Transcripts For WRC Today 20091128 : vimarsana.com

a news update. join as at 9:00. good morning. crashing the party. how did two uninvited guests get past this heightened security in the world and get face to face with president obama? the accident questions swirling about the car crash that injured tiger woods early friday morning. what happened. and bargain bonanza. customers storm a store at this black friday weekend looking for deals, but how much are they actually buying? find out today, saturday, november 28th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this saturday morning. i m jenna wolf. i m carl quintanilla. lester and amy enjoying a rare weekend off. good thanksgiving? very nice. you? good, except i have a problem with people that two days after thanksgiving, i m still stuffed. how much did you eat that you re still full from thanksgiving? not that much. no. that s been the theme around here. we have a lot to get to this morning. yeah, we are. the story about tiger woods and what happened to him in florida. police in florida say he was injured in a car accident and that his wife smashed in a rear window to help get him out. they are planning to speak with him today and have a lot of questions. the latest coming up. that s still developing. and listening for the first time to air traffic conol reporting from that northwest flight that overflew its destination by 150 miles last month. what the pilots had to say about being so out of touch, which is such a scary situation for the passengers. absolutely. a real-life hollywood drama. the acclaimed director roman polanski could be in the hands of american authorities soon to face justice for that decades-old crime. we ll update that story for you. but first we re going to start with the bizarre story of the party-crashing cup who will managed to get past top-secret sefs and face to face with president obama. nbc s savannah guthrie has more. reporter: receiving the white house christmas tree friday, first lady michelle obama had no comment about the unwanted guests the white house received tuesday night at the obama s first state dinner. a white house official now confirms tareq and salahi did meet the president that night, even getting their pictures taken. they were interviewed friday by investigators from the secret service. in a statement, the agency director said he was deeply concerned and embarrassed by the incident. it turns out a uniformed officer at the first pedestrian checkpoint allowed the couple through even though they weren t on the guest list, thinking they d be verified at the next checkpoint monopoly. welcome to the white house. reporter: inside the party, the salahis were allowed to mix and mingle with the political elite, snapping pictures that were later posted on the couple s facebook page, a high-profile addition to their vast online collection of photographs with celebrities. but the couple s lawyer says the salahis did not crash the party. attorney paul gardner telling nbc news my clients were cleared by the white house to be there. more information is forthcoming. aspiring to be a castember on the next installment of the real housewives series on bravo, whose parent company is nbc universal, on the day of the event, michaele sent more more than seven hours at this salon, all the while filmed by camera crews. irwin says he s known salahi for years, even doing the makeup for her wedding. it was very legitimate. they had a limo outtide. and they were ready to go. reporter: a big question will there be criminal charges? the secret service says that depends on what their investigation yields. a big piece of that, the interview that investigators did with the couple on friday. for today, savannah guthrie, nbc news, the white house. clint van zandt is an nbc news analyst and a former fbi profiler. clint, thanks for being with us this morning. good morning. so, the secret service says that the president was never in any real danger because this couple went through metal detectors. is that a valid argument? no, it s really not. once you got into the party, once you got into the party proper you assumed everybody s been cleared. i mean, you ve got access nir from a knife, fork, or a spoon to a broken glass to who knows what chemicals or other agents you could have your clothes impregnated with. and when you get this close to people in power, i mean, look, they had access both to the president and the vice president of the united states in the same night. what if they were there for something other than 15 minutes of fame? as savannah reported, so the couple comes in, get through the first checkpoint because i guess that officer thought they d be vetted at the next check point. it seems like a big miscommunicaon. how big a breach of protocol was this? in any function, law enforcement or otheise, the job of the outer perimeter, the first form of the secret service, realizes that s different than the suit we re in, agents, but notwithstanding, his or her job was to be the first line of defense right away to say you don t belong here, turn them away before they even get close to the white house, to the president, or anybody else. that first person failed in everything else, just like dominos, appears to have fall en in that allowed this couple to get in who were seeking fame, perhaps hoping that it would equal fortune. well, clint, from what we re hearing, this couple had no intention of hurting or harming the president or anyone there that night, but i guess the fear becomes does this leave room and open the galley for copycat situations just like this? oh, i think it does. there are a lot of people sitting around the edge, whether they re terrorists or you have to realize, too, this president has had 400% more threats against his life than any other seated president, so the secret service has got to be leaning forward inhe saddle all the time, ready to protect the president and the first lady. when you open the door, so to speak, and show people this is how close you can get in, all you have to do is look like a duck and talk like a duck and they were invited to go on the pond. that s something that shouldn t have happened. the secret service has got to take a whole good look at what they re doing, realize wurn person broke down, but it s the old theory, you know, the weakest link in a chain, and that chain was busted. is someone going to get fired over this, clint? it s not my job to fire somebody, but somebody made an egregious error that they at the very least shouldn t have the same job they have anymore. but it just goes to show, unless if you ve got a team, unless everyone is playing at the same speed, at the same time, you can get a couple like this who are in debt, they ve lost money, their home has been taken away, their cars are being taken away, they re living out of hotels but they re still able to put on a tuxedo and a dress and con their way right into the white house. and if they were there for any other reason, perhaps impact upon this country as a whole. all right. clint van zandt, thank you for the insight. here s carl. jenna, thanks. florida police plan to talk to tiger woods today, hoping to get more information about his car crash on friday. woods was treated and release from the a hospital after suffering minor injuries, but today speculation is growing about what exactly happened. nbc s mark potter has more. reporter: authorities say the one-car accident occurred at 2:25 a.m., just outside tiger woods home in a fashionable gated community at windermere, florida, near orlando. according to the florida highway patrol, woods backed outover his driveway in his cadillac suv, drove forward, hit a fire hydrt, then struck a neighbor s tree, suffering facial cuts. he was in and out of consciousness with lacerations to his ummer and lower lip. reporter: police say woods was at the accident scene helping her husband. from what we understand, his wife came out of the house when she heard the accident, him hitting the fire hydrant, used a golf club, is what we were told, to break out the rear window to gain entrance to the vehicle, removed him from the vehicle, and laid him on the street. reporter: woods was taken to a local hospital for treatment and later released. highway patrol said there was no evidence of alcohol us. tiger woods was admitted, treated, and released today in good condition. reporter: because the 33-year-old woods considered the greatest golfer in the world with a huge fan base, news of his accident flashed around the cotry, especially because the investigating officer in his report said woods injuries were serious. amid questions about whether the accident resulted from a fight between woods and his wife, the windermere police chief said he had no such evidence. my officers had no indication of any domestic violence or anything like that. reporter: the spokesman for the florida highway patrol said when the officers went to woods home to interview him last night he was sleeping and officers agreed to come back this afternoon to finally question woods about the accident. for today, mark potter, nbc news, miami. and now here s jenna. carl, thanks. for retailers, this is one of the biggest weekends of the year. but will all the shopping that began on black friday carry through the weekend? nbc s ron allen joins us live in the manhattan mall here in new york city. ron, good morning. reporter: good morning, jenna. hard as it may be to believe, we found a quiet shopping mall. that s because it doesn t open for another hour or so. across the country, it was a crazy black friday in a lot of places. the crowds were big early but seemed to thin as the afternoon went on. at this point, it seems the shoppers were only looking for big discounts and great deals. doors opened at the stroke of midnight at toys r us, where throngs of shoppers waited hours to have the hottest items, big and small, like the battery-operated hamster. zhu zhu. going to get my zhu zhu. reporter: walmart and best buy extended hours. but police had to control the hoards of people lined up for blockbuster specials offered as limited-quality deals. shoppers could score a laptop for just under $200 and a 40 4 2-inch flat-screen tv for just under $1,000. bigger than i am. i ve been going since 5:00 a.m. shopped four or five hours. totally worth it. you know, you ve got to save money in this economy. save a few hundred bucks on this computer, a few hundred on that tv, it makes it worth it, definitely. reporter: after the holiday shopping season last year, the worst in nearly four decades, retailers are reducing inventories and catering to thrifty shoppers who this year are choosing cash over credit cards. we re seeing a lot of bedding, a lot of cookware being sold. people want to have that iphone, that i touch. beyond that, value takes on another meaning. reporter: although the internet is always open for people who don t like dealing with crowds. i m wondering if this was even worth it. ultimately for the retailer who s trying to get as many sales as possible this holiday season, they really don t care where you shop. they just want you to shop with them. reporter: and they re hoping you ll shop early. some of the best deals may be available early in the holiday season. the retailers trying to take the drama out of the whole thing. we should get some hard numbers sometime later today or sometime sunday, but, again, expectations are modest. most experts are predicting a 1% drop in holiday sales, which would actually be a good year compared to last year. there are about two people in the store behind you. now is the time to get your shopping done. go. here s carl. jenna, thanks. some 134 million shoppers were expected to hit the stores on friday. are retailers strategies working and what does that mean for the economy? melissa lee has some answers. good morning, carl. retailers trying to do it differently this season, right? fewer discounts and less inventory. does that mean are the strategies going to work, first of all? well, a lot of the retail experts do think it s going to help. that was a big lesson from last year, because last year, retailers were saddled with merchandise, and that s why they felt the pressure to cut prices more deeply as we approach christmas. this time around, leaner inventories, which means that pressure is off, and that s good news for the retailers because those profit margins will remain intact and 40% of annual sales can come from the holiday shopping season, so it s very important that the retailers really make this work. so far, as ron mentioned, the trends are pretty good. the traffic was good yesterday. we won t know the sales for another day or so. and the big question is whether or not shoppers will actually go out there and spend, given what s going on in the economy, given the high jobless rate right now. we just don t know. as you know, carl, the ceo of target came out a couple weeks ago saying the two days after thanksgiving, the two days before christmas, that will be make or break for target and a lot of other retailers. we won t know the final tallies of the holiday shopping season until after the holiday season. joblessness is high, but the stock market s had a pretty good year and gas prices are lower than this time last year. that s got to help somewhat. it s a sad state of affairs, but consumers are used to hearing about 10% unemployment. we had that last month, and people are simply used to it. analysts say gas prices, the stock market, those will be the two factors. gas is a little higher than last november, but it hasn t been a sharp spike higher, which is important psychogically. the stock market up 58% since the march low so, that is important as well. those are the things that make people feel more immediately rich or more immediately poor. got your zhu zhu dolls. zhu zhu hamsters. get on that. you better get two. thanks. here s jenna. carl, thank you. the faa released air traffic control audiotapes from that northwest airlines flight last night that overshot its destination by 150 miles. the tapes reveal air traffic control is repeatedly trying to reach the aircraft, then make sure the plane hadn t been hijacked. nbc s tom costello has more. 188, minneapolis. reporter: it went on for 1:17. 188. if you hear minneapolis center, ident. reporter: urgently trying to raise northwest 188 from san diego to minneapolis and asking each other how to handle it. finally, after flying 150 miles past minneapolis, fligh 188 calls in. but controllers become concerned that the plane might have been hijacked. and order the pilots to perform a series of turns to prove they re in control. controllers then asked the pilots why they d not responded. six minutes later, controllers ask again. once on the ground, the pilots claimed they d been onheir laptops, distracted by new crew scheduling procedures. the faa has revoked the pilots eli senses. both men are appealing. meanwhile, they remain suspended from delta and northwest airlines. tom costello, washington. 16 minutes past the hour. we go to the news desk and jeff rossen. good morning. good morning. good morning, everyone. we begin in jupiter, florida, where police are searching for a manccused of killing his own family after thanksgiving dinner. investigators say he opened fire inside a relative s home, killing his twin sisters and aunt and a 6-year-old cousin who was sleeping in her bed. one of his sisters was pregnant. police say he took off in a rol blue late-model toyota cam camry. the motive remains unclear. at least 25 people are dead this morning after a train derailment in russia, and officials say it may have been terrorism. nearly 100 people were hurt when the train careened off the track north of moscow. officials say the cause may be an explosion under the tracks. so far, there have been no claims of responsibility. and at least 30 people are dead after a ferry capsized in bangladesh overnight. the ferry was packed with more than 1,500 passengers heading home from an islamic festival. authorities say that people are still missing and fear others will be trapped inside the ferry. a woman from massachusetts who lost her job, separated from her husband, says life is good because of something she saw. mary joe claims she saw jesus on her iron. there s the image. the 44-year-old catholic is putting the iron in a closet for safekeeping. and finally, if you got two left feet carl this one is for you. pairing up the competition at the internation robot exhibition in tokyo. look at him go. break dancing robot, just 13 inches taulg, so carl, he has something on you, but comes with a hefty price tag of $1,700. not bad. that s the news. back to jenna, carl sorry, buddy. i would give anything to dance that well. tell me about it. you pull that out at parties and then what? what s the encore? maybe do what the robot s doing. or think about the other things you can use that $1,700 on. thank you. exactly. the weather channel s stephanie abrams is here with your forecast. good morning. grab your hats because it is going to be windy in the northeast today, winds gusting 60 miles an hour, and that could cause some power outages. keep that in mind. that s all due to our system that s exiting the northeast that brought rain and snow to many through the day yesterday, and that continues through this morning. as we look at the forecast for the rest of the country, the center of the country will be sunny and warm, but enjoy it because temperatures will be cooling down. more on that a little bit later. more on your travel forecast coming up. first over to jenna. this tuesday, president obama will reveal his new strat zwri for the war in afghanistan during an address to the nation from west point. for more now, we re joined by retired colonel jack jacobs. colonel jacobs recently had a chance to sit down with the head of u.s. central command, general david petraeus, for an article in this week s parade magaz e magazine. good morning. thanks for being with us. reports are he ll be sending anywhere between 30,000 and 35,000 troops to afghanistan. is that whatou re hearing? yeah, that s about right. any general would like to have lots more troop, and i think mcchrystal would have liked to have had more troops but that s probably about the right number he s going to get, and he can make do with that. iraq is not the same thing as afghanistan. in afghanistan, they can focus their energies on specific areas, secure those areas, and then develop economics in those areas without having to take over the whole country. and this is the president and the vice president s decision, or did the generals, petraeus and mcchrystal, have some say in the final announcement? that s interesting. i think the vice president more or less has been shut out of this decision because the vice president decided, and publicly so, that we need to forget about anything other than al qaeda, not worry about the taliban, and forget about afghanistan. i think mcchrystal and petraeus have prevaed and they ve been assisted by general jim jones, who s the president s national security adviser. and i think the president s making the decision despite the sbreeies from the politicians who would really like him to pull out all together. so now you send 35,000 troops. aren t you bound to see progress with a number like that? yeah, i think you are, and i think the president s going to hold the command responsible for seeing some progress in the areas like helmand province and kandahar, up on the border of pakistan and so on. if there isn t progress, i think he pulls the plug on it relatively soon because of the political ramifications if it s not successful. the president also expected to lay out an exit strategy? afghanistan. do we know anything about getting out and a timetable for that? till you, i think it s going to be really, really vague. i think it s been recommended to him that he not be specific about a timetable, that it works against americans interest, and i think he s going to expect will to be some kind of progress he can tout as being measurable, but i doubt seriously if he s going to say we ve got a timetable and we ll be out by such and such a date. he s going to wait and see, i think, and i don t think you can expect anything less. colonel jack jacobs, thanks for being with us this morning. still to come, the latest on roma still to come on today, as the holiday shopping kicks into high gear, so does the anxiety over how to pay for it all. i m already stressed out. plus, the first family s first white house christmas tree. 7:26 is your time now, 42 degrees. a chilly start to your morning. a little windy out there as well. veronica will have the forecast after the news. i m eun yang. saturday, november 28, 2009. here s a look what s making news this morning. the man accused of opening fire at the holocaust museum could be in court on monday and we re now learning how much d.c. is spending to take care of him. according to the associated press the city is footing a $55,000 medical bill for self proclaimed white separatist james von brunn. the 89-year-old is charged with opening fire at the holocaust museum in june and killing special officer stephen johns. he was then shot by another guard. also today, gunfire in the district and a woman is hit. it happened around midnight on good hope road in southeast washington. police have not released many details about the shooting but they do say the victim was conscious and breathing when they arrived. and metro is coming to dulles and some lawmakers are worried a noisy problem could come along for the ride. now they re pressing for sound barriers along the dulles rail corridor. it s a push from senators mark warner and jim webb along with representatives frank wolf, jim moran and gerry connolly. they ve made the request in a letter to rail officials. neighborhoods in mclean and on both side of the dulles toll road are worried that state budget cuts may cancel funding for sound walls. we re going to take a break now. veronica is back with the fo while i was building my friendships, my family, while i was building my life, my high cholesterol was contributing to plaque buildup in my arteries. that s why my doctor prescribed crestor. she said plaque buildup in arteries is a real reason to lower cholesterol. and that along with diet, crestor does more than lower bad cholesterol, it raises good. crestor is also proven to slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. crestor isn t for everyone, like people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. you should tell your doctor about other medicines you are taking, or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of serious side effects. while you ve been building your life, plaque may have been building in your arteries. find out more about slowing the buildup of plaque at crestor.com. then ask your doctor ift s time for crestor. announcer: if you can t afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. for late november, a beautiful weekend. expect it. let s take a look joust side and take a look at the temperatures. we re at 4 1 degrees through the area, mostly sunny skies. up to about 48 degrees by noontime today with sunshine. 53 by 3:00 p.m. that s the high for today. it will be a little breezy, but no rain for this weekend. it s going to be dry the entire weekend. your next chance of rain not until early monday morning. thank you, veronica. coming up on news 4 today at 9: we are back on a saturday morning, november 28th, 2009, with a look at our happy crowd on our plaza today. we ll be heading out there to join them a bit later on. but in the meantime, inside studio 1a, i m carl quintanilla with jenna wolf, lester and amy recovering from thanksgiving. that s what i was talking about earlier in the show. you need to recover two days after thanksgiving? it depends on how much you eat. you could eat a lot. you have to eat a lot to need hours worth of recovery, carl. no. it s good they get time off. still to come on today, rumors have been swirling all night about what tiger woods might have been doing and what might have caused his saturday morning accident. coming up, we ll hear when florida police plan to talk a to him about the crash and get answers to some of the questions they have for him. one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. retailers all over the country are offering big discounts to lure customers in. but are shoppers spending money? coming up, expert advice on how you can afford gifts for everyone on your list without feeling the guilt and the pressures of the ason, which you ve already admitted to. yeah. you are anxious. well, anxious. i was anxious at halloween. i was stressed out to get valentine s presents, so you know where i m coming from. i absolutely do. no, you don t. you have no idea. we ll bring you a story of a young dolphin who found himself stranded ashore during hurricane ida a few weeks ago. he nearly died, but a local aquarium came to the rescue and saved him. how is he doing? we re going to find out. we ll meet him later in the program. but first, roman polanski, the acclaimed director who for years lived in self-imposed exile in europe, may soon be released on house arrest. nbc s stephanie gosk joins us from london with more. stephanie, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, carl. polanski is pushing his apartment in paris as bail. it s the home he shares with his wife and two children. the decision to grant his release said it was a substantial portion of his wealth and was needed to avert suspicion of the risk of flight. roman polanski has been sitting in a swiss jail for nearly two months, but he won t be there much longer. the oscar award-winning director could be released as early as monday, as soon as he turns in his passport and posts $4.5 million in bail. instead of a cell, he gets to stay here, his alpine home in a swiss resort town, while the courts decide whether or not his extradition to the u.s. is illegal. his emotional sister-in-law spoke with a french radio station. translator: i m really very happy. when my sister told me, i cried. reporter: but the 76-year-old will not exactly be free. the police will electronically monitor his every move, and he s not allowed out the door. worries that plan i can, a dual citizen of france and poland, might run again. i ve never seen bail given in this type of situation. it s very rare for bail to be given in extraditions at all, let alone when you have somebody who s wanted on a flight or an escape. reporter: in 1977, polanski accepted a plea deal and admitted to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. five other felony counts including rape by use of drugs and sodomy were dropped. but when it looked like the judge might renege on the deal, polanski fled. more than three decades later, police arrested him in zurich. the state of california wants him back in court. i think it s been gnawing at the district attorney that roman polanski has been out there, on award shows, making films, traveling through europe, and they can t get their hands on him. reporter: if polanski doesn t run again, they could get their hands on him, soon. the california appellate court may stand in the way of extradition. next month, polanski s lawyers will argue that the judges and prosecutors in the original criminal case 30 years ago acted improperly. if they win that case, all criminal charges from 1977 could be dropped. carl? stephanie gosk in london, stephanie, thanks. now let s get another check of the weath from the weather channel s stephanie abrams on the plaza. listen about this fun bus. just off the buss from west virginia. how does this work? well, you sign up a couple months before and take a 12-hour trip to new york. try to sleep. got off the buss and you leave tonight at 8:00? yes. let s look at the forecast for these people who just landed here in new york city. we will see the wind and some rain but sunshine in the center of the country. and tomorrow a lot of people will be traling back and from the great lakes to the gulf coast we ll see some showers. and joe, one of the people on the crew, wants to say congratulations to garden city high school. they beat north babylon last night on a 38 yard line field goal in a swirling wind by ryan norton, a sophomore. if any colleges are looking for a kid, that s your boy. your son is on the team. you re not just some random guy. exactly. here s our nfl football cast for the steelers and the ravens. temperatures are going to be a bit on the cool side. we will see them between 48 and 52. for your football weather, go to weather.com. of course, you can do that 24 hours a day. carl? stephanie, thank you. congratulations. when we come back, holidays on a budget. sometimes a nerve-racking proposition. and coping with the anxiety of paying for all those gifts. alex, you are the sizzle. joni did the entire crossword. in pen. sizzle joni, sizzle. rick refilled the paper in the copier. both trays. way to sizzle, rick. be the sizzle with mcdonald s sausage mcmuffin with egg sizzling sausage, a fresh cracked egg. and melting cheese on a toasty english muffin. sizzle on. ( sizzling ) ba da ba ba ba but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i m claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out. like i couldn t catch my breath. i couldn t believe i was actually having a heart attack. i remember being at the hospital, thinking about my wife. i should have done more to take care of myself. now i m exercising, watching my diet, and i trust my heart to lipitor. (announcer) unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications, lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and certain kinds of heart surgeries in patients with several common risk factors or heart disease. lipitor is 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 buserious side effect. i ll never forget what i went through. don t take your health for granted. (announcer) have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. hurry, to the toys-r-us after thanksgiving 2day sale!!! get our lowest prices of the season!!! two days only, it s the sale you can t miss! all day friday and saturday! get great deals on hundreds of terrific toys throughout the store! plus, get 50% off toys from the hottest brands like disney, fisher price, nerf, nintendo, and so many more! toys r us, where kids are a big deal!™ is it just january 1st? this morning on countdown to christmas, the holiday shopping scene is in full swing, but for many the excitement is mixed with anxiety, especially when it comes to paying for all the those gifts. we caught up with some shoppers to see how the economy is affecting their gift buying. because of the economy, i m hesitating and not spending as much as i would normally. just trying to save a little money. things are a little tight. everyone, except for the little kids. i m telling my friends that i can t afford, you know, to exchange gifts with them this year, so maybe we ll do it next year. if it s somebody like my mom or my fiance or somebody or a close friend, i feel feel, man, should have gotten more expensive gifts. it s so cheap, you know? probably just starting a little sooner and trying to spread it out so it s not one big hit all at once. making gifts. yeah. i m trying to be creative. no, i m not cutting back. recession, boo hoo. psychiatrist dr. janet taylor andexpe sanika calloway are here with tips for handling shopping anxieties. good morning to both of you. good morning. that last woman said, boo, the recession. i d love to boo the cold weather and early morning spin class and everything else on it, but you can t really look at it that way, can you? no, not really. definitely boo the recession because reality is we have to spend to stim late the economy, to continue to get things going. and you have to spend responsibly. so what i suggest is using cash. cash is incredibly emotional. credit isn t. when you re swiping that debit card or credit card, oh, isle just add that, oh, get to the counter, i ll add that scarf or that sweater. you re adding up. if you take the same amount of money you planned to spend on your friends or group of friends and put literally in an envelope and saying this is how much i spend, when you goat get to the envelope, it s done. but every time you look, i have $30 left, $50, you spend in a tangible way. very hard to do. it is. why is there pressure to spend more than we re comfortable with? it s the holidays. we have the sense that there s scarcity, oh, you have to find the right gifts, so there s that external pressure, and internally, we feel we have to measure how much we love someone by the gift we give them. people are depressed baz they can t give now. ite s the holidays. we have to find more economic ways to show our love. how do you avoid that gut-wrenching feeling with that credit card bill that you want to put over here and not look at for a very long time? how co-you avoid that feeling? you avoid it by not doing it. it doesn t serve you or the other person to be guy bying a gift that neither of you can afford and honestly probably won t remember. kids, they want to spend time with you. if you re going to buy the video game, buy wit the intention of, hey, we re going to play together. what i suggest is families, get a family gift. maybe it s the big-screen tv so your husband can watch football or the kids can play video games but do something and do it all together. jenna, how do you cut back without feeling guilty? we love the do nice things and get small things and not have to spend a lot, but then there s that sense of guilt that i should have bought more. how do you avoid that? to avoid guilt, again, focus on family value, focus on spending time together. don t do activities that make you feel regret. the holidays is about creating memories and having experiences. it s not about spending money. it s time. kids, merry christmas. we re going to spend time together. that s what i got you guys for christmas this year. do you love us? there s a balance, right? there s definitely a balance, but when you think about it, too, when you involve the kids in the whole holiday process, you do get to see what it is that they re looking for, as well, and it s not all about the little things. it really is about saying, hey, let s come together and figure out how this is going to feel for us five years ago when you go, do you remember how much fun we had when we did whatever? simple, thoughtful gis, homemade goods, writing notes. thank you both very much. thanks for being with us. up next, it isn t any old christmas tree and it isn t in any old house. we ll explain. for the pandora bracelet go to d like we told him? - i i can t tell. - [sighs] oh, honey! - oh, yeah. he went to jared. - he totally went to jared. female announcer: celebrate life s unforgettable moments with pandora charms and bracelets, now at jared, where you ll find a fabulous pandora selection. girls: awww. - they are so cute at that age. to earn cash back from holiday shopping. that was easy. 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. visa® credit card. - kids: cup-cakes! cupakes! cup-ccup-cakes!-cakes! - come on. cup re-do! re-do! ( stove dings ) cup-cakes! cup-cakes! cup-cakes! ( cheering ) announcer: relax. pam helps you pull it off. you ll love too. from snuggle exhilarations! it s the difference between waking up. and coming to life. drying off. and snuggling up. with a variety of unique scent combinations, like sweet blossom and pomegranate. exhilarating, tening and it costs less than downy simple pleasures! because everyone loves to snuggle! bargain hunters, and gift givers. your day has come. this weekend only, the home depot has lowered even more prices throughout the store, on more gifts people will actually use. like an 18-volt ryobi combo kit for just $49.88. a savings of 100 bucks. better bring your sleigh. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. the white house is now open for christmas. on friday, the first lady, along with daughters sasha and malia, received official white house christmas tree by traditional horse-drawn carriage. as va vana guthrie reports, it s tradition. reporter: it s more than a brisk walk in the woods. he even looks a little like santa. i have just little more to cut. reporter: rooted in family tradition that goes back for decades, eric and his wife, gloria, have worked tirelessly to raise the perfect christmas tree. i planted every tree on this farm a couple times over. planting is in april, and pruning starts in about july. there is times when you re out pruning and the bugs are out. reporter: they travel all over the world, more than 70,000 miles, to hone their skills and find scientists to search for the perfect seedlings and create the hybrid trees they grow in these fields. and all the precise planning and hard work has paid off. this year, for the fourth time, they have won the national christmas tree competition. on friday, this giant douglas fir, along with the sunbacks, arrived at the white house. is this the prettiest tree we ve ever had? yeah. reporter: with each trip, they re able to catch a glimpse inside the lives of the first family. mrs. carter was very sharp. mrs. reagan was more reserved. reporter: the latest trip to the white house felt familiar, but it wasn t exactly old hat. each time it s a repetition, but it isn t really. it s something new. reporter: something for all americans to share for the holidays. for today, savannah guthrie, nbc news, the white house. that s kind of nice. you know, they have to raise thisree and then see it on the white house it s like raising a child. they pet it, they feed it, nice to it. give it water. very nice. teach it to spell. you re not going to get a tree this year. it s not just a this year thing. i m jewish. i thought there might be you want to tell what i said at the break. let s not talk about that. okay. i totally got it. we ll be right back. still to come on today, crashers at the white house gate. jon and kate s makeup that wasn t, and an award show performance gone bad. our panel of experts discuss the bizarre week that was. and a young dolphin stranded on the beach in alabama is now being treated back to life by man. how is he doing? we re going to find out. only one store has all the toys your kids want- the most legos ever! the hottest video games! plus get our lowest prices of the season!!! toys r us, where kids are a big deal!™ pop-tarts®, please! ( sfx: toaster pop ) when you give your kids. kellogg s frosted strawberry pop-tarts®. baked with real fruit, they ll rise. and you ll shine. ( sfx: mom giggles ) pop-tarts®. made for fun™. for joint pain. for joint pain. it has an authentic candle-like scent and glow, but, fortunately. it s not a candle. it s an entirely new way to freshen the air, with scented shades you can change on a lighted wooden base. nice! e new febreze flameless luminary. big on style, not on price. now available with new limited-edition holiday shades. how come they separate the hash browns from the rest of the platter? maybe there s just not enough room. or, maybe the hash browns were a little late and no one saved them a seat. maybe if the platter got a text message. from the hash browns saying they were on their way. or, maybe if the p pull up a chair to a mcdonald s breakfast platter: fluffy hotcakes, freshly cooked eggs and sausage off the griddle. with a warm biscuit and hash browns, it s an all-together good morning. ba da ba ba ba 7:56 is your time now, 42 degrees. the sun is out over the nation s capital. what kind of weather are we going to have this weekend? veronica will have answers after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. the secret service is questioning the have a couple accused of crashing tuesday night s state dinner at the white house. investigators interviewed tareq and michaele salahi yesterday. they met the president at the dinner. the preliminary findings of their investigation determined protocols were not followed at the initial checkpoint. once inside, the salahis mingled with politicians and celebrities. planning a big push to overturn the law that makes it illegal for people to buy wine and have it shipped to their homes. right now they can only by it in a store or a vineyard. lawmakers plan a big lobbying effort in annapolis this upcoming session which begins in january. if it s overturned they could buy wine on the internet and have it sent in the mail. opponents say it would mak it too easy for minors to buy alcohol. we re going to take a break now. man, it was cold and windy last night. exactly. we ll have to bundle up today. just not quite as much not quite the heavy coat as what we had last night. it s a breezy day with sunshine throughout the area. the winds still out of the northwest. there you can see the flag whipping in the wind. we still have gusts today that may get up to 20 and 2miles per hour. the northwesterly winds, sunshine throughout. here s a look at temperatures. 41 degrees, so you might say, hey, that s not too bad, there s the change. live now at 42 degrees. not bad, but you factor in that wind and it feels like we re in the 30s outside. we ll see a high temperature today of 53 degrees by about 3:00, then we re back down to the 40s. but clear skies tonight. those 50s are going to be heading back down to the 30s tonight. thank you, veronica. coming up on news 4 today at 9:00 a.m., if you can t make it to the mall you still have time to make a deal. we ll have tips h good morning. security breach the party crashers face to face with president obama. how did two uninvited ges get that close to the most protected man in the world? the crash growing questions about the early morning accident that sent tiger woods to the hospital. what really happened? and ready, set, shop. a weekend of big crowds looking for big bargains, but will shopping momentum last? today, saturday, november 28th, 2009. and welcome back to today. i m jenna wolf. i m carl quintanilla. lester and amy enjoying some time off this morning. maybe they re shopping along with the rest of the country. that s it. thanksving is over and no one can think or talk or anything else but shop. time to shop. but a lot of other stuff going on. coming up this half hour, the question, what happened to tiger woods? the more information we get about friday morning s car accident that sent him to the hospital, the more questions it raises. coming up, we ll tell you what police saw on the scene. and good news for an adorable little dolphin washed ashore during hurricane ida, which wasn t there, because that would have been interesting, stranded in a place few expected him to be found. fortunately, somebody did. we ll find out how he s doing. however, had the dolphin come through those doors we probably would have led with that. that would have been a good story. the control room loves you right now. one week from that shocking performance by adam lambert to the premature end of oprah s big giveaways to the finale of jo j & kate plus 8 , a special guest with a unique take on some of the news that had people talking this week. first, a closer look at the cup who will crashed president obama s din they are week. how did they get past the secret service? nbc s mike viqueira is live in the white house north lawn. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, jenna. even now with a federal investigation under way, whether or not this couple, the salahis, were publicity seekers looking for their 15 minutes of fame, it appears now they ve gotten more than they bargained for. face to face with the president of the united states and close enough to shake his hand. mr. and mrs. salahi. reporter: that s how far michaele and tareq salahi got when they showed up for president obama s first state dinner at the white house tuesday night. cheers. reporter: nz has learned that secret service investigators interviewed the couple friday about the incident. and in a statement, director mark sullivan said the secret service was deeply concerned and embarrassed. the agency provided new details about the lapse in security. the couple was allowed to pass through the first checkpoint, though their names weren t on the guest list. the unifoed office they re let them pass thought they would be verified at the next check point, but that never happened. once in the white house, the couple posed for photos with washington s elite and posted them on their facebook page, where they say they were honored to have been invited to the event. their attorney, paul gardner, told nbc news, they didn t crash the party, saying, quote, my clients were cleared by the white house to be there. more information is forthcoming. aspiring to be a cast member on the next installment of the real housewives series on bravo, whose parent company is nbc universal, on the day of the event, michaele spent more than seven hours at this salon, all the while filmed by camera crews. one wanted to see the invitation to the state dinner. i asked her if she had it and she told me she did. and she was looking in her bag to go look for it, but conveniently she didn t have it. reporter: and jenna, with that federal investigation under way, the question, will there be criminal charges? joining us from washington is ronald kessler, author of in the president s secret service a behind-the-scenes look at the liveses of secret service agents. ronald kessler, good morning to you. good to be with you, jenna. this is a state dinner, on the president s home turf where he was obviously well protected, but here s this uninvited cup that will comes in and meets the president on the receiving line. were you surprised that something like this could happen? unfortunately, i was not surprised. in my book, in the president s secret service, i go into dozens of shortcomings by the secret service. not the agents who are involved. they are brave and dedicated and will take a bullet for the president. but the management is really dysfunctional. for example, the secret service will periodically not do any magnetometer screening whatsoever at some events or they ll shut it down early when pressured. for example, obama s campaign pressured them not to do magnetometer screening in dallas, and as a result they let people in. there could have been terrorists. they could have had grenades. this kind of thing goes on all the time. at the same time, there s this culture of spinelessness. one example is when dick cheney s daughter demanded that agents take her friends to restaurants, the agents refused , and as a result mary cheney got the detail leader removed. that shows you how the management does not support the officers and agents. getting back to this particular incident, what do you think might happen as a result of this security this particular security breach? you know, the white house has expressed confidence in the secret service. i think that s a big mistake and it really risks an assassination. you know, this time it was a nice, pretty blond. the next time it could be an assassin, and that is the way assassinations occur when you have lack security. it is unthinkable that a uniformed officer in this case would understand that the person was not only the list and then let let them through. and let them in. just unthinkable. and, you know, the attrition rate in the uniform division is 10%. they make them work seven days a week, 12-hour days, very low morale. all this leads to inexperienced agents. that s just one problem. in addition, the corner cutting is something that everyone in the secret service recognizes and, therefore, they follow suit. ron, let me jump in here for a second. what kind of message does this send to others around the world that something like this could happen in our own backyard like this? well, it certainly is a black eye for the united states that in the most secure supposedly most secure place in the world, the white house, this could happen. and, you kno if you have an assassination, you really nullify democracy, because if we can t elect a president and have him serve his four year, we don t have democracy. it s as it is, given all the threat, given al qaeda, given lone gunmen, given militia groups, it s a wonder that there hasn t been an assassination. but when you don t do magnetometer screening, for example, when joe biden threw the first pitch at the orioles game last april in baltimore, they did no magnetometer screening, and in this case they did but these people could have had anthrax, they could have take an knife off a table and stabbed the president. sure. okay. but the secret service says they were not at risk, that is really dissemiblg. ronald kessler, thanks so much for your insight this morning. thank you. here s carl. jenna, thanks. now to tiger woods and the question kwe surrounding his early morning car accident that sent him to the hospital. florida police are hoping woods can provide some answers to what happened when they talk with him today. nbc s mark potter reports. reporter: authorities say the one-car accident occurred at 2:25 a.m., just outside tiger woods home in a fashionable gated community at windermere, florida, near orlando. according to the florida highway patrol, woods backed out of his driveway in his cadillac suv, drove forward, hit a fire hydrant, then struck a neighbor s tree, suffering facial cuts. he was in and out of consciousness with lacerations to his upper and lower lip. reporter: the chief says when the officers arrived, woods wife was at the accident scene, helping her husband. from what we understand, his wife came out of the house when she heard the accident, him hitting the fire hydrant, used a golf club, is what we were told, to break out the rear window to gain entrance to the vehicle, removed him from the vehicle, and laid him down in the street. reporter: woods was taken to a local hospital for treatment and was later released. highway patrol said there was no evidence of alcohol use. tiger woods was in a minor car accident outside his home last night. he was admitted, treated, and released today in good condition. reporter: because the 33-year-old woods is considered the greatest golfer in the world with a huge fan base, news of his accident flashed around the country, especially because the investigating officer in his report said woods injuriewere serious. amid questions about whether the accident resulted from a fight between woods and his wife, the windermere police chief said he had no such evidence. my officers had no indication of any domestic violence or anything like that. reporter: the spokesman for the florida highway patrol said when the officers went to woods home to interview him last night he was sleeping and officers agreed to come back this afternoon to finally question woods about the accident. for today, mark potter, nbc news, miami. and now here s jenna. carl, thanks. the holiday shopping season has officially begun with shoppers crowding stores for black friday weekend. but how much are they buying? nbc s ron allen is at a manhattan mall in new york city with the latest. ron, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, jenna. yeah, things are picking up here this morning. there is a trickle of shoppers coming. it s not a long line outside and people racing in as we saw yesterday across the country. a lot of hype for black friday, door buster sales getting people to the doors, in the doors shopping. but it seems this year people are taking things a little bit slowly, they re still being very cautious, they re still very concerned about the overall economy. i think expectations for the most part are quite modest. there are still a lot of people who are unemployed, a lot of people who are worried about their jobs. it seems people were out there shopping but not necessarily spending, and they re looking for deep discounts, looking for deals. everybody expects to find price cut, so if you don t see something like that, you re probably not going to buy anything. from the retailer side of things, they re offering big cuts now. they re hoping people will buy early because people have said this year they re going to spend less, so the retailers are hoping that you ll come early, you ll buy things early and take the drama out of when is expected to be a modest holiday shopping season. ron, what happens after this weekend? are prices expected to go back up? reporter: well, you have that cat-and-mouse game between the shoppers and the stores to see what s happening. i think this time around most stores hav reduced their inventories, they re stockpiling only limited items that they think will sell well. it s aery cautious season i think on both sides. the retailers took a big hit last year. it was one of the worst holiday shopping seasons on record. this year consumers again are nudging their way into the stores, being very kushs about what they do with their dollars. so we ll have to see how this all pans out. it was a busy black friday. we ll get to some hard data perhaps tomorrow or sunday, but anecdotally, a modest season, people still being careful, still concerned about the overall economy. ron allen in new york city, thank you very much. for a check on more headlines, nbc s jeff rossen is at the news desk. good to see you again. good morning, everyone. we begin in jupiter, florida, where police are searching for a man accused of killing his own family after thanksgiving dinner. investigators say paul mer guy hee, on your screen right now, opened fire inside a relative s home, killing his twin sister, an aunt and a 6-year-old cousin who was seping in her bed. one of the sisters was pregnant. police say he took off in a late-model blue toyota camry. the motive remains unclear. a cargo plane crashed as it took off from shanghai s main airport last night, killing three crew members. the plane veered off the runway and burst into flames. no word on what caused the crash. family and friends will say good-bye today to that medical student trapped in a utah cave. he never made it out. 26-year-old john jones became trapped tuesday night in this cave while on a trip. rescuers could not reach him, but now they can t get his body out e theshgs saying it s too dangerous. the cave will be sealed permanently. and finally, oh, baby. a minnesota woman has given birth to a 10 pound six ounce baby. wow. the mom says the baby born on thanksgiving day looks like a butter ball. i m impressed she can speak. axel laverne dalton was born three weeks early and yes, by cesarean. you think? pregnant women everywhere are saying please, no, please, no, please, no. so are not pregnant women, too, jeff. for that matter. the weather channel s stephanie abrams has a check of your forecast. good morning, jenna. good morning to you at home. we have a family celebrating a ninth birthday here all bundled up. let s talk about those temperatures because in the northeast they re a little bit on the chilly side. through the day today, our highs will be in the 50s, but with the wind, that windchill will knock it down by about ten degrees.gr. and it is a cold start around the area. temperatures are in the low to mid 40s throughout, 43 in frederick, 41 degrees just around culpeper. 42 in d.c. factor in the wind in the northwest and it s cold with windchill temperatures in the 30s. so we ll scoot up to about 48 degrees by noontime today. 53 by 3:00. we ll have highs in the 50s today. even higher temperatures tomorrow. we should get up jenna and carl, back to you. stephanie abrams, thank you. still to come, the week that was. crashing the party at the white house to the american video awards. ven and a wireless router set up by geek squad? wow. three? when everyone can get online all at once, at the same time you won t have to fight you won t have to bite and you won t act like a bunch of animals [ male announcer ] get a desktop, laptop, and netbook with windows 7 networked together by geek squad. the best gifts come from best buy. 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. really soft, really smooth lips. my blistex new lip massage. the soft tip smoothes away rough spots, as emollients moisturize and protect. my lips feel amazing. the holidays are always so busy. gram, the video game thingy s stuck again. remember, you have to jiggle it. ( doorbell rings ) we never get the time to tell people stuff. say what you need to say say what you need to say ( holding last note ) we couldn t have made it through this last year without you, mom. this year, appreciation may be the best gift of all. a hallmark card. it s the biggest little thing you can do. it has been one of those weeks, a parade of buzzworthy headlines so strange we couldn t pass up the chance to talk about them. joining us this morning, willie geist, the host of way too early, comedienne and a numerologist, author of love by the numbers. a lot to talk about. we want to start with the white house crasher, which we know now they actually touched the president. secret service doing a big mea culpa. willie, crash of the century, or are have they raised the bar for party crashers everywhere around the world? they ve raised the bar but it is the crash of the country. i have full confidence the secret service will figure out what went wrong, but you have to wonder what kind of a red flag it takes to get noticed. i mean, they roll in with tv cameras, hair and makeup? exactly. crazy people with the red dress, tv cameras, real housewives, let em through. i think we should change perhaps our screening. i agree, but they re also getting their pictures take within celebrities. yeah. at what point do you look at them and go in numerology, there are two numbers. the woman, the beautiful blonld, she lives her life likitis a movie anyway. is that true? yes, and she s born with a 2, like a schizophrenic, a little actress, and that s how she did this. she s the one that made this up. you take a full date of birth and reduce it to a digit, that s a 5 and that means they live for drama. what do you get if you re a 12? some people dig it and some don t. oprah winfrey ending her show in 2011 but saying she s no longer going to be koing these veaway shows, giving away cars and everything else. is that a worldwide tragedy? she broke a lot of dreams, i can tell you right now. seriously, i don t know what books to read now. what couch is tom cruise going to jump off of? who is going to tell us what who means? i think honestly it s such an interesting study in human behavior. the fact that a refrigerator can make people s heads blow off. it s a refrigerator. people like sensory deprivation, amish community where is they haven t seen refrigerators before. when you have $500 million, it s okay to take a break. speaking of numerology, right? and 25 years is perfect. and i think she s not done op oprah winfrey, no matter what she choos to do, she wants to do specials, everyone is going to tune in. i imagineuitting the day job would be wise at this point for her after 25 years. one of my favorite stories was the adam lambert concert at the american awards. he canceled one, put on another one, didn t apologize but said he might have gotten carried away. willie? i was glad he stopped kisingg far few minutes to kiss. have you heard him? i think there s definitely a double standard. he brought up the britney spears, madonna makeout session. there s a double standard because we ve seen how people reacted to that one. they thought it was sexy and cool. seen this one. i would rather see a 20-year-old make out with someone than madonna, who s like 50 years old. and where is kanye west when you need him? doesn t he know when to get up there and pull him off? here s the pattern, guys. he s also a 5-2, just like the chick who crashed the white house, and i m not kidding. adam is. he needshe drama. he needs it. he knew what he did. he took it too far. come on. with the little neck thing and they were crawling. what s the message? it s one thing to say i m gay and that s swell, be gay, but my goodness i think we have time for one more. would you rather do levi johnston and pl playgirl or j & kate plus 8 being cancelled? who wantso sele vie naked besides willie. i always say i ve always subscribed to playgirl for the nudity, not for the articles. you have checked it out. yes. and like who wants to see willie? not appropriate. the numbers show he will regret ever crossing say-p inin path. no doubt in my mind. they always regret when they go too far. he s only getting attention because of sarah palin. he s got this little kild. he s connected to hem for the rest of his life. trust me, when he s older, he ll say he was manipulated. it wasn t his idea. ricky hollywood. we re going to vegas right after this. thank you, guys. good to see all of you. we ll be right back. still to come on today, a young dolphin washed ashore in nasty weather. how did he manage to survive? you ll find out when you meet him and one of the people who saved him. and if you re in the mood to spend, tune in for our shopping tips. only one store has all the toys your kids want- the most legos ever! the hottest video games! plus get our lowest prices of the season!!! toys r us, where kids are a big deal!™ she s going to show how easy it is to keep track of her bank accounts. yep. pretty easy. set up alerts to know what s going on with your accounts. with bank of america. 8:26 is your time now, 42 degrees. we had a windy and cold night. how will it be today? veronica will have the answers after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. it s saturday, november 28, 2009. the secret service is questioning the virginia couple accused of crashing tuesday night s state dinner at the white house. investigators interviewed tareq and michaele salahi about the events at the state dinner. they met the president at the dinner. the preliminary findings determined protocols were not followed at initial checkpoint. frm this is the last weekend people will be allowed to smoke inside most virgia restaurants. the state smoking ban takes effect tuesday. only restaurants with separately ventilated rooms allow people to smoke inside. industry lobbyists expect only 10% of virginia restaurants to retain smoking areas. the first family received its christmas tree yesterday. the 18 1/2 foot douglas fir presented to first lady obama and her daughters. it arrived on a horse-drawn carriage from shepherdstown, west virginia. it will be on display in the blue room throughout the holiday season. we re going to take a break now. veronica will be back with the all right. looks like there s a little sunshine outside but it doesn t mean it s not going to be cold. exactly. it s very cold right now outside. we saw windchill temperatures in the 30s. this weekend, though, we will see improvements in the weather department. temperatures will be rising and good raking weather this weekend. so there it is across the potomac right now. a little wind out of the northwest at about 10 to 20 miles per hour. 42 is the temperature in d.c., 38 quantico, at the naval academy 42 degrees. we ll see those windchills that are in the 30s now. those will be pushing into the mid 40s as the winds settled. the high today 53 degrees at 3:00. sunshine throughout the area. it will be cold toght,ut look at the high temperature for sunday night. 60 degrees. sweet. thank you. coming up on news 4 today at 9:00 a.m., a full hour of news, sports and weather. plus, tips on cyber monday and finding the bargains. we are back on a saturday morning, november 28th, 2009, with a look at the rockefeller center christmas tree. waiting and waiting to kick off the holiday season with a blaze of lights. but until then, our festive crowd here. i m carl quintanilla filling in for lesr holt. and amy has the morning off. 30,000 l.e.d. lights on that 76-foot norway spruce. yes. how about, a, me remembering both those numbers because it s early in the morning, and, b, we are close to it getting lit? this wednesday, december 2nd. a big show featuring aretha franklin, michael buble, alicia keys and a lot more. catch it right here on nbc. meanwhile, coming up in this half hour, we re going to talk about holiday doors being opened. this is a bad wind day. i m not going to lie to you. we kicked the weekend off on black friday. next comes cyber monday. in between, stores are offering a lot of deals. the expert guide to getting gifts at the best places and the tricks retailers are throwing at you, because believe it or not, you may not know this, they re trying to win, we re trying to win. battle of the consumers and retailers. and a story of a young dolphin who was stranded ashore during hurricane ida several weeks ago and the lengths that a local aquarium went to to make sure he survived. we re going to meet the dolphin and get an update on its condition. it s a he, by the way. i haven t heard much about this story. i m looking forward to it. i m excited. that s why we tease it. first another check of the weather with stephie abrams, who s standing by. hey, there, guys. she is celebrating her 50th birthday from lexington, kentucky, but you re saying coldcold er there than sneer. 28 degrees. our exiting system in the northeast is going to bring wind and also a little bit of rain and snow, but otherwise through the center of the country, ample sunshine and those temperatures above average. bundle up start for the day for us. the wind, it s still whipping, not quite as gusty as last night. winds out of the northwest at about 20 miles per hour. here s a look at your windchill temperatures throughout the area. feeling like we re in the 30s. from 37 the feel-like factor in d.c. to feeling like 32 degrees down in quantico, maryland. so temperatures will scoot from the low 40s to 48 by noon. 53 your high today. sunshine throughout the entire area. look for a and we have a big football game to talk about. sunday, the nfl, we have the steelers visiting the ravens, and our temperatures not all that bad. they will be in the 40s, and we will see cloudy conditions. well, maybe you re outside today to play a little football with your family. go to weather.com. that s where you can find your forecast 24 hours a day. carl, over to you. stephanie, thanks for that. now to a dramatic rescue sty out of gulfport, mississippi, where a young dolphin was washed more than 100 yards onto shore during hurricane ida earlier this month. the dolphin was in critical condition when a rescue crew from a nearby aquarium arrived. here to tell us how the dolphin is doing now is the executive director for the institute for marine mobile studies. good morning to you. good morning, carl. how are you? i m well. we understand this doesn t happen a lot, at least to dolphins this time of year. why do you think it happens, and what happened to him in the time that he was carried ashore? i think it s a casualty of hurricane ida, all the huge waves probably separated this animal from its herd or it lost its mother and was durped on the beach. your team was called in from the institute as part of the rescue. what kind of condition was he in when you found him? the animal was in pretty bad condition, almost dead. he was in shock and disoriented. dehydration, as well? that s correc our team was called in by a bystander, and the law enforcement in gulf shores, alabama, apprised us of the situation, and scientists went up there and picked it up. so you had to transport him in what we re told is a sort of a dolphin ambulance back to the institute, you cared for him around the clock with your team. what kind of special care did he need? well, it was quite an extensive medical care involved. it requires special equipment, special people. we took x-rays, we took blood work, and the animal was helped in the water, like i said, was very disoriented, but we found out that the animal had pneumonia, it had gastroenteritis, gastric and intestinal issues, a so and he was also treated for dehydration. we understand he s relatively stable now, right, eating on his own, still on some medication. how has he been recovering? he s been recovering remarkably well. this is a 2-year-old male. it s still a juvenile, and i think it s really amazing that he has, you know, recovered so well. you don t think you re surprised he lived, aren t you? i think it is. it s very surprising. he was probably on the beach outside his element remember, when they re in the water they re very buoyant. they don t feel their body weight. but once they re outside, they feel the 200 pounds of the body weight. so it was really excruciating for the animal. but he s doing well and is out of the woods. is he going to be able to go back to his pod, as they call him, or is his time better spent in an aquarium from here on out? well, that s a decision that the federal officials will have to make. it s a very difficult decision. this is a juvenile. we ll have to find its herd so that he can go back to it, or if he can t, is he well enough, so that s a decision that will be made after the animal is healthy and ready to go. an incredible story and a lot of credit goes to you and your team for bringing him to safety, doctor. thank you for your time. you re welcome. thank you very much for your interest. when we come back this morning, our expert guide to holiday shopping, from what to buy to what beware of. has lowered even more pricest throughout the store. more gifts. more savings. like a maytag energy star washer and dryer set for just $578. that s 400 bucks off. merry christmas to you. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. sure. cake or pie? pie. apple or cherry? cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream! (announcer) some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip s uses real dairy cream. nothing s more real than reddi-wip. maybe it s your name. richard? smucker. (announcer) when your name is smucker everyone knows you ll grow up to make the world s best jam. with a name like smucker s, it has to be good. this morning on today, black friday may be behind us, but there are plenty of shopping days left and plenty of ways to spend your money. this morning, expert help with everything from the best deals to shopping tips and what could get you into money trouble. -store deals, lisa freeman of smart shop magazine is here with the best buys of the weekend. good morning, jenna. consumer reports shopping poll just came out and it said the three biggest things on the wish list this year, clothes, electronics, and toys. where will we find the best deals? electronics and toys are the huge thing. the big retail giants are having a huge price war. walmart, target, even amazon is getting into the game and consumers will benefit this year. jewelry, clothing, you can wait on that stuff. of the three, 70% on that poll say they ll purchas electronics. right. what kind of deals should people be looking for? the deals will be on these 32-inch lcd screens going for under $400. a couple years ago so much more. exactly right. these are great gifts. also, blu-ray players will be big. you can find them for as little as a hundred bucks this season to go go with your 32-incher. and net books are super hot. i ve seen them as low as $200. some are as much as $300 depending on the model. you say ask about price watching. why? absolutely. the retailers are in a huge price battle so they re offering price matching, which means if you buy an item, see it cheaper later, you can get a discount. but watch the fine print. best buy, sears, walmart, are all offering it but they all have different restrictions. walmart won t honor ones that are for buy one, get one free. different time periods, 30 days, 14 days. watch the fine print. and the return policy. absolutely. some stores won t let y return laptops. also, you may pay a 15% or 25% restocking fee and if you filed for a rebate, you might not be able to return the item. all good information. thank you so much. lisa freeman. thank you. now over to carl. jenna, thanks. now to some e-tailing tips. after black friday comes cyber monday, when online retailers offer special deals. here is scott silverman, executive director of shop dot organi. good morning. good morning. why is cyber monday such a phenomenon? it started when people after the thanksgiving holiday, after black friday, they went back to their office and had high-speed connections. now it s been led by the retailers so 9 out of 10 retailers will be offering different cyber monday deals and specials. of course you can find 700 different retailers on cybermonday.com with all their different deals. we re used to getting free shipping if you spend aer this year the phenomenon is different. right? right. for eight to ten years we ve seen retailers offer free shipping with a condition. now it s more than half will offer it with no strings attached. no matter how much you spend. you could spend a dollar. they ll offer it to you completely free to ship it to you. some say social networking, twitter and facebook, have changed the face of online retailing. there s over 300 million people on facebook alone so, the retailers are getting to be a part of that and if you re a shopper, you should find your favorite retailer on twitter or facebook. it s a great way to find some of the deals as soon as they come out and stay alert to when that s going to happen. you make the point that even if you know what you re going to buy and where to find it, it s good to sko go online to research the product and other products like it. there s a gold mine of information online, particularly product reviews and ratings. then go to comparison shopping sites and you can learn the different prices, things like price grabber or shopzilla.com. they help you find the best prices. do you believe the reviews? skeptics argue they re somehow rigged or people who are for them right bad reviews and people who are against them right good reviews. the thing about the internet, it s so transparent, so if someone is rigging the reviews and the retailer gets caught doing it, their reputation is destroyed. they have a lot at stake. how about online security, safety? always important to be safe when you re shopping online. the most important thing is use common sense. if something feels like it s too good to be true, it probably is. a couple other things, look for the s on https. that means the site is secure. and mix up your pass words whenever you re shopping online. i know it s not easy to do, but it is helpful. scott, thanks. good advice. thank you. here s jenna. all right, carl, thanks. before you open that wallet, buyer beware. here with tips on spotting deals that seem too good to be true is our money coach. you say do not be fooled by the marketing ploys becausesehat s what they are, marketing ploys, for the most part, right? especially around the holiday season, retailers are getting savvy at getting us to spend, spend, spend. they put out these big shopping carts because they know the little carts or the hand baskets mean you ll spend less. sometimes it s about the labels and the words they use like premium or new and improved. sure. or upgraded just to get you to get thatted a vanlsed deluxe model of whatever it is as opposed to the vanilla model because that s more expensive for the deluxe brand. what about the insurance or extended warranties? they always offer these. do we want that? generally speaking, no, say no to the extended warranty and insurance offers, the main reason because they re too costly and pricely. a lot of times the manufacturers, whether it s a flat-screen tv, toaster, refrigerat, big-ticket appliance, they ll give you some protection already and some of your credit cards also offer protection. if something breaks down a year, two, three years from now, you ll want a new model anyway. the average person will spend $140 on gift cards this year. are they worth it? all these stipulations and restrictions. good or bad? i think they re a great gift idea, especially for people who might be harried and you know somebody likes a particular store or whatever, but you have to be aware of the downside to gift cards, and the downside that you just mentioned, expiration dates, the fees that you re charged or assessed on the gift cards. there might be inactivity fees if you don t use it for a certain amount of time, maintenance fees, transaction fees. when you go to use a gift card, people don t realize the value isn t quite what they thought. you definitely want to use it asap. and next year they re going to extend the expation date, i think, to five years? a federal law that s coming. this will be in time for next holiday season, not this one, but they won t be able to expire until at least five years so that ll make sure that people who have the gift cards can use them. all good advice. thanks for being with us. my pleasure. up next, a holiday theme to help you celebrate in style. happy holidays while the merry bells keep ringing happy holidays to you this morning on today s holiday kitchen, friends, fun, and of course lest we forget some food. that s right. here to show us great recipes is michael lamonico. good to be here. it s food you could eat at a party. right? exactly. and food you can prepare in advance so you can enjoy the party yourself. right. what are these? these are ribs. they look gigantic, but what we ll do is we re going to cook them and portion them out. i ll show you the portions later. the short ribs start with some browning. a nice hot pan, a short rib of beef. gigantic. the original piece is. like a cow, michael. not doing that. but this is a great dish because this is braising that we re doing, very basic technique. first we brown it. i did some here already, then we ll add vegetables and some of this red wine we get to the jenna portion of the meals, the vegetables. what are we doing here? it s a little hot. that happens fast. let s put the veggies in. let me feel like i have a hand in this. i wish you would. you are good, jenna. carl, watch this. amazing. well, because what we re going to do is add our liquids to this, some red wine. i didn t even know the red wine i picked up go for the red wine. i don t know why i picked up this whatever that was. that s beef stock. that s what i picked up. okay. we re going all in here. add half of that and that s it. okay. and a little more beef and we ll add these are our seasonings because what happens with braising is first the browning and then we re going to actually put a lid on this. it goes in the oven at 350 degrees and you don t have to think about it. submerged or halfway basting? halfway. that s what braising is. otherwise we re making a stew. what i ll do is i ll turn the short rib on its side so i have it halfway submerged. aouple cloves of garlic. full cloves? full cloves. we ll take them out later. let s add some tomato paste. straight to a plate afterwards or more prep? here is the best part of it, a littl bit of herbs that secret herbs. put a little carl in. step in there, carl. some-time, bay leaf, rosemary, tie it up with cheese cloth. some coffee. no. you could do this with coffee. i do coffee braising. sure. do you have to watch it or can you leave it alone? it can stay on the stove top or the oven 350shgs in the of within a lid, 2 1/2 hours to cook at a low temperature and then we wind up with this. let s do the winding up part. this is where all the flavor is. slow, slow cooking. but the beauty of this is you could do this three days ahead of your party refrigerated. this heats up so well. sometimes better on the second day. right? exactly. is this what it looks like when you take it out? exactly. you left everything in and once you take it out, this is what it looks like. what i like to do for a party it smells fantastic. this falls right off the bone. if you had scratch and sniff at home, this would be amazing. it s a tough cut so that slow cooking, that braising tenderizes it, but we cut it into portions. at a party, you can do a little buffet of a little short rib, little mini chicken pot pies, a salad, some couscous, and you ve got a buffet without it being too big a portion. how early in advance can you do sething like this? the short ribs can be done three, four days in advance. the braising the browning and the braising in the oven doesn t take much time. the browning is 20 minutes of prep time and three, 2 1/2 hours in the oven. once it cools off, refrigerate it for three days and come back to it. you can make chicken pot pie. tell me more about the pot pie. this is my pot pie. what s special about this is i make the fillings this is a mushroom pot pie. this is chicken, a light cream sauce with chicken stock, a little bit of cream. the chicken is in it and mushrooms. there s no carrots or peas. it s a mushroom pot pie. i bake the lid separately so you can make the filling on a friday, then reheat it on saturday, put the top on. can i hand this over to carl? yes. thank you so much, michael. we have to have this. of course. are you kidding me? the pastry top you can buy in the supermarket. michael, fantastic. thank you so much. happy holidays. so, did you get your son anything yet? yeah, i got him that transformers revenge raptor thing. yes, the ramjet raptor, introduced to the transformer family in may of 09. i prefer the skywarp figure with six guided missiles and also comes with a limited-edition collectors card. [ female announcer ] it s the most wonderful time of the year, and walmart s here to help. starting this monday, it s cyberweek at walmart.com, with some of the lowest prices of the year on great christmas gifts and free site-to-store shipping on many items. go to walmart.com for unbelievable specials starting monday. save money. live better. walmart. i want a product with the best decongestant. my choice is clear: claritin-d. (announcer) nothing works stronger, faster, or longer to relieve your worst allergy symptoms, including congestion, without drowsiness. get claritin-d at the pharmacy counter. live claritin clear. hurry, to the toys-r-us after thanksgiving 2day sale!!! get our lowest prices of the season!!! two days only, it s the sale you can t miss! all day friday and saturday! get great deals on hundreds of terrific toys throughouthe store! plus, get 50% off toys from the hottest brands like disney, fisher price, nerf, nintendo, and so many more! toys r us, where kids are a big deal!™ and that s going to do it for us on this saturday morning. our thanks. did you have fun? great time. always. stephanie abrams, have fun? of course. we ll taub about winterizing your house tomorrow. and downsizing your future. have a great day. we ll see you later. > good morning. straight ahead on news 4 today, the latest on a developing story in the district. a car and a train collide, sending one person to the hospital. tiger woods makes headlines off the golf course. a bizarre accident that sent him to the hospital. and why skeptics say we don t know the whole story. and shopping with the click of a mouse. the best time of the day to save money during cyber monday and other tricks of the trade. veronica? > we re going to have a cold start here but a nice finish to the day. temperatures right now are in the 40s across the area. windchill temperatures with the winds out of the northwest at about 10 to 20 feeling like we re in the 30s. so we ll see a high today, 53 degrees. join us for news 4 today. we are ahead in 90 seconds. a car ends up in the river after being struck by a train. i m elaine reyes. i ll have that story coming up. tiger s tail. the world most famous golfer out of the hospital after a bizarre accident. the question investigators hope he ll answer today. and crashing the party. a northern virginia couple gets into the state dinner and even gets to meet prm. . how they and the secret service are answering stuff question. good morning. welcomes to news 4 today on this saturday, november 28, 2009. i m eun yang. first the forecast with meteorologist veronica johnson here this morning filling in for chuck. our weather a little on the pushy side today. yesterday, at least late yesterday, we had guchtdy winds throughout the area. at least those have settled down a little bit but still today breezy. so at least sunshine. we had the wet weather there, just a day ago. now we ve gotten dry air that s rushed into the area. 42 degrees the temperature right now. cambridge, maryland, 45 the