As I drove from the Omaha airport to the Westroads Mall last night, it was a very familiar feeling, driving to a place I didn't know, in the middle of the night, to cover a truly awful story.

It reminded me of other middle of the night drives, after earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, school shootings, other crimes so sick and twisted it would pale any horror movie ever made.

I don't like horror movies or haunted houses at Halloween. I discourage my kids from both. I tell them, "Life is scary enough." They make fun of me, but I really believe it.

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By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington

Tyler Curtis's name does not appear on the Pentagon's website of war casualties, even though he served two combat tours in Iraq and his death was service-related. The 25-year-old Curtis, who suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, took his own life on Thanksgiving morning in his hometown of Livermore Falls, Maine.

"He was just unhappy," his former wife told the Sun Journal newspaper. "He didn't know what he wanted to do with himself."

Curtis was remembered at his funeral as a mischievous kid who always wanted to be in the Army. He enlisted in 2001 out of high school and was honorably discharged in 2006. He changed dramatically in those five years, growing inward and sad after seeing combat.

"The look in his eyes was different to everybody," his ex-wife told the Sun Journal. "He would look right through you."

Curtis got into bar fights, talked about wanting to return to Iraq, and grieved for the families of those he may have killed. "He had lots of problems," a sheriff's deputy told the newspaper.

Curtis's suicide was one of many. At least 283 combat veterans who left the military between 2001 and 2005 took their own lives, according to the Veterans Administration, and the Associated Press reported in October that at least 147 service members had committed suicide while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Suicide by our soldiers is a real concern to us," Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged in a recent speech at Kansas State University.

Six casualties last week of the war in Iraq did appear on the Pentagon's website:

1. Army Pvt. Isaac Cortes, 26, of Bronx, N.Y., enlisted in January and deployed to Iraq in September with the 10th Mountain Division. "I think he joined because he wanted to go to college," a neighbor told Newsday. "He was a nice kid, a polite kid." Cortes, an Army scout, was killed Nov. 27 by a roadside bomb in Amerli, about 100 miles north of Baghdad. "It's sad," a friend told Newsday. "Isaac had everything in life right in front of him."

2. Army Spc. Benjamin Garrison, 25, of Houston studied at Houston Community College before joining the Army in 2006. "He said, 'I want to serve my country, use the military's college plan, and provide for my family,'" his mother told the Houston Chronicle. Garrison, a radio telephone operator, died in the same bomb blast that killed Pvt. Cortes. Garrison is survived by his widow, Carla, his high school sweetheart whom he married in May.

3. Marine Cpl. Allen Roberts, 21, of Arcola, Ill., was remembered as a "good, good solid kid" by his high school guidance counselor. "Anytime you needed help, Allen was there," the counselor told WCIA. Roberts, struck by the harsh conditions in Iraq, was organizing toy donations for Iraqi children through his friends and church when he died Nov. 28 in a vehicle accident hear Al Asad. He was assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 214.

4. Army Sgt. 1st Class John Tobiason, 42, of Hayfield, Minn., was an Army cook who loved drums, fishing, games, and puzzles. He was killed Nov. 28 when he stepped outside a tent in Baghdad and shots were fired. His death was under investigation. "This is so shocking," his sister told the Rochester Post-Bulletin. "He was in what was supposed to be a safe zone." Tobiason was due home next month.

5. Army Cpl. Blair Emery, 24, was the second soldier from Lee, Maine, population 845, to die in Iraq this year. Emery, with the 18th Military Police Brigade, was killed Nov. 30 in Baqubah by a roadside bomb. Army Sgt. Joel House was killed June 23, also by a roadside bomb. They were good friends and played sports together. "How could it happen?" a resident of Lee asked the Portland Press Herald. "Two of them here, within six or seven months."

6. Army Spc. Matthew Reece, 24, of Harrison, Ark., was an avid hunter and fisherman who joined the Army in 2005 to fight in Iraq. "He was ready to go over there and get that straightened out," his aunt told the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. "It was something he wanted to do." Reece, with the 82nd Airborne Division, was killed Dec. 1 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He is survived by his widow, Chauntelle, daughter, Alyssa, and son, Teagan.

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

Our boisterous editorial meeting had just broken up when I glanced up at the screen and watched the coverage on MSNBC (courtesy WOWT) of the gunman in the mall in Omaha.  I watched a small clutch of young women running from the mall, all of them with their hands up and clutching Christmas packages, save the young woman carrying a small child.  I lamented that the collection of women "was America" -- and how sad it is that you can't Christmas shop in a mall on a Thursday in Omaha without the threat of something awful happening.  I got back to my office and received an email from my niece Gretchen in Nebraska.  The subject line reads "Mad Man" -- and is chilling by itself.  The gunman is across the street from her mother-in-law's office, and her building is in lockdown.  It's not even six degrees of separation between us here in New York, watching on television, and my wonderful niece who just moved to Nebraska from Louisiana, seeking a better life and better schools for her two children -- now has to deal with a mad man.  Thankfully, both my niece and her mother-in-law are safe and out of danger.

Its among the stories we've covering tonight.  Here's another one -- let's see if this gets your attention: for the first time since the Civil War, life expectancy is predicted to drop an average of two to five years, because of what and how much we EAT in this country.  It SHOULD get your attention, as should our lead story tonight.

Below, from Andy Franklin, is some essential background to what we're going to be covering tomorrow: the speech by Mitt Romney in Texas on religion -- specifically, Mormonism.

Please join us for the broadcast tonight.

Keeping the Faith

Mitt Romney's speech tomorrow on his Mormon faith is sure to generate plenty of speculation about how the "religious issue" might affect the race for the Republican presidential nomination. And comparisons are sure to be drawn between Romney and John F. Kennedy, whose Catholic faith was an issue in the 1960 presidential campaign. No Mormon has ever been elected president, just as no Catholic ever had before 1960 (and none has since). The nomination of a Catholic in 1928 -- Democrat Al Smith -- triggered a wave of religious intolerance. As Ron Allen pointed out in his piece Monday night, Kennedy tackled the religious issue head on, in a speech to a meeting of Protestant ministers in Houston on September 12, 1960. (Read the text of the speech here. Watch the video here).

Like Romney, Kennedy wanted to confront religious prejudice, and address concerns about his religious affiliation among those who feared his church would have undue influence if he became president. Simply put, Kennedy sought to reassure skeptics -- Protestants in particular -- that the Vatican would play no role in his presidency, and that if elected he would adhere to the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. The speech -- co-authored by Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorenson, a Unitarian -- was one of the finest of Kennedy's career, and by all accounts it accomplished its intended purpose. "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me," Kennedy said in Houston, and he promised to resign if circumstances required him to do otherwise.

One major difference between Kennedy then and Romney now: Kennedy was already his party's nominee, and his speech came just eight weeks before the general election. JFK had actually been dealing with the issue of his religion for months, particularly during the May 10 West Virginia primary, where he said repeatedly, "I refuse to believe that I was denied the right to be president on the day I was baptized." The Kennedy machine went all-out in West Virginia, sparing no effort or expense -- even bringing in Jacqueline Kennedy, then pregnant with John Jr., to campaign for her husband. They touted JFK's record as a World War II hero. "Nobody asked me if I was Catholic when I joined the U.S. Navy," Kennedy would say. (This had the added benefit of reminding voters that Humphrey had not served in the war; he'd gotten a draft deferment because of a medical condition). Kennedy won big in West Virginia - 60.8% to Humphrey's 39.2% -- in a state that was overwhelmingly Protestant. That very night, Humphrey dropped out of the race, and Kennedy told reporters, "I think we have now buried the religious issue once and for all." He was on his way to the nomination. 

Humphrey himself never did challenge Kennedy on the issue of his religion, though some of his supporters did, and the Humphrey campaign's theme song in West Virginia was "Give Me That Old Time Religion." Likewise, in the general election, Republican nominee Richard Nixon went out of his way to downplay the religion issue. The day before Kennedy's Houston speech, Nixon said on Meet the Press that it would be "tragic" if the election were decided on the basis of religion. Nixon further declared that he had ordered his campaign staff not to raise the issue, or even discuss it, and promised that he would do the same.

Richard Nixon meant what he said, but there may have been a touch of political calculation in his determination to move beyond the issue of religion, for the simple reason that he had nothing to gain from it. The fact is -- contrary to popular wisdom -- John F. Kennedy probably won more votes than he lost by being Catholic. It's an advantage that Romney's Mormonism does not give him today. Here's why: In 1960, Catholics made up about 25% of the U.S. population, and on election day, a staggering 83% of Catholic voters chose Kennedy. (Compare that with the previous Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson -- a Presbyterian -- who got 43% of the Catholic vote in 1952, and just 36% in 1956). What's more, Catholics were concentrated in many of the biggest states, such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. Those six states alone had a combined 156 electoral votes -- well over half the total needed to win -- and Kennedy carried them all. 

In 2008, Mitt Romney would have no such built-in advantage if he were the nominee. Mormons make up less than 2% of the U.S. population, with the biggest concentration by far living in Utah, a state with just five electoral votes.

It's true that most Protestants in 1960 voted for Nixon, not Kennedy. But Nixon's big margin among Protestant voters (63%) was actually slightly less than Eisenhower's against Stevenson four years earlier (64%), and it wasn't enough to win what turned out to be one of the closest elections in American history. Nixon, of course, did go on to win the presidency in 1968 -- thereby becoming only the second Quaker to do so. (The first was Herbert Hoover, the man who defeated Catholic Al Smith by a landslide in 1928).

And Dwight D. Eisenhower? His parents were Jehovah's Witnesses, and as an adult he was a Protestant. Eisenhower joined the Presbyterian Church in 1953, just days after his first inaugural. While he pretty much stayed out of the 1960 campaign, he was asked about the issue of religion by NBC's Ray Scherer at a news conference just two weeks before the West Virginia primary. The president was obviously ready for the question, and his answer is as timely as ever: 

Scherer: A number of men in American public life recently have spoken up on how they feel about the injection of the religious issue into the political campaign. Could you tell us how you feel on that?
President Eisenhower: First of all, let me read two items from the American Constitution. Article Six: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
The second is the Bill of Rights and it is the first one of those rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Now, my answer, as far as I can give it, has been better given by the Constitution than in any words I can think of.
-- April 27, 1960

Editor's note - Due to computer glitch - we are sorry that the comments to this post were deleted.  Please feel free to re-submit.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

by Russell Biven, WBIR-TV, Knoxville, Tenn 

East Tennessee is a beautiful region of the country, and the soil for turning good stories is as rich as the farm land that decorates its landscapes.  I've had the pleasure of telling many of these tales, but none have painted a better picture of true American spirit like that of this young man from Karns, Tennessee. 

I first heard about Kris Phillips from a co-worker at WBIR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Knoxville.  She talked about a little boy, who despite incredible odds and disabilities, finishes every single cross country race for his middle school.  Of course, I liked the story, but was busy on other features for a few days.  Then, I received an email about this same little boy and how he's inspiring an entire community.  That sealed the deal.   

Photojournalist Jerry Owens and I hit the road one evening after Live at Five, the show I co-host, and headed to West Knoxville for a cross country meet.  Keep in mind, around here football and Nascar reign supreme, so when I saw deputies directing traffic for this particular sporting event, I knew something special was taking place. 

One officer told me, "every event draws bigger and bigger crowds." 

Hopefully, after seeing the story, you can see why.  I will never forget the sight of Kris, embraced by runners both from Karns Middle School and others, make that long trek up the final hill to the finish.  I will never forget the dozens and dozens of emails from people around the country who saw the story on other NBC affiliates or MSNBC. 

I will never forget the emails from churches saying they were going to show this young man's story in their Sunday school classes. 

Most of all, I will never forget what took place when Kris crossed that finish line.

He didn't want a bottled water or high five's from teammates, he simply wanted his mother's hug.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

By the way, in many of the events, his father runs much of the way with Kris, and his brother is his biggest fan.

Today, you can find Kris still running the hills of East Tennessee, but this time it's with the Karns High School team.

by John Becker, Anchor/Reporter WBIR-TV, Knoxville, TN

Most of us feel compelled at various times in our lives to help someone else.  We send a gift when a loved one has a baby or sometimes when a stranger loses all they own in a house fire.  But figuring out just what to send, that perfect "gift," can make you want to give up on the idea altogether.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Reading the postings to my blog about the Philharmonic reminded me how lucky I am to have a great participatory audience. Some individual responses are called for today:

To Greg in Chandler, Arizona: while I don't have "The Mission" on my iPod, I can do you one better: I have the original score framed and hanging on my office wall, signed by John Williams.  I cherish it.

To Amanda in Ridgewood, NJ: If you have any evidence that anyone is censoring your posts, you email me directly.  You're one of my best blog friends -- this wouldn't be as much fun without people like you and Lisa, Joan, Jackie, Stephanie and all the rest. Let nothing come between us on the Web.

To Dewey in Reno, NV: The truth is I have always regarded Bugs Bunny -- AND Rocky and Bullwinkle -- as culture. In every way.

To David in West Hollywood, CA (and others who wanted to know what the Philharmonic played)  here is the program for last Friday: Chávez: Symphony No. 2, Sinfonía India;  Dvorák: Violin Concerto; Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5. You can read more about these pieces and listen to excerpts on the Philharmonic's website. The Chávez piece absolutely brought the house down.

To Laura in Newport News, VA: You have great taste in music.

To Joan in Cheshire, CT: You should have seen the faces of the musicians while Dudamel conducted -- especially the expressive face of violin soloist Gill Shaham. It added to the magic of the evening, and made me want to see Dudamel's face even more.  Also, thanks for passing along the storm news from the Pacific Northwest!

To Jeremy in Marlboro, NJ: After all that Hendrick Motorsports has suffered, more power to them. As you know, the loss of Dale took some of the magic out of the sport for me, so I've been
rattling around without a specific allegiance for years.

To Art Kent in TX: Art, great to hear from some past NBC royalty. Now that I've opened my big mouth, what are the chances the Philharmonic will approach NBC for "technical assistance" in setting up a "conductor cam"?  Great to hear from you.

It was great hearing from all of you.  We are compiling tonight's broadcast, and I hope you'll all be along for the ride.  See you tonight.

by John Becker, Anchor/Reporter WBIR-TV, Knoxville, TN

Most of us feel compelled at various times in our lives to help someone else.  We send a gift when a loved one has a baby or sometimes when a stranger loses all they own in a house fire.  But figuring out just what to send, that perfect "gift," can make you want to give up on the idea altogether.

By Chris Colvin, NBC News writer

Hi. Well we've done a whole lotta talking in this space about a potential military strike on Iran. That seems like a much more remote possibility today, in the wake of yesterday's NIE that concluded Iran stopped working on a nuke weapons program in 2003. Reactions galore out there. Also, danger in your money market funds.. the WSJ names names. And the "D" word (Deflation) rears its head.

First the Iran NIE and reactions from around the political spectrum. Beginning with the two "attack Iran now" policy godfathers-- as you'd expect they're not happy. Michael Ledeen thinks the Intelligence Community is stupid for believing what the Iranians say. And Norman Podhoretz thinks it's a CIA conspiracy to protect Iran. Right Wing News has a good representation to how a lot of the blogs on that side of the spectrum are reacting.. looking on the bright side and saying the invasion of Iraq must have scared the Iranians into stopping their nuke program. Victor Davis Hanson comes to the same conclusion. Michael Rubin puts the blame on Bill Clinton. Strata-Sphere thinks the IC (Intelligence Community) is trying to influence the upcoming presidential election.

The left blogs have mostly seized on the administration's belligerent rhetoric that continued until really recently, even though the new NIE had been circulating for as long as six months. ThinkProgress notes the explanation that the President wasn't briefed on the substance of the new findings. And Hat Tip to ThinkProgress for pointing out this Harper's blog entry from Scott Horton, who gets someone from the IC to tell him that's preposterous. And Glenn Greenwald notes (with copious notes) that the IAEA is kinda, owed an apology.

By the way, the ArmsControlWonk blog reminds us of how they figured out what was behind Iran's abandoning its weapons program a long time ago (internal dissent and politics.) And to turn 100% cynical for a moment, you gotta wonder if the new NIE and this are a coincidence.

Now to the credit crunch and some topics we've been obsessed with that are getting more attention now. CalculatedRisk writes about today's WSJ story, naming names on which money market funds have SIV paper on their books. Ben Stein thinks Goldman should be investigated for shorting mortgaged-backed securities while it sold them. But Yves at NakedCapitalism thinks Ben Stein's got it all wrong.

On the dodgy government statistics front, Saturday's NYT notes,on page B-9, that jobs growth is overstated. Hmm. Ya think?  But hey, right hand, meet left hand. The next day's Times says job growth is fine.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Last year, NBC News president Steve Capus and I attended the Edward R. Murrow awards dinner here in New York, where local stations and national networks are honored for outstanding work.

In addition to our current network responsibilities, both Steve and I are veterans of many years of local news and actually worked together at WCAU in Philadelphia. We know good reporting when we see it.

Watching the winning entries, we realized that some of the best work, as always, was being done at our NBC affiliates. Specifically, an ice-fishing piece from KARE 11 in Minneapolis made light bulbs go off over our heads.

What about a series called "Across America," where we could invite our affiliate partners to submit examples of their very best work?

Many of our colleagues at NBC stations responded with some terrific stories. We had hoped to air the top entries on Nightly News, but most of the best pieces were so long that they that wouldn't fit into our 22-minute news hole and leave enough room for the day's coverage. Rather than cut them down, we thought it would be more appropriate to use the Internet to present the stories, just as local viewers saw them, at their original length..

That's how this Across America section on Daily Nightly was born.

In this first installment you'll see two reports that are, as we say in this business, "good stories well told."

• One comes from WBIR in Knoxville, will introduces your to one of the bravest and strongest young men you'll ever meet, a real winner.   (Click here to read a blog entry from Russell Biven on this story.)

• The second story, also from WBIR, is the remarkable story of a Bible that made its way from Tennessee to Biloxi and helped a hurricane victim there at a time when she really needed it.  (Click here for a blog from John Becker on this.)

The reporters who covered theses stories have all written blogs with their own behind-the-scenes impressions.

We think you'll enjoy watching these outstanding examples of great local coverage. After you view them, I'm sure you'll agree with Steve Capus and me that the best stories come from Across America.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

At some point last Friday afternoon, Tom Brokaw came up to me in the newsroom and said, "Will I see you tonight?"  I immediately knew what he meant.  The annual NASCAR banquet -- a spectacular yearly celebration of the sport, a night of racing immersion, hard partying and debauchery -- was held Friday night at the Waldorf in New York. As a big fan of the sport and an admirer of the drivers, I usually attend.  Not this year.  Friday night, my wife and I had long-standing plans (which were made before we knew the exact date of the NASCAR banquet) to do something that was a first for us: attend the New York Philharmonic.  Tom had a speaking role in the banquet: he was paying tribute to the NASCAR legends we had lost over the past year -- names like Bobby Hamilton, Benny Parsons, and the NASCAR patriarch of the modern era, Bill France, Jr. From what I've read on the NASCAR blogs, Tom did a spectacular job (one prominent racing blogger wonders why Tom can't be named permanent host of the event -- I'll gladly add my support to that nomination). During his remarks he happened to tell the crowd where I was, and why I wasn't with them at the banquet.  I'm now going to catch flak for this for years.  I will retaliate.

Back to the Philharmonic, and a bit of full disclosure:  Of the 2,012 songs on my iPod, I own not one piece of classical music.  Friday evening was an attempt by both of us to get some culture. The way my wife and I figured it, we'd been to three Springsteen concerts so far on his latest tour with the E Street Band, so we could surely afford to devote two hours toward a more high-minded pursuit. The Philharmonic concert was also billed as a spectacular event -- the New York debut of a young man the New York Times has called "the most talked-about conductor in classical music right now," a 26-year-old Venezuelan conductor named Gustavo Dudamel. 

The pre-concert publicity was enormous.  Full disclosure, again: I hadn't heard of this guy before I started reading up on the concert the night before.  I normally would have discarded the Friday New York Times section that featured a huge color photo layout of him conducting -- the entire upper half of the Arts section above the fold.

                           
                                    Photos by Richard Perry, The New York Times

Like so many people who are the very best at what they do, Dudamel is fulfilling a childhood fantasy.  He has told more than one interviewer that he used to "conduct" the toys in his room as a child.  On Friday night, he borrowed the baton of the legendary Leonard Bernstein from its display case -- the equivalent of the sword of Zorro to any conductor at the Philharmonic -- and it seemed to work its magic in his gifted hands. He was electrifying.  In physical appearance, he looks like the love child of Harpo Marx and Fran Leibowitz.  Fred Armisen must be cast to play him in the inevitable biopic.  He's diminutive but powerfully built, with great physicality and curly black flowing locks. All of the photos of him, including the photo accompanying the glowing review in Saturday's Times, feature his explosive facial expressions. Which brings me, finally, to my reason for this posting.

Perhaps you remember or have heard of the legendary Young People's Concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein and televised in the 1950's 60's. The reason I found those broadcasts so interesting as a kid was Bernstein himself.  He seemed to feel the music -- it seemed to come directly from him.  He wore it on his face, on the veins in his neck and forehead.  He had a great shock of hair and seemed to use the baton as a weapon at times. At others, it seemed to be a knitting needle, drawing together different elements of the orchestra.  That was the last time I had any exposure to classical music, and Bernstein was the perfect vehicle for teaching a clueless kid from the Jersey Shore who was raised on much different music.

I wanted so badly to see Dudamel's face Friday night, as I had seen Bernstein's so many years before.  Instead, for the better part of two hours, I watched the back of his tux and his boisterous hair.  The couple we went with, both of them enthusiastic and fully informed experts on classical music, were enthralled by the show.  We talked about changes in the music and to the concert form itself over the years.  On the way home, during our discussion of the moving and powerful event we had just witnessed together, I couldn't help but think about the next change that should take place.

The paying audience at a New York Philharmonic concert should have the same ability as those who pay to see the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Springsteen or U2.  At all of those events, the audience can SEE the performers, thanks to the existing technology of the television camera and the giant video screen.

While we could certainly watch the extraordinary musicians performing on stage Friday night, it seemed downright criminal not to be able to see what THEY could see -- the dynamic, emotional and expressive face of this young dynamo wielding the baton.  We went on Friday night to HEAR a concert, yes, but also to SEE it.  To sense the emotion of the conductor only from still photos -- to be able to watch only his back -- felt vaguely incomplete and needlessly old-fashioned, a relic of the pre-electronic age.  We now have the tools to greatly enhance the concert-going experience.

I'm guessing that arrival of the electronic age in the confines of Avery Fisher Hall -- the New York Philharmonic's home at Lincoln Center -- might not be greeted warmly by all. One glance across the audience at intermission quickly revealed the purists -- those who have supported the Philharmonic since its inception, driven by their love of music and of the institution itself. It may be that many of them would fiercely protest the "intrusion" of television in that sanctuary, in the form of a few flat screen monitors mounted facing the audience. Admittedly, by training and temperament, I'm a visual person.  In the audience on Friday, I saw several people who were there solely for the auditory experience -- many with heads bowed, eyes closed, only listening and not even looking at the stage.  They could (and likely would) do the same in a chamber with television monitors present.

A word about how such a thing could work: the cameras would be unobtrusive to the point of being invisible to the audience -- three to four of them, small and discreet, operated remotely offstage. One central flat-screen television monitor above the stage would display the output of a camera trained only on the conductor, head-on, at all times, while flanking monitors on both sides could display a "switched feed" of the orchestra -- as they are televised by PBS -- showing the various musicians as the score features their particular section.

Allow me a prediction: midway through the first movement of the first such "televised" concert, even the skeptics will find their eyes drawn unavoidably to the screen.  Watch the way sports fans or concert-goers watch a live event: they use the big screen to enhance the live experience -- to catch facial expressions, nuance, a particular detail or individual achievement -- to see what they can't see from their seats. What we witnessed on Friday night was nothing short of transforming. Why should Philharmonic concert-goers be among the few remaining paying customers in the entertainment industry not entitled to an even better view and feel of the performance?  My first appreciation for classical music came from being able to see the great, expressive face of a great conductor, Leonard Bernstein.  The only way to attract a younger generation to the seats in Avery Fisher Hall just might be to offer them what they have everywhere else: a way to see what's going on.

Meantime, back at the Waldorf, Tom was the toast of the party (while he was at the podium, his remarks were broadcast to the room on big-screen television) and this year's top-finishing race teams enjoyed a great evening.  Having enjoyed my dose of culture, (and by all accounts having seen a truly memorable, historic night of symphony music) I'll be back in the audience at next year's NASCAR banquet -- if they'll have me.

Back to the broadcast: we have the weather in the Pacific Northwest covered; we are currently watching the White House briefing on the Iran intelligence development; we'll have politics in Iowa, Venezuela and Russia; and our promoted story on the economy: as Winnebago goes, so goes the nation.  We hope you had a great weekend, and we hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

by Lester Holt

Good afternoon from a snowy New York city. That weather system that socked the Midwest with heavy snow on Saturday extended into the northeast today giving us a couple of inches on the ground, and slowed air travel in and out of the region. Parts of New England, however are bracing for up to 20-inches of snow. Across the country at least 8 people have died in weather-related accidents. We'll have the latest on the weather tonight on Nightly News.

We're also covering a significant shift in the political climate in Iowa, where Senator Barack Obama now leads Senator Hillary Clinton in a Des Moines Register poll of likely caucus goers. There is also big movement on the Republican side where the same poll shows Mike Huckabee now in front of Mitt Romney by 5 points. NBC's Kevin Corke looks at what may be shaking up these races a month before the Iowa contest.

Two big international power plays are making news today. NBC's Jim Maceda is in Moscow where President Putin got a resounding endorsement today in parliamentary elections that saw his party take 62% of the vote. It leaves Putin in a position of even greater power, and that is causing concern in the west as well as among his Russian critics who fear a return to one party rule.

In Venezuela, meantime, our Kerry Sanders is watching today's vote on constitutional changes that could leave President Hugo Chavez in power for life. On the program tonight Kerry will show why this vote could hinge on Venezuela's emerging oil wealth.

We've asked CNBC's Trish Regan to join us tonight to talk about another critical week for the economy. New job numbers are coming out which could affect the Fed's upcoming decision on whether to lower interest rates again.

I'll take you to South Africa to introduce you to a man who resembles a real life Dr. Doolittle. He not only talks to Lions, he plays, and even sleeps with them. The video is incredible, and watching him at work in a pen full of these dangerous animals left me both fearful and fascinated.

I hope you can join us tonight for NBC Nightly News.

by Lester Holt

It is safe to say that autumn as we know it is over.  There are still 3 weeks left in fall, but the storm system dumping snow from Utah to Wisconsin this afternoon has winter written all over it.  At least two planes have skidded off icy runways today, thankfully resulting in no injuries, and there have been numerous traffic accidents and weather-related power outages. Tonight on Nightly news we'll have the very latest on severe weather that will affect a large part of the nation by the time the weekend is over.
   
Also tonight we'll hear from NBC's Kerry Sanders who interviewed Venezuela's Hugo Chavez today on the eve of a constitutional vote over whether to expand and lengthen his grip on power.  As you might expect he had some choice words for the United States.
   
Speaking of votes, a new parliament is at stake in Russia when voters go to the polls on Sunday.  Our Jim Maceda is in Moscow to cover what is widely viewed as a referendum on President Vladamir Putin, and in the eyes of some, could be setting Russia back down the road to the days of one party rule.
  
Lisa Meyers takes a look at the case of an 18-year-old Saudi woman who was the victim of a vicious gang rape, only to see the tables of justice turned against her.  It is she who now faces severe punishment by a Saudi court.  It's a case that has caused sharp reaction here in the west.
 
Thanks for checking in.  I hope you can join us tonight for NBC Nightly News.