Transcripts For WBAL Today 20110705 : vimarsana.com

on the way. heir to the throne could soon be on the way. today, tuesday, july 5th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m ann curry. those seven americans have been in the waters for more than 48 hours now. they could still be alive because the waters in the gulf of california are so warm and so calm. that s right. it began early sunday morning when the boat with 43 people were caught in the storm. it took more than 16 hours for the first survivors to be rescued because many of them had to swim to shore. and they are telling some incredible tales about what they had to endure. we re going to have the very latest coming up. also ahead, the body of a young woman discovered 50 miles from where missing indiana university student lauren speier was last seen alive. why your diet soda could actually be bad for your waistline. but first, let s get right to this search for those missing tourists in the gulf of mexico. we have this report from nbc in mexico. reporter: the search for the missing has turned up little by air or sea. the mexican navy and the u.s. coast guard have pinpointed the sunken ship, but no sign of at least seven americans. sunday 35 people swam ashore floating out at sea. dehydrated, sunburned, exhausted, but alive. it was like a dream. it was like a movie. but we survived it. reporter: charles gibson was on the er ik, a fishing vessel, when it capsized during an electrical storm overnight sunday at 2:30 a.m. the ocean and sky were black. panic filled the air. the realization came when the ship lowered itself into the water. kind of like the titanic movie. i just remember the smell of diesel fuel burning my skin. we decided to swim for land, and it seemed closer than it was. reporter: like many, gibson swam in shark-infested waters for 16 hours. he clung to a cooler to stay afloat before he reached land. craig wong was lucky. he was pulled from the sea on to a small boat. we hope to continue to search, the search and rescue mission continues. reporter: the erik left saturday for a week long holiday expedition. sunday 60 miles to the south and 2 miles from shore, the boat was crushed by a series of 40-foot waves. the american fishermen had come to mexico for the legendary catch and for the area s unmatched beauty. but the ship s crew tells nbc news the captain was warned twice by the harbor master not to leave the pier. bad weather was approaching. translator: the port was closed. there were no ships coming or going. but we left anyway. reporter: less than a full day into their trip, the 43 aboard the erik would be in the fight for their lives. 35 men now share an unbelievable story of survival, but this morning at least seven remain missing at sea. miguel, thank you. charles gibson swam for his life after the fishing boat sank. charles, good morning to you. good morning. when did you realize that the fishing boat was in danger of capsizing? were there any warnings in advance of that? my roommate came in and woke me up from a deep sleep and said, charles, the ship is sinking. get out. that s when i realized there was a problem. in order to get up the stairs some of the crew members had to push and pull me because the ship was listing about 45 degrees. i made it to the top. i turned and pulled some other people out. there were some reports that the captain was warned ahead of time not to leave the pier because of bad weather. was that mood prevalent on the boat? did you feel the same way? i was not aware of it. what about safety gear available on the boat? how many people had life vests, as far as you could see? as far as i could see, everyone had life vests. you were with about seven other people who were hanging on to this cooler. and then you were separated. what happened after that? well, we tried to swim to a light we saw in the horizon. and after about three hours we figured it wasn t working because the light didn t get any closer. we decided to swim for shore. and we all got separated. and then for about 9 of the 16 hours out, i was alone. and during that time you had you had some pretty tough conversations with yourself, didn t you? well, i think it was a total of my life experience that i kept reflecting on. my family and friends and situations to help me continue to swim. i had to swim the whole time in order to try to fight the current to get to finally what i call the big rock. it was a big island in the middle of this area about maybe five miles from where i started. and when you were discovered, were you still alone? how much time did you spend alone once you were finally out of the water? was there any chaos around you? try to describe the environment you were in. well, the environment to get to the big rock, first i was thrown into some huge boulders and i felt my body crushing so i had to jump out of there in order to keep from being knocked out or killed in the rocks. so i jumped to the other side, which was kind of a more smaller rocky beach area. i asked the lord to kind of give me a hand to get to the shore. and suddenly a big wave came over and i rolled with the wave in order to get to the shore. and i rolled again with the second wave hit and i rolled with the third and then i crawled to the beach. and i took my life vest off and put it on a stick to notify people i was there. i found a corner and i slept. my body was totally exhausted. after 16 hours, you can understand why. you ve actually taken this trip before a few times. would you hesitate to take it again? yes, i would hesitate. i think we can all understand that. charles gibson, we re glad you re safe. thank you for sharing your story with us. thank you, carl. and now here s ann. carl, thanks. another major story this morning. verdict watch is under way at the murder trial of casey anthony with the case now in the hands of jurors. nbc s kerry sanders has covered this trial from the beginning. kerry, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. the 12-member jury got the case shortly after july 4th and they deliberated until 6:00. they re back at it again today. it s the eight women and five men who now must sift through hundreds of pieces of evidence and more than 30 days worth of testimony. do they believe, as the state claims, that casey anthony is guilty of the premeditated first degree murder of her own daughter caylee? closing arguments lasted two days. any way you slice it, any way you put it together, casey anthony is guilty of murder in the first degree. reporter: on sunday and on the july 4th holiday, prosecutors tag teamed to case, ripping the defense s claims caylee accidentally drowned in the backyard pool. if this truly was an accident in the pool, caylee anthony would have been found floating in the pool, not floating in a swamp down the street. reporter: in his closings fantasy searches, fantasy forensics, phantom sticker, phantom stains, all of this nonsense reporter: defense attorney jose baez argued the state s case that s nonsense. reporter: was flawed. let s make up our minds. reporter: the only thing he proved, he said, was casey is a liar. they gave you two weeks of testimony that was completely irrelevant and served only one purpose. and that was to paint casey anthony as a slut, as a party girl, as a girl who lies, and has absolutely nothing to do with how caylee died. reporter: but monday as the state got the final word, prosecutor linda asked the jury to remember, casey failed to alert anyone for 31 days that caylee was even missing. counsel suggested that the detailing of what ms. anthony was doing during these 31 days had more to do with the state trying to prove that she was a slut? did i hear that? reporter: and the state asked, why would caylee have duct tape across her nose and mouth, why, they asked, would casey s father george do that, as the defense says. people don t make accidents look like murder. reporter: as she wrapped up, the prosecutor played the words of the one witness who never took the stand, casey anthony herself. the phone call. reporter: calling home to her mother the day of her arrest. mom. what? no. i don t know what your involvement is, sweetheart. you re not telling me where she s at. because i don t [ bleep ] know where she s at. are you kidding me? casey, don t waste your call to scream and holler at me. no, waste my call from the jail? reporter: prosecutor linynn drane burdick aurtfully stepped away and the jurors had nowhere else to focus other than directly across the courtroom at casey anthony sitting there listening to that call. the final image left for the jury left to condition was this photograph that the prosecutor put up on a monitor. it is a tattoo that casey got just two weeks after her daughter tied. that s italian for beautiful life, bella vita. it was next to another photograph taken just weeks after caylee s death of casey out dancing at a nightclub. let me correct my math. it s seven women, five men, who are on the jury, a jury of 12, ann. kerry sanders, thank you so much. star jones is a former prosecutor and veteran legal commentator and savannah guthrie is today s legal correspondent. good morning. good morning. on this last point, aren t female jurors more harsh in a case like this than males? in my experience, mothers are always putting themselves and their children in the place of the victim and the defendant. conventional wisdom is that women are tougher particularly on female defendants. anecdotally people ask me about this case and i found that women tend to be tougher on casey anthony. and much more passionate. 31 days kills every woman i ve ever spoken to. that said, the evidence appears to be largely circumstantial. and after six weeks of testimony, we don t really know no one really seems to know how this child died. in my experience, as a trial attorney, i actually preferred circumstantial cases because i could build my story along. a lot of direct evidence, eyewitness testimony is unreliable, as you know. i much prefer to have this level of forensics, this level of complicity, and even almost conspiracy, to be able to playoff with in front of the jury. it works for me. and you don t have to prove how the child died. that is not an element of the crime. then does this not make for some chaotic deliberations inside that jury room right now? first of all, let me show you. nib-page verdict form and 26 pages of instructions with the jurors. first of all, they haven t been able to talk to each other about the case in the entire six weeks. they re sent back there with those instructions, elect a foer person. there s no how-to manual. how would you organize yourself. they say we took a straw poll at the beginning. where do we stand. i think they can probably dispense with the lying to the law enforcement charges quick. that s fairly clear. but they re going to be hung up on this issue of first degree murder and they have several different charges to consider. is that because the case can be made that there was a great deal of reasonable doubt in this case? the interesting part about this is, initially we thought, okay, premeditation, first degree, that s going to be tough to prove. but in the n. florida, with aggravated child abuse, there s an underlying felony here. if you prove that casey anthony committed aggravated child abuse or was in the process of committing aggravated child abuse say by putting tape on her mouth and chloroforming the baby in order to keep her quiet, that s enough to get you to murder in the first degree. if the baby dies as a result of those actions. and a lot of people say, it could come down to some jurors believing just that scenario and some jurors believing she did it on purpose. and one point about florida, whatever path jurors choose to take to first degree murder, they don t have to be unanimous. six jurors could think it s felony murder, six juror could think it s premeditated murder. a lot of the discussion is going to be about as we just heard at the end of the piece that kerry just did about casey anthony s behavior for those 31 days during which time she had not reported that her daughter was missing. which side made the stronger argument, the defense or the prosecution? i have to go with the prosecution in terms of it being indicatiive not of someone bein in grief but someone showing a guilty conscience. i thought that that little illiteration really brought it home for me listening as a lay person and then when you add the legal analysis to it, i think the prosecution did that. i agree. the 31 days are absolutely devastating. it s hard to come up with any explanation consistent with innocence, for failing to report your child miss for 31 days and then how about the 32nd day, we just heard that phone call where casey anthony gets on the phone with her parents. we re supposed to believe if we buy the defense theory that the baby drowned accidentally, her mean father forced her to cover it up. you hear her on that call and my initial thought is that is no victim. she poo-pooed it. when a girlfriend literally starts to cry on that phone call, she s in pain, worried about where caylee anthony is. and casey anthony responds, i don t have time for that. okay. can you please get me tony s phone number. it was really about her. it was never about that baby. and for a mother or father on that jury, they will remember that. timing of a verdict. fair to say it s been that it could take a while, not today? what s your thought, given the chaotic star, i know this is a fool s game to try to guess when a jury may come back. but it is a complicated case. there are multiple charges. right. i think they could be back there several day. remember, though, i covered o.j. simpson for you. we sat across from each other many times, and it could come back like that. it s nice to sit across from both of you and following this case. thank you so much, again, star and savannah. now, let s head over to the news desk with natalie moralemo clean-up efforts in the montana oil spill will be complicated today as yellowstone river peaks. george lewis is in laurel, montana, with the latest. george, good morning. reporter: good morning, natalie. you can see the rising flood waters behind me. yesterday it was down by where that white containment boom is. today it s risen about a foot or so. exxonmobil says there are about 280 people involved in the clean-up effort. they will be back today in force. meanwhile, the governor of montana, brian schweitzer, plans to visit today to look at the clean-up effort. and property owners here are rather angry. they want answers. they want to know from exxonmobil and from government officials how long it s going to take to clean up this mess, how wide spread will it be, what sort of lasting effects can be expected. and, also, what sort of compensation might they receive to make them whole. natalie? george lewis in laurel, montana. thank you. dominique strauss-kahn may sfas a new sexual assault case in france. he is accuse of attempting to rape her back in 2002. strauss-kahn says he will file a criminal complaint of slander against the novelist in response. the body of a woman recovered from indianapolis creek fift mi50 miles from wher college student appeared last month. john yang has the latest now from bloomington, indiana. john, good morning. good morning, natalie. bloomington police are awaiting a identification of that badly decomposed body to find out if it s the latest chapter in the mysterious disappearance. indiana university student has been missing for more than a month. 20-year-old fashion student disappeared june 3rd after a night partying with her friends. lauren s parents pleaded with friends to come forward with information that could lead them to their daughter. help them find their moral compass. they need your guidance and your strength to do the right thing. the window of opportunity in which lauren disappeared, just these three short city blocks, is so small is i think investigators would have to believe someone who had contact with her knows what happened to her that night. reporter: lauren shown here on a home video during a spring break trip to israel with her sister was reportedly last seen by a friend walking toward her apartment building at 4: 30 in the morning. for weeks thousands of volunteers showed up to look for lauren. as far as i m concerned it s not over until we find her. reporter: just last week police called off large-scale searches to focus on investigative leads. lawrence s parents, who live in the new york city area, has been in bloomington from the beginning. to the person who has knowledge about lauren s whereabouts, if you think that our determination is any less, it s not. reporter: this morning lauren s parents remain here in bloomington waiting. natalie? john yang in bloomington, indiana, thanks so much, john. it was a party last night from sea to shining sea. and the capital was star-studded concert rocked the national mall while nearby the president welcomed military families for a barbecue at the white house. and from the macy s spectacle here in new york where beyonce did a duet with lady liberty to the san francisco bay, dazzling fireworks took this year s celebrations out with a bang. always nice to see the celebrations again from coast to coast. it s 7: 20 right now. let s turn it back over to ann, carl, and maria. natalie, thank you so much. that s right. maria is here because al it is going to be a nice day in baltimore. we had a front go through last night and early this morning. humidity is going to be going down as we head into the afternoon. high near ann, back to you. marimaria, thanks so much. city ahead this morning, a mother and family put in danger with an ad soliciting sex online. police say it was placed by her ex-husband s wife. the alleged victim shares her story in a live interview coming up. but first, this is today on nbc. coming up, kate opens up in public for the first time about having a baby. 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[ female announcer ] nutri-grain one good decision. can lead to another. with real fruit, more of the whole grains your body needs, and a good source of fiber. nutri-grain can help you eat better all day. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall it time for a check on the morning commute. here is kim dacey. light volume this morning. seems like a lot of folks are taking an extra day off. one accident report in towson and center streets. otherwise, looking good on a major roadways. six minutes i-95 northbound between 100 and the beltway. we would give you a live look outside at the major roadways. top of the fallsway at our ford road. very light volume this time of morning. same story at 95 in the area of white marsh. 83 s s checking out ok as well. is going to be a nice day, weather-wise. there could be ran on the lower eastern shore counties for a while. 72 at the airport, 67 in parkton. humidity is going down as we go through the day. it will be a warm day, but fairly comfortable. high temperatures between 87 and 92 degrees. overnight, clear and pleasant. sixties in most neighborhoods. humidity will go back up tomorrow and thursday. as we had into the weekend, it will clear up. we will make it back to 92 on sunday. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information brought back in 25 minutes with another live update. morning, july 5th, 2011, after a beautiful 4th. it s another gorgeous day for us out here in rockefeller plaza. we see a lot of smiling faces, waving to people back home. even though it is actually a back-to-workday for a lot of people this morning. that s right. inside studio 1-a, i m ann curry alongside carl quintanilla. nice day? very nice, although i worked. i m sorry. anyway, it s nice to have you here. coming up just ahead, it is the first full day of deliberations in the casey anthony trial after a month of witnesses, how will the jurors decide which experts to believe and what s it like for casey anthony and her lawyers as her life hangs in the balance. a former member of her defense team is weighing in straight ahead this morning. also ahead. imagine being at home with your three children when a stranger shows up at the door looking for sex. it happened repeatedly to a florida mother. according to the police, the men were led to her by an online ad posted by wife of that woman s ex-husband. the alleged victim shares her story coming up. also this morning, on a lighter note, kate reportedly opens up about wanting to start a family. we re going to get details on that and also talk about why the duchess of cambridge is turning into an international fashion icon. do we even need to ask as she tours north america with her prince. let s begin this half hour with the casey anthony trial. and the first full day of deliberations for jurors kerry sanders is outside the courthouse in orlando. reporter: good morning, carl. as most americans were enjoying july 4th the jury was handed the case to begin deliberations at 12:09 if they deliberated until 6:00 p.m. and they re back at it again today. there were two days of closing arguments. sunday and monday. prosecutor jeff ashton telling the jury that they can reach no other conclusion, who else would have put duct tape over a 2-year-old girl s nose and mouth either before or after her death? and there was a moment that sort of stalled things. this is why it lasted for two days. prosecutor jeff ashton was seated there as the defense was giving its closings and he cupped his hand over his mouth and started to laugh. the judge pulled everything to the side, said that he was going to hold them all in contempt, but then moved forward. the defense then presented its case saying there were phantom forensics, fantasy forensics, there was no other conclusion that they could draw other than casey anthony is not guilty. again, the jury of seven women and five men are back at it again today. they have no time limit on coming up with a verdict. carl? kerry sanders, thank you for that. linda kinney badden is a former member of casey anthony a s defense team. i how would you say the defense has done in the close? very well considering what they had to work with. let s face it. she is hated. this woman is hated. linda drane burdick pointed to the fact of why you hate her, 31 days, tattoo, hot body contest. it s very difficult to defend somebody who has that kind of aura around them. then jeff ashton told the jurors that there are two ways to get to a first degree murder trial. you can go through premeditation. you can get there through some aggravated child abuse charge. that s bad news for the defense? terrible, multiple choice. six people can say this thing, six can say this. you can go to the death penalty, lethal injection, even if they don t agree with why. how do you think the death penalty weighs with the jurors? it s one thing to to bring a murder charge to someone who you know might be executed as a result. right. it s very heavy. i once tried a murder case and a juror had wet her pants on the jury because the death penalty is to weighty. when you re a defense attorney you pick a different jury. you may pick one that will convict but not the death penalty. it s a whole different dynamic in that courtroom but it s very hard on everyone. do you think prosecutors have done enough to bring a first degree murder charge? you can t get around the emotion. if the jurors can t get around the emotion and look at lack of evidence, they will convict her. emotion, whether it s been emotion from casey herself, emotion from george anthony. i wonder who you think the jurors will respond to more in the end? jurors generally respond to emotion. hopefully the defense has picked one juror that can say, hey, let s look at the evidence, let s see if there really is a cause of death here, let s see really if she would have murdered this child and put the murder women with the body in dispos disposal. there s a lot of issues if you take your time that don t make sense. that s what intrigued everybody. there s a mystery here. i want to get your take on the deliberation time period. first full day. if it takes a long time, is that telling us something about what the charges may be? for a very long time would be a hung jury. but if you just have a little bit of a time, it s going to be good for the prosecution. if you get to the end of the week it may be okay for the defense. may mean they looked at the evidence and taken the charges. remember, they have to decide whether there s felony murder, murder,ing aggravated manslaugh. we re all waiting here at a distance waiting for the verdict. right. as an attorney and even for the attorneys clients, what is this time period like for them? you can t sleep, you can t eat. there s nothing else they can do. the major defense team that was in the courtroom for the guilt phase has already hand it it off for the death penalty phase even if there isn t because somebody has to prepare. there is this feeling of i just can t do anymore, i ve done my best. one allast question. behavior of the attorneys. during the close there were smirks of some of the prosecutors to some of the defense attorneys as they were giving the close. do jr.s respond to that? here s one that appears to be a smile. jurors ldo look at the attorneys. but if the attorney loses credibility the evidence they present loses credibility. that s what you have to be concerned with if you re in a case. we re all on tinder hooks here. absolutely. thank you. as we move to get a check of the weather from maria la rosa, she s in for al this morning. narrator: today s weather is brought to you by california tourism. you can start planning your trip to the golden state today. california, find yourself here. well, california is beautiful but new york is gorgeous this morning. we have some cali 2k3wigirls he. love your home state? yes. of course. we have the cali girl there s. let s check out the temperatures. it s still going to be pretty hot here in the northeast, down the south and the southern plains topping over 100 degrees in oklahoma and texas. pretty nice in the northwest with temperatures in the 70s. we do have a chance for showers all along that boundary. you see there from the southeast and northern plains and midwest. watch out for damaging winds and possibility of hail, hot and dry in the southwest. we are going to have a nice day today. winds have shifted to the west, and that means that drier air comes in. comf and you can check out your local weather 24/7 at weather.com. carl, back to you. up next, a mother who runs a day care center accused of using a fake online sex ad to harass her husband s ex-wife. the alleged victim speaks out right after this. 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when the first person came knocking on the door. at that point i did not know what the ad said, so i was shocked that it had gone that far that fast. how many people came to your door? how many texts and images were sent to you? there were two men that came to the door, and there was numerous text messages, from at least six different men. you ve heard in this piece that the wife of your ex-husband has confessed. yes. why would that s the million dollar question. why would she do this to you? i honestly don t have the answer to that. i do feel that she has, from the beginning, tried to push my children out of their father s life. it s been a long couple of years with her harassing us in one way or the other. now you ve changed your phone number. yes. do you fear still now this started in february. uh-huh. keeping coming to your door? yes, i do. so what is your message then to her, given how unstable this has made your sense of security? it s absolutely appalling to me that anyone could put children in danger, but someone who has children of her own, runs a home day care, could do this. it s just absolutely appall iin. and i m shocked. you know, these are her stepchildren. she s supposed to care for them. and she s done just the opposite. she had total disregard for their safety. and that is totally unacceptable to me. i will not tolerate anyone endangering my children s lives. so to that end, then, what kind of punishment do you think, if she is found guilty of this, that she should face? i think she should face some time in jail. i honestly do. it s disgusting. it s hurt us. it s hurt the children the most. one of your children is 21 years old. i believe a son? yes. so he knows what s happened. oh, yes. how do you talk to your children about this, explain this to them? i explain that, you know, i m going to do what i can do protect them. that s my job. that s what i do. i don t know the reason why she did it, so i can t explain that to them. just tell them that sometimes people do bad things. and there s really nothing we can do about what other people do. we just have to protect ourselves. well, you obviously are becoming a protector, strong voice in protecting your children. yes. thank you so much for joining us this morning. thank you. coming up next, the latest stop on will and kate s north american tour as she reportedly opens up about her desire to have a family. that s coming up right after have a family. that s coming up right after this. a cer ] have a family. that s coming up right after twhere d you get that idea? how d you learn to do that? what d you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it s how our rough ideas become you did that yourself? so when we can save more on the projects tt let us fix, make, and do more. that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, get glentown oak laminate flooring just 68 cents a square foot. right now, get glentown oak laminate flooring hershey s chocolate syrup. stir up a smile. express hydration. the fast absorbing body lotion with breakthrough 24 hour hydraiq. absorbs in seconds. lasts for hours. express hydration with hydraiq. nivea. express hydration with hydraiq. you gotta try honey bunches of oats with almonds! it s got real, sliced california almonds with a third less sugar per serving than honey nut cheerios. wow! delicious! try honey bunches of oats with almonds! 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. every newly married couple faces the question, when are you going to start a family? that includes the royals. that s why a baby comment by kate on her canadian tour is sparking frenzy over their future plans. nbc s peter alexander is in canada to explain. peter, good morning. reporter: carl, good morning to you. william and kate arrived here late last night but it would have been hard to tell it was night. it was still light out. this is the land of the midnight sun. among their highlights here there s going to be a plane trip later this everyoning to a se clued wilderness lodge. but maybe the one headline so far is one comment made by kate first reported by a british newspaper about the wales family plans that has everybody talking. it was easy for royal admirers to ignore the wet weather on prince edward island on monday because, once again, and there was consensus on this, william and kate shined. in what s known as the birth place of canada their arrival alone was ceremony nous, riding down historic great george street. the royal canadian mounted police as their escorts, thousands of fans looking for a glimpse. kate s like they re so perfect. it s so nice to see them. reporter: later william took the controls of the canadian force s c-king. while kate snapped photos, the prince learned an emergency water landing maneuver called water birding. the duke and duchess of cambridge were not done with the water, going head to head in a boat race. image along reminding many people of this shot of kate four years ago that catapulted her back in the spotlight shortly after she and william rekindled their are romance. on monday after william s team won they seemed less like royalty, more like newlyweds. throughout this trip kate s star quality and sense of fashion has mesmerized observers, including a patriotic red maple leaf hat she wore an canada s holiday and a cream suit made by the same designer who made her wedding dress this spring. then there was that moment on sunday shortly after kate accepted a bouquet from a young girl in this quebec city crowd, one man wished the duchess of wales a family, she said, yes, i hope to. just four words, but the first time she s spoken publicly about having children. enough to get the tabloids buzzing about a possible heir. it wouldn t be unprecedented for the royal couple to have a baby within a year of being married. princess diana and charles of coursed a their first son prince william 11 months after they were married. you won t be surprised if folks in the country are boasting that nine months from now, a new one, was made in canada. holy cow. peter. that is true. would he be lying? peter, thank you so much. that s just i mean, don t you have sort of impression of what s the rush? it s been weeks since they got married. you want to advise them to wait? no, i don t want any part of this. no, but everybody loves a fairy tale. speaking of kate, the style sense. - - - i rea d an of an article online about how older people are becoming more and more antisocial, so i was really aggressive with my parents about joining facebook. my parents are up to 19 friends now? so sad. i have 687 friends. this is living. what!? that is not a real puppy. that s too small to be a real puppy. 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[ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. time for another check of the morning commute. kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. thinks of picking up quite a bit out there. the most serious thing we have is on westbound liberty road. fire activity. all lanes on left bound liberty are closed. only one lane of traffic gets by eastbound. old court road is your alternate there. coffered and center, charles and franklin street as well. anne arundel county, fire activity there to deal with as well. we have slowed traffic around the area. the scene delays on the topside. 29 miles per hour. life looked at delay. there is the outer loop backing out all the way from our ford to providence. the extra time if that is on york road this morning. 95 in the area of 195. it looks like that traffic is moving fine even if that is there. tony has a check on the forecast. at least the weather is nice. we had a front go through a couple of hours ago. dry air is starting to work its way in. humidity is going down. it is going to be a warm day. fairly comfortable. high temperatures this afternoon will be in the upper 80s and 90s. seven-day forecast through the rest of the week. scattered showers and thunderstorms. we should set up for it dry weekend. it will be dry friday and saturday and sunday. back at 8:25 with another 8:00 now on a tuesday morning, 5th of july, 2011. for most of us it s a back to workday after long holiday weekend. this people at the plaza have stretched their weekend out for an extra day. meantime, i m ann curry along with carl quintanilla who is in for matt. so nice to have you here. wow, the weather is terrific. 72 degrees. no humidity. wow. perfect day to come out. just a great day. we re going to be talking on this great day about will and kate, specifically on their north american tour about kate s fashion because that is getting a lot of attention. she s been receiving some high praise. what makes her style stand out? we re going to ask an expert coming up straight ahead. plus, if you exercise and you eat right and you still can t lose weight, the answer might actually be in our soda. we re going to talking about your choice of drinks and two new studies are highlighting the hazards of diet soda. is it finally time to cut all of them. all this time seeing people drinking diet soda. another culprit, shoes, especially during the summer, for women. it s causing not just problems wi our feet but also with our back. the lowdown on some of your favorite shoes, including somehow you can minimize the pain by your favorite flats and flip-flops. is it just for women or flip-flops for guys, too? i think men can extrapolate, too. are you a flip-flop wearer? all summer long. i didn t today but i was trying to think of the show. thanks for that. natalie morales is over at the news desk. good morning, carl and ann. good morning, everyone. foreign international fund chief strauss kahn may be facing new legal trobs troubles today, this time in france. reporter: with his wife on his arm, dominique strauss-kahn spent the holiday weekend a free man. the case against him falling apart in new york city. but now a woman from his past is back. tristan is a french novelist and claims strauss-kahn sexual assaulted her in 2003 after she tried to interview him. her lawyer says they are planning to file a criminal complaint in france today but she tells a french magazine for years, dsk held the reins of my life. and now i have the chance to be heard. strauss-kahn has denied any wrong doing and says he ll take legal action against her if she files. women are going to be coming out of the woodwork now to accuse him but they are going to be held to such a higher standard of credibility after the fallout from this case in the united states. reporter: prosecutors now admit the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault here in new york lied repeatedly and may have ties to criminal behavior. i think this case is over. i think it s just a question of when. reporter: strauss-kahn is free to roam the country without bail. as toing photographers drak his move, from takener at a fancy restaurant to a museum visit, and now a new accuser awaits for him in france. jeff rossen, nbc news, new york. the mexican navy is extending its search today for seven american tourists who are still missing after their fishing boat sank sunday morning in the gulf of california. at least one american was killed and 35 people were rescued. now let s go to wall street to nbc s courtney reagan at the new york stock exchange. good morning. good morning. wall street is a trading week with a momentum in overseas trading as well as last week s gains, the best in two years. investors are going to be watching the economic report this week. and looking specifically for signs that the recent slowdown is temporary and that growth is continuing. meantime, markets are await for president obama and congress to reach a compromise when it comes to a deficit reduction, as well as an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. natalie, back to you. courtney ray geagan at the n york steeks. thank you. quick round-up of what has you talking online. the secret service is investigating posts from fox news politics twitter account on monday that falsely announced the death of president obama. fox news say they were hacked and they deleted those tweets. vice president joe biden is show that he can deliver a message under 140 characters or less on twitter. they asked them to think about the troops on the fourth of july. maybe he just needed a new facebook picture. a rare monkey in indonesia is hot on twitter after snatching a camera from a wildlife photographer and snapping shots like himself like most of his facebook generation the monkey love seeing the his reflection there in the lens and showed off his pearly whites to prove it. it is 8:05. let s go back outside the ann and carl. most of the pictures were out of focus bu not that one. that one is good. thanks a lot, natalie. let s get a check of the forecast today. we have maria la rosa in for al. we have a couple of land lovers here enjoying new york city from michigan. perhaps your heading to the beach. we head to myrtle beach, south carolina, where we do have a chance of thunderstorms. 88 degrees. keep in mind that the showers and thunderstorms are popping up. area of concern though, the central plains and into the midwest for severe weather. that s where we re looking at the chance for gusty winds and maybe some hail. continue dry and hot in the it is going to be a nice day. humidity will go down as we head through the afternoon. high temperatures in the upper 80s an carl, back to you. all right, thanks. up next, kate s sense of style. the worldwide frenzy over her fashion 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there are 16 entrees to choose from, like our new chicken club quesadillas, made with fire-roasted corn guacamole and grilled chicken. chili s $20 for two express hydration. the fast absorbing body lotion with breakthrough 24 hour hydraiq. absorbs in seconds. lasts for hours. express hydration with hydraiq. nivea. back now at 8:09. with the world s newest fashion icon leading up to april s royal we ding a lot of talk was over what kate will wear. two short months later that obsession has only grown during her first ever trip to north america. natalie is here with details. good morning once again. good morning, ann. from her fest i fascinators to her striking food wear the duchess of cambridge is scoring high praise for her impeccable taste. with those dazzling dresses, this princess is making quite a splash. halfway through her first international trip to nrt america on lookers just can t get enough of her designer duds and style sense and sensibility. in glowing purple isa, in a sleeveless crepe by joseph, and she s even stylish in this everyday parka paddling on a wet prince edward island. crowds can t get enough. from the minute the couple landed in canada there was a frenzy to identify kate s dress. why did you want to be here? because it s so exciting. alove kate middleton because of her fashion statement. reporter: peaceful gesture to her host country the duchess chose not two dresses by canadian designer. we grew up with the monarchy. they still mean a lot to us. she always looks nice. really excited. reporter: princess catherine is scoring big points for being both fashionable and frugal, repeating several outfits so far. like this isa dress she wore on thursday. it s same one she wore the day before her wedding to prince william. on friday, canada day, kate wore this white reese dress with this hat, adding to the canadian patriotism. it s same dress she wore for an engagement photo. and then she wore a gray catherine walker, one of diana s favorite designers, on what could have been diana s 50th birthday. the old young are lining the streets to catch a glimpse of her. these dresses, kate inspires? definitely. would you like to look like her when you re all grown up? reporter: princess in a new role, newly minted in a world of pomp and circumstance, and poised to become an international style sensation. nbc news royal contributor spoke to peter alexander. the monarchy is able to reconnect in canada because of william and kate. there s an interest in this beautiful young girl, almost like the jackie o. of this generation. and of course kate will get to show off more dresses and her impeccable sense of style when she travels to america for the first time on friday. ann, we are counting down the days. and you better believe they re going to be watching her every move. apparently we will. zanna roberts is fashion editor for marie claire. good morning. has she made any mistakes? not that we ve seen so far. she s made so many different statements but always looked impeccab impeccable. and you say that she s been very smart about the designers she s chosen. absolutely. it s kind of political. she chose to wear a canadian born designer brought up in the uk. the perfect crossover of the two words, if you like. she disembarked the plane wearing this gorgeous dress. she looked stunning. she had this new hairdo. this is the moment of this is the reveal, this is what is to come. maybe it s something to come she s going to start really going for all these more kind of high fashion designers. meantime there s also a designer named gray catherine walker. the dress was gray, but catherine walker was designer. now, why was that an important choice? that was almost a very subtle tribute to princess diana. it was one of princess diane that s favorite designer fps day she wore it would have been princess diana s 50th birthday. it was a smart, subtle tribute to the late princess diana. who knew. interesting point. natalie just mentioned was this idea that she s repeating some of her dresses. as if this is sort of something that wasn t done before. that s the point is that women in this position would not repeat dresses before? no. that was considered a faux pas before? it was just not done as much. you know, you would repeat an amazing handbag, maybe princess di anna with the same bag but not wearing the same dress twice. for example, she s worn a reese dress, $400, she wore it on canada day with red pumps and then she wore it again, this is the exact dress she wore for her engagement photograph. so she s an everyday girl. she s been very cost conscious. she did with it the dress we just saw. she s tries really hard not to be too showy. there also seems to be this kind of michelle obama kind of effect here. absolutely, yeah. whenever michelle the first lady steps out, that s what people are talking about, what she s wearing, beyond her policies. but the point is that this is a kind of thing that s happening here. it s what we re known as kaitd effe kate effect, if you like. she can shift merchandise like none other right now. this weekend this weekend completely sold out in hours. you look at the dress she wore for her engagement, gone. the issa dress, the blue one, sold out in minutes. and they also launched thousands of knockoffs. so everybody has a version of this dress. so, what is happening here? i mean, is this sort of kind of manipulated by a stylist so that these things can be sold or are what we really seeing a young woman who just simply has wonderful taste making great choices? it s absolutely the latter. she doesn t have a stylist. she is being helped by personal shoppers at a couple of department stores, harvey nichols, hour, for this trip she refused to have a dresser. she said it would be a waste of money and she just brought her hairdresser instead. we can tell. but she had no budget for this trip and she s obviously just done it all herself. maybe that s the real reason why it s such a winner is we re all sort of seeing something that seems authentic. very genuine. meantime, she s going to be heading to the united states. what is your prediction about what we ll see. i m hoping she s going to be wearing fabulous american designers. maybe because she s in l.a., maybe borne and bred l.a. designers. maybe some fabulous great designers like michael kors. let s hope. exciting. sounds like there s going to be a few dresses sold out when she comes over. absolutely. thank you so much. thank you. and your good perspective on fashion. coming up next, is diet soda a diet don t? revealing new studies on no calorie soft drinks right after this. hear ye, hear ye! this 4th of july, celebrate the red, white, and blue with ocean spray cranberry, white cranberry, and blueberry juice cocktails. how did you wear this stuff growing up? it s so itchy. thou art not funny. 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[ male announcer ] feed everyone with a family-size tuscani pasta, plus five breadsticks for just ten dollars. only on tuesdays. only at your pizza hut. to your kids wet skin. new neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. today s small steps to a healthy you is brought to you by walgreens. there s a way to stay well. this morning on our special series small steps to a healthier you. is diet soda sabotaging our weight loss goals? if you want to keep slim and trim it might be find to find a better beverage. diet soft drinks could, in fact, be widening your waistline. today nutritionist joy is here with details. pretty concerning stuff. talk about first what the studies found. the studies found that there is an association between diet soda drinking and weight gain as well as elevated blood sugars which is kind of crazy when you think about it because diet soda doesn t have any calories and it doesn t have any sugar. so to think that it could cause weight gain or increase your blood sugars is kind of crazy. the industry obviously has a problem with both of these studies and they had some pretty vocal responses. absolutely. so we reached out to the american beverage association and calorie control counsel and they don t think these studies were based on solid science and they have some really good concerns. i m going to bring those up because the authors agree with some of those concerns as well. so the first one looks at an elderly population of drinkers who drink a lot of diet soda and track their waist scircumferenc, i love that. what was found? so both of these studies were conducted out of yooun university of texas health science center in san antonio. they followed 500 people in their 60s and 70s for about ten years. what we found are that the diet soda drinkers had 70% greater gains in waist circumference compared to people that never drank any diet soda. so what explains that? well, that s sort of the million dollar question. now, this study definitely does not prove that diet soda directly causes weight gain. and some of the issues and concerns that these associations put up is we don t know what these people were eating. so, in fact, it could be that they were sort of compensating from fattening food from all the calories. it was like the guy ordering bacon cheese deluxe with fries and washing it down with a diet coke. i can offset it with a little more cheese on the side. fattening food is going to pack on the pounds just like fattening beverages. but on the other hand, there is a chance that while all of these artificial sweeteners are causing some sort of upset in our normal metabolic responses. maybe elevating blood sugar, lowering insulin, having us crave sweets more so that we re overeating. a lot of questions but we need a lot more research in this area before we can draw a conclusion. a second study looked at mice and mice that took aspartane, or equal or another brand. this san interesting study. small sample of mice that were actually bre to be prone to have diabetes. one of the groups of mice, they laced their food with artificial sweetener. after a few months that group of mice, they were slimmer, which is no surprise, but they also had elevated fasting blood sugar levels, which shows you there is something going on. it s very preliminary research. it s also done on animals so we don t know if this is going to translate to humans. a little concerning. but you do think there might be some kernal to the studies we would think about. the bottom line is to try to kick the soda habit, the regular and diet soda. both? both. also to try to limit or minimize the amount of artificial sweeteners that you re pumping into your body from all areas. food as well as the diet soft drinks. and with that in mind, you have actually some alternatives. if this is sort of a staple of your beverage diet, there are lots of other things you can think of, too. right. right. obviously i m going to say water and people are going to roll their eyes. i do want people to know there are products on the market that don t have sugar, don t have artificial sweetener and they have a shot of flavor from natural sources. also the naturally flavored s z selzer waters are terrific. it s nothing that s going to cause weight gain in the sugar arena. unsweetened tea and coffee, add your own one to two teaspoons of sugar which is going to be dramatically less than amounts. even if you add your own sugar? no, because you re probably going to stop at two teaspoons, i hope. if you can imagine a 20 ounce soda, 17 teaspoons. joy, thank you very much. you could keep going. up next, how to avoid pain while wearing your favorite summer shoes. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. kim dacey and traffic pulse 11. we have the situation with downed on the j.f.x. fuel spill at north avenue. something we are checking out for you. in havre de grace, a crash on southbound 95 at route 155. on the other side, southwest of the beltway, just past 195, we have a crash there. we will have a live look in just a minute. anne arundel county, fire activity slow spots around de area we mentioned. topside of the beltway. 44 and 95. topside of the beltway, or four road. outer the backing down on harford road towards providence. switching to a live view of 95 in the area of 195, southbound traffic going away from us. nothing major in terms of delays. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. tony, over to you. it is monday right now, but the humidity should go down. 76 of the airport, 72 in parkton. mostly sunny, becoming less humid. a little sticky right now. upper 80s and low 90s. last week, scattered showers and thunderstorms back late wednesday to thursday. going to stay warm, with high temperatures either side of 90. into the weekend, better news. it will cool off briefly on friday, should stay dry on sunday did it looks like it will get one again. get one again. we will have another my hero! anyone can be a hero with the new captain america cherry coolatta from dunkin . america runs on dunkin . 8:30 now on a tuesday morning. the 5th day of july, 2011. it s a beautiful day. a really lovely day for our people out here in rockefeller plaza. we re glad that they made their morning a day on the plaza. meantime, i m ann curry alongside carl quintanilla in for matt this morning. we have natalie morales as well. al also has the morning off. coming up this morning we re talking about trouble afoot, according to a survey a staggering 95% of women will deal with pain if it meant that they would wear the perfect shoe. but is it really worth a lifetime of discomfort and what can you do to limit all of those aches and pains? we re going to get to that with dr. raj. she has good advise. my foot is numbing right now. is that a bad thing? it is. also uncomfortable money situations. for instance, what do you say to your child when they ask you how much money you make in a year, or if a friend owes you money, how forceful can you be asking for that money back? we re bog to talk about how to get out of those situations with dignity and grace as well. dignity and grace are all things we aspire to have. do you want fries with that? our own jenna wolf bk went back to see if she could cut the mustard at mcdonald s hamburger university. she s going to share her experiences just ahead. somebody s got to do it. it looks like she had a great time. before we get to all of that let s get a check of the morning s weather. and we ve got maria la rosa. good morning. a great crowd here after july 4th. we have some sweet 16s here. where are you guys from? ohio. they ve been friends since kindergarten. wonderful. happy birthday. whatever you have going on today, let s take a look at what we can expect for the weather. we have a chance for severe weather in that area in red from the central plains to the midwest, that s hail, damaging winds possible, more showers and thunderstorms across the southeast. sizzling heat continues across the southern plains tomorrow. that means temperatures in some cases over 100 degrees. we are going to have a nice day today. winds have shifted to the west, and that means that drier air comes in. comf carl, back over to you. larry: maria, next. coming up next, from flip-flops to flats. how to deal with pain and discomfort from your favorite pair of summer shoes. but first, this is today on nbc. [ female announcer ] keurig brews more than just hot coffee. now you can brew over ice for delicious iced coffee or tea. hot or cold, keurig is the way to brew everyone s favorite cup in under a minute. choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. narrator: today s woman is brought to you by new neutrogena sun block. back now at 8:35 this morning on today s woman, summer shoe dangers from high heels to ballet flats, even seemingly comfortable styles can make unhappy feet. this summer i m wearing flip-flops. jeweled sandals. i live in high heels. summer shoes, every woman loves them. i love the flops. they re the best. reporter: weather sky high, strappy, or unstructured, these styles can wreak havoc on a woman s feet. i wore flip-flops a couple summers ago and i got a staph infection because i had an open wound. at the worst, 20 blisters on my feet. the scars are pretty awful. i feel like every single shoe i ve had has had a horror story attached to it. reporter: designer styles and trends often ignore what s practical. the absolute hottest shoe trend this summer is the platform wedge, the higher the better. we polled the readers and staggering 95% of them said they would be willing to suffer some pain or discomfort for the perfect shoe. i have a pair of louis vuitton shoes. i spent $700 and they kill my feet but because they look so cute i m going to still wear them. narrator: it s not just ankles and toes that suffer. i m not a high heeled kind of gal. i run after three kids most days. i really enjoy wearing open toed shoes or flip-flops, anything airy, light, and comfortable. reporter: heather learned the t. hard way, even flip-flops can pose risks. last summer i noticed i had a lot of pain in my legs and lower back. this summer when i went to put my flip-flops back on i realized the same pains are back. so something has got to be wrong. it s going to be a tough summer if i can t wear flip-flops. i mean, i would be the only person at the beachwearing running shoes. my concern really is what can i wear? that s the question. well, today contributor dr. raj is a contributing medical editor to health magazine and author of what the yuck, the freaky and fabulous truth about your body. dr. raj, thank you so much for making me read that title carefully. nice to see you this morning. you, too. i guess i wonder if this summer we re actually more likely to face some troubles because i see that we re really moving to the platforms in a big way. we are. the styles are getting more painful for women. the platforms are getting so much higher. also getting a lot of bejewelled shoes, gladiator sandals, all of these things can cause foot pain. before we get to some of the things you have here on the table, let s talk about your basic tips. the first one i think a lot of people might find surprising and that is shop for sandals during the sandal season, the summer season, not the fall season. why is that? so the thing is, during the summer because of the heat our feet tend to swell so you may actually change your foot size and you tend to sweat a lot so that tends to get a loft friction. when you shop for the sandal it s during that heat so you know what your true size is. if you get a shoe in the winter it might be too small in the summer. please don t think you can break it in. that s a myth. if it doesn t fit, it doesn t fit. okay. and also you say shop for shoes made out of natural materials. right. when we walk our foot actually changes in shape. we need a shoe that has a little give, a little elasticity. so natural fibers like leather can really stretch with your foot as you walk. but very fake leather or a rubber tip might not do that as well and can cause a lot of friction and irritation. you also say during the summer months you want to rotate your shoes as much as possible. in other words, don t wear the same shoe all the time. right. especially this summer when we have studded shoes, things that night put pressure on one point of your foot you don t want a repeated pressure. rotate the shoe, it s not like every day you re going to have stress on one part of your foot. we have to make sure that we have all the different shoes that match all of our outfits. it s sometimes hard to rotate. let s talk about what s on the set here because and this is another bit of a surprise in terms of problems. you say that, for example, when you re shopping for a ballet flat, ballet flats can be an issue? yeah, people think, oh, this is the perfect comfortable shoe but the problem is you have, you know, a tight kind of elastic around the entire foot. and if it s too tight and not stretchy enough it can actually cause cuts in the back of the foot or the front of the foot. so you want to make sure it s very soft leather around that area, it s very stretchy, or you could even put a lining there, a soft pad to make sure it s not cutting into your foot. all the rage right now, these gladiator shoes. this is an example although this has a wider strapping. there are some that have very, very, very therein straps. very thin straps that go high up into the leg and can cut into the leg and cause pain. you can get some mole skin to kind of line those straps. again, these straps, you want make sure they give. what s nice about these shoes is it does have a buckle on it. that means you could increase the size of it if you needed to. if it doesn t have any buckle and there s no stretch to it, it s not good. we heard earlier about the flip-flops being a problem. what accounts for why, this woman was saying she has aches and pains in her legs. you would think a lot of teenagers wear these shoes. sure. this is the typical summer shoe. the problem is there s no support. your foot is whole time is krin crunching up in the toe area to hold on to that middle thong. that causes pain in your back of your leg and hips. the middle thong area can irritate the toes. soft, no sharp seams. okay. and finally, the aforementioned wedges, which are these are insanely tall. you would break your ankle if you just made a turn. you could see that they re very unsteady potentially because you re off the ground. all the weight is shifted to the front. this misaligns your whole body alignment. you have to be careful when you walk with these. the back strap is a good thing. you want to make sure there is a back strap, if not your foot is slipping and sliding the whole way. it s a set-up for falls and injuries. i once fell off a pair of flat form wedges like that in front of really cute boy. very embarrassing. your solutions are things like mold foam padding. where would you put that? put it on your foot. the nice thing about the mole skin is you can cut it and fit it to go underneath the straps, for example, in the gladiator samples. gel pads are good as well. these are temporary fixes. this is not a permanent solution. if a shoe is uncomfortable and painful, stay away from it. dr. raj encouraging us to look for shoes based on more than just cuteness and color. that s right. coming up next, how to handle embarrassing and often inappropriate questions about your finances. but first, this is today on nbc. back at 8:44 this morning on today s money. embarrassing money situations. we have all been there, whether it s a friend who owes you money or a curious child who wants to know your salary. how do you navigate those tricky situations. we have a personal finance expert and founder of ask it is themoneycoach.com. why does money lend itself to such uncomfortable situations? for a lot of us we didn t grow up talking about money in our families indeed, some families, say, listen, we don t want to talk about it with the kids, it s tacky or it s not proper or appropriate. many of us when we come across these thorny situations we just don t know what to do. we have five of those situation which we re going to talk about. the first one is, if you loan money to a friend and you ask for that money to get paid back and the friend isn t good for the money, what do you do? right. you know, it s a very delicate situation burks really i think that the responsible thing to do, the appropriate thing is to bring up the issue. don t avoid it. don t just sweep it under the rug. directly state to them that you do expect to be repaid. find out if necessary if they need to be to get on a payment plan. you don t want to come across like visa or mastercard here, but really the idea is to express your expectations to your friend that you do expect to be repaid and then also to say i really want to preserve the friendship here. i don t want money issues to drive a wedge between us. and you make the point that maybe the reason they re not bringing it up is because they think you want all the money back at once. that s right. a lot of people, let s say, for example, you ve loaned somebody 500 bucks as an example. maybe they don t have all 500 bucks and they ve been taking months and months to pay you back. one strategy maybe be to say listen, maybe you could pay me $100 a month and over the next five months we ll clear this up and the friend will feel like less pressure is on them. i like this one a lot. when your child asks you mom, dad, how much money do we make, how much money do you make? you know what, i ve been there. i have three kids. 13, 11, and 5-year-old. i think a lot of parents are really embarrassed about this question for one extreme or the other. in their minds they think we make so little compared to other families or maybe they feel like we re so fortunate we make so much. here s the thing that i teal people to do. do be honest with your kids. think about what s age appropriate. but if you have a teenager or middle schoolchild asking about the family income. use it as a teaching moment and explain here s what we make but at the same time give them context around it. talk about family finances and the bills and also ask for a little bit of discretion. say, you know, i ll share this information with you because i think it s important for you to learn about money matters. don t necessarily want you to broadcast this or to go talking about it with friends and neighbors. ask for discretion there. you re at a restaurant with a friend. the check comes to the table and they say, oh, let s split it, even though they may have had much more to eat. we ve all been there. we ve had these situations. they ve had five drink tors appetizer, the entree, the dessert. you can just simply say to the waiter, okay, sure, can you please split the checks for us and you ask for them to splis the checks based on your order. now, again, this is a thorny situation. the best of all strategies is to say up front to the waiter so that your friend will know, especially if you have a friend who you know is prone to doing something like that, we will be splitting our checks, please, and they ll do it up front. on the back end it s perfectly fine and appropriate, ask the waiter to split the check and they will do that. also at a restaurant sometimes you put your credit card down and it s embarrassing if you re in front of the group and it s declined. oh, my god, horror of horrors. if you re dining with family or friends and your card gets declined. really you might make the situation worse byes a es skes it by, what, try it again or it couldn t have been i have $1,000 extra limit on this or whatever. don t do that. simply say, oh, here, can you take this card instead, keep it low key. offer to pay cash instead. it might not just be at a restaurant when you re out with friends or family. this could happen to you in the store, even if you re by yourself at a retail store. you might be holding up the line because your card has been declined and now you want to cause a big scene about it. no, my card is okay. just pay with another card or use cash. take the situation down. and later circle back with the credit card company. to find out what happened. a lot of people may not be familiar with this one. but if your wages are being garnished for one reason or another, marital dispute, that can get touchy with your employer. that s right. because the court that issues the wage garnishment will notify your employer and have money automatically taken out of your paycheck. and what an embarrassment if your boss or hr person comes to you and says this is happening. the idea here is to convey to your employer this is a one-time situation, i m going to get this taken care of. express, you know, sorrow or sort of remorse that the fact that the boss had to kind of be drawn into this. but indicate to your employer this will in no way affect my job performance or my productivity on the job and just sort of deescalate the situation. it s embarrassing to deal with that in front of your boss but you can do it in a more tactful way. my ex is suing me. just take care of the matter discretely. up next, a degree you can really sink your teeth into. we ll pay a visit to hamburger university. but first, this is today on nbc. i do the cooking, the shopping, shuttling the kids around. i pay the bills, and i want to know i m getting the best bang for my buck. now, shop with your giant card and save on shell fuel. earn one gas rewards point for every dollar you spend. every 100 points means another 10 cents off at the pump. save 10, 20, 30 cents or more on every gallon. whether it s real deals at the store or gas at the pump, my card helps me save money, and that works for me. more savings, every time you shop, only with your giant card. most of us have tried a big mac, shake, and fries, but how many of us have had the opportunity to study them as well? well, today, national correspondent jenna wolfe went for some unusual golden arch training. big story here. believe it or not there is a school where you can earn a degree in hamburgerology. at first we thought it sounded a little far fetched until i actually went to mcdonald s headquarters where there s a rather unique couric lum that combines the books and the beef. the academic choice is yours. biology, business, broadcast did you cistudy for this but what if you wanted to major in burgers? welcome to hamburger university where the food is fast, the sauce is special, and if you can t take the heat, you know what to do oh, shoot. does it get competitive here? oh, yes. this is the one i started in. reporter: she is a hamburger u grad whose climbed the golden arches for three decades. today she s an executive. what s the goal of the university? the goal of hamburger university is to help our managers run great restaurants and deliver a great customer experience. reporter: hu is on the grounds of mcdonald s world headquarters just outside chicago. and this university experience is squeezed into one jam-packed week. the first graduating class 50 years ago had just 14 people. these days, thousands graduating each year. and with more than 32,000 restaurants around the world, there are six global outposts. managers travel from around australia, new zealand, to attend this course. reporter: at hu you have classes. will there be a test on this? homework. do you want to meet for study group at the quad later? and oftentimes chaotic simulated drive through lab. it s crazy here. reporter: where the fast food is faux food. here i ve made a bacon egg and cheese mcmuffin but it s not real. they don t waste food. and while it s not exactly a requirement, everyone here seems to know one infectious old jingle. two all beef pattys special sauce do all restaurant managers have to come through hamburger university? absolutely. reporter: so after my crash course, i went to work. i m really screwing up. making burgers the big mac is done winning over customers i charged this gentleman $2200 for a sundae and cooking up a little drive-thru savvy which puts a whole new twist on going back to school. wahoo! i love it. i want more customers. yeah, guess which day job i m not quitting. ultimately hu is a corporate training program and you do get your degree in less than a week but you can t simply apply to hamburger university. to attend you ve got to be in the mcdonald s family already. how about a little trivia. which today show personality is a former ronald mcdonald? i know this one. willard scott, right. you guys already knew that one. it s actually a lot of fun. i like the multi,000 dollar sundae, it s a nice way to boost your margin. $2200. prices have gone up. inflation. i thought it would sneak right in there. you learn a lot and leave this program and go on to become a manager at one of the various franchises. you always learn service with a smile. you do, indeed, and with calories. calories, too? yes. the whole nine yards. great smile. i m sure you sold a lot of burgers. thank you so much. and just ahead, from burgers to dogs, we re going to meet the winners of nathan s 4th of july hot dog eating contest after this. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. last night, fourth of july celebrations downtown were marred by two separate incidents of violence. the first happened just after 10:00. an argument between the two groups resulted in a man being stabbed in the neck. minutes later, a 14-old boy was shot in the late. we are told his injuries are we are told his injuries are non-life-threatening. the kincaids live here. across the street, the padillas. ben and his family live here, too. ben s a re/max agent, and he s a big part of this community. there are lots of reasons why re/max agents average more sales than other agents. experience, certainly. but maybe it s also because they care about the markets they serve and the neighbors who rely on them. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. now let s look at the forecast with tony pann. turn out to be a pretty nice day. humidity is kind of high. it should be going down as we head into the afternoon. high temperatures close to 90. mostly sunny it is the forecast. next couple of days, humidity goes back up again. showers and thunderstorms on wednesday and thursday. high temperatures either side of 90. as we head into the weekend, it will die out. try out. war on sunday. 92 on sunday to close the weekend. another update at 9:25