by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

In the aftermath of a hurricane or tornado, the scale of suffering is easy to understand; the destruction is plainly visible. Such is not always the case after an ice storm, but what citizens from Missouri to West Virginia are going through is no less traumatic.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Because my team, the New York Giants, is not in this year's Super Bowl, it holds far less magic in our household. My son and I will be watching nonetheless -- especially to see Bruce at halftime. The folks at NBC Sports were nice enough to ask me to record my thoughts about Bruce, (specifically my first encounter with him growing up on the Jersey Shore) which will air during the pre-game show tomorrow. I'm also a sucker for the commercials. I'll be rooting for the Steelers for old time's sake. I was a huge Jack Lambert fan in the old days -- he's why I wanted to play linebacker in High School, and I wish I could have played it better. I loved Dwight White and L.C. Greenwood and the entire team of that era. I love the City of Pittsburgh, and was once told that of all the NFL markets, more televisions are tuned to Steelers games in Pittsburgh by percentage than the percentage watching the home team in any other NFL City. They love their team and I like their chances, even against Warner and the formidable Cardinals. Did I mention, like a good politician, that I also love Arizona...and all birds?

We've got a lot of news to cover before we can begin thinking about the game. I hope you can join us tonight, and have a great weekend.

by Jeff Rossen, NBC News Correspondent

His laugh is infectious. His spirit...awe-inspiring. And when you hear his story on tonight's Making a Difference, you'll wonder why the rest of us don't smile more often. Jacob Massaquoi has little to smile about, frankly. He's a Liberian refugee...with a story that would make many cry. Jacob was forced to flee his home in Liberia when rebels killed his brother, and tried to kill him. He landed on Staten Island, New York. Without a penny to his name, Jacob didn't whine, or complain, or ask for a handout. Instead, he stuck HIS hand out, to help others.

Jacob opened the African Refuge, a community center in his new neighborhood. Somehow (and I'm still not sure how he did it), Jacob convinced nurses to volunteer their services for those without health insurance....he convinced immigration lawyers to swing by once a week, for refugees trying to get American citizenship. He finds jobs for the unemployed, and flashes a warm smile when people need them most.

Jacob's center is open to anyone who needs it. He's already helped more than 1,000 people...and now he wants to expand to other locations.

When we arrived to tape, we were surprised by the center's location. It's basically a converted 3-bedroom apartment, inside a low-income apartment building, down a cold hallway. But, when that door swung open...there was Jacob. Big smile. Big laugh. And he basically pulled us inside (like my grandmother when I come visit...which isn't often enough, but I digress).

Jacob threw his arm around me...and our producer Victor Limjoco and associate producer Ali Rosen...and I thought to myself, "Wow...why can't I be like this guy." Jacob is happy helping people. That's it. That's all he needs. I said, "Jacob, don't you dream of living in a big house, with nice things?" His answer was as simple as his mission, "Poverty is in the mind. I am rich because I help people."
With the economy crumbling around us...our friends and relatives losing their jobs....we should all channel our inner-Jacob...a man who seemed pretty rich to me.

For more information on Jacob's community center, go to the African Refuge Center's Web site:

http://www.itspnyc.org/african_refuge/

 

 

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

A lot of talk today about the New York Times story this morning regarding the "new style" in the West Wing in the Obama Administration.  Specifically: it was that early photo of President Obama in shirtsleeves that got tongues wagging in detail-obsessed Washington. He wasn't wearing a jacket. 

Obama's counselor explains to the Times that the heat was cranked up in the Oval Office, and thus the President removed his jacket. It was considered news ... because of the stated Bush policy (not always followed) of jackets-only for men visiting the Oval Office. President Bush, it was said, occasionally stopped non-jacket-wearing visitors from entering the Oval. 

I do recall that it was rather explicitly pointed out to reporters at the time that the Bush policy was a direct reaction to the discomfort they felt watching television news pictures of President Clinton in sweaty jogging clothes in the Oval Office. 

While it is "the People's House," one person gets to decide the dress code. Folklore has it that President Hoover dressed in formal attire for dinner upstairs at the White House each night. Look where it got him.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

First of all, as we have done all along while reporting on this outbreak, we urge anyone who is concerned about a peanut flavored product to check the FDA's website for a list of recalled products.
 
If you are concerned about a product containing peanuts that is not on the list, the FDA advises you go on the website of the company or to call the toll-free number that can be found on most packages.
 
Today as this story continued to unfold, we learned a lot about how the system we have for food inspection is severely strained. Ultimately, the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration is responsible for the safety of most non-meat food manufacturing facilities. But as an FDA official explained to me, the agency has only 4,000 to

5,000 inspectors for the entire country, so it often contracts to states to carry out the inspections.
 
In the case of the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, the Department of Agriculture got paid for the task. And today at a news conference, the deputy commissioner Oscar Garrison said his agency's inspections could only be "snapshots," because the agency has only 60 inspectors to check out 16,000

manufacturing facilities in the state.
 
Perhaps that explains the horrible mess the FDA found in the plant when it inspected the facility in the past few weeks. You can view the details of the FDA's

inspection here. The  inspection reported, among other things, "mold was observed on the ceiling," "rain water has been leaking into the firm," a sink was used "interchangeably as a point for cleaning hands and utensils and washing out mops," there was a "slimy, black-brown residue" on a conveyor belt and "a live roach and several dead roaches." 
 
It is difficult to understand how ten visits in three years could have not found at least some of that.

 

Click here to view Robert Bazell's Jan. 29 report, "Dirty secrets: Lax food safety exposed."

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

A few odds and ends that otherwise may get by us: first, the astounding story of the 17-year conference call. For those of us who came to know the principals by covering the Clinton White House, this was a fascinating piece of work. From the same source, and just as entertaining, is a treatise on our national attention span these days, and the pace of change.  Tonight we will remember James Brady who wrote a lot of our contemporary history during his career in journalism. I happen to think his greatest contribution was his work on the Korean War. James was a First Lieutenant, rifle platoon commander (Bronze Star recipient) who I believe told the gritty story of combat in Korea as well as Paul Fussell did with World War II or Michael Herr did with Vietnam.

Speaking of all things military, some after we aired our story on "challenge coins", and I showed off my own collection, proudly gathered from years of covering the military, I continue to receive coins from some very nice viewers. While I note that the Marine Corps is so far in the lead among all branches of the services, I want to thank the kind and generous folks who have thought of me.

We have a lot of ground to cover tonight and we hope you can join us.

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

John Updike has died. We'll remember him on the broadcast tonight, but already one of the interesting things I've heard said about him was an old quote from Norman Mailer, who, along with Philip Roth, was a member of Updike's "graduating class" of American novelists--all three men never missed an opportunity to stress their manliness. Mailer said Updike was "the kind of author appreciated by readers who knew nothing about writing." Faint praise? 

Word of Updike's death, from lung cancer at the age of 76, brought all kinds of praise for the author today. I found the word "erudite" in the first two obituaries I read this afternoon. Updike was a member of our national upper crust--Harvard and tweed blazers--but was fascinated by the American middle class of the nylon jacket, and the post-War America that gave rise to their lives. 

The Associated Press remembers him as the "tall" and "hawk-nosed" author who was "prolific, even compulsive" about releasing new works. He was a two-time Pulitzer winner for his "Rabbit" series, and as long as I live I could identify, from a great distance, the stripes on the dust jacket of "Rabbit Redux," which was considered the least of the series in terms of literary value. I remember the artwork on the binding of the book because it sat on the shelf of our living room when I was growing up. Updike had a similar presence in millions of American homes and lives.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

We received several thoughtful responses to last night's report on Duke University's experiments to enhance their health care system. (You can find them below my blog post from yesterday.)

The Duke researchers began their experiments by talking to people who were using the emergency room for non-emergency purposes. They then used their stories about the medical system in general for ideas on how to improve Duke's--and some of North Carolina's--health care delivery system, including Duke's family practice

offices.
 
In tonight's report, we describe how the Duke team makes house calls to people who have difficulty making it to the doctor, and how the team has set up satellite clinics in neighborhoods as well, including inside some high schools where they provide care for adolescents.
 
One complaint about last night's report came in an e-mail to me from a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. It questioned 

the assumption that care in the ER (or ED, for emergency department) of a hospital is more expensive or inefficient than care in a doctor's office. Instead of getting into that argument, which is multi-layered, I offered to do more future reports about the current state of emergency medicine in the country.
 
But one statistic from that email exchange stands out to me: Out of America's annual expenditure of $2.1 trillion for health care, $37.5 billion–-or 1.8 percent--goes toward emergency medicine. The ER is truly our health care lifeline, the backup if all else fails.  The medical staff who work in those facilities often put in long hours for far less pay than those in other specialties.
 
Just because the Duke researchers began their research in the ER does not imply an opinion on their part--or mine--that the staff in the ER is doing anything wrong.
 
I hope you find the second part of this two-part report enlightening. And again, I repeat, no one knows what health care reform will look like in the U.S., but it is useful to see the experiments already underway to try and improve health care delivery.

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

With all the celebrities assembled in Washington for the Inauguration, it was nice to see some of the attention go to another promient visitor: "Sully," the Captain of US Airways fame, roundly regarded as a hero among us for saving the lives of 155 souls.

Sully (who got to meet the new president at the Congressional lunch) was spotted at a Washington restaurant with his wife and two daughters on the eve of the Inauguration. The name of the restaurant? Hudson.

You'd think he would have had enough of anything named Hudson.

It's the start of a new week, and we sure hope you can join us tonight.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

Almost no one talks about health care reform without mentioning  the need to contain costs. Tonight we begin a two-part series about a collection of experiments run by Duke University that set out to rein in the price of medicine by actually improving care for patients with private insurance, those enrolled in the state's Medicaid program, and those with no insurance at all. You can get descriptions of the various programs here: http://communityhealth.mc.duke.edu/quicklinks.

 

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

The new administration is about to enter its first full working week, and as is often the case, the Sunday morning TV interview circuit offered a glimpse of what the week may hold. Key Democrats and Republicans spent their mornings making the rounds, framing the upcoming debate over the economic stimulus. It's potentially shaping up to be President Obama's first showdown with Congress. NBC's John Yang will lay out the battle lines for us tonight.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Our John Yang is reporting that today, it "looks like a weekday" at the White House, where President Obama is putting in a busy Saturday, meeting with his economic advisors and pushing his economic stimulus bill. On the heels of Tuesday's marathon of inaugural duties and celebrations, it's hard to imagine when he'll get some rest. On the other hand, with the nation's economy still shrinking, rest may have to wait. John will have the latest on the new president's first weekend in office.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Continuing on a theme this week: you've probably seen the promos for the National Geographic documentary on Air Force One -- it includes new video of Obama that has been incorrectly labeled on some news reports as his "first flight on Air Force One." That is wrong. Obama, as President-elect, flew on one of the smaller, single-aisle 757's in the President's Air Wing. There was a Nat Geo film crew on board, and it appears they have added fresh Obama pictures to their existing documentary about Air Force One: but President Obama has yet to fly on Air Force One -- the 747 designated for his use. He has yet to fly...on anything...as President. Yesterday he toured the press briefing room with limited success -- and each day, we presume, the first family make another discovery about their new digs. But his first flight on the big plane (or the fancy green chopper) awaits.

We'll end the week the way we started it: with a lot of news. We hope you can join us, and I hope you have a good weekend.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

It is with profound sadness that I note the death of someone who was a model for what health activism could accomplish, as well as a reliable source for many stories for me and other reporters.

Martin Delaney died this morning in San Francisco of liver cancer.  His activism began in the late 1970s when he realized how few resources were available for someone suffering hepatitis B, as he was. When HIV/AIDS appeared, he took on the battle against that scourge and founded an organization called Project Inform. 
 
He worked to provide the best information to those who suffered and to prod the government and drug companies to find better treatments. With great 

bravery, he faced down the forces of ignorance who wanted to deny that HIV is the cause of AIDS.  Early on in the epidemic, many top researchers acknowledged that Marty, who had no formal science training, knew far more about the details of the disease than they did.
 
Marty's knowledge and activism led him to seats on the panels of government that made key decisions about AIDS drugs. Last week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious disease presented him with the director's special recognition award.
 
"Millions of people are now receiving life-saving antiretroviral medications from a treatment pipeline that Marty Delaney played a key role in opening 

and expanding," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "Without his tireless work and vision, many more people would have perished from HIV/AIDS."

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

I was told by a jealous former Clinton White House staffer that President Bush got a perk of departure that President Clinton was never granted. President Bush went to Midland, Texas after leaving Washington. He flew on SAM28000, the 747 that served as Air Force One while he was President (and will again for President Obama's first trip). Former President Bush's plans then called for him to travel to Crawford -- which this former White House staffer was assuming would be the first travel leg that the former President would have to arrange on his own. Instead, it appears the Government took care of both legs: he once again boarded SAM28000 and flew it to Waco, where the HMX air wing had a "whitetop" helicopter to take him the rest of the way on his journey, to his ranch in Crawford.

Donna Mcwilliam | AP
Former President George W. Bush, left, and his wife, Laura Bush, along with his parents Barbara Bush and former President George H.W. Bush, right, arrive on Special Air Mission 28000, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 in Midland, Texas for a welcome home rally. The plane is called Special Air Mission 28000 instead of Air Force One since Bush no longer was president.

This former staffer was watching closely because President Clinton was given but a one-leg ticket out of Washington, in effect, from Andrews Air Force Base to JFK. President Clinton traveled on a non-Government jet from JFK. We should just as quickly mention that Presidents extend the courtesy of air travel to each other frequently -- you'll recall one of the 757s from the President's air wing brought President-elect Obama to Washington from Chicago. The moral of the story is: there are people out there watching every move, and comparing notes.

Back to business: so much news again today. Some of it broke when we were leaving Washington last night. We just reached National Airport when we received word that the President had re-taken the oath of office. We'll report on that today, on the Administrations actions today, and on the economic news: both tragic and outrageous. We hope you can join us tonight from our home studio in New York.

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

As America gets used to the photos of Barack Obama in the Oval Office, we're still recovering from yesterday's broadcast marathon. We were on the air for over 7 hours straight yesterday afternoon, then another hour for our special edition of Nightly News, then another in prime time.

From the looks of the incoming e-mail, the mistakes I'd like to have back are these:
1) Misidentifying Craig Robinson as my friend Reggie Love, the new assistant to the President. It's ridiculous and maddening, of course, because I know better... but I was distracted and made a mistake.
2) Misidentifying the Punahou School marching band from Hawaii in the Inaugural Parade -- a nice viewer named Nathan has corrected us that the band we showed was actually from Iowa. Their music was good enough to make the First Couple get up out of their seats and dance.
3) An anecdote I told about young Congressman Abe Lincoln losing his top hat at the coat check at an Inaugural Ball. I got the administration wrong (and stumped Michael Beschloss in the process...which is hard to do) and the correct answer was: President Zachary Taylor's Inaugural Ball.

I'm sure I made other errors over 9 hours of live broadcasting (more if you count West Coast updates for Nightly News feeds) but so far, those are the big three. We'll originate tonight's broadcast from our Capitol Hill studios before heading home tomorrow -- as Washington gets used to a new President and a new First Family -- and they get used to their new surroundings. We hope you can join us tonight.

By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC Nightly News digital correspondent

If anything can make you grumpy, it's standing in the freezing cold for hours. Add to that large crowds and tons of walking, and you have all the ingredients for a major mood swing. So how did inauguration crowds on the National Mall respond to all of these things? By doing the electric slide.

I was one of the estimated two million people at the mall today, covering President Obama's inauguration for Nightly News online. Let me tell you, it wasn't all pretty. The morning started at 4 a.m. with a two-hour walk to the mall. On a normal day it would have taken 30 minutes. But with all of the closures and crowds and detours it took four times as long. The weather was absolutely freezing. Around 6 a.m. it was 22 degrees. I comforted myself with the hope that the sun would warm things up. An hour and a half and one sunrise later, the temperature was 19 degrees – three degrees lower! (So much for the sun warming the earth.) And then there were the crowds. With an estimated two million people attending, you can imagine there wasn't a lot of elbow room.

Despite all of these things, people were overwhelmingly pleasant, friendly, and happy - no, downright giddy. Strangers treated each other as friends, sharing laughs and hot commodities like hand warmers. The history of the day combined with what many consider a much needed change for the country was far more powerful than some stinkin' cold weather and tight spaces.

Which brings me to the electric slide. Around 9:30a (when many had already been standing for five hours) I saw a few people doing the electric slide to the music on the jumbotron. Then a few more joined. Then a few more. In seconds the small bunch swelled to about 30 people. They were laughing. They were smiling. A group of strangers brought together by the urge to dance in the streets, celebrating history.

By Rehema Ellis, NBC News correspondent

It was an amazing day.

While standing at the West Front of the Capitol I was surrounded by nearly 30,000 ticketed spectators who had seats.

210,000 others had tickets but they had to stand for the inauguration. To no surprise however, none of them seemed to care.

This was all about the moment and the power of history to draw witnesses.

All eyes where fixed on the podium and the jumbo screens to catch every aspect of the inauguration.

One after another, people I spoke with shared stories about what this day meant to them. Nearly all said this day was about unity.

There was an older African-American woman who traveled to Washington by train. In between tears and smiles she told the story of struggling with her suitcase. Much to her surprise she said, a white man touched her on the shoulder and offered to carry her bag. "We're all going in the same direction", he said. "Let me help you".

A young white man told me he had been blogging but had to stop because he was crying so much during the ceremony. "It's not what I expected to happen", he said. "I knew this would be important and emotional momentum, but I didn't expect it to move me like this".

Then there was a conversation I had with John Harrison, Major U.S. Air force, retired. He's 86 years old and one of the original Tuskegee Airmen who defied all expectations as the first black military airmen. When he saw Michelle Obama walk onto the Capitol platform he said, "my heart skipped a beat". This is what I was fighting for. That from a man who lived through blatant racism and who flew daring missions during World War I I.

But a brief interview I did with a white couple who came here from Florida with their three young children may indeed sum up what today was all about.

After President Obama's inaugural address, I asked the mother her thoughts as she was holding her three-year old son in her arms, sheltering him from the cold.

She said, "I woke my children after the election of Obama and said, 'babies while you were sleeping Martin Luther King's dream came true".

She went on to say, " My feet are so cold, my toes are frozen, but I wouldn't be anywhere else right now".

by Jeff Gralnick, NBC News Special Consultant

If it gets asked one more time today, we know we will all flinch, but it is true. Who would have believed that we would see a January 20th on which an African-American would be inaugurated as President of these United States?

Not me. Not this once-upon-a-time young field reporter for CBS News who, based in New Orleans in the early 1960s, experienced life in one of America's most hide bound and segregated cities. And from there I went out to cover what we were beginning to understand was a revolution.

Memories and datelines of the time in no particular order:
· Saint Augustine, Florida. Dr. King being arrested. His aide Andy Young being beaten to the ground at all four corners of the city's centerpiece--The Old Slave Market, which it was. 50 long days and nights in St. Augustine but out of it came something called The Voting Rights Act. It was a town where if the bartender didn't like your reporting, you didn't get a drink.
· Selma, Alabama. Dr. King again, this time fighting for those voting rights in one of the most benighted and scruffy towns in the Deep South. It was a place you didn't stay but drove out of each night hoping to reach the relative safety of Montgomery, Alabama.
· Jackson, Mississippi. The Jackson hospital late at night and the press scrum covering the arrival of three body bags containing the remains of three young men who had gone south to push for those voting rights.
· Bogalusa, Louisiana. Where, you might ask? Just some little lumber mining, paper manufacturing town in the heart of reddest neck Louisiana that James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (and who today remembers either?) had picked as a target for a voting rights march. The memory: Marchers outnumbered by Louisiana state cops, each armed with a Thompson submachine gun and the concern that if trouble came, who would they shoot first?

That was the south in the early '60s, or at least the part of it I saw and have had burned into the brain pan. And did anyone covering those stories ever think, no less believe, that in their lifetime they would see an African-American elected President? Not ever. The thought then that an African-American might achieve a House seat or somehow one in the Senate was so far-fetched as to be a non-topic.

So the emotion today? John Lewis, who was the very young firebrand for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee back in that day, probably said it best when he talked last night with Brian Williams. "It may be an out of body experience" he said as he teared up. I know it will be for me. Election night was a taste of what I know I am going to feel and experience right around noon today when 21 guns and Hail to the Chief announce that the change we never believed possible, was indeed.

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Washington is all about Barack Obama right now, and so it's easy to forget that this period represents the ending for the Bush Presidency, and his 8 years as a D.C. resident. Last night the president and Mrs. Bush, who only seldom go out for dinner, climbed into a small and discreet motorcade to go to dinner at Secretary Rice's apartment at the Watergate. Later, the president dropped by a staff farewell party. The famously early-to-bed president still got to bed early, and tonight the Bush's, surrounded by extended family, spend their last night in the White House. Today the White House released a photo of the President. We're told he's making farewell calls to world leaders, but it could be anyone on the phone.

Handout image provided by the White House

What most people will notice is the look in his eye, the room in his shirt collar, the gray in his hair -- and how vastly different this man looked when he arrived here. There is already speculation about how much the job will age the new president. A living example of that is about to depart from the scene.

So begins an incredible week here, as we continue the inaugural festivities. We'll have all of it for you, starting tonight. We hope you can join us. I will come on the air tomorrow morning toward the end of the Today Show, and we'll stay on until the local news hour begins on the East Coast. We'll then be back for a one-hour edition of Nightly News with limited commercial interruptions, and later live primetime special. We hope you can be with us for all of it.

By Les Kretman, NBC News White House producer

As one White House spokesman put it today in a note paraphrasing a Peter, Paul and Mary song "my bags are packed I'm ready to go."

Getting out of town after long, long days and nights they're going home, turning the house keys over to the next family and the work space to new fresh faces who guaranteed will quickly morph into tired faces in a month or so.

The President on Monday was racking up a big phone bill contacting President Sarkozy of France, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev of Russia, President Peres of Israel, President Lula da Silva of Brazil, former President Fox of Mexico, Prime Minister Aso of Japan, Prime Minister Brown of the United Kingdom, President Saakashvili of Georgia, President Lee of South Korea, Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark and Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy.

Tomorrow, NBC by the luck of the alphabetical draw is "travel pool" (travel pool changes daily) ... which means we move in the motorcade with the President, stay for the swearing in at the U.S. Capitol ... and then head back to the White House and rejoin the new President and First Lady Michelle Obama for a night of Inaugural Balls beginning with one at 8:30pm and finishing up at 3am at a final gala at Union Station.

As for ex-President Bush and Laura, by then they'll be home in Texas where Mr. Bush promises to make coffee at breakfast time for the former first lady. That will be happening about the same time the new first family will be getting ready for the dawn.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

I'm blogging from my BlackBerry on the ride from Reagan National Airport to our Washington studio. It's normally a 15-minute ride – but not today. Several bridges from Virginia into Washington, D.C. are already closed, and we're getting our first taste of the security and safety net that has fallen over Washington in advance of Tuesday's inauguration. The driver is not amused as we sit in traffic.

Across the river I see the tents and port-a-potties set up for the big concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I just heard from a Chicago friend who has already staked out her seat for the show. She's "just sitting in the cold waiting." In the airport and on the plane there was almost giddy excitement among those making the trip here for the inauguration.

Al Roker and I – who happened to be on the same flight – posed for a few pictures with passengers. I'll be anchoring tonight's program just across from the Capitol. Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd will join me tonight to set the scene for this historic week, and to tell us about the President elect's day. I hope you'll join me later (assuming we ever get across this bridge) for NBC Nightly News.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

I've been watching MSNBC and its coverage of the people coming out to greet President-elect Obama on his train journey from Philadelphia to Washington. The crowds – especially in Baltimore – are huge, and folks are truly in a celebratory mood.  Obama and VP-elect Joe Biden seem to be taking it all in. It is a vivid reminder of the deep well of goodwill and support they will enjoy as they chart their political course. NBC's Chuck Todd is on board that train and will check in with us, as we kick off our inauguration coverage on Nightly News this evening.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Yesterday afternoon in the newsroom we received a single line of text over the computer: "small plane down in Hudson River." I went on to the website of the FDNY Manhattan fire radio frequency and heard the dispatcher send Rescue One to the same cross street as the Air Craft Carrier Intrepid. We then heard him say the words, "we have a commercial aircraft in the water." With that, I grabbed my earpiece and headed to the studio.

The most positive sight amid the confusion in the water was yellow: I realized the specks of yellow that I could see on the long-distance shot of the people around the plane -- was the yellow of their life vests. That sight meant: passengers, alive, after a commercial jet had gone down in the Hudson River. Remarkable.

Luckily, on Friday nights here, we have a segment (popular with a number of you) called "Making a Difference." Tonight, the pilot everyone knows as "Sully" is our nominee. If you were going to choose one pilot to be on duty at the controls of that jet yesterday, he'd be the guy. All those souls on board are alive today because of his actions. What a 24 hours this City has been through -- and now we prepare to travel to Washington for the Inauguration. We'll see you from there, starting on Monday. Have a good weekend, and thank you for watching and being with us for another week.

By Les Kretman, NBC News White House producer

The labyrinth of heavy steel barriers on Pennsylvania Avenue is impossible to maneuver -- all for security and there's a big white tent now that blocks the entrance of Blair House. Today, the Obama family makes the two block journey from the Hay Adams to their new temporary home...the Blair House. Then, on Inauguration Day their bags are packed once again and they venture across the street ---- and move in to the White House.

The Blair House was built in 1824. It was originally the home of Joseph Lovell who was the first Surgeon General of the United States. Twelve years later it was bought by newspaper publisher Francis Preston Blair.

In 1942 it was purchased by the U.S. government. Today, it's the official residence for guests of the President. The list of VIPS is long. Queen Elizabeth stayed there during her visit to Washington....so did former Russian President Boris Yeltsin. President Harry Truman stayed there for most of his presidency while the White House was undergoing renovations. And while he was there there was some drama...two Puerto Rican nationalists made an assassination attempt. One assailant was killed by a uniformed officer who was shot too --- and he, too, died. A plaque in front of the building honors his deed.

As for Blair House initial looks would deceive you. From the outside it resembles a moderate sized row house in a Georgetown neighborhood, but it's much more than that. With 119 rooms and a total area of 70,000 square feet it's actually bigger than the White House...complete with a flower shop...an exercise facility, a dry cleaning shop and a hair salon. Oh, and 35 bathrooms for heads of state and their families....and plenty of room for the Obama daughters to explore before the big move across the street.