on our broadcast tonight, opening day for judge sotomayor and the senate. one republican predicts barring a complete meltdown, she will be confirmed. top secret. the growing controversy involving dick cheney, the cia and the secret plan to capture or kill enemies of the u.s. motive for murder. new leads tonight in the shocking killing of a florida couple who adopted children with special needs. the hot jobs these days at a tough time in the job market there are places where lep is wanted. and if you're visiting arlington national cemetery in washington this summer, look for the people there who are making a difference. "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. there's one thing standing between judge sonia sotomayor and a seat on the u.s. supreme court, and that's the u.s. senate. this was the first day of her confirmation hearings. and while anything could happen, it was still shocking today to hear a republican senator say she will probably be confirmed. the judge, for her part, said she will follow the law and not make it. first,hough, she has to make it through a week of these hearings. our justice correspondent pete williams has been watching it all. starts us off from the court tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, judge sotomayor spent most of today listening. she spoke only briefly, hoping to reassure senators that she'll decide cases based on the law not her own personal  experiences.

after hobbling in, her broken ankle still in a cast -- >> how are you? >> reporter: -- sonia sotomayor was silent for all but about eight minutes of today's hearing. she introduced her 82-year-old mother and other relatives, then displayed an essential talent for supreme court nominees -- the impassive stare. sitting for more than three hours asenators made their opening statements. a republican, lindsey graham, of south carolina, said what many in the room were probably thinking. >> unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed. and i don't think you will. >> reporter: late in the day, when it was judge sotomayor's turn, she thanked the woman sitting behind h, who worked as a single mother to get her through catholic school. >> i want to make one special note of thanks to my mother. i am here, as many of you have noted, because of her aspirations and sacrifices for both my brother juan and me.

>> reporter: as her mother salina fought back tears, judge sotomayor recounted her journey. public housing in the bronx, star student at princeton and yale, then lawyer, prosecutor and federal judge. then she sought to respond to claims that her speeches suggest she would allow her own biases to help guide her as a judge. >> many senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. simple. fidelity to the law. the task of a judge is not to make law. it is to apply the law. >> reporter: but many committee republicans said the first latina nominee might be swayed by her own biases, especially considering that president obama said he wanted a judge with empathy. the committee senior republican said that quality has two sides. >> that is, of course, the logical flaw in the empathy standard. empathy for one party is always prejudice against another. >> reporter: at times the president's empathy remark

seemed as much a focus of the hearing as his nominee. >> president obama clearly believes you measure up to his empathy standard. that worries me. >> reporter: though she'll undoubtedly be pressed repeatedly about it in the next few days, she tried to defuse the issue. >> my personal and professional experiences helped me to listen and understand with the law always commanding the result in every case. >> the officer will remove the person. >> reporter: anti-abortion rights protesters were hustled out four times for loud interruptions including norma mccorvy, the original roe of roe v. wade. and al franken took his place on the committee admitting he has plenty to learn. >> i may not be a lawyer, but neither are the overwhelming majority of americans. yet all of us, regardless of our backgrounds and professions, have a huge stake in who sits on the supreme court. >> reporter: tomorrow, judge sotomayor starts responding to

two days of questions. the democrats hope she'll avoid any meltdown and be confirmed by early august. brian. >> pete williams starting us off at the court tonight. pete, thanks. now also in washington to the growing controversy over what was a secret cia program to assassinate key al qaeda members, a plan that was put in place after 9/11. today, some members of congress are demanding an investigation into why the program was kept secret from them. reportedly on direct orders from former vice president dick cheney. our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom with details tonight. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. former officials tell nbc news that the secret program that has created tonight's firestorm involves an order by president bush after 9/11 authorizing the cia to assassinate al qaeda leaders even outside of war zones like afghanistan. after 9/11, the commander in chief made no secret of his

determination to hunt down osama bin laden and other al qaeda leaders in their caves. >> there's an old poster out west as i recall that said, "wanted: dead or alive." >> reporter: now it is said the cia has elaborate plans to create hit squads to kill bin laden and his associates at close range outside of war zones. in fact, anywhere in the world. >> obvusly, killing people with a predator and a hellfire missile is an assassination. but there's something about crossing the red line when you use a pistol and a suppressor or poison that it becomes much more face-to-face an assassination. >> reporter: former officials say congressional leaders knew george bush had signed an order to kill al qaeda leaders. and in december of 2001, nbc news reported that the president had lifted a ban on assassinations dating to the ford and reagan years to go after the 9/11 tris and even their backers. the rationale, in wartime it's

self-defense. president clinton had reached the same division after u.s. embassies in africa were bombed in 1998 on his watch. >> the ban that was put in effect under president ford only applies to heads of state. it doesn't apply to terrorists. >> reporter: but former officials say the bush plan, which was never fully implemented, went further. and on vice president cheney's orders, no one told congress. >> the very real concern by the cia is that if you notify congress too soon, inevitably it will leak. and that once it leaks, any attempt to try to implement that program is gone. >> reporter: tonight one current official told nbc news, when did it become sinful to think about ways of taking out top terrorists? still the cia is now reeling under the threat of four separate investigations into past secrets. investigations that many say could virtually cripple the agency. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom with the latest on this. andrea, thanks. president obama now back from africa begins the biggest legislative fight of his

presidency thus far. part of a huge agenda before him. our chief white house correspondent chuck todd also back from the africa trip. with us from the white house tonight. chuck, let's begin with what seems to me a fundamental choice facing this administration. whether to go back and how much to go back over what may be the potential sins of the past, meaning the past administration. >> as you know, brian, president obama during when he was candidate obama used the phrase "turn the page." and i've had plenty of people ask me, does this mean he is just saying that he wants to look forward and not look backward but he will reluctantly allow this investigation to go on and maybe behind the scenes he wants that? and it's no. he would really prefer not to be looking backwards because these things can be distractions. the number one issue right now for this white house isn't dick cheney, isn't the cia. frankly, isn't getting judge sonia sotomayor confirmed. they have a clear the deck mentality right now, all about

healthcare. so all of this other conversation is drowning out their ability to get healthcare done. and they want to get it done in the next three weeks. th want a bill passed both in the house and the senate. they want the senate, harry reid, to say, we're not going to leave in august until we get a bill out of the senate. >> chuck todd from the white house lawn tonight, thanks. this nation has a new nominee for surgeon general. a family doctor from a rural area in alabama and th president presented her today. our own anne thompson has her story. >> reporter: behind her short walk to the rose garden today with president obama is a long journey for dr. regina benjamin. >> through flood, fires, severe want, regina benjamin has refused to give up. >> reporter: for two decades she's been the family doctor i alabama, a royal shrimping village. icane ged geanins trkahua ravaged the town and her clinic. together, they rebuilt.

a fire last year destroyed the clinic again. and again she rebuilt. all the while bringing what the macarthur foundation called compassionate and effective medical care when it awarded benjamin a genius grant in 2008. >> i want to ensure that no one, no one falls through the cracks as we improve our healthcare system. >> reporter: a healthcare system that forgot their 2500 residents, people benjamin says can't afford to get sick. 40% of the residents do not have health insurance. many cannot pay. >> i think regina is not only tough. i think she's influential. and i think she's going to influence people to change policies. and that's the surgeon general's position at its best. >> reporter: described as tenacious,enjamin made house calls in a pickup truck. her love for medicine ignited when she went to college in new orleans and saw her first african-american doctor.

in 1994, "time" magazine identified her as a future leader. today in the rose garden, she spoke of family members who died from preventable diseases including diabetes, hiv and smoking. >> i cannot change my family's past. i can be a voice in the movement to improve our nation's healthcare and the nation's health for the future. >> reporter: a country doctor nominated to help cure the country's ills. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. there are big health questions tonighturrounding north korea's leader kim jong-il. south korean tv is reporting that he's dying of pancreatic cancer, isn't expected to live more than a few years. recent pictures show him looking gaunt and sickly. the state department says it can't confirm any of this, but there are deep concerns about who might actually be in charge there. back in this country, we turn to the wrenchingly sad story of the murder of a florida couple well known in their community and beyond for

adopting children with no parents of their own including many special-needs children. the mom and dad were murdered late last week. there are new developments, like theories about a motive and a growing circle of suspicion. nbc's mark potter is following this story and joins us tonight from pensacola. >> reporter: good evening, brian. there have already been some arrests and officials say there could be more tonight for the murders the sheriff here calls chilling and shocking. investigators now say there were more people involved in the attack at the rural home of byrd and melanie billings than were originally revealed. an attack that officials say involved two vehicles and two teams entering the house. >> four come up in the van, three entered the home, one remained with the van. we believe an additional three people came in othe north side of the home around the back. one remained with that vehicle, we believe, and two entered the house from the back. >> reporter: as seen on tape, the attackers crept across the lawn, one team coming out of the woods, all dressed in black.

they were inside the house less than five minutes in which they shot and killed the billings. >> it leads me to believe this was a well planned and methodical operation. >> reporter: as for why the home was targeted, officials say one motive was robbery. >> we believe there are other motives that we have yet to confirm. >> reporter: three men were arrested yesterday, two on murder charges. and others including the two black males in this photo, are either being sought or questioned. the sheriff revealed that three of the nine children in the house actually saw the attackers. victim melanie billings' daughter ashley markham says those adopted children, including several with disabilities, are all safe and are being cared for away from the spotlight. >> the children are coping very well. we've kept them busy. they are with lots of family and friends that they truly adore. >> reporter: markham says she does not know any of the men arrested so far. the sheriff said the home invasion attack was like something out of the movie it has left people here very

concerned about the well-being of those children. brian? >> such a sad story in florida tonight. mark potter, our thanks for that. when we continue tonight on our broadcast with limited commercial interruption,nother sign of our times. how so much gunfire in one of america's biggest and best cities left one hospital e.r. in a desperate situation. and ter, in a tight job market, what's growing these days?

in chicago this weekend, a 12-year-old boy was critically wounded when shot from a passing car. another victim of what's turning into another violent summer. there have been so many shootings and stabbings that one hospital emergency room has actually come close to running out of supplies of blood for incoming patients. nbc's kevin tibblehas our report. >> reporter: it's a given, they say, on a hot summer's night in chicago, emergency workers know they'll be busy. >> we see an extraordinary number of people being shot every night here. >> reporter: over fourth of july weekend alone, 63 shootings, 11 murders. and it pushes the trauma unit at the city's largest public hospital to its limits. >> i can tell you what rolls in the door here, and that is a lot of carnage from people being shot and stabbed. >> reporter: the number of homicides this year is well over

200, down slightly over last year. still, for mayor richard daley, senseless loss. >> that's the sad thing, another funeral, another funeral. it's about time that people get outraged. >> reporter: so much violence chief trauma surgeon andrew dennis says his hospital has come dangerously close to ruing out of blood for transfusions. >> we were down to three units of o negative blood. >> reporter: three pints of blood? >> three little bottles of blood. this is the o negative. >> reporter: specifically o negative blood, which in an emergency can be given to anyone regardless of blood type. they call it the universal donor. >> this is the first time we've been critically short to the point where -- where someone could perish because we didn't have the right product to give them. >> reporter: patty lewis stands over her 18-year-old grandson in intensive care. shot in the neck, it took 20 units of blood to save him. >> doctors say he's critical. he came in here critical. very critical. right at death's door, i'd say. >> reporter: but just when blood

is most needed, donation centers report fewer are giving. >> traditionally over the summer months we see a decrease in donations, but there is an increase in need. >> reporter: about 38% of americans are able to donate blood, but in reality, only about 5% do. what goes through your mind when you look in here and pull out the drawer and there are only three units left? >> fear of what is to come that evening and fear that we may not have enough right away. >> reporter: fighting for lives when life's most precious commodity is in critically short supply. kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. now we turn here tonight to the american economy. specifically, growing worries over unemployment, the highest it's been now in nearly three decades in this country. the numbers also show it is taking laid-off workers longer than ever to find new jobs. we have a special look at jobs tonight beginning with the places, the industries that are hiring and, of course, the trick

is knowing which ones, which brings us to cnbc's trish regan here with us tonight. you and i were saying in the break, we need you to supply some good news tonight. >> i got a little bit of that here tonight, brian. some sectors come to mind immediately when you think about job growth, healthcare and education. but tonight we're taking a look at five great jobs you probably never heard of. as a kid, all ernesto de la rosa wanted to do was play video games. >> playing at home. you know, for hours on end. my mom, my dad screaming at me to get off the console. stop playing games. >> reporter: little did his parents know his childhood obsession would become his profession. de la rosa works in san francisco as a video game tester, where sal ris average about $30,000 a year. >> we're actually testing the game to find out what's wrong with the game. how can we make it better. >> reporter: in the tightest job market in decades, some unusual bright spots. >> join cia's director of intelligence. >> reporter: the cia is using the recession to jump-start its

recruiting drive, even scooping up out of work wall street analysts for up to $100,000 a year. >> we're looking for general trends in analysis, meaning economic analysts. we're looking for political analysts, military analysts. >> reporter: when job hunting in a tough economy, experts say it is crical to be creative. you need to ask yourself what do i really want to do? what am i good at? employees here at this winery in long island, new york, come from a variety of different backgrounds but they have one ning in common, a passion for wine. wine industry salaries can range from $9 an hour in the tasting room to $150,000 for a general manager. even in this weak economy, jim silver says his winery business is strong and still hiring. >> wine sales this year are actually up about 40% over last year. people are spending a great deal more money. they're buying more wine.

>> reporter: another surprising area for growth -- green building, where the average builder earns $52,000 a year. for dallas builder liz newman, going green meant a sudden shift in business. >> as soon as the sign went up that said green built, i had a flood phone calls. >> reporter: in st. petersburg florida, marty heath is doing what she loved as a child, spending her days on the water. heath is a marine merchant captain, a job that pays on average $48,000 a year. >> you're in demand year round because there are always needed in the oil fields and on charter boats. >> reporter: these days, being in demand is what it's all about. as great as these jobs may be, it's not clear that they're really the sole solution to the 9.5% unemployment rate. but the good news here is that all of the people we spoke with, they're passionate about their jobs. so part of the key here is tapping in to your strength. >> that's what the counselors always tell us, at least. trish regan, thanks.

when we come back later on, we'll have part two of our special look at this job market. and later this evening, making a difference. on america's most hallowed ground, arlington national cemetery.

as promised, we're back now with more on jobs. and the erican workers who are learning, sometimes the hard way, that the best way to find a new job when you lose your old one is to do it yourself. cnbc's scott cohn reports on the accidental entrepreneurs who just might create the next big thing. >> reporter: every morning in his suburban washington apartment, tommy venable mixes up his special blend of saa, and three days a week he packs it up and sells it at area faers markets. >> no artificial flavors. >> reporter: until october, he was a graphic designer for an e-mail marketing firm. laid off in the worst job market in decades. >> i couldn't find another job. i had to do something. how are you? >> reporter: now, this business is tommy's full-time job. and he loves it. >> thank you so much. it's great. i'm my own boss. >> reporter: in germantown, ohio, m hodge found

opportunity in general motors woes. when his plant closed in december, he took a buyout and started his own toolmaking business. >> it's a dream. a hard fought dream. >> reporter: hodge has hired his first employee -- his dad. >> he calls me the vice president. >> reporter: but for these new entrepreneurs, somof the biggest challenges lie ahead. after all, according to government figures, fewer than half of new businesses make it past the fourth year. and yet through the years, the tough times like these have produced some of the biggest success stories. like the panic of 1873 when young thomas edison thought it might be a good time to set up a laboratory. or the oil crisis of 1973 when frederick smith decided to start a delivery service called federal express. in fact, according to one study, more than half the fortune 500s started during downturns. and they didn't have resources like startupnation.com or mentoring organizations like s.c.o.r.e. pairing

entrepreneurs like tom hodge with experienced volunteers like dick king. >> now is the best time to start a business in a recession because you get good prices. you get good people because they're looking for work. >> lock it with a double set screw? >> reporter: these new businesses are no substitute for traditional jobs. no healthcare or retirement plan yet. and most of the proceeds go right back into the business. but it's one small benefit of an economic downturn. careers sliced and diced but creating something completely new. scott cohn, cnbc, reston, virginia. bad weather in florida tonight. we just learned it's a scrub for the shuttle mission. the fifth attempt to get it off the ground. they'll hope six is a charm tomorrow night. they have to take one new astronaut up, take one back from the international space station. 16-day scheduled mission. finally tonight we take you to washington, d.c., where the line of tourist buses coming

into town starts in about may and runs through late august. it's a hugely popular summer vacation destination, for good reason. if you go to washington this summer, specifically arlington national cemetery, we want you to look for some very special people. their job is to care for our nation's treasure in a way. they make personal sacrifices for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for country, and they are making a difference in the process. their story tonight from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: it was shortly after sunrise today when the small army began to arrive. >> it will be a good day. >> reporter: 400 strong, all volunteers. and their mission -- spruce up the landscape in america's most hallowed grounds, arlington national cemetery. phil fogerty, a landscaper from cleveland, first planted the idea more than a decade ago. and it's grown into an annual project he calls renewal and remembrance. >> we want every one of those

families that lost a loved one in world war i, world war ii, korea, vietnam, iraq or afghanistan, to know that there is a group of people that absolutely refuses to forget the sacrifices that were made. >> i've been through those main gates hundreds of times now. every time it still hits me. >> reporter: every summer under fogerty's guidance, the volunteers fan out across the cemetery. this year spreading 200,000 pounds of lime over the vast lawns and planting 130 trees and shrubs. from professionals like miles of new jersey -- >> we understand it's very sacred. it's a true privilege to be here today. >> reporter: to amateur landscapers like tammy lee of north carolina, giving their all. tammy, that looks like hard work. >> it is. i'm worn out. but it was a labor of love. >> reporter: this year 50 children joined the ranks including 9-year-old ben. you look like a pro, buddy. >> well, i did it with my dad.

he's kind of a flower freak. >> reporter: this began pre- 9/11. now with the wars in iraq and afghanistan under way, the work here has a much deeper meaning for many of these volunteers. tim price is a veteran of the iraq war. >> having buddies that are over their, knowing that there are soldiers that died in iraq, it is special to come out here and do this. >> reporter: phil fogerty sees it as repaying a debt to america's veterans. >> i think there's something really powerful about being able to say thank you. >> reporter: while preserving a landscape for the ages. jim miklaszewski, arlington national cemetery. great story. if you know someone who is making a difference, continue to send us your nominees and we'll put as many stories on the air as we can. post them on nightly.msnbc.com. that our broadcast for this monday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we hope you see you back here i'm brian williams. we hope you see you back here tomorrow evening. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm brian williams. we hope you see you back here tomorrow evening.