Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100806 : vimarsana.com

south, dangerous flooding in parts of the northeast. there s the threat of more storms and extreme heat. today, friday, august 6th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a friday morning. i m matt lauer. oot and i m meredith vieira. president obama is pushing for a turn around. democrats will not get much of a boost from this morning s jobs report. no, they won t. there is at least one new job the obama administration was happy to hear about. on thursday the senate confirmed elena kagan to a seat on the supreme court. she ll be sworn in tomorrow becoming the fourth woman ever to sit on the high court. we re going to get the latest on all of that straight ahead. also ahead, just a tragic scene in missouri. a deadly highway crash that included two school buses on a field trip to an amusement park. two teens were killed, dozens more injured. coming up, we re going to hear from a student who was on one of those buses. also ahead, a big turn to consumer news you can use. the specific things you can say to your cell phone and cable providers to bargain down your monthly bills. plus, we ve got a big crowd out on the plaza on a friday morning. they re gting ready for a great concert in our 8:30 half hour. grammy winner train has rolled into the plaza. we ll hear from them. but first, let s get a check of the morning s top stories. ann is off. carl quintanilla is at the news desk. today president obama welcomes elena kagan to the white house one day after kagan was confirmed as a supreme court justice. nbc s justice correspondent pete williams has more on that. pete, good morning. reporter: carl, she is not quite a supreme court justice yet but she will be saturday when she s officially sworn in. attorney general eric holder and other top justice department officials congratulated elena kagan after thursday s senate vote as she prepared to leave the place where she s been solicitor general, the government s top courtroom lawyer. she was confirmed on a vote of 63-37, a mostly party line vote. five republicans did cross over to support her. she ll become the third woman on the current supreme court joining ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor. president obama described that development this way. a sign of progress that i relish not just as a father who wants limitless possibilities for my two daughters but as an american proud that our supreme court will be more inclusive, more representative and more reflective of us as a people than ever before. reporter: elena kagan will be the court s youngest justice at age 50. she succeeds john paul stevens who retired in june at age 90. pete, thanks for that. bp engineers finished pouring cement into the well in the gulf on thursday. the point man on the spill says the cement will virtually assure there will be no chance of more oil leaking. overseas markets mostly higher this morning. trish regan is at the new york stock exchange. the focus is that jobs report. jobs, jobs, jobs. you said it, carl. people are very concerned about this. the reality is the consumer accounts for two-thirds of the overall economy. so if the consumer isn t employed, naturally, carl, the consumer isn t feeling very confident, certainly not enough to go out and spend money to help get this economic recovery under way. so it really does come back to jobs. one thing that makes it it very difficult, corporations are quite unlikely to higher until they feel confident that there really is going to be end user demand. so it becomes a catch-22 situation. but the key is to get people back to work. trish regan at the new york stock exchange. trish, thanks. officials in georgia have made an arrest in the case of a woman who used her feet to tap out a computer call for help after an intruder broke into her home and tied her up. amy windom who spoke with meredith on wednesday, says she is enormously relieved that a suspect is in custody. violent weather tore through parts of virginia downing trees, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people. the storm was associated with the same weather system that brought flash floods this week at a campground in northern new york. some scary moments but no one was seriously hurt. and some amazing video of a spectacular catch. a baseball player in japan robbed an opposing player of a home run when he literally climbed to the top of the outfield wall and came down with the ball. can you believe that catch? how? that jump. i looked at that like three times to make sure it wasn t photo shopped in some way. it is really amazing. my gosh. anyway. good stuff. it s now 7:05. back to matt, meredith and al. let s get a first look at the weather, mr. roker. we have a couple of areas of weather to talk about. the good news is the heat is for us all the strong storms have cleared out at high pressure will build in crude less pressure this afternoon. in the low 90s. winds out of the northwest at 10 to 15 miles per hour. that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. now to the motive hyped that deadly shooting rampage in connecticut. we are hearing it directly from the gunman who placed a chilling call to police moments before he took his own life. peter alexander is here with details. peter, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you. this tape is quite haunting. omar thornton called 911 moments after killing eight co-workers and wounding at least two others. he calmly told the dispatcher that he regretted not shooting more people in what was already the worst work place attack in connecticut state history. moments after murdering eight co-workers, 34-year-old omar thornton was eerily calm on the phone with state police. this is 911? yeah, can i help you? this is omar thornton, the shooter over in manchester. reporter: thornton insisted he was finished with his rampage and tried to explain his deadly actions. people probably want to know why i shot this place up. basically this is a racist place. yep, i understand that. they treat me bad over here. they treat all other black employees bad over here, too. reporter: thornton, a two-year employee at the company who filed complaints about other works rules, never filed a complaint about racism and surrounded by hartford distributor employees the company president adamantly denied thornton s claims. i can state to you inequivocally that no such claim has ever been brought to the attention of our company. no such claim has been pursued under hartford distributors internal anti-discrimination harassment policy. reporter: while thornton was telling a dispatcher his story, his co-workers, including a wounded victim, were frantically making their own 911 calls. what s going on? who got shot? i got shot. we will come to you, all right? help me, please. help me. reporter: company officials say moments before the shooting thornton was forced to resign tuesday morning after being shown surveillance video that they say he was systematically stealing beer and reselling it. did he used to work there? yeah, until i just fired him. today? today, just now, before he started shooting. reporter: employees tried to warn their fellow co-workers or trying to stop them including jerome who tried to ram thornton with a golf cart. he s now hospitalized in serious condition. his family thanks the paramedics and police saying they ve given our dad a fighting chance. as for thornton the 911 d dispatcher tried to get him to end things peacefully. not going to kill anybody else, though. sure. we re going to have to have you is your rusurrender yourself. these cops are going to kill me. no, they re not. we re just going to have to get you to relax. i m relaxed. reporter: still moments before taking his own life, thornton warned the dispatcher he wouldn t surrender. i have to take care of business. tell my people that i love them and i got to go now. the chilling tape to listen to. the entire call lasted nearly four minutes. at one point he referenced the s.w.a.t. team closing in. by the time they arrived he had taken his own life. really haunting. peter alexander, thank you so much. it is 7:10. once again here is matt. today president obama is trying to prove to voters once again that the economy is making a turnaround, this with all eyes on the latest unemployment report out this morning. nbc s savannah guthrie is at the white house with details on this. savannah, good morning to you. reporter: matt, we ll hear from the president later today on those jobs figures. unemployment proving to be the most stubborn economic and political problem he faces. bracing for the latest jobs report, the president was out accentuating the positive. on thursday in chicago saying a turnaround in the american car industry is just the beginning. i m convinced we re going to rebuild not only the auto industry but the economy better and stronger than before. and at its heart is going to be three powerful words, made in america. made in america. reporter: in an exclusive interview with cnbc s phil lebeau, the president said the economy will likely not slide back into recession. i think confidence is starting to come back and you re going to see more of that money put to work hiring american workers. so i think we re on the brink of now moving into a better direction. confident we re going to avoid a double dip recession? i am confident about that. reporter: consumers, normally two-thirds of the economy, have yet to demonstrate that confidence pulling back on spending again. the economy is growing but slowly. and even many businesses making profits are too nervous to hire. it s like a chicken and egg situation where spending and jobs go hand-in-hand. they only come with confidence and that is still going to take a bit more time for this economy. reporter: unemployment is the issue dogging democrats in the upcoming congressional races, fearing major losses the president is in campaign overdrive. at three fund-raisers thursday, sticking with the car theme to suggest republicans want to take the country backwards. when you want to go forward, what do you put the car in? d. when you want to go backwards, what do you do? you put it in r. reporter: well, one other note from here, christina romer, chief of economic advisers here at the white house, has announced she is leaving. she s going back to the university of california at berkeley where, among other things, she had been an expert on the great depression, matt. all right, savannah guthrie at the white house for us this morning. savannah, thanks very much. david gregory is moderator of meet the press. david, good morning to you. hey, matt. let s start this differently this week. in the last seven days you ve had the static kill starting to take hold in the gulf, you ve had a federal court overturn proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage out in california, elena kagan confirmed in the supreme court. if you work at the white house, what s your major headline of the last week? i think as persistent as unemployment is and as huge a problem as that is, i think the static kill, progress in the gulf the crisis may not be over but that has to be the biggest headline. don t forget, this was a crisis of the order that the president gave an oval office address to the people of the united states. i mean, this is a huge issue for his leadership and management of a disaster of this scale. i think they have good news, look at that, and are breathing a huge sigh of relief. when you look at the economy, jobs are still a major problem. a lot of people, despite what we re hearing from some portions of the administration think the recovery has stalled. the stock market is doing better. the auto industry as the president highlight this had week is doing better. christina romer resigns overnight. connect the dots if they re even connectible, david. how is the administration handling the economy right now? look, they want to be positive and say things are turning around but there s more bad news than bad news. there s more confidence as the president said. they don t think there will be a double dip recession but nobody is hiring which is why government is trying to do more, but how much more can it do in this political environment? not a whole lot and that s just a political reality. alan greenspan, former chairman of the federal reserve, said last week there s tragic unemployment and the recovery that he sees is more limited. there s still a housing crisis out there. very difficult to make the argument that things are really moving forward when there s still such a huge weight on people s shoulders because of joblessness. let s get to this proposition 8 story. the judge who overturned that law said basically there is no rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. the white house adviser david axelrod came out and said president obama opposes gay marriage but supports equality for gay and lesbian couples. he got 70% of the gay vote in 2008. is he going to have to reconsider his stance or revise his stance on this issue? well, if he feels that political imperative, he got through the election without changing that stance. he writes in his own memoirs he may be on the wrong side of history on this. neither he nor hillary clinton supported gay marriage, but they did support equal rights, and he opposed proposition 8 even though he respects the will of the voters. the president has really tried to straddle the line here and may get a lot more pressure from the left, already disappointed about some things, to catch up with history as this thing keeps moving. all right. tune in sunday morning, what am i going to see on your show, david? whether the crisis in the gulf is really over and what s ahead there, whether the moratorium should be reconsidered about oil drilling. and the man who wants to be speaker of the house, john boehner, will join me. what is the republican vision should they take over in november. sunday meet the press, david gregory. 7:15. here s meredith. matt, thank you. it was supposed to be a day of fun, members of a missouri high school band on a field trip to an amusement park just outside st. louis. but it quickly turned into a nightmare, a tragic chain reaction crash involving two school buses. and this morning two teens are dead. nbc s januaet shamlian has details. good morning, janet. reporter: meredith, good morning. this was planned as a day of celebration. one a group of teenagers had been looking forward to for months. it was the end of their summer band camp, and these kids had been selling candy, washing cars, doing anything they could to raise money for this trip to the six flags amusement park. but just a few miles short of their destination, the outing turned tragic. it started as a fun filled field trip for students from a high school band camp. they were traveling in two buses one full of girls, the other full of boys. heading for six flags amusement park on the outskirts of st. louis. but before they got there, a tragic ending in what s being described as a chain reaction accident. it s been a horrible, horrible day in our community and it will be felt forever. there will be no way that we can get over this. reporter: the chain reaction started as four vehicles were heading east on interstate 44 outside st. louis. the tractor-trailer slowed as it approached a construction site, a pickup truck crashed into the trailer. moments later the first school bus smashed into the truck and the second bus rear-ended the first. aerials of the accident scene showed the first bus perched on top of the trailer cab and metal ladders used to evacuate band members. highway patrol officers said the driver of the first bus may have moved into the passing lane to give room to a vehicle on the shoulder of the highway. she then was looking in her mirrors to the left or to the right and she failed to notice the first impact. reporter: authorities say the driver of the pickup, 19-year-old daniel schatz, was killed as was 15-year-old sophomore jessica brinker who was on the first bus. overnight jessica s family released a statement thanking everyone for their support. they wrote how jessica loved singing and dancing with her sister, how she was voted the friendliest girl by her classmates and how friends say she always had a smile. dozens of other students on both buses were injured. they were taken to three area hospitals. most were treated for bumps, bruises, and other minor injuri injuries. broken glass and people on the floor. reporter: family members from the small town of st. james where the band members attended school rushed to the hospitals to pick up loved ones. my son called me on his cell phone, thank goodness for cell phones, and he just said they were in an accident. his first words were, dad, we ve been involved in an accident and we need you to start praying. i was on the back of the bus. all i know is the impact was pretty large. it was just evacuate, get away from the scene. reporter: and now the ntsb has sent a team of investigators to the scene. meanwhile, there is one of the high school band members in the hospital here. she s in serious condition but she is expected to recover from her injuries. just a horrific event for this community. meredith? all right, janet shamlian, thank you very much. it is 7:19 and once again here s matt. thank you. it s always nice when a grandson follows his grandfather into the family business, but when the business is politics and your grandfather is richard nixon, is that connection a blessing or a curse? here s nbc s kelly o donnell. reporter: chris cox has never run for office before. are you republican? democrat? republican. reporter: politics is in his blood. when your granddad was president reporter: president, as in president richard nixon. his grandson, chris, was born five years after nixon resigned. hard lessons were passed down. the advice he always gave me is you always have to come back, no matter what happens, no matter what roadblocks are thrown in your way, don t let anything get you down. i have never been a quitter. to leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. reporter: a much happier moment in white house history, the rose garden wedding of chris parents, tricia nixon and edward cox. on their way into the white house for the official picture taken. reporter: tricia has lived a very private life ever since. but now the cox es only child running for congress. did you get a sense she was worried for you? i think every mother would be worried, but she was very happy that i wanted to serve my country. reporter: cox is 31 years old, a lawyer, and business consultant, going door-to-door in a swing district on new york s eastern long island where some people remember president nixon fondly. of course. that s my grandfather. reporter: competing in a september primary up against several republicans, old family connections help like former secretary of state henry kissinger who is raising money. when you knock on doors, do people know president nixon was your grandfather? there are a lot of people who have actually heard about it and we get a very favorable reaction. so i think it s been a big plus so far. reporter: really? absolutely. reporter: his pitch is about what he could do in congress. that s why i want to go to congress to help out small businesses like yours and mine. reporter: some suspect his grandfather s fall from grace hurts his chances. going back to nixon s time, what he did, and i remember the tapes. that s what comes to mind. reporter: even with all the family history, the politics of today may be an advantage. voters here are evenly split between parties and cox hopes the anti-washington mood this year could help him beat a democratic incumbent. we re running to reduce the size of government, balance the budget, and cut taxes and grow jobs. do you think you can do that? we can do that. reporter: do you feel any weight of the watergate era and d i think people are more ion concerned about what i can do to help make their lives more affordable here on eastern long island. reporter: cox prefers to talk about nixon s statesmanship on foreign policy or share a memory about nixon s lesser known spor sportsmanship with the grandkids. we would play pickup basketball games on the tennis court and we would love doing that. and he had an incredible outside shot, which you wouldn t believe, from the top of the key. he was incredible. reporter: nixon is chris cox s middle name. a legacy for the grown-up candidate of 2010. for today, kelly o donnell, nbc news, river head, new york. and still to come on a friday morning, a mystery in minnesota the death of a promising 21-year-old college student, chris jenkins. his parents have fought for answers for nearly eight years. they ll share their heartbreaking story in a live interview. just ahead, why some people are paying more than half a million dollars to open tibetan mastifs. when something s safe? you talk to these guys. they go through every car and truck we make with a big fat red pencil. because they know a family s going to be inside. a teenager. a guy on the way to the job. the engineers of chevrolet. just another reason why we can offer a 5-year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. and another reason why a chevy s a chevy. a 5-year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. 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. a tornado hits, air life denver takes off. their night-vision goggles keeping the rescue mission safe. and powering those goggles the only battery air life trusts: duracell. trusted everywhere. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. time for a check on the morning commute. here is kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. no delays to report, just a couple of incidents. one is in the phoenix area. downed trees. in reisterstown, fire activity and ridge road and greenspring ave. it s on the outer loop topside. 12 minutes on the outer loop topside. no delays to report at all. we will give you a life like the west side of the beltway live look at the west side the beltway. caton avenue, live look at their. very light volume for this friday. we are watching the progress move through the area. you can see little batch of clouds. behind, and nothing but sunny skies at high pressure. a nice northwest wind flow will set up shop. tend to 15 miles per hour. we are still pretty sticky right now. 77 downtown, 74 at the airport. we re headed for an above-normal high yet again, low 90s today. it will feel a lot better by the afternoon. 91 or so today. tomorrow is feeling much nicer. tonight, 65, clear skies. more sunshine on sunday, 88. we return to heat and humidity by monday and tuesday. tuesday, a slight chance of storms. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back in 25 minutes with another live update. 7:30 now on this friday morning, august 6th, 2010. standing room only crowd outside our window on the world in rockefeller plaza. in just about one hour from now, all these fine folks will be treated to a live concert from the grammy winning band train. inside studio 1-a i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. a new warping to parents on how dangerous common household cleaners can be. to a toddler, some of them look like something fun to drink. there s something a lot of parents are not doing that is putting children at even greater risk. we ll tell you about that in a couple of minutes. also ahead, are you tired of paying hundreds of dollars each month just for your cell bill and cable? we ll help you bargain your way to a better rate. how much would you pay for a dog? i like to get them from the pound actually. so you wouldn t pay a lot of money, right? no. how about upwards of $600,000? that s crazy. in one part of the world, that is the going rate for these massive mastiffs. we re going to tell you why they ve become so popular and so expensive. all right. but we re going to begin it this half hour with with a mystery. what happened to college student chris jenkins? he vanished in 2002 and his parents have been on a crusade ever since. we ll talk to them in a moment. first chris story as told by solve my mystery a new series that uses actors to tell crime stories from the victim s perspective. the day i disappeared was big news. but that was nothing compared to the day they found me. floating faceup in the river. half of me was totally relieved because no one could hurt him anymore. and the other half is, oh, my god, he s gone. where is he? there he is. bye-bye, chris. after four months of searching, all my family had now were the videos, the photos, the memories, that and a box full of ashes. he always wore a blue bandanna underneath his lacrosse helmet, so i took the blue bandanna out of his helmet and i wrapped it around the box because i personally wanted chris character front and center. to chris, my brother, my best friend, my personal counselor, my comedian, my mentor, and my hero, i promise that every day from now until i join you, i will not take life for granted and i will not take those around me for granted. i promise to make every day count, chris, and i promise to live to the fullest. but if police thought that my funeral would finally end, my family s fight with the department, they were wrong. so the body was found critical moment that we need to understand exactly what was going on. no one would share anything with us. the medical examiner told my folks he had trouble pinpointing how i died, drowning seemed likely but he couldn t prove how it happened. so he listed the cause as undetermined. following the conclusion of that meeting, the lead investigator said it s suicide or accident. still, mom and dad kept going. they kept asking for an investigation. and a year and a half later, they got a response from minneapolis police. we have had this case reviewed by our most experienced investigators. we see no reason that this case needs to be viewed by any other parties. the case is closed. i wanted to rip somebody s eyes out. where do you go from there? at the end of the day, where do you go? i could look at a picture of chris, look into his eyes, and i personally was back on track because the job wasn t done. steve and jan jenkins have written a book called footprints of courage. good morning to you both. good morning. i know this is the first time all of us are seeing that scene from this new series, nbc series, solve my mystery. as hard as it was for you to watch that, your eyes were welling up with tears, it s important to get this story out this way. well, it very much is. and we have spent almost eight years working this case, and we really did this for a number of reasons. one, because of the undying love we have for chris and sarah. two, the determination to find chris when he went missing and truly to find the truth after his body showed up. the motivating factor was all the volunteers, the family, the friends, and, most importantly, the professional experts that came to our aid. and truly the knowledge to know when it it was time for us to give up and you have never given up. we haven t begin up. what we learned from this is we learned to ourselves and also to other family members that a parent s love is really a force to reckon with. you know, jan, when your son went missing in 2002, from that day you all believed it was not suicide. it was not some sort of accident. you believe it was foul play. the police did not. they closed the case. you hired investigators. you spent thousands of dollars to basically say, you re wrong, we re going to find out what happened to our son. what kept you fighting? as steve mentioned, an undying love for chris. we were a very close family. chris and steve spoke every day. and yet we re parents. we were living in wisconsin at the time, so we contacted his coaches, his teammates, his professors. the message was consistent. chris would not just disappear. that didn t happen. and in 2006 the police said, we were wrong. they apologized to you. they said this is a homicide. was there a sense of victory for you? there was a sense of, i believe, a small sense of justice for chris that had actually occurred. and yet at the end of the day, why was it allowed to happen and why was it not followed up on? and we would hope that all of us learned from what doesn t work in going forward to what does work. and yet since 2006, since the police reopened the case and said, yes, we did make a mistake, there have been no arrests. we contacted the minneapolis police department. i want to read what they told us. this is an open case. we will act upon any information we get immediately. in addition, the hennepin county attorney s office has a prosecutor assigned to it and they have reviewed this case. what s your response to that? well, i called the lead lieutenant four weeks ago and it had been 15 months since we spoke and i really wanted to know what kind of activity has taken place and really nothing has happened. it is an open investigation. we re really hoping this story after almost eight years truly someone s conscience is going to be playing on them after they see this story and we hope we get some phone calls. but is there a sense of frustration still with the p police? theres is? absolutely. about two years ago we realized we had done everything we could and i just decided i wasn t going to cross over that line into stupid. and stupid means hitting your head against the wall when you don t have the power to do something. we re proud of what we did. we went as far as we possibly could. would we like to see people held responsible? absolutely. whether that s the bar or the people that did this or friends. at the end of the day, what we want and we re so delighted nbc is doing this show tonight because chris led a remarkable life. he lived almost 22 years. he touched thousands of lives in a very positive way, and the story tonight will be not just about his death, about his life. and that s what we want to carry forward into the future. i wrote the book footprints of courage. number one reason, for chris. a tribute to chris. also beginning this year, 2010, i have been a public speaker and workshop leader for over 25 years and i ve added a new direction which is stick together, stay alive. i plan to speak on college campuses and with high school students. we don t want this to happen to another family. and there are things that kids can do to stay safe and don t ever leave one behind. and it s important that you do that, jan and steve, thank you so much. i greatly respect you. thank you very much. i appreciate it, thanks. you can see more tonight at 9:00, 8:00 central time here on nbc. now let s get a check of the weather from al. thanks a lot, meredith. as we take a look at tropical storm colin is back again southwest of bermuda moving northwest at 14 miles an hour. should stay to the west of bermuda. that s the strongest side. again, it s about 65-mile-per-hour winds so it shouldn t be too bad. and then we ve also got your weekend outlook. a slight risk of strong storms in the plains. showers in the pacific northwest. mild in the east. sunday, more beautiful weather throughout much of the country. the heat continues, though. it will be confined to the southwest hope you are doing well. our weather pattern will change for the better to it by this afternoon, less humid. mostly sunny skies and all the tropical humidity on the way that s your latest weather. we re getting ready for football season. that s right. sunday night football night. it s the hall of fame game in akron canton, ohio, i should say. the cincinnati bengals with t.o. that s right. and ochocinco. mostly clear, mild. temperatures 73 to 78. it s sunday night football night in america. we re saving the big one for the real season. meredith? al, thank you very much. and up next, hidden hazards under the sink. a new warning on just how dangerous common household cleaners can be to your children. my me time is when i thought i parked on level 2. or maybe 8? my me time is when there s a 10% chance of rain! [ cellphone rings ] my me time is when he doesn t get the hint. my me time. [ bang ] is when everybody s takin shots at me. [ male announcer ] discover you time anytime. mccafé your day with a mcdonald s frappé. smooth and icy caramel or mocha blended just for you and topped with a decadent drizzle. me time ! [ male announcer ] the simple joy of a frappé. [ laughs ] this is it! [ all ] 10.9.8. a new school year has so much potential! any resolutions? my resolution is the same as always; keep her full and focused with my fiber. [ all ] 3.2.1. happy school year! [ female announcer ] this school year, make a resolution to give your kid kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal. an excellent source of fiber from 100% whole grain. that helps keep them full so they can focus on the day ahead. keeps em full. keeps em focused. 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. behr premium plus ultra. the only interior paint and primer in one that s rated number one. now to a warning to parents about those spray cleaners you use in your home. as kevin tibbles explains, they can be a dangerous and sometimes deadly temptation for toddlers. reporter: it happened in the blink of an eye. i remember turning around, seeing him with a handful of carpet freshener in his mouth. reporter: erica christian s 19-month-old son was poisoned from ingesting the carpet freshener and rushed to the hospital. luckily he suffered no permanent damage. but each year the chemicals found in common household cleaners send thousands of young children to the emergency room. the biggest defenders in the way of products are bleach. reporter: from 1990 to 2006 more than 267,000 children under 5 were treated for injuries related to household cleaning products. a child puts them in their mouth, they realize that this is a yucky chemical and the first thing they do is they do this and it goes into their lungs instead. and that s where it causes the most damage. reporter: another problem for kids, many of the brightly colored cleansers that we keep in our homes look very similar to the sorts of things they like to eat or drink. nearly 20 years of research went into the study which also found that while parents are doing a better job of keeping dangerous chemicals locked up, about 12,000 children are still injured each year. and spray bottles are of particular concern as many parents forget to lock the nozzles. another tip would be to keep cleaners in their original containers and not transfer them into kitchenware or other containers not labelled. reporter: with so many brightly colored and sweet smelling cleaners on the market, parents need to keep these products out of reach so our children don t confuse solvents with sodas. for today, kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. up next, why some people are paying more than half a million dollars to own one of those king-sized dogs. they like that vehicles like the 2010 malibu, traverse and silverado half-ton have each been named a consumers digest best buy. they like that chevy backs the quality with a one-hundred-thousand mile powertrain warranty. they re not just trading in, they re trading up. qualified lessees now get a low mileage lease on this malibu ls for around one ninety-nine a month. call for details. the switch begins at chevydealer.com. and i wondered what it was. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia, thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means i can do more with the ones i love. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior or any swelling or affected breathing, or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don t drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don t drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. then i found lyrica. 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. tiny, purse sized dogs may be popular in the u.s. a much bigger breed may be all the rage. reporter: it s a lion, it s a bear, nope, it s a tibetan mastiff to be precise. the latest rich man s accessory in china. so loyal, says one businessman, and fierce. he and his wife prize these canine traits so much that last year they claimed to have paid $600,000 for a dog, a purebred, delivered in style by a fleet of mercedes. such is the life of a privileged pup in the new china. this certificate is actually what s worth money because it verifies the bloodlines for the dog. weigh i weighing up to 180 pounds, the mastiff is also valued for its origins. from the former himalayan kingdom 12,000 feet above sea level on the tibetan plateau. in china people think of the tibe tibetan massive for their health. where mastiffs come in all shapes and sizes, judged for their physical traits. in the shape of the mouth and jaw. and demand has skyrocketed with prices jumping 500% a year and dog fairs like this taking place across china during the show season. boosting the fortunes of men like salia, once a chicken farmer, now a breeder of prize winning mastiffs. at the beginning i liked them because i liked dogs, he said, then i realized i could make a lot of money from them and now i m really in love with them. so this two-year tibetan mastiff will set you back half a million dollars. i don t know, are you worth it? some people don t think so. the whole trend is rich people buying a dog doesn t matter if you re a pet lover. you want to look at a dog or live with dogs, you just buy the dog and say i got a tibet mastiff. reporter: owners argue otherwise. it s very expensive to own a tibetan mastiff, he says. you have to love the dog to spend that kind of money. a status symbol by those smitten by puppy love. a spokesperson for the american kennel club and she has brought along two dogs. gia is just a puppy. matt and i had the same question, what is it with these collars? these are actually the historical collars to protect them from attacks from snow leopards and wolves in the tibetan mountains. in this country they are not that expensive, correct? they re not as rare or valuable, approximately $800 to $3,500. and are they a good family dog? they are a good family dog. they re a guardian breed. they will protect their loved ones and their family and their property but they are a little aloof and reserved with strangers because of their nature. this one wasn t. loving. are you thinking what i m thinking? you want one? we export these to china, $2,000 a dog, we sell 1.3 billion of them, we are done. we are set. we have money coming in. they are really sweet dogs. highly intelligent. they do need proper socialization. they can be destructive, too? they get bored. thank you so much. you re welcome. we ll take them outside to watch train on the plaza in our 8:30 half hour. think fast, go slow now i know freedom is all that i need [ female announcer ] ladies, raise your spoons. now there s nothing left standing between you and a satisfying breakfast. introducing special k low-fat granola. with 50% less fat than the leading granola and 5 grams of fiber per serving, it s a satisfying way to help you manage your weight. special k low-fat granola a taste of freedom. it s a satisfying way to help you manage your weight. there s oil out there we ve got to capture. my job is to hunt it down. i m fred lemond, and i m in charge of bp s efforts to remove oil from these waters. bp has taken full responsibility for the cleanup and that includes keeping you informed. every morning, over 50 spotter planes and helicopters take off and search for the oil. we use satellite images, infrared and thermal photography to map and target the oil. then, the boats go to work. almost 6,000 vessels. these are thousands of local shrimp and fishing boats organized into task forces and strike teams. plus, specialized skimmers from around the world. we ve skimmed over 27 million gallons of oil/water mixture and removed millions more with other methods. we ve set out more than 8 million feet of boom to protect the shoreline. i grew up on the gulf coast and i love these waters. we can t keep all the oil from coming ashore, but i m gonna do everything i can to stop it, and we ll be here as long as it takes to clean up the gulf. you need listerine® whitening vibrant white™ rinse. the mouthwash that gets teeth four times whiter than the leading toothpaste. and kills bad breath germs. listerine® whitening vibrant white™. [ female announcer ] wake up to black silk fr folgers. bold flavor. exceptionally smooth. 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. behr premium plus ultra. the only interior paint and primer in one that s rated number one. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. time to get another check of the morning commute. here is kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. looking very nice on the major roadways. we have a downed tree in the phoenix area. debris on the inner loop of the beltway at southeast boulevard on the eastern side. report of an accident in annapolis at rita road. just a few things to watch out for. the drive times of looking good. outer loop topside, 12 minutes i-95 sou between the beltway and 32. no delays at all. we will give you a live like the west side of the beltway. very, very light for this time of morning. almost a ghost town out there this friday. enjoy the morning commute. nice to see that ghost town look with the traffic. as far as the weather goes, we are waiting for a less humid air mass. it is sticking to our south. high pressure will build in behind it. currently, temperatures are sticky out there. 78 downtown, some recent at the airport. 77 at the airport. hopefully, partly cloudy the mostly sunny skies. 90 to 92 degrees. it will feel like a more comfortable low 90s today. as we head into tomorrow, and nice. 87 on saturday. on monday, the heat and humidity return. as always you can check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back at 8:25 with another live update. hey soul sister we know when it s pretty much a picture perfect morning, blue skies and night, warm temperatures. but for now it s much less humid than it s been. and the heat has shrunk. now only nine states have heat advisories. down from the 20s since yesterday. we re in for a nice weekend in the northeast. looking good. we re in for a great concert about 30 minutes from now. we have train, the grammy award winners taking to our summer concert stage to put on a great show for what is a huge crowd here in the plaza. we re going to get to that in a second. also ahead, you know that there are certain things you buy that you can haggle over the price, right? sure. like a car, a little wiggle room there. what about your cell phone and cable bill? hmm. i wouldn t think you could. it would be nice if you could. you can. we ll show you specific steps you can take, things you should say on the phone to the manager at the cable company or the cell phone company to get a much better deal. also, you hear a lot about adhd with children, but what about the toll it can take on a marriage if someone spouse actually has adhd? you ll meet a couple dealing with that, also some experts who will tell you the warning signs and how to cope with it. speaking of marriage, there are a lot of places people are getting married in wild places these days. we re seeing on the internet these exotic dances, all kinds of stuff. would you believe getting may married at a t.j. maxx? it s a bargain. i guess so. you already know you have good shoes. we ll show you some of the wild stuff going on with weddings these days. and lots to get to. let s go inside. ann is off this week. we are happy to have carl quintanilla of cnbc over at the news desk. carl, good morning again. good morning. good morning, everyone. the nation s next supreme court justice visits the white house for a ceremony marking her senate confirmation. elena kagan was approved thursday despite republican opposition. she ll be sworn in tomorrow to succeed retired justice john paul stevens. bp engineers finished pumping cement into the ruptured oil well are waiting at least a day for the cement to dry. company executives say the so-called static kill method could permanently plug the leak. they say the company will finish drilling a relief well to forever plug the source of the oil. the ntsb will investigate thursday s chain reaction crash near st. louis that killed a 15-year-old girl and the teenaged driver of a pickup truck. officials said two school buses taking high school band members to an amusement park slammed into an earlier highway wreck. a minnesota prosecutor says she will not retry a man who served more than two years in prison for a toyota crash that killed three people. lee was set free on thursday. lee s claim that the brakes on his 1996 camry had failed gained credibility after toyota s widely publicized problems with sudden acceleration. police in scotland are investigating what they call the suspicious deaths of three children from the same american family. nbc s martin fletcher is in london this morning. martin, good morning. reporter: carl, good morning. what a tragedy. firefighters were called to a house in edinburgh to put out a small fire and they found the bodies of three children. a shrine is already forming while the questions pile up. police are investigating one possibility where 8-year-old twins luca and austin riggi and 5-year-old sister cecilia killed by their mother. the family seemed to have it all, living in comfort. the mother home schooling the children. the father an oil engineer. back home in colorado, family neighbors couldn t believe it. i am really shocked to hear this news. they had nice kids. they re real nice. it really is a shock. reporter: but the parents were going through a bitter divorce. they missed a scheduled court appearance tuesday on custody of the children and today the family is destroyed. the children s mother theresa in the hospital in serious condition after falling 40 feet from her balcony. another possibility, a gas explosion. there was a gas explosion and a woman fell off the third story or second story, i don t know. whatever the top floor is of the building. reporter: the children reportedly did not die as a result of gas or fire and police are investigating the cause of death. the injuries at the moment are suspicious. the children s father, pasquale is helping police. he is said to be heartbroken. while police are wait to go question the mother in the hospital hoping she ll have the answer how the children died and hope to learn more from the autopsy today. martin, thanks for that. a power failure at the wisconsin state fair last night left dozens of people stuck on a chair lift ride for two hours. firefighters used a cherry picker to lower the dangling riders 35 feet to solid ground. it is 8:05. let s get back to meredith and matt out on a busy plaza. it is busy out here, carl. thank you very much. a busy, beautiful plaza. al roker is tucked behind the drum. i am. you re telling me to beat it. anyway, we have you found your soul mate ten years ago, officer horton. officer hardy. and where is officer hardy? he s sleeping right now because he s been working so much. yes. he s getting a little rest. we like that. happy anniversary. thank you. let s check your weather, see what s going on, and we ll show you our pick city today happens to be nbc 3. mostly sunny, mild in syracuse, new york. my old stomping grounds. we have a beautiful day here in the northeast. some heavy showers and thunderstorms firing up today, down through the southeast. we have a risk of strong storms there. also through the central plains and much of montana a risk for strong storms, beautiful weather up and down the west coast. showers in the southwest. gulf coast hit or miss thunderstorms as well. what they re here today improving trade high in baltimore is 91 degrees. went out of the west at 10 to 15 miles per hour. and that s your latest weather. you know whose birthday it is? is. no, who? jimmy kargan. turn so we can see you, jimmy. 63 years old today. jimmy, happy birthday. thank you, thank you. just ahead, how to cope if your spouse has adhd. one couple shares their story right after these messages. happy birthday, jimmy. [ girl ] bye mom! bye sweetie! you ll do great. [ laughs ] this is it! [ all ] 10.9.8. a new school year has so much potential! any resolutions? my resolution is the same as always; keep her full and focused with my fiber. [ all ] 3.2.1. happy school year! [ female announcer ] this school year, make a resolution to give your kid kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal. an excellent source of fiber from 100% whole grain. that helps keep them full so they can focus on the day ahead. keeps em full. keeps em focused. that makes everything taste better. maybe it s cooking over an open flame. or the juicy beef franks on a delicious bun fixed up just the way you like them. well, whatever it is, you can enjoy more of it with walmart s guaranteed unbeatable prices on all your cookout favorites. save money. live better. walmart. save money. live better. walmart. mommy. mom, the back to school list is here. looks expensive. graphing calculator, flash drives. that was easy. [ male announcer ] get back to school and back to savings on everything on your list at staples. the book of truth. food myth #9. [ woman ] chopping, peeling and sauteing can be kinda relaxing at the end of the day. [ female announcer ] relaxing? for who? for fresh taste without the fuss, try new market creations from lean cuisine. the new garlic chicken is freshly steamed in this revolutionary steam pouch that unlocks the flavors of tender white meat chicken, crisp farm picked veggies and al dente pasta, for a steamed dinner like never before. now that s fresh thinking. new market creations from lean cuisine. keep life delicious. when something s safe? you talk to these guys. they go through every car and truck we make with a big fat red pencil. because they know a family s going to be inside. a teenager. a guy on the way to the job. the engineers of chevrolet. just another reason why we can offer a 5-year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. and another reason why a chevy s a chevy. this morning on today s relationships attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. for most couples maintaining a healthy marriage requires a certain degree of work and compromise. and when one spouse has adhd, it can create a whole new set of challenges. robert and i met in law school. we got married in 1991. robert adapted to each other s personalities and various quirks. the early years, you know, honeymoon years, were a lot of fun but at the same time it was very frustrating. i was chronically late. i was disorganized, i often didn t finish projects that i would start. as the years passed, rob s behavior became worse. he was often totally unfocused and unreliable. i can remember calling my wife and telling her that i would be home at 6:00 for dinner and before i know it it s 8:30. just day-to-day chores would be a problem. finally, eight years into their marriage, he sought help and that s when robert was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. adhd. there are millions of adults out there who have adhd and don t know it and it s ruining their marriage and ruining their careers. with education, medication, and by exercising his mind and body, robert found the clarity he and his wife desperately needed. i was able to focus on things more as opposed to leaving projects unfinished. the diagnosis was able to help us connect. reporter: now rob shares his own experience to help others struggling with adhd. i think there s a tremendous amount of comfort in knowing that you re not alone. every marriage is a work in progress and i think that we ve come a real long way. dr. hallowell is author of married to distraction restoring intimacy and strengthening your marriage in an age of interrupgs. he also has add. melissa orlov is the author of the adhd effect on marriage. and she has a personal relationship with adhd she will talk about. good morning to both of you. good morning. first let s break it down again. attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. people have issues with distraction or both. how does that impact on a marriage? it can ruin it. if someone is distractable, impulsive, not there, not able to follow through the non-adhd spouse feels like she has another child and the marriage can easily fall apart. but if you diagnose and treat it, then you can save the marriage. this is a very common, treatable reason for marriages to fall apart. you find people don t take the diagnosis seriously. stigma is a big problem or trivializing it. everyone is add. you toss it off as if it was just everyone is like this. well, not everyone is like that. and studies have shown roughly 3% to 5% of the population has this extreme version of distractability and hyperactivity and in adulthood it can ruin your marriage and your career. melissa, i mentioned you had a personal relationship. you were work iing with ned on research on adhd and suddenly it rang a bell with you. it did and we have a daughter who has adhd and that is another way you know because it s inheritable. we looked at it and said, wow, this is our marriage. these are our problems. and this was well into your marriage, right, like 15 years in? 15 years in. we had just a very dysfunctional relationship by that time and we looked at it and we said this fits. this is what it is. and it gave us a completely new way to look at what to do to fix it and turn it around which we did very successfully. you mentioned your daughter had it. we think of adhd in terms of kids not really in terms of adults. the great undiagnosed group are adults, particularly adult women, by the way. people think you get over it during childhood. well, often you don t. and so if you have a pattern of chronic under achievement as an adult, trouble with organizing, trouble with focusing, trouble with following through, you may be very talented but you just can t make use of the talent you ve got or you just can t get it together at home and be a co-equal spouse, think of this diagnosis because you can really help your marriage. let s talk about the warning signs and talk about ways of coping with it. the warning signs, i have three of them here. one spouse handles most household responsibilities, constant nagging, and then a child with adhd. the first two you could apply to a lot of marriages anyhow. how do you know you ve crossed the line over into this? well, it s intensity and during. if it s been going on for a long time and you re much more like that than other spouses like that. sadness and depression, if you re really sad for a long time, you re depressed. if you re really disorganized and impulsive and unreliable, think about adhd. and how do they find it with your husband, how do they diagnose it? a series of questions a psychiatrist would ask to diagnose it and the best expert on that. but it is once you start to think about it, the light goes on. you say, wow, this is it. i totally understand. i see myself in this. we only have 30 seconds left, how did you begin to cope with it? what are some of the coping m mechanisms that got your marriage back on track? understanding each other much better. i have a lot more empathy for what it s like to live with adhd. i don t think my husband is lazy or cares about me, i understand what the distraction brings to the relationship. that s one way. and then you just start to work at it. you say, what is add friendly? what are the things i can put into place? which is why i wrote my book so people can learn what they are and they don t have to experiment like we did. thank you very much. thank you. and up next, bargaining your bills. what you can do today to lower your monthly cable and cell phone bills. [ male announcer ] how about we open up a whole can of getting it done? 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. behr premium plus ultra. the only interior paint and primer in one that s rated number one. the onl interior paint and primer in one there s a land that i see, where the children are free. come with me, take my hand, and we ll live. .in a land where the river runs free. .in a land to a shining sea. and you and me are free to be you and me. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. 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. that s why we re investing one million dollars every hour. to improve our technology and your safety. it s an investment that s helped toyota earn multiple top safety pick awards for 2010 by the insurance institute for highway safety. no other brand has won more. these top safety picks, and all our new safety innovations are available at toyota.com/safety. i love my cable tv back at 8:21, this morning on today s consumer paying less for cable and cell phone. everyone loves a bargain especially in tough times. it may be easier than you think to bargain down your bills. carmen wong ulrich, nice to see you. are table companies more likely to bargain with you now than in the past? oh, yes. why? cable has been cut by many americans in this recession because of the budget but also next year researchers project about 20% of us are going to be watching our tv online. we have fiber optics options and dish options so competition is here. your advice here is really good. the first thing is be a good customer. this makes sense but here is what you have to have the perfect scenario. your great longtime customer, you ve been with them for a while, and also you pay your bills on time every time and have great credit and you always want to know what the competition is offering. yes. knowledge is power. you say check out your itemized bill and know your usage habits. knowing the competition there are resources online you can go to, lowermybills.com where you enter your information, your exact address to see what s available. a lot of places don t have a lot of options for cable but they will find there s an option for you. now i have my information, i m ready to pick up my phone and make that call. common sense again. make sure when you make the call and you re asking for a favor you re pleasant about it. listen, you get a lot further with honey than with bossy. be sweet about this. have that bill in front of you to negotiate down some fees. it s a roll of the dice who you re going to get on the phone. somebody who is not willing to budge, ask for a manager or even better for customer retention. are they always willing to connect you. they will. they will have to do that. these phone calls are usually recorded, of course. so the good customer service, customer retention, it costs them more to find a new customer than to keep you and cut your bill. the next thing confused me. reading this last night and your suggestion is don t be too specific about what you re looking for. why not? don t call them up and say i d like free hbo because it s not going to happen. they re not going to say, no, i m not going to give you that. you know what, i m reviewing my bills this month and looking to cut some bills, what kind of offers do you have out there right now? what kind of promotions are available? they can cut and slice for you. if you ask specifically, they re less likely to do that. do you tell a hardship story? do you get that person on the phone and say, look, my job is in jeopardy, i m in trouble, i m behind on my bills, do you get that specific? is. you can and getting that specific is this is what s happened the past couple of years. that s why people have cut their service and are looking to cut their bills. if you threaten to walk away whether it s because you need to cancel it period or you say, you know what, look, this cable company is offering me that or this cell phone service, they will want to keep you and you have to be able to walk away. you want to make sure that while you re engaged in this phone call. take note on who you are talking to. they will give you a confirmation number of the transaction that just happened over the phone. keep a note because when you receive your bill, you want to make sure that they have changed and lowered your bill. if they haven t, call them back, give them that confirmation number and they have to adjust your bill. okay. so let s say i get to talk to a manager and that manager does not lower my bill substantially, do i go around that manager and try again? you can absolutely try again. here s another thing, even if you get a discount now today and you do this today, call again in six months or even three months. business is changing so rapidly, especially with cell phones, too, that there are more promotions and offers out there every couple of months. i have friends who did this every three months for a year, got a discount every single time. you know what you re talk in about. you ve done this, right? i have done this recently. so how much time did you save how much money? i saved cable in five minutes about 30%. and on my cell phone i walked into a business to get the cell phone and talking with that person said, what s out there? what can you get for me? cut my bill in half. a lot of people think about negotiating on a lot of products but not cell phone and cable bills. now is the time. pretty good, thanks. appreciate it. just ahead, grammy winners train will be live in concert out on the plaza, and they have a lot of their fans lined up to listen to them. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a final check on the morning commute with kim dacey. pretty nice morning commute shaping up. police activity in the city at park heights. report of an accident in annapolis. a couple of things to watch out for pri otherwise, we re looking very nice. topside of the beltway on the outer loop, beltway at the the two, 11 minutes. away at 32, 11 minutes. no delays at all to report. west side of the beltway, no delays there at all. we have a report of a disabled vehicle on the inner loop of the beltway. certainly not causing problems as far as traffic goes. don t worry about that at all. this is looking good if you are heading down this weekend. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. sunshine is out this morning. we of clouds here and there. 77 as the temperature now at b.w.i. marshall. barometric pressure is up a little bit from yesterday. here is what the weather map will look like this evening. south of us, trying to clear the eastern shore. all dry weather. this translates to much more comfortable conditions. a high-pressure is out in the mississippi valley. that is our weekend. mostly sunny, less humid than yesterday. the humidity drops even more in the weekend. 90 to 92 the hybrid northwest is that tend to 15 miles per hour. we will have another update at 8:55. 8:30 now on this friday morning, the 6th of august, 2010. we have a bunch of folks waiting on train to roll into rockefeller plaza, the grammy winning band in just a moment. and a lot of great concerts coming up this summer. i think the lineup goes like this. next week on friday we have kesha out on the plaza. that should be a big crowd. then week after that we ve got some hard driving rock n roll, we ll see daughtry on the plaza. and then we ll wrap things up later in the month, i think it s august 27th, one of our favorites, katy perry. the song of the summer. exactly right. california gurls. looking forward to that and we can see the guys in train signing autographs and t-shirts for their fans. katy perry is engaged to russell brandt. talking about what kind of wedding to have. more and more couples are saying they want to do something unique. all kinds of places you wouldn t think of including a couple that decided to tie the knot at t.j. maxx. the first time it had been done there. you won t believe what it cost them. got a deal. got a deal. when you go to the gym, muscles may not be the only thing you pick up. you could get serious skin infections, believe it or not. what s the problem with you? what s your problem? i was given this copy. another not to go to the gym. how you can get it and how to avoid it. okay. before we get to all of that, mr. roker, you have a check of the weather? all right. let s check it out and show you what s happening as far as your weekend is concerned. showers in the pacific northwest, wet weather in the southwest, a risk of strong storms in the plains. beautiful in the east. rain for the gulf coast. sunday sunny and hot in the mid-atlantic states, warm in the northeast, new england, some showers in the southwest, the central great lakes. sunny and mild through the pacific northwest. sizzling weather continues oklahoma to the southeast. hope you are doing well. our weather pattern will change for the better to it by this afternoon, less humid. mostly sunny skies and all the tropical humidity on the way that s your latest weather. i think this is the first concert we ve had a garden gn e gnome. very nice. to the world s largest gnome, let s head over to washington, d.c., and willard scott. hi, uncle willie. i have a lovely tie from the autism people, my friend suzanne sent me this. this is the anniversary of autism speaks. i remember when i first heard about it, i didn t know what it was. more and more work has been done and hopefully soon they ll have a cure. but thank you, suzanne. the fifth anniversary, congratulations. and happy birthday take a look at autism speaks and our birthday buddy. lawrence aceman, 100 years old today. and he loves to send hand-painted cards to troops overseas. that s good. take a look at irving jacobs, east brunswick, new jersey is 100. retired bank clerk and he cared for his sister into his late 80s. with family taking care of family, it makes all the differen difference. gladys wing, santa rosa, california, volunteer week at the thrift shop where she helps make and sell things. and clifford morris, 100 years old. colin cancer survivor. he s 100. that s very encouraging. attributes his longevity to not eating red meat. and i always like aggie i had a neighbor named aggie halbeisen of grand rapids, michigan. lives independently and attends ch church weekly. never says no to chocolate. our kind of person. benjamin jefferson smith, hallelujah, abraham lincoln. jacksonville, florida, 100 years old. repairs cars for people in the neighborhood and helps them out, saves them a lot of money, too. and john buhman, st. joseph, missouri. scored 92 in the senior golf tournament last month. his secret for longevity, good genes. you can t believe there s anything better. levis. now back to the big apple. willard, thank you very much. coming up, would you say i do at a it t.j.maxx. odd places people are choosing to get married these days and of course we have train in concert live on our summer stage. by expanding the port, martin o malley is creating the next generation of jobs right here in baltimore. 5700 hundred jobs. that means work for today. but even more jobs for the future. 5700 new jobs that makes maryland more competitive in the world economy. without governor o malley, this expansion would never have happened. his commitment to upgrading our port and fighting for our workers is unparalleled. martin o malley, there s never a doubt who s side he s on. martin o malley. moving maryland forward. back at 8:37, from food to fashion, everyone is talk iing about the big clinton wedding. not every bride and groom goes for a traditional setting. today national correspondent amy robach is here to explain. good morning. you can say that again, meredith. most couples get mayor yad in a church or reception hall booking them months, even years in advance, and then there are these couples. a wedding is a milestone in a couple s life. saying i do the traditional way is starting to seem old-fashioned. conventional ceremonies are being tossed aside as couples look for innovative ways to personalize their big day. people are desperate for ways to make their wedding more unique and more perm than the wedding you went to last week. welcome. reporter: from picking a theme i announce you husband and wife. reporter: to dancing down the aisle. reporter: wedding fever keeps spreading. voodoo doughnuts, a portland, oregon-based doughnut shop, has an entire menu dedicated to wedding services. since opening in 2003, they ve held over 300 weddings. home depot has seen their fair share of matrimonial glee. several in the last couple of years. i like the out of the box thinking. it s a fun, memorable it actually shows the true colors of the individual. reporter: for lisa and drew ellis, t.j. maxx was their dream spot. a lot of my life lessons are connected to t.j. maxx. i learned the value of a dollar. any given day i would walk in and see my aunt, my sister, like a family reunion. you know what the store means to me and when he goes traveling, he ll only get a hotel if there s a t.j. maxx within five miles. we feel like we re being true to ourselves and getting married at a place we do have a bond at. i ll get you through everything you need to. reporter: as drew and lisa prepared for the big day i m looking forward to walking down the shoe aisle. i might skim the shoes but i m going to try my hardest not to stop. you re a lot better than a pair of shoes. he s a lot better than a pair of shoes. reporter: so t.j. maxx we have to make this happener no matter what. she said this would be her dream wedding and we have to make it come true. she is literally in here once, twice, three times a week. i feel like i m already married to her so we re just making it official, i guess. and i ll still pick out his clothes and stuff. and i ll let you shop. deal. i love those pictures they re going to have of the shoe aisle behind them on their coffee table. it s going to be hilarious. we should mention, we mentioned home depot and other places had lots of wedding. that wedding was the first for t.j. maxx. when she said she loved him more than a pair of shoes that s good. i m not sure i bought it. that was great, amy. thank you so much. up next, our live concert with train gets rolling on the plaza. [ male announcer ] achin for steak & bacon? try the subway steak & bacon melt. tender juicy steak, sizzlin hot bacon, fresh veggies on a blanket of bubbly cheese on freshly baked bread. and when morning rolls around, the new steak and bacon muffin melt with fluffy egg, melted cheese, and, oh yeah, bacon. all on a fresh toasted english muffin. mmm. guess we should leave you lovebirds alone now. crank up the flavor at subway. announcer: the toyota concert series on today brought to you by toyota. it s been called the summer anthem of 2010, the year s number one downloaded song performing hey soul sister from their latest album save me san francisco, train. hey, hey, hey hey, hey, hey your lipstick stains on the front of my left side brains i knew i wouldn t forget you and so i went and let you blow my mind your sweet moonbeam the smell of you in every single dream i dream i knew when we collided you re the one i have decided who s one of my kind hey soul sister ain t that mr. mister on the radio,ster yoe the way you move ain t fair, you know hey soul sister, i don t want to miss a single thing you do tonight hey, hey, hey just in time, i m so glad you have a one-track mind like me you gave my life direction a game show love connection we can t deny i m so obsessed my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest i believe in you like a virgin you re madonna and i m always going to want to blow your mind hey soul sister ain t that mr. mister on the radio, stereo the way you move ain t fair you know hey soul sister i don t want to miss a single thing you do tonight the way you can cut a rug watching you s the only drug i need so you re gansta i m so thug you re the only one i m dreaming of i can be myself now finally in fact there s nothing i can t be i want the world to see you be with me hey soul sister, ain t that mr. mister on the radio, stereo the way you move ain t fair you know hey soul sister, i don t want to miss a single thing you do tonight hey soul sister, i don t want to miss a single thing you do tonight hey, hey, hey tonight hey, hey, hey tonight thank you. train, thank you very much. we ll have more music in a moment. raise your hands train burst on the scene back in 1998 and they ve won countless fans and a lot of grammy awards now. after a three-year hiatus they re back with their fifth studio album called save me san francisco. we are thrilled to have them back on the plaza. train, good morning. nice to have you here. pat, welcome back. welcome back not only to the show but welcome back. three years is a long time to take off. and from what i understand what you and the guys have said in the time away you all realized what the band meant to you. yeah, i think we started to believe in ourselves again as people who maybe could add something to people s lives in a positive way instead of, hey, let s get on the radio. let s make music that we love again. and so by doing so, here we are on the radio. yeah, you have to be i don t know whether it s surprised but certainly delighted by the fact that after three years you come out with hey soul sister and it just zooms out there and it really put you guys right back on the map without a beat. i just love that it s such a positive song about how beautiful women are and i love that so many people are feeling that. jimmy, everybody here this morning has said, first of all, it s great to have you back. you ve drawn a huge crowd and some of the people who weren t familiar with train are probably saying they have howie mandel to hang out in the band. that is big. yeah, yeah. do you get that a lot? i get that. we have a little comparison. people have been putting there s howie. you re obviously a better looking person. there you go. d look over here, it was just like riding a bike when you got back together, you pick it right where you left off? yeah, i think it was actually almost easier because before the break we were kind of really wiped out and tired and sort of sick of our process and getting back was pretty smooth and fun. san francisco the first to what? we came up in san francisco and we have them to thank for everything, our lives as artists. and so we spent so much time on the road we ended up moving back to where our families are from and we miss san francisco and basically we re coming back home to them. a great city. what are you going to play now? if it s love a tribute to train fans. ladies and gentlemen, train. when everybody else is getting out of bed i m usually getting in it i m not in it to win it and there s 1,000 ways you can skim it feet on the floor flat like an idol singer remember winger i digress you are the best thing in my life husband and wife there s no happy endings you are the greatest thing about me here is love and we decide that it s forever no one else could do it better here is love and we re too much together and the rest is just whatever i m addicted to loving you and you re addict ed ed to my l too we can beat them two birds of a feather that s life together love, love got to have something to keep us together love, love that s enough of me a loan on a house i own can t be a queen bee without a throne i want to buy you everything except cologne because it s poi poison the rainbow mainly on the plains sounds the same because it is we can laugh, we can sing have ten kids and give up everything put our cell phones up in the air and just be glad we made it here alive in the middle of space i love you from your toes to your face here is love and when it s time that it s forever no one else could do it best if it s love and we re two birds of a feather, and the rest is just whatever and if i m addicted to loving you and you re addicted to my love, too we can beat them two birds of a feather that s life together love, love got to have something to keep us together love, love you can move in i won t ask where you ve been because everybody has a past let s do it all over again when everybody else is getting out of bed i m usually getting in it i m not in it to win it i m in it for you if it s love and we re two birds of a feather and the rest is just whatever if it s love we decide that it s forever no one else could do it better and if i m addicted to loving you and you re addicted to my love, too we can be them two birds of a feather that s life together love, love that s enough for me train is back with more music on a friday morning. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara to patrols in fells point have been beefed up after a string of recent robberies and attacks that investigators say maybe he crimes. people have been thrown to the ground and beaten, some so severely that they have had to be rushed to the hospital. if you see juvenile source suspicious activity, called us and we will be there shortly. a special unit of o another war morning. another warm morning. all the rain is out of the way as the cold front is moving out of the area. mostly sunny. humidity will be dropping. northwest winds at 10 to 15 miles per hour. cooler on saturday and less humid. but su by thursday of next week, it gets hotter. we will have another weather update at 9:25.