test test test test. snempt tonight, backlash as president elect trump picks his powerful inner circle, lifting a man with ties to white house. new protests erupt as president obama weighs in, on the new president for the first time. a father found guilty of leaving his young son to die in a hot car. a dramatic conclusion to a case that shocked the nation. exploding wildfires spreading across the south. thick smoke blanketing cities. is someone setting them intentionally. making a murderer twist, a after a trial

justice. tonight a man locked away as a teengeer is ordered set free. and tracking your babs. the new way to fly without worrying about your luggage ever getting lost again. "nightly news" begins right now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. good evening, more pieces of the trump white house are coming together tonight, including one whose pick is sounding alarm bells provocative tone. the president elect tapping steven ban an, one of the controversial architects of his no holds barred election campaign. leaving washington, with bated breath as the incoming president's choices and his words foretell just what the next four years will look like. there's also developing news coming in about the president-elects children that is likely to raise a few eyebrows. hallie jackson is standing by in washington with the

learned trump's team has asked whether it's possible to have family members get temporary security clearances before the inaugural. this is unprecedented and a sign of just how important trump's children would be in his new administration. now beginning to take shape. from pennsylvania avenue to fifth avenue, the trump transition now full tlolts throttle. the president-elect russia's vladimir putin, saying he looks forward to a strong and enduring relationship. a relationship eyed skeptically by some national security experts as trump works to pick his own national security adviser and others in his administration. but perhaps no pick will be as controversial as the one he's already made. steve bannon as chief strategist. defended today by trump's new chief of staff, reince priebus. >> he was a force for good at efrl level on

>> reporter: before joining trump's campaign, bannon ran breitbart news being saying he uponed to make it a platform for the alt-right. bannon's critics lashing out today, pointing to breitbart headlines, like one calling a conservative columni columnist a renegade jew and gabby giffords, a human shields. a slew of democrats infuriated. president obama dodging a question late today. >> appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the president-elect starts making. >> how you doing, sir? >> reporter: rudy guiliani defending bannon today. i find him to be a very, very decent, very good, extremely smart man. and a very loyal, patriotic american. >> reporter: bannon and priebus, helping to shape the future president's policies. >> reince priebus is the good angel, and steve bannon is the bad angel, and which one of these two critical players in

>> reporter: the president-elect now signaling flexibility on some of those proposals, like on health care and immigration, but on abortion rights, no leeway on rowe v. wade. the president-elect has not resealed any other cabinet or west wing picks yet, but two sources familiar with the decision-pabeging say radio host laura ingraham is a leading contender for the press secretary job. lester? >> hallie jackson, thanks. late today the who president-elect trump will replace in the oval office spoke out. president obama held his first news conference since one of his most vocal critics was voted into the white house. he revealed what happened when the two met face to face last week. >> reporter: tonight, president obama opening up about his successor and that first meeting in the oval office. >> we had a very cordial conversation. that didn't surprise me. >> reporter: with protests nationwide revealing his advice to the

send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women. >> but when asked if he still thinks donald trump is unqualified, he dodged. >> he successfully mobilized a big chunk of the country to vote for him and he's going to win. he has won. i don't think he is ideological. i think ultimately, he's pragmatic in that well as long as he's got good people around him. >> reporter: and with trump hitting 133 battleground stops in the last 100 days, versus hillary clinton's 87, many democrats nbc news has learned, including bill clinton, say hillary clinton did not reach out enough to white working class voters. tonight, president obama imprisitly agreed. >> we have to compete everywhere. we have to show up everywhere.

dictated that i would win iowa. it was because i spent 87 days going to every small town and fair and fish fry. >> reporter: other democrats agree, tonight a scramble to take over as dnc chair. an early favorite announcing this afternoon, keith ellison, the first muslim congressman. >> how are we all going to pitch in and fix this party to make working america know that the democratic party is absolutely on th leefss tonight for his last foreign trip, he said he will reassure european leaders donald trump told him he will not pull out of nato. one campaign idea that mr. obama says his successor will not fulfill. lester? >> andrea mitchell, thank you. anti-trump protests continue to swell. today high school students from washington, d.c. to los angeles organized large-scale walkouts. tens of thousands took to the streets this

hundreds arrested from coast to coast. one of the corner stones of the trump campaign was a vow to bring jobs back to america, and now fulfilling that promise is job one for the incoming administration. tonight our kevin tibbles takes us to a company in the midwest where workers are putting a lot of hope into what the president-elect said on the campaign trail. >> reporter: when carrier air conditioning told its 1,400 employees it would shutting down -- >> to move production from our indianapolis to monterey, mexico. >> reporter: it became a focal point for donald trump in the election. >> we're bringing jobs back to our country. we're not going to let carrier leave. >> reporter: many at carrier are now counting on him to keep his promise. >> put your money where your mouth is. it's as simple as that. >> reporter: across from the plant, sully' bar and grill, where workers say they have high expectations for the president-elect. >> we want you to do

you accountable. >> reporter: just down read, the rex plant, makes ball bearings, it too is moving to mexico. 350 jobs lost. but trump's threat to make companies that leave pay fines may not help. >> in the end, manufacturing in the united states, a lot of it is going to be relocated to lower-cost countries, and i'm afraid that's just a fact of life. in a statement, carrier says it's trying to ease the workertr advance notice of the move and by funding education and retraining programs. some carrier workers see politics at play. >> they say whatever needs to be said to get people's vote, especially in a time like this, when we're all losing our jobs. >> if he can come here and save these 1,400 jobs tomorrow, i'll gladly vote for him again. >> reporter: many of these workers say they took a gamble on trump and are now hoping the pay-off means winning

news, indianapolis. now to georgia where a jury has reached a verdict in a case that shocked the nation. a father accused of murdering his young son by intentionally leaving him inside a hot car to die. nbc's gabe gutierrez has late details. >> we find the defendant guilty -- >> reporter: justin ross hair in a georgia courtroom this afternoon, showing no emotion after being convicted of an unthinkable 22-month-old son cooper by leaving him to die in a sweltering suv on purpose. >> anybody that can could do this being and the evidence has shown he did this intentionally, has malice in his heart. >> reporter: harris told police he's gor gotten to drop off his son at daycare, not realizing cooper was strapped in his car seat for seven hours. harris's reaction caught on dash cam when police arrived. >> oh, my god.

dramatic testimony, prosecutors argued harris wanted to escape his marriage and the responsibilities of being a parent, alleging the 35-year-old was exchanging explicit text messages with multiple women, including an underage girl the day cooper died. >> there's no doubt the defendant lived a double life. >> reporter: the defense insisted he may have been a bad husband, but cooper's death was a tragic accident. >> we've never once ever once wavered in our absolute belief >> reporter: harris's ex-wife testified on his behalf, saying he loved their son. >> i knew it wasn't something done purposefully. >> reporter: harris now faces life in prison. sentencing will be next month. now to wildfires burning out of control across the south. thousands of firefighters are working to contain them as smoke and blaze blanket cities. residents are being warned to stay indoors

someone is setting them on purpose. nbc's kerry sanders has more. >> reporter: where there's fire, there's smoke, so much of it health fishes in macon, north carolina, today, handed out masks to residents choking on the nasty air. >> my aler jazz are bothering me more than normal. >> reporter: a few from nasa reveals the extent of the smoke. the fuel for the fires, tinder, dry more than 70 wildfires now burning in the region, some of which officials are investigating as arson. >> this is one of the worst conditions for wildfire north carolina has ever seen. making it especially difficult to control, low humidity, gusting winds, and record-breaking drought. in north carolina, caroline kruger says it's the same. >> we've had some dry

smoke and haze is expected to last at least through the end of the week. kerry sanders, nbc news, miami. there is sad news to report tonight. gwen ifill, anchor of the news hour and a former nbc news correspondent has died after a long battle with cancer. she was just 61 years old, and many around here have lost a good friend and a treasured colleague. while the world of journalism has lost a trail blazer. we get more on her ? ? >> good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> reporter: one of the most successful african american women in journalism, co-anchor of the pbs news hour and moderator of the network's washington week. >> their greater vulnerability was on things like the tax return. >> reporter: the daughter of a methodist minister, she started as a paper reporter in boston where she faced racism on the job. she moved on to the washington post and

correspondent, joining nbc news in 1994 to cover congress and prosecutors. >> involving the president, the first lady, and their political supporters. >> reporter: then came the switch to pbs in 1999. >> washington week. >> reporter: for what became washington week with gwen ifill. >> as we welcome governor palin and senator biden. >> reporter: widely respected for her reporting, she moderated the vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008. president obama, one of the rising black figures she wrote best-selling 2009 book, praised her today. >> she was an especially powerful role model for young women and girls who admired her integrity, tenacity and intellect. >> reporter: her reporting brought dozens of reporting, but she was proudest of the women and minorities she inspired. pete williams, nbc news, washington. we'll take a break here. in a moment, just in time for thanksgiving

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weir back with a story that will be of interest to any to plans to fly over the holiday season, or anyone who's ever experienced the frffingss of an airline losing a bag. delta airlines said it was finished rolling out an upgrade to its luggage tracking system that it hopes

nbc's tom costello explains. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: it's a $50 million upgrade that most passengers will never see. right there embedded in the delta luggage tag, a tiny microchip and antenna that could one day make losing your bag a thing of the past. >> 12 minutes to go, flight leaves at 12:07. >> reporter: in baltimore today, we saw how it works president moment the bag is tracked the bag belly of the airport to the belly of the plane, to the baggage carousel at the final destination. all the while the information then sent in realtime to passengers' phones. so for this flight today, baltimore to minneapolis, if i want to track my checked bag, i pull up the app, then i can identify exactly where it is at the airport at this moment. a few minutes later, our silver bag moved up the conveyor belt, the app showed the bag moving into the plane. >> it was a wonderful

campbell wishes he had. he recently flew home from a fishing trip, but his cooler full of salmon didn't. >> it's amazing to me, that this time, the time i'm really counting on them to do the job, they don't. very frustrating. >> reporter: nationwide nearly two million bags were mishandled in 2015, roughly 3.2 per 1,000 passengers. delta thinks it can get that number down to one. >> i can actually tell realtime if someone makes a change to anything to do with the depart o aircraft. >> reporter: other airlines including united and alaska are also working on bag-tracking technology, but the upgrade to delta coming just in time for the holiday rush. tom costello, nbc news, baltimore. we are back in a moment with a supreme court justice getting into the act with a court justice getting into the act with a brand-r lower back pain sufferers, the search for relief often leads... here... here... or here. today, there's a new option. introducing drug-free aleve direct therapy.

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series making a murderer. it involves the younger man accused of taking part in a grisly crime whose trial was seen by millions of netflix viewers as a miscarriage of justice. tonight brendon dasy has been ordered set free and nbc's blake mccoy has the story. >> reporter: making a murderer captivated viewers, and tonight one one of the men at the center of the documentary is being ordered set free by a sc to helping his uncle, steven avery kill photographer theresa hal balk in 2005, the taped interrogation raising eyebrows for many. >> brendan, if you're not sorry, i can't help you. >> reporter: a judge this summer taking a fresh look at the case believes that confession to be

years old, and had no experience with law enforcement. >> this almost never happens, and when it does, it's usually because a new killer was found, or new evidence appeared. instead, this documentary, this movie exposed fundamental problems in the original trial. >> reporter: avery is filing his own appeal while law enforcement has questioned the accuracy of the documentary. >> i call it a movie, i don't call it a cu the facts. >> reporter: making a murderer, now helping to exonerate one. blake mccoy, nbc news, chicago. by day, she serves on the supreme court, but by night, she's the opera's newest star. justice ruth bader ginsburg made her official opera debut to a standing ovation this weekend at washington's kennedy center. a long-time opera fan, she has appeared in productions before, but this was her first speaking role.

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anything. even mer-mutts. (1940s aqua music) (burke) and we covered it, february third, twenty-sixteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ? we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ? finally tonight, we want to start this week off with a story about how a few kind

instead of parking tickets, some drivers are finding a pleasant surprise on their windshields, courtesy of some creative young minds. part of our inspiring america series, our new monday tradition here on "nightly news." here's joe fryer. >> reporter: we see so much of this hectic world thu the lens of a windshield. who knew a car window could offer a glimmer of peace too? >> do you ever feel weird doing this? >> yes. >> reporter: alex lewis may look scotching from parked car to parked car. don't worry, he's not leaving flyers. he's sharing poems. >> words are incredibly powerful. they have the opportunity to build people up, or tear them down, to give hurting humans hope, or breathe life into dead dreams. >> reporter: it's a small thing, but it has a lot of power. >> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: lewis came up with car poetry after moving to colorado springs this year. he gathers writers to

enlisting creative talent from schools. like these fourth graders at odyssey elementary. v you're like inspiring people and making them feel good. >> if you don't feel like the star of the show, make it your own. >> reporter: each kid, a little poet who knows it. >> be yourself, because you're especially. >> kids have just a different way of seeing the world and they're able to see the beauty in it. >> reporter: for those on the receiving end -- >> brought a smile to my face. >> reporter: -- poems are a simple magic no matter what, share it and have fun. how sweet. >> reporter: it's a movement lewis hopes will grow. >> there's so much negativity, so a little bit of positivity goes a long way. >> reporter: a space typically reserved for unwanted parking tickets, now filled with welcome words of kindness, free of charge. joe fryer, nbc news, colorado springs. >> some words to live by. that's going to do it for us on this monday night. we want to leave you

the world of the super moon, the closest it's been since 1948. a live look right now at the super moon over chicago. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and goodnight. anthem except one. coming up on news channel 8, head coach dirk koetter responds to a political decision by one of his players. by a woman who was shot in the face is glad her attacker is getting out of prison. don't forget, our unclaimed money phone bank is open. number, 1-800-528-0808.