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tv   NBC Nightly News  NBC  October 17, 2014 6:30pm-7:01pm EDT

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10, i'm renee chenault-fattah. tonight, is president obama's new ebola czar the right man for the job? have a good week. on our broadcast tonight, critical mission after a series of alarming mistakes and the ebola fight. there are new restrictions for health care workers now. and a new man in charge. also, the fear factor running rampant across our country. schools and businesses have closed, panic aboard airplanes, now a cruise ship. while tonight the effort to restore calm. direct hit, the most powerful hurricane in the atlantic in years coming ashore right now in bermuda. and our team is there. and mystery solved, a surprising admission tonight from bono about a medical necessity that a lot of people just figured was vanity. "nightly news" begins now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening.
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after something of a botched response initially by local and federal health officials to this ebola crisis and under intense pressure to do something, the president today appointed an ebola czar, official title ebola response coordinator, his name is ron klain. he's a lawyer, former chief of staff to al gore and joe biden. he's got his work cut out for him as the government makes a push to restore calm. we begin our reporting once again tonight with our national correspondent kate snow in dallas. >> reporter: the announcement at the white house was unexpected. ron klain will be the administration's ebola czar, a former chief of staff for two vice presidents, but not a medical expert. >> what we were looking for is not an ebola expert but rather an implementation expert. and that's exactly what ron klain is. >> reporter: texas governor rick perry cut a trip short. he called on the president to enact an air ban. >> air travm is in fact how this
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disease crosses borders. and it's certainly how it got to texas in the first place. >> reporter: the 75 health care workers who treated duncan are being asked to sign an agreement they will not travel by commercial transportation, no airplane, ship, long distance bus or train travel. and no trips to public places like restaurants, grocery stores or theaters. >> for the first time in the history of the united states somebody with ebola walked in the front door. and we missed that. >> reporter: in the wake of widespread criticism of the hospital, we sat down with the hospital's chief clinical officer. to be fair, you weren't doing a lot of training on ebola. >> no. we weren't doing a lot of training. we were communicating a lot. >> reporter: vargas still not exactly sure how two nurses became infected, but no one wearing full hazmat suits until october 1st, three days after duncan was admitted. >> clearly the protection was inadequate for nina and for amber.
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>> reporter: the two sick nurses. >> i got two sick nurses. you can't explain that away. >> reporter: the hospital released this video of nina pham with her doctors in an isolation room in dallas. she arrived at the national institutes of health clinical center in bethesda, maryland late last night. >> she's in good spirits. she's a highly intelligent aware person who knows exactly what's going on. she's a really terrific person. >> reporter: her colleague remains at emory university hospital. so far only one passenger who flew in a seat near vinson on a flight from cleveland to dallas has been located in ohio and told to stay home and monitor temperature. the cdc is still looking for the rest of the people that sat near vinson on that flight and a flight she took a week ago. it's been a difficult time. >> they're tired right now. they do resent, you know, kind of constant negative coverage.
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but they're resilienresilient. they're going to bounce back. >> reporter: those being monitored here with thomas eric duncan are almost out of that 21-day window in which they would have started b eed ebola symptoms. one person graduated off the list already yesterday. and duncan's family should be in the clear by monday morning, brian. >> kate snow starting us in dallas once again tonight. kate, thanks. and we are joined at this point by the moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. chuck, about ron klain, this is an inside player in d.c., lawyer and politico. the white house says they need a manager here and not a doctor, but does this quiet the critics for now? >> i don't think it's going to quiet the critics particularly on the republican side of the aisle who actually see an opportunity to use the fear of ebola in the political campaigns. we're less than three weeks from election day, and i don't know if it quiets the panicked democrats who were wanting the white house to show a sense of urgency. i think some of them wanted somebody who would be a new public face, but the white house as you reported, brian, was
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looking for a back room guy, someone who knows how to bust through bureaucracy. and that's what ron klain is. >> chuck todd, thanks on this friday night. we look forward to seeing you sunday morning. much more on this topic on "meet the press". bears repeating one more time, there have only been three confirmed cases of ebola in this country, one fatality. we've heard every day for weeks that only direct contact is the way to get ebola, and yet as the world health organization remarked just this week panic is spreading faster than this virus itself. that report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: with ebola dominating the headlines, fear has at times bordered on hysteria. >> i've been exposed to an ebola pilot. >> reporter: in ft. worth a 911 caller with no symptoms wanted an ambulance at a restaurant after he overheard an offduty pilot's conversation. >> i'm sitting next to him having dinner. and he just revealed that he's
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been in the european countries, including west africa. >> reporter: at the pentagon today a bus carrying passengers to a military ceremony was quarantined, a hazmat unit called in after a woman who says she visited africa vomited outside the bus. she later recanted her story and does not have ebola. a "the washington post" photographer who has documented the suffering in liberia, disinvited from speaking at syracuse university even though he's been back more than 21 days. the school saying it's unwilling to take any risk where students are concern. and some passengers on the same flight amber vinson took told to stay home even though experts insist their risks are low. >> if i sat next to her, my risk of acquiring ebola infection is really zero. >> reporter: a carnival cruise ship now returning home after it learned a hospital lab worker from dallas who handled
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specimens 19 days ago, though she's symptom free and in her cabin. even though ebola can't live on surfaces, a city hall, bridal shop, bank and school in ohio all temporarily shut down for cleaning over ebola concerns. >> out of an abundance of caution. >> out of an abundance of caution. >> it was out of an abundance of caution. >> we're trying to calm everybody down. >> reporter: experts say it's all fueling fear. >> the general public need not panic. you can't get it on the subway. people aren't walking around with ebola in your neighborhood. >> reporter: infectious disease experts reminded us yesterday it's highly unlikely anybody would get sick on a plane or bus. in fact you're at a far greater risk of contracting the flu this winter, which every year kills tens of thousands of people, brian. >> very important reminder. tom costello for us tonight. tom, thanks. tonight, we are taking a close look at two giant storms threatening land, one in the pacific, hurricane ana, category 1 taking aim at hawaii though at
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this point we're hoping it's expected to pass just south of the islands avoiding a direct hit but bringing heavy rain. now, in the atlantic hurricane gonzalo, category 3, wind gusts up to 160 miles an hour, threatening major damage unfortunately as it moves onshore on bermuda right now. nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer is there. >> reporter: angry seas erupted today as the massive hurricane gonzalo bears down on bermuda. damaging winds, 40-foot waves and dangerously high storm surge slamming the island. looking at a map bermuda looks like the tiniest speck in the ocean. how could it possibly stand up to such a huge storm? imagine bermuda like a stick in the water and the water goes around it as oppose today that snowplow effect we're so used to on the united states coast. most of bermuda is shut down. and the police commissioner has
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ordered everyone inside and off the street. for sarah that means taking shelter at her hotel. >> they've cleaned everything up, put everything away. you know, we'll be okay. i hope. >> reporter: peter and barbara of new hampshire got married 50 years ago today in boston during a hurricane. >> we've weathered a lot of storms, but we have gotten through all of them. >> reporter: fabian was the last category 3 storm to hit in 2003. bermuda's higher elevation increases winds by 30%, so wind gusts up to 160 miles per hour can be expected. rob johnson and dana belky plan to get married tomorrow, tonight they're waiting it out with their wedding party in the hotel basement. >> when we got here they'd given us the update. i looked at my bride-to-be and she said we came to bermuda to get married and i'm not leaving until we get married. >> reporter: conditions have been deteriorating here since
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early this afternoon as this category 3 hurricane gonzalo passes to our west. it should start to race away after midnight tonight and conditions should dramatically improve. >> dylan dreyer where they're going to get all the storm they can handle. they say the place shook last night when the giants won the game earning a trip to the world series where they'll face the kansas city royals. it was pandemonium last night in san francisco. adding to the emotion in that city it was 25 years ago tonight the giants were in the series when disaster struck, and a national television audience watched the story of what became known as north ridge quake. we've all been told the next quake is a matter of when, not if. but is the city ready for it. lester holt is in the city by the bay for us tonight. hey, lester. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. 63 people died in that quake and hard lessons were learned including how to build a stronger bridge. that's the new bay bridge behind me. the old one partially collapsed
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in the quake. it was a magical day 25 years ago. both local teams in the world series, it couldn't get bigger until 5:04 p.m. the world series tv broadcast turns to static. >> we're having an earthquake. >> reporter: announcing to the world san francisco is in trouble. in oakland a freeway pancakes, scores are injured or dead. a few miles away tv engineer don sharp is crossing the bay bridge. >> i noticed that all of a sudden the truck leaps from this lane to that lane. just leaps. then i noticed that the bridge was swinging a little bit. and all this dust. >> reporter: yet as bad as it was, scientists say it was not the big one. >> it was a big quake, but it was a big quake 60 miles south of much of the urban population. >> reporter: geologists now believe every day brings the bay area closer to another major quake, far bigger than the 6.0 this past summer in napa.
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>> we are much better prepared as a city now than we were in 1989 to respond to a quake. >> reporter: since 1989 officials here have been watching the clock requiring vulnerable buildings to be strengts strengthened and building this new eastern span of the bay bridge. are you confident that this bridge can withstand a very large earthquake? >> yeah. it's planned, it's designed, it's constructed to survive the earthquake. >> reporter: if napa was a wakeup call, then this is one of the many voicemail messages if you will. running more than 50 miles up and down the heavily populated east bay area, the hayward fault hides in plain sight. cracks and misaligned sidewalks foretell a frightening future. >> we're standing on probably the most seismically dangerous
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fault in the bay area. >> reporter: has it gone before? >> it's gone repeatedly. the last time was in 1868. >> reporter: it's one of three fault lines scientists are concerned about. disaster planners tell nbc news they believe a 7.9 magnitude quake here could result in 7,000 dead. 1.8 million homes without drinkable water and 300,000 people homeless. >> earthquake! earthquake! >> reporter: officials say a new alert system that gave up to nine seconds warning of the napa quake could save countless lives. so what could you do with a nine-second warning? it's enough time to get under a table, it's enough time for a surgeon to put down his skal pal, it's enough time to step away from a brick wall. they hope to have that out to the public perhaps in the next couple of years, brian. >> i said north ridge quake, it was loma preta. my apologieapologies.
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it's been revealed the youngest son of vice president joe biden was kicked out of the navy reserve apparently testing positive for cocaine in 2013. hunter biden who was commissioned late in life at age 43 was discharged in february in a statement he said he is embarrassed and deeply regrets his actions. still ahead for us on a friday night, a big surprise from one of the most famous rock stars on the planet. the very serious reason bono has been keeping a secret for 20 years. also, if you've ever wondered what they say in the huddle in the nfl, tonight you'll hear it though you may not believe it. there was no question she was the one. she reminds you every day. but your erectile dysfunction-that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex.
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bono was last in the news apologizing for the fact that itunes users automatically received u2's latest album even if they didn't want it. tonight he's in the news for something else, an explanation for why he wears sunglasses of various shades every day of his life. there's a medical reason for it, and for example if he's photographed without his sunglasses, he sees the flash for the rest of the day. the official explanation tonight from nbc's katy tur. >> reporter: he's hardly the first rock star to wear sunglasses, but bono has been wearing them for so long, you might have forgotten what he looked like without them. and it turns out those shades are there for a good reason. as he explained today on bbc's graham norton show. >> i have glaucoma for about 20 years. >> reporter: glaucoma, eye
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disease. the sunglasses first took center stage in the early '90s on tour with u2. since then bono has rarely been seen without them. day and night. indoors and out. he did take them off once in 1999, but that was for pope john paul ii. today was the first time bono has said he has glaucoma, though he did tell "rolling stone" a while back that his sun glass fetish was part vanity, part sensitivity to light. don't worry, he's not going blind. but he does need those shades. good for him. he looks so cool in them. katy tur, nbc news, new york. when we come back, imagine being a waitress who had to tell the president of the united states, sorry, your credit card has been declined. ♪ i remember when i wouldn't give a little cut a second thought. when i didn't worry about the hepatitis c in my blood.
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it's a place where a lot of us used to spend a lot of time. it's a place where a great man
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once worked. and starting today a recreation of tim russert's office is opening as an exhibit in his hometown, in the buffalo history museum. the artifacts frozen in place as they were left by him on the day he died june 13th, 2008, at the age of 58. who's going to tell the president as we asked earlier his credit card was rejected while after dinner at a fashionable restaurant in new york here recently. that task fell to a brave waitre waitress. the president guesses it was because of his card's frequent use. luckily the first lady presented a credit card that was indeed accepted. here we are headed into another weekend of football. and if you're an nfl fan and you have ever wondered what they say in the huddle and how complex the plays have become especially since the days when we would just run a down and out and hope the ball would come to us. well, here now is something we saw on the nbc sports network. here is the colts quarterback, andrew luck, who was wearing a
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microphone in the huddle thanks to nfl films. >> move. wide motion, stat left. stark cardinal, quick pass left. nascar trout scooby right -- >> so wait just a minute. what did he just say? it's simple. move to gun, trunk right crunch, deep key left alcatraz, wide motion to gun, stack left, z star cardinal, my favorite, nascar troud deep scooby right. imagine being a rookie in that huddle trying to figure out what your assignment is. nonetheless that is what they talk about in the huddle. we will take a break here tonight. when we come back tonight, the river where the fish are begging to be caught. nexium to patients just like you. for many, prescription nexium helps heal acid-related erosions
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boat. it's not a good thing either as these fish have been called the locusts of our waterways. our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: a trip up the illinois river quickly morphs into a full-blown fish flying frenzy. >> whoa! >> reporter: the airborne projectiles? asian carp. kevin is an aquatic nuisance species expert. but these things are so gross, you could call him an ick. imported to the southern u.s. years ago, some escaped and headed north, reproducing in midwestern waterways like rabbits. millions eating native species out of house and habitat. >> they're kind of tame today. >> reporter: oh yeah? desperate to keep them out of the great lakes, kevin and crew count the carp by sending a harmless electrical zap through these hoops. it gets them jumping.
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they estimate there are some 6,000 carp per mile here. this annual carp fishing derby draws a big crowd. advice to the uninitiated, take cover. these babies jump even without being zapped. >> whoa! >> reporter: hey, let's gratuitously watch that again in slow motion. >> whoa! >> reporter: in their native china asian carp are dined on daily. here, while the american palette doesn't want them on a plate, yet. >> fish dogs, hot dogs made out of fish. you put mustard on it and not tartar sauce. >> reporter: and where else in the world is dinner going to come right to you? kevin tibbles, nbc news, near havana, illinois. page iine ining plz pauls. lester holt will be with you this weekend. we hope to see you right back here on monday night. in the meantime, have a good weekend. good night.
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robin thicke's first interview since paula dropped divorce papers on him. >> how does it feel to be single? >> now on "extra." robin and paula's x-files exposed.
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thicke interrogated about th throwing himself a divorce party. >> i heard you've been hanging out with some beautiful models. >> and paula, single girl in the city night out. more hollywood hookups and breakups. why ricki lake reportedly threw her husband out of the house. >> so secretive. why? >> newlyweds george and amal on opposite sides of the globe and blake lively dressing up her baby bump for its red c debut. >> whatever will do. then, ann romney answers the burning question. will mitt run again? >> well -- >> her all-new tell-all, opening up about battling disease, depression, and teaming up with the clintons. plus, charissa grilling norman reedus for secrets and spoilers. >> any love on the horizon? >> revealing his model past and model ex. now on "extra" -- >> the source for all things "walking dead." >> from universal studios hollywood, the entertainment ca