alisyn is on assignment. julia chatterly joins me this morning and we got the all important 8:00 a.m. advisory from the national hurricane center on hurricane dorian. all of florida is on high alert. the storm is headed right at the state. this is easily the strongest hurricane at this point headed towards florida the east coast in nearly three decades. dorian got even stronger overnight. it is now a category 2 hurricane, almost category 3 with winds approaching 110 miles per hour. by the time it makes landfall it is on track to be a catastrophic category 4 hurricane. >> we're also starting to get a better picture now just where dorian could come ashore. flooding and life threatening storm surges are now a concern. as much as a foot of rain could fall in some areas as dorian is forecasted to slow down significantly over florida after it's made landfall. >> as we said the 8:00 a.m.

advisory just in. that means we have to get to meteorologist chad myers with all the new data. what do you see? >> john, hurricane hunter just found 110 miles per hour, so now that 130, 140 doesn't really seem like a stretch anymore if you're already 110 and you still have two or three days to go. but the more important part is that they truly found significant deepening of the low pressure. it went down. wept down so much that we're almost to that rapid intensification threshold. it'll take more hours for that to actually get there, but we will still see that intensification all the way to 140 miles per hour by monday night. this probably comes onshore somewhere in the southern half of florida before didaylight on tuesday. but it's the onshore slowly and then turns to the north slowly. and that's the rainfall problem. to the north of wherever this makes landfall the surge could easily be 8 to 12 feet.

we already have watches in effect for the bahamas. we didn't get one yesterday because there happen there were no watches but now we do have watches so that's helpful a little bit. they both have landfall very close. a very scary forecast with the european keeping it very close to shore. keeping it intense, over 100 miles per hour all the way up to east coast. the american model at the gfs takes it over towards tampa, kind of kills it off towards 75 miles per hour, and it will spread the rainout a bit more and not scour the entire east coast of florida with 100 mile per hour winds for days and days. and the american model some spots over 20 inches. we have surge, we have wind damage and we have inland flooding. all three will happen with this storm. this isn't a one trick pony. this is everything, guys. >> and it's going to last days.

chad, thank you very much. people in florida, some have begun to take notice already. residents stocking up on food, water, emergency supplies. cnn's rosa flores live at home depot in west palm beach. what does it look like there, rosa? >> reporter: there's been a lot of speed shopping this morning, john. i have to say that a lot of people very kind this morning as they shop with their fellow shoppers. you can see that people are taking resources so they can protect their homes, plywood, chain saws, circular saws, generators, fans, items like that. state officials have asked residents to have at least seven days worth of water, food, medicine, and those items are flying off the shelves across this state. there are long gas lines as well. governor ron desantis declared a state of emergency rather for all 67 counties in florida.

that of course allows more gas to flow into the state. so we're hoping that those gas lines, people in those gas lines actually get some gas. no evacuations have been ordered at this point in time, but people are preparing just in case they need to evacuate. from talking to people here in west palm, a lot of them hoping not to evacuate. the ones i've talked to say if there is an evacuation order, they do plan to evacuate. and of course john and julia, that's what police always ask is for people to heed those warnings and go ahead and evacuate. >> listen closely and now is the time to prepare. joining us now is ken graham, the director of the national hurricane center. thank you for being with us. we just had the 8:00 a.m. release. tell us what you are looking at right now. >> well, a couple of things. just even looking at the first images from the noaa satellites, we're starting to see the

structure get better and better in terms of getting stronger. and wave reflected it in the forecast. the latest 110 miles an hour. but the big thing from the forecast, we had to slow it down. slow is never our friend. the slower the mucht, the more time to get stronger and the more time we have to have reason fall in the storm surge. look at this. that's monday, tuesday, that's wednesday. that slow moving is not our friend. >> at this stage not even seeing landfall until tuesday at this stage, feeling the effects by sunday night but landfall now tuesday. >> yeah, absolutely. so you think about the landfall, but here's an important thing to always remember and we're communicating that so much. this is an area of tropical storm force winds that sends 90 miles away from the center. so we could start feeling the impacts of tropical storm force winds as early as sunday night. so we have today, tomorrow, and part of sunday to get ready before we start seeing the

impacts sunday night into monday. >> and one of the things we know is not the wind, as dangerous as the wind is it's not the wind that takes the most lives, it's the water. and there's something of a triple threat with the water between the rain, the king tide and enormous storm surge. what are you seeing? >> it is. historically we talk about 90% of the fatalities in these tropical systems is the water. when we close our eyes we always think of the wind. look at the rainfall forecast. some places could get 6 or 10, maybe 15 in some isolated spots. the other one is a storm surge, our storm surge unit hovering as we speak to start modeling some of those values we have. >> just talk us through again how long is it expected to remain over land at this stage? we're talking days even once it makes landfall as it potentially progresses north here.

>> that's one of the big issues, that slow movement just doesn't help us. so we're talking about some tropical storm force winds arriving sunday night into monday. let's really look at this. this is 2:00 a.m. on monday, start feeling the impacts of the tr tropical storm force winds. that's tuesday, that's wednesday. so the core could start seeing those hurricane force winds wednesday, but even around that you get an expansion, you get the storm to start expanding once it starts weakening a bit. so the tropical storm force winds could last for several days. >> people watch these maps and look at the cones and wonder maybe it'll miss us completely but is there anything at this point some white light, white meteorological light that's going to sweep in and keep us safe from these hurricane snz. >> i wish that very much, but this is situation with one of these storms you can move that

track around a little bit, but either way we're going to see those impacts. so many times we tell people don't concentrate just on the center of that line. at this point there will be impacts in florida. >> thank you for emphasizing that, thank you for coming on. and i really do think the message here is get ready, this is going to be big. because every single map we're looking at there, ken, looks bad. >> the whole area looks bad. and you have just two days to do it. >> chief, thank you so much for being with us. we've known you for some time. we've covered storms with you before from hurricane irma up until now. as you look at hurricane dorian and you see these forecasts, what concerns you the most? >> well, as has been said before, you know, there is the wind concern which we always watch. but water is really where we see a lot of the hazard, whether it

be due to storm surge or due to sheer rainfall. you know, that remains one of our primary concerns. and especially in miami where we have all of that compounded by the king tides where we have higher water levels than we normally see. it remains a significant concern for us. >> now, you're not talking about evacuations at this point, are you? >> we expect to begin to hear about evacuations some time today, later today and early into the morning. the miami-dade county emergency operations center will in short order begin to identify some of those evacuation zones if the storm remains on its existing track. >> and many of those will be based on the water in the low-lying areas, who knows. depending on where the storm is headed could be miami beach, could be other areas. another specific concern to the miami metropolitan area is the

cranes. the huge amount of construction activity, these cranes are in the air. what's the status? >> yes, we have a tremendous amount of construction going on in miami and the miami economy has been booming. as a result we have cranes throughout the downtown area, the brickell area. and as we have seen hurricane irma we actually had a failure of two of these cranes. now, these cranes are designed to what we call wind vane in these high winds so that they turn with the storm. but again the cranes are not necessarily designed for the types of wind speeds we could potentially see, so it's always a concern. so one of the things we've done is we've been able to have the ability to geofence a certain area and inform residents if we have a concern about a crane within their area. we can actually as we did with hurricane irma direct people to

move from one side of a building to another. >> and one of the things about this storm is could really slow down over the peninsula and inch its way up which means hurricane force winds, the pounding rain could be there for some time which hampers your efforts. what message to do you want to get to people about getting ready now because there might be an extended period of time where you can't reach them. >> absolutely. preparation is key, and we ask our residents, our citizens to help us. help us give us the time necessary to get to you. now, we will do everything within our power. we've even gone to the extent of buying additional vehicles that will allow us in certain circumstances to get out in higher winds than we normally would if the emergency dictates so. these vehicles are armored vehicles. and we will do everything within our power to get to you, but we ask you to do your part as well. and that is be prepared, heed the warnings and give us the

time we need in order to get to you. >> one of the things we also know and worth reminding people you live there, and your family's all there. what's that like to have to take care of your loved ones and your own people while trying to take care of the entire state? >> well, this storm in particular is very challenging. it's challenging because as you can see the accuracy of the forecast is within about a 48-hour window. so we have a responsibility to protect the city of miami. but because we run a federal task force we also have a responsibility to protect the surrounding public. so for us it's really three fold. it's prepare to deploy to an area in need, prepare to protect youro own city and also prepare to protect your families and that is never an easy balance. and we as an organization do our best to provide as much assistance to our employees as possible. because as a fire chief when

they come to work i need 100% focus and dedication from them, and the only way they can get that is if they feel their families are safe. soee do everything possible in achieving that goal. >> thank you so much for being with us. please let us know how we can help get the message out. you have your work cut out for you over the next few days. >> we do. thank you, sir. >> we keep saying it. prepare. but how do you prepare for what could be the strongest hurricane to hit florida's east coast in a quarter century? we'll ask the former mayor after this. like viola. when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her team at ctca created a personalized care plan that treated her cancer and strengthened her spirit. so viola could focus on her future. their future. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. cancer treatment centers of america.

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some other guests in a second. but mayor, first to you and you were mayor last year when hurricane michael hit. obviously you've been there for all the other storms over the last few years. as a leader when a storm like this hits, what's most important? >> yeah, well first of all i want to wish my governor, governor desapt s and his administration and my fellow floridians, godspeed a all of us make preparation for the impact of this storm. i will tell you as mayor of the city of tallahassee i drew a short straw. my city hadn't been hit by a hurricane in over four years but in one year we got hit by a hurricane twice. we have a sense of lulling ourselves into safety and thinking because as we're not as rehearsed at these storms that we can always ride it out and it will be okay and life will turn immediately back to normal. listen, trees will come down,

power lines will come down. obviously it's flooding. you know, people make the effort of are driving over, you know, covered roads which is a horrible decision knowing that so many deaths are caused by frankly the aftermath of these storms largely to do with flooding. so as a leader i think you've got to be present, dij lnt, very clear with your instructions. and quite frankly reinforce it on every platform. it's not good enough to just talk on television. you've got to be in peoples instagram and twitter feeds and so on and on forth because that's how decentralized information is now. >> there's a big level of uncertainty about where this goes. we've got a couple of days now. do you think people have learned the lessons of perhaps not evacuating when they've been told to or perhaps not preparing? what do you want to see people doing right now? >> i mean, that's the challenging part of this storm is the level of uncertainty. and it's true for many of the

storms that have hit our state. michael, for instance, you know, came into the gulf of mexico last year, you know, gained speed from a category 1 traveling over the gulf and made landfall as a category 5 hurricane. people were simply not prepared for the level of damage. the storm surge alone literally flattened whole areas of the panhandle. and so what i would hope people would do is take it seriously. the truth is that you do need a bit more certainty before evacuation because what we saw happen previously is people evacuated into danger zones rather than away from it. so follow instructions your local officials, local government and state officials. >> some people asking why do you stand in the middle of a hurricane, why do you focus so much on this? because people need to know what to do because people die. this is very dangerous and you have to listen to your local and state authorities here.

and mayor gillum, you helped us end send a very important message there. stay with us. we're going to talk politics now. and i do want to talk about this political story that's developed over the last 24 hours about joe biden telling a story on the campaign trail where he seems to conflate at least three different versions of giving a medal to a veteran. "the washington post" did an extensive fact check here, sabrina, and the vice president got the details of the story wrong who medaled. the question going forward is do you think this has an impact on the biden candidacy. voters don't seem to matter about these -- don't seem to care so much about these types of things this time. >> there's certainly been a lot of attention recently on former vice president's joe biden

gaffes and whether he is prepared to be the nominee of the democratic party if it feeds into this notion that he is perhaps prone to stumbling on the national stage, it does draw a spotlight on his age and whether or not he still has it in him for what is going to be a very vigorous campaign. but to your point thus far there really hasn't been any impact in term of his standing in the polls. he continues to hold a commanding lead over the democratic field and i think it's because people already know joe biden and most of the american electorate for that matter already has an opinion of joe biden going into this race. and there's also a question as to whether or not donald trump has really changed the standards when the comes to some of these issues. if you're talking about falsehoods or misstatements, "the washington post" which did this reporting on joe biden also has a tracker of the falsehoods that donald trump has said since taking office.

and it tops 12,000, so i think people a little bit more forgiving when it comes to biden and other candidates in the field. >> coming here do you agree with that, because our polling suggests ultimately democrats want someone that can beat donald trump. will they forgive joe biden and continue to forgive joe biden whatever it takes here? >> i'm not sure whatever it takes. i think they'll forgive him for this particular, you know, conflation of different stories. one interesting thing about it times and people have told many antidotes that aren't quite right. usually they're told in a way that's self-serving. there are many instances of people exaggerating their own roles in various crises and telling antidotes that reflect well on them. that's really not what biden did, i've got to say. he conflates and garbles some details, makes it a little more dramatic, but it doesn't make him look any better, you know

what i mean? he's nut the hero of the story. it's about how wonderful our young 9/11 generation warriors are and how self-less they are, and how moved he was to see this. so i think it does tell you something about joe biden, actually. not that he's incapable of exaggerating his role either like any politician, but i don't think it reflects badly on biden. donald trump at the same time vented phone calls from chinese leaders to make it seem as if he was having some success in his trade war with china. i mean, the president of the united states reporting about fictitious phone calls from the leaders of another very important country, that actually has real implications on the world stage. the biden antidote doesn't. >> let's talk about the world stage for a second, bill, because i know you care about this deeply. the idea that it trump administration might block $250 million to ukraine, why does that concern you? >> because we know it's very much in vladimir putin's interest. and we know at the summit trump

argued for putin to be there. the degree in which he very consistently acts in putin's interests, excuses putin's misdeeds and the assassination in squirmany germany, this is hn the soil of a nato ally, trump has said nothing, i suspect will say nothing. so, yeah, we have a president who's pro-dictator in general and pro-pute in particular. >> the timing of this also supreena pretty painful here in light of the comments the president made at the g-7 talking about how to bring russia back into the fold here. >> absolutely. and it is intended to directly confront russian aggression in the region. and so there's sort of two issues occurring simultaneously. one is that president trump continues to try to ingratiate himself with vladimir putin. he's increasingly cozying up to the likes of vladimir putin

where u.s. allies are much more concerned with measures that russia has taken to interfere in democracy both in europe swells here in the united states. and that's the other piece of this. instead of punishish russia for its meddling in the 2016 election, the president is still almost rewarding russia through his policies and through his actions. and that's what's really striking because his own intelligence chiefs have said moskow is still actively trying to interfere here in u.s. elections. i think the most sobering part of former special counsel mueller's testimony before congress is he said they're doing it as we sit right here, and yet the president for whatever reason his motivation still being unknown intends on still trying to appease vladimir putin. >> mayor gillum, i'm sorry we didn't get back to you but let me tell you please stay safe and keep your family safe over the next few days. appreciate you all being with us. >> all right, join cnn for an unprecedented democratic presidential town hall on the

climate crisis. ten candidates taking to the stage to address this critical issue. that's next wednesday starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern. hurricane dorian could strike anywhere from the florida keys to southern georgia. we're going to speak to a member of congress that's been in the bulls eye of this storm. that's next. ters costa rica paí. meet sergio. and his daughter, maria. sergio's coffee tastes spectacular. because costa rica is spectacular. so we support farmers who use natural compost. to help keep the soil healthy. and the coffee delicious. for future generations. all for a smoother tasting cup. green mountain coffee roasters.

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all right, the entire state of florida is on high alert this morning as hurricane dorian is expected to make land fall as a cat trophic category 4 hurricane. joining me now is democratic congress00 darin soto, his central district, all of florida in the target right now, congressman. you've been watching the forecast alongside the rest of us. just as a human being as you look at this forecast what are your concerns? >> we know it's going to be a category 4 it looks like and hit central florida. and, you know, while we know the drill we also know the devastation that could happen. we're telling our constituents to prepare and take it seriously. we've also had fema briefings and know that fema is ready to go as far as resources and

personnel on the ground. florida's called a state of emergency for all counties. but the uncertainty obviously is something that has a lot of people on edge around here. >> it's interesting. you're from orlando and orlando is often a place people fall back to on the coast from these hurricanes. but there really not be a place that's that safer than any other in the state right now. so what's your message to your constituents? >> even though it hits the coast first and may reduced from a 4 to a 1 or a 2, we're still talking about huge sustained damage and flooding is also a big concern regardless of where you are in florida. so people are preparing, getting sandbags, getting batteries together and propane tanks and flashlights and just making sure they're ready just in case it could be a week for some places particularly in the rural areas of the district before they get power back up. and we hunker down and wait for the storm to go past and it's to

the district to make sure fema does its job. i usually ride out the storm in my house and get picked up right afterwards by local sheriffs office to go around and tour the scene. one of the big issues is whether each county can get the designation of individual assistance which is fema relief. if you're county is not qualified you're not entitled to all these benefits. that's part of the job to make sure we're able to get the full breadth of fema benefits for our constituents. >> when it looked like the storm was going to make a direct hit on puerto rico the president was criticizing puerto rico. a very different tone as the storm now looks like it'll make a direct hit on florida. what do you make of that disparity in. >> well, it's like night and day. in florida we should have great concern according to the president and we need to rally

together and take this seriously. while in puerto rico he has an attitude like they should be grateful they're even part of the united states and we helped them. and it has to do with the massive failure that was the hurricane maria response. the highest death toll in modern history, a seven month blackout, and the president is just unable to take criticism, so he continues to have this personal vendetta. and just thank god that hurricane dorian didn't hit puerto rico in a major way because i don't have a lot of confidence that they would have been able to sustain a recovery when they're already in a vulnerable position. >> you know, it's not that the message to florida is wrong. it's that it's not consistent with his message to puerto rico, is that correct? >> exactly. my home state of florida obviously a place where he's familiar with, a place where he won last election, so he's got a positive love for florida, but puerto rico, my family's native island, the fact that they criticized him and rightly so, he's just held a personal grudge

since then. you figure a president would unite us rather than be so sensitive and attack fellow americans. >> the president canceled a scheduled trip to poland. he was to be there and speaking at a press conference on monday morning. staying behind now because of the hurricane. how do you assess that decision? >> well, it's a wise move. you know, we need our executives and our leaders on the ground because these things are so unpredictable. when we saw hurricane irma it was supposed to hit the south eastern part of florida. it went in through the southwest. we saw hurricane michael go from a category 1 to a category 5, eviscerating the panhandle. so leaders need to be around and need to be able to lead. and regardless of our political differences the president and i and others in the federal, state work together for all need to - floridians. this is serious storm that's coming. >> it is a serious storm and could be the worst storm to hit

the east coast of florida in more than three decades. what is your most specific area of concern this morning? >> definitely preparation and then concern that everybody is ready to go and then flooding. i know on the coast we'll have to worry about wind damage, but we saw during hurricane irma, jacksonville flood even though it wasn't even near the storm. and as i said we're at the end of the wet season so places that may not get heavy winds could still see a foot or two of water coming into their living rooms. so that's one of the big concerns right now in my district which is holding a lot of water right now already before hurricane dorian even hits. >> we were just hearing about how much rain you've had already. thank you very much for being with us. please keep you and your loved ones and constituents safe over the next few days. coming up doctors are now reporting more cases of sudden and severe lung disease possibly linked to vaping.

dr. sanjay gupta takes a look at the symptoms and what e cigarette companies are saying next. our 18-year-old was in an accident. when i called usaa, it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family and we plan to be with usaa for life. see how much you can save with usaa insurance. see how much you can save ♪

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welcome back to the show. here's to your health. doctors are reporting an uptick in the cases of severe lung disease which they say could be caused by vaping. the most recent update from the cdc in the last week says the agency is aware of at least 193 possible cases in 22 states reported since late june. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta has the story of one teenagers illness. >> reporter: that 17-year-old a previously healthy athletic teen from texas whose symptoms initially baffled doctors and then took a turn for the worse. >> his chest x-rays wentd from having what we would have thought was a little bit of ammonia to having a complete wipeout of his lungs. >> reporter: look at this other scan of his.

>> my heart was completely pounding and i really couldn't breathe. >> we eventually had to put a tube down his throat because his lungs totally failed and were not working. >> within 48 hours of being admitted to icu they had him in a medically induced coma. >> they had me on this machine that was breathing for me. >> reporter: they ran a battery of tests looking for what caused his illness but they all came back negative. then came a possible clue. >> his cousin came forward and talked about the fact they'd been vaping up in his bedroom. >> he immediately went home grabbed all the vapes and went back to the hospital and said this is what we've been doing. >> reporter: with health officials saying there could be a link between severe lung disease and vaping. >> woo do not know what causes this at this point. the best guess is that it is inflammation of the lungs so

that your not able to breathe. >> reporter: while it's notoriously difficult to prove cause and effect, it's not just lung disease health officials are looking into. the fda has been conducting another investigation into what could be a link between vaping and seizures. all of this in the midst of what's being called an epidemic of vaping among young people. >> it doesn't matter if your kid's a straight a student, one of the star players of the football team, you can't be naive to what they are doing. >> reporter: fortunately, for trysten after 18 days in the hospital he is recovering well and is sharing his story because he wants to enlighten other people around his age. >> i definitely feel like i was given that second chance for a reason. i'm definitely not the only one. i'm just the one spreading the word at the moment. >> dr. sanjay gupta joins us now. the study point here is that these were safer than traditional cigarettes. so what are the companies saying here? >> these numbers, just a few

isolated cases a few weeks ago and now close to 200 of these people who are getting sick, even hospitalized. headline is they're not planning on stopping sales of these products. they're saying we dont know exactly what's happening here. is it the e-cigarettes themselves, is it the e-liquid. could it be that people are putting thc into these devices and that's causing a problem? kevin burns is the ceo of juul. he was asked about this on cbs, particularly what they're planning on doing. take a listen. >> worrisome. worrisome for the category, worrisome for us if we contributed to it. the cdc is leading the investigations. we're obviously in close contact with them. if there was any indication that there was an adverse health condition related to our product i think we'd take very swift action. >> so they're still going to be

available. the company does say they're going to strengthen some of their i.d. checks for underage users to prevent that from happening, but they're still out there. all right, new reforms could end the cash bail system in america, but there's a $2 billion industry standing in the way and profiting off the poor. cnn follows the money next.

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with tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. fixodent ultra-max hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures. so now you can eat tough food without worry. fixodent and forget it. the $2 billion bail industry disproportionately targets the poor where one arrest can means a lifetime of debt even if the charges are dismissed. and perhaps equally puzzling the industry is blacking reform to changes in the system across the country. drew griffon follows the money. >> reporter: $2 billion is roughly how much money the bail

bond business reportedly takes in across the country every year. who pays? underprivileged people under arrest who find themselves facing a decision. sit in jail for months to await trial or pay a bail bondsman to get them out. >> most people who are arrested are actually low income or almost no income individuals. and when we put a ransom on their liberty it has a dramatic impact on people. >> reporter: here how the bail system works. let's say you're arrested and the judge sets bail at $50,000. if you have money you can pay it, go free and get it back when you show up for your court date. if you don't have money you can sit in jail until trial or hire a bondsman to bail you out. the bondsman can bail owout at 10%, 5,000, that's a fee you can never get back even if you're not guilty, even if the charges dropped.

often the debt can last i years. robert hansen, iowa district judge, says the system is flawed. >> bonds do not guarantee the bad people stay in jail and monetary bonds do not guarantee that the safe people are released. >> reporter: many states are making changes to move away from relying on money bail, but cnn has found out that the business that profits from the current system, the powerful bail industry, is working hard to stop reform. it has derailed, stalled or killed reform efforts in at least nine states. one of the best examples, iowa, a pilot program called the public safety assessment tool gave judges more information about defendants, and those deemed low risk could get out of jail without having to pay bail. anton stuart arrested for stealing beer was able to walk to his job at a bakery every day awaiting for trial instead of sitting in jail. >> that's why i said it saved my life.

>> reporter: cnn talked to more than a dozen officials, judges, public defenders who supported the program. but here is where iowa's story takes a dark twist. because in the middle of last year's state budget process and out of the blue this line was inserted into an appropriations bill which stopped iowa's bail reform in its tracks. the public safety assessment pilot program shall be terminated. it turns outlet behind the scenes there was an explanation, you just had to follow the money. >> bail bonds didn't like the program because there were defends, people being held in jail that were getting out of jail without having to post any type of a bond. they were losing business. as a market share. >> reporter: leaderman bail bonds, a huge bail bonds company in iowa with 150 agents cross the midwest and a drive-thru service just outside the gates

of iowa's polk county jail. it turns out the leaderman's may have decided money would do their talking. since 2017 josh leaderman has paid a powerful iowa lobbying firm more than $70,000. and also donated more than $36,000 to republican campaigns in 2018. that's more money donated in one year than he's spent in the past 15 years combined. and josh leaderman for the first time ever last year made a donation to a republican representative in rural storm lake iowa named gary worthan. worthan's district had nothing to do with the pilot program but he submitted a budget bill to kill the program. he's cochair of the appropriations subcommittee.

>> representative worthan this is drew griffon with cnn. he would speak only reluctantly by phone. >> can you explain why you did get rid of the public safety assessment pilot program? >> well, from your tone of voice you've already decided what -- what direction this article's taking and i'm not here to be misquoted or having my comments taken out of context. this is why i don't want to be associated in any way with cnn. >> reporter: this year gary worthan once again included language in the budget bill making it impossible the program will start. >> we'll be right back. volunteerism.

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welcome back to the show. this week's cnn hero has saved more than 30,000 donkeys by finding them forever homes. >> donkeys speak to my soul. donkeys i like dogs. they're amazing animals that nobody gets. i understand what they're thinking, and there's so men donkeys in so many places that need so much help. there's nothing cuter than a baby donkey. we're saving them. we're improving their lives. i want to see every donkey find

its happiness, it's happy place, it's peaceful place. >> if you want to see more of mark's work go to cnnheroes.com. >> great to have you with us here this morning. please come back. it's been a busy morning with hurricane dorian heading right towards florida's coast. cnn's coverage continues right now. a very good friday morning to you. i'm jim sciutto in new york. poppy harlow is off today, and we're following breaking news this morning. florida residents on high alert as hurricane dorian slowly churns towards florida's east coast continuing to grow in strength. now predicted to become a potentially catastrophic category 4 hurricane. dorian could be the strongest in nearly three decades, possibly as powerful as the devastating hurricane andrew which caused dozens of deaths, billions of dollars in damage. the entire state of florida