Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100811 : vimarsana.com

who was married to another woman, and she is trying to put her life back together. today, wednesday, august 11, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this wednesday morning. i m meredith vieira. and i m ann curry in for matt this morning. he has the morning off. that first image we just saw of the crash site up in alaska is remarkable. you can see that the impact was so severe it uprooted trees up there on the slope and yet the plane appears to be in one piece. as you said, five people died including former alaska senator ted stevens. four others did survive. among them former nasa administrator sean o keefe and his 18-year-old son. this morning new details on their dramatic rescue as the investigation into the cause of the crash gets under way. the latest on it all straight ahead. also ahead this morning, we have new details on the kyron horman case. police are now circulating flyers that for the first time include photos of his mother s close friend. coming up we ll have more on this. and then on a lighter note, the latest craze among celebrities, gluten-free diet. even chelsea clinton opted for a gluten-free wedding cake. there are things you need to think about before cutting out altogether. the risk and rewards coming up. we begin with the latest on the tragic plane crash in alaska and what may have caused it. nbc s miguel almaguera is in anchorage, alaska, with more for us. miguel, good morning to you. reporter: meredith, good morning. with all of the survivors brought here to a local hospital in anchorage the focus has shifted to the cause of the crash, but it may take investigators days to reach the remote wreckage site. shrouded in fog, the de havilland otter plane that carried nine people slammed into the ground so hard a 300-foot gash was left in the side of this mountain. miraculously the aircraft sits mostly intact. five passengers including former senator ted stevens are among the dead. the four survivors include stevens close friend, former nasa chief sean o keefe and his teenaged son kevin. this accident we did have survivors. we had four of the nine passengers onboard this aircraft survive, and so we want to understand what happened. reporter: the wreckage was first spotted by a pilot looking for the overdue plane monday night. the national transportation safety board says it s still unclear if a may day call was ever radioed in. weather, poor visibility, may have played a role in the crash. the conditions still too hazardous for investigators to reach the scene. pieces of the wreckage tell us the tale of what happened in this accident. they can give us information about the direction of travel. they can give us information about whether or not power was operating at the time of the accident. we ve got to really take a look at the system and structures and the power plants and see what we can find from them. reporter: it was monday afternoon, close to 3:00 p.m., when the plane departed southwest alaska bound for a fishing expedition 300 miles away. just 20 miles outside of dillingham the plane went down. discovered roughly four hours later, a small rescue team, which included one physician and two emts reached the wreckage. but when weather prevented a larger search team from getting to the site, rescuers and survivors waited on the mountain with the dead overnight for 12 hours. senator ted stevens, republican of alaska, was injured reporter: in a rare twist of fate monday s plane crash was the second for ted stevens. in 1978 he survived another that claimed the life of his first wife. the longest serving republican senator will be remembered in alaska for bringing the state billions in federal funds. also criticized for pork barrel spending, in 2008 stevens was convicted of ethics violations. the case later dismissed but only after costing him the re-election. i thought he had a bum deal and the judge felt so, also. and so i m glad that he have cleared before he died. i think alaska will remember him as the father. reporter: airlifted to anchorage, the survivors were taken to local hospitals. sean o keefe, who also served as secretary of the navy, was in critical condition tuesday night. one pilot says it s a miracle anyone survived the crash. despite the impact of the crash, investigators say nobody was ejected from the plane. we should note here that the de havilland is considered a work horse in alaska, one with a good safety record. meredith? miguel almaguera, thank you very much. mitch rhodes worked for stevens for years. mr. rhodes, good morning to you. thank you for joining us. good morning. our thoughts and prayers are with the senator s family, his wife katherine and six children and with the families of the other people on that plane. have you had a chance to speak with the senator s loved ones and do you know how they are holding up this morning? i have. they re doing all right. it s a devastating loss for them and for the state, but they ve been really warmed by the outflowing of support. president obama reached out to katherine yesterday. world leaders, alaskan senators. they ve really been overwhelmed by the support and they want to thank the first responders and the good samaritans who did yeoman s work to rescue and recover the folks in the crash. i understand the senator was bound for a fishing expedition with his good friend, former nasa administrator sean o keefe. was that something that the senator loved to do? oh, yes. i ve been on that trip with him many times. he was never happier than having a rod and reel in his hands. he loved that part of alaska. he loved all of alaska and the outdoors. it was what brought him the most joy. so we take some solace in that he was doing what he loved. he was also no stranger to small planes which is one of the only ways to get around parts of alaska. as miguel mentioned, he had survived a plane crash in 1978 that claimed the life of his first wife. and it was reported that he feared that one day he would lose his life in a plane crash. is that something he ever discussed with you? you know, we talked a little bit about it, but it s kind of the reality of alaska. those planes are our buses and taxis. more than 75% of communities in alaska are only accessible by air, so he didn t dwell on it. he was a positive can-do kind of guy, but certainly it was in the back of all of our minds when we travel throughout the state. and senator stevens was committed to traveling to all far-flung corners of the state. we re double the size of it texas. it s just a reality of alaska life and, unfortunately, it caught up with him. he was also a force to be reckoned with in the senate, the longest serving republican in senate history, 40 years in congress. for nine of those years you worked with him. tell me about the man you got to know. the man and the politician and what legacy he leaves behind. i think the legacy he leaves behind is the 49th star on the american flag. he was there at the beginning, all the way through statehood to bring the young state into the maturity that it is now. you look around the infrastructure, the opportunities. when he started in politics half a century ago the alaska native people in our state had very primitive third-world conditions. that s changed dramatically. he supported the defense department and our armed forces tirelessly with his brother. his legacy was working across the aisle, bucking the system, sitting down and getting things done. and as a man, he was a curmudgeon on the outside but he had a heart of gold. if anybody was in trouble, the irony was that he would always reach out to senators and staff if they had lost loved ones. he had a book on grief he would dispatch me and other staffers to go and give to people. whenever anything was down, he was the first senator who would reach out to folks in times of trouble. and so he was just a wonderful, warm human being, a great husband, father and grandfather. and we miss him terribly. uncle ted to the people of alaska. mitch rhodose, thank you so muc. now to politics and the results of primaries held in colorado, minnesota and connecticut as well as a run-off election in georgia. we have nbc s kelly o donnell in denver this morning with the complete wrapup. hey, kelly, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. the idea that frustrated voters this year were ready to throw out every incumbent certainly didn t hold up here. the democratic primary for senate carries an extra tension because bill clinton and barack obama were on opposite sides. the president and his choice, michael bennett, both won. colorado senator michael bennett finally knows what winning a race feels like. tonight is your victory and i thank you. reporter: appointed to the senate but never elected to any office, bennett had appeared to be in trouble but beat back an aggressive rival. washington needs a lot less finger pointing and name calling and a lot more problem solving. reporter: defeated challenger andrew romanoff said now it s all about november. the time for us to heal. it is a time for us to be united. it is a time for us to advance the cause that we shared. reporter: winning on the republican side career prosecutor ken buck who said this on the trail. why should you vote for me? because i do not wear high heels. reporter: former lieutenant governor jane norton was the establishment choice, but the tea party picked buck. do you think of yourself as a tea party candidate? i think of myself as a grassroots candidate and the tea party is certainly part of that grassroots effort. reporter: in connecticut, the primary round goes it to republican linda mcmahon. the people welcomed wrestling boss who poured her own millions into the senate campaign. the support of the voters of connecticut isn t bestowed by the establishment or the pundits or the media. it isn t a birthright. it can t be bought. it needs to be earned. reporter: and in connecticut linda mcmahon will face a democratic establishment candidate, richard blumenthal who is now the state s attorney general. democrats chose a former senator to be their pick for governor, mark davis. and in georgia in a run-off still too close to call between nathan deal and karen handel. that s a race that s been closely watched and it s still not over yet. ann? kelly o donnell, thank you. former world wrestling entertainment ceo linda mcmahon is the nominee for connecticut s u.s. senate seat. mrs. mcmahon, good morning and congratulations. good morning, ann, and thank you very much. still in the glow of your victory i have to ask you about something you said last night, it was a comment you made. you said you didn t buy your victory. you earned it. but you did spend $22 million more than seven times than your opponent spent on this campaign and you have said that you re willing to spend up to $50 million to win the general election. if you don t need to spend money to get this nomination and you can earn it, then why are you spending so much money? well, i certainly started out way hyped in terms of public recognition, name recognition. i ve not been part of the political scene ever before and opponents have had a head start. it was important to get good name recognition in the state. certainly that money includes infrastructure, it includes everything, so i ve put together a good team. we re running a good campaign. but what s really winning this race is being out talking with the people of connecticut and meeting with them. i ve done over 630 events since i announced last september. i ve done walking town tours. i ve had one -on-one meetings ad that s what is really winning this race. my message is resonating with the people of connecticut. as a result of that the gloves are off. robert menendez of the senate campaign committee said connecticut republicans today nominated a corporate ceo of wwe who under her watch violence was peddled to kids, steroid abuse was rampant and yet she made millions. that s on top of criticism you ve already heard, linda, about your business promoting violent behavior, bullying and being degrading to women. are you ready now for more intense scrutiny of your business? wwe has had an evolutionary process of going from tv-14 to tv-pg and over the last 20 years it has really made it s definitely changing in its conte content. what i am prepared to talk about are the issues that are on the minds of the people of connecticut. but you know that people are going to especially your opponents make a lot of hay about your business, and already your husband and partner, vince mcmahon, has chafed under what he has said is unfair criticism. i guess i m wondering if you re steld for this kind of fight you have ahead of you. i am prepared and ready to go out and talk to the people of connecticut about what s on their minds, which is exactly what i ve been doing. and the more my opponents have talked about soap opera content on wwe and i have focused on the issues, the people of connecticut have responded. i have been successful in the republican convention. last night i was successful in the primary. and if the democrats want to continue to focus on content of a television program that has evolved to pg and i continue to talk about the issues, i m going to win again in november. all right. we ll make that the last word this morning. i m sure it s not the last we ll hear about this, linda mcmahon. we look forward to talking to you again and thank you for this morning. thank you, ann. washington has been keeping an especially close eye on the primary results in colorado, as we mentioned michael bennett, who had the backing of president obama, won his party s primary while setting up a november showdown with tea party backed republican ken buck. we have senator bennett joining us this morning. hello and congratulations. good morning. thank you. thanks for having me today. your race fueled this idea that president obama might not be such an asset on the campaign trail as he was two years ago. now, this morning after your victory, and it looks like you won handily in looking at the numbers with 100% of precincts reporting, you won more than a 4% of the vote, what do you want to say about president obama as in terms of his being an asset on the campaign trail? you know, i m very pleased to have had his support but i don t think it made the difference in the primary and won t make the difference in the general. the content of what i hear in my town hall meetings has never been further away from what we re hearing on a television set than today. people are focused on how we get out of the most stagnant economy. the political conversation we re hearing on tv these days is not particularly responsive to that and we have spoken to that and i think that s why we were success ifful in the primary and will be in the general. so you re saying it wasn t necessarily what put you over the top, would you have considered it a hindrance? how would you describe president obama being with you on the campaign trail in some parts to your campaign? i certainly wouldn t describe it as a hindrance and i also don t think it made the difference. i don t think it was material to most primary voters. and your victory speech to the point you were making earlier you said, quote, washington has a lot to learn from colorado. exactly what do you mean by that, senator? even before we were in the worst recession since the great depression, if you look at the last period of economic growth, the first time in our history that our economy grew and middle class income fell. that s never happened before so families in colorado are earning $1,000 less at the end of the decade than they were at the beginning. the cost of health insurance has gone up by 97%. people are struggling to figure out how to make sure that we re not the first generation of americans to leave less opportunity not more to our kids and grandkids. that s what people in colorado are focused on. i think we ll have to leave that as the last word. there will be a lot of questions and more to come as i m sure you face the general election. senator michael bennet, thank you so much this morning. thank you. thanks for not asking me any wrestling questions. you bet. you can count on that. all right. now a check of the rest of the morning s top stories with ann over here, natalie morales is at the news desk. good morning, everyone. crews in the gulf of mexico have temporarily stopped drilling the relief wells intended to permanently plug bp s broken well because of an approaching storm in the gulf. crews have about 30 to 50 feet left to drill there. security has been stepped up along montana s border with canada as police search the area near glacier national park for escaped inmate john mccluskey and his alleged accomplice. hopes are fading in china in the search for more than 1,000 people missing in flooding and mud slides that have killed more than 700 people. three people were rescued tuesday in alaska, two days after their sightseeing plane crashed on a glacier. bad weather delayed the rescue of nine other people. congressman charlie rangel says he is not resigning despite 13 ethics charges against him. the new york democrat took to the floor of the house tuesday to say that he is not going a y away. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning. cnbc s melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange once again for us this morning. what s the focus there today, melissa? good morning, natalie. you re right. we re seeing a lot of selling, the nikkei at its lowest level. that one-day meeting showing it is really concerned about the economy and the recovery and it s going to do everything to prop up both moving into uncharted territory saying the fed is going to go ahead and buy government bonds or treasuries. we re watching investors pile into those treasuries ahead of the fed, also looking at the dollar at a 15-year low against the yen. back to you. melissa francis at the new york stock exchange, thank you. and the department of education today convenes the first ever summit on school bullying following the recent incidences of bullying lead to go suicides. the goal is to create a national strategy to reduce and end bullying. it is now 7:20. you re up to date. back over to meredith, ann and al. first check of the weather from mr. roker. good morning to you, al. taking a look things are pretty quiet here at home. there is a 30% chance of a thunderstorm with this morning or afternoon. it is try right now. hot and humid otherwise. high temperatures between 91 and and that s your latest weather. meredith? and just ahead, steven slater, the jetblue flight attendant who flew away on the chute, we will hear from him. just ahead, we have a very sad story. fantasia barrino overdoses in an alleged suicide attempt. former president george w. bush tours earthquake savaged haiti. this time he brought along his daughter jennifer hager. sweet n sour filled twizzlers. the twist you can t resist. 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. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a check on the morning commute with traffic pulse 11 and sarah caldwell. looking at some big problems on east on i-70 at 29. all lanes are closed with the exception of the right shoulder squeezing by. we have an accident clearing and plenty of equipment on the scene. that is backing up traffic all the way to marriottsville. the trouble on eastbound side of i-1/7, take route 40 as your alternate. on the west side, not a whole lot. pretty nice ride. minor delays prior to liberty down towards edmondson. not about right there. we will switch over and show you the accident scene on eastbound 70. 31 miles per hour. jammed conditions continue for awhile. other things to watch for. this one is going to be there for awhile. northbound route 3 at johns hopkins wrote, another accident location to watch for. in the city, an accident there. moving pretty well out of the north east. once you get on to the northeast side, no major delays there. things are pretty quiet for us on this wednesday morning, at least weather-wise. a warm and humid day. a slight chance of a few thunderstorms popping up on in the morning and afternoon. some of the airport, 82 downtown, 77 in 75 at the airport, a downtown, 77 in jarrettsville. 30% chance of a shower or thunderstorm. we will keep a slight chance all the way through the weekend. it will cool off with high temperatures in the mid-80 s by the time we hit friday and saturday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. we w 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, august 11th, 2010. you are looking at all of our friends assembled in rockefeller plaza and gathered outside our window on the world. inside studio 1-a i m meredith vieira alongside ann curry who is in for matt. steven slater out of jail and talking about his new fame following his meltdown on a jetblue plane. we will hear from him in a moment. that story has people just fascinated. also this morning, we re talking about president george w. bush because he s traveled to haiti to get a close-up look at the relief effort following january s catastrophic earthquake and daughter jenna bush hager is there as well. we re going to get a live report from her from port-au-prince just ahead. everyone from pop stars to concerned moms are choosing to eliminate wheat from their diets. is going gluten free something you should consider? we will talk about the risks. details on what may have cause add jetblue flight attendant to snap, heading home after an altercation with a passenger. nbc s jeff rossen is here with the very latest. good morning to you. reporter: you re a girl scout but the rest of us have had moments at work when you scream of dreaming and doing something stupid. when this flight attendant actually did it, well, he got thrown in jail but he also got folk hero status. this morning he s out of jail and talking but not apologizing. with a gash on his head and a smirk on his face, late last night steven slater bailed out of jail. can you tell us why what happened on the plane, steven? reporter: a nameless flight attendant just days ago now so famous he has his own facebook fan page. 81,000 strong and growing by the minute. you are my new hero, one person wrote. yay for you, steven, writes another. out in a blaze of glory. you the man. something here is resonating with the people. are you going to lose your job? more than likely. reporter: here is what happened. steven was working jetblue flight 1052. he says a passenger bumped his head with a piece of luggage. they got into an argument and that passenger cursed at him. that s when slater, a veteran flight attendant, unleashed. according to the police report, he screamed into the p.a. system to the expletive expletive that told me to expletive off, it s been a good 28 years. then slade slater deployed the plane s emergency chute, grabbed a beer, slid down and left the airport. police later arrested him at home and after all that, he s still diplomatic. tell me about rude passengers talk about that for a second. there s a lot of wonderful people. reporter: his mother seems almost proud. nobody should be abusing anybody, and i can understand why he snapped. i would have snapped, too. in fact, i probably would have snapped more. reporter: prosecutors say this is no joke, that emergency chute could have hurt someone on the ground. slater now faces felony charges and a possible seven years in prison. i think he just had a very small meltdown and i think he deserves to be able to have that meltdown. you saw the gash on his head where he got smacked. reporter: this morning new information about slater s stressful life, the pain behind his smiling photos, his mother is fight iing cancer and there more on slater s myspace page he writes, beating alcoholism and substance abuse one day at a time. can t wait to see where i go next. safe to say a perp walk wasn t part of the plan. he did seem strangely happy, though. sounds like a lot of you can relate. people are raising money for his defense. he s my hero. reporter: why? this is a dream. anybody who has had a bad day has wanted to do this. there s a lunatic who finally did. reporter: you were customer service for jetblue. what do you think de? i think it was crazy. reporter: crazy? maybe. he seems okay with it. i have to go, thank you. reporter: hope he got that bath. jetblue says passengers were never at risk here. still, slater has been suspended from the airline pending a full investigation. he has pled not guilty to the charges against him and this morning we re told he s spending time here with friends in new york city on the upper east side. meredith, my guess is probably searching the want ads, too. maybe not just yet. dan abrams is nbc s chief legal analyst. nicole williams is a career manager here in new york city. good morning to you both. dan, if i can start with you, slater faces some serious charges here, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, he could face up to seven years in prison. how likely is it he would serve any prison time? i think it s unlikely. i think it s almost certain they ll reach a deal here. they are saying it is a serious legal matter. it is serious. there s also no way they want this case to go to trial. because of all the public support he s got? the public support. can you imagine the jury selection on this case? have you ever been on an airplane where you ve been frustrated and angry? have you ever wanted to punch your boss? you can imagine what would happen not a jury that would convict him. that s the point. the law becomes almost secondary on a story like this. i think this is going to be a plea. from a legal standpoint, what happened prior to that chute being deployed in the moments leading up to that, does that have any bearing at all? not really. we re hearing a lot from his lawyer, it s a tough life. it s absolutely fascinating but as a legal matter this is not a murder case or a death penalty case where you re going to look at the totality of the circumstances and what else was happening in his life, et cetera. this is a case where a guy put out a chute on a tarmac. what exactly happened leading up to it is not a defense to doing it in and of itself. meanwhile, nicole, he has become a folk hero, close to 50,000 fans on facebook. 80,000 this morning. some people are trying to create a legal defense fund for him. why has he resonated so much? is it because we all can somewhat relate? yes, yes, meredith, he especially in an economy like this when you have high unemployment. people are afraid to leave the job that they hate and there is this sense of anger, frustration, a feeling like people aren t respecting you. and then it culminates in this one big moment, you flip your lid and you do something like this. what he did was rash and dangerous. i can see the expression i m going to pull a slater. absolutely. what about someone who may be thinking that this morning? this is not a career a strategic career move for the majority of us. this is very public and i m sure he s going to leverage this to his best advantage. for the majority of us, there are better ways of dealing with this kind of anger and frustration in the work place. talk about it, work out, like find something good about the job that you re doing because inevitably you do have to pay the mortgage and you re probably working a job that, you know, on a lot of days frustrates you. if an angry passenger had done this, people would be looking very differently. imagine a passenger getting frustrated and, you know what, i m tired of this. they put the chute out. we re all talking about how dangerous that was. what the heck was this passenger doing? but this guy had the combination of the fact that he s working in an environment which is tough. we ve all been on planes and been frustrated. we ve all seen people mistreat flight attendants. very quickly we want to go to the woman who was involved in this altercation has come under fire. does she face any legal trouble? theoretically, they questioned her. if she had threatened him in some way, she absolutely could have. it sounds like based on what we know now that it was a case where she was rude to him. that s not a crime. what s snex. writing a book. no, are you kidding me? i m very curious to see what s going to happen. as a career manager, i d like to take him on. he has some opportunity here. in the right kind of way, he is galvanizing people around, the level of frustration that is rampant. as a former network executive, i d like to take him on. i think you have a job. dan abrams, thank you very much. just make sure you don t have a chute anywhere. now a check of the weather with al. thanks a lot, meredith. is this from the hotel? uh-oh. good idea. you got on tv. i like it. look at that. let s get your weather, see what s going on. we have a lot of rain to talk about. they have been getting hammered rainfall wise in the midwest. iowa has gotten four inches of rain, in des moines, the last four days. the rainfall amounts anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain and of course the heat the big st y story. another 18 states under heat advisories or heat warnings. the heat today 96 in omaha. 95 savannah. you put in the feels like temperature with the humidity. it s going to feel like 112 in little rock. 106 in louisville. 102 in washington, d.c. we are off to a nice, quiet start. it is more humid than yesterday. high temperatures will climb into the low-to-mid-90 s. 30% chance for a sho that s your latest weather. don t forget you can check the weather anytime of the day or night by going on the weather channel on cable or the new and improved weather.com online. ann? all right, al, thank you. now to that sad story involving former american idol winner fantasia barrino. she was rushed to the hospital following an overdose. we have nbc s today national correspondent amy robach with the details. reporter: police reports say they are investigating a suicide attempt. they were called to fantasia s home late monday night and found the idol star in distress. overcome obstacles snoet. reporter: six years ago fantasia barrino captivated viewers and won the third season of american idol. the winner of american idol 2004 is fantasia barrino. reporter: but life for the 26-year-old singer took a dark turn monday as she overdosed on a combination of aspirin and sleeping aids. it happened days after a divorce court filing which alleged the singer was having an affair with a married man, antwaun cook, that paperwork filed by cook s wife. those around her including her manager and her father are saying it was exhaustion driven by this whole situation and exacerbated by taking aspirin and sleeping pills. reporter: north carolina police called fantasia s home are investigating a possible suicide attempt. fantasia s manager brian dickens said fantasia and mr. cook dated on and off for about 11 months. she believed him when he told her he and mrs. cook separated in the late summer of 2009. fantasia is heartbroken. she feels betrayed. she is also sorry for the pain she has caused. but the pain could get worse. there are reports of a fantasia sex tape. she didn t know it would be alleged there would be a sex tape about her. if there is that sex tape, she didn t know that it would be made public and that everyone would thus know about it. it s really exploded into a disaster and a public relations nightmare. he s got to be strong and he s got to be fast and he s got to be larger than life reporter: fantasia has endured success as well as difficult times. she had a child as a teenager but then turned her life around winning big on american idol. she was heralded as simon cowell s favorite idol contestant ever but her albums and her work have not lived up to the hype. reporter: in 2008 fantasia faced legal troubles that nearly forced her to lose her home and then came reality tv and vh-1 fantasia for real. on today she said her show gave people a front row seat to her roller coaster life. what are you hoping people who watch this show are going to take away from it? well, i want them to know that regardless of what i go through i m always going to be a fighter. reporter: words echoed by her manager tuesday who said fantasia will be just fine. he writes, this is not the hardest thing fantasia has endured. fantasia will be stronger, smarter, and better for it. i believe in the impossible reporter: fantasia is due to release her third album august 24th. she was supposed to hit the road to promote it starting this week. no word yet if those plans will now be put on hold. ann? all right, amy robach, thank you so much this morning. and coming up next, jenna bush hager and her dad, the former president, visit haiti seven months after it was rocked by a massive earthquake. we ll be checking in with her live. 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[ female announcer ] wake up to black silk fr folgers. bold flavor. exceptionally smooth. back now at 7:46 with the long road to recovery in haiti following january s devastating earthquake. former president george w. bush traveled there on tuesday to visit with organizations being supported by the clinton/bush haiti fund and his daughter today contributing correspondent jenna bush hager, is joining us this morning from port-au-prince. hey, jenna, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. it s hard to believe it s been seven months since the earthquake hit haiti. rubble still covers much of the street. my father came here yesterday and this time he asked me to tag along. as months have worn on, haiti has slowly faded from the world s view but has not been forgotten. how has haiti changed? the problems in haiti before the earthquake were obviously much tougher now. the key is that we don t forget haiti. a lot of americans have to know that it s in our interests that haiti be a hopeful society and one of which people can make a living. that s what we are trying to do. reporter: the fund has raised nearly $50 million toward the relief effort. but money alone won t fix the problem. the haitian people are an integral part of the process. our first stop was a mango warehouse, the second largest export. a mango, when you look at a mango, it really means food on the table and the idea is to spur growth in the private sector. and a good way to start is with mango farming. mangos are the second largest export. reporter: next, the garment factory where workers are busy sewing chi ining children s uni the upcoming school year. this man was working as a buyer for macy s but has moved back to create jobs to the people in his devastated country. it is tremendous because that allows us to cut the goods here and distribute the work throughout the country. reporter: 80% of the haitian workforce, why is it important to make sure this economy becomes stable in terms of legit business like this? an ideal society is when people don t have to be informed, that they are part of their society as productive citizens. nothing more productive than women, for example, who are capable of putting together products that people want to buy. reporter: finally, we visited a tent city for displaced victims including thousands of children. what we want to do is create the village that will be also used as a model village for people to see how we can make people live in the best possible way. reporter: anyone who visits haiti sees there s still a long way to go. despite these obstacles, my father believes the haitian people s spirit will carry them through. i m also here to make sure people don t forget the people of haiti. reporter: it s clear that there s a strength and a resilience here in its people, and i think the key is haitians helping haitians. ann? that s a very important point, resilience is the key. general a bu jenna bush hager, thank you for joining us. new details in the kyron horman case. a family friend featured for the first time. people are shocked to find out i m a mom. i hear hot babysitter a lot. hi. my sienna is great. it matches my style, it has great stuff for my kids, it has an available dual-view entertainment center. driving my sienna says, sure, i m a mom. but i m not running around rocking mom jeans. miss, there s a diaper bag on your roof. please. [ male announcer ] meet the family and the toyota sienna on youtube. it s doing season. when we grab a little spare time and get after it. the home depot has all the right prices and all the know-how to start making things happen, less with our wallets, and more with our own two hands. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, estate oak laminate s at the new lower price of just 87 cents per square foot. special k protein shakes a truly great-tasting breakfast shake. with 10 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, it s the creamy, delicious way to satisfy. your hunger to help you lose weight. so you can kick the tin can habit. try special k protein shakes today. just ahead, a couple testing the theory money doesn t buy happiness by getting rid of their possessions. it s all in t. we hand-season fresh, never-frozen usda choice beef and cook to order. new handmade burgers with fries starting at just $5.99. like the rojo burger, drenched in rich, smoky hickory sauce. for a little more, enjoy the new avocado burger, or the ultimate stacked, with twice the meat and cheese. wrap your hands around the perfect burger with fries. starting at just $5.99, right now. only at chili s. and i feel like. [ female announcer ] kellogg s® wants to make kids happy one tummy at a time. because 9 out of 10 kids don t get the fiber they need, that s why froot loops® and apple jacks® have 3 grams of fiber in every yummy bowl. they re the cereals your kids love and the fiber their tummies love. which makes for a whole lotta happy. froot loops® and apple jacks, an oh-so-good source of fiber. kellogg s® makes fiber fun. an oh-so-good source of fiber. fancy feast created a wayhat to celebrate any moment. fancy feast appetizers. simple high quality ingredients like wild alaskan salmon, white meat chicken, or seabass and shrimp in a delicate broth, prepared without by-products or fillers. fancy feast appetizers. celebrate the moment. 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. you may have heard that oil is no longer flowing into the gulf, but our spotter planes and helicopters will keep searching. we ve still got thousands of vessels ready to clean up any oil we find. we ve skimmed over 35 million gallons of oil/water mixture. i grew up on the gulf coast and i love these waters. we ll be here as long as it takes to clean up the gulf. to get more of the fiber you need every day, try fiberchoice. with the natural fiber found in fruits and vegetables and 33% more fiber per serving than benefiber. go to fiberchoice.com to get savings and rewards. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a check on the morning commute with traffic pulse 11 and sarah caldwell. good morning. unfortunately, but still some problems on east on i-70. look at those delays. they stretch all the way back to 32 parts 29. take route 40 as your alternate. both surveys are experiencing delays this morning could clarksville pike, still shut down at centennial lane. little patuxent parkway, much better bet at this time. if you had out on northbound route 3 at johns hopkins wrote, we have an accident clearing. the late-wise, at slow spot on southbound 95. 34 miles per hour out of the northeast. yellow on the outlook from harford towards providence. 13 minutes to get from the outer loop north and west side. five-minute ride to travel from some i-95 to the 895 split. let s give you a quick live look at positions year but everything on the shoulder. eastbound 29, major delays leading up to that. liberty, looks much better in contrast. tony has a check on the forecast. things are quiet on this wednesday morning, weather-wise. lane to contend with on the morning commute to 76 degrees in a rising sun. forecast for today is hot and humid, 30% chance for a shower or thunderstorm this afternoon. high temperatures between 91 and 96. thank you for joining us. you can check the bottom of your screen for updated news and screen for updated news and traffic 8:00 now on this wednesday morning, the 11th of august, 2010. a great morning to be hanging out here on rockefeller plaza. this place will really be rocking friday morning when ke$ha performs some of her infectious hits live in concert. i m meredith vieira alongside ann curry and al roker. matt is off today. can you imagine life without a car, furniture and, i don t know, a television. we could go without a car for a long time because we live in the city. there s a couple actually in portland, oregon, that got rid of just about everything. down to 100 items. got rid of their car, changed jobs, they basically downsized, gave their things away to charity and the new york times reporter wrote about this story and basically raising the question does money really buy you happiness? and you ll see it s really fascinating what people have to say. that s the face of happiness. that is a face. and, you know, a lot of folks are making a switch to a gluten free diet. my son nick, we ve done it. and so a lot of people are making the switch. is it healthy? are there things you need to know? chelsea clinton s wedding cake was gluten free. there are some factors you need to consider before eliminating gluten from your diet. natalie morales is in for ann at the news desk. good morning, everyone. survivors of that small plane crash that killed former alaska senator ted stevens and four others are being treated as an anchorage hospital. two of the rescuers are speaking out about what they saw when they first reached the wreckage of the plane. everyone was inside of the airplane except for one of the survivors and he was underneath one of the wings staying dry. it was pretty labor intensive because of the angle of the slope and the inside of the aircraft was quite slippery. we had to cut a large hole in the side of it in order to get the people out. meantime, reporter jason lamb of our nbc stays ktau is in dillingham, alaska, not far from where the crash happened. jason, what are investigators focusing on there today? reporter: natalie, good morning. investigators will be out here again today at the site of the plane crash 17 miles north of dillingham, one of the things investigators will be focusing on is exactly how much flying experience terry smith, the pilot of this de havilland otter, had. he had 29,000 hours of flying time but much of that was in commercial jets, obviously not the same kind of plane that crashed on monday. meanwhile, in what is said to be a very somber day here in alaska, folks no doubt will be mourning the loss of the five people who died in the plane crash including former u.s. senator ted stevens. a larger than life character who se served 40 years in the senate. his huge fan base here in alaska affectionately giving him the nickname uncle ted. natalie? jason lamb of ktau reporting for us from dillingham. thank you so much. new developments this morning in the search for kyron horman. the 7-year-old oregon boy has been missing since june 4th. mara, good morning. reporter: well, good morning, natalie. later this morning the sheriff s department is holding a press conference where they re expected to ask the public s help in tracking down potentially important new leads in the disappearance of the little boy. the last known person to have seen kyron before he disappeared. reporter: for the past ten weeks this exhaustive investigation has focused on kyron s stepmother, terry horman. now police are circulating new flyers that include photos of dede speicher. it s the first time she has been featured. this one asks residents if they noticed her, terri horman or horman s white pickup truck between 9:45 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on june 4th, the day kyron disappeared. that same day speicher had had been unreachable by cell phone for about three hours. we don t know why dede was missing. the information they re trying to glean will probably eliminate any question as to whether or not it was a coincidence or she had any involvement with terri horman during that same time period. reporter: neither have been named as suspects but on sunday investigators again combed through three areas connected to speicher near the location she claims to have been gardening that day. portland nbc station kgw reports that at least two witnesses have told police that they saw a second person in terri s truck while it was parked outside kyron s school the day he disappeared. it is not necessarily a si single person episode. however, kyron disappeared, it would not be uncommon at all there s more than one individual involved in the process. reporter: now this is the flyer investigators have been distributing asking residents for any information about the white truck terri horman or dede speicher hope could lead them to kyron. thank you. and tuesday s primaries, michael bennet who welcomed campaign help from president obama captured a bitter democratic race. and in connecticut former pro wrestling executive linda mcmahon won the republican nomination for senate. it is now 8:05. let s get another check of the weather from al. all right. thanks a lot. got a couple of birthdays here. from ohio, what s your name? erica. erica and? brianne. you are now double digits. you want to thank grandma and grandpa? thank you. what do you call them? grandma. wow. that was a tough one. i really should have known that. let s check your weather. pick city, toledo. holy toledo. nbc 24, isolated thunderstorms and 86 degrees. home of jaimy farr. some showers down there in florida. the gulf coast, tropical depression number five. avy rain moving this way through the great lakes onto illinois. we have wet weather back through the plains. sunshine up and down the west coast. a sunny day in the northeast but warm and humid. we are off to a quiet start. it will be a warm and humid day again, and there is a 30% chance for a shower or thunderstorm for a shower or thunderstorm high and now let s go to meredith who is teetering on unbelievable shoes today. i almost fell over but these ladies saved my life and i greatly appreciate it. up next, does money really equal happiness? we re going to meet a couple who decided to live on just the bare essentials and they re going to share their story. [ mom ] i can t start the first grade with her. i can t hold her hand on the bus. or be there to show everyone how great she is. but what i can do is give her everything she needs to be excited for school, while staying in my budget. that s why i go to walmart. she has everything she needs. and then some. [ female announcer ] walmart has low prices on not just a few things, but everything on their back-to-school list. guaranteed. save money. live better. walmart. guaranteed. 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. where? it s really good. do you see it? it s called hope. hope? yeah. hope. i don t see any hope. i don t see any hope in here. you can t see it there, but you can see it here. cause every time you get a happy meal or a mighty kids meal some of the money goes to ronald mcdonald house charities. to help lots of kids and families. hope s good! happy meals. the simple joy of helping. we get double miles on every purchase. echo! so we earned a trip to the grand canyon twice as fast. uh-oh. we get double miles every time we use our card. i ll take these. no matter what we re buying. plus the damages. and since double miles add up quick, we can bring the whole gang. it s hard to beat double miles. no, we ride them! [ male announcer ] introducing the venture card from capital one, with double miles on every purchase every day. go to capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? oh, that s the spot! now with nutriummoisture. adding nourishment to freshness. so you can revitalize your mind and nourish your skin. dove go fresh with nutriummoisture. fresh at its best. back now at 8:11 with the often asked question does money truly buy happiness? for families are downsizing but are they happier going from everything from television to cars and most of their furniture? from the mansions to fancy cars, expensive jewelry to designer clothing it s all about making money to consume. we are hard wired to acquire. in the long run all of that stuff doesn t make us happy. with the economic downturn there has been a shift in the nation s spending habits. tammy stroebl and her husband from portland, oregon, decided to give up most of their worldly possessions, limiting themselves to just 100 personal items. this is our great room. this is our couch and bed. we have essentially downsized our lives and are having a lot of fun while getting rid of stuff. it has taken tammy and logan about three years to downsize. my wardrobe is pretty minimal. one of the first things that i donated a lot of my clothes and just paired down and kept what i really wore. they gave up their two-bedroom apartment, car and now live in a 400-square-foot apartment. we have a minimal kitchen, boxes of stuff. sure there are times when i m like, oh, it would be really great to have a car right now. we could go to the coast or go to mt. hood but i d also be stuck with a car payment and car insurance and gas. and downsizing has helped their pocketbooks. we graduated with zero debt. we could take a lesson from this that you really can do with probably less and enjoy life more. and that s exactly what tammy and logan are doing. we re not trying to be elitist in any way. we re just showing that living a simple life and concentrating on things that make us happy, people and experiences and travel is really priorities instead of fancy cars and lots of furniture. stephanie rosen blum wrote about them for the new york times business section and jeff gardere is a psychiatrist who joins us this morning. fascinating. it s a really fascinating article. when you think about it, it does turn on its head what we think makes us happy in american culture. sure. what did you learn? you talked to a lot of researchers. the main thing is some of us have habits we were forced into during the recession. in the long run may make us happier and that means putting value on an experience as opposed to an object, it means thinking about something hard and long before he decide to buy it. and this is a lesson you learned from tammy and logan because that s what they re doing? that s what they re doing but there s a number of psychologists in the country who have been studying the relationship between consumption and money and really spending. how do you get the most happiness for your buck? are you one of the experts who would agree with this idea? absolutely and these experts are saying, listen, don t put your money into objects, don t put them into cars or clothes. instead, invest in the experience. europe not getting everything all at one time. it lasts you a very long time and even if you, for example, buy a stay-cation or a vacation, then you have those memories to last you longer and longer and that s where you re getting the most bang for the buck. i m hearing a lot of my girlfriends and perhaps others right now saying, wait a minute. i really get happy when i buy, for example, that new pair of shoes. sure. so there is that kind of reality. people do get happy buying things. well, that s true except if you re just collecting shoes, that s not so great. but if you buy the shoes so that you can have an experience with those shoes, going out and looking good and feeling good about yourself and not spending a ton of money, and this is what the researchers are also saying, try to minimize your spending, try to lower the debt. just not having those issues really helps you as far as your happiness. that seems to be what you found that tammy and logan loved not having and that s made them happy. it s allowed them to give money to nieces and nephews to their college fund, to travel more. when one family comes to visit, they can put them up in a hotel room, something they couldn t do when they were in debt like that. they seem to love one another. they re not worried so much about all of the possessions. they have more time to deal with one another and that s a lesson we can all learn. tammy said give away some of your stuff. see how it feels. so it wasn t just you were mexing giving away, limiting each one of themselves to 100 e items. yes. which is shocking. which is a lot of stuff to get rid of. but giving back to charity, giving it to people who may need it, that in itself made them happy. made them feel better. were you inspired? i was. i ve gotten rid of six pairs of shoes. there you go. and even so you re saying this is a process and i think what we ve learned here is being with their families, spending time with people we love and having those experiences. living for others and not so much for yourself, not keeping up with the joneses but being happy. minimal. thank you so much. thank you so much for filing the story. really fascinating stuff. and coming up next, a hot new celebrity diet is it time for you to be gluten free? the pros and the cons after this. 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[ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it takes you farther. and brings you closer. one tribe, y all one tribe, y all one tribe, y all we are one people [ female announcer ] when you choose pepsi, you support the pepsi refresh project. which is giving away millions of dollars to refresh communities across america. one, one, one people [ female announcer ] so choose pepsi. one tribe, y all [ female announcer ] every pepsi refreshes the world. one, one, one people the only three layered bath tissue with plush-quilts ® . it s so luxurious, it may inspire you to make all the things you touch ultra plush. quilted northern ultra plush ®. luxury you can see and feel. we are back at 8:20. this morning on eat smart today gluten-free diet. people like ann hathaway and again e gwyneth paltrow are eliminating it from their diet. cutting out gluten does seem to be gaining in popularity. even chelsea clinton opted for a gluten-free wedding cake. it took a month to perfect chelsea s wheatless wedding cake. this was a project but also flourless, a gluten-free cake, makes it more delicate. a mix i use instead of white flour. erin mckenya wasn t surprised by the choice. she comes in and always gets gluten free. mckenna has clientele for gluten-free goodies. the first celebrity was jason schwarzman, made a big spectacle of how delicious things were. more celebrities are going gluten free because their nutritionists are learning that removing gluten from your diet actually is a key to weight loss. among those said to be wheat whackers paltrow, actress ann hathaway. and mary louise parker whose art imitates her life. with so many in show business going gluten free these top l.a. chefs catering a swanky emmy party had to make adjustments. the day after party and we know from our experience because all of our restaurants have celebrity clientele. they re going to want something without gluten. we know that s the kind of menu we need to design. nutrition experts say it s fine to take a cue from the stars. people have unstructured eating, they start to eliminate refined carbohydrates, you re naturally going to lose weight. a celebrity endorsement, all the better. for many people going gluten free is not just a fad. around 3 million suffer from a serious gluten intolerance called celiac disease. dr. roshini raj, author of the new book what the yuck. dr. raj, good morning to you. watching your face as you re looking at that piece, when they started talking about gluten free diets being good if you want to lose weight, you made a face there. i know they re skeptical of that. people hear diet and think it refers to weight loss. people with celiac disease, that s a true allergy to gluten, they actually gained weight. and gluten free doesn t mean it s a low caloric food. many of the foods that are gluten free they put more sugars and fats in them to make it more flavorful. so if you want to go gluten free because you have celiac disease or a sensitivity to gluten, meaning you just don t feel well when you have wheat, that makes sense. for weight loss, it doesn t make sense. what is fueling the trend? people just assume it s low fat or low carb diet? celiac disease is a very, very common disorder in the u.s., so many people know people on gluten-free diets and when they hear the word diet, oh, maybe i should try that. everyone is looking for that villain in their diet they can cut out. if you do cut out a lot of carbs, you will lose weight. i cut out gluten and i have to say i felt a lot better when i did it. so there must be some health benefits even if you don t have an intolerance to gluten. you may be feeling better because you have gluten sensitivity. some people get bloated or fatigued, they have problem with their bowel movements and do feel better. a normal person shouldn t feel different whether they have gluten or not. a gluten-free diet is restrictive. extremely. all of these fruits have gluten. i assume pasta, bread, but it extends to other products. including things like soy. it can even be in lipstick. gluten in minute amounts can cause problems for people who have a true sensitivity. it can be very expensive to be on a gluten free diet. that s why people shouldn t just go on it for the sake of maybe losing weight and if you think you may have an intolerance it s important to not put yourself on the diet but get tested with your doctor because the test is not accurate if you ve cut out gluten. are there any real risks, though, once again? many foods that have wheat are fortified with vitamins, they have fiber. if you re really restricting gl gluten you may miss out on the important nutrients. you should really do it with a nutritionist to make sure you re getting all the nutrients you need. these are the gluten free products. sometimes there s additional sugar and fat in them. other than that, they re pretty healthy. once people are look at their diet, thinking about what they re eating, they re going to lose weight because they re just more aware of what they re putting in their body. do you get the sense it is a fad that will go away with the general public? i kind of do because, first of all, it s very difficult to stick to. it may sound great for the first couple of months but you have to worry about when you go to a restaurant, how they re cooking the food, even if you re cooking at home there s a lot of hidden sources of gluten so i don t think. thank you very much. just ahead, give your teenager s room a makeover. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. let s check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. still some problems on i-as of the as this accident is clearing on 29. i-to 70 as the accident is clearing on 29. delays all the weight to 32. take route 40 as your alternate. clarksville pike and centennial lane, all lanes are closed with the accident. patuxent parkway is your alternate there. heavy delays on 95 towards the 895 split. that is all due to volume. you can see volume-related delays on the north and west side as well. 15 minutes of the outer loop northeast side. eight minutes into trouble on the inner loop from 795 towards 83 s. so far so good on j.f.x. i-as a become the eastbound direction, all lanes closed. i-70, eastbound direction, all lanes closed. here is a live picture. 95 at 395. the delays are in down from northbound 95 heading into account. county, over to you. temperatures close to 80 degrees in some spots. 82 downtown. still in the mid-70 s in the northern suburbs. 30% chance for a thunderstorm. most of you will have a dry day. still a slight chance. high temperatures on the low-to- mid-90 s. it will cool off into the weekend. slight chance of a shower thunderstorm in the forecast. we will see you back here at 8:55. 8:30 now on this wednesday morning, august 11th, 2010. we have a packed house on the plaza. on friday they can catch ke$ha singing live on our summer concert stage. that should be fan ttastic. i m meredith vieira along with ann curry, al roker and natalie morales. matt has the morning off, the little devil. how to turn your teenager s room from drab. a room that s really important, more important to become a teenager. it s a sanctuary in the house. we have george sharing some ideas and one of them is how to add some color to your child s room, your teenager s room, and that may be something that both the young person and the parent might agree on. and we are going to head into the kitchen. mr. mark bittman is there. it s the time of the year we love. it s fresh corn. oh, man. and he s going to show us about the corn, tasty recipe that is call for the sweet treat off the cobb. sweet this time of the year. love it. it s sweet. very sweet. okay, we ll get to the bottom of this. the flight attendant arrested after he lost his cool and pulled the chute, as you know, and left by the plane s exit flight think of his newfound plane? we ll hear from him and his mother coming up. all right. first let s say hello to michael who plays the title role, fights for the girl he loves, ramona. good morning to both of you. good morning. michael, i m going to start with you. how would you describe this? the world? not this world but the world in the movie. you want me to describe that in a few minutes? it s in his mind. he s sort of the star of of his own world. he has no complaints about himself as a person, which i can relate to. you would love this movie. we would all love this movie. how do you describe these people? it s a romance. it s a comedy. it s a superhero, action/thriller. it s terrifying. it s a foreign film because we shot it in canada. you know, edgar was the director trying to ensure that we re in every section of blockbuster when it comes out. i think we ll cover a lot of the bases from there. and, mary, you play the object. the object. it s sort of almost the part is almost as a japanese character. edgar really wanted to have these big animate eyes. always trying to follow her. she is always slipping away. and you did your own action scenes, right? a lot of it, yeah. is that a lot of training or prep work? oh, yeah. this is kind of more what i m used to, standing, possibly sitting and having a conversation. not actually moving. break an arm if you move too fast. you could kick some serious butt. there s a lot going on and a lot of very complicated and you do all your own stunts? we do most of them like the high kick, the first place i was never going to do it. we brought in a professional. this is really a comic book series, a huge following. so it intimidating stepping into a role knowing that you have to live up to expectations? a little bit. but i have total faith in the director. he s been thinking about this movie for five years, working on the script, bringing them together. he knew exactly what movie he was making. michael, i love what the producer said about you. he said that you are so talented that, quote, your seemingly casual approach appeared as though you re doing so little is genius. very precise. he s a great guy. always very honest. we congratulate you on the movie. fantastic. from our sister company universal, opens on friday. thanks, guys. a strange world, the world you live in is a little. let s check your weather, the weather world, see what s happening there. for the weekend we have a lot of heat out west, mild to the northeast, rain makes its way up the east coast in the ohio river valley and then sunday we re looking at some showers and thunderstorms in northern new england. wet weather through the mid-atlantic states, into the southwest, sunny and hot up and down the west coast. we are off to a nice, quiet start. it is more humid than yesterday. high temperatures will climb into the low-to-mid-90 s. 30% chance for a s and don t forget you can check your weather any time of the day or night. the fabulously new and improved weather.com on line. coming up, we ll be talking about a special camp for kids who could really use a place to just be a kid. back now at 8:38 with today s family. camp is all about swimming, canoeing and sports. sometimes the republics for going runs much deeper. comfort zone camp is the largest camp of its kind designed for grieving children. i recently got the chance to visit and see why kids keep coming back year after year. like the first day of school, kids arrive with mom or dad, nervous and unsure. a lone parent looking for comfort, takes the long and lonely walk for healing. one out of every seven kids will lose a parent or sibling before the age of 20, and yet nobody talks about it and they grieve in isolation. according to lynn hughes who lost both parents by the age of 13, it is designed to catch kids at the beginning of their grief journey. you got a lot of that a girl, putting on that happy face. and so combining that resource, comfort zone camp was born. a nonprofit weekend bereavement camp held in five states and serving 2,500 children a year with ages ranging from 7 to 17. this camp is not what you would expect, though. after dinner we re going to have games. and here they get assigned a one-on-one friend that they go everywhere together whose job is to put a smile on the face. the anchors are called buddies and the bonding happens quickly. the buddies have also lost a parent or loved one like krista who lost her father to cancer. i go to my dad s side of the bed and it just looks like he s sleeping and i grab his hand and i give him a squeeze a little, and he takes his last breath and he passes away. saturday morning brings the sun and waking up and knowing that you are not alone. are you ready? we re ready. ready to fall. designed specifically to create trust. got three days to get these kids to open up. how do you set the tone that gets them so far so fast? turbo bonding. kids are not going to sit for a long time. it s not how they grieve so an hour and a half of talking time, backed up with fun. the talking is called healing circles where kids can tell their story and know that everyone in the room will understand. [ inaudible ]. makes me so happy. these four siblings lost both of their parents and they shared with me their family photos and their memories. are there moments where you just get really, really sad about it? yes. he can have a vehicle. when i see cars like that coming down the road and stuff, it just makes me feel sad. saturday night brings smores, karaoke and a place for a child to say good-bye with a message into a campfire. 58 kids reflect about the weekend. one more day with her dad, she would take him to a basketball game. and a place that offers a friend who you can talk to or not say anything at all. and a final thought or a message released to the skies. every time you heal somebody else s story you heal. i get to see these kids change in front of my eyes and to make even one child s grief easier than mine makes it all worthwhile and i see that temple. and comfort zone also has an amazing website with tons of resources for families that have gone through a loss like this. what a wonderful place. that s really great. it s magical. thank you, sarah. we ll be right back after this. this morning on today s home making over your teenager s room. today contributor george ol l oliphant surprised one 15-year-old teenager from drab to fab. take a look. hey. come on in. how s it going? i m george open house to the rescue. your mom said you need your bedroom made over. what do you think? i love it. i really do. it s amazing. you like it? she s a wonderful girl and actually she rescues people every day. she goes into like the habitat for humanity camp. i figured i should come to her rescue. she didn t know it was her room at first. some of the ideas you have in that piece you actually brought to us today and a lot of it we noticed involves color, george. exactly. kids love color. go into a teen s room and allow them to add some color, spice it up. it s like a four-year fix. they re coming out of junior high, getting ready to go into high school, and they re going to be going away to college. so you want to think of things you can do that are easy and fun but will last three to four years. maybe you don t want that big, bold, orange paint job forever. you say you can do that with a sticker. this is not wallpaper. it s a giant decal and all of them are custom made. you can make whatever you want. if you just want a lot of pictures of yourself or your kids, you can do that. and you apply them like you do with a big sticker or decal. use an applicator which is a hard edge and you squeegee out the bubbles and it stays up and it is much easier to put on and much easier to take off than wallpaper. another easy way to involve color in your teenager s room is to choose really bright sheets. exactly. get them a nice new comforter, bright sheets, pillows, a great way to add color, accent to the room. i like the choice of your lamp. you like my lamp? that s an interesting mix. i would have never put it together. it s kind of mod and fab. you re not going to go out and buy all new furniture. you have to work with what you have. that s why color is the most important thing, adding pillows and wallpaper, even flooring. what we have here, these are just basically carpet squares and you can put these in and pull them out if you get a stain or, okay, you know what, teen is off to college, let s get rid of these. they did come together right there. they come together just like that. you use that here in this sort of teen hangout area. so you want your kids to be able to enjoy being in the room, maybe just for studying or as a hangout, so what we have here is this is a modular couch from love sack. what you can do, configure these couches however you want. so right now we have your standard couch with a love seat or with i guess a little love seat but you could put it together to make it into an l, a three-seater. the idea is flexibility. i m sorry i didn t help you out here. here is something kind of interesting, little places for people because you know the young people are going to have something to drink. you can do the whole room with this or accent walls. and if your teenager doesn t want your help? well then, you let them do it themselves. call george. call me and i will come to their rescue. thanks so much. and, again, george s new show open house premieres on saturday, september 25th, on select nbc stations. how george can come to your rescue. log on to our website at todayshow.com. up next, we ll sample some delicious corn-inspired dishes from mark bittman. back at 8:51, how to cook everything today, corn off the cob. mark bittman, author of how to cook everything is here with some great recipes to take advantage of the seasonal treat. mark, good morning. good morning, meredith. tis the season for corn on the cob. the best way to find a good ear, i pull the husk down to take a look. you want tightly packed kernels and juiciness. there should be liquid in there. and how do you get it off? the easiest thing is to stand it up in a bowl so the kernels won t go flying and use a small knife and shave right down the cob. so that is raw? that is raw. you don t cook it first? you can. we just did this actually. here s a grilled piece of corn and you can strip this the same way and that s actually what i did here, grilled the corn first, stripped the kernels. now you have grilled corn in a bowl which is sort of still raw, not to be crunchy but a nice edge of char on it and we re going to what are you making here now? corn salsa and chopped chillies. is that hot? cilantro. they re a little hot. scallion. this is a very, very flavorful and delicious salsa. okay. and then you mix that all together? you have a terrific salsa. the other great thing is to mix it i never heard of that. i know and i hate to say this but i think i might have invented it. just by mistake? it just seemed like a good idea. roasted corn. this is beautiful. it looks very good. roasted corn. well, we have towels. roasted corn and put in guacamole and have crunchy guacamole. a corn and bean, white bean, salad. you can use black beans. white beans. this is raw corn. it is raw. just stripped from the cob, chopped tomatoes. specifically raw? never cooked? corn is very flexible, tastes good in all forms and even in the off-season frozen corn is terrific. but here we are, it s august. it should be good enough to eat raw. that is very good. it is. mix that up together? a little vinaigrette. as i said, you could use black means here if you want, some basil. again, some chopped garlic. salt and pepper. and there you have a bean salad, corn/beans. to me it looks like it needs more olive oil. would you mix that all together? yep. it looks very lovely like that. we ll move on to corn chowder which i don t think of as a summer soup. well this maybe not but now we ve been stripping the cobs of their kernels, with a do we do with the cobs? make corn stock and that is basically water and corn cobs have a huge amount of flavor. they re just hard to eat. you boil water with the cobs and then you get this. it s cold now so you can just stick your finger in there. oh, that s delicious, very sweet. it s very good. we take that, we have some butter and scallions simmering here and a tiny bit of sugar. why? just in case our corn isn t quite sweet enough which sometimes happens. and flour. flour. mix that up so it s smooth. we ve come to help make it. of course. nothing could be sweeter. what do you do with that? now you add your corn stock and all of your corn. okay. and what s great about this, it s corn then we re going to add a lot of milk. you could use half and half if you want. and now if you adhere obviously this beautiful corn chowder which you re welcome to taste, you could make clam chowder with this, corn/clam, corn/potato, anything you want at that point. and then add a little corn bread. you can use a bacon garnish. knock yourself out. very, very nice, mark. mark bittman, thank you so much. that is amazing. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. a former employee of a baltimore city high school is facing sex abuse charges but documents revealed that ryan called in inappropriately touched a 17- year-old students of all the ryan coleman inappropriately touched a 17-year-old student while in his office. he is charged with child abuse and assault. school officials say he was a temporary employee and stopped temporary employee and stopped work narrator: a local entrepreneur had an idea for a new neighborhood business. and with help from small business loans sponsored by governor martin o malley, arrow bicycle shop opened its doors in 2008. this governor gets it. it s our job to give maryland businesses the tools they need to grow and create jobs. narrator: now, arrow bicycle shop is making main street stronger. selling bikes and creating new jobs. o malley understands what a business like mine needed to get started. narrator: martin o malley. moving maryland forward. here is a look at the forecast with tony pann. things will be quiet during the morning hours. this afternoon there is a 30% chance of a shower or thunderstorm. it will be more humid than yesterday. high temperatures between 91 and 96. it will feel like the upper 90s this afternoon, when you factor in the humidity. temperatures will drop into the mid-to-upper-80 s into the weekend. h2b what a third each day we will have a 30% chance of a thunderstorm. we will