>> go to the airport. >> we've got showers on the way. we'll have more details in the forecast coming up. >> thanks. thanks for joining us here at 5:00. lester holt joins us next. >> bye, folks. on this tuesday night, knocked out. a widespread power failure in washington. the state department, metro stations, museums, even oprah and the first lady left in the dark. tonight, questions about our nation's power grids. violent storms moving across the country. heavy flooding and hail. a deadly plane crash in thick fog. now the tornado threat building tonight off and running. rand paul makes it official. the second big name to jump in the race for president. and secrets to living longer from the places where a lot of people live to be 100. now the american city trying to copy what they do. "nbc nightly news" begins right now. good evening to our viewers in the west. we begin here tonight with breaking news tonight out of south

carolina where a police officer has been charged with murder in the death of a man after a traffic stop. it comes in the wake of several deadly police encounters that sparked protests across the country. this incident happened over the weekend in north charleston. in the video, which we want to warn you is disturbing, you can see the man appear to run away from the officer who then points his weapon and fires several times killing him. nbc's hallie jackson has our report. >> reporter: in this new video posted online late today, a police officer pulls his gun as walter scott appears to run away. his back to the officer, who fires eight times. killing scott, who falls to the ground. it was the deadly conclusion to a traffic stop on saturday. >> shots fired. subject is down. >> the video, apparently shot by a bistander and provided to "the new york times" by scott's family's attorney shows officer michael

slegr handcuffing scott who is face down on the ground. the report says that he fired his taser and feared for his life. late today he's been charged with murder. >> it's been a tragic day for many. >> reporter: north charleston officials asked state law enforcement to investigate and said this video played a part in a decision to bring a murder charge question him. >> i want you to remember we've got 343 police officers in our department. this is a bad decision by one of those 343. >> reporter: scott's death in south carolina is the latest in a string of officer-involved shootings in places like ferguson, missouri, that have made headlines nationally. now the justice department and fbi have launched investigations into what happened in north charleston. if convicted of murder, officer michael slager could face 30 years to life in prison or the death penalty. lester? >> hallie jackson, thank you. wild weather is lighting up the radar tonight. severe storms pushing

across the country triggering flash floods dumping hail and there have been tornado warnings across several states with a dangerous multi-state outbreak in the forecast over the next 48 hours. nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer has our report. >> reporter: across the st. louis area today, a fast-moving storm dumped 3 1/2 inches of rain in 40 minutes flooding streets, sidewalks and parking lots. it streamed off rooftops, overflowing storm drains. hail the size of golf balls battered a large area, looking more like snow in some parts. residents in northern kentucky are bracing for more rain while scrambling to clean up from friday's ferocious storms. crews are trying to fix roads fractured from all that water. while responding to a 911 call, franklin county sheriff pat melton was hit by a mud slide. >> trees were cracking, rocks were rolling. i've never heard anything like it. >> reporter: in

central illinois, thick fog may have been a factor in a plane crash that killed all seven people aboard. the group was returning from the ncaa basketball title game in indianapolis. including illinois state university associate basketball coach torey ward who tweeted before the crash, my ride to the game wasn't bad. in michigan's upper peninsula, five inches of snow had the snow blowers out again. in the west, a funnel cloud near sacramento. >> ice everywhere. >> reporter: and in central california, lodi, an unusual spring hail storm. here's the setup that's going to create more storms tonight, wednesday and thursday. you have warm air clashing with cold air and just enough energy for some of these storms to be severe. add in moisture from the gulf of mexico, and flash flooding is also a possibility. essentially wednesday afternoon into wednesday evening, from tulsa, oklahoma, right up into quincy, illinois. we could also see very large hail and also damaging wind gusts along with isolated tornadoes.

now on thursday the threat spreads especially into eastern missouri and across most of illinois. we could see a line of storms develop that could produce widespread damage and more tornadoes, especially thursday and thursday afternoon. lester? >> doesn't look good. dylan dreyer, thank you. february became the worst state for the drought. in the middle of this severe drought water waste could face hefty fines. but miguel almaguer reports authorities have to catch them first and there's a lot of dry ground to cover. >> reporter: the oasis in the desert. palm springs, where lawns are lush fountains cascade and water is plentiful. 27 holes of championship golf. the region promotes deep green surrounded by desert brown. a landscape that guzzles water in a devastating drought. >> when you drive through palm springs you see the lush greenery including golf courses like this everywhere. is it a symbol of waste? >> i wouldn't say this is a symbol of waste.

this is how the city was built years ago when water was plentiful. >> reporter: the city manager says palm springs needs to change. this golf course uses reclaimed water, others don't. the city spending millions to replace water-thirsty grass with rocks and desert plants. >> these things can't happen overnight. for one there's a significant infrastructure cost. >> reporter: the view from above is stunning, but in palm springs residents consume three times more water than the state archl. average. in the middle of the desert this entire region draws its water from deep underground from aquifers. but with steady growth and more neighborhoods like this one continuing to pop up that water supply is vanishing. stephanie is the water police. all alone covering 1,000 square miles and 100 hss this homes. are you overwhelmed with how much you must patrol? >> i'm very busy yes. >> reporter: this is what she finds every day. >> palm springs is a symbol of the waste but it's also a symbol of the opportunity.

historically in california green, lush lawns were the ideal. but we need to re-evaluate, we need to re-examine that ideal. >> reporter: in this desert community, to save water, they must now draw a line in the sand. miguel almaguer nbc news, palm springs. the halls of power in washington, d.c. were without power for a time today as the lights blinged out from the white house to the capitol and well beyond. given the times we live in had people briefly wondering if it was some kind of attack. others were without power for quite some time leaving many parts of the government to carry on in the dark while elsewhere forcing evacuations at some of the city's famous museums. and raising a lot of questions about how prepared the government really is for a bigger emergency. chris jansing is on that story for us tonight. >> reporter: the lights went out in the middle of the daily briefing. they finished using the lights from a

phone. >> can i have your attention. >> reporter: even the energy department lost power, so did the white house, though the back upgenerator kicked right in. >> i was with the president and he did not know. >> reporter: oprah winfrey just kept talking. >> no doubt about it. >> reporter: but some of the most popular museums were evacuated. including the smithsonian air and space. >> there's a possibility it might have some terrorist activity. >> it was scary. >> reporter: the university of maryland closed, offices cleared out and traffic backed up. adding to the problem, a certain randomness. from where i'm standing, i can see three set of traffic lights but right here they're out. what happened? the power company says all this caused by this. a transmission line fell off its foundation. a relatively small thing pointing to a big problem. even acknowledged by pentagon brass. >> it's just because we really don't know the true

vulnerabilities. >> reporter: we do know the u.s. electric grid loses power three times more often than it did in 1984 much more than any other industrialized nation. japan loses power an average of four minutes a year but in the northeast u.s. 214 minutes according to a university of minnesota analysis. and it just keeps getting worse. the main reasons, aging infrastructure and increased demand from hotter summers, but now experts worry about the growing cyber threat. >> we should have started work on toughening the grid yesterday. >> reporter: in fact, there's widespread agreement the power grid has to be updated and protected from cyber attacks. the problem, as it often is in washington, is money. experts put the price tag from several billion to hundreds of billions of dollars to update a system so old some of it is based on technology dating back to thomas edison. lester? >> all right chris jansing, thanks very much. we'll stay in washington now. late developments in a cyber hacking at the white house that we first told you about last october.

andrea mitchell is monitoring this from our d.c. newsroom. what are you learning? >> reporter: tonight u.s. officials tell me it was russia that hacked the white house last year gaining access to an unclassified computer system that contained the president's private unpublished schedule. at the time vladimir putin, of course, was in a tense showdown with the white house over ukraine. when nbc news first reported last october that the white house had been hacked we also reported it looked suspiciously like russia was the perpetrator. tonight officials tell nbc news said that a subsequent investigation proved it was russia. they got into white house computers through a vulnerability in the statehouse computer network. tonight the pentagon says no classified information was breached. another major entry into the presidential race tonight. republican senator rand paul of kentucky getting a raucous reception hayes kickas he kicked off his campaign in louisville. kelly o'donnell is on the trail.

>> reporter: a louisville, kentucky, ball room teeming with supporters. today senator rand paul launched his presidential campaign. >> government should be restrained and freedom should be maximized. >> reporter: paul offers himself as a different kind of republican. >> if we nominate a candidate who is simply democrat light, what's the point? >> reporter: listed by the tea party movement and his father former congressman ron paul libertarian grassroots followers. senator paul, kelly o'donnell from nbc. can you be in washington and run against washington, sir? rand paul is shaping and revising his own political brand. from aggressive merchandising, stacks of t-shirts turned into campaign cash. >> we're selling a ton of them. >> reporter: to his message, paul opposes most foreign aid and military intervention. but threats like isis made him adjust. >> i will do whatever it takes to defend america from these haters of mankind. >> reporter: paul's stand against government spying appeals to a college crowd.

why are young people interested in rand paul? >> i think they essentially embrace the civil liberties. >> reporter: paul is also courting minority communities. on issues from jobs to prison sentencing reform. >> there needs to be a credible white conservative talking about these things. >> reporter: the republican party's old guard is wary of rand paul. for now, that works for his campaign. kelly o'donnell, nbc news, louisville. a program note, savannah guthrie will interview senator paul live tomorrow morning on "today." in boston today new verdict after the first day of deliberations by the jury in a marathon bombing trial of dzhokhar tsarnaev. jurors working through 30-page verdict forms, one page for each of the counts in the indictment. the jury, seven women and five men will be back at the courthouse again tomorrow morning. still ahead hear tonight, how do you live to be 100? the secret from the five places on the planet that people live longer than

anywhere else. and the american city racing to follow their lead. the teen that just got accepted to every ivy league school there is. we'll tell you what he overcame to achieve his dream.

if you want to live to be 100, there are places around the globe that seem to make it easier to reach that age. so you could either move to one of those spots or find out what they're doing right and apply it right here at home. like an entire american city is now trying to do. nbc's cynthia mcfadden

takes us there. >> reporter: ft. worth mayor, betsy price, is on a roll. >> you're a biker? >> no, i'm not a biker, i'm a cyclist. the difference is, bikers wear leather, a cyclist wears spandex. >> reporter: the health-conscious mayor wants to revolutionize her city. >> this isn't about living longer, this is about having more life in your years. >> reporter: to do it, she's teaming up with national geographic fellow dan buttner who located the five places on earth that people live longer and healthier than anyplace else. >> the longest lived man on the planet lived around here. >> reporter: he dubbed them blue zones. and revealed the common secrets in his new book, "the blue zone solution." we joined him on the italian island of sardinia. a place that produces more 100-year-old men than anywhere else on earth. people here are constantly on the move. eat meat rarely, but have beans almost every day. what you've learned is there's no silver bullet.

>> i call it silver buckshot, actually. it's 20 or 30 little things. but they're little things that you can transport from places like sardinia and bring them home and have them work for you. >> reporter: but can they transform a city nicknamed cow town? a beef-obsessed place with high obesity rates and stressed-out commuters. you guys are on life support here. it's not so good. >> we're really way down there. >> reporter: but the mayor and buettner think they can change that over the next five years. >> about 80% of chronic disease, cancer, dementia, heart disease and diabetes is avoidable. what these people are doing better than us is they're avoiding the diseases that foreshorten our lives. >> reporter: and they're doing that in ways that we can imitate. >> and you don't even have to think about it. you know the adjective that most ensures that you will not order that entree? it's the healthy choice. nobody wants the healthy choice. so changing the adjective from the healthy salad to the

crispy italian salad, the orders go up. >> reporter: he's already implemented these ideas and many others in 22 smaller cities. >> after two or three years, we see obesity dropping by double digits. we see smoking rates drop by as much as 30%. we see healthier eating, more physical activity. >> reporter: mayor price believes ft. worth can do it, too. there are those who would say government should keep its nose out of this. >> i'm not in any state. we're not passing any ordinances. i'm very conservative. i'm the last person that would say you have to do this. this is about making better choices. if you're used to eating beef six days a week, maybe you eat it four days a week. >> reporter: we'll see if the shepherds in sardinia can lend a hand to the cowboys in texas. cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, ft. worth. we're back in a moment with a big unveiling today by the first lady and oprah. and questions about the origin of a famous quote.

it's meant to be a tribute to a poet and

author and all-around inspiring woman, but of all the moving quotes that could have been chosen to honor the late maya angelou on her official stamp, the post office apparently went with one that doesn't belong to her. kate snow explains. >> reporter: at a packed theater in washington today, first lady michelle obama and oprah joined the postmaster general. >> she'd get a big kick out of this moment today. >> reporter: the angelou stamp features this quote a bird doesn't sing because it has an answer. it sings because it has a song. just one problem, angelo may not have penned those words. a professor at emerson college flagged the "washington post" that he always thought joan walsh anglin wrote it. she later confirmed that's her quote, with the pronoun changed. the postal service said mayo angelou cited this sentence frequently in media interviews and other forums. even president obama used the quote. >> the late great maya angelou once said, a bird doesn't sing

because it has an answer. it sings because it has a song. >> reporter: a postal service spokesman told the "washington post," had we known about this issue beforehand, we would have used one of angelou's many other works. >> history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again. >> reporter: there are plenty to choose from. kate snow, nbc news, new york. when we come back, how a high schooler went from hitting a language barrier to getting into every ivy league college.

it's quite a thing to be able to say harvard is your safety school, or princeton or brown. there's one high school senior from elmont, new york who can say that about any one of them because he was accepted to all the ivy league schools and then some. but as nbc's anne thompson reports, he overcame some steep odds to get there.

>> oh, wow, nice. okay. >> reporter: in this season of college acceptances, 17-year-old harold ekeh is undefeated. >> it's like getting hit by a brick. when you see congratulations. wow, the hard work has paid off, definitely. >> reporter: he's seen congratulations from every ivy league school. all eight accepted harold to the class of 2019. you were not the valedictorian of your class? >> no. i wasn't, no. >> you are -- which means you're number two. >> yeah. >> reporter: even so, he has a 100.5 grade point average and a stellar list of accomplishments, including working as a science researcher to stop the progression of alzheimer's disease that affects the grandmother he adores. harold, who dresses for success, was born in nigeria. his family left when he was just 8. >> i remember when i was coming to america, i tried to memorize the name of the 50 states. especially new york. our destination state. it sounded so exotic to me, new york. what is that?

>> reporter: to give their now five sons better opportunities, harold's parents left good jobs in nigeria and worked as clerks at target. the family struggles form the basis of his college essay. >> i risked humiliation, spent my recesses talking to unfamiliar faces and sarcastic remarks. >> reporter: today harold has found his rhythm. generous financial aid will help harold pursue his dream of becoming a brain surgeon. reaping opportunities built on that most american of values, hard work. anne thompson, nbc news, elmont, new york. >> quite a young man. congratulations. that's going to do it for us on this tuesday night. i'm lester holt. for all of us here at nbc news, thank you for watching, and good night.

nbc bay area news starts now. >> right now at 6:00 you can see it right there on our radar. the storm now hammering the sierra covering it with snow. it also drenched the bay area and made a dent in a few reservoirs. tonight people who live near some of the reservoirs are asking some pointed questions. >> we have this water up there. it's ours. we paid for it. we paid for the infrastructure that created it. >> good evening and thanks for joining us. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. something the sierra sorely missed, that snow. it's been coming down so hard

drivers putting on their chains. earlier today the storm pounded santa rosa with hail. it didn't stick, though because the ground was too warm. but our viewers did capture this video. and this morning the storm created a pool of water on 280. the driver even got stuck. caltrans crews showed up to unclog the drain. the driver turned out to be fine. we have team coverage tonight. terry mcsweeney is up in the sierra. rob mayeda is tracking the storm. but we begin with mark matthews. and mark rather managers in marin county are set to implement new restrictions tonight. they weren't exactly expecting a fight, but it sounds like they going to get one. >> reporter: they may. the water board meeting begins at 7:30. expected to approve the state water board's request for cuts by limiting landscaping to three days a week. the rub here is that in marin county water levels are actually above normal and some residents are wondering why they have to cut. marin's water is largely dependent on its reservoirs.