Ready, set...

By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor Hello from Beijing, a city obviously anxious to "let the games begin." There are few if any signs of last minute preparations. As one Beijing resident told me, the country is like someone who has packed for a big trip a month early, and is now impatiently waiting around and eager to get going. Back at home the big stories we will be reporting on the newscast tonight include the blistering heat wave gripping parts of the country, and fascinating new information about the scientific smoking gun that investigators believed help cinch their case against the suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Here in China, it is hard to believe it was less than 3 months ago that a catastrophic earthquake struck the Sichuan region killing nearly 70,000 people and leaving thousands still missing. Today the Olympic... [read full story]