nbc's john yang is here in the studio with us having dug into these numbers. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. that's right. every month when we report these numbers we get lots of e-mails. the question you most often ask is among the 13 1/2 million officially unemployed, who's included and who's not included? so we went to find the answer. to calculate the unemployment rate, the government interviewed 60,000 households by phone or in person during the same week each month. they asked are you working or not? if you're not, are you looking for work? it has nothing to do with how many people collect unemployment benefits. >> people whose unemployment insurance has been exhausted are still counted as unemployed as long as they're actively looking for work. >> reporter: not counted as unemployed, people who haven't looked in four weeks. in march, there were 1.5 million. and people who have given up looking altogether because they don't think they can find work. last month, nearly one million. plus the survey asks part-time workers if they want

>> john yang in tokyo for us tonight. john, thank you. >>> in libya tonight, as the gadhafi regime bombards the city of misrata, there are new strains in the nato campaign. as you may know, the rebels have been saying they need more air support, and now both britain and france urge their nato allies, that includes the u.s., to step up this campaign by air against the libyan regime. nato's chief of allied operations disagreed, saying, "we're doing a great job." in egypt former president hosni mubarak is in the hospital with heart problems. he experienced an irregular heartbeat earlier today while being questioned by prosecutors about his role in violence against the protesters we witnessed during that egyptian uprising. >>> and we are hearing tonight from saudi arabia, a nation that has a lot at stake as change rocks across the arab world. late last week on this broadcast you'll recall tom brokaw reported that the saudi arabian monarchy is so unhappy with the obama administration for the way, as they see it, it pushed out

nbc's john yang has our report tonight from tokyo. >> reporter: at 2:46 p.m., sirens marked the moment one month later. from evacuation centers to the prime minister, to the search for the missing, japan paused. 3:30 later, another aftershock, 6.6, unnerving an already traumatized nation. my stress is at its limit, said this evacuee. >> earlier, the president of the company that operates the fukushima plant made his first visit to the area since the disaster. i am truly sorry, he said. local officials refused to meet with him. at the plant, more questions about what to do with an estimated 14 million gallons of highly radioactive water. with no end to the crisis in sight, japanese officials expanded the evacuation zone around the plant to include five more communities. nearly 150,000 people are still without homes, living in evacuation centers like this tokyo sports center. many have no idea where they're going to go next. this man and his wife fled the evacuation zone, but their daughter, a nurse, and their sun-in-law, a telecommunications worker, stayed. they're worried about the rad

john yang starting us off in chicago tonight. john, thanks. >>> now let's go to where the talking is or isn't going on, to capitol hill, and the latest on the state of play there. nbc's kelly o'donnell covering it all. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. both democrats and republicans are telling us they're grinding out some progress, but still no deal. so what poured out here all day is frustration and worry about the consequences john just talked about and who's to blame. so here's how it sounded in the words of your members of congress and the president, who was at a town hall meeting in pennsylvania. >> the least we can do is meet our responsibilities to produce a budget. that's not too much to ask for. that's what the american people expect of us. that's what they deserve. you want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games. >> i like the president personally. we get along well. but the president isn't leading. he didn't lead on last year's budget, and he clearly is not leading on this year's budget.

we start off with two reports, beginning with john yang in st. louis. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. officials say flights here are about 85% to 90% of normal today. tomorrow, they hope to return to 100%, but they say returning the terminal to normal will take months. today, business as usual at the st. louis airport. passengers coming and going as the work week begins. a far cry from how travelers along one row of gates watched the storm bear down on them. a security camera shows the fierce storm turning the concourse into a terrifying wind tunnel, sending big pieces of debris flying through the air. >> there was this gust of wind and then it came up into the checkpoint and windows were cracking and breaking, and glass went everywhere. >> reporter: nearly hamp the terminal's windows shattered, part of the roof peeled off, jetways crushed. >> all the alarms started going off, and people were spooked, and the tsa members came running down saying get into the bathroom. get into the bathroom. >>> at least two planes rode out the twister on

john yang, nbc news, phil campbell, alabama. >> reporter: this is ron mott in mississippi. from tupelo with love. with chicken, burgers, and fixens, too. instead of closing a deal today, marcus mccoy made the 40-minute drive to decimated smithville, family, friends, coworkers, and grill in tow, hungry to help. >> i was sitting, thinking how blessed i was to still be in the land of the living. i said, i need to do something. >> reporter: across the south and beyond where tornadoes paid a visit, volunteers are on the move. communities are swelling in number as newcomers pour in to clean up, quench thirst, salvage the old, find something new, filling whatever need they can. at outpouring of support won't begin to fix what is broken here, and there's plenty broken, but it is outreach that is help mend what is hurting. >> reporter:many donations and aid have been donated by social media like this facebook page trying to reunite owners and their keepsakes. a sonogram photo, a man in uniform, another uniform minus its little boy. mississippi's governor haley barbour said america's

. >> nbc's john yang has been follows all of these stories. bring us up to date. >> well, right now in wisconsin, a court hearing is scheduled to begin. that battle is over the process by which that law was passed, not the law itself. it's whether or not the lawmakers violated the open meeting law. now, the republicans could simply vote again giving the necessary notice of the meeting, but the republican leadership doesn't want to do that. number one, they think it would be an admission they did something wrong and secondly, they don't want to stir things up politically. you've got recall movementes going on against eight republicans and eight democrats in the wisconsin senate as well and that could change the makeup of the senate this fall. ohio is more interesting. the governor signed the bill there into law last night. it won't go into effect for 90 days and during that 90-day period, the unions are going to have a petition drive to try to collect enough petitions to get a repeal referendum on the ballot this fall, this november. if that ha

nbc's john yang has been covering the story and joins me. so far the judge said this law cannot take effect and the ways that you're trying to go around it aren't right either. >> this is the second day she's taken testimony and said the trial may not end today. there may be more. the debate or the issue is not over the substance of the bill but the way it was passed. opponents say that the senate did not -- or violated the open meeting law because they didn't give the public enough notice. the republicans are saying, well, even if we didn't -- even if we didn't do that, a judge can't strike the bill down because of that. so there are lots of issues in this that's going to go beyond this court probably to the state supreme court. >> where do we stand on the ohio battle on bargaining rights? >> governor john kasich signed it into law. it takes 90 days to be effective. in those 90 days the unions are launching a petition drive to get enough votes to put a repeal on the ballot in september. if they succeed this will be a battle royale in a poli

john yang has the latest from tokyo. john, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, tamron. this was just the strongest of several sharp aftershocks today that rattled tokyo and northern japan. there was a tsunami warning that was put into effect but quickly taken down. it did briefly interrupt power at the fukushima power plant where workers are struggling to limit the radiation being emitted from the plant. it came on the same day the government announced they are expanding the evacuation zone around the plant from 12 miles to 20 miles. officials say that things seem to have stabilized at the power plant. things aren't getting worse anymore, but it will be quite ale while before things start getting better. tamron? >> john yang live for us in tokyo. >>> after fierce fighting this weekend gadhafi has told the african union that he supports a cease-fire, but rebels are sticking to their demands that he step down immediately. stephanie gosk is in benghazi t with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, tamron. there is a protest that is growing outside of our hote

>> john yang live in tokyo. thank you. >>> toyota will suspend some european factory operations for several days due to the disaster in the home country of japan. the world's largest automaker has stalled production until at least early may. nissan and honda have also been forced to slow output volumes in europe. >>> now to a check of u.s. markets. cnbc's erin burnett is at the new york stock exchange. good to see you. >> you, too. earnings are the most important thing. jp morgan reporting better than expected sales and profits. all eyes here will be on the president's speech at 1:30 eastern about his plan to reduce the deficit. the debt ceiling remains front and center here. the government borrows money all the time. this week we're borrowing $66 billion. so far investors not demanding higher interest rates to lend to the united states. but we'll have another so-called auction today, things that seem else teric, but with this talk, this is the front lines of what the debt ceiling means to the country. >> nato i