that was something thad allen was at pains to point out. while the operation using the relief well to insert concrete into the bottom of the well was going ahead, there will continue to be no oil flowing into the gulf. he said they have the luxury of time to get this new operation right. >> this relief will will provide the permanent solution? >> engineers have said this was the ultimate solution. the operation is known as bottom kill,, to divert this relief well into the side of the damaged well. there are risks associated with it. there is a danger the pressure created could damage some of the sensitive equipment on the seabed, bud thad allen said they would make sure that did not happen. >> is a document dump that sent shock wikileaks said there is more to come. weeks after posting thousands of files, an additional 15,000 are said to be on their way. this would be the height of irresponsibility, says the pentagon. some say it was unavoidable. >> they provide an unprecedented new view of war, but did they offer more clarity? the debate st

caller: hi, thad allen, how are you? guest: fine. caller: they had some photographers out there taking pictures of the gulf, that all they had of the oil were the beaks. it was the saddest thing. the use this for photography issues, how bad it was. what about the wells and the fish and all of that? the ocean in these areas are going to be polluted for a very long time. host: marine life. guest: we are very concerned about marine life. it goes beyond that. we have at days and marshes where we have breeding grounds. the brown pelican breeding grounds, southwest louisiana, and other species out there. this is a great avian highway as well. we have marine mammals, turtles that have been impacted. noaa as part of their responsibility for the national fisheries service the the wildlife, and the rest of it is under the fisheries and wildlife service and the department of interior. we get several organizations involved in this and we have a wildlife recovery station in louisiana. we are doing everything we can to assist these animals when th

he accused national incident commander thad allen permitting of thousands of gallons used daily. in a letter to allen he charged bp carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals and the coastguard allowed them to do it. >> we need guidelines, there is no disagreement regard wagon we want to do with dispersants. >> i think we worked hard to not use any more than we had to. >> despite the reopening of some fishing grounds, gulf fishermen are still wary. you are can see the oil but you can't see the dispersants. >> they want to kill the troubled well. >> we got the equipment to perform the static kill. right now the current forecast we'll do that activity on tuesday. >> local leaders are mystified that bp has pulled in booms when they say there is still oil to be found. >> boom has no oil, they are picking it up. they say there is no oil. over here, couple miles from where they are, they leave this oil sitting here. >> back here in california, environmental activists are spending seven days backing across yosemite national park in after effort to restore the hetch-hetchy valley. grea

released back in the water by the government's top man on the spill, admiral thad allen. he and scientists said the birds and animals turned out to be a lot more resilient than first thought. but what does the future hold for wildlife and the water? bob woodruff looked for lessons at earlier disasters. >> reporter: before this year, the biggest spill ever was the 1979 ixtoc oil spill in the gulf of mexico. >> this will be the site of the world's wos offshore oil disaster. >> reporter: 140 million gallons. and before bp, the most famous was the exxon valdez in 1989 off the coast of alaska. just 1/20th the size of the bp spill. two spills, two history lessons about what may happen next after the current disaster. let's start with the biggest spill. it actually landed here in padre island in texas. in fact, it was a strip about 170 miles long and 30 feet wide. it was so bad, it actually looked like a paved highway. many people here thought it would never recover. but it did. so what happened? >> to my amazement, we saw recovery in just a couple years. the shrimp came back in

national incident commander thad allen has directed bp to submit a plan, a plan that preserves any evidence of how the disaster happened and one that minimizes the possibility of another leak. >> frankly we want a stake in the heart of this well. we want it put away forever. >> reporter: pressure tests have shown the blowout preventer can be removed with minimal risk. a fishing procedure will look for the fractured pipe that will help investigators learn more about what went wrong. as crews try to close the well out for good, researchers are trying to assess the damage. the crews have found a massive cloud from the spill, more than half a mile below the gulf surface. it is more than a mile wide and stretches 22 miles. brian mohr, nbc news. >>> coming up next at 5:00 -- half a billion tainted eggs. we have the details on the expansion of one of the largest egg recalls. >>> a san francisco dog owner has a warning after she says her dog was stabbed by a man walking a pit bull. >>> another competitive eating contest. joey chestnut squared off against those determined to show him up. windy, twin

. >> admiral thad allen added that sometimes there is just no other way to attack the oil. rob? >> emily schmidt in washington ank you, emily. >>> and the epa says it's geeing it take months to clean up the oil spill in southern michigan. the oil spill was stopped and contained in a 25-mile stretch of the river. epa estimates 1 million gallons spilling oil from indiana to on tar yo. >>> there's been a deadly plane crash. it crashed into a mountain in denali national park and burst into flames. all three passengers on board were killed according to the freight company that owns the plane. last week, four servicemen were killed when their cargo plane crashed here anchorage. >>> and a county sheriff says he can't believe everyone survived when a plane went down after taking off from buffalo. investigators are aren't sure what caused the accident. they'll be interviewing the pilot who received only minor injuries. >>> rockets fired on the israeli red sea tourist city, in the palestinian gaza strip, an explosion destroyed the home of a hamas leader known to be a bombmaker. hamas blam

his visit came as admiral thad allen announced the drilling of the relief well could resume late monday and tuesday pending a final round of tests. our wheef house correspondent chip reid is with the president tonight. chip, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, jeff. the president came here to assure people who live on the gulf coast that they will not be forgotten and to assure tourists thinking about coming here that there's nothing to fear. this is the president's fifth trip to the gulf coast since the oil crisis began, but his first since the well was capped. >> oil is no longer flowing into the gulf. and i'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is. >> reporter: but in a meeting with elected officials and local business men and women, the president was told that after all these months, getting b.p. to pay up is still a struggle. the president promised to work on it. >> any delay by b.p. or those managing the new funds are unacceptable and i will keep pushing to get these claims expedited. >> reporter: but he did not say what he'll

today, admiral thad allen made it clear a permanent fix will take a little while longer. the decision was made today to continue drilling the relief well and to move forward with what engineers call "the bottom kill" pumping mud and cement into the bottom of the well. >> we tried to assess options we have. everybody in is agreement. we need to proceed with the relief well and the question is how to do that. it mitigates risk. we could even put another blow-out preventer on because we've sealed the well at this point. that would take a longer period of time. >> engineers are working to determine what the next step may be. they hope to have answers some time this weekend. >>> still ahead at 5:00, they're not old enough to drive but they're apparently old enough to fly alone. coming up, the children who caused a midair controversy. >>> and a burger, fries and side of medication? the new recommendation about what fast-food restaurants should serve along with their meals. >>> also ahead, the common pain reliever, now linked to a serious condition in teenagers. >>> and the firs

but government point man, admiral thad allen, cautions, though, that the work is far from over. >> there still is residual oil out there. it's harder to see. it's still out at sea. we have tar balls and mats that are showing up. they're mulling around near mississippi and alabama. we have to be in a position to respond to that. and our intentions is to size our force by how much oil is out there and how much we have to recover. >> according to today's "new york times," the government will announce today that about 75% of the oil spilled into the gulf, has evaporated, been dispersed or has been eliminated. and what's left, that it's unlikely to pose much additional risk. >>> the central massachusetts town of manchester is reeling, by one that turned into a workplace massacre. diana alvear has more on what sparked the rampage. thornson had been working at the family-owned beer distributor for two years. he recently had been accused of stealing. by the time he finished, eight people were dead. one victim is still in the hospital in critical condition. when police arrived at the scene, thorn

thad allen responded by saying the coast guard did not ignore environmental guidelines but said it was done on a case-by-case basis. >> kristen dahlgren live for us this morning. thank you so much. >>> tensions between israelis and palestinians build over this morning in gaza leaving at least 32 injured. a huge blast leveled a house of hamas commander in southern gaza and palestinian security officials are blaming israeli air strike. but israel's military is denying involvement saying there was no israeli activity in the area. the violence comes shortly after the arab league offered mahmoud abbas to enter into direct peace talks with israel. >>> lindsay lohan was scheduled to be released from jail early this morning after serving a reduced sentence for violating the terms of her probation for two dui incidents in 2007. the 24-year-old actress managed to slip out of the correctional facility undetected by the media after serving less than two weeks of a 90-day sentence thanks to overcrowding. the judge ruled last week that the hollywood wild child would report directly to morning side r

thad allen, who's overseeing the response, says while this is not the end, this virtually assures that no more oil will be leaking. the next step will be to cement the well from the bottom. that could start as early as next week. >>> a horrific school bus crash in missouri has left two people dead and dozens more injured. two school buses were carrying high school band members to an amusement park yesterday when they slammed into a freeway wreck in front of them involving a tractor trailer and a pickup truck. the chain reaction accident crushed the pickup, killing its driver as well as one of the students. fortunately most of the other injuries were minor, and only two students remained hospitalized. >>> today for the first time since the u.s. dropped an atomic bomb on hiroshima exactly 65 years ago, the united states sent a representative to that city to take part in a ceremony commemorating that deadly day. representatives from the u.s. and more than 70 nations attended the somber event marking the anniversary. a bell rang at 8:15 a.m. local time when the bomb was dropped, killing 14

the federal government was in, and admiral thad allen was supervising getting the response mechanisms out into the ocean. >> you knew that that would happen to? >> i did. >> now that the oil has stopped flowing, and the public losing interest, those that slow momentum for this fall the? >> is why i had been touring this past thursday. i had to ensure that just because the spill cam went away, the pressure to do with the consequences of the spill does not go away. i'm going to ensure that from a congressional perspective, we keep the spotlight on this issue. wish is that their commercials on television supplant actual congressional hearings and public attention being paid to what is going on in the gulf today. >> i wanted to ask -- the effective moratorium on drilling. what the want to see in terms of new regulations, new safety precautions? what would satisfy you to say it is time to let people drill offshore the? ? >> what we did it three weeks ago on the day before we broke was to say that a system would be put into place that would beal brrigs cleared one by one, and then be put in

coast guard commander thad allen says the static kill on the leaking oil well was a success, and now engineers can begin the process of sealing it up once and for all. that effort, according to allen, can start today as long as it doesn't delay work on the relief wells. allen says he, "has high confidence no more oil will leak from the bp site" and the chances of killing the well outright have "significantly improved." >>> and now, here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. newly released video from a maryland police officer's dash cam shows just how dangerous high-speed chases can get. in the footage, police are seen approaching a carjacking suspect when he puts his car into reverse, slams into the hood of the patrol car and then flips over. the 17-year-old driver is now facing charges of armed robbery, car theft, and assaulting a police officer. >>> michigan police say alcohol may have been a factor when a woman drove her car into a construction pit. she suffered minor injuries, but was not hospitalized. officials say the street, which is under heavy ro

national incident commander thad allen has ordered bp to cement the well from the bottom as well, and bp says it will do that through the relief well process, which could start as early as next week. lester? >> anne, what about the oil collection process, given there's still a lot of oil in the gulf, does this now add more resources as they wind down at the well site itself? >> reporter: they get to shift the resources. instead of having all those large skimmers that they've had out at the leak site as a precautionary measure since july 15th when they temporarily capped the well, they'll now start to bring those inshore and they can now start to focus on the inshore efforts more heavily than they have before, lester. >> anne thompson, thank you. >>> with some questions on this oil well now answered, there are new ones, including a lot of uncertainty about the after effects of all that oil and the chemicals that were poured into the gulf. one of the most pressing, is gulf seafood safe to eat? nbc's ron mott joins us from drago's restaurant in metairie, louisiana. ron? >> reporter: hey,

commander thad allen said the so-called bottom kill that bp has been working toward as a final step in shutting down the leaky well may have already happened. there is a chance, he said -- though he called it a low probability -- that all the mud and cement pumped into the well last week essentially accomplished the bottom kill. bp is currently conducting a test that will figure it out for sure. >>> it was day 12 of jury deliberations today in the corruption trial of former illinois governor rod blagojevich, and things don't seem to be going very smoothly. the jury said it has reached agreement on two of 24 counts and hasn't started considering the 11 counts involving wire fraud. there is no indication of which way the jury voted on the two counts that they did agree on. the judge responded to a note from the jury by telling them to go back to work which they will do on monday. >>> and if you feel like staying up late tonight, you could treat yourself to one of the greatest shows on earth just by looking up in the sky. tonight and tomorrow night will be the peak viewing times for the a

. >> reporter: the cement could permanently plug the well but admiral thad allen caused crews will still need to drill from the bottom. >> this won't tule be sealed until the relief wells are done. >> reporter: it can't come soon enough. those who make their living, charter bolt captains have lost this season, they are waitling for the next one? it's almost beyond impatience. >> we pass that months ago. we're 105, 106 days in, it's okay, well let's just get it done. >> captain chris callaway is optimistic they'll get the well sealed this month and that his customers will eventually return. >> let's get the clean-up process done and go back to fishing. >> reporter: if there aren't any more delays it's possible bp could complete the static kill later this week. joel brown, cbs news, venice, louisiana. >>> senators began debate today on the woman who could be the next member of the supreme court. >> during testimony she made clear she will base her approach to deciding cases on the law and the institution, constitution, not on politics, not on i'd logical agenda. >> i think this is well kno

the federal government's point man, thad allen, says that a relief well is now within 30 feet of the main shaft. by the end of this week, engineers could begin pumping mud and cement into it to permanently kill the well. >>> there was a furious flight attendant on a jetblue flight to new york. steven slater was arrested monday after he apparently lost his temper during an argument with a passenger while the plane was on the ground at kennedy airport. one witness says slater then used the plane's public address system to curse out all the passengers. >> he said to the passenger who called me a [ bleep ], i've been in this business 28 years and that's it, i'm done. >> police say that slater then grabbed a couple beers, deployed the emergency exit slide and used it to get to his car. he was taken into custody at his home and faces charges of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. if convicted, slater could get seven years in prison. >>> and he has nothing on this very upset mcdonald's customer. this just released surveillance video from toledo, ohio on new year's day shows melody

national incident commander thad allen has approved the next step, pumping in cement, to seal the well for good tomorrow. work on the relief bella also continue and the federal government all righted today only about 25% of the spilled oil remains in the gulf and is degrading quickly. >>> the state's office of inspector general is considering joining the investigation into a deadly prison-yard attack at san quentin last week. edward shaffer, a repeat drunk driver convicted of killing a 9- year-old novado girl in a motorcycle crash was stabbed repeatedly by another inmate. there are questions about why shaffer wasn't in protective custody. criminals whose victims include children are generally believed to be at a greater ray of attack by other inmates. >>> state prison officials are now touting new parole policies as biggest reform in history of the state prison system. the changes include reducing the parolees per parole agent. and greater use of gps to track gang and sex offenders. >> gps will also enable us to impose zones which enable an agent to be alerted in circumstances when one

incident commander thad allen pushed back. >> we established jointly back in may that we would seek a reduction of 75% in dispeant use. by our joint accounting, at the time, the capping stack witness on had achieved a 72% reduction. though the effect we were trying to achieve were generally met. >> reporter: the next and most important goal in the gulf, shutting down the leak, could come some time this week. jay gray, nbc news, venice, louisiana. >>> a building hurt in sacramento this week could allow more people to vote. they want to let citizens vote without registering before election day. it requires county election leaders to have a way to identify a voter's identity but doesn't identify how that would happen. critics say it could open the floodgates for fraud. six states allow voters to register the same day as the election. >>> dick cheney sout of intentative care tonight. cheney had a small pump installed last month to help his heart work. his daughter liz says her father hopes to return home this week. she told fox news sunday that her 69-year-old dad is already planning fish

this afternoon, national incident commander thad allen issued an order requiring more pressure testing by bp engineers to determine if the bottom kill could risk further damaging the fractured rig and pushing more oil into the gulf. jay gray, nbc news, lafitte, louisiana. >>> soldiers from the last american combat brigade in iraq started to head home today. the plan is to have all american combat soldiers out of that country by the end of this month. 50,000 american troops will remain in iraq, but they are noncombat. instead, their mission will be to make sure iraqi forces are strong enough to retain the country's shaky stability. commanding generals are sounding notes of caution in this final stage of the pullout. they point out iraq is still without a government five months after national elections and they say they expect insurgent violence to get worse for a time after the withdrawal. >>> police in buffalo, no, have arrested a suspect in a shooting rampage this morning. they say he killed four people during a wedding anniversary party. the shooting happened outside a downtown resta

we're here with the coast guard and i talked with thad allen. all of the oil on the surface, of course, the oil has not been flowing for a while, it's harder to find. traces of oil are still around in the gulf and on the beaches and we'll be right there to clean it up. we still have tens of thousands of people ready for the response and once we clean the beaches we'll be into the marshes and this will be a long-term restoration of the gulf and we're fully committed to that. >> you're committed to that. what's your long-term commitment to the region? you've said you're going to be there beyond, you know, the time that people are talking about this, but here's a situation which is obviously, fatalities, and killed tourism and so many businesses. so what does that mean you're going to be there? what's your long-term commitment? >> it is important for bp, with this, what i think is an unprecedented corporate response to follow through. now that the oil has been capped we still have work to do to make sure the beaches are cleaned, remain clean and th

bp will begin the final seal of the well tonight according to incident commander thad allen. the first part of the process will be the static kill followed by the bottom kill five to seven days later which should finally seal the well this comes on the heels of the passage of the miller amendment which would ban bp from winning exploration leases in the gulf for the next seven years. it's been 105 days since the rig explosion. coming up on the broadcast, a live report on the bp oil well, so stay tuned. >>> thank you very much. blackberries blocked two middle east countries say they will ban popular features of the smart phone. saudi arabia and the united emirates may stop e-mail access in october. those countries say they have national security concerns. activists contend the move is an attempt to control the flow of information into conservative countries. >>> most of comcast in the south bay and the customers have higher rates this morning. the increase effects cable tv and internet customers in san jose and other parts of santa clara county. we found a way for you to save

>> rose: welcome to our program, tonight admiral thad allen, the man in charge of the government's effort to contain the oil still the gulf of mexico gives his assessment on what has been done and what needs to be done. >> i don't think there ever is a mission accomplished with an oil spill. nothing ever good happens when you put oil on the water. we don't know the impact of some of these things for years. what you have you do is you have a mitigation plan, off response plan, you deal with it, you assess the damages and you keep working it and you keep working it. i'm not prepared to say mission will be complete any time soon on this, whether the well is capped or not. >> rose: we conclude this evening with an analysis of the united states senate. al hunt, bill cohen and george packer answer the question is about it t senate or is it about the senators? or is in the end is it about an institution or is it politics? >> when i started to cover the senate almost 40 years ago, charlie, the issues were, if anything, more divisive. they were still the remnants of the civil rights struggles, the

retired general thad allen says static kill is the ultimate diagnostic test. >> we all need to understand that the quicker we can get this done, the quicker we can reduce risk of any type of internal failure we're not aware of right now. >> reporter: allen is emphatic static kill is not the final step to prevent oil from coming out of that drill pipe and the large pipe that surrounds it. that will only happen with the relief well, when a cement plug is put into the bottom of that well, and bp says that procedure should resume on thursday. lester? >> anne, i know they have shied away from exact timetables here, assuming all goes well with this first part, how long to completely seal it off? >> reporter: to completely kill the well, they hope to have that done by the middle of august. that timetable is still on track, lester. >> anne thompson tonight, thank you. >>> a bit later in the broadcast, the youngest victims of the bp oil spill, the kids of the gulf open up about the deep impact it's having on them. >>> earlier this morning outside a connecticut town outside hartford, a driver for a

allen who came in and helped to organize rescue efforts and he did so under katrina. he did so for us. but if you look, we had immediately, thousands of vessels, tens of thousands of people who are here. and what we're seeing now is we've got a lot more work to do. but the fact is because of the sturdiness and swiftness of the response, there's a lot less oil hitting these shores and beaches than anybody would have anticipated, given the volume ha was coming out of the bp oil well. >> let's talk about another topic that's part of the firment here. and everywhere. and that's the economy. "the new york times" said this weekend, president obama has another new plan on the economy. now would be a good time to find out about it. do you have anything new on the economy while you've been away, we've had a horrible gdp number last week. >> well, look, we anticipated that the recovery was slowing. the economy is still growing, but it's not growing as fast as it needs to. i've got things right now before congress that we should move immediately. i said so before i went on vacat

and so to that end, today national incident commander thad allen ordered bp to come up with a plan for pressure tests and a way to relieve any additional pressure in the capping stack and blowout preventer and a plan to deal with the thousands of barrels of oil that may be in the well. that's going to push back to date to bottom kill to later next week. >> thank you, anne. >>> there is good news to report tonight from iowa where severe weather earlier this week caused massive flooding and left tens of thousands of people without clean drinking water from the tap. nbc' ron allen is there in ames, iowa, with an update tonight. good evening, ron. >> reporter: good evening to you, kate. the good news is the weather has been good here, no rain. and the floodwaters around town have dropped considerably. there's still a problem here, though, at iowa state university. behind me, they are pumping water out of the bowels of a huge sports arena here on campus. that process is going to go on for sometime. they're also drying out several buildings here on campus. but school officials are confident

today admiral thad allen, though, said better safe than sorry and he ordered work on the relief wells to continue. that's expected to take several more days. the president, i'm sure, is hoping it will be completed this weekend when he and the first family are in the gulf for a brief visit. they'll be on the ground for only 27 hours. the white house says it's not really a vacation; it's really an opportunity for the president to tell the nation that the gulf is open for business. they don't go on their real vacation until the entire family leaves for martha's vineyard next week for ten days. erica? >> hill: chip reid, thanks. there's late word from the white house in a speech this evening, president obama came out in support of muslim americans who want to build a mosque and islamic center just blocks away from the world trade center site in new york. it's a controversial issue, but the president said muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in the country. we are learning more tonight about the man suspected in a deadly stabbing spree across three states.

the federal government's point man, thad allen, said today a relief well is now within 100 feet of the main shaft. if all goes as planned by the end of this week, engineers could begin pumping mud and cement into it to kill that well for good. meanwhile, a jetblue flight ran into turbulence today on the ground. the plane from pittsburgh had just landed in new york city when a flight attendant got into a heated argument with a passenger. one thing led to another, the flight attendant got on the p.a. and cursed at all the passengers then he pulled the emergency chute, slid off the plane and fled. the flight attendant, 39-year- old steven slater, was arrested at his home. he's charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. and still ahead, he says the best gift he ever got is the one he gave away. steve hartman's "assignment america" is next. america" is next. each brita filter can take i know who works differently than many other allergy medications. hoo? omnaris. [ men ] omnaris -- to the nose! [ man ] did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic infl

we were we had been waiting for word thad allen that allen that the well was killed once and for nder, this we got a firm reminder, however, that this is not over until its in . let's go to matt gutman in oil?siana tonight. concern about more oil? >> reporter: they are, david. delaa lot, but enough to delay te final kill of this well by about five days now. about fi scientists believe there may be elieve gallons of oil still trapped in the well. 40,000 gallons the question is, how do you trap extract it without letting that oil leak again into the gulf? close, but not yet. >> everybody is in agreement, we need to proceed with the relief well. >> reporter: the well is dead, cally dead. but it may have some venom left. a pocket of trapped of about 40,000 gallons pipingmay be trapped between outerner piping of the well and its outer casing. that could stall efforts to remove the blowout preventer, es that failedall stack of valves, that failed to close at leak.irst sign of a leak. ve when you went in to remove he b.o.p. stack, would you, in act, have the potential for this static oil beh

admiral thad allen is the government's pointsman on the disaster. he says the procedure to permanently kill that damaged oil well could begin after labor day. >>> 8:46. pg&e has agreed to look at a number of potential sites away from homes for proposed high- powered facilities. pg&e planned to build the substation on mitchell lane and windsor but residents packed a town hall meeting last night upset that the facility will be built next to their neighborhood. they feared potentially -- potential explosions, among other stakes. the town council rescinded the previous support for the location. now the utility is reviewing other options. >>> a small community in unincorporated santa clara county is at the heart of a turf battle between san jose and the city of campbell. some residents of the 103- achesser parsle say they have no interest in being an -- parsle say -- some campbell residents say san jose is no in -- is in no way financially to offer these services. >> they are not gonna help us. >> to prepare for this, my husband and i have taken cpr clas

thad allen called the effort a positive step forward. using the relief well that's being drilled right now. >> it's been a long time drilling the casing pipe from below, filling that with mud and filling that with cement is the solution to all of this. there should be no ambiguity about that. >> we have long term impacts, we need to be sobered by the fact that while the oil has stopped and we're not dealing with a day-to-day threat, we need to assess a long term impact on our ecology. >> reporter: today bp announced a new team will speedily release payment to those affected. >> this government will not walk away from the obligations to continue protecting the coastline. continue cleaning up the damage that has been done. billing bp for that damage. >> reporter: now this latest work could be complete by tonight or tomorrow. these pictures that you see here of that underwater camera. new numbers from a federal task force now show that about 206 million-gallons of oil flowed from that well between april and mid-july. more than 33 million-ga

. >> today thad allen said with the oil leak just about controlled, the focus of the shore will switch. >>> george w. bush is set to visit haiti tomorrow. the former president plans to take a look at the rebuilding effort after the earthquake in january devastated the country. he plans to visit with haitians and volunteers helping in the effort. he and bill clinton have rayed fund for haiti's redevelopment. >>> claims of cruelty. we have both side of the argument whether it comes to elephants at the circus and how they are treated. >>> right now it's a little pit hectic not knowing the answer -- a little bit hectic not knowing the answer. >> it's a controversial and legal matter. a judge overturned the ban last week but it's still not clear when gay couples can legally maury again. john sasaki is live in san francisco tonight with reaction from both sides. john? >> reporter: maureen, father day of weddings here at city hall, another day of same-sex couples sitting on the sidelines. the community has to wait at least one more day for the chance to get married. city hall was busy with pe

retired coast guard admiral thad allen said regulators did in the ignore environmental guidelines. response follows a congressional report that is critical of bp's use of chemicals on the gulf slick. epa says the dispersants used were appropriate and an essential tool in limiting the spill as impact. long-term effects of dispersants on sea life are unknown. >>> fire season has been quiet so far, but bay area firefighters are warning that could change in an instant. >>> nearly two dozen people in austin, texas are rushed to the hospital after a balcony tears away from the side of a condominium. >>> free vaccinations in a bay area community at the time when the state is facing a whooping cough epidemic. the 10:00 news continues in 90 seconds. . >>> you would likely know that temperatures have been cooler than normal around the bay area this summer and it's been relatively quiet fire season, but as ktvu's john sasaki reports, firefighters are warning that all could change very quickly. >> reporter: cal fire is keeping its crews sharp for the big game, which could come at any time. tod

. >> reporter: thad allen says it'll take several days for the cement to dry. once the relief well is completed, b-p will pour another round of mud and cement into the well. only after that process proves successful in sealing any leak, will they declare the threat from the massive oil spill to be over. >> keep it right here, ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00 is up next. >>> a man who committed a horrible crime in this san francisco neighborhood finally learns what his sentence will be, that story is next. >>> a parolee who randomly stabbed a 16-year-old girl and the man who tried to save her life was sentenced today. today we'll hear from a hero turned victim and family members. >>> and 24 hours after propeight was overturned, when will couples be able to marry. >>> good evening i'm heather holmes. >> and i'm frank somerville. scott thomas was sentenced today for life in prison for stabbing a girl and a 60-year- old man who risked his own life to come to her rescue. sal castaneda was in

then, a gulf coast update with retired admiral thad allen. after that, vice-president biden speaks at the summit meeting of the democratic national committee. secretary of state hillary clinton says direct talks between israeli and palestinians will begin september 2 in washington. leaders from both sides will attend a white house dinner the day before president obama. the state department has set a one-year time limit on the talks. at this briefing, we her first from secretary clinton followed by a special middle east envoy george mitchell. this is 35 minutes. most recent developments in our pursuit of middle east peace. the secretary will begin with a brief statement. george mitchell will stay behind to answer your questions. and we are joined today by your colleagues in the white house press corps up in martha's vineyard and we'll be sharing the -- they'll be sharing the q&a duties with you. but we'll start with secretary clinton. >> i don't like that idea. they're in martha's vineyard. [laughter] >> i will appoint a negotiator to deal wit

. >> reporter: after a round of tests on the floor of the gulf admiral thad allen says work isn't quite finished yet. >> we're trying to assess the options we have. >> reporter: engineers say the static kill worked so kel that the mud and cement likely went down into the reservoir below the floor of the gulf and up through the area between the pipe and casing called the anulyst. as much as a thousand barrels are trapped. there is concern it could force it out and into the gulf. this morning engineers are still looking for a fix. >> we could even put another blow-out preventer on because we've sealed the well at this point. that would take a longer period of time so. we're walking through the risks and the time associated with that, we have weather out there. it's the same southwest circumstances we dealt with almost every step. >> reporter: louisiana governor wants to make sure they understand it's not the last step in the recovery. >> the progress they made with the well is good news for our state but this is a marathon, the fight is not over. >> reporter: many worry the fight to resto

commander thad allen said tests are underway to determine if bp can proceed with its static kill plan. that can take longer than two days. dispersants used to break up the oil were no more toxic than the oil itself. >>> federal scientists estimated 5 million-barrels of oil have leaked out of the well since the deadly explosion on april 20. of that amount, about 800,000 barrels were recovered. it appears the flow diminished over time, starting at about 62,000 barrels a day and ending at about 53,000 barrels a day. >> airlines canceled several flights from the bay area in the past few days because of financial problems. today the airline canceled a flight and according to a airport spokesperson, it dropped one of its two flights over the weekend. they also canceled flights from oakland and san francisco international airports. a number of reports say they are trying to rework labor contracts and is considering filing for bankruptcy. >>> tomorrow, oakland international airport will start using body scanners. they'll roll out the scanner in terminal one. passengers will have the option of

commander thad allen said tests are underway to determine if bp can proceed with its static kill plan. that can take longer than two days. dispersants used to break up the oil were no more toxic than the oil itself. >>> federal scientists estimated today almost 5 million-barrels of oil have leaked out of the well since the deadly explosion on april 20. of that amount, about 800,000 barrels were recovered. it appears the flow diminished over time, starting at about 62,000 barrels a day and ending at about 53,000 barrels a day. >> airlines canceled several flights from the bay area in the past few days because of financial problems. today the airline canceled a flight and according to a airport spokesperson, it dropped one of its two flights over the weekend. they also canceled flights from oakland and san francisco international airports. a number of reports say they are trying to rework labor contracts and is considering filing for bankruptcy. >>> tomorrow, oakland international airport will start using body scanners. they'll roll out the scanner in terminal one. passengers will have

thad allen made it clear a permanent fix is going to take longer. the decision was made to continue drilling the relief well and bottom kill. >> we are trying to assess the options we have. everybody is in agreement to proceed with the relief well. we could put another blow out preventer on. it would take a longer period of time. >> engineers are deciding what the next step in the process may be. they hope to have answers sometime this weekend. >>> the general in iraq says plans to pull out combat troops by september are still on schedule. he's confident, by the end of the month, iraqi forces will be ready for the draw down. it leaves 50,000 troops for the draw down. >>> coming up tonight, the street musician who used summer break to help more than 1,000 bay area families. >>> homeowner hem for california's unemployed. when checks might be in the mail. >>> the game is about to begin. a crucial three-game series it is. the giants and drpa.es padres. no pressure on the starter. he's predicted a sweep this weekend. [ female announcer ] jobs leaving. a

caller: hi, thad allen, how are you? guest: fine. caller: they had some photographers out there taking pictures of the gulf, that all they had of the oil were the beaks. it was the saddest thing. the use this for photography issues, how bad it was. what about the wells and the fish and all of that? the ocean in these areas are going to be polluted for a very long time. host: marine life. guest: we are very concerned about marine life. it goes beyond that. we have at days and marshes where we have breeding grounds. the brown pelican breeding grounds, southwest louisiana, and other species out there. this is a great avian highway as well. we have marine mammals, turtles that have been impacted. noaa as part of their responsibility for the national fisheries service the the wildlife, and the rest of it is under the fisheries and wildlife service and the department of interior. we get several organizations involved in this and we have a wildlife recovery station in louisiana. we are doing everything we can to assist these animals when th

carol browner, admiral thad allen -- retired admiral thad allen -- as well as noaa administrator dr. jane lubchenco, who will walk us through and update us on where we are in the federal response, walk through an interagency scientific report on where the oil is and the process that it's gone through. i think you all heard the president discuss today that -- and i'll have these guys discuss sort of where we are in the static kill, which is good news, and it is sort of the beginning of the end of the sealing and containment phase of this operation. i want to be, though, very clear, as the president was, that our commitment to those families, to those communities in and along the gulf coast remains the same as it always has been. we are transitioning and will transition to a greater focus on cleanup and damage assessment. there is still lots of work to do, and this government will be here every step of the way to do that work. that's an important message from the president. it's important that it is heard here, and, as importantly, if not more so, heard in the gulf. so this gives us a

word from all of this is that the government's point man, the guy we've been hearing from so often, thad allen, he is now saying, no time line, we can't give a fixed time line because the reality is that things keep getting pushed back and it affects our credibility. >> people on the gulf hear those horror stories about other spills and 20, 30 years later they still find oil on the rocks and animals, it's scary. this thing's not over. that's probably the safest bet at this point. >>> coming up next, the man who is literally profoundly lovesick. >> the unusual diagnosis and what is happening in his brain. you're watching "world news nononononononononononononononono ♪ love stinks >>> the emotion of love is a powerful thing. it can make you do and feel things you never knew possible. >> for one man the love he feels for his wife can literally paralyze him. here now is cynthia mcfadden. >> reporter: this is what it looks like to be in love. it's a struggle to keep your eyes open. his eyes look heavy. >> yeah, he's having a tough time. >> reporter: it's your neck giving in to gravity. still

national incident commander thad allen says crews are taking every possible precaution to be sure that removing the device won't cause oil to begin leaking again. a so-called fishing procedure will look for the fractured pipe that will help investigators learn more about what went wrong. meantime, a massive underwater cloud of oil resulting from the spill has been found. it's more than a mile wide, and stretches 22 miles in length. >>> rescue operations are still under way in pakistan more than three weeks after devastating flooding began in the country. thousands in southern pakistan have been forced to leave their homes and fend for themselves as floodwaters overtake villages and towns. as nbc's stephanie gos reports, survivors probably won't have much to return to. >> reporter: in southern pakistan, floodwaters continue toin undate villages and form land. the latest evacuees are struggling to survive. i was moved here when my deliver started, this woman says. i gave birth to my child here. more than three weeks after the floods first hit, the world has started to respond. you wanted

incident commander admiral thad allen says crews will test whether bp can proceed with its static kill plan. that process can take more than two days. >> so after the preparations and the injection tests are complete the injection tests find its will be evaluated, that will probably take several hours, then they'll initiate at that point what has been called the static kill. >> reporter: kill. >> in the meantime the e.p.a. released a study of the chemical dispersants used to break up the oil. they said they were no more or less dangerous as the ones used in other wells. >>> a research relationship between bp and uc berkeley is coming under intense criticism. on friday, dozens protested in front of an energy research site upped construction heavily funded by bp. the protestors demanded the university sever ties with bp because of the disaster in the gulf. but uc berkeley officials say the research facility has nothing to do with the oil spill and say the disaster should strengthen the commitment to finding alternatives to fossil fuels. >>> a top government official told international re

are monitoring the pressure between inner piping and the outer casing of the oil well, but admiral thad allen says the way to make sure it is plugged is to drill two relief wells and shoot more mud and cement into the well from underneath. president obama and the first family will take a trip to the gulf coast this weekend, but white house says it is not a vacation. >> the president will meet with wiz and tourism leaders to discuss the impacts that they've seen on their business because of the oil spill. >> the president's goodwill trip comes just before the opening of shrimp season in the gulf, which kicks off on monday. in a recent study, economic experts predicted that the effects of the spill could last for up to three years and cost the area more than $20 billion. >> an internal memo from jetblue appears to contradict some of flight attendant steven slater's story. he gained notoriety when he cursed at passengers over the intercom of a jetblue plane and then slid down an emergency chute to the tarmac. he claims a rude passenger caused him to flip out. but a jetblue memo obtained by

. >>> first he retired as a coast guard admiral and now thad allen says he's ready to retire as the government's point man on the gulf oil spill. allen said today he hopes to hand over the reins by the end of september but first he says that leaking well has to be permanently plugged. allen's been leading the government oversight of the gulf oil spill since may 1. >>> a movement is growing in the bay area to boycott a new potential blockbuster movie. the governor arnold schwarzenegger is in. you'll see why. >>> plus, he's out of jail and in the limelight. the jet blue flight attendant who deployed the emergency slide after fighting with a passenger is attracting a lot of attention today. >>> a call for change tonight when it comes to the coast guard and cell phones. we'll explain. woman: did you bring the camera phone? man: i did. do you wanna go first? i've been waiting for this all day. ok, this is from... aunt stacey. introducing chase quickdeposit. just photograph the front and back of your check using the chase mobile app on your iphone, and hit send. it went through. this is so cool. this

retired coast guard admiral thad allen said regulators did in the ignore environmental guidelines. response follows a congressional report that is critical of bp's use of chemicals on the gulf slick. epa says the dispersants used were appropriate and an essential tool in limiting the spill as impact. long-term effects of dispersants on sea life are unknown. >>> fire season has been quiet so far, but bay area firefighters are warning that could change in an instant. >>> nearly two dozen people in austin, texas are rushed to the hospital after a balcony tears away from the side of a condominium. >>> free vaccinations fiber one chewy bar. how'd you do that? do what? it tastes too good to be fiber. you made it taste like chocolate. it has 35% of your daily value of fiber. do it again. turn it into something tasty. this guy's doing magic. there's chocolate chips in here now. how'd you do that? right! tasty fiber, that's a good one! ok, umm...read her mind. what's she thinking? that's right! i'm not thinking anything! [ male announcer fiber one chewy bars. cardboard no. delicious yes. .