Transcripts For WBAL Today 20110929 : vimarsana.com

morning. and final plea. attorneys for amanda knox delivered closing arguments in the appeal of her murder conviction as knox, herself, gets set to address the court. and matt is there, live, today, gets set to address the court. and matt is there, live, today, thursday, september 29th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to a special split edition of today. matt has made his way to italy where all eyes are on the amanda knox trial and a verdict expected any day now. is that right, matt? good morning. reporter: it is. right now the defense attorney for amanda knox is delivering his closing argument in a courtroom not far from where i m standing and boy is he painting a different picture than the one painted earlier this week by the prosecution. he is saying basically amanda knox is the innocent victim of a tragic judicial case, one that has kept her behind bars for the better part of four years. you ll remember she was sent to prison back in november of 2007 after being found guilty of murdering her roommate. this morning we ll talk a lot about the details of what has been said in the courtroom during this appeal. we ll also talk about the fascination with this case not only here in peruga and italy in general but in the united states and around the world. a little later we ll have a live interview with the sisters of amanda knox, but for now back to you. matt, what are you hearing about just when we can expect a verdict in this case? reporter: you know, it s changed a little bit, ann. over the last couple of days the judge was saying if the rebutals in the case are handled in a brief fashion this could come sometime on saturday, but in the last several hours we ve been hearing that this could probably drag over through the weekend and perhaps the verdict in the appeal will come sometime on monday, ann. all right. okay. thanks so much. we ll be checking in with you in just a little while. meantime, also ahead this morning a dangerous decision that could cost a swimmer his life. the man decided to ignore a shark warning at a beach in south africa and was almost immediately attacked by a great white shark. helicopters captured the shark still lurking in the water. we ll have the latest on this story coming up. we begin this morning with the terror arrest tied to a plot to use large scale model planes filled with explosives to attack the pentagon and u.s. capitol. pete williams is in washington with details. reporter: the fbi says this was an elaborate plot to attack the two washington landmarks and then shoot at people as they fled but the man accused of planning it was under fbi surveillance constantly. on wednesday agents arrested rezwan ferdaus in massachusetts, a u.s. citizen born here. fbi agents searched his house, accusing him of plotting for the past nine months to bomb the capitol and pentagon. they say he planned to use six-foot-long remote-controlled model airplanes, three in all, filled with plastic explosives. he wanted to fly them into the pentagon and the capitol. investigators say he came to washington last may and took a surveillance picture of the pentagon. the fbi says he thought he was meeting here with al qaeda recruiters who helped with his plot. what he did not know was that they turned out to be fbi undercover operatives. he actually had to borrow the money from them to buy the model plane and his airplane ticket to washington. he never had any explosives either. so the fbi says while he was deadly serious about wanting to be a terrorist, he lacked the means to carry out an attack, ann. what do we know about what exactly tipped the fbi off to this man? reporter: well, we re told it was a tip from a source. typically the fbi hears about people in cases like this because they brag to others about what they re planning or they make comments on internet chat rooms or send videos to youtube. all right. pete williams, thank you so much this morning for your reporting on this story that is still developing. it was another day of powerful testimony at the trial of michael jackson s doctor on wednesday as new details emerged about the singer s final moments with nbc s jeff rossen in los angeles with more on this, jeff, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you from los angeles. it s all coming out now, all the things michael jackson never wanted to get out, all the things he spent his entire life to keep private, how he lived behind closed doors. no question about it, the most emotional testimony yet of this trial, and it s only day two so far, came from michael s body guard who described the scene as michael died inside his bedroom and how his kids were right there watching and crying. in the weeks after michael jackson s death, she was the beacon of strength. daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. reporter: now we re learning just how brave paris jackson was. in court wednesday, excruciating detail from michael s bodyguard, what the kids saw standing outside their dad s bedroom as michael lay motionless. paris was on the ground bound up crying and prince was just he was standing there and he was just he just had a real shocked, you know, just slowly crying type of look on his face. paris was actually on the floor? yes. that s powerful testimony. the prosecution has a challenge in creating emotion in this case. no better way to do it than bring in the children and take away the propofol and medical testimony and make it about kids and the loss of their father. reporter: in court wednesday prosecutors revealed the chaotic minutes after michael stopped breathing, saying dr. murray didn t call 911. instead, he left this voicemail for michael s personal assistant. it s dr. murray. please call me right away. thank you. he said mr. jackson had a bad reaction. i don t know what you presume when you hear that but when i hear someone had a bad reaction i don t think anything fatal, me, personally, and i reporter: now the legal team is mounting an aggressive defense pointing the finger at another doctor whom they claim was also medicating jackson with demerol. he s the greatest entertainer in the world. reporter: the defense pointed back to that recording of jackson sounding incoherent just weeks before his death. i ve never seen nothing like this in my life. go. go. when you left dr. klein s office have you observed him sometimes to talk slow? sometimes when we d leave he would talk slow like that. reporter: dr. klein, who has denied doing anything wrong in treating jackson, has not been charged with any crime. how many hours a day you working on this case? every hour that i m not sleeping i m working on this case. reporter: charles unger is on conrad murray s defense team and sat down for an exclusive interview. a lot of people heard that audiotape and said what doctor in his right mind would continue to medicate somebody in this kind of condition? dr. murray s goal was to get him off it. you have these competing medications, demerol by day which is keeping him up and then propofol and lorazepam by night, which is putting him to sleep. that s a tough way to live. that s how michael jackson was living. it really was. reporter: he says michael jackson was $400 million in debt. and needed this comeback tour. but without sleep he couldn t rehearse, putting the entire show in jeopardy. he was apparently willing to do whatever he needed to do to find rest. reporter: and your contention is he would have done anything including giving himself propofol and lorazepam. without a doubt. and that combination is why michael jackson is not here today. reporter: once again, michael jackson s family, including his mother in court yesterday, expected in court every single day to hear it all. on the stand today another big day of testimony. four different witnesses, ann, including michael jackson s personal chef, the body guard who actually called 911 and is on those tapes, and the two paramedics who responded to the scene that day. all right. jeff rossen, thank you so much. savannah guthrie is today s legal correspondent and star jones is a former prosecutor and veteran legal commentator. good morning to both of you good morning. the prosecution is clearly trying to establish that the loss of michael jackson was not just the loss of an entertainer. he is trying to create this kind of compassion. i think when you have that testimony from the body guard who saw paris crumpled in a ball as her father lay dying if not already dead on the bed and you have the older son looking in kind of this stunned silence, it does create a very sympathetic view of the events here. as we talked about yesterday, michael jackson has a lot of baggage and people, you know, they have to remember this is a real person that died. but he is a dead father right now. yes. in the eyes of the jury. the children humanize him. it s been effective that way but at the same time the prosecution is also trying to establish that dr. murray was reckless and negligent. michael s personal assistant testifying dr. murray never even actually called 911. this has got to be a very damning bit of evidence. they are, the prosecution is very skillfully building a block almost like legos of levels of gross negligence and at any given moment you can find any one element of gross negligence from not calling 911 to leaving a patient unmonitored to not having the monitoring equipment to not having life saving equipment to asking someone else do you know how to do cpr. every single step, even goes back to ordering the propofol to his girlfriend s house not to an authorized clinic. you ve got gross negligence every which way you turn. what is interesting about it, though, star is right. the prosecutor is building this piece by piece. on any given piece of evidence the defense may have what they consider to be a legitimate explanation. for example the doctor could say i didn t call 911, you know, i was trying to attend to his care. i was trying to take care of him. there s always a legitimate explanation but when you add it all together, you add up the prosecution s pieces of evidence that s where you get a more compelling story of guilt. what about if you add up all together how many drugs michael jackson we re now hearing was taking? we just heard from this member of the defense team and the argument is going to be in court that jackson was taking demerol to be up and propofol to be down as well as his other drug called lorazepam to sleep. so what seems to be happening here is the defense is painting a picture of an addict, and that cld that be effective? it sounds like it could be. i think the defense is going to make a very good case for michael jackson was a working, functioning addict the day before he died. but the interesting thing is going to be the toxicology shows very clearly what was in his body at the time of the death and what caused his death. and that s why dr. murray is the only doctor that is on trial right now. no matter what dr. klein gave him in the days or weeks before months before, if that was not what killed him, that s not relevant. that s why he s not testifying. it may well establish that michael jackson was an addict but that doesn t necessarily absolve conrad murray of the duty of care he owed to michael jackson and that is the crux of the issue. to be continued. thank you so much. and now to washington state on another very serious story where a husband of a missing utah mother has now lost custody of his two sons, at least temporarily. nb reporter: the boys were taken from their father josh powell after susan powell s father-in-law steven powell was arrested on child pornography and voyeurism charges. today steven powell remains in jail as josh powell fights for his kids. the children cannot be safely returned home at this time. reporter: a judge wednesday ordered susan and josh powell s sons to remain in the temporary custody of susan s parents chuck and judy cox. the children, who had been living with josh in steven powell s home were first moved to their grandparents home tuesday. last night went well. the children are doing well in the cox home. there are no issues in that regard. reporter: the children were removed from the powell home after steven powell, susan s father-in-law, was arrested on 14 counts of voyeurism and possession of child pornography. he s pled not guilty. in court on the custody case, josh powell said he had nothing to do with his father s alleged activity. i have not harmed them. i have not subjected them to any environment or person that i believe to be even a potential threat to them. steven powell is accused of secretly videotaping susan and an unknown number of other females. do you want to say anything? reporter: including taking nude images of two girls from outside a home in a neighborhood. authorities say they re investigating whether josh was involved in the pornography case. and as they pored through 15 computers taken from the powell home wednesday they claim josh may have taken some of the pictures. mr. josh powell has indicated to the cps investigator that he does take pictures of people s legs in public without their knowledge. reporter: a claim josh denied in court. i do not take photos of people. i certainly do not take any photos of any person s body parts. reporter: the environment of the home has also been called into question. two of josh s adult siblings live at the powell residence including a brother with a mental illness. law enforcement has reported that the adult brother is schizophrenic, that he s answered the door to law enforcement in the nude, and that he s often naked around the home. reporter: josh has been ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation, and for now was granted just three hours of visitation on sunday. susan powell vanished in 2009 on the same day josh told police he took his boys camping overnight in a snowstorm. police have named josh a person of interest in the case. he s denied involvement in the disappearance. final custody is yet to be determined, and the boys could eventually be returned to their father. i m here for the best interest of my sons and i believe that in the best interests of my sons they should come home and be with me. reporter: in court josh powell said he would rather see his children live in foster care than with susan s father and mother. as for their part the cox family left court without making any comments. this deep-seeded family feud certainly shows no sign of ending any time soon. okay, miguel almaguer, thank you so much. now let s check the rest of the morning s top stories with natalie morales at the news desk this morning. reporter: good morning, everyone. the legal fight over president obama s health care overhaul could come to a head at the very height of next year s presidential campaign. the administration on wednesday asked the supreme court to hear its appeal of a ruling that struck down the central provision of the health care law, the one requiring all americans to carry health care insurance. now, this could open the door for the high court to hear other challenges to the overhaul as well. federal health officials are telling people who don t know where their cantaloupes came from to throw them away. officials say listeria traced to melons only from jensen farms in colorado may have caused up to 16 deaths and that more illnesses and deaths are possible in the coming weeks. wall street s brief winning streak came to an end wednesday with a triple digit plunge. cnbc s courtney reagan is at the new york stock exchange. good morning. markets will make another run today to restart the rally after we snapped a three-day winning streak on wednesday. at the forefront of investors minds today will be the final report on how much the economy grew in the spring, plus pending home sales and the latest unemployment claims. meantime, the european debt crisis remains firmly in wall street s focus as german lawmakers vote to put more money in the european bailout fund. natalie, back to you. courtney reagan at the new york stock exchange. thank you. thank you. a dramatic final day of baseball s regular season and two major meltdowns. leading by nine games earlier this month in the american league wild card race it was an epic collapse by the red sox. in a crucial game last night they lost to the orioles. meanwhile, tampa bay beat the yankees with a major come-from-behind win as well sending the rays to the playoffs and the atlanta braves had a huge lead over st. louis a month ago in the national league but blew that lead in the major meltdown of their own. so now it s the cardinals heading into the playoffs as well. 7:18 right now. back to ann and al. it was pretty crazy last night. i know. taking a champagne shower. al is here for the first check on the weather and we have weather to talk about. that s right. more rain in the northeast though up in boston those are tears coming down. so sorry, boston. joking. let s show you, wa-wa, we ve got this pesky low that just will not get out of here but finally will start to get kicked out but not before we see more rain, another 1 to 2 inches in parts of new england, unfortunately. also u.p. of michigan will see heavy rain as well. the rest of the country plenty of sunshine through the southwest. 103 in phoenix today. beautiful day in the pacific northwest. sunshine in seattle. 72. slight risk of strong storms back through the central great lakes and we have more showers through the southeast as well as good morning. we will see areas of fog this point and maybe some sun this afternoon. and that s your latest weather. now back to matt. reporter: al, thank you very much. the appeal of amanda knox s murder conviction is being held in a courtroom a short distance from where i m standing. her fate could be decided as early as this weekend or early next week. it will be a much anticipated conclusion to a case that s generated headlines and enormous curiosity all around the world. amanda knox entered court this morning like so many times before, but it could be all over soon. she s in the final days of appealing her conviction on murder and sexual assault charges. very soon she is expected to stand up in court and make a final plea for her freedom. since her arrest in 2007, amanda knox has gone from an unknown 20-year-old college student to an object of enormous international attention. she was voted the most fascinating woman in italy in a television poll. there have been marriage proposals, books, and a made-for-tv movie. i would never hurt her. my conscience is clean. reporter: italian lawmakers sent a letter to italy s president on her behalf. even donald trump weighed in on her conviction telling seattle tv station komo i think people should boycott italy. they shouldn t go to italy. reporter: the all american girl from seattle is often called angel face by the italian media. british tabloids painted a picture of a wild party girl with a dark side, a portrait her family has furiously contested. for years, knox has resolutely maintained her innocence, saying she was with her then boyfriend the night meredith kercher was killed. he was also convicted and is also appealing. knox s family has been unwavering in their support flying back and forth from seattle to perugia dozens of times. her step father and also her best friend even moving here to support her. the whole family is here right now, hoping to bring amanda home. i spoke with amanda s father on wednesday. you ve got a 24-year-old kid that s essentially fighting for her life and this is her last chance to actually tell the judge and jury that she truly had nothing to do with this horrific crime. reporter: since the start of her appeal, knox has remained focused in court but in the last few days she appears to be worn out and anxious as she waits for the decision on her future. as you can imagine, family members of amanda are very anxious as they await this decision in the appeal. coming up, we ll speak to two of her sisters, ashley and delaney. they just got to visit amanda person to person for the first time in two years. we ll talk to them in a little while. but first, this is today on nbc. people who observed the amanda knox appeal process closely and talk about what role the media has played. also coming up a man attacked by a great white after ignoring a shark warning on a popular beach, after your local news. osed to be following that fidelity green line? well, yeah, but it keeps leading me back to my old office. i think it might be broken. or maybe it s trying to tell you something. yeah, but what could it be trying. oh, i left my 401(k) at my old job. and i left a jacket on the back of my door. but i think the line is talking about my 401(k). leave a 401(k) behind? roll it over with the company that s helping more people reach retirement than anyone else. when it comes to investing, never settle. fidelity investments. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. city police are investigating a deadly shooting that happened in broad daylight outside an east baltimore carry out. police responded yesterday afternoon to find a man in his 20s suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. no word on a suspect or possible motive. anyone with information is asked to call baltimore city police. let s check on the morning, with sarah caldwell. definitely dealing with problems now. southbound j.f.x., if you travel on coldspring lane, we have an accident in their. delays stretch all the way back to the beltway. speaking of the beltway, on the west side, down to 13 miles per hour approaching the liberty to frederick. in the outer loop of frederick, we are dealing with a vehicle fire. we have another one coming at eastbound 32 at brokenland parkway. in howard county, two problems to watch for. that s give you a live view of traffic. we will start on the j.f.x., southbound traffic. you can see delays for my quickly forming quickly coming from the ramp to the beltway. tony, over to you. you can see on the traffic, is that we still have a little bit of a flock to contend with this morning. showers and thunderstorms are possible as we head through the morning and into the afternoon hours. sunshine will breakthrough for a little while, and that will destabilize the atmosphere. another humid day. high-temperature right around 79. i state tomorrow. up to 74. then the bottom drops out with temperatures on saturday. 50s for highs. 63 on sunday. 63 on sunday. 7:30 now on a thursday morning. the 29th day of september, 2011 as we take a look at some of the people gathered in rockefeller plaza on what appears to be a humid and slightly overcast morning there. we thank these people for stopping by. i m thousands of miles away in perugia, italy this morning where the weather is considerably nicer. ann is back in studio 1-a. ann, coming up we ll have more on the murder conviction appeal of amanda knox and will be speaking to two of her sisters, ashley and delaney. up until this week they had not seen amanda face to face in nearly two years. they ll tell us about that meeting, what they had to talk about, how she is doing and how their family is holding up with a decision in this case coming in the very near future, ann. all right, matt. thanks so much. also ahead this morning has the pressure to get into the right college become just too intense? a former student at a prestigious high school is being accused of taking the s.a.t. for at least a half dozen students and allegedly charged them up to $2500 per test. we ll have the latest on that story and also if you were at the beach and told a great white shark was just offshore, would you still go swimming? one man did and he was viciously attacked. we ll have the story coming up. first, back to matt in perugia. reporter: thanks. we ll begin this half hour with the latest on the amanda knox case. keith miller has been covering it for its duration and joins me here in perugia. good morning to you. good morning, matt. this is it. we ve now had nine months of the appeals trial and it s come down to a matter of days. today it was the summation for the defense attorneys and of course they declared that amanda knox is innocent. appearing subdued, knox joined her co-defendant at the defense table for the final day of closing arguments. her lawyers told the court, mistakes have been made. at the center of the appeal is the dna evidence that was used to convict knox and her former boyfriend of murdering meredith kercher, an exchange student from england. court-appointed forensic scientists determined the dna was unreliable, blaming sloppy police work for contaminating the evidence. attempting to paint knox as a victim, her lawyer said the most intimate aspects of her life had been revealed and attacked. she was overwhelmed, they said, by a media tsunami. with the prosecution s evidence largely discredited, it appears the defense tactic is to get the judge and jury to see the softer side of amanda knox. not the she devil character hated by the prosecution. still, predicting the outcome of this appeal is risky business. because she was found guilty once for something she didn t do you can t be surprised if it happens again because there is no evidence against her, because this trial has gone so well for us, you can t be surprised if she is let go. reporter: the knox family says it is not emotionally prepared if the guilty verdict stands, but sister deanna has already planned amanda s first day of freedom back home. well, amanda, in all of her letters, she tells me that she wants to feel grass, that she wants to lay down and put grass in between her toes and in her fingers and feel sun light. it s the little things that she misses the most, so we re just going to lay in the sun. reporter: this is a different knox from the naive young woman attending the first trial for murder. she no longer plays to the camera and gone is the t-shirt proclaiming all you need is love. friday will be taken up with rebutals primarily by the prosecution, but the defense gets another chance, as well, and of course everybody, matt, is waiting to hear from amanda knox, who will be addressing the court. that s right. keith, thank you very much. we re getting a little more on the timeline of all this. it was earlier this week said that the rebuttals and statement from amanda knox would happen today, perhaps early tomorrow, and a decision in this appeal could come as early as tomorrow afternoon. the court is now hinting that this could take through the weekend and we might not get a verdict until monday. we ll keep you posted on that but right now we re joined by two of amanda knox s sisters ashley and delaney. ladies, nice to see you both. how are you doing? up until this week you had not seen your sister face to face in two years. tell me about the meeting. what was it like? it was wonderful to see her. i haven t seen her in two years and it was just wonderful to give her a hug and be able to touch her in person. and, delaney, i think of you, you were 8 years old when this all started so for the past four years this has been a part of your life as you saw your sister this week how has she changed? she s become a stronger person and she s just she is smarter. she s learned more. is she at peace? i mean, there has to be enormous stress in her life right now as she sits in her cell and goes from court and back every day and knowing that this weekend or early next week her fate will be decided. she ll either possibly get to go home with you both or stay here for a very long time. does she talk about that? yeah, she says she s very anxious about her verdict coming up. she s very nervous about it because of what happened last time but we are also very hopeful about it. reporter: you both have been following this very closely, as much of the information you can digest at your age, you re 16 and 13. some very difficult things were said in the courtroom this week about your sister. how do you handle that? well, i just int know the truth about my sister so i don t think about it that way because my sister isn t like that so i just think of the positive. how about you, ashley? like she said, i know my sister. she is not the witch that everybody says she is. she is very loyal, down to earth, matt. i know, and everyone that knows her knows. i mentioned you hadn t seen her face to face in two years but you have been communicating. there are phone calls and she s been writing you letters. and one of the letters she wrote you, delaney, back on august 8th, 2011, you ve given me here. do you mind if i read a couple portions? she says it s almost your birthday. what are you planning to do to celebrate? anything with the family? what would you really like for a present? here i m doing all right. i m a bit sore since yesterday when it was my turn to do the cleaning and i was wiped out afterward. do you two when you re alone with your thoughts try to imagine what her life is like in prison on a daily basis? yeah. she doesn t get all of the birthday cakes we get. she doesn t get everything that we get and she s always trying to make the best out of every situation. she always has the positive. she always thinks positive. she asks us about how are we doing? what do you like for a present? amanda has missed three birthdays. what do you want? she doesn t like to talk about herself. she wants to learn about us and she wants to just catch up on things and ask us questions. obviously her mind is on the very near future. she says that i m thinking a lot about court in september, what i could say, what needs to be said, how to counter the prosecution. i feel like this will end well but you never know. i m afraid but okay. she is going to stand up in court and make a statement to the jury and the judges. what do you think she wants to say and what would you like to say about your sister that perhaps we haven t heard over these last four years? i think you ve heard it, that she isn t the witch that she is featured to be. she is a very loyal, simple person. if she has nature around her, she is happy. she doesn t need a whole bunch of stuff to be happy. she isn t a bad person at all. are you confident that you might be going home with her in the near future? yeah. i have my hopes pretty high. reporter: delaney and ashley, thanks. it was a pleasure to meet you, ladies, and thank you for being here this morning. thank you. reporter: we ll have more ahead in a little while from perugia but for now back to new york and al roker. thanks so much. a cloudy day, some showers. we had a lot of rain in central and southern pennsylvania yesterday. we had flooding. there had to be folks rescued by boat yesterday from pennsylvania all the way down to richmond, virginia. heavy rain. in fact, down in richmond they picked up 9 inches of rain. let s check out what s going on right now. out in the atlantic we ve got tropical storm ophelia and just to the right of that you can see felip. 60-mile-per-hour winds. if you look at the path, on sometime saturday and sunday it passes to the east of bermuda as a category 1 storm. closer to home you can see wet weather in the northeast and new england. slight risk of strong storms in the upper ohio river valley. western two-thirds of the country looking pretty good. windy up through plains. temperatures in the 60s. low 70s along the west coast. 80 degrees and sunshine today in good morning. we have some fog to start the day. variable clouds. got some nice friends from joplin. everything okay there? yes. our thoughts are still with you. now back inside to ann. coming up next, a cheating scandal as one of the top high schools in the country, kids are accused of paying a former classmate thousands of dollars to take their s.a.t.s. 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[ thinking ] the simple joy of being smart. happy birthday to you. happy birthday to you. happy birthday. happy birthday. happy birthday to you. and my wish is for a world with less cancer and more birthdays. back now with the s.a.t. cheating scandal that rocked one new york community and it comes as days before an estimated 700,000 high school students are set to take the grueling test this weekend. we re in great neck, new york with more. mara, good morning. reporter: good morning. the s.a.t. is considered the most important test a student will take in high school. here at great neck north high school the students are considered the best and the brightest in the country but this morning their community is feeling the sting of a scandal after six current and former students are accused of fraudulently having a classmate take the test for them. prosecutors say 19-year-old sam eshaghoff was paid between $1500 and $2500 to take the s.a.t. test for students. he is a graduate of great neck north high school and now a sophomore at emory university. prosecutors say he used fake i.d.s to impersonate the six students including one female at testing centers where the students wouldn t be known. the s.a.t. s top score is 2400. the national average is about 1500. eshaghoff scored well above that average. scores were 2220, 2210, 2140, 2180. what these six kids did was they took an opportunity away from every other child. reporter: four of the accused are already in college. two are still enrolled at great neck north. in recent years it has been named one of the country s top 100 high schools. if they have the money on hand and i guess they can, like have the opportunity, it s just not that surprising. reporter: while some students are not surprised by the scandal, others say the pressure to get into college is too intense. i feel it s really competitive and really hard. reporter: students s.a.t. scores can be critical for their future. i think the pressure on students right now to get into very good schools is really great. the students who get into elite universities have a better chance to get into elite grad schools which means they have a better chance of getting high paying jobs later on. so there is a lot at stake and they understand it. reporter: eshaghoff faces up to four years in prison if convicted. he has pled not guilty. his attorney says the case is not a matter for criminal court. even if something happened it happened within school grounds. it was when they were under age. the issue should be handled administratively within the school. reporter: the students accused of paying eshaghoff are facing unspecified misdemeanor charges and are not identified due to their ages. the investigation has been widened to two other area high schools. ann? thank you so much for your reporting on this story. coming up next, a man ignores shark warnings posted on one beach and ends up being mauled by a great white. the story right after this. 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[ male announcer ] with ge s most advanced cooking technology, the café line takes food further. back at 7:49 with a vicious shark attack in a south african beach that never should have happened because the victim ignored warnings that great whites were in the area. we ll go to london with more on this story. michelle, good morning. reporter: hi, ann. there were signs up saying, no swimming. the beaches were closed. but one man who was personally warned, don t go in the water, did. he was almost immediately attacked by a great white shark. rescuers raced from all directions toward the man on the beach pulled from the water with one leg gone, the other mangled. a man had been bitten by a shark. reporter: no one had been in the water but him. an amateur video shows the rescue helicopter hovering in the air while something hovers below in the water. the camera zooms and there it is an enormous shark, believed to be the attacker. this sunny day began ominously with sightings of possibly three great white sharks here. flags were up, cautions raised, beaches closed. yet officials say michael cohen, a 42-year-old briton living in south africa, insisted on going in. that s how quickly the warnings came viciously true. london s telegraph quotes a shark spotter employed here as saying, cohen never took any notice of our warnings. if he wanted to swim, he swam. shark scientists generally do blame people. as our populations have grown over fishing has limited their food. and we play where they hunt. typically in south africa in the summer months they leave the seal colonies and go inshore to feed on other species of sharks as well as other fish so we see them very close to where humans recreate. reporter: most attacks by far have been in the u.s. followed by australia then africa. this year 14 people were killed by sharks, three this month. in august a british man was mauled to death on his honeymoon in the seychelles. rare but fatal encounters at the top of the ocean s food chain. the victim, who is now stable, had been pulled out of the water by two people just passing by who jumped in while the shark was right there. yes weerks ha yes, we have seen shark attacks increase over the years as human populations along the coasts increase. they seemed to be leveling off lately. however, this year s 14 deaths, the average over the last ten years has been four or five a year so we are now at triple the average. scientists are still looking at the data, ann. we ll want to know what they find out. michelle, thank you so much. just ahead, a sister determined to save her brother s life and to do it first had to drop 135 pounds. this is coming up right after your local news. 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[ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. . 7:56. we have some delays an accident. there is one near seven appeared use extra caution. heavy delays on the west side approaching 795. 24 miles per hour on hours. the j.f.x. is a mess. with a have an accident taking up a lane. take falls road as your alternate. southbound 95 filling up quickly. we have a crash at president street. and eastbound 32 at broken land parkway. 295 pretty heavy. this is the j.f.x., southbound traffic. you can see heavy delays from the belly down to coldspring. this is 95. a long line of volume down to the split. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. we are starting to see some rain on hd doppler. we have showers around the eastern shore counties. we have low clouds and drizzle around baltimore. it will be war meant humid. variable clouds. a chance for a few showers it will be warm and humid. we have some changes on top. on top. cooler this weekend. rain showers will clear up on sunday. on sunday night, it will be chilly for the ravens game. beautiful weather early next 8:00 now on a thursday morning. it s the 29th day of september, 2011. another rainy day here in the northeast, but that hasn t stopped us from joining our friends outside here in rockefeller plaza. people are pretty happy to say hi to folks back home. meantime i m ann curry with al roker and matt is in perugia, italy, where we ll be hearing more about this murder conviction appeal for amanda knox which is now in the final stage. hey, matt. reporter: hey, ann. good morning. you re right. the legal team for amanda knox is presenting their closing arguments in court right now. we could hear from amanda, herself, late today. most likely tomorrow. it could be carried over into monday morning and then there will be a verdict in this appeal process shortly after she speaks. as you can imagine, her family must be extremely anxious. coming up, we re going to talk to a couple journalists who have been watching this process throughout. we ll get their take on whether they think amanda will be freed or not. ann? okay, matt. thanks so much. from here in new york, we re going to be hearing about a woman who was too heavy to donate a much needed kidney to her brother so made it her mission to drop more than 130 pounds so she could try to help save her brother s life. we ll meet her and her brother coming up just ahead. what a great story. yeah. and a consumer report on why you could be in for a big refund if you bought a pair of reebo reebock s popular toning shoes. first let s check the top stories with natalie at the news desk. good morning, everyone. prosecutors in los angeles are calling a key witness on this the third day of the involuntary manslaughter trial of michael jackson s doctor. they plan to question the first body guard to reach jackson s room the day the pop superstar died. prosecutors hope to show that dr. conrad murray failed to call 911 so he could cover up evidence that he d given jackson a powerful surgical anesthetic to help him sleep. a massachusetts man with a degree in physics is charged with plotting to blow up the pentagon and the u.s. capitol using remote-controlled airplanes filled with explosives. 26-year-old rezwan ferdaus was arrested wednesday in a sting operation after undercover agents delivered the materials he allegedly requested including what he thought was 24 pounds of c-4 explosive. federal officials say the public was never in danger. a federal judge says the suspect in the tucson shooting rampage can eventually be made mentally fit to stand trial. judge laurie burns issued the ruling wednesday after finding that treatments for jared loughner who suffers schizophrenia are making measurable progress and restoring him to competency. loughner has pleaded not guilty to the january shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 including arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. federal health officials say listeria from contaminated cantaloupes may cause more sickness and death in the coming weeks. so far the outbreak is traced only to jensen farms in colorado and it is blamed for up to 16 deaths nationwide. officials say if you have cantaloupes and don t know where they came from you should throw them out. now for a look at what s trending today, our quick roundup of what has you talking online. there s a lot of chatter about the state of demi moore s marriage to ashton kutcher. the stars reportedly spent their sixth anniversary on september 24th apart. this isn t the first time the pair has been rumored to be splitting up, but a day before their anniversary moore tweeted this quote from a greek philosopher. quote, when we are offended at any man s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. then you will forget your anger. people are tweeting a sad farewell to the beloved cross-eyed possum named heidi. workers at a zoo say she was left in very poor health due to age and had to be put to sleep. poor thing. amazon s challenge to the ipad has potential buyers comparing features online. on wednesday amazon introduced the kindle fire. it connects to the web, streams movies, and supports thousands of apps for less than half the ipad s price. it is now 8:04. let s go back outside to ann and al. thank you so much. al has made his way to another corner of our plaza. that s right. i found triple the fun. we ve got triplets here turning 12. that makes you 36 years old. what s your name? jimmy. and? louis. and? grace. where are you guys from? . very cool. is today the day? yeah. happy birthday. right? yeah. all right. guys, good to see you. let s check your weather, show you what s going on. pick city today, happens to be tucson, arizona. mostly sunny. kvoa, nbc 4, hot, 95 degrees. we got that upper level low finally getting ready to get kicked out of the northeast. not before it drops more rain. we re also looking at a risk of strong storms in the upper ohio river valley. windy conditions around the great lakes. plenty of sunshine along the west coast. tomorrow, more rain in the ohio river valley interior of new york, northern new england, showers move into the pacific northwest. heat continues in the southwest. mild conditions and plenty of sunshine in the mid-atlantic good morning. we will see areas of fog this point and maybe some sun this afternoon. and that s your latest weather. ann? all right. al, thank you so much. coming up next we ll meet a woman who had to lose 130 pounds to save her brother s life. that s coming up right after this. good morning! 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[ male announcer ] ask the doctor about once-daily nonstimulant intuniv. back now at 8:09 with a pretty unique weight loss story. kerry roberts dropped 135 pounds not for herself but for her brother. that s because he was in desperate need of a kidney transplant. he is still in desperate need of that kidney transplant, and she was too overweight to be a donor. so kerry and her brother, tony, are now joining us along with nbc s chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. good morning to everyone. you re diagnosed about six years ago. right. with this disease. it is called? iga. it is basically a protein that we normally have that fights infection but in this case it gets deposited in the kidney and starts a slow process of kidney failure. so you need a transplant. you go in and you re told what about why you cannot, when you went in, donate? well, i didn t go in at first. i told him that i wanted to be tested and he informed me that they wouldn t even consider me until i lost some weight. i was too overweight. because you were so overweight. yeah. now, you when someone loves somebody enough to want to lose weight for this purpose, that makes a lot was there fear that you might not be able to do it? yeah, yeah. but i tried to stay hopeful and stay motivated to try. i mean, how terrible would i have felt if, you know, i couldn t because just because i was overweight, you know? but you didn t even know if you were a match when you decided to lose all this weight. right. i didn t find out until april that i was a perfect match, actually. the fact that she did that, tony, means what to you? well, it s given me my life back, you know? just giving me back all the things i love to do and just feel very fortunate that i got a sister like kerry to do that for me. you know what is really interesting here, ann, is she couldn t have been considered a donor before because when you re really obese, that s enough of a strain on a kidney that doctors wouldn t have wanted to test her because they wouldn t have wanted her to just have one kidney left. but in an interesting way this has worked out, two lives have been saved a kidney life and a life that might have been shortened from obesity so it is really an extraordinary sort of doubleheader. in other words you helped each other possibly live longer, but we still have to wait for this transplant and you are hoping you re going to be scheduled next week? we re hoping to hear something tomorrow. and then have the doctors told you what you re in for? are you prepared? oh, yes. they ve totally prepared me. when i went through all my testing they walked through everything that i would go through and, yes. i m ready. okay. i think a lot of people listening, you know, can see you were highly motivated to lose this weight. but then how did you lose the weight? i started off just eating healthier. i definitely cut out any fatty foods, any high sugared, fattening sweets, and started walking a mile a day and eventually started walking two miles a day and three miles a day and now i do anywhere from three to six miles three to five days a week. tony, as you re watching your sister, you know, do this. yes. every day, lose weight for you, this must have been so emotional for you on a day-to-day basis. sure, yes, it was. just couldn t be more proud of her, you know. she s amazing. and so, dr. nancy, what are they saying in terms of if this operation is successful it will be. kidney transplants have come a long way. kidney transplantation has sort of led the other organ transplantation in this country. tony has been staying alive through kidney dialysis so three times a week he goes in. his blood is washed of all the toxins and a machine does the work his kidneys normally do for him. now getting one, good healthy kidney, that will take over. and the cool thing is for some wonderful reason god and mother nature gave us two kidneys and we re able to give one up and because they re a perfect match, i really do expect this to be an extraordinary success. wow. we can t wait for that. you ve got a smile and put a smile on their face as well. it s all going to be fine. you are something. you re both something. and we wish you every luck. i can t wait to hear what happens after this when you have this transplant. thank you. you re good sister. how lucky. you drew a good card in the lottery. thank you very much to both of you for being here and dr. nancy as well. coming up next, why reebock may owe you a refund if you bought their popular line of toning shoes. that s coming up right after this. when you spend more days than not separated from your own life. when the only thing you can be sure of is migraines with 15 or more headache days a month, you re living a maybe life. and you may be living with chronic migraine. but knowing that this thing you re going through has a name, means knowing you can find treatments that are right for you. go to mychronicmigraine.com to find a headache specialist. and don t live a maybe life. we d have to get all new appliances. we ll go to the warehouse stores and pick out everything you want. the sinks ringing. hello? 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[ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. welcome back to perugia, italy where we are covering the appeals trial of amanda knox, expected to speak to the court sometime today, tomorrow, or even early next week. a verdict just a couple of days away. so what is the mood like in the courtroom? we re joined now by an italian journalist and lawyer and an investigative reporter for king 5, the nbc affiliate out in amanda knox s hometown of seattle, washington. ladies, good morning to both of you. good morning. good morning. reporter: in some ways i am going to ask you to sum up nine months of an appeals process in just a couple of minutes, but give me your assessment. what s been going on? what s been going right for the defense? what s gone right for the prosecution? well, for certain, the turning point of the appeals case has been the new, independent report of forensic evidence and this has radically changed the atmosphere both in court and outside of the court with the media coverage. the forensic report mainly established that many mistakes were made and that a lot of the evidence was inconclusive. it seemed to me once the defense had chipped away at the forensic evidence the prosecution changed tactics and went much more in a personal character assassination. has that worked in some ways in your opinion? well, it worked initially, but these four years in court for amanda have worked in her favor because they ve seen her. they ve seen a student, they ve seen a large family here rallying to support her, her friends, and so even the prosecution has in its closing statements moved slightly from its initial description of amanda from the she devil, whip brandishing manic to also a student and a model prisoner. linda, talk about the role of the media, both the prosecution and defense having used the media selectively to get their side of the story out. do they continue to do that? has it been effective? i think it has to some extent. in the beginning of course when the prosecution was presenting their case that s what people were hearing, and it was a dark, tantalizing tale that captured people s imaginations. there was a lot of confusion. i think what people were waiting for in seattle was if this is all true, let s see that smoking gun come out at trial. and that didn t happen. in fact, it was the opposite. and when the forensic evidence came forward, when the super witness was discredited, people started saying, ah ha. and i think there was a lot of doubt that this all american girl from seattle could be involved in something like this. as the closing argument from the defense was being given in the courtroom this morning you were there. talk to me about the reaction from the jurors and the judge. well, i think significant point of today s closing arguments is that it s the first time that we see the judge not at o nod at one of the parties. which seems like a little thing to hear. maybe like i m agreeing. it does seem little but considering he is a casting vote and in case of a tie he is decisive because he has two votes. reporter: to put you on the spot and i hate to do this but we should have a verdict in the next couple days. what is your gut telling you? wow. well, my gut is telling me that the prosecution s case isn t holding up and if you follow the law and look solely at the evidence, i think they re going to have to overturn the verdict. i think as today knox s lawyer rightly stated, a lot of uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty only adds up to uncertainty. it doesn t add up to a definitive answer. reporter: so reasonable doubt. yes. i know people in seattle will really be watching this. i have to tell you that i ve been covering the news there for 24 years. i ve never had so many people come up to me whether i m at the grocery store or out on the soccer field and ask me about this case. they really want to know what s happening. reporter: thank you both very much. appreciate it. let s go back to new york and ann. all right, matt. thanks. if you own a pair of reebock toning shoes you could be in for a refund. the company has settled a $25 million false advertising case with the federal trade commission. it has to do with claims that the shoes help reshape your legs and your back side. nbc s tom costello has details. tom, good morning. reporter: good morning to you. this is big business. toning shoes are a billion dollar market and reebock has about 42% of that market. now it s pulling its ads and claims but not the shoes. in a 24/7 society eager to lose weight and tone up the commercials made it seem too good to be true. reebock easy tone shoes not only look fantastic, they ll help make your legs and butt look great, too. reporter: and reebock left little doubt where it was putting the emphasis. better legs and a better butt with every step. reporter: endorsed by celebrities like kim kardashian and eva mendez the shoes have been a big seller but do people believe the claims? come on. you re not going to wear those shoes and look like her. i thought the ad was absurd. and i don t believe the claim. reporter: turns out the federal trade commission didn t buy it either. it calls the ads misleading and deceptive. for the millions of americans who paid up to a hundred dollars for a pair of reebock toning shoes, reebock s claims didn t with stand scrutiny. their consumers expected a workout, not to get worked over. reporter: reebock has agreed to a $25 million settlement for customer refunds, but in a statement reebock says we stand by our easy tone technology. settling does not mean we agree with the ftc s allegations. we do not. reebock invited us to their secret testing lab to show us the science behind their design. reporter: it was two years ago that nbc s janice lieberman reported for the today show on reebock s balance ball approach to toning shoes. air pods under the ball and heel of the shoe. reporter: then the american council on exercise looked into it, even ran a study with the university of wisconsin at la crosse. there are essentially no differences between running shoes and toning shoes. reporter: no difference. reebock has now agreed to stop claiming the shoes can improve muscle tone and that means dropping the commercial. excuse me. i take it you agree. i think it was a little hard to focus on the claims when you re seeing what you re seeing. reporter: that wasn t intentional, was it? no, not at all. reebock s aren t the only toning shoes on the market but the ftc won t say whether it s investigating any other shoe manufacturers. the consumer products safety commission, ann, has complaints against a whole variety of shoe manufacturers on toning shoes. back to you. to be concontinued. thank you so much. now let s head to washington and say hello to mr. willard scott. got to wish my friends up in marshal, virginia, their little elementary school is 100 years old. how about that? a lot of education in that school. lovely people. happy birthday. speaking of birthdays take a look if you will, the jam jar spins about and you see helen haught, sistersville, west virginia, 101 years old. loves to play basketball. mae she could do some hoops with the president. how about that? gladys barkley of convoy, ohio is 105 years old, has keen memory, attributes her longevity to her love of god and family. family crazy about her and they take good care of her. we have mildred turner of woodland hills, california, 105, and she is very good at cooking. loves to cook and everybody loves to eat her food and she likes to keep her memory sharp and it is. there. good thing. wish mine was. john hand, wethersfield, connecticut 100 years old today. w w-2 vet and he loves to fish and golf and hunt. bring it home and cook it and have a feast. estaline watkins, redding, california, is 105. likes to write poems and also play the piano. but not at the same time. that can be confusing. oh, boy. this happens about more and more it seems. twins. lillian dworman and faye burke, riverdale, new york and north hills, new york respectively. they are twins and they are 100 years old today. happy birthday to you. that s it. thanks. love seeing the couples still together. that s so nice. just ahead healthier options to your live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. 8:26. this check your morning commute with sarah caldwell. we thought we get a break on the j.f.x., the accident is clear on coldspring but now a new one on 28 straight. we have delays from the beltway down to that point. average speeds around 12 miles per hour. a slow go on the north and west side. heavy down towards edmondson. a backup on 795 from approaching white marsh down to the 895 split. strike crash at essex. about 29 at st. john s lane, watch for an accident. traffic is not moving. take falls road as for all to them. delays on the west side. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. good morning. it is dry around baltimore. there have been a few showers and thunderstorms on the eastern shore. those have moved on to delaware. take an umbrella with you even though it is not raining at your house right now. the fog will burn off. it will be humid with a chance for a shower or thunderstorm. a nice day tomorrow. 74 on friday. 50 s on saturday with a chance for a shower. some nice weather coming up early next week. thank you for joining us. 8:30 now on a thursday morning. it s the 29th day of september, 2011. that s nikola shea, taking donations for education nation s school supply drive. there is just one more day left for you to get involved so if you want to head to our website at today.com for details please feel welcome to go there. a lot of teachers are spending their hard-earned cash on supplies that their kids don t have and that they need to learn. the average teacher spends $3,000 of their own money each year. and they re only making $45,000. really terrific. people are donating. we want to mention that nick is here because he is also cohosting our fourth hour with hoda coming up this morning. that should be dramatic. meantime i m ann curry with natalie morales and al roker. matt has been reporting from perugia this morning. we ll check in with him in just a little bit. with more on the amanda knox case there. also ahead, kids meals may look small but a lot of them are just loaded, jam packed with calories and lots of fat. in fact, david found one dish that is the same as eating 17 steak taquitos. you see them there. he ll give us healthier options coming up. plus we ll meet a 50-year-old woman who decided to follow her dream and go back to college. she s a bit of a slacker. she didn t go to any college. she went to harvard. and by the way, she s the mom of 11. she also runs her own business and she commutes from boston to oklahoma each week. so she doesn t really have much going on. i am such a loser compared to her. we ll meet her and hopefully be inspired. let s check the weather. i can almost feel a sprinkle. here in the northeast we re going to put up with a little more rain as we check out and show you what s happening for today. saturday we ve got more rain in the northeast. showers in the pacific northwest. heat continues in the southwest. then on sunday, sunday we are looking for some rain and some mountain snows in the northeast and new england. some afternoon showers in the pacific northwest. heat continues in the southwest. may get some monsoonal moisture and see a few hit or miss thunderstorms. sunny and cool in the mid-atlantic states. good morning. we have some fog to start the day. variable clouds. don t forget you can get your weather any time of the day or night. go to weather channel on cable or weather.com online. up next, kids meals packed with adult sized fat and calories. you have to see it to believe it including one dish equal to eating two bags of gold fish crackers. first, this is today on nbc. back at 8:35, healthier options for kids. take a close look at the kids menu at the family s favorite restaurant and you ll be shocked by the calories packed into some of the meals. we have the author of eat this not that and good morning to you. good morning. as a parent i m guilty because i see a lot of foods my kids are eating but 1 in 3 kids are obese in this country. we re dealing with a real epidemic and parents need to take responsibility. it is a real public health crisis. you have to not call it healthier food. call it foods that will make you faster or stronger or smarter or awesomer or whatever but don t call it, you know, health food. make it a quest not a drag. that makes all the difference. right. incorporate the child into it in this kind of ninja nutrition and it will pay off hugely. calories count for kids too as we ll find out. let s start off and look at meals from the popular chain restaurants from their kids menus, this time looking at four meals here, starting off with on the border, a very well known establishment. we ve got the kids cheese quesadilla with mexican rice. this is 1200 calories on the border of disastrous. my goodness. we re talking about 31 grams of saturated fat, almost two days worth for a child. that is crazy. so that ends up being the equivalent of these 17 shredded steak taquitos. disgusting. mexico is clearly mad at us for stealing selma hayek. you like to use that one every now and again. just dragging out the same old this one, if you re at on the border get the kids mexican plate with the crispy chicken taco. it s corn based not flour based and only 260 calories. you re saving a thousand calories. that s like one-third pound body fat just by eating that instead of this. much more protein in this, too. that s all carbs. that s 18 grams of protein right there. all right. let s move over here to another kids meal. this one is from kfc, kids meal with popcorn chicken, the potato wedges and the pepsi. so this is all deep fried. it s 730 calories worth of beige madness. you know, the problem with the chicken popcorn is it s just very little bits of bird surrounded by breading and grease. a lot of empty calories that will leave the child hungry again very quickly, the calorie equivalent of these seven chocolate chip waffles. so have a couple waffles and a third of that dish. exactly. at kfc what you can have instead is this grilled chicken drum stick with the mashed potatoes. kids love mashed and they keep the skin on for the flavoring and you re only at 210. you just saved 500 calories. a major savings. okay. over here we ve got the mcdonald s. now mcdonald s has done a lot to improve on their kids meals options i believe but this is the mighty kids meal and it packs a mighty punch with the mcdouble cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk. if kids are really mighty they should fight off this meal at mcdonald s. at 790 calories it ends up being the equivalent of these 18 slices of american cheese. that s almost like an entire package worth. wow. so at mcdonald s, which has a lot of nutritious options these days, go with this happy meal. it s got hamburger, apple dippers, apple juice box, it s 380 calories. no fries. and you re going to save almost 500 calories. again, it s a much more healthful way of eating and is still delicious. okay. next over here the cheesecake factory. they re not known for small portions as we all know. i still love them. okay. this is the kids pasta with alfredo sauce. that is taking a bath in alfredo sauce right there. yeah. this is a good meal for, you know, keate plus eight. this is 1810 calories. it has 89 grams of saturated fat, like a week s worth of saturated fat right there. don t do that to a loved one. the calorie equivalent of 775 pe pepperidge farm crackers. go with the pasta with the marinara sauce, it has antioxidents and is only 510 calories. you are saving 1400 calories just by not going with the cream based alfredo sauce. we have to watch the calorie intake. it all adds up. if this is just one meal you can imagine that is one meal that should be three over the full course of a day. a full day of eating in one meal without side dishes or appetizers or drinks in some cases. david, as always, you shock us. thank you. thank you. coming up next speaking of kate plus eight we have a mom of 11 running her own gym in oklahoma, going back to college at harvard. but first, this is today on nbc. education nation today is proudly brought to you by university of phoenix because we believe an educated world is a better world. back now at 8:43, this morning on education nation, inspiration for anyone who has put their personal dreams on hold to raise a family. we have one woman s remarkable story. good morning, janet. reporter: good morning. allison renault dropped out of college to raise, get this, 11 children. but the oklahoma woman is now back in school in a big way. the morning scramble. it s the daily race of getting the kids up, fed, and off to school. we need to make like a 16 slot toaster for me. reporter: hectic in any household they have a challenge unmatched my most. allison is the mother of 11 children, seven still at home. let s load. let s go. i need number seven, number nine, number 11 with me. reporter: it s been controlled chaos for as long as she can remember. endless car pools and decades of diapers but not a single regret that she left college to marry her husband, dale, and raise their family. when you start raising your children, you get very engrossed in their goals and you want them the best for your kids, so sometimes those things just kind of go to the way side. girls, hands up. pretty hands. reporter: as the kids were growing allison started working outside the home and now owns this gym in oklahoma city. it s beyond what most of us can imagine. 11 children, a never ending round-the-clock job, and then her other job, full-time here at the gym. but for allison, there was still something else the power of an unrealized dream. on a morning run the idea came to her. already back in college classes, could she at 50 cut it at one of the biggest names in higher education harvard? it took me a couple weeks to even call information to get their phone number. i thought, that is so far out there. that is not not distance wise but so far reaching of a dream, libra i didn t feel worthy to call them. reporter: eventually she did and look whose walking the ivy league now. it s a bit of a commute. oklahoma city to boston once a week. allison is enrolled in harvard s extension program and just three classes away from full fledged grad school. i think when you ve dreamed of something for almost your whole life and over 30 years and you walk on the campus, you walk through harvard yard for the first time, it s overwhelming. reporter: back home, it s nothing short of inspiring. seeing my mom have children and have a business and then go to school, it just makes me, you know, want to try new things and especially when i have a family to keep going after my goals. i m a renault. i m smart. reporter: something else she has taught her children for years? always finish what i start. reporter: she now shows them. but perhaps no one more than allison who is on a mission to encourage other moms that it is never too late for a dream. janet, thank you so much. allison is with us now along with a personal finance expert carman wong ulrich the author of the real cost of living. i m exhausted just watching that tape. you still have seven kids living at home, commuting 4,000 miles once a week to go to the harvard extension school. how are you doing all of this? well, i think you have to have good balance, a great husband, a great, supportive family. i do three things. i get up in the morning and i read inspirational material. for me it s the bible. then i head into the kitchen and i drink a spark energy drink and i say, allison, are you going to be a weenie or a hot dog today? which one are you most days? the hot dog. and i go run outside. and by the time i get back from my run i feel like, you know, my morning mojo is going. yeah. then i execute. i don t do slow. you say finish what you start as we heard the mantra there in the car with the kids. i don t let anybody steal my mojo. what motivated you to go back now though? it took you 30 years to get there. what motivated you to get back? i always promised myself when my baby was 5 that i would go back. it took ten more kids. i m not mormon. i m not catholic. i use birth control. and i guess i maybe i don t know what caused it but i was a really slow learner. you love your kids more importantly. carman, i think her story is such an inspiration. wonderful. for a lot of people who say i gave up my dreams when i started having my kids. i love my kids but i still have that part of me that wants to go back. how do i get there? allison said something interesting. life is really long but you get one shot at it and if you start having kids early you ve got a long life ahead of you and a lot of time to fulfill your dreams. the first is our heads may be in the clouds a little bit. i want you to bring that down to reality. see how can i really make this dream happen? first you have to say what am i going to have to do with my life? once that dream is real and you can see it, what are the hurdles that you ll have to overtake to fulfill that dream? there are hurdles personally. who is going to take the kids to school, practice, and to this? when are you going to sleep? when are you going to study? think about the practical things. how are you going to pay for it? what kind of financial sacrifices will the family have to make? in the end you have to think about what is the next step beyond the cost? where is that dream team that s going to help you fulfill this dream? you mentioned this, allison. you said a supportive husband, your kids are supporting you. if you can get that team together, i ve seen it when it is not a team and that can break things up. but also like allison, fantastic. get your husband onboard. get the kids onboard. get them to help you with chores, things around the house, financially. if you re making this accomplishment and getting this dream, but the family is in it with you too because you are a family. allison, you do have great support. you also had a benefactor, private benefactor who helped you finance the dream. that is important to consider the cost of what it is going to take to pursue that dream. that said i know getting back to the classroom is a little adjustment as well. how hard was that? it was terrifying. the first day i walked back into class i wanted to just quit. and i walk in the classroom and i am so old because everybody is so young. and everybody starts shuffling around and scooting their chairs and they think i m the professor. and then i sit down and they re like, what is going on here? and then the professors will always say, i have three students three children that were students at the university of oklahoma before i got there and they ll always say, you know, i have your daughter in class. i m like, yes. this is her book. there you go. i think the message is to just keep going. absolutely. thanks so much. allison, you ve inspired so many. carman wong ulrich, as always, thank you. coming up next we ll say hello to the beautiful and exotic creatures howling over there making all that noise if you can hear them. that is the screaming armadillo living up to its name. but first, this is today on nbc. harry little bugger, too. i will awaken you with a song. i will present your world, at a glance. i will remain untangled and uncomplicated. and let nothing or no one go unnoticed. all from one. all for you. i am the new rhyme by htc. only from verizon. we re back at 8:51 with today s call of the wild. this morning animals from all around. our guest from the national wildlife federation is here and he has some amazing creatures. hi guys. good morning. so listen, this is an alligator snapping turtle, the largest fresh water turtle species in the world. this lives in north america in the deep south, up the mississippi river all the way up into illinois. obviously you don t want to put your fingers anywhere near its mouth. hence the snapping part. these guys have a great adaptation. when they open their mouth, on the inside of the tongue they have a little appendage that looks like a worm and they sit in the bottom in the mud. you can see how camouflaged they d be and a fish swims right into their mouth going after the worm. you can t see it now though. it is getting ready to open its mouth. open it up. quite all right. how old do they get? these guys can live for decades. they aren t quite as long lived as the big tortoises but this is an old turtle. you would find these in the u.s. this is a kind of animal we have here. a lot of people don t know about them. pretty amazing. let s go to our next animal. okay. this is the screaming hairy armadillo. we love this. it screams and is hairy. we don t like it already. he is really, really cute. check this guy out. this guy, screaming hairy armadillo. here we go. can you take the battery out? this is what he would do if a predator was trying to eat him. he would make this noise. it s his defense mechanism. just like kathie lee came back from vacation. ooh. okay. here is a really special animal. a baby zebra. this is adorable. we are going to feed her. hi, buddy. so it s true the stripes aren t black when they re born? exactly. they re brown and that helps them camouflage. you want to feed her? just calmly there. hold it up so she can get all yes, when they re born the stripes are more brown to help with camouflage but the striping is actually a way, you would think this would stand out on the african savannah and the predators come after them but in a big herd it breaks up their sig w silhouette. a predator can t pick out one individual and it helps them survive. what kind of thing can they do to protect themselves from prey? zebras actually, you would think they would be sitting ducks for lions and things but they can bite and kick and they can actually do a number on a predator. all right. really cute. what s this one s name? ziggy. they do this for a while. when they re born do they have the stripes? they do. they re more of the brown color you can see on the back. beautiful. we ve got one for savannah now. yes. a great one for savannah. let s step over to the table here. oh, my god, no. yes. you thought frogs were bad. how cool is this? you have to admit this is cool. that s disgusting. these guys, obviously they re lizards and you can see it s flicking out its tongue. you want to feel the back? no. it is very smooth. not particularly. see? it s harder than i would think it would be. the scales. how did you find this? these guys are from south america. and so the tongue you can see it sticking out, just like a snake s tongue. they use it as a sense of smell. they stick out the tongue, they pull the scents out of the air. what does it eat? this guy is an omnivore so animal material, insects, small animals. savannah s fingers. lots of different reptiles are common this species, people release them in the wild and in places like florida they escape and become invasive. does the tongue always go like this? yes. just always goes like that. oh, my gosh. kathie lee is on the phone. one more. one more animal. this is the spot nose. she is going to do her little thing here. she is going to go back to daddy. what s going on here is that monkeys are social, right? so she lives in a social group and what she is hoping is to get groomed. see that? [ laughter ] now i m not going to pick off any paparasites and eat them bu that is what she is going for. it helps get rid of parasites and build social bonds. she wants a massage. does that work every time? it works for me. try that at home. come on, al. oh, look. get a little lower there. and still to come first your local news. live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. 8:55. police are investigating a deadly shootings that happened in broad daylight outside of a krispy king. please responded to the 1400 block of fayette street to find a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. no word on a suspect or a motive. motive. anyone with inf my fashion blog is about my personal style and things that inspire me. i like to think of myself as the voice of real girls. since i post new looks almost every day. i have to shop almost as often. t.j.maxx is great because i can score designer fashion. without spending like there s no tomorrow. that s what it s all about. fashion direct from designers. savings direct to you. i post for fashionistas. but i m a maxxinista. t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you. welcome back. after the fog burns off, we will see if you showers and thunderstorms. high temperature of 79. highs in the 50 s on saturday. highs in the 50 s on saturday. 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.