on the broadcast tonight -- weather weary. another major winter storm blasts the west with drastic consequences. the price of justice, two sisters many argue wrongly convicted and sentenced to life, set free. but under one unusual condition. hiding the risk. patients who need crucial treatment going to high-risk clinics. why is the government hiding the data that could save lives? and paving paradise. the highway plans that could disrupt one of the world's great wild places and the reason for it. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening to our viewers in the west. i'm lester holt in tonight for brian williams. the weather has been making this a december to remember for much of the country. and that winter storm system that's been slapping many parts of the west with heavy snow, fierce winds and drenching rains has now proven deadly in northern california's snow packed sierras. as the heavy weather moves east tonight, bringing snows to colorado and threatening the upper midwest by the new year, searchers near lake tahoe have made a grim discovery. a reminder of just how dangerous these conditions are. nbc's kristen welker is in tahoe city with our report tonight. >> reporter: good evening, lester. this powerful winter storm surge is on, bringing blizzard-like to some areas and arctic, frigid air to others. but it has brought tragedy here to lake tahoe where a missing snowboarder has been found dead, a casualty of this forbidding weather.

for two days, search teams combed the lake tahoe wilderness in nearly whiteout conditions, looking for 25-year-old chante willis. she was last seen snowboarding with friends on tuesday. this morning, a crushing discovery. her body found in a tree well. her family inconsolable. >> chante is our life. she's our life. >> reporter: rescue crews say the blinding snow made finding her nearly impossible. >> the weather did not cooperate with us at all. it was our -- it fought us every step of the way. >> reporter: the storm continued wreaking havoc as it headed east. arizona becoming the new ground zero as the arctic air and steady snow closed 180 miles of i-40. plows were out early near flagstaff working to clear the roads. brandon sergeant slept in his car. >> i put one of the blankets out to block all the lights and just made the best out of it. >> reporter: colorado is getting its first real dose of snow this

winter, expecting 5 to 10 inches. this season has been unusually dry with denver's snowfall two feet below normal. in utah, icy terrain and an elevated avalanche threat forced road closures, including the i-15, a main thoroughfare. >> i knew it was going to be bad but i didn't know it was going to be quite as icy. >> reporter: this video from fargo, north dakota, says it all. a 100-car pileup, closing down i-94. it wasn't the snow but winds gusting up to 60 miles an hour in southern california that knocked down power lines and trees. >> we heard the wind blowing real, real hard and all of a sudden we heard a big crash. >> reporter: rough weather all over the west. as many as 10,000 power outages have been reported here in the lake tahoe area. this storm system now barrelling east. lester? >> kristen welker in tahoe city, thank you. in new york, four days after a major snowstorm crippled the

city, the cleanup continues and so did the finger pointing. the city says every street has now been plowed at least once, although some of today's pictures suggested otherwise, with plenty of snow left to remove. mayor michael bloomberg said the city's response was slower than anyone would have liked, but he dismissed allegations that budget concerns kept the city from bringing in more resources. as we head into new year's eve, more nasty weather is in store. the weather channel's chris warren has been following it for us. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. we have a big storm working through the middle part of the country. out ahead of it, some very, very mild air. take a look at this. we are going to see tomorrow 60s and 70s. take a look at st. louis. 65 degrees, that is 27 degrees warmer than average. okay, so st. louis is 65 tomorrow. omaha, 25. 40 degrees cooler. that is a strong cold front working through the country. cold front separates relatively warmer air from relatively cooler air. out ahead of it, we are going to have some big-time storms firing up.

anywhere you see red, this is where we're going to see strong storms, possibly isolated tornadoes, some large hail and gusty wind. to the north, the dakotas, parts of nebraska into parts of western minnesota, we could see some very heavy snow and strong winds and possibly some blizzard conditions. that's for your friday. as we head into saturday, new year's day, this front will continue to progress farther and farther to the east. it looks like it will be wet at times and we will see some storms behind it, much, much colder air settling in for the western half of the country. if there is any good news in all of this, it looks like at least for a couple of days, the northeast will have some time to thaw out. >> chris warren looking at the new year for us. chris, thanks. in mississippi tonight, two sisters who were sentenced to life in prison 16 years ago for a robbery have been granted clemency by the governor under an unusual condition. here's our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: for 16 years, two sisters, jamie and gladys scott,

have been in a mississippi prison, convicted of taking part in an armed robbery in 1993, each serving a life sentence, which many consider unusually harsh. now after intense lobbying from civil rights groups, governor haley barbour ordered their release. >> i've cried out to god to help me to help my grandchildren and to keep jamie and gladys safe inside that prison. >> reporter: the governor did not call this a question of justice, instead he said he acted because jamie scott, who is 38, needs a kidney transplant to survive. the sisters no longer pose a threat to society, he said, and her medical condition creates a substantial cost to the state, $200,000 a year. but the release of gladys scott will be allowed only if she donates one of her kidneys to her sister, something the state says was her idea in the first place. the naacp has long protested the sentences as extreme. neither woman had a criminal record, the victims were not seriously hurt. only a fistful of dollars were

taken and others involved in the robbery have long since been released. the governor's action brought strong praise today. >> our appreciation is the fact that they are now going to be able to go home, spend time with their children, have a better quality of life, and hopefully get the medical attention that they well deserve. >> reporter: haley barbour made no secret of his interest in possibly running for president in two years, though he first went to the parole board in august, some in mississippi say his order was partly motivated by politics, after he was accused of making racially insensitive remarks in a magazine interview this month. >> i don't see any down side for governor barbour in making this move. this is not somebody whose law and order credentials are going to come into question here. >> reporter: a spokesman for the governor says it would be "highly cynical to portray his decision as political when someone is in need of a kidney transplant." pete williams, nbc news, washington. now to a case of russian

style justice is provoking harsh criticism, both there and within the u.s. government tonight. in moscow today, a judge sentenced an already imprisoned oil tycoon to six more years after he was convicted of stealing billions from his company and laundering the money. but there was also this. he was a powerful thorn in the side of russia's prime minister, vladamir putin. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has more tonight for us. andrea? >> reporter: good evening. the u.s. condemned today's sentence as an abuse of power that could scare off russia's foreign investors. but at the same time, u.s. officials signaled it will not change president obama's efforts to warm up relations with moscow. once the richest man in russia, the former oil tycoon and his co-defendants listening from a glass cage in the courtroom. they were stunned to hear the harsh sentence. their family and supporters could not be silent. before leaving the court, his

mother shouted at the judge, "may god damn you and your descendants." his lawyer pointed a finger at russia's prime minister himself, saying the pressure came from executive authorities headed by mr. putin. in fact, vladamir putin seemed to direct the judge's decision. telling his talk show two weeks ago, "a thief should stay in jail." while he built his oil empire with brutal tactics typical of russian tycoons, experts say his chief crime was challenging putin politically. >> he took on putin, he contradicted him to his face, which revealed he was a clever businessman but not a very clever politician. and he learned to his cost that you can't take putin on head on. >> reporter: prime minister putin, no longer president, but widely believed preparing to run again in 2012, has been building a cult of personality, taking on siberian tigers, judo partners

and this week, the government run airline after thousands of angry passengers were stranded because of icy runways. president obama raised this case in his most recent meeting with russia's current president medvedev. but today's sentence leaves little doubt who is in charge and the u.s. has little influence on russia's human rights policy. >> the louder the international calls against this particular sentence, i think the more robust moscow will defend its own internal sovereignty. >> reporter: some suggest russia delayed the sentence until the people were distracted by the approaching new year's holiday. and tonight in yet another distraction, russia's leading tv channel aired the first interview with russian spy anna chapman. headlining it "new year's with the girl of the year." but it doesn't take a russian spy to know that the united states is more interested in making russia an ally on a host of foreign policy challenges. than rupturing relations with

its past and likely future president vladamir putin. lester? >> when you look at relations between the country, what are the areas of critical cooperation as far as the u.s. is concerned? >> reporter: certainly the u.s. needs russia on iran, on afghanistan, on north korea. so the signal tonight is that while this could complicate world wild agreement with russia's interest in trade involvement, the world trade organization, the u.s. is not going to change its policy and will continue to support russia belonging to the world trade organization. >> andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom tonight. thanks. alaska's governor certified lisa murkowski as the winner of the state's 2010 senate race, capping a remarkable comeback by the incumbent who was beaten in the republican primary by tea party backed joe miller, but managed to win the general election with a write-in campaign. she's only the second candidate in history to win a u.s. senate seat via write-in after strom thurmond in 1954.

she'll be sworn in along with the rest of the senate next week. on wall street today, stocks finished lower on the second to last trading day of the year. the dow was down almost 16 points on very light volume. when nbc "nightly news" continues in a moment, is the government hiding information that could put lives at risk? and later, the plan to build a highway that some are calling a road to ruin.

americans suffering from kidney disease have had their dialysis treatments paid for by the federal government for the past 40 years. but how safe are the clinics that perform the treatments? nbc news teamed with the independent nonprofit investigative group pro-publica to find information that could

mean the difference between life and death. here's nbc's senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. >> reporter: 1972. a tumultuous time. and the year taxpayers began paying for kidney dialysis for anyone who needs it. today, 381,000 americans with kidney disease go to 5,500 clinics at a cost to taxpayers of almost $21 billion a year. yet the government has withheld some critical information about conditions at those clinics. cathy sharkey's mother, barbara scott, got dialysis three times a week. >> we were very close. >> reporter: but this petite, active 73-year-old grandmother died in 2006, not long after a worker at this dialysis center failed to properly tape down a needle. scott lost almost a quarter of the blood in her body.

>> to lose that much blood that quick, it shocked her body and never recovered. >> reporter: what barbara scott's family didn't know is that government data, not available to the public at the time, showed that this clinic had a higher mortality rate than most clinics around the country. in fact, a comprehensive report on that clinic recently obtained by the investigative group pro-publica reveals it had a higher mortality rate than 86% of clinics. and although the medicare website described that particular clinic's mortality rate as, as expected, the more comprehensive report, not available to the public, says this higher mortality rate is unlikely due to random chance and probably represents a real difference from the expected mortality in the nation. dr. berry straub is a top medicare official. why has the government been so reluctant to make these comprehensive reports public? >> our research has shown that most of the public does not find those particular reports

helpful. >> reporter: he says the data on infection rates, hospitalizations, and causes of death at each clinic could be misunderstood. but other experts say withholding these reports enables clinics to hide poor performance. >> having the information more available to the public will make the dialysis facilities much more accountable. >> this is with my son. >> reporter: barbara scott's family sued and settled. in a statement, the company said "human errors can happen, but we work diligently to avoid this and to improve quality." straub says the government will make more comprehensive data available in the future. information cathy sharkey says might have made a difference for her mother. lisa myers, nbc news, poughkeepsie, new york. when we come back here tonight, saying goodbye to a woman who became a world war ii icon and she didn't even know it.

♪ sorry, paul, they are taking your kodachrome away, as of today. the last photo shop with the very last batch of chemicals used to develop kodachrome film is finishing off its business tonight. thousands of people showed up at dwayne's photo in parsons, kansas. they'll be among the last to turn film into photo slides of those gorgeous colors. kodak stopped making kodachrome film and developing materials last year as film cameras have been replaced by digital models. here's an example of a kodak moment. a new addition to britain's royal family. a baby girl who has made queen elizabeth a great grandmother for the first time. the parents are autumn and peter phillips, the son of the queen's daughter, princess anne, and her first husband, mark phillips. buckingham palace says the

family is delighted and the baby's name will be confirmed in due course. it is one of the most popular images of the 20th century. a poster that became a symbol of millions of working women in world war ii and years later, of the woman's movement itself. we learned today that the woman who inspired that image has died. her game was geraldine doyle. in 1942, she was 17-year-old geraldine hoff, a real-life rosy the riveter, photographed by a united press photographer while working at a metal processing plant outside detroit. those pictures became the basis for this poster, commissioned by westinghouse that same year to promote the war effort. geraldine only learned about it years later after the poster was rediscovered and turned into a pop culture icon. her daughter said geraldine doyle leaved the "we can do it life" every day. she died sunday in lansing, michigan, aged 86, survived by five children, 18 grandchildren, and 25 great grandchildren.

when we come back here tonight, why would anyone want to build a major road right across the precious serengeti? the answer could be in your pocket right now.

your cell phone may seem far removed from the african serengeti, that vast repository of wildlife that is one of the natural wonders of the world. but there's a connection that has environmentalists alarmed and it's all about a road. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel gives us a rare look at a wild and pristine world, now threatened. >> reporter: the serengeti national park in northern tanzania is an eden of biodiversity. with two-ton hippos, giraffes, zebras and lions, the proud kings. but environmentalists say the serengeti is at risk of total collapse. the government plans to build a road for commercial trucks, straight through the serengeti. we set off in a 4 x 4 jeep on trails used by park rangers that could soon become a two-lane 33-mile highway. our first impression, zebra,

wildebeest, and endangered predators, will likely end up as road kill. animals jumped out of the way as we drove. lions sat in the path of our jeep. and conservationists say the highway could even stop the great migration of 2 million wildebeests, zebra and gazelle. >> we're worried about how detrimental it could be. >> reporter: professor andrew dobson was one of 27 renowned environmentalists to make an appeal in the journal "nature" last september not to build the road. >> you've got a reduction in the wildlife in this area. it could be as much as 50%, 70% of a decline in species, such as the wildebeest. >> reporter: we drove on and found the government has already started making preparations. if you look here between these stones, it's already sunk into the ground concrete markers to show contractors which way this road is supposed to go.

poaching is another problem. it already happens, but with a road, the serengeti could become a drive-through for poachers of elephants and their ivory. so why build the road which was a big political promise in tanzania's recent elections? the reason is probably in your pocket. cell phones. the lake victoria region in central africa is rich in rare earth metals that are essential for cell phones and hybrid car batteries. the shortest route to move the minerals from lake victoria to the coast is through the serengeti. china is buying them as fast as it can, and tanzania wants to sell. officials declined to be interviewed on camera for this story, but on a balloon ride over the vast plains, tourists were horrified. >> total disgust, you know. i don't agree with it whatsoever. >> catastrophic for something like that to happen. >> totally inappropriate. >> reporter: a road that could bring prosperity to a poor nation. but also destroy one of nature's

greatest treasures. richard engel, nbc news, the serengeti. and that is our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in for brian williams. hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. 5 -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i almost go inside, you know. the fire is so bad i can't go. >> a neighbor pulls a girl to safety from a burning building as her family is trapped inside. tonight we're finding out just who is responsible for the family living in a home with power rigged by extension cords. and without working smoke detectors. good evening, everyone, i'm