Transcripts For WBAL Today 20110420 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. the f.a.a. launched an investigation into the incident involving the first lady s plane. the plane came within three miles of a military carsgo jet as they approached andrews air force base. that may not seem that close but the cargo jets produce a large jet wash, so other planes are ordered to stay five miles away. both planes did land safely and the f.a.a. said the first lady wasn t in danger. we are live with the latest ahead. also, today marks the one-year anniversary of the oil rig explosion that triggered the worstle spill in u.s. history. what s the state of the gulf? is bp fulfilling obligations in the region? we ll talk about that with bobby jindal when he joins us for a life interview. and a postcard lost in the mail for 24 years played a role in ending a dear friendship. then something happened. the long lost piece of mail was delivered. this morning we ll bring the women together face to face for the first time since 1987. let s begin this morning with the close call for a plane carrying michelle obama. jim miklaszewski is at andrews air force base with the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning. to be clear, we should emphasize that michelle obama and the rest of the people aboard her plane were never in imminent danger. nevertheless, aviation experts tell us this was a close call. unfortunately, many of the incidents go largely unnoticed. but throw in the first lady and it gets everyone s attention. michelle obama and the vice president s wife jill biden were in new york for an appearance on the view before boarding a smaller version of air force one for the brief flight home. it was 5:00 in the evening as the boeing 737 approached washington, d.c. and flew straight into potential danger. federal and military officials say civilian controllers at the f.a.a. s radar center in virginia allowed the first lady s plane to get too close behind an air force c-17 cargo plane lumbering toward andrews air force base. because of the tremendous jet wash created by the planes the f.a.a. requires a five-mile separation between planes, but the 737 flew up to within three miles of the c-17, well within the danger zone. this plane should have never been there in the first place. they never should cut it that close. reporter: when controllers handed the flight to the tower at andrews, an air force controller immediately recognized the problem. he ordered the 737 to make a series of s turns to put distance between the two planes but they were still too close. once the cargo plane landed it couldn t get off the runway fast enough as the first lady made its approach. the air traffic controller ordered the 737 to execute a fly-around taking the plane in a wide circle before safely landing minutes later. it was a harrowinging inini experience. reporter: none of the passengers on the plane were aware of the incident. most recently controllers falling asleep on the job in the tower. transportation secretary ray la hood told nbc news keeping planes separated at a safe distance is one of the most vital roles for air traffic controllers. controllers need to take personal responsibility for one of the most important safety jobs in aviation. when they don t they will be suspended. the f.a.a. will suspend controllers for serious errors. this seems to fall in the category of an error that could have put the first lady s life in jeopardy. reporter: unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. mistakes by civilian air controllers at the warn warrenton facility more than doubled in the past year. the transportation secretary and f.a.a. have much bigger problems than the first lady. but, meredith, many would consider that a big problem. all right, thank you very much. homeland secretary janet napolitano is here to talk about the first lady s close call and the terror alert system being unveiled today. thanks for joining us. you said to me, you re not the f.a.a., but you are homeland security. right. they were never in danger, but given the rash of controller errors recently do you worry this sends a message to those who want to harm us that there are flaws in the system that could be exploited? no, not in that sense. secretary la hood and the f.a.a. are loobing at what they need to do to change process procedures, training, staffing, all the things that go into making sure the air traffic control system remains safe. why do you say you are not concerned? not from a terrorism exploitation thing. it s more of a concern about day to day aviation safety. air traffic controllers are key to the safety of the aviation system overall. that s why i think it s important that we look internally to the transportation department, really look at what s going on with the air traffic control community. let s talk about the alert system you are introducing for us. right. the old system, color coded, lots of people found it confusing. i don t think if we asked the average person what color we are today they would know. that s right. is that why you changed the system? one of the major reasons. we have been orange since 2006. we are changing to a system that gives people specificity, tells them what to do, what to prepare, what to look for and how to get more information. we have it on screen for people to look at. it looks like a memo. you have seven different categories. summary tells people if it is an elevated or imnated aler e ed - alert. this information won t necessarily go to everybody every time. is that correct? ? that s correct. it will be specific to geography, to event or incident. and it will sunset in two weeks. we get out of the business of cascading alerts. right now we have no alerts that would qualify for our standards here. ultimately if we do we ll issue them via radio, tv, standard media and new media as well. what do you mean it will sunset after two weeks? the intelligence community needs to re-evaluate it. if the information has changed, if the alert no longer needs to exist, it will automatically go away. again, you don t end up with a system where you have 100 or 120 of these things stacking up. i think the reason we are yellow or orange is we want the public to know, oh, we always need to be on our toes. right. aren t we always in an elevated state? no. well, sure, we always need to lean forward, be alert, aware. this is about specific or imminent threats people need to know about to prepare themselves, their families, work with their communities. if we are asking them to look for something they can help with that. in january you said the problem isn t foreign terrorists but the people living within the u.s. is that another reason you changed the system, to reflect the new reality? it s a continuing and evolving threat. terrorism is not a static field. so we have international and domestic now to be concerned about. we want this to be a shared responsibility with the citizenry of our country to make sure they are aware, that they are helping and they know what to do to help themselves. it will take effect when? april 26. say good-bye to orange. i m glad to say good-bye to orange. nice to see you. thank you very much. you bet. secretary janet napolitano. here s matt. now to politics and the 2012 presidential race. donald trump seems to be dominating the headlines though no one knows if he s planning to throw his hat into the ring. what s driving his popularity among some gop voters? savannah guthrie has details on that. good morning. reporter: good morning. trump has been enjoying high poll numbers and a lot of attention. as he continues to toy with the presidential run he s getting more scrutiny. i really do believe in myself. reporter: seemingly everywhere donald trump is selling himself as a successful businessman. in an interview tuesday, bristled at the suggestion his success is based solely on being a good pitch man. i do sort of rake at the fact that i do a fantastic job and, you know, just almost always it works out really well and everybody says, oh, gee, what a great salesman he is. it s this. not my salesmanship. it s what? it s this. the brain power. steve forbes stated i was one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of free trade. reporter: trump is a sensation for a segment of the republican party zooming to the top of several early presidential polls. he may be filling ale hole left by sarah palin. i do have respect for donald trump and candidness. i think people with craving that in the world of political speak out of the white house. reporter: partly high recognition but he s striking a chord with some. there is a strong strain within the republican party that wants somebody to take it to president obama, tell him how it is, fight with him, not be conciliatory. that s trump in a nutshell. reporter: republican strategists say don t read trump s rise as a rejection of a lack luster republican field. the idea of a donald trump presidentialle campaign says a lot more about donald trump s ego and the fact that he makes for great news copy than it does about any kind of void or vacuum within the republican party. reporter: analysts say the clearest sign his competitors see no threat, they have either ignored him or played nice. i think he s talented, funny, interesting. reporter: other prominent conservatives have not held back saying his flip-flops on the issues and insistence on questioning the president s place of birth rob him of credibility. i don t think he s doing things necessary to be taken seriously by the american people. reporter: yesterday in our interview with donald trump he said he was the one candidate the white house most feared. the vice president appears to differ. at an event joe biden said he was looking forward to comparing the democrat policy ideas with the republicans and said, quote, that s a debate i can hardly wait for, hopefully with donald trump. matt? savannah guthrie, thank you very much. a year ago today the deepwater horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 and setting off a disaster to impact the gulf coast for yearses or decades to come. bobby jindal, governor of louisiana, is with us exclusively. good morning. good morning, matt. i was reading a lot of articles on the one-year anniversary and one phrase comes up over and over again. it could have been much worse. another comment from an article this morning. it s not that the oil spill had no lasting effects but the ecological doomsday many predicted clearly hasn t taken place. is that the way you see it? i think that s right, matt. there is a lot of unknowns. we are doing a lot of testing and research. only time will tell. let me say first of all we live in a generous country. i want to thank your viewers. louisiana has been through a lot. four hurricanes starting with hurricane katrina. we have been through this oil spill in the last six years. we are resilient people in louisiana. we live in a generous country. there is still work to do. 300 miles of coast are still oiled but using a great rebirth, recovery story i invite the viewers if you are a fisherman come down to venice, grand isle, some of the best fishing you have seen in years. if you re at home, get some great gulf seafood. it s the safest, most delicious seafood you will find. if you re a tourist, visit the coastal areas. they would love your business. there is work to be done, but we are rebuilding the state, coming back better than before. one of the things we need to recover from is the administration imposed a one size fits all moratorium after the spill. we want drilling to be done safely but we don t want to lose thousands of jobs. remember the talk about the huge plumes of underwater oil said to be lurking off the shoreline of louisiana and other states, what happened to the plumes? where are they? 300 miles of the coast are oiled. we have tar balls, oil mats resurfacing in area that is need to be cleaned. we continue to push bp and the coast guard to monitor areas out there. again, there is a lot of good news but there are areas that is need to be cleaned up. there is oil out there continuing to show up. did they disperse? what happened? i think it s not so much plumes today as tar balls and oil mats. what s happening is with wave action some of the oil is still out there. it s suspended. it shows up on the coast so we have crews out there cleaning up oil. bp is paying for the crews. you have tar mats and tar balls showing up. do you have any idea the long-term or have scientists told you the possible long-term impact from the nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant put into the gulf around the oil spill? do we know what that s going to cause in years? many years ago it took years to see some of the long-term effects. for example, we ll look this year to see the quantity of seafood and marine life out there. they have done over 1,000 tests on the seafood. not one test has come back with concerns for human consumption. one thing we have required bp to do on a rolling basis is pay for ongoing scientific testing so we can understand what the long-term impacts to the environment, to the coast. one of the reasonses we are pushing bp to invest in short-term immediate coastal restoration projects is time is critical. there are things we can do now to mitigate the damage. while you are standing there, i have to ask you a question. your office said you would sign a bill requiring presidential candidates on the ballot in louisiana to show a birth certificate. is the reason to prevent future controversie controversies? would you say you have no doubt that president obama was born in the united states? absolutely, matt. i believe he s a citizen. let s be clear. my disagreements with the president are not about his citizenship or where he was born. i disagree about his agenda. he s the most liberal president we have had in modern times at that time worst moment. we have seen expanded spending, more government in health care. if the legislature passes this bill and by the way, if they pass a bill that restate it is constitution, of course i d sign it. if they pass a bill restating the bill of rights, of course i would sign it. bottom line, i believe he s a citizen. my disagreement with the president isn t about where he s born. it s about his policies, the fact that they have expanded the government to health care, car companies, borrowing money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back. if he wants to raise taxes i would like to see us cut spending. those are topics we need a lot of time to discuss. i appreciate your time on the one-year anniversary of the tarz in your region. thank you, matt. come down to the gulf. i guarantee you will have a great time. thank you very much. now a check of the rest of the top stories from natalie morales filling in for ann at the news desk. fwrorm. good morning. we begin with the wildfires now racing across the state of texas which burned more than a million acres so far. janua janet shamlian has the latest. reporter: 11 new fires in texas this morning. they have burned homes and businesses like this restaurant to the ground and scorched a land area roughly the size of rhode island. from the air you can see how the flames raced across the state fuelled by high winds and temperatures in the 90s. they show no sign of slowing down. they could use some rain here, but there is very little of it in the forecast. they have help coming from 34 states. but, natalie, they still feel outmanned by the fires. back to you. we can hear the winds there. something tells me it will be a battle for a while there. reporter: it will be. janet shamlian, thank you. disaster officials are assessing tornado damage today in northeastern missouri. the twister damaged farm buildings near bowling green tuesday afternoon. there were no reports of serious injuries. the american soldier accused of passing secret government documents to the wikileaks website is being moved to a medium security facility. international criticism of private bradley manning s detention has nothing to do with the move. they say it was driven by the fact that they are finished doing key evaluations of his mental capacity to stand trial. president obama is headed to california and nevada to build support for the deficit reduction plan and raise campaign funds. now let s head to wall street. melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange with top performers. hey, natalie. all that glitters just got more expensive. gold trading over $1500 an ounce. it s a new record. analysts wonder how high it can go. apple reporting earnings after the bell. expectations are high. we expect them to say the new iphone will ship in september. back to you. melissa, thank you. the consumer products safety commission announced the recall today of 7.5 million candles sold under the name chesapeake bay and modern light. they have a clear plastic cup that can melt or catch fire. a sweet deal on a prom dress for a wisconsin teen whose mother made her entire ensemble out of star burst candy wrappers. the dress, the purse, the shoes and the corsage. even a vest for her date, poor guy, who said he wasn t given a choice. apparently it took six years, five failed attempts and giving lots of candy away to the neighbors to complete the dress. less insulting than if you make one with a chunky bar wrapper. my pants are made out of twix bars. we won t go there. let s talk about the weather. thanks for the mental image. so far we are just starting out with a little bit of fog and haze. high, thin cloud cover should move in. this afternoon we will see a and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. just ahead, two british tourists gunned down on vacation in florida. we are live with details on the investigation. first, this is today on nbc. 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[ male announcer ] serve it up on tasty flatbread. and wake up to the fresh taste of the sunrise subway melt. build your better breakfast, only at subway. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. time for a check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. light traffic pattern this week. we had an accident southbound on the harrisburg expressway approaching the beltway. also a crash at moravia road and moravia park drive. delays developing at the beltway. in health corp., watch for an accident we are looking pretty good on the entire beltway. 75 looks good on a owings mills. i-to 70 police smith. let s show you what it looks like on the accident scene. off to the left shoulder on the ramp to the outer loop of the beltway from southbound 83. looking good at white marsh, but once you get on to the beltway, that s when things get slow. tony, over to you. just a little bit of hype, anthony cloud cover, and most of the fog and haze says burned off. you might want to take the lead jacket, but it will warm up quickly. at the forecast for today, a mixture of sunshine and clouds. this afternoon there will be a chance for showers and thunderstorms and it will be a lot warmer. low eighties later on today. significantly cooler tomorrow and friday. 50 s on friday. over on the holiday weekend, 30% or 40% chance for a shower or thunderstorm. it is not going to be a washout. 71 on easter sunday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. we are back at 7:55 with another live update. 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, april 20, 2011, on what s going to be a nice warm day in the northeast. al says we are headed to the upper 60s. we ll get his forecast in a moment. sounds good. i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. in this half hour, charlie sheen heads to court to fight for custody of his twinway boys. we ll tell you what the judge decided. also, if breakfast is the most important meal of the day would you start by eating a dozen munchkins? not the wizard of oz kind. that s how much sugar is in popular options at your supermarket. coming up, healthier choices. and the story behind a postcard sent by a woman to her friend in 1987. it never arrived and caused them to lose touch. now the card resurfaced. we tracked down the long lost friends. they will see each other in our studio for the first time in 24 years. we begin this half hour with the mysterious murders of two british tourists in florida. good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. here at the ritzy vacation spot, tourists and locals are stunned at the gruesome murder of the close friends. police say nearly ten shots were fired at the scene of the crime which is only two miles away from downtown sarasota where they were last seen. now the question, really, is what were they doing in that area? this is a difficult neighborhood. these college buddies were having a ball at the beach, at the bar on vacation. the young tourists, in from england, were staying on the gulf coast with cooper s parents. they hit the bar in sarasota drinking, chatting with girls, captured on video and these party pics. the last pictures of them alive. around 3:00 a.m. police responded to a 911 call. hello? hi, this is 911. we just rolled through the old projects on we see a white dude laying in blood everywhere. she s just laid out. i don t know if he s still alive. reporter: on the scene they found 25-year-old james cooper and 24-year-old casaerz dead shot in the back miles away from where they were seen partying. our number one priority is solving this case, bringing the perpetrators to justice. reporter: 16-year-old sean tyson was charged with double murder. nine days before he was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. police say there might be more people involved but the question remains, what were the young tourists doing in a violent neighborhood and how did they get there? friends and family memberses are sure neither were drug users and police say no drugs, weapons or excessive cash were found on the victims. we are trying to determine why they would leave downtown sarasota and end up in a public housing area. reporter: meanwhile, florida s crucial tourism industry faces a serious threat as british newspapers map out the distance between lush vacation destinations and gang-ridden neighborhoods. the parents released the following statement. we loved him so much and we can t believe he has gone. we are devastated and in a state of shock. as friends and family mourn cooper, a popular tennis coach. everyone knew him from the tennis club, friends, family, it s a terrible incident. reporter: and this adventurous world traveller. very amiable young man. he was a fine young man. a good leader. reporter: one theory among law enforcement is they may have accepted what they thought was a ride back to their condo but it was really a set-up for a robbery. meredith? thank you very much. it s 7:34. here s matt. thank you. now to charlie sheen s fight for full custody of his twin boys. jeff rossen has been following the case for a while. good to see you. no big news flash here. charlie sheen has had a drug problem. same with brooke mueller. as part of the custody agreement both parents must take random drug tests. brooke failed to take one so sheen flew to l.a. and made a plea to the judge calling brooke an unfit mother. charlie sheen arrived to court tuesday with his so-called goddess natty ready to do battle with brooke mueller. i feel terrific, thank you. there was always drama between the two of them. now that brooke has fallen off the wagon it s given charlie an in. reporter: at stake, custody of the 2-year-old twins, bob and max. in the private hearing, sheen argued that brooke violated their custody agreement by refusing to take a drug test last week that he deserves the children full time. she knows the rules and the consequences are radical. i told her don t pick a [ bleep ] fight with a warlock because you re going to lose. reporter: charlie versus brooke. it s been brewing for months. so messy even denise richards offered to take in the twins. the children keep getting bounced around. in early march officers showed up at sheen s mansion and removed them. under a court order filed by brooke, hours later, sheen spoke with me in a live interview on today. there is nothing to hide and nothing but love and compassion and support for the amazing children. reporter: charlie and brook finally reached a custody deal. sheen gets alternate weekends and some weeknights and both parents have to take random drug tests. just last week tmz posted this video from a california pawnshop showing brooke mueller trying to sell off a watch and a stereo, sparking reports that she s back on drugs. on friday, she refused a drug test which is considered failure of a drug test. there is no question she s fallen off the wagon. reporter: in fact, in court tuesday brooke admitted to the judge she s back in outpatient rehab. but it wasn t enough. in a defeat for charlie sheen, the judge did not award him full custody. instead, keeping the agreement as is. bob and max will continue living with brooke and her mother in california. the court is not going to change custody because of the fact that ms. mueller is in rehab. but i don t think that anyone should assume that this is going to be something that the court will be indifferent to should it happen again. [ cheers and applause ] reporter: by late tuesday night, after his loss in court, sheen was back on the east coast, performing his one-man show in washington, d.c. and he had lots to say about the hearing. this is totally [ bleep ] broken. reporter: busy day for charlie sheen. as his custody battle played out in a courtroom in los angeles, in another a hearing in his $100 million lawsuit against warner brothers. sheen is fighting for back pay for himself, plus the cast and crew. no decision yet on the lawsuit. matt, i don t think any of this is going away. not for a while. jeff rossen, thank you very much. now a check of the weather from al. thank you, mr. matt lauer. we have lady bowlers. are you bowling here in new york? yeah, in syracuse. well, get your minds out of the gutter. [ laughter ] spare me. let s see what s happening as far as your forecast. look at the temperatures. 82 in washington, d.c. richmond, 87. nashville, 73. cleveland, 59. 45 in chicago. 52 in indianapolis. west of the country, you re looking at chilly conditions through the plains. plenty of heat in texas. some areas 90s, 100 in the southwest. 30s in new england. in maine they are looking at a foot of snow before it s over. so far we are off to a quiet start, but later it is possible we can see showers and thunderstorms developing. we will make it into the low these nice folks just got married. congratulations! thank you. now back inside to matt. up next, making healthier choices at breakfast. a cereal equal to eating 17 sugary cookies and other surprising diet busters after this. you know what this is, cartwright? yes. nicorette mini. you carry them around everywhere. yes i do, because cravings are everywhere. would you take a craving for me, cartwright? how would i exactly. [ male announcer ] nicorette mini goes wherever you go, to help make quitting suck less. [ male announcer ] nicorette mini goes wherever you go, wanna try some sfx: breakfast on the go!? negative. that is not a bar. sfx: gzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzhhhh. humanize your morning. emerald breakfast on the go! hey mike, what s up? they ve been singing the same song for the last three hours. just call me angel of the morning angel just touch my cheek before. [ nathan ] that was painful to watch. he needs a highlander. one that comes with a sweet rear-seat entertainment system. [ male announcer ] see the stylish new highlander at youtube.com/highlander. he s gotta be fast and he s gonna need help. that s why walgreens is stocked with reese s peanut butter eggs, m&m s chocolate candies, oreo fudge creams, starburst jelly beans and more. add a few extra delights and toys and you ve got the perfect basket. now get busy, bunny. simplify your easter shopping with walgreens. there s a way. back at 7:42. this morning on eat this not that today, the big bad breakfast. researchers say skipping breakfast increases your risk of obesity by 450%. eating unhealthy to start the day isn t better. how do you make healthy choices? david zinczenko is author of the eat this, not that series. great to see you, meredith. we are talking supermarket breakfast foods. rule of thumb when it comes to how much to consume in the morning? try to get under 350. you want a nice mix of protein for metabolism, carbs for energy, fiber to keep you full and vitamins and minerals to nourish the body. these smart swaps allow you to get hundreds of calories out of the meal without missing a thing. breakfast cereals. this is jimmy dean breakfast bowl with pancakes and sausages. this is like an easter basket. it has the sugar equivalent of a snickers bar. over 0700 calories, 34 grams of fat. it s the equivalent of a dozen dunkin donuts sugar munchkins in terms of calories. snickers bar. you want to go bowling with this jimmy over here. this is only 230 calories from the delight line. it s a turkey sausage bowl. you re eliminating 480 calories in this swap. you do it every day for a week and you re losing a pound a week at breakfast. let s go to kashi. i think of this as a healthy line of food at the supermarket. this is the summer berry granola. the problem is it s a health myth. you think granola you think hippy. think hippo. even with 2% milk added to it you re over 500 calories. you have 24 grams of sugar. now kashi go lean let s see the equivalent. 17 ginger snap cookies. that s how you are starting your morning. kill that one. if you go to one of the best in the supermarket which is go lean original you get 205 calories. you have just saved 300 calories. you are losing a pound every 11 days. easy to do and the same line. you know it s good. yes. people love to have a bun in the morning. it s always delicious. it s a single serve iced honey bun and it will ice you. we love entenmann s. it s a double whammy of fat, calories and sugar. 140 calories of pure sugar, a bunch of carbs. 22 grams of saturated fat? it s over a day s worth in one starting your morning that way. it would be the saturated fat equivalent of having 22 strips of bacon. you re not lying here, right? unfortunately i m not. you say to substitute with another baked good. have a donut. 190 calories. again, you eliminate 470 calories right there. that s a pound a week. you are still eating your favorite foods. it s just that you are getting a better version of them. toaster foods. we go to thomas s bagels. blueberry bagel with butter. there is a hole in the bagel for a reason cream cheese, i m sorry. this is the nutritional black hole. you re not a fan of bagels. it s a couple hundred calories. then you add two ounces of cream cheese and your at 465. which is the equivalent of what? starting your morning with five and a half bowls of honey comb. i like that. but it s a lot. i would rather have one or two of these. so you still go to thomas. the nooks and crannies are basically the secret is they are saving you calories. 130 calories with heart healthy peanut butter and you come in at 320. you re in better shape. you have saved almost 200 calories. and you have much more nutrition. always go for the whole grain? i would. right here you are getting two grams of fiber and still are at 130 calories. thank you so much, david zinczenko. up next, how kate middleton stacks up against the world s most famous princesses. we are live in london with a royal round-up after this. 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[ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that s fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. well, the countdown to the royal wedding has reached single digits. in just nine days, kate middleton will become a princess and she s already near the top of one list, the fairest princess of them all. michelle kosinski is in london to explain. good morning to you. reporter: hi, matt. this is one of the inevitable polls done by a dating website called beautifulpeople.com. supposedly more than 100,000 people voted and it placed kate middleton just above princess diana. dare anyone go there? yeah, of course they do. what does it take to be a princess? kind, isn t she? and pretty. reporter: that always seems to be the expectation, doesn t it? this website wasn t bashfulle about full on ranking the fairest of them all. number one, grace of monaco, simply the pinnacle of princessdom. there is irania of jordan, often hailed for outspokenness, now on youtube and twitter and third, fair kate. not even a princess yet, but just edging out diana, the people s princess. maybe the 80s shoulder pads aren t dazzling online voters, or is it something far more magical? it s the hair. you know? it s all in the hair. she s the blow dry princess. she s very groomed which is why she would be loved in america. reporter: voters also chose grace s gran daughter, princess charlotte and princess debbie once named as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world. madeline of sweden who had to endure the embarrassment of her lawyer fiance cheating on her with a college student. there is denmark s crown princess mary, england s margaret, the party princess, fashion icon of her day. she gave up the love of her life because he was divorced. and japan s harvard grad princess masako. she s rarely seen and was skewered in the press for, of all things, being spotted eating an expensive mexican dinner. some didn t make the list. princess laticia of spain who was a newscaster out in the wind and rain with the rest of us. formerly married to a school teacher. now supposedly doesn t get along so great with the in-laws and seems to grow ever skinnier and was caught by the press wearing pleather. poor princess ann was at the bottom, possibly for not changing the hairdo or the wardrobe for, oh, several decades. but she s very much loved when she goes around. she s absolutely straightforward. reporter: when you say let s find out what s all about the fabulous lives of princesses you tend to find a lot of stress and relationship issues. no, being one of the most beautiful princesses on the planet doesn t make you immune, but that s always what a 5-year-old in a tiara thinks about, matt. not at all, michelle. thanks for that. we appreciate it. set your alarm clock because we ll start with complete coverage of the royal wedding next friday, 4:00 a.m. eastern, 1:00 a.m. pacific time. we ll be right back after your local news. wind myself up ike i have to 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. fand replace your old mayon helping to treat my depression. 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[ child screams ] almost. the new 2011 dodge grand caravan. get the new 2011 grand caravan starting at $24,830. plus, current owners get an additional $1,000 bonus cash. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. here is sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. we are not doing bad at all. we have some incidents since last checked. in white hall, accident at mccomas road and hunter mill road. uniontown road, in westminster, another accident location. this accident is still being worked on at moravia road and at moravia park drive could biggest delay on southbound 95 on the northeast towards the beltway. yellow as well on the outer loop. we will show you what it looks like a harford going away from us. once you get towards providence, that is when the things slow up just a bit. at white marsh, we are looking pretty good. towards the inner 95 split, a little bit slow there. we have some high, then cloud cover out there. it touch of a fog and haze still. temperatures still on that chilly side. 50 at the airport. it will warm up very quickly today. we should make it into the eighties this afternoon. later, we will see a chance for showers and thunderstorms. it will significantly on tuesday and friday. it will cool off a civilian on thursday and friday. as always, you can check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. back at 8:25 with our next live update. mr. perdue! what does it mean that perdue is the first chicken company to have a usda process verified program? it means the usda verifies that my fresh, fit & easy chicken is raised cage-free and fed an all-veggie diet with no animal by-products. is it true your chickens are never given any hormones or steroids? yes, it s true. 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[ ding ] we re back at 8:00 on a wednesday morning. it s the 20th day of april, 2011. we d stepped outside to join the folks on the plaza this morning on what s a little bit of an overcast day, mild temperatures. i got confused for a second because i don t know if you can see it in the distance over there, jimmy, but the date says april 15, 2011. a little off. that s not good. that doesn t look right. anyway, i m matt lauer we re supposed to be on top of this stuff. i know. i was thrown off there. coming up in this half hour, we have an amazing story about a postcard written from one dear friend to another to help the friend through a difficult time in her life. it got lost in the mail since 1987. each friend thought the other had moved on and not cared that much. now after 24 years the postcard has been delivered and the friends will see each other for the first time in all those years. where was it? we don t know. it was stuck somewhere, hidden. and we ll catch up with the daughter of al and tipper gore. she has a new novel and how her parents are doing less than a year after their separation. the family is doing well. we ll catch up with her. have you been guilty of this? i know i have. your kid s soccer game and you take a call from work or maybe do a text during dinner or something. right. we ll show you how to deal with the guilt that comes from being a working parent and how to separate yourself. i thought you were going to say did you ever take out the today kw taekwondo teacher or something. oh, no. natalie is filling in for ann. good morning. good morning, everyone. the f.a.a. says that possible error by air traffic controllers allowed first lady michelle obama s plane to come too close to a huge military cargo plane as she returned to the washington area monday night. mrs. obama s plane had to abort the first approach to andrews, but the f.a.a. said she was never in real danger though the military plane can create dangerous turbulence. a jetblue employee was cited for carelessness after a cargo truck hit a plane at boston s logan airport. the truck clipped the plane s left wing as passengers got off the flight from florida. a passenger suffered a minor injury. nearly 150 homes have been destroyed as wildfires continue to burn west of the dallas-ft. worth area. forestry officials say the wildfire that forced evacuations is not likely to threaten heavily populated areas. severe storms battered parts of the nation s heartland again on tuesday. look at this tornado. it damaged farm buildings in bowling green and missouri. tornadoes were reported near st. louis. there were no serious injuries. some newly released security camera video shows a new york city man being gunned down after getting off an elevator on sunday. the 18-year-old victim didn t survive. after the shooting, police say the suspect, which you see right there, calmly walks away. the suspect is still at large. a shopping mall near boston was evacuated tuesday and the swat team called after someone reported seeing a man with a rifle. two and a half hours later the man, after hearing news reports called police to say it wasn t a gun. it was his umbrella in an over-the-shoulder sling. a large barge carrying a two-story house is stuck on a river in central, california. the owner was trying to move the house from one location to another when he lost control. officials say the barge doesn t pose a danger to river traffic as long as it stays grounded. it will be a long time before that guy sees that house again. 8:04. now let s go outside again to meredith. thank you, natalie. al has a check of the weather. thank you, meredith. we have nice folks here. march of dimes. what s happening with the march of dimes? hello. i m nicky fleming and this is my daughter lauren the 2011 national ambassador for the march of dimes. we are here with all the volunteers encouraging everyone [ cheers ] to go to the local kmart and donate or go to marchforbabies.org. all right. let s check your weather, see what s going on. good cause. huntington, west virginia, wsaz, nbc 3, news channel 3. thunderstorms, showers. temperatures in the low 70s. today we can see the frontal system bringing heavy showers and thunderstorms. we have a tornado watch in effect stretching from the georgia border into parts of the northeast. we have a slight risk of strong storms from the southeast into texas. mountain snows through the rockies. rain in the pacific northwest. looking at plenty of sunshine through the southeast. these nice folks, support childhood cancer. this young lady is a cancer survivor. yes, i am. what s your name? brianna and i m the youth ambass we should get through the start of the day dry. it will make it into the low 80s this afternoon. after lunch time, a chance for after lunch time, a chance for and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. up next, we ll reunite two friends brought together by a postcard that was lost in the mail for 24 years. that s right after this. tion. this is stacy. who runs circles around asthma. and dan. he never lets high cholesterol get him too low. and amy with her arthritis well in hand. they go to walgreens. where their pharmacist not only refills prescriptions but gives advice. immunizations. and health tests. staying on top of your health starts right in your neighborhood. walgreens. there s a way to stay well. something that was drilled in me early on, you know, college is the place for you. it s my number one goal. students like me, who take these ap math and science classes and have these opportunities, this is where the american dream lies. when i write that book, you know, i plan to dedicate it to my school. those hopes and dreams that you have, you know, they re within reach. and i m living proof. 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the countryside looks like spring. the hillsides have a blanket of green glass dotted with flowers. beautiful. i guess i m a simple country girl at heart. life is a romantic adventure. remember, romance is everywhere. love you, rose. reporter: this postcard wasn t meant for joanna. the postcard wasn t for me. it was for another reyez. reporter: in fact it wasn t meant for this day and age. the postmark, march 17, 1987. it was lost in the mail for 24 years. i knew there was something special about it. i could tell there was a friendship here, maybe a deep friendship. rose is reaching out to her friend. it made me want to know more. reporter: it made us want to find out more, too. are you rose? yes, i am! you found me. reporter: we have been looking for you. we are in livingston, california. is this where you have lived your whole life? i was raised in this town. reporter: rose wrote the postcard to caroline who moved to new york city. carol was my best friend. we did everything together. she was my support system. she was like a sister to me. reporter: rose s friend caroline followed a boyfriend to new york, only to be left heartbroken. she wrote rose for advice. her reply bu plply was the post hoping to entice her back home. you thought she didn t write back? that s correct. i thought she made a decision, which was okay with me. i felt, well, caroline knows what s best for her. i never heard from her. reporter: where did you think caroline had been all these years? i thought she was still in new york. reporter: we found caroline. she wasn t in new york. hi! reporter: nice to meet you. what are you doing here? i live here now. reporter: here in san diego? yes. reporter: ten years ago caroline moved back to her home state, always wondering what happened to her friend rose who she thought had never written her back. i thought if i had received a card i may have been swayed to come back to california because i was feeling lost. everything would have been different. reporter: different because caroline stayed in new york long enough to meet her husband there. over the years have you thought of rose? oh, yes, of course. always a special place in my heart for her. reporter: rose wrote that life is a romantic adventure. would you agree? it is. it can be. it s all in how you look at it. life throws you curves. reporter: through the years, both friends would be thrown curves. rose, a divorce, and caroline, breast cancer. during times that i went through hard times and i did go through hard times, i would long for that friendship. no one could have orchestrated this. none of us could have. the message it s like a message in a bottle. we think there is something in the universe that brought three of us together, for whatever reason. there are times i don t care what the reason is. we re together. excuse me. reporter: it s been a long time. i love caroline. she s speciale to me. reporter: we have a comment from the u.s. postal service. the postal service is pleased to have played a small part in these two friends getting together again. it shows the power of the postage stamp. good thing it wasn t an e-mail. back to you, matt. joanna reyez who didn t throw the card away is with us now. thank you, matt. i think a lot of people would have thrown it in the trash. you didn t. i didn t. there was something special about it. just the way rose expressed this love for life. she was inspiring. it just sat with me. it still sits with me today. you can tell that they were two dear friends. it s sweet. you have not met rose or caroline. you have spoken on the phone. for your own satisfaction you must want to watch the reunion. i m very excited. let s bring out rose to meet joanna, the young lady who didn t throw the card away. good morning. how are you? nice to see you. this is joanna. this is so special. this really is. she was crying during the piece. you re crying during the piece. wait until we have the reunion. then you can cry. o boy. are you nervous? you have thought about this person for a long time. have you wondered what she looks like today, what s going on in her life? of course. 25 years almost have passed. i have curiosities about her. i m very excited to see her. are you worried that it would be hard to pick up a friendship where it left off and reach the same level of closeness? no. i think we re going to pick right up and keep on going. let s see. okay. rose, sit there for a second and let me reintroduce caroline reyez. after 24 years. hi! oh, my goodness. it s nice to meet you. this is joanna. oh, thank you so much. wow. this is amazing. okay. who s changed the most? does she look the way you thought she d look? she looks beautiful in red. so do you. she looks the way you thought she would look? of course. always beautiful. always beautiful. what are your hopes? i should have brought the kleenex box. what are your hopes for the friendship now? from this moment on? we will continue. see each other. hopefully she ll come to san diego to see me. we have lots to do. i ll have to coax her. she s a country girl. she s a country girl. that, i am. rose, what are your hopes? i hope that we will always continue like we were at one time in our lives when we were very close. i think that can happen. i think that we can still be close. are you all three the type of people who believe everything happens for a reason? oh, yes. yes. if you have to think, why now, why do you think this postcard showed up at joanna s apartment now after 24 years? it was also meant for her. i believe it. it was meant for her. i think we all believe that. it came at a time when i needed it the most. i m so honored and grateful. explain why you needed it the most. oh, a year of, you know, being single again and just moving forward with my life. i think you get in a rut a little bit. you need something to lift you out of it and the words here truly did. it s been a remarkable two months for me. thank you. thank you. rose, you are a beautiful writer. you really are. oh, thank you. next time, pick up the phone. a lot of people in the studio have said, they didn t nobody got the postcard and they didn t pickp the phone. right. well, you know what? i was in a crisis. i just moved on. so, you know, life just happens. i also think if i would have gotten the card i may have been coaxed to come back home to california. life would have been different. i would not have met my husband. i would not have had the career i had. i would not have had the new friends. so, you know, everything does happen for a reason. i believe the universe was planning this whole thing. i think you re right. maybe there is as much to learn from the absence as there is from the reunion. absolutely. our friendship is timeless. i feel that way. stay together. stay in touch. keep joanna in the loop as well. i love it. it s fantastic. thanks for not throwing away the postcard. thank you for letting us reunite you on air. nice to meet you all. we re back after this. le announcer ] is zero worth nothing? imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. we re here because we wanted to come as much as they did. (girl) it s really hogwarts! because i can fly with harry! because i love seeing him like this! (screaming) ahhhhh! (narrator) from unforgettable adventures to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. your advertising mail campaign is paying off! business is good! it must be if you re doing all that overnight shipping. that must cost a fortune. it sure does. well, if it doesn t have to get there overnight, you can save a lot with priority mail flat rate envelopes. one flat rate to any state, just $4.95. that s cool and all. but it ain t my money. i seriously do not care. so, you don t care what anyone says, you want to save this company money! that s exactly what i was saying. hmmm. priority mail flat rate envelopes, just $4.95 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. it s breakfast ont the go! want some? negative. commencing standard breakfast procedure. sfx: bzzzzzzz. humanize your morning. emerald breakfast on the go! what?! -match it! -match it! -match it! match it! -match it! -match it! 20 cents less. what?! just match it. -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -[ horn honks ] -match it! -match it! -match it! thank you, got it. i ll match that price right here. oh! cool. [ male announcer ] we won t be beat. we have low prices every day. on everything, backed by our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. back now at 8:23. time to head to ft. myers, florida, to check in with our good friend mr. willard scott. oh, the beautiful carribe royale. how nice it is. and happy birthday, how sweet it is. take a look as the jam jar spins about. elsie thompson, clearwater, florida, is 112 years old. oldest person in the state of florida, they say. loves to have neighbors come in and pay her a visit. can t beat that. mary ellen bulan from sandy hook, connecticut. 100 years old. worked in the fashion industry for over 40 years and loves advising people on how to look their best like she does. elizabeth chieffo of bolton, connecticut, is 103. we re getting there. huge university of connecticut fan. mary ann crawmer from westminster, maryland. 100 years old today. sharp, witty and loves bridge and crossword puzzles. they say that keeps everybody sharp. and good old louis tognoli. louis is from fayetteville, arkansas. he s 106 years olds. eldest member of the local mall walkers. jurina westphal of marysville, washington is 100. served on the election board for over 50 years. dosh jackson, sr. is 100 and enjoys gadgets and plays the violin at church on sunday. that s all. back to good old new york. i love willard. thank you very much. just ahead, ben stiller stops by studio 1a. hello, ben. first your local news and weather. 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 sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. just a few problem spots in abington. southbound delays coming down south of route 24. if you re going to head out on mccomas road and hunter mill road, you are going to watch for an accident in whitehall. another accident location, this one in this city. biggest delays on southbound 95, a miles per hour 8 miles per hour. on the beltway, right at providence road, going away from us, outer loop traffic in very good shape at this hour. 95 at 395, inbound delays. all volume-related towards a conway. tony, over to you. not a bad start. high, thin cloud cover. temperatures are starting to jump. we are in the upper 50 s and low 60 s. 53 at the airport. it is going to warm up quickly today. low 80s this afternoon. a mixture of sunshine and clouds this morning. much time, we will seek a chance for a few showers and thunderstorms. the next few days, it will cool off significantly. we will be in the 50 s on friday. chance for a few showers in the afternoon. into easter weekend, a slight chance for a shower or thunderstorm on the holiday. it should warm up again quickly next week. maybe near 80 on tuesday. we will see you back here in 25 minutes. i am an allergy analyst. bermuda grass. ragweed. willow. i am a dander decoder. chihuahua. i am a target pharmacist. ask me about allergy relief. 8:30 now on this wednesday morning, april 20, 2011. we have a sea of people here as you can see. as far as the eye can see. we re happy to give them a little camera time to wave to their loved ones back home. meantime, working mom guilt. i m sure you can relate. you get home and the phone starts ringing or the laptop is calling. how do you find the balance between fulfilling your obligations to work and the kids? technology is supposed to help us make life easier, but it s really not doing the job. we have that story coming up. dads, too. okay. i m feeling slighted, but that s all right. also, ben stiller is here. often times we re talking about a brand new movie but we are talking about his role in a broadway show that has a great history in his family. plus, we have great and timely financial advice for your money emergencies including how to pay your medical bills when you re retired and the best way to save for little ones. first it s the weather. all right. as we take a look, show you we have a risk of strong storms along the midatlantic coast and the southeast into west texas. mountain snows in the rockies. rain in the pacific northwest which will continue tomorrow. a risk of strong storms in the mid mississippi river valley. wet weather in the mid ohio river valley. snow continues in new england. sunshine returns to the northeast. on the cooler side in the great lakes. sunny and so far we are off to a quiet start, but later it is possible we can see showers and thunderstorms developing. we will make it into the low don t forget. check your weather any time day or night on the weather channel on cable, weather.com online. when we come back, the guilt associated with being a working parent. first, this is today on nbc. announcer: today s moms is brought to you by walmart. moms, head to your local walmart today to find ways to save money, live better. this morning on today s moms, guilt of the working mother. the boston globe found as the boundaries between work and family life become increasingly blurred, emotions like guilt escalate. if you have checked your blackberry during dinner it might sound familiar. mother of three francie la tour wrote the article. catherine is the founder of the mom complex, designed to help moms and businesses better understand one another. good morning to you both. good morning. this is something moms can relate to. i want to start with you. the study at the university of toronto asked people how often they were contacted outside the work place by phone, e-mail, other technological things. how did they associate with guilt? they mapped both for men and women their levels of guilt as the phone calls and e-mails and texts increased. for men there was guilt for men. but it didn t change whether or not they were getting interrupted a little bit or a lot. but for women it was a different story. the more the texts, e-mails, phone calls increased, the more guilt they felt. it s interesting. when technology this kind of technology fist exploded i was a working mom and i thought, this will make my life easier. i can play with my kids but if something comeses in i can multi task, but it s made life more complicated. absolutely. it s really hard to find sacred time for your family. but you have to do it. a tip we heard from a mom is make the entry into your home really special. one of the things i do is i leave my phone in the car for 90 minutes. from 6:30 to 8:00 you re not thinking about it constantly? i am, but that s why i leave it in the car. i run back out to the car at 8:00 and i get it. but that time for maeal time, bath and bedtime is one time i don t share my family. if your boss was asking for that time you would be available. when it s your child you feel you have to do the work as well. we did a survey asking if moms felt guilty working on their cell phone or pda with the kids. 42% said, i don t have the phone near me and that solves the problem. like you re saying to create the sacred time. also, use elevated energy to your advantage. what do you mean? it s exhausting to be a working mom. what we hear a lot of moms saying is use your energy to minimize some of the guilt. one thing we hear is how can you think of your child as your boss, as you were saying. for example, if my boss asked me to work on saturday i would say absolutely. if my daughter asks me to read one extra bedtime story at night i often think, i don t have time for this. if my boss was asking, i would make five extra minutes. think of your child as your boss. it s interesting. we are not perfect, but it s okay. what s bad is the new good in a way. it is. i think a lot of what s happened is kind of a backlash to the idea of being a perfect mother and having to constantly escalate your mother hood to feel confident. more blagojevichoggers are sayi an imperfect mom and embracing the idea of being not perfect. is it a result of feeling guilty that you are bringing work into the home place? it has to do with a lot of things, but i do think that being able to say, look, i m not perfect and being able to take that in is something that helps a lot of moms get away from the idea of perfection. i love what you do. you take pictures of yourself when you re a good mom to remind yourself. i have so many bad moments that i have a rule that if i m having a good mom moment i get it on film. i went to my daughter s preschool class and i was the mystery leader. i walked in and handed the teacher my camera and said, let s get it on film. so i m reading, she s taking pictures. it s a daily reminder waiting for the next time i feel like a bad mom. you put them on your desk and look at them from time to time. and i say, i m not as bad as i think i am. i sent it to my in-laws saying, i don t travel all the time. do you think because of the guilt working moms aren t so happy? there is a lot of conversation about who s happier, stay at home or working. it cuts both ways. stay-at-home moms feel, maybe not unhappy but they may feel torn about their own ambitions and desires in motherhood. you talk to working moms who work outside the home and they fantasize about, oh, what if i didn t have to work full-time or part time. it s a little bit of the grass is always greener on the other side. but i think it s a matter of being fulfilled and like catherine said, just trying to find the balance. it s really difficult. yeah. finding that sacred time whether it meanses lea leaving the phon the car so you can spend 90 minutes with your family. thank you very much. the conversation won t go away for sure. thank you. if you would like to read more and participate in the survey of working moms, log on to today.com. up next, ben stiller takes on broadway. we ll talk to him about that. first, this is today on nbc. announcer: this portion of green week is brought to you by nissan. innovation for today, innovation for tomorrow, innovation for all. ben stiller is best known for his comedic roles on the big screen like zoolander where he plays a model who can t get enough of the spotlight. now he s on broadway playing a zoo keeper and a songwriter making it big in a play called the house of blue leaves. nice to see you. nice to see you, matt. big history here. you made your broadway debut in this play when you were 20. 1986? yes. your mother ann was in the same play when it debuted in broadway back in 1971. it was off, off broadway a place called the trucking warehouse theater. you remember rehearsals? i remember as a child, a little kid being around it and the playwright, there is a home movie of us going over the script, pretending to ask me for notes and i was 6. i have a feeling at 6 you gave him notes. i had some ideas. here s where it gets strange. when you were first in the play in 1986 you played the son. now you re playing the father. right. in the plot, the father has an affair with the character once played by your mother. ew. yes, ew. ew, matt. i wanted to explore those themes in my life. the whole oedipal thing? yes, mom and i are doing therapy. you re working it out? yes. jennifer jason leigh plays the role now. you re a little bit older now. a husband and a father. how is the schedule? it s a grind. we re still in previews and we rehearse during the day and then do shows at night it s crazy. i actually like the schedule. i m more of a night person than a morning person. so i like the idea of sort of like everything revving up for an 8:00 show. but it is you know, there are eight shows a week. ask me in a month. you might be i seem optimistic now. i like the fact that when i look at an actor like you and i was reading your movies grossed something like $2 billion with a b. clearly you don t come to broadway for money. if you wanted money you could have made another movie and done well. what s the reason to get back to broadway? well, doing a play for an actor is a great experience. it s totally different from a film. a film is done in little pieces over a long period of time. when you do a play, you do the whole you tell the whole story in one night. every time you go out it s beginning to end. it s a different experience and much more it s invigorating, challenging and it s really a good feeling to connect work with other actors. working with edie falco, jennifer and this great cast. it s very different. but it s good, very positive. i said as i introduced you, welcome back to the show, but welcome back to the east coast. you picked up the family from los angeles after a long time. yes. i was living in l.a. for 20 years and decided i had two kids and wanted some east coast experience. what s better about the east coast? say something nasty about the west coast. they love that. i love the west coast, too. don t be a diplomat. i love l.a. and the weather is incredible. you get used to it. i hadn t had a new york winter for 20 years until this year. you picked a good one. you live life here. new york, every day you experience people on the street. l.a. is more isolating. you go to your house, get in the car to go everywhere, all the cliches. it s true. my kids are from l.a. and i told my daughter we re moving here because i m from new york. she said, but i m from l.a. good luck with that battle. artists for haiti. we re on the one-year anniversary of the oil spill and it s a good time to remember other major events around the world. that s the thing with disasters that happen. the reality is as time goes by they leave the news and there is a great need in haiti. i have been working to put together an art auction, a major art auction to raise money to build schools. jasper johns, chuck close, jeff kuhns. and a lot more. it s happening in september. we are excited about it. that s good. a busy week for you, by the way. mom is irish catholic, dad s jewish and you have passover and easter. it s busy there. yes. and rehearsals and previews and all that. we are looking for matza and eggs. the traditional matza hunt. good to see you. the play is called the house of blue leaves. it opens at the walter kerr theater on broadway april 25. up next, kristen gore on her newnew novel and her parents separation. first this is today on nbc. five years ago the fbi re-opened more than 100 unsolved murder cases from the civil rights era. fascinated by stories the prosecutions of elderly ex-ku klux klan members became the backdrop for kristen gore s novel about murders in mississippi. it s called sweet jiminy. good morning to you. thanks for having me. your first two novels were comedies set in the west wing, something you know about as the daughter of al gore. yes. what switched your view to the 1960s murder crimes? i noticed articles about them five years ago when they re-opened them. i was fascinated. it struck me as an american version of hunting down nazi war criminals before they died. having grown up partly in the south i was really aware of what it can be down there, what we need to heal down there. so i just became fascinated, then mildly obsessed and the novel is the result of that. one thing led to another. before you wrote the novel you were talking to people who had either experienced hate crimes or somehow been affected by them. you discovered they didn t want to talk about stuff that happened in the past. several of them would speak to me about it off the record. their stories were heartbreaking, galvanizing and inspired me to do this novel. yes, i did interviews in tennessee, mississippi, louisiana and all of that fuelled the fictional narrative of sweet jiminy. what were they grappling with? it s still going on today. so there is a certain element of a lot of these crimes took place in very small towns a half century ago. there was an element that some people felt of let sleeping dogs lie, don t rock the beoat. on both sides. i assumed the victims families would want closure and healing. ultimately they, of course, did. but it s complicated, fascinating and important for our country, for individuals, for families grappling with the legacy. you know, we need to move past it if we can. i m happy that so many of the cases are being re-opened. you mentioned the nazi war crimes and the fact is people are dying. the people who experience it will be gone. it s a closing window, a ticking clock. we have this opportunity. i think we have a chance to have our own truth and reconciliation moment here. it would be a really wonderful thing to pursue. as a kid growing up in the south, in tennessee, at least in part in tennessee, did you have a clear sense of racial tension back then and do you still see it now clearly? yeah, absolutely. on both occasions, yeah. i think when you move between two worlds and you are astate of the unioned to what s askew in either one, there is plenty wrong in d.c., too, believe me. that s another story. a whole other story. i was aware of it, yeah. i think kids also have a really strong sense of right and wrong and ask questions and pay attention. being raised in a family that cared about causes and issues, you re naturally leaning that way anyway. everyday life, you soak it up and if something is off, you really notice it. i m shocked at what s going on still down there in the interviews i did a few years ago, people were running into a tremendous amount of hatred and prejudice. again, you can experience it in boston, new york just as easily. there is a beautiful picture of you on the book jacket by your mom. your mom took it. she s a wonderful photographer. how is your family? they re great. thanks for asking. it s great to have a talented in-house photographer. i get to benefit from that. they are doing wonderfully. we re a tight-knit crew. we have been and we are. we have this bedrock love that takes care of everything. i m grateful for that. it s hard to be in the fish bowl, especially when things happen in the family dynamic. to have the strength that you do as a family, i m sure helps you through those moments. i m grateful for sure. they are a good group. finally, political climate that you re seeing right now. you know about politics for sure. what do you make of what s going on in the country now? it s a fascinating time to be alive. we are facing so many tough challenges. everyone feels it, knows it. i believe good people are trying to tackle the challenges in the best way and i hope the spirit of that can rise above the partisanship that holds it hostage. that s my hope. hope springs eternal. absolutely. thank you so much. good luck with the novel as well. thank you. it s called sweet jiminy. we ll be right back with your local news and weather. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. funeral plans for a former maryland governor and longtime public servant william donald schaefer have been released. he will lie in state at the maryland capitol building on monday. he will be placed under the replica of the john shaw flag. he will lie in state at city hall on monday. funeral services will take place at old st. paul s church at are you having any joy? what you getting out of living? what good is what you ve got if you re not having any joy? are you having any laughs? are you getting any lovin ? if other people do, so can you have a little joy [ female announcer ] how does your next week look? why not get away on a cruise from baltimore? book today at royalcaribbean.com. now here is a look at the forecast with a tony pann. we will have a chance for showers and thunderstorms developing this some time after lunch. until then, high, thin cloud deck. temperatures will climb into the low eighties later on today after a cool start. thursday and friday, temperatures drop off by about 20 degrees. 63 for the high on the thursday. 50s on friday. chance for a few rainshowers in the afternoon. slight chance for a show or thunderstorm on easter sunday, but it does not look like a washout. thank you for joining us. we will see you back here at 9:25. bge s instant discounts got our homeowner to switch to energy star® cfl bulbs. 3-way cfls really click with my style. learn to speak the language of energy efficiency at bgesmartenergy.com.