on our broadcast tonight, drastic measures. one american city in such bad shape the mayor has cut all workers back to minimum wage just to stay afloat. will this now spread to other places? outside, is it the new normal? scorching heat, raging wildfires, crippling drought. there's an indication the extreme weather we've seen recently may be just a preview of what's to come. d the revolution. what happened up in the sky 50 years ago tonight that changed our world forever. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. from new york to los angeles, from st. petersburg to seattle, and just about every city and town along the way and in

between, there are services and facilities that we all grew up with that just aren't around any more was of budget cuts. because there's no money for them. in some places it's become dire. some communities have declared bankruptcy. others carry huge deficits. and in scranton, pennsylvania, here's another extreme. the mayor there says to stay afloat financially, everybody -- all municipal workers -- must take a pay cut down to minimum wage. that means, the mayor, police, fire, everybody. it's all part of the larger economic picture that was debated again on the campaign trail today. and we have two reports to start off with here tonight, beginning with nbc's ron allen in scranton. ron, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. yes, this battle was back in court today with the public employee's unions trying to force the mayor to pay them their full wages guaranteed by their contract. we're talking about hundreds of firefighters, police and other city employees whose wages were suddenly slashed to $7.25 an hour because the city says they simply just don't have the

money. when scranton's rescue 1 answered the call today, firefighters had more on their minds than the usual hazards of a dangerous job. their pay has been cut by as much as 75%, to minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. >> i can go down the street and scoop ice cream that a high school kid for the summer is making $8.50 an hour doing. and i have firefighters running into burning buildings at $7.25 and there's police officers fighting with criminals, wrestling in the street? it's absolutely ludicrous. >> reporter: about 400 municipal workers in a city of 74,000 now earn the minimum wage. a city that's no stranger to tough economic times. and now faces $16 million of red ink. mayor chris dougherty blames soaring health care costs, declining property taxes and little help from state and federal governments. the mayor slashed employee pay, even though a judge ordered him not to. >> they deserve to be paid, they're doing a great job,

there's no question about that. but i can't make it work if i don't have all the money. >> reporter: cities across the country are grasping for new ways to bring in money. chicago and boston are considering bringing in tax exempt hospitals. in san jose and san diego last month, voter as proved cutting city pensions. and baltimore may sell ad space on the side their trucks. >> we're getting an indication, that if we don't pay attention to it and address the problems early enough, the problems would be too big for us to solve with simple solutions and drastic measures will come. >> reporter: a scranton public works employee says he's already taken drastic action, dipping into precious savings, after watching his pay drop from $900 every two with weeks to about $340 last payday. >> we bust our chops every day. and you kind of just expect the pay. you know, you expect your wages. this is something that shouldn't

happen to anybody. >> reporter: the mayor here says the situation is so dire, he's proposed a 78% property tax hike over four years, something residents here certainly don't want to hear about. in the meantime, unions try to keep up the pressure in court for their full pay and what the city now owes them in back wages. brian? >> ron allen starting us off tonight in scranton, pennsylvania. as we mentioned, this tough economy is what was on voter's minds today. as both president obama and mitt romney campaigned in key battlegrounds. white house correspondent kristen welker with us tonight traveling with the president, cedar rapids, iowa. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. states like iowa and colorado will make all the difference in november. in the meantime, the candidates continue to spar over who's best equipped to fix the economy. in ames, iowa, republican william buttermoore says he wants a change.

>> it's a very, very slow recovery, if there's a recovery at all. >> reporter: so he's going to vote for mitt romney. but less than five miles away, mike wright a democrat says he's worried romney would mishandle the fragile economy. >> i plan to attend a democratic local party meeting. >> reporter: president obama stumped in iowa today, while mitt romney took his campaign to colorado. >> this was a state that gave me a chance when nobody else would. >> are we going to win here in november? >> reporter: trying to recapture that momentum of 2008, mr. obama visited jason and ally mcglocklin, whose support has never wavered. >> and we couldn't be more proud to stand by our president once again. >> reporter: but a recent des moines register headline -- some iowans say they regret backing obama in 2008 -- illustrates exactly why the president keeps

returning here. the two candidates presented starkly different messages today. >> this week the president added insult to injury with another kick in the gut, by announcing that he has a plan, he said, to lower taxes for job creators. and small businesses, he announced a massive tax increase. >> my opponent, his allies in congress, they sincerely believe that prosperity comes from the top down. >> reporter: in colorado, john puckett says with the unemployment rate stuck above 8%, romney has his vote. >> it's important for me to see the economy get turned around as fast as possible. >> reporter: but mom of three, sarah evans-schwartz, says the president is protecting middle class families. >> he's very responsive to families, especially middle class families, he's the right choice for president. >> reporter: and brian, polls show a tight race here in iowa and colorado, just as it is nationwide. so voters who live in these key battleground states can expect to see a lot of these two

candidates between now and november. brian. >> kristen welker traveling with the president in cedar rapids, iowa tonight, thanks. it is brutally hot in the american southwest today. fires are still blazing in the rockies, and all the places where there isn't flash flooding. the midwest is struggling with drought conditions. and the memory of last week's extreme heat wave is still fresh in the minds of millions of americans. and the word tonight from federal government weather experts, get used to it. our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson is with us now from a fire charred section of colorado springs. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. just consider this, june's extreme weather cost the u.s. almost $2 billion, that's including the massive wildfire that happened here in colorado springs. that estimate comes from the insurance giant aon. and tonight we also have a warning from noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration that once unusual

weather is going to become more and more common. heat, fire and drought are familiar elements of most summers, but events this summer in each case are record breakers, amplified government scientists say by climate change. >> the additional increase, intensity and frequency is caused -- not in every case, but in many cases -- by human activity increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. >> reporter: gases like carbon dioxide created when we burn fossil fuel. gases that trap heat and warm the earth. in its state of the climate report released today, noaa noted significant changes at the ends of the earth in 2011. the south pole hitting an all time high of 9.9 degrees on christmas day. while the arctic continued to warm at almost twice the rate of lower latitudes, further shrinking the sea ice. >> why that's important is because all that ice reflects sunlight back to space. when that ice is gone, that

sunlight that had been reflected back to space now is available to heat the earth even further. >> reporter: climate change, scientists say, is increasing the odds of such extreme weather, but it can't be blamed for every event. looking at some of last year's extremes, researchers found no evidence climate change caused the devastating floods in thailand. poor water management and building in flood prone areas did. however, they say, our warming earth did play a role in the severity of the texas drought, caused in part by the cooler pacific waters of la nina, bringing dry conditions to the south. >> we should get used to these la nina related heat waves, because today they're 20 times more likely to occur than 50 years ago. >> reporter: now, government scientists say 2011 was cooler than 2010, but it was still warm enough to be one of the warmest 15 years on record. and with concentrations of greenhouse gases increasing, scientists say we should get ready for more extreme events. brian?

>> anne thompson, colorado springs tonight, thanks for that. and another example of extreme weather just this morning, just outside austin texas, ten inches of rain fell in a matter of just a few hours, touching off some nasty flash floods, leaving more than a dozen homes totally surrounded by water. it was a good sized mess to clean up later in the day, but luckily nobody was hurt. and we have an update tonight on a story we aired just a few days back, at the height those awful colorado wildfires. as we reported that night, the firefighters in the fight are classified as seasonal workers by the federal government. so they have no health insurance. well, we have learned tonight from the white house president obama is ready to issue an executive order that will allow those fire fighters to buy into a federal health insurance plan. a bill has also been introduced in the house and washington that would cover them as u.s. forest service employees. now, we turn to health news tonight. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman has been

reporting on this broadcast and on "rock center" on a life or death challenge for people who are desperately ill, finding the right match for a potentially life saving bone marrow transplant. as she reports in her follow-up tonight, the struggle is especially difficult when race is a factor. >> hi. >> hi, buddy. >> reporter: this 5-year-old is not your typical kindergartner. >> finn was born with scott aldridge syndrome, an immune deficiency. >> reporter: when finn was just two months old, doctors told the family their son's only hope for survival was a bone marrow transplant. >> you know, i'm japanese and kim's caucasian, that made it more challenging to find a match for finn. >> reporter: finding matches for mixed race children is even more difficult because their genetic make-up is complex. >> if you need a transplant you are more likely to find a match in someone who has a similar ethnic background or race to you.

>> reporter: a mere 4% of donors are of mixed race background. 7% are african-american, 7% asian, 10% hispanic. the majority, 71%, caucasian. luckily for the family, a donor was found for fin and he underwent a successful transplant. but their story doesn't end there. >> so a year after he received his transplant, we held a registration charity event. it was at that point that we actually registered. >> reporter: with one simple swab of the cheek, they joined the donor registry. >> snakeskin in that one. >> reporter: and then one day an unexpected but welcomed letter came in the mail. >> i opened it up and i was shocked to say that i had been matched. it was almost like winning the lottery, actually. >> reporter: donating bone marrow today is a lot different than it was 25 years ago. most are done by a simple blood draw that collects blood stem cells. and it takes just a few hours. >> it really is not that inconvenient, and certainly not painful to help save someone's life. >> reporter: he did just that, save the life of a stranger, just as a stranger saved his

son. >> no matter what race you are, you know, why not register? but certainly, if you're of a different ethnic background or mixed, i think it would be all the more important. >> there are more than 10 million people on the national registry, but close to 50% of those when they're called to sign up and show up don't donate. it's a pool that obviously needs to be broadened with more minority and mixed race donors in our melting pot society. it's ongoing urgent problems. >> thank you for staying on this. and by the way, the medical story we all woke up to this morning, said if you have a sedentary job, if you're behind a desk, it will shorten your life. and at our meeting in the newsroom today, you said, well, that may be true, you didn't like the science. >> it's not a perfect story. it is in today's british medical journal, it is the water cooler talk, and it underscores the fact that a sedentary life can hurt you. sitting at your desk for more than three hours a day can shave two years off your life.

and the two hours that you may spend on the sofa, that can equal 1.5 years off your life. so an important message that it's important, whether you're sitting at your desk or at home, get up every hour on the hour and get that circulation working. >> all right. i plan to get up when we're done here tonight. >> excellent. you're only here for a half hour. good. >> thank you, as always. when we continue along the way here tonight, why are some of america's superrich willing to leave the country and renounce their citizenship from a place that's been so good to them? and later, the event that changed everything 50 years ago tonight, and that includes what you're watching right now.

while many americans are struggling to make ends meet, there is a growing trend among some of america's ultrawealthy, they're willing to give up their citizenship in many cases to save money in taxes. our report tonight from nbc's andrea mitchell. >> we know this saxophone has

your name on it. >> oh, wow! >> reporter: a songwriter and philanthropist denise rich even got the president of the united states, the first lady and michael jackson to headline her fund-raisers for cancer, honoring her daughter gabrielle, who died leukemia. she supported the clinton campaigns. and just before leaving office, bill clinton faced a storm of criticism for pardoning her former husband, fugitive financier mark rich, who fled prosecutors for tax fraud in 1983. >> just to be recognized by your peers is so wonderful. >> reporter: from politics to the grammys, denise rich always surrounded herself with superstars and the superrich. >> it's just a lot of fun and everybody has a really good time. >> reporter: now she's put her 5th avenue apartment, 20 rooms with a view, on the market for $65 million. she's one of 1800 people last year who gave up their u.s. citizenship, compared to only 235 four years ago. it's not only denise rich, facebook co-founder eduardo

saverin gave up his citizenship before the facebook ipo. he moved to singapore. why the trend? tax lawyers say because of an irs crackdown and to avoid estate taxes. >> they don't pay any estate tax when they die. this is a big concern to them, particularly for preserving family businesses. >> reporter: in a statement, rich says she gave up her citizenship in order to be closer to her long time life partner as well as her family and loved ones in europe. new york senator chuck schumer who's sponsoring a law to penalize people like rich, sees a tax dodge. >> you don't need to renounce your citizenship to be closer to your family. we all know the reason she's doing this, and it's to avoid paying taxes. i find the people who renounce their american citizenship despicable. >> reporter: whatever the reason, denise rich, whose father escaped the holocaust and found refuge in the u.s., has now become a citizen of austria. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. still ahead, our first look ahead at how the u.s. team will look when the olympic opening

ceremonies get underway in london.

no one really expected to see her majesty in a track suit, but the queen of england today did manage to at least admire the olympic torch up close. it's now just 17 days away from lighting the caldron and starting the olympic games. and ralph lauren has unveiled the very sporty u.s. olympic team outfits for the opening ceremonies. we sure hope everyone likes berets. in the town defiance, ohio, near toledo tonight, they're talking about what just might be the holy grail of baseball card discoveries of all time. karl kissner was cleaning out his aunt's house, she died in october. he found a cardboard box that belonged to his grandfather. inside hundreds of perfectly preserved baseball cards from

around 1910, including ty cobb, cy young and, yes, honus wagner. experts have confirmed all the cards are real and could fetch up to $3 million at auction. a big anniversary to report tonight, spam is 75. and so let the celebrations begin for ham in a can, or something very close. all of us who lived on it at one time in our lives came to respect it, if not love it. more cans of spam have been sold than there are people on earth. spam is still made by the folks at hormel, making america the global leader in canned meats. up next here tonight, another big milestone this evening for something that helped remake our modern world.

finally tonight, this broadcast is brought to you by satellite. we're so used to them we don't even mention them any more. 50 years ago tonight the first one was launched and they called it telstar. >> telstar is set off from cape canaveral. >> it was the size of a large beach ball, it weighed about 170 pounds, it circled the earth about every two hours and it changed everything. >> this is the first picture

transmitted to outer space and received back again on earth. >> it allowed us to see live pictures from the other side of the atlantic for the first time. >> hello, north america. >> that first broadcast showed big ben, a london bobby and a woman's leg for the most part. while it looks like a fuzzy black and white painting by today's hd standards, back then it was revolutionary. "the new york times" proclaimed, pictures clear in france. president kennedy used telstar to broadcast a news conference to viewers in europe. >> this is another indication of the extraordinary world in which we live. >> the basic idea hasn't changed, a dish here on earth, uplinks to the satellite which downlinks it, retransmits it back to earth. walter brown was 26 years old back then. assigned to the telstar project at bell labs. >> the first time it came around and turned on, it really, it really felt good.

and everybody exploded with -- it works. >> telstar became the first satellite brand name, a kind of orbiting celebrity. first there was the song called "telstar" from a british group called the tornados. >> you're watching the most exciting game you will ever see on your tv set. >> then the video game. >> attach your television to a telstar. >> the early version of pong was first known as telstar. even the design of the modern soccer ball was modeled after the satellite. >> paris is ready. >> but where it mattered most, was right here. because it changed the way americans got their news every evening. as the co-anchors of nightly news were all too anxious to show us. >> news by telstar. that's our broadcast on a tuesday night, thank you for being here with us, via satellite from our nbc news headquarters in new york. want to see tahrir square in cairo? there it is.

thank you telstar version 12. i'm brian williams. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now at 6:00, why google is prepared to pay a record fine to the federal government. and day two of the hans riser civil trial. and a young girl hides and watches as her home is burglarized. tonight she recounts the whole story for nbc bay area. good tuesday evening, thank you for joining us. >> what would you do? cool, calm and collected in the face of danger? a 12-year-old girl