hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. so rely sbruptd, right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the day after that east coast earthquake shook up 1/3 of the country. the washington monument several federal buildings and schools in d.c. and virginia remain closed as engineers inspect for structural damage. shock waves of a different sort today in libya. rebel forces seize control of tripoli. the international red cross helps free journalists being held hostage in the press hotel. but where is muammar gadhafi? the hunt continues as he vows to fight until victory or death. and is the tomorrow barrelling toward the u.s. hurricane irene. now a category three storm closing in on the bahamas, next stop the east coast. north carolina's outer banks are

already being evacuated. >> get your evacuation kit ready. get your medicines ready. take your insurance documents and have a plan to get out if you have to. treat this seriously, but then pray real hard that north carolina will be fine. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. we'll start in libya and the hunt for muammar gadhafi. rebel forces searching the capital for the fallen try rant who used a radio address this morning to call for more bloodshed. rich engel is in tripoli and joys me now by phone. what is the level of violence right now? what are you seeing where you are? >> reporter: i think you can say there is more chaos than there is violence. the rebels are out in the streets. they are firing guns in the air. they are sort of looking for gadhafi and his loyalists, but with so much gunfire coming from so many people, the rebels frankly don't know who is firing. they don't know if they're being

fired upon. we've seen rebels who sometimes will engage each other. they have fired into cars didn'tly. others -- there's no one really in control here. so theoretically, yes, there's a manhunt underway for gadhafi loyalists in the city. the rebels have certainly set up check points, but there's lots of rumors now in this city. when the rebels will tell themselves and some of these rebels are very young, we're talking 15, 16, 18-year-old boys, some of them will say that they thought they heard a snipe ner a particular window and another group of rebels will start firing. another detached group of rebels will see that firing and think they're being engaged. you can imagine how the simple gets out of hand. it's still very chaotic here. >> how good a job is the tnc doing of setting up check points and trying to gain control of the capital? >> reporter: i would say they're not doing a very good job at all. we have seen no evidence of any kind of organized rebel council,

no organized central control. the rebels are moving through the city. they are still celebrating by and large. they're setting up check points, but it does not seem to be done in any central way. the tnc which is the transitional national council which has been based in benghazi does have representatives here. i've seen some people who i used to know when i was reporting on the benghazi side. they are starting to come here. but it doesn't seem like they've set up any kind of transitional government on the ground or certain lit not one that is being listened to if it even exists. >> briefly, richard, i know you've got to go, there is a report that the rebels have taken control of a key military base. are you aware of that? what would be the significance if that is correct? >> reporter: yes, i've heard about that. again the question is takeover,

how much of a battle there is unclear. there are still some pocket where is the rebels are fighting around the gadhafi compound. it seems that some to have loyalists left that compound and moved into former military bases. but again, it's very hard to know how much of this fighting is real and how much of this is friendly fire. when earlier this morning in gadhafi's own compound as the rebels were searching themselves other rebels started to fire in rockets and mortars on top of them. i don't think anyone was killed in that particular incident. some of these things that look like raging battles seem to be in fact, confusion. >> richard engel, please try to take care of yourself. thank you very much you and your team. and with us here washington bureau chef of the al-aribiya television network. your network has done so much of the on the ground reporting. and you have sop information. what is your sense of the

ability of the tnc to try to gain control because time is critical? >> the next few days in tripoli are going to be crucial because they will tell us a lot about the shape of things to come just as the shape of things in april in baghdad in 2003 told us the shape of things to come in iraq. the mayhem and looting colored the development of iraq. they should avoid a situation like that. the transitional council should send some senior people to tripoli quickly to try to establish a degree of law and order there. >> they said they were, but some of their promises have not been fulfilled such as the arrest of saif al-islam. it's chaos. >> i know this partly is lack of communication. it deflereflects the nature of rebel groups. you have people from the east, rebels from the west, local people are now armed. there's a chaotic situation as richard ably described. but they have to move quickly otherwise they will lose the

momentum and the control. the later development would be affected by that rocky beginning. so they have a major challenge and i think unless they move quickly, they're going to have a serious problem in tripoli. >> they have a cash flow problem. they've got to pay government workers, try to get a government stood up and the u.s. and others are having problems disentangling those sanctions which are so hard to unfreeze. it's unbelievable all the procedures. $30 billion u.s., $20 billion i think from the uk. more around the world. but only about 10% here is liquid and of that they're trying to get $1.5 billion susan rice the u.n. ambassador told us. what are you hearing about money and cash on hand? >> this is a country that is rich on paper. they have almost $150 billion in frozen assets throughout the world as you mentioned the united states and england and others. but they have a cash flow problem. yesterday the turks did something fascinating.

the former minister went to benghazi and met with the head of the council sill and provided them with some very badly needed cash to pay the salaries for people during the whole month of ramadan. >> that's extraordinary. a delivery of cash from the foreign minister directly to the rebel leaders. >> we did that in iraq following april. that helped us to contain the situation. >> but that's when the u.s. had occupied it was a delivery to people who were really controlling. this is a delivery once removed. it shows a certain amount of faith and confidence. >> you have to shake the bureaucracy a little bit to get the cash flow problem solved immediately. otherwise, again, the legitimacy and the credibility of the transitional council will be in doubt. >> thank you so much. as always. hurricane irene now a category three storm bearing down on the bahamas. it's gaping strength and could slam into the east coast this

weekend. residents from the carolinas to new england are on high alert. evacuations are already underway in north carolina where lieutenant governor walter dalton joins us from raleigh. thanks so much for being us. i know you've got so much on your plate right now. tell us about the preparations and about these evaiks are these mandatory, valuetary, what's the status? >> it's mandatory on the isle of oh coke right now. it is limited access. you can only get there by ferry. we began to evacuate people this morning. i would ask the people when you're asked to evacuate please do so. you're not only jeopardize your own safety, but you jeopardize the safety of others. but we are preparing for the worst but hoping and praying for the best. >> governor, at this stage you've got a lot of vacationers. this is the season this week.

so you want people to get out especially from those outder bank islands and what else do you want people to do to prepare in north carolina? what other steps should they be taking? >> those residents there obviously property owners there should be getting their boats out of the water. they should be protecting their property. we've always encouraged the hurricane safety kit three-day supply of food and water. you need flashlights because electrical service could go down. it's a weekend so cash money. i would go to the atm right now so you can be prepared for that. our emergency response teams are on the ground. we are working with the local fire and rescue. we already have fema assist teams on the ground here. the good thing about the hurricane is if -- there's never anything good about a hurricane, but at least you do have some advanced warning. we are very familiar with that

situation. doug hoil our emergency management coordinator is already on the job coordinating with local governments. i think people should be watching news media as you are doing making them aware of the dangers that may exist with this storm. obey those requests for evacation if they do come. and be safe during this whole process. >> lieutenant governor dalton, thank you very much for being with us. and we wish all of you well. and us as well as it moves up the east coast. thanks, governor. >> thank you so much. meanwhile the rest of the east coast is still feeling a few small aftershocks after yesterday's earthquake. two nuclear plants briefly lost power and went to back up generation. north ana is seventh most likely to have a catastrophic failure many the event of a quake. what about the damage assessment here in washington? luke russert is live on the national mall. what is the worst damage, i

guess you've got the monument behind you, that says it all, doesn't it? >> it does, andrea. a day after the earthquake, business is pseudo back to order in washington, d.c. there were two monuments damaged in yesterday's cake. the washington monument closed indefinitely to tourists because of a sizable crack on the west top of it right up where that point is. it's unclear as to how big the crack is. how much will have an event on the structure. it's being closed to tourists. the national cathedral a few short blocks from where you are in the studio. a beautiful edifice, often known as the nalgs's church. lost three of the four pinnacles. that's closed as there is a review of the structural soundness. the united states capitol a few paint chips on the ground there. a few committee rooms in the rayburn building nothing major.

all in all d.c. was able to brauf through it. an interesting thing from folks at the national zoo they talk about the reaction of the animals at the national zoo, the lemurs knew about the earthquake 15 minutes before it hit sounding their alarms. we might have to get some lemurs around the city. >> i want to lemur to let me know so we could get out of here more quickly. the national building one of our favorite buildings has been closed because of some structural concerns. that's where we were going to kick off the martin luther king junior dedication tonight. that dinner is being moved. i'm master of ceremonies we're moving to it the convention center. but the national center muse seem bidding will be repaired. >> indeed. take care. coming up next, where are muammar gadhafi's chemical weapons? and college basketball's winningest coach faces a bigger challenge off the court. send me your thoughts on twitter and follow the show online.

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libya's rebel leaders say that they are moving to tripoli from their headquarters in benghazi, that's meant to assert control over the country by signaling solidarity among competing rebel groups and getting to the capital. u.n. ambassador susan rice talked to me about the challenges facing the new government. >> there are no institutions of state. there's no history of accountable or even normal governance of any sort. it's been a one-man show for 42 years. so i think it would be wise for us to be realistic in expecting there will be growing pains. there will be challenges within the opposition coalition. >> for more on those growing pains, let's bring in michael

singh managing director of the washington institute. a former senior director on the security council. and the senior security correspondent at "the new york times." >> hi, andrea. >> one of the issues was money. the turkish foreign yesterday delivered cash to benghazi so they they could start paying workers during ramadan, a key factor. we are having trouble unfreezing the assets. is this deliberate or just so many technical aspects to this many the treasury and the u.n.? >> well, it is quite complicated. certainly the rebels need the cash. the oil production has pretty much come to a halt. until they get the oil production back up, they really will be cash strapped. i think there's two problems. one it is technically complex to lift the sanctions and lift the asset freezes. you need the cooperation not just of the u.s. government but the private entities holding the assets. second, the u.s. government needs to be re-assured that the people they're giving the assets

to are reliable people. there's some reluctance as well as some complexities. >> to release it more slowly than certainly all at once, you want to see evidence that they're come plying and doing the things that they said they're going to do. mark, what about the weapons? there's a real national security challenge out here. first of all we are told by government officials that we are keeping track aerially of the stockpiles of chemical weapons. how safe are they? >> that's assuming that the u.s. knows exactly where they are, all of the stockpiles. they can probably monitor what they know about. the intelligence inside the gadhafi regime over the last several years has certainly not perfect. my guess is there's a degree of concern about what they don't know. right now trying to assess where does the regime stand, where is gadhafi, how much of tripoli still is in gadhafi's hands or the loyalists hands? this could go on for several weeks not only trying to battle

the elements what's left of gadhafi's regime, also as you said to try to track down these weapons. >> we all know what happened when saddam hussein was a fugitive and there was looting. there was chaos. a lot of bad decisions were made let's say about disarming the army and not asserting control in the near term. but there is a fairly short window here. how important is it to both of you to get muammar gadhafi and to figure out what to do with him? >> well, i think that muammar gadhafi at this point is more a symbol than anything else. >> but simm bols matter in this situation. >> his supporters may continue fighting. more important is basic security. getting ahold of security. ensuring security there. the libyans have an advantage over the iraqis in resistance the rebels are made up in large part of former security officials, former regime officials. this isn't quite the same sort of situation where you had

debaathification and disbandment of the iraqi security services in 2003. >> that is one of the key points. a former gadhafi loyalists at every level, security, government, civil service have to be incorporated. they have to be tested for their allegiance. >> the importance is the rebels getting to tripoli at some point, establishing themselves as the future government. but until that -- until the fighting dies down, you're probably not going to see that happen. this could go on for some period of time. so how the old regime and the new regime blend in it's still very much a work in progress and i think that -- finding gadhafi is very important. remember what the u.s. said when they couldn't find saddam hussein, it wasn't very important -- >> until he was. >> and then it was very, very important this is a similar situation. >> we're waiting for that we got him moment. indeed. thank you very much. >> thank you. and jeb bush has some advice coming up for the republican

field. the politico briefing up next. plus, former first lady nancy reagan. she's doing fine today after a near fall at the reagan library last night. mrs. reagan was being escorted to her seat by florida senator marco rubio when she lost her balance. senator rubio and others came to her rescue. mrs. reagan was not hurt, she was able to remain for the event. ... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? great! thanks. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief. twice as fast. test our fast relief. love it, or get your money back. hut! go! here it comes! right on the numbers! boom! get it! spin! oh, nice hands! chest bump. ugh!

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people at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. jeb bush has ruled out a 2012 run again. the former governor of florida also has a warning for his party. >> furr a conservative you have to persuade, you have to defend a position. you can't just be against the president. >> you think some in your party overdo it? >> i do. i do. i think when you start ascribing bad motives to the guy i think that's wrong. it turns off a bunch of people that want solutions. >> joining us national political reporter for politico. david, thanks for joining us.

>> hey, andrea. >> that's an interesting warning he's clearly talking to rick perry, michele bachmann, and he's the person that a lot of people within the party wanted to see running. >> right. he wouldn't sigh he was criticizing rick perry, that's surely who he was speaking about. he said there's no problem with the bush family and perry. this is who the conservatives and activists are pining for, but they're not going to get jeb bush a conservative governor from florida but that can communicate in a way that appeals to moderates and independents. he looks like he's a wise man and not this this this field. >> marco rubio was at the reagan library with nancy reagan helping her when she had a small stumble. he's only been in the senate for a very short while. but he was asked about the presidency himself and the vice presidency. >> if you're mother asks you to accept the vp spot what will you

say? >> it's a great honor to be thought of in that way. i have as i joked earlier today, i have no interest in seshs as vice president for anyone who could possibly live all eight years of the presidency, so. >> david, he's from florida. he's cuban-american. he's conservative. he's got tea party support. what doesn't he have? >> right. you know as well as i do that these guys never answer these questions honestly. he will undoubtedly be at the top of any nominee's list for vice president. all the characteristics that you just laid out are going to be very important. i'd put one other person on the top of the list and that would be the governor of new mexico susan na martinez who has very good approval ratings. i think they'll be at the top of any gop nominee's list. >> he wowed them at the reagan

library on top of everything else. thank you very much. >> sure. don't miss the nbc politico republican debate at the reagan library on wednesday, september th, at 8:00 p.m. eastern moderated by nbc's brian williams. up next, is rick perry too conservative for the granite state? former new hampshire senator john sununu joins us. and a report from the outer banks where residents are evacuating. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! [ quack ] oh yeah? what about your family? ♪ we added aflac, so we get cash! it's like our safety net... ♪ to help with the mortgage or whatever we need! so my family doesn't feel the pain too. ha! [ male announcer ] help protect your family at aflac.com. [ pigeons ] heyyy! hooo!!!

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aware that irene is back that way about 900 plus miles. but they're also paying attention to, well first especially tourists if they have to leave and local residents waiting to determine whether they're going to have to take action. the grocery stores are not full of people cleaning them up. haven't seen any shutters going up. that likely will happen today when people get a better idea of the path irene is going to take. i've spoken with fema. and he is notifying and keeping the white house aware of all of the developments including the initial evacuations that are taking place on okra coke island where they told tourists they have to leave. tomorrow the remaining 800 residents on the island will have to leave. also telling the white house

they need to be aware. the president is on vacation on martha's vineyard. it's possible the effects of irene could be felt right there as well. so right now folks are watching what's happening. and they're waiting to determine what course of action they'll have to take. relying on the warnings from local officials. >> and of course, we're going to keep an eye of all of this stay on msnbc keeping track of the storm as it heads toward the u.s. and then up the east coast if it stays on its current course it is gaining strength. nato warplanes are circling libya's capital hunting targets from gadhafi's fallen regime. inside city limits loyalist snipers are still a threat as richard engel is still reporting. let's bring in military analyst, retired general barry mcafrrey. let's have a reality check from you. the rebels have been making a lot of claims of what they're

going to do. richard, says so far he sees little sign that they're gaining control of the capital in terms of asserting civilian order. >> in many ways, this is a beautiful thing to watch. basically citizens arm themselves and overthrow this extremely lethal and well organized and violent regime. but they are a mob, an armed mob. the fighters came from the east and the west. some of them are beshers, some of them organized from some town or village. others are just armed citizens in the streets of tripoli with weapons and are fighting. this is going to be probably not too long. my guess is in a week or so they get it under control. it's going to be bloody and incoherent. >> what concerns you most in the next few days, the week perhaps where the violence continues? >> i think the intense expectations by the international community by the

observe vant outsiders who are going to expect a lot and very little's going to happen along those lines, hard to imagine there won't be immediate retribution against gadhafi, his tribe, those who have tormented them for 42 years. hard to imagine. the electricity, the oil industry starts up, hard to imagine that there's effective policing of two million person city in the coming months. they've got some challenges, the international community kneads to help. we'd better release their money pretty soon. they've got to pay salaries. that will be one way to throw cold water on the fire is get people jobs and get them back to work. >> and big picture, what does this say about nato? it's effectiveness or lack of effectiveness? >> well, i don't know. i think there's a moment here of triumphant euphoria which i'm proud of. i've served a lot of years in nato.

nato was 60 days short of unraveling on this mission. they didn't have the air power, the munitions, the political will to continue this much longer. we have more to do. nato's important to our future security. it's important to the europeans. if nothing else this reminds us of nato's vitality. >> general mcafterry. thanks very much. thanks for joining us from san antonio. now to 2012 mitt romney returned to the campaign trail today. he just wrapped up a town hall in keane, new hampshire, not far from his vacation home and pitching to the red sox' loving crowd you can see in front of a replica in front of fenway's green monster. returning to the trail means returning to questions about that massachusetts health care plan. >> what we did in massachusetts i'm not going to apologize for because it was right for massachusetts. i've got a lot of things wrong in my life and i've apologized for a number of them. this one i think is still an experiment that's out.

i like a lot of what i accomplished. there's something things i wish i could do differently. are there mistakes in there? of course. >> nobody's perfect. gene cummings is deputy editor for bloomberg. gene, that's not a bad bumper sticker, nobody's perfect. >> nobody's perfect. it's actually a pretty good answer that he's finally developed. it took him a long time to get the wording to where he was comfortable. i think it's fair enough in that it will appeal to people who believe states should do their own thing, whatever works for them. it clearly sends a signal that he wouldn't use it on another state that didn't want it. >> how vulnerable is mitt romney to rick perry? a lot of people say rick perry from texas is not going to play well in new hampshire. we're going to talk to john sununu about that who knows new hampshire better than any of us. what about rick per reice appeal in terms of tea party support and budgetary concerns and the texas record on jobs that he

claims? >> i think we have yet to see exactly what will be the impact of rick perry. he got off to a rough start. they're trying to straighten the ship out now. they've done a pretty good job of doing that. i do think he has a message that will appeal to fiscal conservatives in new hampshire. he does have closer ties to the tea party network than certainly mitt romney does. and basically mitt romney hasn't had to take a punch yet. and so we don't know how well he's going to absorb those thingser or react to those thins and everything we hear about rick perry is he's very good in debates and he will low ab elbow. so i think we have yet to see what the real dynamic will be, but there is potential that perry is -- could very much mix this race up. >> thank you very much. that perfectly tees us up because some leading republicans have been pining for a white knight to replace the current

crop of kand tates. are rick perry and michele bachmann steering the party too far to the right. we're joined by former new hampshire senator john sununu of the former new hampshire sununus. great to see you again. >> thank you. great to be here. >> let's get your reactions to what you've seen so far? does michele bachmann play in new hampshire, rick perry? what do you think of jeb bush suggesting the party's got to find a voice that is a better voice for the general election. >> jeb's point is you need a message that's substantiative. you need a message that's clear. as jean pointed out perry should have an economic message to share, but he hasn't put it out there yet. we'll see. we'll if he's got a message that resonates with the broad swath. >> instead of accusing ben bernanke of near treasonous behavior. >> exactly. that's almost an inside washingtoning message. >> sure, but that's not really one that's going to resonate with a really broad swath of

republican voters. certainly not with independent voters as you well know independent voters can vote in new hampshire. so it really remains to be seen if he could put together a message. jeb bush's other point is it doesn't really serve you well to question the motives of your opponent and that's true whether you're running for president or on the floor of the house or senate or on the school board. you have to talk about what you have to offer. i think right now mitt romney is well organized. the one thing, the only thing i would disagree with what jean said is he hasn't had to take a pnch. he's taken a lot of punches over his health care plan. over his record in massachusetts. over his really failure to focus on his business experience four years ago. but we'll see. new hampshire voters take their time. they're not going to flock to any candidate any time soon. >> what about michele bachmann? >> i think she obviously has a strong appeal with more

conservative members of the republican party. but that's not going to be enough to carry her across the finish line in new hampshire. and it might not even be enough to airy her across the finish line in the iowa caucuses. she polls pretty well in iowa. certainly weaker in new hampshire. as you get on to mumy, florida, other states beyond the new hampshire primary she really is a fairly unknown quantity. >> we hear all these reports about mitch daniels and others in the party hankering for someone else. haley barbour denies he is one of those wanting the field to expand. is this the field? >> i think this is the feel. it doesn't preclude the possibility that someone else may get in. i know governor pataki was really talking about it fairly recently. >> going to iowa. >> daniels, barbour or paul ryan that's a case of someone wanting to write a nice op-ed piece

about why this particular candidate ought to rethink their decision. i think this is pretty much the field. >> call it the weekly standard effect. >> we've gone as republicans you can go back 16 years, there's always the media out there that wants to write a story about how this field of candidates isn't quite what it should be. you'll get a number of former successful governors, a number of relatively successful house members, former senators, former speaker of the house. there's something to like or not like among all these days candidates, but it's a pretty broad field. >> do you think that bachmann or perry can defeat barack obama? >> i think whoever wins the republican nomination will be in a position to run competitively and beat barack obama. >> is the party too far to the right to run most effectively in the general election. >> these are two slightly different questions. if you go back in time on the

democratic or republican side whoever wins their party's nomination is always viewed as a very competitive candidate. walter mondale when he got the nomination was viewed as a strong candidate on behalf of the democrats. in hindsight it turned out not to be his time, not to be his place. but george bush when he got the nomination in 1988, was probably viewed by some as a weak nominee and he ended up pounding mike dukakis. whoever wins that nomination is going to be a formidable candidate for barack obama especially when barack obama has the weight of 9% unemployment and a downgrade of the united states debt on his shoulders. there's nothing he can do about that over the next year. >> great to see you again. >> thanks. great to be here. and the game goes on for tennessee's pat summit. college basketball's winningest coach next on "andrea mitchell reports."

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i'm tamron hall coming up on "news nation requests evacuations in the states have started in anticipation of hurricane irene making land fall. the category three storm is pounding the bahamas. we are waiting for an update from the national hurricane center in just a few minutes. we'll bring you that information. plus nypd used as covert cia agents in this country. the secret operations are being called unprecedented and were done in a way to skirt privacy laws. i'll talk with a reporter who broke the story that drass back to right after the 9/11 attacks. "news nation is" is just 15 minutes away. and topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports," north korea's leader kim jong il met with russia's president at a siberian military base. haven't seen him in a while. they had talks on nuclear disarment and economic aid. he's under pressure because of famine and economic collapse in north korea.

he signalled a willingness to suspend nuclear missile tests. his past offers have not been reliable. parents in new jersey are demanding to know how facebook's $100 million donation to newark's troubled schools will be spent. the aclu is now suing the city for not revealing details about the program. sprint and an extel customers can finally get in on the iphone action. sprint is releasing the iphone in early october giving apple another sales channel. the new phone is expected to be thinner, lighter and have an updated operating system. and more than 1,000 wins, eight national championships, 29 conference titles. she is simply the winningest in college basketball, male or female. better than bobny knight. pat summit the legendary coach of tennessee's laddie vols for 38 seasons has now revealed she

has been diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's at the age of only 59. >> earlier this year the doctors at the mayo clinic diagnosed me with early on set dementia, alzheimer's type. >> pat summit says that she will stay on as the head coach of the lady vols and rely more heavily on her talented staff of assistants. we're joined by nbc news chief scientist. what kind of prognosis does pat summit face at the age of 59d? >> unfortunately there's no treatment to do anything but cause a temporary improvement in anything. everybody who has the disease progresses at a different rate. we really don't know what pat summit's future is going to be like. clearly he is in a situation now uh-huh where increasing numbers of people are going to find themselves which is -- doctors are getting better at diagnosing

alzheimer's earlier and we have to understand that alzheimer's is a disease that takes place over decades. and begins to sent in long before you have any symptoms. she has symptoms, but with the help of friends she's going to be and her associates she's going to be able to continue coach farg while. but for coaching for a while. but unless a drug comes along in the next few years, the prognosis is it will continue to worsen until what happens to all patients they die of the disease. the course is very variable from person to person. and how vital is the research right now? i know a lot is being spent, how close are we to anything that you would consider a breakthrough? >> it's a long way off, unfortunately. one of the thing that's going on right now is there's a lot of effort that's being put into finding early signs even before people have any memory problems of what approaching alzheimer's. the motivation for what is that

doctors now believe that their only hope of finding smag that will change the course of the disease is to intervene before the symptoms even start. so as a result of that a lot of people are going to be finding out that they have alzheimer's in their future. there's big debates about individuals if they want to know that. the motivation for that research which includes brain scans and spinal taps and blood tests to look for early symptoms is to f a drug, pharmaceutical companies and other medical care companies are behind this research because the hope is that we'll find a drug. but i think the realistic estimate is unless something really surprising happens, we're decades away from an effective treatment. and because of the population in the united states is aging so quickly, we can see just a massive epidemic of this, and we're going to see more and more people, famous as pat summitt is and not so famous, who are learning early on that they have alzheimer's disease. >> well, it is a teachable moment. she is very brave to be doing

what she is doing >> indeed. >> thank you so much. and we have breaking news. a manhunt now under way right now for a suspect police say shot and killed at least one person at a wells fargo bank in north california. the contra county sheriff's department says a police officer has also been wounded. the suspect is considered armed and dangerous. stay with us as we continue to monitor breaking developments. my doctor told me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business... protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and "washington post" editorial writer jonathan capehart joins us. jonathan. >> hey, andrea. >> where were you yesterday? >> yes, i was going to say. >> you disappeared on me. >> i sat in the chair, and all of a sudden the earth moved under my feet. >> it happens that way sometimes, doesn't it? >> yeah. >> what are we looking at in the next 24? >> obviously, andrea, we're going to be looking at libya and the situation that's happening on the ground, the rebels as we all know from richard engel's fantastic reporting, they have

taken over moammar gadhafi's compound, but he's nowhere to be found. we see him -- we don't see him, but we hear him. he gave an interview to pro-gadhafi media saying he's still in tripoli, that he wants to have the city cleansed, as richard has reported, but no one knows exactly where he is, and i just saw a report on the washingtonpost.com website the pentagon believes he's still in libya. >> that's what i'm hearing also from american officials. thank you very much, jonathan capehart, you got the memo, red tie, orange, red, whatever. sioui tomorrow, i hope. that does it for us. for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, we'll talk 2012 politics with ron klain, former chief of staff to al gore and joe biden and my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "newsnation." thanks for being there for me. >> absolutely. around this time the earth was shaking beneath you, andrea, and what a day that was.

we're moving on to the other big story and that is the newest advisory on hurricane irene. yes, from earthquakes to hurricanes. forecasters warn irene could post a big threat to the east coast. evacuations already under way in one state. we'll get the updated information for you. and new details on the damage done to the national landmarks. structural engineers on the scene as we speak at several locations in washington, d.c. and libyan rebels have placed a bounty on moammar gadhafi's head offering money and amnesty to anyone who kills him. we'll have the live report from tripoli. "newsnation" is only minutes away. form a layer called biofilm so strong it survives brushing. thankfully, there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®. ever since that ol' broom dumped me here. oh, oh. oooh! will love ever come my way?

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right now on "newsnation," eyes on irene. right now the category 3 hurricane is forcing people out of their homes in north carolina. the entire east coast is on alert. the latest forecast track has just been released, and we have the newest information for you. monumental damage. engineers are still examining the nation's monuments 24