>> reporter: surrounded by newtown families to talk about today's break-through on background checks but only an emotional whisper would come for senator joe manchin. >> i'm a parent. i'm a grandparent. >> reporter: manchin, a democrat, partnered with pat toomey, a republican, both a-rated by the nra to forge a compromise today. >> i think the substance of our bill just makes a lot of sense. to me, this isn't gun control. this is common sense. >> reporter: under the plan, background checks expand to cover buyers at gun shows and shopping on the internet, just like those already required when buying from licensed dealers, but the law would not affect individuals who privately buy, sell or give their weapons to family, friends or even strangers. >> this is something that's so right and it does so much good and it will prevent people who shouldn't have a gun from having it. >> reporter: although privately included in the negotiations the nra rejected the compromise and many republican senators agreed. >> is anyone naive enough not to think, not to believe that regardless of background checks, a criminal element can find someone who can go get a gun.

>> reporter: the names of gun victims read aloud today at the capitol, the sister of a fallen sandy hook teacher. >> dawn hasbury, 47, december 14th, newtown, connecticut. >> reporter: and to be heard some used twitter, the daughter of sandy hook's principal reached out to senators. others like bill sherlock made the trip to washington for his wife, mary, sandy hook's school psychologist. >> we flew down in air force one and i had a single seat by the window and all i could think about was how i'd rather be at home watching my wife dance around the kitchen, making dinner, dancing to the eagles. >> reporter: he and many others don't want to be advocates but they tell me they expect to come back to d.c. again and again to keep up the pressure with their presence. now even some of those close to this, including the senators who crafted the compromise, can't predict it will pass, but the first test comes tomorrow, when there is a vote, the first of what will be many votes on the guns issue. brian? >> kelly o'donnell starting off with this apparent change on capitol hill, kelly, thanks.

first lady michelle obama today addressed gun violence in her hometown of chicago. late today, she visited harper high school, known in chicago for a sad distinction, over just the past year, 29 current or former students at harper high have been shot, eight of them killed. earlier in an emotional and highly personal speech, the first lady talked about hadiya pendleton, the 15-year-old drill team member who performed at the president's second inaugural but was shot and killed back home in chicago. the first lady talked about life and opportunity and some cruel similarities. >> as i visited with the pendleton family at hadiya's funeral i couldn't get over how familiar they felt to me because what i realized was hadiya's family was just like my family. hadiya pendleton was me, and i was her.

but i got to grow up and go to princeton and harvard law school, and have a career and a family, and the most blessed life i could ever imagine and hadiya, oh, we know that story. just a week after she performed at my husband's inauguration, she went to a park with some friends, and got shot in the back, because some kid thought she was in a gang. hadiya's family did everybody right, but she still didn't have a chance, and that story, the story of hadiya's life and death, we read that story day after day, month after month, year after year, in this city and around this country, so i'm not talking about something that's happening in a war zone halfway around the world. i am talking about what's happening in the city that we

call home. >> first lady michelle obama speaking in chicago today. back in washington, the president is hosting a private dinner for 12 republican senators at the white house tonight to talk about his budget plan, formally released in bound version earlier today. in remarks in the rose garden this morning he says he's already met the gop more than half way on deficit reduction, part of that includes cuts to social security and medicare which have made some in the president's own party angry. nerves are on a hair trigger again tonight over north korea. the u.s., south korea, japan, all anxiously awaiting that nation's expected launch of a missile trajectory unknown, u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel said today the situation is combustible. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel joins us once again tonight live from seoul, south korea. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the launch window is now open but what's happening here has implications far greater than that.

north korea is showing that because of its weapons, it can't be contained. at the dmz this morning, tensions are peaking. south korean troops guard buildings used for negotiations with pyongyang, now empty. north korean soldier is seen just yards away, until he sees us filming. the entire region is on edge. in japan, the defense minister inspected missile defenses around tokyo. jumpy officials in yokohama had to apologize after accidentally tweeting that north korea had launched a missile. north korea itself seems to be living on another planet. people dancing in the streets, a state-sponsored mass waltz, even as the government said the situation is inching toward thermonuclear war. >> north korea has been with its bellicose rhetoric, with its actions, skating very close

toward a dangerous line. >> reporter: analysts say north korea may be trying to deliberately drag this out. this is its moment the time to show the world it's armed and dangerous, more than just a small dictatorship locked away with sanctions and ignored. north korea has hijacked the world's attention, but why does it matter if they test a missile or not? because they have nuclear weapons, and they're threatening to use them. the u.s. has been forced to react, canceling a missile test of its own, moving warships to the region but still unable to deter pyongyang. other states with nuclear programs, particularly iran, are taking note. >> what north korea teaches us is that once a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon we have not figured out how to reliably contain it, how to protect americans, or how to protect our allies. >> reporter: north korea threatening to use its trump

card, bluffing a superpower, perhaps proving nuclear threats work. for years, the u.s. has been trying to convince states, including iran, that they're safer without nuclear weapons. north korea is trying to prove us wrong. brian? >> richard engel remains in seoul, south korea tonight, richard, thanks. in this country severe weather is forming a crescent over the entire eastern third of the nation, stretching from texas to new orleans area to the new york city suburbs, rolling thunderstorms, high winds and hail with very cold air, ice and snow sweeping in behind it, and just before our air time tonight, confirmation there has indeed been severe weather, weather channel meteorologist chris warren with us from headquarters in atlanta tonight, chris, good evening. >> good evening to you, brian. it is turning into a very active and dangerous night. the reason, mother nature taking areas that were enjoying spring and even summer-like weather, quickly back into winter, and the result, it's turning out to be dangerous. already reports of tornadoes and

injuries in arkansas. let's take a look and show you what's going on, why this is happening, we're seeing this very cold air drop down from canada, and as it does, it's bringing some snow to some areas, even ice, and some storms. this is the threat for this evening, anywhere in red is your best chance for some strong storms, including isolated tornadoes, damaging winds and even some hail. this threat pushes deeper into the south for tomorrow, it goes all the way up into parts of western pennsylvania and then the snowy side during the day tomorrow another foot of snow could fall in some areas so we are seeing a winter storm in spring, brian, and the worst of both sides. >> chris warren, weather channel headquarters for us tonight chris, thanks. across the country today marches and rallies to push for immigration reform, including a big march on the capitol in washington. protesters are demanding congress pass a bill that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, something they've been working on for months. nbc's tom costello reports on where things stand as of now.

[ speaking in foreign language ] >> welcome to washington, d.c.! >> reporter: proving again their strength in numbers, several thousand protesters, mostly hispanic, brought their demand for immigration reform to the steps of the capitol. >> senior presidente barack obama, the time is now, the time is now! >> reporter: and the politicians will decide the fate of millions of undocumented immigrants. >> a better life for all of our families and that's all we're looking for, the american dream. >> reporter: inside the capitol, a bipartisan push in both the house and senate that would grant citizenship to the 11 million undocumented men, women and children currently in the u.s. political reality brought republicans to the negotiating table after 71% of hispanics voted for president obama last november, now, both sides say the most contentious issues have been worked out. >> on border security, on future flow of workers, on ag jobs, on dream act, all of those have largely been agreed to.

>> reporter: but to secure the border, senators today told the border patrol chief they must know how many people are coming across the border, not just how many are caught. >> we need the metrics and we need them very badly if we're going to consider overall immigration reform. >> reporter: in california and georgia today, more rallies. >> 50 years ago we were marching for civil rights. today we march and walk again. >> reporter: organizers say roughly 1 million young hispanics turn 18 every year, and this issue is very important to them. it's a political reality both parties are very aware of. tom costello, nbc news, capitol hill. and still ahead for us tonight, the invasion on its way for spring, billions of them uninvited guests about to make a whole lot of noise and trouble. and later, high drama at the louvre in paris, a big problem that has the folks who work there fed up and a world famous museum has been shut down.

seems like we say something like this every year and some years, sadly it comes true. the annual atlantic hurricane forecast is out from colorado state university. it's bad. it calls for 18 tropical storms, nine full-on hurricanes. last year's forecast was well below what actually happened, which we all know included hurricane sandy in october. it killed dozens of people, caused billions in damage and ripped up the coastline which remains crippled in parts to this day. in those dark days of the aftermath of this past storm season, you could hear people asking, what's next? pestulants? locusts? well, close, how about cicadas. they hibernate underground and they only come out every 17 years, and that would be right now. just when we thought nature had nothing left to throw at us. our report tonight from our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson. >> reporter: the signs of spring are popping up everywhere.

but this season's real blockbuster is a sequel. cicadas, the return of brewed 2. after a 17-year absence this noisy group is coming back in force, says university of connecticut researcher dr. john cooley. >> the usual figure we like to quote is 7 million per acre. >> reporter: per acre? >> per acre. >> reporter: we're talking billions and billions. >> yes billions and billions. it's a lot of cicadas. >> reporter: these 17-year cicadas will infest the east coast from north carolina to new york's hudson valley and connecticut, emerging from underground hiding places near the bases of trees, through holes the size of a pinky finger. >> they're going to look like swiss cheese and there will be hundreds of them if you really have a lot of cicadas in your yard. >> reporter: what moves nature's chattering class, its warmth. the cicadas won't come out of their burrows until the ground temperature is 64 degrees. they emerge as nymphs, shed their shells, revealing the

adult cicada inside. the noise is the mating call of the male. how loud do these get? >> these cicadas a chorus might get to 90 or 100 decibels, comparable to a rock concert or something of that nature. >> reporter: the females respond with a more demure wing flick that sounds like this. they mate, the females lay eggs and both genders die, all in about four weeks, if they can avoid predators. >> right now everything on the planet wants to eat a cicada. foxes, skunks, raccoons, birds -- >> reporter: even some people. >> eat it, eat it! >> reporter: while they annoy humans, cicadas don't bite or sting and help move nutrients around, part of the cycle of life that may soon be clamoring in a backyard near you. anne thompson, nbc news, meriden, connecticut. >> something else to look forward to. after the break we are back

with a big fight at the home of the mona lisa, and the moment a legendary rock star met the pope.

as we said, the louvre in paris was forced to close today because the staff walked out. they're tired of the organized gangs of pick-pockets, most of them children, many of them from romania. they sweep through the place, often rob visitors blind and are gone before anyone knows they've been there. staff members at the louvre have asked for more police and security, and they walked off the job in frustration. here's your shot of the day, patty smith, iconic rocker and author, and pope francis. smith is in rome performing. she went to a general audience in st. peter's square, where she encountered the leader of the catholic church. later said she liked him a lot. the postal service plan to end saturday mail delivery raised such a raucous they've backed down. they decided to drop the idea

even though they're bleeding money at the rate of $16 billion last year. in the end congress wasn't willing to go along and make the change for five-day mail delivery instead, but having cut staff by almost a third, the postal service says the money's got to come from somewhere, including possibly a rate hike in our future. and it's uconn again atop the ncaa for women, the most lop-sided score ever in a championship game, a rout of louisville, 93-60. uconn freshman breanna stewart scored 23 points, that makes for 105 points in five games, she is on track to be the next big star of women's collegiate basketball. up next here tonight, when the animals were having a problem, they turned to the academic world for a solution, and it worked.

we leave you tonight with a story from the world famous shedd aquarium in chicago where they were having a problem with some beloved local occupants you see there while they turned to some talented local students. tonight it's all well because smart kids have come to the rescue of these animals. our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: if you were a

penguin at chicago shedd aquarium, you'd shout, too. after all, life is good. but even these pampered penguins occasionally have the wind taken out of their waddle. >> as our birds age and get older, they get sore feet like we do. >> reporter: they had a web-footed conundrum. >> they had a penguin problem. >> reporter: to treat the painful pengo pods, the shedd partnered with the brilliant engineering students at northwestern university. >> my reaction was like, what? this is not engineering. this is arts and crafts. >> reporter: but it is engineering, and they invented little waterproof form-fitting penguin boots to help those aching feet. >> we actually designed something similar to a bandage, like a band-aid for a penguin. >> reporter: and it works. on this day penguin number 405 after a little spraydown -- ♪ -- gets to model the invention on the poolside runway. >> it was so simple and so perfect, we just looked at each other and said, now why didn't

we think of that? >> reporter: the collaborative program with the shedd began eight years ago as part of northwestern's freshmen design, thinking and communication class. >> to have the opportunity to work an a project that's going to touch something that they never thought of doing in engineering, to work with fish as opposed to building a building. >> reporter: this unique collaboration has resulted in several innovations, like a system that delivers anesthesia to fish undergoing procedures, and even a tiny decompression chamber to treat ailing sea horses. >> taking engineering principles and applying them to a real life need that the shedd aquarium had. >> reporter: all the perfect combination of deep thought and deep sea. back by the penguin pool, penguin 405 who, by the way, is quite coquettish, loves all the attention, especially when at the end of the day, she can put her feet up and nibble on raw fish. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. and 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 night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com now. >> i'm janelle wang in for

jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. we begin with a story you'll eonly on nbc bay area. we uncovered excops investigating police involved shooting. this is what it boils down to. is it ethical to have former officers investigate officer-involved shootings if it involves their former police department. two ambulances in east oakland. what you can't see here is a ten year old. >> he was killed. >> his body lying lifeless on a sidewalk. almost a year later. his parents say the time continues to pass but the pain

only builds. >> crying on tv. >> reporter: especially after the police officer was cleared. >> the pain is inflicted again. >> i took a look at that report. >> reporter: a reporter focused on crime and punishment. she obtained police prosecution records. >> discovered that ten of the last 23 officer-involved shooting investigations were investigated at the d.a.'s office by former oakland police officers. >> reporter: according to data from the oakland police department there have been at least 103 officer-involved shootings during the last 12

years. she discovered the same 20 police officers were involved in more than half of them. >> some of the people that we talked to questioned whether these investigations were really rooting out problems with officers who had a tendency to resort to violence. >> this office is independent. >> nancy o'malley says her office was the first in the country to use d.a. investigators. she says six of the 13 investigators are former o.p.d. >> the people who retire from the police department and come to work in the d.a.'s office in my office are the best of the best. they have that eye, that investigative eye and that investigative expertise. >> reporter: o'malley says those investigators are only vatherring information for the prosecutor. >> i have complete faith in the fact that it is not an investigator who is making determinations or