As I write this post, we are about to depart the Dead Sea Marriott (where three networks, NBC News, Fox and CBS, have gathered to interview Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) for our headquarters in Amman. Our conversation with the Secretary went well -- though she has the most disciplined command of "message" of anyone I've encountered in public life. In plain English, the Secretary is not about to break news unless her intent is to break news. She preferred the word "challenge" over "crisis" to describe the current state of things in Iraq, and she scoffed at any mention of the "s" word (snub) to describe yesterday's cancellation of the meeting between the President and the Iraqi Prime Minister.

We will air much of the conversation tonight, along with our review of the news in this region, capped off by the President's meeting and press conference. David Gregory will have that story, while Richard Engel will catch the Iraqi angle, having talked to al-Maliki here today. Andrea Mitchell has a crucial role tonight: reporting on what is known about the so-called Baker Group, and what it will recommend.

Also today, outside this region, the Soviet/Russian/Britain spy poisoning story has expanded yet again. We will gather up the new and rather astounding moving parts.

And remember the dire predictions about Hurricane season 2006?  Didn't happen. Tonight we'll look at what happened instead.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT THE DEAD SEA...
A bit of color: Fox went before us in the interview order, and their correspondent tried awfully hard to continue the interview with a straight face... after the conversation was interrupted... by a cat. The pool/beach-front deck at the Dead Sea Marriott is a sea of cats. At one table, we counted four felines, each of them seated in a different chair. These cats are of a tough and saucy breed. They have visible swagger. It's close to a strut, actually. One of them made off with the sandwich that had been the intended lunch of the CBS cameraman. The cats, as far as I could tell, run the place. When our cameraman tried to apprehend the cat that had been running around the interview, the cat objected loudly and clawed at him. Finally, after another cat interruption, a member of the security detail that surrounds the Secretary picked up the cat and tossed it off the patio, as several of us looked on, certain that this was a first in the annals of Secretary of State interviews. We're pretty sure the offending cat landed on its feet and is resting comfortably tonight.
                                                   

More color: the four-lane highway from Amman to the Dead Sea is a majestic drive, full of neck-snapping confluences. It occurred to me, in what most Americans would describe as "the middle of nowhere," that I was conducting a crystal-clear, uninterrupted cell phone call with our New York newsroom -- something that is impossible on my daily commute to work back home. Along the way, we stopped the car to greet two men and their camels. I wasn't quite sure what to say to the men or the camels, but it felt like something to stop the car for. Like the cellphone service here, it was different from the daily commute back home.

We're now back on the road to Amman. We will try our level best to sort out this wide-ranging story in this complex region. We hope you can join us for our Thursday night broadcast from Amman.

Photo caption: Brian appreciates another mode of transportation in Jordan. Photo by NBC's Subrata De.

Brian anchors again tonight from Amman, Jordan, where President Bush met with the prime minister of Iraq this morning. Brian talked to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Dead Sea Marriott after the summit and delivered this vlog moments before the interview.

Click here or on the image to watch.

As Air Force One heads back to the U.S. after President Bush's meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, there was another side of the White House on display today. It involved chicken fried steak with white onion gravy, herb roasted lollipop lamb chops, asparagus in an aioli sauce and much more.

This marks the annual beginning of the holiday season at the White House. So the first lady brought along the chief florist, the greeting card decorators, the invitation designers and the chefs. The purpose: to introduce holiday themes and food, of course, to the members of the salivating press corps who were not on the trip. All this at 10:30 this morning.

There will be 25 White House holiday receptions this year and someone had to sample the food, so why not the media? Besides the items already mentioned were other entrees such as stuffed turkey breasts and sugar cured Virginia Ham. Desserts included chocolate truffles, Christmas log and red hat box mascarpone cake. The Christmas theme resonated along the State Floor corridors. A trio of Marine musicians played holiday music.

The decorations this year were inspired by the Red Room. The White House holiday program says: "It is difficult to imagine the gravity of Christmas 1941. Just a few weeks earlier Imperial Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into the Second World War." And since the president's traditional lighting of the Christmas Tree was a possible air raid target, the Secret Service asked President Roosevelt to cancel the ceremony.

This being Washington, there was a compromise -- the tree lighting was moved to the south grounds. The Red Room is near the south balcony, where in 1941 President Roosevelt and visiting Winston Churchill addressed 15,000 people who had gathered in the darkness.

Today, first lady Laura Bush was asked what her message was to families of military personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. She acknowledged that there was a big burden on their shoulders and said the nation was grateful for their service. "The families bear the deep burden of worry over the holidays and the American people stand with them."

Another season of contrasts...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's first task on returning to Baghdad after his summit with President Bush was to convene a press conference and ask Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political wing in the Iraqi parliament to end their boycott and return to the political process.

Al- Maliki needs them to preserve his fragile coalition of Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and secularists. After a suitable period – days or weeks – al-Sadr's men will probably comply. They cannot continue to run the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and key government departments forever without government funding.

Editor's note: Click here to read the rest of Tom Aspell's post in our sister Web log, Blogging Baghdad.

This city has taken on a different feel this week -- more roadblocks at the airport, more sudden traffic stoppages on the streets, more troops and military vehicles on patrol. There are obvious security concerns here because of the number of dignitaries visiting. We changed planes in Paris and were stunned to read news of the Hadley memorandum on our BlackBerries. I've just discussed it with David Gregory (who is across town from me at the President's hotel) and Richard Engel, who is here alongside me on his laptop at a converted dining room table at the hotel we are using in Amman. Richard just gave our small team his latest briefing on Iraq, and it was sobering.

We'll begin with the news from here: not just the leaked administration memo, but the decision to put off the talks between President Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister until tomorrow morning. As Engel warned us: don't be surprised to see some manifestation of the famous Iraqi pride. We are already seeing that in part, in what aides to al-Maliki are saying about why they canceled tonight's session.

We'll hear from David, Richard, Miklaszewski and Russert on this moment in history -- the history of this region and the involvement of the United States.

Pete Williams will report tonight on the intersection of global warming and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ned Colt will report on this new chapter of the spy story in the United Kingdom -- the three British Airways aircraft said to have tested positive for the highly dangerous nuclear substance that killed the former Soviet spy.

And I will do some reporting for tonight's broadcast on the part of Amman that now feels like Baghdad, due to the high number of Iraqis who have fled here. Seeing an Iraqi license plate on a car in Amman used to be exceedingly rare. It no longer is.

There is another news item that we're watching coverage of on SKY News right now -- the sad word that the infant son of British Chancellor Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, Fraser Brown, has apparently been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. The couple lost a child a few years ago, in a heartbreak that played out all too publicly. Just today they announced this diagnosis, which has apparently been known to them since July. I was able to spend some time during the last year with the Chancellor, in Africa and elsewhere, and I know how much joy this four-month-old child has brought to their lives... this is a sad story indeed.

We will stay here in Amman for as long as it takes for this story to play out. We hope you can join us for the broadcast from here tonight.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from Amman, Jordan, where President Bush is meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. While Brian and his camera crew gather stories in the field, NBC's Richard Engel, also in Amman for the summit, delivers today's vlog.

Click here or on the image to watch.

This will have to be quick today, as my office floor is strewn with the detritus of a trip to Amman, Jordan, which starts the minute tonight's broadcast is over. We are hoping New York City traffic cooperates, allowing us to get to JFK in time for our departure. It will be tight. Much of the top of tonight's newscast has to do with the subject we'll encounter once we arrive: Iraq. The President's meeting is tomorrow, and the outcome is uncertain. Richard Engel has pre-positioned in Amman, and is among those we will talk to tonight, including David Gregory and Jim Miklaszewski. Additionally, Keith Miller is covering the Pope's trip to Turkey, and Robert Bazell has an interesting story tonight about a common piece of heart hardware that may actually pose a kind of danger: medicated stents. And we have a piece that we believe is unique to us tonight: could YOU pass the new citizenship test? It's brand new... no one has seen it, and yet there are protests about the effect it MIGHT have on who we allow into the United States. We'll have it all on tonight's broadcast.

We hope you can join us tonight from New York, and tomorrow night from Amman.

Iraq will once again likely lead the broadcast tonight. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski has noticed a shift in the administration's language when talking about the fighting. In today's vlog, Brian previews that story and reveals where he'll anchor from tomorrow night. Click here or on the image to watch.

HAVANA - While in Cuba on assignment to cover Fidel Castro's health, U.S.-Cuban relations and the politically complicated efforts to restore Ernest Hemingway's home (a story that will air on a future Nightly News broadcast), I took some time for a more personal mission and was quite moved by the goodwill of the people I met along the way.

My wife, who is Cuban-American, asked me to try to locate her childhood home in a village about two hours from Havana. Her family moved from there to the Cuban capital in 1960, after the revolution. She then emigrated to the United States alone in 1970, returning only once, in 1980, to retrieve her mother and two brothers during the Mariel boat lift. Quite understandably, her memory of the place had faded a bit.

Click here to read the rest of Mark's reporter's notebook.

I am posting today from a black van on the Jersey Turnpike, heading back from a memorial service for a member of the extended NBC News family. Some viewers may have noticed a small graphic at the conclusion of Friday's broadcast, marking the death of Jean Capus, the mother of NBC News President Steve Capus. We had a large delegation there today, in support of our friend and his family.
                                                   
We have just concluded our afternoon editorial meeting, which our traveling delegation monitored by speakerphone from the road. The top of the broadcast is in a bit of flux, and some of it will depend on the readout we will get from David Gregory, who has spent much of the day on board Air Force One with the President. The aircraft has landed in Estonia, and the "en route" reporting is trickling out right now.

We'll update the situation in Iraq, where today the curfew was lifted. We will also reference our decision today (after much consultation over the weekend with our colleagues, fellow journalists, historians, analysts and members of the military, both present and former) to describe the fighting in Iraq as a Civil War. We believe it is a more accurate reflection of what is happening there, and there was a fair amount of reaction to the decision today... even though a number of news organizations have already made a similar call.
                                    
Also tonight, we will cover the story dominating the news in New York -- the fatal police shooting that resulted in 50 rounds being fired. We'll look at retail sales, and we will continue our series on "What Works."

We hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

Editor's note: For more on NBC's decision to characterize the situation in Iraq a Civil War, click here. And for additional insight from NBC Middle East Bureau Chief Richard Engel, please click here.

On. Nov. 28, 1994, the notorious necrophiliac and cannibalistic murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered by another inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wis.

Dahmer was found guilty in 1991 of 15 counts of murder and sentenced to 15 life terms - one of the harshest sentences ever imposed in Wisconsin's legal history. Dahmer met his fate along with inmate Jesse Anderson at the hands of Christopher Scarver, who beat both of the men to death while they were on unsupervised work detail.

Dahmer's remains were cremated and, because of an argument between his parents, were divided in half between his birth mother Joyce, and his father and stepmother, Lionel and Shari.

Many of Dahmer's haunts had become as infamous as the murders he committed, making a return to normalcy very difficult, particularly for the families of his victims. In fact, the Oxford Apartments, where Dahmer had lived and committed the murders, were ultimately demolished because of the great notoriety surrounding the case.

Here, NBC Correspondent Dawn Fratangelo recalls covering Dahmer's murder and the sense of hope it seemed to instill in the community scarred by his infamy:

Jeffrey Dahmer's macabre murder spree shook the country, the world even, and especially the folks of the Midwest.  The neighborhood where he lived in Milwaukee and the bars where he would prey on young boys and men became notorious landmarks.  I remember the NBC News crew going out of its way to show me the landmarks the first time I traveled with the crew to Milwaukee. 

"That's where Jeffrey Dahmer used to hang out," the cameraman said.

I was with that same crew as we drove to Portage, Wis., to cover the breaking news that Jeffrey Dahmer had been killed in prison. The crew had covered his trial and sentencing.  I had not since they took place before I became the correspondent in our Midwest bureau in Chicago.  But during the few hours it took to get to the prison, local talk radio made it clear how the Midwest felt about Dahmer's fateful ending.  Maybe -- they were saying on the radio -- the infamy would end.

The atmosphere around the prison did not reflect the frenzy surrounding Dahmer's murder or the ones he had committed.  In fact, the landscape was bucolic almost -- rolling, rural hills and a pretty, white clapboard house were just across the road from the neatly structured brick prison.  How odd, I remember thinking.  What a long way from the hell that Dahmer had created in his apartment-turned-dungeon. 

Information soon trickled out that an inmate had killed Dahmer and another notorious convict housed in the maximum-security prison.  The three had been part of a work crew apparently left unmonitored by guards for 20 minutes.  That raised eyebrows, leading some to believe the killing was allowed to happen.  The inmate accused was a black man. Many of Dahmer's victims had been minorities or the underprivileged.  The other convict killed had falsely accused a black man of the murder he was actually responsible for.  And so it seemed "prison justice" had prevailed inside the walls.

Some of the family members of Dahmer's victims voiced vindication, satisfaction and relief.  After a few days -- the talk radio chatter about Dahmer grew fainter.  And I kept thinking about that atmosphere and landscape surrounding the prison:  quiet, calm, peaceful.  It seemed to reflect what the Midwest so wanted to return to.  The nightmarish reign of Jeffrey Dahmer was over.

Watch Dawn's Nov. 28, 1994 report

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but NBC's Robert Bazell delivers today's vlog, focusing on the remarkable story he's reporting -- about an 11-year-old boy who is using an ancient technique to cope with the pain of cancer.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Chris Botek and his parents, Francis and Margaret Botek, of Crystal Spring Tree Farm present first lady Laura Bush with the National Christmas Tree. The Botek's children and grandchildren are riding in the back of the cart with the tree. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

There is a rhythm in Washington as November slowly becomes December, and that rhythm is perpetuated by annual holiday events. Today at the White House a horse drawn wagon plodded up the northwest driveway and delivered for the Christmas season a 18 1/2 ft. Douglas fir that will sit in the White House Blue Room. Welcoming the wagon was first lady Laura Bush and White House staffers who will begin decorating the tree later today.

Similarly, the tree that will sit on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol was also delivered today, a half hour before the one for the White House -- not that there's any significance there. The Capitol tree, however -- is grander -- a 65-foot Douglas fir that was trucked in from the National Forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It comes complete with 10,000 lights and 3,000 ornaments.

And soon there will be a third tree -- supposedly the grandest of all -- the National Christmas Tree. It will be lit Dec. 7 on the Ellipse, south of the White House grounds. The president and the first lady will do the honors, illuminating the tree for this year's Pageant of Peace.

So in a city of monuments and memorials, every December brings holiday trees that embrace a common theme -- peace... a theme worth noting as 2006 draws to an end.

There was more violence in Iraq today... after one of the bloodiest weeks in this war so far.  What can Iraq and the U.S. do to stop the violence?  NBC's Tom Aspell has the latest tonight from Baghdad.  NBC's Kevin Corke will take a look at whether this conflict is now a "civil war"... or what would it take to make it a "civil war?"

We are also following the numbers this big holiday shopping weekend.  NBC's Rehema Ellis will have them and explain what they mean for retailers.  Plus, if you're shopping for one of those new flat-panel high-definition television sets, we'll tell you why their prices have dropped so dramatically and give you advice on what to look for.

Plus, the new English language version of Al Jazeera debuted 10 days ago.  But it's not getting a warm welcome here in the U.S.  Why does this channel spark outrage among many Americans?

And CNBC's Jim Goldman tells us why bird watching has become big business.

It's all coming up tonight.  We hope to see you then.

Editor's note: This profile will air tonight, Fri., Nov. 24, so I'm elevating Al's post from last week.

Every so often while I'm out on a story someone will ask me, "Who are the best people to interview?" I've done thousands of interviews, with people from all stations and stages of life. I have a special place in my heart for "ordinary" people, the folks who live off the beaten path, anonymously for the most part, because they usually don't hide their passions from anyone.

Once in a while, you find a real gem. Don Teague and I will bring you one such story tonight.

Deep in the piney woods of east Texas, we found Betty Lewing in Lufkin. Through a frankly horrible set of circumstances, she teaches remedial reading to those students who fell through the cracks of our education system. Seven years ago, her daughter was kidnapped and raped. While dealing with the pain and hurt, Betty was offered a job teaching reading to inmates in the Texas prison system. She took it, and soon discovered that many of the issues that put people in prison could be traced back to their lack of reading skills.

She was then offered a job at Lufkin High School, and has made it her mission to help those kids who really need it. "I believe that God led me on this direction," she told us. "This is where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do, because without his strength I could not make a difference. I would not have the patience that it takes."

Betty Lewing is very humble about her work. She says she's not doing anything that millions of other teachers aren't doing everyday, all over the world. But she is making a huge difference in the lives of students who truly need it.

"You love them unconditionally, and you accept them as they are, and if you truly can do that in your heart, then you can make a difference."

I've worked the Friday after Thanksgiving as long as I can remember. And as long as I can remember, it has always been a struggle to fill the half hour with news. Not tonight.
                                                                                       
First, there's the news from Iraq and the ongoing, deplorable violence there. I found it interesting to learn that in an attempt to restore calm after yesterday's awful massacre, it was reported that Iraqi television aired some of the favorite shows from the past -- dating back to the Saddam era -- in hopes that they would have a "soothing" effect and help to assist in the mourning process and restore the peace. Sadly, this new day brought new violence almost too deplorable to report. We will have two reports tonight.

We will also report on the spy story from London which has ended in mystery. Domestically, it's Black Friday for retailers (even though it's no longer the biggest retailing day). We will also cover a Congressional election in Florida that is far from settled. And with the movie "Bobby" now in theaters, we have a great story about the legendary Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

And we have a great MAKING A DIFFERENCE segment this Friday night.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
After spending 10 hours on the road yesterday, I feel a special closeness to my fellow road warriors out there. You know who you are, and there were a lot of you. To the guy who raced ahead to get one car length ahead of me at the merge in Nyack last night: Did you have to do that? I ended up passing you anyway. To all those who were stuck in the flooding on the Garden State Parkway Northbound at Exit 120: remember, you can take Route 35 straight north to the Turnpike interchange.      

To all those who are traveling today and tonight, including all of my wife's relatives headed to our house: travel safely. Enjoy the weekend. We hope you can join us for our Friday night broadcast, and I'll see you on Monday.

In my experience, I've found that our viewers are very savvy, and any veteran viewer could easily tell me at least one story they will see on tonight's broadcast: the Thanksgiving Eve Getaway! We're covering it a bit differently this year, but have no fear -- it will be there! We're also following two Iraq story lines (and will add our Thanksgiving mention of those fighting overseas), one of which involves the Marine Corps.

Also tonight, we will continue our reporting on the US Airways incident involving those Muslim passengers this week [Editor's note: this item was dropped from the broadcast lineup at 5:30 p.m.], and we have an interesting surveillance story from our own Lisa Myers. We will continue our week-long series "What Works" tonight with an aggressive and constructive anti-drunk driving effort.

And attention to all fellow parents of college students: We'll have a special item tonight of significance during Thanksgiving break.

RANDOM NOTES & GIVING THANKS
Thanks to all of you who took the time and trouble to watch Charlie Rose. Thanks especially to those who further took the time to write with nice comments.

And allow me to say the following on this Thanksgiving eve: I wish everyone in our audience could know the people I work with here at NBC News. There is something about this time of year that makes me feel especially thankful and indebted to them for their friendship and for how hard they work. While I will spend a good deal of tomorrow enjoying the scenery (and the good fellowship of my fellow drivers) along the New Jersey Turnpike, when the time comes to start the meal, I will give thanks as I do every year. And please join me in giving thanks for those who will spend this family holiday in the armed forces.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you will join us for tonight's broadcast. I ask that you all swing your loyalty toward Ann Curry, who is so generously filling in for me tomorrow. Ann, whose work from Africa last week was so brave and passionate, is also one of the nicest people in our business. I've been assured she'll be able to spend a big chunk of the day with her family. I will see you back here on Friday.   

Brian is back on the vlog today and previews a few of the stories we're working on. Click here or on the image to watch.

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. It is difficult if not impossible to offer new information on this historic incident -- a behind-the-scenes glimpse of one the most notorious assassinations in modern history. Yet, in spite of the depth and breadth of knowledge surrounding Kennedy's death, the intrigue remains.

Perhaps it is due to conspiracy theories that still abound; perhaps it is the pondering over the years about what could have been had Kennedy survived. More than four decades later, one thing is certain: Kennedy's assassination was a defining moment -- a tragedy experienced on a scale, and received at a speed, previously unknown.

Here, NBC News Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss offers his reflections upon the assassination and the days that followed, and discusses how Kennedy's murder became not just an infamous moment in history, but a turning point for the way news is delivered and consumed:

I was a 7-year-old at Western Avenue School in Flossmoor, Ill., that Friday afternoon when our teacher, Mrs. Larocca, astonishingly crying, announced that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.

Through the long weekend at home, my 5-year-old brother and I were glued to the television screen -- three days of funeral music, still photos of JFK as a childhood football player and Navy hero, the late President's two children, Caroline and John, who were almost the same age we were, beside their father's flag-adorned casket.

On Sunday morning, Nov. 24, I was watching NBC, the only one of the three networks that broadcast live Jack Ruby's attack on the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. (NBC's correspondent, the late Tom Pettit, was there at the Dallas jail.)

Walking into the next room, I told my mother that Oswald had just been shot. She said, "I'm going to turn off that television. You've been watching too much. Now you're making things up!"

TV was still so primitive that when NBC News first broke into the soap operas on Friday, correspondent Frank McGee had to repeat into the microphone what he was hearing by telephone from NBC's reporter in Dallas, Robert MacNeil (who later founded PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour). 

(Watch the clip of McGee and MacNeil trying to overcome technical difficulties)

MacNeil had just asked a slight young man outside the Texas School Book Depository to direct him to the nearest telephone. He later suspected that the man was Oswald himself, making his getaway.

With the retrospect of history, we can fully understand what a milestone that brutal televised weekend was. 1963 was the first year more Americans got their news from TV than newspapers, and JFK's murder hastened that process. 

It was also the first time that Americans were full participants in a national ordeal. When George Washington died in 1799, many Americans did not know it for weeks. When Lincoln was murdered in 1865, the new invention of the telegraph allowed them to learn the news almost simultaneously.

But thanks to the cathode ray tube, Americans experienced John Kennedy's murder in a far more primal way than earlier national tragedies like the Johnstown Flood or President McKinley's assassination. 

Americans too young to remember that day in 1963 might find John Kennedy an interesting or admirable historical figure. But having lacked the experience of living through our first truly national funeral on that long, televised, ugly weekend, most can't quite comprehend why many of us who did are still so affected by the trauma of his death.

Watch the NBC announcement of JFK's death

Watch Michael Beschloss on the Today show talk about tapes of Lyndon Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy shortly after JFK's death

Michael Beschloss is the author of several books, including:

• The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945
• Taking Charge (1997) and Reaching for Glory (2001), both about Lyndon Johnson
• Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance (1980)

Michael's newest title, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789 - 1989, is to be published by Simon and Schuster in May, 2007.

Editor's note: Our sister blog about politics, First Read, is eating turkey until Nov. 27, so Mike offers this to The Daily Nightly, which I gladly accept.

Nancy Pelosi has decided to pick up and move her suite of offices across National Statuary Hall to the space now occupied by GOP Speaker Hastert.

Democratic speakers and leaders have been in the suite where Pelosi is now situated for years. Pelosi herself has often marveled at how she finds herself in the same office used by one of her personal heroes, Tip O'Neill.

But construction on the Capitol Visitors Center has shrunk the space considerably, and though Pelosi was known to harbor desires to stay where she was, her staff was insistent. Plus, the Hastert space on the west side of the Capitol has a balcony that affords a dramatic view down the National Mall.

So it turns out that she really will need to measure the drapes. One thing that will definitely have to change is the motif. Speaker Hastert's office is done in all red.

That seemed to be the sub-theme of our afternoon editorial meeting, in light of the assassination in Lebanon and the talks this coming weekend between three powers in the Middle East... not including the United States. Richard Engel and Andrea Mitchell will team up to tell this story for us. The story of the Muslim imams and the US Airways commercial jet (which I note stirred so much comment following Pete Williams' posting here) will be covered by him tonight. Also on the topic of aviation, we'll air our previously-planned piece on the skyrocketing number of lost bags in this era of "restricted liquids" allowed on planes. Also tonight, we continue our series called "What Works." 

There has also been an incident involving the President's motorcade in Hawaii -- sadly, these are more common than people might think. I recall a similar incident in a motorcade I was in, back when I covered President Clinton. For the local police and volunteer motorcade drivers, it's always a jittery assignment to drive anywhere near the President -- and there are special risks to members of law enforcement when tensions are high and drivers get spooked. The early tape pictures show a motorcycle officer down. Also, a fourth student has died from the bus accident in Alabama, when the vehicle plunged off the highway ramp. What a horrible story -- our hearts go out to those families.

REMEMBERING A GREAT MAN
Long after this day is over, the faint sounds of Wynton Marsalis' trumpet will be heard in New York's Riverside Church. So will the words of Aaron Neville and Irma Thomas, who along with friends and colleagues today remembered Ed Bradley. In addition to our memories, those of us who were lucky enough to attend will always have the handkerchief that was handed out to all those who gathered -- as the Rev. Dr. James Forbes put it, not JUST to wipe away the tears, but to help drive Ed's spirit up to heaven -- part of the tradition of the "second line" in the city Ed loved, New Orleans. Today we all became a part of Ed's second line. What a privilege, albeit a sad one, to have attended. It was an assemblage of extraordinary people, great memories and wrenching emotions, capped off by the image of Rooney and Cronkite walking down the side aisle together afterward. Two World War II era soldiers who today buried a much younger man who was every inch a fellow soldier.  What a life Ed lived. What a beloved figure he was. So many of us are better for having lived in the time of Ed Bradley.

At the conclusion of the service, we learned that another American icon had passed from the scene: the legendary film director Robert Altman. So, because I have just sat down at my desk to begin writing a lengthy remembrance of him, that will have to be all for today.

We hope you can join us for our Tuesday night broadcast.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but as he mentioned in yesterday's post, he spent the morning at Ed Bradley's memorial service. So we tapped NBC's Tom Costello for the vlog again today. He previews his story on the rise in lost luggage and mentions a couple other stories we're working on for the broadcast.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Was it ignorance of Muslim tradition or legitimate concern that resulted in the delay of a U.S. passenger plane last night? Federal officials are trying to answer that question today, and an Islamic group is calling for an investigation into why the actions of six Muslim clerics resulted in the delay of a US Airways flight yesterday. 

Flight 300 from Minneapolis to Phoenix was held on the ground more than three hours last night, after a passenger expressed concerns about the actions of the men to a flight attendant who, in turn, notified the pilot. In the end, passengers were removed from the flight, re-screened, and allowed to board again. Scheduled to leave at 5:15 p.m., the plane instead took off at 8:29 p.m. --  without the Muslims on board.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today says the nervous passenger was apparently alarmed by the decision of three of the imams to say their regular evening prayers in the airport before boarding the plane. "This is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports," says CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. The group says the incident resulted from "fear and prejudice."
   
A federal security official says a passenger did, indeed, express concern by passing a note to a flight attendant. But the official says the passenger reported hearing the men not only make references to "Allah" but also express pro-Saddam and anti-U.S. sentiments. The official says some of the imams did not sit in their assigned seats and moved to empty seats. US Airways also says the men refused to budge when asked to leave the plane by the pilot and airport security officers.

The topic of Iraq policy will be at or near the top of our broadcast tonight, specifically, the fact-finding and deliberations of the Iraq Study Group, and the potential effect it will have on U.S. policy. The comments of Congressman Rangel yesterday seem to have done exactly what they were intended to do -- stir up debate -- which we will cover tonight.  Additionally, we will talk with Richard Engel, who happens to be here in New York, on leave from Baghdad, about the reality on the ground over there. Also tonight, we're proud to begin a week-long series called "WHAT WORKS" -- based on our collective search to find life's minor victories: the functioning portions of our sometimes-broken daily lives. Tonight, we will tackle the awful problem of emergency room waiting time, and see how some are trying to fix it... and have succeeded.

VICTORY FOR VIEWERS?
Fox has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV show. That certainly frees up a weeknight for all of us.

CONVERSATIONS WITH CHARLIE
I spent a good bit of the middle of the day seated at the famous round wooden table of my friend Charlie Rose. You will get to see the conversation tonight on PBS. As they say: check local listings.

TIME TO SAY FAREWELL
Tomorrow in New York, for many of us in the industry, the day will begin with a farewell to Ed Bradley. The day will end at the annual black-tie dinner for the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization that Ed had supported in the past.

THE ENDLESS FEEDBACK
I spent a good chunk of the past 24 hours reviewing hundreds of viewer e-mails. As I always say, we cannot "program" our newscast with only the topics people want to see, nor can we filter out topics that are unpopular but newsworthy. Taken as a group, they are a fascinating barometer of viewer sentiment... and we all read everything written to the broadcast. Some days most of them are negative. Other days, most are positive. What I'd love to know is: How many of them would have been written on paper in the old days? The availability and instant-gratification of e-mail does tend to "allow" people to get complaints off their chests -- in a way that is pleasing to them, and not so pleasant to read. We sometimes joke that most of our viewer e-mails begin with the same three words: "How dare you..." As fate would have it, my assistant Melissa just told me that today we received "three of the nicest e-mails that have ever been written." So there you have it. Someone took the time to make my day.

We hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

-- Clarence Glover25-year streetcar operator

We met up with Clarence, affectionately known as "Glover" to his co-workers, along the Canal Street line last week. Before the storm, Glover worked exclusively on the picturesque St. Charles Avenue line. But Katrina left that area's intricate web of power lines tangled and torn. There's been concern about the amount of money and effort it would take to restore it. Already, the city's transit agency has laid off hundreds of workers and cut dozens of bus lines, but now the federal government has agreed to kick in millions in loans and subsidies to keep mass transit rolling and get the historic St. Charles line back on track by the end of 2007. That's good news for Glover, who has been spending his time training other operators. He's looking forward to greeting you somewhere down the line in New Orleans.

Photo of Clarence Glover by NBC's Bruce Bernstein.