We look into the faces of nearly 3,000 innocent souls, men, women and children of every race, every creed, from every corner of the world. We can touch their names and hear their voices, and glimpse the small items that speak to the beauty of their lives. The beauty of their lives. And former mayor giuliani also paid tribute to the First Responders who we all know rushed into the towers that day. We will never understand why one person escaped and another didnt, how random it all seems and how powerless it makes us all feel, but what this museum does is allow us to see is that we absolutely can affect each others lives by what we do at a time of of crisis, how we are were strengthened by what was done that day. Among the audience, hundreds of First Responders, family members of victims lost that day and recovery workers of people who worked inside that tower. Florence jones described rushing out of the building, holding her shoes that are now on display in the museum. When i heard that the museum was looking for artifacts i thought about my shoes. I had put them in a plastic container, and when i took them out they still had the smell on them from that awful day, and i knew i would never wear them again. So i decided to donate them here. I wanted my nieces and my nephew and every person that asked what happened to see them and maybe understand a little bit better what it felt like to be us on that day. As for the museum itself it is located seven stories below street level on the site where the towers once stood and includes thousands of photos, personal items and art tacts as you heard there. Nbcs ron allen joins me now from the Lower Manhattan area. We know theyre setting aside a special few days for the families and the First Responders so that they can absorb whats inside this museum before it is open to the general public. Reporter yes, tamron, indeed. I think the most moving part of what we saw that hour and perhaps in the museum itself is the area called the Memorial Hall where each of the victims of that day, each person who was lost is memorialized. There is a photo. There is information and testimonials about that individual. There are mementos about individuals, faces as president obama called them, the souls and you saw there as the family was touring there was a young girl named roberta hope chin looking at a picture of her uncle robert and this was a girl born post 9 11, since 9 11 and she was named after her uncle as a familys new sign of hope and that was gutwrenching to watch that and it speaks to what these families are still dealing with these days so many years later and the emotion that this site and this event still conjures up in so many of us. I think the only thing the museum will be difficult for a lot of the families and its going to also be a time where they will try to find inspiration and so much of that ceremony and so much of that event was about hope, it was about inspiration and the recovery workers, the rescue workers and the heroes of that day and while its certainly a horrific event that happened, i think what they were trying to do today, what they were trying to say today is hope that we can all focus on the positive things that came out of that. How so many people came to the rescue and came to help their fellow human being, not knowing who they were or where there were, but how so many people stepped forward to help. Some of the items that are on display, 10,000 photos, personal items and the artifacts. We saw the shoes there and also, ron, so many people talking about the survivors staircase there. Reporter yes. Its a staircase that hundreds of people were able to get out of, an outdoor staircase that was the route of escape for so many people and it was left there on the pile in the area of ground zero as the area was being cleared as a reminder, as an artifact and it is there in the museum as you go in, you go down a flight of stairs and down ramps to get to the museum level sevenstories tall and the survivor steps are right there. There are so many huge artifacts inside the museum. There are huge pieces of steel that were part of the north tower. Its called impact steel where you can see where it was bent where the plane actually struck. There were pieces of the planes that struck the towers there. So there are artifacts, huge and tiny watches of the security badge. We were there with a woman who found the security badge of her sister and she saw her picture and it was just devastating emotionally for her, and it was uplifting because her sister was remembered there. Just, when you go through the museum, items big and small, aspects of peoples individual lives and just so many stories, so many stories about what happened that day that are just so moving. Its just an incredible place. Absolutely powerful. Thank you very much, ron, for the live report from the National Memorial museum and 9 11 National Memorial museum. Developing right now, va secretary Eric Shinseki is testifying in front of the Veterans Affairs committee. Shinseki using Strong Language to say he is personally angered and saddened by stories of veterans dying while waiting for medical care and that vets were put on a secret wait list at a facility to cover up long wait times. Shinseki promise toed take action if the allegations are true. Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me makes me mad as hell, i can use stronger language, mr. Chairman, but in deference to the committee, i wont. Im committed to taking all actions necessary to identify exactly what the issues are. To strengthen the Veterans Trust in va health care. Joining me is barry mccaffrey, and former gulf war commander and dana priest who authored a Washington Post article that exposed the Army Medical Center in 2007. Thank you both for joining us. General, this hearing is just starting at this point, but you heard secretary shinseki say he is mad using more descriptive language of that, but in the end, the people who are the maddest, of course, are those nearly 40 who may have lost loved ones as a result of the long wait times. What do you want to hear today . Well, presumably, at the end of the day the i. G. Of the Veterans Administration will sort out what actually happened. The atmosphere in washington is so poisonous right now its astonishing to me that anybody wants to serve in the administration. Va has the highest patient surveys of any in the country. 33,000 people, 1700 sites. Its an excellent institution, but i think theyre underresourced. The problem is gulf war veterans, Vietnam Veterans in huge numbers now want to see primary care docs. There arent enough primary care docs and its a resource problem as well as what may be an integrity problem at several of these v. A. Sites. We know the v. A. Has placed three phoenix executives on administrative leave as they review what happened there. There have also been requests as you well know, dana, for information and the length of time it took for the secretary shinseki to at least want detailed, electronic paperwork, in essence, the fingerprint of what was going on there. The reasonable length of time for these vets was supposed to be 14 to 30 days and it is clear, at least if these allegations are correct, that that did not happen. Well, there are several things. First of all, general shinseki has gotten high marks from the veterans groups in general. Yes. He did come in at a time. It was after the walter reed scandal and at the Veterans Administration and rightly so, its a rather large system as general mccaffrey said. You have to break it down into individual hospitals because they are run in different ways. They all have the same rules, but different administrators so it shouldnt be at all difficult to get to the bottom of what happened in phoenix and then what is happening elsewhere. The long waits for medical care are partly as a result as general mccaffrey said again, wanting certain types of care, but also because its such a big system there are administrative bunglings all of the time. So there has to be a way to judge each hospital on its own and to make sure that you are not broad burushing the whole system to put in part very carefully what is in each hospital. The American Customer Satisfaction index show vet, some 8 million of them gave the v. A. Health system high marx, but in your reporting that really shook up the country regarding what was happening at walter reed, the moldy facility, and i vividly, in fact, dana, remember the first day i read your article that you coauthor there and you referred to at the time many thought that the walter reed Army Medical Center was the crown jewel. This was the creme de la creme of what we were willing to offer the returning vets and it was in deplorable conditions and this was not just to the point of phoenix, it is now reminding us of what your report indicated in 2007. And there have been a lot of changes and more resources added to it, but again, this is a huge system and you have to break it down to individual hospitals and individual administrators and hold them each separately accountable for their wait times, their processing of paperwork and all these things that definitely can still be a problem and is still a problem in many, many places. The wait line for disability ratings in the system is gigantic and so the people coming into it is huge, and you know, that is creating a snowball of problems. Before i go back to general mccaffrey i do want to follow up with you, they want to question shinseki over bonuses overseeing some of the troubled health facilities, pittsburgh and atlanta, just two that have been noted here. Well, i think its fair to look at what sort of bonuses people get. Its fair that they have bonuses, too, because if you do a good job in a system like this where the stakes are so high, you know, you should receive a bon bonus, but why not look at individual cases . Of course, politics is going to enter into it. Shinseki has been very good, i think, at deflating the political rhetoric on both sides because people respect him. Tamron, let me add something, by the way. Part of the pressure on the v. A. Right now is shinseki opened the system to more claims. And but, generally speak, theyve been able to reduce that backlog by 50 . So, again, i think you have the older vietnamage population increasingly seek care. Right. Now we have almost 3 million iraq, afghanistan vets and many of them not just with serious combat injuries, but also ptsd or tbi so its a huge burden on this system. Right. At some point the Congress Needs to either resource it or allow them access to civilian medical care. Give them a credit card. Let them go to the local providers of medical services. I think this system is a world war ii system thats now having trouble putting up with the demand on it. General, thank you. Dana, thank you, as well and well continue to monitor this hearing and bring you developments from it today. Thank you both. Coming up, bill clinton takes on karl roves suggestion that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton may have suffered brain damage. First they said she faked her concussion, and now they say shes auditioning for a part on the walking dead. Beyond the laughter, the former president got serious predicting this type of attack is just the beginning. Well talk with nbc senior Political Editor mark murray and well play you more of bill clintons comments with karl rove. Firefighters are just now getting an upper hand on the wildfires burning in southern california, but they remain cautious with dangerous temperatures and dry conditions in the forecast. Thousands of people have been evacuate from this location and well have the very latest from the scene. They find casey kasem after a threeday search. Where was he . It is one of the stories were following around the news nation. Tell us your thoughts about the National Museum opening today in honor of those 9 11 victims and survivors. Let us know what you think tamronhall a and newsnation. That would be my daughter hi dad. Shes a dietitian. 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Way woman a wellrounded education that focuses on science, math, and Career Training for students who dont choose college. Man and thats exactly what superintendent of Public EducationTom Torlakson has been working on. Woman because every Student Needs the real world skills for the jobs of tomorrow. Man torlaksons Career Readiness initiative is helping schools expand job and Technical Training across the state because it makes a difference. Woman so tell Tom Torlakson to keep fighting for the career and Technical Training our students need. Developing news in southern california, firefighters are getting their first real chance at controlling a Massive Wildfire threatening homes, a military place and a Nuclear Power plant. That fire has forced thousands of people from their homes and this morning from the air flames can be seen jumping through woodland, but now that high winds have died officials are a bit more optimistic. Nbcs Jennifer Bjorklund is in carlsbad tracking some of the damage. We see some of the damage right behind you, jennifer. I want to show you up close what this fire did. This fire was burning yesterday morning. This is near the ignition point of the fire in carlsbad near poinsettia where it broke out. This fire being called the poinsettia fire. Two boats and what we believe was a classic corvette and the house, and this homeowner was here on the site and has agreed to show what happened to his home here when the fire swept through. He said he watched it burn and there was nothing he could do. This being the carlsbad fire which is now 60 contained. Thats the good news. The other good news is like you said, the winds are calm, but the heat is coming up again and we are expecting very, very low humidity throughout the day today. So those are more concerns for firefighters. There is another fire that broke out later on in the afternoon, the san marcos fire. They issued 21,000 evacuation orders for that fire. They cleared out legoland and a California State University with 10,000 students on campus. Most of those evacuation orders are being looked at this morning and lifted. A lot of people are going back into their homes, but the storm fire has not passed. They are still looking to many, many more days of hard work to get these fires contained and finally controlled. Back to you. Jennifer, thank you very much. These are live pictures from chicago where fast food workers are joining thousands of others around the world striking for higher wages and better working conditions. Well get the latest on these continued strikes and if they are having a real impact. Plus, it is todays news nation gut check. An ohio man described as a deadbeat dad is ordered not to have any more kids until he pays back Child Support. Its our gut check and heres a look at whats happening today. Thursday, may 15th. 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