on our broadcast tonight. out-of-control fires in texas, getting worse and threatening more homes. tough job. how does the president intend to get americans back to work? what will the republicans say at our california debate tomorrow night? and what the american people are clearly saying in our new nbc news poll debuting here tonight. at risk. medical news just out. a new warning about pregnancy, miscarriages and some big-name pain relievers. and look who's talking? here's all you need to know about the internet icon, the canine sensation, mishka. she talks and she talks to nbc news. plus, it may soon be

possible. imagine flying without taking your shoes off. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. we've got a big problem tonight in the state of texas. it has destroyed lives and property and has people on the run and it's large enough to be seen from space. problem is wildfires. 33 separate fires burning tonight, all fed by record drought. this fire outbreak has burned 118,000 acres, but look at this stat. so far this fire season, it has rampaged through a record 3.5 million acres of lone star state countryside. most immediately, loss of 1,000 homes and the fire-related deaths of four people. that's where we begin with jay gray. he's just outside austin, texas. jay, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, to you, brian.

consider the resources they called in to fight this massive fire in texas. about 400 firefighters, 47 engines, 27 dozers and a handful of helicopters still to this point, that show of force has had little, if any, effect. the fire is still burns out of control. the flames are growing. almost as fast as the concern across texas. >> this one has been the scariest to us. >> reporter: there's to time for fear along the front lines. a drop in the wind has given strike teams a window to fight through the haze and attack the fire using controlled burn in some spots to fight the flames, searing away the dried brush that's fueled the massive piled choir for three days now. in other areas, literally, drawing a line in the parched texas soil. a direct impact just a few feet from the leading edge of a fire 18 miles long, five miles wide, and growing! >> the fire jumping all over the

place so we're doing some firing to get it back on our terms, especially before the weather changes later today. >> reporter: on the other side of the fire line, the fight for survival is just as intense. >> the magnitude of these losses are pretty stunning. >> reporter: supplies are pouring in for the thousands who have been pushed in their homes by the flames but what they may need the most right now is information. >> pretty much, all on this this side looks like it was pretty much gone. >> reporter: hoping to map out a strategy evacuees huddle around the sheriff's deputies or anyone who may know anything about the lives they left behind. >> we don't know if we have a house to go home to. we don't know anything. we can't find information, a map is not telling anything. >> reporter: what may be most telling right now is the way the blaze continues to shift and turn ribbons of fire running across the state. wrapping around and burning away everything in their path. and you hear the chopper landing behind me after surveying the scene again this afternoon. we know at least 400 people are

in shelters here. thousands more staying with family or friends and it could be next week or even longer before they're allowed back to see what may be left of their neighborhood. brian? >> all right, jay gray reporting on this huge crisis in the state of texas, jay, thanks. and here in southern california, fire crews are also hard at work as winds are kicking up wildfires here. more than 1200 firefighters from all over this state are on the front lines. they're working on the ground and from the air using bombardmentes to keep things under control. but crews are preparing, sadly, for several more days of hot, dry and, again, possibly windy conditions. it was 103 degrees this , afternoon in the san fernando valley. this has been a terrible couple of days for gun violence. across the border in nevada, a gunman opened fire with an ak-47 according to the local sheriff at an i-hop in carson city killing two national guardsmen,

one other person and himself. of the total 12 people, five were guard members but authorities say no indication the gunman was targeting them. across the country in new york city, this was a terribly violent holiday weekend. and the kind of publicity the city cannot afford. 67 people were wounded by gunfire in 52 separate shooting incidents in the city of new york from friday through monday. three people died as a result of those shootings. now we turn to our new nbc news "wall street journal" poll. some bad news for the president, tied to some very bad feelings about the current state of our economy. our political director and chief correspondent, chuck todd, in california for tomorrow night's debate with a look at the numbers. >> quite a backdrop being painted this week, the debate tomorrow night, the president's speech to congress on thursday, here's what all of them are facing.

mood of the country, 73% say it's on the wrong track. that's thee of four americans that believe it's on the wrong track. obviously, it's the economy. three of four, 72%, say we have a ways to go before we hit bottom. this has taken a big hit on the president politically. 44% of people approve of the job he's doing, all-time low of his presidency. a more important number our pollsters say is the idea of a long-term setback or a short term one. 54% says long term. our pollsters are concerned, those are the numbers you have when the public starts to give up on a president as a problem solver. >> and, yet, you found one area of agreement where americans are coming together against something? >> bipartisan agreement. 82% disapprove of the job congress is doing. heck of a job, congress. we've never gone over 80% for in the 30-year history of the poll and you can think of all the ways congress has made the american public mad in the past. this having to do with the debt

ceiling negotiations, huge numbers, and who's to blame on the 30%. congressional republicans, 2-1 margin over the president. it all has to do with this debate. this is all a backdrop for tomorrow night. we have a new frontrunner and that's rick perry, the governor of texas. he's skyrocketing our poll, 38% to 23% for romney. double digit win. why? tea party support. that's huge, 45% of self-described tea party members support perry and 18% for romney. even among the nontea partiers, rick perry is leading. you can't beat somebody with nobody. if nobody was running against president obama, that person would already be ahead. generic republican leads the president, 44-40. match them against perry or romney, the president leads narrowly. so sometimes elections are not referendums, they are still a choice at the end of the day. >> traditionally the presidents get all the toys of incumbency. they get to pull rabbits out of hats if they have them. how much can the president make

an uptick in these numbers? what's available at his disposal? are there any rabbits left? >> it's very little. one rabbit is the setting for thursday night, a joint speech to congress, moving up the state of the union, if you will. trying to use that as a way to jump-start things. the team obama, both on the campaign side and in the west wing, knows they are running out of time. they basically have, brian, a two-month window to try to affect economic policy, to show some improvement. if they can't do it in the next two months, it may be harder to do it when it's campaign season and everything gets seen through the prism of politics. >> we'll see you tomorrow night at the venue. this is where with the stakes this gets interesting. with all these numbers as a backdrop, the stakes are rising for this president's primetime speech on jobs thursday night. kristen welker is at the white house for us tonight. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. white house officials tried to brush aside the poll numbers and

keep the focus on the president's speech. on the cusp of delivering what the president hopes will be a defining speech on jobs, his lowest approval ratings to date, according to the latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll, 59% now disapprove his his handling of the economy. today, white house press secretary, jay carney, said the president understands that most americans are fed up with washington, but he's concentrating on his jobs' plan not the polls. >> what he is focused on is doing what the american people demanding that washington do. which is listen to them and not spend a lot of time trying to score political points and winning ideological battles. >> reporter: speaking in detroit on labor day the president a glimpse of his plan saying it would include investing in infrastructure and extending payroll tax cuts. >> there's work to be done and workers ready to do it. labor is on board. business is on board. we just need congress to get on board! let's put america back to work.

>> reporter: with congress back in session today, some members of the leadership were already drawing battlelines. >> we've tried president obama's approach. it's failed. it's time for something new. >> reporter: but the house republican leadership sent a letter to the president asking him to meet with congressional leaders to discuss areas of agreement before his speech. we should not approach this, they wrote, as an all-or-nothing situation. but the nbc news "wall street journal" poll shows the majority of americans have lost faith in washington's ability to jump-start the economy, mark eisenberg. after being unemployed for eight months explains why he's skeptical. >> i've heard it before. people have to make it happen. not talk about it, not say it's going to happen, but make it happen. >> reporter: as for that republican invitation to the president, white house officials say they haven't scheduled anything at this point in time and also point to the fact that the president has already discussed jobs and debt reduction multiple times with

republican leadership in the past, brian? >> all right, kristen welker at the white house. notably, no gop response after the president's speech. that will be interesting. the republicans who want to replace the president are, indeed, getting ready to debate tomorrow night here in southern california as we mentioned. and in advance of that faceoff, mitt romney today, unveiled his plan to boost the economy and jobs and try to get out ahead of the president on this. nbc's kelly o'donnell watching it all from capitol hill tonight. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. one more stat from the poll for you that's very telling. more than half of the public says that they think every member of congress should be replaced. so congress is back tonight feeling some pressure to get some things done. the republicans are trying to jump ahead of the president. you've got house speaker, john boehner, saying he's reaching out on things like infrastructure spending and reducing regulations. but senate republicans are

saying that they are opposed to many of the president's ideas, not because of politics, but because those ideas don't work. and then over on the campaign trail, today we had mitt romney unveiling his plan and he compared the president's government-based approach on the economy to an old pay phone in a smartphone world. >> what he's doing is taking quarters and stuffing them into the pay phone. and thinking, can't figure out why it's not working. it's not connected anymore, mr. president. your pay phone strategy does not work in a smartphone world. >> reporter: the romney plan runs about 160 pages, brian and including reducing corporate taxes and boosting energy production, things like that. and, brian, we've learned tonight that governor rick perry is likely to leave the texas fires to participate in the debate tomorrow night. aides say it's still fluid but he plans to attend, brian? >> all right, kelly o'donnell wrapping things up from washington. and a reminder, you'll be able to see the debate tomorrow night. i'm moderating along with john harris of the website politico

at the ronald reagan presidential library here in simi valley, california. that's tomorrow night, 8:00 eastern, 5:00 on the west coast. live on msnbc. on wall street today, some scary moments after yesterday's huge down day in europe on the markets there. the dow was down more than 300 points early on and then clawed its way back to close down 100 and change. nasdaq was down 6.5 points. s&p lost almost nine points in the day's trading. when our broadcast continues on a tuesday night, important health news for women trying to have a baby. some popular pain relievers that raise the risk of a miscarriage. and later, what happened when we went in search of the talking dog of the internet? [ male announcer ] finally, the showdown everyone has been waiting for -- the dodge durango versus the ford explorer. two titans of the s.u.v. world. which has the strength? which has the power? which has the ability to...

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i mentioned earlier the health news for women that are pregnant or trying to conceive. it involves the risk of miscarriage. still in many ways a medical mystery. while the experts keep trying to learn more about what causes miscarriages, and how to prevent them, a new study of 47,000 women has found one more piece of the puzzle that women may want to consider. and it involves some big brand name pain relievers that are in so many of our homes in this country. the story tonight from our chief science correspondent, robert bazell. >> reporter: like most pregnant women, esther worries about anything that could harm her unborn child. >> i always check with my doctor

before needing to take any particular medication. >> reporter: experts say the study out today reinforces what a good idea that is. some of the most popular over-the-counter pain relievers, so-called nsaids could be cause for concern early in pregnancy including ibuprofen sold under names like motrin and advil and naproxyn sold as aleve. they carry warnings against use late in pregnancy. the study out today by dr. anick berard and her team at the university of montreal, shows that taken early in pregnancy occurring in the first 20 weeks, the drugs may more than double the risk of miscarriage. researchers say acetaminophen sold at tylenol does not seem to be a problem. >> the studies that we do in pregnant women are certainly not to alarm women. it's to give more information to help women and prescribers, the physician, to gain better knowledge of what's happening with medication used in

pregnancies. >> reporter: experts not involved with the research agree. >> i think this is an important study. it's confirmatory. there have been other evidence that there are some concerns with these kinds of drugs. >> reporter: because the effect from the drugs can occur so early in pregnancy, experts, even the drug makers, advise women start talking with their doctors about any medications they are taking as soon as they plan to get pregnant. miscarriages are common but while their cause is often unknown, information like this latest study can help esther and other prospective mothers make the best decisions. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. when we come back tonight, could the day finally be arriving soon? airport security, with your shoes on.

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the anywhere preparation h. well, here we are a decade well, here we are a decade after 9/11 and we were told today we may soon see the day when we can stop taking off our

shoes and our belts at the airport. as you may know, many foreign countries have the security technology already in place that allows you to go through security with your shoes on, among other things. homeland security secretary janet napolitano said the change will come eventually but the restrictions on liquids will be around for a long time. the dire headlines about a postal service shutdown? today on capitol hill, the postmaster general told a congressional committee that the u.s. postal service is, indeed, in such bad financial shape, that unless congress allows it to radically restructure it could run out of money to operate by next august or september, as we've been reporting, some of the changes they say they need is to include ending saturday delivery, perhaps, closing thousands of local post offices and laying off 120,000 workers in this economy. and new pictures taken by a nasa spacecraft on a low orbit of the moon literally showed the

tracks and the trash that our astronauts left behind. we've put the imagery on our website tonight. it takes a while to look and understand what you're seeing in the picture, but you can see the tracks of the lunar rover, the backpacks they threw overboard before taking off from the surface. it's all undisturbed right where they left it, meaning thankfully, no one has picked through it. in other earth news, it was made official in l.a., eddie murphy will be your host for the 84th academy awards on february 26th. he was nominated for an oscar in '06. his various films, by the way, have grossed $7 billion over the years. he's about to return to the big screen in a movie called "tower heist." up next, 55 million web hits on one piece of video can't be wrong. tonight, you get to meet mishka. ♪ up just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. no known treatment for it but i've watched it consume some of the best minds of our generation, including members of my own family. >> we're talking about the internet-based addiction to any and all videos showing mishka,

who, in addition to being a very good dog, sure seems to talk a blue streak. mishka, the dog, is a dog mogul on the web. hundreds of videos have been viewed 55 million times on the internet. mishka hadn't given many network interviews but tonight she speaks with nbc's anne thompson. >> talking animals have long been a hollywood fantasy. from tvs "mr. ed." to rex harrison's "dr. doolittle." >> imagine talking to a tiger. >> and eddie murphy's version. >> shut up, you're a dog. dogs can't talk. >> reporter: maybe one dog can. >> i love you. good girl! >> reporter: a top dog on youtube with more than 55 million views for this one video alone. >> i love you. >> reporter: the unseen voices? mishka's owners, matt and elena guardia. >> i think she feels that emotion when she says that to us.

>> reporter: their new jersey moment is their studio. >> like a doggy reality show. >> reporter: a rambunctious place with the three dog and 3-year-old trevor. >> reporter: do you have more videos of mishka or trevor? >> oh, we have -- [ laughter ] >> reporter: online, there are more than 400 videos of mishka. and, yes, this 9 year old is a bit of a diva. from her window seat, to her spa days, to her commercial appearances. mishka and her sidekicks are virtual pets for millions. for those who have lost dogs, for those who can't have dogs, and for people who just need a reason to smile. she's a global star with fans from russia to the philippines to the u.s. expressing their adoration via facebook, twitter and snail mail. >> we're still their care takers and owners. but, yeah, we love sharing them

with everybody. >> reporter: and letting mishka say the three little words -- >> i love you -- that need no translation. anne thompson, nbc news, 'new jersey. >> what a good dog and that's our broadcast for a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. >> we begin with developing news from the tech world. thanks for joining us. aye janelle wang. >> and i'm raj mathai. carol bartz unceremonialy dumped from yahoo! scott budman joins us now with new insight on the