doma, the defense of marriage act, passed in 1996 by a strong majority of congress. it blocks federal recognition of same-sex couples in states where they are allowed to marry, denying them about 1,000 federal benefits that other married couples get. when ms. windsor's spouse died four years ago and left her the estate, she got an inheritance tax bill for $363,000 because doma blocked the irs from considering them married. she said the tax bill was a shock. >> in the midst of my grief i realized the federal government was treating us as strangers and i paid a humongous estate tax. >> reporter: today conservatives questioned her lawyer's claim that the country has a different attitude now about same-sex marriage. >> why are you so confident in that judgment? how many states permit gay couples to marry? >> today? nine, your honor. >> nine. and so there has been this sea change between now and 1996. >> reporter: but the court's liberals sharply questioned doma saying the federal benefits

denied legally married same-sex couples have a profound effect. >> they touch evy aspect of life. your partner is sick. social security, i mean, it's pervasive. the full marriage and then this sort of skim milk marriage. >> reporter: justice kennedy, potentially the pivotal vote, said the states -- not congress -- traditionally define what it means to be married and eligible for federal benefits. >> you are at real risk of running in conflict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the state police power which is to regulate marriage, divorce, custody. >> reporter: and several justices said congress was improperly discriminating when it passed the law. >> i'm going to quote from the house report here is that

congress decided to reflect and honor a collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality. >> reporter: for justice kennedy, the probable fifth vote this did seem to be an issue more of federal power. so it may not produce a sweeping ruling, but striking down doma would still be a big victory for advocates of gay rights. brian? >> so, pete, just for clarity, it's been a confusing few days for noncourt experts. we have two cases on the same basic umbrella topic. but they are very different. what are the takeaway chances that the law of the land on this topic gets changed in one or the other or both? >> reporter: well, i think in doma it's quite probable. it appears they are prepared to strike it down and to say that any state that allows same-sex marriage, couples in those states have to get federal benefits. but on prop 8 it seems like we are going to get a narrower ruling, something confined only to california that won't have a precedent-setting effect on the rest of the country. i think some of the gay rights advocates were thinking that these two cases together would produce some profound change on the law on gay rights. at this point it doesn't look like it will, brian.

>> our veteran covering the court. our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, thank you as always. turning to health news tonight, there doesn't seem to ever be enough good news on the cancer front. we have progress to report tonight. a new government report projecting the ranks of cancer survivors will grow by nearly a third over the next ten years to 18 million people. this means people are living longer, of course, after a cancer diagnosis. and an early warning about the risk of getting cancer will help which brings us to the bigger cancer news tonight. it has to do with the diagnosis and treatment of some of the most common and deadly forms of the disease. our report from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: it is a trove of new genetic information about cancer that could soon help millions of patients. julie oberding was diagnosed with a precancerous breast lesion. the question for her and her doctor, does she need extensive treatment now or can she wait? >> those of us who take care of

high risk patients are in a dilemma as what's an aggressive tumor, what's a less aggressive tumor. >> reporter: ground-breaking studies of more than 200,000 people in some 200 labs around the world, almost double the number of gene variations known to affect risk for the deadliest cancerers -- breast, ovarian, and prostate. this information will lead to blood tests to determine how much a person is at risk and how serious the cancer might be. >> i'm excited because i now have more information that can guide my treatment. >> reporter: because there were so many subjects in the research study, some of these tests could be available in your doctor's office in a year or two. others will come further down the road. the explosion of genetic information is possible because robotic machines can identify slight differences in the dna to signal cancer risk. finding these variations used to take months or years. now it takes days. >> we started this project four years ago. already we are at an end point where we can make tremendous benefits for the patient.

we really thought we would be studying this for 10, maybe 15 years before we'd see an outcome. >> reporter: the tests will identify more families with a high risk for cancer allowing julie and her loved ones to make informed decisions. >> i am one of five girls in our family. this is a big deal for our family. >> reporter: it is a giant step toward the goal of personalized medicine. giving individuals and families exactly the information and the treatment they need. robert bazell, nbc news, rochester, minnesota. a whole lot of homes are in peril tonight along a beautiful stretch of the west coast. whidbey island, washington state. our thanks to the chopper of our station king-5 out there for these pictures. a series of landslides is rapidly remaking the landscape. people there have dealt with this kind of thing before, but tonight one area is now completely closed off and at risk of disappearing into the ocean. we get a late report from nbc's

kristen dahlgren. >> reporter: witnesses say it sounded like thunder -- the ground breaking away, taking one home with it and leaving 33 others perched precariously on the cliff or isolated by the slide after wiping out the single road used for access. no one was hurt but one person had to be evacuated from the home knocked from its foundation. about a dozen others had to rush from their homes. >> this is all i have. it's paid for. >> reporter: the remote whidbey island is a popular vacation destination north of seattle with the slide zone difficult to reach rescue crews are accessing the area through property owned by microsoft ceo steve balmer whose house is, for now, not in immediate danger. reporter eric wilkinson is on scene for nbc affiliate king-5 >> we were down in the slide zone just two minutes ago. we are watching the hillside continue to crumble. every three to five minutes you would see another chunk of dirt

just come tumbling down. >> reporter: one home is less than ten feet from the slide. officials call the ground incredibly unstable and fear there is nothing they can do to prevent the slide from growing. after a late spring storm stalled over the area last week dumping half a foot of snow and saturating the already soaked ground. the forecast is not good with more showers on the way and several homes getting ever closer to the edge. >> the way the bank looks in the next rain i wouldn't expect to see half of it here. >> reporter: kristen dahlgren, nbc news, los angeles. >> awful situation there. some folks across the country today reported problems with their internet service. either slowness or sporadic service outages. it may be because of what we are learning more about tonight, a record-breaking cyberattack that's been under way for the past few weeks. nbc's katy tur with us tonight from our studios with details. katy, good evening. >> good evening, brian. one tech writer likens it to gang warfare that's spilling out onto the streets. basically a fight between two

companies online. one that blocks spam and one that they are blacklisting because they say it enables spam to spread. the blacklisted company is trying to shut down the first company by overloading it with service requests like you would busy up a phone line. that's slowing down the rest of the internet. you may have noticed it's been hard to get on certain websites from time to time. people have been saying they haven't been able to get onto netflix to stream video. now it's basically an inconvenience, but this kind of denial of service attack is getting easier. in the last six months major banks have been targeted and even when they have been warned it's coming they have not been able to stop it. what is important to note though is that no websites were actually hacked. no personal information was at risk as of now. what you can do is demand more and tighter security from the companies you visit online. of course as always, we'll always tell you this -- be careful with what you put out there especially when it comes to your personal information.

brian? >> katy tur with us in new york tonight. katy, thanks. tonight, nbc news has obtained rare access to the man at the center of a storm that some veterans groups are calling a national disgrace in this country. after two wars in which they were asked to sacrifice so much for their country, many veterans are now returning home to wait years for the benefits they were promised. almost a million american veterans are waiting for claims. that has left president obama's secretary of veterans affairs on the offensive. tonight he is talking about what's being done to fix this. we get our report from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> good morning, everybody. >> reporter: in new york today the secretary of veterans affairs, eric shinseki, toured a jobs fair for veterans sponsored by nbc universal. but shinseki, a veteran himself, wounded in vietnam, is also struggling with a huge backlog

in claims for disability benefits. >> i remember coming back from vietnam. we didn't do enough for youngsters then. we're still dealing with those issues today. >> reporter: with a flood of veterans from the wars in iraq and afghanistan, the number of disability claims has exploded. nearly 900,000 veterans are waiting for their claims to be processed. the average wait, 273 days. some have waited as long as three years. >> this is not putting a man on mars. this is fixing a paperwork process. >> reporter: the problem is the v.a. still relies heavily on paper records. the department has spent $500 million on a new program to digitize veterans' claims. but a report from the v.a.'s inspector general found that because of problems with the new new computerized system it took longer to process some claims. the pentagon and v.a. are working together to combine their separate health records, hoping to speed up the benefits process. but the effort stalled because their computer systems were not

compatible. since reporting this story, nbc news has been flooded with e-mails like this one from a retired v.a. nurse who said the backlog is wrong on every level. the v.a. is broken. secretary shinseki pledges that long wait will be greatly reduced within two years. >> i wish i had all these tools four years ago. we would have killed the backlog by now. >> reporter: hundreds of thousands of veterans can hardly wait. jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. still ahead for us tonight, a history-making power shift for the agents trained to take a bullet for the president and others. tonight, the new woman in charge of the u.s. secret service. later, an extraordinary story of bravery in a very dangerous place where everyday pleasures are often way too rare.

we are learning more tonight about the woman president obama has named as the new director of

the united states secret service. the first time that post has been held by a woman. secret service agents, of course, are perhaps best known for their role in protecting our presidents, but it is still a sprawling agency with huge responsibilities still recovering from recent scandal. it all goes now to the new boss. nbc's kristen welker has our report. i julia pierson -- >> reporter: an historic day in the oval office. julia pierson sworn in as the first female director of the secret service. >> obviously she's breaking the mold in terms of directors of the agency. >> reporter: barbara riggs was the agency's first woman deputy director and pierson's mentor. >> when i did hear the news i obviously was thrilled. >> reporter: an orlando native, pierson, who is 53, studied criminal justice at the university of central florida, worked as a police officer during college and became a

secret service agent in miami after graduating. >> she's a go-to person. >> reporter: pierson has worked behind the scenes and in the field for 30 years. most recently serving as chief of staff. in 2007 she told "smithsonian" magazine her most challenging day on the job in washington was 9/11. we didn't know if what was happening was a prelude to more attacks, she said. i was in charge of making sure everyone was accounted for. the appointment comes at a pivotal time for the secret service. last april, several agents were embroiled in a prostitution scandal. author ron kessler is critical. of the agency. >> julia pierson represents a continuation of the same flawed cultural problems that led to the scandals we have all seen. >> reporter: today the white house pushed back. >> the president believes julia pierson has exactly the kind of experience that we want. we want the person who's going to lead that agency to have. >> reporter: coincidentally in

the current movie "olympus has fallen" angela basset plays a female secret service chief. in real life more women lead federal law enforcement agencies than ever before. secret service, department of homeland security, drug enforcement administration, and the u.s. marshall service. the president pointed out just how powerful julia pierson is. >> this person now probably has more control over our lives than anyone else except for our spouses. >> reporter: in high school, pierson worked at disneyworld. she said the large crowd there helped prepare her for the job she has now. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. we are back in a moment with late word of a surprise announcement from a hollywood actress about politics.

a welcome announcement from the tsa today. injured veterans no longer have to take off their shoes, jackets or hats at airport security checkpoints. but this still isn't perfect. listen to why. they have to call 24 hours ahead before flying to arrange for expedited service. the new rules for our wounded warriors are being forced

through because so many amputees wearing prosthetic legs have reported difficult and uncomfortable experiences at checkpoints when asked to remove their shoes. well, this took a while, but this is for all those who have fed endless quarters into those car wash vacuums, rooting out cheerios under the car seats, hard as rocks the little guys. they then ricochet through the vacuum hose along with pennies, gravel, and skittles. honda has figured out a way to make a minivan that comes with its own built-in vacuum cleaner. it will be available on the 2014 odyssey. so the news is mixed in terms of the advancement of our society. nasa no longer has a way to send astronauts into space but we'll soon have the ability to vacuum without stopping the car. officials in the bay area are worried about the cost of good intentions. they have removed the toll takers from the golden gate bridge. that's a big change for daily drivers. they have had to stop for human

toll takers at those booths for 76 years. problem now under the new system is people are gunning it and some have been caught doing 60 or more going through that area. well, after flirting with a run for u.s. senate in kentucky, ashley judd says she's going to sit this race out after all. the actress and eighth generation kentuckian was considering going after the democratic nomination in the race against senator mitch mcconnell, who as republican senate leader will put up a well financed fight. up next for us tonight, making a difference for an inspiring group of young women with big dreams on the road ahead.

>> announcer: making a difference, brought to you by pfizer. finally tonight our making a difference report comes from kabul in afghanistan. it's a story about the role and rights of women there and something special that so many of us take for granted here. so we get our report this evening from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: with unbridled joy and a hundred-watt smile a teenager named salma is leading a revolution on a bicycle.

in fact, in a country where by custom and history women rarely drive cars and almost never ride bikes she is not just the leader of around a dozen female riders, she's the best rider on the new afghan national cycling team and a symbol of hope for all afghan women. winning medals in regional competitions and shaping a dream. >> translator: to wave the flag of afghanistan in the olympics, to prove to the world that women in afghanistan have progressed. >> reporter: salma and her teammates only ride because a colorado mountain biker named shannon galpin who pedalled the remote trails in afghanistan during years as relief worker wanted to expand the sport she loved to the troubled country she'd come to love. >> it's more than sport. it's a symbol of freedom. >> reporter: when galpin learned afghanistan's best known rider abdul siddiqui was forming a team and intended to include female racers, she jumped in.

her mountain to mountain nonprofit collecting rooms full of donated bikes and gear. >> if they are willing to take the risk the least we can do is support them. >> reporter: the risks are real. death threats, constant harassment. so predictable the whole team trains in secret dodging trucks and road hazards on the edge of town. the girls always in head scarves, full sleeves and long pants, fighting the stubborn taboo. in kabul's main bicycle mart the idea of women riding bikes to go to work, to go to the market, to get from here to there meets with one response. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> reporter: women should not ride a bicycle, we were told. they should be at home. still, salma says that while some humiliate us, others encourage us. the afghan racerers, now with their first passports, are ready to show the world one aspect of whatever afghanistan will turn into will not be rolled back. mike taibbi, nbc news, kabul. that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening.

good evening. i'm terry mcsweeney in for raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. some breaking news in san jose within the past few minutes. police now confirming they are investigating an officer involved shooting that somehow is connected to those two cars that you see there that are rammed into each other. this is happening along the 1800 block west of highway 87. we do have a reporter on the scene for you. chrkris sanchez is there live. she joins us via phone. you've only been there a few minut minutes. tell us what you've learned. >> reporter: people are ready to talk about what happened here. this is a densely populated area. there are certainly lots of witnesses for the police to talk with. we are here in the 1800 block of almaden road not far from where it passes under highway 87.

folks are telling me they heard at least four shots and from what we understand this looks like it may have been an auto theft gone wrong, that there may have been a woman and a man involved in trying to steal a car from a local business. an ougauto dealer -- rather, an auto repair shop. there are plenty of them along the stretch of roadway. and the police happened upon them and, again, this is not confirmed by the police. this is what we are hearing from witnesses that the police have tried to stop the thieves. the woman in the car may have tried to ram the police car and that's when we suspect that the officer felt deadly force was necessary. again, we are hear on the 1800 block of almaden road waiting for the police spokesman, albert morales, to tell us what the details are from their end. from the suspected -- the witnesses, this was a scene that seemed to start with an auto

theft. i don't know the condition of the person who was shot. i don't know whether or not the officer was injured but we are waiting to hear more from police. we expect they will arrive here on the scene and give us more details within the next 15-20 minutes. >> thank you very much, kris. you stay there and get some information from police and we'll get back to you. again, you heard kris sanchez say shots faired outside of a business, may have been an auto repair shop in the midst of some sort of auto theft, possibly a man and a woman involved. someone has been shot. we don't know the details at this point but kris is on site. we will bring those in a little bit. new at 6:00. built in the south bay. and today san jose has a massive new facility some say proves manufacturing jobs are returning to the bay area. scott budman is among the first to tour the new facility and joins us live. scott, we haven't made that much here in the past several years. >> reporter: you a