on our broadcast tonight, on the attack. the new republican ticket goes right at the president and the president hits back hard as the future of medicare gets center stage. and things get rough for the new guy on the trail. security breach at one of the nation's busiest airports. how did a guy get past a hundred million dollar security system walking right across the runway and into the terminal? cosmo girl. long before there was a kerry bradshaw she was the voice of "sex in the city." a game changer for women readers tonight remembering helen gurley brown. and making a difference for best friends lost in the big city. best friends lost in the big city. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. well, they're off. now it's a fair fight, now that we know the gop ticket, it's two on two from here on out and the campaign for president appeared to enter a new stage today, all four men in the race were out campaigning and for the new man, paul ryan, incoming fire on his own record and a not so warm welcome to the big leagues during his appearance today at the iowa state fair. we have all of it covered tonight beginning with nbc's peter alexander traveling with the romney campaign in florida. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. after what the romney campaign says was a triumphant weekend vice presidential rollout today the realities of this tight race have settled in with president obama rejoining the campaign trail and both sides launching fierce new attacks. a newly energized mitt romney returned to the campaign trail today in the key swing state of florida, touting his new running mate, paul ryan. >> paul ryan and i are going to get america to cut our spending and finally get us to a balanced

budget. >> reporter: ryan campaigned on his first solo stop at the iowa state fair largely ignoring hecklers several of whom rushed the stage. >> mitt romney and i have a plan for a stronger middle class to get this country back ontrack. >> reporter: the president was also in iowa targeting ryan on an issue personal to voters. in a state hard hit by a punishing drought. >> so if you happen to see congressman ryan, tell him how important this farm bill is to iowa and our rural communities. we've got to put politics aside when it comes to doing the right thing. >> reporter: in north carolina vice president joe biden attacked ryan's aggressive efforts as house budget chairman to slash trillions from the federal budget. >> what's gutsy about gutting medicare, medicaid, education? >> reporter: still, by adding ryan to his ticket the romney campaign is hoping to fire up its conservative base. >> he's young. he's energetic. he's working on the budget. gosh knows we need that. >> reporter: romney also went on

the offensive. >> i've got a promise for you guys. there are better days ahead when we get a better leader in washington. >> reporter: after kicking off their new partnership with a dramatic vp unveiling in virginia romney and ryan concluded a full weekend together with an emotional wisconsin home coming. >> thank you, wisconsin. it is good to be home. my veins run with cheese, bratwurst and a little spot of lo-cal leinies and some miller. >> reporter: despite all the fanfare the ryan selection has not upset the balance of the race with americans almost equally divided on the pick and the race still locked in a near dead heat. and tomorrow mitt romney will wrap up this four-day swing state bus tour heading to the critical battleground, brian, of ohio. >> peter alexander in miami to start us off tonight on the trail. thanks. as we just heard congressman

ryan's first solo day on the campaign trail was greeted by those hecklers over his plans to remake medicare. it's an emotional issue that has brought attacks and counterattacks during every presidential race since easily the early '90s. here it comes again. our report tonight from our chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd. >> reporter: in the 48 hours since paul ryan joined the republican ticket medicare has become a campaign flash point. not just with hecklers but party leaders, too. >> paul ryan embraced extremism, suggests we should end medicare as we know it. >> if any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to medicare, it's barack obama. >> reporter: ryan is the architect of a sweeping medicare reform plan. instead of a government insurance guarantee for health care coverage, ryan's plan calls for the government to give seniors money to buy their own insurance. the president has been attacking ryan's plan for months. >> he plans to turn medicare

into a voucher program. >> reporter: for now the republicans are pushing back by attacking the president for what they say were his cuts to medicare in 2010 to pay for his health care overhaul. >> the president's idea for instance for medicare was to cut it by $700 billion. >> reporter: but medicare was never cut. the cost of the program continues to rise, just at a slower pace. when it comes to the politics of medicare, the first victim is nuance. in 1996, the shoe was on the other foot. republicans proposed slowing medicare's growth. bill clinton called that a cut. >> against medicare again. dole/gingrich tried to cut $270 billion. bob dole. wrong in the past. >> reporter: in 2010 republicans turned the tables on democrats. this year the ryan medicare plan is already drawing fire in senate races. in north dakota democrats are attacking a house republican who voted for ryan's plan. >> rick berg, who is doing things the washington way,

voting to essentially end medicare. >> reporter: in montana the republican candidate is actually trying to distance himself from ryan. >> and rehberg refused to support a republican budget plan that cou harm the medicare program. >> reporter: as for romney, who has voiced support for ryan's plan, he distanced himself from it last night. >> well, i have my budget plan and that's the budget plan that we're going to run on. >> reporter: brian, the romney campaign is most concerned about the impact of the medicare issue in florida of course, not just an important battleground but the battleground state with the largest share of voters over the age of 65. brian, ryan gets his first test of defending his plan in florida when he comes there alone campaigning this weekend. >> chuck todd rounding out our political coverage from d.c. tonight. chuck, thanks. a grisly bulletin arrived from texas today. a gunman had killed two people including a local county constable and wounded two police officers before being fatally shot today near the campus of texas a&m. that constable identified as brian bachmann was serving

eviction papers at a home in college station, texas, when the shooting occurred. police who responded were also fired upon. now to an incredible chain of events raising a lot of questions at one of the busiest airports in our country, jfk, here in new york. it happened over the weekend when a lost jet skier got stranded on the water then swam ashore and managed to bypass a supposedly state-of-the-art security system walking right across runways and into the terminal. we get our report on this tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: at jfk airport today a patrol car was cruising the perimeter following this weekend's embarrassing security breach. after his jet ski broke down in jamaica bay, a new york man climbed an eight-foot barbed wire fence, passed a $100 million security system complete with motion sensors and closed circuit cameras, then walked across two runways into the terminal and, dripping wet,

approached a delta employee. he is now charged with criminal trespass. the latest in a string of airport security breaches. >> attention all aircraft. let's just use caution. the vehicle is heading in that direction. >> reporter: in philadelphia last march police chased a speeding jeep down airport runways after the drunken driver crashed through a weak chain link fence. a commercial jet had to abort a landing to avoid collision. last month in st. george, utah a murder suspect jumped a fence and started a regional jet before crashing into a building and killing himself. professor southers was the homeland security chief for the four airports in los angeles. >> our adversaries watch video and the news. this is a lesson learned for them. they are constantly evaluating our security situation. they're looking at ways to breach it. >> reporter: while the federal government requires airports across the country to secure their perimeters, it's up to the airports themselves to decide how best to do that. in new york the port authority says it has called for an

expedited review of the incident

egg mcmuffin. >> gabby. her gold medal gymnastics and star personality have made her an advertiser's dream. >> we have book deals. movie deals, consumer products. >> she estimates -- definitely

looking forward to moving out to l.a. >> he is rumored to be in talks for a reality tv show. >> the world's best female swimmer 17-year-old missy franklin always said she wanted to keep swimming in college which mns turning down potentially millions. >> for right now i still believe that swimming in college is what will make me the happiest girl but we'll have to sit down and talk about that. >> reporter: her parents have spent tens of thousands on travel and hotels so it is a hard decision. most of the olympians crowding a special departure terminal will go back to quieter lives. workers at the olympic park are packing up the picnic tables and shut go-to signs. as london cleans up after the olympics some of the athletes just might too. there is an economic benefit for the home country as well. prime minister david cameron perhaps optimistically estimating $20 billion but for the overall benefit maybe "the sun" newspaper summed it up best when they wrote "to be british is to be a winner again."

brian? >> chris jansing in front of a now darker tower bridge in london tonight. chris, thanks. still ahead as we continue along the way on a monday night the woman who single handedly made it okay to talk about sex in the pages of a magazine. remembering helen gurley brown who gave the world "cosmopolitan" and a whole lot more. and later our "making a difference" report helping a lot of good dogs find their way home.

long before "mad men" gave us peggy olson there was helen gurley brown a real life pioneer in the advertising world who took all that knowledge and put it to work in "cosmopolitan" magazine. in the early days feminists chafed at her unrelenting focus on catching, pleasing, and keeping a man but later came to embrace her embrace of sex for single girls, actually all girls of all ages. helen gurley brown died today at age 90. we get a look back tonight from nbc's kate snow.

>> reporter: before there was "sex in the city" there was "sex and the single girl." >> well, i didn't write the book to help us. i wrote it to help the unmarried women in this country. >> reporter: natalie wood and tony curtis starred in the movie but it was inspired by helen gurley brown's 1962 best seller, a frank and forward dating guide that encouraged women to enjoy being single. brown was as bold as her headlines and dating columns, the consummate new yorker in zebra print and big earrings. >> i think that helen really helped create today's modern woman. i don't think that women would be in the careers that they have, that they would be ceos today if there hadn't been helen gurley brown. because helen said, you can do it. >> reporter: she was at the helm of "cosmo" for more than three decades, took an ailing magazine with a small circulation, and transformed it into an international brand, the bible for single girls as its

publisher boasted. she wasn't without critics. when a "new york times" writer suggested that "cosmo" was a woman's answer to "playboy" brown fired back saying the magazine was for young women who love men and children but don't want to be identified solely as wife, girlfriend, and mother. >> she was a part of the women's liberation movement, of the 1960s, and that paved the way for real gains toward equality for all women. >> reporter: in a 2003 appearance on the "today" show, she talked about growing old. >> i think 80 is desperately old. 60 you can kind of be frisky and run around and who pays much attention anymore. used to be 40. now it's gone up to 60. but, 80, please. it's called give me a break. >> at 80 she was still taking tango lessons. at 90 she was still overseeing 64 international editions of "cosmo." life here will somehow not seem the same without her near daily arrival, a statement from hearst said.

she'll be remembered a ceo said as the quintessential cosmo girl. kate snow, nbc news, new york. when we come back, in consumer news would you believe diet chocolate that tastes like the real thing?

the pictures, some real good ones are pouring in all over the web. the big high point of the meteor

he mentioned so-called mohawk guy, the mission control staffer whose distinctive hair has gotten almost as much attention as the rover at some times. and the president asked to be notified if the rover has any company up there. >> if, in fact, you do make contact with martians, please let me know right away. i've got a lot of other things on my plate but i suspect that will go to the top of the list. >> by the way, the newest photos from the rover show a landscape even more astoundingly similar to the american southwest. again, it's just getting started taking pictures and video will follow. it might not be the holy grail but for some chocoholics out there it's close. researchers at the university of warwick in england say they've found a way to replace the high fat content in chocolate with microscopic fruit juice droplets creating the first ever kind of diet chocolate that tastes and feels as good as the real thing. the scientists say it's now up to the individual food companies to take this discovery and run with it to market. a quick update on the

reverend billy graham. he is in stable condition in a north carolina hospital. he had a restful night we're told and is responding to treatment for bronchitis. his family said he watched the olympic games yesterday. billy graham is 93. the mayo clinic in minnesota reports illinois democratic congressman jesse jackson jr. is now being treated for bipolar type 2 disorder. the congressman, son of the civil rights leader, has been absent from congress since early june. when we come back here tonight our "making a difference" report. last time we checked in they were down to their last $40 struggling to find new homes for a lot of their best friends but there's been a development in the story since.

we are kicking off a week's worth of "making a difference" reports tonight with an update on an organization in detroit rescuing stray dogs from city streets. they have come a long way since we last checked in with them in the face of what seems like an endless number of dogs who need their help. our story tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> something's been going down. i see her. i got a visual. >> reporter: in hot pursuit in the motor city. >> visual. there she is. >> reporter: not cops out to

make an arrest but members of detroit dog rescue scrambling to save one of the city's estimated 50,000 strays. >> good girl. >> all these people come out. this dog is just -- it warms my heart. >> reporter: "nightly news" first profiled the ddr a year ago and its members down to their last $40 struggled to find the dogs new homes and keep them from being euthanized. >> we've kind of put structure to the madness. >> reporter: donations poured in, but for cofounder dan carlyle, a rapper who goes by the name of "hush" plenty still needs to be done. >> it's expanded to community outreach, you know, we've included spay and neuter clinics, vaccination clinics, rabies clinics. >> reporter: and you feed them. >> and we feed them. >> did you try dog rescue? >> reporter: one donation was for more than a million dollars. others have been much smaller. like this one for just $3. from someone who is unemployed. >> even in these tough economies people still, still care about the dogs.

they still put them first and still try to give back. >> reporter: what started as a loosely knit group that simply wanted to help the dogs has grown. now its members are working to become certified animal control officers here in detroit. until certified the group is restricted to taking dogs surrendered by their owners. ddr also posts dog pictures on their website in hopes of finding them new, caring homes. >> one of the hardest things to tell myself every day, you're not going to be able to save them all, but the ones we do save we'll definitely make a difference for. >> reporter: and the dog from the chase? she was surrendered and rodney stewart has named her penny. when do you think the last time she was petted like this was? >> it's been a while. it's been a while. >> reporter: watching the backs of those lost in the big city without the voices to ask for help. kevin tibbles, nbc news, detroit. that is our broadcast on a monday night as we start off a new week back home in new york. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we of course hope to see you right back here tomorrow

evening. right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now at 6:00, a casino clash in the south bay. why nearby businesses say they're on the losing end. >> reporter: another scare at an east bay oil refinery. i'll tell you exactly what led to a health advisory at the shell refinery in martinez. plus they're back with medals in hand. bay area olympians return home and into the arms of waiting family. good monday evening, thank you for joining us. i'm janell wang. >> not the w