the race for president unfolding at the iowa state fairgrounds. donald trump lining his plan for illegal immigration and a dozen more candidatess vooi vy and mae their voices heard. fury from families missing from the chinese chemical blast. they are demanding answers. cnn right now on the way to the blast zone. good morning. welcome to "early start."

it is monday, august 17th. john berman has the morning off. donald trump doing something that everyone poor and rich alike is obliged to do. jury duty. this as the candidate begins filling in the plans for immigration reform. cnn's sunlen serfaty has the latest from washington. >> reporter: christine, donald trump is off the campaign trail doing something all of us can relate to. jury duty. he will report at a state court in manhattan today. trump says he thinks it will be fun and he is looking forward to it. this comes as trump is trying to put forward a little more substance as a candidate. the campaign releasing the policy document on the plan for immigration. the initial burst of support that he saw. for the first time, trump reveals how he plans mexico to

pay for building a wall along the border. that wall he has been pushing for since he got into the race. until they do, he will impound all remittance payments and increase fees on visas and border crossing boards. he plans to end the u.s. law of birthright citizenship. he calls for the number of i.c.e. officers to increase. there are parts of the immigration policy that are still not clear. trump in this policy document calls for criminal undocumented immigrants to be deported. he doesn't saying anything about legal immigrants to be deported. he repeated again on sunday. >> we have to make a whole new set of standards. >> you are going to split up

families. >> we are going to keep the families together. >> you are going to kick them out? >> they have to go. >> what if they don't have a place to go? >> reporter: the dnc saying that trump as reignited that gop longstanding obsession with mass deportation. christine. >> sunlen serfaty, thank you. vice president joe biden expected to stay at home in delaware this morning. high on his agenda, more time to consider whether he should jump in the race for white house. the vice president hearing from advisers if there is room in the contest. senior correspondent jim acosta has more. >> reporter: christine, president obama is enjoying vacation, vice president joe biden was enjoying time off last week to determine if he should make a run for the white house. sources close to the vice president say he is nowhere near a decision which is expected to

come at the end of the summer. biden is talking to loyalists gaining out the challenges if he should choose to take on hillary clinton. the former secretary of state has seen by top democrats inside or outside the white house as someone who will expand on the obama legacy. biden will have to take on bernie sanders who is hot on clint clinton's heels. here is what bernie sanders has to say. >> i have known joe for many years and everybody who knows joe likes him and respects him. the decision as to whether or not to run is his. if he does run, i promise him an issue-oriented campaign. >> reporter: sources close to biden are taking tight lipped on which way the vice president is leaning. he spent his vacation in south carolina and home to the former chair of the state's democratic

party. all of which will fuel speculation that biden is taking a hard look at this. christine. >> all right. thanks for that. republicans pouncing on the e-mail controversy after hillary clinton made a joke of the service snapchat over the weekend. clinton said i love it. to laughter at a democratic fund-raiser in iowa. the republican campaign found way a to blast clinton and she was taking it too lightly. >> most importantly, i never sent classified material on my e-mail and i never received any marked classified. i will let whatever this inquiry is go forward and will await the outcome of it. the state department has confirmed what i just said to you. >> it's a criminal problem. it's a very serious problem for her.

it is about as serious as it gets. you look at petraeus. he was destroyed over less events. >> his were marked classified. >> i think some of hers were. i think they took a lot of markings off. >> any worry republicans could play their hand on the e-mail controver controversy? >> it is what it is. it was a foolish thing. there was no reason to do it. >> in the debate, i made the statement that hillary clinton has lied. she lied about benghazi. she lied about her server and she lied about her e-mails. there were some that found that harsh, although a majority of americans agree with me. >> dr. ben carson, the number two candidate and latest in the poll, is trying to clarify his

views on abortion. he was asked last week to square his research on fetal tissue in the 1990s with the current criticism of planned parenthood. he was asked at the iowa state fair to explain when he thinks life begins. >> what i believe is life starts at conception. i said there are a lot of people who think that it is at the heart beat. i think most people can come to the conclusion that once you have a heart beat that you clearly have a living organism. >> the iowa state fair and famous soap box offering a platform to three more gop candidates today. set for today, governor scott walker and lindsey graham and carly fiorina. donald trump and hillary clinton among other candidates have come and gone from the fair and opportunity it offers for face-to-face contact with the voters. happening today, the super

pac alive with the jeb bush campaign will start to spend money. right to rise usa is set to make an eight-figure ad buy. the ads start running in mid-september and air through december. bush is set to campaign across south carolina where he meets with veterans. mike huckabee is heading to israel to meet with officials and discuss the iran nuclear deal. last month, the candidate says this will take israel quote to the door of the oven. he said it is important to talk about the deal with israelis. >> i think it is the most dangerous situation that we face not just for the middle east, but for the rest of the world and a long time, this is essentially arming and equipping a terrorist state. they hold americans hostage

right now. we are being pushed to get into a deal to give us nothing, but the iranians to end up with a nuclear weapon. >> mike huckabee had praise for donald trump calling him a master at branding. he said it helped trump get ten times the press coverage than any other candidate. huckabee said if he got that attention, he would be leading in the polls. the pentagon plans to expand an the number of drone flights overseas. 50% of more flights would broaden intelligence collection in ukraine and iraq and syria and north africa. the plan would grow the military's capacity for lethal air strikes. if put into action, the first significant boost to the u.s. drone program since 2011. the obama administration told china the law enforcement don't have permission to work in

the u.s. the u.s. has warned beijing about the operation fox hunt. they are working thought america to hunt down fugitives and return them to china. chinese law enforcement personnel cannot work in the u.s. without permission. a good start to the week. european shares are higher. dow futures are flat. the selloff is still going strong this morning. oil surprises are falling down to six-year lows. at&t worked in a close partnership with the nsa for years to retrieve information. at&t gave the agency billions of access to e-mails sent on networks and allowed the agency to monitor communications by the agency. that is according to

pro-publica. many companies were enlisted by the nsa, but at&t's role now seems more extensive than other companies. at&t said it only provides information through court order unless a person's life is in danger. breaking news this morning. an indonesian plane crash with 54 people on board. wreckage spotted in the mountains this morning. sear search and rescue teams are having difficulty reaching the crash site. we are live this morning with the latest developments. or n use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever. the point is, you have options. oh, how convenient. hey. crab cakes, what are you looking at? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

breaking news this morning from indonesia. two aerial search planes have spotted debris from what officials believe is an airliner with 54 people on board. let's turn to kathy novak now for the latest. looking for the wreckage now,

kathy. >> reporter: more than a day, christine, since the plane went missing and the bad weather forced the mission to be suspended. we are told the air search mission has to be suspended because of the bad weather. the two ground teams have been hiking in the wooded area where they are trying to reach the region where two planes say they spotted debris. small pieces of debris. they are looking for a large chunk of debris after villagers say they saw the plane crash into the mountains and saw the wreckage. what the ground search teams are trying to do is access this area to build a helipad. they need to fly a helicopter to get specialized teams in to get in and also get out. we are told that the teams are hopeful of finding survivosurvi but the head of the rescue mission in indonesia is telling us the reality is there is very

little likelihood of finding any survivors given the situation. really they are trying to get this helicopter in to pull out any bodies. >> kathy, thank you for that. keep us posted. we know they want better weather. thank you for that. federal investigators are trying to determine what caused two small planes to collide in mid air on approach to san diego. an airport in san diego. four people on board the two planes killed. both planes broke into pieces. it happened two miles from the brownfield municipal airport. the faa says a technical glitch at the air traffic control center in virginia was responsible for the delays over the weekend. the problem was fixed after several hours on saturday, but airports at connecting hubs were experienced delays on sunday. the faa says they are still diagnosing the problem.

wildfires burning out of control in four states. fires fueled by drought conditions and heat and high winds. more than 50 homes have been lost in washington state alone. in california, hundreds of firefighters battling a blaze in the angelos national forest. in idaho, the soda fire has covered 300,000 acres there. will the weather turn things around? we have meteorologist javaheped javaheri with the latest. >> reporter: >> christine, you look at weather and we have large active fires. 6 million acres of land has been hit with the fires. look at what the firefighters have to deal with across the u.s. when you get the fires that develop in the mountainous areas, you have the canyons and

you see this in major cities. you have embers that kick up and you create spot fires downstream. that is a problem for the firefighters. excessive heat warnings in place. temperatures in the 110s and above. phoenix gets up to 111. 104 is what is considered normal. in boise, the heat is in place there. back to the northeast. much of the same. washington into the mid-90s. new york city at least the cooling trend, christine, going from 93 to mid-80s by the middle portion of the week. thank you, pedram javaheri. a big winning weekend for the movie "straight outta compton." the movie earned $56.1 million in the debut weekend. taking the top spot at the box office. how big was it? "straight outta compton" nearly

doubled its entire budget in a single week. the brewers mi s major lea densing is the first openly gay player in history. densing says his teammates have been supportive. a deadly chemical blast in china. residents are worried as some family members demand answers. cnn on the way to the blast zone next. many wbut hope...ms come with high hopes, doesn't work on wrinkles. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula... to work on fine lines and even deep wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®.

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i'm never going back to a manual brush. the death toll from the huge explosions from northern china keeps rising. the death toll now stands at 114. the investigation goes to what was stored in the port. cnn's will ripley is in tianjin for us this morning. will. >> reporter: christine, for the first time, we are allowed inside the blast zone. we are on an overpass. i'll show you this is one of the main roads in tianjin. you can see as we scan over here all of those structures. many residential buildings that were some under construction and some occupied at the time of the explosion which has created utter devastation to the area. look at this parking lot. full of thousands of cars. most of them incinerated.

many of them hot to the touch days after the explosion. you can see what's left of the chemical warehouse that was holding all of those shipping containers you see piled off in the distance like toys. there are questions asked here. this site here at the center of a criminal investigation where days later smoke continues to rise. you can see it off in the distance. crews are continuing to search for the dozens of people still missing. it is presumed they did not survive. china has had its share of industrial accidents over the years. this is certainly not the first, but chinese authorities say they will try to take new steps to prevent this from happening again. they are promising a criminal investigation and charging those responsibility for placing these volatile chemicals to close to homes and causing an explosion

so powerful it burned and pushed the large trucks under the highway and resulted in the lives lost. christine. >> thank you, will. the president of ecuador declaring a state of emergency as the volcano activity intensifies. look at that volcano. hundreds of people evacuated as the volcano began to spew ash. the country has been watching since scientists noticed activity in june. the volcano's last major activity happened in the late 19th century. developments in the race for president. candidates competing for the attention at the iowa state fair. donald trump finally putting some policy prescriptions to combat illegal immigration. and hillary clinton talks about her use of e-mail. we follow that up for you next.

donald trump and hillary clinton steal the show at the iowa state fairgrounds. trump unveiling his plan to fight illegal immigration. the new developments ahead. breaking news this morning, search and rescue teams struggling to reach the wreckage of the indonesian aircraft. 54 people on board. we are live. the death toll rises in the series of chemical explosions in china. more than 100 dead. dozens missing. this morning, families are

furious. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. it is 30 minutes past the hour. a lot happened this weekend and a lot of politics. donald trump finally filling in details on his plans for immigration reform. after weeks of talking about immigration. lots to say, but avoiding specifics. we have them. a six-page blueprint for how a president trump would fix illegal immigration. garnish illegal wages. raise wages for h-1-b workers. cnn's sunlen serfaty has the latest from washington. >> reporter: christine, donald trump is off the campaign trail doing something all of us can relate to all too well. he has been called in for jury duty. he will report for his civic duty at a state court in manhattan today. trump says he thinks it will be fun and he is looking forward to

it. this comes as trump is trying to put forward a little more substance as a candidate. the campaign releasing its first policy document on his plan for immigration. the issue that ignited the burst of support he saw. for the first time, trump reveals how he plans to get mexico to pay for the wall against the border. saying until they do, he would impound all remittance payments from illegal wages, increase fees on visas issued to mexican ceos. he proposes to end the u.s. law of birthright citizenship. saying it is the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. and for funding to be cut off for sanctuary cities. there are parts of the immigration policy that are still not clear. trump in this policy document calls for criminal undocumented

immigrants to be deported. he doesn't say anything about all illegal immigrants to be deported which he has called for in the past. >> we have to make a whole new set of standards. when people come in. >> you will deport children? >> we will keep the families together. we have to keep the families together. >> you will keep them out? what if they have no place to go? >> they have to go. we will work with them. >> reporter: the dnc wasting no time saying trump has reignited in their words that gop longstanding obsession with mass deportations. sunlen serfaty, thank you for that. vice president joe biden expected to stay at home in delaware this morning. high on his agenda, more time to consider jumping into the white house. he will hear from advisers.

jim acosta has the latest. >> reporter: christine, president obama is enjoying vacation here on martha's vineyard, vice president joe biden was enjoying time off last week to determine if he should make a run for the white house. sources close to the vice president say he is nowhere near a decision which is expected to come by the end of the summer. biden is talking to loyalists to gain the challenges should he choose to take on hillary clinton. the former secretary of state, by the way, she has seen by top democrats inside and outside the white house as someone who will protect and expand on president obama's legacy. now joe biden would have to potentially take on bernie sanders. here is what sanders has had to say. >> i have known joe for many years. everybody who knows joe likes him and respects him. the decision if he runs is his. if he does run, i promise him an

issue-oriented campaign debating the major issues. >> reporter: sources close to biden are staying tight lipped. he was on vacation in south carolina. the former chairman of the state's democratic party was in discussions that state biden is taking a hard look at this. thank you. republicans pouncing on hillary clinton after the frontrunner made a joke about snapchat. a message service that the message disappears. she made a joke about snapchat. i love it, she said to a fund-raiser in iowa. republicans saw that as an opportunity to blast hillary clinton. she dismissed suggestions she was taking the con controversy too lightly. >> most importantly, i never sent classified e-mail or never

received any that was marked classified. i will let whatever this inquiry is go forward and will await the outcome of it. the state department has confirmed what i just said to you. >> it's a criminal problem. it will be a very serious problem for her. it will be as serious as it gets. you look at petraeus, he was destroyed over a much less event. >> his e-mails were marked classified. >> i think some of hers were. it seems they took markings off. somebody has a big problem. >> any worry republicans could overplay their hand on the e-mail controversy? >> it is what it is. it was a terrible thing she did. there was no reason to do it. she has a big problem. >> you know, in the debate last week, i made the statement that hillary clinton has lied. she has lied about benghazi. she has lied about her server. she lied about her e-mails. there were some in the media

that found that language harsh although a majority of americans agreed with me. the more the story goes on, the more it becomes clear she has lied. >> dr. ben carson, the number two candidate in the fox nationwide poll, is trying to clarify again his views on abortion. the retired neurosurgeon was asked to square his research on fetal tissue in the early 1990s with the current criticism of planned parenthood. he was asked when he thinks life begins. >> i believe life starts at conception. i said there are a lot of people who think that it is at the heart beat. i think most people can come to the conclusion that once you have a heart beat that you clearly have a living organism. >> the iowa state fair and famed soap box offering a platform to three more gop candidates today.

set for today, governor scott walker, lindsey graham and carly fiorina. the des moines register soap box is a rite of passage for candidates. you grill and you go on the soap box if you want to be president. donald trump and hillary clinton skipped the soap box over the weekend. the jeb bush campaign will start to spend some of the money in the deep pockets. making big ad buys in several states and will air september through december. bush is set to campaign across south carolina today where he will meet and conduct a military town hall. mike huckabee is heading to israel to meet with officials and discuss the iran nuclear deal. last month, the candidate said the iran deal will take israel quote to the door of the oven. huckabee saying it is important to talk about the deal with

israelis. >> i think it is the most dangerous situation we face not just for the middle east, but for the rest of the world and a long time. this is essentially arming and equipping a terrorist state. iranian government is not to be trusted and for 36 years, they kidnapped americans and killed americans. they hold americans hostage right now. we're being pushed to get into a deal that gives us nothing, but gives iranians the capacity to ultimately end up with a nuclear weapon. >> huckabee had praise for donald trump calling him a master at branding. he said it helped trump get ten times the coverage than any other candidate. the pentagon will expand the u.s. number of drone flights overseas. 50% more flights would broaden intelligence in ukraine and

south china sea and north africa. if put into action, it would be the first significant boost to the u.s. drone program since 2011. the obama administration has reportedly told china its law enforcement personnel do not have permission to secretly work in the u.s. the white house warned beijing by the operation named fox hunt. the agents are covertly working through the country and hunting down fugitives to bring them back to china. sunday, a spokesperson did make it clear that chinese law enforcement personnel cannot work in the u.s. without the pentagon permission. stocks mostly higher around the world. european and asian shares are up. the u.s. stock futures are low. crude oil prices are down 2%

this morning. now below $42 a barrel. concerns about slowing growth in asia and elsewhere pushing prices down and the continue supply boom that is devastating for energy companies. the national average is $2.67. experts predict $2 gas is just weeks away. breaking news this morning. indonesian plane crashes with 54 people on board. search and rescue teams struggling in the effort to reach the wreckage. we are live with new developments next.

breaking news this morning from indonesia. two aerial search planes spotted debris from what officials believe may be an airliner which went missing with 54 people on board. they are looking to send people to the area near papua, but that has now been suspended. kathy novak has more. >> reporter: heart breaking for the families, including 54 people on board. two days in a row, bad weather as forced the search and rescue mission to be suspended. we are told it is a still and search and rescue mission. faint hopes of finding survivors. now the remote teams are stuck on a mountain that is 11,000 feet high. heavy fog rolled in.

they had been hiking for an hour already and they are less than five miles away from the area they are trying to reach. the area where debris is spotted by two planes. authorities say they are about 95% sure that that is the plane they are looking for, but the terrain is so difficult and the weather so bad, they cannot access it. they need to build a helipad. two days in a row, the teams are stuck. the ground and air search have been called off for now. may have to wait until the morning to resume. >> kathy novak, thank you. keep us posted. army sky diver died from injuries he suffered when the stunt from the chicago air and water show went wrong. specialist corey hood collided with another parachutist. witnesses describe the scene. >> it looked like he was

unconscious as he came down and eventually ended up hitting the building here. >> hood died sunday at a chicago hospital. the other parachutist, tim holland, suffered a broken leg in the collection. federal investigators trying to determine what caused two small planes to collide in air on approach to the airport in san diego. four people on board the two planes were killed. officials say both planes broke into pieces. it happened sunday morning two miles from the brownfield municipal airport in otay mesa. the technical glitch at the air traffic control center in virginia was responsible for the cancellations over the weekend. the problem was fixed after several hours on saturday, but hubs were experiencesiing delayn sunday. wildfires still scorching the west. burning without of control in

four states. the fires fueled by drought conditions along with heat and high winds. more than 50 homes have been lost in washington state alone. in california, hundreds of firefighters battling a blaze in the angelos national forest. a lightning strike in oregon burning 40,000 acres. so will the weather in the west help turn things around in the battle against the wildfires? meteorologist pedram javaheri has the latest. >> good morning, christine. incredible fires across the western united states. you take a look. this is the wolverine fire in washington state. that is yours truly in the corner. i was visiting family in the area. temperatures have been hot. the amount of land burned across the western u.s. remarkable. 6.5 million acres burned to date in 2015. that is roughly the size of the state of new hampshire. that is 2 million acres above

what is considered normal as far as the fire season is concerned. look at the western u.s. cooler air returning to the east. we have severe weather on the way for the eastern portion of colorado. some thunderstorms could spawn large hail and damaging winds. the heat locked in place for the northeast for today. mid and upper 90s in washington. should be 94 in philly and new york. christine, cooler weather to the northeast in the low 80s by mid week. we have to get there. 96 today in new york city. thanks, pedram. death toll rises in the chemical blast in china. more than 100 dead and dozens still missing. family members are furious and demanding answers next. hey, you forgot the milk! that's lactaid. right. 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can drink all you want... ...with no discomfort?

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the death toll from the explosions in china now stands at 114. the investigation is now focused on what was stored in the port complex so any dangerous items can be contained and removed. cnn's will ripley is in tianjin for us this morning. >> reporter: christine, for the first time we are allowed in the blast zone. we are on an overpass. i'll show you this is one of the

main roads in tianjin. you can see as we scan over here all of those structures. many of them residential buildings that were some under construction and some occupied at the time of the explosion which has created utter devastation to the area. look at the parking lot. full of thousands of cars. most of them incinerated. many of them hot to the touch, days after the explosion. you can see what's left of the chemical warehouse that was holding all of those shipping containers you see piled off in the distance like toys. there are questions being asked here. serious questions. this area is now the center of the criminal investigation where days later, smoke continues to rise. you can see it off in the distance. crews are continuing to search for dozens of people still missing. china has had its share of

industrial accidents over the years. this is certainly not the first, but chinese authorities are saying they will try to take new steps to prevent this from happening again. they are promising a criminal investigation and charges against those responsible for placing these volatile chemicals so close to people's homes and causing an explosion so powerful it was able to burn and push those large trucks under the highway and result in the lives of so many lost. christine. >> will ripley, thank you for that. 54 minutes past the hour. your next vacation could be in a galaxy far, far an away. i have big news for "star wars" fans. that's next.

welcome back. i'm christine romans. stocks mostly up around the world. european and asian shares higher. japan's economy contracted last quarter, but it wasn't as bad as expected. worries about japan's economy added to the drag on oil prices. u.s. crude oil down 2%.

trading below $42 a barrel. donald trump finally putting meat on the bones of the immigration plan. it could mean millions of changes for low wage workers who send money home and the companies that employ them. trump says mexico must pay for a wall on the border. he would make mexico pay. he would siege all of the wages of the workers living illegally in the united states. the wages they sent home. he would make all companies sign up for ehyve-verify. trump is taking swipes along the way. he criticized marco rubio and facebook ceo mark zuckerberg. zuckerberg named in the plan.

all right. the happiest place on earth headed to a galaxy far, far away. disney with the "star wars" expansions. "star wars" theme parks. covering 14 acres each. featuring new rides and restaurants. no word on when the expansions will happen. "early start" continues right now. >> the 2016 circus came to town to the iowa state fairgrounds. donald trump revealing a plan to stop illegal immigration. hillary clinton defending her e-mail use as secretary of state as more of a dozen others make their voices heard. breaking this morning. an indonesian airliner crashed. search and rescue crews