Good evening and once again here tonight we begin with men and women in the u. S. Military being sent off to serve overseas on two big fronts. Today the president said hes sending up to 3,000 americans into africa to join in the fight against ebola, an enemy they cannot see. But first to an enemy operating out in the open. This fight against isis and the debate that broke out again today was whether or not the u. S. Can truly avoid putting troops on the ground. Its where we begin tonight with our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. Reporter is this the beginning of Mission Creep . The president s top general today opening the door to requesting american boots on the ground against isis. If we reach the point where i believe our advisers should accompany iraq troops on attacks against specific isil targets, ill recommend that to the president. Reporter and this. If there are threats to the United States, then i, of course, would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of u. S. Military ground forces. Reporter but the president has repeatedly promised no boots on the ground. These American Forces will not have a combat mission. We will not get dragged into another ground war in iraq. Reporter and telling chuck todd on meet the press the notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground i think would be a profound mistake. Reporter general dempsey even told congress u. S. Troops could be embedded with iraqis on complex missions like retaking mosul. And he said it could take a year to train only 5,000 Syrian Forces to go up against isis in syria, something critics in both parties say should have been done two years ago. Was the president right in 2012 when he overruled his secretary of defense, secretary of state and director of the cia and refused to train and equip the modern Opposition Forces in syria, which, according to your testimony, were doing today . Senator, you know that i recommended that we train them. Reporter isis isnt waiting. Today in a propaganda video claiming it shot down a syrian war plane, a claim nbc news cannot verify, and two branches of al qaeda tweeted a rare joint message urging warring militants in iraq and syria to stop the infighting between you and stand as one rank against americas campaign. Even as the u. S. Escalated its air war, striking isis targets near baghdad. The white house quickly said that general dempseys comments were only hypothetical. And under pressure from the white house, tonight dempseys spokesman said american combat forces are not required now, but he repeated that if the situation calls for combat troops, he will ask for them. Andrea mitchell starting us off in our d. C. Newsroom tonight. Thanks. Now to the second front, this fight against ebola, which as of today became a military matter. As we said, up to 3,000 American Military personnel will be deployed into this hot zone in africa at a starting cost of 600 million, all of it to combat an outbreak the World Health Organization called today, quote, unparalleled in modern times. We get our report tonight from our chief medical editor dr. Nancy snyderman. Reporter the images from west africa are searing. Children alone in the streets, men collapse and left to die. With ebola now spiraling beyond a Health Crisis and into a Global Security threat, president obama said the United States must do more. Ebola is now an epidemic of the likes that weve not seen before. Reporter and so the administration announced today Operation United assistance, sending 3,000 troops including medical, engineering and security forces. Building 17 Treatment Centers in liberia, shipping 10,000 sets of protective equipment and supplies. Training healthcare workers and assisting with security. Weve done it in haiti several times. Weve done it in south america, weve done it in africa before, weve done it in southeast asia. Reporter but this is an infectious hot zone. That is unprecedented. I cant remember a time when we sent troops to do this particular mission. Reporter u. S. Forces will not have any direct contact with ebola patients, but they will be dealing with people who are scared and suspicious of outsiders offering to help. So the question remains whos really in charge . Weve got the russians, the cubans, the japanese, the chinese, the ugandans, the europeans, the canadians, all working on this issue. Whos going to take control . Reporter the virus is spreading much faster than efforts to contain it. Researchers suspect the epidemic started last december with one case in guinea. Now there are nearly 5,000 cases in five african countries. Some experts predict that if we dont get control of the virus, the number of infections could mushroom to nearly 55,000 by next month. Today ebola survivor and missionary dr. Kent brantly met with the president before testifying before congress. I witnessed the horror that this disease visits upon its victims. This is not simply a matter of providing humanitarian aid, it is very much a National Security concern. Reporter the death toll has climbed to over 2500 cases. If there is a Silver Lining in this epidemic, it may be that were finally talking about a real commitment to improving fragile Healthcare Systems in west africa and around the world. Brian. A National Security concern. Thats the takeaway quote. Nancy, thank you, as always. Now to a state of emergency in california where a dozen wildfires are exploding including one so ferocious it torched half of a town turning neighborhoods into ashes. Our own Miguel Almaguer is in the community of weed, california, north of reading, prepared to show us the extent of the devastation there. Miguel, good evening. Reporter good evening. This is the biggest neighborhood in weed. We are just off of oak street. Its an eerie example of what we saw over and over again today. Just yesterday children were playing in this front lawn, their toys are still tossed everywhere. Now home after home obliterated. Jumping from house to house, fanned by 45mileanhour winds over the hill big time. Reporter a hundred structures, nearly a quarter of this small town, was damaged or destroyed. 1500 people scrambled to get out. Horrendous. Absolutely just devastating. Reporter Tammy Gonzalez ran to evacuate children from a nearby school as flames barreled down on them. Did you think you were going to make it out alive . At one point, no. Reporter with smoke choking this community of 3,000, it wasnt until today that the full scope of the damage became clear. The Holy Family Catholic Church is where Corey Rodriguez was baptized. Its like out of a movie, mmhmm. Especially a church where i used to come like every sunday, yeah. Reporter just across the street, the lumber mill, a major employer for the town, was fuel for the fire. Like a firestorm. Reporter the Bernstein Family lost the home their children grew up in. A lot of this, you know, just the sentimental stuff is what cant be replaced. Reporter at 4,000 feet we can still see hot spots on the ground. This fire is still very active. It could change direction and attack homes at any moment. Tonight californias fire season is in full swing. Near sacramento, tense moments when a crew of 12 deployed their fire shelters as flames overran their position. Well need to give them support to get out of there. Reporter the crew rescued, no injuries, but a close call. But in this small town, the damage is done. Everyone knows someone who lost something. Peoples lives are ruined. This town, i dont know if theyre going to be able to recover from this. Reporter recovering is hard to imagine when you see so much destruction in such a small place. So many people we spoke to tonight say theyre not sure if or when they will rebuild. If theres any good news, this place is roughly 20 contained, but brian, it will cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up and rebuild. What an incredible scene there in weed, california, tonight. Miguel, thanks. Well to the south of you in the baja peninsula tonight, herculean cleanup effort under way after hurricane odile turned places like Cabo San Lucas into disaster areas. An entire years worth of rain falling in one storm. Tonight as the remnants of odile move into the continental u. S. Millions in the american southwest are bracing for more dangerous flash floods now. Weather channel meteorologist jim cantore is in tucson for us tonight. Hey, jim, good evening. Reporter good evening, brian. The lot you see behind me was 3 4 full and flow being rapidly as a result of last weeks flood. And theyre hoping for not a repeat of that with this one. Unfortunately, all signs is of the atmosphere point to that. As a matter of fact even today in mesa they were handing out sandbags, something they rarely do in the desert where you get less than ten inches of rain. And thats hoping to avoid, obviously, situations like we had last monday in mesa. I mean, were talking about tremendous flooding. Tucson, phoenix, record rainfall there. As you can see, water rescues all over the place. The track brings the remnants right up into arizona. Its very rare that were in the cone here. Rainfall amounts in tucson, las cruces, roswell, el paso and albuquerque anywhere from 4 to 10 inches, something they would normally see in half a year. Jim cantore, tucson, amazing situation, jim, thanks. We turn to trouble in the nfl and some new voices joining in this nonstop criticism of the league, its players, policy and management. While its true the commissioner Roger Goodell works for the owners, increasingly the customers and the advertisers are being heard as more details in this scandal come out every day. We get the very latest tonight from our National Correspondent peter alexander. Reporter challenging ray rices indefinite suspension, the Nfl Players Union is filing an appeal tonight on behalf of rice. A Union Representative tells nbc news they believe there was not a fair and impartial process before the decision to suspend rice indefinitely, and theyll ask commissioner Roger Goodell to recuse himself from overseeing the appeal. He has enormous power, enormous discretion. So the very fact that the union is asking him to step aside is a fairly direct challenge. Reporter today the Minnesota VikingsAdrian Peterson returned home from the teams facility telling nbc news he plans to practice with his teammates again tomorrow. While the star running back disputing charges that he recklessly injured his 4yearold son while disciplining him, vikings hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton said he was embarrassed by the teams decision to allow peterson to resume playing. Were trying to do the right thing. Reporter hours after its logo appeared behind the vikings general manager, radisson suspended its sponsorship of the team. First sign of erosion from the corporate sponsor spending 1 billion a year. Even budweiser said were not yet satisfied with the leagues handling of matters. The leagues response, were taking action. The nfl is like an Aircraft Carrier hitting a mine. Yes, it blows a hole in the hull, but it keeps on sailing and in a few months you wont even notice that the hole was there. Reporter days after cbs sports yanked a rihanna song from its nfl product cast opting for a more serious opening, the singer blasted the network tweeting, you all are sad for penalizing me for this. Cbs has pulled rihannas song permanently. The nfl deciding the best defense is a good offense. Today they drafted cynthia hogan, a former aid to then senator joe biden, who helped spearhead passage of the violence against women act 20 years ago. So it goes in the world of professional football tonight. Veteran nascar driver tony stewart has returned to the track since the accident that claimed the life of another driver, kevin ward jr. , in that dirt track race in upstate new york. But stewart learned today that his legal troubles are hardly over and may indeed just be starting. The local d. A. Said he will give the case over to a grand jury to decide if stewart should be charged. The prosecutor could have dropped the case on his own but chose to let it proceed. Still ahead for us tonight, edible weed. As the pot business booms in colorado, one particular part of the industry has other states keeping close watch. And later, fresh confirmation of what some veteran married couples have known for years. There may indeed be a secret to wedded bliss. The state of colorado would likely like a word with all the other states that are considering going down the path of legalizing marijuana, and in a word, its caution. Its been a game changer in colorado where adults can now grow and buy and consume something illegal under federal law. It is a huge statewide industry, but there have been some problems. We get our report tonight from nbcs harry smith. Reporter every thursday night theres a party at grow big supply. Free drinks, music and dancers, even a place to smoke. Its a way of saying thank you to the customers for making grow big a giant in the pot growing supply business. Because in colorado these days, you can grow your own. An entry level kit to get into your garden, under 300 bucks. Reporter recreational and medical pot sales in colorado have soared past 300 million in just the First Six Months of the year. Potrepreneurs like Andy Williams cant grow weed fast enough. He describes his store, called medicine man, as the costco of pot. All of this weed that you grow and theres an awful lot of marijuana here yeah. Reporter where does it go . We sell it out of our store. We dont wholesale anything. We grow 100 of what we sell out of our front end. You are clear for takeoff down runway 420. Reporter but if the high rolling marijuana business has hit a bump, its edibles. Very different from smoking. It takes a lot longer through the body. Reporter some firsttime adult users have said edibles have made them paranoid and hallucinatory. Worse still, edibles have gotten into the hands of small children. This is crazy. Because if you have this in your house and your kid got hold of this stuff thats the thing about weed, the kid wont know that its medicated. Parents need to know and be aware that this stuff is not harmless for children. Reporter dr. Sam wong works in the emergency room at colorados childrens hospital. The worst scenarios weve seen are kids actually unable to be aroused, basically in are a coma for all intents and purposes. Weve had a couple kids who needed to have a breathing tube put down. Reporter actually intubated. Intubated thats correct. Reporter wow. What kind of gummies . Blue raspberry. Reporter bob eschino of Incredible Edibles says the industry and the state are working together to make edibles safer. We need to now mark these so that people looking at them will know this the cannabis. Reporter but he says theres only so much the manufacturers can do. Eventually the responsibility has to fall back on the consumer to make sure that they keep it in the childresistant package and they keep it out of the hands of children. Reporter which one would think is a matter of common sense. Harry smith, nbc news, denver. Were back in a moment with a big announcement late today about americas new mission to space. We have an update tonight as part of our coverage on poverty in this country in plain sight. Tonight the first good news in a long while in the fight against poverty. The poverty rate in the u. S. Has dropped for the First Time Since 06. Mind you, there are still 45. 3 Million People living in poverty in this country. That includes nearly 20 of our children, and thats the lowest level since 2000. Nasa announced late today its awarding a dual contract to two companies, boeing and spaceex, to build a rocket to take astronauts into space and on to the International Space station. A couple of points to remember here, sending americans into space is what nasa used to do until the Shuttle Program was stopped three years ago. These days we pay the russians for rides on board the soyuz. 70 million per astronaut. And relations with them, of course, are strained. Our own jay barbary who has covered every manned u. S. Space flight says this is good news indeed for nasa. This announcement tells everyone here that theyre back in the game, their morale will be lifted and theyll be headed down the road back in space on our own vehicle. Truth be told, the nasa rockets of old were the product of many different vendors. Now two big names will split that job. Speaking of space, if you live in the northeast think back to sunday night around 11 00 p. M. Eastern time. Did you notice anything unusual . Well, we now have the video. This one shot from manhattan looking west toward new jersey shows a confirmed meteor which prompted a number of sightings and calls to police. This one was visible from new england south to virginia. The good folks at the American Meteor Society put out this map showing where all the sightings were reported and concentrated. They called it a random fireball event. The truth is they happen every day. Most burn up to a crisp and many of them go unseen due to daylight. And if looking skyward you see what appears to be a flying highlighter, its just Spirit Airlines new look. Paint schemes are called livery in the flying business. Southwest and frontier just changed theirs, and a usa today writer has politely called spirits new livery scheme flamboyant. When we come back on a tuesday night, something some spouses have been saying to the others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. The others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. The others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. A the others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. B the others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. Ou the others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. Others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. Others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. Others for years. And now the researchers tell us its true. Finally tonight, while no two marriages are alike, you would have thought they didnt need a study to confirm the secret to a happy marriage. But they have done it. Turns out theres proof of what a lot of married men have been saying for years. We get our report tonight from nbcs kate snow. Reporter the saying has been around so long its hard to know who started it. Happy wife is a happy life. Happy wife, happy life. Happy wife, happy life. Remember that. Reporter the whole theme immortalized in movies. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants. Reporter but actual science . Thats the new part. Researchers at rutgers and the university of michigan looked at 394 older couples married an average of 39 years. Turns out husbands get an extra special lift in Life Satisfaction when their wives are happy in the marriage. Even those men who in their own eyes saw their marriage as not that great, if the wife views the marriage as really great, that would enhance his overall happiness. I agree with that. The wife has to be happy. If shes happy, it makes were all happy in the family. Reporter we did our own unscientific survey all over the country today. How long are we married . 27 years. Weve been married 48 years tomorrow. 24 years. Reporter so what are the ingredients for a happy marriage . Be willing to give more than you take. Theres always going to be a storm. Theres always going to be rain. However, the secret is dancing in the rain together. And not working the same shift. That helps a lot. Yes. Reporter yes, the science points to differences between husbands and wives, but a lot of people today echoed what the researchers called the biggest lesson of their work happy family equals happy life. I love ya. Yeah, okay. Okay. Reporter kate snow, nbc news, new york. And that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. Thank you for being here with us. Im brian williams. We, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. Goodnight. Right now, 6 00. Youre looking at the flames that swept through the tiny town of weed in no time homes and even a church went up in flames. Good evening. Thanks for being with us. We begin with that developing story. Massive wildfire in northern california. Just moments ago we learned in cal fire that 375 acres have burned. That fire is now 20 contained. The battle now, for many hot spots and the wind. This map shows where weed is located. If you pass it youre heading to oregon on the i5 freeway. Jodie hernandez joins us live in weed with the lay latest. The damage that this fire caused is truly unbelievable. Im going to show you whats left of a power pole out here. This fire melted a down utility lines and if we can pan down you can see what is left of somebodys house. Its not just one house. Were talking house after house after house. Were going to pan down here. This fire leveled blocks of houses here in this city of weed. In fact firefighters say it moved so fast and caused so much destruction in such a short period of time they say it zpt get much worse than. This. It was it was just scary to seat flames. It happened so fast. The wind was so bad 679. It just