Friday's forecast

Somewhere near the top of the broadcast on this sparkling Friday here in New York, we will take on the rather grim and serious topic of protecting our national treasure: the men and women fighting under our flag in Iraq and Afghanistan. The issue is body armor... it was the topic of a Pentagon briefing today, and we'll package it all together for you tonight.  We'll also look at the strange first statements yesterday (in the view of some) by Jill Carroll, the journalist who had been held for more 80 days in Iraq. We'll take a look at the back story tonight.

Additionally, more of those 9/11 tapes were released today. They tell the story of a lot of things: confusion, courage, and ultimately great tragedy. Tonight we'll also look at the situation in New Orleans as the start date of the new hurricane season suddenly looms before us all.

Dawn Fratangelo will have our report on what so many considered an outlandish item on page one of today's New York Times (there's also a good version of the story in today's Los Angeles Times) about the power of prayer. The thesis of the study quoted? Prayer doesn't always help. The problem with that is obvious... especially for those of us who have prayed for someone, and those of us who have been the grateful recipients of the sincere and overwhelming faith-filled efforts of others. It's controversial, to say the least.

Then again, so were John Dean's words on President Bush today.

We have two stories from the workforce tonight: one on a disturbing trend, the other an inspiration. 

We'll close out the broadcast tonight with a good, old-fashioned public service. Tomorrow is April Fool's Day. Many will be fooled, as many have been in years past. Some efforts have been more brilliant and elaborate than others... and tonight we have rare footage of the event largely considered to be the Grandaddy of them all. It's my personal favorite.

It's a good broadcast planned for tonight, and we hope you can join us. We also hope you have a good weekend.