on the broadcast tonight, the scandal on campus. death threats for the penn state coach who could be a star witness. tonight, he's placed on leave. plus an nbc news investigation. sandusky's charity and the young man who suspected something just wasn't right. kidnapped. a major league baseball player abducted at gunpoint in front of his family. nbc news exclusive. dr. conrad murray on the death of michael jackson. the questions he hasn't answered until now. and making a difference this veterans day by helping those who served succeed on the home front. who served succeed on the home front. "nightly news" starts now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. i'm savannah guthrie in tonight for brian. on the campus of penn state on the eve of the last big home game this should be a night of excitement and school spirit. instead, scandal, shame and new suspicions have cast a shadow over a once proud institution. tonight, a second coach has been pulled out of the game. we have two reports tonight, including an investigation into the charity started by jerry sandusky, the former coach accused of sexually abusing children. nbc's ron mott starts us off though from state college, pennsylvania. ron, good evening to you. >> reporter: savannah, good evening. the new president at penn state has been on the job 48 hours. among his first decisions, to remove an assistant football coach who is at the center of this child sexual abuse investigation. the assistant coach who told a grand jury he saw a former coach

sexually assaulting a young boy in a campus shower nine years ago has been placed on administrative leave. mike mcqueary had been getting threats and penn state officials moved to keep him away from saturday's game for his own security. >> dr. rodney erickson. [ applause ] >> reporter: penn state's new president greeted the board of trustees and seemed to appreciate the hot seat he now occupies and the rough terrain ahead. >> i accept this new leadership role under circumstances that i never could have imagined. >> reporter: with three decades on campus, most recently as executive vice president and provost, erickson said while the university has been rocked by this week's scandal, it is not adrift. still, the costs already are staggering. a president, a legendary football coach, two senior university officials, all losing their careers. >> it would be premature for me to comment on any actions. >> reporter: today, officials appointed ken frasier, president and ceo of pharmaceutical giant merck and a penn state alum and board member to lead an internal investigation.

meantime, the criminal investigation continues. >> i didn't even know that he was leaving the school with my child. >> reporter: on abc's "good morning, america" the mother of an alleged victim described her son's struggle in coming forward about former assistant coach jerry sandusky whom he first met at age 11. >> you should have told me. he was like, well, i didn't know what to do. i just didn't know what to do and you just can't tell jerry no. >> reporter: sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight boys which he denies. >> sandusky is being carried off the field. >> reporter: texas officials are looking at sandusky's trip to a bowl game there in the late '90s to see if any abuse occurred. this afternoon police say a window at his home was shattered by a cinder block. a student-led candlelight vigil and prayer service is scheduled for tonight. they say they planned this before wednesday night's violent reaction to the firing of coach joe paterno. students say they hope it will cast them in a more favorable light while focusing attention on the alleged victims. savannah? >> all right.

ron mott in state college tonight. thank you. now an nbc news investigation into the charity that jerry sandusky founded. its stated mission was to help disadvantaged children, but prosecutors have alleged sandusky repeatedly used the charity to find victims. and there are questions about whether top executives chose to look the other way. that part of the story tonight from nbc's michael isikoff. >> reporter: sandusky founded the second mile in 1977 to help disadvantaged kids. sandusky was the charity's biggest booster, helping to raise millions of dollars from wealthy donors in major corporations and recruiting high profile honorary board members. when he spoke to the penn state tailgate show in 2007 he was enthusiastic about what second mile was doing for kids. >> opportunity to see some special young people overcome some challenges in their life and go on to lead a life of excellence.

>> reporter: years before any reports of sexual abuse reached authorities, sandusky's conduct made some second mile children uncomfortable. >> any time we were in the car driving anywhere, his hand, it was a given that his hand would be on my thigh. and, you know, i just knew that was not the way any other adult man in my life touched me. >> reporter: troy craig attended second mile summer camps more than 20 years ago from ages 11 to 14. he says sandusky lavished him with attention, taking him to penn state football games and introducing him to players in the locker room. he wasn't sexually abused but after a while he says there were too many hugs and too much touching. >> i remember him coming up behind me and trying to make a joke of it but all the same feeling, kind of, no, stop it. stop that. >> reporter: according to the grand jury report sandusky met every one of his victims through second mile programs. now there are questions about whether top charity executives here may have protected him for years, just like penn state

officials are alleged to have done. the grand jury report discloses there was an investigation in 1998 into allegations that sandusky was showering and groping young boys in the penn state locker room. no charges were filed and it is not clear if charity officials were ever informed. in 2002, jack raykovitz, the charity's executive director was told about a new allegation involving sandusky and a young boy in the locker room shower. the charity took no action. sandusky continued to participate in second mile programs. nfl hall-of-famer franco harris, a second mile honorary board member, is furious about that. >> and i don't understand it. and those are the answers that we need to find. >> reporter: pennsylvania governor tom corbett also wants answers. >> i need to know what the charity, what the board members knew. that's a determination people will be looking into.

>> reporter: the charity declined to answer any questions this week. in a statement posted on its website it says it first learned of an investigation into sandusky in 2002, but that penn state officials informed second mile there was no finding of wrongdoing. but second mile severed all ties with sandusky in 2008 when more allegations surfaced. we immediately made the decision to separate him from all of our program activities involving children. the statement continued, we have done everything in our power to cooperate with law enforcement officials and we will continue to do so. michael isikoff, nbc news, state college, pennsylvania. we turn now to politics and the republican candidates for president will meet again this weekend for another debate. we all remember what happened at the last one. texas governor rick perry has been trying to salvage his campaign in the face of his debate gaffe while herman cain continues to beat back harassment allegations. it is less than two months out now to the first caucus, but this is a race very much in flux.

we turn now to nbc's david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." david, good evening to you. >> good evening. >> let's start with rick perry. he's been in damage control mode after the brain freeze in the debate. i guess the question is can he hold on. >> it's difficult when a candidate feeds a narrative about him in the race. in this case that he's not ready for prime time, that he's not ready or in shape to be in this race. there is a sense of high anxiety within the campaign. he tried to portray himself as in on the joke, poking fun at himself, going on letterman, going out there and campaigning, using that sizable war chest to try to repair some of the effects of this among conservatives. keep your eye on the polling here. republican pollsters i talked to say he's already had a steep dive among his favorability ratings. they are bracing for that to happen yet again in the days to come. >> speaking of polls, let's talk about herman cain. he's faced days, more than a week of questions about sexual

harassment allegations. yet he's still a front runner in the polls. has he weathered the storm? >> well, there is the big if. unless there is something else that comes out, right now both folks in his campaign, advisers to him as well as pollsters are looking at this saying he may be at least for now holding steady. that there are people that are looking at this saying that they are not a determinative factor in whether they support cain or not. and cain has done what he thinks is best here, to come out and deny the allegations and also to cast himself as a way of being the victim of people trying to get him out of the race because he's anti-establishment and not part of the conventional main stream of politics. >> another debate this weekend. david gregory, thanks so much. a program note, pennsylvania governor tom corbett will be among david's guests this sunday on "meet the press." a star of the washington nationals baseball team is missing in venezuela tonight, two days after being kidnapped at gunpoint from his parents' home.

the government says it is making progress in the case which has drawn attention to a growing hostage for ransom business in that country. nbc's tom costello reports. >> reporter: investigators in venezuela have recovered the abandoned suv used in wednesday's kidnapping but still no sign of 24-year-old wilson ramos. >> a three-run walk-off homer for wilson ramos. >> reporter: fresh off his rookie season with the nationals ramos was back in his hometown of valencia, venezuela, for the winter baseball season. after a day at the beach on wednesday he was grabbed at gun point from the front porch of his family's modest home. since then, no word from the kidnappers or ramos. today we talked via skype to a family friend at the ramos home. >> he was like a hero here in the community. he was always sharing with kids. you know, he's a really happy guy. he's a special guy here in the community.

>> reporter: his hero status may have made him a target. last year ramos made $415,000 playing in the major leagues, a fortune in venezuela where crime has soared under president hugo chavez. so far this year, 1,100 kidnappings, most for money. the washington post's juan forero is there. >> most kidnappings have a happy ending because the families have paid or the companies paid. presumably that's how that is going to end. >> reporter: a former fbi hostage expert expects the kidnappers to make contact soon. >> the kidnappers view him as having value alive. that's an advantage that whoever would be negotiating on his behalf. >> reporter: here at nationals park where ramos played last season, the team and league say they have been asked not to comment on his kidnapping as they, his teammates and the fans who have gathered here wait. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> an expert panel of doctors is out with a new recommendation tonight that every child in america should be tested for

high cholesterol between the ages of 9 and 11. the panel says as many as 13% of children have high cholesterol counts by the time they are in the 4th grade. critics worry the recommendation will lead to treatment of very young children with powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs with no information on how it might affect them over the long term. when "nightly news" continues tonight, the questions he didn't answer in court. our exclusive interview with dr. conrad murray. and later, looking out for number one. the excitement today over something that only happens once a century.

we began this week with the guilty verdict against michael jackson's former doctor conrad murray. murray never took the witness stand in his own defense but in the waning days of the case agreed to an interview with nbc. the issue at trial was whether

murray was criminally negligent for administering the powerful sleep drug propofol to jackson in a home setting. murray's defense claimed it was jackson who caused his own death by secretly injecting himself with the drug, a theory prosecution experts dismissed as absurd and one that we raised with dr. murray in our interview. let's say he did take this propofol himself. don't you bear some responsibility? the propofol is in that room because you prescribed it to him. >> this is the situation. it's difficult to think that i met michael with a situation where he was absolutely having use of that substance long before i got there. >> but own your portion of it. were you right to leave him in a situation where he had the opportunity to inject himself? >> well -- well, i'm going to say that's not a foreseeable situation. if mr. jackson -- >> it wasn't? >> no. had i known what i know today in

retrospect, if mr. jackson was an addict and he had shared that information with me, addicts may behave in a way that is unreasonable and you may consider it. >> you yourself just said he was a desperate man. >> desperate for sleep. >> and you left him alone with propofol. >> he was asleep. >> why didn't you call 911 right away? >> no one is allowed to come upstairs except for mr. jackson. his security is not allowed to enter the house. >> you called his bodyguard. couldn't you have said, call 911 and meet them at the gate? >> call 911 would still require him to call me back. i don't think he would do that. i wasn't about to leave a full explanation on the phone. >> why didn't you tell the paramedics when they came that he had taken propofol. >> that's a sad reason. it was inconsequential. 25 milligrams and the effects gone. means nothing.

>> wait a minute. why not let them be the judge of that? why not supply the best information you have? >> paramedics depend on me. >> you told them about the other drugs but you didn't tell them about the propofol. >> because it had no effect. it was not an issue. >> murray claims he gave so little of the drug it was long gone from jackson's system but jackson's autopsy showed he died of acute propofol intoxication with far more of the drug in his system that murray admits giving. >> do you feel guilty that he died? >> i don't feel guilty because i did not do anything wrong. i am very, very sorry for the loss of michael. michael is a personal friend. it's heartfelt. it's been painful. >> well, dr. conrad murray faces up to four years in prison and will be sentenced later this month. when we come back, a day that only comes once in a lifetime.

where will you be at a little after 11:00 tonight? it will be your last chance for a hundred years to take note of a moment on the clock and on the calendar. it is 11/11/11. that's one fine day and all day it had people hoping for a little mathematical magic. here's nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: they may sing that one is the loneliest number but on today's date the ones have plenty of company. at 11 minutes after 11:00 this morning on 11/11/11, 11 happy couples tied the knot in new york's times square. >> we got engaged at 11:11 in the morning. this is our way of a little "i love you" to each other. >> reporter: record numbers of weddings in vegas, the u.k., china. for numerologists, this once in a century occurrence brings good luck. >> 11/11/11 is a launch to whatever you want to achieve. >> reporter: presumably all babies born today will get into

the college of their choice and be able to pay for it. >> it's pretty cool. >> reporter: there is a new movie out today aptly named "11-11-11." producers hope it gets lucky at the box office. those in it probably won't be however. it's a horror flick. >> they're here! [ screaming ] >> reporter: for those of a different generation, who can forget the 11's in the '80s cult classic "spinal tap"? >> these go to 11. >> right across the board. 11, 11, 11. >> reporter: at this lottery counter the number 11 was sold out. sadly for those looking for luck at least one physicist said a bunch of ones is just a whole bunch of ones. >> i don't think there is significance to the numbers in particular. >> reporter: in germany it's cause for costume and celebration where they partied not like it's 1999 but like it's 11/11/11. kevin tibbles, nbc news, new york.

of course this is also veterans day with something new to mark the occasion this year. they are calling it the carrier classic, an ncaa basketball game on the deck of the aircraft carrier "u.s.s. carl vinson" docked tonight in san diego. turning a space where fighter jet engines are usually roaring into a basketball stadium. not exactly a lay-up, but they did it and michigan state will take on north carolina with 7,000 in attendance tonight including that prominent basketball fan president obama. coming up next on this veterans day, americans putting their money where their mouth is to make a difference for those who served.

on this veterans day, president obama laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns and as tens of thousands of troops come home, the president urged all americans to hire them. that brings us to our making a difference report tonight and another way to help the nation's veterans succeed here on the home front. you have heard of buy american. nbc's miguel almaguer explains the mission to buy veteran. >> hi, sharon.

how are you? >> reporter: jim wasko runs the crab cooker with military precision. >> nice to meet you in person. >> reporter: a family business is navy veteran hopes to hand down to his children who themselves are part of the other family business. >> the discipline, the work ethic, and the honor code that you learn while you are in the military, i think, translates very well into the civilian workforce. >> reporter: the crab cooker is one of an estimated 3 million veteran-owned businesses. most folks come here for the food, but others stop in because of that little sign on the door. >> it gives you another reason to support the business. >> reporter: wasko is a member of buyveteran.com, an organization started by two veterans designed to promote companies with military roots. >> when you go to buyveteran.com it pulls up the local veteran business owners in your zip code. >> reporter: it seems most

americans would rather buy veteran. according to a nationwide poll two-thirds of people said they would rather spend money at a veteran-owned businesses. big businesses want in, too. 156 fortune 1,000 companies make it a point to use veteran-owned businesses in their supply programs or hope to use veteran-run companies. >> they do it because it's good for their bottom line. >> reporter: whether it's franchise owners like iraq veteran don johnston -- >> there are people that pass right by, see the sign and turn around. didn't even want to eat a sandwich. they just wanted to support a troop. >> reporter: or smaller start-up businesses like veteran chris cangelosi's consulting firm. the buy veteran movement is paying off. >> it's something that's important for the community of veterans. if i can support that in any way, i will. >> reporter: proud veterans who serve the country now finding success serving their community. miguel almaguer, nbc news, tustin, california. >> that's our broadcast for this veterans day. thank you for being with us. i'm savannah guthrie in tonight for brian. lester holt will be here this weekend.

have a good night and a great weekend. have a good night and a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening, everyone. we begin tonight with breaking news. i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. we're following the news on the peninsula. caltrains says trains are stopped by burlingame and san mateo right now. a caltrain spokesperson says a sensor was tripped on a caltrain bridge in san mateo, and an inspector is on the scene right now to check the bridge's integrity. we'll continue to follow the story. obviously it's causing a