and a beer is the theme. the event will feature the beers of the cape may brewery. that's nbc 10 news at 6:00. thanks for joining us. see you at 11:00. on our broadcast tonight, under siege, dramatic standoffs today near paris. terrorists take hostages in two different locations. the brothers accused in that awful massacre as police launch simultaneous attacks. also the accomplice they're now looking for, a young woman who apparently escaped in the chaos. in this country a massive pileup in blinding snow well over 100 vehicles involved. a terrible scene on the highway as some areas brace for several feet of snow on the way. and free college for anyone who wants it that's the offer from president obama. but how real is it? "nightly news" begins now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york this

is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening. this was a violent and eventful day in and around paris. while it's tempting to declare the crisis of these past several days over we simply don't know that tonight. french police today moved in on two hostage situations. they killed three suspected terrorists including those two brothers sought after the brazen attack on the satirical magazine in paris on wednesday. tonight police are looking for a female accomplice who might have run from the chaos and gunfire pretending instead to be a hostage. and now the worry shifts to whether or not anything else is coming. it's where we begin again tonight with our team in the u.s. and france richard engel starts us off from paris tonight, richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. those two brothers had been on the run for two days until this morning. they carjacked a vehicle, drove here on the outskirts of paris,

barricaded themselves into a building got into a gunfight with police and took a hostage. this tiny french village suddenly became a war zone. at 9:00 this morning local maintenance worker pascal heard helicopters overahead. his boss called him, he says to tell him to stay inside just doors from where the gunmen were holed up. but he went instead to a nearby school. i gathered the children and helped usher them into classrooms he said. at that moment police descended on the village quickly sealing it off. the kouachi brothers were surrounded. french police brought in helicopters. at nearby charles dugal airport traffic closed. at 9:30 cherif chau fi folk by

phone. [ speaking in a foreign language ] i was sent by al qaeda he said. it was anwar al-alawki. as he spoke, worried parpts in the village gathered. their children still hiding in the school not far from the standoff. by midday police snipers were in place. french authorities decided it was too dangerous, the children had to be moved. they were taken out in small groups. 15-year-old marvin said we were surprised to hear what was going on. this is such a quiet village. then near dusk two explosions one caught on camera. the sound of gunfire. [ gunfire ] children started running to the buses. this was the most dangerous time, but it was over in minutes.

the kouachi brothers have come out shooting, and they were quickly shot dead. their hostage was unharmed. richard engel, nbc news dammartin-en-goele france. >> reporter: this is lester holt in paris. with explosions and rapid gunfire, it was over. a dramatic bloody end to the day's second hostage drama captured live on french tv. fifteen people held hostage by a lone gunman inside a kosher market led to safety. inside four others were dead. the shooter himself also killed. french president hollande called it a terrifying anti-semitic act. it began with reported gunfire at a cokosher market in paris. police amedy coulibaly was an associate of the kouachi brothers. they also say he killed a

policewoman in a paris suburb yesterday. coulibaly himself spoke by phone today with a french journalist. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> reporter: we only koortdcoordinated at the start. when they started at charlie hebdo, i started a peace. many shots in historically jewish district across town closed their doors early. all of paris was extremely tense today. police and citizens on edge. there was a report of a shooter in the subway false it turned out. near the supermarket standoff testy cops evacuated streets. and this. we just happened upon this scene driving down this road a few hundred meters from the site of the hostage and everywhere we look police are out with guns. a reported bank robbery, another false alarm. everybody seems on edge. what is it like living in paris right now? >> we don't know.

unreal. >> reporter: then just as the sun was setting the assault bringing this siege to an end. but police are still trying to account for this woman, 26-year-old hayat boumeddiene, thought to be an accomplice of coulibaly. late tonight in paris held a news conference and said the initial indications are the four hostages who were killed were shot by the terrorists and not during that police assault. there were some injuries three police officers and two civilians also hurt during the siege here brian. >> lester holt late at night now in paris. richard engel before that starting us off, gentlemen, thanks. and tonight, intelligence services in france and around the world are trying to connect the dots to see who else is there trying to determine what these attacks may say about any larger picture. we get that report tonight from nbc's bill neely outside paris. >> reporter: she's a terrorist and she's on the loose.

french police described hayat boumeddiene armed and dangerous. these their own photographs. he and the other gunmen may be dead she is not. french intelligence knew the men were linked two are brothers two prisoners together. coulibaly released just months ago. they had recruited men to fight u.s. troops in iraq ten years ago. this week their sleeper cell reawoke and they became assassins. but did they act on their own, and are there others ready to strike? if they were part of a bigger network, french authorities have a bigger challenge. they know more than 300 french nationals are currently fighting for isis in iraq or syria. the risk of blowback of militants returning to kill is enormous. [ speaking in a foreign language ]

>> reporter: tonight, french president francois hollande called for unity. we've tightened security he said, so we won't face risks and threats. but the threats are clear. the kouachi brothers told negotiators they wanted to die as martyrs. the attack on the kosher supermarket has frightened an already anxious jewish community. the main synagogue in paris will close tomorrow due to security concerns the first time that's happened on the jewish sabbath since world war ii. the city is on edge filled with antiterrorist police and s.w.a.t. teams. today, sieges may be over but france says its government remains on high alert. well the key worries now, brian, are of copycat killings by lone extremists and of sleeper cells that might be motivated now to take further action preventing both will be a major challenge after two of the deadliest days in france that have left this country

reeling. back to you, brian. >> bill neely part of our team in and around paris tonight. bill thanks. we want to turn now to michael leit leiter now the executive vice president of lydos working with the federal government on national security matters. and, michael, aqap al qaeda arabian peninsula claimed credit for this today, meantime a lot of americans want to know what does it mean here. >> i think it means there are huge challenges not just in france but here in the united states brian. the u.s. intelligence community is very good but it can only handle so much. and it is really been focused on isis in syria and iraq. and aqap in yemen remains a significant threat. and both of these organizations also can contribute to home grown terrorist who is simply see this and are inspired. and that volume can truly be

overwhelming. >> michael leiter in washington rounding out our coverage. michael, thank you as always. retired general petraeus is back in the news tonight. nbc has confirmed federal prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against the former u.s. commander in iraq and afghanistan because of an accusation that he leaked classified information to his one-time mistress while he was cia director. our justice correspondent pete williams has late details from our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. no charges have been filed and now it's up to the attorney general eric holder to decide whether in fact assembled by the fbi and prosecutors merit going to court. petraeus a retired four-star general became the cia director in 2011. and the question has been whether he gave classified information to a woman who was writing a book about him, a woman who was also it turns out his mistress. he acknowledged the affair when he stepped down after leaving the cia for about a year.

no comment tonight from the justice department or his lawyer who was always insisted that petraeus did nothing wrong. one official says tonight this new leak is an effort to put pressure on the attorney general to bring charges, especially given that other lower level government officials have been charged with leaking classified information, brian. >> pete williams in our d.c. newsroom tonight. pete thanks. elsewhere in our country this evening, a very serious outcome from this wave of winter weather. a blanketing ferocious band of snow lake effect snow in michigan so powerful it reduced visibility to zero and led to a deadly pileup of well over 100 vehicles on the interstate i-94. it happened in battle creek, michigan near kalamazoo. we get the latest from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: a stretch of michigan interstate looked and sounded more like a combat zone. a winter whiteout causing a massive pileup shutting down a

section of the i-94 in both directions killing one, injuring 22. police say 123 vehicles 65 of them semitrucks slammed into one another. some burst into flames. one semi loaded with fireworks blasted its cargo skyward. another was carrying corrosive acid. >> you just hear this boom and then you hear the shower of sparks that you expect to hear on the fourth of july. >> reporter: alice mitchell shot this video and ducked for cover. we spoke to him via skype. >> once i saw the firefighters start to scatter, i thought i better get out of the way. there were literally fireworks flying inches above my head. >> reporter: this satellite photo shows the entire great lakes region in encased in snow and ice. and at the time of the crash, radar indicated a band of lake effect snow hitting the area. another fatality and injuries reported in this 50-car pileup just outside ann arbor.

tonight, police are urging motorists to stay off the roads. kevin tibbles, nbc news chicago. there's more another massive traffic headache caused by huge amounts of snow in western new york tonight. a stretch of the throughway nearly 70 miles long remains closed from buffalo, new york to the pennsylvania state line. lake effect snow all related expected to drop two to three feet more in buffalo while watertown to the northeast could see up to five feet as yet another arctic blast moves in to much of the country tomorrow. still ahead on this friday night, free college for millions of american students. an ambitious offer that could help so many families. also the homecoming. the young woman we came to know in the fight against ebola overseas comes home to the u.s. from the front lines. owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're

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in tennessee today president obama unveiled the goal of a nation where everyone has not only the chance but also the means to go to college. he has a plan to put more careers on the launchpad with two years of community college tuition courtesy of the government. and while for millions of us a community college education can be the only viable option the question is how to pay for this generosity. our report tonight from nbc's chris jansing. >> reporter: 28-year-old akita hodge is a working mom. five years ago she started a two-year program a maryland's

montgomery college but had to quit because she just didn't have the money. >> and how much will i owe, how will i do this? and it's like should i be here? >> reporter: those questions wouldn't have come up if the program proposed by president obama had been in place. >> two years of college will become as free and universal as high school is to do. >> reporter: students of any age would have to go to school at least half-time, keep a c-plus average and make steady progress toward their degree. the federal government would pick up three-quarters of the tab, states would have to pay the rest. the white house says this program will help as many as 9 million students go to colleges like this one. but at $60 billion over ten years with no details yet on where the money's coming from it's a tough sell to congress. a spokesman for house speaker john boehner says without details to review this plan is more like a talking point. and a group dedicated to spending college access is

skeptical too. >> tuition is just 20% of the cost of going to a community college. 80% of costs can be the biggest to students enrolling in college. >> reporter: akita hodge is back in school for the first time in four years and argues with the president's plan she'd be the first person in her family to graduate setting an example for her children. >> to have that great job, to actually own that business to go somewhere bigger in life. >> reporter: stated simply like that it's a goal everyone can agree on. the conversation about how to achieve it gets complicated. chris jansing, nbc news rockville, maryland. back in a moment with late word from a familiar name talking about a run for the white house. also a huge nfl playoff weekend on the way. how some fans will be able to know a big play is about to happen even before they see it on live tv. latte or au lait? cozy or cool? exactly the way you want it ... until boom, it's bedtime! your mattress is a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the sleep number bed. save $300 on the final close-out of the c3 queen mattress set.

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more positive signs for the american economy tonight. the new jobs report is out. it shows businesses added

252,000 jobs in december more than expected. unemployment rate dropped from 5.8% to 5.6%. that's the lowest since '08. the troubling sign however, is that wages continue to stagnate in this country. tonight, nbc news has learned mitt romney is at least talking about mulling over another run for the white house. he reportedly made the remarks that he is considering a run in 2016 during a meeting of gop donors here in new york today. for what it's worth, ann romney has strongly declaratively and publicly said there will be no third run for the white house. the u.s. will make a bid to bring the 2024 summer olympic games to the city of boston. it was selected as the best u.s. bid city last night beating out some big competitors like l.a. san francisco and d.c. while there are great pluses like sailing off the cape and rowing on the charles river,

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the middle of her mission. she's now arrived back in the states. and tonight nbc's anne thompson has the story of a young woman devoted to making a difference. >> reporter: katy myler has every reason to dance. home in new jersey after five months in ebola-ravaged liberia. >> i'm happy that i'm alive. i feel really grateful. >> reporter: do you feel like you're home? >> there's a piece of home here. but i also feel really at home with my kids. >> reporter: her other home is in liberia's capital where myler ran ebola response teams. >> make sure they're taken care of. >> reporter: she saved so many but not all. aware of the risk to her daughter, back in bernardsville, joanne prays. >> i believe you're safer wherever god wants you to be.

>> reporter: how would you describe your daughter? >> a bubble of love. >> reporter: "time" magazine named her person of the year calling her a tornado of energy. so proud strangers sought her in the airport. >> when my best friend was like let me put this in perspective for you, obama was the "time" person of the year. >> reporter: landing in new york she says she was pulled aside for more than two hours of questioning even though she'd spent nearly three weeks outside of liberia and had no symptoms. >> that was hard to come back to. >> reporter: next month schools in liberia will resume after being shut down to curb the spread of ebola. myler will reopen her more than me girls academy which one more than a million dollars. >> it's ridiculous and embarrassing that a 10-year-old girl is selling herself because she needs a clean glass of water. to me what's scary is what goes on before ebola and what will continue to go on after ebola. there's no running water or a hundred thousand people living

without bathrooms. these things need attention. >> reporter: in so many ways katy myler's work is just beginning. anne thompson, nbc news bernardsville, new jersey. >> that is our broadcast on a friday night and this week. thank you for being here. i'm brian williams. we hope to see brad and angelina's second secret wedding? >> angelina's surprise new confession now on "extra." ♪ ♪ extra, extra ♪ the blank lee that i dos you haven't heard about until now. >> we know about the wedding in france. today details on the other spur

of the moment meeting with a justice of the peace. teresa giudice's prison report card. how she's behaving what's driving her crazy, and why she could get an early release. new, bill cosby outrage. >> the shocking joke hee cracked at a woman headed for the bar at his comedy show. jennifer lopez on her super steamy new sex scenes with "the boy next door." >> people were like applauding. i was like why? >> taking on the rumor she's back with casper. >> that's what they're saying. then -- >> will it rain on the golden globes' parade? >> from the last-minute drama to the preshow parties and how tina fey plans to b a record. tracey's got nicole kidman on the bomb she dropped on jimmy fallon. >> i think he was pretty shocked. >> did keith urban know about her failed hook yum with fallon? plus, why ellen and oprah are spooning. >> what is that? this is "extra" at