on the broadcast tonight -- the disaster. the monster oil slick has now grown larger. heartbreak in the south where so much has been lost after the storms. the suspect in the times square car bombing attempt. what he is saying now. and how was he able to get on a plane headed overseas. the revolution. the pill that changed everything for american women. in fact, for all americans. and taser nation. it's become the alternative to tackling a suspect. and we'll show you the latest incident in a stadium full of people. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

the oil slick off the coast of louisiana is getting bigger every minute while the first sheen layer of oil has arrived onshore along the state's outer coastline. the main still has moved itself closer to the mouth of the mississippi river. the slick is changing shape by the day. in fact, just from yesterday to today. we learned today once again the amount of oil spewing out of the earth a mile down under water might be much more than first reported. each day that goes by adds to this disaster. the latest estimate 210,000 gallons a day right into the water. the fear is that the current is going to carry this up the eastern seaboard. we begin our reporting tonight with our chief environmental affairs correspondent, anne thompson. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. they did more of those controlled burns out at the leak site today where crews ignite

the oil on fire to try and burn it off. but the best chance at harnessing this leak may lie in a complex technology that no one is sure will work. this is a 125-ton concrete and steel box of hope. the containment dome bound for the leak site, as bp today publicly conceded the well could spew as much as 60,000 barrels a day, 12 times the current rate. >> the rate could go up to that rate. now clearly that's not the situation we have at the moment, but it's not impossible. >> reporter: 15 days after the explosion, at last some progress. overnitrobottic submersibles attached a half ton valve to the end of a broken drill pipe. the valve stopped the flow of oil from that spot but did not stop the oil still pouring into the gulf. tomorrow, bp plans to send down the containment dome to cover one of the two remaining leaks. by monday, a pipe could carry oil from the dome to a vessel on

the surface. but this has never been tried before at 5,000 feet under the sea. interior secretary ken salazar today toured the preparation efforts on bretton island and kept the pressure on bp. >> they are responsible for everything. they are responsible for all the response scouts that are going out, which are going to be millions and millions of dollars. they are responsible for the environmental damages and the damages they will cause to the people of the gulf coast and to this country. >> reporter: in venice, more local fishermen joined this battle in the bayous. >> the jack-up barges allows them 24/208 deploy that secondary line of defense. >> reporter: an aboshent boom shrimp boats are already laying down in open waters. the weather is holding the massive spill in place, but fears are growing about where the loop current could take it. >> if it does manage to connect with the spill it's going to be about a week or two before it makes it to south florida. >> reporter: and so today the coast guard opened yet another

command center in st. petersburg, florida, to prepare florida's west coast and the keys and perhaps even the eastern side of florida for an oncoming, onslaught of oil. brian? >> anne thompson in louisiana for us tonight. anne, thanks. in tennessee tonight, the swollen cumberland river is receding, and people ran from some of the worst flooding the area has ever seen. they are returning to find what's left. the death toll and the damage both staggering. our own ron mott has our report tonight from nashville. >> it's all a mess. >> reporter: jeff and marla perry's first house is a smell esoggy mess. outside sits everything they owned. >> there's the water line here. >> reporter: inside it's mostly empty, except for the memories. >> when you look at this, it's got to just crush you. >> devastating. unbelievable. speechless. >> reporter: though as much as this hurts, they say explaining it to their 4-year-old was far more painful. >> i had to tell my son he

didn't have a bedroom or toys to play with. i mean it was devastating. it's the hardest thing that i've ever had to do in my life. >> reporter: yet they know it could have been even worse. this woman watched in horror as her husband tried to rescue their daughter. both were swept away to their deaths. >> he was a hero. he sacrificed himself for his kids. >> reporter: hardships are surfacing as flooded families start over. with help from armies of volunteers. as officials made door-to-door safety checks. and it's not just residents forces out of their homes. >> howdy! >> reporter: music city's famed grand ole opry, heavily damaged in the flooding, kept its 85-year streak of live broadcasts intact last night elsewhere. >> we will go on. the show will dry out. the house will dry out. the costumes will come back. we'll get some more guitars. but right now it's the songs and the spirit that we're riding on. >> reporter: city leaders caution the ride ahead will be tough with losses expected to

exceed $1 billion. for the perrys on the west side, fortunate to have flood insurance, they are hoping to get back to normal. >> i'm afraid next time it could be life. >> reporter: just not sure if they want it to be here. ron mott, nbc news, nashville. here in new york, the man accused of the botched would-be car bombing in times square is talking tonight to interrogators trying to learn more about why he did it, what he was so angry about and where he might have received some help. we have two reports on it tonight begin with our justice correspondent pete williams here in new york. >> reporter: faisal shahzad wasn't in court today, still anering the fbi's questions, officials say, claiming that one of his motives for driving bomb into times square was anger over u.s. targyetting of suspected taliban leaders in pakistan with drone attacks, including one that hit close to him while he was there. meantime, new details about his arrest monday night at kennedy airport. while the fbi and new york police prepared to arrest him at his apartment in connecticut, he

was actually on his way to the airport hoping to escape on an emirates airlines flight to dubai. an fbi surveillance team did not see him drive away. one official says he switched cars and that agents were forced to keep a distance to avoid detection. still, some considered it a serious lapse. >> the fact that they didn't know where he was for several hours and got him back only in the nick of time is a cause of worry. >> reporter: earlier that day, hearing that shahzad might try to fleerks the fbi got his name added to the government's no-fly list-airlines are required to deny boarding to anyone on it. but the rules only required airlines to update their list every 24 hours. starting today, they must update no-fly lists every two hours. the fbi also asked on monday that shahzad be added to another watchlist, one used by border agents. it's that border alert list that was actually used to pull shahzad off the flight here at kennedy airport. once the plane was fully boarded, the airline gave the passenger list to agents of

customs and border protection. they spotted his name and hauled him off the flight. >> reporter: officials say when they walked up to him on the plane he said, quote, i've been expecting you. other passengers saw it happen. >> everyone just kind of looked at each other because his demeanor was you know, okay. i'm caught. >> reporter: investigators now believe shahzad started working on his makeshift bomb at least seven weeks ago, buying fireworks in pennsylvania. but so far, they say, no reason to conclude that anyone in the u.s. was helping. i'm pete williams in new york. now to my colleague richard engel in pakistan. >> reporter: faisal shahzad is from one of pakistan's most elite military families. his father was a top commander in the pakistani air force. he grew up privileged, attending secular private schools and wasn't known to have expressed extremist religious views. it all made him an almost perfect recruit for the taliban or other islamic militant groups because he wouldn't have aroused suspicion. after all, shahzad is married with kids and most importantly,

an american citizen. not a usual suspect. brian? >> richard engle in pakistan, along with pete williams before that. turning now to greece where the public backlash sparked by the country's debt crisis turned deadly today. protesters are furious about massive spending cuts and tax increases that were supposed to save that country from bankruptcy. now fears are growing that the bailout in greece won't work. that could cause ripple effects across europe and here in the united states. our report tonight from nbc's dawna friesen. >> reporter: they came in their tens of thousands, flooding the streets of central athens. >> and the politicians do nothing. >> reporter: they tried to storm the greek parliament. tear gas forced them back as riot police fought running battles, smoke drifted over the acropulous from fire-bombed buildings and vehicles. inside this bank, 17 employees managed to escape, but three, including a pregnant woman, were

overcome by smoke. the deaths have sparked shock and outrage. a demonstration is one thing, said the greek prime minister. murder is quite another. all this chaos is because greeks are furious at austerity measures imposed on them as part of a $141 million bailout package. the international monetary fund and european countries will hand over the cash, but only if greece makes massive cuts to public salaries and pensions and increases taxes. for a generation known for its lavish spending and tax avoidance, it's all a step too far. the fear is that if greece can't get its financial act together then other countries with huge debts like spain, portugal and ireland could be next. could need bailouts, too, which might trigger another european, possibly global, financial crisis. >> the debt is rising very, very rapidly. they have little prospect of economic growth. so if you look ahead of a few years, not where we are now, if

something doesn't change, they could also be in very serious trouble. >> reporter: the pain is confined to greece for now, but investors the world over are jittery. wondering if the debt crisis will spread. dawna friesen, nbc news, london. the chaos in greece and worries about spillover hit wall street again today. the dow was down almost 59 points. in texas tonight, there's been a mafs explosion and fire at a san antonio fuel refinery. it happens when an 18-wheeler exploded, sparking the larger fire, which is now under control. two people have been injured, including a truck driver seriously burned. a big name on capitol hill announcing his retirement today. david obey, democrat from wisconsin, chairman of the house appropriations committee, leaving after 41 years in the house of representatives. he said he's just worn out but he's also facing the tough re-election tide nationwide. he reached his dual goals of outlasting president george w. bush and seeing health care

passed. a big sign of change in the media business. "newsweek" magazine is for sale. "the washington post" company, the magazine's owner, for almost half a century, says it is strictly a business decision. founded in 1933, "newsweek" has been struggling and increasingly thin losing more than $28 million last year alone. "newsweek" editor john meacham said today, quote, i decline to accept that "newsweek" in some form does not have a role to play going forward. when our broadcast continues in just a moment, the event that changed women's lives and our society 50 years ago today. and later, a picture that's got a lot of people talking about the new takedown method of choice. i'm taking 8 pills a day, and if i take it for 10 days, that's 80 pills. just two aleve can last all day. perfect.

[ male announcer ] choose aleve and you could be taking 4 times fewer pills than extra strength tylenol. just two aleve have the strength to last all day. get the all day pain relief of aleve. also in liquid-gels. if you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, you may also have very high triglycerides -- too much fat in the blood. it's a serious medical condition. lovaza, along with diet, effectively lowers very high triglycerides in adults but has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or strokes. lovaza starts with omega-3 fish oil that's then purified and concentrated. it's the only omega-3 medication that's fda-approved. you can't get it at a health food store. lovaza isn't right for everyone. tell your doctor if you're allergic to fish, have other medical conditions and about any medications you're taking, especially those that may increase risk of bleeding. blood tests are needed before and during treatment.

in some, ldl or bad cholesterol may increase. possible side effects include burping, infection, flu-like symptoms, upset stomach, and change in sense of taste. ask your doctor about lovaza, the prescription that starts in the sea. it was almost exactly 50 years ago tonight the fda said yes to a new medication that changed women's lives in this

country and relationships and overall society forever. it became known simply as the pill. and while it was revolutionary it took awhile for the world's first oral contraceptive to fully be available to all the american women who wanted it. tonight in the first of two reports, our chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman, looks back at the birth of the birth control pill. >> these are birth control pills coming off a production line. >> reporter: rarely in history has something so small been credited with and vilified for so much. >> the birth control pill has been opposed from the minute it hit the market. so it is, in fact, a very long struggle to get to today. >> reporter: decades of struggle in the laboratory by a team of dedicated researchers, including dr. john rock, a catholic fertility specialist. >> the woman now can imitate nature. >> reporter: but fda approval of the oral contraceptive 50 years

ago this month was only the first step on a long and arduous journey to access an acceptance. enmeshed in the turmoil of the 1960s. faye waddleton is the former head of planned parenthood. >> many sectors were saying i want to be liberated. i want to be treated as a human being. i want to realize the american dream. and along came the technology that liberated us from the traditional role of being barefoot and pregnant. >> reporter: but it took until 1972 and a supreme court ruling to ensure legal access to the pill for single women. access that was fought in part by state governments and the catholic church, whose culture was shifting as well. when pope paul vi banned the pill for catholics in 1968, the debate for many was already over. >> catholics didn't follow the rules anymore. they thought, you know what? we need the pill. we're going to take the pill. we're not going to listen to rome anymore. >> reporter: popular culture

embraced the shift as well. television had its first sitcom. that girl about a single woman and her adventures in the big city. >> in the office, our relationship will be purely business. ♪ love american style >> reporter: other shows like "love american style" were more direct. >> what kind of pill? >> the pill. the pill. >> well, that is disgusting. >> reporter: christy heffer if had something of a ringside seat at the sexual revolution, thanks in part to her father's playboy empire. >> i guess i'm ununusual my generation in that when i went to get a birth control pill iwent with my mother. >> do you remember the conversation you had with your mom? >> only in the sense that it was so nontraumatic. >> reporter: but five decades later, the pill remains a deeply uncomfortable subject for many. >> the double standard is alive and well, my dear. it did not -- it was not eradicated by the oral contraceptive. >> we always have this tension between the way people actually live their lives and, you know, where our societal attitudes and

our laws are. >> reporter: in the debate over birth control, science moved somewhat faster than society. but without those changing attitu attitudes, the pill would have been, well, just another pill. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, chicago. >> and when nancy continues her reporting on this topic tomorrow night, what is the next generation of contraception going to look like? and all these years later, will there be a pill for men? that part of our reporting tomorrow night. when we continue here tonight, in just a moment, the typo that almost became a star. . which makes it pretty clear whose standing out front. a consumers digest "best buy" two years running. chevy malibu. compare it to anyone and may the best car win. during the spring event, qualified lessees, now get a 27-month, low mileage lease on this malibu ls for around $199 a month. call for details. see your local chevy dealer. allergies? chlor-trimeton.

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well, we now know what it's like to have a family member win the lottery. an employee of ours, a woman who wins on the assignment desk in the newsroom at our los angeles station knbc learned today she and her husband who recently lost his job, by the way, had bought the winning megamillions lottery ticket worth $266 million. one winning ticket. the woman who has not yet come

forward publicly left co-workers a note in the newsroom this morning saying she had to leave early to, quote, deal with a personal issue. she's good at understatement. this next story almost ended very badly. julia louese dreyfus was honored yesterday with a star on the hollywood walk of fame. at the last minute, they noticed she was almost julia louese, no "o" and no hyphen. they made a temporary fix while they made a new star. she'll get to keep the old one. she found the whole thing amusing. the controversy over arizona's immigration law. the phoenix suns chose today to protest the law by wearing jerseys with their team's name in spanish. los suns, in tonight's playoff game against the san antonio spurs. it was the idea of the team's owner but he left it up to the players and they all went for it. and if you grew up in michigan, or on a clear night

for several states around, it's safe to say he was the sound of summer. the voice of the detroit tigers, ernie harwell, has died. >> a swing and a fly ball hit deep to right. it might be. and it is long gone! >> originally from georgia, he called tigers games for 42 years. as good as he was, the hall of famer often said it was just as important to know when not to talk, to let listeners in on the sounds in the ballpark. ernie harwell died of cancer. he was 92 years old. when we come back here tonight, a closer look at a stunning development in american life. ...kept coming back... ...or that i could help prevent them in the first place. the problem was that my controller medicine... ...was treating only 1 main cause of asthma symptoms. but there are 2. airway constriction. and inflammation. unlike most controllers, advair treats both main causes. advair treats both main causes.

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one of the most searched google phrases in the last few days is phillies fan tasered. that's because of what happened at a philadelphia phillies baseball game the other night. a teenager who ran on to the field was taken down by a security officer, all of it with cameras rolling. police used to tackle suspects to take them down. it wasn't perfect, but increasingly in this post-9/11, more security conscious society, the trend is to whip out the taser. our report tonight from nbc's

kevin tibbles. >> and a fan has made his way on to the playing surface. >> reporter: we've all seen it. attention seekers dashing about at public events, outfoxing security. >> still have not caught him. >> reporter: but when high school senior steve consalvi gave them the runaround at a philadelphia phillies game he got more than attention. he got tasered. >> wow. >> reporter: while the 17-year-old presumably got his wish of making headlines, his father later apologized on his behalf. but -- >> i think running on the field is wrong. they can't have everybody doing that. tasering him, that was uncalled for, without a doubt. >> reporter: phillie police see it differently. >> it looks like it does fall within policy. >> there were six of these guys. they couldn't catch him. if they had a bazooka, would they have used that? >> reporter: professor of ethic questions whether even in a time of high security, the taser was necessary. >> i think 9/11 has changed a lot of things. security people have been armed with these.

but when do you use it? >> it seems a little excessive to taser someone out running on the field. >> i think it was fine. he shouldn't have ran on the field. >> reporter: on sports talk, talk of what if. >> one of these days we're going to open the show and have news about a guy who ran out there whose intentions were not so benign. >> reporter: in recent memory, tasers have been used on student protesters. >> don't tase me, bro. >> reporter: and argumentative motorists. >> get on the ground. >> reporter: but at america's pastime? >> just man handle him, throw him in the back like they used to. >> reporter: of course, back years ago, some sports took care of the interlopers themselves. >> got some shots in. >> reporter: kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com