good evening. ever since the u.s. economy came captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. good evening. ever since the u.s. economy came close to falling apart, bankers have been cast as the enemy, the bad guys. billions of tax payer dollars went onto keeping the banks afloat while americans were hurting. it helped give birth to the occupy movement and sent some people into the streets. then today comes a bombshell. a banker at the biggest gold-plated name in the business, goldman sachs decided to go down in flames. he resigned his job today in the newspaper.

he wrote an article in "the new york times," which if accurate, confirms what so many people already believe goes on inside the big banks. it blows the lid off his now former employer. we begin with nbc's lisa myers. >> reporter: in the last few years, goldman sachs has come under searing criticism, but today's extraordinary attack came from within. greg smith, an executive based in london with the firm for 12 years, blasted goldman, citing a toxic culture and decline in the firm's moral fiber. he said goldman often focusses how much money it can make off its clients, instead of on the clients' best interest. >> it's astonishing to see such withering criticism made public at a firm that always disdained that kind of action. >> reporter: smith wrote, "it makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. i have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets."

>> there is absolutely validity to what was written today, based on all the conversations i've had with clients of goldman sachs over many, many years. they well know their interests are not always, in fact perhaps not often, aligned with that of the firm. >> reporter: experts say clients may stay because of goldman's size and connections. these accusations come a year after a senate committee accused goldman of misleading clients. an allegation the firm disputes. in 2010, goldman also paid $550 million to settle allegations by the securities and exchange commission that it duped clients in selling mortgage securities. why should average americans care about goldman's practices? >> when goldman or any other investment bank put their interests first, that means there is less for the pension fund, less for retirement investment accounts. you have less money to retire on and less money for college educations. >> reporter: goldman sachs vigorously disputes these charges.

in an internal e-mail suggests he is disgruntled. the firm insists it has legions of satisfied clients and says its guiding principle, "we will only be successful if our clients are successful." >> lisa myers starting us off tonight. thanks. british prime minister david cameron's in washington tonight for a state dinner, following some quality time, relationship building with president obama, that included the ncaa basketball game in ohio last night. today it was on to serious issues, including the war in afghanistan in the wake of the civilian murders, the rampage. we have two reports beginning with nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. you can see the activity behind me. they have a great night for it. tonight's state dinner will be held on the south lawn. the menu will include bison wellington and lemon pudding. earlier today, the topics revolved around international hot spots.

despite mounting pressure after this week's killings in afghanistan, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to gradual withdrawal. >> i don't anticipate at this stage we are going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan we currently have. >> reporter: a plan the president said is working. >> al qaeda is on its heels. and has been decimated. >> reporter: the public may not be buying that view. >> why do you think the british and american people look at a situation that they think is frankly a mess? >> the situation is considerably improved. we want afghanistan to be able to look after its own security with its own security forces so we are safe at home. >> reporter: mr. obama acknowledged the skepticism. >> we've been there for ten years. people get weary. >> reporter: the president also repeated tough talk regarding

the standoff over iran's nuclear program. >> the window for solving this issue diplomatically is shrinking. >> reporter: prime minister cameron warns syrian president assad to cease the bloody crackdown on his own people and step down. >> international law has a long reach and long memory. the people leading syria at the moment committing these crimes need to know that. >> reporter: a united front between old allies facing pressing challenges. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. this is andrea mitchell in washington. they are both young, smart, devoted family men with the world on their shoulders, looking like two friends trying to blow off steam, but this duo travels better than most. marine one to air force one then a motorcade to an ncaa basketball game. if it was david cameron's first hot dog, you couldn't tell. he wolfed it down getting points from the nation's number one basketball fan. >> getting some tips. he'll help me fill out my

bracket. >> he's going to teach me cricket. >> reporter: at downing street, the prime minister said he was taking a crash course to get ready. >> long as i don't have to play the basketball and fly the plane, i'll be fine. >> reporter: he was the perfect guest, trying to make up for that dust up a few years back. >> i'm a little embarrassed as i stand here to think 200 years ago my ancestors tried to burn this place down. you're clearly not taking any risks with the brits this time. >> reporter: despite the pomp and circumstance, at heart this so-called special relationship is personal. as indicated by their gifts. the obamas gave the camerons a fancy barbecue grill and monogrammed bean bag chairs for their children. the camerons gave the obamas a ping pong table. >> when you see us standing next to each other, it is quite clear the person who needs to be exercised is the british prime minister and the person who needs the barbecue is the president of the united states. >> reporter: these two have a

long way to go to match the men who first defined the special relationship. churchill lived at the white house for a while during world war ii. while he and fdr saved the world. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. we will have more with prime minister cameron tonight on "rock center." we talked to him in london this week before he left for the u.s. we cover everything from foreign wars and the economy to his critique how hollywood portrayed life at number 10 downing street. "rock center" at 10:00 tonight, 9:00 central. now to afghanistan and what is going on there on the ground. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is from our bureau in kabul. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. first off, the american staff sergeant accused of killing over the weekend 16 afghan civilians has been flown out of the country awaiting court-martial. arriving in afghanistan today was the defense secretary leon panetta. he is safely in kabul.

i say safely because earlier in the day there was a brief incident which an afghan man set himself on fire on the runway as secretary panetta's plane was coming in to land. like the president today, the defense secretary had one main message during this visit and that was stay the course. continue the program to withdraw gradually the remaining 90,000 u.s. troops in this country over the next two years. the problem is many people in afghanistan have doubts about the current course. doubts about president karzai, doubts about the afghan security forces, and frankly, doubts about what can be accomplished over the next two years that hasn't happened over the last ten. >> richard engel from our bureau in kabul tonight. richard, thanks. now we turn to presidential politics. yet again last night was a big night for rick santorum. he picked off the two big state primaries and yet again, mitt

romney is acting like a man cruising to the nomination with clear skies ahead. our political director chuck todd has a look at things on this day after. chuck, good evening. >> good evening, brian. for mitt romney, these primary days must feel like charlie brown and the football. he seems like he's on the verge of the nomination, a football gets yanked away by lucy. in this case lucy is rick santorum. it's math versus momentum. rick santorum hoping his southern sweep tuesday finally gives him a clean shot to be the chief conservative challenger. >> eventually people are going to figure out governor romney isn't going to be the nominee. >> i want to thank you. >> reporter: for mitt romney, tuesday turned out to be southern primary deju vu. he couldn't get 1/3 of the vote in the geographic heart and soul of the gop. his inability to win in the deep south is living a gaping hole in his geographic road map to the nomination. despite losing alabama and mississippi, romney can claim a

numeric victory thanks to caucuses held in the middle of the pacific ocean. on hawaii and american samoa. >> last night i got more delegates than anybody else. this is a process of becoming the nominee, we are pursuing that in an intelligent way. >> reporter: math can only get romney so far. his campaign still has a message and connection issue with core republicans. >> some who are very conservative may not be yet in my camp. they will be when i become the nominee, when i face barack obama. >> reporter: while romney and santorum slug it out, last night may have proved to have been the final hope for newt gingrich hopes for staying in contention. >> we'll now have three or four days of news media. they'll say why doesn't gingrich quit. they said last june i was dead. they recycle this every six weeks. >> reporter: gingrich's campaign had been propped up primarily by one donor and one super pac. that director acknowledged today losing both southern states is a blow. >> i suspect with the losses it

will be slightly more challenging. >> reporter: the romney machine moved to illinois which is next tuesday, and wisconsin. they put up nearly $3 million in ads. the romney super pac to date have crossed the 30 million mark, just the super pac. that's how much money they spent on behalf of mitt romney. it's what they thought their entire budget. >> and it goes on. chuck todd on this day after. thanks. other news tonight, overseas in switzerland, an absolute tragedy. a bus crashed. 28 people, most of them children. 12-year-olds returning from a ski vacation all killed when their bus slammed head-on into a concrete wall in a tunnel in the swiss alps. police are trying to figure out what went wrong. they say the driver was not speeding. everyone was wearing seat belts onboard the bus. back in this country in pennsylvania, one person killed,

at least 15 injured when a school bus collided with a tractor trailer on a rural highway today. in chicago, just tonight, a wild scene outside the home of the former governor rod blagojevich who is about to head off to federal prison to serve 14 years on corruption charges with his wife by his side, the crowd chanting "free our governor." he did what he loves to do. he gave a long and rambling, sometimes bizarre statement saying everything he did was on the right side of the law, but that he was about to begin his dark and hard journey. still ahead tonight as "nightly news" continues, record highs across this country again today. is it getting too warm generally? a warning tonight about a growing threat from the changing climate. later, news about a test that screens women for cancer, but does it need to be done still every year?

you're looking at what is a very early start to the cherry blossom season in washington, d.c. it's early, but it's beautiful. a lot of people have hotel reservations for later in the year. with temperatures across a lot of this country, with 20 to 40 degrees above normal now, no surprise the blossoms are out and blooming. national park service has been

forced to move up the date for the start of the official peak cherry blossom season. this afternoon the temperature in chicago, illinois, was the same as it was way down in naples, florida, 81 degrees. much warmer weather can have a dark side. tonight there is a new projection that rising seas due to climate change could cause a whole lot of damage much sooner than anyone had previously thought. the report from our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson. >> this is one angry atlantic. >> reporter: the ferocious surge of the atlantic powered by hurricane irene last august moved a lifeguard tower. broke through a sea wall and sent water rushing into the streets of new york's long beach. a scene that will become more commonplace, a new study says, because of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

benjiman strauss says the odds of a hundred-year flood happening by 2030 doubles for 2/3 of the places studied. >> we found that once a 100-year flood becomes a once a decade-year flood fastest in southern california where we expect to see that in several decades. >> reporter: who is at risk? by 2030, the 5 million americans living on coastal land less than four feet above high tide lines. by 2050 it expands to 6 million people living less than five feet above high tide lines. in new york city, the danger is not just to the low-lying areas where millions live but to the very way people get around. the funnel-shaped new york harbor could flood the city's vital subway system. loading the dice, heat-trapping gasses from burning oil, coal and gas, melting polar caps and glaciers and warming the ocean. measurements taken in bermuda show 58 years of increases. >> the temperature will be in red, there is more heat in a

couple of meters of the ocean than the atmosphere. >> reporter: climate change skeptics say you can't blame the rising ocean all on global warming. >> the sea level rise caused by climate change is less than the sea level rise caused from land sinking, and we can't stop it. >> reporter: a future dependent on the ocean and threatened by it. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. a new time frame for a very well known medical test for women.

now to the health news story tonight. it's big news to a lot of women, specifically new guidelines for one of the most common best-known and most critical medical test, the pap smear. our chief science correspondent robert bazell has details for us. >> reporter: the pap test is the most successful cancer screening tool ever. it detects abnormal cervical

cells that can be removed easily before they become cancer. the new recommendations from the u.s. preventive services task force say under most circumstances, women aged 21 to 65 need to test only once every three years. that goes up to five years if the woman gets a new test that also checks for hpv, the virus that causes cervical cancer. in countries where the test has been used widely since it became available in the 1940s, the incidents and death rate from cervical cancer has fallen as much as 80%. experts decided women need to get the test more often if they had a suspect test in the past. they need to talk to their doctors about this test and others that may require more frequently. >> bob bazell in our studios, thanks. tsa said today it's going to go easier on older airline passengers. they announced a trial run of a program that will allows folks 75 and older to go through screening without removing their shoes and light jackets.

the same rule was adopted for children under 12. tsa says easing the rules for older and younger travelers allows screeners to focus more attention on those who would pose more of a potential risk. the annual grueling frozen, nearly 1,000-mile race from anchorage to nome, alaska, the iditarod is over. this year's winner is a 25-year-old alaskan native, youngest winner ever. he's following a family tradition. his dad won in '04, his grandfather competed in the first one and both were back in the race this year. let's not forget to give credit to those very good, indefatigable dogs. up next tonight, making a difference.

next at 6:00, silicon veil will taking on chi narks plus we're tracking the storm that's jeking down ff jeff r ranieri has the latest o where it will hit next. where since 2004 volunteers gathered to welcome home soldiers. today marks the last of those incoming flights into dallas and the end of the line for volunteers, some of whom have never missed a single week and never asked for anything in return.

they just wanted to make a difference. we get their story tonight from nbc's janet shamlian. >> reporter: pat brown knows dfw airport like an elite frequent flier. for six years, she's come here at least once a week, but she almost never flies. >> they don't do this any place else like this. >> reporter: the 79-year-old is part of a cast literally of thousands who have been coming to the airport to welcome soldiers from iraq and afghanistan, more than 400,000 troops over the years. >> we've got a hero here. welcome home. >> reporter: while a few are met by family, most of the troops are connecting through dfw so they are not yet home. sometimes it feels awfully close. >> this is great. this is definitely more than i ever expected to see. >> reporter: tom retired and on a fixed income, always brings roses. >> there was one colonel. she lifted me off my feet and she was so surprised. >> reporter: unsung heroes all.

they ensure every time a soldier steps back on u.s. soil there will be applause. not a single flight has gone unmet over the past eight years. every man and women in uniform who passed through here had their sacrifice recognized by a grateful stranger. not after today. with more troops heading home permanently, the army is consolidating the charter flights into atlanta where there is no greeter program. >> the troops are coming in from kuwait and afghanistan. >> donna who spent more than a thousand days here as the unpaid coordinator. >> we don't have as many troops deployed. that's a good thing. it's been wonderful, but coming to an end. >> reporter: it's touched many hearts. >> nice to know you have that much support out there. >> reporter: it goes both ways. for pat brown, who never married or had children, this is family. >> they're helping you? >> oh, yeah. don't tell them.

>> reporter: coming home, a bittersweet end to a warm welcome. janet shamlian, nbc news, dallas. >> thank you for being here with us. see you later tonight for "rock center." i'm brian williams. hope to see you tomorrow. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening and thanchs for joining us on this wet wednesday night. we want to get right to the storms, making things miserable for many people just trying to get home. >> rain and wind just the beginning of it. tonight the downpours are turning streets into mini rivers and trees are crashing into homes and even cars too. >>