on the broadcast tonight, fighting words. they come from a small church. they say horrible things at the funerals of u.s. military. is that free speech? there was a big supreme court ruling today. fighting back. gadhafi's fierce new pushback against his own people. as other dictators fall, how does he survive? whose side are you on in the showdown over unions and collective bargaining? tonight we'll show you what people say in our new poll. the secret lives of animals. did you ever wonder what they're all up to when nobody's watching? now we know. and the surprise appearance today to unveil the next big thing. today to unveil the next big thing. "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. they go to the funerals of americans who have been killed in action in iraq and afghanistan and they hold up signs saying things like, "thank god for dead soldiers," "god hates you," and "it's too late to pray," and they do this in the name of religion. of course, what they do is an insult to religion. they are the members of the westboro baptist church in kansas and they are the last thing a grief-stricken parent wants to see, but is what they're doing free speech? do they deserve protection even in, as we like to say, a free country? today the supreme court said yes, our constitution protects a lot of things, including, in this case, hatred. it's where we begin our broadcast tonight with our justice correspondent pete williams at the court. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this is a big victory for a group from kansas that believes america is

morally flawed and while the court said today many americans may feel the same way about that group, the constitution protects even messages that society finds offensive. the court sided with members of the tiny westboro kansas baptist church who has protested at hundreds of military funerals and claimed that u.s. war deaths were god's punishment for the nation's acceptance of gay rights. when they showed up at the funeral of matthew snyder, a marine killed in iraq, they carried signs that said "thank god for dead soldiers" and "god hates you." that outraged snyder's father who sued the group for emotional distress. but today the supreme court said the group demonstrated in a public place on issues of public concern and obeyed local laws, keeping them 1,000 feet from the church. writing for eight members of the court, chief justice john roberts said speech is powerful and can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and as it did here, inflict great pain, but he said the government cannot react to

that pain by punishing the speaker. today matthew snyder's father albert reacted with disgust. >> eight justices don't have the common sense god gave a goat. we can no longer bury our dead in this country with dignity. >> reporter: but civil liberties groups supported the ruling. >> the court's decision today properly and respectfully acknowledged the snyder family grief, but also correctly held that the response to that grief cannot include abandoning core first amendment principles that protect even the most unpopular speech. >> today, the group said the ruling gives them fresh encouragement. >> we're telling you your stinking theater is on fire and we will continue to tell you that. we have not slowed down, thank god, and we will not. >> the court's single dissenter, justice samuel alito, said the free debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault the snyder family suffered. veterans groups said they'll

urge counter demonstrations to blunt the impact of the demonstrators. >> we want to blank out and seal their message totally. hopefully if nobody hears them they'll go away. >> reporter: the court said the message can't be stopped and communities can't impose restrictions on protests outside funerals, something 44 states have already done. brian? >> pete williams with an important day at the supreme court in washington. pete, thanks. now we turn to news overseas and an effort to form a free country. it's been a wild 24 hours in libya. moammar gadhafi has made it clear he's not going without a fight and there was some fierce fights overnight as he tried to take back parts of eastern libya from the rebels who took it from him. this was his first offensive against the fighters holding that part of the country, which by the way, is where the oil is and where his forces tried to move in on two key towns. we have the story covered tonight with our team on the ground in the region. we want to begin with nbc's stephanie gosk, she's in benghazi, the unofficial operating base for the rebels. good evening.

>> good evening, brian. gadhafi wasn't just looking to retake a town. he was going after the oil. brega is one of the most important oil ports in this country. country. the surprise attack worked, at first. today gadhafi struck back at the rebels in the east. this youtube video shows the raging battle in brega. militia forces moved in at dawn with suvs and mounted machine guns. one opposition fighter in the small oil town described a massacre. terrible situation. we were there, nearly hundreds just maybe 20 get back alive. >> the ground attack was followed by air strikes, repeatedly hitting a weapons depot in nearby adabia. while injuries from the gun battle filled the local hospital, this 6-year-old boy was caught in the crossfire. it's a massacre right now.

>> reporter: these aren't peaceful protesters, this is a rebel fighting force, disorganized, inexperienced and heavily armed. when news came that brega had been attacked, they rushed to the fight and pushed back gadhafi's militia. many signed up in the town of benghazi which has become the rebel capital of the east. we will win or we will die, this man says. the difficult part will be harnessing that energy and using it to create an effective fighting force. there have been 5000 people that have been conscripted so far. most have never served in the military and have never fired a gun. former military officers have started the training while ammunition is stockpiled around town and weapons are tested. on the streets, the demonstrations continue with defiance and in open contempt of moammar gadhafi that was once unthinkable. stephanie gosk, nbc news, benghazi. >> reporter: i'm jim maceda in tripoli. moammar gadhafi, the arab

world's longest-serving leader, chose this day, the anniversary of his revolution, and this crowd packed with supporters and dozens of foreign journalists, to set the record straight. here is what he said about libya's uprising. there is no uprising, no power struggle and no internal problems in libya. it's the kind of head-snapping response the world has come to know. gadhafi in his flowing robes and head held high and speaking for two and a half hours hardly looked like a spent force. he's always been eccentric, female bodyguards and the ukrainian nurse and the tent even in new york. some called him defiant and others delusional. which one is it? >> i would make the point that you don't get to run a country for more than four decades by being a flake. >> reporter: gadhafi has survived through a mix of patronage, keeping real power within his tribe and ruthless brutality. there is a conspiracy to control the libyan oil and to control

the libyan land and colonize libya again, he said. in this room, at least, he knew he was adored and safe. every pen had been checked. some libya experts even talk about gadhafiism, a kind of socialist philosophy with a manic twist, however long he lasts, they say, he'll be a tough act to follow. brian? >> jim maceda, stephanie gosk starting off our coverage from libya, thanks to you both and now to our chief correspondent richard engel. he has also now gotten into tripoli and, richard, what are you seeing tonight and what do you say to people who want to know about the endgame? >> reporter: it is such a different feeling here. when i was in benghazi, you could feel that there is a revolution under way. people are excited, they're motivated and many people are out with weapons and they're wearing berets. here in tripoli there's a feeling that people want to ignore this and we're in the eye of the storm and even this city is now circled with checkpoints by gadhafi supporters.

in the center of the town as we drove in from the airport today you don't see any military presence. instead we saw people out sweeping the streets. there are restaurants that are open. gadhafi and the city appeared to believe that if they ignored the war perhaps it just won't come on to the center of the city and if this continues and gadhafi remains in power and the people choose to accept this suspended state of reality then this could last a while. >> and so it goes, richard engel in tripoli, thanks. the fighting in libya helped send oil on another rocket ride. it closed above $100 a barrel where it stands now at $102.23. four-star u.s. army general david petraeus has made a highly unusual personal apology tonight after a deadly mistake by nato forces in the mountains of eastern afghanistan. nine boys were collecting firewood when they were killed

by nato helicopters overhead. they were mistaken for insurgents on the ground. the victims included two sets of brothers. in his apology, general petraeus called the incident a tragedy. he said these deaths should never have happened. two members of the u.s. air force on their way to afghanistan were killed, two others badly injured today, when a gunman opened fire on a u.s. military bus at the airport in frankfurt, germany. a 21-year-old man was arrested at the scene. a relative says he is a muslim who worked at the airport. police aren't calling it an act of terrorism, but they so far aren't ruling it out, either. the army filed 22 new charges against bradley manning, the young private first class accused of illegally downloading tens of thousands of classified u.s. documents that were then publicly released by wikileaks. the most serious among the new charges filed today is aiding the enemy, a charge that could

result in the death penalty, but the prosecution will not recommend it. they're asking for a life sentence instead. we have the results of a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll tonight and we got some interesting information on how americans feel about the fight in wisconsin and other states over collective bargaining rights for public employees. our chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd with us from washington tonight. chuck, good evening. >> good evening, brian. perhaps the most surprising number was how many people were paying attention to the showdown in madison. 73% said they're following the story. public government workers, should they have the same bargaining rights as private employees? 77% said yes, they should. that said, these same folks said 68% of them said that government workers should have to contribute more to their own retirement and 63% said they have to contribute more to their

health care and 58% support a full-on one-year salary freeze for all government workers. turning to washington, as you know, a few hours ago president obama signed what's called a continuing resolution to fund the government for another two weeks, avoiding a government shutdown, but there is a big battle to figure out how to tackle the deficit. we tested 26 different proposals and we found out what are the most acceptable and unacceptable. the three more acceptable proposals is the surtax on millionaires. eliminating earmarks by members of congress and getting rid of any tax subsidies to oil and gas companies. the three most unacceptable ideas, cutting any funding for medicare. cutting any benefits out of social security or cutting any funding out of k through 12 education. of course, the other big story in the last month has been the uprising in the middle east, and as you can see here, president obama gets fairly high marks for his handling of egypt. 55% approve of what he's doing there. on libya right now there's a lot more undecided. 48% approve of how he's handling libya at this point, but there seems to be a lot of folks with

a wait-and-see attitude trying to figure out what all of this means. >> a whole lot of folks paying close attention and fascinating new numbers. chuck todd in washington, thanks. up next this evening, imagine realizing everything has changed where you grew up. tom brokaw on an american city that is dealing with just that. later, what wild animals have been doing this whole time when night falls and no one's been around to watch.

we're back. our series of reports continues tonight on "america at the crossroads." tonight, a city that was hit hard even before this last recession came along. tom brokaw is here with us just back from pennsylvania with that story tonight. tom, welcome. >> brian, redding, pennsylvania, was once a thriving manufacturing center turning out everything from steam engines to knitted goods and then it was a destination for big discount stores.

but now reading's proud past is only a memory as it struggles like so many cities in this country to just stay alive economically. >> in a classroom at reading high school there is an energetic debate on the city's economy. >> 15 years ago we were the number one outlet center of the world. >> reading was once a destination city, buzzing with factories, overflowing with retail stores. today, it is a far different place. >> i was giving a speech in class, and how i opened up the speech was, by show of hands, who cannot wait to get out of reading? and sure enough my whole class raised their hands. >> senior tyler washington says that after college he wants to come back some day, but he doesn't know when. >> unfortunately, we don't have a diversity of employment so if they're interested in certain fields they know they have to go off to another city. >> reporter: this mostly vacated

industrial site in reading is symptomatic of what happened in this town and until about ten years ago there were 3,000 people here making truck frames, but then that business went south. the company that owned the plant packed up and moved out. >> there is light at the end of the tunnel. >> mayor thomas mcmahon is chief executive and chief cheerleader of the city of 81,000 people. unemployment is 12%. the city has the highest poverty level in the state. it also has a shrinking tax base. >> our total bill for police and fire on an annual basis is $40 million. our total tax that comes in on property tax and earned income tax is only 30. >> reading has been designated by the state as officially financially distressed. a status that gives the city the power to raise taxes and it gives it more power in collective bargaining with public unions. in return, reading must balance its budget. according to the mayor, the only real solution for places like

reading is to team up with surrounding governments to share assets and opportunities. >> we've got to get away from this mentality that every borough and burgh and tiny city has to survive on their own. i think the government makes a lot of sense. >> reporter: in the meantime, more cuts in the city budget, and that worries police chief bill hime. he has already lost 20% of his force in the last four years. >> we're cut to the bone in so many places that public safety, police officers and fire fighters now are feeling that pinch. woodworking, photography, all types of arts -- >> reporter: albert boscoff, a prominent businessman, is trying to renovate downtown neighborhoods. despite the tough odds, he refuses to give up. >> if you were a young investor without the emotional attachment to reading that you have, would you be putting dollars into the city at this point? >> it's not a great investment from a real estate point of view because it hasn't gone up yet. our feeling is with the housing

programs, with all of the things we're doing downtown and we will see a reversal in real estate. >> reading has a proud history, dating from the mid-1700s, but now a third of its population lives in poverty. a third of its students drop out of high school. if reading is to have a renewal, it can't come soon enough. brian, reading is not alone, other pennsylvania cities that once relied on manufacturing have lost 40% of those jobs in the last 20 years. so to survive, many experts believe the old rules of separate cities and counties will have to be changed. they should consolidate. so costs can be shared and opportunities created on a regional basis. brian? >> reading is a great place. a whole lot of people cheering for it. tom, thanks. the series continues here tomorrow night. up next as we continue here tonight, the newest thing from apple came out today along with a big surprise.

you know how apple has a way of making the cool thing you just bought a few months ago suddenly look soviet-era and powered by coal? well, they did it again today. forget the ipad you might have just purchased after saving up the money for it. they unveiled the new ones today as thin as the iphone, lighter than the current ipad, more speed, power and memory and

battery and two cameras, but the big news was the guy that showed up at the unveiling. >> good morning! >> steve jobs, the creator, the personification of apple and the man who makes our stuff obsolete every couple of months, a surprise appearance today in the midst of ill health looking thin, but giving an energetic presentation of the product. he is one of the great living veterans of hollywood, a modern-day link to the golden era, and yet we learned today there's a lot we didn't know about the life of actor mickey rooney. he went to washington today to talk about abuse of the elderly and that meant telling his own story and breaking his silence about alleged abuse at the hands of his own family members. >> even when i tried to speak up i was told to shut up and be quiet. you don't know what you're talking about.

it seemed no one -- no one wanted to believe me. >> it's a gripping story and our own kelly o'donnell got an exclusive interview with mickey rooney which you'll be able to see tomorrow morning on "today." when we come back here tonight, spy cameras put to a whole new use and you can't take your eyes off what they've seen.

finally tonight, just as about every fisherman alive has wanted at some point to see down there in the water and see those fish, what they're up to and how to catch more of them. we've probably all wondered what critters do when it's dark at night and nobody's watching, and fortunately for all of us, the smithsonian institution wondered the same thing, and they set out some cameras and they have recorded the most amazing things and so tonight nbc's lee cowan rips the cover off the nighttime world. >> reporter: they are captured without a net or a dart and without harm. some of the world's most magnificent animals whose only complaint may be that their privacy was invaded a bit. it's candid camera in the wilderness.

more than 200,000 snaps that the smithsonian has put together to create an online digital safari that has viewers going wild. >> i feel like we've created a monster. using cameras triggered by motion and heat, researchers have been able to get some astonishing images without humans mucking it up. from a jaguar in peru, a blood pheasant in china to a spotted hyena in kenya. at this single watering hole the cameras caught not only a thirsty tokken, but a giant panda, too, who seemed to relish their photo being taken. this one found the camera so irresistible it tried to taste it which gave researchers a glimpse of the inside of a panda's mouth. >> these are pretty rugged cameras and they're built to be put in an extreme environment. >> it's all part of the 2.0 initiative to give the public more access to science, all at the click of a mouse, all creatures big and small. it's voyeurism at its finest, instructive and entertainment.

talk about a deer in headlights. photos may have been intended for research, but in the eye of some beholders, they become art, too. lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. >> we have links to all of the photos on our website tonight. for us, for now, that's our broadcast for this wednesday evening and thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. as always, we hope to see you back here tomorrow night. as always, we hope to see you back here tomorrow night. good night. inches what lies beneath? turns out the san bruno fire xheef had no idea. the stunning revelations about what happened the day the san bruno neighborhood went up in flames. a missing student forces an entire school district into lockdown. what the teen did that put the school on red alert. i'm scott budman with a first look and test of the brand mif new apple ipad 2.