After landing in nashville. 100 Passengers Evacuated and at least eight of them taken to the hospital. The terrifying moments as we head into one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. Peaking interest. All eyes on the Federal Reserve today. The historic meeting likely to generate an Interest Rate hike, the first in nearly a decade. What does that mean for you. And eyewitness news. A local News Reporter covering a bank robbery gets the surprise of a lifetime when the alleged suspect strikes again. Tyler, just 24 hours ago this bank what . Oh, thats the robber. This is live tv, folks. Thats the robber just went by. I got to go here and call 911. Ill talk to you later. The alleged robber now behind bars. That reporter adding new meaninged to the phrase live on the scene today wednesday, december 16th, 2015. This is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, welcome to today on a wednesday morning. So youre a Television Reporter on live tv describing a bank robbery, probably about to say and heres a description of the robber. He looks a lot like the guy back over there. Just ran by. Isnt that a fun job sometimes . Really is. Were going to show you more about that. Well show you how that story unfolded coming up. Lets start with our top story this morning, fifth and final republican president ial debate this year. The issues of National Security and isis dominated the showdown. It took place in las vegas, and while everyone expected the new rivalry between donald trump and ted cruz to take center stage, they spent most of the night clashing with other candidates. We have it all covered and well talk to the head of the rnc in a moment, but lets start with nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander. Peter . Reporter hey, matt, good significantly this was the first Republican Debate since both paris and San Bernardino with all the republican contenders trying to show strength. Jeb bush finally found his voice against donald trump, but was it too little too late, and for the first real time we saw marco rubio and ted cruz battle back and forth. Fight night in vegas. Jeb bush flailing in the polls taking the gloves off against donald trump. So, donald, you know is great at the oneliners, but hes a chaos candidate. And hed be a chaos president. He has failed in this campaign. Its been a total disaster. Nobody cares. Reporter trumps reactions alone priceless. Bush argued trump isnt a serious candidate. I wont get my information from the shows. I dont know if thats saturday morning or sunday morning. I dont know which one. This is a tough business. Oh, i know. Youre a tough guy, jeb, i know. And we need to have a leader. Youre tough. President of the United States. Im at 42 and youre at 1 and so far im doing better. Doesnt matter. You started off over here jeb, youre moving over further and further and pretty soon youll be off the end. Reporter trump earned points reaffirming he wont run as an independent. Im totally committed to the Republican Party. I feel very honored to be the frontrunner, and i think ill do very well. Reporter ted cruz and marco rubio, a pair of ambitious freshmen senators, exchanged blows on a series of hot button issues from defense spending. You cant carpet bomb isis if you dont have planes and bombs to attack them with. Reporter to immation. He was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border. I was fighting to secure the border reporter anticipated fireworks between trump and his chief challenger, ted cruz, never materialized. Gotten to know him over the last three or four days. He has a wonderful temperament the. Hes just fine. Dont worry about him. We will build a wall that to pay for it. Reporter rand paul jabbed Chris Christie over the bridgegate scandal. I mean, when we think about the judgment of someone who might want world war iii, we might think about someone who might shut down a bridge because they dont like the friends. Christie directed his sharpest attacks at president obamas Foreign Policy. And yes, we would shoot down the planes of russian pilots if in fact they were think that this president was the same feckless weakling that the president we have in the nval office is right now. Reporter and ben carson battling to resurrect his struggling campaign wouldnt even answer when asked to pick sides in a spatd between paul and rubio over sfants. I think over surveillance. I think you have to ask them about that. I dont want to get in between them. Let them fight. Reporter bottom line, analysts agree Nothing Happened last night shifting the status quo meaning the temperature in the race, the field will remain frozen with trump at one and ted cruz at two and two more Republican Debates in january before the Iowa Caucuses. Thank you. Reince priebus chairman of the Republican National committee is also out in las vegas. Good morning. Thanks for getting up early. Appreciate it. Hey, good morning, savannah. Lets do some housekeeping. Donald trump seemed to be flirting again with the idea this week of mounting an independent run. Last night he seemed again to closed door on that and say hell run as a republican, no matter what. Can you now sleep at night . Ed is the issue closed in your mind . Savannah, its been closed for month for me. I was never losing any sleep about it to begin with. I think that the media enjoys this little narrative about independent runs, but the truth is that there isnt going to be any independent in the white house. They are either going to be a republican or a democrat. I was never concerned about it. Donald trump signed the pledge ago, and hes never indicated to me any reason why he wouldnt honor the pledge, and i never doubted it. Ive been concerned about. Issue. Theres open discussion among some republicans of a notion of a brokered convention, that if trump were to be the nominee, that republicans would get together at the convention and come up with an alternative and have a floor fight. Let me ask you directly. Will you rule out this notion of a brokered convention . Well, savannah, i dont know where that narrative comes from other than a fictional narrative thats spun up last week that never happened. Will you rule it out . Can you rule it out . First of all, well no one can rule it out. If a candidate doesnt get to a majority of delegates by the time you get to the convention, then you could have a contested convention, but my belief is that well have a presumptive nominee by the end of march or ive said that for over a year. I still believe that. The odds of a contested convention are almost nothing, but, you know, look, is it possible . Its possible, but its possible the democrats would have a contested convention. Is it likely . Of course not and its something that go ahead. Sorry to interrupt. The discussion comes up because theres this feeling that if donald trump emerges as the nominee that some republicans will not be happy with that and they fear that it will essentially hand election to Hillary Clinton. A lot of the candidates, if you ask them, say they will ultimately support whoever the republican nominee is, but they can not bring themselves to say i will support donald trump. Where are you on that . Will you support donald trump if he is the republican nominee . Of course. I mean, the point is the Republican National committee is being built and is built for whoever the nominee, is so it doesnt matter whether its him or someone else. One of the other 13 candidates who are on the stage last night. Committee is built to be plugged into whoever the nominee is, and so were going to support whoever the nominee is, and that that means that whatever nominee can get a majority of delegates is the nominee of our party and thats where were going to be. Trump is getting a lot of attention and certainly setting the agenda in terms of this ban on muslims that he has proposed. Youve been critical of it. You said that it would come at the expense of our values. Other candidates have criticized it in varying degrees, and yet republicans support that idea. The poll i saw was 59 to 61 approve of that idea and trump is getting a bump out of it and theres 41 . Wheres the disconnect . Is he more accurately reflecting where the Republican Voters are right now . Well, you know, look. I think the reality is that we all have the same goal, right, and so you have 13 people on the stage that have different ways of getting to that goal of keeping america more safe. Do i think that people are afraid. Im afraid. Im sure that youre all concerned about where were at in the this country in fighting isis and terrorism and what happened a couple weeks ago in california frightens everybody. Look but you said it comes at the expense of our values and yet youll also support donald trump and im just trying to put those two concepts together. Well, look, heres the thing. The concept is that everyone has or at least many. Candidates have a different pathway of getting to the same goal, savannah, and the reality is that this president and Hillary Clinton havent done a good job, and the American People dont believe that barack obama and Hillary Clinton have done a good job in fighting terrorism. Now, look, when you have 13 candidates running, many cases youre going to have 13 different ways of tackling the problem. At least at the very least, republicans are Offering Solutions to the problems that i know that americans dont believe are being tackled properly, and so for that im excited about the fact that People Solutions to these problems. And we may not agree with each other on everything the goal is still the same and thats the point im trying to make. All right. Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, good to talk to us. Appreciate it so much. Thank you. With the first votes just seven weeks away where does the race go to here, chuck todd is nbc political director and moderator of meets and Nicolle Wallace is former Communications Director for president george w. Bush and analyst for msnbc. I wanted to say is Reince Priebus being forthcoming about the possible idea of a brokered convention and his support of donald trump . I think he is and a lot of people that believe hes whistling past the graveyard, the criticism has been hes got his head in the sand and he will argue. No, no, no, weve got a thing in place here to handle all this. Everybody thinks its going to be contested, its not, but theres others that thing he wouldnt. I thought marco rubio took a stand for what is really a more traditional republican Foreign Policy, and i think it was very important to see that the party had someone in the field that could articulately could defend when under attack a world view that has us more aggressive on the intelligence front and more aggressive in the middle east, and i thought he did a good job defending that. Never saw the cruz trump argument really materializes. Who wins in your book . I thought the cruz and rubio together in some ways because they really do represent some divides inside inside the party, sort of ted cruz, sort of want of taking a different direction on National Security, as nicole just pointed out, rubio a more traditional post 9 11 view of Foreign Policy and they are very good at articulating their own points of view. They are very good at going after each other. Look, rubio i thought took some incoming on immigration, and i was reminded as much as i agree i thought he handled himself well, i was reminded why i think hell have a hard time winning this nomination. With the Republican Party. If hes a little bit out of step with the Republican Base its why a lot of republicans and democrats will argue that hes the best one to go against Hillary Clinton. Touche. Jeb bush never gets good reviews after debates. Hes admitted. Here or anywhere else. Last night was different though. We saw a different side him. Theres no debate that jeb bush had his best performance last night, that he did a great job, on the offense against donald trump. Really seemed to get under his skin and annoy him. I think the unfortunate piece of it is that many wonder and suspect that it may be too late but well see. But he found his role. His role is to go after trump, and i think if thats all he does now he thinks hes done a service to the party. You. Thank you. A breaking story out of overnight. A Southwest Airlines plane skidded off the taxiway after landing at airport in nashville. Nbcs tom costello is covering aviation for us and has the story. Tom, what can you tell us about it. Reporter good morning, more than 100 passengers on board and plane suddenly veered off the runway on landing and then running into a ditch. That triggered a full Emergency Response on the ground. This morning the faa investigating why this passenger plane rolled off a taxiway in tennessee tuesday night. Southwest flight 31 originating in houston was taxying to the gate and then became stuck in a ditch after landing in nashville. Everything is normal and we hear a big pop. Reporter photos posted on social media show one of the planes emergency slides deployed. A spokesman for southwest tells nbc news the 133 passengers and 5 crew members were safely transport the into airport. The safety of our customers and employees remains our primary focus. Eight passengers on board the 737 were transported to a local hospital after suffering minor injuries, mostly bumps and bruises, according to the nashville fire department. It was scary, real scary. We were on the ground so it could have been worse. Coming days after another southwest flight made an Emergency Landing in san antonio that. Aircraft landed safely after part of the wing appears to be what the airline calls at an irregular angle. All of this with christmas just a week away and the rush beginning, millions of americans expected to fly for the holidays. Recovery crews arrived on the scene overnight and began moving the plane out of the ditch. The nashville airport says despite the emergency all runways remained opened and operational through the evening, no delays. Both the faa and southwest looking into what happened. Back to you. Tom costello, thank you. Now to the Harsh Criticism aimed at the School Officials in the Second Largest School District in the country. Hundreds of thousands of students returning to class after an unprecedented decision to the close many schools. Many calling that a knee jerk reaction. Lets go to nbc correspondent Miguel Almaguer in los angeles. Reporter good morning. This is one of hundreds of schools set to reopen acting out of an abundance of caution the superintendent says he was acting responsibly but this morning many are being critical of him. 700,000 students will be back in school today, just 24 hours after the unprecedented decision to shut down the nations Second Largest School District just before classes were set to begin. We can now announce fbi has determined this is not a credible threat, something we couldnt have announced earlier in the day. Reporter abrupt decision came after an email threat. Someone claiming to be a High School Senior said they were bullied and ready with an army to attack schools with guns and bombs. L. A. Is just 65 miles from San Bernardino where 14 were killed in a terror attack two weeks ago today. Decision was made and information we have now was not able. While the police chief stood by the superintendents enforcement Officials Say they advised against the closure calling it a bad move. In new york where a similar email was received, classes went on as scheduled. Former lapd police chief bill bratton, now the Police Commissioner in new york, says l. A. Overreacted. We do not see that as a credible terrorist threat, and we are investigating it as a hoax. Reporter after sweeping 1,500 los angeles schools for bombs the all clear came late tuesday, well after parents scrambled to pick up stranded students. Im happy that they took precautions. Im sad, you know, for the kids that they cant be in school today. Reporter this morning l. A. Usd is back in business but only after heavy criticism. As students across this 710 square mile School District get set to return, a 17yearold student was struck and killed by a truck yesterday as he was crossing the street. Or from school after the school closure. Savannah and maid, back to you. All right, Miguel Almaguer, thank you. Want to turn now to the historic meeting by the Federal Reserve thats being watched very closely from wall street to main street. A little later today the fed is expected to raise Interest Rates for the First Time Since 2006. Its a move that will impact everything from your mortgage to your savings. Nbcs Olivia Sterns covers Financial Issues for us. Olivia, good morning to us now. Why now. Reporter this is a good news. Consider this a vote of confidence in the American Economy and the central bank saying were back, dont need emergency measures anymore. They brought the zero rates in order to bring us back from the crisis to stoke borrow and lending in the economy and the good news it worked. The economy is growing at a pretty steady clip at 2. 5 and unemployment is half of what it was during the crisis. Its 5 and, yes, some people are starting to get away so all dont need the crutch anymore. Good news for the economy but it can be tough for people on main street. Its going to impact our bottom line. How fast and how will it affect us . Reporter first rate hike is going to be miniscule, a quarter of 1 . The question is the pace at which the fed continues to raise rates over the next year or two that. Said, if have you any kind of variable rate debts or credit card loans or Student Loans or an Adjustable Rate Mortgage youll see an increase in your Monthly Payment and if youre a saver youll see a little bit more interest on any savings or cds, but, again, were talking 18, 24 months. If youre thinking about making a big purchase, dont do anything rash but do start to get your finances in order now. Olivia is a glass half full. I like it. Never thought this day would come. Its good news for the economy that we dont need that crutch anymore. Olivia, thank you so much. Well get a check of the weather. Mr. Roker is over at the weather wall. Game we love to play, whos colder . Yes. These are some of the temperature lows, los angeles or new york city, who is colder . Los angeles. Lets find out. Los angeles 43 for a low and 48 in new york city. What do we win . Nothing. Boston or las vegas, who is colder . Las vegas. Lets see if you are right. Johnny, ted them what they have done. 38 degrees in boston and 35 in las vegas, and our final, who is colder, phoenix or washington, d. C. , ladies and gentlemen . Phoenix. Okay. Lets see if youre right. Boom, yes. 43 in d. C. And a low of 33 in phoenix. Let the record show we were 3 for 3. We were amazing. Look at me all together now all together now everything techie for everyone. Kohls. A together now. Mid and upper 40s temperaturewise this morning. Its a little cooler but still mild for this time of year. 46 in the city. Thats the low so far. Few upper 30s well north and west. Look for clouds to return after a sunny start to the day. 52 the expected high. Tonight, 46 with a cloudy sky. Spotty drizzle overnight. Tomorrow the steadiest rain is Late Afternoon and evening. 57. Clouds giving way to sun. Colder on saturday. Mid40s on sunday. Back to the 50s come monday and tuesday. And these your late weather. Miss winter. Games. Thats really fun. A thank you so much. Better than the old weather map. Celebrityendorsed hair care product making women lose their hair, a massive Class Action Lawsuit. A dangerous concern of i sure had a lot on my mind when i got out of the hospital after a dvt blood clot. What about my family . My lil buddy . And what if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital but i wondered if this was the right treatment for me. Then my doctor told me about eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Pnot only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots, t but eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding v than the standard had both. Turned around my thinking. Pdont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Peliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Pdont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Pif you had a spinal injection while on eliquis pcall your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. Pwhile taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. Pand it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Pseek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Peliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Ptell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. V eliquis treats dvt pe blood clots. V plus had less major bleeding. Both made switching to eliquis right for me. Ask your doctor if its right for you. At toysrus, you can buy one get one 40 off all sorts of toys. Even that life size stock boy action figure . Nah, thats just steve. Buy one get one 40 off power rangers, crayola, nerf modulus and more. Good morning everyone. 7 26. Its wednesday morning, 46 degrees out. We have breaking news from queens. An investigation into a fatal accident backing up traffic on the van wick. Kai simonsen has the latest from chopper 4. Confirmed that one person is dead following this accident involving a truck and a car. Happened at 5 00 this morning. The southbound side of the van wick expressway by jewel avenue or 9 in queens. We have intermittent southbound closures, full closures through this area. Once in a while they open up the left lane. An Accidents Investigation continues out here. Delays in the southbound direction go to the white stone. Stick with the Grand Central parkway instead. Im kai simonsen. em lip, whats the rest looking like . In addition to that, theres an accident southbound at linden place taking up two lanes. Jersey a debris spill. Causing problems. Crash at exit 150 on the garden state parkway. Route 1 and 9 southbound. South wood avenue two lanes blocked with a crash. Well be right back with chris foreclosure. Forecast. Pretty quiet morning. Cooler than recent mornings but bearable. 46 degrees isnt bad in the park. Normal high is 43. Upper 30s to the north and west. Sunshine heading our way for today that will mix with clouds this afternoon and toward High Temperature of 52. Sevenday forecast. Drizzle tonight and tomorrow. The steadiest Late Afternoon early evening. 57. Developing sun on friday. Colder but dry by the weekend. Darlene sniemts thanks so much, chris. Coming up on the today show, a look back at the biggest headlines. Welcome, to the simply orange tour. This is our plant. These are our workers. And this, is upper management. But what you wont or concentrating. Which brings us to our end product. Simply orange. Honestly simple. Thats just the night watchman. Sfx owl theres a happy crowd. 7 30. Its wednesday morning, december 16, 2015. Another pretty day here in manhattan. Festive holiday crowd out on the plaza and no complaints about the weather. Almost a headline in itself. None whatsoever. Students are returning to classes in los angeles today following a threat that shut down all 900 schools in the nations second Largest School system. That threat turned out to be a hoax, but the superintendent chances. Is in iraq meeting with u. S. Commanders and iraqi leaders. The goal of the trip, to find new ways to fight isis and speed up its eventual destruction in the region. And the reporter covering a dayold bankry in minnesota got a big surprise during his live report. What . Oh, thaetsd ts the robber. This is live tv the, folk. Thats the robber, just went by. Apparently a Bank Employee ran by that reporter that the bandit had just struck again. The suspect was captured about an hour later. Not what you expect when youre covering a dayold bank robbery. No. Well have more on that in a little while. Meanwhile, the biggest talker of the morning, the fireworks on display in las vegas last night during the final republican president ial debate of the year, especially fireworks between donald trump and jeb bush who declared the frontrunner to be a chaos candidate. Nbcs National CorrespondentPeter Alexander was there. Peter, good morning, again. The nights biggest headline very likely was the fact that donald trump again reaffirmed his pledge not to run as a thirdparty candidate, as an independent, the commander in chief debate with National Security now a top priority for americans. No one was able to knock out donald trump, jeb bush tried and marco rubio didnt. Rubio and ted cruz exchanging most of the blows. Trump at center stage appeared more comfortable and in control than in some past debates, and he turned some heads with his comments about how to combat isis online propaganda machine. Isis is recruiting through the internet. Isis is using the internet better than we are using the internet. I would certainly be open to closing areas where we are at war with somebody. I sure as hell dont want to let people that want to kill us and kill our nation use our internet. Were interested in his choice of words, our internet. As to what happened last night as to what didnt. No fight between donald trump and the number two man ted cruz. A lot of analysts believe that this race is locked in place through the holidays. Two more debates in january before those Iowa Caucuses february 1st. Matt . Peter alexander, thanks so much. Shifting gears. Popular line of hair Care Products endorsed by some celebrities has now been hit with a massive lawsuit. A growing number of women claiming a cleansing shampoo has actually caused their hair to fall out. Natalie is following this one for us. Right this. Lawsuit, guys, more than 200 women in 40 states say they used wen products and ended up with rashes, scalp irritation, hair breakage, discoloration and even in some cases baldness. Now some of the women are speaking out. Hair Care Products are an enormous 83 billion industry in the United States. If youre having a bad hair day, its a bad day. Reporter something that can make that day even worse, losing your hair. Media say it happened to them after using wen hair Care Products. The hair started coming out. Reporter in florida amy freedman said she used wen products for two weeks. Absolutely outrageous that a product that you would put on your hair causes hair to fall out. Reporter nbc news cannot independently verify amys claim. She filed a lawsuit against wen and now 200 women have joined a Class Action Lawsuit against the company it. Aalleges one or more wen products contain an ingredient or combination of ingredients that cause significant hair loss, damage and other injuries upon proper application. Hi. Im chaz dean, creator of wen hair care and body care. Reporter and named in the lawsuit celebrity hairstylist chaz dean and gatty ranger which mass markets using celebrity milano, brooke shields. Reporter with enand gatty rheinecker said there is no Scientific Evidence whatsoever to support any claim that our hair Care Products caused anyone to lose their hair. There are many reasons why individuals may lose their hair, all unrelated to wen hair Care Products. And they promised to vigorously contest allegations made against our products. But even allegations can be devastating for the company. There is the court of law and theres the court of public opinion, and when hundreds of people are claiming that your hair product is causing scalp damage and making their hair fall out, they have already lost in the court of public opinion. Both sides say they are working towards a setment in the lawsuit but its a company thats been very popular, two years that they have been in business, grossed over 100 million in their product sales. Tough headlines for them, for sure. A pretty vigorous snow storm coming out of rockies and making its way into the upper midwest. You did see in denver yesterday a lot of snow there. Some places picking up up to 8 inches of snow. Kids enjoying, of course, a good old game of touch well, maybe thats tackle football. Boom i guess its tackle. The storm system going now. Well, were watching it make its way its way knew the upper midwest, another 5 to 8 inches of snow in minnesota. Also watching another significant storm coming into the Pacific Northwest wednesday through friday over the next several days. Some area, 4 to 8 inches of rain and 2 to 4 inches as you get this. Snowfall amounts anywhere from one to 2 feet. Winter storm washes from parts of wash sunshine out there right now. Well have clouds mix back into the picture. Changeable sky for today. Cooler than recent days. Above normal at 52. Could be spotty drizzle later on tonight. Midtown near 40 north and west. The heaviest of the rain is Late Afternoon and evening tomorrow for the commute. Still mild, a high of 57 degrees. 51 on friday. Clouds give way to sun. A cold shot of air over the weekend. 46 sunday. Were back to the 50s by next week. The get your latest weather when you need it, weather. Com online and the weather channel. And stories name impacted our world in 2015. But up next. The Christmas Season danger in your home right now. Well show you the one item that caused this massive fire in just its that night of the year you come here. Looking for gifts so there wont be tears. Eleventh hour shopper. Thats you. Its ok because they know you. Theyre loaded up with gear. An xbox for the children. And a mixer for your dear. No need to shop around for present youve missed its all here. Youre off the naughty list Eleventh Hour shopper. Thats you see you next year, buddy get low prices on all your lastminute gifts. Walmart. Theres no one id rather. Share with. No one id rather have dinner and a movie with. No one id rather lean on. Being in love is an amazing thing. Being in love with your best friend. Twostone ring. One diamond for your best friend. One for your true love. For the one woman in your life whos both. Ever us. New this holiday at kay, jared and zales. Many sleepaids have Pain Medicine but zzzquil is different because why would you take a Pain Medicine when all you want is good sleep . Zzzquil a nonhabit forming sleepaid thats not for pain, just for sleep. I said i really cant stay baby its cold outside i have to go away baby its cold outside baby its cold outside p you never know who youll im chris bosh. When i was sidelined with blood clots in my lung, it was serious. Fortunately, my doctor had a game plan. Treatment with xarelto. Hey guys hey, finally, somebody i can look up to. Besides arnie. Xarelto is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. Xarelto is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. For people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, theres limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. You know, i tried warfarin, but the blood testing and dietary restrictions. Dont get me started on that. I didnt have to. We started on xarelto. Nice pass. Safety first. Like all blood thinners, dont stop taking xarelto without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of a blood clot or stroke. While taking, bleeding to stop. P xarelto may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Xarelto can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. R get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. If you have had spinal anesthesia while on xarelto , watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle related signs or symptoms. Do not take xarelto if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. Before starting xarelto , tell your doctor about any kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. You know xarelto is the 1 prescribed blood thinner in its class. Thats a big win. It is for me. With xarelto there is no regular blood monitoring and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto. Was the right move for us. Pask your doctor about xarelto. 7 42. Were back with more of our rossen reports series saved my life. Today National Correspondent jeff rossen is here with a very jeff . Reporter really is. Supposed to be the happiest time of the year, but did you know most house fires happen right now, during the holidays. One of the biggest causes, yes, your Christmas Tree. Turns out many people are making a simple mistake that could mean the difference between life and death. Just days ago a Christmas Tree catching fire in missouri, erupting in flames, setting this whole house on fire. The family barely made it out alive. In california, this house up in flames, too. Again, all starting with their Christmas Tree. Everything happened right away, so quickly, so i was just trying to hurry everybody up and get everybody out. Reporter turns out its common, and if youre caught inside deadly. Christmastime, these happen all over the country. They are tragedies, not only one or two kids, can be entire family. Reporter because when these trees burn they explode in flames in seconds. Why . Getting enough water. We are testing it out with a sacramento fire department. This is the kind of Christmas Tree you probably have in your home right now. As you can see, its decorated, full of ornaments and its not been watered in days. The way these fires normally start, a small little spark somewhere in your house, and were going to do is set a spark here and set this tree on fire and see how fast it burns. Well get out so were safe. Fire in the hole. Reporter within seconds its an inferno. The tree, fully engulfed. Whoa, that smoke. Within seconds. Look how that just overpowers you. Definitely. What happens in your home when you dont water your tree. Literally every minute it will double in sides like having a huge piece of kindling. Reporter and watch, its already spreading to the table and chair. The entire room is on fire. If im in my house, should i get a fire extinger . Thats the biggest mistake people make, try to stay in the get out of home immediately and call 911. Weve cleared all the smoke out of the room and have a new Christmas Tree here and this one has been watered. Lets spark the flare and spark. It look, the firefighter cant even get to light up and hes trying t. Finely gets going. Burning a lot slower with the dry tree. With the wet tree takes tries as long to ignite. Dry tree on the left and wet tree on the right. Huge difference. Reporter what are the tips here . Water your tree every day or every other day and keep it away from any heating element, portable space heater, radiator and check your Christmas Tree lights, any frayed or damaged light keep that off your Christmas Tree because every year that can be the emission source. Every year people use the same lights, put it in the attic and bring it back. Check for this before you put it back up. Reporter simple advice to keep your family safe. Savannah, one of the people that year. I do, and its cheap. Reporter fine to do that and make sure they are not frayed and theres other things at home that could spark this time of the year. Never leave candles unattended and if youre cooking on a stovetop keep a pan nearby in case that catch eds fire and make an escape fire case Something Like that happens. What do we have tomorrow . Learned a lot. Reporter tomorrow in our series saved my life. What to do when you get trapped in your car in a snow storm. Its happened with drivers getting stuck on major freeways. How to survive until help survives 24 to 48 hours later tomorrow on today. Jeffry, thank you very much. Coming up, the biggest stories of 2015 and how we covered them on today, grandma is so happy to be here for your very first christmas. I hear you re quite the expert at waking people up in the morning. Your daddy made this when he was a little boy. This is your dad at my house, where he had his first christmas. Thanks for making the coffee. Well look who s up. I m really glad you re here mom. Me too. Look who s here with ingredients like roasted hazelnuts and cocoa, in every jar of nutella. Spread the happy. Feel a cold coming on . New zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. Give your home the gift of big savings this year at lowes. Hurry in today for great deals on all of your Home Improvement needs. laughter now get 10 off select major appliances eucerin intensive repair doesnt just moisturize dry skin, it intensively repairs it. With a unique triple action formula that exfoliates hydrates and fortifies skin. Leaving it looking healthy and radiant. With intensive repair, from eucerin. Give extra. Get extra. Phil oh no. under his breath hey man hey peter. unenthusiastic oh. Joanne . Is that you . Its me. You dont look a day over 70. Am i right . R jingle jingle. If youre peter pan, you stay young forever. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. You make me feel so young. Its what you do. You make me feel so spring has sprung. The snow is starting to fall. And all the decorations are just right. The presents have all been opened. And our loved ones are gathered all around. So share that extra joy in your heart. And make this christmas even more special than the last. Walmart has everything youll need for a christmas meal theyll never forget. Share wonder every day. Walmart. [elf] heres one of our best elves, hard at work. [kid] whats back there . [elf] nothing. [santa] touchdown. Come on. [elf] santa, the davidsons are here to see our workshop. Uh, this is my sleigh its how i deliver all the presents by myself [team member] santa, you got anything else going to albany . [santa] by myself muffled noises [vo] ship with Fedex Express at fedex office. Its how the holidays arrive. It starts with movies and see you later. Last one home cooks . Another tie. Order in . Next time i drive. The rightsized nissan rogue. Now get 0 financing on the 2015 nissan rogue. Pain from your day can haunt you at night, dont let it. Advil pm gives you the healing sleep you need, helping you fall asleep and stay asleep so your body can heal as you rest. Advil pm. For a healing nights sleep. Starting thursday at kohls buy more save more take an extra 15 or 20 off already great savings like fine jewelry 60 to 70 off and 40 to 50 off star wars apparel, home and games announcement this storm promises to be the biggest of the decade. With total accumulation of up to three feet. Roads will be shut down indefinitely. And schools are closed. Campbells soups go great with a cold and a nice red. Made for real, real life. This holiday i can count on being slammed with orders. Were getting slammed with orders. And my customers knowing right when their packages arrive. Totally slammed introducing realtime delivery notifications. One more reason good morning everyone. 7 56. Looking at the Alexander Hamilton bridge on a wednesday morning. Im darlene rodriguez. One person was killed earlier van wyck expressway. Several lanes still shut down. Emily west has the details. Thats between exit 11, jewel avenue to the union turnpike ramps. We have live video from chopper 4 above of the scene of this. Intermittent closures with that. The backup, that stretches all the way to northern boulevard this morning. You definitely want to go with the Grand Central parkway instead. It is going to be a mess for quite a while this morning. Also the bqe eastbound at mcginnis boulevard, an accident that takes up a lane there. Emily, thanks so much. A Long Island High School where dozens of students were sickened by fumes is reopened. Classes were canceled around 12 00 yesterday afternoon. Thats when teachers and students rornted feeling dizzy and a burning in their throats. Investigators have not determined the source of the fumes but they say air quality in the school is now safe. Lets check the weather today. Sun, clouds, high of 52. Tonight, cloudy, chance for a spotty drizzle. Light rain on and off in the morning. Steady in the afternoon. 57 is the high. Friday, clouds giving way to sun. High of 51. Coming up on the today show, actress alicia stops by to talk about her role in the new film the danish girl. Kids don t stay little forever. So help them get the opportunity they need. It s never too early or too late to save for college. You can open a ny 529 account with just 25. And you may get tax benefits if you pay income tax in new york state. Someday you ll look back and be glad you got started. Ny s 529 College Savings program. Its 8 00 on today. Coming up, from the popes historic visit to the race for the white house. Every poll said im the best leader by far. To moments of terror and kindness. A look back at the year that was. The events, people and stories that shaped our world. Then paying it forward. Im a city of foster kid. I live in foster care. I grew up in foster care. A shining the light on foster care and finding children a forever home. Plus, double the star power. Nominations, hollywoods new it girl, alyssa vikander and honey, hes good. Pop star sings his latest hit today, wednesday, december 16, 2015. Merry christmas, from cali to new york good morning. Go clemson tigers. Celebrating 40 years of marriage. And 60 years old, yay here in new york to celebrate my birthday here on the today show. 8 00 on a wednesday morning, 16th day of december, 2015. Theres a noticeable change weve got the same huge holiday crowd and winds blowing, temperatures have dropped and a more seasonal feel right now. I forgot how to dress for winter. It will warm up again this weekend. Okay. Lets head inside and check the top stories of the morning. Hey, nat. Guys, good morning. Republicans traded stinging personal insults during their final debate of the year tuesday night. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander was in las vegas for us. Peter, good morning. Natalie, good morning to you. This was in effect a commander in chief debate all the republicans trying to convince voters that they are best qualified to keep americans safe. There was no outright winner last night except perhaps the Republican Party demonstrating, that well, donald trump is going to stay in the tent. He said he would not monday a thirdparty bid. Some real infighting between donald trump and jeb bush. Bush taking aim at trump, insisting that he is the chaos attacking bush for his poor poll numbers and marco rubio announced real divisions such as domestic surveillance and immigration. Chris christie was strong as well but most analysts agree this race is locked in place during the holidays with donald trump a strong number one and ted cruz in second. Natalie. Peter alexander in las vegas, thanks. We have breaking news from europe. Officials in austria say they have arrested two men with possible connections to the attacks in paris last month. Meantime, Hillary Clinton is providing new details about her plan to prevent future attacks here in the u. S. She wants Silicon Valley to help block isis recruitment online. She also called on american muslim communities to intervene and help stop radicals, calling them our best defense. Two people were killed overnight when a medical helicopter crashed in the mountains about 55 miles east of phoenix. Member alive. Just be advise that had we have dps on the ground. They have possibly located the crash side. Last update was someone was waving a light at them. That survivor was flown to a nearby hospital, the chopper carried a doctor, a nurse and paramedics. No crew on board. The man a woman who revolutionized the mail order, Lillian Vernon went small and offered unique gifts and home goods that could be monogrammed for free. Lillian vernon was 88 years old. For the first time a woman has been chosen toer is as commandant of cadets at west point. Brigadier general Diana Holland graduated from the academy in 1990. She served in both iraq and afghanistan. General holland will be in charge of training west points more than 4,000 cadets. Congratulations to her. A homeowner in south georgia heard a loud crash and take a look. It was that. A small plane that landed right on his rooftop. The two people on board were able to climb out with just a few cuts and bruises. The pilot had reported engine trouble and was trying to reach an airport about half a mile away. Good thing he is okay. Lets get a check of the weather right now. Mr. Roker. Todays weather is brought to you by kay jewellers, the number one jewelner america. Every kiss begins with kay. Around the country today, sunshine, a little cooler along the east coast and more wet weather making its way from the great lakes all the way down to the gulf coast. Snow across the Northern Plains and another big storm moving into the pass nick. Al, thanks very much. Temperatures are generally in the mid40s but Holding Steady in the last hour. 46 in the park. 30s north and west of town. A chilly start, yes but, again, these temperatures are still a mixed sky, steady rain late tomorrow. A chilly, dry weekend. Here is your sevenday forecast. Putting it all together, 52 today, 57 with the rain tomorrow. 51 with a clearing sky. Only 42 on saturday, mid40s with sunshine sunday and we warm it back to the 50s by next week. Thats your latest weather. Savannah. All right, al, thank you. Coming up, what will you remember the most. We look back at the most talked about news stories of 2015. Plus, natalie pays it forward to a selfless woman shes known for years but has never met. And honey, hes good. Andy grammer performs his [makes siren noise] im watching that. Eew. Every christmas is memorable. But a gift from kay jewelers. Makes it unforgettable. Because its more than a gift. Its a memory shell wear forever. Save 25 on any citizen watch. Powered by light any light. Memorymaker in america. Every kiss begins with kay. This holiday i can count on someones kid mistaking me for santa. Im so sorry. Come on sweetie. Its okay. And knowing right when my packages arrive. Introducing realtime delivery notifications. One more reason this is our season. The snow is starting to fall. And all the decorations are just right. The presents have all been opened. And our loved ones are gathered all around. So share that extra joy in your heart. And make this christmas even more special than the last. Walmart has everything youll need for a christmas meal theyll never forget. Share wonder every day. Walmart. Dave, im sorry to interrupt. I gotta take a sick day tomorrow. Dads dont take sick days, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Still not feeling well . No. You know when i got sick my mom used to make me chicken noodle soup. Aw, ok. You should call your mom. Bye. Campbells chicken noodle soup. There when no one else is. Campbells. Made for real, real life. I am your father. This week at toysrus get 30 off this kylo ren, xwing and the lengendary yoda. T toysrus. V vo some call it giving back. We call it share the love. During our share the love event, get a new subaru, p and well donate 250 to those in need. Pbringing our total donations to over sixtyfive million dollars. P and bringing love where its needed most. Plove. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. From the crowded raced to the white house and the popes visit and terror here at home and abroad, 2015 has been filled with triumph and tragedy. Here is a look back at moments that shaped your world as we reported them here on today. Masked men opened fire at offices of a controversial newspaper in paris. Two armed men entered the building and began opening fire. Theres been a hostagetaking at a kosher deli and meanwhile the two brothers suspected of the attack are holed up and cornered. Terrorists who traumatize this region for three days are dead but not before leaving 17 innocent lives ended. The kayla mueller, an aide worker who died being held by isis. I really feel we had a chance to get her out. Do you feel like our government did enough . The major new offensive launched by isis. The u. S. Led coalition is striking back. Are we winning right now . Were still building the forces. Im confident we will win. Russian passenger plane with 224 people on board crashes in egypt. Isis claimed it had brought down the plane. Vladimir putin is vowing to take revenge. Train thwarted by three americans. Seemed like he was ready to fighted to the end. So were we. Over you and helping you. Spencer, i would just like to life. Today marksled promise of a new day for the United States and cuba. For the first time in 54 years an American Flag will be raise the at the u. S. Embassy in havana. Devastating earthquake in nepal. This is the race against time. Brick by brick the desperate dig to find survivors. Growing crisis overseas. Migrants trying to escape their wartorn homeland attempting to get to europe president obama is strongly defending that controversial deal to halt Irans Nuclear program. It is a good deal. You guys have been bamboozled and the American People are going to pay for that. Bamboozled, outmaneuvered, outnegotiate the. Were you fleeced . Theres a lot of politics going on, matt. Breaking news. Where a germanwings passenger plane has crashed. Disturbing new details. Copilot intentionally crashed the plane into the mountains. The terror group isis claims responsibility for unprecedented attacks in paris, in six separate but coordinate bombings and shootings. The scene of the worst carnage at bataclan theser. Witnesses say they saw these shooters arrive inside and beginning firing indiscriminately. An International Manhunt is now under way. The suspected ringleader is in in fact dead. The soul of the city is intact. They have heavy hearts but they will not succumb to fear. Seems another week, another tragic mass shooting. Nine People Killed in an unthinkable crime in charleston, south carolina. What does it say about us, that in 2015 somebody walks into a church and then shoots them one by one . He said should up, im going he said im not going to shoot you. Im going to leave you here to tell the story. In laugh yet, louisiana, a gunman opened fire inside a crowded movie theser. Im not sure why this man chose this movie to end these two peoples live. A reporter and another killed lived on television. It takes my breath away. A gunman opened fire carrying out the vicious attack. Exchanging swhots him. Hes in a classroom. Why does this keep happening . Weve become numb to this. A 57yearold man behind bars after a deadly shootout at a planned parenthood clinic. Breaking overnight, a young couple opening fire at a holiday party. What did she describe . Bullets flying all over the place. Her allegiance on line to the leader of the islamic state. The this was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people. The u. S. Has already seen more Mass Shootings than days in the year. Get off me. It has been a night of chaos, violence, lawlessness in baltimore over the death of freddie gray. Areas of the city that literally look like battle fields. This is the scene of a deadly amtrak derailment in philadelphia. Just down the road behind me you can see the tangled mess of cars, tracks, power lines. There were people screaming and bleeding. The white house awash in a full rainbow in celebration of the supreme courts historic ruling on samesex marriage. Weve made our union a little more perfect. A defiant county clerk in kentucky is behind bars this morning after refusing to issue im not. Under Whose Authority . Under gods authority. Pope francis waking up for the first time in the u. S. This morning after being greeted by the president , the Vice President and an adoring crowd. Unique and historic moment. The first opportunity for so Many Americans to see this pope in pope francis. Pray for me, dont forget. Where are they in the desperate search to find and capture two inmates involved in a brazen prison break. This prison break right out of a hollywood script. New questions swirl around Joyce Mitchell and whether she helped them hatch their plan. I knew i was in way over my head. There have been reports that your wife fell in love with one of these inmates. She didnt know if i loved her anymore, she said. The nightmare is finally im not the monster that everybody thinks i am. The notorious mexican drug lord el chapo. I saw that prison break in upstate new york was impressive. Wow. El chapo had a milelong tunnel. The death of cecil the lion has ignited controversy behind the world and the doctor behind it now in hiding. Tens of millions of email addresses belonging to Ashley Madison customers available for all to see now oint net. Millions of marriages and reputations could be very much at stake this morning. Are you africanamerican . I dont understand the question. The a prominent ncaa leader under fire accused by her own family of lying about being black. Are you an africanamerican woman . I identify as black. New England Patriots are at the center of a controversially. They are calling this deflategate. Did the new England Patriots dock tort footballs their team used in the big win over the colts here over the weekend . I dont believe so. I mean, i feel like ive always played within the rules. He did it American Pharoah in that run into history, the first triple crown winner in 37 years. American pharoah is finally the one i dont know that ive ever heard a roar that was louder than what i heard on saturday afternoon. Believe. The u. S. Women win the world cup. It was thrilling, it was stunning, it was amazing. Usa were world cup champions Bruce Jenners transition to life as a would. The former olympian revealed a look and name on the cover of vanity fair. Was there an adjustment . We all support him, was there an adjustment, yes. Nothing better than to look in the meror and feel comfortable with yourself and who you are. So the song what, is it about . I like to start reconnecting with everyone else and myself, you know. Its in general just hello, everyone. Hello. Hello. Nice to meet you. Gwen and blake, does it good to be out in the open now . I like your suit. Thank you. I like your movie. Oh, my god. Thank you. So funny. Stop. What was your favorite part in the. All of it. Yes, yes, yes. Ill have what he had. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being happy and 10 being over the mood. How happy are you not being to run willing for everything . Not as happy as michelle. I just constantly think of how proud i am that hes able to carry the weight of the world but still, you know, find time to be my husband. And all of the spotlight gets to be on those ladies you love. Theres just nothing like anything else with your sisters and your mom. I knew during the surgery that he was on my side and this wasnt something that i felt less of a woman because my husband wasnt going to let that happen. You know there are a lot of rumors. Sure. Out there right now, and would you like to address them head on. Im here to admit that i am in fact hivpositive. Its a hard three let efforts to absorb. So are we talking about lawsuits filed against you, charlie . Are we talking about shak owns . Were talking about shakedowns. Are you still paying some of these people . Not after today im not. The let me know we cant wait for you to come back. We cant wait for to you come back and i cant wait to make them laugh again. You know what would be a nice way to thank them, one day walking down those stairs again on saturday night live. It the feels so good to be here. Glad youre with us. Should be a good afc west yolkys blast sails over the left field fence and the yanks are off and running. Were grateful for it. We cant late criminal extort his own freedom. Many in the hills say they need the crease fire. I never dreamed it could possibly have grown to where it is today. Stand by me, oh, stand by me live long and prosper. Let the race begin. I am announcing. I am proud to announce. I am officially running. Im a candidate. I announce my candidacy. For president. Of the United States. The question being raised about why Hillary Clinton used a personal email account only during her tenure as secretary of state . Secretary clinton said she did this for convenience. I dont think convenience should trump National Security. Go away. Did you wipe the server . What, like with a cloth or something . Do you get how bad it looks . It was allowed, and ive said it wasnt the best choice. The American People are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails. Thank you. Me, too. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton does have one less thing to worry about. I believe were out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign. Weve put together a Benghazi Special committee. Youre scheduled to testify before that committee. Thats right. Do you think it should be disbanded . They have admitted its a political partisan committee for the soul purpose of going after me. High stakes at benghazi hearing. I thought more about what happened than all of you put together. Nbc news has learned that House Speaker john boehner will resign from congress. This isnt about me. Its about the people. Its about the institution. The speakership is a powerful job, and yet you dont have people following all over the place is impossible to run right now. Paul ryan era sunday way on capitol hill. Now more than ever we must Work Together. Donald trump is riding the wave to the lead of a crowded republican field. When mexico sends its people, they are bringing crime, they are rapists and some i assume are good people. I dont mean to be fun bethis. Youre losing in the polls to the host of celebrity apprentice. Target trump. The republican candidates for president take on the frontrunner and pull no punches. Mr. Trump doesnt have a proven conservative record. You call women you dont like fat pigs and disgusting animals. Only rosie odonnell. Look at that face, trump is quoted as saying. Would anyone vote for that . I think women all over the country heard very clearly what mr. Trump said. Do you think youre setting the right example as someone who is running for the highest office in the land . Every poll said that im the best leader by far. We cannot elect somebody that doesnt know how to do the job. Another day, another new poll with donald trump in the lead. Seems so hard for anyone to get attention. How do you break out . Its a marathon. The donald j. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States. Hes a chaos candidate and hed be a chaos president. You cant deny his impact on politics whether you like it or dont like t. So a little bit happened the last year. Were exhausted. Quite a year. We should thank everyone who worked on that piece. Takes a long time, producers Katie Buckley and yale federbush, Mike Sadowski and the this show is next of people that you dont see, people behind the scenes and you saw the proof that have. Always amaze when we sit and watch that piece how much we forget that happened over the course of 12 months. And how much of that is going to extend into 2016, whether its politics or the International Fight against terrorism. These are ongoing stories. Absolutely. All right. We look forward to what we get to cover in 2016. Meanwhile meanwhile. We are back in just a moment with your local news and weather. Good morning. 8 26. 46 degrees out. Im darlene rodriguez. The expressway has just opened on van wyck. Kai simon son has more details. Darlene, good morning to you. One person has been confirmed dead after an accident involving a car and a truck. It happened at 5 00 this morning right there. You can see where the sand is down on the roadway. It has been cleared. Southbound van wyck by jewel avenue is where it happened. An accident investigation has now been wrapped up in all southbound lanes has been reopened. We still have heavy delays back to the whitestone expressway. Keep it in mind. Like . We have new problems on long turnpike. Heavy delays back towards the bqe eastbound. Lets check the weather today. Sun, clouds, high of 52. Tonight, a chance for a spotty drizzle. Tomorrow, light rain on and off in the morning. Steady in the afternoon. 57 degrees. Coming up on the today show, the stars of the wiz drop in to chat about their critics choice kids don t stay little forever. So help them get the opportunity they need. It s never too early or too late to save for college. You can open a ny 529 account with just 25. And you may get tax benefits if you pay income tax in new york state. Someday you ll look back and be glad you got started. Ny s 529 College Savings program. 8 30 now. Its wednesday morning, 16th of december, 2015. Christmas is getting closer every day. Great crowd out on our plaza. A little chilly out here, but we wont complain. Starting to feel like the holidays. Andy grammer coming up. Hes going to sing his new song and also out here collecting toys for us. Also coming up, weve got a young lady here. She is a very talented young globe nominations, Alicia Vikander and vogue magazine says this will be her here. Well talk to her. Al, a check of the weather. For today snow in the plains. Going to be a windy day and really a little messy. Look for wet weather from the u. P, of michigan all the way down to the gulf coast. Sunny but a little cooler along the eastern seaboard and the sunshine through the southwest and on weve got sunshine out there now mixing with some clouds as we go through the day today. Cooler day, above normal. High, 52. No more 60s for a while. Back to the 40s tonight. A spotty drizzle could break out later on this evening through the overnight. Along the coast and into tomorrow. Steadier showers in the afternoon and oong. Evening. Later friday, 51. A cold day saturday, with sunshine. Holiday is the perfect time jumping through my shot. Chuck schofield is with us from no kid hungry. Good morning, thanks for being here. Thanks for having she. Tell me about your truck and your partnership with city. Absolutely. Im here with the no kid Hungry Campaign and no kid hungry is focuses on surrounding children in need who struggle with hunger with nutritious food where they live and learn and play. We have one in five kids in this country who struggle with hunger and that doesnt need tonight case. Its a solvable problem and thats why we have teamed up with childhood hungry. No kid hundred rig has been an incredible partner and we have been able to provide 10 million meals to children in need and launched this new initiative with the food truck thats driving awareness and driving donations to no kid hungry throughout the city during this holiday season. Thats tobin bride. Chuck schofield, thanks for the work you do. Appreciate it. Merry christmas. Merry christmas. Now back inside to you guys. Well, this morning on our series make your today its natalies turn to pay it forward. Thats right. Back in 2008 when i was pregnant i mentioned on air i craved cheeseburgers. A woman named sarah bartos emailed with the world cheeseburger to congratulate me on my pregnancy and weve kept in touch over the years and sarah is the lead council for childrens rights, an organization that advocates for children in foster care, and i decided that that was the face to face. Im so excited. For this moment. Sara. I feel like ive learned so much from you. Youre that person on the front lines really in the courts litigating and trying to make sure that the states are taking care of those kids in the system. The government can do magical things for children and for families, but without accountability theres broken lives, kids who grow up in foster care and turn 18 without a home, without a mom, a dad and so were in the courts trying to make sure that happens as infrequently as possible. My second home. I consider it kind of hell on earth. My foster mom started telling me things like you are ugly. Youre worthless. No one could ever love you. Your mother doesnt love you. And then her husband soon began to abuse me as well. He had his way with me and i remember so clearly im 15. I have never kissed a boy. Wow. God has been incredible in my life. You finally had a positive experience and found your family. I am very, very, very fortunate to have ended up in a family like this one that has so much love, so much kindness. What do you wanted people to take away from your life . While things can be difficult, almost pitch black, in the most despair, there is hope. My parents, they just werent there. They couldnt take care of me. My older brothers sorry. I know, its a hard thing to do to talk about what you went through. I moved in with my foster mother who would a year later i ended up living with her from 5 to 13, and i suffered from physical abuse. So how many foster homes did you end up living in . Ive lived in anywhere between 25 to 30 different fosters homes. You question wheres my family . Why dont i have a home . How did you go from that dark place to overcoming it and becoming who you are now . You know, they say it takes a village to raise a child. That is true, but it takes one person to change a child, and my social worker was that one person who changed my life. Im currently in my second year at st. Johns university. My goal is to really inspire my brothers and sisters in the foster care system. I never gave up, even though it is hard. I am who i am today because of everybody who invested in my future, and i can be the president , too. Im voting for you some day. I had a really actually great i was in my home, in my foster home for a couple months. I thrived in it at first. Eventually i started to feel a little caged in and acted out in some of my old ways and i ran away when i was 16 actually. And then when you turned 19 you became pregnant. Yeah. That changed everything in my life. I got my g. E. D. While i was pregnant with elijah and right after he was born i began college and i became a foster mom at 24 and if you look at a kid for their trauma, youre not looking at kid, you look at whats happened to them and my daughter has had a lot of trauma in her life but if you look at her and you see her, shes amazing. And the woman who inspired it all and inspired me and still inspires me, sara bartos who is so im so thrilled i finally got to meet you and we got to tell these stories. We have a little surprise for you though, beyond that, we created another video for you to guys can use on your website. Take a look. Oh, my gosh. Over 650,000 children spend time in the foster care system every year. Nearly 108,000 of them are waiting to be adopted. Just 58 of those who grow up in foster care graduate from the high school. And only around 3 graduate from the a fouryear college. I used to be a foster kid. Spent two years with the state as my parents. I spent 18 years in foster care. I lived in over 25 different foster homes. And now i have a forever family. I was supported in foster care and now im supporting others. I hope to inspire the world with my story. Childrens rights shines a spotlight on failing foster care systems. And used the law to protect tens of thousands of kids. Hi, my name is victoria rowell. By working together we can reach the children who need our help most. And im natalie morales, and thousands of kids in foster care the productive and the happy lives they deserve so, what do you think, zahra . Thats fantastic. What a thrill. What a holiday joy. What a blessing, thank you so much. We know the organization, you dont have a lot in a media budget so we figured creating that video will help raise awareness. Do you think that will help to accomplish that . I sure hope so and if it makes a few families think about adopting. If they think bus and help us do our work, were going to make these systems work for kid and there can be thousands upon thousands of new permanent families. You are your help is amazing. You are a super hero. You know why we keep talking over cheeseburgers. Exactly. See more of that video on our wednesday id. Rising stars. Double Golden Globes nominee Alicia Vikander but first this theres more to be congratulating her about. Great to have you here, welcome. Thank you so much. Eddie redmayne was here and this is an embarrassment of riches meaning the roles hes had in the last year or so and same thing for you. Its been quite a whirlwind this year. Yeah, ive ive its been just first of all been able to be working on some of the films that ive done. Some of them that came out that i did almost two and a half quite surreal getting to meet not only people but to work with some of them. Youre nominated for best actress in the danish girl and also best supporting actress and what was it like on the morning announced . I was in berlin doing press for danish girl and we were going to head off straight after we finished this table junket that i had with journalists and i came out and my publicist just looked at me and screamed and said you got nominated and i jumped out and freaked out really and then she said and another thing wait, theres more. I just blanked out then and had a very hard time to get my head around. Called my parent, the first thing. The danish girl will get a lot of attention because it deals with the issue of transgender which is in the news, but when eddie was here he made a very strong point and said lets remember that first and foremost this is a love is that the way you see it . Definitely. It is the heart of this in a way and think its also why i think its extremely relatable in that sense that its a couple that you get a very tight insight into their relationship and how how you how you tackle and handle a big change and how the relationship can go through very different stages and i was kind of just touched and very moved by by the amount of love. I was moved by the whole movie. Its a wonderful f. Youre on the cover of vogue magazine basically saying that this coming year is going to be your year. Thats a compliment and can also be nerveracking. Well, theres been a lot of nerveracking moment and i think its been, but, i mean, its such an honor. I was 13 when i was in sweden when i went to to the strain straight in gottenburg was the international magazines, and i got to tell them how big it was a Looking Glass to another world so to be invited in and be part of that was pretty extraordinary. Its deserved. Alici ya, great to meet you. Congratulations on everything. Thank you so much. And danish girl from our Sister CompanyFocus Features opens on christmas day. Still ahead, a Live Performance from andy grammer downstairs, but, first, on a were back now with a rare condition that can develop in women pregnant with identical twins. Two mothers are leading the charge to bring attention to it. Heres todays erica hill. So this is the photo of them at the 20 weeks. They said youre fine. Go home, like things are looking good, and then three days later out that we lost our first baby. Two weeks later, jamie delivered her twin daughters, ela and stella. Neither survived. Sometimes things look stone cold normal and within a very few days it can accelerate. It is tttf or twintotwin transfusion syndrome, a disease many expectant mothers of identical twins have never even heard of. During pregnancy most identical twins share a single placenta in the womb. Sharing the placenta also means the twins share blood vessels. In at least 10 of cases where the twins share the placenta tttf develops and the blood flow between the babies about, unbalanceled putting both twins in jeopardy. So the smaller donor twin is losing blood volume and the baby is basically losing nutrients to the other twin. The other baby gets an excess amount of blood volume and jeopardy but from polar opposite reasons. In some pregnancies, like jamies, tttf developed so quickly the damage so severe nothing can be done to save the babies. But for those who can be saved, recognizing the early signs is key to a positive outcome. Odeh snider was also pregnant with identical twins that shared one placenta. I didnt know anything could go wrong. She had never heard of tttf until she was diagnosed. After doctors noticed a sides discrepancy during her 16week ultrasound. Very interesting. Within days she was in the office of a one of a few neonatal surgeons in the country by treat tttf by operating arthroscopically to blood vessel and restore normal flow. We quote a 90 chance or higher that at least one baby will survive and about a 70 chance or higher that both will survive. Griffin and zachery beat the odds. I was very lucky, gave birth to amazing and healthy children. Experts say women carrying twins with a shared placenta should have an ultsound every one to two weeks and watch for any physical warning signs like a rapid growth of the womb, abdominal tightness and cramping. I think all moms shouldnt be afraid to ask questions just to get more information for a sense of peace. For today, erica hill, new york. Ive never heard of that. Important information. And thats the whole point, to raise awareness. Put a lot more information on tttf including the questions that expectant mothers should be asking their doctors. Its on our website, today. Com. Were back in a movement welcome, to the simply orange tour. This is our plant. These are our workers. Find around here, is any freezing, flavoring, or concentrating. Which brings us to our end product. Simply orange. Honestly simple. Thats just the night watchman. Sfx owl were so happy to have andy grammer here to perform his latest single. Grammer. Ive been grinding so long, been trying this for years and i got nothing to show, just climbing this rope right here and if theres a man upstairs, he kept bringing me rain but ive sending up prayers and somethings changed i think i finally found my hallelujah ive been waiting for this moment all my life now all my dreams are coming true, yeah ive been waiting for this moment good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be hallelujah, let that bass line move ya, say ya and its good to be alive right now i was dead in the water, nobody wanted me i was old news, i went cold as cold could be but i kept throwing on coal trying to make that fire burn sometimes you got ace aa get scars to get what you deserve i kept moving on and now im moving up damn, im feeling blessed with all this love i think i finally found my hallelujah ive been waiting for this moment all my life now all my dreams are coming true, yeah ive been waiting for this moment feels good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be hallelujah, let that bass line move ya, sayyaf and its good to be alive right about now i almost can, cannot handle i could get you, could get used to this i almost can, cannot handle it i could get you, could get used to this i think i final found my hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now hallelujah, let that bass line move ya, sayyaf and its good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be good, good, good, good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now good, good, good, good to be alive right about now all right awesome. Andy grammer and his band. Thank you so much. Were back with much more of first, a check your 46 degrees. December 16th. Students are back in class this morning at a Long Island High School where mysterious fumes made dozens sick. It happened in west babylon in suffolk county. Tests showed the air quality in the school is now safe. The van wyck expressway southbound lanes have reopened. They have been closed for most of the morning while police investigated an accident that killed one person. Delays still stretch back to the l. I. E. Well check the weather. Sun, clouds, high of 52. Tonight, cloudy, a chance for a tomorrow, light rain on and off, steady in the afternoon, 75, high, friday, clouds give way to sun. High of 51. Coming up on the today show, comedian, hike barren holt swings by to talk about his new role in the comedy sisters. Stay tuned. The sometimes haphazard, never boring fun. The why cant it smell like the learning the virtue of sharing fun. Why let someone else have all the fun . Thats no fun. Unleash the power of dough. Take best of 2015. As the year comes to a close well take a look back at year that was. Then find out what we think about the new star wars films. We promise, no spoilers. And wait until you see what beyonce did thats got everybody talking today. All that and more coming up next. From nbc news, this is todays take with al roker, natalie morales, willie geist and tamron hall. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome a today on this wednesday morning. Outside and the crowd on wednesday, december 16th. Along with al, natalie and tamron. Tell me about your morning jam. This is conrad zel. Hold me up. Feels like old school. A little retro. A lot of young kids are doing old school 7 as and 880s kind of soul jams, i love it. Speaking of retro, i thought you were going to speak as your theme this morning. I could have. Thats old school. Yeah. Thats a classic. We all were lucky enough last night, we went to go see star wars, the force awakens. Had dinner and a movie. So fantastic. I cried leaving the theater. I couldnt sleep last night. Watched the gop debate tries. That was my palette cleanser. It was beyond. It was great. Not giving anything away. No, were not. I do have a slight confession. Yes. Here it comes. Like i said we had dinner and a movie. Had a lot to eat, some vino, and some of us got a little sleepy. Some of us. How did you fall asleep . I dont know. I was seated next to lance bass and his husband michael and the whole time they saw me going like this. First of all, the sense of humor. It was good. The parts i was awake for it was great. And everyone knows that han is back and the lines, the writing. J. J. Abrams, that cast. Yeah. We bow at your altar. It was so good to me. I thought they did such a good job of bringing new characters and plots and keeping didnt you love the reaction of everybody in the thesers. Oh, yeah. The applause. Yeah. When you saw han solo popping up first, Harrison Ford and carrie fisher. And dont say anything else. But immediately like everybody broke out in applause and cheers. The applause is so loud you woke up at one point. You woke up and found yourself. I wasnt asleep the whole time. I grabbed lance bass hand. This is the first movie that i saw nick and leila, nick was like, yeah, yeah. I could hear him on the side. I cant wait for my kids to see it. Thats the thing. Its a shared experience and i said to someone, it feels like, brace for it, 1978, you know, 77 and then suddenly, and its just perfect. Modernizes but keeps it true and then we woke up with bitmojis on my brain, myself and al. We have our bitmojis. I have it. I did it as well. There you are. The force is strong it my family. Someone helped me out. The young woman the star of the movie. Daisy. Daisy ridley. On her way. For sure. Reporter she is so good. Fantastic. It will make 300 million. First weekend. First weekend. They have already sold 100 million in advanced tickets. This is this is the first movie ive said i want to see again, i want to, and i want to buy the dvd. I dont know the last time i actually bought a dvd. Ive rented but i want to own it in my home. Im going to get a laserdisc. Yes, yes. Getting a laserdisc. Im getting a layers. Im bringing lasers. Half you are our audience is googling right now. There was a time. There was a time. This table, and you you get two people to walk it in and put it in the stand and then you closed draw. Keep the kids away in case they get closed in. Cant scratch it. In keeping with the star wars theme. Jimmy fallon and the roots did the an amazing a capella version with some of the stars from the film. That was so good. Everybody want a pb8. So cute. His little facial expressions, doesnt have a face but his eyes. His eyes with the expressions. We better stop. Weve got to the stop. J. J. Had a big job and he delivered. The cast is the awesome. Daisy ridley. Amazing. About to become a huge star. Lets talk about the other thing, the thing it a tamron watched twice last night. Many of us only watched it once. Fifth and final Republican Debate, another one next month. Last one this year. Dominated by National Security and terrorism. Not a lot of talk about the economy and other things. They did talk a lot of policy which was nice to heart. Former in governor jeb bush confronted donald trump inary sees of exchanges. Donald, you know, is great at candidate, and hed b a chaos president. He would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our country safe. Jeb doesnt really believe im unhingeled. He said that very Simple Police because he has failed in this campaign. Its been a total disaster. Nobody cares. You wont be able to insult your way to the presidency. Thats not going to happen. And i do have the strength. The simple fact is the if you think this is tough and youre not being treated fairly. This isnt tough. I wish it was always as easy us a, jeb. Or dealing with islamic terrorism that exists. This is a tough business to run for president. Youre a tough guy, jerks i know, and we need to have a leader. Real tough. Youll never be president of the United States by insulting your way. Lets see, im at 42 and youre at 3 and so far im doing better. Doesnt matter. So far im doing better. You started off over here, jeb. Youre moving over further and further. Pretty soon youre going to be off the end. Oh, my gosh. There you have it. Wow. You know whats interesting the only one who really went after trump in a meaningful way. Has to. The frontrunner gets heat from all sides and especially ted cruz in second place, all but hugged donald trump. You know what we should get as an analyst, don rickles. I would love rickles to weigh in. What would rickles think . At end of the day nothing really changes because trump and cruz still are going to be leading. Its an interesting morning joe, Joe Scarborough talked about this alliance with an alliance thats formed, star wars force, between donald trump and ted cruz and jeb bush, even though hes polling at 3 in some , he may have found his lane to at least be discussed at the top of the newscast and the past its been cruz, trump, of course or carson and now hes at least in the headline going into this holiday break. I think Chris Christie actually very good. Was pretty strong. Was incredible. Lindsey graham was very, very strong and many people are saying he needs to now be on that main stage, polls aside because he is willing to confront and bring some of the heat to donald trump to challenge whether or not, you know, he should be president. I love the facial expressions on the attacks the split screen, that is always like the trump faces and even linds e graham had a lot of great faces, too. Can we talk about ted cruz not really going after donald trump but did go after his fellow senator marco rubio. The two had a number of exchanges, this one on immigration. He was fighting to grant am nest and not to secure the border. I was fighting to secure the border. Does ted cruz ever rule out legalizeding people in this country illegally now . Do you rule it out . Ive never supported legalization and i do not intend to support legalization. Do not intend to. Gave himself a little wiggle room. Thats an interesting dynamic. Two youngish senate, for the senate they are young, 44 years old. A month apart. So thats a nice dynamic. One to watch. Al, how about a look at weather. I love our produce, adam miller. All right. Wheres go. Where is he . In my ear. Lets go, move it along. A fun little game here. Everybody ready to play. Who wants to play whos colder . We all do. Heres a question, overnight low, who is colder, los angeles or new york city . Los angeles. All right. Going with l. A. Lets see, 43, los angeles, 48 new york. Youre correct. Oh, wow. L. A. Is colder. How about boston versus las vegas. Las vegas. Oh, youre catching on. Vegas. 35 in vegas. Yes. You . And how about difference between phoenix and d. C. . Who is colder . Phoenix is colder. Oh, you didnt go for the bait. Look at that. 33 in phoenix for a low. Living. Thats right. Johnny, tell them what they have won. Temperatures in most of the air why on the cooler side. Still, above normal for this time of year. Sun will mix with more xlouds. High temperature of 52 degrees. It clouds thoefr wink as the wind turns in off the water. A little spotty drizzle could develop. Low temperature, 46. Tomorrow, lots of clouds. A little drizzle early. Steadiest rain late tomorrow es tafternoon and evening. Clouds giving way to sun, friday afternoon, 51. A cold are 42 on saturday with 40s on sunday. And that is your late weather. Thank you very much, al. Up next, got rave reviews as they eased on done the road with the nbc wiz the snow is starting to fall. And all the decorations are just right. The presents have all been opened. Gathered all around. So share that extra joy in your heart. And make this christmas even more special than the last. Walmart has everything youll need for a christmas meal theyll never forget. Share wonder every day. Walmart. We give you relief from your cold flu. You give them a case of the giggles. Tylenol cold helps relieve your worst cold flu symptoms. You can give them everything youve got. Tylenol olive garden s allnew flavorfilled pastas, with raviolis so nice we filled them twice. Bursting with indulgent flavors like chicken marsala ravioli, plus unlimited salad and breadsticks. For a limited time. At olive garden. At clorox 2 weve turned removing stains into a science. Now pretreat with clorox 2 watch stains disappear right before your eyes. Remove 4 times more stains than detergent alone. 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Today they conquered oz and social media with both receiving the Critics Choice Award nominates for their perform be a and in case you missed it there will be an encore airing of the musical this saturday night. Good morning. Congratulations. We were all over social media with everyone else. Excitement. Few things live up to the hype. This and star wars have lived up to the hype for me. Ill put them in the same category. How did it feel for you. Just anays maidsing being the first thing ive ever done i couldnt have asked for a better experience. What does the live aspect, all of a sudden youre on live its definite pressure but its the kind of pressure that pushes you forward, okay, back from commercial in five, four, three and then its at that the point its do or die. We were well prepared. It speaks to the importance of reparation, you know, two, two and a half months of rehearsal of what we got up there and i cant speak for anybody else but i wasnt as nervous as i thought i would be because we were so prepared, so n sync with each other. You can see the chemistry and the flow between all of you when you saw the reaction, and again, the encore saturday. When you saw the reaction, what did you think . The just so excited. Like, whoa, we did that. I field like i shouldnt have even had the opportunity to watch you guys. As you can do, can you sense youre doing it well. Technically do you know that when its going on . Its crazy. I was so into the role and like we were doing everything for the first time and its so fresh and thats why i think it had such a good time. And that costume. Oh, that costume. One of the things i do not miss putting on that costume, man t. Definitely adds a whole other element to to just regular singing and dancing. Very, very happy and not so much. Not supposed to be able to move too freely and i feel like you were rocking it there. Considering i did already. Trying to keep that helmet up. One hand up. Issue of the hat. Yeah. Got to ask you, neo, about the accent. I was talking to jay farrell who to nail the neo accent. Im originally from camden, arkansas, and all of my uncles talk like that. The character is from kansas which is not incredibly far from arkansas, and i just wanted it to feel authentic so i i, you know, went back to some of those old conversations and the way they speak and the twang and the way they incorporated it into the character. Know a lot of great things are next and one of the tweets i red from Jonathan Capehart from Washington Post tweeted out he had not seen a rights star come to life other than you and jennifer hudson. Watched a star being born. Thats amazing. In fantastic company. Thank you. The wiz live gather the entire family. Neo will be watching for the first time with us at 8 00, 7 00 central here on nbc and up next, shes known for taking fashion risks, but this time beyonce someone wrote its one of the reasons beyonce is better than the rest of us. Another reason. We will show you what beyonce wore right proud of you, son. Ge a manufacturer. Well thats why i dug this out for you. Its your grandpappys hammer and he would have wanted you to have it. It meant a lot to him. Yes, ge makes powerful machines. But ill be writing the code that will allow those machines to share information with each other. Ill be changing the way the world works. interrupting you cant pick it up, can you . Go ahead. He cant lift the hammer. Its okay though youre going to change the world. At applebees, when you give a gift card. You get a mystery bonus card up to 25 of your own. Which is a nice surprise just for gift giving. Its a little gift from us, at applebees. Discover card. How can i help you . Oh, youre real . You know im real at discover, were always here to talk. Good, cause i dont have time for machines. Some Companies Just dont appreciate the power of conversation you know, i like you i like you too t at discover, we treat your like youd treat you. Get the it cardp and talk to a real person. Just press clean and let roomba from irobot help with your everyday messes. Roomba navigates your entire home cleaning up pet hair and debris for up to 2 hours. Are always clean. From irobot. Just head around the corner to walgreens when you re searching for that Perfect Little something. Walgreens has great gifts like toys, beauty gift sets, and photo gifts, and it right now, save 50 on the gift of the week. Im chris bosh. When i was sidelined with blood clots in my lung, it was serious. Fortunately, my doctor had a game plan. Treatment with xarelto. Hey guys hey, finally, somebody i can look up to. Besides arnie. Xarelto is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. Xarelto is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. For people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, theres limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. You know, i tried warfarin, but the blood testing and dietary restrictions. Dont get me started on that. I didnt have to. We started on xarelto. Nice pass. Safety first. Like all blood thinners, dont stop taking xarelto without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of a blood clot or stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily p and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. P xarelto may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Xarelto can cause serious, fatal bleeding. R get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. If you have had spinal anesthesia while on xarelto , watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle related signs or symptoms. Do not take xarelto if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. Before starting xarelto , tell your doctor about any kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. You know xarelto is the 1 prescribed blood thinner in its class. Thats a big win. It is for me. With xarelto there is no regular blood monitoring and no known dietary restrictions. Treatment with xarelto. Was the right move for us. Pask your doctor about xarelto. All right. Lift your mugs, my friends. Its hump day and pop fix and lets get it the popping. A coat with Christmas Tree ornament and the back featured stockings, perhaps this was the work of blue ivy she chose the look for her Office Holiday party in midtown manhattan and cant wait to see what she butts out for christmas or new years eve. Tom brady and his beautiful wife gisele. The patriots quarterback shared this photo of his wife topping off the tree with the caption now we are ready for christmas thanks to the love of of my life gisele, and its been nearly 20 years sinned goldie hawn and bette midler teamed up for one of the movies the First Wives Club and looked like the reunion might be in line and the leading ladies are back for netflix film with diva nation about a once popular Singing Group who reunites after 30 years and lets hope we get another musical number like this one. Im free and i love to be free to live my life the way i want that movie is so good. No word on diva nation and when it will premiere and one direction maybe going on hiatus but last night the boys belt the out their song one more time with late, late show host in another car creaky including a choreographed routine to their hit no control and things got really interesting when james asked niles to play a game of sleep with me, merry croup. Selena gomez. Im going to im going to great fun. His choice to marry selena had fans buzzing this morning as rumors that the pair are dating and neither has confirmed that as a fact so there you have it. Once again my fun nightclub is i can never get anybody to ease on into the club. Okay. Are we the first ones here . Wheres the yellow brick road. We dont need the yellow brick road . Come on, ease on down the road. Coming up after ooooohhhhhhhh its that night of the year you come here. Looking for gifts so there wont be tears. Eleventh hour shopper. Thats you. See you next year, buddy get low prices on all your lastminute gifts. You know the love you feel for olive garden s fresh baked breadsticks . Well multiply that by a million. New breadstick sandwiches, part of olive garden beautiful view of hudson river. Good morning. Im michael gargiulo. A commuter alert. A disabled amtrak train is in one of the hudson river tunnels disrupting service on several n. J. Transit lines. All n. J. Transit trains, subject to delays of up to 20 minutes. Path cross honoring tickets the ahoboken and Newark Station and n. J. Transit buses accepting check the weather. N, clouds, high of 52, tonight, cloudy, spotty drizzle. 46 tomorrow. Light rain on and off in the morning. Steady rain in the Late Afternoon nd and evening. 51 and 42. Coming up on the today show, andy grammar performs his new single, back home. Well be back in another 30 taking a look at the headlines. People who borrow money and those who save it have a lot riding on the Federal Reserve today. The fed is wrapping up two days of meeting and is widely expected to raise Interest Rates for the First Time Since 2006. An increase would affect mortgage rates, car loans and credit card rates and the amount paid on cds. More than 200 women have joined a Class Action Lawsuit against wen Hair Products and their creator and marketer. In the suit the women claimed the products are dangerous and unsafe, and in some cases made their hair fall out. The company says there is no Scientific Evidence whatsoever to support any claims that our to lose their hair, and it promises to vigorously contest the allegations made against their products. Older adults who get shingles may also have a higher shortterm risk for strokes and heart attacks. A new study from britain found that shingles patients over 65 have two and a half times the usual risk for stroke in the first week after their diagnosis. Their risk for a heart attack was nearly doubled. Some good news though. Those elevated rates gradually decreased over the following six months. Combining chemo with electromagnetic field therapy can extend the lives people with a fast growing type of brain tumor. Researchers tested the dual treatment on patient who had already been going through chemo alone and those who received the combined therapy survived about three months longer than those who only got another round of chemo. And a new study finds that using antibitics alone to treat children with uncomplicate aid alternate to surgery. Researchers found that 3 out of 4 children with uncomplicated appendicitis could be successfully treated with antibiotics and were okay a year later. The study was led by researchers at nationwide childrens hospital. Well, the national zoo getting ready for its newest stars public debut. Giant panda bebe is almost four months old and, boy, has he grown from five ounces to more than 17 pounds. Today reporters had a photo shoot with him and earlier this week we even got a closer look. Be be will have his public coming out party on january 16th. Look at that face. Just want to pinch those cheeks. Lets get a check of the weather with al. Ill pinch als cheeks. Ill leave that alone. Anyway, a frontal system push you go down through the south and behind it may be will see 5 to 8 inches of snow in the northern u. P, of michigan and on into northern minnesota. This wet weather spread into the tomorrow and then clears out by late in the day tomorrow. Th a changeable sky heading our way. Bright, sunny intervals as we go into mid and Late Afternoon hours. It is cooler than it has been. Spotty drizzle, light rain. 46 in midtown. Closer to 40 in our northwestern suburbs. Tomorrow, the steadiest rain waits until Late Afternoon and evening. Another mild day. High temperature, 57 degrees. Clouds giving way to sunshine on friday, 51. A colder 42 saturday. Mid40s sunday. We are right back into the 50s next week. And that is your latest wetter. Thank you very much, al. Ike baronholtz is one of the funniest guys in comedy right now and has been as it since he was a bus boy at the Improv Theater when tina fey and amy poehler were big stars there. Fast forward to today, sisters well talk to ike in a minute but first more about his rise to stardom. You know how it is to write and perform jokes. Funny guy ike likes to make folks laugh. Getting his act start on madtv he was part of the Sketch Comedy Group for five years. He continued acting on the small screen, becoming the loafable goof ball nurse tucker on the mindy project. At all the times ive been abandoned at a celebrity pet grave this is the most hurtful. Where he also served as writer and producer and he landed a role in the movie neighbors. You know what brings people to party more than anything, celebrities. The he even joins the starstudded cast in the upcoming film suicide squad, but first ike is teaming up with the queens of comedy, tina fay and amy poehler. Hes amys Love Interest in the hi. Hi. Im maura. Im james. I just wanted to say hi. So thats done. Ike, good morning. Good morning. Another like hour and a half that i would like to keep rolling. That would be great. I need al to like narrate my life always. Hes at mcdonalds right now, got a fillet of fish and eating it in the bam roam. Thats filletofish. Youve known amy and tina for years but the first time you get to work with them professionally. A bus boy and they made me cut me in the tips and i guess thats acceptable and here we are. Its worked out well. Worked out well, yes, yes. You get to be a leading man, not just a leading man but hunky leaning man. Diet, extensive Plastic Surgery and then they did, this is all wovenin hair. They gave you a weave . This is cat hair, but this is mine right here, so it was just things. Fantastic. You cant tell, willie. Tell me about your character. Amy and tina are the good girl and bad girl. Good girl and bad girl. Im kind of the of the boy next door, kind of a sweet guy, normally all my characters are desperate perverts. Like a nice man. And broken out, on my back. On your back. Yeah. Im just kind of a guy whose job it is to show amys character that she can have fun and be a good person, and i think the word around my house is im the glue of the film. Oh. Thats what everyone says. Thats what tina said this week . Thats what she said . No. Congratulations at premier and asked me for a drink. You steal a scene. Ill never look at one of those little ballerina jewelry boxes the same. Neither will you, because i cant. You can actually see if. Open my mouth wide enough you can hear beethoven. And now youll in neighbors 2. Yes, yes. The first neighbors was full of stupid morons, just you wait. Found a way to make them more dumber. I think we have a photo of you in a clown outfit. Yeah, thats possible. Where am i what were you doing in the clown outfit . Right there. Ere we go. Yes. Why the clown outfit . Nice hair. That was right before i got to the set and then i got into makeup. Thats my son zach ephron. Thats your i woke up like this look. I woke up like this. Sound like youre channeling heath legend. Weve got seconds, suicide squad,. The story of my best friend will smith. Meeting him for lunch later. Im not. Gave him a jewelry box. That was my rap gift to him. Hes a wonderful person and its very exciting. Sisters from universal opens up friday. Come back any time. Starring ike. Thats right, thats right. Coming next, a little song, a little dance, a little snowball down your pass. We did it all this year. Take a lack back at all the fun weve had this need to make holiday magic. microwave ding chex party mix. Its what the holidays are made of. I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. Breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. Breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Do not take breo more than prescribed. See your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. You. See if youre eligible for 12 months free at mybreo. Com. At applebees, when you give a gift card. You get a mystery bonus card up to 25 of your own. Which is a nice surprise since most gifts dont give the giftgiver a gift just for gift giving. Its a little gift from us, come on duck puppy barks you can do it duck. Hurry up duck you can do it duck. Iams. Helps keep your dog healthy at every stage. So you can always look forward to whats next. Wow this toilet paper reminds me of a washcloth new charmin ultra strong, dude. Cleans so well it keeps your underwear cleaner. secretly so clean you could wear them a second day. Tell me i did not just hear that sheepishly i said you could not that you would new charmin ultra strong with its washclothlike texture, helps clean better than the leading flattextured bargain brand. Its 4 times stronger, and you can use up to 4 times less. It cleans better. You should try it, skidz. We all go. Why not enjoy the go with charmin . Raise your hands if you guys had fun this year. All right. Okay. So how about we take a trip down memory lane. Oh, wait. Is it going to be embarrassing . Absolutely. Yes. Lets hope so. A look back at our year that was. Youre driving happy birthday. The trump wig. Wow. Hold on. We made it. Look like weve made it it was a lot of fun. Chaos. Sweet, wonderful chaos. Uncertainty was the buzzword. Here we go. Every day something epic happens. Holy moly. Ive got my two sisters, tamron, natalie hand my brother al. This year we really got our groove on. Where do we even begin . Tamron likes to think that shes a good dancer. We call this the choochoo train. As does natalie. And willie and i know know dont pretend to be. You love to dance. You have to be willing to laugh at yourself and make fun yourself. Shes good at the salsa. And theres other kinds of dancing comes out and youre like what is going on there in. Fudge brownies. This is wow me week with three cool experiments. I inhaled the cass. And my voice dropped down sub James Earl Jones as darth vader. Thats unbelievable. Yes. It was as though i were out of my own body, and if you watch the clip, i was genuinely scared of my level. When you hear the worth weather howl at moon. Weather. I want you to imagine and believe that its possible to take the dents out of the can. Youll tap on it. Its reseal the. It becomes oh, wait a minute. Come on what is crazy. Trick and clearly the viewer saw it that day. I swam with sharks, well, sort of, from behind a wall. They swam, i watched. The rokerthon this year was daunting, 50 states in a weeks time. It was as exhausting as it was exhilarating. Every place we went i got the goat people are goats. Goats magoats. It was like, really . Got a little chill in the air. Theres only one thing to do and that is have an ice dancing competition. How did that happen . Whoa baby. Youre mean. There you go. The first time in my life. Willie goes urban. Tweeted a little audition for john cena. What it takes to be a wwe star. Taking a look at headlines, youre all about to be in a i was born to brawl, ive got the guts and the gal. The forecast for today, pain, i feel a cold front coming in from the east. Ill take tough piledriver to the canvas and get on the top rope and splash down to finish the job, brother. I cant get down. Help me. Im sorry you had to see this. Spitting image. Oh, my gosh. Were you a little scary. Wow. The feet. I love my life the today show has evolve the. You cant do the same show that we do from 7 00 to 9 00, so at 9 00 its a more conversational problem. Put my weather to the test. Good try. The what usually happens at end of an hour is that you get something delicious. And something thats hopefully fun. Maybe youll learn a little majority of our job is to reported news, so if we can smile and laugh together it means a lot. Egg crack challenge. I am waving our todays take flag. I think i learned our team dunk crew is that we were all that much better when we Work Together as a team. The take team. Mwah the wow, what a year. Forgot all that happened this year. Felt like that was three years ago. All happened in the last week. Thanks to everyone for putting that piece together. Really great job. Tomorrow well check out some of the stars who come through studio 1a. They dont stay. Pass on through. Shovel on pass us. Always come to play and we always have fun with them. Up next, sick of being asked about being single at holiday parties, i know i am. I know i am. Nobody asks me. Im going to Pay Attention to with ingredients like roasted hazelnuts and cocoa, theres a whole lot of happy in every jar of nutella. Spread the happy. Ohohoh ohohoh ohohoh everything sparkly for everyone. Kohls. Its here, the first gummy multivitamin. From centrum. A complete, and tasty way to support. Your energy. Immunity. And metabolism like never before. Centrum multigummies. See gummies in a its that night of the year you come here. Looking for gifts so there wont be tears. Eleventh hour shopper. Thats you. See you next year, buddy your lastminute gifts. Walmart. Gh im home. Hey, its dinner. A lot happens on your wooden surfaces. Luckily, no one cleans and kills germs better olive garden s allnew flavorfilled pastas, with raviolis so nice we filled them twice. Bursting with indulgent flavors like chicken marsala ravioli, an irresistible twist on an old favorite. Plus unlimited salad and breadsticks. For a limited time. At olive garden. That m phil mickelson, pro golfer. My Psoriatic Arthritis caused joint pain. Just like my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. And i was worried about joint damage. My doctor saidr joint pain from ra can be a sign of existingt joint damage he prescribed enbrel to help relieve pain enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal, events including lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders tell your doctor if where fungal infections are common, or if youre prone to have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Joint pain and damage. Can go side by side. Ask how enbrel can help relieve joint pain and help stop joint damage. Enbrel, the number one biologic. It is middecember which means, of course, holiday stress in full effect. Lastminute travel, the office parties, dinner with the inlaws, all that have can take its toll as you know and we called in an expert for help. Laurie levy is ought aror of life in life. And she offered us a little youre at a fever pitch of stress to begin with trying to get the card out, the decorating, the presents. Its crazy, and then on top of it a lot of things can go wrong. From Bridget Jones diary. The why is it there are so many unmarried women their 30s these days, bridget . People dread being asked being asked dating questions. Take a breath, stand solid who you and give them a smile. To the family stone. You have a lovely home. All to better to entertain you, my dear you. Look street in their eyes and give them the best of you and know that you are enough. To rachels recipe disaster in friends. Monica, i want you to have the first taste. Really . Well . Take a beat, breathe, know that whatever pressures youre putting on yourself youre losing sight of the holiday. Your joy, your light was contagious to others. If youre feeling good, they are feeling good and thats what the holiday is real be. And in the blind side. Hey. Whoa. Mom. Technology is great around the holidays because certain loved ones cant be reached any other way but if your nose is buried deep into that cell ptone you may not look up and see that youre standing underneath the mistletoe and miss that kiss. So breathe, relax and enjoy the holidays. Were back in a moment. Good morning, ladies. You know what we have coming up take a look at that guy. Take a look in the kitchen. Andy grammer is going to hang with us. Hes here . Whats going on . Nothing is happening over here. Cant have enough andy grammer. A give that actually gives back which is good and hoda is going to tell us what she thought about the new star wars movie because she went with you guys. I, of course, was watching the debate. Whatever. You know what hoda said, gave me half of her twizzlers, ill never forget that. Unbelievable dinner and then and then i was throwing twizzlers at willie. Its 9 57 on this morning, december 16th. Police are trying to track down a driver wanted for a deadly hit and run crash. Looking for was driving a shellvy trailblazer reported stolen last week, crashed into a honda civic in north amedyville. The driver has been identified as 32yearold reginald salithi. The driver ran from the scene. A stretch of route 17 in new jersey. They renamed today in honor of christopher goodel. He had been with the Police Department for some five years. Checking the weather, sun, clouds, high of 52. Tonight, cloudy, chance for spotty drizzle, 46. Tomorrow, light rain on and off in the morning. Steadier in the Late Afternoon nd aevening. 57, friday, 51 degrees. Give back to veterans and those less fortunate