> on t the broadcast tonight, hard times on main street and anxiety on wall street. what americans are saying tonight about the economy, the president and the country in our new poll. the rescuers are speaking out tonight about what they saw when they reached the wreckage of that deadly plane crash in alaska. an nbc news investigation -- is bp reneging on its promises to the people scrambled to help in a time of crisis? and here's johnny. carson, the legend and the laughs he gave us are yours to see once again and for all time. laughs he gave us are yours to see once again and for all time. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. i'm ann curry, in for brian williams tonight. with a number of significant developments about the economy indicating that many americans are not buying the talk about our being in a recovery. the sentiment was reflected not only in what happened on wall street today, but also in a telling new nbc wall street journal poll out tonight and in a compelling moment near atlanta where thousands of people, many unemployed, overwhelmed a shopping plaza today, desperate for housing assistance. our coverage begins with nbc's ron mott. >> everybody's reaching, trying to grab a piece of paper. >> reporter: in metro atlanta today, the tough economy literally hit home, as thousands lined up in stifling heat simply to get on the waiting list for federally subsidized public housing. >> this is a blessing for those that are going through hard times financially. they're losing their homes, you know. their income is being shattered. so this is really a blessing. >> reporter: a blessing that came with dozens of medical emergencies and an aggressive

police presence. >> people are passing out. the ambulances are everywhere. they're giving out water. i mean, it's crazy. >> reporter: despite the chaos, one official hailed it a success, saying 13,000 applications were distributed over a few hours. >> the last time the housing authority opened its waiting list was in 2002. okay? at that time we took in 2,400 applications. >> reporter: across the country, the numbers add up to desperation. homelessness, up 30% since 2007. more than a third african-american. unemployment nationwide, 9.5%, nearly 16% for blacks. more than 40 million americans on food stamps. 32.8 million without health insurance. with no subsidized housing currently available here and fewer than 500 units total, applicants could sit on the waiting list for years and never find a place to live. today, the president

acknowledged times are rough for many americans. >> while we have fought back from the worst of this recession, we still have a lot of work to do. we still have a long way to go. >> reporter: back in georgia, nicole johnson dreams of a home for her three sons. >> i think it is worth it to be able to secure a place for me and my family it is worth it. >> reporter: worth it, no matter how long the wait. ron mott, nbc news, eastpoint, georgia. >> that sentiment in georgia is reflected in the new nbc news wall street journal poll out tonight which shows deepening pessimism about the economy. nbc news political director chuck todd joins us now with the numbers. chuck, good evening. >> good evening, ann. well, you know, the obama administration wanted this to be known as recovery summer. americans are feeling like it is a recession. look at this. 64% of the country believes we have not yet hit bottom. they think things are still going to get worse before they get better. 29% think we are at the bottom. in january, folks were more optimistic. only 53% thought we still had a

long way to go. this is hurting president obama. he hits a record high in the wrong direction. 52% disapprove of how he's handling the economy. 44% approve. granted, his job rating a little bit higher overall, but the economy is taking a real political toll on the president. >> also significant tonight, what the poll found about the country's mood about the political parties. >> it's an unhappy america. look, they don't like the democrats. the democrats hit a record high in their negative rating at 44%. just 33% have a positive rating on them. the republicans are doing even worse. 46% of the country has a negative view of the republican party. 24% has a positive view. even the tea party which has actually enjoyed a little bit of a renaissance over the last six months, 34% now have a negative view. just 30% have a positive view. what does this mean for the fall campaign? right now, voters are in a hold your nose moment. it's a split decision. 43% want democrats to keep control. 42% want republicans to take control. among voters who have the highest interest in the november election, this is where republicans have a potential big advantage.

50% of high interest voters want republicans to take control of congress and just 39% would like to see the democrats keep control. but, again, it's an unhappy america. this election could turn out to be a hold your nose election when you go into that ballot box. >> all right. chuck todd tonight. thank you so much for crunching the numbers for us, chuck. as for the anxiety on wall street today, the dow was down more than 265 points on the day. we've got cnbc's david faber joining us now. is it safe to say what we see on main street is also what you are seeing on wall street? >> no doubt about it, ann. in fact, that uncertainty so many americans feel in terms of where they are going to spend money and where this economy is headed is certainly something we have seen on wall street. yesterday, the federal reserve board which sets interest rate policy in this country, came out and essentially said what many people already felt which was the economy and the economic recovery was not going quite as fast as had been anticipated. the market didn't really respond

negatively yesterday. very different story today with the s&p 500 off 2.8%. the dow jones industrial average off 2.5%. while corporate profits have been very strong we have just finished what we call our earnings season on wall street and cash and corporations in the united states is at an all time high. nonetheless the occupants of the corner offices that make decisions about spending money and hiring people are feeling the same uncertainty that is so prevalent on main street and they are holding off as well in making those decisions. all of it becomes, in fact, a self-fulfilling prophecy that ultimately does lead to the slow-down in growth that so many fear. >> all right. david faber tonight. david, thank you for your reporting. about this week's plane crash in alaska, we are learning about what happened and about both the survivors and the first rescuers who reached the scene. nbc's miguel almaguer joins us from anchorage with more on this tonight. miguel, good evening. >> reporter: ann, good evening. ntsb investigators say it's too dangerous to get to the crash

site where former senator ted stevens and four others were killed. when rescuers returned from the scene they were said to be covered in mud from eyebrows to their boots. still, we are learning more about the crash and the hours that followed it. the de havilland otter, down but mostly intact, was spotted by rescuers three hours after it crashed into a hillside monday. tom tucker transported medical personnel to the crash site. >> the front of the airplane was nonexistent. pretty much gone. >> reporter: the doomed flight took off from southwest alaska in fog and rain close to 3:00 p.m. local time, departing for a fishing expedition 300 miles away. shortly after the wreckage was discovered, a physician and two emts reached the nine people aboard. with weather conditions deteriorating the rescuers and victims were trapped on the mountain overnight. >> it's pretty remarkable that people do survive these

accidents. >> reporter: alaska national guard sergeants jonathan davis and chris able rappelled down from a rescue chopper and came upon a debris field nearly 100 yards long. >> the fuselage itself was intact presently. there was one survivor that walked out and was under the wing. everybody else was inside. >> reporter: inside the float plane, survivors and the deceased sat side by side, still strapped to their seats. davis and able say they had to cut a hole in the plane just to free the four who survived. >> the survivors looked relatively stable to me though they were banged up and had broken bones. they were dirty, wet and cold. >> reporter: known for its rugged and dangerous terrain, alaska has a reputation for fatal crashes, challenging conditions for any pilot says veteran alaska backcountry pilot jack barber, whose friend terry smith was at the controls of the fatal flight and did not survive. smith was an experienced commercial airline pilot with three decades of experience.

>> i can't think of anybody else that i would want to be with or have my family with than terry smith. >> reporter: those that did survive including former nasa chief sean o'keefe remain hospitalized tonight in anchorage. ntsb investigators want to conduct interviews with those on board, hoping to piece together exactly what went wrong. tonight, flags across alaska are flying at half staff and in an ironic twist, one of the survivors, 13-year-old will phillips, wrote on his facebook page last week, in alaska, going to a lodge in the middle of nowhere, but the coolest place ever. ann? >> all right. miguel almaguer, thank you. dan rostenkowski, once one of the most powerful lawmakers in washington died today. he was chairman of the house ways & means committee, but he ended up at the center of the house post office scandal and was voted out of office in 1994.

he spent 15 months in prison and then went back to live in the same house he grew up in in chicago's north side. dan rostenkowski was 82 years old. the weather threat in the gulf that delayed the relief wells yeerday appears to be on its way out. the national hurricane center says a tropical depression weakened this afternoon instead of becoming a tropical storm. work on the wells is expected to resume after the storm passes through tomorrow morning. that brings us to an nbc news investigation. soon after the oil spill happened there was a surge in demand for boom, those floating tubes of fabric used to control the spread of oil on water. many companies answered the call, ramping up production to help bp in a national emergency. now, some of the companies are saying bp mistreated them and left them drowning in red ink. here's senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. >> reporter: after being contacted by bp in early june, larry buck's company in ft. worth, texas, hired workers, bought materials and later that month got an order from bp to

make $680,000 worth of boom. >> it was, "how much, how fast?" >> reporter: the first two shipments went smoothly, but buck says in july, to his shock, the third was rejected. even though a bp contractor who inspected the boom at the plant wrote, all procedures and materials used met or exceeded requirements. buck said he offered to rework the boom at his expense but bp said no, cancelled his contract and hasn't paid a dime on $400,000 worth of boom he delivered. >> we have had to lay people off. i have had grown men in tears. >> reporter: desperate, he said he's repeatedly tried to reason with bp, but now no one will even return his call. >> the lack of integrity, you know. integrity -- that's everything

in business. they're cheating you out of the money. as hard as that is to stay, that's what they're going. >> reporter: it isn't just buck's company that feels mistreated. nbc news spoke with more than a dozen businesses across the country -- boom manufacturers, fabric suppliers and equipment makers. some are facing losses of hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. all say they were damaged by bp's failure to live up to its commitment. the companies complain that bp repeatedly changed boom specifications and abruptly cancelled or refused to accept orders once the flow of oil was slowed, leaving companies with mountains of boom and years of vinyl. >> they mislead my company. they mislead a lot of the other parties that we were dealing with. >> reporter: ben beiler says bp repeatedly told his chicago company to make the boom and bp would buy it, but the promised order never came. he's out $2.5 million. >> bp cared not one whit about the impact it had on companies like ours that did everything in their power to try to bail bp

out of a problem that they caused in the gulf of mexico. >> reporter: bp told nbc, bp's procurement department has not rejected purchase orders for boom that met our quality standards. we have cancelled purchase orders for boom that did not meet our quality standards, but in these cases we have tried to work with suppliers to resolve the matter. larry buck calls dealing with bp his worst experience in 41 years in business. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. when "nightly news" continues in just a moment, our own richard engel, on the ground with american troops getting ready to leave iraq after a long haul. and later, johnny carson is back for all to see why his brand of humor is truly timeless. s

back now with what it takes to move an army. 10,000 american combat troops are preparing to leave iraq. already the operation to bring them home is under way, though there will still be 50,000 americans in iraq. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel who has been covering the iraq war from the beginning tonight begins our special coverage of the drawdown. "iraq: the long way out." >> reporter: time to go home. after three tours in iraq, staff sergeant everett powell is finally stripping down his humvee and packing up. in 2003 he pushed into baghdad with the first armored division. he was back again for the 2007 surge and now for the pullout of combat troops. >> i don't think it's really going to end up hitting until all the people are gone and i just don't come here anymore. i know this is going to be my last time here. it's not sinking in yet. >> reporter: just sinking in that after seven and a half

years and 4,400 american military deaths, the united states combat mission in iraq will end this month. the challenge now, to move home an army. military officials describe this as the biggest logistical operation since world war ii. at just this motor pool -- and there are many like it -- hundreds of armored vehicles are being prepped to leave. most will be loaded on flatbeds, driven to kuwait and shipped by supertanker back to the united states. the flatbeds are already being loaded at night to avoid the 120 degree heat. about 70% of the equipment will return to the united states. 30% will go to afghanistan. being left behind, 170 million pounds of broken equipment. but it isn't just being discarded.

first, it's destroyed. outdated armor plates that could be made into bombs are cut by hand into small pieces with an 1,800-degree plasma cutter. once chopped up, the armor has no military value. what's too big to break by hand goes to the grappler. like this communications unit. items that stored codes or frequencies are fed into a machine soldiers call the mutilator. it makes sure all memory chips are destroyed. 24-year-old sergeant joshua perkins was taking off the antenna of his humvee this week, getting it ready for shipment. how does it feel to be taking a humvee apart instead of getting one ready to go out on patrol? >> feels a lot better. you feel like you came out here, did something, accomplished something. it's a good feeling. >> reporter: a good feeling that the combat mission in iraq is about to end. richard engel, nbc news, baghdad. >> and when we come back, what

the jetblue flight attendant turned folk hero said today about his slide into unemployment.

a new report out tonight says about 1 in every 15 children born in this country has at least one illegal immigrant parent. the analysis by the pugh hispanic center is based on 2009 census estimates and it comes as some in congress are proposing amending the u.s. constitution to deny automatic citizenship to children whose parents do not have a legal right to be here. america's favorite flight attendant who bailed out down an emergency chute is talking tonight. nbc's jeff rossen caught up with him. >> reporter: what do you want to say to people calling you a working class hero? >> i'm a little overwhelmed. it's something i had no idea was going on out there. >> reporter: any regrets? [ slater laughs ] >> in a separate interview, slater said for years he's been tempted to slide down one of those chutes.

he just never thought he'd actually do it. in hollywood award winning producer david wolper has died. over his long career, his best known work was the mini series "roots" seen by 130 million people over the eight nights it aired. that was more than half the country. wolper was 82 years old. and meet america's newest singing sensation. [ opera ] ♪ >> if you can believe it, she's just 10 years old. she is jackie evancho. after her performance last night on "america's got talent" the young opera singer from pittsburgh has gone viral on the web. while she hasn't won the competition, she's already booked at carnegie hall in december. up next, a legend returns. johnny carson's entire "tonight show" archive has a new home. hours and hours of laughs forever.

finally tonight, just look who's going digital -- the late,

great johnny carson. more than 3,000 hours of him and "the tonight show" on the web forever, now playing on a computer near you. late night television these days is a pretty crowded neighborhood. [ drumroll ] >> heeere's johnny! [ cheers and applause ] >> but there was a time when one man ruled the night. >> i think you ought to run for president. >> johnny carson hosted "the tonight show" here on nbc for 30 years, tucking generations of americans in at night, until he signed off for good in 1992. >> everything comes to an end. nothing lasts forever. >> now johnny is forever -- online. ♪ >> his entire "tonight show" archive has been digitized and posted on -- where else -- johnnycarson.com. 3,300 hours, thousands of monologues, more than 22,000 guests. >> would you welcome jerry seinfeld. jerry? >> comedians who got an early

break on the carson show, including some who went on to become his heirs. >> the man looks like a headache. >> there were funny animals, too, along with just about everyone who was anyone from the '60s to the '90s. an american family album on video that's been largely unseen for decades. now anyone can unearth long hidden gems. here's woody allen with johnny on new year's eve 1965. >> i was without question the most adorable kid. >> i think kids today are going to freak out by this. because you can see why he is the king of late night. >> "late night"'s jimmy fallon was still a teenager when carson went off the air 18 years ago. >> any television fans will immerse themselves. it's like having a museum in your house. >> what would carson make of all of this? maybe he would wonder what all the fuss is about. >> i remember the first night standing backstage and someone said, "ten years from now you won't even remember this night." we all laughed thinking, this is

-- there is no way anybody's going to do this for ten years. >> he did it for longer than that, of course. now johnny's legacy is set to last a whole lot longer. that was well worth the wait. that's our broadcast for this wednesday evening. in for brian williams, i'm ann curry. for all of us here at nbc news, curry. for all of us here at nbc news, thank you and good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we have breaking news to begin with. this is video just taken moments ago of a suspect at the conclusion of a high speed chase turning himself in to police officers in the east bay community of baypoint and what an extraordinary scene this has been. him sitting there inside that yellow vehicle that you see obviously armed with dozens of police officers, guns at the ready, surrounding him and ready