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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Editor's note: If you missed Kevin's report on Chicago's cicada invasion on Thursday's broadcast, click here to watch.
If you have been anywhere near Chicago lately, or have spoken to anyone who lives here, you'll know the sound of love is in the air... and it is deafening. Billions (with a capital B) of huge, beady, red-eyed cicadas are emerging from the ground where they've been hiding for the last 17 years. And they've got one thing in mind... making more cicadas.
As Brian found out when he spoke to Spike O'Dell on WGN Radio's morning show, cicadas are the talk of the town. There are special "Cicada Sales" at local businesses, schools are holding special "Cicada Field Trips," and some menus feature"Sautéed Cicadas" for those brave enough to nibble. They are apparently full of protein, and taste kind of nutty.
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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.
Discuss (11 comments) Email this | Link to thisEditor's note: Kevin introduces you to rancher Bill Brooks on tonight's broadcast. He filed this blog post to supplement his on-air report, which will be available as text and video at Nightly.MSNBC.com at 7:30 p.m. ET.
On the Colorado plains the wind bites so cold it reaches right through your winter gear and rips your lungs out. They say they haven't seen a winter like this out here forever, and with back-to-back blizzards much of the state continues to dig its way out. Four feet of snow has fallen in some places, along with several inches of ice. The January winds managed to create drifts 10-12 feet high.
Buried under the weight of winter is much of Colorado's beef industry, and dead, frozen cattle dot what otherwise is a barren, white landscape. Newly minted Colorado Governor Bill Ritter even told us he's heard from ranchers that some herds sought shelter in canyons that were 50 feet deep, only to be completely buried in the snow and suffocate. It's estimated more than 10,000 head have already perished, and the price of beef is expected to rise as a result.
Discuss (9 comments) Email this | Link to thisSOMEWHERE IN TORINO - Intrepid reporters do the darndest things when plunked down into unfamiliar environs, and so this little story is bound to be either equaled or trumped a hundred times over by the time the Torino Games come to an end.
In spite of the fact we at NBC have been blessed with a commendable transportation system that ferries producers, camera crews and typists like myself to the various far-flung venues, hotels and work spaces in this Olympic city; some of us, like myself, crave the independence of a set of wheels. So after two weeks of groveling and a little chocolate, NBC News' Director of Finance Helen Siegelin caved yesterday and handed me the keys to an Alfa Romeo.
(Don't get too excited, it's quite utilitarian).
Discuss (8 comments) Email this | Link to thisSixty-four years ago this morning, just after day break, America was changed forever. In the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, 2,400 young servicemen lost their lives.
And, in spite of the the way the world has become -- so fast paced and disposable -- the memorial at Pearl Harbor remains a quiet sanctuary of peace and remembrance. As retired Navy Admiral Thomas Fargo told me, "Pearl Harbor is sacred ground" for the American people. So many make the pilgrimage here -- 1.6 million each year -- that the visitors center is overwhelmed... too small for visitors and too small for all the artifacts and stories on display.
Discuss (1 comments) Email this | Link to thisThe holidays are in full swing. The papers are full of festive ads, as are television and radio.
For many of us a brief encounter with a Salvation Army bucket might be the only reminder we have that there are needy people out there.
But for Chicago's Mike Mulqueen, staring down urban poverty is a daily challenge. Mulqueen runs the Chicago Food Depository, a massive 11-acre facility that goes way beyond your average food bank. He's a former Marine Corps Brigadier General who now marshals a staff of 90 and 8,000 volunteers to fight the war on hunger. Forty million pounds of food pass through his warehouse every year. 310,000 men, women and children are fed annually. That's 84,000 meals a day... and that is every single day, not just during the holiday season.
Discuss (3 comments) Email this | Link to thisIt never ceases to amaze me how young the faces of so many U.S. soldiers are, and the boyish grin of Jonathan Powers is no exception. How can a kid from the suburbs of Buffalo spend a year on the mean streets of Baghdad, with its roadside bombs and untold dangers, and return home to his mom and dad not grizzled or twisted in some way?
Maybe Jon Powers hides it well, but instead of letting the nightmare of post-Saddam Iraq destroy his boyhood dreams, Powers has combined the two. A young man who always wanted to teach kids, he returns stateside from serving his country in the war zone and cannot forget the faces of the Iraqi orphans he left behind.
So in the face of so much untold danger (and let's face it, Powers is a soldier, so he knows what's really going on on the ground) he raises money to GO BACK and assist the street kids of Iraq. As you'll see in tonight's "Making a Difference" profile, this young man, the one who wanted to be a teacher, wound up teaching me a lot about what service is all about.
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