on the broadcast tonight, here to stay. hundreds of thousands of young, illegal immigrants get a pass from the president to stay in the u.s. tonight what does it mean and why now? on the brink. an event this weekend that could send shock waves through the american economy. tonight why the whole world is watching what is about to happen in greece. the break-in that started it all, triggered the biggest political scandal in american history, how has the view changed after 40 years? and making a difference. a woman's out to cure america's bedside manner and make sure patients' voices are heard. bedside manner and make sure patients' voices are heard. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. the president says it's the right thing to do. today in the rose garden at the white house he acted on an issue

that will have consequences for americans from coast to coast, from border to border. he says his administration will stop deporting hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to this country by their parents as children and then no matter how hard working and successful they've become they've been treated as illegal immigrants. for many of these young people and their parents what the president did today isn't perfect but it's a big step toward a dream and of course for opponents of the president and this issue it's time to go on the attack. we begin here tonight with our justice correspondent pete williams in washington. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this new policy was first announced here today at the department of homeland security, which oversees immigration enforcement, and it's described here as focusing more on illegal immigrants who are criminals or a danger to national security and less on those who are here illegally through no fault of their own. [ chanting ]

>> reporter: young people covered by the new policy cheered the announcement outside the white house. >> i can't describe it. it's so amazing. i'm so happy. >> reporter: president obama said it's intended to help those brought here illegally by their parents. >> these are young people who study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. >> reporter: starting immediately, the government will stop deporting people here illegally who were brought to the u.s. under age 16 and are no older than 30 now, have lived here at least the past five years, are in school or have a high school diploma, or military service, and have not committed a serious crime. the homeland security secretary says most of them don't even know the language of the country where they were born. >> they've grown up here, they speak the language here. they've stayed out of trouble here. they're getting their education here. they have wonderful talents to contribute to our country. >> reporter: the policy will

affect hundreds of thousands like jessica who says her father brought her illegally to georgia from mexico when she was 11. now she's a college graduate. >> i want to go to law school to eventually practice immigration law. >> reporter: those who meet these standards will still be here illegally and will not get a leg up for citizenship, but they can apply for relief from deportation for two years, something that can be renewed repeatedly, and they're eligible to seek work permits. >> i think that the president understands that we cannot wait for congress to act on this. they haven't gotten their act together on either side of immigration for a very long time. >> reporter: perhaps reflecting the passion surrounding the immigration issue the president showed a flash of anger when his remarks were interrupted by a reporter for a conservative website. >> excuse me, sir. it is not time for questions, sir. not while i'm speaking. >> reporter: most republican response has been muted, criticizing the president less for the substance of the policies than for going around congress, which has so far

declined to give any relief to young immigrants who want citizenship. >> the status of young people who come here through no fault of their own is an important matter to be considered and should be solved on a long-term basis so they know what their future would be in this country. >> reporter: many republicans say enforcement at the border must be toughened before immigration laws are made more permissive. >> i am concerned whether this is anything that is real change. is this merely election-year pandering? >> reporter: arizona governor jan brewer says the new policy rewards law breakers. >> and they're going to be competing for jobs with people that have come here legally. >> reporter: there is no way to know exactly how many young people will qualify for this new policy, but several estimates say it's at least 1 million. brian? >> pete williams starting us off from washington tonight. pete, thanks. let's talk about some of the unavoidable politics of this. with us tonight from our washington bureau the moderator of "meet the press" david gregory. david, how blatantly will the

politics of this be viewed or is that an eye of the beholder issue? >> not on this one. this is pretty transparent, brian. this is election year politics. consider the numbers. the president won two-thirds of hispanic voters, more than that, in fact, in 2008. and it is imperative that he mobilize latino voters this year if he can carry the states he carried before and perhaps new ones. so it's a critical part of the coalition he wants to put together. there's another element to this. he is really trying to jam mr. romney up here. marco rubio, the hispanic senator from florida, has come out in favor of a very similar provision to what the president signed into law here today or advocated today. and even despite that, mitt romney has not come out in support of the rubio plan. other republicans have not. there's a stalemate about what to do with the children of illegal immigrants. the president wanted to plow through that today and use that as a way to really mobilize support among hispanics and use it as a wedge issue against mr. romney. >> also another way of saying,

go around congress, which i'm sure will come up on your broadcast sunday morning. >> yeah. no question about it. it also gets to what is at the heart of this campaign and this week, brian, yesterday and today, we see the heart of it. the economic fight over who best can spark recovery, deal with the fiscal cliff that's looming over the country at the end of the year. that was yesterday. and today the most important voting group in the country, the latino voter, is going to be critical. and we've seen it day after day now, the most critical issues in the campaign. >> all right. david gregory from our d.c. newsroom tonight. as we say, much more on this sunday morning on "meet the press." david's guest white house senior adviser david plouffe and the man who ran against obama in '08 senator john mccain of arizona. this weekend there are two crucial elections overseas, one in egypt where the arab spring revolution appears to be falling apart. more on that in a moment. the other is in greece where they're voting for prime minister amid protests and street clashes. this election could also have

the practical effect of the breakup of the 17-nation eurozone, where the euro is the currency. that could have huge implications here in the u.s. our teams are on the ground in egypt and in greece tonight. we want to begin with cnbc's michelle caruso carera tonight in athens. michelle, good evening. >> reporter: brian, when most of europe started using the euro more than a decade ago no one ever thought that a member country would leave. but the election here in greece has put that option on the table. as we head into the final stretches of the campaign, the fight is on for every last vote. greece's future is up for grabs. almost no one here wants to abandon the euro, but it could happen after sunday's vote. that could mean economic ruin here and send shock waves through the global economy. either way, greece is in trouble. it is deep in debt after years of living beyond its means and life here has changed.

unemployment is at record levels. needy shoppers line up for donated food. nervous greeks are taking their money out of banks. withdrawals of up to 1 billion euros a day. in the town of volos, some people are bartering for goods and services and using an alternative currency they created. artemis has not been paid in months and her partner's salary is down 50%. they joined the barter network so they can keep feeding the animals on their farm. >> i want to use euro but i -- it's very expensive. i believe that the trade -- it's better. >> reporter: greece is getting by on billions in loans keeping the country afloat. but that comes at a price. harsh austerity measures forcing taxes up and government spending down. that has caused real suffering here and this election has become a referendum on renegotiating or even canceling the bailout deal. >> we keep going with this

austerity policy, the collapse, you know, at the end of the day, waits for us. >> reporter: but greece's lenders say they have no intention of renegotiating and threaten to cut greece off. that could force greece to leave the euro, default on its debt, and stare into an economic abyss. economists worry that the uncertainty caused by all of this could lead to financial contagion that could affect much larger economies like italy, spain, even the united states. so what happens here this weekend will be watched all over the world. brian? >> michelle caruso carera in athens for us tonight. michelle, thanks. now in egypt an extremely tense situation leading up to that country's election this weekend. protesters are in the streets and there is deep worry that the weekend could mark the end of the democratic revolution that swept the country last year no matter which side wins. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is back in cairo

tonight and, richard, i have to say when you and i were in tahrir square in the thick of it we knew this was a possibility. >> reporter: it was a possibility, but few expected it would turn out quite like this. the future of egypt, the biggest country in the arab world, is now on the line. the muslim brotherhood band here for decades could take over this country this weekend and the entire region is watching very closely and nervously. supporters of the muslim brotherhood took to the streets today with a warning. they want fair elections after egypt's high court yesterday dissolved the recently formed islamist controlled parliament. many here see it as a power grab by the government before this weekend's presidential election. it's a choice between the old regime and the muslim brotherhood candidate mohamed

morsi, a fire brand who wants to impose islamic law and is openly hostile to israel. last night morsi promised a new revolution if there is fraud at the polls. i will pay with my life for the people's freedom, he said. his opponent is ahmed shafiq, president mubarak's last prime minister. the brotherhood will take egypt back a hundred years, he says, promising to restore law and order and a pro western government. if mubarak's old ally shafiq wins this election many more demonstrators like these will return to the streets. the military here has reimposed martial law just in case. many egyptians see shafiq as a new mubarak, who could end democracy. >> nobody would have believed -- who believed in the revolution would vote for shafiq. >> reporter: others fear the sweeping changes the muslim brotherhood might bring.

>> they don't believe that women have equal rights to men. >> reporter: christians here worry if the brotherhood wins they'll become second class citizens or worse. egypt will become like saudi arabia, says miriam. she is already applying for asylum in the united states, afraid that egypt's democracy could backfire. results are expected monday night. it's now a choice between a potential new strong man or islamic law. who could have guessed it back then? >> richard engel back in cairo tonight where the whole world is indeed watching. thanks. up next as we continue along the way remembering the scandal that changed american politics and society to this day and forced a president to resign. later, our making a difference report tonight. a story for anybody who's ever had a complaint about the way they were treated by their doctor.

it's hard to believe 40 years have passed since watergate, the scandal that brought down an american president and changed maybe for all time the way americans view their government. tonight our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd speaks with one of the five men involved in the original break-in and the reporters who exposed the scandal. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. >> reporter: that is of course how watergate ended but the biggest political scandal in american history began to unfold 40 years ago on june 17th, 1972, when five men were arrested after breaking into democratic headquarters at the watergate complex. one of those men was eugenio martinez a cuban born cia operative told to look for evidence tying fidel castro to democratic presidential

candidate george mcgovern. today at age 90 martinez regrets what he did. >> the whole thing was a stupid mistake one after the other. how could i feel proud of it? >> reporter: martinez and his fellow burglars were being supervised from this command post in room 723, an old howard johnson turned gw dormitory, all to make sure nobody was coming on the sixth floor of the watergate where the dnc had its headquarters. democratic operative r. spencer oliver's phone was the only one the burglars successfully tapped. oliver says nixon's men used information from the tap to sabotage the democratic primary and ensure george mcgovern's nomination. >> it was a major coup by nixon within the democratic party to destroy it and divide it and to nominate the weakest candidate. >> reporter: at the time the white house tried to dismiss the break-in as a third-rate burglary but "the washington post" reporters bob woodward and carl bernstein began to tie top

nixon aides to a massive coverup that had begun before the burglary. as senate hearings began in 1973 white house counsel john dean said nixon knew about the coverup. then another bombshell the revelation of a secret white house taping system. after a long battle the supreme court ordered nixon to turn over the tapes. one crucial tape had an 18 1/2-minute audio gap. what nixon actually said on that tape is the last remaining secret of watergate following the 2005 revelation of deep throat's real identity. four decades later watergate still casts a cultural shadow. a scandal is nothing until the word "gate" is attached to it even in the world of sports. the reporters who exposed watergate say the scandal revealed a president obsessed with keeping power at any cost, but its impact has lasted a lot longer. >> a massive campaign of espionage and sabotage, covert, illegal, unconstitutional. >> watergate implanted a cynical

bomb in american politics that will probably never go away. >> reporter: chuck todd, nbc news, washington. up next here tonight an honor long overdue for a name once known across this country. hello?

the words are going this way-there's no way.

oh, the lights came on. isn't technology supposed to make life easier? at chase we're pioneering innovations that make banking simple. deposit a check with a photo. pay someone with an email. and bank seamlessly with our award-winning mobile app. take a step forward... and chase what matters. in the studio across the hall from ours tonight a chapter in local television news will come to an end. if you have ever lived in new york or passed through here for any length of time over the last three decades, then you know sue simmons. tonight at 11:00 p.m. sue will say good-bye to her audience on wnbc tv channel 4 and her long-time co-anchor and virtual common law tv husband chuck scarborough. sue has always been a piece of work and those of us who have been so proud to work with her wish her nothing but the very best. the air force today awarded

a posthumous silver star to captain francis gary powers, the u-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over the soviet union in 1960. his grandchildren accepted the medal. because his mission was considered a cia operation powers was originally not deemed eligible for a military medal. his children petitioned to change that, noting he was held as a soviet prisoner and interrogated for over a hundred days, and he never gave up any information. francis gary powers, a household name in this country during the cold war era, died in 1977. so a couple days back, we reported what seemed like the ultimate irony, a man from west virginia named ray dolan, was hitch hiking across america while writing his experiences in a book on the kindness of americans, when he was shot by the driver of a pickup truck who was later arrested. well, it turns out americans are kind after all. police say dolan shot himself in

an apparent act of self-promotion. about the man they arrested has now been released, the local sheriff said, quote, i had the worst feeling he was telling me the absolute truth. he said it was a great feeling when they learned the man had nothing to do with it. up next here tonight, a woman who wants to bring back a simple concept -- doctors listening to their patients.

time for our friday night making a difference report. this is one for anyone who's ever wished their doctor was a little better at the bedside manner part of the job of doctoring. tonight our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman introduces us to a fellow physician who believes listening is good medicine and she's doing something about it. >> reporter: dr. rachel remen is changing the way doctors doctor. >> 20 years ago there were a number of articles published one after the other which documented the unintended consequences of medical training that our young doctors were becoming cynical, hostile, alienated, depressed, burned out. and i want to do something about that.

>> reporter: dr. remen create ed a course for first and second-year medical students but this one without textbooks. she calls it the healer's art and teaches that the best practice of medicine is about connecting with your patient, requires more listening than doing, and is about more than a cure. >> healing is about evoking from people their resource, their inner strength, their capacity to respond to the challenge of the disease. i get them to reflect on their own lives. >> reporter: the course she created at the university of california san francisco 20 years ago is now in place in half of the nation's medical schools. and most of her students are young women like dr. charlotte carlson. what did you learn from rachel remen that you use every day? >> i think she teaches us how to listen and do that with more openness. she can inspire us to get into the story of the person and pay attention to what their real

inspiration, their real pain, and their real joy in the story is. >> reporter: remen's observations have been supported by research published in respected journals underscoring her belief that medical students leave her course better doctors. >> it's not only changed the way i want to practice medicine as a doctor but i think it also has affected the way that i just move through my own life. >> reporter: medicine that gets back to basics. >> you have to go back to what brought you into medicine in the first place and keep it alive in you. >> reporter: finding the balance between high tech and the right touch. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, san francisco. >> that is our broadcast for a friday night and for this week. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here on monday night. happy father's day to all my fellow dads and let's remember those serving overseas who can't be here with their families. in the meantime, have a great weekend. in the meantime, have a great weekend. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

good evening,. we're following breaking news in the east bay. a grass fire east of fremont, it spread fast this afternoon, this is our video from our nbc chopper taken within the last hour, you can see the blackened landscape below, this is just outside the regional park east of 680. the blaze has now scorched 70 acres. no structures are threatened, but firefighters do have t