thanks for joining us here at 5:00. >> bye-bye. on our broadcast tonight, boots on the ground. did the nation's top military officer just open the door to the possibility of american combat troops in this fight against isis despite what the president told the nation? without warning. wildfires explode in california engulfing entire neighborhoods as some families escape only with what they were wearing. money talks, but will the nfl listen? along with their customers, now some of the game's biggest advertisers starting to weigh in. and legal weed in colorado where they can't grow it fast enough to keep up with demand, but there have been some scares along the way that other states are now watching. "nightly news" begins now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams.

good evening and once again here tonight we begin with men and women in the u.s. military being sent off to serve overseas on two big fronts. today the president said he's sending up to 3,000 americans into africa to join in the fight against ebola, an enemy they cannot see. but first to an enemy operating out in the open. this fight against isis and the debate that broke out again today was whether or not the u.s. can truly avoid putting troops on the ground. it's where we begin tonight with our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. >> reporter: is this the beginning of mission creep? the president's top general today opening the door to requesting american boots on the ground against isis. >> if we reach the point where i believe our advisers should accompany iraq troops on attacks against specific isil targets, i'll recommend that to the president. >> reporter: and this. >> if there are threats to the united states, then i, of course, would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include

the use of u.s. military ground forces. >> reporter: but the president has repeatedly promised no boots on the ground. >> these american forces will not have a combat mission. we will not get dragged into another ground war in iraq. >> reporter: and telling chuck todd on "meet the press" -- >> the notion that the united states should be putting boots on the ground i think would be a profound mistake. >> reporter: general dempsey even told congress u.s. troops could be embedded with iraqis on complex missions like retaking mosul. and he said it could take a year to train only 5,000 syrian forces to go up against isis in syria, something critics in both parties say should have been done two years ago. >> was the president right in 2012 when he overruled his secretary of defense, secretary of state and director of the cia and refused to train and equip the modern opposition forces in syria, which, according to your testimony, we're doing today? >> senator, you know that i recommended that we train them. >> reporter: isis isn't waiting.

today in a propaganda video claiming it shot down a syrian war plane, a claim nbc news cannot verify, and two branches of al qaeda tweeted a rare joint message urging warring militants in iraq and syria to stop the infighting between you and stand as one rank against america's campaign. even as the u.s. escalated its air war, striking isis targets near baghdad. the white house quickly said that general dempsey's comments were only hypothetical. and under pressure from the white house, tonight dempsey's spokesman said american combat forces are not required now, but he repeated that if the situation calls for combat troops, he will ask for them. >> andrea mitchell starting us off in our d.c. newsroom tonight. thanks. now to the second front, this fight against ebola, which as of today became a military matter. as we said, up to 3,000 american military personnel will be deployed into this hot zone in africa at a starting cost of $600 million, all of it to

combat an outbreak the world health organization called today, quote, unparalleled in modern times. we get our report tonight from our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: the images from west africa are searing. children alone in the streets, men collapse and left to die. with ebola now spiraling beyond a health crisis and into a global security threat, president obama said the united states must do more. >> ebola is now an epidemic of the likes that we've not seen before. >> reporter: and so the administration announced today operation united assistance, sending 3,000 troops including medical, engineering and security forces. building 17 treatment centers in liberia, shipping 10,000 sets of protective equipment and supplies. training healthcare workers and assisting with security. >> we've done it in haiti several times. we've done it in south america, we've done it in africa before, we've done it in southeast asia.

>> reporter: but this is an infectious hot zone. >> that is unprecedented. i can't remember a time when we sent troops to do this particular mission. >> reporter: u.s. forces will not have any direct contact with ebola patients, but they will be dealing with people who are scared and suspicious of outsiders offering to help. so the question remains -- who's really in charge? >> we've got the russians, the cubans, the japanese, the chinese, the ugandans, the europeans, the canadians, all working on this issue. who's going to take control? >> reporter: the virus is spreading much faster than efforts to contain it. researchers suspect the epidemic started last december with one case in guinea. now there are nearly 5,000 cases in five african countries. some experts predict that if we don't get control of the virus, the number of infections could mushroom to nearly 55,000 by next month. today ebola survivor and missionary dr. kent brantly met with the president before testifying before congress.

>> i witnessed the horror that this disease visits upon its victims. this is not simply a matter of providing humanitarian aid, it is very much a national security concern. >> reporter: the death toll has climbed to over 2500 cases. if there is a silver lining in this epidemic, it may be that we're finally talking about a real commitment to improving fragile healthcare systems in west africa and around the world. brian. >> a national security concern. that's the takeaway quote. nancy, thank you, as always. now to a state of emergency in california where a dozen wildfires are exploding including one so ferocious it torched half of a town turning neighborhoods into ashes. our own miguel almaguer is in the community of weed, california, north of reading, prepared to show us the extent of the devastation there. miguel, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. this is the biggest neighborhood in weed. we are just off of oak street. it's an eerie example of what we

saw over and over again today. just yesterday children were playing in this front lawn, their toys are still tossed everywhere. now home after home obliterated. jumping from house to house, fanned by 45-mile-an-hour winds -- >> over the hill big time. >> reporter: -- a hundred structures, nearly a quarter of this small town, was damaged or destroyed. 1500 people scrambled to get out. >> horrendous. absolutely just devastating. >> reporter: tammy gonzalez ran to evacuate children from a nearby school as flames barreled down on them. did you think you were going to make it out alive? >> at one point, no. >> reporter: with smoke choking this community of 3,000, it wasn't until today that the full scope of the damage became clear. the holy family catholic church is where corey rodriguez was baptized. >> it's like out of a movie, mm-hmm. especially a church where i used to come like every sunday, yeah.

>> reporter: just across the street, the lumber mill, a major employer for the town, was fuel for the fire. >> like a firestorm. >> reporter: the bernstein family lost the home their children grew up in. >> a lot of this, you know, just the sentimental stuff is what can't be replaced. >> reporter: at 4,000 feet we can still see hot spots on the ground. this fire is still very active. it could change direction and attack homes at any moment. tonight california's fire season is in full swing. near sacramento, tense moments when a crew of 12 deployed their fire shelters as flames overran their position. >> we'll need to give them support to get out of there. >> reporter: the crew rescued, no injuries, but a close call. but in this small town, the damage is done. everyone knows someone who lost something. >> people's lives are ruined. this town, i don't know if they're going to be able to recover from this.

>> reporter: recovering is hard to imagine when you see so much destruction in such a small place. so many people we spoke to tonight say they're not sure if or when they will rebuild. if there's any good news, this place is roughly 20% contained, but brian, it will cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up and rebuild. >> what an incredible scene there in weed, california, tonight. miguel, thanks. well to the south of you in the baja peninsula tonight, herculean cleanup effort under way after hurricane odile turned places like cabo san lucas into disaster areas. an entire year's worth of rain falling in one storm. tonight as the remnants of odile move into the continental u.s. millions in the american southwest are bracing for more dangerous flash floods now. weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is in tucson for us tonight. hey, jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the lot you see behind me was 3/4 full and flow being

rapidly as a result of last week's flood. and they're hoping for not a repeat of that with this one. unfortunately, all signs is of the atmosphere point to that. as a matter of fact even today in mesa they were handing out sandbags, something they rarely do in the desert where you get less than ten inches of rain. and that's hoping to avoid, obviously, situations like we had last monday in mesa. i mean, we're talking about tremendous flooding. tucson, phoenix, record rainfall there. as you can see, water rescues all over the place. the track brings the remnants right up into arizona. it's very rare that we're in the cone here. rainfall amounts in tucson, las cruces, roswell, el paso and albuquerque anywhere from 4 to 10 inches, something they would normally see in half a year. >> jim cantore, tucson, amazing situation, jim, thanks. we turn to trouble in the nfl and some new voices joining in this nonstop criticism of the league, its players, policy and management. while it's true the commissioner roger goodell works for the owners, increasingly the customers and the advertisers

are being heard as more details in this scandal come out every day. we get the very latest tonight from our national correspondent peter alexander. >> reporter: challenging ray rice's indefinite suspension, the nfl players union is filing an appeal tonight on behalf of rice. a union representative tells nbc news they believe there was not a fair and impartial process before the decision to suspend rice indefinitely, and they'll ask commissioner roger goodell to recuse himself from overseeing the appeal. >> he has enormous power, enormous discretion. so the very fact that the union is asking him to step aside is a fairly direct challenge. >> reporter: today the minnesota vikings adrian peterson returned home from the team's facility telling nbc news he plans to practice with his teammates again tomorrow. while the star running back disputing charges that he recklessly injured his 4-year-old son while disciplining him, vikings hall of famer fran tarkenton said he was embarrassed by the team's decision to allow peterson to resume playing. >> we're trying to do the right thing. >> reporter: hours after its

logo appeared behind the vikings general manager, radisson suspended its sponsorship of the team. first sign of erosion from the corporate sponsor spending 1 billion a year. even budweiser said we're not yet satisfied with the league's handling of matters. the league's response, we're taking action. >> the nfl is like an aircraft carrier hitting a mine. yes, it blows a hole in the hull, but it keeps on sailing and in a few months you won't even notice that the hole was there. >> reporter: days after cbs sports yanked a rihanna song from its nfl product cast opting for a more serious opening, the singer blasted the network tweeting, you all are sad for penalizing me for this. cbs has pulled rihanna's song permanently. the nfl deciding the best defense is a good offense. today they drafted cynthia hogan, a former aid to then senator joe biden, who helped spearhead passage of the violence against women act 20

years ago. >> so it goes in the world of professional football tonight. veteran nascar driver tony stewart has returned to the track since the accident that claimed the life of another driver, kevin ward jr., in that dirt track race in upstate new york. but stewart learned today that his legal troubles are hardly over and may indeed just be starting. the local d.a. said he will give the case over to a grand jury to decide if stewart should be charged. the prosecutor could have dropped the case on his own but chose to let it proceed. still ahead for us tonight, edible weed. as the pot business booms in colorado, one particular part of the industry has other states keeping close watch. and later, fresh confirmation of what some veteran married couples have known for years. there may indeed be a secret to wedded bliss.

the state of colorado would likely like a word with all the other states that are considering going down the path of legalizing marijuana, and in a word, it's caution. it's been a game changer in colorado where adults can now

grow and buy and consume something illegal under federal law. it is a huge statewide industry, but there have been some problems. we get our report tonight from nbc's harry smith. >> reporter: every thursday night there's a party at grow big supply. free drinks, music and dancers, even a place to smoke. it's a way of saying thank you to the customers for making grow big a giant in the pot growing supply business. because in colorado these days, you can grow your own. >> an entry level kit to get into your garden, under 300 bucks. >> reporter: recreational and medical pot sales in colorado have soared past $300 million in just the first six months of the year. pot-repreneurs like andy williams can't grow weed fast enough. he describes his store, called medicine man, as the costco of pot. all of this weed that you grow -- and there's an awful lot of marijuana here -- >> yeah. >> reporter: where does it go?

>> we sell it out of our store. we don't wholesale anything. we grow 100% of what we sell out of our front end. >> you are clear for takeoff down runway 420. >> reporter: but if the high rolling marijuana business has hit a bump, it's edibles. >> very different from smoking. it takes a lot longer through the body. >> reporter: some first-time adult users have said edibles have made them paranoid and hallucinatory. worse still, edibles have gotten into the hands of small children. this is crazy. because if you have this in your house and your kid got hold of this stuff -- >> that's the thing about weed, the kid won't know that it's medicated. >> parents need to know and be aware that this stuff is not harmless for children. >> reporter: dr. sam wong works in the emergency room at colorado's children's hospital. >> the worst scenarios we've seen are kids actually unable to be aroused, basically in are a coma for all intents and purposes. we've had a couple kids who needed to have a breathing tube put down.

>> reporter: actually intubated. >> intubated that's correct. >> reporter: wow. what kind of gummies? >> blue raspberry. >> reporter: bob eschino of incredible edibles says the industry and the state are working together to make edibles safer. >> we need to now mark these so that people looking at them will know this the cannabis. >> reporter: but he says there's only so much the manufacturers can do. >> eventually the responsibility has to fall back on the consumer to make sure that they keep it in the child-resistant package and they keep it out of the hands of children. >> reporter: which one would think is a matter of common sense. harry smith, nbc news, denver. we're back in a moment with a big announcement late today about america's new mission to space.

we have an update tonight as part of our coverage on poverty in this country in plain sight. tonight the first good news in a long while in the fight against poverty. the poverty rate in the u.s. has

dropped for the first time since '06. mind you, there are still 45.3 million people living in poverty in this country. that includes nearly 20% of our children, and that's the lowest level since 2000. nasa announced late today it's awarding a dual contract to two companies, boeing and spaceex, to build a rocket to take astronauts into space and on to the international space station. a couple of points to remember here, sending americans into space is what nasa used to do until the shuttle program was stopped three years ago. these days we pay the russians for rides on board the soyuz. $70 million per astronaut. and relations with them, of course, are strained. our own jay barbary who has covered every manned u.s. space flight says this is good news indeed for nasa. >> this announcement tells everyone here that they're back in the game, their morale will be lifted and they'll be headed down the road back in space on our own vehicle.

>> truth be told, the nasa rockets of old were the product of many different vendors. now two big names will split that job. speaking of space, if you live in the northeast think back to sunday night around 11:00 p.m. eastern time. did you notice anything unusual? well, we now have the video. this one shot from manhattan looking west toward new jersey shows a confirmed meteor which prompted a number of sightings and calls to police. this one was visible from new england south to virginia. the good folks at the american meteor society put out this map showing where all the sightings were reported and concentrated. they called it a random fireball event. the truth is they happen every day. most burn up to a crisp and many of them go unseen due to daylight. and if looking skyward you see what appears to be a flying highlighter, it's just spirit airlines' new look. paint schemes are called livery in the flying business. southwest and frontier just changed theirs, and a "usa today" writer has politely

called spirit's new livery scheme flamboyant. when we come back on a tuesday night, something some spouses have been saying to the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. a the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. b the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. ou the others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true. others for years. and now the researchers tell us it's true.

finally tonight, while no two marriages are alike, you would have thought they didn't need a study to confirm the secret to a happy marriage. but they have done it. turns out there's proof of what a lot of married men have been saying for years. we get our report tonight from nbc's kate snow. >> reporter: the saying has been around so long it's hard to know who started it. >> happy wife is a happy life. >> happy wife, happy life. >> happy wife, happy life. remember that. >> reporter: the whole theme immortalized in movies. >> the man is the head, but the woman is the neck. and she can turn the head any way she wants. >> reporter: but actual science? that's the new part. researchers at rutgers and the university of michigan looked at 394 older couples married an average of 39 years. turns out husbands get an extra special lift in life satisfaction when their wives are happy in the marriage. >> even those men who in their own eyes saw their marriage as

not that great, if the wife views the marriage as really great, that would enhance his overall happiness. >> i agree with that. the wife has to be happy. >> if she's happy, it makes -- we're all happy in the family. >> reporter: we did our own unscientific survey all over the country today. >> how long are we married? >> 27 years. >> we've been married 48 years tomorrow. >> 24 years. >> reporter: so what are the ingredients for a happy marriage? >> be willing to give more than you take. >> there's always going to be a storm. there's always going to be rain. however, the secret is dancing in the rain together. >> and not working the same shift. >> that helps a lot. >> yes. >> reporter: yes, the science points to differences between husbands and wives, but a lot of people today echoed what the researchers called the biggest lesson of their work -- happy family equals happy life. >> i love ya. >> yeah, okay. >> okay. >> reporter: kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> and 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. goodnight. . right now, 6:00. you're looking at the flames that swept through the tiny town of weed in no time homes and even a church went up in flames. good evening. thanks for being with us. >> we begin with that developing story. massive wildfire in northern california. just moments ago we learned in cal fire that 375 acres have burned. that fire is now 20% contained. the battle now, for many hot spots and the wind. this map shows where weed is

located. if you pass it you're heading to oregon on the i-5 freeway. jodie hernandez joins us live in weed with the lay latest. >> the damage that this fire caused is truly unbelievable. i'm going to show you what's left of a power pole out here. this fire melted a down utility lines and if we can pan down you can see what is left of somebody's house. it's not just one house. we're talking house after house after house. we're going to pan down here. this fire leveled blocks of houses here in this city of weed. in fact firefighters say it moved so fast and caused so much destruction in such a short period of time they say it zpt get much worse than. this. >> it was -- it was just scary to seat flames. it happened so fast. the wind was so bad 679. it just