we're going back to our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, i think you have a little more information. >> well, i do. i have the answer to the question that we were wondering about a few moments ago and that is why now. and just to reiterate what i said earlier, that two officials have confirmed to us that the boy was rescued safely, that the kidnapper was shot dead, and two officials have told me that the boy is okay. that's the phrase they've used. now, as to the question of why now? an official who has been following this says that there was growing concern about the mental condition of this man who was holding him hostage, that there was a concern on the part of the people who were in regular touch with him that his mental condition was deteriorating, slipping, and that's the reason they decided to take this action today. they were growing increasingly concerned and alarmed about his condition and his mental state, and that's why they decided to take this action today. >> and were they able to suggest why that might be happening? >>

>> this tipster, pete williams, first reached out to us back in april. and in his initial e-mail, he didn't mention anything about underaged prostitute, he mentioned prostitutes. shortly thereafter, he mentioned underaged prostitutes, but we were skeptical because he said he had known about these allegations, had evidence since as early as 2008. now we're talking it's the spring of 2012, shortly before senator menendez's re-election when the senate is still considered a tossup. so we thought the timing was suspicious. add to that, no matter how many e-mails we had back and forth, pete williams never agreed to speak to us by phone. he wouldn't talk to us. he wouldn't talk to other news organizations we brought in, and as it turns out he wouldn't talk to the fbi either. all of that combined leads to me saying this was a set-up, at least on that angle, of senator menendez. >> let me bring drew back in. drew, even if the prostitution allegations turn out to be false, there's still the matter of menendez allegedly steering that lucrative contract to his frien

it's where we begin tonight with our justice correspondent, pete williams, at the court. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, here's the question about the voting rights act. it puts an extra burden on states with a history of discriminating at the polls. but does it cover the areas of the country where the problem is the worst? tonight, a bare majority of the supreme court seems to think the answer is no, and if that's the case, the law is in big trouble. ♪ >> reporter: dramatizing the high stakes, civil rights veterans passionately defended the law outside the court. >> we are not going back. we have come too far. we made too much progress to go back. >> at stake, the most important civil rights law ever passed, a response to widespread voter discrimination in the south. president johnson signed the voting rights act in 1965 at the u.s. capitol. fast forward, 48 years. >> i barack hussein obama, do solemnly swear. >> reporter: now with the first african-american president re-elected and more minority in congress and state houses, shelby county, alabama, south of birmi

if you listen to pete william's analysis, the court may cut down the act. does that leave americans in terms of where do we go from here to ensure people have access to ballots come november? >> democracy in voting is the foundation of america. we have fought long battles. the constitution has been amended to give african-americans the right to vote, the give women the right to vote. to give 18-year-olders the right to vote. we have always had an expansion of democracy which has been the trend. this generation of leaders, the court, the president and the congress, it's good to see the president propose a commission to look at this issue and create transparency. i think in america while fighting wars to create democracy overseas, we have to protect democracy here at home and ensure, ensure that every american has a right to vote in an important way. the more people who participate in our elections the stronger american democracy is. k si agree, mark. i can only imagine the outcry from all corners of this country will be deafening. thank you for your time. >>

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams in our washington newsroom with more on this story tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, the justice department claims lance armstrong was cheating the federal government when he raced in the tour de france on a team sponsored by the u.s. postal service. the government today joined a lawsuit that had been filed earlier by one of his teammates, floyd landis. it says armstrong violated a strict ban on illegal drugs, all the while claiming he never used them. the government says armstrong and his team owners cheated the postal service out of at least $30 million that it paid to sponsor his racing team. but armstrong's lawyers say tonight the postal service's own study show it benefited tremendously from its sponsorship, benefits totalling more than $100 million. the justice department says lance armstrong's confessional television interview will be a factor as this goes forward, brian. >> pete williams in d.c. for us tonight. pete, thanks. >>> now to that huge winter storm that left parts of the midwest buried in snow overnight. it's

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has more tonight. >> reporter: at the offices of cyber watch dog mandiant security computer consultant for "the washington post" and "new york times" a constant vigil keeps watch for signs of attacks on them and other clients. the company also devises ways to stay a step ahead to block attempted intrusions from succeeding. >> there is always going to be some kind of gap attackers can exploit and very often we see companies haven't invested in responding to the fact that they will sustain a breach and many times they're caught flat footed when it occurs. >> reporter: with cyber attacks on the rise against banks, news organizations, social media, and the systems that keep the country going, there's a growing worry that the u.s. faces a serious shortage of people who know how to respond. >> it takes a thousand hours of hands on work just like a pilot. you can't be a good pilot unless you've actually flown an airplane under pressure. you can't be a good cyber person unless you've actually fought in cyber space either in a simulator or in the real w

our report from nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: the "new york times" says hackers have been attacking its computer system for the past four months. even managing to get passwords for individual reporters. the paper says its own security experts and the fbi traced the intrusions to hackers in china who it says were employing techniques associated in the past with hackers from the chinese military. another newspaper, "the wall street journal" says it too was hit by chinese hackers who apparently wanted to monitor its china reporting. no attempt, the journal says, to steal customer data. in beijing, any suggestion that the chinese were involved, quote, irresponsible. but "the times" says the hack attack coincided with a series of stories it posted on its website, which reported that relatives of china's prime minister had amassed a fortune worth several billion dollars through business deals. >> we first noticed the unusual activity on our network shortly after we published our article about the outgoing chinese ruling family. >> reporter: security experts and the fbi say china has been

a report tonight from our justice correspondent, pete williams. ♪ >> reporter: it's a staple of policerama. >> cold case in sacramento and new york. ran dna from rape kits ten years ago. >> reporter: four years ago, maryland police took a dna sample from alonzo king when they arrested him on a gun charge, rubbing a cotton swab inside his cheek like this, then submitting his dna profile to a national database. it found a match with dna from an unsolved rape and robbery six years earlier. every state now gathers dna from anyone convicted of serious crimes. half the states do it with people arrested, too, but defense lawyers say that's just phishing with no grounds to think that some other crime was committed. >> in the dna sample, there's a lot of medical information concerning the individual, about the individual's genetic heritage, about the people that they are related to. >> reporter: but the mother of katie sepich, a college student raped and murdered in 2003, says her daughter's killer could have been caught sooner if police had put his dna on file when he was arrested for an earli

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> well, first we had the fiscal cliff crisis and then the debt ceiling drama. now president obama is calling on congress to get past the next term we all need to turn, the sequester. big, across-the-board spending cuts that are due to take effect the 1st of march. the president called today for a limited package of spending cuts and tax reforms to avoid the deadline. republican speaker of the house john boehner rejected that, saying republicans want a bigger agreement on a long-term deficit reduction plan. the white house also announced today president obama will be going to israel this spring for the first time since taking office. israeli media say he's due to arrive march 20th, though the white house would not confirm any of the travel dates. >>> we are learning much more tonight about the breaking story we brought you here last night. the dramatic rescue of a 5-year-old boy after a standoff in alabama that lasted almost a week. nbc's gabe gutierrez is with us tonight from midland city, alabama. gabe, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good eve

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> and we turn now to weather in the news. a lot of folks on the east coast, especially in new england, are all riled up for the potential arrival of a big snow-making weather system. weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is with us tonight. jim, what's on the way? >> yeah, hey, brian. this on the 35th anniversary of the famous blizzard of '78 which pretty much shut down boston. right now boston under a blizzard watch. i expect others to follow. portland, southern new hampshire, even parts of connecticut i think as confidence grows in the forecast. in play thursday, chicago and atlanta. we will have issues there, obviously, at the airports. by 5:30 friday morning, this model says, hey, it will be snowing to new york. but we expect a changeover. the big question is, how much of a changeover. that makes new york's forecast very, very tricky. by friday night, into saturday morning, blizzard conditions throughout new england. a crippling snowstorm and the impact here. confidence for at least 2 feet there. the big question is,

our report from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: for jesse jackson jr., the walk into the courthouse was the end of a slow-motion fall from grace. he told a federal judge, for years i have lived off my campaign. admitting that he took money received in political contributions and used it to make more than 3,000 separate purchases for himself and his wife over the past seven years. a $43,000 gold watch. $19,000 for one of michael jackson's guitars. $16,000 for a pair of elk heads. tens of thousands more in furnishings for their homes in washington and chicago. total value, $750,000. >> jesse jackson jr. had the drive, the ability and the talent to be the voice of a new generation. but he squandered that talent. >> reporter: as he left today, jackson was apologetic. >> not a proud day. i'm sorry i let everybody down. >> reporter: but his lawyer says at age 47, he still has a promising future. >> a man that talented, a man that devoted to public service, a man who has done so much for so many, has another day. there will be another chapter in jesse jackson's life. >>

armstrong's confessional television interview will be a factor as this goes forward, brian. >> pete williams in d.c. for us tonight. pete, thanks. >>> now to that huge winter storm that left parts of the midwest buried in snow overnight. it's all headed northeast now with new england looking at its third weekend in a row with significant precipitation and high winds. nbc's john yang in chicago covering for us. >> reporter: across the midwest, the day after the storm brought more treacherous travel. in iowa, a tractor-trailer lost control and was split in two by a bus carrying a college softball team. amazingly, no serious injuries. overnight, icy roads in indiana sent cars skidding, leading officials to close schools. and this morning in detroit -- >> this was one nasty morning commute. >> reporter: flying is not much better. in cleveland, a flight from ft. lauderdale slid off a runway while taxiing to the terminal. in wichita yesterday, a plane got stuck on an unplowed taxiway for two hours. passengers took it all in stride. >> everybody was in really good spirits. we all chatted, and had a

pete williams reports. >> reporter: "the new york times" says hackers have been attacking its computer system for the past four months, even managing to get pass words for individual reporters. the paper says the own security experts and the fbi traced the intrusions to hackers in china who it says were employing techniques associated in the past with hackers from the chinese military. another newspaper, "the wall street journal" says it, too, was hit by chinese hackers who wanted to monitor the china reporting. no attempt, the journal says, to steal customer data. in beijing, a spokesman for china's foreign ministry called any suggestion that the chinese were involved "irresponsible" but the times says the attack coincided with a series of stories it posted on the website which reported that relatives of china's prime minister had he massed a fortune worth several billion dollars through business deals. >> we first noticed the unusual activity on our network shortly after we published our article about the outgoing chinese ruling family. >> reporter: security experts and the fbi say c

. >> let's turn now to pete williams who joins us live from the supreme court. is our justice correspondent. as i understand it, this is an opportunity for the supreme court to consider whether racial discrimination at the voting booth is still a serious challenge for voters and whether the voting rights act is still necessary. you've been following the day's proceedings. what's your impression of how members of the court see the issue? >> my impression, martin, is that at least five members of the court have doubts about the constitutionality of this law. what they're concerned about is not the idea of the preclearance requirement. it's the practice of where it's applied. the question here is is the area covered by the law a close enough fit to where the problem is? now, the court's more liberal members say it is close enough. if you look, for example, at the states covered by the law in the south, even though they account for only 25% of the nation's population, they account for over half of the successful voter discrimination lawsuits. suggesting it's working

pete williams joins us live. why the delay? >> the scouts say a couple things about this.st of all, they have had an outpouring of feedback that shows how deeply care about scouting and about this it issue. it's complex and need more time for what they call a deliberate review of the membership policy. there was to be a vote today before the 33-member board. by postponing it to may, they will have it before the national council. so both sides of this hope the time will work in their favor. people who think the change should happen, and remember the change under discussion, the scouts would remove the national ban from their membership rules and leave it up to local units to admit gay scouts and gay scout leaders. the advocates of the change think time is good for them, but opponents think time is on their side. we're told that there's a civil war within the scouting organization and they need time to sort it out. >> it it this because so many churches and scouts are sponsored by churches? was it a pushback from the religious community? >> well, yes, in part. i think it's f

nbcs justice correspondent pete williams joins me now from the supreme court. pete, from the arguments today, what is your impression of what way the court might be moving? >> well, you know, the court didn't come with a blank slate. four years ago, the court looked at the same question and laid down a marker. we were watching to see if the justices that were skeptical then changed their mind? the answer is no. five votes to strike down a key part of the voting rights act. it's a law that requires states with a history of discrimination to get permission before they make changes in how they change their elections. strike down a companion part of which states are covered by the law. they think it's out of date. chief roberts asked which state has the worst record in registering and turnouts of african-americans? answer he said, massachusetts, mississippi is best. at another point he said to the solicitor general, do you think people in the south are more racist than people in the north? it's questions like that that made it clear that chief justice roberts thinks

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> and we turn now to weather in the news. a lot of folks on the east coast, especially in new england, are all riled up for the potential arrival of a big snow-making weather system. weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is with us tonight. jim, what's on the way? >> yeah, hey, brian. this on the 35th anniversary of the famous blizzard of '78 which pretty much shut down boston. boston under a blizzard watch. i expect others to follow. portland, southern new hampshire, even parts of connecticut i think as confidence grows in the forecast. in play thursday, chicago and atlanta. we will have issues there, obviously, at the airports. by 5:30 friday morning, this model says, hey, it will be snowing to new york. but we expect a changeover. the big question is, how much of a changeover. that makes new york's forecast very, very tricky. by friday night, into saturday morning, blizzard conditions throughout new england. a crippling snowstorm and the impact here. confidence for at least 2 feet there. the big question is, do we see

nbc's pete williams, our justice correspondent, joins me. what do you know, pete?ell, chris, there will be no decision today. it had been expected that the boy scouts' board of directors' meeting in texas today would vote on this issue. that's what the scouts had said last week. but now they've put this off until at least may. and it's also going to be decided not simply by the boy scouts' board, but by the larger 1,400 voting members of the boy scouts' national council. so that could change very significantly what happens here. the boy scouts say that the controversy since this came to light a week ago has produced what i'm reading now from a statement they just put out. an outpouring of feedback from the american republic, showing how deeply people care about scouting, and then they say due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership poll circumstance and therefore in order to further engage representatives of scouting's membership and listen to their concerns, this will be put off until the national

our justice correspondent pete williams with more from washington. >> for years, lance armstrong has successfully avoided getting dragged into court over cheating allegations, but the u.s. government is joining a lawsuit that seeks millions of dollars. the justice department is joining suit filed by floyd landis. it claims when armstrong raced for the u.s. postal service team a decade ago in the u.s. postal service team, he violated the government by using banned substances. he claims landis saw armstrong story and reinject his own blood to boost performance and armstrong twice gave landis banned hormones before races. last month, armstrong generally admitted cheating in an interview with oprah winfrey, saying it was a given for world-class races, like putting air in the tires or water in the bottle. armstrong could face huge fines if the government wins. the postal service paid at least $30 million to sponsor his racing team. armstrong's lawyers said they tried for weeks to reach a settlement and no matter what he did, the government still came out ahead. in a written statement, his

pete williams joins me now with more on this. pete, what fueled the case that's under debate here?'s talk specifically about how it is raised to the level it is now. >> it is an appeal from shelby county, alabama, one of the areas covered. basically that this law has time passed us by. when congress renewed it in 2006, renewed four times, they didn't marshal enough evidence to show that it is still constitutional because it turns everything upside down. anything the states do to change their election rules is presumed to be improper until they get federal permission and say that violates state sovereignty. the question is the voting rights act still current enough to pass the constitutional test. what many of the states say, including shelby county is, there are parts of the south where a -- blacks register, rote and elect people in greater numbers than in many parts of the mortds that are not cover bid the voting rights act and say it is unfair. thomas, four years ago the supreme court came close to striking it down and said congress should change the formula. formula has not chan

with me to talk more about this, pete williams. and here in new york with me, zack walls. lso the author of the book "my two moms: lessons of love, strength, and what makes a family." great to have you here. pete, the bax fasic facts of whe know about how this decision came down, because a lot of people were anticipating how this vote was going to go today, but they've pushed it until later in the spring. >> what the boy scouts' statement says is that they received what they call an outpouring of feedback from the american public and they say due to the complexity of the issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its policy. so it's not only putting the decision off until may of this year, that's one thing. but the second thing is they say the decision in may will be made not by the board, which the organization meet taking in texas, but by a much larger national council, 1,400 voting members of that. and so the question is whether the national council, which includes more members of the sponsoring churches that are involved in scouting, would come t

anything, but it does indicate a whole new serious level of legal exposure for lance armstrong. >> pete williamspete, thank for joining us so quickly. i appreciate it. that's going to wrap things up for me today. have a great weekend. i'll see you back here on monday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. don't go anywhere. "now with alex wagner" comes your way next. at tyco integrated security, we consider ourselves business optimizers. how? by building custom security solutions that integrate video, access control, fire and intrusion protection. all backed up with world-class monitoring centers, thousands of qualified technicians, and a personal passion to help protect your business. when your business is optimized like that, there's no stopping you. we are tyco integrated security. and we are sharper. [ male announcer ] whether it's mom's smartphone... dad's tablet... lauren's smartphone... or kevin's smartphone... at&t mobile share makes it affordable for the whole family to share data on all their devices. and when you connect a tablet, you save $100. ♪

nbc justice correspondent pete williams was inside the supreme court and joins me now.the arguments that you heard. >> reporter: thomas, the court heard argument for about an hour and 15 minutes. i think it is a safe prediction to say the voting rights act as it now stands is not going to survive. the question is how far will the supreme court go in striking parts of it down? what seemed to concern the majority of the justices was the fact that the law is too backward looking. when it was passed in 1965 it was intended to deal with a clearly documented pattern of racial discrimination in the south trying to prevent blacks from registering, voting, and being able to elect people. and the problem many of the justices say is that now the law when it was re-enacted the last time isn't forward looking enough. many of the justices said the problems in the south aren't as bad as they are in some places in the north and it troubled them that the law doesn't have any way to deal with that. i think two of the key justices that we looked at were justice kennedy and justice roberts

our justice correspondent, pete williams, has more from washington. te, good morning. >> reporter: lester, good morning. for years, lance armstrong has successfully avoided getting dragged into court over cheating allegations, but now the u.s. government is going after him, joining a lawsuit that seeks millions of dollars. the justice department has joined a suit filed two years ago by floyd landis, one of armstrong's former teammates who has already admitted cheating. it claims that when armstrong raced for the u.s. postal service team a decade ago in the tour de france, he defrauded the government by violating its strict ban on illegal drugs while all the way claiming he didn't use them. here are two of the key claims -- that landis saw armstrong store and then reinject his own blood to boost his performance and that armstrong twice gave landis banned hormones before races. last month, armstrong generally admitted cheating in an interview with oprah winfrey, saying the issue of performance enhancers was a given for world-class racers like putting air

nbc justice correspondent pete williams jones me now from the newsroom. how is the justice department getting into this case? what is the affect of that? >> well, legal sources tell, you andrea, that the justice department will sign on and its considerable weight to a lawsuit that's been filed against armstrong by one of its former tour de france teammates, floyd landis. he filed this lawsuit two years ago basically claiming that lance armstrong defrauded the federal government. here's the theory of the case. the claim is that when armstrong agreed to race for the team sponsored by the u.s. postal service, he was in essence defrauding the government because the postal service requires everybody who works for it not to use any illegal drugs, and armstrong, landis claims, was, in fact, blood doping and using hormones chshgs are both forbidden by the fewer defrance and they claim by the postal service itself. it's a civil lawsuit claiming that he cheated the government and, of course, the u.s. postal service paid millions of dollars to sponsor the tour de fr