lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. >> okay, permission to go wild. that's our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. >>> good evening,thank you for joining us on this tuesday. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. not if, but when. the ntsb slamming pg & e saying the rupture in san bruno represented a multitude of mistakes. >> the ntsb claiming that it was a cyst mat systematic failure, live team coverage beginning

lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. >> now as you might imagine, a lot of our viewers have shown their own generosity to rachel's charity. if you wish to do so, you can link to it via our website tonight, that's nightly.msnbc.com. that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you as always for being here with us. i'm brian williams and we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> right now, developing news as a hotel standoff disrupts the evening commute. >>> and for the second time in four days, b.a.r.t. becomes the victim of hackers, but this time it involves b.a.r.t. police officers, their families and their safety. >>> and phillip and nancy garrido are questioned about another high profile kidnapping in the bay area. the news at 6:00 starts right now.

lee cowan, nbc news, venice beach, california. >>> that's "nbc nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt. reporting from new york. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today," then right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> good saturday evening, i'm diane dwyer. the coast guard is asking for the public's help tonight in finding a

nbc's lee cowan is in blisteringly hot phoenix, arizona, tonight, with more. >> reporter: phoenix knows hot. but with a predicted high of 115 today, even the desert loving ostriches at the zoo had to be hosed down. >> i lived here my whole life and even for me it gets hotter and hotter every summer. >> reporter: arizona joins at least 17 other states today that topped the century mark. 12 are in excessive heat warning tonight, all putting a drain on power grids burning up from overuse. >> drinking close to 90 ounces of water a day. a lot. >> reporter: the suffering was everywhere. in dallas, the heat wave logged its 33rd day in a row with temperatures over 100. >> it feels like the worst one so far. i've been here 15 years. >> reporter: but misery over the mercury is more than just a physical discomfort here in arizona and texas and oklahoma. it is just contributing to one of the worst droughts since the 1950s. >> nothing can grow. everything is dying on the vine, in the fields, and ranchers are setting their cattle to market early because they don't have enough grain and water to feed

lee cowan, nbc news, hollywood. >>> that's our broadcast for this friday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in tonight for brian. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and right back here tomorrow evening. good night, everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> happening right now, a first in history for the u.s. credit rating. a major downgrade. good evening, everyone, i'm j jenelle wang. >> we learned standard & poor downgraded the u.s. credit rating from aaa held by the u.s. over 70 years to a aa-plus. scott budman is here with the breakdown. first time in history we're talking about. there have been warnings this could happen. what does this aa-plus mean to you and

lee cowan, nbc news, tucson. >>> and that's our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com an innocent bystander. new details about garrido's history of luring young girls even after they kidnapped jaycee dugard. >>> i'm jodi hernandez in west oakland where neighbors are firing up the grill in the name. we'll take to you the national night out festivities coming up.

lee cowan, nbc news, venice beach, california. >> nbc there. >>> highway 1 ow 1 is due to be shut down for several days on the peninsula so crews can paint a new bike and pedestrian over-crossing. the northbound lanes of 101 in and nt between ralstoncc1: to 4:00 a.m. and the southbound lanes in the same area between th between and 18cc1: 1:00 and 4:30 a.m. around?way to get cc1: el cami el cami el camino real. >>> if you were driving around the peninsula, you may have been stuck in traffic. that's because more than 1,000 bicyclists hit the road in the tour de peninsula. it ended in coyote park where there was a festival. it's designed to raise money for the san francisco county parks foundation. and while the cool weather along the peninsula may have felt good, if you were riding a bike perhaps, tourists in san francisco were shivering a bit, do you like this this weather? >> i do. she don't. i do. >> it's okay. it it's like home in the cc1: wintertime. >> that's classic san francisco summer weather. people were bundled p up in jackets and scarves there. most of the tourists agreed it'

lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. >> and we are back with more right after this. >>> i can't imagine who would do this, but it turns out a number of you are fakers. our friends at pew research have found 13% of cell phone owners pretend to use their phone to avoid interacting with people. when you see them, they may be talking, but there's nobody there. >>> while we want to assure you right now you're in no danger, in fact, you're doing a good thing right now and will be richer for the experience, watching a lot of television shortens your lifespan, at least that's the conclusion of a big new study out of australia that says for each hour of tv you watch over the age of 25, it takes 22 minutes off your life at the end of life. put another way, one researcher said this puts tv in the same category as smoking and obesity. it can speed up a premature death by five years if you're a dedicated tv viewer, which must be why i never make plans for the weekend. >>> big jim thome hit number 600 last night. he joins the club now of a-rod, bonds, mays, griffey, sosa, ruth and aaron. he is just t

lee cowan is in phoenix with more. >> reporter: well, certainly people here are used to the heat in arizonae desert, after all. even here, the heat is getting a little excessive. there's an excessive heat warning in effect for arizona as well as at least 12 other states today as the nation's heat wave enters its second deadly month. it's been on the football field where the heat is taking its most obvious toll of late. they're practicing now before sun-up in georgia after a team collapsed on the field this week and later died. >> this is serious stuff. i'm glad the coaches are taking the necessary steps of taking care of the safety of the kids. >> reporter: across the country, dozens of lives have been claimed by temperatures hovering in the triple digits for weeks now, putting record-breaking strains on the nation's electric power grid. in texas, wichita falls has had 43 days in a row of temps over the century mark. in dallas, it's been 33 straight days. there's no end in sight. >> it feels like the worst one so far. i've been here 15 years. >> reporter: in little rock, arkansas, the high

i know that lee cowan our friends and colleague is going to be reporting from sue son on "nbc nightly news" tonight with you. we will hear the responses there's a lot of joy in arizona. thank you, brian williams, we will see you throughout the day. and now to david gregory. of course the host of "meet the press." david, you've been watching all of these goings on for so long. the last 24 hours has just been an emotional roller coaster. >> i just think that's striking to bill on what brian is saying there's no break here. crisis averted and now we're on to more fighting. the president really laid it out. i was reminded of the president's remarks back in april when the government shut down was averted the president appeared with washington monument behind him and he visited the lincoln memorial, the jefferson memorial later that day and met with kids. he said this is a good thing. the leaders compromised and washington did a good thing. first of all it was debatable it was a good thing then. and certainly here there's no sense we all came together. this wasn't so much compromise as some

nbc's lee cowan is there right now, fortunately in the same shirt he's been in today. i'm trusting you're hiding in the shade between live shots, because it's a hot one again. >> it's going to be another hot one, although, you know, a bit of a cooling trend, if you can call this a cooling trend. the high yesterday was predicted to be 115. today it's only 111, so -- >> it's a cool-off. >> reporter: to put this all in some sort of perspective. but you know what it's like out here. people are used to the heat out here in the desert, but even here it's getting excessive, so much so that arizona is under excessive heat warnings, as well as at least a dozen other states today as the nation's heat wave enters a second deadly month. it's been on the football field, where the heat is taking its most obvious toll of late. they're practicing now before sunup in georgia after a teen collapsed on the field this week and later died. >> this is serious stuff, and i'm glad the coaches are taking the necessary steps of taking care of the safety of the kids. >> reporter: across the coun

. >> i want to mention you just heard in lee cowan's report that you were a friend of speedy peterson we all reported last week took his own life last week. any thoughts you want to add to this. >> >> my condolences go out to everybody who knew him. he was an amazing human being and amazed so many people. i think this experience really has taught me that and it's so important to believe in yourself and to be confident and i think every experience makes you more experienced for the future. and this is definitely a life lesson that i have learned. to really just show that you can -- you can get through most anything if you believe in yourself. and that's kind of what i have taken away from this, is you just can never doubt yourself and just be strong a. strong and confident woman and human being and that's what i think is greater lesson in all of this. >> it's a lesson. we thank you for sharing. >> thank you for having me. >> inspiring the rest of us. >> it was wonderful. thank you. >> thank you. nice to meet you. >>> now let's get a check of the weather. the weather channel's stephanie