By Al Henkel, NBC News producer

Lily Flynt proudly screamed that at me Saturday night in Alpine, Texas. I could barely hear her over the screams of the other football fans in the stadium. The object of her attention is #49, Mike Flynt, who was finally playing out his final year of eligibility at Sul Ross State University. He's been nursing an injury and was finally getting into a game. He just put a great block on a lineman coming in to try to block an extra point. The lineman Mike blocked is about the same age as Lily. You see, Mike Flynt is 59 years old.

I'll repeat that. He's 59 years old.

A former strength coach at several large universities, an inventor of exercise equipment, Mike is still as strong and as fast as he was more than 30 years ago, and playing at the same weight as he did in college. His coach says he's one of the strongest men on the team. By the way, Mike is older than his coach. 2 of his 3 children are older than any of his teammates.

Mike was a captain on the Sul Ross football team in 1971, but was kicked out of school before the season started for fighting. That has haunted him for 37 years, how he, in his words, "let his teammates down." During a class reunion last summer, Mike and his buddies were kicking things around, as middle-aged guys like to do, and the question came up about that last year of eligibility. Mike tried out for the team, legitimately made it, enrolled in grad school, moved to Alpine. Lily started college this year, the Flynts were selling the house to downsize, and the timing was great for Mike to live out his dream to play again.

He pulled a groin muscle early in the year and has been rehabbing to get onto the field. Saturday night he played 9 plays, all on special teams because the coach doesn't want him running a lot until the muscle is fully healed. Mike should get in at linebacker, his true position, at some point this year.

I love this story. Mike has a fascinating story, living out a dream for a lot of us middle-aged guys. Don Teague and I will bring you this tonight.

Oh, and did I mention Mike's 2-month old grandson Collin was also there?

By M.L. Flynn, Nightly News Senior Producer

There was just one star in the sky, as we scurried across Tiananmen Square at 5 this morning, but already there were thousands of other people with the same idea - all rushing to get the best position to watch the daily sunrise flag-raising ceremony.

I had had the bright idea of shooting the ceremony, since today was the opening of the party congress, an event that comes around every 5 years. So, up out and early, our NBC Beijing bureau chief, Eric Baculinao, and cameraman, Marcus O'Brien, joined me in plunging into what seemed like a sea of folks yawning - even the young soldiers keeping an eye on the crowd.

Before long, we found ourselves standing next to Jia Xiaodong, a 43-year-old teacher at a sports school in Shandong province. Jia had ridden the bus for seven hours, and had slept in a street underpass overnight, just so he could see the flag raising. His face was beaming with excitement. But with the crowd about four people deep, Mr. Jia couldn't really see over the heads of those in front, so instead, he, like many others around us, jostled to watch the flag raising on Marcus's portable monitor.

Marcus, who is an old hand at taping the ceremony, had his camera focused on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Soon, out of the dusky shadows and in lockstep formation, we saw the honor guard emerge through the tunnel gate, just under the picture of Mao Tse Tung. It is a ceremony where nothing is left to chance. Each sunrise the honor guard marches with calibrated precision: 108 steps, each 29 inches long, to the flag stand.

So, at exactly 6:24 this morning, at sunrise, the flag bearer hit a button on the flagpole, the national anthem started to play from loudspeakers, and, with a dramatic flourish, he snapped the flag into the air. Like every day, from start to finish the ceremony was 127 seconds.

Mr. Jia was transfixed. When we asked him how he felt, all he could say was,"emotional". However, he didn't have any time to savor the moment; within minutes, the soldiers were clearing the square. Mr. Jia quickly took a photo of his flag, now whipping in the breeze, and then, like the thousands of other proud Chinese, was herded along and off the square.

Why the urgency at 6:30 in the morning? The party congress is using Tiananmen Square as a parking lot this week, for the party delegates' cars.

By M.L. Flynn, Nightly News Senior Producer

Kate Spade. Not knockoffs, but designer originals. Coming back to China after 13 years, I knew there would be big changes, but I certainly didn't expect to see a Kate Spade store, let alone Prada and Hermes boutiques, in the glitzy shopping mall below my hotel.

Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.

Paul J. Wiedorfer
Private, U.S. Army Company G, 318th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division

Working in the war industries gave Paul Wiedorfer an automatic deferment until 1943, when he was drafted. The following year, he was in Europe with the 80th Infantry. After fighting through France and into Belgium, his battalion was taken out of combat and put on "corps reserve." But the rest wasn't for long—when the Battle of the Bulge began, his unit was loaded onto trucks and sent to the front. They were on the way to relieve the garrison at Bastogne when American troops, mistaking them for Germans, opened fire on them. Wiedorfer's commanding officer had to drape their vehicles with white sheets to convince the Americans to cease firing.

At around noon on Christmas Day 1944, Wiedorfer's company was near Chaumont, Belgium, clearing a wooded area of enemy snipers. The day was cloudless and very cold; the three-inch snowfall from the previous night had turned to ice. One of the platoons was crossing an open area when two German machine guns, flanked by riflemen, opened fire from dug-in positions. The Americans scrambled for cover behind a small ridge.

Afraid that his immobilized buddies would be cut to pieces, Private Wiedorfer stood up and charged the enemy. Slipping repeatedly on the frozen ground until he got to within a few yards of the first machine-gun nest, he tossed a grenade in, then shot the three enemy soldiers manning it. He continued to fight his way through the snow, crouching as he ran toward the second position, all the while sensing and hearing the shells from the small-arms fire the Germans were concentrating on him. He counted it a miracle that he wasn't hit. When the grenade he threw at the second enemy position killed one soldier, six others stood up and surrendered to him. By this point, the pinned-down American platoon was able to get up and advance with the rest of the company.

Private Wiedorfer's platoon leader had been killed several days earlier; when his sergeant was also killed in this action, he took over and led the unit for the next several weeks. In early February 1945, fighting on German soil, he was hit during a mortar attack. Although the body of a GI, killed instantly near him, stopped some of the shrapnel, Wiedorfer was struck by fragments in the stomach and in both legs. His left leg was broken; his right hand was shot through. He was evacuated to England, where he was treated for two months, then sent home, where he was hospitalized at Walter Reed for the next two and a half years. One morning, a sergeant in the bed next to him, reading the GI newspaper Stars and Stripes, said, "Hey, Paul, what's your last name?" Wiedorfer spelled it for him. The sergeant looked up. "Hell, you got the Medal of Honor, man!"

Wiedorfer thought someone would just come by his hospital bed to hand the medal to him. But by the time Brigadier General E. F. Koening, the commanding officer of the hospital, arrived to make the presentation on May 29, 1945, he was surrounded by hundreds of people—officers, nurses, and a full military band.

by Lester Holt

Good afternoon. We're excited about a Richard Engel story running on the newscast tonight that attempts to answer the question: is the war in Iraq making us safer from terror here at home?  His exclusive report, which has been months in the making, includes a trip inside a Baghdad police detention center where accused terrorists tell Richard exactly why they are fighting Americans.  It's eye opening stuff, as is an admission we hear in Richard's piece from the Director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.

We're also following up tonight on Andrea Mitchell's recent reporting on that mysterious Israeli air attack on a target inside Syria last month. As Andrea told us back on September 21st, the target was apparently a nuclear facility. Today the New York Times is shedding more light on the intelligence behind the attack, and NBC's Tom Aspell tonight will look at that and the future of nuclear programs in the Middle East.

George Lewis will update us on that horrible truck pile-up and fire that closed part of I-5 north of Los Angeles this weekend. We learned today a third person, a child, was killed in the accident. George will tell us when the highway is expected to re-open.

There's big news out of San Francisco today on a blood test that researchers say could predict whether a person will develop Alzheimer's. The first question that comes to mind is why would anyone want to take it? We'll ask NBC's Robert Bazell who can tell us more about the discovery.

All that plus CNBC's Maria Bartiromo tells us why she believes we're heading into a critical week on Wall Street.

Thanks for checking-in with us.  I hope you can join us tonight for NBC Nightly News.

By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

At the end of the broadcast tonight, I have to correct the impression I left with a lot of viewers (including my mother-in-law and my stage manager, Vito) that NBC Nightly News (the whole network, for that matter) is moving to Universal City in Los Angeles.  Looking back on what I said on the air, it's kinda easy to see how I left that impression.  Here's what happened: we had an entire taped piece prepared for the end of the broadcast, but the editing console crashed, and the piece I wrote went away.  What ended up airing (and leaving the impression we were MOVING, instead of merely building a new office complex in LA) was an amalgam of my words -- sans exact meaning.  We've had calls, we've received letters...I've got a lot of 'splaining to do.  I will take what's coming to me.

TOUGH CROWD

The afternoon headline on Gawker: TED KENNEDY FINALLY HOSPITALIZED.  Ouch. While you're there, just try NOT watching the clip from Pageant Place.  If you do, ask yourself: Why hasn't that ticket agent ever helped ME?  I'm thinking of getting a TSA-friendly sash to speed my way through airports.  It's an incredible piece of video. 

Tonight's consensus top story is the Nobel Peace Prize.  Al Gore spoke this afternoon -- and we'll also take this opportunity to take stock of the "green" movement and how much credit he gets for it.

From Historian's Corner today: my man Andy Franklin reminds us of the history of this great medal:

The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901, though in 19 of the years since then, no prize was given (including the years of World Wars I and II). Before this year, 18 American individuals or organizations had won the prize, including Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. Former Secretary of State George C. Marshall won the Nobel in 1953, as the architect of the Marshall Plan, which helped save postwar Europe. Henry Kissinger shared the award with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho in 1973; they won for negotiating an end to the war in Vietnam (although the war itself did not end until later). The FIRST American to win the Nobel Peace Prize was a sitting president: Theodore Roosevelt, in 1906. And here's where it gets interesting: Roosevelt's Secretary of State was a man named Elihu Root, who went on to get elected to a Senate seat as a Republican from New York. Root won the Nobel in 1912. He ran for president in 1916, but he lost the Republican nomination to Charles Evans Hughes, who in turn lost the general election to Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson, a Democrat, won the Nobel in 1919. Wilson's successor was Warren G. Harding, who died in office, elevating Vice President Calvin Coolidge. When Coolidge was elected president in his own right in 1924, his vice president was Charles G. Dawes, who like Coolidge was a Republican. Dawes won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. Coolidge's Secretary of State was a man named Frank B. Kellogg, a former Republican Senator from Minnesota. And yes, he too won a Nobel -- in 1929. Cordell Hull won the prize in 1945; another Secretary of State (for 11 years under FDR) who was also a former Senator (a Democrat, from Tennessee). But he was the last American Nobel laureate who was also a politician -- someone who had at some point held elective office -- until 2002, when the Nobel Peace Prize went to former President Jimmy Carter.  Now it's Al Gore's turn.

We had a nice time here tonight at a preview party for our new studio digs.  We'll post much more as the debut on-air date approaches, a week from Monday.

Please make time to read today's MOH Biography. Please have a good weekend -- and we sure hope you can join us tonight...and again on Monday.

By Courtney Kube, NBC News Pentagon producer

"Neglect and incompetence" by the NSC has lead to an intractable situation in Iraq, the Former Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq said today.  "The NSC has been a failure."

Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said today that there has been a "failure of the national political leadership" in this war.  He said that if some of the political leaders were in the military they would be relieved or court martialed long ago.  Sanchez refused to identify specific individuals responsible for the failure, saying that he thinks we (the audience was primarily media) should be able to figure it out ourselves.

Sanchez said that the NSC, the Congress, the State Department, and the national political leadership are all responsible for the "crisis in leadership."

America is living "a nightmare with no end in sight" with the war in Iraq, he said, adding that "America has no choice but to continue" fighting in Iraq or else the country will turn into chaos, which will spill into chaos throughout the Middle East.  America will be there "for the foreseeable future," he said.

The "latest attempt" in Iraq (the surge) is "a desperate attempt by the Administration," and the best the U.S. can do at this point is to "stave off defeat."   He said that the latest efforts in Iraq are "a wasted effort," and as it continues men and women in uniform continue to die.

Sanchez said that political and military leaders owe the soldiers a strategy in Iraq, and that the politicians must no longer be distracted by their "lust for power" and partisan ways.  He went on to say that the real problem is that the strategy in Iraq has not been resourced.

Asked when he realized the war in Iraq was on the skids, Sanchez said, "15 June 2003," which is the day he took over as commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

Today, Sanchez said, the war is suffering from "inept coalition management efforts," and the effort appears to be "continuing on the path" to failure.

By Christine Delargy, Nightly News production assistant, Washington, DC

We spent the past two days with the Charlie Unit of the Old Guard, the oldest active regiment in the U.S. Army. It's the Old Guard that serves as escort to the president, marches in military parades and renders honors funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. Honors funerals like the one held this morning for 12 soldiers killed in Baghdad in January when a Blackhawk helicopter was shot down by enemy fire.

In preparation for tonight's story, Roger O'Neil, producer Sylvie Haller, cameramen Jim Long and Tom Staton and I spent yesterday at Fort Myer where the Old Guard is stationed. We interviewed the unit's Captain David Beard, we watched the soldiers fold the 12 flags for the next of kin, and practice spinning the triads for the ceremonious handover to the families of the deceased. We sat in on the rehearsal for today's group burial, watching the Old Guard soldiers march into formation until every step was in tandem and not a millisecond off beat.

We even woke up with unit at 6am this morning to see the soldiers put on their uniforms, polish their shoes, the bills of their hats and buttons on their jackets, positioning their medals perfectly straight. The key word being perfectly. "People may say that its impossible to be perfect but here its not. You just have to work pretty hard at it and you won't find another group of people who work harder to be perfect," 20 year old Private, 1st Class Skylar Redick told Roger. Private Redick carries the unit's signature flag and left college after one year to serve in the Old Guard.

The Old Guard performs five, 10, 15 funerals a day, 378 funerals for casualties of Operation Iraqi Freedom to date. Scattered around Fort Meyer are practice coffins, filled with sandbags to simulate the weight they soldiers carry in an honors funeral. One sergeant recalled to us the strain of President Ronald Reagan's 900-lb casket on his forearms up the marble steps of the Capitol.

Roger asked each of the soldiers we had the chance to speak with, does it ever wear on you emotionally? Each paused reflectively, almost hesitating with pride, and then "yes sir, sometimes." Their honor was inspiring.

But as inspired as each of us was by the ceremonial perfection of the Old Guard, nothing could prepare us for the powerful images of the single casket funeral for the 12 fallen soldiers.

A horse drawn caisson carrying a single casket covered with the American flag lead a procession of six black limousines and five buses of family members, friends and fellow soldiers. Hundreds, literally hundreds, of mourners spilled out into Arlington, interspersed between the white headstones, as five Blackhawk helicopters flew overhead. It was the first funeral I've attended at Arlington National Cemetery. Our cameraman Jim Long has been to Iraq and back a handful of times, has covered multiple honors funerals at Arlington and even he paused with a heartfelt sigh as the fifth or sixth flag was presented to a mother with her young son.

The gregarious nature of the Old Guard soldiers we had spent hours with the day before was replaced by strong solemnity. On Thursday, they spoke to us of their honor, their duty to honor their fallen comrades with perfection, they laughed recalling their very first uniform inspections. Their words of honor could not ring more true for us than with the group burial's taps, bugle and gun salute.

To be perfectly honest, it was a honor to work on this story. And Roger O'Neil captures the power of these images in his words tonight just perfectly. The Old Guard soldiers would be proud.

By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington

The horse-drawn caisson wound slowly down Bradley Drive at Arlington National Cemetery, carrying a single flag-draped casket containing the remains of 12 soldiers whose helicopter was blown out of the skies over Iraq last January.

Five Black Hawk helicopters flew over the cemetery and an Army band played "America the Beautiful" for the hundreds of mourners who turned out this morning to pay their final respects to the 11 men and one woman, 10 of them National Guard members, who died Jan. 12 when their Black Hawk was shot down northeast of Baghdad in Diyala Province. It was the largest number of Guard members killed in a combat mission since the Korean War.

A brisk autumn breeze drowned out the words of the brief graveside service in which folded American flags were presented to relatives of the fallen soldiers.

1. Col. Brian Allgood, 46, of Oklahoma was the top American medical officer in Iraq. An orthopedic surgeon, he was a graduate of West Point and the University of Oklahoma Medical School. "He was very brilliant," his mother told the Colorado Springs Gazette. Allgood is survived by his widow, Jane, also a West Point graduate, and their son, Wyatt, 11. "It's just going to be very empty, for forever," his mother told KKTV.

2. Staff Sgt. Darryl Booker, 37, of Midlothian, Va., was a military air-traffic controller with the Virginia Army National Guard, which he joined in 1987. He had served in Iraq and in Bosnia prior to his final deployment to Iraq. "He made a choice and made the best of his choice," his father told the Newport News Daily Press. Booker is survived by his widow, Jeanne, and five children, Derica, Shata, Dante, Marcus, and Maurice.

3. Sgt. 1st Class John Brown, 43, of Little Rock, Ark., worked for a tire supply company when he wasn't serving as a member of the Arkansas Army National Guard. Brown, who was in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm, had just returned from a two-week home leave in which he grilled with his family, rooted for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and ran errands. He leaves his widow, Donna, and two stepdaughters.

4. Lt. Col. David Canegata III, 50, of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, was with the Virgin Islands Army National Guard. On his last birthday, he gave his family a booklet with a timeline of his life from birth, with pictures and scriptures. "I believe he left this booklet to prepare us," his sister told the Virgin Islands Daily News. Canegata is survived by his widow, Shenneth, and four children, Nicole, David-Mychal, Andre, and Jessica.

5. Command Sgt. Maj. Marilyn Gabbard, 46, of Polk City, Iowa, was the first woman in the Iowa Army National Guard to attain the rank of command sergeant major. "I think she relished having soldiers look up to her," another member of the Iowa Guard told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. She was also the first woman in the Iowa Guard to be killed in combat. She is survived by her husband, Edward, and a daughter, a stepson, and five stepdaughters.

6. Command Sgt. Maj. Roger Haller, 49, of Davidsonville, Md., served in the Maryland Army National Guard for 24 years. He is survived by two daughters, Morgan, and Kathryn, and a son, Daniel, 22, who came home from Iraq shortly before his father deployed. "We are saying goodbye to someone whom we loved and treasured," his children said in a statement, "and whose loss leaves a hole in our lives that will never be filled."

7. Col. Paul Kelly, 45, of Stafford, Va., a member of the Virginia Army National Guard, once flew a helicopter to his sons' grade school on career day. "Family was just so important to him," his brother told the Stafford County Sun. Kelly leaves his widow, Maria, and sons, Paul, 8, and J.J., 5. Paul wrote in his father's funeral program, "Dear Dad, I just wanted to tell you I miss you a lot. I was looking forward to Play foot Ball with you. You're my Best friend and the Best Dad ever. We miss you. Love, Paul your son."

8. Sgt. 1st Class Floyd Lake, 43, of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, joined the Virgin Islands Army National Guard in 1990. He was a fitness buff who enjoyed running and exercising with his children. "He was always out in front, beating most of us in physical fitness," his commanding officer told Capital News Service. Lake is survived by his widow, Linda, and five children, J'Nelle, Floyd Jr., Andre, Keeshawn, and Tamile.

9. Cpl. Victor Langarica, 29, of Decatur, Ga., a mechanic assigned to the 86th Signal Battalion, was known for his fancy footwork on dance floors. "He was a great dancer," an Army colleague told the Associated Press. "Salsa, merengue, whatever." He leaves a daughter, Devina, and a son, Devic. "The nightmare that I was running away from came true," his mother told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

10. Capt. Sean Lyerly, 31, of Pflugerville, Texas, was a helicopter pilot with the Texas Army National Guard who flew missions into Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina two years ago. "He loved flying, but he loved flying best when he could help someone else," a friend told the Austin American-Statesman. Lyerly is survived by his widow, Csilla, and their 3-year-old son, Zachary. "They were a perfect couple," his stepmother told the newspaper.

11. Capt. Michael Taylor, 40, of North Little Rock, Ark., was a helicopter pilot with the Arkansas Army National Guard. "He had a great mind, even a superb mind," a colleague said in the Denver Post. "He was a very good pilot." Taylor, who also served in Operation Desert Storm, was piloting the Black Hawk helicopter when it was shot down. He leaves his widow, Wendy, and their two children, Justin, 11, and Meredith, 5.

12. 1st Sgt. William Thomas Warren, 48, of North Little Rock, Ark., a member of the Arkansas Army National Guard for 21 years, volunteered to fill in as door gunner on the ill-fated Black Hawk flight. "Other than family, aviation was Tom Warren's heart and soul," his widow, Doris, told the Jacksonville Patriot. They were married for 24 years and had five children, Zachary, Jordan, Denise, Dorreen, and Desire, and 13 grandchildren.

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He posts a weekly tribute to service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.

Gary G. Wetzel
Private First Class, U.S. Army 173rd Assault Helicopter Company, 11th Combined Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade

Gary Wetzel grew up as the second oldest of nine children and joined the Army at the age of eighteen. It was only one month after his nineteenth birthday when he landed in

By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

The above expression -- a quote from Thomas Paine -- famously appeared on the desk of Ted Turner during his years running CNN.  In today's posting, I plan to do the last two items on that list.  I'm going to take my lead from our in-house historian Andy Franklin -- as good at the history of television as he is at the history of the United States.  At the end of the broadcast tonight, we'll take stock in an NBC landmark: our Burbank Studios in California.  Andy has done a little digging, and he's found some of the great moments in NBC's Burbank history (now there's a line that makes you wish Johnny Carson was still with us). I post it below with full credit: along with an SNL/today-in-history bonus item.  Besides, Chris Colvin has done a superb job below on everything else.  My job here is done.

True West

We all know that nothing lasts forever, but sometimes change is hard to take. Word came today that NBC Universal will soon bid farewell to its longtime West Coast headquarters in Burbank, in order to consolidate operations at Universal City. With the exception of our New York home here at 30 Rock, it's safe to say that no other facility in the world embodies more broadcasting history than the NBC Studios in Burbank. NBC bought the site in 1951 -- back when the television world was young. A year later came the inaugural broadcast from those legendary studios. It was October 4, 1952, and featured the likes of Milton Berle, George Jessel, Harpo Marx, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Durante and Rosalind Russell.

NBC expanded and upgraded its Burbank facility pretty much continuously over the years. On March 27, 1955, a new studio was opened - the world's first to be built specifically for COLOR telecasting. Once again, NBC staged an all-star show to mark the occasion -- the first NBC color broadcast to originate from the West Coast. The show was emceed by Fred Allen and included Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis, Helen Hayes, Judy Holliday, Charlton Heston, Cesar Romero, Ralph Edwards and James Stewart -- as well as Dinah Shore and Jimmy Durante, who had been on hand the first time around. A three-story office building was added to the site in 1957, another major expansion was begun in 1969, and a 6-story, 56,000 square-foot building was added in 1979.

But it was what happened inside those buildings that earned NBC Burbank its place in history. We can't begin to catalogue all the countless programs that originated there over the years, so we'll just mention a few, starting with the one that really put the place on the map: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Johnny started hosting the Tonight Show in 1962, but for the first decade, it was broadcast from New York. Johnny moved West in 1972, and from May 1 of that year until his farewell on May 22, 1992, Carson held court in NBC's Studio One in "beautiful downtown Burbank." Johnny made the city of Burbank famous with that line, but credit for coming up with it in the first place goes to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," the groundbreaking comedy show that aired on NBC from 1968 to 1973. It too originated from our studios in beautiful downtown you-know-where, as Jay Leno's Tonight Show does today.  We also have to mention some rock and roll history: Elvis Presley's legendary comeback special -- featuring his first performances before a live audience in seven years -- was taped at NBC's Burbank Studios in June, 1968. Presley was magnificent, and the program -- broadcast on December 3, 1968 -- was instrumental in resurrecting his career.

Nightly News itself has some important roots in Burbank. The news bureau there is where Chet Huntley (later of Huntley-Brinkley fame) began his NBC News career back in 1955. And none other than Tom Brokaw also made a national name for himself while working out of Burbank -- at KNBC-TV, starting in 1966.

As it turns out, one year after Tom got there, NBC opened its Burbank Studios to the public for tours. They cost $1.50 then. You can still take the tour ($8.50 for adults, five buck for kids). But you'd better hurry.

One last bit of NBC history, as promised -- and it has nothing to do with Burbank. Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the debut of Saturday Night Live, on October 11, 1975. The host of that first show? Comedian George Carlin. And the musical guests? Janis Ian, and the late, great Billy Preston.

Please take time to read today's Medal of Honor biography. We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer, Washington

Hi. Lots of carry-over from our last entry, on the fight over SCHIP and its young spokesperson and the Syria/Israel/North Korea mystery.. plus scrapping over genuine-ness on Iraq, and speculation about Al Gore hot enough to met the polar ice caps. 

Time Magazine's Karen Tumulty writes up how the blog-driven assault on a seventh-grader backfired on critics of the SCHIP program. Liberal blogger Ezra Klein asked one of the leaders of the attack on the Frost family, Michelle Malkin, to debate the merits of SCHIP.  Malkin explains, quite heatedly, why she refuses to debate. Blogger publius critiques Malkin's answer. And the Frost's hometown paper weighs in.

National Review's Rich Lowry went to Iraq. Salon's Glenn Greenwald comments. And The NYT reports the Marines want to leave Iraq and go to Afghanistan.

Now to one of our favorite topics: the mysterious Israeli raid on Syria. The New York Times led with the story yesterday... raising questions about how reliable Israeli intelligence (which ABC News characterized as "jaw-dropping") on the supposed North Korean/Syrian nuclear weapons program really is. According to the Times Mazetti and Cooper, the Cheney camp is behind the intel, the Rice camp, not so much. And the DPRK studies blog makes an important point about the Times story.. which implies that even though the Rice camp is dubious about the intel, they're not dubious about the nuke factory: "(this) suggests the existence of a Syrian nuclear program is being taken for granted. In realty , where officials disagree is whether or not there is a Syrian nuclear program, if North Korea was assisting them (if there was such a program), and if Israeli intelligence can be trusted.]  Kevin Drum links to the NYT.. but the real news in this post is in comments. Paul Woodward links to an Israeli reporter who actually went to the alleged Syrian site. The Times took note of that today. And hey Iran is weighing in now. On the other hand, the Bashman says Syria is producing nukes is a simple as 2+2 =4 And another breathless narrative of Israel's derring-do emerges.

Politics: John Nichols of the Nation reports on the Draft Gore movement.. on the eve of what might be a Nobel Prize announcement. That possibility has bloggers on the right pretty annoyed. But they're taking some solace in a British judge's ruling that there are 9 scientific errors in "An Inconvenient Truth."

And I know you've been waiting for this: the GOP unveils its '08 convention logo. Nuthin' like a starry-eyed elephant, I always say!

Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.

Ernest E. West
Private First Class, U.S. Army 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

Private First Class Ernest West did his basic training as part of the 25th Infantry in Hawaii—a "paradise" in comparison to what he would experience in Korea, which he regarded as a frozen hell in the winter and a suffocating hell in the summertime. For a Kentucky boy who had dropped out of high school to take a job on the railroad before being drafted in 1950, Korea was simply the most unfriendly environment he could imagine.

In the fall of 1952, West's unit was near Sataeri. It was a hilly area, and after dark the U.S. soldiers were monitoring Chinese troops with primitive night vision equipment. The Americans were struck by how tall the enemy troops were—six-footers from northern China and Mongolia, who were dug into bunkers along a high ridgeline.

On October 12, West was one of sixteen Americans who volunteered for a mission to try to capture some of the enemy for interrogation. Moving as silently as possible through a valley separating the U.S. and Chinese positions, they came to a rise leading up to the enemy bunkers.  Half of the group stayed behind with machine guns. The others began to climb up toward the enemy, with West walking ahead as the point man. Suddenly the Chinese began to roll grenades down onto them. One passed between West's legs and exploded near his lieutenant, who was just behind him. Two other Americans also went down. Realizing that his contingent had walked into an ambush, West ordered those who were not hurt to retreat. Then he ran through heavy small-arms fire and exploding grenades to his lieutenant, who was badly hurt. Using his body to shield the helpless officer from flying shrapnel, West picked him up and started down the hill. Four enemy soldiers came at him, but he killed them with his rifle. West made it back to the U.S. position with the lieutenant, then returned for another wounded American, killing eight more of the enemy along the way. As he dragged the second man to safety, a grenade exploded near him, deadening his left arm and sending shrapnel into his eye. Bleeding heavily, West returned for another wounded comrade and got him down the hill.

West spent the next ten months in the hospital, most of it at Walter Reed. Doctors tried to save his eye by positioning a large powerful magnet over it to draw out the shrapnel, but the procedure didn't work and the eye had to be removed. Finally released from the service, West returned to Kentucky. It was hard for him not to feel that he was still at war. On his first day back at his old job on the railroad, a co-worker came up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder. West instinctively turned and wrestled the man down. He quickly apologized: "Sorry, but you'll have to give me a month or so. Just talk to me, don't touch me."

Early in 1954, West got a telegram informing him that he was to receive the Medal of Honor. His railroad arranged to make a special stop in his hometown of Russell, where he boarded a private car that carried him to Washington, D.C. After putting the medal around his neck on January 12, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said to West, "In addition to this decoration, you have an old soldier's admiration."

Ernest West returned home and continued to work on the railroad until his retirement in 1993 

Eight soldiers, two sailors, and a Marine died last week in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United Arab Emirates, bringing the total number of U.S. deaths to 3,811 in Iraq and 444 in Afghanistan through Oct. 6:

1. Army Sgt. Randell Olguin, 24, of Ralls, Texas, always wanted to serve his country. "Just like he did on the football field or the baseball field for us, laying it on the line, he did it for our country," his high school coach told KCBD 11. A member of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Olguin was killed by small arms fire Sept. 30 in Baghdad. He is survived by his wife of less than two years, who lives in Germany.

2. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jerome Murkerson Jr., 35, of Adger, Ala., was a huge Alabama football fan. He even called home from Iraq to make sure Auburn really lost to South Florida last month. "He said, 'I wanted to make sure I saw it on the internet right,'" his mother told the Associated Press. Murkerson was shot and killed Oct. 1 while on patrol with an Iraqi army battalion in Al Anbar Province. He leaves his wife, Wendy, and their three children, Stephen, 15, Daniel, 12, and Kristina, 8.

3. Navy Petty Officer Third Class Mark Cannon, 31, of Lubbock, Texas, stood 6-foot-5 and weighed 250 pounds. "As big as he was, he had a real soft, tender side to him," his father told the Honolulu Advertiser. "He loved helping people." A Navy corpsman, he was killed Oct. 2 rushing to aid a wounded Marine in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. "He had his Kelvar armor on, but I understand he was shot underneath his right arm," his father told the Advertiser. "Mark was the only one to die."

4. Navy Seaman Apprentice Shayna Ann Schnell, 19, of Tell City, Ind., was assigned to security at the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. She suffered severe brain injuries in a taxi accident Sept. 24 while going to a doctor's office in the city of Dubai. Her father, stepmother, sister, and two brothers flew to Dubai and were with her when she died on Oct. 1. She is considered the 111th female death of the Iraqi War.

5. Army Sgt. Ricardo Rodriguez, 23, of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, joined the Army in 2004 and was a gunner with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was killed by a roadside bomb Oct. 4 near Bayji, Iraq. "He was a leader and a teacher to his soldiers, and his loss will be deeply felt for a long time," a fellow paratrooper said in the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. Rodriguez is survived by his son, Ricardo, and his parents, Ernesto and Anabelle, all of Arecibo.

6. Army Spc. Avealalo Milo, 23, of Hayward, Calif., played rugby and soccer growing up in American Samoa. He moved to California in 2003 to better his life. "Despite our concerns, we let him go," his mother told Pacific Magazine. Milo, who asked his family to send him corn beef and noodles in Iraq, was killed Oct. 4 by small arms fire in Baghdad. He is survived by his wife of less than three months, Joshlyn.

7. Army Spc. Rachael Hugo, 24, of Madison, Wis., was a combat medic with the 89th Military Police Brigade who "kept volunteering to go out with the troops when she could have stayed back on base," her uncle told the Madison State Journal. She died Oct. 5 in an attack on her unit near Bayji, Iraq. "She knew death, destruction, and despair, but she knew a lot of good things, too," her father told the State Journal. Hugo had hoped one day to become a nurse.

8. Army Spc. Vincent Kamka, 23, of Everett, Wash., has three brothers who serve in the military, as did his father. "Patriotism is a way of life," his mother wrote in the Idaho Press-Tribune, "and many Americans still teach their children that freedom isn't free." Kamka's Oct. 4 death near Bayji, Iraq, was under investigation. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. "We thank God for Vincent's life and sacrifice," his family said in a statement.

9. Army Sgt. Joseph Milledge, 23, asked his family back home in Glenwood, Iowa, to send him socks and t-shirts to give to impoverished Iraqi kids. "He always loved the children in Iraq," his sister told the Omaha World-Herald. "He was just compassionate." Milledge, assigned to the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, was killed Oct. 5 by a improvised bomb while searching houses north of Baghdad. He is survived by his widow, Amanda, and 14-month-old son, Joseph Jr.

10. Army Spc. Jason Marchand, 26, of Greenwood, W.Va., last talked to his mother on Oct. 2. "He didn't like it over there," his mother told the Associated Press, "but said his buddies needed him." Marchand died in the same bomb blast that killed Milledge. "He was a good, all-around kid," Marchand's high school football coach told the AP. "He was a good student, a good human being." Marchand is survived by his widow, April, and daughter, Savannah, 6.

11. Army Spc. Adam Quinn, 22, of Orange City, Fla., was known for his outgoing personality. "Adam loved to joke around and just have fun," a fellow member of the 82nd Airborne Division said. "It didn't seem like much ever got him down." Quinn, a computer systems specialist, was killed Oct. 6 by a roadside bomb near Kabul, Afghanistan. He is survived by his widow, Faye, who is five months pregnant with their first child.

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He posts a weekly tribute to service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

I have a piece of videotape to link to today. We watched it air as part of the ITN evening news in the U.K. on Monday -- part of their coverage of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's decision not to hold elections in the U.K.  It's a remarkable piece of television for the tone it conveys, and how it differs in style from the same story as told by American broadcast television networks.  Click on the video and listen to ITN's political correspondent -- I think some folks (those who aren't already familiar with the media in the U.K.) will find it interesting.

Our resident historian Andy Franklin has submitted this next section on this day in history -- it's a great piece of work.

Here's to the Losers

It is said that history is written by the winners, but let's not forget that history is MADE by winners and losers alike. This comes to mind only because today happens to mark anniversaries for three historical figures remembered at least in part for their losses, and whose names may have never appeared together in the same sentence until now: George Armstrong Custer, Spiro T. Agnew and Susan B. Anthony. 130 years ago today, on October 10, 1877, Custer's funeral was held at West Point, where he had graduated (last in his class) in 1861. Custer was a Civil War hero known for his flamboyance, even arrogance. He was a native of Ohio, but he is better remembered for where his life ended: in Montana, on June 25, 1876, defeated by Native Americans at the Battle of Little Bighorn -- Custer's Last Stand. Custer was hastily buried on the battlefield, but his body was later exhumed and brought east to West Point. 96 years to the day after Custer's funeral, on October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew abruptly resigned after striking a deal to avoid prison by admitting to tax evasion. Who was Spiro Agnew? He was vice-president to none other than Richard M. Nixon, who himself resigned less than a year later. Nixon was replaced as president by the man who had replaced Agnew as vice president: Gerald R. Ford, who in turn pardoned Nixon. That pardon contributed to Ford's subsequent loss to Jimmy Carter, which brings us to Susan B. Anthony. On October 10, 1978 -- five years to the day after Agnew's resignation -- President Carter signed a bill authorizing the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which went on to become perhaps the most spectacular dud in numismatic history. Never mind that Ms. Anthony was a pioneering advocate of women's rights. Through no fault of her own, she is now also remembered for that coin, and though beyond the grave, she must suffer the indignity of her coincidental association with the likes of Custer and Agnew. Such are the vagaries of history.

Please take time to read tonight's Medal of Honor biography...we hope you can join us tonight for our Wednesday broadcast.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent

Something called "personalized medicine" has been the holy grail of biomedical science for several years now. The idea is that every patient is different and that a disease like breast cancer, even though it has one name, comes in many forms. The goal, then, is to tailor the therapy to the specific patient and the specific form of disease to maximize the benefits and minimize the side effects.

Tonight we report on two big movements toward personalized medicine in breast cancer treatment. For several decades some of the biggest progress against breast cancer has come through the use of something called adjuvant therapy. Soon after the initial surgery and radiation the patient gets either hormones and/or chemotherapy drugs to reduce the chances the cancer will return.

In many cases doctors have been using a "one size fits all" approach – giving the same combinations of drugs to many patients. But the drugs don't help all patients and they can have severe side effects. The good news is that as scientists are understanding more about the biology of breast cancer they are learning which drugs work, and which don't, as adjuvant treatments.

In one study a group of doctors looked at which patients benefit from taxol and similar drugs. The study found that about half the women who have been getting it might not benefit. If confirmed by further studies this would be crucial information because taxol-like drugs cause not just the familiar nausea and hair loss but can bring on temporary or permanent nerve damage.

You can read the actual research from the New England Journal of Medicine and the editorial about them.

Other studies concern drugs called antrhacylines; adriamycin is the most familiar. These can cause heart damage in and rare cases leukemia. I wrote a column when this information was first being talked about at a cancer meeting last June. Since then much of it has been published.

A crucial word of caution here: Many oncologists worry that women will over-react to this information and forego treatments that could be life saving. Determining which patients benefit from which drugs is a difficult and evolving science. It involves knowing not just familiar things about tumors, such as whether they are fed by the female hormone estrogens, but also whether they have certain molecules on their surface such as Her-2 which affect how the tumors grow. New tests are appearing regularly. So the answer to the question of "What treatment is best for me?" will become more complex. But that is good because it shows that we are moving toward personalized medicine.

By John Yang, NBC News correspondent

The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's adage that "the less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they will sleep at night" is never truer than when it comes to tax legislation. Writing tax law is an exercise driven by the fiscal math of making all the revenue numbers add up and the political calculus of getting the votes to pass the bill in Congress.

Consider the tax breaks for college sports stadium seating, the topic of tonight's "Fleecing of America."

In the 1980s, big colleges started the practice of limiting season tickets to fans who made up-front contributions to the program--the bigger the donation, the better the seat. Donors began deducting those contributions, arguing that it was to an educational charity. But in 1986, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that contributions tied to a "substantial benefit"--such as season tickets--weren't deductible.

But Congress just happened to be considering a major tax overhaul bill (which I was covering for the Wall Street Journal) and two lawmakers stepped up to protect the tax break and keep their favorite colleges--and their football fans--from being thrown for a loss: The late Texas Rep. J.J. "Jake" Pickle, a University of Texas alumnus and influential member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and the late Louisiana Sen. Russell Long, a longtime member of the Finance Committee and a graduate of Louisiana State University.

Lo and behold, when the tax reform bill emerged in its final form--hailed at the time as a major simplification of the code that closed loopholes--it included a provision that allowed for the full deductibility for donations in order to buy season seats at just two colleges: Texas and LSU.

The deduction was extended to all universities in 1988, but limited to 80 percent of the contribution.

A similar pattern played out when the IRS took a look at the millions of dollars that college athletic departments were getting from corporations for naming rights at stadiums. In 1991, the IRS proposed taxing that revenue, but reversed course after the NCAA protested. And in 1997 Congress amended the tax code to say that revenue from naming rights was part of a university's nonprofit educational mission, rather than unrelated business income, and not subject to taxation.

The IRS and lawmakers have long been skeptical of the tax-exempt status enjoyed by college athletics, which generates tens of millions of dollars in television rights and product licensing fees. But so far, college sports have had enough friends in Washington to avoid any big changes.

For more information:

Austin American-Statesman

Chronicle of Higher Education

Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.

George E. Wahlen
Pharmacist's Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division

George Wahlen started his Navy service with his own version of Catch-22: Having volunteered in 1943 in hopes of becoming an aircraft mechanic, he was selected for medical corpsman training instead. When he protested, his commanding officer hinted that if he did well in his medical training, he might yet realize his ambition to work on planes. So he worked hard and finished near the top of his group—but when he again brought up the possibility of becoming a mechanic, he was told that the Navy couldn't afford to lose its best corpsman. He was attached to a Marine battalion as a pharmacist's mate second class.

In 1944, his unit boarded a ship for Guam. After the ship was underway, the top brass decided the unit wouldn't be needed in that battle, so it was shipped back to Hawaii, where Wahlen trained for another six months. In February 1945, his division headed for Iwo Jima.

As he was going ashore on February 19, Wahlen, not a religious man, found himself praying, "Please help me not let one of my buddies down; please help me do my job." Over the next few days, his unit was in constant action. On February 26, he was treating a wounded Marine when an enemy grenade exploded nearby and sent shrapnel into his face, temporarily blinding him in one eye. Refusing treatment, he continued to do his work in the midst of intense fighting. In one instance, he ran through fierce fire to carry a wounded Marine to safety on his back. In another, when an adjacent platoon lost its corpsman, he rushed through heavy mortar fire to take care of its wounded as well, treating fourteen casualties before returning to his own unit.

On March 2, Wahlen was wounded again, this time in the back. Again he refused evacuation. The next day, he moved out with his company in an assault that took him over more than six hundred yards of open terrain in the face of Japanese fire. He was hit in the leg; unable to walk, he crawled fifty yards to administer first aid to another fallen Marine. Of the 240 men in Wahlen's company, only five came through the battle of Iwo Jima without being wounded or killed. Counting replacements brought up during the fighting, the company suffered a 125 percent casualty rate.

Wahlen was taken back to Guam on a hospital ship, then to Hawaii, and finally to Camp Pendleton, where he was hospitalized until his release from the Navy in December 1945. While at Pendleton, he received two Navy Crosses and was ordered to go to Washington to receive the Medal of Honor. President Harry Truman made the presentation on October 5, 1945. "Well," he said to Wahlen with a smile, "I'm sure glad a pill pusher finally made it up here."

In 1948, Wahlen enlisted in the Army as a medical technician. He became an officer, served in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and retired as a major in 1968.

By Cate Cauguiran, USC

Editor's note: We asked the summer interns to write about their experiences at 'Nightly News.'

It's 2 o'clock in the morning.

It's my last day at Nightly. I was the last intern to come into the program, and the last one out. That night, I had two hours to pack before my flight back to Los Angeles, where I would begin my senior year at the University of Southern California the next day.

Finally, I placed the finishing touches on my piece.  After having spent the last seventeen hours putting together a two-minute news segment - breaking only to help with the evening newscast.

I left the newsroom with one of those lump-in-the-throat feelings, so I swallowed hard, smiled and walked out of the revolving doors with Nightly News fleece in hand and four basic lessons in mind.

Timing

It is everything.

When I commented how an interviewee spoke fast as I was logging it in real time, I was told, "Well you better type faster."

The news waits for no one, but that is the best part. They don't call it the "Rundown Routine" for nothing.

I could always count on a daily dose of cardio at 30 Rock.

Connections.

A professor told me "it's not who you know, but who knows you... then it's what you know." The statement speaks for itself.

However, connections aren't always professional. During my internship I was able to encounter some of the most talented people in the business, not only through observation but in my conversations. As an intern I thought I could either keep my 'I'm-so-in-awe-of-you distance' or not. I chose not. The rewards were exponential.

Among the many people I encountered, I made a great connection with producer Maria Alcon, who unconditionally took me under her wing in making sure I learned and applied every one of these lessons I listed here. At the end she was not only one of my greatest mentors, but a good friend.

The journalist, the storyteller

Everyone has a story. This is something that can be considered common knowledge to all, but is most certainly fundamental knowledge to a journalist. At a Nightly Intern meeting with Ann Curry, she expressed this lesson with an unexpected but perfect example.

I asked her about her reporting on the current situation in Darfur, particularly about her interview with Sudanese President al-Bashir. I recalled the moment when the Sudanese president told her that the genocide "did not exist." Al-Bashir's "did not exist" comment came after Ann's visits to a refugee camp where she encountered a young woman who was raped and a young man who was blinded by the Janjaweed.

My activist heart repeated, "did not exist?!" slower and much more sarcastically.

To which Ann replied, "first and foremost, he is human" and that no matter what he may and may not have done he still has a story to tell and that we as journalists are the storytellers.

There is no such thing as a dumb question.

If there was one thing I was taught during this internship was "always ask questions."

Though the majority of my questions in my first few weeks consisted of how to get around the 5th floor maze, I asked, all the time.

"Where can I find..." "How does this work..." "Why did you do that?"

One day I asked the right question. And that led me to the Waldorf Astoria where I was able to sit in on a live interview. Not just any, Ann Curry's interview with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

As an International Relations and Journalism major I was as excited as a teenage boy first in line for a Nintendo Wii.

Wrapping it up.

My eight weeks at Nightly News certainly gave me the award for best "how did you spend your summer vacation?" answer. 

Recalling my first day sitting outside with my bought-off-the-street bagel in hand, Rockefeller Center was not glamorous, nor did it hold the aura that most prospective journalists have. It was tease, more of here's a glimpse of your maybe future ten years from now.

Leaving was different. Rockefeller Center still was a tease, but like mom always said, it's what's inside that counts.

This internship taught me the practicalities and the day-to-day components of a newscast, but it more than anything it instilled a passion in me that I feel part of the industry has lost to business and popular culture. My innocence can be attributed to youth, but as a song lyric says, "maybe only in our blind beliefs can we ever find the truth." I know that I am not alone in my goals, and if we are the new wave of journalist in the ever-changing media then we can change it.

My internship was in all senses a positive reinforcement. This was what I wanted to do. These were the people I wanted to be.

Every single person I encountered at Nightly--producers, correspondents, production crew and desk assistants helped me to build my foundation upon my passions for the journalism industry. They made me realize the importance of what it is be a journalist.

To be there those who cannot be. To be a voice for the voiceless. The advocate against ignorance by reporting not just America's stories, but also reporting unheard stories to America.

Ann Curry said one thing I will never forget.

"We need warriors. So please, join me, join the fight"

And that I intend to do.

Brian is off tonight - he'll be back tomorrow.  Ann Curry will be anchoring the broadcast tonight.  We hope you'll tune in.

Hi. Warrantless wiretaps, the trickle of stuff on Israel's mysterious strike on Syria, claims about a setback in terrorist-monitoring, and a nasty battle over the SCHIP veto are getting play on the internet today.

Glenn Greenwald-- who literally wrote the book on the Bush Administration's expansion of presidential powers in the wake of 9/11, examines the NYT front page story on the Democrats' willingness to make permanent the Bush Administration's wiretapping powers. Ed Morrissey is gloating a bit.

Shumel Rosner, a reporter for the Israeli paper Ha'aretz writing in Slate, tries to help us understand the israeli attack on Syria, but leaves out one option-- that perhaps the whole nuclear weapons factory story is disinformation. Where's the evidence? Oh right-- it's classified. But a lucky few have been whispered to about it so they can edify the rest of us. Take the Washington Post's Jim Hoagland, who Rosner references in his post. Hoagland introduces the concept of North Korean casualties at the site of the attack. Here's a reminder of some other stuff Hoagland has introduced us to over the years. Conn Hallinan writing in ZMag takes a skeptical tone toward both the Syria raid and the Minot to Barksdale loose nukes incident. Oh and here's someone else who has his doubts about the nuke transport thing. (Hat tip: RawStory)

The Weekly Standard highlights Thomas Joscelyn today, purportedly critiquing Sy Hersh's reporting on the possibility of war with Iran, but really he's trying to make the case that Iran was behind 9/11. The NewsHour looks at General Petraeus' latest claims about Iranian military meddling in Iraq. (Hat tip: Cursor.org) And also via Cursor, Cernig at Newshoggers wonders about a Gates versus Cheney split on Iran.

Salon's Gregory Levey on the enigmatic billionaire who's become the leading figure in a rising Israeli right-wing.

A big Hat Tip to my colleague Garrett Haake for pointing out Anthony Cordesman's enlightening and heavily illustrated update on Iraq.

The Washington Post reports this morning that a private terrorism monitoring group called SITE Intelligence got a jump on the contents of the latest bin Laden video, and when SITE  gave the info to the White House with a request that it not be shared, government computers started pinging it immediately and it ended up on FoxNews' web site. SITE says it's now prevented from monitoring al Qaeda communications through its usual channels because they're blocked. More from Will Bunch. And see the link at the bottom of the Attytood post that suggests there's more to all this than the Washington Post story reveals.

Larry Kudlow previews the Republican debate on the economy, on CNBC today at 4 Eastern. And the WashPost politics blog gets the lowdown on the current field of GOPers from one of the President's former top advisers.

Just when you thought the fight over SCHIP, the Children's health insurance program expansion vetoed by President Bush last week couldn't get any nastier, there's this: ThinkProgress reports on the assault from conservative talk radio and bloggers, on the 12 year old kid who served as a spokesperson for the program during last weekend's Democratic radio address. Digby is pissed. So is Christy Hardin Smith. Does slamming a 12 year old who was hurt in a car wreck fit a pattern? And this might be one of the most clueless things ever written. (Hat Tip Hunter at DailyKos) Atrios reminds us of another "boy sent to do a man's job." And on the overall politics of the issue: Reid Wilson writes that a children's health insurance program is an awkward place for President Bush to finally make a stand for fiscal responsibility.

The topic's not new but the article is a good read-- NYMagazine on how a lack of sleep can seriously mess with your kids' cognitive abilities. (Hat Tip: HuffingtonPost)

Editor's note: Every weekday, you can check out our First Person "Photo of the Day"  --  breaking news pictures and photography submitted by you.

Mathilda Williams of Emerson, N.J. shares her fall photo.

Meanwhile, last night's report from Lee Cowan report was about fall feeling like the summer from NYC to Chicago. Watch video here.

Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features. 

Tell us what you think, on comments, below.

It's not often you get the Army Brass Quintet at a Washington D.C. press conference, but that was the case this morning when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced the "Above and Beyond Awards," to be bestowed at a ceremony that will be hosted by NBC's Brian Williams and broadcast on MSNBC next March.

The American public can nominate fellow citizens to receive the nation's most prestigious civilian award.

The awards are unique because they're presented to unsung heroes by all the living Medal of Honor recipients.

Nominate someone by Dec 16th.  The foundation will select three Americans to receive the awards.

By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent

For years, politicians, academics and virtually everyone else who cares about Cuba have been arguing about Radio and TV Marti, the U.S. government-run stations in Miami which broadcast news, messages of freedom and other programming to the Cuban people.

The core question is this:  Do enough Cuban residents actually hear and see the broadcasts, and get enough from them, to warrant the 600-million taxpayer dollars that have been spent in the last two decades to keep them on the air?

What we found in reporting tonight's story for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is that when it comes to actual facts, that question becomes a bit tricky.

Opponents says the two Martis are an enormous waste of money and have little impact. They point to various surveys, including a June 2005 telephone poll presented to Congress which said that only nine-percent of the Cuban population heard Radio Marti in the previous year, in part because of signal jamming efforts by the Cuban government. 

When it came to TV Marti, the report was even bleaker, noting that fewer than one percent of Cubans saw the U.S. government television broadcasts in the course of a year.
Supporters of Radio and TV Marti, however, are quick to point out that accurate polling is difficult, and the results notoriously unreliable in Cuba's strictly controlled society.  But then they cite a recent U.S. State Department inspection report which suggests TV Marti viewership might be on the rise.

They also point to surveys of Cubans by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, and polls taken with Cuban immigrants arriving in Miami which suggest Radio Marti is a household name, and that TV Marti is being seen outside Havana, away from the strongest jamming efforts.  Cuba's crackdown on the broadcast signals, they argue, is further proof of Radio and TV Marti's effectiveness in trying to be alternative voices to a repressive government. Critics scoff at that logic.

With dueling facts as slippery as those, the argument quickly shifts to the political realm, which is where it has lingered for years.  Around election time, by the way, much of the anti-Radio and TV Marti effort actually goes quiet for a while, because few really want to offend the powerful Cuban-American voting bloc in Florida.

Where is all the talk now that was heard earlier this year of Democratic-led hearings on the content and funding of Radio and TV Marti?  With the Presidential campaign in full swing, and the Democratic front-runner, Senator Clinton, saying she supports the broadcasts to Cuba, such talk of hearings is heard no more.

We'll have more about this for you on tonight's broadcast.  As you wade into this argument, though, be prepared.  It gets a bit murky in there.