Transcripts For WRC Today 20091014 : vimarsana.com

good morning. here she is. you re looking at the first photo released of jaycee dugard since her terrifying, 18-year-long kidnapping ordeal came to an end. this morning a family insider tells us how she and her daughters are doing now. wild west. a major storm system packing damaging winds and heavy rain up and down california. accidents, evacuaons, mudslides and more rain on the way. we re ve in southern california. and zachary s fate. the school board makes a decision on that first grader who took his favorite camping gadget to class. will he be sent to reform school? we ll tell you what they decided today, wednesday, october 14th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. and in for meredith this morning, i m ann curry. good morning, everyone. a lot of people, matt, have been hoping to see this image, an image of jaycee dugard, looking healthy and happy. until now, we ve only seen her as that 11-year-old girl who had been abducted outside of her home in 1991, but dugard decided it was time to lift the veil. we ll have more on that and a woman who spent a lot of time with the dugards recently will tell us how they re doing in a live interview. also ahead, matt, a crucial vote in the senate finance committee on tuesday, the only health care bill with the full backing of the obama administration has passed. it got one republican vote, and this morning the woman who cast that vote, the only republican in either the senate or the house to vote yes in this current push will join us live. plus, how about this story? a ralph lauren model who is 5 10 , weighs 120 pounds, is claiming that she was fired for being too fat. was that really the reason? she ll join us for an exclusive live interview and we ll hear the ralph lauren company s side of the story as well. but first, let s begin with that powerful storm system that s pounding parts of california. nbc s michael okwu is in a neighborhood just outside of los angeles with more on this. michael, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. what we understand at this hour is that there are record rainfalls in northern california. there are reports already of some landslides and some 60 residents in the town of davenport, california, just north of santa cruz, have been evacuated from their homes. there s also been some effects in southern california as well. in l.a. county, some 12,000 residents are without power. the last time that there was a storm this intense in october, it was back in 1962, and some 46 people died during the course of that storm. it has been raining consistently here for the last six hours or so. the good news, forecasters say, is that this storm is not moving through here with the level of intensity that was predicted yesterday. however, residents are taking nothing to chance. you can see behind me that there have been these barricades set up, concrete barriers as well as tens of thousds of sandbags, all of it constructed to try to minimize this flow of runoff that you can see here. essentially, we re being told by authorities that the roadways are going to be treacherous. we understand that there s already been an 11-car accident in bakersfield, california, where some three people died. but the very big concern at this hour is the possibility of flash floods and also landslides, particularly landslides in those foothill communities in southern california that are located very close to those areas that were ravaged by last month s wildfires, the largest in l.a. county s history, and we are told by experts that those landslides could be as large as a football field and 60 feet deep. back to you. a worrisome situation. michael okwu, thank you so much. and with al on assignment today, the weather annel s stephanie abrams is upstairs with more on the forecast on this. stephanie, good morning. good morning, ann. let s look at what happened yesterday. san francisco, we saw twice as much rainfall in one day than we get for the entire month, but check out mining ridge, over 20 inches of rain. so, the big question is, how much more will we see today? well, let s have a look at our forecast as we head through the day today, and we do have advisories still posted, flood advisories, also, high wind advisories, as our system continues to progress eastbound. it is still going to leave in its wake plenty of bad weather for the day today. a very strong jet stream continues to push ashore. that s going to bring the wind and also a little bit of rain as well. so, here is a look at that forecast. in the west we are going to see more of these showers and snow into the higher elevations. this is where a lot of the rain will be located, but also, showers into the south. we have more on that story coming up later. matt? all right, thanks so much, stephanie. i ll take it. it is now 7:04. here s matt. all right, ann, thank you very much. now to washington and that important hurdle cleared on tuesday for a bill that would overhaul the u.s. health care system. we re going to talk live to maine senator olympia snowe, the lone republican to support that measure, in a mome. but first, nbc s chief white house correspondent chuck todd has the latest. chuck, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. well, the president s push for health care hasn t been the smoothest process over the last few months, but tuesday a big booster shot of confidence. we are now closer than ever before to passing health reform. reporter: president obama s push for health care got renewed momentum tuesday when the most influential senate committee passed a health care bill that included something the others didn t, a republican supporter. i do it with reservations. reporter: but a yes vote is a yes vote, and the president noticed. and i want to particularly thank senator olympia snowe for both the political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she s demonstrated throughout this process. reporter: but the president admitted the obvious. there s still significant details and disagreements. reporter: and those disagreements between the house and two different bills in the senate still have to be worked out, and they are very different. on cost, the senate finance bill would total $829 billion. the senate health committee bill $645 billion. and a house version, more than $1.2 trillion. on the deficit, the senate finance bill subtracts $81 billion, but the other two bills add to the deficit. on coverage, the senate finance insures 25 million of the uninsured. senate health gets the number up to 34 million. but the house bill only covers 17 million. the most politically sensitive negotiation will involve the so-called public option, a government-run health plan. the white house is non-committal. he strongly believes in it, but if there s another way to achieve it senator snowe has the idea of a trigger people have to look at that. reporter: other than snowe, republicans are united against any of the current versions. this package is going in the wrong direction. it will cause health care premiums for millions to go up, not down. reporter: which is why the end game for the white house is about keeping together a fragile coalition of 60 democratic senators and 1 republican. i believe the bill before us still falls short. my vote today is my vote today. it doesn t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow. i never count chickens before they re hatched. reporter: now, matt, the insurance industry is fighting back. they re up with tv advertisements targeting some of thes conservative democrats who could waiver in places like louisiana, colorado, new mexico. by the way, the full senate is expected to begin debating a full bill the week of october 26th. matt? thank you, chuck todd at the white house. maine s olympia snowe is with us now. good morning. good morning, matt. as we sit here this morning, you are the only republican in either the house or senate to cast a yes vote in the current push for health care reform. it begs the obvious question, are you right or are all of your republican colleagues right on this? well, not necessarily that i m all right. i think it s a question of working through this issue to make it happen and incorporating the od ideas, and republicans have good ideas, and hopefully, the democrats will incorporate those good ideas, because it s not about who s giving them. it s a question whether or not it s going to work, and that s how i view the legislative process. we have a responsibility to get our job done, solve the problems for the american people. that s what i feel is my obligation. that s what maine people expect me to do and that s what i set out to do. so, i look at the issue. it s not a question who s presenting the issue but whether or not it can work, and that s the premise. chuck todd laid out some of the differences and the details that still stand in the way of final passage of health care reform. when you spoke to the finance committee on tuesday, you said the following is this bill all that i would want? far from it. is it all that it can be? no. but when history calls, history calls. you went on to say that your yes vote now does not necessarily mean you ll vote yes in the future. so what one element, what one aspect is most likely to get you to change your vote from a yes to a no? too much government intrusion and too many costs that would expand the cost of the bill as it stands today. obviously, a public option would be deeply troubling, because it is governmental intrusion, create a vast new bureaucracy let me jump inthere, because the finance committee version did not contain a public option. correct. but other versions of bills out of other committees have included it in some form. can you not accept it in any form, senator snowe? well, i recommended to the president actually back last spring the idea of a trigger. that in the ent that affordable plans don t materialize for people in any given area of the country, a safety net of a government option would kick in immediately, similar to what we did in the prescription drug program under medicare. in fact, never had to utilize the fallback because there was so much competition, which is what we expect would emerge from this bill. let me ask you about repercussions from this. when the president talked about your political courage, there are often repercussions for that kind of courage, especially within your own party. is it likely, fe#ieñ example,ha your republican colleagues on the commerce committee might vote against you to take the top minority leadership spot on that committee as the result of this vote? well, i have no reason to believe that. you know, i ve heard those rumors, but i ve had very constructive conversations with mitch mcconnell, the minority leader and other colleagues. you know, i have to focus on what s right, so i haven t been threatened in any way. my job is to do my job. and you know, that s what i do every day, and i have to think about what s in the best interests of this country and my constituency and to move ahead. perks are what gets me up every day, perks of the office. it s solving the problem, frankly. when you said yesterday, when history calls, history calls if no other republicans cross over and vote on this, are they, then, in your opinion, in some way ignoring history some. i view it as history. it s a historic endeavor, and by everyone s measurement, it is. the last century was riddled with failed attempts, and i think right now, given the historic rise in health care costs, it s on the short-term horizon that we re going to have a serious crisis. we can t turn this around on a dime. that s why i made the analogy to the titanic. it s like turning the titanic around before it hits the iceberg. that s the situation that we re finding ourselves in today with rising health care costs. it s going to put the health care system in a death spiral. we know that. it s putting it out of reach for americans and for employers, and they re desperate for change and we have to make that change, and it s up to us to do it. so, immaterial of everything else that goes on here every day in the political realm, my job is to focus on doing what s right and crafting the best policy. it doesn t happen immediately, matt, but i think that we have to demonstrate the patience to get it done, and i think we ve lost the craft of legislative work here and crafting the best legislation, and we ve got to return to that and give it the patience and the commitment that it deserves. okay. that s why i appreciate the president s work on this as well and the chairman of the senate finance committee and senator grassley. everybody worked hard, irrespective of the differences. all right, senator snowe. it s nice for you to spend time with us this morning. we appreciate it. thank you, matt. okay. let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories from natalie morales, who s in for me at th news desk. good morning, natalie. good morning, everyone. today the president holds a national security meeting to talk about afghanistan and pakistan. he s still considering whether to send more troops to afghanistan. wrapping up her visit to moscow, secretary of state clinton today told university students that russia must uphold human rights and defend freedom. ford s biggest recall just got bigger. they re adding 4.5 million more vehicles to the recall list because of a defective cruise control switch that can cause a fire. the recall includes the windstar minivans, the excursions, the f-super duty diesel trucks, econoline, explorer, mercury, ranger and some motorhomes. trish regan is at the new york stock exchange for us this morning. trish, what are we watching for today? good morning, natalie. investors are really hoping for a close above 10,000 on the dow. in fact, i ve seen some of those dow 10,000 again hats making the rounds on the floor of the exchange recently. so, we ll see whether or not it happens. most of it depends on earnings. we did get some positive news out of intel that should help strengthen things. also, they re going to be keeping an eye on the retail sector, thanks to that economic news out today. finally, watching the weak dollar. it s actually having a big effect on oil, causing it to go higher. natalie. trish regan at the new york stock exchange, thank you. an important study for parents. researchers in britain say sleeping in bed with an infant is a major factor in sids deaths. the study found that 54% of cases of sudden infant death in southwest england occurred when a parent fell asleep with a baby on the same bed or couch, especially if the parent had used drugs or alcohol. and california governor arnold schwarzenegger is promising what he calls swift action after tmz.com posted photos and video of his wife, maria shriver, holding her cell phone while driving. a 2008 law signed by her husband bans the use of handheld phones behind the wheel. the governor says he ll talk to his wife about that. uh-oh. 7:14 right now. let s turn it back over to matt, ann and stephanie. she s been doing a lot of work on this for nbc news, so it could be our fault. we could have been the producers. could have been our fault. maria s going to be here monday, by the way, and has some splainin to do. more on the forecast now from stephanie abrams. good morning. we re talking a lot about the ra in california, but we need to focus on the south now, because that is where we do hav# . good morning. cloudy and chilly. we are in the 40s all around the region except off to our west and north in the 30s. recently, i visit the john t. baker school on career day. all these students interested in weather and broadcasting. i had a terrific time. i want to thank cindy lois and kathy her man for the invitation to the john t. baker middle school. matt, over to you. all right, stephanie, thank you very much. now, the very first image of jaycee dugard following her 18-year-long kidnapping ordeal. the now 29-year-old released photos of herself along with a statement to people magazine. larry hackett is that magazine s managing editor. larry, good morning to you. good morning, matt. this is the first photo we re seeing. obviously, thenly other photos we ve seen, she was 11 years old. exactly. give me the back story. how was this arranged? we ve come to the story literally from the beginning. we the in 1991 when jaycee went missing and we covered the story then and had photographs then. since she was found, we ve been in contact with the family and all those around the family to talk about this. so, a people magazine photographer did not go there? she had someone independently take these photos and then release them to you? that s correct. as you read the story, you realize this is a long, extraordinary process of her trying to get her life back and to acclimate herself to her new world. enough time had passed where they felt, a, it was time for people to be able to see her, and b, i think to no small degree, there s an idea that they want control of tir own lives. obviously, there are people around them who would love this photograph. they thought, we want to control the situation. let s do it now. i have to ask the obvious question. was there a financial agreement in terms did the family, did jaycee gain financially from this photo some. we have bought photographs in the past like all news organizations. i won t get into the details, but we re very comfortable with the situation and that s the way we did it. when you look at the photo, what first comes to your mind when you see her? i think the juxtaposition of the old photograph that s become iconic with the new one, you see that, a, she is obviously that woman and you can see how 18 years has passed. on the other hand, she looks radiant, healthy, happy, and it s a fascinating photograph that you can stare at for quite a while. you re very good at what you do, so i m sure there was talk about can you also grant us an interview for this situation. what were her reasons for not wanting to talk now? i think again, it s a long process. somebody likened it to an adoptive child meeting their parent. it s like that, but different in so many ways. there s 18 years of time to make up. and though her progress has been incredible and the family is bonding incredibly well, i just don t think she s ready to answer a lot of questions involving a lot of things that happened in her life. what can you tell us about how her daughters are doing? she has a daughter who s 15, a daughter who s 11. i understand they re being tutored, because they re clearly not prepared to go into a regular school now. well, they may not be prepared to go to a regular school, but their level of education is extraordinary and is about at grade level. the 15-year-old is learning at about what a 15-year-old would normally have, had she gone to school. which is extraordinary, when you stop to think they were schooled by jaycee. jaycee never finished anything more than the sixth grade. and as we remember from their living circumstance, they were basically living, you know, behind this house, underneath tarps in shacks. according to her lawyer, jaycee is fully cooperating with law enforcement. there s going to be a trial there is a hearing coming up later this month. and do you think perhaps one of the reasons they wanted to get out there now and perhaps put a photo out is because of the attention that will be paid to the trial? absolutely. as i said, there s a hearing later this month. there will be more and more court appearances. there will be a time sooner rather than later where she ll have to make appearances in court and she needs to be ready for them. all right, larry hackett, thank you very much. this week s people eaturing those photos of jaycee dugard starts arriving on newsstands today. it s 18 after. here s ann. matt, thanks. erica schulte is a spokesperson for jaycee dugard and her family. good morning. good morning, ann. even people magazine was surprised that jaycee was willing to pose for these photographs for an independent photographer and release them to people magazine. so, why now? what was the thinking? you know, first of all, her reunification, this joyous reunion with her family is going very, veryell and they really want to share that joy with the world. they understand that there s an intense interest in how she s doing,nd you know, people can t imagine what that ordeal move been like and this is thanking them for their support and letting them know she s okay. she released a statement to the magazine saying i m so happy to be back with my family. nothing is more important than the unconditional love and support i have from them. and there are some images taken from this photographer that show the relationship between jaycee and her mother, and it s remarkable what they tell us about what they ve been able to do in terms of reconnect. you just saw them on monday. what are you seeing? i have seen a family that, i think if you didn t know the circumstances, it would just seem like any other family. just, you know, the love between jaycee and her mother, and you know, her sister, shana, who was an infant, really, when jaycee was taken, and they have just formed a very, very close bond. and to see them all embrace jaycee s daughters, and the five of them are just very close and comfortable and happy. you know, they kind of tease each other sometimes, and you know, sometimes there s differences of opinion. it s just a really seems just like such a normal family. it sounds like there s a lot of healing going on with therapy, including riding horses as part of the therapy. but obviously, the clock is ticking. is jaycee prepared to testify as this case goes to trial? i think, you know, knowing that the trial is looming and that the prosecution has a job to do, you know, that s certainly important, and she is well aware, as her attorney has said, she s well aware that for that prosecution to move forward, she needs to cooperate, and she s fully prepared to do that. is she ready? i don t know if you can ever be ready and i wouldn t want to speculate, but i know that she is cooperating fully and they are very pleased with that cooperation. all right. well, erika schulte, i know you re helping thefamily. thank you so much for joining us this morni and talking about this. and we re happy to see her doing so well. thank you. still ahead, the fate of that first grader facing reform school for bringing a camping tool to school. we ll tell you what s now been decided. still ahead, a ralph lauren model s picture altered to make her look thinner. now she says she s been fired for being too fat. an interview and response. good morning. welcome. 7:26 is the time on this wednesday, october 14th, 2009. i m barbara harrison. we have some breaking traffic news. let s go to jerry edwards right away. good morning. barbara, good morning. good morning, everyone. it has been a busy mning out there. prince george s county, off of central avenue, reports of a pedestrian accident. rescue crews are on the scene dealing with that. elsewhere, the inner loop of the beltway still jammed from greenbelt headed on down toward 202, the scene of the earlier vehicle fire. some traffic getting by. definitely will cost you additional travel time southbound on the beltway. outer loop of the beltway, still dealing with the earlier crash at braddock road. everything to the shoulder. substantial delays remain south from i-6 have 66 towards springfield. been a mess out there all good morning. cloudy and chilly. the chilliest morning in six months. 47 in washington. 40s in the nearby suburbs. 30s farther west and north. high is only in the mid 50s. chilly rains with blustery winds tomorrow with temperatures in the 40s. friday, saturday, and sunday, each day in the 40s with a chance of passing light showers. then, warming up and drying out monday into tuesday. barbara? thank you, tom. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, screamings that could save a life. some women are skipping mammograms. it is 7:30 now on a wednesday morning. it s the 14th day of october 2009. there s some of the nice people gathered on a chilly morning here in midtown manhattan. we re happy that they have decided to join us this morning. there are some cool things out on the plaza we re going to show you a little later in the show. matthappy. i think we should rename the town. i m matt lauer with ann curry, in for meredith today. just ahead, remember we met zachary christie? he s the first grader facing reform school for bringing a camping tool to school. the school said it was a weapon. that story was brought to our attention by the new york times. well, the local school board met last night and ruled on that recommended punishment. what did they decide? we ll tell you in just a couple of minutes. also ahead, an accident involving a 5-year-old girl that is highlighting the dangers of glass tabletops. she fell onto one in her family s home and a shard of glass pierced her lung and her liver. just a few inches more, it would have pierced her heart, matt. we ll talk about the safety issues regarding glass furniture, coming up. she s a lucky young lady. > also coming up, was a 120-pound ralph lauren model who was already in the middle of a photo touching controversy, fired for being too fat? that s filippa hamilton. she s with us for an exclusive interview. we ll also tell you what ralph lauren says about thisstory. first, we begin with the fate of that 6-year-old who brought a camping utensil to class. here s nbc s rehema ellis. reporter: after making national news, 6-year-old zachary christie is cleared to return to his first grade class today. all those in favor. aye. aye. aye. aye. is there any opposition? reporter: with little fanfare, a quick, unanimous vote of the school board gave zachary his reprieve. two weeks ago, he was called into the principal s offe and suspended for bringing this to school. it s his favorite camping utensil that he wanted to eat his lunch with, a so-called spork. it includes a spoon, a fork and a knife. on tuesday, he told meredith he knew the minute he was in trouble. when they called my name up, i was like, uh-oh. reporter: but tuesday night, christina s school board agreed, it was time to amend the district s strict zero tolerance policy banning weapons in school as it relates to the youngest of children. i think they did the right thing and we reacted to a very important situation and moved forward to incorporating some more modern thinking into our strategy for the future. reporter: it s what zachary s family was hoping to hear. so much more needs to be done, because zero tolerance policies are simply unacceptable. reporter: now the punishment is reded with zero tolerance changed for children in kindergarten and first grade. for weapons and violent offenses, youer students will be suspended from three to five days and undergo counseling. that s a big change from the 45 days in reform school that zachary was facing. when word of his plight got out, thousands logged on to helpzachary.com to show support. and many, especially zachary s mom, questioned whether zero tolerance policies fail to factor in common sense. it doesn t matter if they re 6 or 12 or 16. if they have no intent and they ve never been in trouble. they have to look at everything and make the punishment appropriate to that specific individual. reporter: tuesday, zachary told meredith what he learned from all this. to always ask before taking something new into school. reporter: tuesday night, a lesson for grown-ups speaking out can lead to change. for today, åñ rehema ellis, nb news, new york. you know, after that decision, zachary s mother debated whether or not her son should go to school today because of all the publicity, but we just got a text from her, and she says zachary is on his way to class. when he gets there, he will be carried into school on his classmates shoulders, probably. probably. let s get a check of the morning s weather from stephanie abrams, who s in for al this morning. stephanie? and we have a couple celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary. the last time they were in new york city, 1951. so, what has changed in 58 years? not much. not a whole lot. not a whole lot, no. you know what? not a whole lot is changing in the southeast with the weather. we are expecting more rain yet again. therefore, we have flood advisories for georgia, north carolina and south carolina. it is going to be a soggy day after a soggy one yesterday. wet in the south,s ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç## it is cloudy aroundhe region this morning, quite chilly. a live picture from our city camera showing the clouds over capitol hill. temperates in the 40s, 30s farther west and north. 47 in washington. later on today, highs only in the mid 50s with a cloudy school and cloudy tonight. could have a little light rain by midnight. occasional light rain is likely tomorrow. temperat travis, where does nana live? winchester, virginia. all right. if you want your forecast, go to weather.com 24 hours a day. matt, back to you. now to a break in a 19-year-old cold case. a suspect has been taken into custody in arkansas nearly two decades after police say he kidnapped and then violently attacked an 8-year-old girl in texas. nbc s jeff rossen is in dickinson, texas, with details. and jeff, i think before i say good morning to you, i want to warn our viewers that some of the details on this story are very disturbing. jeff? reporter: it is disturbing. it was really a nightmare that ended with a dream for this young woman, and that was what they believe was catching the suspect. let me start from the beginning for you, what happened on that summer night in august of 1990. the window was cracked open right here. this is the exact bedroom window where the 8-year-old girl was sleeping. the rapist literally pulled it open, climbed inside, pulled her out of bed. the fbi then says he carried her across this parking lot at the apartment complex and took off with her. the attack, matt, was so violent, it s amazing she s even alive, but as a woman, what she s doing now, 19 years later, it s even more amazing. throughout this journey, i ve had two main goals, and they were to find the man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and attempted to murder me 19 years ago so that he could not hurt anyone else and to use my voice in telling my story to as many people as i possibly could over the years. reporter: a story most rape victims never tell. how she was barely in third grade when a man snatched her from bed one night and drove her around thi small texas town only to sexually abuse her and worse. the rapist dumped her in this field and left her to die. jennifer laid here overnight for 14 hours. she was naked, she was bleeding, and worst of all, she couldn t even scream for help. he had sliced right through her vocal cords. doctors said she would never speak again, so laying in her hospital bed in 1990, she told her story to investigators on note paper, but jennifer was a fighter. i used my voice to tell my story and i really think that that s the reason why i got my voice back. rorter: recently, jennifer fought her fear again, starting a website, justice for jennifer. she never gave up, and 19 years later, wouldn t you know it? today i received a phone call that an arrest in my case had been made. reporter: police picked up dennis bradford in arkansas tuesday, a husband and father himself. now this welder who served time for another abduction in 1996 is charged with attempted murder. it was without question one of those ments that all of us in law enforcement live for. reporter: dna evidence at the crime scene too minor for conclusive results then were retested with new technology, and jennifer helped. police say the sketch based on her description 19 years ago bears a striking resemblance to how bradford looked at the time. detectives, they get cynical and they don t know where to focus, and she gave them focus. reporter: lois gibson drew that original sketch at jennifer s bedside. a rape victim herself, she says jennifer is an inspiration. jennifer s message is, go ahead and fight and go ahead and try to get justice. reporter: the little girl who was almost silenced would grow up with a voice so strong, so powerful, she kept her own cold ca alive. today, 19 years later, i stand here and want you all to know that i am okay. i am not a victim, but instead, victorious. reporter: what a brave young woman. the fbi has told us they can actually solve moref these cold cases now using new dna technology, matt. all they need are more brave victims like jennifer to come forward and push the case like she did. all right. jeff rossen in texas for us this morning with the culmination of a long ordeal. jeff, thank you very much. and we re back right after this. this morning on today s consumer, a clear and present danger that could be in your own home. roughly 20,000 children are treated each year for injuries due to glass tables. our consumer reporter and reader s digest janice lieberman is here with an eye-opener this morning. good morning. good morning. as we first reported on this several months ago, since then, another little girl has been seriously injured, and now safety changes coulde on the way. about half an inch. reporter: one look at this incredible x-ray, and you know how lucky 5-year-old princess pi caro really is. if this glass had gone this way instead of this way, it would have, you know, potentially perforated the heart. reporter: recently, princess was playing alone in her bedroom with her parents nearby in the kitchen when they heard a crash. when we get into the room, she was on the floor, and my wife take her and we saw the injury and it was too big. she removed a piece of glass that was in her body. reporter: princess had fallen onto this glass table, and doctors say this shard of glass pierced her lung and liver. fragments of glass and bleeding with a big concern. any time you pull an impailed object out, you worry that it s going to cross a blood vessel, and when you pull it out, that the blood vessel s going to start bleeding and bleeding rapidly. reporter: it s a story we ve heard before. earlier this year we told you about this 2-year-old from boston. she was also playing near a glass table with her parents nearby. giana apparently climbed onto the table and then a parent s worst nightmare happened. all of a sudden, we heard a crash, and my husband looked she was trapped under the table and i moved into the ving room to see if the glass had flipped on top of her, b it was actually split into pieces and one of the pieces were inside of her leg. reporter: giana was rushed to boston children s hospital for emergency surgery. every thought s racing through your mind. what if, you know, it doesn t go successful? is she okay? is she going to live? it s horrific. reporter: thankfully, giana survived, and two years later is doing well. she remembers very little about the accident but has a small scar as a lifetime reminder. we never thought. never in our wildest imagination that something like that would have happened. reporter: princess and giana are not alone. national data indicates that injuries from glass furniture cause about 20,000 emergency room visits a year. the most severe case killing an average of three people a year. consumer reports says there is often an easy fix tempered glass. it s the same glass used in automobile windows. take a look at this demonstration. without tempered glass, this table smashes into sharp edges upon impact. while the tempered glass table instead shatters into small pieces. experts say even the use of bumpers around a table is not fail-safe. protective bumpers only protect the outer edge of the table. how are you doing? reporter: after an hour-long surgery, princess was fine and is expected to make a full recovery, a fairy talending with a bandage as a painful reminder of a story that could have had a very bad ending. she s doing great. well, this week, astm international, which creates voluntary standards for glass furniture manufacturers is meeting to revise their glass safety standards. and ann, it just makes so much sense. i mean, here we have the regular glass. you see they re shards, sharp shards that can go into a child. very scary. very scary. don t even touch. it andhis just crumbles. this is what they use for shower doors, outdoor patio furniture. why not inside? so don t mess with the bumpers. just get rid of the glass. this table here in our studio is not the tempered glass. it s so easy to find the one so, bottom line what you can do, if you have this, you don t have to throw it out. you can send it to a manufacturer, they ll heat it for you and they ll make it safety and tempered glass. now, there s going to be a charge. it s 25% to 40% higher, but if you have any kids around or if you re a grandparent these parents were in the home and it happened in the next room. so, it really is something that has to be addressed. thank you very much, janice lieberman, for the warning on all this. thank you so much. and coming up next, a ol, new fan that doesn t have blades. but first, these messages. look, ma, no blades! dyson, the company best known for vacuums, has come out with a revolutionary bladeless fan. it s called the dyson multiplier. good to see you. good morning. how does this work? no blades whatsoever, and we re sitting here and it s pumping out a lot of air. the thing is, the blades chop up the air, so you get a sort of buffeting in the wind, which isn t very nice. it s rather uncomfortable. we got rid of the blades, and instead, we have a little slot that lets out about 7% of the air flow. right. and then it goes over a curved surface here, which draws in more air. it then expands at 16 degrees, and that sucks in a whole lot more. sounds very scientific. and then the stream that comes out, then by a thing called shaerearing pulls in a l moreair. oh, that s shaerg. how long did it take you to develop this idea? about three years, but we got an idea from the hair dryer, that releases the air to get the water off your hands, and we noced that jet sucked in a lot more air. go ahead. the great thing about it is you don t have to worry about the blades, kids, fingers, all that, and and it s easy to clean. easy to clean. and it delivers a smooth air stream. and how cooling and easy to adjust the height. how big a room can this cool down, then? well, you can buy as many as you like, but he s willing to sell you as many as you want to buy. but they are forgive me, they are expensive, like $300 apiece. well, there s cheaper ones and there s more expensive ones. but you re getting the smooth air stream instead of the chopped air stream and it s easy to clean. your fingers won t get caught in, your children s fingers you know from your vacuum cleaners, most important, it looks cool. great engineer. james dyson, thank you very much. we re going to keep these on the set here. we like this. i know. just ahead did ralph lauren fire this model for being too fat? we re going to find out. both sides of the story after your local news and weather. some clouds in the sky. chilly temperatures out there today right now 48 degrees here in the nation s capital. good mork. welcome. i m barbara harrison. the time is 7:55. a swine flu vacination clinic will be held in silver springs for pregnant women, children starting at six months and young adults up to 24. health care workers and adults with chronic health conditions are also eligible. the clinic will be open from 9:00 a.m. until noon at the dennis avenue health center. if you take metro bus, you can expect a slower ride starting today. drivers are slowing down as part of a new safety campaign after a spring of pedestrian pd accidents, the metro drivers union is telling its members to go strictly by the book, observing all speed limits, activating handicap lifts at every stop and not passing buses stopped at bus stops. it could meechb delays along as 30 minutes to an hour. we ll take a break and come back and take a look at good morning. cloudy and chilly on this wednesday morning. no precipitation under these clouds. temperatures in the 40s around washington and the nearby suburbs. farther wet and north, it is only in the mid 30s. quite a chilly start, the chilliest morning of the autumn season so far. it will be the chilliest day we have had in six months with highs just in the mid 50s and a lot of clouds. tomorrow, may get some showers, in fact, after midnight and showers likely tomorrow and temperatures in the 40s. remaining in the 40s friday, saturday, and sunday with a chance of showers each day. jerry, how is the traffic now? quite the challenge. good morning. beltway, prince george s county still jammed. inner loopoming down from greenbelt. the earlier car fire added to this backup has cleared. the lanes are open. nevertheless, very slow. the 14th street bridge, outbound side. there had been an accident. police are dealing with thoor just clearing it. look for delays on the westbound freeway as you head over from the 11th street bridge trying to get to the 14th street bridge. barbara? ? tonight on it s beginning to look a lot like christmas it s 8:00 now on a wednesday morning. it s also the 14th day of october 2009. no, your eyes and ears aren t deceiving you. yes, that s santa claus in one of the coolest vehicles we ve seen in a long time. and yes, the music is making us feel that it s beginning to look a lot like christmas. still many days away, but this morning we re going to show you some of the coolest items in the neiman marcus christmas book, and we re going to do that in just a couple of minutes. out on the plaza, i m matt lauer along with ann curry, who s filling in while meredith is taking the day off, and stephanie abrams here while al is taking the day off. you want to hear something cool? the neiman marcus christmas book, this year 40% of the gifts in it under $250. that s good. that s fantastic. a good idea in these economic times. but if santa claus replaces the sleigh with that thing, where the heck is he going to put the toys? i mean, that s going to be our toys will get there a lot faster this year, i have a feeling. you may not even know what that is, but we ll show you in a second when we push all the bells and whistles also coming up this morning, here s the picture causing a lot of commotion, want to show it to you. ralph lauren admits this photo of filippa hamilton is distorted, but now hamilton says even before the picture came out, the company fired her for being too fat. she s here for an exclusive interview. obviously, she s not happy about it. no. and we want to talk about bon jovi. fans of bon jovi out here? you like bon jovi? he s cool. we re going to have the world premiere of his new video coming up, then bon jovi himself will stop by to make a major announcement, and this is something we re very excited about here at nbc. so, we ll fill you in on that. but before we go any further that s right, let s get a check of the morning s headlines from natalie morales, who s in for me at the news desk. hey, natalie. good morning, matt, ann and stephanie. and good morning to you. today senators try to merge two health care bills into one version to pass the senate. on tuesday, the senate finance committee approved a bill that would require all americans to have health insurance and does not include the so-called public option. another version was passed earlier by a separate committee. maine senator olympia snowe was the only republican to vote in favor of the bill passed tuesday. she said this morning that health care costs are exploding and lawmakers have the responsibility to get the job done. today, a house committee holds a hearing on millions of dollars in bonuses paid to executives of bailed-out insurance giant aig. those bonuses sparked a political firestorm earlier this year. more rain is expected in southern californi today and officials are warning of more flash flooding and possible landslides. on tuesday, more than 20 inches of rain fell in some areas, flooding roadways and forcing at least one driver off the road in los angeles. dozens of homes have been urged to evacuate and power was knocked out to more than 10,000 people. and near bakersfield, california, tuesday, a blinding dust storm caused about a dozen drivers to slam into each other. at least one semi truck caught on fire. three people were killed in the accident. and an amazing art find in canada. by examining a fingerprint on the canvas, experts think they have found a previously undiscovered painting by leonardo da vinci. it was bought by a collector for about $19,000 in twe2007, but ty one art dealer says it could be worth more than $150 million. that s pretty incredible. well, the white house celebrated latin music last night by an outdoor concert by gloria estefan, marc anthony and jose feliciano. the president says latin music moves us and tends to make us move a little bit ourselves, and last night, it certainly did. i can vouch for that. always makes me move. 8:04. now let s go outside to matt and ann. sounds like a concert we would have liked. we didn t get an invitation. mr. roker is on assignment this morning. we have stephanie abrams from the weather channel, his partner in crime, with the forecast. we have people visiting from the dakotas, but did you notice they have on gloves and earmuffs? come on! oh, come on. this shouldn t be cold for you. it isn t, though. not really. it s a lot colder in south dakota. that is true, and it s a lot colder in des moines, iowa. let s take you there, our pick city of the day for today. a high of only 44 degrees. here in the northeast we ll be in thein thes ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç# cloudy and chilly on this wednesday morning. good morning. 47 in washington, montgomery. a little cooler farther west and north. near 50 near the bay. later today, into the mid 50s. perhaps this evening some light rain moving in. a likelihood of rain after midnight and off and on on thursday with a blustery northeast wind and cooler temperatures. remaining in the 40s with a chance o and we have the iowa book babes. any weather books you have read in the book club? not yet. give us some titles. all right. i ll get you one for that. matt, over to you. stephanie, thanks so much. when we come back, some of the hottest items from this year s neiman marcus christmas book. this is one of them. also ahead, did this 120-pound model get fired for being too fat? we re going to hear from filippa hamilton right after these messages. i was active, eating healthy. i thought i was in great shape. so i was surprised when my doctor told me i still had high cholesterol. that really hit me, and got me thinking about my health. i knew i had to get my cholesterounder control. but exercise and eating healthy weren t enough for me. now i trust my heart to lipitor. (announcer) when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39 to 60%. lipitor is backeby over 17 years of research. lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women whare nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. i thought i was doing enough to lower my cholesterol. but i needed more help. what are you doing about yours? (announcer) have a heart to heart with your doctor about your cholesterol. and about lipitor. [heavy rock music plays] you ve got some pretty important reasons to eat better. so now 23 campbell s chunky soups have 100% lean meat and a full serving of vegetables. a man s gotta eat. he just wants to eat better. campbell s chunky. back now at 8:08. now to the ralph lauren model who claims that she was fired for being too fat. we ll talk exclusively with filippa hamilton in just a moment. but first, today national correspondent amy robach has details. amy, good morning. good morning to you, ann. hamilton was already at the center of a photoshop flap, but now she claims she was dumped by ralph lauren because she didn t fit into certain clothing, an accusation the apparel maker flatly denies. it s another photoshop flap. this ad featuring ralph lauren model filippa hamilton looking abnormally thin with her body much smaller than her head. hamilton, who is 23, has worked for ralph lauren for the past eight years. they photo-shopped her in a way that, for me, is grotesque and makes her look like a cartoon, and the trouble is that it s damaging to her. who wants to hire somebody that looks like that? after the altered photo appeared on the web, ralph lauren issued a statement, saying in part we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman s body. but now this revelation the supermodel tells us that before the altered photo appeared on the web, ralph lauren told her that she was fired. they wrote a letter, and they said we re terminating your services because you don t fit into the sample clothes that you need to wear. she is 5 10 and 120 pounds. she says her weight has not fluctuated since working for the company. critics fear the dismissal is one more negative influence for young women and the perception of the ideal body. the thought of this model being too fat is laughable. anyone who s seen her knows that she s extremely tall and extremely thin. she has a perfect, you know, model body, but apparently not perfect enough. reporter: in recent years, the modeling industry has come under fire in the debate over what s too thin. even self magazine, which promotes healthy lifestyles, air-brushed kelly clarkson to look thinner. what kind of woman are you attracted to? reporter: supermodel emmy is leading the way away from oh-so-thin looks with these photos of plus-size model lizzie miller appeared in glamour, drawingave reviews from real women. i think when it comes to body issues, we re almost in a one step forward, two steps back kind of cycle. ralph lauren says hamilton is a beautiful, healthy woman and that the photo-shop mistake only appeared in one department store in japan. as for her dismissal, the say hamilton was dropped for her inability to meet the obligations of her contract. ann? all right, amy, thank you so much. filippa hamilton is with us exclusively along with kate white, editor in chief of cosmopolitan magazine. good morning to both of you. good morning. you had a mult year ntract, and back in april, ralph lauren basically released you, basically terminated you, saying we consider her an important part of our imaging and branding. we regret that our relationship has ended as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us. so, what are they referring to? what did you not meet? what did you not do? i did everything that i could. i was very loyal to them. i was on time every time. so, you don t know what they re talking about. no. no. i really don t. and you are 5 10 , 120 pounds, and you say you had not gained weight. no. no. under the contract. so, why are you arguing, as amy s reporting, that this termination in april was because of your body, that you had gotten too large, that you had gotten too fat? yeah, exactly. they say that i couldn t fit in their clothes anymore. they said that to you? not to me directly, but to my agency, yeah. oh. and could you fit into clothes anymore? i could fit into clothes, yeah. so, then you didn t understand this. so, you re saying the clear impression was given to you is that they fired you, you say, because you were too large. because i was too large, yeah, and that s very sad, i think. yeah, how do you feel about that? i ve been working with them since i was 15 years old, since i was a teenager. so, for me, they were my second family. i considered them my second family, of course, so i was very hurt about this, and i think it s not a good thing. when you see this picture, every young woman are going to lookt it and think that it s normal to look like that, and it s not. is this a common idea? tell me about the end product, because first of all, i would like t offer filippa eight pages in cosmo, so there you go. it really starts with the sample clothes, because they downsize. they re now like a 2 or a 4. and so, you know, to some degree, it relates to the kate moss era. before then, supermodels like cindy crawford and christie brinkley, they were really curvy, but they got skinnier and skinnier and the clothes got smaller. and so, it creates this cycle where you have to fit in the clothes to get the job, and then the models get smaller and that s who we have to use in fashion stories. so, you re saying we re in a bad point in the cycle right. in terms of the images of women in magazines today and on the runways. you re now at a point where it s moving towards twiggy and not towards cindy crawford, you re saying exactly. and that s part of this pressure. let s talk about what happened then after you were terminated there. was a whole flap as we heardn the last report about this digitalized photograph. and that s actually it s interesting, because you say you were angry about what happened in april, but it wasn t until this picture came out that you became angry. yes. why did this picture make you so angry? because i saw my face in this super extremely skinny girl, which is not me, and it makes me sad. it makes me think that raulph lauren wants to have this kind of image, and i think it s an americ brand and this is for healthy women and it s not healthy and it s not right. so, it s against what you think oh, yeah. of the place where you worked since you were a teenager. of course. and now ralph lauren has said that it was a mistake, and that it was completely inconsistent with its creative standards and grand values. do you think that you might sue? is there a possibility that you re going to sue over your termination? i don t think so, but i m not sure. you re thinking about it. i don t think so. i don t know. we ll see. what s the takaway, then, from this? well, i think women have to protest, and the more they protest, and back it up. because sometimes women say they want real girls in stories, but often, those stories don t rate as well. or if you put a heavy or a celebrity on the cover, it might not sell as well. so, women have to complain and then back it up with their actions, with their pocketbooks. you heard it here from kate white and also filippa hamilton. thank you so much for sticking up for your. thank you so much. and thank you so much for joining us this morning. i m sure we ll probably hear more from ralph lauren s part of the story as the days progress but thank you so much. still to come this morning, we re going to check out some of the amazing items in this year s neiman marcus christmas catalog. this is a honda pilot. and this is the chevy traverse. it has more cargo space than pilot. and traverse beats honda on highway gas mileage too. more fuel efficient and 30% more roo. maybe traverse can carry that stuff too. the chevy traverse americas best crossover. introducing the 60-day satisfaction guarantee. buy a new chevy and if you don t love it, we ll take it back. take me home take me home to my family i need to be surrounded by the ones who care for me [ female announcer ] clean you can see. softness you can feel. tide with a touch of downy. take me home when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance travelers. insurance for auto, home and business. ever wonder how cheez-it bakes. so much real cheese in such small bites? baking complete! well, now you know. cheez-it. the big cheese. it doesn t look like the apple juice you ve always known, or taste like it. it tastes like biting into a crisp, juicy, perfectly ripe apple. yeah, we thought you d like that. 100% pure pressed simply apple. honestly simple. try all of our delicious juices and juice drinks. here s hoping you ve been nice this year, because if you have been, it could land you your own plane. that is, if santa is shopping from the neiman marcus christmas book. ginger reader is vice president at neiman marcus, and she s here with some great items. ginger, i can t believe i m going to say it, happy holidays. same to you. before we get to this cool thing behind us, really happy that this year, 40% of the items in the catalog under $250. exactly right, exactly right. and we made a conscious choice to have quality choices this year. but when i was looking for the fantasy gifts, i didn t see anything better than i m bringing you. and again, nothing for seven or eight figures. no. you want to start with this? yeah. thiss the icon a-5 sports plane, and this plane, it s a sports car for the sky. it can take off or land on water or for air. it goes it can be the wings go bac so it can be trailered, you can keep it comes with a custom trailer. and there s a new faa sports pilot s license that makes it easier to get a license so you can just hop away on this. $250,000. comes with training sessions for two people. two people and a trailer. all right, okay. fantastic. meets all faa requirements. absolutely. absolutely. that is so cool. absolutely. isn t it cool? it s great looking, isn t it? can you put golf clubs in there? yes, there is exactly room for a golf club. okay, great. the cupcake car. so, this was something that i saw and, really, who couldn t resist a cupcake? these are little electric cars. real cars? they move around 7 miles an hour how do you do that? so, inside there goes natalie in one right now, so woo! again, this is a gift for the person who wants whoa! to be the star of their holiday parade, you know, fourth of july parade, something like that. anyplace you can go in a golf cart you can go in one of these. not on a golf course. i m not suggesting it. but street legal? oh! careful! all right, those are cool, and those are how much again? $25,000. and you can customize the topping. if you don t want to be a peppermint cupcake, you can be whatever you want. okay? okay. if you want to go faster than 7 miles per hour, this is the way to do it. this is the fastest electric motorcycle out there. all electric. it goes 150 miles an hour and it goes 0 to 62 in nine seconds, but it s all electric. and if you ve driven electric, it s all torque. it is. this has been tested, it looks great and this is fantastic. and you get training on this as well from the people who make it. don t worry. we re not just going to send you out there. i ve always wanted santa for christmas. you can have santa. you re on the top of the list. nice, santa. i brought you the new jaguar xjl. thiss the latest interpretation of the brand s flagship sedan. one great this about this 85% of this new car is recyclable. terrific. which adds a new level of sustainability in the luxury market. but it s great looking, glass roof. touch interior. what i love about it, only 50 will ever be made. that s it. so, once they re gone, you re out of luck. that s it. they go on sale on friday. can you fit golf clubs? can i ask how much it is? $105,000. okay. then we ve got an unusual work of art here. this is an artist out of maine named mike libby, and he takes these amazing preserves, specimens of this is an african flower beetle then he mixes them in with antiguach parts to make kind of the mix of the natural and the mechanical wait, that s the real bug. that s freaky on its own. let s turn this around so you can see how freaky that is. that s the real bug. there you go. and mixed it in with mechanical watch parts. so, only nine of them in a library. exactly. since you re oh, wait, here we go. natalie is now running over our camera people s feet. whoa! natalie, be careful! oh, my goodness. they ll be trainire will be the cupcake cars, too, don t worry. so you re the one who goes out and finds these items. i do. where did you find that? somebody called me at a gallery in southern california and said i ve got something for you to look at. i said this is unusual. sounds good to me. let s try it. and the last item just for fun, you know. let s do it! come on, yeah. this is a marshmallow gun muput the marshmallows in he. yeah, it s loaded you ve got to pump it! this is the time-waster of all time-wasters. get the cupcake. oh, no! are these bumper car type things. i think these are now going to be you all s. you wreck them, you own them. but these are marshmallow blasters. yes. you put it in here, i think. you ve got to turn and then lock and load. lock and load? in here. that will do it. it s fun to thumb through the pages of neiman marcus christmas book. happy holidays again. thank you. thank you for bringing some wonderful items. thank you very much. we ll be right back. time is now 8:26 on wednesday, october 14th, 2009 good morning. i m keith garvin. let s go to jerry edwards with regard to breaking traffic. we are not done with trouble out there. this time, northern virginia. live pictures of an airport shuttle van on fire on 395 southbound between duke street and edsel road. on the southbound side, a little bit of traffic getting by to the far left. fire departments, they are trying to knock that fire on down. a lot of smoke drifting across the northbound lanes as well. we are looking at substantial northbound delays coming out of springfield headed on up. landover has been cleared. still, slow traffic. we ll take a good morning. cloudy sky over the metro area looking off to the west. we have a little sun coming through the overcast. we will have temperatures in the 40s and upper 30s west and north. it will hold steady for another couple of hours. it will warm into the mid 50s by mid afternoon. cloudy tonight. some light rain is possible late this evening. a likely who had of that tomorrow with a blustery northeast wind and cooler. temperatures in the 40s throughout the day tomorrow. more of the same on friday and saturday and perhaps as well on sunday. keith, back to you. thank you, tom. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, screenings that could save a life. some women are skipping mammograms. find out why it is happening this one goes out to the ones in need, this one goes out to the sinner and the cynical this ain t about no apology, this road was paved b the hopeless and the hungry 8:30 now on a wednesday morning, 14th day of october 2009. you re watching the world broadcast premiere of bon jovi s video we weren t born to follow. yeah, yeah, yeah, we weren t born to follow, come on and get up off your knees when life is a bitter pill to swallow it is the first single from the band s new album called the circle. it hits stores on november 10th, and we should have a shot somewhere of jon bon jovi himself greeting fans on the plaza. jon has stopped by because we have a major announcement coming up with that man right there in just a couple of minutes. very cool. meanwhile, we ll get to that in a second. out on the plaza, i m matt lauer with ann curry, who is in for meredith. natalie morales joins us as well. what else is coming up? well, you know, the technology that s available to teenagers today is rewriting the books on how our teenagers need to deal with each other, and we ve got an expert coming up in just a few moments to help us with those difficulties. okay. all right, plus, it is 5:00 p.m. somewhere, right? i mean, never too early to perhaps have a glass of wine, especially according to this guy. he is turning the world of wine upside down, even prepares favorite things like bacon and breakfast cereal with wine. sounds interesting. cap n crunch and a little merlot. first, let s bring in jon bon jovi, shall we? yeah! he s here to make a major announcement. good to see you. plsure. and to get this right, jon is going to be the very first artist in nbc s artists in residency program or project. what does that exactly mean? a corner office next to you. ah! we have teamed up with nbc as a way to promote the record, but across the family of channels at nbc. so, everything from the actual studio to several performances on the today show, news, broadcasts in sports. the new album will be featured in a lot of interviews, but it s a different way of getting the message of music out to the masses. the message is not only the sound, but it s also the message of dare to be different. where does this come from? you in your video and your album seem to be saying something thank you, but you know, the world changed a year ago, and i think this song in particular exemplifies that particular spirit, people needing now to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and get back on their feet again. i couldn t have written this song a year ago, simply because when the world crashed, we all sort of had to rub our noses and the star was in our eyes from the bang we took. but now i think that spirit of the american people picking themselves up is getting bigger. so, as artists and residents now for november and december. that means you ll have to be here did the producer tell you, 3:00 a.m.? that corner office next to matt not sounding so good right now. how are you with early mornings? was up this morning with the kids. it s funny. i was talking to the fans over there. the truth is that we in america wake up and we think that we know you guys as well as we think we do because we re having coffee with the today show crew every day. and so, you know, to me, this is i don t know, i feel it s a bit surreal, because my kids are at home now touching the screen. and you re modest about your generosity, because as artists in residence for nbc, he plays for the kids bar mitzvahs, weddings our christmas party! today show christmas party. but we will be seeing you a lot over the next month or so, but it s all leading up to a great event. the day before thanksgiving here on the plaza, a massive concert from bon jovi that traditionally is one of the biggest crowds we have all year long, and you on top of that, it s going to be a great event. so, that s the day before thanksgiving, november 25th, on the plaza, bon jovi, our artist in residence. start booking your travel now, everybody. that s right. come on, see the parade, hang out. welcome to the family. thank you, buddy. great to see you guys, ann, natalie. bon jovi. let s go to stephanie abrams. hey, stephanie. hey, guys. we have sofans here from iowa. are you ready for this cold some. oh, absolutely. after 71 years in iowa, this is nothing for cold. this is nothing. let s look across the country for iowa and all 50 states. we will se rain in the midwest, also into the south and sunny here in the northeast. how how s ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#çk good morning. a cloudy sky in washington points south and east. west and north, a little sunshine breaking out. teeratures still chilly in the 40s all around the metro area and in southern maryland near the bay. west and north, still near 40 degrees. then, later on today, highs only reaching the mid 50s with a lot of cloudiness. could get light rain moving in late tonight. off and on showers likely tomorrow with a blustery northeast wind. temperatures in the 40s. and it s time now to head down to the nation s capital. that s where we want to check in with willard scott. good morning, willard, mwah! love from new york. i got it right here. what a beautiful lady. you should hey, bon jovi. check him out. you, what a couple you d make. i can see it now. and al could be the best man and you could have a show called wake up with stephanie, bon jovi and al. and willard. huh? and willard, yeah. happy birthday from smucker s. how sweet it is. we love our smucker s buddies. jewell stehlik, ironton, missouri, is 110. boy, oh, boy, they re creeping up, these ages. acontributes longevity to never worrying about anything, like our crew here, and loving the good lord. i don t think i ve ever seen our crewworry. creola, love that name, colston dickey. she s from columbus, ohio, home of the gut-buster. you remember? 103. worked with the housing department to help less fortunate families get housing. god bless. marty slatkin, brooklyn, new york, is 10 years old. walks 45 minutes every day, huge boxing fan. loves spending time with the family. one of the first tv shows was a boxing show. paps blue ribbon. josephine d amico, hackensack, new jersey. that s my town. 103. enjoys cold beer when the doctor s not looking, and she s an advocate who values hard work. a beer and hard work is a great combination. nita vodvarka. she s from ontario, california, 101. that s a nice town. second try to get on the show. served as a wak during world war ii. enjoys going to parties. how about that? i like people who go to parties. and now we have cathryn matthews black. she is 100. bradford, p.a., usually the coldest spot in the east in the winter. known for being a fashionable lady, always keeping herself busy and going to have din-din with h friends. orphie and gladys holman of spring valley, illinois, 85th anniversary, how about that? both are 98 and attribute their marital longevity to splitting the year up. he gets six months to be boss and she gets six months. how about that? and now, matt, who s always the boss, in new york. all right, willard, great to see you, pal. when we come back, handling mean girls in the modern age. we ll have advice for teens and parents. back now at 8:40. it s been seven years since the book queen bees and wannabes was written. now rosalind wiseman is out with a new book. a lot has happened since you wrote this book. and it s become the movie mean girls. and you re also a teacher. so, you really help people looking at how teenagers can adjust in these social ways, but now toll has arrived. right. in such a big way, and there can be this kind of stress using texting. oh, sure. what s your best advice? what s the biggest significant change this has caused? well, i had to really think about, when queen bees came out, a couple years afterwards, i thought things are changing so fast that i have to revamp this, i have to rewrite this. especially with technology and especially with girls. people kept saying to me, don t you think it starts younger? and that s a pretty leading question, right? because they think it does. and i think lots of times, actually, girls are starting earlier with the kind of behavior we re talking about, with being mean to each other, and the reason is because sometimes girls are being trained to be older. like, instead of being more mature and being more responsible, we re wanting them to be teens earlier, which is crazy. is technology playing into this? absolutely. why, how? because girls are, of course, they re texting and instant messaging all the time, and there s this opportunity for parents to use technology to really say what their family values are. and it s hard because we think that, you know, if we can t program the phone or we have to depend on our children to program our cell phones, we can t talk to them and guide them through technology, and that s not true. so i wanted to be able to say you know, in all the work i do with girls and boys, because i work with boys equally,hat this is the lay of the land. this is changing. and it s not about girls being nice to each other or being friends. it s about learning how to be socially competent. how to learn to speak when you see somebody being cruel to each other. so it s about having manners. fundamentally good manners towards another human being. sure. and the problem with texting, i think i mean, i love texting, but you can say things and wish you hadn t with texting that you would probably never say out loud to someone s face. you can do it right. you can have self-righteous temper tantrums. really, kids can do it as soon as they re on any kind of social networking experience, like you know, webkins or club penguin or anything, you can use those things to be mean to each other. so we need to teach our girls and our boys to make sure they are responsible and have manners when dealing with texting. and they re also socially compent. i m really what s important is with the success of mean girls, people like to talk about girls being caddie and superficial and that kind of stuff. that s not what this is. this is really about girls being able to be socially competent, to be able to talk about when things are bad for them or when they see things that are bad, moments of social injustice in their life that they learn how to speak and speak well. let s talk about some e-mail questions we have for you. sure. we ve got one from a mother in kansas. she writes somehow overnight my tween child has become the kid that is uncool to hang out with. girls move away when she walks up, make mean comments, change places in line and don t call back without an explanation. what should i advise my child to do? should i get involved? first of all, you shouldn t get involved right away. this is a classic thing parents do. at the beginning of that was, somehow overnight that this happened. and one of the things i want parents to realize is is that from the perspective of the kids who are being mean to the child, it is not somehow overnight. they feel like they have very good reasons for why they re doing what they re doing. now, for parents, that s incredibly difficult, you know, to think about, because it s like, this is your kid. you love your child and you think your child s wonderful. so, the first thing is, you ve got to figure out, is it s not sort of somehow overnight. the second thing i would do is i don t want parents to be manufacturing friends, like, oh, go be nice to this person, because people who are mean to you, if you re nice back to them, they re not goingo say, oh, thank you so much for being nice. they re going to say, okay, now i get to work you even more. so it s important to sit down with your kid and say, here s the deal, who do you think has the most social power? how do you want to talk to this person? exactly at are they doing that you do not like? and you re going to go up on that person one on one and say exactly what you don t like and exactly what you want, and you don t have to be friends. this is not about being friends. it s about being able to speak your mind when you re uncomfortable and are feeling isolated. and any step of this you do is a success. but the other part is, well, aren t the kids going to be mean to me if that happens? well, you have to choose your misery. you have misery the people are controlling about you you say nothing and you deal or hope for the best. or you choose your misery and you say, okay, this is going to be really, really hard, but i m going to have some control over the situation. we have time for one more question. martin in washington state writes i am a youth pastor and work with tweens and teens. i also have a 6-month-old daughter, but i am wondering, do girls pick their friends/cliltss or do friends pick the girl? that s a good question, and i think in some grades, there are grades in school where you have, all of a sudden, this thing happens and you have a grade and they are always like that. you know, for that reason, i wrote a novel that will be published in january so we can talk about these issues in more important ways. we ve got obviously, we could talk forever, but we ve run out of time. i m so sorry. rosalind wiseman, thank you very much. the bk is queen bees and wanna bes, and you can read an excerpt on our website. up next, a man is putting red, red wine this morning on today s kitchen, back to basics, wine for the masses. for three years now, gary vaynerchuk has gushed about his love for wine on his website, and with viewers and e-mails every day, gary is turning the wine world upside down. hello, everybody, and welcome to wine library tv ! since 2006, gary vaynerchuk, gary v. to his fans, has entertained and enlightened wine enthusiasts. all right, sniffy-sniff time. reporter: with his no-nonsense style and unique technology. let s give it a whirl. reporter: while pairing wines with unconventional foods like bacon or cereal. but the goodness, goodness, goodness of cap n crunch and a 95.4 reeling, the most hedonistic eating event. reporter: gary learned everything he knows about wine by transforming his family s small wine shop into a $60 million-a-year business. the oak monster, and he scares me, because reporter: and if he s not vlo kbnk ging, you can find him on facebook or twitter. now in pajamas on a wednesday night, everybody knows what you care about or what you re thinking. reporter: his descriptions might be slightly unusual. it s almost like fruit roll-up layered flavor. a little tabasco on top of a cigar mixed with a little grenadine. reporter: leaving some wine experts to raise eyebrows. i think gary v. brings it to the average person, makes it something they can understand out of their normal kitchen. taste this. you re going to like it. he s able to get more bottles in more people s hands, and that is a good thing. it does smell like skittles. it does smell like a racket ball. why stick to the way it has been done? reporter: so, how does he describe himself in wine terms? i would say i m very fruity and light on the front end, but massively tannic and long aging on the back end. did you really just say that? i think i did. gary v. with with us. his new book is called crush it: why now is the time to cash in on your passion. gary v., good morning. welcome back. hey. how are you? before the segment we like, where we get to test the wines you ve brought here, i like the fact that you ve taken the snobbery out of the love for wine. was that the goal from the very beginning? the goal was to build wine self-esteem in this country. people are scared. i me, people don tnow what they re looking for. they think there s an expert in their friends. we don t do that with food. you re not like, oh, i don t like this chicken, but the chicken expert in your group says that s really good chicken. you must like that. yes, that s really good chicken. i want people to trust their palate, and most importantly, try different things. the three wines here today are different. you know, people diss riesling, right? they have never had tadontis from argentina what is it? tadontis. and this is a bougulet. most people love it. let s talk about the foods you re pairing the wines with today. you re not doing the bacon and cereal thing. sorry. start with butternut squash, which is popular in the fall season. what do you have to know to pair it with the right wine? well, it s thick, so you re looking for acidity. thank you. you re welcome. you re welcome. you don t have a glass? i don t, but that s okay. i drink enough. sniffy sniff this up, because that s a huge thing. i love it. people are not smelling wine engh. so, give it a whirl. smells great. rice crispy treats? yes, very nice. very nice. a little what are you getting? are you getting the acid? you know, it s a lovely light flowery, but not too sweet wine. is yours sweet? no. as a matter of fact, it has a little lemony flavor. it has a lot of lemon, almost like the lemon peel on a cappuccino. exactly right. let s move on. i want you to get the taste of this stuff. i love that you re here! let s try this. this you re pairing with pumpkin. that s right. why would you do that? this is a different thing. people would think white wine here, but light red wines. i want everyone in america to understand that with fish as well, if you re a wine lover and you love fish and this is a fleurie, so it s more complicated. now remember, this is from burgundy and not made from pinot noir. it h a rough edge to me. it s not smooth enough. it doesn t round out it has a wonderful aroma. it s not a heavy chocolately berry kind i would agree. i would wear it as a cologne. i would not drink it. i m telling you what i m feeling! am i wrong? you could definitely go there. let s get this, because i m desperate for this one. okay. because everybody thinks with dessert you ve got to do dessert wine, but that s not true. do you want? no, no, please. this is apple pie from argentina. great smell. wonderful aroma. mm-mmm. this is really delicious. and this is under 10 bones, number 10 bucks. scary. how much that s $15, this is about $12 to $17. fantastic. you know what, you have made it easy. thank you so much. thanks, gary. good to see you. good to see you. but i am not going to eat it with my lucky charms. i draw the line! this is today on nbc. learn a lot about people on this job. ann and i are still drinking the wine. i m eating the pie! natalie s eating the pie. it s delicious. still ahead, sorting through student loan, debt collection and much more. also, our money 911 panel helps viewers tackle their biggest financial challenges. first, your a beautiful look there at the district of some clouds in the sky. it will be chilly when you step outside. it will get a little chillier throughout the day. for now, 8:56 on this wednesday, october 14th, good morning. i m keith garvin. in the news for today, we are following breaking news on the roadways. let s go to jerry edwards with more. good morning to you. good morning, everyone. it s been a tough, tough commute for everyone. 395 southbound between duke and edsel road, authorities have knocked down a shuttle van that was on fire. right now, we have one lane getting by southbound 395 south of duke street. sizeable northbound rubbernecking backup. elsewhere, plunging trouble beltway at 202. car fire long gone. still delays. outer loop, police chase and crack at braddock road. that s cleared. still residual backup on 66 as well as the beltway, outer loop, trying to get to springfield. back to overcast gla gray skies. right now, just 47 in washington. low to mid 40s in the suburbs and rural areas. upper 30s, northern shenandoah valley into themountains. quite a bit of cloudiness. highs reaching the mid 50s. light showers late tonight a likelihood of passing rain shower temperatures in the 40s. remaining in the 40s friday, saturday, and sunday with a chance of rain each day but it appears we will dry out sunday into monday. next week, highs into the 60s by tuesday. let s check traffic. let s get back to you, keith. sounds good, tom. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, screenings that could save a life. some women are skipping mammograms. find out why it is happening more and more. tonight at 5:00, a how s it going? good. how are you? good to see you. we a back now with more of today on a chilly wednesday morning, 14th day of october 2009. chilly for these people, but you know, it got a lot nicer and warmer when jon bon jovi was out here last half hour shaking hands. so, i think it s probably worth it for these people to stand out in the cold. and out in the cold right now, although it s getting better and sunny yes. it s not too bad. we shouldn t whine, although we like today i m here with ann curry, here while meredith is taking some time off. and amy robach is here while natalie is in at the news desk. yeah. got it all sorted out now? we do. i think we do. coming up this half hour, jaycee dugard. remember this story. it was so dramatic. she was kidnapped at 11 years old, held captive for 18 years. she was finally rescued just several weeks ago. now we re seeing the first picture of her today. people magazine has that on their cover and some other photos inside, and we re going to look at those and then hear from a family spokesperson about how jaycee and her daughters, 15 and 11, are doing now. it s remarkable how great she looks. also coming up, we ll be talking about, you know, if you re thinking about refinancing your home or even your student loans, you re maybe wondering about the timing, how to get the best deal. we ve got our money 911 panel weighing in on that topic this morning. all right, and we are going to make one kid out there very happy today. have you seen the adorable well, they would be extremely happy, but maybe the parents not so much. you ve seen our four contestants here, among some of the kids who sent in those tapes to say they could be a kid reporter for the today show. well, you have voted. one aspiring voter into the finals, and we re going to find out which one that is in just a little while. that s great. that should be a lot of fun. before we go any further, let s go inside. natalie s at the news desk with all the headlines. good morning to you all once again. good morning, everyone. in california today, landslide fears and flash flood warnings because of record rainfall. one landslide near santa cruz forced officials to issue a mandatory evacuation order for dozens of homes. many hillsides are unstable because recent wildfires stripped away vegetation. a power emergency was also declared in northern california after stng winds knocked down a high-voltage transmission line. more than 600,000 people los power. senate leaders are meeting behind closed doors today to keep health care reform moving forward. on tuesday, the senate finance committee approved the only package that has full white house backing. now leaders will try to merge it with a competing bill, also written by democrats, that includes a public insurance option and requires employers to help cover their workers. there s an important study out now for parents. researchers in britain say sleeping in bed with an infant is a major factor in sids deaths. the study found that 54% of cases of sudden infant death in southwest england occurred when a parent fell asleep with a baby on the same bed or couch, especially if the parent had used drugs or alcohol. ford has expanded the largest recall in the company s history. the new action covers 4.5 million minivans, trucks and suvs because of a cruise control switch that s been linked to fires. 10 million vehicles had already been recalled for the same problem. and a rare appearance today by former president george w. bush at a world knowledge forum in south korea. bush said that he is confident the nuclear standoff with north korea can be resolved by resuming six-party talks, but, he cautioned, north korean leader kim jong-il is a tough negotiator who will test the system. and the 6-year-old suspended for bringing a camping utensil to school headed back to class today. zachary christie was facing 45 days in a reform school, but on tuesday night, a school board in newark, delaware, voted to soften its zero tolerance policy for kindergarten and first grade students caught with weapons. he s the cutest kid ever. it is now four minutes past the hour. let s go back outside to stephanie for another check of your weather. we have people visiting from the bay area. are you worried about your house out there? i think our family and the rest of the community will hold down the fort. it s good you re here. oh, yes, sunny new york city. all right. let s talk more about what s happening in the west. here s a look at the rain and cloud cover pushing in. jet stream continues to bring strong winds and rain as well. here s a look at the radar. and again, much better today than yesterday. snow into the higherighers ç#ç## good morning. it s been a cloudy morning. we are seeing some breaks in the clouds tichlts a chilly morning. the chilliest morning of the autumn season. 47 in washington. low and mid 40s elsewhere. highs reaching the mid 50s this afternoon. that will be it. then, tomorrow, cloudy and chilly. rain likely from time to time. in nakfact, we may have some showers late tonight. temperatures in the 40s to natalie, back to you. stephanie, thank you. the first photo of jaycee dugard since her rescue in august has been released by people magazine today. the 29-year-old was held captive for 18 years after being kidnapped in california when she was just 11 years old. betsy glick is people magazine s executive editor. betsy, good morning. hi there. i think all of us look at that picture. we re just like, wow, we finally know what she looks like. what was your reaction? it was wow. yeah. it was, this is a healthy, happy-looking, young woman, which is just astounding when you think of what she must have been through. her family, as we know, has been isolated in a location in northern california. larry hackett told matt lauer earlier this morning that, actually, jaycee provided this photo. this was taken by an independent photographer. that right. why do you think she s going public now, she and her family? i think there are a couple of things. i think she wants to let the world know that she is okay. there is intense curiosity about it. and i think she also wants to sort of relieve some of the pressure surrounding her. people want to see her. she s in hiding. she just getting her own picture out gives her a little bit of control over her story. now, there s not an interview with her. she hasn t granted an interview yet, but a family spokesperson did provide a statement, and she said, i just want to thank everyone for their well wishes and continued support, that, again, coming from jaycee dugard. why isn t she doing interviews right now as well? well, i think she s got a lot of work ahead of her in terms of her recovery, but she released a statement as well, saying she is really happy to back with her family and she wants to let other people know that there is hope out there for them. yeah, amazing. her story s incredible. and we also see in some of the photographs pictures of jaycee with her mother now during that reunion and looking extremely happy together. and the famy spokesperson says they re focused on being a family. so, how are they spending their time together right now? one of the things they re doing, which is so interesting, is they re doing some sort of horse therapy, and it s not like some official therapy, but it s a way for her to spend time with her mother, with her half sister, who she hasn t seen, you know, in 18 years, and with her own daughters. and so, they re riding horses together, they re cooking healthy meals together. they are just spending quiet time together. it s interesting, the horseback riding therapy. do we know about some of the professional care that she s also receiving as treatment? she is receiving some professional care. they are really reluctant to go into the details of that, and i think, you know, there s not a lot of precedent for wha she s been through and what they need to do. certainly not, absolutely. i think this is a first by all accounts. and in some of the photos, you see just the pictures of her daughters from the behind, 15-year-old angel and 11-year-old starlet. what do we know about how they re doing now? we what we know is there are some difficult conversations going on. the man who is allegedly their father is allegedly a violent sex offender, and they have to come to terms with this. and jaycee wanted to show that  her daughters are there with her, but she was reluctant to show their faces. and it sounds, too, as if jaycee is really having to come to terms with this as well. her attorney said that she has been very cooperative with authorities absolutely. and you know, understands that the proceedings against the garridos is going to trial and she s been helping them in building their case. absolutely. there have been some nutty, false reports circulating that somehow she, you know, isn t cooperating with authorities. that is absolutely not true. mm-hmm. needless to say, a lot of healing still going on. absolutely. so, i m sure some day when she tells her story, it s going to be riveting. right. betsy glick, thank you so much. coming up next, time for money 911 and solutions to your financial emergencies. and then later on, find out which of the first four semifinalists will compete for today s kid reporter. 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[ female announcer ] new swiffer wet jet is redesigned. it cleans deep in corners. its solution penetrates layers of dirt and its absorbent pad locks it away to clean bter than a mop. the newly redesigned swiffer wet jet. love stinks! somebody call 911 this morning on today s money 911, expert advice for your money emergencies, whether you re worried about refinancing or those student loans, what you need to know about managing your debt these days. our all-star team today is today s financial editor jean chatzky, personal finance expert david bach and cnbc s personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. good morning, everyone. good morning. good morning. good morning. we are going to begin with a viewer phone call. in fact, we have this from debbie in denver, colorado. she has a question about whether or not to refinance. debbie, go ahead and ask your question. caller: hi. my husband lost his job three years ago. he is the primary wage-earner, and he s been able to find contract positions to keep us afloat. we ve been considering refinancing to lower the home payments, and we have a fixed-rate mortgage at 6% and excellent credit. jean, should debbie refinance? absolutely. if you can find a better rate like that. the problem that you may have is that you are going to have to show a steady stream of income in order to qualify for that refinance. now, you feel like his contract work is tapering off a little bit, i d do this sooner rather than later so that you can show that the income has been coming in. but by all means, if you can lock into a lower interest rate, it will provide you a nice cushion to carry you forward a few more years. caller: now, will we lose our protection that we would currently have with the freddie mac-backed loan? no. you shouldn t lose that protection. in fact, you should go back to your original lender and see if you can refi with them. they re providing in many cases the very best deals. caller: okay. all right, debbie, thank so much. next we have an e-mail from claudette in dallas, texas. she writes i have received several letters recently from collection agencies regarding very old debt from at least five years or more. these offers indicate that i can resolve the matter by paying 10% of the debt and their records will reflect the status of my account with the collection agency as settled in full. it sounds like a good idea. should i do this? david, what advice do you have? we are being bombarded with these offers. plate tell you what this is called. this is a vulture investor. somebody bought your debt. they may have only paid 3 cents on the dollar. the credit card company actually already wrote it off and they re already showing on your credit report as a charge-off. so it s already hurt your credit report. anybody in this situation should do this. go to the ftc website, ftc.gov. what they want to put in the search engine is what s called time-barred debts. that s b-a-r-r-e-d. here s why. you will find out based on your state when the actual bad debt drops off your credit record. now, in texas where she is, here s it s actually already dropped off because it s over four years. so, the reason they re offering her a deal, 10 cents on the dollar, is they actually know you don t have to pay it back. wow. it s already dropped off your credit report. and if you go and pay it right now, it will, in fact, appear back on your credit report. oh, my goodness. so, every state is different. some states are three years, some as far as ten years. so ftc.gov, time-barred debt. important for anybody with debt on their credit cards to know the sittions before they negotiate. that s great advice. people often feel like i owe this money, i should pay it back. that makes sense. and this is one of those cases where you have to be careful. you re not doing yourself any favors. amy in texas writes, my husband has student loans totaling $28,000 that we consolidated a few years ago at a current interest ratef 7.5%. at the time we consolidated his loans, we had very poor credit, which we have since cleaned up. i m not sure if this is a good rate and am wondering if there is a way to get aower interest rate now that our credit has improved out. so, sharon, what is a good rate? well, i m assuming that this is a fixed-rate loan that she got, a federal loan, and that 7.5%, when you consider some of the other options, is not so bad. if she tries to get a home equity line of credit, yes, it may be less than that, but that s a variable rate. if she tries to get a home equity loan, it s likely going to be more than that. so, she s looking at this $28,000 as such a big ticket, but perhaps her credit card debt is even greater than the 7.5%. so she needs to look at what some of the other debts are she has from credit cards to car loans and pay the higher interest debts first. also think of making bigger payments to reduce your interest over the life of the loan, and also, so many people don t do this, but automatically get those payments made from your institution. that can automatically lower the interest rate. so, those are a couple things she should do right away. great. we have another viewer on the phone, tom in kansas city, missouri. what is your question, tom? caller: yes, is there any catch to the high-interest checking accounts that some of the smaller banks are offering, other than the ten debit card transactions and one direct deposit per month requirement? my wife and i are a little skeptical about this, but with them offering up to 5% interest for a lot of the larger banks only offering 0.5% on savings and less than 1% on cds, it would seem to our advantage to open up a checking account with one of these small banks. absolutely. absolutely. and tom, i love this question because we are starting to see great checking account offers, which are really new. checking accounts offer interest rates of 4% or 5%, which are basically unheard of. they do lock you in by saying you ve got to make ten debit card transactions a month, you have to direct deposit your paycheck. and that means for anybody who is going with one of these, you ve got a bigger budgeting challenge, because you want to use this as a savings account. they want you to use it as a spending account. so, you have to keep really good track of your money so that you make sure that you maintain the high minimum payments that a lot of these accounts actually mandate. we ve seen minimum payment requirements of $10,000, $25,000, even $50,000. you dip below that, you re not going to get your interest and you may have to pay a penalty, and that is the rub. also, watch. some of these are tease rates like we used to see on credit cards, and the interest rate may only be there for a very short time. so it may not be worth moving all your money. and also depends on how much you put in it. they ve done the math, figuring out the break point. look, they won t let you put a million dollars in a 5% checking account. they ve figured out how much you ll put in and they re hoping to hit the fees and you don t. and they re hoping you will forget to do all the things you have to do in the fine print so they can charge you the fees. so when the fees start to add up, you have to be very, very careful. there s always a catch. if you re using your debit card ten times a month now, chances are you ll be a good customer for it. one last e-mail from charlie in detroit, michigan. he writes, my spouse lost a high-paying job and my business is slow. with little to no income, we are becoming poor very quickly. we have two kids, debt and a mortgage. can financially strapped people like us use our i.r.a. in order to stay current with our debt without being penalized for early withdrawal? and should we pay our credit card minimums or pay the balances off using money from our i.r.a.? david, what can people do in this situation? the real bottom line is, no, you can t take money out of your i.r.a. penalty-free just because of financial trouble. i don t recommend none of us do taking money out of your 401(k) plan for credit card debt. because you ll lose half of that to taxes and penalty. i don t usually recommend borrowing from your 401(k) plan, either, but that s a last resort if you have to pay down some debt. i would borrow before taking a distribution. i would recommend you make minimum payments on those credit cards. do not tap the 401(k) plan for your credit card debt. i think it s the single biggest mistake americans make with their 401(k) plans. and try to figure out where else you can cut, because the last thing you want to do is touch that i.r.a. last resort. sharon epperson, david bach, jean chatzky, thank you for the great advice. we appreciate it. coming up what happened when we ambushed a busy mom at the mall for a glamorous makeover. yogurt like no other. activia light! delicious, fat free, and above all. the only one that has bifidus regularis and is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. activia light. activiaaa! cold and flu viruses fact: your child could pick up the flu virus, even h1n1, from surfaces. but, lysol disinfectant spray has the power to stop the spread of cold & flu viruses. it s approved to kill more germs than any other brand. it evenills h1n1. lysol is the number one brand recommended by pediatricians. lysol. disinfectant to protect. also use lysol disinfecting wipes to kill flu viruses. morning bob. 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(announcer) you need a sinus medicine ooohhh. that rescues you from all three symptoms introducing new sudafed pe® triple action™. for more complete relief from the sinus triple threat. get more complete relief. with new sudafed pe® triple action™. also find sudafed® behind the counter. town house toppers the only cracker with raised edges. to keep dip in its place. town house toppers part of the town house family. when it comes to toppings, we ve got the edge. town house toppers the only cracker with raised edges. to keep dip in its place. town house toppers part of the town house family. when it comes to toppings, we ve got the edge. casting heartthrob actors in a tv series, never a bad idea, but there s also talent to go along with that as well. in the new nbc hospital drama mercy has one of its own. his name is james tupper. and he plays chris sands, a doctor who s just returned from a tour of duty in iraq, adding a little sizzle to the plot. james tupper, good morning. boy, you guys are host heartthrobs. thanks. thank you so much. lay it out. tv guide voted you one of the sexiest tv stars back in 2007. were you embarrassed by it? did you enjoy it a little? it s a bit odd, but my father called me, what s that about? why are they calling you that? so it s a bit odd. it s not how i saw myself. just for a little background, you re from nova scotia. yeah, i am. you re not your typical actor kind of guy, typical hollywood guy. no. i had this route to my career where i went through this i was a carpenter, a waiter, bartender. i went to drama school. they just wouldn t hire me. but i never caught. finally you re dr. sands on mercy, and he just returned from a tour in iraq. the interesting thing about the character, i think he s kind of lost his place in the world. he went to iraq and had a came back he was from california and he felt he didn t belong anymore, so he went to new jersey seeking a life and a relationship with a woman who s going through a divorce, but of course, her divorce is no longer. she s trying to work on her marriage. so a little of that love drama ensues. love triangle. yeah. we ll be rooting for you. and you just became a father, had a baby with ann. 6 months old. she wanted to call him atlas. i said you can t, they ll kill us in the press. she won. she got it. mercy airs at 8:00 p.m. on nbc. still haven t tried activia? i am definitely a skeptic. my commercials didn t convince you? actually, my mom convinced me. and? activia definitely helped with my occasional irregularity. take the activia challenge. it works or your money back! activia! what if it had a flat bottom? old el paso stand n stuff. true genius. take a look at that, two bald eagles out on a limb on a chilly morning. 47 degrees is our current temperature. 9:26. welcome, everyone. i m barbara harrison. we are following some roadway problems. let s get to jerry. southbound on 395, authorities still dealing with the burned-out hulk of the airport shuttle van that caused a fire at 395 southbound south of duke street. an additional lane opened here or will have it momentarily as soon as we get the cones out of the way. northbound, rubber necking delays. wilson bridge, good news. pretty quiet, recovered from the earlier police chase and crash on the outer loop of the beltway. barbara? we ll check in with tom kierein for a chilly morning. temperatures around the 40s. highs today under a mostly cloudy sky. then, tomorrow, rain likely with a blustery northeast wind gusting to 25 miles an hour and temperatures remaining in the 40s. occasional showers friday, saturday, and sunday and still in the 40s each one of those days. by the first part of next week, we will begin to dry out an warm up back into the 60s by tuesday. barbara? thank you, tom. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, they are screenings that could save your life. some women are skipping their mammograms. find out why it is happening smooth as the hickory wind that blows from memphis down to apalachicola it s hi, y all, did you eat well, come on in, i m sure glad to know that s stephanie stephanie, say that again. mm-mmm. mm-mmm, okay. just our little way of reminding you that a week from friday, country superstar tim mcgraw will be here live to perform on the plaza, and we need you to help pick one of his songs that he s going to be performing. and here are your options. something like that, live like you were dying and red ragtop, all great hits. to vote, head to our website or text your choice to 46833. standard text messaging rates apply. and of course, he ll be performing that winning song live on the plaza. huge crowd, mostly women, a lot of them going, mm-mmm. stephanie, i don t even know if you knew you did that. that was the funniest part. during the commercial break. come on, let s be honest. meanwhile, coming up this half hour, the search for the newest memberf the today family. that s right. over the last few weeks we ve been asking kids from ages 8 to 12 to show us their stuff for a chance to become today s kid reporter. this morning, one of those kids will make it to the finals, and we re going to find out who that will be, just ahead. i can t wait. i know. i m so excited. also in today s kitchen, sam the cooking guy, who prides himself on his non-chef speak, regular guy approach to the kitchen oh, i m going to hurt myself. he ll show you how to add red peppers to everything from soup to eggs and spice things up a bit. plus, the first american to climb all 14 of the world s highest peaks talks about what it s like to conquer the most . okay. k-2. looking forward to that. first, a check of the weather with stephanie abrams in for al, who s on assignment. it was cold in that video, and temperatures will be below average in the northeast and also the midwest. enjoy the 70s and 80s in the south becaç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç#ç a chilly wednesday morning underway. quite a bit of cloudiness. sunshine breaking out. still in the 40s in washington and nearby suburbs. all around the region, in the 40s to near 50 near the bay. highs, only reaching mid 50s. could get light rain late tonight. occasional showers likely tomorrow with a gusty northeast wind an temperatures in the 40s. looks like it is still looking rather wet with chilly temperatures for friday, saturday, and enjoy the sunshine in the northeast, because we have some messy weather headed our way. all right. don t tell us that. stephanie, thank you. coming up next, we ll reveal the first finalist in our search for today s kid reporter. you know when i tickle your belly. and you have that moment of. oh, yeah! well. this. is mine. sprinkled with cinnamon, sparkling with taste. cinnamon toast crunch. enjoy the cinnsation. did you rinse this morning? 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[sluuurrrrpppp!] irresistible. light & fit. great taste, fewer calories. announcer: today s kid reporter is brought to you by carnival cruise lines. it is time to announce the first-round winner on our search for today s kid reporter. on monday, we introduced you to our first group of adorable semifinalists vying for a chance to be a cub reporter and join the today family. where our four semifinalists were isabella, benjamin from kansas, samantha from oklahoma and noah from california. and the response was amazing. more than 20,000 of you voted. so, now, here it is. time to announce the winner. the drum roll. the winner is 11-year-old fifth grader from tulsa, oklahoma, sammy insler, who did her bubble report. sammy, good morning. congratulations! thank you. how does it feel to be named the first-round winner as a semifinalist? i m really excited. i m really excited. thank you. we surprised you. you had no idea this morning, right? no. aww. i think she s a little speechless right now. we were talking, sammy, we re pretty sure your very creative bubbles video report won everybody over. you were so creative. how long did it take you to come up with the idea to do the bubbles and to do some of the special effects you had on your video? well, we really had it all planned out. some of the like, when i was flying off the tree and stuff, that took a while, but it was worth it and it was really fun. and do you make a lot of video reports often? is that something that you envision yourself doing? yes. i love making videos of myself. i think it s really fun. you ve got a great, bubbly personality to go along with all those bubbles. thank you. now, you know that you re going to get to come back to new york and be one of our four finalists, right? yes. so, why should we think of you as our next kid reporter, and what is it that you would like to report on, sammy? i love reporting on entertainment. i love entertainment, and when i m older, i want to be an actress. and so, i think it would be fun to interview people maybe from broadway, go back behind or go backstage behind the scenes of movies and see how all those are made. and i just think it s entertainment. i love entertainment. sammy, you re great on live television, we have to say. you re further along than probably either one of us were at your age. what was it like to go back to school after being in new york and being on the today show? what s everyone been saying to you? everyone s been saying just like one of my friends has been screaming the whole day yesterday. they ve all been saying congratulations, you did so good. a lot of people i don t know walked up to me and just told me how much they voted for me right in my face. so, it was a lot of fun yesterday. i think those votes definitely counted. yes. they added up to over 20,000 votes. you know the competition s going to be tough, though. yes. but we look forward to having you back here. sammy isler, congratulations to you. thank you. she is a sweet young thing she is a star, a budding star, right some. i can totally see her on broadway, behind broadway, you name it. can t wait to have you back here, sammy. next week we ll introduce you to another set of today kid reporter semifinalists. up next, why a guy with a wife and three kids risked his life to climb the most dangerous mountain in the world. mm-mmm. new ship smell! 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[sluuurrrrpppp!] irresistible. light & fit. great taste, fewer calories. well, talk about aiming high. adventurer ed visters was the first american to ascend all 14 of the world s tallest mountains, and now he s compiled his amazing stories of one of the most challenging peaks he s ever climbed, and it s not everest. his new book is called k2: life and death on the world s most dangerous mountain. good morning, ed. good to have you here. thank you. k2 is located in northern pakistan. it s the second highest peak in the world. everest is about 29,000 feet. k-2 is, what, 28,250 feet or so? correct, yes. why is it so much more dangerous? we say it s four times more dangerous than everest, right? well, it s steeper, more technical. it s a harder mountain to climb because of that. and i think because of the allure of k2, people are willing to risk a lot to climb it, and that decision-making is what causes a lot of deaths and accidents. an incredible amount of risk. you say it s the holy grail of mountain yearing. so, why is it what is the appeal, what s the allure? well, i think it s the ultimate test piece of climbing a high-altitude mountain. it s very unforgiving, it s very challenging. it tests you completely. and when you re climbing this mountain, you need all of your skills, all of your concentration, not only to get up, but to get down. and on the descent is where a lot of problems occur, because people use all of their resources just to get to the top. to get to the top. and it s an amazing thing that you have to get down and a lot of people don t think about that. yeah, and when you think about, we talk about the odds. i mean, of the four people who make it, one dies. so, 25% odds that you re not going to make it. and only about 299 people have actually made it to the top, you being one of them. you ascended in 1992. right. and you ve said you actually made a critical mistake. yes. what was that, on the way down? well, it was on the way to the summit, it started to snow very heavily. and we kept pushing on. and i knew that i should turn around, and i kept putting off the decision. and on the descent it was horrendously dangerous. and when i got back to camp, i thought what i did that day was a huge mistake. i should not have gone to the summit. nd y never would advise, i mean, anyone now in that situation. i mean, you ve learned from that mistake. yeah, and i knew i was making the mistake. it was an instinctive thing that i wasn t listening to, and that s an important thing in climbing that you need to listen to your instincts. if something feels wrong, it is wrong and you need to walk away. what does it feel like to reach the top of i mean, if you think about it, kilimanjaro, a ,000-foot mountain, everest, which you ve done seven times, and k2 the one time. what s that feeling like, the mountain where you re really on top of the world? it s very satisfying. i mean, you ve spent a year of dreaming and thinking and planning, and then two months climbing, and then to finally reach that goal, there s a lot of struggle involved, but there s a lot of reward as well. and when you re at the top, it s very satisfying and then becomes very addicting. you want to do it again and again. in the book, you compile a lot of stories, you know, the stories of those who have made it, but there are also stories of people, sadly, who didn t make it. in fact yes. in 2008, 11 climbers died. it was the single greest tragedy in a 36-hour period on k2. so, what is the difference between a successful expedition and then when one turns into tragedy like that? well, i think success is not based on getting to the summit. i think it s about the teams that go, the comradery, and if you walk away from that event as friends, as teams, that to me is a success. there s been some successful climbs on k2 where they get to the top, but at the end of the day, there s lawsuits, friendships are shattered, and that s not the way to do these. and you know, interesting, i know that you spoke recently with ann curry when she was trying to summit kilimanjaro with her team. and speaking of teamwork, one of the team fell ill and they did not make it to the top, and i know you say that she made the right decision to turn back. yeah. they had some qualms. one of the members was feeling ill, and they made a decision based on that, rather than sending that one person down alone, they said we re a team, we re a group, we re going to go down together as well, and that s the perfect definition of a team, is staying together through thick and thin. the leadership and teamwork throughout. yes. well, the book sounds fascinating. and even for those who don t like to climb, i imjin just the life experiences and the stories in this. yeah, that s what we want to convey, the teamwork, comradery, the trials and tribulations of doing this amazing goal which we ca k2. thank you very much, ed viesturs. the book is called k2. what can i say? i love clothes! the only thing better than a great pair of boots. is a bag to go with them! so my girlfriend says, shop tj maxx and i thought, low prices, sure. but isn t it last season s stuff? boy, was i wrong. their buyers deal directly with designers. the savings come directly to me! behold a fashionista. who s now a maxxinista! tj maxx. let us make a maxxinta out of you! this morning in today s kitchen, our hot chef is going wild with roasted red peppers. from sauces to eggs, a jar of roasted red peppers can go a long way. chef sam zine is the author of just a bunch of recipes. good morning, sam. nice to see you. i m flattered with the hot chef thing, but i call myself a cook because right. well, youe cooking something hot, so it works this time. what everybody can do, i can t do. i can t do the fancy tom colicchio type of stuff. you re my kind of chef, then, i like that. i m everybody s kind of chef. this is the deal. roasted red peppers. this is what you have to do if you want to use them. and look it. you have to take them and throw them in a really hot oven. and that doesn t really look that appetizing, i must say. not at all, but you have to take the skin off, so what you end up with is beautiful pepper underneath, or my version, you buy a jar of them already done. did i say i liked you? yes, you did. okay, that s why. you ll open this and drain it right there. we re going to make the world s most versatile don t let them fall out. you can go faster with that. okay. just getting the liquid out. you can buy them with water or oil, whatever you like. okay. got it drained, mostly. okay. any time. all right. i m not fast enough for you now! all right, we re going to put them in here, roasted red peppers, perfect, all done. a jar of the peeled tomatoes. once again, easily purchased in a grocery store. the point is, everything comes out of your pantry. you don t have to worry about it. perfect. a little red pepper flakes. okay. and some salt. perfect. and you re done. you put the lid on and you blend it. and now you have god help us. here we go. that really is about 30 seconds. it s 30 seconds, right? minus my bad draining. okay. and you don t have to think about it. you just keep the stuff on the shelf. what do you use this sauce for? for anything. one of my favorite things to do, and it seems weird, is you fry an egg, grill piece of bread and put it on top. i love that. yum. it s beautiful. and you know what, it s really, really healthy for you. that s fantastic. there is no bad there. little piece of fish. fish, okay. little piece of fish underneath. pick up a piece of fish, and the good thing with the roasted peppers is you can keep them in these little things and freeze them, right some. and freeze them and then take a portion size. put it in the microwave, stick it in the pot. it will melt, it will be perfect. so piece of fish grilled. now this is where you almost cut your hand cutting the bread, right? see, i was watching. thank you. i don t like to rush. so, roasted pepper and bluecheese bruschetta. sounds fantastic. we drizzled that and put it in the oven for a bit, just to get crispy. olive oil. we re going to use our hands. take the blue cheese these are again, store bought. you drained them and chopped them up. chopped them up, exactly, exactly. it s all good. there s no bad here. i want people to eat. i like the all good, i want people to eat. couldn t agree more. and you want it easy and simple and something you can do. i want people to actually do things and quit buying stuff already made. that s ridiculous. see, you can do it. yes. the roasted red peppers, make this last minute, you re good. i love that. you re going to put this in the oven. we ll come back here with our dirty hands. and you have something in the oven ready made. oh, that looks fantastic! beautiful and warm, too. mm-mmm, ready to eat. that will be gone in about five seconds. that smells so good. that really does. and this is what, ten minutes in the oven at 400? maybe five. maybe five, okay. you just want it to melt a little bit. we re going to cut them like this. wow. and we re going to plate them. and those are great appetizers. this is something you can make so simply. this is a genius appetizer. and fairly inexpensive,too. you just buy it at the store, just bread. bread. right. people get worked up about having to do fancy ow, ow, ow did you just cut yourself? i thought you cut yourself. no, it s really hot. ow, ow. your favorite girls. look who s here. just in time for blue cheese bruschetta. it s not the same thing without everybody here. hi. hi. how are you guys? yeah, so, look it. look it. you can do this. you can all take a piece of the bread and do this i m going to be eating while he s talking. what is this? your home away from home. roasted red pepper and artichoke. artichoke bottoms, in the can on your shelf. monterey jack cheese. coming up at 10:00 not that we don t care about you, because we like your show. fashion do s and dont s, something like that. absolutely. the time is 9:55. good morning. i m keith garvin in the news 4 today, it s wednesday. we are looking at a swine flu vaccination clinic available for pregnant women and children starting at six months and young adults up to age 24. health care workers and adults  with chronic health conditions are also eligible. the clinic will be open until noon at the dennis avenue health center. time for a look at the weather. tom? as we look off to the west, we have had some sunshine breaking out after a cloudy start this morning. live picture from our city camera. we do have more clouds on the western hoor oi zoon beginning to move in. this sunshine is not going to last a lot longer. it has certainly been chilly. we are in the 40s all around the region. it will climb into the mid 50s for highs. could get a few light showers late tonight and tn likely showers and blustery winds on thursday with cooler temperatures, only in the 40s. remaining chilly and damp friday, saturday, and sunday. jerry, how is the traffic now? tom, still tough out there in several locations, including 270 southbound. an accident just south of route 28 in rockfield just cleared moments ago. we are looking at delays from montgomery village on down. elsewhere, looking pretty good along 395 northbound. it looks like the lanes are open to and across the 14th street bridge. there are screenings that could save a life. some women are skipping mammograms. find out why it is hey, everybody. thank you so much for being with us it s wednesday. it s matinee wednesday. what are we seeing today? the 14th of october. we re going to see a preview not yet opened up, bye-bye birdie. john stamos is in it. it s supposed to be a lot of fun. i m looking forward to that and the lunch that precedes it. we usually forget what happens after lunch. people magazine is out. it s hitting the newsstands right now. on the cover is a picture of jaycee dugard. jaycee was the little girl. you remember her from the left-hand box. she was kidnapped. at age 11. look at her. she s 29 years old in that picture. she s absolutely beautiful. astonishing to see those pictures. her family decided they wanted to put some pictures out. they had a privat photographer come, give them to people magazine. they knew people were curious about how she s doing, how is she holding up. a picture can t tell a story. that seems to tell an amazing one. you look at her eyes. there are a series of pictures inside the magazine that we don t have the rights to show you yet. but it is in the magazine. she s got those two daughters. one s 15 and one is 11. angel and starlet. the youngest is the exact same age she was when she was abducted. they were saying those kids, they re in school now, are being taught. they say they re at grade level. that means that their mother had been teachin them throughout the captivity. who only had a fifth grade education herself at the time. fifth or six, yeah. she was on her way to school, getting on the school bus when it happened. they said that the family just decided that they wanted people to see them. they know the court s coming up. they wanted to kind of control, which i sort of get. totally, yes. because it s going to be an absolute paparazzi frenzy when that happens. the two daughters, i think, are in the magazie. but i don t think their faces are showing. they fuzzed them out. god bless that family. they seem to be doing wellith a lot of horse therapy. very interesting. yeah. there was another woman who was on the show earlier today. and we were like drop jaw over what happened here. she s a ralph lauren model. 23 years old. gorgeous. has only worked for ralph. i didn t realize. so she was 15 years old. eight years, that s her main deal. here s the story. she s 5 10 . she weighs 120. i m going to repeat that again. think about people who are 5 10 and weigh 120. i m 5 9 . i weigh almost 150. really? that much? stop looking at me like that. horrible. okay. but she weighs 30 pounds less than you know when you just try to get your bearings? right. she says ralph lauren gave her the heave ho because she was too big. she wasn t quite sure, it seemed to me. i guess they terminated her contract before. then she later saw this picture that we re going to show you. this is which upset her very much. look at that. first of all, a head doesn t fit on a neck like that. you know? right. the body s going one way. the arms are going another. the head looks like it s something has gone horribly wrong. yes. that was in a magazine in tokyo. it didn t show in the u.s. when she saw that, and who wouldn t be? do we have a picture of her modelling her real body? she s a beautiful girl. we saw ralph and his wife the other night at dinner. i hope he ll reconsider. there s a statement ralph lauren put out. this is what they re saying now. we consider her an important part of our imaging and branding. we regret our relationship has ended as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us. she says she doesn t understand what that means unless it means that she s gotten too heavy. the only reason she thought that was because then she looked at that picture. she says she hasn t gained a pound. she weighs the same as she did. when 120 is too big, forget it. that s ridiculous. they said she s either a size she s a size 4. did you hear kate was it kate from kate white from kos cosmopolit cosmopolitan was saying earlier, she was talking about how the sample sizes bless you that see, i do care about people. a little. not the granny. somemes you get what you deserve. otherwise no. what was i saying? the sample sizes have gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. therefore the weight of the models has gotten smaller and smaller. so they have to wear the sample clothes. that s the deal. they can t alter clothes for these models. i get a lot of sample sizes over here after they ve been worn. believe me, they ve been taken in a whole lot to be my sample size. i don t understand what that even what sample size means. like a regular person couldn t go into a sample size because it s too teeny. yeah. okay. anyway, that s good to know. that s basically it. now i get it. the good news is, and we hope it works out well for the model. she s lovely. one thing that did wo out well, a we re so we d like to think we had a part in this. people were outraged. outraged. go. the 6-year-old boy zachary got to go to school this morning. zachary kr zachary christie. he showed up to school with a fork, knife, can and bottle opener. their school has a zero tolerance policy. he got upset. we ve got to hear his sound bite from yesterday. because it s so cute. no, i had absolutely no idea this was going to happen. i was just i wasn t thinking about this. i was thinking about having lunch with it. zachary, what have you learned through all of this? to always ask before taking something new in to school. to ask your mom whether it s okay? anybody in the house. anybody that looks over me and stands up for me. oh, oh, oh! love him. they were going to send him to reform school. no! that s what they were going to do. for 45 days! but the school board had a meeting last night. they all voted in favor of letting him go back to school. i m so glad. justice prevailed. it so rarely does in our world. he s so cute. i could heat him with a spoon. it would probably break a rule if it had a knife attached to it. you are very big. you and ms. natalie. and you. please, please, please. you look at this. self magazine triathlon edition. i think you guys were touched up a little bit, too. let me see that. come on! you were. remember what a hot sweaty day it was? yeah. i definitely don t look like that. that s not me. flip it. go to the next page. let s see you. got to come up with a new kind of helmet. this is my favorite, of course, because i m in it. of couse it is. she s got the cheerleading megaphone. they had originally asked me to be a part of it. i looked at them like they were crazy. so you dressed up i don t know if you can s the one by the pool. too tiny to show. i ve got to give a shoutout to the folks at jennifer miller. i always wear the same bracelets. you think no matter what it goes with everything. it sure does. this is one they have for this particular month. this is called what makes this unique is that they put a little breast cancer pink dot on one of them. you re not bathed in pink. can you see it? there it is. it s got a little thing and a little bead. it s also got the it s got the tie. yeah, yeah, yeah. it s beautiful. it s all in here. jennifer miller. 20% of the sales are going to go to the susan g. komen race for the cure. i love her jewelry. this is gorgeous. this new? yes. gorgeous. and you have your own sneakers, missy. you are huge. these are the official hoda kotb new balance. look at that! so i don t forget they re mine. oh, my god. those must be my shoes. those are boats. whoa! somebody s got to have a little fun around here. we didn t get to the lookalike. there s a chicago tv newser. they contributed this to us. what happened was there was a picture of a guy on the cbs billboard. let s look at the picture. he looks oddly like someone we know. the one on the left i don t think so. no, no, no. that s a dorky matt. look matt with his glasses. it s starting to look a little bit more. a little bit more. but not really. matt cannot look bad. that s just my personal opinion. the crush lives on. miss sara, how are you? we re talking about the model that was retouched. christina says we need to be the change we want to see in the world and buy magazines with true to life images. darlene said if we re going to make cartoon stick figures out of models let the human models have a bowl of ice cream once in a while. a mother of three. she got caught in the mall. plus actress christine lahti is here. edition of today s don t to dos. as the holidays near and you spend more time in the stores you re bound to bump into somebody you know. given all the more reason for you to get it together before you do hit the mall. we called in the expert. glamour magazine s expert to spot the perfect glamour don t for a do makeover. hi. we re here at the mall at short hills in new jersey. this is the source where people go to buy their clothes. we re going to look at glamour dos and don ts. let s take a look. are you dressed to? shop. you look like you re dressed pretty comfortably. are these track pants? they re actually scrubs. scrubs. multidimensional pants. i m head to toe in j. crew. i wish more people dressed like you. thank you so much. this is a good example. you look amazing. thank you. what s the bottom situation? these are some juicy couture outfit and some uggs. good on top. disaster on the bottom. you look amazing. you should come work at glamour magazine. i would love to. she would be good. it s cottony. you just threw that on. it s almost as comfortable as a track suit, right? absolutely. this is my best friend from igh school s little sister who i just bumped into today. track suit and dtennis shoes. guess where we re going to go. bloomingdale s? all right! department stores in malls in particular are the best place to shop. it s a sure thing. what are we thinking? feeling pat benatar. it s a shrug. put your hands in. just keep that on. just put no, no, no. not like that. really not taking i m hoping now that i have suzy i have my stylist for the day. she s here with us. hello, dear. hello. you really do go when you o comb the mall, you comb the mall? i m from livingston. when i bumped into my best friend s little sister, i hadn t seen her in 15 years. i saw her, i went you look familiar and what are you wearing? her biggest problems are what? the fact that she has three kids and pretty much put on a track suit that didn t match. you know those crop pants that are wide on the bottom that i don t like. nobody looks even star trek guys look bad in those. they make your legs look really stumpy. the top was boxy. she looked like she was throwing something on. of course she said i never dress like this. let s see the before picture one more time before we bring out jen. let s see what suzy did to you. nice, nice, nice! wow. tell us about that. we actually went into bloomingdale s. they were so great. that necklace is from aqua, one of their private label lines. that s one necklace? that s two. okay. we put her with a tori birch bright yellow cardigan which is going to substitute the track suit top. feeling much better. dark denim jeans always make you look thinner and longer. those are by citizens of humanity. you can squat in them. she s three kids. what about the shoes? the shoes are round toe. we added a little bit of a heel. because they re round toe they re definitely much more comfortable by dolce vida. was that just one of the days you re in the mall, honestly you don t usually go like that? it s very difficult. i have three children. i go to the gym. i have to rush to go pick up my children. there s not a lot of time. your friend s in the kitchen? what do you think of her look. she looks fantastic. you, too! thank you. they were so cute. literal lly strolling their kid together in the mall. it was adorable. thank you so much. up next, christine lahti s surprise for law and order fans. she can be tough. hard to believe she s such a nice woman. right after this. i got problems with anybody who doesn t play by the rules. no, your rules! you act like the law s always stripture. you don t give a damn about the law. you want control. you know me. i know you. i see perps that walk in here every day of the week that got to have control or the whole world falls apart. inside they re scared, weak, damaged! you slapped stabler. what does christine lahti have in common? the award winning inning acd disaster is adding her name to the distinguished list of guest stars stopping by law and order. you are quite feisty in this role. it s a feisty character. i get approached at starbucks with people saying i love your character. me often with this one, i hate you, i can t stand her. but tonight is the big the big crash. the big finale. what is the role you play in law and order. she s the new ada who s come to town to clean up shop. there s a lot of messy detective work from her point of view. she s on a crusade. she s the b word. no. thank you for asking. you know what i mean? she s a piece of work. this show goes on and on and on. 11 years. is it hard to parachute into a show like this that s so established and the people have such a chemistry together, to sort of be the new kid? it was a little awkward the first day. they were welcoming and supportive and inviting. i did feel like the newbie. they re the ones that should feel that brings their game up. they were all really collaborative. the writers were great. it s all about the writing. it really is. you re in four episodes. tonight s the fourth. the last one. you know what? yes. i smell emmy. i smell an emmy. that s what it is. yes. you heard it here. yes, we did. you haven t thought of it. not for a second. in addition to law and order you re busy with other things. how old are your kids? 21, 16 and 16. how are they? they re great. my son s at film school at usc in his last year where your son is. does he want to become a director like his dad and his mom? i don t know. director, writer, editor, compos composer, i don t know. how about just get a job at this point. and the two boys in high school, what are they loving? my daughter and son. they re twins. well, they re music and maybe acting and maybe science. i don t know. whatever their passion is. they re not sure yet. whatever their passion is. i just hope it s not picking up roadkill. that s the only thing. or porno. we re pointing out the love of your outfit, by the way. can we just show the shoes and the whole thing. tell us about your sort of fashion style. you re always just very classic to me and lean. thank you. yeah. i love it. the boots and the whole thing. we re really hoping you come back on broadway soon. you might have a little news for everybody soon. we re going to be hoping it s all affirmative. yes. we love you, christine lahti. i don t care what anybody says. we think you re sawesome. still to come, the former nfl player that put down the fork but turned to the knife and lost almost 100 pounds. after these messages. a huge turnout at a flu clinic. people lined up to be varies nated. we will have a live report. why california s first lady is in trouble for these pictures. what the term nalt since former nfl lineman jamie dukes retired in 1996 he sending him to the scale to about 400 pounds. he had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. but he did nothing to change his failing health. that is until four former teammates died from conditions linked to obesity. now almost 100 pounds lighter and fighting, jamie dukes is a much happier, healthier and much thinner man. he s here along with dr. christine ren, associate profes sor of surgery. that must have been scary to see what happened to your friends. i can imagine that being a real wake-up call for you. it really was. when you think about friends, you also think about the family. i think hast the piece of it that kind of goes unnoticed is the fact that we all have family. we have children. you want to be around. but we also associate athleticism with being in great shape. you guys have to be unbelievable athletes to compete at the nfl level. yep. how did this happen to you, jamie? it s called time. now all of a sudden you have to go to the real world. the wife tells you it s time to be a real father. take your kid to school. as athletes, number one, as a lineman we were trained to maintain our body mass. you got up to 385? at the pro bowl i was probably a biscuit away from 400. i saw on the scale 385. i know you decided it was time to do something. you tried diet and exercise. what worked for you? the realize band actually worked for me and having the bypass procedure. i got tired of failing. what we find in the obesy community is that so often everybody tries 20 or 30 different diets. i d done the south beach and all these things. it wasn t working for me. tell us, doctor, what specifically that procedure is. what happens to the stomach. it s actually a device that gets placed inside your body. it s a band, i have one in my pocket. it s made out of silicone. your body doesn t reject it. that whole thing goes in there? yes. it squeezes your stomach? this squeezes your stomach. it s all inside. you squeeze it be actually accessing this port that s underneath your skin like a little bottom, like a mediport. you put saline in here. it travels into the ring. this is something you have to do on a daily basis? no, no, no. one time you do it? the surgery s one time. you come in once a month for the first six months. it s an appetite suppressant? what are the dangers? sure. i think we ve seen that not having the surgery is more dangerous than having the surgery. this is less than having a gallbladder taken out or taking your appendix out. you re actually placing this around the stomach. it s about 45 minutes to an hour operation. you go home the same day or the next day. it s an outpatient thing? it can be. it s not a magic pill, though. that s what people have to understand. you had to change your behavior as well, with your wife s help, i m sure? no question about it. she s doing a great job. our diet wasn t actually that bad. it was just a matter of quantity. this device basically has helped me with the quantity part. you still exercise and diet. i always use the analogy, this is just one tool. just one. it doesn t change your brain. eating is here. isn t it? it does from the standpoint of this device, for example, sends the signal to my brain that i am full, because what it does, i call it my convenient stopper. as opposed to you can imagine this opening here. if you allow the food just to continue to flow through, for me as an offensive lineman, i m trained on consuming 40 ounce portions no matter what. i didn t get full until i felt full. what this does helps you fill feel. it gives that brain sensation i am full. how much more weight do you have to lose? probably another 15 to 20 pounds. but you re exercising as well? yes. all right. thank you. jamie, we appreciate it. thank you so much. we will be back with more of today right after this. you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, i m telling you why. niemann marcus is coming to town. you could wind up with a giant mobile cup cake yourself. the head cup cake connoisseur at niemann marcus has knethe newes christmas catalog. the greatest thing about these cup cakes is that they re mobile. who can resist a cup cake? it makes you smile. who do you use these cupcakes for, ginger? i think they re just for fun. really they are now i m nervous. but really just for fun. just for fun? yeah. they re really creative. you get to pick whatever cupcake topping you want. do you want me to push you back? please. just a tad. it just needs a reverse thing and it would be perfect. i thought we needed something this christmas that would really make people smile. who can resist a cupcake? i can t see over the props. they re $25,000? $25,000. you g to pick, customize your flavor, anything you want. for that don t you think you should be able to? of course. we ll even wrap it for you. if people don t have that kind of money and they want to get something a little less expensive, the boots over there look good. these boots. $115. they re great for bad weather. what really makes them fun this year is we ve got these liners, the kind of different colors that add some personality and warm them up a little bit those are anywhere from $35 to $45. wish we could see them. what s next, ginger? a set of 12 brag books to put pictures of you all in every month for to send to the grandparents, pictures of the kids. great way to organize. real colorful, real cute. these are great gifts. these colorful tote bags, $75. her stuff is usually a little more pricey. here s a great thing. a gift that does good, too. tom shoes. for every pair that s sold he gives one pair of shoes to a child in need. these range anywhere from $85, $75 for men and women. all kinds of great things. ginger, we re just moving on down the line. moving on down. that s good. the great gift for a man is a bottle opener. what they ve got on here, this is the floor from madison square garden from the 1970s. do you want me to show you? thank you. that s great. good. and for being such good sports, we re leaving these behind for you. these are great lipsticks that come in a case that has a mirror in it as well. that s a great idea. right. i want to see that one. there you go. you need it there? okay. good. you ll never see that again. it s got her name on it. it does? a pair of speakers from juicy couture. aren t those cute? let s hear. play something. that s a nice sound. great speakers. then i i hate to even pull this out. because i feel like you re sitting targets. but this is a great gift what? no, no, no. ginger, do not give them to the floor crew. it s a marshmellow shooter for the executive in your life. a great way to waste time. and we really have a lot of fun with these. but a great gift for anybody. because, again, $55. it comes in a little briefcase. that s adorable. did it work? kate, kate! oh, it didn t come out. it s stuck. it s been in thereoo long. it coagulated. that s a fun one. it s all prices. how much is that one? $55. that s pretty good. we ve got gifts in all a range of prices. almost half the gifts in the christmas book this year are under $250. great quality, but really affordable prices for people giving gift this is year. we showed you earlier in the show the really, really priey gifts. cupcake cars, airplane cars. i try to bring you a little bit of everything each year. and we appreciate it. go, go, go! bye, everybody! what s next? keep going. i m trying. careful. whoa. help us out. help us out. when we come back, skin treatments that will keep you glowing all the way till next christmas. right after this. we re back with today s beauty and prepping your skin for the post summer season. whether you re turning up the heat in the house or spent too much time in the summer sun, dry skin is unavoidable. what i like is we have four different people who have four different issues. and you re going to try to hone in on each one and tell us how to correct that issue, right? sure. what do we have first? first we have annie. what s your skin issue? annie has beautiful skin. yes, you do. thank you. i absolutely love to try new products. and i run out to the store to get the new ones and i always break out when i get them. what s your skin type? sensitive. sensitive skin. what should she do with sensitive skin? annie has sensitive skin. usually people with sensitive skin develop a redness, a ruddiness and an irritation. we usually see it in conditions such as eczema. they flare with change of season when we start seeing cold, dry weather. some of her options are we ve seen an increase in products in the drugstore which are targeted to decrease redness. some of the ingredients include licorice extract, soy. we also can give her some soothing at-home remedies. what is this? this is a milk and water compress. take a bowl with half milk, half water and ice cubes. dunk in and compress the face. what about products that say hypoallergenic? usually means it just doesn t have a lot of the most common ingredients. it s no guarantee you re not going to break out? exactly. drugstore stuff you don t have to go high end all the time. right. if you re seeing a dermatologist you might be described antibiotics to decrease the inflammation also. let s go to our next model. what s your name? te rr terrel. i have oily skin and clogged pores. you can t make a pore smaller. you can make it appear smaller by unclogging it. in terms of drugstore remedies, we usually recommend products that contain an acid that unclogs pores or a granular exfoliating product, a natural botanical exfoliater. it contains ground oli pits. olives are the perfect food in lots of ways. these are also anti-ok daoxi you have retin a as well. can you overdo it? i have oily skin, too. i feel like sometimes you strip it down too much. we have different vehicles. we have gels and creams. certainly with the change of season you might stch from a gel to a cream product. do lasers work? yes. there are laser procedures we can do in the office. for pores we can do peels. what is your name? anita. what s your skin issue. i spend too much time in the sun. like a lot of us. anita has photodamage. it s the term we use to describe the signs we see after chronic exposure to the sun. it s not just the days you ve been to the beach and the pool. it s the years. it s when you re walking your dog, sitting at the window or in a car. we see dryness, roughness, dispigmentation, areas of blotchiness, brown spots, red spots, fine lines and wrinkles. look for antioxidant products. they will counteract some of the free radical damage. the peptides have been shown in the laboratory to stimulate collagen production. if you re going to see a dermatologist you re going to be prescribed a prescription strength retinoid which will smooth the tone and texture of the skin. you can t go back in the sun. certainly you want to use this in conjunction with sun block. i also recommend changing some of your habits, wearing sun block every day, avoiding the sun in the middle of the day. of course not smoking cigarettes or sitting with reflectors. wow. really bad girl. yes, you are. what s your name? what s your skin issue. i have dry skin. especially in the winter. obviously for those who suffer from dry skin, this is going to be the time of year, especially here in new york where you re going to see flares of dry skin. we have the cold dry air outside. steam heat inside. skin will get drier and flakier. the key thing with dry skin is to restore the barrier. we use our barrier function when skin gets dry. we get irritated, inflamed, itchy. look for ingredients that restore the barrier. lipids. now we have prescription barrier creams which are very effective at sealing in the moisture in the skin. and then, of course, there are botanical, natural, at-home products such as those that contain olive oils and the botanical oils. thank you so much. thank you, ladies. very brave and beautiful women. we re going to be back with more of today on nbc. all right. it is time to check in with ms. sara hanes. don t drink while watching the show. we spit out our coffee while watching you in the cupcakes. you re going down. that s what it s like to be tasered. stop it, granny. wow! who put you up to that, sara? i had no idea i was so good with this. we should point out about ambush hits the road. deadline for entries is klgandhoda.com. these are some of the before and afters. they ll come to your door, louis and jill, get you, and make you over. logon to klgandhoda.com to apply. tomorrow our guys tell-all panel. curtis. and the rest. i hope the guy or andrew. false alarm. i am so sorry. that was premature. we ll tell you more about everything tomorrow. apparently we have an issue over here with the young one. we ll get it all straightened out. don t you worry. bye-bye.