By Jack Chesnutt, Producer, NBC News

(Denver, CO) In many ways, nothing has changed at the SAME Café in mid-town Denver. A week ago, we brought in the NBC News camera and recorded a typical Friday lunch rush- about 80 customers ate a dozen pizzas, several gallons of soup and a bushel of salad. We were there because a viewer had e-mailed Brian Williams that the couple who run the café, Brad and Libby Birky serve great food, but accept in return only what the customer can afford.

Some pay nothing, while others, who still have jobs and paychecks pay something, sometime double or even triple what the meal would cost anywhere else in town. This Friday was just as busy as the last.

But, a week after we visited the SAME Café, some things have changed. As we left that day, I cautioned Libby that they would likely receive calls and e-mails about their café and the kindness they were sharing with others. I'll be the first to confess to under-estimating the response to come after our story aired. Within 24 hours, the café's web-site- www.soallmayeat.org was hit with over 4000 e-mails. The messages came from Maine, Alaska, California, and all points in between. They were overwhelmingly warm and supportive. An example: "It's good to know people still care and WILL make the effort to help one another." Libby says it's that kind of comment, "that makes this job worth doing!" She is trying to reply to every one.

The electronic mail almost overwhelmed the capacity of the web-site. Contributions poured in. The SAME Café is a non-profit operation, so they were already set up to accept contributions on-line. So far, the figure is about $13,000. The money is coming in small amounts, primarily from people who will never taste the pizza at the SAME cafe. Brad says they are "flooded" with offers from people from the Denver area to help prepare, cook, and clean up the café. More volunteers than could fit in the café. Brad isn't turning anyone away, "We'll just schedule them in a few weeks down the road, when the rush is over."

After more than two years running the café, Brad knows "the rush" will slow down. The extra contributions received this week are huge, but they are temporary. They will help keep the café running when the e-mail traffic and on-line giving are not in the TV news spotlight.

Many of the regulars were back at the café today- Patrick and Janice, the homeless couple who come in three or four times a week. They couldn't afford a contribution, but Patrick helped clear dirty dishes. Aaron Bogart, the out-of-work drywall installer was there too. He urged me to keep spreading the word about the good works of Brad and Libby. No problem, Aaron! Between taking orders and stirring today's soup (Black Bean), Brad introduced me to some new customers, John Fylpaa with his wife, daughter and grand-kids.                                                   

John is Dean of Physical Education at Long Beach City College in Southern California. He had seen the story of the café on Nightly News and took time during his visit to Denver to drop by, have lunch with the family, make a donation, and bring in a case of paper towels, bottles of dish soap, and dozens of cups and glasses. He said the Birkys are "doing important work." He's right.

Next week, next month, and most likely, next year the Birkys' goal for the SAME Café will not change: serving good food to hungry people.

 

 By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

In case you missed today's writing, Margaret Carlson nails one and the New York Times' take on the newspaper business  along with a guess as to the next to fall. There's also this for sky-watchers  and for terrorist-watchers. 

Enough reading -- time to express my continued thanks for the outpouring of good news stories. We asked, and you delivered. I see from the email traffic this week that many of you -- most of you -- are thoroughly enjoying the stories we've chosen to tell and the meaning behind these random...and regular acts of kindness.

We have another great one for you tonight...from Gloucester, Mass. We hope you can join us for our Thursday broadcast.

 

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

So last night we told (and showed) the story of Abe Lincoln's watch -- we gave a detailed description of how, upon opening it for the first time yesterday, an inscription was found from 1861. Except for this: during our first feed, we showed a close-up that clearly displayed the year "1864". We at first wondered if it was an old-fashioned numeral "1" (old script sometimes features something resembling half of a "T"-like top to the numeral "1") but upon further checking, we found that it was a kind of pocket watch graffiti. The watch had been inscribed a second time (presumably when it was in for repairs again three years later) in 1864. Thanks to our sharp-eyed viewers (are there any other kind?) for focusing our attention on it.

We continue to focus attention on goodness in a bad economy. Tonight's installment of our Making A Difference series won't disappoint you.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

So they opened Abe Lincoln's pocket watch. It was the first pocket watch he ever owned, and folklore had it that the watch contained an inscription of some sort. You can read the full story here.

I'm quite sure historians were holding their breath. After all, think of what the inscription might have read:

"Who's my big boy? You know how to rock a log cabin!" -Yolanda

I've always found it fascinating to think of the "might have been's" in U.S. history.

We hope you can join us tonight.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Tonight we continue our series of reports this week on those who are doing good during bad economic times. I'm happy to report that the response to the series has created an enormous problem for us: we are overwhelmed with story ideas! We could dispatch 100 camera crews a day and never do all the good stories that our viewers have sent to us. So we're trying to cover the very best of them. We feel we can safely assure you that these reports won't stop after this week. For starters, next week, we'll go back and check up on the people we're profiling starting last night. Tonight's story is just wonderful...I shouldn't say more than that. The lesson of this series? We live in a great country. Americans are great people. Hard times bring that out.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Christopher Buckley, son of the legendary William F. Buckley and an extraordinarily gifted (and funny) writer, has aimed his formidable talent and wit at our current run of bad news of late. I couldn't help but admire his timing, considering that starting tonight, we're beginning a series of reports that our viewers suggested...based on the theory that the good being done by and between people (in most cases, total strangers) is an essential part of the story of this economic downturn. My father has often told me that on his street, in Framingham, Massachusetts at the height of the Great Depression, most of the families on his street (including his) had other families living with them. At least one man on the street took his own life rather than admit to his family that he had lost his job. These times demand creative solutions and the kindness of strangers. Our aim this week is to document both. Enjoy this from Chris Buckley  and we hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.

By Jack Chesnutt, Producer, NBC News

 

It's a classic lunch-hour café scene. 

A jam of mid-town Denver customers ordering soup, pizza and fruit. Café owner Brad Birky and his wife Libby are taking orders, serving up plates, and chatting with the regulars.

 Our NBC News cameraman, Ray Farmer is squeezing through the crowd at the front counter - trying to get shots of the action - the food prep, order-taking, and smiles - all without getting soup or salad dressing on his lens. We're here to capture the scene, NOT because it's like many other Denver airy cafes with high-ceilings, wooden ceiling fans, and warm colors.

There are a handful of cafes which serve very good food, cooked each day with fresh ingredients (fresh-picked broccoli for the soup! The pizza dough made from scratch just an hour ago).

We are here because we heard from one of our viewers that the SAME Café is unique, it is the only café which has no prices on the menu. Customers pay what they can afford for the food. 

The SAME Café's name? SAME? It stands for So All May Eat. And, they do. They eat well.    

Ray Farmer/NBC News

A table full of public-relations workers marvels at the pizza and makes a donation well beyond the price of a typical mid-town lunch. Nearby, out-of-a-job construction worker, Aaron Bogart is having some soup and fruit salad and finish up with a fresh-baked cookie. Bogart's donation will be a few hours work wiping down tables and cleaning up.

In the kitchen area, Dave Severino is rolling out pizza dough. He's usually a nurse, but he says because of a bureaucratic snag in child support payments, his nursing certificate is suspended. He has no paychecks coming in. With his nursing career is on hold, but in the café he's hard at work. His day's pay will be food, and a few things just as important: respect, the friendship of others in the café, and a sense that he is a part of this community.

It's at this point, I'd quote Brad and Libby Birky about why they started a café with such an unusual business model, but you should watch their story tonight on Nightly News, or see the story here on the Nightly News website. And, then you can check out the Birky's website: www.soallmayeat.org. From there it's up to you. You just might make a decision, based on what you can afford, and what is in your heart.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Good afternoon from New York.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Less than a week ago, we in the Northeast were trudging through snow and single-digit wind chills. Today it's short-sleeve weather, and instead of grimaces, people walking around Manhattan today actually have smiles on their faces (myself included). A late winter warm-up is always welcome, but given all the bad news lately, this one offers an especially welcome diversion. We'll talk about the unusual weather on the broadcast tonight.

And with regard to that bad news – in this case Friday's unemployment numbers – President Obama has offered some candid comments about the economy on tape to our partners at the New York Times.  NBC's John Yang will have that in his report this evening.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Today I read all -- and I mean all -- of the emails we have received over the past few days. The good, the bad and the ugly. And a word about the ugly: the mean ones are as mean and awful and personal as they get. The majority, I am happy to report, are constructive. People are depressed over the economy. That's obvious. We all are. Many viewers wish we could somehow "tilt" the coverage in a more upbeat direction. I'm afraid we can't do that where the daily drumbeat of economic and political news is concerned. What we can do is cover another aspect of this story: the kindness people are exhibiting toward others in this bad time. The random...or regular acts of kindness that are a part of daily life in this downturn. The problem is: they don't often get the attention that the bad news gets. Next week, we're going to try to fix that, by highlighting the good news each night.

We're off to prepare tonight's broadcast and then off for the weekend. Have a good weekend...I hope you can join us tonight...and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC Nightly News digital correspondent

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

To the people of Bozeman, Montana...a great town...we are hoping for the very best after news of today's huge explosion there. I was able to spot some familiar buildings as the first video arrived here in the building this afternoon. We're also hoping for the best for Mrs. Bush -- we all watched her husband, the former President, talk about the phone calls he's received from fellow Presidents. And we now learn Robin Williams will undergo the very same surgery after his hospitalization in Florida overnight. While this means I won't be seeing him on the current tour as I had hoped, we wish him a speedy recovery.

A heads-up for tonight's broadcast: something you'll want to see -- we re-visit the Olympic venues we came to know during the Beijing Games -- and what has happened to them since.

Now we begin work on tonight's broadcast -- we hope you can join us.

by Victor Limjoco, Nightly News associate producer

Strongsville, OH – Just 63 degrees. That's the temperature Linae Marek now keeps her thermostat set to. When she had a job, she would sometimes have it up to 68. But Linae lost her job in January, and joined millions of other unemployed Americans. Correspondent Jeff Rossen and I were there in Linae's house, trying to capture the story of one unemployed worker.

And that morning, in a chilly 63-degree house, we noticed Linae using our camera light to keep her hands warm. As we huddled near that warm glow of the large Rifa light, that scene underscored Linae's emotion: "It's hard … it's a whole restructuring of everything."

Linae was laid off as a courier for DHL, a job she had for 19 years. But recently, she knew that things were looking bleak in her suburban Cleveland town. "I would deliver to stores and see nobody in there," she says. "Christmas -- compared to last Christmas and the Christmas before, the business was nothing, absolutely nothing."

While she says she's grateful for all of her years with the company, her layoff has made her rethink every purchase, every day-to-day decision. There are so many decisions that we make throughout the day: What do I have for dinner? Can I get my car fixed? For Linae, she's had to cut back on ALL spending. We tracked the ripple effect to the people that interact with Linae in this small suburban town: her dentist, hairstylist, mechanic, and the people who work at her favorite restaurant. All of them feel the effects.  

But Linae's not one for sitting idle. "I have to start all over again," she says to us. Her calendar, next to the kitchen counter, is now filled with class after class: computer skills, interviewing techniques, resume writing. Linae has a master's degree in history, so she's trying to figure out how to use her educational background for the next step.

We were inspired by her energy, her hope, her need to succeed. Throughout the shoot, she was working the phone, cheering up a fellow unemployed worker or trying to get them to go to a training class. "I'll be all right," Linae says. "I just have to bring the rest with me."

                           

Click to watch tonight's report on Linae

 

The organizations that support Linae:

Grace Church
www.gracecma.org/

Employment Connection
http://workforce.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/employment-connection.aspx

 

 

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

We are always looking for good news, especially in this economy. Specifically, here's our request: nominate people who are doing good things where you live or work.. perhaps a random or regular act of kindness in a cruel economy.  Please leave us a suggestion below.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

The Wall Street Journal actually takes on the incalculable today in a fascinating piece. Also today: I promised a Vietnam Veteran that I would deliver a greeting to the 118th Military Police Air National Guard Unit in Nashville, Tennessee. Welcome home. And a brilliant stroke of corporate public relations combined with public service: your local FedEx/Kinko's will offer free resume printing to all customers on March 10th...up to 25 copies, which should get you started.

We'll probably start again tonight with the economy. I'm carefully reading our viewer emails these days, and we are mindful that what we have to report each night is often mighty depressing. We try to deliver an accurate reflection of the current economic situation with great care and balance the good against the bad, on a nightly basis. A lot will be written about these times...and we're aware that we play a small role in the first draft, every day. We hope you can join us tonight...and we promise to leave you on an "up" note: a story about people who need wonderful companions...and get them from a great place. Please try to be with us.

By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent

 LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS -- The widespread nature of the United States economic crisis can be seen clearly here at the Mercado San Jose Grocery and Bakery, particularly on Friday nights when paychecks are handed out in Little Rock's Hispanic community.

At a little cubicle by the front door, young men line up at the money transfer window to send cash home to their families in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries where poverty is rampant.

These days, though, the lines are shorter than normal and the amounts of money wired home are much lower than they were last year. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 73 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. are reporting a drop in the money they can afford to send home now.

"Many foreign-born Hispanics seem to be hit harder by this economic downturn than native-born Hispanics or the general U.S. population," said Mark Lopez, the associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

"They're the ones that have borne the large part of the job loss in this downturn and they're the ones that seem to be most at risk for losing their homes to foreclosure," he said.

Store manager Saul Gutierrez agrees that the number of foreign transactions from workers to their families is way down. "I would say about 50-55 percent," he said. "There's weeks where it's even more than 60 percent, real slow, extremely slow."

Mexican immigrant Moises Montegron, who struggles to find work in construction, said he used to send money home four times a month, but now it's down to just twice a month.

Roberto Ramirez, also from Mexico, has an ever worse situation. When construction jobs were more plentiful, he said, he would send money to his family as often as five times monthly. Now, with jobs scarce, he can barely afford a once a month payment.

For the foreign-born workers who are separated from their families, the inability to earn a sufficient wage to help their loved ones is both an economic and an emotional issue.

"Suddenly people are not capable to fulfill that promise," said Maura Lozano-Yancy, the publisher of Hola Arkansas, a regional bilingual newspaper. "It's pretty hard to know that you cannot send money to somebody that (needs)it."

Recent news reports that fewer Hispanics may be migrating to the United States and some are even returning to their home countries, because of the U.S. economic crisis, are drawing attention here in Little Rock, where signs of these trends are, indeed, being seen.

Ignacio Alvarez, the owner of La Hacienda, a Mexican restaurant, said he knows of two local families returning to Mexico recently.

Workers who lose their jobs in the U.S. often face pressure to return home, Alvarez said. "When the family is in Mexico or Guatemala, they say, well, what are you doing there, just come back and we can do something here."

Amid the passionate argument over the estimated 8.5 million Hispanics in the United States illegally taking jobs away from American citizens there's another angle to consider:

Foreign-born Hispanics in the U.S. working legally are also hurting, along their extended families south of the border.

Friday nights at the money transfer window tell that story.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Okay here we go:

What are they driving in Iraq these days? (Actually I knew this one because a friend in the military told me)

The Apple ban in the Gates household

And a moment I witnessed on the incoming video pool feed and noted at the time -- superbly synopsized by Nia-Malika Henderson in Politico. My only fear is that it will spawn a lot of Margaret Mead-esque reporting about some newly-discovered code.

On the news front: we have a simply amazing NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll to debut on the broadcast tonight. It's one of many important stories we are covering tonight, and we hope you'll join us.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Our sampling of the must-read, best writing we've found today: includes an obituary and an examination of the operating style of the new President and some tough-love questions for an entire American generation.

And a word here about a broadcasting legend who passed away this weekend. During the part of my life that I spent in Kansas and Missouri, I found that only two things could bring life to a halt: a tornado siren...and the voice of Paul Harvey over the radio. Listening to his mid-day newscast was a part of daily life across vast stretches of this country. He reported the news -- his first love -- and found a way to make us feel good. He was an institution, and for good reason. I just hope he didn't take an entire era with him when he left us.

I hope you can join us for our broadcast tonight, kicking off a special week.

By Maria Alcon, Nightly News producer

North Charleston, SC -- I moved to New York City when I was eleven years old knowing very little English. "Table," "I am," "chair" and "How do you do?" were pretty much the extent of my vocabulary. I spent the first few months of middle school feeling like I was deaf and mute, desperate to know what was being said around me. 
 
So when I began to do research for the "We the People" series, I knew I wanted to focus on education. For our opening story, I visited Midland Park Elementary School in North Charleston, South Carolina, where the Latino population has shot from 5 percent to 48 percent of the total population in just ten years--a stark contrast to 1986, when I was one of only three hispanic kids in my class (thankfully, I found refuge with a student from Argentina who helped me understand the homework assignments and the gist of what was being discussed). There was no special program for me back then, I just had to work extra hard. I often spent afternoons by myself in the library reading children's books, because that was the only reading material I could understand. Within six months, I was getting As in all of my English classes. For me, it was a matter of survival.

So when I saw the kids at Midland Park, I knew that at some point, they had felt the same way--lost and confused...wanting to belong and understand the language. I was happy to see that at Midland Park Elementary, kids don't have to strive alone anymore. There are teachers who speak Spanish, a translator in school to help their parents, too, and a culture where kids are not penalized for speaking another language.

I've always said Latinos are not a monolithic culture, but the one thing that binds us all is the fact that we all came here to work hard and get a better education...just like the immigrants before us. We are just looking for opportunity; the rest is up to us.

                            
               Click here to watch Maria's report, "Helping Latinos make the grade"

 

By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent

There is an entire world of night workers. Police, fire fighters, hospital workers, hotel clerks  people who clean many of the buildings where we work work, repair the tracks on the New York City subway and other transit operations, and maintain roads and bridges.  It becomes an almost endless list. According to the U.S. Department of Labor 8.6 million Americans perform shift work.

 

By Lee Cowan, NBC News correspondent

Waukesha, WI -- As is often the case in television - there simply isn't room for everything, but what we left out of our report on Hispanic population growth tonight, is in part due to what Margaret Ramirez was reluctant to tell us.

At 76 years old - she is as independent as she is fiercely proud. When she describes her family's trek from the sweltering plains of Texas to the frigid climes of Wisconsin, she glosses over the tough parts. She'd rather not talk about her struggle to find jobs. She'd rather not talk about having to live in a crowded shack (actually a chicken coop her son told us.)  She doesn't like to talk about having to forgo school for a time while she and her parents were working in the fields. And she certainly doesn't want to talk about the racism and discrimination that were her constant companions along the way.

In fact, she doesn't like to talk about obstacles at all. What she will say, and say proudly, is that she, like other Latinos at the time, never asked for anything. Not once. And they kept their culture in tact.

That sums up the Ramirez family. Good fortune has followed them to be sure. And they are the first to recognize theirs has a happy ending, while so many other Hispanic families continue to struggle, in Wisconsin and elsewhere. But they are proof that hard work, sacrifice, and family traditions, can be the armor against the obstacles.

It's not that Margaret came to Wisconsin with nothing. She came brimming with optimism, which after 76 years grew into appreciation. And that, more than anything, is what she has passed down from one generation to the next.

                      
                         Watch Lee Cowan's report on Nightly News Monday. 
                                   Click here to learn more about the series.

By Natalie Morales, NBC News correspondent

Hello all. I'm Natalie Morales in for Lester Holt this evening. We've got a lot going on today beginning with the snowstorm. A Nor'easter is now walloping much of the East Coast. Places like Alabama and Tennessee haven't seen the likes of this kind of snow storm in about a decade. While it's paralyzing some highways, causing plenty of travel nightmares and wreaking havoc, it's a well-timed weekend storm that could extend into an extra snow day for kids who don't often get to play in the white stuff.