Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100401 : vimarsana.com

new evacuations, new concerns, historic flooding in the northeast shuts down parts of i-95, the main highway between new york and boston. bridges washed out, this one in rhode island on the verge of collapse. that s billion, with a b. a new report finds the top 25 hedge fund managers each raked in an average of $1 billion last year while the economy suffered. this morning in an exclusive interview, treasury secretary tim geithner speaks out about america s frustration and when he thinks some of those lost jobs will be coming back. and, oops. a batter hits a foul ball into the stands, and guess who he hits? his own mother. she s okay, but you won t believe why she s still mad at her son today, thursday, april 1st, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a thursday morning. i m matt lauer. i m ann curry in for meredith this morning. happy april fools day. i got my eyes on you. pictures are really dramatic from the flooding. it will be weeks before things start getting back to any sense of normalcy. new evacuations were ordered on wednesday, those in parts of massachusetts and rhode island. several bridges were washed out by the rising floodwaters, and this morning, this one is on the verge of collapse. we ll get a live report on that tense situation straight ahead. also ahead this morning, learning more about the severity of the bullying endured by 15-year-old phoebe prince. she committed suicide after suffering months of torment allegedly at the hands of nine classmates at her massachusetts high school. they re now charged in connection with her death. some of those teens were apparently known around school as the mean girls. this morning one of phoebe prince s best friends speaks out in an exclusive live interview about the situation. on a much lighter note, what if you could enjoy your favored coffees and treats without ever having to worry about the fat content or the calories? coming up, we ll sample the world s first breathable food. we ll get to that in a little while. right now let s get a check of the top stories of the morning. tamron hall of msnbc is at news desk. good morning, everyone. parts of new england are still coping with what is now being called the worst flooding in 200 years. homeland security secretary janet napolitano plans to travel to hard-hit rhode island tomorrow to assess the damage. the weather channel s julie martin is in coventry, rhode island. julie, good morning. reporter: good morning, tamron. while the floodwaters are receding, the problems are not. in fact, we have closed roadways, contaminated water, and compromised structures. let me show you one of them. this bridge in coventry. officials tell us the pawtuxet river has already washed away part of its foundation and they are pretty certain it will go. it s already buckled in the center. while it may not look that dire, the situation is downstream. in fact, yesterday they had to evacuate 170 residents. they also fear that if this structure goes, it will impact two dams downstream. so widespread effects. keeping a very careful eye on this. the national guard has actually positioned rocks all around this area to put in the water should it give way. i want to take you to some other flooded areas throughout the region here. the warwick mall was one of them. that mall is still underwater as we speak. a mall security guard there had to be rescued yesterday. that entire region, by the way, is just inundated with floodwaters from the pawtuxet. then also the waste water treatment plant in this area, a big problem. in fact, residents here are being advised not to use as much drinking water as they only what they need to, rather, and just keep an eye on things over the next couple of days. i-95 as well. transportation problems, probably the biggest impact in this region as we speak. parts of i-95 still underwater this morning. could be today, could be tomorrow before that is remedied. so in terms of transportation here, an absolute nightmare throughout the state of rhode island. one of the good things, tamron, the forecast looks much better, however. we re going to be warming up and drying out, but again the effects of this flood could be lingering on here for days, if not weeks. julie, thank you very much. today at the vatican, pope benedict celebrated holy thursday mass. meantime, a spokesman says the pope views the priest sex abuse scandals as a test for him and for the church. today the obama administration is setting tough new fuel standards for cars and trucks aimed at getting more miles per gallon from future gas and electric hybrids. the new goal, a combined 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. this is census day, the day the census bureau hopes americans will mail back their completed forms. officials say 52% of people in the united states have already sent in their census forms. the white house released this picture of the president filling out the form for the first family. for the second year in a row, first lady michelle obama planted a vegetable garden at the white house wednesday with the heaven students from a local elementary school. she said food from last year s garden fed many people and started a national conversation about eating healthy. a scare in australia during the night for passengers on a quantas a-380 super jumbo jet, the biggest passenger jet in the world. the plane blew two tires on landing in sydney sending a shower of sparks down the runway. thankfully, no one was hurt. and it was no april fool s joke. but a chinese army recruit s first grenade throw was almost his last. the grenade bounced off the wall of this bunker and it landed at his feet. his trainer carried him to safety right before it exploded. the recruit later said his mind went blank and he thought it was all over. i bet he did. 7:06. that is unbelievable. he s got to thank that trainer for the rest of his life. matt, ann and bill, isn t that incredible? incredible stuff. really is. put that picture back up of the president. that s the same picture they released when he filled out his ncaa bracket. that didn t go very well either. you got to wonder. al s on vacation, bill karins is in with a look at spring fever is in full effect across maryland. first day of april, plenty of sunshine. mid to upper 70 s. winds are not going to be a factor. very light and out of that s your thursday forecast. matt? bill, thank you very much. so how is the state of the u.s. economy in the wake of the worst recession since the great depression? we sat down for an exclusive interview with treasury secretary tim geithner in pittsburgh on wednesday where he was meeting with local business and labor leaders. we began our conversation with the big issue on the minds of many americans unemployment. everybody wants to talk about jobs and the numbers are coming out on friday. right now, 9.7%. that s where it stands. it s been stubborn. do you see any real sign that there s going to be progress in the unemployment number? i think the key thing that s going to happen is the economy s going to start creating jobs again. you ll start to see businesses across the country start to add to payroll again. that s going to come the economy s growing now. that s the first step. but with growth, more jobs will come. but the unemployment rate is still terribly high and it is going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. it is going to take a long time to bring it down because of the damage of the recession. you took some heat on capitol hill recently. an ohio democratic representative looked at you and said i don t think you re talking enough about jobs and that s what my people, my constituents, want in my community. when you say that the economy s going to start to create jobs, why hasn t it created jobs to this point? just because this was the worst economic crisis since the great depression. huge amount of damage done to businesses, families across the country. we re going to be living with that damage for some time. just going to take us a while to heal that damage. but look at what the president did. he came in and did the largest, most forceful package of support for the economy we had considered doing in 50 years and he moved very aggressively to fix what was broken. but as you know, i spoke to the president just a couple of days ago. when you bring up the prospect of a jobless recovery, he does not discount it. he doesn t say, no, it definitely won t happen. he s worried that some of these jobs that we ve lost over the last couple years may never come back. we re all very worried that it is going to take time. it is going to take time to bring back what we lost. but again, that s why he s working so hard to make sure that congress is providing additional support for job creation, more support for small business, more support for infrastructure, more support for cities and states across the country. here s what you said to the new yorker magazine, my basic view is that we did a pretty successful job of putting out a severe financial crisis and avoiding a great depression. we saved the economy but we kind of lost the public doing it. what do you mean, you lost the public? as the president said many times, we had to do some very unpopular things. people looked at what had happened, they saw people in the financial community having made terrible mistakes that caused millions of lost jobs, millions of lost homes. but to help them to protect them from the damage, we had to come in and do things that were going to help those banks, help those companies. but if we hadn t done that, matt, if we hadn t done that, you would have seen millions more jobs lost and hundreds of thousands of more companies having to shut their doors. that is the basic sense of unfairness which is driving so much anger and frustration across the country. and you understand that anger and frustration. absolutely. when someone s out there and haven t gotten the job that they lost two years ago, and they get the feeling that business on wall street has returned to normal, and the executives are getting big bonuses again, and they still can t pay for their mortgage or are underwater, they say where is the fairness in this? it is not fair. it is deeply unfair and they should be angry about it. but again, what was the choice the president had to make? he had to decide whether he was going to act to fix it or stand back, because it would be might be more popular not to have to do that kind of stuff, and that would have been calamitous for the american economy. much worse than what we went through already. you re saying the president made the right choices to stop the bleeding at the time. now some are worried the right choices aren t being made to prevent the problem from happening again. when they look at financial reform that s working for the senate right now, they say one of the major components that s missing in this, secretary geithner, is the prevention of this too big to fail scenario. that s not missing. that s at the center of the but do you think it will have enough teeth, that it will absolutely prevent companies and banks from getting to the point where the government has to step in to bail them out? the president s not going to sign a bill, doesn t have strong enough teeth. again the key things financial reform has to do, it has to give consumers, families and businesses basic protections against fraud, people who want to buy a new home, send their kids to college, buy a car, borrow to finance a health care expenditure, we provide basic protections for them so they don t get taken advantage of. let me go back to wall street for a second and these bonuses which is such an emotional hot-button issue. michael lewis said recently, he called them a very elegant form of theft. would you agree with that? what happened in our country should never happen again. people were paid for taking enormous risks. if those risks turned out well, they made a lot of money. if they turned out that they lost money, they were not exposed to loss. it was a crazy way to run a financial system and it helped contribute to the kind of excess risk taking that you saw across the country. and it is the government s job this is a job for governments to do a better job of constraining that kind of risk taking. and for somebody in pittsburgh here who s struggling to make ends meet and they find out that the banks can borrow money at 0%, then the bank turns around and charges them 26% on their credit card, they say what s up with this? this system was not good for consumers, for the average american. so many of them got taken advantage of. but it wasn t good for businesses either. the key test of a financial system is do we do a good job of taking the savings of americans and using those savings to finance growing companies. that s the key test. and this system was not good for business because it was subject to these big booms and busts. they took a bunch of resources and put them into real estate rather than productive companies. that s why reforms are so important. treasury secretary tim geithner. 7:13. there is new evidence of that extreme excess on wall street. a new rich list highlighting a record year for a select few who made billions as the economy struggled in 2009. here s nbc s senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. reporter: they are the whales of wall street. hedge fund managers operate with few rules and handle investments for the super rich. while 2009 was a tough year for millions of americans, ar magazine reports that the recession was over early for hedge fund managers who had a record year. get this the top 25 managers made over $25 billion. profits driven, at least in part, by the government s bailout of big banks. they saw that the government was not going to let most of these big banks fail, and they went and bought the stocks at very low levels, and they those stocks just continued to go up all year long. reporter: at the top of the heap david teper, who earned a staggering $4 billion. tepper was the bravest of the hedge fund managers. he was willing to go in at the bottom and say, i don t think armageddon is around the corner. reporter: tepper is not your stereotypical master of the universe. he s lived in this new jersey home for 20 years and appears to have no vacation homes. he says he plans to spend less time in the office this year. he likes to call himself the typical middle class guy that makes billions of dollars. reporter: also in the top five, george soros, ranked the 35th richest man in the world at $3.3 billion. james simons, a mathematician, $2.5 billion. john paulson, $2.3 billion. which makes the $41 million he paid for this estate in the hamptons a couple of years ago seem like chump change. at number five, stephen cohen, $1.4 billion. he is the quintessential living-large hedge fund manager with his mansion in greenwich, his amazing art collection. reporter: a 35,000-square-foot mansion with an indoor pool, an outdoor ice rink, and an extra garage for the zamboni. not long ago cohen got permission to expand the house, in part to add to his dressing room. as for his art, cohen recently snapped up an early version of jasper john s signature flag painting for an estimated $110 million. conspicuous consumption in a banner year for the heavyweights of wall street. for today, lisa myers, nbc news, washington. it is now 7:16. once again, here s matt. ann, thank you. now to secret files kept on thousands of alleged molesters by the boy scouts of america. records that are now at the center of a $25 million lawsuit tied to sexual abuse. as nbc s lee cowan explains, one former scout says they are proof that the organization could, and should, have done more to protect boys all across the country. reporter: in court, he s referred to as jack dough number four. testifying about his time as an 11-year-old boy scout back in the early 80s which he says was anything but a character-building experience. he grabbed my hand and slid it up his leg, into his shorts. reporter: he s talking about his former scout leader, a convicted child molester who admitted to abusing other boy scouts in the past. the boy scouts started realizing soon after they were formed in 1910 that they had a problem with guys getting into scouting that should not be working with kids. reporter: over the years, confidential memos the boy scouts of america dubbed the perversion files began piling up. thousands of pages documenting thousands of alleged molesters the organization had hoped to track to keep out of scouting. what they were hoping for was what everybody hoped for especially in the 70s and 80s was to get the molester to go away and hope nobody talked about it. boy scout something one of the few institutions to balance the rather softening effect of our modern way of life. reporter: the boy scouts of america turned 100 this year, and since its inception has been known for teaching young boys to always be prepared. but for victims of abuse, like paul livingston, molested by a catholic priest, secrecy is no badge of honor. when you hide files, you protect perpetrators, you re as guilty as the rest. it shouldn t be done. it shouldn t be a practice in any large corporation. reporter: the boy scouts of america are fighting the $14 million lawsuit, but a spokesman says he couldn t comment because the case is ongoing. still, in a videotaped statement, he insists that parents should not call the organization s integrity into question. i do want to assure you that the safety of our youth members is our highest priority. reporter: but with so many pages detailing so much perversion, as it calls it, the boy scouts of america may have to convince a jury that it didn t know the extent of the problem. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. 7:19. once again, here s ann. there are gruesome new details this morning on that deadly killer whale attack at seaworld. the medical examiner has now made the autopsy public. here s nbc s kerry sanders. reporter: the autopsy confirms that it was an incredibly brutal attack that killed 40-year-old dawn brancheau, a combination of blunt force trauma and drowning. this six-page report describes a bruised and battered body, the details sometimes gruesome. the report says brancheau s scalp was peeled off, her left arm severed, and her ribs broken. the 12,000-pound orca tilikum simply overpowered his trainer. the whale essentially grabbed hold of the hair an the scalp and just by the movement of the whale caused the skin to tear away from the underlying bone. reporter: medical examiner dan spitz has done hundreds of autopsies. at nbc news request, he reviewed dawn brancheau s autopsy and says she didn t have a chance. had she been able to have been pulled from the whale early on, she did sustain severe injuries and even with fairly immediate medical intervention, it would be difficult for her to survive. reporter: seaworld has surveillance tape of the february 24th attack. but brancheau s husband, brother, and mother are fighting its release, taking their battle to court last week. the orange county circuit court judge has issued an injunction blocking the release of the tape for now. meanwhile, tilikum is still living in a seaworld tank, no longer performing. but what caused this orca to go after his trainer? they are trained by cues, like hand signals. so it s possible that they misread a hand signal from the trainer. reporter: we might never know the real reason, but the conclusion of the autopsy, this brutal death has been labeled an accidental death. for today, kerry sanders, nbc news. just ahead, classmates call them the mean girls. new details on the teens charged with bullying 15-year-old phoebe prince so badly that she committed suicide. an exclusive live dude, your shirt. oh, i did it to let the ladies know, i m 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(announcer) general mills is the only leading cereal company to put healthy whole grain in every box. the choice has never been easier. for whole grain guaranteed, just look for the white check. back now at 7:23 with a frightening moment during wednesday s spring training game between the yankees and the minnesota twins. that s derek spann at the plate, fouling off a pitch into the left field bleachers. it hits a woman in the chest. he looks over and runs there because he realizes it hit his mom in the chest. you know what? she fell over and started crying. he said that was the worst thing. he ran to her and he noticed that she was crying. he said that hurt him more than anything. she stayed there and she was more mad that he actually left the game than she got hit. she s fine. so when the time comes to bust open a can of doing. we ve got all the tools for all the things we need to make em happen. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, get scotts nature scapes mulch for the new lower price of just $3.88. to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there s new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. have you tried honey bunches of oats yet? every spoonful is a little different. mmm. they got three kinds of flakes. this is delicious. it s the perfect combination of sweet and crispy. i love it. this is so good. this is great. the magic s in the mix. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. a few normal delays developing around the area. we have accidents to talk about. in parkton this morning at york road, we have an accident. police may have to block a lane of york road to clear it up completely. we re looking at a couple problem spots. at franklin, a fire location. in terms of delays developing, we can see them on southbound 95. 27 on the northeast outer loop at harford road. nothing major on the j.f.x., 60 miles per hour. 14 minutes is your drive time on the out of west side. 11 minutes and in other from the j.f.x. towards i-95. in the demands on the inner loop from j.f.x. towards i-95. if you are heading out this morning in the area of the beltway, baltimore national pike looking good here. this is with the delay starts to empty out. sandra has more on the forecast. we are in store for a lovely first day of april. temperatures are pretty varied. 52 downtown. across the board, heading up to the seven is across the state today. in baltimore, 75 to 77 degrees. tonight, clear and cool. tomorrow, 80. 81 on saturday as we go into easter sunday, variably cloudy conditions. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update, 25 minutes away. 7:30 now on a thursday morning, the 1st day of april, 2010. it is a beautiful day, or going to be, here in the northeast. temperatures up around 70 degrees. sunshine for a change. boy, we ve had a rough patch. got a nice crowd of people out on the plaza. we thank them for being here. we ll say hi to them in just a little while. they re not so drenched as they have been in recent days. inside the studio, i m matt lauer, alongside ann curry who s filling in while meredith takes some time off. just ahead, much-needed help for anyone who has yet to file their tax returns for 2009. what s new and different this year, what do you need to know if you lost your job in 2009? some movie saving tips from a woman who literally wrote the book on beating the irs. also, a brand-new thing of treats like coffee and chocolate without the calories. basically they re called the first breathable food. we ll give them a try this morning. apparently you open up that little lipstick tube, you open it up and inhale. also ahead, one well-known family s struggle with their child s autism diagnosis to talk about their experience. first let s begin with the shocking case of bullying at a massachusetts high school. 15-year-old phoebe prince committed suicide after suffering months of torment. nine teens are now charged in connection with her death. we ll talk exclusively to one of phoebe prince s friends in just a moment. but first, nbc s jeff rossen is in south hadley, massachusetts with more on this story. jeff, good morning. reporter: hi, ann, good morning. prosecutors say this was blatant, that phoebe was bullied and harassed so much here at school, it was common knowledge, not only among the students but among the staff as well. as you mentioned, nine kids now charged in that case, but it does raise an interesting question, doesn t it? should school officials, school administrators, be held responsible, too? many parents here told us, yes, claiming the adults did nothing to help. they failed and until somebody stands up and admits that there has been failure here, complete failure! we have nowhere to go. reporter: outrage is growing in this small massachusetts town. did school administrators ignore repeated complaints of bullying? 15-year-old phoebe prince couldn t take it anymore and killed herself. she was allegedly bullied in the hallways of south hadley high school for months, physically, and emotionally. what were the bullies doing to her in school? called her names. followed her home. smart remarks, dirty looks. what would they call her? a slut and an irish w.h.o. re. reporter: the suspects, nine of her own classmates, mostly girls. they ve all been charged but where were the school administrators? prior to phoebe s death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment that phoebe had reported to her. they re charges against the kids. there should be charges against those administrators. why? because they knew what was going on and they didn t take action. they were in charge. reporter: while the d.a. says charges against the school officials are unlikely, some parents are demanding action. they should resign or step aside. if they don t, we will be asking for their contracts not to be renewed on may 1st. reporter: school officials say they only knew about the bullying a week before phoebe s death in january. but this morning, we re getting new details about the kind of pain phoebe endured. friends say the bullies threw things at her, knocked books out of her hands, and sent her threatening text messages, not to mention the torment on twitter and facebook. in school, the bullies were dubbed the mean girls, just like the movie. she s so pathetic. reporter: but prosecutors say this went far beyond the usual high school antics. in fact, on the day phoebe committed suicide, friends say there was one final episode as she walked home from school. you got a car with a couple of kids in it, chucks a drink out the window, calls her and irish slut, an irish whore, why don t you go kill herself. and she did. reporter: many say after dating this popular football player at school, he s now charged with statutory rape along with another boy and the so-called mean girls are charged with harassment and violating phoebe s civil rights. even though she had such pain, she would always tell people to keep their chin high and just keep on walking if they ever had problems. just hurts. reporter: everyone here is hurting. we should mention that we requested an interview with school officials. they have denied our repeated requests. we re still trying again today. but late last night the superintendent spoke by phone with our local nbc station and once again reiterated the point that they only knew about the bullying, ann, a week before phoebe s death back in january and took appropriate action then. the d.a. late last night in a published report is now firing back saying the superintendent is under fire and lashing out. jeff rossen thank you so much this morning for your reporting. we re now joined exclusively by tina myer, who daughter s megan committed suicide in 2006 after she was targeted by bullies online. and also, sergio labriel, a freshman at south hadley high school, a friend of phoebe prince. good morning to both of you. good morning, thank you. sergio, let s begin with you. obviously you are devastated by what s happened to phoebe. were you able to tell while it was going on that phoebe prince was enduring a great deal of pain, that she was undergoing this bullying that we re hearing about now? i really felt hurt. right when i found out, it was devastating from the moment i heard. right. but did you know while it was going on? did she talk about it? could you see that she was having a difficult time? no, i didn t see she never told anyone. she kept it bottled up. and that s maybe one of the difficulties, tina, is that a lot of times these kids need to talk about it and they re not able to talk about it. i know this is very different from the case involving your daughter but you ve made a point since you ve endured this suffering of loss of your daughter to go out and speak to schools. so what is your reaction to this particular case? you know, this one, it s obviously devastating. i think that children are still bullied every single day at school, and they re called names, they re ganged up on. i think that people, adults and educators have to start understanding that this is not just kids being kids, boys being boys, that they have to start taking appropriate actions. because a lot of times when the kids are going through this, they don t talk about it, it is embarrassing. they don t think going to a school counselor, anybody s going to do anything about it, it is going to make the situation worse. so we have to start addressing this in our schools. from due thi do you think this is increasing? or do you think this is something that s always happened? i think it has increased with technology that kids have, absolutely. but the bullying that children deal with every day, the name calling, taunting, the harassing, the stalking, those types of things have been going on. i just think with technology it is getting worse. we should point out when you talk about technology, phoebe also received not only text messages but there were postings on facebook that they re now looking at. while everyone debates this, this is not the first time we ve talked about this, you say parents really need to take this by the the bull by the hands, and you say parents need to be asking not only their kids about this, but they ought to talk about the rules at the school. now what exactly do you mean? i think that every parent that has a child enrolled in school needs to know what the policies are at each school. they need to know how that school is going to address bullying, how are they going to address cyber bullying, how are they going to address typical every day situations that happen at school? parents have to know. if schools do have those regulations in place, they need to make sure that if there is an instance, they re going by those policies. if they don t, they need to make sure the school has policies to address these issues. you should lobby for policy change if you don t feel there are enough policies. in the meantime, whether or not there are policies, it really comes down to you and your child. how do you get your child to open up and talk about something that s so embarrassing at a time when they really don t like to talk about anything embarrassing? right. i think a lot of times as parents we automatically make assumptions many times. we want to jump in and fix the situation for our kids. and i think we have to almost take a step back and talk to them, communicate with them and many different places, you can do this in the car, you can do a lot of different things. but open communication is so essential with your kids. think getting them away one on one, talking about how are things going at school? talking about how are their friends? i think that s so important. you also say that parents should be advocates, which in the case of phoebe prince, they did go to the school and they did try to advocate for their daughter. right. absolutely. i think that they did do what they could do. i think if it doesn t work at school, then they need to go into upper levels, they need to go to the school board, the superintendent and continue to keep pushing for their child. tina meier, i know you are now fighting for all children and we thank you for that. well, thank you. sergio, i know this is so tough for you. i want to thank you for sharing your thoughts this morning. thank you. now let s switch gears and get a check of the weather from nbc s meteorologist bill karins is in for al this morning. hey, bill. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by daisy brand sour cream. a dollop of daisy makes recipes naturally delicious. good thursday morning to everyone out here on the plaza. what we re dealing with out in the midwest is incredible warmth. we just got done with what was an amazing march. listen to tho this statistic when we talk about the minneapolis area. we have to go back over 100 years. they didn t have any snow this march at all in minneapolis. it was a very weird month where we had all the rain in the east and we had hardly any, if any, snow up through the great lakes and all through the northern half of the country. now we re looking at this beautiful april weather in some locations. normal march snowfall was ten inches in minneapolis. in minneapolis you re probably not sunny skies state yesterday. 75 in baltimore, 77 to our south, 68 to 70 in ocean city. that s your thursday forecast. ann? bill, thank you so much. coming up next, have you waited to file your taxes? the two tax credits you can t afford to overlook right after this. has focused on making. family-owned company the best-tasting sour cream for over four generations. it s made with farm-fresh cream. that s 100% natural without any additives or preservatives. and no added hormones. so you can feel good knowing every creamy dollop. will bring all your favorite dishes to life. do a dollop, do-do a dollop of daisy will bring all your favorite dishes to life. have you tried honey bunches of oats yet? every spoonful is a little different. mmm. they got three kinds of flakes. this is delicious. it s the perfect combination of sweet and crispy. i love it. this is so good. this is great. the magic s in the mix. vo:but at walmart? the same 10 a nidollars can buy so much more.l drug store. more easter. plus great new rollbacks. that s worth hopping in for. save money. live better. walmart. can your moisturizer do that? dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula. now proven to build a moisture reserve. so skin can replenish itself. that s healthy skin for life. save at aveeno.com. it can take so much out of you. i feel like i have to wind myself up just to get out of bed. then. well. i have to keep winding myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the trouble concentrating, the lack of energy. if depression is taking so much out of you, ask your doctor about pristiq. (announcer) pristiq is a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your medications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. pristiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. telling your doctor if you have heart disease. or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizziness and sweating. (woman) for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. (announcer) ask your doctor about pristiq. the first crystal light with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives. new purefitness from crystal light. a pure way to water your body. we re back now at 7:44. this morning on today s money, the tax man cometh. the april 15th deadline only two weeks away. if you haven t filed yet, we have some tips you ll want to know about. the author of the tax lady s guide to beating the irs. it is very important to distinguish beating the irs and saving money on your taxes. that s our golda. there are a lot of changes. every year there are changes and people have to be aware. for 2009, the personal exemption, for example, has changed. what do we need to know about it if. certainly personal exemption, when you claim a child, step child, a foster child or spouse, you now get $30,650 as an xemgs, versus $3,500. the more money have you in your tax return, in exemptions, the more you save. a lot of people in 2009, roni, lost their jobs so they received unemployment compensation and there s something new they need to know about the tax on that compensation. certainly. unemployment compensation is taxable income. everybody out there who received it would get a 1099-g from the government telling them exactly what they received. good news the first $2,400 is not taxable income. that s at least the consolation prize on that issue. there s something else. we had interestingly enough, a story on this yesterday on our show, multi-generational households. with the tough economy, a lot of children are moving back in with their parents, a lot of parents are moving back in with their children. so you ve got these multi-generational households. what s the tax issue involved in that? isn t it wonderful to know, matt, if you take a family member in or you help them, you are going to save money on your taxes? how? you can claim them as a personal exemption which is worth, as we discussed, $3,650. but more importantly, your filing status may have changed. no longer will you file single, which is only worth $5,700. instead you can maybe qualify as head of household which is worth $8,350. let me make sure i understand this. we only talking about immediate family? in other words, children or parents? does this work for aunts and uncles and cousins as well? yes, thank you. i m an auntie. of course it qualifies. if you re an aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, regardless of that title, matt, if you re supporting somebody, you re going to be able to take advantage on your tax return. pointing out some important tax credits, make sure people understand the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction. tax deduction merely reduced your taxable income, but a tax credit is like gold. it reduces your liability dollar for dollar. if you owe the irs $10,000, matt, and have you a $10,000 tax credit, it wipes your slate clean. wonderful. couple to remember the american opportunity education credit. american opportunity education is fantastic. you send a child to college, you re going to get $2,500 in tax credits per year for four years. how wonderful is that? send a kid to college, get a tax credit. real, real quickly. first-time home buyer credit does not only apply to first-time home buyers. yes, it also applies to repeat home buyers and it is worth $6,500 if you qualify. with housing prices at all-time lows, great time to buy a home, secure that contract by april 30th, take advantage now. even if you have issues, file your tax return because penalties are not something you want to deal with. roni deutsche, thank you so much. find more tax tips on our website, todayshow.com. up next, we ll sample the world s first breathable food. right after this. nature knows just how much water vegetables need. so, to turn those vegetables into campbell s condensed soup, we don t boil it down, our chefs just add less water from the start. so many, many reasons it s so m m! m m! good! hey, do you guys want to make some easter eggs? girls: yeah! okay, ready? we are going to dip on three. all: one, two, three. dip. wow, that one s pretty. ( laughter ) i m going to make mine for the easter bunny. yeah. it s the memories you make. dip in that one. that really stick. look at how beautiful. childhood is calling. take things as they come? i ve got an idea. or improvise? maxwell house custom-roasts each bean. for a full-flavored cup of coffee. so you can be good to the last drop. for a full-flavored cup of coffee. (announcer) right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at home improvement stores. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. it s toys r us lowest prices of the season 2 day sale! doorbusters all day friday and saturday! we ve got the hottest toys to fill your kid s easter baskets like: buy one get one, 50% off all disney princess! and buy one get one 50% off all video games! plus, we ve got em, the hot new zhu zhu pets are here! hurry, it s this friday and saturday! [ children shouting ] come on, kiddo, let s go. [ laughs ] hold on a second. come on up here where your brothers sit. [ birds chirping ] wow! did i ever tell you what it was like growing up with four sisters? that sounds fun. yeah.fun for them! [ male announcer ] chevy traverse. a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it seats eight comfortably not that it always has to. back now at 7:51 with the latest trend in food consumption, the first breathable food. it is called le whiff. we ll give it a try here. it comes in many different flavors. coffee chocolate, raspberry. apparently it is a little inhaler. which one are you going to try, by the way? the idea that it doesn t have calories, i ll go straight for the chocolate. but you may want to have that. that s okay. give it a try. looks like a little lipstick canister. open that up, that exposes this. put that in your mouth and breathe in. and? you got to be careful not to inhale too hard because the powder but it does taste like chocolate. it tastes like dark chocolate. so you get the enjoyment of tasting chocolate or with the coffee you get the equivalent of one shot of espresso basically. let s give that a try. it s about $2.50 per canister. you get a three-pack for about $8. kind of a mocha flavor now. i think i m getting high. this one s caviar. want to try? they don t have that. but these have been available for a while now. i mentioned the three flavors. it s currently available online at www.lewhiff.com, and in stores, select retailers. [ sniffs ] morning. you got in pretty late last night. dad, i m not sixteen anymore. still, it was late. well. you re not gonna have to worry about that anymore. yeah, why s that? todd s a lucky man. the best part of wakin up. that s what i told him when we talked last week. .is folgers in your cup that promise to make my patients look younger. but nothing works like this. [ female announcer ] new neutrogena® clinical skincare, with 10 breakthrough patents, goes beyond lines and wrinkles for a firmer, more uplifted look. exclusive ion2 complex combines with the activating cream to boost collagen depleted skin. 100% of women showed improvement in wrinkles, firmness, or definition in just 4 weeks. the results? amazing. [ female announcer ] new neutrogena® clinical skincare from the number one dermatologist recommended brand. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. here is sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. we are dealing with a few early morning accident. many of the delays are starting to clear up already. greene street and baltimore, watch for an accident. charles wilkins, the latest on coming into us. slowest spot on i-95 from white marsh doubt to the 895 split. delays on the north side. 34 miles per hour from harford towards york road. j.f.x., a pretty good shape. southbound 795, slowing up a bit. live view of traffic at white marsh, looking a little bit better there. my motion be on, that is where you are sitting in traffic. a bit of a delay prior to this heading from libertytown towards 40. liberty down towards 40. absolutely gorgeous this afternoon. mid-to-upper-seventies around baltimore. 53 degrees downtown. wide range of temperatures now. constant by the afternoon. generally. wednesday will be lighter than yesterday. winds up today will be lighter than yesterday. 81 on saturday. mid-70s for easter sunday. be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information back at 8:25. 8:00 now on a thursday morning, it is the 1st day of april, 2010. just take a look for a second at the huge crowd we ve got here on the plaza. rolling spring break continues. we re happy about that on this april fools day. some ohio people there. we re just happy everybody s joined us. a lady turning 50. happy birthday. i m matt lauer, along with ann curry in while meredith s taking on time off. al s off as well. bill karins will have the weather in a second. it is not so bad out here, it is 49 degrees. little windy but going up into the 60s, maybe the 70s today. nice. coming up, we ll talk about autism. it can be a devastating diagnosis for any family when a child is diagnosed with autism. it happened to rodney pe. and his wife. they ll talk about what parents need to know, what they went through. so many parents get confused at the beginning. if they can figure out a diagnosis soon enough and figure out how to help their child. we ve been talking about high-profile cases of infidelity. unfortunately, this has made a lot of people really sad about what s going on. the question i think is really do these treatments they ve been talking about, do they really work. can some good come of it. you know what an airstream is? it is a kind of a plane? a kind of trailer. trailer. gulfstream is a kind of plane. airstream is this very silvery, sleek looking trailer. apparently it is a big trend in hollywood. a lot of a-listers are living in them. we ll look at that phenomenon. before we do, we ll go inside. tamron hall is at the news desk with a check of all the headlines. good morning, everyone. days of record rain are over in new england but the damage is still being done. historic flooding has cut off communities and caused millions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses. homeland security secretary janet napolitano plans to see the damage in rhode island firsthand tomorrow. president obama will be in new england today to promote the new health care overhaul. nbc white house correspondent savannah guthrie joins us. health care is now the law of the land. why is the president still trying to sell it to the american people? reporter: tamron, one simple reason because polls show consistently that people aren t convinced that this health care law is beneficial to them. today in maine the president will be highlighting one provision of the law, a small business tax credit that goes into effect immediately. businesses with less than 25 workers will be able to deduct from their taxes a portion of the premium expenses. in addition to the president s visit, the white house is e-mailing accountants, sending postcards to small businesses, trying to get the word out. it is all part of this massive public education campaign. the white house really trying to tell folks what is in this law, what isn t, how to avail themselves of the benefits hoping that the more people that know about the law, the more they ll like it. savannah guthrie live at the white house, thank you. christians around the world are observing holy thursday. pope benedict held a mass at the vatican today. dedicated to the priesthood. the pope made no mention of the clergy s sex abuse scandals. overseas markets are high they are morning. cnbc s melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange. what are you watching today? good morning. it is the last trading session of the week with the stock markets closed for good friday tomorrow. traders are focused on two events happening this weekend, tomorrow, friday, the all-important jobs report will be released. saturday apple will sell its much-anticipated ipad at retail stores. tamron, we should note as for today, it is of course april fools day and wall street in particular loves a good joke. here s one that s been circulating out there today. a tech blog reports that google is acquiring a uranium enrichment company. no, the report is not true. google had to come out because it was picked up by the news wires and say it is not true. the humor of people on wall street. wow. all right, melissa. thank you. it s a first for the u.s. women s soccer team. this is not an april fools joke. it played its first game in the snow last night in utah. the u.s. won. the exhibition match against mexico 1-0. after the game, the ladies celebrated by making snow angels. making lemonade out of lemons. that s what i see snow in the spring as being. 8:04. now let s get a check of the weather. in for al is bill karins. what do you think of that snow at a soccer game? was that an april fools joke. no, it was the real deal. wonderful crowd this morning. you are from katonsville, maryland. you fractured your finger. how did you do that? when i was at school on recess a kid threw a football at me and it jammed. you know his name. yeah. what s his name? usman. we hope it gets better. sweet 16 to you. have fun in new york. let s talk about the weather out there. we showed you the snowy video of the west. in the east it is beautiful. today in buffalo we are going to see nearly perfect weather. for the first day of april, 70 and sunny. this is about as good as it gets this upcoming weekend. rough weather from the rockies to the west coast. gorgeous weather from texas to maine, down through florida. this will be gorgeous weather april 1. in mid to upper 70 s. light winds out of the south and about five miles per hour 81 and that s a look at a lovely thursday forecast here on the plaza. ann, back to you. we love that, bill. thank you so much. coming up next, we have former nfl star rodney peete and his wife, actress holly robinson peete talking candidly about their son s battle with autism right after this. had a passion for pink. and pearls. i was a sucker for sequins. always knew what i loved, and insisted on wearing it. [ jazz horns blow ] because expressive is never excessive. i guess some women are destined to wear chico s. chicka boom boom boom, yeah, yeah yeah. strip? ok. absolutely! where s the music? i have a lot of stuffiness at night. allergies. i was just diagnosed with a deviated septum. here s how it works. [ female announcer ] nasal congestion limits air flow but breathe right s patented reflex action gently lifts open nasal passages to help you get more air. oh, yeah. yeah, you re right. i m getting more air. oh, wow! that s pretty nice. [ woman ] if your nose could talk right now, what do you think it would say? i think it s saying, i m open for business! [ female announcer ] for two free samples, go to breatheright.com and strip for free. maybe it s your name. richard? smucker. (announcer) when your name is smucker everyone knows you ll grow up to make the world s best jam. with a name like smucker s, it has to be good. parents magazine and edmunds.com called it one of the best family cars of 2009. the insurance institute for highway safety calls it a 2010 top safety pick. consumers digest has called it a best buy two years in a row. and with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. we call it peace of mind. chevy malibu. now qualified lessees get a low mileage lease on this 2010 malibu ls for around $199 a month. call for details. see your local chevy dealer. to talk about our new blueberry juice drinks. they re made with my tasty, ripe blueberries, packed with those antioxidants. let s whip up a sample. or just try this. [ chuckles ] it makes my skin really silky and velvety. this is my body wash. what do you mean? this is it? why?! oh, don t do that to me! dove creamoil body wash. now with nutrium moisture. nutrium moisture. i m a believer. the nourishment in dove creamoil goes somehow deeper. i m happy about the change. change is good. dove creamoil body wash. this morning on today s family, april is national autism awareness month. more than 650,000 american children have some form of that disorder, including r679 e inin son of former nfl star rodney peete and his wife, holly robinson peete. we ll talk to them in a moment, but first their story. r.j. was a really sweet little chunky baby. he always smiled. he always had a big smile on his face. his first word was cow. so cute. and just a sweet wide-eyed baby. but just before r.j. and his sister, ryan s second birthday, everything changed. the smiles, responding to his name, those types of things, he didn t do anymore. had he no more eye contact with his twin sister, with us. all that disappeared the first word, we didn t hear that anymore. reporter: it was a frightening and confusing time for the peetes. after meeting with a specialist, they got the news no parent ever wants to hear. i ll never forget that. it sticks in your mind. he ll never say i love you. he ll never may team sports. that was one especially hard. he ll be in special education for the rest of his life. he ll never mainstream. he ll never speak. he ll never speak in normal conversation. circles of conversation. it was a never day. i was angry. angry. reporter: r.j. was diagnosed with autism. i was uneducated about autism. i didn t know what it was, what the reactions were, how to treat it. so i was really, really in denial. and i really believed that i could be a father to my son and really just teach him and really work with him and bring him out of whatever he was dealing with. reporter: r.j. was enrolled in a special school and began working with therapists, but socially he struggled. i went to school and looked over the fence and saw all the other kids playing, and then i would see r.j. off in a corner by himself flapping his ears, turning around in circles, and just not engaging with the other kids at all. that was difficult. heartbreaking. the peetes detail their experience in two new books, not my boy, a father, a son and one family s journey with autism, and an illustrated children s book, my brother charlie. good morning to you all. we ve done a lot of segments on autism here on the show for a lot of good reasons. thing that always strikes me is, r.j. was doing fine. everything all the milestones. yeah. you were bonding, he was talking. and then it changes suddenly. i wonder if that s not even harder than if at the moment of birth you re told there s a problem. yeah. because we had that needle on the record moment where you look up and you are seeing all these things happen. when they suddenly stop, it really can cause a lot of confusion, in our case a lot of desperation. from what i understand, holly, you were a rock and you went in overdrive and you started to research. realize, ten years ago there wasn t that much out there to research. you would think it would be 30, 40 years ago. there wasn t a lot of information. it became a source of frustration for us because rodney and i are very protective people. when we didn t see the information, we got very frustrated. as a former professional athlete, you re a dad, here s a son. as holly mentioned in the piece, you have to think, he s going to follow in my footsteps. when you find out that diagnosis, you have to change your whole priorities. you do. i m thinking he s got my name, rodney, he s going to go on and win a heisman trophy, do all the things that i did. all of a sudden all those expectations change and you really have to evaluate yourself as being a dad, how he s going to grow up. it was difficult for me. you guys talk about that never day. i wonder based on how far r.j. has come, you don t like to think in terms i don t know that you d give that advice to others in terms of thinking of it as a never day. that s part of the reason we wrote these books. we want people to know if you get that diagnosis today and heard all those nevers, we heard them, too. he s doing a lot of things, mainstreaming with friends. we talked about it in school, but the nevers need to go away. ryan not only a sibling, he s your twin. there s a time you re going to school with him and other students are probably not reacting the way they should around him. how hard was that for you? it was really hard to see that all just there because everyone else would be playing in one place, like playing baseball and stuff like that, and rodney would just be on the side just bouncing the ball and it would be heartbreaking because he would be so lonely. how did you guys make the decision as to what kind of treatment to get for r.j. and what about schooling? how did you make that decision? there are options. we were really fortunate we had a school that accepted his autism as a challenge and wanted him to be around mainstream kids. not many people have that opportunity. was it challenging at times though? yeah. because you have children that don t understand what he s dealing with. that s where i think ryan came home and said we need to have a conversation with these kids. that s the hardest thing. fourth-graders. she s been on tv, i played in stadiums. to talk to 30 fourth-graders about autism and have them shoot questions back at you was devastating and scary. some things that often aren t discussed, two really important ones. one, cost. you estimate it is like $150,000 a year. at least. at least. you re lucky. we re lucky because we were working at the time. i was playing in the nfl. the cost, because you want to do everything for your child. not only the typical therapies, but you want to do thentive therapies. we talked to families about what you should do and those costs started rising and rising. it s completely unaffordable. that s one thing thank you for bringing that up because we don t have that conversation a lot. the other conversation we don t have about adults with autism and what s going to happen to our son. we were told our son would never live on his own. you mention 650,000 kids, they ll become adults and need friends, a future and homes. i heard a crazy statistic that the divorce rate among parents who have children living with autism is ridiculously high because of the pressures it puts on a marriage. you guys know those pressures. don t you? oh, do we. that was all rodney peete as far as i m concerned. he had to tweak his expectations of his son. he sat down and was willing to talk in therapy which a lot of the macho football players don t want to do. so i give him credit that he was able to say, you know what? i need to make the changes for my family. but a lot of people don t make it. i was able to come around after my denial. she was all about my son. we got to get him right, get him in therapies. i was like stuck in this world. then finally i was able to come around and she was still there, thank god. but lot of husband and wives are not together. well, r.j. doing okay? he s doing great. he s in the green room listening to his itouch. he s doing all right. puberty is another issue we don t talk about. that brings on sort of a little regression. but compared to what we thought he d do, he s doing awesome. it s important you re sharing these books. the books are not my boy and my brother, charlie. e friends. i really needed the space. you got the same carseat in there, gary. wait right there while daddy puts all this stuff back in the car. when this kind of thing happens, when another parent tries to copy your style, you just have to be the better man. 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[ smack! ] [ smack! smack! smack! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. tum ta tum tum tums nothing works faster. cer: trying to 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. this one is. new purefitness from crystal light. the first crystal light with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives. new purefitness from crystal light. a pure way to water your body. here comes peter cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail vo: at walmart, you can get all the best easter candy for 20 percent less than leading national retailers. which means more candy. more places to hide it. and of course, more fun finding it. easter costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. back now at 8:20 with unusual new trend among celebrity whose are actually sort of known for living a life of excess. today s jenna wolfe checked it out. good morning to you. i am not accustomed to living a life of excess. whether used as chair yachts, homes or just campers, we re starting to see airstreams, those shiny, silver rvs pop up in everything from music videos, to magazines, to movies. in hollywood, the trend is always upsize, upsize, upsize. but that s all starting to change. some of the biggest celebrities will feeling more at home in these smaller spaces. it is the latest hollywood craze to go mainstream, or better put airstream. i ve been everywhere, man reporter: so what s the draw? we went right to the source jackson center, ohio, home of the airstream for 50 years and ceo bob wheeler nop pun intended. airstream is the preeminent travel trailer made in all the world. it is really known as the silver bullet, an iconic shape, recognizable by most americans. reporter: why all the attention now for an rv that s been around for 80 years? airstream in particular has seen a big resurgence, a real return for the appreciate ration of a real authentic design. reporter: matthew mcconnie, tom hanks, pamela anderson, steve carell, denzel washington and sean penn have downsized to the comfy feel of their airstream. this actor had an airstream for 20 years. it went from california to florida, on any given sunday, to texas, to toronto. it was a great home away from home. reporter: kate pearson of the b52s opened a whole camp of airstreams. these are all vintage. these are from 50s, to the 80s. they re just so groovy inside. they re just perfectly designed and everything is in its place and it s just like a minihouse. reporter: why was it so important for you to have airstreams set up on the campsite? the glamour of it. so you could roam if you want to reporter: but once you buy it, customizing it has no boundaries. matthew mcconaughey s hardwood floors and hardwood cabinets, marble countertops. reporter: while the sky s the limit on accessories and options, a regular model retails for around $65,000. don t worry about the elements. on the off chance you want to go chasing hurricanes, your airstream i don t know why you would you would be able to right? absolutely. this is our rain test booth. if you decide you want to chase that storm, make sure that thing doesn t leak. reporter: water s not getting in this? no. reporter: credit the designer for coming up with the original airstream idea back in 1931 for his wife. she loved to camp but hated to sleep on the ground which may sound familiar to a lot of people. reporter: how much has changed over 79 years? on the outside, not much. this is the same basic trailer on the outside that wally first created in 1931. it is aerodynamic, durable, it doesn t corrode. these things last virtually forever. reporter: not only is airstream the sole travel trailer company that survived the depression back in the 30s, but it s even surviving our most recent recession as well. in the last quarter of 09, production went up by 25%. people associate it with freedom, adventure, and possibility. just having this thing parked in your driveway helps keep the daily grind in perspective because you know you can escape. reporter: airstreams now pop up in music videos, top luxury hotels and one has even been turned into an oxygen bar, a classic slice of americana. the airstream is still a perfect way to get out and see this country the way it was meant to be seen. oh, of course you may want to get it off the factory floor first. after all these years, roughly 65% of all the airstreams ever built are still rolling down the highway. i can see an airstream internet cafe. that s fantastic. you stick wireless in there and the sky s the limit. you can bring that thing anywhere. let s go surfing. thanks so much, jenna. just ahead, the must-have toys and crafts to keep your kids entertained when it rains. that s after your local news. 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 them to commit with traffic pulse 11 and sarah caldwell. if you are going to be traveling any time soon in owings mills. , owings mills boulevard and restaurant boulevard, accident involving a pedestrian there. traffic on southbound 795 is heavy still from owings mills down to the beltway. on arundel mills boulevard and arundel mills circle, another accident location for you to avoid. a tractor trailer fire not far away. delays still in place from the outer loop northeast side. drive time on the inner loop from 75 to the j.f.x., delays developing there. let s see what s going on with our cameras. perring parkway, not a whole lot. you will be tied up just a bit towards york road and outer loop. ring, you can see some delays in place. at greenspring, you can see some delays in place. you can see how pretty it is outside. all day long. up to the mid-70 s in baltimore. right amounts of money in ocean city today. tomorrow, even warmer. high orestes high over us will bring in more warmth. up to 84 friday. 81 on saturday. back down but still very warm on sunday. we will have another update at 8:55. come on in, and i ll give you a free quote. quote and compare in about 8 minutes. now, that s progressive. call or click today. we re back now at 8:30 on a thursday morning, april 1st, 2010. a large april fools day crowd here on the plaza. but that s not a commentary, we re just glad they decided to stop by on what s going to be a sunny day here in the northeast. after all the rain we have had, how many times do you think kids have been saying, mom and dad, i m bored. that s right. with april always does come showers. we ve got some ideas this morning about what you might want to have on-hand so next time it rains, and your kids want something to do. i love this spaceship. we used to build those out of refrigerator boxes. what a childhood! that s pretty cool. my kids as well. that looks like fun. you get to decorate it. what else is coming up? also ahead, we ll make an easter dessert. you like cheesecake? i love cheesecake! this one you can put together in 15 minutes. there is a certain amount of ricotta involved. tiger woods spent 45 days in that treatment facility, and now san today bu sandra bullock s husband, jesse james, is also seeking treatment at a facility. more on that in a moment. but we ll talk about how effective these facilities are, how does it help the marriage, how does it help the individual. we ll look at that. before we go any further, al s on vacation this week, we ve got bill karins in with the forecast. bill? good morning, everyone. we got a beautiful crowd down here. everyone s wearing red. we re all together here. where you from? kentucky. winchester, kentucky. what s your group? senior trip! senior trip. you guys go all the way down here. everyone s located down this side. we ll just continue to watch a beautiful weekend here heading into this easter weekend. it is going to be fantastic in the east. the west is where we have all the messy weather. there is hardly any clouds at all, from dallas all the way into the mid-atlantic. just pure sunshine. areas ot west, wet weather from l.a. to san diego with a little bit of rain. continuing with mountain snow in utah, mountains of san juan and colorado will get nailed. alaska, mid 40s in anchorage sunny skies state yesterday. 75 in baltimore, 77 to our south, 68 to 70 in ocean city. of course, we love our 100 birthdays. today is my 100 d birthday. wait a second. it s not your 100th birthday. that s not nice. april fools . willard, i m sure you got something better for us. call the bronx zoo. those are the good old days. bill, you re smarter than a tree full of owls. you are something else. we love you. happy birthday from smucker s. how sweet it is. i bet all those kids are spring breakers. we got harold gallina from barnegat, new jersey. traveled all around the work with the church. fix is broken electronics. frieda prugh worked as a bookkeeper during the great depression. attributes her longevity to drinking a little shot of brandy once in a while. oh, yeah, brandy was a big song. angeline janik from peshtigo, wisconsin. huge packers fan. secret to longevity is fighting for the rights of the elderly. how about that? we got to get our group fired up. ella saigeon of park city, kentucky. 107. baptized at 100. she saw the light and believes that s why she hasn t rushed it out yet. i love that. some old guy used to tell me, he says you wear out quicker than you rushed out. dr. lawrence withington. watertown, new york. 100 years old today. honored with the bronze star for rescuing a pilot from a burning airplane and received the bronze star for that. a hero. harry milligan, anaheim, california, 100 years old today. world war ii vet known for being a prankster after putting a calf on top of his high school. actually, it was his calf. the left leg. emma chiles of ft. worth, texas. 100 years old. secret to longevity is her faith in the good lord, eating good home-cooked meals while chewing at least 60 or 70 times. she finishes dinner around 10:30. matt s back in new york and he s everybody s happy april fool. that s right. i ll take it though. willard, thank you so much. happy april fool day to you as well. we want to talk about what we have in our houses so kids have something to do on a rainy day. but first, this is today on nbc. it s definitely expensive having a growing family. and it s something that you think about. we try to be conscious of that and plan out our meals so that we can feed everyone on a budget. at giant, we know saving money is important. every time you shop with your card, you can enjoy thousands of real deal savings and weekly specials. like perdue boneless chicken breasts, buy one, get one free; and strawberries, one-pound carton, 3 for $5. this week only. it makes me feel good because we re saving money, and that works for me. only with your giant card. announcer: today s moms is brought to you by walmart. save money. live better. walmart. and this morning on today s moms, we re talking about some rainy day games. we re just starting to dry out from some nasty storms here in the northeast. the april showers are still to come, so what do you do with your kids the next time it is raining cats and dogs? elizabeth warner is today s moms resident toy expert. elizabeth, good morning. nice to see you. how many times have we heard on a rainy day, i m bored. all the time. you ve got solutions. so if they re bored, something s wrong. exactly. all well-priced and a lot of fun for different ages. right behind me we have kid craft playhouses. these are like the old cardboard boxes that we used to pull out and play with ourselves. they come very easy to put together. no scissors or glue required. they come in different shapes. your kids decorate themselves. there s room for two or three kids to play inside as well so they have a lot of fun. full day activity. how much did you say? these are around $59. indoor only. exactly. sidney and alex working on this. they ve been coloring these. lots of fun. now these are hex bugs. everyone that sees these are amazed. they have vibration inside. there is a little on/off switch. the vibration makes them move around and have a little fun. these are the nanos. they are the ants but they have a collection of really fun creatures that crawl around. it is small robotics. if you buy the kit, how many bugs do you get? two. they come with a full kit but you can also buy them separately. they come in these cool test tubes. kids love them. thank you very much. michael s playing with a construction set here. tell me about that. this is called real construction. i love this because it lets them simulate work on their craftsmanship in a safe way. there are tools that actually do cut through the materials that come with it. the kit that is under $25 can make eight different projects. all their favorite, whether it is a vehicle or house, they do it themselves. wait a minute. this helicopter can actually be made out of that? yes, exactly. that s great. these are a lot of fun. these are going to be available in august. kids are already out there looking for them, but not until august. sophia. they are playing with the crayola magic. they take the tool that comes with the kit, press it in the model magic. that little guy in the center will become an animal. we have a bunch of finished product over there. they can make bunnies and porcupines and teddy bears. what age group? these are 5-plus. they start at very low prices, all under $10. do you recognize this next young man. this is my son, gabriel. he s playing on the nintendo dsi. this is the brand-new one called the xl. can you show them the difference in size between that one and your old one? he loves it because the screen size is so much larger. it really adds to the fun. but it s got dual cameras, wi-fi, it is so much packed into that. that is $189. brand-new. the new hot games, hokie m poti pokemon. alice in wonderland for the little girls is very hot. matthew, i had nerf basketball for ten years as a kid. but now they ve made it bigger and sturdier. this is the pro basketball set. this is for kids ages 8 and up but the backboard is stronger. that ball actually bounces on carpet and hardwood. great for any surface. matthew, thank you very much. keep shooting there. on the table here. this is a really great new concept where girls can become fashion designers. this set actually comes with a form that the girls can turn around. there is a slot in the back. they take the enclosed fabric and just tuck it right in to i think they re all taped down tuck it directly into the slot in the back. they can take this fabric that s the shape of a square but design it to the mold what ages? this is 6-plus. it even comes with a camera, take pictures and upload it to the website. have fun trading it with other girls. this is barbie in a mermaid tail. brand-new movie that just came out, little girls love it. she s actually a surfer in malibu, then realizes she s also a mermaid, has to save her mother s kingdom. it is a lot of fun. on the rainy day they can watch the movie and act it out with the doll itself. my daughter is 6 and she loves cooking. these are the handstand kids cook books. they come with mexican, italian and chinese. you can see the casing is really fun. it actually looks like the ethnic group that it is, the chinese take-out box. inside each one has something unique that s affected to that type of cooking. recipes are healthy and easy for kids to do. these are great ideas. oops, there. more on our website, todayshow.com. thanks so much. up next, the announcer: today s kitchen is brought to you by new crystal light pure fitness. a pure way to water your body. back now at 8:45. this morning on today s kitchen, we re going back to basics with a beautiful easter dessert table. we have something for everyone from chocolates to cheesecakes. lucinda is the director of food for martha stewart living omnimedia. how are you this morning? good morning. we look like a couple of easter eggs. we didn t plan this, but it is okay. this little effort, this effort to make kind of a wonderful dessert also has kind of a citrus kind of feel. spring feel. this is from our best of issue of martha stewart living. these are our new favorites. is what i m making for easter, ricotta cheesecake. it takes 15 minutes to put together. this is ricotta cheese. you recognize this. when you put it in the blender it looks like this, sour cream. we have a pound and a half. you want to add six egg yolks to that. this is so super easy. that s just sour cream to start with. no, it s actually ricotta cheese. put in a quarter cup of sugar. quarter cup of flour. is this as simple as it gets? it looks pretty simple. the zest right there. that s the zest of an orange. can you use lemon. give me a little pinch of salt, please. look how pretty this is looking already. you re just so good at this. so here s remember we had the six egg yolks? those are the whites. we bet them together and we beat them with some sugar. six tablespoons of sugar. it is as simple as that. we re almost at the end here. we have 375 preheated our oven. can you imagine that you re supposed to do this in thirds. you hold that for me, ann. you don t want to deflate these egg whites. you can just kind of whisk it all in there. you re careful as you you want the cake to rise? you just want it to be nice and fluffy and light. that s the beautiful thing we re just folding like that. folding it gently in. it is just completely done. it looks luscious there. you can almost eat it like this, it looks like a moose. what we have here is a nine-inch springform pan right here. we buttered and sugared it. the sugar just kind of helps it prevents it from sticking, and it also that s interesting. i usually use flour. the sugar gives it a beautiful golden color in the end. that s an interesting little secret. isn t that a great secret? we just kind of smooth it. make sure that you get it completely blended together before you start. then that just goes into our 375-degree oven. and i m going to show you what it looks like when we pull it out? there we go. first i m going to show you a topping. let s go over here and make the compote. that s a thing if you make a compote, you can just about whip up anything. i ve sections a grapefruit and an orange. that s call supreming. cut the membrane off like this, then you have these beautiful sections. when it is completely like this, just kind of squeeze it in here. have you some juice. we are making a little syrup. we have sugar, water, this beautiful vanilla bean. we just put this in here. that just cooks for two minutes. it is going to get a little simple sugar? a little bi i took the rind from the citrus and took the little white part off. just blanched it to get the bitter part off. why are we doing that. because we want this beautiful citrus flavor. we ll cook this for a couple minutes. put this in here. then we put the juice in here. look what we have are. we have the most beautiful compote right there. that s so super simple. this takes how long? two minutes. then two minutes. you put this fruit back in here. put it in here. there you go. there s our cheesecake. you put that on top of the cheesecake but the cheesecake didn t fall down. but look at the beautiful kind of the way it undulates. it makes you feel like you re eating something unhealthy. it is not that unhealthy, ann. you re messing with me. i m making this this weekend. this is my easter dessert. i wish you were coming over to my house. these are easter puzzle cookies. you bake them, then make them into a puzzle. you got to have something for the kids. the kids love to decorate these themselves. look at this cake. it looks fancy. it is just creeps and mousse and a little cream. easy as can be. lucinda, great ideas. happy easter to you. this is today on nbc. i m digging in. clash of the titans. a remake of the 1980s cult classic hits movie theaters tomorrow. starring avatar s sam worthington, and here is our gene shalit s take on the film. good morning and welcome to the critic s corner. 29 going on 30 years ago, ancient greek mythology was whacked if a movie called clash of the titans, a struggle between man and gods. for many, it was a struggle to keep awake. yes. now, determined not leave well enough alone, it s been remade and it is not boring. good. however, if, by accident, you mean physical movement, the wrangling and clanging and banging rarely stops. if you mean dramatic action, a story that grips your attention, the film is almost as inactive as the face of his hero, played by sam worthington. his performance is part god, part man, part statue. my entire exens tis ist tens gift of my grace. liam neeson, here as the head of scheming evil deed, raef feines makes one hell of a god. two images are excellent. medusa, though she s having a bad hair day, and pegasus, the graceful winged horse. clash of the titans is cool for kids. plenty of fights, beasts, and best of all, the words don t matter. good. this film should be dedicated to another greek god morpheous. that s the critic s corner for today. cross it off the list. not good. i m going to go see it. i think i m going to see it as well. get this a new youtube videoed tod to beyonce s single ladies has become a family hit. the entire family was getting into this in a car until dad pointed out to his 3-year-old son that he in fact was not a single lady. take a look. all the single ladies all the single ladies all the single ladies all the single ladies you re not a single lady, buddy. yeah, you are. yeah, you are. you re a single lady. sorry! sorry! i was just kidding. you re a single lady. you can do it. buddy, i m sorry. i m so sorry, buddy. you re a single lady. okay? okay? here we go. if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it did that hurt your feelings? you can be a single lady you know what s more troubling than that? who s holding that video camera? who was shooting that and driving at the same time? if the kid wants to be a single lady, let him be a single la lady. live, local, latebreaking this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. city council president jack young is speaking out following and i-team investigation about where he really lives. however, he refused to offer his claims to 11 news. he invited me on the house to work inside his residence on madison street, invited media in house tour is at his residence on madison street he says he splits his time between his residence and another he has with his sister. he says he needs both because of threats from drug dealers. april 1, and what about way to start the month. mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the mid-to-upper-70 s. tomorrow will be wonderful as well. up to near 80, because the high pressure over us today is moving a little further to these. a clockwise southeasterly flow. 80 tomorrow, 81 on saturday, mid-70 s for easter sunday. we will have another update at 9:25.