on the broadcast tonight, the verdict for michael jackson's doctor. it's in. pronounced guilty and led out in handcuffs. we're live tonight at the courthouse. the scandal that's rocking one of the great names in college football. tonight the children caught up in this and the attention it brings to a living legend of the sport. speaking out. tonight the first woman to publically accuse herman cain of sexual misconduct. her story is explicit, but will it hurt the campaign? tonight we debut our new poll showing where he stands. tough call. listen to the choice for this student athlete. does he lead his team in the

biggest game of the year or skip it for something else that day that could change his life forever? also tonight, our exclusive interview with former president bill clinton and the fix he sees for the economy. bill clinton and the fix he sees for the economy. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening on this busy monday night. today we saw another woman come forward in the case of herman cain and we'll debut our new polling on the gop race tonight. we're also following an unfolding scandal at penn state university. we begin tonight with michael jackson's former doctor led from the courtroom today in handcuffs. guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the jury has decided for themselves the role that the doctor played in the death of the artist on the eve of a comeback. nbc's jeff rossen covering for us at the courthouse in l.a. tonight. jeff, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. good evening.

this trial went six weeks, but it took the jury just a day and a half to find conrad murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter and when that verdict was read, boy, this crowd here was charged. hundreds of people on the streets were cheering. reaction is still pouring in. tonight, conrad murray himself is already in jail. the judge calling him a risk to the public. [ cheers ] >> reporter: when the call came in today, verdict. michael jackson's family rushed to the courthouse. conrad murray sat stone-faced as the verdict was read. >> we, the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, conrad robert murray, guilty of the crime of involuntary manslaughter. >> reporter: no reaction from murray himself. but outside michael jackson fans cheered, playing his music over loudspeakers. but prosecutors had another

request. put murray behind bars now. >> at this time, your honor, the people would ask that the defendant be remanded into custody. >> and the judge agreed. >> dr. murray's reckless conduct in this case poses a demonstrable risk to the safety of the public. >> reporter: dr. conrad murray handcuffed and led away, sent right to jail. the man who michael jackson trusted with his life now a convicted felon, responsible for his death. >> michael's watching over us. >> reporter: all along prosecutors argued conrad murray was grossly negligent giving michael jackson propofol in his bedroom, more interested in his paycheck than jackson's health. for the l.a. d.a.'s office it is a high profile victory. >> our sympathies go out to the jackson family at this time for the loss that they have suffered. >> reporter: nbc's savannah guthrie sat down with murray before the verdict for an interview airing this week on today. they spoke about jackson's

addiction to propofol which the singer nicknamed his milk. >> do you remember his final words before he died? >> it was probably -- i don't know. it was probably when he was pleading and begging me to please, please let him have some milk because that was the only thing that would work. >> reporter: the six-week trial became as much about michael jackson as conrad murray. ♪ >> reporter: his unusual lifestyle on full display. the man who dedicated his life to privacy exposed in court after death. sentencing is now set for november 29th. a couple of weeks from now. and the judge has full discretion here. he can give conrad murray anything from probation up to four years in prison. >> jeff rossen in l.a. starting us off tonight. jeff, thanks. tonight as we mentioned there are new sexual misconduct accusations against gop presidential candidate herman cain, this time from a woman who stepped forward publically, told

her own story in her own words and, again, herman cain said these accusations are not true. fair warning here, not all of this is family friendly. nbc's kelly o'donnell has our details. >> reporter: led by the hand through a jam of cameras and reporters, high profile attorney gloria allred presented a chicago-area single mother, sharon bialek. >> i met mr. cain while i was employed at the educational foundation of the national restaurant association. >> reporter: bialek said her job was terminated in june 1997. today, the trade group would not comment on her dismissal. bialek said she contacted cain at her boyfriend's suggestion, hoping to find a new job. she arranged to meet cain at the capital hilton in washington. after dinner and drinks she said cain offered to drive her to the restaurant association's offices. reading from a statement, bialek gave reporters a graphic account of an alleged sexual advance by cain. >> instead of going into the

offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. he also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch. >> reporter: bialek said she was shocked. >> i said, what are you doing? you know i have a boyfriend. this isn't what i came here for. mr. cain said, you want a job, right? >> reporter: bialek said she rebuffed him and he stopped. >> i really didn't want to be here today and wouldn't have been here if it had not been for three other women who have alleged sexual harassment against mr. cain. i want you, mr. cain, to come clean. just admit what you did. admit you were inappropriate to people. >> reporter: trying to bolster bialek's credibility, allred held up two sworn affidavits from people she said bialek told about the event in 1997 including her boyfriend and a business mentor.

but allred would not release their names. early in the conference, cain's camp issued a statement declaring all allegations against mr. cain are completely false. mr. cain has never harassed anyone. saturday, cain tried to shut down reporters' questions. >> don't even go there. >> reporter: and later responded on fox news. >> i wanted to send a message to not only our supporters but to everybody else. we had nothing to hide. i had nothing to hide. >> reporter: allred made a point to say that bialek is a republican and that she has not sold her story. bialek acknowledges she has had some financial and legal problems in the past. when asked why she did not report this at the time filing a complaint in 1997 she says she did not tell the national restaurant association because she was no longer an employee. brian? >> kelly o'donnell in our d.c. newsroom tonight. kelly, thanks. now to the state of play in politics since we are inside 60

days before the iowa caucuses. we are debuting the new nbc news wall street journal poll. what voters are saying a year out from the presidential election about their country, their president including the role of herman cain. our new numbers tonight from our political director and chief white house correspondent, chuck todd. >> reporter: despite weeks of campaign-style events to sell his vision to jumpstart the economy -- >> to put americans back to work and give our economy a boost. >> reporter: -- president obama has been unable to win over any new supporters. his approval rating remained consistently mediocre for the last three months. with 44% approving and a slight majority, 51% disapproving. even more americans, 57%, disapprove of his handling of the economy. as the president gears up for his re-election bid, we asked respondents to score him on a dozen different domestic and foreign policy issues on whether he has lived up to or fallen short of their expectations. on just two -- iraq and improving race relations -- do

most believe the president lived up to expectations. he received a fallen short grade on everything else from the war in afghanistan to the environment and even his signature accomplishment, health care. you can't beat somebody with nobody and right now the president still leads all his potential republican challengers including mitt romney by six points and herman cain by 15 points. cain's support among republicans remains steady at 27% despite the cloud of sexual harassment allegations hanging over his head though this poll was conducted before today's new allegations surfaced. romney leads the overall republican field for the first time in four months, but by a very slim margin. the candidate to lose the most support in the last month was actually rick perry who fell behind newt gingrich and is tied with ron paul for fourth. while the feeding frenzy around cain is the short-term dominant story of the campaign the larger concern to the public is the state of the country. asked to describe in a word or

phrase where they believe things stand in america today, the responses were highly negative. this computer generated word cloud where the size of the word reflects the number of common responses shows terms like wrong direction, disappointing, need to work together, downhill were mentioned far more often than words like good shape or hopeful. and, brian, half of everyone we surveyed tell us they identify with one of these two activist populist movements. 25% call themselves tea partiers and another 25% call the occupy wall street movement a good idea. both tapping into this idea of unfairness, be et government or wall street. there's your backdrop for 2012, brian. >> i'll say. chuck, thanks, as always. now we go to pennsylvania tonight where there is a sense of shock and outrage surrounding penn state's legendary football program. this is over a child sexual abuse scandal that burst into

the open this weekend. ron allen is in state college p.a. for us tonight. hey, ron. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is a scandal that touches the hall of fame football coach joe paterno. so far three high officials have been charged in the case. everyone is wondering how much further all of this will spread. athletic director tim curley and senior vice president gary schultz turned themselves in today, charged with failing to alert authorities about complaints of child sexual abuse and then lying during a grand jury investigation. both deny the charges. >> this is a case about a sexual predator accused of using his position within the community and the university to prey on numerous young boys for more than a decade. >> reporter: the case centers around jerry sandusky, a former long-time assistant football coach, charged with sexually assaulting eight boys in their early teens. at-risk boys involved with a charity sandusky founded. some of the alleged attacks

happened in penn state athletic buildings. coach paterno, now 84, with the most college career wins in football said, if true, we were all fooled along with scores of professionals trained in such things. but while paterno is not a target of the investigations, officials say when he learned of an alleged 2002 incident between sandusky and a 10-year-old boy he reported it to his athletic director, but no penn state official went to the police. officials say they believe there may be more victims. >> this is not a case about football. it's not a case about universities. it's a case about children who had their innocence stolen from them and a culture that did nothing to stop it. >> reporter: buzz bissinger has written extensively about the business of college football. >> football is king. football is god. football is the most important thing at the university

including academics, including everything else. you do not meddle. you do not screw with football at penn state. >> reporter: sandusky also maintains his innocence. coach paterno has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow when he's going to talk about the upcoming game with nebraska next weekend but football is not the issue here now. brian? ron allen, state college, pennsylvania tonight. ron, thanks. up next as our broadcast continues tonight our exclusive interview with former president bill clinton on fixing the economy, even his wife's possible future plans. later, a real dilemma for an outstanding young man on what could be one of the most important days of his life.

former president bill clinton is out with a new book tonight. it's his fix for the u.s. economy. nbc's kate snow has an exclusive interview tonight beginning with the question -- how do we and how would he get americans back to work? >> there is no big one silver

bullet. but the most important thing we could do is to try to loosen up the big stores of cash. there are about $2 trillion in bank reserves uncommitted to loans. that money won't be loaned until we accelerate the resolution of the home mortgage crisis. >> you say we need a simpler system to help people out of failed mortgages. are you saying the system we have at the federal level isn't cutting it now? >> it's helped people but not enough. to be fair to the white house, a lot of this is beyond their control. what i proposed is a much more rapid resolution of it. basically write down the ones you can write down. extend the terms on ones you can extend the terms. if the person still can't make the mortgage payments, offer them a five-year lease on the same home. let them pay rent. >> one of the themes of the book again and again is we need a strong, effective government. are you saying we don't have one now?

>> no. i'm saying that the last election was fought over the idea that the government is the problem. if we just had less of it, everything would be all right. >> it's a lot of what the tea party is saying. >> yes. and i disagree with that. i want us to be practical and less ideological here. do what works. i think the occupy wall street people, i don't think they resent success. they resent being cut out of the chance to be a part of it. one of the best things about americans is we don't resent other people's success. >> is president obama doing enough right now to create more jobs in the economy? >> i agree with his energy policy. i'm a big fan of it. i think that the economic plan he's proposed is -- >> the jobs bill. >> the jobs bill is well conceived. i think there are other parts of the federal government that he doesn't directly control that are slowing this recovery. >> is the audience for the book the white house? >> first and foremost it's the american people. i want them to have hope that we can get out of this and i believe this.

because i believe as i say repeatedly that both republicans and democrats have done good things in the past and are needed to do good things in the future and whether we like it or not what works in the economy is cooperation. >> your wife, secretary clinton told savannah guthrie recently she's not running again, no way, no how. do you believe her? >> i do. i still think she is uncommonly gifted and strong. you know, i think if she -- >> if she came to you, sir, and said, you know, i changed my mind. in 2016 i'm going to give it a shot again. >> if that's what she wanted to do, i would support her. i'd take her at her word but i would support her. i always have. i always will. >> there's more of this interesting interview on our website tonight. by the way, bill clinton will be live on "today" tomorrow morning. up next here tonight, tracking a close encounter from outer space.

the big asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is still on track to miss us tomorrow. it's due to pass by earth closer than the moon is to us two minutes before we go on the air tomorrow night, in fact. it's going to be the biggest thing to come this close to our planet since 1975. a whole lot of shaking went on this weekend in oklahoma. a 5.6 magnitude earthquake, a ton of aftershocks since then. the big one was felt all the way north to wisconsin and far down into texas. some building damage. no significant injuries. a lot of folks shaken up and adding insult to injury tonight, bad weather and tornado touchdowns in the southwestern corner of the state. and finally, just to add our voice to the remembrances of our friend andy rooney who died a few days back after living one of the great american lives

there is an aspect of andy's life that bears repeating because it was so searing and because it happened before we knew him. his years as a young g.i., fresh out of colgate in 1941. he flew on the first u.s. bombing mission over germany. he saw so much combat in the normandy town of san lowe that he was awarded the bronze star just for making it through the fight as a writer for "stars and stripes." he was there to bear witness as the first allied units arrived to liberate the nazi concentration camps. no one who saw what andy rooney saw in that war came home the better for it. andy rooney came home and set out to write and inform and comment and entertain and we were all the better for it. we're back with our final story right after this.

finally tonight an old school rivalry coming just two weeks away now. one of the biggest in sports. the harvard/yale game. yale's quarterback is a contender for the nfl draft with a stellar academic record but is getting the most attention for a big game day decision he's got to make.

the story tonight from nbc's anne thompson. >> reporter: at 6'4", patrick witt is every inch the football hero. the senior quarterback, the most accurate passer in yale history. >> the big play -- >> reporter: the decision-maker. >> what a pass by patrick witt! and yale is back in this ball game. >> this could very well be the last time i step on the field. >> reporter: on saturday, november 19th, he faces the most difficult decision of his 22 years -- to be in new haven, connecticut, to lead yale against harvard at noon or in atlanta, georgia, to interview for the prestigious rhodes scholarship. >> i keep on hearing the phrase "it's a good problem to have" from people, but it doesn't make it any easier to decide. >> reporter: he's a history major with a 3.91 gpa who left big time football for the academic rigor of yale. >> he's the only male or female i have known here who was a great scholar and a great athlete. >> reporter: but that contest against harvard is not just any game. it is "the" game. can you imagine missing it? >> no.

to leave your teammates and leave them to fend for themselves, so to speak, wouldn't feel right. >> reporter: this would be the 128th meeting in one of the oldest rivalries in college football. tom williams is yale's coach. >> he's carved out a great opportunity for him in his life. i said, don't stress about it. >> reporter: there are two teams in patrick's life -- the one on the field and the one in the classroom. to each he feels an obligation. and each is giving surprising advice. >> people in academics telling me, you've got to play the game. people on the team saying, you've got to go to the interview. >> reporter: patrick's rock is his family. brother jeff played quarterback at harvard. parents kathy and gene, both commercial airline pilots. >> whether he's in atlanta or at the yale bowl will you rest easy? >> i will be wherever he is. >> reporter: the answer to patrick's choice may lie in the life he leads. an extraordinary individual in the ultimate team game. anne thompson, nbc news, new haven.

>> by the way, thousands of you have already weighed in on our website on what patrick should do. we'll let you know what he does decide when he makes his decision. that's our broadcast for this monday night. i'm brian williams. thank you for being here with us. we'll look for you later tonight from this very studio. "rock center" airs tonight at 10:00 eastern time. and of course we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is going to weigh on my heart forever. >> right now at 6:00, an exclusive interview with the father of a south bay teenager caught in the crossfire of a deadly shooting. thanks for joining us. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. a morgan hill father says he's heartbroken after his 14-year-old daughter became the innocent victim of gang violence