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Dramatic Day

This has been a busy and dramatic day at the United Nations in New York.  The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed sanctions against North Korea as punishment for its claimed nuclear test.   What will the sanctions mean for North Korea and how will the country's leader Kim Jung Il react?  Those are just some of the questions we will examine tonight.  NBC's Rosiland Jordan will have the latest ... with reaction from President Bush.

Also tonight, disturbing new figures out this week show crime is on the rise here in the U.S.  NBC's Pete Williams has that story.

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THE OCTOBER SURPRISE

Having spent a good bit of my formative years in upstate New York, my favorite story of the day is the snowstorm they received in the Buffalo area. Out of nowhere. Instant winter. While it's not our lead story, it may be the most interesting. And now there's a sad side to this surprise weather: three deaths in the area being blamed on the storm. Would that we could just treat it as a fun and surprising weather event.

At or near the top of the broadcast tonight: the situation in Iraq... specifically, a pronounced change in what's being said about the American mission. We'll also look at the exodus of people from there.  And we will cover the advance buzz over a book (not yet out) on the administration -- with emphasis on one specific issue and a crucial (in this case, political) demographic group. We are planning yet another piece on politics, an update on the crime stats, and stories on an embattled member of Congress and an embattled liberal radio network.

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Decision 2006: Katherine Harris

Editor's note: This profile didn't air Wednesday because of the plane crash in New York. As of this writing, 2 1/2 hours before air, it is in tonight's rundown, so I'm resurfacing this post.

Correspondent Mark Potter tonight profiles controversial Florida Republican Senate Candidate Katherine Harris. We interviewed the candidate on Oct. 5 in Lakeland, Fla. Harris told Mark that she feels she's isn't getting any support from the GOP leadership because "they can't control me." And despite recent poll numbers showing her at least 18 points behind incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, Harris says she believes Florida voters will turn out for her. Harris also talks about her pivotal roll as Florida secretary of state in the 2000 presidential election.

Click here to watch a six-minute Web-extra edit of the interview, and be sure to watch the broadcast tonight for Mark's full report.

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Early Nightly is up

Why were some people speaking Chinese at this morning's editorial meeting?

Brian explains in today's vlog.

Click here to watch.

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A deserving peace prize

I had to smile this morning when I read that Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus pioneered the concept of microcredit -- giving unsecured loans to poor people -- and he was the inspiration for a man we featured earlier this year on a Nightly News "Making a Difference" piece from the island of Samoa, in the South Pacific.

What might appear to be dry economic and social theory on paper is actually deeply moving when you see it in practice and witness the results -- as we were lucky enough to do this spring.

Our story featured Greg Casagrande, who was a hard-charging executive for Ford and Mazda before he gave it all up to chase his dream of eradicating poverty. After studying Yunus' principles, he used his own money to start up a loan program for women in impoverished Samoa. 

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THE MORE WE KNOW...

After a strange and troubling day here in New York, now the aftereffects from a plane crash. In no particular order: the investigation by the NTSB, the sadness among Yankee fans, the charred scar on the brick high-rise on the East Side, and the contention of one of our writers that New York has a five-year old PTSD that came to the surface yesterday.

This is the day for follow-ups and sidebars. The "could it happen here?" stories. By last evening they were already taking shape. One storyline: celebrities often die differently... because they live differently and don't travel like normal folks. Another: couldn't yesterday's crash just as easily have been an intentional act? What is the state of security for private aviation? At the same time, I just read a fair number of e-mail complaints from viewers who thought we devoted too much time to the story (a risk I addressed here yesterday), which could well be a fair criticism. Obviously, what separates this from the same sort of incident in virtually any other American city... is New York's sad history in this area. Armed with only a basic understanding of aviation, when I heard the aircraft was a Cirrus yesterday, I said aloud in the newsroom that the pilot was someone of means. I recall reading a report recently that Angelina Jolie had purchased one after completing her studies toward a pilot's license. While it's not normally considered an "entry-level" aircraft (a friend of mine said it was like owning a Porsche as your first car), its price and performance (it's expensive and fast) usually limit it to a certain niche of consumer. Much has been reported about the built-in parachute, but those only help in the right circumstances... when the pilot has the time and altitude to deploy it. We learned late today that the parachute was, in fact, deployed... but we don't know if it was intentional or a result of impact. While Cory Lidle didn't have that many hours under his belt, most fellow pilots have been circumspect and respectful when asked to comment.

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Early Nightly is up

In today's vlog, Brian recounts yesterday's plane crash in Manhattan and asks some of the questions that now require answers.

Also... find out which two NBC News veterans will appear in tonight's broadcast. Here's a hint: One of them has a ranch in Montana.

Click here to watch the vlog.

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Presidential Fashionista

Who knew?! The President, the Commander-In-Chief, the leader of the free world was such a fashionista? Or is it fashionisto?

Today during his press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Bush had kind words for your humble correspondent, specifically about my suit.

"If I might say, that is a beautiful suit," said Mr. Bush, noting my brushed, slate gray suit, subtly accented by cobalt pinstripes and off-set by a cardinal tie-pocket-square combination. He continued, "And I can't see anybody else that even comes close."

How about that, Presidential plaudits... Dap from Dubya!

VIDEO: Watch President Bush's exchange with Kevin at Wednesday's press conference.

All this comes just a couple of months after Mr. Bush displayed his wicked sense of humor when he absolutely buried Cox newspaper White House correspondent Ken Herman for wearing a brown seersucker suit at a similar news conference. Three times that day, Bush poked fun at Herman's gear calling it a "ridiculous-looking outfit."

Today, I humbly thanked the President for his compliment and offered to put him in touch with my tailor (his name is Kurt Sayce).

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Health problems of cancer survivors

As we will report tonight, a recent study of more than 10,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer found that three-quarters have a chronic health condition. And in more than 40 percent, the  conditions can be disabling or life threating.

It's a tough life as one woman we'll talk to can attest. But, as she quickly points out, it's better than the alternative.

You can learn more by viewing PDFs from the New England Journal of Medicine article: Study.pdf | Perspective.pdf

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Late update

In the firefighting business its called a "stop." You will hear firefighters say to each other, department to department or firehouse to firehouse, "that was a good stop," and it means just what it sounds like -- the fire was stopped from spreading, in an environment where it otherwise would have galloped on. Well, we've just witnessed a great stop. There isn't even any smoke coming from the 50-story high-rise that was struck by an aircraft here in New York today.

While we now know that NORAD scrambled military jets to several cities, and while the pictures of the firefighters with shoulder packs of hose and air packs were evocative of the worst day in modern New York history, this was, by all accounts, an accident. The aircraft appears to be a Cirrus -- considered a good, high-performance plane. As brands of aircraft go, it is relatively new to the market and expensive. Early speculation is that the pilot might have veered sharply off the East River course and into the building. Luggage has been found in the wreckage. We will know a lot more when the NTSB briefs -- and we will, throughout what is left of this day, continue to balance this story against the other news we have to report. We can't change the fact that we are headquartered in New York -- naturally New York stories seem more important and command our immediate attention -- and so on days like this one, I employ the "WWWDITHIC" theory: What Would We Do If This Happened In Chicago? Or Kansas City? Or Seattle? Or a small town in Iowa? In a nation that has troops on the ground in combat, on a day when the President met with the media... we have a lot to balance. On the other hand, we have a big story on our hands -- an event that scared this city for a long while today -- a city that had reason to be scared. So we've all gathered in the newsroom, while our reporters report a few blocks uptown from here.

We hope you can join us.

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