advertisement

Heat of the Moment

Hello from New York, where at mid afternoon it is still a relatively comfortable 88-degrees, but our colleagues at NBC Weather Plus tell us the eastern part of the country is about to be gripped by its own heat wave, and cities from Chicago to New York are gearing up to respond to heat-related emergencies.  Hot weather and wildfires will top our news tonight.  In the west, folks are enduring yet another day of triple-digit temperatures in many places, and as expected the hot, dry conditions have kindled a rash of fires in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, and other states.  We will have coast-to-coast coverage of the heat tonight on Nightly News.

John Yang will examine the growing dissatisfaction among Republicans on Capitol Hill with how the president is handling the war and what it means for efforts to set a deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

We will look at the recent softening of gas prices in this country at a time you would expect prices to soar.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (3 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Things are Heating Up...

Good afternoon.

Coming up tonight on NBC Nightly news, we'll have coverage of the continuing heat wave in the west. The video we've seen from bank thermometers looks like they're displaying NBA scores.  Lots of triple digits, and not a drop of rain to cool things down. As these things go the risk of heat-related deaths and wildfires increases each day. NBC's Charles Hadlock is on the top of that for us today.

Jim Maceda will explore a new twist to the violence in Iraq, where 8 American soldiers have died over the last few days, and over 100 civilians were killed today in a car bombing north of Iraq.  There is good news in that the troop surge is working to stem the violence in Baghdad, but the bad news is, insurgents are stepping-up their attacks outside the capital as demonstrated by today's attack in Tuz Khormato.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (2 comments)  Email this | Link to this

End-of-the-week roundup

Good afternoon, I hope you are having a good Friday.

On Nightly News tonight we'll be reporting on an American connection to at least two of the suspects in the Glasgow terror bombing attempt. We now know the suspects made inquiries within the last year to a group that helps foreign physicians come to the United States to practice medicine.  Our senior investigative correspondent Lisa Meyers will have that, plus new video of one of the suspects being wrestled away from the burning car in the immediate aftermath of the Scotland attack.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (7 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Lots to talk about ...

Good afternoon. Brian is enjoying the rest of the week off, and I'll be in the anchor chair this evening.

Tonight on Nightly News we are going to drill down beyond the latest airline flight delay statistics. By themselves they are bad -- the worst in 13 years. But those numbers only tell part of the story. The Department of Transportation only tracks the on-time performance for flights, not for passengers. A flight delayed two-hours is bad enough, but if as a result you miss your connecting flight, your actual delay can be several hours if not a couple of days. Our aviation correspondent Tom Costello is going to try and put it all in perspective, and help us understand what we're all really up against this summer when we head to the airport.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (10 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Terror Attack?

Good day from New York, where we are carefully following today's frightening incident at the Glasgow International Airport in Scotland.  We all know what immediately comes to mind when we hear a car has plowed into an airport terminal bursting into flames, especially a day after those two car bombs were diffused in London. The witness accounts all suggest it was a deliberate act, but at this writing, whether it is an act of international terror related to the London car bombs remains to be seen.

A year ago I was in the UK covering a terror threat to US-bound airliners from London.  That incident is the reason these days we are forced to carry our shampoo and contact solution in ziplock bags to get through airport screening checkpoints.  Before that, it was a shoe-bombing attempt aboard a London to Miami flight that resulted in us having to remove our shoes before we enter the concourse. Within hours of today's incident in Scotland, American airports were again ramping-up security, and I can't help wonder if the days of getting dropped-off at the terminal door are now numbered. Is that what we will remember this day for?

CONTINUED »

Discuss (9 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Murder Investigation

Good afternoon from New York.

On Nightly News tonight we will of course follow the story that broke shortly before we came on the air last night. An Ohio medical examiner has now confirmed the body recovered from a forest Saturday afternoon was that of Jessie Davis, the 9-month pregnant woman who was the subject of a week-long search.  In addition to the arrest of her boyfriend, Bobby Cutts, Jr., our Janet Shamlian will report police are also looking into the possibility a second person was involved in either her murder or a cover-up.

NBC's John Yang will preview what some on Capitol Hill believe will be the make or break week for the immigration reform bill which comes back up for debate.  On a related note, Don Teague is offering a piece tonight on what could be called a private sector immigration reform plan. It's an effort to get private companies to publicly pledge not to illegally hire undocumented workers.

Last night we showed you exclusive pictures from Jim Maceda's aerial tour of Iraq's hot spots with the top U.S. General in Iraq.  Tonight: the same war, but a different view.  Kerry Sanders will let us see Iraq from the foot soldier's point of view. Many of them are shooting their own video of daily life on the front lines and posting it on internet pages. Much of it is stuff you don't normally see on TV newscasts.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (5 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Battlefield Tour

Good afternoon from New York, where we are busy preparing tonight's NBC Nightly News.

Here in the newsroom we just heard from NBC's Jim Maceda in Baghdad who just returned to our bureau after being given rare access to tour the battlefield with America's top commander in Iraq. He spent the day with Lt. General David Patraeus flying over, and landing in the infamous 'triangle of death" to get a handle on how the troop surge is working.  The video he described to us over the phone sounds amazing, and we look forward to airing Jim's report tonight, and hearing what General Patraeus has to say about where things stand.

Tonight we will also look ahead to an in-depth series our partner the Washington Post is beginning tomorrow on Vice-President Dick Cheney, and in particular his influence in defining the administration's policy on the war on terror.  Our John Yang will look at that, and also at questions being raised about how the VP handles classified documents.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (3 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Tonight's broadcast

Hello from New York. Brian is off this evening so I'll be anchoring the newscast.

All of us in the newsroom have been terribly moved by the pictures from Charleston, S.C., where tens of thousands turned out to honor nine firefighters who lost their lives fighting a furniture store blaze earlier this week. The image of nine flag-draped coffins at the front of a coliseum, with thousands of fellow firefighters from across North America in attendance, was a vivid reminder of the shared sense of duty and danger that cements the bond between those who answer the fire bell in cities large and small. Martin Savage is covering that story for us.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (10 comments)  Email this | Link to this

Father's Day

To all the dads out there I hope you are having a good father's day.  I got a few hours off after the TODAY show this morning and was able to go out to brunch with my wife and 17-year-old son.  The older one, studying in Europe this summer gave me a call this afternoon to wish me a happy father's day.  He's been away at college now for two-years but I'm still not quite used to having him away.  It's nice we take this special day to show gratitude to our dads, but I owe a debt of thanks to my two sons for continuing to allow me to be a big part of their lives. As I noted earlier in allDay, the todayshow.com blog, as far as I'm concerned, any day I'm with them or sharing a moment with them is father's day.

CONTINUED »

Discuss (2 comments)  Email this | Link to this

West Coast Edition

Good day from New York. We're still several hours away from a west coast-only edition of Nightly News (due to coverage of the US Open Golf tournament), but already we have a lot on our plate.  Jim Maceda will wrap-up the day in Iraq where the military has revealed it recently raided an apparent Al Qaeda safe house where IDs belonging to those two captured American servicemen have been found. He'll also be reporting on a major offensive against Al Qaeda currently underway, and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates' meetings with military commanders in Baghdad.

Things are still shaking themselves out in the Palestinian territories with Hamas gunman consolidating power in Gaza, and Fatah flexing its muscle on the West Bank.  Tom Aspell is working that story for us.

We'll also have a follow-up from North Carolina where Duke Lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong announced yesterday he would step down from his job. Today a disciplinary panel ruled Nifong broke several rules of professional conduct.  Ron Mott will be along to tell us where all this may lead.

Thanks for checking-in, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Discuss (3 comments)  Email this | Link to this