Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100122 : vimarsana.com

good morning. states of emergency. new evacuations ordered in california, as residents brace for day six of heavy rain, flooding and mud slides. and in arizona, nearly two feet of snow in some spots. what did he know? after revealing exclusively to today that he is the father of his former mistress s daughter, could john edwards now be indicted over money used to keep that woman quiet? and say what? a woman records her husband saying the strangest things in his sleep. i don t have them, but now they re a huge hit on the internet. so, what does he have to say last night? we re going to find out when they join us for a live interview today, friday, january 22nd, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a friday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. matt, i want you to take a look at this. this is snow in flagstaff, arizona. not rare, but what is unusual is the amount that has fallen, up to 23 inches since just wednesday. that s right, and the snow has led to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays and prompted arizona s governor to declare a statewide emergency, and it s expected to continue for the next day or two. that s not what the people out there want to hear. we re going to have more on that and the ongoing trail of damage caused by a week of rain in southern california, just ahead. also ahead, a murder case that stunned the nation. florida 7-year-old somer thompson was snatched while walking home from school last october, her body found two days later in a georgia landfill. and now, three months later, investigators have yet to name a suspect and are being tight-lipped about the investigation, a fact that has frustrated somer s mom. coming up, diena thompson speaks out in a live interview. on a much lighter note, you ve probably seen the ads promising to buy your old gold jewelry for top dollar. a lot of people are taking advantage of that in these tough economic times, but now there s a study showing they only pay you 9% to 11% of the jewelry s real value. it s a consumer alert, just ahead. but we begin with the unrelenting storms out west. nbc s george lewis is in los angeles. george, good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. this community, la canada flintridge, lies just below the area burned in last year s big brush fires in los angeles county, and the fear is that with enough water, these hillsides could come tumbling down in a torrent of mud and debris. with rain falling on these hills at the rate of more than an inch an hour, the ground is completely saturated and the water has to find someplace to go. officials say that s why they ve asked residents of almost 2,000 homes to leave. there s still the threat of mud and debris slides and debris flows. there s mud and water in the street. reporter: debbie harris is among those who decided to ignore the warnings. it s not that far down the hill for us. so, even if we have to walk out, it would be okay. reporter: flooding all over southern california has been a major headache this week, snarling traffic. this is one of those low-lying areas where water tends to pond. reporter: and create a mini niagara just off the long beach freeway. the campus of cal state university long beach was closed because of flooding in several buildings. some 60 miles east of los angeles, san bernardino county sheriff s deputies used a helicopter to rescue a man and a woman trapped by floodwaters in the normally dry santa ana river wash. in the high sierra, a major crash involving several big rigs and other vehicles in a snowstorm caused the closure of westbound interstate 80. an suv with a mother and two babies plowed into one of the trucks, but the three of them survived. weather also fouled air transportation, forcing southwest airlines to cancel more than 400 flights in california and arizona. as the storms move eastward, they ve dumped more than a foot of snow on flagstaff, arizona, a place where these kinds of conditions are a novelty. now, back in california, the rain and the snow are expected to taper off tonight, but authorities warn, these hillsides will be extremely dangerous 72 hours after the skies clear. meredith? all right, george lewis, thank you very much. it is now 7:04. here s matt. meredith, thank you. formu.s. senator and former presidential candidate john edwards showed up in haiti, days after admitting to being the father of his former mistress s 2-year-old daughter, but that does little to end the scandal. nbc news correspondent lisa myers broke the story and is with us again this morning. lisa, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. sources familiar with the investigation tell nbc news that edwards wealthy political donors provided more than $1 million to help guard john edwards secret. much of that money was handled by a former aide who claims he managed the cover-up. the aide has now turned on his boss, claiming edwards betrayed him and kicked him to the curb. and you want to see big, bold, courageous change in this country, join us in this cause. reporter: it was the summer of 2007. edwards was running for president. and behind the scenes, there was growing concern that his affair with campaign videographer rielle hunter might be exposed. it s a great speech. can you read it? yes, i can read it. you can? yes. reporter: this man, edwards longtime personal aide, andrew young, claims in an upcoming tell-all book that edwards begged him to help conceal the affair. north carolina democratic consultant and political watchdog joe sinzheimer says young s book reveals tawdry details of a desperate cover-up. you read andrew young s 20-page book proposal. i did. reporter: what was your impression? that andrew young is relatively unapologetic about his role in this crisis. he was, in fact, the handler of the mistress. he was, in fact, the enabler of the double life. reporter: promotional material for young s book claims he was the senator s closest aide and most trusted friend, but harrison hickman, a longtime edwards friend and adviser, counters that young was a flat flat er er and an errand boy. i know two specific instances where he s not telling the truth. i mean, those are on the face not true. reporter: still, almost everyone agrees that young would have done anything for john edwards. dave badger is a friend of young s. of the supporters of john through all of his campaigns, i believe andrew to have been the most loyal of all. reporter: so loyal that when the national enquirer first reported rielle hunter s pregnancy in december 2007, young took responsibility, declaring he was the father of her child, which turned out to be false. john edwards has never said to me that he asked andrew young to claim paternity. and in fact has said just the opposite, that he did not do that. reporter: young now says he was on the run with hunter for months, hiding her first at this exclusive gated community in north carolina, then moving her along with his own wife and kids to this lavish house near oprah s mansion in santa barbara, california. cost, at least $20,000 a month. they re living the high life together, the young family and rielle hunter and the baby, all under one roof. reporter: later, hunter got her own digs overlooking the pacific as well as use of a bmw and an allowance. and where did all the money come from? from two wealthy edwards campaign donors, edwards finance chair fred baron and an exclusive heiress who together gave hunter more than $1 million. a federal grand jury here in raleigh, which met as recently as this month, is trying to figure out what edwards knew about the payments, whether campaign contributions were used and whether any of it amounts to a crime. what may be in question is how dirty did john edwards get his own hands? did he basically ask staff to deal with this or was he, in fact, secretly orchestrating all of the activity behind the scenes? reporter: fred barron said before he died that his friend edwards knew nothing about the payments. mellon s lawyer says young did not tell her exactly how the money would be used. he went off to virginia, according to the book proposal, and he said to ms. mellon that we ve got a problem, it s of a personal nature and that we need some funds to deal with it. reporter: young visited mellon at her virginia estate, according to sources familiar with the investigation, and got her to write checks totaling about $700,000, many made out to a north carolina antiques dealer, who endorsed them over to young s wife. mellon s lawyer described young s requests for money increscent and tells nbc that young even suggested mrs. mellon mortgage her farm to raise more cash. the lawyer said young played a very questionable role in seeking funds from mrs. mellon. he was using his role in john edwards life as a way to solicit these contributions, and senator edwards didn t want anything to do with it. reporter: the edwards camp says that at that point, the senator severed his ties with young. elizabeth edwards wrote in her book about an obsessed staffer. sources say she was referring to young. he is too possessive, he knows no limits, no boundaries. reporter: now, elizabeth calls young s book sad and questions his motivation. i assume he s doing it for the money. but i don t know. you d have to ask andrew that. reporter: young is now a key witness before the federal grand jury. and whatever the outcome, sinsheimer says the victims are edwards supporters. they have been betrayed by both mr. edwards and andrew young, who didn t have the guts to stand up and look john edwards in the eye and say you can t act like this and run for president. reporter: the today show asked andrew young for an interview over several weeks and he declined. edwards lawyer says he has every confidence in the people conducting the federal investigation and believes when it concludes, meredith, edwards will be able to go on with his life. right now it is a mess. lisa myers, thank you very much. david gregory is the moderator of meet the press. david, good morning to you. good morning, meredith. well, it wasn t a very good week for the democrats, i ll say that. first, they lose the supermajority in the senate, and then the president s health care plan is put in jeopardy, and now you have john edwards admitting that he had this affair with his mistress and fathered a child with her. let s talk about the edwards admission first. is there any real political fallout to that long-term, or is this more about personal failings? i think you ve got it, i think it s more about personal failings and deceit and the full range of such a sad story that s become a political story, but the political impact is zero, except for the huge question of what could have been. remember, all this is going on as john edwards was seeking the presidency. this is someone who came close to becoming the vice president of the united states, and you can only imagine, had he been any better as a candidate, had he progressed farther, he could have been the democratic nominee, and then, of course, when these revelations came out, all of that could have crashed down and you d have a republican likely as a president now. so, the what-ifs don t matter because they didn t play out, but it s still striking to think about. absolutely. let s talk about the man who is president, president obama. he will be addressing the nation next week in his statemestate o address at a time when there is no resolution with regard to the health care bill. not even sure we will get a bill in the end, and if we do, probably watered down from what he wanted. either way you look at it, is it a lose-lose proposition for the president? well, no. the real loss here would be to lose health care altogether, and that s what s said at the white house. rahm emanuel has been calling up to congressional leaders on capitol hill saying, what is it that you think you can get the votes for? that s the big question right now, whether they break the bill apart, try to do it piecemeal, whether they pass a separate bill that would speak to the house concerns down the road after passing the senate bill. there s lots of what-ifs. right now, no one knows what a legitimate path forward would be, and that s scary to a lot of democrats, but the feeling within the white house is you cannot walk away. the political costs would be too much if the president cannot achieve a signature goal of his administration. you know, wednesday, david, i talked with senator-elect oh, gosh scott brown. i m sorry. blanking on the name. of massachusetts, after that stunning victory. and he said that the people are angry there and they want a government that responds to them. and it almost seemed like the president took that note, because yesterday, he was quite defiant, taking on the banks and wall street. what does he need to do at this point to recalibrate? well, i think that recalibration is in part a legislative strategy, in part it is a change in tone. the number one thing is to pivot to jobs. the president will be in ohio today. that s what he wants to talk about in the state of the union, jobs, jobs, jobs all the time. what can the administration do this year to speak to that concern that scott brown in massachusetts and others around the country are talking about. you mentioned this populist streak as well. the president wants a fight with the banks. he wants a fight over financial regulation and over the bonuses. there is a feeling the white house knows is out there, which is, who s looking after the little guy here? not just wall street. and the president wants to be the person to do that. that s only going to be ratcheted up as he goes forward. meanwhile, a huge supreme court ruling yesterday. the court ruled that the government cannot ban political spending by corporations in elections. how is this going to change the way elections are run? well, there s a lot of concerns in the white house and within the democratic party that all of a sudden you re going to have union money, big corporate money that s going to come flooding in. i think both parties know how to take advantage of this, but there s a concern that there s going to be a huge rollback here and you re going to have more special interest money that washes through these campaigns that leads to some of the very business in washington that a lot of people are so unhappy about. what have you got coming up on meet the press this sunday? two important exclusives. valerie jarrett will join us, senior adviser to the president, as well as mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate, to talk about the way forward, the president s state of the union address and his second year. david gregory, thank you very much. thanks, meredith. scott brown shakes up everything and i can t remember his name. that is not good. i m matt, by the way. yeah, oh, that s right. let s get a check of the rest of the morning s headlines from a young lady named ann curry. it s okay, meredith. good morning. good morning, everybody. in the news this morning, we begin with a number of developments in haiti. the government there says it will relocate 400,000 people whose homes were destroyed in last week s earthquake because of growing fears of disease. and also growing is desperation. at one food desperation point on thursday, chaos as survivors broke into a store house and fought each other for food. and on top of that, there are more aftershocks. nbc s michelle kosinski is in port-au-prince for us this morning. hey, michelle, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. all of these aftershocks just make everyone feel powerless again. the other day we were talking to a young, strong, uninjured woman in labor who had finally found a field hospital, and we were telling her how great it is to see a happy, hopeful moment. well, the next day, we found out that both she and her baby had died. we couldn t believe it. it s just, as much help as there is here, life is tenuous. the struggle for life s basics goes on. no food ever delivered? no, no, no food. reporter: much aid waits here at the airport. a logjam getting in with some 1,400 planes waiting to drop off relief supplies and then getting them out through clogged and broken streets. you are trying to stuff a large elephant into a straw. that s what you re doing. reporter: this woman walked two miles in the sun for water for her children. here, a line snakes around what was a country club, now a massive distribution site next to a sprawling tent city. life is very difficult, they say, running for their two bottles of water. the u.s. army has this all down to a science now and an art. it feels great. i love it. it s good to see the look on the kids faces and everything. makes you feel like you re doing something. reporter: there s some good news for transportation here, too. the u.s. military has brought in a portable tower for the airport, badly needed. and also, part of the heavily damaged port has been fixed. ann? all right, michelle kosinski this morning. michelle, thanks. well, tonight, nbc will be among the networks carrying a fund-raising telethon to help the relief effort in haiti. it s called hope for haiti now. it airs at 8:00/7:00 central time. there is a major recall involving more than 2 million toyota trucks and cars. the company says it s recalling the vehicles because of mechanical problems with the gas pedal that could cause them to stick. the recall includes rav4s, corollas, avalons, camrys and tundras. for more information, go to our website at todayshow.com. today, defense secretary robert gates and pakistan s military officers said fighting terror along afghanistan s border is in pakistan s interests as well as washington s. and an insurance company is auctioning off the us airways jet that made the miracle landing on the hudson last year. the banged-up plane is, of course, water damaged, and you can see where it made impact and also what broke inside the plane. now in a new jersey salvage yard, the plane is being auctioned online and is being sold as is. it is now 7:18. let s go back to meredith, matt and al. any estimates on what they think they might get? not as far as i can tell, and it s going to be a very unusual person might bid for it, but we ll see what happens. yeah. okay good morning, everyone. the roads should be fine this morning if you are getting up and started, but there is still a chance for rain and snow showers. temperatures that s your latest weather. matt? all right, al, thanks very much. as we saw a little bit earlier, the push to get aid to the people of haiti is slowly coming together, and now a state-of-the-art floating hospital has arrived. nbc s chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is in port-au-prince with details on that. nancy, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. there are so many things that the haitians need right now, but one is decent nurses, strong doctors and a really safe place, a really safe hospital. and now, as you mentioned, there is a place to find all of those things. while so many medical personnel are exhausted and weary after ten days of dealing with catastrophic injuries, agony and death, relief is here. united states navy ship comfort has pulled into port-au-prince. dr. tim donohue is the chief of surgery. hopefully, we ll get relief for the folks ashore. reporter: the staff of comfort performs humanitarian work throughout the year but is especially trained to respond to crises like these. the comfort is a 1,000-bed floating hospital, equipped to handle almost anything. we ve seen just about most of the bones you can have broken. you name it, we can just about do it. reporter: since the doors opened on tuesday night, patients have flooded in, air-lifted from the mainland. isaiah has a fractured arm and a lacerated scalp. like most of the people air-lifted here, he received some basic first aid but is in need of real medical treatment. he felt the ground shake, and when he went to run, a wall started to the wall started to fall. so, some of the cinder blocks fell on him. reporter: while the comfort falls under the command of the navy, there s an unusual situation here. civilian doctors and nurses, if they have the right credentials, can come on board and volunteer their services. everyone on board has seen the pictures and heard the reports of the devastation, and they are prepared. but being prepared for patients and being prepared for the stress of the on-the-job work for the doctors and nurses when facing such sadness can be very different things. how do you guys support each other? you know, it really is a really pretty close-knit team. we ve also identified resources, the chaplain, medical health professionals, if we need be. reporter: but for now, it is the health of the haitians that matters and getting a population back on its feet. we continue to see people all over this city with very complicated fractures, and part of the infrastructure challenge is getting them to those kinds of good hospitals. and yesterday when i spoke to the israeli doctors, they have seen some cases of meningitis. and the other real concern here now is typhoid. if that infectious disease starts, we have a whole other problem. dr. nancy snyderman, we appreciate yourrt. just ahead, the search for 7-year-old somer thompson s killer. three months later, no suspect boss: hey, those gecko ringtones you put on our website are wonderful. people love em! gecko: yeah, thank you sir. turned out nice. boss: got another one for you. anncr: at geico.com, it s easy to get a free rate quote, manage your policy, make payments or even file a claim! boss: now that s a ringtone. gecko: uh yeah.it s interesting.. certainly not the worst ringtone i ve ever heard. ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding. gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. just ahead, a consumer alert on those ads promising you top dollar for your old gold. plus, the wild things this guy says in his sleep. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. time to get a check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. tony rather, stan, not dealing with any major incidents. effective traffic lights in the area of falls road and shawan effective traffic lights in the area falls road and shawan road. not too bad on the the rest of the major roadways. according to hard drive time, 11 minutes on the outlook northeast side, 11 minutes on 95 assault from the beltway southwest to 32. you can see this building, but not all that bad. not as bad as expected towards the beltway northeast. at quarantine road, expect these delays to the construction zone. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. now we took the stand, right? go to stan, right? we will answer to anything. temperatures above freezing, and that is important. anything that does fall should not be a problem on the road. we can still see precipitation off to our west, inching its way off of the mountains. still a chance for some light rain or snow showers. i think that by the time we get to 4:00 or 5:00 this afternoon, things will taper off. high temperatures in the upper 30 s. next couple of days, the 50 weekend coming up to decided is the best of the is the best day of the two. all right, anthony, thank you. be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back in 25 minutes for another 7:30 now on this friday morning, january 22nd, 2010. and you re looking at some of the folks that we find outside our window on the world, and we re going to step outside and say hi to them in just a bit. i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. and just ahead, a consumer alert tied to the high price of gold. a lot of people are answering these ads that you see on television, you hear on the radio, basically saying, hey, we ll give you top dollar for your gold jewelry, gold coins. let s face it, money s tight, so people are interested in that, but do you really get what your items are actually worth? apparently, the answer is no, not even close. now a congressman is calling for an investigation. what you need to know, coming up just ahead. plus, have you ever caught your spouse talking in his or her sleep? well, one woman did, and she decided to record the bizarre things that her husband said. now his late-night ramblings on everything from vampire penguins to avocados are a worldwide hit. coming up, we re going to meet the strange man behind the madness. and a real daredevil coming up as well will be here to announce his plan to jump out of a balloon that will be nearly 23 miles up in the air. he s trying to break the world s 50-year-old free fall record, and he s getting help from the now 81-year-old who holds the current record. we ll talk to them both, just ahead. it s an amazing story. yes. but we re going to begin with serious news, the latest on the 3-month-long search for the killer of somer thompson. she is the florida 7-year-old whose body was found in a georgia landfill last october, two days after she disappeared. we re going to talk to somer s mom in an exclusive, live interview in just a moment, but first, here s nbc s mark potter. reporter: three months after somer thompson was murdered, authorities say they still have no suspect and not enough evidence yet to even focus in a particular direction. but the clay county sheriff s office says the investigation remains active with the fbi, u.s. marshals and state agents still involved and lots of material being analyzed in a crime lab. this is really not a cold case yet, because law enforcement still has physical evidence to look at. reporter: 7-year-old somer thompson disappeared last october 19th after walking home from school on this sidewalk in orange park, florida. her body was found two days later in a landfill in southeast georgia. authorities hope that by finding the body so soon, it would lead to a swift resolution of the case. they thought there was a very strong possibility there would be physical evidence on her body that would link her to an offender. reporter: but it didn t happen, and clay county sheriff rick beesler hasn t spoken publicly about the investigation since late october, saying he doesn t want to tip off the killer. investigators have said their biggest fear is that whoever killed somer thompson could strike again, but as far as they know, it hasn t happened, as they keep an eye out for other cases with similar patterns. but with that threat still looming, investigators continued to pore through potential evidence, hoping finally to get a big break, and soon. for today, mark potter, nbc news, miami. somer s mother, diena thompson, is with us exclusively, along with her attorney, mike freed. good morning to you both. good morning. good morning. diena, i know how hard this is for you. just watching that brought you to tears. i don t know how you re holding up through all this and why you wanted to come here, given how difficult it is for you. because her murderer isn t found, and i don t want another family i know i can t save everybody, but at least one family cannot feel this pain, because it s unbearable, and i have no choice but to go on because i have other children and they need me. you have three other children yes, ma am. who need you very much. you know, right after somer s body was found last october, you did an interview and you looked in the camera at whoever did this. you were reaching out to whoever did this, and you said, we re coming for you. we ll get you. do you remember that? oh, yeah, and i still feel the same way. we are going to get you. you may have hidden this long, but your time is limited. right now, are we any closer to getting this person? i really don t get told a lot. i know that they have a lot of forensic evidence out that they re waiting on. yeah, they ve been very tight-lipped with the public, but also with you. you still don t even know how your daughter died. no, ma am, i don t. that s part of the investigation, obviously. obviously, it s frustrating for diena, but at the same time, the clay county sheriff s office has done exactly what they need to do to maximize that they make an arrest and they get a conviction. but how do you handle that as a mom, the not knowing? that s probably the worst part, the not knowing, because the scenarios you make up in your mind, they might be worse than what the actual truth is. so, i just want this person brought to justice. they need to pay, because she didn t she couldn t have possibly done anything to deserve to deserve this, absolutely. mike, at this point, are there even any persons of interest out there or any theories that we know about that the police are working off of? i think the most likely is that it s a crime of opportunity. meaning? meaning that somer was walking home and separated from her siblings and her friends and that there s someone who was into things they shouldn t have been in and may not have ever committed a crime like this, may never do it again, and this was an opportunity for them to up what their perverted activities already were. you know there are some people who believe that it might be somebody within that community, somebody that you might even know. do you find yourself, diena, looking twice at people or always wondering, am i staring at this monster and i don t even realize it? definitely, without a doubt, every time you go out, every time somebody stares back at me, i wonder, are they staring at me because they know they re the ones and i don t know anything about what s going on? so, i don t want to falsely accuse anyone, because that could really wreck someone s life, but this person needs to be brought to justice. there was an upsetting article in the paper recently that you know about. an unnamed social worker from your daughter s school apparently called state services a year ago, before she disappeared, said that at times your kids walked home from school alone and it was putting them in a dangerous situation. you were actually investigated. they found that you did nothing wrong whatsoever, that you were very responsible parent. but when you saw that article now, how did you react to that? it broke my heart. it made me feel like somebody was just throwing me into the sharks, you know? and what about the 75 other children who walk home with my kids every day? why? why would someone do that? diena is amazingly sensitive, and as you know, there s so much of an outpouring of support, but there s also a crazy minority of people that like to victimize victims, and i would just ask people to leave diena and her family alone in that regard, because there have been some very hurtful things said, and diena s just a good mother like so many people, working to take care of her kids and doing the best she could. and the reason her daughter s dead is because there s a really bad person out there, not because of something diena did. and in a sense, you feel like any mom would, what if i had been there, that sense of responsibility that never goes away. every day. what if i would have done this different? it s the worst pain that you could ever experience. i wouldn t wish it on my worst enemy. well, as mike said, there are so many people who care deeply about you and your children in the community, and i know you ve raised a lot of money, $60,000 in a fund to, hopefully, find who this is. there s actually $65,000. $65,000 at this point. and i know part of the reason you came here is because you had a message for other parents out there. i just want parents to know that you re basically living on borrowed time, and just tell your kids you love them. and when they want to cook with you and you just don t want to clean up the extra mess, it s worth cleaning up the extra mess or tripping over their bike or picking up their dirty laundry, it s all worth it, because they can be taken from you at any time. at any time. i started this interview asking you about what you said a couple days after your daughter s body was found, to whoever did this, that we re coming for you, we re going to get you. with every day that goes by, does that determination ever waver or does it get stronger? no, it gets stronger because he s going to get caught. he s going to do something wrong. he s obviously not a smart person, because if he were, he would have never done this to begin with. diena, we hope he s caught or she is caught, whoever did this. it s an it. an it. thank you so much for keeping somer s story out there. someone out there knows something. diena thompson, mr. freed, thank you so much. thank you. if you have any information for the case, please logon to our website, todayshow.com. now let s get a check of the weather from al. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by turbotax software. turbotax, choose easy. and as we look at what s happening here in the weather, in the east we ve got a low pressure developing. it s bringing rain and icy conditions to the mid-atlantic states, the associated cold front bringing heavy rain down through. if lay. you can see the heaviest rain offshore, but some areas will pick up one to two inches of rain. clouds in the pacific northwest, snow showers in the rockies and the wasatch mountain ranges. we re looking at sunshine through the gulf coast, temperatures a lit the roads should be fine but we will still see a chance for rain or snow showers and a little bit of sleet mixed in off and on rain and snow showers and if you want to make sure your weather s good this weekend, check out the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you very much. and up next, a warning if you re looking to make extra money by selling your old gold. what you should know before you put your valuables in the mail. you know, you see the ads everywhere mail your gold to a company and make quick cash, but is it really worth it? nbc s jeff rossen is here with some answers, and i don t think the answers are so good. they never are when we re here, are they? it s the perfect storm, gold prices are up, the economy is down. so what do we do? look around the home for old necklaces or rings laying around and we try to sell them. it makes sense and it s pretty easy, too, but this morning, a new consumer alert and new action from a congressman who says you re only making pennies on the dollar. it sure looks like fun. wow. reporter: throw a gold party and sell your old jewelry to your friends. too much effort? no problem. here s money. reporter: now you can sell gold from home. maybe you ve seen the commercials and testimonials. i got $197. reporter: several companies, including industry leader cash4gold, are doing big business. mail the gold in, you get a check back. nbc news began investigating this craze back in march, and now customers are coming forward. i felt that the company had deceived and had lied to me. reporter: claiming the mail-in gold companies are low-balling them. online message boards are brimming with complaints. mark360 writes i sent all my jewelry to them and only got $334. i then took my jewelry to the diamond & gold exchange in garland, texas, and they gave me more than double. rachel writes i sent them a herring bone necklace, diamond rings and another gold necklace. i should have known they would tell me they were lost in the mail. it s a bad deal. reporter: an online watchdog group launched their own investigation and the results, they say, are alarming. we weighed this gold with an expert, and he said it s worth $300. its melted weight is worth $300. how much could i get for this? well, you take that to a pawn shop, jeweler, maybe you ll get $275, $280, depending on the price of gold that day. but if you mail it off in a little plastic envelope to some p.o. box across the country, you might be lucky if you get a check back for $33. reporter: now, new york congressman anthony weiner is taking action. in a letter to the federal trade commission, he points to a study that mail-in gold companies pay you only 11% to 29% of the jewelry s real value, that their return policies are predatory and dangerous and calls for a full investigation of cash4gold. basically, these companies are exploiting two things. one is the bad economy, the fact that people are looking for extra cash wherever they can find it. and the second is, they re exploiting ignorance. reporter: late thursday, cash4gold responded in a statement to nbc news we are proud of the service we have provided to over 900,000 customers. cash4gold stands behind our guarantee to all customers that they have 12 days to accept our offer or request their items back. sending your gold in the mail may be convenient. if he gives me more money for another trip. reporter: and selling to friends might be fun, but consumer experts say shopping around is by far the best. very nice. thank you very much. tips for selling gold is keep it local, keep it in your hand until you actually are in front of someone, a professional, and always get at least two or three offers. now, the mail-in companies admit this is not for everyone. if you re looking to maximize your money, you re better off doing it in person, but the companies say if you don t have the time or the energy to shop around, it works. by the way, when you get an offer this is important you have only days to respond. otherwise, the companies, matt, consider this a done deal, they re keeping your gold and mehmeting it down. letting the horses out of the barn. that s right. too late. jeff, thank you so much. it s 7:47. up next, the daredevil getting ready to attempt a very dangerous sky dive from the edge of space. we re going to talk to him and ask him why. back at 7:50 with a daring and dangerous attempt to break world records that have stood for half a century. they were set back in 1960, when then u.s. air force captain joe kitinger jumped out of a balloon. that was more than 102,000 feet in the air. now, 50 years later, colonel kitinger is helping skydiver and test jump pilot felix baumgartner try to break his marks. both are with us exclusively. guys, good morning. good morning. i don t want people to think we read a typo here or misspoke. you jumped out of a balloon at 102,000 feet? absolutely, sure did. what did that feel like? well, we were there for a certain purpose and i trained for a long time, and i visualized it, and when it came time to go, i was ready to go. felix, a lot of people have tried to surpass the colonel s record, and some of them have died in the attempt. why are you doing this? well, i think it s the next logical step because we ve done so many things the last 20 years. so, my highlight dream as a skydiver, i spent time in a pressure chamber and i have trained for it. i feel safe and i m really looking forward to doing this. colonel, why are you helping? i don t mean to make this sound like a competition, but you hold these records. you ve held them for 50 years. i m sure they re special to you. why would you help someone break them? well, because records are meant to be broken, you know? it s human nature to go faster, higher, deeper, and i was invited to join the campaign, and i respect felix and i know he can do a great job doing it, so i m looking forward to helping him do it. generous of you. very generous. felix, walk us through this for a second. you re going to go up 120,000 feet in the air, in a balloon, right? now, you re first of all, i m in a pressure suit. it s really important, because in other words, you d be freeze-dried. well, at 50,000 feet, blood starts boiling, so the only way to survive is in a pressure suit. a pressure suit and a pressurized capsule as well? both. both. we have double safety, because safety is the most important thing, which is why we have both. i m going up for about 2 hours and 30 minutes in a pressure capsule. at altitude, i m going to release the pressure in the capsule, so my suit will puff up, so i still have pressure on my body, which is important. then i step off. within the first 30 seconds, i m going to reach the speed of sound. my goodness. well, good luck. good luck, yeah. to both of you, and we appreciate you joining us. thank you, guys. thank you so much live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. want to get a check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. couple problems out there, but overall, we re doing quite well. falls road at shawan road, we have some defective traffic lights, and same thing at greenspring valley. shut down at liberty road. there is a gas main break, and it is being worked on as we speak. as far as drive times and speed sensors, we re looking pretty good around the area. on the northeast part of the petting towards providence we will switch to a live view of traffic. 95 in the northeast, you can see this easing up a bit. you will find it delays from white marsh to the northeast. this is the one spot where we are getting slow spots on the beltway because of the construction on the east side at. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. the precipitation is filling in now, when hd doppler is showing showers out of the mountains and filling in from the east as well. light rain and snow showers are possible as we had through the morning into the early afternoon. we re mostly above freezing. getting close in parkton, but most areas are safe the above 32 degrees. the roads should be ok. a mixture of light rain and snow showers and maybe a little sleet mixed in. high of 30 this afternoon. we should clear up for the weekend on saturday, but more rain possible on sunday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back in 25 minutes for we re back now, 8:00 on a friday morning. it s the 22nd day of january 2010. it s another pretty day here in the northeast. a little breezy, but not bad, 34 degrees. we ll take it as we head into the weekend. and out on the plaza, thanks to these nice people for stopping by. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira, and the return, ladies and gentlemen, of al roker after about a week on the road. nice to have you back, sir. we missed you so much. you did great work. really great work. thank you. great to have you home. here s a question for you. yes. do you ever talk in your sleep? yes. mumbles. what about due elect? well, i don t know because i m asleep, but richard tells me i do. any gems? i don t mutter your name, if that s what you re thinking. well, that s actually kind of an introduction here. anyway, we ll meet a couple coming up. apparently, he started to speak in his sleep. he said some doozies, and she at first thought it was just funny. then she started recording it and sharing them with other people. they have now become an internet sensation. we ll hear what he has to say when he s awake and when he was asleep, in just a little while. and we have tips for these folks and everyone else, the five things you need to know to get a great night s sleep. plus, what would you do if you were walking down the street and you were approached by the president of the united states? well, coming up, we re going to walk the streets with the man who s become the master of impersonating our nation s leaders to see how people react. it s a great story. huh. okay. he looks about as much like obama as i look like the wax of me at madame tussauds. that s what that looks like, the president much more, exactly. let s go in to ann curry at the news desk. i agree, by the way, al. good morning once again, everybody. in the news, officials in haiti say they will temporarily relocate 400,000 earthquake survivors soon because they re worried about sanitary conditions in the camps now clustered around the capital. and on thursday, there were scenes of desperation. a u.s. charity was handing out food when men armed with sticks forced their way through the crowd and made off with relief supplies. meantime, the red cross is saying that americans have donated more than $25 million to the relief effort through text messages alone, which is remarkable. today, airports in india are on high alert after indian intelligence received information that al qaeda-linked militants were planning to hijack a plane in india. security has been heightened and passengers are being subjected to extra security checks. a storm system that s been pounding the western united states caused flash flooding and evacuations overnight in parts of arizona. flagstaff, arizona, could see another foot of snow today, doubling the amount already on the ground. in southern california on thursday, a tornado knocked down trees and damaged houses, and rescuers used a helicopter to reach people stranded by a rising river. rain is in the forecast for the los angeles area for a sixth day in a row. the election of republican scott brown in massachusetts is forcing democrats to consider new compromises to pass health care reform. house speaker nancy pelosi said on thursday that she does not have enough votes to pass the senate s current health care bill. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning following the dow s 213-point drop on thursday. cnbc s erin burnett now joins us. erin, more earnings out today. that s right, ann, and uncertainty and anxiety are the two words to think about. on the earnings front, our parent company, general electric, a great barometer for the economy, said maybe some signs of encouragement in terms of the economy, but still, revenue dropped 10%. there s also anxiety about what the rules are, whether the president is going to break up some of the biggest banks in the country is causing concern. you mentioned health care. no one knows what s happening there. that s also bad for the markets. and then, anxiety over who s in charge. ben bernanke, the fed chief, is supposed to be up for confirmation. that vote has been delayed again. put all that together and there s a lot of concern and anxiety on wall street. back to you. all right, erin, thank you so much. you may want to look at this next video about an unusual protest in belgium. there were some angry firefighters, and they were trying to fill a government building with foam, and then they later sprayed it at police. the firefighters were upset about current laws about promotions, and they made sure that their cause was heard, or seen, felt. anyway, it was messy. it is now 8:04. let s go back outside to meredith and matt. don t you think that looks like fun? it does look like fun, ann, it really does. we should have a little of that fun. we have fun every day, and you know it. that s true. that s true. mr. roker s over here with a check of the weather. some days are more fun than others, but every day is fun, it is. we ve got some you re pushing your son here in front. what s your name, young man? max. and who s that back there? wow. it s one of the men in black. very nice. what s your name? taylor. all right, taylor, nice to see you. taylor, i like it. let s check your weather, see what s happening. pick city of the day, rochester, rochester, minnesota, kttc. cloudy, cold, 32 degrees. and the weekend, we ve got a risk of strong storms down in the lower mississippi river valley, icy up in the northern mississippi valley, snow showers in the rockies, wet weather in the pacific northwest. sunday, sunday! look for a risk of strong storms in the southeast, rain in the afternoon in the northeast with icy conditions, more wet weather northern california and the the roads should be a fine but we will still see a chance for often on rain showers. above freezing w and here s a warning to our bosses in augusta, georgia, the barnes & noble. you re not coming back? no. you re staying in new york? yes. well, you heard it here first. what s his name? mike! mike, they re not coming back! meredith. al, thank you very much. up next, the bizarre ramblings of a sleep-talking man that s become an internet sensation. what did he have to say last night? we ll talk to his wife in a live interview after this. child monitoring mirror. 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(announcer) for a free trial offer call 1-800-4-boniva or visit boniva.com back now at 8:10. imagine you said whatever popped into your mind, whether it be whimsical, rude or just plain funny. now imagine you did it while you slept and your spouse was recording it all and posting it online for all to hear. that s how a couple in england is redefining pillow talk, and we re going it meet them in a moment, but first, nbc s stephanie gosk has their story. reporter: adam lennard might seem like the average joe, a newlywed with a steady job and a nice apartment in london, but adam is anything but normal. mr. sandman reporter: late at night when he s fast asleep, he starts to talk. step away from the yam. step away! reporter: two months ago, karen lennard started blogging her husband s late-night talk. with a microphone, she records everything. normally a mild-mannered guy. what about sex and furry animals. reporter: he barely recognizes his slumbering alter ego. for one, he isn t that funny in life. can t control the kittens. too many whiskers! reporter: haven t there been moments where he s said something and you ve gone, oh, god, that s a little weird. no. i mean, yes, most of them are weird. most of them are weird. reporter: the blog quickly went viral. in the last three weeks, there have been close to 1 million hits, along with a couple videos. amid the growing following, there are a few cynics, but the lennards are unphased. this is something that we did i did from the beginning just for us and our friends. and so, i m perfectly okay living with the idea that some people think that it s fake. mr. sandman reporter: the vast majority of their fans just think it s funny. vampire penguin, zombie guinea pigs. we re done for. reporter: for today, stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. adam lennard is talking to us this morning, and thankfully, he s awake, and he joins us along with his wife, karen slavick-lennard. good morning to both of you. good morning. hi, good morning, matt. good to see you. this all started with one thing adam said in his sleep, which was enough with the cheese, enough, and karen, you kind of kept it to yourself for a while, then decided to share this. why? well, i have to be honest, i don t think i ever quite kept it to myself. i subjected adam to all of our friends ridicule pretty much from the beginning. right from the beginning, yeah. yeah. but for a long time, i yeah? i was just going to say, adam, you are this mild-mannered guy when you re awake. everybody says you re the kindest, most well-mannered guy, and when you sleep, you re rude, you re x-rated. which is the real adam lennard? um, the real adam lennard that i d love people to meet is definitely the one you re seeing now, the mild-mannered, english, restrained kind of guy. the one in my sleep i wouldn t want anybody really to meet. it s a bit extreme as a personality. adam, as you listen to the things you say in your sleep, have you tried to analyze them? can you remember some dreams you m remember having? that s the thing, i have no recollection whatsoever of any of the dreams i have had that night or about sleep-talking. and in respect to that, i suppose that s why i ve never wanted to analyze them. i ve never felt there was a need to. i very quickly bought into the humor of it, and karen s enthusiasm has made me fall in love with what s actually being said, and we just enjoy the whole process of it now. let me just play a couple of others for our audience. here s some more of your musings at night, adam. okay. potato bags. i can t find my potato bags. i need them. who s got my potato bags? skipping to work makes everything better. some others here butter nut squash, i like those words. don t leave the duck there. it s totally irresponsible. put it on the swing. it will have more fun. pork chops are more satisfying. mm-mmm, dangle them from the ceiling. now, let s get to the cynicism part here, adam and karen. we did a little unscientific poll in our control room this morning, and about 70% of the people think that perhaps this all started realistically and you said some weird things, but maybe you re both embellishing these things now. how do you answer to that? the only way i can really answer that we know that there are going to be people who don t believe it, no matter what, even if we produced video, which we could just as easily fabricate, i have a very strong sense of security about the blog. so, i try to record everything exactly as adam says it. so, even if he says something boring, i include it. even if he says something completely nonsensical, like this morning, i include it. it s meant to be exactly what he says. so, there s not much i can say to cynics. people will have the opinion they ll have and that s okay with us. this was originally created for our friends and family, and how social media s picked up on it is, you know, fantastic. right. but really, in terms of trying to prove it to you, as i said before, spend the night with me and, really, we ll take it from there. adam s making offers that are a little too complicated lately. with all due respect, adam, i m going to pass on that. does this happen every single night, karen, or are there nights of pure silence? there are nights of silence, and when i wake up in those mornings, on one hand, i m really pleased to have a full night s sleep. right. but i m also sort of disappointed. and now that so many people are following the blog, i actually feel a sense of responsibility. so many people write to us and say this is the first thing i do when i wake up every morning and i m so excited for it. so, when i have nothing to share with them, i feel like i m letting everybody down. no pressure to perform. well, karen and adam, we appreciate you spending time with us this morning. adam, i hope you find your potato bags. yeah, thank you very much. thank you. take care. up next, we re going to meet the man dubbed the impersonator in chief, right after this. pretty. 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[ female announcer ] now you can get the latest name-brand cell phones where you already save. well, actually, just a few rows over. in walmart s expanded electronics department. get unbeatable prices on new, fully activated verizon wireless, t-mobile, or at&t phones. they re a lot closer than you think. save money. live better. walmart. president obama marked his first year in office this week, but he is not the only washington fixture celebrating a milestone. a few years ago, we introduced you to comedian steve bridges, who is best known for impersonating the nation s chief executives. our national correspondent, jamie gangel, caught up with him again to see how he has transformed himself into president obama. jamie, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith. he was worried about this, but you know, part of being president or a politician is people get to make fun of you, and steve bridges speciality is doing just that. who can it be now ladies and gentlemen here i am. let me just be perfectly clear about this, i am hiding from hillary. who can it be now do i worry about hillary clinton? no. she s a girly man posing as a manly man. reporter: in real life, most people don t recognize steve bridges, but put the 46-year-old texas native into the hands of makeup genius mari okimora, and the transformation is stunning. poker face, pa, pa, poker face reporter: four hours later, out comes mr. president. so good to see you. nice to see you. thank you for coming to new york. reporter: now take him for a walk down fifth avenue and watch what happens. right here. quick. there we go. all right, here we go. perfect. uh huh, yeah. the president! reporter: despite that high praise, bridges admits, after eight years of george bush, he was nervous about taking on a new president. the last time we talked, who did we think the next president was going to be? well, we, along with everybody else, were thinking hillary. so, i could have been sitting here in drag. reporter: so, in walks barack obama yes. reporter: and what did you think? i was thinking this is going to be a challenge, yeah. reporter: were you concerned about the white guy doing the african-american? of course, of course. reporter: because? yeah, because that s just the way it is, you know. people just automatically think, you re a white guy, you re doing a black guy, i don t know, can you do that? you re doing an african-american president. but i ll tell you, after thinking about it for a while, after talking it through, it s like, eh, just do it. who are you, who, who thank you, thank you! reporter: ever since bridges has been perfecting his obama, he s had test audiences. i know. i can t believe it s me either. reporter: and as he does with each president, he looks for a trademark. for jimmy carter, it was the smile, the big smile. but then there was also the sincerity. then with reagan, it was that way of talking. and there s george sr. and as always, we have bill clinton, and i want to say sincerely. and then we went to w, you know. and now we re moving on to barack obama. and he s got that way of ending a sentence with a boom, and he nails it. i believe in the job of immigrants. they do jobs that ordinary americans wouldn t want to do, like being governor of california. it s a nerve-racking process. you look at every new president and you think, there s nothing there. give me something, please, give me something. and after a while, every president is a giver. we must rebuild our roads and our bridges so the american people will have a place to live under. to jump off of. smile for the camera. say hi to everybody in connecticut. hey, connecticut! reporter: as for his favorite impersonation, bridges says it s always the one in office, and he confesses, it sometimes affects his vote. you have publicly said before that you re a republican, and you voted for president bush. yeah. reporter: so, can i ask you, did you vote for president obama? no, but i will the next time around. reporter: but with or without makeup, he loves to do them all. mr. president, good to be with you. reporter: you want to say good-bye to me? this is not good-bye. this is we ll see you later, because we all know that every president comes and goes, but many of us stay and i will be here for a long time. god bless america. reporter: steve bridges is brilliant, and you know what, meredith? i don t even think he needs the makeup. just watching his mouth change every time he does it is he is amazing. i totally agree with you, jamie. that was a great piece, by the way. he really does, he transforms into the person, just the mannerisms and the way he speaks. that s great. and the thing he did at the end there, jamie, cannot be easy, where he goes from one to the other, sentence to sentence. reporter: it s true. and you know, matt, you were talking about it he does not look, obviously, exactly like president obama or president bush or arnold. it s just part of the appearance. what he would really like, though, is to do with president obama what he did with george bush, which was that side by side. side by side, yeah, that s cool. i would still like to see him in drag, but maybe in the future. thank you, jamie live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am jennifer franciotti. let s get a final check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. still some problems out there. lanes closed a lot philadelphia road at the inner loop to the beltway. ride out the ramp there is an accident, and delays in that area. we have traffic lights out here and eastbound of northern parkway and greenspring, all lanes closed in the eastbound direction. another. were you watch for the another area where you watch for the defective traffic lights, and volume is beginning to develop out of the white marsh area, and southbound harrisburg expressway as you approach the beltway, a bit of a delay there. let s give you a live view in a couple of spots. it to me to delays, but not that bad. things are intermittent delays, but not that bad. east side of quarantine road, everything going to the construction pattern on the inner loop. there is still a possibility that we will see a light rain, snow, or sleet during the day today. increasing in the probability. temperatures above freezing, though. we will make it in the mid-to- upper-thirties. let s look at hd doppler air. you can see precipitation falling in over the last couple of hours. a good chance of light rain, sleet, or snow. but with a temperature above 32 degrees, we should be ok on the road. as we head into the beginning of the weekend, it should clear out of 43. a good chance for rain on sunday. high near 47. another update at 8:55. 8:30 now on friday morning, the 22nd of january 2010. look at this crowd of ours, smiling and waving to friends back home on this tgif morning. we are so glad that they stopped by. and guys, the big day is almost here. the vancouver games get under way exactly, exactly three weeks from today. unbelievable! wow. opening ceremony. that s right, opening ceremony. it s going to be my first olympics. and you re hosting the opening ceremony. mr. costas, yes. very nervous. you haven t dumped him yet? opening ceremony is february 12th. watch your back only kidding. it will be fun. it will be great, yeah. it s my first trip, so i need to know what to pack, because i m not good at this kind of thing. clothes. clothes would be good. but i went to veteran dancers to get more on that. you re going to win an outfit like that? yeah! that s what i m talking about. i know you are, not me. okay, also coming up, we ll be talking about sleep. you know, we can never talk enough about needing sleep. well, apparently, there are some keys, a short list of things that if you do, you will get a great night s sleep guaranteed. so, we ll find out about that. okay. also ahead, one of our favorite segments around here, jill rappaport is back with from bow to wow. this is when we take some shelter dogs give them a much-needed makeover and put them up for adoption. and our record we always like to say this 100%. that s great. yeah, that s great. and we ve got a diet sos. joy bauer s going to be along to give you answers to your dieting dilemma questions. and she will have the truth about belly fat. oh! oh, yes. oh! at long last. yes. i ve been wondering the truth about belly fat. how s the weather? i d like to spread some on toast. a little chunky peanut butter. you two. anyway, let s check your weather, see what s happening as far as our day today. we ve got more wet weather down in california. good news is, it is starting to lighten up. more snow out in flagstaff, arizona, in the four corners area. for tomorrow, sunshine in the east, slight risk of strong storms gulf coast, icy conditions up in the northern parts of the the roads should be fine but we will still see a chance for rain or snow showers and a little bit of sleet mixed in off and on rain and snow showers that s your latest weather. any time you want to check your weather, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. and speaking of the weather channel, my partner in crime on wake up with al 6:00 a.m. eastern, 5:00 central on the weather channel she s stopped by. why are you here, stephanie? stephanie! because we have a new show coming up on the weather channel called weather-proof. remember mr. wizard? sure. it s like mr. wizard on steroids. we do all sorts of weather experiments to find out if what we re telling people is true. like, does golf ball-sized hail really cause dents in cars? so we launched golf ball-sized hail onto a car. what did you learn? well, i can t tell you. you have to watch. if we give it away, no one will watch. this is also about fire. this is our episode about fire. they always say if you landscape your house a certain way, it will be safer from fire. is that really true? and the idea is you re giving people information to help in an emergency. absolutely. right now in southern california, we re dealing with the flooding and everything. and we always tell people, six inches of water will sweep you off your feet. so, is that true? and how do you get out of a car? we ve heard so many different tech neeltss. wait a minute, you re not going in the car as it goes under water, are you, stephanie? no, you are. oh. that s the twist. that sounds like fun! you try out different techniques. this is our tornado episode, and there was a safehouse. and i always thought you had to be under ground to survive a tornado. well, we tested that theory out with this safe house and i can t tell you so, obviously, you learned a lot here, some surprises for you doing this. yes, a few surprises. and i just understand so much better the product now. i feel like i can warn people better, and you have to do this or you don t have to do that. that s great. and when did you sleep? exactly. this show s on at night. you ve got wake up with al well, i am waking up with al every morning, so i get to bed at some point. so, the show premiered, new season premiere, sunday, 9:00/8:00 central. yes, 9:00 eastern, and i m doing a live web chat as well. so peek can logon and we can talk as well. and then you ll be up in time for wake up with al the next morning, yes. at 6:00 a.m. on the weather channel. you ll be broken within a month, i m telling you. what do you mean a month? she s drunk right now! all right, stephanie, good luck with this show. thank you, steph. when we come back, meredith gets ready for her first winter olympics by tackling or talking to tackling? you want to talk to, i guess the most famous and most successful u.s. ice dancing duo ever, and announcer: today s countdown to vancouver is brought to you by walmart. save money. live better. walmart. this morning on today s countdown to vancouver, three weeks and counting. we are now just 21 days from the opening ceremony. u.s. ice dancing duo tanith belbin and ben agosto hope to be there and go for the gold after winning silver at last olympics games. i caught up with them recently to find out what i need to know about the winter olympics. the passion. the rhythm. the synchronicity. at the last winter games, tanith belbin and ben agosto became the first u.s. ice dance team to take home an olympic medal in 30 years. they won the silver. belbin and agosto lighting up the crowd. reporter: now they are aiming for the gold. look at your smile. is that an oh, my god smile or a yes, i feel good smile? i think we re at a certain point in our careers and our skating where we feel confident enough that we do believe that we can be the best. absolutely, we re aiming for the gold. i really think that the fact that we ve been through an olympics already and we have an 11-year partnership together is really going to be to our benefit. how much fun was that? reporter: you have duel citizenship. mm-hmm. reporter: canada and the u.s. are you going to be split? i never competed for team canada internationally. i ve only ever been a part of team usa. so, in terms of what i associate with my skating, my career and my adulthood, it s definitely an american connection. reporter: with one olympics under their skates, a flair for fashion and knowing the ins and outs of a cold environment, i decided to pick their brain on what to pack for my first winter olympics. i am not prepared. i ve never done a winter olympics before, but i think that style s important, right? absolutely. i would recommend the earmuffs. look at that. beautiful. perfect. and also, because of all the gold medals from the u.s. team, you re going to be looking at all the bling, you ll have to shade your eyes. i think these would be good. oh, i can t take it. nice choice. you definitely want to wear a lot of layers. so, should i try that one on? definitely. more and more vancouver ready by the minute. ugh. i look like a moose. it s perfect for canada. reporter: tanith and ben met as teenagers. you really went after ben, right? i was after any partner i could get my hands on. reporter: tanith, only 12, and ben, just 15, were both in search of a partner. it s a lot like eharmony in a waf. there s this network of coaches that have a lot of single dancers looking for partners, and they communicate and set up tryouts, and you basically have a blind date on the ice. and ben was just like off the bat perfect for me. i made a stupid joke she laughed at. yes! it s going well. and it was easy, it was comfortable and it was fun, and right away we knew that it was going to work. reporter: and work, it did. since torino, the two have continued to excel in ice dance. but with highs have also come lows. ben suffered a back injury which kept him off the ice for most of last year, leaving tanith to train on her own. and the duo had a coaching shake-up. after ten years with one coach, you switched. why? after ten years, we felt like we were kind of as far as our own skating, we had kind of plateaued, and we didn t think we were progressing the way we wanted to and felt a little stagnant just in our own growth as athletes and skaters. we just truthfully needed a change of scenery to motivate ourselves again to push further. belbin and agosto. well, it was terrific! reporter: this is probably going to be your last olympics. yeah. reporter: is that hard now, kind of bittersweet? it is and it isn t, because we ve been doing this our whole lives, and this is really all that we ve gotten to know. and so, there s a lot out there that we d like to experience. we ve only been apart for a maximum of two weeks in the past 11 years. we ve never not seen each other for longer than that, so it s going to be difficult not to see each other every single day and i think that s what we are cherishing the most this year is our time together. they are so talented and so nice. tanith and ben are currently competing at the at&t u.s. figure skating championships, and you can watch the competition tonight on universal sports with live coverage on nbc tomorrow and sunday at 3:00 and 9:00 p.m. eastern time. and again, the opening ceremony of the winter olympics just three weeks from today on february 12th right here on nbc. up next, from bow t back now at 8:44 with another installment of from bow to wow, where we take shelter dogs we clean them up a little and we find them brand new homes. so far, we have a perfect adoption record. jill rappaport is our resident animal lover. jill, good morning to you. hi, matt. why not start the new year with a wonderful, new dog? and we have another great group to choose from, all sizes, all shapes and all waiting to be adopted. at the animal care and control of new york city, meet this month s foursome, starting with sir lancelot, a standard poodle mix deluxe. oh, i really should bow to sir lancelot, huh? sir lancelot, yeah. we like to call him lance, but what a unique dog. we don t get a lot of these breeds, a standard poodle, he s 4 years old. he s huge! i m glad i wore my riding boots. but isn t he great? gentle giant, right? great disposition on this guy, absolutely. reporter: up next, mild-mannered miles, a yorkie mix. look at adorable miles. this is miles, a year and a half, yorkie. yorkie mix, right? yep. he was found tied to a tree in brooklyn. so, he was just left out there on his own. here he was left tied to a tree and look what a love bug he is. he is. he s great. he s so sweet and affectionate. and get ready for bradford, who s got quite the look. woo! talk about a bundle of love! is this sir lancelot s baby? he s a scottish terrier shih tzu mix. he s a year and a half old. unfortunate, though, but his owner was evicted from their home and now they re actually homeless, so they had to give up their pet. so, that s why he s with us. reporter: and last but not least, a female poodle mix named paisley. and finally, a female! here we ve got paisley, yep. she s 5 years old. she was found in an abandoned building, and the neighbors in the area were feeding her for about a week, looking for the owner, hoping the owner would come forward, and they never did. look at how docile and calm. she doesn t move, is not trying to wiggle out. she s very comfortable in your arm. and she s not shaking. she s not shaking. four loveable dogs looking for a real home. jill, and joining us, as always, richard gentles from animal care and control of new york city. richard, welcome back. nice to see you. nice to see you, too. before we bring our bow to wow participants out, let s remind people, when they call up, if they have interest in adopting any of these dogs there is a small fee? yep, there s a small fee, anywhere between $50 and $125. it includes spay and neutering, vaccinations, a microchip. so, it s a great, great deal. all right, richard, thank you very much. let s start off with paisley, and paisley was a 5-year-old female. before we bring paisley out, let s take a look at the picture. and there s paisley. paisley needed a little fixing up. little makeover. a little bit. buts a great temperament, cute dog, right? really is. ann has paisley now. let s see how she looks after her makeover. not ann, but paisley. i may need a makeover, but look at paisley. she s so adorable. she s been at home since she s been here this morning. she was in an abandoned home and is so affectionate. she needed a refresher course on her house-breaking, but otherwise, she s great. she s done with that course. as she holds her. thank you. all right, ann, thank you very much. paisley, you look marvelous. next dog we want to bring out is bradford. just to remind people what bradford looked like before, bradford had a lot of hair going on there. and bradford is what, richard, a year and a half old? yeah, a year and a half old, yep. male scottie mix, 25 pounds. stephanie abrams has bradford today. so soft. he lost his buffant and his hair is out of his eyes, but he s a really cute dog. he is an unbelievable dog. i can t tell you how soft he is, too, seriously. and he s a big kisser. oh, good. go for it. and temperament, they ve all been tested for temperament. they re still dogs yeah, we do evaluations before so we know a good fit for the home he should be in. does he look tough to you? not a bit, not a bit. bradford and stephanie, thank you very much. the third dog we wanted to talk about was miles. miles, a year and a half old, a male yorkshire-terrier mix weighing 11 pounds. there s the picture of miles before the big makeover. and now, natalie has miles this morning. aww. natalie, bring him out. look at that face. what a difference. what a cute face. miles has a lot of energy, so if you re an energetic person, have an energetic family, he d be great for you. he s still a puppy, right? still a puppy. maybe in the country. he likes to run? he likes to run. he s a puppy, so he has a lot of energy yet. very cute. miles, thank you. natalie, thank you. uh huh. and the last dog this morning is lance. let s see his picture right now beforehand. sir lancelot. right. and let s take a look with meredith, the after version of lance. wow, you guys did a great job. it actually looks like a standard poodle now that his face is shaved, his feet are shaved. so, he looks more like the typical standard poodle look. 4 years old, 75 pounds. seems little more spaced out a little more space. he d be good in a home with teenage kids or no kids at all. the owner that had him, their child tried to ride him, so, that s why they realized he had to be given up. he s for walking, not riding. reminds me, i need a shave, too. why would you share that? all right we re friends. let s bring all of our dogs out and remind people that these dogs are available, also, a lot of dogs at your local shelter, so give someone okay, no, no. be careful of miles. he likes richard, as always, thank you very much. we appreciate it jill, good to see you. and to find out more about these dogs you can go to our website at todayshow.com. these two might have to go together. this is today on nbc. love connection. harrison ford stars in a new movie opening today called extraordinary measures, but our gene shalit thinks that you should take extraordinary measures to avoid it. good morning, and welcome to the critic s corner. in extraordinary measures, failm loosely based on fact, an ordinary joe named john brendan frasier has two children who are doomed by the rare pompeii disease. in despair, he tracks down a scientist, dr. harrison ford, obsessed with finding a cure. now, the doctor s a grouchy occur munn john. get lost, he says, there s no money for research. john says, i ll raise the money. well, not all the money s in place, but it will be, and soon. he s bluffing. he couldn t raise dust in the desert! $500,000. are you totally insane? apparently. but through a merger, they get funded, and doc s experiments lead the way through the last days of pompeii. can t cure your kids, you know that. they re always going to be in wheelchairs, but i think i can save their lives. while ford is an actor of note, this time his note is flat. brendan frasier, he s in the wrong picture altogether. maybe he thought this was another mummy movie. uh-uh. this is mummy and daddy, and he s got nothing to chase but some enzyme. we push ourselves, we work around the clock. i already work around the clock! also present, but no gift, is carrie russell, wrapped in a nothing role. do we just accept our fate and do what we re told by all the well-meaning doctors or do we fight it? how odd that this medical movie suffers from hollywood s recurrent ancient ailment laborious tedeium. i will restrain him. amen to that. and that s the critic s corner for today. so, if you read in between the lines, i think he liked it. i really do. you know, every once in a while, it rubs him the wrong way. yeah. clearly rubbed him the wrong way. i feel so bad, though. that s all right. you know, if you re not going to a movie this weekend, you can stay home and watch the nfc and afc championship games, which i know you re going to do. the jets this weekend? why do you give me the look like i wouldn t the jets are playing the colts. and the colts and the san diego chargers? that was last week but didn t they win? no, no, the jets beat them. oh, the jets beat them. it s the saints versus the vikings. pull back. stop here. the vikings, the older guy. we are going to watch and we are going to talk football on monday. who s going to be playing in football? i say the vikings are playing who s the other team? the team that beat indianapolis. the jets. that s my pick for the super bowl. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i m jennifer franciotti. a lieutenant with the anne arundel county police department is in federal custody this morning and charged with a child pornography cry good 47-year-old james cifala is accused of extending sexually explicit texts with a 16-year-old girl and requesting and receiving explicit photographs of the juvenile. if convicted, he could spend five to 20 years behind bars. that s look to the forecast with tony pann. there is still a chance that we could see a light rain, sleet, or snow showers through the middle of the afternoon, at least. with temperatures above freezing, but the roads should stay ok. the high temperatures in the mid-to-upper-thirties. sunshine on saturday, up to 43. a good chance for rain late on sunday, sunday night, and monday morning. thank you for joining us. another update in 25 minutes.