Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100208 : vimarsana.com

good morning. how bout dat? the new orleans saints are winners over the indianapolis colts and they partied until the wee hours on bourbon street. here we go again. another storm takes aim at the east coast and we could see another foot of snow in areas that already received up to three feet over the weekend. and today exclusive. former sportscaster steve phillips speaks out for the first time. the affair with the young co-worker, how she terrorized his family when she broke things off. 45 days in sex rehab and the status of his marriage. he s telling his story in a live interview today, monday, february 8th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. you know, the city of new orleans no stranger to parties, but the big easy has rarely seen a celebration like the one that erupted after last night s super bowl victory. this was clearly a victory for a football team, but it was also a victory for a city and a region, a region that s had a very tough 4 1/2 years. and they were the sentimental favorite going into last night s game, but the colts were predicted to win, so, saints did a great job. both teams did. it was exciting. most importantly it was a really good game. a really, really good game. exciting game. you always want that in a super bowl. of course, the commercials, we have to talk about those. we ll break down the good and the bad, the downright unexpected, all coming up in just a couple minutes. by the way, we both stayed up to watch this thing in its entirety. we did, and ann as well. it s rare for a morning show team. anyway, also ahead, on a very different note, just how popular is the potentially deadly choking game among kids in the u.s.? coming up, some startling new information from a survey of teens and what one father who lost his son wants to say to parents who think my kid would never try it. also ahead, is sarah palin gearing up for a presidential run in 2012? she delivered a big speech on saturday at the national tea party convention, then raised a lot of eyebrows with something she said on sunday. we re going to talk about that, coming up. but let us begin on this monday morning with the new super bowl champions, the new orleans saints. how s that sound? nbc s hoda kotb, a form resident of the big easy, is in miami this morning. hoda, good morning to you. reporter: good morning it sounds really, really good. i m a little bit partisan. i don t know if you can tell. but i lived in new orleans for about six years it feels like home it was a terrific game. the colts ended up having a pretty good game, too, but in reality, it was all about the saints. and let me tell you something, it was a dream come true. they are the super bowl champions. reporter: a championship. 43 years in the making. even as the game s final moments unfolded, some still could not believe the saints were super bowl champs. for a while, it was touch-and-go. touchdown indianapolis! reporter: the saints trailed at halftime 10-6. it s okay. it s okay. onside kick. reporter: but stunned the colts with an onside kick to start the second half. they recovered the onside kick. reporter: opening the flood gates. he s in and the saints have taken the lead at the super bowl! reporter: when the colts powered back to take the lead and he s in for the touchdown. reporter: dir the saints wd not give up. and the touchdown. reporter: when the saints intercepted colts quarterback peyton manning in the game s final minute and tracy porter ran it back for a touchdown, the saints fate was sealed. the saints had a motto throughout the year finish strong. it saw them through the game, the season and through katrina. we just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe an entire country behind us. reporter: after the game, we talked to drew brees, the mvp quarterback who came to new orleans as a free agent four years ago, an active supporter of the city. how s it feel today? does it feel all right? unbelievable. reporter: really? incredible. reporter: is it the best? i know you were rooting for us. reporter: at one point, brees savored the moment with his son, wearing earphones to deafen the thundering noise, a moment that charmed the national tv audience. guys, that s what it s all about, drew brees with his son. reporter: moments earlier, we had been there when wife britney handed her son up to his father, a proud moment for the brees family. i m so proud of the whole team. the city of new orleans, it s so much fun. reporter: a team once called the aints, but no more. in the french quarter, a level of joy almost impossible to define. four years ago, a superdome in tatters, now the home of the super bowl champions. way to go! whoo-hoo! we love it! love it! reporter: it was pretty incredible. it was pretty incredible. and a great sportscaster friend of mine named jim henderson, and it was such a long-shot for the saints to win, but this was his line well, pigs have flown, hell has frozen over and the saints have won the super bowl. and guys, i have some parting gifts for you. lindsey, thank you. sarah, thank you. i got you your own drew brees shirt. that s for matt. meredith, you get some of these what? he gets a shirt and reporter: it was so much fun, you guys. i can t they re very nice. i m very happy with my gift. some are less appreciative. no, no, i m very appreciative, hoda. thank you very much. reporter: meredith, yours cost $2.15. well, thank you, hoda, for rubbing that in. that s nice. well, congratulations. yeah, congratulations. all right, we re going to get to the super bowl commercials coming up in just a little while. all right, but now to that powerful storm that blanketed parts of the east coast over the weekend. some places got as much as three feet of snow and another storm is on the way. nbc s tom costello lives in maryland and his neighborhood is only accessible by the biggest suvs. in fact, he joins us now by skype. tom, good morning to you. reporter: hi, meredith, good morning. we ve got 30 inches here in our yard, and down the street we haven t seen a snowplow yet. we have had throughout this entire region hundreds of people without power, without heat. and so, they ve been staying with neighbors, including us. the heat just started to come on for those folks overnight, but up and down the east coast, a lot of people have been doing an awful lot of heavy lifting. from washington, north to baltimore, all the way to new jersey. man, this is a nasty snow. reporter: digging out from snowmageddon has been an around-the-clock, herculean job. i worked i think 22 hours yesterday and i slept for 5 and i was back doing it again, and it s a lot of snow. reporter: with neighborhoods up and down the mid-atlantic buried in anywhere from two to three feet of snow even with the four-wheel-drive, i don t think it could get through. reporter: area schools are closed at least through tuesday, the federal government shut down today. a lot of snow. oh, my. reporter: and highway crews are triaging which roads get cleared first. we ve had plows on the smaller streets, but first we ve got to open up the biggest streets to be able to get to the next smaller streets, then the next ones. reporter: the storm has also left hundreds of thousands without heat or electricity, sending families to bunk with relatives, neighbors, even hotels and shelters. i ve never seen that without any airplane. reporter: by mid-afternoon sunday, the crews at baltimore s bwi airport had managed to clear most of the snow off the ramps and runways, while reagan national airport in washington looked like a ghost town with travelers waiting patiently for flights to resume later today. it s great. smaller crowds. reporter: but for some die-hard enthusiasts on the national mall, the snow provided a perfect backdrop for snow football and some cross-country skiing. the bad news, d.c. is in for even more of this on tuesday. it s going to be a mixed bag of almost every kind of winter weather coming our way. reporter: several more inches on the way. are you kidding? i ve had enough snow to last me the rest of my life. reporter: yeah, all of us have, i think. you know, the big question is how much this digout is going to cost, because a lot of state budgets were already stretched out, running deficits in many cases. they simply could not afford this kind of a massive digout, and now more snow, they say, is on the way. oh, joy. meredith, back to you. oh, joy, is right. tom costello, thanks. be careful with that snow shoveling, too. that snow is very heavy. no question. you ve got to be careful about that. al will check out now what s coming up next in the tuesday night-wednesday situation. sounds interesting, al. it sure does, matt. as you take a look, you can see on the radar we ve got some activity going now. this system is going to be getting itself together. a double-barrel low pressure system is going to get together and reform as one system off the mid-atlantic coast. snowfall amounts generally three to six inches, some areas picking up nine inches of snow. here s the path of this storm. it gets itself together this morning, works its way right now over texas and minnesota. the two systems merge and you can see that snow spread into indiana, ohio, on into new jersey, philadelphia, pennsylvania, on into new england with this storm, moving up the coast. more of a classic nor easter. here s what we ve got through wednesday morning as far as snowfall amounts. washington, d.c., we re talking to the west in parts of west virginia, 9 to 12 inches of snow, washington about another 5 to 8 inches of snow. this is going to make its way up the coast, and right now, new york is looking at about five to eight inches, and that extends up into new england by wednesday evening. so, the snow starts in new york late tomorrow night on into wednesday, but washington and the mid-atlantic, you re getting it tomorrow morning on through tomorrow night. matt? all right, al, thanks. we ll get your local forecast in just a couple of minutes. let s turn to politics now. as former vice presidential candidate sarah palin planning a run for president? over the weekend, she made it pretty clear she s considering it. nbc s andrea mitchell has more on that. andrea, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. well, she could be serious or she could just be leveraging her commercial and political clout. but sarah palin definitely opened the door to running for president. she s already a star attraction for conservative republicans. sunday in texas for governor rick perry. let s send a message to washington. let s get our country back. god bless you and god bless texas. reporter: and tea party supporters saturday night in nashville cheered her lacerating, sarcastic attack on president obama. now a year later, i ve got to ask those supporters of all that, how s that hopy-changy stuff working out for ya? reporter: now sarah palin s making it clear this could be the opening round of a race for the white house. speaking to fox news, where she s a paid commentator. i would if i believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the palin family, certainly, i would do so. i think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that i can potentially do to help our country. close a door that perhaps could be open for me in the future. reporter: in her red meat speech to tea party members, she took direct aim at the president, especially his anti-terror policies. to win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern. reporter: but while taking shots at president obama s speech-making this is about the people and it s bigger than any king or queen of a tea party and it s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter. reporter: palin was beyond using a handy crib sheet of her own. so, when she was asked her top priorities, she was ready. we have got to jump start these energy projects. reporter: so far, appearing with hosts who talk about president palin and friendly crowds who don t question her facts is working for her. that, plus a fox tv studio being built in her kitchen and controlled messages on facebook and twitter. i think it may be that sarah palin is the first made for social media president or presidential candidate. reporter: whether sarah palin is just increasing her lecture fees or seriously considering a run for the white house, democratic and republican leaders are sure paying attention. matt? all right, andrea. thanks very much. andrea mitchell in washington this morning. joe scarborough is a former republican congressman and host of msnbc s morning joe. hi, joe, good morning to you. hi. good to be here. so, let s talk about this speech here. critics have weighed in. they said it had a lot of conservative red meat in it but it was short on policy and solutions. here she was speaking to what to her is a friendly audience. how s this fit? right. the bottom line is she s a frontrunner right now, if you look at a lot of polls, for the gop nomination in 2012. so, everything she does takes on significance. what s interesting is, what s being said off the air. republicans are afraid of sarah palin right now. conservatives afraid of sarah palin right now. but behind the scenes, they re talking about how embarrassing her performance was and the press conference afterwards, not because of any crib notes, but just because she still doesn t seem to have a great deal of substance about her delivery. you say republicans are afraid of sarah palin. republicans have a right to be afraid of some of the people she was talking to also. got a guy like charlie crist down in florida in the political fight of his life against the tea party candidate, and so, when she says that she wants to see the republican party absorb as much of the tea party as possible, is that a reality? i don t know that that s a reality, and it s not a reality because the perot people in 1992, 1993, 1994, they didn t like the republican party any more than they liked the democratic party. these tea party people are very independent. they are conservative, they are small government types, a good chunk of them, but they are also a lot of people that are just as disillusioned with the republican party that supported big government over the past eight years as they are with barack obama, who supported big government over the past year. she talked about president obama, criticized him for his attempts at fighting the war on terror, specifically for the christmas day attempted bombing of that jetliner headed for detroit and the fact that the suspect on that plane was read his miranda rights as opposed to being held for a military tribunal. she said this treating this like a mere law enforcement matter places our country at great risk because that s not how radical islamic extremists are looking at this. they know we re at war, and to win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern. now, that received thunderous applause from the people in the room. right. how s that issue resonating outside? unbelievably well. you just heard the applause line of a lot of republican candidates moving forward. scott brown, the day after massachusetts we thought it was about health care reform, we thought it was about deficits. his own pollsters said, no. actually, terrorism was rating best. this is sarah palin s best line politically that, again, is going to be picked up by a lot of republican candidates and it s going to draw political blood out on the trail. quickly, on meet the press on sunday, john brennan, the white house counterterrorism chief, said that on the day, christmas day, when the arrest was made of this suspect, he briefed some top republican leaders in congress and none of them expressed any reservations or concerns about the way this suspect was being handling, so, are there some republicans who are now vulnerable on this? no, i don t think so. it does sound a lot, though, like nancy pelosi and dick cheney going back and forth about who said what and when they said it. john boehner came out, said that s not the truth. i think you re going to see the unfortunate specter of the continued politicalization of intel gathering, and it s bad when republicans do it, it s bad when democrats do it, but it s going to be a huge political issue this year. joe scarborough. joe, thanks very much. thank you very much. nice to have you here this morning. go back to work. i shall. joe will be going back across the street because morning joe airs weekdays starting at 6:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc. let s get a look at our other top stories from ann at the news desk. thanks a lot, matt. good morning, everybody. also in the news this morning, an investigation is under way into a massive explosion sunday at a power plant under construction in connecticut. at least five people were killed. nbc s ron allen s in middleton, connecticut, with more on the story. ron, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, ann. the blast was so powerful, it blew out windows and caused damage miles from here. the workers were testing the gas lines. search-and-rescue operations continued through the night. and this morning, officials say it s still unclear whether everyone is accounted for. the clean energy system power plant was going to be one of the biggest in new england until a gas explosion ripped through it. it was like a boom and a shake. reporter: people as far as 15 miles away say the concussion shook their windows and jolted their nerves. the whole house shook. reporter: an unknown number of workers from several different companies inside, perhaps as many as 50. relatives and co-workers converged on the plant, desperate for information. it s horrible, man. we got some people up there, they ve got little kids at home. we lost them. reporter: hospitals treated at least a dozen workers for injuries like broken bones. several of them were by report thrown 30 to 40 feet. reporter: the plant was almost complete, designed to generate electricity by burning natural gas for nearly 500,000 homes, starting this summer. however, it s now been devastated by a massive, deadly explosion. we go to work in the morning, you expect to go home to your family at the end of the day, and there are a whole lot of people out there for whom that s not going to happen. reporter: officials believe only a small number of workers was near the site of the blast because the work being done required the area to be evacuated for safety reasons. ann? all right, ron allen this morning. ron, thank you. toyota says it will now soon announce how it will deal with braking problems on some prius hybrids. the problems affect some 200,000 priuses sold in the u.s. and japan since may. a new study suggests that people who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer. some say sugar may be to blame, while others say it s unclear whether there is a proven link to pancreatic cancer. the shuttle endeavour lifted off this morning. it is carrying six astronauts as well as a new room and observance deck for the space station. let s go back to matt, meredith and al. maybe it s carrying mardi gras beads as well, new orleans. that s a room with a view they re carrying. that s going to be nice. ann, thank you. mr. roker, how are you do? unfortunately, good morning. we will get a chance to clear things out today. it will be quiet and cold. we would get some sunshine. high temperatures expected in the low 30 s. with the breeze, it will feel like the teens and 20s. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. there are now just four days to go until friday s opening ceremony of the 21st olympic winter games in vancouver. today national correspondent natalie morales is already there. natalie, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith, from vancouver. and this city, i can tell you, is already buzzing with activity and excitement is building as vancouver gets ready to welcome the world. this glistening city by the sea is getting some extra polish as vancouverites put the final touches on the biggest welcome effort the city has ever seen. flags raised in the athletes village represent more than 80 nations which will compete in these games. the reality finally hits, and flags going up is the icing on the cake. reporter: in a matter of days, this city of 2.2 million becomes a city of 3 million, and mayor gregoire robinson says vancouver is ready. it s been an exhaustive effort. we ve really brought canada s best to vancouver to make sure we re prepared on every front. reporter: from canada s borders to this working port city, security is tighter than most vancouverites are accustomed to. i arrived about an hour before the flight left. usually i arrive about 20 minutes. so it was quite a bit earlier. reporter: so far, officials say they have no immediate reason for concern. we have the resources, personnel and assets in place, should we need them. reporter: what is a concern is vancouver s unusually warm weather, one of the warmest on record, along with this city s normal bouts of winter rain, has wiped out snow at cypress mountain, just 30 minutes from downtown and the venue for snowboarding and freestyle skiing. but a contingency plan is in place. snow from the mountain s top has been lowered on to a base of hay to secure the location. just over my shoulder here, you can see the helicopters still dropping crates of hay and snow with less than a week to go before the games begin. these last-minute preparations will mean two less days of practice time for the athletes competing here. still, olympic committee members assure this venue will be ready in time for competition. while green on the slopes has been bad, green for the games has been good. vancouver is billing this olympics as the greenest yet. even the 2010 medals contain medal recycled from electronic waste like old cell phones. let s do luge reporter: if ticket sales are a measure of success, vancouver can start celebrating. a record number have been purchased, 1.6 million to date, in spite of one of the worst economic downturns in history. nearly every event is sold out. also selling out, the it item to have these games, canada red mittens. got my pair. the excitement and momentum here is built upon years of hard work. and this city is ready to enjoy its moment. so, just to let you all know the forecast here for the rest of the week, more mild weather as well as rain here. so, not such great news, although i am ready with my little red mittens, as you can see, guys. question is, is vancouver ready for you all? uh-oh. oh, well they don t have a choice, actually. yeah. i think so. have a good time. you leave today. i leave tonight. you ll be there tomorrow, doing the show tomorrow, yeah. i realized i probably packed all the wrong things. heavier clothes. great shopping in vancouver. don t worry about it you ll be fine. pick up that thong if you need it. you ll have to think about repacking. makes no sense. just makes no sense why you would go there. the weather, even the little speedo that you love. thanks very much. they will be there later in the week. i m headin live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. an interesting morning out there. let s look at the traffic with kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. folks are heeding our warnings and staying off the roads, because we don t have to much to talk about it, because the roads are not in great conditions out there. a tractor-trailer on jessup, closed between washington boulevard and nose down ave. and oceano ave. in sykesville, we accident at route 26, 32 as well. i ve tried times for you on the topside of the beltway, west side the beltway, 13 minutes. 95 southbound, 100, at 7 minutes. if the volume picks up, we will keep an eye on that. one lane is open here. westbound 58. disabled tractor-trailer turned over. wilkens ave on the west side is looking good, but the roads are wet. it is a cold start for us. the temperatures in the teens and there is a little bit of a breeze. single digits at times. there will be plenty of sunshine to start the day today. it will get a chance to melt off some of the snow. more snow is in the forecast. we ll take it one step at a time. high temperature around 33. it will feel like the teens and 20s for most of the day because of the breeze. snow will be likely again late and the day on tuesday and all day wednesday. several inches of the commission are likely with the next storm. you ll get another break thursday and friday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update, 7:55. 7:30 on this monday morning, february 8th, 2010. a happy, enthusiastic crowd gathered outside on the plaza after most of them probably watched last night s super bowl, along with us. i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. and just ahead, we re going to run through the best and worst commercials of the bunch, including this one, which featured dave, oprah, and yes, jay leno in a surprise ad for david letterman s show. i actually thought that was fake when i saw it. a lot of people did, but they actually got together in the same room. also ahead, an exclusive, live interview with steve phillips. he is the espn analyst who was fired last fall after he admitted to having an affair with a co-worker. when he ended that relationship, that woman showed up at his house and confronted his wife. he s here to talk about that and 45 days in sex rehab for the first time. we ll talk to steve in just a couple of minutes. plus, how many kids in this country have tried the so-called choking game? you ll be surprised when we reveal the results of a new survey, the first to specifically ask teens that question. we re also going to talk to a father whose son died trying to chaeking game. but before that, we want to get a check of the weather from al. al? hey, good morning, guys. i ve got to tell you, i ve never seen anything quite like this. so, what good morning, sir. where are you from? new york. i m a new yorker! you re from new york. that s right. i m from queens. hey, you know. we re new yorkers! this is the place! let s take a look. the week ahead, we ve got some rain and snow through the gulf and the snow up into the plain states. we ve got wet weather out west. midweek period we ve got some snow in the northeast, rain down into the southern texas, wet weather in the pacific northwest. and then the late week period, below-normal temperatures for the eastern third of the country on into the southwest, rain in the pacific northwest, more heavy rain through the gulf coast. what part of the weather should be nice and quiet on this monday. you get a chance to catch up to it will be cold, though bridge high of only 33 did with the breeze, whe that s your latest weather. and any time you need devour weather day or night, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you very much. the new orleans saints may have won the game, but what about the ads? here with a look at the best and worst super bowl commercials is donny deutsch, chairman of the advertising agency deutsch inc. hey, guys. we should mention that donny s agency produced two of this year s ads. donny, good morning to you. the two best, probably. overall, rate the ads this year. you know, they were ordinary, frankly. i think the overall theme for me, which i thought was strange and i know matt and i were talking about this i think there were ten ads with guys in their underwear. it was like men acting stupid. some back to back as well. for some reason, this was the year like, let s show the american male at his stupidest, acting goofy. there was an ad for dodge and there was an ad with men talking about their miserable lives. i don t know what it was in our society that this year, let s knock the guys. and i just want to clarify, we didn t talk a lot about this, okay? let s just get that straight, okay? go ahead. a lot of those ads also were negative toward women at the same time, so just men behaving badly. i don t know where it gets written where, let s on the super bowl do a lot of silly, slapsticky that s not what advertising is. and for some reason, advertisers think on this day they have to go for the laugh, even if it s a stupid ad. let s talk about the ads that did work. okay. the biggest surprise was the one that included letterman, leno and oprah. let s take a look at that and then we ll talk. this is the worst super bowl party ever. now, dave, be nice. he s just saying that because i m here. he s just saying that because i m here. see, i said before in the open, i thought that was fake. i thought somehow they had superimposed it works because it s unexpected. exactly. and it holds up to who we are. is there anything more a sign of the times than the late-night wars? for those two guys to go on together to kind of make fun of themselves truly shows both their iconic stature. just a stroke of genius, letterman, leno and oprah. it was letterman s idea and i guess leno came to the theater disguised somebody s thinking out there. you loved this one, too, the google parisian love ad. why do you think that resonates? j that was just simple, smart, of the brain. the opposite of what you were talking about before. exactly. they re simple, so simple, elegant, smart. this is an advertiser saying this is who we are. we re not going to behave differently on the super bowl. you go, this is where i use google. this was a brilliant piece of advertising. yeah, you remember that it is google. some of the ads you can t remember what it s for afterwards. and strategically, it s what the band delivers. it s not just a bit. and it does not assume the american public is stupid. it assumes intelligence on its viewers a viewers behalf and i wish more advertisers would do that. and babies and e-trade. let s look at one of those ads. so, yeah, sorry about last night. i just don t understand why you didn t call. well, i was on e-trade, diversifying my portfolio, taking control like a wolf. right. what s that? that s volatility in the market. taken care of, wolf style. ow, ow, ow! and that milk-a-holic lindsey wasn t over? lindsey? milk-a-what? build a diversified portfolio at e-trade. and for advertisers like e-trade, it s not even just about the commercial, it s about the internet use following this, right? yes. the focus group here everybody just laughed. that s simple, sweet humor and also the product. it says the product, this is a simple product. but i m a sucker, i have little kids at home. those are lovely ads. they really are. there s one that caught my attention for many reasons. we showed a piece before the super bowl and this is what i ll call the betty white ad. let s look at this one. tell me why you like this one. mike, what is your deal, man? oh, come on. you ve been riding me all day. mike, you re playing like betty white out there. that s not what your girlfriend said. baby, eat a snickers. better? better. that hurt. you re not you when you re hungry. snickers services. . how do you not like a ad with abe and tackled betty white? i won a match game with her in 1979, so i can t really be objective about that. but a brilliant ad. yeah, we like that. lovely, say. sometimes silly is okay when you re selling a candy bar. i thought a lot of the beer advertisers went too far in their silliness and i wish they would begin to celebrate the american male instead of idioify him, if you will. and the vw commercial was yours. full disclosure. wonderful ad. where did the idea come from? it s a punch buggy, going back to the early days of the beetle. you d see a beetle and you d punch it. it shows the full line of volkswagen with the little bit at the end with stevie wonder. why do you think this works, because of the nostalgia? i hathink a lot of ads that e great are cross-generational, that a mother or father can watch with the kids and explain. i was watching with a wide range of age audiences last night and everything across the board got it. i think the ones that plug into who we are as a culture are the best ads. donny deutsch, thank you just went by. ouch! geez. thank you, donny, so much. up next now we ll continue with the discussion. yeah, right. up next, steve phillips opens up for the first time about the affair with a co-worker that cost him his job and led him to sex rehab. we have an exclusive live interview. that s right after this. we re back at 7:42, and now the sex scandal that surfaced last october involving popular baseball analyst steve phillips. the married father of four was fired from espn after he admitted to an affair with a younger co-worker. phillips is just out of a clinic that treats sex addiction, here for an exclusive live interview. but first, nbc s jeff rossen. reporter: brooke hundley has surfaced in california, far, far away from the tabloid sex scandal she helped create back east, having a sexual trist with steve phillips, a high-profile baseball analyst for espn and former general manager of the new york mets, no slouch. he s married with four children and admits he had an affair with hundley. she was an espn production assistant. according to police reports, when phillips broke up with his mistress, she was hurt and texted his wife for revenge, saying i care about steve. i make him happy and we both can t have him. police say the other woman even drove to phillips house to confront his wife in person. phillips wife called 911 in a panic. wilton 911, what s your emergency? please hurry and come to [ bleep ]. i have a crazy woman who is involved with my husband and she has come to my house to harm me and my children. okay, ma am. is she outside? yes. she s pulling down my hill right now. she s in a blue prius. she just pulled past me. reporter: espn fired both steve phillips and brooke hundley, but now she has a new message for her ex-lover. i m sorry for him and his family. i m sorry for my family. i m sorry for everybody involved in this situation. i was 22. i made some mistakes. if i could take them back, i would, okay? reporter: with his life in ruin and his marriage on the rocks, steve phillips checked himself in to sex rehab, not just any sex rehab, the same facility at hattiesburg, mississippi, where tiger woods was reportedly treated. the facility that he attended is one of the premier facilities for the treatment of sex addiction in the country, but there can be no question about whether this was a move to appease his wife or is he a sex addict, because in order to be admitted to a program like this, you have to meet diagnostic criteria for the disorder of sexual addiction. reporter: steve phillips spent 45 days in virtual lockdown, away from the cameras and his family, but this morning he s out, and it appears his wife, who had filed for divorce, has allowed him back home, trying to work things out. for today, jeff rossen, nbc news, new york. and steve phillips joins us now exclusively. steve, good morning. good to have you here. good morning. with all that s happened with your family, with your career, with the sex treatment facility, you could have come out and you could have gone completely underground and i m just curious why you decided to talk to us? well, it was hard to watch that lead-in. that was sad. there s a lot of sadness there. i think i look at it and i think that what people need to understand, what i want to do is take ownership. i mean, i made some mistakes. and people look at sex addiction as an excuse. it s not an excuse. i m fully responsible for everything i did and accept responsibility for that. sex addiction is a diagnosis. it s what you recognize, the problem that you have where you have to try to go and get some help, which is what i did. jeff rossen just said there is a diagnostic criteria that has to be met. what is that? because people do think, for someone of high profile who gets caught in a scandal, this is kind of a modern-day get out of jail free card. what is the criteria? yeah. i recognized in august that i had a real problem, that i was a sex addict and i needed to get help. i started calling facilities in august well before everything blew up and really before there was a problem and i lost my job. i made a decision to get help on a friday before the sunday when i got fired. so i was going to go get help. i realized i had a problem and i needed to get help. i think it s a compulsion where you can t stop and you understand the consequences. the first step of the 12 steps is you re powerless over your addiction and in your life it gets unmanageable it wasn t anybody else. it was me. i couldn t stop myself from doing the things that i was doing, even knowing the consequences married, great job, great career, and i risked all of that, risked all of that to act out the way that i did. you said there s a lot of sadness in that piece when you watched it. when you listened to the phone call of your wife, the 911 call, where she s talking about brooke hundley coming to your house. we ve already said that she sent text messages to your wife. she actually contacted one of your sons online, pretending to be someone else and asked questions about your marriage. what goes through your mind when you hear those things? it s sad. i mean, i think about all my family s gone through. you know, when you talk about victims with all of this, people chose to participate in a relationship, but my wife and kids didn t. and with what my wife and kids have gone through and the trauma that they ve faced not only from having a father and a husband that s a sex addict, but the trauma of the incident, the trauma of the media attention afterwards and then me going away for 45 days, they ve been through a lot. you lost your job, but so did brooke hundley. she was young, 22 or 23 at the time, as she said in that piece, so she s a victim also. although you say she chose to be in the relationship. if you could talk to her first of all, have you spoken to her? no. what would you say to her? i don t think it would be appropriate. the way i look at it is that is all in the past. my focus is trying to move forward, trying to save my family. i m not wishing ill on anybody. i think everybody needs to move on with their lives and try to put the pieces back together. talk to me about the process at this clinic, gentle pass in mississippi. it has been reported that tiger woods is there as well. can you share any of what it s like? and in particular, what s it like for the week, i understand the spouse of the person treated is asked to come and be a part of the therapy is it. yeah, people who go there are broken people. that s really the essence of the addiction is you re broken inside and you ve got a hole that you tried to fill, whether it was with alcohol or drugs, sex or gambling, with whatever. and so, you ve got a lot of broken people there that are struggling to find answers. and really, that s what you do is you go there and they try to get to the basis of why did you do what you did, and for most addicts, whether it s alcohol or sex or whatever, it s that you have that hole inside based upon shame and trauma that you ve incurred from a childhood was there an ah hah moment for you during therapy? do you now have a better understanding and by the way, i should mention this is not the first time you ve gone to a clinic for that. so, clearly, the first time it didn t work. are you able to sit in front of me today and say you re healed, you re repaired, you re better able to deal with it? yeah. the first time, back in 98, you re referencing with the mets, when i had another scandal, i didn t go to a clinic. i just got some local therapy and really didn t get diagnosed properly. so, i tried to manage everything on my own. i didn t get in the system, didn t get in a program, didn t get the appropriate help that i needed it was my issue. i didn t realize it back then. i did get to the basis of my issue, that reality that when i made a mistake, it wasn t i made a mistake, i thought it was a mistake, that when i failed, i thought i was a failure, when i disappointed somebody, i internalized it that i am a disappointment. and that hole is something that i looked for some way to medicate and fill. and most addicts that i ve been around that s been a similar story. so, i ve gotten to the basis that i need to try to resolve those issues on my own. i have just a few seconds left, steve. the status of your marriage right now, you and marni, you re together? i m working my tail off to try to save my marriage. i ve broken my wife s heart and she s had to deal with so many issues trying to keep the family together. we went to therapy together and we re working hard to try to do that. i don t know what the ultimate result will be, because i ve damaged her and our relationship in a terrible way. i know it s not easy to sit here and talk about it. i appreciate you coming in this morning. thank you. steve, thanks. it s 49 minutes after the hour. we re back after this. still ahead, what to do as a parent if one child is overweight and the other is not. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. if you have got to go out today, you want to know what the roads are like. here is kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. things are not as bad as they could be paid things. folks staying off the rest of the most part. report of an accident in health corp. and lansdowne road and hammonds ferry road. in sykesville, an accident at abingdon, a disabled vehicle is blocking the right lane of their breed my icon disappeared, but that is there. davidsonville road, all morning, two lanes shut down because of a truck accident earlier this morning. this is going to be northbound 97 if you want to avoid the area. 95 in the white marsh area is looking good. some of the smaller roads could be partially covered and it could be slick out there. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. things are pretty quiet to start this week. that is going to change. for the time being, we have clear skies and temperatures are in the teens. be prepared to get a little breeze. the wind chill out drops down as to seven or eight degrees. it will be cold, with high temperatures in the low 30 s. the sunshine to do a little bit of work in melting the snow we already have to the snow will start again late in the day on tuesday and left last often not through wednesday. several more inches of accumulation. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back in 25 minutes for another live update. we re back now at 8:00 a monday morning. it s the 8th day of february, 2010. we did not get the major storm that a lot of people got over the weekend. just a dusting of snow. that s all right, meredith. we know you re out here. however, mr. roker says we could get a pretty good, a substantial storm this week. that s right, tomorrow night. out on the plaza, matt lauer along with meredith vieira and al roker. also ahead, they call it the choking game, but sadly, kids in the u.s. are finding out it is anything but a game. coming up, we re going to find out how many in this country have died, how many children, and also h1on what one father w lost his son says to parents who say my kid wouldn t do this. frightening story. it is. and later on, is there too much salt in your diet? a lot of us, i think the answer would be eyes. we re going to go over the four steps you need to follow to cut down on the salt and lead yourself to a healthier heart. all right, quickly, quiz question. how much do you think americans spend on pots and pans every year in this country? oh $300 no, total. collectively? collectively, jerks $400 million. $400 million. $6 billion industry. get out! yes. $6 billion industry. wow! don t hit me again like that. coming up, we ll tell you how to find the right pots and pans and how to take care of the ones you have, because they re expensive. that s amazing. all right, let s go inside first to ann, who s standing by at the news desk. all right, meredith, thanks so much. good morning, again, everybody. in the news, federal investigators arrived today at the site of the deadly power plant explosion in middleton, connecticut. the blast killed five workers and injured more than a dozen. officials say the explosion took place when the gas lines were being tested. in haiti, ten americans accused of child abduction and conspiracy go back to court today. we ve got nbc s kerry sanders with more now from port-au-prince in haiti. good morning, kerry. reporter: good morning, ann. every time the idaho ten go back to court, they hope that this is the end of their ordeal and their lawyer says he believes that possibly something may be worked out. visits to the jail holding the idaho ten were more strictly controlled sunday, this after a note scribbled on a piece of paper was passed from one of the missionaries to nbc news through the cell bars on saturday. the note, in part, says please, you must listen, we have no way to call. court will not let us have a say with anything about truth for us. complicating their battle, edwin koch, their defense attorney, has now been fired by the idaho ten over a dispute over fees. they re sleeping on the floor, there is no ventilation and you can feel the heat coming out of there. reporter: their lawyer from the dominican republic hopes for better news today but admits the biggest fear the ten face is the haitian court system. here, the accused are assumed guilty and must prove their innocence. we re meeting with the government officials and talking with them. everything is going very well. reporter: in meridian, idaho, sunday, at the central valley baptist church, parishioners prayed for their friends. though we do not know exactly what transpired in haiti, we know that we care for those that find themselves in this hour of need. reporter: there were two names that were not signed on there, laura silsby and her a e aide, carissa coulter. it says we re afraid. we connected laura s sister to ask about the division in the group and she said she had no idea how to respond. kerry sanders, thank you. toyota says it will make a decision soon how to deal with brake problems on prius cars. cnbc s phil lebeau is live with more on the troubles. is another toyota recall possible? reporter: it is possible, ann, and it may not be called formally a recall. it may be toyota saying, listen, we realize we ve got about 270,000 prius vehicles where the brakes need to be fixed. bring them in and we ll fix those brakes. so, it may not formally be called a recall, but we expect out of tokyo as well as here in the united states, some type of an announcement from toyota either today or tomorrow on how they re going to address this problem with the prius brakes. all right. phil lebeau this morning. phil, thanks. and as we ve been reporting this morning, it s a snow day today for federal workers in washington, where plows are clearing away more than two feet of weekend snow. the storm buried half a dodd mid-atlantic states and left thousands of homes without electricity. more snow is expected by mid-week. new orleans will hold a victory parade tomorrow to celebrate the city s first championship. the underdog defeated the indianapolis colts last night with quarterback drew brees named most valuable player. until the wee hours of the morning, new orleans french quarter swelled with crowds that rivaled those seen on mardi gras. those are some of the top stories at five minutes past the hour. let s now get a check of the weather from al. thanks a lot, ann. let s see, it s your sister ruby s 2nd birthday where s ruby? she left. 2-year-old and she just got the heck out of here! your sister cori s 13. you re cor snink you re 13. there we go. she s making her way through the crowd. there she is. there she is. oh, and she looks pretty happy about the whole thing. okay. let s check your weather, see what s going on. it s a wacky morning. san jose, nbc 11, partly sunny, 58 degrees. that s where you re from? all right, great! you can see we ve got some snow getting itself together down in memphis, all the way up to chicago, we re looking at snow. this system is going to reform, double-barrel low, minnesota into texas, reform along the mid-atlantic coast, bringing storms later today, i should say into tomorrow. sunny skies up and down t the weather should be nice and quiet on this monday. we will get a chance to catch up. mostly sunny skies. high temperatures in the low 30 s, with the breeze, it will feel like the 20 s. that s your latest weather. our station manager, leslie i just want to show, leslie almost looks like this lady here. don t they look kind of alike? separated at birthday. i like it, all right. why don t you button your coat? i m about to. come on. i m about to take it off, actually. i m about to. all right, mr. roker. when we come back, we re going to talk about a serious subject. it s called the choking game. how many kids are trying it? we re going to talk to a father who actually lost his son to it. it s a cautionary tale. special k protein shakes a truly great-tasting breakfast shake. with 10 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, it s the creamy, delicious way to satisfy. your hunger to help you lose weight. so you can kick the tin can habit. try special k protein shakes today. this is our plant. these are our workers. and this. is upper management. but what you won t find around here. is any freezing, flavoring or concentrating, which brings us to our end product. simply orange. honestly simple. ( hooting ) that s just the night watchman. i said, daddy, of course. he said, no, no, no. daddy doesn t count. you know, your valentine is who you want to sit by, who you get in trouble with, who you tell your secrets to, who you play with at recess. i said, well, that s daddy, too. this valentine s day, wouldn t your valentine. like to know how you feel? give them a refreshingly real card from hallmark. duh! [ female announcer ] quilted northern ultra plush is the only three-layered bath tissue with plush-quilts. it has two layers for softness and a third for absorbency. quilted northern ultra plush. experience three layers for yourself. our professionals hair care line. this feels great. very moisturized and shiny. - it shines like glass. - so soft. - smooth. i would definitely recommend this to my clients. then we revealed what was really in the bottle. it s suave professionals. suave, really? i m shocked. i didn t know suave could do that. top stylists were surprised. you will be, too. suave professionals. salon proven to work as well as salon brands. suave professionals. rethink salon hair. salon proven to work as well as salon brands. when it comes to constipation relief. miralax is the one. it s the one. the one recommended by more doctors. only miralax is clinically proven to relieve constipation with no harsh side effects. miralax is the only one. restore your body s natural rhythm with miralax. back at 8:11 with startling new information on the so-called choking game. we told you about it in the past. someone chokes themselves on purpose to temporarily pass out. new research shows that 30% of kids know someone who has done it. in a moment, we re going to talk to one dad whose son died because he tried it. but first, here s nbc s lee cowan. reporter: it has doctors stumped. by most accounts, he shouldn t be here. i m a rare case of people who survive. the kids who survive are vegetables, and didn t want to be that. reporter: this was levi three years ago, rushed to the hospital in a coma. his mother found him blue, cold to the touch with bruises around his neck. there was no life signs. reporter: he was dead? yes. reporter: miraculously, levi s brain didn t die. he came back. they were trying to tell me that i tried to commit suicide. and i was like, no, no, no, no. reporter: instead, levi admitted that he had been playing the choking game, more amply named suffocation roulette. players intentionally strangle themselves for what they describe as a very brief sense of euphoria. levi and his friends thought it was safe. he says, mom, it s just passing out. he goes, it s fainting. he says i ve never seen anybody faint that didn t get up. reporter: it can be a deadly misconception. i want to see my boy. i want to run my fingers through his hair. reporter: ken s 15-year-old son kevin played the choking game but lost. his 11-year-old sister found kevin in his bedroom. it was too late. there s a rope around his neck. i m going to try to untie it. okay. it s very tight. reporter: kevin s parents were like most, they had never heard of the choking game, despite the fact that most kids have. the cdc just conducted its first large-scale survey in oregon. 10,000 eighth graders were asked about the choking game and 36% said they had heard of it. 1 in 15 said they d tried it. we as parents owe it to other parents not to let them have to go through this. if it s in our power to stop it, we owe it to them to stop it. reporter: both he and levi s mom now travel the country talking to anyone who will listen, but they say there are two big reasons that some parents are reluctant to address the choking game. not my kids. they know better. two, if we tell them about it, then they ll do it. neither are true. reporter: so, how do you combat this thing? education. reporter: and that is their mission, to teach the lessons learned from one who lost and another who got a second chance, playing a game where there are no winners. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, wichita. and as you just saw, ken talk s son ken died from injuries he suffered while playing the choking game. good morning to you, ken. good morning, meredith. first time we met was just a few weeks after kevin s death. it s now been just over a year. how are you and your family doing, first off? we pray a lot. yeah. we re healing. we re healing as a family. you know, we stay tight, we stay close, we talk. we try our best to educate. we move, we go forward. and that s been your mission to get out there yes, ma am. and tell kids what this is about, for those who might not know about it. what kind of reactions have you been getting from teenagers? teenagers overall overwhelmingly support it. support it? yes. they want to know good information and they thank us every time we come for coming and telling them. and i ve had at every presentation somebody come up and tell us, i didn t know i ve done this, i didn t know what it did to me. thank you for coming today. i brought with me some e-mails today from sixth graders who say you need to come to our school every year because of what you came and talked to us about. now i know what to look for. and the kids, the kids know about it. it s the parents. it s the parents who don t. and you overwhelmingly hear this, well, if i tell my kid, they re going to go try it. and it s like, well, if you don t tell your kid, they re going to try it with bad information. if you want that kid to know what this is about, tell them the truth about it. what about the parents who say, as we just heard in that piece, lee s piece, well, not my kid, my kid wouldn t do that? we look at our children as we look at life. at our age, we know that this is dangerous, so we assume that they re going to know that it s dangerous, too. they don t have the life experience that we have. if you want your kid to make informed decisions, educate your child. make sure that your kid knows the truth about this. don t just make the assumption, my kid knows better. it s our fear of the unknown and our fear of this that causes inaction. i understand you put the choking game right up there with things like drugs and alcohol you bet. in terms of things children need to know about. yes, ma am, you bet. it needs to be classified with other risky behavior, you know, huffing and things like that, that it just all needs to be incorporated. it can kill them. they need to know the truth about it. so, what are the warning signs for parents who may not realize that their child is already involved in this so-called game? what should they look for? marks on the neck, as many specialists have said, blood-shot eyes, changes in their behavior, ropes, ties, belts, things in their room that they don t understand, kids getting moody and suddenly getting moody, grades suddenly dropping, wanting to stay in their room and not come out and disorientation. that s the only sign that i really had with kevin was that i noticed a couple of weeks before that there was times when he was disoriented that he shouldn t be. you had been talking about this, too. not knowing that it had a name. i talked to him about the kids that we had seen that we thought were committing suicide by hanging. and now we re wondering how many of those suicides weren t suicides, how many of those were this. and for the last 15 years, it s been very prolific through our society. how has this helped you to heal, going around, across the country talking to kids? having that kid come up to me and say thank you, i didn t know about this before you got here. when i stand before god and i stand before my son, i will not be trying to explain to them why i did not take advantage of the opportunities that he sent my way, why i stood idly by and did nothing. i m not going to do that. i want to know, i want to look my son in the eye and say you believed in me enough to open these doors. i believe in you enough to listen. and that s my goal, meredith. and there s so many parents out there just like me trying to do the same thing, and we re all in this together. we owe it to every parent to do what we can. ken, we appreciate you being here this morning. thank you. thank you very much, ken tork. we ll be right back. ladies, raise your spoons. now there s nothing left standing between you and a satisfying breakfast. introducing special k low-fat granola. with 50% less fat than the leading granola. and 5 grams of fiber per serving, it s a satisfying way to help you manage your weight. special k low-fat granola a taste of freedom. love to see kids spirits shine. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunnyd shine on sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. code orange. when the fever is high enough to be a code orange, you need children s motrin. the brand pediatricians recommend most. to bring high fever down fast. children s motrin. green beans. corn. corn. i really should make lists. [ female announcer ] people who spent $100 a week at leading national supermarkets on frequently purchased groceries could ve saved $275 in 5 months by shopping at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. cer: trying toy. live better. walmart. be good to your heart? so is campbell s healthy request soup. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you ll love. guy: mmmm! chef: we re kind of excited about it. announcer: campbell s healthy request. announcer: heart by the numbers today is brought to you by healthy request soups. mm-mmm good for your heart. and this morning, in honor of american heart month, we re kicking off a special series heart by the numbers today. this morning, the number one, as in heart disease, the number one cause of death in the united states. dr. arthur ageston is a preventive cardiologist in miami. dr. agetston, good morning. good morning. let s start with what we need to know, starting with salt. and we re not just talking about salt from the shaker, but salt that s already in our food. what s the main problem with consuming too much salt? well, salt is a major risk factor for high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke, and we ve been consuming more and more salt as a society. one teaspoon is 2,300 milligrams. that s about what we should be doing. we re consuming a lot more, like 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons. and we re getting a lot of this in processed food. that s where we re getting a lot of the salt. about 80% is in the processed fast food. that s what we have to reverse to get rid of it. all right. so, the recommended amount of salt per day is about 2,300 milligrams one teaspoon. and you re saying we re getting 3,400 milligrams. and so, what s the best way to make sure we re controlling the amount of salt in our diet? it s not counting the salt or getting rid of the salt shaker. it s getting rid of the processed fast food. we should be cooking more at home, more vegetables, fresh foods. you talk about salt being a cause of high blood pressure. let s talk about blood pressure right now. for a healthy individual, what is the appropriate blood pressure, or does it change for everybody? it s, overall, ideal is less than 120 over 80. the big problem we see is blood pressure has to be controlled over months and years, not in isolated blood pressure readings. people come to my office after they ve been stuck in traffic, they complain they have a headache. your blood pressure normally goes up when you have a headache. so, what s the best way to get an accurate reading if blood pressure rises and falls throughout the day? 120 over 80, and all the guidelines are based on when we re relaxed and quiet for a while, and it has to be several numbers over a period of time. i hear a lot about triglycerides, and i ll be quite honest with you, i m not quite sure what triglycerides are and why they re so important. well, triglycerides are a fat. it s the major form in which fat is stored in our body, excess calories under our skin, in our bellies, and triglycerides facilitate cholesterol getting into our vessel walls, clogging things up. and it particularly facilitates that after we eat. after we eat, the triglycerides shoot up, especially at risk for heart attack and stroke. so, when a lot of people take the fasting triglyceride levels, is that meaningless then? that s been the tradition. it s not meaningless, but we get a lot more information from non-fasting. all right. finally, let s talk about waist circumference. i hear a lot about bmi, body mass index. why is waist circumference so important? well, body mass index is a way to adjust over weight for our height. 1 150-pound 5-footer is heavy and it includes muscle and bone. it s the fat that s important, particularly our belly fat. that s where we get our risk from, and that s reflected by our waist circumference. 35 inches recommended for a woman, not above, and 40 for a live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a final check on the morning commute with kim dacey. things are not looking as bad as they could. looks like people are staying off the roadways out there. we have an accident at veterans highway. also dealing with the disabled tractor trailer at jessup. jessop the drive has been closed between washington boulevard and oceano ave, the truck stop there. 50 westbound, davidsonville road, what right lane is closed, two left lanes getting by. they have a disabled vehicle at the chesapeake bay bridge. we will give you a live look at 295 at 32. things are moving very slowly. 295 is the petite snow-covered at this point. use extra caution if you are out there. this is what some of the major roadways could look like. you can see that this plane is still closed. two lanes get by there. things are pretty quiet, but we have another storm system to talk about. it is going through the plains states, and will visit us on tuesday and wednesday did in the short term, between now and then, we will get to the break here. it will be cold, though. temperatures in the teens. wind chill in the single digits. forecast for today, sunshine this afternoon, high temperatures are around 33 degrees. with the breeze, it will feel like the teens and 20s for most of the day. seven-day forecast, a good chance for snow on tuesday night. several inches of accumulation likely with the next storm. we will have another update at 8:55. i recommend act fluoride mouthwash. act works with calcium to rebuild enamel. to avoid dental problems act daily. you can make a positive change in your career. you can make a greater contribution to the greater good. and you can start today, by earning your degree online. at walden university. where advanced degrees advance the quality of life. 8:30 now on this monday morning, february 8th, 2010. another happy crowd has found its way to a chilly rockefeller plaza. perhaps a few tired but happy saints fans in the bunch. if they are here, we are very happy to have them. just ahead, a tricky dilemma for a lot of parents. what do you do when one child is overweight and the others are not? do you favor one over the other? do you do separate meals? how s that work? hard to balance both food preparation and everyone s feelings. we have some expert advice, coming up. it s tricky. all right. also ahead, we told you that the pot-and-pan industry is a $6 billion business. do you really have to go out and spend a lot of money to get great pots and pans? then, if you do spend money, what do you do to protect them and make them last longer? we re going to have advice on that, coming up in a couple of minutes. and remember when you went to college, you used to joke about the basket weaving course? well, you won t believe some of the courses they re offering now like walking, the simpsons, garbage. what? i like the simpsons. well, we ll tell you about those classes later on. all right, okay. first, why don t you collect your papers. let s get a check of the weather, al. good idea. thank you so much. all right. let s see what s happening for today. we are looking at sunshine here in the east, rain in texas. that s part of a system that s going to be working its way to the east, bringing snow to the mid-atlantic states tomorrow. bad news for washington, we get snow here in the northeast later tomorrow night on into wednesday. mountain snows out west, rain in the central parts of california. the weather should be nice and quiet on this monday. you get a chance to catch up to it will be cold, though bridge high of only 33 did with the breeze, w and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. and up next, the best pots and pans for your money and how to make them last a lot longer. but first, this is today on [ sighs ] dreaming about the taste of chocolate? then hurry into dunkin donuts today. and satisfy that chocolate craving with any small latte, like our new white chocolate latte, for only 99 cents. america runs on dunkin . we re back now at 8:34. this morning on today s consumer, pots and fans. america spends $6 billion a year on cookware. so, how do you make sure you get the most fof your money? consumer correspondent and reader s digest contributor janice lieberman has answers on all this. janice, good morning. good to see you. good morning. we got all fired up about this subject, so we went to the experts for the 411 on cookware. from rachael ray to paula deen, nonstick pans and stainless steel, finding the right pots and pans and caring for them can be a shore. something like that. is it easy to clean? so-so. to find out what cookware is worth the dough, we visited jack bishop on the set of the popular cooking show america s test kitchen. give us an education on what the best pan is to buy. first thing you need to think about is the material. and the two factors about the material is going to be the conductivity. so, how it conducts the heat and the reactivity. does it react with the food? sorks elet me start with the cheapest and the heaviest. you might want to try to pick this one up. are you kidding? it s a cast iron skillet. it s really inexpensive. it conducts heat incredibly well, though you re going to cook something with acidic ingredients, tomato sauce, wine, it can pick up a metallic flavor. this is similar. also cast iron but coated with enamel. so it doesn t have the reactivity problems of a regular cast iron. so, you can cook anything in this. and this is lightweight, but kind of useless. this is the thing to avoid. lo alum numb conducts heat well. we love this because it s a clad pan, three layers of metal. stainless steel on the inside, on the outside, and then in the middle is the conductive aluminum. stainless steel doesn t conduct heat well, but it s easy to clean and doesn t react with food. the nonstick is what most of us go for. it s easy to clean and you use less fat. is it a great pot? it s great for eggs, great for fish, you know. food doesn t stick. the problem is the surface does not last. even if you take good care of your nonstick pans, we find after two or three years, the scratches are so bad that the food is sticking and really you ve got to get a new pan. if there are scratches, should you toss it? yeah. that coating is going to come off and end up in your food. then there are disc-bottom pans where it s stainless steel with the disc on the bottom. so that conducts the heat, but not as well. reporter: the result of cooking onions with a disc bottom and walking away for ten minutes yikes! right. we walked away. obviously, if we had been here stirring, we could have prevented the problem, but notice it s just cooked unevenly. reporter: compare that to the clad pan made with three levels of metal. nice, even coloring. the pieces are pretty much all the same color. but the best cookware is only as good as its last cleaning. so, let me know how you clean up really sticky messes. so, this is a sort of moderately dirty pan. i m going to show you a shortcut so you can do less scrubbing. so, i put the heat on, and i m going to throw some water on here, and what we re going to do is let the water come back to a boil and then we re going to sort of let the water lift the gunk off so we have less scrubbing. you can use a rubber spatula, if you want, a wooden spoon, and you notice reporter: it s all lifted completely. it s all lifted. basically, the boiling water did everything for us. reporter: great trick. even rusty cast iron pans can be saved with a little elbow grease and salt. this is a mess. don t tell me you re going to bring this back to life. i m going to put the heat on, sort of on a low setting, and i m going to use a little bit of oil, and then i m going to add a little bit of kosher salt and i will use the salt as an abrasive. and you can see the salt is beginning to turn brown, meaning that it s picking up the rust. reporter: that s amazing. it s lifting it. it s lifting it. and i m going to quickly rinse it and bring it back and show you what it looks like. and voila. reporter: it s almost completely lifted. it s almost completely clean. dry the pan while it s over sort of low heat and then and then g rub oil in to close the pores of the metal so it can t rust. reporter: fantastic. and the key to keeping your nonstick pots and pans in good shape is to store them correctly, matt. that s the big thing, so they don t scratch. and these are simple things you can do with paper plates and paper towels and bags. that s right. that s how you store it so they don t scratch and once they do scratch, toss them. but to make sure they do last longer is to use correct utensils. so use rubber only or plastic. a lot of people use the metal and it completely scratches them. and don t put them in the dishwasher, no pots and pans, which we learned, because that scratches. because it s so easy and people love the convenience of that. so, you see people do it all the time. yeah, not a good idea. cleaning, we saw that tip with salt and things like that, but when it comes to using everyday kitchen things like sponges, you ve got some suggestions. right. nor nonstick, use these soft pads, but he doesn t like steel wool. he says it s not necessary, they rust. get copper pads, and these are specific for bar keepers, he likes, and cameo, and that s what you should clean your pots with. now, if you have a really, really big mess on the bottom of your pot and it s terrible, take it out to the garage with rubber gloves and use paper, spray it with oven cleaner, leave it, come back and rinse it off, and voila, it s going to be now, this is for everyday. you have to be careful about this. you sure do. if you have young kids and stuff, you don t want this near them. a lot of people wonder whether they should buy a great set of pots and pans or whether they do better or it would be more economical to buy the things they need individually. what s your suggestion? they make it alluring because the prices are good for a big set, but you end up with a lot of little stuff you re never going to use. you d be better off buying a few essentials. this is all clad, but any kind of clad they love. and this is a good size to get. you need one good nonstick that you re going to take care of, but really take care of it. and a sauce pan, also he likes the clad. and this is enamel, but inside it s going to wipe off really nicely. so, this is a crock-pot, stock pot, and you can use that, too. so, don t go out and, according to you, buy the big, big set. just get exactly what you need. you ll be better off. janice lieberman, good information, as always. thank you very much. up next, should you have separate rules for eating for your children if one child is overweight and the other isn t? a couple experts will weigh in on that. but first, this is today on nbc. back at 8:43. this morning on take it off today, two sisters, two different body types. more than 12 million children in the u.s. are overweight, so how do you parent two siblings with two different diets? here s nbc s jeff rossen. reporter: two sisters living under one roof. advan vanessa is 12 years old, thin, and this is her sister, 11-year-old tiffany, overweight and struggling with it. when you look in the mirror, what do you see? well, when i look at my face, i see beauty, but when i look at my stomach, i see, i don t know, i just i think the beauty goes away. reporter: the sisters are close but just under the surface there s the issue that overshadows everything. one s thin, one s chubby. reporter: tanya fellis and her husband raise the girls the best way they can. i give in a lot. i don t want to, but i do. i give in a lot. reporter: every day is a struggle. so, there are two sets of rules. like there s 100-calorie snack for one. the other one can have the regular snack. reporter: so, this is a mental game. yeah, i have a hard time. since i don t want vanessa to have it because tiffany will feel bad, but then be if i say no to vanessa, vanessa will feel bad. so, i m battling in my mind, how do i do this? who gets what is th? hi, welcome! reporter: so, they found a family doctor to help tiffany lose weight. tiffany can absolutely lose the weight. this is not a hopeless case. reporter: okay, so, let s fast forward. it s been nine months since we first met tiffany. we just went back to check in, and wow! i m much more confident about myself now. reporter: she looks amazing! it took six months to lose 30 pounds. reporter: and tiffany s determined to lose even more with the help of her family supporting her every step of the way. tiffany s family really stepped up to the plate. they made changes, they kept healthy foods in the house. they encouraged her to exercise. they did everything right. ever since we started this diet, the whole house became so much healthier. i ve been getting a lot of compliments from everybody. i would never want to go back to being 143 pounds. reporter: a new look, a new tiffany, healthier and happier than ever. for today, jeff rossen, nbc news, new york. first of all, tiffany, you look great, kiddo. congratulations. but what do you do if you have a similar situation in your house? ruth peters is a today contributor and clinical psychologist. joy bauer is a today contributor and registered dietician and nutritionist. good morning to you both. good morning, meredith. good morning. you know, weight issues in children, it s such a sensitive area. when is it appropriate to first broach this with a child, at what age? well, i think if you start it where you re not even talking about weight, you re talking about health and nutrition and it s a family ethic, you don t even have to use the weight word because naturally, you know, if you re eating right and getting a lot of exercise, it won t become an issue. just avoid that word and talk more generally in terms of good health? exactly. and what will naturally happen, because the kids are under your control most of the day, except for those few hours at school, then the children will be healthy, there won t be a weight issue, and it s not a real problem. you know, joy, in this piece, the mom said i have two sets of rules, one for my daughter who s, you know, average weight or thin, and the other one for the daughter who s overweight. you re already saying not a good idea. no, not a good idea. and clearly, it unfair and it s destructive if one kid is snacking on baby carrots, the other kid is munching on chocolate chip cookies. you really need as a parent to institute one consistent health message throughout the entire house. and at the end, everybody wins, because the whole family is closer, they re healthier, and by default, it helps with weight management if you have an overweight child. and i think that parents need to be comfortable and confident knowing that nobody needs junk, skinny kids or overweight kids. there s also, you know, the two girls jeff made the point in the piece that they get along, they re close, but underlying this issue exists and resentment can build up, can t it? it can in any pairs. when witnee sat down for this segment, i said how come joy gets to sit near meredith? when you have two kids, let s say one child has a math difficulty and they need extra tutoring. so they re resentful that the other kid gets to play. and the other kid is saying you re spending all this money on tutoring, not about me. so every kid is different and parenting, you have to have the guts to give every child what they individually need. and as a parent, you don t want to single one out. like she was saying, i don t want vanessa to feel bad or the other one to feel bad, tiffany. and that s why it s so important to have an overall health message within the family. young kids eat about 50% of their food within the home. so, you ideally want to keep the good foods in and the unhealthy foods out of the house. you also want to be strategic with dinners. for example, starch can be a big issue. only make one serving per person so that when they want more, when the skinny child or the overweight child wants more, there is no more. there s more vegetables, there s more lean protein, but there s not more starch. so, there s less fighting, less resentment. and when should you seek professional help? okay, when you feel that you have not been successful as a family to do this, as the child is having more down moments than happy moments, you see their self-esteem is having issues, there may be significant resentment. sometimes the kid needs to talk to somebody other than mom. you may be saying, parenting the same exact words, but it s not mom. it s not coming out of mom s mouth. and if you need a local nutritionists, the american d t dietetic associate has a website, eatright.org, you put in your zip code and you get a person that is good with kids, good with families and can really help you. all right. good information. joy bauer, thank you so much. ruth peters, as always, thank you so much as well. up next, the history of shopping, the joy of garbage. college courses you won t believe. you know, higher education has come a long way from the three rs. today colleges are offering all kinds of classes, many you probably won t believe. today national correspondent jenna wolfe is here to explain that. jenna, how bad are these? it s not bad, it s good. okay. it depends how much you re into education. when i think back to college, i remember taking psych 101, english lit, maybe biology. and while universities still require those core classes, what we used to come to know as liberal arts now has a much wider definition. i wished there was some way that we could get out of school today. me, too. me, too, neither. reporter: do you remember taking algebra back in school and wondering when am i ever going to use this in real life? wouldn t it have been much more fun studying sports or cooking or tv, like family ties ? well, now you can, as universities across the country have begun offering practical courses. key word there being practical. at center college in kentucky, they offer a course called the art of walking, where students learn about nature while burning off a few calories at the same time. you like tv? well, at cal berkeley the simpsons they ve got a seminar called simpsons and philosophy. this is a chance for me to fulfill my lifelong dream. reporter: yeah, that simpson. where you actually write an episode for your final exam. uh, let s watch something else. reporter: even yale, an ivy league school, has added a few trendy classes to their curriculum, such as the history of shopping. sign me up. or the culture of things. talk about a broad topic. we caught up with yale professor shelley kagan, who teaches one of the more popular courses on campus called death. i took both life and death. reporter: yes, he also teaches life, just in case you were wondering. a course in death or a course in life sort of has sort of like a cache ring to it. it s not like this is an attempt to tell you here s what life is. the real idea of the class was to look at some of the decisions that people make as they go through life. reporter: just how popular is death? i mean, the course, not the act. the yale daily claimed it was the third largest class last semester on campus. reporter: santa clara university has a class called the joy of garbage, which is more than just putting your waste in the appropriate bin. here in new york city, barnard college students are just getting started on a new class called revenge. and i ll bet you won t find a single red sox fan in this class at rutgers university called yankee stadium. my dad asked me what i registered for and i told him my classing, writing and yankee stadium. and he looked at me and was like, are you kidding? reporter: want to sign up for this one? you d be 1 of 200 students vying for only 20 slots. that s called popular. it s the most popular class in the first-year seminar catalog, i ve been told. reporter: is everybody that signs up for this class a yankees fan? absolutely. yes. yes, of course. i m a huge yankee fan. i was in diapers watching the yankees. we had a phillies fan, yes. reporter: better than a red sox fan. well, we haven t had a red sox fan yet. i don t think they would come. reporter: a class about the yankees may seem like a no-brainer if you re interested in sports management, but discussions have ranged from business to sociology to philanthropy. and, yeah, also the captain of the baseball team. if i told you that jeter is actually here today and is going to come in and speak to you, you don t that doesn t affect you at all because you don t really care because you know it s just about the stadium, right? i wouldn t go that far. reporter: they do think the class is about derek jeter. i scored! i got to the bottom. tell derek he doesn t have to come. no, they don t care. all right, i ll admit some of these courses were offered back when i was in school, i might have actually stayed for an advanced degree. in what, i have no idea, but an advanced degree in something. what s the weirdest class that you took in school? that i took in school? i think still back when i was in class, they were fairly normal courses. sky diving did you take a sky diving course? bowling. i loved it it was good. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. as crews continue to clear the roads, many residents are still stuck at home digging out their cars and sidewalks and driveways. a reminder you must clear a significant space around her mailbox for mail carriers. baltimore city is canceled trash collection through friday. as for baltimore county, trash and recycling has been cancelled for today. residents are asked to hold everything until next monday. we will of the latest conditions on 11 news and new. now let s look the forecast with tony pann. a quiet and cold start for us this morning day. mostly sunny is our forecast. high temperatures this afternoon will be in the low 30 s. because the breeze it will feel like the teens and 20s. snow is likely again starting late in the day on tuesday, tuesday night, and during the day on wednesday. several inches of the commission is possible with the next storm. it will dry out thursday and friday. another update at 9:25.