By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

It's just too much. Pick up any newspaper, watch any evening newscast, and it's enough to force you to look away: Myanmar, China, (the Democrats), the price of oil, the ants in Texas, the oil pipeline fire in Nigeria, the Polygamists. I could go on. Turn to the sports pages and you'll read about the investigation into whether the juggernaut New England Patriots have been spying on their opponents for years. It has a staggering cumulative effect -- all of it -- which is why I (unaccustomed as I am to quoting myself) started Monday's broadcast with, "It's enough to make you wonder about our world."

Now it has spread to Oreos. Please read this sweeping, Churchillian rant in the U.K. Daily Mirror. The Brits are feeling attacked. This is a gem. It takes a lot to work Churchill and Neville Chamberlain references into our current national dialogue (note to radio talk-show hosts -- you'd be well-advised to bone up on history -- even the Wikipedia version -- before coming on television to discuss it,) but if it was ever gonna happen, this was the week for it.

A great season of SNL comes to an end tomorrow night, hosted by Steve Carell of "The Office." It promises to be a momentous evening, especially given the much-rumored cameo by John McCain. I just might drop by rehearsals... for old time's sake... on my way out of the building tonight. Needless to say: cancel any plans you might have had for Saturday night.

I hope you have a good weekend. We have a great broadcast planned for you tonight.

By Savannah Guthrie, NBC News correspondent

For most of us, when we think of the words "airlines" and "blankets", our hearts aren't necessarily overcome with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Many envision those skimpy, plastic-wrapped blankets of whose cleanliness we might be somewhat suspicious. Tonight's "Making A Difference" report may just change some minds.

In 2000, a Salt Lake City-based Delta flight attendant manager, Cindy Atkinson, recruited flight attendants to help create quilts for a local hospital, Primary Children's Medical Center. Atkinson brought in a quilting frame that once belonged to her grandmother and set it up in the employee lounge. She was amazed at the response. Flight attendants flocked to the project, gathering on breaks or long layovers to contribute a stitch or two. That first year, Delta employees donated a few hundred quilts. This year, they produced a record 2,300 blankets.

And what started with flight attendants now has spread throughout the airline. From pilots to ground crews to ticket agents, hundreds of Delta employees are participating. "I think it helps them feel like they are part of a healing process," Atkinson explains.

Brenda Richards is one of the faithful. Richards worked as a flight attendant for Delta for 38 years. She has retired from flying, but not from quilting. Even now, she returns to the airport to lend a hand in sewing the blankets. Her reasons are very personal. "One time my granddaughter had surgery at the hospital and she came out from surgery, and she was wrapped in a Delta quilt!" Richards says. "I'm in it for the duration now."

As for the hospital, the staff there are convinced of the blankets' healing properties. "That quilt is like medicine that you cant get from a bottle," says Sharon Goodrich, director of annual and corporate giving at Primary Children's Medical Center. The hospital promises a handmade quilt for every child's bed - a promise Delta is helping them deliver.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

We're in Atlanta tonight -- as I'll say somewhere in the body of the newscast, I'm here for a big dinner honoring 35 of the 105 living Medal of Honor recipients tonight (on whose board I serve) and so the broadcast comes with me.

I'm linking to an interesting piece of writing by a friend: correspondent Ron Allen has written this piece on the fly from the Clinton campaign, as detailed and interesting analysis piece as you'll see out there today.

The weather here is just awful. Steady and heavy rain, and we're all watching the weather radar on MSNBC as the bigger stuff moves north and east from Alabama. This could get interesting: the thunderstorms are due to arrive just about the time we go on the air. I haven't visited Atlanta since the tornado that tore through the downtown section, and the sight is striking: so many hi-rise buildings have missing windows -- while duct tape covers large cracks in some of them, others are just gone -- some replaced by plywood, some not. It's not unlike the sight of the New Orleans skyline when we first emerged from the Superdome the morning of Katrina. We of course never associate twisters with crowded, built-up metropolitan areas -- this was an aberration, and a strong one. The damage is still very visible.

We have a full broadcast for you tonight -- from Israel to Washington to California to China to Chicago. We hope you can join us.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

With the third part of our series, "Medical Mysteries," about auto- immune diseases, we turn to what many see as the biggest mystery of all: why do these disease strike women in far greater proportions than men?

As many have you have commented in response to earlier reports and blog postings, all these diseases do indeed affect men as well and we certainly do not mean to ignore that fact.  But still, it is overwhelmingly a problem for women. The numbers vary for different diseases, but they can range from three to 10 times as common in women as compared to men.

So what is the answer? The fact is that scientists do not know--even though they have been searching for years. Clearly, a woman has to have a difference in her immune system so she can tolerate a fetus in her body. Clearly, hormones are involved, because often auto-immune diseases get getter or worse before, during, and after pregnancy and menopause.  Many scientists think that if they could understand why women suffer disproportionately, they would find better treatments.

 

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

I'm writing this from the Nightly News studio, basically to say: I won't have time to post in any significant way.

I just concluded an extended interview with Senator Hillary Clinton. Now it's back to the newsroom to write for the broadcast. Then I get yanked upstairs to tape Conan for tonight -- always harrowing, as it takes me away from the newsroom at the height of the writing for 35 minutes, then dumps me (even though they always are so kind to make me the first guest to accomodate my schedule) back in the newsroom at 6:15 ET for a 6:30pm ET first live feed of the broadcast.

So...that's where I'll be. We hope, as always, you can join us at the appointed hour.

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington

Casey Casanova loved to sing and dance and play the drums growing up in McComb, Miss.

"She had a beautiful voice," her grandmother told the Laurel Leader-Call.

Casanova, 22, attended Southwest Mississippi Community College on a music scholarship and sang and played the steel drums in a stage band.

"Her favorite song was anything country," her mother told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "I called her my dancing cowgirl."

Casanova shocked her mom in 2006 when she announced she was joining the Marines.

"I asked her, 'Why would you do this?'" her mother said, according to the McComb Enterprise-Journal. "She told me, 'I am young and there is nothing here for me. I want to do something with my life.'"

Casanova went through boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina and was assigned to Camp Pendelton in California.

"She changed a lot," her mother told the Enterprise-Journal. "She used to be a bubbly, giggly little girl. When she got through, she was a fighter."

Marine Lance Cpl. Casanova shipped out to Iraq on Feb. 14 as a field radio operator. Although women are barred from front-line combat, Casanova was in the thick of things from the outset.

"She did not tell me that every night she went out she was in danger of losing her life," her mother told WLBT.

On May 2, Casanova was on patrol in western Anbar province when a roadside bomb tore through the Humvee in which she was riding. Casanova and three other Marines were killed instantly.

"The voice of an angel is gone," her grandmother told the Leader-Call.

Casey Casanova was the 97th U.S. servicewoman to die in Iraq. Sixty of them, Casanova included, have been killed by hostile fire.

Click here to view tributes to the 195 service members killed this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the following nine casualties from last week:

1. Marine Cpl. Miguel Guzman, 21, of Norwalk, Calif.

2. Army Spc. Alex Gonzalez, 21, of Mission, Texas.

3. Army Pfc. Aaron Ward, 19, of San Jacinto, Calif.

4. Army Spc. Jeremy Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky.

5. Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N.M.

6. Army Sgt. Isaac Palomarez, 26, of Loveland, Colo.

7. Army Spc. Mary Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula, Calif.

8. Army Pfc. Ara Deysie, 18, of Parker, Ariz.

9. Army Spc. Joseph Ford, 23, of Knox, Ind.

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He also posts stories on the military at www.fieldnotes.msnbc.com (click on "John Rutherford" under "categories") and at http://john-rutherford.newsvine.com/. The tribute gallery can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22802019/.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Time is short today as I'm just back from the Council on Foreign Relations, where after a brief lunch I moderated a lecture/interview/q&a session with my fellow members with our featured speaker, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea. I had the unusual experience today of informing the Secretary General of a bombing in India that had been reported in the few minutes it took him to travel from the U.N. to the Council. Word arrived via my Blackberry, and he was obviously disturbed to hear it, especially the component of today's bombings that apparently involved remote-control detonators activated by motorcyclists driving by.

Tonight we'll be updating Nightly News -- no matter where you live, no matter where you watch us -- to reflect the results from West Virginia. Politico has a good viewers guide to tonight's Primary.

Yesterday in this space I told the story of Picher, Oklahoma. Tonight, our own Don Teague, at my request, has traveled there -- and will deliver the television version of that same story. And Rehema Ellis will end our broadcast tonight with a story about one family's service that you will want to see.

By Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News correspondent

The candidates often like to say there are "stark differences" between the two parties in this presidential contest. One small and simple difference is how they fly.

The McCain campaign, unlike the operations surrounding Obama and Clinton, does not yet have one designated aircraft. For months, the presumptive republican nominee has chartered JetBlue with its fleet of Airbus and Embraer aircraft. Airbus is headquartered in France and Embraer in Brazil and usually that is of little interest on the campaign trail. But in the Pacific Northwest it matters. So today when Senator John McCain flew from Portland to Seattle, he landed in a Boeing 737. This week, the McCain campaign is using Swift Aviation which uses Boeing aircraft. While advisors say they simply got a better price for the week clearly the Boeing factor provided a political opportunity. If McCain had landed in an Airbus, that picture could have been a story in itself. By changing to Boeing, McCain at the very least avoided the issue and at best appeared conscience of the local economy.

McCain also has some political baggage attached to the Boeing name. A few years ago McCain went after a pentagon project where the Air Force had a pricey contract with Boeing to build a tanker. Without going into all the details here, the mess revealed an illegal deal and a few people both at Boeing and the DoD were convicted. One other consequence, Boeing lost the deal to Airbus. Some in Seattle blamed McCain for lost jobs. Today he was asked about the issue at a short news conference. McCain responded, "I have the greatest respect and appreciation for the workers at Boeing Aircraft. They have turned out some of the finest products in history, we all know that... I led an investigation that ended up, unfortunately with Boeing employees in federal prison and would have cost the taxpayers an additional 6.2 billion dollars."

McCain certainly knew a question like this was coming and so you can see why landing in a Boeing aircraft was about more than a good charter deal.

By Robert Bazell, Chief science editor

By Robert Bazell, NBC News Chief science correspondent

Tonight we begin a series called 'Medical Mysteries' about autoimmune diseases.  We picked the title because these very common conditions remain incurable, difficult to treat, and poorly understood. 

An autoimmune disease strikes when the exquisite system that protects our bodies from viruses and bacteria goes haywire. The white blood cells and the proteins called antibodies turn on us. The result can be damage to almost any organ in the body—chronic illness that can be severe and even life-threatening. The National Institutes of Health has a good primer on autoimmune diseases.

 

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Our friend and producer Sam Singal thought it was an important enough email to alert me to it over the weekend. When I read it, I understood why he thought it deserving of special mention. In turn, I read the following to my extended family, gathered at our house last night for a Mother's Day cookout. It might be the most extraordinary email, in what it says about our age of communications, I've ever received.

It came from a U.S Army soldier named Tim Terpak, who was responding to my blog post from last week about the Bruce Springsteen concert in Red Bank, New Jersey.  I'll let him take it from there:

Brian,

Sounds like a concert to remember. With my being in Iraq, connectivity is hit or miss, so I didn't realize Bruce was even doing the show. Being a fellow Jersey Shore boy, as we discussed back in April 2003 in the Iraqi desert after your helicopter landed next to the one my Bradleys were securing, I am certainly a big Bruce fan. I would have liked to have been home to see the show, but duty calls again.

I would like to take this moment to thank you for your continued coverage of what's going on over here. When I do get a chance to surf the net or watch the news, it appears Iraq and Afghanistan have fallen off most news reports. It is nice to see someone is still covering the effort of our service members.

Let's take a moment to de-construct this: a young soldier, who is, like me, from the Jersey Shore, reads my blog entry last week during a break while on active duty in Iraq. The last time I saw him, I was with my friend and NBC News Military Analyst Wayne Downing, a retired 4-Star Army General. Wayne and I were riding along as part of an Army mission to deliver bridge components to the Euphrates River, so that the invading forces of the 3rd Infantry could cross the river on their way to Bagdhad. We came under fire by what appeared to be Iraqi farmers with RPG's and AK-47's. The Chinook helicopter flying in front of ours (from the 101st Airborne) took an RPG to the rear rotor, as all four of our low-flying Chinooks took fire. We were forced down and stayed down -- for the better (or worse) part of 3 days and 2 nights.

Soon after we hit the desert floor, (just as we were wondering how we were going to survive this unplanned stay in the desert south of Najaf, and just as General Downing was going to propose "the distribution of weapons," as he put it) we heard the sound of approaching Bradley Fighting Vehicles -- an armored mechanized platoon under the command of a young West Pointer, Lt. Eric Nye. He ordered his men to dismount and dig in and surround us. They set up a perimeter, they killed two Iraqis who arrived to fire on us again, and they are the only reason we lived to see U.S. soil, or our families, again.

Tim Terpak (who came to have a big admirer in the late General Downing, who was mightily impressed by the indefatigable and resourceful Terpak) was among those few soldiers. He has served more tours since then. It is clear he still has his priorities in order while serving this country: he's expressing obvious concern that a Springsteen development has somehow taken place without his knowledge. It's an awful feeling. It was far from a routine email -- it speaks to our shrinking earth, our volunteer force, love of country and the great feeling of loving a great band. Wayne would have loved this story.

Now to a spot thousands of miles from the Iraqi desert, but having to do with a harsh stretch of land just the same. The first story I ever did for television was about abandoned lead and zinc mines in the region surrounding the far corner of Northeast Oklahoma. As part of my travels on that very first day on the job at a Kansas television station, I stopped at several locations to shoot videotape pictures of the mine openings and the "chat piles" -- the discarded rock -- mountains of it, that contain lead and zinc remnants (and other chemical compounds) that give off a relentless toxic dust. Chat piles are a hazard and an eyesore across a huge swath of the old mining region in the middle of the country.

Among the towns I stopped in that day: Picher, Oklahoma. Picher was then a down-on-its-luck town of a few thousand people -- these days, a few hundred. Mickey Mantle played ball there as a kid -- he was from a neighboring town. The mining business had long ago shut down, and left its sorry remnants behind. The mines that had provided the lead for so many of the bullets fired from American weapons in World War II and Vietnam -- quickly became a health hazard. I often felt, talking to folks in Picher, a bit of sadness. It was well known that children in Picher had lead levels in their blood way above the national average. Raising a family in Picher often meant having no other financial options. Many of today's residents of Picher are the sons and daughters of the original "Okies" -- the brave Americans who were part of the westward movement to settle the Plains. They worked their patch of dirt, they somehow scratched out a living. They paid their taxes, sent their children to school, and at the end of the week enjoyed a church supper, a ball game, and services on Sunday. A lot of good people have stayed in Picher, trying to petition their government to clean up the problem, trying to make a go of it as a town.

Then came this weekend's tornadoes, which wiped the earth clean of structures everywhere they swung. There was a familiar sight in the background of one of the interviews conducted with a storm survivor this weekend. While the woman spoke, standing in front of what appeared to be her former front porch, off in the distance was the unmistakable sight of a chat pile -- a man-made mountain of rock.

It survived the storm. So did the woman being interviewed. Sadly, because of what happened there this weekend, living in Picher, Oklahoma got tougher. If Picher is to make it, and recover from what man and nature have done to that small, proud, Oklahoma town, it's going to take the work of a lot of good people.

By Bo Gu, NBC News, Beijing

I noticed the swinging leaves on our office manager's desk when she pointed out her plant to me and asked me if I felt the earthquake.  Her eyes were wide open and her hands were on her chest.  I told her I didn't feel anything, but I couldn't help giving a quick glance on our ceiling lamp-it obviously swayed for a few seconds.

In a few minutes our freelance producer Steven called in, told us there were hundreds of people evacuating from office buildings to the street, causing a small traffic in the main road of Beijing.

News started popping up on major websites: a quake measured at magnitude 7.5 struck western China, shaking buildings in cities as far away as Beijing and the business hub of Shanghai. The quake struck 57 miles (92 kilometers) northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT). The 7.5-magnitude quake was centered 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) below the surface.

7.5 magnitude is absolutely an appalling level to Chinese people, who two years ago just had the 30th anniversary of the greatest earthquake in the northern city of Tangshan in 1976. Over 240,000 people were killed in that 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the second largest death toll in a single earthquake in modern history.

More news and images caught up at a frightening speed. Schools buildings fell down with hundreds of children buried underneath. Chemical plants collapsed, causing tons of liquid ammonia to leak. Cracks showed up in buildings. Water tower was toppled. In a village in northern Sichuan alone, 80% of buildings were destroyed. Electricity was out and no phone calls could be made to the quake zone. Death toll climbed up gradually from ten to a hundred to hundreds, then thousands.

By 8:00 pm, Premier Wen Jiabao has arrived in Sichuan in his private jet, and gave a speech to the whole country, expressing central government's condolence, ordering a military entry to the disaster zone and calling for the whole country to fight against the catastrophe.

Regions and countries as far as Bangkok and Taipei felt the tremor too. More and more deaths are reported in other nearby provinces in Gansu, Shanxi, and Yunnan provinces.

By the time I finish this blog, 9,000 people are reported to have died in the earthquake, and official news says the death toll is likely to grow.

By Ann Curry, NBC News anchor

Tonight we will see more dramatic images from Myanmar's delta region, hardest hit by last weekend's cyclone, our report from one of the few journalists able to get close.

The images are haunting. Showing the dead, and the survivors, their suffering is palpable. But even they do not even begin to tell the horror of what happened.

The government of Myanmar, which tells us 100,000 people were killed or injured, and that one and a half million are homeless, today is still preventing foreign aid from coming in.

We hear food and supplies from the UN are still in warehouses, as the government, which denied aid workers visas, doesn't have the infrastructure to get the help to the suffering.

People need food and shelter, and are expected to start getting sick and many are orphans.

How long can the world sit and watch, allowing it's hands to be tied?

If Myanmar's government can prevent the world from seeing images like those we are going to show you tonight, the world could well forget.

By Trudy Hall, Headmaster of the Emma Willard School

 

Editors Note: Shelby Davis, featured in Rehema Ellis' segment tonight, began his investment crusade by providing scholarships for international boarding schools and American universities. In tonight's piece, we did not have time to share Mr. Davis' newest venture, an effort to diversify American boarding schools. Each participating school has been asked to design their own program to recruit the most promising need-based students representing new dimensions of international diversity.

Upon graduation, this new branch of Davis International Scholars will be eligible for continued scholarship support if they are accepted into a participating college.

Pilot programs will begin at 5 select boarding schools this fall: Emma Willard, Phillips Academy, Lawrenceville, Taft, and Westminster. 

Trudy Hall, head of Emma Willard, reflects on her goals for the unique program.

 

Making a difference.  Altogether a good thing. I think we might agree, however, that the Davis idea of making a difference through scholarships is to do so on a grand scale; indeed, a global scale. It is an incredible notion really:  the way to make a global difference just might be through one relationship at a time. The Davis family in their remarkably visionary way is betting on this concept in new ways even as the NBC story airs. They are pushing the needle of cross-cultural influence ever deeper into the core of American culture through a fascinating partnership with five American high schools.

 

By Subrata De, NBC Nightly News senior producer

 

You might remember the e-mails I posted back in September from a friend who lives in Myanmar's capital Yangon (Rangoon). He'd been describing the monk uprising against the military rulers there. Well, he's now living in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. He's ok and finally getting messages out. We'll maintain his anonymity once again, given the retaliatory nature of this regime. Here are excerpts from his recent e-mails: 

 

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

 

I got off the air last night, sped through the Lincoln Tunnel and soon entered the familiar confines of home -- the Jersey Shore, and a benefit concert by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Count Basie theater in Red Bank, NJ.  Bruce and his wife Patti granted me one of the great honors of my lifetime when I took to the stage on my home turf to introduce the band.  As a fan of over 30 years, who spent countless Friday and Saturday nights chasing rumors of impromptu E Street concerts up and down the Jersey Shore -- it was an emotional event. Followed by a history-making concert: Bruce performed, in order, the songs from Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born To Run. It's never been done, and won't be done again. It was heaven.  Those of us who were present for it knew it at the time -- there were shared looks of amazement among complete strangers last night. In all our years together -- we'd never seen or heard anything like it.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Watching Evan Bayh warm up the crowd last night before Hillary Clinton's speech, I could not help but think of the spiderweb of relationship that fuses our modern politics to the generation before it.

Consider this, a story many people have forgotten: Senator Bayh's father, Senator Birch Bayh, was on board a twin-engine plane when it crashed in an orchard in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was June of 1964. Senator Bayh and his fellow passenger, Senator Edward Kennedy, had just cast affirmative votes for the Civil Rights Act, and were en route to make a joint appearance at the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention. The crash killed Ted Kennedy's pilot, Ed Zimny, and a Senate aide, Ed Moss. After Senator Bayh pulled his own wife from the wreckage, he returned to rescue his friend Ted Kennedy. The Massachusetts Senator had a "negligable" pulse when he emerged from the wreckage. He came near death that night, and it must be said he would have died were it not for Birch Bayh's efforts.

Fast forward to present day: Bayh is in the Senate, filling his father's seat from Indiana. Ted Kennedy is still there, and the mere sight of him still stops crowds of visitors cold, when he ambles around the corner in the Capitol, walking with evident discomfort and a distinct forward tilt at the waist -- all a result of the injuries (a broken back among them) he suffered that night.

Kennedy is backing Obama, and Bayh ran the Indiana effort for Hillary Clinton.

Candidates are still rushing off to events (though NetJets have largely replaced twin-engine props as the conveyance of choice) and accidents still happen. But the sight of a Senator named Bayh at the podium in Indianapolis last night started me to thinking about bloodlines and politics and accidents.

Tonight we'll offer the best and freshest analysis of what happened last night.

Please know: reporting from Myanmar is proving exceptionally difficult. Those few journalists openly working there have had to protect their own identities and locations. We are having the same trouble getting in that the U.N. and U.S. are having -- and countless other aid agencies. I will never forget flying into Banda Aceh on a charter jet after the tsunami. Our pilot had to offer to bribe the guy in the control tower with hard currency before we were offered a landing slot. It wasn't because of volume -- there were very few arrivals at that time -- it was because of corruption, which doesn't take a holiday after a disaster.

We sure hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington

There's not a lot of information available on Army Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, a 29-year-old Green Beret killed April 17 in Iraq.

He was from Magnolia, Texas, north of Houston, and he graduated from Sam Houston State University with a degree in criminal justice. He enlisted in 2003 and was just two weeks from completing his second tour in Iraq when he died.

He was killed by small arms fire while entering a building in Sama Village in search of an Al Qaeda leader. He is survived by a daughter, Alyssa Gomez of Cypress, Texas, and his parents, Rosemary and James Brown of Cartwright, Okla.

His mother and father were too distraught to talk to reporters after his death, but you can practically trace his life through the tributes friends wrote in the online Guest Book:

"I remember like it was yesterday the fun we had growing up together - playing slip n slide on the side of your house ... and going to the state fair with our dads (I rode the rides with my dad, you always rode by yourself - even then you were strong and courageous)."

"It feels like it was just yesterday that Dad was coaching yall in pee-wee football. All the cheerleaders just went crazy over you!!!"

"I still have not paid for my roommate's door you kicked down so you could crash in his bed my freshman year at SFA! :)"

"You always found a way to brighten my day (Vitamin 'J')."

"You were the type of person who knew how to have fun and live life to its fullest. My heart goes out to your mom and dad and especially little peewee."

A funeral was held for Brown on April 26 at the First Baptist Church in Durant, Okla. He was buried last week in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the 420th casualty of the Iraq War to be buried at Arlington.

Click here to view tributes to the 186 service members killed this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the following 20 casualties from last week:

1. Army Sgt. Jerry DeLoach, 45, of Jonesboro, Ga.

2. Marine Sgt. Merlin German, 22, of Manhattan, N.Y.

3. Army Pfc. William Dix, 32, of South Hill, Va.

4. Army Pfc. Adam Marion, 26, of Mount Airy, N.C.

5. Army Sgt. Marcus Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills, Fla.

6. Army Sgt. Mark Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas.

7. Army Spc. David McCormick, 26, of Bay City, Texas.

8. Air Force Senior Airman Jonathan Yelner, 24, of Lafayette, Calif.

9. Army Sgt. 1st Class David McDowell, 30, of Ramona, Calif.

10. Army Staff Sgt. Clay Craig, 22, of Mesquite, Texas.

11. Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Bolander, 26, of Hemet, Calif.

12. Army Spc. Jeffrey Nichols, 21, of Granite Shoals, Texas.

13. Army Cpt. Andrew Pearson, 32, of Billings, Mont.

14. Army Spc. Ronald Tucker, 21, of Fountain, Colo.

15. Army Staff Sgt. Chad Caldwell, 24, of Spokane, Wash.

16. Army Sgt. 1st Class Lawrence Ezell, 30, of Portland, Texas.

17. Army Pvt. Corey Hicks, 22, of Glendale, Ariz.

18. Marine Sgt. Glen Martinez, 31, of Monte Vista, Colo.

19. Marine Lance Cpl. Casey Casanova, 22, of McComb, Miss.

20. Marine Lance Cpl. James Kimple, 21, of Amanda, Ohio.

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He also posts stories on the military at www.fieldnotes.msnbc.com (click on "John Rutherford" under "categories") and at http://john-rutherford.newsvine.com/. The tribute gallery can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22802019/.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Chuck Todd, our Political Director, has it about right about tonight: the ground game, while not over, takes on much less importance after tonight, because the number of undeclared superdelegates will exceed the number of available "regular" delegates in the remaining primary states.

Tonight could be a game-changer, and it could be the 6th inning in a long ballgame. We get our first indication at about 5:30 Eastern time, when Sheldon Gawiser briefs us on his read of "first wave" exit polling results (which he puts through his algorithym pro-rating blender) and about which we are sworn to secrecy. It can "educate" but not otherwise affect our coverage in the Nightly News feeds prior to the poll closings. Tonight might go fast. We will be here nonetheless, making sure each time zone gets a new, live and updated feed. Tonight's speeches will be fascinating, depending on the outcome. The morning shows have already booked a "roadblock" -- both Democrats, in separate interviews, on all three broadcast networks. It feels like the height of primary season. I guess, in a way, it is.

I want to thank the great folks, my friends (sitting about 50 yards from me) at MSNBC for helping me put on a great hour earlier today. We did it seat-of-the-pants style; I hadn't written a word, no teleprompter, and just the most basic format -- the best kind of television news there is. The only problem is: while it's huge amounts of fun for the anchor (and, we hope, the guests) it's hell on a control room, where they always need to plan 2 or 3 moves in advance. But they keep having me back...

We've now swung over to work on Nightly News and begin the writing (they insist on it here) for tonight. We have a great broadcast planned, no matter your time zone, and we hope you can join us. Off to work.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent

 

When we were planning this week's series "the Mind Body Connection," Alex Wallace the executive producer of Nightly News asked me what was new with the alternative medicine movement, which has been in full swing for more than a decade.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

First-year law students everywhere, along with students of contemporary American history, know it as "The Loving Case" -- shorthand for the landmark 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia. The court ruled unanimously, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, that laws forbidding interracial marriage (in this case, a law in the Commonwealth of Virginia) violated the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Mildred Loving (formerly Mildred Jeter) was a black woman who fell in love with a white man. They married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, when she was 18. It was upon their eventual move to Virginia that their union was legally challenged. Her husband died in a car accident (in which Mildred was also injured) back in 1975.

Mildred Loving shunned the spotlight for her entire adult life, often saying she never set out to be famous, only to fight for her right to marry the man she loved. Her case was brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice (under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy), who referred it to the A.C.L.U. The Supreme Court ruling voided similar laws in at least 16 other States. The Lovings had three children and several grandchildren.

Mildred Loving died today in Milford, Virginia. She was 68 years old. Her name will live on, like Linda Brown and Jane Roe before her -- the surnames in American jurisprudential history that now stand for the cases that changed the course of our nation.

On the broadcast tonight, we'll preview tomorrow's presidential primaries. A word about our coverage tomorrow night, for those of you who see the first feed of Nightly News at 6:30 Eastern time: while the polls will not be closed in all of Indiana (80 of the 92 counties will be closed -- but polls in Gary and Evansville will still be open), we will be able to report the raw vote tallies from the rest of Indiana as early as 6:30 ET. That is because the State of Indiana puts the numbers out -- posts them on the web. I didn't want anyone to think we were violating any agreement, principle or policy when those numbers pop up on the screen tomorrow night... the state itself will be reporting the early (albeit incomplete) raw vote.

Also tonight: why some passenger jets are flying more slowly today than they did in 1959 -- and a fascinating health news story.

I hope you all had a good weekend -- we hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

By Lester Holt, NBC News Anchor

Today we witnessed what is probably the closest thing to a debate before Tuesday's Democratic primaries in

By Lester Holt, NBC News Anchor

There is no question; this has been a year of exceptionally wild weather. The National Weather Service says there have been around 700 preliminary reports of tornadoes this year, a sharp increase over last year's numbers. At least 25 of them occurred this past Thursday and Friday, when parts of four states were struck, leaving 7 people dead in

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Jim Maceda spent a second straight day with the Marines, under fire in Afghanistan. Tonight we get to see what he's been through.

Last night's piece was harrowing -- not just because we knew our friend Jim was under fire, but because we were all seeing it for the first time; it was rolling out of our London control room, having been fed from the field into our London bureau by computer. We had seen and cleared the written portion of Jim's story, but not the pictures -- and so we watched it for the very first time along with our audience. He's with a great group of Marines who don't scare easily, and while they've been surrounded more than once over the past 48 hours, we don't fear for Jim's safety. He knows his way around a battlefield, and so do the men he's with.

We have several West Point cadets visiting today -- a great group, and I spent time with them earlier. We discussed the debate underway on our blog -- and my belief that this kind of an exchange is always a good thing.

We're off to start writing the broadcast -- I hope you can join us, and have a good weekend.

By Tom Costello, NBC News correspondent

 

Ever had a teacher who truly made a difference in your life?  Someone who set you on a course that you really didn't expect?

 

Well, the students at Fredericksburg High School in Texas have just such a teacher, and he's turned a whole lot of kids on to subjects many of them had no interest in. 

 

The hard ones: Math, Science and Physics!

 

In 1996, Brett Williams had an idea.  To get kids really excited about science and physics, he needed to step away from the classroom to help make those subjects come alive.

 

He decided on a hands-on project that takes dedication, focus and commitment....and above all else, is really cool:  Rockets!

 

That was the beginning of the Redbird Rocket Program at FHS.  That first year, they managed to send one rocket up one mile, carrying one pound.

 

They've since become the first high school to break the sound barrier, even soaring to 100,000 feet.

 

Today, they are preparing to send a 500 pound rocket up to the edge of space, carrying a payload from Stanford University graduate students.

 

Fredericksburg High School's Aerospace program is turning into a model for the entire state. 

 

Dozens of high schools now participate in the annual rocket launch.  But only FHS has developed a program so sophisticated, the air force gets involved - launching its biggest rocket every year from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

 

Now, there's a movement to take the program that Brett Williams started, and spread it across the country.

 

This is not the Estes Rockets of old! 

 

Tonight on Nightly News, we'll go along as the students in Fredericksburg see if their hard work paid off.