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Rainy days and Wednesdays...

... they always make for short editorial meetings. Not that it's been raining for an excessively long time here in New York, but I did see animals walking by 30 Rock in pairs earlier today. I've never been one of those who says "oh, but we NEED it." It's grim, damp and dark and has been for days. It may actually be an office efficiency tool (by cutting down on outdoor distractions, including any desire to look out the window) as today we all noted how swiftly our editorial meeting flew by. We rocketed through it. A record 19 minutes to agree to, lay out and explain the running order... INCLUDING the often Knesset-like procedure of selecting the "ribbon" graphics that appear as titles on the bottom of the screen during our reports from correspondents.

Seeing Jon Stewart at an event in New York last night (and remarking to someone in the print press that those of us in television who dwell in the "actual news" realm are merely his content providers/pinatas) reminded me to welcome a superb practitioner in the parody community: we are all excited to see Stephen Colbert's new show when it debuts. Stephen is better at fake news than many are at the real thing. This morning's New York Times nicely previewed the extent to which the steak knives are being sharpened for all of us... a welcome system of checks and balances to keep us honest.

To tonight's actual broadcast: the President's words on religion as it pertains to his White House counsel attracted broad interest in our newsroom and others today. We'll obviously update the situation in South Asia, and look at the storm zone in Louisiana where this was a day for residents of the Lower Ninth Ward to return to their homes. There's a thoroughly unpleasant and rather horrifying development concerning abuse from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles today... and we'll take on the emotional and tricky topic of child care and raising children... our report from Janet Shamlian will round out the broadcast.

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Staying warm this winter

For months, high energy costs have been the talk in the newspapers and on television. Everyone from the suppliers to the government to President Bush has warned Americans that keeping warm this winter may be more expensive than ever before. Hurricane Katrina and Rita's devastation of the industry infrastructure added to an already major problem. Today, the Department of Energy put it in terms everyone can understand. If you heat with oil, expect to pay $378 more this winter, propane $325 more and natural gas $350 more.

Tonight, NBC Correspondent Tom Costello will introduce you to a Philadelphia resident named JoAnn Baker. Living with a disability and on a fixed income, she is STILL trying to pay off the hundreds of dollars she owes from last winter's energy bill. Like many others in this country, she will struggle this winter to decide whether to eat, take her medicine or turn the thermostat up to keep warm. You'll also hear from a booming segment of the heating business, the wood stove industry, which has seen business double since last winter as people look for ways to save money.

This is our second story on heating prices in as many weeks. It touches everyone who owns or rents... homes and businesses. Last week, we gave you some tips on how to make sure your heat isn't escaping the house and how to make sure the frigid cold of winter doesn't get in. You can also go to www.energysavers.gov for more helpful hints.

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Looking to the polls

It's been an unsettling early fall for the country and, consequentially, a tough one for President Bush... two major hurricanes, one of which inflicted some political damage on Bush, and the other which didn't provide him with a chance to recover... soaring energy prices are causing pain at the pump and angst about home heating costs this winter... the war in Iraq and escalating violence leading up to the October 15 constitutional referendum... scandals involving key figures in the administration and GOP leadership on Capitol Hill.

A second Supreme Court vacancy gave the President a chance to reassert control over the national political debate. But his choice of Harriet Miers split his party (not bad public positioning, we'd note, for the nominee to replace the Court's swing vote), which is also divided over government spending on hurricane relief and whether or not to offset that spending with budget cuts in popular social programs.

Not that Democrats are offering the public positive alternatives, appearing to take a "lesser of two evils" approach to winning the middle's hearts and minds. They also remain hamstrung over how to talk about the war.

So with the Miers announcement behind us and the Iraq referendum looming, we figured it was time to take the public's temperature again. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll will be released tonight on Nightly News and in tomorrow's Journal.

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Tonight's promoted story

Stay-at-home moms vs. working moms: Whose kids are better off? Four years ago, researchers infuriated working women, blaming daycare for causing aggressive behavior. Now the same researchers have a new report with surprising findings about what's really best for children. Correspondent Janet Shamlian has that story for you tonight.

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Inside tonight's rundown

The quake continues to dominate the top of our broadcast tonight. Relief is arriving, and there's a palpable sense of progress in some areas and not in others. We'll lead off with a superb report from Ned Colt and we'll additionally tell the story of an amazing rescue in an area where hope was all but lost. We'll also show you, at the very top of the broadcast, a picture of the crack this quake left in the earth.

We'll cover the President's eighth visit to the storm zone, including what appeared to many of us to be at least a slight change of policy during his Today Show interview (story here; video link here). Also in New Orleans, we have a piece I've been wanting to do for weeks: how the Times-Picayune has been managing to cover the biggest story to hit their city in modern times. We also have an update on that pathetic shipment of FEMA ice we've been tracking (first story from Sept. 16 here).

We're also doing a news division-wide effort on the Bird Flu today, and for our part that means two separate reports tonight.

Special kudos go to my friend Richard Engel for the post below from Bagdhad. As you read it, please understand: it is Richard's strong desire to be there. Those who don't understand that may never grasp what we do for a living, or what makes a guy like Richard go. He's young, single and committed... and in my experience, reporting from hot spots requires at least one of those three qualities. And that's not JUST because I haven't been young OR single for a long time...

We hope you join us tonight.

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Back in Baghdad

I didn't want to take a shower this morning. But it had been a muggy night and I was sweaty and groggy and needed a shower.

"I just don't want to," I thought to myself as I awoke to a muffled explosion. A car bomb had exploded at a police checkpoint near our hotel/bureau at 7:45 in the morning, earlier than my alarm. Oddly (and this surprised and somewhat disturbed me) the sound of the explosion (which killed four Iraqi policeman, according to the Iraqi interior ministry) was somehow nostalgic.

I have been away from Iraq (on vacation) for the past three weeks and this macabre wake-up call was, for lack of a better word, familiar. It evoked a feeling of home; that's the disturbing part after nearly three straight years here.

But now I was up, facing the shower. While I was away a stray bullet (I assume it was a stray) had come through a window above the shower, breaking it into shards and boring holes into the vanity case hanging on the wall. The bullet was on the bathroom floor. I have it in my hand now, snub-nosed (blunted from when it hit the tiled wall), brass-colored and about the size of a tooth, only heavier. This bullet had come through the window just about where my head is when I shower.

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NYC subway threat: Was it a hoax?

Three federal officials say it is premature to conclude that the New York City subway warning informant was involved in a "hoax" by making up his story about a planned attack.

They say that after initially questioning the informant, and subjecting him to a polygraph test, the U.S. military released him. He was not under arrest; he was simply an informant. So, these officials say, no one from the U.S. has yet found the informant to ask him point blank whether he made it up.

That being said, two of these officials say there's "reason to believe" that he made it up, possibly for money. This, one of the officials says, is based on talking to others who know the informant.

So the military has yet to close the loop by going back to the informant, but many federal officials now believe he probably did make it up.

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President Bush on "Today"

I just finished eating some of Paul Prudome’s authentic Cajun cuisine: sweet potato omelet, beef stroganoff, and an andouille and cheese muffin followed with some beignets,  courtesy of Cafe du Monde. Thankfully these New Orleans institutions will be back up and open for business next week. It's been a long six weeks for this city and the flavor is literally returning. It's great progress compared to two weeks ago when Matt Lauer and I arrived here in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Then, military Humvees roamed the empty streets of a city with no running water or electricity.

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Tonight's promoted story

Bird flu... they say if it moves from poultry to humans, millions in the U.S. could die? Why the sudden scare? Chief Science Correspondent Robert Bazell introduces you to the scientist who first signed the alarm about the deadly virus. We'll also have a report from Hong Kong on how the world is reacting to the threat of a pandemic. For the latest on bird flu, including its symptoms, how to prevent it and how to treat it, click here.

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Shaking our confidence

Would anyone blame any sane person for wondering about our world right now? The news out of Asia is staggering and the numbers have grown exponentially over the weekend. There's no getting a real handle on the dead, injured and homeless quite yet... we will endeavor to gather the very best information, pictures and interviews for tonight's broadcast.

One story we can tell here will NOT be fully told on our air tonight, due to time constraints: it speaks to the destruction, the desperation and the difficulty in the quake region: one of our veteran foreign producers, Carol Grisanti, was flying in a helicopter with the Pakistani information minister surveying damage when they attempted to land in the town of Balacot. The helicopter they were flying in was rushed by survivors, many of them (how familiar this all sounds) angry with the government over the response and the pace of relief deliveries. The helicopter was forced to lift off again, and was not able to fit any of the wounded survivors on board, despite their family's pleas. Carol reports after flying over the town of Bajh (population approximately 100,000) that there were no visible survivors and no place stable enough (or rubble-free enough) where they could put the helicopter down. It's beyond grim, and it will take us all some time to get our arms around the scope of this story. Again, think of the relief agencies... with the Red Cross already running at capacity (at least domestically), several people this morning mentioned AmeriCares, known for its direct airlift of donated supplies to hard-hit areas. While they pride themselves on their ability to cut through government red tape, I suppose terrain and damage on the ground become major concerns for them as well. I just finished watching the evening news broadcasts live from London on the British networks ITN and BBC with our senior producer for foreign news, M.L. Flynn — both of us commented on the unending disasters calling for our sympathy, empathy and compassion as observers.

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