contributions, canned goods and turkeys throughout the holiday season. thanks for watching. we have nbc nightly news coming up next and will be back for the local news at 6:00. fed up. the nationwide movement today that encouraged angry customers to say goodbye to their banks and stash their cash elsewhere. a sex abuse scandal rocks one of the country's biggest universities and its famed athletic program. tonight the shocking allegations at penn state. trading spaces. as many retailers go out of business, some unusual newcomers are moving into malls across america. and andy rooney. tonight we remember the life and weekly life lessons of america's tonight we remember the life and weekly life lessons of america's favorite curmudgeon. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening, everyone. we begin with a sex abuse scandal rocking one of the biggest universities in america. a former defensive coordinator for the penn state football team was arrested today on charges of sexually abusing boys in his youth program over a 15-year period and two penn state administrators are charged with lying about what they knew. nbc's kristen dahlgren has our report. >> reporter: it is one of the country's most storied teams. but the story now surrounding penn state football may be a much darker tale. pf i'm jerry sandusky. former defensive coordinator jerry sandusky on the nittany lions sigh lines for decades was in court today accused of sexually abusing eight boys. the charges involve children he met through the second mile, a

children's charity he started. nbc profiled the coach in his work with kids back in 1987. >> they're not supposed to succeed. they succeed here. >> reporter: a grand jury report details the allegations, including those of a graduate assistant who claims he saw sandusky having sex with a young boy inside penn state's football building. george curley and gary schultz are charged with lying about what they knew. according to the grand jury, schultz testified that the allegations were not that serious and that he and curley had no indication that a crime had occurred. and, when asked whether the graduate assistant had reported sexual conduct of any kind by sandusky, curley answered no twice. >> he's shaky as you can expect. he's been aware of the allegations for over three years. he came back to state college voluntarily last night. >> reporter: curley and schultz

are expected to turn themselves in on monday. in a statement curley's lawyers said, "we will vigorously challenge the charges in court." and we are confident he will be exonerated. an attorney for gary schultz wrote, gary schultz is an honorable man and law-abiding father and grandfather. he is innocent. it did not implicate penn state coach joe paterno saying when he first learned of abuse he reported it to curley, his boss. but the scandal could be a hit to the team. >> this is a much more serious issue than other schools getting on probation for ncaa violations. we're talking about the law here. >> reporter: and shocking allegations for a program used to being in the spotlight for much different reasons. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, los angeles. now to a wave of discontent over rising bank fees that turned into a wave of action today as people all across the country answered a grassroots call to switch their money from big corporate banks to their local credit unions.

what started with a single facebook posting from a fed-up bank customer in los angeles apparently touched a nerve, culminating today in what's being called national bank transfer day. in just the last few weeks, hundreds of thousands have apparently made the switch as this latest movement becomes part of a widening public outcry against corporate profits. nbc's stephanie gosk has more. >> reporter: in street protests around the country, florida, new york, texas, big banks got a beating. >> bank of america! >> reporter: bank customers tired of fees like bank of america's recent proposed and then withdrawn debit card fee are jumping ship. bank transfer day was started by the owner of an art gallery in l.a., herself fed up with corporate banking. >> loans, credit cards, any business you have with a major bank, to shift that to a not for profit credit union. >> reporter: unlike banks, credit unions do not make a profit. checking is often free, interest rates on savings are higher and

there is more face time. since bank of america tried to impose a monthly debit card fee, 650,000 americans have switched their checking accounts to credit unions. that's more than all of last year. in a credit union in new york city today, there was a steady stream of new customers like kim gallagher. >> i watched one bank rep hug two different people today. >> thank you, mary ann! >> reporter: gallagher owns a pet grooming business just up the street. she's pulling all of her business out of chase and depositing her money here. >> i feel empowered. the guys that work here, the people that work here are my neighbors. they know my business from walking by it. >> reporter: so credit unions may sound great, but there is a catch. big banks have branches and atms all over. if credit union customers use one of these they'll face additional charges. credit unions also have fewer products, and business transactions can take more time. for the moment, the increase in their customers is not large

enough to drastically affect profits at huge banks like chase or bank of america. still, experts say this is a real example of the rising anger at big business turning into measurable action. >> i think now in this weak economy consumers are saying enough already. the final straw was that monthly debit card charge. >> reporter: even with that proposed charge now gone, for those who take part in bank transfer day the damage has been done. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. overseas now to a country in turmoil tonight. the fragile greek government is at a stalemate, and the debt crisis and economic chaos could have a dangerous ripple effect around the world. nbc's michelle kosinski is in athens for us tonight, and she has the latest. >> reporter: it is greek drama the whole world has been watching. the dubious protagonist prime

minister george papandreou barely won a confidence vote. the opposition is calling instead for elections which could delay greece's desperately needed multibillion dollar bailout by europe. >> you couldn't make it up if you put it in a novel. no one would believe it. that will reflect on markets and trading and nervousness, particularly within the banking system. that's the really dangerous bit. >> reporter: the spectre of greece defaulting, leaving the eurozone has rattled world markets. some see it as precipitating a second global recession. >> if they don't do something fast, all hell will break loose probably. >> reporter: and if you think the u.s. isn't affected, on the day papandreou considered putting the bailout issue to a risky vote, u.s. stocks slumped. when he changed his mind, they bounced back. as of now, he remains in power with the hope greece's parliament will approve the bailout. another looming question is, will greece be able to continue to enact the necessary austerity measures like raising taxes,

slashing salaries, that so many here feel are grossly unfair. 33-year-old civil engineer marcos ballas has a good job but hasn't been paid in three months, surviving by living with his parents. >> it's like a cow. you take milk. how much milk are you going to take? the cow will stop. you have to feed the cow in order to have milk. >> reporter: coming days will be critical in bringing greece and world confidence in the eurozone back from the brink. michelle kosinski, nbc news, athens. >> for more on what's happening in greece and the ripple effect it could have here at home, let's bring in cnbc's chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera. michelle, how palpable is the impact greece is having? how much impact could this have in the u.s.? >> reporter: consider if there is some kind of default in greece, some kind of disorderly default, they fear some sort of

banking crisis could erupt in europe. that could lead europe into a recession. it's already teetering on a recession. then one of our huge trading partners, lester, remember, the world is integrated financially. if they struggle it's going to make it harder for us to get out of what is a still weak economy here in the united states. >> and greece rightfully so is at the top of this headline. but is there potential for a domino effect in europe and again greater effect here in the u.s.? >> reporter: that is absolutely what europe is worried about. when you look at the size of greece's debt compared to italy, greece is a sideshow. they're worried about a domino effect that would lead to italy. and the problem is italy's debt is far, far bigger. it is too big to fail, and it is too big to bail. the europeans have enough money for greece. they don't have enough money for italy. >> michelle caruso-cabrera tonight. thanks for coming on. now to presidential politics. just two months away from the iowa caucuses, today the republican candidates for president were off and running

on the campaign trail, the start of a 60-day sprint to des moines. nbc's mike viquiera has the latest. >> reporter: in des moines, republicans are counting the days until the first vote is cast. >> 60 days from right now we start the process of choosing barack obama's republican successor. and it starts here in iowa. >> reporter: with frontrunners mitt romney and herman cain no-shows at last night's reagan dinner, five gop presidential hopefuls spoke to party faithful. >> you might say that, newt, we're involved in a project called operation occupy the white house. >> reporter: newt gingrich counted out over the summer is now gaining ground in some polls. last night he won praise for pledging if nominated he'd challenge president obama to a series of lincoln/douglas style debates. >> i will announce that from that date forward for the rest of the campaign the white house will be my scheduler, and wherever the president appears i

will appear four hours later. >> is that better? >> yes! >> reporter: with the field unsettled, gop candidates are fighting for the conservative base. >> i've been in washington all week, and i've attracted a little bit of attention. >> reporter: one big question -- will that base stay behind herman cain following allegations of sexual harassment? friday the lawyer for one of his accusers confirmed a charge made in 1999 when cain ran the national restaurant association. >> she made a complaint in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances from the ceo. >> reporter: cain denies the allegations, and so far his support appears to be holding. but questions remain. >> in the long run, i think it's much more questionable whether he can survive. he is an inexperienced politician. he has a record that people haven't looked at. they're going to be doing that more and more. >> reporter: and, lester, tonight herman cain and newt gingrich will square off

one-on-one in a debate sponsored by the texas tea party. but don't expect any fireworks. it's going to be a rather sedate affair, 30 minutes on social security, medicare and medicaid each. all sides, all parties involved, have agreed not to bring up the controversies that have surrounded herman cain over the course of the last week. lester? >> mike, thank you. a programming note tomorrow morning on "meet the press" former utah governor and presidential candidate jon huntsman will be david gregory's exclusive guest. tonight search teams are tearing through a mangled mix of charred cars and trucks on a highway in southwestern england looking for more victims of a massive pileup. at least seven people are dead and more than 50 hurt after the huge chain reaction crash friday night involving dozens of vehicles. officials say fog and wet roads are partly to blame. when "nbc nightly news" continues on this saturday, as struggling stores go out of business across the country, some unusual newcomers are filling those wide-open spaces at the mall. and later, a few minutes

remembering andy rooney.

back now with head turners popping up at neighborhood shopping malls, strip malls and department stores. the struggling economy coupled with online shopping has left a landscape of empty retail space across the country. and shopping mall owners are taking some unusual steps to find new tenants. we get the story tonight from nbc's charles hadlock. >> reporter: in an abandoned

grocery store in a dallas suburb where the produce section and the bakery stand empty, timmy crawford saw an opportunity. >> there's a mall really close to it. it's right across the street from a huge church about 30,000 members. >> reporter: the perfect location, he thought, to turn a space that had been empty for three years into something else entirely. wall-to-wall trampolines that draw kids and their parents who rent time by the hour. >> the kids come and bounce off the walls. >> reporter: this place represents a retail conversion happening across the country as landlords try to bounce back in a bad economy. a struggling mall in roanoke, virginia, now houses a science museum. on the second floor a technical college is leasing space. a medical clinic has moved into an old circuit city. and what was once a shopping mall in nashville is now a medical center. retail conversions are nothing new. ♪ there is only one spam >> reporter: the spam museum in minnesota opened in 1991 inside

an old kmart. but the conversion trend is accelerating. non-retail tenants currently occupy 2% to 5% of the nation's retail space. that's projected to rise 10% to 15% next year and to nearly 20% by 2013. the sea life aquarium has opened its second mall location. 5,000 creatures, 250,000 gallons of water, and thousands of customers. >> the department store next door must love you. >> well, so far everybody does in the mall. as long as we're all busy we're all happy. >> reporter: landlords of giant shopping centers are embracing alternative tenants. these places may not sell merchandise, but at least they get people in the door. >> the shopping centers that bring in non-traditional businesses are going to be the survivors and their competitors who are 100% retail are going to be the ones going out of business. >> reporter: in a shark eat shark retail world, a few landlords may have found an island of success.

charles hadlock, nbc news, grapevine, texas. when we come back here tonight, news about a legendary boxer now in the fight of his life. and cutting edge technology helping rescuers get there even faster when every second counts. ♪

we learned today that former heavyweight champion joe frazier has liver cancer and is in hospice care. frazier's manager says the 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed just a few weeks ago. smoking joe frazier was the

first man to beat muhammad ali, knocking him down in the so-called fight of the century in 1971. he would go on to lose two more fights to ali, including the epic thriller in manila. now to a situation where every second counts. getting help as quickly as possible to people in a time of emergency. in some cities, first responders now using cutting-edge technology to save lives. and it's yielding some dramatic results. here's nbc's tom costello. >> engine 33, tower 32. >> reporter: in a business where time, minutes and seconds, can be the enemy, new technology is helping to cut out a big chunk of it. >> 40-year-old female trapped near the fourth floor. they're called locution systems, advanced computer assisted dispatching, now dramatically cutting response times for firefighters and medics. >> and tell me exactly what happened. >> reporter: in south metro denver dispatchers manage a

270-square-mile area. for years computers have pinpointed the caller's location. now dispatchers only have to input the type of emergency, hit enter, and in a fraction of a second the computer uses gps trackers to find the nearest unit, determines who's needed, then simultaneously sends voice, text and map instructions, even transmitting multiple calls at once. in south denver it's cut the dispatch time to just 31 seconds. the national standard is 60 seconds. that's a half minute faster to a heart attack, a house fire or a car accident. >> if a person has stopped breathing, every second that ticks by we're risking brain damage, we're risking death of that person. >> reporter: for many departments, the technology is part of a post-9/11 homeland security overall. after experts said first responders across the country were in many cases using outdated equipment and an immediate need of an upgrade. similar systems have recently gone in across the country.

in seattle, los angeles, dallas and chicago. with satellite imagery, fire hydrant and water main locations, even building blueprints transmitted straight to fire crews. >> it allows us to get information out to 17 fire houses with the click of a mouse. >> commercial structure fire. >> reporter: the click of a mouse and cutting valuable seconds off emergencies. tom costello, nbc news, washington. we want to send along a reminder to you to set those clocks back an hour before you go to bed. tonight marks the end of daylight saving time. so get ready for the sun to rise and set a little earlier. up next here tonight we'll reflect on the passing of a legendary curmudgeon.

finally tonight, remembering andy rooney. the legendary former "60 minutes" commentator passed away last night at the age of 92, just a month after his final televised appearance. rooney entered a new york hospital last month for surgery, but complications developed and he was unable to bounce back. for a few minutes each week he came into our living rooms to inform us, delight us and often to complain about us. tonight we asked nbc mike taibbi to take a few minutes looking back. >> reporter: andy rooney's signoff on "60 minutes" on october 2nd was part thank you note to his fans and typically

part curmudgeonly request should those same fans see him in a restaurant. >> please just let me eat my dinner. >> reporter: at 92, rooney had been writing professionally for more than 70 years. from his start on the army's "stars and stripes" newspaper and subsequent career as a radio and television writer and syndicated columnist. although his end piece essays on "60 minutes" made him an iconic star, he was unique in the firmament of television stars. >> i don't think of myself as a television personality. i'm a writer who reads what he's written. >> reporter: it made him appointment tv. millions tuned in each week to see him. and his more than 1,000 essays were collected in 15 best-selling books. along the way, people got to know an american original, composed of traits known to most families, rumpled and sometimes irascible, but moved too when people proved to be kind or brave. >> they make up for a lot of liars, cheats and terrorists

among us. >> reporter: and, as a writer who regularly put his own views on display, he learned about himself, too, in front of our eyes. >> but i do care. i care a lot. >> reporter: a self-described lifelong liberal, he entered world war ii as a passivist. but, after seeing the horrors of the concentration camps, he came to believe, as he told tom brokaw, that some wars are necessary. >> the germans had been wrong in starting it. and i decided i had been wrong in objecting to the war. >> reporter: and when his essays outraged some, comments critical of homosexuals or dead rock star kurt cobain, he apologized and and meant it and carried on. >> i know i've been terribly wrong sometimes. but i think i've been right more often than i've been wrong. >> reporter: a voice for the thoughts of every man, silenced as he knew it would be. >> i wish i could do this forever. i can't, though. >> reporter: but a voice as memorable as that ticking clock, the last few minutes for three decades his. mike taibbi, nbc news, new york.

>> and that's "nbc nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" then right back here tomorrow evening. "today" then right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. i'm diane dwyer. we begin in the south bay tonight where a 14-year-old girl was shot to death and three of her friends wer