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Busy Saturday

This is a busy news day on several fronts.  We are following a helicopter crash in Baghdad that killed 13 Americans.  But there are few details.  We are still gathering information and NBC's Mike Boettcher will have the latest from Baghdad.

Presidential politics is in the news tonight.  Sen. Hillary Clinton has officially decided to get into the race for the democratic nomination for President.  Senator Sam Brownback made the same decision on the Republican side today.  And tomorrow we are expecting New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to join the field of democrats running for the nomination.  Some major political developments this weekend and NBC's Chip Reid will have the latest tonight.

At the White House President Bush met with his Secretary of State and new Defense Secretary today to discuss his new plan for Iraq.  NBC's John Yang will have that story.

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In support of Bangor's ban

I am struck by a story my colleagues are preparing for Nightly News this weekend that's also in today's New York Times concerning the city of Bangor, Maine. The city council there has made news by banning smoking in cars when children are present, effective immediately. Bangor is the first city to do this, but Arkansas, Louisiana and Puerto Rico have taken similar action, and several other states are considering it.

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Busy Friday

A brief rundown of the calendar leading to this moment: a two-hour meeting with producers; a meeting with the division president; a meeting with Jane Arraf, our visiting veteran Bagdhad correspondent (who will be joining us on the air tonight); a videotaped interview in my office for an hour-long documentary MSNBC is producing; a telephone interview for a trade publication; and other events too minor to mention.  In short, a thoroughly busy Friday, capped off by a flight to Atlanta right after the broadcast, where I will be moderating several panel discussions tomorrow at the Carter Center -- which I understand is being broadcast live on C-SPAN.  Now, to matters much more important: the news we're reporting on for tonight.

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Offering warmth to those who need it

I remember receiving a blue, flowery blanket when I was seven years old.  I can describe it perfectly, because “Blanks” rests in a drawer in my bedroom to this day.  It is just a scrap of its original form, but Blanks reminds me of the warmth and security that it provided me when I was so young; and it still makes me feel that way today.  I remember agonizing when my brother hid Blanks to torment me, and refusing to go to bed until my mother returned it to me from the laundry.  I think every adult that had a blanket has a memory or two just like mine, which makes it easy to appreciate the significance of tonight’s “Making a Difference” segment.

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Hard day's news

We have two big stories up top tonight and both go right to the heart of everyday life. The first is confirmation of a story that I think we all already know: health care depends on your class and other socioeconomic factors. Specifically, there are entire subgroups of women who receive alarmingly poor cancer care, based simply on who they are, and certain judgments that are made about them.

The second story involves a magazine, and our most precious cargo: the most prominent consumer publication in the country, CONSUMER REPORTS, is taking back their last big story: car seat safety. While they hired an outside firm to test the seats, the outside firm got it wrong. A lot of seat makers got praised and slimed in the process, and a lot of families spent a lot of money on safety -- based on bad data.

From the political/Iraq category: when you consider that the Bush policy on Iraq is based in large part on the performance of one man, this can't be welcome news. Maliki gave a print interview last night and said some unkind things about the U.S. role.

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Early Nightly is up

Another busy news day, as Brian explains in today's vlog.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Oh, and if you missed Brian last night on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," the kind folks at NBC Entertainment granted us permission to put a 2:00 clip on MSNBC.com. Here it is. Brian and Conan discuss the presidential penchant for hand sanitizers.

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Much to talk about

Consider tonight's possible lineup of stories: National statistics showing the first hard evidence that the drop in cancer rates was indeed real; the beginning, in earnest, of the debate over the war strategy going forward (and the presidential politics that permeate it); the weather, and all that it entails (one of our correspondents, Janet Shamlian, had a flight diverted because of it today and couldn't even get to where she was needed); luckily, we have all the other bases covered tonight, (Don Teague has done a superb job reporting for us this week) including the crippling ice, the ruined citrus crop and the closing of "the 5" in California  -- a highway that seldom closes due to snow and ice. In other health news, there's the virulent and fast-moving stomach virus racing across the country, there's oil and gas prices, and we could go on and on. As we always seem to, we'll put it all into something approaching a logical order and find a way to fit it all onto the air. And to those who are positively overheating over politics: Let's take a breath and let's remember: There are two distinct subject areas at work here. There's the business of brave Americans who volunteered for duty fighting and dying in foreign conflicts (and the sincere debate over their mission and safety), and there's politics. It's going to be a long haul until Election Night 2008.

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Early Nightly is up

Apologies for the late posting. Technical difficulties prevented the delivery of the vlog until now.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight and starts the vlog with news about another accolade for NBC Nightly News.

Click here or on the image to watch.

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Introducing 'World Blog'

NBC News staked a new flag in the blogosphere today. World Blog aims "to provide a dynamic look at world events and trends -- both big and small -- from NBC News correspondents, producers, and bureaus around the world." So far, launch day features posts from Baghdad, Bangkok, Beijing, Ethiopia and Germany, with more to come from Cuba. World Blog replaces Blogging Baghdad, but the editor tells me that she expects frequent posts from Richard Engel and the rest of the NBC News team in Baghdad. So those of you who loved Blogging Baghdad, don't despair. News from Iraq will be a major portion of World Blog.

I'll link here in The Daily Nightly to posts that touch on topics reported by Nightly News and I'll add a perma-link shortly in the boxes to the right, but for now, just remember WorldBlog.MSNBC.com.

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THE DREADED RETURN OF THE HOBSON'S CHOICE

There are a lot of ways to begin the broadcast tonight: a thoroughly bloody day in Iraq, the genuine suffering and growing death toll from the relentless ice storm in the American South, the candidacy of Barack Obama. We will sort it all out between now and airtime.  Also tonight, we'll look at the insurance crisis in the wake of so many hurricanes, we'll continue our automotive series "Car Wars," and we'll talk about what may be the most interesting story of the day in societal terms: the New York Times extrapolation and analysis of the latest census figures (NYTimes.com login required for link), showing the percentage of American women (including breakdowns by category) currently living without a spouse. In whatever final configuration it takes on, it will be a news-filled half hour.

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