face justice. today's sunday, june 6, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television this is "today" with lester holt and jenna wolfe. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a sunday. i'm lester holt. >> i'm jenna wolfe. waking up to breaking news. >> they arrested these men also checking out their homes in new jersey. the men were apparently preparing to board separate flights at jfk airport, the ultimate destination, according to authorities, was somalia. there's no immediate threat in the u.s., but they say the men were preparing to join an affiliate of al qaeda overseas. coming up, what investigators suspect they were up to. we'll head to the gulf of mexico. officials say the gaap cap placed over the gushing well captured about 250,000 gallons of oil in just its first day of operation. that could be about one-third of the daily flow of oil, but bp says it hopes to collect more over the next couple of days. we'll have an update coming up. plus important medical news this morning. a breakthrough in treating the most deadly form of skin cancer. it is extending life with those with advanced melanoma. in some patients it's making the cancer disappear. it's truly a remarkable breakthrough. we'll have the details you need to know. >> you had this amazing opportunity. you sat down with one of the world's great, great comedians, carol burnett. >> for years she kept a lot of us glued to her living room sets watching her cast of characters on saturday nights and she shares memories of that including the remarkable path she took to get on that show. we have that coming up. first, we want to give you the latest on the arrest of those two men on terror chargest. jonathan dienst of w nbc in new york joinsous the phone. this was part of a four-year surveillance operation. that's a lot of patience authorities put into this. how did it begin to unravel? >> it's our understanding that the nypd was in with these two men in an undercover fashion and were able to track them where they made arrangements to travel overseas and had some intention to fly overseas to the middle east and on to somalia to hook up with al qaeda operatives. that according to law enforcement officials who felt it was time to move in and make the arrests as they headed to the airport to begin that travel overseas. do they believe they were simply going to somalia for training or that this was the beginning of an operational mission to target americans. >> the fear is there would be a mission to target americans or troops overseas, but no specific plot here. the two men are from new jersey. they are single males and american citizens and one identified as muhammad blasa and the other carlos eduardo. they are in custody, the fbi, nypd and port authority police making the arrest last night in an operation, arabian nights is what it was dubbed. the concern, that these americans based here, were going to travel overseas to hook up with somali extremists and al qaeda operatives overseas. >> jonathan dienst, thanks for checking in on that late word. we are joined by nbc terror analyst roger cressey. roger, good morning to you. >> good morning, lester. it was just this past week another somali man was hauled off an airliner before it entered u.s. airspace. he was accused on a u.s. warrant being involved with al shaab ab. is the u.s. becoming a recruiting ground for this particular group. >> it has been for different reasons than we normally talk about an al shahban. and a couple of dozen americans have gone overseas to fight there. principally the driver has been clan, nationalistic reasons. somali-americans, the relatives are in somalia. they're engaged in this fight and they volunteered to defend their family. what we're seeing now is an evolution where al shabab is attacking targets outside of somalia and their targets have become more pronounced. there was a case where al shabab be on rattives were interested in conducting attacks in somalia. it might be projecting a threat otherwise. that's where the evolution is going and that's what's most disturbing. >> there is a disturbing trend here. let me run through the list. you have a couple of americans, young, single living in suburbia, new jersey, they come on the heels of faisal shahzad, remember the connecticut man arrested in the times square attempted car bombing. jamie ramirez, the colorado mom planning an attack. najibullah zazi, the man arrested after attempting the bomb plot on new york city subways, major nadal hasan. that's a lot going on. how are they reacting to the trend of either americans or those living in this country allegedly plotting these attacks? >> lester, this is the trend that's most disturbing to the counterterrorism authority. you see it becoming a number one priority and right behind the threat of afghanistan and pakistan. all of those cases are cited by different circumstances, different sets of -- different scenarios, but the bottom line is still the same. these are americans either naturalized americans, native born americans or people here in terms of green cards all of whom are now being recruited for terrorist activities. so the fbi especially, but even new york police department are looking at this as a growing priority and the question is if they're being radicalized for different reasons how do you come up with underlying circumstances to identify new potential recruits and that's what makes it so difficult. these are people who don't appear on anybody's database, so identifying them before they become operatives is very tough. >> it's all very troubling. roger cressey, thank you. >> you bet. >> now here's jenna. >> thanks. now to the ongoing story in the gulf of mexico where the sheen continues to spread. it has people on edge in pensacola, florida. mark potter is there for us this morning. hi, mark. >> reporter: good morning to you, jenna. the government says engineers are slowly traying to increase the amount of oil captured by the containment cap. as of yesterday it was 6,000 barrels a day, with so much oil still escaping the effects are spreading with tar balls on florida beaches and officials spotted a light sheen of oil right here, just a half mile off pensacola beach. >> park service workers are busy picking up tar balls. gooey clumps of oil continue to wash ashore. >> it's an ever-changing situation. the tar balls are right where the waves break. along the florida panhandle from west of pensacola beach to the town of navar beach, noorly 300 cleanup workers are on the shoreline in barrier islands with angry residents also helping out. >> i got a pillowcase out of the car and took a waffle house cup and started picking up tar balls and it was a ridiculous response, but it was my way of getting the oil out. >> charlie crist. >> it breaks your heart to see wild life impacted that way is just tragic. >> joining the governor is jimmy buffett who is opening a hotel on pensacola beach. >> just try to get involved any way you can. i'm not here to point fingers. i'm just here to lend a hand. >> potential damage to their beaches. >> nothing has been done about it. this is our home and our community. >>. >> reporter: on the beaches, though, many sunbathers are still enjoying the water, but others are starting to worry about potential health risks from oil. >> as far as the shores here they won't be able to go in the water, not until they clean this mess up. >> reporter: so far, florida beaches are still open with no plans to close them yet. on the water, southwest of pensacola beach, boaters discovered a light sheen of oil. >> which way is that oil sheen heading? >> to me it looks like it's in lines running north and south. >> heading toward shore? >> yes, sir. it's headed that way. >> reporter: in pensacola bay along estuaries and marines booms have been set up to catch oil and fireboats are standing by to decontaminate any arriving boats that went through the oil. meanwhile the oil threat continues to move east along the panhandle and here in pensacola today government and health officials will be talking about whether to close the beaches or keep them open as they are now. as for bp, it's draw something criticism for its apologetic ad campaign featuring its ceo tony hayward who promises to fix the leak and compensate all of the victims, but president obama has said rather than spending that money on pr, the company should be concentrating on cleanup and recovery. also, newspapers in britain are reporting that hayward sold about a third of his company's stock a month before the disaster. there is no suggestion that he did anything wrong or had any advanced knowledge, but in the sale he did avoid the losses felt by so many stockholders now. jenna? >> mark potter. mark, thank you. john harwood is chief correspondent for cnbc. good morning. >> good morning, jenna. >> this is top priority for president obama. he made his third trip to the gulf on friday. he's trying to fight this perception that he's just been out of touch on all of this. has the white house corrected itself and gotten this message out the way it wanted to at this point? >> they're doing everything they possibly can, jenna. they send out so many alerts on the administration efforts. the president by going back there commanded the news for the day, even the unfavorable jobs report was coming out. we've seen the president has not had his approval rating change much one way or the other. so some of the fallout is within the news coverage of the president rather than the public's perception, but he's got to try to get on top of that by showing that he's on top of the cleanup as well as the effort to cap this well, but the head wake is not going to go away until they had more progress on stopping the flow of oil and they're hopeful they can do that. >> what about the president's decision to put a moratorium on drilling. a lot of state and local officials are saying hold on. this is going to affect our economy and it will get jobs away from us. did this administration have any other option, any other choice at this point? >> they didn't have any choice, but they're confronting as you suggest, jenna, some of the contradiction within their own policy. that means the president before this blowout had advocated increased drilling with tighter safeguards. that's part of the legislation he's pushing on capitol hill and that's part of his administrati administration's stance and those states that are on the gulf get a whole lot of revenue from the royalties of that drilling. so there's only so far they can go in reversing course and saying this activity that we thought was safe and we thought was acceptable a few weeks ago no longer is. so trying to strike the right balance between what's the appropriate amount of new regulation going forward while permitting this activity to take place is one of the big political challenges that hasn't gotten a lot of attention so far. >> john harwood. thank you so much. >> you bet. >> a program note this tuesday, matt lauer will have an exclusive interview with president obama. let's get a check of the headlines. at the news desk is lynn berry. >> good morning to you. good morning, everyone. we'll begin in t, in illinois, twister was caught on tape near peoria late saturday. a tornado watch is now in effect from since nat toe pittsburgh. investigators in illinois searched a muddy stretch of land saturday for the remains of drew peterson's fourth wife. police received a jailhouse tip, but will not comment on the investigation. stacy peterson has been missing since 2007. the former police officer is currently in jail charged with murdering his third wife. that trial begins next month. the fbi is searching for a 7-year-old oregon boy missing since friday. kiron horman was last seen at his school's science fair and never made it home. police will resume the search today and speak with parents and students for any information. and finally, was there no triple crown stake, but it was still a dramatic finish in the belmont stakes. in an upset, drosselmeyer came from behind to beat fly down. first dude came in third and drosselmeyer's odds were 13 to 1. so if you can imagine there are a few folks that are smiling and others want so much. lest lester, jenna and janice, di bak do you. >> i didn't win, but i did have a good time. >> that's what matters. janice huff is here with the check of weather. >> they had a great weather for the belmont stakes. it will be a hot day in the southwest. before we get to that, we have rain moving in. we talked about the severe weather yesterday across illinois, ohio and indiana. tornado watch is valid until 9:00 a.m. eastern time for parts of ohio and there could be more tornadoes today from parts of tennessee into new york city, boston, albany and ph >> good morning, everyone. i'm tony pan. we're off to a quiet start, but the further we go into the day, the better chance we will run into rain. high temperatures in the upper city with a chance for severe storms this afternoon. washington, d.c. with a high of 91, 93 in miami. now here's jenna. >> janice, thanks. up next on "today," a dramatic breakthrough in treating a deadly form of cancer. that's right after this. have you tried honey bunches of oats with real strawberries? wow. it's seriously strawberry. they're everywhere. it's in the bunches, on the flakes, even real strawberries in the mix. can i have some more? honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it's delicious. nobody does it quite like us. we helped keep your skin clear. now we have a solution for wrinkles. neutrogena anti wrinkle with retinol sa smoothes even deep wrinkles. it works...beautifully. neutrogena. women preferred the softness and scent of concentrated snuggle blue sparkle to the leading brand. and snuggle costs less, too. so go on, buy snuggle today. it is the most deadly type of skin cancer, melanoma. last year there were more than 68,000 new cases in the united states and almost 9,000 deaths, but this weekend researchers at a conference of the american society of clinical oncologists reported the results of an exciting study, a breakthrough in treating advanced melanoma in helping people live longer. nbc's chief science correspondent robert bazell has the story. >> reporter: rick will key is back to resuming his hobby, he's resumed as a commercial airline pilot. he was facing eminent death. melanoma had spread through his body. he thought of his wife and their two teenagers. >> he needs help with them. i just couldn't believe that it was happening. >> all these little dark spots are the melanoma. >> reporter: dr. stephen odeh shows how much cans her permeated wilke's body. >> melanoma is a devastating disease and traditionally we've had no treatments that have successfully improved survey offal. >> reporter: until now. dr. odeh and others have been studying a protein which stimulates cells in the immune system to attack the melanoma. >> the cancer is just melting. >> reporter: after a few treatments, scans show that wilke's cancer was gone. >> the staff, the nurses. >> everybody was jumping up and down. >> everybody came into this tiny little room to give us the good news. >> any new symptom at all. >> reporter: across the country, other patients were getting similar news. >> as someone who has been treating melanoma for a long time and seeing a lot of failures. does this excite you? >> absolutely. you can feel it in the waiting rooms of melanoma centers, the patients are energized. our waiting rooms are becoming fuller because patients are waiting longer. this is producing excitement both for the clinical researchers both in the battleground of the horrible disease and the patients and their families. >> there are drawbacks. the drug works in only 20% to 30% of patients and doctors cannot predict which ones. in some patients it set off auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and colitis. >> any new problems? >> reporter: treating those does not stop the drug from treating the cancer. for patients like wil keshgs, the drug is a lifesaver. >> we're getting the kids ready for college. >> reporter: for "today," robert bazell, nbc news, los angeles. still to come on "today," joran van der loot and the young woman he was with right before she died, but first these woman he was with right before she died, but first these messages. even carrots and peas.beef, you love the smaller-size, easy-to-chew kibbles, and i love the carbohydrates for energy and protein for muscles. whoa! wait for me! ha-ha. you only think you're getting spoiled. [ woman announcing ] new beneful incredibites. another healthful, flavorful beneful. >> and still to come, it's been six months since this utah mom disappeared and her husband is still a person of interest. we'll have the latest coming up. changing gears, what makes carol burnett so funny with her tarzan yell? we'll find out. sweet n' sour filled twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. brings your child's fever down faster and keeps it down longer than children's tylenol®. not even children's motrin® is proven better. for relief you can trust, look for children's advil® in the cough/cold aisle now. >> good morning. i'm lisa robinson. it is 7:26. here's a look at our top stories. city police looking for the gunman that shot a man in west baltimore. bullets flew into the 2000 block of utah place 6:30 last night. a man was struck in the torso. in word on his condition. >> an officer still recovering sth morning after being struck and injured by a car. city police officers say the officer was taken to shock trauma and is expected to be ok. >> city officials have recovered the body of a man that drown in the loch raven reservoir. he has been identified as anthony ibewuike of baltimore county. fire officials received the news after a group of men decided to go for a swim. >> swimming in the reservoir is not allowed. it is not a safe place to swim. a number of young men came out yesterday evening, noticed one of their friends had fallen behind. they turned around to find out what was happening, and he slipped beneath the water. >> officials say swimming is illegal in the loch raven reservoir for a number of reasons, which includes fluctuating currents, underwater debris. >> and now a if follow-up to a company that claimed to be a legitimate nursing school. associated national medical academy has been ordered to shut down. the amount they have to pay back is $111,000. the company is not recognized by the maryland higher education. they ordered the office to cease and desift. last september an undercover i-team investigation refealedvealed it was still accepting appli >> welcome back. good morning. once we get into the afternoon, the weather will turn active. scattered thunderstorms possible. later in the day, it could be strong or severe, including large hail and perhaps damaging winds. keep that in mind. up until 1:00 or 2:00, i think the weather will be ok. a mix ever sun and clouds. southwest wind at 10 to 15. high temperatures will be in the upper 80's to 90 degrees. sunset this evening at 8:30. overnight, a chance for thunderstorms this evening. it will be comfortable when you wake up monday morning. and it looks like a beautiful start to the workweek coming up. sunshine on monday and tuesday with high temperatures in the 70's. might be able to turn the air conditioning off. next chance for rain moves in on wednesday. end of the week gets hot again. >> thank you, tony. thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here in 25 minutes. here we are on this sunday morning, june 6, 2010. it's a steamy sunday morning in new york city. we thank the folks on the plaza who decided to spend part of their morning with us. back inside studio 1a, jenna wolfe along with lester wolf. still to come, joran van der sloot. >> he wa