Hi. More stuff on the stock market (a wilder ride than anything at Six Flags); the credit markets (harder to decipher than a Paul Thomas Anderson film); and the plot point no economic meltdown is complete without: the rogue trader (dude, where's my $7 billion?)
Between the Federal Reserve, the Executive Branch, Congress (working together.. gasp!), state regulators, the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (FannieMae, FreddieMac), Jim Cramer and Larry Kudlow, the powers-that-be are throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the equity markets, which have been tip-toeing a little too close to the abyss lately. Huge, surprise Fed Funds rate cuts, 2-minute drill stimulus packages, bond insurer bailout tirades and meetings, hikes in conforming loan limits, it's all coming, rapid fire. Will it be enough, or did the excesses of the past few years create so many problems that even the kitchen sink can't put out all the fires? Let's start with the bond insurers.
A couple of months ago, I spent a bunch of time trying to understand what a Structured Investment Vehicle was and whether the Treasury Secretary's idea of setting up a Super-SIV so banks could pool bad stuff they had parked in their SIVs in one place. A lot of reasonable people writing about the issue said the Super-SIV would never get off the ground, and it turned out, it didn't. No one wanted to invest in the Super-SIV, so the banks started repatriating what was in their off-balance sheet SIVs onto their books, and we all saw giant write-downs at bank after bank in Q4. Now there's talk of a bailout of a group of bond insurers called monolines, which used to provide plain-vanilla coverage to municipalities, but branched out into exotic credit derivatives during the last few years. That included insurance for bonds based on mortgage debt, which has now gone bad. The fear is that if the insurers default, it will have a really nasty ripple effect throughout the entire global financial system. The downgrade of one of those insurers, Ambac, on Friday may have been what triggered the global stock market freakout Monday and Tuesday.
The Army continues to investigate the Jan. 9 deaths of three members of the 101st Airborne Division to determine whether they were killed by enemy or friendly fire in Samarra, Iraq. The three soldiers died in a three-hour firefight in which U.S. aircraft blasted insurgent positions with rockets, 500-pound bombs, and .50-caliber guns. The bodies of two of the men, Pfc. Ivan Merlo, 19, of San Marcos, Calif., and Pfc. Phillip Pannier, 22, of Washburn, Ill., were found during the battle. Sgt. David Hart, 22, of Lake View Terrace, Calif., died later of his injuries.
Last week, six more soldiers died in Iraq, including another three members of the 101st Airborne. Please click here and then click on the individual photos to read their tributes.
There is also a more private reason that he reveals to Ann in her piece tonight on Nightly News.
We traveled to Paris late in December to look at the exhibition of Father Desbois's work at the Memorial de Shoah. There are over 600 eyewitness accounts that Father Debois and his team at Yad In Unum have gathered in remote parts of the Ukraine. These are memories long locked away. As one holocaust expert told me, these villages have been practically hermetically sealed since the war. These eyewitnesses don't talk about what they saw, and they have not had access to the vast dialogue and research about the Holocaust the way many of us have. There are no memorials and no museums.
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By Geoff Tofield, NBC producer
For Hard Times: A Nightly survival guide, Nightly News presented viewers with ways to keep afloat during these tough economic times in a two-part series. Some notes and tips from NBC producer Geoff Tofield, who produced CNBC's Carl Quintanilla's Hard Times segments, which aired Monday, Jan. 21, and Tuesday, Jan. 22:
There are hundreds of credit repair companies, many of which need to make money. Some of those are scams. Here's a reasonably safe place to start for those who want to look into debt help, credit repair, etc:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/repair.shtm
For our story, we spoke to the President of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which represents a large group of non-profit community-based agencies (100 member agencies, about 900 local offices) that serve more than three million people a year, by their own measure. They provide no-cost but also low-cost services (depends on the need):
http://www.nfcc.org and http://www.debtadvice.org
We also spoke to a woman in Monday's story who received assistance from the Community Development Corporation of Long Island. CDCLI is under the umbrella of Neighborworks America, which was chartered by Congress in 1978. Neighborworks is a group of 240 community development groups in all 50 states. It was established as a neighborhood revitalization effort helping needy and lower-income areas in everything from energy efficiency to small business assistance, and while they do that they are (obviously) helping lots of people these days facing rate adjustments and foreclosure.
Their Web site: http://www.nw.org
Watch Part 1 of the Hard Times series here.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I can't think of a more nerve-wracking day watching CNBC, going back to the aftermath of 9-11. What a jittery feeling knowing what we knew overnight about Asian markets -- but cooler heads have apparently prevailed.
We'll talk about the economy tonight -- also about politics -- and last night's turn for the personal in the CNN debate. Tim Russert will be with us to talk politics. We'll also report on diabetes, the troubles in Gaza and more.
I'm off now to do a special report on the network on the day's market trading (Mike Taibbi rode out the day on the trading floor of a Wall Street firm -- that will be interesting to see on the air tonight) and then start compiling the broadcast.
I also want to call your attention to a great piece from Richard Engel in Iraq that will go up on our Nightly News website immediately following the broadcast.
A busy day, and it promises to end with a busy broadcast tonight. We appreciate you being with us.
Hi. Hoo boy, the past few days make me wish I could just noodle around on this blog instead of attending to my actual job. We live interesting times, and this morning's stock market open was more exciting than a Giants field goal attempt at Lambeau (sorry Williams boys-- your boys are going down!) Since this space has been in an obessive-compulsive mode over the economy and the financial markets since last July, we'll just dispense with the obvious and start digging into what's under the surface. There's are big questions about what's really going on in the banking system and the financial markets now, and we'll try to ferret out the best the internet has to offer for some answers.
The obvious: the Fed (with one absent and one dissenter) cut the Fed Funds target rate by a whopping 75 basis points this morning, an hour before the stock market opened. It was the first emergency Fed Funds cut since September 17, 2001 and the biggest one since the FFT became the fed's main policy tool back in 1990. Was it a surprise? Sort of.. there was certainly a lot of speculation they'd do it based on the mondo-world-sell-off from the day before. Did it work? Well as we all saw, the Dow plunged 464 points then reversed, made it all the way to -38 and has been holding in the -100 points or so range for much of the day. So, stick save by the Fed.. an outright crash averted for today. (And the second time the market seemed to be heading into the abyss and was "saved" by an emergency cut-- the last one was the surprise Discount rate cut August 17. By the way, that was 1,108 Dow points ago.) But lots of question about what the Fed may really be looking at as it slashes away at the FFT, especially with demand for bank credit way, way down. Trying to parse what's going on behind the scenes, Russ Winter of the Wall Street Examiner channels Jerry Maguire and wants the banks to "Show Me the Moneeeeey!" And the Financial Armageddon blog take the deflationist side of the argument, which would explain agressive rate cuts in the face low interbank demand, high commodity prices and consumer inflation. On the fundamentals front, Bank of America and Wachovia reported earnings today. Or "earnings" might be more appropriate since they were bascially zero for the fourth quarter.
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By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
A longtime member of my computer "favorites" list was discovered by the New York Times this morning. While their Business section profile will tell you much of what you need to know about the blogger Michael Yon, I constantly visit his website looking for updates.
I first met Michael in Iraq -- I was travelling with my late friend and good luck charm, retired four-star Army General Wayne Downing. Yon was attached to the group we were with for the night -- and when General Downing discovered who he was, it was as if he'd met a rock star. Wayne thought Michael's website was one of the few where he could find the truth about the status of the war.
Yon is a former SF (Special Forces) guy, who knows his way around -- around Iraq, around a military base, and now, the world of journalism. If you read only one dispatch by Michael Yon, read Gates of Fire. It is as real a depiction as I've read of the height of the fighting there. It's gripping journalism, and it chiefly serves as a character study of the incredible young men and women serving their country in this nation's dual wars.
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by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Greetings from the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Airport. I'm on my way back to New York to anchor tonight's edition of NBC Nightly News. That is, IF our flight is cleared to takeoff in time. The gate agent just announced there's a "ground stop" at my destination airport, or what the FAA calls "traffic management system." Translation: too many airplanes and not enough air space available, and you'll take off when we can squeeze your airplane in. I fly several times a month on this job and it's become a familiar and frustrating routine. Judging from the rolled eyes and sighs from my fellow passengers, my guess is it's a routine they also know well.
Ok, enough of my whining. How about the real road warriors: the presidential candidates, who remain in a holding pattern with each hoping to land the status of undisputed frontrunner. Mike Huckabee told me the other day he could absorb a loss in South Carolina, but in talking to him, I had the sense he really thought he would win the state. Fred Thompson, on the other hand, mused openly to me that maybe it is necessary to start running for president when you're in high school in order to be successful. I couldn't tell if it was an expression of regret on his part, or simply a veiled shot at some of his competitors. In any case, last night's results give him a lot to think over, and since he and Huckabee seem to be appealing to many of the same kinds of voters, my guess is Huckabee would prefer he think fast. And then there's John McCain. As every TV commentator noted last night, this was the guy whose candidacy was written of as dead on arrival several months ago. No matter what happens from this point on, his story by itself is remarkable. McCain, of course, still faces a very alive Mitt Romney who continues to rack up the delegates. Romney is playing a very effective numbers game. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Tonight my friend who usually occupies the anchor chair on Saturday night, Lester Holt, is in the field in South Carolina covering a slice of the most exciting election year in modern American politics. Tim Russert and I are here holding down the fort in New York, where we've been watching these results come in all day. While Romney was a foregone conclusion in Nevada, the internal numbers are nevertheless fascinating. And while few would have predicted a Clinton victory in Nevada just a few days ago (when the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama), the Clinton campaign has shown its strength today in the West. Now we focus on the 7pm poll closing in South Carolina, where it SNOWED in parts of the state today -- and where tonight's result will almost surely break the tie (of three contests/three separate winners) in the GOP. The process keeps going and going...with a remarkably small attrition rate given where we are. It is a fascinating Saturday in politics -- and on a cold night in January, our modest group of colleagues is huddled together in New York preparing the broadcast as I write this.
We have some great stories in the lineup this evening: in addition to complete political coverage, we have Savanah Guthrie on the economy (and sudden bipartisanship breaking out in Washington over the need for a stimulus package) and a fascinating closing segment on a discovery in Antarctica.
We hope you can join us tonight for Nightly News. Lester will be back in the chair where he belongs by this time tomorrow night.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Not long after we're off the air and en route home tonight after the broadcast, some of us will circle back and come to work tomorrow for a rare "Saturday session" for many of us on the weekday Nightly News team. Tim Russert and I are coming in to cover and report on the results from South Carolina and Nevada -- in what is turning into a fascinating, ultra-competitive (and exhausting) political year. First things first: tonight we'll cover the political state of play, as well as the state of the economy, and we'll have our Friday Making a Difference segment.
I also want to thank those of you who are launching the grassroots movement to buy me a personal jet. While I'd really miss those four-hour redeye flights from Las Vegas to Newark, I guess I'd get used to it in time. In fairness to my employers, you should know: we often have to arrange charter aircraft if the destinations and arrival and departure times don't lend themselves to commercial air travel. The case I always cite is Banda Aceh, Indonesia after the awful tsunami there in December, 2004. No commercial air travel was allowed to land or take off during the first two days of that crisis, so a charter jet was the only option we had. Somehow (and so far, at least) thanks to the hard work of a lot of people, we always get where we need to go.
Thanks for watching this past week. We have indeed covered a lot of ground and a lot of news in the space of just five days. We'll be back at work tomorrow night, then Lester Holt will take the reins on Sunday. I'll be home rooting for the Giants. We'll be back on Monday to start another week, which will include a Republican debate in Florida. Have a great weekend, and thanks for watching.
By Maria Menounos, NBC News contributing correspondent
I flew from New York (having finished my duties on the Today Show Wednesday) to Columbia, South Carolina to interview Sarah Huckabee and Meghan McCain. I had been efforting the candidates' kids for a few weeks and finally started getting responses.
I sat with Sarah Huckabee in the boardroom of the Courtyard Marriott. The conference room was a mini-headquarters of sorts for her, her brother David, and a few campaign staffers. She was definitely tired, but she managed to give us a lot of time.
The candidates' kids have been very visible in this campaign, more so than we’ve ever seen -- and all in very different roles. Sarah is the national field director for her dad’s campaign and Meghan chose a less official role-- she started a blog to document her journey for those curious about the process. Both have chosen very public roles unlike the less-public Chelsea Clinton.
Why? I think we live in a time where there is unprecedented access to information, via the Internet and sites like YouTube and My Space. In this particular campaign, that access is helping connect these candidates with the masses, particularly, the younger voters. It humanizes the candidates and allows the public to see real moments... and to see that campaign kids are kids just like us. The young people relate to other young people, allowing a better connection with the parent. It may be the reason why so many are interested and engaged in this race than previous races.
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By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent
When I got home last night I sat my kids down to talk about the litany of suburban travails that soooo take over daily life.
"Who's gonna pick up whom?" "Why won't you eat fruit?" My clothes are wrinkled. Why didn't you empty the dryer?"
It was a little different however as, thanks to this job of mine, I met someone yesterday who is special. So, we talked about that instead.
If I was in reporter mode here, I would type..."Farah Ahmedi is a 20 year old Afghan refugee who lost one of her legs when she stepped on a land mine. She eventually left her homeland to make her way to the United States and a new life."
All of that is true, of course. But, none of it really describes this remarkable young woman. With an ill-fitting prosthetic leg and her ailing mother in tow, Farah walked over the mountains into Pakistan. She survived the dangerous and fetid refugee camps, came to America, educated herself in a new culture, has written a book about her experiences and has inspired almost everyone she's met. Many now volunteer to help other refugees in America.
Video: Watch the report as it aired on 'Nightly News'
Her intense, dark eyes destroy any notion that Farah Ahmedi will ever allow circumstance or disability get in the way of her goal. She lobbies against landmines and works to save the children of Afghanistan. Today this remarkable woman, who makes a difference every single day, becomes a U.S. citizen. She says she is so grateful to have the freedom of choice in the country that has made such a difference to her.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
It always happens.
Anytime I'm forced to take a red-eye, the moment I board, the captain gets on the PA and says some variation of the following, "Folks, from the flight deck...good news...we've got some good tail winds tonight and we'll be four hours, ten minutes en route to New York tonight."
Everybody's different, but I equate nighttime with sleep. The fallacy of the red-eye is that you'll actually get restful sleep over four hours spent inside an aluminum tube, sitting next to a guy who has chosen your particular flight to catch up on some bill-paying under the intense glow of the reading lamp...which in the darkness of the cabin gives off the same amount of light as the sun. I'd much prefer the captain to tell us we're taking a special route over the polar cap, with our flaps partially extended to slow down our airspeed, allowing us all eight hours of restful sleep en route. I get how that would affect commerce, the environment and the like...but I dread spending the day after a red-eye...recovering from a red-eye. At least someone gave it an appropriate nickname.
The upside from last night's experience? I learned of a new use of the language. After arriving in the welcoming confines of Newark Airport, and after the wait for our luggage stretched into 40 minutes, I asked the Continental Airlines baggage supervisor what the hold-up was. She told me there had been a "problem downloading the bags." We're downloading bags now! I think that means tossing them from the cargo hold onto a cart, but I'm not sure.
To the broadcast: we just watched the Dow drop 300 points, there's a human cloning story in the news, Mitt Romney had quite an encounter with a reporter today, and our terrific series on gender, "The Truth About Boys and Girls," continues tonight. So we'll muster our energy, gather our forces and we'll have it all for you tonight -- we sure appreciate you joining us.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
This will have to be brief. I'm in a holding room with Senator Clinton, typing this on my Blackberry, while she participates in a conference call with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. The subject is the economy. We're on the campus of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas -- where we accompanied the Senator in her motorcade after our first stop at a hotel on the Vegas strip.
Senator Clinton held a roundtable here on the subject of Yucca Mountain (the proposed nuclear waste site here) before a small but enthusiastic crowd. Tonight we'll show you a slice of life inside the Clinton campaign, coming off what they believe was a very good outing for them last night at the debate here in Las Vegas.
Tonight we have more on foreign ownership of U.S. financial institutions, as well as a great piece on the pronunciation of Nevada (even though in a moment of debate fatigue I briefly insisted we were in California last night) about which there's been much talk and attention (at least in our newsroom and that of our Las Vegas affiliate) of late.
We'll see you from Las Vegas tonight, and following the horrors of the redeye, back home in New York tomorrow night. Thanks for watching it all.
Editor's note: Brian Williams's interview with Senator Clinton airs tonight on the broadcast, and can be seen online in its entirety tonight. Here's a preview.
By Mike Taibbi, NBC News correspondent
Editor's note: Mike Taibbi filed this while on the road this week with Rudy Giuliani in Ft. Myers, Florida. His report airs tonight on the broadcast.
Rudy Giuliani was beaming, and with good reason. He’d just finished the second of six stops during a long day of his Florida bus tour, this one a town meeting in the megachurch centerpiece of the Shell Point senior citizens complex, and the place had been packed with people who sure sounded like supporters. One of them, an enthusiastic woman named Bonnie Raymo, sounded like she’d been briefed in detail on the 63-year-old former New York mayor’s "late start" strategy of launching his campaign with a Florida win while his opponents spent their ammo in a circular firing squad before getting to Florida, none of them the clear leader and all of them weakened enough to cede the front page to a new lead story: Rudy!
"It seems like he’s putting all his eggs in this basket, (but) he’s trying everywhere," Bonnie said, "and it has been unpredictable for everyone. And, the polls are all wrong. I think he knows how to operate…and he’s the one who’s going to beat Hillary!"
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By Savannah Guthrie, NBC News correspondent
Should it be easier for boys than girls to get into college? The simple answer, of course, is no. But as we prepared the third installment of our series, "The Truth About Boys and Girls," we learned that nothing is simple when it comes to the college admissions process.
The story starts with some good news: Girls are shining academically. Girls have done so well, in fact, they now represent the majority of the student body on many campuses nationwide.
But all that success has led to some unintended consequences. At certain schools - particularly, liberal arts colleges overloaded with female applicants - the only way admissions offices can keep a gender-balanced student body is to admit a greater percentage of boys and reject more girls. That means better qualified girls are sometimes turned away just to increase male enrollment. An admissions dean from Kenyon College caused a firestorm in the academic world for acknowledging as much in a New York Times op-ed entitled, "To All The Girls I've Rejected."
On the other hand, many schools point out that a diverse student body - whether it's by race, gender, or geography - is a legitimate goal for colleges.
"As far as I'm concerned," one admissions officer told us, "not only is there not anything wrong with that, but we ought to be doing that, because we are all about building a community here."
By the way, during our encounter with high school senior Courtney Duffy, we came across her charming - if unorthodox - college admissions essay. Her chosen topic: why she loves milk. You may be wondering what milk has to do with getting into college. So were we. Click here to see Courtney explain it, and here to read the essay that got her admitted to her first-choice school, Trinity College in Connecticut.
Editor's note: Savannah Guthrie's report airs tonight on the broadcast. For her findings on how to find gender biases in college admissions, click here.
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
Army Staff Sgt. Sean Gaul was on his fifth combat tour. Sgt. Zachary McBride liked to read satire. Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Pionk was married with three small children. The three soldiers were among six members of the First Armored Division killed Jan. 9 when a bomb exploded inside a house in Sinsil, Iraq, north of Baghdad.
"They entered that house totally convinced that they were just checking it out, cleaning it out," a relative of one of the men told the Kansas City Star. "And it was booby-trapped."
The six deaths underscore the continued vulnerability of U.S. troops to improvised explosive devices, which account for half of the American dead and wounded in Afghanistan and two-thirds of the casualties in Iraq.
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By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Not much time to report on our day here in Las Vegas because of our pre-debate schedule. Tonight, it's safe to say, what happens in Vegas will get beamed all over the country.
We just did a facilities check of the theater and the set where we'll broadcast the debate tonight--a decidedly different setting and format than we've seen in the past. One unique aspect of tonight's format: the candidates will have the ability to question each other during one particular segment. We will be lucky if we get to ask half of the questions we have prepared. We have one more prep session scheduled for the time period between the first East Coast feed of Nightly News and the 9 p.m. (Eastern) start time. For those on the West Coast who miss the 6 p.m. live broadcast, we will re-broadcast the debate at 10 p.m. (1 a.m. on the East Coast).
Tomorrow morning, I will transition to the campaign trail for a part of the day, to continue our reporting from the ground level. We take the stage tonight with these candidates at, shall we say, an "interesting point" in the Democratic campaign. My partner Tim Russert and I will do our level best. Emphasis on level. So we'll look for you for Nightly News and--depending on your particular time zone and your choice of airing options-- or the Democratic Debate on MSNBC.
By Rehema Ellis, NBC News correspondent
When I first started researching this story on single-gender education I wasn't surprised to learn that some kids test scores improved. I was however, surprised to learn that, at least in the school we visited outside of Orlando, Florida, the boys showed considerably more improvement than girls.
By allowing the boys to move all about the classroom -- on the floor, huddled in tents, or in rocking chairs -- the teachers essentially allowed the boys' energy and creativity to run free. There was no insistence on learning by sitting at desks and quietly raising their hands and waiting their turn. Instead, the boys got to respond to at will.
It's a radical concept.
Were this to is happen in a mixed class, or even in an all boys class, in a public school with an untrained teacher, I suspect there's a good chance those boys could be seen as unruly or labeled A.D.D. -- Attention Deficit Disorder. Many parents, and teachers will tell you they think there has been a rush to judge fidgety boys as inattentive boys. Maybe, just maybe, the labeling is not totally correct.
Yes, there is a furious debate in this country about the merits of single-gender education in public schools. But whether you think it's the right way or the wrong way to go--
It is working for some. And there could be a surprise benefit: our nation's educators might be learning something about our children that goes beyond how to improve test scores.
By Andy Franklin, NBC News senior producer
If there’s one word Barack Obama likes more than "change," it’s "hope." It punctuates his speeches and has a prominent place in the title of his autobiography. After Obama’s win in Iowa, change and hope became all the rage in presidential politics, among Democrats and Republicans alike. For Hillary Clinton, political survival meant blunting that winning message, even as she made it a part of her own. She didn’t have much time; just four days separated Iowa from New Hampshire. Midway through that gauntlet, facing the double threat of Obama and John Edwards in the ABC News debate, she fought back. It was a show of emotion as vivid as the one that came two days later. But this wasn’t weepy vulnerability; it was full-throated anger. "I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change," Clinton said. "And we don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered."
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Hi. Only got time for a few items today, but they're pretty good ones. Citigroup hit the confessional this morning, and the implications of what they reported about their past, present and future are sobering. Also, a smart person sends up a warning flare for conditions that could lead to a stock market crash, Senators Obama and Clinton turn back on to the high road, and inquiring minds want to know what really happened in the Strait of Hormuz last week.
So it was Citigroup's very bad, truly awful, no-good day: and the litany of bad news included a $10 billion loss, an $18 billion write-down, a dividend cut, 4,200 layoffs, a $14.5 billion chunk of itself sold to investors including Singapore and Saudi Prince Alwaleed, and at the end of today a 41% drop in its stock price in just 3 months. The NYT rounds it up. And if you have a WSJ subscription, here's their version. That, combined with a weak retail sales report from December sent stocks plummeting, with the Dow closing below the August swing low for the first time.
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By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Tonight you'll see us in our familiar Los Angeles bureau, largely because we were anxious to gather our debate/political team here on the West Coast. We're here to prepare for tomorrow night's Democratic debate (9pm ET on MSNBC) which seems to take on more importance with each passing hour of the campaign. And please remember, it's not too late to submit a question of your own -- something you'd like us to ask the candidates tomorrow night. Click here to see how; we'll get to as many of your questions as we can.
We have a lot of campaign news to cover tonight: Ron Allen is with the Republicans, Andrea Mitchell covers the Democrats. For good measure, we'll also report on medicine, the Saudis, the environment, cars and gender (the start of a special series called "The Truth About Boys and Girls"). After tonight's broadcast from Los Angeles, we head to Las Vegas for a debate prep session upon arrival -- another tomorrow morning and another tomorrow night before air time. It's the definition of a "working" trip to Vegas -- luckily, I don't gamble, so its not like I'm fighting a huge temptation to hit the blackjack tables instead of preparing for the debate. We'll originate Nightly News from Las Vegas tomorrow night, and then we'll peel away for that final prep session. Lester Holt will update the later feeds of Nightly News because I'll be tied up with the debate while those are airing. We'll even have a little something for all those of you who have written us about the proper pronunciation of "Nevada." That's pretty much the way things will work for the next 24 hours -- we hope you'll be with us to watch it all.
