Transcripts For WRC Today 20100124 : vimarsana.com

good morning. glimmers of hope. another stunning rescue in haiti. this one happening 11 days after the quake as the government says the search for survivors officially is over. dage control. after a bruising wee president obama calls in the team that helped him win the white house to save victory for fellow democrats this fall. and mr. and mrs. split? reports swirling that hollywood s biggest couple may be having a big change of heart. the latest buzz about brad and angelina. today, sunday, january 24th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on this sunday morning. i m lester holt. and i m jenna wolfe. it s good to be back here with you. you and i spent some time in haiti this week. a very emotional week. it was a tough week. we ll have a lot more on what s happened in haiti as we enter day 12. plus it s a big week for the president as he prepares for his first state of the union address. this week also marks a somber anniversary for a little girl lost. it s been about a thousand days since madeleine mccann, who was three at the time, disappeared from a portuguese villa during a family vacation in may, 2007. since then, her parents, gerry and kate, have made pleas for her return, even finding themselves suspects in her disappearance at one point. coming up we ll get the latest on the investigation and the ongoing efforts to find her. on a lighter note, the winter olympics are just 19 days away and the marquee event is usually ladies figure skating. we all remember sasha cohen, the silver medallist back in 2006. sasha is 25 and last night she took the ice for one more shot at a gold but came up a bit short. coming up we ll tell you about a new generation of skaters taking the ice for the u.s. in vancouver. then we re calling this puppy cam 2.0. remember those adorable shiba inu puppies who took the internet by storm last year? they of course have grown up but about a week ago an equally adorable litter was born giving us a newatch of fur balls to fall in love with. here s a live look at them. obviously it s breakfast in that household. we ll meet them in our next half hour. you see how they all lined up light, dark, light, dark. they know what they re doing. i didn t notice that. anyway, adorable shot. first let s move to politics. democrats took a devastating hit losing last week s massachusetts senate race and their super majority. it has the president bringing in reinforcements to make sure the story doesn t repeat itself in this fall s midterm elections. this, as he prepares for his first state of the union address this week. here with more is david gregory, moderator of meet the press. good morning. good morning. he s bringing in david. who is that. he s a very important adviser. he was a campaign manager during the 2008 successful run for the white house. veteran of capitol hill as well. he is the one who was tasked even when he was outside the white house on hiatus, he wrote a book about the experience of 2008 to really gauge the mood of the country and keep the grassroots operation going that had been started during the campaign. the president was unhappy that the white house and its political team was basically caught off guard by massachusetts. he wants to take ownership of these midterm elections and david will be among those heading that up, organizing with those who are responsible for the national campaigns in the campaign in the party itself, in the dnc itself so he ll play a bigger role. and this represents a white house, obviously, that has reached the end of its first year in office. the president has a state of the union address coming up. how will this state of the union address reflect the reality of what he s seeing within the democratic party? well, i think, lester, we can expect if you go back to friday in ohio, you saw kind of like barack obama the campaigner, not the president. he was fiesty, he was talking about fighting for health care and fighting for jobs. i think pluff coming back on, i think all those things come together. there s a recognition that the electorate is so unsettled and washington is not delivering on the promises of the campaign, the swamp has not been drained and that obama and democrats will pay a price for that unless they can recalibrate. so i think a lot of that messaging comes together in the state of the union. there s been a lot of news reports about ben bernanke, the fed chairman, who s up for a new term. some members of the senate a bit reluctant to reconfirm. steve liesman at cnbc is confirming the votes are there but the fact it s come this close, what does that say about the president s economic policies? again, there s just such a sour mood in the country about not only t economy but also the bailout and the lack of regulation. it s why the president is striking much more of a populous tone, why he s talking about greater regulation. why, frankly, he wants a fight with the banks over bonuses and the risk-taking that they re engaged with. my own reporting indicates bernanke will likely be confirmed as well, although the president is expected to lose ten members of his own party, ten senators, democrats, who are likely to vote against him. david gregory, thank you very much. now here s jenna. thousand to the latest in haiti. it has now been 12 days since the earthquake hit. some 132 people have been pulled alive from the rubble but as time passes those kinds of miracles are becoming increasingly rare and haitian officials have declared an end to rescue efforts. ron allen is in port-au-prince for us this morning. ron, how are you? reporter: i m good, jenna. good morning to you too. yes, the experts say that after 72 hours under the rubble, the chances of survival greatly diminish. now there have been 133 rescues. just yesterday a 25-year-old man pulled from the rubble of a fruit and vegetable market where he was a cashier. emerging officials said in good condition. he was apparently in a space where he could drink soda and beer and eat crackers from the market to sustain himself. he was also able to bang on whatever was around him to alert rescuers to his position. when he was pulled out, he said that there were more people down there alive. that follows a rescue the day before of an 84-year-old woman and another 22-year-old man in different locations. it s a tough decision, but the government here has called an end to search and rescue operations because they want all the limited resources focused on helping survivors. there s still some search teams here but they ll only respond if there s strong evidence somewhere, signs of life. the problem now is that there are some three million people affected by this earthquake. 500,000 living in tent camps where the conditions are deteriorating. there s a real difficult challenge to try and get food, water and shelter for those people. that s what the situation here is now all about. jenna. all right, ron allen in port-au-prince, thank you. now here s lester. many of those who escaped with their lives are now looking for a new beginning and they re finding it by heading out to the countryside. michelle kaczynski joins us with a view of haiti we have not seen. reporter: good morning, lester. you too. since day one this has looked like a capital city moving out. everywhere you look you see people trying to leave whatever they can carry. it s estimated more than 130,000 people have taken the government up on its offer for free transportation away from port-au-prince. we found many on the road north to where they felt they could find the basics of life again and finally feel safe. whatever you can find to cram into in this broken capital, it is a long, hot, dusty road out. they want to get out of the mess, of the smell, of the sleeping outside. you know, they want to go where they cou find strength. reporter: this farmer is headed north, but along the two-hour bus ride, this is the second flat tire, leaving exhausted passengers to wait some more. most of these people, they lost their houses, they lost everything. reporter: the u.n. expects about a million people, at least a third of the capital s population, to take a road aw. and once you make it outside, a whole new world opens up. the countryside, like a cool, fresh flowing stream. here, we find the national anthem. just outside the gate, 100 years old. how many of her extended family from port-au-prince are now living here with her? many. and many in her family died in the quake as well. it s been estimated that some 50,000 people havelready come here to the wide open green spaces. you can definitely see why, and they keep coming patience reads the bus in. a request, perhaps. something everyone seems to be doing their best to hold on to. a goodbye to all they lost to find a new life in the country. the governnt plans to set up tent cities for hundreds of thousands in the outskirts, although some aid organizations are worried about people finding enough resources and medical care in those areas. all right, michelle, thank you. it s nice to see some semblance of a dplirm of hope. it may not be a corner turned but at least it s a little bit of something. people are re-establishing some sense of community even in new locations. time now to get a check of this morning s other headlines. for that we ll turn to peter alexander. good morning to you at home. we begin with a new audio tape released reportedly to be of osama bin laden. on this tape bin laden claims responsibility for the attempted christmas day bombing on that detroit-bound plane. it is the first audio recording of bin laden released since september, 2009. the tape is about a minute long. it was aired today by al jazeera tv. nbc news has not confirmed this to be the voice of osama bin laden. in iran at least 40 people were injured after the back of a ple burst into flames upon landing. 157 passengers were on board at the time. there is still no word on exactly why that fire started. a fuel tanker and a towboat collided in southeast texas, causing a massive oil spill. the coast guard says as many as 450,000 gallons of crude oil may have spilled into the waters off port arthur. so far the damage to local wildlife has been minimal. more than a million pounds of salami is being recalled after fears of salmonella contamination. danielle international is recalling a variety of its pepper-coated salami. that includes the italian brand gourmet packs if you re interested. health officials say nationwide the outbreak has sickened 184 people in 38 states since july. also today, the u.s. women s figure skating team is officially set for next month s olympics after last night s championships. janet in spokane is on the ice with the latest. good morning. reporter: peter, good morning to you. high drama in ladies figure skating last night where 25-year-oldormer olympic silver medallist sasha cohen had hoped to make a comeback and hopes were high after she put on such a spectacular performance on thursday night. but last night it was not to be. she made a lot of mistakes, a flat performance. she ended up coming in fourth. these are the new names to watch in ladies figure skating. rachel flatt, mariah second. both pulled in stunning performances and have earned the two olympic berths to vancouver next month. for her part sasha says she s glad she gave it one more try, but, peter, 25 is senior citizen status in figure skating. only in figure skating. thanks so much. 19 days until the games begin in vancouver. finally is morning, organizers for that all star hope for haiti telethon say the event has raised $57 million and counting. that number will keep growing, they say, as people buy up the cd from friday night s event. the new song stranded that was performed by jay-z, bono and on itunes. if you want to give here s how. you can donate at hopeforhaitinow.org. you can do it for the next six months. you recognize even though the telethon is done, the need will continue for a long time and they hope people don t stop giving now. the weather channel s scott williams is here with a check of the weather. good morning to you. good morning. certainly we have an active weather pattern across the nation as we are focusing on the eastern seaboard, watching some rainfall that will be moving in. flash flood watches posted up and down the eastern seaboard so if you have some some plans, g and a good sunday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. it has turned cloudy during the overnight hours and the rain is not too far away. current temperatures are in the mid- to high 30s across the area. flash flood watch goes into effect late this afternoon. it goes through to the early morning hours tomorrow. there you can see on the radar steadier rain showers moving into western parts of west virginia. expect a cloudy and increasingly wet day today. steady rains here by about the time the sun goes down. and that s a look at the weather happening across the nation. lester. scott, thanks, good to have you here. up nextn today, it s been nearly a thousand days since madeleine mccann disappeared. an update on her family and the efforts to find her right after this. 100% kosher beef hot dogs have no fillers or by-products. no ifs, ands, or butts. hebrew national, we answer to a higher authority. make that first step easier, with the nicoderm cq patch. nicoderm steps you down from nicotine gradually. doubling your chance for success. nicoderm cq. three steps, ten weeks and you re free. this week will mark the thousand day anniversary of the disappearance of little madeleine mccann. since then despite scores of leads, global headlines and possible sightings, maddie remains missing. we re going to talk i a moment with a family spokesperson about where things stand for madeleine s parents, kate and gerry. first more now from nbc s tom aspel. reporter: on may 3rd, 2007, 3-year-old madeleine mccann, a british girl on vacation with her parents in portugal, disappeared. her parents were eating dinner that night with friends in a restaurant 100 yards away. all they found in madeleine s room was an empty bed and an open window. portuguese police launched a massive search but found no trace of her, no clues. with their daughter missing in a foreign land, madeleine s parents could do little but pray for her safety. we d just like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to everybody, but particularly the local community here for their support. reporter: a month later, still no news on madeleine. kate and gerry mccann met with pope benedict in an effort to keep her case in the public eye. his touch and thoughts were more tender than we could have thought and that will help sustain us. reporter: there were scores of leads and theorys but no con crete evidence about madeleine s whereabouts. it got much worse. five months after madeleine s disappearance, portuguese police declared her parents official suspects. scores of reports that madeleine had been recognized in europe and in north africa tantalid the mccanns with hope but no reports proud any evidence madeleine was still alive. it was every parent s worst nightmare. it s the worst thing that ever could have happened in my life. and the pain and the fear are indescribable really. reporter: portuguese police eventally dropped the mccanns as suspects and reduced their investigation. madeleine was declared a missing person. there is no evidence that madeleine is dead and there s no evidence to implicate us in her death. reporter: no evidence then, no evidence today. computer assisted images show the 3-year-old as she might look now, a thousand days after she vanished without a trace. for her parents, the nightmare continues. joining us now is clarence mitchell, spokesperson for madeleine s parents, kate and gerry mccann. clarence, good morning. thanks for being with us today. good morning, jenna. good to be with you. so as we mention ed, this does this week will mark the 1,000 day anniversary of madeleine s disappearance. can you tell us how her parents are holding up? kate and gerry have good and bad days, as you would well expect, given that their daughter is still not home. as you say, nearly a thousand days on. they draw greatest strength when they sse there is momentum in the search and in the wider campaign to keep awareness of madeleine high in the public eye, and so on wednesday to mark a thousand days exactly, they re going to be holding a fund-raising event in london and they ll be surrounded by their long-term friends and supporters, so they will draw great strength from that. but it is very difficult and they do fd any anniversary or occasion like this to be very difficult. we understand that gerry and kate have also hired their own private investigator. can you tell us a little bit about how that investigation is going? has it led to any leads? there are lots of leads. whether they re the significant one that will lead to madeleine is the question. have we found her yet? no, we haven t. it s a very small team currently looking into madeleine s disappearance led by some former british detectives, now acting as private investigators. they re doing a very thorough job of going back overall the evidence, all the portuguese police files that were finally released after a lot of pressure from this end. and they feel that there is useful information still out there to be had. we still need people to come forward. if people go to the findmadeleine.com website, all of the contact e-mails and phone numbers for anyone who thinks they may have seen her or has any information about her should look at that website. that information will go straight to our investigators and they are following it up on a daily basis. they go back to portugal from time to time. they were back there recently. the work is very much ongoing. although madeleine isn t quite in the headlines as much as she was, the search is very much continuing and there are hundreds of cal that are still being checked out. i understand that gerry and kate are attempting to block the sale of a book released by a portuguese policeman who says that madeleine is dead and that her parents are suspects. can you tell us where we are in that civil case right now, as if they need something else to continue to worry about. well, ablutely. that s the last thing they need. this is a book written by a former police officer who was removed from the case after he criticized british polic in the inquiry some two years ag he s written a book in which he makes those allegations. as you say, he claims that he believes madeleine is dead and that kate and gerry know what happened. it is totally untrue. nor has he any evidence to make those wild libellous allegations and that s why kate and gerry have gained an injunction to stop the book from being published. he is appealing that and we re expecting a ruling from a judge in february, mid-february. kate and gerry remain very hopeful the judge will do the right thing and ban the book completely. we don t like to take that sort of legal action, but the allegations this man is making will make people believe madeleine is dead and, therefore, they won t look for her and that will damage the search. clarence mitchell, we thank you forour time. our thoughts continue to be with the mccanns in their search. thank you. we ll be right back. but first these messages. so i know i ll end up exactly where i want to be. turbotax does the same thing for my taxes. its unique gps feature shows me a step-by-step path through my return, and automatically double-checks along the way so i get every deduction i deserve. which helps me know it s done right and find just what i m looking for my maximum refund, guaranteed. announcer: try turbotax now. 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[ male announcer ] the bankamericard power rewards credit card. get started at bank of america. still to come on today, vancouver here i come. i m going to try my hand at figure skating with the help of an olympian. plus our puppy cam. a look at the week-old litter that s taken the internet by storm. first these messages. so, uh, what s this? oh, our 401(k) is through fidelity, so that s my financial track to retirement. it s guidance. when i open a 401(k), do i get one of those? well, maybe not right away. i mean, i have a 401(k), a couple of iras. i m a valued customer. okay, yeah. you get one right away. whatever your destination, fidelity has the people, guidance, and investments to help you find your way. fidelity investments. turn here. water can be good for constipation but drinkingore and more may not always help. new dulcolax balance makes water work harder to help restore balance. new dulcolax balance helps you get back to being yourself. feeling free taking a live look outside, you can see it s pretty hazy, overcast. we are in for a soaking. chuck bell has those details in just a moment. good morning, everyone. i m kimberly suiters. it s sunday, january 24th, 2010. and here s a look at what s making news this morning. first off, the search is on for suspects in the deadly stabbing of this young marine. 20-year-old darius ray was from montgomery county. he was killed after a fight that broke out at a house party in baltimore early saturday morning. ray was based at thearine corps barracks here in d.c. they hope to make an arrest soon. a prince george s county man is arrested for robbing a bank in frederick and now investigators think he s connected to seven other holdups. all eight robberiy ies happened over the last three months in the d.c. metro area. they include robberies in frederick, maryland, and falls church, virginia. they ve arrested earl pegger of clinton. surveillance video of the getaway vehicle helped police i.d. him. after that arrest for the frederick bank robbery, police say he confessed to the seven others. police in montgomery county need your help today identifying an elderly woman who was hit and killed by a car last night in wheaton. they say the woman was trying to cross georgia avenue at shorefield road, just after 6:00 last evening. she was hit by an suv. the victim is described as an elderly white woman about 4 10 . she was wearing a maroon jacket, a white and red-striped vest, a dark blue scarf, purple sweat pants, and black leather shoes. she had a yellow-colored ring on her left-hand that might be a weddinband. if just a mo a good sunday morning, everyone. cloudy skies have moved in while you were sleeping. we are just waiting on the rain to arrive here later on this afternoon. flash flood watches are up from late this afternoon to the early morning hours tomorrow. rain now heading through eastern ohio and central west virginia. will be arriving here in the next couple of hours. breezy and increasingly mild later on today. might even hear a rumble or two of thunder overnight tonight. the rain comes to an end early tomorrow morning. kimberly? coming up at 9:00, the feds step in and shake things up at metro. a live report is just ahead. now back to the today show. and we re back on this sunday morning, january 24th, 2010. our thanks to the fans joining us. it s pretty brisk but a nice day in new york city. outside the plaza i m jenna wolfe along with lester holt. still to come in this half hour, there s a little scuttlebutt about a big hollywood breakup happening. yeah, brad pitt, angelina jolie. a report out of london that relationship may have reached their end. they re not married but have six kids together. the reported details of the split and what each star could walk away with. so is that the end of brangelina? i m sure you ll have to say it in some form or fashion. plus we ll also have the return of puppy cam. take a look at these little puppies, little fur balls. about a year ago we told you about the anonymous california couple who put their six shiba inu puppies on the internet. the brood got 33 million hits. a week ago mama gave birth to a second litter and they already have more than a million fans so we re going to meet the little pups on the web, all cuddly and comfortable and obviously well fed in just a little bit. terrific. today we re going to talk about food courts. we all end up at them at some point or the another. how about making the right choices in the food court. do you get the salad, the pizza. we ll talk about that and get some expert advice on food court etiquette. good information. we have a lot to get to but first another check of the weather with scott williams. good morning, lester and jenna. certainly a lively crowd here this morning on the plaza and we have folks here, love nbc, good morning. also a sweet 16 birthday here. good morning. where are you from? alabama. happy birthday erica. thank you. let s get a check of your weather. very active weather pattern across the country as we re tracking a line of showers and thunderstorms, even a chance for some severe weather as we move into texas and alabama and the florida panhandle. heavy rainfall for the eastern seaboard. flash flood watches have already been posted. the areas outlined in red, that is the best chance for some hail, damaging winds, but watch out for cold temperatures behind that frontal boundary as we move into the middle and latter part of and a good sunday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. we re off to a cloudy start and we re waiting on the rain showers. temperatures are in the mid- to high 30s, so a damp and chilly way to get your sunday started. flash flood watches go into effect late this afternoon and this evening. they go through the overnight hours tonight. the rain showers steadily making their way to the east now, could get rain into the shenandoah valley over the next couple of hours. rain here in the washington area anytime after noon today. the rain will be and also don t forget to go to weather.com 24 hours a day for your latest weather information. now back to you, lester. scott, thanks very much. and now to the latest celebrity bombshell. reports out of london today say that hollywood s biggest couple may be calling it quits. brad pitt and angelina jolie were never married but with six kids and millions of dollars involved, what happens next? nbc s tom aspel is live in london with more. good morning. reporter: good morning. well, two british tabloids and the star website say brad pitt and angelina jolie have agreed to divide their $300 million fortune equally and share joint custody of their six children in a split to be announced soon. the hollywood couple have been consulting a beverly hills divorce lawyer who began the paperwork for an amicable split earlier this month. their joint assets include mansions in france, new orleans and california. celebrity publication like in touch weekly magazine have been ripe with speculation that the 5-year-old relationship is now on the rocks. lester. tom, what are their representatives saying and have there been any spottings of brad and angelina lately? reporter: well, calls for angelina s manager went unreturned. brad was a no-show last night at the s.a.g. awards even though he was nominated. the two have not been photographed together in public for the past cellar days. on friday night brad participated in the hope for haiti fund-raising telethon in los angeles. angelina was not with him. lester. tom, thank you very much. up next here on today, aren t these little guys the cutest? meet the new batch of puppies making the internet a cuter place these days. we ll show you more right after this. when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance travelers. insurance for auto, home and business. wow, that s a low price! wow, that s a low price! how many products do we carry? 7,000. 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[ female announcer ] new moisture wrap body lotion. neutrogena skin care. #1 dermatologist recommended. last year, my little guy got the flu. and it was bad. there s nothing more important than the ones you love, which is why now is the time to protect them and yourself. the h1n1 flu vaccine is available now at cvs/pharmacy and minuteclinic, the walk-in clinic inside select cvs/pharmacies. it s peak flu season, so don t risk it. get vaccinated for h1n1 flu today. to find a location near you, visit cvs.com, or call. in october of 2008 a san francisco couple set up a live webcam so that they could keep an eye on their dog and her newborn puppies while at work. little did they know that puppy cam would explode into an internet sensation, drawing over 33 million viewers. well, about a week ago, kika the shiba inu delivered a new litter of puppies and puppy cam is back. kika and her five puppies join us along with the two that starred it all. good morning to both of you. good morning. thanks for being with us and getting up. this is the second litter of puppies. you re calling this litter the b team. can you tell us why? that s right, because the first litter, all their names started with a, so they re the a team and the family is calling the second litter the b team and they have just been named last night with names that all start with b. that s great. so we ve mentioned this, 33 million hits and viewers the first time she gave birth. now there s been over a million hits already. how do you explain people s addiction to puppy cam? well, i think the biggest thinis that they re cute. how is it hard how is it not hard to love these cute puppies as they re nursing from their mother, as they re playing, so take time out of your day or go and check out the puppies and enjoy them. well, i have to read this like three or four times. if you add up all the visits to puppy cam, people have spent over 1,000 years watching the puppies. how do people have so much time to watch and do you even believe that? can you believe that? yeah, it s a staggering number to think that if you add up all the viewing time, it s over a millennium of human viewing. i mean we attribute just to the fact that the puppies are absolutely adorable and we ve heard from a lot of people that it s addicting. you just watch puppy cam and then they start making noises and wrestling and the next thing you know you ve spent like hours watching puppy cam. so i understand the original litter have all been adopted. what about these guys? are these guys all spoken for? we don t believe they re spoken for yet. and you re correct, the original litter was all adopted. they all found great homes. but this litter, we ll see. they haven t been adopted yet and we ll see who s lucky enough to get them. can you tell us how people can adopt them if they would like to? sure. so on the you stream channel page, there s a way as a viewer for you to communicate with the san francisco couple, and i ve seen millions of people enter in there that they d love to adopt one of these adorable puppies, so that s your best shot at communicating with the san francisco couple. oh, look who came back to visit. mama said hey, guess what, i think jenna is wrapping up. i just want to get one last shot in there. camera hog. brad and john, we thank you so much and thanks, obviously, to all the little puppies there. they re absolutely adorable and let s hope and pray they all get nice, safe, fun homes. we are back right after these messages. to pay a bill online. 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certainly the state department is saying don t travel until mid-march and a lot of airlines have cancelled their flights. but this is a cruise line and a couple of them have haiti on their itineraries. tourism dollars are very powerful according to some of these travel companies. after 9/11 we saw a big push for tourism in new york, after katrina we saw it in new orleans. so the idea is tourism dollars spent on this part of the island not touched by this earthquake will definitely help relief efforts there. royal caribbean is donating 100% of the profits from people vacationing there to the relief efforts and donating a million dollars and there s a lot of money invested in the infrastructure in this part of the island. but it is a personal choice if vacationing there or right next door in the dominican republic. these are areas that are still needy of that tourism dollar despite some of the efforts going on there. let s talk about these top five picks you ve come with this morning. one of them we talked a lot about las ves in 2009 as obviously the economic slump was hitting it. will that continue and how will that pay off for travelers. certainly i think it will continue in 2010. just a few weeks ago they launched a center city adding 5,000 hote rooms for a city already seeing huge availability. so that means prices will continue to stay extremely competitive. we re seeing four star resorts around $50 a night. the trump five-star resort $99 a night. with it a $50 credit and twoor one cirque du soleil tickets so prices are dramatically low. the bonuses and extras are there for the consumer to take advantage of. i think this pricing will continue to be this low for much of 2010. we mentioned cruise lines but overall how does the cruise picture look? in the caribbean front the availability is huge. there were a lot of new ships last year and they would rather sail with cabins at dratically reduced rates rather than empty. so $25 to $50 a day. great prices out of south florida, obviously, but even out of ports like new york or galveston, some great deals can be found. people often think of mexico. they don t think as much about central america. what should they know? i think people will find the dollar is still strong in central america. countries like belize, they ll gladly take the u.s. dollar. costa rica obviously a hub of eco-friendly tourism. great, natural places to visit and of course some of these cities have become great thrivicenters as well. south africa, one of the most fat fascinating places i ve traveled. i think this year we ll see package deals at prices we ve never seen before. 2010, according to the south african president, could be the biggest opportunity for south africa ever thanks to the fifa world cup in june and july. you won t find any travel deals then. but through may and right after july, some amazing packages, under $2500 for air out of new york, week-long stays in luxury resorts. wineland tours. so major values in south africa. before we go, i want to mention china. china, which saw a huge investment for the 08 olympics has yet to see some of that money come back. we re seeing some fantastic deals. five-star hotels at well under $100 a night. with the world expo in shanghai, it could be another opportunity for the spotlight to be shed on china and the deals to abound. gabe, thanks very much. niece to have you here. now here s jenna. all right, lester, thanks. with shopping, browsing and buying, the mall has a way o working up a person s appetite. that s when you hit the food court. more often than not it doesn t always give you the healthiest choesz. so we hit the mall to see what shoppers were eating up. greasy grilled chicken and greasy brown rice. with ham, pineapple and cheese. if you remove the bread, ham and cheese, it s probably all right. french fries and coke, it s really unhealthy. healthy? nothing is healthy. when you walk in here, everything looks delicious. you always have to eat and shop too. you can t do one without the other. you work up an appetite, you really do. it s a lot of work. i love the guy that said everything looks delicious here. here to make over our favorite foot court temptations is katherine brooking, contributor to cooking light magazine. thanks for being with us. thank you. we hit the mall, go to the food court action we re so tempted by all of this food. what are we doing wrong here? there s a lot of pitfas with fast food so there s a few tips i ll start with. you want to fuel up first. if you leave, grab some oatmeal, some orange juice, have a substantial breakfast before you go. this way you won t be as inclined for all those temptations out there. we have a couple of other drips. watch what you drink, don t supersize it. you can supersize for very little money. exactly. turn it down. you re getting more forour money but you re getting more calories, so skip it. we have three makeovers i want to talk about. meal makeovers. the first is chinese food. let s see what danielle ordered. i think the most unhealthy would be chineseecause it s always sitting there with the oil and it s just bad for you. i ordered the fried rice, sesame chicken and barbecued ribs. it s obvious what s wrong with chinese food. what is the better option when it comes to that? we have actually a great option. a few things to keep in mind. you want to get the steamed vegetables. the most important thing is to get the sauce on the side because that s where you find the added calories and you get very high sodium. so steamed vegetables, some grilled chicken for protein and a little brown rice is actually a healthy meal. let s move over to a burger and fries. this is carolina. let s see what she ordered. a double whopper with cheese, french fries and a coke. i usually don t eat burgers so today the options were very i didn t feel li italian or chinese so i got a burger. at least she knew she was doing something wrong. what is a better option. carolina could have done a lot better at burger king. a lot of the fast food changes have been really trying to make healthier options. this is burger king s grilled chicken sandwich. comes in at about 380 calories, which is really not bad. we did a side salad actually the whole meal is 380 calories. hold the mayo and save 80 calories right there. you say if you want a healthy choice, maybe grab a slice of pizza because it s easy and you can find a way to make it healthy. this is a pizza hut pizza. 180 calories a slice, which isn t bad. what you wt to do is avoid those meat toppings, hh in saturated fat. get the veggie toppings and no more than two slices, please. right. i can devour this entire pizza. what about taco bell? is there anything healthy there? it is surprising. these are steak tacos. 160 calories each. so here s a good tip. if you just want one for a snack, 160 calories. it s not bad. you can have two for a full meal. i want to get to subway right now because subway seems like they market themselves for healthy. they do and they have a whole range of sandwiches that are moderate in calories and saturated fat. this is the roast beef sandwich so it comes in at just over 300 calories. we loaded it with veggies, no cheese, sauce on the size. we got with it some apples to go. apples is a really good snack as part of your meal. at subway we can get sandwiches as well as a drink and they re marketing a little healthier as well. starbucks, if you just want a drink, a skinny latte at 90 calories is not bad. katherine, thank you so much for your time. up next figure skating 101. you ve got to see it to believe it. first these messages. about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what s complicated? shipping. shipping s complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service shipping s easy. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that s not complicated. no. come on. how about. a handshake. alright. (announcer) priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. to get more of the fiber you need every day, try fiberchoice. with the natural fiber found in fruits and vegetables and 33% more fiber per serving than benefiber. berchoice, the smart choice for the most fiber. - for the better. - we ll close your loan at your own house if you want. you don t have to come to us. we ll come to you. - that s what we re all about. - and that s why i love. - i love. - i love being a home loan expert. back now to the graceful beauty of figure skating. dorothy hamill, michelle kwan, and me? with the help of another olympian i recently stepped onto the cold, hard ice for a lesson in elegance. beautifully delivered. it s hard enough to go through life on sturdy ground, much less a sheet of ice. and yet for some, this frosty surface is where some of the most beautiful moves take place. and what better way to glide right in than to take an ice skating boot camp class. three words, sign me up. push only with your inside edges and your outside edge. no toe kick. for the last 20 years the rink at rockefeller center has been home to this workout class on ice taught by two-time olympian and bronze medallist jojo. it s called jojo s cool workout class. it s for adults that have always had a fantasy of learning how to skate or getting back on the ice after not being on for maybe 20 years: it s really like a fantasy camp. that s a wrap. great job, you guys. anyone of any age can do this and learn and have fun and feel artistic andeel athletic. okay. i d be happy with just one of those things. and because sometimes i like to be led by example, i took notes. can you do that to me? i ll try, i ll try. what do i do, just get down like this? oh, this is brilliant. okay, maybe some professional help would be better. when this doubt, stick it out. if you think you re losing it, stick out your bum and put your hands out here. when in doubt, stick it out. you can remember that. i will apply that to every problem or anything i have in life. upper body keep it there, don t go back and forth. got it. the minute you walk through the door, hey big spender lunch? is it lunchtime? after about an hour of slipping, skating and spinning, i finally found my legs. yes! look at her go. can i take a bow? you deserve a bow. look at them clapping for me. i m still no peggy fleming, but at least i stayed upright. i get so emotional after those pieces there like i m tearing up. we want to thank jojo. if you want to give the boot camp a shot check out our website at jojostarbuck.com. it was a lot of fun. of course i froze my little butt f but it was good. you had it stuck out there and it s too bad they picked those two spots for the olympic team. let s get a check on what s coming up on meet the press. david gregory joins us. good morning, lester. coming up a stunning political upset in massachusetts and now health care reform on the chopping block. with the state of the union on the horizon, what will the president do now? we have our exclusive guest, senior white house adviser valerie jarrett. then mitch mcconnell weighs in on what the victory means for his party as well. it s all this morning on meet the press. david, thanks very much. that s going to do it for us on a sunday morning. thanks for being here action everyone. we ll see you on nightly news tonight. bye-bye. another shake up. the federal goverent gets ready to boost its oversight of metro. the major changes in the works today. a live report just ahead. out from the rubble. dramatic new video of an earthquake survivor crawling to safety. will the country also pull itself out of the wreckage. how the hatian government is readying for a recovery. and a sunday soaking. chuck says we re in for some rain today, lots of rain. he ll tell you if flooding is in the forecast too. good morning, everyone. i m kimberly suiters. welcome to news 4 today at 9:00. it s sunday, january 24th, 2010.