our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: at st. thomas hospital in nashville, 71-year-old janet russell remains in intensive care, battling meningitis. >> to watch mom, shake, and grab her head in pain should not happen. >> reporter: her symptoms began in early september, a week after she received a common steroid injection for back pain. investigators believe the steroid was contaminated and came from the new england compounding center which shipped the vials to doctors and clinics in 23 states. now there have been eight deaths, among them, diana reid, last week. >> my heart is broken for the loss of my dear friend and for her husband and boys right now. >> reporter: so far, they are reporting the most cases, now 13,000 people may have been potentially exposed to the contaminated health care medication, and they warn people who received the injections between late june and september to get checked. fungal meningitis cannot be spread, the symptoms are sickness, confusion, an inability to maintain balance. >> the incubation period i

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> and not to be outdone by a guy free falling from the edge of space with no aircraft and breaking the sound barrier, chuck yaeger, who broke the sound barrier, now is 89 and did it yesterday for good measure, he was at the controls to remember his anniversary. he was in a two-seat aircraft he pushed the throttle up and over the once mythical mark. >>> still ahead for us tonight, alternative therapies, now considered essential by a lot of doctors because their patients have demanded it. >>> and later, a rare interview with ethel kennedy, and a family member 50 years ago when the americans feared their world would be coming to an end. >>> tonight, we kick off a series of reports on medicine called "what is the alternative"? in fact for decades, we used that alternative medicine, in fact so common now we use the name, complimentary, to use the practice. and a lot of it has simply been demanded by patients from their doctors. our report from chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: this breast cancer survivor, diana miller, has been t

and for that, we want to go to tom costello. in our d.c. bureau. tom? >> reporter: hi, brian. american airlines is tonight saying it is going to ground all 48 of the suspect 757s that had those seats that were coming disconnected. many of them are in the air right now. they will be grounded as soon as they land. the airline says its mechanics now believe they've discovered the real problem that caused some seats to become disconnected from the floor. something called the seat rock plunger mechanism wasn't properly holding the seats down. it was just last night american said it had finished inspecting all 48 planes and returned them to service. now, they're coming back out of service. to make some adjustment. this will mean some delays and cancellations as the airline accommodates customers. american hopes to have the repairs completed by this weekend. brian? >> imagine their surprise when all those customers and aircraft land tonight. tom costello in our d.c. newsroom. >>> now out to california. of course, the driving capital of the world where the problem concerns gasoline. b

nbc, tom costello covers aviation. he is with us again >> reporter: hi, brian, after cancelling 150 flights, four more today, the airline says it is running normally tonight. and the last of the 757s will be back to work. the airline mechanics looked closely at the locking pin. they claim that wear and tear, as well as something called cokeing, as in the soft drink as in the soft drink, you know what happens when you spill that on a keyboard? american says that the years of the drink gummed up on the pins, keeping them from locking down. the 757s are at least 15-20 years old. the faa reports no other airlines have had this happen to them and their seats. and the faa is also looking at whether or not the seats were installed incorrectly after they were recently moved by mechanics. >> hard to believe that the beverages got together and decided to take effect right now. tom costello in our washington bureau, thank you. >>> and an update on the outbreak of a rare form of meningitis, caused by steroid injections that are us

our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: they were initially rolled out as the state-of-the-art upgrades at the tsa airports, so-called background machines that searched passengers for weapons and explosives. despite word from the tsa and the scientific community that the radiation levels are very low and safe, many travellers have remained concerned. >> it has always been an issue for women, especially if there is pregnant women going through, the body scanners. >> reporter: the tsa supervisors have also complained to nbc news that the screeners have broken down, causing long delays at the checkpoints. today, the tsa announced the back scanner scanners are coming out of some airports, including jfk and l.a.x., and moved to smaller airports, to be replaced by the wave scanners, using radio waves instead of radiation. the tsa says it is an effort to insure the most efficient and effective use of security technology and should speed things along at the big tsa checkpoints. meanwhile, at newark airport, some have been fired or suspended after an internal investigation found they we

nbc's tom costello is at reagan airport this morning for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this place is abandoned. behind me normally you'd see a lot of planes on the ramp. this morning there isn't a plane to be seen anywhere because they pulled them all out of here. they don't want to take any risks at all with planes getting hit by this storm. let me show you a website we watch very closely, i'll show you what happened yesterday at about 5:00 p.m., this website shows real live airline traffic over the skies at any one time. you can see at 5:00 yesterday we had tremendous traffic over the skies of the eastern seaboard. now take a look at the live view of flight radar 24.com. you can see it has emptied out dramatically over the last few hours. whatever few planes are still on the east coast, they're also going to get out of harm's way as fast as they can because of the danger that sandy poses, not just, of course torques the passengers, but physically to those airplanes. we have right now according to our stats about 7,500 flights c

tom costello. >> reporter: more trouble for american airlines. first, a boston to miami flight had to make an emergency landing sunday after several rows of seats came loose. the airline says new seats had been installed and the track may have been defective, forcing the pilots to radio in an emergency. >> during climbout, rows, passenger seats rows 12 "d," "e" and "f" came loose out of the floor. passengers are unable to sit in that seat. >> reporter: then today more seats came loose on a new york to miami flight that had to turn back. the airline is now proactively inspecting six more 757s. yet another black eye as the bankrupt airlines on-time arrival numbers plunging from 82% in september 2011 to just 58% this september. compared to 86% at southwest. and 88% at delta. american blames the slowdown on union pilots writing up trivial maintenance issues. the pilots blame the airlines' old planes. but passengers are losing their patience. from chicago -- >> if they don't fly i don't have a status on another airline. so it's a big issue for me. >>

tom costello. >>> and coming up, what happened on a texas highway in the news for high speed. >>> one of the world's most active volcanos, kilauea, in hawaii, now continuing to rise, providing us with a spectacular new show, the lava numbers continuing to rise spilling over the side. >>> we reported last night about the new highway in texas, with the highest speed limit in the land, didn't take long for the first wreck, single car rollover, resulting in minor injuries, not known if speed was a factor. there were three instances of vehicles hitting wildlife on the highway, but the sheriff says that was more common. >>> this photo appeared around the country a week ago, emotional and inspiring, showing 93-year-old frank tanabe, a japanese-american world war ii veteran, filling out the application to vote on his death bed. he passed away yesterday, surrounded by family under care in honolulu. his family said he was determined to vote as one last act of being a patriot. >>> up next here tonight, what is old is new again, people turning to the skills of the past for a happier future. >>> p

it's where we begin tonight with nbc's tom costello, he's at miami international. tom, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. in fact, three incidents and no more. american says that by the end of the night, it will have finished inspecting 47 planes that could potentially have this problem. and it knows what the problem is. apparently a clamp was improperly installed on the base on the leg of a row of seats. in boston today, maintenance crews were removing the seats from several american 757s to make more leg room after seats on two other planes came loose from the track in mid flight, first on a trip from vail to dallas last week. mechanics thought they fixed it, then on saturday it happened again on the same plane flying from boston to miami. the pilot declared an emergency and diverted to new york. >> the seat is loose, we don't want that thing flying around and hurting the passengers behind them. >> reporter: then monday it happened on another 757 flying from new york to miami. >> rows 14 a, b and c are totally disconnected. >> reporter: disconn

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> and not to be out done by a guy free falling from the edge of space with no aircraft and breaking the sound barrier, chuck yaeger, who broke the sound barrier, now is 89 and did it yesterday for good measure, he was at the controls to remember his anniversary. he pushed the throttle up and over the once mystic mark. >>> and.sdemanding a treatment. >>> and later, a rare interview with ethel kennedy, and a family member 50 years ago when the americans feared their world would be coming to an end. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... advanced headlights... and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ has become boring and tasteless... only one man can save the day. kellogg's crunchy nut! ♪ sweet and nutty crunchy nut! [ male announcer ] honey sweet flakes with nuts in every bite. it's s

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nbc's tom costello has the latest from reagan national. m, any sign that flights are going to get back to normal any time soon and what about amtrak, the rest of the whole northeast corridor? >> yes, but, but, but. here we go. yes at reagan national airport. yes at dulles. behind me it looks empty and it is. u.s. airways has shut down operations again at reagan national today not because we have any damage here but because trying to get up to the northeast up to the new york city area and boston, there's no point. those airports are closed. let me give you stats real fast here. 6,127p flights canceled today. today. 6,127. and systemwide, since they started shutting down flights over the weekend because of sandy, 16,000 flights. we're talking hundreds of thousands of people inconvenienced. i want to show you quickly a photo we got out of laguardia airport and this will tell you why they have shut down air traffic in new york. look at laguardia. it is under water. they've got significant flooding in laguardia. also significant damage as well

tom costello there in miami this morning. thanks, tom. >>> six crew members have been arrested after a boat and a ferry collided in hong kong killing at least 37 people as they headed to a holiday fireworks display. it's hong kong's worst accident in more than a decade. the ferry did not sink, and it finished its journey after the collision. more than 100 people were rescued from the sinking boat and search and rescue efforts are still under way. >>> crews are working to repair damaged railroad tracks in california's central valley where at least 20 passengers were injured after a tractor trailer hit an amtrak train. two passenger cars and a locomotive were slammed off the tracks. investigators are working to determine if the crash was caused by driver error. >>> let's head to wall street and cnbc's mandy drury is at the new york stock exchange. mandy, what's this about american express paying back some of its customers. >> reporter: absolutely, natalie. listen up, if you have an american express card because amex will refund

tom costello has all the latest. good evening, tom. >> hi, larry.the words for the centers for disease control as many as 13,000 people across the country may have received one of these contaminated steroid injections coming from this one company up in new england. now they're trying to figure out who may have gotten one of these injections and get the word out for them to follow-up with doctors as soon as possible. 23 states in total received shipments from the new england compounding center. 105 confirmed cases as of now, 8 confirmed deaths, and most of those or at least a good number of them are in tennessee where they have four deaths. the focus, again, is on this company out of new england, the new england compounding center, which investigators now believe was producing a contaminated version of a steroid that has now gone across the country at least 17,000 different shipments, if you will, across the country. larry, back to you. >> all right. many thanks. nbc's tom costello. up next, mitt romney unveils his foreign policy strategy with strong

tom costello has the latest. good morning. >> natalie, good morning to you. these drinks are very popular because of the jolt people get, especially when they're trying to stay awake, but caffeine, as you know, is a stimulant. and because these are considered dietary supplements, they don't fall under fda regulation. >> reporter: the headlines this week have been full of warnings about the caffeine levels in those high energy drinks. popular with high school and college kids. now consumer reports is out this morning with its own investigation into the real caffeine levels in the drinks and those drinks that don't specify caffeine levels. consumer reports tested 27 products and found that five of the cans that list caffeine actually have levels at least 20% higher than what their labels indicated. and 11 of the products don't specify their caffeine levels at all. since they're considered a dietary supplement, they're not required to. >> it's important for people to understand what they're buying and drinking. and if that information is not even available on th

here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: they were initially rolled out as a state-of-the-art upgrade at tsa check points. so-called back scanner machines that used tiny amounts of radiation to search passengers for weapons and explosives. despite assurances from the tsa and the scientific community that the radiation levels are very low and safe many travelers have remained concerned. >> it's always been an issue for women especially if there are pregnant women going through the body scanners. >> tsa supervisors have also complained to nbc news that the back scatter machines tend to break down causing long delays at check points. tsa announced the scanners are coming out of some major airports and moved to smaller airports. to be replaced by millimeter wave scanners that use radio waves instead of radiation. tsa says it is an effort to assure the eefficient and most effective use of security technology and should speed things along at big tsa check points. at newark airport 52 tsa screeners and managers have been fired or suspended after an internal investigation found they weren't f

tom costello is live at reagan national with the latest on the flight cancellations. mprovement at all, tom? >> yeah, big-time improvement at least here in those airports outside of the new york city area we're seeing improvement. i just checked the flight status board at reagan national airport. i'm guessing 80% of the flights look like they're leaving today. those that aren't are generally headed to new york. look behind me, we've got delta planes on the ramp. we haven't had that the last few days. i've seen american, united, u.s. airways, jetblue, air tran, all the big players here at this particular airport are back and we are glad to see that. here is the rolling tally so far of how many cancellations we've had. 19,500 over the course of this storm. 7,000 flights cancelled tuesday. here's what we look at so far today. 2800 flights as of this moment but that is likely to change. of course the biggest problem is new york city. we do have jfk as well as newark airport open, but they are operating on a very limited basis, largely only looking at cargo flights rand try

. >> tom costello with the transportation angle tonight for you. >>> still ahead as nbc nightly news continues, hurricane sandy, an october surprise leaving both presidential campaigns scrambling, nine days until the election, and nowhere is that more evidence than here in virginia. a critical swing state now even more up in the air. we'll be back. for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels have been seen with nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. talk to your doctor about nexium. >>> some folks riding the waves here along the virginia beach. the storm surge now moving in this area. this monster storm is an october surprise, the likes of which we have never seen before, the closing days of a presidential race, it's already having an affect on both sides. peter alexander is traveling with the romney campaign tonight. he's in marion, ohio. peter good evening. >> reporter: the storm has already shaken

tom costello joins us from reagan national airport.fect. >> reporter: in the last hour and a half we went from wearing a light fleece to a full winter jacket. the winds picked up. it is really cold. behind me, on the ramp, we have a lot of planes out here. they are going to be leaving and probably not coming back tonight. we are looking at 1200 flight cancellations. so far, along the east coast a total of four and a half to 5,000. according to the airport staff, we draw your attention to philadelphia airports. we have significant delays tonight from anywhere to an hour to two or three hours for inbound flights because they are having a hard time getting there from their original point of departure. united, delta, jetblue, all the big boys, seven hubs affected by the storm. let me show you another website. this is flight radar 24. it shows you all the planes in the skies right now over north america. you are going to see the east coast of the united states. this radar with all the planes will become really empty sometime tonight or into

nbc's tom costello monitored the mission. he joins us from washington with more. >> the team says that felix baumgartner broke the record for the highest jump ever, the highest free fall and he broke the sound barrier at mach 1. >> felix disconnect the oxygen hose. >> reporter: there he was at 128,000 feet, standing quite literally on the edge of space, preparing to do what no one had done before, with his mom watching from mission control, 43-year-old felix baumgartner offered a few words most most part to understood. then he was gone, beginning a terrifying supersonic dive from 24 miles up. a white dot as he quickly passed 700 miles an hour. >> speed 720 miles an hour. >> reporter: the scene began well before sun rise as they prepared felix. baumgartner is no novice he's made harrowing dumps before from 15 and 18 miles up. but today was about breaking a free fall record that has stood since 1960. the former austrian military paratrooper faced instant death. he told jay leno that fear is healthy. this morning after a brief b

tom costello standing by at reagan national airport outside d.c., in northern is virginia.u. which areas of new york city are going to have to be evacuated? >> craig, it's the areas known as evacuation a. this is zone a. that is the lower part of manhattan. these low lying areas here in battery park city at the southern tip of manhattan south of the world trade center. also in boroughs like brooklyn along the waterline. about 375,000 people living located in that's evacuation zone a. they are being told to leave by 6:00, 7:00 tonight. we have interviewed a few people here today, talked to them. they're packing up their items, heading outside of the city. other people who are located in hotels down here are moving up town to areas there if there are rooms available. so there is a big scramble going on now. it's starting to sort of build in this area. it's been relatively calm here in terms of the weather. we're starting to see a little bit of a change here. a lot of people coming to look at this area. tonight there will be a shift in the sentiment. that's because the mass tr

let's go to tom costello as reagan national airport with more on that side of the story. articular area of the country that is getting hit by sandy. you can roll a bowling ball down there and not hit anybody. it's that way at reagan national airport, dulles and many others along the east coast. i want to tell you we just got word from the authority authority in new york, new jersey that they have reports of flooding up on to the runways at laguardia airport and we've heard that may be happening at jfk airport in new york. as this water moves inland you can see what's happening to the manger airports. here's the total flight cancellation so far. we're approaching 9,000. 8962 at this hour according to flightaware.com. the number tomorrow is right now at 2,500 but it's going to be growing as the day and the days go forward. the airports affected it is reagan where we are. dulles. baltimore. philadelphia as well as the new york city area. newark, laguardia, jfk. we believe that we've also got issues up in hartford because of all of the travel and the traffic that's been pulled

tom costello, covering the story for us. thanks, tom. >>> now to israel where a young american man opened fire in a southern resort town. nbc's martin fletcher has more from tel aviv. martin, good morning. >> reporter: hi, natalie, good morning. well, it seemed this was an argument that went sadly too far. a young american man in his 20s was in the hotel, the leonardo club hotel in eilat israel south. had an argument with a hotel employee that went too far. a security guard came over to try to break up the argument. the american man grabbed the guard's gun and started shooting and killed a man. he then ran away. imagine the panic in the hotel, jewish holiday, hotel full of tourists. the man hid in the hotel kitchen. the police came, a large contingent of police rushed to the hotel. there was a shootout of some kind and the police killed the young american man. we don't know the american's name. we don't know where he came from or what the argument was about, but, again, as i say, it didn't start out as any kind of planned att

tom costello in miami for us. thanks, tom. >> six crew members have been arrested after a boat and ferry collided in hong kong killing at least 38 people as they headed to a holiday fireworks display. it's hong kong's worst accident in more than 15 years. the ferry did not sink and finished its journey. more than 100 people were rescued from the sinking boat and search and rescue efforts are under way. >> crews are working to repair damaged tracks where at least 20 passengers were injured after a tractor-trailer hit an amtrak train. two passenger cars and locomotive were slammed off the tracks. investigators are working to determine if the crash was caused by driver error. >> let's head to wall street. mandy is at the stock exchange. what's this about american express paying back customers? >> absolutely. listen up if you have an american express card because it will refund $85 million to 250,000 customers for allegedly deceiving and overcharging those card users. wall street kicked off the quarter with a modest r

nbc's tom costello has been looking into this story. morning to you. >> reporter: hi, savannah. not talking about small time storefront operations that can steal hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. we're talking about suspects who steal tens of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, money that's meant to help the poor, retirees, even children with autism. in queens, new york, a pre-dawn raid. federal agents targeting six people accused of ripping off the government's health care system for nearly $12 million. >> good job. >> reporter: more agents from the hhs inspector general's office descend on a medical clinic owned by the suspects, searching room by room for fraudulent billing documents, hidden computer files and stolen medicare numbers. >> this looks to be like adult day care. >> reporter: investigators say the scheme involved luring senior citizens to the clinic by giving them free meals as well as music, computer and dance lessons all in exchange for their medicare numbers, numbers then

. >> reporter: tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> right now, outrage from parents after a stabbingde a school cafeteria. >>> the trial got under way for two officers accused of beating a university of maryland student. >>> and d.c. is already planning for winter weather that could be headed our way this year. >>> i'm doreen gentzler. >> i'm jim vance of the we begin tonight with the presidential race. george washington university, "washington post," they have all brand-new polls out today. the conclusion is pretty muc

nbc's tom costello is at rage abe national airport which, by the way, is back in business this morninging. >> reporter: good morning, matt. systemwide another 2,600 flight cancellations today. that brings the total now to about 18,000. behind me though, this airport is bubbling to life. look out the window. we've got a couple of planes on the ramp here which is nice to see. the real problem though remains new york city. we have got newark airport and jfk on limited operations today, and laguardia remains closed. day three of a massive travel nightmare, and so much of it centers on new york city. flooding everywhere. the subway closed. the new jersey/new york p.a.t.h. train under water, and this, the big apple's three airports all struggling. floodwaters at laguardia were right up to the jet bridges. >> runways are flooded, and there are no flights leaving or arriving. how much damage was done to the navigation equipment and lighting around them, we don't know yet. >> reporter: with new york and the northeast accounting for roughly a quarter of all u.s. air traffic every day, hundreds o

nbc's tom costello is with us via skype from san antonio, texas. tom, good morning what. can you tell us. >> reporter: savannah, good morning to you. you may remember back in march we did an investigation on the "today" show looking at the high caffeine energy drinks that are specifically targeted to young people, to high school people, college students, and we talked about a 14-year-old who died last december after going into cardiac arrest, and the official cause of her death was cardiac arrhythmia due to caffein toxicity. well, new as her mother prepared to sue the maker of the drink, monster, the fda is saying that a total of five people may have died over the last three years after drinking monster energy drinks. monster says it's unaware of any fatality anywhere that may have been caused by these drinks, but in the 23 hours before anais' cardiac arrest she had consumed two 24-ounce monster energy drinks, with five times the amount of caffeine that kids should cink at that age and she had an underlying heart ailment called mitral valve prolapse. the doctors said that

tom costello tells us about the death defying plunge. >> reporter: there he was at 128,000 feet standingally on the edge of space preparing to do what no one had done before. with his mom watching from mission control, 43-year-old felix baumgartner offered a few words most hard to understand. >> the whole world is watching us. >> reporter: and then he was gone. beginning a terrifying super sonic dive from 24 miles up. a white dot as he quickly passed 700 miles per hour. the day began well before sunrise in roswell, new mexico, as the red bull stratus team laid out the paper thin balloon and fearless felix zipped in to his capsule. he's made harrowing jumps before. in brazil, croatia, from 15 and 18 miles high. but sunday's mission was about breaking a free-fall record that had stood since 1960 when joe kittinger jumped from 19 1/2 miles high and also breaking the sound barrier. if his suit tore, the former austrian military paratrooper faced instant death. he was a guest on the "today" show earlier this year. >> well, i like the challenge. i always like to work on projects where i have t

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