The Daily Nightly began on May 31, 2005. As Brian wrote in his first post it aims to provide a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News. Brian weighs in every weekday and NBC News correspondents and producers post regularly.
Brian Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor in the history of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004. Read his full biography.
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Brian anchors tonight's broadcast from New York, but the lead story is likely to come out of Washington, where NBC's Chip Reid delivers today's vlog.
Click here or on the image for a preview of our early rundown.
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Link to thisEvery month Mona Jones writes a check for the mortgage on her New Orleans East townhouse, even though it's gutted down to the studs. She also pays for her new kitchen appliances ruined by the flood waters and, oh yeah, she pays for the insurance to cover both. And every month she writes another check to rent the apartment where she and her husband now live in Jefferson Parish. She'd like to come home to New Orleans and rebuild, but right now she just can't afford to.
Jones' dilemma is why New Orleans nearly two years after Katrina struggles to come back.
Discuss (9 comments) Email this | Link to thisWhat's amazing about traveling halfway around the world in the year 2007 is that remarkably nothing has to change your focus unless you let it. Less than 48 hours ago I was sitting behind a desk in New York much like I am sitting behind a desk in Beijing now. That's the trouble with the modern world: You can narrow it down to fit your life anywhere at anytime. If I wanted I could drink my Starbucks, get some BBQ at Tim's and watch Pretty Woman on DVD just three miles from -- not Times Square, but Tiananmen.
There are wide gulfs though when you let a place soak in. The newspapers here are filled with talk of trade - namely the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China that just ended in Washington, D.C. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson is on the front page above the fold hugging his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Wu Yi. China has a trade surplus of more than $200 billion with the U.S. They export vast quantities of goods and import not nearly as much as the U.S. would like. They now have money to burn and the U.S. hopes it's used productively. Some have argued the U.S. should have that money to burn... they are the global superpower, right? But instead the U.S. is trying to dictate the terms of a situation that is largely beyond its control. It brings to mind Julia Roberts' meltdown in Pretty Woman when she tearfully insists to Richard Gere, "I say who; I say when; I-- I say who--"
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Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. We are archiving all the stories here. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of "Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty" by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
JOHN P. BACA
Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company D, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division
By his own account, John Baca was a problem kid. Growing up in the San Diego area, he was in and out of juvenile hall for a variety of petty crimes. At seventeen, after serving a brief sentence in a California Youth Authority correctional facility, he wanted to join the military but couldn't because he was still on parole. Two years later, in 1969, he was drafted.
Early in 1970, Baca was a specialist fourth class in a heavy-weapons platoon with the 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division in Phuoc Long Province, Vietnam. Engagements with the enemy had become more intense as his unit moved closer to the Cambodian border. In one of them, the unit was pinned down by the enemy for hours. Ankle-deep in red clay, Baca had just bent over to set up recoilless rifle when he heard the snapping sound of a sniper's bullet pass right over his back.
Discuss (34 comments) Email this | Link to thisPatriots Point is our backdrop for tonight's broadcast. It's a neck of Charleston Harbor, where the carrier Yorktown is moored. Inside the carrier, as of today, is the new Medal of Honor museum -- the purpose of my trip here and the reason for our remote broadcast. 
Discuss (7 comments) Email this | Link to thisThe hurricane forecast is out for the coming season. Given how much the recent history of this shop and this newscast is tied to a single hurricane, we must all hope the forecasters are wrong. I must hasten to add: they could not have been more wrong last season -- in the post-Katrina year when we NEEDED them to be. We'll have reports on various elements tonight, including the forecast and the current drought. Several Washington elements are up in the air currently: is there a deal on benchmarks? Will we see robust debate on immigration? We'll report any progress.
Discuss (22 comments) Email this | Link to thisCould the next big thing on America's roads be small? And, when I say small, I mean really small.
The Smart Car is a teeny two-seater produced in Europe by Daimler-Chrysler, and has been such a hit on congested streets from Paris to Parma the car maker now plans to bring it to Peoria and points beyond by early next year. Naturally, with a Euro gallon of gas costing in the neighborhood of eight bucks, and Americans paying upwards of an unheard of $4, chances are people here will start taking the Smart Car seriously.
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Brian previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.
Click here or on the image to watch.
Discuss (1 comments) Email this | Link to thisHi. Lots of stuff from the newspapers today, with the focus on Iraq (and Iran).
With gas prices creeping up to inflation-adjusted record levels, the San Francisco Chronicle reports Americans are still buying SUVs.
John Aravosis at Americablog puts Democrats in Congress on notice that the netroots aren't going to accept an Iraq funding bill with no strings attached.
Discuss (1 comments) Email this | Link to thisAt first it seemed like an improbable idea -- a statue to honor the son of the anti-war movement's most iconic figure in President's Bush's adopted hometown of Crawford, Texas.
"I had probably five or six heart attacks in a two-second period!" recounts Bill Johnson when first hearing of F. Emmett Snell's plan to erect a memorial to Casey Sheehan, fallen soldier in Iraq and son of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
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