>> john yang, who is our chicago-based correspondent. back in chicago tonight, john, what was the financial news out of the city of chicago today? >> reporter: well, moody's gave a big hit to the city's credit rating, knocking it down three pegs. moody's mentioned not only a $36 billion unfunded pension obligation that the city has, but interestingly, they also mentioned the gun violence that's been plaguing this city. chicago, from the beginning of the year through may, has paid $40 million in police overtime. brian? >> john yang on the news from chicago today and of course, the very bad news out of detroit. john, thanks. >>> in texas today, governor rick perry signed into law some of the nation's toughest restrictions on abortion. the new law bans abortions after 20 weeks and requires clinics to make big upgrades. already, planned parenthood says it will close three of its clinics in texas. the law takes effect in about 90 days. and in the meantime, opponents say they will challenge it in court. >>> a great deal of frustration heard to

erica. >> all right, john yang outside sfo for us. john, thanks. >> more than 182 people were transported to hospitals. some remain in critical condition this morning. miguel almaguer is covering that part of the story for us. he's at san francisco general hospital now, the trauma center there. miguel, good morning. >> lester, good morning. of those 182 victims, many were brought to about a dozen bay area hoptds. the vast majority were brought here to san francisco general hospital. some 53 patients made their way through the front doors here. about half of them were actually small children. today, we know at least six remain in critical condition including one child who was in critical condition. so many folks were being brought here in four different waves separated by about an hour apart. that was a similar scene we saw at hospitals all across the bay area. of course the bay area's home to several trauma centers so they were certainly in good hands. some injuries include broken bones, burns, some other passengers just suffered some

nbc's john yang has more tonight. >> reporter: in simi valley, california, a night of celebration -- >> oh! oh! >> reporter: turned to horror, caught on amateur video. the show was only minutes old, when exploding fireworks were launched into thousands of spectators about 900 feet away. >> run, run, run! >> today some recalled the chaos. >> fireworks that normally go high, some going two feet, some going ten feet. it was all just right really low, all up over the ground. >> i got out of my chair and dove behind it, you thought you were going to get burned. >> reporter: police and firefighters rushed to help the injured. officials said at least 41 people were hurt, the youngest 17 months old. at least two remain hospitalized today, listed in fair condition. debris hit josh in the back, but he wasn't hurt. >> i saw an old lady with a big wound in her chest. she couldn't get out of her chair because she was like in shock, you know. >> reporter: officials say it appears that one of the platforms holding the launchers tipped over, that sent the fireworks into the crowd instead of into the

nbc's john yang reports. >> reporter: john day was a detroit cop for more than 26 years. he worked long hours and went years without raises in return for the promise of reliable retirement income. now that pension, $2900 a month, is at risk. >> if these cuts go through, it will destroy my retirement. i have to try to find a full-time job with benefits that, you know, aren't in abundant supply. >> reporter: like many state and city workers across the country, he is not eligible for social security. in bankruptcy court, day and other retirees are just another creditor fighting for a piece of a very small pie. >> i feel betrayed. i think all the retirees feel betrayed. >> reporter: the problem's not limited to detroit. like a lot of households, states and cities don't always set aside enough money for the future. a new boston college study finds that nationwide, state and local governments have promised workers about $1 trillion more in retirement benefits than they are able to pay. >> in a lot of cases, these increased costs, these poor-funded ratios are a product of poor f

nbc's john yang is in indianapolis for us tonight. john? >> reporter: good evening, lester. right now the colonial hill baptist church is holding its regular evening worship service. tonight it's taking on special meaning. hundreds of worshippers arrived at church this morning just blocks from the crash that killed young pastor and his wife courtney. both in their mid-20s, courtney eight months pregnant. >> he set an example of his faith for us to all be encouraged by, thatod is good all the time. >> reporter: their 2-year-old son was on board and is being cared for by family. earlier saturday chad phelps tweeted, on the bus on the way home! pray for safety. also killed 51-year-old tonya wiandorf, the mother of five including a teenaged son with special needs. he was on the bus but not injured. >> all these folks on the bus were special to us as members here, as friends. our church grieves now. >> reporter: they were among 37 teens the and adults on the bus when it crashed near the end of a six-hour drive from a northern michigan church camp. police said the bus was coming o

the good news, as john yang reported, they already recovered the flight data. the black boxes were critical. they were concerned whether they would survive the crash because they were in the tail of the plane, and they did. now they're going to be looking what exactly was on all of the flight data information, what does it say about the glide slope, the ride to ascent. what was going on insight the cockpit. what were the conversations between the pie let and co-pilot before the crash. if, in fact, this plane did come in far too low as it appears and slam its tail on the seawall barrier, a lot of questions why it would happen. was it because of pilots not paying attention? did they have bad da tarks faulty piece of electronics? were the engines working properly? this is already a critical question. the president of asiana says they were veteran pilots. the ntsb has not gotten in the middle of these engines yet. it will take many, many days to look at the engines and the flight data before they can ascertain if there was any sort of an engine problem. then it lea

that part of the story from john yang in san francisco. >> reporter: when first responders arrived on the scene at runway 28 left, the threat was clear. >> jet fuel was leaking out of the plane, and our firefighters entered the plane, began a primary search, and began to extinguish fire. >> reporter: fire lieutenant chrissie emmonds got on to the plane the only way she could, running up the evacuation chute. she quickly found passengers trapped. >> when we first got back there and saw these people, it was actually pretty clear back there. there was not a lot of smoke, not a lot of fire. but by the time we removed the final victim, the fire was bank do you think on us. we had heavy black smoke. >> reporter: police officer jim cunningham had no protective gear and still rushed in. >> we were clearing the baggage because the overhead bins and all the luggage, half the things snapped and debris and rubble all over the place. >> one of the last on the plane, a flight attendant attending to the remaining survivors. >> really brave. the crew, wanted to stay with the plane and make sure every

that part of the story from john yang in san francisco. >> reporter: when first responders arrived on the scene at runway 28 left, the threat was clear. >> jet fuel leaking out of the plane, and our firefighters entered the plane, began a primary search and began to extinguish the fire. >> christie emmonds ran up the evacuation chute and saw people trapped. >> first got back there and saw pim, it was actually pretty clear back there. not a lot of smoke, not a lot of fire, but by the time we removed the final victim, the fire was banking down on us, heavy black smoke. >> reporter: police officer jim cunningham had no protective gear and still rushed in. >> clearing the baggage, over head bins and all of the luggage, debris and rubble all over the place. >> one of the last on the plane, a flight attendant attending to the remaining survivors. >> really brave. the crew, wanted to stay with the plane until everybody was off. we kept telling them, get down, get down. >> reporter: the first responders managed to get few stranded on board to safety. only a few, thanks to passengers like ben

our report tonight from nbc's john yang. >> reporter: the floppy-haired face staring up from the cover of the august issue of "rolling stone" looks like he could be the latest teen sensation. it's dzhokhar tsarnaev, the accused boston marathon bomber, and the cover is creating controversy. >> the cover is more like a privilege. and, i mean, this guy, after what he did, it's sad. >> they are trying to make him look like a rock star. he's horrible person that did a horrible thing. >> reporter: boston mayor thomas menino said a cover story about bombing survivors would be more appropriate. >> he is a terrorist. we don't want him on our neighborhoods. we don't want him on our magazines. we don't want him anywhere. >> reporter: mbta transit officer richard donahue was seriously wounded in a shootout with tsarnaev and his brother, tamerlan, that was killed. in a statement, he called the cover thoughtless at best. tsarnaev used the picture for his twitter profile. it's the same photo that illustrated a "new york times'" front page profile in may. the goal of any cover is to sell magazines, bu

that part of the story from john yang in san francisco. >> reporter: when first responders arrived on the scene at runway 28 left, the threat was clear. >> jet fuel leaking out of the plane, and our firefighters entered the plane, began a primary search and began to distinguish the fire. >> christie emmonds ran up the evae evacuation chute and saw people trapped. >> it was clear. not a lot of smoke, not a lot of fire, but by the time we removed the final victim, the fire was banking down on us, heavy black smoke. >> reporter: police officer jim cunningham had no protective gear and still rushed in. >> clearing the baggage, over head bins and all of the luggage, debris and rubble all over the place. >> one of the last on the plane, a flight attendant attending to the remaining survivors. >> get down, get down. >> reporter: the first responders managed to get few stranded on board to safety. only a few, tharngs to passengers like ben levy who saw rescuers arrive as he helped other people escape. >> i told people we're okay, come down, start getting out. leave your things behind, help ea

you saw him in john yang's report a moment ago. he was in seat 32 on the right-hand side of the plane. benjamin, good to see you again, sir. first of all, how are you feeling today? >> of course very bruised and hurting still. but very lucky to be here today and thank you for having me. just a quick correction, my seat was 30 k. 30 k. >> gotcha. did you have a sense that something was wrong before the crash? >> might be one of the few that did because i was sitting by the window, by the emergency exit and watching in the landing as i often do i travel often. and i could see there is some piers extending out of the runway into the water and we were very low, you know, based on my experience. we were coming in too low. and i'm thinking we're going to hit water for a fraction of a second, thinking, of course not. it is going to be just fine. but somehow it felt very low. as soon as i felt the pilot putting full throttle on the engine, the engine roaring to try to gain lift again, that's when i realized something was wrong and we hit f

john yang is live in san francisco. john, that is the big mystery how they ignored all the signals. why was it going at that slow speed? >> reporter: exactly, andrea. they have talk to 2 of the 4 pilots who were on-board that flight yesterday. yesterday and now today talk to the other two, including the pilot who was actually in control of the plane. one thing they want to find out is talk about with a was going on in the cockpit. they heard the cockpit voice recording but also get a sense of the dynamics among the crew, whether they were working together, communicating with each other. perhaps one assumed the other was monitoring the speed and watching everything during landing. we know that one of them, the pilot who was actually in control, was in training on the boeing 777, just learning to familiarize himself with this in flight. he had about 43 hours on the plane. it was his ninth trip. his first landing in a 777 at san francisco international airport. although he had 10,000 hours on other kinds of planes. but also, the pilot who was watching him was also new in that role. tha

>> nbc's john yang in san francisco. thanks, john, very much. >>> heading to the close, 25 minutes left in the trading session here. the dow, wait-and-see mode, as the whole market seems to be waiting for fed chairman bernanke. down 20 points now. >> yeah be relatively mild reaction to the federal reserve minutes out earliery. did we get any more indication about when we could see the beginning of the tapering of the economic stimulus? or maybe stocks are trading on fundamentals again? we'll look at both next. >>> and would eliot spitzer really have the power to subpoena big banks if he were to win new york city's comptroller job? wall street may not like the answer. we have it for you coming up later on the "closing bell." before global opportunities were part of their investment strategy... before they funded scholarships to the schools that gave them scholarships... before they planned for their parents' future needs and their son's future... they chose a partner to help manage their wealth, one whose insights, soluti

nbc's john yang joins us live with the latest. john, what do we know? >> reporter: ed, we know that the ntsb go team has been working all night working through the night continuing to work today looking at that burned out fuselage that's broken apart that's what's left of asiana flight 214. they've got the black boxes now back in washington. they flew them there overnight. they're going to be looking and analyzing the data in there, the performance of the plane, listen to the cockpit conversations, to what the pilots were saying when this all was happening, essentially trying to find out what happened, why this plane came in essentially too slow, too low, the tail hitting the seawall separating the san francisco bay from the airport and the runway and then slamming onto the runway and skidding down and lost the tail assembly, it lost landing gear before skidding off the runway. we also know this morning that the two victims, the two people killed in this crash are 16-year-old girls from china. they were part of one of two school groups from chinese midd

in fact, john yang was once called the jerusalem of the east. >> george: and pope francis returns to south america, and hundreds of thousands are flocking to brazil just to see him. ♪ >> george: is egypt heading for political stability or civil war? hello, everyone, i'm george thomas. >> wendy: and i'm wendy griffith. political protests and rallies are now almost daily occurrences in egypt. protestors continue to die in scirmishes with security forces and weren't another. >> george: ibrahim is one of the coptic christians who has written by egypt and its christian community. he shared his insights with gary lane, but first gary brings us this update on the situation in egypt. >> reporter: supporters of mohammed morsi refuse to give up. they want the muslim brotherhood leader reinstated to the egyptian presidency. >> i'm saying to major-general sissi, you betrayed us and carried out the coup, but god will punish you if you are not implementing his rules. >> reporter: even larger numbers of anti-muslim brotherhood members held rallies. >> i'm proving it is a revolution, and stability

nbc's john yang joins us live with the latest. yon, what do we know? >> reporter: ed, we know that the ntsb go team has been working all night working through the night continuing to work today looking at that burned out fuselage that's broken apart that's what's left of asiana flight 214. they've got the black boxes now back in washington. they flew them there overnight. they're going to be looking and analyzing the data in there, the performance of the plane, listen to the cockpit conversations, to what the pilots were saying when this all was happening. essentially trying to find out what happened, why this plane came in essentially too slow, too low, the tail hitting the seawall separating the san francisco bay from the airport and the runway and then slamming on to the runway and skidding down and lost the tail assembly, it lost landing gear before skidding off the runway. we also know this morning that the two victims, the two people killed in this crash are 16-year-old girls from china. they were part of one of two school groups from chinese mid

we want to begin at san francisco's international airport and john yang. >> reporter: good evening. the cockpit voice recorder, that black box that records all the sounds in a cockpit including crew conversations is giving investigators a pretty good idea of why this big jet came up short when it tried to land. tonight, key clues about the final moments of asian flight 214 revealed. recordings of cockpit conversations seem to show that the crew thought everything was fine until about seven seconds before landing when one crew member calls for increased speed. then three seconds later they get a warning that the plane is about to stall, lose its ability to fly. a second and a half before impact a call to abort the landing, but it's too late. >> the approach speed was 137 knots. and the question was whether or not we had the lowest speed that the crew achieved. i will tell you that the speed was significantly below 137 knots and we're not talking about a few knots. >> reporter: national transportation safety board investigators recovered the cockpit and flight data recorders and sent

. >> john yang this morning, thank you. >>> in new york, a bride-to-be is believed to be dead after a tragic boating accident after he and the best man were both thrown overboard. more on the accident. >> reporter: a tragic ending to what will started as a prewedding celebration. bride-to-be lindsey stewart and her fiance's best man were thrown overboard in a boating accident on the hudson river. >> my sister is getting married two weeks from day. >> reporter: earlier today, the girl's mother and stepdad spoke to the media. her mom said they went on a simple outing just north of new york city. >> reporter: authorities say the boat collided with construction barges anchored along the tappan zee bridge. last saturday, they charged the driver jojo johns with vehicular manslaughter. he was injured with all the passengers on board and is in the hospital. >> we have cause to believe he operated the boat while intoxicated. >> reporter: lindsey and 30-year-old bond were among the dead. >> there were some people wearing life jackets. >> reporter: on her facebook page, lindsey posted photos of

melissa. >> thank you to nbc's john yang. obviously that news is very sad and we will continue to follow it. >>> now, for regular viewers of this program, you know that sometimes it becomes a platform at times to take a critical look at, well, louisiana politics. in particular the man we refer to as fbj, forget bobby jindal. this morning we need to expand the scope because of radical republican assault on our rights, particularly voting rights, in state after state. in north carolina, they are fighting every week to make sure that unfettered access to the polls and other hard fought victories aren't stripped away by republican led state assembly. tomorrow marks the tenth week of moral monday protest in north carolina, protests over radical republican legislative agenda. they have grown from dozens of supporters when they began april 29th to thousands. demonstrators are protesting new limits on abortion rights which were approved by the state senate on wednesday, sharp cuts to unemployment benefits, which decreased the benefit

i heard john yang say i rode a bluebird bus. we're working with freight liners, collins and we've developed with them, rauch technologies. nascar. he's partnered with bluebird and they've created this lpg engine that is unbelievable. we've taken now 1,000 buses, put them on the road this year. largest contract on the road in omaha. but we're taking $3.65 gallon diesel down to 1.60 and locked it in for three years. that's without a 50 cent discount from the government, who gives us an alternate fuels tack. i don't count on that 50 cents back, but if it does, i'm now paying $1.10. long-term, it's a lead. it's going to be huge. that's going to drive our rh owe down from 83, 85% down into the 70% range for this coming fiscal year, which just started 2014. >> i sure wish more people would listen to you because i'm trying -- we had to convince navastar to lower the cost of the capital of this engine. get those costs out of the way. don't make me pay for those. there's 500,000 school vehicles on the road every day. as i said, the gover

i heard john yang say i rode a bluebird bus. we're working with navistar, freight liners, collins and we've developed with them, rauch technologies. nascar. he's partnered with bluebird and they've created this lpg engine that is unbelievable. we've taken now 1,000 buses, put them on the road this year. largest contract in omaha. but we're taking $3.65 gallon diesel down to $1.60 and locked it in for three years. that's without a 50 cent discount from the government, who gives us an alternate fuels tax. i don't count on that 50 cents back, but if it does, i'm now paying $1.10. >> it's a multiyear payoff to switch. >> it's long-term, it's immediate. it's going to be huge. that's going to drive our rh0 down from 83, 85% down into the 70% range for this coming fiscal year, which just started 2014. >> i sure wish more people would listen to you because i'm >> we had to convince navastar to lower the cost of the capital of this engine. get those r&d costs out of the way. don't make me pay for those. there's 500,000 school vehicles on

>> john yang in chicago. john, thanks so much. savannah. >> now mind your mannerisms. we tackled brf on tuesday. this morning we are highlighting the aggressive hand talker. good morning to you. >> thank you. i appreciate it. all right. do this for me f. try talking -- i can't even do it. try talking without using your hands as well. none of this. none of this certainly. it's harder than you think. that's because we have grown so accustomed to gestures to get our point across. some of our best public speakers do it. presidents do it, making a point by using a point. let's give a round of applause for, well, for hands. where would we be without them? research shows that audiences are drawn to people who use a wide variety of hand gestures. >> we learned the great leaders use the ones that are more powerful and dominant. >> that explains the plethora of presidential gestures. those that work with their hands and those that work a room with their hands. >>ive to push myself academically for my family's stake. >> comedian chris is a regular at the couple da club. >> is tha

nbc's john yang reports. >> reporter: he was a detroit cap 26 years. he worked long hours and went years without raises in return for the promise of reliable retirement income, $2900 a month, is at risk. >> if these cuts go through, it will destroy my retirement. i'll have to find a fulltime job with benefits that aren't in supply. >> like many states across the country, he's not eligible for social security. in bankruptcy court day and others are creditors fighting for a piece of a very small pie. >> i feel betrayed. i think all retirees feel betrayed. >> reporter: the problem is not limited to detroit. like a lot of households states and cities don't always set aside enough money for the future. a new boss college study find state and local nationwide they have promised workers $1 trillion in retirement benefits than they are able to pay. >> in a lot of cases these increased costs, are a product of poor funding in the past and not so much the plans. >> according to the research center, 34 states have short falls of at least 20%. the worst, illinois,

nbc's john yang has more. >> reporter: ke cly clues revea. recordings of cockpit conversations seem to show the crew thought everything was fine until about seven seconds before landing when one crew member calms for increased speed. then three seconds later they get a warning that the plane is about to stall, lose its ability to fly. a second and a half before impact, a call to abort the landing. but it's too late. >> the approach speed was 137 knots. and the question was whether or not we had the lowest speed that the crew achieved. i will tell you that the speed was significantly below 137 knots. and we're not talking about a few knots. >> reporter: national transportation safety board investigators recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. the so-called black boxes. from the wreckage and sent them to washington overnight. they've also inspected the wreckage inside and out. the boeing 777 was ending a 10 1/2 hour flight from seoul, south korea, on its final approach to runway 28 left over san francisco bay. at least one passen

nbc's john yang is there live. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. now that there's daylight investigators will get a better look at this scene where thousands of people gathered to watch a fireworks display and then something went very wrong. >> a terrifying moment caught on tape as fireworks detonated into a crowd of spectators. >> you could see a million people sitting and trying to enjoy the whole thing, but, unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to. >> reporter: witnesses say it took place seconds into the show which was experienced by thousands. >> even those watching from a distance say they could feel the blast. >> it was just a loud explosion. we felt the heat pull back towards us. >> the aftermath was like a scene from a disaster movie. dozens of first responders rushed to assist the wounded. >> most of the injuries to me have been described as injuries like shrapnel injuries, things flying through the air coming in contact with body mass. >> reporter: authorities say at least 28 people were injured, many treated on site. the most severe

john yang is in michigan city indiana with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning tamron. this is the national park where the little boy was playing. he is in critical condition in a chicago hospital. the doctors are expecting a full recovery. his family says it's nothing short of a miracle. 6-year-old nathan was with his father and a friend on the shores of lake michigan running up a sand dune. in an instant, he vanished. >> he was nowhere to be seen. the ground had swallowed him up. >> reporter: onlookers called 911. >> my friend's son, he got stuck in a sand tune and he's like under the sand and we can't get him out. >> reporter: the harder they tried to get him, the farther he slipped away. >> as they dug he went deeper and deeper. they had no shovel. they just had their hands to dig with. >> reporter: authorities called in utility crews with heavy equipment. >> it was controlled chaos. everybody was doing something and accomplishing something. >> reporter: 11 feet and more than three hours later she spotted the top of na

john, what is it first up the investigators get focused on today? >> reporter: well, alec, the investigators actually arrived yesterday afternoon, and they've already been going through the wreckage, the burned out fuselage that's sitting outside the runway, runway, 21 left. you can barely make it out behind me. we're a quarter of a mile from there. and the debris field as it spread down the runway after hitting the seawall and then slamming onto the tarmac and skidding down the runway. they have already found the two data recorders, the black boxes on that plane. one, the flight data recorder that tells them the performance of the aircraft, exactly what was going on, and also the cockpit voice recorder which tells them what -- the conversation in the cockpit, what the pilot and the first officer were saying to each other as this plane was coming in for a landing. we expect to hear more from the ntsb later today as they talk about their investigation, but that investigation already well under way. those black boxes will be sent back to washington fo