there. >> the aqi is 23. >> i don't know what's prettier, the snow or the clear skies. thanks for watching at 5:00. allen, myself and paul are back in 30 minutes. >> glor: on the "cbs evening news" this thursday, the first big storm of the season dumps snow, sleet, and freezing rain. travel is a mess. schools are closed. the f.d.a.'s new plan to ban some of the most popular cigarettes. and, five weeks after hurricane michael, we return to florida, with the recovery stalled. that and much more, beginning with the headlines in 60 seconds. >> oh, my god! >> the first winter storm of the season is slamming the eastern half of the country. in affecting tens of millions of teople. ec it is dumping heavy snow and umin, making for very dangerous driving conditions. >> watch out, watch out! .> the trump administration slapping sanctions on 17 saudi arabian officials. t for their role in the killing of journalist jamal khashoggi. >> the florida senate race heading to a hand recount.

>> a federal judge in florida called the state today, "the laughingstock of the entire world." ay a new twist today in that gofundme story involving a homeless man who helped a woman peen she ran out of gas. a it was all a scam, and all three were in on it. >> the california deputy killed in last week's mass shooting at t bar was laid to rest today. >> ron dared to go where most would flee. ha michael avenatti blaming a r nspiracy theorist for his domestic violence arrest. >> he tweeted, "i am coming for you, jacob wohl." as at least one resident is tjoying the snow at the national zoo. >> beibei loving it in the snow. don't you wish you could do that? >> glor: and this is our western edition. good evening. i'm jeff glor. and we are going to begin tonight with a mid-november mess. an early blast of winter weather surprised some. snow, sleet, and rain are falling across 17 states at this hour. road conditions have gotten

progressively worse as the storm moves north here. at least seven people have been killed in crashes since yesterday. the sprawling port authority bus terminal in new york city has been closed down. passengers are stuck in the city, many of them. nikki battiste is in the middle of this. >> it's so slippery in here. my god. >> reporter: wet snow sent cars smashing into trucks on the george washington bridge in new york late this afternoon. in lancaster, pennsylvania, a snow-bound tractor-trailer came to a halt next to a bus sprawled across two lanes, a warning for drivers to proceed with caution. from a slew of spin-outs in st. louis to fender benders in ohio, the storm stirred up trouble. snap, crackle, and drop was the sound of icy branches falling in this dayton, ohio, neighborhood. snow and ice accumulation has downed trees and knocked out power for more than 245,000

customers in five states. this morning, the white house shimmered in another coat of white. snow has not fallen this early in washington, d.c. in 22 years. here in ridgefield, connecticut, customers snaked out the door this morning. >> shovels, tube sand, sand to weigh down the back of their cars. they're worried. it's the first storm of the season. >> reporter: the snow is falling here at a rate of one to two inches per hour. it's expected to turn into freezing rain overnight, which could mean dangerous travel conditions tomorrow. thousands of flights have already been delayed or canceled, and, jeff, the temperature out here is frigid. >> glor: indeed. airports are a mess right now. nikki, thanks very much. lonnie quinn is chief weathercaster at wcbs here in new york. lonnie, talk to us about this rkorm. bo reporter: okay. r:rst of all, the size of it. i mean, take a look at it, jeff. it's over 900 miles wide. tt stretches from the great lakes all the way to this area-- keep going with that arrow! en's off-shore of new england. i just measured-- it's 911 miles.

where will it go from here, though? we have rain, sleet, and snow. the whole combo is out there. if you take a look at how it's going to progress, this shows going into 1:00 a.m., it's rain really along the metro areas along new york city. but it's snow inland. boston, you're transitioning itound 1:00 a.m. to rain. you start off as snow and then you go to rain. here you are 5:00 a.m., notice the rain along the metro areas thong the shore. inland is where you're finding the big snow. that's the question: how much snow? sure, it's an early season storm, but we're talking a foot of snow possibly anywhere from say central pennsylvania into the adirondacks of new york. early for some people, jeff, but it is here, and it's kicking off ffe season. w glor: yeah, welcome to winter, still officially more than a month away. lonnie, thank you. >> you bet. >> glor: all bory we're following tonight, the food and drug administration said today it will seek a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes. it also plans to put new restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes. 38 million americans still smoke. dr. lapook has more on the

f.d.a.'s plan. >> reporter: today's announcement is the first time the agency has proposed a complete ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes and cigars. about one-third of adult smokers and more than half of all youth smokers use menthol cigarettes. among african american youth who smoke, it's 70%. i spoke to f.d.a. commissioner eb. scott gottlieb just after the announcement. why take aim at menthol? >> menthol is one of the primary bhicles by which kids are titiated on tobacco, in large part because the menthol flavor, the mentholated cigarette itself masks some of the undesirable features of smoking. >> reporter: the number of youth cigarette smokers has declined in the last 20 years, but an almost 80% jump in e-cigarette use by youth in the past year prompted the f.d.a. to restrict those today, too, announcing fruity flavored e-cigarettes can only be sold in stores with restricted areas. rt also will mandate stricter age verification for online sales.

>> i don't want these products to be sold to kids. athope they are recognizing that this not only represents an existential business risk to these products, but also a significant public health risk. >> reporter: "existential business risk." them's fighting words. ti we're going to have to continue to take regulatory actions to make sure these products don't get into the hands of kids. >> reporter: you know, jeff, i reached out to several tobacco companies today, and they told us the science does not support lde banning of menthol. s i asked dr. gottlieb what he gought about that. he said, well, the science also doesn't tell us why menthol should be in cigarettes in the first place. t glor: not surprising the big smpanies would be against this. woulhese restrictions are put in place, though, we're looking at one to two years before it orppens. >> reporter: right, not clear, but probably. ep glor: dr. lapook, thanks. a federal judge in tallahassee today slammed florida's election process, saying, "we have been the laughingstock of the world." he denied a request to extend the deadline for submitting recount results. rick scott leads democrat bill

nelson, but the margin is so anose, a hand recount was ordered. hi appears the machine recount will settle the governor's race. republican ron desantis leads democrat andrew gillum. neither election will be certified until next week. it has been five weeks since hurricane michael devastated the florida panhandle, with winds ugpping 150 mph and that huge surge of seawater. in the hardest-hit areas, people are still living in tents and under tarps. we were there in the middle of it, and so was omar villafranca when the storm hit. he is back tonight with an update. >> reporter: block after block, ckant piles of debris are rotting on the sidewalks in panama city, and officials say it might not be cleared until the end of the year. aerricane michael slammed into the panhandle five weeks ago, kig arly 30 peoplend destroying thousands of homes and businesses. recovery here has been slow.

so how long have you been out here? >> about two days, off and on, because it's been really cold. >> reporter: after the storm, 20-year-old arieynna nichols lint from living in an apartment to staying in shelters. s chols suffers from a chronic condition that keeps her in a wheelchair. >> my daughter had her first teeball game five days before the hurricane hit. we wan, we were living normal lives. >> reporter: for the last few day, she's been sleeping in this cis tent city with her four- haar-old daughter, and more than 100 other hurricane survivors. more than 95,000 people in the disaster zone have asked fema for help. so far, just over 25,000 have oen approved for housing assistance. a fema official told cbs news, lither applicants are waiting rar insurance claims to be tocessed before they're approved for federal help." moma says the first mobile housing unit should arrive next week. do you kind of feel that people have forgotten about you? >> yes, i do.

>> reporter: panama city mayor greg brudniki sayings the city foying to move forward, but admits it's going to take a long time to rebuild. do you still need help? >> you betcha we need help. we were not planning on a catastrophic event that was going to absolutely carpet-bomb this area, and it happened. c reporter: this is a common scene here in panama city-- homes that have been damaged but n ven't even been worked on yet. the mayor says less than half of the debris has been removed, and, jeff, there hasn't been any big benefit concert or telethon for victims, so the city started its own non-profit to raise money to try to raise money for its own recovery effort. >> glor: okay, omar, thank you very much. john mccain's widow, cindy, sat ucwn with john dickerson today, in her first interview since her husband's death. iey discussed president trump in part, who was frequently at odds with the mcca al give me the sum total of where we are right now. what is your feeling about the president?

>> oh, gosh, i think, i think g 's questioning himself right now, as to where he goes, what he's doing. i think maybe the things that have occurred, especially with this election, may maybe take him back the basics. i'm hoping it does. lem hoping that... you know, it's very humbling to lose. and i hope he learns from it, red realizes that our country needs a strong leader. not, not a negative nancy, if i can put it in such a basic term. >> glor: we'll have much more mth cindy mccain tomorrow on "cbs this morning." the department of veterans affairs said today it is trying to speed up benefits of payments to thousands of veterans who are struggling to cover their education and housing bills. chip reid says the delays are being blamed on computer problems. >> reporter: shaye washington, a single mother with three children, is an air force

veteran who served in afghanistan. she's working on a master's in business and had hoped to graduate next year. but now her plans are on hold. she depends on tuition assistance through the g.i. bill, but the payments stopped in august because of a glitch in the antiquated computer system at the department of veterans affairs. >> i have been deployed and been to wars, so i feel like i shouldn't have to stress over ormething that i worked for and risked my life for. >> reporter: her g.i. bill isusing stipend is also in limbo. in all, she says, the v.a. owes her about $7,000. te's struggling to pay her bills, and the timing couldn't be worse. l it's been like four months. it's going into christmastime. si reporter: president trump today visited the marine barracks in washington and later praised his administration's assistance to veterans. >> another crucial element of ' r veterans' agenda is improved access to education. on reporter: he didn't mention lae latest v.a. crisis, but in a

hearing on capitol hill today, theers vented their frustration. im it is time that the v.a. d and up and hold someone accountable for their failing eptions. >> reporter: v.a. official robert worley, who was reassigned to another job just yesterday, admitted there are 73,000 claims now pending, 27% more than last year at this time. and that payments to more than 10,000 veterans have been delayed more than 30 days. he also said this: >> actually, i don't know of any cases where someone-- that have come to my attention, where someone has not been able to enroll in school. >> reporter: try telling that to shaye washington, who is sitting out this semester. do you blame the v.a.? >> yes. llfeel like they should have been better prepared for this. >> reporter: the v.a. says it hopes that upgraded i.t. systems can be put in place sometime early next year, but they admit deat problems with g.i. bill payments could continue for months to come. jeff? r> glor: important story. chip reid, thank you very much.

sme big developments today in the killing of "washington post" journalist jamal khashoggi at a saudi arabian consulate in jorkey. the u.s. slapped economic sanctions on 17 saudis accused of taking part. aid, a saudi prosecutor said he yill seek the death penalty against five suspects. holly williams is in riyadh. >> sometimes, things, mistakes happen. sometimes people abuse their authority. >> reporter: that's the saudi miabian foreign minister's explanation as to how it was that jamal khashoggi was killed: "mistakes happen." earlier, a spokesman for saudi's top prosecutor claimed for the first time that khashoggi was allled by a lethal injection. a team was sent to istanbul to bring khashoggi to saudi arabia, by force if necessary, it's now m aimed, but a team leader thcided instead to kill the outspoken critic of the saudi government. t 's the latest version of events from saudi arabia, which

initially denied it knew anything about jamal khashoggi's n sappearance, and then claimed he died in a fist-fight. what is your opinion when it comes to how damaging this has been for saudi arabia? not just the killing of jamal khashoggi, but the repeated iaanging of saudi arabia's official story? >> the story was evolving, because with any crime, you have a theory that you develop in the beginning, and then as you uncover more evidence, the theory changes. >> reporter: the country has now admitted that khashoggi's body was dismembered, a claim already made by turkey. hat saudi arabia insists that crown prince mohammad bin salman, suspected by some of being involved, has been exonerated. >> absolutely. his royal highness the crown prince has nothing to do with this issue. s reporter: the saudi prosecutor said today that jamal khashoggi's remains were handed over to a "local cooperator," their whereabouts unknown.

ict a senior turkish official recently said that he believed jamal khashoggi's remains were dissolved in acid. jeff? >> glor: holly williams asking questions in riyadh, saudi arabia tonight. holly, thank you. coming up next here on the "cbs evening news," the stunning fist in a feel-good story that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. s. 'ss too. mbc doesn't take a day off, and neither will i. and i treat my mbc with new everyday verzenio- the only one of its kind that can be taken every day. in fact, verzenio is a cdk4 & 6 inhibitor for postmenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer, approved, with hormonal therapy, as an everyday treatment for a relentless disease. verzenio + an ai is proven to help women have significantly more time without disease progression, and more than half of women saw their tumors shrink vs an ai.

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it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue... and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum tum tum tum... smoothies... only from tums r: glor: it was a story about the kindness of strangers that had americans talking and giving. meg oliver has the twist. >> reporter: new jersey asosecutor scott coffina called the story about an act of kindness "a complete lie." >> it was fictitious, and compgal, and there are consequences. >> reporter: last november, kate mcclure said that 35-year-old johnny bobbitt, a homeless veteran, gave her his last $20 after she ran out of gas. mcclure and her boyfriend, mark d'amico, started a gofundme t mpaign that raised over $400,000, claiming the money

would be used to take care of their new friend. investigators say it never happened, and that d'amico, mcclure, and bobbitt, who met a month before, created the fake fake story to solicit money. authorities say bobbitt received about $75,000, and the couple spent most of the rest on trips and a luxury car. >> reporter: d'amico, mcclure, and bobbitt conspired to pass off a fake, feel-good story that would compel donors to thntribute to their cause. r: reporter: but the story began to unravel in august. itbbitt wanted more money, even filing suit against mcclure and d'amico. that prompted authorities to launch an investigation. officials searched the couple's home, seized property, and found text messages exposing the scam. if they hadn't started fighting over the money, would they have gott th this? >> there is a good chance they might have. >> reporter: officials say gofundme will reimburse the donors who were duped.

e l three of the alleged con ttists now face up to ten years in prison if convicted. jeff? >> glor: all right, meg, thank mu very much. p ming up next here tonight, a mysterious death aboard a cruise ship. >> when you can't watch the evening news on tv, don't worry. we've got you covered. subscribe to our podcast. sponsored by liberty mutual. news producer, executive transport manager, and a beverage distribution supervisor. now i'm a director at a security software firm. wow, you've been at it a long time. thing is, i like working. what if my retirement plan is i don't want to retire? then let's not create a retirement plan. let's create a plan for what's next. i like that. get a plan that's right for you. td ameritrade. ♪ breathe freely fast, with vicks sinex. my congestion's gone. i can breathe again! ahhhh!

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try pepto with ultra coating. >> glor: just one week ago, a gunman in thousands oaks, s.lifornia, took 13 lives. it would have been more if not for one sheriff's sergeant. today, his friends and colleagues said good-bye. ( ♪ bagpipes ) >> reporter: it was the final hero's salute for ventura county sheriff's sergeant ron helus. helus, 54, was one of first officers to respond last week to dee crowded borderline bar and grill to confront the gunman on a deadly rampage. ♪ amazing grace >> reporter: today, his community bid the ultimate ntrewells to the 29-year veteran, a married father on the cusp of retirement, the day he

became the 48th officer shot and killed in the line of duty this year. ♪ the lord is my shepherd >> reporter: sergeant helus leaves behind a 29-year-old son, and a wife of 31 years. his last words to her, "i love you. i'll talk to you later." en he entered the nightclub with ur other purpose than to defend the defenseless and to save their lives-- and lives he did save. >> glor: friends of helus often heard him say, "support your team, complete your mission, go home to your families." helus didn't just speak those words-- he did his best every day to live them. >> if you called him a hero, he abuld probably laugh at you, and he would say he was just doing his job. >> present arms! ( ♪ bagpipes ) >> glor: thank you, sergeant helus. that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. i'm jeff glor. we'll see you tomorrow. good night.

captioning sponsored by cbs now at 6:00 wildfire smoke suffocates the bay area. >> our air quality is deteriorating quickly, why our smoky skies are going from bad to worse. >> they're considered ground zero, the bay area city that's become a basin for sickening air. >> gunshots ring out in the middle of the fire zone. police confront a double murder suspect. >> kpix5 news at 6:00 begins right now with unhealthy air over the bay area, smoke being forced south from the butte county camp fire. in the lower right-hand corner of your screen we're keeping the smoke forecast up so you can see that. the red shows the movement of that smoke. >> look at our cameras around the bay area. this is the smoke in san jose. it's really tough to make out the city's skyline. >> in san francisco you can barely see the bay bridge from our salesforce camera and in the east bay mount vaca is

shrouded in smoke. >> you can barely see through our camera at sfo. the air traffic control tower and planes on the runways all but disappear. >> deteriorating conditions are widespread. this red on the map means unhealthy, the purple more hazardous and while the air is bad everywhere there's one east bay town that's been getting the worst of it. kpix5's john ramos went there today. >> reporter: there was nothing wrong with being in livermore today as long as you don't plan on breathing. this is what the worst air in the bay area looked like. >> my lungs, my eyes, it's been really difficult to breathe. it's really been affecting me quite a bit. >> it built up over the altamont. there's no outlet. it swirls around and stays in livermore. >> reporter: in fact, this morning's air quality index map showed livermore as being the only place in the bay area where breathing was considered a very unhealthy