because it's not about the next election, it's about the next generation. right? yeah!!! on our broadcast tonight, one by one. the miners trapped for two months are brought to freedom and a rescue mission the whole world is watching. while on the surface, the tears and cheers and joyful reunions. also tonight, it was a wild one. the final debate between two rivals for governor and it gets peonal. and "education nation." superstar villain, she's been called both. but tonight she's out as the woman in charge of one of the nation's most troubled school systems. so now what? "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. last night one was of those nights and today was one of those days when you could almost feel people watching live television coverage of the rescue effort of 33 men who have been trapped 2,000 feet below the surface of the earth for more than two months. this afternoon, the 24th man to come out was just as emotional as the first to come out. and just the sight of that little boy drove some over the edge. the president of chile told the men this morning, just rest, recover. you've got your whole life ahead of you and you were never alone. it's been a great reminder of what humans can do when they put their minds to it, and it's still going on tonight. our coverage begins with kerry sanders who has been describing each moment for us. kerry, good evening. >> reporter: we're about 18 1/2 hours into this rescue, and it's

remarkable. everyone has gone out without a hitch so far. just a short time ago, 53-year-old franklin lobos came out. he emerged and they handed him a soccer ball. he's a former star soccer player in this country. his rescue, like everyone today, a triumph. [ applause ] again and again and again, prayers answered. it all began shortly after midnight local time as a rescue engineer strapped into the 26 inch wide escape capsule and began the trip below, 2,040 feet down a shaft through some of the hardest rock on earth. 17 minutes, 22 seconds later, first contact. it worked on the way down and as soon as, as a billion viewers

around the world watched the image, the first would prove the capsule worked both ways. at 11 minutes after midnight as he was the first to end this 70-day crisis, his son, 7-year-old byron, touched everyone's hearts. a father and son finally reunited. up next, 39-year-old mario. when he cleared the escape pod, his celebration thrilled a nation. he surprised chile's president and rescuers with souvenirs, pieces of rock from the cave-in. his energy belying a man trapped in a mine for more than two months. they now call him super mario.

he hugged and kissed just about everyone, and then said of his ordeal. "i met god, i met the devil, god won." with each emotional rescue, the tempo has picked up. the minister of mines tweeted, round trips now take less than an hour. no one has needed a stretcher. in fact, all the miners look remarkably fit. still paramedics use one into the triage area, where the first request is met, a hot shower. the one miner whose love life played out came up late this afternoon. he was met not by his wife today, but by his mistress. the two women discovered each other when this crisis began. no matter how long it takes, chile's president and the first lady are personally welcoming each miner to the surface. 23-year-old carlos, the only miner not from chile, was

visited today by his president, bolivia's leader evo morales. he offered him land and a job if he came home. he said he would rather stay with his brothers in his new country, chile. there are now six miners left to come up. one just got into the capsule. he'll be up here shortly, in about 15 minutes. once all the rescues are over, the president here in chili says this mine will close forever. brian? >> our thanks to kerry sanders who has done such a great job covering this crisis throughout. and we keep coming back to the families of the miners. from those at the top of the list to the bottom, from the first to emerge to the last, what that must be like. you've seen the above ground celebrations. it means for them the ordeal is over. tonight, from the scene, our own natalie morales has their story. >> reporter: a hug probably

never felt so good. it was so beautiful, like a rebirth says this woman. she never stopped worrying about her father, mario gomez, the ninth miner brought to the surface. her mother greeted him with a long-awaited kiss. the family reunions are sweet, but short, as the rescued miners are taken for medical evaluations. the women who have kept vigil here joined in the celebration with their neighbors in this now close knit community. they arrived here as strangers two months ago but will leave as something closer to family. "we are one family here at camp hope. i've never seen anything like it," says this woman. when it was her family's turn to see her brother come out of the capsule, pure joy. this has become a home away from home for many of the families and many of the women say

they're not leaving here until every last one of the 33 miners is out. for this family, waiting for their three miners, all cousins, to be rescued, this ordeal has meant a new beginning. "before the family was scattered, now we are back to being a family, united." ten weeks of anguish have been transformed to tears of joy and a chance to say "i love you." natalie morales, nbc news, chile. >> and about all the millions worldwide who have watched this drama, hoping this ends as well as it has gone so far, we'll have a report on that a bit later on. back in this country, all 50 state attorneys general announced today they have launched a big joint investigation into the foreclosure fiasco that has led several of the nation's biggest banks to stop foreclosure evictions and sales and has put

a big clout over the real estate market already hurting. the group did not call for a nationwide foreclosure freeze, but ohio's attorney general said the probe is just getting started and they will go wherever it takes them. now we turn to politics. sharron angle, who is challenging the senate majority leader harry reid for his seat in the senate in nevada, raised afternoon awe-inspiring $13 million in the fourth quarter of this year, bringing her almost even with reid in the money race at least. the polls are showing a close race between reid and angle, who have virtually no campaign money after the gop primary. bill clinton campaigned for reid in las vegas just last night. and michelle obama is out on the campaign trail for the first time since '08, attending a fund-raiser for russ feingold in milwaukee who is facing a big

challenge from republican business owner ron johnson. the democrats are candidly taking advantage of her approval rating, 20 points higher than her husband's in several polls. today, she acknowledged many people in the midwest are hurting economically and urged voters to have patience. >> many of us came into this expecting to see all the change we talked about happen all at once, right away. the minute barack walked into the oval office door. but the truth is, it is going to take a longer time to dig ourselves out of this hole than any of us would like. >> the first lady will spend a rare night at the old obama home in chicago tonight after attending fund-raisers for local democratic candidates, including the one in a tight race for her husband's old senate seat. it is just one state, after all, but it has the most people, 12% of the population of the united states. so what happens in california matters a lot and is closely

watched, including the current raise for governor. tom brokaw moderated last night's third and final debate between jerry brown and meg whitman. it went from substance to sparring to policy to personal, all in one night. our own lee cowan is in san francisco for us tonight. lee, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. it's hard to imagine a job more difficult than this. you're running a state whose economy is one of the largest in the world that is essentially broke at the moment and facing an unemployment rate that is the third highest in the nation, and last night voters got a chance to see just who's who. it was their final scheduled matchup, and the exchanges were as meaty as they were mean. >> my business is creating jobs, your business is politics. >> reporter: that was the line meg whitman, the former ebay ceo is up against jerry brown, who has been a creature of sacramento for years. it's insider versus outsider.

sparring over ways to resurrect the state's limping economy. whitman wants to cut capital gains. brown disagrees. >> i would like to ask you, how much money will you save if this tax breaks were in effect this year or last year? >> i'm an investor and investors will benefit from this, but so will job creators. >> reporter: immigration reform was center stage, too, with whitman had to defend with employing and firing an undocumented housekeeper. >> after working for nine years, she didn't even get her a lawyer. at least i can tell you that could be done. >> reporter: but as the moderator put it, brown has his own notorious issues to deal with. caught on tape calling what whitman described the equivalent of a racial slur. >> i don't agree with that comparison. number two, this is a five-week

old conversation picked up on a cell phone. >> you know better than that, jerry. that's a completely different thing. >> reporter: in the end, for all those undecided california voters, some say it may not have changed a thing. >> what they may have taken away from this debate is there are two flawed candidates. there are two candidates who didn't even when pressed get into specifics. >> reporter: brian, meg whitman has dumped $140 million of her own money into this campaign. that's more than any other candidate. and both campaigns still have a lot more to spend, so they can duke it out all the way until election day. and in case you're wondering, tom brokaw was on crutches last night because he hurt his ankle. we're told he's going to be just fine. brian, back to you. >> all right, lee cowan in the shadow of the golden gate bridge

in san francisco. lee, thanks. when "nightly news" continues in just a moment, washington's controversial public schools chancellor leaving her post. tonight, why she's departing and what it means. later, the world watches the miners emerge, giving everybody a badly needed piece of good news these days. [ male announcer ] this is steven, a busy man. his day starts with his arthritis pain. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills.

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nothing beats prevacid®24hr. just one pill helps keep you heartburn free for a full 24 hours. prevent the acid that causes frequent heartburn with prevacid®24hr, all day, all night. nothing works better. michelle rhee is regarded as a hero by her fans, but those who think she's the enemy pumped a lot of money into the mayoral election in washington to try to defeat her by defeating her boss, the mayor. and they did. until today, michelle rhee ran the troubled school system in washington, d.c., a system hardly ever mentioned without the word "troubled" in front of it. she was a tough and controversial chancellor, a reformer, and now people are watching and wondering what next for her. as part of our "education nation," nbc's rehema ellis covers education for us.

>> reporter: after nearly four years of pushing for change, michelle rhee announced it's time for her to move on. >> the thought of not being in this role anymore is heartbreaking, to put it mildly. >> reporter: rhee says she's resigning because it's the right thing to do, now. >> we have agreed together that the best way to keep the reforms going is for this reformer to step aside. >> reporter: rhee is leaving after her boss failed to win his bid for re-election and her policies have become a major issue in the campaign. in the wake of that defeat, it was expected she would leave. rhee was challenged to overhaul the district's struggling schools, considered among the worst in the nation. she shut down 28 schools, laid off more than 450 teachers and demanded higher performance. the result, some improvement. math proficiency scores have gone up from 27% to 43%.

reading proficiency from 29% to 43%. and the union agreed to a new landmark teachers contract, giving principals new hiring powers and linking teacher pay to student performance. rhee became a national symbol for education reform. >> for anyone who is out there believing you can bring about transformational change to a dysfunctional system and have everyone be happy, that's just not possible. >> reporter: featured in the movie about america's struggling schools, "waiting for superman." >> you wake up every morning and you know that kids are getting a really crappy education right now. >> reporter: but her style also alienated many parents and teachers. >> she thought if you just fired teachers and shook things up, things would be better. but they are not markedly better. >> reporter: what do you consider one of your mistakes? >> one of the mistakes that we made was not having a direct

line of communication with teachers. >> reporter: in two weeks, michelle rhee will leave the school system she bettered on many levels, but which still struggles with less than half the students graduating on time, meaning there's a lot more work to be done. rehema ellis, nbc news, washington. one more quick program note. michelle rhee will appear live tomorrow morning on "today." when we come back here tonight, why one group of americans seems destined to live longer than others and it's still a mystery. (announcer) no matter what life throws at you,

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a little weather here. hurricane paula has been downgraded to a category 1 storm as it plows its way toward cuba. it's the 16th named storm of the season. could drop up to 10 inches of rain on parts of western cuba tonight, and the northeast still on the lookout for a storm developing tomorrow night that could spin into a classic nor'easter heading into the

weekend. starting at about philly on north to new york, providence, boston, portland, then canada. look for lots of rain, high winds for the tens of millions of people in its potential path. even some snow from this one in the northern reaches. there's some news tonight we mentioned earlier about america's hispanic population getting a lot of attention. it says that hispanics can expect to outlive whites and blacks. government researchers estimate that a hispanic born in 2006 would live to about 80 years and 7 months. a white american, 78 years. a black person just under 73. the exact reason for the life span gap is not clear to researchers. secretary of state hillary clinton took a few minutes to see one of kosovo's main attractions, an 11-foot high gold likeness of her husband, the bill clinton statue happens to be on bill clinton boulevard. as president, he supported nato

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broadcast. it's felt at times from last night into today, into tonight like the whole country, the whole world is watching those brave men emerge from that mine in chile. and those brave men go down and get them. for one thing, it's noise to follow a good news story just as it's nice to be able to bring one to you. people who couldn't watch on tv wondered what number rescue are they on. people who did watch couldn't stop watching and our own mike taibbi was watching them. >> reporter: a cheer is the same in any language and there's been a lot of cheering. the headlines reflect the reaction to the drama playing out everywhere. >> never before has mankind ever retrieved any living person from this depth. >> reporter: in australia, miners who themselves once

survived being draped in the depths were moved by the rescue of these miners. they're worried, too. >> it's all going to take a toll at the end of the day. >> reporter: but mostly there's been wonder at so extraordinary an outcome. even journalists deeply affected. >> my heart was pounding, i was drying. every single reporter, every single person, grown men in tears. >> reporter: the pope in rome was announced that his own prayers for the men would continue. president obama spoke for many. >> this rescue is a tribute to not only the determination of the rescue workers and the chile government but the resolve. >> reporter: from tokyo to toronto, it's been a good story. and spanish language networks have drawn huge audiences and chilean restaurants everywhere have been packed with patrons

eager to share their joy. >> it's a very happy moment for every chilean in the world. >> i think that nobody is going to forget this day. >> reporter: by every means of communication, the story is skipping around the world. experts straining to explain what just months ago seemed impossible. while expats have tried to decide are they feeling more happiness or pride? says isidore? >> both. >> reporter: logic says the miners would have perished. the human spirit said otherwise. mike taibbi, nbc news, new york. >> this story will continue to unfold throughout the night tonight. we'll be carrying the coverage live on our website nightly.msnbc.com. don't forget msnbc, your late local news and tomorrow morning on "today." for us, for now, that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us.

i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com bob ehrlich says he wants to fix maryland. but he increased state spending by record amounts. ehrlich raised $3 billion in taxes and fees... including property taxes... and a 40% increase in college tuition. and now he's made over $1 billion in new promises... with no plans to pay for them... except for cutting education. cuts that will lay off teachers