of the weeks long attack on the besieged city. reporter: free syrian fighters have entered the government security building. it s room-to-room fighting now, stairwell to stairwell. woodruff: margaret warner examines today s supreme court arguments in a free speech case involving a man who lied about getting the medal of honor and a decision on who owns montana s river beds. brown: and we close with today s ground-breaking on the national mall for the smithsonian s museum of african- american history and culture. what i m interested in is taking this culture and using did as another lens to understand what it means to be an american. woodruff: that s all ahead on tonight s newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and wit
two reports on the bombardment of homs that killed dozens, including two western journalists. plus, a rare eyewitness account of the weeks long attack on the besieged city. reporter: free syrian fighters have entered the government security building. it s room-to-room fighting now, stairwell to stairwell. woodruff: margaret warner examines today s supreme court arguments in a free speech case involving a man who lied about getting the medal of honor and a decision on who owns montana s river beds. brown: and we close with today s ground-breaking on the national mall for the smithsonian s museum of african- american history and culture. what i m interested in is taking this culture and using did as another lens to understand what it means to be an american. woodruff: that s all ahead on tonight s newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan fou
this is the cbs evening news with russ mitchell. mitchell: and good evening. some encouraging news for the economy tonight. new figures out this evening show retail sales yesterday were the biggest in black friday history. up 6. the 6% over last year for a total of $11.4 well. that s a full billion more than 2010. as elaine quijano tells us, the hopeful predictions follow the earliest black friday opening ever. reporter: the turkey wasn t even cold when toys r us opened the holiday shopping season at 9:00 p.m. thanksgiving night. santa hats were passed out to customers to encourage a fustive mood for black friday spending. retailers have having to be more and more aggressive to go after their customers. reporter: so aggressive, retailers opened the night before in an all-out fight for that first piece of holiday spending projected to be $466 billion this year. with consumers being frugal, retailers really took a chance by opening at midnight on black friday. the