>>. >> good evening. that delicate operation to place a new cap atop the gushing oil well beneath the gulf of mexico got under way this afternoon. it's a gambit for the time being means there is no cap over the leak. that means thousands of barrels of oil freely pour into the sea. bp says the trade-off is by as soon as next week engineers could have a new tighter-fitting cap in place. one capable of capturing most, if not all the leaking oil. it's an operation fraught with risks and outlined with plenty of caveats, but it is raising a glimmer of hope tonight amid what had been a blackened tide of mostly bad news. anne thompson is in venice, louisiana, with the greatest for us. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. there is a whole lot of hope riding on that work going on at the leak side tonight. an ironic and disheartening twist for the people of louisiana, bp says to do a better job of containing the oil, it must first let more oil, in fact a lot more oil flow out. today remotely operated vehicles took off the cap, dramatically increasing the amount of oil gushing into the gulf. this is the first stepped in a process to install a better-fitting cap, a sealing cap, the center piece of the plan for a new more effective containment system. >> i think the big way to look at it is over the next four to seven days we should get that sealing cap on. that's our plan. >> reporter: during that time, much of the oil will flow unimpeded. some will be collected and burned off by the q-4,000. tomorrow bp hopes to get the helix producer working that will join "discoverer enterprise," potentially tripling the 25,000 barrel a day collection average of the old system. >> so ever the next two weeks or so, we'll get to a total of 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day of containment. >> reporter: if things go according to plan, the q-4000 will then leave. until the containment system captures every drop of oil, this is what the gulf can expect. instead of white caps, oil caps, waves of crude ruining the water and the coast. on day 82, along a six-mile stretch we found oil in small pieces. three miles from the mouth of the mississippi river, but no cleanup vessels. a disheartening sight for charter boat company james peters. >> there's nobody. no planes, no nothing. this is dropping the ball. this is about to coat the whole coastline. >> reporter: today health and human service kathleen sebelius met with the men and women cleaning up the grand isle. >> the last thing we want is that the workers who are in charge of the cleanup then are made sicker by the work they do. i think that balance, that occupational safety issue is really important. >> reporter: now, the federal government says it is going to monitor the health of those cleanup workers for both the short-term and long-term. i can tell you that for the next week, the world's attention will be riveted to the work that's going on 5,000 feet under the sea. lester? >> anne thompson tonight, thanks. the patchwork of oil soiled prime fishing grounds but left small pockets untouched for now. federal officials say tests of seafood along the fringes of the spill are safe to eat. good news for shah rimmers and fishermen still managing to stay afloat. thanh truong went out with some of them on the water. >> reporter: 45-year-old nicky was going shrimping the first time since the oil spill. at sunrise he heads 20 miles southwest to black bay, where state fishing ban has been lifted for now. nicky can finally lower his nets. >> when i pick these nets up and see the shrimp live, see the fish live, i see the crabs alive, it means a lot to me it means a lot to me in my heart. this is the best it gets for us right here. this is our life. this is our profession. this is our livelihood and our heritage. >> reporter: this is the height of the season for catching brown brazilian shrimp. these waters would normally be crowded with boats. there are a lot of fishermen and shrimpers out of work or working to fight the oil. >> once we beat the oil we'll be back fishing again. >> reporter: that's your hope? >> it's bottom line. >> reporter: for the past month he used his boat to run supplies for bp. >> i've still got to provide for my family. that's the reason you have to be with bp. you have to. >> reporter: it's a paycheck, but it does than make up for the money he lost or time he lost out here where dolphins are companions. a third generation shrimper, this means everything to nicky. >> our shrimp is fine, our crabs are fine. everything is good here right now. what the future holds, none of us know. >> reporter: not knowing how long it will last this day has been a long time coming. thanh truong, nbc news, st. bernard parish, louisiana. turning to afghanistan and the hard fight against the taliban, five more americans were killed in action today in a series of attacks. jim meceda has been reporting from afghanistan and is back in kabul tonight. >> reporter: in the east near the border of pakistan, three were killed today, two by insurgent gunmen, one by road tide bomb. others on patrol in southern afghanistan. two dozen have been killed in the first ten days of july's lone and that follows the deadly month of june, which we reported showed that record 103 u.s. fatalities. u.s. commanders continue to warn that casualties are going to get worse because coalition forces are now taking the fight to the taliban and al qaeda in kandahar province, their backyard. u.s. commanders are saying they are hurting the enemy, having killed or captured hundreds of insurgents in a series of nighttime raids over the past couple of weeks. some of these raids have certainly backfired. today hundreds of afghans took to the streets in the northern city, protesting what some u.s. officials are calling the unintentional deaths of afghan security guards during a joint raid. the goal of the surge is to bring trust and confidence to the afghan people through better security. increasingly, that's looking like it's having the opposite effect. >> jim meceda in afghanistan. president obama promised new help today to veterans of began dpan and all other wars. he announced plans to make it easier for or men and women in uniform to qualify for benefits if they suffer what is known as post traumatic stress disorder. >> i don't think our troops should have to keep notes in case they feed to apply for a claim. i met enough veterans to know that you don't have to engage in a fire fight to endure the trauma of war. so we are changing the way things are done. >> mike viqueira is at the white house. what does the president plan to do? >> reporter: there are 400,000 american veterans now with ptsd. what the president is doing is recognizing that one doesn't have to be in direct combat under fire to feel those feelings of fear, hopelessness and horror typical of ptsd. up until now a veteran would have to document that moment in combat that brought on the disorder. what would change is the veterans affairs administration is going to deem that these situations in afghanistan and iraq are stressful enough. those roadside bombs or facing an enemy that melgts into the civilian population. those situations in and of themselves and not just direct combat are stressful enough to bring on ptsd. that means much quicker diagnosis and benefits from those suffering from the disorder. >> mike viqueira, thank you. to a grim marker of time. monday will be six months since that earthquake devastated haiti killing 200,000 people and leaving survivors in a desperate situation. nbc's robert bazell reported from port-au-prince in the early days of the disaster. tonight he has returned to haiti. as we hear now, life there is far from normal. >> reporter: almost six months after the earthquake, the situation here if haiti is grim. 1.5 million people are homeless living in more than a thousand camps like this one. some have tents but most live in structures made of wood, plastic, corrugated iron, mostly things salvaged from damaged homes. the one piece of good news has been the children. most of them have been inoculated against infectious diseases by international aid organizations. those i am aid organizations provided clean water and sanitation, preventing the outbreak of infectious disease many people feared. still all the aid has been me messively uncoordinated. many gave less than promised. the government has been criticized by most haitian citizens being massively ineffective. many people believe this refugee crisis will continue for many years. back to you, lester. >> robert bazell in haiti for us. with the political season heating up there is a new buzz about sal-in palin. she released a new slick campaign video aimed at a voting block. nbc's norah o'donnell has our story. >> reporter: sarah palin has gone from hockey mom -- >> they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? lipstick. >> reporter: to calling herself mama grizzly in this new internet ad. >> here in alaska i think of the mama grizzly bears that rise up on their hind legs when somebody is coming to attack their cubs. >> reporter: this is the year when conservative women will get things done. >> it seems like it's a mom aweakening in the last 1 1/2 years where women are rising up saying, no, we had enough already because moms just know when something's wrong. >> reporter: palin is once again going on the offensive with a rally cry specifically directed at women. >> all across this country women are standing up and speaking out for commonsense collusions. >> reporter: if she can motivate conservative women to vote, it could be politically powerful. already, palin helped a large number of republican women running for office. >> look out, washington. there's a whole stampede of pink elephants crossing the line. >> reporter: pink elephants. >> can you hear me? >> reporter: republican women like nicky haley for governor in south carolina, suzanna martinez in new mexico and mary fallon for governor in oklahoma. still, some wonder why she put together such a high-caliber campaign style video, whether it's part of a new effort to rebuild her image for a presidential run in 2012. >> i was a skeptic if she ran she would be strong this. 's gone a long way changing my view. there is nobody else thinking of running for president as a republican who can touch what she did as a performer in that video. >> how is that hopi-changy stuff working out for you? >> reporter: if she wants to run for president she would have to repair her approval ratings. 69% thing she is not qualified to be president. whatever palin's political ambitions, it's clear this year she wants to send a message. >> we don't like this fundamental transformation. >> reporter: norah o'donnell, nbc news, washington. vice president joe biden is known for being quick with a quip. sometimes to the consternation of this is boss. last night biden appeared on "the tonight show with jay leno." it was his take on the russian spy scandal that brought down the house. >> this russian woman here. do we have any spies that hot? >> let me make it clear, it wasn't my idea to send her back. when "nightly news "snmt continues, a growing number of americans are taking the free rent approach not paying the mortgage, but not moving out. later, strange but true. a turtle makes a video that goes viral. that's just the start of a lost and found tale. from our diet to help reduce that risk. fortunately, there's caltrate. as we get older, our bodies steal calcium from our bones. caltrate helps replenish the calcium we lose. with 1200 mg of calcium, plus advanced levels of vitamin d to help reduce your risk of osteoporosis. it's never too early or too late for caltrate. and now big news -- the same caltrate comes in a new, smaller, easy to swallow pill. oh no, no! i just parked here aond ago! give me a brk, will you? (announcer dr. scholl's masg gel soles with t different gels for softness and support... ...are outrageously comfortable. ...on second thought, i think i'll walk... (announcer) are u gellin'? dr. scholl [ deb ] people don't just come to ge capital for money. they come to us for help. at ge capital, we've been financing taylor guitars for over eight years, helping them build a strong dealer network. bringing music to people... i like that. ♪ ♪ [ bob ] i didn't know you could play. i didn't either. ♪ sure. and, mom, did you know that in every bowl of chef, there is a full serving of -- [ gasps ] has veg-- nope. [ female announcer ] there's a full serving of vegetables in every bowl of chef boyardee big beef ravioli. shh. of chef boyardee big beef ravioli. gecko: yeah... fastest growing for the past 5 years! obviously people love saving money. woman: welcome to the conference. here's your nametag, sir... annnd for you. gecko: uh... no i'll be ok, thanks. woman: but how will people know who you are? gecko: uh... you mean "the gecko"? woman: here lemme help you. gecko: really it's... really it's fine, (laughs) yeeaahhhh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. i had a heart problem. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen. i just didn't listen until i awoke with pains in my chest. i almost lost my life. my doctor's again ordered me to take aspirin. and i do. i make sure that he does it. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone, so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ mike ] i encourage everyone to listen to the doctor. and take it seriously. [ male announcer ] learn more about protecting your heart at iamproheart.com. with so many homeowners struggling to avoid homeowner, here is a twist that might surprise you. tens of thousands of people who are squatters in their own homes. they stopped paying the mortgage, but expect to stay for months or years because the system is so clogged with eviction cases. mike taibbi reports. >> reporter: when the recession squeezed alex pemberton's pest control and restoration business down to almost nothing, he and his wife susan faced dae situation either continue paying their florida home's adjustable rate mortgage that ballooned to $2,000 a month or -- >> not pay for the house, save the job, have a place to live six months a year. >> reporter: same choice for alexander gregg whose painting business dried up. still in his home though he stopped paying his mortgage 18 months ago. >> it would buy me some time to be able to go to school and look towards the future. >> reporter: there is not a name for what's happening, strategic default. the homeowner deciding to stop paying anything on the mortgage. they are like the distressed homeowner rick santelli ranted about when he suggested a national referendum last year. >> see if we want to subsidize the losers' mortgages. >> reporter: now replying to lawyers who say if you have no defenses, you can live in your home for years without paying your mortgage. >> i didn't create the system. i am using the system in place. >> reporter: a system choked by startling numbers. in just one florida circuit court, 900 to 1,300 new cases each month. now a 33,000 case backlog. nationally, the time from default to eviction soared from 251 days two years ago to 449 days now, 518 in florida. it's not illegal, but what about the ethics of a strategy to live mortgage-free? >> i'm not going to call anybody a cheat, but i would say they are taking advantage of the system. >> reporter: for the gauge-free, yes. greg couldn't sell his house or rent it. >> do you have critters in your home? >> reporter: alex spends the mortgage money on advertisements. all but stops certain eviction later if not sooner. up next tonight, slipping through the cracks. how did a suspected serial killer fly under the radar for so long? i'm going to start the activia 14-day challenge today. problems that i have are, you know, irregularity... i do have some doubts if it works. i think it's really good. um... i like the flavors. i think from being a skeptic in the beginning i do think that activia actually works. help regulate your digestive system. take the activia challenge. it works or it's free. ♪ activia sweet & salty nut bars... they're made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so i can join the fun at my family barbeque. (announcer) for people with copd, including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, great news. advair helps significantly improve lung function. while nothing can reverse copd, advair is different from most other medications because it contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator, working together to help you breathe better. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. i'm glad you came, grandma. oh, me too. if copd is still making it hard to breathe, ask your doctor if including advair will help improve your lung function for better breathing. (announcer) get your first full prescription free and save on refills. los angeles police tonight are providing new information about what is being called the case of the grim sleeper. that's what they nicknamed a notorious killer suspect able to allude police more than two decades. now they think they finally got him. as george lewis explains, a piece of pizza ended their manhunt. >> reporter: people who know him say it's hard to believe lonny franklin is the guy police suspect of being the grime sleeper serial killer. >> talkative, sweet. he was funny. >> reporter: he was the man who made a living fixing cars for people in the neighborhood. >> my sister was killed in 1988 by this alleged guy here. just one day she said she was going to the store. walked away and we hadn't seen her since. >> reporter: now franklin has been charged with murdering ten women and police are trying to connect him to as many as 30 other killings. so how did he allude police for so long and how did he get caught? >> this case was solved because of what was done over the last several years in this unique arena of forensic science, specifically dna. >> reporter: first police couldn't match dna at the murder scenes to any suspects. franklin had been arrested 15 times in 40 years, but his crimes were never considered serious enough to send him to state prison where he would have had to give dna samples. >> we tried different avenues. he outsmarted us 24 years. >> reporter: one turned out to be a brand-new technology called familial dna. while there was no dna sample for franklin if any police data base, when his son was recently arrested, powerful computers said the son's dna was related to the dna at the grim sleeper crime scenes. police began taling franklin and obtained his dna from a partially eaten pizza. >> this is a landmark case. this will change the way policing is done in the united states. >> reporter: franklin has not yet entered a plea. i'll be arraigned august 9th. george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. when we come back, the angeles. when we come back, the ultimate home video. extracare advantage for diabetes womaust jd at cvs/pharmacy. i'm taking the right steps to manage my diabetes and my budget. extracare advantage for diabetes is a new program that helps me save money and earn double bucks on over 100 items, so we can stay a step ahead of... all: our diabetes! join extracare advantage for diabetes today and receive a free gift when you enroll. only at cvs/pharmacy. ...into a free year's supply? be one of thousands to win free honey nut cheerios for an entire year... its great taste helps make lowering cholesterol a non-challenge. just see specially marked boxes for details. no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah but i'm new too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank we treat all our customers fairly. with no teaser rates... ... and no minimum deposits. it's just the right thing to do. sure. and, mom, did you know that in every bowl of chef, there is a full serving of -- [ gasps ] has veg-- nope. [ female announcer ] there's a full serving of vegetables in every bowl of chef boyardee big beef ravioli. shh. the medicine in advil is their #1 choice for pain relief. more than the medicines in tylenol or aleve. use the medicine doctors use for themselves. one more reason to make advil your #1 choice. finally tonight, with all the bad news we had it's nice to have a feel-good story about the gulf. it involve as turtle, camera and modern-day message in a bottle. chris jansing explains. >> reporter: our story of underwater intrigue begins this past may. when the calm waters of key west washed ashore a tent liesing mystery. >> what caught my eye was the bright red color here. >> reporter: paul schultz was on the job as a coast guard investigator looking for tar balls from the bp oil spill. >> let's say i didn't find any tar balls. what i found was a camera floating in the water down here slapping up against the rocks. >> reporter: a red nikon with dozens of photos. in a fascinating twist, an underwater video that schultz realized was than taken by a person but by a sea turreting. >> somewhere along the way, his fin got caught in the strap or maybe while he was trying to eat it, the camera turned on. this film is shot, directed and starred by a sea turtle. which is unbelievable. >> reporter: dubbed turtle cam it became a youtube sensation with millions of hits in a few weeks. so the mystery of the movie maker was solved, but who owned the camera that washed up on the beach? as a professional investigator, paul schultz had to know. in his time off kept searching. he post-ed photos on scuba and travel websites where leaders latched on to small details like the tail number of this plane, blue domes in the background of this photo, and finally when a woman surfing the nets recognize the kids m this photo he tracked down a sergeant in the royal dutch navy who lost the camera on dive in aruba. apparently it got caught in the loop current traveling through the caribbean and gulf of mexico before landing in the southern-most tip of florida. six months and 1,700 miles later, he was astonished to get his camera back. >> we will drink a beer with him. and going to talk about this amazing story. >> reporter: a story with yet one more mystery. we never see the turtle's face. the accidental auteur who doesn't know he is a star. chris jansing, nbc news, new york. >> how about that? that's nbc "nightly news" for this saturday. i'm lester holt. see you tomorrow morning on "today." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com