on the broadcast tonight, criminal charges for john edwards. f senator, presidential candidate, tonight facing jail time and huge fines stemming from a sex scandal. hitting home. americans are feeling it every day, and new evidence on the economy stalling out. dr. death, that was his nickname. jack kevorkian is dead. the effect he had on dying in this country. also in the news, the stories this week you would notice if you were looking so closely.

"nightly news" begins now. good evening. it turns out his real name is johnny reed edwards, but we know him as john edwards, united states senator, vice presidential nominee of the democratic party, two-time presidential candidate. no one ever dreamed he would be the edwards in a case called "the united states versus edwards." it's been a spectacular fall for a public man. tonight, john edwards, johnny reed edwards of north carolina, is an accused felon under federal indictment on a charge of trying to use campaign money to hide his relationship with another woman. his wife elizabeth is now dead with breast cancer. edwards, who is a very good lawyer, said he'll go to trial with this in july. we begin with lisa myers. >> good evening, brian. this is a sordid story of deception and betrayal. even if most of the facts prove true, there already is controversy whether it all amounts to a federal crime.

>> here he comes. >> reporter: with his daughter kate by his side, john edwards took responsibility for doing wrong, but not for breaking the law. >> i take full responsibility for having done wrong, and i will regret for the rest of my life, the pain and the harm i caused to others. but i did not break the law. and i never, ever thought i was breaking the law. >> reporter: at issue, almost a million dollars provided by two wealthy donors. now 100-year-old heiress rachel bunny mellon, and fred baron. the money was used to hide edwards' mistress, rielle hunter, and later their child, while he ran for president. the six count indictment said it payment contributed to unlawful campaign contributions, and convicted edwfrdz of trying to

solicit them and cover them up. as proof the money was intended to help the campaign, prosecutors cite a note by mellon, written after an uproar over edwards' 400 daler hair cut. she wrote, the next time, anything that can help our friend, sent the receipts to me. >> no wwaas s charged either civilly or criminally, with what edward has been. >> edwards joked with the number of lawyers present. five for him and seven for the government. >> rielle hunter and her daughter now live in charlotte, two hours from the edwards estate. what he told his young children about today? >> that i love him. >> reporter: he walked away

without another word. sources clo s close to the case nbc that they were close to a last minute plea deal but negotiate eions broke down with prison time. >> we spent a lot of time last night talking about the mounting time of the sloping economy, and today, we got what could only be described as a disappointing jobs report. employers added only 54,000 jobs in may. that was way below what people expected and were hoping for. and the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1%. tom costello tonight, good evening. >> for months, we have been averaging a quarter million jobs averaged per month. in may, however, the seems the economy hit the brakes.

>> up, up, $54,000. >> the news at 8:30 this morning was a shocker. >> no matter how you cut this data, it's lousy. >> the economy added only 54,000 jobs in may, only a third of what analysts hoped for. rather than inch down, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1%. and 13.9 million americans are now unemployed. just to keep the unemployment rate where it is, the government needs to crete as many as 1 fifty,000 jobs a month. >> to bring down unemployment, we have to create at least 200,000 jobs, probably more than that, each and every month. >> while the it field did see growth, that was not widespread. retail cut 8,500 jobs. manufacturers cut 5,000 jobs. more than half in the auto sector struggling to get parts

from japan after the earthquake. meanwhile, states and local governments continue to cut back and lay off. 440,000 jobs lost since september 2008. 18,000 of them in education. in indianapolis, hundreds stood in line for a job at the state fair, while in los angeles, homeowners are meeting with specialists this week, desperate to cut their mortgage bills. >> i want to save my home. >> reporter: meanwhile, former fed chairman alan greenspan said it's time to raise the dent ceiling and the taxes. >> the fact i'm saying we should go back to the clinton tax structure shows how scared i am of how this has emerged and the magnitude. sglo there is good news, the europeans are dealing with their debt crisis, and japan is working through their crises.

but it's going to take a while before all of this is behind us and we with work our way out of the hole. >> tom costello in washington on friday night. president obama was talking about his administration's political policies on a trip to ohio today, but said nothing about the job numbers. ory chief white house correspondent chuck todd is here with us tonight. at some point, folks are going to want to hear a reaction to it. >> the president alluded to it during the trip to ohio. >> this economy took a big hit. you know, just like if you had a bad illness, if you got hit by a truck. you know, it's going to take a while for you to mend. there are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery. >> now, look, he was in toledo. this was a planned stop. they know when the jobs report comes out, and they knew for

weeks this would be a tough report. at least that's what they assumed in the white house. that's what we told you last night. they wanted to tout what chrysler did last night and today, which is pay back a large chunk of the money the government had given them to bail them out. there's still a lot of money that hasn't been paid back over time by gm and chrysler, but it was still a big chunk of change. on the unemployment issue, the white house still believes that once gas prices go down, once the japan recovery efforts jump-start manufacturing acts from this country to help them rebuild and wants mhelp with th debt crisis, and that's dealt with, that should shake the atmosphere. that all sounds easy. chuck, thanks. now we turn overseas where the arab spring is quickly turning into arab summer and promises to be prolonged and lot

and violent. there were disturbances in yemen today, getting closer to all-out war. richard is with us tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. major developments in yemen. anger and protests have been building in yemen for four months. today was the first attack to actually kill the president. smoke can be seen rising near the presidential palace after what the government is calling an assassination attempt. it happened around midday prayers when across town, thousands of yemenis were protesting against salah. at the time, president srk sarx lah was in a mosque, officials say, in his compound praying, when suddenly it was hit by rockets. seven presidential guards were

killed, at least three government officials were wounded. police thought that he was dead. hours later, yemeni tv played a videotape from salah, sounding tired but alive. sources in salah tell nbc president salah didn't appear on camera because he has burns on his fi face and body. the government blamed the attack on loyalists to the leaders. they're loyal and heavily armed. tray sided with the demonstrators demanding that salah step down after he repeatedly reject eed deals to leave office peacefully in exchange for amnesty. now they're forcing him to leave, through protests, or it seems, by killing him.

and brian, yemen isn't the only country boiling over. in syria, protesters are continuing to grow. in part, motivated by the death and apparent torture of a 13-year-old boy. a video, a very gruesome video of his body has been widely circulated online today. there were more demonstrations in syria, and according to witnesses, at least 30 people were killed when security forces opened fire. today, the syrian government shut down most mobile phones and internet service in the country. >> yemen and syria, two countries by the way, we western jou journalists can't get in to cover. what about where you are and where gadhafi is hanging on. >> after months, we're seeing signs of progress. they're advancing toward the capital of tripoli. and many night there are clashes on the outskirts of tripoli.

the economic sanctions are having an impact here. c it could take days fill up your car. the banks areabout giving out much money. we spoke to someone, he went to different banks for five days and was only able to get $200. >> on top of all the awful news, by the way, we came close do getting hit by an asteroid. a big rock, picture an airstream home, passed closer to the earth than the moon is. in space terms, it was close enough to muss up your hair, but luckily, it was a swing and a miss. the asteroid was named 2009 bd, or as some astronomers called it, what the heck was that? it's now way out to space, and they assure us, if it had made contact, it wouldn't have done much damage. and this piece of video from

a woman prominent in the news this week already has tongues waggi wagging. it's from her tour of historic sites. you shall hear sarah palin's version of the midnight ride of paul rureeverevere. >> he who warned the british they weren't going to be taking away our arms and making sure as he was riding his horse through town to send the warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free. >> as she said, that already has -- as we said, rather, that already has people talking. saia palin trailing the freedom trail in boston. the real-life version involved lanterns. when we come back, the man who was known in life as dr. death. the controversial legacy of jack kevorkian. and later, we look a some of the other stories in the news this week a little more closely.

dr. jack kevorkian died today. in life, he became known for one thing, dying. getting attention for doing it himself and for the cause. he was a cottage industry, a media machine, he was an employer for reporters and lawyers, and al tuspaenyy pacin played him in a movie. we thought we would have dr. nancy snadyderman here toda to talk about the life and legacy. i made a point that the controlled death isn't talked about publicly, but it's talked about all the time between physicians and members of the family. what kevorkian of adding the equipment, the machinery, some

would say made it a comical exercise. >> some would say he became a caricature of himself, and some would say downright vulgar. but sometimes doctors think patients shouldn't suffer. doctors, of course, quietly protect patients, and it's done on a very, very deep patients. and as a cancer surgeon, many times i'm just amazed we treat our animals better than our human beings. he missed the opportunity because of the media circus, and the real discussion about death and dying with dignity, that's what we should have done. when he addressed the court, he was very indignantly saying, do you see me as a murder? he wanted to stand his ground. in the frenzy and the media, i

think it got lost. and if anything, i hope it brings it back full circle so we start talking about those things. when we come back tonight, remembering a hollywood legend who was the wild west.

"gunsmoke "starring james arnott as matt dillon. >> he was good with a gun. and while he didn't ever really inhabit the wild west, we sure thought he did. james arnott died today. he was a hollywood giant. the real life brother of peter graves, by the way. he starred in "gun smoke" for 20 years. 1955 to 1975, the longest tv running drama. he was a big norwegianer, he stood 6'7".

he was infantry in world war ii and was hit by machine gun fire in an invasion. his leg was shot up. with a purple heart and a bronze star on his chest, he thought his life was just about over when he came home from the war a shy, wounded veteran. then he pinned a badge on his chest. acting saved him. "gunsmoke" launched so many other careers. his career had 50 films, and a good life, although he suffered chronic pain. james arnott was 88 years old. we'll take a break now, and up next, the stuff from this past week's news that you had to be looking so closely to catch.

two days back when we launched our new ipad app and told you it contains material beyond was airs here every night, we thought, why not try to get more of those stories and small details on the air when we can. so now before we go tonight, what this week looked like if you were watching closely. >> in politics, mitt romney placed a hay bale in a farm, and announced his place. the one time king of the very

blue suit has new jeans and a fleet of "i'm just a reg ural guy" shirts, and gop doctor mark mckinnon finds it frustrating. he wrote romney, a ceo worth hundreds of millions, should put his tie back on and run as a businessman. voters can't tell if you're really a bowler or really into porkrinds and country music. as fate would have it, sarah palin was also in new hampshire this week. a tour grayhound would envy. only she wasn't riding in one. but it made this statement hard to believe. >> it's not about me, it's not service. >> she went to philly, she wint to boston. when she met donald trump in times square for pizza, her

event was cemented in the historic visit. >> there was excitement in a photo shrouding in excitement. a twitter photo sent out of anthony weeper. now that it's out there and days of disastrous press statements, he won't say it's not his business. >> it's not a picture of you sdm. >> i can't say with certitude. and we also saw what courage could look like. the head of the irs apologizing at a hearing for personal identity theft. >> i want to personally apologize to the taxpayer s behind me. >> this week in joplin, a woman found a release paper from world war ii. show tracked down the family and

sgav it to them. >> and soon, you may not need an engineering degree or a chan saw to open toys. they have advised using less plastic or none at all. manhattanhence, the east and west streets cross with the sun to create this glow. we lost clarice taylor this week. the veteran actress was 93. we gained the first female head of a service academy. sandra stowes became superintend nlt of the coast guard academy just today. we also joined a double threat, crooner and chairman of the chief staffs nominee, martin def dempsey, trained killer, also does a killer sinatra. ♪ start spreading the news i'm leaving today ♪ >> being from new jersey has that affect on people sometimes.

this week, we learned from the census there are now more households with dog than children in america. that got us to thinking of this week's youtube clip. on his second birthday, a dog named bunk got to do his favorite think in the world. nats our week in our broadcast for this friday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. leste w good evening on this friday. i'm raj mathai. i'm vicky. jessica has the night off. >> there are seven days of agony for friends and family of a missing nursing student from hayward. many are gathering for a vigil at the same spot where michelle lay's car was found. let's bring in george who joins from yous hayward.