ews" captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. just yesterday we got our first look at the suspect, james holmes, the unsettling sight of the man accused of one of the worst gun massacres in u.s. history. well, tonight we've learned much more about how he lived, where he lived, and how it was he purchased an arsenal. we also learned today that gun sales are spiking in colorado in the aftermath of this shooting. while far to the east in washington today, the house of representatives stood still for a time. a moment of silence for the victims in colorado. one member of congress from colorado said, since she's been in congress, there have been 23 moments of silence for various victims of gun violence. she asked how many more there need to be until something is done. we begin our reporting tonight with nbc's mike taibbi in

centennial, colorado. mike, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. it has happened in other cities where there have been horrible episodes of gun violence. gun sales and permit applications are soaring now. and also today, some questions. how did james holmes pay for the arsenal police say he put together in the months before the massac? >> is there anything i can do for you? >> reporter: at the rocky mountain guns and ammo shop in aurora, owner brandon baker says the days since the theater blood bath have been the busiest he's seen. >> the day after, i showed up and there were 15 people standing out here waiting to get in. >> reporter: for many of baker's customers, the massacre is the reason. >> the incident opened up my eyes to really what's going on out there. >> reporter: and it's not just in aurora. statewide, gun ranges have been packed. and applications for gun permits jumped 43% from the previous week. >> on july 20th, cbi conducted more than 1,200 background checks related to firearms purchases. on july 13th, cbi conducted

around 900. >> reporter: and what about the guns and gear and 6,000 rounds of ammo holmes bought? it costs thousands of dollars. he was in a doctoral program in colorado living on a 26,000 federal stipend from the national institutes of health. could he have used that money to pay for his arsenal? no direct answer from the school. >> it's the national standard for supplying living stipends to ph.d. students so they can devote 100% of their effort to their research. >> reporter: but holmes was reportedly devoting much of his effort elsewhere. he turned his apartment into a booby trapped killing zone. nbc news has confirmed he registered on at least one dating site. he called himself classic jim on match.com. said his soul penetrating eyes were his notable feature. and that he spends a lot of time thinking about the future. a question for any possible matches, will you visit me in prison? after seeing him in his prison

jumpsuit, the father of one of the victims was emotional. >> he was one of the best sons any man could ever have. and i've been honored to know him. >> reporter: two items of upbeat news today. "batman" star christian bale is in aurora visiting victims of the shooting. and early this morning, katie medley gave birth to hugo jackson medley. her husband was gravely wounded in the massacre. no newborn photo. but the hospital says mom and baby are doing great. mike taibbi, nbc news, centennial, colorado. >> reporter: this is miguel almaguer in aurora, where a community is beginning to mourn the dead, but is finding comfort in the stories of bravery and survival. michael white is among the victims being called a hero. >> grabbed him by the head and told him, get down, get down. >> reporter: the air force veteran pushed his son michael, jr. and his girlfriend farrah sudani to the ground. >> we need rescue inside the auditorium, multiple victims. >> reporter: michael jr. was hit, so was farrah. >> seven down in theater nine.

seven down. >> my dad takes off his shirt and he's applying pressure to her. i see her holding her side and holding her intestines in. just make sure -- is she going to be okay? >> reporter: today michael and his father are out of the hospital. farrah will be released soon. >> there were all those people in that -- >> there's guns being fired and there's bats flying across the screen because the movie was still on. it's every child's worst nightmare of being in the dark, and you have the bad guy come out to get you. >> reporter: when ally young was shot by the gunman, her best friend stephanie davies refused to leave her behind. >> she's like, no, no, no, i'm not leaving, you stay. >> reporter: ally was shot in the neck. and the gunman was still shooting. >> she puts her fingers over my artery. the carotid artery exploded.

that's where i got shot. and so she puts her fingers over there. and then, everyone's like running out. >> reporter: stephanie carried ally out of the chaos, across two parking lots, and into an ambulance. >> she single handedly saved my life. >> you really learn what your friendship means. and we'll be in each other's lives forever. >> yeah. >> reporter: brian, these are just some of the stories of survival, acts of heroism and bonds of family and friends that are helping to bring this community together. brian? >> miguel almaguer. mike taibbi before that, part of our team covering this story in colorado. gentlemen, thanks. now we turn to presidential politics. in our new nbc news/wall street journal poll debuting here tonight has some eye opening findings about the way this campaign is being run. and the effect it's having on both sides. our political director, chief white house correspondent chuck todd with us from our d.c. newsroom with the numbers.

chuck, good evening. >> good evening, brian. as you know, this campaign in the month of july has taken an especially nasty turn. and perhaps it was only a matter of time that voters would express their frustration. that's the biggest takeaway from our nbc news/wall street journal poll. the fundamental issues haven't changed all that much. the president still leads 43/39 in this survey. the negative campaign has taken a toll on how voters view both the president and mitt romney. from columbus, ohio to orlando, florida, denver, colorado and richmond, virginia, americans living in battleground states are being subjected to an unusually early flurry of negative tv ads. >> when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? ♪ america america >> reporter: and when president obama and mitt romney have campaigned at live events, they've been just as negative and direct. >> governor romney was at it again, knowingly twisting my words around. >> it's a very strange and in some respects foreign to the

american experience type of philosophy. >> reporter: and the mud is splattering on both candidates, according to our new nbc news/wall street journal poll. the president is viewed negatively by 43% of voters. his second worst rating since taking office. romney's negative rating of 40% is the worst that our poll has recorded for him yet. it's a rating that ranks him lower than john mccain in 2008 at this time, john kerry in 2004, and bob dole in 1996. yet it's the economy that continues to be the president's political achilles heel with a majority disapproving of how he's handled the economy. romney leads the president on who has better ideas for improving the economy, 43-36. but it's by big margins that voters say the bulk of information they've received from both campaigns in the last few weeks has been overwhelmingly negative, with mr. obama's campaign being viewed as slightly more negative than romney. while both campaigns are going on the attack, the hits seem to be taking a greater toll on

romney. call it a likability gap. 46% of voters told us they didn't like romney personally. that compares to just 31% who said the same about the president. perhaps mindful of the toll this nasty campaign is taking, both campaigns are out with much softer hits on each other this week. >> sometimes politics can seem very small. >> he tried. you tried. it's okay to make a change. >> you know, today the focus of the back and forth was foreign policy. brian, romney took his turn in front of the veterans of foreign wars convention in reno, where he gave a fiery speech filled with some tough criticism of the president's record. but for what it's worth, foreign policy is one of the president's strengths. when matched up with romney, he leads him in every major foreign policy area. brian? >> chuck todd with the latest on this race from washington. chuck, thanks. a program note here, when we see you for tomorrow night's broadcast, we'll be in london, where we'll have an exclusive interview with governor romney, as he starts the first overseas trip of the campaign.

big changes are coming to the new orleans police department, long troubled by violence and scandal, and under especially close scrutiny since the days of hurricane katrina. today the u.s. attorney general, eric holder, announced an agreement with the nopd, a wide ranging and strict plan to overhaul department procedures top to bottom. a sad first for the catholic church in the modern era. in philadelphia, a roman catholic monseigneur was sentenced to three to six years in prison today by a judge who said he turned a blind eye while priests he managed sexually abused children. monseigneur william lynn is the first u.s. church official convicted of a felony for covering up abuse claims against priests. at the sentencing the judge told him directly, "you knew full well what was right, monseigneur, but you chose wrong." inside syria, tonight, the assad regime has issued a new threat. it says it has chemical weapons and they're willing to use them

against what they're calling external aggression. and tonight they've stepped up the campaign to crush the uprising against it. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel has been able to get back inside syria, and report from there for us tonight. >> reporter: syrian forces have launched a major counter offensive, fighting for the last 48 hours to maintain control of syria's commercial capital and biggest city, aleppo. dozens are reported dead. assad is fighting hard here, because he's already lost control of nearly all the towns around aleppo. aleppo itself is sealed off, but we managed to enter a town just 15 miles away, now in rebel hands. we were shocked at the amount of destruction. the town is still under attack. 11 people were killed here today by government shelling. on a ruined street, we found this woman, her son killed in front of her.

may god punish bashar, she cried. there were 30,000 people in this town, now only the rebels remain. but this is the cost of driving out assad's forces. as this war continues, without outside help or intervention, syria is being destroyed one town at a time. down an abandoned street, a rebel showed me what was the government headquarters and its feared interrogation center. this one with the metal gate was the torture room he said. he said they used to torture people with electric shocks. but the syrian counter offensive could be much worse. the syrian government on monday acknowledged for the first time that it has chemical weapons, and threatened to use them against foreign aggression, but not it's own people. even without such weapons, the assad government has already killed thousands and has now unleashed its army on aleppo, a city of three million people and

all the towns around it. richard engel, nbc news, in northern syria. still ahead as we continue here tonight, the cruel damage from the relentless drought this summer. the once mighty mississippi at near record lows. much of the cargo going nowhere fast, and that could affect consumer prices at the store. and later, a big first for women at the london olympic games and meredith vieira has their story tonight.

parts of the midwest today thunderstorms brought some welcome rain. but it's a drop in the bucket compared to what they need to cope with this severe drought, which is officially the worst in 50 years. two thirds of the country now suffering through drought conditions. the extreme heat is making things worse. another brutal day in a lot of spots today. and this hot, dry disaster has taken a huge toll on the

mississippi river. the artery of commerce through the middle of our country. nbc's john yang is in dubuque, iowa tonight. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the drought is a double whammy for mississippi barge shippers. the withering crops mean they have less product to ship. and the low water levels mean higher shipping costs and slower traffic. from minnesota to the gulf of mexico, the 2,300 mile mississippi river is a critical backbone of american commerce, carrying 60% of the nation's grain, 22% of u.s. oil and gas. 20% of coal. in all, $180 billion of goods. but the drought of 2012 has humbled the mighty mississippi. steve frydel has worked on the river nearly a half century. he hasn't seen it like this in almost 25 years. >> mother nature decides it wants to do something, it doesn't make any difference what man made does. when it decides it wants to take its course, it's going to take its course. >> reporter: how hard is this historic drought hitting the mississippi? travel down the maritime

superhighway and see the dramatic drop. in cairo, illinois, 12 feet lower than normal. further south in memphis, it's 17 feet below normal level. in vicksburg, mississippi levels are off by 21 feet. from up here you can really appreciate how low the water is in the mississippi. usually here in st. louis, it's about 30 feet deep. right now the river is 15 feet deep. low water means less cargo in each barge to help them ride higher in the water, hauling empty space. costs don't go down. >> it takes up the same amount of fuel to burn, and the same amount of manpower to operate this vessel that we're on. >> reporter: it also means a narrow river channel, turning the mississippi into a one-way street. barges heading north have to wait for traffic heading south, sometimes delaying shipments by days, and delays cost money. during the last big drought in 1988, the mississippi got so low that barge traffic ground to a halt. >> if that river's closed,

there's a negative economic impact of $290 million a day, and it grows exponentially after the fourth day. >> reporter: those comparisons to the big drought in 1988 are not out of the question. forecasters don't expect significant rain on the upper mississippi river for the rest of the summer. brian? >> john yang, dubuque, iowa tonight. john, thanks for that report. up next after a break, we first met him as one of archie bunker's friends, that was before he moved on up. tonight america has lost a big sitcom star. this country was built by working people.

the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪ this right here is the definition of a flash flood right before our very eyes. a viewer at our nbc station in tucson shot this video. it captures exactly something we've been reporting on and talking about here recently. this happens to be an area scorched by wildfires.

and note, the soil can't absorb the rainfall. instead, it has no choice but to flow right on through. and in phoenix it's happened again, another one of those massive walls of dust enveloped the city as a severe storm system moved through. weather experts say the stage is set for more of these to occur this week. sherman hemsley has died. nobody else could have played george jefferson the way he did. starting on "all in the family," of course, and then master of his own domain in that deluxe apartment in the sky along with his wife weezie and all the other characters we came to know. in real life, the philadelphia-born sherman hemsley got his bearings in the military. he was a u.s. air force veteran who kicked around some odd jobs. worked at the post office for eight years while taking acting classes at right. he was a recording artist in his own right and a sitcom veteran 37 his acting earned him an emmy nomination. sherman hemsley was 74 years

old. the following item is for those of a certain generation, who will be sad to learn of the end of weekly reader. millions of us not only grew up on it, but it was the tent pole of our week in the american classroom. weekly reader has been around since 1928. at one time it had 13 million young readers every week. but the current owners, the folks at scholastic say they will fold it in among their other properties. up next here tonight, meredith vieira at the london olympics with what might be the biggest story of the games about to begin. and one particular woman you need to meet.

finally here tonight, as this broadcast gets ready to head for london and the olympic games, a story about the people who are already making history, even before the torch gets lit. for the first time ever, all 205 nations competing in the games are sending women athletes. and on team usa a first, the women outnumber the men. meredith vieira reports for us tonight on what just may be the year of the woman. >> reporter: even as missy "the missile" franklin is poised to be the next great american

swimming icon, allyson felix is going for gold on the track. >> felix, with a sizable victory. >> reporter: and some experts are saying this could be the greatest u.s. gymnastics women's team ever. the girls at the london games have already made history. >> we have 269 women and 261 men on the team. and, as you can see, that really represents a strong group of women. >> reporter: and on the global stage, middle eastern countries brunei, qatar and saudi arabia will send female olympians to london. for the first time in history, every country competing in the olympics will send women. 22-year-old tahmina kohistani is a sprinter from afghanistan. here you are at the olympics, the only woman on your team. only the third woman ever from afghanistan to compete in the olympics. but it's been a hard road for you to get here, hasn't it? >> yeah, it's very hard and difficult for me. there's a lot of people that are supporting me. but there's also a lot of people

that don't like me and they just hate me. >> reporter: what do they say? >> sometimes they say i'm not a good girl because i'm doing sports. >> reporter: are you seen as less of a woman than those around you because you're involved in sports? >> there are a lot of afghan women that don't accept me and my ways, thinking i'm wrong. but i am not wrong. >> reporter: so it's not just the men, it's the women too? >> yes. >> reporter: htahmina is a practicing muslim, and will compete in the olympics in a traditional head scarf and islamic uniform. what do you think the likelihood is that you will medal? >> it's very difficult to win medal from the olympic games. it's just like a dream. but if i medal, i think i will start a new way for the women of afghanistan know that i will strive. on that time they will believe themselves that they can do everything they want. >> meredith vieira reporting

tonight from london. that is our broadcast for this tuesday evening. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams, we hope to see you tomorrow evening from london. good night from new york. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com uc berkeley classes go online, why some say it could actually be a bad thing for the university.

>> we begin the night with an unnerving day for your wallet if you have tech stocks. lots of i devices sold, but if you own apple stock, tonight is a tough day for you, a big tumble after apple comes up short. scott budman joins us now. scott, not a little drop, a substantial drop. >> and it comes in the midst of what has been almost nonstop growth in the tech industry and two tech giants stumble. let's start with apple. apple reporting what looks like strong sales. 26 million iphones over the last three months, 17 million ipads sold, but those numbers did not impress investors. near term numbers also expected to be lower and many investors are pullg