on our broadcast tonight, no end in sight. the back and forth bombardment continues for an eighth day, as hamas rejects a cease-fire and israel's prime minister threatens to unleash a major show of force. going to extremes. violent storms, record cold in july, wildfires in the west, as nearly every part of the country is dealing with some sort of extremes. the price you pay. it's about to get more expensive to buy airline tickets. this time, thanks to congress and the tsa. and a spoonful of medicine. it can mean very different things. and tonight that has prompted doctors to issue a new warning to parents. "nightly news" begins now. good evening.

last night here we talked about a cease-fire between israel and hamas. it came and went, it didn't happen. hamas is back to firing rockets, and israeli ground invasion could begin at any time. and this remains a lopsided conflict. here is the death toll. in gaza, 196 dead, mostly civilians. there has been one israeli fatality just confirmed today. gaza is an area smaller than detroit, home to about 2 million people who are trapped there and cannot leave. hamas has launched about 1,000 rockets from gaza. and while israel's superior air defenses have intercepted them, upwards of two thirds of the israeli population has been forced into shelters over this last week. in a moment, we will go inside a

hospital in gaza dealing with the dead and wounded. first, however, to our veteran middle east correspondent martin fletcher to start us off from tel aviv tonight. martin, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. there was a moment of hope today when israel agreed to a cease-fire this morning and stopped shooting. but the truth proposal drowned in a storm of hamas rockets. this was hamas's cease-fire proposal. more rockets in israeli towns. israel on edge. and six hours later, this was israel's response, a massive counterattack. tank fire and air strikes. and israel's anti-tank rocket system was kept busy by 100 rockets fired into gaza. one man had gone to the border to give candy to israeli troops. and another rocket almost hit this house in ashdod in israel south. nobody was hurt. this is a rail failure of the israeli anti-rocket system, the iron dome, fired by hamas after israel accepted the cease-fire this morning. israel took the hamas rockets for six hours, hoping they would fade out. instead, they increased.

then prime minister netanyahu said israel had no choice. he said, hamas will pay the price. he told the army to "expand and intensify the campaign." so everyone's question, will israel launch a ground invasion of gaza? >> we don't know yet. the prime minister said anything that will help israel achieve its objective, which is a sustained period of quiet for the people of israel. that's what we want. >> reporter: in gaza, they buried another victim while hamas explained its decision to keep fighting. we won't stop fighting, hamas' spokesman said, until they accept all our conditions. israel and egypt should open their borders with gaza. israel should free hamas members jailed in the west bank. until then, hamas is determined to fight on, at whatever price. tonight, israeli army warned

residents in two more palestinian neighborhoods in northern gaza to leave their homes so they won't be harmed by bombing. they were told to leave by the morning. brian? >> martin fletcher starting us off tonight from tel aviv. martin, thank you. and now, as promised, to gaza. the view of this conflict from inside the largest hospital in that community of 2 million, fair warning, some of the pictures are hard to watch. nbc's ayman mohyeldin spent the day there. >> reporter: on every floor, in every room, a story of sorrow and suffering. here 3-year-old shamas comforted by her father and her doll, the only family she has left. her mother, brother and sister all killed in an israeli air strike while walking down the street. israel says it targets only militants. shama's father asks her, were with you carrying any weapons? no, she said. this woman has a broken arm, and a broken heart. she lost most of her extended

family in a single air strike. israel tried to kill a relative of hers, gaza's police chief. he survived, 20 members of their extended family did not. the hospital, short staffed and under equipped is struggling to cope. here a mother sees her son for the first time since he lost his leg and was badly burned. osama, osama, your mother is here. wake up, the doctor says. please, god, she prayed, heal my son. he doesn't wake up, and she leaves, not knowing whether he will survive to see her again. some here have no family at their side. as the doctors work endless hours. what do you lack? >> we have a shortage in all the supplies, consumables. never have been shortage like this before. >> reporter: any cease-fire will

be too late for the wounded at this hospital. they are not fighters in this war, but they are paying the price. brian, the u.n. says both sides could be violating international law with the way they are targeting civilians. and while hamas has come under criticism, the palestinians here in gaza blame israel for what they're living through. brian? >> ayman mohyeldin in gaza, this air bombardment on both sides goes on. ayman, thanks. an awful situation in russia today. at least 21 people were killed, 100 hospitalized after a train derailed in the moscow subway. over 1,000 people were evacuated during this rescue operation that went on for 12 hours. this happened near the deepest subway station in all of moscow, 275 feet down, making for a particularly difficult fight for first responders. in this country tonight, the national weather service now estimates more than 37 million americans who are in the path of

severe storms right now, and may be in for hail and lightning and floods throughout the night ahead. and that's just the start of the extreme weather being felt in just about every corner of our country tonight. we get our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: day two of pounding rain in the northeast, from a fog dense liberty to a disappearing new york skyline. rain so heavy, it was halfway up the hubcaps. new york sidewalks were virtually barren. airports in the northeast held planes in a ground stop for hours. all of it a day after severe storms brought lightning to delaware and philly, where a 14-year-old is recovering after being struck last night. across the tristate area, they've been picking up broken tree limbs, hammering down battered roofs, while here in philly today, the cleanup has just begun.

>> we have a backlog right now of about four to six weeks. >> reporter: in connecticut, the problem has been floodwaters. >> i was floating like a boat, yeah. >> reporter: at the site of the original woodstock festival, the heavy rain turned the music gathering into a tractor pull. meanwhile to the south, angry skies in sarasota brought driving rain. much of the weather instability, the result of the canadian cold front bringing cold temps to the midwest, causing waterspouts over the navy pier in chicago, forcing chicago ans to break out the sweaters and making a chilly start for the all-star game in minneapolis. we're not seeing extremes that are way off the charts. we're looking at temperatures 15 to 20 degrees below average at the most in the midwest, and 15 to 20 degrees above average in parts of the west. >> reporter: in colorado, a summer hail storm. in arizona, monsoon rains and heavy winds that flipped over an f-16. on the west coast, wildfires continue to rage in oregon. while california continues to sizzle. l.a. county now the driest on

record. here in philadelphia, we've had heavy rain, lightning and winds for the last few hours, exactly the kind of weather they need in california, but it's not coming. and now los angeles considering imposing fines on people who violate the water restrictions there. brian? >> tom costello in the rough weather just across the river from philly tonight. tom, thanks. al roker is here with us again in the studio to run through the severe weather, not just in this country. al? >> that's right, brian. we have severe weather all the way in the rockies, back here from are the northeast, stretching from boston all the way into the carolinas. we're talking about severe weather, damaging winds, hail, torrential downpours. i mean, we're talking about rainfall amounts exceeding an inch an hour in some spots. you can see where we have severe thunderstorm warnings in effect through the northeast, heavy thunderstorms, airport delays. george washington bridge, a major thoroughfare, three hour delays going from new york to new jersey. we have flash flood warnings and flash flood watches all the way from new england to the delmarva peninsula on top of the one to two inches of rain that's already fallen. as brian indicated, we have a major typhoon going on, this is rammasun.

35 miles southeast of manila, 125 mile an hour winds. category 3 storm. moving west-northwest. we expect it to pass over manila, an area of about 25 million people. late tonight, makes it way back out into the pacific. stays south of hong kong, but takes aim on hanaan by sometime early friday morning, late afternoon. we'll get more of a normal condition across the country. >> al roker, thanks. we'll look for you in the morning for more on all of it. it's about to get more expensive to fly in this country, right at the height of this summer travel season. this time it's not the kind of fees we've become used to for things like carry on bags, extra leg room are. this time it's for airport security. and it's because of an action taken by congress having to do with the tsa. we get our report tonight from nbc's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: for many the airport security check is viewed

as a necessary evil of flying. air travelers will have to pay even more for the experience. they're going to be charging more? >> yeah, we don't like it. >> reporter: all tickets purchased after monday will be charged higher security fees. the current tsa fee for a nonstop round trip flight, for example, new york to l.a. is $5. that will jump to $11.20. for a family of four, that is close to $25. or a fast food lunch. here's where a traveler can get stuck with even larger increases. round trip tickets that include a four hour or more layover, let's say on the way to l.a., someone wants to stop in dallas for bbq, the fee jumps to 22.40. >> this fee increase is coming right in the middle of the peak of the summer travel season. it could not come at a worse time. this is when families are flying on vacation. they're the ones that are going to be hit the hardest by this. >> reporter: in comparison to airfares of several hundreds of dollars, the increases may not

appear huge, but tack them on to baggage fees, snack fees, leg room fees, and the extras really start piling up. >> we love to travel, and i want my kids to travel. if it costs more, we're not going to be able to do that as much. >> reporter: congress raised the tsa fees after it eliminated a security tax on airlines. now air travellers are stuck making up the difference. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. at the vatican today, pope francis waded into the immigration debate and the humanitarian crisis on our southern border with mexico. the pope called for urgent intervention, as he put it, to welcome and protect unaccompanied minors traveling from central and south america to the u.s. he called for an information campaign to warn of the dangers of the journey. something president obama has included as part of his plan. also today at the airport in mcallen texas, just a few miles from the border, a prominent immigration activist, pulitzer prize winning journalist jose

antonio vargas was detained and taken into custody, while making his way through security. vargas has lived and worked in the u.s. without legal documentation for years. he was there in mcallen as part of a vigil to highlight the plight of these unaccompanied children. he was released from border control custody late today. still ahead for us tonight, a new warning from doctors about the widely varying dose of medicine we give our children. and have for years.

for parents raising children in this country, a spoonful of medicine has been the dosage. that can mean different things when you think about it. it can be highly inexact. and it's motivated a new warning from doctors for parents. we get an update tonight from our chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: when katie came down with h1n1 flu, they got

worried and then they got frustrated by an all too common problem for parents. >> it was very difficult for us to figure out how much medicine to give our child. >> reporter: doctors prescribed katie tamiflu. three-quarters of a teaspoonful twice a day. the prepackaged syringe measured milligrams, they had to do a mathematical conversion to figure out the dose. and they're both health professionals. she's an educator. he's a doctor. also like so many other parents, according to a study in the journal of pediatrics, more than 40% made an error measuring prescription medication for their children. >> parents can get confused when they're presented with different units of measurement, like milliliters, teaspoons or tablespoons. >> reporter: the study found parents were twice as likely to make a mistake when they measured the dose using teaspoons or tablespoons compared to those using milliliter units only. >> a term like tea spoon and

tablespoon inadvertently endorse the use of kitchen spoons, and we know that kitchen spoons vary in size and shape. it's hard to accurately get the right dosage. >> reporter: the solution? more organizations are calling for the milliliter to become the standard unit of measurement for pediatric liquid medications administered by an oral syringe. >> it should be easier to figure out, how do i want to get this medicine into my child, so she can begin to feel better. >> the take home message for parents, don't hesitate to ask your doctor or pharmacist about understanding the dosage. whenever possible, use an oral syringe to accurately medicate your children. i think, brian, it's time to embrace the metric system. >> one would think it's about time, at least in this area. nancy, thank you as always. we're back in a moment, with the leader of the free world behind the wheel today for the first time in years.

tonight the federal government has issued new

guidelines to protect pregnant women workers in on the job discrimination. the first update of these guidelines in over three decades. in this update, the eeoc has emphatically made it clear any form of workplace discrimination or harassment of pregnant women by their employers is illegal. we have put more information on this ruling on our website tonight, nbcnews.com. the federal highway trust fund is about to become insolvent. and while you think even congress could agree on the need for roads, not so fast. once again, instead of dealing with a big issue that needs fixing and funding like infrastructure, congress is about to approve the equivalent of blacktop on a pothole. a temporary funding bill that would last only until may of next year, putting off the larger issue, so it can be fought over yet again. the trust fund pays for the interstate highway system, it's going broke. but no one in congress wants to vote for a tax increase on something like gasoline. now to the topic of presidents and cars.

lyndon johnson used to delight in scaring visitors to his texas ranch by driving full speed into the lake without telling them it was an amphibious car and they would be okay. because of their personal security, presidents are no longer able to drive in the modern era, but they can still pretend. they can still dream. as president obama got to do today in a crash avoidance simulator. it didn't move an inch. but he got to remember what it felt like to hug the steering wheel. meet your 2014 home run derby winner, yoanis cespedes of the oakland a's. put it this way, if you have a baseball you never want to see again, throw it to him. he crushed the ball last night, along with his competition in the annual jamboree of clobbering baseballs that is all about power. from the power to the glory, tonight's all-star game will be derek jeter's last. as every ballpark in baseball and all his fellow players tip their caps to the durable and venerable yankee captain,

including a fantastic spike lee directed video that is just out. we have put it on our website tonight. and back in may we showed you the orphaned wolf pups who were saved by firefighters who discovered their den after putting out a wildfire in alaska. with both parents presumed feared lost, they were flown to the minnesota zoo and nursed back to health. well, today we got our first glimpse. the folks there at the zoo are experts in wildlife rescues, and the brothers and sisters are being raised together as a pack, keeping their family together. when we come back tonight, the 8-year-old musician who drew a crowd like the professionals do.

our final story here tonight comes to us from minneapolis, and an event there over the weekend that drew hundreds of people to one young boy's front yard and tens of thousands more watching on the web thanks to his efforts to get the word out about a concert he was holding in his front yard come rain or shine. we get more now on his story from nbc's joe fryar. >> reporter: for nearly half of his 8-year-old life, dylan

spoering has been taking piano lessons. >> hey, wait, did you hear about my concert? wait! >> reporter: but it's that other instrument you'll hear first. >> you want to come and get a flyer? >> reporter: his voice. >> i'm the center of attention here. >> reporter: from the corner of his minneapolis yard. >> hey, wait, wait, wait, wait -- >> reporter: dylan advertising the piano recitals he regularly stages on his front porch. >> if i don't do that, no one would come. hey, wait. do you want to know about my concert? >> reporter: if you pass by him, consider yourself invited. dylan's persistent promotion seems to be working. his most recent sign caught the attention of his neighbor. >> i had to stop and just look at it for a minute and i started laughing. >> reporter: thomas snapped a photo and made a facebook page inviting friends to see dylan's show this past weekend. >> this is going to be my big day. >> reporter: forecasters predicted rain. >> good afternoon.

>> reporter: but who could have predicted this? at least 200 people standing in soggy grass to see a showman at work. ♪ >> reporter: another 40,000 logged in to watch as it was streamed live over the internet. >> intermission! intermission! >> reporter: his fans didn't come to hear a modern day mozart, but they believe he's striking the right chord. >> he takes what's good in people and kind and sweet and brings it to the surface. >> what are you having? >> a free piano concert. >> reporter: already dylan is promoting his next show. >> and if you're doing what you enjoy doing, do it well. and he does it very well. >> reporter: perhaps that's dylan's true piano lesson. joe fryar, nbc news, minneapolis. and on that note, that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com nbc bay area news starts now. i can't put food on the table for my children if this goes into effect. >> receipt now at 6:00. it doesn't just impact homeowners, also people who depend on water to make a living are concerned about that big decision that just came down a few moments ago. good evening and thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. water leaders voted on a plan that could mean stiff new fines for water wasters. jodi hernandez is live in sacramento with the meeting that

just ended. and some people are depending on water for their lively hood and are very worried now. >> reporter: that's right, they're really sweating. and actually, this is something that's going to impact everyone. state water regulators just finalized the new measures. they approved the emergency restrictions just a few minutes ago. if you haven't scaled back on your water usage yet, watch out. >> fields are going fallow. thousands of people are going to be out of work. there are communities running out of water and are having lunch sent from other communities to them. they're bathing out of buckets. >> reporter: that's why regulators are considering first of their kind restrictions and hefty fines for water wasters. starting next month, outdoor overwatering could cost you big time. ? for heaven's sakes. when communities across the state are experiencing such