August 2009 - Posts
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
In one of those confluences of work and personal life, I am just back from a trip to drop our son off at college, officially making us "empty nesters" in our house. While I was able to make it to Hyannis Port last Wednesday to cover the death of Senator Kennedy, it meant being away from work Thursday and Friday. I was able to fly to Washington Saturday morning to anchor our coverage of the funeral, before flying back to my son's school to complete the handover and say final goodbyes.
My theory is this: I highly doubt that I will have deathbed regrets over not having worked a given Thursday and Friday, a major news story notwithstanding. However, I do think I would regret living with the knowledge that I hadn't been there when we took our youngest off to college...to get the college degree his father never got. This episode, while painful and confusing at times, is also evidence that I work for good people who have families of their own. My bosses understood the tug of circumstances and the demands on my time and attention, and they were beyond great about it.
We're in the period now where its back to work, back to school, issues start taking on a new weight and importance -- and so we begin a new week in a new month. We hope you can join us tonight.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
That big fire burning north of Los Angeles has almost doubled in size since our report on last night's broadcast. Thousands of homes are now under evacuation orders. We'll be going to live to the scene this evening for the very latest.
We also have an amazing survivor's story to report involving 3 fishermen who were missing for over a week in the Gulf of Mexico – so long that active search efforts had virtually been suspended. Our Peter Alexander has just spoken to one of the men who explained what happened to them and how they were rescued.
Suspicions are growing today over what other crimes Philip Garrido, the accused kidnapper of Jaycee Dugard, may be linked to. Those suspicions have now caused police to rope off part of a yard next to Garrido's as a crime scene. George Lewis brings us the new developments from Antioch, California.
Plus, we'll tell you about why hard times in the lobster catching business have tempers boiling on a tiny island off the coast of Maine.
Thanks for checking in. I hope you'll catch us later for NBC Nightly News.
By Janet Shamlian, NBC News correspondent
It looks perfectly peaceful. There's not a shred of cell phone service, the roads are gravel and the views are to die for. But on the tiny island of Matinicus, 20 miles off the coast of Maine, the waters are anything but calm and folks are in a boil over the region's bread and butter. With lobster prices at a 20-year low, the industry is facing tough times. Fuel and bait expenses are up while the dock price -- what a lobsterman gets for his catch -- is in the neighborhood of $2.50 a pound. That's almost 50-percent less than just two years ago.
Maine Lobstermen are free to drop their traps anywhere in state waters and more of them have been doing just that near Matinicus recently. The town's full-time residents, fewer than 50, fear for their livelihood and are asking for an unusual measure of protection. CONTINUED >>
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
The remarkable life journey of Senator Edward Kennedy has been colorfully and poignantly told these last four days. His family, friends, Senate colleagues, and today, President Obama in his eulogy, have helped complete the portrait of a man who had already left an indelible imprint on American politics and history. This evening the journey ends with Senator Kennedy's interment at Arlington National Cemetery, near his brothers John and Bobby. We plan full coverage of this morning's stirring funeral in Boston, and his burial in Arlington on tonight's newscast.
There is also news out of California on the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping horror, as well as on the race to save threatened neighborhoods from a Los Angeles area wildfire.
I hope you'll join me tonight for NBC Nightly News.
By Joel Seidman, NBC News producer
It was an old-fashioned sort of rocking chair, the kind you might see on a porch in the South. Perhaps not fitting for a Yankee--but of great comfort to President Kennedy in soothing a back injury from WWII.
There it was sitting in a hideaway in the U.S. Capitol, an ornate room with emerald green walls and post-card views of the Washington Mall and the Lincoln Memorial in the distance.
The hideaway office of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the third floor of the Capitol is filled with memorabilia, family photos, a roadside sign from "Lough Gur" County Limerick, Ireland, and of particular interest--one of JFK's famous rocking chairs.
A doctor treating the late president prescribed the chair as therapy for his back problems. Rocking in the chair was believed to relieve tension in the lower back by keeping the muscles moving, contracting and relaxing. JFK usually had one of these rockers nearby.
One day back in 2000, when I was NBC's Senate Producer, I brought my daughter Risa, who was 11 at the time, to work with me. By chance, we ended up in Senator Kennedy's hideaway and neither of us will ever forget that moment of her sitting in the rocking chair.
NBC's Senate booth is just steps away, up a narrow staircase to what was once an attic, now filled with the booths of the broadcast organizations covering the business of the Senate.
Jim Manley, Kennedy's longtime Press Secretary, (He is now Communications Director to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) secretly shepherded us down to the hideaway, opened the locked door and pointed out the chair sitting in a corner of the room.
Risa jumped on. "Be careful," warned Manley, fearful his boss might show up unexpectedly. She got off, discovering the brass plaque on the back. It was the chair that JFK had used in the Oval Office. I remember the moment, my daughter beaming that she had sat in a President's chair.
The classic rockers are still made in North Carolina by Troutman Chairs, available on-line for about $350. Troutman bought the original manufacturer, P&P Chair Company. But the chairs are still made the same way: steam-bent hickory and assembled while green according to the original design.
NBC interviewed Sen. Kennedy many times in his hideaway. Every time we were allowed in the Senator would point out a favorite photo or framed poem, or even some of his own work hanging on the walls. There were drawings he made of his sailboat, "Mya."
But it wasn't the family fame or furniture that made Senator Kennedy so lively. Once, when I mentioned in a casual conversation with Manley that I was planning to spend Easter 2001 in Ireland with a friend who had lots of relatives there, I was summoned down to the hideaway.
Senator Kennedy was there. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and quizzed me on my upcoming Irish journey. "What county? The last name of those relatives?" He barked to Manley that someone must get the Irish ambassador on the phone. "Invite my friend from NBC to an embassy event in Dublin," he demanded.
Then he asked if anyone had a camera. Out one came and Manley dutifully snapped a few shots of the Senator and me. The Senator said to me that flashing one of those photos in any pub in Dublin would guarantee a free pint.
I never actually attempted the ploy - those photos are now pinned to a bulletin board in my office at NBC'S Washington Bureau. But my friend's relatives were impressed with the pictures. Everyone I visited in Ireland had framed photos of Pope John Paul and JFK. But I had the candid shots of Senator Kennedy and me in his hideaway--that was my lucky charm.
Most everyone in Washington who has covered the Hill has a Teddy Kennedy story to share. One indelible memory, tennis racket in hand, Senator Kennedy ambling out of the Russell Office Building with Splash, his beloved Portuguese Water dog, unleashed and chasing a just launched fluorescent green tennis ball. Most days the Senator found a few moments outside at a grassy park near the Senate office building, perfect for hitting tennis balls and playing sport with his dog.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Good afternoon. We're back from Boston, and in New York for tonight's broadcast. The skies are stormy here, and we spent some time in a holding pattern before we could land. Much of the East Coast is bracing for a nasty weekend as tropical storm Danny moves northward. We'll have the latest on its strength and where it's headed.
Meanwhile there's a lot of other news breaking today, including a frank admission from a California Sheriff that "we missed an opportunity" to capture the suspected kidnapper of Jaycee Dugard some three years ago. She's the now 29-year-old who was kidnapped 18 years ago. That Sheriff is not the only one talking about this case. So is the accused kidnapper from his jail cell. Our George Lewis is going to have a lot more for us on this stunning story.
Another grim milestone was passed in Afghanistan today when this August became the deadliest month for American troops so far in the almost 8-year-long war. We have also learned an American radio journalist was badly injured in an attack there today.
Finally, as I left the John F. Kennedy library after last night's broadcast, I consciously searched for the end of the line of mourners who were waiting to pay their respects to Senator Edward Kennedy. I never did spot it. We did learn today, however, that 25,000 people filed past the Senator's casket by 2 o'clock this morning. We're covering the ongoing tributes, including tonight's private memorial for Senator Edward Kennedy.
Brian is off again tonight, but I hope you'll join for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
I've made my way to Boston, and the JFK Presidential Library where people have already begun arriving to pay their respects to Senator Edward Kennedy. He'll lie in repose here until Saturday morning.
It's hard to describe how deeply Kennedy was ingrained in the fabric of this state. The guy who drove me in from the airport told me, "He was like your uncle." The crowds that lined the 72-mile procession route from Hyannis Port to Boston today spoke volumes about how well he was regarded here. Brian is off tonight, and I'll be leading our coverage of Edward Kennedy's farewell.
From California tonight we also have the amazing story of a girl, kidnapped 18 years ago at the age of 11, who walked into a police station on her own today and identified herself to officers. George Lewis will tell us what police have learned about her long ordeal.
Thanks for checking in. I hope can join us later for NBC Nightly News.
We have received a lot of questions in our "comment" sections this week about H1N1, or swine flu. While NBC's Chief Science Correspondent Robert Bazell cannot answer all of them -- we've gotten hundreds -- he will continue to answer your questions here. Some of the most frequently asked questions have already been answered here.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I am writing this from the intersection of Scudder and Marchant here in Hyannis Port, Mass. The wind is out of the West at 20 knots, and there are white caps on Nantucket Sound. Ted Kennedy's sail boat is sitting at its mooring offshore.
I first visited this small strip of pavement when I was 8 years old, and returned with a buddy of mine in high school. I'd grown up on the black and white images -- those famous Life magazine photos -- of the Kennedy family, wealthy and prominent beyond my ability to imagine it, and their casual, elegant lifestyle along the New England coast here on Cape Cod. I remember noticing little things: they wore the collars on their polo shirts turned up...Bobby stuffed his hands in the pockets of his sport coat, as did Jack. Their father Joe wore big, round horn-rimmed glasses. They all had so much hair and such prominent teeth. I had never seen anything like this family, and I was fascinated by it all, as a kid reading about it from afar. I am back today for the death of the patriarch of the modern Kennedy family.
We are doing an hour-long special edition of the broadcast tonight, which most of you will see, depending on the city you're in and the NBC Station you watch. Either way, it will be available for viewing here. We hope you can join us.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
As the father of two college students, this season has the vague feel of preparation for battle -- with schools sending our literature on their procedures in the event of a Swine Flu outbreak.
From the beginning, it's been a tricky story for us -- excessive airing of the most dire warnings makes it sound like the worst of media wolf-crying, and yet we see what the Government is telling us, and we hear the dire words.
Tonight our own Robert Bazell, who is at the CDC (a two-day meeting on this subject) will answer some of the questions we've received after soliciting them on the air last night.
One more thing: While it's not for everyone, I wanted to recommend a very funny place: FAILblog. The name will quickly become self-explanatory. Remember that I said it's not for everyone.
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
My thanks to my friends Ann Curry and Lester Holt for sitting in for me, allowing me a week-long (and then some) family vacation at the Jersey Shore. I'm back at work, where I found a few new piles of "incoming" in my office, a high attrition rate among staff members (vacation season, of course -- they need the break as badly as I did) and that end-of-summer feeling that takes over New York each year at this time, as the sun gets a bit lower in the sky.
We're going to have some big news by airtime -- and it will be a challenge getting it reported, organized and told in time.
For those of you who follow music: My vacation obsessions included a haunting and evocative piece of music from the new film "500 Days of Summer." The soundtrack is terrific -- top notch -- and it features a cover of the Smiths' "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want." It's by She and Him, but you should know the vocalist is the actress Zooey Deschanel. I also remain heavily into "I Am Sound" by the Dandy Warhols.
Tonight we'll mention the fact that the "last column" from the World Trade Center is being returned to the site, where the museum will be, in effect, built around it. I've re-posted a piece we did from the hangar at JFK Airport that has become the repository for all of the wreckage of 9-11 -- as sobering a place as any I've visited.
It's great to be back. I hope you can join us tonight.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Can a president of the United States ever find true seclusion? Probably not, but President Barack Obama and his family are giving it a try.
They arrived on Martha's Vineyard this afternoon to start their vacation, with no public events on their calendar. That is not, however, dampening the excitement among locals and other vacationers on the island. Our Ron Allen, who himself is a frequent Martha's Vineyard visitor, will tell us more about the first family's trip on Nightly News tonight.
We're also covering two more cases of airline passengers being trapped on the tarmac for hours on end. Michelle Franzen is looking into the question of what rights passengers have in such circumstances.
Large parts of Greece are on fire tonight. There have been 90 wildfires there since yesterday, with a major one now burning in the northern suburbs of Athens near 2 ancient temples. We'll have the latest on that as well.
I hope you will join us later for the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
There's been a lot of complaining about what a strange summer this has been on the East Coast. It was unusually cool in June and July, and we've also had a lot of rain.
To add insult to injury, now that it has finally warmed up, a lot of beach goers are finding out this weekend that their favorite beaches are closed for Hurricane Bill. The storm won't make landfall here, but it is close enough to kick up high surf and dangerous rip currents that can pull even strong swimmers out to sea. We'll have the latest on Nightly News tonight.
We've also got the latest on the deeply disturbing story of a track and field athlete whose amazing finish among a field of women in a recent race has officials openly questioning whether she is really a woman. What's more, experts say in some cases it is not as easy a question to answer as most of us might think.
Driving across Interstate 10 through Marana, Arizona is a site that I'm sure has caused more than one motorists to do a double take. There in the distance, across the open desert are scores of commercial airliners – everything from small DC-9's to giant 747's. The number of jets parked in this open air storage facility has swelled over the last few months. I took a journey there recently and I'll tell you what it's all about, and what happens to those planes when I see you later for the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News.
By Ron Mott, NBC News correspondent
NEW BERN, NORTH CAROLINA – When a pregnant Krystle Burdis kissed her husband and sent him off to war earlier this year, she knew he wouldn’t be around for the birth of their first child.
But there he was Thursday night, coaching her on, in uniform, on a big TV monitor a few feet from her bed though 6,300 miles away in Iraq.
Marine Corporal Craig Burdis said he expected to find out he was a dad by more conventional means when he left for the Middle East – a telephone call, maybe email, perhaps through Facebook.
But someone told him about Freedom Calls and he was hooked.
That’s how he wound up face-to-face with his wife, seeing her every move, hearing her every grunt – and vice-versa-- while she labored for better than 90 minutes trying to push Loghan Robert into the world.
“I can’t do it,” Krystle cried between exhausting contractions.
“You’re doing good, babe,” he would pipe in. “Keep pushing.”
This exchange between husband and wife – who became mom and dad about 8:30 in the evening – came compliments of a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, which turns donations into satellite time so men and women in uniform – deployed all over the world – can keep in touch with family.
“To have my husband here, not personally here, but right next to me, supporting me on through it, was amazing,” Krystle said.
And when a nurse held the baby boy’s face up to the camera for Craig to see, his glowing smile said everything and more that words couldn’t express.
Freedom Calls, run out of a modest home office, is essentially a two-person operation impacting a growing number of lives. John Harlow, a former Wall Street executive, is the founder and executive director of Freedom Calls, the tech guru, if you will. Kathryn Hudacek, director of development, is the fundraiser, a most important function – if not the most important – for any charity. Their passion for contributing to the greater good – especially for and behalf of those who risk their lives in service to the country – is the driving force behind Freedom Calls. It also is driving them together in more personal ways. They are engaged to be married.
“I was watching the news one night, and there was a story about a national guardsman who I heard was negotiating with his telephone company because he had run up a $7,000 telephone bill just from calling his family from the frontlines. This seemed to me to be outrageous that our soldiers should be commercially exploited when their families are making a sacrifice for the rest of us.”
That was the genesis for Freedom Calls back in 2003, Harlow said. Today, the objective is overcoming economic challenges that are threatening to disconnect military families while the nation remains at war. The service – which utilizes satellites to allow deployed troops to attend weddings, christenings, bar and bat mitzvahs, anniversaries, you name it – is expensive, more than $1,000 a day.
Two of the organization’s principal supporters last year – Chrysler and AIG – ran into highly publicized financial storms of their own.
“I’m not going to take this bad economy as an excuse for not finding support for Freedom Calls,” Hudacek said. “I know it’s out there. I know people can give -- corporations and individuals. And I’m knocking down doors and asking.”
Back in North Carolina, everything the young Burdis family asked for came to pass. Loghan Robert arrived with 10 fingers, 10 toes and a healthy set of lungs. A Marine got a chance to be there for the life-changing event, even though he never set foot in the delivery room. And a mom got to say “I love you” to the man in her life, while thanking him for the 7-pound, 11-ounce gift of her life.
What the Burdis family didn’t ask for was joy. It just showed up on its own, with a little help from Freedom Calls.
By David Gregory, Moderator, Meet the Press
I heard from someone recently that the economy is about housing and jobs: your house and your job.
With that in mind, two interesting stories tonight. Fed Chief Bernanke announced today that the U.S. economy is poised for growth. That's a stronger case than he's made recently that the recession was merely ending.
We will report on some surprising good news, that home sales jumped last month, fueled by bargain hunters perhaps persuaded that a bottom is in sight. But what about home foreclosures and the administration's mortgage modification program which has yet to make a real impact? Also tonight, what the vote in Afghanistan means for the U.S. mission there. The Economist magazine has a pretty ominous cover story this week. And, what health care reform would mean to illegal immigrants.
I'm in for Brian tonight on Nightly News, and I hope you will join me Sunday on Meet the Press.
By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor
Man, I didn't ask Brian what he was doing on vacation, but I am hoping he's having a restful one, because it's a busy job keeping his chair warm.
The big story today is Scotland's decision to release one of the world's most notorious terrorists. The man convicted of bombing Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people in 1988--most of them Americans--walked out of prison and onto a waiting plane today to return home to Libya. He was released for "compassionate" reasons, the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is reportedly suffering from terminal cancer, and allegedly has just three months to live.
President Obama and his administration reacted today, saying, "We thought it was a mistake," and the U.S. then pressured Libya not to give this man a hero's welcome.
Here's the deal. Scotland knew its friend, the U.S., would not be happy. In fact, it was steeling itself for the backlash, which appears to be just getting started. Many families of the victims are furious.
All of which compelled me to ask on Twitter today, "Was it just compassion that made Scotland release the terrorist convicted in the bombing of Pan Am 103?"
The responses are mostly angry, even cynical:
"I have lost all respect for the Scotts. The man is a murderer,"
"I went to high school with three Syracuse students who died on that plane. Where was the compassion for them?"
"No. It was oil and politics as usual."
The Christian Science Monitor today does confirm an oil relationship between Libya and Britain: "UK-based oil company BP has been expanding its business and relations with Qaddafi's regime in recent years."
Still, watching videotape of Scottish Justice Secretary MacAskill, the man who made the decision, you get the sense he's a decent guy.
Here's how he put it:
"Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs we seek to live by ... no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated."
For better or worse, that is not an idea in sync with these times we live in.
Watch tonight, and judge for yourself what happened here, and what compassion is and is not.
by Tom Costello, NBC News correspondent
On NBC Nightly News Tuesday, we tried to provide answers on how much the Health Care Reform proposal in the House would mean to American taxpayers. In short, how much will taxes go up?
As it stands, a House proposal would tax family incomes over $350,000 at one percent, with a maximum of $1,500 in additional tax. Family incomes over $500,000 would be taxed at 1.5 percent, up to $9,000. And family incomes over $1 million would be taxed at 5.4 percent, or $9,000+.
The tax rate climbs if certain savings are not realized.
The math is easy enough, but a simple mistake cascaded into a series of errors on our broadcast.
We applied the tax hike numbers to the entire income, rather than income over a certain threshold.
No political bias, just a simple, silly mistake. My mistake!
We'll set the record straight on NBC Nightly News tonight, as Lester Holt sits in.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
We lost another member of the first generation of television newsmen today. Don Hewitt, like Walter Cronkite, was one of the guys who in those earlier days of television, quickly figured out its potential as a platform for journalism. He was behind the first televised presidential debate, and worked on a number of shows, including the Evening News.
It was "60 Minutes," however, with which Hewitt will forever be associated. He created it in 1968, and served as its executive producer until just a few years ago. Under his guidance it became one of the most successful programs in television history. It also raised the bar in broadcast journalism.
We join with our colleagues at CBS today in mourning Don Hewitt's death, and honoring his life, legacy and enormous contributions to our industry.
On our broadcast tonight we're covering new guidelines in the American workplace for dealing with swine flu. Also, a day of carnage in Iraq leaves 95 dead, and hundreds injured, while American troops await orders from the sidelines. Plus, auto dealers have taken in plenty of clunkers in trade for new fuel efficient cars, but many are now asking "where's my cash?"
Brian is off tonight. I hope to see you later for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
On the program tonight,we're releasing the results of an NBC News poll on how Americans view health care reform, including the effectiveness of those town hall meetings. We'll also have new numbers on president Obama's job performance.
Speaking of health care and numbers, one of the most frequently asked questions about health care reform is, how will it be paid for? We're looking tonight at the various tax options on the table to overhaul the system.
A school nurse shortage in a time of swine flu is also on our plate tonight, and if you're not already feeling old, Anne Thompson's profile on the fall's incoming class of college freshman will have you reaching for your Walkman to lie down to some soothing music.
Brian is enjoying the week off and so I hope you'll join me for tonight's edition of NBC Nightly News.
By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor
Hope the overworked Brian Williams is getting in some good R and R, as yours truly helps keep an eye on the news of this day.
Breaking now: Federal prosecutors say a man tried to steal 130 million credit card numbers, in a conspiracy to pull off the largest case of identity theft in U.S. history, allegedly targeting 711 and grocery store customers. He's under arrest.
The President took on defense spending today, telling the VFW that defense spending for special interests has got to stop. There were protestors outside, including a few with pistols strapped to their legs.
"Health care coops" are emerging as an element in the President's health care plan, as the "public option" appears not to be gaining enough support. (If you are confused, we will explain tonight.)
In spite of threats, an unprecedented number of women are running for offices in Afghanistan, a country where only 10 percent of girls go to school. Will women finally get a chance there?
A new study finds that 23 percent of men and 9 percent of women ages 50-65 admit to binge drinking. And by "binge," they don't mean once in a while.
In a sign of the times, Readers Digest is facing bankruptcy.
The amount of H1N1 vaccine to be available in October will be dramatically less than predicted. We are trying to get to the bottom of why this is.
And U2 is too cool. Ok, that's not news. But get this, the band that once used concerts to tell audiences what was happening in the Bosnian war, has gotten a little good karma from a survivor of the war.
This last story reminds me that all the cruelties and injustices of our world are met with an equal measure of generosity and kindness eventually. Of course the more people care about the world, the sooner things will change.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
While a lot of us were watching a pair of brand new tropical storms marching in our direction across the open Atlantic, a third storm has suddenly popped up off of Florida's Gulf Coast. The rain and wind from tropical storm Claudette are already being felt along the panhandle. The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore, who was with me this morning here in New York helping out on the TODAY show, has quickly made his way to St. George Island, Florida. Jim will join us on Nightly News tonight for the latest on Claudette, as well as Ana, and Bill. Keep in mind that less than two days ago the two month old hurricane season had not seen a single named storm.
We also have a story on tonight that will leave all of us wondering if the credit cards in our wallet are still working. Sometimes even keeping a zero balance and paying your bill on time isn't enough to prevent jittery credit card companies from pulling the plug on you without notice.
Also tonight, foreign correspondent Jim Maceda has seen it all while covering the front lines in the war in Afghanistan, but his recent adventure with Marines in Helmand province may take the cake. He'll take us behind the scenes to show us why he's calling this mission "the embed from hell."
Thanks for clicking on. Join us later for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Usually by this time of year my hurricane bag is packed and ready to go with flashlights, fresh batteries, snacks, bug spray, and rain gear in anticipation of being sent to cover an approaching storm. This year, however, I'm a little behind the power curve because until today there has not been a single named Atlantic storm this entire hurricane season. Our colleagues at The Weather Channel say tropical storm Ana, which is about 920 miles east of the Leeward Islands, is churning in the general direction of Florida, but may never reach hurricane status and in fact could weaken. It's sustained winds are only 40 miles per hour. Still it's a reminder the season which technically began in June is finally underway, and all of us who live in or travel to hurricane country need to get ready. NBC's Kerry Sanders will be on the program tonight to look at why the season has been unusually quiet.
Also tonight we'll show you some of my recent trip to Bethel, New York, for a look at Woodstock -- 40 years later.
I hope you'll join me later for NBC Nightly News.
By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor
In for Brian again tonight, we are watching President Obama take on another town hall meeting on health care, this time in a conservative part of Montana, and this time we're told, the audience will be chosen on a first come first serve basis.
The idea is that the president is rolling up his sleeves and taking on the angry backlash we've seen in recent weeks, which threatens to errode support for health care reform. But for reasons unclear, the town hall reaction today looks nothing like what Senators Specter and McCaskill have experienced. So far, no one is yelling, or tearing up signs. This crowd is so polite, frankly this town hall looks like a campaign stop, with audience applause frequently interrupting the President's remarks.
Indeed, when the president just said, "this is not about politics, this is about the American people," he got a long, standing ovation.
Looking closer at the audience you may see one reason why this townhall is different. The people listening in Montana appear much younger than the people we've seen in the earlier, angrier townhalls. And younger, they are less likely to be dependent on the current health care system.
This makes you wonder if we have vastly underestimated the strain the economic downturn has had on elderly Americans. Their retirement funds have shrunk in the stock market, their homes in some cases have faced forclosure, their employment opportunities are not good and now their health care may change? You get the feeling this is not the last townhall we are going to see on the subject.
There is much more we are watching tonight, including new economic news, Michael Vick's public apology, Eunice Shriver's final farewell and questions about what air controllers were doing in the minutes before last saturday's midair collision over the Hudson River.
Also there is a news about sleep that is making me crazy. Scientists say there is a genetic reason why some people need only 6 hours a night. Why didn't more of us get it?
See you soon.
by Miguel Almaguer, NBC News correspondent
After producer Aarne Heikkila and I landed at the Tulsa Airport we drove more than 50 miles through small towns on dilapidated roads to get to Dewar, Oklahoma -- a tiny town in Okmulgee County with a population of less than a thousand.
Our journey to Dewar wasn't easy but for many kids, getting out can be even harder. Nobody knows this better than Lucas Taylor. A member of the Muskogee Indian tribe, Taylor was a star baseball player in high school who used his athletic skills to better his life.
When he returned to work for the "Creek Nation", it bothered him that he was one of the few members in his tribe to have pursued higher education. With a group of close friends, he decided to create "4 Love of The Game."
The idea was simple: hook kids with sports … expose them to cities and sights far away from most reservations … and get them into college. His program is entering it's 5th year and it's changing lives.
Aleena Harley is one person who's benefited from Lucas Taylor's vision. She was a star softball player in high school and now attends Bacone College on a full scholarship thanks to the exposure she got through "4 Love of The Game."
For more information on the organization, you can check out their website:
<http://www.4loveofthegame.org/>
By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor
Yours truly in for Brian Williams, getting to watch the brainiacs of Nightly News debate what to include in tonight's broadcast.
On the list:
-good and bad economic news which our financial talents are working to make sense of now, including what appears to be downside of the cash for clunkers program,
-stunningly hopeful news on pancreatic cancer, one of the toughest of cancers to survive,
-new exclusive video that may help investigators learn from the weekend's mid-air collision over the Hudson,
-the private wake that became public for Eunice Shriver, who set out to chance the world and did,
and Les Paul. The legend was 94 when he died today, but younger than all the rest of us. Google him and be amazed, and not only by the photo showing him playfully sticking out his tongue. Where would music be without his innovations in jazz, blues, rock 'n roll and pop? He invented the Gibson solid body electric guitar and the 8 track, if you can remember that. He gets our thanks for "How High the Moon," and no less than the Beatles, Keith Richards, and Tony Bennett were collaborators. To think he was born in 1915, lived through all the painful tumult of the decades since and still played gigs until the end.
What a cool example of how to live a good life. Tonight Ron Allen is going to let us see and hear him one last time.
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News correspondent
As we steamed out to sea, I could see the fading hulk of NASA’s VAB (vehicle assembly building) on the horizon.
You’ve probably heard we know more about the moon than we do our own planet.
The proof of that is just 50 plus miles off the Atlantic coast.
Here, a team of a dozen-plus scientists with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and other international universities, are working with NOAA and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to probe the depths of the ocean. One thousand to 3000 feet down, the scientists are mapping mountain ranges covered in deep-sea corals. The area from North Carolina to the Florida Keys is more than 23,000 square miles. Twenty years ago, no one even knew these deep-water coral mountains existed. Corals, it was believed, were shallow-water creatures. (Corals are animals, not plants or rocks).
Click here to view video just taken off the bottom of the ocean in this "never-before-seen-by humans" video.
Click here to further explore the underwater of deep sea coral.
THE UNKNOWN
The team of scientists is trying to understand how these corals survive in a place so deep there’s no sunlight. Shallow water corals live symbiotically with algae, which, as you’ll remember from your high school science class, are plants, which grow thanks to photosynthesis. It’s believed down at these depths, the corals are strategically in the fast-moving gulfstream, so they can feed on other microscopic animals catching a ride in the currents. (If you saw the movie “Finding Nemo” you may remember how aquatic life uses that undersea highway to travel.)
A CURE FOR CANCER?
While scientists have uncovered at least 10 new species, perhaps the most exciting development for mankind is something akin to the blood from a “glass sponge.”
In the past, fisherman found the fragile “glass sponge” at the surface, where the water is warm, and the sponge’s chemical make-up changes. But mechanically clipping the “glass sponge” in its natural deep-water habitat, and then keeping it in a sealed box with seawater at its natural temperature of approximately 45 degrees Fahrenheit, John Reed, a senior scientist with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (pictured below) has discovered extracting the so-called blood, or juice from the “glass sponge” reveals a chemical previously unknown to man.
As scientists began experimenting with this new chemical, the team at Harbor Branch wondered what it might do to a cancer cell? Remarkably, in several lab tests, the newly found chemical compound seems to attack pancreatic cancer cells. Reed says “what’s particularly fantastic is … the juice targets the cancer cell and kills it.”
It’s amid that backdrop that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council hopes to close off the 23,000 square miles of deepwater corals to fisherman. Rarely do fisherman and policy wonks agree. Fisherman often fear that closing off an area means they can’t continue their livelihood.
But in this case, fishermen have not targeted these waters off the Atlantic coast ... yet!
It’s not that someday fishermen won’t come here, as they did off the coast of New Zealand. Fishermen there discovered “orange roughy” in the 1970s and unintentionally destroyed the deep-water corals in the process.
Once the corals were destroyed, and the orange roughy were fished out, it was a case of no turning back the clock. Orange roughy are a very slow-growing fish. They live up to 150 years. Once harvested, it’s virtually impossible for them to recover. At the same time, their home, the deep-water corals were flattened. It’s akin to leveling underwater apartment buildings and expecting a new generation to live amid the rubble.
Dr. Murray Roberts from the Scottish Association of Marine Science says “it’s not fishing, it’s a mining operation.”
RACE AGAINST TIME
In a race against time, scientists want to close off access to these Atlantic corals before fishermen move in. The most likely catch here is not orange roughy, rather the black belly rose fish, red bream, barrel fish and the golden crab. That crab is perhaps the most valuable delicacy. If commercially harvested here, scientists fear it could be the coral’s “deadliest catch.” The unintended destruction of the deep-water corals by crab traps being set and pulled up off the ocean floor. So far, the small group of golden crab fisherman has worked closely with the government to steer clear of the deepwater corals. One scientist credits their support to the video from down deep. He says “when you can see it, it’s so much easier to understand why it should be protected.”
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Time has published a superb essay on one of the powers of the modern Presidency: awarding the Medal of Freedom. You can tell a lot about a President by looking at their choice of recipients -- that was the case with today's recipients at the White House, which you can watch here.
A clearly emotional Kara Kennedy accepted on behalf of her father -- and the embrace between the President and Sidney Poitier was one of many special moments.
We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
At the end of our broadcast tonight, we will pay tribute to Eunice Kennedy Shriver. If you know someone or love someone with special needs, that is reason enough to admire the work she did. In addition to what I've written for the broadcast tonight, I'd like you to read her own words: a speech she gave at the JFK Library back in 2007.
Because her health had already started to decline, I believe these remarks are most impactful -- and at times profound -- when read. Her candor and courage and directness are bracing. Remember: This is the Kennedy who broke open the Kennedy "secret" -- sister Rosemary's post-lobotomy condition, first talked about openly in a magazine article by Eunice back in 1962.
She was a giant among American women, even though the Washington Post called her, "a pencil-thin women with a big, toothy smile." The Post said Eunice "was well-known for her willingness to get close to those she was trying to help." Her son Bobby famously said about his mother, "My mom never ran for office, and she changed the world. Period. End of story."
End of story, indeed. Its the end of a great...and challenging...and troubled American life.
Our condolences to her family members.
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Do me a favor: As you read this next story -- those of you who are old enough -- try to envision reading this story involving Aeroflot back in 1970. Would this odyssey have surprised you? Probably not -- back then, stories about air travel in the U.S.S.R. were all about a crumbling infrastructure and choking bureaucracy.
And as you read, think about that -- and think about the factors at work here: the big carrier wanting to use its brand name to attract customers to its "regional jet service" -- only they don't operate the regional jets...and are referring calls to the regional carrier. The airport that forgot it's in the business of serving customers, and the appalling lack of imagination on the part of those involved. The folly of believing that somehow these domestic passengers were "unclean" in terms of security, and couldn't possibly be trusted while waiting in a vacant airport gate without the TSA there to screen them. Forgotten in all this: the needs and rights of the 47 passengers who spent, in total, more than 10 hours on board the "regional jet."
This needs to stop. As USA Today put it this morning; "If the airlines really want to talk Congress out of passing a passenger bill of rights, they're not doing themselves any favors."
As I've been writing this, I've just learned that Continental is apologizing and offering to make its customers whole. They would likely prefer to have those lost hours back.
We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast, as we start off a new week.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Good afternoon. The recovery of victims and wreckage from yesterday's helicopter versus plane collision continues in the Hudson River here in New York. I just watched an evening newscast out of Italy where the crash was understandably the top story. Five of the victims in the tour helicopter were visiting New York from northern Italy.
Here in this country, the accident raises all kinds of questions about the safety of small aircrafts flying over big cities in uncontrolled airspace. Greg Feith is a former NTSB accident investigator who has a wealth of knowledge about all this. Greg will come on the program tonight to talk with me about how this tragedy might have unfolded, and how experts will go about determining a cause.
We're also covering a horrible car crash in central California that has killed 7 people including 4 children. This accident apparently involved a police chase, but it certainly reminds us of the recent tragedy on a roadway in New York that also took the lives of several children.
White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie will join us from Mexico, where President Obama meets this week with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts. She'll report on how the President hopes to regain control of the health care debate that has spun out of his grasp at some of those volatile town meetings going on around the country.
You audiophiles out there might enjoy our story tonight on the surge in sales of vinyl record albums, and what's behind it.
I hope you can join us tonight for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Word of today's fatal collision between a tour helicopter and a light plane over New York's Hudson River immediately brought to mind my own flights down that same busy air corridor, and being mindful of the risk of midair collisions.
I am not a licensed pilot, but on occasions I have flown the route with a close family member who is. Though it is perfectly legal to fly along the Manhattan skyline below 1,100 feet without talking to air traffic controllers, on each of our trips our pilot has sought and received permission to fly a little higher into what the FAA calls the Class B airspace, where air traffic controllers out of LaGuardia and Newark Airports follow us on radar, and advise us by radio of other aircraft potentially in our path.
Their main concern is keeping us out of the way of airliners going into and out of New York area airports, but they also act as a welcome extra set of eyes. Still, it offers only a limited envelope of protection. The reality is that unless you're flying under an instrument flight plan, the responsibility of avoiding other planes lies with the pilot. In a patch of airspace as busy as New York City, your head has to be on a swivel – constantly scanning around you for other low-flying sightseeing planes, and of course, the numerous helicopters zipping up and down the river.
As a reporter and aviation enthusiast, I have flown in the cockpits of everything from helicopters and small Cessnas, to B-1 bombers and F-16s, and I have never once hesitated to "call out traffic" to the pilot – in other words, pointing out other nearby aircraft that they might not have spotted yet. Most pilots I've flown with welcome the help because as we learned so tragically today, in the crowded skies things can happen very fast.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I noted that Paul Krugman began his New York Times column today with one of my favorite images.
It's part of a famous Norman Rockwell series of paintings that I was asked to write about for a book recently. Here's Krugman and here's me.
Something to think about as we enter this weekend. We hope you can join us for our broadcast tonight -- I'll see you again on Monday. Please promise me you'll drive safely and have a good weekend.
by Ron Allen, NBC News correspondent
Our Making a Difference story tonight is about a guy named John Annoni of Allentown, PA. What you need to know about him is that he's a father, a teacher, and a very avid outdoorsman. What's unusual about him is that he grew up in the inner city not in a rural community where hunting and fishing are more common. Annoni brings all of that together at a place he calls Camp Compass Academy.
We were attracted to the story because of Annoni's basic premise. His goal is to take young people from urban areas and expose them to places and pastimes they most likely would never experience. It struck a cord for me because I grew up in an urban area, Jersey City, NJ. I had parents and relatives who were determined to show my sister and me things and places beyond our neighborhood.
So, starting at a very young age there were frequent trips to museums, Broadway plays, even trips skiing, lots of time traveling in the back seat of the car, and of course just about every summer visits to camps. Day camps first. Then trips away from home for a week or two. Later in life as a college student, I spent several summers working at camps as a counselor, tutor and teacher. Looking back, I know all of that expanded my notion of what was possible in life.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Today the United Kingdom said goodbye to the last living veteran of the trench warfare of World War I. If you have spent time there, or attended or seen public ceremonies, you know they venerate their veterans, and their veterans walk proudly and enjoy a special place in society. This is a lovely story of an interesting man.
We've also just learned of the death of film director John Hughes. Take a moment and refresh your memory -- he directed some of the iconic films of an entire generation.
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
The situation at the New York Times sure is interesting. First, there was this by Clark Hoyt, the public editor, this past Sunday. Then today, the LA Times waded in. On the subject of Walter Cronkite, this little gem today from the Associated Press.
And because I read the emails my blog on the film "The Hurt Locker" generated, here's my point: the movie strives so mightily (and succeeds in so many areas) to get the details right -- I was just surprised at the details that weren't included. I do hope it is handsomely rewarded as a piece of filmmaking, because of the effect it will have on a general civilian audience that truly needs to know what it's like over there. Just today I recommended it to an employee here whose husband is deployed in Iraq. I told her to see it, but I also told her to see it early in the day, and to bring a friend. It is that powerful.
Another item from the news: a big change coming to Baghdad. That will be something to see.
I hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
One of the great architects of the modern era died today. Charles Gwathmey first came to fame after building a home for his own parents back in 1966. It was my pleasure to know him, and to visit some of his work -- which will now influence generations of architects. I'm linking here to his firm's website (http://www.gwathmey-siegel.com/) and to an interview he did with Charlie Rose back in 2000.(http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/2064)
For political junkies, please note -- that particular Charlie Rose taping also included a discussion of the Bush vs. Gore deadlock, which is fascinating to view as a snapshot of those times.
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
While I am not now -- nor have I ever been -- a member of the U.S. Military, I finally saw the feature film "The Hurt Locker" yesterday. While I found it a suspenseful, troubling, compelling story, I found a slew of technical inaccuracies based only on my few trips to Iraq during the height of the conflict. Seeing the movie made me go back over many of the positive reviews I read after its release...and it is now clear none of them was written by anyone who had spent any time with U.S. armed forces in Iraq.
There are numerous small (and large) details that stand out: vehicles and armor, for starters. The types of Humvees (including the gun turrets mounted to them) and v-hull vehicles shown in the film on the suggested date are simply not accurate. The unit markings and simple things like t-shirts don't match what soldiers would be wearing. I did not hear a single "hoo-ah" during the movie, and that was jarring. The term begins and ends so many sentences among soldiers -- it is the universal term for hello, goodbye, understood, etc. I've heard hundreds of different uses, and its absence from the film was striking. Ditto dip, the smokeless tobacco that is ubiquitous in the military -- it is nowhere to be seen in the film. The uniforms used in the film weren't available until much later in the war. Among the armaments, there's a fatal shot fired at questionable range for an M-4 rifle, and a 50-caliber machine gun is used with reckless abandon -- exhibiting zero fire control. A Humvee goes out, alone, on a night mission (problem) and yet none of the three soldiers (another problem) are equipped with night vision. The helmet of a crucial character doesn't even have the common, standard mount. An American soldier takes part in a car-jacking (!) and leaves his base un-checked, and somehow manages to get back from a teeming Iraqi urban neighborhood (nowhere near the base he left) into the base perimeter. His absence goes unexplained back at the base. The team at the center of the film, the "bomb squad", is allowed to operate as an almost-autonomous entity within the Army, to an unlikely extent. The unit in question is seemingly never on the "net" -- the radio system linking them together.
These technical details were frustrating, because the production staff clearly went to great lengths to get a lot right. Fingernails were dirty, dust was everywhere (including eyelashes) as were flies, gloves were worn, everyone wore the proper eyewear (ballistic glasses) and for the most part, rank designations, portrayals and unit markings were accurate. Encounters with Iraqis were accurate, as was the overall scenery. There aren't many movies on the Iraq war, and there are fewer good ones. I'd like to watch "The Hurt Locker" with a combat veteran, but my layman's eyes found way too much to quarrel with. Leave me a post if you can add to what I've missed.
I hope you can join us tonight.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
With a half million American troops gathered in the Saudi desert in the winter of 1991, few doubted that victory over invading Iraqi forces inside occupied Kuwait would be anything less than swift and certain. It was, and yet 148 Americans were listed as killed in combat – even as the fate of one naval aviator remained uncertain for all these years. Tonight on Nightly News we will have the extraordinary story of Scott Speicher, a U.S. Navy FA-18 pilot who flew into battle in the wee hours of the morning of January 17th, 1991, the first day of the Gulf war.
For 18 years his family has suffered the emotional roller coaster of alternately being told he was dead, missing, or possibly alive as a prisoner of the Iraqi army. Now a new discovery has provided conclusive proof of Captain Speicher's fate, and completed what may be the final chapter in the American story of Operation Desert storm.
We'll have that, along with the latest on what has been an odd and dangerous summer in parts of this country, as well as more on the 3 Americans in custody in Iran.
I hope you will join me this evening for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
I'm back in the weekend anchor chair after taking the last couple of weeks off, and it is good to back.
On the broadcast tonight we're covering what has been a very busy Saturday in a lot of new car showrooms as folks try to take advantage of the government's "cash for clunkers" program before that cash runs out.
We've also received some new information about those American hikers who on a trip into Northern Iraq may have strayed into Iranian territory and are now in Iranian custody.
We're still three years away from the next summer Olympics, and yet competitive swimming was on the minds of a lot of us today as Michael Phelps faced the swimmer who nearly shattered his gold medal streak in Beijing last summer with that dramatic photo finish. Our Keith Miller will tell us about today's big re-match in Rome today, and the trash talking that preceded it.
I hope you'll join me later for NBC Nightly News.
