on the broadcast tonight, payback time for airlines that have been nickel and diming those of us who fly. bumping passengers, losing bags, holding passengers hostage inside the plane for hours. tonight, the new power passengers now have. fade to black. the end has come for those color-coded threat alert levels ten years after 9/11. but there's a new system for warning americans. disaster in the gulf. hard to believe it's been a year since the bp oil spill, but does anyone think all that oil just went away? and far from home. our series about life on the front lines and the incredible young americans who have volunteered to live it. tonight's heart-stopping story

from one of the toughest places on earth. "nightly news" begins now. good evening. to our viewers in the west tonight. airline passengers in this country have felt abused for a long time. as of this summer, help will finally arrive for many of them. if you fly then you know, they now charge for just about everything that used to be free in the part of the ticket price. flights are crowded, the lines are long, services are few, bags get lost, and true customer satisfaction can seem like a quaint relic of the past. the government is now forcing a change. new rules on pricing and protection for those who fly coming from the department of transportation is where we begin tonight.

here's lisa meyers in washington. it's spring break, so lots of people are traveling today, and complaining about hidden costs. in chicago -- >> i think it's unfair. i think if everybody has the information outright, they can make better decisions for themselves. >> reporter: in atlanta. >> i thought i found a deal on the ticket itself. i had to pay a lot of extra money with the nickel and dime things they got us for. >> reporter: that's about to change. under the new rules that take effect in late august, every ary airfare posted by a travel site must now include all government taxes and fees. what's more, airlines must prominently disclose all fees they could hit passengers with during a flight, fees for baggage, better seats, meals, fees to cancel or change a reservation. >> it means total transparency on what the cost of the ticket is, it means they're going to be treated with the level of service they deserve for the cost. >> reporter: if you get bumped from an oversold flight, the airlines will have to pay you

much more, up to $650 if you're delayed a short time. up to $1,300 for a long delay. if your bag is lost, the baggage fee will be refunded. also, another new rule to deal with nightmarish tarmac delays such as the almost two-hour delay suffered by jetblu passengers on a runway in 2007. last year, the government imposed a three-hour limit on how long passengers on domestic flights can be stuck on a tarmac, which reduced delays but also increased flight cancellations as airlines moved to avoid big fines. now there will be a similar four-hour limit on international flights. >> the airlines say they're already moving in the same direction as these new rules. a lot of people would say that's disingenuous on their part. the fact is their feet are being held to the fire. >> reporter: tonight, the airline industry says it appreciates the d.o.t. shares its goal of treating customers

fairly and providing the best possible service and it insists, brian, that service is improving with fewer misplaced bags and oversold flights. lisa starting us off from washington, thanks. and there's another change tonight from the government. this one concerning the most routinely ignored and misunderstood guidelines of the modern era. that color-coded national threat level alert system is going away and being replaced by a new system the government is hoping will be taken more seriously. that story from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> today we announce the homeland security advisory system. >> reporter: announced with great fanfare shortly after the 9/11 attacks, color-coded alerts were intended to indicate changes in the severity of the terror threat. >> we're now at high risk. >> the united states government is raising the threat level. >> raising the threat level to our highest level of alert,

severe, or red. >> but after changing the threat color 16 times, the government concluded the system was useful mainly to late-night comics. >> a color-coded threat advisory system you'll want to consult every morning to make sure your outfit matches your dread. >> so today, the homeland security department announced a new system of streamline alerts intended to be more informative. they'll be issued at two levels, elevated when there's potential information about a threat, and imminent when information is specific about a target and suggests an attack could come soon. the homeland security expert said the alerts will provide specifics. >> they will say how you can help, what you need to do to stay prepared, what you need to do to stay informed. >> reporter: the alerts will also be tailored to the information. what cities could be affected, for example, or targets like hotels or shopping malls, and they'll automatically expire two weeks after the issue.

unless there's new intelligence to renew them. no threat, no alert, just reminders to remain vigilant. like the see something say something campaign. a longtime critic of the color codes who pushed for the change says it's about time. >> when you went to the airport and said the color code is orange, you had no idea what to do, so it really was a system that had become almost absolutely useless. >> and the new alerts will be issued much more widely on facebook, even on twitter. it starts next tuesday when the old colors fade away. >> you can almost hear people barking at their tvs sometimes. the question remains the same as it has been over the last ten years. how do we act under elevated that we wouldn't do under immine imminent? >> elevated, they might say there's a threat against big-city parks. you might want to know about that, do what you want to do. if you can be more specific, they will. they'll say there's a threat against this park in this city,

or if you're driving on i-noisk, watch out for a white van with this license plate. they want to be as specific as they can, but they can't always give those details. >> pete williams, thanks. and while we're on the subject of changes, let's talk about the story that broke last night. the air force 737 carrying the first lady on final approach into andrews airforce base outside d.c. forced to go around and abort landing because a cargo jet, a big one, three miles ahead of them took longer to land and clear the runway than was considered safe within minimums. this kind of so-called go-around is a pretty common thing at busy big city commercial airports, less common, of course, when the passenger is the first lady landing at a secured air force base. again today, the government stresdzed the fact that nobody was ever in any adanger here, bt still, because of the error, the faa said they would now use the same system to monitor and

supervise flights for the first lady and vice president that they already use for the president when he's flying anywhere in the country. two journalists including a well known war photographer who was nominated for an academy award about his documentary about the war in afghanistan have been killed while working in libya in the city of misrata which has been under assault by gadhafi forces for weeks. tim hetherington was just 41 years old, best known for his film "restrepo" which he made with sebastian junger last fall. on "morning joe," he talked about the war and the work of covering it. >> really, the heart of the war machine is take a group of young men, train them together, and they'll kill and be killed for each other, and we need to understand that. we cover the story not for adrenaline but because it's important to go to these places and bring back what we don't often see in the states. >> tim hetherington appearing on nbc.

he was killed by a rocket propelled grenade that also killed another photographer working with him, chris hondros of the getty photo agency. two other photographers with them were wounded in there attack. meanwhile, the pentagon reports that in addition to the nato air campaign in libya, the obama administration is preparing to provide those anti-gadhafi rebels fighting on the ground with as much as $25 million in aid in their fight against those gadhafi forces to be used for things like body armor and medical supplies. and three nations now, britain, france, and italy, have said they're sending military advisers to benghazi to work with the rebels in a non-combat role. and already, those inevitable questions about mission creep have started up today. stephanie gosk is in benghazi for us again tonight. stephanie, good evening.

>> reporter: good evening, brian. this may begin to feel like mission creep to some. these are not ground troops, they're military officers who will not be taking part in fighting. they'll help with logistics, communication, and organization. and there are signs that all the way to the top, that kind of help is desperately needed. two generals have been fighting very publicly this week for the command position of the rebel forces. and after days of bad publicity where they both claim they're in charge, finally the national counsel came out in support of just one of them, general yunus. he is the former interior minister here as well as a former friend of gadhafi. now, nato hopes the military advisers and an increase in air strikes will help end the military stalemate here and hopefully end that intense violence in misratah where hundreds of civilians have been killed and now two award-winning journalists. >> stephanie gosk who has been

covering the war from us from the rebel base of benghazi. thanks. a year to the day after the deep-water horizon oil rig exploded and fell into the waters of the gulf of mexico, killing 11 workers, some of their survivors, family members, flew over that site in tribute today, and since that very first day, grief has been mixed with anger over this disaster all along the gulf coast. our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson is with us once again tonight from venice, louisiana. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. late today, bp filed suit against the maker of the blow-out preventers, alleging a faulty design contributed to the oil spill. some of that oil is still in louisiana's marshes and now officials here are trying to decide if the effort is clean it up is worth the risk to this fragile coastline. one year later, there are still clean-up workers in one of the

most heavily oiled areas along louisiana's coast, using a giant crane operated hedge clipper, they cut a swath of marsh to get at the oil trapped by the grasses. a giant rake piled up the debris, but even after all that, you can still see veins of oil in the mud. scott is with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. is this oil down here? >> yeah, this is a little residual mousse. >> it has a sticky consistency. >> kind of a juicy or loose peanut butter consistency. this was trapped underneath this vegetation. if you tried to get it all, you could be potentially excavateing the marsh and losing it. >> 60 miles away, another area devastated by the spill, a path of plywood planks leads to the oil. the pungent odor of the summer is gone, but all it takes is just a couple shovelfuls of muck and you can start to see the

tell-tale rust-colored signs of oil. >> it's got a sheen on the service. >> james peters who makes his living leading deep-sea fishing trips sees changes, too. >> you look down and there's a sheen and oil droplets in the water. >> there is no more visible oil on cat island, where we first saw the heartbreaking pictures of pelicans dripping with oil. >> how healthy does it look to you a year after the oil spill >> frankly, it doesn't look very healthy. >> the national wildlife federation's david grooth points to the dying mangroves on the edge and the leafless interior, still pelicans make their nests here. they say clean-up is pointless. >> all this clean-up they're doing on the edge of the marsh is for naught because in five years all of that's going to be eroded away. in 50 years, it's all gone. everything you see is gone. >> now, finally tonight, the

government is strongly disputing an associated press report that says 3200 wells in the gulf of mexico do not have cement plugs and threaten to leak oil into these waters. the government says those wells are sealed and they're monitored every six months. anne thompson on an otherwise beautiful night the venice harbor. when we come back, the word from l.a. one of the great names in baseball is in trouble and tonight the league is moving in fast to help fix the dodgers. and later, a brave young american we would like you to get to know. he's one of many from here serving over there. rican soldie introduce you to this evening. the young soldier we'll introduce you to this eefrkening. "miss stacy, this class is changing the way that i look at things." sparking that interest and showing them that math and science are exciting... it's why i teach.

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the most common side effects are liver problems, nausea, gout flares, joint pain, and rash. [ male announcer ] if you have gout, ask your doctor about uloric. just don't feel like they used to. are you one of them? remember when you had more energy for 18 holes with your buddies. more passion for the one ya love. more fun with your family and friends. it could be a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. come on, stop living in the shadows. you've got a life to live. [ male announcer ] so don't blame it on aging. talk to your doctor and go to isitlowt.com to find out more. we're back. there's big interest in this story on the west coast. big news in the world of major league baseball. the league has taken control of the los angeles dodgers. one of the great names in baseball, stripping the team's owner, frank mccourt, of financial control.

nbc's miguel is at dodger stadium with more. good evening. >> brian, good evening. the los angeles dodgers, wurp of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports is now under the control of major league baseball. dodger owner frank mccourt is in serious financial trouble while he's also in the middle of a bitter fight with his ex-wife over control of the team. so the league has officially stepped in, saying it will take over day-to-day operations. commissioner bud selig released this statement. i have taken this action because of my concerns regarding the dujers and to protect the best intere interests of the club. we will continue the investigation into the finances of the dodgers. no official reaction from the team tonight at dodger stadium. >> thanks. up next here tonight, a big record has fallen and a man

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well, here we are approaching the eve of his eldest son's wedding, and prince charles has set a record for the british monarchy. he's now the longest monarch in waiting in all of british history having waited now 59 years, 2 months, 14 days take over the crown. he's known all his life, of course, he would be king some day. he's also known it would only happen following a huge personal loss, as he talked about with us in scotland last fall. >> i think about it a bit, but it's much better not to. this is something that -- it comes, regrettably it comes with the death of your parent, which is not so nice, to say the least. >> part of our conversation with prince charles last year. it's worth pointing out the queen celebrates her 85th

birthday tomorrow. her own mother, the queen mom, lived to the age of 101. courtesy of this week's ""new york times"" magazine, we have a photo to show you. it shows aside from being the first african-american president, barack obama is also the first former pirate to become president. this photo shows a very young barack obama at home in hawaii on halloween with his mother, who, by the way, is the subject of this weekend's magazine article. up next here tonight, a 22-year-old american far from home on a real-life hurt locker mission. ... that works with ready-to-use liquid miracle-gro. it's a revolutionary way to grow a great garden. liquafeed makes feeding as easy as watering. no measuring, mixing or guessing. just attach, insert and feed. plants get the perfect balance... of water and nutrients... to grow twice as big.

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it does force a lifestyle change. [ female announcer ] fda approved alli. learn more at myalli.com. we hav we have something very special to show you here tonight, especially if you yourself don't know anyone serving in uniform overseas as part of this country's all-volunteer force. nbc's jim maceda spent several weeks in the battlefield getting to know some extraordinary but otherwise perfectly ordinary americans serving in afghanistan. he's seen stunning acts of courage and bravery that to them are just another day in the life. tonight, the first of jim's series on americans far from home and their frontline stories.

>> this is staff sergeant adam wantrop unplugged. >> how do i miss with the knife twice? >> playing black ops video games or trying to sing along with "rock band." anything that keeps his mind off the next mission, but in explosive ordinance disposal, or eod, down time is short. the latest crisis, an unexploded rocket found near a clinic. >> they say it's a rocket. >> and then he turns into tron, as he's known, a rock star in the life or death world of eod. >> fire in the hole! >> on any given day, tron, a team leader at just 22, diffuses and destroys tons of ordinances, multiple ieds, and jugs of explosives. >> have you seen this guy work

before? >> this guy, he's a hero. >> who likes to improvise. coming across the live rocket, his instincts kicked in. >> i will pick up the rocket and put it where it needs to go. >> carrying it himself. did i see you carry a live rocket across a river with a strong current? >> yeah. >> why? why did you do that? >> to get it out of their way. >> if he exudes confidence now, his childhood left him scarred and insecure, the youngest of four brothers, he lived in a trailer in hard-scrabble maryland. his late father, an alcoholic preacher. his oldest brother abused drugs and was institutionalized. adam was kicked out of high school, headed, he said, for jail. >> i knew growing up that i wanted to run away, get away, do something, travel. and the military was his ticket where he was judged for the first time on his merit, and he's never looked back. >> going from being all alone to getting looked at like, hey, look at that guy, that was something that changed me. >> tron admits to being a free

spirit with his half-body tattoos and an adrenaline junky, but he always goes by the book, trying first to diffuse the ieds with his robot -- >> it's too steep -- >> before engaging himself. how does he deal with all the daily pressure? >> probably describe myself as a -- as an on/off switch. ♪ but i sure know where i've been ♪ >> when he's off he's really off, but when he's on he's saved countless lives. >> i think it's helping the people. that's what it is. i feel good about myself when i can remove that ied threat. >> and proving to himself that his life is worth it. jim maceda, nbc news, afghanistan. >> that's the kind of stories we'll be bringing to you from the battlefield. jim maceda continues his in depth reporting tomorrow night with a young woman pilot who does extraordinary things in the air knowing a whole lot of people on the ground are

counting on her. tomorrow night here as we continue our series, "far from home." for us and for now, that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams and we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. my name is barack obama and i'm the guy that got mark to wear a jacket and tie. >> right now at 6:00, his humor in tow, the president visits facebook for a town hall as he begins a fundraising swing through the bay area. we hope to find really good homes for them. >> a popular tv show helped to rescue ten dogs living in horrific conditions. a bay area animal shelter stepping up to help. the news at 6:00 starts right now.