williams. good evening. the national football league, the governing body, the business behind the most popular sport in this country is tonight dealing with a very big problem. an nfl player already in the news for domestic violence has been fired by his team, the baltimore ravens, and suspended from playing by the nfl. we had already seen running back ray rice on video taken outside an elevator dragging the unconscious body of the woman who is now his wife. but today the world saw the proof that he struck her with a terrible blow. the video from inside the elevator. and fair warning, while this is tough to watch, that's what sparked fresh outrage today that the nfl could no longer ignore. we begin tonight with nbc's josh elliott. >> reporter: ray rice is out of a job tonight. the now-former nfl star had his reported $40 million contract terminated by the baltimore ravens. >> we had a meeting, it was not a long meeting. we came to the decision we came to to release ray and that's what we did. >> and late today he was suspended indefinitely by the inform after new video surfaced of the altercation between rice and his then fiance and now wife at an atlantic city hotel casino last february. in this new video obtained by tmz sports, after janay palmer appears to shove rice, he swings at her and then throws a punch. as she falls her head strikes the elevator's metal railing. when the video of this incident's aftermath surfaced in february, the nfl suspended rice for but two games which led to a public outcry and enraged the social media collective. then, late last month in a letter to team owners nfl commissioner roger goodell admitted he didn't get it right and announced harsher new sanctions for domestic violence offenses. six games for a first violation, banishment for a second. >> i believe that ray rice and, and his wife janay palmer rice, who was his fiance at the time, i believe they painted a picture far less graphic and disturbing than what we saw in that video today. >> reporter: in a statement an nfl spokesperson said the league had requested any and all information about the incident from police but "that video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today." >> there's no way for the nfl to come out of this looking good. >> reporter: talk radio today joined fans who are less forgiving of the nfl. >> you don't hit a woman approximate you don't punch her in the face. you walk away. s. >> it's disgusting because they're role models to so many people. >> reporter: there are many questions being asked tonight about what nfl officials knew and when they knew it. there are no words from rice nor from the players association. nor from nfl commissioner roger goodell. now, rice would have to apply for reinstatement should he choose, though there are reports that support amongst the players in what was his locker room in baltimore plummeted today upon their viewing of the newest video. brian? >> josh elliott live for us tonight, nbc sports network headquarters for us. josh, thanks. another big story we've been following today, this outbreak of a severe respiratory virus sending at least 1,000 kids to the hospital. it seems to start out as a cold, same things a lot of people have right now, but this then gets much worse. it is now spread to at least a dozen states and the cdc is warning that doctors are now seeing what could be just the tip of the iceberg. one of the states hardest hit in all of this is colorado. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is at rocky mountain for children in -- rocky mountain hospital for children in denver for us tonight. nancy, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this city and state have been hit very hard, 900 cases of this respiratory infection just this past month. and right now in the icu above me seven children on ventilators. >> can i take a listen to you? >> reporter: it has doctors very concerned. >> a lot of kids have been on the verge of respiratory failure or severe respiratory distress requiring escalating therapies and care. so i've been an icu physician for 15 years and i've never seen this before. >> reporter: here there have been seven times the normal number of respiratory cases since august. what role do you think the school year is playing in all of this? >> i do this that, you know, as kids go back to school usually we kind of see a lull and then after a few weeks of being in school everybody's kind of starting to share and pass around the viruses. and i do think that that's what's brought this to the forefront. >> reporter: ben york never imagined his son's late summer cold would end in a trip to the emergency room. >> he was coughing, had a runny nose. within an eight to ten-hour time period it went from a cold to him not being able to breathe. >> reporter: it's worse than a very bad cold with these symptoms, extreme trouble breathing, severe coughing and sometimes wheezing, fever and rash. infants, children and teenagers are most vulnerable. >> do you feel like your breathing is better? >> reporter: especially those with asthma like matthew york. >> it looked like his heart was pumping out of his chest. immediately we took him to the emergency room. >> reporter: that's exactly what doctors want parents to know. if your child has a cold and it's getting worse with escalating fever and trouble breathing, call 911. and of course prevention, brian. teach your children to sneeze into their elbows and not on their hands and good hand washing of course. >> hard to see those little kids so sick. good to get the warning signs out. dr. nancy snyderman tonight, thanks. we have a developing story out of houston, texas, where a federal air marshal is being examined by the cdc after a bizarre attack in the airport in lagos. the fbi is telling nbc news the air marshall was stabbed with a syringe containing an unknown substance. our nbc station there in houston, kprc, is reporting the air marshal wearing plain clothes was going through security when a group of men approached. one of the men stabbed a needle into the agent's arm and ran away. marshal preserved the needle before boarding the flight he was scheduled to work to houston. that's whereupon landing he was being tested for several different diseases. fbi says none of the tests conducted has been a danger to any other passengers on board. so far there's no evidence to suggest the attacker knew the victim was a plain clothed air marshal. the president will address the nation on wednesday about the effort to defeat isis and the threat they represent. it has already meant u.s. forces are back in a familiar place. we get our report to start our coverage tonight from our senior white house correspondent chris jansing. >> reporter: when president obama makes his case for destroying isis and how, he'll have three distinct audiences. first, the allies he needs to strengthen the core coalition of ten countries formed at the nato summit. >> they need to be involved. this is their neighborhood. the dangers that are posed are more directed at them right now than they are us. >> reporter: the president's second audience, congress. >> i do think it's important for congress to understand what the plan is, to have buy-in, to debate it. and that's why we've been consulting with congress throughout. >> reporter: just back from their long summer break, congress is debating whether the president needs their approval for more military action. >> congress has to have a role in declaring war. and that one generation can't mind another generation. you can't vote in 2001 and say that allows us to commit war in 2014. >> reporter: late today senator bill nelson introduced a bill that would authorize air strikes inside syria. >> the head of the isis snake is not in iraq. the head is in syria. and so if you want to kill the snake, you got to go and cut off his head. >> reporter: the president's third audience, ordinary americans who are both war weary and horrified by the barbaric beheadings of two fellow citizens. these families visiting washington want to know their children will be safe, but disagree about how to do it. >> with 9/11 being just around the corner again, we don't need to be hit again. and we need to bomb them with everything that we got. >> i think we saw it happen when we got directly involved with iraq, right? >> reporter: white house officials say the speech isn't finished yet. well, late today the president called the new iraqi prime minister and congratulated him on what's being called a milestone tonight. the creation of new and inclusive government. secretary of state john kerry announced he's heading to the region tomorrow. brian. >> chris jansing on the north lawn of the white house for us tonight. thanks, chris. and the president of course broke the news about this plan to address to the nation during his exclusive interview with chuck todd on his first sunday as moderator of "meet the press." chuck is with us from our d.c. news room. so, chuck, after these charges of misdirection and indecision there appeared to be a sense of moment about this in your interview with the president. what is he preparing the nation for exactly? >> well, he's going to be preparing them for what he hopes at its best that a strategy will look something like this, a combination of the strategy against al qaeda that first president bush started think 2006 and later and president obama carried out counterterrorism, taking out the leaders of al qaeda cells wherever they find them in the ungoverned parts of pakistan and yemen. combine that with bush 41 and baker did in the first gulf war in 1990, which is a massive coalition of countries that help, including middle eastern countries. so for instance he would like to see boots on the ground in syria to go after isis. they're not going to be american boots. but if his strategy works, they'll be turkish boots, saudi boots or jordanian boots. it's a tall order but it's what his strategy is intended to be. >> chuck todd tonight in washington. we'll find out all the details on wednesday. in this country the governor of arizona has declared a state of emergency as history making rainfall overwhelmed parts of that state as predicted. high water rescues for drivers trapped in their cars. and tonight the threat continues. flash flood warnings have been posted in nevada. nbc's miguel almaguer has our report. >> reporter: in las vegas a desert resort now a raging river. in arizona the wettest day on record. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. >> reporter: this quickly became a state of emergency. the monsoonal storm triggered rescues across the southwest. near tucson two women died when dozens of cars were swept away. >> our entire region saw levels of rainfall we haven't seen in nearly a century. >> reporter: streets turned into waterways. interstate 10 like a river. >> it was up to my waist. and i rolled my window down and i got out. >> reporter: as fast as the water rose, it vanished. this in 90 minutes. what a contrast. over the weekend a dust storm swallowed the same area that today was submerged. southern california was also hit. >> rivers across the freeway within a matter of minutes. >> reporter: tonight, the cleanup from l.a. to phoenix underway as the west braces for more. miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. now to the happier news that the world woke up to today, prince george is going to have a sibling. the announcement this second time around thankfully lacked the frantic drama of the first. our report from london tonight and nbc's kelly cobia. >> reporter: just after a year becoming a father, prince william was talking about babies again. >> makes me thrilled. it's great news. early days. >> reporter: like last time kate has severe morning sickness forcing the couple to go public. the palace said the queen and members of both families are delighted with the news. and prince harry couldn't resist a brotherly jab. >> very exciting news. i can't wait to see my brother suffer more. >> reporter: the newest royal will be fourth in line to the throne behind princes charles, william and george. prince harry would be fifth. >> great. >> your prospect of becoming king is reduced, isn't it? >> great. >> reporter: a little over a year ago the couple and the world cheered prince george's arrival. the duchess was so sick in the early days of that pregnancy she was hospitalized for three days. this time the doctors have come to kate. she's being treated in the privacy of her own home, apartment 1a in kensington palace. a brief break from the world's prying eyes sure to be following her every move for the next several months. it's already starting. pictures scoured for signs of a bump. this one was taken in july. still, the second time around the family is hoping the media glare won't be quite so bright. nbc news, london. and still ahead for us on this monday night, six months now since flight 370 vanished without a trace. our team is onboard a malaysia airlines jet as investigators now say they have a new idea of where they think the plane came to a rest. and later, it turns out after all these years dr. seuss left us with a surprise. we'll get our first look tonight. it has now been six months since a wide bodied jet with 239 souls on board disappeared without a trace during a red eye flight from kuala lumpur to beijing. not a single piece of wreckage has ever washed up. if this were written as a script for a made for tv movie it would likely be rejected for implausible. and for the loved ones a terrible wait. and for the airline the first of two tragedies as another of their 777s was shot down in late july. we get the latest from tom costello. >> reporter: late night at the nearly deserted malaysia airlines check-in counter in beijing. the terminal virtually empty when nbc producer boarded the overnight flight to malaysia this weekend. the disappearance of flight 370 and shootdown of malaysia flight 17 over ukraine have devastated the airline. >> this flight will take five hours and 50 minutes. >> reporter: row after row of empty seats, 30% of the workforce laid off. we're on a flight to kuala lumpur and looking at a flight just under half full. >> reporter: six months into the most expensive and intense search launched, still not a trace of mh flight 370. for family members today the grief was again raw and very public. >> there's no corroborated evidence that the airplane went into the ocean. >> reporter: sarah hasn't seen her partner, phillip wood, since march 8th. >> i think it's a very real possibility that phillip is still alive because there's no proof that he's dead. >> reporter: investigators still believe someone diverted the plane and flew it to the southern indian ocean where it crashed. now, after spending months mapping the ocean floor, search teams are shifting the search zone to a new area. still though more than 1,000 miles southwest of australia. next month a dutch company will begin using a new unmanned submarine equipped with even more advanced sonar technology. >> one of the big issues that aultz -- always concerns us, as investigators, is the fact that there is no wreckage that has washed up on any shoreline. it hasn't been spotted by any vessel that's transiting the area. >> reporter: no debris, no trace of flight 370. as twin disasters haunt this airline and the passengers who fly it. tom costello, nbc news, washington. we are back in a moment with the advice from one former leader of the free world to another. it happens to be about grandparenting. a well-known founder of chick-fil-a has died. truett kathie was as well known for his religious devotion as he was for his devotion to fast food. his hugely successful chain restaurants were always closed on sundays while recently his son's comments on gay marriage brought controversy. among the richest men in the united states, he was 93. ray nagin as gone to federal prison, a ten-year sentence on corruption charges for the former democratic mayor to new orleans who came to national prominence in part due to his bizarre behavior when hurricane katrina consumed his city in the aftermath. it is less true these days, but there was a time when virtually every american household had at least one ge appliance. and whether it was a washer or dryer, microwave or fridge, but now they've sold the business. electrolux, the vacuum people from sweden, they've purchased the appliance business from ge, former owners of this network for $3.3 billion. capping off a slow retreat from consumer products by ge. two former presidents as we mentioned today made an affectionate joint appearance. bill clinton and george w. bush 43 launched a leadership program and talked about regular phone calls when bush was in office and the counsel they provided each other. bush warned clinton when he becomes a grandfather prepare to be the least important member of the family. a few items in space news tonight beginning with tonight's appearance of the harvest moon. should appear as a bright orbit sunset, a stunner if your skies are clear. new zealand survived a close pass by an asteroid this past weekend. and here's why we report on such things. a meteorite strike in nicaragua, considered a small one but a big crater, it perhaps broke off from this weekend's asteroid. when we come back here after a break, a new discovery to add to the classics, what dr. seuss left behind long lost and now found. finally tonight, as young kids we read dr. seuss a ton, then with the author's death we assumed the books were done. but because of what's been found in a personal collection, we want to go ahead and issue this correction. there's a new book by him that will make all children's authors jealous. we get our report tonight from nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: they're timeless favorites for so many children, inspiring the newest reader. >> i would not eat them anywhere. >> i like cat in the hat. >> reporter: dr. seuss, born theodore seuss gisell created dozens of stories with zaney characters. and touching plot lines. >> he understood how children learn to read. and at the same time, he was hysterical. >> reporter: kathi gold smith, who worked with dr. seuss before his death 20 years ago, recently unearthed new gems. magazine stories he wrote in the early '50s. >> i stumbled on one of them for sale on e-bay. >> reporter: among them "horton and the qwuggerbug." a short story how the big hearted elephant keeps a promise to a sneaky bug. she was part of a team at random house making sure the lost work was translated into book form just like dr. seuss would have wanted. >> book forms had we never not shown those we understand why they didn't make it here, but they had to come back for the book. >> reporter: kathi's first graders got an early look at the stories on sale tomorrow. >> his stories are so out there that they love them. >> reporter: with their own horton ears they listened. what did you like about the story? details of familiar characters like the grinch in places like mulberry street all told with seuss's signature tongue twisters. >> quuger bug. new stories now added to the classics like the cat in the hat, we can only imagine what dr. seuss would think of that. rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. that's our broadcast on this monday night as we start off a new week. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we of course hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. and matt lauer and i will see you tomorrow morning on "today." good night. at one point we saw two women sprinting and they stopped and asked why we weren't rubbing down the mountain. >> hikers flee from flames after a day at yosemite turns into a rescue mission. good evening and thanks for joining us. >> developing news out of yosemite, a fast-growing fire has closed popular trails. go pro video shot by hikers on half dome yesterday, dozens of hikers evacuated from that area. fires burning in an area between half dome and little yosemite valley. overnight it more than tripled in size. we have team coverage tonight. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking how the weather is helping firefighters. terry mcsweeney spoke with hikers who got out just before the choppers started pulling people off the mountain to safety. >> reporter: two men from daly city and four of their friends from other parts of the country decided yesterday would be a good day to hike to the top of half dome. yesterday was the day that the meadow fire went from several hundred acres to more than 2,000 acres. it provided some moments of concern but also some spectacular pictures. take a look at some of those pictures right now provided to us by these two young men here in daly city, thomas griffin and chris sarsgaard. on their way up they saw a ranger who said, we're aware of the fire, we can see the smoke, but this is not an emergency, ha