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The Monday outlook

The topic of Iraq policy will be at or near the top of our broadcast tonight, specifically, the fact-finding and deliberations of the Iraq Study Group, and the potential effect it will have on U.S. policy. The comments of Congressman Rangel yesterday seem to have done exactly what they were intended to do -- stir up debate -- which we will cover tonight.  Additionally, we will talk with Richard Engel, who happens to be here in New York, on leave from Baghdad, about the reality on the ground over there. Also tonight, we're proud to begin a week-long series called "WHAT WORKS" -- based on our collective search to find life's minor victories: the functioning portions of our sometimes-broken daily lives. Tonight, we will tackle the awful problem of emergency room waiting time, and see how some are trying to fix it... and have succeeded.

VICTORY FOR VIEWERS?
Fox has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV show. That certainly frees up a weeknight for all of us.

CONVERSATIONS WITH CHARLIE
I spent a good bit of the middle of the day seated at the famous round wooden table of my friend Charlie Rose. You will get to see the conversation tonight on PBS. As they say: check local listings.

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Faces from the Gulf: Clarence Glover

"To me, the streetcars are the heart of New Orleans and without the streetcars... there is no New Orleans."
-- Clarence Glover
25-year streetcar operator

We met up with Clarence, affectionately known as "Glover" to his co-workers, along the Canal Street line last week. Before the storm, Glover worked exclusively on the picturesque St. Charles Avenue line. But Katrina left that area's intricate web of power lines tangled and torn. There's been concern about the amount of money and effort it would take to restore it. Already, the city's transit agency has laid off hundreds of workers and cut dozens of bus lines, but now the federal government has agreed to kick in millions in loans and subsidies to keep mass transit rolling and get the historic St. Charles line back on track by the end of 2007. That's good news for Glover, who has been spending his time training other operators. He's looking forward to greeting you somewhere down the line in New Orleans.

Photo of Clarence Glover by NBC's Bruce Bernstein.

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'What Works' to reduce ER wait times

This week we'll be bringing you stories from our continuing "What Works" series; reports which spotlight ideas or innovations that are solving various problems in communities across the country. Good news! And better news; these solutions are often adaptable (if it works in Keokuk, Iowa, it could work in Katonah, N.Y.... you get the idea). Tonight's story offers a solution to a problem we've reported on in the past and which just seems to keep getting worse: the long, looooong waiting time in hospital emergency rooms. You're sick or injured, you need a doctor, but so do the other 75 sick or injured people there with you. People who study this kind of thing say the average length of time someone waits to see a doctor in the ER is more than three hours! And try that with a cranky infant or a squirming toddler. Tonight, correspondent Tom Costello and producer Jay Blackman report on "What Works" to reduce waiting time in the emergency room. Maybe it could work in your community?

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Early Nightly is up

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York, but NBC's Tom Costello makes his vlog debut. He previews his report on how long patients wait in emergency rooms nationwide -- and what some hospitals are doing about it.

Click here or on the image to watch 'Early Nightly.'

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Real to Reel: Join us Wednesday

Our blog series looking at past news events will not appear today as it normally does on Mondays. Instead, we will offer a special Real to Reel package on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Our piece will reflect on the assassination and how it changed news reporting.

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Hey, Bill Clinton!

At first I found it amusing. “Hey, Bill Clinton,” shouted our hotel doorman, as I crossed the lobby, soon after checking into our Hanoi hotel. By this weekend,.it was starting to grate. “Bill Clinton, when you going home?”

And it wasn’t just the doorman. The floor lady, two taxi drivers, two waiters and a man from the Foreign Ministry have all told me that I look like the former president. I’ve started to stare into the mirror at the end of each day, not sure whether I should feel flattered or appalled.

I really don’t think I do look like Clinton, and I soon developed a theory: that all this attention wasn’t so much about me, but about him - a product of the Vietnamese continuing fascination with the past president, who in 2000 became the first U.S. leader to visit Vietnam since the end of the war.

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