on the broadcast tonight, to the rescue. she's the woman in the hotseat, hired to help protect american consumers. but does she have the power and should she? rebuilding a great american city. the frustrated folks who live there get their say on a plan that a lot of people fear. against all odds. a toddler's heart stops for almost an hour, so how to explain how he came back to life. and making a difference. a man who is helping kids get fit stay off the street and stay out of trouble. "nightly news" on this friday night begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. a funny thing happened to the president's plan to appoint a woman to run a new consumer agency to help americans through this bad economy. she is such an enemy of the banks and wall street, it was feared they would put up such a fight against her that in the end, she didn't end up getting that job. today instead, the president appointed her to a different job to build but not run this new agency. the questions tonight -- did he back down from a fight or did he cut through the politics and finally what will she, former harvard professor elizabeth warren, do for you and every other american? we'll hear from her in just a moment. first our own tom costello in washington. good evening. >> reporter: the white house felt this contentious senate confirmation process could drag on more months and wanted to build this new agency now. so rather than nominate her to

be director, she was nominated to be an assistant. in the rose garden today, elizabeth warren, the woman whose very idea was to create a new consumer protection agency was given the job of building it from scratch. >> elizabeth understands what i strongly believe. that a strong growing economy begins with a strong and thriving middle class. >> reporter: the new consumer financial protection bureau will have broad authority to write and enforce standards for credit cards and home mortgages and be empowered to go after the deceptive practices that helped fuel the subprime lending crisis and the explosion of debt. a hero to liberals -- >> what's going to be different now, mr. secretary? >> reporter: she's also been critical of the government's handling of general motors and the 2008 bank bailout. >> they didn't ask the banks what they were going to do with the money, and not having to ask

them, the banks are not required to tell. >> reporter: she's made it clear she's no fan of the banking industry. >> i want to turn to these guys sometimes and i want to say, what part of we bailed you out do you not get? >> reporter: now the banking industry fears one of its biggest adversaries will have tremendous influence over its business. >> so she can dictate what the banks can and cannot deliver at prices she determines as well. >> reporter: what no one knows is how effective the bureau will prove to be. >> there's a danger that the regulations will raise the cost for borrowing. >> reporter: the president insisted the protection bureau's time has come. >> from now on consumers will also have a powerful watch dog. a tough independent watch dog whose job it is to stand up for their financial interests, for their family's future. >> reporter: the president today said ms. warren will not only

help get the bureau up and running but identify who the first senate confirmed director should be. what's not clear is whether she herself might be a candidate for that job. >> tom costello starting us off in washington tonight. tom, thanks. with that as the setup, authoritily after she appeared with the president in the rose garden this afternoon, she joined us from washington. professor warren, it is said that you're not being appointed to the job we all expected you to be appointed to because of the opposition that the banks and the wall streeters would have pitched threatening senate confirmation. the first question is, why not take that fight to the floor of the senate? why not have that conversation so people can see it and hear it? >> well, you know, i have to say i've never walked away from a fight in my life, so you can ask think three older brothers about that. but the point is, the time spent fighting is the time not spent

doing the actual work of this agency. right now, millions of american families across this country are hemorrhaging money on credit card tricks and traps, on mortgages that are deceptive, check overdrafts, car loans. how long do we want to go on on this list? and at some point, we have to get this agency stood up. the law that congress passed is very clear. it says get to work standing the agency up. the is the asked me to do that and that's what i'm here to do. >> can you give me anything concrete that people can hold onto areas which their lives will become better because of your service? >> one of the things i want toe work on, i hope, right away is i want to work on credit cards that people can actually read. my dream is the two-page credit card agreement where you can see the terms, compare one with another, with another and know how much they cost and make real

comparisons. you know, i think most people are smart, but the way that some of these credit products have been designed like credit cards, it's to trick people, trap them. we've got to take that out of the system. we've got to make it so that families can see what they've got. a lot of personal responsibility. >> if the job you were being appointed to today was either president or monarch and it were up to you to fix the economy, what would you do? >> you know, i would move toward products that are much simpler and just make the costs clear up front. i'm tired of this game that says oh, we're going to lend you something at 3.9% financing, zero percent financing. we're going to give you cash, when the reality is, what we're really doing here is trying to buy a lottery ticket, hoping you'll mess something up and we're going to hit it big on the money. that's not a real market. and people know that.

people expect to have to pay for what they get. they expect to have to be responsible. but they don't expect that they're carrying around a loaded weapon in their pockets that may nir and shoot them at any point. so if somebody left me in charge, it would just be to kind of level the playing field so that both sides, the lender and the borrower, can see what the terms are, evaluate them and go from there. >> part of our conversation earlier with elizabeth warren, the newly minted assistant to the president. there is a lot of weather in the news tonight, beginning with what happened right here in new york last night. unusually wild and violent weather in the big city, as the national weather service spent the day going about verifying what witnesses say and what the damage sure indicated was indeed at least one tornado in places like brooklyn, queens and staten island, though it's tricky

explaining it. one fatality, dozens of trees down, buildings damaged, power knocked out. then there are the hurricanes. three of them we're watching tonight in the atlantic. hurricane igor with hurricane julia and in the gulf, hurricane karl smashed into mexico's coastline earlier today. the city of veracruz felt the impact. karl is weakening as it moves further inland. almost five months after it blew out and started fouling the gulf of mexico, that bp oil well is about to be sealed off permanently. officially, finally from the bottom. our own chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson has been covering this story from the start and is with us from venice, louisiana. and with all that regions has come to mean to us, all that oil, it's hard to believe the moment has apparently arrived. >> reporter: and it really is

here, this final act, brian, of this well is rapidly coming to a close. this afternoon, bp began pumping cement into the bottom of the well. once that is done, it will conduct pressure tests and it says the well could be declared dead as early as tomorrow. now, you would think that would be reason to rejoice here in the gulf. but here in venice, i walked around the marina today and talked to a lot of people and i was struck by the worry and uncertainty that remains. bp's vessels of opportunity program is coming to a close, and that means for a lot of shrimpers and charter boat captains who had jobs during the cleanup, they're once again out of work. and there's no place to go. the offshore fishing here, deep water fishing is still closed, and that means charter boat captains have nothing to do. shrimpers tell me the price of shrimp has plummeted with demand. the price for certain types of shrimp is off by 66%.

as one boat captain said to me, what do we do to get our reputation back? how do we get america to want to buy louisiana shrimp again? it's a problem they didn't create, brian, but they're going to live with for a long time to come. >> we'll keep following their story. anne thompson, thanks. more on the u.s. economy tonight, and one of the hardest hit cities because of what has happened to american industry. in the city of detroit, the mayor is trying to remake the place like mayors before him, and a lot of people are having their say about his plan to start from the ground up. our own kevin tibbles is there. >> reporter: it's been a boisterous week in the motor city. >> i love my city, and i'm here. >> reporter: thousands packed town hall meetings to tell the mayor how to save their city. >> this is about every citizen. >> i see things that are absolutely unbearable. i don't know how people live or are expected to live like this.

>> reporter: he calls it a hell hole. 40,000 abandoned buildings, unemployment and crime. just last week, dozens of structures burned in fires that engulfed entire blocks. bing wants to demolish buildings, even create inner city farms. >> our city is living like we did 50 years ago. that doesn't work ago. >> reporter: they are vehement they're not trying to shrink this city, but detroit has been shrinking on its own, the population has dropped from 2 million to 700,000. today, neighborhoods lie abandoned. many fear a new detroit will mean gentrification and no place for them. >> the man said that, you know, the city will be 139 square miles but what does that look like and who will own that? will it still be detroit? >> where is the money going to come from? >> reporter: so they come with suggestions and questions.

>> taxes for what? you don't deliver my mail, pick up my garbage. >> we've got to get back to our roots, we've got to get back to our foundation and mark hard decisions. we've got to build from the ground up again. >> reporter: on one desolate street, 80-year-old james key sits alone. he's lived here 51 years. his neighbors all gone. >> hopelessness, that's what i have. >> reporter: the new plan likely won't come in time for him, but the hope is it will bring the city back to life, for future generations. kevin tibbles, nbc news, detroit. the vatican says tonight the pope's historic state visit to the uk will continue as planned despite a security scare earlier in the day. police arrested six men who were preparing an attack against the pope. at least five of the men worked as street cleaners in the area near parliament where the pope stoke today. when other broadcast

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you and me both. if copd is still making it hard to breathe, ask your doctor if including advair will help improve your lung function for better breathing. get your first full prescription free and save on refills. on important breakthrough to report tonight at the mine in chile where 33 trapped men have been waiting for almost six weeks so far to be rescued. workers have succeeded in drilling that potential escape shaft through to the chamber where the men are waiting. but the best guess is still it will be at least november before they can be freed and reemerge on the surface. there's a remarkable survival story to tell you about tonight. perhaps you saw it this morning on "today." it's about a toddler who came back to life after his heart stopped for nearly an hour. our own lee cowan has the story of the child who beat the odds. >> reporter: it was supposed to be a fun fourth of july

vacation, way up in the colorado mountains. but when their 2-year-old son, gore, wandered away, everything changed. >> absolute panic. i was -- i was trying so hard i couldn't even run anymore. >> reporter: just a few hundred yards from the cabin was an irrigation ditch and inside they found little girl. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> i have a little boy. >> reporter: gore had been under water for almost half an hour. his grandfather, a refired orthopedic surgeon, started cpr. ten more minutes passed and still nothing. >> he was dead. >> reporter: after nearly an hour, doctors got gore's heart going again. but that was it. that water was unrelenting. but there is one element that the colorado rockies give to almost every drop of water that rolls out of them that in this case was potentially life saving. the water was cold. gore's temperature had dropped

to just 87 degrees. in a last-ditch effort, doctors decided to keep him that way, stone cold. >> they pumped ice cold fluids into him. >> reporter: for two days, they sat huddled, frozen themselves in fear. then doctors slowly started to raise his body's temperature. >> all i hoped for was to be able to hold him again, and here he is waking up. >> reporter: he was rushed in for an mri and the results shocked everyone. >> it came back no abnormalities. not one single thing in his brain that was wrong. >> reporter: doctors aren't sure if the cold therapy is what saved him or not. no matter. for gore, it was the end of a big adventure. for his family, faith renewed. lee cowan, nbc news, denver. when we come back, remembering some people who left their mark on what we watched. thank you for calling usa prime credit. my name

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a municipal bus driver in portland, oregon, is in trouble after a passenger recorded this video after the driver was shown reading his kindle e-reader right there on the dash board. the driver apparently noticed the camera after the damage was done, and tried to tell the passenger no pictures were

allowed on a moving bus. there's also a policy against drivers using electronic devices on a moving bus. not to be outdone by other television personalities, jon stewart and steven colbert have unveiled their own plans for rallies in washington. stewart calls his the rally to restore sanity, colbert calls his the march to keep fear alive. we want to take a moment to mark two departures. both lives contributed in a way to our popular culture. one of them in the prevention of auto theft. james winner has died. he was the man who marketed the club. more than 25 million of them were sold, thanks in large part to those tv commercials. winner died in an auto accident that took two other lives as well. he was 81 years old. and billy may richards has

died. she is best known for her voice, the voice of a beloved character from our childhood, a character who just happened to be a boy. >> i think you're cute. i do, i do! >> billie mae richards played rudolph in the 1964 animation special, a staple on tv to this day during the holidays. her trademark was being able to sound like a young boy. she perpetuated the myth by spelling her name billy in the credits. actress billie mae richards was 88. we'll take a break. when we come back, getting in shape and san diego out of trouble. a one-two punch making a difference for a lot of kids. we speak value. and people like what we're saying. about how fusion is projected to hold its resale value better than camry.

and has better quality than accord. as a matter of fact, people like what we're saying so much, ford fusion is now the 2010 motor trend car of the year. the fusion, from ford. get in . . . and drive one. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans.

my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. [ water runs ] [ female announcer ] new chef boyardee whole grain beefaroni. [ whispering ] now with whole grain pasta. shh. [ susan ] i hate that the reason we're always stopping is because i have to go to the bathroom. and when we're sitting in traffic, i worry i'll have an accident. be right back. so today i'm finally going to talk to my doctor about overactive bladder. [ female announcer ] if you're suffering, today is the day to talk to your doctor and ask about prescription toviaz. one toviaz pill a day significantly reduces sudden urges and accidents all day and all night. and toviaz comes with a simple, 12-week plan with tips on training your bladder. if you have certain stomach problems or glaucoma

or cannot empty your bladder, you should not take toviaz. toviaz can cause blurred vision and drowsiness, so use caution when driving or doing unsafe tasks. the most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. [ susan ] today, i'm visiting my son without visiting every single bathroom. [ female announcer ] why wait? ask about toviaz today. finally tonight, our making a difference report comes to us from upstate new york. it's about a mon who took it upon himself to keep as many kids as he could off the street, out of trouble and in a place where there are few other good options.

>> it's to make myself become a better person. >> i find the gym is my perspective of staying out of trouble. >> reporter: for some of these kids the only lessons they've learned are on the streets of rochester's inner city. that is, until they met phil green. >> this program is not just about about boxing, it's about strengthening the body, strengthening their mind. one, two, hook. that goes together. when you've got a strong body, you got a strong mind. >> reporter: and you have a successful kid. >> yeah, you definitely have a successful kid then. >> reporter: phil runs a program called future boxing, an after school escape for kids on the brink. he's a construction worker. green grew up in one of rochester's most dangerous projects, supporting his two sisters and his out-of-work single mother. >> that's why i think the kids really relate to me, and the staff, because we basically grew

up in the same area as you, we've been where you at. we know what you're going through. so come here, talk to us is easy. it's a way out. >> reporter: it's not about boxing, it's about discipline, respect. phil's theory, the more self-confidence a child has, the more likely they are to succeed. what has this program done for you? >> it got me off the streets. if i didn't have this program, i would probably be on the streets right now, selling -- doing the usual. >> reporter: instead now you're training to be? >> a world champion. >> it's definitely worth it. >> reporter: that feeling you get. >> the feeling you get, yes, from these kids giving back to you. >> reporter: the ultimate payoff for phil and the kids, who now have a fighting chance. >> that is our broadcast for this friday night. i'm brian williams. lester holt will be here with

you this weekend. we hope to see you right back here on monday night. in the meantime, have a good weekend. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same.