names of the callers. the program was approved by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance corps located inside the federal courthouse in washington. counterterrorism experts told us this surveillance is on going and involves most major telephone companies, not just verizon. some lawmakers such as wisconsin republican james sensenbrenner who wrote many of the legal rules covering such data collection criticized the scope of this surveillance. >> it's a huge overreach and it's an abuse of the powers that have been given to the government. >> reporter: but a majority of republicans and democrats did not object. senate majority leader harry reid. >> right now i think everyone should just calm down and understand this isn't anything that is brand new. it's been going on for some seven years. >> reporter: attorney general eric holder, a key player in decisions about seeking phone-tracking authority, won praise from south carolina republican lindsey graham. >> i'm a verizon customer. it doesn't bother me one bit for the national security administration to have my phone number. because what they're trying to do is find out what terrorist groups we know about and individual and who the hell they're calling. >> reporter: california democrat dianne feinstein, head of the senate intelligence committee, said this data collection has stopped several attempted terror attacks in the united states. feinstein did not elaborate but, scott, her comments echo those of house intelligence committee chairman republican mike rogers of michigan. >> pelley: but no details on those cases. major, thank you very much. that secret surveillance court major mentioned has 11 judges who routinely approve government requests for wiretaps in national security and espionage cases. the court was created after watergate as a guard against illegal government surveillance. so why is the government scooping up millions of phone records? our senior correspondent john miller is a former assistant deputy director of national intelligence. john, how does the government use this information? >> this is an example of how to exploit big data. that's metadata. it's really data about data that is in the hundreds of millions, the billions of pieces of data. in its size it offers almost built in anonymity because you're not seeing the nametor account numbertor phone or the content of the calls. you're seeing what numbers they're calling and for how long. they don't look at that. they look at the terrorist phone numbers overseas and then they run those against this big data and what they learn is how many numbers in the united states are talking to known terrorist numbers overseas. that's when they get to the next step which might be a subpoena, a national security lettering something that would get them information about people. >> pelley: what about privacy for the average american? >> the privacy is built in the idea that they're not dealing with names, they're dealing with metadata. the argument would have to be made just by having my number-- even though you don't know it's my number until it connects to some terrorist plot-- doesn't violate my privacy. you know, the plot they're talking about, scott, is the najibullah zazi zi plot to place 16 backpacks in the subways of new york city filled with explosives of a couple years back and that was a long dormant e-mail account that was used by a terrorist affiliate, al qaeda overseas, that suddenly they found communicating with an i.p. address in denver. that set off alarms, still didn't have the name but they forwarded that to the f.b.i., they did the investigation and they said "this is who this is, they started surveillance and followed him right to new york city and the plot. >> pelley: and your sources tells you this extend beyond phone companies to the internet as well. >> it does and that's an example of that. this is a program called prism. it's an outgrowth of a program that was once called stellar wind. that's the program that they came to heads with at the white house over whether it was something that went too far. they asupplied some structure, some rules and laws, they talked to the committees about it. so a lot of this has been discussed across the government. >> pelley: john, thanks very much. late today the first tropical storm of the atlantic season, andrea, made landfall on florida's gulf coast. as much as six inches of rain is expected. the storage surge has already caused flooding in st. petersburg. winds up to 65 miles an hour have knocked down trees in gulfport. andrea has also generated a half dozen tornados. david bernard is our chief meteorologist at cbs 4 in miami and our cbs news weather consultant. david, what's next? >> scott, this storm got strong. it was a significant tropical storm and still is at this hour. it crossed the florida coastline on the gulf coast within about the past hour or so. again, with those 65 mile per hour winds. it's moving northeast at 17. that means tonight and going into tomorrow that's going to track along the coastline near the carolinas and as we go into tomorrow night and early saturday it's going to turn into a remnant low but it's probably going produce a lot of rainfall. now, today across the state of florida we have seen lot of tornado reports in tampa, near the miami area and now several reports coming in from jacksonville. i think going forward the next 24 hours, it's the rain potential. look at this huge swath of rain from florida to new england. in fact, where you see that yellow area, that's two to five inches of rain and that could mean flooding problems in the next 36 hours. >> pelley: we'll keep tracking it. david, thank you very much. we also have new information tonight about who may have ordered the i.r.s. to target conservative groups. when the treasury department's inspector general's office investigated that scandal, it told congress it couldn't figure out who was responsible. but now congressional investigators have interviewed i.r.s. employees who have a lot more information. nancy cordes has read complete transcripts of those interviews and she reports tonight from capitol hill. >> reporter: at a hearing last month, the former acting commissioner of the i.r.s., steven miller, insisted the targeting of tea party groups was conceived and carried out by agents in ohio without washington knowing. >> people in cincinnati decided "let's start grouping these cases. let's centralize these cases." >> reporter: but congressional investigators are hearing a different story from i.r.s. agents in cincinnati. one of them, elizabeth hofacre, said started in 2010 she was instructed to clear all the letters she sent to tea party groups through an i.r.s. lawyer in washington, d.c. >> reporter: hofacre said the applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups sat in limbo for months as the lawyer in d.c. became slow to respond. >> reporter: a second cincinnati agent named gary muthert said his agent instructed them to find tea party applications and send them d.c. >> reporter: congressional investigators have now interviewed about half a dozen i.r.s. employees. we were only allowed to view the transcripts from two of those interviews, but it's worth noting that we were able to look at them in their entirety and, scott, it's also worth noting that neither of those employees was able to say who at the i.r.s. initially ordered this targeting of tea party groups. >> pelley: nancy, thanks very much. health secretary kathleen sebelius wants a review of federal rules to make more children eligible for adult organ transplants. sebelius had declined to intervene in the case of a ten-year-old girl who is in desperate need of a lung transplant. a federal judge intervened yesterday so that the girl could be put on the adult waiting list. dr. jon lapook has an update. >> whoo! >> reporter: last night, sarah murnaghan cheerd from her hospital bed. the court ruling means her odds of getting a life saving lung transplant have increased. there are 31 children under the age of 11 waiting for a lung transplant. kendall sumners has cystic fibrosis. since january, the 11-year-old has been on the pediatric waiting list for both a lung and liver transplant. her mother kelly has always been optimistic. >> we're tethered to a beeper. everyday we believe the call is coming and it will come in time and it will come in the order that it was supposed to come. >> reporter: but for kids, those calls are rare because the organ transplant rules favor adults. patients 12 and over are prioritized by the severity of illness and the odds of success. kids under 12 can only receive an adult organ after it has been offered to suitable adult candidates. last year, there were just 20 lung donors under the age of 12. that's out of more than 1,700 total donors. dr. george mall i have kendall's doctor at texas children's hospital. >> most of the younger kids have to get at the end of the line after every single adult patient so they're at some disadvantage. >> reporter: dr. mallory says most adult lungs are too large to transplant into kids. lung transplant surgeon dr. joshua sonett of new york presbyterian columbia has studied the shortage. >> the children should be able to receive adult lungs on a non-biased scale. in other words, if they're sicker than an adult they should get a lung. >> reporter: kendall's chances may improve next week when she turns 12 years old. that means she will be listed on both the pediatric and adult waiting lists. there is a national shortage of donor organs. right now more than 40% of patients who need a lung have been waiting for more than a year and, scott, this afternoon a federal judge has ordered that a second child be put on the adult donor list. >> pelley: thank you, doctor. the death toll is growing in that building collapse in philadelphia. and remembering america's mermaid when the "cbs evening news" continues. 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[ both laughing ] when you feed your plants... everyone grows with miracle-gro. my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too. >> pelley: the agriculture department has sent investigators to find out how genetically modified wheat ended up growing in oregon. it is not approved for commercial use and many countries won't buy american wheat if they think it's been genetically modified. it's a mystery, and ben tracy has a look. >> reporter: how many acres of wheat do you have out here? >> we have between 700 and 800 acres of wheat. >> reporter: clint lindsey sells almost all of the wheat he grows near portland to countries in asia. the discovery of genetically modified wheat in eastern oregon has customers worried. >> what does this mean to you for your business? >> well, our company sells to a grain exporter that was dealing with japan and has had its next shipment put on hold. so unless that gets started up again we could be sitting on conventional wheat this fall. >> reporter: how much does that cost you? >> hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. >> reporter: the problem began when a farmer-- who has not been identified-- noticed wheat he treated with herbicide did not die. researcher carol mallory smith tested the plants at oregon state university. what did you find? >> i found they were round-up resistance. transgenic. >>. >> reporter: meaning they are genetically modifyd? >> yes. >> reporter: were you surprised? >> yes. it's a mystery how it got there. >> reporter: the samples have the same genetic trait found in wheat that feed company monsanto began testing in oregon and 15 other states in 1998. it was being developed to resist monsanto's weed killer roundup. the variety was never approved for commercial use. those field tests ended in oregon in 2001. so the question now is, more than a decade later, where did the genetically modified seed come from? monsanto declined our request for an interview, but the company says tests on 30,000 plant samples in oregon and washington state did not find any other signs of genetically modified wheat. the food and drug administration says the modified wheat is fit for human consumption but japan and south korea have suspended some u.s. shipments. those countries have strict bans on genetically modified wheat. >> the question is how many other fields are contaminated? i think it's probably a matter of time before they find more. >> reporter: while investigators look for answers, clint lindsey is looking for storage space. he needs somewhere to put this wheat if he can't send it overseas. ben tracy, cbs news, corvalis, oregon. >> pelley: we now know at least six people were killed in yesterday's building collapse in philadelphia. 14 were rescued, including a 61-year-old woman pulled out overnight. a vacant building being torn down collapsed on to a thrift store. the city inspected the site three weeks ago and found no violations then. we lost one of the stars of hollywood's golding age today. remembering esther williams. next. for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. 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[ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. is. >> pelley: today's the 69th anniversary of d-day, when allied forces invaded normandy during world war ii. tonight, chip reid tells us about a project that is aimed at saving american military history >> reporter: these just a few of the thousands of stories of america's war veterans being preserved by the library of congress. >> "so don't fret and teld pa not to get hysterical. love, butch." >> reporter: tell pa not to get hysterical. >> reporter: it's called the veteran's history project. bob pat vic the director. >> we're not trying to rewrite history or disprove history. really what that experience was like for those who go off to war and most importantly at the end what does it all mean to them? >> reporter: the library has collected 87,000 stories through audio and video recordings. it also preserves photographs, letters, and diaries. this is the diary of world war i army private albert carpenter on october 26, 1918. he wrote about fighting on the front line: in one recording, korean war veteran jose maras described being caught behind enemy lines. >> reporter: and in another, frances liberty recalled telling her father she was joining world war ii as a nurse. >> reporter: in your opinion the army? >> yes. >> reporter: after his years of keeping vietnam to himself, paul tschudi is now adding his story to the collection. navy veteran heidi wolff has volunteered to interview tschudi for the project. drafted in 1967, he served 15 months as an army medic. he returned emotionally wounded. >> i hid. are i didn't really tell people that i was a vietnam veteran unless it was a close friend. >> reporter: memories of vietnam sometimes made him cry uncontrollably. what do you think it is about the experience that made you so emotional? >> i think that i was mourning my loss of innocence. >> reporter: tschudi says the project is helping him regain respect for his own service. >> this is a way of honoring us and keeping that story forever. and i went running in and jumped in the middle of them. >> reporter: the stories of war told by those who lived it and preserved for those willing to listen. chip reid, cbs news, washington. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. captioning sponsored by cbs is paris jackson still on suicide watch? i'm nancy o'dell. >> teenagers who attempt suicide are far more likely than adults to try it again. >> paris' condition today. her mom debbie rowe and her aunt latoya rushing to the hop. family friend kathy elton on what happened inside the house. >> grace called me, the children's nanny, in hysterics crying. >> uncle and brother are with the female. female's awake and breathing. >> and why the "the new york post" is calling it the curse of michael jackson. terror at the "today"