on the broadcast tonight, a backlash from infuriated customers. and tonight bank of america backs off that fee for using a debit card. it seems like a victory. what else might the banks be planning. the long wait for millions still in the cold and dark. a new report is warning we can expect more extreme weather ahead. women's health tonight. this is confusing. remember the advice to drink a glass of wine a day? now there's reason to worry about that. a mother's legacy. her daughter grew up to be the

secretary of state. remembering the extraordinary woman who raised one of the most powerful women in the world. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. tonight we begin with consumers rising up against a big bank in this era of great anger over financial wrongdoing. that big bank, bank of america has backed down. while there is another allegation tonight over bad behavior at a big money firm. this first story is over a small amount. fees to use your debit card. those fees add up quickly. banks have to make their money somehow, and consumers should be alert for new charges. so we begin here tonight with nbc's tom costello at a bank of america branch in chevy chase,

maryland. >> reporter: for a lot of folks, the fact that they have to pay to use their own money to make a purchase, that was too much. after weeks of mounting pressure, a protest, people pullipull ing their accounts, other banks saying they're not going along, bank of america threw in the towel. >> it may have been one fee too many. >> they're stealing from you, that's the bottom line. >> to the streets of l.a. >> we're disgusted, we're tired of being ripped off. >> it's unnecessary for people that are hardworking right now and unemployed. >> after a tsunami of protests, backlash and 200,000 signed petitions, bank of america today gave in on the $5 a month debit fee. saying we have listened to our customers overed last few weeks and recognize their concern. the pressure proved too much after chase, city group, wells fargo, suntrust and a host of others, announced they abandoned

plans to charge a monthly fee for debit card purchases. >> this is a huge win for consumers, it shows when they take action, they say, we don't want to pay these fees and if you make us, we're taking our business elsewhere, have you a voice. >> reporter: even politicians had urged customers to leave their banks. >> to move to banks that aren't going to nail them with these fees that are driven by greed. >> reporter: but illinois senator durbin says it's banks who forced them to add the fees because they could only charge merchants half. >> we need to raise revenue or reduce costs. >> reporter: raising revenue means you should watch out for stealth fees. fees for receiving a paper statement. fees for using a teller. fees for not using your account enough and fees for not maintaining a large minimum balance. check your statement closely. these aren't easy times for the

banks, they did pay back all of the $700 in bailout money. they've been accused of not lending willingly. of course, right now there's not a lot of public sympathy for the nation's banks. brian? >> tom costello starting us off tonight. now to a story that has a lot of people asking, how could this kind of financial disaster happen again. and have investors been bilked by a big name on wall street, who also happens to be a former u.s. senator and former governor. this all involves the stunning collapse into bankruptcy of mf global. hundreds of millions of dollars are missing, there's now talk of an fbi vision. and there's a very big name at the center of what appears to be a big financial scandal. andrew sorkin, the author of "too big to fail" and a financial columnist for the new york times. this is john corzine we're

talking about. while he's been a politician, before that he was ceo of goldman stacks. he knows his way around money. what's alleged to have happened here, and what'sed fear about what has happened here? >> what's happened here feels a lot like 2008. john corzine made some huge bets on european bonds using the firm's mfroney, but then borrowg a huge amount of money for every chip he put down at the black jack table he borrowed 40 chips from the bank. people worried so much about those bets it created a crisis of confidence and put the company in grups. what's really raising questions today, we found there have been 600 million to 700 million dollars that have gone missing, and questions about whether the firm was dipping into customer accounts to make those bets on behalf of the company. >> if you're playing with company money and nobody gets hurt, it's rich guy versus rich guy, that's not a crime.

if you're dipping into the customers? >> all of a sudden this becomes a mini-ponzi scheme, madoff all over again. there are real questions whether this is criminal. w we don't know the answer yet. also, given john corzine's pedigree, whether the lessons of 2008, leverage and debt were ever learned or not. >> thank you for visiting us in the studio. even as all this was going on, the surprise word that the prime minister of greece says he's going to hold an up or down popular vote on the european bailout agreed to last week. and that sent stocks around the world into another tailspin of sorts, including here. dow was down 297, nasdaq down 77 s&p down 45 points on the day. there's frustration and anger here in the northeast as more than 1.5 million households are still facing another night in the cold and dark after the

huge power outage caused by that surprise october snowstorm this past saturday. some schools are closed for the week. some people don't have water or gasoline, to say nothing of heat or lights. nbc's ron allen is in hard hit new town connecticut. good evening. >> good evening, brian. it's day four of all of this. and the utility crews as you can see are working late into the night. more than half the homes and businesses in connecticut still do not have power, and everyone's patience is starting to run thin. across the storm-battered northeast, the weather cooperated today. spring-like temperatures made the cleanup more bearable for residents and utility crews. after another night of temperatures below freezing in many places. >> they told us maybe by thursday they would have this up. and that's one of the longest times we've had to wait for power to come. >> even connecticut's governor was frustrated by the response.

after calls to the federal government and some 15 other states for help. >> we've had orders out for as much help as could be brute to the arena. and for whatever reason, the resources have not gotten here. >> across the region, almost 1.7 million homes and businesses are without power. 675,000 just in connecticut. as in other states, the frustration here is intense, because the freakish halloween storm was a second punch after hurricane eye reern in august. 800,000 outages then for about a week. >> it's just been a drag, that's all, basically. >> you're wondering why this is the way it is in 2011. >> a sentiment texted, e-mailed and blogged as town halls and libraries that opened shelters with power so precious in this digital age. >> it's a new age. we're all connected to electronics. that's the problem, everything's

battery powered. >> the problem is, power lines are still in the air, on polls and near trees. >> everything else is underground, sewer, natural gas, it's very much like groundhog day. we're going over the same thing over and over and over again. >> and changing that, he says, would take money no one has these days. sending utility rates up. so for now, try to make do the best you can. we're still hearing it will take a week or more to repair all this damage. >> you're right, it's like groundhog day. we'll be at this all over again unless we bury those wires some day. everybody out east said the same thing about this freak snowstorm. this kind of thing didn't used to happen. this never happened before. and while that is true, it may also be true that we'll all have to start getting used to this kind of thing over the long haul. that story tonight from our chief environmental affairs

correspondent anne thompson. >> reporter: around the world, it seems like the weather is going to extremes. not just the halloween snowstorm in the northeast, but record breaking flooding in tie land. 1,400 new highs in the u.s. in the month of july. moscow reaching 101 degrees in the summer of 2010. heat and wildfires consuming southern australia in 2009. >> this is the future and we're already experiencing climate change. >> reporter: our warming planet makes extreme weather events more likely. as greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal alter the climate. >> just as steroids make the baseball player stronger and increase his chances of hitting home runs, the greenhouse gases are the steroids of the climate system. they increase the chances of record breaking heat to occur, compared to record breaking cold. >> reporter: if the climate weren't changing, it would be

one record hot day to one record hot day. this year we're on a three to one pace. heat and little rainfall have parched texas for the last year, making it the worst one-year drought in texas history. >> this is really the first time when climate change -- the impact of climate change has manifested itself in a tangible way within the state of texas. >> adding to all this, a new study that finds global warming is real. and that the science behind it is not impacted by biassed, bad data or cities that act as heat islands. >> the instance of global warming is pretty much beyond dispute now. we have closed the last remaining questions on that. >> muller's study is getting a lot of attention because it was funded in part by a foundation backed by charles and david koch. they are oil physical airs and climate change deniers.

no one can say if climate change is here to stay. now to pren sham politics and the sexual harassment allegations swirling around herman cain. one of the women who claims cain engaged in inappropriate behavior says she wants to do public with her story. cain has been doing a loot of talking about the allegations, and struggling at times to explain himself. >> reporter: for herman cain, day two of damage control, also involved trying to undo the damage from shifting stories on day one. >> i just started to remember more. remember, in 12 years a lot of stuff can go through your head. >> reporter: that's how cain explained yesterday's inconsistencies. when he recommended that the work performance of one accuser was sub par. and offered new details about an incident that prompted what he

says were false accusations of sexual harassment. >> i was standing close to her, and i made a gesture, you are the same height as my wife and brought my hand, didn't touch her. up to my chin. obviously she thought that was too close for comfort. >> reporter: cain's story about whether the woman received a financial settlement also has changed. >> i am unaware of any sort of settlement. >> reporter: then. >> yes, there was some sort of settlement or termination. >> reporter: now he blames the confusion on semantics. >> the word settlement suggested to me some sort of legal settlement. as i recalled what happened 12 years ago, i recalled an agreement. i wasn't thinking legal settlement. >> cain says he doesn't recall anything about a second accuser. nbc news has confirmed that a second woman also accused cain

of inappropriate sexual conduct. >> this is the only case i know about, if there are others out there, they will probably have to make it up. >> late today, a lawyer representing the women said she would like to come forward, but needs to be released from a confidentiality agreement. >> when he says he never sexually harriassed anyone, i kw that's not the perception of my client. >> reporter: for cain this just became a lot more complicated. still ahead here as we continue, tonight's controversial health news for women. this one involves drinking and now breast cancer. an expert will be with us in the studio to help us sort it out. later, her daughter put 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling, remembering hillary clinton's extraordinary mother. food,

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again. just what is the right thing to do. the latest report says a few drinks a week, as few as three may be putting some women at higher risk for breast cancer. this link isn't new material, but until now, research has focused on higher levels of drinking than that. we're happy to be joined tonight in the studio by the chief of breast surgery at cornell hospital in new york. so many women were just told, have an alcoholic beverage per day, it's good for heart health. and many women who don't enjoy drinking, do it for the sake of their health. this is where we get into confusing territory. >> the first thing to appreciate is the way the study was done. it's a large group of women that were followed and asked questions about their dietary habits, including alcohol use. these kind of studies are notoriously inaccurate, people just don't remember what they had to drink or eat six months

ago. let's assume the data is correct. what it's showing is modest amount of alcohol, three to six drinks a week increases your risk by 15%. heavy use by 50%. 15% more takes you to 11, 12 percent risk. 50% more to a 15% risk. compare this to family histories that can put you at 85% lifetime risk getting breast cancer. in perspective, it really is not as high as a strong family history of breast cancer. >> to put a period at the end of the sentence, isn't the advice, everything in moderation? >> yes. >> thank you. that's why we invited you to the studio tonight. >> thank you. >> appreciate your time and advice. there's a new report card out for this nation's students tonight. tests given every two years in having trouble in both subjects.

in math, 40% of our fourth graders, 45% of our eighth graders scored at or above proficient. that's a little better than the last time this test was given in '09. in reading 34% of eighth graders tested proficient or above. school districts that focused more on academics and parental involvement did better overall. no surprise there. up next, as we continue on a tuesday night, a new honor for a former american president may have wanted it anywhere but where it is tonight. [ whooping ] ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day ♪ ♪ it was the best day ♪ 'cause of you we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors! we make a great pair. right, totally. that's what i was thinking. all kinds of vehicles, all kinds of savings.

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the mother of secretary of state hillary rodham clinton died today at the age of 92. her own success in life was something of an achievement after a very rough start. and the daughter she raised went on to the height of achievement at the intersection of politics and diplomacy. tonight, nbc's andrea mitchell reports on the life and death of dorothy rodham. >> reporter: hillary clinton has always had an easy answer for how she got to where she is today. >> it's literally true, i wouldn't be here without my mother. >> reporter: dorothy rodham has always been at her daughter's side. >> my mother, dorothy rodham. >> reporter: it was she who first taught a young hillary how to stand up to neighborhood bullies. >> she met me at the door and she said there, is no place for cowards in this house.

you have to go back outside and handle your problems. >> reporter: at the age of 8 dorothy was sent across the country to unwelcoming garden parents. they treated her so harshly, she left to work as a nanny. >> my mother was basically abandoned as a young girl. and by the age of 13, she was on her own. >> reporter: it was a life right out of charles dickens. >> i'm still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely, early life as such an affectionate and level headed woman. >> reporter: after her husband died in 1993, dorothy rodham played a larger role in the clinton's lives. >> there's only one person in the world who can tell the truth about a man, and that's his mother-in-law. >> anyone who knows her history knows what a strong, determined and gifted person she was. >> she really is my inspiration.

my grandmother had a remarkable life, and overcame challenges when she was a child that i cannot even imagine. >> reporter: a mother and grandmother who taught two generations of clinton women that they could achieve anything in life. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. as always, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the best place for a vacation is mississippi. you mean louisiana. florida's where folk's want to be. alabama's got you all beat. no matter which state you choose, everyone agrees the gulf is vacation at it's best. mississippi outdoors,