record time, too right? >> i don't know. thanks for joining us here at 5:00. special good evening to our viewers in the western u.s. tonight. this is election day 2013, and the polls have now closed in two of the biggest races in this country. it is clear that before tonight is over,e're going to get a big indication of what voters are thinking around the country. five years and one day after the election of president obama, just weeks after we all witnessed that ugly government shutdown. voters tonight are electing governors in new jersey and virginia. new mayors in new york and boston and seattle and so on. many of these races will indicate how the political winds are blowing right now. we begin our coverage in the politically crucial commonwealth

of virginia. chuck todd is there for us tonight. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. well, a lot of the action is on the east coast. polls are closed. we have some winner. governor chris christie has been re-elected. we've projected that, nbc news. here in virginia, the bellwether of bellwethers the last few years, we're still projecting this race as too close to call. not even half the results are counted yet. could be a long night here in virginia. we have projected a democrat to win the lieutenant governorship here in virginia. the race here in virginia has been all about national issues. the democrats talking about government shutdown, the republicans talking about the disastrous health care rollout. so in many ways, virginia, the bellwether for how election night goes. across the country, though, there's a lot of interesting elections. you mentioned the new mayors that will be elected in detroit

and boston. out akrss the colorado 11 counties are voting whether to secede and become their own state. seattle the incumbent mayor there, he's got a tough re-election fight. from coast to coast, a lot of mayors races. but nationally this is one they'll be looking at to see if the tea party is a problem for the republicans or not, did the shutdown give a boost to the democrats or not. brian, we'll be watching it all. >> chuck todd starting us off. tysons corner just outside washington. thanks. now to the other big race. chris christie looking to get re-elected as new jersey governor. nbc's kelly o'donnell with the christie campaign. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: greetings from asbury bark, brian. in bringing his campaign to an end here along the jersey shore which is a sentimental journey

as well after what he says has been the toughest year of his life in the post-hurricane sandy period of trying to bring his state back. i spent several days on the campaign trail with him. he said what he wanted to accomplish tonight was more than winning a second term. that was first but he hopes to get more than 50% of the vote. he said that would send a signal to his republican party around the country that his style of leadership has a way to win in a very blue state like new jersey where president obama won re-election by 17 points just a year ago. so christie has been campaigning hard against washington dysfunction saying that voters really want results. and of course he's got that bigger than life brash style, sometimes in your face. i talked to voters who say they're concerned about whether that would play elsewhere in the country. he says voters simply want to know what people will do and how they will get things done. and that is a message that could resonate beyond new jersey. the first job was winning re-elections. the next job is what does it

mean for his national voice in leading the republican party? he thinks he will have a much greater chance to do that with a victory here tonight. governor chris christie re-elected just a question of how big is the margin. brian? >> kelly o'donnell high above the boardwalk in new jersey. kelly, thanks. we have a huge political story to our north in canada where today the mayor of toronto admitted smoking crack cocaine. a charge he'd been denying for months despite some mounting evidence. and he said today he has no plans to leave office. nbc's stephanie gosk has the story tonight on this confession. >> i love my job. i love this city. >> reporter: toronto's mayor rob ford won't be resigning. >> i have nothing left to hide. >> reporter: a teary and defiant stand just hours after this stunning admission. >> yes, i have smoked crack cocaine. but no -- do i?

am i an addict? no. have i tried it probably in one of my drunken stupors. >> reporter: allegations of his crack cocaine use first bubbled up in may when the toronto star reported that there was an incriminating video. >> a video which appears to be real shows mayor rob ford in a room, his shirt open, lulling back in his chair, and appears to be smoking a crack pipe. >> reporter: the mayor of canada's biggest city denied he had a problem. >> i do not use crack cocaine nor am i an addict of crack cocaine. >> reporter: but then the toronto police chief came out and said that investigators had the video. no criminal charges, but facing repeated calls for his resignation, ford finally politicly confessed today. >> good evening. from denial to confession, toronto mayor rob ford stunned the city. >> i feel like a thousand pounds have been lifted off my

shoulders. i sincerely, sincerely, sincerely apologize. >> reporter: maybe that will be enough. washington, d.c. mayor marion berry was caught on tape doing crack cocaine in a sting operation in 1990. only to be re-elected mayor four years later. but as badly as the toronto mayor wants to look ahead -- >> these mistakes will never, ever, ever happen again. >> reporter: -- this is a day few canadians will soon forget. stephanie gosk, new york. the news last night ignited fears it was happening again. it was report of a gunman, shots fired inside another public place. this time a shopping mall in northern new jersey. the largest in the state. and it sparked a huge police turnout. today as the busy holiday shopping season is just getting

underway, what happened there has people asking justifiably how safe are these places we all go this time of year. we get our report tonight from nbc's ron allen in paramus, new jersey. >> reporter: the chaos erupted last night just before new jersey's largest mall was about to close. a terrifying scenario. some 300 stores packed with thousands of shoppers and employees. a gunman opening fire. >> i'm just, like, wow. god was with me. he could have shot me right there. >> you hear about it in the news almost every day, unfortunately. and you never think that you're going to be the one in that situation. >> reporter: distress calls flooded twitter. folks are nervous in here. please just say a prayer. local news reports showed hundreds of officers responding. the gunman, identified as 20-year-old richard shoop dressed in black fired a semiautomatic rifle. at least six blasts. but authorities said he did not aim with the intent to kill.

>> he also tried to tell people as he passed by them, don't worry. just get out of my way. >> reporter: another spasm of deadly gunfire in an american mall. lately happening every year. december 2012 near portland, oregon. january 2011 near phoenix. june 2010 four killed in miami. security experts say protecting places that are designed to be open and inviting like a mall is a huge challenge. >> every person that i see today entering a shopping center or a public venue becomes suspect to me. >> reporter: near los angeles today, just coincidentally a training exercise. a simulated response to reports of a shooter stalking a mall. >> law enforcement fire, store personnel and security. if any type of situation happens, everybody that works in the mall knows exactly what to do to keep people safe. >> reporter: and here at the garden state plaza mall, authorities say their training paid off with thousands evacuated safely. and another community led to

wonder why such violence happened here. ron allen, nbc news, paramus, new jersey. there was news today regarding safety in the air. it's taken several years and a lot of pressure by families who lost loved ones in the crash of a commuter plane outside buffalo, new york. an accident blamed on pilot error. today the government announced major changes for pilot training. the most significant changes in two decades. nbc's tom costello is live at jetblue's training facility. >> reporter: hi, brian. this is all about requiring more time in these sophisticated training equipment. they operate them not just for jetblue pilots but others as well. it's about giving pilots time in these simulators, time the faa says is invaluable. it was nearly five years ago that 50 people died when an airlines crew stalled and then crashed a plane outside of

buffalo. today the faa applauded the families of flight 3407 for demanding change in a cockpit and at the airlines. >> they have channelled their grief into advocating for safety improvements that will benefit millions of families. >> reporter: today the faa insisted that all airlines ramp up their use of high fidelity simulators in their building. the kind of simulators jetblue uses to train 4,000 pilots a year. among the priorities, ensuring pilots know how to respond to a stall warning. this stall warning, you want them to experience in the simulator. >> absolutely. they need to know what to expect if it ever happens in the aircraft. we want them to be as prepared as possible. >> reporter: mid-air stalls are thought to have brought down a plane in 2009 and perhaps this summer's asiana crash.

>> the first time you go fly the actual aircraft, it's very difficult to tell the difference between the experience you had in the simulator and the one in the aircraft. >> reporter: this is that real? >> it is that real. >> reporter: while many use advanced simulators, the faa wants to see more. new pilot standards for training to recover from a mid-air stall. and requirements for airlines to track pilot training and on-the-job performance. the cogan airline crew. for this mother, today was a victory. >> 3407 was a very preventable accident. and we don't ever want that to happen again. >> reporter: the faa is also ordering new training to deal with dangerous cross winds. the faa has changed the minimum requirement for pilots and also pilot rest requirements all under pressure from congress and those families.

>> tom costello in the simulator tonight for us, thanks. and still ahead for us tonight, dr. nancy snyderman back from the front lines of a polio crisis. a growing danger for a growing number of children. growing danger for a growing number of children. [ sniffles, coughs ] shhhh! i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh what a relief it is! plus has a fast-acting antihistamine.

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fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your doctor if humira can work for you. this is humira at work. battalion, battal as we reported here last week, in syria tonight there is a race against time to save the children who have suffered through war from a crippling disease that the whole world thought was eradicated. there are now ten confirmed cases of polio inside syria. and as refugees flee into

neighboring countries, there's real concern now that polio could cross the border with them. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman saw this crisis unfolding first hand at refugee camps in lebanon, jordan. >> reporter: mona is doing everything she can to keep her family alive and healthy under the most terrible circumstances. with four children and a fifth on the way, her family escaped the conflict in syria and now lives in a squalid makeshift settlement in lebanon. like everyone in the camp, they barely have basic necessities. and poor sanitation, dirty water, and scarce food are constant threats. it must be hard to worry about food and shelter and getting all the right medicines. very difficult, she says. the place is not clean, as you can see. not for the children or their health. it's too much for mona sometimes. fearing for her children, she

brings them to this clinic on the lebanese/syrian border. making sure immunizations are up to date. her mission, to get them vaccinated against polio. the latest from a deadly war that has left syria's public health system in shambles. with millions of syrians displaced, vaccination rates have plummeted to just 60% in a country that had not seen a single case of polio since 1999. and there are concerns the highly contagious disease will spread beyond syria carried by refugees. many have fled to jordan where day and night jordanian military personnel meet trucks full of families. vaccinating every family that crosses the border. almost 19,000 last week alone. it is a race to keep the most vulnerable from being damaged, the younger victims. with a disease that is normally

so easy to prevent. >> of course it doesn't recognize any of the kinds of barriers that you might expect to prevent transmission of one thing or another. >> reporter: health officials on the ground warn that for every child with symptoms, there may be 200 others now carrying the virus. and with half a million syrian children in syria, unvaccinated, it poses a real concern of an epidemic. >> welcome back. i know you're back just a few hours. dr. nancy snyderman. up next, they are now just recognizing a history making discovery in europe. they are j back from the depths of a history-making discovery in europe. recognizing a history making element in europe. anything we pe for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative,

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the slides. several injuries among 250 passengers coming off what was an overnight flight from casablanca to montreal. it's now clear the art world has been rocked by the works of art that have been discovered hidden behind a wall in an apartment building in munich. art works originally stolen by the nazis. many are the works of big name artists like picasso, mat irnis. they may make the art historians rewrite the books on what is known about these artists. so far we've seen only some grainy slides of the paintings. another modernist surprise from the popes. he'd like to know how catholics feel about certain issues. he sent out a survey on measuring attitudes on the modern family. issues from gay marriage to divorce. like so much of what pope francis has launched already, the experts and academics are calling this unprecedented

because it seeks input instead of reciting dogma and it ignites some of the hot-button topics. well, good news, when we decided we have once and for all trashed the utter, nasa says there could be as many as 40 billion habitable planets out in the galaxy. the nearest is 12 light years away, visible to the naked eye at night, but a long trip any way you look at it. when we come back here this evening, survival stories. after that heart-stopping dive, tonight we hear from those who lived through it now safely back on the ground. er the heart-stopping dive and the people who lived through it now safely back on the ground. help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts

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today we hear what those nine s skydivers felt. dan chandler was there when it hit 12,000 feet above ground. >> i heard trish just let out a blood curdling scream. >> [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> all i saw was white. and i just knew that wasn't right. >> reporter: now sandwiched between the two planes, chandler hears a terrifying noise. >> it sounded like a prop cutting into the metal behind me. i can't even possibly explain that. all i could think was, you know, in the next second, probably not going to be alive. >> reporter: sarah is caught too. >> seeing my hand be stuck between the two planes, and for a split second wondering well, how am i going to get out of that? >> reporter: the explosion frees dan and sarah as you can see in this video licensed by nbc news.

the second plane turns upside down. still inside are amy olson and chad evelyn. engaged to be married next summer. they jump. >> i did my best to see if there was anybody unconscious. the way everything was scattered, it was difficult to pick apart the debris from the people. >> reporter: the divers see the chute of the first plane pilot, but not blake wedan, the pilot of the second plane. he is still flying. >> hang in there, blake. >> after i knew i had all of my patrol surfaces and could maneuver the airplane, 100%, i knew i could land it. >> reporter: and he does. every skydiver makes it safely. >> longest 47 seconds of my life. >> reporter: amy burst into tears and finds her fiance chad. >> it was not a hug that you don't forget. it was a hug that said i can't believe i can do this right now. i can't believe this happened. >> we obviously got second

chances, but life is here and life is not that fast. and it's scary to really dig deep and think about how quickly life can be taken. >> reporter: and how incredible it is that they survived. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >> the pictures, the story they tell, incredible. there's more to be shown on an upcoming edition of "dateline." that's it for us on a tuesday night, election night 2013. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we'll look back for you here tomorrow night. good night.

good evening. thanks for joining us. i'm jessica agear ra. >> i'm raj mathai. we begin with an nbc bay area exclusive. budget cuts coming to san jose university. students are getting a real life lesson in economics. the questions now, who's out of a job and how much will students be impacted? nbc's business and tech reporter scott budman joins us from the campus with the details. scott? >> reporter: good evening, raj. you know, even with extra taxpayer dollars coming in, san jose state says it cannot avoid the latest round of budget cuts. tonight, students are concerned and faculty members are angry.

the news hit students and faculty here at san jose state. millions of dollars in budget cuts to fall on virtually every department at the university. >> definitely budget cuts would hurt, like, all the students coming here because, i mean, it's already hard to get classes. of course, those budget cuts are going to cut classes or make class sizes bigger which hurt, like, education, like, you know, in the long run. >> reporter: even after the passage of proposition 30, which increased our taxes to fund california state schools, this school while admitting new students is still cutting back on staff. >> this is what i see. i mean, the students are doing that and the money is doing that. and at the same time, we've got the administration quite rightly saying that they want us to i want prove the retention and success rate of graduation. i get that, but how do you do that under those circumstances? >> which is unfortunate because it already takes long enough to get a degree and add on to t