have a good evening. we'll see you at 6:00. >> good night. see you then. on the broadcast tonight, caught on tape. the suspect in boston and his mother. what the russians overheard. and tonight a new twist involving dna discovered on the bombs. secret money. an explosive report about tens of millions in cash delivered by the cia to the leader in afghanistan. after so many years of war, how has it come to this? coming out. a big announcement sending shock waves through the sports world. for the first time an active player in the pros says he's gay. and the new normal. six months since sandy tore apart the shoreline and tens of thousands of lives. tonight we show you the lives getting better and those left standing still. getting better and those left standing still. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. there is news tonight in the investigation of the boston bombings. newly discovered dna evidence on the bombs themselves. this comes as the investigation now stretches around the world and a big part of it is both the involvement of the russians and the cooperation between the russians and u.s. investigators who today, in addition to talking to anyone who might know something, were gathering new evidence to make this case. pete williams remains on the case for us and starts us off from our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. legal sources say tonight that prosecutors and lawyers for the surviving bomb suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev, have begun very early discussions about a possible deal in which he could avoid the death penalty in return for a full accounting to the fbi of what happened and why, as investigators continue working to find those answers for themselves. in rhode island today an fbi team conducted a search at the house where tamerlan tsarnaev's

widow, catherine, has been living since the bombing. she has said she was shocked by the attack and had no idea he was planning it. law enforcement officials say they took a sample of her dna to compare to female dna found on a piece of the pressure cooker from one of the bombs, but they caution it could have come from employees at the stores where the parts were bought. u.s. officials confirm reports that it was a russian wiretap of tamerlan tsarnaev's mother in which she spoke about jihad that prompted the russians to ask the fbi for more information about him two years ago. some members of congress say the russian intelligence service should have been more explicit. >> if the russians had given the fbi the information they had regarding the mother and the son and their views on the mother's radicalization and the son's radicalization, it would have dramatically changed the investigation. >> reporter: tonight u.s. officials say they doubt it would have made a difference. they say it was clear two years ago the russians thought tsarnaev's mother was becoming an extremist, but that she spoke about jihad only generally. the fbi is looking at whether

tamerlan tsarnaev met in dagestan with two men the russians considered radical muslims. one, william plotnikov, was a boxer from canada. he was killed by russian special operations forces last july in dagestan. the other, mahmoud nidal, was killed in another russian operation last may. back home law enforcement officials say they found nothing in local landfills, but are still searching garbage containers in the belief that someone may have carried items out of dzhokhar tsarnaev's college dorm room a few days after the marathon bombings. authorities say it's not clear yet whether whoever may have done so knew evidence could be destroyed or did something just to help a friend. late today the judge in the case approved a request from dzhokhar tsarnaev's public defenders to add an experienced death penalty lawyer, judy clark of california, to his legal team. she most recently represented jared loughner, who pleaded guilty to the tucson shootings that wounded gabby giffords. in exchange the government did not seek the death penalty in

that case. brian? >> pete williams starting us off from the d.c. newsroom tonight. pete, thanks. throughout the past decade of deaths and injuries to americans fighting in afghanistan, including a cost to this nation of more than $600 billion, americans have been told our point man there is the popularly elected president hamid karzai, and we have been reassured he has u.s. interests at heart. well, that took a blow today when we woke up to the news that karzai has been receiving bags of cash from the cia among others. that would be u.s. taxpayer money. our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has been following this story and is also in the d.c. bureau tonight. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. somewhat incredibly hamid karzai today confirmed that the cia has been dropping off bags of cash at his national security office for years. he says it isn't millions. it's only $300,000 a month.

do the math. if you multiply that over ten years it adds up to $36 million by karzai's own account. the new york times was first to report the payments today and said the cash was delivered sometimes in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags. u.s. officials say the money is used to buy the loyalty of warlords as well as cover some off-the-book operations. we checked with the white house, state department and cia, none of whom would deny the report. in washington speak that goes to a confirmation. i asked one official if payments of cash had, in fact, been delivered every day to karzai's office. he said, well, we never said it was every day. one interesting footnote, by the way, iran had also been delivering payments to karzai until about a year ago when tehran cut off karzai supposedly because he was getting too close to the u.s. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our d.c. bureau tonight. andrea, thanks. back in this country there was a big announcement this morning, a first of its kind. a male athlete, an active player in a major american sports league has come out as gay.

his name is jason collins. he's a veteran in the nba. his declaration was met with widespread praise from the sports world and beyond including a phone call from the president of the united states pledging his support. our report tonight from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: he was drafted as an inside scoring force. while jason collins is not a star or a starter anymore, the 12-year pro is now something no active player in a major american team sport has ever been -- openly gay. >> there have been tens of thousands of people before him. he is the first one to come out while playing and say, "i'm gay." >> reporter: collins wrote in the current sports illustrated, "i want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. i want to take a stand and say, me, too." the reaction, hugely positive. from kobe bryant, proud of jason. nba commissioner david stern saluted his leadership mantle on this very important issue. former first daughter, chelsea clinton, collins's classmate at

stanford cheered him for having the strength and courage to become the first. first lady michelle obama added, we've got your back. for sports fans everywhere it was thtopic of conversation. >> for a pro athlete it's a big step. >> used to be a big thing but now it's not. >> it's about time. >> reporter: by all accounts collins is universally well liked, and that helps. it also helps that as he was pointing toward this day, the country was changing. gay rights as an issue now enjoys majority support. says one gay expert who helps celebrities come out publically. >> people say, look, the sky isn't falling in the same way states are toppling in our gay marriage battle. >> reporter: there have been openly gay athletes competing in individual sports. tennis legend martina navratilova for one. but in america's team sports, gay athletes like baseball's billy bean only came out after they had retired. jason collins has changed that. >> male athletes have been in the closet, are feeling like it's a possibility to come forward.

what jason did today is incredible. >> reporter: now even our most macho team sports offer another lesson. >> it's good that he's coming out and he's transparent about it. it breaks the ice. >> reporter: one brave seven-footer, his career not yet over, but the rest of his life just beginning. mike taibbi, nbc news, los angeles. it was six months ago today, october 29 of 2012, hurricane sandy came ashore northeast of atlantic city, new jersey. what a legacy it left behind. 159 people lost their lives and the storm surges and winds brought a staggering $78.8 billion in damage to the northeast. nbc's katy tur has been covering the storm since that night six months ago. she's with us tonight from seaside heights on the jersey shore. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. behind me is one of the iconic images from the aftermath of sandy. the roller coaster that's sitting in the ocean. turns out it isn't the only

thing, far from it, that's stood still since the storm. a nine-foot surge on the jersey shore. water and winds that ripped apart staten island and the fires and floods that levelled the rockaways. six months later and the worlds sandy turned upside down are still fighting to right themselves. in new jersey, 39,000 people remain displaced including the lemcools. >> this is the kitchen. >> reporter: when we first met them in union beach in december, they were a step away from homeless. wendy, her parents, her son gavin, the dog, cat and hamster spent four months, including the holidays, in a holiday inn sharing two small hotel rooms. today they have space in a temporary rental and now know their home needs to be torn down. >> it's just hard to look at. knowing that we have to demolish it. this is where he grew up. this is where he grew up. i don't know if we can afford to rebuild.

>> reporter: almost line of sight from union beach is staten island, nine miles across the bay. here in january, scott and dee mcgrath's first floor was little more than a walk-in freezer. 39. >> 39 degrees. >> there are so many holes in the walls and the wind blowing. there's just no way. >> reporter: now they have walls and heat, but still no final flood map from fema. >> we're very willing to raise our house to stay. it's only a matter of knowing how high we have to go. >> reporter: their second floor interact, the mcgraths never left their home, unlike many other new yorkers. 250 families are still living in hotels. in the rockaways, perhaps the most obvious signs of progress are the empty streets. beech 130th, once charred -- >> this is a firefighter's home. >> reporter: -- is now empty. >> people are back. most of the homes are repaired. they are a proud people. resilient folks.

we're doing better than i thought we would six months later. >> reporter: more than $8 billion has been paid out by fema and the national flood insurance program so far to people along these shores. helping a recovery that for many is still far off. brian, this is the seaside heights boardwalk. it, like so many others up and down the shore, are being hurriedly rebuilt hoping to bring normalcy and business back for the summer season. brian? >> katy tur, seaside heights, at what will be the boardwalk there. about the jersey shore, our cameras were there this weekend recording the progress, or lack of it. it's safe to say there will be two different summers in the year 2013. the summer the visitors will see and the summer the residents will see. the governor has vowed that all those boardwalks will be open by memorial day. that's vital since tourism is the economic engine of the region. then there are the homeowners. as these scenes show from the house that's been cleaved in half in bayhead to the piles of untouched debris in mantoloking. and to the south, the house still sitting in barnegut bay, for example. some folks won't be coming back. many places will take years to

come back. while jersey strong means a lot, we'll have to be strong to bring it back after the leveling it took. still ahead for us tonight, the new normal along america's shores. from the cape to the gulf to the california coast, a treasured way of life is indeed disappearing.

as we mark this six-month anniversary of hurricane sandy, millions of people living on both coasts have been left to wonder if they are looking at a new normal in years to come. it's a big question that could redraw maps and lives for decades. our report tonight from our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson. >> reporter: the views from melinda crafting's cape cod home are breathtaking from every angle. >> that expression -- watch out for that first step. >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: her decks and land destroyed this winter by two storms that pounded the wellesley coast.

in just 15 years her property has gone from a one-acre rectangle to a sliver, making her house uninhabitable. >> i knew as soon as i saw it like this that whole part of my life was over. >> reporter: all along america's coast people are discovering beach living may not be sustainable. holly beach, louisiana, was flattened by hurricane rita in 2005. here even the weakest hurricane can cause erosion along the most of the gulf coast, the strongest wiped out the town and eric's vacation rental business. instead of rebuilding homes, he invested in trailers. >> after the storm passed i could bring them back and set them up. maybe a few days' time and i'm back in business. >> reporter: in california, pacifica fought a losing battle against the ocean for decades. now it is pulling back in a $4 million managed retreat. moving homes and parking lots away from the water's edge and replacing them with nature's defense system -- dunes and beach.

>> can you imagine california without beaches? it's one of the largest economic drivers in the state. >> reporter: going to the beach is part of the american dream. but the three feet of sea level rise predicted by the end of the century could swamp the jersey shore and redraw the coastline of florida. more immediate is the one-two punch of rising seas and storm surge. scientists estimate some $500 billion of residential real estate will be at risk for severe coastal flooding by 2030. >> we have always been able to depend upon a constant shoreline. it's going to be a hard lesson to learn. this is a new planet we are living on. >> reporter: forcing those who live at the water's edge to adapt to a changing coastline. anne thompson, nbc news, wellesley, massachusetts. >> we are back in a moment with some second thoughts from one of the most famous women in america about a highly controversial decision.

the day to mark the 20th anniversary of the holocaust museum in washington. what could be among the last get-togethers between survivors and the men who liberated them in world war ii. bill clinton and elie wiesel spoke to the gathering. there were a thousand people in all at today's emotional remembrance, including 89-year-old donald mccarthy of warrick, rhode island, who landed on omaha beach with the 29th infantry and talked about the importance of today. >> the idea that it's so important to bloody remember what this is all about and why there was a wwii in the first place. and how it happened. and that's the whole story as far as i'm concerned. >> they marked this 20th anniversary of the museum in a big way today because of fears that so few of today's attendees would be able to attend the 25th, another five years from now. we got to see nelson mandela today, but that's about it.

in failing health at age 94 following three hospital stays in four months, the revered former south african president was visited by the current president zuma surrounded by friends, family, medical staff. mandela was unsmiling, was shown on south african tv in that same seated position. retired supreme court justice sandra day o'connor, one of the leading figures in our modern u.s. history, now says the supreme court made a mistake in agreeing to decide the case of bush v. gore. in doing so, the court, of course, ended up deciding the election. many will forever believe it came down to the political leanings of the justices. the retired justice said the court stirred up the public, likely added to the problem, and hurt its reputation. she told "the chicago tribune" editorial board, quote, maybe the court should have said, we're not going to take it, good-bye. well, as we reported here friday night when congress finally acted to fix the air travel delays as a consequence of those sequester forced budget

cutbacks, it wasn't so much a profile in courage as it was sheer customer service. washington had managed to anger everyone who flies. the delays ruined a lot of plans. but they passed a bill that fixed the problem last week. now a new problem, it still hasn't been signed by the president because there was a typo in it. one word is missing a letter. so, like the flight delays, congress will now fix the bill and try to get it signed tomorrow. when we come back tonight, our conversation with the mayor of boston who checked himself out of the hospital to lead his city at a time when they needed him at city hall.

finally tonight, this past weekend in boston the mayor agreed to sit down with us and talk about what he and the city have been through. tom menino has been mayor for 20 years, longer than any other. you may have seen him in a wheelchair or using a walker throughout this ordeal. that's because on the saturday before marathon monday, he'd had surgery on a broken ankle. he was in the hospital on his favorite day, patriots day, when that bomb went off. he normally would have been right there at the finish line reviewing stand.

against his doctors' wishes, he signed himself out of the hospital because, as he said, he had a city to run. what did your doctor think of your decision to check yourself out of the hospital? >> oh, they didn't like it at all. they were saying, you can't do this, you can't. i said, well, i can do it, watch me. >> what about pain meds? how did you keep your head clear? because when you're in the hospital -- >> i don't take pain meds. i don't take them. >> three days after surgery. >> yeah. i don't take pain meds. >> you were clear-headed. >> all i take is tylenol. >> wow. >> i don't take any of that stuff. i have had bad reactions. i will not take any pain meds. >> when did you allow yourself some time for this to sink in? you were a perpetual motion machine after the first word. >> actually, we set up a command center in my hospital room. everybody was working out of my hospital room. my top staff were there all the time with me, 24 hours a day, to watch what was going on. >> it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it.

not here in boston. >> what was it like to have the president in boston for such a sad occasion? >> the president did a great job that morning at the cathedral of the holy cross. his message there, we're one city, one country, and we'll get through this together. >> it was important to you to rise that day, and speak. for the people of boston it was like watching fdr get out of his chair. i know it was a big deal for you to get up and talk. >> some people suggested i stay in the chair. i said, i have to get up. i have to send a message out there. we're strong, resilient, and we are going to get through this. i stood up and i hope my message was strong. that's who i am. >> finally, what you would say to any of u.s. going to dodger games, yankees games, royals games, trying to enjoy a summer. families going to yosemite. families going to be in big crowds, out with the children.

how should people process this? >> our world has changed forever since 9/11. there are people out there who want to create mayhem. we have to go about our lives. if you see something, you have to report it, of course. the public safety officials have to be cognizant of what happened out there also. you have to be sharper than you have ever been. better trained. the public events have to continue. i'm telling you. i'm only mayor for nine more months. for the next nine months, i'm going to have all the public events i can have. i want this city to be alive. i want this country to be alive. it's so important for us to do that. >> tom menino, a living boston political legend. here's another way to express how long he's been in office. an adult age 20 in boston today has never known another mayor in their lifetime. that is our broadcast on a monday night as we start off a new week. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com now. >> i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. for many years here in the bay area he set the tone on the basketball court. now he is setting the tone off the court and changing the game. so much so president obama and clinton have reached out to him today. former stanford star, jason collins has come out of the closet and into the international spot light. in a revealing interview with "sports illustrated" magazine collins has become the first actively gay player in a

professional team sport. we begin with cheryl hurd who joins us at stanford where he was a superstar. >> reporter: free agent jason collins took his team in the early 2000s to the final four. now folks here on campus are talking about him in a whole different way. reaction to jason collins' decision to go public by announcing he is gay in a "sports illustrated" article came quickly here on stanford's campus. >> what i can try to convey to jason today is how much i love him, how much i respect him and how much i love his family. >> reporter: so far collins has played basketball for six nba teams in his 12 seasons. all of that did not get the attention he is gettingod