on our broadcast tonight, the backlash against the pink ribbon. a storm of protest against the nation's largest breast cancer charity after it pulls funds from planned parenthood. tonight, the founder of the komen foundation comes to nbc news to defend that controversial move. new fallout from mitt romney's choice of words about the very poor. and tonight, a new endorsement from a man whose catch phrase is "you're fired." all the news from the trail tonight. mystery illness, why are a dozen teenage girls from the same school coming down with frightening symptoms? tonight, what we found out when we went back to dig a little deeper. is a spoonful of sugar really so dangerous? should it get the same treatment as alcohol and cigarettes? that's what some are suggesting tonight.

and what exactly was that streaking across the night sky last night? "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. as we get into our lead story tonight, think how many pink ribbons you've seen. we've all seen over the course of our lifetime. the biggest name behind those ribbons is the biggest name in the fight against breast cancer, the susan g. komen foundation. they split this week with planned parenthood. because both organizations do so much, because so many people once supported both, and because some suspect politics is perhaps behind this, it has blown wide open in the last 24 hours. while some have reacted positively to the komen decision to cut off funds from planned parenthood, most of the vocal reaction has been negative. and today, komen came here to nbc news to respond. we begin tonight with nbc's lisa

myers. >> reporter: today on social media, a firestorm. >> i'm steaming over this. >> how dare they. >> that is such disturbing and discouraging news. >> it's really awful. they should be ashamed of themselves. >> reporter: thousands of angry posts. shame, shame, shame on you selling out. shredding any pink ribbons i've got. >> i will never donate again. komen ceo nancy brinker struggled to contain the damage. first on msnbc. >> it's not true. >> that's not true. >> reporter: there is an explosion of anger among your long-time supporters. >> there is a tremendous amount, lisa, of emotion. whenever you're dealing with issues of vulnerable populations. when there is the idea of change. >> reporter: a lot of folks see this as a craven political decision. >> you know, we are not a political organization and this is not based on a political decision. >> reporter: brinker says komen stopped new grants to planned parenthood because the group is

under investigation in congress in some states. and because much of that money was passed on to other providers and didn't meet new grant criteria designed to measure and improve effectiveness. however sources knowledgeable about the decision claim these are excuses, and that komen actually was trying to find a way to stop funding planned parenthood because of pressure from anti-abortion groups. they also say komen's top health official mollie williams recently resigned in protest over the decision. brinker would not comment. your own organization has said that planned parenthood using your money has done life-saving work to help low-income women. >> we think they've done great work over a period of time, and we are not commenting on the past. we are commenting on the nature of the grants that have to be done in the future. >> reporter: brinker says other grant recipients will lose funding under the new policies. abigail found a lump in her breast two years ago and got help from komen's funding to planned parenthood. today she's healthy.

>> i would not have been able to get that care without the funding from the komen fund. they covered all the costs, not only the biopsy, but the care going up to the biopsy. >> reporter: komen says the money not going to planned parenthood still will go to help low-income women get breast exams and treatment. as for planned parenthood, officials say they already raised $650,000. that's almost enough to replace the money komen is taking away. brian. >> lisa myers in our d.c. newsroom starting us off tonight. thanks. to the campaign trail today. donald trump found a way to thrust himself back into the spotlight backing mitt romney, who was also pushing back against criticism that he is making too many verbal mistakes and it could hurt his candidacy. nbc's peter alexander on the trail tonight in las vegas. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. there was no better evidence this campaign moved to the wild west than donald trump taking the stage today. he said he's had several

meetings in recent months with mitt romney and said he was ultimately swayed by romney's strong performance in recent debates. ever the showman, donald trump stepped into the spotlight today alongside mitt romney. >> it's my honor, real honor and privilege to endorse mitt romney. >> reporter: in an event that lasted barely five minutes, romney himself seemed to acknowledge the sheer spectacle of it all. >> there are some things you can't imagine happening in your life. this is one of them. >> reporter: the hype vintage vegas came with plenty of confusion. several media outlets initially reported trump would back newt gingrich who later was dismissive. >> the donald is a force of his own. >> reporter: for romney, the endorsement of a billionaire businessman with this as his signature line -- >> you're fired -- >> reporter: gave democrats new fodder for attacks on cable. >> they both like firing people and made millions doing it.

>> reporter: in this new web ad -- >> you're fired. >> i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. >> reporter: romney campaign officials insist the support of trump, a tea party favorite, sends a message to the grassroots. today many conservatives are still scratching their heads after romney's clumsy comments showing indifference to the poor. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. >> let me tell you what was wrong about it, it was almost martian-like in its remove from the concerns of regular people. >> reporter: it's not the first time romney's gaffes got him into trouble. >> corporations are people, my friend. >> i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. >> there were times i wondered if i would get a pink slip. >> $10,000 bet? >> reporter: today gingrich commented on romney's latest verbal fumble. >> i believe we should care about the very poor, unlike governor romney. >> reporter: tonight romney is trying to put those inelegant

comments behind him and turn a corner. he is refocusing on the central theme of his campaign that his private sector experience makes him the best candidate to improve the american economy. >> just another day on the campaign trail. peter alexander from las vegas. thanks. while mitt romney gained an ally today, he became more of a target. from another front, as you're about to see. our political director, chief white house correspondent chuck todd with us with more on this. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. for months team obama has been quietly preparing for a run against mitt romney. this week the president took it to another level, publically engaging his presumptive challenger, but doing so by not mentioning his name. president obama continues to claim he's not yet fully in campaign mode, but this week he jabbed repeatedly and methodically at republican front-runner mitt romney without ever mentioning his name. this morning at the nonpartisan and usually nonpolitical national prayer breakfast, it appeared the president was

stoking the firestorm ignited yesterday by some inartful comments from romney. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. >> requiring much from those who have been given so much, living by the principle that we are our brother's keeper, caring for the poor and those in need. >> reporter: two days ago during an unannounced stop at the washington auto show, the president rebutted romney's 2008 "new york times" op-ed titled, "let detroit go bankrupt," which romney argued against a government rescue. >> there are some folks willing to let this industry die. because of some folks coming together, we are now back in a place where we can compete with any car company in the world. >> reporter: then yesterday, the president again turned romney's words against him, this time from an october interview on housing foreclosure. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process. let it run its course and hit

the bottom. >> it is wrong for anybody to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners, is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. >> reporter: in all three instances, that was the president in a presidential event not a campaign event. the white house vehemently pushes back on today's national prayer breakfast comments but don't dispute the veiled swipes at both the auto show and yesterday. >> chuck todd at the white house tonight. thanks for that. "the washington post" is reporting tonight that u.s. defense secretary leon panetta believes there is a, quote, strong likelihood that israel will attack iran this spring to stop iran from building a nuclear bomb. when asked about that report, panetta did not dispute it, and pentagon sources are telling our own jim miklazewski that senior officials there are growing increasingly nervous and concerned over this possibility of an israeli attack on iran's nuclear facilities coming, quote, some time soon.

now, panetta said today the u.s. expressed its concerns to israel. by the way, we are going to have more on all of this from our chief foreign correspondent richard engel from tel aviv tomorrow here on this broadcast. tens of thousands of protestors poured into cairo's tahrir square today after the soccer riot we reported on last night that left at least 74 people dead. protestors are blaming egyptian security forces for letting the situation get out of hand. tonight's protest left more than 600 people injured. most of them from tear gas used to disperse the crowd. while much of the u.s. has been experiencing a milder than usual winter, europe is having one of the harshest, colder winters in years. at least 123 people are dead, especially hard hit eastern europe including serbia where thousands have been trapped by heavy snow. we posted a full report on all this by stephanie gosk on our website nbc nightly news.com.

in health news tonight, prominent researchers are slamming sugar saying it's time this country treated foods with added sugar the same way we treat things like alcohol and tobacco and regulate them. nbc news chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman here with us tonight. this is a provocative topic. >> reporter: it is a very provocative topic. not just talking about the glass of orange juice or occasional cupcake that is a treat. scientists are sounding the alarm. that is the amount of sugar in our diets that's literally killing us. stephanie mccabe tries her best to limit the amount of sugar her children eat, but knows the occasional treat is part of childhood. >> my kids eat well for dinner and lunch and get a good breakfast and they play. >> reporter: our sugar consumption crept up on all of us. the last 30 years, the amount of sugar we eat tripled. today the average american consumes 22 teaspoons a day, three times what we need.

that's equal to 75 pounds of sugar a year for every man, woman and child in the united states. now an article sparked a national debate. is sugar toxic and should it be taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. >> sugar promotes the same phenomena in the brain addictive substances do. >> reporter: this doctor is a child obesity expert who believes sugar is to blame for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and even cancer, but not everyone agrees. the sugar association takes issue calling the article irresponsible, saying we are confident the american people are perfectly capable of choosing what foods to eat. >> we need more personal responsibility and giving people the honest truth as opposed to this sort of exaggerated truth like calling sugar toxic does not actually get us to a healthier society. >> reporter: personal responsibility can be a challenge when sugar is in almost everything we eat.

it's not just soda and juice, but packaged foods, ketchup, even canned vegetables, which is exactly why sugar is in the crosshairs today. if you think you can substitute those sugary foods with diet drinks and diet sugars, there is now sobering proof they are sweeter than that old-fashioned sugar. they are refiguring the brain and that makes the human body crave sugar even more. we tricked ourself out of the sugar we knew when we were kids. everything is too sweet. it's a big fight. >> doc, thanks very much for stopping by. up next as our broadcast continues, the mystery deepens over a strange illness at school. 12 young girls with disturbing symptoms. tonight, new information we learned they are not the only ones. later -- dead man walking. this u.s. army veteran has been declared dead four times. apparently being alive was not proof enough for the government that somebody might have gotten it very wrong.

as you may know, there is a mysterious and frightening outbreak going on in a small town in western new york state. several girls from the same high school have tics and switches usually associated with something closer to tourette's syndrome. so far no one knows exactly why. nbc's amy robach first reported this story last month. when she returned this week, she found whatever it is, it may be spreading. >> reporter: high school students sarah and katie first started experiencing severe tics last fall. since then, more than a dozen young girls at leroy high school in upstate new york had been sick with the very same problems. >> i was always so active and everybody was always happy to be around me, but i don't feel like myself. any more. >> reporter: doctors who examined the young women conclude a psychiatric condition known as conversion disorder is

to blame. >> this is a subconscious effect that occurs in patients with -- who may be prone to anxiety or mood disorders, but is definitely real symptoms. >> reporter: the first time since symptoms started appearing in teenage girls in this small town, a 36-year-old woman not associated with leroy high school is being treated for severe tics and tourette's-like symptoms. is it hard to walk? >> my whole right side is affected. >> reporter: marge fitzsimmons is a local mom and nurse practitioner. >> this is really scary. it's like somebody came in and took home away. >> reporter: now a team of environmentalists headed up by erin brockovich believes the growing problem may stem from a train derailment near the school more than 40 years ago. the accident involved a large cyanide spill. >> this is where a railroad car

spilled a pure product in one of the most complex geological of areas. >> reporter: brockovich's colleague visited the school and site to take samples of his own. the environmental protection agency has been at that site all week, but insists it is not connected to the illness. erin brockovich's team has come down, what are your thoughts on that? it's hard to talk, i know. i'm sorry. at least somebody is doing something about it now. >> reporter: fitzsimmons and so many families hoping for answers. amy robach, nbc news, leroy, new york. up next tonight, a copy of the most famous painting in the world and someone is not smiling about it.

that was a meteor that lit up the skies over texas and oklahoma last night. a few cameras captured it. a lot of folks saw the light. some reported hearing a sonic boom. one man in carrolton, texas, posted on the web his house shook a little bit and his dog started barking.

it was seen from san antonio to austin to oklahoma city and left a long trail across the sky. he was the best corner man in the business as in someone really good in your corner. in the sport of boxing, there was no one better than angelo dundee. he was considered a master motivator. he trained 15 world champs including leonard and foreman. he's most closely associated with muhammed ali. over six decades in the business. born in south philly, a world war ii vet, angelo dundee was 90 years old. if you look at them, they are slightly different. there is da vinci's "mona lisa" and another "mona lisa." long considered to be a copy made later. her smile more wry and the oz-like valley behind her is more vivid, but now comes a scientific analysis that shows this "mona lisa" was not only painted by one of da vinci's students, but done at the same time as the real masterpiece. experts say it may have been a case of the student working alongside the master.

perhaps you heard kodak filed for bankruptcy protection. perhaps you're wondering what will happen to the kodak theatre in hollywood, the place where they have the academy awards. in fact, 24 days from now. kodak says their name has to come off the theater because they can no longer afford the significant annual fee. it turns out a lot of people lie at the doctor's office when filling out their height and weight on that clipboard with the attached pen. a new study says both men and women do it. as a subcategory, they say white women are most apt to fib about their weight, but not enough to throw off our growing national data. before you see these next pictures, if you're tempted to say something like you never saw bess truman doing this, remember she was a woman of her era, and the current first lady michelle obama is a woman of her era. sometimes that means doing pushups on tv when you're challenged. it was a pushup challenge on

"ellen." the first lady was describing her workout routine. ellen proposed they drop down to the floor, see who could do the most. ellen dropped out at 20. first lady did 25. said she could have kept right on going. up next, the dead man who had to convince his own government he is alive.

when a newspaper once mistakenly printed mark twain's obituary, he gave us that great quote, "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." retired u.s. army sergeant jerry miller can relate to that. he's been declared dead four times. nbc's mark potter has the story of his quest to convince the department of veterans affairs that he's very much alive. >> reporter: even though the department of veterans affairs consider jerry miller a dead man, he's clearly a dead man walking, talking and complaining about how he's been treated. >> i'm not dead, no. i'm sitting right here. i know i'm not dead. >> reporter: for ten years miller served in the u.s. army. he was a staff sergeant and drill instructor and deployed overseas. 57 and retired in palm bay, florida, he depends on his military pension and medical benefits. that's why the three v.a.

letters he got starting in 2010 mourning his death and cutting off his benefits were so shocking. they said you were dead. you got them fixed. >> right. >> reporter: then what happened? >> i got another letter saying i was deceased. >> reporter: a fourth letter again cut off his benefits and demanded his estate pay back more than $94,000 the v.a. said it shouldn't have paid a dead man. do you have $94,000? >> no. i don't have $94,000. >> reporter: with a fragile medical condition and lots of pills to take, miller and his wife agnes worry about his health and all the other bills. >> our mortgage, the light bill, the water bill, everything. >> reporter: after an inquiry of nbc news, v.a. officials say they suspect a records error and promise miller on the phone soon he would get his benefits back and they are starting a new system to prevent this from happening to other vets. as jerry miller seems now to be officially be back among the

living. mark potter, nbc news, palm bay, florida. always good to hear. that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening, everyone. >> we begin with the 49ers, they would much rather be playing in the super bowl this sunday in indianapolis, but today the nfl delivered them the next big thing, a $200 million loan to help pay for the future stadium in santa clara. we bring in nbc bay area's jay gray. indianapolis built that