i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

i'm lester holt reporting from new york. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. everyone. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it's been a dream of mine to restore it. and it's my dream for him to finish it. frank has something great to save up for. this is my dad. isn't that cool? and a very understanding girlfriend. i showed him a wells fargo savings account with my savings plan. [ frank ] and what it does is it takes a little bit of my money

lester? >> mike viqueira, thanks. >>> tens of thousands of people took to the streets in london today as pope benedict continued his historic visit to the united kingdom. the crowds included the faithful as well as those protesting the child abuse scandal that has rocked the church in recent years. today, the pope addressed that scandal directly. nbc's nina desantos reports. >> reporter: at a mass in london, pope benedict made his strongest statement yet on the child abuse scandal that has dogged his papacy and shaken the catholic church. >> above all i express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes. >> reporter: the pope rarely looked up from his prepared text but his message was clear and his words powerful. >> i also acknowledge with you the shame and humiliation which all of us have suffered. >> reporter: outside, 2,000 young catholics who had traveled from far and wide to hear his voice. young people are at the heart of the scandal. over the years it's alleged

>> good morning, lester. >> let me get your thoughts how the white house is going to walk this pretty narrow tightrope here with how to use the first lady. how do you suppose they'll do this and still allow her to maintain somewhat of a bipartisan image? >> well, i think they'll do it carefully, as mike suggested, and use her in districts where she can make a real difference. i think that will be an important piece for her as well. she's not going to come in with an overly politicized message. i think she's going to stress and try to reinforce some of the things that she's been working on. this would be a popular surrogate making the case for the democratic agenda and to try to point out the contrast. i don't know that she brings anything specific, other than her popularity. that's something that democrats could use right now. >> it's hard to believe that many of the democrats running for office wouldn't want the president himself there. what's the problem there? >> let's remember, you go back two election cy

good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. with democrats facing big losses this fall p-esident obama has issue aid plea to the grassroots program to get involved in the fall campaign. this is a new controversy involving a republican candidate threatened to widen the rift within the gop. the first family today leaving the white house and walking to church on a quiet sunday morning. it was a brief moment of calm on what has become a desperate campaign season for democrats. >> i need you because this isn't going to be easy. >> reporter: fearing a lack of enthusiasm and with democratic control of congress in doubt, last night the president delivered an urgent appeal to his party's base. >> i need everybody to go back to yourneighborhoods, go back to your worlaces and churches and the barbershops and the beauty shops and tell them we've got more work to do. >> reporter: told colin powell offered the president on h advice. >> go right after the single issue uppermost in the minds of the american people, and that's employment. >> re

i'm lester holt. >> and i'm amy robach. we're all certainly glad to have you back in the seat this morning. >> i'm glad to be here. i went east a little bit. so i'm wide awake. >> that's good. >> it's good to be back. we've got a lot to tell you about this morning. for sarah palin the big question people have been asking, will she or won't she run for president? but when you go to iowa a couple years before the election, that starts the talk all over again. it was the important state of iowa, palin spoke at a major republican gathering last night. that only heightened speculation about a possible run in 2012. we'll look at the possibilities in just a few minutes. >> all right. and then plenty of stormy weather, especially while you were gone. after hurricane karl swept onto the gulf coast of mexico friday we're now watching hurricane igor as it gains power in the atlantic. forecasters say it is on a track to hit bermuda hard tomorrow. we will have the latest coming up. >> plus we have an extraordinary story about a young mo

lester. >> an inspiring story. thank you very much, and thanks for the fine folks joining us here on learning plaza tonight. we appreciate them stopping by. when we continue on "nightly news," the fight to get back to school in a war zone when the classroom is right on the front lines. [ male announcer ] you can't un-smoke a cigarette. and you can't go back and un-do the times you tried quitting... ♪ ...then started again. but every smoker was a non-smoker once. and you could be again. for manyissmg in a treatable medical condition. so talk to your doctor about prescription treatment options and support. and make this time, your time. about prescription treatment options and support. words alone aren't enough. my job is to listen to the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken for the clean up in the gulf and that includes g keinepyou informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with

. >> and i'm lester holt. the two of us are sitting here together, it means one thing, it's a monday holiday. we're laboring away. matt and meredith will be back tomorrow. always good to be with you. >> the "b" team. no, we're the "a" team. >> b-plus. anyway, this time last week, of course, we were watching tropical storm and then hurricane earl made a real close pass to the east coast and now we're looking back in the gulf there is a new storm to worry about today. >> that's right. it's tropical storm hermine which formed in the gulf of mexico overnight. it's the eighth named storm of the season. tropical storm warnings have been posted already for northern mexico and south texas, which could get hit with severe flash flooding. we're going to get the very latest on the track of the storm in just a moment. >>> then, it has happened again. another woman has had acid thrown in her face, the second time in less than a week. this time the attack occurred in arizona. once again, it was another woman who did it. was

lester. >> anne thompson in louisiana tonight. thank you. >>> in washington and across the country this labor day weekend, the battle lines are drawn for the midterm elections this november. the battleground is the economy and more than a little political power is up for grabs. we're at the white house tonight with more. >> reporter: good evening, lester. that political battle is joined. with control of congress at stake and some predicting a gop take-over the house and even the senate, the white house is pulling out all the stops, even deploying a not so secret weapon. returning from two days at camp david, president obama stepped off marine one and into an all-out political fight. >> i think if we voted tomorrow, we would do very well. >> reporter: republicans sense victory in november and today attacked the president and his party. >> he's governed from the left ditch. he turned his agenda over to the liberals in the house, and here we are a few months before the election and it's all caught up with him. >> reporter: the number

lester holt starting off our coverage tonight. lester, thanks. this new documentary, "waiting for superman" has been getting a great deal of attention in the last few days and weeks thanks in no small part to one of its stars. jeffrey canada is a long-time educator, started out as a classroom teacher. the days he's ceo of the harlem children's zone, whose public charter schools educate kids really from birthright through college. you're nice to join . last night, you spoke in terms of the nation, almost in terms of national security. >> you know, this is the problem we he, brian. we're the only remaining superpower in the world and we're moving towards a third world education system for our kids. the two things don't equate. i see people and they're trying to hold onto the status quo, they're acting like the kids are doing great. we're not in the top ten, not even in the top 20 anymore and this is a crisis for this nation. we need to do something dramatic to change this. simply pretending that we can keep doing what failed for 10, 20, 30 years to

lester? >> thank you. >>> now, here's jenna. >> thanks. >>> hurricane igor is taking aim at bermuda and is expected to hit later today. jim cantore joins us. good morning. >> reporter: we have begun at least a 36-hour period of what is going to be tropical storm-force winds, maximized tonight with hurricane-force winds probably around the midnight hour as we deal with very, very strong, we think, power outages. they are already beginning to roll in. we have approximately 4,000 people without power on the island and we haven't gotten to the worst part of the storm yet. we have gusted to 51 miles per hour at the airport. most of the outages are in the southern province. trees and power lines are beginning to fail and it will only get worse. the biggest issue we have seen has been the beach erosion. there are cuts on the beaches with massive waves you see created in the way when the igor was a four that have created beach erosion. now there are just rocks showing. we'll be in for a beating, but

i'm lester holt. normally we would be starting over there at home base, but today we are starting outside. come with me. for weeks we have been telling you about an nbc news initiative called education nation and we are getting started today. education nation is essentially the beginning of a conversation about the state, the status of education in this country right now. our goal is to inspire, to enlighten, to listen, possibly provoke as we try to figure out how our children are learning and why, in some cases, they are failing. why some kids are being left behind in our system. whether or not you have a child in school right now or not, this matters to you. the president of the united states recently said it's an economic issue. how our children are learning. the conversation will be taking place at a place we call education nation learning plaza. it's just across the street from our studio. there it is. that's where we find my colleague jenna wolfe. >> here we are at education plaza. we converted

lesters program. everybody talks about robust and adaptive. i will tell you the programs we invest in, we'll get fired if we under invest the point of the matter is we have to invest in something. we filled our first waste water plant. you build one that sat there waiting for the population you would get fired and that thes terminology we have to use. we invest the things to day that become the solution for tomorrow and the state has the resources now and probably in about a year or a year and a half we can't do more studies we have to move on action steps not only for the global warming but the endangers species questions nor owe and we can make those decisions and i don't fear them because i think we have good enough engineers and solutions and coupled with what lester concluded with, we have to get a level on thecs 2 gas emissions. i don't care if people are worried about global warming or not. you can get them into arguments. while we're doing some thing about it it's going to be more volatile and cause problems. what am i doing? i started

lester? time yesterday, watching that radar satellite image, and it looked like it was going to be a direct hit. they took it seriously, in terms of preparations. did a lot of people go into the shelters? >> reporter: not a lot of people ended up going to the shelters. for the first time the red cross and sl vation army had set up a number of shelters, able to take as many as 10,000 people because a lot of people, residents and vacationers on the labor day weekend, ended up staying here, hunkering down, and they did take it seriously. in the end, fewer than 100 hadded to take cover. >> we're all happy everyone is safe. michelle franzen, thank you. >>> the weather channel's mike seidel in montak, new york, with dangerous waters. >> reporter: good morning. once again, another beautiful day, the sun is back out, much like cape cod. the memory lingers from earl. let me show you what i'm talking about. beach erosion, the major impact. this dune line was here. you can see how much sand has been pus

now back to lester and amy. my dad would have been thrilled to hear this. >> should have dvr'd it. >> he's so behind the times. >> not only was he too nervous, he went to europe. >> that's a fan. tamron hall, thank you.  >> bill cairns is here with a check of the weather. >>> first fall weekend. we had record heat yesterday in d.c., 99 degrees yesterday. one more warm day today on the east coast and changes for sunday. look at los angeles, 99 in phoenix. 105. so the heat wave shifts to the west coast. that's a temperatures in the 70s this morning. everything is coming through rain free for the time being so we will see some sun >>> that's your saturday forecast. lester? >>> bill, thanks. still to come on "today," caught on tape. two girls fighting it out. why one mom was arrested. first this is "today" on nbc. >>> fighting is certainly not uncommon among teenagers, but in florida a fight between two teenaged girls caught on tape took on a whole new dimension. kerry sanders has more. >> go for the head shot! >>

now back to lester and amy. my dad would have been thrilled to hear this. >> should have dvr'd it. >> he's so behind the times. >> not only was he too nervous, he went to europe. >> that's a fan. tamron hall, thank you.  >> bill cairns is here with a check of the weather. >>> first fall weekend. we had record heat yesterday in d.c., 99 degrees yesterday. one more warm day today on the east coast and changes for sunday. look at los angeles, 99 in phoenix. 105. so the heat wave shifts to the west coast. that's a loo >>> good saturday morning to you. you talk about the heat over the west coast, we are starting off the morning in the 50s and in the 60s. it is going to be a hot one today, hot and most places are in the 90s, including some of our bayside community, red wood city, 94 degrees, some 90s for concord, right over to morgan hill, sonoma and napa county. 85 at the beaches, mitt and upper 70s. still hot right through this week. >>> that's your saturday forecast. lester? >>> bill, thanks. still to come on "to

i'm lester holt. >> i'm amy robach. a lot of people may have thought they were watchg "the colbert report." actually, no, it was a real subcommittee hearing in congress. >> i have to tell you. i didn't know whether to laugh out loud or cringe bause it was awkward at times. colbert not the first celebrity to testify before congress, but nobody had seen anything like this before. >> that's right. democrats brought in the comedian to a hearing friday to help make the case for a bill to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but not everyone thought it was funny. >> many people think it is always political theater. >>> mothers are to be cheerleaders for their kids, but this was the scene in florida as two 16-year-old girls fought it out over a boy and one of the moms was on the sidelis cheering her daughter on. that landed her in jail on a charge of child abuse. we're going to have details coming up. >>> plus an azing medical story. four years ago dr. richard edward lost the use of his hands in a brush fire

here's lester. >> to politics now. not all of the focus these days is on the november mid-term election. the run-up to the 2012 presidential campaign is also beginning to build. >> we're not just excited about november, we're excited about 2012. >> traditionally, this is the time we start to read the tea leaves. the value voters picked indiana congressman mike pence. sarah palin finished fifth. she has all the buzz. what if anything should we read from this it vote with regard to the republican base? >> not too much. it's a snapshot and narrow snapshot. sarah palin wasn't even there. she was in iowa at the ronald reagan dinner. interesting as well if you look at that straw poll. they looked at sarah palin more. still questions about sarah palin's viability at the top of the republican ticket. no denying she is a huge force within the republican party. >>> candidates who would mobilize behind her potentially. most americans did not think she was qualified for the job. she would have more work to do, certainly in the par

then what would be great, lester , is for the state,dwr, is match the collection of the different agencies. [applause] we are willing to volunteer. we are willing to volunteer our staff of the san francisco, puc, is willing to be the group that convenes the different communications heads. all of you have public relations people or head of external affairs, and we'd be willing to pull together that committee of different communication heads of different agencys to see about getting and energy gaming public outreach. any of us going to do heavy lifting with planning, legislation, we have to get the public to buy in and say, that's right way to spend our money, and yes, i will make that tough decision about conservation. i'll get off my soap box now but i hope you join me and e-mail and say, we're in. >> susan, i urge you to say what they can do about it's a well. not just how serious it is people are looking for that. and i'm sure you meant that but i wanted to add that. >> we have one response here and then we'll go to the floor. >> i just wanted to follow the very important point about edu

him lester rain however, and your probably really sick of hearing that, so, next slide. what i'm going to do is talk a little bit about - not the science or impact which i've worked with quite a bit - but rather resources for managers to try and close some of the discussions. you heard this and this is a conclusion from years back from the water assessment approach. the people are chaning. and it's effecting society and water sources are now unavoidable. again 7 years back, and by no means i went back to my records and congress don edwards some of you may remember, held a hearing in 1987 on impacts of climate change on san francisco bay area and that was years back but it's getting a lot of attention but not a new issue. this graph could be temperature over time or green house gas over time. population. but what it is, actually is the number of publications scientific publication addressing climate change and water resources globally from 1950 up until the present and mike is still here. he was the lead author on this article it came out in the journal of climate change,

>>lester: i personally believe there's enough regulation in the equity markets as there is! in terms of high frequency trading, they're a natural force, they... we think add positively to the market,don't exacerbate volatility, and are not there to be regulated out. >>carjat: hfts are generally good for the market liquidity. what they are doing is that essentiallythey are bringing that sort of efficient market theory into a reality. >>reporter: however it is regulated high frequency trading is here to stay and as technology continues to develop will no doubt become faster and even more efficient. >>misra: there's been comments out there about "are we going too fast? should we slow systems down in some way?" actually that over turns mores law which means every few years the price of technologyhalves and the capacity doubles. and if we look at technological advancement and human advancement,that flies in the face of that and if we took that approach of just slowing technology down i thinkwe'd all be living in caves again. >>todd: the level of sophistication in algo trading and

lester has the day off. another about face from iran on the fate of american hiker held on espionage charges more than a year. >> a senior iranian prosecutor says a $500,000 bail has been set for american sarah shourd for her conditional release. we're going to bring you the very latest on that story in a few minutes. >> then to san bruno, california, where investigators remain on the scene of thursday's deadly gas explosion. some news this morning the death toll has risen, as search crews continue to look for those missing and those unaccountable for. >> and then on a lighter note we're going to switch gears literally and talk milwaukee iron. it's been a staple in wisconsin for more than 100 years and now the iconic motorcycle machine harley-davidson might be moving on amid a labor dispute. we'll find out if the city's iconic days are numbered. >>> we'll talk about oprah's big farewell, her 25th and final season kicks off this week. the queen of daytime is promising a good-bye to remember. we'll take a look

. >> program leaders said lester 65% of the participants said3 participating in the challenge. of bedbugs cropping up in frederick county. frederick county public library is temporary close. the urbana library was closed after spotting them in a ball. -- spotting them in a book. >>> coming up on abc7 news at noon, a neáqá of stars takes to the day of singapore. phome? day of singapore. -- a new set of stars takes to the dance floor. later today, jon stewart on host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance? did the little piggy cry wee wee wee all the way home? piggy: weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeee weeeeeeee. mom: max. ...maxwell! piggy: yeah? mom: you're home. piggy: oh,cool, thanks mrs. a. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. >> jennifer grey led the way on last night's season premiere of "dancing with the stars." they took first place. o a lot more listening to max if we get voted for this week. i really mean it. >> mike the situation and david hasseloff tied for last. >>> now we have something for you from 7 on your side. r

and a bus driver from lester is having one inserted in a clogged artery. the procedure itself is routine. guided by x-rays, doctors insert a catheter into the heart. about 85 heart patients have permanent metal stints inserted. they are introduced on a wire and inflated with a balloon. this is made from a corn starch polymer. leaving the artery able to flex and move. this is now in place in the artery. in about a year, it will begin to dissolve, turning carbon dioxide and water as it's absorbed in the body >> just tell me, how are you feeling? >> i am feeling better now. >> an international trial of the biodegradable stint is under wait. it will take several years before the full results are known. the cardiologist is optimistic. >> the stint will dissolve when it's no longer needed. we are able to stint the patient. deliver the drug to stop the recurrence. after 2, 3 years. artery should be back to normal. it's very exciting. >> exciting too for the patient who until now, suffered severe angina. >> one place to another place. changing over. it used to hur

and we have got a lot more coming up, we have got two great people sitting with us, we have got lester and melissa, bride-to-be may want to listen to a few wedding day tips. bobby brown is here with techniques to help you show that youthful glow. it's about feeling good inside because that's what you project outside. >> we try to limit dessert when it comes to our kids. this morning we have got three healthy recipes your kids can dive right into without all the guilt and basically make a couple of switches to healthier ingredients, so it's the same stuff they love, just made a little bit differently. >>> also coming up, i'm real excited because i have seen a movie it's called "mel's last dance." this is one of the best movies i have over seen, it's about this young man who grew up in terrible poverty, because of great teachers became one of china's best ballet dancers and we got t when he got the chance to come to america and learn and get a scholarship, he faceded ed a re struggle because he had fallen in love and didn't want to leave. it was a very dramatic, dramatic story. the real

this bus driver from lester is having one implanted -- leiscester is having one implanted. guided by x-rays, doctors insert it in the heart. up to 1000 patients in britain have permanent implants inserted. they are introduced on a wire and inflated with a balloon. but this stent is made with of cornstarch polymer. over time, crucially, it dissolves, leaving the artery. the scaffold is now in place and in the artery. in about a year, it will dissolve, as it is gradually absorbed. it is all done under a local anesthetic. >> tell me, how are you feeling? >> [unintelligible] >> an international trial of the stent is underway. it will take several years before the full results are known. but cardiologists here are optimistic. >> i think this thing now, today, the future -- we will be able to stent the patient, and at the same time, after two to three years, it will dissolve. >> exciting, too, for the patient, who until now suffered severe angina. >> changing over -- it used to really hurt me in my heart. >> in future, he is planning to do a lot more exercise to look after his he

public engage meant so, what i'd like to do right now is say, let's follow up on the comment that lester snow made about getting a communications plan going. one of the things to kick that off today i'd like to say the san francisco public utilities commission will be able to pledge one hundred thousand. my budget, well we have one vote but i think we can get unanimous support for that. but get a hundred thousand for our agency and what i'd like to do is see some west coast and east coast for