at your kids face and seeing the look of terror on their face as they realize this might be their last day. Reporter brian describes a terrifying moment when his familys truck got stuck and began to fill with water. He was one of many who had to be evacuated as swollen rivers washed out homes and highways. Water started pouring in like crazy. It was kind of like a scene from the titanic. Reporter rising rivers took over towns from Colorado Springs to the wyoming border flooding homes, businesses, and schools. Steve flowers decided it was time to leave when he saw the water was creeping closer to his home. Theres a river in front of the house, back of the house, propane tanks are floating down the highway, cars upside down. Its a real disaster. Reporter roads were washed out, leeching some people completely cut off. The National Guard had to send in helicopters to rescue people from jamestown who have been stranded for days. No water, no telephone, no power, you know just basically like living in a cave. Reporter people were not the only ones trapped. Herds of cows and other animals were seen standing in deaning waters. This man rode his horse to safety. Its not over yet. More is expected over the weekend but Boulder County sheriff says they should begin to make progress as the weather improves during the coming week. I think thats of little solace for people waiting in the mountains for someone to come help them. Reporter search and rescue operations are expected to continue today, and as these waters recede theyre expected to reveal more of the devastation left behind. Anthony and vinita . Impressive scene behind you. Rick salinger in boulder, colorado, behind you. Thank you. So what is going on with the pattern in colorado and other recommend mountain states is and how long will the rain continue . Lets find out from our meteorologist kraeg setzer of our affiliate station wfor. Good morning, craig. Good morning, vinita. Unfortunately the heavy pattern thats bringing all the rain is not moving. Stretching from mexico to colorado parts of utah and back into idaho. And the overall pattern is a stubborn low pressure area sitting over the western u. S. And that low ini circle lakes in deep tropical flow continues across much of the rockies there. So more heavy rainfall is possible today. And in many areas, its not going to be a lot of rainfall to create more problems. In fact rainfall models are showing that anywhere from one to two inches of rain could possibly produce more flash flooding, especially through the mountains and foothills of eastern colorado. Not only is colorado under the gun, but new mexico to the south also has the possibility of some significant flooding. So a serious situation could only get worse with any additional rain fachlt vinita and anthony . Thank you. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed a landmark boardwalk on the jersey shore. Hot spots from seaside and the neighboring park are under investigation. The boardwalk was built just five months ago after being destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. To give you an idea of the extent of the destruction, heres a picture of what happened after the hurricane. But this is what it looks like after the fire. Terrell brown is in seaside park with the latest. Terrell, good morning. Reporter anthony, good morning to you. We talked to a fire chief who told us the socalled hot spots, flareups will likely be an issue over the next several days. Thats happening this morning as we see the winds pick up. It will slow down the investigation. But so far no sign of any suspicious activity. The windswept fire engulfed one building after another. Four blocks of this new jersey town is charred rubble. Where were you yesterday . Right across the street from it. Directly across the street. Reporter 25yearold bubba de niro own as restaurant here. I saw the wind blew and i knew the whole thing was going to go up r he watched his restaurant bubbas restaurant go down. Looking at it hurts. Reporter this is where he started his business four years ago. I was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy last october. Eager to reopen he moved down to affordable space but could not afford insurance. Im going to wake up and hope its all over but i know its not going to be. Reporter ocean county fire chief Brian Gabriel said the strategy was to get the fire under control. Did we lose some property . Yes. We had to lose a little to saving a lot. Reporter his loz affects his family. His sisters and cousins work for him and now theyre unemployed. He isnt sure how he hell do it but hell rebuild. What happened to me doesnt happen in 50 years, i realize that, but you have to persevere in life. Reporter hes one of 50 owners to lose his business at seaside park. Governor christie will be here to talk to Business Owners about what options they have next. Vinita and anthony . Thank you. Now to syria. U. N. Inspectors will deliver their report to the secretary today or tomorrow in new york likely confirming chemical weapons were used to kill 1,400 civilians last month. Meanwhile secretary of state john kerry is in gentlemen knee that this morning talking to his russian counterpart in talks, talks that could be a turning point. Margaret brennan is there. Good morning, gret. Reporter good morning to you, vinita. We have come to an agreement. The u. S. Has come toen a agreement that will divert u. S. Strikes on syria at least for now. Just moments ago secretary kerry read out the points of the agreement. Syria has one week to provide all details on its chemical weapons arsenal. All of that will be removed or it will be destroyed by International Weapons inspectors. Kerry says he expects those workers to be on the ground in syria by midnovember and heres whats surprising. The u. S. And russia have both agree thad they will remove all of these weapons, but it will be under a u. N. Security Council Resolution backed up by force. The threat of u. S. Military force remains an option but not a requirement if syria doesnt transfer these weapons. We also know the Obama Administration reserves the right to carry out unilateral strikes if syria doesnt transfer the weapons. Heres how secretary kerry describes his view just a few moments ago. We said at the outset that to accomplish our goal this plan had to produce transparency, accountability, timelyinesstimeliness and enforceability. It must be credible and verifiable. If fully implemented, we believe it can meet these standards. The world will now expect the outside regime to live up to its public commitments. And as i said at the outset of these negotiations, there can be no games, no room for avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the assad regime. Reporter kerry admits that this plan is very ambitious. He and his russian counter part Sergey Lavrov are still answering questions at this a hotel right behind me. Hell leave tomorrow and head to paris where they say they do support u. S. Military action. So the details are still coming together but for now the u. S. Led strike has been averted. Some big developments over the past few moments. Margaret brennan in geneva for us, thank you. Coming up a little later, president assad sat down with charlie rose. Charlie will discuss how he got that interview. Tomorrow on face the nation, bob schiffre is guest will include bob corker of tennessee along with carl levin of michigan and madeleine albright. The third is charged with lying to investigators. The attack this past april killed three people and injured more than 260. If they can pull it off, the team working to right the half sunken cruise ship costacosta concordia it will will establish a new salvage plan. No one knows if it will work but well find out in the next couple of days. Charlie dagata is in london. Good morning, charlie. Good morning, vinita and char anthony. Everyone is on tej. Theyre hoping for good weather monday morning. Nothing of this scale has ever been attempted and engineers have already said theres no plan b. An American Company is at the helm and lit take a team of 500 people from countries and Mother Nature for the seas to lay quiet. The line hearse been lying on its side since it ran aground 20 months ago. The method is known as parbuckling but its unprecedented in terms of scale and cost. After building a platform beneath the hull, cranes will slowly put her back upright at the rate of 3 miles an hour and then air pumped into massive containers will help refloat and stabilize the ship. We thought about eight to ten hours later, we want to do that. Reporter if all goes to plan and she doesnt break apart in the process, shell be towed and way and broken up for scrap. The cruise ship had more than 4,000 passengers on board when it ran into a reef that sliced a 230foot gash into the side of its hull. Two americans were among 30 people killed. Two more passengers are still missing. Their bodies may be on board somewhere. The operation to salvage the ship 2 1 2 times the size of the titanic is already the most expensive in maritime history. 800 million with insurance estimates topping 1. 1 billion, and nobody wants to think of the cost financial or otherwise, if mondays operation fails. Crews have reinforced part of the hull. Its being described as like applying a neck brace before removing an accident victim anthony and vin nigh ta . Charlie dagata in london this morning. Thank you. An amazing operation. A weeklong sitin by teachers in mexico city ended violently. Police fired tear gas into angry crowds on friday to clear them out of the citys main square ahead of mondays independence celebration. More than two dozen were arrested, no teachers. The protests were over new teacher evaluations and reducing union discretion in hiring. California is about to join a few other states to issue drivers licences to Illegal Immigrants. Governor jerry brown says it sends a message to washington that Immigration Reform is long overdue. Carter evans reports. Reporter Californias Department of Motor Vehicles estimates nearly 1. 5 million Illegal Immigrants would apply for the new license. This woman is one of them. I have to drive and i feel terrible because i dont have a drivers license, but what can i do . I have to drive a car. Reporter you dont want to break the law. The new license allows her to drive but shell not get special benefits. They say roads will be safer because Illegal Immigrants will have to pass drivers tests and be proper will i insured but opponents say its offering a privilege those who already broke the law. Illegal immigrants bring problems to our state. Reporter this woman is part of a group thats lobbying against Illegal Immigrants. We shouldnt be giving them hope. We are americans. We follow the laws. Reporter california joins ten other states that already offer drivers licences to Illegal Immigrants. For cbs this morning saturday, carter evans. The scooter store is closing for good now that medicare and medicaid will no longer pay for its products. The company familiar for its tv ads of motorized schools announced friday its furloughing its remain 3g 70 employees. The cbs news investigation revealed the companys questionable practices earlier this year. The government audit found the scooter store overed by medicare by as much as 108 million from 2008 to 2012. Some lucky Airline Travelers are getting a lucky break thanks to a mistake by american airlines. They announced they will give the tickets for free. Those who snapped up the tickets will pay only 5 to 10, the cost of the fee. Where were we on that one . I want one of those. Now to money, who has it and who doesnt. Right now the gap between the richest 1 and the rest of america is the widest its been since the roaring 20s. Last year the wealthiest american, that 1 took home more than 19 , almost onefifth of the countrys total household income. Thats the biggest share since 1928. David, good morning. Good morning. First of all, who are these wealthy americans different than those in the 20s . Its true that the gap has been has not been this wide for about a hundred years. They started doing this kind of data once they had tax returns coming in when the income taxes were instituted and its never been this wide. They are different, the old f. Scott fitzgerald talking about the rich different from you and i. Now theyre different over different generations. Back in the day of the gilded ables back when they were building the fancy houses on rhode island, they had to live off investments and mommy and daddys money. These days the top earning inging ingearns in our society are working now. Theyre working as ceos and entrepreneurs, but, still, a lot of their money is coming from investments, not wages. When we talk about money, we want to be clear. The top pretax 394,000. The top ten exceeding 114,000 for the household. Why did it surge last year in particular thoughsome. There was ale of things. Theres been changes to the u. S. Tax law so a lot of wealthier families, individuals, want the cash out of some of their Investment Income to lower their tax bill for the coming year. Houvgs these are longterm trends that have been with us for 30 years and that onetime tax law change isnt changing the real story here. The top 1 share income bottomed out at 7. 7 in 1973. s been rising ever since. As we mentioned, its now 20 . Where is the growth in income coming from . Prince employ from the stock market . It is coming from the stock market and other investments. Heres a secret that we need to do a better job in mentioning to people over time which is that you watch the stock market Dow Jones Industrial average, s p 500, but that isnt necessarily translating into every americans pocketbook. Heres the thing that floors me whenever im reminded of this statistic. The fact is that the top 10 most wealthy people in the u. S. Own 90 of all stock ss. So the dow and the s p and the nasdaq are only affecting some folks. Regular folks, wage earns, they need their paycheck. What used to happen before the great recession, before 2008, we had wealth in our houses so we borrowed against that wealth and so thats how we felt a little bit more comfortable. Its not happening now, of course. How do we shrink that gap . Its interesting. Its a longterm gap and difficult to move. Its always important to note that the Union Movement the gap has widened so thats one important clue. Another important thing is of course education, which is at the bottom of so many economic stories. Poor families have done wonderful work to get their kids to get diplomas high school and college over the last couple of years but the welter this families have been working at i as well and they getting even more education, college, and graduate school and yet you see the incomes widen again. Thank you very much. Commemorated the civility Rights Movement more than 50 years ago. It killed four young girls in baptist church. What struck me was a white woman with grandchildren. I went up to her. She was pointing at the memorial. I asked her whierks are you here. She said im from birmingham and i thought it was important that my grandson know what this is about, that this is more than just a story and i wanted him even at 2 because he could barely talk but even at 2, she was giving him very detailed instructions and conversations about what had happened. I was very struck by that. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was a turning point in the civil Rights Movement j and its about 22 after the hour. Now heres a look at the weather for your weekend. It was the interview that made worldwide headlines. Coming up behind the scenes of bashar al assad. Charlie rose will be here to talk about what it took to get what he call the biggest interview of his career. And later the sticky mess in paradise. The edible substance spilled in honolulu har bauer and its killing marine life. Youre watching cbs this morning saturday. There are so many things that we do on a daily basis. We run errands. We run to the grocery store. In fact, the average american drives fewer than 29 miles a day. The 100 electric nissan leaf goes twoandahalf times that on a single charge. Its a car. It just doesnt take gas. [ farrar ] so think about where you go in a day. Do you really need gas to get there . [ male announcer ] the 100 electric nissan leaf. Nissan. Innovation that excites. Now get a 2013 nissan leaf for 199 a month. Coming up our morning rounds. The latest medical news including a major outbreak of whooping cough in texasing and the Surprising New facts on the pawn. On middleaged man. Well be back. This is cbs this morning saturday. Did it take longer than you thought . Because when i got there, they said this will be over by 6 30 you can make dinner plans. I didnt realize it was going to take 2 40. When i looked it was over two hours and that was longer than any match i had played the whole tournament, almost twice longer. So i really j