contempt, the u.s. attorney general in a huge fight with congress over a gun case gone wrong. now it's a showdown with the white house over executive privilege. it's a story still developing. the defense rests in the sandusky trial. lawyers promised to put sandusky himself on the stand. so why didn't he testify. going to extreme a brutally hot first day of summer in the east. and in the midwest, devastation in the city of duluth. the worst flooding in decades. even zoo animals washed away in a flash. "nightly news" begins a flash. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening, while the rest

of the nation watches, washington has blown up into a caustic partisan fight and a showdown is coming over the power of the american president. just tonight, a house committee voted to hold president obama's attorney general, eric holder, in contempt of congress for refusing to turn over documents related to a badly botched sting operation involving guns and drugs in mexico called fast and furious. this contempt vote comes after the obama white house for the first time invoked executive privilege. charges of stonewalling and coverups are flying, the kind of stuff we first learned during the watergate era. for those not following the complexities of it, it just looks like more of our broken politics and vicious fights now out in the open. we begin tonight with capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell who was there to see all of it today. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. there were emotions and allegations of political motives flying today. house republicans say they have been waiting for eight months to

get documents from the attorney general and only today the white house stepped in. a key committee took an important step toward sending a message to the department of justice. a rare and serious reprimand. >> 23 ayes, 17 nos. >> the ayes have it. >> reporter: eric holder could become the first attorney general ever hold in contempt of congress. >> the attorney general has refused to cooperate. >> reporter: five months before the election, a power struggle between the obama administration and congress. >> it shouldn't have come to this. nobody likes doing this. >> it shouldn't be a political witch hunt against the attorney general of our country and our president in an election year. >> today the white house asserted executive privilege to shield documents from congress. for more than a year, the house oversight committee has been investigating an operation known as fast and furious. federal agents had allowed guns to cross into mexico, intending to track them to cartels.

but some of those u.s. weapons were found at the scene where border patrol agent brian terry was killed in 2010. >> i don't think agent terry's family cares that it's an election year. i don't think the families of over 200 slain mexican citizens care that this is an election year. >> reporter: operation fast and furious was ended by attorney general eric holder, who has testified and already provided thousands of documents. the conflict with congress began because the justice department initially denied those gun walking tactics had been used. >> i can give them this. >> reporter: that denial raised many questions about who had authorized the operation. >> who knew about fast and furious? when did they know about it? how high up did it go? >> reporter: the white house insists holder has made extraordinary efforts to cooperate. the attorney general called the contempt citation a divisive election year tactic. democrats defended holder. >> for the past year, you've been holding the attorney general to an impossible

standard. you accuse him of a cover-up for protecting documents that he was prohibited by law from producing. >> reporter: the white house noted today that presidents of both parties have used executive privilege to protect some of their internal conversations. house republicans say there's still time to avoid this and negotiate a deal, but they still want what they call a narrow list of documents. brian, if there is no breakthrough, speaker boehner says the full house of representatives will vote next week to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress. brian. >> kelly o'donnell starting us off from capitol hill tonight. kelly, thanks. now to pennsylvania. the defense has rested tonight in the jerry sandusky trial but one thing that was promised did not happen. sandusky did not take the stand himself. our report from nbc's john yang at the courthouse. >> reporter: when jerry sandusky arrived at the courthouse, many still expected he would take the stand.

at the defense table he and to -- appeared to study notes and other documents as four of his six adopted children looked on. after an hour of testimony, the defense asked for a recess. they and the prosecution followed judge john cleland into chambers. sandusky remained in court chatting with supporters. but then he was called in as well. some 30 minutes later, everyone returned, sandusky looking shaken and subdued. when court resumed defense attorney joseph amendola rose. the defense rests. without testimony from sandusky who has pleaded not guilty to more than 50 child sexual assault charges, the jury must consider a defense that's a two-pronged challenge to the accusers' accounts. they argued investigators pushed the alleged victims to embellish their claims challenging state police investigator joseph lieter, who testified he never told potential accusers what others said. but the defense played a taped interview with the man known in court documents as victim four.

leiter was heard telling him, you've been repeating word for word pretty much what the others have told us. but we need you to tell us as graphically as you can what took place. the defense also suggested the accusers are motivated by money, hoping to cash in on civil suits against sandusky. a neighbor of victim four testified hearing the young man's mother say of sandusky, i'll own his house. dorothy sandusky, the defendant's wife, told the jury some of the accusers remained friendly with sandusky for years after the alleged abuse. she said victim six, for instance, visited them last summer. he went out to dinner with us. we went to the cracker barrel. the judge told the jury to show up tomorrow with their bags packed, because until they reach a verdict, they will be sequestered. no tv, no telephone, no radio, no internet. brian. >> john yang covering at the courthouse in pennsylvania. thanks. savannah guthrie, our chief

legal correspondent is here with us in the studio. savannah, watching this, it looks relentless, the evidence against this man. as a lawyer, though, you were cautioning us earlier today. what should we think about this? >> a couple of things, none of is watching tonight, sitting at home has actually witnessed the actual testimony in this case. this case will rise and fall on whether or not those accusers were credible in court. only the jurors can really size that up and make that decision. i think the fundamental difficulty for the defense here is the sheer volume of witnesses in the prosecution case. you could explain away any one alleged victim. you could say there are factual inconsistencies or maybe there's a money motive. but how do you explain ten alleged victims. that's why so many people look at this case and think it's almost insurmountable for the defense. >> we will watch as it develops, as it goes to the jury with the defense resting today. savannah, thank you, as always. if you know san francisco, you know where pier 29 is along the embarcadero. late today it became engulfed in flames. the former restaurant was supposed to be the centerpiece

of a big redevelopment where the 2013 america's cup was going to be headquartered, a big part of waterfront improvements in the city. flames were through the roof. firefighters bravely made a fast attack and knocked it down but damage is massive, still way too early to know about a cause. now we turn to the weather here in the northeast. the longest day of the year has also turned out to be the hottest in several cities thus far after burning the midwest. and in the upper midwest, devastation tonight after a different kind of extreme weather. we are covering both fronts tonight. first to our chief environmental affairs correspondent, anne thompson, who happens to be at coney island new york. anne, good evening. >> good evening, brian. you know, summer's sizzling start may be a sign of things to come. the national weather service says most of the country is expected to have above normal temperatures for june, july, and august. the danger of the summer's first heat wave taught on this field

at new jersey's north bergen high school where two students at graduation were hospitalized for heat exposure. >> we were in the cap and gowns. that's why. they were on the field. it's even hotter on the field. >> reporter: summer rolled in on a red hot carpet across the u.s. 90 degree temperatures dominating the map. record highs set in burlington, vermont, near the canadian border, new york and new jersey. >> not just 90 degrees but the heat index, the combination of the heat and humidity, that's over 100 in a lot of spots. that's your danger zone. >> reporter: hazy skies in phoenix prompted a warning to people sensitive to pollution to stay indoors. triple digit temperatures and smoke from nearby wildfires creating a potentially unhealthy environment. for all those working outdoors today, federal officials urged them to remember three words, water, rest, shade. at this baseball academy in chicago, former major league pitcher steve trout added one more.

>> i make sure every kid has sunscreen on. i ask them, did you get sunscreen? >> reporter: in a city famous for hot air, tourists try anything to cool down in washington, d.c. >> fanning ourselves. >> taking my hat off and fanning. >> glad to get back to the hotel and take a shower. >> reporter: it wasn't all bad. the school year ended a day early for students in howell, new jersey. >> i'm sure they don't want to spend another day in this warm building. >> reporter: in new york city where it felt like 103 degrees, students have one more week left. officials are tracking the mercury outside and inside public schools as more than a third have no air conditioning. >> looking to make sure that the temperatures don't go up too much in those schools. if they really do, we'll do something and take them out. >> reporter: now, this is the longest day of the year. when night comes, it will not bring much relief. guess what, tomorrow is expected to be even hotter. brian. >> anne thompson at coney island tonight. anne, thanks. now to that massive flooding in the area around duluth, minnesota, the worst that city has seen in more than half a century. a wild situation.

some of the victims were animals at a local zoo. weather channel's janel klein is with us from there tonight. janel, what happened there? >> reporter: brian, duluth is known for its brutal blizzards, so it's certainly no stranger to severe weather. but the record eight inches of rain that hit here last night is causing flooding like this city has never seen. duluth sits on a steep hill so all of that water rushed downhill, swamping streets and bridges, creating sinkholes and mudslides and flooding dozens of homes and cars. several duluth neighborhoods were evacuated and many roads throughout the city are closed, including parts of a major interstate. some of the worst damage is at the lake superior zoo, two-thirds of which is now under water. at least a dozen animals are dead or missing. the water was so fast, it swept away two seals out of their exhibit and into a nearby street. and a 450 pound polar bear escaped in the high water before it was found safe. brian, the forecast is for three more inches of rain here

tonight. >> what a wild situation there. janel klein in duluth for us tonight. thanks. overseas now to egypt where the power struggle between the military and the muslim brotherhood just took a new turn. and there are more questions about the condition of former leader hosni mubarak. again tonight our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is above cairo's tahrir square. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. people are back in the square tonight because they think they are being lied to. last night president mubarak was reported by the official state media in this country to be clinically dead. well, today his lawyers say he's made something of a miraculous recovery and has been taken off of a respirator, this after he was transferred out of prison to a military hospital. also suspicious, many in the square say, is that the electoral commission said it would not announce tomorrow the results of this disputed

election, but it will announce them at an as of yet unspecified date. so now the muslim brotherhood says it will hold protests every night in this square until election results are announced. brian. >> another loud night late at night in cairo. richard engel keeping watch over tahrir square. richard, thanks. the federal reserve lowered the outlook for the economy for the remainder of the year and next two years for that matter, including a prediction the unemployment rate could remain stuck around its current 8.2% this year. the fed also extended a program aimed at pushing down mortgage rates. fed chairman ben bernanke said they were open to more monetary stimulus if things do get worse. still ahead for us as we continue along the way on a wednesday night, more in our special report, the not so hidden epidemic of heroin in suburban america. tonight the families whose lives will never be the same because of it. later, the great comeback down below. what's bringing a dying treasure

back to life.

last night here we reported on the steadily growing problem of heroin use and abuse among suburban kids in this country. tonight nbc's kate snow has more on the tragic toll this new generation's heroin is taking on the families who seem powerless to stop it. >> reporter: when john roberts retired from the chicago police department, he bought his dream house out in the suburbs. >> thought it would be a nice place to raise your kids. >> i thought for sure this was going to be a lot safer than the city. >> reporter: their young son billy was just entering high school. he started experimenting with pot, then cocaine, and eventually heroin. >> reporter: from your home in the suburbs, billy was able to get heroin no problem. >> billy at one point said, dad, it's so bad out here, i could make a call, and it would be delivered and put in the mailbox. >> reporter: in this suburban

county, heroin deaths went from six in 1999 to 30 this year. this year on track to be even worse. billy died of an overdose three years ago. >> we got to the house. something i've seen many times in my career, all the flashing lights, including an ambulance. so i knew i had lost my son. >> close your eyes and picture what a heroin addict looks like and then open your eyes and see our family. >> reporter: mary dedrick's daughter alyssa was a figure skater and cheerleader in suburban boston. alyssa was about 14 when she started taking prescription drugs like oxycontin. her senior year, she realized heroin was cheaper. >> i promised myself as long as i never did heroin, i would be okay, that i wasn't that bad yet. i cried right before sniffing my first line of heroin. >> alyssa left home for weeks at a time but her mom kept trying to get her help.

>> i knew if i turned my back on her, i would never see her again. >> alyssa has been sober for five years now, teaches pilates, just graduated college and plans to be a substance abuse counselor. >> it's a hard thing for me to think that not everybody is this lucky. that there are just a few of us that got to the other side. >> reporter: many young people told us they tried heroin because it's cheap, 10 bucks a hit. that's less than the cost of a six-pack, much cheaper than prescription painkillers and the stigma is less. you don't have to shoot it in your veins, you can snort it. we've heard from a lot of parents in the past 24 hours. there are support groups out there, including one john roberts started in chicago. brian, there's more information on that on our website. >> a new generation for this drug sadly.

kate, thank you, as always, for your reporting. we'll take a break. when we come back, something big to look up to starting tonight.

well, this is one of those studies where the results should be quickly followed by someone saying this doesn't mean you necessarily have to try this. nevertheless, this new study out of denmark finds moderate drinking by pregnant women, meaning five to eight drinks per week early in pregnancy, had no impact on their children, their neurological development or attention span later in life. this may explain why a bunch of us turned out okay against all odds. and a reminder here, for a good reason, the u.s. surgeon general flatly advises against pregnant women consuming alcohol. we wanted to take a quick second here tonight to talk about space. specifically something really extraordinary that's taking place this week in the skies above our country.

the international space station orbits the earth 16 times a day. but it just so happens that this week's orbit patterns bring it right over top of some big u.s. population centers. happens from time to time, including later tonight. there are some great websites that allow you to track it, even get alerts when it's going to pass over where you live. we'll link to those on our website tonight, especially if you have kids or you, yourself, grew up, as i did, in the space era. it's an awesome sight. this week you'll see a bright light moving faster than any plane across the sky. you just need to get to a dark place, if you can, channel your inner clark w. griswold. and as you watch, remember, it's a home to six people up there traveling 17,000 miles an hour. they are over 200 miles high above the earth. we happen to know they watch this broadcast on a nasa upload. so it's only fair to them that we watch them back this week. when we come back, an amazing rescue almost nobody thought would ever happen.

in florida tonight the race is on to save a precious natural resource, coral reefs. we can sometimes forget the undersea reefs are living things.

after being damaged by everything from rising ocean temperatures to storms and fishing nets, environmental experts are now stepping in big time to help. our report from nbc's kerry sanders. >> reporter: a quarter mile off the coast of fort lauderdale, down 25 feet to the seabed, scientists have taken a tiny experiment that began more than six years ago and turned it into a massive accomplishment. >> no one thought it was possible. we proved them wrong. >> reporter: corals, once believed impossible to grow artificially in the natural environment are now thriving. researchers say it's a very simple idea. coral is grown in an underwater nursery, then it's harvested. i joined the team snipping two-inch long cuttings, like pruning a rose. with a nail driven into the limestone, the can you get are glued in place.

zip ties hold the cuttings to the nail. within two weeks, the coral has anchored itself growing in the very spots where it was disappearing. from the coast off south florida as far south as the virgin islands, the first 8,000 coral cuttings are now taking hold saving endangered elkhorn and staghorn coral. >> after it was listed as a threatened species by the u.s. endangered species act, it kind of jump-started our funding. >> funding came from private grants and even federal stimulus money that helped protect the natural resource, prized for protecting abundant fish life and attracting tourism. >> they protect our coastlines from storms. without these reefs breaking up wave energy, our erosion on the beach would be much more substantial. >> reporter: coral making a comeback one clipping at a time. kerry sanders, nbc news, off the coast of fort lauderdale. >> that is our broadcast for wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right here tomorrow evening. we hope to see you right here tomorrow evening. good night.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the fire happened along pier 29 right along the embarcadero landing.