Everything old is new again, as Brian points out in today's vlog, referring to Al Gore and executive privelege -- both back in the news and on tonight's broadcast.And Richard Engel's documentary airs tonight at 10ET on MSNBC -- Brian encourages everyone to watch. Click here to watch the vlog

I imagine our broadcast rundown could change once or twice between our afternoon editorial meeting and airtime.  Some of it will depend on the statement the President is due to give when he lands at the White House late this afternoon.

We'll cover the U.S. Attorney flap (today's numerous moving parts) and the health news on the Alzheimer's front.  I have to be abbreviated here because I must head out to the newsroom and get on it.  Also in the broadcast tonight: Campbell Brown has an interesting interview with Gov. Schwarzenegger of California, Ann Curry reports from Sudan. Ron Allen will continue our series on immigration and Lisa Myers has a story from Washington that may outrage some folks.

Our buddy Richard Engel is on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight, an appearance to promote his Wednesday night documentary on MSNBC [click to see a video preview].  The reviews have been fantastic and the material is very personal -- so we're all tremendously pleased to see him receive the widespread attention his work has always deserved. I'm constantly touched by those who write asking us to keep him here -- pull his Passport if we must -- and keep him safe.

A few days ago I lived under the same roof with Richard in Iraq -- it was great time together, a great chance to watch a brave and knowledgable young correspondent in action...and I never forgot that we were "guests" in his city and on his beat. 

His documentary is a profoundly intimate piece of work, and it completes the narrow picture we get to see of Richard each night on the broadcast. Amazingly, Richard seems immune from the part of all of this that would be neck-snapping to most of us: at this very moment he's getting out of a car on the back lot of NBC Studios in Los Angeles.  His name will be on his dressing room door, he'll visit with Jay and the other guests on the show before being introduced and played onstage by the band.  In no time he will be back on Haifa Street and walking with dismounted infantry through Sadr City, constantly looking out for snipers, IED's and suicide bombers.  It's his life -- and thankfully we get to see a bit more of it, and him, this week.

We hope you will join us for tonight's edition of the broadcast.

Brian previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.

Click here or on the image to watch the vlog.

Between our week in Iraq, and a week away with my family, it has been a while. First, allow me to thank my pal Campbell Brown for filling in, and for doing her usual superb job. At a later date, I plan to share some residual notes from our travels in Iraq -- including some recommended reading. One link that cannot wait another day is the blog of Michael Yon. Michael is a Special Forces veteran who is now a unilateral embedded journalist. His dispatches are the most true-to-life that I've ever encountered -- raw writing from the soldier's point of view. He is best-known for one in particular, called Gates of Fire, a gripping account of a firefight that required him to briefly revert from journalist back to soldier in order to save American lives. I had the pleasure of getting to know him on this trip, and it is easy to see why he enjoys near-rock-star status among members of the military, both active and retired. This past trip, for some reason, was the toughest to shake -- and is very much still with me. I still carry with me the battle token I was given by the Assistant Division Commander in the First Cav, and my daily perusal of the casualty list from Iraq has me concerned that one of the sergeants that General Downing and I spent time with has since been killed in action. I met another collection of extraordinary American soldiers in Iraq, and since I owe my life to them in a very basic way, my wife and I paused frequently during our family getaway last week to count our many blessings.

MSNBC's day-long coverage of the anniversary of the war has been superb and full of good information, analysis and history. A friend of mine in the business just e-mailed me wishing that MSNBC "did this every day," though I'm quite sure a single subject might lose its watchability over time -- no matter how urgent the cause. At this very moment, the great Pamela Hess, who covers the Pentagon for UPI, is on with Tucker Carlson making the point that is so striking when you're around members of the U.S. military: their life in our society these days is very much separate and apart from our "civilian" life -- it's an existence in and of itself, and that's a tragedy of our times. It was different back when WWII was a national effort and when so many windows had stars in them, both blue and gold. These men and women do what they do -- focused, mission-oriented, patriotic and bound to their brothers and sisters -- and very few people outside "the business" of soldiering understand just what that is. The same applies to military families here on the homefront. If you missed the segment on MSNBC, click here to watch.

Tonight we'll talk about the anniversary -- and because his documentary is airing Wednesday night on MSNBC, Richard Engel (who went to Iraq with us and has returned again) will be with us here in New York to talk about the current situation and discuss what the future might look like. There's also politics to discuss tonight, immigration... and we will feature the continued reporting of Ann Curry, who once again is overseas reporting on the crisis in Darfur.

At the end of the broadcast, we'll look back at what we've all lived through during these past four years -- since first word arrived that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was underway.

It's great to be back in New York -- where we welcome the arrival, perhaps minutes from now, of a large area of green on the weather radar. The thinking is: the coming night of rain will help to clean the streets, curbs and sidewalks of the permafrost still lingering in a lot of places from the storm that will likely be winter's last gasp.

Next week we switch to High Definition, so I'm making last-minute plans for reconstructive facial and dental surgery this coming weekend.

We hope you can join us for the Monday edition of Nightly News.

Brian will be along shortly with his daily missive, but if you missed his appearance on MSNBC's all-day coverage of the Iraq war anniversary, you can click here to watch. He talks a great deal about his recent trip and how it will inform his reporting going forward.

Brian anchors the broadcast from New York tonight, where he'll be joined by NBC's Richard Engel to discuss the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. Richard's "War Zone Diary" airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT on MSNBC. (Click for a video preview.)

Click here or on the image to watch the vlog.

We just finished an unprecedented two-hour, no-holds-barred interview with President al-Bashir. He was emphatic that the world misunderstands what is happening in Darfur. We will air this interview on Nightly News, TODAY and Dateline this week, and will post it as soon as we can here on MSNBC.com.

How does one interview a man accused of unleashing genocide?

Flying now to Sudan, in a matter of hours I am to come face to face with President Omar al-Bashir, whom the world lays most of the blame for the atrocities in Darfur.

Ann Curry and Sudan President Omar al-Bashir
Photo by Antoine Sanfuentes, NBC News

It was al-Bashir, international observers say, who armed Arab militias to put down a rebellion among the black African tribes in Sudan's Darfur region, encouraging old racial hatreds to burn out of control across the region.  The toll is estimated at more than a thousand villages burned, more than 200,000 people killed and 2.5 million others displaced.  The violence has bled across Sudan's western border into Chad, and it's southern border into the Central African Republic, theatening an entire region.

It is a war now complicated by rebels on all sides, and even global warming, as the drying of lands in the north drives Arabs south into African tribal territories.

But to the African tribespeople, it is very simple.  Men on horseback, called Janjaweed, set fire to their homes, and shoot, yelling "zurga" and "abid" meaning black slaves.  Women are targeted with rape, and are marked with knife wounds, so they are not able to marry. One 17-year-old girl told me she was asked which tribe she belonged to before she was raped. They wanted to make sure they got the right one.

Human Rights Watch says President al-Bashir should be prosecuted  for war crimes in Darfur. The International Criminal Court has summoned one of the ministers in his government to face possible charges for crimes against humanity. Al-Bashir has just suspended cooperation with the ICC investigators and continues to publically state the situation in Darfur is exaggerated and solely a regional conflict . Now, in his first television interview to the west in four years, he will have a chance to answer these accusations. 

So how exactly am I to face this man? How will I exact the truth, and at the same time keep the horror that I saw on the Darfur border from being revealed in my own eyes? I was never good at poker. I am gearing up for one of the greatest challenges of my career.

11:37 a.m. EDT update: We just finished an unprecedented two-hour, no-holds-barred interview with President al-Bashir. He was emphatic that the world misunderstands what is happening in Darfur. We will air this interview on Nightly News, TODAY and Dateline this week, and will post it as soon as we can here on MSNBC.com.

Tomorrow marks the four-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.  Insurgent attacks continue… and the deaths of at least 7 more U.S. soldiers were announced.  We'll look at the cost of this war... and Tom Aspell will report from Baghdad. (See our complete online coverage here.)

John Yang will be at the White House covering the war at home.  Thousands take to the streets across the country in protest of the war… while lawmakers debate the future over this morning's news talk shows.  We'll also talk to CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent, John Harwood.

Also tonight, Peter Alexander will have an update on today's high gas prices, along with a look ahead.

Jim Maceda has an inside look of Baghdad's makeshift medical centers.  Iraqi's continue to struggle to get even the BASIC medical care… Now US Army Medics care for civilians as part of a new effort to win over the hearts and minds of Iraqi's by tending to broken bodies.

NBC News Correspondent Ian Williams writes in our sister blog "World Blog" about his experiences in Tehran: "Tens of thousands of fists punched the air as the chant reverberated around the vast tent-like mosque at Tehran University..."

Click to read

We are following new development in Iraq tonight.  In the Anbar province 3 suicide bombers with chlorine-laden trucks killed 2 Iraqi policemen... and forced 350 others to seek treatment for exposure to the gas.  NBC's Tom Aspell is in Baghdad.

Also... we'll show you the war protests in Washington and other cities today.

We're following the latest controversy surrounding U.S. Attorney General Gonzales.  There have been calls from Democrats and one Republican lawmaker for his resignation.  NBC's John Yang has that story.

The impact of the big winter storm that hit the northeast last night is still being felt today.  Airlines canceled hundreds of flights... and stranded passengers were still hoping for a way out of airports today.   NBC's Ron Allen reports.

There's been a recall for 46 brands of dog food and 37 brands of cat food in the U.S.  Authorities are concerned that the food could cause kidney failure in the animals.  NBC's Peter Alexander reports.

Plus... NBC's Anne Thompson reports on a doctor with a mobile medical RV ... who is taking health care to people who need it along the Katrina ravaged gulf coast.

NBC's Ian Williams tells us what some Iranian people are saying about the U.S.

And we'll have the story of one woman… who went searching for her long lost relatives... and was surprised by who she found.

It's all coming up tonight. We hope to see you then.

What would you give up for your dream job? That's right. I said "give up." When most of us think of our dream jobs, I think we think about what we would get: more security, a bigger paycheck, a chance to put more away for college or retirement, to take that incredible vacation.
Tonight on Nightly News, you will meet Persharon Dixon, a pediatrician who had those dreams too, but traded them in to take care of kids with little or no access to healthcare. In this case, the children along the Mississippi coast whose lives remain uprooted by Katrina. 
               

Dr. Dixon gave up a comfortable life in Atlanta, a big salary and a big house -- 3,000 square feet -- and moved her husband and three kids to a trailer in the Gulfport-Biloxi area to work for the Children's Health Fund.  Her office is a big blue RV that rolls from schools to churches to FEMA trailer parks to treat kids.  Her patients range from infants to 24 year olds -- with the typical aches and pains of growing up.  But she is seeing something else:  children stressed out, afraid, and presenting mental health challenges she never imagined.  A year and a half after the storm, Dr. Dixon says things are getting worse for these children, not better, and she fears they are a generation at risk.
                Many are still in those cramped FEMA trailers.  Some families are still living apart because jobs and housing remain difficult to find.  And there is the growing realization that Katrina was not just a short term event, but one with lasting impact that's forced some kids to grow up much faster than they should because they have had to assume adult responsibilites in families that were and remain torn apart by the storm.
                I know some you have written in to complain about "Katrina fatigue."  You are tired of stories about the aftermath of the storm.  But imagine losing your home and everything in it.  Imagine still living in a two bedroom trailer with 5 people a year and a half later. Imagine finally getting money from FEMA to help rebuild your home and you give $10,000 to a contractor you never see again.  Imagine that your child is now so unnerved by a rainstorm he can't sleep, wets the bed and you have to wait three months to see someone who can help him.  That is real "Katrina fatigue."
                Those are some of the stories producer John O'Rourke and I heard as we followed Dr. Dixon.  There are signs of progress and hope along the coast. Some casinos have re-opened.  A couple of Waffle Houses are back in business. And some of those gorgeous homes are being rebuilt.  But head inland just a couple of blocks and on some streets it looks like the storm just blew through last week. You can clearly see the difference that money and resources make.
                 This story will disturb and inspire you. Dr. Dixon and her team are doing extraordinary work and I hope you'll make the time tonight to watch her story.

Even a wet handkerchief around my face didn't help.  My eyes were burning so that I could no longer see, my throat was on fire and I couldn't stop coughing.  And even as I tried to run away, clouds of it followed me.  The tear gas was awful.
Things slid out of control today in Islamabad, Pakistan's quiet, leafy and manicured capital. A planned demonstration by  lawyers and opposition parties in support of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who was fired last week by President Pervez Musharraf ,went horribly wrong.

Some of the demonstrators slipped through the barbed wire and concrete barriers sealing off the roads leading to the Supreme Court building and the government offices, and began throwing stones at the police. The police responded with tear gas and later stormed the studio of GEO, a private TV channel transmitting those pictures to the nation.

"The police were trying to enter, I informed them this is GEO News, this is not a government building, said Hamid Mir, the Islamabad bureau chief of the channel, clearly shaken by what had happened. "They pushed me, they tried to enter my office from two sides and they started breaking down doors", Mir told NBC News.
(Musharraf later apologized to GEO News.)

All of this because Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf fired the chief justice of the Supreme Court last week, allegedly for abuse of power and then placed him under house arrest. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's office was ransacked and his papers seized. Security officials raided his home, telephone lines were cut and no one was allowed to come or go. Even his children couldn't go to school.

Once the news got out, it shocked the country. Chief Justices have been dismissed before in Pakistan but never in such a manner.

"This is a matter of shame, every Pakistani must hang his head in shame" said Rohedad Khan, a former civil servant and political analyst, "Today General Musharraf is totally isolated, he is there because of American support"

The judge's supporters among the intellectual elite and opposition political parties all rallied around him. They say the move is to silence a judge who dared to defy military rule by challenging the government on sensitive cases. And what's more, he might also have challenged any move by Musharraf not to shed his army uniform or not to hold general elections later this year.
Some have gone even further saying that President Musharraf has lost touch with reality and has no constitutional right to sack the chief justice.

The opposition parties smelled blood. Hundreds of lawyers and hard liners from the Islamic parties outside the Supreme Court building shouted  "Down with Musharraf," and " Go Musharraf, Go".

"The people of Pakistan would make mincemeat of him if only America would withdraw their support, America is supporting a military dictator, America is supporting a military despot, Why? Why? " Kahn asked, once he realized he was speaking to American television.

Chaudhry has denied the charges against him and has refused to resign. A judicial panel has been set up to deliberate the case which is going on "in camera" or behind closed doors.  It could last for weeks if not months.  President Musharraf has said he will abide by the panel's decision.

Bu the whole episode has tarnished Musharraf. He may find it difficult to continue to portray himself as the right man to lead the country on the right path to stability and true democracy.

"Resign, clean break" advised General Hameed Gul, former director of Pakistan's Intelligence Service, the ISI, " that's another military principle as an old soldier. Gul said "When you are in such a situation, when you are suffering from paralysis, then you must achieve a clean break."

It's March Madness on the East Coast, and I'm not talking about basketball. It is the return of winter, after a week of spring-time temperatures for those of us here in New York.  The forecast is for up to two feet of snow in some places, but the real headache is travel.  Hundreds of flights have been cancelled today because of the snowstorms. JetBlue preemptively cancelled many of its flights to try to head off a repeat of their February mess when passengers were stuck on runways for hours. We will keep an eye on the storm and the travel problems and update you tonight.

The other big story we are watching today is on Capitol Hill.  Former CIA officer Valerie Plame spoke out publicly for the first time, giving testimony to a House committee. Her appearance today made for fascinating theater, with Plame surrounded by more cameras than Lindsay Lohan.  Plame described her feelings when she found out her cover had been blown ("...like I had been hit in the gut."). She also said she had nothing to do with her husband's trip to Niger, even though the White House implied he traveled at her suggestion. Chip Reid has been watching the hearing all day and will have a full wrap up for us tonight.

And an important health story tonight about CPR. According to a new study, chest compressions WITHOUT mouth-to-mouth resuscitation may be the most effective way to help someone in cardiac arrest -- which is a lot different from what most of us have been taught. Bob Bazell will have that for us tonight.

And it's Friday, so count on "Making a Difference." See you tonight.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell takes over today's vlog duties, previewing some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.

Click here or on the image to watch.

Today we are keeping our eye on developments on Capitol Hill. As I write, the Senate is voting on three Iraq resolutions. The  most controversial is offered by Democrats and sets a timeline or "goal" for withdrawing most troops by March, 2008. It failed by a close vote moments ago. We will keep watching and have the details tonight on today's other votes.

In other news, we will have a full report on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaida suspect who claims responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks. According to Pentagon documents, he says he also beheaded American journalist Daniel Pearl. He is admitting involvement in more than 30 plots or attacks, but is he telling the full truth?

On the political front, a big development in California: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill moving California's presidential primary date to February 5, 2008. California is just one of many states considering that date, and it means an advanced primary season and nominating process. Related to that, we are on the campaign trail with Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain and we will look at his move from being the maverick to the establishment candidate -- a move that doesn't seem to be working for him according to recent polls. Chip Reid will have more from Iowa.

Also tonight, a look at college students who are combining binge drinking with prescription drugs, and the zero tolerance response on some college campuses. And more of our series "What Works." See you tonight.

Editor's note: "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" recently won eight National Headliner Awards. You can read more details here. Mike Mosher produced one of the stories, part of our "Making a Difference" series. The spot introduced viewers to Michael Reagan, a Vietnam vet who sketches portraits of servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can read and watch the award-winning story here.

Awards are special, but what really is overwhelming are thoughts like a note I received from a mother touched by Michael Reagan's work. I cannot stop looking at this photo of Cheryl Lee Patrick-Nussberger standing beside the portrait of her son Patrick. It's beautiful. And it's really true that pictures do tell stories words cannot begin to describe. I asked Cheryl to share the photo and the e-mail message she sent me after she heard about the National Headliner Award.

Dear Mr. Mosher,
Congratulations on the National Headliner Award for the George Lewis piece on "Making a Difference: Portraits of War" featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. I am the mother of fallen soldier SSG Patrick Lee Lybert, KIA 21 June 2006, Gowardesh, Afghanistan. Mr. Reagan gifted me with a sketch of my son. I cannot tell you the emotional impact. I am so happy the NBC News media family received recognition for spreading the word, giving attention to this wonderful man, and our fallen heroes. My son's portrait hangs central to our home, just past our main entrance. He watches over those coming and going, and I talk to him many times during the day as I walk by. Many tears, but much love.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Lee Patrick-Nussberger
Mother of SSG Patrick Lee Lybert
3-71 CAV 10th MTN DIV

Since our story aired on Nightly News in Sept. 2006, Michael Reagan has drawn more than 170 additional portraits, pushing the total number in his Fallen Heroes gallery to more than 600. Reagan has an e-mail list and I indirectly meet so many wonderful people on it. It is truly a labor of love. He tries to draw two each day. Now that the word is getting out he's receiving lots of requests. But he promises to sketch them all and would love to hear from interested families. Click here to visit his Web site for more information.

If you asked the producers of Nightly News (and we did) how many occasionally rely on sleeping pills, far more than a few (try 99%) would say they indulge. A lot of us don't think it is indulgence, but rather necessity. So today's news about some of the most popular sleeping pills brought all of us to attention. The FDA is calling for new warnings for 13 different prescription sleeping aids -- Ambien and Lunesta among them. The big risk -- engaging in potentially harmful behavior like "sleep-driving" while on the drugs, and then having no memory of the experience. There is a lot more to this and we will have a full wrap up for you tonight, along with some other big health news involving heart attacks and a potential shortage of cancer doctors.

From Washington tonight, Pete Williams will have more on the fallout over the firing of the federal prosecutors and what seems to be an evolving explanation from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Roger O'Neil will look at an effort underway to get all of us to switch from traditional light bulbs to more environmentally friendly ones. And Bob Faw has a fascinating piece tonight about a recently discovered new world of microscopic marine life. Scientists are looking at whether this world could help us develop new antibiotics or even new energy sources.

We will see you tonight.

Campbell Brown continues in the anchor chair tonight. The lead story is likely to be the furor in Washington over the U.S. attorney firings. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged again today that "mistakes were made." If you missed his interview on TODAY, click here to watch.

And click here to watch Campbell deliver the vlog.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The City of Palms is electric with talk about the kid from Japan. Twenty-six-year-old Daisuke Matsuzaka, better known as "Dice-K," is wowing the fans and non-fans alike as the biggest baseball mystery in a decade.

I joined the 150-plus credentialed Japanese reporters to get a glimpse of the $103 million dollar pitcher (that's what it cost the Red Sox to talk to his team in Japan, and then acquire his services for the Red Sox). The sports world has qualified him as "a phenom."

The constant question that remains unanswered is: Does he throw the fabled gyroball? I watched him pitch four innings against Baltimore and I still don't know if I saw it. It's a pitch that no one can say for sure any human can really throw. It was developed at the Riken Brain Science Institute by physicist Ryutaro Himeno. In theory, it can be thrown. Unlike other pitches, the gyroball spins like a bullet. The motion allows the ball to take a surprising turn away from right-handed batters. It breaks faster than a curveball. It's slower than a fastball. It's magical. It's mythical, and it's got everyone wondering: Does he or doesn't he?

Dice-K won't say.

I can confirm one tidbit of information: Dice-K speaks only in Japanese. He has a translator with him every step of the way. So we assume he doesn't speak English.

But when he walked past NBC News producer Mario Garcia Sunday, Dice-K looked at the baseball cap on Mario's head. It was a Seibu Lions hat: Dice-K's former team. Without missing a beat, with an accent that could easily pass for any kid in California, Dice-K said in English,  "Nice Cap." Cap! Not hat.

I can't help but wonder: Every time he's asked a question in English by journalists, fans or whomever, does he understand long before he answers? And if he does, then he may be just smart enough to throw the gyroball and never reveal he can do that either.

As Yogi Berra would say, it's deja vu all over again. Watching the unfolding debate over Gen. Peter Pace's comments on gays in the military, I started thinking of how President Bill Clinton was first pressured to formulate the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy - a policy Hillary Clinton has now said should be repealed. (While campaigning in Iowa on Jan. 27.)

The issue had been simmering throughout the first Clinton campaign, but it came to a head on Nov. 11, 1992 -- Veterans' Day. I was on duty in Little Rock. Clinton had just been elected and was formulating his cabinet, but he was still governor of Arkansas. In the hopes of asking the president-elect about his campaign commitment to gays in the military, I went over to the State House to watch him salute the armed forces.

On the rope line that day, I asked: "How are you going to handle the opposition of the military to your position on gays and lesbians in the military?"

Clinton didn't hesitate.

"If people who have served our country with distinction, many of them with battlefield ribbons and who have never had any kind of question about their conduct, can be booted out of the military, that is the issue, and I think there are ways that we can deal with this that will increase the comfort level of a lot of the military folks here."

Except it proved a lot harder than he'd thought to "increase the comfort level" of Colin Powell, the popular chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs. Or satisfy another leader with important ties to the military, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga.

For a new president who had been elected despite a huge controversy over his draft status and opposition to the Vietnam War, this was a lose-lose proposition. Why would he want to take on the military establishment as one of his first acts after taking office? Nine days after after being sworn in, Clinton announced he was postponing a decision on the issue. Months later, Powell helped him come up with a compromise - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." But the military remained resentful toward the commander-in-chief. And on the other side of the debate, he lost the support of lifelong friends from the gay activist community like David Mixner.

Few in the White House at the time thought it would be more than a short-term solution to a deeper societal problem. Fifteen years later, it is still official policy - and just as controversial.

With just two hours until the first feed, Campbell delivers her daily dispatch today via vlog only.

Click here for her preview of what you'll see on tonight's broadcast.

I've been covering New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on a regular basis since Katrina. That's about 19 months. Whenever one of my stories makes Nightly, I get two very different reactions. Locally, people say "Thank you" to me and NBC for continuing to keep the city's plight before the eyes of the nation... from that nation I get, "Enough already! I am sick of hearing about New Orleans!"

Outside New Orleans the rest of the country has Katrina fatigue. Understandable, but if you think you're sick of it, then you can just imagine how the folks here are sick of living it. But there is little choice. Moving is not an option when you can't sell a house that's gone and still have to pay the bank back.

Experts here say instead of thinking of New Orleans as a national pain in the backside, Americans should realize there are great lessons to be learned, because it could happen somewhere else. If not a hurricane into a major city, how about an earthquake, or a massive terrorist attack that leaves a city and its society in ruins?

That said, tonight's lesson is health care. It's the current crisis in the Big Easy. Patients can wait up to eight hours in an emergency room to see a doctor. Ambulances sit parked at ER entrances unable to offload their latest case, and unavailable for another emergency run. In hallways and emergency rooms, patients lie on gurneys sometimes for days waiting for a hospital room to open.

What's the cause? Like most crises, it's not one big thing but the snow-balling impact of a number of little ones. Before Katrina metro New Orleans had 15 hospitals. Today only 10 have reopened. Before Katrina the city had 2,800 hospital beds. Today it has 635.

But those numbers don't tell the whole story. As Mike Hulefield, chief operating officer at Ochsner Medical Center puts it, "The biggest challenge is not physical capacity, it's human capacity."

What he means is in addition to the lack of buildings and beds, staff is bleeding away. Many are themselves fed up with the daily struggles of life in this city. New Orleans before the storm had about 4,000 doctors. Now it's down to 1,900. In even shorter supply are nurses. There is a shortage nationwide so those that were here have been lured away to other cities where the infrastructure works, the schools are better and the hospitals can afford to pay more. Recruiting people to take their place is hard, because affordable housing is in short supply, the schools are weak and many worry about crime.

So health centers here are recruiting overseas in the Philippines and India -- importing their staffs. But that is an expensive and short-term solution and money is another thing in short supply.

"In Orleans Parish prior to the storm, it was somewhere around 40 percent of our population was uninsured." says Dr. Kevin Jordan, chief medical officer at Touro Infirmary. "That percentage is at least 50-52 percent now."

Part of the reason for the rise of the uninsured is the post-Katrina economic downturn. Jobs were wiped out and with them health-care benefits. So with nowhere to go, the uninsured join the lines at the area's remaining emergency rooms, which are obligated to care for all patients. But the uninsured drain away money that hospitals need to pay for more beds, more doctors and more nurses.

We asked Dr. Jordan of Touro Infirmary what he would say to America if he could. 

"Be very careful, because what happened here could happen to any community at any given time, given any natural disaster or given any kind of interruption in what they consider their daily lives," he said. This could be your future if in fact you're not prepared for it."

New Orleans has lots to teach, as long as everyone else isn't sick of listening.

Ask just about any U.S. Border Patrol agent what the most frustrating part of their job is, and they'll tell you it's the long-standing policy of "Catch and Release." 

In a nutshell, most undocumented immigrants caught crossing the border from Mexico are simply sent back across the border. Agents sometimes catch the same people two or three times within the span of a week, and there's little to discourage the undocumented immigrants from trying again, until they reach their destinations within the U.S.

Along one stretch of border near Eagle Pass, Texas, the policy has changed. It's a pilot program for the Border Patrol called "Operation Streamline." When illegal aliens (that's the officials Border Patrol term) are caught in the Del Rio Sector, which includes some 200 miles of border, they are charged with misdemeanors and prosecuted under existing law.

But Operation Streamline goes even further. The immigrants are then given mass trials, where they are generally convicted or plead guilty. A judge sentences each of them to a minimum of two weeks in jail, with sentences of up to six months for repeat offenders.
    
Tonight on Nightly News you'll see Operation Streamline in action. We ride along with agents as they make several arrests near Eagle Pass. They say word has gotten out about the strict new policy. The number of immigrants attempting to cross illegally in the sector has dropped dramatically, as immigrants fear going to jail if they're caught.

Agents say with few arrests, they have more time to concentrate on finding illegal drugs.  Drug busts, both cocaine and marijuana, are up more than 100 percent in the sector. But there are also critics of the program. They say the immigrant's rights are being violated, and the mass trials deny them due process. You'll hear from them as well, as we take a closer look at "Operation Streamline."

Often, when you go into a pediatrician's office the toys get all the attention.  But I saw a different and exciting reality at Boston Medical Center's pediatric clinic. The waiting room looks a lot like children's hour at a library with a volunteer reading to kids who are six months to five years old.

It's part of a literacy program designed by doctors working primarily with low-income patients who don't have money to buy books for their children.

My producer, Christina Jamison, and I recently spent a day at the clinic in preparation for a story airing tonight on NBC Nightly News, in a series called "What Works."

This program, called Reach Out and Read, works -- promoting early childhood literacy. Studies show kids in the program score 4 to 8 points higher on vocabulary tests.

It was absolutely wonderful to watch the children, parents, volunteers and doctors interacting around the books. Without lollipops or stickers, or toys, kids were smiling during a doctor's visit and the energy was generated all around the books, parents and learning.

Not only are the kids read to in the waiting room, but --and this is a big deal -- the doctor gives each child and their parent a free book to take home and lessons on how to make the most of them.

The doctors say when a parent or caregiver reads to kids, the love children have for their parents translates into a love for reading and books.

There's a critical need for this as studies show that 16 percent of parents of children age 3 and younger don't read at all with their children, and 23 percent do so only once or twice a week.  Among low-income children, the percentage of parents who read aloud regularly is much lower. Doctors say children who are not read to in the first years of life are much less likely to read on schedule.

Pediatricians are doing their part to change that. The Reach Out and Read Program has spread across the country. What started in one Boston hospital pediatric clinic 18 years ago is now being practiced in every state, and nearly 20 million free books have been given to kids.

One of the program founders, pediatrician Dr. Barry Zuckerman says, "My goal ultimately is that giving books to children at visits will be as routine as giving vaccines."

Reach Out and Read administrators say this is a program making books part of a healthy childhood. 

There's a lesson here for everyone who cares about children and their future.