our boots, and we pushed and we shoved and we were sweating, and these guys were standing, watching us and sipping on a slurpee. and they were pointing at us, saying, how come you re not pushing hard enough? nbc news white house correspondent savannah guthrie joins me live from the white house. savannah, we ve heard the line before essentially, the gop is the party of no, they re the ones that got us into this mess. but clearly if you look at this poll, voters aren t buying it. what is the white house strategy? reporter: well, it s really interesting, because they ve framed this whole argument as this is an election about a choice, the choice between poll sills sys of the past, which polls show continue to be very unpopular, or president s policies. but the problem for the white house and our poll really put the fine point on it, i think it s something like 58% of people in our poll say they believe republicans would have new ideas and wouldn t go back to the bush policie
leonard bruce has lived in rockville s lincoln park neighborhood almost his entire life. he has endured many hot summers, catching a cool breeze on his front porch. today he is watching his grass turn brown. you can t water your grass and stuff like that. you can see the grass turn brown already. it s from the heat. reporter: that s thanks to this torrent of water that climbed 100 feet into the sky. rockville s main water line ruptured, two million gallons of water lost in a geyser active for six hours. we have two broken sections. it happened right near the joint. two sections have to be replaced. reporter: crews spent tuesday digging up the old cracked pipes and around 1 made the first attempt to install the new line. problems forced crews to bring in new parts and begin again. we should at least try. always forcing people to restrict water, but we can at least try to help out the whole community. reporter: rockville residents are temporarily getting water from
[ inaudible ]. reporter: it s been more than three days since vanessa pham was murdered and the pain and sorrow for her mother has not eased one bit. today, fairfax police issued a bulletin in this case, along with a warning to residents. do you think this was a random act of violence? i don t know for sure. at this point all theories are on the table. we re urging the public to come forward with any information that may be helpful but to take precautions for their own personal safety. reporter: 19-year-old vanessa pham found dead in the front seat of her car sunday afternoon. the car found in a ravine off a service road near route 50 in williams drive. at first it looked like an accident. later sources say investigators found that vanessa had been stabbed numerous times. in that bulletin released today, detectives say she may have traveled along route 50 or route 29 between nutley streets and gala road prior to the incident. vanessa was a graduate of james madison high
reasonable doubt. robert wone stabbed to to death in the guest room of the swan street house in august of 2006. his widow cathy in the courtroom as the verdict came down. she broke down in tears. she was escorted out of the courthouse by her lawyer. glen kirshner, the lead prosecutor in the case. everybody knew that this was a challenging investigation and prosecution. our hearts go out to robert s family. bill and amy wone and cathy wone, his wife. i know they had hoped for justice. i think we all understand and accept the judge s verdict. the judge said mr. price likely tampered with and altered the murder weapon and lied about his conduct to police. but the judge said i cannot fairly find this beyond a reasonable doubt.im represents price. mr. price is bankrupt, he lost his home, he lost his family, he lost his job and now he s going to try to get his life back. reporter: handing down the not guilty verdict, the judge quoted english jurist william blackstone. he sa
good morning. deadly attack. eight americans, including cia agents, killed in a suicide bombing at a u.s.-run military base in afghanistan, and this morning the taliban said it is responsible. hospitalized. conservative powerhouse rush limbaugh rushed to the hospital with serious chest pains during his hawaii golf vacation. we re live with the latest on his condition. and 2010, here we come. the new year arrived overnight to some parts of the world, and here at home, millions of americans are gearing up to join the celebration. we ll kick off your new year s eve countdown, today, thursday, december 31st, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on this busy thursday morning, the last day of 2009. i m lester holt. and i m erin burnett. matt and meredith both have the morning off. lucky for them. they re getting ready for a big night, maybe even in times square? big night, late night. when you do this shift, probab