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A Gray Day in Grand Rapids

The trip to Grand Rapids, Mich., felt like an overdue trip home. A long time ago, I worked at the NBC affiliate here and spent many a day at the Gerald R. Ford Museum when the President was in town for a birthday or other celebration.

The mood is decidedly different today. The flag, limp at half staff, seems to know.

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Remembering Gerald Ford

The phone rang at my home last night with the bad news from California. I was told that moments after I hung up, it would be announced officially that President Gerald Ford had died.

Our news division, along with all others, print and broadcast, had been prepared for this news for some time. And it is during these times that our roles merge: as humans and as journalists, we are so often pulled in different directions. My daughter came into our bedroom and said "I'm sorry about President Ford," sweetly noting that I had gotten to know the former President late in life. Moments later I was asked to contribute to MSNBC's live coverage, speaking via telephone.

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Remembering Frank Stanton

It was the most profound eulogy any of us had ever heard.  One morning in 1993, Dr. Frank Stanton stood in the well of the auditorium of the Museum of Broadcasting in New York, having lost his best friend, former CBS News President Dick Salant.  Dr. Stanton was, at age 85, lean and stout, impeccably dressed, his white hair slicked back as it always was.  The weathered and carved features of his face were contorted in sadness as he looked up from his text and explained to the gathered mourners, with a single phrase, the impact of Dick's death on his life: "In my sadness, I yield to no one."

It was, in a way that was painful to watch, classic Stanton: sincere, austere, terse, and quite perfect. It could not be challenged.
 

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Tonight's broadcast

Brian has the night off, and I'll be anchoring the broadcast tonight.

We're in Baghdad where an appeals court moved swiftly today to OK the execution of Saddam Hussein.  He is now scheduled to put to death within the month.  Richard Engel, who has returned to Iraq for the first time in seven weeks, is measuring reaction and how Hussein's execution could affect the ongoing civil war.

Then, you've come a log way Dolly.  Ten years after a sheep became the first cloned animal, a recent government decision could lead to milk and meat from cloned animals ending up on your dinner table. Tom Costello will report on why scientists think it's safe.

Also tonight, many of us have been humming James Brown hits today, as we ponder the Christmas Day loss of this bigger-than-life musical icon.  We've dug deep into our archives for some classic James Brown moments, as we look at the indelible influence his music had on so many popular musicians today, and why we'll likely be humming those tunes for years and years to come.
I hope you can join us.

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The few, the proud...

The image that comes to mind when I think of a Marine is the recruiting campaign "The Few, The Proud, The Marines," where you see a Marine in full dress uniform and standing at attention bring a sword up to his side.  The Marines in the recruiting poster look serious, ready for battle.

Tonight, Campbell Brown will introduce you to a different side of the Marines.

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Truths about the immigration debate

Editor's note: Tonight on NBC, Tom Brokaw travels to an unlikely place where the debate over illegal immigration is raging — the Colorado Rockies. NBC News spent eight months reporting on the myths and truths about illegal immigration in this pristine stretch between Aspen and Vail, a historically white population that has seen an influx of thousands of Hispanics, mostly from Mexico. The hour-long documentary "Tom Brokaw Reports: In the Shadow of the American Dream," airs at 8 p.m. ET. Check your local listings in other time zones. We asked Tom to blog about the documentary and he provided us this list of truths about the immigration debate.

In many parts of the country immigrants are doing the work Americans no longer want to do, especially the hard work of manual labor at construction sites.

In our reporting we discovered that most of them are paid a fair wage — $14.00 an hour for an entry level construction job, and that they are paying state and federal taxes through withholding. (Sure, some employers pay cash off the books, but most we encountered are trying to play by the rules).

While local residents are conflicted about the spreading Hispanic culture -- language and music -- they agree the immigrants are very hard workers and in general have good family values.

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Happy holidays

Just a quick reminder to faithful blog readers that there will be no NBC Nightly News this evening because of NBC Sports coverage. The broadcast returns on Tues., Dec. 26.

Happy holidays from us to you.

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Christmas Eve

As we begin the process of putting together NBC Nightly News on this Christmas Eve, we are reminded there are those of us who will go home to celebrate the holidays with our families tonight... and those who won't.  Members of the U.S. military overseas... especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan are in our thoughts... and so are our NBC News colleagues who are far from home... bringing us information from around the world.   You will see and hear some of them in tonight's broadcast.

Even though it's a holiday... this is a busy news day.  It's a dangerous weekend for U.S. troops.  From Baghdad... NBC's Jim Maceda reports on how Americans there are spending Christmas Eve... as well as some Christian Iraqis.

In Afghanistan many U.S. troops are in the freezing mountains... fighting the Taliban... as NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

And from another hotspot... the DMZ between North and South Korea... NBC's Martin Savidge tells us about the 28 thousand U.S. troops still on duty there.

We'll hear from NBC's Kevin Corke at the White House... who is reporting on the big decisions facing the President.

NBC's Jennifer London tells us about how millions of Americans are faring as they head home.  NBC's Lisa Daniels will take a look at last-last minute shopping.

From Bethlehem... NBC's Mike Boettcher will show us how thousands of pilgrims came to see the birthplace of Jesus.

And we'll find out how the people of New Orleans are celebrating their second Christmas since hurricane Katrina... from NBC's Ron Mott.

All of us here at NBC News want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We'll see you tonight.

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