as our own tom costello reports, it will usher in some big changes. >> reporter: with the stroke of a presidential pen, the new financial regulatory reform law is aimed at curbing the excesses on wall street while protecting average americans who live and work on main street. >> all told, these reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history. [ applause ] >> in history. >> reporter: that will largely come from a new consumer financial protection bureau charged with stopping scams and overseeing nearly every type of loan including mortgages. the bureau will ensure home buyers are qualified for the loans they are getting. lenders will be required to provide credit scores for free. merchants will be allowed to set a $10 minimum for credit card charges and offer discounts for cash, while bank overdraft fees and interest rates will also be regulated. >> consumers should understand what they are getting and not have to worry after they buy something or sign on the dotted line that they didn't understand what they got. >> reporter: for wall street the law establishe

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> and that's our broadcast for this thursday night. being here with us. i'm brian williams. and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

tom costello in washington. tom, thank you very much. five after the hour, here's meredith. >> matt, thank you. president obama is expected to comment on the situation in the gulf at any moment. chief white house correspondent chuck todd is at the white house for us. good morning. >>. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. we wait for the fot talk about the good news in the gulf, he went to the heartland of michigan to try to talk about what he says is good news about the economy, despite the fact that a lot of people don't feel or see that good news, and he admits that these unemployment numbers aren't where they need to be. >> the main thing that keeps me up at night right now is we lost 8 million jobs. the month i was sworn in we lost 750,000 jobs. we've regained 600,000 this year so far, and if we stay on pace, hopefully we'll gain several hundred thousand more, but making up for that 8 million is still going to be a challenge. look, nobody in the white house is satisfied with where we are right now. what we absolutely are convinced of

nbc's tom costello covers aviation for us and is in our washington bureau this morning. tom, good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, meredith, good morning. this was a united airlines flight from dulles airport to l.a. with 255 passengers, ten crew members, when it encountered extreme turbulence over kansas at about 34,000 feet. passengers describe a sudden violent drop, people slamming their heads against the ceiling inside the cabin, then being slammed back down into their seats and the seats of other passengers. among the injured, four flight attendants who were presumably up and working at the time. the plane then diverted to denver international airport where it was met by firefighters and paramedics. in all 25 to 30 injured, one critically. once the plane finally did make it to l.a., some of the passengers described the ordeal. >> we just -- the bottom fell out. people hit the ceiling. it was pretty bad. >> it felt like i had gone down an elevator shaft and hit the bottom and came back up. that's what it felt like. >> everyone was screaming and that was very horrible.

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it was february 13th, two months before 29 miners died at the upper big branch mine in west virginia when something happened at the mine that scared ricky lee campbell. what authorities say could have been criminal tampering with a methane gas detector in a mine where explosive gas has emerged as a major concern. >> witnessed an electrician bypassing a methane detector on the machines. >> the machines that cut coal. >> yes, sir. >> why would they do that? >> so we could continue to run coal. >> reporter: what's not clear is whether the gas monitor was detecting methane or was, instead, malfunctioning and shutting down the machinery. but campbell says he's told the fbi that a supervisor ordered the electrician to disable it. >> he didn't want to do it, but he knew the danger, but when somebody above you is telling you what to do, you're going to do what they say. >> reporter: the mine operator, massey energy, says it was an isolated incident, but tells nbc news the methane monitor was bypassed in order to move the miner, the machine, from the are