tv NBC Nightly News NBC October 19, 2010 4:30pm-5:00pm PST
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ears was undocumented. her tv ads have been condemned as false and misleading. and even her hometown newspaper said meg whitman has demonstrated "a loose relationship with the truth" on our broadcast tonight, hormones and breast cancer. the danger. 14 days before the election and tonight, we debut our new nbc news poll. what does it predict about what's going to happen on election night? making a difference in education nation. a man who has faith in the kids, most other people have given up on. and overseas. why some people hear the sound of royal wedding bells. "the nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television
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captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. our lead story tonight has to do with an emotional and perplexing topic for millions of american women. hormone replacement therapy, specifically, its relationship to breast cancer. american women have struggled with this decision and doctors' advice has changed over the years and now, the new results are out and they are very troubling to medical professionals. we'll look thoroughly at this beginning with our chief science reporter, robert bazell. >> reporter: a new study suggests that estrogen plus progesterone, once the most common medication for women 50 and older not only increases the risk of aggressive breast cancer but increases the risk that cancer will be more advanced and deadly. >> the cancers associated with estrogen and progesterone are
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more frequent. higher stage and they are more -- they're not less aggressive. they can be more aggressive and associated with increased risk of death from breast cancer. >> reporter: in 2002, the women's health initiative, a government study of more than 16,000 women taking estrogen and progesterone was stopped suddenly because of the relatively high incidents of breast cancer in those taking the hormones. but at the same time many experts said those cancers were small and not life-threatening, today, a seven-year follow-up concludes that's not so. in a statement today, pfizer, who makes prempro, the drug used in the women's health initiative said most studies about breast cancer mortality conflict with the conclusions of this analysis. most experts say the government study was the gold standard because it wwas controlled and many years. >> what about the millions of
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women that took hormone replacement and stopped? some doctors say their risk for breast cancer is no greater than women who never took the drugs. but there's disagreement. >> it appears the risk does drop after stopping hormone therapy, but a small amount of risk persists and we don't yet know how long that risk will persist. >> reporter: differing opinions are of little comfort to the millions of women who took hormone replacement and now fear its consequences. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. some big questions come out of this. what does this all mean? right now for the millions of women who are currently taking some form of hormones who are talking to their doctors about it, perhaps. we're joined here in our new york studio tonight by dr. beth dupree, medical director of the program at holy redeemer in pennsylvania. doctor, you heard the disagreement in the set-up story. what about women who have taken this? who are taking it? how about those who took it in large doses, perhaps? >> one of the problems is that if this is about perspective.
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we're talking about a medication that women were taking to treat symptoms of menopause. so you have to weigh the risks and benefits. how severe are the symptoms and really take a hard look at the data because this new study shows that they are not just low-grade cancers that are very easily treatable. the study shows women are dying at a higher frequency and those hormones probably played a role in that. so i think we have to shift perspective and say individualize the care and make sure women talk to their doctors to know what the risk is. >> always the best advice but, is it still, with all these stats in mind, a viable treatment for especially severe symptoms? >> it depends on what the symptoms are. that's where we have to get back to having a very good doctor/patient relationship and discuss each symptom and it depends on the symptoms and how incapacitating they are. there are other ways to treat menopausal symptoms.
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and the biggest benefit that we've seen from hormone replacement is increasing bone density and since fractures are definitely something that's a concern in the aging population you have to weigh the risks and benefits but at this point in time we have to take a very, very good look at from a medical perspective to say -- is this the right choice for this woman? should she be taking hormone replacement? because the study suggests the risk is higher than we thought meaning at the end of the treatment with the hormone replacement therapy. >> what about alternatives? anything good out there you would council patients about? anything in the pipeline that you know about? >> a lot of the menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and difficulty sleeping, exercise has been shown to be a very good option. it increases your lean muscle mass and helps you with bone density and it helps with some of the side effects. but you have to say, are your hot flashes worth the increased risk of breast cancer? exercise, yoga, there are many other homeopathic remedies but none of them have shown in
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randomized studies to make a difference. they may be working on a placebo effect but menopause is a naturally-occurring phenomenon. every woman that reaches that age will go through it so we treat the women with medication or individualize the care and decide which women will benefit and which women's risk is too high? >> if i went to a convention of a thousand physicians like you, would any two agree? would i get a lot of agreement? a lot of disagreement? on this topic? >> i think there's a lot of disagreement because this is a grey area. we want to take care of all our patients the best we can and sometimes you have to decide whether treating a symptom of a normally-occurring process in a woman's life is worth the elevated risk and that's why you have to individualize the care and make sure you treat that woman specifically and not just giving a medication to alleviate a symptom so that person no longer comes to your office with the same complaint. >> we realize this is complex and specific. dr. dupree, thanks for stopping by.
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>> thank you for having me. >> the full report of all these new findings as well as some further explanation from our own robert bazell can be found tonight on our website nightly.msnbc.com. politics. new numbers we're unveiling tonight. two weeks, 14 days to go until the mid term elections. we have a new "wall street journal" poll tonight. a look at how voters are feeling, at least those that plan on heading to the polls which brings us to our political director and chief white house correspondent, chuck todd, the keeper of the numbers. >> we have a macro look, 30,000. here's the president's job rating. he has more people disapprove than approve. that's not a big change from the last couple of months. 49% disapprove of the job he's doing and 47% approve. you can see why the president goes to selective areas. out west, for instance.
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tomorrow more popular in urban areas and less popular in rural areas. look at the direction of the country, 59% say we're on the wrong track. 32% say right direction. compare this to the last two times congress changed hands. 2006 in october, look at the track, 61%. 1994 in october, it was 55%. bottom line, this is a national environment that indicates we're headed to a change election. so, the big generic number, republicans have a seven-point lead. they've hit the magic 50% mark. democrats with 43. last month it looked like there was some democratic momentum. they cut the lead but that's now gone. what's the bright line? we talk about health care and the economy. the bright line in this election is a debate about the role of government. when president obama took office in february of 2009, a majority told us government should do more. well, government did a lot and now, 50% tell us, government is doing too much and it almost matches the republican versus democrat number to the
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percentage point. so, the only piece of good news in this poll if you're a democratic incumbent member of congress is that campaign is work. that's why i said macro and micro. go down to the district level and voters are now telling us how their member of congress has done locally matters more to them than national issues. in august they said national issues trumped local politics, 46/41. now after two months of campaigning they say performance in the district matters. there's a reason why 85 to 90% of all incumbents win the election. some incumbent democrats could claw their way back and keep their majority. >> the reason why congress has so much time off to go home and campaign for re-election. thanks as always. beyond these numbers this election season has been anything but routine. politics as usual doesn't exist this year. voters are getting to know a lot of new candidates. new brands of candidates and in many cases, a whole new way of doing business.
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our report from the field tonight from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: in delaware's heated senate race, tea party favorite christine o'donnell told chris coombs creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools. and drew jeers with this question. >> where in the constitution is separation of church and state. >> reporter: while she already ran an ad disavowing her own comments about witchcraft from a dozen years ago -- they now suggest that president obama is the devil. >> beyond political theater, angry voters and angry politicians. in kentucky, democrat, jack conway is running an ad, challenging rand paul's religious views in his college views. >> his god was aqua buddha.
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and paul responding. >> have you no shame? >> reporter: in alaska a reporter was detained by joe miller's private security guards. >> this is going to work out well when this is said and done. >> reporter: while so many campaigns are decidedly uncivil, for some politicians anger has not been successful. in new york, carl paladino wrote his "i'm mad as hell" mantra to the republican nomination and showed how mad he was about challenging the reporter who asked about a child he fathered out of wedlock. >> i'll take you out. >> you're going to take me out? >> yeah. >> how you going to do that? >> watch. >> reporter: but last night he tried to soften his image. >> i represent this -- >> reporter: just another -- what the heck was that moment in this volatile election cycle. mike taibbi, nbc news, new york. a follow-up from last night. the nfl has fined three players
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for dangerous hits in sunday's games but none of them suspended, notably. pittsburgh steelers james harrison fined $75,000 for hitting a cleveland browns' receiver in the head. brandon meriweather and the atlanta falcons were each fined $50,000 and nfl says punishments could include and escalation to suspensions and a lot of players, by the way, regard that as the only real deterrent. overseas today, across france, anger and in some cases, violence spilling into the streets. our own stephanie gosk is in paris and she tells us with the protesters, most of them young, hurling rocks, breaking windows, torching cars and apparently undeterred by the police in riot gear. depleting teargas. this was the sixth day of nationwide strikes since early september over a government plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. when we come back, more on
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it's a european should bag. it was a gift. mm-hmm. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click today. we're back. as promised, more on politics and the mood across the country heading into the mid term elections. kevin tibbles has spent the last day talking to voters and finding out what makes them so angry and what they think it will take to fix things. >> reporter: a thousand people gather at a tea party rally in dayton, ohio. their unsettled mood reflected in signs and slogans of dissatisfaction. >> they say what they'll do before they get there and they never do it. >> the problem is it doesn't matter which party is in power. the problem is they're in power and the people need to be in power.
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>> reporter: in the crowd, accepting donations for a local food bank, small business owner, eric weber. >> citizens have been asleep at the wheel. >> reporter: never involved in politics before he sees america drifting away from the values of individual freedom and responsibility. government is too big, in debt and out of touch. and he fears for the country he'll leave his grandchildren. >> a lot of us have just woken up. >> this columnist sees it this way, the american voters are tired of what they're seeing. >> they see a succession of republicans first and democrats bailing out people who are always the kind of guys that get bailed out. >> reporter: with this is a suburban st. louis landmark where they have serve dogs with dignity and they are indignant because they say politicians are ignoring them. do you trust what goes on in washington? >> no. >> i am angry with politicians in general. >> all of them? >> all of them.
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>> reporter: in a campaign filled with partisan squabbling and finger-pointing, many voters are questioning whether the politicians even realize how worried they are about the future of this country and it upsets them. >> you're crabby when you don't have money or a job and having to pinch pennies and you work hard. >> i try very hard to save money and watch them blow all of our money is very frustrating. >> let's not just think of them as irrationally angry. let's think of the people as, maybe, having a rational basis for their nausea. >> reporter: and it is in middle america, middle class america, where many say fear is replacing hope. >> they're forgotten about the working people, the people that have made this country. >> reporter: you? >> yes, me. >> reporter: kevin tibbles, overland, missouri. and when we continue, the picture of the day. one of those things people say looks worse than it actually was. this holiday,
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that would be a united airlines 747 jumbo jet. and beneath it right there, that would be the golden gate bridge, flying close enough for onlookers to get a license plate number and it happened during a recent weekend air show. a bystander captured this on home video. someone in the crowd thought it was fantastic. it was publicized locally in advance but others thought it conjured unnecessary images of 9/11. in truth, it is a bit of an optical illusion. objects near bridges like that seem closer than they actually are. it appears as been widely rumored, royal wedding bells
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will ring. british tabloids are reporting that prince william will marry his longtime girlfriend, kate middleton, sometime next year. probably during the summertime. the palace is not commenting on these latest reports regarding the future king of england but when have the tabloids ever been wrong? a few days ago we learned of the death of barbara billingsly and many remember her as "america's mom." today we learned that the death of one of the sitcom, tom bosley has died. he played mr. c, mr. cunningham on the popular series "happy days" back in the 70s and he did a lot of commercial and voiceover work including a spokesman for glad trash bags.
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remember those? he was a chicago native and a world war ii navy veteran and died after a short battle with lung cancer. tom bosley was 83 years old. when we come back, real success story from "education nation." story from "education nation." [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with superior protection against harmful deposit build-up. don't let deposits hold your car back. get castrol gtx. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. [ man ] then try this. new and improved freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip.
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finally tonight, leading off our "education nation" segment tonight, a big award here in new york today called "the brode prize." i was happy to take part with the secretary of education and the mayor of new york and the los angeles philanthropist who sponsored an annual competition among local school districts. gwinnett county, georgia, were awarded $1 million. that was for college scholarships. four other districts got a quarter million dollars. meanwhile, in washington, president obama signed an executive order designed to improve educational efforts for hispanic students in america's public schools. all of which brings us to our making a difference report for this tuesday night. one in five students in america's public schools is hispanic but they are more likely than any other minority group to attend underperforming schools and to drop out of school.
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tonight, our education correspondent profiles the man doing all he can to change that. >> reporter: after 49 years in education dr. joe gonzalez has had nearly every job there is. he was the first hispanic superintendent in michigan's history and now at 68, lured out of retirement in texas, he's a principal, again. this time at austin academy. once a tough predominantly hispanic public charter school it was desperate for leadership going through four principals in two years. three years ago they had 88 students. huge behavior problems and dismal test scores. dr. joe gonzalez turned that all around. >> there were two things that excited me about the job. when they said it had to do with drop-out recovery and dropouts i liked that. all you got is this one test, right. >> reporter: once a dropout himself, dr. gonzalez has felt
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indebted to teachers and coaches who rescued him. >> they were that nice about it but they got me back and i had a pretty good life since then. >> reporter: growing up one of eight siblings, school was not the only hardship. dr. gonzalez picked fruit with his parents, migrant farm workers. >> they knew it was a tough life and they wanted us to be able to do better. >> it makes me feel real good. he's like a father-figure for me. grades are improving. science proficiency scores jumped from 37% to almost 70%. >> my grades are up. i have 90% attendance and i come to school every day and i enjoy coming to school. >> he makes me feel good, like a father-figure for me. >> reporter: taking a lifetime
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of lessons learned and teaching them to kids who need them the most. nbc news, austin, texas. and that's our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com that's the way we like it the giants wraracking up a swee game against the phillies that many ditched work to watch. we are here. >> we watched it here. the giants have the advantage again and the momentum in the national league championship series. now two wins aw
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