can eat pancakes, cordon bleu melt, the new cookie skillet a la mode. whew. so many choices, so little airtime. the 2-4-6-8 value menu. only at denny's. on the broadcast tonight. the politics of faith. religion again at the forefront in the race for president. billy graham's son making some provocative comments about the president and mitt romney. is it here? there's a report tonight that debris from the japanese earthquake has arrived on the west coast of the united states. the rally. the dow cracks 13,000, but what does it really mean for millions of americans struggling to keep their heads above water and gas in the tank these days? and a time bomb for baby boomers. a big health warning tonight about what they're calling a silent epidemic and how it can escape detext. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. it didn't take long for the issue that loomed so large in the last presidential election to kind its way to the headlines in this election. religion. the president's religion, the religion of his challenger, especially mitt romney's mormonism was front and center again today, helped along by the remarks this morning on live television by the son of the most famous preacher in america. we have two reports tonight, before we hear from peter alexander on the campaign trail in michigan. we begin with nbc's andrea mitchell in washington on this change in the tone about the conversation about religion today. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. rick santorum has been firing up the republican base by accusing president obama of having, quote, a phony theology. he says he's not questioning the president's christian faith, but he has reignited a hot debate over religion and politics.

rick santorum says he's not talking about religion but about president obama's environmental policy. >> the government gives him the drugs -- >> but then santorum brought up the president's controversial former pastor, the reverend jeremiah wright on fox news last night. >> he went to reverend wright's zurj for 20 years. you can question what kind of theology the reverend has. he says he's a christian, he goes to a christian church now. >> reporter: the comments are red meat for some conservatives. >> it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. oh, not a theology based on the bible, a different theology. >> reporter: and others are now picking up the theme. on "morning joe" today, reverend billy graham's son cast out on whether president obama is a christian. >> by your definition, he's not a christian? >> you have to ask him. i cannot answer that question for anybody. >> but you do not believe he's a muslim? >> no.

>> categorically not a muslim. >> i can't say categorically because islam has gotten a free pass under obama. >> reporter: two years ago, the president visited an ailing graham. at the national prayer breakfast, he spoke about it. >> reverend graham started praying for me as he had for so many presidents before me. and when he finished praying, i felt the urge to pray for him. >> reporter: today, the white house dismissed franklin graham's comments saying the president had just talked at the prayer breakfast about the importance of faith in his life. mitt romney was also questioned today about franklin graham. >> most christians would not recognize mormonism as part of the christian faith. >> reporter: the last time he ran for president, romney tried to putmon issue at rest. >> person shouldn't be accepted because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith. >> reporter: the president has to often gp wl religion.

and there's no way to predict how it will affect voters this year. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. >> ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the comeback kid, mitt romney, the next president of the united states of america. bring it on. >> reporter: this is peter alexander on the campaign trail in detroit, facing the next crucial primary in michigan. th he tried to focus on the main argument that he can fix the american president. >> how can we have a president -- this is what i don't get -- how can we have a president whose tax policy is to raise taxes? >> still in what's become a neck and neck race, santorum has threatened to derail romney's path to the nomination. >> if he lose, suddenly the talk will not be the inevitability of mitt romney as a presidential nominee, but there will be huge doubts. >> reporter: romney's senior adviser dismiss santorum for

tree creating, in their words, a controversy a day. and romney has dispatched his wife across michigan who today acknowledged her husband's debates are stressful, even on her. >> i decided it would be better if i could just do the debating from this point forward. >> santorum voted to raise the debt ceiling five times. >> romney and his allies continue to hammer away at santorum. >> reporte . >> america is drowning in national debt, yet rick santorum supported millions in ear mar s marngs. >> reporter: yet they're burning through money. romney spent three times wh they raised. today, santorum brushed off the latest attacks. >> you may hear commercials, rick san tor sveum a big spender, but they never once talked about how i voted for any increase in an appropriation bill.

why? because i never did. >> and it was all eyes on rick santorum ahead of tomorrow night's debate in arizona. the santorum campaign is down playing expectations, with one adviser telling me this debate is important, but it's not the end-all, will-all for their campaign. now to the economy, one of the more substantial issue, the voters will be deciding on this election year. today on wall street for the first time in almost four years, the dow jones industrial average touched that 13,000 mark before backing off a bit by the closing bell. blue chips finished the day up almost 16 points at 12,965 in the end. so what does a sizable rally on wall street mean for the rest of the country? our report from nbc's john yang. >> the last time the dow hit

13,000, broem proem was a junie sgloort and facebook had fewer than 1 million users. it's nearly doubled since bottoming out in march 2009 with nearly 165 million american invested in stock, mostly through 401(k) retirement accounts, that's likely to boost consumer confidence. >> a confident consumer is one more likely to spend and they're willing to look to the future with a bit more optimism. >> i'm impressed with the stock market if the wall street fat cats get richer, that doesn't affect me or my friends. >> reporter: rising stock prices may not mean much for consumers. given all the head winds in the economy, rising energy prices, still concerns about europe, you can't say that 13,000 dow is an all-clear signal. >> reporter: analysts say the

biggest hit may be at the pump with forecasters predicting an nationwide average of $3.95 per gallon by memorial day, higher in big cities. >> it impacts everything. it's just not the car. >> reporter: there are other troubling signs. 1 in 5 home owners owe more on their houses than they're worth. and more than a quarter of americans owe more on their credit cards than they have in savings. >> we're growing, but there's not a general sense of prosperity in the country. >> reporter: as the economic recovery struggles to maintain momentum. you want to know the impact of those rising gas prices, consider this -- analysts say the 18.5 scent increase in the last 30 days has cost american households, $26 billion. brian? >> john i can't think in chicago. thanks. as we learn today at the height of the presidential campaign this fall, the u.s. supreme court is going to consider a case on the contentious issue of

race and affirmative action, and it could change american law on this topic once again. our justice correspondent pete williams at the supreme court for us tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, the court's agreement to hear this case puts the issue of affirmative action very much in doubt at the nation's colleges and universes. the justices agreed to hear a challenge to the admissions policies at the university of texas at austin. a white high school student, abigail fisher sued claiming affirmative action kept her out. she said her grades and test skers were b scores were better than many minority students that were admitted. nine years ago, the supreme court said colleges could consider race to make class mrs. diverse, but the court is more conservative on this issue now with the departure of sandra day o'connor who wrote that decision, replaced by samuel alito. the court will likely hear this case in october or early november, just as voters are preparing to go to the polls or

cast their absentee ballots, brian. >> pete williams at the court where this will indeed be a contentious case. pete, thanks. overseas tonight, we have news from three separate hot spots from around the world, starting with iran. it is now saying it will strike first against its enemies if it feels threatened. just this week, they've been using military vessels in their own show of force on the water. in syria, government forces again bombarding the city of homs. there are reports today of at least 100 more dead, including children. international red cross is trying to negotiate a cease-fire to allow in food and medical supplies. finally, in afghanistan, angry protest against america after a terrible mistake. american soldiers were reportedly cleaning out a library at bagram air base, apparently not realizing they were throwing out religious texts, including copies of the koran until afghan staffers saw what was happening. by the time the books had been

discovered, they had gone to the incinerator. the commander of nato forces has quickly apologized for this. we mentioned this next story at the top of the broadcast. there's a report tonight that the first of the debris from the earthquake at fukushima, japan, has arrived on our west coast. first word of this story broke earlier today. all we have for hard evidence, in addition to what people have seen for themselves and examined are some still pictures sent to king tv, our nbc stais statitio seattle. and for starters, we thought we would ask our own experts on this if this could possibly be that same debris. so with us, our chief foreign affairs correspondent anne thompson and ian williams who's been based on the pacific rim and who, by the way, spent over a month reporting in and around fukushima, both with us here in new york tonight. anne, first environmentally, we've been talking about the

mass and its traveling speed. could this be that? >> well, it's possible, but highly unlikely. at least that's noaa says. there's a scientist in seattle, or washington state who believes this is debris in the tsunami, in large part there was a buoy that was made in japan. but noaa says these bouys have washed up on the coast for many, many years and it would have had to travel at n almost a direct line for 23 miles a day to hit the west coast. the degree brobris is coming bu not supposed to reach our shores until early next year. >> if this is not it, it will get here at some point. is there some way it could happen, given the volume of what you saw roll into the sea? >> the statistics are staggering. by some estimates 500,000 buildings were either destroyed or damaged by the tsunami. just to give you an idea of that, that's equivalent to half the buildings in the entire city

of new york. by some estimates, the tsunami generated the equivalent of a whole year's worth of trash. now, the japanese have done quite a good job in cleaning up the mess of whavt was left of those villagers but what they have created are mountains of debris. in those mountains are toxic materials. and disposing of it could take years. >> it's a mystery discovery on the west coast. and as we say, if not now, certainly some of it will be getting here at some time. a break through for patients desperately waiting for life-saving cancer drugs. tonight, the fda says it has a solution to some critical shortages we've been covering. and the simple act of teaching young people to fish, making a difference on dry land for a lifetime. laying]

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what's being branded a silent epidemic among baby boomers. a virus a lot of people don't know they have, and the routine tests you get at the doctor that may not show it. our chief medical correspondent dr. nancy snyderman has our report. >> reporter: beverly's diagnosis of hepatitis b came five years ago after a visit to her doctor. now at age 56, every day is a struggle. >> i'm always tired, nauseated, very weak. fatigued. >> reporter: more than 3 million americans are infected with hepatitis c. even more alarming, 1/2 to 2/3 don't realize it. >> we want to catch it before you develop cirrhosis. that means your liver is severely injured with scar

tissue. >> by the time scar tissue is found, the liver is damaged so badly it often leads to cancer or a need for a transplant. hepatitis c is often transmitted through intravennous drugs and sexual contact. there's no simple test for hepatitis b like there is for hepatitis b. unfortunately, for beverly, her body can't tolerate the drugs and she may soon be placed on a transplant list. her case is not rare. that's why her doctor recommends that patients in their 40s and older be screened for the virus. >> the only way to find it is to go after it and look for it. so everybody should be, adults, should be screened for hepatitis c virus. >> obviously screening all these baby boomers is going to be

quite an undertaking, but experts say finding this virus and treating it and changing lifestyle is still less expensive than the cost of treating liver cancer or liver transplant. >> another story has to do with drug shortages we've been covering. >> we've been talking a lot. methatrexate, a stop-gap measure today from the fda, they said right now, they're going to bring in emergency samples from australia and another drug used to treat ovarian cancer, bring some medication in from india. it is a crisis. we're just a couple of weeks away from running out of this drug in this country, but nonetheless, until we figure out the manufacturing glitches in this country, it really is a stop-gap measure. >> anything to get it to patients. doctor, thank you as always. up next here tonight, for americans wondering where winter is, a lot of folks are having way too much of it. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand,

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anytime you hear harry connick jr., it must be that time. we decided today it's the one place most of us would rather be. since mardi gras means fat tuesday in americanized french, and this being fat tuesday, they did what they do best in new orleans today. they'll be at it, in fact, all night long tonight. it's a legal holiday in the stu of new orleans, mostly because they had the good sense years ago to know nothing is going to get done all day anyway. while a lot of americans have been wondering where winter is, the answer appeared to be sadly in europe. it arrived late this year, but it's been brutal. with rivers frozen solid, records amount of snows and deadly avalanches of their own. upwards s os of 600 people hav across the continent. and now the temperatures are starting to warm up. new problems on the danube this

week. ice chunks broke apart and several vessels were destroyed. what a great view of the northern lights we've been covering than shooting a two-stage rocket up into it. this intense solar activity has turned the nighttime into a bright green. they're using a rocket to study how it's formed, how it affects communication signals on earth, especially gps. it was a landmark ever since it opened in 1928, and it came down in violent, swift fashion today. the bridge over the ohio river that was for decades the primary link between ohio and west virginia came down in a beautifully executed controlled explosion early this morning. it was replaced years ago by a nearby wider, more modern span. and of course, all good things must come to an end. up next year tonight, a man who knows one thing to be true.

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the sign on the door that reads "gone fishing." well, tonight we had a man who took that sentiment and applied it to kids, who often have too much to worry about themselves. now he's making a difference in their plooichs his story and their, from nbc's mark potter. >> reporter: on a gray and blustery day up the palm beach county coast a group of teenagers is having the greatest time. >> keep the rod tip up. >> reporter: all of them guests of the florida fishing academy pop i love it. it's awesome. i didn't know anything about fishing before and now i do. >> reporter: the academy was started as an after-school program by a former police officer and construction company owner, now a full-time boat captain and mentor. >> i set out for one goal, and that was to save one kid. now it's one child at a time, and we saved a lot. >> reporter: this woman says the academy saved her son donnie. >> if he was not fishing, he

would be out on the street getting in trouble. >> reporter: more than 4,000 students in low-income area schools have signed on for free fishing legends. >> peer pressure. we know what that is, right? >> reporter: he also teaches lifeless response. >> cigarettes can cause mouth cancer. if you think that's true, raise your hand? >> reporter: helping kids stay healthy and on the right track. on the boat, they also learn about safety and ocean conservation, along with the thrill of the catch. >> i get excited when i catch a big fish. if they catch a fish that's, like, three inches long, it's the biggest smile. they love it. >> reporter: this boat is on important part of the program. it's the incentive. if you go to class, stay out of trouble and do some volunteer work, you get to spend the day out here. anthony says fishing keeps him calm. >> like, it puts me in my own would, my zone. it's, like, my time. >> reporter: his mother couldn't be happier. >> i would rather him go out shark fishing than hanging out

in the sharks on the fish. >> reporter: a fishing school that catches kids. all of them, keepers. mark potter, nbc news, rivera beach, florida. that's our broadcast on a tuesday evening. thank you for being with here with us. i'm brian williams, and of course, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow night. good night.