August 2007 - Posts
by Mark Hudspeth, NBC producer
It seems like such a long time ago when I first spoke with Sara Peer. It was January, and I was researching a story about military families. Her husband Scott was serving a tour in Iraq with the a unit of the Minnesota National Guard whose tour had just been extended. The next day I had an email waiting for me from one of her friends whose husband was serving in Iraq with Scott. Sara had gone to the hospital to set up a webcam so that Lori's husband could see the birth of his third daughter. "Please do the story on her and her children," she wrote, "She so deserves it! She is a true unsung hero of this deployment!"
I finally met Sara this summer. Our story wasn't about the makeshift military networks that support one another during deployment, but I could see why Lori had so passionately lobbied for her friend. Sara really was holding it all together, and she'd been doing it for almost two years.
Scott finally did make it home in late July. When he left, his three-year-old daughter Vanessa couldn't get enough of Dora. Now she's five...and all about Princesses. His son Bryce was barely walking. Now, he's a struggle to keep up with. Two years is a long time to be away from your family.
Earlier this week I spoke with Dr. Melissa Polusny, who councils military families in Minnesota, about how it can be hard for many families to readjust to the "new normal" once the initial excitement of the homecoming wears off. Despite that, she pointed out, that these families are strong. They've been through a lot, and are surprisingly resilient.
I think that's a perfect way to describe the Peers -- surprisingly resilient.
Click here to watch the report as it aired on 'NBC Nightly News.'
by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
For all the wars, floods, crimes, disasters and sadness we cover, there are occasionally days like today. We gathered in the office of our Executive Producer, Alex Wallace for a baby shower for producer Bita Nikravesh. In addition to being one of the sweetest people I know, Bita may be the most petite woman on the staff. Right now, days away from delivery of her first child, Bita appears to be made up of about 80% baby and 20% Bita. It was a baby-themed day, as former Nightly News producer (now at 60 Minutes) Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson brought in her two daughters. We opened gifts, we oldsters talked about when our kids were young -- and then I noticed Weekend Nightly News Executive Producer Patrick Burkey getting a little lightheaded: he and his wife Maribel are expecting twins. All that talk about dilation, eipdurals, projectile vomiting, bathtime, teething, stain removal -- it can all make a guy nervous. It was a great day -- also punctuated by a bad rendition of "Happy Birthday" for our director, Brett Holey -- and a staff farewell and round of applause for Washington producer Tammy Kupperman. On an average day, we spend much more time with our work families than we do with our actual families at home. On days like this, it feels like it. And what a great second family we're all blessed to have. We'll let you know when it gets bigger, by one. Good luck, Bita!
CONTINUED >>
by Mark Potter, NBC correspondent
In Jackson, Mississippi, recently we saw the latest trend in the national abortion fight playing itself out on one street corner. We'll show it to you tonight on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
Outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic still operating in Mississippi, dozens of young women coming in for abortions or doctor consultations were greeted by anti-abortion activists trying to convince them not to have the procedure.
Clinic officials say it's a daily ritual here that, while sometimes loud, is typically non-violent. For those of us who remember the many violent confrontations and even murders at abortion clinics in years past it's a dramatic change. It's also an indication a more effective method has been found by abortion opponents.
The latest tactic in anti-abortion activism involves legislation, and there standing with the protesters was Mississippi state senator Richard White, who has been promoting laws to severely restrict abortion providers. His ultimate goal is to end abortion altogether, and to
overturn its Roe V. Wade Supreme Court protections. The Mississippi legislature and many others around the country are the new battlegrounds.
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by John Rutherford, producer, Washington D.C.
Army Sgt. Princess Samuels' burial today at Arlington National Cemetery was much like her life, bathed in pink.
Her graveside floral arrangement contained lots of pink flowers. Many of the mourners wore pink in her honor. Her mother, Mrs. Anika Lawal, had on a large pink hat.
"She absolutely adored pink," her mother told WRC-TV.
All of Samuels' clothes were pink. So was her car.
"It was blue when she got it, but it didn't stay blue long," her mother told the Baltimore Sun. Samuels had her car custom-painted purplish-pink.
She even dyed her white poodle Skylar's ears and tail pink.
"She just loved life," her mother told WRC.
Samuels, nicknamed "Noodle" because of her 5-foot-2, 100-pound frame, joined the Army to see the world and ended up in Iraq as an imagery specialist in military intelligence.
"She's always been very smart, very intelligent," her aunt told the Sun.
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by Al Henkel, Acting Bureau Chief, NBC News Southwest Bureau
Update: The segment has been moved from tonight's show. We'll let you know when it will run on Nightly News.
Tonight on the broadcast we will introduce you to some of the men and women who fight the massive wildfires that burn every year throughout the American West. All of them have a unique journey to get to the firelines, but a common purpose once they get there.
On the side of a mountain in Western Montana we met Christian Blankenship (left), in charge of a hotshot crew -- a half dozen fire engines and “heavy metal”-bulldozers and skidders. More than 2,000 miles from his Fairbanks, Alaska, home, he’s part of a Type-1 Fire management team from Alaska, sent here on a 2-week rotation. “You don’t know if you’re going to do it forever, or maybe next season I’ll feel like I’ve had enough and it’s time for something new.” Firefighting paid his way through college. Blankenship has a degree in biology, yet comes back for the season work of fighting fires. “I got my degree and I’m still doing the same thing,” he says.
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Aug. 31: NBC's Janet Shamlian reports on the battle after the war. What happens to a family after a soldier comes home? Click here to watch.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Robert J. Modrzejewski
Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Company K, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division
Robert Modrzejewski was a student at the University of Wisconsin when he joined the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class, the Corps’s version of the ROTC. He was commissioned a second lieutenant after graduating in 1957.
By 1966, he was in Vietnam, a captain commanding a company in the 3rd Battalion, Fourth Marines. On July 15, 1966, his unit was involved in Operation Hastings, an effort by Marines and South Vietnamese troops to block North Vietnamese units from infiltrating into the south through the demilitarized zone and Laos. After months of fighting a shadowy guerrilla enemy using booby traps and ambushes, Modrzejewski looked forward to what he thought would be the clarity of a larger engagement.
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by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
When we say that air travel into and out of New Orleans is at "73% of its pre-Katrina capacity," here's what we mean: there is no way to fly from New Orleans to anywhere in the New York region after we get off the air at 6 p.m. local time -- so that means staying overnight, and that meant the available flights to New York this morning were full of journalists who'd been there to cover the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I arrived just as our editorial meeting had gotten underway and am catching up on what is a changing broadcast for tonight.
MSNBC just played the Sen. Larry Craig arrest tapes, and my friend Ken Walsh of U.S. News just said Senator Craig is in "very serious political trouble." We'll have some of that audio on the broadcast tonight. We'll also report on the Virginia Tech investigation, the tremendous heat wave out West (new Arizona record: 29 days of temperatures over 110), domestic politics, Iraq and a major anniversary worldwide.
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by Chris Colvin, Nightly News writer
Hi. As we wind down toward the long weekend, a look at today's news on the economy and the credit crunch, with Fed Chairman Bernanke in the spotlight again. Also, a very strange futures trade raises speculation that someone knows too much, new clangs on the warning bell about a U.S. war with Iran, and hey Salon wants you to watch Mad Men tonight!
BACKWARD-LOOKING NEWS: The WSJ reports that prices for moderately-priced ($417,000 and below) homes increased 3.2% in the 2nd qtr year-over-year, and were essentially flat from the prior quarter. Also, Q2 GDP revised upward to 4% on stronger business spending and overseas sales. And government-sponsored mortgage financier FreddieMac's Q2 net income was down 45%. Sears net income down 40% (Uh oh consumers struggling?) And Merrill Lynch downgrades Wal-mart to sell. (Yep. Consumers struggling.)
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by John Rutherford, producer, Washington D.C.
What should the U.S. do in Iraq? Gen. David Petraeus is set to deliver a much-anticipated progress report on Iraq in a few weeks, but we went out to Walter Reed Army Medical Center today to get an assessment of the war from those closest to the situation, the soldiers themselves.
Click here to watch the video.
Three of six men receiving Purple Hearts agreed to talk to us, and all three of them were generally supportive of the war effort.
"We're doing good for the community and pushing the bad guys out," Pfc. William Goodman, 23, of Concord, N.C., said. Goodman was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade while on a dismounted patrol in Baghdad.
Sgt. Jeffrey Wray, 29, of Chesapeake, Va., who was injured while on an IED detonation mission in Baqubah, said the situation was improving when he left Iraq.
"The Iraqi people were a little safer than they were before," he said, "but I think we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of steps to go in Iraq to fix it."
Spc. Nathan Dehnke, 32, of St. Peters, Mo., said he was under a "busy mission load" before being injured by a roadside bomb in south Baghdad.
"It was obviously not the best of times or not the best things to be participating in," he said, "but by the same token I'm proud to have served with the people I was there with."
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Ola L. Mize
Sergeant, U.S. Army Company K, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Ola Mize, son of an Alabama sharecropper, dropped out of school in 1946 after the ninth grade to help take care of his mother, brothers, and sisters. A few years later, earning just fifteen dollars a week, he decided he could do better in the Army but was rejected because he weighed only 120 pounds. He kept pestering recruiters until they finally let him enlist.
Mize was finishing his tour of duty with the 82nd Airborne when the Korean War broke out. He had planned to go back to school, but he didn’t want to miss the experience of combat, so he extended his enlistment and volunteered for a front-line unit.
On the evening of June 10, 1953, Sergeant Mize’s unit and another platoon were defending a position called Outpost Harry near Surang-ni, Korea, when Chinese troops attacked. First came a shattering artillery barrage, followed by an assault by a battalion-size force that overran the Americans.
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by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
I was given a T-shirt today that bears the following design: the fleur-de-lis logo of New Orleans, the number 504 (the area code here) and one other word: "home." In an odd and emotionally gratifying way, this city is starting to feel like a second home. I'm enormously proud of our coverage from here, and the fact that this is our 14th trip to the region in two years. We'll start the broadcast from the very spot where we stood two years ago tonight -- when we thought the city had suffered a lot of wind damage, but that it had "dodged a bullet" where flooding was concerned. How little we knew that first night after the storm.
Today we visited Engine Company 7 (left), the New Orleans firehouse we profiled months ago (video). When our story first aired, it got the attention of some good people who, upon hearing that firefighters were living in trailers, worked on getting the money to fix the 23 firehouses that were damaged in Katrina. Work at Engine 7 is slow and steady.
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NBC's Brian Williams reports from the Super Dome on the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Click here to watch.
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Early Nightly: NBC's Ron Mott previews three stories that could make tonight's broadcast, including New Orleans' changing demographic.
by Les Kretman, NBC News producer, White House
The four door silver sports sedan is parked on West Executive Drive between the White House and the Executive Office Building. This where it usually is, but why is it attracting so much attention today? White House staffers have been going up to it -- scratching their heads, laughing and some have even taken pictures of it with their cell phones.
The Jaguar belongs to Karl Rove, and somehow some staffers or someone else decided to preserve the car by enveloping it in Saran Wrap and topping off the Saran Wrap with two faux bald eagles sitting on the trunk (video).
Rove, who finishes as the president’s senior advisor this Friday, has been traveling with Mr. Bush today through New Orleans and Mississippi. He returns to the White House later today.
Perhaps there’s some symbolism in the prank -- after all on Friday it will be a wrap.
UPDATE: Rove returned, saw his car, and the secret service staged a mock arrest with one of the perpetrators -- Al Hubbard, director of the president’s economic council. The car has been cleaned up; it’s no longer “under wraps.”
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Hiroshi H. Miyamura
Corporal, U.S. Army Company H, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Hiroshi Miyamura grew up in Gallup, New Mexico, one of only a handful of Japanese Americans in the town. A teacher, unable to pronounce his first name, called him Hershey, and his friends adopted this nickname.
Early in 1944, eighteen-year-old Miyamura was drafted and assigned to the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which would gain fame as the most decorated American unit of World War II. When the 442nd shipped out, Miyamura had to stay behind because he hadn’t reached the minimum age for overseas duty. He finally got to Europe just after the war ended and did occupation duty in Italy, then came home to pick up his life as an auto mechanic and joined the Army Reserve. CONTINUED >>
by Aram Roston, investigative producer
A U.S. law enforcement task force is investigating whether American military officials were involved in the disappearance of large numbers of weapons meant for Iraqi forces, sources confirm to NBC News. Investigators believe, sources say, that some weapons paid for by U.S. taxpayers were diverted and sold. Audits have already determined that more than 190,000 weapons are not accounted for.
Previously officials had argued this might have been due to bookkeeping errors rather than corruption necessarily. Some weapons meant for Iraqi security forces were found in Turkey, and investigators are trying to determine how they were diverted there. The New York Times first reported on the investigation this morning.
The investigation is potentially politically embarressing for General Petraeus, currently leading U.S. efforts in Iraq, because he himself oversaw the effort to arm and train Iraqi security forces when much of the equipment went missing. Sources say he is not implicated.
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by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
It's quite possible that the video blog I just fed in to New York a short time ago from Main Street here in Waveland, Mississippi can tell the story from here better than I can in this form.
I guess I have to say I'm disappointed that more has not been done to bring this great little town back to life. Standing on the pier looking back inland at Waveland is one of the prettiest spots anywhere along the Gulf -- and yet there's still not that much to see. I'm about to go meet the Smolensky family; you'll see them on the broadcast tonight. We first met them close to two years ago. They turned out to be one of the success stories here, but as their daughter's blog nicely chronicles, it's an everyday fight, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for the folks here who've stuck it out.
We will be here tonight, back in New Orleans tomorrow (where I get to meet NOLA radio icon Garland Robinette when I drop by "The Big 870", WWL Radio tomorrow for a live interview.) I'm glad to be back in the region.
We hope you can join us tonight for all the day's news from Waveland, Mississippi.
NBC's Robert Bazell previews his story for this evening's Nightly News with Brian Williams. What are the legitimate uses of painkillers and why are they so important to medicine?
Weigh in here: What do you think of the rise in painkiller use in the U.S. in the last decade?
by Chris Colvin, Nightly News writer
Hi. Obsessive? Pedantic? ME? Naaah. And proving it by beginning today's entry with the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales instead of the dreaded credit crunch CRISIS (which is worrying me more by the day and will take up the bulk of the links...) OK. Maybe a bit obsessive.
Why beat around the Bush? Let's go right to former (Bill) Clinton senior adviser Sidney Blumenthal on how Gonzales had to go because he was nuthin' without his mentor/rabbi/protector Karl Rove.
And Blumenthal's Salon colleague David Cole recounts Gonzales' "dismal legacy." Glenn Greenwald looks forward to confirmation hearings and the Democratic majority's responsibility to confirm a completely independent figure and not another Bush insider.
Slate's Bazelon and Lithwick take a whack at the same topic. And their colleague John Dickerson gets psychological. ThinkProgress picks up on former WHU Press Secretary Ari Fleisher's contention that it's Congress that's politicized the Justice Department, a point TP's Faiz refutes with bullet points. And Jonathan Zasloff at the RealityBasedCommunity thinks NYT reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg is as wacky as Ari Fleisher in her analysis that Gonzales' departure provides a "fresh start" for the President. Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters says Gonzales didn't do anything illegal in the U.S. Attorneys matter, but he botched his handling of it and thus, had to go.
Now to Larry Craig... the conservative Republican Senator from Idaho who, we learned yesterday, pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of lewd conduct involving a men's room that was a hotbed of gay sexual activity at the Minneapolis airport. Craig's hometown newspaper unloaded a long, long trail of reporting on the subject today. (Hat tip: my colleague Barbara Raab.)
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Lewis L. Millett
Captain, U.S. Army Company E, 27th Infantry Regiment
In 1940, Lewis Millett left high school after his junior year to enlist in the Army so he could fight fascism. Assigned to an Air Corps gunnery school, he became increasingly upset with Europe’s weak resistance against German aggression, with the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews, and especially with the way the United States was paralyzed by isolationism. To get into combat, he deserted, crossed the Canadian border, and enlisted in the Canadian Army. He was sent to London shortly afterward and manned an antiaircraft gun during the Blitz.
When American troops began arriving in England in 1942, Millett took advantage of a provision that allowed American citizens serving with an allied country to transfer into the U.S. military. He served with the American Army in North Africa, where he was awarded the Silver Star and promoted from private to sergeant, then fought at Salerno and Anzio. It was at Anzio that his old records finally caught up with him. He was told he had been court-martialed and found guilty of desertion. His sentence was a fifty-two-dollar fine. The same day, he received a battlefield promotion to lieutenant for his fearlessness in combat.
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by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
All kinds of random notes here, on the eve of what will be our 14th trip to New Orleans since Katrina. Tomorrow night, you’ll see us from Waveland, Mississippi, and then from New Orleans on Wednesday night. I’m looking forward to seeing both old friends and progress on our travels.
Last night my family and I had a big old time at the New York comedy landmark Upright Citizens Brigade. I was drafted by my friend Amy Poehler (SNL cast member and Upright Citizen) to be the “monologue-ist,” which meant opening each segment -- playing off a single word shouted out by an audience member, and then telling stories that are designed to leave behind subject matter that the cast can use for improv sketches. The things they made me say! The topics they forced me to take on! It was funny -- it got wild -- and happily, my wife and daughter were willing to be seen with me afterward. It was a great way to get away from the outside world on a summer Sunday night.
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by John Rutherford, Washington D.C. producer
Reporters, spectators, and courtroom sketch artists begin arriving at 4 a.m. to get in line for one of the 100 coveted courtroom seats for Michael Vick's plea hearing at 10:30 am.
By the time I arrive at 6:30, 30 people are already ahead of me along the side of the federal courthouse in Richmond. About two dozen television satellite trucks are parked behind the courthouse for liveshots. PETA protestors begin congregating across Main Street from the front of the courthouse to howl at Vick when he arrives to plead guilty to the dog fighting charges.
At 9:50 a.m., we begin filling into courtroom 339, an ornate, dark-paneled chamber. Vick and his lawyer Billy Martin arrive at 10:25. The room hushes. Dressed in dark grey suit, white shirt, and yellow tie, Vick looked nervous.
Three minutes later, Judge Henry Hudson enters. He's bald, regal looking. He gets right down to business. The Richmond court is known as "rocket docket" for good reason. He goes through charges against Vick. Vick, standing and flanked by lawyers, answers "Yes, sir" or "No, sir" in low tone to judge's questions. He formally pleads guilty to dog fighting conspiracy charge. Hudson says he's not bound by the recommended 12-18 month prison sentence.
"You will have to live with what I decide," he tells Vick. Judge Hudson sets sentencing for 10 a.m., Dec. 10. It was only 18 minutes from beginning to end.
Afterwards, Vick looked lost in courtroom. He stands, sits, stands again. He turns to family members sitting right behind him. Press people are escorted out of courtroom.
Outside, PETA protestors still massed across street. One placard reads, "All Dogs Go To Heaven. Will Michael Vick?"
Billy Martin speaks briefly to cameras behind courthouse. Says he hopes Judge Hudson saw the real Michael Vick and will "get it right" on Dec. 10.
Half an hour later, Vick himself steps before the cameras at nearby Omni Hotel. It was hard to hear over clicking still cameras. He gave a complete mea culpa. He says he's ashamed and disappointed in himself. He apologizes to young kids for his "immature acts" and says he needs to grow up. He takes full responsibility and cites bad judgment. He calls dog fighting a "terrible thing" and asks for forgiveness.
He says he's turning himself over to God and walks off stage without taking questions.
by Bonnie Optekman, Vice President, News Technology
Just another few words about Roger O’Neil’s great spot on environmentally friendly dry cleaners...
First of all, I couldn’t help but think about that very old joke (too old for me to know) about the mystery of putting two wire hangers in a closet and finding a rod full of them the next day.
But seriously, folks...”green” cleaners are indeed all the rage. I just decided to try one called Green Apple Cleaners, based in New York and New Jersey. CEO David Kistner says their methods are safer for the consumer and their garments as well as the environment. The one cleaning agent that Green Apple, as well as other “green” dry cleaners, say they ban is perchlorethylene or “perc.” They use carbon dioxide instead. They also “wet clean” with mild cleansers, including non-chlorine bleach, that are hypo-allergenic and antifungul and “sophistocated, computer programmed washers and dryers.” Dry cleaning, by the way, isn’t really dry. There has to be some kind of liquid solvent that lifts the dirt out of the clothing.
Other services use other methods they call “green” or “organic” but make sure you ask questions and do some research first. There’s a ton about this on the web.
In the meantime, Green Apple sent me lovely garment bags for my clothes which they will pick up and even a pen made of recycled paper and plastic. That bodes well I think. Can’t wait to see the hangers!
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
David H. McNerney
First Sergeant, U.S. Army Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division
David McNerney always felt that the military was in his DNA. His father had volunteered for World War I and fought in Europe, receiving a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts. His sister was an Army nurse in World War II; his elder brother served aboard the submarine USS Dace, which stalked Japanese ships throughout the Pacific. Later on, when McNerney himself was fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, his younger brother was in the skies above, flying combat missions in an F-100.
McNerney joined the Navy in 1949, right after graduating from high school in Houston, Texas. In 1953, when his enlistment was over, he enrolled at the University of Houston. But after six weeks, he saw a recruitment poster for the paratroopers and joined the Army the next day. For the next few years, he was stationed in Korea, Okinawa, and other foreign postings. Then, in 1962, he volunteered for Special Warfare School and became one of the first five hundred advisers sent to Vietnam. His second tour came in 1964 and his third in late 1966, when he was assigned to the 8th Infantry.
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by Lester Holt
Good day from New York. We plan to begin tonight's broadcast with today's rare and important public demonstration of political unity in Baghdad. The joint announcement by Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish leaders that they have agreed on a plan to ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from joining the civil service and military appears to be a significant step forward on the path to national reconciliation. It is also a welcome lifeline to President Bush who is eager to show progress in Iraq. Our Middle East Bureau Chief Richard Engel will have more on what the deal means, and at the White House NBC's John Yang is gathering the official reaction from Washington.
The death toll keeps rising in Greece where wild fires are now threatening the ancient city of Olympia. At least 56 people have been killed. Our Keith Miller is covering what is now an international effort to beat back the fires that have put Greece under a state of emergency. CONTINUED >>
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon from New York, where we are busy preparing tonight's edition of NBC Nightly News. We'll have reports from the Midwest on the clean-up from those floods in the Chicago area, and tornados that caused damage in Michigan. There are plenty of folks in that part of the country still without power. We've got NBC's Kevin Tibbles and NBC Weather Plus meteorologist Jeff Ranieri leading our coverage on the ground tonight.
This morning on the TODAY show we showed you the gut-wrenching video of a hot air balloon, engulfed in flames, plummeting to earth up in British Columbia. We now know 2 people are confirmed dead in the accident. Our Ron Allen has been working the story all day and will have new details on the crash including how so many of the passengers managed to make it out alive. CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Earlier today I walked over the St. Patrick's Cathedral to join the thousands paying their respects at the funeral of New York City Firefighter Robert Beddia. It felt like so many of the post-9/11 firefighter funerals I had watched -- probably because 9/11 and its after-effects (shameful delays, legal fights and bureaucratic indifference) took the life of a 23-year veteran.
Fifth Avenue was a sea of blue. It was as silent as the city can be, as the casket was placed atop the gleaming engine (replaced after the last one was lost on 9/11) and was then escorted downtown, slowly, as the bagpipes of the Emerald Society played "America the Beautiful" in a haunting arrangement, sounding almost like a minor key. I stood amid a clutch of New York City firefighters -- and then noticed that some of the men who had filled in the crowd around me had come from other places -- a Lieutenant from Fairfield, Connecticut to my right; a retired firefighter from Richmond, Virginia to my left.
This afternoon, midtown Manhattan is full of firefighters. By now they have broken up into small groups and are walking the sidewalks, ties loosened on their dress blue uniforms. Some are looking for an open tavern; many are going home or preparing to report for an afternoon shift. The patches on their right shoulders and shirt lapels tell what firehouse they are from -- and Midtown belongs to them today. I watched as a family of German tourists stopped several firefighters and asked for directions to "the Empire building." The firefighters cheerfully obliged, probably happy for the distraction after burying a brother.
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by NBC News producers, Bita Nikravesh and Amber Payne
Many of you have responded to Roger O'Neil's "Greening of America" story last evening on the environmental impact of using cardboard hangers over wire. Some of you want to know why wire hangers aren't recyclable. The answer is, they are, but many of us do not recycle. The best way to dispose of your wire hangers is to return them to your dry cleaner for re-use. We have heard of a few cleaners who refuse to take them back, but if they are in good condition most will accept returns and then re-use them.
Unlike paper and plastic, there are no specially designated recycling bins for disposal of your used wire hangers, so many of us simply throw them away. This results in 3.5 billion hangers ending up in our landfills every year.
According to the National Cleaners Association (NCA), if a wire hanger is returned to a dry cleaner in poor condition then that cleaner could send them to a scrap metal dealer or give them back to the supplier who may have other methods of disposal. The NCA also suggests that people concerned about this issue should make it a community project. Run a wire hanger drive or identify a place where your neighbors can gather them up and pass along to a scrap metal dealer.
The simplest solution? Try your dry cleaner first. They might be happy to take them back.
Aug. 24: What time is it in GMT? NBC's Brian Williams shares the quirks of the 'Nightly' newsroom and previews tonight's broadcast.
Click here to watch.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
John J. McGinty III
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps Company K, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division
John McGinty always liked the recruitment slogan “Join the Navy and See the World,” but he wasn’t fond of Navy uniforms, so right after high school he joined the Marines. It was 1957, and over the next few years, besides doing a stint as a drill instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina, he got to see varied and exotic places, including having a posting in the Far East, and another as a military policeman in Kodiak, Alaska.
By the summer of 1966, McGinty, a staff sergeant in the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, was in Vietnam. On July 15, the battalion was helicoptered into an area along the demilitarized zone where infrared photos taken by air reconnaissance showed enemy activity. Coming into the landing zone, the choppers came under heavy fire; three were lost off-loading the Marines.
CONTINUED >>
by John Rutherford, Washington Producer
They ranged in age from 26 to 53, in rank from sergeant to colonel, and in race from white to black. These three men, among the mounting casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, were laid to rest this week at Arlington National Cemetery:
Michael Butler, 53, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1976 and spent 31 years in the Air Force before retiring last summer as logistics director for the U.S. Central Command. "He was a strong leader, and he took care of his people," Col. Robyn Burk, who served under Butler, told the Sumter (S.C.) Item. "Not everyone does both well." In December, after a brief retirement, Butler went to work for DynCorp International and was sent to Iraq to help train its civilian police force. "My dad had to be doing something," his son, Mike, told the Item. "He could not stay settled for long." On June 12, Butler was in a 5-vehicle convoy transferring prisoners when it came under attack near Tikrit. Butler was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade. "Mike did not have to be in that convoy," Greg Lagana of DynCorp said. "He went out with them that day because he felt that in order to properly provide for the police officers, he needed to know how they worked and what they were expected to do." Butler was one of at least 159 U.S. civilian contractors killed so far in Iraq, according to figures compiled by the Washington Post.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey D. Kettle, 31, led a "Leave It to Beaver" childhood in Texas City, Texas, playing sports and hanging out with friends and hunting squirrels with his Uncle 
Joel. "He was a fun-loving kid growing up," his uncle told the Associated Press. Kettle picked up pocket money stocking shelves in a local grocery store with boyhood friend Michael Harris. "We also played football together," Harris told a remembrance Web site.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Tonight we are covering flooding in the Midwest, the war in Iraq, the mortgage market (see Chris Colvin's superb post) and a fascinating story about Mother Teresa. On the environmental front: did you ever think about those wire hangers we bring home from the cleaners? You will after you see Roger O'Neil's report tonight.
The sad, sorry embarassment to the City of New York that is the Deutsche Bank building continued to cause damage today, both to humans and the psyche of this city: Two firefighters were injured in a scaffold collapse at the site today. The building needs to come down.
Imagine my surprise, watching the Colbert Report last night (okay, so I received a tip that I might want to watch last night's broadcast because my name might come up) and seeing this. Our regulars know how I feel about the military -- anything connected with the military -- so when Stephen hit me with the proposition, I could not say no. It quickly escalated on The Huffington Post -- on the verge of anarchy and general hilarity -- and it has come to a very funny and very satisfying conclusion. And our veterans and their families are the better for it, I'm happy to say.
To those who've written lately about my friends Ann Curry and Richard Engel, thanks. I'm proud to call both of them friends and they are every bit the quality people you'd imagine them to be. We are blessed to know them and work with them both.
I've got to bring a French photographer on our next family vacation. I don't know what it is, but people just LOOK better in their photos.
Please read the biography of my friend Medal of Honor recipient Richard McCool. I hope you can join us tonight for the Thursday edition of Nightly News.
by Chris Colvin, News writer, Nightly News
Hi. So we're back on the credit crunch watch today. with a focus on one of this country's biggest banks stepping in to help this country's biggest mortgage lender. But who really ends up getting helped in this transaction? Also, Bond biggie Bill Gross has a modest proposal for the President, and a regular guy gives his thoughts about the housing market.
So the big news in housing/mortgage/credit world today. BofA's $2 billion dollar Countrywide stock buy. Here's the WSJ's news item. The Bonddad blog headlines the conventional wisdom that the deal eases liquidity concerns, and throws in an observation that this may mean the Fed doesn't cut the Fed Funds rate after all.
But Minyanville's Fil Zucchi channels a great many people's thoughts I'm sure, as he raises two skeptical eyebrows about the fact that four of the country's biggest banks tapped the Discount Window to the tune of $2 billion yesterday morning, and yesterday evening one of those banks swoops in and buys $2 billion in Countrywide stock.
CNBC has another big newsmaker interview as Countrywide Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo talked to Maria Bartiromo. Here's one headline from this little sit-down: Mozilo says the United States is headed for a recession. He also acknowledged that Countrywide could not borrow from the Fed Discount Window directly which has raised speculation (hat tip) that the reason they couldn't do that is that they have no collateral to pledge. Yikes. And yes Mozilo assures us that the four banks tapping the Discount Window yesterday had nothing to do with one of those banks taking a $2B stake in Countrywide yesterday.
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
RICHARD M. McCOOL, Jr.
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, USS Landing Craft Support (L) (3) 122
Richard McCool was fifteen years old when he finished high school and nineteen when he graduated from the University of Oklahoma. He received an appointment to the Naval Academy as a member of the class of 1945, but because of the war the course was compressed into three years, and the class of 1945 graduated early.
Shortly before graduation, McCool attended a presentation given by a captain recruiting officers for amphibious craft. This kind of duty didn’t have the tradition or romance of the deep-water navy, but the midshipmen were offered the possibility of commanding their own ship instead of being junior officers on a large vessel. Midshipman McCool signed up. After graduation, he picked up his ship in Boston. It was an LCS, similar in looks to the landing craft that brought soldiers ashore in invasions, but instead of a blunt bow with troop ramps, it had a sharp bow and was heavily armed with 40 mm and 20 mm guns, .50-caliber machine guns, and 120 preloaded 4.5-inch rockets. It carried a crew of seventy, including six officers.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
While it strikes me upon writing it that the above phrase is a quote is from the late Mr. Justice Blackmun in an abortion case dissent from years ago, I mean it in this case only as a meteorological observation here in New York, where it might as well be early November --cold, breeze-fed sporadic rain and grim.
It is against that backdrop that we soldier on today, and meteorology brings us to the Midwest tonight and water the likes of which some communities have never seen. Someone in our newsroom was going through old tapes of yours truly today -- our coverage of the Iowa floods of 1993. I may take a look at that soggy week (which was long ago erased from my memory -- I believe they teach it in school as “cognitive dissonance”) just to see what I looked like in High School. In keeping with my theory that we, in these jobs, are only as good as the people around us (in which case I am blessed), I do remember our Dallas-based Al Henkel working like a dog and without sleep or nourishment for days. I’ll put it this way: Al had hair at the start of the Iowa floods.
This is all by way of saying we’re thinking of the folks in the flooded areas tonight, and we mourn the loss of life. Our correspondents are in position to bring you the story tonight.
Our friend Richard Engel is here in New York with us (enjoying some “shore leave” from the Middle East), and we intend to take advantage of that on the broadcast by talking about the news from that region. To the regulars who always write out of concern for Richard, wanting us to “kidnap” him and keep him here in this country, please know he wouldn’t be happy. He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do, even if that means putting himself in great danger. He is very careful, and he does it better than anyone else. It’s still awfully good to have Richard around.
The President’s Vietnam reference today came 34 years to the day after the resignation of Secretary of State William P. Rogers. President Nixon replaced him with: Henry Kissinger.
Please read today’s Medal of Honor biography, and please join us for tonight’s NBC Nightly News.
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
GUANGZHOU CITY, China – Zhao Xian Yong sat at his desk, surrounded by a mean-looking team of U.S. Special Forces soldiers and a heavily armed private contractor. A Black Hawk helicopter hovered overhead. "We are all under a lot of pressure," he told me, "it's bound to have an impact on business."
Zhao was a toy trader and the soldiers all models. His store was one of hundreds that line the corridors and alleyways of Yidelu, a warren-like toy wholesale market in China's Guangzhou City. He represents a factory in Donguan, close to the border with Hong Kong, where the model soldiers, each around eight inches tall, are made for a few dollars, but retail for several times that in the West.
Read more on the World Blog
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
ROBERT D. MAXWELL
Technician Fifth Grade, U.S. Army 7th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division
Robert Maxwell was the “wire man” to his army buddies—a lineman in charge of stringing up the field phone connections for his battalion’s communications. When he landed in North Africa with the 7th Infantry as a technician fifth grade, he carried an M-1 rifle. But along with his wire and tools, the load was so heavy that he was reclassified as a noncombatant, which allowed him to carry only a .45-caliber pistol.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Between this good and emotional Dateline Web entry today on our emotional find last night, and Chris Colvin's superb primer today, there's little left for me tonight -- except to thank all of you who wrote to pay tribute to those brother firefighters who died on Saturday. I also want to tell you we have some amazing hurricane coverage tonight, in addition to the sad story from the Utah mine and a great closing feature. We also have a perennial story on who we are as a people.
Today in History: our 50-star flag was unveiled for the first time in 1959, with Hawaii's admission to the union.
Please read about the life of the great Walter Marm in our daily feature on the Medal of Honor. Most important, I hope you can join us for tonight's NBC Nightly News.
by Chris Colvin, News writer, Nightly News
Hi. Nuthin' But 'Net is supposed to be a look at interesting stuff from all around the Internet, filtered through, well, me. As you've noticed if you've checked this space recently, I've been obsessing about the mortgage/credit/stock markets... and that's opened up a whole area of the blogosphere that I didn't really know about until I started looking at what financial analysts, business journalists, mortgage bloggers and traders were doing online. Today's Nuthin' But Net is a special credit crunch edition, with an invitation to look around at what some of the smart, entertaining, even delightful (!) people following the current market craziness are saying. Click on the links and learn stuff... or better yet log in to comments and join the conversation on some of these sites... you could learn a lot.
The first question we're raising today: what's in your money market fund? You think it's... what... money? Ummm. No. Money market funds are full of mostly very short-term debt obligations in high-grade vehicles including high-grade corporate debt/Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and perhaps U.S. Treasuries. Money markets are supposed to be the most liquid investment vehicle there is (besides pure short-term Treasuries) and the safest. That's why your "yield" on that safe money market fund is low. But now comes word that some MMFs are investing in some of that risky debt (mortgages, gulp) that's roiling the markets in general. In fact, the founding father of money market funds tells the Financial Times that the product he created for safety and liquidity is being abused by managers chasing higher yields with debt they have no business being in. And Bloomberg pulled out its little Texas Instruments calculator and found that $300 billion in money market funds run by names like Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group, Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley have invested in subprime mortgage paper in the past 6 months. Kudos to CNBC's wicked smart Steve Leisman, who asked Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson about this very issue this morning. The answer Paulson gives to the question "Are money market funds safe?" might give you a bit of a pause... since Paulson seemed to say uh, uh, uh, uh for a VERY long time before repeating his declaration that the U.S. economy is strong. I'm not a poker player, but I believe that sort of thing is referred to as a "tell." See it for yourself (fast forward to 4:45 in the interview.) (And big hat tip to Genesis at Market Ticker for noticing the demeanor) Steve Leisman, Genesis and me are not the only three people noticing this stuff... there was a dramatic "flight to quality" yesterday with investors pouring into very short term Treasuries (3 month/1 month) pushing yields down at rates not seen since the market crash of '87.
And a friendly reminder, MMFs are not covered by FDIC insurance. Are your OTHER savings covered? CONTINUED >>
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
NBC News’ Kerry Sanders called in this report from his cell phone in Chetumal, Mexico.
When Hurricane Dean roared in last night and we knew that this was a Category 5 storm, I was actually surprised. At first I thought, “OK, this needs to be stronger. I’ve been in Category 5 hurricanes, and this is not that strong.”
Yes, it was powerful. Yes, trees were being toppled, power lines were coming down and power poles were snapping — but ultimately, it did not feel strong enough to be a Category 5, the strongest possible hurricane classification.
So as we tried to calculate, and now we know, it looks like the eye came ashore north of Chetumal and it weakened quickly after making landfall. That is good news because north of Chetumal is primarily a huge national preserve known as the Mayan zone, an uninhabited jungle. That was good news because those 165 mile an hour winds had little to destroy as they came in. The area is mostly just trees and other vegetation.
The folks who live in that national preserve had mostly been evacuated. The government sent in vans and buses to get the residents, most of whom are indigenous. Many of these locals do not even speak Spanish, but rather a native Mayan language, but the authorities were nevertheless able to get most of them out.
The authorities are just now beginning to assess the damage, but so far it looks like the worst fears have not been realized. That will be remarkably good news when you consider the size of Hurricane Dean.
Winds still blowing, but could have been worse
Meantime, the wind is still blowing very strong here — gusts up to at least 125 miles an hour — and rain squalls continue. Portions of corrugated tin roofs that have been ripped off are banging down the street, awnings have been torn down and business signs have been toppled. But the wind is likely to let up probably in the next two hours.
Most of the folks in Chetumal are remaining in their homes. But the police and the military are out now beginning to assess the damage.
And we did see someone on the street earlier with a rake trying to clear the debris from one of the sewer grates so that the water collecting there — it was up to his waist — could go down the drain. It looks like he was successful because the water level has begun to lower.
Still, most people are still inside their homes. Looking out the window now, I can see a family sitting at the window and there are some smiles on their faces. I think they are make the same assessment as most people here in Chetumal — that this storm could have been a lot worse.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
WALTER J. MARM, JR.
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
When Walter Marm graduated from college with a business degree in 1964, Vietnam was a distant place that didn’t figure in his personal geography. He enlisted in the Army, graduated from Officer Candidate School a second lieutenant, and attended Ranger School. But the Army needed junior officers for a new unit being formed, the 1st Cavalry Division, and he was reassigned. This airmobile division was to test the theory that helicopters could function as the modern equivalent of the horse, carrying men quickly into the heart of a battle. Marm was assigned to the division’s 7th Cavalry—George Armstrong Custer’s old unit. By September 1965 he was in Vietnam.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams (from Monday night's broadcast)
The two New York City firefighters who died last weekend came from a firehouse that saw a lot of sadness on 9-11. Engine 24/Ladder 5 lost 11 men on that day.
And now two more: 33-year-old Joseph Graffagnino, who had been with the department 8 years, and 53-year-old Robert Bedilla was a veteran of 23 years.
We remembered today that Dateline NBC did a post-9-11 documentary on that firehouse. We've further discovered an interview we conducted with Robert Beddila on the effect 9-11 had on him.
His haunting words on 9-11:
"I lost so many guys. It's even hard to think about. It's hard to think about the guys I lost here. It's almost like you have to put everybody in a closet in your mind, and get on with it. Because to dwell on it, dwell on every guy that I knew... to think about them is way too much to do, any day."
During the interview that day, years ago, he wanted us to know he still loved his job. As he put it, "there's nothing else like it."
Video: Emotions run high in China mine disaster. NBC's Ian Williams reports.
There’s a case to be made that the names of the two firefighters who died here in New York on Saturday, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, belong on the rolls of 9-11 victims. The sad, protracted saga of the Deutsche Bank building took a crushing, pathetic turn when we learned that two of the city’s bravest had given their lives inside that sorry, broken structure. It was a strange feeling when I saw the first television pictures of the fire on Saturday. I didn’t want to give the 9-11 planners or sympathizers the satisfaction of knowing that the hell they unleashed on this city continues to take lives—in this case a result of the serially-delayed dismantling of a building that long ago became toxic and dangerous.
CONTINUED >>
by Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
We are headed south on Mexico's Route 307 to Chetumal. I am in a caravan of NBC News SUVs. Producer Martha Caskey and I are following Claudia Foghini from our Spanish Language network Telemundo.
The road south from Playa del Carmen is a double lane divided highway. It is wide open, both north and south.
There is not as much traffic and I would have expected, but then again, cars are a luxury here. The wealthy have cars, the poor take buses and there are lots more poor than wealthy here. We have seen some buses headed north, but not many.
VIDEO: Residents and tourists scramble to get out of Mexico's Yucatan Penisula
It's an odd thing: we are headed south to where Hurricane Dean will probably hit while others are trying to evacuate north and avoid the storm.
Hot and humid with tension growing
I've covered hurricanes since 1982, so I am well aware that every move we make needs to be calculated and deliberate. Also, I’ve learned from experience that construction methods, especially in older buildings, may appear solid, but can be death traps in a hurricane. [Click here to read the full entry]
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the
Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
ALLEN J. LYNCH
Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company D, 1st Battalion (Airmobile), 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
Allen Lynch was bullied throughout his school years. A loner, he was a poor student who had few friends. When he graduated from high school in 1964, he felt that he had to get away from Chicago and build a new life. He enlisted in the Army that November.
CONTINUED >>
By Carl Sears, NBC News producer, Washington
There has been organized chaos of moving in and moving forward for thousands of Virginia Tech students back for the first day of classes in Blacksburg, many wearing orange and crimson Hokie T-shirts, slinging backpacks carrying fresh textbooks. It's what senior Colin Goddard called "the new normal" at a campus still recovering from the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Credit: AP
Virginia Tech senior Colin Goddard
On April 16, Goddard was shot four times in Norris Hall, and still carries three bullets in his body. But he looks refreshingly fit and handsome, and says he has found a strength and courage he didn't know he had. It's the "We will Prevail" spirit that seems pervasive on this resilient campus.
CONTINUED >>
by Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
LIMA, PERU -- One of the most difficult parts of covering the Peruvian earthquake tragedy was actually getting to and from the disaster zone, which is about 125 miles south of Lima, the capital. It was the same dilemma facing rescue and relief workers.
We set out from Lima before dawn, and headed for the hard-hit town of Pisco, having been told that on a good day it could take more than three hours to make the trip. Our goal was to tell the broader story of the earthquake by focusing on the recovery efforts at the San Clemente church in Pisco, which had collapsed on top of 300 parishioners. They had been worshiping at an evening Mass when the eight-magnitude tremor shook the ground for two agonizing minutes, causing the roof and walls to fall.
Our team consisted of producer A.J. Goodwin, photographer Alexis Triboulard, sound technician Hector Vasques and myself. We traveled in two mini-vans, and the first two hours of the trip south along the Pacific coast were uneventful -- until we felt one of the powerful aftershocks.
Credit: AFP - Getty Images
A car passes a collapsed road near Chincha, Peru.
We had stopped at a gas station to buy water and a few other supplies. I went back to the car to make a cell phone call, and suddenly felt the vehicle shaking from side to side. At first I thought it was caused by someone putting in fuel, but when I saw people running out of the buildings I knew that wasn't the reason. The look on the face of the lady who managed the station confirmed it was an aftershock. She had been through this several times already, and was clearly terrified. (An e-mail from the NBC News foreign desk informed us we had just experienced a 5.9-magnitude jolt.)
Not far down the road along the Pan American Highway, we began to see the first real physical evidence that a massive earthquake had hit the area. Parts of the highway were missing, or buckled, and on one stretch the entire southbound lane had separated from the rest of the road and was hanging over the edge of a huge sand dune. The realization that some of our highway was built on sand was not at all comforting. It was slow-going as we wound our way through the mess on a two-lane highway now reduced to just one lane in spots.
Proceeding onward to the town of Chincha Alta we saw collapsed walls and a few destroyed homes and shops, and as we continued south the scene got worse. In the town of San Clemente, our voyage ground to a halt -- at the end of a huge traffic line. [Click here to read more on the World Blog.]
by Lester Holt
Hello from New York. We're keeping a close eye on Jamaica tonight, which will soon feel the punch of Hurricane Dean. Our Ned Colt is in Kingston where the Category 4 storm has sent many residents to high ground. From Cancun, NBC's Kerry Sanders will report on Americans who are cutting short their vacations and trying to make it out before Dean arrives there as early as late Monday. CONTINUED >>
by Lester Holt
Good day from New York. We're working a number of stories for the broadcast tonight, including Hurricane Dean. Evacuations and preparations are underway from Jamaica to Cancun tonight as the major storm continues it's eastward trek with sustained winds of up to 150 miles-per-hour. Even NASA is taking steps to bring home the space shuttle Endeavor a day early if necessary. The big question is whether the storm's path will ultimately mean a landfall in Texas or northern Mexico early next week. NBC weather Plus meteorologist Bill Karins will join me live tonight with the latest projections.
CONTINUED >>
Our last broadcast of the week will be packed. As I plan to point out at the top of the broadcast, we're following a number of important stories: the mining disaster (that became a catastrophe last night), the financial markets (and the Fed's move as a result) and Hurricane Dean and its projected path. That's a lot of ground to cover -- in addition to some special reporting tonight on Fred Thompson and our Friday "Making a Difference" report.
Thanks to one of the Websites that covers our industry, now it can be told: I've been dealing with a ruptured disk this week, and so after tonight's broadcast I'm off for a weekend of recovery. I hope to return to work on Monday without the cane that's become my companion.
Please take time to read today's Medal of Honor recipient biography, and allow me to say again, in light of present circumstances, since getting to know these 109 living recipients, I've found it impossible to have a bad day. Please join us for tonight's broadcast, and have a great weekend. I'll see you on Monday.
By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News Washington
Marine Cpl. Mark David Kidd spent more time at war over the past four years than most generals probably do in a lifetime.
Kidd, 26, of Milford, Mich., was on his fourth tour in Iraq when he was shot and killed by a sniper. He was one of two Iraq casualties buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery. The other one, Army Spc. Christopher Todd Neiberger, 22, of Gainesville, Fla., was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
Mark Kidd, outgoing and friendly, loved jazz music and hanging out with friends. He joined the Marines in 2000 and served two 7-month tours in Iraq. He extended his second tour to replace another Marine who was wounded.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Those Countrywide Mortgage commercials used to be ubiquitous. So was easy credit. Not anymore -- with Countrywide fighting off rumors of bankruptcy, rumors swirling of a major hedge fund failure, and today's Dow looking like an EKG. We've also had an earthquake in Peru, a blip of hope in the search for the miners, a terrorism case settled with a guilty verdict, and -- as they say -- there's more.
CONTINUED >>
By Chris Colvin, News Writer, Nightly News
Hi. OK so our Rainman-like obsessiveness on the mortgage/credit crunch doesn't seem so dysfunctional now that the Dow is (intraday at least) officially registering a correction as the S&P and Nasdaq go negative on the year. There's some interesting stuff from the internet on the possibilities from here.. and what's driving them. And we top off with a little politics and the interesting triangle of Obama-Cinton-Rove.
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (former head of Goldman Sachs who left that gig about $700 million dollars richer than when he went in) talked about the current market conditions with the Wall Street Journal's David Wessel and the money quote is right at the top: the turmoil "will extract a penalty on the growth rate" of the U.S. economy. But he expressed confidence that "the economy and the markets are strong enough to absorb the losses" without provoking a U.S. recession. But here's a piece of tough love: "There is nothing, in my judgment, that we should be doing in terms of guaranteeing market participants against losses or in terms of restraining risk taking," Mr. Paulson said. "One of the natural consequences of the excesses is that some entities will cease to exist." CONTINUED >>
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Brian Williams anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Don Teague previews some of the stories we're working. Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
JAMES E. LIVINGSTON
Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade
The battle of Dai Do began when major elements of the North Vietnamese 320th Regiment infiltrated the area near the Third Marine headquarters in Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province. The command center was defended by an understrength Marine Corps battalion landing team that would find itself in one desperate situation after another during the next three days. CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
With apologies, because of some personal matters I didn't get to the office until very late this afternoon (my least favorite way to do business, as you play catch up all day until the red light comes on at 6:30 eastern time) and so we're going to have to simply say that between the toy recall and the horrible attack in Iraq, both second-day stories, the news we have to report is substantial tonight, and requiring all the resources we can muster from Beirut to Beijing, from Memphis to the Weather Center. CONTINUED >>
GARY L. LITTRELL
Sergeant first Class, U.S. Army Advisory Team 21, II Corps Advisory Group
Gary Littrell was nine years old when his uncle took him to Fort Campbell to watch the 101st Airborne Division make parachute jumps. He always remembered watching the men floating down and saying to himself, Someday I’ll be doing that. In 1961, on his seventeenth birthday, he joined the Army—once the recruiter guaranteed that he could go to jump school. CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
One of the great things about coming back from time off is hearing from our peeps -- the regulars to this blog, many of whom write us every day. It was great to hear from all of you.
Chris Colvin has done a marvelous job laying out the day, so I'm gonna slack off. I'm exhausted after spending 20 minutes with Stephen Colbert today -- as you may know, he's on his "Sign my Cast" tour after breaking his wrist. Not to give away his surprise, but my signature took its place today alongside Katie Couric, Tim Russert, Nancy Pelosi and others. His cast will be auctioned off to benefit military families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, so who could resist that cause?
CONTINUED >>
By Chris Colvin, News Writer, Nightly News
Hi. It's a short one today, starting for a change with politics and Rove's departure, then back to our favorite (gulp) topic: the credit crunch/crisis and a warning bell from a money market fund called, aptly, Sentinel. And scouring the financial blogs can also yield other kinds of good advice, including some witty life lessons for middle-aged men.
Might as well kick things off with Adam Nagourney's take on the lasting influence of Rove as he leaves the WHU.. I'd like to link to the NYT OpEd by fortuitously-timed Rove profiler Joshua Green but I can't find it on their site (even behind the SelectWall..) but blogger Mark Thoma at Economist's View excerpts Green and rebuts his idea of Rove's theory of government.
Now to the beat-downs. Darksyde at DailyKos, Arianna Huffington, Andrew Sullivan (careful this one might burn your eyeballs. Ouch.) Digby with embedded links galore. Rove biographer Wayne Slater via RawStory, Josh Marshall, Sidney Blumenthal. And ThinkProgress has a newspaper roundup
CONTINUED >>
Brian Williams anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Tom Costello previews some of the stories we're working.
Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
HOWARD V. LEE
Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division (Reinforced)
As a senior in college in 1955, Howard Lee joined the Marine Reserves and, after completing the required Officer Candidate program, became an officer. Finding that he liked the military, he transferred to the regular Marines. When he was given command of his first infantry platoon, he decided to make the Corps a career. CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Time to come back to work after the classsic midsummer respite: the Clark W. Griswold-inspired, bags-strapped-to-the-top-of-the-family-car Summer Vacation. It was great to be able to get away, and it's great to be back. I met a lot of nice viewers on ferry boats and on beaches along the way. My thanks to my friend Ann Curry for filling in so ably. Imagine my surprise, when tuning in from vacation, at seeing the broadcast being anchored from Brooklyn -- because there had been a TORNADO in Brooklyn. Ann handled everything life threw at her last week, and I was lucky to have her here.
CONTINUED >>
By Hilary Guy, Associate Producer
I grew up in a family of special education teachers. My mom and twin sister work with children with special needs and a variety of disabilities everyday. Many of their students are autistic. However, I never spent very much time around autistic children ... until I spent a day at "Kids for Camp," a day camp for children with autism in Pensacola, Fla.
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| Photo by Hilary Guy |
| NBC's Lisa Daniels interacts with a camper and a hungry alligator. |
Children with autism have a range of needs, and so the traditional summer camp experience is one that they often are forced to miss out on. According to the CDC, over 300,000 children in the United States are living with autism, and for most of these children, they will never be able to experience the classic summer joys of arts and crafts and canoeing in a typical summer camp environment.
As soon as Lisa Daniels and I set foot in the sun-splashed halls of Holm Elementary School -- where the kids were "camping" out -- we heard the laughter and saw smiles.
CONTINUED >>
Brian Williams anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Michelle Kosinski previews some of the stories we're working.
Click here to watch.
ALTON W. KNAPPENBERGER
Private First Class, U.S. Army Company C, 30th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division
Alton Knappenberger was working on a Pennsylvania pig farm when he was drafted in 1943 at the age of nineteen. He landed at Anzio, on the Italian coast, on January 22, 1944, as part of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, and although he did not know it at the time, he was about to become engaged in one of the toughest combat actions of World War II. “Knappie,” as his friends called him, was surprised by how little resistance the Germans initially offered. But as his unit slowly pushed inland over the next few days, he could sense that the enemy was regrouping. It rained constantly. He never forgot the mud; it was so thick and viscous that he worried it might suck off his boots. CONTINUED >>
by Hoda Kotb, Correspondent, 'Dateline NBC'
Hey guys...welcome to Sunday. This is a unique Sunday in the newsroom... for starters, if you peek out the window of our Rockefeller center newsroom you will see the Dominican Day parade winding its way through the sun splashed streets of midtown. It is one major party---floats, music, the works. The music is outstanding.... if you have ever been to New York City... we are famous for our parades---this one is among the best--a nice backdrop for us. Oh.... and on the menu for lunch today.... (Because i know you want to know) we are all having more chicken from the street vendors... this tasty dish is chicken wrapped in naan... smells of chicken... and sounds of the Dominican Republic... and with that we get to work.
It has been a big news day today. Merv Griffin... a television icon, died today. He was 82 years old and had been suffering from prostate cancer. This man really made his mark on the TV world. He hosted his own show for more than 20 years and created the top rated game shows.... ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’... Ann curry did an obit on the life of Merv Griffin and we will have that in the newscast.
CONTINUED >>
by Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
While reporting tonight's Nightly News story on a Florida mystery--the discovery of eight unidentified skeletal remains near Ft. Myers--we had an unexpectedly poignant moment with the forensic anthropologist working the case.
Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney brings a lot of experience and knowledge to this whodunit investigation. In past years, she proudly helped identify victims of the 9-11 attacks, the Valujet airplane crash and Hurricane Katrina. As we would learn, she is very passionate about her work, and why she does it.
We first interviewed Walsh-Haney in the eerily quiet melaleuca forest where the remains were discovered.
CONTINUED >>
by Hoda Kotb, Correspondent, 'Dateline NBC'
Hey guys… Hoda Kotb here… and I will be keeping Lester's seat warm for the weekend…
The first headline right now ---the newsroom smells like chicken. Some of the nightly news staff--led by executive producer Pat Burkey.... walked down 53rd street to the guy with the cart... and bought a bunch of chicken and rice. Smells like heaven, by the way.
Ok... now... lets get onto the news of the day... We wrapped up an early meeting and are now deciding what to lead with... Officials just finished a news conference to talk about the trapped miners in Utah. We are still waiting on word of their fate. We have Jennifer London in position to talk about that story…
CONTINUED >>
By Ann Curry, Anchor & Correspondent
Today we learned one of the six trapped miners rescuers have been struggling to reach since Monday in Utah, has actually been a miner for all of two weeks.
And today rescuers finally punched a bore hole 1,700 feet down, only to discover they reached the wrong chamber.
It is the kind of drama that could have played out 100 years ago, but here we are watching it today, reminded that this modern age of ours is not completely so.
CONTINUED >>
Ann Curry wraps up her week in the anchor chair, but NBC's Mike Taibbi delivers today's vlog, previewing the stories we're working on for tonight.
Click here to watch.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the
Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
JOSEPH R. “BOB” KERREY
Lieutenant Junior Grade, U.S. Navy Sea, Air and Land Team (SEAL)
Growing up in Lincoln, Neb., Joseph Kerrey — “Bob” since he was a kid — had an “all-American” childhood: He worked a newspaper route and helped out in his father’s lumberyard, then attended the University of Nebraska with the intention of becoming a pharmacist. When he graduated in 1965, he decided to enlist in the Navy rather than waiting to be drafted. After Officer Candidate School, he volunteered for Underwater Demolition Training and was eventually selected for a SEAL platoon, where he learned to set up ambushes, abduct enemy personnel, and gather intelligence. He was assigned to SEAL Team One.
CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News Washington
Two of the Army's finest were buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery.
Capt. Maria Ines Ortiz, a "jewel" of an Army nurse and the first one killed by enemy fire since the Vietnam War, and 1st Lt. Benjamin Hall, a young infantry officer whose whole life centered on the military, were laid to rest with military honors.
Ortiz, 40, died July 10 of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on Baghdad's Green Zone.
"God, it's a great loss," Renee Smith, who worked with Ortiz at an Army health clinic at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, told the Washington Post. "If there was such a thing as the jewel of the clinic, she was the jewel. Her work wasn't finished until everybody was cared for."
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By Ann Curry, Anchor & Correspondent
Osama bin Laden.
Just his name sparks anger. Anyone frustrated that he's not been brought to justice now six years after 9/11, might be fascinated by the explaination given by Pakistan's former Prime Minister.
In an interview this morning, Benazir Bhutto told NBC News that President Pervez Musharraf's government has failed to find bin Laden because it is corrupt, and has too many people in powerful positions who themselves don't want him captured. If the Pakistan government launches any military action against al-Qaida, she said, bin Laden gets tipped off by key people in the government. This, she says, is why Musharraf's government has failed to "persistently and consistently" pursue al-Qaida. CONTINUED >>
Hi, OK so maybe it's getting tiresome to keep starting out with the economy and the mortgage markets ... but hey I think it's important. Scroll down for some links to some really good writing on Iraq, serious reporting on surveillance programs inside the U.S. and CIA "black sites" overseas, the presidential primary and caucus calendar shakeup, and a program note ... try Mad Men on AMC tonight!
The credit crunch (crisis?) that you've been hearing about in this space shifted overseas today, which spooked the markets here at home big time. Bloomberg wraps up the European angle. And this stuff is starting to make an appearance in the political realm. Eyeon08 needs to fix his/her front page to get the ads off the copy, but if you can read this post, it's a good explanation of how Hillary Clinton made a smart political play this week by trying to get out in front of the mortgage issue, even though her legislative offering on the subject won't help much (arguably NOTHING would help much it's a runaway train already barreling down the tracks.) (h/t Americablog) But blackhedd at RedState warns about government getting involved in trying to mitigate the mortgage/financial fallout that's coming. Anyway, President Bush said in his news conference today that there will be no direct government bailout of borrowers (that's point 2 of HRC's 3 point plan) but dangled a vague hint that the FHA (did he mean Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac?) might be able to add some liquidity to the mortgage market. Yesterday he remarked on the economic policy he will push with the time he has left in office. More tax cuts for corporations.
CONTINUED >>
Ann Curry anchors the broadcast tonight, and correspondent Andrea Mitchell previews some of the stories we're working.
Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
ALLAN J. KELLOGG, JR.
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division
At the end of his sophomore year in high school, seventeen-year-old Allan Kellogg told his parents that he was bored and wanted to drop out. His father gave him permission. But the boy couldn’t just find some meaningless job; he had to join the military. Kellogg signed up with the Marines in the fall of 1960.
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By Ann Curry, Anchor & Correspondent
Just a day after the United Nations reported the world is experiencing one of the most extreme weather years in history, this morning the U.S. was slapped with new evidence in case we didn't get it.
It came before dawn, and caught in it, my first thought was New York had been hit with a monsoon. Three inches of rain in one hour falls like something of Biblical proportions. The last time I experienced rain like this was in, actually, the rain forest.
CONTINUED >>
By Adrienne Mong, Producer
Editor's note: You can see Mark Mullen's full report on China's preparations for the Olympics on tonight's broadcast.
"Aiya," the Beijing cab driver turned to me. "Does it get this dirty in America?"
He pointed out the window to air so thick that calling it a haze was an understatement.
Before I could get a word in, the driver barreled on with his monologue, "But it's OK! It's the Green Olympics, right?"
He paused to chortle. "It'll be clean next year!"
It doesn't seem soon enough.
CONTINUED >>
THOMAS G. KELLEY
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy River Assault Division 152
Thomas Kelley was about to graduate from Holy Cross College in Massachusetts in 1960 when his roommates announced that they’d enlisted in the Navy and urged him to do the same. Kelley couldn’t think of any reasons not to, so he joined, too. His first assignment after Officer Candidate School was aboard an old World War II landing ship in the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis; he liked the duty so much that he decided to make the Navy a career.
CONTINUED >>
Ann Curry anchors the broadcast tonight, and correspondent Tom Costello previews some of the stories we're working on. Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
By John Boxley, NBC News producer, Burbank, Calif.
Here at AT&T Park in San Francisco, where the Giants are playing the Washington Nationals, it's almost a World Series-like atmosphere. There are 450 members of the media on hand, many huddled around Giants manager Bruce Bochy, while keeping a lookout for the man of the hour, Barry Bonds.
Media organizations from all over the world are represented here, from as far away as the Netherlands. Fans are paying astronomical amounts of money for a ticket, for a chance to see "Home run 756," hoping to say, "I was there."
CONTINUED >>
By Ann Curry, Anchor & Correspondent
Cancer is a thief. As it stole my mother, and tried to take my father and sister, it also tried to rob them of their strength and dignity. Most who get it decide to suffer privately, as it hurts too much to even talk about. But White House spokesman Tony Snow is not like most.
CONTINUED >>
Hi. Spent some time last week at the YearlyKos convention and got to talk to some of the bloggers I've been reading and linking to.. it was interesting and informative and a separate briefing on that is forthcoming. As for today.. kicking off with the economy and the stressed-out credit markets, (including some video of a very stressed out Jim Cramer), some musings on the surge of good news from Iraq, anger from the left on the Democrats capitulation on domestic spying, and some political potpourri, including Rudy Giuliani's daughter "outing" herself as an Obama girl. CONTINUED >>
LEONARD B. KELLER
Private First Class, U.S. ARMY Company A, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division
Leonard Keller had just turned nineteen when he was drafted in the spring of 1966. He completed basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, went on to advanced infantry training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, then joined the 60th Infantry in Vietnam. When he arrived that summer, he experienced culture shock. The sights, sounds, and smells made him feel that he was on a different planet. CONTINUED >>
Ann Curry anchors the broadcast tonight, and correspondent David Gregory previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
By Ann Curry, Anchor & Correspondent
I'm in tonight for Brian, who's getting some deserved R-and-R, and it is a day of outrage: NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Mikleszewki is working a story that some 200,000 weapons, mostly AK-47s and pistols meant for Iraqi security forces, are unaccounted for and may be being used against U.S. troops.
CONTINUED >>
Ann Curry anchors the broadcast tonight, and correspondent Rehema Ellis previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
DON JENKINS
Private First Class, U.S. ARMY Company A, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division
Like most of the people in Quality, the small Kentucky community where he was born, Don Jenkins went to work in the coal mines after he left school. Having already worked a shift during his last two years of high school, he never expected to leave his job or his hometown. But in the spring of 1968, he received his draft notice and he reported to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for basic training and then went on to advanced infantry training. By October, he was in Vietnam as part of the 39th Infantry. Upon arriving, the first thing he noted was the slogan painted on the company headquarters: killing is our business and business is good.
On January 5, 1969, Private First Class Jenkins drank some wine brought to camp by some local Vietnamese women. He became so ill that in the middle of the night a medic was forced to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The wine turned out to have been poisoned, and the next morning Jenkins was called into the office of his commanding officer, who threatened to bust him back to buck private. That afternoon, Jenkins and the men of his unit boarded helicopters and flew to a site in Kien Phong Province where intelligence had picked up vague reports of an enemy force. In fact, large numbers of North Vietnamese were dug into bunkers directly around the landing zone, and minutes after they were dropped off, the Americans were taking heavy fire.
CONTINUED >>
By Ann Curry, News Anchor, 'Today' & Co-Anchor, 'Dateline'
Is beauty mightier than the sword, or in this case, than the car bomb? NBC news correspondent Jim Maceda risked his life, as did his team in Bagdad, to find out.
They followed an underground movement of artists who are painting beautiful murals on the city's blast walls to remind the Iraqi people the beauty that once was in their lives will be again.
Here amid the ugly craters and twisted metal, a dreamy seascape. There, a lounging camel.
Think of how the children must see them.
CONTINUED >>
By Patti Culhane, NBC News Correspondent
From high above the wreckage that was once the I-35W Bridge, the President saw with his own eyes, what we have all seen on TV. In person the scope of the tragedy is, simply put, just hard to take in. Twisted steel and crumbled concrete litter the muddy Mississippi. Without question, the hardest thing to look at is what is left of the cars. In the middle of the river, a white car lays mostly submerged the front sticking straight into the river. An administration official pointed it out, saying that driver couldn't' stop in time and went straight over the edge. It is hard to comprehend the terror that everyone on that bridge must have felt when what was supposed to be solid ground gave way with a horrible screech.
CONTINUED >>
By Peter Alexander, NBC News Correspondent
Good afternoon from New York. I'm sitting in tonight for Lester.
Among the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast is the president's visit to the scene of the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the latest on the search for victims. My colleague Lee Cowan will start us off again tonight. I found his description of the effort this week -- paraphrasing the words of a rescuer -- particularly compelling: "Imagine the search for victims at Ground Zero in New York, except underwater." Rain is now adding to the challenge divers face there, as family members are forced to wait and pray. Ron Mott will report on how families there are coping the tragedy and how survivors are recovering.
While talk radio has long been a familiar home to debate and discussion for Republicans, John Yang reports tonight on the new Democratic powerbrokers -- liberal bloggers -- who are changing the way presidential contenders campaign.
The relief efforts have picked up in southern Asia where people are begging for an end to what the United Nations describes as the worst flooding in living memory. We'll update you on that region's deadly monsoon season. And, in Iraq, the problem is a lack of water and scorching temperatures soaring to 120 degrees. Jane Arraf reports on the shortages from Baghdad.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Here's a horrifying thought: the trip to Minneapolis the First Lady made today -- which was scheduled before the bridge collapse -- would likely have required her to cross the I-35W bridge, if it had gone as originally planned. She had two previously-scheduled stops: one at a GOP event, the other at a youth event, on opposite sides of the river north of the airport. As it was, she walked close to the water's edge and saw the grim scene for herself today. The President visits the city tomorrow. It was hard to leave those good folks behind this morning after having felt this tragedy and their collective shock and grief.
We have a great team covering the story tonight -- four correspondents who will have the very latest on the disaster -- including Robert Hager, who will walk us through some bridge construction issues in the studio.
CONTINUED >>
by Patrice Fletcher, producer, Chicago bureau
Daniele Bora had just completed his first day as an intern with NEED Magazine in Minneapolis, when the 35W bridge collapsed on Wednesday.
In fact, the 26-year-old journalism student from London had been in town less than 24 hours to begin his month long internship. After work, he'd gone to buy a second-hand bicycle, and had just settled down for a beer at the Kitty Club, a local watering hole in the University of Minnesota neighborhood where he lives. He heard the news from others in the bar.
"The journalist in me woke up," he said, despite having no idea where the bridge was or what had actually happened to it.
He soon found out. Bora grabbed his photographic gear, got directions and raced to the site."It was pretty impressive," he said, of the giant, concrete slabs sloping down into the river. But where, he wondered, were the 60 vehicles that had been on the bridge? And then he understood -- they were submerged in the water.
By midnight, Daniele had posted his video to You Tube. By noon, he said, 22,000 viewers had watched the footage, making it the most-watched footage on You Tube that day. (WATCH VIDEO HERE)
"I was completely overwhelmed."
His boss, Stephanie Kinnunen, NEED Magazine's editor, was overwhelmed for another reason. The magazine is a two-minute drive from the bridge. Her employees had just left for the day and she was having trouble reaching them.
"We go over that bridge every day," said the co-founder of the magazine about humanitarian organizations. "I couldn't get a line out, the phone lines were jammed...The boyfriend of my other intern crossed the bridge to pick her up here, and when they returned to the bridge, it was gone."
One employee could not be reached. Kinnunen spent a "long, sleepless night."
This story has a happy ending. The missing employee turned up unharmed around 11 am the next morning. And Daniele Bora's video has found an even wider audience. The footage has been shown by NBC News, msnbc.com, and CNN.
Beginner's luck? No, he says, "more like being in the right place at the right moment."
For more eyewitness photos, visit FirstPerson.MSNBC.com
Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Ron Mott previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click here to watch.
(Brian Williams closing note on Thursday, August 2 broadcast)
The sprawling Twin Cities metropolitan area has a lot of work to do. The human component will be the toughest: they are still learning about their own staggering loss.
The physical loss can be re-built, and there’s a very good chance of a fast repair... the Republican National Convention is coming to the Twin Cities just a year from now.
Aside from any of that, it will be MOST interesting to see if the topic of infrastructure -- the safety of our roads and bridges and public structures finds its way into the public debate in this next election.
It’s not a sexy topic. But it is all about our personal safety. We’ve seen here for ourselves today – it’s all about life and death.
Editor's note: Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of "Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo. Yesterday's post was not posted due to the breaking news coverage of the Minn. bridge collapse.
JACK H. JACOBS
Captain, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Element, U.S. Military Assistance Command
If Jack Jacobs wanted a challenge, he certainly had one in 1966. He had a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, a wife and a daughter, and no money. He had been through ROTC, and his plan was to enter active duty to earn a regular paycheck, then attend law school when his three-year Army commitment was finished. He volunteered immediately for airborne duty—paratroopers earned extra pay for the hazardous duty.
A year later, Lieutenant Jacobs was in Vietnam as an adviser to a Vietnamese infantry battalion in the Mekong Delta. He had wanted to deploy with his unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, and when he asked the Army why he had been chosen for the frustrating job of adviser, he was told it was simply because he had a college degree.
On March 9, 1968, Jacobs was with the lead companies of his South Vietnamese battalion as they searched for the Vietcong. Suddenly, a large enemy force, hidden in bunkers only fifty yards away, opened fire with mortars, rifles, and machine guns. With no place to hide, many South Vietnamese soldiers were killed
or wounded in the first few seconds.
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: Washington Producer John Rutherford, who usually chronicles burials at Arlington National Cemetery, writes this week about how a bomb blast in Iraq shattered the lives of a close-knit family in Upstate New York.
by John Rutherford, producer, NBC News Washington
Shannon Bilbrey knew immediately that her older brother Charlie had been killed in Iraq.
"I remember walking into the living room in time to hear my little brother scream and my mother start crying," 18-year-old Shannon told News 10 Now. "I didn't have to hear. I knew what was wrong."
Army Spc. Charles E. Bilbrey Jr., 21, of Owego, N.Y., had been killed earlier that day by a roadside bomb in Saqlawiyah, northwest of Fallujah. Sgt. William R. Howdeshell and Spc. Jaime Rodriguez Jr. also died in the July 27 blast. The three soldiers were cavalry scouts with the 3rd Infantry Division.
Growing up in Owego, Charlie Bilbrey was a Boy Scout and a member of his church youth group. He played high school football and lacrosse and was class treasurer.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
I started my eulogy for my friend Eric Wishnie last night knowing there was the chance I wouldn't make it through my prepared remarks. My concern wasn't composure as much as it was the breaking news story that I knew was beginning to unfold where I'm now standing: in Minneapolis.
As soon as the service was over, I was pulled aside by producers (who, like me, attended as friends and fellow mourners) and we quickly left our friends and went back to 30 Rock to do a Special Report on the network, then home to throw some things in a bag before flying overnight with Matt Lauer and Natalie Morales and producers and technicians.
From sadness to sadness. Tonight we'll originate the broadcast overlooking this disaster. And wait until you see and hear my interview with the first fire department officer on the scene. If you don't already know the people in this part of the world, you will by the time you've heard this great public servant.
We hope you can join us from Minneapolis tonight.
As mentioned, Brian anchors tonight from Minneapolis, but today's vlog comes from NBC's Ron Mott, who is already on the scene of the bridge collapse.
Click here to watch.
Brian will anchor from Minneapolis tonight and we'll dedicate most of the broadcast to the bridge collapse. We expect an on-the-scene vlog shortly from NBC's Ron Mott.
For the very latest news throughout the day, click here or tune in to MSNBC-TV. We'd also like to see any photos or videos you have from the scene. Click here to submit those to us.
CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
The British Press continue to pore over our interview with the Prime Minister for news of import (or export, in this case) Across The Pond. (Editor's note: We offer some links at the bottom of this entry.) The entire interview, by the way, will be available on our Web site later tonight. We're airing what I consider an interesting short portion tonight on the broadcast.
We have a full boat tonight: Rumsfeld's return, big medical news, mortgage developments, Iraq and more.
CONTINUED >>
Allison Lee, NBC Nightly News Desk Assistant
Lovetee Zeah has never met Emily Albrecht, but she still considers her a good friend. Lovetee, a 14-year-old Liberian refugee, shows me a letter from Emily, her American pen pal -- lovingly decorated with colorful stars, hearts, smiley-faces and flowers. She carefully reads it to me in broken English.
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| Photo by Allison Lee |
| Liberian refugee Lovetee Zeah holds a letter from her American pen pal, Emily Albrecht of Connecticut. Albrecht and her classmates raised $4,000 for their pen pal’s much needed school supplies. |
I met Lovetee at Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp in Ghana where she takes part in a pen pal friendship established between children in the camp and students at a school in Connecticut. During my first trip to the camp, I was asking students to read their letters aloud and tell me what they thought about their pen pal. But as I got to know them, they slowly revealed what it was like to be a Liberian refugee in Ghana.
Buduburam appears to be what I would expect from a refugee camp: garbage and flies blanket dirt paths that weave in and out of the community. Unlike Accra, the nearby capital city, no one grabs me by the arm and tries to convince me to give my money away. But some residents in Buduburam barely have enough money to eat one meal a day and can’t even bathe with fresh water. Even though conditions in the camp are harsh, most refugees are not ready to go back to Liberia. CONTINUED >>
Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent John Yang previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click here to watch.
CONTINUED >>
JOE M. JACKSON
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force 311th Air Commando Squadron
Joe Jackson enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941 because he wanted to be an airplane mechanic. He was made a flight engineer aboard a B-25; during a training flight, when one of the engines caught fire, it was Jackson who told the pilot what to do. Later, figuring that if he was going to have to give such advice, he might as well be a pilot himself, he went to flight school, became a fighter pilot, and spent the remainder of World War II as a gunnery instructor. CONTINUED >>
