for more on this, let's go to pete williams, nbc news justice correspondent. pictures right outside the jackson facility in jackson, georgia. pete, it's being reported by reuters that the supreme court has moved on this. what do we know? >> well, we're all reporting that, ed, and it's a very brief order from the court, as these are. i will read it to you in its entirety. it says, the application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to justice thomas and by him referred to the court is denied. that's it, that's all it says. let me just explain what that means. the way these emergency applications work is they go first as a technical matter to the circuit justice, that's justice clarence thomas for that federal circuit, the normal practice is for the circuit justice to refer the matter to the full court, and the full court decides whether to deny it. we don't know what the vote is. we never know in these cases, and that's all we ever get, is a simple one-sentence order. now, sometimes in these things, other justices will write separately to say, y

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> when "nightly news" continues, in just a moment, man versus wild, on the hunt for a killer in yellowstone. >>> and later, neighbors helping neighbors, pulling together after a disaster, making a difference in vermont. ld, on th killer in yellowstone. heartburn, right ? you have t yeah, it flares up a few days a week. well, we're the two active ingredients in zegerid otc.

let's go right now to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. almost 8:00, pete.an hour after the scheduled execution time. >> right. well i think they're doing down in georgia, chris, what we're doing up here which is to see what the u.s. supreme court is going to do. it's been now about two hours since the lawyers for troy davis asked the u.s. supreme court to stop the execution while they prepare to appeal his case for the second time to the u.s. supreme court. so that's what's pending here. a technically known as a request for a stay of execution and we're simply waiting for the u.s. supreme court to decide whether to grant that stay or to deny it. now, in the meantime, the state of georgia on its own, which is certainly has the authority to do decided in essence to wait to see what the u.s. supreme court was going to do. to be clear about this, chris, the state didn't have to. there's no legal impediment right now that would stop the state of georgia from proceeding with the execution. they have chosen to do this to wait to see what the u.s. supreme court is

pete williams at national airport in washington tonight starting us off. pete, thanks. >>> now we turn to our exclusive reporting from iran where last night, president ahmadinejad told ann curry that those two american hikers jailed in iran for more than two years were just days from being released. things have been moving quickly. in the past 24 hours now, with mixed signals out of iran, but at this hour there is hopeful news. here is ann curry again tonight in tehran. >> reporter: the headline tonight, the lawyer for the two young american hikers tells nbc news he's now making bail arrangements. while a pushback from iran's judiciary raised concerns today about whether a release would happen it now appears just a matter of time. president ahmadinejad was very specific about just how imminently josh fattal and shane bauer would be released. >> they will be freed in a couple of days. >> in a couple of days? >> in couple of days. they will be freed. >> reporter: today iran's powerful judiciary which doesn't answer to the president was quoted as saying releas

our justice correspondent pete williams in our washington bureau tonight with more on this. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, he's 26, a u.s. citizen, rezwan ferdaus, arrested today in framingham, massachusetts. tonight, fbi agents are searching his house, accusing him of plotting to bomb the u.s. capitol and the pentagon, then to shoot people fleeing from the buildings. they say he planned to use six-foot-long model planes like this one filled with plastic explosives. investigators say he came to washington last may and took surveillance pictures including this one. the fbi said he had a strong desire to be a terrorist and thought he was meeting here with al qaeda recruiters, but they turned out to be fbi undercover operatives. he had to borrow money from them to buy the model plane and travel to washington. he never had any explosives. so while he had strong aspirations, the fbi said he lacked the means to carry out any attack, brian. >> pete williams from washington tonight. pete, thanks for that. >>> we learned today the north anna nuclear power plant in virginia wh

pete williams, our justice correspondent is at the department of homeland security tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, police and federal agents here in washington and in new york were able to ramp up quickly in response to this intelligence because they were already planning more robust security around the 9/11 anniversary. in new york, police were out in force, checking trucks and vans, and posting extra security at bridges and tunnels, clogging the morning and afternoon commutes. >> if there's any problems, as long as we keep the people safe. >> reporter: similar scenes in washington as both cities jumped to respond to an unconfirmed report from an intelligence source in pakistan who heard that three men, no full names given, flew to the u.s. to set off car or truck bombs in new york or washington this weekend. something that stood out in the flow of intelligence because the source had been reliable in the past. >> this is the first, first credible piece of information we have gotten. we cannot confirm it. we are doing everything within our power, all hands ar

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> that's our broadcast on a wednesday night. k you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> san jose police say he was behind a one-man crime spree and today he wept openly as he faced a judge in court. good evening. i'm jessica wang. >> the tears did not match the accusations. the man accused of a violent crime spree in san jose that left a 60-year-old woman dead. paul ray

pete williams, as always, thanks. and we're back with more right after this. [ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it's the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree will see. ♪ as we're living longer than ever before, prudential's challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they'll need to enjoy every one of their days. ♪ prudential. bring your challenges. 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. ♪ way to go, coach. do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot? you should know about pradaxa. an important study showed that pradaxa 150mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is pro

let's go to pete williams, nbc's justice correspondent. pete?court to say whether or not it's going to grant a stay of execution. the request came just a little over an hour ago from the lawyers for troy davis. and the court hasn't yet responded. there's no time limit by which it must respond. however, it does appear from what we're hearing from people in georgia that the state is delaying the execution. >> this word now, reuters is reporting that the supreme court has denied a stay of execution. for more, let's go to pete williams, nbc news, justice correspondent. >> it's a brief order from the court. i will read it in its entirety, it says, "the application for stay of ex

we get a report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> members of the original 9/11 commission say the u.s. is still unprepared for a major catastrophe. with no common system for emergency communications and no consistent rules for who should be in command. >> we are not yet in the place in this country where the first responders can talk with one another. >> reporter: ten years after 9/11 we are not yet at the place where we know who's in charge at the site of a disaster. >> reporter: their report card out today says that was clear from the chaos after hurricane katrina. it says the response to last year's massive oil spill in the gulf was better, but local efforts were at odds with the overall cleanup. among other shortcomings it cites, a lack of national id standards, a deficiency exploited by 18 of the 19 hijacker who is got state issued id cards to board planes. >> if you can forge identifications, then a terrorist can get in and out of the country, get in and out of buildings, in and out of air ports, in and out of planes without being detected. >> reporter: wh

. >> pete williams is nbc news justice correspondent. roger crest is a terrorism analyst. pete, let's start with you. i know there's been an intense investigation over the past day or so. what are officials saying? >> they're trying to find out if this is true. what this single source said that three men are coming here to set off car bombs are right or not. they're looking at travel records. look at travel patterns people who have come from the mideast maybe started in pakistan or went through dubai. that helps to narrow it down a little bit. so far we're not told that there's been any information that they've either found them or they can say that this is not a real threat. they have to assume even though they can't can't confirm that it's for real, they have to assume that it might be. that's why you're seeing all this ratcheted up security in new york and washington, d.c. that's making the morning and the afternoon commute probably take a lot longer. >> roger, we've been told this report is credible. but uncorroborated and unconfirmed. can you explain precisely what tha

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> when "nightly news" continues, in just a moment, man versus wild, on the hunt for a killer in yellowstone. >>> and later, neighbors helping neighbors, pulling together after a disaster, making a difference in vermont. ld, on th killer in yellowstone. heartburn, right ? you have t yeah, it flares up a few days a week. well, we're the two active ingredients in zegerid otc. i'm omeprazole, the leading prescription heartburn medicine. and i'm sodium bicarbonate. i protect him from stomach acid so he can get to work. look, guys, i've already tried a lot of stuff. wow. with zegerid otc, you get 24-hour relief. so, this is goodbye heartburn ? gone. finito. zegerid otc. two ingredients... ...one mission. heartburn solved. 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. ♪ way to go, coach. as a researcher, i refer to her as "that woman with the great gums." because great gums are a foundation of a healthy smile. so she uses cr

pete williams has the latest from washington this afternoon. what do we know?ficial tells us al qaeda's chief of operations in pakistan was killed earlier this week. his name was abu al shari and they say this was the result of a drone strike in the remote region of waziristan and this comes as al qaeda was reeling from the death two weeks ago of the number two leader of all of al qaeda, also killed in a drone strike. that action took away the person the terror group had chosen to be second in command after al-zawahri who resumed leadership of al qaeda when the u.s. killed bin laden. the administration says the person killed this week was a key threat inside pakistan because he was collaborating with the pakistani taliban to conduct coordinated attacks there. >> pete williams, thank you. to the other big story we're watching, panic mode. it has been a tough week for president obama as he tries to sell his jobs plan. one top democrat says it's time for the white house to panic. >> hello north carolina? >> president obama hop scotching swing states trying to sell

joining us now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, thanks very much for joining us tonight. what can you tell us about what is expected from the supreme court? >> well, what's expected is an answer to the question, will you grant the stay or not? it's a simple question and it will get a very simple response whenever the court is ready to do it. it's been about three hours now since the lawyers for troy davis filed their emergency request with the supreme court asking for a stay of execution. what this basically means is the lawyers are telling the supreme or the, look, we intend to appeal the case, but until we do, would you please put a hold on the execution while all of that is in process? it's not an unusual request in these death penalty cases although it does come very close to the time for execution. there is no time limit here, but what's clearly happened is the georgia officials, although they had every legal right to proceed with the execution, have decided to put it on hold. or to put it another way, there's no legal im

pete williams is the justice correspondent and has it all covered. pete, how different is this from other laws around the country? what is still being debated? >> well, it's different in this sense, it's in effect, the tougher one that we thought was tough in arizona is not in effect because most of it was put on hold. but here is what the judge in alabama left intact. provisions that require police to determine the immigration status of people who were stopped or arrested and to hold them. we have a whole list to look at. block states from enforcing contracts to which illegal immigrants are a party that make it a felly nor illegal immigrants to enter into any business with the states, that includes municipal services or trying to get a business or driver's license. make it a crime for people to people to fail to carry their immigration documents and also a provision that requires schools to keep track of the immigration status of all of their children. here are the provisions that the judge has temporarily blocked. those that make it a crime for an i

joining me now, nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. and, pete, why has it taken until today for the supreme court to receive this? >> well, because it wasn't ready to go to the supreme court yet. it started with the clemency process in georgia. then it went through the courts and only when all the options were cleared away in the state of georgia were the lawyers and in any legal position to come to the u.s. supreme court. they didn't file here until just after 6:00 tonight one hour -- i suppose just a few minutes less than the scheduled execution time. about 23 or 24 minutes after that, the state attorney general from georgia filed with the supreme court and basically opposed in stay. so here's where it stands. what the lawyers for troy davis have done is they've gone to the u.s. supreme court and they've said, look, we're going to file an appeal with you. we haven't done it yet. it's coming shortly was the term they used. but in the meantime we want you to put a hold on his excuse because it will do nobody any good for you to look at

let's get right to our expert pete william. what's the latest? >> i think that puts it neatly. the government is being pretty open about this. they say they have a source who's given some reliable information in the past. not always, but sometimes. so he's considered credible. that's the credible part of this. he said he had heard in pakistan that three men had come to the u.s. to set off car and truck bombs but they've been quite candid in saying they can't confirm it. they don't know if it's true or not. that is the basics, they're assuming that it is. they say they must do that while they try to check it out. you see all this police presence in new york and washington which wasn't that hard to put in place because they were really in the wings waiting to have this big police presence for the actually anniversary itself this weekend. they simply got everything ramped up earlier, but putting in place a lot of what they intended to do and adding some extra measures. looking inside cars and trucks as they come into the city. that's certainly slowed down traffic in new york. very

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins us live from d.c. to help us through this one.elayed a supreme court decision until 2013. now the ruling may come down as early as next spring when election season obviously will be in full swing. why is the obama administration going that route? >> reporter: they may have decided that the appeals court wouldn't have gotten them the ruling that they wanted. it's a generally conservative court. this all involves a lawsuit that was brought by florida and 25 other states who claimed it's unconstitutional to require virtually all americans to buy health insurance. it was a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in atlanta that ruled earlier in the year, last month, in their favor. the court said the congress had no power to impose such a requirement. the question for the justice department is what is the government going to do? it asked the full appeals court to rehear the case. now we know the answer is no. that means the government plans to appeal the case directly to the supreme court. it seems quite likely the court would

pete williams will have details about that story and the controversy coming up at the bottom of the hour. the results of a dna test could answer a 10-year-old mystery in new mexico. what happened to robbie romero? he vanished more than a decade ago when he was 7 years old. he was presumed dead and an 18 year old told police he is romero. he agreed to give a swab of saliva for dna testing. >> i think it will be a total life-changing to have him back in our family again. just introducing him to his brothers and sisters. i believed in my heart if robbie ever came home, he would not be a found person. he would have a lot of issues. >> michelle, when we hear stories like this, it's amazing and at the same time skepticism. >> there is. there is a lot of dynamics going on in this case. i spoke with captain wheeler from the police department who gave me a detailed break down on the investigation. how it all went down. the new robbie came forward about two days ago. actually they were led to him through an anonymous tip. what he did was met over at evelyn's house, robbie romero's mom. he was coop

for the latest, we want to turn to our justice correspondent, pete williams, with the latest. >> three days after receiving that second hand report that men were coming here to set off car and truck bombs, the intelligence community has yet to find any indication that there was a real plot behind that tip. traffic on some busy new york streets was choked down to one lane so police could check cars, trucks and vans. as part of a heavily armed show of force. a clearly stepped up police presence in washington, too, and places where tourists gather, including the national mall. >> you just got to go on with business as usual and hope for the best. >> some of this was planned frl 9/11 weekend, but has been tightened up more because of word that three men flew here to set off vehicle bombs. at a data center in washington, analysts urgently comb through airline passenger records, guided only by vague descriptions by the pakistani source. age, height, travel patterns. complicating the chore is the possibility the men may have been smuggled out of pakistan. hundreds of recent arrivals have been

we want to say good morning to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who is following this. explain to all of us how rare is this kind of decision that we saw from the high court? >> it's quite rare. the court gets dozens of these requests a year to stop executions while the court is considering whether to take up the appeal and that's what happened last night. so his lawyers have been for 15 years trying to overturn the sentence. they are saying that not that the sentence was racially motivated but the sentencing proceeding were racially tainted by testimony by a psychologist who said african-americans are more likely to be violent and future violence is an issue. future dangerousness is an issue in the texas courts as the juries consider whether to issue the death penalty. so his lawyers now are asking the supreme court to take an appeal here and what they said is while you consider whether to hear his appeal, please put a hold on his execution. it's not going to do him any good if he gets executed and you grant his appeal and that's what the supreme court did last night.

pete williams is nbc's justice correspondent, that reaction certainly a striking one at that debate.this case about? because as i understand it, there isn't a real question as to the guilt or innocence of this death row inmate. the question is whether there was prejudicial information in front of the jury? >> during the sentencing phase, that's exactly right his lawyers are not arguing he isn't guilty. they're saying the sentencing phase, sentencing trial was improperly influenced by testimony about the future dangerousness of people based on their race and they say that in similar cases about five or six other cases in texas that the state has taken the position that you're right, the jury should never have heard that testimony and in those cases a new sentencing hearing, his lawyers are saying this should be just like those others. the state of texas is saying no, this one's different, because the prosecution didn't call the psychologist. the defense did and that makes this different, andrea. >> pete williams, it's going to get a lot of attention because it's rick perry. thanks so

pete williams, i remember when it happened and it was sort of a rookie mistake or so we lawyers said.rs that a month and a half of time has not cooled the ire of the federal judge who will make this decision about whether the prosecutors get a second crack at roger clemens in the hearing that is still going on which is unusually long, i think. he's expressing a lot of displeasure and saying that he cannot believe how it was that the prosecutors let slip into the video presentation an excerpt from the congressional hearing at which prosecutors say clemens lied from congress. the judge had explicitly ruled that something that was said in that hearing could not be presented to the jury, and yet, it was there anyway. and the prosecutors say it was a mistake and they meant to go back through this and they forgot to take it out and the judge said he had a hard time believing that. the legal standard here is whether the prosecutors intentionally sought to get the mistrial declared. they say why would we do that when this trial had just started? it is conceivable that is the kind of thing tha

pete williams, you've been looking at the spring, always speculated, that something happened over the last 48 hours as far as the justice department and this health care law and the appeals court process that made you say we're about to head for the supreme court. what's going on? >> it's a simple question. what was the justice department and the obama administration going to do about the big high-profile decision that came last month in a lawsuit filed by florida and 25 other states in which a district court, federal appeals court, also said that the law is unconstitutional. this requirement that all americans buy health insurance. now, the obama administration had a choice. that decision was made by a three-judge panel of the 1 1 1t circuit court of appeals so the government could ask the full court of appeals to hear the case. if ha had been done, i don't think it would have gone to the supreme court. >> would have delayed it another year. >> they decided to jump over that, as they can, and it appears they'll want to go directly to the supreme court. there's already another case pe

let's get more from nbc's justice correspondent pete williams in washington, d.c.s report reveal? >> reporter: it's not a promising snapshot of the status of the drug war. it says despite everything the u.s. is doing, the amount of drugs coming across the border is increasing and the abuse of illegal drugs here in the u.s. is on the way up, and it says this is true for heroin, marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine. the only potentially good news involves cocaine. its use spiked in the '80s and plateaued. the report says that hasn't changed. it says marijuana use is up especially among young people, what the report finds is there's less of a concern that it may have harmful effects, which the report speculates may be the result of increasing number of states moving to decriminalize marijuana possession. it also says the abuse of illegal drugs by young adults of all categories is on the way up. the report also says that it does not think this picture is going to change in the near future, that the mexican drug cartels have adapted to u.s. enforcement, they found new

pete williams, thank you for joining with us that

pete williams, msnbc washington. >> i'm joined live by roger cress. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. s. >> how serious is this threat? >> well, i think it's serious enough to warrant the type of attention that we've seen and really what's driving a lot of this, alex, is the 9/11 anniversary weekend. were this a threat that had come out and was aimed at maybe the holiday season or somewhere further down the road at a different time frame, we would not have this type of public focus on it. tying it to the 9/11 anniversary weekend is what defines it as imminent, and that's why you are seeing things play out more differently than otherwise would be the case. >> okay, roger. we have these reports that saying two or three men are traveling within the united states. at least two possibly carrying u.s. passports. how does this complicate the investigation if they're already here and using u.s. passports? >> well, assuming that report is accurate and true, then what it is is a race against time. it is sifting through this massive database of travel

our justice correspondent pete williams has been reporting on this. he's with us as part of our coverage tonight. pete, what do we know about this and what best to call it? >> well, i think it's best to call it unconfirmed, it's a specific piece of intelligence information that the united states has picked up within the last several hours, specific enough that it got their attention, it rose above the normal kind of chatter that they hear running up to something like this. it's specific but unconfirmed, there are questions that are internally contradictory in it and just out, the department of homeland security describes it as specific and credible but unconfirmed and they also say in this statement that often times these things come along and then as they do further checking, they wash out. so there's a note of, i guess some skepticism even from the government itself. what they're probably going to do, take this information, pass it along to local law enforcement, that's been their pattern for the past several days, anything that they get, they're ba

. >> pete williams from d.c. for us. thank you. >>> more and more americans are making risky health care decisions as a result of tough economic times. there's a new consumer report sur ray out and it found that 48%, rather, 48% of prescription drug users are putting off doctor visits or declining tests to help manage their healthcare costs. many of those surveyed admitted to taking expired medications or even skipping a dose. >> this is it. another trial of the century beginning in los angeles. michael jackson's personal physician, dr. conrad murray charged with manslaughter. the king of pop's siblings and parents arrived at the courthouse to a packed los angeles courtroom. for the first time ever we will hear in murray's own words precisely what happened when michael jackson died. nbc's kristen dahlgren is outside the courthouse to set the scene for us. kristen, i would imagine it is a circus there. >> reporter: yeah. exactly, craig. did you expect anything else? there are both fans of michael jackson here and supporte

people williams is nbc justice correspondent. petewaries serious is this taken more seriously because we're in the 9/11. he r commemoration moment? >> reporter: that's part of it but not ought. a trusted source in pakistan who has told american intelligence officials that he picked up word of a threat to the u.s. the source that he was told, three people from there plan to fly to the u.s. and set off car or truck bombs in new york or washington either today, rather saturday, sunday or monday. around the an of coursery of the 9/11 attacks, but the information said very little in the way of specifics. timing, target, and officials stress they have no idea whether this is true. whether there really is such a plot. whether these three people exist, and whether they actually ever came here. nonetheless, there is an intense effort to try to run this down. they've been checking travel records of the past several weeks, but it remains unconfirmed. now, there is a greater police presence on the streets of both washington and new york, chuck. w

it would have been followed by a ground attack but as pete williams tells us, ferdaus did not have the money to fund what he wanted to do. >> he didn't have any money to buy the plains. the undercover operatives provided him with that. he had no access to explosive materials. >> reporter: he purchased one plane, six ak-47s and wanted to use the explosives that would take out a two-block area and he didn't care if he killed women or children. barbara? >> melissa, thank you for that report. >>> a man is in the hospital after getting hit by a truck here in d.c. it happened on fourth street near independence avenue around 7:00 this morning. rescuers call the man's injuries serious as drivers made their way into the district. the truck driver remained on the scene and was interviewed by police. >>> a pedestrian was hit by a car this morning on calvert street and happened just after calvert street. the pedestrian is a female and it's not yet clear and new this midday, engineers rappelling have discovered cracks along the walls. megan is live at the national mall with this discovery. megan? >

. >> nbc's pete williams joining us now. and pete, what do they mean by the future? future or something in the distant lens away? >> well, they weren't specific about that, and i hope you caught the wordy vest, becau di that is the word you use to take stuff off, the belt and the shoes, but that is the change that the passengers will see next. pistole had some interesting historical data saying that since the shoe thing started after the richard reed attempted shoe bombing in 2001, the tsa has scanned 6 billion people, and not a single shoe bomb has been found and european countries have the same analysis and it is partly the analysis of the threat, and the improvement in security, but they say that the changes will come relatively soon, but that it is a long time before the restrictions are lifted on liquids. it is simply technologically very difficult to analyze liquids in any kind of a quick way to find out whether or not they are dangerous. so that's something that won't change, and both emphasized this increased reliance on what they called the trusted traveler

pete williams is live in washington. you have two angles here. what could happen and you have a number of progressive and liberal blogs who are ready to go on attack if he doesn't recuse himself. >> for all the justices recused and the interest groups want off, there won't be many people left. i will predict they will hear this case. they had to decide about the lawsuit brought by florida and 25 other state who is claimed that the part of the law is unconstitutional and requires all americans to buy health insurance. they ruled they were right and had no power to impose. would it ask the full appeal to rehear the obama administration will appeal to the supreme court that makes it quite likely that the court will grant this request and hear the case this term with a decision coming sometime in june of next year. there other cases working their way through. they found the law was unconstitutional and you might want to see how the cases come out. the government said please hear it now. the court probably will. you will see what's to come here. much

pete williams, thanks. >> security guard alberto alvarez on the stand right now in the michael jackson death trial. alvarez was jackson's director of logistics, he was the one who placed the 911 call. he also testified in a previous hearing that dr. conrad murray ordered him to remove drugs from jackson's bedroom before calling an ambulance. nbc's kristen dahlgren is live outside the courthouse. what has alvarez said so far this morning? >> so far they've talked about what exactly he did for michael jackson in security. also, how often he saw dr. conrad murray at the house, he said five to six nights a week. now they are talking about that final rehearsal. he was with michael jackson that night at the staples center saying he appeared to be doing well, in good spirits and looking pretty good that night. of course expected to get more dramatic as we go through the day because he was the first person other than dr. murray and michael jackson in michael jackson's bedroom on that fateful day that he died. he's expected to talk like he did in the preliminary hearing about how dr. murray ord

pete williams, our justice correspondent. always good to talk with you. >>> the road to the republican nomination has taken a detour through new jersey. always caught up in traffic in new jersey. team obama is proposing titanic struggles. so what can the parties do to build support and raise campaign cash, get enthusiasm going? the dnc and rnc are here together to sound off. >>> and education nation. the fight to improve philadelphia's schools. making them safe enough to attend. mayor michael nuter joins me on there. >>> it's a quiet day publicly for the president. but he does some interviews with some local tv affiliates to push the jobs plan. tennessee, north carolina, and florida. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. >>> so the presidential candidates are

but if you talk to legal scholars, i'm sure you're aware of the note that pete williams sent around today combatant, he's engaged in hostilities against the united states. the various resolutions that have been passed by congress, most notably after the september 11th attacks give the president a very wide leeway to do this. and as a matter of fact, what you heard the president say in that radio interview citing printer cartridges, that would-be attacked somewhat inspired by, if not planned by al awlaki, the christmas day bomber, they put out a memo making no equivocation whatsoever about their assertion that awlaki was behind that, as well as being the inspiration to the ft. hood bomber. so the white house being very, very mum on operational details. how he was killed, how it was verified he was killed, how many people were killed, who was with him, none of those answers are forthcoming today from the white house. but they are the forthright in saying that this is justified. >> nbc's mick viqueira at the white house, thanks very much. >> all right. >>> thanks very much for watching. the

we have the latest news now from pete williams who joins us from washington. >> peter, we're learningre about how the federal government runs the terrorism data base. from documents obtained by a civil liberties group, the electronic privacy information center. a mem sew says if charges are dismissed, that person must be removed from the watch list, but there's an exception. it says the name should stay on the list if a reasonable suspicion persists that the person could be a terrorist. epic says if somebody is acquit that had should be off the list. and a not guilty should be reason enough to remove somebody from the watch list. it says the fbi's standard of suspicion is too low and there should be a straight forward process for people to get off the list if they think they're wrongly included. the fbi says it will not put people on the list there's unless there's information that reasonly exists that somebody is a terrorist. then the question of reasonable doubt is different and shouldn't be the threshold. in other words, the fbi says somebody could be found not guilty because evide

. >> and joining me now is justice correspondent pete williams and good afternoon to you. can you tell me the difference of something that is credible and still yet unconfirmed? >> sure. if you have a neighbor who has told you accurate things in the past, sometimes inaccurately and your neighbor tells you that something is happening to another neighbor, that's credible. but it is unconfirmed because you don't know whether it is true or not, and that is what we have here. what we are told is that this comes from the source who has given reliable information to the u.s. in the past, and sometimes not so reliable, but has a record of telling us things that are true, and has said that he has heard that three people, three men were coming to the u.s. to set off car bombs in either new york or washington. now, the source did not have any names, didn't have a lot of specifics about what their target would be, just said car or truck bomb. so, yes, credible and somewhat specific, but unconfirmed and what is going on is two things, police in new york and washington treating this as

joining me is nbc justice correspondent pete williams. where adoes the investigation stand? >> reporter: i think it's run its course. this was a great deal of concern because the original source of the information is someone who had provided dependable evidence in the past. the scenario that the source laid out was official detailed. that's why initially officials were saying it was specific and credible. they also said it was uncorroborated. meaning they had no way to confirm it. everything that happened has failed to confirm it. what they've done is looked at travel records for anybody who come have come to the united states during the time the source was talked about, identified hundreds of people who might have fit a pattern, and they went and interviewed those. so far they haven't turned up anybody that they thought could have been part of a plot. there's no reason to think the plot was for real sore that they really came here. nonetheless, the decision was to keep security stepped up through today. we're still seeing it ramped up in new york and washington, thomas. >>

justice correspondent pete williams more. >> reporter: ferdaus was arrested, he's 26, a u.s.iversity in boston. as for how he was nabbed, officials say it was a tip from a source that let the fbi on to him. then they did what they often do in these cases, people approached him claiming to be from terrorist organizations. he assumed they were al qaeda. they wereundercover fbi operatives. he had an extensive plot, he came down to washington and took pictures of the buildings he wanted to target then wrote up plans and gave them to what he thought were al qaeda computers on a enthusiathumb drive. the planes are 6 or 7 feet long. the plan was to fly one into the capital and two in the pentagon. he never had explosives, he had to borrow the money from the undercover operatives to buy the plane, cost $7,000. even had to borrow the money to come down here to washington to do his surveillance. there was no doubt he was a committed terrorist, made many statement about committing jihad. he made detonators from cell phones and give them to

. >> let's get pete williams.sk him about that. >> let me help us get out of this situation. turn to politico playbook. jim? >> how you doing? >> we're doing okay, jim. >> seriously. >> let's talk about mitt romney instead of cigarettes. he spoke at a town hall meeting you showed a little bit yesterday in miami. sticking by that claim he made a few weeks ago and got a little heat for it, that's, corporations are people. >> i was in iowa the other day and someone said why don't you raise taxes on corporations? and i said because corporations are people. look, concrete doesn't pay taxes. carpet doesn't pay taxes, people pay taxes. raising taxes on corporations is raising taxes on people. the employees, the owners, the customers. we don't want to raise taxes. >> jim, he's sticking with that line. >> rule number one in politics, when you say something goofy, don't keep saying it over and over. even if it's true. i get what his point is, and i think everyone understands what a corporation is and it's shareholders and e

. >> pete negron >> ann n. nelson >> david william nelson >> james nelson >> michele ann nelson >> peter allen nelson >> oscar francis nesbitt >> gerard terence nevins >> christopher newton-carter >> kapinga ngalula >> nancy yuen ngo >> jody nichilo >> and my husband, a gentleman, a friend to so many, a philosopher, a believer in peace and justice. >> and my loving -- may rest in peace. >> martin s. niederer >> alfonse joseph niedermeyer >> frank john niestadt, jr. >> gloria nieves >> juan nieves, jr. >> troy edward nilsen >> paul nimbley >> john b. niven >> katherine marie noack >> curtis terrance noel >> daniel r. nolan >> robert noonan >> daniela r. notaro >> brian christopher novotny >> soichi numata >> and my beautiful mother, who enriched the lives of countless people with her spirit, generosity, and devotion. >> and my nephew. he taught me about the greatness of america. we miss you, we all miss you. >>> brian felix nunez >> jose nunez >> jeffrey roger nussbaum >> dennis o'berg >> james p. o'brien, jr. >> michael p. o'brien >>