lisa myers, nbc news, washington. >> now to electoral politics tonight. democrats lost special elections in new york and nevada last night. in new york anthony wiener's old congressional seat went to republican newcomer bob turner, a retired television executive who created the jerry springer show. he beat democratic state assemblyman david wepran. mark amade defeated kate marshall. up in massachusetts, elizabeth warren who set up the consumer financial protection bureau kicked off her campaign for u.s. senate in south boston today greeting commuters at a train stop. warren is a harvard professor, long-time advocate for the middle class. she gained a reputation as wall street's nemesis after the financial meltdown and faces a crowded democratic primary field on the way to challenging republican senator scott brown. nbc's kelly o'donnell has been watching all of this and is with us from capitol hill. kelly, on the congressional races, the party that loses the seats always says, well, this was just a local election. the party that gains them says, well, it

correspondent lisa myers looks at what they're doing with the money and what they have to show for ithow it's changing our education nation. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> reporter: morning at one of two small innovative high schools opened this month. the most tangible result of the new money. the bard high school early college offers advanced instruction. graduates will also have earned a two-year college degree. >> they want me to do better for myself. they have high expectations. >> reporter: the new newark bridges high school offers individual attention for failing students and dropouts. like anaya herald, who came to register with her mother and 2-year-old son. >> i decided to come back, because i noticed that without education, there's nothing. >> reporter: her mom yolanda said was overwhelmed by zuckerberg's gift. >> i would like to say thank you for giving newark a second chance. >> reporter: cami anderson is superintendent of schools. so far, what has this zuckerberg money enabled you to do? >> it's absolutely given us a chance to innovate more quickly. >> reporter: th

lisa myers, nbc news, washington. >>> when we come back, it's her last best hope of winning freedom. tonight, final arguments in the appeal case of amanda knox. >>> and testimony from the paramedics who tried to revive michael jackson. later, an incredible rescue. the family that refused to give up. nisn't wasteful spending. [ woman ] my heart medication isn't some political game. [ man ] our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. [ man ] and i earned my social security. [ woman ] now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits? that wasn't the agreement. [ male announcer ] join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ i know what works differently than many other allergy medications. omnaris. omnaris, to the nose! did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be c

nbc's lisa myers has the story. >> reporter: almost every day somewhere in america you can find long lines of the unemployed, looking for work, 5,000 turned out in atlanta this week, for 400 jobs. >> it's been emotionally draining, been looking for over a year now. >> we're about to start the jobs fair. >> reporter: in a chicago suburb, hundreds showed up. we talked to many who had been jobless a very long time. their pain was obvious. >> right now, i'm just living with no money. >> reporter: more than 6 million americans have now been without work for more than six months, considered the long-term unemployed. >> for that group, that subset of americans, this feels like a depression. >> reporter: mark eisenberg lost his job eight months ago. what's the toughest thing about this for you? >> self-esteem. >> reporter: he can't support his family the way he would like and they're just getting by on his wife's teaching salary. he says his daughter doesn't understand why he can't get a job, why they can't buy things. what does that feel like to you? >> a failure. i feel like i failed. >> r

new study has lisa myers spent a lost time looking into this. okay, what were the red flags.about solyndra, the company, and exactly what they got from the government. >> solyndra was a little, high tech company that was making cutting edge solar panels. it was hailed as a big success story of the stimulus program. the president went out there and said they had put all these people to work building the plant. another 1,100 people were employed there. fast forward. the company has gone bankrupt. all the workers have been laid off. the taxpayers may be out a half billion dollars. the new e-mails that the house investigators have put out and will focus on today shows there are a number of concerns within the government, red flags as this loan was considered about whether the company was actually viable. language was -- there was one warning that a model showed that the project would run out of cash in september 2011. which is now and which is what happened. another warning said worried about what the model the government was using to approve the loan, "given the time pressure we

nbc chief investigative reporter lisa myers will have more coming up in just a few minutes right here on "nightly news." >>> this is usually a safe haven for democrats, but president obama's popularity has hit an all-time low in california. a new field poll shows just 46% of california voters approve of the president's job performance. it's the first time since obama -- mr. obama took office that his approval rating has fallen below 50% in the state. that's an 8% drop since the last poll was taken back in june. the reason, the shaky economy and high unemployment rates in california. the poll findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,000 registered voters taken between september 1st and september 12th. >>> a school board candidate in northern california has made a shocking confession, admitting to abducting four girls from a boss stop more than a decade ago. she was arrested. she spent more than a year in a psychiatric hospital after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to four counts of abduction. now, the former teacher is on the november ballot for a spot on the fairfield s

nbc news's lisa myers investigates.siness before the bell when "morning joe" returns. [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> house republicans are raising new concerns over evidence they say indicates that the white house rushed approval for a loan of nearly $500 million for the now defunct solar panel manufacturer solyndra. the treasury department is joining the fbi and energy department in investigating whether or not solyndra misled the government to secure that big stimulus loan. solyndra was the centerpiece of president obama's pitch to the american people about t

. >> lisa myers from our washington bureau this afternoon.>> reporter: you bet. >>> jane lynch may very well be the hardest working person in show business these days. she hosted the emmys sunday. her show, "glee," with all the singing and dancing, returned for the third season last night. by the way, she has a new memoir out, as well. it is called "happy accidents." we are pleased she could join us this afternoon. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> let's start with the emmys. we know you had a good time. give us dirt. what happened behind the scenes? the kutcher, sheen -- >> nothing, it it was -- there was no drama. it was happy. i think they kept people away from people, though. i don't think paths were crossed. >> let's talk about your book. i looked on the back there. there's a picture of you from 1980 that people should buy the book just for that. >> for the picture. >> it's called "happy accidents." what were some of these accidents that led to the -- >> yes, without the perm and without the huge glasses and the mille

cnn meteorologist chad myers and lisa bloom attorney and author of "think" straight talk for women town world. thank you both for joining me. chad, you believe actually that the plaintiffs have a case here. why is that? >> don't misunderstand. this is not a slam dunk by any stretch. but there may be a case because of some misinformation put out by some officials. there were 400 small earthquakes in this region leading up to this. there was one scientist -- i'll talk about this in a bit -- that was warning days in advance are, an earthquake is coming, an earthquake is coming. the other scientists said, it's possible but not probable. i think we're okay. then the official said, there's no problem, go have a glass of red wine. well, there was a problem, i suppose, for some people. if you're on one side of the aisle. >> so, lisa, let me ask you. what are your thoughts legally? did z the prosecution have holes in its case? >> well, it sounds far-fetched, doesn't it? i mean, in our country it's hard to imagine scientists being charged with manslaughter for failure to warn about an earthquak