on the broadcast tonight, autism. stunning news tonight about the number of children diagnosed, especially little boys. apple investigation. a big admission tonight about the working conditions for the people who make your iphones and ipads. >> first look, on tape of the man who shot trayvon martin. tonight, the question, what does it really show? >> pumped up. gas prices sky high, and it looks like it could be a very expensive summer. and gold rush. going west again to strike it rich. "nightly news" begins now. good evening. i'm lester holt, in tonight for

brian williams. the mere mention of the word strikes deep anxiety for parents everywhere. autism. a set of development disabilities that often send healthy children into a nearly inpenetrable world of their own, and we learned that more and more children are now considered to be ougautistic. the numbers are jaw dropping. according to the cdc, 1 in 88 children are said to have an autism spectrum disorder. among boys, 1 in 54. three years ago, 1 in 110 children were diagnosed. but the question many are asking tonight, are more children being stricken with the condition, or are doctors diagnosing them more often. robert bazell has details. ♪ good morning academy how are you ♪ >> 3-year-old aiden meyers waw diagnosed with autism last sum.

. >> i told myself i was going to be okay with it, and today -- it was a hard day. >> aiden is among the children, 1 in 54 are boys. now diagnosed with some disorder that falls in what is called the autism spectrum. that's a 23% increase from the last survey taking two years earlier, according to the cdc. >> since 2002, the problems have increased 78%. >> no one is sure what is behind the numbers, but many experts believe part of it is a greater awareness among the medical establishment and among parents. and many experts say that problems that used to be labeled disorders, ranging from mental retardation to learning disorders are now diagnosed at autism. >> we're more inclusive. we include people with more

cognitive abilities and less severe problems than we have in the past. >> what have you got in your pocket? >> sticks. >> no one doubts aiden meyer's diagnose, but he's not the case of the social withdrawn, nonverbal child. he attended reed academy where each child is taught full time by a teacher. >> my little boy is riding a bike all by himself. >> many argue no matter what the increase in cases, huge numbers of children could benefit from such extra care. robert bazell, nbc news, new york. joining us now, dr. levine, aped pediatrician based here inw york, and he's a mother herself. good to have you here. what should parents be looking for in their children in the early developmental years. >> they're supposed to screen for signs of autism at 18 months

and 24 months, but there are things parents can look out for as well. by 18 months, most children should be responding to their name. if your child doesn't respond when you call out their name, you want to seek medical attention for that. also, children at this age will be able to point to objects. they should wave bye-bye when someone leaves the room or when they're prompted. they tend not to tune out other people around them. this is when they're social and interacting. they should be interacting with other children as well, and this is also a time where children should be -- should be interested in children and also making eye contact with them. >> you can imagine certainly how difficult this is for parents to hear this kind of news, these kinds of numbers. one thing we should take away from the study, what is it. >> there's an increase identification. this is going to help us allocate resources for research and studying what the causes are of autism spectrum disorders.

it's also going to help communities understand what resources they need to have available for their children. >> good to have you on tonight. thank you for being here. >> the first video of florida neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman is coming under sharp public scrutiny over whether it supports his confrontation with trayvon martin. nbc's ron allen reports from sanford, florida. >> some 40 minutes after george zimmerman claimed he killed trayvon martin in self defense, surveillance video shows police bringing him in for questions. after what zimmerman's attorney has called a life and death struggle with the unarmed teen that left zimmerman beaten and bloodied. those demanding an arrest insist the tape refutes his claims. >> anyone can see with their eyes in this video that evidence isn't there to support a self defense claim. >> it's a very grainy video. i do however, if you watch,

you'll see one of the officers as he's walking in, looking at something on the back of his head. >> jim is a former washington, d.c. homicide detective and paramedic who consults in criminal cases. >> we don't want to rush into a judgment on either side. just because you don't see something in this poor video doesn't mean it's not there. we have other ways of verifying these facts. besides just the video right there. >> the police report said zimmerman was bleeding from the noise and the back of the head, and received first aid in the police car, and zimmerman's father told a fox tv station his son told him there was a scuffle on the ground. >> george was trying to get his head off the concrete. in doing so, his firearm was shown. trayvon martin said something to the effect of, you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight.

>> today, the funeral director who prepared martin's body for burial gave this assessment. >> i saw the evidence of the gunshot wound in the upper chest. i did not see any signs like he had been in a scuffle or fist fight. >> justice be served. >> sheryl brown lives about 30 yards from where martin was killed. her son called 911. brown says the lead investigator told her he wanted to arrest zimmerman. >> i think his words were, we do not believe it was self defense, and that they needed to prove it. >> now the six minutes of video are fueling the growing debate about what happened. we should point out that sanford police only made the tapes available because of a freedom of information request by nbc news and other journalists. police and prosecutors refuse to comment on the tapes, and while the investigation continues, there is no arrest warrant for george zimmerman. lester. >> ron allen tonight in sanford, thank you. >> there's breaking news about what working life is really like for thousands of workers in china making the millions of

ipads and ipods selling like crazy here and around the world. apple is promising big changes at those factories. what will it mean? we're joined by cnbc's john fort. this is all in response to an investigation into apple's labor practices in china. how damaging was that report and what do they plan to do about it? >> well, lester, apple ceo tim cook was in china this week, and one of the stops he made was at a factory, and he had a look around. i wouldn't call this report damaging exactly, but there are some serious things. the most serious things are violations that have to do with safety procedures and workers working too much overtime, at least as prescribed by law. more than 80% of workers say their hours are fair or they wish they had more overtime. apple and foxconare going to make sure the hours are decreased and salaries are

increased. >> how does it affect consumers of the apple products? >> a rot of people have become concerned in whether they were aiding and abedding something that is out of the norm. what this report points out is this is in the realm of what is going on in chinese manufacturing. that's good news for apple and people who like their products. >> thanks. now to the increasing pain at the pump that seems to get worse by the day. aaa reports that national average for regular unleaded is now at $3.92 a gallon. it may already be above $4 where you live. chicago has the highest average in the country. $4 by.54 a gallon. tom costello joins us from a gas station in rockville, maryland. >> $4.10 at this station. we're consuming less oil, importing less oil, producing more oil, so why are gas prices

higher? because the rest of the world is thirsty for gasoline. in suburban maryland this afternoon, soccer mom and kid show fure was making the daily rounds. >> down to the sports store to get birthday presents. >> with gas hovering near the $4 mark, the daily run isn't cheat. >> i pick a number and say $50 is all i'm doing and let's hope it lasts me longer than it did last time. >> from the east coast to the west, it's the same complaint, but on capitol hill today, industry analysts say the high prices may be here for a while. >> unfortunately for consumers, there's little that can be done in the near term in a free market system, price is always the final allocatur. >> it's not just capitol hill talking oil prices. it's time's newest cover story. however, the u.s. is consuming 2 billion fewer gallons of oil than it did two years ago, and

the ocountry is producing more oil at home. why do prices keep rising? tension with iran is one factor, but the exploding middle class in china, india, and brazil where people are buying their cars and filling their tanks. for three years now, chiba has been the biggest automobile market. >> we're simply add the raw end of a tight supply chain that can only be remedies by increasing domestic natural resources. >> making matters even worse, five u.s. oil refineries have or will soon shut down because of supply chain problems. and now more than half of all u.s. leisure travelers say higher gas prices could cut into their summer travel plans. >> i couldn't webear to see $80 $9 four times a world. >> as the world's demand for gas truly hits home. many analysts think we could be headed towards $4.25 a gallon as a national average. for a family earning $40,000 a

year, gas is consuming about $2,600 of that income. >> tom costell oh, thanks. on the campaign trail, mitt romney has picked up a couple highly coveted endorsements in the last 24 hours. he flew to houston to accept the endorsement of george w.h. bush. he voiced his support for romney last fall. and last night, he picked up the support of marco rubio who has been widely touted as a potential vp pick. bully, a new film with shocking in your face look at what's happening to kids these days. they live it, should they be allowed to see it? and later, an american original. you may not know his name, but you do know his music. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save.

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there's a new film debuting that you may have heard a lot about, but it won't prepare you for the experience of seeing it. it's called "bully" and it depicts children being bullied. some of the problem has to deal with the graphic and offensive language that is part of the story. >> everyone was laughing. and they knew it was hurting me, and they kept going. >> what make s bully so rivetin, so disturbing is the access the filmmaker has. unsanitized moments in the lives of real kids. >> he called me a faggot. >> how does it make you feel? >> it breaks my heart. >> alex libby was 12 when cameras spent a year at his school in iowa, getting to know

kids who faced physical and verbal abuse. >> they punched me in the jaw, strangle me, and knock things out of my head. >> the film opens with a father who lost his son to suicide. >> some kids had told him to go hang himself, that he's worthless. i think he got to the point where enough was enough. >> two people to a seat. [ bleep ]. >> harsh language, including six f-words earned the film an r-rating. prul producers took the unusual step of releasing the film with no rating. we watched the trailer with these 13-year-olds at a middle school in bedford, new york. >> do you want to see the film? >> yes. >> there are some people who think this movie is way too tough for kids. >> is school too tough for kids? we see all that and more every day. that's just how kids act. >> the film shined a spotlight on the impact of bullying, but school psychologists say kids will need help finding

solutions. >> teachers, administrators, school board, parents, those are the ones i would love to see see the film first and then begin the conversations and begin the hard work that schools and communities have to do around bullying. >> he said some younger kids may be disturbed by the plotlines, like seeing 11-year-old tray wallace become a paul pairer. >> alex told us he agreed to be filmed because he thought maybe it would make the bullies stop. instead, his family moved him out of state. look at him now. >> now, i'm having the greatest time of my life, living it up. >> alex and his parents were at the l.a. premier this week. >> the whole process has kind of brought him out of the darkness and broke him out of his shell and gave us our son back. >> i'm glad i'm actually making a difference. amazing. >> bully, the movie, opens this weekend in new york and l.a. with plans to be in more cities by the end of april, but because the film is being released without a rating, it's up to

individual theaters to desite, lester, whether or not to let kids in the door to see it. >> incredibly sad. it sounds worth seeing. kate, thank you. >> we have several resources on our website tonight, including hotlines for teebs who may be targets of bullies. nbcnightlynews.com. and kate snow continues her reporting on dateline on sunday with a new examination of a bullying case you may remember. dateline at sunday at 7:00, 6:00 central. up next here tonight, an incredible new number in a jackpot of a lifetime. [ male announcer ] this is lois.

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spanned eight decades. bringing his brand of country music to a huge mainstream audience. ♪ come and listen to my story about a man named jed sunsets. >> if you have seen the beverly hillbillys or bonnie and clyde, you have heard earl scruggs. he helped perfect a style of playing so distinctive it bears his name. >> how about giving us a close-up view of scruggs style picking. >> sure, frank, the fifth string is plucked with the thumb. the rest of the strings are plucked with these two fingers. >> he got his start with the father of bluegrass, bill monroe, and then sat out with lester flat. they became stars. the grand ole opry, their own tv show, that beverly hillbillys theme.

and the bonnie and clyde soundtrack, bringing the scruggs sound to millions. earl scruggs became an icon, unbound by tradition, playing with all kinds of musicians and making a sound distinctly his own. a down home american classic. earl scruggs died yesterday in nashville. he was 88. the largest lottery prize in american history just keeps getting larger. the mega millions jackpot is now $540 million. that's up $40 million from yesterday. it's expected to rise higher as millions of americans catch lotto fever ahead of tomorrow night's big drawing. >> when we come back, the people already striking it rich. a new modern-day gold rush. my name is jane and i've got osteoporosis. but i'm an on the go woman. i've been active all my life. that's why i'm excited about reclast.

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>> dawn in elco, nevada, and it's not just the sun casting the glow. there's gold in these hills, and for mine workers like devon judy, these are good times. >> i feel fortunate, that's for sure. i know a lot of americans out there don't. >> the mines are adding hundreds of jobs. so devon, a 22-year-old combat veteran, picked up and moved here. he drives a huge haller all day and at night, goes home to his family with a $60,000 a year paycheck he says he couldn't have found elsewhere. >> what do you think your daughter's life is going to be like here? >> very well provided for. >> so many have come to elco, there's a waiting list at the rv park. >> we have over 100 spaces. >> full? >> it's all full. >> and construction companies can't build housing fast enough. >> everybody in elco, we work for the mining industry. if don't care if you're selling doughnu

doughnuts, this is the industry we're in. >> take a look at how tiny the massive strucks look from here. that gives you an idea of the scale of the operation. this is about a mile wide, a third of a mile deep, and they have taken billions of dollars in gold from here. but that gold is microscopic and takes an expensive process to extract. only worth it when the price of gold is high. the mayor says they're cautious with they new-found wealth. >> at scon0 $1600, we're smilin. at $200, we're like, oh, what is going to happen? >> they have seen ghost towns throughout the west, a constant reminder. >> have you hit water. >> all of the things you want and dream about when you get out of college, you can have here. >> for elco, for now anyway, life is golden. nbc news, elelco, nevada. >> that's our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you for being with us.

i'm lester holt, in tonight for brian. we hope to see you right book here tomorrow evening. good night.