ken. thanks for watching us at 5:00. the "cbs evening news with scott pelley" is coming up next. >> and remember the latest news and weather are always on our website, kpix.com. captions by: >> pelley: tonight, the worstan fears confirmed for an american family and the american family. kayla mueller is dead.'s >> kayla's calling was to help those who were sufferingr whether in her home town of prescott or the other side of the world. >> pelley: david martin has what we know about how she died at the hands of isis, and we'll look back at her extraordinary life. buried in boston. jericka duncan on the city reaching the breaking point. >> the whole ceiling just came in like a freight train. we just ran. >> pelley: as the measles outbreak spreads, jim axelrod looks at the fears and facts about vaccinating kids. >> it looks like he has a weapon. >> pelley: and john blackstone a has the great escape attempt. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news"

with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is our western edition. in just a few short days america came to know kayla mueller and her too short life that was dedicated to helping people in need. so today, when her family confirmed that she had died as a captive of isis, the entire country shared their pain, pain that was visible on the faces of her friends and relatives. mueller was captured by the islamic terrorist group in syria in the summer of 2013. david martin now on how her family learned of her death. >> reporter: there is no goodur way to find out your 26-year-old daughter has been killed, butm surely an e-mail from isis wither a picture of her body is one of the worst. by monday morning, intelligence analysts had confirmed that it was kayla mueller, and that she had died recently, although the exact cause of her death could not be determined. it was a tragic end for a young woman described by her aunt lori

lyon as noble beyond her years. >> she has done more in her incredible 26 years than many people can ever imagine doing in. their lifetime. kayla has touched the heart of the world. the world grieves with us. >> reporter: last spring in this handwritten letter from her prison, she told her parents "if you could say i have suffered at all throughout this whole experience, it is only in knowing how much suffering i have put you all through." "i have a lot of fight left inside of me. i am not breaking down, and i will not give in no matter how long it takes." isis claims she was killed last friday when this building was struck by jordanian warplanes on the second day of raids ordered in retaliation for the gruesome execution by fire of a downed jordanian pilot. u.s. officials said the building was a weapons storage facility located in a compound south ofld the isis strong hold of raqqa.

they had no indication kayla mueller was ever held in the o building, but could not rule out the possibility she had beenei moved into it without their knowledge. still, said pentagon spokesman admiral john kirby-- >> let's not forget in whose hands this woman died and let's not forget who is ultimately responsible for it, isil. >> reporter: in an interview today, president obama said kayla mueller was one of the hostages the u.s. tried to rescue with a raid into syria last summer. but it turned out the hostages had been moved just a day or twoy before. four americans were held hostage at the time, and now, scott, all four are dead. >> pelley: david martin at the pentagon tonight.ht david, thank you. we're going to have more about kayla mueller's remarkable life and that letter she sent home later in the broadcast. president obama vowed to bring her killers to justice. he blames isis, and on the battlefield in northern iraq

isis is murdering entire villages. holly williams is there.e >> reporter: in once-peaceful farmland, these men showed us what they say is a mass grave. how many bodies are buried here?ed eyewitnesses told us isis killed at least 50 yazidi men here, and though we cannot verify what's buried under this mound, they told us the men were shot one by one and their shallow grave covered in dirt. did you know these men? t "they were all from my village," said naif ibrahim hoda. he believes his uncle and two of his cousins lie dead beneath the soil. how did you survive? "we left in the early morning before isis arrived," he told us. later on, they blocked the road, and everyone else was captured. the yazidis were hounded from their homes by isis in august, fleeing to nearby mt. sinjar

where they faced starvation. it's thought thousands of yazidi women were kidnapped and enslaved by the extremists. they can't give the bodies here a proper burial because the front line is just a few hundred yards away and isis still holds the next village. kurdish fighters known as theme peshmerga are slowly clawing back territory from isis. they believe they can defeat the extremists and prevent more massacres, but they're outgunned by the militants and frustrated with their american allies. >> we've lost more than 1,000 peshmergas, and somewhere around 5,000 have been wounded. >> reporter: the kurdish national security advisor masrour barzani told us 70% of those deaths were caused by car and roadside bombs, and many of them could have been prevented if his men had armored vehicles.

they've asked washington for several hundred and have been given just 25.re >> of course, they all praise the peshmergas and thank us, but that is not enough. we need the equipment. >> reporter: what do you say to the families of those men who have died, whose deaths were preventable? >> these are our heroes. we need to protect these heroes, and i think they are the heroes of the free world, and it's the responsibility of the international community to protect them. >> reporter: president obama is expected to go to congress this week to ask for new authorization for the use of military force against isis. that authorization is expected to set a limit for the length of the conflict and, scott, it willt, doubtless spark a debate on whether u.s. ground troops should be deployed. >> pelley: holly williams reporting for us tonight in istanbul. holly, thank you. now, moving to another important story, it did stop snowing in boston today, but not before the

city was buried again. nearly 72 inches in 17 days. if folks are not climbing the walls, they're climbing ladders to clear snow from roofs. train service stopped, so commuters had no choice but to dig their cars out. jericka duncan is in boston. >> reporter: seven-foot snow drifts piled on the roof of this piano store caused it to break. it happened early this morning when the store was closed. if it wasn't, owner rob norris said the outcome could have been much worse. >> i'm sure there would have been deaths, you know. >> reporter: more than two dozen roofs have collapsed across state. we experienced how dangerous conditions can be. >> we have. >> reporter: we just heard something. >> that's the ceiling, yeah. that's the roof. >> reporter: so far, the city has had more than 40 inches of snowfall this month, making it the third snowiest february on record with more than two weeks still to go. this is what people are up against. i'm 5'7", and many of these

walls of snow are much tallernow than me. it's obvious when you take a look around, it will be a while before people get rid of all this snow, when they find somewhere to put it. the city is using snow melting machines to get rid of 400 tons per hour. mayor marty walsh is calling on bostonians to help each other. >> i'm asking neighbors out there to please reach out to your neighbors. i've received a couple of texts from folks that reached out to a neighbor next door, didn't realize they were home ound and needed some food and things like that. >> reporter: where's the door? >> you're on it. >> reporter: 65-year-old frank hart's eight-foot shed is buried under the snow. he has been outside battling the winter weather every day for the past two weeks. if you get more snow on thursday, what are you going to do? the same thing i've done always, you know, just put it anywhere i can. >> reporter: the city is making progress. boston public schools will be open tomorrow and tonight, scott, the national guard moves

in with dump trucks and shovelsat to help remove some of the snow and dig out fire hydrants. >> reporter: jericka, thanks very much. boston could get several inches of snow thursday night into friday. after that, another storm is expected to move in on sunday night. in alabama today, many local judges remained defiant, one day after a federal court order made same-sex marriage legal. chip reid is there. >> reporter: in mobile, alabama, the window was closed today at the office where marriage licenses are usually issued, leave some same-sex couples disappointed. licenses were also unavailable at the rural pike county courthouse in the small town of troy. probate judge wes allen: >> like any probate office, it's not going to be in the marriage licensing business altogether. we've decided to take ourselves out of that. >> reporter: out of it completely. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: this was hard for you to do? >> well, you know, you don't want to disappoint anybody but at the same time, you've got

those deeply held christian beliefs that i do, so it really- - it really was one that slept well at night when i made the decision, you know, and i've hade overwhelming support from the community since we made this announcement on friday. >> reporter: not surprising, in a state where only 32% support same-sex marriage, tied for lowest in the nation. just yesterday, 54 of alabama'swere 67 counties were not issuing licensing to same-sex couples despite a federal ruling to do so. but in a surprising development, 13 judges have now reversed course, leaving 41 counties still holding out. one of those changing his mind is judge john enslen whoe of tho announced on his facebook page yesterday that elmore county will not be issuing same-sex marriage licenses, but today hee said the dust has quickly settled and it is clear to me that our federal constitution, consistent with the federal district court's ruling, will be federal interpreted to provide a constitutional right to same-sex marriage on a national scale.

the next big step comes thursday, scott, when a group of same-sex couples go to federal court and ask that federal judge to order the state judge to give them marriage licenses. >> pelley: chip reid in montgomery tonight. chip, thanks very much. well, here we go again. experts are changing their recommendations about what we shouldn't eat. a government advisory panel has decided we don't have to worry so much after all about cholesterol in our diets. so dr. jon lapook is here to sort this out for us. jon, so, the panel says that ch cholesterol is no longer a nutrient of concern. what on earth does that mean?es tha >> reporter: well, to be clear th the amount of cholesterol in your blood is still important, so the higher the bad cholesterol the higher the risk of heart attack and other problems like that. but what the committee found was the amount of cholesterol in your food doesn't necessarily translate to a higher level of cholesterol in your blood. so right now, the current

recommendations say people should have less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol indiet a their diet a day. an egg has 200 milligrams. that's likely to change when the recommendations come out later this year. >> pelley: so we can start eating all these high-ley: s cholesterol foods again? it doesn't go right into the blood? >> reporter: absolutely not, actually.ter: abs it turns out there's never a free lunch for dinner. it turns out that the foods that are highest in cholesterol are also high in other bad things like saturated fats and transfats, refined sugars things like that. overall, they're recommended people consume more vegetables more fruits, more whole grains low-fat dairy and lean meat and reduce red and processed meats sugary food and drinks and refined grains. >> pelley: doctor, thank you very much. with measles spreading what should parents know about the safety of vaccines? and the chase is on when the western edition of the "cbs evening news" continues.

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>> he played normally. he just said da-da. >> reporter: nikki before the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella which his parents claim blame for his autism. >> i should have never had him have that vaccine. >> reporter: science has discredited the link first floated by a dr. in the journal "lancet," in 1998. there is no doubt, not that much, that there is no link between an m.m.r. vaccination and autism. >> absolutely no doubt. m.m.r. vaccine does not cause autism. it never made biological sense that it would and now we have all the epidemiological studies showing it clearly didn't. the director of the vaccine education center at the children's hospital of philadelphia says since wakefield's article, there have been 14 studies looking at hundreds of thousands of children on three continents that show no linkage. why did dr. wakefield's hypothesis get any traction at all?

>> because we don't know what the cause or causes of autism was, and now he's got a reason right. he's got a boogieman.e >> reporter: only in the view of science now, his boogieman has been widely discredited. >> it was just wrong. >> reporter: the "lancet" retracted the paper in 2010. the british medical journal called it "an elaborate fraud." and dr. wakefield lost his license. but still, the fallout lingers as we are seeing 17 years later, with the current measles outbreak. the outbreak we're seeing right now can be directly related to dr. wakefield's theory? >> no doubt about it. if you ask parents why is it you're hesitating to get the vaccine, i think many would say i still think it's possible this p vaccine might cause autism. >> reporter: i asked the doctor if there wasn't some satisfaction in being right, and he said no, this is not an "i told you so" moment, that whenever children suffer there is nothing good about it. scott.

>> pelley: jim axelrod reporting for us tonight. jim, thanks very much. did the u.s. little league champions break the rules? we'll have that when we come back. back.

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about prevnar 13® today. >> pelley: police in los angeles had all they could handle last night. for 45 minutes, they chased a suspected car thief determined to escape, no matter who or what

got in his way. here's john blackstone. >> reporter: as he sped through l.a.'s rush hour traffic, the driver of the stolen car tookthe risk after risk. >> whoa, right there! >> reporter: police followed from the air, as did kcbs-tv reporter stu mundel. >> there we go! oh! >> reporter: police cars at first held back. >> l.a.p.d., not in pursuit. >> reporter: still the driver sped down residential streets and through stop signs. >> look at this whoa! there we go! >> reporter: even when it seemed the car was so battered it could go no further, the driveron carried on. >> wrong side of the road. whoa! whoa! okay. there we go. took two cars out. he's out, he's trying to-- oh, he's trying to carjack somebody, and it looks like-- it looksd like he has a weapon. he does. he's got a weapon! he's got a weapon. he's trying to carjack somebody, pulling a woman out of the car taking another vehicle.

>> reporter: after the armed carjacking police moved in closer. >> he's wedged in there. >> reporter: as he tried to take another car, officers opened fire. >> the suspect is down. suspect is down. >> reporter: the driver is being treated for injuries that are described as non-lifear threatening. he's identified as aaron lorda 29 years old, and he's now being held on $100,000 bail. and, scott, no serious injuries have been reported from all of those collisions. >> pelley: john, thank you very much. there was quite a rumble in las vegas overnight. >> a demolition team brought down the only clarion hotel and casino, most of it anyway after two tons of explosives went off the building easel vary core survived and they plan to use cables to pull that down. >> little little league baseball officials met today to consider whether the national champions broke the rules.ew they cited new information that the jackie robinson west team from chicago may have added

players from the suburbs. players are supposed to live in the district they represent. a decision on whether the team will keep the title is expectedis soon. late today, we got word that jon stewart made a surprising announcement during the taping of the "daily show" on comedyin central. stewart announced that he will be stepping down at the end ofno the year. just the latest change in the late-night tv landscape. stewart, who is 52, has been hosting that show since 1999. and we'll be right back. ture. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are thankful for many things. the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. our world-class service earned usaa the top spot in a study of the most recommended large companies in america. if you're current or former military or their family, see if you're eligible to get an auto insurance quote.

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>> pelley: the hol >> pelley: the holocaust survivor viktor frankel wrote, "don't ask the meaning of life. life is asking what's the meaning of you?" some answer by dedicating themselves to those who suffer and many bright lights in the darkest places are americans like kayla mueller. we were struck today by the letter she sent home from her cell.o much it was so much like others written by those who would change the world, words from captivity that would far outlive them. when writing home from a terrorist cell, where do you start? kayla mueller started tight in the corner of her single precious page. her first stroke predicted there would never be enough room to wo hold her thoughts. two rows on each line, margin to margin, which would have been

well thought out, she writes "but i could only write the letter a paragraph at a time. just the thought of you all sends me into a fit of tears." they had all said good-bye when she left college in 2011 to work with the suffering in india. why the hurry? another young woman writing in captivity, anne frank, answered in her diary. "nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." from india, mueller worked with refugees in israel and palestine. back in arizona, she cared for aids patients and volunteered at night at a women's shelter. in 2013, she arrived at the syrian border, the world's most dangerous place. why take the risk? another prisoner writing from a cell in 1963 answered, "i am in birmingham because injustice is. here. i'm compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home." like dr. king, kayla mueller had

the vision to see freedom from a cell. "even in prison," she wrote "i can be free. i am grateful. i have come to see there is good in every situation." she is the fourth american hostage to die. in journalists, isis tried to extinguish truth. with humanitarians they tried to kill compassion, but light defines the darkness. in these deaths isis is revealed, and in her words kayla mueller captured the long struggle for a better world. "please be patient. give your pain to god." dr. king said his letter from the birmingham jail was the longest he ever wrote. what would kayla mueller have done with more than one page? and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. in hot water again. the former president of the puc already under fire for his dealings with pg&e, now we're hearing about a secret and potentially illegal meeting with another power company. good evening, i'm ken bastida. >> i'm veronica de la cruz. michael peevey stepped down in december as head of the puc. he has been accused of back door dealings with pg&e in the wake of the san bruno explosion. tonight, joe vazquez tells us that's not the only major california utility he is suspected of breaking the rules with. joe. >> reporter: veronica, it just never seems to stop. the feds, the state investigators are looking into the former chief of the puc, that is right here on van ness. they are looking through

thousands of emails and they are now closely examining a conversation that was held halfway around the world. 2.5 years after the pg&e explosion that killed eight people in san bruno, as tough questions were being raised about whether the california public utilities commission had too cozy a relationship with power companies that it was supposed to be overseeing -- ♪[ music ]♪ >> reporter: -- we have learn there was a meeting at a hotel in poland. michael peevey the head of the puc at the time was attending an industry event and struck up a conversation with an executive of southern california edison, the 2012 chat about the failed san onofre nuclear power plant which cost taxpayers millions. they were required to tell the public about their talk but they didn't until now. >> so not disclosing that, they could do it because they were halfway around the world, is inappropriate, one, is illegal, tw