dash for cash at car lots across the country as buyers race to trade in clunkers before the money runs out. payday, after the bailout. would you believe $100 million bonus for one man? and the rematch, following a photo finish at the olympic, michael phelps back in the water photo finish at the olympic, michael phelps back in the water against his closest competition. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening, instant gratification is something we usually don't associate with

goff programs especially when it comes to stimulating the economy, but that's just what the $1 billion cash for clunkers provided has provide ailing auto dealers and ailing consumers. it's meant to get drivers behind the wheels of new fuel efficient models. congress is move iing quickly t jekt billions more into the program despite critics o warn the government can't afford to keep playing a bailout card. but in the meantime, today there was brisk business in many new car showroom as buyers race to trade in clunkers before the cash is all gone. our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: the invigorated cash for clunkers program drew even more customers to westfield ford outside chicago today. >> the this program has made it seem like it used to be. >> the good old days. >> the good old days. >> reporter: for jennifer barren was good-bye explor hole low focus. >> it's zoomy looking, i had to get the black one. it's brand new, it's smooth,

it's such a smoother ride than my clunk sneer in ss than a weeks, the cash for clunker program has already demonstrated that many americans are now willing to part with their gas guzzlers. many rushing to buy before the incentive ends. according to government data, the top trade-ins are all big and all american made. ford explore, jeep cherokees and grand cherokee, ford windstars an dodge caravan, the most popular purchases, a smaller miss of domestic and imporkts honda signicivic, toyota corolld prius in the top five. >> almost two to one people are buying more fuel efficient cars and getting the $4,500 voucher. >> reporter: the bigiest dealerships are in the west and fid west.

some dealers say the program is a victim of its own success, so many sales the government website is often overloaded. and with friday's potential new cash injection, $3 billion in rebates are up for grabs. some say it's too much. >> you cannot bailout, borrow and spend your way into economic prosperity. >> reporter: still in los angeles, sharon are belliard took advantage of her $4,500 rebate. >> bye old girl are. >> reporter: with so many clunkers carted away in exchange for newer fuel efficient drive, some dealers worry they'll run out of certain are models before the program runs out of cash. kevin tibble, nbc news, la grange, illinois. amid yesterday's fresh government numbers showing the decline of the american economy has slowed, the obama administration a finds itself in a delicate balancing act, trying to highlight progress while acknowledge americans are are still in bad way.

mike viqueira has more. >> reporter: good evening, lester, with the unemoyment rate approaching 10%, the president and his aides are not trying to call this mission accomplished, at least not yet, but they are taking credit for policies they say helped to stop the slide. the president and first family this morning on their way to camp david. amid signs that the economy might be turning around. in his weekly address, the president credits the $787 billion stimulus. >> this and the other difficult but important steps that we've taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes or this recession. >> reporter: also today at the white house, a second day 6 cabinet meetings taking stock after six months in office, but after a week of polls showing growing public unease about the economy and job number, republicans continue on the attack. >> the democrats who control congress have been spending money and racking up debt at an unprecedented pace and their plan for government-run health care would only make tngs

worse. >> the bill is approved. >> reporter: on the health care, last night, house democrats found cae to celebte. in their last act before leaving town for all of august, a key committee passed a version of health care reform, but now the battle moves out of washington. >> barack obama's massive spending experiment hasn't fueled our economy, his new experiment risks their future and our health. >> reporter: both sides have ads set for swing districts trying to move votes for when congress returns in september, now rumors on talk radio about the bill have seniors on edge. >> it's in the bills. >> reporter: democrats are fighting a new claim, that has gone viral. >> congress would make it mandatory, absolutely required that every five years people in medicare have a required counseling session, that will tell them how to end their life so sooner. >> reporter: supporters of the bill say it states only that medicare will pay for voluntary

consultation on end of life services such as hospice care around options on life sustaining treatments such as a respirator. >> what the opponents of reforming the system are engaged in is the same kind of ms. information battles that waged in previous years. >> and less ste, the president will continue his public push touting the economy, touting his health care plan in elkhart, indiana, visiting for the second ti me in it's presidency. ushonkhonkha ts. ae, health care and the economy will part of tomorrow morning's conversation on middle east, david gregory will be joined by larry summers. that's tomorrow on "meet the press" here on nbc.ha three americans held tonight in an breir ng held tonight in iran they were arrested after crossing the border into iran's from iraq's kurdistan region. they entered kurdistan from turk can where our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is tonight on this developing situation. richard, what do we know?

>> good evening, lester, from downtown istanbul, this appears to have been a camping trip gone wrong a senior kurdish official told nbc news that the american ares entered northern iraq into the region of kurdistan which is semiautonomous, relatively stable on tuesday. some tourists do go to kurdistan, it's not exactly a p popular defendant nation, they stayed in kurdistan for a few days, mostly staying in hotels. then on friday, they were camping right along the iranian border. it's a beautiful area full of mount, they were near a waterfall and that when they crossed into iran according to iranian officials and were quickly surrounded by iranian security and remain in detention. the u.s. state department has asked for some clarification and is starting to investigate, asking switzerland, which represents u.s. interests in iran to investigate.

>> we note they're being detaineded a and not arrest ed necessarily, are any charges being discussed by the iranians? >> what we've been hearing from iranian media is that they were being charged with entering iran illegally, but this is a highly sensitive time t couldn't have happened perhaps at a worst time for americans to be caught in the area of suspicious in iran right along the border with iran. for the last six weeks there's been unrest on the streets of tehran and in several other cities about the iranian government blames outsers for instigating this unrest. >> and there are trials now getting under way pour some of those caught up in the protests, are there not? >> in fact, there was a trial that began today for 100 opposition leaders and protestors who were put on trial, they're being charged with working with foreign governments to try and undermin the credibility of the iranian election, which re-elected president mahmoud ahmadinejad, opposition leaders say this is nothing more than are a show try and say the defendants have not

had adequate access to lawyers or even been presented with specific charges. >> richard engel in istanbul, thank you. this was a dead ly day for americans in afghanistan. three were killed in kandahar province following news that july was the single most deadly month ever for u.s. troops in afghanistan. president obama has order some 21,000 more soldiers into afghanistan but is more manpower what it will take to beat the enemy? that's what we asked retired colonel jack jacobs today. >> the original plan was to increase the size of the american footprint in afghanistan to 68 thousand troop, but general mcchrystal who runs the operation in afghanistan has already said he knows that's not going to be enough. there are two run rns why our casual tirs higher, we're actively engaged in searching out the enemy and trying to destroy him but also the an my

is actively searching us out, too. frequently our engagements are at the squad and platoon level, maybe 10 to 40 troops. they're not large-scale engagements with hundreds of thousands of enemy for, the kind we saw in the early days of the war in wrauk. iraq. they're small engagements from the standpoint of the number of troops involved but they're extremely violent. they last a long time, lot of casualties are taken on both sides. we have better weapon, we have better resupply but the enemy has the advantage in the intelligence, they know the terrain very well, much better than we do, they've been there a long time and in some areas they have the support of the population. that gives them the advantage on the ground. so at the small unit level, we're very evenly matched. we have the technological edge and as a result we're likely to prevail. but it's going to be long,

tough, slog ahead. >> med of honor recipient jack jacobs on the war in afghanis n afghanistan. in maine, the mother of a another medal of honor recipient broke a bottle of champagne over the bow of a navy warship, the first marine to be awarded a medal of honor for service in iraq died in april 2004 after juing on top of a grenade to ne riseveral of his fellow there was high flying frustration in new york's laguardia airport after an early morning bomb scare snared flight schedules. thousands of passengers were evacuated onto the roadways outside the arngts several flights were delayed or canceled after major problems with laguardia just yesterday because of stormy weather. strong storms throughout the northeast toppled trees an knocked out power to tens of thousands of people. heavy rains and flooding made a mess of parts of new york state. in the south, people in

tennessee and mississippi are still cleaning up from tornadoes that touched down on thursday. labor day is still more than a month away and yet in many shopping malls it's already looking a lot like christmas. lee cowan has more on the buyers and sellers getting a head start on santa. >> holiday shopping season is crisis, at entity least from a marketing perspective. mommy, i want this. >> reporter: along with back to school supplies in between the s summer lawn mowers and barbecue grilling, you'll find christmas sales sooner than ever which a few shoppers find unseasonably ann annoying. >> a little too early. >> reporter: series, kmart around toys r us have been leadg the christmas in july charge, in stores. >> if you can carry it, we'll take it. >> reporter: and online. >> retailers know some people are trying to get a head start on holiday shopping so they want to be top of mind no for ten months straight, u.s. retailers have posted declines. last christmas the time many make up to 40% of their annual

sales, it was like a lump of coal in their stockings and recent survey says 36% of shoppers plan to spend less this year. >> i would be surprised if we see a significant increase in retail sales this year. >> reporter: which is why stores are trying to cushion the blow, by offering incentives to the cost of christmas. somewhere bringing back lay away. >> it originally went away because there was so much easy access to credit and because we had become such an instant gratification society but with the economic crunch and credit crunch many people don't want to put holiday purchases on credit cards. >> reporter: how shoppers behave this summer may very well determine what happens this winter. >> there are more buyers here than there were this time of last year, but that could be a positive sign for consumer confidence going into the holiday season. >> reporter: and maybe offer a little relief for those who brave an emerald holiday rush. >> this should be done by

christmas. >> reporter: after all, you've only got 145 shopping days left, but who's counting? lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. when "nightly news" continues this saturday, the showdown, michael phelps and the rematch the world was watching. tonight, remarkable come from behind finish. later, one of hollywood's most popular tourist attraction, fans lining up in search of the dearly departed. super poligrip acts as a seal between my dentures and my gums super poligrip makes eating more comfortable. even well fitting dentures can feel create a seal between your dentures and gums to make them more comfortable while you eat. i can eat my steak, i just love it. try super poligrip.

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or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications, or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. i was caught off-guard. but maybe you can learn from my story. have a heart to heart with your doctor... about your risk. and about lipitor. we're back now with a rematch of a race that had a split second finish the first time around, but today, clear win, no question about it. in one lane, american michael fe phelps. in know, his biggest rival, the man who nearly broke the phelps winning streak at the beijing olympics. nbc's keith miller picks up the story. >> reporter: it was a a swimming showdown with the overtone of a prize fight. right down to the premeet trash

ta talk. >> i'm going to come back. i'm going to beat him. >> rorter: he barely lost the gold medal to michael phelps last august in beijing by a mere fraction of a second. >> i feel like i was there first. >> reporter: today's rematch had phelps, the 14-time olympic gold medalist as the underdog. >> there's cavic as expected. has the lead at the turn. >> reporter: cavic had the best time in the preliminaries also sportd the controversial polyurethane swimsuit that helped break dozens of records here, he even offered to buy phelps one to make it a fair match. phelps didn't need it. >> cavic settles for silver again. unbelievable. >> reporter: he popped out of the water like a man on fire. even tugging on his smsuit to ma a point. the prerace taunts he said got him swimming. >> the only thing it does for me

is fire me up, i've always welcomed them in the past and in the present and future. >> reporter: >> reporter: n defeat, cavic was humble. >> he's the comeback king. he can do it off. there's nothing this man can't do in swimming. if i have to lose, i'm most happy to lose to him. >> reporter: before today's showdown, fephelps said you liv for races like this. now he could add, and for results just like this. keith miller, nbc news, london. >> another american olympian dara torres switched into one of those polyurethane swimsuits and turned in a much better performance. she wore another brand with the logo blacked out, because she said you have to be on par with

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we have an update now on a story we've been following this week. most of those students from st. mary's school in medford, oregon, are finally home from their trip to china where they found themselves unexpectedly quarantined after several tested positive for swine flu.

several children are still in china in the hospital with the flu. there are is news about big money in bad times. this week, just a few months after wall street's biggest banks were rescued by the taxpayers. congress took action to limit executive pay, but they are nonetheless setting aside tens of billions for bonus. tonight's nbc's senior investigative correspondent lisa myers takes a look at who is cashing in. >> reporter: the latest pay coroversy involves citigroup and its $100 million man, star energy trader andrew hall, who's contract entitles him to as much as as much as $100 million this year, because the u.s. government now owns one-third of citi, the obama administration's pay czar would have to approve the payment which the president's spokesman think is a tad high. >> i think one could easily come to the conclusion that's probably a bit out of whack on any pay exile. >> reporter: hall has reportedly earned $250 million in recent

years an owns think thousand year old castle in germany which displays his contemporary art collection. citi would only say that retaining the best talent is critical to it success the top five wall street banks have set aside $75 billion up from $60 billion last year. goldman sachs has put aside so much that if the pace continus,s each employee would earn an average bonus of $773,000 this year. even more than in 2007, a boom year on wall street. >> we're less than six months away from one of the worst economic chris cease we've ever seen and already the wall street banks, at least those left standing, are again returning to their former ways. >> reporter: morgan stanley has set aside $6 billion for bonuses despite its third straight

quarterly loss. >> banks returning to the bad old days of before is really ignoring the mood of the country. >> reporter: beyond the bonus pools, there are other signs that some wealthy americans may be returning to precrisis habits. as much of the country remains in deep economic distress. there are again magazine spreads on lavish homes in the hamptons. and the latest fashion magazine features a $26,000 crocodile bag and $4,000 mink and leather boots. >> it's like you're taking care of yourself, you're treating yourself. and i think people who have the means to do this are not holding back. >> reporter: as for the bonuses, wall street firms say they're both justify and necessary to compete for top talent. but this is provided more ammunition to critics who worry that laugh vick pay packages may encourage excessive risk taking. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. up next here tonight, celebrities who are bigger

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minl finally tonight, unique tourist attraction with a claim to fame and a business that's oming. more and more people want to see what it's like to live and die in l.a. >> the most recent addition to the tour -- >> reporter: all day every day since michael jackson died, hi rented mansion has become a huge tourist defendastination, so ma people, guard is always at the gate. >> michael jackson absolutely died in this house. >> reporter: at dearly departed tour, which specializes in places kind are buried, business is up 20%. >> this my best year so far. considering the way things are in the world, i feel pretty fortunate about that. >> reporter: it's tourism with a touch of the macabre. >> if you are rich and fame ou, cedars is the hospital to die in. >> reporter: the power of death for the famous and infamous.

the movie "public enemy" has sparked a resurgence of interest in his grave and few can match the earni power of elvis whose estate took in $52 million last year much of it at graceland where he's buried. in hollywood, entire cemeteries attract star gaze, marps sold in the gift shop of hollywood forever even though most are from another era and many find tiny westwood ceremony and natalie wood and farrah fawcett. not all celebrities want their grave sites to become tourist attractions. jim morrison's original marker was stolen and parts of james dean's head stone has been chipped away for fans looking for a souvenir. >> people mark their own emotional lives, the way they grew up, the way they felt when

they were 7 years or 1years old, they mark it the in relation to celebrities. >> the house where george burn lachbd died. >> reporter: the tour cost $40, money carla valenzuela was glad to spend to help her deal with michael jackson's death. >> when i was a child, i i was in love with him and i used to kiss the "thrill ever" a.m. bum every day before i went to school. and his death such a shock to me. >> reporter: gone but not forgotten, their star power and in n some cases earning power und undiminish. chris jan, sing, nbc news, from los angeles. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and then right back here tomorrow evening. right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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