on our broadcast tonight, the homecoming of former president brings home two americans held prisoner by a dictator. targeting women, a gunman walks into a gym on a week night. four are dead. just offshore. what are russian submarines doing in the waters of the atlantic? and making a difference, a veteran on the baseball diamond helping to polish up some young diamond in the rough. helping to polish up some young diamond in the rough. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. tonight two american journalists are home after being set free by a north korean dictator and flown home by a former u.s. president who traveled halfway around the world to get them. it was an emotional homecoming in california for laura ling and euna lee as we learn more tonight now about how this all came together. we begin our coverage this evening with nbc's george lewis. >> reporter: free at last. the two journalists briefly savoring their return to america this morning, before being mobbed by their families. a poignant moment as euna lee's husband and 4-year-old daughter hannah held on to one another for dear life. and a big hand for the former

president who secured the release of the two women after five months in captivity. >> we feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. when we walked through the doors we saw standing before us president bill clinton. we were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. >> reporter: throughout the journalists' 140-day ordeal, the families of laura ling and euna lee held vigils and tried to raise public awareness about the plight of the two women. >> we could feel your love all the way in north korea. it is what kept us going in the

darkest of hours. it is what sustained our faith that we would come home. >> i can't even describe what my whole body went through when i saw her. it was just really powerful and emotional. >> reporter: the two women worked for current tv, a channel started by former vice president al gore. >> we want to welcome laura and euna home. >> reporter: among those across the country watching the emotional homecoming, president obama. >> the reunion that we have all seen on television i think is a source of happiness not only for the families but for the entire country. >> reporter: a source of happiness that the families continue to enjoy tonight. here at laura ling's home her family says she is going to need a few days to decompress. both she and euna lee are expected to have more to say about their time in north korea in the coming weeks. brian. george lewis, thanks.

the back story to all this how it happened, came together, is a big part of it. partly because it wasn't this nation's diplomat in chief who pulled this off. in this case it was her husband, the former president. our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, has that part of the story tonight from nairobi where she is traveling with secretary of state hillary clinton who spoke today about her husband's unusual role in this whole drama. an dr andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. tonight a diplomatic suspense story involving months of delicate negotiations and several teams of former political rivals. from the moment the news broke that the two women were arrested, accused of crossing the north korean border. >> two american journalists detained by north korea. >> reporter: the obama administration sprang into action along with the women's employer, current tv founder al gore. the swedish ambassador who represents the u.s. in pyongyang took messages and medicine to

the prisoners. u.s. diplomats met with north korea's ambassador to the u.n. gore and the state department called the families every day. hillary clinton met with them on may 11th. north korea didn't make it easy. a missile test in april. a nuclear test in may. more missiles fired on july 4th. >> i strongly condemn their reckless actions. >> reporter: then on june 8, euna lee and laura ling were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. but a glimmer of hope. they remained in a guest house still able to call their families. the u.s. proposed sending an envoy, most likely al gore. others on the list, new mexico governor, bill richardson, and senator john kerry. in july the women called their families and said the north koreans wanted bill clinton. he wasn't even on the white house list. some said for good reasons. after some of his comments about candidate obama during the 2008 campaign. >> give me a break. this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale i have ever seen. >> reporter: al gore told the

white house the north koreans wanted clinton. president obama gave the go-ahead. >> the white house reached out as they said to my husband to ask him if he would be willing to do that. >> reporter: now a team of rivals one better, president obama and two clintons. the final step if bill clinton were to go would it be a done deal? the north koreans messaged yes. the wheels were in motion. and those wheels were pretty fancy. a private 737 owned by clinton friend and hollywood producer, and former clinton chief of staff, john podesta went along to file the paperwork of the pardon in a north korean court. hours later laura ling and euna lee were heading home. as for our team of rivals, the president called bill clinton today the first conversation since the mission began to say he did a great job. the white house says the two men will get together. they didn't say when. brian. andrea mitchell with the secretary of state. andrea, thanks.

the next story broke after we were off the air last night. it happened in pennsylvania, a man carrying four guns, opened fire on an exercise class full of women. killing three, injuring nine before turning one of the weapons on himself. it turns out he told the world about his plans before he pulled it off. nbc's mike taibbi is in bridgeville, pennsylvania, just outside pittsburgh tonight. mike, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this may have been a year in the planning, a lonely bitter man brings a duffel bag stuffed with handguns and ammunition to a health club not to attack any one woman but shoot at a random group of women because of what he describes in a bitter, unusual blog, as decades are projection. 48-year-old had a job in a nice house in a quiet pittsburgh neighborhood. but he also had what police described as a building rage that exploded tuesday night. >> he just had a lot of hatred

in him. gym members say he walked into an aerobics class at the l.a. fitness center some time around 8:15 tuesday night. one woman who was there told the today show he never said a word before pulling three of his four handguns out of his duffel bag. >> for a minute. and then a minute later, the lights go out. and then second later, you just hear shooting. and he is going, shooting all over the room. >> reporter: in all at least 36 shots were fired by a man who according to his own blog was determined to do this as long ago as last september. that's when he described himself as never married. and listed his date of death, august 4, 2009. and first wrote about his exit plan. in december, he wrote he had no girlfriend since 1984. complaining, 30 million women rejected me. january 5, 2009, every evening i am alone. the next day he was supposedly

ready to act. at first writing i can do this. then, 8:45 p.m., i chickened out. i brought the loaded guns. everything. hell. earlier this week, his neighbors noticed some disturbing behavior. one watched him sitting alone in front of his house. >> how long was he sitting there? >> i don't know. taking a walk. >> not in a chair? >> on the driveway, yeah. strange fellow. >> reporter: a chilling blog entry monday night. tomorrow is the big day. maybe soon i will see god. but he fired his last bullet at himself, he still had more than 100 rounds left. >> we don't know as we stand here what made him stop shooting. thank god he did. >> his victims, elizabeth gannon, 49, 37-year-old, jody billingsly, and 46-year-old single mom, heidi obermeier. >> one of the nicest people you will meet. we will miss her dearly. >> reporter: three of the injured are listed in serious

condition but all expected to survive. police say that he did have all the proper permits to own and carry the handguns he so tragically misused last night. brian. such a scary story from the pittsburgh suburb tonight. mike taibbi with our report. thanks. president obama returned today to elkhart, indiana, the economy has been brutal to elkhart. in fact the journalists of our website, msnbc.com have been documenting life in elkhart for months. unemployment is nearly 17% there. and the president's visit today was designed at least to bring some good news there about jobs. our chief white house correspondent, chuck todd, spent some time with the president on the factory floor. he is with us from that community tonight. chuck, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. well as you described of all the hard-hit places, elkhart, indiana is the barometer by which president obama believes he will be and should be judged on his ability to turn around the economy. >> we will be number one again.

>> reporter: with one out of six elkhart adults still out of work, msnbc.com is tracking the recession and potential recovery through the eyes of this hard-hit community and so is the president. >> let me show you the front page of the "elkhart truth." clearly your presidency, they believe your fortunes here of the community and a president, entwined. is that fair? >> absolutely. the most important thing we will have to do is help elkhart reinvent itself. if i am successful end of four years, i will look back and say, elkhart has not come back from the brink but poised to move forward into the 21st century. >> reporter: the president responded to questions i read from msnbc.com from elkhart residents. >> jennifer, from elkhart, why are big businesses coming in ahead of the people of this country? >> when people think about how government spent its money. what has gotten a lot of

publicity, the bangs, the auto companies. that's something that people don't see concrete effects. so, you know it is our job to make sure they know that almost everything we are doing right now is designed to stabilize the economy but also to make sure that ordinary people have, have some relief. >> reporter: unemployment nationally is expected to rise this week. so the president hinted he may extend unemployment benefits yet again. >> we have got to make sure there is still a safety net for folks in place. when the unemployment numbers come out i think we will have to evaluate carefully. >> reporter: the challenge for the president selling comfort and patience to people who just want a job and can't find one. like howard michler. >> what do you tell these folks in their 40s and 50s -- that their jobs might not come back? >> listen, i wish i had a magic wand. and i could, you know, deal with this extraordinary crisis in a matter of weeks. but i can't. it took us years to get into the

problems that we are in. will take us some years to get out. i am confident that we will. >> brian, the president did make some news that will raise eyebrows on capitol hill. he indicated to me he is losing patience with the negotiations with republicans when it comes to health care. when september rolls around and congress comes back from their vacation, he may be ready to do this on a total party line vote. it could polarize congress. he wants to get health care done. brian. chuck todd on the rv factory floor in elkhart, indiana. chuck, thanks. when our broadcast continues along the way for a wednesday night, the former congressman and the case of the cash in the freezer. tonight a verdict in the high profile bribery trial. later, he made a splash on the baseball diamond. these days making a difference in the lives of some very grateful kids. ill out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix. statin to lower bad cholesterol, along with

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william jefferson, now a former congressman from louisiana. tonight there is a verdict in his criminal trial. our justice correspondent pete williams at federal court in alexandria, virginia tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this verdict comes four years after the fbi watched congressman jefferson outside a washington hotel accept a briefcase stuffed with $100,000 in cash. the jury found him guilty of planning to use that money to bribe officials in africa willing to help u.s. companies in which jefferson's family had an interest. $90,000 of the money was found in his kitchen in his freezer wrapped in foil packets hidden in frozen food containers. the jury also found him guilty today of taking bribes from other companies to help them do business in africa. he could face a long prison term and will be sentenced in october, brian. pete williams in virginia for us tonight. pete, thanks. one of the most e-mailed stories on the entire "the new york times" website tonight has

to do with a hot topic, wherever two people sleep together, and that is should the bedroom be warm or cold for sleeping? it turns out the ideal temperature, this is science here, for sleep is actually pretty cool, between 60 and 68 degrees. hope we're watching at home. people who have a hard time falling asleep, might benefit from turning the ac up or the heat down. it's what the experts are saying. i'm just saying. when "nightly news" continues in a moment -- it's not quite "the russians are coming" but are the russian subs off the east coast? the cold war is over after a and then there are the indicator-light warning, radar-sensor-linking, blind-spot-penetrating side mirrors of the all-new ford taurus. so what doesn't show up in your mirror, can still show up on your mirror. we speak car. we speak innovation.

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and that's cool. tide coldwater. get out of the old and into the cold. ♪ i'm cool like that the cement blast walls that have transformed the city of baghdad during the war years are coming down. they will be gone in just over a month. the iraqi government made the announcement today. most of the walls, ubiquitous in the city were put up by the u.s. military to reduce violence. but they divided up that city and they cut neighborhoods apart. they were ugly reminders of the worst days of the fighting. a report surfaced this week that russian submarines have been discovered about 200 miles off the east coast of the united states. these sorts of submarine games were common place back during the cold war, both superpowers did it. but why now? our report tonight from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski.

>> reporter: in a startling throwback to the cold war and for the first time in 20 years, two russian nuclear powered attack submarines like these have been lurking off the u.s. east coast. the two subs had been patrolling in international waters this week about 200 miles offshore. of those submerged they were easily detected and tracked by u.s. navy warships and sensors on the ocean floor. though the appearance of the russian subs came as a complete surprise, the pentagon today played down any potential threat. >> while it is interesting and noteworthy that they are in this part of the world, it doesn't pose any threat. >> reporter: a far cry from the days when a cat-and-mouse games between u.s. and russian subs were the stuff of hollywood. including a classic cold war spoof, "the russians are coming." >> the russians have landed. they're here. >> reporter: following the cold war, the soviets conventional

military broke and out of cash fell into serious disrepair. fleets of russian warships were abandoned to rust in port. when the russian navy did venture from shore it some times ended in disaster. nine years ago an explosion aboard the ship sent the submarine to the bottom of the sea taking all 118 russian sailors to their death. now flush with new found oil money, russia is trying to regain that old superpower status. >> to establish themselves as a major voice in international relations. and you do that with clearly some amount of military muscle. >> reporter: russian prime minister vladamir puti is flexing. releasing male cheesecake photos this week. though this sub. mission poses no immediate military threat, officials are taking it seriously and warning once again the russian military bears watching. jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. at arlington national

cemetery in washington, they commemorated what they call the other d-day. august 15 will mark the 65th anniversary of operation dragoon, the allied invasion of southern france. two months after the normandy invasion in world war ii. 900 ships, 1,300 landing craft, just as many bombers, almost 100,000 combined troops. they blasted a back door to france in effect and sped up the liberation of europe. they took over 100,000 german prisoners along the way. about 35 of the surviving veterans of that great campaign were on hand at arlington today. up next -- a man with glory days on the diamond. now making a difference in some troubled young lives. when i was seventeen

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it's time for tonight's "making a difference" segment. about a man who retired from a high profile career on the baseball diamond to help young people who badly need direction and need to know some one cares

about them. our own lee cowan has the story from the california desert. >> reporter: we can't show you their faces because they are wards of the state. an uncomfortable label for abandoned abused boys who end up here. >> we get them and they are beat up and they are hopeless and they have, they're angry. >> looking good. >> reporter: that is albie pearson. >> this is my football man. >> reporter: a nondenominational minister, driven by his deep faith, opened father's heart ranch. >> i put $76,000 on credit cards to help me buy this place plus the sale of my house. >> reporter: that important to you? >> yeah. >> reporter: did people think you were crazy? >> yeah, yeah, some did. >> reporter: he and a staff of 30 are guardians to about two dozen boys who albie treats like sons. >> any time he shows up he is hugging everybody and has a big smile on his face and life is good. >> reporter: although the ranch is all the way out here in the

middle of nowhere it cost albie nearly his life savings, money he saved from his first career in a field far different from this. albie pearson in the major leagues, one of the original los angeles angels. in fact, he was the littlest angel of all. >> there is little albie, 5'5 3/8" of dynamite. >> reporter: barely bigger than the team's bat boy. >> the little man's hero. the guy who never made it. >> reporter: he did make it despite his size in 1958 with the washington senators he was named the american league rookie of the year. he even met marilyn monroe. >> man, my poor wife had to put up with it. >> reporter: those aren't his glory days. these are. >> lee, i hurt for some of these kids. my joy is to see young people with no hope get hope and get

their lives changed. >> reporter: the littlest angel still a giant and still an angel who traded his bat and glove to wave troubled kids home. lee cowan, nbc news, desert hot springs, california. that is our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow night. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow night. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com