any day without those clouds of oil gushing into the gulf of mexico, is a good day. if you don't count the three-month's supply of oil already in the water. but as we've been saying, this cap on the well isn't permanent. that solution is still a ways off. when another source of oil was discovered nearby, bp said today that was another old well, they believe. and we've learned in the last 24 hours they're at least considering another method of killing the big well. this one, of course, with a new name. tieing it all together for us tonight starting us off, anne thompson in venice, louisiana yet again. anne, good evening? >> reporter: good evening, brian, the pressure is creeping up very slowly inside that cap. so the government gave an okay for another 24 hours of testing to try to get more information about just exactly what the condition of the well is. this as bp proposed yet another plan to try to stop the flow of oil. in and around the sealing cap holding back the crude, there are five leaks. this afternoon, thad allen described them as drips. >> we found nothing that would be consequential to the integrity of the well head today. >> reporter: the mystery of the seepage discovered two miles from the well head is solved. the source is not bp's well, but a different well in the area. as the relief well nears its target, bp wants to try a different type of top kill, called static kill. >> the static kill operations are ongoing right now and we'll have a better idea over the next 24 hours what the plan by bp will be regarding that. >> reporter: they want to fill the blowout preventer with the sealing cap closed. to do that, it needs the government's approval. >> if it's approved to do so, it's a 100% chance we'll go ahead with it. i think we'll have covered all the risk analysis procedures. >> reporter: today louisiana's governor flew over the leak seed. the cleanup work along the coast is in many ways just beginning. >> even best case scenario, there's tens of millions of gallons of oil still in that water, even if another drop doesn't spill from the well site. >> reporter: now, bp's bill for the cleanup is almost $4 billion and growing, so today bp sold assets in the united states, canada and egypt to the apache corporation for some $7 billion. brian? >> anne thompson starting us off from louisiana tonight. anne, thanks. a related story in a way. the new british prime minister david cameron is on his first official trip to washington, and front and center today, were questions about bp having to do with libya and not louisiana, specifically, it's possible involvement in the release of the terrorist bomber behind the pan am 103 lockerbie disaster. chuck todd with us from the north lawn tonight, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the so-called special relationship between the united states and great britain has been tested of late thanks to the actions by a company formally known as british petroleum. david cameron addressed nose e controversies at a joint press conference today with president obama. >> i completely understand the anger that exists right across america. the oil spill in the gulf of mexico is a catastrophe. let us know confuse the oil spill with the libyan bomber. >> reporter: and yet cameron was peppered with questions about whether bp played any role in the scottish government's decision to release the libyan convicted of the 198 bombing of pan am flight 103. >> the decision to release megrahi was a decision by the scottish government. >> reporter: he said he will not call for any new investigation, but he is going to get peppered about this by senators from new york and new jersey later tonight. because chuck schumer would like to see a broader investigation of bp either across the pond or here in the united states. >> chuck todd at the white house for us. to a story that's been changing by the hour all day long. it started yesterday really when the obama administration moved with lightning speed to dismiss a mid level official with the u.s. department of agriculture. in a controversy over what appeared to be damaging racist remarks captured on videotape, and then posted on a conservative blog. tonight we have learned a lot more about the story, and about the woman in question. we begin our coverage of this fast-moving story with nbc's savannah guthrie. she's in the white house briefing room in the west wing. savannah, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the decision to fire this official shirley sherrod was solely at the discretion of the agricultural secretary tom vilsack. the president was briefed afterwards and fully supports the decision. it's the video that became an overnight internet sensation. posted on a conservative website, it shows shirley sherrod at an naacp dinner in march of this year describing her initial reluctance to help a white farmer who came for aid. >> i was struck by the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland. and here i was faced with having to help a white person save their land. so i didn't give him the full force of what i could do. >> reporter: sherrod says the incident she was describing occurred more than 20 years ago, before she worked for the usda. a story she told as an example of overcoming her own prejudices. >> that's when it was revealed to me that it's about poor. versus those who have. >> in telling that story how i changed while wokking with him. i used that to help others see, it's not about race. >> reporter: the reaction was swift and certain. the usda asked her to resign. sherrod said she was driving when she got the call yesterday afternoon from an agricultural official in washington. >> she said, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and submit your resignation. it was just unbelievable. it was just unbelievable. >> reporter: in a statement today, tom vilsack stood by his decision saying we have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at usda and this controversy could make it more difficult. but the farmer who was treated unfairly stood by sherro today. >> i appreciate everything she done for us, and we got our farm back. >> reporter: a statement was released yesterday calling sherrod's statements shameful. but after looking at the full tape of those remarks, added it had been snookered by fox news and the blogger who first posted portions of that statement. another story involving race and politics. it's been gaining traction and attention. this started with amateur video of two men standing at the entrance of a philadelphia polling place during the last presidential election. one of them was holding a club, many of those who have seen the video see it as a clear case of voter intimidation at a polling place. the justice department did not. they dropped the case without saying much about it. more on that story tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams at the justice department tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this does involve a case of what some see as voter intimidation outside of a predominantly african-american polling place nearly two years ago. the issue is what the justice department did about it. a video shot by a mccain campaign volunteer on election day 2008 in philadelphia shows two members of the new black panther party in paramilitary style uniforms standing at the entrance to a polling place, one holding a night stick. >> i think it may be a little intimidating that you have a stick in your hand. >> reporter: a controversy of what happened next has erupted on talk radio and cable. >> we have a doj whistle blower who is alleging there is a discriminatory policy in effect right now. >> right. >> reporter: in january 2009 the justice department sued the two men along with the new black n panther party for intimidation. they are proceeding only against the man with the night stick. a federal judge barred him from displaying a weapon near a polling place. a former justice department lawyer who worked on the case accuses the obama administration for refusing to stand up for the rights of white voters. >> in the south, you would have had klan rallies at the polls. >> reporter: justice department officials say an investigation toned up no evidence of involvement by the new black panther party itself. but the civil rights commission has launched an investigation saying the case raises grave questions. even so, one of its republican appointed members calls the case trivial. >> i said to people who are making a big deal of it, get a grip, folks. >> reporter: abigail thurnstrom says the government's original decision went too far. >> this is not a slam dunk at all. we do not have any evidence of actual voter intimidation. >> reporter: some of the public concern was prompted by this video. it shows shamir abazz shouting race i racist comments. >> you want freedom, you're going to have to kill some -- >> reporter: that video was not taken on election day in philadelphia. as for how this case is being handled, that's the subject of an ongoing internal review here, brian. >> pete, thanks for that report. as we mentioned, savannah guthrie still with us from the white house. we also want to bring in marc whitacre from our washington newsroom. marc, we'll begin with you, do you see any nexus between these two stories? is this what the new era looks like, and in plain english, what is going on do you think? >> this is nothing new, any time we have a story in this country involving race, reverse racism, it becomes very volatile. there are three factors here that have made these stories even more intense. one is, we have a black president for the first time. and rightly or wrongly, there are people in this country who wonder whether that affects his view of these kinds of issues. the second is, we have a terrible economy. every time people think the pie is shrinking, these stories take on bigger importance and more anger. and finally, we have this web culture now, you know, where mark twain said a century ago, a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has its shoes on. that's just been intensified, both in terms of the viral nature of these stories, but also the potential to edit them and distort them before they get out there. >> savannah, it strikes me, we're also seeing in this new era, the tricky business of damage control. and to the story you covered, is it going to be seen in the rearview mirror, damage control done if it is done too quickly? >> a lot of people will look at the actions of the agricultural department, wondering if they pulled the trigger too fast. if they had the opportunity to do the due diligence, considering the full remarks. the woman at the center of this, the farmer she talked about supports her. some folks are looking at that and saying, maybe the agricultural department moved so quickly because it is so sensitive to these allegations. this has just become part of our politics recently. just last week the naacp put out a statement saying, elements of the tea party movement were racist, and some say this is the flip side of those arguments. >> if you're the white house, what do you do if this is an action by a cabinet department when we say an administration, true with all administrations, it's a big place? >> no question about it. and as our reporting has revealed, the president was briefed about this decision afterwards. they say this was a decision that was made by the agricultural secretary. and today the white house is standing by their man. >> savannah guthrie at the white house. marc whitacre and pete williams at the justice tonight, thank you all. unemployed americans got some help today, knowing they would rather have a job instead. and later, trying to keep a small town tradition alive in hard times. relief without taking pills around the clock? try thermacare heatwraps, for all day relief without pills. i was surprised, 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[ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. the folks in the towns that dot the american great plains can tell you a lot about tough economic times. and so tonight we're happy to report many of them have rediscovered a bright spot right on their own main streets. they're working together to save not only a vital piece of their own history, but that kind of experience you can only get when you sit down at your local movie theater. as kevin tibbles reports tonight, from the great state of north dakota, if the movie theater survives, in many cases, so does main street. >> reporter: friday night, and in new rockford, north dakota, population 1,500, anticipation. >> thank you, enjoy the show. >> reporter: because, it's movie night. community owned and staffed by volunteers who do everything from sell the tickets to butter the popcorn. >> nobody's in here to make money. we're in here to keep the theater open. >> reporter: in the projection booth, david runs the films just like his father did. >> i grew up in this booth from the time i was too short to see out the windows. >> reporter: even in a stubborn economy, some 19 north dakota towns run their own nonprofit theaters, so place will have a place to go in town. they don't even lock their bikes. in langdon, this town of 2,000, raised $60,000 to keep the lights on at the 80-year-old roxy. >> people really gave of themselves and their time to work to make the screen light up. >> it made main street look like it's buzzing, you know? >> reporter: the roxy's a place to reminisce. >> that time, it was a very special evening when you were ushered into your seat to see "gone with the wind". >> the manager would pace up and down the aisle and see that you minded your manners. >> reporter: today youngsters still mind their manners, even if they did sneak up to the balcony. for each generation, these old memory palaces do more than just inject a few dollars into the main street economy. >> living in this harsh environment on the prairie, for a short time they can go to the theater and go over the rainbow. >> reporter: no town will let its picture show be the last picture show. kevin tibbles, nbc news, langdon, north dakota. >> great story to end our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you, as always for being here with us. we wanted to let you know, tomorrow night, we have a great story from jeff corwin on the historic effort to save the bluefin tuna. an entire species that may not survive this oil spill. for now, i'm brian williams, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com he inherited a $1.7 billion budget deficit... then an economic crisis. but martin o'malley went to work.