Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100413 : vimarsana.com

allegations. he says that you re an absentee mom, that you re more interested in fame than you are raising the children. kate gosselin fights back today tuesday, april 13th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m matt lauer. when it comes to the economy, nothing is ever cut and dried. but there are a lot of investors scratching their heads out there today over the different news coming from wall street. on the one hand you have the bi big milestone with the dow opening at 11,000, and some suggest the current slump is not over. what does cnbc s jim cramer think of it all and what should you do with your money? we ll talk to him in a minute. plus, more on a massive search in florida to find 11-year-old nadia bloom who disappeared without a trace four days ago in an area infested with alligators. a lot of people are concerned about that little girl. plus new details on the tennessee mother who sent her adopted son back to russia. she says the boy was a danger to her family, but an adoption agency she worked with now claims they were never told of any problems. more on that coming up. let s begin at the news desk, natalie morales is in for ann with a check of the morning s top stories. good morning, everyone. a landmark nuclear summit wraps up today in washington and already the meeting is paying dividends. nbc s white house correspondent savannah guthrie joins us. savannah, good morning. what has been accomplished there so far? well, natalie, this summit is all about stopping nuclear terrorism but the president is using the opportunity to rally world leaders around sanctions against iran. arriving one after the other, presidents, prime ministers, and top officials from 46 countries, here to commit to keeping nuclear weapons material, like highly enriched uranium, out of the hands of terrorists. the evidence is strong. the track record is demonstrated, and we know that al qaeda continues to pursue these materials. reporter: since sunday, the president has been doing back-to-back meetings with world leaders. a closely watched meeting on monday with the chinese president, hu jintao, yielded some progress on iran with the chinese agreeing to work with the u.s. on sanctions. and the white house touted the decision by the former soviet republic of ukraine to send all of its nuclear foul oknenuclear country by 2012. this is something the united states has tried to make happen for more than ten years. reporter: canada also announced it will ship back its highly enriched uranium back to the u.s. the summit wraps up today with a news conference by the president later this afternoon. by the way, the first lady makes her first solo international trip today. she leaves for mexico later today. savannah guthrie at the white house this morning, thank you. officials in west virginia say the bodies of all 29 miners killed last week has now been recovered. the last nine were removed from the mines this morning. investigators are trying to find out what set off that explosion leading to the worst u.s. coal mining disaster since 1970. at least three people are dead in a crash of a navy plane monday in northern georgia igniting a fire in the dense woods where it went down. about 20 people were injured this morning when their plane skidded off the end of a runway in indonesia in heavy rain. the plane broke in half. part of it landing in a river. in maryland, one police officer has been suspended after a beating of a university of maryland student was caught on tape. originally two students were charged with assaulting police, those charges have been dropped and the prince george s county police chief says he is outraged at the officers conduct. a florida deputy has been reprimanded after he was caught on tape tasering a female deputy. he admitted it was a bad joke and was ordered to retake taser training. jay leno s long-time tonight show band leader kevin eubanks announced he s leaving the show after 18 years at jay leno s side. he says he is ready for a career change. also, conan o brien, as you might have already heard this morning, is heading back to late night tv on cable. his new show on tbs day bus ebu. he says my plan is working thanks, al, good morning, everyone. things quiet, temperatures in the upper fourpts and low 50 s. we expect rain to move in hater this afternoon. highs in the mid 50 s. that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. now to the economy and a major milestone on wall street. the dow opening today above 11,000 for the first time since september, 2008. what does that mean for you? jim cramer is the host of mad money on cnbc. what does it indicate? psychologically it is fantastic. here s what s going on. we are seeing a resurgence of large american industrial companies which is what the dow is made of. it s all positive. i m not going to say there is a mixed message. this means we are doing better than we have been the last 18 months. what caused it yesterday? yesterday was really a combination of the fact we re beginning to get earnings season, profits are going to be absolutely terrific. and washington is off the business section pages. it looks like the government has gone back into its box, time to focus on actual companies and they re doing well. should people who took their money out of the stock market, is this a good time to go back? i think we ll be down a little bit today but your alternatives are cds, they give you almost nothing, real estate, still a tough investment, and gold 52-week high yesterday. those are not good investments versus stocks. so now people may need to wonder is the recession over. national bureau of economic research says it is premature to say that. what do you think? why are you putting your hands up? any minute they ll declare phil mickelson the winner of the masters. these guys are incredible, they re always late and they really provide no value. they re academics who literally sit back and wait for sure when something s over. you re saying they re wrong, the recession is over? izbli i m saying they re w. they ve been wrong a lot. what about folks sitting at home who may not have a job, struggling to hold on to their homes, they don t think the recession s over. every time we come out of a recession, the last people who feel the positives are the ones trying to get hired. we just finished hiring six months ago. companies are loathe to return to start hiring but they always do about one year after. people have to hold on, things are getting better and that s not a mixed message. you say it could be another year before people find a job? i think the recession ended three months ago. it is going to be great for people in housing, autos, real estate, these are the fundamentals of the american economy. sales rose in february but now talk of interest rates on mortgages going up, this tax credit expires at the end of the month. i don t see any justification for that. every time we ve come out of a big recession we start seeing housing starts pick up and more people buying. rates are still at an historic low. last month i told people to lock in, rates are going to be going up. but that s a sign of demand. housing s coming up in almost every single district. only florida and vegas are weak right now. there s 48 other states where things are looking good. do you expect that the market will hold this 11,000 mark? i think it is going to go higher. i think it will go over. go higher from here. yeah. i think things are better than people realize. they tend not to feel it. 80, 82, they didn t feel it. 2010, same story. you re very optimistic. because the facts tell me to be optimistic. jim cramer. catch more of jim s advice on mad money weeknights on cnbc at 6:00 and 11:00 eastern time. you know where to find him if he s wrong. 7:10. here s matt. the body of poland s first lady arrived in warsaw overnight to lie in state next to her husband as the investigation into what caused saturday s deadly plane crash in russia unfolds. nbc s jim maceda is in warsaw with the latest. jim, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. as the nation s grief over the loss of so many of its best and brightest entered its third day, investigators are raising more questions than answers about the doomed flight s final moments. in a solemn procession, the remains of poland s first lady, maria kaczynski, returned to poland. both died in saturday s air crash and their coffins will now lie in state together at the presidential palace for a public viewing around the clock until their state funeral planned for sunday. as poland mourned its dead, russian investigators eliminated mechanical failure as a likely cause of the crash which killed 96, including dozens of top military brass, lawmakers and priests. they confirmed the pilot was warned about the heavy fog and poor visibility over smolensk in western russia before he close to land the aging russian-made aircraft. that fatal decision has led to claims that the pilot was pressured by v.i.p. passengers, even the president, to get them on time to an important memorial service at katyn forest, site of a brutal world war ii massacre of thousands of polish p.o.w.s by secret soviet police. he wanted to pay the respects. reporter: so called pilot pushing is not uncommon. i think the high level of the passenger list played a role in the commitment to try to get that aircraft on the ground. reporter: polish investigators will now comb through the flight data recordings looking for any comments by passengers to the pilot. meanwhile, officials here say that 87 of the victims remains have now been returned to poland while the difficult work of identifying those who died in one of its worst tragedies goes on. polish officials are now saying that a memorial service for all 96 victims is planned for saturday. that will be followed either on saturday or sunday by the state funeral for the first couple for the kaczynskis. based on what we re seeing from people here, that s unclikly to bring closure to a nation in trama and complete shock. jim maceda for us in poland, thank you. 13 minutes after the hour. here s meredith. with the hollywood producer who worked on the hit show survivor be charged in connection with his wife s murder? nbc s miguel almaguer is in cancun, mexico with the latest developments in this case. miguel, good morning. reporter: meredith, good morning. police say once lab results come back they can move forward with their case but it is clear they are focused on just one man. she was outgoing, had a glowing, warm personality, but behind the smile there was trouble with her marriage. that s why monica beresford-redman agreed to go to cancun. her families says she wanted to repair her marriage with her husband, bruce, who she suspected of cheating. but on her 42nd birthday, police discovered monica s nude body dumped in a sewer found not far from the hotel room she shared with her husband and two small children. translator: i am worried about my grandchildren because they re very close to their mother. mommy mommy, her little voice. mommy,ommy, i love you, mommy. rts. reporter: from the begins, police had questions for monica s husband, his story and time line never matched up. he told directives his wife left their posh resort to go shopping on a monday afternoon, but that night guests spotted them together on hotel grounds and heard loud arguing coming from their room. after bruce spoke to investigators, they told him not to leave the country. his passport s been turned over to police. translator: considering that he s the husband of the victim, his role should be to try to clear up this matter. reporter: a hollywood producer for hit shows like cbs s survivor, bruce beresford-redman finds himself in his own high-stakes drama unable to leave mexico or escape the focus of what s now a federal investigation. authorities believe he was the last person to see his wife alive. translator: whoever did it needs to pay. i want justice for the life of my sister. reporter: justice, police say, will come as their murder investigation moves forward. meanwhile, back in los angeles, police say that monica s family has asked that the district attorney s office in los angeles get involved in this case. in fact, they have also asked that the federal bureau of investigation also come down here to cancun. miguel, when does that autopsy report expected to come in? reporter: we re told it could come in as long as several weeks but also they say it could come in any day. we re really just in a window of opportunity here where police are waiting for those results to come back. as soon as that autopsy comes back, they ll move forward with the case. how long can mexican authorities hold this man in mexico if he hasn t been charged with a crime? reporter: at this point they say they can hold him for some time until their results come back. once their results come back they ll be forced to make a decision to either place charges or release him, give him back his passport. miguel almaguer, thank you very much. 7:16. here s matt. this morning, authorities in florida are searching for an 11-year-old girl who vanished from her home on friday and has not been seen since. nbc s mark potter is in winter springs which is near orlando. mark, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you, matt. that search begins again this morning in the woods and swamps and lakes around this area but searchers are becoming increasingly concerned that so far they haven t found anything. 11-year-old nadia bloom has been missing for four nights now. a widespread search since friday turning up nothing. searchers fear nadia may have gotten lost, all alone, in the woods near her home in winter springs, florida, where they ve posted signs and left water for her. pulls at my heart because i ve got three kids. bottom line is she s out there, she s scared. reporter: police have searched the area on foot with dogs, under water, and from the air. you can understand they re finding all sorts of stuff out there but nothing related to nadia right now has been found. at all. reporter: police say nadia disappeared on friday after her younger sister and father left on a field trip with a brownie troop. her families says she loves the outdoors and could be carrying a video camera in her backpack to make a nature video. the wooded area near where her bicycle was found is very dense with waters infested with alligators. another concern is nadia has developed mental issues, suffering from a mild form of autism similar to asspepergeras syndrome. reporter: her diagnosis is pervasive developmental disorder. reporter: her grandfather says nadia s very intelligent. she s very inkwistive and i m proud to be her grandfather. reporter: police are dismissing earlier reports nadia may be carrying a book called lanie about a girl who loves the outdoors. we don t believe there is any common link with the book and the disappearance. reporter: so far police also say they have no reason to believe foul play was involved. to cover all bases though, police are involved in a parallel criminal investigation and have interviewed some area sex offenders, but still there are no clues to nadia s whereabouts. mark potter in winter springs this morning, thank you very much. just ahead can be kate gosselin on her divorce, dancing with the stars and jon s claim that she s more interested in fame than their children. meredith s exclusive interview coming up. but first, this is today o little piece of video caught our eye we want to show you. this comes from a zoo in china where a 3-year-old is a tight rope walker. watch this little girl. the wind she s so little the wind basically blows her off. she s wearing a safety harness but check out what s beneath her. if you look at she hangs on to the bike there. she s doing this act above the siberian tiger pen. she s told reporters that she s afraid of the tigers because as she puts it, they can bite, leaving some to accuse the father who is the troupe director of child abuse. the zoo says they handle all the property safety methods so they say she s totally okay. she s totally okay. they re not up there. she s up there. my son is 3. i ve got to get him an act. 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[ man ] orange. something funny happens when you cross over from land to sea. you beco a different person. are you ready? you taste foods you ve never tried. i want to bang on the drum all day you swim with animals you ve only seen in aquariums. and somewhere out on the high seas, you get your first water wedgie. i don t want to play i just want to bang on the drum all day [ ship horn blows ] good morning, everybody. it is 7:26. let s check the traffic commute. there were earlier problems this morning. they have been cleared. an accident was just cleared, southbound on the bw parkway. that one is gone. we still have very heavy delays in that area. 12 miles per hour on southbound i-95 coming out of the white marsh area coming down the beltway. that is due to an accident that is gone. one viewer just contacted me on pulaski highway. it is very slow. a delay back at 795. i guess 70 also has delays. i-70 also has delays. 16 minutes on the west side outer loop/ . here is a look at the delay on southbound 295 approaching the beltway. here is a live view of the white marsh area. we see delays there. that is the latest. here is a check on the forecast. so far, things have been dry. that is about to change. some rain coming down from pennsylvania. simmering at your house over near the pennsylvania line summer rain at your house over near the pennsylvania line. some rain at your house over near the pennsylvania line. it may not be winning at your house at the present time, but still take an umbrella raining at your house at the present time, but still take your umbrella. check the bottom of your screen for updated news, 7:30 now on a tuesday morning, the 13th day of april, 2010. it is a little chilly out there on the plaza. beautiful day yesterday, supposed to be in the 70s again tomorrow, today only about 60. we ll go out in a little while and say hi. inside studio 1a, i m matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. just ahead, you have an exclusive interview with kate gosselin. it s been a very dramatic year for the single mother of eight. how have the kids been impacted by the couple s breakup and what does she think about jon gosselin s fighting for sole custody of the children. also the parents of chelsea king turning their grief into action. chelsea was a 17-year-old san diego girl who was murdered in a park in february, allegedly by a registered sex offender. now chelsea s parents are using their pain to help other children. we ll have a live interview coming up. some never-before-seen personal items of marilyn monroe right here in the studio from her furniture to her skis, eve an ex-way of her chest. how you can own them just ahead. but let s begin this half-hour with the latest on the uproar that s been caused by a tennessee woman who put her adopted son back on a plane to russia and the impact that could have on other american families. nbc s ron allen is in shelbiville, tennessee. ron, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you, matt. yes, that mother tory ann hanson is essentially saying charge me with a crime or leave me alone. legal experts say those charges could include child neglect or abandonment for putting her child back on a plane to russia but the case is more complicated than it seems. this lady s not going to show up again. reporter: randall boyce is a small town sheriff facing a business international dilemma. should he charge tory ann hanson for sending her adopted son back to russia alone. she claims the boy threatened the family. we re not sure right now. this is an extremely complicated deal. reporter: some lawyers who say the mom who s been labeled cruel and abusive did not commit a crime because children often fly alone and the mom had someone to take care of the boy when he landed. there was no intent to abandon. there is no intent to put the child in any type of danger. reporter: that kind of talk stokes the anger in russia where they say the boy was abused by his adoptive mother. when i asked him, he almost started crying and he told me that tory s bad. reporter: but some international adoption experts say it is not unusual for kids who spent years in orphanages like justin did to have serious emotional and behavioral problems. if you don t have a consistent caregiver so you don t have someone who is meeting your needs as an infant or a young child, you don t learn that ability to trust. reporter: in dallas, this family worries their hopes of bringing a 7-year-old russian girl into their home may be crushed by the anger about what happened to justin. are you excited about getting a sister? yes. reporter: they expected to finalize things in about a month. but russia may stop adoptions. we ve already had several months to get our minds wrapped around this little girl being a part of our family and really already consider her our daughter. so it would be heartbreaking to not be able to bring her home at this point. we just have to trust that everything s going to be fine. reporter: u.s. officials are trying to smooth things out with the russians so adoptions can continue. as for hanson, one adoption agency that she worked with is saying that she never reported any problems with justin, never asked for help, and that the child could been placed with another american family. ron allen in tennessee this morning. ron, thank you very much. alisa is the mother of two adopted children from russia and the author of a guide to russian adoption, professional counseling and personal insights. lisa, good morning. nice to see you. at first blush this seemed as if it was going to be an isolated story involving this one mother and this one child. but now it looks like there could be fallout from this that s going to affect a lot of other families. how worried are you about that? absolutely. i am worried about it. i also think that we need to keep things into perspective. by that, i mean there are 50,000 former russian orphans living in the u.s. today. of those 50,000, 16 of those children have actually been abused at the hands of their american parents. to put this into perspective, that s .01% of adopted children hurt at the hands of americans. it is very easy for people to have an intant emotional reaction to this story. you hear people say how could this mother send this child back, how could she send him back alone on an airplane. how do you think she handled this situation? i just feel like there has to be more to this story. first, i don t know how she got through the stringent process. you have to do a home study, post-placement visits mandated by the russian federation at six months, post-adoption one year and two years. she has to have a psychological exam. she has to get letters from recommendation. she s a nurse. adoptions are overturned. this is not completely she had another option, right. what should she have done differently? well, first of all she should have i don t think that there is any information or we don t know if she reached out to any resources either in her community or with her social worker. she needed to contact somebody to let them know that she was having such a difficult time with the child. what about the emotion on the other side. over in russia they hear basically that this mother sent back this little boy alone on an airplane. is it likely that this is not going to have a backlash against other american families who may have an adoption in that country pending. exactly. and i personally know some of them. that s why i was so emotionally involved, plus with my own two children. i think the russians and americans have a better relationship than people think we do. i think what they re looking for is to come one a bilateral agreement where we say, yes, we will assure you we ll do a better job at ensuring the safety and health and growth of these children that come from russia. american families adopt children from countries all around the world. are there any unique issues in dealing with russian children, things that american families should know before starting the process? well, certainly in russia, the baby home that our children are from, baby house number 6 in st. petersburg, there were about 106 children in that orphanage at the same time. when you go in a room, you see a line of pack-and-play size cribs. dhoe wh they do what they can, they love the children. but in china and places like that, people are living in foster care homes so there is a difference as far as maybe the level of attention the child gets prior to adoption. is there any information to suggest there is a higher level of the children coming from russia is higher incidents of emotional issues, anything like that? i think they all have have to some degree some emotional issues but it is up to the parents to kind of know what they re getting into and to be able to tap some resources in order to address those. you see varying things. there are children who have attachment issues, children who have sensory issues. but i don t know anybody who wouldn t if they had to stay in pack-and-play crib for 20 hours a day. it is reversible with therapy and with the proper intervention that is available in this country. alisa, thanks very much for your input on this. let s get a check of the weather now from al. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by subway restaurants. subway now has breakfast. build your better breakfast only at subway. good morning, everybody. even though spring is busting out all over, winter doesn t want to let go just yet. this is out in reno, nevada, where they re going to be picking up another foot of snow today. yesterday they got about five inches of snow. some of the upper elevations looking at another foot. wow! as we check your weather for today, look at these temperatures. from bismarck down to atlanta, temperatures anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees above normal. but out west, looking at some snow, we re talking about temperatures anywhere from 5 to 20 degrees below normal. 80s throughout much of the lower mississippi river valley. into the mid mississippi river good morning, everyone. i m tony pann, it s going to be much cooler today than it was the past couple of days. otherwise mostly cloudy with high temperatures only in the mid 50 s. and we ve got some nice folks here. sweet home alabama. you can t spell alabama without al. that s right. what s your names? janet and kelly. what part of alabama you from? huntsville. having a good time. we got this nice lady who did this beautiful portrait of ann. but unfortunately one ann s not here. my gosh. what s your name? my name s emma. this is a beautiful poster of ann. how long did it take you to do this? probably a week. a week. we ll make sure ann gets that. okay. because that is beautiful. thank you. now let s head back inside to matt. al, thank you very much. up next, kate gosselin on her kids, her critics, and jon s accusations that she s an absentee mom. meredith talks about it all with her right after this. with egg whites. red onions. jalapenos. banana peppers. tomatoes. black forest ham. and sweet onion sauce. melted cheese all on english muffins. or flat bread. however you want it! 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[ male announcer ] get a healthy, green lawn today. call trugreen. go greener. back at 7:42. a year ago, fans of jon and kate plus 8 were waiting for a new season to begin. but instead of happy family outings, what viewers got instead was a year of drama, divorce and scandal. now kate gosselin is out with a new book called i just want you to know, recently sitting down with us for an interview. i asked her why she decided to write the book now after the year she had. this idea actually came to me as i was driving one day just a couple months ago. through everything that we ve been through, everything that i ve had conversations with my kids, i feel a lot of times i never wanted to have obviously, and i just wanted them really to know how much i love them, how much everything i do is for them. and it s not just a coined phrase, it is not just what i tell people, it is not a cop-out. it is truly what is in my heart and i wanted to write it down so they have h advice for now, advice for the future and kind of like a legacy. you look so emotional even as you talk about it. i m really tired and i really miss them honestly. but it was the most fun book out of all of the ones i ve written. i told the publisher when i sent the letters to them, they were to remain untouched and unedited. you really get to see in those letters the impact that your break-up with jon had on the kids. to hanna, you write over the last few years our family has changed. this has caused pain and doubt in you. it is shaken you and it has shaken each of us. to aden you write, i do not possess the skills to father you but i will do everything i can to show you the way. how are the kids doing? they are you ll juster that again and again from me. they are the eight most fabulous kids on the planet. they re strong, they re loving. i don t see anything negative they ve taken from this. i see, if anything, i see the kids and i becoming so much closer and they re more open to me. do they understand the divorce? they do now. they ve lived it for just about a year and they don t like it. i don t think any child likes it. they still say things like, i wish mommy and daddy could be together and those sort of things. but they still have their same innocent love for each of us and i appreciate that. you currently have primary custody of the kids but jon has sued for primary custody because he says is he an absentee mom, more interested in fame than raising the children. what s your reaction to that? my reaction to that is i m a working mom and cameras are on me so people catch me traveling and working. i ve got to work harder now than ever because i am a single mom. in my heart i m always in my kitchen baking and cooking for my kids and i ll always be there. it is a struggle to be here, to be anywhere. the emotion that you see is because i would rather be at home with them. but you feel you have to do this? i have to work. i have to provide for them and it s a struggle that every working mom especially single moms go through. i m really feeling it now and it s really hard. he brings up in particular dancing with the stars, what you re doing now. that s out in california. the kids are back in pennsylvania. how do you balance it all? i travel back and forth. i m on the first flight as soon as the show lets me out, i m on a plane and that s my night of sleep. and i get home and i dance and i m done by the time they re home from school and i spend the rest of the week with them. and it s difficult. i mean if i had 24 hours a day, seven days a week with eight kids it wouldn t be enough time in my book. to minus out the working days is really hard but i make the most of every minute i do have with them and i have a lot of conversations with them. they know that i have to work, they know that i have to go, they don t like it, but when i m home, we make those little spots of time really big in our memories. let s talk a little bit about dancing with the stars. it s been four weeks and you re still on the show. did you think you would last? no. you didn t. it s just starting to hit me now that i m really there, that this is week after week. it s truly one of the hardest things i have ever done. you said from the beginning you re not a dancer. i ve never taken a dance step in my life. is like talking chinese. just watching that freaks me out. it s been a great opportunity, i ve learned a lot about myself. i feel like i m a strong person but this is like, wow. this is the judges have been very tough on you. some of the comedians have gone after you. does that hurt your feelings or have you developed a thick skin? i don t really have time to pay attention and i do have a thick skin. people are always asking, are you upset by the judge s comments? to be honest, i take the constructive part and the rest of it, i don t remember what they say. i don t know. i take a lot of criticism so it s their job. they re there to do their job. i appreciate that. let s dispel the rumors that you re a diva on the set, you don t talk to the other dancers. i love them. except for the fact that i have to miss my kids when i m out there, most of them i will stay in touch with. i mean we have so much fun, from the hair people to the makeup people to all the cast and crew, all the dancers. it is like a big family unit and it truly is. actually a lot of the people that work on the show like the hair and makeup people, they re like we love all of the groups of people that come through here but they re like from the very beginning you guys with all very close. they are i laugh so hard when i m with them. like most of them are young and they re going out and night and staying out and i m like, i am too old for that. it s interesting, because the judges may have their feelings about you but the fans certainly keep you coming back week after week. what does their support mean to you? there are no words to describe it. i honestly say this jokingly, but i mean it the fans votes, my supporters, the people who believe in me i think more than i believe in myself are the ones that are keeping me on the show because certainly it is not my dancing. and to them i say thank you so, so much for caring and believing in me. we ll have more with kate gosselin tomorrow on today, including her reaction to criticism over starting production on yet another reality show. still ahead, jane pauley gets the fur flying. she will explain but first these messages. eis essential. that s why carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast. so kids get the protein and calcium they need to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. against pollutants and damaging environmental factors. new eucerin daily skin balance body lotion with ph buffer strengthens your skin s protective barrier. new daily skin balance only from eucerin. i could do the weight watchers plan entirely online. my gosh, i was a total couch potato; i think i shared a blood supply with the couch. one of the benefits of weight watchers online is that it s not only dealing with the food that i eat but it also deals with the exercise. with the iphone app, you can keep track of points. i can also journal my exercise while i m out so that i can see what my budget for the day is. i never thought i would look like this. [ female announcer ] join for free today. weight watchers online. finally, losing weight clicks. day after day, allergy season drags on. oh, how many days are you going to suffer? nasonex is the only prescription that prov to help prevent most seasonal nasal allergy symptoms, including congestion, so you can have more symptom-free days. [ female announcer ] side effects were generally mild d included headache, viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. it does not come in generic form, so ask your doctor about nasonex. [ female announcer ] and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. just ahead, what the grieving parents of murdered 17-year-old chelsea king are now doing to protect other children. also we ll check out rare items owned by marilyn monroe, how they could be yours after your local news. [ female announcer ] is three more than two? duh! 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[ female announcer ] walmart presents secrets of the mountain. april 16th on nbc. make tonight a family movie night with marketside pizza and pepsi. with thousands of great rollbacks, it s rollback time. save money. live better. walmart. hi, jay bush and duke here to introduce new bush s black bean fiesta..whoa. you can t tell everyone about new black bean fiesta. but it s perfectly cooked black beans, in a zesty south of the border chipotle sauce with red and green peppers, onion, and crisp corn. a bold new taste. i know. but i want people to think i m a great cook. so hide. delicious! can i have your recipe? your secret is safe with me. hello. new bush s black bean fiesta. and try new texas ranchero, along with our other grillin beans flavors. on the days that you have arthritis pain, you could end up taking 4 times the number of pills. compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day. 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. [ 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 good morning, everybody. it is 7:56. let s get a check on the morning commute. it is been busy since the last check. several accidents. one at bel air. at 122. watch for delays in that area. an accident in st. clair. in nothing at rolling road in catonsville. a another at rolling road in catonsville. and one of the toll lanes is blocked. a heavy ride on the north and west side beginning at reisterstown in the outer loop backing up traffic on southbound 795. problems on the southbound cares for expressway. harrisburg expressway. here is a live view in a couple of spots starting with the bw parkway southbound. the very heavy traffic there. here is 95 at the white marsh. things are starting to improve. watch for delays beyond white marsh and towards pulaski down towards the beltway. here is a check on the forecast. we are picking up some rain toward the pennsylvania line. some sprinkles in the northern part of a frederick county. it is moving south. the better the chance you will see rain at your house as we get further into the morning. often on rain showers are expected today. mid 50 s this afternoon. close to 70 on thursday. thanks for joining us. back in 25 minutes for a nother live update.ot 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, the 13th of april, 2010. a large, energetic crowd sharing the plaza. a friendly reminder to them and everyone who s watching, if you have yet to file your taxes, you only have two days left to mail them in this time. or send them in by e-mail. out on the plaza, meredith vieira, along with matt lauer and al roker. ahead, 17-year-old chelsea king was jogging in a san diego area park in february when she was brutally murdered. a convicted sex offender is charged in the case. now chelsea s parents are working to make sure other parents never feel the grief that they have had to deal with. we ll talk to them in a moment. on a much lighter note, we ve done a lot of auctions here of celebrity memorabilia, marilyn monroe items go for a lot of money. today we have a chest x-ray of marilyn monroe. look on the ground. that is the couch from her shrink s office. what do you think that s going to go for? what did yours go for? yours came with a straight jacket. you re encouraging him by laughing! we ll talk more about some of those items coming up. and we ve got don t turn on me! i didn t say it. we ve got two fabulous women up in our makeup room right now. jane pauley. yes. and she s being harassed by kathie lee gifford. one has a story about re-inventing yourself, the other has a story about a new children s book called party animals. which is which? we ll tell new just a minute. natalie morales is at the news desk. good morning, everyone. the nuclear summit in washington ends today with a pledge to keep terrorists and organized crime from acquiring nuclear materials. president obama greeted leaders from 46 nations. he won china s agreement to work on a new round of sanctions against iran and ukraine said it would rid its country of weapons-grade nuclear fuel left over from the soviet era. at the white house, the white house considering a replacement for retiring supreme court justice john paul stevens. one name apparently not being considered the white house says hillary rodham clinton will remain secretary of state. senator orrin hatch mentioned hillary clinton as a possible supreme court pick on the today show on monday. the body of poland s first lady was brought home to lie in state next to her husband in warsaw. they died saturday in a plane crash along with dozens of government officials. mechanical failure has been ruled out as the cause. the house where pope benedict was born has been vandalized. police in germany tells nbc news the house was defaced with obscene and insulting words in blue spray paint, vandalism that may be linked to the latest priest sex scandal. the vandalism comes three days before the pope s 83rd birthday. the search resumed this morning for a fourth crew member believed missing after monday s crash of a u.s. navy jet in georgia. at least three people died when the training flight out of florida went down near the tennessee border. nobody on the ground was hurt. new potential trouble for toyota today as it works to rebuild its reputation. consumer reports gave the new lexus gx 460 suv a rare don t buy safety risk label. today toyota will duplicate a test to determine if appropriate steps need to be taken. toyota recently recalled 8 million vehicles worldwide for vehicles linked to unintended acceleration and braking problems. now here s brian williams with a look at what s coming up tonight on nbc nightly news. coming up tonight, our popular making a difference segment. it is about haiti. an american doctor who since the quake has been treating victims almost non-stop. she s working to save the hospital damaged in the quake. her story tonight on nightly news. natalie, for now, back to you. thank you, brian. 8:04 right now. let s go back outside to matt and meredith. or meredith. where s mr. roker? i m down here, meredith. we ve got nice folks here. they re all from west virginia, all wearing the black ribbons in memory of the 29 miners who lost their lives tragically. we feel your pain. our thoughts and prayers are with you all. all right. let s check your weather and see what s happening. columbia, south carolina, wis nbc 10, you have sunny, mild conditions. 81. wish we had that weather here. jet stream right now is dipped down to the south. that s brought cooler air in to us in the northeast. also got a heavy snow look as you work your way into western montana. nice, big bulge in the mid-section of the country. that means the warmth is there. looking at warm weather through the southeast. spt. good morning, everyone, i m tony pann. we re off to a fairly quiet start. there s a little bit of rain activity, the big story is the change this in temperatures. high in the mid 50 s. nice folks from palo alto, california and a cutie. if you want to check your weather for texas and the rest of the current and the world, go to weather channel on cable or weather.com online. when we come back, a new effort to protect children from sex offenders launched by the parents of murdered 17-year-old chelsea king. we ll talk to them right after these messages. 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[ 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 at 8:09 with fallout from a shocking crime in california. 17-year-old chelsea king was raped and murdered in a san diego area park alleged by by a convicted sex offender. now her parents are working to make sure what happened to their daughter never happens again. we ll talk to them in just a moment, but first here s nbc janet schamlian. reporter: the brutal rape and murder of high school senior chelsea king sent shockwaves through her peaceful san diego community. the 17-year-old s body was found in a shallow grave in a park where she d gone for an after-school run. john gardner, a registered sex offender who served five years for a previous molestation is charged with chelsea s murder. he s pleaded not guilty. now newly released records reveal gardner committed seven parole violations, each of which could have sent him back to prison before chelsea went missing. among them, reports that in 2006, parole agents found gardner was living close to an elementary school, had a moois spa myspace account and was caught smoking marijuana. my personal promise to all the children, all the mothers and all the fathers, is that i will do all i can to protect other daughters and sons and other mothers and fathers from going through this incomparable nightmare that i m walking through. reporter: brett and kelly king have set aside their own impossible grief to become activists in hopes of reforming the laws governing sexual predators. chelsea s law would send some child molesters to prison for life after a first offense, and call for others to be on lifetime parole with electronic monitoring. it would also create safe zones for children that would be off off-limits to offenders, like the park where chelsea disappeared. but how, in such a cash-strapped pay, to pay for added supervision and more inmates when prisons are already jam-packed. it doesn t matter how many laws you have if the judges, the prosecutors, the parole agents and the cops aren t doing the job they re charged with doing. reporter: it may be an uphill battle but the kingses have support for the climb. a bus full of friends left san diego last night for a rally at the capitol today as ang anguished mom and dad hope to honor their daughter s memory for change. chelsea s parents brent and kelly king are with us now along with nathan fletcher who has announced chelsea s law on monday. good morning to you all. kelly, if i can start with you. before we talk about chelsea s law, it s only been about a month since you learned the tragic news about your daughter. how are you and your family holding up? we re taking it moment by moment. it s sometimes it s still surreal to us that thae she s not coming home. so we re doing the best we can. we re helping our son get through this as best he can and just putting one foot in front of the other. how is he dealing with it, kelly? he s lost his best friend. you know, he s a 13-year-old boy. he and chelsea were extremely close and they truly were best friends. his heart s broken. he s doing the best he can. brent, as janet schamlian just pointed out in her piece, john gardner, the man accused of killing your daughter, served time in prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl and once released, he violated his parole seven times which could have sent him back to prison if anybody had been paying attention. do you feel, brent, that the system failed you, failed your family, failed your daughter? yeah, absolutely. the system didn t just let a few cracks occur, it let a few holes occur. he should have never been on the streets in our community. ever. is that why you drafted chelsea s law? we drafted chelsea s law because we don t want any child to go through what our daughter went through. we don t want any family to ever experience the pain we re experiencing. have you talk to anybody since all of this happened, brent, in terms of the fact that this man did have these violations, parole violations, and nobody seemed to be paying attention? have you gotten any feedback as to why that would happen? i have not talked to anybody on the parole board or anything like that. no. but assemblyman fletcher has gotten very involved with us, helped us to get the governor to start pressing some people. we ll hear more. kelly, your husband compared your family s efforts to get chelsea s law passed to running a race. he says, it s a race kelly and i didn t choose to run in. we were selected to run in. do you feel the same way about that? i do. chelsea, the type of girl that she was, she has this invincible spirit and i think she knows and is guiding us through this process and is giving us the strength to run the race and to run it as long as long as she would, which would be forever, until things change. let s talk about chelsea s lay and assemblyman fletcher, feel free to enter into the discussion here. obviously the law s designed to provide harsher punishment for sex offenders in the state of california. what are the key components in this law? well, the law starts with the basic premise that someone who violently sexually assaults a child is not someone that we believe you can rehabilitate. if you can t rehabilitate them, then the district attorneys need an option to lock them up for the rest of their life. so it is a life without parole option. that s the first piece. the second piece is for sex offenders who target particularly young children, that may not rise to the level of life without parole, that s someone we need to keep and eye on and need to watch for rest of their life, that means a lifetime parole and gps monitoring. current law in california puts residency restrictions of where you can live, you can t live within 200 feet of a park. but no law says a convicted sex offender targeting a child can t go in that park all day long. that s a creation of safe zones to bring some level of assurance and comfort to parents that there s places they can go with their children where they re safe. we think the combination of these three things will help fix this broken system in california and better protect our children which is the primary responsibility of government. there are already sex offender laws on the books in california. why not just enforce those? that s a part of what we re doing. we ve said throughout this process, this is a first step. there s better enforcement of existing laws, there s some gaps in the system but in these instances, we ve seen these three particular things that are glaringly obvious. we will continue to hold the department of corrections accountable and it is a broad effort and chelsea s law is one part of that. are you concerned given the fact that california s financially strapped right now that this bill won t make it through the appropriations committee? it is going to be an uphill fight. i think a lot of us believe public safety s the primary responsibility of government. this is the most important thing the state does. california still has $85 billion and i think within that we can find enough money to protect our children from sexually violent predators. but we ve committed to working to find when the fiscal analysis of the bill is done, working to find reforms within the system and cost offsets because we are aware of the budget problems. it has to be the highest priority but we re willing to try and find the money within the budget to pay for it. just on a personal note, brent and kelly, i think you re very brave. i don t know i d have the strength to do what you re doing right now because in a way, every day you have to relive what happened to your daughter and you have to think about that molesters and other molesters like him. where does that strength come from? i think as a parent, when something like this happens, you re able to dig deeper than you yourself ever thought possible. we do this for chelsea. we do this for every child out there. it s the least we can do and it s the most we can do to protect our kids and to honor chelsea s memory. and you can also feel it inside of our community. there s a huge tipping point that s occurring right now in san diego that you can just feel that enough s enough, we need to make some changes. and so they drive us, too. i know that a lot of your supporters will be in sacramento today for that rally to show how much they love you and chelsea and support chelsea s law. brent and kelly king, thank you so much for joining us. assemblyman nathan fletcher as well. thank you. we ll be right back. thanks to the new venture card from capital one, we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a ski trip twice as fast. we get double miles every time we use our card. 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( crashing ) double miles add up quick. and all of those. so we brought the whole gang. one adult, one goat please. it s hard to beat double miles. everyone knows two is better than one. introducing the venture card from capital one. with double miles on every purchase every day. go to capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? oh, poor baby. go to capitalone.com. medication to lower your bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix. statin to lower bad cholesterol, along with diet, adding trilipix can lower fatty triglycerides and raise good cholesterol to help improve all three cholesterol numbers. trilipix has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or stroke more than a statin alone. trilipix is not for everyone, including people with liver, gallbladder, or severe kidney disease, or nursing women. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you are pregnant or may become pregnant. blood tests are needed before and during treatment to check for liver problems. contact your doctor if you develop unexplained muscle pain or weakness, as this can be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. this risk may be increased when trilipix is used with a statin. if you cannot afford your medication, call 1-866-4-trilipix for more information. trilipix. there s more to cholesterol. get the picture. let s take a look at the stats. mini has more than double the fiber and whole grain. making him a great contender in this bout. against mid-morning hunger. honey nut cheerios is coming in a little short. you ve got more whole grain in your little finger! let s get ready for breakfaaaaaaaaaast! 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[ rewinding ] at hellmann s, we search for the best sources to make our mayonnaise. we use eggs, vinegar and oil rich in omega 3. for the quality that could only be hellmann s. hellmann s. it s time for real. and, now introducing hellmann s light. it s made with 100% cage free eggs. ever since her tragic death in 1962 at the age of 36, the personal belongings of marilyn monroe have become some of the most sought-after eye sems to hit the auction block. in june, never-before seen property that once belonged to the legendary actress will be up for sale. julian s auction house, darren and julian, good to have you back. are these good investments? if you purchase something once owned by marilyn monroe, does it increase in value? very much so. we ve seen items that were bought five years ago go ten times what the price was originally. you guys have been on a lot. i think this is the most unusual group of items that we ve ever put on the show. let s start with this one right here. this is an x-ray of marilyn monroe s torso. yes. in 1954 it was taken. it was around the time that marilyn was believed to have had a miscarriage. we don t know exactly what it is, but but we know it is of marilyn monroe. comes originally from the gynecologist s family that took the photographs. who s going to stand up and bid on that one? we ve sold x-rays before. elvis presley we sold two years ago for $5,000 each. we estimate this should go for 8,000 or $12,000, but should sell in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. this is actually a couch from the shrink s office that marilyn used to go. how many years did she go? it was right after meltdown during the miss fits. who knows who else laid on this couch. what do we need to know about the style? it comes from the estate of the doctor but it is definitely very 70s. we estimate $800 to $1,200 but it is a piece of history. if the couch could talk, imagine what it would say. this chair was feature and seen in the last photo shoot marilyn monroe ever did. in 1962, two weeks before her death, it was a photo shoot for life magazine. she s sitting on this portion of the chair. can you actually see her heel mark where she punctured the chair. when she sat back she kind of cracked the chair, though it is structurally pretty sound. though somebody who buys who will put this way way. we estimate this will go for $2,000 for $3,000. this photo shoot she was in a tough time in her life. it went with time magazine. didn t she say to the writer, don t make me a joke? that s exactly right. she was worried about how she was going to be portrayed. these are skis. it s all downhill from here. you ve been waiting the whole segment for that line? i wanted to something marilyn monroe, circa 45- 46 photo shoot. these are not the skis, they are something similar. this is at the time she changed her name from norma jean to marilyn monroe and in 1956 she did that legally. we estimate $800, but anything marilyn monroe, i would say upwards of $10,000. never seen before. look at this, this is a beautiful slide of marilyn. taken at what period? taken about 1960. during the filming of some like it hot . which she won a golden globe for in fact. never seen before. taken on the set of the filming of this movie. we estimate these $1,000 to $2,000 but again, there s 11 of them all together. i think these will go very, very well. this champagne glass was given to marilyn on her birthday. correct? that s correct. when you drink the champagne you can read marilyn inside. she loved the good things in life. real quickly, i m about out of time, tell me about these nighties. this nightie that she gave to the doctor s daughter. she felt more comfortable chairing chanel no. 5 rather than nighties. we estimate this $200 to $400. the auction is june 26th at plant hollywood resort and casino in las vegas. for a complete list of auction items, go to good morning. let s get a check on the morning commute with traffic. we are still dealing with several accidents at this hour. first in harford county at 22 and prospects mill road. an accident in bel air. if you are heading out in the city, edison highway at sinclair lane, a crash. at crosby road in catonsville, an accident wrapping up. and an accident at 140. use caution there. delays are still in place around the area. one is stretching over to york road. reisterstown has a delayed towards edmondson. 795 backed up with the delays on the inner loop. 20 minutes in your drive time on the outer loop. 17 minute drive on the west side on the outer loop. further south on 295 lingering delays from 175 down to 32. here is a check on the forecast. we are seen some rain southbound of pennsylvania. the further we go into the morning, the better chance you will see some at your house. frederick in harford has some light rain. it will reach annapolis in the next hour or so. southern maryland after that. low 50 s right now. we will not move much only making it to the mid 50 s. thanks for joining us. we will see you back here at 8:55. 8:30 now on a tuesday morning, the 13th day of april, 2010. we ve got kind of a cooler start to the day. they won t warm up that much, only into the upper 50s. we don t seem to have a crowd that minds thatch. they re here waving to people back home. kathie lee gifford is out mingling with them. she s written a brand-new book all about party animals. not what you think though. it s a children s book. kathie lee will talk to us about that. very nice. we read it, it is very cute. they do like their milk and kool-aid, the animals. yes, they do. also coming up, the lovely and talented jane pauley. she s here with us. she ll tell us what one man taught her about the risk and rewards of re-inventing your life mid stream. that s right. and we ve got the perfect souffle. if you are looking to make the perfect souffle, donnatella apaia is going to be here to tell us how to do that. the perfect souffle is one someone else makes. before that perfect souffle, we have answers to the diet questions you asked about, like should you drink caffeine before you work out or have that perfect souffle before you work out. but first let s say hello to melissa morgan, given a second chance on the biggest loser but ultimately was voted off! melissa, what happened? good morning. well, i don t know. i got sent home again. they ganged up on you. second time you got sent home. why did they gang up on you? i don t know. some people say it was your game plan. some say it was my game play. you know? were they threatened? i was staying good at challenges. fy got back there, with the exception of sam i could have beat all of them in challenges. they chickened out. you scared them. you say that s what you need to do in order to survive on the show. you ve got to! it s a competition. the swimming competition, they were helping everybody but you. everyone but me, yes. meanwhile, we should point out how great you look. you were 233 pounds when you started the challenge. you got down to 175 pounds. you re less than that now but you aren t revealing your current weight. i am less than that and i m not telling! why not? it s a little bit of game play but i have an awful lot of critics out there and i would rather them talk about the fact that i m not telling than talk about how much i weigh. does this have anything to do with the at-home prize? well, here s what s real. i know have a snowball s chance in the world of winning this thing. why not? look at you! because michael s 526 pounds. he s got more to lose. it is going to be easy for him to lose 50%. i had ahave to be at 116 pounds to be at 50% of my body weight. it s never going to happen. the reality is the number on that scale is insignificant. it means nothing to me at all. it s all about the transformation and about the person that i am. good attitude. i don t care what that number is. you won already. i did. you ran a half-marathon recently. i m running another one in two weeks. congratulations. we like you, even if you are a game player. catch biggest loser couples tonight 8:00, 7:00 central right here on nbc. melis melissa, good luck. for today, we ve got cool weather here in the northeast, rain in the mid-atlantic states, risk of strong storms from the dakotas down into the central plains. rain in the pacific northwest. tomorrow mild weather moves into the mid-atlantic with plenty of sunshine. rain in the western half of texas, rain in northern california and southern oregon. snow showers in the central good morning, everyone. i m tony pann, it s going to be much cooler today than it was the past couple of days. otherwise mostly cloudy with high temperatures only in the mid 50 s. don t forget, if you want to check your weather any time of the day or night anywhere around the world, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. when we come back, jane pauley on how to re-invent yourself. but first, this is today on nbc. back at 8:37 with more of our special series, your life calling today. our buddy jane pauley has produced a sponsored a new series of reports for us. jane, good morning. here is a pretty typical scenario. you know you re eager, anxious, maybe desperate to reinvent yourself. but you haven t a clue how. thomas betts of portland, oregon only knew where he wanted to be on the sunny side of the cascade mountains. but he didn t know what he wanted to do. no idea. until one day it came to him. who wouldn t want to wake up to this? thomas betts rises early to meet 47 alpacas, already awake and humming. they re beautiful. they all have personalities. can you hear them in the background humming to each other, talking. i don t know what they re saying, but seems like they re happy. this is a big change for you. not only were you in sales, in management, but you re a sailor. i love sailing. raced for 25 years. now you re a rancher. yeah. how much background in animal husbandry did you have? none. zero. he says he wasn t miserable at his old job and he was good at it. sales and management in retail marine supplies. i had a lot of things i had to do and it was a grind doing every day the same thing, making the numbers. that can weigh on you. and little voice says there s got to be more? right. but the little voice didn t know what it was? he did know he wanted to be his own boss and make his own choices with connie, his wife of 36 years. we worked together very well as a team. did the idea of ranching ever occur to you? not until the gentleman walked into west marine and wanted 50 dock lines. i thought he had 50 boats. i said i want them for my alpacas. i went home and asked connie, what s an alpaca. her eyes got big and said, does he make any money doing it? connie who grew up on a farm did know something about animals. i said, well, let s take a chance. alpacas possess valuable fiber for spinning into high-quality yarn but the betts business model is breeding. over my shoulder, are there any stars? we have dream dancer here. she s an absolute beautiful female. she was born here? um-hmm. what did you know about birthing babies? zero. they re pretty much self-sufficient. they actually have babies between 7:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. you re kidding. but i also read that alpaca poop doesn t smell. no, it smells. mucking out the barnyard is not a highlight of his day, so he invented, manufactures and sells the pooper-scooper. i like working with metal. in college he worked part-time as a machinist. what was your training in the school? i was a music major. betts is full of surprises. he can knit, weave and spin. it s picture-perfect. but can you make any money at it? you always have to have something to go along with just the alpacas. that s why we started the yarn shop. their parking lot is filled on weekends with visitors, boarding alpacas for other investors brings in revenue, too. still, connie works full time from home as a technical writer. they re not getting rich, but it s a sweet life on the sunny side of the mountain. my crowning achievement, i have real healthy animals and i ve done real well in the show ring. i have a stud that went to nationals and a trophy for having some of the best fiber in the country. that s what i call making the numbers. thomas betts may look like he s had an extreme makeover, but look more closely and you ll see he s not really changed much. still using the same life experience, skills and talents, just in a decidedly different context. here s the reality check. thomas and connie didn t just take the plunge. his first step was one the experts recommend tested out. he managed another alpaca ranch for nine months to find out if he d like the work and thought he could make a go of it. p.s. alpacas are very cute but they don t like to be patted on the head. probably not a good pet. you know what strikes me about this couple, too? they obviously have been thinking a while about re-interventing themselves, they didn t know what to do. he hears this word, alpaca, then goes home to the wife and then everything starts to take shape. what s the message? i think if you are thinking of this idea, you re actively engaged in what will i do, when the right idea crosses your eyeballs, the back of your mind is ready to link it up. it s like all the lights illuminate and the path seems clear. so on some level, he intuitively knew. and his wife confirmed that this could be the idea he had been patiently waiting for. is that what happened to you? same thing? i ve been thinking about re-invention ideas and how i might do something with it for quite a while. but to be honest, there came a time when i thought that my universe of options that i was so enthusiastic about personally was shrinking. last summer i was in a hotel room with my daughter. she s a huge fan of the today show. has no memory of her mother ever having been here. huge fan. so the tv s on. that morning by coincidence willard was on, gene shalit was on, my old friends, my era, and meredith, suddenly i could see myself back in that picture. so i put it together, the your life calling idea, went down, found aarp was enthusiastic and put together what here we are. and the rest is history. i saw myself in the picture. we re so glad you re in the picture. jane pauley, thank you. join jane for a live web chat today at noon eastern. head to todayshow.com for details. up next, kathie lee gifford writes the book on party animals. she will explain. but first this is today on nbc. back now at 8:45 with a woman who needs no introduction. our very own kathie lee gifford, co-host of the four hour of today, has written a new children s book i make you nervous, don t i? entitled party animals. someone told me a long time ago to write a good children s book you have to have a little bit of child in you. it was a breeze. but a lovely compliment. nine years ago my writing partner and i, david friedman, wrote a little cd for preschoolers. i had written tons of very silly songs for my own children when they were growing up. it was just one of those things i decided to do. my daddy was very sick at the time and i didn t market it in any way. it was just one of those things that i put on the shelf. and then later, some publishers saw the lyrics and heard the song and said it would be a great series of children s books. so this is the first hopefully in a line of children s books. the star of the book is a good named lucy. tell me a little bit about lucy. she s a little self-centered, something else i know something about. she has a birthday coming up so she wants her party to be simply best so she has to be careful when choosing each guest. when she goes around all the differentance on t ancces of th the farm, she realizes there s something wrong with everyone. she comes to understand finally that it wouldn t be this wonderful farm without all the animals and each one contributes to being a part of the farm by being their own unique, very special self. you have two children. they re not of the age where they re going to be reading this anymore. if they have, i have failed and spent way too much money on schooling. but was this a lesson that you tried to drill in to them, you accept everything about everybody? you know what? it s basically about the fact that we are live in a culture that nitpicks and is so cruel to one another. we are really mean spirited in many, many ways. i found in my life there is really something you can find about everybody to like. it s hard sometimes and you ve got to really dig, but i think it is possible. if you re looking for it you will find it. if you look just to complain and criticize, that s easy. i don t mean to blow sneak here, but cassidy and cody are nice kids. they re nice kids, they re well adjusted. when you and frank look back at things you did and don t do as you were growing up, is there one thing that jumps out at you that says that really helped, that really contributed to the kids they are today? i think the best thing we did was tell our children they re not the center of the universe. they re a center of ours, but there is a big world out there that we are all responsible to be a part of. i think the world is full of spoiled adults but they started out as spoiled children and nobody ever told them any differently. and i think to whom much is given much is required. our children have been blessed, just as yours have. there is a responsibility that comes along with that to give back and that s not a cliche i mean it is a cliche because it is true. it s true. the other thing we taught them is that god loves them even more than we do and it is a good thing because there was times i wanted to ship them off, too. faith has been very important in your life and their lives as well. the song that goes along with this, there is a cd in the back. you just can t get enough kathie lee cds. this is the woman who just told her kids they re not the center of the universe. you re going to be singing that in the fourth hour. yes. and you re going to be singing backup for me. that s not going to happen. it s not. so lucy s back, more books? lucy s back. what a performance i m giving on the 10:00 hour, matt. come on. can t believe the woman i see every day in the makeup room and the things you say written in children s books. i should have never been allowed to breed. come on. the book is called party animals. thanks. good luck. coming up next, souffles made simple. but first, this is today on nbc. announcer: today s cooking school is brought to you by hellmann s. it s time for real. this morning on today s cooking school, we re learning how to make the perfect souffle. it can be intimidating by donna telearpaia says it is not as hard as you would think. i hear souffle and i get very scared. it s not cooking 101. no, i m telling you it s not bad. and the team here, we are all prepared. that s the most important thing with the soo fuffsouffle, just prepared, have your ingredients set out. souffles can be main dishes, side dishes. they re like cross-dressers. it depends on the container size. we ll make an appetizer size but i also have little ramekins. they can be side dishes. i m teaching you. we re going to but the our ramekin. that sounds very you know what. the plate with the cheese or see what you re dealing with? now you know why the souffle is going to be a challenge. add the cheese, start rolling it around. when you do sweet souffles, you add sugar. it is the same premise. you don t have to be real neat on this. no, not at all. we ve made our basic roux, just milk, flour, and you stir it on high heat for about three minutes. what does roux mean? it s a french terminology why are you laughing? for your basic means stroke. right? s she asks you the tough questions. we mix this sauce. this is the part where people just take it off the heat. just keep it right here. we ll add in our egg yolks and they re at room temperature. you want to stir them in. if you whisk? whisk them in. the reason you take it off the heat is you don t want the eggs to scramble. you have to whisk it so it cools, really fast. okay? no scrambling so far. then we add our seasoning. little salt still off the heat? still off the heat. keep it off the heat. pepper. we shut off the sheet completely now. all right. off. ooh! that s okay. a little nutmeg. i love it. this is like kitchen stadium. then we ll pour in our cheese. it really is easy. my book is all about easy ingredients but still being glamorous. all the cheese. all the spinach. are we stirring that in or just dropping it in? we got to drop it, and then stir. right? that s it. we re almost done. just stir it. doesn t look very good at this point. did anyone s eggs scramble? no. no. good. don t we have to add egg whites at some point? here we go. now. the final step. i ll teach you how to fold. take your egg whites. and you slowly start taking in the mixture. put the mixture in. yeah. you take your spatula underneath. i m going to teach you how to fold. you go around, and it is like you re stirring. underneath which? underneath the white. then you stir and over. you turn the bowl and you stir and it is over. the whole point is not to deflate the egg whites. being gentle with this. you actually put all of this in? yes. under and over. how long does this cook? hopefully in 30 seconds. not so, al! it takes about 25 minutes to rise. there you are. don t overmix, don t go crazy. weren t we supposed to make a groove? i make a little groove. i pour it in. i just go like this with my good morning. here is a look of one of our top stories this morning. the mayor is trying to close the $121 million budget gap. cuts and new taxes are necessary to keep jobs and decent services in place like police and fire officials essentials services officials. they would have to cut 250 jobs, keep the furlough plan in place. she will not raise property taxes. but there will be a beverage containers surcharge put in place. taxes will be waived from things are getting downright twisted at dunkin donuts. hurry in for our new freshly baked bagel twists, available in delicious cheddar cheese or cinnamon raisin. here for a limited time. america runs on dunkin . get swept up with the big chocolate taste of mocha iced coffee from dunkin donuts. it s just another one of our delicious, refreshing iced coffee flavors grab one today! america runs on dunkin . good morning. i am tony pann. some rain will be thrown into the picture today. cloudy skies, often done rain showers, cooler than the past couple of days. high temperature is only expected in demand 50 the mid . maybe some more rain late friday and early saturday morning. things should clear up for the rest of the weekend. temperature s only in the low 60 s. thanks for joining us. we will see you back here at 9:25. 9:25.