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  • The Waldorf Way: Silicon Valley school eschews technology

    By Rehema Ellis
    NBC News

    From the moment you walk into the Waldorf School of the Peninsula there are clear signs that something different is happening.

    Allysun Sokolowski, a third-grade teacher,  greets each one of her 29 students by name and shakes their hand as they enter the classroom. It's easy for her because she's known these kids at the Los Altos, Calif., school for a while.

    "I've been teaching the same children from first grade, second grade and now we're in third grade. And I will teach these children all the way through eighth grade," she said.

    It's the Waldorf way.

    Teachers establish a strong bond with students. As a result, Waldorf teachers quickly point out there's no need for tests or grades.

    "I don't need grades to know how well they're doing," said Sokolowski. "I know their strengths, I know their weaknesses. I know what will be hard for them and where they will shine. I'm their teacher with a capital 't.'"

    The intense student-teacher connection might help explain why students from elementary to high school are thriving. The school boasts a nearly perfect graduation rate.

    Despite being in the heart of Silicon Valley, Waldorf students are not caught up in the gadget frenzy that has consumed so many other school children nationwide. Computers are not used in the elementary school and they are used sparingly at the high school level. Teachers say they're not anti-technology, but, as they put it, they're just in favor of healthy education.

    Read the New York Times’ report on the Waldorf school

    "I'm concerned that if we say we need technology to engage students we're missing the fact that what engages students is good teachers and good teaching," said Lisa Babinet, a Waldorf math teacher.

    I asked a group of high school students if they misssed having computers and iPads as part of their lessons they all emphatically said "No."

    The San Antonio Elementary School focuses on technology and feels it helps close the achievement gap in under-served communities by getting students ready for the digital age.

    "I don't think we're gonna be left behind at all because it's not like we're not a part of technology at all," said sophomore Isabelle Senteno. "We are a part of it, we just don't incorporate it in the lessons."

    Jack Pelose, a freshman who transferred to Waldorf from a school that used a lot of technology, said he noticed the benefits of not using computers in class. "My cursive has gotten a lot better since I've been here," he said.

    "Everything about technology is so easy to pick up and use nowadays," added senior Zach Wurtz added. "The companies design it so anyone can use it when they choose to."

    The students talked about being annoyed sometimes when they hang out with friends who are not Waldorf students, who spend a lot of time on social networking sites and texting.

    Video: At another Silicon Valley school, iPads are in vogue

    One Waldorf student said he sometimes has to ask his friends to put down the gadgets so they can just talk.

    And if you're wondering, like I did, how the Waldorf education translates in the outside world, Laila Waheed, a graduate now in her first year of college, offered some insight.

    Waheed, 18, has a laptop but never takes it to lectures. She takes notes by hand -- like she did at Waldorf -- and she later transfers her notes into her computer. It's a form of studying, she said.

    "If you stood at the back of the classroom and looked at every screen, at least half of them would be on Facebook," Waheed said of all the other students who are typing away on their laptops during lectures.

    "A Waldorf education gives you a foundation to say, 'OK, I can put my phone in my bag. I can have a half-an-hour conversation with a person. I don't need to be totally connected all the time,'" Waheed said. "And that's more valuable for making personal connections that will last longer than the next text you're going to get."

    It sounds like something a Waldorf student would say. But it’s also a sentiment echoed by her father, an engineer manager at Cisco.

    "I don't think anyone is debating the value of technology and the use of computers," Muneer Waheed said. "There is no going back. This is the future."

    But he and his wife have been clear about wanting the mostly technology-free zone that Waldorf provides for their two children.

    "They need the environment and the foundation to develop and get their core values -- the love of education and their own passion," he said. "That's what's going to stay with them. The computer is just a tool."

    See more of Rehema Ellis' reporting on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams Wednesday evening.

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  • Study finds high arsenic levels in apple, grape juice

    What we're following: 

    - Britain expels all Iranian embassy staff, pulls British officials out of Iran

    - Study finds high arsenic levels in apple, grape juice

    - Fed, global central banks move to boost financial system

    And did you see...

    - Hundreds arrested at Occupy camps in Philadelphia & Los Angeles

    - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes visit to Myanmar

    - S&P downgrades world's major banks

     

     

     

  • Patrolling 'smugglers' alley' by air along the Rio Grande

    For helicopter teams, chasing smugglers along the Rio Grande in South Texas is virtually a daily occurrence. Pilots say they've seen the Mexican traffickers pushing larger amounts of illicit drugs into the United States over the last few years. NBC's Mark Potter reports.

    Mark Potter writes

    EDINBURG, Texas – While flying an afternoon patrol along the twists and turns of the Rio Grande, Lt. Johnny Prince, a veteran pilot for the Texas Department of Public Safety, spotted something suspicious: "Look here, we got a raft, a raft right here." 

    Below him, in the middle of the river which separates Mexico from the United States was a group of men frantically paddling back to the southern riverbank, their attempt to reach the American side thwarted by the helicopter patrol.

    Prince said he suspected the men were a team of drug cartel scouts who were planning to search the U.S. side of the river to make sure there were no law enforcement officers nearby.  If they determined the area was clear, he explained, they would then signal others to sneak a load of narcotics across the river in a raft.

    Mike Avila, the helicopter's tactical flight officer, said that this was happening near an area nicknamed "Smugglers' Alley," because of all the illicit activity here.  Well-worn trails and a narrowing of the river have made this area a favorite for Mexican drug traffickers.

    ‘That car's loaded to the gills’
    Earlier that same day, Prince and Avila found themselves flying inland in hot pursuit of two vehicles –a car and a truck –loaded with Mexican marijuana.  As the vehicles sped through city streets on the American side of the river, Avila trained the helicopter’s high-powered camera on the fleeing smugglers and Prince called out their locations by radio to pursuing troopers on the ground.

    Mark Potter / NBC News

    Lt. Johnny Prince, the pilot on the right, and Mike Avila, the tactical flight officer on the left, patrol the Rio Grande in a helicopter looking for drug smugglers.

    One of the drivers sped along the wrong side of the road, then he raced through an intersection, almost striking two cars with his pickup truck.  "Oh no, oh no," groaned Prince.  Avila described another close call as the driver raced through a school zone before crashing into a building: "He nearly struck two school buses."

    In both cases, the drivers – a man and a woman – were apprehended and troopers seized loads of marijuana from both their vehicles. Even from the sky, the pilots could see that one of the cars was carrying a lot of drug bundles.  "That car's loaded to the gills," said Prince. 

    Increased aggression along a ‘porous’ border
    For the helicopter teams, chasing smugglers along the Rio Grande in South Texas is virtually a daily occurrence. Pilots say they've seen the Mexican traffickers pushing larger amounts of illicit drugs into the United States over the last few years and have watched them become more menacing toward law enforcement officers and U.S. citizens.

    "I've been working along the border for 14 years and in those 14 years I've seen the level of aggression increase exponentially.  The sheer volume of narcotics that's being pumped into our border has risen," said Capt. Stacy Holland, of the Texas Department of Public Safety Aircraft Section.

    It's not unusual, Holland said, for smugglers to take only a couple of minutes to move more than a ton of marijuana across the river, up the U.S. side of the riverbank and into a vehicle which then heads north. "Our border is very open, our border is very porous," he said.

    The pilots said they are convinced traffickers are much more likely now than they were a few years ago to confront U.S. law enforcement officials.  "We have video of them carrying AK-47's and side arms during these operations and they are not afraid to use them," said Holland. 

    While flying in his helicopter, Prince has more than once been eye to eye with smugglers on the ground upset with his presence above.  "I've seen guns pointed at me, long guns.  I've seen rocks thrown at us.  One of the things they do is use sling shots with ball bearings in them," he said.  "A ball bearing with a good slingshot can do damage to this helicopter and that's been done."

    Another serious concern is for the safety of Texas troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents who have to tangle with the traffickers on the ground.  A particularly dangerous scenario involves agents coming upon a large group of smugglers loading a car with illegal drugs on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. 

    "Usually there's only one or two officers that first arrive at the particular vehicle on the river and they are encountering 15 or 20 cartel members," said Prince.  "On the other side, you will see another 10 to 15 cartel members, and if you see them armed they are going to be trying to cover the guys on the U.S. side."

    Splashdowns
    A highly unusual technique used by Mexican smugglers to elude capture by American authorities involves them driving trucks loaded with drugs into the waters of the Rio Grande.  It happens after Border Patrol agents or Texas troopers spot a drug-laden vehicle on the U.S. side of the river and give chase. 

    If the smugglers can't elude their pursuers – either by speeding up or by throwing spikes into the road to flatten the tires of the officers behind they – they will then head back to the same spot along the river where traffickers brought the drugs ashore after floating them across from Mexico.

    "If the loads get compromised, they will drive around in the United States, in Texas here, until they get their recovery teams set up on the river, to return the drugs back to Mexico," said Prince. 

    The Texas Department of Public Safety has shot numerous helicopter videos of Mexican smugglers paddling over to the American side of the river to await the arrival of the truck racing toward them.  When the truck reaches the riverbank, it keeps going – right into the water. 

    Texas Dept. Of Public Safety / Texas Dept. of Public Safety

    Photo taken of a "splashdown" taken by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Drug smugglers drove their truck back into the Rio Grande river to escape U.S. law enforcement.

    "Bam! All units, we have a splashdown, a splashdown in the river," a pilot on one of the videos can be heard transmitting on the radio. 

    Before the truck sinks, the driver climbs out through the window and the recovery teams move quickly to save as much of the drug load as possible, throwing the tightly-wrapped bales into rafts. 

    "Ok, we've got rafts in the river, a bunch of people on the U.S. side; that thing is loaded," said a pilot watching from above in one video.  "Suspects are in the water, trying to unload the vehicle," said another pilot hovering over a different scene.

    As soon as the rafts are filled with off-loaded drugs, the smugglers paddle back to the Mexican side of the river where they are safe from arrest by American authorities.  Sometimes, the traffickers are so brazen they will make obscene hand gestures toward U.S. agents watching from across the river, or from above in helicopters.

    The agents' only recourse at that moment is to notify Mexican authorities and hope they arrive in time to apprehend the smugglers.  Or, they can hope to catch the loads of drugs next time, when inevitably they are floated back across the Rio Grande during another smuggling attempt – sometimes on the very same day the drugs are recovered after a splashdown.

    George Grayson, a professor at William and Mary, has written several books about the Mexican drug violence. He says many Americans and Mexicans themselves are ignoring the life-threatening danger of narcotraffic at the border.

    No end in sight
    The pilots who routinely fly along the Rio Grande said they see nothing that would suggest there is any let up in the amount of smuggling along the river.  In fact, they predict increased violence on U.S. soil.

    "You get a lot more home invasions, a lot of crook on crook crimes, a lot of kidnappings, the cartels coming over here maybe trying to collect money and then retreating back over to Mexico," said Holland. 

    Texas newspapers have reported recently on cartel shoot-outs in Houston and McAllen, the wounding of a deputy, the arrests of alleged cartel leaders in the Rio Grande Valley and the seizure of cartel property in the U.S.—along with the almost daily news of major drug seizures.

    Statements by the Obama Administration and by some local officials that the U.S.-Mexican border is safer than ever are derided by many of the pilots.

    "Our citizens in our border towns are caught in the crossfire, and I mean that in the most literal sense sometimes," said Holland.  "It's important that our citizens, not only in the state (of Texas), but in the United States are aware of how porous our border is and what the threats are, and could be."

    More coverage from Mark Potter: Along Mexican border, US ranchers say they live in fear

    See more of Mark Potter's reporting on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams Tuesday evening.

  • Atlas, not Saturn!

    I had Apollo on the brain during our Saturday night coverage of NASA's Curiosity Rover mission to Mars.  
    I reported that a Saturn V rocket was carrying the Mars Science Lab.
    I should have said it was an Atlas V rocket.
    I quickly heard from plenty of rocket and NASA lovers out there.
    (That’s what happens when you spend too much time on nasa.gov, looking at all the cool Apollo archive material.)

     

    Thanks to all who wrote in.

    Tom Costello
    NBC News, Washington  

     

  • Battlefield pooches get rewarded for loyalty

    By Kevin Tibbles
    NBC News

    There are several enemies on the battlefield for a soldier in Afghanistan, and perhaps the one least discussed is homesickness. Living thousands of miles from family and loved ones and facing the ever-present dangers of war often take a toll on the troops. But inject some of that old-fashioned unconditional love and things become just a little more bearable. For many, that bond comes from having a dog - and in Afghanistan, there are plenty of strays.

    To help pay back those four-legged friends who stuck by them through thick and thin, many soldiers are now adopting those dogs and reuniting with them back in the United States, thanks to a program started by a British soldier called "Nowzad Dogs."

    "Having the dog for me was a way of just spending five minutes in normality," said Nowzad founder Cpl. Pen Farthing.

    Farthing has now assisted some 250 Afghan strays with adoption in the United States, UK, Canada, Holland and Australia.

    The organization American Dog Rescue is also involved, helping to spay and neuter the animals and ensure they are given all the necessary shots.

    It was a touching moment recently at New York's JFK airport when the precious cargo of tail wagging, face licking friends arrived via an airlift of thanks from the troops who never forgot them.

    Spc. Sheila Schaffer of the Iowa National Guard was there waiting for Charlie, a pooch she first found in a litter hiding underneath a building. Charlie, she says, was instrumental in keeping her morale up when she needed it most. She calls the dogs heroic.

    "They're saving our souls. They're saving us inside," Schaffer said. "There are a lot of soldiers that get depressed being away from home and being away from their own pets and own families."

    Offering these dogs a new, safe life far away from the war zone is just a soldier's way of saying thanks.

  • Boat captain alleges Robert Wagner responsible for Natalie Wood's death

    What we're following: 

    - Boat captain alleges Robert Wagner responsible for Natalie Wood's death

    - Feds close to launching Sandusky inquiry

    - Hundreds of Occupy protesters arrested

    And did you see...

    - Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine under investigation for sexual-abuse allegations

    - U.S. Army tests weapon capable of traveling 5 times the speed of sound

    - Yelp files for IPO

     

     

     

  • Two youths cross country to combat trash

    By Shannon Urtnowski
    NBC News associate producer

    In conjunction with NBCUniversal's Green Week, Nightly News will bring you a special report tonight about two youths with a big dream and tough legs.

    Through their non-profit organization Pick Up America, Jeff Chen and Davey Rogner have been traveling across the country picking up litter and spreading a message of zero waste.

    Since March 2010, Chen and Rogner have walked almost 2,000 miles and gathered more than 140,000 pounds of trash along the way.

    But the two don't work alone. They have recruited various volunteers along the way, some for just a day and others for months at a time.

    Chen and Rogner say they want Pick Up America to instill lasting change in behavior and mentality among the individuals they touch.

    "I'm hoping that we can create this kind of respect for the earth," Chen said. "And I think it's very much up to us youth to do that."

    Pick Up America has completed half its journey to date. The team, currently just outside Denver, started the pickup in Maryland and has San Francisco in its sights.

    The journey is supposed to end there in one year. But Chen and Rogner hope the message will last a lifetime.

    Watch the full report Wednesday at 6:30 ET on Nightly News with Brian Williams.

  • On Block Island, Mary Donnelly's got your back

    By Ron Mott
    NBC News

    BLOCK ISLAND, RI -- For more than half a century, Mary Donnelly -- still toiling as a state nurse at the spry age of 83 -- has helped nurse fellow Islanders back to health after surgeries, difficult pregnancies and countless other ailments.

    But when she saw how her neighbors -- the 1,000 or so who live on the island year-round -- were struggling financially, especially through the winter months, Donnelly wanted to help.

    The Mary D. Fund was established in 1979. Donnelly is the lone administrator. The non-profit raises money every year -- the Mary D. Ball in August is the social event of the season -- and helps locals pay for everything from mortgage payments to doctors' and electricity bills when they can't.

    Donnelly's popularity tends to surge when the jet-setters who crowd this quaint New England getaway from Memorial Day to Labor Day head home. "Closed" signs suddenly dot storefront windows, streets empty, quiet settles in.

    Making ends meet becomes a real test of discipline and faith for many residents who stick around past tourist season.

    "So, it's a hard time," Donnelly says. "They're either running stores or restaurants or taxis or whatever. But then, as you can see down at the taxi stand, it's just empty now.

    "So they have, they have a problem."

    But she's got the checkbook. Last year, Donnelly put more than $50,000 worth of assistance in its registry.

    And while she doesn't approve every request for aid, when she does, it usually comes with a caveat or two about how to stretch budgets and survive life on the island.

    After all, she's done it for 53 years. On a nurse's pay.

    Click here to help the Mary D. Fund or write your tax-deductible check to "Mary D Fund" and mail it to: P.O. Box 323, Block Island, RI 02807.

  • American girl, just 12, builds 27 homes in Haiti

    What's next for Rachel Wheeler? Building a school in the earthquake-ravaged country

    By Mary Murray
    NBC News producer

    LEOGANE, Haiti - If there really is something called "helper’s high" - that feel-good sensation that comes from extending a helping hand to others - Rachel Wheeler is soaring.

    The 12-year-old Florida resident has done more to aid others than many grown-ups do in a lifetime.

    Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti. She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard.

    At the time, Julie Wheeler wasn’t even sure her young daughter understood much of what was being discussed— "until Rachel stood on a chair in front of all those adults and pledged to help Food For The Poor," Wheeler said.

    Then a fourth grader, Rachel promised to raise money to build a dozen homes in Haiti.

    "Rachel didn’t just want to help," her mother remembers, "but she said she had to help."

    Rachel ran bake sales, passed the can at homecoming games and sold homemade potholders at her Zion Lutheran School in Deerfield Beach, Fla. She mailed fundraising appeals to the parents of her friends and the people she knew from church. In her hometown, the Lighthouse Point Chamber of Commerce cut two sizable checks.

    Through her Facebook page and word-of-mouth, a cherry farm in Washington heard about Rachel and sent along the proceeds from one of its season's harvest. Another generous donation came from a family that regularly supports the overseas work of Food For The Poor.

    In three short years, this little girl raised more than $250,000.

    Instead of just building 12 homes, Rachel more than doubled her promise. She spent $170,000 on brand-new earthquake-proof cement structures that shelter 27 families in a small fishing town outside of the capital Port-au-Prince. The families baptized the housing tract "Rachel’s Village."

    Many of the new homeowners had spent their entire lives residing in makeshift homes and tents. Food For The Poor had to give instructions on how to fit a key in a lock and turn a doorknob.

    Rachel’s dream now is to rebuild the local school, which was severely damaged in the catastrophic 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti in early 2010, killing 316,000 people and leaving 3 million homeless.

    She has about half of the money she needs to fix the Reap de Morel school in Leogane, where 200 students learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in classrooms that have no walls, a patched tin roof and dirt floors. Mahfood calls the fact that children even attend school "a small miracle," given that most are homeless, hungry and live in a country where more than half the population can't read or write their own name.

    Classrooms are partitioned by bed sheets. The school "library" is a simple wooden table displaying no more than 30 tattered books. Each child owns just a single pencil and notebook. Textbooks are as scarce as food.

    In a makeshift cafeteria, women spend the morning cooking huge vats of rice and beans. By 10 a.m., students are too hungry to concentrate, so lunch is served. This hot lunch, supplied by Food For The Poor, is the only meal of the day for most of these children.

    Food For The Poor has worked in Haiti for 25 years. The charity runs hundreds of food pantries that feed more than 400,000 people daily and it supports dozens of free health clinics with medicines to treat thousands of children a week. Many young Haitians suffer from deadly diseases such as cholera, which has killed more than 6,200 Haitians and sickened nearly 440,000 over the past year.

    Rachel has been to Haiti twice and has seen the abject poverty firsthand. "I don’t believe I can snap my fingers and change Haiti overnight," she said. "I know I have to work at it."

    One might call her approach mature for a 12-year-old. But Rachel isn't your typical pre-teen. She has already invested a fourth of her life to her cause.

    "If everyone helped Haiti like Rachel, the country could stand on its own," said Mahfood. "In five years, Haiti would be a completely different country."

    If you want to learn more about Food For The Poor and Rachel's cause, go to www.foodforthepoor.org/rachel or call 1-800-427-9104.

     

     

  • Chelsea Clinton to share "Making A Difference" stories for "NBC Nightly News" and "Rock Center with Brian Williams"

    PRESS RELEASE: Clinton takes on special assignment adding to the “Making a Difference” Franchise

    Chelsea Clinton is teaming up with "Rock Center with Brian Williams" and "NBC Nightly News" as a Special Correspondent, the network announced today. Clinton's role with the shows and the network will be to highlight stories within the "Making a Difference" franchise.

    "Making a Difference" segments have a history of profiling organizations and individuals who represent the best of what works in the United States and around the world, frequently emphasizing stories about everyday people doing extraordinary things. Clinton’s dedication to public service, solution-based advocacy and focus on empowering people across the country and around the globe resonates with the purpose and content of "Making a Difference." Her position with NBC News will still allow Clinton continue her work with the Clinton Foundation and her studies in parallel.

    "Chelsea is a remarkable woman who will be a great addition to NBC News. Given her vast experiences, it's as though Chelsea has been preparing for this opportunity her entire life," said Steve Capus, President of NBC News. "We are proud she will be bringing her considerable, unique talents and dedication to NBC News."

    "Our Making a Difference segments have become a signature of the broadcast. They adhere to a simple goal of highlighting the good works being done across the country and around the world," said Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor of Nightly News and Rock Center. "Chelsea Clinton has led a remarkable life. She possesses an uncommon understanding of humanity -- on city streets, across this country and around the globe. We are so excited she's joining us to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things."

    "People who imagine and implement solutions to challenges in their own lives, in their communities, in our country and in our world have always inspired me," said Clinton. "I hope telling stories through "Making a Difference" – as in my academic work and non-profit work – will help me to live my grandmother's adage of "Life is not about what happens to you, but about what you do with what happens to you," Clinton continued.  "I have long been impressed that Brian and his team at NBC place consistent importance on sharing stories of empowerment that in turn, help empower other people and families. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this tradition."

    NBC News has been a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years. Every week, NBC News provides more than 30 hours of television news programming, including the top-rated NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Today and Meet the Press programs. Dateline NBC and Rock Center with Brian Williams are the network’s primetime newsmagazines. NBC is the only broadcast news division with an affiliated cable channel, MSNBC, which provides 24-hour-a-day coverage of news events around the globe. Online, MSNBC.com is the number one video news site on the Internet. NBC News has also built an engaged following on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
     
    In addition to its leading news programs, the network's portfolio includes cutting-edge platforms such as NBC News Mobile and NBC News Radio, and innovative ventures such as Peacock Productions, an award-winning in house production company; NBC Learn, the network's educational arm; NBC News Archives, a sales website leveraging over 70 years' worth of NBC News content; and TheGrio.com, a video-centric news community devoted to the African-American audience. NBCNewschannel is the network’s liaison to over 200 affiliate stations across the country.

    Chelsea Clinton has worked at McKinsey & Company and Avenue Capital and studied at Stanford, Oxford and Columbia Universities.  She is currently pursuing a doctorate at Oxford, working at New York University and working with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. Her recent professional and academic work, including her recent academic publications, have focused on questions around how to improve access to relatively low-cost, high-quality health care services around the world, for both acute and chronic health care needs, as well as questions of empowerment and equal rights, including areas related to health, the arts and focused more holistically, on areas that particularly concern children. Chelsea currently serves on the boards of the Clinton Foundation, the School of American Ballet, Common Sense Media, the Weill Cornell Medical College and IAC. Chelsea and her husband Marc live in New York City.

  • Update: Yale QB to lead game against Harvard

    Last week, Nightly News profiled Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt, who faced a tough choice. On Nov. 19, Witt could either lead Yale against arch rival Harvard University in New Haven, Conn., or he could interview for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship in his hometown of Atlanta.

    More than 20,000 of you voted in our poll. Fifty-eight percent of voters said Witt should choose the Rhodes interview over the football game. But Yale University now reports Witt has withdrawn his application for the scholarship and will be playing against Harvard on Saturday. 

    "My focus this week is solely on preparing for the Game alongside my teammates and coaches," said Witt, as quoted on Yale's football page.

    What is your reaction to Witt's decision?

  • American Eagle fined $900,000 in first penalty on delays

    What we're following: 

    - Portland police dismantle 'Occupy' camps after confrontation

    - Herman Cain's wife says he "totally respects women"

    - Could today mark the end of the NBA season?

    And did you see...

    - Russians launch crew on crucial flight to space station

    - Warren Buffett not certain Europe can stop the debt crisis

    - American Eagle fined $900,000 in first penalty on delays

     

     

     

  • Helping soldiers become citizens again

    When we first met Dan Grinstead he was preparing for his first deployment at age 59.  A social worker for 35 years, he used his expertise to counsel soldiers in Afghanistan.  Now, he is back home helping soldiers adjust to civilian life. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports. 

    By Stephanie Himango
    NBC News producer

    This Veterans Day, as we contemplate the thousands of soldiers and their families who have made profound sacrifices, we should also remember that their service does not end when soldiers come safely home. 

    The challenges soldiers face in their attempt to re-acclimate to a non-combat environment can be difficult. Social worker and soldier Capt. Dan Grinstead of the Iowa Army National Guard knows that coming home is a critical phase of the whole deployment process. Grinstead joined the National Guard at 57, with the aim of providing mental health services to soldiers.

    "I just couldn't imagine myself sitting down talking with soldiers in anything other than a uniform," Grinstead told NBC News in a 2010 interview.

    Since then, Grinstead went through the compulsory rigorous training, and ultimately deployed to Afghanistan at 59, along with 2,800 other soldiers. Now, at age 61, he is back home in Iowa and prepared to help soldiers with their next step.

    "You hope you can explain to families what's going on. 'Why am I scanning a room?', 'Why am I driving the way I am?'" he said.  "You have to have those skills to survive in a hostile environment, and the trick is to turn them off when you get home."

    As we remember soldiers on Veterans Day, we can also remember that Grinstead is one of many people whose mission now is to help soldiers become citizens again.

  • Riots at Penn State after football coach Joe Paterno fired

    What we're following: 

    - Riots at Penn State after football coach Joe Paterno fired

    - Gov. Rick Perry has a major gaffe at last night's CNBC debate

    - One of Herman Cain's accusers says he has complete amnesia

    And did you see...

    - Washington Nationals catcher, Wilson Ramos, kidnapped in Venezuela

    - Survivors rescued from latest earthquake in Turkey

    - Africa's Western Black Rhino declared extinct

     

     

     

  • Whale tales

    By Miguel Almaguer

    Humpback whales are making quite a splash in Santa Cruz, Calif.

    In the chilly waters, not far off the coast, a pair of the 40-ton giants nearly swallowed a surfer last week, as the humpbacks grazed for a meal in the fertile water.

    The close encounters seem to be on the rise, but the U.S. Coast Guard says it doesn't keep track of all of them. By most accounts, more people than ever before are out tailing whales. The humpbacks are coming closer to shore, where krill and anchovies are in abundance.

    With these kinds of encounters happening more frequently, marine biologists worry someone is going to get hurt.

    Kera Mathes, a whale expert with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., says people should keep their distance.

    "Being that close to an 80,000-pound whale when it’s coming up and looking for food isn’t safe," she said. "When these surfers and kayakers are so close, it definitely poses a danger to the whale and those in the water."

    Coast Guard boats now scour northern and southern California waters for anyone within 100 yards of blue, humpback, or fin whales. The fine for encroaching on the endangered species is $2,500. Coast Guard Capt. Roger Laferriere likens whale seekers to "someone standing on your kitchen table when you’re trying to eat."

    The safest way to see these whales, which have shown up in record numbers this year off  the California coast, is to take a tour boat. But hurry. Soon, the whales will be migrating for the winter, leaving behind some close encounters many won’t ever forget.

    Watch the full report on Tuesday at 6:30 ET on Nightly News with Brian Williams.

     

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