president delivered a speech in october calling for hhs to declare an unprecedented nationwide public health emergency regarding the crisis. after we did so, we ve continued to take aggressive action at our department including a proving state waivers to expand addiction treatment and clarifying that doctors and hospitals can share information with the patient s loved ones in dangerous situations like drug overdoses. i got to meet some local heros that we were working to empower when i traveled to kentucky the day after the president s speech. we visited a clinic in lexington that treats young mothers and their babies that are born dependents on opioids themselves. the stories we heard in lexington hit close to home for me personally because i m from a small town in southern illinois, the kind of rural community that s been hit hard by this epidemic. it s also the kind of community that president trump has spend a lot of time in the past couple years where he s heard about how american
trump delivered a speech in october calling for hhs to declare an unprecedented nationwide public health emergency regarding the crisis. amp we did so, we ve continued to take aggressive action at our department including approving state waivers expanding addiction treatment and clarifying that doctors and hospitals can share information with the patient s loved ones in dangerous situations like drug overdoses. i got to meet some of the local heros that were working to empower just a few weeks ago when i traveled to kentucky the day after the president s speech. we visited a clinic in lexington treating young mothers struggling and babies sometimes born physically dependent on opioids themselves. the stories we heard in lexington hit close to home for me personally because i m from a small down in southern illinois. the rural community hit hard by this epidemic. also the kind of community that president trump has spent a lot of time in over the past couple years, where he s heard about
a marijuana grow type thing. the spot is so remote, it takes a real effort to get there, usually by a helicopter. huge pot plantations keep being discovered on national forest, and they say they re run by mexican drug cartels who lynch worker downs into the sights. this is turning out to be an expensive fire, the rim fire. $18 million so far and 22,000 acres now gone that is bigger than the city of dallas. at least firefighters are getting close to controlling half of it, though, but it is by far the worst we have seen so far this season. heather? dominic dinatale live for us, thank you. kentucky having a tough time of it as well. extreme weather leaving serious damage in the wake. lexington hit with very strong winds, lightning and dangerous flooding. lightning in one neighborhood bringing a tree crashing into someone s front yard, briefly starting a gas fire there. another part of the town, high wind just toppled a tree on cars in a street. opened the door and there is a car th