on our broadcast tonight, testing the limits of arizona's tough immigration law. how far can police go toethe bo? dropping out. newt gingrich decides to quit the race for president. what that could mean for the reach matchup. >> the cover up. more revelations in the john edwards trial. a grilling for the star witness. and made in the usa. the newest effort to bring jobs back to america. we'll show you what some former automakers are making nowadays. "nightly news" begins now. good evening. tonight at the supreme court, an emotional debate that is playing out across the country. who is allowed to be here?

how far can police go to protect the borders if they have reason to believe someone is here illegally? the case argued before the court involved a case in arizona. but five other states have similar laws, so the court's decision on this one will have a national impact. our justice correspondent pete williams starting us off tonight at the supreme court. pete, good evening. >> brian, the most controversial parts of the arizona law were immediately challenged in kourbt and blocked, but judging from today's argument, the state may soon be able to start enforcing some of them. outside the court today, demonstrators loudly conveyed the emotion generated by the immigration battle. frustrated by what it considered lax federal enforcement and illegal immigrants screaming across the border to stay, arizona decided to get tougher. >> we needed protection for the citizens of arizona and what

arizona was experiencing as far as the cost element in education and health care and incarceration. >> a state law passed two years ago, required police making arrests or traffic stopped to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being here illegally and detain them until their status was verified. the obama administration sued, arguing that arizona bolled its way into an area of federal responsibility. >> it's really a matter of whether we want to be a single nation or have 50 different nations each with their own immigration policy. >> the federal government said it's concentrating on the most dangerous illegal immigrants, those who commit crimes and arizona would flood the system with anyone who failed to have the right papers, but today, a majority of the court seemed to have no problem in police checking the status of people arrested and releasing them if federal authorities don't want them held. it seems to me, chief justice john roberts said, the federal

government just doesn't want to know who is here illegally or not. what does sovereignt y mean it doesn't include the ability to protect the borders. stephen breyer said the law could be up felt if status checked but not detain people longer than other people after a routine arrest, and after a lawyer said it would lead to harassment of latinos, sonya sote omeyer said you can see that argument is not selling very well. two other parts of the arizona law did not seem to fare as well today. they would make it a state crime for illegal ilgrnts to look for war or to fail to carry federally required papers. >> pete, thanks. now to presidential politics. word from newt gingrich that he's ready to end his campaign for president a day after mitt romney swept five primary contests. our chief white house correspondent political director

chuck todd has our report. newt gingrich today bowed to the political reality. >> i think obviously that i would be a better candidate, but the objective factor is that the voters didn't think that. >> gingrich, the last major republican challenger said he would suspend his campaign early next week. after a five-state sweep, mitt romney gave what sounded like a mini acceptance speech. >> i can say with confidence and graut today you have given me a great honor and responsibility. >> the speech had little about romney policies and instead made a case against obama even making bill clinton's 1992 catch phrase. it's still about the economy and we're not stupid. >> well, romney hopes to turn this election into a referendum only on the economy. he still has a lot of work to do with some voters according to our pollsters, including democrat peter hart. >> mitt romney has to be able to

talk, relate, and relax. that means younger voters just really don't relate to him very well. they see him as wealthy, but they don't see him as someone they can talk to and relate to. >> it's no accident that the president has spent the last two days courting young voters in battleground states like iowa, hoping to reenergize the same support that propelled him into office four years ago. >> it should be at the forefront of america's agenda. this is an american issue. >> it's been a coordinated push by the president this week to target young voters. he's the cover interview on "rolen stone" and he even slow jammed the news with jimmy fallon on late night on tuesday. >> the reason it's so important to keep down costs is so we keep college affordable. and the president knows his stuff, y'all. >> well, late today, speaker boehner tried to blunt the

president's populous youth vote by putting lower interest for a year. where does he find the money? out of the president's health care law, so the politics of this issue is far from over. >> chuck, thanks. on clin, a congressional hearing on this secret service prostitution scandal which has badly harmed the reputation of the men and women who president our presidents, and today, homeland security secretary janet napolitano called the whole thing inexcusable. kelly o'donnell reports. >> today, the first piblic review of the secret service prostitution scandal. >> all of us are shocked and terribly troubled by it. >> think it really shook the traus of a lot of people. >> secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano, promised answers. >> we are going to get to the bottom of this. we're going to make sure that

strarndz in training are tightened. >> the scandal in cartagena have cost eight members of the secret service their jobs. today, one nagging suspicion. senators repeatedly asked if secret service agents have behaved this way before. >> that being an argument if the agents and i guess the prostitutes, elect a better word, with money, wouldn't have known about this. >> napolitano said investigators have found no other instance in the past few years. >> every mother of a teenager knows a common excuse is everyone else is doing it. first, not everyone is doing it, and it's not the secret service part of way of doing business. >> the president praised the secret service overall and used a lighter tone. >> a couple of knuckleheads shouldn't detract from what they do, but what these guys were

thinking, i don't know. that's why they're not there anymore. >> a dozen military service members are also linked to prostitutes in cartagena. a new detail, officials said the fact that curfews were broken that night was known umthe chain of command. but a frustrated john mccain said the pentagon is not providing answers fast enough. >> i expressed my extreme dissatisfaction with the lack of any concrete information that was provided to us from a national security standpoint. >> and brian, secretary napolitano said the president's security was not at risk, but she adds that this kind of misconduct could make agents vulnerable to things like blackmail, and that could be dangerous. >> kelly o'donnell on the hill tonight. kelly, thanks. >> this was another dramatic day in a court room in greensboro, north carolina. the prosecution evidence was on the stand, intelligenting more stories about how far he was asked to go to cover up the money trail and hide an affair. and as nbc's lisa myers reports

tonight, the witness came under tough questions from the edwards defense team. >> edwards' longtime aide and now chief accuser andrew young, arrived today knowing his credibility would come under attack, and it did. he admitted discrepe aengss between his tell-all book and his testimony under oat. bit a researcher showed his book proposal with a claim that every word in the book is provably true. and pilloried young with a long list of mistaments and inconsistencies, including he didn't call his mistress the day their child was born. do you know in fact john edwards called her in the delivery room? young said he wasn't aware of the call. at one point, lowell said, you really hate mr. edwards, don't you? young replied, i have mixed feelings. >> the overall effect of the

aggressive, and at many times, effective cross-examination really a grilling, was likely to undermine andrew young's credibility in the eyes of the jury. >> young's wife sherry showed up at the courthouse for the first time today, expected to testify soon, to buttress her husband's account. young also testified about the deteriorating relationship between him and edwards after hunter gave birth and edwards failed to publicly admit the child was his. young said their final conversation was in august 2008. he said edwards told him his wife elizabeth had taken away his car keys and cell phone, and that his life was living hell. young said, i got very angry. i told him if he wasn't going to live up to his promise to come clean, i would do something about it. he said edwards replied, you can't hurt me, andrew. you can't hurt me. legally, the jury must decide whether it believes young's claim that edwards knew about almost a million dollars used to cover up his affair. and whether that amounted to

illegal campaign contributions. lisa myers, nbc news, greensboro, north carolina. >> and overseas today in london, one of the most powerful media moguls in all of the world was on the spot. 81-year-old rupert murdoch testifying in hearings triggered by a phone hacking scandal, but for hours, the questions focused on whether he abused his considerable power of the press. our report from nbc's stephanie gosk. >> rubeert murdoch in the hot seat again. >> i welcome the opportunity because i want to put certain myths to bed. >> but today's focus was not widespread phone hacking at the now defunct news of the world. instead, he faced accusations he abused the power of his media empire to influence the british government for decades. >> politicians, let's be clear, always seek theport support of

all newspapers. that's part of democracy. >> he denied he used the influence for commercial gain. >> i'm never asked the prime minister for anything. >> but evidence revealed in his son james' hearing on tuesday triggered this admission from cameron. >> we all did too much cozying up. >> one of the top ministers alidgedly opened inproper lines with news corp. at the same time, he was considering the company's multimillion bid to purchase b sky b. >> it's not the only obstacle the company faces. there are three on' going criminal investigations. so far, 43 people have been arrested, and of those, 11 could soon face criminal charges. more than 100 lawsuits have been filed in the uk. more may soon be filed in the u.s. and that is perhaps news corp's executives biggest fears.

news corp based in the u.s. has global reach where an estimated $80 billion, it owns influential media companies including 20th century fox, the wall street journ journal, and fox news. tonight its 81-year-old founder in chief get ready for another round of grilling in the morning, and another reminder that the scandal is far from over. stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. also in the uk tonight, a tantalizing statement from scotland yard. madeleine mccann, whose disappearance in a family trip to portugal almost five years ago, caught world wide attention, could conceivably still be alive. that possibility was fligoated police released a new computer generated image showing what she might look like today at 9 years old. they're urging portuguese police to reopen the investigation and pursue what they're saying are 200 leads. >> still ahead along the way for us tonight, made right here at home with people who used to make american cars now making

something else we all use. and later, trees. lots of them, transforming a concrete jungle, making a big difference for the people who live there. such a burning sensation... until i had the shingles. it was like a red rash. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. it's something you never want to encounter. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com i remember the day my doctor told me i have an irregular heartbeat, and that it put me at 5-times greater risk of a stroke. i was worried. i worried about my wife, and my family. bill has the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35%

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and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain. two pills can last all day. ♪ it's hard to thing of anything more universal in american homes than a television, but it's rare to find an american made television anymore. you would almost have to travel back in time a couple decades. that is starting to change, and that in this case, means jobs in this country. our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> assembly lines are synonymous with detroit, but these people aren't making cars. they're making televisions. >> the line is sold out until the end of the year. >> sold them all? >> sold them all. >> element electronics have moved the assembly of the larger electronics from asia to the motor city. you would be hard pressed to find a living room in america that doesn't have a tv. but try finding a tv that is

made in america. you can't. all the big american manufacturers left or went under years ago. >> zenith, the quality goes in before the name goes on. >> and while labor costs are higher, element said lower tariffs and transportation costs mean making tvs in america once again makes economic sense. good news in a region that has taken a beating. jobs easy to come by? >> in the detroit area, no. >> here, former autoworkers are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's in hd. >> me and my husband both lost our jobs at one point. so it was tough for a while. >> initially, element is starting small, only 100 jobs, but plans to expand and attract parts manufacturers so components don't have to be imported. competitors are watching. >> there's certainly more people behind us in line on the diving board than there are in the pool, but we have done our homework and we're ready to do

that. fwl the 46 and 50-inch models come in boxes as patriotic in appearance as old glory. they also come wrapped in hope. >> it's been hard on us, but we're going to make it. >> and tvs could be the beginning where. >> absolutely. everyone needs a tv. >> here, they're hoping it's one made in america. kevin tibbles, nbc news, canton, michigan. up next here tonight, also made in america, louis armstrong and a performance the world is now just getting to hear. on our car insurance. great! at progressive, you can compare rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. wow! that is huge! [ disco playing ] and this is to remind you that you could save hundreds! yeah, that'll certainly stick with me. we'll take it.

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♪ >> one of the great artists, one of the great american oerms of a long time who left us a long time ago is about to nrlt tain us with something new. lose armstrong was just months

from his life when he gave an impromptu concert. the whole nine yards and what a joy for those in the room for it. it became folklore in the music business because they knew there was a recording of it, but now we get to buy it. 11 tracks, one hour long, available this week on itunes and wherever music is sold. in washington state, government officials and health and environmental experts met today to talk about what to do about the estimated 1.5 tmillio tons of debe from the japanese tsunami and earthquake floating in the pacific. it can't be stopped. it's on its way here and it may end up on the west coast sooner than we thought. maybe as soon as this year. today's meeting is aimed at coming up with ways to report on it, protect people from whatever comes washing ashore. another collision between nature and machine.

another commercial jet has been hit by a bird. this time, it was just last night. a jetblue flight from westchester to west palm. second such incident in the new york area in just six days. it was hit by a goose in flight after takeoff, and again, it managed to circle back around and land safely. it was a big mess, fatal to the bird, but just superficial damage to the aircraft. plane is back in the air tonight having checks out a-okay. and in case any of our friends in canada thought they saw a dog make a cameo appearance during the news the other night, that's exactly what happened. it was on canada's global news. the dog, a good dog named storm, belongs to the weatherman, who just curious to find out what all the fuss is about in the tv business. up next here tonight, green where they used to be just gray. how trees are making a difference for a lot of people. aspirin is just old school.

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inner city. a place better known for graffiti, crime, and unemployment. >> is this for the next tree planting. >> a former prison guard had a vision that trees could help solve the problems. she started a program called urban relief. >> we have a lot of young people in crisis and in need of jobs. our solution is to have them help the environment. >> urban relief employs only ten people, but hundreds more volunteer. attracted by the idea of restoring pride in the appearance of their environment. >> we're turning it from a concrete jungle to a green oasis. >> before you can see this barren sidewalk outside one oakland school, and this is what it looks like now. urban relief has planted more than 15,000 of these trees in the past 12 years. >> groups of trees. >> urban relief's gregory harbor, a forestry expert,

teichs school kids that the benefit goes beyond their beauty. >> they can reduce the ambient temperature so it's cooler in the urban area and the air is fresher. >> volunteer marcus evans grew up in the area. and says there wasn't much to do before this program came along. and he is interested in studying trees and forests. >> i would like a job. it was fun. honestly, this is my first time planting trees and i like it. >> and evans says he's proud to be making oakland better for his baby daughter destiny. >> i said, daddy planted those. >> year by year, tree by tree, dotting blocks with bits of green, she and her crew from urban relief are growing hope on these city streets. robert bazell, nbc news, oakland. >> nice story to end on for a wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams, and the evening is not over. we hope to see you right back here tonight for "rock center" at 9:00, 8:00 strl, and of course, tomorrow evening back here for "nightly news."

good night.