Transcripts For WRC Today 20091130 : vimarsana.com

good morning. breaking news. authorities have surrounded a seattle home where they say a person of interest in the coffee shop murders of four police officers is holed up. this morning, the latest in a live repor i m not perfect. tiger woods issues his first statement about the early morning traffic accident that landed him in the hospital but cancels a meeting with police for the third time. this as tmz reports investigators are working on getting a search warrant to help them figure out exactly what happened. and mall fall. an aerialist plunges three stories during a performance at a crowded los angeles shopping center. thankfully she survived but future shows have been temporarily put on hold today, future shows have been temporarily put on hold today, monday, november 30th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. right now police believe that maurice clemmons, the mananted for questioning in sunday morning s execution-style shootings of four police officers at a parkland, washington coffee shop is inside the seattle home that they have now surrounded. they ve had that home surrounded all night long. obviously it is a very dense situation there. we ll get the latest in a live report just ahead. also ahead, an unusual development in the murder trial of american college student amanda knox. a verdict could come this week and now her parents are the focus of a separate investigation by italian police. we ll tell you why. also ahead, what would your home look like if you never threw anything away? we re going to meet a woman who suffers from a condition known as hoarding. she lived for years surrounded by piles of trash. things got so bad, that she couldn t even tell if possums were living in what used to be her bedroom. she s going to share an unbelievable story coming up. but first, let s get right to that overnight stand-off outside a seattle home where police are investigating the murders of four of their own. nbc s george lewis has the latest on this. george, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. police have spent the night trying to track down a man they want to o question in connection with a sying of those four officers. they ve surrounded a house in seattle where they believe he s holed up. a solemn procession as the bodies of the slain officers were taken b motorcade from the murder scene to the county medical examiner s office. a huge blow for the police department in ts small tacoma, washington suburb. we have lost four officers today. reporter: according to their superiors, the four were at this coffee shop working on their laptop computers prior to going on duty when the gunman came in and opened fire. two of them were just flat-executed. sitting, writing reports. one of them was stood up and tried to go for the suspect and got shot. the fourth one fought his way out to the parking lot and fired off some rounds. we re hoping the suspect s hit. reporter: the department identified the officers as ronald owens, tina griswold, greg richards and mark renninger. all four were parents, leaving behind eight children between them. they had a combined 47 years of police experience. the youngest, owens, was 37. the oldest, richards, was 42. pete davis lit candles for the two officers he met. he said he spoke to renninger just last week. i had the opportunity to stop and talk to him for a minute and thank him and tell him what a good job that they were doing here in lakewood. they showed his picture first today, just like shocked me. reporter: sunday night police named this man, 37-year-old maurice clemmons, as a person of interest. clemmons has a long record of violent crimes. in arkansas he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. but the then-governor, mike huckabee, in a controversial move, commuted the sentence. as a washington state resident, clemmons came to the attention of law enforcement when his house was burned buy fireworks. later he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl and assaulting a police officer. but he was let free on bail. investigators say whoever shot the officers was deliberately gunning for the police. no one else in the restaurant was shot. now at that house where clemmons is believed to be holed up, police have been using loud speakers trying to urge him to surrender but they say they re not even 100% sure anybody is inside the house. matt? george lewis in parkland, washington this morning, thank you very much. four minutes after the hour. now to the latest on that car accident involving tiger woods. he has now issued a statement about the crash as police say they are still investigating what happened. nbc s mark potter is near the woods home in windermere, florida. good morning to you, mark. reporter: good morning, meredith. tiger woods says he alone was responsible for the accident and praises his wife for helping him. this as authorities have released the 911 tape. the 911 tape released by the florida highway patrol is of a neighb calling after tiger woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree near his house at 2:25 a.m. friday. what happened in what s wrong? i have a neighbor. he hit the tree. we came out here just to see what was going on. he s laying down. by hit the tree, do you mean auto accident? auto accident, yes. is he unconscious? yes. are you able to tell if he s breathing? no, i can t tell right now. reporter: on his website, tiger woods says he is suffering cuts, bruises and is sore from the single car accident. he also says, this situation is my fault and it is obviously embarrassing to my family and me. i m human and i m not perfect. i will certainly make sure this doesn t happen again. following reports alleging the golfer s infidelity which a new york woman strongly denies, and allegations woods and his wife elin had been arguing before the crash, woods says, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. he went on to say, my wife elin acted courageously when she saw i was hurt and in trouble. she was the first person to help me. any other statement is false. tiger woods has been very careful throughout his career with what he says, who he says it to and when he chooses to speak to the media. reporter: on sunday, the florida highway patrol issued its own statement saying, for the third time since the accident, troopers attempting to interview woods were turned down after woods hed an orlando attorney who, according to authorities, said the interview had been canceled. now woods agent tells cnbc that his client believes he has nothing more to tell authorities about what he feels is a private matter. the florida highway patrol concedes that woods does not have to talk to them. meanwhile, another unanswered question is whether woods will appear at his own golf tourney in california later this week. meredith? all right, mark potter, thank you very much. dan abrams is nbc s chief legal analyst. dan, good morning. another twist in the story this morning, report from tmz that authorities in florida, highway patrol, is now pursuing a search warrant that would allow them to seize the medical records from the hospital where tiger woods received treatment. apparently again, according to tmz, they are trying to prove that perhaps his wife calls the injuries or he was on prescription medication. if they can prove either one of those, it changes everything. doesn t it? yeah. the first question is, was there a crime. that s got to be the very first question they ask themselves, do we believe there was a crime here. if they do they ve used the words up to this point charges are pending. i even thought to myself this weekend, that sure sounds like they re looking at criminal charges. then they have to begin that investigation, so it no longer becomes just an investigation into an accident, it becomes an investigation into a possible crime. what do they need to obtain the search warrant? probable cause to believe the crime was committed. not a particularly high standard in the law. again if they believe that there was a crime here, it is very likely they d be able to get those warrants. at this point, this is coming from tmz at this point, tiger woods has turned away authorities three times who wanted to get his side of the story what happened. is he under any legal obligation? none. he does not have to speak to authorities. we always hear about the right against self-incrimination. you can always say i don t want to speak. there are occasions when they can force someone by giving them immunity, all sorts of issues that won t come up in this case. they aren t showing him any kind of special treatment here. by allowing him not to speak, absolutely not. the truth is that in many cases, a lawyer will advise someone involved in an incident not to speak. they ll say, you know what? we don t think it helps. why? because we think you may be the target of an investigation and in this particular case, if they believe even that his wife may be the target, they may say to themselves we simply don t want to assist in that particular investigation and that s their right. tiger woods did issue a statement on his website. he said, among other things, this situation is my fault. situation. that word, you find that interesting. i just think that his statement isn t helpful to him. i think we re going to end up hearing more from tiger woods publicly. why? because it doesn t help that they made these three appointments with the authorities, or the authorities at least thought they had three appointments with tiger woods and show up, and they re turned away again and again. that doesn t help him. not because it is a legal obligation but because it just doesn t look good. from a pr point of view it is a disaster. yeah. and you follow that up with a statement which is intentionally vague. think about it. if what really happened here is that tiger woods got in his car, he just got in an accident and his wife rescued him, he d say it. uldn t he? i mean then his position would be, look, goit in i got in my cd a little accident and my wife helped me out. he s not saying that. but on the other hand if there is no evidence of domestic violence or prescription drugs, he s saying it is a private matter, lee me alone. doesn t he have the right to say that? sure, he has the right to say that. i think when he has is sort of endorsements and public adulation he has, et cetera, there are going to be questions and people are going to want to know a little bit more. it is his right to say, you know what? i don t want to talk about this. again, if it was just an accident and he literally just got in his car, had an accident and his wife rescued him, will is not a lot of privacy to protect. if were his counsel? i would advise him not having made the statement he made already. now that he made that one, i think he has to come clean and talk a little bit more publicly about what happened. dan abrams, thank you very much. we want to know what you have is to say about it. logon to todayshow.com to share your thoughts and questions. we ll discuss some of them a little later on. let s get a check of rest of the morning s top stories from ann curry at the news desk. in the news this morning, afghanistan is expected to be a major topic today when president obama meets with australia s prime minister. the meeting comes a day before the president unveils his way forward on afghanistan in a big speech at west point. he is to outline plans for sending reportedly up to 35,000 more troops, as well as an exit strategy. the president met with his national security team again on sunday. iran has announc that it will build tenew new nuclear enrichments site in defiance of the iaea which demanded iran stop construction at a site previously secret. debate begins today in the senate for a health care reform bill. today the obama administration announces an expanded program aimed at home foreclosures. the government wants mortgage companies to do more to help people stay in their homes. overseas markets are up in asia and down in europe this morni morning. trish, a lot of attention onion line retailers today. that s because today is cyber monday. this is the day when everyone goes online to try and score really good deals. 90% of online retailers are offering deals and it is expected that about 100 million people are actually going to be online shopping today. that s up from 85 million jus last year. i want to point out though, only about 14% say they re going to be shopping from work. retail in general though, very much in focus after black friday. we saw more people out shopping but they actually spent a little less, on average, about $30 less on average. nonetheless, sales overall were up 11%. ann. thanks so much, trish regan this morning. an aerial performer s hospitalized inalifornia today after falling three stories saturday during a show at a shopping mall while hanging upside down from a metal hoop as hundreds of people were watching. she injured her wrist and her pelvis but she is said to be doing well this morning. fingers crossed for her. it is 7:13. let s go back to matt, meredith and al. that s not a good scene. clearly they re going to take a go look at that before they schedule anything like that in the future. mr. roker, yesterday was one of the top ten days of the year. absolutely. but now we re following it with a rough day throughout much of the eastern seaboard. a cold front drapg all the way from new england back down into texas. couple of low pressure systems attached. heaviest rain right now down through the southeast. upper-level low is forming through the southwest. that s going to be bringing snow. first, rainfall amounts, talking about anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain down through extreme southern texas. then snowfall, we re talking anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow 1 to 2 inches of good monday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell, with your monday forecast. back to work and school. there is rain on the radar. not too much around the washington area just yet. have your umbrellas ready to go. rain likely today through much of the afternoon. temperatures in the upper 50s, close to 60 degrees before the rain showers come on in. cooler weather. some sunshine back as we get towards tomorrow and early that s your latest weather. matt? al, thanks very much. now to new revelations about that virginia couple that managed that crash last week s white house state dinner. nbc s chief white house correspondent chuck todd has the latest on this. hi, chuck, good morning. reporter: good morning. it doesn t get any big they are week for president obama. he has the big afghanistan speech tomorrow at west point. thursday he hosts his jobs summit. the white house is finding itself distracted by this state party dinner incident. the secret service investigation is continuing just as new details are emerging about this fame-o obsessed couple. reporter: the uninvited state dinner guests who charmed their way into the white house are now, according to reports, trying to sell their story to television networks for hundreds of thousands of dollars. they canceled an interview planned for tonight with cnn s larry king. a publicist for the couple told nbc news we are not making any formal comments or arrangements with any media at this time. the party crashing couple who shook hands with the president and posted photos of their escapade on their facebook page have a history of attention-seeking behavior. the real housewives of d.c. were filming the couple the day of the dinner. but bravo, owned by nbc s parent company nbc universal, says the salahis have not yet been cast in the show. this latest publicity stunt appears to be a trend among aspiring reality show stars after last month s balloon boy hoax. beyond their reality tv dreams, the salahis wedding video shows off their taste for the extravagant. a ceremony with over 1,800 guests, including supreme court justice anthony kennedy. rachel, who s known the couple for ten years, says they have a history of exaggerating. they ve gotten two other places before, they ve done a lot of inappropriate things. in their head it is power. reporter: she claims she was a model for victoria s secret and a former redskins cheerleader. both say she s never worked for them. though the couple was first turned away at the vehicle entrance, they were cleared through a pedestrian entrance after a uniformed agent only checked their i.d.s but did not cross-check their names with the guest list. the secret service is conducting a full investigation. while criminal charges are unlikely, some lawmakers say the couple did break the law. i think you have to have a strong deterrent against this kind of thing. therefore if it is a federal crime to lie to a federal agent and these people didn t tell the truth about their invitation, th they should be in some way brought to justice. reporter: now, matt, the salahis were interviewed by the secret service over the weekend and we re told that this review process, or this investigation, should be wrapped up before the end of the week. chuck, thanks very much. chuck todd at the white house this morning. republican congressman peter king of new york serves on the house homeland security committee. ron kessler is the author of in the president s secret service behind the scenes with the agents in the line of fire and the presidents they protect. gentlemen, good morning to both of you. congressman king, this couple did something that i think a lot of people would love to try to do. they got dolled up, they went to the white house, they attended a state dinner. they had to assume they would get stopped at the door and guess what? they didn t. you sit on a committee that oversees the secret service. how much heat will they face? they have to face a lot. i have great regard for the secret service and i still can t figure out how this happened. i ve been to the white house any number of times. as you have. you re stopped at at least two, three checkpoints. at almost all of those points, at least a final point, there s always someone with the white house a well with the secret service. an event of this magnitude at the white house itself, it is beyond me how this could have happened. we ve all heard what could have happened. if any of those other scenarios can taken place, whether anthrax or a kitchen knife, we d be covering this story in a different way. have we learned a valuable lesson just by the fact that this happened? we need a full investigation to find out what the secret service is doing to ever prevent this from happening again, why it happened, woand why it will never happen again. we need more protection. if one secret service agent makes a mistake you have to assume someone s always going to make a mistake there has to be backup. has to be layers of defense. there are probably people sitting at home saying, wait a second, i had a harder time getting through security this weekend traveling on thanksgiving through an airport than this couple did at the white house. does it reveal a major flaw in security strategy or does it reveal one guy asleep at the switch? it is part of a systemic problem with the secret service. secret service has been cutting corners ever since homeland security took it over in 2003. for example, they don t do magnetometer screening at some events or shut it down early under pressure from staff. they re very sensiti to not offending political staffs or the white house. are you telling me they re cutting corners with the nation s first african-american president and we know that, unfortunately, that brings with it even greater risks than were faced by past presidents. it is just like any government scandal. you can t understand it but it is going on. this went on under the bush administration, bush white house aides were pressured then to let people in to events. sometimes they would even put people through magnetometers but turn them off so that even if there was happen that alarm would sound. i know that sounds unbelievable but this is what s been going on. as an example of the spinelessness of secret service management, when dick cheney s daughter mary insisted that secret service agents take her friend to restaurants and the secret service objected because that s not her job, she got the detail removed. the management did not back the agent. congressman king, he s saying they are cutting corners now that they re under homeland security. is that your take? i read mr. kessler s book, too. i don t see it that way at all. if anything, i think the secret service is better under homeland curity. their budget s gone up 35% and they re more suited to be within the department of homeland security. the treasury departmt where they were before was not a law enforcement agency and the treasury secretary didn t even want the secret service in the department. ten seconds for each of you. ron, start with you. you can t make up a charge just to fit the situation, but do you think these people committed a crime and do they have to be charged just to dissuade people down the road? i think they will be prosecuted just as a deterrent. really, i interviewed over 100 current or former secret service agents, as well as the people at headquarters and the belief is that it is just a matter of time before there is an assassination because of the corner-cutting that i detail in the book. you can argue about homeland security and the structure, but the fact is that the secret service has been shockingly derelict in its duty. congressman king, back to the question just asked, briefly, if you will, should this couple be charged with a crime? absolutely. this is very serious. people think this is a joke, it is not. we have the president of the united states and leaders of the free world, the prime minister of india whose country was attacked in mumbai last year. president obama is probably the most threatened president in our history. congressman peter king and ron kessler, thanks to both of you. i appreciate it. still ahead, a verdict could come this week in the murder trial of american college student amanda knox. we ll get the latest including why her parents are now being investigated by italian police. 1 in 3 america will shop online today. coming up, the hottest items on the list of cyber monday shoppers. plus, imagine living in a home that looked like this. we re going to go inside the life of a hoarder. but first, your local news and weather. good morning everyone. 7:26. monday, november 30th, 2009. i m barbara harrison. in the news at this hour, metro says it could be weeks before they know what caused a crash yesterday morning. a train ending their overnight service his a parked train in the rail yard near the westphals station. three workers are hurt. they are expected to be okay. one person is dead after an early morning motorcycle crash in rockville. the road has been closed for several hours near avery road. no word when it will reopen. police have not released the name or age of the driver. we are back with weather and a good monday morning. nice and mild with a little bit early morning nshine. don t be fooled. there is rain in our forecast for later on today. don t stray too far from your umbrellas. temperatures are in the low to mid-s across the area now. up nir 60 for a brief time today for the rain showers settle in. chilly sunshine returns for tomorrow. barbara, back to you. we ll be back in 25 minutes. jerry, of course, jerry. good morning, quick check on traffic. interstate 66, all the rhodes headed for the roosevelt bridge loaded up. one more stop along 270, authorities still dealing with an accident southbound at montgomery village. now, barbara, your turn. we will be back in 25 minutes ather local news update. we are going back to the today show now after a short break. 7:30 now on this monday morning, november 30th, 2009. chilly start to the day here in midtown manhattan. we ll step outside and say hello to these folks in just a bit. i m meredith vieira, along with matt lauer. did you do any holiday shopping over the weekend? very little. you did some? very little. i did none. i was in a turkey stupor, too. just the turkey? all right. online deals are everywhere on this cyber monday. you might be surprised to learn who s doing the most shopping and who they re buying for. we ll have more on that in just a couple of minutes. also ahead the life of a hoarder. we ll talk to a woman who could not throw anything away. her house was such a mess, goats had actually started eating through the walls. she ll share her story coming up. you don t hear that every day. much more on tiger woods s accident outside his florida home and the report now that police want to get a search warrant. we ll get the latest on that and check out some ofour comments that you sent to us on our website. let s begin with the murder trial of american college student amanda knox. a verdict could come this week. now her parents are the focus of a separate investigation by italian police. nbc s keith miller is in perugia, italy with details. keith, good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. well in fact this case is running longer than many network tv programs. just over two years. and this week the final week promises to resemble a tv courtroom drama. the prison guard around amanda knox has been tightened up for the closing arguments. in a strange twist to this case, knox s parents, who are attending the closing sessions, may be back in court as defendants. prosecutors indicted kurt knox and his former wife for defamation regarding comments they made about police conduct more than a year ago to a british newspaper. frankly, i believe it is nothing more than just a ploy utilized by the prosecution to show the weakness of their case and wanting to try to divert any of the media to focus on that. reporter: in court today, lawyers for knox s co-defendant and former boyfriend called their client a victim. the prosecution is seeking to put knox and her former boriend in prison for life for the murder of knox s roommate, meredith kercher, an exchange student from england. during closing arguments for three civil cases against knox, lawyers attacked her character. amanda is all about hot sex, declared one lawyer, saying she looks like an angel but acts like the devil. knox, 22 years old, buried her face in her hands. it was really screaming and shouting at her at what a terrible person she was and that was just horrible for her to hear. reporter: defense lawyers called it a sexist rant. what wasn t mentioned in closing arguments was evidence connecting knox to the crime. there seems to be too much analyze this going on and too much focusing on evidence. you know what they say sometimes, when the package is no good, fluff up the wrapping. reporter: knox s parents will remain in court until a verdict is reached. both are optimistic their daughter will be home for christmas. it would be the best psent ever. reporter: but knox s mother knows there are no guarantees in this unpredictable trial. in fact, the judge and the six-member jury will go in-g in sequestration. anne emner is a lawyer in seattle, washington who advises the knox family and founded the group friends of amanda. good morning. anne, why do you believe italian authorities are now investigating amanda knox s parents? well, i think it is a transparent attempt to make them be silent. the timing, the statement was supposedly made in 08, right at the end of the trial saying you re going to be indicted for speaking out against the prosecution is suspect at best but it also dilutes some of what s being said by the defense about this prosecution, which is in many people s minds wrongful. they have been very vocal in terms of criticizing the prosecution. do you think that has hurt their daughter s case? you know, in the u.s., of course, we have the first amendment and that s what keeps our system fair, people speaking out and media scrutinizing trials and the public doing so. there s been some arguments in italy that this has hurt the case but i don t think so, because facts are stubborn things and there are no facts in this case to support a prosecution, let alone a conviction, of amanda knox. both parents are in italy for the end of the trial. if they are charged by authorities there, would they have trouble re-entering the united states? you know, that s a danger. here s an even bigger danger. if the do come back and her daughter s convicted, would they be disallowed visitation and entering into italy. at one point you had thought about coming here for the end of the trial going to italy, i m sorry, for the end of the trial and decided against it. why is that? because i guess i m a lawyer and can t practice law if i m in italy or i m in jail or indicted for a felony. you know, the threat is real. we can speak out here. we take that for granted that we can do that in this system, including lawyers and parties. but look what just happened in italy. but do you believe you yourself would be charged if you went over there for something? well, i c t take the chance. i ve said the same thing that the parents have said, they ve been investigated for and maybe charged which is that amanda was abused during the interrogation. they said that s defamation, criminal libel in italy. i know that you and amanda s family are hoping for the best outcome that she will be found not guilty. but how have you prepared yourself for the possibility that in fact she will be found guilty? witnesses can and do lie. evidence never does. the evidence never lies. we re hopeful, i think cautiously optimistic that the jury will see that there is no evidence in this case. the knife doesn t match. there s no dna that matches on that. she didn t confess. there s no forensic evidence. and this ritualistic slaying theory is a pure fantasy. i guess we could also say cautiously pessimistic. if there is a conviction given the horrible media in this case and innuendo, foxy knoxy, she devil, angel face from seattle, there is an appeal. justice should prevail with an acquittal in this case. anne bremner, thank you so much. now let s get a check of the weather. thank you, meredith. you stole this piece of cardboard. it s cardboard. where did you steal it from? off a guy on the street. off a guy on the street. wow! i hate when that happens. have to get the cardboard police on you. let s check your weather, see what s happening. midsection out to california, above-normal conditions. heavy rain in texas. by mid-week, it will be rough up and down the east coast, heavy rain, maybe rain for the tree lighting. dry conditions out west, below normal temperatures midsection of the country. late week period, dry weather ththrough the southern half of e good monday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. it is cloudy and very mild on your monday morning. temperatures in the mid-50s across the area. rain in the forecast for later on today. there, you can see the rain showers moving through central west virginia just now coming into far western virginia. the shenandoah valley getting rain shortly. rain in the metro area by lunchtime. mperatures in the upper 50s to near 60 before the rain showers. and tt your latest weather. al, thank you. up next, 1 in 3 of us will do some online shopping today. what you need to know before clicking away on cyber monday. right after this. we re back at 7:41. if you re 1 of the 195 million americans who did a little holiday shopping over the weekend, you know there was plenty of traffic at the malls and at the stores. but retailers are hoping you ll spend a little more money online on this cyber monday. cnbc s jane wells has more on that. hi, jane, good morning. reporter: hi, matt. i am at this massive 600,000-square foot facility for amazon.com in phoenix, arizona. it is like that last scene in raiders of the lost arc. it just goes on and on. this is the last zhu zhu pet. i ve found the arc. if estimates are to be believed, today will be even busier than last year. the orders are coming in fast and furious. reporter: the 300-plus workers at this amazon distribution facility in phoenix prepare for a long day with the stretch and a pep rally spelling out the company name. it s cyber monday, the day that traditionally marks the start of the online holiday shopping season. the shopping and shipping, clicking and packing, never seem to stop here. cyber monday will be yet another test of the consumer appetite in this economy. cyber monday is a busy, busy day. it rivals black friday. reporter: cyber monday first got its name when retailers noticed a spike in online sales the monday after thanksgiving that was because back then, people would dial up internet service at home waited until they could use the broadband connection at work. these days with broadband available in so many homes, retailers still try to make cyber monday special. the national retail federation says 9 out of 10 retailers are offering specific deals just for cyber mourned. a 5% increase from a year ago. one of our kind of hero deals is last year s ipod touch, 8 gigabyte, for $158. reporter: the national retail federation also predicts that 97 million americans, nearly 1 in 3 of us, will shop online today. 12 million more than a year ago. and now most will do it from home. saving time will be almost as important as saving money. if a consumer you ll be far less forgiving if the product isn t there, if the site experience is slow, if the shipping is going to take too long or be expensive. reporter: google s head of retail says searches show people are shopping for e-readers, smart phones and the season s hottest toy. we re seeing 75% spikes week over week just in zhu zhu pets. reporter: who are most people shopping for? searches of men s gifts are outpacing women s 3-1. are men that hard to shop for? or that may be women are much more considerate when they re shopping for their husband or significant other. you choose. reporter: i say both. actually, today may not be the busiest online shopping day. they say that could be december 17th, the last day for free shipping with guaranteed arrival in time for christmas. matt? it s in the mail. i have a lot of people who want one of those right there, jane. thank you very much. i appreciate it. up next is roman polanski headed for house arrest at this luxury ski chalet? the latest on that right after this. back at 7:49. infamous director roman polanski could be released on bail from a swiss prison as early as today. this as he awaits a ruling on whether he ll be extradited to the u.s. to face charges for having sex with a 13-year-old girl back if 1977. nbc s stephanie gosk has the latest. reporter: gus stat is one of the places to skeescape from th public eye. polanski has been held in a swiss jail since last december. he s using the home in paris to post the $4.25 million bail. in their decision a swiss court ys the bail combined with house arrest and electronic monitoring was sufficient to avert the risk of flight while they consider the legality of the extradition. not everyone is convinced. you can t get a bigger flight risk than roman polanski. reporter: in 1978 roman polanski fled the u.s. to avoid sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. he had been charged with five other felony counts, including rape by use of drugs and sodomy. but the additional charges were dropped as part of a plea deal. $4.5 million to roman polanski is not a huge amount of money. this is someone who was willing to give up his career in the united states, his life in the united states, his family here in the united states, to stay away from the justice system. reporter: there is already speculation he may make a break for the border. france is just 40 miles away over the mountains, a tempting route for an accomplished skier. polanski is a french citizen. by law, the government there would not extradite him. he has some powerful support. over the weekend the director s sister-in-law told a french paper president nicolas sarkozy has been involved in the case. i wouldn t go so far as to say thanks to the president that roman is freed but he has been super. reporter: but running right now may not make sense. the court decision could take weeks followed by a lengthy appeal and this isn t a bad place to wait. that was stephanie gosk this morning. that story s just going to make more people angry. people who were already angry are going to be angrier. up next, much more on tiger woods bizarre holiday weekend car crash. what really happened. plus, inside the mind of a compulser hoard compulserive hoarder. we ll meet her. ive hoarder. we ll meet her. \s 8 beautiful morning out there. 53 degrees. some clouds out there will bring rain. we will check on that coming up shortly. it is 7:56. i m barbara harrison. in the news at this time, the howard county students from river hill high school was killed overnight. he is being remembered this morning by many of the students there after being killed in a drunk driving crash. 17-year-old steven dankos was ride nth back of a pickup truck on saturday when it went off the road and overturned. the 22-year-old driver of that truck now faces homicide and drunk driving charges. today is the last day to smoke inside many bars and restaurants in virginia. a statewide ban takes effect november 1st. nearly 70% of fast food and service restaurants in virginia are already smokefree. if you are caught after today, the penalty is $25. we will be back with weather and traffic for good monday morning. news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell, out on the radar. light showers moving into the area. heavier, steadier rain showers out to the west. in and around the city of washington, the pavement is dry. we have huge sprinkles towards fredericksburg. be on the lookout for more rain showers. temperatures in the upper 40s to low 50s. we will be in the 50s before the rain moves on in. cooler sunshine for tomorrow. jerry, over to you for a check on the rhodes. tough coming in on georgia avenue. out of silver spring down to walter reed. couldn t find anything on the roadway. an accident getting over there. heads up. elsewhere, the trip in along 95 northbound, looking good headed to the capital beltway. no incidents. all lanes open. we ll be back in 25 minutes with anoth local news update. we are going back to the 8:00 now on a monday morning, the 30th, and final, day of november for 2009. that means tomorrow begins the 25 days of christmas. happy holidays to all of you. out on the plaza with the tree in the background. look at that beauty there. they ll light that thing up in two days. but we get lit up there you go. every year that joke works. out on the plaza, i m matt lauer, along with medith vieira and al roker. we have some people back here giggling since we ve been out here. there was this kaind of mysterious accident tiger woods was involved in a couple more days ago. more questions and this answers. reports now police may be looking for some kind of a search warrant to help you figure out what happened. we asked you in our first half-hour to comment on how tiger woods and his team are handling this. most of us have a messy desk or room in your house but nothing compared to this. take a look at this. ere is a woman there she is. that woman suffers from the disturbing condition known as hoarding. it is very, very serious. easy to make jokes but there s nothing funny about this. we ll talk to her in a moment. then a little bit later on as matt alluded to, it is time to light up this year s rockefeller center christmas tree. 77th annual treat lighting ceremony wednesday, december 2nd. featuring aretha franklin, michael bouble, alicia ke. and of course you can watch it all right here on nbc. that is a perfect christmas tree. that s beautiful. really stunning. they re always beautiful. sometimes they ve got little holes, little oddities. this one has two tops. remember? they can put that star right between them. nicely done. let s gin side, ann is standing by at the news desk. good morning once again, everybody. in the news this morning, police surrounded a house in seattle overnight believing a suspect in the murder of four suburban police officers might be inside. maurice clemmons is wanted for questioning in the deaths of four lakewood, washington police officers who were gunned down in a coffee shop on sunday morning. sle clemmons had a long prison sentence in arkansas commuted nearly a decade ago by then-governor huckabee clemmons has recently charged with two more violent crimes. police have reason to suspect he s been wounded. as president obama prepares to lay out his new military strategy for afghanistan tomorrow night he s prodding u.s. allies for me help. today he meets with the prime minister of australia. the president will announce his way forward in afghanistan in a prime time address tomorrow and reportedly call for up to 35,000 more u.s. troops and also provide a detailed exit plan. retired u.s. auto worker john demjanjuk went on trial in germany charged being a nazi death camp guard. asia markets are higher but stocks in europe are lower because of lingering concerns about financial problems in dubai. cnbc s erin burnett is there. erin, good morning. good morning, ann. this morning dew buy really is reeling from a debt crisis that all began last week when one of the biggest developers here abruptly announced he couldn t pay his loans. november 2008. stars at the $20 million party for the new atlantis dubai. fast forward a year. more than half dubai s construction projects are on hold. dubai doesn t have any oil. it had to borrow everything to build a massive tourist destination. reporter: borrowed too much. experts tell us more than half of dubai s property owners might default and news that one of the city s biggest developers can t make payments on his loans sent stocks tumbling around the world. dubai hasn t dealt with its debt addiction. they are not alone. this could lead to a domino effect for the global economy. reporter: dubai dreamed big. an indoor ski resort. the highest end of high-end luxury stores. and the world s tallest building, 175 stories high with a 16,000-car garage. last month i visited with the man who built the tower. w have almost 300,000 people moving in to the city still now in these circumstances on an annual basis compared to probably 90,000 people moving in to the state of florida during the good old times. so the show must move on. reporter: the show did go on this weekend as tourists filled dubai s beaches. this is my first time to dubai. just arrived yesterday morning. really, reay enjoying it. reporter: it is not so bad for dubai s ruling sheikh either. forbes estimates he s still worth $12 billion. close advisors of the rulers here tell me that dubai will get a bail-out from its oil-rich neighbor abu dhabi. but in off the record conversations, they re afraid this could be a step back for the mideast becoming more secretive as opposed to more open to investors. the ruler actually replaced some of the business leaders with his sons. that could be an ominous sign to everyone around the world. another gauge of the economy, a yearly analysis finds that if you bought your true love everything listed in the versus of the 12 days of christmas, it could cost you $87,000. that s up less than 1% from last year. inflation apparently not a problem so fa 8:05. let s get another check of the weather with al. that s because you get a deal or that partridge in a pear tree. or the lords a leaping. winter olympics just 74 days away as we countdown to vancouver. we have four team usa hopefuls with us here on the plaza. joining us, snowboarder seth wescott, skier julie mancuso, julie chu. 74 days away. pressure mounting formakering the team? well. september i got half my pressure out of the way with a good event. one more before christmas. how important is this do well in these race leading up to vancouver? there is a lot of races. i just actually got back from one in aspen. we re just traveling all over the place. so it is important to get going fast.assuming you ll make the team, this will be your third trip to the olympics. are you planning it to be jus as exciting at the first two? absolutely. we have a lot of young players on our team. we always make sure we travel with real comfort. some of that is carrying a toothbrush around and crest pro health. we are on the road all the time and always good to have comforts of home. j.r., you had a pretty serious injury to your leg earlier this year. yes, i did. actually i have a little pressure off because our olympic trials was in september and that s where i got injured. i m working hard to come back from my injury and will be back soon. we wish you guys all good monday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. mild, a little bit of sunshine, waiting for the rain showers to come in later this morning and early this afternoon. check of live doppler. sprinkles into charles county, northern portions of st. mary s county. a few sprinkles in parts of montgomery county. temperatures in the mid-50s now, will be near 60 before the rain moves in. chilly sunshine returns for tomorrow. don t forget, any time you want your weather, day or night, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. and also don t forget, you can see all of the olympics on networks of nbc. coverage begins february 12th right here on nbc. meredith? can t wait for that, al. thank you very much. up next tiger woods bizarre one-car accident and the unanswered questions that linger in that case. unanswered questions that linger in that case. but first, these messages. . like crispy shrimp, hand-battered, cooked until golden brown. and smoked chicken, topped with fresh ingredients just for you. part of our three courses, two people, $20 deal, where you can share an appetizer, choose two entrees, like our fall-off-the-bone tender baby back ribs or a new pulled pork sandwich, and share a dessert. for a limited time, only at chili s. by changing her medicare prescription plan. all we had to do was go to cvs.com and use the free savings calculator. we learned that changing your medicare part d plan could save an average of $612. woman: we just entered my prescriptions, and it compared plans for us. it was easy to find the right plan for the prescriptions i need. your cvs pharmacist can help, too. come in today, or go to cvs.com before december 31st to find the best plan for you 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(female announcer) if you have stomach ulcer or other condition that causes bleeding, you should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin, tell your doctor before planning surgery or taking aspirin or other medicin with plavix, especially if you ve had a stroke. some medicines that are used to treat heartburn may affect how plavix works, so tell your doctor if you are taking other medicines. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. a rare but potentially life-threatening condition reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. (male announcer) if you take plavix with other heart medicines continuing to do so will help increase protection against a future heart attackr stroke. feeling better doesn t mean not at risk. stay with plavix. back at 8:11. it is one of the most talked-about car accidents ever that landed tiger woods in the hospital for a short time on friday. now he has issued his first statement about the crash. nbc s mark potter is near the woods home in windermere, florida. mark, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you, matt. on his website, tiger woods said that he alone was responsible for the accident. he also praised his wife for helping him and he asked the public for privacy. he said, this situation is my fault and it s obviously embarrassing to me and my family. he vowed also to never let it happen again without actually referring to a defining what he was referring to. following records that suggest that he and his wife may have had some sort of disturbance, a fight, something like that, before the accident, woods said on his website, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. he then went on to say, my wife elin acted courageously when she saw that i was hurt and in trouble. she was the first person to help me. any other assertion is absolutely false. now meanwhile, his attorney and sat agents say that tiger woods will not speak with crash investigators by the florida highway patrol and by law, he is not required to do that. mark potter in florida for us this morning, thanks very much. a veteran sports journalist and author and also dan abrams, that s absolutely right, no legal requirements that tiger woods talks to these investigators right now. but, dan, if he s willing to issue a statement, the common sense question is why isn t he willing to talk to the police. well, because talking to the police is very different than issuing a statement. the bottom line is you can issue a statement and you can say basically whatever you want. once you start talking to the authorities, you ve got to answer very specific, detailed questions and you ve got to make sure that everything you say is absolutely think about a statement, it is so intentionally vague, there is no way the authorities would ever let him get away with it. but a typical sports fan and a typical person living in this country would have to ask the next question, why, tiger, is it a problem to answer specific and detailed questions about what you say is a simple car accident? matt, i get that he s trying to protect his wife here. i get that. you can never fault a guy. but he s acting like a guilty person. wait a second. you get that he s trying to protect his wife. you ve already been a jury on this. no, i just think it is a preposterous version of thinks that somehow she took a driver or hybrid golf club and turned it into the jaws of life to get him out of this car. when you listen to the 911 tape, there s no mention of this and it sounds like the guy came out as soon as he heard the car hit the tree. you read his statement carefully. mark potter just read parts of it. it could be absolutely true that she is the first person who was there on the scene. it could be absolutely true that he is human, et cetera. but he s not addressing the fundamental question of, was this simply an accident or was it caused by something else. mike, this is the most famous athlete on the planet right now. one of the most famous people on the planet right now. he s the guy with millions and millions of dollars in endorsements. is the way he s handling this going to hurt him substantially in that area. i don t think it is going to hurt him substantially. i always said that the guys who got into problems with steroids in baseball were the guys who were old and couldn t hit or pitch their way out o trouble. he will golf his way past this. and i think he s relying on the goodwill that he has built up. but when you look at the way this has been handled in the last 72 hours, there ought to be some kind of joke like how many crisis managers does it take to screw in a lightbulb. the best way to handle this would have been to take it straight on from the start. we asked some of our viewers dan, il give you a chance in a second to weigh in on this. this one is representative of a lot of the comments we get and says, i m wondering why this needs investigation. it was an accident where he did not do any damage to anyone else s property, no harm to anyone other than himself. if this was not tiger woods, would there be any interest, period? let me create a hypothetical situation. assume that a man not talking about this case a man goes after his wife. assume with a golf club. she s in her car. she says, you know what? i want to be done with this. a lot of people out there would say, wait a second, the authorities need to investigate this. because this guy showed possible domestic violence. exactly. when it comes to domestic violence, we take it seriously. don t know that that s necessarily the case here but let s not just say, oh, it is tiger woods, we need to just give him his privacy, et cetera, we need to apply the laws in exactly the same way in this case as any other case. if this were just an accident, that s one thing. if there are allegations that she had a golf club and she may that hit that car the problem is, if it hadn t been for national enquirer story that perhaps linked tiger woods to another woman let s be honest here. a lot of what the national inquirer and other magazines like that print is wrong. just plain wrong. some of it s true, some of it s wrong. but if that story weren t in the universe right now, these little scenarios wouldn t even be out there. possibly. they might still be out there because i think that there still might be some questions about what happened there. i don t think based on what we ve seen so far, i don t think anyone is going to accept at face value the idea that tiger woods left his house, crashed into a fire hydrant, simply it was an accident, his wife comes in and rescues him. why? because tiger woods would have said that already if that s what happened. mike, if tiger woods grants an interview with the police in ten days, isn t it going to raise even more questions that perhaps he was waiting until some scratches or scars healed before letting smart police investigators get a good look at him? there is no question that once it went 48 hours it was bad. if it goes a week, it s bad. how did a car that wasn t supposed to be going 30 miles an hour end up with him unconscious in the street. too many questions. thanks, guys, very much. thanks for coming in on short notice, too. up next, the troubling life of a hoarder. we ll talk to the woman who actually lived inside this home. we ll talk to the woman who actually lived inside this home. right after this. first ballet recital. oh, and this is when i got a two-wheeler. pretty awesome. i used to have one of these. there s a new one. for lucy, to get her started. love, grandma. look lucy, this one s for you. 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( squeaking ) good news for anyone with a lot of driving to d - ( barks ) - efficiency to move you forward. back at 8:21. now to the troubling and fascinating disorder known as hoarding. the excessive collection if terms and the inability to throw those possessions away. the a&e reality show hoarders highlights people who suffer from the condition as they try to get their lives back in order. what room is this? this used to be my bedroom. so what s back here, gail. that s where the goats have eaten a hole in the wall. yeah. i think creatures could be coming in. i think there may be possums living in the back rooms. we are joined now by gail who you saw in that clip. robin is a licensed clinical psychologist who works with the show and consulted gail as well. good morning to you both. good morning. good morning. gail, if i can start with you. looking at that video now, what goes through your mind? it s alien. it s completely foreign to me. it s looking at a tv show. i don t associate with it at all. i know that s my stuff. and that is the way that you lived your life. oh, yeah, completely disassociated from that. gail, why did you decide to go public? we were talking on the break about the stigma attached to hoarding, people like to make fun of those or don t appreciate how serious the condition is. that s exactly why. because there are, i m sure, millio of people out there who are living like that who aren t getting any help at all. but how did you live like that? we talk about the goats eating through your house. there were cats and dogs, dead rats, lots of garbage bags full junk. no heat, no running water. yes. that s a good question. because i really honestly don t know. i don t have an answer for you just go through the day- day-to-day grind and you do disassociate yourself from that. i was oblivious to it. you have a job so you would go out and nobody at your job knew what was going on whatsoever. oh, no. doctor, you referred to hoarding as a cpulsive disorder. what s the cause of it? there is a lot of research out currently and we are still trying to understand it but we believe it is due to chemical imbalance that causes people to have incredible difficulty being able to throw away items that to other people don t have purpose or value. ultimately as in gail s case, it begins to overrun the home to the point where rooms are not able to be used for the purpose that they re intended. gail, it was your daughter who alerted the show and basically called you on the carpet and said, mom, we got to deal with this. during the process where the show was removing stuff from your home, you get emotional at certain points. what was the process like for you? it was very difficult. it really was. i jokedround a lot about it. but it was very, very difficult. a lot of this stuff in my situation, a lot of this stuff was my parents stuff, who were both hoarders, and i moved my stuff in on top of them to take care of them. and i said earlier to someone that when when something has been precious to someone that you love, and then you say it has no value to me, it s almost like you re saying they have no value to me. it was really difficult. it was really difficult. doctor, two points. one, gail said her parents had been hoarders themselves. is there a again nick component to this? it is pretty common that we ll see an overlap, up to 85% of people that become compulsive hoarders we tend to see that there is a genetic link. also, you were very protective of gail during this process of shedding those possessions as well because you wanted her to be in control. prognosis now for her, if it is a chemical imbalance? i m sorry, what was the question? t good morning. i m joy krebs. in the news 4 today, chopper 4 is over breaking news in prince george s county. a bad way to begin your monday. this car crashed into this pond off the beltway near branch avenue in forestville. the driver is okay after being rescued from the car. he was the only person in the car. the cause of that accident still under investigation. well, today is the last day to smoke inside many bars and restaurants in virginia. a statewide ban takes effect tomorrow. if you are caught after smoking after today, the penalty will be $25. we ll take a break now and come back and look at our weather good monday morning. cloudy with a lot of rain. a few sprinkles in charles and calvert county. steadier rain showers moving into the shenandoah valley, coming towards the washington area. temperatures, upper 40s and low 50s. near 60 for a brief time before the rain showers move in. jerry, over to you. a live look along i-270. an accident at montgomery village. that s cleared. headed for downtown, 395, loaded up. both the express lane bridge and the regular bridge headed for the 14th bridge and lower 14th street. all the travel lanes remain open. more news, 8:30 on this monday morning, november 30th, 2009. we are kicking off our annual 16th annual holiday toy drive this morning. actress natalie portman playing the role of santa with our crowd. we ll talk to her in just a moment. 16 years. a special music you re listening to courtesy of i m not hearing it. that is special christmas music. darlene love. we do have some great music from andrea bocelli. we ve got some folks problems with our nation s pets. there is a big health risk facing them. coming up, what every pet owner should be doing to help their animals live healthier live. when it comes to humans, we also have a problem staying slim. a lot of us. we ll get some advice from today s diet and nutrition editor, joy bauer. first let s say hello to natalie portman, one of the stars of the new film brothers. natalie, how are you? first, thank you for kicking off our toy drive. i m so happy to be here for that. in the new movie, brothers you play a wife and mother. two children. your husband s going off on his fourth tour of duty in afghanistan. i understand to prepare for this film you spoke to military wives. what did you find out? well, it was pretty amazing to get the opportuni to, because i hadn t met many military families before. i was just amazed that they re really at their strength, that they are able to keep so together. i didn t realize it was this whole sort of second army of people here who are missing family members who are deployed. for them it really is the home front. i was interested, when i read i were playing a wife and mother, i remember it wasn t too long ago you were here and we were always talking to you about, do you really want to sink your teeth into some adult roles. they were always casting you as the young teenager when you were older. this has to be nice for you. yeah, it was a great chance to be trusted with. i was 26 playing mother to an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old. that was pretty extreme. but a nice change from the girl/woman parts. a great compliment to your abilities. did it make you want kids, or you never want them? no, no, no. these girls are magic. they re great actresses. amazing. congratulations are in order. because natalie has a movie that s been accepted at sundance. is that right? yes. thank you. thank you. natalie portman, thank you so much. our first today show elf for 2009. brothers hits theaters this friday. if you d like to take part in our holiday toy drive, head to todayshow.com. if you donate a toy from the wish list, amazon.com will actually match it. which is wonderful. not a bad day today, though we do have some rain moving in a little bit later on, week ahead rain along coast, heavy rain in texas. snow showers in the plains. midweek, heavy rain along the coast, may cause some problems for our tree lighting. dry out west. then the latter part of the week we ve got snow showers across the american tier off good monday morning to you. hopefully, you enjoyed your thanksgiving holiday. we are off to a mild start on this back-to-work and school monday. a few light rain showers moving into the shenandoah valley. sprinkles in upper montgomery county and lower prince george s, calvert, and st. charles counties in maryland. steadier rain showers coming our way later today. temperatures in the 50s most of these nice folks back here are all saying hi to everybody back home. mr. lauer? yes, mr. roker. thank you very much. when we come back, hidden hazards of overweight pets. but first, even as i talk about marshall, the thundering herd, this i back at 8:36, this morning on today s pets, overweight animals. obesity is now the number one health problem facing our pets and our resident animal lover jill rappaport has details. the msage here no more table scraps! you pointing at me if. you with jasper. i can tell. anyway, whether you have a pudgy pooch or flag flabby, tabby, yod to get the pounds off to extend your pet s life. while our pets devour every delicious more sell of table scraps, the sad fact is 40% of our animals are dangerously overweight. just like in humans, fat can be fatal, for our fur angels, too. like lady. because of her obesity, see couldn t even walk when we first met her back in april. we hopefully can get her to walk, get her back to the park and running around. reporter: this beagle presented quite a challenge for the rehab department at the animal medical center in new york city. both of her knees went because she had so much weight on her. we re going to concentrate on a lot of hydrotherapy with her since water will help support her. reporter: now after two knee surgeries and seven months of physical therapy, lady shed seven pounds and 17 centimeters off her abdomen. that s the equivalent to us losing 30 pounds. when she first came in, she couldn t breathe, she was drooling. the biggest change, not only her ability to walk but her cardiovascular function, she s so much more in shape. reporter: obesity is also prevalent in cats. at one point this cat weighed close to 18 pounds. we knew he was pretty fat but we just thought it was part of his big personality. as with people you most likely have extended his life. we hope. he was in a prediabetic state. we were actually injecting him and testing his blood sugar. the vet came back with his bloodwork and said he has diabetes. obesity is linked to a arthrit arthritis, heart disease, cancer. almost every disease we have out there, fat contributes to the inflammatory process along the way. it wasn t until you found out had he this life threatening disease that you actually thought, wow, you better put him on a diet? yeah. he s considerably happier. we ll bring in jill s vet from southampton, new york. dr. claude grossman and his pet, grace. who has a little bit of a weight issue. there is an irony there, doctor. well, we ll discover just how much of a weight issue she has. how do you identify whether your pet really is overweight? one of the tools that veterinarians use is what s called the body condition chart scoring system where we try to determine based on their size whether they re overweight or not. so based on grace now, her size, is she a little overweight? so what i like to have everyone do is to look at their own dog. grace, stand up. there we go. what we want to be able do is feel their ribs easily without a lot we ve lost your mike here. there you go. so you re feeling grace s ribs. what we want to deal o is fe for their ribs and not have a git wad of fat. grace has a little bit. i can pivlg an inch. a little bit more. with cats, same thing. yes. cats have more of a paunch. what we want to see on a dog is a sculpted waist here. grace has a sculpted waite. lo looking down, you can get a nice sense for her waist instead of being scare. we want to be able to see an abdominal tuck here, not a big paunch. so i m going to rate grace as 5 being perfect, 9 being severely overweight as the graphic that you showed. i m going to say she is about a 6. so maybe a little bit of work. she s got a little bit of swimming to do. labs in general, my dog gets heavy on air. i think labs have a very difficult time staying thin. they do. they do. the point is that any creature overweight, whether it is a human or an animal, it is not a good thing. thank you, doctor and jill, as well, thank you so much. up next, a revealing new memoir from one of the nation s most cornell west is a guy who s known for telling it like it is on everything from race to religion to politics. now the princeton professor and best-selling author is telling all about himself in his new memoir brother west living and loving outloud. brother west, good to have you here. blessing to be here. happy holidays. i want to go right to something you wrote about yourself because it jumped out at me. you say about yourself, i m a blues man in the life of the mind and a jazz man in th world of ideas. what does that mean? it means i tried to find my own distinctive voice and my own unique style in the academy because to be a blues person, man or woman, it s somebody who deals with catastrophe with deep love, concerned about inspiring others, actually educating and instructing others but doing it so that people actually feel good. i read that and i tught, is this perhaps a guy who looks at the life of the mind in a way that s filtered through trouble and frustration? absolutely. what i call catastrophic. but also concerned about the power of love, and the power of alwa believing that things can be better. i have three little kids. i was particularly interested in some of the stories you recount from your childhood and the way you describe it. jump in any time you want. you were the product of a father who was hard working. clifton. my brother clifton, brothers sidney. your dad worked at an air force base, worked hard. one of the sweetest men you ever met. your mom was a ground breaker as far as educator, principal and teacher. you love your story about them finding a house they lived in an all-white neighborhood, they said that s okay, we re going to be the first african-american family here. what happened? they just went to each house and said the west family s here, we re here to stay, we re high-quality people, reached out, shook hands with them and kept moving. it couldn t have been easy. he did that, put on his jacket and tie and went out and introduced himself after he met with pretty fierce hostility from the neighbors. absolutely. man next door, very kind white brother who embraced us if that way. but i think more than anything else, it was a recognition that when you have integrity, dignity, and a sense of worth, that in fact you set a model and say i will never be half the person my mother or my father actually dad was and mom actually is. that means for me i think about living and loving outloud, if i can begin to bare witness to justice, always tie it to love, compassion, not revenge or bitterness. i love what a powerful role model and what a powerful example your father set for you and your siblings when he went out and did that. exactly right. you say every family needs to be family, education and spiritual grounding to be successful. it has to be frustrating to you, cornell, when you look today and realize how few kids are getting all three. it s true. oftentimes you can be in the church, in the mosque, in the synagogue and still not get t spirit owl grounding you ought, because by spiritual grounding i mean the recognition of the role of humility on the one hand but also determination on the other and getting outside of one s own ego. so you have a hypersensitivity to the suffering of others. i take quite seriously hebw scripture, the orphan and the widow at the center of our focus at the center of our moral your father knew the power of education. he also knew the tools of power, parenting. your success, he was once interviewed but. and he said, you know what? i don t need 30 minutes to answer that question. i don t even need a minute. i can give you the answer to parenting in four words be there for them. that s exactly it. that s exactly it. i think more than anything else, what this book acknowledges is not the myth of being self-made. i m not a self-made man. i am who i am because somebody loved me, somebody cared for me, somebody attended to me. i didn t birth myself, i didn t father myself, i didn t mother myself. i ve got mentors, like martin keelson, press son williams, i got close friends, my brothers tavis smiley, as you know, published this text. maryann rodriguez, been my assistant to keep me going. i got close partners to sustain me. that makes all the difference, my brother. i m a love child. somebody said it takes a village. that s what you re saying. cornell west, great to have you here. living and loving outloud. thank you so much, my brother. have a wonderful holiday, you and your precious family. indeed, indeed. coming up next, a special holiday performance from andrea bocelli. but firs announcer: the toyota concert series on today brought to you by toyota. toyota. moving forward. tenor andrea bocelli is out with his first-ever holiday album, featuring some of the biggest names in music. my christmas. why did you decide to do this now? a lot of artists choose to do holiday albums. why now? i ve been thinking about it for a long time. but for an album so important like this, one needs to have the best condition. first one, to have the good foster with me. i discuss wh him. finally he said, why not? yes. for this reason now finally i have my christmas album. david, i understand you guys were talking about five years this was in the making. it was. this voice is so great and we paired him up with people like mary j. blige and reba mcintyre. natalie cole. the muppets. andrea s voice is so spectacular, he covers all the ground. we did a pbs special were those tricky collaborations? not really. because everybody wants to sing with andrea, from mary j. to the muppets. they re all going, yes, we d like to sing with him. are you going on tour, andrea? yes. i will be soon in toronto, new jersey, los angeles and las vegas. fantastic. it is a pleasure to have you here. thank you very much. what are you going to perform for us now? yes. white christmas. andrea bocelli. i m dreaming of a white christmas just like the ones i used to know where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow [ singing in foreign language ] i m dreaming of a white christmas justike the ones i used to know where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow i m dreaming of a white christmas with every christmas card i write may your days be merry and bright and may all your christmases and may all your christmases and may all your christmases be white again, the album is called my christmas. andrea bocelli, thank you so much. we are back with more of today after your local news and weather. our time is 8:56 on this monday, the 30th and final day of november. a live look outside. clouds above us. good morning. i m joe krebs. in the news 4 today, we are following breaking news. chopper 4 is over that news in montgomery county. there is a water main break in kensington near gail street between high view and woodbdge avenue. let s go to jerry to get the traffic impact. looks like traffic having not much of an impact at all, back in the neighborhood on gale street off of beersmill road. it does appear the integrity of the roadway will be compromised by the water main break. we will keep a close watch and keep you updated up in kensington. a little slow 66 to the roosevelt bridge, an earlier accident has been cleared. thanks very much. we will take a break and come back and look at our weather forecast. stay with us. good morning. light rain showers. dry around the metropolitan area. rain showers out into the shenandoah valley are moving our way. don t stray too far from the umbrella on your way out the door this morning. temperatures in the upper 40s to low and mid-50s. mostly in the 50s for high temperatures. cloudy and mild. passing showers becoming more and more likely with each hour going by. for tomorrow, sunshine makes a comeback. breezy and cooler with highs in the upper 40s and low 50s. 59 today with the rain showers. 52 tomorrow with the sunshine. rain returns again late wednesday night and lasts through the day on thursday. sunny and cold for this upcoming weekend. back over to you, joe. thanks very much. we will have more news, weather and traffic coming up in 25 mi we re back now with more of today on this monday morning, the 30th of november, 2009. final day of the month. the holiday season getting into full gear right now. the lighting of the christmas tree two nights away. lots of good things and lots of nice people out on the plaza. probably going to go off and do a little retail or cyber therapy after watching the show this morning. i m matt lauer along with al roker an ann curry. coming up, lots of questions still swirling about that late night or middle of the night car accident, one-car accident that golfer tiger woods got himself into. the 911 call has been released. he posted a note on his website but as of yet he has not talked to police about that accident. we ll get the latest in just a little while. also coming up, after a weekend of eating stuffing and potatoes and pies, the bad news for your diet is that is just the beginning of the holiday eating season. we have nutritionist joy bauer here this morning to help us all with our diets and get them back on track and answer your questions. duct tape works. a little bit later on, ever wonder what goes on in the kitchen of your favorite restaurant? we ll reveal the secrets of servers and get the inside scoop on picking the right food and getting better service next time you go out. this going to gross me out? some of it might but some of these are good tips to get the best service. we begin with the headlines. police negotiators in seattle spent hours this morning trying to make contact with a suspect in the murder of four police officers. police surrounded a home overnight where they said that maurice clemmons was holed up or even possibly dead. they believe that he was wounded in the coffee shop where he allegedly gunned down four lakewood, washington officers on sunday. a search is under way this morning for a floda man suspected of fatally shooting four relatives after thanksgiving dinner. nbc s michelle kosinski is in j jupiter, florida with more. reporter: police consider this man, palmu paul merhige. they sate sat through thanksgiving dinner here like nothing was wrong. as everybody was saying good-bye, he went to his car, came back with a gun and started shooting. federal marshals have joined the search for him but there s no sign since thanksgiving night. it was a prominent fram, a dinner, and then a massacre without warning. police say merhige first shot and killed his sister carla, her husband was critically wounded. he turned his gun on a 76 aunt and 6-year-old cousin asleep in her bed. set to perform in the nutcracker the next day. this foe was taken hours before she was murdered. her father who tried to save her sat two seats away from the shooter through dinner. he literally stood at my baby s bed and shot her. reporter: the family says merhige was brilliant but suffered mental problems. still, no one imagined this and they don t know where he is. beautiful little girl. the whole family is beautiful. reporter: eerily, 30 years before, merhige s opera singer aunt going through a divorce shot and killed her husband and two children before taking her own life. now this family mourns again, a similar tragedy, an unfathomable ss. police say merhige was able to buy three guns in the weeks leading up to this. he drove away from the house in his blue toyota camera. that s what they re looking for. as president obama prepares to make a prime time address tomorrow night on his decision about afghanistan, today he prods a u.s.lly, the prime minister of australia. at a speech at west point, the president is reportedly to send 30,000 more troops. iran s president ahmadinejad made a defiant announcement sunday saying iran will now build ten new nuclear enrichment sites. the announcement appears in response to the international atomic energy agency which demanded iran stop construction at a site that was previously secret. rescuers in eye lard spent the weekend reaching out to stranded flood victims. on sunday boats were needed to evacuate houses and nursing homes near dublin. ireland has endured more than a week of heavy rains. today the grand slam tennis association levied a fine on williams, $175,000, but it will be cut in half if she commits no further major offenses during a two-year probation period. twilight held on to the top spot at the weekend box office taking in more than $42 million. the blind side was second, and 2012 was third. five minutes past the hour. let s get a check of the weather now from mr. roker. he has a special guest. absolutely. we indeed do. our 15th 16th annual toy drive has given out $15 million in toys and books so far. we hope to give every child on our list a book as well. rachel from dk publishing has been helping us reach that goal. over the years you guys have donated more than $9 million worth of books. why is it so important for you to do this? we just think that books are such important parts of kids lives. you see pictures of kids we get from the toy drive, kids clutching the books we donate every year really touches our hearts. we made sure this year we continue donating. it is a rough year for people but we re still giving $1 million worth of books this year. that is terrific. thank you so much. why do you think a book makes such a good gift is. because kids get hours of enjoyment out of a book. they learn things about themselves. we ve got a book about the human body. they can learn why they can t go to sleep at night or why they sneeze. all sorts of silly facts. then also they learn cool things like lego star wars. we do that amazing visual guide. they can learn about the toys they love and get some education. it is educational and super fun. rachel, thank good monday morning, everyone. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. it is a mild and cloudy start to our work and school week here in the washington area. rain showers not too far away. most of the rain coming out of the shenandoah valley and over the blue ridge into western loudoun county. much of northern county getting in on the rain showers. these rain showers will continue to push into the area over the late morning and afternoon hours. keep your umbrellas handy. it is i let s take a quick look at your national weather. we ve got a frontal system stretching from new england all the way down into texas with a couple of low pressure systems draped along it. that s going to bring in heavy rain especially down in the southeast with an upper-level low developing back through the southwest. that s going to be snow. first the rainfall, talking about anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain in extreme southern texas, heavier rain also along the gulf coast. and snow back through the southwest. we re talking about anywhere from 3 to 12 inches of snow throughout parts of the southwest. that s what s going on. now let s go back inside to ann. now we re going to have the latest on the car accident involving tiger woods. he s now issued a statement about the crash as his say they are still investigating what happened. nbc s mark potter is in near the woods home in windermere, florida. hey, mark, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, ann. tiger woods says he alone was responsible for that accident. he praises his wife for helping him and he s asking for privacy. this as authorities have made public that 911 tape. the 911 tape released by the florida highway patrol is of a neighbor calling after tiger woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree near his house at 2:25 a.m. friday. what happened? what s wrong? i have a neighbor. he hit the tree. we came out here just to see what was going on. i see him, he s laying down. by hit the tree, do you mean auto accident? yes, there was an auto accident. is he unconscious? yes. are you able to tell if he s breathing? no, i can t tell right now. reporter: on his website tiger woods says he s suffering cuts, bruises and is sore from the single-car accident. he also says this situation is pie fault and it s obviously embarrassing to my family and me. i m human and i m not perfect. i will certainly make sure this doesn t happen again. following reports alleging the golfer s infidelity, which a new york woman strongly denies, and allegations woods and his wife elin had been arguing before the crash, woods says, the many fats, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. he went on to say, my wife elin acted courageously when she saw i was hurt and in trouble. she was the first person to help me. any other assertion is absolutely false. golf.com says that statement is very much in line with woods personality. tiger woods has been very careful throughout his career with what he says, who he says it to and when he chooses to speak to the media. reporter: on is under the florida highway patrol issued its own statement saying for the third time since the accident troopers attempting to interview woods were turned down after woods hired an orlando attorney, who according to authorities, said the interview had been canceled. now woods agent has told cnbc that his client believes that he has nothing more to tell authorities about what he believes is a private matter and the florida highway patrol concedes that he does not legally have to talk to them. another unanswered question is whether woods will actually appear at his own golf tournament in california later this week. ann? mark potter this morning, thanks. coming up here on today, what your restaurant doesn t want you to know about the food on your table when we reveal the secrets coming up. but coming up next on joy s di s.s., how to make sure your diet and waistline survive thholiday season. for little bodies with fevers. and big bodies on high blood pressure medicine. tylenol works with your body in a way other pain relievers don t. so you feel better. knowing doctors recommend tylenol more than any other brand of pain reliever. goodwrench. we roll out the blue carpet for drivers of these great gm brands. we can do the small things, the big things, just about everything. right inside your gm dealership. find out more at goodwrench.com. with two scoops! of raisins harvested at the peak of sweetness, and golden flakes of bran with 28% of their daily fiber, nothing gets your family s day off to a brighter start. than the goodness of kellogg s raisin bran cereal. feed their sunny side. like 2009 h1n1, wash your hands and get your flu shot. regularly disinfect surfaces. and talk to your friends about doing the same. let s help spread protection against flu viruses like 2009 h1n1. doo doo doo woman: there s only one disinfecting wipe with a low streak formula. clorox disinfecting wipes. what s the difference between rough winter skin and soft summer skin? jergens ultra healing lotion delivers healing moisture 5 layers deep for softer, visibly smoother skin no matter what the season. jergens ultra healing lotion. this morning on joy s diet s.o.s., holiday hang-ups. ifou re still feeling the stuffing and gravy bloat, you know how tough it is to stay healthy throughout the holidays with all the parties, family get-togethers. here to help, joy bauer. good to see you. you had a good thanksgiving? i did. thanks for color coordinating with me. we got the call. a lot of folks feel helpless after thanksgiving but it doesn t have to be that way. no. it is one day. now think about the entire month of december. you re going to go off here and there. a lot of people say, it is the holiday, just let it go. no, because it is an entire month. you can go off though from time to time. first question, kerry hea hartman, from muskegon, michigan. hi. i ve lost 137 pounds. i m determined not to gain anything throughout the holiday season. so my question is i plan on doing a lot of baking throughout now and christmas. can you give me some tips on how to lighten up my cookies? go, carrie! you are the ultimate holiday inn spiration. there are three baking tips that everybody needs to know that can literally shave off hundreds of calories when you hit the holiday treats. the first is when a recipe like brownies or quick breads, cakes, cookies, calls for oil, you can swap out the same amount that the recipe calls for in oil for 100% canned pure pumpkin or unsweetened apple sauce. your res me may be slightly more caky but it will be just as delicious. if you can imagine, if you swap out one cup of oil for one cup of the pumpkin or apple sauce for that recipe, you ll save 1,800 calories. the second tip is, when a recipe calls for a total amount of sugar, typically if you reduce the sugar by a quarter of the amount it calls for, the quality of the final product tastes and texture is not going to be tampered with or suffered at all. how many calories would you save? it depends how much sugar you start with. but you can reduce it by a quarter of the amount it calls for. the last tip is sort of obvis. you want to decrease the extras that recipe s called for. in other words, icings, whipped cream, sprinkles. but i like the frosting! but the dessert is usually sweet enough. really what the extras do is it competes with the original flavor. i know some ad schladds, color czar. but frosting is the dessert! just have frosting. carrie, did that help? thanks, carrie. we ve got carol marshall on the phone. she s calling in. carol, what s your question? yes, hi. i know i m going to splurge on a lot of rich, high-calorie foods at upcoming holiday parties. should i skip breakfast on those mornings? i know the answer to thi one! in theory it sounds like a perfect plan but most often what happens is you wind up going to these hiday parties rachbous, then you eat everything in sight. i m going to bounce my answer o off of a lot of recent research that shows high-protein breakfasts, particularly the egg, leave you feeling satisfied for longer times than high-carb breakfasts. in the perfect world, this is what you do the morning of a party. have a low calorie and white omelet. one egg, beat with two to three egg whites. add in a whole lot of vegetables. on a skillet with no-stick spray. it is low calorie and high-protein. you ll go into your holiday party feeling light, in control in terms of your appetite and you ll have calorie wiggle room. befe you go to a holiday party, should you have a small meal before you go in, especially an evening party? if you re hungry. but if you re not? if you re not, can you go right to the party. if you re hungry and your mouth is already watering thinking about what s going to be at that party, do your appetite a favor and take the edge off. maybe nonfat yogurt, baby carrots, something. what are some of the best low calorie diet-friendly cocktails to order at holiday parties. love her question. drink up. you. when it comes to alcohol, the simpler the better. alcohol itself is really not that caloric, it is not that fattening. it is really the sugary mixers that put it over the top. a peppermint patty martini will cost you about 300 calories but a glass of red or white winer a glass of champagne is going only 120 calories. so keep it simple. again, look at list that we have as the graphic. these are all between 100, 120 calories. take a shot of vodka, club soda and a splash of your favorite juice. 120 calories. director joe michaels just has grain alcohol. whoa! all right. got aer waiting to ask a question, something about the worst foods out there for the holiday season. linda in tennessee. hi, joy! my question today is, i need to know what are some of the unhealthiest holiday foods that i should avoid at all cost. everything! oh, no! there are a lot of holiday fare that would compete for this prize. but my words of advice is to just load your plate with an appropriate portion of everything that looks good to you and jt stay at that one plate. if you pin me against a wall and say but what are those three foods, i would say for the entree, which may surprise people, prime rib. it is one of the fattiest cuts of meat. but it s so good. you know how you make it better? frosting! in terms of a dessert it s probably going to be pecan pie. then in terms of the beverage, eggn eggnog. eggnog is not only artery clogging with a lot of cal roaric fats, go with apple cry dar. hi, joy. i go to parties, i promise myself i m going to stay away from the sweets and desserts. but then i see the cookies, i see the brownies and the cakes and i lose all myself control. s.o.s., any suggestions for me? i think there are a lot of people that relate to the scenario that you just described. if that s your m. 06o. it ist working for you. when the dessert starts to come out, fill your plate with fresh fruit. when there s none available, swipe some from the cheese platter. then you find the dessert, the decadent dessert that looks absolutely the most sensational to you and you take a palm-sized piece of it, whether it is a brownie, two small cookies, a half a slice of pie. you put it on your plate. first take the fruit to take the edge off. then you enjoy every single decade bite of that dessert. and no guilt allowed. there you go. all right. felicia, hope that helps you this holiday season. i got four words for you pigs in a blanket. al, i thought you were my friend. you are! i m just saying pigs in a blanket. joy will be back a little bit later on. she ll welcome another member into the joy fit club. this 20-something dropped a whopping 105 pounds without surgery. first, these messages. hey, i m summer. one day something hit me. my pc should be safer. so i passed this along to microsoft. just like that, windows 7 comes out. and what do you know? it helps block out the stuff that might mess with my pc, and it keeps my personal info safer. now, was this all because of me? what do you think axel? that s a yes. i m a pc and windows 7 was my idea. 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. hey jay. i think my lights are freaking out your dog. no, it s just that. he doesn t like people flaunting their wealth. but we re not wealthy. i believe you, but. that s a lot of lights. chestnuts roasting on an open fire coming up, what your waiter may not be telling you. from the lemon wedges to the special of the day. the inside scoop on what you should be ordering and maybe not be behaving badly about it. later on we ll have the five best winter travel deals out there. first your local news and weather. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there s a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. new honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. my muscles just ache. . all over my body. .it just doesn t go away. it s so baffling. (announcer) does this sound like the pain you ve been experiencing? this is fibromyalgia. chronic, widespread pain and tenderness that affects millions. sometimes i need a hug. .but i know it s gonna hurt. (announcer) there is hope. understanding your pain. .is the first step to treating it. talk to your doctor and visit fibrocenter.com for answers and support. as what it looks like outside, 9:26 right now. 53 degrees. cloudy skies here in the nation s capital. beautiful picture of the jefferson memorial. this monday, the 30th day of november. good morning. i m joe krebs. we are following breaking news in kensing con, maryland, where a water main break has caused serious flooding. it happens on gail street between highview and huggens drive. the ten-inch main broke around 8:00 this morning. not clear how many homes are affected. more on the story coming up on news 4 midday. let s check with jerry to see how it is affecting traffic. fortunately, gail street is just a small neighborhood street so from a traffic perspective, won t have a major perspective. watch for crews getting out there and taking care of that. it will be quite the mess for some time. elsewhere, on 66, still loaded up on the roosevelt bridge, had an accident there earlier on the e street expressway that now has been cleared. we will take a break and come back and look at our weather right afte good monday morning. rain showers are on the way. don t stray from home without your umbrella. more rain late wednesday and thursday. joe? thanks, jerry. another update in 25 minutes. did you know that barry manilow started his musical career by learning the accordion at the age of 7? he s gone on to be a crooner for decades. you didn t know that. you learn something new every day. coming up this morning in this half-hour, the question also is can you believe what your waiter or waitresses are telling you? i would like to. ask the waiter what s the best thing on the menu, but can you trust that recommendation? depends on the person. research reveals there is a code. we ll tell you how to crack it, when to order the special and when to avoid it and how to get the best service all around. i always think it is a good sign when he goes i think i would follow that advice. also speaking of food, there is a restaurant not far from here, about 45 miles out of the city that s earning some rave reviews. it is called the bedford post inn. you might actually recognize the proprietors. richard gere and his wife. we ll find out what they re cooking up coming up. but first a check of the weather. absolutely. first of all, we re talking about wet weather up along the eastern seaboard for the week ahead. heavy rain down in texas. then as we move into mid-week, below-normal temperatures from the plains down into texas. dry out west. heavy rain along the eastern seaboard. latter part of the week, now good monday morning, everyone. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. it is, indeed, a cloudy start re in the washington area. rain showers are on the way. here is a check of live doppler. rain is encroaching on western fairfax. much of northern fauquier and prince william and loudoun county getting in on the rain showers. cloudy and mild today. rain showers on their way. the umbrellas will be needed today. sunshine returns for tomorrow. with a guy, northwesterly and that s your latest weather. on the nbc drama heroes, millions of fans follow the lives of ordinary people who possess extraordinary capabilities. tonight nathan will be taking what could be his final flight before he exits heroes for the last time. good to see you again. good to be here. now last season you died. at the very end. if you go back, i ve died at the end of every season so far. it is like a holiday tradition. i m like, is it going to stick this time? they said, no, this time you re really dead. but i meant really really dead. really. they use three reallies. this is your last episode? i believe so. because in heroes, dead is a state of mind. that s a funny word. it s all relative. not so much dead. maybe just not 100% alive. the prospect of not coming back kind of weighseavily on you because you love this. for four years you ve been doing this part. right? yeah. i ve come to really admire the true these are the people i ll miss the most. it is the people i spend every day with. it is like the people here, it is a family. you get to know everybody and i becomes a comfort factor in your life. i ll miss them. what a family. you have such a terrific ensemble that s really developed on this show. it s great. people are great. there is no ego. you know how that can be. one bad apple can spoil a thing oh, don t we know it here. just kidding. meantime, i have hato ask yo about the flying. how do you do that? anything is possible these days but tell us about the risks you took to actually do this part. because special effects have tten so complicated and so big in the movies, i think one of the things tv has to be responsible for is trying to update their ability to make things look as good as they do in the movie theaters. we shoot on blue screen or green screen. if i m wearing blue it has to be a green screen. i m in a harness, i m hanging 40 to 50 feet above a cement floor. no bags below. quarter-inch steel cable and when you look up and it is just a tiny thing on a pulley, you know, and it s not very comfortable. ouch. but it is worth it because in the end when they fuzz out the cable that s remained seen they special effect it out, it really looks like you re hanging there sorry, flying there. you guys look like you re having a great time. we are. i hope you re not dead dead. i do, too. the way i look at it, there is a little window that i could come back. catch the finale fall finale of heroes tonight 8:00, 7:00 central. the secrets your waiters may not be telling you after this. 24/7 live support, and pet injury coverage. aw! are those real antlers? 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[ female announcer ] let bounty help. it s thick and absorbent. in lab tests bounty absorbs twice as much as the bargain brand. why use more when you can use less? bring it. with bounty. the thick quicker picker-upper. oh, your mom brought that over. no way! these are the ornaments from when i was a kid. this is from mommy s first ballet recital. oh, and this is when i got a two-wheeler. pretty awesome. i used to have one of these. there s a new one. for lucy, to get her started. love, grandma. look lucy, this one s for you. ( gasps ) hallmark keepsake ornaments. at your hallmark gold crown store. one of many ways to find meaning inside. the more options you have, the more likely u are to stay on track. that s why there are eight delicious kinds. of special k® cereal. because every girl could use a little variety. special k® now in eight delicious flavors. if you feel like going out to dinner tonight, you might want to listen to this first. the editors of readers s digest asks a dozen waiters from across the country to spill the beans on what really goes on in restaurants. the local editor in chief of readers s digest, good morning. how did you find these waiters and waitresses and do you think they really spilled the beans? oh, yes. we interviewed 25 people around the country, some of them were ex-waiters and waitresses. some are active bloggers so you can find this out for yourself. but patterns started to emerge. that s when we knew we were preelly on to something. one of the things you found you were on to, there are lies. little white lies? yes. about what? is the coffee hot? oh, yes. is it homemade? yeah, but not by us. every now and then you might find somebody that would raise a fib to get more tips. you re working on christmas, why are you here? my sister s in the hospital. they might tell a fib to boost their tips. waiters get annoyed. what s the repercussion of that? well, waiters can do a little drive-by, listen in on your conversation. they can make fun of you if the back. that was one of the things i noticed. if you re having a fight with your husband and suddenly you re tting really good service, that s probably because all of the waiters are coming by to find what you re saying. oh, my gosh! okay. also asking for something like hot tea can be a major headache. that may make them hungry. hot tea. that really surprised me because i m a tea drinker. i thought what could be so hard about this? you re not doing it. you re just boiling the water. well they haven t streamlined it the way they did with coffee, they have to go get the lemon, the honey, the assortment of tea. that might make them cranky. never snap, never whistle. you also say what s homemade may not be homemade but things you may think that are homemade like the soup are not necessarily homemade. we, i once worked in a resort kitchen. indeed, our homemade clam chowder came out of an industrial strength bucket. to which we added a little pat of butter to make it look like it had just come off the stove. the story you heard about what may be homemade cake? costco cakes sold for $10 a slice in a restaurant. that s a rare thing but that has to be pretty rare. it said homemade. so basically we want to have our food very fresh and you have also learned some tips about when to order what if you want freshness. right. i think a lot of people know that fish does not get delivered fresh every day so for example, sunday and monday you re not very likely going to get fresh fish. you have to be careful about that. also the chef special can sometimes be the thing that they really need to get rid of. it s fresh butnly for another minute or two. okay. now where we get down to brass tacks. if you re a germa-phobe. they don t really wash the lemons, they cut them up and everybody touches them. in through season, i m just not doing lemons. in terms of getting the best service and the best meal, think about how you behave toward your waiter and waitress. what are tips there? absolutely. it is important to be nice. these folks are very busy and they re not working for a lot of money. they re working for their tips. can you get a much better experience if you treat server like a person. treat them the way you would like to be treated. recognize that if you re stiffing them on the tip you re probably stiffing the entire organization. it might not be the server s fault. always better to speak to the manager. and sometimes you can get a great experience by just saying to your server, it s a special occasion for me, it is my husband s birthday, can you help me make this something special. you re not recommending we lie about that. but having been a waitress, i think that being nice, having being engaged is a great tip. thank you so much for your information. coming up this morning still, secrets of the stars. recipes from one of the hottest restaurants with a touch of hollywood glamour in the new york suburbs. that s right after this. ackage. great. yea, mom you re the best. i thought you would like it. so, how are your classes, are you enjoying them? 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(announcer) yoplait s perfect blend of real fruit and the goodness of dairy. .is just a peel away. explore all 25 delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. this morning in today s holiday kitchen, the bedford post inn. esquire magazine named it one of the top places in the country. it s located about an hour north of new york city. but first let s meet the owners. they just might surprise you. richard gere has been a film star for the past 34 years. carrie lowell, an actress and model. married for the past seven years, their newest co-venture is inn keepers. they own the bedford post inn outside new york city. we live in this neighborhood. this was a building falling apart on the side of the road. we d pass it every day, sometimes three times, four times a day. it was like a train wreck, you couldn t sort of take your eyes from. reporter: they mentioned the property to a friend and he said he d help turn the wreck into a gem. i said absolutely not. and i said, yes. and so here we are. and we ve had three divorces no, we re very happy right now. thank you. reporter: one thing they agree on is how great their chef is, brian lewis. the food is really good obviously. his personality is incredibly open and warm. he just fit with us. they re so passionate about not only food and wine and but hospitality and caring and creating an environment. this just feels wonderful and warm. i m actually better at eating than cooking. i noticed that. i noticed that. you re the tester. it s not hot. put it on the burner. broad shoulders. i can take it. you want it to literally beg for more liquid. give me liquid! i m dying! i m just waiting for the truffle moment myself. i love my pepper. yes. love my wife. i love brian. you re just touching it. vigorously beat it. yeah, chef. more flavor. it just melts in with the same . this is the mediterrane abundance, the earthly taste. brian lewis now joins us. sounds like you have a lot of fun with richard and carrie in the kitchen. too much fun. we really have a great time. we take it very seriously but we have such a great time. lots of laughs. one of the things you re going to be helping us with this morning, you like to make an appetizer with roy sisotto and mushrooms. take next-day risotto. it s actually best second day, cold. add a little egg yolk to bond it. beautiful cheese known for its melting quality. you have some mushrooms. of what sort? black trumpet, torcinni. then just do a basic breading. keep one hand free. otherwise you end up with mittens. that s a trick. just use one hand at a time. then you can use the other hand because you need it. you are going to stick it in a big pot of oil. temperature about 350. olive oil? i like a mixture of olive oil and grape seed oil. a little bit of grape seed oil. more flavor but the grape seed oil keeps it so it can go to a high temperature. the olive oil gives you the flavor. didn t splatter. st a perfect, perfect level to cover. how long? just about three or four minutes. then you get this little item? which is delightful and crispy and perfect. the lovely part of this, they look so crisp and hot and warm. then you can simply take them over to your oven, 225-degree oven, leave them in there for 15 minutes. why? you want to make sure your cocktail s ready for your hors d oeuvre party. very important! speaking of cocktails, who is arriving? oh, carrie s arriving! i thought it was hoda and kathie lee. i heard my name called. margaritas. great to have you here. i understand you dip these now. exactly right? you dip these in some yummy little my favorite. basically glorified mayonnaise, tarragon, parsley and chives or sicilian pistachio iolli, both the sauce and the orange ini come from sicily. how cool for you, getting this nod being one of the top ten in the country. what was your reaction to that? you know, we didn t expect it but we were so delighted. we didn t realize how much weight it carried in the food world. it s been a wonderful recognition and we had a great party that night, as i recall. yes, we did. congratulations to you. brian, thanks so much for showing us how to make this. we ll be right back. but first, this is today on nbc. and now joining us for cocktails, kathie lee and hoda. we have an author who s written an interesting book called the viagra diaries. we also have a woman who dropped 105 pounds without surgery. plus the latest on tiger woods. thank you. our time right now is 9:56. look at thick clouds overhead. 53 degrees. looks like a fall day and feels like one as well. we have the forecast coming up. i m joe krebs. we are following a vebidevelopi story in kensington where a water main break caused serious blooding on gail street between high view avenue and huggins drive. the ten-inch water main broke around 8:00 this morning. not clear how many homes are affected by the break. we will have more coming up on news 4 midday. right now, let s get a check off our weather forecast, chuck bell is in for tom kierein. good morning, everybody. welcome back to your work and school week after a nice holiday weekend. bright sunshine yesterday. in the mid-60s. that is now a thing of the past. here is a check of doppler radar. over the last hour, light to moderate rain showers coming out of the shenandoah valley. down into the district where temperatures sit in the mid-50s. cloudy and mild with the rain showers in and out for most of the afternoon. clears out tonight. sunshine, chilly sunshine comes back tomorrow. jerry? a couple of problems on 95 southbound, two separate accidents between newington and lorton. police are on the scene. elsewhere, prince george s county, right side, the outer loop, left side, inner loop, route 50, moving along very nicely. joe? we will have much more news, weather and traffic coming hi, everybody. it is monday, but it s going to be a great week. the last of november. you are in a chipper mood. i am. remember how kate moss got in trouble for saying nothing tastes as good as skinny feels? she s never had my mother s stuffing. so just so we re clear, this one has not been eating bread for how long? about two months. and you broke your little bread fast. yes, for my mother s stuffing. and how was it? it was unbelievable. what does she put in? i don t know if it s all wrapped up in tradition, but, no, it s that was weird. are you okay? it s just delicious. how was your thanksgiving? it was terrific. we had my brother, his wife, hanna, the cutest baby on earth and my mom and we all squeezed into my little apartment. you managed. we did manage. first of all, the prooked dinner from cinderella was the best theing we ever did. because you worked all day. it was a lot going on, but i got to tell you, that bird was delicious. and the other thing that we did was we went to radio city. and if you haven t gone there during the christmas extravaganza, it it s so worth going. first of all, they have like it s one of the best shows ever. it puts you in the best mood, all those santas, the songs, the rock rockettes. it was great. so tell me about yours. we just had a lot of family. my son s home from school. and, you know, it s just that s what it s all i don t care. my family s together. and that s what it s all about. i thought i had good knews for us about our friend, tyrone. he called on wednesday and said he had a job. tie ron is the guy that we met at the new york city mission who just has fallen on hard times. he had a job offer. i don t know that it s worked out, but hopefully we ll get you an update. if you have a job available for an incredible man in brooklyn area, you contact us here at the today show. yes. but over the holiday weekend, too many people had too much time to get into too much trouble. holiday weekends are tough, they re too long. they are. you guys know all about the tiger news. we don t that s the problem. the headline is i m not perfect. so what happened was thanksgiving night, which bled into friday morning, 2:30 in the morning, he smacked in to a fire hydrant. and that s by his house. and i think the initial story was that his wife came with a putter or some driver and sort of became the jaws of life and smacked in the window and managed to pull him out of the car and he released a statement basically saying his wife was great and helped him and all that kind of afracted courageously. but he was up cnconscious ab six minutes. could not have been going more than 30 miles an hour. here s the trouble. by saying thlittle, it s create such a firestorm. everybody s coming up with their own theories and theories are dangerous things. we want to be very, very careful. but i ve noticed how the headlines have changed. at first it was, oh, my gosh, he s okay. now it s like they don t like being avoided. and there are a lot of reports that have been circulated and up in of thenone confirmed, but a rumor that he had been are having an affair and his wife found out about it. she called gloria allred and said i needed apattorney. if you look at the raw video, they re both kind of standing there and looking around. they ve never met. no, but it was a very public meetinging, we should say, with a gaggle of cameras. yeah, why? i don t know. in today s world, we can t help but being cynical. everything is spin, how it s going to look. and after a minor car accident, you should be able to say, hey, i had a fight with my wife or didn t or was going out to diaperses for the kids. but yyou better be sure you re telling the truth. we ll have dan on a little later and he ll say you don t need to talk to police, but i did a lot of stories on domestic violence and if there is a case of ghdomestic violence and ther are injuries whether the wife or the husband. and even if neither wants any charges filed at all, the police still ca file their own independent charges. are they required to or is it at their own volition? we ll ask dan. i m not 100% on whether they make that choice himself. shall people are speculating that he is staying out of public view so what whatever wounds on his face can be healed so that there won t be any questions about the fact that they were i inflicted by his wife. so dan will be here. there are lots of meanings in tiger woods statement. the is my fault and it s obviously embarrassing to my family and me. i m human and i m not perfect. i will certainly make sure this doesn t happen again. which opens again the pandora s box of so many questions about that are you human about or what are you imperfect about? people can t help but wonder. this map is one of the most famous people in the world. the highest paid athlete in the world. the first billion dollar athlete ever. you would that der abonder about situation. do you think it will affect it? somebody said earlier the people that have problems with the endorsements are the people that are no longer hitting well or golfing well. and it s certainly not going to affect his golf game except for maybe psychologically. so it remains to be seen. in michael vick s case, it was cruelty to dogs that did him in. i don t know. people seem to understand a dust-up with their wife or you know, a lot of people understand adultery and how much pain that causes in a person s life. we re also going to talk to dan, too, about those party crashers at the white house. that was a weird thing over the weend. they got all dolled up. michaele and tareq salahi showed up at the white house, they can t have i didn t have invites and somehow got in. they had month tickno ticket name of what taeble they had ben assigned to. what are they doing? they re happening out with joe biden. there s all kinds of talk that they were in the running for the latest bravo series, this had one call the real housewives of washington o washington, d.c. apparently they got to the white house with a camera crew and makeup artist. first of all, that should have been a red flag. can we please not give them a tv show? larry king was supposed to interview them and now he s not. because they re waiting for the big bucks. aren t we all. if somebody s willing to give me $250,000 for me to talk, i m in. we have to make a phone call. this is everyone has a story, week. let s take a moment to listen to that. nancy hirsch from st. arles wrote in to honor her 19-year-old son. zack forever changed the life of a boy at his school simply by sitting mix to him at a lunch table one day. zack is a senior and young man he sat next to was a freshman. his name is graham jackson. always sitting by himself during lunch. and he just he had compassion for him. and it was a table of like ten and he was always sitting there alone. zack did a kind thing and when you find out what has happened because of the one act of kindness, that graham as as burger s syndrome, which is a form of autism. so it s just a story i can t wait to tell everybody on thursday. so right now we have the mom, nancy, on the phone, right? nancy, are you there? yes, i m here. from st. charles, illinois, congratulations. thank you so much. p. i don t know if it was just that i have a 19-year-old son myself and i thought that s th kind of son i hope i have that would notice somebody sitting there alone and would did the kind thing. there s your son on the left and matt that on the right is graham. and they ve become quite the friends. yes, they re great friends now and it keeps blossoming. and he s become such good friends with so many guys on the baseball team and the basketball team. they had a love of sport mishad common, right? yes, they did. it s an amazing story. it s one of those things that like a timex watch, a gift that keepses on giving sglp a real testament to you, too, just how he raised him. we can t wait to meet you and your son. and ingram oig and his mom will be here, as well. we ve wren a song for you and kate baldwin who is brilliant will acceptising it for us on t. so have a safe trip to new york. thank you so much. i love this week. inlove when we get to ing these people into new york. how are you, miss sarah? it looks like the no bread paid off. jessica wrote in kathie lee is looking great, she deserved her mom s stuffing. and you re off bread again. yeah, not up christmas. you know what, it works. you give yourself an award and you go i can to do that again. it s only six pounds, but on a small six pounds? but you on a small bone person, you know, we all do what we can do. coming up next, we ll have the latest on tiger woods. we ll talk with dan abrams. real big stories creating a bhot lot of buzz. here to discuss the latest in the tiger woods car crash and give us low down on the white house state party crashers is nbc s chief legal analyst dan abrams. you probably didn t even sleep this weekend there was so much going on. so tiger woods crashes his car. he s okay. he says everything s fine. why are the police so interested in had talking to him and getting involved? well, it seens that the police are looking at the possibility of a crime, right? that s the first question. was there a crime. and then the second question is who committed the crime. meaning was it him or was it maybe even her? as you saw from this latest tmz report, they re suggesting that the authorities are looking at her possibly in terms of domestic violence. there are no marks on her. she s a beautiful, beautiful young lady. they would have noticed that when they came for the initial investigation. and no one has claimed that anything happened to her. so the question is why was his windshield smashed? the claim is that she helped me out. here s the problem. if you believe his story, which is i got in my car, i had a little accident, high wimy wife me, then just say it. if that s what happened, we would have lettered that already. but that s n what he s saying. how much trouble is this going to cause him not because he doesn t have to talk to the police. that s right. but this will hang over him forever. and the problem is what he s saying now isn t helping. so you get three appointments with the police, cancel. horrible pr, right? then he issues a statement which is so vague, which is basically saying don t blame her for anything, which is admirable. but he says i m not perfect. he s clearly saying there s more to this story that we haven t talked about before but that i m not going to talk about. let pretend there isn t a gh let s prtend there is a xhes tee charge. do they have to file charges? they don t have to. it if authorities come to the belief, they conclude that she swung at him, let s say, with a golf club, i think that they will file charges. now, this happen as lot. generally it tends to be a woman who is the victim even if they re arguing over alleged adultery? that s a moral defense. i knew that. we could talk about this forever. we have the salahis. is there a crime there? maybe. if you falsify federal record, if you lie to federal agents, et cetera, there are various crimes that could be filed. would they want to make them shall some sort of an example? because this has made us a laughing stock. and i think the authorities will want some revenge. oh, yeah, you think this is fun? you guys had a nice little time making a fool out of snus how about this? how about a reality show from prison. what could the possible crimes be? it s the white house. it s our house, it s not trespassing, is it? for example, lying to federal authorities is a federal crime. by pretendsing that you re invited, is that it depends what they said. it depends what happened there. that s what don t know yet. we don t know by any chance was their name mistakenly on the list, had they been able to get someone to put it down there? but this could not find the invitation. that s no question they weren t invited. these two are a piece of work. they come with a little louie, that s for sure. asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars for their story in. and yet we re talking about them. they got what they wanted. and we ll see whether they get the show. we ll see whether this backfires and hurts them or helps them. what do you think? i think it will help. you do? you look at reality tv, it is car crash tv, right? it is sort of in many cases like the worst of the worst, the most awful people in the world getting celebrated to some degree or publicly insulted. for bad behavior. right, for bad behavior. dan, thank you. happy holidays. thank you so much. all these uplifting topics. al wlis son hanigan talks about being a new mom. we ll be right back. this one time at band camp, we were playing this game. i don t know if you call it, but it s called spin the bottle. and i had to kiss this guy named mark on the lips. and he plays trombone. and then at band camp that is michelle the band camp from the enormously successful show called the american pie movie. she played the very talented by the very talented alilisoyso hannig hannigan. and she s playing her greatest role now, brand new mom. strange segue. but you were masterful. but your baby is eight months? just turned eight months. there she is. and who is the hunk on the left? that s my husband and he s actually taking that photo himself. you re kidding? and where were you there? we were on the beach in santa monica. right after she was born? yeah, that was sort of our first we took her out and we sort of got away from the paparazzi and went to the beach. i m sure your life s changed completely. what s it like juggling and doing everything? it s very busy, but it is the most rewarding thing. everybody tells you, oh, it s the greatest thing in life and you re like, yeah, i m sure it will be, but you have no idea until you experience it. and if it doesn t chaenk your life, you re doing something wrong. absolutely. he looks like he enjoys being the daddy. when you see the american pie clips, i saw you cringe a little bit 37. now that i m a mom, i hope she won t see it. oh, gosh, i will set aside a nice little therapy fund for her for when the kids tease her in high school. you re busy with how i met your mother and you re reaching big milestone. we just shot our 100th episode. are you going be in rerun heaven. yeah, it s amazing. and especially in this day and age, it s so hard for a comedy to reach that 100 mark about. it s always in the writing and then in the acting and you have great writers and obviously a very talented cast. are they fun to work with? we have such a blast. we all get along and we re always pinching ourselves saying this is just too good to be true. how many times have you gone out for a sitcom that didn t happen? all the ingredients look like they ll come together but and you have no control. i know. you tnk you ll be set for the mix five years or something and they ll put your pie will the pilot on the shelf and you re at the beck and call of some studio executive. is everything else going well with you? it s really great. and i m so fortunate because i get to bring my baby to work and they set up a big nursery for us. and everybody oohs and aahs. yes, she s great. so it s hard to juggle, but it s grar great. well, you got pack in shape very quickly. any advice for anybody out there? you know, i just breast feed. thank you for that. thank you for joining us. we areciate that. the viagra diary, one woman s take for looking for love over the age of 6 for. plus the latest inductee in the joy fit club. she dropped more than 100 pounds. but first your local news. a montgomery county road left crumbling after an early morning water break. we will have a report on how long it will take to clean up and repair. also coming up, what tennis player was find a record $82,000 for bad behavior at a grand slam tournament. the fine is not the only punishment. we will have all the details in and we re back on this monday with mower re of today ? is life all about playing bridge once you turn 60? barbara soon discovered life isn t slowing down, it s just beginning. she s the author of the novel the viagra diaries. we have our book agent in common. so good to have you. why so good to be with both of you, and i m 73, i m not 60. tell the real age. a lot of women still lie. and it hurts a little, my tongueets a little dry. but i think you can be authentic and real and we can have real relationships. well, you have written 11 books before, but all of a sudden this little book as taken off. i heard there your daughter that they ve sold the book rights, certain actresses are looks at it like sex in the city for the geriatric set. what make you want to write it? because i really got tired of after 60 suddenly i was treated like i was going to play bingo, i was supposed to go to assisted hifing. out to pasture. out to pasture, that i wasn t, you know, allowed to have sex anymore. don t have a career. you know, just put it all in your diary. let your dreams die. so i created annie applebaum and she s a hottie, she has a career, she wants lover, she wants sex, she wants it all. and she s true to herself. what are some of the issues that she has dating at that age? what things is she dealing with? she s dealing with a lot of men who want to be with 30 year olds, not with 70ear-old annie. shs dealing with a lot of men who cannot face age. she s dealing with her own issues of trying to be a more nest and truer self. and a lot of the men in the viagra generation use viagra like props. and i m not saying there s anything wrong with viagra personally you re fond of viagra. yes, it s like a cure for polio. it s wonderful. but there has to be more intimacy. right. what is sexy? you talk about what s sexy at 60 or 70 or what do you see as, i don t know, something that would make you want to meet a man? well, first of all hello. same reason you want to. but sex is defined sex h. defendantly by different people. i know this will sound corn any, but it really isn t. once you feel good about yourself and you accept yourself, it s an inner thing. i really believe the fountain of youth is inside of us. so once you feel that and then you meet a man who also feels that, that s sexy. but annie applebaum meets one of those guys, a 75-year-old who is emeeotionally unavailable? yes, because annie has this problem and this conflict. i think just because you re 70 doesn t mean you re mature. so annie is working out a lot of her own issues where she was afraid of love and herself and she be attracted to the jerks, you know. he was emotionally unavailable. so there are bad boys who have 75, too. bad boy beeoomers are huge. and there s a whole new group of people with ver near yal diseases now because they have all he s opportunities, shall we put it that way. at the nursing homeses? i won t name names, but, yes, it s a problem. i think after 60 they segregate us and compartmentalize us, which is really too bad. and i say pursue your dreams. follow your dreams. well, it would make a nice little stocking stuffer. and it s coming to a theater it sounds like pretty soon. braarbara, thank you so much. what s coming up next? i don t know. we ll have some great travel getaways, warm, cool weather, we ll take you there after this. now the best winter travel deals. if the stress of the holidayses is already getting you down, it might be time to book a vacation. some are lucky to get out during the wintertime. kate maxwell is the senior editor and there are nice bargains if you want to go to a warm weather place or cold weather? yes, we are seeing incredible bargains. even hotels that traditionally haven t discounted are doing it now. let s go to hmexico. great deals this year. very trepdy. but also good for families. and the western resort and spa has a really good deal right on the speech. you get the fourth night for free. and they ll throw in $200 worth of restaurant and beverage credits. i can t live and eat at my own house for that. are the flights reasonable? pretty reasonable. you re looking at about $400. so not too bad. if you re an expectant mom, there s a special package? they have a baby package there, as well. so there are other places, too. jamaica isne of the other spots? yes. beaches from the people behind sandals. it s their family brand and they have four properties in jamaica. total full on luxury. and it s 50% off at the moment. so that works out at about $165 per person. children under two travel for free. they have all sorts of great kids activities. a water park, an x box 360 game. like heaven. and what about santa fe? a little closer to home. one of our favorite cities. ranked number three in their favorite american cities. and loads of celebrations. a film festival this week and hotels are down about 30% at the moment. there s a place called the inn that you can see there, they have rates for $125 for the first two nights and it ses also their birthday. the third night you get for $24. if you like cold weather and you re thinking about somewhere like colorado, what do you have available there? if you re a skier, then key sto stone, 90 minutes west of denver. stone, 90 minutes west of denver. if yo stone, 90 minutes west of denver.keystone, 90 minutes wes denver. $149 for a one bed condo. and there are three mountains in keystone, so you ll never ski thsame twice. what are the good times to travel? should you go right during the christmas holidays? if you can bear to, you fly on christmas day. that s a good time to go because flights are cheaper. but be as flexible as you can. try and avoid that christmas week from about the 24th to the 31st. and what about a city? this is from star wards, this is a more affordable version. kind of design or yen at a timed, great for younger people. they have a really cool bar. some have swimming pools and gyms and there are 40 around the country now including in new york and chicago. but we really hike dallas. they have a brand new performing arts center will, so amazing buildings. and they also have the knneimans flagship store. what is your favorite place in the entire world? wow. i love going to africa. i ve been lucky enough to go a few times. and where will you be this christmas? i ll be back home in england. well, thank you so much. we appreciate it. up next, the newest member of the joy fit club tells us how she shed 105 pounds. the amazing results right after this. we re back with the joy fit club. she s a 28-year-old executive assistant there new york who lost 105 pounds. her name a stephanie and before we meet her, let s take a look at her story. my name is stephanie. i was not apoverweight baby and child. we loved to play outside, ride our bike, race, jump rope, all the things children do. when when i was 9-year-old rkt my grandma, who was my best fwrend, passed away. i did not know how to handle it and turned to food for comfort. it was at take point that i started my battle with my weight. when i was in my early 20s, i just accepted the fact that i would always struggle with my weight. i was 220 pounds at my wedding. when i was pregnant with my son, i ate for two. and then some. one evening, i was looking at vacation photos. i didn t recognize myself. my so that, steven, was nine months old, yet i looked like i was nine months pregnant. i saw a woman who was sad, quoefr weight, and hopeless. i had an empty smile. it was at that moment that i decided i needed to change my life. not only for my open sake, but for the sake of my son. i stepped on the scale for the first time since the day before he was born and i decided to focus my energy on creating a healthier self, someone my son would be proud to call his mom. okay. before we ask stephanie to come out, we re here with joy who will tell us more about her eating habits before. and so i asked stephanie who by the way went from a size 20 to a thin size two. how did she do it? two? and she said something so smart and profound. i didn t focus on the weight lost. i focused on on changing my bad habits there is to good habits. and she started with wlumpg. i wanted to show you this. she used to eat a bowl of creamed soup and a sandwich. had this is over 1,000 calories. and now what she does is she has some steamed veggies a and one of the portion controlled lean entrees. so this is a third of the calori calories. that adds up quickly. the weight started to come off. now for breakfast she does a high fiber bul of serial with skill him milk and berries. and then to dinner. i thought let s so he what her weight loss likes like in turkeys. 105 pounds. that ain t pretty. here is stephanie s before she lost the turkeys picture. all right. stephanie, let s come see the new you. size two. size two. there she is. wow. oh, yeah. oh, my gosh. now you re showing off. what i liked is you identified why they gained weight. a lot of peoe don t find that thing. you identified it with your grandfather p. did that help you knowing the why? it did help me once i stopped making excuses for myself. like i kind of just accepted that i would always be overweight because i started when i was nine years old and this and that. and then once i identified the exact point and then i accepted it and i just moved forward. look at your son. he is so cute. your mom looks like your sister. oh, look, hi. hi, teach. so at thanksgiving time, did you have some pie, did you fall off the wagon a little bit? there is no off the wagon. thanksgiving was just like every other meal. it was just another meal. did you eat a lot? i ate just like i eat every other meal. some veggies and of course a little bit of candiedyams. and i did have some pie and i didn t feel guilty about it. we were talking about that earlier. even joy confessed to me this morning she had that. so are you exercising, as well? do i do exercise a lot. i have a great trainer. so so beginning to end, how long did it take? about two years. nice and slow and steady. it would actually be hard for her to gain the weight back because, again, she changed her bad habits in to good habits and this is how she lives now. i know people are trying to lose weight, they re where you were at the beginning. what kind of advice do you have? start small. change would be habit and then when you you mass it ter that, you go on to the next one. did you weigh yourself daily. no. how often? once a week. is that a good idea, joy? i think different things work for different people. some people get off on getting on the scale every day and sort of it encourages them. other people get crazy. so for you, once a week worked. for somebody else, just going by their jeans hey work. for somebody else, getting on the scale every day may work. congratulations. you look amazing. i have got my stuffing gut going right now. stop it. if you know somebody who you think should be in the joy fit club, go to the website and read who are about stephanie and how she managed to take all that weight off. and we ll be right back with more of today on nbc. iñ oñiñ for the 16th year now, the toy drive has been delivering toys to families who can t afford to bif gifts. for many it s the only geft they get. we want our viewers to contribute. find out how at our website. but we also have corporate contriburs. sara lee is helping us out this year. thank you for being here. celebrating your 10th anniversary? i am. thank you very much. nobody doesn t love sarah l. this is our fifth year and we re giving away $70,000 of breakfast, lunch and continuer dinner to families that need help feeding their families. it s a really big focus for us. this year alone we gave away 1.8 mill why n million meals through feed america. we re so glad that cow every year. thank you for all that do you. and give our love to sara. plus a sneak peek at the finale of mtv the city. and also barry manilow will be here. you know you you love it. have a wonderful day. you know you you love it. have a wonderful day. we will see you tomorrow. captions paid for by nbc-universal television