fans. >> stomper was also there. >> thanks for joining us. >> see you at 6:00. government shutdown. a lot of americans shut out of their jobs, their paychecks, even some world war ii veterans were told their own memorial was closed. tonight, the big question, how long does this go on? also tonight, day one for these new health insurance exchanges, already a big demand. and for some, a huge struggle to sign up. family tragedy in the colorado rockies as an act of nature has killed five members of the same family, a teenage girl, the sole survivor who saw her father sacrifice his life. and another first from this new pope revealing secrets from the vatican and then some. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. a good number of americans probably wondered at one point today what must we look like to the rest of the world? we'll actually have a sample of that in just a moment. but first, our coverage of this first full day of this first government shutdown in close to two decades. blaming each other and unable to agree, both parties in congress gave up and went home last night, and with the president's order as the time zones played out to the western u.s., the official word went out to begin shutting down the federal government. the financial cost of the shutdown is already being felt, along with its impact out in america, which is where we will begin tonight. nbc's john yang is in chicago. good evening, john. >> reporter: good evening, brian. on these three blocks in downtown chicago, three big federal office buildings. today, people came to their offices left out of them, to the voice e-mails and voice mails,

and then went home to wonder when their next paycheck would come. in chicago, epa employee elizabeth witel went to apply for unemployment benefits. >> right now, i'm terrified, i'm terrified. to the point, what is going to happen. >> reporter: we first met her yesterday when she joined other workers to protest the shutdown. >> congress needs to be turned over somebody's knee and spanked real hard because they're acting like small children. >> reporter: it's a sentiment shared by hundreds of thousands of federal workers around the country. at the agriculture department in washington. >> it is a mess, congress needs to get their act together seriously. >> reporter: for now, federal programs affecting millions of americans are shut down, included nutrition benefits called w.i.c. for nearly 9 million pregnant women and new mothers. like this mom, and her daughter, savannah.

>> if i didn't have w.i.c., i would have to basically drop out of school and go to work in order to supply formula, food for my child. >> reporter: head start helps thousands of children, without that, victoria thomas will have to find a baby-sitter for her 4-year-old daughter faith. >> have to take out student loans to help pay for that and put me more in debt. >> reporter: nearly 400 national parks and museums including yosemite in california are closed. tourists like glenn porter who made plans to visit long ago are shut out. >> we were disappointed. we came from bangor, maine, and we had this trip process planned for upwards of a year. >> reporter: also shut out, the transitional seasonal flu program. on the other hand, federal checks, food stamps, unemployment benefits, and some veterans benefits will still continue. air traffic controllers will stay on the job.

agencies like the postal service and the federal reserve that have their own funding are open. and the president keeps getting paid, as do members of congress, much to the annoyance of elizabeth witel. her family's sole bred winner since her husband was laid off last month. >> congress needs to grow up. i mean, to be honest with you, if they had to live on what most of us work at and live on, they couldn't make it. >> reporter: the last time there was a government shutdown, congress voted to give workers retroactive pay. this time, there are no guarantees what is going to happen. brian? >> a lot of similar sentiment out there tonight. john yang starting us off from chicago. now back to the question we posed at the top of the broadcast, how long does this go on? nbc's kelly o'donnell covering capitol hill for us. >> reporter: good evening. the mood mere is get ready for a

standoff. that doesn't mean nothing is happening. tonight republicans are try ing to open popular parts of the parks, like the smithsonian, offering money for veterans' programs and to fund the operation in the district of columbia. but democrats say no comparing it to a release one hostage at a time strategy. now, although congress and the president agreed to keep the military paychecks coming, democrats are saying no to this piece by piece approach, insisting the full government be funded, not going one program at a time. brian? >> all right. kelly, thanks for that update. as you know, what's happening right now in washington it's been a long time coming. it has been driven by a committed core of republicans in congress who are all but assured of re-election in their districts and just can't be conservative enough for many of the folks back home. this is about the divide in our country, the end of the old chain of command in congress, and the anger over obama care. our political white house correspondent chuck todd is with

us with that part of the story. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. you know, these tea party conservatives helped to propel the republicans to take control of the house in 2010. and these conservatives are the engine behind the current standoff right now. the tea party has the president's attention. >> one faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch of government shut down major parts of the government. all because they didn't like one law. >> reporter: the faction is a group of about 80 members of congress, who in august wrote a letter to speaker john boehner urging him to use the budget negotiations as a wedge to reverse the affordable care act. >> we thought it was important to stand on our principles that since 2010 elections, the republicans were very clear they don't like obama care but never had a chance to actually vote on it. >> reporter: they come from the most conservative districts in the country. on average, in 2012, they captured 65% of the vote in their districts, districts where

the president barely cracked 37%. they represent only 1/3 of the republicans in the house, and only 18% of the american population. >> these 80 republican letter signers in the house come from districts where obama lost by 23 points. there's no chance that democrats have a shot at holding these republicans accountable by winning their seats. >> reporter: so who are they? congressman tim huelskamp comes from a district where the president didn't even break 20%. he is confident his constituents will support him in the shutdown. >> i'll just say most americans realize they have an impact, they got their mail, they will get their social security check. >> reporter: down in louisiana, bill cassidy came to d.c. the same year that obama was put in the white house. he got 72%. obama 32%. a comfortable enough margin that he argues the shutdown is not about ideology.

both congressmen say they won't budge until the democrats budge on the health care law. >> they should not have a gold plated system just for themselves. these are our battle grounds, to represent the american people in a way to make this law less onerous. >> reporter: brian, they do get a little uncomfortable when you ask them about the idea they're cashing paychecks when the government workers are on furlough, but congressman cassidy says if by the next vote he hopes to delay it and not take it. >> chuck todd, on capitol hill, thanks. as we mentioned earlier, the whole world is watching and many of them wondering what's going on here. one headline called it "america's power failure." here is how great britain opened their channel 4 news cast tonight. >> america's government closed for business. will the economy follow? >> washington is an angry, bitter, and divided tone tonight, john.

everyone here is blaming somebody else for causing the first government shutdown in nearly 20 years. >> all day it's been like that. it's a top story around the world, a reminder of how closely people watch the goings-on in the world eers largest superpower. here now some of the reaction out there today. >> just crazy, really crazy and just quite childish. >> this time they're going over the cliff. and to my mind, it's highly irresponsible. >> it's quite painful, actually. >> some of the opinions and observations being expressed around our planet today. now to the other event that took place at midnight eastern time last night. the start of a major provision of the new health care law, which was after all, at the crux of this fight that led to the government shutdown. today was the first opportunity for millions of americans to go to these new exchanges and sign up for insurance under obama care. and it turned out so many people

tried to do that, computers crashed. nbc's tom costello has been watching all of that for us. >> reporter: across the country, the health care exchanges were up, but running slowly today. with nearly 3 million people trying to visit healthcare.gov, that site and many state sites crashed or barely budged making it difficult to register. in phoenix, the schultz family has been waiting to register so they can both quit their jobs and start a new business. >> we wanted to know the price, the options, and suddenly we weren't able to get in so we were disappointed. >> reporter: in philadelphia, nicole nimbus wanted to sign up in person. >> definitely worried because i have a few health issues going on with me, and we need coverage. >> reporter: colorado's website was at least partially working. as of today, residents there can select between bronze, silver, gold, or platinum coverage.

in denver, a family earning $50,000 a year could buy kaiser permanente after tax credits for $510 a month, responsible for $2600 a year in a family deductible, and 20% of their total expenses. capping, though, at $10,000 per year. now, if that is too expensive a family can choose lower expenses through a bronze coverage plan, lower monthly premiums, but higher deductibles and higher co-pays. the insurance would cover everything from emergency care to prescription drugs, radiation, chemotherapy, hearing aids and eye exams. but with so many glitches, many republicans insist obama care is not ready. >> my advice to the american people is buyer beware. >> reporter: the president counters the system crashed because of its popularity. >> we're going to speed things up in the next few hours to handle all of this demand that exceeds anything that we had expected. >> reporter: the white house says the system is improving and people are signing up. but amid high demand, big delays on day one. tom costello, nbc news, washington.

our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman has been answering your questions throughout the day and on the web. and she is here tonight. and nancy i want to talk to you about one we got via twitter. because so many people ask this, this is from mariah, asking what does preventive care cost and what will it cover for women? >> extraordinarily important question for women, and as the exchanges open today it is important to know that it will have a major impact on women. because before the affordable care act, women paid higher health care premiums than men, because frankly being a woman was considered in many ways a pre-existing condition. that is now illegal. as of january 1st, 2014, the comprehensive preventive services like mammograms and genetic testing will be accessible. you will also have better access to co-pays and birth control. now i know there were a lot of

questions on what tom just talked about. you need to figure out what you can afford. on nbcnews.com, we have a calculator for you to lay it all out. either healthcare.org or nbcknews.com. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu warned not to fall for this charm offensive by the new government of iran. in a speech he took on the president of iran, rouhani, directly, saying he is not much different than his predecessor. >> rouhani does not sound like ahmadinejad, but when it comes to iran's nuclear weapons program, the only difference between them is this. ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf's clothing. rouhani is a wolf in sheep's clothing. >> netanyahu said israel is ready to stand alone if need be to make sure tehran never gets a nuclear weapon.

still ahead for us tonight, a family tragedy on a popular hiking trail. and the father who sacrificed his life for his teenage daughter. and later, they were soldiers once. they defeated tyranny around the globe. and they weren't going to let a little thing like a government shutdown stop them today.

tonight authorities in colorado have recovered the bodies of five members of the same family who were killed in a huge rock slide while they were out on a hike. only a 13-year-old girl survived after her father sacrificed his life to save hers. and tonight, as their hometown now struggles with this news, scientists are worried that more rock slides could be on the way,

triggered by record rain. we get our report from nbc's gabe gutierrez on the ground in colorado. >> reporter: below mt. princeton in central colorado, a grim recovery effort ended today after a landslide swallowed five hikers. their bodies were trapped in a cascade of boulders. some bigger than cars. adam ross saw the chaos and called 911. >> it was terrifying. i never saw anything like that before. >> reporter: the lone survivor, grace johnson, who was first pulled from the rubble and air-lifted to denver with a broken leg. deputies say the girl's father threw himself in harm's way to shield his daughter. >> her dad is a real hero, saved her life. >> reporter: today authorities identified the five victims all from the same family. the father, dwayne johnson, his wife, dawna, coaching track, the cousin, baygin, and paris,

visiting from missouri. >> those two boys just loved this area. >> reporter: monday morning, the group was hiking about 120 miles southwest of denver on a popular trail in the pike and san isabel national forest. the geological service says there are thousands of rock slides in colorado every year, mostly small ones, but this year's geologists worry there could be more because of the heavy rain. >> there are smaller slopes and you have rocks that could continue to fall because of the rain for weeks and months. >> reporter: for now, outside the high school, they gather in grief. >> we may never get over this, they were so much a part of every single thing that we ever did. >> reporter: a community determined to always remember the day the mountain moved. gabe gutierrez, nathrop, colorado. and we will be back in a moment with another first at the vatican to report.

it seems like several nights here lately we have reported that this new pope has done something entirely new, and today he's done it again. this has to do with the first-ever vatican disclosure, and a highly unusual surprisingly honest interview with a reporter. we get the story tonight from nbc reporter chris jansing. >> reporter: from the big, enthusiastic crowds he draws to the little used car he drives, francis is widely viewed as a warmer, more open pope. but today he matched the style with substance, in an interview with ath atheist newspaper editor, he phoned himself, he made clear the vatican is in for a shake-up and doesn't want to be treated as royalty. heads of the church are often narcissistic, and want to be treated special by their

courtiers. >> he did what? he is just like we are. >> reporter: today for the first time ever, he opened the books on the vatican bank, revealing records of $127 million. and francis began a three-day meeting with the hand-picked cardinals including shawn o'malley. their job? to change the often secretive church bureaucracy. they're already planning to rip up their constitution. which means fewer orders from rome, more power for local church leaders. in language so startling from a pope, he told the newspaper this vath rin-centric view neglects the world around us. i do not share this view and i'll do everything i can to change it. and at 76, he's in a hurry. >> he knows what needs to be done and is aiming to do it. he won't let anyone stop him. >> reporter: he even told the vatican police to crack down on gossip. making way for a new open.

chris jansing, nbc news, new york. when we come back, heroes that wouldn't let a shutdown stand in their way today.

finally tonight, of course,

everybody is entitled to their own opinion of congress, the president, and this government shutdown. no one is anxious to see innocent victims suffer because of a political fight. and yet, that is almost what happened today on the washington mall. remember, officially the mall is shut down. but are you going to tell that to the men who when they were boys went off to fight for the freedom of this country? tonight, harry smith picks up the story. >> reporter: as happens most days, buses arrived at the national mall today, full of world war ii veterans, men and women in their 80s and 90s, making a pilgrimage to see a monument erected in their honor. but because of the government shutdown, access to it was cut off. >> you know, my dad was a world war ii vet. it breaks my heart, personally. >> this is stupid. we're here for just one day. >> reporter: these vets came on a long planned and impossible to cancel honor flight, a journey paid for by donations. all were disappointed to be

locked out and few were interested for having their plight plagued for some political purpose. >> are you disappointed? >> that is something else, if you don't want to get involved in a political thing, what do you say? >> reporter: jim woods put this trip together for their father months ago. >> at my advanced age, i don't know if i'll get back. that's the problem. >> reporter: there was rare bipartisan agreement among the elected officials present that closing this open air memorial was not a good idea. eventually, the gates were moved and the vets came through. park officers stood aside, they were not about to stop those who stormed the beaches of normandy and fought through island after island in the pacific. harry smith, nbc news. and that is our broadcast on this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. and of course we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

going. thanks for being with us on this tuesday. i'm raj matthai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. more than $1 billion a week is the estimated cost of the government shutdown. tonight on capitol hill, still no sign of an end. you're looking at a live lock from the capitol to almost as far west as you can go, alcat z alcatraz. the effects of the partial government shutdown being felt everywhere. n what's going on here including the plight of war veterans, monty. >> reporter: jessica, that's

right. good evening. we're in front of the veterans affairses office in oakland. it processes all the disability claims for northern california. it also has the worst record in the country for how long it takes to process those claims. and now because of the shutdown, veterans are bracing for even longer waits. >> we lost everything. everything that we had. >> reporter: william caston of livermore waited more than two years for the veterans affairs office in oakland to process his disability claim. during that time, he said he hit rock bottom, suffering from severe back pain from an injury he suffered in the coast guard, the married father of three lost his home and his car and declared bankruptcy. >> sunny days, there were none for me. so i can imagine how this could push some people like, you know, over the edge. >> reporter: he says for veterans, who are waiting on the va, any additional delay from a government shutdown is like pouring salt in a wound. >> it really sucks to be in a situation where, you know, you're not getting the help