Transcripts For KNTV Today 20140511 : vimarsana.com

KNTV Today May 11, 2014

Lives who do so much. Today, sunday, may 11th, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with lester holt and erica hill. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today on this sunday morning. Im erica hill. Im lester holt alongside jenna wolfe and dylan dreyer. I want to say happy mothers day to you two, my wife, my mom, all the mothers out there. Happy first mothers day to you. Thank you very much. Very exciting. Youve had a couple. Any advice . Take full advantage of people wanting you to take a break. You are wearing a gift from yes. My older son weston made this for me last year. This year he made me this beautiful bracelet. And another pin which youll see later. So thank you. Very nice. Weve got a big day planned for moms. We do. We have quite a morning out on our plaza. Pampering. Youre seeing it happening right now. So weve got manis, massages. We even have a brunch planned for moms joining us on the plaza a little bit later. A big celebration to come. Before we get to that we do have serious news to start off with. That nasty weather system that could spawn a number of strong tornadoes later today. Kansas and missouri got hit on saturday when at least 14 tornadoes touched down. Luckily there are no reports of any serious injuries. As we said, theres more Severe Weather expected ahead. Dylan is keeping an eye on it for us. Dylan . Lester, it is going to be a very active day today. Even more so than yesterday. And todays biggest threat with the tornadoes that are likely in the iowa area, especially around des moines, its the long lasting tornadoes. The ones that stay on the ground for an extended period of time. And they cause the most damage. We could see ef3 or higher tornadoes develop. That means winds could be greater than 136 miles per hour. Its an area in parts of iowa where we are already going to see these storms continue to spread eastward. You can see some heavy thunderstorms developing right now. This yellow box here, thats your severe thunderstorm watch box. These will continue to move up to the north and east and redevelop later on this afternoon. From des moines right over into sali salina. Thats where were going to see our strongest threat of isolated tornadoes developing today. Besides that from san angelo, texas, southwestern michigan and into indiana, we still could see strong storms that produce Straight Line wind damage, hail and torrential downpours. But its right in through here, including parts of nebraska, into kansas and into iowa where we could see some of those long track tornadoes develop. Thats something well certainly be keeping an eye on later on today. Eri erica . Dylan, thanks. History was made in the nfl draft last night when michael sam was picked by the st. Louis rams. In that moment he became the first openly gay player to be drafted into the league. You see him there receiving the news. Heres Miguel Almaguer with more. Reporter he waited three days and nearly seven rounds. The nfl draft almost over when history was made. With the 249th pick of the 2014 nfl draft, the st. Louis rams select michael sam, defensive end, missouri. Reporter sam received the news over the phone. The emotions, the weight of the moment, nearly too much to handle. Surrounded by loved ones, sam, who came up publicly in february, is the nfls first openly gay player to be drafted. Late saturday, sam spoke to nbc affiliate ksdk in st. Louis. Im proud to give everything i got for st. Louis. So many people are proud of the st. Louis organization for being the one to make history. Reporter at missouri, sam was a Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year. An allamerican standout. But he performed poorly at the nfl combine where teams view prospective players. Sams stock appeared to drop. While many questioned whether a pro team would select an openly gay players. Others wondered how hed match up in the nfl system. With michael sam, the issue is where where does he fit in the nfl. There are questions that there isnt a clear position for him at the nfl level. I think that hurt him more than anything else. Reporter but sam has p persevered before. Today welcomed by new teammates and celebrated by those who call him a pioneer. Were going to rock it. Next season and all the seasons to come, were going to be rocking in st. Louis. Reporter hes made history. And now hes ready to play ball. For today, Miguel Almaguer, nbc news. Now to new details on that deadly hot air balloon accident in rural virginia. This morning we know what caused it to catch fire and explode in the middle of the sky. As we learn more about the victims onboard, luke russert continues to follow the story for us. Luke, good morning. Reporter good morning, lester. While two of the victims have been found, all three have been identified. This as we begin to learn more details about just what went wrong on that hot air balloon flight. Officials say the balloon was coming in for a landing when it hit a live wire, sparking a fire that set the balloon back up into the air. The fire spread quickly. Reporter with the flames cutting the balloon off from its basket, leaving its three passengers to a horrific fate. We have had reports, weve also seen video that people have provided us, that does appear to have two individuals who possibly leaped or possibly fell from the basket. Reporter carrie hagerbradley saw the balloon engulfed in flames. They were just screaming for anybody to help them. Help me, help me, sweet jesus, help me, im going to die, oh, my god, im going to die. One killed was pilot dan kirk, the owner of the balloon. Seen here in a videoposted on his companys website. The other two onboard were part of the staff of the Womens Basketball team at the university of richmond. With the university saying it extends its prayers and thoughts to the families of ginny doyle and natalie lewis. Seen here together on doyles instagram account. Before the flight in another photo posted on instagram, doyle wrote, quote, getting ready to go up in a hot air balloon today. Tried at 6 30 a. M. But it was too foggy. Well go up this evening. Anxiety. Crews are still searching for lewis with her family saying in a statement, we remain hopeful and ask for your continued prayers. Meanwhile, as for the investigation we will examine the man, the machine and the environment. Reporter now, lester, while hot air balloon accidents remain rare in the United States and the cause of this one is still unknown, interestingly enough, earlier in april the ntsb sent a letter to the faa recommending more oversight of the industry. Saying, quote, accidents highlight operational deficiencies in commercial air tour balloon operations. Such as operating in unfavorable wind conditions and failure to follow flight manual procedures. Something to keep an eye on as we move forward. Luke russert, thanks very much. We go overseas now where extremist violence rages on in nigeria as the search for those kidnapped schoolgirls intensifies. Rallies of support have continued throughout the weekend for the girls both here in the United States and across the globe. Stephanie gosk is in nigeria near the capital of cameroon. Good morning. Reporter good morning, erica. The Nigerian Government continues to be criticized for its response to this kidnapping. Rallies are still being staged in the u. S. And europe and in nigeria. In an effort to deflect some of that criticism, the defense ministry, a spokesman for the defense ministry, came out and said they are moving to battalions of troops into the northern part of the country. The same region where that radical group, boko haram kidnapped theekidnap ed these girls nearly a month ago. The spokesman also said theyve thrown 250 air force over the region. He didnt have any knowledge of the whereabouts. Violence continues. In militant attacks a key bridge in that area, there was an hours long battle and gunfight over the bridge in an attempt, it seems, to prevent the military from following them into a nearby forest. There was also an attack on the families of a Police Officer in cameroon in the north. They abducted that family. And consider this fact. The International Rescue Committee Says that hundreds of refugees are fleeing nigeria on a daily basis into neighboring niger. Of those, 80 are women. 80 . Erica . Scary, scary picture. Stephanie gosk for us this morning, thanks. Pope francis is the latest International Figure to add his voice to the growing plea to bring back our girls. He tweeted on saturday, let us all join in prayer for the Immediate Release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in nigeria. Social media continues to play a pivotal role in spreading information about the crisis. But can a Twitter Campaign actually get results . Kristen welker takes a look for us. Reporter the hashtag bring back our girls has gone viral. With more than a million retweets, its now an international rallying cry for helping the missing girls in my jeer ya. But critics like conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh say it wont accomplish a thing. The sad thing here is the low information crowd thats puddling around out there on twitter is going to think were actually doing something about it. Reporter nigerianamerican writer teju cole is equally skeptical. Tweeting your new interest simplifies nothing. Solves nothing. But journalist and author Sally Armstrong disagrees. Armstrong points to the fact that in the days after bring back our girls began trending, nigeria accepted offers for help from the international community. This is working. Bring back our girls. You have now equipment in nigeria that they never had before. They didnt have drones. They didnt have the kind of strategies that the uk are bringing in. Reporter this isnt the first social Media Campaign for justice. Kony 2012 was tweeted more than 2 million times after a documentary was posted about war criminal joseph kony. The campaign eventually fizzled and kony is still at large. The problem with maybe a cam p pain like this, while it gets action now, the point of hashtags is whats trending, whats hot with the media. Reporter one thing is not up for debate. Social media can give a voice to people who are otherwise deprived of one. In fact the bring back our Girls Campaign back in nigeria. Cries for help that quickly went all the way to the white house. For today, kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. Time for a look at the rest of the mornings top stories. Jenna has those for us. Good morning again. Hey, guys. Good morning. We begin in Eastern Ukraine today where voting is under way on a referendum that would split part of the region from the rest of the country. Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel is in ukraine this morning. Richard, good morning. Reporter good morning. The Ukrainian Government calls this referendum illegal. Washington has already said it wont recognize the results. That has not stopped people from coming and casting their ballots. Here in the city of mariupol weve seen thousands voting. They want to break away from ukraine. Many want to join up with russia. This is the prorussian community in ukraine. They say the governments in kiev, the Ukrainian Government no longer represents them and is, in fact, openly hostile to them. Theres been a lot of violence in this city. Just a few days ago ukrainian soldiers moved in and tried to drive out prorussian separatists. In the process they killed many civilians here. That antagonized a lot of the people driving them to cast this ballot today to separate from ukraine. The results are expected in a few days. But this entire process shows just how divided this country is right now. Jenna . Richard engel. Thank you very much. Six months after a shooting at one of new jerseys biggest malls, shoppers there are rattled again. A car fire in the parking lot of Garden State Plaza mall was mistaken for gunshots saturday night. The scare caused police and federal agents to swarm the area and force people to evacuate. Officials say the cars battery or fuel tank caught fire and caused a small explosion. Thousands of pieces of unidentified human remains from the september 11th terror attacks are now sitting in the space below ground zero. Draped in american flags, cases filled with remains were transferred saturday from the medical Examiners Office in manhattan to the same building that houses the 9 11 memorial museum. That museum is opening later this month. History is made at the u. S. Naval academy. The academy held its first ever samesex wedding saturday for one of its graduates and his partner. The couple tied the knot in front of their two children. And about 100 guests. But first, she had to take a selfie. Dont we all . First Lady Michelle obama delivered the commencement speech at Dillard University in new orleans. The schools class president introduced miss obama to the crowd and then oh, she did. She snapped a selfie with her. Why . Because she can. The first lady told the students to stay hungry for education. And breakfast. I added that last part. Im sure breakfast was important as well. Finally this morning Barbara Walters got a little revenge on saturday night live. After years of listening to jabs about her distinctive tv voice the veteran journalist, set to retire later this week, appeared on snls weekend update to get the last laugh. Heres her number one tip for finding success in the news business. Develop a signature voice that no one will forget. Wait. Is that not your real voice . No. This is my real voice. Hello, im bawa wawa. And, with that, she gained a lot of laughter. Probably a lot of popularity. Good for her. That was great. Its really great when people can come on, play around, make fun of themselves a little bit. What we do here sometimes. Every day. Dylan is back with a check for the rest of the countrys mothers day forecast. Besides Severe Weather in the middle of the country we have snow in denver. Could be up to seven inches of snow in the metro area. Aspen could get 10 to 12 inches of snow. How is that for a mothers day forecast . Again, the biggest area of concern, parts of eastern kansas, nebraska into iowa. Thats where we could see our strongest storms today including long track tornadoes. So something we certain and thats your latest forecast. Dylan, thanks. Up next on today, pandas. Need we say anymore . We need to look at them every few months. Time again. Weve got some popular animals about to embark on a very big journey. Arent they fun to look at . My day is complete now. 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That moment is here for 5yearold x e long and 3yearold po. The boys are going to china to breed. Reporter giant pandas nearly died out in the wild. To reverse the status, china loans out many of its pandas to foreign zoos. They and cubs they produce much return eventually. The captive population of pandas is doing well. Reporter their older brother made this trip to china four years ago. On a fedex panda plane. Panda express, if you will. The pair was scheduled to join them last year. But the zoo wanted to fatten them up before sending them home. Reporter for months its been pandamonium at the zoo. Its not a sin to adore cute. Reporter abigail came decked out in her panda hoodie. Even panda earrings. I adore pandas. I have a huge collection at home. Reporter but there will be no shortage of pandas here. Not going anywhere, their mom, who drew a lot of attention last year when she gave birth to twins. Theyre sticking around, too. For now. Were going to have to say goodbye to x elon and po. How excited are we to have these twins . First twin giant pandas to survive in the United States ever. Reporter you can see cuteness runs in the family. For today, gabe gutierrez, nbc news, atlanta. Still to come on a sunday today, the kindness of strangers and how it changed one homeless mans life. That story still ahead. Up next, well check in on our lucky moms out there on the plaza who are spending the morning with us getting pampered, as they should be. Thats right after this. You can hide uneven skin tone from here. And here. But what about here . [ female announcer ] neutrogena® visibly even daily moisturizer with a clinically proven soy complex. It diminishes the look of dark spots in 4 short weeks. And just like that your skin will look radiant and more even. Even from here. [ female announcer ] visibly even moisturizer and new bb cream. From neutrogena®. Were back on this mothers day. We are treating a group of moms to a morning of spa treatments right here at 30 rock. Thats right. The spa at the Peninsula Hotel has transformed our plaza into the ultimate relaxation zone. Jenna is outside with some of those deserving moms. Jenna, how is it going . I tried to work myself in. Everybodys extremely busy with all the reflexology. What did i just call this right now . The i the ipn . Whats that stand for . I forgot. Im glad we practiced that. Isnt this nice, right, ladies . All i care about is are you enjoying yourself . Its absolutely wonderful. Are you appre

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