>> hope wins, in everything you're doing. >> pelley: now, hollywood is telling her story. this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: this is our western edition. 36 days before the election, hillary clinton has taken the lead over donald trump. our new cbs news poll, out tonight, has clinton up four points. before the first debate last monday, they were tied. the voters who watched the debate, 32% said their impression of clinton improved, while 36% said their opinion of trump got worse. late today, trump defended his use of the tax code to legally pay as little in taxes as he could. here's major garrett. >> i have legally used the tax laws to my benefit. >> reporter: today in colorado, donald trump was unapologetic after "the new york times" reported he claimed a business loss of nearly $916 million on his 1995 personal tax returns. those losses could have shielded trump from federal income taxes for years. >> i understand the tax laws better than almost anyone. >> reporter: trump has not released any of his tax returns, and a trump lawyer threatened the "times" with legal action for unauthorized publication of trump's records. the documents were mailed anonymously to the "times." reporters susanne craig and david barstow: >> i was walking by my mailbox. i check it frequently. and i looked in, and there was an envelope addressed from the trump tower. >> so, to have them tumble out of an envelope, your first reaction really is skepticism. >> reporter: in february, trump bragged to us about not paying taxes. you work very hard to pay the least amount of taxes? >> yeah, i want the pay the least amount possible. >> reporter: trump also said this when hillary clinton raised his tax history at last monday's debate: >> he didn't pay any federal income tax, so, if-- >> that makes me smart. >> reporter: today, new york attorney general eric schneiderman, a clinton supporter, ordered trump's charitable foundation to stop soliciting contributions in new york because it is not properly registered with the state. schneiderman is also investigating charges trump used charitable funds for personal gain. trump's campaign said the foundation will comply with the order. earlier today in northern virginia, trump was asked about mental healthcare for veterans and said, those who suffer from post traumatic stress are "not as strong" as those who do not. scott, for years veterans groups have tried to erase the stigma of weakness once associated with post traumatic stress disorder. >> pelley: major garrett, following the campaign for us, major, thank you. well, today, hillary clinton tried to turn trump's financial losses to her political gain. here's nancy cordes. >> what kind of genius loses $1 billion in a single year? >> reporter: trump's tax flap gave clinton a chance to chip away at his biggest selling point: his business acumen. >> how anyone can lose $1, let alone $1 billion, in the casino industry, is kind of beyond me, right? >> you work hard. you pay your taxes. >> reporter: clinton and top democrats quickly cut ads to capitalize on the news they've been anticipating for months. >> i want a president who is proud of our country, not a president who is proud of getting out of paying taxes. >> reporter: her stops in akron and toledo today marked clinton's first visit to battleground ohio in a month. she was greeted by a new poll that shows her trailing there by five points, though she did pick up a new endorsement from the state's best-known athlete, cavaliers' star lebron james. >> i mean, our kids are our future, and i believe barack started it. i believe hillary's going to continue it. >> here in ohio, lebron will always be the king. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: clinton's biggest challenge in ohio is the outsized share of white, working-class voters. cbs news found nationally whites without a college degree favor trump by nearly two to one. ohio is not a must-win for clinton, the way it has been for other candidates in years past. that's partly because she is leading big in other battleground states, like this one, virginia, and colorado, where another new poll today, scott, showed she is leading there by 11. >> pelley: nancy cordes, thanks. this w with some insight into all of this, we'll turn now to john dickerson, our cbs news political director and, of course, the anchor of "face the nation." john, the tax controversy, what whatt is that likely to have on have on? >> well, this is a distraction for donald trump, at a time when he really can't afford it. on any given day, a campaign wants to drive the news, not be reacting to it. and today, donald trump was reacting again. he's been doing that for about a week, since that first debate. and when a campaign is reacting, it's not able to court new voters. t debate.ase those reluctant, college-educated republicans donald trump has been going after. they think he's too risky. but it also puts the campaign on the defensive, which risks lashing out or reckless acts, which are an attempt to change the stories but sometimes just prolong it. and this is also all happening with about a month to go in the race, and the days are more precious than if this had happened in august. and finally, donald trump has other stuff on his plate. mainly, he has to focus for that big, next debate coming up. >> pelley: now, a few minutes ago we broke the news on our new poll. what else in the poll struck you? >> well, in debates we don't usually see a group of voters who switch from one candidate to another. the biggest group of people watching the debates already know who they're going to vote for. but what a candidate can do is take that group and make them more enthusiastic, get them to volunteer, get them to vote early in those states that have early voting, and get them to cheer for a candidate on social media. so if we look at hillary clinton, she won the enthusiasm game. the percentage of voters who were very enthusiastic about voting for her has risen seven points since before the first debate. also, 58% of democrats have an improved opinion of hillary clinton after the debate, compared to donald trump where only 22% of republicans felt that same way about him after the first debate. >> pelley: john dickerson, we'll be watching "face the nation" on sunday. thanks. now, this is a picture from farmville, virginia, the site of the vice presidential debate. that is coming tomorrow. john, nancy, major, and bob schieffer will be there for cbs news live coverage tomorrow evening at 9:00 eastern. the moderator will be my colleague elaine quijano of our streaming news service cbsn. today, even dim hope for syria was extinguished. the state department ended talks with russia to end syria's civil war. a u.s.-russian ceasefire agreement collapsed just last month. the u.s. is blaming the russian military's assault on the besieged city of aleppo. syria's civil war has killed nearly 500,000 people since 2011. most of them, civilians. tonight, people from cuba to the carolinas are getting ready for the potential impact of storm is alrtthew, the powerful category-4 storm is already blamed for at least four deaths. this is the view of matthew from space, as it aims to make life miserable for millions. our mark strassmann is in kingston, jamaica. >> reporter: jamaica has felt hurricane matthew's outer bands all weekend, striking fear of its fury into residents. kingston, the nation's capital, home to almost 600,000 people, is a virtual ghost town. annette gerald headed for a shelter. >> my roof is not solid, and a hurricane is coming. >> reporter: mudslides remain a major worry. this mountain road has already washed away, which could cut off a kingston community called gordon town from the rest of the city. but matthew's bull's-eye could be nearby haiti. sometime tomorrow, winds around 140mph could flatten a landscape of flimsy homes. flash flooding, mudslides and storm surge threaten people living in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. matthew will then move north to matthew eastern cuba, where it could linger for ten hours. 350,000 cubans have been evacuated. at the u.s. naval facility at guantanamo bay, destructive weather might force the relocation of detainees. suzanna labratta manages a store in santiago. she says, "we're getting ready she says for the hurricane and evacuating everyone who needs to move." jamaica has roughly 1,000 public schools. all of them have been closed indefinitely. and, scott, most have been turned into emergency shelters, just in case. >> pelley: mark strassmann, thanks. eric fisher is the chief meteorologist at our cbs station wbz in boston. eric, what's coming next? >> reporter: well, scott, this is certainly a very powerful, very dangerous hurricane. it's been moving its way north throughout the course of the day today. and it has its eye on haiti. during the overnight and into the early part of tomorrow. widespread hurricane watches and warnings now extending all the way up to the northwestern bahamas, and the latest track really maintains the strength. so it stays a major category-3 ad hurricar hurricane, slowly moving through the bahamas over wednesday and thursday. then as it approaches the eastern seaboard, a track that will bring it right up along the florida coastline, along the georgia, south carolina and ursday.arolina coastlines, as we head toward the end of this week and into the weekend. so the imminent threat here across cuba, hispaniola, jamaica, and then as we move toward florida and the southeast atlantic coastline, we're on cuba, hispae late-week period. north of north carolina, this is where the uncertainty is, scott, as it may go out to sea or move right up the coast. more clarity on that in the next couple days. >> pelley: eric fisher of wbz. eric, thank you. well, changes in our climate are dominating president obama's final days in office. tonight on the white house lawn, the president is taking part in an ideas festival that includes a discussion of the dangers of a warming planet. the president has called global warming a slow-motion catastrophe. scientists worried about how the human race will feed itself are working on a radical new idea. mark phillips has the fruits of their labor in the netherlands, for tonight's "climate diaries." >> reporter: if rising sea levels and more flooding are the inevitable future of climate world that may have found at change, there's a place in the world that may have found at least part of the solution. nobody knows more about dealing with encroaching waters than the dutch, where more and more salty water has been seeping through the dikes onto agricultural land. on this experimental farm, they've been trying to see what might actually grow in those conditions. how are you finding out what works? >> simply by letting the plants tell us which is salt tolerant and which isn't. >> reporter: which is why they call marc van rijsselburgh the potato whisperer. he speaks potato. >> if they die, they give you a statement, and fortunately, we don't have to kill our scientists before they get the statement. >> reporter: but they don't all die, the potatoes, far from it. they've tested hundreds of varieties here, irrigating them with increasingly salty water, and they've found plenty that love the stuff. but there would be no point, unless those survivors were also edible. >> i'll try the brown one first. >> yes. >> reporter: tastes like a good potato. >> yeah. >> reporter: and the other one tastes like... a good potato. one. but different. i'm betting this is the salty one. >> you're absolutely right, mark. >> reporter: so far, so interesting, but there are real, current applications for this discovery. in this salt-affected region of pakistan, one of many such regions around the world, they have given up trying to grow anything until the dutch showed up with their salt-resistant potatoes. the result: bumper crops. amsterdam university botanist arjen de vos runs the project and says it works for other vegetables, too. >> you can use half seawater salinity, to have still... >> reporter: half seawater? >> yes, we have carrots that grow in half seawater salinity. according to old data, they should be dead already, but these carrots can feed many people worldwide. >> reporter: the potato whisperer not only provides the ingredients, he has the recipe. >> we can make onions, carrots and potatoes for the people in bangladesh and pakistan. and then you have a proper meal. >> reporter: a little curry spice and then you're talking. >> yeah. >> reporter: they're talking about breaking new ground here in so many ways. mark phillips, cbs news, texel island, the netherlands. >> pelley: coming up on the "cbs evening news," police go to new heights to catch drivers who text. and later, the inspiring story of the chess queen and the game that changed her life. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? 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>> people are holding the phone down, and that's really even more dangerous, because they're taking their eyes completely off the road. >> reporter: in the time it takes a driver to look down and send a text, a vehicle could travel the distance of a football field. driver brandi hayes. do you think about the safety aspect of that? >> i do, but, you know, you always think you're above it, you know, that you're not going to be the one to have an accident. >> reporter: but those accidents are rising. fatal distracted driving crashes jumped nearly 9% last year over 2014. that prompted this startling anti-texting ad. >> they're driving just like a drunk driver. you'll see them weaving. you'll see them go over the center line. >> reporter: to catch texting drivers, police are getting creative. >> the tan hummer, she's texting. >> reporter: officers in san bernardino, california, have posed as panhandlers, even though their signs warn they're looking for cell phone violators, drivers don't see them and are pulled over by motorcycle cops nearby. in moscow, idaho, they use a yellow school bus. in west bridgewater, massachusetts, they're using bicycle officers. chief victor flaherty: >> today, in three hours, the guys will stop somewhere in the vicinity of 100 cars. the old ter: sending a message the old fashioned way, via hand- written ticket. >> you have to pay over $100, so, don't look at your phone! >> reporter: the national safety council estimates roughly 1.6 million crashes last year can be attributed to cell phone use. scott, that's about one quarter of all accidents. >> pelley: keep your hands on the wheel. kris van cleave, thanks very much. the engineer in the new jersey train wreck is talking. we'll have that story, coming up. hey, jesse. who are you? 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>> yeah. we didn't have anything. we did my mom had no money. >> reporter: when she was nine, she stumbled upon a church chess program. at first, it wasn't the game n'at interested her. in >> i was just going back because i wanted a meal. >> reporter: so you were going back to play because you needed food? >> yeah. >> reporter: but things began to change when mutesi met robert katende. he started the chess program as a way to empower children in katwe. what was it about phiona? >> actually, the most intriguing ctor was thehe determination to survive. she was grasping every concept you would teach her, and tried to use it well against other players. >> reporter: so he signed her up for tournaments. she began winning and became the first female chess champion of her country. by 14 she competed in the olympics of chess, beating adults, achieving status as an expert player. >> i cannot just believe it that i'm a person right now here at this level, because i'm a person from nowhere. >> reporter: mutesi's journey is now a movie. >> checkmate. >> she won. >> she won. >> phiona won. >> reporter: disney's "queen of katwe," featuring oscar winner lupita nyong'o, who plays mutesi's mother, and david oyelowo, who plays her coach. what message do you have for other young people in similar situations as yourself? >> hope wins, in everything you're doing. >> reporter: hope wins? >> yeah. it's up to you to wake up, to stand and to do something. >> reporter: spoken like a winner, who says she never loses, she just learns. jericka duncan, cbs news, new york. >> 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 captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. >> we are on the way home. it's the daily grind drivers can't escape. there's a surprising shakeup on the list of the lousiest bay area commutes. i am allen martin. >> and i am veronica de la cruz. gridlock has become an inevitable part of bay area commuting. devin fehely is at the traffic hotspot that went from bad to much much worse. >> reporter: that's right. congestion and gridlock are increasingly the norm on many bay area freeways. this section became one of the worst in just the last year or so. i know it doesn't feel this way when you're stuck in it but silicon valley leaders say there is a surprising silver lining to all this trouble. >> the experts are telling us what our residents know already which is that we have awful traffic congestion here. >> reporter: it's the blessing and curse of a booming economy, the same success driving companies to hire more workers is making it more difficult to drive anywhere anytime without traffic. >> in one month, we had 17,000 jobs created in the south bay. when you do that, you can't build freeways fast enough. >> reporter: the metropolitan transportation commission introduced its annual list of could nested freeways in the bay area underscoring the connection between traffic and this interstate 280 intersection, home to tech companies like apple, jumped from 20th to third worst in just a year. >> it's more severe than ever before. >> reporter: political leaders from across the region say adding more lanes to congested interstates isn't the answer. >>