that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine. >> reporter: in today's ruling senior judge edward r. corman called the decision politically motivated, scientifically unjustified, and contrary to agency precedent. reproductive rights advocates say it is a victory for women. it takes the drugs out from behind the pharmacy counter and puts them on the shelves alongside aspirin and tylenol where they are accessible to everyone. critics worry sexually active teenagers will have open access to a contraceptive that does nothing to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. >> young people are primarily the group contracting sexually transmitted diseases. this is a huge public health problem and plan b, if anything, aggravates it. >> reporter: there is

disagreement among mothers, too. >> we are the parents. we should have a say in what they do. >> children should be able to go to their parents for these types of decisions, but not all young people have an adult in their life that they can go to. >> reporter: the fda has 30 days to put plan b, a pill that costs about $50 for each dose, on the shelves. the justice department said it is still deciding whether or not to appeal the decision. >> stephanie gosk starting us off tonight. stephanie, thanks. again tonight the situation with north korea gets our attention. they are now warning foreign diplomats to have a plan ready to evacuate their embassies as tensions between north and south remain extremely high with word of another missile now on the move. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel monitoring it all from seoul, south korea, live for us again tonight. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. north korea got the world's attention by threatening nuclear war. now a clearer picture is emerging. what it may want the world to see. april in pyongyang is parade season.

north korea seems determined to celebrate it with an international provocation. south korean military sources now say the north has moved not one but two musudan missiles like this one to the east coast, perhaps preparing for a launch. they say a firing, possibly toward japan or guam where the u.s. has troops could come with little warning. the missiles are not believed capable of carrying nuclear warheads. they may not be armed at all. speculation about a launch centers on mid april. last april 11th, kim jong un came to power. april 15 is the 101st birthday of north korea's founder and kim jong un's grandfather. last april pyongyang tried to launch a satellite, but it crashed into the sea. the musudans, if fired, could do the same. today pyongyang cautioned foreign diplomats in north korea to have evacuation plans ready.

saying it can't guarantee their safety after april 10th. the timing would also coincide with a visit by the u.s. secretary of state. secretary kerry comes to this region next week on a mission to defuse this crisis. people here say he should focus on china which they say coddles its unruly neighbor. for china it's a high stakes balancing act. >> i think china does understand if north korea goes too far it's to their detriment because the japan-u.s. alliance and the south korea-u.s. alliance tightens even more. >> reporter: the question may be whether anyone can control north korea. north korea could have a missile launch during the kerry visit on a key anniversary and while everyone is watching. there is a bit of showmanship here, brian. what if the u.s. tries to shoot it down? what if we miss? >> rhard engel live again in

seoul, south korea, for us tonight. richard, thanks. in this country job numbers are in the news for the month of march and the news was not good. employers added just 88,000 jobs to the payrolls last month. the fewest in any month in nearly a year. the unemployment rate edged down for all the wrong reasons. nbc's tom costello has more on what's going on. >> reporter: from retail to construction it's been six months of an improving jobs picture and economic recovery. but today's numbers were a shocker. >> this is a punch to the gut. this is not a good number. >> reporter: after adding an average of 196,000 jobs in each of the last six months, only 88,000 were added in march. economists hoped for nearly 200,000. the unemployment rate still fell but experts say that's because many people took part-time jobs or gave up looking for work. the white house suggested the looming government sequestration cuts played a role in the bad numbers. >> if you look at the regional coverage of the impacts of sequester it focuses on real people.

>> reporter: an estimated 12 million americans are still out of work. among them, single mom lois taheda who was polishing her resumé today in rhode island. >> me without a job for a year basically has been the roughest thing ever. just no money at all. >> reporter: to land a job in the growing health care field she's been getting vocational training at the stepping up program in providence. >> where we used to have 20, 30 students interested in the class we now have a wait list of 60 people interested. >> reporter: interested because most are out of work. today's numbers suggest the economy hit a wall in march. 2,000 people lost their jobs in the financial services sector. 3,000 in manufacturing. and a whopping 24,000 retail jobs were lost.

economists say cold weather and higher taxes may have kept shoppers from shopping. >> this may be the leading edge of the payroll tax hike hurting consumer spending and leading to lay-offs in retail jobs. >> reporter: there is a bigger question. has corporate america decided it can get by with fewer employees? tom costello, nbc news, washington. now at the same time today details of president obama's budget proposal for the coming year were making the rounds. they include changes to social security and medicare that will hit seniors. that drew fire from democrats in washington. didn't do much to sway republicans. we get more from our chief white house correspondent chuck todd. >> reporter: for the first time in the obama presidency a white house-proposed budget would slow the growth of medicare and social security, an idea many democrats call a cut. mindful of this the white house

tried to soften the blow. >> not the president's ideal approach to our budget challenges. but it is a serious compromise proposition. >> reporter: the president will propose smaller cost of living adjustments to social security. in washington-speak, it's known as chain cpi. it would reduce benefit payments to seniors in the future. this idea is part of a deliberate effort to entice republicans back to the negotiating table on a larger budget deal that would include more tax increases. but any changes to social security has democrats upset. >> it's certainly not one that i'm excited about in terms of the chain cpi. >> reporter: on twitter liberal senator tom harkin called the president's plan an attack on social security. >> democrats invented social security and have been protecting it for almost 80 years. they shouldn't be leading the charge against it. >> reporter: but for all the democratic hand-wringing, republicans didn't rush to embrace the president's plan either. speaker john boehner writing, if the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there is no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes. also noteworthy in the budget $400 million in cuts in medicare. a payroll tax hike on high income medicare beneficiaries and a tobacco tax to pay for a universal pre-k program the president touted in the state of

the union. not surprisingly the most powerful senior citizen lobby, aarp, they are already out with polling data warning any member of congress that supports this change in social security will have -- well, heck to pay at the ballot box in 2014. so it begins. >> our thanks to chuck todd at the white house tonight. another high ranking official is out at rutgers university tonight in the wake of the scandal of the men's basketball coach abusing players. all of it captured on video for all the world to see. our report tonight from nbc's anne thompson. >> reporter: from the leadership of rutgers university today, regret for the behavior that shocked the nation. >> if i had to do it again, i would have asked for that video. >> reporter: president robert barchi conceded he never looked at the video though he was told what was on it, when he approved the suspension of head basketball coach mike rice in december. it shows rice physically abusing players and using homophobic

slurs. [ bleep ] a particularly sensitive issue at rutgers where in 2010 student tyler clementi took his own life after his roommate spied on clementi's romantic encounter with a man. >> i apologize to the lgbtq community and all of us who share their values. for the homophobic slurs shown on that video. >> reporter: today athletic director tim pernetti resigned. the fourth person along with rice, an assistant coach, and the university counsel to lose his job. >> i always have and i always will, no matter what, want what's best for rutgers. >> reporter: is this an example of the code of silence that exists in college athletics? >> i don't know if it's a code of silence so much as shines a light on the power imbalance and the deck is really stacked in favor of the school and it's really stacked against the student athletes being hit in the head with basketballs who don't want to complain or they might lose their scholarship. >> reporter: eric murdock, the rutgers employee who made the video after he was let go, today filed suit against the school

for wrongful termination. >> when rutgers finds out about something wrong involving the students they should act immediately. >> reporter: president barchi blamed the controversy on a failure of process. some say it's really a failure of leadership. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. still ahead for us tonight, an apology from the president after his remark about a woman's appearance and why there is much more to the story than first reported. and later, frozen in time since the storm. there is now something extraordinary happening and the animals can hardly contain their excitement.

tonight the president of the united states has issued an apology after an offhanded remark he made last night about a woman's appearance caused a bit of a dust-up today. strong opinions all around. and a lot more to this story than was first reported. we get the story tonight from nbc's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: when is telling a

woman she's good-looking not a compliment? perhaps when the woman is california's top law enforcement officer, a possible future attorney general of the united states, even a potential supreme court nominee. >> the american dream belongs to all of us. >> reporter: and the person delivering the compliment is the president of the united states. >> i do think, you know, it gets into this larger question about women being objectified by men. >> reporter: it all started with an ad libbed comment at a private fund-raiser in california thursday. mr. obama praised california attorney general camilla harris, a long time friend of his and michelle obama's as a tough administrator of the law who gives everybody a fair shake. but then mr. obama added, she also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country. it's the kind of thing president obama has said on occasion about men and no one complained. >> there he is.

the good-looking guy in the front here. [ laughter ] >> reporter: this time critics, mostly women, pounced. >> i'm sure he meant to pay a compliment and be nice, but it just divides women. it divides people up to separate them by looks. >> reporter: back home the president called harris to make amends. >> you know, they are old friends and good friends. he did not want in any way to diminish the attorney general's professional accomplishments. >> when we talk about a woman in an official position and talk about her appearance it does seem to take attention away from her accomplishments. >> reporter: tonight harris's spokesman said the attorney general and the president have been friends for many years, had a conversation, and she strongly supports him. brian? >> with that i say thank you to nbc's andrea mitchell. always good to see you. >> thank you, brian. >> we're back in a moment with late word tonight about an american family tradition that is going away.

the popular website awkward family photos made an industry

out of posting just that on the web. if you grew up the way a lot of us did those family photos were more often than not taken at sears at the photo studio. a little bit of our childhood died today when sears announced they are closing all 800 or so photo studios nationwide. it's also happening at walmart. the company that does it for them, cpi, is going out of business. in the digital age folks can have pretty good pictures taken without the dappled blue background at the store. in health news more evidence from the american heart association after a six-year study that walking for exercise can be just as good as running when it comes to heart health benefits like dropping blood pressure, helping control cholesterol and prevent heart disease. and there is marketing news in what usa today calls an astonishing brand reversal. kfc is about to go big on boneless chicken. if you like a bucket you would never think to say "boneless"

when ordering it but they are betting on the new original recipe boneless in what brand experts say is the biggest new product introduction for kfc in modern times. the folks at the place called nameberry who keep track of emerging baby names are out with the hottest, most popular names of 2013 so far. for boys, bruce is back. some of us know he never left. christian is reemerging. the big activity is among girls. the folks at nameberry say marnie is suddenly hot because there is a character named marnie on an hbo series. also marlowe, nellie and mavis. the sense of loss continued today for the man who was called the people's film critic. roger ebert lost his long battle with cancer yesterday at the age of 70. today there were flowers on the seat that was always reserved for him at a movie screening in chicago. and "the chicago tribune" gave us this. his old partner gene siskel

saying, "saved you the aisle seat, roger." we have something special for you tonight on our broadcast of "rock center" this evening. it's been a mystery for 44 years. back in 1969 it was called the record of the year. it was right there in "rolling stone." a secret bootleg album recorded by a super group. jagger, dylan and most of the beatles. they called the record the masked marauders. >> people began calling the rolling stone office, record stores. when is this record coming out? how do we get in touch with the distributor? we haven't heard anything about this. >> it's a great yarn and attention all music fans, we will unmask the mystery of the masked marauders on the new "rock center" tonight at 10:00, 9:00 central. when we come back on a friday night, it must be getting better. we must be recovering from hurricane sandy because some of our friends are returning to their homes.

finally tonight, as we mentioned earlier, those up and down the still crippled parts of the east coast five months after hurricane sandy are hungry for signs of recovery.

we have found some coming back, returning home, including those with gills and whiskers. our report tonight from coney island and nbc's katy tur. >> reporter: they may not be the most graceful at times. but you can't question their dedication. the new york aquarium and all of its creatures are in a mad rush for the partial re-opening may 25, seven months after super storm sandy nearly wiped it off the map. walk around the beach front amusement and for a moment you will feel it's frozen in time. halloween decorations, water pooled on floors, and windows into what were once worlds of wonder still blurred by dirt. john dolan is the aquarium's director. >> honestly, in the immediate aftermath of the storm, i thought we'd lost everything. >> reporter: they were forced to improvise. salt water mixed in cans. a baby walrus found orphaned and

nearly dead off the coast of alaska arrived here weeks before sandy when 14 feet of water flooded everything. he rode it out in a hallway with a trainer. was he okay? was it nerve wracking for him? >> at the time we stayed really calm. you know. just focused attention on him. playing with him throughout the duration. so i think he did pretty well. >> reporter: the aquarium on coney island's famous board walk is estimated to bring in $58 million a year. these sea creatures are the area's biggest attraction. they didn't think, oh, i got the winter off. finally, a vacation around here. >> i don't think they did. i think they really missed the people. >> reporter: and the people have missed them. >> wave! >> reporter: katy tur, nbc news, coney island, new york. >> nice note to end our friday broadcast on and finish up the week. thank you for being here with us. another reminder.

we are back on the air tonight with a new "rock center" at 10:00/9:00 central. i'm brian williams. lester holt will be here with you this weekend. we'll look for you right back here on monday night. in the meantime please have a good weekend. in the meantime please have a good weekend. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com to me opening day means everything is right with the world. >> nothing like it. it is one of the best. >> right now at 6:00, they've

been waiting for months for this day -- the day the world series champs return home to raise the championship flag and play ball. good evening and thanks for joining us on this friday. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm janelle wang in for jessica aguirre. a big day for bay area baseball. they were dazzling in their home opener. >> laurence scott has more on the pregame ceremony. >> we begin with kimberly tere outside at&t ballpark where fans are still celebrating. kimberly? >> reporter: it seems that party has moved from being inside at&t park to some of the restaurants and taverns around the ballpark. take a look now. there was nothing but smiles out here as tens of thousands poured into the park ready to see the world champs play the first game of the season at home. >> opening day i just get a warm feeling inside. >> reporter: filled with anticipation, fans packed at&t park for the sold out giants home opener today against the

st. louis cardinals. >> and this is just fantastic. we love to see zito pitch and we love the giants. i've watched them since i was a kid, since willie mays. >> this is the most exciting thing that's happened to us. >> really? >> we're from merced, california. this is our first thing in the whole world to do. >> reporter: and for so many this game is about more than baseball. it's family tradition. >> my son and i have been coming out for 27 years consecutively. i told him as long as i'm alive we'll still be doing it. >> i don't know if i remember the first one. the giants were here earlier. it's been a lot of fun. >> reporter: while some continue their decades old tradition, other fans are trying to start new ones. >> we'll read this together. >> reporter: jane and her

friends motivated a crowd to read a quote from field of dreams before the opening pitch. >> this field, this game, it's part of our past. it reminds us of all that was once good and could be again. something she and her husband have done for 12 years before the home opener. she just wanted others to notice how profound the message is. >> it means that there's something that holds all of the americans together. that's good and it doesn't matter what kind of american you are. it's baseball and it's always there. >> reporter: 41,581 fans were out here today. this is the first of the giants' six-game home stand. live in san francisco, kimberly tere, bay area news. >> i know that speech well, thank you. no one does pomp and circumstance better than the giants. today's pageantry so special as you saw for the fans. but then take a look at this. the elaborate pregame ceremony started on the water. members of the