cbs evening news with scott pelly is next. >> see you in 30 minutes. countdown to a shutdown. only hours left before congress shuts down much of the federal government in a dispute over obamacare. >> we're at the brink. >> pelley: nancy cordes is at the capital, major garrett with the president, bob schieffer's insight and people who would lose their paychecks. >> everyone else is supposed to get along. why can't they? i am very angry about it. >> pelley: what's behind the recent whooping cough outbreaks? bill whitaker has the answer in california. and they "otter" know better. john black stone shows us what happens when humans tried to show otters how to survive. >> we're not very good sea otters. we're not only not that cute but we just can't do what they do. captioning sponsored by cbs

this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is a special western edition. the house and senate spent the day runnin running into full spo a fiasco of their own making. major parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight unless congress passes a bill to keep the government funded. house republicans have refused to do that without a one-year delay in one of the key provisions of the affordable care act, also known as obamacare. there are late-breaking developments in this story and here is nancy cordes on capitol hill. >> reporter: scott, the capitol is locked in what appears to be a never-ending game of chicken. the g.o.p.-led house is voting tonight on the third republican attempt to use a government funding bill to weaken the president's health care law. the democratically-led senate has already said it will block that. >> well, we're at the brink.

>> reporter: with time running out, house speaker john boehner announced his party's newest salvo, a bill to fund the government that also delays the individual mandate in the health care law which requires all americans to buy insurance. >> the house will act this evening and whether send it over to the united states senate. >> reporter: senate leader harry reid warned this bill would meet the same fate as the previous two which would have defunded or delayed the health care bill all together. >> they are closing down the government. i don't know what in the world is wrong with them, why they're fixated on this obamacare. it is the law! >> reporter: the strategy is being championed by texas senator ted cruz, along with dozens of tea party house republicans who road a wave of obamacare-related anger into office in 2010. louisiana's john fleming. do you think this is worth shutting down the government over? >> i think this is worth fighting over obamacare, which the american people reject. >> reporter: and worth shutting down the government?

>> that's all i have to say. >> reporter: but for the first time, some house republicans like new york's peter king, are saying they won't go along with their g.o.p. colleagues. >> i'm going to vote against it. i have to vote against it. all we're doing is leading ourselves into a government shutdown for no reason. we've been in effect hijacked by ted cruz and by a segment of this party that has prevented us from keeping the government op open. >> reporter: but he is in the minority. most house republicans are sticking together right now. scott, the president spoke by phone the four top congressional leaders this evening but there were no breakthroughs to report. >> pelley: nancy cordes, thank you. now to the white house and correspondent major garrett. major? >> reporter: scott, the white house calls house republicans "extortionists." president obama said a government shutdown would harm federal workers as well as the broader economy and undercut american prestige. >> it does not have to happen. all of this is entirely preventable if the house chooses

to do what the senate has already done: and that's the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process. >> reporter: president obama said he won't sacrifice the affordable care act-- a central issue in his reelection campaign-- just to keep the government open. >> one faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election. >> reporter: the white house believes house republicans will relent once a government shutdown begins. but, scott, as late as last friday the white house belief add shutdown would never come. now it's nearly here and both sides are dug in. >> pelley: the president also mentioned today that u.s. troops and air traffic controllers and border patrol officers would remain on the job but their paychecks would likely be delayed. not all government services will

be affected. post offices will remain open. social security benefits will still go out. but among services that will be suspended: passport and visa applications could be delayed, national parks and federal buildings will be closed, the f.d.a., for example, will stop making routine food safety inspections. all federal workers deemed nonessential will be furloughed. that's about 800,000 all together. chip reid tells us about them. chip? >> reporter: good evening, scott. when people talk about the "federal government" they tend to think of washington, d.c., but, in fact, less than 20% of federal government employees are based here in the washington, d.c. area. today, we spoke with a woman from topeka, kansas, who's been working for the federal government for 34 years and expects to be furloughed tomorrow. >> we'll have to look into using our savings account, whatever is there, we'll have to look about

maybe putting off our mortgage payment. >> reporter: cindy blithe is a program management analyst for the coast guard. she directs her anger at congress. >> everyone else is supposed to get along. why can't they? i am very angry about it. they need to step up to the plate as we would say in kansas, cowboy up. >> reporter: erika towns is a nurse at a military base in maryland. what would you tell members of congress? >> they need to trim their own fat and stop touching mine. trim around their paycheck, not mine. >> reporter: townes' paycheck supports four children and a husband with multiple sclerosis. she was already furloughed earlier this year because of the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. >> so we already jumped off the carousel, now we've got to get back on again? really? why are we having to pay this price, this debt, once again? it's not fair and it's not right. >> reporter: here at the department of education, scott,

they're planning to furlough 94% of their workers and a few blocks away at nasa it's even worse. they're planning to tell 97% of their workers to stay home if there is a government shutdown. >> pelley: chip reid, thank you. investors on wall street are worried a shutdown will hurt the economy. most world markets were down today and the dow lost more than 128 points. elaine quijano is looking into this. >> reporter: the dow's down day didn't create a rush of worried investors at this charles schwab office in midtown manhattan. but the company's top market analyst, liz ann sonders, expects the mood to change. >> given this latest dysfunction around the potential shutdown and the debt ceiling fight i would expect another hit to occur to consumer confidence, business confidence and probably even investor confidence. >> reporter: investors paid a price during the last shutdown. the s&p 500-- the stock index of the nation's biggest companies-- fell nearly 4%. stocks rebounded after the end

of that shutdown, up 10.5% the next month. but the markets may not be as resilient this time. the washington standoff sap it is faith investors and businesses have in a recovery that appears fragile. >> they're less willing to take risk. by risk i mean long-term capital spending projects, long-term hiring. so they tend to make these short-term decisions and it doesn't add to the strength of the long term. >> reporter: many investors view the debate as a prelude to the fight over extending the debt ceiling. scott, that deadline to pay the nation's bills is less than three weeks away. a failure then could jolt the financial system and send the economy back into recession. >> pelley: elaine, thank you. government shutdowns are rare but they do happen. there have been 12 since 1977. the last one started back in 1995. it was a budget dispute between president clinton and republican house speaker newt gingrich. it lasted 28 days.

bob schieffer has seen shutdowns come and go as our chief washington correspondent and the anchor of "face the nation." bob, what do you see? >> schieffer: scott, what makes this difference is this is now coming down a debate not among democrats and republicans but among house republicans. the question: will the moderate and more establishment republicans continue to go along with the ultraconservatives who are determined to delay health care? because if they do, the president made clear this afternoon again he will never agree nor will the senate and republicans simply don't have the votes to change that. the real irony here is that unless the gridlock is broken health care-- which republicans want to stop-- will be funded while other parts of the government will shut down. exactly opposite of what the ultraconservatives wanted. at this point, i think we're headed to a shutdown unless the moderates in the house revolt. there will be debate in days to come about whose fault all of

this was and which party won. all i know is the big losers are the american people because everyday these games continue congress is not addressing the country's problems. >> pelley: bob schieffer in washington. thank you, bob. now, moving on to other news, we learned late today that two marine corps major generals are being forced to retire. they're being held accountable for not protecting a u.s. base in afghanistan. an attack last year killed two marines and destroyed six harrier attack jets. one of the generals who was disciplined, charles gurganus was the top marine commander in afghanistan. the other was the senior marine aviation officer in the area. near the afghan border, there has been a terrible series of bombings in peshawar, pakistan. three bombs in a week. the latest killed 42 civilians.

to us, this picture seemed to capture the terror. this man carrying a girl is running from a blast on saturday. a few days before this, 85 people were killed by a suicide bomber in a christian church. we haven't been able to learn this man's name or find out whether the little girl survived. this is the same region where american drones hunt taliban fighters and pakistan says two drone strikes in recent days have killed seven militants. the "new york times" reported today that a leak of classified information to reporters appears to have cost the united states a key source of information about al qaeda. the leak concerned a recent -- the leak concerned, i should say, how the u.s. learned of a recent plot to attack u.s. embassies. today, the attorney general said these leaks do serious damage and bob orr has a look at the consequences. >> reporter: 19 u.s. diplomatic

offices were quickly closed across the arab world in early august after intelligence analysts heard al qaeda boss ayman al-zawahiri and yemen commander nasser wuhayshi planning attacks. but when newspapers including the "new york times" revealed those intercepts, the al qaeda communication channel went silent. attorney general eric holder said that's now making it harder to track terrorists. >> these leaks are serious. they're consequential. they have negative impacts. they cause changes in behavior by the people who we are struggling against. >> reporter: sources say the leaks of classified files by former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden have also caused irreparable harm. snowden disclosed national security agency secrets, showing the government scoops up phone and internet records. the files were among the 20,000 classified documents snowden took with him to hong kong and russia. >> it's a tremendous boon to our foreign opponents. >> reporter: jim lewis, who's advised the pentagon and the white house on cyber defense, believes snowden's files are

almost certainly in the hands of chinese and russian intelligence. >> the ability of a foreign, intelligence analyst to now sit down and look at this treasure trove of material on n.s.a. and >> the ability of a foreign and its budget on everything will give them a immense insight. >> reporter: so this is the kind of information they'd be happy to pay for? >> they would be happy to pay for it, steal, do whatever they took to get it. >> reporter: how do you put this genie back in the bottle? >> you don't. some of these things are over and what we have to do is rebuild. >> reporter: now, al qaeda has not gone completely silent and that's good news. analysts say it is a must for any terror group-- including al qaeda-- to communicate. scott, as long as they're talking in some form the u.s. has some ability to keep track of them. >> pelley: bob orr in our washington newsroom, thanks, bob. alex rodriguez goes to bat to try to save his career. are parents causing outbreaks of whooping cough? and fishermen sail right into the middle of a waterspout when the "cbs evening news"

continues. hands for holding. feet, kicking. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start taking xeljanz if you have any kind of infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests, including certain liver tests, before you start and while you are taking xeljanz. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c,

or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, or plan to be. taken twice daily, xeljanz can reduce the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate. ask if xeljanz is right for you.

his day of coaching begins with knee pain, when... [ man ] hey, brad, want to trade the all-day relief of two aleve for six tylenol? what's the catch? there's no catch. you want me to give up my two aleve for six tylenol? no. for my knee pain, nothing beats my aleve. >> pelley: well, regardless of >> pelley: well, regardless of whether the federal government shuts down, a key part of obamacare will go into effect tomorrow as planned. it is already funded. tomorrow morning, millions of americans will be able to shop online for health care by going to www.healthcare.gov. the agency sets up the site tells us it will be ready for

the public tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. it's easy to think of whooping cough as a disease of the past. a vaccine invented in the 1940s all but wiped it out. but it's back and new evidence out today suggests that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children are linked directly to new outbreaks. here's bill whitaker. >> reporter: whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease of the respiratory system that causes uncontrollable coughing. the recent outbreak in 2010 made more than 9,000 people sick just in california and killed ten, the most since 1947. but the team that examined the outbreak found it was worst among 39 communities with clusters of kids who were not vaccinated. dr. dan salmon helped write the report. >> if you lived in a community that had higher rates of vaccine refusal you were about twice as likely to experience a community outbreak of pertussis.

>> reporter: the percentage of parents choosing to opt out of vaccinating their children for school has tripled from .7% in 2000 to 2.3% in 2010. orange county mother dotty hagmier believes a diet of fresh foods and probiotics will boost her children's immune system and fight disease so she doesn't see the need for vaccination. >> so i'm going to inject that into my kids' body so they may hopefully not get the whooping cough. and yet the research is showing that even if i give that to them they still might get it. >> reporter: the c.d.c. says the vaccine prevents the disease in seven of ten children who get it and that a 95% vaccination rate is needed to prevent an outbreak. before the vaccine in the 1940s, whooping cough was the leading cause of childhood death in the u.s. there were 265,000 cases in 1934. that dropped to just over 1000 in 1976 when most children were vaccinated.

that doesn't convince you? >> um, well, it sounds good. but the reality is that a lot of children that are getting pertussis have been vaccinated so it's not foolproof. >> and this study emphasizes the choices you make for your child can very well affect other children in the community. >> reporter: california has started a campaign to get all middle school students vaccinated. in some districts, as many as 84% of parents have asked for exemptions. bill whitaker, cbs news, dana point, california. >> pelley: a daredevil wearing a winged suit says he cried after surviving this stunt. you'll see why. next.

if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. for many adults, humira is proven to help relieve pain

and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira , your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your doctor if humira can work for you. this is humira at work.

>> pelley: baseball star alex rodriguez began appealing his historic suspension for doping today. rodriguez was at major league baseball headquarters in new york for his arbitration hearing. he was suspended for 211 games. after hearing the case, an arbitrator will decide whether to uphold, reduce, or overturn that suspension. in the florida keys, a pair of fisherman and a faithful dog found themselves in a fierce storm that triggered not just one but five towering waterspouts. they not only videotaped them, they chased them going so far as the plow throw some of the swirling water. an american daredevil has pulled off a superstunt in china.

jeb corliss flies in a suit that has wings. well, over the weekend, he jumped out of a helicopter and flew through a narrow crack in the face of a mountain at a speed of over 120 miles an hour. it's called the flying dagger. now, look at this. this was corliss' view captured by the camera on his helmet. against all odds, a threatened sea creature is on the road to recovery and you'll meet the man who is helping to make it happen. next. let's go places. but let's be ready. ♪ let's do our homework. ♪ let's look out for each other. let's look both ways before crossing. ♪

let's remember what's important. let's be optimistic. but just in case -- let's be ready. toyota. let's go places, safely. if you have high cholesterol, here's some information that may be worth looking into. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. getting to goal is important, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors because you could be at increased risk for plaque buildup in your arteries over time. and that's why when diet and exercise alone aren't enough to lower cholesterol i prescribe crestor. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes.

these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. is your cholesterol at goal? ask your doctor about crestor. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, and i had like this whenfour inch band of bumps it started on my back. that came around to the front of my body. and the pain from it was- it was excruciating. it made me curtail my activities cause i'm really an outgoing kind of a guy. and, uh, i like to play sports, i play basketball, i play pool. i did not want anyone to brush into me to cause me more pain than i was already enduring. i went to my doctor; he said well you actually have shingles. this is a result of you having chickenpox as a kid. it totally caught me off guard. i put the pool cue in the corner. i couldn't do those things anymore.

the basketball- it caught dust. i wanted to just crawl up in a ball and just, just wait til it passed. breaking news: >> pelley: finally tonight, over generations, humans nearly wiped out one of the world's most endearing creatures: the sea otter. slowly, the species is making a comeback and this time thanks to humans. here's john blackstone. >> reporter: although they are a threatened species protected by federal law, the sea otters that live along the central california coast seem not to have a care in the world. the latest count shows their numbers up slightly to almost 3,000. a lot of the credit is going to dr. mike murray of the otter rescue team from the monterey bay aquarium.

this year, the sea otters produced a record number of pups. some from orphan otters savedded by dr. murray. >> these were or fans that we came in that we reared up to a point where they could handle solid food. >> reporter: dr. murray has worked to save otters for 20 years. people love them because they're so cute but that's not necessarily their nature. >> no. i like to consider them sea wolverines. they are not very friendly. they're rather pugnacious. >> reporter: since otters learn from their mothers how to hunt and feed, orphan pups are unlikely to survive in the wild so the orphans rescued by the aquarium have to be taught. a decade ago the aquarium tried using human surrogates who play the role of otter mother, even showing pups how to dive for shells and break them with a rock. you gave up on that? >> we're not very good sea otters. we're not only not that cute but we just can't do what they do. >> reporter: it turned out some

of the female otters part of the aquariums otter exhibit make excellent surrogate mothers. so the otters in your aquarium are much more than something just to look at? >> absolutely. everyone works for a living over there. >> reporter: with tags and implanted tracks devices, dr. murray can follow the success of the animals he helped rescue, raise, and release. some have now become grandparents. >> there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into working with these animals about to see it work is just amazing. >> reporter: the hope is to increase the otter population to well over 3,000 in the coming years. in a population so fragile, every animal is precious. john black stone, cbs news, monterey, california. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. >> pelley: tonight, countdown to captioning sponsored by cbs

everybody has a story. >> in an exclusive one on one interview, we questioned why the prime suspect in the stabbing death of a dodgers fan, someone who confessioned was released from custody. i am elizabeth cook. >> i am ken bastida. ow phil matier joins us live from the hall of justice with this report. phil. >> reporter: that's right, ken. this is a story that got national attention. with, that comes questions and controversy. let's check it out. >> i get paid to take heat everyday, but i get paid to do it morally and ethically. >> that was san francisco district attorney reacting to questions about why he has yet to file any charges in the fight that ended with the

knifing death of a dodgers fan. a fight in which the accused michael montgomery, left the scene, tossed the weapon and confessioned to the stabbing but claimed he acted in self- defense. >> we want to make sure we get to the bottom of this. unfortunately, we're still unable to determine who started the fight, you know, how the fight enveloped. >> so now the cops are out looking for many evidence. >> we do have some video that we've taken from some of the bises in the area and reviewing those -- businesses net area and reviewing those thoroughly. >> in the meantime, michael montgomery is out of jail. >> this is a case that is of great concern to us. there was a loss of life, but we also have to be very mindful when we file a case and we have a case that in good faith we believe it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. >> where is the knife? >> we're still searching for the knife. we have not located it yet. >> i understand