Transcripts For WBAL Today 20091006 : vimarsana.com

going public with that alleged extortion plot. did your weekend just fly by? i get into the car this morning an the navigation lady wasn t speaking to me. as the lawyer for the man accused in the case says he has proof letterman sexually harrised members of his staff. what are we going to do? the white house weighs whether to send additional troops into afghanistan as the war there rages on. today, republican senator john mccain sits down with his former rival, president obama, to push for more forces, but not before he joins us for a live interview. and look out below. a bungee jumper lucky to be alive after the rope came loose, plunging him into the water below at 85 miles an hour. he will share his story exclusively with us today, tuesday, october 6th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. and in for matt, who s got the morning off, i m ann curry. i m not even going to talk about that bungee jumping video because my heart left, but david letterman said he wasn t going to talk any more about this scandal, but last night he did talk about it. he joked about it, saying he spent the weekend raking his hate mail and then apologized to his staff and his wife, saying the affairs are in the past. we ll have much more on that in a moment. also ahead this morning, alarming, new details on the illinois man who s accused of taking peeping tom videos of espn reporter erin andrews. prosecutors now describe this alleged crime as an obsession and claim that the suspect took at least 35 similar videos of other women. we re going to get the latest on this coming up just ahead. plus, important new information on the seasonal flu as al gets ready to face the needle. that is right, my friend, you, you on the couch there. yep. you are getting your flu shot. uh-oh! live oh no! later this morning oh, my sleeve? camera, go away, quick! can we just just get it in the arm, al, all right? do us all a favor. oh, boy. but we re going to begin put your pants on. but we re going to begin with david letterman s first show since unveiling the alleged blackmail plot. peter is live. reporter: good morning to you. last night on the show, david letterman apologized to his wife and his staff, but not before making fun of himself, and if you think that s the end of this story, think again. in this morning s the new york times, the newspaper reports that the lawyer for joe halderman, the man accused in this extortion plot, has threatened to provide evidence that letterman sexually harassed women on his staff, and the lawyer says he s willing to share that evidence in court. i get into the car this morning and the navigation lady wasn t speaking to me. reporter: back in front of the cameras for the first time since his embarrassing office sex scandal exploded last week, david letterman had himself to thank for all that new material. things are still pretty bad. there s a possibility that i ll be the first talk show host impeached, so. it s fall here in new york city and i spent the whole weekend raking my hate mail. cold, cold, too. i mean, it s chilly outside my house, chilly inside my house. reporter: on monday night, the late show host, clearly wounded by the impact his revelations about having sex with co-workers have had on his employees led to his trademark comedy with contrition. when you re blackmailed, it s a crime and you re a victim. it did not occur to me last week when i was discussing having had sex with women who worked on this show that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and tv would start hounding the staff and saying, what do you say, are you, and this and that. it was very, very unpleasant, and i would just like to set the record straight, no, i m not having sex with these women. those episodes are in the past. my thanks to the staff for once again putting up with something stupid i ve gotten myself involved in. reporter: then letterman apologized to his wife, a former staffer on the show, regina lasko. she has been horribly hurt by my behavior. and when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it s your responsibility, you try to fix it, and at that point, there s only two things that can happen. either you re going to make some progress and get it fixed or you re going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed, so let me tell you, folks, i got my work cut out for me. and reporter: was it a genuine apology or another well-crafted maneuver to get ahead of the story? suspended cbs news producer joe halderman, who prosecutors say was in debt and desperate when he allegedly tried to extort $2 million from letterman, still isn t speaking, but his lawyer was already questioning letterman s credibility and truthfulness monday on today. he s a master at manipulating audiences. that s what he does for a living. so to think that david letterman gave the entire story and there s nothing more to be said is simply wrong. reporter: the defense in this case is trying to muddy the waters, because everyone knows that the defendant and letterman did not get along. what matters is one juror thinking to himself or herself, you know what, i m not so sure letterman s the victim. i m going to acquit this guy, halderman. reporter: one published report suggests letterman held a personal grudge against halderman, who until recently was living with 34-year-old stephanie birkitt, one of letterman s assistants. and according to the new york times, letterman s past lover who frequently appeared in on-air sketches. there we go, stephanie. reporter: the ap reports that a new york city law official says halderman copies her diary that contained excerpts on letterman and tried to use it as blackmail. halderman is currently out on bail. letterman s former girlfriend and head writer on the show, meryl marco, responded to the sex scandal on her blog with a hint of humor, writing dave promised me many times that i was the only woman he would ever cheat on. let s look at the news. first of all, bill clinton said no. good news for south carolina governor mark sanford because he how about that eliot spitzer? would you take a look at reporter: after what at least one staff member called a strange day at the office, letterman hopes his audience has the last laugh. by the way, the going price for a screenplay based on this show right here, $3 million. $3 million. $3 million. reporter: and this morning, the new york post quotes sources saying that halderman exploded when he read in birkitt s diary that she was still carrying on a steamy affair with letterman, even after she apparently told halderman the relationship was pollutonic. peter alexander, thank you very of much. this story is not going away any time soon. let s get the rest of the top stories from natalie morales at the news desk. good morning to you. today at the white house, another high-level meeting on the war in afghanistan. the president will meet with congressional leaders from both parties as he considers whether to send more troops. this after a weekend in which eight u.s. troops were killed. monday, defense secretary robert gates said the u.s. is not leaving afghanistan. we re going to have much more on this, coming up. and this morning, the taliban claimed responsibility for the deadly attack monday on the offices of the world food program in pakistan that killed five people. north korea s said to be in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, according to a report today in south korea. also today, a rare appearance by north korean leader kim jong-il, who told china s premier his country may return to six-nation nuclear talks. general david petraeus, the commander of u.s. military forces in the middle east, has undergone treatment for prostate cancer. a spokesman says the treatment was successful. overseas markets are high following monday s 112-point gain on wall street. cnbc s melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange. melissa, what s the focus there today? hi there, natalie. gold this morning hit an 18-month high and oil is moving higher as well on the back some of dollar weakness. the dollar is under pressure today on reports of the uk s independent newspaper that gulf arab states might be moving away from the u.s. dollar and towards a basket of currencies, perhaps the euro, the yen as well as the yuan. we should report this morning that senior officials from those oil-producing nations have denied these reports, but certainly the markets are moving on the back of it. natalie? melissa lee at the new york stock exchange, thank you. and some frightening moments monday at the international balloon festival in albuquerque. a passenger fell out of a balloon s gondola and dislocated his hip after the balloon hit a vendor s tent. the pilot later made a rapid descent and suffered minor injuries when the balloon made a hard landing but was able to walk away. the man who fell, though, is in serious condition. we certainly wish him well. it is now 7:09. back over to meredith, ann and al. oh, my gosh. a 70-year-old man. oh, god. i ve always wanted to do that. i m really having second thoughts about it. no, don t, don t, don t. no, most balloons rides are safe, but no, i just don t want her. she did the bungee thing. she s pushing her luck. exactly. talking of pushing your luck, your arm s going to be pretty sore. i was going to get a flu shot and dr. nancy snyderman couldn t make the house call today. oh, you re not doing it. well, i think we ll do it another time. we will. which explains why he s sitting down. that s right. the weather waits for no man, sir. that s right, so let s get to it. a risk of severe storms from san antonio up into central tennessee. fast-moving system causing big problems. in fact, we may see some isolated tornadoes. on the radar you can see some showers and thunderstorms really firing up from illinois into oklahoma city. rainfall amounts, we are talking generally about one to three inches of rain. and then up further north into this system, we re looking at should be another quiet day today. becoming partly sunny after a chilly start this morning. high temperatures will make it to the upper 60s and low 70 s. all right, i was wrong. you were? dr. nancy couldn t make our comedy cold open, but she is going to be here. yes, and she has a needle. it s about this big. she s coming after you, al. thanks for taking the hit for that. but let s talk about something very serious. thanks so much this morning. we re going to talk about the next stage of the u.s. military campaign in afghanistan and whether additional u.s. troops are needed. today, president obama consults congressional leaders, including senator john mccain, and we ll talk with him exclusively in just a moment. but first, nbc s chief white house correspondent, chuck today, has the latest on this. hey, chuck, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. at the center of the debate about the war in afghanistan is how much is the war against al qaeda confined to that country and how much of that war is a global battle? today, a blunt reminder of the cost of the war in afghanistan. this morning, the eight u.s. servicemen killed this weekend in one of the deadliest battles of the war make their final trip home to dover air force base in delaware. this afternoon, the president sits down with key congressional leaders from both parties to talk about the current strategy review the administration is undertaking, but already, the white house is making it clear, withdrawing troops is not an option. i don t think we have the option to leave. reporter: defense secretary robert gates says finding the right strategy in afghanistan will be one of the most important decisions the president will have to make. the president is being asked to make a very significant decision, and the notion of being willing to pause, reassess basic assumptions, reassess the analysis seems entirely appropriate. reporter: monday, gates took a backhanded swipe at general stanley mcchrystal, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, for going public with his request that the president send him an additional 30,000 to 40,000 troops. it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately. reporter: in addition to attacks on al qaeda leaders in afghanistan and pakistan, the u.s. has also targeted operatives in indonesia, yemen, somalia and mali in west africa. general david petraeus told brian williams last week the u.s. military is having success against al qaeda. there has actually been significant progress against top 20-level leaders. reporter: one senior adviser tells nbc news al qaeda is now focused on planning smaller-scale attacks on u.s. soil, like the one thwarted in new york city last month. in part, it s because the u.s.-led campaign has dramatically reduced al qaeda s capacity to plan something on the scale of 9/11. it s impeded their ability to train and to plan new operations. it s thrown the organization into some disarray. reporter: now, later today, the president is going to put a spotlight on this global effort by visiting the national counterterrorism center in virginia. one more policy note, meredith. the president is being advised not to conflate al qaeda and the taliban. al qaeda is a global network that they say needs to be destroy. the taliban is an indigenous, domestic threat to afghanistan and pakistan that needs to be defeated. meredith? chuck todd, thank you very much. republican senator john mccain is in favor of a troop surge in afghanistan, and he will meet with president obama to discuss the situation there later today. senator mccain, thank you for joining us this morning. thank you. the administration has a decision to make. do they send in more troops, which is what their general on the ground is suggesting that they do in afghanistan, or do they pull back, do they actually reduce the military footprint, which is what the vice president, among other people, is suggesting? you believe they should send in troops. why are you so sure that is the answer? because it s basically the same counterinsurgency strategy that succeeded in iraq after the strategy advocated now by the vice president and others failed. we have to hold and clear clear and hold places in afghanistan so that people can live secure lives and have a continuation of a political and social environment that will allow them to beat back at the taliban and prevent afghanistan from returning as a base for attacks on the united states of america and our allies. one other question, senator, is whether afghanistan is in imminent danger of falling to the taliban. general mcchrystal seems to think that it is. the national security adviser, james jones, seems to think that it isn t. so, we re getting two conflicting messages here. what is at stake? well, i think it s very much at stake that the taliban is making gains and that the situation is deteriorating. that s been made dramatically clear by the deaths of eight young soldiers over the weekend. casualties are up. all indicators are that we have to reverse this trend and we have to do it quickly, because in the view of the military leaders, not just general mcchrystal, but the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general petraeus, who designed the successful surge in iraq and afghanistan, are clear that if the taliban returns, they will work with al qaeda. i mean, it s just a historical fact. so, which is the greater threat, senator, the taliban or al qaeda? what should our priority be? you can t separate the two. the taliban is making gains. al qaeda will return if the taliban takes over, not to mention the horrible things that would happen to the afghan people if the taliban returned to power. but they re not un i strongly disagree with those who allege they are separate problems. they ve worked together in the past. they would work together in the future. the urgency here, meredith, is that there is 68,000 already there, americans are dying, the situation is deteriorating. we have to turn it around. and as far as general mcchrystal speaking out, you know, we wish they had spoken out earlier in the iraq war. we certainly wish they had spoken out during the vietnam war you don t think he was out of line, as many do, for speak out publicly? of course not. he didn t leak the report to the washington post. it was all over this town and he was asked a direct question as to whether he thought the strategy of counterterrorism, rather than counterinsurgency, would work, and, look, he s responsible for the lives of those 68,000 young people who are over there fighting and in harm s way as we speak. i think he has an obligation to them. you have said time is of the essence here, but we just heard the secretary of defense say, look, this is an extremely crucial moment in our history and it s going to take us some time. people need to be patient. how much time does the administration really have to make a decision? well, they ve had a lot of time, because the strategy was designed last march when the president said that it was a war of necessity. obviously, they are going through further deliberations in light of some events, although they haven t changed the fundamental problem. and so, i would hope it d be done as quickly as possible, because the situation is deteriorating. americans are already there. if this were a decision whether to send troops or not only, then i d say take your time, but they re already there and they re already in harm s way and casualties are up, as many of us anticipated, tragically. and senator, if the president were to turn to you today, tomorrow, in a week, a month, and say, you know what, we re going to go in a different direction, i m going to go against the advice of my general on the ground there and pull back, could you support that decision? well, i d have to hear what the decision was, but i know what a winning strategy is. it worked in iraq. i have great confidence not only in general mcchrystal but admiral mullen and general petraeus, who have all said that time is not on our side, the situation is deteriorating, we can turn it around in a year to 18 months. it s going to be very tough. you have not had great confidence in the national security adviser, james jones. you said he made mistakes in iraq. he was wrong in iraq. you ve questioned his decision-making in afghanistan. do you believe the country would be better served if someone else were in his position? no. i have great respect for general jones, and he is a selection of the president of the united states. i have known him for many years. i appreciate his service to this country very much. but you think he s wrong in the way that he has handled iraq and afghanistan? i know hoe was wrong in his recommendations for iraq. he said we should move to the borders and reduce troops at a time when we were implementing the surge. i mean, that s just a historical fact. all right, senator john mccain, we appreciate your time this morning. good luck at that meeting. thank you. it is coming on 7:20. here s ann. meredith, thank you. now to surprising, new details on the illinois insurance executive who was accused of making peeping tom videos of a popular espn reporter. he s free on bond this morning, but now prosecutors are saying he allegedly made similar videos of other women. nbc s john yang is outside that man s house in westmont, illinois, with more. hey, john, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. he may be waking up in this house no longer in custody, but he is not entirely a free man. outside the federal detention center in downtown chicago, michael david barrett runs the gauntlet of reporters and photographers. his ruckus, first taste of freedom after being arrested for interstate stalking. a federal judge ordered him to wear an electronic ankle monitor and limited his travel. he d be allowed to continue to work, go to and from work, various other places. he ll be on a curfew. reporter: and he s barred from using any device that connects to the internet. prosecutors say that s where he posted peeping tom videos of espn s sideline reporter erin andrews and at least 35 similar videos of other women. fbi agents allege that barrett tampered with the peepholes in andrews hotel room doors, shortening the length of the removable piece to quickly remove them from hallways and allowed him to secretly make the videos with a cell phone. the fbi says seven of the eight videos posted on the internet were made at the nashville marriott at vanderbilt university in september of 2008 when andrews was covering a college football game. according to the criminal complaint, barrett asks specifically for a room next to andrews, who s identified as individual a. god knows that if somebody wants to book a room next to me in a hotel, i want to know about it. i don t want somebody just being placed in the room next to me. reporter: in a statement to nbc news, marriott international said it takes guest security and safety very seriously and is cooperating with investigators. before barrett s arrest, andrews told oprah winfrey the incident had left her badly shaken. even if i m in a hotel or in my house, i feel like i m being videotaped. unfortunately, nothing is going to be nothing is going to be able to erase that from erin s mind for a long time to come. reporter: those travel restrictions will remain in place until barrett goes to los angeles for his next court appearance on october 23rd. at that time, his attorney says, he ll enter a plea of not guilty. ann? all right, john yang this morning. john, thanks. and still ahead, the bungee jump that went horribly wrong when the jumper s ankle harness came loose. we re going to meet the man who survived this 165-foot head-first plun just ahead, a new york woman who already has twins gives birth to quintuplets. we re going to talk exclusively with her and her husband. wow. plus, a nationwide alert issued for an online scam targeting your e-mail accounts. today investigates. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i m stan stovall. the man who allegedly murdered a woman and put her body in a sewer in north baltimore is now dead. victor cruz was found dead inside central booking last nine. authorities say he was found unresponsive after hanging himself and he later died at johns hopkins hospital. he was an illegal in madrid who allegedly confessed to police that he killed his former girlfriend illegal immigrants who allegedly confessed to police that he killed his former girlfriend. let s get a check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. let s start on i-95 in harford county. accident report coming in there. you are looking at the standard delays on the southbound harrisburg expressway. outer loop northeast side, owings mills at reisterstown, accident there. you are looking at, once you get on to the west side, a seven- minute ride to the delight. 10-minute ride on southbound 95 from the beltway southwest down to 32. here is a live view of traffic. looking pretty good there. problem-free as you make your way around that area. we do have delays as we look at the west side. a nice, quiet start for us this tuesday. if little bit on the cool side. temperatures in the 40 s and the suburbs. just like yesterday, the temperatures will warm up fairly quick. there is a chance for rain late tonight and into early wednesday morning. it will clear up in the afternoon on wednesday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update at 7:55. 7:30 now on this tuesday morning, 6th of october, 2009. a bright, sunny day here in r k rockefeller plaza with lots of bright faces. inside studio 1a, meredith vieira alongside ann curry. matt is off today. coming up in a moment, a story that might make you think twice about bungee jumping. that s right, even me, because this guy was on vacation, and as you just saw, the cord came loose. he plummeted 165 feet into the water below, and amazingly, he wanted to do it all over again. well, not exactly that way. we ll talk to him exclusively in just a moment. and it sounded like he really bumped his head bad and is a little nutty now. well, no. i think he actually hit chest first, not head first, but he came very close. within inches. all right, well, you re going to talk to him. we ll find out. also, if you have an e-mail account or use facebook, watch out. there is a new i-mail scam going around that has prompted a warning from the fbi. we ll tell you what to watch ou for. plus, we have heard a lot about the swine flu, but the seasonal flu can be just as serious. dr. nancy snyderman will be here with what we need to know about getting that vaccine. and as we ve been mentioning all morning, al s going to roll up his sleeve to get his shot here on today to show you how easy it is. as long as he doesn t pull down his pants. but first, with the buyin e bungee jumper s near-death experience, we have the story. he was smiling half-heartedly as the platform climbed higher and higher. moments earlier, this young woman stood on the same platform 165 feet in the air for more than three minutes. the instructor gently coaxed her, but overcome with fear, she couldn t do it. 21-year-old baveja, an oxford grad on vacation in thailand, was scared, too. just jump? reporter: leaping with a prayer, he plummeted towards the lagoon and the ankle harness failed. baveja slammed into the water at 80 miles an hour. at that speed, the impact is like a car crash. the young briton spent a month recuperating in a bangkok hospital with collapsed lungs, a ruptured spleen and a torn liver, but doctors say he was actually lucky. baveja landed on his chest. head first and he may not have survived at all. with strict regulations, accidents are rare, but bungee jumping is a so-called extreme sport. clips on youtube make it clear, danger is part of the thrill. even after the accident, baveja says he still craves the adrenaline rush. up next, skydiving. for today, stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. rishi baveja is now joining us exclusively. rishi, good morning. good morning, ann. so, take us back to that moment when you were standing off the edge. it was 160 feet up. what was going through your mind? how nervous were you at that moment? um, it is an insane rush of nerves, excitement and fear. my body was trembling, but i was so, so excited as well. i mean, i ve never been so scared, but again, it s just a huge rush. it s amazing. did you hear from the instructors about how you were supposed to fall, you were supposed to go chest first and not feet first? no. he basically said put your arms out and just jump. ah. and so, i was like, okay. ah. so, you took the leap, and we just saw this. it s stunning to look at this footage. really, by going feet first, according to the people who were running the company, it caused the ankle harness to snap and that s what caused it to snap, they say, and that s why and we just heard all of the injuries you had. i mean, it must have been a terrible recovery. it was pretty crazy. you know, i mean, i ve got friends that bungee jump all the time, and they say you should be able to go off that platform any way you want and the thing shouldn t come off you, but yeah, the recovery was crazy, but again, so happy and so lucky to just kind of got through it. mm-hmm. so, you re not looking for your money back then from the company? you re just saying you re feeling grateful? i m just i ve got a brand new appreciation for life. and you know, i think when these things kind of happen, you just appreciate the little things a lot more. i hear your mother was not too happy that you decided to leap off of this bridge. and yet, you want to do it all over again. and so, one way or another, you apparently want to bounce back. well, exactly. i mean, yeah, mom i had to spend a lot of time convincing my mom to let me go do this, but the reason to do it again is because i have a list of about 15 things i want to do over this next year, and i haven t exactly bungee jumped yet. i ve just jumped, right? so, i ve still got to do that. i ve still got to tick it off the list. okay, well, i m not an expert, but i ve done this before. make sure when you jump, you go chest first. i mean, don t jump feet first. and listen to make sure they explain exactly how you re supposed to do it. but yet, now, what is this about skydiving in addition to this, rishi? i mean, people might wonder whether or not you ve got a, you know well, i m not going to say death wish, but you i think i just did, but that you may be risking your life too much here. well, i mean, the plan was to, after bungee jumping, going to get the skydiving license, and you know, i think that to change the way you live your life too much i mean, obviously, you should take precautions, but kind of just to rule everything out, because you know, everything you do in life has risks. every time you get in the car in the morning, you re taking a risk, right? and you don t think about the car crash or you don t think about the accident. so, i wouldn t want to rule these things out completely, because i mean, i still think they re pretty cool things that i d love to do one day, but, you know, maybe not for a little while. mom s taking a bit care of me. that would be, right, make sure you ask your mom, all right? rishi baveja, thank you so much this morning, and stay safe. no problem. bye. oh, my goodness. yeah, his mom s going to tell him, no, you re not doing that. i can just hear that conversation. now, having interviewed him and remembering back to when you did this, bungee jumped, does it ever cross your mind now in retrospect, why did i do that? yes, certainly. that fear, when you re on top of that bridge, is overwhelming. yes. and you really have to settle your head, settle your thinking and focus on what you re going to do to stay safe. but you know, we were doing that for charity, so that always pushes me over the edge. right, literally and figuratively. did they say anything to you, the people that did this jump with you, that organized it, about the way you jump is. oh, absolutely. did they say if you jump feet first, you run the risk of coming out of the harness? they didn t say why i shouldn t jump feet first, but they emphasized over and over that you must throw your chest forward and your head back as if you re doing a swan dive and that s the only way to have the weight go down the right way so you didn t hurt yourself. they made it clear that if i did it any other way, i was going to get hurt. thank goodness you did it the right way. that s enough of that. let s talk about? the weather. let s get the weather from al. that s right, and you had tom hanks watching i know! from the set. all that pressure, my golly. guys, i think we found some of the best shirts we ve ever had here. tennessee loves their mama! meredith, ann, matt, al. that s pretty impressive, i like that. very nice. and four of you here today? and our mamas. oh, the ladies and their mamas. so it s a double meaning. i love it when it s layered like that. let s check your weather, see what s going on, and we ll show you afternoon temps. warm stuff in southern florida, southern texas, in the 90s, but chilly through the upper great lakes, temperatures only in the 40s there. we have got 50s back through the pacific northwest, 60s there, i should say. rain making its way through the great lakes. slight risk of strong storms from texas on into tennessee. sunshine here in the east, but rain moves into the northeast later today and beautiful out west. 64 and sunny in seattle today. another nice shirt, the real looks like another quiet day on tap. a chilly start, but this afternoon, the temperatures will climb back into the upper 60s and low 70 s. and don t forget, you can check out your weather any time of the day or night on the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. ann? okay, will do. thanks, al. coming up next, a nationwide alert on a scam that targets your e-mail and facebook accounts. we ll tell you what you need to know. back at 7:42. this morning on today investigates, a new scam that targets your facebook friends and your e-mail account. nbc s jeff rossen is here to explain how it works. jeff, good morning. hi, meredith. when these scams pop up, we like to tell you about them. this one is so big, the fbi just sent out a nationwide alert. and this scam is especially dangerous because it takes advantage of your relationships. when you get an e-mail from a relative or a good friend saying i need a favor, you trust it s legit, you want to help. and that s exactly what the crooks are counting on. come on in. hello. reporter: as a 76-year-old nun, sister irma spends her life helping people. she s like an angel on earth. she s selfless. she s always there for everyone in her presence. reporter: so, when sister irma sent out an urgent e-mail saying she needed help, her friend debbie peterson was there. and i just acted. reporter: irma s said she was on a trip in england, had misplaced her wallet and desperately needed money for hotel bills. the e-mail seemed so legitimate. when i looked at it, it had her e-mail address and it had her name. reporter: debbie followed irma s instructions go to western union and wire $3,000 to her overseas. only one problem the truth was that i was home and i have never been to england. i was taken advantage of. it was a scam. reporter: turns out, irma s cry for help was actually written by a crook who hacked into her e-mail account and sent out this bogus message to all her contacts. it worked. the thief disappeared with debbie s $3,000, money meant for her daughter s education. it s all we had. they take the emotional part of human nature and manipulate it to their advantage. reporter: that s why authorities call it the perfect scam. this one doesn t come from a stranger, but from your own friend. this scam basically preys on your emotion. it does, because you d want to help out a friend or family members. rick newman is with the crime center, tracking international fraud with the fbi, where complaints about this scam are skyrocketing. what will happen is someone will steal your e-mail account and then send e-mail to your friends and family, saying you re in some danger, you re stuck in a foreign country and you need money to get home. reporter: how many americans are targeted by this? potentially every american on the internet. reporter: and one mistake could put you at risk. the hacker sends you an innocent-looking e-mail like this one, really funny picture! it s really a virus. click on it, and the crook can see everything you type. okay, you re the criminal, i m the innocent victim. that s right. reporter: watch what happens. when i log into my personal e-mail account. as your username jeff.rossen and your password [ bleep ]. it is. that s unbelievable. and it was literally on your screen? as fast as you typed it, it popped up on my screen. reporter: and the hacker can do it from anywhere in the world. once i have this information, i can log into your e-mail account and send e-mails out to all your friends and co-workers, posing as you. reporter: asking for money. asking for money. reporter: and it s not just e-mail. i couldn t stop it and i couldn t figure out i couldn t find a way to stop it. reporter: just weeks ago, hackers broke into alyssa sperber s facebook account. same deal the crook impersonated her to con her friends out of cash. they were i.m. ing anyone who logged in and popped up as a friend, sending them instant messages that i was stranded and mugged at gunpoint in london and to send money so that i can get home. this isn t your kid down in the basement trying to have fun and make a few bucks. these are seasoned computer criminals. reporter: how much money are people losing each year? easily billions of dollars. reporter: luckily, none of alyssa s friends fell for it, but would yours? what about mine? watch what happens when our expert hacks into my facebook account, saying i lost my wallet, i m on the road and i m stuck in london. i just asked your friend robin, as you, to wire you $6,000. i say you ll pay her when you get back. reporter: robyn seems to buy it, you re in london now? then she does some checking. we just got a message saying i just called your mom and you re not in london. robyn did what anyone should do, verify it, instead of blindly sending money overseas to another country. reporter: a lesson debbie peterson learned too late, her $3,000 gone. instead of thinking with my head, i was led by my heart, then you step back and say what did i do? really, anybody can fall victim to this. the fbi says the crooks are based overseas, so once you wire the money and they pick it up with a fake i.d., it s basically untraceable. if you re a victim, the fbi wants to hear from you. all you have to do is go to our website, todayshow.com, to file a complaint with the fbi. we ll link you there, meredith. your friend robyn was very smart to make that phone call to verify that information, but what else can people do to protect themselves from this? you said your husband opens up just about any e-mail he gets deduction. well, i don t announce that anymore. well, he won t anymore. don t open any e-mails you don t know who it s from, don t open attachments. and also, antivirus software can help you. jeff, thank you, as always. up next, dr. nancy snyderman and what you need to know about the seasonal flu as al gets set to get his shot live. somebody call a doctor cause i got the flu announcer: flu-free today is brought to you by cvs pharmacy and minute clinic. don t risk it. get a flu shot. this morning on flu-free today, seasonal flu facts. in an average year, 36,000 people in the u.s. die from it, and dr. nancy snyderman is nbc s chief medical editor and she joins us now. dr. nancy, hi. hi, annie. a lot of attention this year on the h1n1 virus. right. but not as much on the seasonal flu. and we should pay attention to it, because this can have some serious complications. it s been a complicated seasonal flu season with h1n1 being part of it, but today we re going to talk about regular old seasonal flu and why it s important. what are some of the complications? the biggest complication is it kills 36,000 people, as you said, most of those people by pneumonia, which is why we ve talked about getting the secondary pneumonia vaccine when you can. ear infections, dehydration because you re breathing so hard and have a high fever and a big cough. and if you have any other underlying medical conditions, those can get worse. okay. you know, yesterday you told us who should or should not get the flumist, the early version of the h1n1. right. let s move to the seasonal flu. who should be getting the vaccine? remember that regular old seasonal flu hits the young and the elderly. so, for every child 6 months to about 19 years, for those people over the age of 50, pregnant women, still independent risk group for all kinds of flu. if you have an underlying chronic condition, you have to do it. health care workers, i maintain, have to get have to get a seasonal flu shot. and if you take care of kids in the house or you re a care worker, absolutely. there is some discussion about needing two shots? yes. if you re under age 10 and you haven t had seasonal flu before, you might need a booster. who shouldn t get it? if you ve been allergic to vaccines before and particularly people allergic to eggs. these are still grown in eggs the old-fashioned way. so, if you have an allergy, talk to your doctor first. you might be at risk. the whole thing is very confusing in many ways, so let s make this very simple. some people may be thinking that if you get the seasonal flu shot, you re protected from h1n1, but that s not true? not this year. if seasonal flu had coincided at the same time h1n1 popped up, it might all be in one shot. but here s why it s important we have vaccines that can prevent illness. this is a classic example. no conspiracy. it s smart, it s good, it s safe. just stay healthy. we are so lucky that you explained it to us, dr. nancy snyderman. oh, ann, thank you. and al s going to get his flu shot live in just a few minutes. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. here is a look at one of our top stories. a cell phones-jamming bill co- authored by u.s. senator barbara mikulski has passed the u.s. senate. it allows states to get permission to jam signals from illegal cell phones smuggled into prisons. in 2008, maryland corrections officers confiscated nearly 850 cell phones. time for a check of the morning commute with sarah caldwell. on the west side, another of baltimore national pike, accident coming in there. out of the delays on that point. owings mills at reisterstown road, crashed there. if you are heading south and on j.f.x., we re getting reports of an accident there. 17 minutes is the drive time on the outer loop west side. 10 minutes on southbound 95. here s a live view of traffic on the west side. we ll switch to the north side, where we have a pretty heavy delays at harford. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. nice quiet start for us this tuesday, a little bit on the chilly side. but it will be a nice day. 43 degrees in frederick. 55 downtown. forecast today is partly sunny skies. we do expect rain to come in later tonight and early wednesday morning. dry in the afternoon with a high near 73. out live update coming away at 25 minutes. 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, october 6th, 2009. we ve got a great crowd here in rockefeller plaza. always a wonderful place to start your day. i m meredith vieira along with ann curry. matt is off today. and just ahead, a new york couple who already has twins and just gave birth to quintuplets, three girls and two boys, to be exact. they were born early and are receiving around-the-clock care. we re going to talk to the parents and the babies doctor as well. it was a tough situation. very large family. also coming up, we ll be talking about mentors. you introduced it was such a nice story. thank you. when you presented your mentor yesterday. in my case, i ll be talking about a woman who inspired me. she didn t as much mentor me, but she was a shining example of a woman at a time when there were very few women in the ranks of reporters and she s always asked tough questions, and so, i ve tried to emulate her. she s still very inspirational. we ll be hearing from her in a bit. plus, lots of women preserve their wedding gowns, but we re finding women who do just the opposite, trashing their dresses on purpose. we ll tell you why they re doing this. i love this. is it really because they re bored or we have got to do that in our wedding gown. i know, thelma and lieu loui. let s not go off a cliff. no, let s do that instead. first, natalie morales is filling in at the news desk. good morning, meredith and ann. good morning to you. today, president obama meets with more than 30 congressional leaders from both parties in the white house as he decides whether to send thousands more soldiers to afghanistan, this after the deaths of eight u.s. soldiers there over the weekend. he ll also discuss u.s. policy in pakistan. and this morning the taliban claimed responsibility for monday s suicide bombing at a u.n. building in islamabad, pakist pakistan, that killed five people. violent protests in istanbul this morning. turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannons to keep back hundreds of people demonstrating outside meetings being held by the world s bank and international monetary fund. some 100 people were arrested. david letterman has publicly apologized to his wife and his staff after revealing he had sexual relations with women who worked for him. on his late show last night, letterman was remorseful, saying his wife has been terribly hurt by the news, but he also stayed true to form, making several jokes about his behavior. today, three american citizens won the noble prize for physics. charles cowl, willard boyle and george smith were honored for their work for the fiber-optics and technology behind digital cameras. also on monday, three people won the noble medicine prize. now here s brian williams with a look at nbc nightly news. good morning and thanks. coming up tonight, an accident left him paralyzed, but that didn t stop him. now he s helping others find a new way forward by giving wheelchairs to those who need them. giving back, making a difference. we ll have that story tonight on nightly news. natalie, for now, back to you. thanks, brian. it s 8:03 now. now, let s go across the street where al is in waders and in a cranberry bog. well, not in waders yet, but we re looking at people in waders. this is todd may, a third-generation cranberry bog grower and owner and works for the ocean spray cooperative. todd, good to see you. good morning, al. nice to be here. so, you ve got this setup here on rockefeller plaza. you guys are doing this at different places across the country? xaz exactly right, yep. we re really excited, because it s the 80th anniversary, and as growers, as farmers, we own ocean spray, which is a cooperative, and it s exciting to bring the beauty of the harvest out here and show everybody. how are they harvested? you can see they re floating on the water. so that makes our job easier, corralling them, getting them up into the trucks. because if you don t corral them, they re all over the place, you have a cranberry stampede. we ve got to get them up hyah! cranberry. now, you re third generation. that s right. is there a fourth generation of mays? they re back home, you bet ya. the kids i m excited to pass it along. there s a lot of heritage and continuity. and we grow something that s good for you, it tastes, and i m excited to pass t should be another quiet day today. becoming partly sunny after a chilly start this morning. high temperatures will make it to the upper 60s and low 70 s. to the upper 60s and low 70 s. and that s your latest weather. ann? all right, al, thank you so much. well, coming up, you might call them bridget and john plus seven. we re going to meet the proud new parents of quintuplets, and they already have twins, right after this. it isn t like the apple juice you ve always known. it doesn t look like the apple juice you ve always known, or taste like it. it tastes like biting into a crisp, juicy, perfectly ripe apple. yeah, we thought you d like that. 100% pure pressed simply apple. honestly simple. try 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you re used to bringing home a baby that s like this big and they re like a pound. the parents know the road ahead is long. need the cribs, the carseats and everything else. for 25-weekers, they re actually, they re doing as expected. the first three months are critical, but this family, including their set of twins, are very hopeful. prayers, prayers, prayers. nervous. just broke down in tears, because you know, you prepare for it, but you don t really prepare for it, because you don t expect it to be your own. and bridget and john are with us exclusively along with perinatologist dr. stephanie mann, who delivered them all. good morning. good morning. bridget, looking at your face in that video and your tears, worried about your babies born at 25 weeks, not an easy delivery for you at all. how are you doing at this time and how are the babies doing? i m doing very well this morning. it was a tough road. i was very nervous about them being born so early. i know that their chances of survival were lower. but i went down this morning already and saw them and they re all holding their own. there are no major changes from last night. so they re all doing very well as far as i m concerned. dr. mann and i apologize, i called you steven. obviously, it s stephanie. the babies, as i mentioned before, 25 weeks, very early. and the odds tend to be stacked against children that are born this early, a 30% survival rate. what are these children up against in the short term and also in the long run? they definitely have a long road ahead of them, just you know, getting through the intensive care nursery for the next couple of months, and then, you know, several years down the line in terms of their developmental outcome and all the challenges that they re going to face. so, doctor, what are your greatest concerns right now? hopefully, getting them through the next couple of weeks. and then my beratest hope for them is that they will leave the nursery. john, let me ask you, how are you handling this? i mean, it s you know, you have 8-year-old twins and now suddenly you have these five babies born premature. well, i m just being strong for them. i have the support of their mother and the kids, the twins, and every day i just, it s just a blessing just to see them. you know, so many people think of multiple births, bridget, and they think of octomom and babies, embryos being implanted. that was not the case with you. you took a drug called overdrol, which if i understand correctly stimulates the ovaries and you produce a certain number of eggs, is that correct? yeah. i did not have any insemination. i didn t use invitro like she did. i did use a drug called ovadril to make sure when the eggs are leased, they are mature enough to accept the sperm to be fertilized. and i know when the doctors discovered you were carrying five embryos, they discussed the idea of reduction, removing some embryos so that some would stand a better chance. you and john discussed that and you thought you couldn t remove any of the embryos. why, bridget? i didn t feel it was our decision to decide which one had the opportunity to live in this world and which one didn t. that s something that someone else needs to decide. well, we are so glad that they are all getting the best care possible. we wish you the best of luck, bridget and john, with these babies, and also with the 8-year-old twins, who hopefully will come in very, very handy in the weeks and months ahead, helping to take care of those babies. thank you so much. and dr. stephanie mann, thank you as well. thank you. thank you. you re welcome. and up next, ann introduces us to the woman who s inspired her throughout her career, right after this. today it s about making smart decisions. it s about getting the quality you deserve. savings like this don t come along every day. custom upholstery at ethan allen. extraordinary savings. limited time. today it s about planning for the future. it s about great style and great savings. take advantage of this rare opportunity. custom media at ethan allen. extraordinary savings. limited time. 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in the light of the prolonged reception of congress what was your relationship? why do you refuse to respect the law between the church and state? she s the one who s got the courage, the guts to stand up in public and say this is wrong. let s have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting, how about that? no, no, no. we re having it now because why do we have to have it now? it s a pattern. you just know you ve got to be ready for a tough question. if you don t have a thorough answer, she ll keep going. well, mrs. thomas mrs. thomas. all right, helen? you seem to be fearless. i talk big. no, you get up there, you say it. and you ve done it for decades. what propels you to be so direct, so engaging? i just don t know any other way to do it. but you want them to know their place. and i know my place, too, which is to ask the questions that may drive them out of their minds. reporter: affectionately called the first lady of the white house press corps, helen thomas has made ten presidents sweat. charged with perjury reporter: stammer that s where, that s where, i, i reporter: and answer to the people. she first walked through those white house gates half a century ago. i thought, well, this is nice. i ll stay here. i was the man who came to dinner and didn t leave. but i said i was covering history every day. reporter: and making a bit of her own history along the way as one of the only female white house reporters, thomas stormed washington s all boys clubs. because of you, there are women oh, no. who are the space there were so many great women journalists. i get credit because i think i m still alive. i m not quite sure. i ll check my pulse. i read the bit obituary pages e day to see that i m not on them. oh, come on. no, but i m carrying an image, but the others didn t. but you were part of that as well. well, i certainly want to be a part of the fight. reporter: during the kennedy administration, helen thomas was the first woman honored with the task of officially closing televised press conferences. i thought that kennedy was really in a bind trying to answer questions, and he went on and on trying to find the answer. so then i got up and i said mr. president, thank you. and he said, thank you. thank you, helen. and i had taken him off the hook. helen s in charge. reporter: rarely such a pushover, she s known as the lady presidents love to hate. if you had asked things maybe a little more diplomatically, you might have gotten more answer? what do you think? my critics say so, yes. i think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that s the way i like to ask the question. happy birthday dear helen reporter: yet, they couldn t help but love her, too. you have gotten a birthday cake delivered to you by president obama and by president clinton. good. reporter: good? yeah, good cakes. reporter: you ve had encounters with all the presidents at social events. you know, it s a chummy world. if you re covering them on a day-by-day, 24/7 and plus, they get used to you even if they don t like you. reporter: but when you look back at all those images i can t believe myself. reporter: you can t believe yourse yourself? no. i mean, i ve had to act very nonchalant, and then i see the pictures and my mouth is dropping and my eyes are wide, and oh, it s the president of the united states. now, helen, i know that nancy upstairs would die she s watching on television if i didn t call on you in that pretty red dress. reporter: for many presidents, helen thomas has symbolizes the voice of the people. president bush 41, for example, used to ask me about every two weeks, how s helen coming along? i said, what do you mean? well, is the pressure building for a press conference? is she yelling? is she upset about anything? because he knew she represented a point of view of the american people that he wanted to deal with. reporter: what do you think when you look here? what do i think? i think every president could have done better. talk about missed opportunities. reporter: do you ever get tired of looking at the white house? no. i really don t. i do love the white house, all it represents. i think we have the power, i think we have the integrity and the ideals of real good government. reporter: how many times do you think you ve entered this room? 50,000, at least. reporter: and do you ever get tired of it? no. reporter: what s the feeling when you come in for a news conference? god knows what s going to happen next. reporter: she s not just tough on presidents. thomas is also critical of those who fill the seats beside her and says her fellow reporters caved during the iraq war, though she understands why. after she cornered president bush in this very room, he rarely called on her again. hold on for a second, please, let excuse me. excuse me for a second, please. excuse me for a second. helen. when you go into journalism, you don t try to win a popularity contest. oftentimes you re going to make people very unhappy. reporter: so, are you going to make it to 11 presidents, you think? who knows? i d like to. it s all in the hands of fate, but i d like to die with my boots on. reporter: or at least a pen in your hand and a pad of paper. running after a president. reporter: what do you want to have said about you in your time covering the white house? that she asked good questions and she asked why. reporter: that s it? easy to say that. well, marlon fitzwater, who served as press secretary to presidents reagan and george h.w. bush has this photograph on the back cover of his book. he called it the incredible peeping thomas. and by the way, helen has written a new book along with craig crawford that is called listen up, mr. president: everything you always wanted your president to know and do. she s actually a prolific author. i love her. the way she describes her interviewing style, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. just ask the questions straight. known for that. really nice. she s amazing. yeah. it wasn t it s not as if i really knew her. it was really that i had always watched her and been inspired by her, and i think that also is a great way to be inspired. reaching a lot of people. go, helen. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. a man is in critical condition at johns hopkins hospital following a shooting in east baltimore. police found the victim about 8:30 last night at east 27th street. police have not released the name of the victim, nor have they determined a motive or suspect in connection with the case. let s get a final check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. we do have some accidents, especially southbound on the bw parkway at 198. several vehicles involved with this one. you can see a bit of red developing on the map. glenarm road is shut down at harford road in the glenarm facility due to a crash. heavy delays still on the west side. 15 miles per hour, to our speed sensor, approaching the liberty road. 27 mi. per hour on southbound j.f.x. some delays on the harrisburg expressway from padonia road down to the beltway. 12 minutes on the outer loop northeast side. we can give you a live view and a couple of spots. west side of liberty, that is the pace of things towards edmondson. now we check in with tony. off to a quiet start, weather-wise. temperatures on the cool side. 43 in frederick, 56 at the maryland science center. the forecast for today is partly sunny skies. high temperatures will climb into the upper 60s. a chance for rain late tonight into early wednesday morning. it should clear up into the afternoon. we will have another update at 8:55. but now it can make you more connected to your doctor through e-mail. test results from home. check records. change appointments. now doctors, nurses, techs, pharmacists are all digitally connected to each other. and ultimately connected to you. at kaiser permanente, we believe that if knowledge is power, shared knowledge is even more powerful. kaiser permanente. thrive. i know landscaping, but i didn t know how wireless could help my business. i just don t know how wireless can help my business. tara showed me how i could keep track of my employees in the field and get more jobs done faster. i was blown away. i m blown away. only verizon wireless has small-business specialists in every store to help you do business better. we should get you a hat. now buy any blackberry, like the new tour, at our lowest prices ever, and get one free. 8 first now on this tuesday morning, october 6th, 2009. wonderful fall morning here in rockefeller plaza. we say hi to everyone waving to their loved ones back home. i have a question, actually, for ann and for natalie. what did you do with your wedding gown? you know, mine s in a box. mine s in a box. with some cedar, i think. i never got mine preserved. i think it s probably yellow hanging in my closet. but we re hanging onto it is the point. okay. would you ever consider doing this? look at this picture. why these women are getting down and dirty in their gowns, just ahead. yikes. okay. i m wondering if they got divorced or something. no, no, no. you re going to find out all about it. okay, all right. you re getting a flu shot. i m getting a flu shot. ready? that s all i have to say. i have never gotten a flu shot. i have never gotten the flu. so, it will be interesting to see what happens. what pushed you over the edge this time? don nash, our producer. kept going, hey, why don t you get a shot? so, i m getting a shot and we ll see what happens. but i said if only dr. nancy gives me the shot. she makes a big thing about how it s very important dr. nancy, then our other big shot right behind her. hey they re getting shots today. christian davis is going to get a shot! oh, my! he didn t know. this is a big thing. should we just bring them? i think we should. come on in. you re best known for sex and the city, charlotte, but now you re in a new comedy called couples retreat. yes. you got to go to bora bora. i did. i did. i don t know how i lucked out and it happened. it s like the most magical place to shoot. and it was like just for you guys making the movie. yeah, it was us and our crew on the st. regis. everyone else left. it was like old-world movie making. a movie had not been made there since 1971. wow. so, it was so magical and the movie was so beautiful. we thought people would think it was special effects. it s about a couple from the midwest. yes, chicago. they go to bora bora and find out they have to go to couples therapy? right. they think they re going for fun because one couple needs therapy and we want to be supportive and we re like, we want to jet ski. and they re like, 6:00 a.m., therapy. and we re like, no, no, no. but it turns out we all need some help in our relationship, so it works out. you play not really off character. yes, yes, yes. you re a bad girl, lucy, not charlotte. yes. she s troubled. trouble? she s troubled. and john fab roe is troubled as well in the movie, so we re perfectly matched in our troubles and we need that therapy. and then things improve. so, it s nice. vince vaughn is kind of at the height of all of this. he produced it. he produced it. he s starring in it, obviously. it was his idea. he had jon favreau write the original script. they go back to swingers. and they ad-lib every day. wow. so you would be there this is not how sex and the city is. we say every word exactly as it s written. so i d be acting with jon and vince would be off camera and he d be like, say blah, blah, blah. okay, vince. speaking of sex and the city, sex and the city 2 is filming around new york, and we found this video of you and sarah jessica parker looking very 80s. what s up with that? yeah. we re having an 80s flashback moment there for sure. i m the most boring 80s flash back person. i m impressed, al. but there s actually a good story point of why we re in the 80s, but i can t share. it but it s not just for fun. it s not like we felt like dress-up. you know what i m saying. can you tell us anything about the movie other than you re going over to the set when you leave here? no. well, we have amazing guest stars. let me say that. amazing, amazing, like you can t believe it. okay. obviously, we re all four in it and no one has died. that s one rumor that s been going around. i don t think that s funny, personally, it s not a comedy. my children, i still charlotte has two children now. two little girls. and amanda gets married. well, she does make a beautiful bride. whether she gets married or not, i can t oh, okay. good one, though! thank you. thank you so much. funny. i was trying to be wiley. you re good. it hits theaters on friday. best of luck to you. thank you. thank you, guys. thanks for having me. before you get the shot i don t know if you re getting the shot. no, no. you re going to get the shot, but before that, one last weather. well, not one last. no, because, see, some of us keep working after the 9:00 looks like another quiet day on tap. a chilly start, but this afternoon, the temperatures will climb back into the upper 60s and low 70 s. and now to of our series flu free today. this morning, as we ve been mentioning all morning, al is getting his flu shot. helena foulkes is with cvs caremark and michel rosetta is with cvs. and i got my flu shot already. last week. good girl. so, explain to us exactly what s going to happen. well, al is going to get a seasonal flu shot. this is seasonal flu, the one that kills 36,000 people every year. for those who say, well, i m healthy or i ve never gotten one, you get one for the people you love so you don t take this home and get people sick. and also, you can t afford none of us can to be sick and out of work for two weeks. so, there s rapele effect. some people wouldn t mind if i was. normally, helen, how many people would get a flu shot in a normal season? oh, in a normal season last year, we gave somewhere close to a million flu shots. do you expect more? we expect many more this year. already in september we ve seen more. our big focus is really on how to make it easy for people to get a flu shot, because i think it s an intimidating concept. right. so, what we want people to know is it s painless. you re going to see al experience that soon. painless for you and me. we re not getting it. well, i had mine, but it s also easy to get one. so you can come into any 1 of our 500 minute clinic locations. any pharmacist will do it. pharmacists all over the country. i was in airports last week. every airport has flu stations set up. so, let s go, al, without further ado. all right. have a seat. all right, michael. are you ready, mr. al? yeah, i m ready. you re sure? yeah. this flu vaccine is coming in a viral vaccine or in individual dose vaccines and you can ask for either one. and for someone like al, it s one shot. there s no booster needed. and this is going to give him immunity all the way through the winter cycle for the traditional seasonal flu. here we go. and these are against viruses the world health organization thought really might be a virus. okay, here we go. not even a flinch. no. he s a man. he s a man s man. he ll be crying in his dressing room within an hour. hold that for me. sure. we ve also made sure that we can give flu shots to people who don t have jobs. that s right, about 100,000 what we found last year is 50% of people said they got a flu shot where s my smurf band-aid? hold on. because you were such a good patient oh, good. you get a prize. but you ve got to make sure it doesn t spoil your lunch. al you know what, this is very fitting because i was a sucker for don nash. all kidding aside, did it hurt at all? it didn t hurt at all, nothing, seriously. and the flu shot is about $50, but the insurance covers it. thank you all very much. thank you. good job, al. yes. up next, we re going to meet the most trusted stranger in america. but first, this is today on now to what began as an art project and has blossomed into a phenomenon. five years ago, frank warren started post secret, asking strangers to mail him their most intimate thoughts written on postcards. hundreds of thousands have poured in from the humorous to the truly heartbreaking. frank has saved some of the best for his fifth book, post secret confessions on life, death and god. frank warren, good morning. nice to see you again. it s great to be here. what do you think it is about this whole process that appeals to people, that they would write on a postcard their inner most secret and send it to a stranger? i think the reasons are as varied as the secrets themselves. i think some people might want to share a funny story or write about a sexual taboo, but some of the postcards i get are so poetically expressed, i think maybe there s a deeper reason. maybe transformation. what do you mean transformation? well, i think whether you whisper a secret to a friend or write it on a postcard and release it to a stranger, that act, that ritual can change who you are. it can help you find greater self-acceptance, it can help you offer forgiveness to a friend who might no longer be in your life. you know, this is your fifth book, and you say it took you the longest to put this together of any of the books. why is that? well, like any of the books, this book has secrets that are funny and sexual and hopeful and heavy, but more than the others, it has these very soulful, spiritual secrets, secrets about our relationship with a greater power, our thoughts, fears and hopes about the afterlife, and the things that we might feel that we can t talk about at church, maybe. what have you learned, frank, reading these secrets, about the way people view faith? i ve been very inspired by the complexity that people have about their feelings with faith. also, it s been very enlightening to see how selfish but how selfless we can be, too. it s quite a journey. and in every book, you always include at least one secret of your own, and on page 103, actually, you have there are seven secrets, at least one is yours. will you tell us which one is yours some. well, two of my secrets are on page 103, that s true. you won t tell us which one? no. it s all anonymous. but there s a funny story, because somebody confused the pages. i have a 13-year-old daughter, and she thought my secret was on 130, so she turned to page 130 and started reading the secret about a sexually transmitted disease and the story behind it. it s a wonderful secret. it s just not mine. so when i heard that, i was kind of terrified that i had broadcast that that one was mine, but thankfully, it was just a mix-up. and you ve also taken this show on the road. you lecture to a lot of young people, and they tend to be very open. why do you think that is? more willing to just not be anonymous. i think there s a generational shift happening right now, and young people are finding it more comfortable to talk about parts of their own life that their parents would never speak about. i was at an event at siu not long ago, and young people will share their own secrets. and this young man stood up and said, when i was a kid, i stole my dad s playboy magazines and sold them to my friend so i d have money for the ice cream truck. so you had all kinds of secrets. is this it for you, frank? do you have another book in you? or can you stop the postcards at this point? i don t think i can turn this off. i get about 200 every day from around the world. and i m not thinking about any books right now, but we are trying to figure out if there is a way to tell these stories behind the secrets in film or television. so that s always exciting. frank thank you. always nice to talk to you. i m going to find out which always nice to talk to you. i m going to find out which secrets are yours. one of the ways we re saving some money is doing a big family dinner. my sister cooks for both families one night and then i do the same. we make a lot of lasagna. that way, everyone has leftovers to take home and they have dinner or lunch for the next night. i m always looking for deals and specials. i m always keeping my eye out to save a little extra money. we understand saving money is important to you. that s why at giant, we ve created thousands of new deals storewide. we save money, and we have extra time to spend with the family, and that works for us. this morning in today s kitchen back to basics, we re cooking up crepes with bring that up again he combines science and cooking on good eats, host of iron chef america and the next iron chef. now he s out with a book good eats: the early years. alton. good morning. crepe. so it s not crepe. i say crepe. it s like van gogh, van gogh. people don t like words that bring up phlegm. they re french, they get by with that. meantime, they taste good. they do taste good and they re amazingly versatile. this is the one thing i think my family makes on pretty much several times a week basis. mm-mmm. it s the only thing i ve actually memorized. 4 1/2 hounss of flour by weight. this is amazingly simple. a couple eggs. you have seen these before. we make pancakes all the time these are like pancakes, only they don t have any air in them. we ve got some milk, some water. are they gluten-free? no because they have flour in them. that would answer that. yeah, when you see flour don t be a wise guy, cook. we re going to do sweet, so i m going to add a tablespoon of sugar and vanilla. they put the vanilla beans out because they weren t sure you knew where vanilla came from. we re not going to put the whole bean in there. and you blend it up for about ten seconds, and it s important to do it in a blender and get it done with quickly because if it s too long, they get tough. you have to let this sit for at least an hour because you don t want any bubbles. i make this the night before and shove it in the fridge. so at least an hour. that way you won t have too many bubbles in. it each of you are going to make a perfect crepe. awesome. i ve always wanted to do that. really, my son loves crepes, crepes. a little butter. crepe. work on saying that. a little butter, okay. i took french for four years. butter for you. of course, it s french. look at you standing back from the butter. you re scared of the butter. well, errs splashing it. you don t want it to get brown. well, it doesn t matter. this is what i want you to do. see how i m doing that? cover as much pan it looks so easy. oh, it s so easy. okay, fine, my pan s too hot. see the holes? you do it. i didn t mess up, i wanted to do that. oh, now, talk about splatter. oh, that s good. she s doing it. okay, i m going to do this fast, because i know clear. okay, turn the pan. too much batter, but good. but good. now, put it down and let it cook. let it cook. now i m going to give you little zest. oh, zest. a little lemon, yes. on your side no, you re going to mine s bad. i messed mine up. you re going to get nutmeg. nutmeg, yummy. that was simple. that smells fantastic. now, we re going to get this out of the way. here s the thing. this is the hard part. no, it s not hard. you re not ready. see, because you put too much batter in yours. you re doomed. you sound like my mother. i know your mother. she was right. you did this, you did that. all you have to do is flip like that. okay, now we re perfect! oh, well done. whoa! okay. beautiful. that s good. can i touch it? no, i wouldn t yet. is it well, we didn t put anything in it. that comes later. that comes later. alton, you know, being in the kitchen with you is a lot of fun, but anyway, the bottom line is that you can make these things, your kids will love them. yeah, look behind you. my daughter and the book is called good eats: the early years. we ll show that and meantime, we ll be right back with trashy brides right after this. oh, my gosh. you eat it like that. [house] wow, i feel like a new house after my quick home energy check-up from bge. it s the closest i ll ever get to a day spa. they wrapped my pipes, installed cfl bulbs, recommended a little nip/tuck around the old windows and more. [announcer] learn to speak the language of energy efficiency at bgesmartenergy.com, and pamper your home with a quick home energy check-up. [sigh] ah. the efficient life is the good life. lisa, your family thinks you might have roasterphobia. i m not roasterphobic. maybe a little. well, there s always my perdue® oven ready roaster. but that s a whole chicken. it s okay, dear. my perdue® oven ready roaster is already seasoned in its own cooking bag. and it cooks in about half the time. it s that easy. my work here is done. (announcer) perdue® oven ready roaster. the cure for roasterphobia. now to women donning their wedding gowns after the big day for very unusual photo shoots, and we tagged along to find out why. it s a day many women have dreamed of, walking down the aisle in their beautiful white wedding gown. but what happens to that dress after the i-dos ? my goal today is to get as muddy as possible. reporter: it s called trash the dress. one bride s trash is a photographer s treasure. the whole idea behind trashing the dress was coming up with a more creative way to express yourself. it s one thing you couldn t do on your wedding day. i say bring it on. i hope i get to drive. i don t want to ride in the back. reporter: at dfw adventure park in texas, four friends get revved up to go four-wheeling, yes, you guessed it, in their wedding gowns. i think any excuse to wear it again and to go roll around in some mud and have a good time is a good one. reporter: photographer lynn renkin has been capturing these trash the dress memories for the past three years. i try to really tailor the sessions to the girl in particular or to the couple in particular. some people don t necessarily like it. they think it s destroying something that s sacred, but for me, doing something artistic and creative with my dress is much more me and much more us as a couple than keeping it up in the closet somewhere. absolutely amazing. look at her. she s beautiful. not just go out there and do something destructive, but more go and create some art. reporter: photographer john michael cooper is credited with starting this trend. people always picture the bride as some untouchable, pure thing that, you know, should be totally protected from the elements, the wind, the water, whatever. reporter: not anymore. shana duhon dug her dress out of the closet for this shoot in the las vegas desert. my father and mother kept asking me, you know, are you sure? weddings are so formal and traditional. so, to get an opportunity to kind of come out here and just mess around and feel goofy and get all your, you know, ambition out, it s kind of exciting. exhilarating i guess. reporter: and jessica and samuel delay say they are taking their vows seriously. to me, we re kind of symbolizing here the phrase that seems to have been kind of forgotten in marriages these days, until death do us part. so, we re pretty much sitting in a shallow grave. reporter: a dress that s sure to be remembered. it was fine until they dropped that line. you want to do it. i m totally inspired. i think we should do it. i know. you know where your wedding gown is. i just want to make sure my daughter doesn t want the gown. we ll do that. but we don t have to ruin the gown. oh, yeah, i got my live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. a 9-year-old baltimore county girl is recovering at the children s center this morning after an accident that killed her father. the editor at the baltimore sun was killed when his car was struck by a ups truck. his daughter was seriously injured. neighbors called the intersection dangerous and allowed to get a part-time signal installed. the cause of the crash is under now let s take a look at the forecast with tony pann. after a chilly start, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. high temperatures, range between 68 and 73 degrees. tonight, the cuts will thicken up. the showers will linger most likely into early wednesday morning. thank you for joining us. another update at 9:25. and we re back now with more of today on this tuesday morning, october