Transcripts For WBAL Today 20101206 : vimarsana.com

over oncoming cars and more than 10 million people were watching live when something went very wrong. now that man is hospitalized and the show is facing tough questions today, monday, the show is facing tough questions today, monday, december 6, 2010 captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, welcome to today on a monday morning morning. this morning it looks like a compromise is in the works to extend those bueschsh era tax c. what s changed? what does president obama have to say about this? we ll get the latest and what it could mean for your bottom line. susan powell disappeared a year ago and her husband was the only person of interest in the case. he says he thinks she ran off with another man. we ll have a live interview with susan powell s parents coming up. we re going to show you the calorie count of your holiday coffee. have you tried those eggnog lattes? we ll tell you how many calories are in that. wait until you see what we found when we had a scientist put one viewer s bathrooms to the test. ann is on assignment this week, we have got tamron hall over at the news desk. the rest of the country is breaking up to the coldest morning of the season so far. the weather channel s mike seidel is in erie, pennsylvania. mike, good morning, what a sight. reporter: good morning, tamr tamron, not only cold, but it s lake-effect snow. we re getting wind gusts over 30 miles an hour. you remember last week near buffalo, 3.5 feet of snow shut down that new york highway. this prolonged lake-effect got underway. syracuse ended their longest streak without an inch of snow in 280 days. they have had seven inches of snow. here in erie we re expecting three feet by late tomorrow. not only the cold air going across the lakes for the lake-effect, but take a look at the jet stream, a big dip all the way down to the florida keys. it will be even colder tomorrow morning, look at those temperature departures in miami. 43 is three off the record. manner while a lot of us through cold and windchills, we could see a record tomorrow in orlando, tamron of 29 degrees. meanwhile snowing and blowing today and tomorrow off the lake. and president obama called the chinese president overnight asking him to take a stronger stance against north korean aggression. iran is declaring that it can make it s own yellow cake to make its own nuclear fuel. at least 200 people are missing after a massive landslide in columbia buried nearly a dozen three-story residences. rescuers are still searching for any survivors. columbia has been battered by torrential rains in recent weeks. it has killed 176 people and left 1.5 million people nationwide homeless. invests are keeping an eye on stocks this morning. we are awaiting the outcome of the meeting of the europeanness ministers. we re also watching what s happening right here at home. on the corporate front, the ceo of the drugmaker surprisingly steps down. and aol is exploring breaking up and merging with yahoo. it is now 7:05, back to matt, natalie and al. you re talking about a big snow event in the lakes. all of the five lakes have lake-effect snow coming off of them. all of our friends along the great lakes, our condolences because a big area of high pressure is backing up into the canadian maritimes, cold air picking up the moisture from the warmer lakes, the lake water in the mid to upper 40s. the land temperature is in the upper 40s. that wind comes off the lake, it cools off and it drops snow. we have got snow from alpena all the way from state college, pennsylvania. some areas picking up nine to 12 inches between cleveland and lake erie and we re look at six to nine some of the lake effect snow flurries will make it all the way down a baltimore. otherwise, it is going to be breezy and cold. temperatures in the 20 s right now. and that s your latest weather. now to washington and the battle over the bush era tax cuts, a compromise appears to be on the horizon. nbc s white house correspondent savannah guthrie has more on this. reporter: a deal could come as early as this morning. but some democrats are not happy about the compromise. tax cuts should go to the middle class, we should not increase taxes on anybody. reporter: after weeks of partisan wrangling over how to extend the expiring bush era tax cuts. i m optimistic, we ll be able to come together. reporter: senator mitch mcconnell appearing on meet the press, suggests a compromise is near. taxes are not going up on anybody during this recession. reporter: the deal is set by two democrats over the past weekend. the motion is not agreed to. reporter: the vote failed without the support of republicans. back from his trip to afghanistan, president obama weighed in after the senate vote saying now is the time for a deal. we need to redouble our efforts to resolve this impasse in the next few days to give the american people the peace of mind that their taxes will not go up on january 1. it will require some compromise. but i m confident that we can get it done. reporter: behind the scenes senior administration officials tell nbc news that the president has drawn a new line in the sand saying he will propose even a temporary extension of the tax cuts unless unemployment benefits and other tax cuts are also extended. the president s biggest challenge remains jobs, following an unemployment report that caught the west wing and wall street by surprise, as the jobless rate jumping to 9.8%. despite 11 contest months of private sector job growth, despite creating more than 1 million private sector jobs this year, it s not enough. we have to do more to accelerate the economic recovery and create jobs for the millions of americans who are still looking for work. reporter: the president is on the road today in north carolina at a community college, once again expected to call for the extension of unemployment benefits and other middle class tax cuts to be part of any compromise this week. thank you very much. it s nine minutes after the hour, here s natalie. there s a new warning from the founder of wikileaks, julian assange says he s created a cache of documents. it s been just over a month since julian assange last appeared publicly. his latest release of sensitive documents reveals of secret list of u.s. infrastructure sites around the world views as key to national security and now assange is threatening a whole lot more. it s a secret cache of sensitive files that s been described as a poison pill. julian assange is threatening to release this archives of documents if he s shut down or if he s arrested. more than 100,000 people worldwide have already downloaded the heavily encrypted files. if something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically, he wrote. the huge array of files is believed to include documents on bp, bank of america and guantanamo bay with one reportedly called insurance, locked by a 256-digit code that only assange knows. it s a ticking time bomb with a remote fuse, so this can go off the second they release the key. the key will spread around the internet in a matter of seconds. they need to protect themselves and this is, i think what they believe to be a seminuclear device effectively in the electronic age. reporter: one republican today calling assange a high-tech terrorist. he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law. reporter: the computer hacker is wanted by swedish authorities after allegations that he raped and sexually molested two women in august. even if he s arrested, it could be some time before assange is returned to sweden. we anticipate a final result in extradition process within six months. reporter: assange s attorney says only 261 out of a quarter million files have been exposed. now even u.s. government officials and future diplomats, that includes college students that have been warned not to look at those classified documents. it is 7:12, once again here s matt. there are new twists and turns in the investigation of hollywood publicist ronni chasen s murder. in a moment we ll talk to one of ronni chasen s long-time friends. but first nbc s george lewis has the latest on the case. george, good morning to you. reporter: police aren t saying much about where the three-week old investigation stands but after following what seems to be a huge false lead, it now appears that that investigation is back to square one this morning. a few days after ronni chasen was murdered in this beverly hills neighborhood. she was rushed to the hospital but died an hour later. reporter: a tipster called the tv show america s most wanted called the tf show to say that he did it. after the show s produceders alerted the police and they confronted him, he killed himself. in a friday press release, the beverly hills police department says, quote, at this time it s unknown if the individual was involved in the chasen homicide. it s now been widely reported that ballistics tests that he used to kill himself was not the gun used in the chasen murder. the chasen investigation has gone back to its roots now, it s a mystery, the digging, the ground pounding, the researching of her past, all has to come up again and they have to go back to square one. reporter: chasen s brother, writer/director larry cohen offered his own theory about the killing, he told the new york times, i still think this was most likely a case of road rage. but friends say she was a careful driver and not likely to be a road rage target. this could easily have been a flukish type of crime. noting? that was preplanned. i don t think we should rush to the judgment either way in a case like this. reporter: because of the high profile nature of this case n a community that averages one homicide a year, the pressure is on the beverly hills police to solve the chasen murder. some of the experienced investigators we have been talking to say it s entirely possible the chasen murder may never been solved especially if it was a random act. this was a personal friend of ronni chasen and the co-executive of her willing. our condolences to you. i could imagine you must have asked yourself 100 times in the last few weeks who would wand to kill ronni chasen, have you come up with any types of answers for that question? no, and it s very difficult because ronni was really beloved. hundreds of people showed up at her funeral. she helped many women. she was very good at what she did, she worked with the press and in showbiz, and many people that are in support groups, she made a terrific living, she was a great investor, our relationship involved stocks and we talked business all the time, along with, you know, men, and all the usual things women talk about. but she didn t have she never mentioned any extreme enemies, even any i never saw her lose her temper, ever. i never saw her lose her temper. you described her as a throw back, someone who may have been from another era. were there two sides to her? was the person that perhaps hollywood saw in politic, at parties and events, not the same person that you knew away from the limelight? yes, in that he was more when you re in hollywood, she understood appearances and the whole thing of looking good, getting her clients out there, dealing with the press and the television et cetera. but she actually had a quiet side, she was more intellectual than anybody would ever believe. she wanted to honest to god go into archaeology and do a dig in turkey and i laughed at her and i said i can t see you sifting through sand. she was 64, she wanted to start changing her life a bit. and she was very interested in money. and i mean on the megascale. wshe invested wisely, she ha very good investors and advisors in los angeles, but i also have to say that she followed it. and i m a day trader and whatnot in later years and i found that she was remarkable. she didn t read all the press that i read and she knew the copper market was going to be corner. she made you a co-executor of her will back in 1994, and in the last year or so, she was talking about revising her will. did she give you any reasons for that? in september. no, but every four years or so, she started talking about a will. and in september, she started talking about, i m going to make you the executor again, i said, w why? why don t you just give me your car or your hair brushes or something. and that was kind of a joke. she was talking about dolling it or adding to it or whatever so this was kind of an ongoing i didn t feel there was any premonition here of her death because she was talking about her will. it was just a thing to do. it seems that so many people martha are now looking for some kind of hollywood plot in all of this and yet in your mind do you think perhaps, do you agree with her brother that there could be no plot at all, that this could be a terrible and tragic case of road rage? when we were walking in the park, this summer we did some walking, she parked her beautiful new merced does next to my old honda, i told her her car was a target with her blond hair, because i have been through a lot and i say, you know, a car like this at night, even in beverly hills, it s dangerous, the hair, the car. she was a good driver. she was not reckless. this was a person who was totally risk averse, she was concerned about her body, her hair, her clothes. she in no way would take a chance, but the car was very flashy in my mind, and i think believe it or not, there are nut cases many of them, and they re out there driving around at night, they have guns. it very well could be that. and the rumors are flying because it s the movie business and i hear russian mob, i hear gambling debts. first she did not gambling, forget that. everybody was above board in the business. but there are rumors, ronni could be tough about money, but again, she really virtually had no enemies. martha, i thank you for your perspective this morning. we appreciate you joining us. it s 19 after the hour, here natalie. are you looking for a holiday get away? how does iran sound? aaron, good morning. it was mysterious and kind of a strange place to be, and it took just a short harrowing flight. we got to the island just 30 minutes away from the glitzy skyscrapers of dubai and there we found a whole different world. reporter: blue water, white sand beaches, romantic sun sets. this island is as popular as a caribbean get away. only 36 miles in size, half the size of aruba. the island was a playground for the rich and famous in the 70s. reporter: the island just ten miles off the iranian coast is called kish. there s separate beaches for women who must cover their hair in the hot sun. 1 million iranian visit each year. but kish isn t all about tourism. for nearly 1,000 years, kish has been a center of trade for iran. now it has a special pretrade status. while americans are rare, american products are everywhere. sanctions prohibit most companies from doing business in iran, including kish. but we saw well known american brands in fully stocked malls, many without authorization, like tommy hilfiger and iranian gap. we saw everything including flat screen tvs. but it isn t all smooth sailing for kish. yes, the island s only five-star hotel, the palace was humming, but the island s biggest project, a 5,000 room resort is on hold, a victim of iran s growing isolation from the world. and this island isn t just a vacation destination, about 15% of iran s exports come through ugh. bob levin actually disappeared there when he was looking into that. a good place to disappear. nbc s erin burnett, thanks so much. just ahead, a stunt during a live reality television show goes horribly wrong. we re going to show you what happened, but first, this is today on nbc. just ahead, the a lot of fat and calories in your favorite coffee drinks and what you should be drinking instead. 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 kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. savage street is still closed between fleet and eastern ave because of a fire activity. the crash of argonne drive and, and martin luther king boulevard and truesdale avenue, and the disabled vehicle at nottingham at pulaski highway. between york and green side, some traffic control going on. and closed between warren and york road as well. accident in reisterstown has just cleared. in harford county and jarrettsville, another crash to watch for there. 895 in the area of o donnell street, traffic has cleared from an earlier disabled vehicle. switching to a live view of northwest corner and old court road, there are problems on the outer loop. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. breezy and cold start for us this morning. nothing of any consequence. temperatures on the upper 20 s and low 30 s. the winds are starting to pick up. wind chills in the upper teens and low 20s. when shall in parkton is 16. wind chill in parkton is 16. a mixture of sunshine and clouds, a few snow flurries. seven-day forecast, same thing tomorrow. it gets that little bit warmer during the middle of the week. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. we will have another live update at 7:55. 7:30 now on a monday morning. it s the sixth day of december, 2010. people are bundled up because it s cold outside. it s 30 degrees, but the windchills are probably in the 20s. inside studio 1a, i m matt lauer alongside natalie morales. a man is hospital sed after a stu something goes wrong in a live television show. susan powell s husband, a person of the interest in the case has a new theory. the startling a lot of fat and calories in your holiday cup of coffee. those themed coffees with the eggnog and things like that, including one large coffee drink that has the equivalent of a beef tender loin dinner. let s begin with a shocking accident during a live reality tv show. nbc s peter alexander is back with more on that. peter good morning again. reporter: this morning running show is hugely popular in germany. there the fans describe as a national institution. it s a show of daredevil feets. critics over the years have complained that those stunts have become increasingly dangerous. one ended in disaster. it was intended as a prime time show-stopper. daniel kaufman wearing spring loaded stills intended to flip head fest into an oncoming car, on saturday night, with a live german audience watching, he successfully jumped over two cars. the show is one of the most popular programs in all of europe for nearly 30 years. the studio audience held their both as cox prepared for his fourth attempt. this time with his father get hind the wheel, he began to jump over the car, but something went terribly wrong. nbc news is not showing the accident, but it was witnessed live by more than 10 million viewers across germany. cox landed facedown on the studio floor, motionless as paramedics rushed on to the set. the 23-year-old was immediately taken to a nearby hospital with what one doctor described as signs of paralysis. back in the studio, the show was pulled off the air, the audience stunned. translator: it couldn t go on like that, this woman says, we re all shocked. the show s host spoke publicly later that night. i talked to the young man at a dinner, he reassured me he was looking forward to this, i m so sorry it ended this way. among the celebrity guests scheduled to appear on the show, cameron deion and justin bieber who was scheduled to perform. a heart wrenching finish to what was supposed to be a night of entertainment. that young man is listed in critical condition this morning, the good news is he s said to be conscious and speaking. he did suffer serious injuries both his neck and spine. the show s producers say they re reexamining their psafety procedures. it s now 7:34, here s natalie. now to the baffling disappearance of susan powell, a utah mother who vanished one year ago. we ll talk to her parents in a moment. but miguel is there with the latest on the case. reporter: tomorrow susan s family will mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance here in utah and also in washington state where she grew up. this has her husband boasts his own theory about what happened to his wife. memories, all susan powell s family has left. in utah, a december night, susan vanished. josh pow well, susan s husband says he took his sons camping at 12:30 in the morning in a snowstorm on december 7. detectives named josh powell a person of interest. search warrants were served at their home, boxes of evidence hauled away. but josh s father steve powell now tells nbc news susan left on her own, purposely choosing that night to disappear. oh, yeah, i think it was definitely orchestrated. this whole idea for example that josh went out on an inclement tight night to take the boys fishing, he s done that before and he was very much aware that he would do it again. and when he did it again, it was probably the perfect time to make the slip. susan left behind journals that described a troubled past, an unstable state of mind. a journal powell says not yet seen by police. when you read susan s journals she had this total b bifurcation between her life. that somebody may be this man, steven kosher, he lived in utah and went missing within days of susan. josh powell offered no details on how the two may have known each other, but suggests they could be in brazil. kosher s family denies the theory. i think it s quite ludicrous. even josh s sister doesn t buy her story. she says susan would never leave her children. i believe that josh was responsible for her disappearance. reporter: now with no arrests in the case a year has passed, all susan s family can go is hope and pray. a loving mom who vanished, a year later, still no sign of susan powell. in the weeks following susan s disappearance, josh has moved he will not be at any of this week s tributes. judy and chuck cox are susan powell s parents. good morning to you both. thanks for being with us. i know this has been a devastatingly long year without any sign of your daughter. judy and chuck, how are you both holding up? we take one day at a time. and what do you make go ahead, sir. i just said it s been a long year and we are still waiting for some word and we still expect to have some word to where she may be. what is your response to this latest allegation made by your son-in-law josh powell who says she may have run off to brazil with a man named stephen kosher who disappeared around the same time. this is ridiculous. the police are aware of this obviously, and we know this has been looked into. it just does not fit. my daughter loved her chu e ed and she didn t leave of her own accord. the police say they cannot find a link between the two. so your thoughts on that? i think they have checked out and i think they dismissed it. i know that they re working hard. have you been in touch at all with the kosher family, have you talked with them about this? no, actually what i did a little research last night and evidently they knew more about what the police were looking at than we have. but, no, we haven t been in contact with the kosher family. meanwhile susan father-in-law steve powell as you heard alla he said. he indicated that susan kept a journal and she talked and wrote about having issues, emotional mental illness and a troubled childhood. what can you tell us about that? judy, did you know, did your daughter suffer with emotional problems? did she have a troubled childhood? i don t believe she suffered in her childhood. she was a happy child. she was very friendly, she made lots of friends and she was what you would quote, i guess a people person. and she made friends quickly, she was not afraid to talk to people, introduce herself and i think she enjoyed meeting people. so, no, she was not a troubled child. she had lots of fun. did a lot of things like other kids and she made set goals and worked on those goals. meanwhile, chuck, josh powell told nbc news that he had nothing to do with susan s disappearance. what do you think happened to your daughter now a year later? well, if i can go to the journals for a second. those journals were personal property and encouraged for our children to write so that their children could read what their mother felt when she was their age. and they were back, i believe, starting when she was like 12 years old and we are very upset that we do not have the property of our daughter, that the powells have kept those. and those are the writings of a 12-year-old girl and i don t know what s in them, have never seen them. i wouldn t look at them because that was her diary almost if you will, some of that stuff. we believe or i know that that did not happen that she did not take off with anybody, she s dedicated to her family and she s missing. and the story that josh powell s come up with is just not believable. judy and chuck cox, again, our thoughts are with you and we re hoping and praying for some good news. now switching gears, lets get a check of the weather now from al. today s weather is brought to you by chevy. every model is backed by a 100,000 mile, five-year power train limited warranty. a big story as we have been telling you, lake-effect snow affecting five out of the five great lakes. as we look at erie, pennsylvania, this is a snow covered nightmare right now. and it s going to continue. the other part of the equation, the cold air and the cold air is going to seep as far south as atlanta. 70 degrees below normal and knoxville, cincinnati, almost 20 degrees below normal. 18 degrees below normal in st. louis with highs of 29. 30 in cleveland with lake-effect snow and around the rest of the country, you can see those temperatures, atlanta, a high of 30 degrees today, tampa will only get up to we are off to a breezy and cold start. wind chills in the teens and 20s. high-temperature only in the upper 30s. mixture of sunshine and clouds. a lot of wild weather all across the country today, make sure you check in with the weather channel on cable or weather.com online at least three or four times a day. you are what you drink, the holiday beverage that has the calorie equivalent of two slices of pie. what you should be drinking instead. we re back now at 7:46, this morning on drink this, not that. the hidden perils of holiday beverages. americans drink about 35% of their daily calories. david is the author of the eat this, not that, 2011. we re talking about coffee, coffee itself is not the culprit, it s only got about five calories in it. the problem is the 35 calorie pick me up has become a 700 calorie plug me up. these drinks are giving you 40% of your calories for the entire day. we re going to start with starbucks and we re not picking on starbucks, but this is their pepperment white chocolate mocha. this makes a banana split look like whole wheat. you have got the whipped cream, it s made with whole milk. 2,700 calories. 27 grams of fat. it ends up being like a christmas can dinner, an entire beef tenderloin dinner, is what s in a cup that in some cases you down in four minutes. there you can have the cafe mocha with skim and you go way down to 220 calories. dunkin donuts, this is the large cafe. it s 440 calories. this is the least ill dull negligent. it ends up being the sugar equivalent of these 4 1/2 dunkin donuts, sprinkled and cheered doughnuts. so you then want to get your you can just go ahead and have a ginger bread coffee. it s only 170 calories and, again, you ve wiped out 300 calories. on to the pepperment hot chocolate. two kinds of candy in one cup, your among java just became java the hud. . go with the classic drink and no whipped cream and lose 400 calories. and mcdonald s, this is the frappe caramel. two of the four ingredients is sugar. so it s sweeter than a sandra bull lock movie. it s the equivalent of these 31 caramel chocolate candies. so 31 of them. or that. instead, all you got to do is have the nonfat caramel cappuccino, cappuccino is always the best because there s very little milk. 195 calories and zero fat. back to starbucks, and this is the egg not latte with whole milk in a vente size. this is almost a day s worth of saturated fat. you re going to feel great for about an hour and then you re going to have that sugar crash. this ends up being about 16 candy canes. this is a holiday miracle, this is a grande that actually earned the name skinny. david, thanks very much. still ahead, just how clean is your bathroom? the eye opening results when we put one viewer s home to the test. this is not going to be good. just ahead, could a kindergarten teacher accused of this is in a live interview right after your local news. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. .> good morning bus i am lisa robinson. let s get another check of the one commit. morning commute. fire activity between fleet and eastern street. another fire in cockeysville. closed between york and greenside. also closed between york and war and in that area. york road seeing some delays because the police directing traffic there. in westminster, a crash, and in mount airy, between 27 and fulton drive. a crash in white hall. we will give you a live look at the top side of the beltway at perring parkway. delays from harford back to providence. was cited old court road, a slow go on the outer loop. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. greasy and cold start. there is a couple of snow flurries, especially in the northwest suburbs. upper 20 s and low 30 s. the winds are kicking up. the wind chills are running and the upper teens and low 20s. wind chill any parkton is 16. forecast for today, breezy and cold. high temperatures in the upper 30 s. tomorrow, same forecast. 38 for the hybrid it should 38 for a high. it should warm up a little bit on wednesday and thursday. see you back here at 8:25. we re back now, it s 8:00 on a monday morning. it s the sixth day of december, 2010. it is one of those moments where it s a little bit better to maybe stay inside because we have a cold morning in new york city, 31 degrees and some snow flurries in the air. i m matt lauer along with natalie morales, meredith viera is off this morning and al roker. coming up in this the half hour, we have a mother who didn t see her daughter for nearly two years. she was being accused of sexually molesting other children, actually including her own daughter. that woman was acquitted on all counts earlier this year. she has fought to win back custody of her children. all right, also ahead on a much, much different note. want to try something new for your company holiday party? here s an idea for you, this is pot luck. we have some new and festive twists on some classic stand byes for you. and, we re going to put your bathroom to the test, how clean do you think your bathroom is? you would be shocked to see what one family found out when we tested things out. and maybe your bathroom is kind of in the same situation. you know your bathroom is going to be germy. but you would be surprised, how germy is it? we have got ms. tamron hall over at the news desk. good morning, everyone. after weeks of standing their ground, it now appears that republicans an the white house are close to a deal on extending bush era tax cuts for the wealthy. on sunday, president obama and other democrats signaled they would drop their opposition if republicans go along with tax cuts for the middle class and an extension of unemployment benefits. the world s largest drugmaker pfizer, ian reed has been named to succeed jeffrey kinsler. hsbc is the latest bank become sued to recover money from bernie madoff s ponzi scheme. claiming hsbc profited ignoring signs that he was a fraud. the top republican on the senate foreign relations committee richard luger says he thinks there s now enough develop reports to ratify the nuclear arms treaty. south korea s military is conducting live fire maneuvers today two weeks after north korea launched a deadly artillery barrage. iran is taking parts today with the u.s. and five other nations over its nuclear program. iran has repeatedly denied sanctions. today the food and drug administration will hold a public discussion on the practice of sharing breast milk. initials are concerned that it could pose hazards to babies. reporter: while many mothers want to breast feed their babies, not all are able to. but an increasing number of women are turning to the internet for breast milk. they re connecting with other moms who are milk to spare and are deciding to sell it or in some cases give it away for free. megan quickly realized her body was making enough milk to feed her own child and then some. we started freezing it and pretty soon we ran out of freezer space. reporter: not wanting to waste the milk, megan turned to the internet. organizations that screen, pasteurize and market the breast milk. i was a little bit saddened by that because i thought maybe there were babies out there who need it but couldn t afford to buy it. reporter: many worry unregulated sharing could pass bacteria or even drugs from the donor mom to a baby. you wouldn t choose to give your child blood that you agreed to get from some person online without going through the proper screening process and the proper assessment of the blood. why would you do that for breast milk? but moms argues these arrangements are not only safe, they re best for the baby. it s a very natural thing, women have been doing it for thousands of years. the fda does not regulate breast milk banks or sharing. and a day he will never forget, a 20-year-old chinese man became the world memory champ on sunday by memorizing a deck of 52 cards in only 24 seconds. not bad at all, it is 8:05, now to al with the weather. today s weather is brought to you by office depot, give more, spend less, get smarter this holiday season at office dep depot. we have got some nice folks here, and you re supposed to be in the caribbean? we sure are, we re standing here. high are you stranded? our ship is actually dry docked somewhere. you guys knew you were going on a cruise? that s always a bad thing. what s the cruise line? norwegian. get these people on a boat. but we re glad to see you. let s check the weather. where s the boat? nbc 11 got a few showers, 61 degrees. we got some flurries to talk about. and as we look at the week ahead, snow around the great lakes. above normal conditions throughout the west and then as we move into the midweek period, we re looking for more snow around the great lakes and the west. above normal temperatures in the plains and then attend of the week, more snow in the west and around the great lakes, above normal temperatures in the plains and we have got some girl scouts here. where are you guys from? columbus, ohio. breezy and cold start. temperatures only into the upper 30 s this afternoon. there s a possibility we could see coming up next, the kindergarten teacher who lost custody of her children after being accused and ultimately acquitted of child abuse charges. with the capital one venture card we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it s hard to beat double miles! i want a maze, a sword, a. oww! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it could be?! what s in your wallet? it s that chocolate it s that whipped cream it s that caramel, and espresso you mix in i must be, i must be, i must be, i must be i must be dreamin [ male announcer ] for the first time at mcdonald s your two favorite flavors together. new mccafé caramel mocha. well? what do you guys think? perfect. [ male announcer ] the simple joy of sweet harmony. i feel like i have to wind myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the lack of energy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about pristiq®, a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your medications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. pristiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. tell your doctor if you have heart disease or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizziness and sweating. for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. ask your doctor about pristiq. we re back now at 8:11 with a case that split apart a small town. she lost custody of her kids two years ago. she was acquitted in may. now she s worked out a custody deal with her ex-husband. we ll talk to them in a moment. but first, here s nbc s michelle kosins kosinski. reporter: just over six months ago, tanya craft faced a georgia courtroom. i did not and have not sexually abused any child. reporter: the rest of the her life in the balance, her words against those of little children. i m here because i have been falsely accused. reporter: there were hundreds who supported the popular and exhuberent kirnder garten teacher. her own daughter was taken away from tanya for two years because of all this. i said are you 100% sure that this happened? and i ll never forget the look on her face or in her eyes. she stopped everything she did and looked me dead in the eye and said i know it did, daddy. reporter: accusations that some had axes to grind and were coached by adults. it was such a confusing, indefinite mess, but for tanya, the reality, the questions hanging in the air, was she the innocent victim or a predator who should spend the rest of heifer life behind bars? the jury delivered vindation. count number one, not guilty. count number 22, not guilty. not guilty on anything! we knew it! reporter: that is what tanya hoped for on that day in may. i was not going to let them railroad me. this could happen to anybody anywhere at any time like that and your entire life is gone. reporter: and today has gained back what she most treasured. she will now share custody of her son and daughter. we knew that we could work this out and we could do this. reporter: in a case that could have gone either way, tonya craft survived. tanya craft and her husband joe hanke are here. at the end there you said we knew we could do this. a lot of outsiders would say how could they do this? there s been a lot of tension between you two, including the fact that joel, you were one of the people who testified against tanya in tourt. how did you work this out? we worked it out because like we talked about on there, it was for the children. we were actually in a room by ourselves and we shed some tears, we talked about some things and we said a lot of things that just needed to be out in the open. is this just let bygones be by gones? i would have to ask you, do you now believe that nothing she was accused of was true? matt, basically, you know, i thought about that a lot and tanya and i had a lot of great conversation about it and discussion and she saas she sai a lot of tears. i had a history teacher who said if we don t learn from history we re condemned to repeat it. that kept resonating inside of me. we had to determine that we re going to move forward in the best interests of our children. talk about the relationship with your children now tanya, aiden is 8, co cole is 11. what was your relationship with your daughter like now and your son? actually with both the children and especially my daughter because she was the one that was focused on due to the allegations. it s been described by people who have observed that nothing has happened. did it take a great deal of therapy to get to that point? to be quite honest, i will say that the best thing they are not, they are learning to be healthy children now without being in a therapist s office every week. what impact has it had on the kids, because they lived with you for 2 1/2 years? right. and we have wonderful children so that s a base that a lot of people unfortunately may not be able to claim. but again, i think it was our determination to make sure that they were healthy. i want people to know that on commercial breaks you are laughing and joking and it seems as if this has completely been put behind you? it really has and i m going to explain in one way that i believe i do have a very strong faith and it was very unusual that day, it was almost like in that room, it s almost like there was a physical heart transplant without having one. i do feel like there was an amount of forgiveness and there was an amount of healing that cannot be explained. you have filed for compensatory damages against various parties, including the lead detective in the case, the sheriff and by the way, a civil suit against joel. what s the status of that lawsuit? the status actually this week, because there s different motions and things that need to be filed, we will be filing something this week. as far as i m concerned, they will be dismissed. dismissing the civil suit against joel? it is being dismissed and it s actually being dismissed and my attorneys are going to get me if i get this wrong, i believe with prejudice which means it cannot be refiled. that indicates a very strong trust level that not only is it being dismissed, but it can t be refiled. we sat down in a room together and one of the first things that was put out on the table was let s not focus on all the stuff that s going on around us, let s focus on what we re here to do which is care for our children and that s just the way we did it. and everything else works out and takes care of itself. for the sake of aiden an cole, i hope it works out and i appreciate you sharing your story. nd and i really hope that peoe going through divorces, no matter what you ve been through, you can do what s best for your children. 8:18, we re back right after this. you can t read. [ grandma ] twas the night before christmas, and all through the house. whoa, that s grandma. [ grandma ] .nothing was stirring, not kara, not maya. how does she do that? magic. [ grandma ] .grandma loves you. [ both ] goodnight, grandma. [ female announcer ] be there to read them a story every night. read it to me again. [ female announcer ] hallmark recordable storybooks. this christmas, make it wonderful at your hallmark gold crown store. this christmas, make it wonderful shake it up, shake up the happiness. (ho ho ho) wake it up, wake up the happiness. (ho ho ho) c mon ya ll.. it s christmas time ho ho hooooooo. today s holiday kitchen is brought to you by hersheys kisses, delightfully delicious, one of a kind kisses. a hot and spicy holiday meal. good morning. how s the show going? it s great, i can t wait for everyone to watch it. i had so much fun doing it. and we re making a really easy, easy dish? we are. it s a classic italian pasta dish. it s oil, garlic and crushed red chili s. but i m adding red and green vegetables. i always want to get more vegetables into the diet. it s five ingredients, it s oil, olive oil, you heat it up. you want to add your garlic after it sautes a little bit. because you don t want the garlic to be brown, that will make it bitter. so you should saute this for three or four minutes. there s a lot of red chili. you just saute, saute, saute. when that s finished. you want it to be soft, you want it to be really cooked down. and basically, that s it really. the spaghetti is al dente. i made this earlier while matt was here. and then you just kind of coat the pasta like that, and you just toss it all in there. so easy. that s like no time. literally no time. and this is also vegan, bell pe peppers have a ton of vitamins, fresh dill, fresh parsley, you could add fresh basil if you wanted to. and you ve got a dessert that goes perfectly with it? this is a hot berry. you want to heat that. i m going to get you a fork. she s such a host, look at that, so sweet. i don t know where your forks are. a cup of strawberries. oh, my gosh, so good. a cup of raspberries and a cup of blueberries. blueberries are great. you know, they re one of the superfoods and city of hope has done all this great research for cancer, and it s the best line of defense they believe. we re running out of time. add sugar, four cloves. and you say that s the holt berry sauce. which is great over ice cream. thank you so much. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. let s get a final check of the morning commute with kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. the biggest thing we have going on is in cockeysville. a fire has shut down warren road. between york and greenside. adam scott wrote also closed between york and warren. police activity as police divert traffic around there. in owings mills, timber growth road. in glen burnie, and exited to watch for a dorsey road. moving to, county and westminster, two crashes. a fire in mount airy. but the harvard county and white hall, a crash at moving to harford county and white hall, a crash. you will see delays from harford to york road. switching to a live view at the northwest corner of old court road, you can see the out of his continuing from 795 to edmondson ave. it is breezy and cold. other than, we don t expect weather trouble. the roads will be fine. temperatures in the upper 30 s and low 40 s right now. 22 at the airport. it drops the wind chill into the teens and low 20s. that is what you want to dress for. breezy and call this the forecast. a chance for snow flurries. same forecast for tomorrow. breezy and cold. it should get a little bit warmer during the middle portion of the week. we will see you back here at 8:55. hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money now, that s progressive. call or click today. 8:30 now on a monday morning, it s a sixth day of december. singer and reality tv show host for our annual today show holiday toy drive and you can donate until december 22 by stopping by the plaza. if you cannot get here, you can still donate by going to our website todayshow.com or to amazon.com/today. now on the plaza, i m matt lauer, along with natalie more or less, tamron hall and meredith viera is out today and al roker. you may think you do a pretty good job cleaning your bathroom, maybe not as good as you think. surprise. one family recently put to the test. we brought in a scientist to see just what s lurking in their bathroom. i think it s a real that you never want to touch the rim yourself. that s probably not a good idea. and we are going to be talking be best selling author mr. dan brown in just a few minutes. but first, can we bring in nick lachey? i read a review in thepapers, one of the local papers, four stars. you ve got some good guests this year. we do. the talent on the show this season is just incredible. it s all acapella? no instruments, it s just everyone singing. and what s interesting, in the reviews, everybody mentions the fact that there s a level of joy in this show because it s about the singing. it really is. those groups all do it because they love to do it. particularly acapella singing, particularly this time of year for the holidays, it s a perfect show for this teem of the year. it s a good time and we re very happy, thank you. have you set a date yet? no, we re still basking in the glow of the engagement period. but we ll set a date, i m sure very soon. we want to remind people that the sing off can be seen right here on nbc. season premier tonight, 8:00, 7:00 central time. nick lachey, thank you. we have got a few flurries here, but of course the great lakes, we re going to be seeing a lot more activity today. 16 inches of snow from erie, pennsylvania up to watertown, new york. more snow along the pacific northwest coast. snow in the rockies and the cascades. tomorrow the snow continues, lake-effect around the great lakes. wet weather along the northwest basin, snow in the mountains, sunny and warm on through the we are off to a breezy and cold start. wind chills in the teens and 20s. high-temperature only in the upper 30s. mixture of sunshine and clouds. and don t forget, you can check your weather any time of the day or night on the weather channel. or go on to weather.com online. natalie? thank you, al, coming up next, we re talking about the thank you, al, coming up next, we re talking about the new movie i m losing energy. i need a home performance with energy star audit to find out why! this sensor will show why my living room gets too hot and too cold! hm. need some heating and cooling system work. and insulation will help stop the drafts. get up to $2,450 dollars in rebates and keep saving with home performance with energy star. get started at bgesmartenergy.com. ahhh, now i m comfortable- and energy efficient! in the new comedy, how do you know she s set up on a blind date with george madison, played by paul brud. let s just say the two don t get off to a very good start. i think one drink can give you a little better perspective. not for me, but it just depends on the person. look, if you want to have a drink, you should just have a drink. but talking about it if i want a drink, i ll order a drink. do you know i don t know you? i m sorry, i m not good today. this is going places, i can tell. reece witherspoon and paul rudd. you get cut and you find out on the same day that you re under federal investigation for alleged stock fraud. most people would cancel the date. not i. i think that was actually the first idea that jim brooks had for this movie, which was, what if two people meet on the worst day of their life. what draws them together after they get over this initial awkwardness, what do they find in each other that makes them realize this could be something good? lots of drinking. and then we just hang out a bunch and become really close friends. i think that reece has a great idea in this scene which is let s not put pressure on ourselves, we re just going to eat and not say anything. so we actually have a date and not talk to each other. i fall immediately in love with you. you with me, not so much. it deals with the question that the movie deals with, and that is how do you know if someone or something is right for you. when it comes to pairing up with another actor, reece in the movie, how do you know that you can have chemistry with someone like paul? this is like this is our third movie we have done together. so we did a movie together a really long time ago and we had a really great time. and we did monsters versus aliens. and that was cool. and then when jim suggested we do this movie together, i was very excited. you auditioned twice for this? so the first time you weren t happy with the way it was, so you asked for a redo? i had a fever, so i actually went over to mr. brooks apartment and read for it. and i couldn t spell my name. so when it was over, i asked if i could try it again. so the second time went better? and i got to read with reece that time. i thought it would be a double edgeded sword, on the one hand it s flattering, but on the other hand it puts more pressure on you as an actor. equal parts thrilling and totally terrifying because i wanted to perform at the level. and he asked me, are you athletic? i said i m sort of athletic. but i will learn to be athletic. but how do you convince someone, a viewer of a movie that you re actually a professional softball player. if you don t sell that, the rest of the movie at least i can look good doing it. even if i couldn t really play softball. we do have a today show softball team. and anybody who s good, we re always looking for ringers. so we will have your cell phone number this spring. you mentioned terrifying and thrilling at the same time. you re hosting saturday night live this week. that s kind of terrifying and thrilling, isn t it? if i think about it too much, i start to get sweaty and nervous. you ve done it before? i have done it before, paul mccartney is the musical guest this week, that just makes it even more by the way i want to congratulate you, you got a star on the walk of fame. it was great, it was a big honor for me to be accepted into the hollywood walk of fame. i m right there by hollywood vine so if you re there, come visit me. it opens friday, december 17. is your bathroom really as clean as you think? we re going to put one viewer to the test, but first this is today on nbc. back now at 8:44. this morning on today s healthy home, is your bahama th as clean as you think? some people say they avoid using the bathroom in other people s homes. germs, they re everywhere and impossible to avoid. and while you might do more to protect yourself from them in public places, what about the germs lurking in your own homes? working mother dana vessey has nicknamed her home as chaos man manor. when you have a family, the bathroom, the toilet, the sink, anything can turn up there. her cleaning routine? i clean my own bathroom once a week and i keep it up once a day, a little bit. i try not to think about the germ factor. reporter: but like it or not, germs do exist. so we looked at microbiologist joe ravine know to take a look. he inspected the item that gets the most use. one thing about toilets, the flushing of the bowl, it generates aerosols so those droplets can become airborne. they can land on the toilet seat, they can land on a sink area. so you re telling me that fecal matter in the toilet can jump out on to the sink? i would move those toothbrushes a little further away. what we know from the bathtub is that the bacteria that s on our body will stick on the tub and stay there. a bacteria soup. your bath mat, you should pull that out over the side of the bathtub just so it dries so the bacteria underneath there don t thrive in a nice, warm, wet environment. reporter: and next the cleaning products. when you wash your hands, sometimes the bacteria will stick to them. you might think about throwing it out every couple of weeks or if it starts to look dirty. what do the tests reveal? we ll take it back to the lab and we ll find out how many back tiera we found. we can never sterilize our bathroom, like we can never sterilize our house. but it s important to keep those bacteria at a minimum. good morning to you. so you re ready to hear your resu results? as we mentioned, joe tested your bathroom and your son s bathroom. we expect to find germs in our bathroom, but when is it harmful? the gheerms that are in our bathroom are our own germs. when someone has a stomach problem, those germs that are making them sick can be transmitted or someone else can pick them up. i have been doing the faucets and cleaning and all of that. let s get to the results. you found high amounts of bacteria in the bathtub area as you mentioned. can you give us the exact results? we found high numbers of bacteria that love water. so it s not unusual to find it in the bathtub. we found it on the bath mat. under that bath mat that we saw. and she s been putting it over the side as you instructed her to do. and you found that s making a difference? i don t know. i don t have a relationship with the germs. let s hope it stays that way. it will make a difference because it will dry out. and once it s dry, the germs will not grow, and will in fact begin to die. and another thing joe told you to do as well is place the toothbrushes and all of that further away from the toilet. and so the reality is, it s really hard to keep these water the aerosoled water from being spread throughout. i mean it s going to happen, right? well, it is. there s a couple of things that can be done. first keep the lid down when you flush, because that will capture most of the air flow and mist back in the bowl. the other thing that can be done those bacteria are going to stick to the top of the bowl. take a spray or wipe, do that before you flush, because when they hit the top, they re going to come in contact with the disinfectant. how often should you clean and disinfect your bathroom. once a week you should do a thorough cleaning, but on a daily basis, you should wipe down surfaces, things that become contaminated with germs, with a wipe or a spray. and let s move on to dina s son s bathroom. the testing there found widespread contamination around the toilet as you would expect as well as on the sink faucette handle. keep the lid down on the toilet when it s flushed. what we did find was some of these type of bacteria on the door handle which is right next to the toilet. this is a small bathroom. and again, this is coming from the toilet. the aerosolization of the bowl water. and also washing the hands, right, if you re using the doorknob too? we knew that hand washing was going on regularly there because we found these kind of bacteria on the faucet handle. we saw plenty of soap so we know that the hygiene in the home is practiced very well. you re doing a good job, and your sons are doing a good job as well. but the bottom line is you can t get rid of all the germs in your bathroom as you might expect. coming up next, we re going to catch up with international not that long o, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose from and down-to-earth prices the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. we re bark now at 8:52. he talked about in that book. the lost symbol went on to become the best selling book of 2009 and now it s out in paper back and there s also a new illustrated special edition. are you known to numbers by this point? i mean when i say things like 20 million copies for the lost symbol, does it just kind of do you get blase about it. i don t think you get blase. but writers write to tell stories and for me, the thrill of writing a good book is really what turns me on, not the numbers. you don t just write a book and let it sit, you go out and promote it. i was reading the notes last night and it fascinated me that as you travel around the world, journalists in different parts of the world and different cultures focus on different things to talk to you about. i don t know how many countries, but i met with 31 of them. south america, they re very fixated on religion, they all want to talk to me about religion. right. in japan and china. absolutely fixated on fame. why do you think that is? i have no idea. the europeans were interested in obama. the last word in your book is hope, so clearly this is all about obama. it s a great education. so watching your every move has become almost sport for your fans and for people who love to know about the publishing world and so when you turned up in milan, the famed opera house, they said ah-ha. he s no longer a symbol gist, he s going to be an opera singer in the next novel. everybody knows it s an unbelievable piece of architecture. and you love buildings like that? architecture is great. that s why i wrote about d.c. d.c. is classical architecture on a grand scale. i mean you talk about ancient mysteries and secrets. d.c. is just this unbelievable city. and i just couldn t wait to write about it. we jokeded with you last time we were up at your house and you said it took you five years to write the lost symbol. that s a long time. i m aware of that. are you going to pick up the pace a little bit with this one. i have been informed that if this new novel takes as long as the lost symbol, my next media appearance will be on the bachelor. you must love it when the real world catches up with your stories. in angels and demons, the now a group out of europe has captured a certain kind of anti-matter, coincidence? i m fascinated with science and science expo n i was awar of anti-matter research and i decided to use it and i was told, this is crazy, nobody will ever do this. and i said you just wait. and i read with great pleasure that it had finally been done. i m glad you didn t put the big i told you so sign in your front yard. the lost symbol is in stores. coming up, affordable fashions from head to toe. but first your local news.oc live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. here s a look at one of our top stories. it was a playoff atmosphere at the stadium as ravens took on the steelers. ravens took an early lead with timely catches, but after recovering a fumble by joe flacco, the steelers scored the game-winning touchdown with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter. back in a minute with a check on today s forecast now let s look at the forecast with tony pann. breezy and cold start for us. temperatures in the upper teens and low 20s. temperatures make it into the upper 30 s this afternoon. a mixture of sunshine and clouds, with a chance for a few snow showers and flurries. tomorrow, a breezy and cold with a chance for snow flurries. losing the went on wednesday and thursday. we will take the temperatures back into the 40 s. little bit of light rain and snow on friday. we will see you back here at 9:25.