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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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national lead
California wildfires: Mayor not rushing to judgment on arson suspicions
(CNN) – In Carlsbad, where a fire prompted 23,000 evacuation notices Wednesday, Mayor Matt Hall declined to address some residents' speculation whether arson was behind so many fires in the county.
"We don't have any knowledge of that yet," said Hall. "Our primary focus right now is just fighting the fires, and trying to keep both our citizens safe, and as little damage to our community as possible."
For more of our interview with the mayor, check out the video above.
money lead
GM's recall total nears 13 million worldwide
New York (CNNMoney) – The recall nightmare at General Motors just won't end.
General Motors has recalled another 3 million autos, bringing the troubled automaker's total for the year to 12.8 million worldwide.
GM has been under fire this year for its botched recall of millions of vehicles with an ignition switch problem that the automaker had known about for 10 years. The Department of Justice, investigators from Congress and federal auto regulators are currently probing the decade-long delay.
national lead
NIH official: We're screening drugs and developing a vaccine for MERS
(CNN) – There are already two confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - or "MERS" – on U.S. soil.
Now, officials in the Netherlands have identified a second case there, stoking fears of a swelling global health crisis.
The National Institutes of Health is already working on neutralizing MERS.
FULL POST
world lead
U.S. Special Forces could take out Boko Haram, but ...
(CNN) – A U.S. military team has been sent to advise the Nigerian government on how to handle the kidnapping, by terrorist group Boko Haram, of hundreds of schoolgirls.
Several U.S. lawmakers, like Sens. Susan Collins and John McCain are calling for the U.S. to do more, to send, for example, Special Forces to rescue the girls.
"The United States has an extraordinarily accomplished special operations forces that can accomplish, and have demonstrated obviously that they can accomplish these very sensitive missions," says Gen. Carter Ham, former commander of U.S. Africa Command.
"This one is significantly complicated by the lack of infrastructure in the region, by what I suspect is the dispersing of these girls into multiple locations," said Ham.
FULL POST
world lead
Evacuee: California wildfires scene 'apocalyptic'
(CNN) – Dr. Gay Walker was all the way across the country for her daughter's graduation from Duke law school, when she flew back home to San Marcos, California Wednesday. But she didn't get to rest from her travels for very long.
She was home for about three hours, when police rolled through her neighborhood, and told her to evacuate because of a massive wildfire spreading across the area.
"It was an orderly evacuation, but was reminiscent of something apocalyptic," Walker tells CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper." "Cars were lined up bumper to bumper getting out of the neighborhood."
FULL POST
