Winter storms used to be routine. Perhaps it's the way we tend to glorify our past, but my memories of childhood include paralyzing blizzards at regular intervals all winter long. All the local New York television stations are in full "STORM WATCH" mode, and otherwise nonchalant New Yorkers are stocking up on  bottled water, canned goods, Civil Defense crackers from the 1950s, power bars, power boats, flashlights, generators, lip balm, shortwave radios, cross-country skis, highway flares, firewood, loved ones, batteries, moisturizer, shovels and rock salt. We're supposed to get the dreaded euphemism "Wintry Mix" throughout much of the area. That usually means there's no way to pinpoint the rain/ice/snow dividing line with any certainty. There are vicious rumors of 3 inches of snow overnight in the city, "more in the suburbs North and West..." and tomorrow will be one of those great days at the office when we get to see co-workers who probably shouldn't wear jeans... wearing jeans.

To the non-weather-related news: The debate over the Iran evidence continues as the debate in the House over Iraq gets underway. We'll cover both. We'll also have a report on the possible breakthrough with North Korea, after the six-party talks have been allowed to smolder for so long. There's another hat in the ring, and it belongs to Mitt Romney -- a frequent visitor to New York's high-end restaurants in the past few months, where he could be seen hitting up Wall Street firms and hedge funds for money. The weather made news today in New Orleans in perverse fashion, and we'll have that report for you tonight. We'll also -- of course -- report on the weather. There are white-out conditions tonight in the Ohio Valley, and Upstate New York is going to get hammered AGAIN.

I've been overwhelmed -- we all have been -- by the response to our TRADING PLACES segment last night. People stopped me on the street this morning to talk about it. The expression I keep hearing is that we "touched a nerve" in raising the subject of caring for our elderly family members. As for the star of last night's segment: his only complaint with the piece (when I was finally able to get through on the phone -- no call-waiting for him -- at around 10 p.m. last night) was that he "looked old" on TV. I told him he'd been a huge hit with all my friends at the office. It's never too late to make your national television debut... he'll be 90 in a few weeks. Tonight we feature an even bigger celebrity: Big Russ -- the much-written-about father of my friend and co-worker Tim Russert. Tim's piece will deal with his Dad's comfort level and what he requires to be happy during these years. We're all looking forward to it, as we are the rest of this series. Again, we ask that you share your own personal stories and possible solutions with us -- we'll do a follow-up piece in a few days featuring the best of the lot. To those of you who wrote to say such very kind things: Thank you.

We hope you can join us tonight.

In choosing the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., to launch his run for the White House, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney selected a backdrop that had deep personal and symbolic meaning.

Romney is a native Michigander. It is where he met Ann, his wife of 37 years, and it is where his father George served as a popular governor for six years.

That explains the Michigan part. Now for the Ford Museum.

Romney explained that as a child he and his father would talk about cars and how much that cemented their relationship. Indeed, the Ford Museum is an awe-inspiring house of car worship -- with machines that moved us physically and emotionally.

Romney's love for cars is in his blood. His father was president of AMC, the company that created the Rambler (the shiny beige-colored car to his left on the stage this morning). The elder Romney is often credited with having coined the phrase "compact car," and was said to have hoped the little Rambler would one day move America beyond the "gas guzzling dinosaurs of the past."

You may have also noticed a huge airplane above Romney during the speech. That was a DC-3, the plane that changed transportation as we know it today - taking flight from the fancy of the wealthy to the masses.

Like their creators, each machine here personifies an idea, an endless possibility. An innovation that transformed.

"That's really what it's all about," says Romney political consultant Katie Packer. "The belief that if you can dream it you can do it. The Governor knows that well."

As he begins his dream of one day leading the United States, Romney's greatest inspiration for innovation may have to come from within.

Photo caption: Romney announces his candidacy for president at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007. Behind him are a Ford Escape Hybrid, his father's Rambler and a Douglas DC-3. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but Congressional Correspondent Chip Reid delivers today's vlog. He's watching debate today on the floor of the House of Representatives -- where Democrats and Republicans will each have 5 minutes to sound off on that non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's increase in U.S. combat troops in Iraq.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Editor's note: Our "Trading Places" series continues tonight with Tim Russert's story of how he cares for his father in Buffalo, N.Y. If you missed Brian's report last night, click here to read or watch.

Life may offer you a guidebook, but the pages are blank -- you have to fill them out as you go. With that in mind, we are featuring stories this week about the challenges of caring for our aging parents and it's hitting closer to home than I ever imagined. I just returned to Washington, D.C., after a week in Redmond, Wash., a suburb of Seattle.  I'd gone out there to help my 81-year-old Dad through a tough surgery and I only had a few days to get him home from the hospital and make sure he was safe and comfortable before I had to take the cross-country trip back. While at the hospital, in the grocery checkout, or in line at the pharmacy, I saw others just like me —- adult children or other caretakers doing what they could to help out an aging parent. Assisting a frail parent walk, leaning in to hear a dry whisper of a voice, chuckling over some shared family memory -- these are scenes repeated hundreds if not thousands of times each day in this country.

I'm sure there are a lot of people dealing with painful choices that come from long distances and hectic schedules. (You can share your story here and read other stories here.) It's hard to watch your parents grow old and fragile. The man who tossed a baseball with me for hours or took such meticulous care when we built model WWII airplanes now needs help getting into the shower so his surgical wound doesn't get wet. My Mom is still recovering from major heart surgery, so when I wasn't assisting my father, I was helping take her blood pressure, sorting her pills, urging her to eat more and walk a bit with me. "Trading Places" won't solve any issues stemming from aging parents, but perhaps talking about it will make dealing with these issues a little easier. One thing it can't do is erase the last image I have of my parents from this trip -- the two of them standing close, smiling tightly and trying hard not to cry, waving a slow goodbye to me as my cab pulled away. No, there is nothing to help you deal with that.

As someone who saw the pictures put it: "It looked like midnight during the day in Baghdad." It was violent and brutal and awful. Elsewhere in the "Axis of Evil," there is the potential for good news to report tonight -- in a story we will handle from Beijing. Back to Iraq for a moment: Richard Engel will give us a soldier's-eye-view of the war tonight from his embedded position with U.S. troops and Jane Arraf will report on the day's violence. The Libby trial goes on -- the defense got underway today -- and we'll touch on the flap involving the Australian P.M. and the Illinois Democrat. On last week's topic, I was glad to see a robust debate -- more pro than con -- on the sentiments expressed both here and on the air Friday.

TRADING PLACES
Those of you who hanker to know more about the folks you see on television will get your chance this week. We're launching a series of reports on the subject of caring for elderly parents. Tonight we kick it off by profiling a guy who looks a little bit like me... at age 90. We will look at what can often be a struggle to provide assisted living care from a long distance away -- specifically, in the case of Gordon Williams of Red Bank, N.J. This is the second time in a journalistic career of a quarter-century that I have employed the first-person in reporting a story -- the first time was a return visit to my New Jersey firehouse. While it goes counter to all of our training, several of us are doing this to put a more human face on this issue that so many of us experience -- with the caveat, of course, that we are blessed (financially and otherwise) to be able to provide this care for our loved ones.

Welcome back for a new week. I hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

Editor's note: You can contribute to this week's "Trading Places" series as well. We want to hear your stories about caring for your aging parents. Click here to submit us text, photos or video. And click here to see what others have already submitted.

"No shortage of news" as we start this week, says Brian in today's vlog. Among the stories you can expect to see in the broadcast: Iran, Iraq and the Libby trial.

Click here or on the image to watch.

For months now, the U.S. government has been raising concerns about Iran's nuclear program... and what they have described as support for Iraqi insurgents.

Today... at a news briefing in Iraq... Coalition officials said U.S. defense analysts have seen an increase in sophisticated roadside bombs... and they believe that orders to send components for those bombs came from the top levels of the Iranian government.  How will the U.S. respond... and what impact could this have on the war in Iraq?  NBC's Jane Arraf is in Baghdad... and NBC's John Yang will have reaction from Washington.

Also, NBC's Andrea Mitchell is in New Hampshire covering Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign swing through New Hampshire.  She interviewed Senator Clinton today and asked about the Senator's vote on the Iraq war.

We'll talk to CNBC's John Harwood about the Republican candidates running for President.

From China, NBC's Mark Mullen talks about the growth of fast food restaurants.

NBC's Tom Costello gives us a first look inside the world's biggest plane.

And we've all heard about the decline in young women entering Catholic convents.  But tonight, NBC's Janet Shamlian takes us to one convent that appears to be bucking the trend.

It's all coming up tonight.  We hope you'll join us.

Editor's note: Mark will have a full report on this topic Sunday on NBC Nightly News.

BEIJING - You can love Chinese food and eat it everyday. But after living in Beijing for a while, there's a point when the occasional craving for American fast food -- even a Big Mac -- sneaks up on you. As you take your first bite into the iconic burger from a box and taste un-pickled cucumbers and a very spicy special sauce, you realize, 'I may be in McDonald's, but I'm in China.'

Western businesses scrambling to do business in China are adapting to Asian tastes -- literally. Whether it's McDonald's selling their spicy Big Mac alongside a tall clear plastic cup of corn and bean curd dessert pies; or one Shanghai Wal-Mart selling eels and turtles as food, not pets; or Starbucks, with its 220 mainland China stores selling mooncakes and providing waiter service, U.S. companies are glad to cater to Chinese customers because the business potential in China is enormous.

The Yums! corporation, which owns 2,000 China KFCs and more than 300 Pizza Huts and which just launched a new chain of noodle eateries, firmly believes their China business will easily surpass their U.S. operation.

Yes, the average income of a typical Chinese worker is a fraction of that of an American. And the products sold here in China sell for less than what they do in America. But companies have done the math and know the labor costs to staff their China business are also low and the potential is high -- based on the fact that 1.3 billion people live here.

And what also helps Western business here is that many Chinese consumers now want to eat, dress and live the lifestyle of America, which many view here as a symbol of success and sophistication. At the Starbucks near my Beijing home, probably 95 percent of the products on that overhead menu are the same as any Starbucks in the States. People are looking for popular American products, which is why Starbucks is doing good business selling coffee to a nation of tea drinkers.

So, if it's so easy to make money here, why isn't China flooded with Western companies? Truth is, it's not always easy to do business here. U.S. corporations complain of huge government hurdles. Firms which provide media content say that despite improved crackdowns by China's government, theft of intellectual property is still out of control. The U.S. secretary of commerce, on a trade mission here, told me recently that "pirates" are outpacing government efforts to crack down on them. And there are other hurdles as well.

So why bother if you are a U.S. company looking to expand? There are 1.3 billion reasons. The hassles are a small price to pay to do business with the biggest customer base in the world.

I want to begin this weekend by telling you about a recorded phone message I received after last Saturday's broadcast.  The viewer did not identify himself.  But he clearly was angry about what he had heard and seen on Nightly News.

The viewer was upset because we used the phrase "one of the worst attacks since the war began."  In fact, last Saturday a suicide bomber launched what was the deadliest single attack since the war began.  At least 130 Iraqis were killed.

The caller went on... "Can't you come up with a better phrase than this? Aren't you sick and tired of saying this?"

Then he said... "We're tired of hearing about it.  Nobody understands this war.  I wouldn't know a Shiite from an Iraqi. Nobody knows what the fighting is about.  We just want it to end.  Nobody even cares anymore.  We're tired of the same phrases every night."

He ended with this.  "Give it a *&#@!#* rest.!"

The anonymous caller is right about one thing.  Since the war started more than three years ago, we have often led our broadcast with latest news about the war in Iraq... and we have often used words and phrases like "deadly" ... "violence"... "bloody" ... "firefight"... "suicide bombing" ... "death toll"... "explosives"... "devastation" ... "civil war" and "IEDs" (improvised explosive device).  Those words are often accompanied by horrible pictures.

Clearly, many Americans are sick of the war... or sick of hearing about the war... or sick of watching pictures of the war... or sick of the same words and phrases we use to describe the war.

But the anonymous caller is wrong when he says "nobody cares."

He may be tired of hearing about it, but there are plenty of Americans who care.

There are 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

As of today, 3,121 of those Americans have died in this war.

Many Iraqis care too.  There is no official number, but there are reports that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died in this war.

News about the war may not be entertaining... or easy to watch.  It may be repetitive.  It may make you want to turn your head or turn the channel.

But as long as the war goes on, we will cover it.

And we will do so tonight, with news of a change in command there.  Gen. David Petraeus took over as head of coalition forces today.  Jane Arraf is there and reports on his plans for American forces.

We'll also have news from the war in Afghanistan.  NBC's Jim Maceda reports on the latest U.S. plan to stop a stronger and more organized Taliban.

Big political news today… we are following Senator Barack Obama's announcement that he is an "official" candidate for president.   He made the announcement in Springfield, Ill. NBC's Janet Shamlian is there.  NBC's Andrea Mitchell will give us the view of this upcoming political battle from New Hampshire.

And we'll have more on the mounds of snow covering western New York.

It's all coming up tonight.  We hope you'll join us.

I can say with some certainty that the discussion in our newsroom at this time yesterday was the same discussion taking place in so many other newsrooms, broadcast and print, around the country: Where and how to play the Anna Nicole Smith story. Some of my colleagues thought it was the lead story. Others did not. I did not. Others pointed to the drop-everything, wall-to-wall live coverage all day on all three cable networks. To that argument I responded that I worked in cable for several years. I know cable. Cable is a friend of mine. We are not cable. Is it a news story? Yes. People have a funny way of deciding for themselves what is a news story sometimes, and those drawn to the coverage, and to her, can explain the interest in this 39-year-old former Playboy centerfold better than I can. In writing the lead to our coverage last night, I tried to indicate that her popularity may have more to do with our current media/celebrity culture than we realize.

Deciding the format of this broadcast (and those of our friends at ABC and CBS) is, last night and tonight, a classic example of one of our guiding expressions -- no organization can ever be "above the news." While public interest in a given topic cannot rule our judgment or decide our story order for us, it can and does affect our reporting and story order. It's not as if there aren't other news outlets for those viewers dissatisfied with our treatment of the story and the end of a tragic life.  People watch our broadcast presumably because they trust our reporting and our people, and because they agree with our editorial take on the day more often than not. The great thing about this era of media choice is that all those who find our broadcast lacking in any way are free to go to any number of Web sites where they can find video showing a cat flushing a toilet, or the explosive properties of Diet Coke and Mentos when mixed together.

We're not cultural arbiters or enforcers -- we are a network of journalists who put together a half-hour long newscast each evening. Tonight our broadcast will concentrate on the underpinnings of the war in Iraq and the first-hand account of one of our correspondents who is embedded with an American combat team -- and who earlier today came way too close to an IED explosion while on patrol. We'll end the broadcast as we always do on Friday nights, with a segment profiling someone who is truly making a difference in society.

On the topic of Anna Nicole Smith and the ongoing and ubiquitous coverage, I'd like to step aside and feature a piece of writing that Chris Colvin of our staff came across today and brought to my attention: It's reprinted (with our thanks) here with permission from the Philadelphia Daily News blog called "ATTYTOOD," the work of senior writer Will Bunch.

This is a special report.

Normally at this hour, we bring you some lighter fare, maybe the latest dumb comment from the world of sports, or even a tear-jerker like a picture of stranded polar bears. But tonight, there is one story that is so important that we are going to suspend all regular blog coverage, and ignore everything else that is going on in the world, from the presidential race to the gridlock in the halls of Congress to the indictment of the most powerful politician here in our hometown of Philadelphia.

This breaking news story is about the sudden, unexpected, and tragic death of a young woman, not to mention the family that she leaves behind.

Yes, people die every day, and too many do so before their time. But this woman was special, and the things that she did made an impact on all of us.

Oh, there were many things that this woman, so deserving of our undivided attention tonight, did not do. No, she didn't take off her clothes for a men's magazine for a big payday, work as "an exotic dancer" or marry a billionaire customer who was 63 years older than her. Nor did she spend most of her adult life pursuing that billionaire's estate in courtrooms from Texas to Washington, D.C., or record her life for a reality TV show, or abuse drugs, or give birth to a child whose paternity is the focus of a legal battle.

Frankly, we feel silly for even writing those things, because such a woman would clearly not be newsworthy.

No, unlike some women you might see on your newsstand this week, this woman liked simple things: According to one report, she "always enjoyed the water, including boating and scuba diving. She also liked yoga and music and spending time with family and friends."

This is what her aunt says about this unique woman that America mourns tonight:

"If you knew her, you loved her. She was a go-getter. She knew what she wanted in life and she was doing what she had to do to achieve that."

Her name is Jennifer M. Parcell. She was just 20 years old, and she graduated in 2004 from Fallston High School near her hometown of Bel Air, Md.

A couple of years ago, Jennifer Parcell went to Parris Island and watched the Marine graduation services for her older brother, Joseph. She decided that she, too, wanted to join the Marines, and eventually both Jennifer Parcell and her brother were sent to Iraq, even serving at the same post for a time.

But then, they separated. Yesterday, Jennifer Parcell was supporting combat operations in Al-Anbar province when she was killed in action.
Click here to read the rest from ATTYTOOD.

BACK TO THE NEWS
We hope you have a good weekend, and please join us for the Friday edition of NBC Nightly News. I'll see you again on Monday.

The sign along County Road 17 in Redfield, N.Y., reads "FREE SNOW," but I bet if you asked they might consider paying you to take some.

In the last six days, this remote town on the Tug Hill Plateau alongside Lake Ontario has been blanketed with enough lake effect snow to reach a basketball hoop. By some accounts, 122 inches since Sunday.

But at the Country Home Restaurant, Michael Brown is unphased. "It's a wonderful day," he says, staring out the front window while serving lunch to the assembled visiting news crews. (This reporter's recommendation: the 12 oz. cheeseburger.)

Redfield averages more than 300 inches of snow a winter, but rarely so much in so little time. Three more feet are forecast to fall by next week. "I wouldn't be surprised," Brown adds.

At four o'clock, his nine-year-old daughter Carrigan dashes through the door, peeling off layers of winter clothes. After shutting down for the last four days, her school, Sandy Creek Elementary, reopened today. So what did Carrigan and her classmates talk about? "Trying to get out early," she says. For recess, the students were stuck indoors. School rules: No playing outside when the temperature dips below 20 degrees.

In this town of 1,500, where you're more likely to see a snowmobile than a car, Carrigan can't get her mind off next Tuesday. She turns 10, making it legal for her to ride a snowmobile (with an adult) for the first time. "I can't wait to go snowmobiling!" she tells me.

With 10 feet of fresh powder on the ground, it'll be a great time to learn.

Ricardo Pustanio, Mardi Gras artist

We met up with Pustanio this week as he placed the finishing touches on Mardi Gras floats for the Krewe of Mid City. He believes Mardi Gras is a welcome distraction for residents who continue to struggle with rebuilding their homes and lives. This year's carnival season is expected to be larger than last year's, when the city was forced to scaled back the festivities following Katrina. Prior to the storm, Mardi Gras generated approximately $1 billion for the city's tourist economy.

Photo by NBC's Bruce Bernstein.

I'm writing this while on hold. I'm about to do a radio interview, and we're still sorting out the running order. There are astounding new stats out today on autism -- we'll deconstruct the numbers. The prosecution has rested in the Libby trial. I've just spoken to Tim Russert who will join us live to talk about his experience on the witness stand. We'll also look at a new international development: how relations with North Korea may be changing.

Having spent the first 10 years of my life in Upstate New York, I know that life there during this time of year takes a certain amount of fortitude. Lake Effect snow, they say, "builds character." It also builds up... at the rate of 20 inches a day... and we'll check in on what is really a winter weather emergency in the town of Oswego.

Beyond those broad strokes, this far from airtime... tonight's broadcast is a bit hard to predict, due to breaking news and inevitable changes.

RANDOM NOTES
Anna Nicole Smith is dead.   

There was a great Amy Winehouse profile in yesterday's Washington Post. If you haven't yet heard the single "You Know I'm No Good" do so immediately before making any judgments about Amy Winehouse.

When the Speaker Pelosi/government aircraft story is fully played out, it will make a perfect candidate for a "where news stories come from" deconstruction. Just on the issue of the various aircraft involved, there's been some lousy reporting today.

An early heads-up: Some of us on-air folks here at NBC News are launching an unusual (and unusually personal) series of reports on raising our children while caring for aging parents. That's next week on our broadcast. This means that at age 90, my father will be making his television debut. And throughout, we'll be anxious to hear stories from viewers and readers who are dealing with the same thing. You can submit your stories, photos and videos here.

Virginia Heffernan is a must-read in The New York Times this morning. All I can say is: it's on the topic of morning television. Also see the obituary of Gen. Ellis Williamson.

We hope you can join us tonight for our Thursday night broadcast.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York, where a few hour's drive to the north they're experiencing whiteout conditions and near-record snowfalls. Pulaski, N.Y., is buried under 88" of snow, with more on the way. Correspondent Peter Alexander reports tonight from nearby Oswego, N.Y.

Weather is just one of the stories Brian previews in today's vlog. Click here or on the image to watch.

Roger Wroley is ready to sell his 1972 Dodge Challenger (10:1 compression ratio, 281 cam, 470 lift). Wroley's put years of tender loving care into this HEMI replica that originally cost $3,800. At auction, he thinks he might get $60,000 for it.

But he's up against some pretty stiff competition at the KRUSE Vintage Car Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. The fairgrounds are packed with American icons of an era past. There are the ever popular '57 Chevys and a 1956 Oldsmobile with only 21,000 original miles. There's a Super Bee, a Dodge 1970 Coronet, and the pink 1957 Thunderbird convertible is getting a lot of second looks.

Mickey Weise, the former race car champion, wants to add to his collection. He's got his eye on a BOSS Mustang. The bidding will probably start at more than $100,000 for this jewel.

But Roger Wroley may have a secret strategy to sell his Challenger.

Click here or on the image to watch it all unfold on video.

And watch the broadcast tonight for more from correspondent Kevin Tibbles on why these very hot wheels are going for unbelievable prices.

If you read this space regularly, then you know that we can't ask Tim Russert about his testimony in the Libby trial until he finishes with his testimony. If that happens this afternoon, we'll have him on live. If they hold him over until tomorrow, we will report it as a news story (and detail the testimony as we would any "key" witness) and we'll interview Tim tomorrow night.

We have a very troubling trend of choppers being shot at in Iraq, and today brings word of the death of seven Americans on board a twin-rotor chopper. Also tonight, Richard Engel reports from his embedded position with a U.S. combat team. The NASA saga continued today -- though the second-guessing going on over psychological vetting is a bit like saying that everyone in Boston who discovered an assembly of batteries, circuitry, electrical tape and lights -- should have instantly known it was a promotion for the Cartoon Network.

FINALLY....
Not too much "original content" for the blog today, owing to the day's schedule (I'm hosting a 3-star Army general who is speaking to our editorial staff, and I'm also hosting an employee gathering), and to the exhaustion among members of our travel team following our New Orleans trip and our long night before that with the firefighters, that ended just before dawn Tuesday. One comment on yesterday's post tells of an "incident" right after we got off the air Tuesday night in the Lakeview section of New Orleans. While it's true that I was (mostly politely) confronted by a group of three women who complained about what they saw as the "negative drumbeat" of coverage of New Orleans, my colleagues and I were overwhelmed at the number of people who came out to watch the broadcast -- kind, wonderful people who waited in the cold just to thank us for our commitment to the story, the city and the region. It was actually a great little gathering and a great impromptu scene. One woman brought both of her small children, another woman wanted me to meet her dog named "Bear," the principal of the local elementary school pinned an honorary medal to my jacket, and another man came to offer me a glass of red wine after the broadcast. (I politely declined as I don't drink.) Complete strangers stood behind our lights on a street corner in the dark and waited for a 30-second encounter to express their thanks. Some folks were watching Nightly News and recognized the backdrop and hurried over -- others heard through word of mouth. As for the three women I mentioned: I listened carefully to their concerns and will keep them in mind when we go about the process of deciding the future direction of our coverage. One of the women, whose husband has a prominent role in the city, asked: "How do you expect people to come back to New Orleans if they see all this negative coverage?" It left me speechless, and it still does. We'll be back.

In the meantime, please join us for our Wednesday broadcast.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York. While he returns from New Orleans, Tom Costello delivers the vlog from Washington, D.C. He'll report tonight on the most-clicked story on MSNBC.com -- the attempted murder charge against astronaut Lisa Nowak.

Click here or on the image to watch the vlog.

Michael Jackson and his mom, Tangela Miller, with his sisters in front of their FEMA trailer. Photo by Ann Curry.

Tears on his eyelashes, an 8-year-old boy told me today that he fears his life will never be happy again. We were sitting on the steps of the tiny FEMA trailer on his front lawn in New Orleans, and it was clear his trauma ran deep.

"I pray for a miracle," he told me. 

He wants his nightmares to end. He wants his mother to stop crying. He wants more than anything to have his home back the way it was, so his life can "be normal."

Experts believe tens of thousands of children are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in the Gulf region, 17 months now since Katrina, most undiagnosed.

Michael's young brain has him asking a lot of questions he can't answer. What happened to his friends? Who died and who lived? 

What happens to a child who has to worry about so much so young, as his sense of the world is still being formed?

I can tell you a breathtaking level of compassion happens.

In his suffering, Michael says he also prays that people will be all right so they don't have to be scared, that he thinks about the people who died and people who suffered. He admitted to trying not to be sad in front of his mom because he doesn't want to upset her. And he wants to be a "famous lawyer" when he grows up so his mom will never have to suffer again.

Yes, he's only 8.

There is some good news for Michael. A few weeks ago, his family moved back into their home in progress. I took the photo above of him in the kitchen. His smile says it all. Normal is coming.

We'll originate the broadcast from the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans tonight. Ann Curry and Martin Savidge are here with me and both will offer reports on the status of this place: Martin on the overall picture and Ann on the children of this city. During our afternoon conference call, which I joined by speaker cell phone while sitting on a sewer drain along the side of the road (watching as two sizable rats emerged from beneath the foundation of the house across the street), we tried to rank today's news budget in some kind of discernible order: there is the weather, which continues to carry some urgency in the Eastern United States, there is a new Associated Press story (a piece of enterprise reporting on their part) about post-Katrina spending in this area, there's a breast cancer story of interest, and the sordid and sad story involving NASA in a strange way. Additionally, Mitt Romney has pre-announced (the political equivalent of pre-boarding) and we at NBC are in the news today, with the departure of the only leader of this company many of us have ever known during our tenure. Our CEO Bob Wright has handed the baton to Jeff Zucker, who has been a friend since I first arrived at NBC. Our new CEO is the first to come from a news division background. We'll note this transition tonight as well.

LONG NIGHT IN NEW ORLEANS
At 2 o'clock this morning, I was in the kitchen of Engine 29 in New Orleans. The truth is, I was happy there. I was a volunteer fireman long enough for it to have seeped into my blood, and we met some great guys who I plan to visit when we come back for return trips.

We talked about our common experiences in the fire academy, practicing search and rescue, and exciting topics (to us, at least) like positive and negative ventilation and using breathing apparatus. I won't even get into the operation of the pump panel or the proper use of a fog nozzle on a booster line. As you may be able to tell, it was actually tough to leave them as dawn arrived, but it was great to be able to drive through the streets with a deputy chief, in the cab I was never allowed to sit in as an ordinary firefighter. As we will attempt to point out in the story we shot last night for air in tonight's broadcast, these firefighters have been serving, quietly and with great bravery and distinction, while living in trailers. I am in awe of all of them.

We hope you will watch Nightly News from New Orleans tonight. We'll see you back in New York tomorrow night.

Brian just delivered his vlog from the Big Easy. He takes you inside the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, which remarkably survived Katrina unscathed. Click here for more about the museum.

On tonight's broadcast, we'll have a trio of stories from New Orleans, including a report by Brian on the firefighter shortage.

Click here or on the image to watch the vlog.

Two voices boom and fill the courtroom. Louder than what normally flows from a witness on the stand. These voices feel bigger than life. And what hangs in the air is the repeated sound of "I don't recall."

One voice belongs to the man on trial, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The other to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald who is prosecuting this case. Yet simultaneously, both men are sitting quietly at their opposing tables, sometimes taking notes or glancing to the big screen that displays their words scrolling line by line from a transcript. 

What we are listening to are tapes of Libby's grand jury testimony from March 2004. We haven't heard it all as of this writing, but I can share some impressions. Libby sounds calm and polite. What is most striking is that he uses the phrase "I don't recall" again and again. I would guess hundreds of times. It has been so frequent it almost feels like a reflexive response to question after question. The repetition makes use of every form of the phrase, ranging from "I don't know" to "I don't recollect" to "I don't remember."

His responses follow pressing and repeated questions about what he knew and who he talked to about a CIA operative, Valerie Wilson, whose husband was a vocal war critic. Libby's inability to remember appears in stark conflict with other witnesses who have already testified at this trial. Those witnesses, government officials and reporters, did recall in great detail discussing Valerie Wilson and her CIA job with Libby. Libby is not denying those conversations. He says he can't remember them. 

Sometimes it's tedious, but it's also intriguing -- especially as Libby recounts events inside the White House and conversations with the vice president. The kinds of things usually kept secret. Libby is accused of perjury and obstruction. He is charged with five felonies. Serious business. He, like any defendant, is presumed innocent.

The prosecution calls it a lie. The defense says Libby was a man too busy to remember all the details. The jury will have the final say.

As Brian mentioned yesterday in this space and on-air, the broadcast originates out of New Orleans tonight. It's been nearly 18 months since Katrina hit and just half the city's population has returned. We'll show you how red tape, fears over crime and the levees are still blocking the road home for so many people.

Brian and his producer, Subrata De, just returned from an overnight shoot with the New Orleans Fire Department. They'll have that story for you tonight as well.

Here's a photo of Brian talking with the men of Engine Company 07. I'll post a few more photos from the field a little later.

Photo by NBC's Subrata De.

Tonight there's a political story we hadn't counted on when we came to work this morning: Rudy in the ring, at least more officially than he was this morning. Also there's analysis to be done on the budget as proposed and the change(s) it represents. The debates continue over Senate resolutions, a killer cold has set in over a good chunk of the country as well. Since we'll see you from New Orleans tomorrow night, tonight we'll kick off the subject matter by following the money -- the billions given and appropriated to fix what happened -- or begin to. And we'll look at whether any warning would have prevented the horror and sadness of the storms in Florida. While I'm not trying to be a tease here, candidly, I'm about to stop by a meeting where we're going to lay out a story order for all of this.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT...
OK, let's get to the elephant in the room: the Super Bowl. It wasn't pretty, though there were moments of actual football. I felt for CBS during the numerous occasions when their primary camera became so covered with rain droplets (or the aftermath of a hasty paper towel wiping) that it was unusable. Nasty conditions for all the crew members, to be sure. The game seemed somehow... different. It might have been that we're not used to nature, of all things, playing a role in what has become a rather sterile, commercial and "domed" event in recent years. The commercials? (Editor's note: If you missed any of the commercials, you can watch them all here.) My list of the best included the depressed GM robot, the talking lions, the talking gorillas (I'm detecting a talking animal theme), the Snickers bar, the spotted Bud dog, the Blockbuster mouse, and the Combos ad during the pre-game show. There were several low points: among them the "tribute" spot that somehow managed to attempt to sell Doritos while celebrating both African-American coaches? The "assault on the heart" spot was instead an assault on the senses... as were the CareerBuilder spots, shot in Private Ryan-style. The Go Daddy spots were so... 1998, while Prince brought us to 1999. Actually, he gets kudos for performing a good set in bad conditions. Back to the robot: How crafty to give human features to a machine that has replaced the humans who once built our cars from the rims to the roof? The weather on the screen was so miserable, I felt truly fortunate to be watching from the warmth and safety of home and hearth.

Of course there was another factor at work, as well. Throughout the game I kept thinking of an e-mail I received yesterday afternoon, from our senior foreign producer M.L. Flynn. She had just been in touch with Richard Engel, embedded with a collection of U.S. combat teams -- about 100 men in all. As of the time of the e-mail, they didn't think they'd have the dish/TV/wiring done in time to see the armed forces TV feed of the Super Bowl. Based on my theory (having spent time with them in Iraq on several occasions) that we can't do enough for the them or the folks at home who love them, there I was, watching the game, thinking of this group of 100 Americans in an old Iraqi dance hall, just wanting to watch the game.

There's a postscript: because of their day, their work schedule, and the time difference, Richard Engel reports that only "about five guys" were actually still awake, even though they found a way to wire up the set and bring the game in live. At least they were five happy guys.

We hope you can join us for our Monday broadcast.

Editor's note: Patrice is producing tonight's "weather wrap" by NBC's Kevin Tibbles for the broadcast.

Better late than never... if you're a polar bear. Winter cold finally arrived this weekend with a biting blast of subzero weather from the Upper Plains to the Great Lake states. Cold winds and temperatures settled over northeast portions of the country as well.

Here in Chicago, which is experiencing the coldest temperatures in more than a decade, the city has opened warming centers for the homeless and the heat-less. And the city's lone icebreaker boat is plowing through ice on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River to keep the water flowing.

Subzero windchills forced officials to close schools in Milwaukee and Indianapolis, where later today diehard football fans will brave the cold to welcome home the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts.

The country is in the grip of a cold snap, and that's the likely lead story tonight on the broadcast.

In today's vlog, Brian touches on the weather and tomorrow's trip to New Orleans, where he will anchor "NBC Nightly News" on Tuesday.

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