on the first full day of across-the-board spending cuts no negotiations just more finger pointing. >> none of this is necessary. it's happening because republicans in congress chose this outcome over closing a single wasteful tax loophole that helps reduce the deficit. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner home in ohio speaking to constituents and signaling that compromise is still far off. >> as i told the president, once again yesterday, we all know what the problem is. we've got run away spending. >> reporter: meanwhile, collective concern across the country from an army arsenal in huntsville, alabama where they're facing furloughs -- >> the sequestration will definitely affect my family. >> reporter: to the grand canyon. >> we're cutting travel. we're cutting training. we're reducing overtime. >> reporter: and on the arizona border where agents could see their hours cut back. >> cutting down the security of our nation i don't believe is

the way to go at it. >> reporter: the disruptions will be felt gradually, some furlough notifications already having gone out like at the department of justice, but the first cutbacks won't happen until april. the defense department will be hit hardest with 800,000 civilian workers bracing for furloughs. cuts to the faa could slow air travel and educational officials say as many as 70,000 children could be kicked off head start programs. but in some cases the fallout has already begun. one of the navy's warships the carrier truman is not going to the persian gulf. the air force's world famous thunder birds have been grounded. hundreds of immigrants facing deportation have been released from prison. while polls show most americans will blame republicans, analysts say there is plenty of blame to go around. >> right now we're stuck in a bad outcome for everybody. republicans don't get the entitlement cuts they want. democrats don't get the tax increases they want. the american people don't get the government or the economy they need.

>> reporter: now, lawmakers are hoping to work out a deal in the coming weeks to stave off the most serious cuts but, frankly, there is not a lot of hope that is going to happen and the next budget battle is looming at the end of this month. >> kristen, thanks. for more on the politics of this impasse let's bring in david gregory moderator of "meet the press." david, you sat down with speaker boehner for an interview. do you get a sense there is a face saving solution for either side in this? >> reporter: well, i think for the republicans they have rallied around the idea this may be a clumsy way of cutting spending but is still a spending cut and that is preferable to raising taxes. i talked about the dynamic with speaker boehner between him and the president harkening back to the meeting they had friday. here is part of that exchange. what goes on in these meetings? you talk about a nice conversation. you keep talking about your relationship being pretty good with the president. it's hard for any of us to believe that, given how personal it seems, given how pointed the language seems to be, and that

you're just at such a basic philosophical, ideological, practical disagreement. i mean, you've got -- congress left town. >> we had a very pleasant meeting, but it was also a very frank meeting. i made it clear to the president that he got a trillion dollars worth of tax hikes in obama care. he got another $650 billion worth of tax hikes on january 1st. you can't tax our way out of this problem. >> this is the issue. right now as speaker of the house, boehner has already faced the revolt among tea party conservatives, other conservatives in his caucus. he can't do any more in his estimation and, you know, you think about the leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, he's up for re-election in kentucky next year, so he has little room to maneuver. it seems like this is going to go a little farther down the line, lester, into the big budget talks. that's where you could see some trading around taxes and entitlement cuts then. >> that leads to my next question because as kristen

pointed out the sky didn't fall today. this is going to roll out over a series of weeks. is there another deadline that may be a bit more subtle but that both sides have their eye on to get this done? >> i really think it's the budget talks. what we learned yesterday, the president and speaker boehner say they don't want to shut the government down in several weeks over the rest of the funding for this year. >> all right. david gregory, thanks very much. a reminder you can see david's entire interview with house speaker boehner tomorrow on "meet the press" here on nbc. now to florida. and what appears to be an increasingly dangerous situation for one neighborhood as a sinkhole keeps growing. one man is presumed dead after being sucked into the earth as he was sleeping. and tonight other families are on edge. nbc's gabe gutierrez is in seffner, florida watching this drama unfold. gabe, good evening. >> reporter: lester, late this afternoon investigators said the rescue efforts had ended. the site is entirely unstable. they already brought in new equipment and tomorrow they plan to demolish the house.

tonight the scramble to safety. how long did they give you, ma'am? >> 30 minutes. >> reporter: this family given just a half hour to collect their belongings and leave. engineers say a large sinkhole has compromised these homes near tampa. it keeps growing underground. at least 30 feet wide and 50 feet deep. they don't know when it will stop. >> we can no longer sustain a rescue effort. we met with the family, advised them of that, and that at this point we have to move beyond the rescue to demolition phase. >> reporter: investigators can't even get inside the home safely to assess the damage. but as engineers tested the area around it today, jeremy bush brought flowers and wept. tired, still wearing the same clothes two days later, he waited for word about his brother, 36-year-old jeff bush, still trapped underground, presumed dead after being swallowed by the sinkhole in his

bedroom late thursday night. >> i don't think there is any hope. they say the hole is getting bigger and i don't think they'll be able to find him. >> reporter: jeremy jumped into the hole in a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to rescue his brother. a sheriff's deputy had to pull him to safety. >> as i was pulling him up i was looking at the hole, watching it collapse, watching the bed frame and everything just sink into the ground. >> reporter: that night's terror in a frantic 911 call. >> okay. and what happened to the house? >> um, the bedroom floor just collapsed and my brother-in-law is in there. he's underneath the house. >> reporter: sinkholes are relatively common in florida due to the state's unique limestone bedrock. as rain water filters into the ground it can erode the rock and cause a collapse. investigators say this hole could have been building for years. neighbors wonder if their homes are in jeopardy. >> just rips my heart out that people that i've lived next door to for 21 years had to leave and

just -- they have a lot of memories also. >> reporter: just a few moments ago the family of the victim gathered behind me to pay their respects. authorities were able to put microphones and a small camera near the entrance of the home. they found no signs of life, lester. >> heart breaking story. gabe gutierrez in florida tonight. thank you. there is another concern for folks in florida this evening. two large brush fires prompted evacuation orders for people in 300 homes near orman beach in central florida on the atlantic coast. the fires cover a thousand acres and are being fought by a hundred firefighters. overseas secretary of state john kerry ran into political turbulence today in egypt both on the direction that country is taking under its new government and the long and bloody civil war in syria where there is no end in sight. we'll go to cairo tonight for that story. hello. >> reporter: good evening, lester. it is going to be a very busy 24

hours for secretary of state john kerry but on the heels of announcing a major shift in u.s. policy on syria, some in egypt are criticizing the u.s. for not changing its policy when it comes to egypt. they say the u.s. is backing president morsi and his islamist government at the expense of democracy and human rights. a message for america's top diplomats. >> john kerry, you have to know that the egyptian people are angry. >> reporter: instead of pushing for democratic reform, these protesters say washington is supporting egypt's islamist president morsi just like it once backed former leader hosni mubarak. >> we are protesting against american interest groups and supporting a fascist regime. >> reporter: the country's opposition warned kerry president morsi's government is undermining democracy, human rights, and consolidating power.

>> we come here as friends for the egyptian people, not for one government, for one person, or one party or ideology but for the egyptian people. >> reporter: but egypt is facing a bigger, looming crisis. its economy is collapsing and kerry urged politicians here to put their differences aside and come to an agreement. differences that trigger clashes between police and protesters are now a frequent occurrence here. the government is struggling to maintain law and order let alone push through broader reforms. it's not just egypt though that is dominating kerry's agenda. he also met with secretary general of the arab league. for the first time in two years the u.s. says it will now give direct, nonlethal aid to rebels fighting to topple president assad. the foreign ministers of iran and syria fired back today saying assad is the country's legitimately elected leader and would not step down from power before election next year. syria's foreign minister called

america's new policy a double standard and asked how the u.s. could give support to groups they claim killed the syrian people while calling for political solution to the conflict. now, tomorrow secretary of state john kerry will meet egypt's president morsi to specifically spell out ways the u.s. can help get egypt's economy back ontrack but that depends on egypt's politicians reconciling their differences. there is no sign they plan to do that any time soon. on monday at the vatican roman catholic cardinals will take the first step toward electing a new pope. they will meet for three hours in the morning and again in the early evening. their main goal is to set a date for the conclave in which they'll vote for the man who will succeed pope benedict xvi. we'll go to the vatican tonight for more. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. the cardinals gather at the vatican this weekend and they're taking every opportunity to meet and talk. much focus is on the news that

three cardinals who wrote a secret report to the scandal dubbed vati-leaks are in rome. they are expected to answer questions about the scandal and the general feeling is their answers could influence the direction of the papal selection. today there are reports that the scandal involved wiretaps on senior vatican officials which is one of the many challenges facing the cardinals left by the former pope benedict. the u.n. secretary general came to benedict's defense praising him for his commitment to human rights. banki moon urged them to continue to work toward dialogue and tolerance. perhaps inferring that should be part of the papal selection process. one newspaper reports some cardinals are considering an older man for pope. many experts consider this to be speculation but it is underlined who will be chosen is still as mysterious as the election process itself. >> thanks. when "nightly news" continues on this saturday a new way of trying to prevent serious head injuries in high school athletes. and later, a close encounter

with some of the most awesome creatures on earth.

we're back with health news tonight. in a new study that used a mobile app to measure what happens to the brain when high school soccer players head the ball. the question is, are they doing damage to themselves? nbc's chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman has our report. >> reporter: it seems there is an app for just about everything these days.

and science is leading the trend. even when it comes to monitoring brain function in young athletes. researchers in texas are using tablets to study high school female soccer players who are trained to head the ball. >> we wanted to try to develop a task that could be on a tablet that we could measure cognitive functions in soccer players. >> reporter: a study published this week zeroed in on 24 high school girls. half play varsity soccer and were tested after practice. the other half, nonathletes. the girls completed two tests by touching targets on a screen to measure reaction time. the first involved a part of the brain that controls reflexes. the second task, cognitive function like memory, learning, and the ability to process information. >> the soccer players showed a significant slowing -- small but significant slowing on the cognitive task. >> reporter: the one small

study, this slowing may indicate heading a soccer ball is in fact hurting the brain. though heading doesn't usually cause concussion it doesn't mean it's safe either. for decades the standard tests for concussions in sports have been a series of questions and simple motor tasks. but with this tool, more sophisticated tests can better detect the immediate effect of a blow to the head. >> it allows us to capture brain function, as well as other things like symptoms, how much heading someone was doing, close to the time that it's occurring. >> reporter: experts say this real time monitoring of heading is crucial. >> the greatest area of concern presently is that there is an elevated, long-term risk for incident dementia or development of degenerative brain diseases over the long term. >> reporter: but for these young athletes from new york, headers are just part of the game. >> i think it hurts like half the time but you get over it after like two minutes.

>> i just get so much out of playing soccer that, like, a little effect wouldn't stop me. >> reporter: doctors are working to make sure this love of the game doesn't interfere with the long and healthy life. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, new york. >> we should note high school soccer isn't the only sport now making use of medical apps on mobile devices. the nfl and the nhl have unveiled their own apps for managing concussions on the sidelines. up next here tonight, what landed one of the world's biggest tennis stars in hot water.

it was an early taste of st. patrick's day in the rockaways here in new york today. the parade was a nice lift for

folks along the ocean front community which was hit hard by hurricane sandy. they spent months trying to recover from the storm and the effort sadly is far from over. tennis star serena williams got busted at the honda classic in florida yesterday when she used a cell phone to snap a photo of tiger woods. >> serena, you may be number one in the world of tennis, but no special privileges out here. >> pga rules apparently prohibit fans from taking photos during tournament play. her public lesson in golf etiquette didn't stop williams from tweeting the photo of woods teeing off on the 17th hole. and you may have noticed things a bit quieter in the twitter sphere today because it was national unplug day. people were encouraged to reframe from using their smart phones and to disconnect from technology for a day. thought about handwriting this newscast. not really. not a bad idea to some extent as long as you keep it tuned right here of course to go unplugged.

speaking of unplugging, a driver left a lap top sitting on the top of his car as he took off during a practice round of the sprint cup yesterday. let's hope he had a backup. the device which belonged to driver paul maynard and may have contained important race data smashed to pieces on the ground. the car trailing the number 27 chevy was able to maneuver around the mess. a poem by british novelist and poet charlotte bronte could catch a huge profit when it goes on the auction block next month in london. the poem is unique because of how it was constructed, written on a three-inch piece of paper in wording so tiny a magnifying glass is required to read it. bronte was only 13 years old when she wrote the untitled poem. today marked the ceremonial start to alaska's famed iditarod sled dog race. mushers kicked things off with an 11-mile warmup through the streets of anchorage. tomorrow things get going for real as the dogs and racers begin the 1,000-mile trek to the alaskan wilderness.

you might expect to see this little guy up near alaska but he is far from it. the three-month-old polar bear cub not yet named is the newest resident of the buffalo zoo, one of only two polar bears born in captivity in north america last year. the zoo plans to hold a vote to come up with a name for the youngster. up next, we're up close with some gentle giants making a remarkable comeback.

we've got a rare look at a

spectacular show of nature. a big splash being made off the coast of southern california by gray whales. they've made a big comeback and are giving the economy of the region a real boost. >> reporter: a couple breaths reveal the giants beneath the surface. >> we may have one whale here and two whales there. >> reporter: gray whales making their way south to the delight of their fans and naturalist alyssa janiger. >> this is fantastic. >> reporter: her excitement contagious. >> woo hoo! >> the enthusiasm. people looking for them. the first person who spots them saying, look, thar she blows! >> reporter: an experience that still exists thanks to conservation. prized for their bones and oil pacific gray whales were hunted relentlessly nearly to extinction until 1947 when commercial hunting of gray whales was banned. while they still face threats

from fishing nets and boat strikes they've become the comeback kids of the pacific. earlier this season an astounding 23 whales were spotted together off of san pedro. their continued success depends on educating younger generations through events like whale watch weekend at cabrillo national monument. >> i grew up with whale watching. i want my children to grow up seeing the whales and not reading about them in a book. >> they can grow up and maybe being an advocate and part of it. >> reporter: at the time when average attendance is down more gray whales sightings are bringing much needed tourist traffic to state and national parks. >> we've seen a rise in visitation in what would normally be an off-season. >> reporter: it turns out conservation is great for the economy as well. gray whales are great for business. >> we're driving the boat in from fishing trips and having to dodge whales.

>> reporter: that was two years ago. san diego whale watcher boats have been filled ever since. a conservation success story that could serve as an example to ensure the natural wonders never cease. nbc news, san diego. >> that's "nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. for all of us at nbc news, good night. right now at 6:00, we are following a developing story in the south bay. you are looking at a live picture of it going on right now. a high-speed chase that ends with a deadly officer-involved

shooting. good evening. i'm terry mcsweeney. diane dwyer is off tonight. a typical neighborhood was shocked to hear a police pursuit and then gunfire this afternoon. the epicenter of the investigation, the intersection of blossom and calero avenues. kimberly is joining us from the scene with more. >> reporter: san jose police say the chase that ended here actually started about nine miles away on union and camden. police say at about 2:30 this afternoon an officer known as the man inside a car was acting suspiciously. as the officer approached, the driver took off but was later spotted by the same officer. at that time, the suspects rammed the patrol car considered assault when the pursuit purr pseudo. this is video provided by one of the witnesses. this chase ended in a residential neighborhood. the car that had a blown out tire pulled over on blossom

avenue near calero and that's when the driver got out and made a threatening gesture. two officers fired and the suspect was killed. police say during the chase the suspect ran two other patrol cars and also pointed a gun at officers. police also say he had been throwing items out of the vehicle including a woman's purse and a bag full of baseball bats. witnesses say there are about 20 police cars following the suspect who slowed down once he got into the neighborhood and appeared calm. >> he seemed really relaxed. he was driving over 100 miles an hour, easy over 100 miles an hour on three wheels. one of his wheels was just gone, the rear left wheel. >> reporter: police say so many items were being thrown out that there are multiple crime scenes with investigators out. they are working on positively identifying the suspect who they say is a male in his 20s, likely 25 years old.