Dayquil severe for you. And Daily Vicks Super C for me. Introducing new vicks super C And Dayquil severe convenience pack. Vicks Super C is a daily supplement to help energize and replenish your body with Vitamin C and b vitamins. Dayquil severe is a Max Strength Medicine for Cold And Flu relief. Someone is feeling better. Get your shoes. Alright try the new vicks convenience pack. President biden back at the White House after getting a firsthand look at the destruction from the remnants of Hurricane Ida in New York and New Jersey and making clear that deadly disasters are a big Reason Hell turn up the heat on congress to pass his 3. 5 Trillion plan to rebuild the Nations Infrastructure and battle the climate crisis. And Hell Address the nation on thursday on his administrations plan to battle the surging Covid Pandemic as new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are spiking. Also tonight, the governor of texas signing new Voting Restrictions into law. Were going to see how opponents plan to fight back. I want to bring in now cnns senior political Analyst Kirsten powers and Ron Brownstein i should say analysts with an s, plural. Thank you both for joining. Good evening. Ron, President Biden making the Case Today for his Infrastructure Bill and budget plan. With all the fallout from afghanistan, the afghanistan exit, hes trying to shift the focus back to domestic agenda. Is he trying to shift the focus, or is he just doing his job as president . But if he is trying to shift the focus, is it working . Well, look, the reality is that the afghanistan decision has been made. Its been executed. There are residual issues with americans and afghan allies left behind. But the Core Challenge he now faces is the legislative agenda, and it was striking today that in his visits to the New York area, he directly linked the damage from Hurricane Ida to Climate Change, which is something even many in the media have been slow to do, and used that to kind of underscore his case for the climate components of this Reconciliation Bill. Look, this is probably going to be scaled back, maybe scaled back significantly. But even scaled back significantly, it is still likely to be on track to be the largest democratic legislative success since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, and democrats will be betting heavily on what theyre able to pass as a centerpiece of the agenda they want to run on in 2022. Kirsten, look, a big problem, a problem for bidens agenda, Joe Manchin is calling for a pause on the 3. 5 Trillion budget plan. I know that ron just said, okay, well, you know, its going to be scaled back. But hes calling for a complete pause on it for now. This is what biden said about that tonight. Joe at The End has always been there. Hes always been with me. I think we can work something out and i look forward to speaking with him. To rons point, sources telling cnn that manchin has been privately suggesting to colleagues that he could accept a 1 Trillion or 1. 5 Trillion price tag. The sources said he is suggesting the 2016 Tax Law could be amended to raise enough taxes to ensure the bill is fully paid for. How do you see this playing out . Well, i think that this is the kind of Balancing Act that biden has to do with everything that he tries to do now, which is trying to bring together more moderate, even in manchins case, more conservative democrats and Progressive Democrats who have very different visions of what they want the government to do and how much money they want to spend doing it. And i would say, you know, Joe Biden has been very good at bringing people together, which is something that he said that he was going to do as president. I think a lot of people were skeptical about, and i think hes going to have to keep working on Joe Manchin and still trying to keep progressives happy, you know, not feeling that everything is being, you know, thrown away basically when they feel like they have this opportunity to do something really big that Joe Manchin is trying to scale back, or in the house even some moderate democrats want to scale back. Kirsten, how can people not see the connection . Here you had a storm that hit the south. It was a really big storm, right . You know, weve been having these really ferocious, powerful storms more often lately. Climate change, right . Thats what the experts say. But you had a storm that was over land for that long, right . And usually it slows, and by the time it gets here, you expect, okay, the storm came in off the gulf. Its gone over land. Its going to be fine. We may get some rain, and then you have this. How can you not connect it . And then lockok at the infrastructure in cities like New York and what happened here. We need infrastructure reform. We need to address Climate Change. We need all those things. Well, look, don, were living in a country where people are getting their medical advice from Tucker Carlson, right . So we have a lot of people who have not completely bought onto this idea, and a lot of those people are in the Republican Party. A lot of them have come around to say, okay, Climate Change is real, but its not really manmade, so theres not anything we can do about it when they used to say it didnt even exist. But the point is you have a lot of people in the Republican Party who will not accept that any more than they will accept the fact that you should talk a vaccine, right . Yeah. Its an Alternative Universe where, you know, they treat talking about infrastructure and Climate Change as being some sort of wacky, you know, leftwing idea when, you know, you said the experts say. But, you know, they have their own set of experts. Well, by experts, i mean most of the scientific community. Well, of course. 99. 9 of the scientific community. Exactly, right. But what does Tucker Carlson think, you know . That literally is how a lot of people in this country unfortunately will operating where theyre going to people like joe rogans podcast to find out how to treat covid. Nothing against joe rogan, but why are you going to him to find out how to treat covid . So people are giving medical advice that dont have any knowledge, and people are giving advice about the climate that dont have any knowledge. Im going to go to those people you said just for some expert advice. Hey, ron, i got to get this in. I want to talk about the president Slamming Texas new voting law, calling it an allout assault on democracy. But you say without mentioning the word filibuster, this is like thoughts and prayers for disenfranchised voters. Tell me about that. Right. Look, you know, the objections by manchin to the Reconciliation Bill kind of distract from what is probably going to be the Core Question involving Manchin And Sinema in the next few weeks, which is whether they are willing to create a carveout from the filibuster for legislation that would create a floor, a federal floor of Voting Rights in every state and undo much of what republicans are doing on a partyline basis, which is very important in state after state. Biden, you know, has said he supports a new kind of floor of federal Voting Rights and democrats have worked very assiduously to negotiate a new bill with manchin that met the objections that he kind of laid out to the more expansive bill that passed the house. And we are coming up to crunch time where the democrats are either going to create some kind of exemption to the filibuster and create a response to the restrictions on voting that are passing In The Red states, or they are going to allow republicans to block this. And as i pointed out to you before, the standard that Manchin And Sinema are setting on this, that it should only be done if the other party agrees in washington. By that standard, the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution and most of the civil Rights Law and the postcivil War Era would not have passed because democrats then supporting the democratic allies in the former confederate states refused to vote for any of them. So this is really the core issue. Are Manchin And Sinema going to give republicans a veto and allow Mitch Mcconnell and the senate republicans to run Air Cover for this Ground Defensive that is under way in so many red states, rolling back the right to vote with tremendous implications for 2022 and 2024. Thank you both. We were talking about people actually dealing with whats happening with the weather, want to get to that now. Thank you. I appreciate that. The Death Toll from Hurricane Ida is rising. Louisiana officials say two more people have died from the storm, bringing the official total in the state to 20 people. Thats on top of the 52 people who died in the northeast. And in the middle of the flooding last week, the mayor of passaic, New Jersey, told me about one of those losses as the storm ravaged his city. Look at this. Unfortunately an elderly gentleman of 70 years of age was unable to be rescued. The car was overtaken by water. Firefighters were being dragged under the vehicle, and it became almost impossible for firefighters to reach the vehicle as the waters rose above six and seven feet in that one area. So Mayor Hector Lora was one of the local officials to meet with President Biden today in New Jersey, and he joins me now. Thank you, mayor. How are you doing . Thank you, don. Im doing well, relatively well. How are you . Im okay. Im sorry for everything that your community is dealing with. How was your meeting with the president today, and what did you discuss . Well, i want to say it was extremely encouraging because the fact that the president took time to be here with us, to walk our communities, to hear firsthand the impact, the devastating effects of ida in our community, it means so very much to our residents in our state and obviously in the city of passaic, the fact that i was able to sit with him, have a conversation along with other mayors, with our governor, phil murphy, with congressional representatives, with his administrator of fema, and with county officials. It was it was extremely again, ill reiterate encouraging because the emotion that he conveyed, it was so genuine. When i shared with him the account and obviously the heartbreaking account of a fathers last image in terms of what he saw before he left this world is his wife and his son being rescued and unfortunately that Wife And Son looking back and seeing their Father And Husband not being able to make it. I could see it in the eyes of the president. And this wasnt a photo op. He literally went back and forth with us. He engaged. He asked questions. He was genuinely and sincerely interested in what were facing within our communities, what challenges, unique challenges because obviously each community is different. Let me talk to you about that because there are people in your community with some urgent problems right now. Missing relatives, homes destroyed. Little food and water. Did he i know you said that he was he seemed extremely interested and genuine, but did he tell you what his plans were to get these people the help that they need . Well, thats what i was speaking about. When he asked mayors whats the biggest concern you have, and we all had similar concerns, we cant keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. There are homes in the Flood Zones that should either be bought out or changed. We cant just keep expecting that every flood were going to send in rescue individuals and hope theyre going to be able to recover their Lives. We talked about real challenges like the supply lines. You know, its one thing to receive money, but if you cant even get access to water heaters, if you cant get the material that you need in order to recover, then what are you doing with those resources . And like you mentioned, don, and youre right. Look, in my community, we have so many who have so little and have lost so much. Its devastating. This week children were supposed to be getting happy and excited about returning to school, and theyve lost their materials. Basements were washed out. Homes were flooded. I have families that have nowhere to go right now. A boil your Water Alert where we dont even have access to water in a lot of areas of our city. We need communication, especially in a community where we have a large latino population, that they would know how to apply for these disaster relieves. The declaration went a long way. Declaring our county obviously as an area of disaster, and i commend our governor, phil murphy, for reaching out and advocating on our behalf. I believe it will be expanded to even more areas because we were devastated. But the very real issues were facing are extremely difficult in our city. Youre going to need all of that. And then theres a concern New Jersey is actually mpart of a Flash Flood Watch for tomorrow afternoon. Well be keeping a close eye on that. Thank you, mayor. We wish you well. Thank you, don. I want to bring in now the former mayor of new orleans, mitch landrieu. He is now a cnn political commentator. So, mayor, thank you. I was worried about you because i didnt hear from you for a bit. I was texting you, how bad is it . Whats going on . Why havent i heard from you . And you lost your cell for a while, your Cell Phone Service as a lot of people did there. But im glad youre okay. Thank you. These crazy storms arent stopping. You know, one storm crushing the Gulf Coast all The Way to the east coast. This is evidence of the climate crisis, Infrastructure Crisis all around us. So what is the president going to do to try to convince his own party . What does he have to do for his own party to actually do something . Well, thanks for thinking about me and my family. I appreciate it. I just got my electricity back a couple hours ago. Lots of electricity out for people across louisiana still today as you know because this is your area. Everything thats lower than baton rouge, you think of the Laplace Area that i drove through the other day. Seven feet of water in all the houses. Ive been to montague. Ive been down to jean lafitte. The man that was just speaking, i dont know the gentleman, but he just as soon could be describing how decimated the little towns and the cities are in and around new orleans. Jefferson parish, which is right next to orleans for the most part is out of electricity. One of the things that blows my mind, don, on the issue of Voting Rights, there cant be a more nonpartisan issue in the united states of america than having access to the ballot. That is what democracy is about. Likewise, there cant be more of a nonpartisan issue than the fact that roads and bridges are broken. The electrical grid is broken not only in the south but in the northeastern part of the country and in the midwest and on the west coast. You have lack of access to food. You have all of these things going on that for the life of me affects every american equally. We saw 16 years ago with katrina and then shortly thereafter sandy, and then this particular week, we had ida. Then right after that, we had another storm in the northeast. This is affecting everybody in the country. Lets not forget what happened this winter. You had texas. Look at that power grid. You had harvey. You had michael. You look at all of this stuff. This is what i know. I know that everybody, republican, democrat, white, black, blue, green, gay, straight, whatever, when you aint got power, its rough. When you dont have a bridge to go across, you cant get across. When you dont have water, you cant take a bath. And all im saying to the people of america is if you want something to be nonpartisan, this is about as nonpartisan as it gets. From my perspective, given what weve gone through in this country, the Infrastructure Package is small. Its not too big. The civil engineers, which is a nonpartisan organization, tells you that we have about a 5 Trillion infrastructure deficit. And i Cant Think of a more unbelievable example than just what happened with ida. As you said, that thing was with us for 16 hours. That storm stayed with us for a long time, and you know what . There are going to be more storms. You can argue about whats causing them or not. I know its Climate Change. Some people disagree with it but it doesnt obviate the fact that those consequences are occurring. You have to not be able to see, not be able to hear, not be able to taste to understand that thats whats happening to us. Mmhmm. Every american in this country knows that the roads are tough to drive on and the bridges are tough to cross and that the electric grid is compromised, which actually puts us at risk from a Terrorist Attack too. So i would just say, you know, the president can only speak the truth. If people dont want to hear or people dont want to see, thats one thing. But the leaders in congress, both democrats and republicans, need to understand that there is an imperative in order for this country to not only be able to survive, but be able to progress. And that is basically infrastructure and then Voting Rights. Both of those things are critically important. They should be nonpartisan. They ought to get on with it and get it done because the storms are not going to quit coming, nor are the fires, nor the tornadoes. I just want everyone to read this. Im going to put it up there on the screen so folks can see it. This is a piece that mayor landrieu wrote for cnn. Com. Many communities being affected right now, the poor face the greatest hurdles. They will need more help and for longer until we collectively deal with economic and racial equity, we will continue to grapple with historically marginalized communities being disproportionately hit over and over. Thats what happened down south. Thats what happened up here in the northeast, and we do have to address that. I go to the run, though, mayor. Im going to let you go, but let me say this. Resilience and toughness is good but theres nothing that beats completely changing the structures of society so that we dont continue to put those people in those desperate circumstances repetitively that they cannot sustain. So, yes, theyre tough. Yes, theyre fantastic. But if this stuff keeps happening and we dont give them a net to stand up on, they dont have a chance. Amen. Its good to see you. Im glad youre okay. I really am. Thank you. Im good. Thank you, brother. Texas new restrictions on voting sure Look Tailor made to make it harder for black and brown people to vote. Why is a state thats getting more and more diverse moving farther and farther to the right . Greg abbott has taken the state in an incredibly farright direction, and i believe that ultimately its going to come back to bite him. Im an actual neuroscientist. And i love the science behind Neuriva Plus. Unlike ordinary memory supplements, Neuriva Plus fuels six key indicators of Brain Performance. 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The law is already facing an immediate legal challenge from Voting Rights groups as well as two federal lawsuits that were filed before the bill was even signed, including one from Harris County Election Administrator Isabel longoria, who by The Way joins me now. Thank you for joining us, isabel. How are you doing . Howdy, don. Well, things could be better in texas. Lets put it that way. Amen. I agree with you. What kind of impact is this going to have on your state . I can speak to Harris County. We did all of this back in july of last year. A pandemic was coming. We were asking ourselves what can we do to make voters feel safer and still access their fundamental constitutional right to vote . Things like Drivethrough Voting. You can get your groceries. You can do banking. Why not vote . Its the same manner as if you walked into a location. The only difference is you use wheels instead of feet. What about Mail Ballot Voting . How can we get those Mail Ballots to folks who, for example, after storms, after pandemics, lose their job, lose the internet. They dont have printers. Just mail it. Mail these applications to seniors because when you turn 65, you dont turn less than 65 tomorrow. You are always eligible to vote by mail once you turn 65. And 24hour Voting, thinking about our medical workers, who didnt want to risk infecting people in those peak hours in the middle of the day. Those Shift Workers, weve got the Port Of Houston who were out all night. And what we found from that is that latino voters, black voters, asian voters, and women tended to use Drivethrough Voting more, 24hour Voting, those Mail Ballot applications. So its a long answer to say the implication of these bills is that its going to prevent the people who we know are leading the growth of texas from voting in the future. Let me make it very clear. Plain question. Do you think that this law was designed purposefully to make it harder for people of color to vote . I think absolutely it is in response to everything we did in Harris County to make it easier for people to vote. Weve shared the information with all State Representatives at least in the Harris County area. Once you learn something helps minority voters, helps women voters, you Cant Step back and say, oh, well, that must have been a fluke. You have to do everything you can to protect it. So i do think initially it may not have been the case. But once you learn that it does protect minority voters, its hard to see it as anything but an attack on folks who are voting in texas. This is what Governor Absot s abbott said about the lawsuits like yours today. Id be astonished if a law like this was not challenged in court. Weve seen it happen whenever laws like this are passed. The first thing the democrats do is run to the courthouse and try to challenge it. I feel extremely confident that when this law makes it through the litigation phase, it will be upheld in a court of law. Do you think you have a real shot in court . I think the courts are there to be a Check And Balance on legislators and legislative bodies that are running amok contrary to what the public and citizens want. And so the law and the judicial section, lawsuits are that checks and balance. I think if youre Writing Laws as the governor might have hinted with the intent they are going to be going to courts, it may not be about policy. Its got to be about something else. We wouldnt be challenging it. We wouldnt have five suits. I wouldnt be joining a suit if we didnt think we had a credible shot of winning. Thank you very much. Isabel longoria, i appreciate your time. The u. S. Now hitting more than 40 Million total covid cases and experts warn we could be seeing another surge as we go into winter. Most Bladder Leak pads were similar. 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Children now accounting for more than onequarter of new weekly covid cases nationwide. And tonight sources telling cnn that President Biden is going to give a major speech on thursday on his administrations plans to battle the pandemic going forward. Dr. Peter hotez is here, the codirector of the texas Childrens Hospital Center for vaccine development. Thank you, sir, for joining us. Schools and universities are reopening. Stadiums were packed with fans over the weekend. Hospitals are overwhelmed and running out of icu beds. Meanwhile, the daily Covid Case Average is three times higher than it was this time last year, and The Ways to control the pandemic have become politicized. Are we going to see a spike in cases after this Labor Day Weekend . Well, were going to certainly continue to see this firestorm progress. What were seeing now is, don, you know weve had a terrible summer here in the southern united states, and more than 1,000 people have been dying daily. Now whats happening is the Case Numbers are starting to slowly go down in the south with a pretty long tail. But now its moving. Its going up into west virginia, Into Ohio and pennsylvania. Its spreading laterally into south carolina, west where i am here in texas. And were seeing a second after that sturgis rally. I think were going to start to see confluence between those two big areas. Pretty soon except for the northeast and maybe some parts of Michigan And Minnesota and the west coast, i think were going to see the numbers continue to climb, and its going to look a little bit like england where it went up, it started going down a little bit, but then started going up again. When you mentioned the part of the country, youve had so many storms and people are now in confined spaces, not able to be in their homes. Well see what happens after the numbers start to come out. It doesnt help when we see our own elected members of congress promoting antiscience Messaging And Targeting scientists like dr. Fauci for fighting the Covid19 Pandemic. You called out representative Jim Jordan for a Tweet Calling Vaccine mandates unamerican. Whats most dangerous about that type of rhetoric . Well, you know, this is on top of several other members of congress coming from the conservative right consistently trying to discredit vaccines. Of course the pinnacle of this was at the Cpac Conference where we were told vaccines were political instruments of control. Theyre using it to talk our guns away and our bibles away, and unfortunately people believe that. Heres the evidence, don. Since april, may, 100,000 americans have lost their Lives. 100,000 unvaccinated americans, despite the fact that safe and effective vaccines were available. These are 100,000 unnecessary deaths. People who believed the disinformation coming from the political right. So this is absolutely devastating, and its unconscionable for members of the united states congress, the House Of Representatives and senators making these antivaccine statements as people are losing their Lives on a daily basis. 1,500 deaths a day now. According to the American Academy Of Pediatrics children now represent more than a quarter of the weekly u. S. Cases. Mean meanwhile, kids under 12 are still unable to be vaccinated. How can we keep kids safe . Well, one of The Ways you do that is you vaccinate anyone whos eligible to be vaccinated. So what were not seeing and were not seeing a lot of pediatric hospitalizations in the northeast. Why . Because all of the adults and most of the adolescents are vaccinated and kids are often getting their infection from their unvaccinated parents or unvaccinated adolescents and adults they interact with. So thats the problem. So down here in the south, were looking at maybe 25 of the adolescents vaccinated, not much better for young adults. What youre seeing are unprecedented numbers of pediatric hospitalizations. The centers for Disease Control just reported last friday that theres been a fivefold increase in pediatric hospitalizations over the last month or so. This is going to continue now that schools are open again. This is why i dont think the surge is going to end because unfortunately the kids are going to get disproportionately infected and get hospitalized and get long covid. So once again, this is all an unforced error, a selfinflicted wound by coming from people who are pushing the antivaccine disinformation. We appreciate you joining us, dr. Hotez. Thank you very much. Well see you soon. Lets hope next time its better news. Thank you, don. Chaos at School Board meetings, on everything from Mask Mandates to critical Race Theory. Some of it even leading to violence. What is behind the anger . 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This board is only focused on forced Mask Mandates, raising our taxes and democramaking our reporter when angry speakers raise hell at School Board meetings in florida, like this one in Lee County, its becoming clear that for many, this goes way beyond masks. Lets get your kids out of these governmentrun schools. These tyrants got to go. Reporter Betsy Von is a Lee County School Board member. She says masks are being used as part of an all out attack on public schools. I will say there are some who really believe and there are some parents that its a legitimate concern. There are others that are just jumping on a bandwagon because they see it as an opportunity for bringing in this is my personal opinion bringing in more people for their agenda. Reporter vaughn is right. My constituents are pissed. Were seeing 500 to 1,000 people attending School Board meetings now that really couldnt draw a crowd of 20 to 30 people prior to covid. Reporter republican State Representative Spencer Roach is thrilled that Mask Mandates are bringing new people in to the crusade against public education. I never use the word public school. I use the Term Government School because thats what these are, and it should be looked at in the same context as Government Housing or government health care. So i think this anger really you mean like there shouldnt be Government Schools . What are you saying . I think as a parent, you should do everything possible to avoid having your child in a government school. Reporter roach doesnt support Mask Mandates but what hes really after is control over classrooms. When youre talking about critical Race Theory, sex education, whether youre talking about school choice, Mask Mandates, bath policies, transgender sports policies, the crux of the debate is who is best positioned to make decisions for your child, a parent or the government . Reporter roach is pushing a constitutional amendment in florida that would force School Board candidates to run under partisan affiliation. He says Board Members like vaughn dont remember the ideology of conservative Lee County. Vaughn is a registered democrat, but she says critics are misrepresenting what her School Boards agenda is on masks and critical Race Theory. Its not a theory that we would be teaching, you know, maybe in some advanced class perhaps. But its its not the kind of thing that we would normally teach in school. Reporter florida republicans, including governor ron desantis, say School Boards have a dangerous influence. They Tie Masking to debates over things like race. Were also, dan, not going to support any republican candidate for School Board who supports critical Race Theory in all 67 counties or who supports mandatory masking of schoolchildren. Reporter roach says the momentum from the Masking Fight could put fundamental changes to florida schools within reach. When were hearing from School Board members that theyre worried people are coming here to dismantle the public School System, theyre not wrong. You do want to do that . Theyre not wrong. I wrote tell you this. The government School System right now ask a monopoly. Reporter that kind of language is what vaughn means when she says theres a Hidden Agenda in the mask debate. It angers me. It appalls me. It saddens me. Does it scare you . Yes. You know, i taught english. I taught literature. One of my very favorite books to teach to my seniors was orwells 1984. I see some orwellian aspects in what is happening. Reporter evan mcmorrissantoro, cnn, New York. Tennessee is one of the states where the mask wars are the most heated. Remember this . This is a father confronted in a Parking Lot after advocating for masks at a School Board meeting. Now his son has covid. 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I wish we were talking again under better circumstances. You and i spoke after that meeting about how terrifying that was. Now you are back and despite your sixth Grade Son wearing a mask, he has tested positive for covid. How do you think this happened, and how is he doing . Thank you. First of all, my son is doing okay. Were very fortunate. His symptoms have been mild compared to those that some of his classmates have endured. Hes in a school where hes in the Middle School. Its sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. In his Sixth Grade class, roughly 20 have tested positive in the last two weeks. So the viral load in the air must be excessively high. He takes his mask off to eat lunch and maybe in the Band Room when hes playing his instrument. Thats it. Even with a great kf94 mask, when youre in an environment like that, theres not much you can do probably. Yeah. In the school, is there an optout . Of course there is. Yeah. So theres actually two levels of optouts. Williamson county, when the Mask Mandate was enacted for Grades K through 5 back on august 10th, they honored the system they used last year, which is a medical and or religious exemption. As of august 16th, Governor Lee here in tennessee passed Executive Order 84, which mandates any school with a Mask Mandate must have an optout clause. Mmhmm. And to quote the superintendent of my schools, its an i dont want to. I dont want to Opt Out, which is one of the most appalling things ive ever heard. I dont want my kids to wear a mask, and thats the Opt Out of. I dont wanna. You told us one of your Sons Class mates ended up in the hospital for five days with covid pneumonia. We cant confirm definitively where your son or his classmate was exposed. Youre worried its going to spread to even more kids. Absolutely. It is. Its spreading into the elementary schools. What happens is It Starts when the mandate was passed for k through 5, the middle and High Schools were left unprotected. It kind of rocketed right through the High Schools as one might expect and then into the Middle Schools. Were starting to see that spread continue into the elementary school. The numbers have started to tick up. What weve also seen is the number of exemptions have grown over the last several weeks as well. The School District publishes both Case Counts as well as Exemption Counts by school. So is anyone having A Change Of Heart after all these kids are testing positive and, you know, and as you say, one of them ending up in pneumonia in the hospital . Like are parents now saying, hey, maybe we should get our kids to wear masks to protect not only them but others . Thats a good question, don. On august 26th, they had another emergency School Board meeting here. In that meeting, they actually extended the Mask Mandate to go Grades K through 12 fortunately. Now, again, with all the exemptions still in place. What my son indicated to me in Sixth Grade was that he saw the Rate Go from about 35 of his classmates to over 70 , 70 to 75 . So a marked difference overnight with just a Mask Mandate. One of the big drivers of that in talking with a lot of parents that we learned was there are a lot of kids out there who will wear a mask. Their families tell them to wear a mask. They get sent to school with a mask. They dont put it on because they dont want to take the risk of being teased because their friends arent wearing masks so theyre not doing it. Because their parents have told them they dont have to wear masks and they shouldnt. There are parents who have been very clear about do not wear a mask. Now, the principal at the Middle School has done everything in his powers. Hes done an amazing job. They have bowls of masks literally in the inside of the atrium as the kids go in. The child is free to take a mask and put one on. So its widely encouraged. All the teachers are wearing masks now, which was something that initially was not happening. Well, we wish everyone the best, especially your son, and really all the students there and the teachers. Be safe. This is craziness. I got to run. Are you going to keep your kid in school, or are you going to take him out . Im going to keep him in. I really have no choice here. Theres no way to go online at this point. The governor has banned that. Theres no switch. Wow. Thank you, michael. Be well. Best of luck to you. Thank you. Thanks for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues. Tony here from creditrepair. Com taking to the streets to talk about credit. Can you repair your credit yourself . Yes. Great. How . Uhhh. How long does Credit Repair take . I dont know, like 10 years. What . Are you insane . Whats a good Credit Score . Go. 600. Maybe if youre trying to pay thousands extra in interest rates. Cut the confusion, get started with a free Credit Evaluation at creditrepair. Com. Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and around the world. Im rosemary church. Just ahead on Cnn Newsroom right now we are in outbreak mode. We have to get the School System masked in addition to surrounding the children with vaccinated people. With back to School Season in full swing, covid cases and hospitalizations among children are the highest they have ever been. New Texas Voting restrictions are signed into law an