closely here we are required to wear uniforms to blend in to avoid raising suspicion. we're the first western journalists to visit this remote, south korean outpost. this is one of the most militarized borders in the world and because of the latest tension south korean forces have been ordered to a heightened state of readiness. here that means watching for suspicious activity by north korean forces. so far, nothing. south korean officials do expect pyongyang to launch a medium-range missile miles from here, perhaps very soon. it's a show of force not everyone takes seriously. >> north korea has loaded two missiles on to launchers on its east coast and is threatening to fire them at the united states so let this be a warning to you, middle of the ocean. >> reporter: if a missile does head out to sea, the u.s. is unlikely to shoot it down. but if it takes a more threatening path the u.s. says it's prepared.

>> i believe we have the credible ability to defend the homeland, to defend hawaii, defend guam, our forces and our allies. >> reporter: north korea is keeping tensions high. today, warning foreigners in south korea to be prepared to evacuate. more bluster, south koreans suspect, but here in the dmz the south is ready just in case. south korean officials tell us they expect the missile to be launched and land in the water between japan and guam. now we're all waiting for that splash, brian. >> our chief foreign correspondent richard engel live in seoul, south korea for us tonight. thanks. in washington tonight there are signs of movement in the effort to pass gun control measures as families of some of the children murdered at sandy hook elementary school in connecticut went to congress to make their emotional case in person. conservatives have promised to

block debates scheduled for this week but that now may be shifting some. kelly o'donnell covering it all from the hill for us tonight. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. there is internal pressure bubbling up among republicans that could mean a vote on new gun restrictions could come as early as thursday. the president is working the phones looking for support. the familieshere today were looking lawmakers in the eye with a direct appeal. a movement and a deeply personal cause. one senate office at a time. today eight newtown families put their grief into action, avoiding most of the media. >> no comment right now. thank you. >> reporter: while embracing help from their home state senators on how to essentially lobby lawmakers. >> i think the gun industry was celebrating prematurely last week. >> reporter: in a provocative move more than a dozen republicans are threatening to use senate rules to block a vote

on new gun restrictions, adding an extra urgency to the newtown family visit. >> they are aghast that a small group of entrenched opposition could stop democracy. that is outrageous. >> reporter: sensing public disdain, a rift emerged among republicans. a dozen now saying publicly they would not support a filibuster including georgia's johnny isakson who met with newtown families but is against new restrictions. >> now i might not vote the way they wanted me to vote but giving them the chance to be heard and tell their story meant a lot to them and to me. >> reporter: the democrats' call for expanded background checks turned unusually personal today for harry reid. >> sometimes people get a passion and purchase a handgun to do bad things with it. even as my dad did, killed himself.

waiting a few days helps. >> reporter: the white house is all in leveraging powerful assets like bringing the families to washington aboard airforce one. and deploying vice president biden to pressure capitol hill. >> it's time for these guys to stand up and be counted. >> reporter: the vice president also hosted 13 of those family members for breakfast this morning at his home, making that connection personal. tonight a small group of republicans and democrats are still working on ways to write background checks, legislation that might have broader appeal. so there are still negotiations going on. >> kelly o'donnell on the hill for us tonight. thanks. now we go to texas where over a dozen people were injured in a strange and awful stabbing rampage spread across multiple buildings on the campus of lone star community college about 25 miles northwest of downtown houston. janet shamlian has the latest from cypress, texas tonight. janet, good evening.

>> reporter: good evening. the campus went on lockdown after calls started flooding into 911 today with reports of multiple stabbings. this was midday and it happened as classes were changing. witnesses say they saw a number of students with cuts and gashes to their face and neck being loaded on to stretchers. as many as 14 people were hurt. tonight we are told two are in critical condition. the suspect identified as a 21-year-old current student is in custody. authorities have said nothing about a possible motive. this campus, this lone star campus, although a different branch of it, has been in the news as recently as january for another act of violence. at that time, three people were shot and again, a student was taken into custody. >> janet shamlian, cypress, texas for us tonight. thanks. now to some secret recordings which are public that are receiving some wide circulation. we're about to get a glimpse of something called opposition research. the kind of stuff you have to do in politics in order to get to

know your opponent and figure out how to campaign against them. these recordings happened to involve the senate republican leader discussing a famous potential opponent who happens to be the actress ashley judd. he says he was bugged. the fbi is now involved. our political director chuck todd has our report tonight. >> reporter: ashley judd toyed with challenging mitch mcconnell for the kentucky senate seat he has held for a generation. >> as long as the republicans keep doing really dumb things about women's reproductive health that should help energize girls and women in this country. >> reporter: it was a challenge mcconnell and his campaign team took very seriously. after opening his campaign headquarters in louisville in february, mcconnell and his inner circle privately discussed their so-called oppo research on how to attack judd using the kind of blunt language political operatives use all the time but rarely in public. >> the first person we'll focus on is ashley judd. >> reporter: what they didn't know is it all would be caught

on tape. >> basically i refer to her as sort of the oppo research situation. >> reporter: they screened this tv clip of her from the 2012 democratic convention. >> the most diverse delegation in tennessee's history, 90 votes for barack obama. >> reporter: that's tennessee not kentucky. the core of what could be a ready-made tv attack ad questioning judd's loyalty to the blue grass state. they showed a potential willingness to get personal and nasty. >> she's, clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. i mean it's been documented. jesse can go in and chapter and verse in an autobiography. >> reporter: judd has decided against running. but today she put out a statement condemning mcconnell for, quote, the politics of personal destruction. "mother jones" posted 11 minutes of the two-hour meeting today. >> this is what was given to us,

and it's what we worked with. >> reporter: mcconnell believes he was the victim of a bugging operation masterminded by political opponents. >> also unknown to us at the time were bugging our headquarters, quite a nixonian move. this is what you get from the political left in america these days. >> reporter: late yesterday the mcconnell campaign hired a security firm to sweep the louisville campaign office for recording devices and guess what? found nothing. today the mcconnell campaign did ask the fbi to investigate and the bureau, brian, is looking into it. >> chuck todd in our d.c. bureau tonight. thanks. now we turn to the weather tonight after what felt like a mid summer day in parts of the east like 82 degrees in new york. and what is looking like several days of dangerous, violent storms across a huge area of our country. warm air moving up from the south across texas is slamming into very cold air, dipping down in the middle of the country. that's a dangerous set up. weather channel meteorologist mike seidel has our report from aurora, colorado. >> reporter: it may be spring,

but winter's putting up one last fight -- a big storm is moving across the u.s. and with it extreme weather. on one side of the system, it's cold, snowy, and windy. in denver, hundreds of flights were canceled because of icy runways and wind gusts of nearly 50 miles an hour. schools and businesses shut down because of the snow and bone-chilling cold. temperatures at 40 degrees below average with wind chills below zero, rare for april. the storm could dump up to 20 inches of snow in some areas. meanwhile, because of warm air ahead of the front, parts of the plains and midwest are bracing for dangerous thunderstorms and tornadoes. hail came crashing down in kansas. the weather channel's mike bettes is there. >> ping pong ball sized hail that pelted the crew. when that hits you, trust me, it hurts. >> reporter: to give you a sense of the extreme, earlier today in kansas it was 17 degrees on one side of the state while the mercury hit 74 on the other. a microcosm of the weather across the country -- snow,

flash floods, and sleet in the west. and record highs on the east coast where 80 plus-degree temperatures are nearly 40 degrees warmer than what parts of the northeast saw just a week ago. and closer to the capital, what a difference five days makes. this weather system will fire up severe weather again tomorrow in the midwest and thursday in the southeast. the cold front will finally clear the east coast late friday putting an end to this early april heat wave. heat is something we could use tonight in denver. right now it's 14. the wind chill was four below zero and, brian, right now we're just two degrees above the record low for april 9th. >> unbelievable. mike seidel reporting from snowy colorado for us tonight. thanks. still ahead, for us this evening the big fight over the future of television happening right now. could some well known tv networks be going off the air? later, making a difference by helping a lot of kids get back to doing what they love just in time for spring.

the broadcast you're watching tonight is on an over-the-air television network that is supposed to arrive at your home for free if you have an antenna to bring in the signal. two big over-the-air networks are making the initial threats they'd rather come off the air and go on cable alone instead if a new technology is allowed to go through that would take their signal and charge you for it sending it directly to your device through the internet. our report on all of this tonight from nbc's john yang. >> reporter: it wasn't that long ago that families would gather around the television to watch big events. shared national experiences. >> they've got the flag up now. you can see the stars and stripes. ♪ >> not guilty of the crime of murder. >> reporter: now viewing has gone from this to this. nielsen researchers say more

than 5 million american homes don't have a tv set but that doesn't mean they don't watch tv shows. 67% of them get content on some other device. >> now there's aereo. >> reporter: a new service called aereo is the latest delivery system capturing tv programs as they go out over the air and bringing them to your device by way of the internet. >> there is no consumer equipment to buy, no boxes, cables. you can simply go online, sign up, and you have a great experience on any device that you would like. >> reporter: currently only available in the new york area the company plans to expand to 22 other cities this year. it's cheaper than cable. but unlike cable companies, aereo doesn't pay net works for the content they spend hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. aereo says the service is legal because each user has their own antenna just like one in a home or an apartment. one per user. >> aereo thinks it has found a legal way to distribute live television over the internet from the broadcasters without

paying them. >> the president of newscorp which owns fox calls it piracy and vows to continue the fight in the courts. nbc universal filed suit as well. if aereo ultimately wins fox and univision say they might convert to pay cable channels forcing all consumers to pay to view. it would be a sea change in how we get and watch television. already, cable, dvrs, and streaming video have given viewers more control. >> there is must see tv that you decide you will watch when you want to see it. and i think that's the fundamental change. >> reporter: in an industry where change seems to be constant. john yang, nbc news, chicago. we're back in a moment where we were at this very moment ten years ago tonight plus a big change coming to the national spelling bee.

concussions by night and flashes. a lot of noise and light in the

distance. this will be slow going mile by mile. >> that's where we were at this very moment ten years ago tonight reporting by flashlight. our first broadcast from baghdad during the invasion crouched down next to an army vehicle in what was still called saddam hussein international airport while the fighting and the invasion went on. we were not supposed to be the first team into baghdad for nbc news. that was supposed to be our friend david blume who died three days earlier of deep vein thrombosis due to living in the confined space during the convoy. while the fighting was still going on around us when we arrived at the airport that night, that was the day american tv viewers saw the statue come down in baghdad on live tv. it looked joyous. a lot of people took it as a sign of a successful invasion. a first of its kind in the investigation of a fatal crash of an aircraft. in this case it was a helicopter on a medical mission. the pilot and three passengers were killed two years ago after the chopper ran out of fuel and crashed.

the ntsb now says the pilot was distracted by sending and receiving over 20 text messages when he should have been conducting preflight checks. accident investigators say he missed several opportunities to see that the chopper was low on fuel before taking off. happy times at ford motor. the ford focus is officially the most popular car in the world, second year running followed by the toyota corolla and ford f-series pickup. last year the focus sold over a million vehicles around the world. big change coming for the national spelling bee. every year we've watched those amazing kids spell things the rest of us can't attempt and as of today it is about to get harder. they're now going to have to supply a definition when they win in the later rounds when the competition really gets tough. well, louisville did it last night beating michigan 82-76 for the ncaa men's final. tonight the focus shifts from atlanta to new orleans and louisville women playing u-conn for the title.

in fact, u-conn was the first team to win men's and women's back in '04. up next for us tonight, the extraordinary folks pitching in at a time of great need and making a difference for a lot of kids.

in the town of island park on new york's long island they've been playing little league baseball every year since 1957, but this season was almost lost entirely to hurricane sandy. the town, itself, is still being rebuilt but thanks to generous grown-ups making a difference the kids are back in the game. our report tonight from stephanie gosk. >> reporter: the little league opener. as certain every spring as the first warm day except in island park, long island, where players came very close to not having a season at all. america's pastime, another victim of hurricane sandy. the storm destroyed the field, the fences, and the equipment shed. the water raged in to about five feet but the biggest problem was a nearby sewage plant that overflowed so everything in here, every hat, ball, glove, uniform, was contaminated and

had to be thrown out. $15,000 of damage. the league president needed help. >> people were out of their homes, displaced, and i knew we couldn't go to the people, the residents of island park and ask them to pay for the equipment. >> reporter: instead the coach reached out to david and his charity pitch in for baseball. in february a truck showed up in island park with everything. >> kids have been asked to sacrifice a lot following hurricane sandy and this is a day where they get to kind of put their glove and hat on and put the uniform on and rejoin their friends. >> reporter: a coach and father himself, rogue started the charity pitch in eight years ago asking friends and family to donate used equipment. since then pitch in has handed out $3 million worth of gear in 75 countries worldwide including the u.s. >> i like it when i get someone else because i get to throw as hard as i want to first base. >> reporter: the smiths just moved back to their house after five months in a friend's

basement. hayden's mom worried her 10-year-old wouldn't get to play. >> i'm over the top happy. i've been expressing sadness for so long so the happiness is a little unfamiliar but it's great. >> we measure the impact of our organization in smiles. so today is a home run of a day. >> reporter: for a small town in need, bats, balls, and gloves are a game changer. stephanie gosk, nbc news, island park, long island. and that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. we want to leave you with the cherry blossoms at their peak today in the nation's capital. look at that. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night from new york. now. good evening i'm jessica

aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. >> a local district attorney is in hot water but perhaps what he did was completely legal. that is what the santa clara board of supervisors wants to know after our investigative unit found john rosen giving thousands of hours of free time off to employees. >> the county executive is asking the attorney general to step in after the board of supervisors discussed it this morning. it is the latest fallout in our on going investigation. >> can he do that. >> reporter: supervisor wants the county's own legal team to determine what atmosphere what d.a. jeff rosen did was legal when he granted thousands of paid time off to make up for a 5% cut. >> i would like to avoid the cost and the delay and having

somebody sort out the fundamental question which is it allowed or not. >> reporter: how that question will be answered was the center of discussion today. the county executive suggested they seek outside opinion. other board members agreed. >> if we don't have somebody come in and make a determination as to what happened in a binding way this could become very messy. >> reporter: jeff smith sent this e-mail to the d.a. saying he doesn't have any other choice but to go to the attorney general. he says it is clear the county does not have appropriate resources and authority to properly, publicly and completely investigate. >> we can't do an internal investigation without incurring lots of criticisms no matter what the investigation shows. while the board waits to here about the legality of the action. >> it doesn't feel right when all of a sudden in the midst of

that kind of an all for one and one for all belt tightening that one department can make a decision to dole out more money to a certain group of employees. >> reporter: supervisor wants to know why the board was left in the dark. >> i didn't know that those kinds of payouts were happening. >> reporter: payouts in the form of administrative leave. hundreds of time sheets changed from sick time. >> hundreds of time sheets were documented as administrative leave to try to compensate employees that have extra responsibilities and extra hours and unfairly have their diffial taken away from them. >> at the minimum somebody is going to be on the learning curve about all of this. worst case we have a bigger problem on our hands so we will find out. >> the county executive says he will be sending a letter to