Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100623 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. all eyes are on the white house this morning and that face-to-face meeting between president obama and general stanley mcchrystal. what seems to be ironic, general mcchrystal was put in charge in afghanistan in part because he wasn t afraid to speak his mind. but now it s his words that could come back to haunt him. the controversy is over disparaging remarks about president obama and top administration officials made by general mcchrystal and his staff in a rolling stone article. this is all playing out at a very critical time, just a year before the president wants to start pulling troops out of afghanistan. so how big of a disruption would it be to fire the general right now? just ahead, we ll talk about that with retired general barry mccaffrey who is now an nbc news military analyst. also ahead, a new ilhouse interview with joran van der sloot. this morning his response to what his mother has been say in about his arrest and why van der sloot says he should have gone to a psychiatric facility instead of peru. more on that coming up. and some news overnight that a man often described as one of the most eligible bachelors is off the market. prince albert of monaco is engaged. we ll have the details on that story coming up just ahead. but let s begin this morning with today s showdown at the white house between the president and his top general in afghanistan. nbc s issavannah guthrie is at e white house. savannah, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. well, some senior aides said this morning they believe the president is leaning towards replacing mcchrystal. other officials think this is about bringing mckrchrystal bac basically publicly humiliating him and sending him back to the battlefield. this meeting is make or break for mcchrystal. meeting with his cabinet tuesday, the president held his fire on the fate of general stanley mcchrystal. i think it s clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed a poor showed poor judgment and but i also want to make sure that i talk to him directly before i make any final decisions. reporter: mckrchrystal s profile in rolling stone magazine dropped like a bomb on the white house. in it mcchrystal and his brash inner circle of military hotshots openly disparaged the president and his team. a source telling the magazine mcchrystal thought the president looked uncomfortable and intimidated the first time he met with military brass and was unprepared for his first one-on-one with mcchrystal. here s the guy who s going to run his expletive war mcchrystal said but he didn t seem engage. mckr mcchrystal and his team openly joked about vice president biden. biden, suggests a top adviser? did you say bite me? and general jim jones a clown. the article says mcchrystal called ambassador richard holbrooke a wounded animal because the longtime diplomat was constantly worried he d lose his job. at the white house tuesday, the president s spokesman left mckr mcchrystal s job hanging. i would say all options are on the table. including firing him? i think that option is on the table. reporter: famous for sleeping just four hours a night, eating one meal a day and running a tight military shift, mcchrystal has a tortured history with the administration. last year the president summoned him to air force one in copenhagen, angry that mcchrystal had openly criticized vice president biden s position on the war as, quote, shortsighted. mcchrystal spent monday and tuesday calling the officials he had slammed in print to apologize. he met personally with ambassadors richard holbrooke and carl ike eikenberry in kabu saying it was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. he did not dispute the accuracy of the article. nbc s richard engel in kabul spoke with the reporter who broke the story. reporter: the journalist who wrote the article, michael hastings, said he had such close access to general mcchrystal, mostly by accident. he ended up getting stuck with the general in europe when flights were canceled because of the volcano in iceland. he went on to spend a month with general mcchrystal and his inner circle and says they were candid right from the start. there was even things that were said to me off the record that i didn t print that were even, you know, more inflammatory if people want to call the comments inflammatory. reporter: the timing could not be worse. 2010 is on track to be one of the deadliest years for u.s. troops. the mcchrystal surge strategy shows signs of faltering with a key military offensive in kandahar delayed and support for the war at home is waning. yet some former military officials say mcchrystal has left the president no choice. it s important that the white house show the president of the united states will have nobody below him who is insubordinate or appears insubordinate so i think it s important that the president fire him. reporter: well, mcchrystal is arriving this morning from afghanistan. he s meeting first with secretary gates over at the defense department. he ll have a private oval office meeting with the president and aides really emphasize the president is not entering into this with a predetermined outcome. he wants to hear what mcchrystal has to say for himself, matt. savannah guthrie at the white house. thanks so much. two men with very different perspectives on this retired general barry mccaffrey, an nbc news military analyst, and dan geret. good morning to both of you. general, let me start with you. savannah says the president doesn t go into this with a preconceived notion. do you think this is a done deal? is general mcchrystal gone? i don t know. i m sure of one thing, he s impaired his effectiveness to guide the process in afghanistan to deal with our own embassy, to deal with the white house in a significant way. plus, it was sort of insult iin to the allies. it impairs the effectiveness. probably he ll go. the president could send him back. is there anything general mcchrystal to say to the president today that could save his job? i don t think what mcchrystal has to say is really relevant. i think what the president is going to have to determine in his own mind, what s the tradeoff between taking out by the way, mcchrystal probably knows competent military fighter we ve produced in a generation. this guy is really good, so that s the tradeoff. right. the strategy is faltering. it s $9 billion a month, 46,000 killed and wounded in the armed forces since 9/11. we re really in trouble from a political perspective. mr. geret, you think firing general mcchrystal would be wrong? that s correct. he is the war in afghanistan. it is his strategy, his surge, his organization, his command structure. he is a general who fights and fights and fights. if if you want to have a chance of winning this war you beat him up, send him to the woodshed and send him back. it s funny you use the term his command structure, yet he has completely broken the command structure in terms of the people above him by his comments and it s not the first time as savannah pointed out in her piece. how many strikes does he get? what ear seeing in the mcchrystal behavior and his staff is broken from the top. this is a president who has a dysfunctional organization running his war. it s not a team of rivals. it s a team of 9-year-olds and something needs to be done about that not just stanley mcchrystal. let me ask you both to comment on this next question. what happens to the troops on the ground and their morale if either of these situations plays out? general, i ll start with you, if they fire general mcchrystal, how does that impact morale, and if they keep him on knowing, although dandies agrees with this knowing he has broken the chain of command, what does that do to morale? this would be the second in a row fired in afghanistan so it s a problem. let me disappear, if i may, with one of dan s points. there are ten people who could step in and take command in afghanistan without a momentary break in the effectiveness of the organization. general maddes, joint forces command, a lieutenant dave rodriguez on the ground. so no one commander is vital. petraeus may be vital, our strategic genius at centcom but not mcchrystal. mr. goure, what happens to morale depending on which way this goes? the rolling stone article pointed out this is a general who walks the line with his troops. i think he is unique to this moment and unique to this war, and i think it does great damage to the morale of the troops. and real quickly, general mccaffrey, if you think that general mcchrystal needs to go, does it matter how it happens? in other words, can he resign or does the president need to take the proactive step of actually firing him? well, it s all optics. jeb fallon essentially was fall ep by secretary gates over a similar situation with a reporter. they can do this in a gentlemanly way or not. i think dan s major point is a good one. what we have to focus on is the war. the war is not going well. karzai s incompetent, the government is corrupt, the american people don t support it. those are the issues on the table not bad judgment on the part of mcchrystal and his public affairs guys. we will wait to see what happens today. general mccaffrey and dan goure, i appreciate it. it is now 11 after the hour. here is meredith. matt, thank you. this is day 65 of the disaster in the gulf and bp now has a new point man in charge of its response to the worst environmental disaster in u.s. history. we re going to talk to him in just a moment. first nbc s chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson is in venice, louisiana, with the latest on the oil spill. anne, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith. the obama administration lost a big battle when a federal judge in new orleans lifted the oil deepwater drilling moratorium. the obama administration this morning is vowing to appeal that ruling. interior secretary ken salazar says he will issue a new ban in the coming days laying out very clearly the reasons such a ban needs to be in place and all of this is irritating relations between washington and louisiana. though 11 people died in that horrific explosion that started the oil spill, many in louisiana never saw the deepwater drilling ban as a way of ensuring safety. i don t like that. i mean, that s the way it looks to me. they re just trying to dry it up. reporter: federal judge martin feldman says the government went too far writing the blanket moratorium with no parameters seems to assume that because one rig failed new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger. louisiana s governor hailed the decision as a victory for workers. they want to go back to their lives. they want to be able to go back to their jobs before this bill. reporter: the frustration of not being able to work is now acute among some fishermen. this shrimper can no longer contain her anger. i will call anybody who will have me, have me, have me. reporter: the claims checks from bp don t cover the cambodian immigrant s bills and she can t find anyone to hire her boat to help in the cleanup. if it was a typical june, mike says he d be making $10,000 a week running a seafood dock and shrimping. and how much money would you take in? between the two jobs? reporter: yeah. i would say over $10,000 a week. reporter: he s gotten $10,000 from bp in the last two months and fears he ll get pushed to the back of the line as bigger businesses make claims. i just think one way or the other the fisherman is going to get a raw deal. i really do. if we re still in the situation in september we will pay all legitimate claims and we ll pay them until we have stopped causing damage to the folks in the gulf coast. reporter: now bp says it has already paid out a total of $118 million, $70 million alone in the first 18 days of june. meredith? all right, anne thompson, thank you. bp s bob dudley is the company s new man in charge of the oil spill response. mr. dudley, good morning to you. good morning, meredith. if you are the new point man, what exactly will your role be in the gulf and where does that leave your embattled ceo tony hayward? we set up a new organization that will be in place now and so it will be sustained for a long time. we set up a temporary organization for the period of the spill. now we re going to formalize this, make sure that we can push and deploy all the resources of bp and the unified command stru structure with the coast guard, make sure we transition the claims over to ken feinberg who is an independent claims leader and this organization will report in to tony hayward, the ceo. he s fully, fully committed to bp meeting its obligations. is is this getting him out of the picture on a day-to-day basis because of the things he has said and done over the course of the past two months? we were always going to set up the organization. across the gulf coast, people there are temporarily rotating in and out. we re going to bed this now, we re in there for the long haul and make sure it s sustained and efficient working with the coast guard, shut off the well and through the cleanup. you said you will still be reporting to tony hayward. do you have confidence in him? there is speculation he may be on his way out. i know tony from the very beginning said the company will stand behind not hide behind liability caps, put in place the commitment we have, was part of setting up this $20 billion escrow account. those are incredible commitments by a company. he certainly stands by them as does the whole company. i do. and i think you re going to see bp do something as a corporation that is quite extraordinary. again, specifically, are his days numbered? oh, i think tony is fully committed to this. he s in london now. he s going to be traveling around the world. and bp is committed to him? yes. that s right, meredith. you have a tough road ahead of you because of the frustration of many people down in the gulf region and also washington, d.c., with with not just tony hayward but bp as well. how do you mend fences and establish any confidence in this company? two things. one first, listen, listen carefully. meet with people in the gulf coast again. meet with people on the beaches. the governors and their staffs and people in washington. listen very carefully and make sure we deploy and respond immediately to their concerns. you saw in that piece by anne thompson, you saw that woman, the shrimp er who is crying out for help. no one is helping her. the fisherman who says i m going to get a raw deal and so are the other guys out there. i saw that and as i would say, they should contact the claims centers. we re writing checks. people who have claims, bring them in within four days we often write the checks. she shouldn t give up. we re trying to reach out. businesses, we ve started pairing the larger businesses, written 11,000 checks, $5,000 to the larger businesses. have them contact the claims centers. we have 33 of those around the gulf coast now. this lifting of the ban on deepwater drilling by the federal judge, where do you stand on that? do you think it was a good decision? we re going to actually stay out of that. that s a decision for the federal government to make. what we ve said is workers who have been put out of work, it s very much of a hard shship for them. as a gesture of goodwill bp is putting aside $100 million in a fund to help pay their wages during this period until this is decided. but if the ban has been lifted technically and you re the major producer in the area of all the oil companies, you could begin drilling again with other rigs. do you plan to do that? well, we are going to step back and look very, very carefully as i think most of the companies, all the companies would, to see what we can can learn from this accident and make sure it never, ever happens again. this process will take a while. there s a lot to be learned. bp s bob dudley, i wish you the best of luck, sir. thank you for joining us. let us get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories. ann is off. natalie is over at the news desk. good morning to you. good morning, everyone. firefighters are making progress against a more than 14,000-acre wildfire near flagstaff, arizona. hundreds of homes that have been threatened are considered safe and evacuation orders could be lifted. officials say the battle could still go object for weeks. forecasters say there s a risk of severe weather. on tuesday there were two reports of tornadoes in pennsylvania where trees and power lines were downed and some buildings were damaged. people in parts of wisconsin, meantime, are dealing with the aftermath of tornadoes that struck there earlier in the week. american gary faulkner will be released without charges being filed. he was taken into custody last week, you ll recall, on what he said was a mission to kill osama bin laden. republican nikki haley won a primary run-off tuesday in south carolina putting her a step closer to possibly becoming that state s first woman governor. she ll face democratic state senator vincent shaheen in november. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning. cnbc s erin burnett is is at the new york stock exchange. lots of attention on interest rates. reporter: interest rates are the big topic today and likely the fed and the chairman ben bernanke will keep their pledge to keep interest rates near zero for an extended period of time. that pledge has been in place for over a year. the other thing to watch for is their growth forecast. they actually raised this back in april. there is concern now, though, that the situation in europe could be affecting the american economy and they may actually cut that forecast which would add to fears of yet another recession, the double dip. ceos on the ground like the ceo of fedex told me he is optimi optimistic about the economy. back to you. erin burnett, thank you. a man described as one of the most eligible bachelors in the world is tying the knot. prince albert of monaco, son of the late grace kelly, is engaged to marry former olympic swimmer cheryl witstock. so far no date has been set yet for the wedding. the nurse whose image was immortalized as she kiss add sailor in times square to celebrate the end of world war ii has died. edith shane died in los angeles over the weekend at the age of 91. she leaves behind three sons, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. had a good, long life. it is now 7:20. back over to matt and meredith. such an iconic image. the line about prince monaco, no date has been set. why are you i m just saying, no date has been set. why can t you let them enjoy their moment? i always watch the bachelor. they say they re getting married and never do. al is on his lend a hand tour. he is in des moines, iowa. save me, al. i wish i could. it s too late. the good news is we ve had some horrible weather just in the last half hour here in des moines, iowa, where we had massive thunderstorms, a lot of rain. the good news, though, a little bit of a break so we re hoping we ll be able to open the contents of this penske truck and show you after yesterday s record-breaking donations. we ll see how we do today. but first let s see what sstret, down to charlotte. we have a strong risk from chicago, detroit, on into cleveland. a possibility very high for tornadoes today. on the radar you can see these storms firing up and we haveve things are pretty quiet right now. he is the big story but we don t expect too much rain until this afternoon. high tempe and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. and just ahead, joran van der sloot speaks out from behind bars. why he wishes he went to a psychiatric facility instead of peru where he is now charged with murder. still ahead, a minivan demolished by a tree with a family inside. how they walked away with barely a scratch. [ female announcer ] discover healthy skin. that lasts a lifetime. only aveeno daily moisturizing lotion has an active naturals oat formula proven to improve skin s health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. save $10 on all your aveeno favorites at aveeno.com. all you expect from the number-one recommended detergent by dermatologists. all free clear is free of dyes and perfumes. and has powerful stainlifters to help get your whole wash clean. it s all good. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. here is sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. in howard county and cooksville and route 97 at old frederick road, and we re watching one at the city and wabash ave. a slow go through this stretch. is going on southbound 795 as we normally see. once you get on to the northbound, not too bad, 36 miles per hour there. watch for a disabled tractor- trailer, and delays on southbound 95 and southbound 295 and the howard county. 18 minutes on the outer loop west side. only 11 minutes on the outer loop to the northeast stretch. at old court, that is where your delays are heaviest. we will switch to a live view of traffic on 95. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. the heat is the major weather headline today could not that bad right now. 75 at the airport. 72 in parkton. this afternoon we will make it into the mid-90 s. it will feel like 100 degrees and later this afternoon. there is a 30% chance for thunderstorms. we could see storms and a few areas later on today. hot day on thursday. relief in sight at the end of the week we should drop in humidity on friday and saturday. scattered storms early next week. we are back in 25 minutes with another live update. 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, june 23rd, 2010. you are looking at a great crowd right here in rockefeller plaza. we ll go outside and say hello to them in a bit. inside, i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. coming up in this half hour, one family s story of survival. a mom and her three daughters were inside that van when a massive tree branch there it is fell on top of the van. just ahead they ll join us to explain how they walked away with only minor scratches. almost impossible to imagine they could have gotten out of that that easily. plus an exclusive look at how federal agents are trained to detect explosives before they make it onto a commercial airliner. we re also going to show you dramatic examples of that if those devices were not detected in time. and why is this controversial judge who presided over the legal fight for anna nicole smith s remains calling on investigators to reopen the case into her death? coming up, judge larry seidlin speaks out. joran van der sloot speaks out from his prison cell in peru. michelle kosinski is live from peru. good morning to you. reporter: hi there, matt. this imposing building behind us is the palace of justice where a judge could decide as early as today whether to toss out joran van der sloot s confession and have him be reinterviewed by police or let all those details he gave up stand. in the meantime, he won t talk to the judge, but he did to a dutch newspaper. joran van der sloot is locked into near isolation at maximum security castro castro prison where dusty old sign outside lists all the things you can t bring in from mangos to heroin. he is getting his word out to dutch paper de telegraaf that calls him the most reviled man of the moment. and he says it s my own fault that i m here. that he deeply regrets the choice he made to come to peru instead of entering a psychiatric facility in holland that his mother had arranged. my lawyer told me i will have to stay here at least two years. that s how long it takes before the trial begins. i tray to make the best of it. when his mom was interviewed by the same newspaper, she said if only he had listened to his mother. something joran himself now admits knowing that his mother has declared she has no plans to visit him in prison. i understand it. i have hurt her and many others too much. i wish i had listened to her. it is the closest thing to remorse we ve heard yet from joran. and the judge has called for a new psychological exam. in his first evaluation joran is described as showing characteristics of an anti-social personality, emotionally immature, lack of emotional control, indifferent to the well-being of others. and at the very end, reflects a dominance over the opposite sex, a devaluation of the feminine role. to the family of his victim, business student stephany flores, who died five years to the day after natalee holloway disappeared, joran s request to now throw out his confession is no surprise. translator: these are actions that delay the process but in the end the ax of justice will fall with all their weight. reporter: the 22-year-old who told police he doesn t think about stephany who said he used to charge between $50,000 and $100,000 for interviews relating to natalee holloway and who has no worries tattooed on his chest in thai now has much to worry about. in jail for how long, no one knows. while he waits, he says he s been getting marriage proposals from peruvian women. legal experts don t think there s any chance the judge will throw out his confession unless there is some real evidence of coercion here. but during that confession, p police made sure there was a defense attorney, a prosecutor, a dutch embassy translator present to make sure that things were done by the book. matt? all right, michelle kosinski in lima, peru. michelle, thank you very much. let us get a check of the weather now from mr. roker who is out in des moines, iowa. al? that s right. day three of our lend a hand today tour and we ll be revealing that charity in the next hour. but we ve got a lot of temperatures, a lot of hot temperatures to reveal. i mean, the heat is really on and it s spreading now to the east as well. as we take a look and show you we ve got that hot weather continue with temperatures well into the 90s. 100s as you get into parts of texas. the heat index is well into the 100s. you can see 90s stretching all the way up into the mississippi and ohio river valley and as we work our way to the east we re going to see temperatures way up into the 80s and 90s with high humidity levels as well from washington all the way it is going to be a hot day today. heat index will be 100 degrees and the air quality will be in the core range. the core range. and don t forget you can check your weather any time of the day on night weather channel on cable or weather.com. now to a freak accident in ohio. a massive tree limb crushes a van with a mother and her three young daughters inside. and amazingly they all walked away. we ll talk to them in a moment. but first, here s nbc s john yang. reporter: this is what s left of a honda minivan nearly smashed flat by a huge beach tree with ohio mom kelly brawn and her three young daughters inside. i really don t know how we survived, and i m just unbelievably thankful that everyone is happy and safe and no one is hurt and somebody was looking after us. reporter: brawn was driving through suburban cincinnati during a storm when rain, wind, and lightning uprooted the massive tree. i could tell that it was going to hit our car and i don t really remember much after that other than getting my kids out of the car as soon as i could. reporter: she pulled them out through the smashed out windows. there were four car seats for the three girls, and the only one that was crushed was the empty one. we are definitely a big fan of very strong car seats. reporter: amazingly the only injuries were a puncture wound on mom s wrist and minor scrapes on the girls. friends and family couldn t believe it wasn t worse especially dad who was at work at the time. i m thinking i m the luckiest man in the world that my family is still alive. that s what i m thinking. reporter: john yang, nbc news, chicago. kelly and dave braun are with us now. good morning to you all. good morning. good morning. kelly, you said you don t know how you all survived and looking at your van, i don t know how you did either. take us back to monday. at what point you and the girls were driving in the car the van, at what point did you realize that limb was coming at you? i just remember seeing it from the corner of my eye coming at us and i don t like i said, i don t really remember a whole lot after that other than just trying to do whatever i could to keep everybody safe. i understand that members of the fire department and police who said they think based on looking at your car you tried to accelerate to get away from it. yeah. that s what they re telling me that i did. i think it all happened so fast that i just reacted without thinking. and then once the impact occurred and you realized, okay, i m all right, your first instinct is about the kids and getting them out of that vehicle. where were they seated? morgan, the baby, was seated dire directly behind me and then lilly was behind the passenger side and maggie was in the third row passenger side. so you went to morgan first because the window there was broken, is that right? yeah, i went to morgan first just because she was directly on my side and directly behind me so i grabbed morgan and then went around the car to get the other two. and that all happened and their windows go ahead. i m sorry. to, you go ahead. i was just going to say their windows were smashed out, also. i reached in and grabbed maggie first because her car seat was laying flat, so i grabbed her first out of the window and then lorena. at what point did you hear about this accident for the first time? well, i got a phone call from my mother-in-law having me call the police station. this was around 12:45 or so on monday, and that s when i heard there was a tree down and a tree involved and but everyone was okay. that s the first thing she said, that everyone was okay. i was at ease right off the bat. yeah, you got to the hospital and what did the kids say to you about the accident? i didn t really realize the extent of the accident until i get there and they had glass all over them, there s pretty much a look of shock in everyone s eyes. everyone did great and was very calm and collected, but after just getting the story from my wife and from the kids and the docs and the emts, it was pretty staggering. lily kept telling you that the car was broken. smashed. it certainly was smashed. kelly, you finally did see the car again at the towing yard just recently. was that an emotional moment for you knowing what might have happened? yeah. when the accident happened, i didn t really see the car. i just grabbed them and ran. but then we went to go see the car yesterday and it was extremely emotional because it really hit me how much how devastated the car was and that i don t, again, know how we got out of there and i don t know how we survived with just little scratches that we got. and the fact that one car seat that was destroyed was the one car seat where there was no child. had any one of the kids been in the car seat, the outcome would have been much different. we are so glad to see you safe and sound, very glad to see you. thank you for joining us. thank you. thank you, meredith. thank you, braun family. thank goodness they re okay. up next, a look at how tsa officers train 0 to keep powerful explosives off your next flight. a car that stands strong. when you need it most. and expects to handle the unexpected. at chevrolet, we created a team of red x engineers who are obsessed with quality. red x torture tests every car down to the smallest detail. because everyone deserves excellence. because everyone deserves excellence. 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. we got it on rollback. that s what i m talking about. blue bunny premium ice cream. i know you want it. [ humming ] this is my ice cream dance. ooo, peanut butter. but look below the surface. your mouth is no different. just brushing leaves germs behind. adding listerine® antiseptic cleans deeper. [ boom! ] to penetrate and kill more germs. [ exhale ] [ male announcer ] listerine®. clean deeper. get healthier™. haha, here already? i got another 300 miles in me. sure you do, honey. come on guys, give me a hand. we can make it to paper clip mountain! looks like somebody needs a comfort inn. hi, reservation for the carter family? ahh yes. your room is ready. [ female announcer ] free high-speed internet. relaxing pool. cozy beds and free breakfast with hot waffles. need to relax after a long day of vacation? comfort inn. now stay two times with comfort inn or any choice hotel. and you can earn a $50 restaurant gift card. book now at choicehotels.com. we re all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. and get this year s colors up on the wall.this year. let s get better prices. and better paint. let s break out the drop cloths, rollers, brushes, and tape. let s start small. then go big. no matter what the budget. and when we re done, let s take a bow. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. try behr premium plus ultra, it s paint and primer all in one, and rated number one. we re back now at 7:45 with a today exclusive. the transportation security administration is charged with making sure dangerous explosives do not make it onto commercial airliners. but how do they actually do that? nbc s tom costello spent the day with tsa officers in an explosives training course to find out. tom, good morning to you. reporter: hi, matt. good morning. there are about 50,000 tsa officers across the country, 450 airports. they can t afford to have a bad day. they can t afford to miss anything. we saw what some of those officers can happen if an explosive does get through. at a police training center in maryland three, two, one reporter: an up close look at the array of explosives the tsa is up against. today we ll have 16 shots of a variety of different types of explosives. reporter: an atf explosives expert. today s show and tell to demonstrate to tsa air force officers watching from a nearby hilltop what the smallest amount of explosives can do if they get through airport security from sheet explosives wrapped inside a laptop or a pair of shoes so just this amount of explosive, sheet explosive, could cause serious damage to an aircraft. yes, it could. reporter: to a stick of dynamite, det cord and liquid explosives to something that looks like a plastic toy. the normal lay person who would look at this would not know exactly what it is and what it s capable of doing. reporter: but as we saw a three-quarter pound cast booster has the power to rip apart a police cruiser. that s the equivalent of a stick and a half of tnt. if that gets through an airport checkpoint, the consequences could be catastrophic. a very small amount could do a lot of damage to an aircraft in flight. reporter: the fear that the next shoe bomber or underwear bomber might get a lot luckier than richard reid or mutallab. the tsa has seen firsthand what an explosive can do to an airliner. this is what it looks like when x-rayed. reporter: they give frontline officers an up close view of what to watch for. with 50,000 screening 2 million passengers every day, the challenge is to constantly guard against complacency. a blown up laptop provides a lasting impression. it was very surprising at what it takes to do that amount of damage. it really hits home that our job is very serious. we know it s serious. reporter: there are tsa explosive experts in 130 of the nation s airports and the job is critical. they have to identify what is and isn t a threat so they can avoid unnecessary shutdowns of airport terminals and then respond to real threats. matt? tom costello at reagan national airport this morning. tom, thanks very much. just ahead on a much lighter note, adam sandler on his new life as a grown-up. we ll talk to him. men and women for whom straight stitches and clean welds were matters of personal pride. they made the skyscrapers and the cotton gins. colt revolvers, jeep 4 x 4 s. these things make us who we are. as a people, we do well when we make good things and not so well when we don t. the good new is, this can be put right. we just have to do it. and so we did. this, our newest son, was imagined, drawn, carved, stamped, hewn and forged here in america. it is well made and it is designed to work. this was once a country where people made things, beautiful things, and so it is again. the new jeep grand cherokee. the new jeep grand cherokee. from more hotels for my withperfect girls weekend. plus i can compare dates to find out when i can save the most cash. done and done. we should do this more often. where you book matters. expedia. (announcer) right now, all over the country, discover customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at restaurants. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. [ 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 the tree house i built with my dad. (girl) really? yeah. there you go. okay, i m gonna work on the roof. dad, i ll be right back! (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. you made that for me? well you re making this for me. (announcer) choosey moms, and dads, choose jif. hey, aren t you. supposed to be following that fidelity green line? well, yeah, but it keeps leading me back to my old office. i think it might be broken. or maybe it s trying to tell you something. yeah, but what could it be trying. oh, i left my 401(k) at my old job. and i left a jacket on the back of my door. but i think the line is talking about my 401(k). leave a 401(k) behind? roll it over with the company that s helping more people reach retirement than anyone else. when it comes to investing, never settle. fidelity investments. just ahead, why the judge in the legal fight over anna nicole smith s remains now wants her body exhumed. larry seidlin tells us why in a live interview. we ll get to that but first these messages. t exactly 6 cups. help me pour. perfect. now we can pour it in the bowl. try doing it this way. everybody likes a little taste. girls: mmmmm. of independence. pat it down. alright, here you go. oh, that s so good. happy 4th of july. maybe you want school kids to have more exposure to the arts. maybe you want to provide meals for the needy. or maybe you want to help when the unexpected happens. whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer, or donate for the causes you believe in at membersproject.com. take charge of making a difference. but there s one that makes your skin look better even after you take it off. 98% of women who tried neutrogena healthy skin makeup thought so. does your makeup do that? neutrogena cosmetics. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. here is sarah caldwell standing by. actually a nice ride out there. five miles per hour is what we re down to. once you get past the beltway, you are in great shape towards fort mchenry. north side is checking in at 35 miles per hour towards the harrisburg expressway. also slow on the west side 22 miles per hour. backed up a bit out of the owings mills area. tapping the breaks to the torts 260. towards 216. 16 on the northeast outer loop. 12 minutes on southbound 95 down to 32. just off the ramps from seven under 95 and congestion to deal with. pretty typical delays there. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. the heat is the big weather headlined for today. this afternoon we will get the heat index close to 100. 72 any parkton. 76 degrees in rock hall. forecast for today is hazy, hot, and humid. high temperatures will be in the mid-90 s. it will feel like it is 100 degrees when you factor in the humidity. thunderstorms in the evening will cool things off. be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. we are back in 25 minutes. 8:00 now on a wednesday morning, the 23rd day of june, 2010. we re only a couple days into summer. you know what, it already feels hot. a sticky one on tap. there s adam sandler right there hanging out with our crowd. we ll tell you why he s here in just a couple of minutes. obviously adding to the cool factor on the show. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira. remember judge larry seidlin? of course i do. he is the judge who gained a lot of fame after a six-day televised hearing into the fate of anna nicole smith s remains in 2007. now he s written a book. in it he actually in some ways questions his own ruling at that hearing and calls for a police new investigation into this situation. he s going to tell us why in a live interview coming up in a couple of minutes. on a much lighter note, you mentioned adam sandler is here. a new movie grown ups. and then later the rest of the cast will stop by as well. get a load of them. also, al is out in des moines, iowa, for day three of lend a hand today. we ll catch up with al and all that bounty and some charmin in a while. first, let s head inside. natalie is at the news desk while ann is off today. natalie, good morning again. high-stakes meetings today in washington for the top u.s. commander in afghanistan including a face-to-face showdown with president obama. general stanley mcchrystal arrived at the pentagon. asked if he had offered his resignation he said, come on, you know better than that. no. he didn t respond when asked if he would offer his resignation. this over comments he and his staff made in a magazine article criticizing the president and his national security team. the controversy comes at a pivotal time in the war when u.s. and nato forces gearing up for a major offensive against the taliban. interior secretary ken salazar says he will issue a new t temporary ban on deep water oil drilling after a federal judge on tuesday struck down the previous ban triggered by the disaster now in its 65th day. louisiana s governor was among those who hailed a judge s action claiming the ban did further damage to the state s economy. meantime, bp has named bob dudley to head a new gulf coast restoration unit. south carolina republicans have nominated their first female and first indian-american candidate for governor. nikki haley defeated four-term congressman gresham barrett. she is backed by the tea party and sarah palin. she faces vincent shaheen in the fall. severe flooding in brazil following days of heavy rain. more than 40 people are known dead. today the federal reserve board wraps up its latest meeting on interest rates and many analysts expect them to leave rates where they are. and a bear scare for a veteran wildlife photographer who was filming a mother grizzly bear last week when the big bear and one of her cubs charged at him. lorenze scared him off. just a big scare there. it is now 8:03. time for another check of the weather and al from des moines. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by royal caribbean international, the nation of why not. and we re starting to get some rain here in des moines. but i ll tell you for the third day in a row on our lend a hand today tour, we have so much to give away that, in fact, we re doing some giveaways before we reveal the charity. joining us is the assistant manager for charmin and bounty and ashley rothschild is the design consultant for ethan allen. good morning to both of you. you brought a lot of stuff from charmin and bounty. we re donating $112,000 worth of bounty paper towels and charmin toilet paper. now the average group, i know that our charity is not your average family. how long would all of this last? this might last years, al. you ve never been to my house. but that s another story. and, ashley, ethan allen, you brought a whole tractor-trailer full of stuff here. what did you bring? we are dote nating over $70,000 worth of home furnishings today. so our charity is going to have some style in their headquarters. absolutely. ideally we want to help create a nice home environment for them. we appreciate that, ashley, shawn. thank you so much. we ll have the volunteers help unload all of it. let s take a look and see what s going on as far as your weather is concerned. pick city of the day happens to be, that s right, des moines, iowa. who morning 13. temperatures in the 80s. as we look on the u.s. satellite radar you can see we have some heavy storms now working their way through the midwest, also some clouds moving in the pacific northwest. the east coast going to be hot and steamy. temperatures in new york getting up well into the upper 80s to low 90s with high humidity. we have a risk of strong storms today stretching throughout much of the great lakes. it is going to be a hot day today. the heat index will be 100 degrees this afternoon. hot and humid and that s your latest weather. the big reveal coming up in the next half hour, meredith. i can t wait, al. thank you so much. and up next, why is the unforgettable judge who presided over the fight for anna nicole s remains second-guessing his own ruling three years later? judge jerry seidlin speaks out after this. we re out here in the caribbean. soakin up some sun. woohoo shrek s got some moves. hi five boys, it s sushi time. i m donkey, feeling the ocean breeze on my hooves, gettin my vacation on donkey style. why aren t you? to travel in comfort and style. presenting the new toyota avalon. for a ride that s jet-smooth! it s got reclining rear seats! and such a quiet cabin! bluetooth wireless audio makes every trip a delight! the new toyota avalon. comfort is back. we got it on rollback. that s what i m talking about. blue bunny premium ice cream. i know you want it. [ humming ] this is my ice cream dance. ooo, peanut butter. it makes my skin really silky and velvety. this is my body wash. what do you mean? this is it? why?! oh, don t do that to me! dove creamoil body wash. now with nutrium moisture. nutrium moisture. i m a believer. the nourishment in dove creamoil goes somehow deeper. i m happy about the change. change is good. dove creamoil body wash. i m happy about the change. change is good. it s tough to get enough servings of vegetables every day if you don t always like the taste of them. good thing v8 v-fusion juice gives you a serving of vegetables hidden by a serving of fruit. [woof woof] v8. what s your number? we get double miles with every purchase. so we earned a tropical vacation in half the time. we earn double miles every time we use our card. ( shouts ) double miles add up fast so we can bring the whole gang. ( grunting ) awesome! 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. ( gasps ) what s in your wallet? wait up! back now at 8:09. more than three years since anna nicole smith died of an accidental drug overdose and now the judge who gained fame during the legal fight over her remains is calling for a new investigation into smith s death. we re going to talk to judge larry seidlin in a moment. first a look back at that unforgettable trial. california, you ve been quiet. from the nicknames go slow, texas. i want to keep you around. to the emotion i hope to god you guys give the kid the right shot. it was a trial that played out like a tv show with a cast of real-life characters. right now i m trying to deal with the death of anna nicole. anna nicole smith s attorney, howard k. stern larry, would you take her former boyfriend, larry would you please take the stand? and her estranged mother, virgie arthur all fighting over custody of anna nicole smith s body and where she would be buried just days after the 39-year-old died of an accidental drug overdose at the seminole hotel in florida. you probably took a look at this court and said this judge may be eccentric enough to get this thing done. after six days judge larry seidlin did get it done and made a promise. and i m not going to talk about this case ever again. howard k. stern, virgie arthur, larry birkhead managed to put their differences aside, walking out of the courthouse arm in arm. all that mattered to me was that anna s wishes were carried out and that she s going to be with her son. two months later, the question of who was the father of anna nicole s newborn daughter dannty elynn was answered. i hate to be the one who told you this but i told you so. what has this been like for you? last month on today meredith spoke about life as a single dad as his daughter dannielynn slept in his arms. it keeps the memories kind of fresh and it s kind of hard to move on, but we re happy and she s a happy baby and we re moving ahead. but for howard k. stern some legal battles remain. he s set to go on trial in august for charges he provided the drugs that ended anna nicole smith s life. stern has pleaded not guilty. i have to satisfy my conscience. all this as that famous judge, larry seidlin, releases his new book the killing of anna nicole smith. judge larry seidlin, good morning. nice to be here with you, matt. and i m not going to talk about this trial ever again. what happened? so much information came my way, the trial was three years ago, and i ve gotten so much evidence and new facts. where did you get this evidence? have you been out there digging or have people been coming to you? my hands are dirty finding all of this information. i dig deep. i have the inquest that only a few people in the country have and i m sure jerry browne, the attorney general, has. as you sit here today with me did you get it wrong three years ago in that hearing? do you think the conclusion was wrong that you reached in that courtroom? the conclusion was correct at the time i made the decision. that was the evidence in front of me. but the evidence now shows a different result. let s just go to the title of your book, the killing of anna nicole smith. so are you alleging now that it was not an accidental overdose as the coroner concluded? was this something worse? was it something more nefarious? i state the word killing of anna nicole, and it s for the jury to decide whether it was murder, whether it was lesser included offenses like reckless conduct. we did something very unusual with this book. i was a judge for three decades. i can t take the black robe off. i made the reader in this book the jury. the jury will decide what the culpability is. however, you say to the reader, i want you to draw your own conclusions. you include a lot of the transcripts from the trial, but you do seem to draw some of your own conclusions. i mean, it s one of the reasons why you re calling for the bodies of anna nicole smith and her son to be exhumed. yes. so what conclusions have you drawn? i ve drawn a number of e is daniel leaves l.a. and he comes to the bahamas. it s his first time ever in the bahamas. when he s in the bahamas at 9:00 p.m. at night he goes into anna s room. i was in that room. i was in the maternity room. and in that room he never leaves it. he dies 6:00 a.m. in the morning. he has no nexus. he has no bond to the bahamas. anna nicole was under severe drugs, and i don t think her impression was strong enough to know what she was really doing. she buries daniel in the bahamas. he has no bond to the bahamas. and then anna nicole, i didn t want to separate anna from her son, and i buried him and her in the bahamas. you re tough in the book on howard k. stern and his former attorn. while you don t come right out and say it, you suggest several times that he was an enabler for ugs that eventually led to her death. quote, stern is worried about her legacy in it death. that we shouldn t know about her drug use since she died. how ironic. how about keeping her off drugs while she was alive? so how accountable do you think he should be held? this is a guy facing trial, by the way. jerry brown, the attorney general, and the rest of the country was watching this trial and it affected the psyche they were repulsed by what went on. there were duffle bags of drugs being brought into a hospital room where anna nicole was trying to get off of drugs. the attorney general and the district attorney in california have charged him with enabling. enabling a known addict and that s for the jury to decide in california whether he s guilty of enabling and guilty of giving drugs to a known addict. i just want you to know we did reach out to howard k. stern and asked him about this book. his lead defense attorney issued a statement to us saying, in part, that your book, quote, is truly unworthy of a serious response, end quote. not exactly a ringing endorsement. well, there s always going to be a chorus of critics on anything you write. this book is based on facts and all materials i can support everything i state in this book. in the trial you said your main purpose was to protect dannielynn. are you satisfied with her living situation right now with larry birkhead? i m happy that he s being a at very good father. i d love to see virgie in the picture. but there s a lawsuit between virgie and larry birkhead, a defamation suit going on. hopefully when that ends, grandma will be back on the scene looking over her granddaughter. judge jerry seidlin, the killing of anna nicole smith. still to come, we ll lighten things up considerably with grown-up star adam sandler. 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. it has two layers for softness and an inner layer for a luxurious experience you can see and feel. in fact, it may inspire you to make all the things you touch ultra plush. quilted northern ultra plush. luxury you can see and feel™. and if you re not delighted, we ll give you your money back. lose those lines, for up to a year! new juvéderm® xc is the gel filler your doctors uses to instantly smooth out lines right here. temporary side effects include redness, pain, firmness, swelling, bumps or risk of infection. ask your doctor about new juvéderm® xc. 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. 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. one on, kiddo, let s go. hold on a second. come on up here, where your brothers sit. wow! chevy traverse. a consumers digest best buy, with a 100,000 mile, powertrain warranty. it seats eight comfortably - not that it always has to. ow, get 0% apr for 60 months on a 2010 traverse with an average finance savings of around fifty four hundred dollars. see yo local chevy dealer. blend it. sprinkle it. sweet! [ female announcer ] just about anywhere you use sugar you can use splenda® no calorie sweetener. [ male announcer ] savory. fluffy. yummy. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda®. america s favorite no calorie sweetener. back now at 8:19 with lend a hand today. al is in des moines, iowa. and it s almost time to see what is in those penske trucks. hey, al. day three a record breaking lend a hand today 2010. we give you without further ado our charity today the iowa homeless youth center. in many ways des moines, iowa, is a clash between the ruralness of the midwest and yet emerging as an urban community. i think we re starting to realize we have big city problems. there s probably somewhere over 1,000 youth that are experiencing homelessness. so in an effort to help this growing number achieve independence and stability, the iowa homeless youth centers offers a safe environment where 16 to 25-year-olds and their children can have meals plus take advantage of educational and employment counseling. we have a street outreach center which is the place where we really start to make the initial connection with the youth. we provide showers. we provide shoes, we provide a place to get mail. i ve been coming here since i was like 16. when i was a baby, we got evicted from a house, always bounced around. never stayed long. it s getting very hard to find anything that pays decent to put a roof and roof in your child s existence. the new homeless are women and children. there are thousands of them out here. you just have to look. and that s what this part of the nonprofit s operation does. a van hits the road seven days a week, 365 days a year. outreach? identifying kids who may have exhausted their resources and are left with nowhere to go. one of the trusted counselings howard crow eagle takes us on one of his outings. anybody home? are you doing all right down here? yeah, not too bad. here in this wooded area we meet tina. a lot of times i take a shower and do laundry. it means a lot to have a place to go where i know there are people watching over and covering my back instead of just sitting out here all the time not knowing what s going to happen. not everyone howard meets during his drives is ready to seek shelter. but for those who do want to take the next step, there are two transitional living homes. the lighthouse is for parenting or pregnant women up to 25 years old. there s just help all around. i just completed my ged, so i m trying to find a job before i start school in the fall. and a co-ed residence. it fills me with job i have people that really care about me. i never felt like that in my house that i have somebody i could talk to and that somebody is going to listen. we are committed to making life better for them, and that s kind of at the heartbeat of the organization. and here we go, brad whipple is the director of the iowa homeless youth centers, jim mcqueeny is the resource center director and anita jones is a resident. are you ready? we re ready. we have four trucks. open them up. $95,000 worth of goods for the iowa homeless youth centers from procter & gamble, $112,000 worth of rolls and charmin. from conagra, $100,000, a check for $25,000, and 4,200 pounds of food from chef boyardee from microwave popcorn to manwiches. ethan allen, $75,000 worth of furniture, sofas, chairs, love seats. western union giving us $50,000. johnson and johnson and heart to heart international, $35,000 in baby wash and band-aids and all sorts of personal goods. united airlines, $30,000 per day worth of miles. principal financial group $28,000 worth of warehouse space. more than a mile and a half of markers. gymboree, almost 20 grand worth of kids apparel. frigidaire bringing more appliances, refrigerators, stoves. columbia sportswear, they ve been with us from the beginning giving us all types of sporting goods. safety first $12,000 worth of car seats, guys. huggies giving $11,000 almost $12,000 worth of diapers. $10,000 worth of oral care products. jcpenney bedding and clothing and children s needs. 1-800-mattress, over $1,500 in mattresses. interstate all state battery centers, $10,000 worth of gifts. baby bottles, natural foods, $10,000. unilever/vaseline brand, pizza, sara lee, $7,000 worth of food. penske, $6,000. purex laundry sheet, $6,000. glidden paint $1,900. and the iowa state fair $100,000. we ll have more from iowa and the iowa homeless youth center. we ll talk to these folks and tell you what it all means to them coming up. back to you guys. great job, al. coming up adam sandler. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a final check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. if you are heading out in the next few minutes, northbound j.f.x. past northern parkway. we are not reporting southbound delays, but they may develop in both directions. burning high wait, watch for fire department activity in the town dock region. five miles per hour on average through the stretch from white marsh to the beltway. a little bit slower on the west side. still backing up on southbound 795 out of the owings mills area. we re holding on to the west side delay. 15 minutes on the outer loop northeast side. in a live from 795 to the 83 s from greenspring over. we will switch over to a live view over some volume going southbound away from us from white marsh to the beltway northeast. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. obviously, the heat is the major headline today. the heat index closed will climb up close to 100 degrees. 75 in parkton. the forecast for today is a mixture of sunshine and clouds. hazy, hot, and humid. high temperatures will make it into the mid-90 s. heat index around 100 later on today. scattered thunderstorms, and then it will cool off a little bit on friday and saturday. thank you for joining us. another update at 8:55. a dateline exclusive. michael jackson s mother, katherine. her only television interview. a special dateline friday, 9:00 on nbc. been your eyes on this wednesday morning, the 23rd of june, 2010. the smiling faces on rockefeller plaza. they come back 48 hours from now, they ll be treated to a great summer concert, maxwell, back from extended highatus wita brand-new look and album. he ll join us live friday. outside on the plaza i m meredith vieira along with matt lauer and natalie morales. al is standing by in iowa. we are looking forward to that. also coming up, people are planning their summer vacations now thinking about the beach or places like that but maybe you want to consider taking time away on the farm. an early wake-up call. that s what that s about. i did, i did. also we re going to have some terrific summer decorating ideas you can pull off on a shoestring budget. first, let s say hello to one funny group of guys, adam sandler, kevin james. come on out, guys. david spade. 9 guys, good morning to all of you. you re not just the stars of the movie. you co-wrote it and produced it. was this just a way to get all your buddies together? it was. we did want to make a good movie. we had a good time. just a second. guys, quiet. we can t hardly hear. does anybody even act in this movie? are you just yourselves while the cameras roll? no one can act anyway. it s fun having your friends there because you can relax. i have to pretend i know this guy. i m pretty sure kevin is kevin. and you four worked on snl together. you could have been on snl. you could have been. exactly. for many of you this is really just going back to the old stomping grounds, right? absolutely. a chance to work together. we all did sketches together in the old days, different groups, pairings. any of the old sketches come back out? just the fun of being together, rehearsing together, and making up jokes while we re out there and trying to just bounce off each other. there s a little bit of truth in each of our roles. yeah, there is. so you re that crazy? it s fun when you get five friends together is to give you an opportunity to throw each other under the bus. so can we do that? which one of you screwed up the most lines on the set? oh, yeah. me. that was chris. that s because i can t read. which is a problem. it s a problem. screwing up lines and going do i have a line? who cracks up the most during the take? sandler. i ruin because i m not laughing at what they re saying. i m laughing at what i wrote. good one. who yells the most? same answer. who is the biggest diva? who gets to the set late? david spade. preblow-drying the night before. everyone goes, get out of here. what are you doing? pushing people away going, i don t need it. i don t need it. who has the strangest habit and what is it? personal habit. who has the weirdest personal habit. kevin, i m looking at you. schneider makes his own tea wherever he is. he puts that heater in a cup of water wherever he is. what s that about? it s very odd. what is the blend? there you go. there s the odd part. it means bye-bye. you just got the dreaded it s all right. i tell everyone in bars at night. grown ups opens friday in theaters nationwide and it s opening up! stick around. we ll talk to you in a minute. now to al back in des moines. al? thanks a lot. everybody here is watching the monitor. they love these guys. all right. we re back here in des moines, iowa. our charity, of course, iowa homeless youth centers. and joining us we have brad whipple who is the director, mcqueeny, the resource coordinator and anita is a r resident. brad, with the economy the way it is, how difficult has it been carrying out your mission? the need is greater than it s ever been and so this is just tremendous. there s always challenges around resources and having enough and as the need gets greater being able to meet that need in the community. this is tremendous for us. jim, with these donations, how will that help you guys going forward? i think this is going to be a new beginning for the kids that we re always trying to help. and you live here. how do you think this is going to affect life at the center? it s going to make it better. a lot of stuff that we needed. so thanks to everybody. well, thank you for everything you guys have been doing for the youth of des moines and obviously they ll go forward and the whole ripple effect will con it is going to be a hot day today. heat index will be 100 degrees and the air quality will be in the core range. the core range. don t forget you can check your weather anytime of the day or night, weather channel on cable or weather.com online. now let s head on down to washington and say hello to uncle willie scott. get out the hats, the thongs, what are the others? what else do you wear? huh? anyway, whatever you swim in. use your imagination. happy birthday from smucker s, how sweet it is. always a pleasure, bikinis, they re not even in anymore. are bikinis in? mary wiegand of seven hills, ohio. 100 years old today. attributes longevity to healthy eating but admits a little chocolate never hurt anybody. and we have hank barker, la canada, california. 100 years old today. avid baseball player who loves, i mean loves, watching babe ruth when he was playing years ago. kate hillman, troy, maine. postal worker until her late 80s and holds the golden cane award for being one of the oldest residents. we wish her happy birthday. molly sharp, manchester, missouri. 102. listens to baseball on the radio. a lot of people do that. a lot of people go to the baseball game and take a radio with them. she s a cardinals fan all the way. and finally benny sherman of clifton, new jersey, 102. retired new york city. and finally malcolm warnock from northampton, massachusetts. 105. worked as a lawyer for so many years in the manhattan projects. that s it. that s all right now from washington, d.c., your friendly town. all right, willard. thank you very much. when we come back, more with the movie grown some day i grow up now that the rest of the grown ups cast has left, adam can tell us what he really thinks of them. as we mentioned it s the story of five friends who after 30 years apart reunite over the fourth of july weekend. take a look. daddy, what s that machine doing? it s getting rid of the moths, honey. where is it taking them? it s giving them electricity so the moths fall asleep electrically. it s electrocuting them? but daddy, they re dying. is it killing them? no! daddy, no. no, no, it s not. look, they re all all right, i promise you. see? look at this guy. he s still sleeping. you lied to the little children, adam sandler. i ve never lied to my real children. only my fake children. tell me again how this movie came about because it s art imitating life. it s a reunion of friends in a movie and it really is in real life you getting together. that s true. in the movie we don t haven t seen each other in 30 years but in real life we do see each other a lot. but we thought of this idea and i thought it would be an interesting idea as parents talking about their generation of growing up. i can t believe i m not old i was going to say. that s pathetic. but, anyway, we all have kids now in real life. we all have daughters. in fact, my other friend s wife is pregnant right now and all of us were saying, you d better not have a boy because i think there s nine girls between us. a little boy might be nice actually. well, we d be jealous. i see. anyway, thought it was a nice idea to have a movie where we could all kind of be ourselves and joke and the way we like to joke in real life. you and chris rock and david spade and rob schneider go back to the early 90s and saturday night live . did you imagine one day you d be in this big budget movie together? no. no? not even as a pipe dream? i know we would love for something like that to happen. we became very tight on saturday night live. it s a cast you get tight with and we remained friends. schneider and spade i knew we lived right across the street from each other before saturday night live and me and rock have been friends since 17 and he s 18 and so kevin james is a great guy and we ve known him for about eight years or something. we were joking about this in the break, people may not know what a great guy you are as well. that s right. that s right. and how much you value loyalty and how loyal you are to your friends. people think of hollywood as a very cold place but you guys have stuck together. that s important to you. i m comfortable with those guys. i make a new friend maybe once every three years and i do it very slowly. i let the person in my life and are you being serious? yeah. i like being with the guys i grew up with. the movie you said you grew up in the movie, it s called grown ups. at what point did you realize whether you like it or not you re now one of them? i don t that s a slow process for me. i realize i m a grown-up just from being tired all the time. i do understand my father s need to get to his room for a minute alone. what the heck, dad s home. why doesn t he want to just sit and talk to me right now? just give me a minute. i think i m in that vein now. we re glad you re a grown-up and keep your kid-like joy. great to see you. great to see you, fellow new englander. congratulations on the movie called grown ups and it opens on friday. up next it s great because it s a july 4th movie for july 4th. announcer: today s be well, be healthy is brought to you by splenda no calorie sweetener. imagine life sweetener. a new kind of family vacati vacation. a summer used to mean a week at the beach. what about a vacation to learn about where your food comes from? welcome to berry field s farm, a farm state located in pennsylvania. it s a remote destination where city dwellers and suburbanites can come reconnect with nature. this vacation is more real. it s not pretentious. what you see is what you get. farm vacations like these can offer more than fresh air and relaxation. the concept of being able to table food was a little bit foreign to most people, and we wanted to give people an opportunity to realize where their food is coming from. that will be in my sauce tonight. coming here inspired my daughter and i to do a study on nutrition. now i eat a lot more all-natural things. i check the ingredients before i eat something, make sure there are no chemicals or anything. but don t think this vacation is a walk in the park. owners barbara and charlie have put the family out to pasture. we begin by feeding lilly, the baby goat. we feed the chickens and gather eggs. fresh eggs. we give the hogs some fresh squash or zucchini and grain. it s a tough job. not like the jobs i m used to. you have to get up early. we work maybe 10, 12 hours a day every day, but it keeps you fit and it keeps you connected with the land. the con, on any farm you have to watch where you step. you may not go home with a tan but you will leave with a deeper understanding of the earth and the animals. many people, well, maybe if i am living on a farm for a few days or a week, i can make that connection again. i can feel closer to the land. and that s what we re hoping to achieve here. that looks like fun. we have set up a special be well, be healthy quiz. text the word well to 46833. there is some new thinking going on in the country s oldest school and it s changing the way students are learning. nbc s peter alexander explains. reporter: educating students for 375 years. among its famed alumni founding fathers john hancock, samuel adams, and benjamin franklin. today the school is creating a new generation of leaders, teenagers who were changing the way we viewed the environment. i was thinking an outdoor situation of the garden. reporter: this is the school s youth camp. one of the most popular clubs on campus. the first meeting i had 90 kids show up and i thought i m going to need some help. what happened in 1803? reporter: kate arnold teaches eighth grade history. after showing her class an inconvenient truth, the documentary about climate change, her students were immediately inspired to act. it changes an urgent issue we need to be aware of and combat in our daily lives. reporter: the students first commissioned an energy audit of the school and were appalled by the low score. so they committed themselves to making their building more eco-friendly, introducing recycling in the cafeteria and installing energy efficient fluorescent lights in the auditorium. their most ambitious plan to transform the school s roof into a state-of-the-art green learning center. i think that s been the great thing about it for me. they don t have any sense of we can t do this. reporter: the design calls for wind turbines, solar panels, vegetation to absorb run-off, even a greenhouse to grow food for school lunches. if you want to do something, you need to do something big enough that you really get people excited about it because otherwise it s not going to get funded. reporter: the students selected gail sullivan, a parent at the school, because sullivan insisted they be an integral part of the design process. we can use wood or aluminum. reporter: scientific data collected from the roof will be downloaded and studied by students at other schools. the project s estimated price tag $5 million. with most of the fund-raising being done by youth camp students. we re trying to educate people about climate education. reporter: now courting school alumni, city officials and private industry. if the students here at boston latin school have their way this won t be the only green roof in the neighborhood. they ve persuaded five nearby colleges to follow suit. their goal, to significant ly reduce boston s carbon footprint. this satellite photo shows the neighborhood today. here s what it could look like tomorrow. but the youth camp extends well beyond boston. help us share project ideas and improvement tools. reporter: they host a climate action summit at mit attracting hundreds of students from around the state and they re working with teachers to create a sustainability curriculum with hopes other schools will follow their lead. environmental activism in general is not just about stopping climate change but really about building stronger, better societies. there are issues we will all have to face as the future generation. so our main focus now is really to turn to educating versus sustainability. the idea is that this is one of the things that everybody just needs to know about. it s like stop, drop and roll in kindergart kindergarten. we want something that s really integrated into school culture and not something that s limited to one class. reporter: kate arnold says the lessons her students have learned aren t just about climate change and the environment. they re learning how to organize and be leaders. it s given them the belief that they can do things that make a real difference. reporter: from america s oldest school, some of the nation s newest thinking. for today, i m peter alexander, nbc news, boston. we wish them luck. it sounds like a great idea. summer decorating ideas on a shoestring budget. plus your biggest 911 money emergencies. and much more from al who is lending a hand in des moines, live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. bge officials are trying to determine what sparked the fire at one of their stations. sky team 11 was over the scene tuesday morning at rochester road in kinsfolk read this by calling in extra crews, firefighters led the fire burn itself out. the fire remains under investigation. today, more than 50 speak, as have been installed in school zones around baltimore more than 50 speed cameras have been installed i schools of the run baltimore. in addition to the cameras currently in place, the city has portable cameras that it can positi things will be heating up this afternoon. the heat index will be around 100 degrees later on today. there is about a 30% chance of running into thunderstorms. another hot day tomorrow. 95, with scattered thunderstorms. thank you for joining us. another update at 9:25.