plus, why rapists in the military are getting away with it. a bay area congresswoman taking the air force on front and center. jackie spear calling for new hearings on what she calls abuse of power. this morning, she s in the newsroom. and hot, hot, hot. the summer sizzler in full effect this morning. dangerously high heat and humidity making it feel as hot as 110 degrees from virginia all the way to southern maine. so sit back, get out the fan, stay cool. newsroom starts right now. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we do start with this breaking news. for the first time, we re seeing video of george zimmerman describing the play-by-play of what happened the night he shotted trayvon martin. overnight, his defense attorneys released several police interrogation tapes. in one of them, zimmerman is re-enacting the fight for investigators just a day after the shooting in february showing how he says trayvon martin repeatedly slammed his head into the sidewalk. in one ta
breaking public health scare. a confirmed case of mad cow disease in california has the agriculture department here in washington on full alert. the fatal brain disease not only can be passed among cattle, scientists think an equally deadly variation can be transmitted to humans who eat contaminated beef or dairy products. the first confirmed case here in the united states in six years. elizabeth cohen joins us from the cnn center in atlanta. elizabeth, one of the reasons people get so scared is the potential. what does this mean for the food supply? you know, for this one cow that really this one cow doesn t have that much importance for our food supply. the usda doesn t appear to be panicked, even critics of the usda don t appear to be tank panicked. the reason why is this cow was never going to be eaten, it was a dairy cow. and experts say milk of an infected cow is not infectious. you can t get the disease from drinking the milk. john. how did they find out that thi
it is deadly. the u.s. agriculture department announced that a case of mad cow disease has been confirmed confirmed in a dairy cow out in central california. let s bring in lisa sylvester. she s working this story for us. lisa, what is the department of agriculture saying. what s going on? reporter: wolf, the usda just released information within the last hour and what we know is that it is a dairy cow from central california that has tested positive for bse or commonly known or referred to as mad cow disease, and wolf, this is only the fourth case ever detected in the united states. normally an animal contracts bse from consuming contaminated feed and this cow tested positive from atypical bse, it s a rare form of the disease and not generally associated with an animal-consuming infected feed and it states, quote, the cow was never presented for slaughter for human consumption so at no time presented a risk to the food supply and milk does not transmit bse. so you can se
report, zimmerman claims that he was attacked and beaten by martin before the shooting. and witness accounts corroborate that account too. happening right now, a deadly wildfire in colorado. take a look at these pictures. strong winds are fueling all of those flames. at least a handful of homes burned to the ground. that s jefferson county. evacuations have been ordered for nearly 1,000 homes. researchers report that deepwater horizon oil spill caused a lot of damage to coral formations. scientists spotted one coral colony covered in what they call black couple seven miles from the scene of that gusher. president obama caught in an awkward open mike moment. this is my election. after my election i have more flexibility. i understand you. i transmit this information to vladimir and i stand with you. the president is trying to make light of that moment but his republican rivals are not laughing. the highest court in the land will be getting to the heart of the healt