on the broadcast tonight, in the balance. can the government force you to buy health insurance? tonight the supreme court has agreed to take on what some say is the biggest case in ten years and it affects all of us. drawing a blank. it has happened again. a question trips up a candidate for president. this time it's herman cain. fallout. a witness in the penn state case tells friends his side of the story. nbc news uncovers an interview with a man at the center of the scandal. what he said back then about his relationship with children. high hopes tonight for heart patients. a new technique that shows dramatic results so far in bringing failing hearts back to life. and making a difference. a 12-year-old girl doing what a lot of grown-ups couldn't for survivors of one of the world's

worst disasters. survivors of one of the world's worst disasters. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. it is a very basic question and it goes right to the heart of the big fight we just went through over health care. can americans be forced to buy health insurance? did congress have the power to pass such a thing? the supreme court announced today they're going to decide this. this is what the supreme court does. they decide what's allowable under the constitution and just taking on this case makes it the biggest in years with sweeping impact for all americans potentially. it's where we begin tonight with our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, a dramatic day here because the court agreed to wade into the legal battle over this far-reaching law. it raises a question the court

has never confronted before. does congress have the power to require virtually everyone to buy something? [ beeping ] >> reporter: it's a huge change in federal law and a landmark in the obama presidency. >> health care should no longer be a privilege in this country. >> reporter: but it touched off shouting matches at congressional town halls. >> no government health care! >> reporter: tea party protesters took to the streets to condemn it. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! >> reporter: and every republican candidate for president is against it. >> obamacare is wrong. i will repeal it. i'll get it done. [ applause ] >> reporter: opponents including 26 states say congress went too far by requiring nearly all americans to buy health insurance. the constitution, they say, allows congress to regulate the insurance market but not to order citizens to get into it in the first place. >> if we allow congress to have the authority here, where does it stop? what is the position where the

congress oversteps its bounds if they can, in fact, do this constitutionally? >> reporter: if congress can do this, some lower court judges have said, it could require everyone to buy broccoli to stay healthy. but supporters of the law say what it really regulates isn't the insurance market. it's the market for health care, something they argue everyone eventually participates in. >> every american citizen is part of the health care system. it may not be today. it may not be next week. it may not be next month. we are all mortal and we all need to see a doctor at some point. >> reporter: what the law governs, supporters say, is how health care is paid for, something congress clearly has the power to regulate. as for how this ideologically divided court might rule, legal experts say it might not be the usual 5-4 split. some of the conservatives have been willing to uphold broad uses of federal power in the lives of individual citizens. >> it would shock me if the more liberal members of the supreme court voted to strike the

statute down. i would not be at all surprised to see two, maybe three conservative votes to uphold it. >> reporter: the court will hear the case in late march. two days of courtroom arguments spread over five and a half hours. that's a modern record. we expect a decision in late june in the middle of the presidential campaign. brian. >> pete williams at the court building in d.c. for us tonight. pete, thanks. now to the presidential campaign trail. republican contender herman cain took a stumble on camera when asked about libya by the editorial board of the milwaukee journal sentinel. nbc's kelly o'donnell has that story. >> good luck, mr. cain! >> reporter: tonight herman cain's campaign has a new challenge. not the allegations of sexual harassment he fiercely denied but the way cain handled a basic question on libya during a meeting with editors at the milwaukee journal sentinel. >> so you agreed with president obama on libya or not? >> okay. libya.

president obama supported the uprising, correct? >> reporter: cain had just taken part in a debate on foreign policy saturday night but today gave a halting, uneasy response. >> i do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason. um. no, that's a different one. >> reporter: the newspaper says it was cain who offered to drop by for 30 minutes this morning between fundraisers. the editorial board released a five-minute clip. >> got to go back. see. got all this stuff twirling around in my head. >> reporter: later, cain

appeared to regain his footing and explained he would have handled the crisis in libya differently than president obama. >> i would have done a better job of determining who the opposition is. and i'm sure that our intelligence people had some of that information. >> reporter: today the campaign had expected a different interview to get all the attention. cain's wife gloria spoke out for the first time, appearing on fox news. she defended her husband of 43 years against those sexual harassment claims made by three women, including sharon bialek who went public last week. >> i looked at especially this last lady and the things that she said. i'm thinking, he would have to have a split personality to do the things that she said. >> reporter: tonight advisers say cain was working off four hours' sleep. they believe the video was taken out of context because he yielded questions on a range of subjects for 30 to 40 minutes

and they claim he didn't say anything wrong. but they do acknowledge that it took him a while to gain his bearings. brian? >> kelly o'donnell in our d.c. newsroom tonight. kelly, thanks. cain, we should point out, was already in the news today for comments in another print interview saying a majority of american muslims share extremist views. you can see the raw video from today's story on our website, nbcnightlynews.com. now to the developments in that still unfolding child sexual abuse scandal at penn state university. an awful story. tonight nbc news has uncovered some videotape of former coach jerry sandusky talking about his work with children. more on that in a moment. but first nbc's peter alexander is at penn state tonight with today's developments in this case. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. for the first time tonight we are hearing from penn state assistant coach mike mcqueary. he is the man who told a grand jury that he witnessed former defensive coordinator jerry sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the locker room showers in 2002. in seclusion and on paid administrative leave mike

mcqueary has not spoken publically since the penn state scandal broke. but last week in an e-mail obtained exclusive by nbc news, he told friends and former teammates, i did the right thing. you guys know me. the truth is not out there fully. i didn't just turn and run. i made sure it stopped. i had to make quick, tough decisions. while he is not facing charges, mcqueary has now hired an attorney. pennsylvania governor tom corbett who, as attorney general in 2009, launched the investigation into former defensive coordinator jerry sandusky said on "meet the press" sunday that mcqueary should have done more. >> he met the minimum obligation of reporting it up, but did not, in my opinion, meet a moral obligation that all of us would have. >> reporter: today, news of another resignation. the latest to step down, dr. jay raykovitz, ceo of the second mile, the children's charity founded by sandusky.

>> we don't know at this point whether this organization can be saved. >> reporter: sandusky is accused of sexually assaulting at least eight boys and is free on bail. his bond set well below what prosecutors asked for by the district judge who volunteered at the charity where sandusky is alleged to have met all his victims. the attorney for one of the alleged victims said he is now preparing a civil lawsuit against the university for failure to act. >> there were so many people who had the opportunity to put an end to mr. sandusky's ways and so many different opportunities seem to have gone by the wayside. >> reporter: as legendary coach joe paterno's wife greeted well-wishers at the family house today, the big ten conference said paterno's name will be removed from the league's championship trophy. penn state is reportedly paying sandusky a pension of almost $59,000 a year. sandusky's preliminary hearing is scheduled for next month, brian. he denies the allegations. >> peter alexander at state college, p.a. for us tonight. peter, thanks. there is more to report on

this tonight. as we said a videotaped interview of jerry sandusky conducted some years ago has surfaced in which he talks about his work with children. it's now, of course, difficult to watch in light of these allegations. as peter just reported, there's been another high level resignation in the wake of the scandal. our national investigative correspondent michael isikoff has more on all of it. >> we have outgrown many facilities -- >> reporter: that's jack raykovitz interviewed about the expanding reach of the second mile, a charity he ran for 28 years that helps troubled kids. a grand jury report said raykovitz was told in 2002 that jerry sandusky was showering naked with a 10-year-old boy in the penn state football team's locker room. he says a penn state official told him there was no finding of wrongdoing, but state investigators want to know if there was a cover-up. the second mile is reeling. and its newly appointed director says the charity has launched its own investigation. >> we are really kicking off

here to make sure we have talked to everyone and we document everything as part of a self-initiated internal review. >> reporter: woodall stresses the alleged sex crimes occurred outside second mile programs and events. but the grand jury report says sandusky met every one of his eight alleged victims through the second mile. >> i'm a frustrated play ground director, i guess. i enjoy being around kids. i just love active kids. i enjoy being around them. >> reporter: jersey sandusky was interviewed by nbc news in 1987 about his work with the children at the second mile. >> i really enjoy the personal contact. i get a lot of personal contact in my life through my family, through our athletes and through the kids who are involved in the second mile. i wouldn't want to lose that. >> reporter: sandusky has lost his role with the charity. they severed ties with him last year.

now he's facing 40 counts of child sex abuse. he denies all wrongdoing. today we spoke to lawyers who have been contacted by a number of families of victims who are interested in filing civil suits against the second mile as well as penn state. michael isikoff, state college, pennsylvania. >> we'll have more on "rock center" including jerry sandusky's first public response to these charges. he'll talk with bob costas tonight on "rock center" 10:00/9:00 central. and an update on the occupy protests tonight. rite police in oakland evicted protesters, tore down their tent camp this morning. 33 people arrested. no major injuries reported, thankfully. and in portland, oregon, yesterday a thousand protesters confronted police chanting "the whole world is watching." standoff lasted several hours. by nightfall they were evicted from two downtown parks, 50 arrests there.

still ahead for us tonight, a breakthrough that could help millions who suffer from a deadly health problem. and later, signs of hope one house at a time in a place where a lot of the adults failed, someone else stepped up and made a difference.

there is health news tonight and it's about health failure. about a half million americans die from it every year. today in results presented at an american heart association meeting, an early experiment

with stem cells showed a lot of promise. we get more on this tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> good morning. >> reporter: mike jones is one of 5 million americans suffering from heart failure, a deterioration of the heart muscle that usually gets progressively worse. but jones is one of 16 patients to get a cutting edge treatment with their own stem cells. the procedure works as well as it has so far, researchers have very high hopes. >> i believe this will be one of the biggest advances in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime, if not the biggest. >> reporter: here's how the procedure works. doctors remove a tiny piece of tissue from the patient's heart. either during open heart surgery or, if the patient does not need that, with a simple biopsy. the tissue goes to brigham women's hospital in boston where

doctors learned to extract stem cells that after a month in a petri dish grow into large numbers of heart muscle cells that go back into the heart, multiply and replace the damaged muscle. before the procedure, jones, like most heart failure patients, was continuing to get worse. >> it was getting more difficult to breathe. any type of exertion. >> any pain in your chest? >> oh, no. >> within a few months of the treatment his heart got stronger again. >> i can do about anything i want to do now. >> the hearts of those getting the procedure pump on average 26% more blood within four months of the treatment and 40% more after a year. no heart failure treatment has ever worked so well. a larger trial is now getting under way with the hope that eventually the procedure could help the millions who suffer from one of the fastest-growing and deadliest health problems in america. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. up next after a break, some big news around here today about the latest member of the nbc news family.

there's a new american astronaut in space tonight, but because we don't have our own way of getting him there, he hitched a ride with the russians. think about this for a minute. it was the race to beat the russians in the first place that propelled our own space program from mercury to gemini to apollo to the moon and back. now with the shuttle program over, americans are going to have to get used to saying -- spasibo, thank you, to our russian hosts for that ride to space. american eagle, the regional airline, hit hard today by the faa. a $900,000 fine for stranding 600 passengers on the tarmac last may when bad weather at

o'hare stranded passengers for hours on 15 separate flights. these new fines are meant to deter airlines from keeping passengers stuck on the planes, but the new rules have also led to an increase in flights that are just cancelled all together. the poignant sight of muhammed ali, now 69 years old, arriving at the funeral of his former rival for the heavy weight title, joe frasier. today was a gathering of boxing royalty to remember the former champ in philadelphia. we told you last week about the dilemma facing yale's talented quarterback patrick witt who was a finalist for the prestigious rhodes scholarship. the problem, his interview is saturday in atlanta. same time as the harvard/yale game. tonight he has withdrawn his application for the scholarship and will play in the game, the last of the season and his college career. as you may have heard by now nbc news made an announcement this morning that we are awfully proud of. chelsea clinton is joining nbc news as a special correspondent

and she has asked to participate in our popular series making a difference. she's anxious to report stories of volunteerism and highlight the great works of ordinary humanity that we encounter every day. so we'll be hearing from chelsea clinton very soon on upcoming broadcasts of "nightly news" and "rock center." up next here tonight, tonight's making a difference report. a hero just 12 years old in a place that could really use one.

time now for tonight's making a difference report. this one proves you're never too young to do that. as we approach the anniversary of the awful earthquake in haiti a young girl from florida is showing just how much one determined person can indeed accomplish, making a difference for those who still need so much help. her story tonight from our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: rachel wheeler may look like a typical adolescent, giggling with girlfriends, going to school dances. >> still makes a very big impact. >> reporter: but she does

something most 12-year-olds don't. she worries about kids who live hundreds of miles and yet a world away from her in haiti. rachel was 9 when she met this man who runs florida's biggest charity, food for the poor, and gave a presentation about haitian children who don't have enough to eat, don't have a place to call home. rachel believed that was just plain wrong and vowed to help him build homes for haiti's unsheltered. she ran bake sales, passed a can at homecoming games, appealed to local businesses. >> $2600 for rachel tonight. >> reporter: thousands of small contributions added up to now over a quarter of a million dollars. >> i love you. >> reporter: rachel never travels to haiti empty-handed. delivering care packages to needy children who lost their school and five of their classmates in the 2010 earthquake. in the small fishing village here, too, the shy young girl is a hero. >> is it overwhelming? >> yeah.

>> yeah, i bet. >> reporter: the money she's raised already built 27 homes. most adults can't conceive of the kind of poverty that you see in haiti. what allows you, as a young girl, to be able to deal with that side of life? >> life is life. you can't just say, oh, i'm going to make haiti the best place in the world and it happens with a snap of fingers. you have to work at it. you have to make it happen. >> reporter: food for the poor believes every new home gives haiti's most vulnerable the chance to start over. >> we are bringing people from the tent city into a concrete home with a door, with a lock and a key to look after the kids and the mothers for safety. >> reporter: a very adult concept building homes and rebuilding lives -- an idea young rachel wheeler has instinctively taken to heart. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, haiti. >> that is our monday night broadcast. thank you for being here with us. we have an important late note here tonight. tonight on "rock center" bob

costas has the first response by jerry sandusky regarding the charges against him in the penn state case. that's "rock center" tonight. i'm brian williams. we'll see you later this evening. hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening, everyone. it is monday. i'm jessica aguirre. >> i'm roger. live pictures from over the plaza. the occupy oakland movement is back. after police broke up the controversial encampment this morning. >> that would be the second time. you are looking at live video from this morning or video from