george lewis at yosemite tonight. george, thanks. >>> now we turn to washington. this drama over the federal budget, the rapidly approaching debt ceiling deadline. it arrives, whether we like it or not, august 2nd. there were more meetings on it today. kristen is with us tonight with the latest from the white house. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening. president obama met with republican leaders this evening and earlier he met with democrats from both chambers. white house called those meetings productive. one of the main things being discussed is a plan that was put forth by the gang of six. that's that bipartisan group of senators who have been meeting off and on over the past several months. under their plan the federal deficit would be reducuced by $ trillion and changes to medicare and social security and $1 trillion in new tax revenue. here's what jay carney said earlier today. >> there is still time to do something significant if all parties are willing to compromise because the parameters of what that might look like are well known, especially

coats the riverbanks around the city of billings and the town of laurel, and that's where we find george lewis tonight. good evening, george. >> reporter: good evening, kate. behind me you see some of the workers involved in the cleanup. montanans love their great outdoors and they're not too happy tonight that part of it is fouled with oil. exxon says it has more than 200 people working on cleaning up the oil spill, but about 1,000 barrels of crude, 42,000 gallons worth, were released into the yellowstone river. enough oil to fill five tanker trucks. >> i want to personally apologize to all the people affected by this. >> reporter: workers are putting up 40,000 feet of protective boom to try to keep the oil from fouling more of the riverbank. >> right now we're not worried about how many dollars we're spending. right now we're worried about getting in and responding to the damage and making sure that we can clean up. >> reporter: officials speculate that strong floodwaters on the yellowstone river may have slammed debris into the pipeline rupturing it and causing the spill. >> i didn't find o

>> george lewis in his d.o.t. mandated safety vest tonight. george hunker down for the weekend, we'll talk to you on monday. >>> up next here tonight, we'll pay a little attention and spend some time looking at some stories that went flying by us this past week. >>> finally tonight, as is too often the case, much of what we reported on was thoroughly depressing, from the scorching drought in the south to our lawmakers, to having to say farewell to a real profile in courage, the ordinary woman named betty ford who became first lady and changed life in this country forever, by destigmatizing breast cancer and addiction like only she could. while the big news stories dominated, there was other news we didn't have the time or space to fit in the broadcast this week, beginning with an item about time and space and the phone call the president placed to the space station just today. >> that's funny, see, because i was just dialing out for pizza and i didn't expect to end up in space. >> reporter: the shuttle astronauts spent the week in space after

as nbc's george lewis reports, that means uncertainty for many same-sex couples. >> reporter: tom and steve came all the way from los angeles to get married in new york this morning. >> we're here to be married because we are not allowed to be married in our own home state. >> reporter: that's because in 2008, californians passed an initiative called proposition 8. outlawing same-sex marriage. >> compassion is the glory of life. >> reporter: 18,000 same-sex couples were wed in california before the measure passed. those marriages are still considered legal. but any same-sex marriages performed after the passage of prop 8 are not. so when tom and steve return here to los angeles, their marriage will not be recognized as legal by california. they'll have rights as domestic partners, but not the same rights as married people. >> this is becoming a gigantic mess. we are going to have states with different laws relating to recognition. >> reporter: new york now becomes one of six states plus the district of columbia where same-sex marriage is legal. in addition, maryland and rhode island h

as george lewis reports, the oil company is now at odds with state officials, as well as wildlife activiststry. >> reporter: containment the booms dot the banks of the yellowstone river in southern montana. a 12-inch exxonmobil pipeline ruptured just before midnight, friday. >> we really apologize for the inconvenience. that this incident is causing all of the people in montana. >> reporter: the spill is 150 miles northeast of yellowstone national park. in the town of laurel, montana and near the end of the 55-mile pipeline. the water flowing away from yellowstone park has carried the oil past the city of bill innings. officials restored water early saturday. and exxon officials assessing the spill from the air insist ground crews and park visitors are safe. >> we began air quality monitoring right after the incident. and i want to confirm that we have not found any readings that would be of any danger to the public. >> reporter: images of wildlife slicked in oil are prompting some advocacy groups to question federal safety regulations. >> regulators need to be really evaluating areas that

george lewis has more now. >> reporter: rangers are warning people if they see a grizzly, to keep their distance, travel in groups and along country trails to carry pepper spray to ward off the animals. it occurred near canyon village. the man and his wife were hiking when they spotted the braer and began to back away. >> they then saw the bear was coming at them. the husband told the wife she should run. the bear attacked the man and he was fatally injured. >> reporter: the area of the attack has been placed off limits for now. rangers say they believe the bear was a female, defending her cubs. if the investigation shows that was the case, the bear and her cubs will be left alone. park officials have not released the names of the couple. after the bear mauled the man, the animal went after his wife, who was lying down, playing dead. >> she was wearing a backpack of sorts. a day pack. and the bear grabbed her in some fashion, lifted her up off the ground and dropped her. and then ran off. >> reporter: the grizzly population in and around yellow stone has grown in recent years to more th

nbc's george lewis is live in laurel, montana, with more. george, good morning. where do the cleanup efforts stand right now? >> reporter: jeff, those cleanup efforts are growing at this hour. exxon now says it has almost 400 people on the case. and indeed, those efforts are complicated by the rising floodwaters that you see behind me. yesterday the water was down by that protective boom. now it's come in about a foot or so. it's expected to crest in billings, montana, later this afternoon at the 13-foot flood stage. so it will oil up some of the areas along the river banks that have been previously clean. in some areas they're going to have to start over from scratch today. a lot of angry property owners in this area are demanding answers about how big exactly is this spill. initially exxon was quoted as saying it extended only along a ten-mile bank of the river. but now they're saying yes, it could extend much farther than that. they've been sending reconnaissance flights out over a 100-mile area to look to see exactly how big the spill is. landowners that want

george lewis in the south. we'll be watching that. >>> a surprise announcement. jennifer lopez and marc anthony getting a divorce. the two married in 2004 and have 3-year-old twins. they call the decision to divorce a difficult one, but say they've come to an amicable agreement on all matters and are asking for privacy. this was j.lo's third marriage and anthony's second. after a friday of shakeups at the highest levels of news corp., a humble rupert murdoch say he's sorry. how was the mea culpa received in the wake of the hacking scandal. >>> plus, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke thinks it could be time to pump some more cash into the economy. with companies in wait and see mode, could that move relieve anything when it comes to creating jobs? ♪ going to the bank without going to the bank... that's a step forward. with chase quickdeposit on your smartphone, you just snap a picture, hit send and done. chase quickdeposit. take a step forward and chase what matters. ♪ we just keep on keepin' on ♪ ♪ keep on because a chicken is what it eats. [ jim ] this seal

for "today" george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. >> well, big question. yours? saddest movie of all time for you is what? >> a lot of sports movies "rockies 3." >> "rudy" did you see that? >> here's a strange one "apollo 13." near the end when the radio silence and nothing and then you see the parachute and the family all starts cheering. >> what you guys don't know towards the end of our sunday show he starts to tear up. so, this guy is quite a little softy. >> i am, i am. >>> we are back after this. you got something right there. >> i just broke down. at progressive, you can bundle your home and auto policies and save. don't worry, tiny people. flo is a gentle giant. bundle home and auto at progressive.com. >>> let's go check in, again, with david gregory and find out who his guests are on "meet the press." >> deal or default. the very latest with david plouffe and claire mccaskill and john thune discussing the latest discussions in the senate. that's all coming up on "meet the press." >>> that will do it for us on this sunday morning. richard lui and janice h

nbc's george lewis, just outside billings, montana for us. good evening, george. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the people have been hit with a double whammy. the yellowstone river laced with oil is flooding and waters have been rising all day in communities around here. exxonmobil expanded its cleanup effort putting more people in the field. there are 360 workers assigned to the spill as the giant oil company tries to figure out what went wrong with its pipeline. >> i really can't speculate on what caused this. it was a very big surprise to us. >> reporter: roaring floodwaters have sent a lot of trees like this crashing into the water. one theory is the flood eroded the soil covering the pipeline allowing debris to strike it causing pipeline to rupture. the montana governor toured the spill area to do, observing the clean jut and promising landowners like jim swanson he'll keep after exxonmobil to get rid of the oil. >> this cleanup is done when the state of montana says it done and i promise you this i'll be on this like smell on skunk un

george lewis has the story. >> reporter: containment booms dot the banks of the yellowstone river inthern montana. a 12-inch exxonmobil pipeline ruptured before midnight friday. >> we really apologize for the inconvenience that this incident is causing all the people in montana. >> reporter: the spill is 150 miles northeast of yellowstone national park. in the town of laurel, montana, and near the end of the 55-mile pipeline. the water flowing away from yellowstone park has carried the oil past the city of billings. official restored water to billings early saturday. and exxon officials assessing the spill from the air insist ground crews and park visitors are safe. >> we began air quality monitoring after the incident. and i want to confirm that we haven't found readings that would be of danger to the public. >> reporter: image of wildlife slicked in oil are prompt something advocacy groups to question federal safety regulations. >> regulators need to be really evaluating areas that we can't afford to have spills and creating a level of oversight and safety in those areas. >>> an al

. >>> george lewis with a closer look at carmageddon. calling it -- >> car-pocalypse. >> the movie stars are -- they'll all have to stay home this weekend. how is that going to happen? >> reporter: i think what we want is all of us want to come up to the bay area and join you guys because people are -- have been told to stay away from the stretch of the 405 freeway. that carries about half a million cars on the average summer weekend. and this weekend, it's going to be carrying zero cars, it will be completely shut down for 53 hours while they tear down the bridge behind me. they're going to do that bridge job in two sections. so once we've survived this weekend, we get to repeat the whole thing in 11 months. we'll be talking about that tonight on the nightly news at 5:30. >> all right. it's going to be crazy because the 405 is always a disaster all the time when you're on it. it's always packed. imagine beverly hills on one side, the brentwood on the other, it's going to be whacky. >> and jetblue was offering $4 from burbank to lax to f

george lewis is in billings with more on that. >> reporter: richard, take a look at this. the yellowstone river. i picked it and got my hand full of crude oil. there's a line of crude stretching the dark line beside me all over the place. exxon says a thousand barrels of oil spilled. it's 42,000 gallons. they believe it's confined to a ten-mile area upstream from billings, montana. but, the governor of montana says he doesn't quite believe it. he says what's going to have to be done is people are going to have to go out with boats and examine every inch of the river bank, up and down the river to see how far the spill area is going. the question is, how much damage will there be to water foul and to fish and to the water supply for the people of montana. a lot of towns and cities along the river depend on the water for their drinking supplies. farmers say they are worried about what's happening to their acreage as the river floods, they believe it will carry the crude over their crop lands and they are worried about the long term effects on their farmland. now, the epa, th

nbc's george lewis is live at yosemite, and so george, from what i just read and the information, theyrossed this barricade? >> yeah. they crossed the barricade. they go into the water at the top of vernal fall. we should point out this is yosemite falls behind us. vernal falls is in a more remote location. they got in the water at the top of the fall. they were posing for photographs, and then apparently the current started to take them away. a man jumped in trying to rescue them. the man and the woman who were first swept away and he, too, was swept away so three people went over the top of vernal fall, a plunge of about 300 feet. all three victims are identified as being from stanislaw county. that's in central california. hormiz and davide nadal and all the yosemite waterfalls attracted record visitors because they are being fed by heavy snow pack. the water is flowing very strongly and also rivers that are fed by them. that's why park rangers are telling people to be extra caution when they approach the waterfalls and the rivers underneath the falls because the currents are extrem

for "today," george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. >> leno's advice may not be a joking matter. 11 past the hour. now here's amy. >> lester, thank you. it's shaping up to be another summer scorcher. a hot, dry, dangerous conditions in parts of the country this morning. nbc's charles hadlock has the latest on a brutal heat wave. >> reporter: june was the hottest month on record in more than a century in texas. and in oklahoma city, it's week three of triple digit heat. proof that it really is hot enough to fry an egg in some places. chris mcbee used his dashboard for the test. and there's little chance this heat wave is breaking any time soon. >> this ridge is going to expand considerably northward up into the northern plains. so a lot of areas that have been very wet are now going to get very hot, and that moisture is going to then be transported into that heat, raise the heat indices and it's going to make it just brutal. >> reporter: people in 14 states are suffering the worst of this historic heat. and dealing with drought conditions. almost 12% of the country is now enduring a bruta

george lewis has more now from wyoming. >> reporter: rangers are warning people that if they see a grizzly, to keep their distance, to travel in groups, and along back country trails to carry pepper spray to ward off the animals. the attack occurred in this part of yellowstone near canyon village. a man and his wife were hiking when they spotted the grizzly and began to back away. >> at some point, they then saw that the bear was coming at them. the husband told the wife that she should run. the bear attacked the man, and he was fatally injured. >> reporter: the area of the attack has been placed off limits for now. rangers say they believe the bear was a female, defending her cubs. if the investigation shows that was the case, the bear and her cubs will be left alone. park officials have not released the names of the couple. after the bear mauled the man, the animal went after his wife, who was lying down, playing dead. >> she was wearing a backpack of sorts, a day pack. and the bear grabbed her in some fashion, lifted her up off the ground, and dropped her. and then ran off. >> reporter:

george lewis reports on the recovery. >> reporter: exxonmobil expanded its cleanup effort putting morel as the giant oil company tries to figure out what went wrong with its pipeline. >> i can't speculate on what caused this. it was a very big surprise to us. >> reporter: the roaring floodwaters have sent a lot of trees like this big cottonwood crashing into the river. one theory is soil eroded. montana governor toured the spill area observing the cleanup and promission landowners that he'll keep after exxonmobil to get rid of the oil. >> this clean up is done when the state of montana sauce it's done nobody else. i promise you this. i'll personally be on this until smell on skunk until it's done. >> got a mile of river frontage. >> reporter: bob showed us his flooded home. his land wreaking of crude oil. >> it was a dream home. we wanted to stay here forever. >> reporter: the house will be torn down. they will have to rebuild on higher ground. the oil stain is the high watermark from the flooding. bob said he was shocked the night he first looked out at the smelly water surrounding hi

george lewis has this report from laurel. >> reporter: exxon says it's got more than 200 people working 42,000 gallons worth were released into the yellowstone river, enough oil to fill five tanker trucks. >> i want to personally apologize to all those people affected by this. >> reporter: workers are putting up 40,000 feet of protective boom to keep the oil from fouling the river bank. >> we're not worried about how many dollars we're spending. we're worried about getting in and responding to the damage and making sure we can clean up. >> reporter: officials speculate that strong flood waters on the yellowstone river may have slammed debris into the pipeline rupturing it and causing the spill. >> i didn't find out about the spill until i walked down here and smelled it. >> reporter: as we talked to the landowner, a helicopter flew over head surveying the damage. >> they think this is how they're going to find the oil, they have to send people on foot down the river. >> reporter: many people who live and farm along the river bank worry about the long term effects. >> we don't know what'

nbc's george lewis is there this morning. george, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. we're at yosemite falls. the search is being concentrated where two men and a woman plunged 300 feet. so far in the search, no survivors and no bodies. yosemite's many waterfalls are putting on a spectacular show this summer, swollen by runoff from record winter snowfall. >> this year the yosemite national park area received 199% of normal snow pack. what that leads us to is high water. >> reporter: it also led to tragedy when some hikers decided to dip their feet in the water at the top of vernal fall. >> it was just -- it was just -- i was shocked. i mean, to see people fall from that high and the current. >> reporter: news anchor faith sidlow of nbc station ksee in fresno, california, says one of her friends saw the two men and a woman fall. >> my friends said that there were so many people who were up there that saw this happen, and all of them, men, women, everybody was crying. >> reporter: the river currents below all the

nbc's george lewis is there this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning to you, matt. it was a traumatic experience for family members and friends watching the three victims disappear into the waterfall and down to the rapids below. park officials say it was a tragic chain reaction, a dozen or so people had entered the river above vernal fall posing for pick thes urs. denise garcia watched it unfold. >> they started jumping from rock to rock. when the guy jumped from one rock to the other rock, he slipped and he slipped and started going down and then the girl, she started slipping and so the guy that was taking the pictures put the camera down and went after them and they all three went over the waterfall. >> to go over the precipice at vernal fall is not survivable and so they are presumed dead at this time. we have not recovered their bodies. >> reporter: and it's unlikely the bodies will be recovered for some time as the rushing water fed by heavy snow runoff is simply too dangerous for search and rescue divers. the victims have been identified as 22-year-old hormi

nbc's george lewis is in laurel, montana, with the very latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, natalie. you can see those rising floodwaters behind me. yesterday it was down by where that white containment boom is. today it's risen a foot or so and deposited a new slick of oil along the river bank. exxonmobil says there are about 280 people involved in the clean-up effort. they'll be back today in force. meanwhile the governor of montana plans to visit today to look at the clean-up effort. and property owners here are rather angry. they want answers. they want to know from exxonmobil and from government officials how long it's going to take to clean up this mess. how widespread will it be? what sort of lasting effects can be expected? and also, what sort of compensation might they receive to make them whole? natalie. >> george lewis in laurel, montana, thank you. >>> dominique strauss-khan may face a new sexual assault case in france. a french novelist is accusing him of attempting to rape her back in 2002. strauss-khan says he will file

. >>> parts of yellowstone nbc's george lewis is at yellowstone with details this morning. george? >> reporter: good morning, david. yeah, most of the major attractions in the park are open to visitors today as rangers continue their investigation. until now, nobody had been killed by a bear inside yell oosteoin a quarter of a century, though bear attacked outside the park claimed two lives last year. rangers are warning people if they see a grizzly to keep their distance, to travel in groups, and along back country trails, to carry pepper spray to ward off the animals. the attack occurred in this part of yell osteen near canyon village. a man and his wife were hiking when they spotted the grizzly and began to back away. >> at some point they then saw that the bear was coming at them. the husband told the wife that she should run. the bear attacked the man and he was fatally injured. >> reporter: the area of the attack has been placed off-limits for now. ranger say they believe the bear was a female defending her cubs. if the investigation shows that was the case, the bear and her

george lewis is near billings, montana with the latest. george, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, amy. you pick a bunch of weeds at the river bank and end up with a handful of crude. there are 50 workers on the scene to examine the area affected by the spill. containment booms dock the banks of the yellowstone river in montana. a mobile pipeline ruptured before midnight on friday. >> we apologize for the inconvenience this is causing all the people in montana. >> reporter: the spill is 150 miles northeast of yellowstone national park. in the town of laurel, montana. the water, flowing away from yellowstone park carried it past the city of billings. they restored water to billings early saturday. xan officials assessing the oil from the air say the ground is safe. >> we began quality and we have not found anything being a danger to the public. >> images of wildlife are prompting advocate si groups. >> regulators need to be evaluating areas that we can't afford to have spills and creating a level of oversight in safety in those areas.

distinguished group of people who have served as head of the state department policy planning staff, george cannon, sam lewis, winston lord, robert, dennis ross, people who have a passion for public service. let's begin with the questions. and international that was a wonderful overview. maybe this question is too specific and not general enough. but you began by saying, you know, how do we get to be denmark? and there's now open -- a big -- a divide opening between england and us. and your -- their vision of the state involves a lot more state responsibility to take care of retirement, to organize health, and we seem to be going in exactly the other direction. is theringe something in your theory that speaks to that? >> you got to wait for volume ii for that one. no, it's a good question. it is a volume ii kind of issue. but, you know, i -- most of what i know about the subject, i learned from seymour martin the great sociologist and political scientist who wrote an excellent book called american exceptionalism. which is a book about why the united states is so peculiar when you compare it to other develope

george diller's voice. maybe even by accident. he's the person who counts down the launch and then says "liftoff." now just like the shuttle program itself, he's retiring. wjxx reporter lewis has the story. >> reporter: george diller is just as much a part of the shuttle program as the countdown clock. >> this clock has actually been declared a historical artifact. >> reporter: unlike the clock, you won't recognize his face. >> t minus two minutes and counting. >> reporter: that's just flashing lights until george takes over. >> four, three, two -- zero. >> before at i had actually been a reporter, radio reporter from the tampa bay aa. covered the space program over here for about five years. and really fell in love with nasa and the space program. >> reporter: the job opened up for diller in 1978. it was ten years later that he did his first-ever shuttle play by play. >> there's a lot of concentration. you don't have enough time to be nervous about it. t minus 6.6 seconds, the main engines ignite. here i'm doing the last one which will certainly be a highlight. >> reporter: every good highlight needs the perfect call. >> everybody wants to knkn what your liftoff line is.

george washington moving west. what is interesting about it is the image of lewis and clark here is in black and white, something that is occurring in the future, painted as though it was in the past. what is interesting about it is the very obvious conclusion of slavery. the number of students were expressing unease around some of the themes. the additional mural would be placed in the school, one with more positive representation of the student body. in 1974, they completed three panels that were placed in the library -- in the lobby. they depict native, latino, asian american, and african- american heritage and culture. >> that artist was talking about the history coming alive. that is what we want for the students here. i also think they might share that with past alumni and the community, so they could no the treasure that we have here in the schools. many people have the same experience i did when i first walked into this building three years ago, being the new principal. the grandeur of these murals is fantastic. many of the students who have come here have come here and are very proud of these murals. they're

gripping british open where twenty year old english amateur tom lewis has filed a record equalling five under par sixty five to take a george one shot lead with thomas bjorn the danish self and cast aside memories of his two thousand and three meltdown at the major he was denied the last time it came to this english course eight years ago bjorn blew a three shot lead with bottles of play here but he a re some of those painful memories with a fine round i thought he wanted a role they only knew on monday that he was playing at the event after the withdrawal of b.j. singh and he went on to take the early lead by a strike from last month and got him an f the spaniard play flawless golf sinking birdies at the fourth ninth twelfth and seventeenth holes however the galleries erupted after dustin johnson reached the past three sixteenth's having been four over at the twelfth the american sign a hole in one i mean a string of birdies and it was day that's even par. u.s. open champion and the favorite rory mcilroy finished at one i will call the northern irishman whose bidding to become the youngest open champion since eighty ninety

george anthony the defense is trying to implicate in this death of caylee. phil keating has been following this case from the beginning. he follows us from outside the court lewis no orlando. you got to see the jury's reaction to this lengthy rebuttal. how were they reacting? >> the jury is focused and paying detailed attention this morning as they were all day yesterday. there was some fatigue apparent yesterday evening. the judge saw that. that's why they broke last night to have the final bit of the closing argument today. typically the judge wants to keep it all in one day, the closing arguments. each side gets four hours. that means roughly an hour and a half remain for the prosecution here to present their closing arguments this morning. again, casey anthony, the defendant within looking down. not looking up at the tv man towards at real crime scene photographs of daughter's skull and bones were found in the woods,etailing the lack of decomposition. while yesterday jose baez called the prosecution's case forensic fantasy. jeff sash on in a stinging section of his speech this morning prefewed that just like this. >> on that we agree. that duct tape on cayl

george washington moving west. what is interesting about it is the image of lewis and clark here is in black and white, something that is occurring in the future, painted as though it was in the past. what is interesting about it is the very obvious conclusion of slavery. the number of students were expressing unease around some of the themes. the additional mural would be