tonight we begin with nbc's tom costello just outside washington, d.c. tom, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, kate. economists generally agree that 8.2% number is deceiving because when you factor in all the people who have given up looking for jobs or those people who have taken part-time jobs just to make ends meet, the real unemployment rate is probably well into double digits. the numbers this morning hit wall street and main street with a thud. >> the weakest job adding quarter in two years. >> reporter: while employers did add 80,000 jobs in june, it was the third straight month of weak hiring and dramatically lower than the 226,000 new jobs the economy was adding monthly during the first quarter. unemployment is highest among african-americans at 14.4%. on the campaign trail, president obama conceded the numbers aren't good. >> we've got to grow the economy even faster. we've got to put even more people back to work. >> reporter: republican candidate mitt romney said mr. obama must shoulder the blame. >> we have seen the jobs report t

tom costello in washington, d.c. thanks so much, tom. >>> out west, finally some good news along the front lines of the wildfires in colorado. more families are returning home. and for those fire crews who are still working the front lines, the kindest show of support. nbc's miguel almaguer is in colorado springs with the latest. >> reporter: in the scorched hills above colorado springs, firefighters finally turn the corner. crews mop up the blaze that killed two, devoured 28 square miles, and destroyed 346 homes. today six of the air force c-130s are back in the firefight, grounded after sunday's fatal crash that killed four aboard air tanker number 7. >> we obviously are very troubled by the crash that took place several days ago, and the loss of life associated with that. it just underscores the dangers that are associated with these fires. >> reporter: these blazes are being called super fires, with 2.2 million acres charred nationwide so far this season -- >> long term projections are that we'll see more fires. >

we begin once again with tom costello in the nation's capitol. good evening, tom. >> good evening to you. we could have picked any one a neighborhoods here in d.c. and virginia. power line are down, trees are down. they're slowly getting power back, but it could be until the weekend until everyone has power back. in the meantime, with the death toll at 26, the concern is, it may rise with the heat taking a toll. across a huge section of the country today, the growl of chainsaws filled the air, and neighborhoods still trying to dig out from a storm that passed four days ago. >> it surprises me that we have the debris, but more than that, that we haven't seen a truck. >> reporter: a lot of neighborhoods haven't seen a power truck. roughly 1.25 million people still have no electricity. 40,000 in washington, d.c.. they're suffering through another day of suffocating heat and high humidity. >> if i open the door, it's like the devil. he says come on in, because i'm going back down where i come from, where it's cooler. you know. >> reporter: the downed

nbc's tom costello starts off tonight in chevy chase, maryland. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, natalie. good evening to you. across d.c., virginia, and maryland hundreds of neighborhoods look just like this, a massive tree down, in this case it just missed this house. power lines are down and, as you said, it is hot. across the mid-atlantic today, the most dangerous jobs had to belong to the crews strapped into cherry pickers. dressed in protective rubber gear and working to untangle what looked like a spider's web of downed electrical lines and snapped poles. friday night much of the power grid seemed engulfed in violent explosions. today the threat was still very real. >> a number of sections hit hot spots where there were actually flames shooting up from those power lines. >> reporter: with no power, hundreds of traffic lights remained dark and intersections dangerous. amid predictions it could be until late friday night before the power is fully restored staffers were relocating senior citizens from a home in greenville, maryland over the

nbc tom costello reports. >> reporter: across the mid-atlantic the most dangerous jobs had to belong to the crews strapped into cherry pickers. working to untangle what looked like a spider's web of downed electrical lines and snapped poles. friday night much of the power grid was engulfed in violent closes. >> there were hot spots where there were flames shooting up from the power lines. >> reporter: with no power hundreds of traffic lights remain dark and intersection dangerous. >> all intersections are a four way stop. >> reporter: it could be until late friday night before the power is fully restored. staffers were relocating senior citizens from a nursing home in greenbelt. >> who can wait seven days. >> reporter: it was friday night that hurricane force winds tore through this region. in their wake downed trees crushed cars and homes, stores and gas stations closed. in north carolina three more people were killed in violent weher. for tourists at the washington monument relief came in the form of snow cones and water fountains. sandra o'brien and her kids were on their front po

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> despite the troubling news about the u.s. economy it was new reassurances about what's happening in the economy in europe that wall street was listening to today. the dow soaring again closing over 13,000 at the end of the day in new york. nasdaq and s&p up as well for the day's trading. it's been a week now since that shooting rampage in aurora, colorado, and today authorities in maryland said they may have prevented another one. police there arrested a 28-year-old man after they say he threatened former co-workers at pitney bows where he had been recently fired telling them, quote, i'm a joker and i'm going to load my guns and blow everybody up. investigators found a huge arsenal of weapons inside his apartment, two dozen guns including assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition. >>> national weather service confirms what we first reported last night. at least four tornadoes touching down when that violent line of storms swept through the eastern half of the country last night. among the confirmed twisters, one in

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> we are back in a moment with a former president as we've never heard one before. >>> we want to show you some surprising comments from former president george w. bush. he doesn't give many interviews and in an interview with the hoover institute, he says why. he said he wants to fade from public view and public life as much as it is possible for any former president. >> but i really don't want to be in the public eye anymore. and i feel a certain sense of liberation not being out there. >> you like it better. >> i really do. eight years was awesome. and i was famous and i was powerful, but i have no desire for fame and power anymore. >> the former president said part of his motivation in wanting to fade from the scene is not to be seen trying to interfere in any way the current president. >>> a warming atlantic ocean has taken its toll again on one of greenland's giant glaciers. a piece twice the size of the island of manhattan has broken free. scientists have been watching a crack in the glacier for years. nasa took a satellite photo as it start

tom costello, nbc news. >>> and a wedding announcement this weekend for a prominent member of congress. barney frank was married to his long-time partner. frank became the first member of congress to marry someone of the same sex. he has announced that he will retire at the end of the current term. >>> earnest borgnine died today. in a career of more than 60 years, he starred in dozens of film roles. "from here to eternity," "the dirty dozen" are just some of them. he often played the villain but it was his role in 1955 as a love sick butcher in "marty" that he won an oscar for best actor. later fans loved him in the tv sit calm "mchale's navy." earnest borgnine died in los angeles. he was 95 years old. >>> when we come back here tonight the man who found a way to go back to his own future. >>> finally tonight one man's version of "back to the future." it's gone viral on the internet. a conversation between the young filmmaker and himself at age 12. 20 years ago jeremiah mcdonald left himself a videotape. when he combined it with video of him today, the results were a hysterical look a

our report on this tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: 21-year-old costas sevilus was born to fly. a flight instructor with 1300 hours under his belt he just graduated from the aeronautical university and has already had three job offers. there's only one problem. a new law means he can't fly commercial planes until he is 23. >> well, this has been my dream to become an airline pilot my whole life. now that i am flying, that's all i'm going to do and i'll go wherever i need to go to continue flying. >> reporter: he should have no problem landing a job in the u.s. or overseas. boeing is now forecasting 460,000 new pilots will be needed worldwide over the next 20 years. 69,000 in north america alone. why so many? an expected flood of retiring pilots is one reason. and thousands of u.s. pilots are taking jobs overseas where pay is higher and demand is skyrocketing. 180,000 new pilots needed in asia alone over the next two decades. u.s. military pilots are staying in the service longer and for civilians becoming a pilot isn't cheap. just paying for school can leave new pilots w

nbc's tom costello reporting. >> reporter: severe weather is approaching the capitol. you are instructed to leave the area. >> reporter: late tuesday night, another blow from mother nature at the u.s. capitol a strong thunderstorm forced the evacuation of a dress rehearsal for tonight's capitol 4th concert. >> we do have a garage where you guys can be safe. >> reporter: one more gut punch for the nation's capitol region still back on its heels, still buried under downed trees, dodging precarious power lines, and sweltering in triple-digit heat without power or air conditioning. >> left his three children at home to come down here. >> reporter: canadian crews brought in to help restore power are getting a hero's welcome. jenni and corey in silver spring have retreated to their base wmt their grandkids. >> much cooler down here. >> yes. >> reporter: they drove to pennsylvania to buy a portable generator that powers a fan and keeps the fridge cool. but with reports of generators being stolen, they've got theirs locked up. down the street, sand bra brown has also moved t

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> we are back in a moment with a former president as we've nevereard one before. if you have copd like i do, you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can h

tom costello jones us with more. it's a political time and a spin from both sides, i imagine. >> absolutely. president obama is acknowledging that these numbers aren't good enough. 80,000 jobs is pretty anemic, especially when you consider that earlier in the year we were averaging around 200,000 job a career. today he is acknowledging that, and suggesting we have to continue to try to grow the economy. of course, mitt romney is casting this as something that's on the president's watch and the president is responsible for. let me give you the numbers again. you know, if you talk about how many people are underemployed, you take a part-time job because you just have to pay the bills, they think the real unemployment rate is probably closer to 15% in this country, double digits. we've seen retailers, transportation and the government all cut jobs. we've seen some job growth coming from professional and business service, health care, manufacturing, even crux hundred. nationwide, by the way. >> and demographically, when

tom costello grew up in colorado, spent six years at kusa joins me by phone. course the capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell who covered the columbine shootings is here with me. tom, let me start with you. how did i do describing aurora? what can you do? do you have context about aurora, colorado? >> i grew up in denver. you're right. i spent six years at kusa in denver as a reporter. if you have flown into denver chances are you have driven through aurora. it's part of the metro area. it's hard to distinguish when you are driving out of denver into aurora. it's the huge metro area and it's very suburban. i've got to tell you as a coloradoan and i still consider myself one at heart this is revolting, sickening. i think a lot of coloradoans are wondering why us again? it's not just columbine, of course, where 12 students were killed and a teacher. when i was at kusa tv i covered a massacre at a chuck e. cheese where a gunman killed three kids and an adult. there was a massacre in 2001 where a gunman walked into a christian missionary type of school and op

back to you. >> tom costello, thank you. joining us is a break down of where the heat is concentrated. maria la rosa. who will see it the worst? the the mid-atlantic has been suffering for the fact that so many have not had the comfort of home air conditioning because of the electricity being out. >> it breaks your heart. they are not seeing the excessive heat, but the wave will push off to the east and the core of that heat continues to be in the central u.s. and everywhere you see the orange on the map, we see the excessive heat and the advisories from minneapolis to cincinnati and some spots without power. what this map means is those areas will see the heat and humidity push that feels like temperature above 100 degrees and maybe some spots 115. this is the problem. high pressure dominating and not moving. you have kansas city and des moines just on the thermometer hiding 100 or above. st. louis at 104. chicago will be pushing the mid-and upper 90s and into thursday, 103 in kansas and dodge city at 102. places like d.c.

nbc's tom costello covers aviation for nbc and joins us now. tom, what are you hearing?reporter: well, exactly that. this is likely going to lead to a bit of a mess today in the new york city air space. as you know, newark is a linchpin, one of three airports that services new york city along with laguardia and jfk. the faa telling us there is a ground stop in place because controllers had to evacuate their positions because of smoke coming from an elevator shaft. they have relocated to another position there at the airport. they are working to reestablish control over the ground and over the air space, but at this very moment, we're told a ground stop in effect at newark airport as they work to try to figure out first of all, the source of the smoke and second of all, to get everything under control. at this point, no indication of any flights or anyone in danger, but rather, smoke in the tower at newark and they are working to resolve it as fast as they can. back to you. >> thanks so much, tom costello. >>> for all those yearning for a woman candidate, our friends at u

tom costello on the story in washington, d.c. tom, good morning. >> hi, natalie, good morning. a happy 4th. the latest estimates, we're getting about 850,000 people still without power. that's a significant improvement from a couple of days ago and even from yesterday. but this is the kind of scene we have throughout the metro washington, d.c., virginia, maryland area. massive trees down, cars crushed, power lines down, telephone lines down, cable lines down. as if that's not enough, last night we had more lightning and more severe weather in washington. >> severe weather is approaching the capital. you are instructed to leave the area. >> reporter: late tuesday night, another proceed from mother nature. at the u.s. capital, a strong thunderstorm forced the evacuation of a dress rehearsal for tonight's capital 4th concert. >> a garage, safe on the other side. >> reporter: one more gut punch for the capital region on its heels buried under downed trees, dodging precarious power lines and swelter in triple digit heat without air conditioning. canadian crews brought in to restore

matt, back to you. >> tom costello covering this story from washington. tom, thank you very much. >>> it's four minutes past the hour. here is savannah. >>> in the presidential race we're learning more about when mitt romney might announce his running mate and who that might be. peter alexander here with the details. good morning. >> good morning. kicked off the race with a furious back and forth thursday, add into the mix the new vp speculation as well. could condoleezza rice be the president's running mate as the president makes a critical swing through the battleground of virginia today after opening up about his biggest mistake as president. the latest polls showing the presidential race neck and neck and obama and romney campaign thursday, the president made a rare concession in an interview with cbs news. >> the mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. and that's important. but the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the american people. >> a story that gives americans a sens

nbc's tom costello in washington. tom, you're one of those who did not have power. has the power been restored to your home? tell us about the region, obviously. >> we got power back in my house sunday night, thankfully. my teenaged daughters were starting to drive me crazy complaining they had no internet. this is a very serious matter for people up and down the east coast who have no a/c, no electricity and that means they can't cool down and if you are in one of those populations that is vulnerable, the elderly, for example, the very young, it can be a very serious matter. as you suggested, quite a few deaths already attributed to this. the major utility companies here in the east, especially pepco and dominion in the greater d.c. area, have brought in repair crews from as far away as oklahoma and canada to help in what they say is quite literally a rebuilding effort, rebuilding that entire power network that was so, in their words, destroyed by these storms that rolled through last friday night with these 91 mile per hour winds. really an unbelievable scene of d

heat and misery across the atlantic with a million people with the heat on and power off, nbc's tom costellothe nation's capital with more for us. tom, good morning. >> thomas, good morning to you. this is still the scene as so much of maryland d.c. and virginia where we have massive trees down, cars crushed, power lines, telephone lines, cable line down as we're in day five following this storm that came through friday night. the latest numbers we have, 850,000 people in a seven-state area as well as d.c. without power. that's an improvement over yesterday when one and a quarter million people were without power. last night in washington, more lightning and more severe weather. >> severe weather is approaching the capital. you are instructed to leave the area. >> late tuesday night another blow from mother nature. at the nation's capital a thunderstorm forced the evacuation of the dress rehearsal for tonight's capital 4th celebration. one more gut punch for a region on its heels buried under downed trees, dodging precarious power lines and sweltering in triple digit heat without power or ai

. >> tom costello, thank you.ours of victims are younger than 5 years old according to the cpsc. >>> a toddler in california owes her life to teenagers who happened to be swimming in a canal. 2-year-old alice avilas was with her parents. the child slipped through an area where there's no fence and ended up in the water. when her parents noticed her missing, they searched the water with no luck. however, downstream some teens were in the water cooling off. >> just saw floating in the water. was she face-up or facedown? >> face up. >> what did you say? >> i said look at the doll, and he said no, it's actually human, a little girl. >> i ran to the tree over there and i got her out, carried her. i gave her to his dad, then i ran home and called 911. >> an adult at the scene performed cpr. doctors say little alice will be fine. >>> aaa today is offering parents a new way to track teen drivers. it's a gps device that plugs into a car's diagnose tick port. parents can set boundary ahead of time for speed, location and ti

tom costello in bethesda, maryland. good morning to you, tom. >> reporter: good morning. we could have picked any number of neighborhoods from the d.c., maryland, virginia area. the devastation four days after the storm is still really remarkable. an entire tree here in this case shredded. take a look over here. this house has suffered significant damage here. a blue tarp hangs over it. look at the size of the tree literally cut in half by the storm. 1.3 million people are thought to be without power stretching from ohio to the mid-atlantic. the mayor of d.c. is requesting president obama to declare a state of emergency, and there is an all-out mad dash to get everybody connected to power once again. on the national mall this independence week, it's hot. the kind of sticky heat you expect in d.c. during the summer. but without air conditioning, snow cones and water fountains have been among the only ways to cool off. across town, 9-year-old has been on the porch hoping to catch a breeze with his mom and sister. >> i'm very, very, very hot. i'm sleeping in the basement bec

nbc's tom costello at a pool in bethesda, maryland this morning. tom, good morning. >> hi, savannah, good morning. we've got the swim teamworking out behind us here. if you need another reason to make sure you teach your kids how to swim, 77 people have drowned since memorial day, most of them kids. 78 more involved in near drownings. nearly every one, an example of how a great day at the pool can quickly turn into tragedy. watch closely the surveillance video from a pool in washington state. see if you can spot what the lifeguards and adults missed. a 10-year-old falls off a float and begins to drowned. he's there, head under water. precious minutes pass and no one notices he's on the bottom of the pool. finally after five long minutes, an adult swimmer finds him and pulls him out. it happened seven years ago. lifeguards, paramedics and doctors saved the child's life but he suffered permanent brain damage. >> drowning is quick and it's silent. it can happen before an adult even gets to the pool. it happened so quickly. >> reporter: the numbers are

tom costello in an area of washington, d.c. where people there are still without power this morning. good morning to you, tom. >> reporter: hi, natalie, good morning. we could have picked almost any of many, many streets in virginia, maryland, washington, d.c. area to show awe scene like this. a massive tree down right on top of a car, power lines down. from the midwest to the mid-atlantic we have got a lot of destruction. just last night more storms in north carolina, three people dead there. let's put this into perspective, at the height of the outages, more than 5 million people without electricity. now it's somewhere around 2 million but katrina wiped out power to 3 million. that tells you how many people here are struggling. we've now got repair crews coming from as far away as texas and canada to try to get power restored. sunrise over washington this morning, as 1 to 2 million people throughout the mid-atlantic face a third day of misery, triple digits and no electricity. >> another sizzling hot day, absolute misery. >> l

nbc's tom costello has the update. hey, tom. >> richard, good day to you.s we have, 850,000 people in a seven-state area plus d.c. are still without power and still dealing were eye this kind of a mess. a massive tree down. the tree crushed, and cable lines, power lines still down. and this has been the way it is now for five days, as the regions try to recover. meanwhile, last night in d.c., we had more lightning, and more severe weather. >> severe weather is approaching the capitol. you are destructed to leave the area. >> reporter: late tuesday night, another blow from mother nature. at the u.s. capitol, a strong thunderstorm forced the evacuation of a dress rehearsal for tonight's capitol 4th concert. >> we do have a garage that you guys will be safe on the other side. yeah. >> reporter: one more gut punch for the nation's capitol region still back on its heels. still buried under downed trees and precarious power lines without air conditioning. >> left this three children at home to come down here. >> reporter: canadian crews brought in to help restore

tom costello has a lot more and joins us from the hard hit area of bethesda, maryland. >> we could havenumber of neighborhoods and so many look like this. a massive tree shredded and down in the middle of a road. this is four days since the storm. take a walk with me over here. another tree fell on this house. you can see blue tarp is hanging from the side. look at the size of the tree that was cut in half right here. power is down in this neighborhood and so many more in the greater washington, d.c. area. it is thought in the entire zone of affected states, 1.3 million people are still without power and some of them may not get it back until the weekend. total death toll thought to be about 22 or so. the mayor of d.c. is asking president obama to declare a state of emergency and the crews in washington, d.c. are overwhelmed with work and the cost of the clean up is expected to rise dramatically. we are expecting yet another hot day here in the washington, d.c. area. temperatures in the mid 90s and high temperatures and humidity. that's not unusual in july. the state and the communities

nbc's tom costello covers the aviation industry. tom, what's the latest on what happened there? >> good afternoon to you. apparently they had smoke in the tower there where air traffic controllers are working. it was from an elevator shaft. as a result they moved those controllers out of the tower to an alternate location. they put a ground stop in effect at the nation's 14th busiest airport. clearly, as you know, one of the most important airports in the new york area, part of the linchpin along with newark and jfk -- rather laguardia and jfk. we're now told they seem to be addressing the problem. the controllers are controlling traffic from an alternate location and the browned stop has been lifted. we're talking about delays of at least 35 minutes or so at newark. because the new york city area is such an important part of the overall air traffic control grid in the country, you might expect delays rippling across the country by anywhere from half an hour to an hour in certain cases because of this ground stop at newark. again, it's been lifted now. we are told the air traffi

nbc tom costello reports from bethesda. >> watch closely from the surveillance video from a pool in washingtontate. see if you can spot where the adults and life guards missed. a 10-year-old falls off a float and begins to drown. precious minutes pass and no one notices he is on the bottom of the pool. finally, after five long minutes, an adult swimmer finds him and pulls him out. it happened seven years ago. life guards, paramedics and doctors save the child's life, but he suffered permanent brain damage. >> drowning is quick and it's silent. it can happen before an adult even gets to the pool. and it happens so quickly. >> reporter: the numbers are enough to scare any life guard. each year, 390 kids under the age of 14 die in accidental drownings. 5,200 kids require treatment in an e.r. and drowning is the number cause of death for kids 5 and under. >> belly up. >> reporter: in restin, virginia, where hundreds of kids crowd into more than a dozen municipal pools every day -- 240 red cross certified life guards keep a constant vigil. >> i like to count how many people are in the pool so i kno

we get more from tom costello. >> reporter: 21-year-old costas was born to fly. he just graduated from airnautical university. he can't fly planes until he's 23. >> this himself been my dream. now that i am flying, that's what i'm going to do and i'll go wherever i need to go to continue flying. >> reporter: bowing is now forecasting 460,000 new pilots will be needed worldwide over the next 20 years, 69,000 in north america alone. why so many? an expected flood of retiring pilots is one reason and thousands of u.s. pilots are taking jobs overseas where pay is higher and demand is skyrocketing. u.s. military pilots are staying in the service longer and for civilians, becoming a pilot isn't cheap. just paying for aeronautical school could use new pilots were debts approaching $200,000 while the starting pay at a regional airline averaging just $25,000. >> we're going to have to address that problem and make sure we're paying pilots appropriately so they'll be trained here in the u.s., be able to have a job in the u.s. and have a livable wage in the u.s. >> reporter