Transcripts For WRC Today 20091026 : vimarsana.com

good morning. breaking news. at least 14 americans dead as three choppers go down in afghanistan on one of the deadliest days of the war so far for u.s. troops. national emergency. thousands of people across the country lined up to get the swine flu vaccine after president obama signs that proclamation. why is the vaccine so hard to find? and they re back. after beating the angels 5-2, the new york yankees are headed to their 40th world series, thrilling their fans and frustrating their foes today, thrilling their fans and frustrating their foes today, monday, october 26, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. we begin this morning with that breaking news, three choppers down in afghanistan. we ll go directly to richard engel who s on a plane i believe taking off from afghanistan at this moment. hopefully we won t lose the signal. good morning, richard. can you tell us what s going on? reporter: yes, meredith. if i do lose you, i apologize. this has been a terrible day of several helicopter crashes. i m now in western afghanistan. i was supposed to be in fact on one of those helicopters that did in fact crash. on that helicopter service u.s. servicemen were killed as long with three civilians on a mission in western afghanistan. in a separate incident, two helicopters collided in mid-air in southern afghanistan. four u.s. servicemen killed in that incident. so a very, very significant day. all of these are currently under investigation. so far the military does not believe that they were shot down and it is still under investigation. richard, i understand that the insurgents have said that they did bring down that chopper in western afghanistan but that is n confirmed. reporter: that is definitely not confirmed. the initial indications is that it was not brought down by hostile fire according to senior officials with the u.s. military although it is under investigation. they were on a nighttime operation on a mission to seize some drugs and weapons. we were told initially the mission was a success, and that as they were leaving the helicopters took off, and then one of them crashed and many of the people on board that helicopter were killed or injured. all right, richard engel, thank you so much for your reporting this morning. nbc s jim miklaszewski covers the pentagon for us. mick, good morning to you. what more can you add? what are you hearing from pentagon officials? reporter: well, matt, u.s. military officials say that the two helicopters that went down were involved in a tragic, but simple, mid-air collision, killing four americans. that incident in the west that richard talked about is still in question. the u.s. military that were on that helicopter were engaged just before that in a fierce firefight with the taliban on that counter narcotics mission that richard talked about and the taliban do claim that it was shot down. what s disturbing, however, is that area in western afghanistan saw little, or almost no, taliban activity for most of the eight-year war. yet over the past 18 months, there s been a surge in the taliban numbers. they influence the increasing violence spreading to the west and the north. and it s one of the reasons that general stan mcchrystal says he needs as many as 40,000 additional american forces to try to stop that taliban momentum and turn this war around. when you look at the fact these 14 deaths because of these helicopter accidents and you ve got two other u.s. troops who died there over the weekend, one from a bomb blast, the other from an insurgent attack, 46 americans have lost their lives, mick, in afghanistan in the month of october. a lot of pressure on the white house and the pentagon. and american casualties have soared in the past few months to record levels. and this will obviously add fuel to the political debate here in washington. militarily, it s just sort of another one of those bad days, but clearly, this incident is going to weigh heavy on the political debate not only here in washington, but also on president obama as he nears his decision on whether to send those additional forces into afghanistan. mick, as always, thanks very much, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon this morning. here at home, health officials are fighting a different kind of battle against the swine flu. this weekend president obama officially declared it a national emergency. nbc s chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is here with more on that. nancy, good morning to you. good morning, matt. the government insists this national emergency isn t meant to cause panic. instead, it allows the government to be more proactive when dealing with an increasing number of patients. but still, the h1n1 virus is spreading, and so is public concern. anybody who wants nasal spray? reporter: it was a weekend of so-called swine lines. i did not expect it to be this busy. reporter: thousands of people across the country lining up for the h1n1 vaccine. i m seven months pregnant. i keep hearing the statistics and just worried basically. reporter: so far in the u.s., 46 states have reported widespread flu activity. something the cdc calls extremely unusual for this time of year. the cdc also says more than 1,000 people have died in the u.s. since the swine flu first appeared back in april. and more than 20,000 have been hospitalized. now president obama has officially declared this virus outbreak a national emergency. things are getting steadily worse. more people are getting sick. more people are going to the hospital. more people are dying and we wanted to be prepared in case hospitals got a lot busier or more overwhelmed. we only have 400 and it s all out. reporter: but so far not everyone has had luck with actually getting the vaccine. please come back in november if you don tave it today. come back in november. i heard they were running real low. i didn t know they were going to be that low. as public health officials, vaccination is our strongest tool and not having enough of it is enormously frustrating to all of us. it is cold to be cold. reporter: still, officials insist more vaccine is on the way. something thousands of americans will likely greet with open arms. take a deep breath in blow it out. it s over. game over. the federal government had hoped there would be more than 100 million doses of the h1n1 vaccine by now but as of this weekend, only 11 million doses with available. still waiting for a roll-out but, matt, a long, long way to go. frustrating a lot of people. thank you very much. kathleen sebelius is the secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services. madam secretary, good morning, nice to see you. good morning, matt. good to be with you. this is a procedural proclamation on the part of the president, he calls it a national emergency. it gives hospitals some powers they didn t have before that. when you sit down with your experts, madam secretary, and they look to predict where this is going from here,n terms of the number of people infected and deaths from this virus, what s their best and worst case scenario? well, matt, we know that a couple hundred thousand people are hospitalized each year with seasonal flu and about 36,000 people die. so this is presenting similarly to seasonal flu, and that s the parameters that we re looking at. we re hoping that with an effective vaccine, getting information out to people who are going to minimize that harm and that impact on the american public, and that s why the president wanted us to act quickly. he wanted us to get a vaccine in production and try to get it out to people as fast as possible. but as we know, it is not getting to people as fast as possible. there are a lot of frustrating setbacks here. when the government is promising that it s on the way, is that because the yields from e vaccine makers are spented to improve? or just every day they re making enough that it s going to slowly build up the stockpile? both are happening. yields are definitely improving. the growth yields are better than they were at the start, and as tom fried, the center for disease control dead has reminded up, even if you yell at an egg it won t grow the virus any faster. so we are dealing with lower production at first. we are also dealing with some glitches in new fill-and-finish lines. the good news is those have been corrected. so as of today we ll have a total of 16.5 million doses purnd o pushed out but the vaccine is coming out the door as fast as it s coming off the production lines. are you worried with the rate of infection you re seeing this is spreading very quickly by the time you get a real substantial amount of vaccine out there for people, it could be too late, that the virus will just have spread beyond what you can really handle? well, actually, matt, what we know is that in the spring we had a big wave. at first it died down a littl bit, then we had a second wave. in the 50s, the last time we had a pandemic, the same kind of thing happened. a wave of virus, and then it came back. so we think that six months from the time that the virus was identified, having a vaccine that s effective and ready to go, having a vaccine that really takes effect in only one dose is very good news. i know people are frustrated standing in line. i would be enormously frustrated and anxious. there will be enough vaccine for everyone. you mentioned the spring. i just want to go back. remember in the spring there were some countries in mexico, for example, where they took much more aggressive steps to curb the spread of the virus. they shut down a lot of public facilities. they discouraged large gatherings of people. is there a contingency plan in this country, a level of infection where we have a plan like that that will go into effect? what we didn t know in the spring, matt, was how lethal this virus was going to be. it s unfortunate and tragic that we ve had about 1,000 deaths. but frankly, this is not presenting in most people to be a seriously lethal disease, and that is good news. so right now, the public health officials weigh toward keeping schools open if there is enough personnel to do that, keeping people at work, healthy people at work, not shutting down things but asking sick people to stay home and try to contain the disease that way. washing hands and coughing, it s dangerous for kids often to not be in school, to not have a safe place to go, to not get fed on a regular basis. so knowing that we can contain this disease through vaccination and through mitigation, we re trying to lean toward keeping the business going. all right. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius, madam secretary, thanks for your time this morning. good to visit with you. coming up a little later on, dr. nancy snyderman will be back to answer your questions about swine flu. now let s get the rest of the morning s top stories from ann curry over at the news desk. good morning, happy monday, everybody. we begin with the rising death toll from massive bombings in baghdad on sunday. now official say at least 155 people died in the deadliest bombings there in two years. nbc s george lewis has more now. reporter: today, baghdad is on the edge. after this. two automobiles filled with high explosives detonated by suicide bombers. witnesses said security forces began to fire their weapons randomly. the target iraqi government buildings and what was thought to be a fairly secure area near the green zone that houses the u.s. embassy and the offices of iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki. nobody is claiming responsibility for this attack, although it bears the likely trademark of sunni muslim insurgents who are trying to topple the government dominated by shiites. this is hugely embarrassing to prime minister maliki. he s been taking down blast walls, opening roads to traffic near government installations, campaigning on enhanced security as his contribution. reporter: prime minister maliki toured the damage as his office said the attacks were designed to cause chaos in iraq and stop elections scheduled for january. president obama released a statement saying, these bombings serve no purpose other than the murder of innocent men, whip and children. but the bombings do make a statement of their own as the insurgents in iraq have not gone away. george lewis, nbc news, london. police in florida are investigating the death of jeffrey pickhauer, man accused of profiting by more than $7 billion from bernie madoff s investment schemes. he was found at the bottom of a pool at his florida home on sunday. police are investigating it as a drowning but say nothing has been ruled out. the u.n. world food program says more than 1 billion people around the world are now what it calls urgently hungry because of a global food crisis due largely to the economy. that is the highest number it has ever recorded. a big jump in gas prices. they re up almost 18 cents in the last two weeks to an average of $2.67 a gallon for regular, according to aaa. it will be the phillies and the yankees in the world series. last night the yankees beat the angels 5-2 to win the american league title 4-2 games. it is the 40th time the yankees have advanced to the world series which begins wednesday night in new york. it is now 7:14. let s turn back to matt, meredith and al. so a lot of happy people here in this studio. the birds seemed to chirp a little loude this morning. for you as well? look, as a die-hard red sox fan let me be the first to say to you congratulations. i don t want to o touch you. i just said congratulations. the wall s right here. congrats. yeah, yeah, go phillies! we still have some problems in the studio. eric s last day today. but anyway aw, man! let s take a look, see what s going on. down in texas they re not worried about the world series, they re worried about the rain. last two months above normal. almost five inches in houston. seven. flash flood watches from dallas to san antonio, uston. they extend down into louisiana, parts of arkansas. rachl amoun rainfall amounts anywhere from three to five inches of rain but some areas could pick up as much as seven ieven inches of good morning. here, we have a technicolor sunrise underway. temperatures in the low and mid 40s. rural areas, mid 30s. patchy, dense fog near the potomac and other rivers. for the rest of the day, partly sunny, highs, mid 60s. drizzle tomorrow morning. during the afternoon, a passing shower is possible as well as that s your latest weather. al, thank you. federal investigators are hoping for more answers today as they try to figure out why that northwt airlines jet remained out of communication for more than an hour as it overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. nbc s tom costello covers the aviation industry for us. tom, good morning to you. reporter: hi, meredith. there s been a lot of speculation that the crew fell asleep though they deny it. investigators talked to both the pilot and co-pilot in minnesota yesterday. both men faced the prospect of losing their pilot s license over this episode. with the faa and ntsb piecing together the strange story of northwest flight 188, the central question remains, what could have so distracted the crew to keep them out of radio contact for an hour and 20 minutes, and how did they fly right over their destination of minneapolis and keep flying for another ten to 15 minutes until doing a u turn over wisconsin. on is under the pilot and co-pilot met with federal investigators. what s at stake for these two pilots is their career. they re going to have to confess everything they did from the time they got on that airplane until the time they landed that aircraft. reporter: all along the crew has insisted they never fell asleep. they simply lost track of where they were. nobody was asleep in the cockpit. no arguments took place. but other than that, i cannot tell you anything that went on. reporter: if nobody fell asleep, then why did they fail to respond to denver and minneapolis air traffic control? the controllers insist they tried 13 times to reach the crew. they used methods using emergency frequencies, other frequencies, trying to see if maybe the aircraft was monitoring, but had a transmitter problem. reporter: investigators will also look at whether controllers gave the crew the proper radio frequency and whether the crew confirmed it. the cocit voice recorder might not provide the answers investigators want since it only captures the last 30 minutes of flight, the period after controllers had already re-established contact. so was the crew sleeping or just tuned out? there is a story here that will make sense to the aviation community, and there are definitely lessons to be learned as well. not only with the flight crew but i think probably with air traffic control procedures as well. reporter: among the questions that remain, were both crew members in the cockpit or did one leave for the restroom? was the radio on, the overhead speaker, in the cockpit up above and turned on loud enough to hear? whatever happened that raised enough concern that the white house situation room was monitoring developments with national guard fighter jets standing by. meredith, they take this stuff very seriously. as well they should. nbc s tom costello, thank you very much. 7:18. once again, here s matt. this morning, investigators are combing through more than 1,000 tips in the murder of 7-year-old somer thompson. she was snatched last week as she walked home from her school in northern florida, this as mourners gather today to remember the beautiful little girl. nbc s mark potter has more on this. mark, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you, matt. for the next two days, this community will officially mourn the loss of somer thompson with a public visitation tonight, and the funeral tomorrow. meanwhile, over the weekend, there was an outpouring of support for her family. on sunday in orange park, a large crowd came to a fund-raiser to support somer thompson s family. among them, valerie copes and her family. oh, my gosh, my heart just goes out to them. it s just so close to home. reporter: also there to sign a memory book for 7-year-old somer was 8-year-old grace valez. i just want them to know that everything s going to be okay and that hopefully the police will find the person that did that. reporter: grace s father says after somer s death, he s been warning his children to b very careful around strangers. they are animals out there. not even animals. i wouldn t describe them as animals monsters out there that look like people. reporter: also at the fund-raiser was the rock group molly hatchet who auctioned off an autographed electric guitar. our hearts go out to somer s family. that s what brought us here. we drove through the night. reporter: as for the homicide investigation, police say they are still working around the clock and have contacted more than 2,000 people, interviewing 50 of them in person. those are people not necessarily who we consider suspects, who, though, for some reason we feel may have that information that would help with the investigation. reporter: investigators have now completed their searches at a vacant home near the area where somer disappeared a week ago walking home from school, and at the georgia landfill where her body was found last wednesday. materials from both locations are being analyzed now at a state crime lab. now as of last night, police are still saying they have not identified any persons of interest or a suspect. matt? mark potter in florida for us this morning, mark, thank you very much. still ahead here on a monday morning, a young people wakes up in their bedroom to find a car on top of them. amazingly, they survived. they ll share their harrowing still ahead, why you could get penalized for paying your credit card in full. the kayaker that plunged over a seven-story waterfall after your news. good morning. welcome, everyone. i m barbara harrison. the time right now, 7:26. in the news for today, the d.c. council will begin hearings on legalizing gay marriage. they held a rally yesterday on freedom plaza. voters are angry that the d.c. council already voted to rec nooiz gay marriages performed elsewhere. the redskins pick on the philadelphia eagles at fedex field. it will be the first game with offensive consultant sherm lewis calling the plays. if you are going to the game, the morgan boulevard metro station near the stadium will be open one hour later. we will be back with weather ool cloudy and chilly. rain is possible tomorrow evening and off and on on wednesday. how is the traffic, jerry? eastbound i-66 jammed. earlier accident, out of the roadway. other than that, we are looking pretty good. lanes open at the wilson bridge and 270. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, th 7:30 now on this monday morning, the 26th day of october, 2009. beautiful day here in the big apple. our friends out on the plaza with listening to rod stewart sing a tune off his new cd, so soulful. i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. in just a moment, the young couple who woke up to find a car on top of them while they were lying in bed. they actually feared that they would be burned alive. they are here for an exclusive interview in just a moment. this happened just a week ago and look how great they re doing. it is amazing that they are alive. none the worse for wear and tear. you know the old saying no good deed goes unpunished? coming up, why even the best credit card users could get socked with new fees. that s right, being responsible, paying off your bills might end up costing you. we ll tell you about that. later on, taking the plunge. the extreme kayaker who decided to shoot off a 69-foot waterfall into -degree water. what s worse? the fall or the landing? anyway, we ll meet that person in just a little while. we ll begin with the nevada couple who got the wake-up call of a lifetime recently when a car mashed into their home in the middle of the night and landed right on top of them in bed. here s nbc s lee cowan. reporter: we see it so often, it is almost as if buildings are leaping out into traffic. cars, school buses, even 18-wheelers are ending up in living rooms with an uncomfortable regularity. but this violent parking job in sparks, nevada last week is truly a remarkable story of survival. i ve seen cars into houses before but this is the first time i ve seen a car all the way in the house. reporter: it happened just after 4:00 in the morning. trent wood and kristin palmer were asleep when their home shook. police say this man, eric cross, was driving drunk on a suspended license when his car careened, up over the foundation, trashed a couple s study and kept going, right through their bedroom wall. but it s the crime scene photos that show the real nightmare. the car ended up on the couple s bed, pinning them underneath. the front wheels parked on the pillows, the searing hot engine just inches from their faces. they feared it would burst into flames. then engine fluid started leaking out. the car s exhaust pipes began scorching the couple s legs. rescuers had to keep them calm while they tried to gently lift the car off the bed. as soon as the male got out from under the car, he actually gave me a hug and said thank you. reporter: it took 45 minutes. but when the couple was finally carried to a waiting ambulance, they left with only minor cuts and burns. trent and kristin came back to look at the damage by the light of day and seemed overwhelmed with just how close they came. a nightmare in the middle of the night that was all too real. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. trent wood and kristin palmer are here for an exclusive interview along with the man who helped lead the rescue effort by the sparks fire department, carl blinco. good morning. starting with the two of you, obviously it is amazing you are alive. i m watching you watch that piece. i think you re still in a state of shock. oh, definitely. i mean it s so surreal. it s like a dream. i mean it was unbelievable when it happened. i mean completely i don t know, what do you think? it was tuesday. take us back to tuesday. you re asleep in bed. it is 4:00 in the morning, 4:11. this car comes crashing through your home, goes through your home study and lands on the bed eventually. did you have any idea what was going on or did you wake up with this thing on top of you, kristin? i pretty much woke up with it on top of me but before that i remember the shaking of the house and the noise and then just a weight. it was just like just came right down on top of us and i actually thought it was an earthquake and the roof fell on us. i don t know how long it took but i definitely went into panic mode after that and started screaming for help. could you see her from where you were? you were lying next to each other. i couldn t. because we were in between both tires and like the radiator, like part of the grill was smashed into the back of the headboard so i couldn t see her at all. we were on the outsides of that which was crazy. if we were inside of that meanwhile, dripping on you is gasoline? is that right? gas, and like transmission fluid stuff just i think i got more of the oil part and she got more of the like burning the hot part of the fluid and stuff which had some burns on her face and everything but, yeah, it was crazy like spitting it out. at first your first reaction is i hope it doesn t blow up. because or start a fire because we re stuck under here. i don t know how long it is going to be. but one of the biggest things was once we heard help arrive and everything, we just, okay, we got to keep calm, save our energy. absolutely. carl, you ve been in the business now of rescuing people for 22years. had you ever seen anything like this? no. i ve seen a lot of cars into buildings but this is the first time i ve seen a car all the way insi the building. the rear end of the car was 10 or 12 feet inside the building. i can imagine trying to lift this car up. you ran the risk of it falling back down and crushing these two. that s correct. it could have happened two or three different ways. we ended up clearing all the debris out first which took half the rescue time and then setting up the rescue and lifting the car up and away from them so that they could we could did you fear the worst, carl? yes, i did. any wrong move the car could have slipped off the bed, the car could have shifted on the debris pile. there was so many things that could have happened to make it worse. in the 42inutes that it took for them to rescue the two of you, how were you keeping each other calm? what s going through your head? he was actually keeping me calm and he was surprisingly i mean i remember him saying, we have quite a story to tell everyone. and i m thinking, oh, my gosh, what are you doing? he was awesome to have under the car with me for support, because without that, i mean i was in shock and i actually had my head lodged up in the engine somewhere and it was kind of crushed in between two things in the engine and i was pretty uncomfortable. i know your legs were pinned as well. when that car was finally lifted off you we re running out of time, so i m going to cut to the chase the fact that had you to few injuries was miraculous. what is the extent of the injuries that you have? you both look great. just a minor burn on my leg, hers is i think a second-degree burn. just a few scrapes and cuts. bruises. that s it. that is changed the way you look at life at all, kristin? yes, it has. i still can t believe that we re alive. i m just watching all that, it is a miracle that we re alive. definitely we had that chance under the car, we were thinking am i going to live or not. it definitely changes your perspective. i know before we go, you have a lot of friends and family and strangers that helped you and you wanted to reach out and say thank you. oh, yeah. i mean where to start. like some of our close friends actually showed up right at the scene. erin, lauren, danny, bubba, ashley bubba, too? these are actually aaron s clothes. we re staying at their house. his sister s sacrificed her bed for us and everything. the community s been great. they gave us like a free storage to kind of salvage whatever we could and stuff. so everyone s been great. i d like to thank my friend jennifer, too. she was there for me. i stayed at her house for a while. officer hines. she actually stayed by the car and held my hand most of the car i was underneath the car. i know you ve got a lot of pieces to pick up in your life but at least you re both alive. thank god for that. thank you both very much and carl as well, thank you for joining us. amazing. now let s get a check of the weather from mr. roker. what a miracle. thanks, meredith. we have a sweet 16. her name s matdy. this is your aunt and mom? yes. you like like sisters. boise, idaho. it must shall the potatoes. right? let s check the weather. for the week ahead, above-normal temperatures up around the great lakes, rain in the pacific northwest, below normal temperatures texas on into the plains, wet weather down there. mid-week, the rain continues down in texas on into the lower gulf coast. rain in the mid-atlantic. mountain snows as well in the pacific northwest. below normal temperatures in the southwest. then the week ahead, we re looking at above-normal temperatures in the east. good morning. partly to mostly cloudy on this monday morning. it s a chilly start as well. around the region, we have temperatures in the low to mid 40s, right near washington. the nearby suburbs farther west and north, mid 30s. low 50s near chesapeake bay. partly sunny and cloudy tonight. 50s for the game. tomorrow, a little drizzle in the morning. otherwise, cloudy and highs up don t forget to check your weather any time of the day or night on the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. got some rod stewart fans for you in the next ur. meredith? al, thank you. still ahead here on today everything you need to know about the swine flu now that president obama has declared it a national emergency. but up next, think you re the model credit card customer? why you could pay the price for being responsible right after this. we are back. this morning on today s money, new credit card fees. guess what? some credit card companies might be charging you for being a good consumer. cnbc s personal finance expert carmen wong ulrich is here to explain this. this isn t good news, carmen. no, this is bad news. before we talk about the specific fees coming up, what s the timing on all this? it is interesting timing. first, default rates. credit card companies are looking at default rates more than double of what they re used to. we re talking about 10%. folks are not able to pay their credit card bills. in the past it was maybe 3%, 5%. losing a lot of business. then debit card use. for the first time last year debit card use outpaced credit card use first time ever. folks are not using their credit cards if they don t have to. basically all the people who s listened to your advice and other experts advice over the last several years about paying down their bills, paying on time, don t run up huge balances, they re the ones getting socked. start about this first category, if you pay your bill off in full every single month, they re coming after you. yeah, they re coming after me. that s what i do. that s what we advise people to do. this is being a good user of credit cards. they re coming after you if you use your credit card like i do, for rewards, points, cash back. you pay it off in full every month so they re going to sock you with an annual fee. a big one. because they can t make money on interest off of you if you re paying your bill in full. they make money off one side of the transaction, the merchant. the mer chabchants pay a fee fo use. right now bank of america is putting this into place. they call it an experimental fee, $29 to $99. that s very expensive for not carrying a balance. the next scenario, you re careful with your credit cards. you don t let your balance get up too high. you could be targeted as well. absolutely. if you re not carrying a big enough balance. you have to carry a certain amount or you get socked with this fee. this is a revolving balance. it is not as if you charge a certain amount, say $2,000 a month, pay it off. $2,000. you have to keep this revolving balance. when y dip below you get charged this fee. citi is going to instate this. the balance is $2,400. this is another $29, $39 fee. there are also people out there who just like to pay in cash and they have a credit card or a couple of credit cards but they only save them for emergencies. they basically never use them. and now if you don t use your credit cards you re going to get socked with a fee as well. i have to keep my eyes open on my mail. here s the thing, there are a lot of cards that you keep open for credit history but they re not in your rotation in your wallet. this is an inactivity fee. they may come after you and say you have the card open, you re not using it. we ll charge you a fee for just having it. just sounds like the solution here is grab a pair of scissors and cut that card up. but then the account is still open and if it is an old card with history you don t want to cut those cards up or cancel them because it really affects your credit score. if you start to notice you re being charged more fees, first, find out why you re being charged. use card but don t carry a balance. weigh the cost of having the card and close new cards and shop around. you have to call an ask and really find out why they re charging you this fee. because then that shows you what you can do to avoid the fee. is there a way to just are there people who aren t instituting these new fees? sure. first, shop around. 80% of credit cards still don t have these fees. even in advanc of the card fact february, there are still many cards out there for you. especially credit unions. go to ncua.gov. find a credit union. no fees, great rates, 8.9%, 9.9%. when do these fees go into effect? they go into effect now. great news. it s great! carmen wong ulrich, thanks very ch. up next, the fall guy. the kayaker who took a 69-foot plunge over a frigid waterfall. how did he fare? we ll talk to him right after this. strap yourself into a kayak, shoot over a waterfall and drop the equivalent of seven stories into 35-degree water. sounds like fun, right? well, for a group of dare devils it was a dream come true. luke spencer is one of only a handful of these extreme trips. the photographer who was on hand for the occasion is also here. good morning to both of you. luke, what made you think, a, that you could do this, and, b, that you wanted to do it? you know, for me practice, years of practice, working up to it was kind of what motivated me to do it. your most successful up to this had been about 50 feet. right? that s correct. why i wanted to do it that day, just everything i saw looked good. the lip looked good. the landing looked good. how could the landing looked good? it s seven stories down and the water s 35 degrees. what did it feel like free falling? you know, it s a weightlessness. it s there s a lot of focus involved so it s very quick. it s very quick. how fast are you going when you hit the water? i mean we estimate maybe 40, 50 miles an hour. something to that tune. i like when it said here in the notes meredith and i were reading, it says because of the force of the falls and the way the water hits the bottom, it creates kind of an airy, softer water feeling. it still had to hit pretty hard when you hit though. right? absolutely. it s a very hard hit. you did some damage. i did. i injured some ribs on both sides and possibly broke them or separated them. jim, what is the fascination with this for people? you are the photographer. i think from a visual perspective, it s very spectacular and intriguing so it really catches the eye of the viewer and so it s kind of what the media coverage of kayaking is definitely focused in the past few years on the bigger and bigger waterfalls. these images are really sensational. looks like nobody should be able to do that. luke, i was reading it says although this is basically 70 feet, somebody has taken a kayak on 186-foot drop? yeah. it is a pretty tight-knit community out there in the kayaking world. tyler brat, a friend of ours, in washington, 186 feet to set the world record this last summer. how far do you think you can push this sport? that seems like a lot right there, 186 feet. that s a big question. a lot of kayakers are asking that same question. we don t really know right now. it s up to somebody to find out and run it and see what happens. were there a lot of other people around there? were you one of the few people? there were about a dozen of us out there that day. it s a bit of a production involved. you need several people in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall in their chi yacks in case the kayaker ends up hurt and unable to help themselves at the bottom. there is of course a few cameramen, a few video cameras and that kind of thing. cool stuff. we re happy you re okay relatively. relatively speaking. thank you. you re next. yeah, yeah, right. we ll be right back after your local news. cloudy skies out there. some sunshine getting through this early monday morning. 46 degrees. the temperature is 7:56. good morning, everyone. welcome. i m barbara harrison. in the news at this hour, meeting held in prince george s county to discuss the possibility of extending public transportation into the southern part of the county. that could mean extending the yellow line across the wilson bridge to oxen hill or the planned purple line down to the national harbor. the hearing will be held at 7:00 p.m. a swine flu vacination clinic will be held at prince william county in the manassas mall. only the nasal mist will be distributed to healthy people ages 2 to 50. tom will tell us if the clouds are going to bring rain today. not today. to the west and north, sunshine. to the east, cloudiness and low to mid 40s in washington south and east. west and north, only in the mid 30s. partly sunny for the day. highs, low and mid 60s. cloudy tonight in the 50s for the game. tomorrow, a little drizzle in the morning. perhaps an afternoon shower. a likelihood of tuesday and evening showers. how is the traffic now? from frederick to rockville, heavy and slow. all the travel lanes are open making the drive down to the split beltway north of down looks good. 95 north of virginia, no hang ups. we are zipping along from newington to the capital beltway. sg. tonight on news 4 at fooifrks the redskins versus the eagle. we you re sweet like a honeybee and like honeybee stinks you left my heart in pain our favorite song the one we danced to all night long it used to bring sweet memories out of tender love that used to be now it s the same old song that was a cool way to start an hour. that is the legendary rod stewart in our studio right now singing same old song, the legendary singer is covering classics from the 60s and 70s on his new album which is called soulbook. it hits record stores tomorrow. he is going to sing another song for us live in our next half-hour. how cool is rod stewart? there are some great, great songs on this album. he has some great guests appearing with him on the album. he said some of that music inspired him. it was the music we all grew up on. very cool. looking forward to talking to rod in a little while. outside on the plaza, nice day today. nice to see you folks. matt lauer, ang with meredith vieira and al roker. coming up, we ll talk more about h1n1, or swine flu. it is now affecting people in some 46 states, all across the country, 1,000 deaths related to this flu so far. we re going to answer your questions via phone, e-mail, skype. dr. nancy snyderman joins u in this half-hour to talk more about the swine flu. when you think of comfort food like meatloaf for mashed potatoes it s not good for you. but if you change a knew ingredients, it can be heart healthy. can you have that meal tonight and it will be healthy for your heart. meetloaf and mashed granola. right? no, we won t change it that much. later on, we ll have advice for women on how to make sure you balance the work load in your home so that your husband or boyfriend doesn t get a free ride. yeah, good luck. i don t see anything wrong with that. here we go again! let s go inside right now. ann is standing by at the news desk with a look at all the headlines of the morning. ann? thanks, matt. good morning, everybody. we begin with sad news. the military says at least4 americans have died in separate helipter crashes today in afghanistan. at least ten people, including civilians, were killed when their helicopter crashed in western afghanistan after a battle with insurgents and two helicopters collided in southern afghanistan killing four u.s. troops. meantime, in iraq, funerals are being held after the worst terrorist attack there in more than two years. twin suicide bombings on sunday killed at least 155 people, many of them civilians. the bombings tgeted to government buildings near the highly secure green zone. this morning health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius said that there will be enough swine flu vaccine for every american. hundreds of people have been lining up at designated health clinics across the country to get the h 1 m 1 vaccine now that president obama has declared it a national emergency. the government had hope there would be more than 100 million doses of the vaccine by now but as of today, secretary sebelius says about 16.5 million doses are available. this morning, authorities are investigating the death of jeffry picower, a long-time friend of convicted investment swindler bernie madoff. picower was found sunday in the bottom of his pool at his florida mansion. investigators accused him of making more than $7 billion in profit from madoff s schemes. melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange. focus today is on oil. that s one of the main focuses, ann. opec said earlier today they ll increase production at their december meeting if they see the price of oil go over $100 a barrel. they of course control one-third of the world s oil. also there is a new economic study out this morning that shows that more businesses plan to hire rather than fireworkers in the next six months. they all say they see demand increasing this quarter for the first time in five quarters, and the earnings parade continues with verizon today. ann, back to you. melissa francis, thanks so much. a wildfire burning in northern california s santa cruz mountains ishreatening about 250 homes and businesses this morning. at least 60 homes have already been evacuated. a large rock slide caught drivers by surprise sunday on a north carolina highway. a huge boulder, some as large as houses, crashed on to interstate 40 causing several accidents and at least one injury. and some nail-biting moments in china over the weekend when the man known as the prince of tig tightrope walking walked across a 1,700 foot tightrope suspended 1,3 pun feet above a gorge in china s yunnan province. he had no safety harness but he made it safely across. it is now five minutes past the hour. let s get a check of the weather. thank you very much, ann. where you guys from? minnesota. having a good time? yes. had you to think about that for a second. but yes on further reflection, yes, you re having a good time. all right, let s check your weather, see what s happening. pick city today, greenville, south carolina. wiff, nbc 4. mixed sun and clouds. 64 degrees. temperature departures today anyway from 10 to almost 20 degrees down through texas but warmer in the northeast. also out west. highs today 40s and 30s in the rockies, 80s and 90s in southern calica good morning. peak autumn color around our region west and north of washington where there is more sun this morning. quite cloudy in washington, temperatures a bit milder. 30s farther west and north. 47, washington. afternoon highs into the low and mid 60s, partly cloudy tonight. maybe a little drizzle in the morning. perhaps a passing noon shower. showers are likely tuesday and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. up next, dr. nancy snyderman answers your questions about the swine flu. and that is right after this. we asked my niece if she agrees ocean spray craisins, eetened dried cranberries, are sweet. we ll take that as a yes. craisins the sweetest way to eat a cranberry. don t come til december. with sears layaway, you can lock down deals today - and pay over time. - elf: layaway! all right! - guys, we re here for santa! - whee! announcer: layaway today, pay over time. that s life. well spent. sears. well-informed people are considering chevy malibu. you a cop? no. you didn t hear it from me but this malibu it offers better highway mileage than a comparable camry or accord. estimated 33 highway. i saw that on the epa site. so how come the malibu costs so little. it s a chevy. you have cop hair. now qualified buyers get 0% apr for 60 months on 09 or 2010 malibu models. that s an average finance savings of around forty six hundred. there s never been more reasons to look at chevy. (to the tune of do your ears hang low? ) does your nose go to the do your side? t wide oes your elbow have a crinkle? do your knees sorta wrinkle? does your chest tend to freckle? do you have a croed smile? do your eyes. .sit wide? do your ears sorta wiggle? does your hair make you giggle? does your neck grow long? do your hips sing a song? do your ears hang low? vodove and walmart. find real beauty for less. this morning on call with dr. nancy, everything you need to know about the swine flu. now that the president has declared it a national emergency, what does it mean for you and your family? our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is here to answer youress. nancy, good morning again. before we get to viewer questions, talk about exactly where we are right now, what do we know about this virus? this virus is in all 50 states. 46 of them with very robust outbreaks. it is affected more than thousands of people. 1,000 deaths. 20,000 hospitalizations. primarily still a youngster s disease because this hasn t been seen in young kids before and so far, as you and i have talked about, the frustration, 16 million doses out of what we thought might 1b be 100 million. the question about vaccine and the supply. trish from bud lake, new jersey is on the phone. what s your question for dr. nancy? good morning. i m the mother of three children, ages 1, 8 and 11. for weeks i ve been trying to get my kids the seasonal flu vaccine as well as the h1n1 vaccine. every time i call my pediatricians office they tell me that they haven t received their supply and they give me a new date that they hope to have it by. however, when i go to my local supermarket, they re hosting clinics for adults. why are pediatricians not receiving a supply of the vaccine to protect our children? i think you have just hit what has been the biggest frustration in all of this. this is a communication breakdown between the federal government and people. flu.gov is still the best website but this whole distribution idea of doctors, schools, local clinics changes from geographic area to geographic area. indianapolis, nashville, tennessee, they got their supplies weeks or so ago. now just being rolled out in other communities. frustration is still going to last for a couple of weeks. just keep calling your local health department for the best information. trish, does that answer the question? i think so. thank you very much. thank you for your call. we appreciate it. that is you see in some places they re pulling people out of line saying we ll only give it to children. other places they re only giving it to adults. there is a double whammy because the h1n1 slowed down proz shun of regular seasonal flu, too. you and i need regular seasona flu shots, our kids need h1n1 and the regular flu shot. skype, gary in atlanta, georgia. gary, what s your question for dr. nancy? good morning. can you catch the h1n1 after you ve already gotten it? if this virus does not mutate and it does not appear to, if you get an infection, you have immunity. that doesn t mean you re not going to want your flu shot next year because there will be other components to it. but if you ve had the flu, this one strain, yes, you should be protected for the rest of the fall. how long does this particular strainast if it doesn t get complicated and go into something more serious? if it mutates all bets are off. so far it hasn t. but remember this is dribbles from spring through summer, now fall. we don t know. it could dribble right back into the spring again. let s make it less about my questions, more about our viewers questions. karen out in the crowd, good morning to you. what s your question for dr. nancy? hello, dr. nancy. i was wondering if you could tell me the difference between a seasonal flu symptoms and the swine flu symptoms. they re exactly the same. aches, pains, deep cough, fever. so remember that h1n1 is really just a component o the flu. every year the world health organization tries to figure out what s going to be in a flu shot. if h1n1 had appeared earlier in the year, it would have just been a normal component of the flu shot and we wouldn t be so confused. same symptoms. karen, thank you very much for that. let s go to an e-mail from carmen in sparks, nevada. she writes, is it true if you gargle twice a day with warm saltwater you can prevent proliferation of the h1n1 virus? i m hearing all these rumors and just want to know if there is anything i can do to protect myself while i wait for the vaccine. again, that s carmen in nevada. gargling with saltwater does nothing. doesn t really take away pain, doesn t kill anything, does nothing. when you gargle you sort of close off your lower throat so you don t choke on the water. it can t even get to the deep parts of the throat. salt doesn t do anything. until you get a vaccination, it still comes down to the same old things. washing your hands, sneezing into your elbow. no, save your time. don t gargle. let me go back to the phone right now. i think denise in colonial heights, virginia is on the phone. are you there? yes, good morning. what s your question? after the h1n1 vaccine is given, how long before it becomes effective and how long does that immunity last? the good news for this is, for people who haven t had the shots before, kids 10 and older, looks like it s one shot so you don t need two. within two weeks or so the antibodies in your blood stream should be high enough. you get the shot, two weeks later you should have protection. then that protection will last for as long as this virus is out there. denise, thanks for your call. you hear so much in the movie outbreak, people cough and sneeze and you see the germs floating through the air. is that basically the way this gets spread? when you sneeze, you sneeze at the force of 100 miles per hour. those particles may in fact go right into the back seat of the seat in front of that man. the minor particles can even go eight to ten feet which is all the more reason why you don t sneeze without covering your nose and mouth and you sneeze into your elbow. why your elbow? because i know people are concerned that their shirts are going to get dirty. because if you sneed into your hand, then you say, nice to meet you, mr. lauer. you put out your hand and now i ve transmitted the virus to you. no, because i wear gloves. there is a protocol now to sneezing. but most of the time it is not the passenger in the plane that s going to cause problems for you, it s the person who may have just come through, sneezed, and this virus can live for 20 minutes to two hours on an inanimate object. if i were flying and i will be tomorrow, i just wipe things down. always carry those little things with you. antibacterial wipes. thanks so much. and thanks to the people who gave us their questions. coming up next, comfort foods that are actually good for your heart. but first, these messages. to keep dip ints 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. yep! look in your bag, made you something. (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. baby back, baby back, baby back your favorite baby back ribs just got even better, slow-smoked in house for hours over pecan wood chips to create a sweeter, smoky flavor and fall-o-the-bone tenderness. then they re triple-basted in one of our three delicious flavors chili s new better-than-ever baby back ribs, part of our three courses, two people $20 deal. or you can share an appetizer, choose two entrees, and share a dessert. i want new baby back ribs for a limited time, only at chili s. another take? new revlon doubletwist mascara. a revolutionary 2-in-1 applicator that combines a thickening brush with separating combs for massive volume and remarkable definition. new revlon doubletwist mascara. it s worth a double take. to earn cash back. talk about simple. earn cash back on purchases to pay down your credit card or go into savings. with the power rewards® visa® credit card. only from bank of america. are still on the road today. uh hum. no. uh-uh. - which means, someday, - ( dings ) this camry could be his. ( car wash whirring ) reliability, to move you forward. reliability, sea salts vary in color and taste. one tops them all. adding it helps us use less salt than before in campbell s tomato soup while keeping the famous flavor. so many, many reasons it s so m m! m m! good! announcer: taking health to heart today, is brought to you by campbell s tomato soup. that famous flavor now with less salt thanks to adding a special sea salt. this morning on our special series taking health to heart today, comfort foods that are good for your ticker. ellie kreeger is a nutritionist and author of the food you crave luscious recipes for a healthy life. good morning. you think comfort food, you think meatloaf and mashed potatoes. but you ve changed this meatloaf recipe and as a result have reduced calories, fat and sodium. how? first, take your favorite recipes and just tweak them a little. the big secret ingredient here is oatmeal. instead of breadcrumbs. in a little milk just to soften it. if you want to add that in there, i can start working on some other things. oatmeal gives you that whole grain. is that why it s good for the heart? it s whole grain, gives you fiber, soluble fiber especially. just some onon. these are classic flavorings. i m also using ground turkey. you could use beef if you want. but if you do, make sure it is 90% lean or leaner. if it s turkey does it have to be ground white meat? ideally. ideally. but anything that s 90% or higher is good. i love to add as much vegetable as possible, color flecks there. i m using two whole eggs. a little bit of richness is fine. this serves ultimately eight people. some ketchup. just adds moisture and licopene. tomato products good for your heart. some worcestershire. sea salt. i usually like sea salt but just a little bit of salt or it winds up having a much less sodium than your typical recipe. what are we talking in terms of what you cut out? you mix that up. then you mold it into here. i usually like to mix it in my hands but we re not going to do that now. then i like to put on some no-salt-added tomato sauce. just pour that right over. kind of spread it around a little. you can mix that can ketchup when you want. sure with you be can. but it caramelizes really nicely. i love to decorate with some onions. what are we saving in terms of calories, sodium and fat? per serving you save 100 calories. the fat savings is really amazing. go from 20 grams of fat in your typical meatloaf to just or three grams of fat in this one. it is a huge difference and you get all that classic comfort flavor that you want. move on to the smashed potatoes. how do you make these healthy? first of all, i steam the potatoes. leave the skins on. as opposed to boiling. exactly. when you steam you remain more vitamin c. potatoes are a great source of vitamin c which helps prevent disease in genera helps our immune system. then leaving the skins on helps me retain fiber and minerals. then i m just going to add a little bit of reduced-fat sour cream because you still get the flavor but just get rid of the fat. exactly. gives you a nice tanginess. you actually needless salt when you get the flavor from the tanginess. instead of butter and cream, low-sodium chicken broth. there s the trick, no butter. the yukon potatoes i m using are nationally creamy. you just don t need butter. i like to snip the chives on. this is a fun thing to do. when you do that i m going to say thank you very much. you add a broccoli dish in the end. those are all be up on our website. people can follow your recipes. now here s matt. here s a number that s a little hard to swallow and a real sign of the economic times. the failure of 100 banks and counting in the u.s. nbc serry sanders was at bank number 100 as it was shut down by the feds. it happened in naples, florida. kerry, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. i in partners bank, which is indeed the bank that closed. this was bank number 100. we haven t seen this many failures since 1992. now taking over this bank is stonegate bank. the federal government found a buyer, brought them in quickly. but making that transaction happen under a serious deadline is a lot like that tv show 24. the following events take place between friday at 5:01 p.m. and monday morning. just as the bank closes, four agents drive purposefully into the building. 5:06 p.m., uniformed state law enforcement officers arrive. within minutes partners bank employees are informed in as gentle a way as possible the federal government has pulled the bank s charter. the federal deposit insurance corporation. the fdic is now in charge. 5:36 p.m., computers are carted in as government accountants, asset managers, attorneys and i.t. experts take over. we have to be ready, have this institution open come monday morning. reporter: as the sun begins to set and day turns to night, 64 government experts work around the clock. every acunt at this bank, including customer martin smith s deposits, are insured by the fdi kr up to $250,000. you re very confident, no reason for you to withdraw your money come monday? not at all. no bank panic. this is not a wonderful life in pennsylvania in the 30s. reporter: number 100 was followed by six more failures. the largest concentration in florida, georgia, illinois and california. congress $700 billion bailout mostly benefited the nation s biggest banks. it s been a lot of hard work and some stress sometimes. reporter: the headf the fdic has strong opinions. small community banks have been short-changed. the one term that we ve heard repeatedly from here to wall street is too big to fail, then we see these smaller banks failing. right. reporter: and maybe in their community they would feel, we re too big to fail. well, this troubles me greatly. there is absolutely a disparity in how large and small institutions are treated. reporter: now fixing that second-class treatment would be up to congress. meanti, the fdic, go into a bank, you see that on the counter at the bank, they insure depositors up to $250,000. that s what our time is 8:26. 47 degrees. beautiful sky. high streaks of clouds. forecast coming up. good morning. i m joe krebs. in news 4 today, ddot is updating residents of the d.c. street car project. open house on the subject. construction well underway on a street car line in an to cost ya. tonight at the columbia heights campus ad 7:00. we have the technicolor ought tomorrow color around most of the region. quite a bit of cloudiness. west, mostly sunny. 47 at reagan national. live picture from city camera. off to the west, only in the 30s now but 40s elsewhere. high today in the low and mid 60s. partly sunny, cloudy tomorrow, showers possible and likely showers on wednesday. jerry, how is the traffic now? very tough morning along 395 northbound. authorities struggling to clear two truck accidents. elsewhere, at the wilson bridge, we are okay. checking reports of an accident on t beltway near central avenue. authorities on the scene dealing with that. joe? news 4 today is connected to you. find us on facebook and twitter for up-to-the-minute breaking join hands start a love train love train the first stop that we make will be england tell all your folks in russia and china too don t you know that it s time to get on board notes and that this train will keep on ridin ridin on through people all over the world join hands start a love train love train people all over the world join hands start a love train love train yeah! all right! that was rod stewart. wooel we re going to be reporting from the catskills tonight actually. love train made famous by the ojays back in 1973. just one of the songs off his new cd, soulbook. it is really intimidating getting ready for the newscast and have them back there performing. and the album is in stores today. today. yes. which is really cool. and the video of us dancing in stores going to beifd off youtube. also coming up, this is a woman who has multiple sclerosis. just when she was feeling her worse she went to her instincts and decided it was aood time to do good deeds for other people. we re going to tell you more about that story and how it can perhaps change your life just in a couple of minutes. then a little bit later on, they ain t afraid of no ghosts. dan aykroyd may have saved us from ghosts, but dan aykroyd s family has been dealing with the spirit world his entire life. dan is here with his dad, peter, to share some of their spooky tales. also one of the blues brothers. tell us about the twinkie. that s a big twinkie. she sleeps above the covers four feet above the covers. you think we like that movie? love that movie! also coming up, talking about our latest semi-finals in our kids reporter contest. so she s aog. let s show you what s going on if someone asks you if you re a god, you say all right for today, rain and mountain snows in the pacific northwest, heavy rain into eastern texas all the way up to the great lakes. showers along the atlantic coast. tomorrow little rain in the northeast, more wet weather in the pacific northwest, windy good morning. partly sunny in washington. it s all sunny just to the west of washington, east, quite a bit of cloudiness. more clouds, a bit milder in the low 50s. where the sky is cleared out, it is only in the mid 30s just west and north. as we look at the forecast for today, partly sunny, highs into the mid 60s. cloudy and good weather. tomorrow morning, maybe a little drizzle in the upper 40s. during the afternoon, upper 50s. sh and if you need to check your weather any time of the day or night, go to weather channel.com and weather channel on cable. when we come back, who you gonna call? dan we all know the movie ghost busters. what you may not know is ghost busters was actually inspired by co-star dan aykroyd s family history in paranormal research. his father peter aykroyd has written a book about it, called a history of ghosts, the true story of seances, mediums, ghosts and ghost busters. gentlemen, good morning. peter, let me start off, your fascination with the paranormal actually started with your grandfather? yes, my grandfather. how did that happen? did you actually witness some seances your grandfather was in on? oh, yes. he was a pioneer in the field of spiritualism in canada. had he a medium that lived with him and he held seances in the old family homestead. i as a kid at 8 years old was privileged to be able to sit in on the seances and see what was going on, talking to spirits. are you a believer in this? of course, i have to be a believer because i saw it all. you saw it. you then found a trunk of diaries of your grandfather s seances that s right. he kept a journal starting in 1900s for 30 years he kept these journals. we didn t know they existed. there are 83 of them all bundled together, we found them in the trunk in the family home in toronto. i took a look at them and realize there had is a great story there. dan, most of us grow up, our parents are telling us there s no such things as ghosts. you grew up just the opposite. well, it s parts of our culture really. you go back to the greeks writing about it or shakespeare or dixons, it s just part of our atmosphere on the planet and it was just accepted at home. when dad says the medium was captive, he wasn t a slave. he volunteered. he was a locomotive captain and walked up to my grandfather and said i think i m a gift. dr. sam aykroyd took him under his wing and he became one of the most effective mediums in the area. a medium is someone that can give themselves up to a controlled entity and have spirits come through either speaking voice or through a trumpet or sometimes with the slate writing. this was just part of the family growing up. so do you believe? i do believe, yes. i do believe but i must say the book is less about ghosts than it is about those who investigated ghosts at the turn of the century, crooks, william james who helped found the american society for psychological research. most families have the national geographics lying around, i had these lying around. i was flipping through these as a kid. but the book presents a very balanced view of it. and also exposes some hoaxes an charl d those added at the turn of the century. you started out to debunk these but as you came through things happened that you kind of believed in, that made you a believer. i think so, yes. i don t think i was a debunker ever. no, i believed from the beginning because you can t deny what you see. if you re a witness to something real, you can t deny that. we have some pictures here. is a picture that this 1921? take at a spiritual community in new york near buffalo. this is a photo of my great grandfather sam. there are disembodied heads. anhing can be fake, al, obviously. but grandpa sam was a serious researcher here and i think it would be repugnant for him to do something fake. he identified the young woman as a girlfriend. we have a picture of an ectoplachl coect ectoplasm coming out of her nose. i have a problem with this. i say to pop, come on, this was just a halloween trick, this was a card, we rell in this research, let s have a little fun with it. he says, no, this was the work of dr. glen hamilton out of whoa! so glen hamilton that looks like a glove coming out of the mouth. it does now and of course everything can be fake. but glen hamilton was a very serious researcher as well. he was a surgeon at winnipeg general hospital, also a lecturer in medical jurisprudence and clinical procedure at the university of winnipeg. again for him to fake something like this would have st of undercut everything he was researching. i still claim that one with arthur conan doyle s photo it was a greeting card i think but dad disagrees. before relet you get away because they say it would be cheese cloth. we wouldn t know unless we had a dna test. two years ago i d have to say no, but now i think it looks pretty good. dan aykroyd, peter aykroyd, thank you so much. the book is called a history of ghosts. coming up next, why doing a good deed with change your l what would you do if your world fell apart? one month after getting married, 32-year-old cammy walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. she quickly lost the use of her hands, then her vision in one eye. feeling depressed and suicidal, cammy called a friend for support. instead, got an unusual prescription stop thinking about yourself and start giving 29 gifts in 29 days. cammy walker s the author of 29 gifts how a month of giving can change your life. cammy, good morning to you. thank you. when i read your story i found it astounding. in large part because it doesn t seem plausible that just by giving you could change your life, not just psychologically but also physically. i want to go back to 2006 when you were diagnosed with ms. as we said, 32 years old, just married. how quickly did the disease have an impact on your life? my disea progressed really fast actually. two years after my diagnosis i was having trouble waing. my marriage was under a lot of strain because my husband was taking care of me all the time and i was in a lot of pain. i was actually experiencing much more pain than most ms patients. things were not good. i was deep in depression. at one of your lowest moments you call a friend looking really for some sympathy. you get something quite different. tell me about that conversation. she s actually a spiritual advisor of mine so not just a friend. her name is mobali. yeah. i certainly wasn t expecting her to i thought i would be calling to whine and instead she interrupted me and said, you ve got to stop focusing on your problem. you re putting all of your energy and attention into this disease. you re feeding the disease. and she said i have a prescription for you. she d given me many prescriptions over the years that were always very weird. but this was 29 gifts in 29 days. what was your initial reaction when she said to do this? i thought that was just crazy. i was like i can hardly get out of bed most days. how is giving some spare cnge or taking some clothes to goodwill going to possibly help me feel better. and yet you started to do it and you began to see changes. i did. i did. what i think is i experienced a very dp level psychic shift where it increased the quality of my thinking and i began to focus on, every day i would get up and i would be excited about what opportunity i might find to give and i began to focus on what i was capable of every day instead of the limitations that i had due to my ms. they were simple gifts, a lot of them. one was cooking dinner for your husband, something you hadn t been able to do for a while. or bringing a book to a friend. yes, all very little things. i gave a kleenex to a friend who was crying one day. she was sad, she just lost her mother due to complications from ms. in the book you talk about the fact that by the 14th day of giving gifts you didn t need your cain anymore. yeah. in fact i walked away from my cain and didn t notice for two days. like two days later i realized i ve been walking around without it. you honestly believe that is directly related to just the giving. i really do believe it is because of the shift in my energy and my thinking. i think it really shows the power of our thinking and how negative thinking and positive thinking have a direct impact on our mental and physical well being. you ve taken this challenge online and had a tremendous response, i understand. about 5,000 people now in some 32 countries. 38 countries. 38 countries are giving themselves. yes. are you continuing to do it yourself? yes, i give every day because it keeps me in a good place, it keeps me in a positive place. it keeps me focused on what i have to offer the world and it s given me a sense of purpose. where does your ms stand right now? i have actually had three clear mris that show no progress. the only change is this giving. i haven t changed medications or anything like that. i m walking almost normally most days. i feel good. i have energy. i m able to work two or three hours a day. i wrote a book. it is a powerful prescription. i know one of the things do you is give flowers to people. that s your plower power. on behalf of the today show, these are for you. i ll give them to the people outside! cami walker, thank you very much. i actually brought a gift for you. i love this already! the book is called 29 gifts. cami walker, thank you so much and continued good health. up next, rod stewart performs live in our studio. now there s a gift for you. but first, this is today on nbc. announcer: the toyota concert series on today brought to you by toyota. toyota. moving forward. he is maem ber of the rock and roll hall of fame but rod stewart is much more than just a rocker. he s also known as the blue-eyed soul singer of our generation. now he s out with his latest album filled with his favorite soul songs of the 60s and 70s, it is called soulbook, it goes on sale today. of all the albums you have made, you said this is the album you were basically waiting a lifetime to record. what do you mean by that? i had to be in the right frame of mind. i think i ve become a better singer over the years. some people would disagree with that. but i think the voice is ready for it right now. you get to do some great covers. what struck me, you actually get to work with, for example, smoky robinson on tracks of my tears, stevie wonder comes in and plays harmonica on my sheri amore. i m a very lucky man. we don t get a chance to see each other in the studio. those days are gone. stevie puts his harmonica on, we never get to see each other. how did you pick the songs that ended up on this album? there was a lot of arguing, spitting and fighting. there really was. i think we rorde 29 tracks. there s always the next volume. how do you feel about all the super superla tivs? elton john said you re the best singer he s ever heard. james brown called you the best white soul singer ever. i do ply best. you do pretty well. what are you going to do? higher and higher, jackie wilson. ladies and gentlemen, rod stewart. your love is lifting me higher than i ve ever been lifted before so keep it up quench my desire and i ll be at your side forever more don t you know your love keep on lifting me higher higher higher i said your love lifting me keep on lifting me higher and higher now once i was downhearted disappointment was my closest friend but you came along and then soon departed and it will never show its face again don t you know your love keep on lifting me higher higher higher notes since your love yeah keep on lifting me higher higher yeah yeah yeah keep on lifting me take me higher now take me higher now take me higher now take me higher now take me higher now la la la yeah take me higher now listen so glad i finally found you you re one one in a million girls and i m going to wrap my loving arms around you and honey i can stand up and stand up face the world d t you know your love keep on lifting me higher higher higher don t you know your love woo keep on lifting me higher one more time your love lift me lift me lift me higher higher oh yeah woo-hoo you re time is now 8:56. 47 degrees. a lot of nice sunshine. beautiful color in the trees starting to appear in the washington, d.c. area. good morning. i m joe krebs. in news 4 today, the d.c. counsel will have hearings on legalizing gay marriage. hundreds of people have signed up to testify. this could be one of the largest hearings. they are expected to approve a same-sex marriage amendment before the end of this year. redskins fans heading to the game will be able to take the we will take a b sunny weekend into sunny monday. you can see all the trees there. neighborhoods in northwest washington in the foreground. in the 30s west and north. highs today, mid 60s. rain likely tomorrow. wednesday. jerry, how is the traffic now? along interstate 66, we are loaded up now. for the last couple of miles, getting to the beltway into the sunshine. headed for downdown, 395 northbound, not too bad. we will be watchg for midday road work approaching the inbound and passing over the 14th street bridge. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, the redskins versus the eagles at fedex field. we are live we re back with more of today oftn a monday morning, october 26, 2009. it is a gorgeous morning in new york. the air smells a little better. the sun is shining a little brighter. you know why that is? because the yankees are going to the world series for the 40th time. they re going for their 27th world championship. i know that divides people. lot of people love the yankees, a lot of people just plain hate the yankees. it is going to be an interesting week coming up. looking forward to it. out on the plaza, matt lauer along with natalie morales and al roker. coming up, a miraculous story and pictures to prove it. how about this couple asleep in their bed. middle of the ght, car comes crashing through the wall of their house and ends up on top of their bed. miraculous because they survived. we ll be talking to them inust a couple of minutes. minor scratches and bruises. unbelievable. plus, the latest on the swine flu vaccine now that president obama has called the virus a national emergency. we ll find out if there will be enough to go around as the flu season is already upon us. also ahead, time for round three in our search for today s kid reporter. that s right, after looking through hundreds of videotapes and promising entries, we re going to introduce you to four more cub reporters who seem awfully comfortable in our chairs. little too comfortable, i think. then you get to weigh in on who you think has the stuff to join us here on the plaza. after that we re all about hall bean but first, ann s at the news desk with a look at the headlines. good morning once again, everybody. in the news this morning, the u.s. military s investigating two deadly helicopter incidents this morning in afghanistan that have killed at least 14 americans. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more now from afghanistan. reporter: it has been a terrible day of several helicopter crashes. i m now in western afghanistan. i was supposed to be in fact on a helicopter that crashed. on that helicopter service u.s. servicemen were killed along with three civilians. they were on an operation in western afghanistan and then in a separate incident two helicopters collided in mid-air in southern afghanistan four u.s. servicemen dead in that incident. a very, very significant day. all of these are currently under investigation. so far the military does not believe they were shot down and the exact cause of the crashes are still under investigation. it was the deadliest days for u.s. troops in afghanistan since june of 2005. on sunday, at least 155 people were killed and more than 500 people wounded when a pair of suicide car bombs exploded and they devastated government buildings in the heart of baghdad. violence in iraq has intensified as iraq prepares for january elections and next year s withdrawal of u.s. troops. the nation s top health official said this morning that supplies of the h1n1 vaccine are increasing. people lined up for shots this weekend as president obama declared a swine flu emergency. earlier on today, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius said there will eventually be enough vaccine for everyone. today the u.n. world food program said that 1illion people around the world are now what the group calls urgently hungry. that is the highest number ever. the agency is blaming falling incomes and higher food prices as well as climate change and natural disasters that have destroyed crops in the developing world. gas prices have posted a big increase, up nearly 18 cents a gallon over the last two weeks. aaa says the nationwide average for regular is now $2.67 a gallon. outrage over bailouts, foreclosures and credit card rates are fueli three days of protests in chicago. the city is hosting the annual convention of the american bankers association and demonstrators want banks to draw up financial reforms to give consumers greater protection. paranormal activity earned the top spot at the box office. saw vi was second. now back outside to matt. i m here with a bunch of exchange students from london who say our show is what s our show? brilliant! it s brilliant! mr. roker s got a check of the weather. we ve got a sweet 16er here. what s your name? marina. where you from? i m from utica, new york. all right, utica! little jenny cream ale for breakfast. let s check your weather, see what s happening. man, it s been wet in the lone star state. rainfall amounts 200% to 300% above normal. what s going on there right now, heavy rain s falling throughout texas, going to continue. flash flood watches extending into louisiana, arkansas, oklahoma. look at the rainfall amounts. we re talking generally one to two inches but right along the gulf coast three t five inches and locally some areas may may good morning. off to a chilly start this morning just to the west of washington, temperatures, 40 degrees. near 50 in washington. southern and eastern suburbs, more cloudiness. as the day progresses, afternoon highs into the low and mid 60s. partly sunny. cloudy tonight for the game. tomorrow morning, ai little bit of drizzle in the upper 40s. cloudy the rest of the day i like this sign. happy birthday to me. what s your name? marysol. thank you. imagine laying in your bed fast asleep for hours wrapped in crisp sheets and a cozy comforter when all of a sudden you re awakened by, not your alarm clock, but a car on top of you. that s what happened in sparks, nevada to kristin palmer around trent wood when a car driven by a drunk driver careened through the couple s study and kept going right through their bedroom wall. kristin and trent are here miraculously along with the man who led the rescue effort. thanks for sticking around. you take a look at those pictures. i m sure when you see that still and imagine that you were under that, to know that you re in this great condition today, kristin, do you find the whole thing just still completely unbelievable? yeah. felt like a dream and it still feels like a dream. i m not sure if it will ever feel like it actually happened. even when i look at the pictures it doesn t seem you look at it and you think i don t know how you survived that. we shouldn t have really. what do you remember about that night? what did you hear? i remember the house shaking and hearing the noise and having the debris on me, then just a big thump right on top of us. i remember just screaming. you thought it was an earthquake, you told meredith earlier. yeah, i thought the roof was actually on top of us. trent, when you realized that this was a car pinned literally pinned you under it, i mean how concerned were you in that moment that you didn t know where she was because she was on the other side of the tire. yeah. well at first i would say just from the like the fluids and the stuff, like spitting on us, first reaction is i hope something doesn t blow up or start a fire or anything. it was leaking gasoline, transmission fluid. ust covered in it just splitting out of our mouths. the biggest thing was just making sure i would hear her screaming and i was just trying to get ahold of her, make sure, hey, are you all right, do you have anything wrong. we were just trying to keep ourselves calm. as soon as we heard help coming. we were saying i love you and we were pretty much each other s support system throughout the whole thing. kristin, you described earlier, your face was where in relation to where the tire and the engine was? yeah, it felt like it was up in the engine. i m not sure where it was. i don t know if they took a picture while i was underneath but my face was perfectly stuck in between two things. i had a lot of weight on the right side of my face. carl, when you arrived at the scene and you look at what s happened, you said earlier you ve never seen anything quite like this. how concerned were you that the situation was still very dangerous? very concerned. we looked at the car. we looked at the house to make sure the house wasn t going to collapse. then had to clean debris, three or four ft of debris from around the car before we could affect the rescue. took us half the time to do that. we spent the other 20 minutes with various rescue techniques to lift the car away from them. describe that basically it was amazing rescue operation. you re using air bags and this whole system to kind of lift the car up. is that right is. correct. we used the debris pile and some stabilization units. we used air bags on one side of the car and then a hydraulic ram on the other side of the car and had to do a coordinated lift. were you concerned at any point in time, too, that the car could start a fire? i mean it s leaking gasoline on them. it was leaking all kinds of fluids on them. we had a fire hose line on the ground. fire exti fire extinguisher. people were making sure the house wouldn t come down on top of the car. kristin, did it seem like the longest 42 minutes of your life? yeah, i remember the police got there very quickly. it seemed like they were right in the house. i kept saying when is the fire department going to be here because i knew that they were going to get the car off of u but that was it was just really, really hard to stay calm. you re both so young. do you feel like in some way this is a calling for a greater purpose here, the fact that you re still doing so well just a couple scratches? yeah. definitely i think we have more of a purpose in life and now every day s just it s amazing waking up knowing that you sat there and thought about your family and that we didn t know if we were bleeding to death. i didn t know if i was going to stay awake. it s just one of those experiences that you can t describe. it was pretty scary. we re all so glad you re doing so well. just a little sore. right? yeah. great. and you do have a story to tell, as you said earlier. thank you all so much. thanks for your efforts to get them here. still to come this morning, if you sometimes feel like the ceo of your family, well, we re going to tell you how that can actually be detrimental to your marriage. first though, we ll meet the third round of semi-finalists vying for the title of today s kid reporter. after these messages. when it comes to protecting the things you care about. .leave nothing to chance. travelers. insurance for auto, home, and business. cer: trying tolers. be good to your heart? so is campbell s healthy request soup. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you ll love. guy: mmmm! chef: we re kind of excited about it. announcer: campbell s healthy request. 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(laughs) announcer: olive garden. when you re here, you re family. announcer: today s kid reporter is brought to you by carnival cruise nes. this morning on today s kid reporter, our third round of semi-finalists here from all over the united states. and here they are. deirdre shores, a 12-year-old from memphis, tennessee. owen miguel, 10 years old from altadina, california. jenna nicole ruiz, a 9-year-old from avon, indiana. bailey brown, 12 years old from russell springs, kentucky. good morning to all of you. everybody excited? yes. yep. great. diedre, take a look first at the tape you sent us. hi. i m debra shores. kid correspondent for the today show live from memphis, tennessee. we all derstood why matt postponed his trip around the world but i ve been hearing rumors that he s here in memphis and i m investigating. he usually visits the historical sites. america, i can t cfirm whether he s here or not but i do know where he will be thanksgiving day, and so will i. here is your clue. if can you make it there, you can make it anywhere. central park. balloons in the air. this has been today on nbc. you got a lot of confidence, diedre. very good. you never found matt lauer. no, i didn t. but i m still looking. well, i think he s upstairs somewhere. you can find him today. what made you decide to do your report on that? well, matt is a very unique and very cool typef person. he gets to play hide and go seek around the world and get paid for it. i want to know where i can sign up for that. is there a permission slip somewhere? okay. owen, now welcome to you. we ll take a look at your submission. see how that looks. hi. i m owen and i m going to show you how video games can help us communicate by using technology. the first video arcade game was pong which started in 1972 and was made by atari. the next big hit was spade invaders in 1980. video gaming has always been a social experience. people play each other, compare high scores, trade tips and games. when used properly, video games can actually give us new ways to communicate with each other. owen, you don t like video games. do you? i can t say that. i just can t. i like video games. i m not a video game hog. but you decided - why did you pick video games to talk about? i don t know. because most of the kids in my grade like video games and i thght that it would be a good topic because everybody would be interested. do you have some other interests as well? yeah. i like sports. i like baseball. you like the yankees? yes. good answer. good answer. at least while you re here. or the phillies. great, owen. thank you. next we have our young lady over here, jenna. let s take a look at jenna s tape. hi. i m jenna nicole and this is kid s news. today we re going to discover the life of a middle schooler. josie, what do you think the best part of middle school is so far? definitelyaving more freedom. what do you think the grossest thing you ve had for lunch this year is? definitely the grilled cheese. and why do you say the grilled cheese? because it tasted like it s frozen. ooh. you heard it here, it s kids news. you got the head bob. can we see that move again, jenna? cool. when you started interviewing people, was there any particular newscast or style you tried to emulate? actually, no. i just tried to do it like to where my voice was like that you could hear it and i just wanted to do it for fun. very good. did you have a good time doing it? yeah. you re terrific. that s great. now we have bailey. let s take a look at bailey s tape. thanks, al. hi. i m bailey brown. do you remember when youere a little kid and people would say things like, you re too old to be carrying that blanket, in the next breath, you re too young to stay up past 9:30. well, my friends, you have entered the tween zone. not so surprisingly, some parents feel that marketing tactics for tweens is urging kids to grow up too fast. we ll tell them, we re not pressured to grow up too fast. we re pressuring marketers to keep up with us. all right, bailey! there you go. why did you decide to do a report on tweens? well, me being a tween myself, me and my mom actually started researching it on the internet and i thought it was so interesting to see like how expensive i really am. how expensive are you exactly? about $40 billion is what tweens cost. it actually surprised me. that s not your allowance. oh, no. i wish. well you guys are all again terrific tapes. very impressive stuff. this is going to be tough, tough decisions to make. very difficult decision, let s tell our viewers what the next step is so they know how they can vote for you. you can vote by logging on to todayshow.com or by texting your vote to 622639, press 1 for diedre, 2 for owen, 3 for jenna and 4 for bailey. standard rates apply. tomorrow voting ends tuesday, 5:00 p.m. eastern. we ll announce the winner live on wednesday morning. so get in there and vote for all these guys. er that terrific. still to come this morning, big kenny of the country music group big and rich stops by. can you guys help us with this last one? but first but first these messages. all right! excellent. mm-mmm. new ship smell! 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(mom) i m so proud of you. the bus is here, gotta go mom. okay hunny, have a great day. look in your bag, made you something. (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. discover a light yogurt like no other. activia light! delicious, fat free, and abovall. the only one that has bifidus regularis and is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. activia light. activiaaa! still ahead on today, how to tell if you re a wife in chief and what you can do go about it. plus the perfect halloween table decorations. and simple recipes for extra ordinary cakes. you don t need chef stat to us bake after local news and you don t need chef stat to us bake after local news and weather. ? do your eyes. .sit wide? do your ears sorta wiggle? does your hair make you giggle? does your neck grow long? do your hips sing a song? do your ears hang low? vodove and walmart. find real beauty for less. but i ve got a warm, fresh baked strawberry toaster strudel. see the difference? mmmm. i do. (announcer) pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. - uh-huh. - ( rope creaking ) - ( rope snaps ) - ( piano clangs ) - ( crashes ) - glad forceflex trash bags are so strong, one bag is all you need to pick up the pieces from even your biggest disasters. - ( doorbell rings ) - where do you want the piano? for stretchable strength get glad forceflex. our time right now is 26 minutes after 9:00 tht morning. 49 chilly degrees out there. beautiful, brisk day. a lot of nice color in the trees. blue skies. good morning. i m joe krebs. in the news 4 today, in prince george s county, a hearing will be held to extend public transportation into the southern part of the county. some of the possibilities are extend the yellow line and the planned purple line into that area. this hearing will take place at the county administration building at 7:00 in upper marlbo. we will good morning. welcome back. let s look at our sky. we had great weather for the marathon yesterday. this morning, off to a cool and downright chilly stt. off to the west, mostly sunny chillier there. look at the color in the trees. near peak autumn color right here in washington. it is 49 degrees. elsewhere, we are in the low 40s farther west and north. own near freezing earlier this morning. low 40s there. it is in the upper 40s south and east highs, reaching low and mid 60s. partly sunny, cloudy tonight. maybe a little drizzle tomorrow morning and cloudy the rest of the day. could have an afternoon shower. showers likely tuesday night and off and on wednesday. jerry, how is the traffic? along new hampshire coming in from the capital beltway toward oak view, an earlier accident. we are still looking at delays as you head south. virginia, 395 north bound, looking much better. earlier problems are cleared. tonight on news 4 at 5:00 p.m., it is the redskins against the eagles at fedex field. that is sting playing a song from his new album if on a winter s night. to celebrate tomorrow s big release he s going to be here to perform a tune from his new cd live in our studio. again, sting right here tomorrow on today. rod stewart today. sting tomorrow. it s a pretty good job, al. doesn t hurt. meanwhile, coming up in this half-hour, running your household is one thing but taking complete control while your husband helps just by, well, maybe staying out of the way, that puts a whole new spin on the game. what being the wife in chief can do to your marriage. also ahead, how sweet it is. you want to impress your guests as well as little ghosts and goblins? dylan lorn of dylan s candy bar here in new york h some delicious ways to put candy to use. and then let them eat cake. chef lauren chapman is in today s kitchen with a new book on easy to bake cakes that you can whip up in an instant. and part of big and rich stop by hoda and kathie lee. for the week ahead, thundershowers move into the southeast. above-normal temperatures up in the great lakes. rain in the pacific northwest with snow in the rockies. midweek, rain along the south atlantic, mid-atlantic coast. rain through the gulf coast, above-normal temperatures from the southeast and into the great lakes. below-normal temperatures out west. in the late week period, rain from the great lakes to the gulf coast, showers in the pacific golden sunlight, lighting up the autumn color on this monday morning. good morning. it is still quite chilly, only in the 40s around the region. right near the bay, in the low and mid 50s. highs should make it into the mid 60s by mid afternoon. cloudy tonight. 50s for the game. tomorrow morning, there may be a little drizzle. otherwise, a cloudy start in the upper 40s. cloudy and a 50% chance of a passing shower, mainly in the and that s your latest weather. coming up next stop the resentment. how to restore the balance in your marage right after this. (announcer) still tired of morning coming in the middle of the night? (rooster crow) .still tired the next day too? when you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. remember 2-layer ambien cr. the first layer helps you fall asleep quickly. and unlike other sleep aids, a second helps you stay asleep. when taking ambien cr, don t drive or operate machinery. sleepwalking, and eating or driving while not fully awake with memory loss for the event as well as abnormal behaviors such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal, confusion, agitation, and hallucinations may occur. don t take it with alcohol as it may increase these behaviors. allergic reactions such as shortness of breath, swelling of your tongue or throat may occur and in rare cases may be fatal. side effects may include next-day drowsiness, dizziness, and headache. in patients with depression, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide may occur. if you experience any of these behaviors or reactions contact your doctor immediately. wake up ready for your day- ask your healthcare provider for 2-layer ambien cr. of pillsbury cinnamon rolls bring everyone to the table in their sunday best how many washes did it take cheer brightclean to get this from dingy to bright? ten. seven. it s six. why? why is. one. yeah! hundred. no. cheer brightclean. 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 cholesterol under 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 backed by over 17 years of research. lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are 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. this morning on today s woman, are you a wife in chief? if you plan the family vacations, call the plumber, schedule your children s activities, you may have superior wife syndrome, not necessarily a good thing for a marriage. editor in chief red book magazine is here along with robi ludwig. what s the difference between wanting to do everything and being a wife in chief? a wife in chief is the one who just runs the whole show. she s the event planner, schedule organizer, schedule keeper. she does it all. big thing is she s the total decision maker. nothing good s enough unless she does it herself. exactly. recognizing that right there. that creates a problem. so it seems. why is it not a good thing for a marriage particularly if you re always calling the shots? it s not good for a marriage if a wife is going to feel resentful and chronically angry. of course, the sex drive goes down the tubes. if you re losing respect for your husband, that s when the love really seems to wane. that s why it s so important to try to equalize things where they can be equalized. the statistics will tell us that, according to a survey conducted, 2 out of every 3 couples said the wives run the show. this is a pervasive theme on marriages. but we also do it to ourselves. these are culrally ingrained ideas that are very hard to change so a woman wants to feel like a good mother and a good wife, and part of the way to do that is to coordinate everything in the perfect way. women are naturally better multi-taskers, it is easier for us to keep a lot of ideas spinning in our head which is of course good for moms. but you can t let that bleed over. where are the husbands in all of this? do they just choose not to step up to the plate or is it more that the wife is so overbearing that she s not giving them a chance? exactly. it gets complicated. if she s going to complain about how i put the dishes away, that i put things in the wrong place, forget it, i ll just not put the dishes away which is what creates resentment. there is a feeling the husband is sort of an employee, working for the cranky ceo. that doesn t breed obviously trust and connection and love. it s not good. so let s talk about how we can bring a little more balance to the relationship. stacy, first thing you say is ask for small requests and favors. it is like asking him to put away the dishes. then not following up and chking if he did it right. just have those simple tasks and be clear about it. gradually move on to bigger tasks. exactly. when you plan the birthday party for his mother, have him be involved in the planning. don t do all of it yourself. you have to think of it as team work. that s reason you got married in the first place. positive reinforcement always works from kids to husbands. i think that s the thing we forget. you re like, you didn t do it this way. it is so much to say thank you for helping out with that, it s great. the key is not to complain. and also to compliment when your husband actlly does do something well because people want to do more things that they feel they re good at and also to realize each person is coming from their own frame of reference. you may need to tell your partner on both sides, listen, i m feeling like you re not treating me well or i really need help, imfeeling overburdened. you can t just expect somebody to read your mind. the old models of how things work, the man goes out to work and the woman does things in the house with the kids. what if you re like giving him a grocery list, say do this, you give him a list, are you being the wife in chief in that situation? the goal is to make him a partner in it. to sit down and have a conversation, say the balance of our relationship got out of whack. don t do it when you re cranky or irritated something didn t go the way you wanted. pick an unhurried time to say let s talk about what works for us, what makes us both feel like we re connected. if you re asking in the right way, listen, i really need your help, can you help me out instead of you didn t do this, you didn t do that, then it feels very different. think about it, we want to do things if we feel it is going to contribute the better feeling in the household. then the benefits of course are much more just feeling more loving. yeah. and more connected and you can trust each other and relax into your relationship. and you can rely on each other which is the whole point. stacy morrison, rob bi ludwi thank you. you guide are good partners. an edible table for halloween right after this. ooh la la. the #1 lengthening mascara! the difference? our grip and extend brush lengthens to a sexy point. up to 70% longer. pro-vitamin b5 adds black patent shine. never breaks. length this hot. towers over the rest! lash stiletto, the #1 lengthening mascara. it s showstopping. maybe she s born with it? maybe it s maybelline. to complete your provocative look, try line stiletto ultimate precision liquid eyeliner. of pillsbury cinnamon rolls bring everyone to the table in their sunday best sea salts vary in color and taste. one tops them all. adding it helps us use less salt than before in campbell s tomato soup while keeping the famous flavor. so many, many reasons it s so m m! m m! good! let s take a look at the stats. mini has more than double the fiber and whole grain. making him a great contender in this bout. against mid-morning hunger. honey nut cheerios is coming in a little short. you ve got more whole grain in your little finger! let s get ready for breakfaaaaaaaaaast! ( ding, cheeri, ringing ) keeping you full and focused with more than double the fiber and whole grain. in every tasty bite frrrrosted mini-wheeeeats! didn t know i had it in me. frrrrosted mini-wheeeeats! he s trying to beat my record. 61 dishes, and a garlic press. oh, that s too full! those will never get clean. they got clean when i broke the record. never gonna happen! [ chuckles ] sorry, buddy. [ female announcer ] cascade actionpacs are four times concentrated to get the fullest loads clean the first time. kyle meyerowitz, tell me your story. my problem was casional irregularity. my commercials didn t convince you? i am definitely a skeptic. actually, my mom convinced me. she saw the commercials, she tried it out. and? and i have activia every morning for breakfast. and, what happened? activia definitely helped my occasionairregularity. activia is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks when eaten every day. chances are someone you trust can recommend activia. activia this morning on today s countdown to halloween, putting that candy to use has a table decor. if you d rather reel your guests in with sugar than scare them with skulls, dylan lauren is the owner of dylan s candy bar in new york city. good to see you. happy early halloween. when we think halloween instead of ghos and goblins, we think candy. how much candy are we going to eat over the next few days? a lot of candy. any kind of candy from gross candy. most popular sellers? candy corn is a huge one. still candy corn? yeah. and sour watermelon rinds. candy corn. wow. yeah. we re going to deck kate with candy. you are doing a pumpkineco podge. even after halloween you can use it, thanksgiving or centerpiece or decoration. take glue and put on the back of your wrappers. you ve unwrapped these little minis. yeah, whether you ate the candy or not, you still use them as candy can do anything for your house. then you layer this and you just keep covering it. you would use mod podge which is great. take a brush and shellac over the whole thing once it is done. take the brush, soak it. it is actually safer than using the knife. here s the finished product. yeah. it is a great thing for the whole family. it is a neat activity. these are candy corn not just your traditional. they come in all these different flavors and colors now. grape, strawberry, butterscotch. this is a great idea because it is easy in your case. you don t have vases lying around and beautiful fall colors. great for a centerpce or hostess gift. halloween candy lasts for years. right? i eat it very fast. match the colors with the flowers. take a bunch, pour it in. make a base and kind of stick it around. yeah. then put the votive in, then you have a centerpiece. it is really a great idea. hot glue gun time. yes. you can use a hot glue gun or liquid. made this is a styrofoam ball. take hershey s kisses or any wrapped candies. that s the glue gun. hold on a second. let me just warm this up. we got about an hour? because this isn t plugged in. that s so funny. and you can t really eat the glue stick either but you can eat the candy. wow. look, i m a snowman! so this is your topiary. this is for you. this is a great place card. it is a great conversation piece. people at the table. as a host you can ask your guests what s your favorite candy for halloween or any day. you ve got a centpiece. we have a whole grouch different candies. we have these teeth, spiders and brains, eyeballs, all edible. what s this made out of? that s like a taffy kind of goofy candy. do you like it? i think that s going to be there for a while. so this is a great idea especially if you re having guests over, adult party. last but not least, the witch s brew. this is a cauldron you can get in any store. vanilla putting, we put orange food color in. you can do chocolate and make it a mud cauldron. witch s brew. mmy hand, ghosts, cats, bats. these are great, these are fingers. there are gummy teeth. these are circus peanuts with almonds. you can just dip it in the brew. it s great. these are secures. the whole week is halloween. once again, they call these fun size. there s nothing fun about this. no. if you want a fun size, make it three times the size of a normal. that s fun. you can eat the whole thing. happy halloween. thanks for sharing those ideas. coming up next, it is a piece of cake this morning on today s kitchen, simple cakes. you may have your candy and costume, chef lauren chapman is here with a recipe to help you prepare for your party. the author of cake keeper cakes. over 100 cake recipes. is that right? i wasn t worrying about my weight while i was working on this book. you baked a cake every day? i tried to. i was on a mission to develop a bunch of recipes that were easy and quick enough to make in the space between homework time and dinner time. so that s it, they re easy, simple steps. but delicious enough if you dress them up you could serve them at a dinner party. for halloween, we have a pumpkin chocolate chip pound cake. great for snacking, lunch boxes and great for entertaining. what do we start with here? whisk together dry ingredients flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves because spices are so delicious this time of year. some butter and sugar in here. mix those together. run-away mixer! that went flying out of the hole and on to your tie. once that s done we re going to add eggs one at a time. one at a time. one. there you go! almost got away from me. it s very important to keep these ingredients at room temperature before you start making your cake. that way your batter will come together nice and smoh and your cake will rise nice and high in the oven. right now we re going to add the pureed pumpkin. when you re at the supermarket, buy 100% pureed pumpkin. right next to it is pumpkin pie mix. get the pure pumpkin. little bit of vanilla. we ve got some milk. there are all the wet ingredients. now, put in the dry ingredients. we get it. do you want to use the spatula to there you go. that was good. when you make this at home add that a little bit more slowly no! this is what it looks like. there s the batter, all nice and smooth. a cup of chopped nuts. you can leave the nuts out. i m not a big nut fan. if you re not a nut fan, leave them out. that s a cup of minichocolate chips. mix that up. nice and smooth. i like minichocolate chips because they won t sink to the bottom of the cake like big ones so you get chocolate in every bite. once that s all mixed together, we ve got a prepared pan here. it s greased and floured. this is a nine-inch loaf pan. scrape it into the pan. that s funny, our director was just greased and floured. really! is that what you call it? i don t even know what that means. i don t either but i just thought i d say it. he just thought it was funny. and i think it was. smooth the top. put it in the oven for about an hour. maybe a little bit less. set at what temperature? how do you know when it s done all the way through? bake it at 350. you can stick a wooden skewer or toothpick in. it comes out dry, it s done. how long does it cool in the pan? you should let it cool in the pan for about five minutes. this one is obviously cool. otherwise i d be using oven mitts. then flip that, overturn it. here s the cake. this is great for snacking. great for lunch boxes but also would you hand me a plate? what do y what this is sweetened whipped cream with cinnamon. i make cakes in every shape, every size. all ingredients, all flavors. this is a spice cake with black pepper in it. it has a blemen glaze. that s a banana and chocolate upside down cake. that smells fantastic. chocolate and bananas are great this time of year. the cake keeper s cakes. recipes are on todayshow.com. still ahead with hoda and kathie lee, fashion dos and don ts when you go to a theme park. plus, big kenny of big and rich is going to stop by. first though your local news and weather. our time right now is 9:26. a lot of nice color on this beautiful, crisp fall day. good morning. in the news 4 today, a swine flu vacination clinic is set to open in prince william county at the manassas mall. only the nasal spray vaccine will be distributed, recommended only for healthy people ages 2 to 49. let s get a look at what kind of day we are going to have. we have near peak autumn color now with us. it s been dry since sunday morning, thankfully. now, through the rest of date, it should stay drive. a live picture from the sky watcher camera. showing high clouds drifting over us coming in out of the southwest. look at all the color there in the foliage in the nearby neighborhoods of northwest washington. live picture. we have a crisp and cool morning underway. temperatures around 50. afternoon highs, mid 60s. partly sunny and cloudy tonight. tomorrow, a little drizzle in the morning. otherwise, cloudy and in the upper 40s. cloudy on tuesday. tuesday afternoon and evening, maybe showers. showers likely on wednesday. jerry, how is the traffic? take a live look along i-270 southbound, wide open. no plalate issues. the trip north along i-95 and 395, no hangups. a couple of problems have been cleared. wide open to the 14th street bridge. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, the redskins captions paid for by nbc-universal television hey, everybody. it s monday, october 26th. so glad you re here with us today. hope you had a great weekend. you are fresh as a daisy, just off the red eye. no close ups, no, no, no. are you feeling okay? i m good. you know whatirline i really like a lot? what? i love virgin america. now they have one called v australia. you know what, it s the way he does stuff. it s reat. it s comfortable. new planes. leave on time, arrive on time. i m not a spokesperson, but i like it a lot. you, my darling, i missed you. it was parents weekend at my son s university and we had to be there and we had a great time. but you got honored, let s talk about that first. i was in your hometown of greenwich, connecticut. cathy is on the right and she actually has this rare blood cancer but she is lit from within. you would never know it, would you? she was never supposed to see her daughter complete, her daughter is now in high school going to homecoming. scotty hamilton in the middle. you guys know how to put out a party. natalie was there. jim bell, our fearless leader. all the biggies. who, by the way has lost some 30 pounds. i always called him sherpa as a nickname but he is now a stud. what happened? look at that. my gosh, look what happened that s not the most flattering pictu picture. let s get a nice picture. okay, wait y have to point out you look great there. they said your speech was amazing, hoda. that s nice. four minutes and said it was brilliant. you know what was funny, this woman walked up to me. this ais your house, where is kathie lee. one woman said, i want to give you my bracelet. she said, no, no, i want to give it to you. kathie lee knows me, her name is terez. she is a breast cancer survivor herself and she s a beautiful lady and she is the one that gave me, made those pendants. she did? anyway, you were missed. you were missed but it poured and people came out for kathie and raised a lot of money for that cause. he was the main deal and so much fun, adorable. he s a sweet guy, great. beautiful in southern california, but frank and i went over to cody s apartment and i do now know that that s the origins of swine flu. right there in his what happened? in his room. in his apartment is where swine flu had to have started. what was going on? frank and i were asked thank you, jerry there s a parents thing that different alumni or somebody speaks to the other parents and we had beautiful crowd there that day. so we re sort ofeing fed it and cody is sitting in the front, he was okay. we didn t embarrass him terribly. we go from way to go and frank is mr. all america and then we go to cody s apartment and i clean for the next hour and you don t even want to know. what was nasty about it? two other guys. one of his room mates that shall remain nameless is flat on his face on the sofa and i didn t know if he was dead or asleep. we said hi and for the next hour frank next to him like a dead body in the room changing tv while i m i said, i have an so pad here. every burner had ragou on it an stuff and then he washed his clothes and he had left them all in there. so, i go to help him get them out and it s a month s worth of clothes. now, in southern california a lot of bathing suits and shorts and t-shirts and reds and whites and all the colors, everything in there. dress shirts. everything altogether. cody, you can t, you have to separate. he goes, not if you wash it in cold water. and i go, cold water, it doesn t get clean. you can t wash in cold. we go to the beautiful dinner and sit next to the president and his wife of the university and do you know about my son and the way he s living. you have to have a good sense of humor about it. he s happy? happy as a clam. terrified some day i ll move out there and he ll have to deal with his mother again. you love it when your kids discover their passion. it is a little messy. he said, mom, you should see the her kids apartments. i don t want to. speaking of the swine flu, which you did bring up. the president did declare a national emergency. you saw a lot of video this weekend of people waiting in long lines. don t panic and don t be concerned they even said. it s a weird thing because even though they declared it an emergency, they don t have all the vaccine they need, even if you want to go get it, they don t have enough of it. they hope to have more of it, but it is kind of an unsettling thing. i don t think people know what to believe any more. a lot of people have just flat out said to me, i m not going to do it. people are not ignorant people, very intelligent people who say, i don t know what s in it, i m not going to stick it in my body. i don t know. finally reaching certain people. 1,000 people have died so far. we re not trying to belittle it so far. if you re one of the people affected by it, ty re giving it to pregnant women. all pregnant women should and some pregnant friends of mine are saying, i don t know you really don t know. here s the thing that bugs me about this stuff. i read something in the paper that the w.h.o. now there is a link between cell phones and brain cancer. i worked here many years ago and i interviewed someone and i still remember it, that was the subject no, don t be silly. it s ridiculous. you know that kind of thing and i said maybe we don t know yet because there wasn t enough time to test. sometimes i think this was a ten-year study. it was a ten-year study. they say there is some kind of connection but sometimes i hate when people poopooyou questioning something because they don t know yet. there s not enough info. i think we have the right to question. one good thing happened on the way to get on the red eye last night. frank and i had an hour and a half to kill because he likes to be there nice and early and we re sitting there and we said, let s go into gladstone s which is a little fish place right there and we sit, two places up at the bar and we sit there at the bar and order a glass of wine. we got carted. i swear to you, we got carded. and i looked at the guy and he said i ll have to see your i.d.s and i said that s the policy? are you joking? he said, no, ma am, i cannot serve you unless i see that you re old enough. and i looked at him and said, he s 79 years old. frank got the biggest kick out of that. he said, i told you i look good. but then the giants game was on the same time the angels and the yankees game. it was too far away to see what was happening with the giants game. here is one of the giants of all time, goes over, thinks he looks like he s not 21 yet and stands there to see what the score was and this woman comes up and says you can t stand there. what? we have to show you never take yourself too seriously in life. we have to show you this halloween picture, it s astonishing. it s the octomom. she dressed up as a nun with her children dressed up as devils. i wonder if she is getting the reaction she was hoping for. why would you do that? same reason she had that many children, she wasn t thinking. our own halloween plates. we make a living not thinking. these are our halloween plates. happy halloween from kathie lee and hoda. you can make these yourself? yeah. it s hallmark. you bring your picture in and they make you plates, so exciting. hi, miss sara. how was your weekend? it was great. i love the frank story, by the way. do you get carded? no, i look older at this point. we are having a discussion about the swine flu, but or excuse me the vaccine and the h1n1 and i also want to remember if you want to be on the show, you can by on our man panel or ambush if you go to klgandhoda.com to sign up. to be on the man panel, we want to see you. see you. people are writing in, but we can t tell what you re like. it has to be a one minute. it has to be in by thursday, october 29th, which is this thursday everybody. up next, we ll take a glamour theme park don t and turn h into a do. we are back with today s don ts and dos. our style team left the island of manhattan for fun in the sun at universal studios in florida. her latest glamour don t. we are at universal orlando resort and there are two theme parks here. universal stud yous and also islands of adventure. i m feeling both. let s go take a look. usually i m against the running sneaker. in a theme park, it is acceptable. i applaud anyone who wears running sneakers with ankle socks. comfort, style i give you an a plus. the outfit is so cool, but you have to think about the undergarment. you would probably think if you put a white bra underneath a white t-shirt it s the right thing to do. the trick is to put a skin tone so it all melds in and you don t see the definition. i have a tip, you want to know what it is. sometimes i take a rubberbound and i literally strap it like that. god i love this job. they sell these little cotton dresses here. maybe i should get one. not only does she look hot, but she s dressed for this weather. how hot do you think it is out here? 100 degrees outside today. this is amazing. i love this strapless loose top andy the way, wider shorts make your thighs look thinner. cutest girl, shorts a little too tight, little looser. problem here, what happens when your makeover looks better than you? little tip to self, don t wear silk when it s 100 degrees outside. never match white with white because you actually see the bra underneath the white shirt. we need to get you the perfect skin tone bra. these bras that are too tight, they form these rolls, which actually don t exist it s just the type of bra. all we need to do is fix the outfit a little bit. want to do it? yes. let s do it. oh, glamour susie schwartz is here with us. how was the theme park over all? besides hot. it was so much fun but it was 100 degrees outside. this is a tough call you re dressed really casual to be comfortable and this is not a fashion show. you want to be cool, too. we went to macy s in orlando and we had such a great selection. we took heather and then the peopling at universal let her go on the vip line. you talked about how heather s bra was ill fitting. which made her look heavier than she was. that s a good point. when it is too tight, it makes you look bigger than you are. you want to match your skin tone and it was a too tight so it make her look like she had four instead of two. again, this is heather s before picture. all right, heather, let s see what susie did to you. oh, that s adorable. look how cute she looks. tell us about that. i switched it around. i did the darker color up top and it s a little bit looser so that you re not seeing the definition and also because she has a broader shoulder what you want to look for is a neckline that goes closer to your neck because it makes your shoulders appear much smaller. at macy s we also got this skirt and it is by nike but it has the moisture wick fabric. underneath there there is shorts so she can go on all the rides. what do you think? the before or the after? the after. definitely. sometimes tight makes you look slimmer but sometimes that isn t the case. she ll feel more comfortable because when you re in tight clothes you feel hotter. we all learned a little something here today. thank you so much. all right, we ll be back with the latest celebrity news. the buzz, right after this. it is time for today s buzz. all things hollywood and beyond. bonnie fullser the editor and chief of hollywoodlife.com and roseanne colletti reports for gossipgram. let s take the dash away. ladies, hello. hi, how are you? michael jackson mania out there. this movie is the buzz. it s all over the place. tomorrow night is the big night. yes. yes, apparently, you know, it s 1600 places screens around the world are going to get it. it s going to be huge. why did they say it was limited to a two-week engagement. that doesn t seem smart. it is limited and you boost the innewsiasm. you have to get there in two weeks. then they ll extend it by popular demand. exactly. but they are worried because typically documentaries don t do that well and, apparently, there was this big miley documentary about her tour and it was a big disappointment. is this mainly music? it is behind the scenes of his preparation for the this is it tour. there are things people have never seen and there was talk that he looked in good health when he did this, he didn t appear to be a man who was going to die soon. it s weird to watch him. i think, i think that we are just going to feel so much worse about it because we are going to so the creative genius. apparently he s amazing and he s in charge and in charge of everybody and he doesn t look frail. he doesn t look like a man that is about to pass away. he had three weeks of rehearsal left. it s not a concert. people are expecting a concert, they re not going to get that. interesting to see what happens. joe jackson said they used a body double for some of this. s claiming that. while he was getting an award or something, father of the year. look at this picture of the octomom. that was a lovely one. what did you think of this picture? i thought they were little devils. anything for publicity for the octomom. if that s how she expects to get jon gosselin, it isn t going to work. you re thinking, gosh, you re almost making a joke, again, out of something and out of your children. that s what our world hads become, ladies. rihanna, chris brown. they both have new singles out at the same time. yes. tell thus back story here? are they singing to each other? when you listen to the lyrics his song is crawl and it sounds like an apology song. everybody sees it s you and i never want to lose that view. everybody says we re through, i hope you haven t said it, too. he has five years to wait before he can get near enough to her to say it in person. what sers about? why doesn t he just tell her. you know, artists communicate. yes, exactly. he certainly claims that he s apologized over and over, but hers is really scary. it s called russian roulette and it s all about a young woman who takes the step of actually playing russian roulette for her lover. that is troubling. yes, ver any time these kids feel like they need to one up themselves and go the next step. we wonder it might not be another step to take. maybe reflecting on an abusive relationship. the jon and kate saga, we have less than a minute. he said he put the money back in the account. i m always confused. what is the real story? the check has not arrived as of yet. that is the money question, will it show up? in the meantime, he welcomed aunt jody and, kate s brother back yesterday and, of course, they were the backstabbers to kate. he welcomes them back to the house. aren t they running out of episodes at this point? yes, yes. and we re about to start a new episode of the real housewives of the oc it s all, that keeps amping up. but atlanta had a high number and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. are they coming to greenwich any time soon. my career needs a little boost. thank you so much. thank you. still to come, we have the country world s big fly solo without rich. plus, do it yourself halloween costumes for your pet pooch. that is so cute. a run away pug downstairs this morning. gay marriage debate heats up today in the district. one of the largest, most anticipated d.c. council larryilarr hearing is expected to start. coming up at midday, get too much sun this summer? seeing a new wrinkle or two, find out how we re back on this monday with more of today. half the grammy nominated duo big and rich. but big kenny is flying solo today with his album called the quiet times of a rock n roll farm boy. good to see you. good to see you, ladies. you came to play. who put together your cool wardrobe. my beautiful wife puts together my wardrobe. she s here today. she s having a birthday today. she s beautiful. happy birthday. you like hats in your family, we can see. that s great. i know your wife because in this terrific video that you have out the quiet times of a rock n roll farm boy. did you ever have quiet times. long after i m gone. let s turn it up a little bit so the audience can hear it. let s where i was raised. the farm has been in my family now, my little boy there makes eight generations. flowers everywhere. tell us about this song because the lyrics are really telling of this particular song. i wanted to, i wanted to have a song that described me. where i am in my life. you know, i finally had some success in the world of music. met the woman that i love, i got a family now, i have a little one that is going to turn 4 this week. you see him there in the video and, you know, that s so many shocking things happening to a young soul like me that i ve been moved and this mic completely, this whole album completely describes my life of where i am at right now. i think having a child and feeling that kind of love in your life is just crazy. i want to do good things. what the heck were you doing anyway? oh, just practicing. practicesing. i was practicinpracticing for a time. so, you re fulfilled in. you re in a place of enormous contentment. i m in place of contentment and a place of enormous awareness. how nigh fmy family, how it affe and how i want it to affect other people. you went away to sudan. i was able to help a group of sisters in boston, massachusetts. they re called my sister s keeper. and we ve gotten ourselves a school built 45 kilometers outside of darfur, which is a war zone as most people would know right now. what is the experience like for you? amazing. this year we were able to take in a plane full of doctors and teachers and nothing but cargo for school and another plane full of nothing but medical supplies. i saw a little boy who they had just written off, the same size as my little boy and we got little, what do they call it? salt water in him and next day he s walking. music has led to it. tell us what you have over there on the left side. what do we have here? music that grows, ladies. i thought i ve seen it all. this is fresh off the press right here. i have seen the new package myself, but you can plant this cd and it will grow. it not only has it not only has my music on it. i just got tired of seeing plastic cases everywhere. again, wanted to leave something behind that might be better and some kids out here who don t know where beans come from. i thought we d teach them about where flowers come from. you take your cd package and you take your coverage off and beautiful little poster of me and take the whole thing and put it under the dirt. take the music out and put it in your car. cuboom. you could be riding down the road and accidentally drop it. the worst thing that would happen is that flowers would grow, perennial wild flowers. 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable if you decide to throw it away. you and rich, you guys are still a couple? john not a couple. you know what i mean. a duo. are you still a duo? we just finished a tour this year and he s put an album out himself and i think both of us have songs we like to speak as individuals and songs that everybody knows we like to rowdy sing together. you ll be back together in the future, as well. you are such a sweetheart. love everybody. yeah, baby. all right. up next, homemade halloween costumes that will have your dog howling if he isn t already. halloween with some creative costumes for the furriest member of your family. hopefully that is your pet. kristen is here with some adorable creations for the dog in your house, which were made from all kind of stuf you may just have lying around your house. this has been a lot of fun with these dogs. we love how they re inexpensive. you re doing these on the cheap. my goals to always help people and do it inexpensively and for the most part these dogs are all in things that you might have in your home and no sewing machines and a glugun and some tape and that s all that we did. this is literally things that i had in my home. expin what boomer is first. boomer is sushi. he is a tasty treat inside. boomer is sporting bubble wrap over a white towel an orange towel is the tina. you could use a hefty bag. yes. or a green lawn bag you could use. and the little eggs on time an orange marker cause they re all nice and clear. under $5. thank you, boomer. see you, boomer. boomer is never leaving. next one. drag him. okay, the next dog under $5. this is laura. she works at nbc with her cute pug, rocco. rocco is the one that got away this morning. all over the place on the run. tell us about the hershey s kiss. you know when you go to joann s fabric, the tacky fabric that is not supposed to be an outfit is always on sale. it is a funnel from my kitchen and we wrote hershey s on a white tag and good to go for $5. rocco is not leaving. rocco, thank you and good luck. this is hysterical. next we have mandy. she happens to be our producer adam s girlfriend. and her cute dog ollie. ollie is one of the most behaved of our show dogs today. the concept for this one, if you dress up your dogs for halloween you re probably the kind of dog owner that dresses up your dog anyway. i happen to have ten hoodies. what can you do with the hoodies you already have. that s the trim off the christmas hats. i made the ears out of a 99 cent piece of felt. it is like a sweatshirt he is wearing. they are all dropping like flies. get dragged away. we have another hoody-inspired outfit. this is a unicorn. we can t even see. how funny. he is a unicorn and we have another hooded sweatshirt and the trim is a buck from joann s fabric. what is going on? i don t know. they re all conking out. there s something on that grass. he can t see, that s the trouble. he can t see. when they start going in circles like that, it s a problem. no popping on the stage. pick the hood up. poor baby. oh, my gosh. i hope peta is not watching. that costume is under $5 if you have a hood in your dog s closet. we call this dyi 102. this is for the more advanced if you already own a glue gun and you can do a little bit. here is our camel. he is a camel. we ve got, styrofoam ball in half to make the humps and we did the reigns out of a piece of decorative rope. isn t she awesome? she s adorable. last but not least we have zooky the beagle. zooky is dressed up as an x-ray machine. of course she is. the dog has started eating money. shgoes in my husband s wallet and eats just the cash and only the high bills for some reason. my dog ate my homework and this dog ate some keys and you can see that because it s in this x-ray. is he going to go down, too. something is weird on that carpet. let s bring all the dogs out nd see if they all conk out. i found the image online by searching dog x-ray. i want to thank everybody for bringing your dogs out. thank you. great job. thank you, everybody. good job. all right, coming up next, a little, a little different thing for dinner tonight. that s right after this. we re back in today s kitchen and we re getting steamy with jaden heir. welcome. first time on today show. we have burgers with sort of an asian korean flair. you make burgers with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, black pepper and sesame seeds. typical flavors for some of the korean-style barbecue spices they mix with beef. add that to the ground beef and form them into patties and we get very, very flavorful burgers. do you add anything to them afterwards? just put them on the grill and this is where the fun comes in. to that you add what we re going to do next. when i have friends over, some of my friends like spicy and some don t. some like ketchup and instead of trying to make burgers personalized for everybody. i put out the ingredients. i see ketchup and mayonnaise. cue cumbers and pickles. spicy. it s not spicy. this is spicy. this is pickled, spicy cabbage. spicy. do you like spicy? i like spicy. a little bit. all the time. my husband won t eat this but he will love everything else. mu mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise. you can add more if you want to spice it up. it becomes a pretty color and you can start making your own. if you want to start making your own burger, you can decide what you want. i like spicy, so, i m adding more. not knowing what the burger tastes like it s hard to know what to add to it. this is a typical type of hamburger condiments. are you going to go for the hot? that s pretty spicy. is it? should i taste it. just put it on. just do it. this pickle. all you have to do, even if you don t want to take the time to cut it this thin just add sesame seeds and you have a little bit of sugar and vinegar and five minutes later it s ready. can we try. my hands still smell like liel is from cleaning cody s apartment. it s delicious. all right. isn t it great? just so different. over here, come around this way. this is hangover food. i heard that we need, you guys like hangover food here. careful, careful. i want to be invited back. we never need hangover food. who said it? don t know. it was kate. this is chopped up kimchi. this kind of wakes you up in the morning and the fried egg that is put on top is the protein. this is just fried rice. this is just fried rice. there is a secret to fried rice. if you ll mix this for me. you get the pan really hot so you hear that sizzling sound. that s exactly what you want and you want to get it so hot the grains are resteamed. you want to use day-old rice. day-old rice because it had a chance to. there wgo, slide the egg on. just leave it like that and sometimes secretly i eat it straight out of the pan. all right. the lst thing we have is potstickers. pork and mango potstickers. pork and mango. oh, that sounds good to me. there s yours. when my friend comes over instead of them watching me slave away in the kitchen, i make them make these. chop up your ingredients and fry them. what is this? just a soy dipping sauce. it s not spicy, i promise. very good. delicious, jaden. thank you. these recipes are all in my book. what is it again? steamy kitchen cookbook. be back with more. so, miss sara, what is going on? we re still talking about the fl and vaccines on the wall. patricia says she doesn t want to get it and esther says she definitely wunts to get it. nancy sniderman says, get it. are they giving a reason why? patricia says her kids get the seasonal flu, but she doesn t know enough about the vaccine. it s a personal choice. it really is. i don t want to say anything that would sway anyone one way together. my arm was like a linebacker all week long. if i start to grow a hump, i ll let you know. if you guys would like jill and louis to come to your door. go to our website and do it right now, immediately. deadline is october 30th. this friday at 5:00 p.m. eastern. have an awesome day, everybody.