that fits your lifestyle and budget at one of our over fifteen hundred locations. call miracle ear at 1-800-miracle and schedule your free, no obligation hearing evaluation today. right now, new disturbing images from hawaii. entire neighborhoods on fire. people fleeing to safety. we are going to speak live to a man who says he lost his home on maui, and he's going to tell us about the moment that he knew it was time to get out. plus, arraignments today for most of the 16 michigan republicans who served as fake electors in 2020. their defense as they face first of their kind felony charges. and five americans wrongfully detained in iran for several years are now out of prison and under house arrest. we have new details on the deal that one source calls an encouraging step. we're following these major stories and many more all coming up in right here to "cnn news central". like a war zone. fire raining down from the skies. survivors of the deadly wildfires in hawaii which are still sweeping across maui are describing just an apocalyptic scene. at least 36 people are confirmeded dead in hawaii, and there are major concerns that that death toll will rise even more. last hour we spoke with hawaii's state senator. he lost his home in the historic town of lahaina. here's what he said -- >> so many families have just suddenly in the blink of an eye lost their homes, their businesses, lost their schools, lost their grocery stores, everything gone. and we're still reeling with the fact that we need desperate head immediately -- help immediately. it looked like a bombed out beirut. every boat in the harbor burned and sank in a blaze. the preschool is all gone. the entire piner inn, there's nothing there. it's catatonic to look at. >> i want to talk more about this with jeff melacar, a maui resident who lost both of his homes to the fires. jeff, thank you so much for joining us today. i can only imagine what an incredibly difficult time it is for you and those around you. so thank you very much. could we just start with the moment that the fire was approaching, what did you see? what did you fear -- feel, rather, as it claim closer to -- came closer to your homes? >> tuesday evening it was roughly 7:30, 8:00 p.m., we had walked through the neighborhood and saw the flames rapidly approaching our area on front street. so we had to run back through the neighborhood because we were getting overwhelmed with smoke and embetter. we ran back -- embers. we ran back to the how tuse andd 10 or 15 minutes before we were going to be overtaken. at that point, we had to just jump in the car. i'm sorry. >> we completely understand. >> it was rather traumatic. >> to say the very least. where are you staying right now? >> i'm saying at a friend of mine's house, a city on the south side of maui. >> were you with anybody in your homes? >> there was a friend of mine that was with me, and he and i jumped in the car about 8:00 and evacuated down front street onto the highway where police were not letting anybody back in town, of course. >> you were renting out a second home to another family. have you been able to get in touch with them? do you know what their status is? >> i've been in touch with them. they are staying up country here on maui. they had left early in the day never dreaming they were not going to be able to get back. and unfortunately their two labradors are left in the house. so we're under the impression they perished due to the fire. >> that's just so -- just d devastat devastating. we've heard people compare this to a war zone and seen images of the fire, of the smoke, just other worldly, and apocalyptic. hard to come up with more adjectives. i can't imagine that you have seen anything like this before. have you been able to start processing what has happened in the past few days? >> no, not really. i've seen videos. we're not allowed back on the west side yet. i've seen videos and pictures, and it is truly devastating. it's absolutely wiped out. there's very little standing and remaining. so have no idea what many, many families are going to be doing now because everything is literally gone. >> everything's literally gone. we understand, jeff, that you retired to maui. you were working and living on the mainland and retired to maui. is that right? >> correct. i still have a home on the mainland that i'm lucky enough to be able to go back to. i know a lot of families here don't have that option, and it's truly tragic. >> so if i may ask, what is your plan now? do you plan to stay? are you going to go back to the continental united states? >> eventually i'm going to stay here and eventually be let back on to the west side to survey the damage and to check properties that i owned and to see if there's anything left, salvaging, personal mementos and such. >> what have you been told about any kind of support that you may get to rebuild, to get back there, and what more do you and others like you need? >> i haven't heard much of anything yet. i'm sure they will be doing something or probably a lot. but i'm really -- have no information as to what's going to happen. it's a little wellery, and i know this is -- early, and i know this is going to take years to come back if at all. it is literally gone. >> jeff, what would your message be to people, to those like us who are just watching this on tv, but also to the government in terms of the support that the people around you need right now? >> yeah, do what you can. i'm sure there are going to be agencies for donations for people that are in need. i know there's a lot of that going on. the death toll is rising. it's just very traumatizing for people. so i would imagine that -- den ate if you can -- donate if you can, do what you can to help the people of maui. >> traumatizing. thank you for your time. we can only imagine, again, what you're going through. we appreciate you speaking with us. of course our thoughts are with you and with so many others out there. thank you. >> you're welcome. for more information on how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text hawaii to 707070 to donate. we're also following some major legal developments in three cases that are tied to former president trump. in florida this morning, trump and his body man walt nauta pleaded not guilty to additional charges in the mar-a-lago documents case. in georgia with a potential indictment on the way, trump released an attack ad that smears the atlanta area district attorney investigating him for 2020 election interference. and then in monoichigan today, e republicans were arraigned on felony state charges for signing on as fake electors in an effort to block joe biden's 2020 win in the state. now a total of 16 defendants have pleaded not guilty in that case. we have cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor jennifer rogers here with us to talk a little bit about this. you know, we keep hearing, jen, that these cases in michigan are novel, they're first of their kind. what makes them novel? >> well, we haven't had a factual scenario like this before, brianna, where you have people claiming that even though they submitted paperwork that they have to acknowledge was facially false, they were not the duly elected electors, that they say because they believed that the election should have been won by the person they were supporting, that they're not guilty. so there are some interesting defenses here. obviously the attorney general has thought long and hard about all of this before she charged, as she feels very good about the charges. she says she thinks the evidence is very strong, and legal at the's strong. we'll -- legally it's strong. we'll see what happens. >> some of these fake electors say i was tricked, i didn't know that i was doing something that was bad. then on the other hand, you have some who say they still believe donald trump won. they are, you know, fully invested in that lie. will there be a distinction made between those two kinds of defendants do you think? >> well, certainly the prosecutors will have to account for questions that jurors will have in both of those situations. so you want to kind of knock down the defenses of all of the defendants on trial so they will have to kind of address both of ose things. but where those things really fall down isven though it does appear that these electorsn michigan were lied to in the sense of these electors were told that their forms would be submitted if and only if litigation that was challenging the results succeeded, they still knew that they were forging documents. in other words, they knew that when they signed a piece of paper that says i am a duly elected elector for donald trump and these are the certified election results, that that was just factually untrue at the time that sunshined it. so if you -- signed it. so if you look at the offense, the prosecutors will argue it's still an offense even if they were tricked in some fashion. >> so much of the federal case when it comes to the fake elector scheme says that it was the former president who was indicted and then the unindicted co-conspirators, alleging that they caused these fake electors in this different state to go through with this process. does that endanger the chance of prosecution for these electors at all, that language about them being caused by sort of other masterminds? >> no, it's sort of like you're charging different levels of offenders. there's the mastermind head of the organization, if you will, who directs people. but you have low-level people like in a drug organization, the kingpin versus the person on the street who's pitching drugs. it's not that the person on the street doesn't know what they're doing and know that they are a cog in the wheel, that they're helping this crime happen, it's that they still can be directed by their boss, the boss in this criminal scheme. i don't think it helps these electors. i think they will try to kind of pitch themselves as the victims here, more an appeal to the jurors kind of as a personal matter for their sympathy than it is a legal defense, though. >> jennifer rogers, thank you so much for your insights. always helpful. alex? and we have breaking news out of iran. five americans held for years in an iranian prison have now been released but put in house arrest. cnn chief international anchor christiane amanpour joins us now. what are you learning? >> reporter: they were released today. they have been seen, sighted, and it's confirmed by their lawyers, family, and the united states, the white house, state department, and even by iran. we got a confirmation and comment from iran. they have been in the prison for more than seven years, nearly eight years. ahmad shagi and marad tabad, a businessman and environmentalist, they've been seized since 2018. so five years. and two other americans also who have not been made public in terms of their names have also been released. now they are going, as you said, to house arrest at a hotel in -- they are currently there -- in tehran, and they have been seen by the swiss ambassador, the swiss government does take care of american interests while america has no diplomatic relations with iran. now we believe that under the terms of the broader deal the hostages, the prisoners who are now under house arrest will be finally freed and allowed to leave iran only when the full terms of the deal have been settled, when all the ts are crossed, is are dotted and a plane will come and take them out. this is being mediated, as well, by the persian gulf state of qatar, and it also involves financial transactions between south korea and iran. i just want to play for you a bit of an interview that one of the prisoners gave me from jail five months ago in desperation to get their plight in front of the administration and the world. he actually called out, used phone privileges which he did have after eight years in prison, to call out. and this say little bit of what he said -- >> i think the very facts that i've chosen to take this risk and appear on cnn from prison, it should just tell you how dire my situation has become by this point. i've been a hostage for 7.5 years now, that's six times the duration of the hostage crisis. i keep getting told that i'm going to be rescued, and deals fall apart or i get abandoned. honestly, the other hostages and i desperately need president biden to finally hear us out, to finally hear our cry for help and bring us home. and i suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. so this is a desperate measure. >> reporter: so that desperate measure, as he said, has born some fruit. all the families and their representatives are careful not to put the cart before the horse. they know that this is first step, a welcome step, but there's a number of weeks of negotiations to complete before they can actually come home. importantly, we got a reaction and confirmation froe iranian government when we called -- when my team called and asked them, the u.n. mission in new york who said this is a -- result of humanitarian cooperation, also by a third-party government. iran and the u.s. have agreed to reciprocally release and pardon prisoners. the transfer, the iranians said, is a first step to that. that means the iranians expect five prisoners to be released by the united states at some point in the future. and then there's the bigger question of the frozen funds that iran expects to get -- not directly, into a trust kind of account, managed by the qataris, we understand, only to be used for humanitarian aid and good that's are not sanctioned and for the good of iranians who are suffering under severe sanctions. and you know, their government mismanagement at the moment. >> what more do we know about those prisoners who iran would be receiving and the amount of money that they would be getting back -- and if i may, to what extent this is tied to the conversations over iran's nuclear program, as well? >> reporter: well, look, you know that the u.s., certainly the biden administration really wanted to go back into the nuclear deal, and years now of discussions have yielded nothing yet in that department. so they then had to figure out how to get these americans home. now the money is not american money. this is very important to understand. it is iranian funds that the south koreans owe them for getting iranian energy. it's somewhere, we understand from previous conversations and previous interviews, in the region of $6 billion to $7 billion. so the idea is to unfreeze that amount of money and put it into a third-party-controlled account that will then help -- go to help in a humanitarian way iranians inside iran. we don't know -- i don't know the nature of the iranian prisoners held in the united states. they may be as in the past a sort of combination of some business people, sometimes journalists, those who have been arrested for whatever america says they -- laws they violated. this has happened before. many, many american presidents have undergone this kind of transaction. the longest held was left behind during the prisoner swap that accompanied the nuclear deal back in 2015, 2016, and he was left behind during deals to free two americans under the trump administration in 2019. so for him and his family, this has been a massive ordeal. and of course they, of course, deny any wrongdoing. as he said to me, we haven't so much as jaywalked. we were taken for one reason only, and that's because we're americans. >> a massive ordeal. a positive first step to get these americans home. but as you note, there is a lot more that need to be worked out. thank you so much. appreciate it. brianna? still ahead, an update on the destruction and evacuations after the wildfires in hawaii as president biden approves a disaster declaration. i'll speak to a reporter who needed to evacuate, as well. plus, the man shot and killed by the fbi in utah. we'll have more on the alarming threats that he had made against president biden and others before agents arrived at his door. ♪ chevy silverado has what it takes to do it all.. withth up to 13 camera views. and the z71 off-road package. ♪ you ok? yeah. any truck can help you make a living. this one helps you build a life. chevy silverado. i'm jonathan lawson hereo tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? 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>> reporter: it means that if this is granted by the judge, it would be a very, very speedy and aggressive road to trial for both the prosecutors and donald trump's team and the federal court in washington. so in this january 6th case, what the justice department, the special counsel's office is asking now is jury selection in december and then the trial beginning january 2nd, the day after new year's. right before the anniversary of the capitol attacks which would be january 6th, of course, and then also right before voters would start to go to the polls in primary elections. donald trump obviously running for the republican nomination, the iowa caucuses would naturally be first there. and at the same time, in january that kicks off a trial schedule for donald trump in a bunch of other proceedings, including lawsuits. in january he does have a trial that is set to begin in a lawsuit from e-jean carroll, the columnist, in new york. so there is going to be quite a lot of thought that the judge is going to have to put into this. can they get to trial this fast, four months away from now essentially with that jury selection in mid december. is that plausible? and trump's team, too, they're going to be able to come back and argue against this. they most certainly will. they wanted to put his trial in florida off until after the election, and they've already signaled they want to do a lot of motions to test the law quite a bit here before this goes to trial. >> presumably we'll be hearing from them very soon. katelyn polantz with the breaking news that the federal prosecutors in the election interference case want that trial to begin at the very beginning of january, 2024. we're also closely following a story out of utah. just hours before president biden arrived in the state yesterday, fbi agents there tried to arrest a man accused of making online threats to kill the president and other democrats. and it ended with the suspect's death. a law enforcement source telling us that craig d. anderson pointed a gun at fbi s.w.a.t. agents as they were trying to take him into custody. i want to bring in security correspondent josh campbell to talk about this. this, josh, was not the suspect's first run-in with the fbi which he had alluded to on social media. >> reporter: that's right. the investigation actually started back in march when a social media company noticed concerning material on their platform. they called the fbi. that's when the fbi placed the suspect under surveillance. they eventually made contact with him to confront him about a series of troubling online posts in which he was making threats against officials. the suspect according to the criminal complaint said the posts were part of a dream. he got aggressive with agents, telling them to go away and not to come back unless they had a warrant. they obtained that warrant after they noticed troubling information about president e biden. i'll read you one of the alleged posts from the suspect. he wrote that, i hear biden is coming to utah, digging out my old gilly suit, that refers to camouflage attire worn by snipers, and cleaning the dust off the m24 sniper rifle. of course, what concerned the u.s. secret service and the fbi was that president joe biden was, indeed, en route utah yesterday. so in the early morning hours, they went to his home, attempted to take him into custody. law enforcement source told me he brandished a weapon toward one of the fbi s.w.a.t. operators, they fired the fatal shot. people ask why the heavy-handedness by the fbi, why bring in a s.w.a.t. team. look at the imagery that the suspect had on his social media atform, including the weaponry that he had, a lot of pictures of guns and graphic detail about how he wanted to use these weapons against prominent democratic officials. and so they then came in with that heavy tactical team to try to arrest him. of course, it's worth pointing out that all of this comes as the department of homeland security, other intelligence agencies have been warning about political rhetoric and how that could lead to violence. it's something that law enforcement is watching as we continue toward the 2024 election cycle. >> yeah, they're very worried about anti-government extremism. they certainly are. josh campbell live on this story. thank you so much. alex? at least 36 people have been killed in the wake of had had's wildfires. thousands now evacuating amid the struggle to contain the flames. we'll have a live report next. plus, a presidential candidate in ecuador assassinated at a campaign event. what we're learning about plans for the election there that are set to happen this month. that's next on "cnn news central." out this ♪ ♪ yeah, ♪ ♪ so let's get it ♪ ♪ i'm feeling good vibes ♪ (♪) rsv can be a dangerous virus... 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[coughing] ...from this highly... ...contagious virus. not all dangers come with warning labels. talk to your pharmacist or doctor... ...about getting vaccinated against rsv today. returning now to paradise lost. just catastrophic wildfires in maui. countless families are agonizing this hour, unable to reach loved ones after the historic town of lahaina burned to the ground. listen to one lahaina resident as she saw the devastation from her boat in the harbor. >> oh, my god. >> here is what we know at this hour -- there are 36 confirmed dead. more than 2,000 people are in shelters. there are more than 270 buildings that are either ashes now or they are damaged. joining us now we have malika dudley, a meteorologist and maui county correspondent for our cnn affiliate kitv 4. listen, i know your family has been through a lot, and i want to talk to you about that first. tell me a little bit about your situation. i understand you have a 10-month-old, a 7-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a foreign exchange student, and there was some worry about what was happening with your house. take me through what you and your neighbors have been going through. >> yes. thank you for having me on. it's really important to get the word out. and we really do need help here. back when i was directly impacted, we didn't know that it would come to this. at 1:00 a.m. i smelled smoke, and as a meteorologist i report on this all the time, we have red flag warnings pretty regularly. so we knew that there would be really, really high winds. we knew that there was low humidity and lots of dry brush. we had no way of anticipating this. at 1:00 a.m. when i smelled the smoke, it was alarming but not a panic. 1:30, woke my husband up again, 2:00, again. he kept saying, it's probably far away. we're going to be fine. at 3:00 a.m. we got a call from our neighbors that said get out. looked out the window, and the sky was red. so ran downstairs, woke up all of the kids, threw them into the car with our important documents and our bug-out binder, just grabbed whatever, a suitcase, and threw stuff into it. as we were driving out we bassed firefighters and tried to get information. they were basically had to hold off. they were there to protect life and property if it came to that. but at that time they were just allowing the fire to burn through the brush and waiting to see what would happen. unfortunately, they couldn't do water drops because the winds were so high, and as we were leaving and it was dark, it was the middle of the night, 3:00 a.m., as we were leaving our neighborhood, we saw police officers at every single house evacuating our neighborhood. so the response initially was very quick, you know, all hands on the ground. only one subdivision at that time was being impacted, and so we are safe, our home is still standing, although we had a couple of close calls over the last couple of days. my husband is there right now. he said the fire is still active. we aren't going to be going back because there's no power. the floor is covered in ash. everything's covered in ash. it's just not safe to be there right now, especially since we haven't had the all clear. >> i'm so thankful that your house is okay. there are so many people obviously not in that position, some of them your neighbors. tell us what you are hearing from other people, and also people who don't necessarily know where their loved ones are because we know that there are some concerns about communications and being able to get in touch with people. >> oh, yeah. so since then, the situation devolved pretty quickly. multiple fires started, so maui is like a turtle, it's the big part of the maui and the head of the turtle is where lahaina is. and there were multiple areas of fires. then lahaina also had a fire. so if you can imagine just how the resources had to be spread out. 100 firefighters were on duty for 24 hours. and that was calling all hands on deck. at the time, it seem -- it was overwhelming. it seemed like we really didn't have the help that we needed. now fast forward to yesterday. we started to get help from the national government, the federal government, and i think that has really helped. the winds have come down a little bit, so that also helped with the fire-fighting effort. what i'm hearing from people -- and if you can imagine in lahaina, 29 power poles went down. so the winds blew the power poles down, the power poles -- this is my personal opinion because obviously there have not been investigations done yet on the cause of the fire. but when a power pole comes down, it sparks, and we've heard this from witnesses, as well. and with winds gusting into 80 mile-per-hour or more, that is how the fires spread very, very quickly. the power lines are down, so that means also no power, and fiber optics have been impacted in lahaina. so in lahaina, it was just the perfect storm of all of the wrong ingredients to create this situation. and on top of that, no one -- people could not get in touch with others. people are missing, and we still don't have communications. right now we've had buses taking the people from the shelter in lahaina to an area where now they're finally getting cell reception. we're just starting to have names trickle in of survivors. >> which is so important. i mean, waiting all of this time for those family members is excruciating. we spoke with the state senator from lahaina. he said they need food, they need fuel, and they need tourists who have travel plans in that area to stay out. what else -- what else do people ne need? >> this is going to be a very long, difficult process for all of us here on maui. we already have a housing crisis. so when i think about the long term, that's what concerns me the most. where are people going to live? you know, we already have hawa hawaiians, native hawaiians, this is their land, that have to leave and move somewhere else, somewhere that isn't their land. and when something like this happens, i personally feel like that should be made a priority to keep our people and our residents here on island. and that plan has not yet been outlined by our government. i think that's something that we are eager to hear what the plan is. but obviously there are immediate needs to shelter people. with runs of people now at the war memorial center, community center, fortunately there they do have food and lots of donations coming in. my best friend worked there all day yesterday. and she said support has been overwhelming, and they've been just sorting things all day long. everything from diapers to really whatever you need. so that's the good news. the other need is monetary support. if you are anywhere in the world and you want to help us on maui, please go to hawaii community foundation's website and donate. that is a reputable organization this is going to make sure that money stays here on maui and helps maui people in the best way possible. there's also maui united way, maui food bank. those would be my top three for donations. and you can go to mauirapidresponse on instagram. they're also working on a website. i'm not sure if it's up yet, mauirapidresponse.org. and you can offer help in services. things like construction companies are reaching out and saying i've got trucks, does anyone need a giant dump truck to haul something? you know, some things like that. >> that is incredibly helpful. i know that our viewers are going to be very interested. we're grateful that your family is okay. malika dudley, thank you for being with us and for spreading the word. >> thank you. and if you are interested to know how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, just go to cnn.com/impact. you can also text hawaii to 707070 to donate. alex? >> it will be a long road to recovery. now the government in ecuador has declared a state of emergency after a presidential candidate was assassinated on the campaign trail. the attack appears to have been caught on camera. look at this. candidate fernando villavicencio was leaving a rally near the capitol yesterday. as he gets into that waiting car, you can hear the shots fired. [ gunshots ] journalist david shartel is following this for us. this is obviously an active investigation. what more are you learning about it? >> reporter: yeah, law enforcement just gave a briefing earlier this morning. i'll take you through a few of the pieces of new information that we just learned. we now know that there were six men arrested in a series of overnight raids around the capital city of quito, that's cording to the interior minister of ecuador who said the men are all believed to be foreign nationals. the interior minister also said they're believed to be connected to organized criminal groups operating in the country. although he didn't say or specify which gangs they're believed to be involved in. those raids turning up a real cache of weapons, among them a machine gun, three hand grenades. now those capping what was an explosive evening in ecuador just ten days ahead of the presidential elections. to reset it was around 6:15 p.m. when villavicencio left the campaign rally to go to a school in the capital city. he was walking to a car, as you see, when we hear the sound before 12 gunshots ring out. we're now learning more about his security detail that evening. according to the interior minister, he had three levels of protection within his details. among them, several police officers and two patrol cars at the site of the rally that evening. now apparently his campaign also had an armored vehicle in their possession, but it was in a different city in ecuador that night, so it was not with him at the campaign rally. this is obviously a very important time for ecuador. they are going forward about their elections in ten days' time. some candidates have suspended their campaigns. it's going to move forward. a very important topic. >> very important and an extraordinary attack that has shaken that country right before this election. david, thank you very much for that report. appreciate it. brianna? still ahead, president biden today talking up the one-year anniversary of a bill to help veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits and other toxins. a reality check on the progress made and the work that still has to be done next on "cnn news central." try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work coinuously, soou don't have to. zevo. peop-friendly. bug-deadly. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) -awww. -awww. -awww. -nope. ( ♪ ) constant contact delivers the marketing tools your small business needs to keep up, excel, and grow. constant contact. helping the small stand tall. i'm barbara and i'm from st. joseph, michigan. i'm a retired school librarian. i'm also a library board trustee, a mother of two, and a grandmother of two. basically, i thought that my memory wasn't as good as it had been. i needed all the help i could get. i saw the commercials for prevagen. i started taking it. and it helped! i noticed my memory was better. there was definite improvement. i've been taking prevagen for a little over five years. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! uuuhhhh... here, i'll take that! woohoo! ensure max protein, 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar. enter the $10,000 powered by protein max challenge. ♪ ♪ - [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. we have many obligations as a nation. we only have one truly sacred obligation, and that's to equip those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home. and when they don't. >> president biden there commemorating the one-year anniversary of the p.a.c.t. act which provides benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits, agent orange, and other toxins. the law also allowed victims of water contamination at camp lejeune, the marine base in north carolina, the ability to file lawsuits against the government. that includes eddie peterson who served as a military lawyer at lejeune back in eight 70s. later went on to be an assistant d.a. in tennessee and was forced to give up his successful law career as parkinson's disease took over his body. a new study, by the way, shows poisoned lejeune veterans are 70% mo7 0 more likely to have -- 70 times more likely to have parkinson's. it affected people who served and lived on base from the 1950s to the 1980s, had no idea they were bathing their children in, washing clothes in, and drinking water so contaminated that it would later be linked to 15 categories of cancers. we have subtitled him so that you can understand him. >> a crime against humanity. a crime against -- responsible for misdeed. >> he wants those who are responsible for this held responsible for their misdeeds. and while many veterans already benefited this past year from the p.a.c.t. act, many lawsuits brought by lejeune veterans like eddie are proceeding at a crawl through the courts and increasingly becoming wrongful death claims. among them, corporal daniel thomas clark who died from kidney cancer and lung cancer in february at just 63 years old. clark served in the marine corps for eight years straight out of high school. then in early may, shelby jean hunter, a former civilian employee at lejeune who served as the base housing clerk and librarian, died of breast cancer. a day later, corporal alfred eugene benson passed away from bladder cancer and kidney failure. in his obituary his family highlights his two tours in vietnam and later his government work providing top-secret communications for government officials including then-secretary of state henry kissinger during peace talks in the middle east during the '70s. in early june, private first class danny lee williams died from bladder cancer. later that month, james railroad arthur thomson from medford, oregon, passed away from kidney cancer at just 63 years old. their families now taking up their legal battles alongside living plaintiffs like eddie. >> i can't forget -- it happened to marines and wives and daughters and sons. it's atrocious. nobody can make me whole again. nobody can give me back 22 years. nobody can give a husband back and my two daughters a daddy back. >> just three weeks ago, judges in the eastern district of north carolina who are overseeing all lejeune-related civil cases finally named a leadership team of seven lawyers representing plaintiffs to shepherd thousands of cases and settlements through the legal process. i did speak with a partner for the bell legal group which handles the majority of the civil cases currently pending including eddie's, and they're expecting a year to a year and a half to be seeing trials and settlements. so quite some time ahead still. alex? >> so important to stay on that. new today, consumer prices ticking up for the first time in more than 12 months. how that's affecting our daily lives, next. ♪ start your day with nature made. the #1 p pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. a cooling streak snapped for the first time in more than a year inflation is back up a new report from the bureau of labor statistics show consumer prices jumped 3.2% annually over last july. here's what's driving it. high costs for food and housing with the latter accounting for 90% of that july increase. thankfully, other prices continue to cool, but hikes for some goods and services are still coming in way too hot. cnn's nathaniel meyerson has more details. what are you seeing in. >> reporter: alex, one thing that's pretty interesting that was not in the report today is that it's going to be more expensive to watch some of your favorite disney movies. disney said yesterday it's going to hike prices on disney plus, the streaming service. back in 2019, when disney first introduced disney plus, it cost $6.99 a month. now it's $10.99 and in october it's set to go up to $13.99 a month a 20% increase in just over a year, and it's really a sign of trouble in the streaming industry. investors are putting a ton of pressure on these companies to make money, and so disney is hiking prices. >> yeah. those streaming subscriptions up all across the board. we're also seeing an impact on orange juice, which is a staple for so many families. explain what you're seeing there. >> reporter: so alex, most of the orange production in this country is in florida, but florida suffered from hurricanes and a citrus disease that has led to short orange supply, so last year, orange futures were at 1.08 a pound and now jumped to $3 a-pound and that's going to mean higher prices for customers at the grocery store on orange juice in the coming months. >> all right. thank you very much. orange juice. so at least, and this is the number at this point, 36 people have been killed in hawaii's wildfires. thousands now evacuating in the ongoing struggle to contain the flames and we are still looking for details that are evolving here. we have the state's lieutenant governor joining us in the next hour. the new grand slam ham. so does ththis pro. i just love a grand slam... ham. and if we proffer it, we know you'll proffer it too. i knew he'd love thatat sandwich. 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