and we'll keep on top of it. >> the warnings are up until 2:00 a.m. do stay tuned. we hope you will come back at news 4 at 11:00. "nightly news" next. on the broadcast tonight, born in the usa and anxious to remove any doubt. president obama releases his official long-form birth certificate and said he's had it with sideshows and carnival barkers. security shakeup. big names in national security getting new jobs but why now? walking tall, gabby giffords seen for the first time since she was shot, boarding a plane for her husband's shuttle launch and continuing to improve. and girl next door, a trip for the country town where the girl about to become princess is just one of them. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. there are people who remember his mother when she was pregnant and living in hawaii. there are people who remember seeing him as a baby in the nursery in the hospital right after barack obama was born in hawaii on august 4th, 1961. but because there have always been doubters demanding more and because one of them is famous and loud and named trump, today, president obama offered further proof of his american birth. the long-form birth certificate showing the particulars, and while the president acknowledged it still won't be enough for some, he told the american people today, we don't have time for this kind of silliness, as he put it. white house correspondent savannah guthrie starts us off tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the president's personal lawyer had to get a special legal exception from hawaii to get the document and then travel physically to hawaii to retrieve it. aides say this is a side show

and a fake controversy, but this was kind of creeping into the ma mainstream. today, the president decided enough was enough. >> yet, this thing keeps on going. >> frustrated that a conspiracy theory about where he was born refuses to die. >> yes, in fact, i was born in hawaii, august 4th, 1961. >> the president tried again today to put the issue to rest. >> we're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers. >> reporter: the white house today released the long form of the president's birth certificate, hoping to disspell a rumor dating back to the presidential race that mrmr. obomb ozwas born somewhere other than america. in june 20008, they posted the official birth certificate on the internet, and news clippings also surfaced showing his birth announcement in the honolulu news paper.

still, some doubters said the only sufficient proof would be the long-form department kept by the hawaii department of health and by law unavailable for public release, even to obama himself. >> because if he's not born here, he is not president. >> the argument got new life when donald trump started pushing it as part of his possible presidential campaign. today, trump claimed credit for the birth certificate's release. >> today, i'm very proud of myself. >> reporter: but said closer inspection was needed. >> we have to see is it real, is it proper, what's on it? but i hope it checks out beautifully. >> when nbc's ron allen tried three times to show the document to trump -- >> why don't you take a look at it? >> reporter: he was ignored. a recent poll showed two thirds of republicans question the president's birth place, and though he's tried to laugh it off at times -- >> i happen to know my approval

ratings are still very high in the country of my birth -- >> reporter: the president has grown increasingly tired of the issue. with nbc's brian williams last year. >> i can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead. >> reporter: today, the cable tv split screen gave way to the president who played his trump card. >> we live in a serious time right now, and we do not have time for this kind of silliness. we have better stuff to do. >> reporter: at that moment, the real president sounding a lot like that hollywood one. >> this is a time for serious people, bob, and your 15 minutes are up. my name is andrew shepherd, and i am the president. >> reporter: traveling to chicago later for an appearance on oprah, the first lady weighed in. >> he was born here. >> reporter: well, i was actually given an opportunity to look at this birth certificate today. i felt the raised seal, i saw the names, the date, the place

of birth. so mr. trump is saying there's a lot of revelations thanks to him, but the fact remains as it has with the short-form certificate as it has for years, the president was born in honolulu, hawaii. >> savannah guthrie from the white house. thanks. the other big news in washington today, a national security shake-up that will see one veteran official switching jobs and a military leader taking on a big civilian post, and they're all big names, and it comes on a day when nine americans were killed in afghanistan. our pentagon correspondent jim mcluchefsky has the story. >> reporter: cia director leon panetta showed up today as the pentagon where he's expected to take charge on july 1st. in the major shift on the national security team, the president tapped pennetta for national security secretary to replace retiring robert gates. two years ago, with no background in intelligence, he took over as cia in trouble for aggressive interrogations and

detention of terrorist suspects. as a former democratic congressman and clinton chief of staff, he used his political skills to convince lawmakers to back off threats for congressional investigations. >> we're in a period where we're facing an increasingly dangerous world. >> reporter: but as defense secretary, he will now be responsible for waging an increasingly deadly war in afghanistan. a draw-down in iraq, and budget battles with capitol hill. >> the pentagon will be a new kind of challenge. remember in washington terms, the cia is a relatively small place. in washington, the pentagon dwarves everything else. >> to replace pennetta at the cia, the president has picked general david petraeus, now the top u.s. military commander in afghanistan, who has nearly ten years of experience leading counterterrorism and intelligence operations. >> petraeus has been at war continuously since 9/11. during that time, he's had multiple years in iraq.

and now directly on the ground working the afghanistan/pakistan issues. petraeus would be a terrific follow-on during these very dangerous times for the american people. >> reporter: especially dangerous for the forces in afghanistan. nine americans, eight u.s. military, and one civilian were killed when a military officer opened fire in an airport in kabul. the incident remains under investigation. general petraeus won't leave afghanistan until september so it's unlikely there will be any immediate change in the war strategy there. and military officials say the first withdrawal of american troops set to begin in july will be minimal at best. >> jim with the story tonight. thanks. and now to the series of monstrous storms crossing the country. we have been tracking this for days. the national weather service today issued a rare high risk warning of tornadoes, hail, flash flooding, and dangerous

storms for georgia, alabama, mississippi, and warned that severe weather could strike 21 states down from the great lakes to the atlantic coast. we have an active situation tonight. this storm has claimed at least 30 lives so far. weather channel's julie martin is in poplar bluff, missouri. with the latest, julie, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the biggest flooding threat remains in poplar bluff tonight. if the river breaks -- levee breaks holding back the black river, as many as 7,000 residents will be impacted. it's one community of many tonight bracing for the worst. it's a fifth day of rain and the swollen black river continues to breach its levees. >> everything is soaked. >> reporter: and there's four feet of water inside steve's home. >> it's terrible, just awful. and so many families here. you know, have been stricken, who don't have flood insurance. i mean, it's awful. you know, steve lost everything he has. he's worked all his life.

>> this is a dangerous storm. >> reporter: alabama hard-hit today, at least 12 dead. power lines and trees are down. flash flooding and extensive damage reported. officials reported dozens of tornado sightings in alabama and mississippi and tennessee. in texas, a tornado formed during live tv coverage. >> we got a tornado! >> reporter: major flooding is now pushing the banks of more than 50 rivers and streams. huge sections of the midwest and south are experiencing the brutal side of spring. while the system will move offshore, it will take far longer to rebuild the lives it ruined. >> nothing i can do but start over again. >> reporter: and right now, we do have an active tornado system moving through alabama. we'l could go through

their paces. the band played. the boots shined. hats were straightened. a preview of friday's grand display, complete with an air force fly over. along the route, hard core royal watchers and princess diana fans staked out the best seats.

bl i fink if she were here today, she would be overwhelmed. >> reporter: back at the abbey, floral displays were brought in. as police kept an eye out for any trouble. so why all the fuss about a young couple getting married? >> the relationship between these two young people is going to be tremendously important not just for britain but for britain's standing in the world. eventually, these two, of course, are going to be king and queen of britain. >> reporter: today's glimpse of these two together may be our last until we see them again on friday morning at westminster abbey when they become husband and wife. >> rehema, thanks. when we come back tonight, the crackdown on protesters in syria continues as tanks roll in the streets. what's the next chapter in this story? and later, the town where a royal bride is better known as the girl from town.

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in syria tonight, the situation took another serious turn as president assad send tanks into the streets of a damascus suburb and 200 members of the ruling baath party quit their poes in protest. as you may know, this is tough to get in there and cover. syria has cut off media access. richard engle is monitoring this situation from libya.

of a tornado around mt. vernon, around rainwood into virginia, grove ton, belhaven, to the south of alexandria, this does include friendly, which is just seeing that last possible tornado, which passed just off to the north and west and also includes clinton hills, also includes clinton, andrews air force base, right around camp springs, oxen hill, windsor park, marlo heights, all in the way of the storm. that storm will continue to move off once again at about a35 miles per hour. >> thanks a lot, doug. let's put the radar back on for you folks there who are watching us. up to the north and east again, still looking at some possible rotation with that initial cell up around prince georges county. that's coral hills area. that's suitland and around kentland area. so just on the east side now of the district and about ready to

make its way over 495. hopefully we can get some traffic cameras up for you. eventually this will be a sliding up toward woodenward area and mitchellville and seabrook area. very heavy rain and even if you're somewhere in and around this area, further off to the east, and you're not in the tornado warning, you may be getting some high winds. very heavy rain also coming with these systems that we have been tracking. oxen hill area and around camp springs, just to the south of the beltway right now, this is a system, again, that looks like it is intensifying. all afternoon, late afternoon, and through here, the evening hours, we have been watching these long track tornadoes. the latest is, again, if you live in the belhaven area, grove ton area or around friendly this is a dangerous storm system, potentially producing a tornado as we have had confirmed reports of tornadoes on the ground today. >> here is the latest on this.

prince georges county and charles county until 8:00 tonight this is for that secondary storm that we're talking about. catching up to the first storm. and producing a new tornado. national weather service indicated a severe thunderstorm producing a tornado around ft. washington to the northeast at 30 miles an hour. areas in concern here are the same areas we have been talking about. if you've seen the heavy rain, if you've seen the strong winds, you're in the same area. we're talking about prince georges county and fairfax county now. it is friendly. it is oxen hill, clinton, camp springs, marlo heights, andrews air force base, and forestville. >> and right now the latest prince georges county and charles county, you're under a tornado warning until 8:00 p.m. that's prince georges county and charles county, tornado warning until 8:00 p.m. this is a system moving northeast at 30 miles per hour. even though earlier today we were getting those confirmed reports from sighters who were giving us confirmation, yes, that is a tornado, that you

folks are saying they got us some reports. now this one is indicated by the signature that we see here on doppler radar. possible tornado around belhaven, grove ton area and friendly pushing to the north and east around camp springs area. we showed you pictures earlier. we have more out of stafford county, virginia, of the tornado earlier today. >> there is that wall cloud there. that is a wall cloud. normally from the wall clouds you see a tornado coming down. not a tornado there, but a definite wall cloud, and that's what you're going to see. now, however, around 7:30, we're starting to see something happen that is even more dangerous with this. we're starting to lose sunlight. when you see a tornado like this coming, it is a lot easier for you to get inside. that's why you need to get inside now. as we lose daylight, you won't be able to see this tornado coming. it may be a rain-wrapped tornado. so, please, watch out on there. we're going to continue to watch this as it gets around the 495 area. it is now just on to the south