on the broadcast tonight, game over. the legendary coach joe paterno now says he'll go as a sex abuse scandal envelopes penn state. tonight, fresh outrage for the children who were victimized. her story. for the first time since that devastating attack in tucson, we are hearing from gabby giffords about that awful day and the gruelling time since, as she makes an astonishing recovery. is it a dream come true for anyone who's struggled to lose weight? could a little pill really be the answer? and the spectacular show going on along the california coast. why have there been so many close encounters lately with the giants of the deep? plus, herman cain takes the stage at tonight's gop debate. we're there live.

stage at tonight's gop debate. we're there live. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. forget for the moment the fact that one of the most storied names in college sports is enveloped in scandal and may never be the same. tonight, the human toll is staggering. a 9th potential victim has come forward in a sex scandal at penn state university. and on that landmark campus, names and reputations are falling fast. the mythic head coach joe paterno will soon be out and it may not stop there. this one could reach to the college president's office. again tonight, nbc's ron allen is there for us. state college, p.a. ron, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. joe paterno may not be the only one on his way out soon. you're right. the college president here graham spanier, here for some 16 years, is under a lot of

pressure to resign as well. nbc news has learned the department of education in washington is going to launch its own investigation to see if any federal laws have been broken here as well. coach joe paterno left home this morning to break the news to his players. after 46 years, he's through. >> he was crying the whole time he was talking. >> reporter: in a statement paterno said he would retire when football season ends. "i am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. i grieve for the children and their families, "he wrote, adding "with the benefit of hienldsig hindsight i wish i had done more." >> you're great. god bless every single one of you. [ cheers ] >> reporter: last night, thousands rallied behind the man affectionately known at joepa. but paterno faces withering criticism for not intervening or calling police after an eyewitness told him in 2002 long-time assistant coach jerry sandusky had sexually assaulted

a young boy in a football team facility. two of sandusky's former bosses are charged with perjury and failing to notify authorities about complaints reported to them. all three men have denied the charges. ♪ >> reporter: still today in a tent camp called paternoville, loyalty from fans waiting to buy football tickets. >> i think people should be focusing on what made him here. he is a penn state icon. he is penn state. >> reporter: the dominant feeling here is outrage over a culture of official silence while children were allegedly being molested and worry about the victims themselves. on social media, this tweet. kids can't defend themselves. we must be there for them. meanwhile the alleged victims remain in seclusion. >> they feel kind of like they have been victimized twice. >> reporter: two mothers told reporter sarah gannam they feel betrayed by penn state as

details emerge of what they see as a cover-up saying one of their sons, now 24, complained about sandusky more than ten years ago. but no one listened. >> they want justice. they realize they will be struggling with it for a long time. >> reporter: the football season is still a few months from completion and the school's board of governors may want paterno away from the team and out of the public spotlight immediately. we understand prosecutors have a number of possible victims who they are interviewing to verify their stories of alleged sexual abuse. brian? >> ron allen on the penn state campus starting us off tonight. ron, thank you. a lot of people watching the scandal unfold at penn state, watching the human damage pile up, watching an institution get badly soiled, can't help but think of the scandal that rocked the catholic church in america. there are a lot of parallels. our report tonight from nbc's anne thompson. >> reporter: penn state football is the latest institution to learn the high cost of silence. just as the boy scouts of america did losing a multi-million dollar sex abuse

case last year. >> no jury has returned a verdict against the boy scouts of america at this level ever. >> reporter: most notoriously, the catholic church. >> accusations of a cover-up against yet another powerful member of the catholic hierarchy. >> reporter: almost ten years ago the boston globe broke the story of priests abusing minors and the cover-up by church officials, shattering the archdiocese and the faith of many american catholics. one of its reporters sees parallels in the penn state case. >> the institution overrode the importance of taking care of children. that's what happened here, too. it happened all over the country when it came to the abuse of children by catholic priests. >> reporter: critics say these are institutions of power, secrecy, mythology dominated by men who circled the wagons in a crisis. >> we as a society have to learn we must come down like a ton of bricks on men who hide and

ignore child sex crimes. quiet resignations, sudden retirements, that doesn't cut it. >> reporter: in today's new york times jonathan mahler wrote, in both the church and penn state, in the face of a moral imperative to act, chose silence, failing to live up to their own ideals of integrity and honor. no one more so, says mahler, than coach paterno who built his brand on those very values. >> this man who prided himself on molding young men who was this paragon of character and virtue behaved like a coward. >> reporter: tonight people are asking how a program like penn state that followed ncaa rules to the letter couldn't follow a very basic human rule. when you think you see a child being sexually abused, call the police. anne thompson, nbc news, washington. now we turn tonight to presidential politics and a debate tonight on the economy, a chance to move the conversation perhaps away from sexual

harassment allegations against herman cain, back to the topic voters want most to hear about. nbc news political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd is at the debate site, oakland university, rochester, michigan. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the elephant in the room, of course, is herman cain and the ongoing saga of the sexual harassment allegations. how does he handle it when or if it comes up? how does he handle this if opponents choose to go after him about it? what does he say? it's a tricky line for his opponents to go after him. they want the same supporters herman cain has who are defiant in their support of cain now and may not like it if somebody piles on him at this moment in time. as for the topic at hand, as you bring up, brian, this isn't an ordinary economic debate. it's one by our friends at cnbc and given the news in italy and all the european debt crisis problem, the candidates have to go two and three levels deep on this issue. it's going to be a challenge. >> and, chuck, we had election

day yesterday. the results are in. while it's hard to say anything nationally, what did some of the results tell you? >> reporter: i tell you, there was a way to string them together from ohio to mississippi in that the one thing they had in common is that voters were calling for restraint. in ohio, there was two ballot measures of interest there. one having to do with whether public sector workers could collectively bargain. that was a law that was passed. voters rejected it in a big way. the same voters rejected symbolically the idea of getting involved in the federal government mandate on health care. again, a message of restraint. then you had mississippi, the personhood amendment which would have outlawed abortion and may have actually outlawed some forms of birth control or even access to in vitro fertilization. again, the message voters sent there, brian, restraint. don't go too far. there was a thread of connection. >> all right. chuck todd at tonight's event. chuck, thanks.

by the way, this cnbc republican debate, "your money, your vote," airs tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern on cnbc. while we are talking about money this was another one of those scary days for anybody with money in the stock market. stocks plunged on wall street. the dow ended the day off about 400 points. nasdaq and s&p down as well. it's a domino effect as the financial crisis in italy gets worse and our chief foreign correspondent richard engel remains in rome for us tonight. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. yesterday, italy's prime minister sylvio berlusconi said he would resign. but he never said exactly when it would happen. he said it would take place perhaps after a key reform bill was passed in this country. that could have been next week or in several weeks. the international markets responded very negatively to that uncertainty. italy's borrowing rate went up to over 7%.

the stock market in this country also plummeted, sending shock waves around the world. it also inspired the italian president to try and clarify the situation. he said these economic reforms will be passed in a matter of days. so now it is possible, brian, that sylvio berlusconi, this prime minister, could be out of office over the weekend. >> all right, richard engel in rome for us. thanks. we turn now to health and a high stakes equation with two-thirds of the american people either overweight or obese, the search for an effective weight loss drug has surpassed even the cure for the common cold as the holy grail of drug makers. now a new medication is actually killed off fat cells, at least in a test of monkeys. the question is are humans next? the story from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> your current weight is -- >> reporter: the popularity of the show "the biggest loser" is one of the countless examples of

people's desire to lose weight. >> you lost 109 pounds! >> reporter: while the study was only conducted on monkeys, the results could be a big step toward a drug that truly helps with that effort. after only 28 days on the drug, overweight monkeys lost an average of 11% of their body fat. >> it's incredibly exciting. especially a dream coming true in slow motion. >> reporter: doctors raap and pascolini, a husband and wife team from brazil, have been working on the project at m.d. anderson cancer center in houston for years. the drug called adipotide, cuts off the blood supply to fat cells and kills them. scientists showed a drastically reduced weight in mice. with the success of monkeys researchers are applying to the fda for permission to start a trial in humans, possibly within a year. they know there will be no shortage of volunteers. researchers say when they discuss the project they hear the same question. >> when is it ready because i

would like some. >> reporter: the monkeys in the experiment were not bred to be fat or fed a special diet. they were the ones in the colony who ate more and exercised less. >> they get overweight on their own. it's very much like humans. 's the same human behavior. >> reporter: mris showed the drug eliminated no muscle, only fat -- the red and orange in these pictures. after they stopped taking the drug, the monkeys resumed their couch potato ways and gained the weight back again. if the drug proves safe and effective in humans, it will likely be a tool to kick start the familiar diet and exercise program that everyone painfully knows is the true key to weight loss. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. still ahead here tonight the nation has followed her difficult but steady recovery after the attack in tucson. tonight in a new book, congresswoman gabby giffords reveals new details about that day and we are seeing dramatic photos for the first time. and later, something unusual

that's been happening in the waters off california that's making for some amazing pictures.

her story, long awaited, can now be told. while it is not due out for a few days, today we purchased a copy of the new book "gabby" at a bookstore here in new york. it is the much anticipated story of congresswoman gabrielle giffords from arizona. from tragedy to remarkable recovery, still in progress. now we get to hear from her. in the very back of the book that bears her name and tells her story, we get to hear from gabby giffords herself. it's the last chapter and it's one page, but they are her words. it was hard, but i'm alive, the congresswoman writes in the book co-authored with her husband mark kelly. lot of people died. six wonderful people. so many people hurt. always connected to them.

on that horrible day in tucson after false media reports of her death, no one knew if she would live. tonight we're about a hundred yards from the saddest place in america. as we all arrived to cover the awful story, the outlook remained so grim until the first report that she had squeezed her husband's hand, signalling she was in the fight. now we know what went on during those gruelling months, mostly through her husband's recollections. most telling are the photos in this book like this haunting picture of a constituent showing giffords his military commendation from afghanistan. it was taken just seconds before the gunman opened up. there is also this photo of the president during his visit to tucson in her hospital room, holding her hand, eyes closed, giffords bandaged up in a medically induced coma. we also learn of some setbacks during her recovery -- physical and emotional. i'm going to tell you what happened to you, mark kelly writes of the day he told gabby why she was in the hospital.

it was mid-february, a little over a month since the shooting. this man came up to you with a gun and he shot you in the head. we don't know why he did that. i'm sorry it happened. we all are. but he's in jail. you're safe. the news sent her into an uncontrollable crying spasm. only with time was she later able to recall her own memory of the attack that day. shot. shocked. scary, she said, very clearly pausing between each word. giffords would first learn six people died and 19 were wounded from a copy of the new york times mark was reading her. her chief of staff took this photo as she learned the news. then there was the physical battle. while she was alert and aware of her surroundings, her husband writes that she felt trapped in her own body because she couldn't speak. i rushed in to gabby's room and then into the bathroom. she was sitting in her wheelchair, tears running down her face. she was hyperventilating, absolutely panicked.

the words did eventually come. in the book it says the first word she was able to speak was "what." and while the book is a celebration of her resilience, it's also a reminder of how horrible that day was. while mark kelly was rushing from houston to be with his wife he heard a news anchor say she had been, quote, shot and killed. it was the most shocking moment of my life, he writes. we learn in the book gabby and mark were hoping for a family and she still considers herself congresswoman gabrielle giffords with people to serve. and she leaves us with a pledge that's right out of general macarthur's playbook. i will get stronger. i will return. of course her story isn't over. her rehabilitation continues in houston and in the book she says she wants badly to get back to her work as a member of congress. up next here tonight, a test of the nation's emergency alert system and the question, what could go wrong.

this is the western coast of alaska tonight. they are in the midst of an epic storm. put it this way. if this were hitting the east coast population centers the coverage would go on for days. satellite pictures show a monster 750 miles long. one woman said her house was shaking like an earthquake. the winds hit just under 100 miles an hour. storm surge along the coast. it's bigger than a lot of people have seen in a lifetime. an unusually intense storm even along the alaskan coast. they don't scare easily up there. today was the day for the big test of the everybody at once national alert. in most places at 2:00 eastern time the alert sounded. you heard the test which the fcc asked us not to play tonight for people so they wouldn't be alarmed. there were weak spots where it didn't work. they will work on it hopefully before they need it realtime.

the rapper heavy d has died. he was a jamaican-american who had a unique sound when he came up in 1987. he did a lot of things including acting in shows like "law & order" on nbc and movie parts. in music and in life he was big before there was a big e. smalls. heavy d, born dwight myers, dead at the age of 44. as you may know eddie murphy was named host of the next academy awards, but he's not anymore because his friend, the producer, was pulled off the project. murphy has reemerged of late starring in "tower heist." so much for the oscars. they have a deep bench of bullpen talent to call on from crystal to martin to baldwin to fey and then some. up next here tonight why so many close encounters lately with giants of the sea off the coast of california.

we have been reporting here for the past several weeks on the spectacular show going on very close to the southern california coastline. a large number of very large whales have been on a kind of extended feeding frenzy, but it's become too popular a show and has proved hazardous for the whales and the folks anxious to go there and get a closer look.

our report from nbc's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: it's the internet sensation that's making quite a splash. >> we were all in shock. >> reporter: from a surfer nearly swallowed by a pair of feeding humpback whales to a kayaker face to face with two 40-ton giants. just off the coast of santa cruz, a new meaning to close encounters. >> i was real close to them. it's like one time i had to duck so the tail didn't hit me. >> reporter: popping up across california's coast in record numbers, whales rarely seen so close to land. >> the whale population numbers are increasing, but i think it's more about the fact that they are following food and the food happens to be closer to shore. >> watch for the tail! >> reporter: the blue whale, the world's largest creature is on the search for one of the smallest, shrimp-like krill. problem is the whales aren't alone. sight seers are on their tails.

>> being that close to an 80,000-pound whale when they are coming up, looking for food and the surfers and kayakers are close it poses a danger for them. >> we have a visual. >> reporter: now the coast guard is cracking down. >> make sure you guys stay a hundred yards from the whales, huh? >> reporter: handing out $2,500 fines to anyone who gets too close to the endangered blue, fin or humpback whales. there is talk of narrowing shipping lanes and moving them north to protect the gentle giants. >> one of the challenges was trying to develop where their habitats are. by moving the shipping lane we are decreasing the risk significantly. >> reporter: there are safe ways to see the whales and tour boats like this one are having a record year. >> he's right next to us! >> reporter: but the show may soon come to an end. the whales are migrating for the winter, but only after a season

full of surprises. miguel almaguer, nbc news, long beach, california. amazing sight. 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 right back here tomorrow evening. and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening, everyone. i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. he has been in hiding for decades, but tomorrow a fugitive wanted in connection with violent crimes against police officers in two bay area cities plans to turn himself in to authorities. >> one of those resulted in the shooting of a nbc bay area police