Transcripts For WRC Today 20100129 : vimarsana.com

good morning. miserable mix. winter storm warnings posted from new mexico to the carolinas as a strong system packing a dangerous combination of snow, ice and freezing rain heads east just in time for the weekend. change of venue? after getting an earful from angry residents and local politicians, the justice department is said to be considering moving the trial of september 11th terror suspects out of new york city, but where? and remembering j.d. salinger, one of america s most influential writers, the author of the classic the catcher in the rye, dead at the age of 91. his extraordinary works and unusual life today, friday, january 29th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a friday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. it s really winter again here, right? with a vengeance, no question. very cold. the thermometer says 17 degrees, but factor in the wind and it feels like 2. we can t complain. things are much worse down south, where the big storm has already made a big mess of things in places like oklahoma and parts of texas. it dumped more than a foot of snow in some spots with more on the way, but the bigger concern has been the ice. so, where is this system headed? we re going to get a live report in al s forecast, coming up in just a couple minutes. also ahead, the latest in the search for clues in the death of morgan harrington. the college student vanished mysteriously during a concert last october, and her remains were found this week in a virginia field. this morning, morgan s parents speak out in an exclusive live interview. it s a terrible story. also, how about this one? plus, one in four homeowners in this country now owes more on their home than the home is worth, and a growing number in that situation are walking away from their mortgages. it s a decision that has a huge impact on the value of every home in a neighborhood. coming up, what to consider before you walk away and what it means for you if your neighbor decides to do it. we ll tell you more about that. but let s begin with the brutal winter storm that is slowly making its waycross the country. nbc janet shamlian s in oklahoma city. janet, good morning to you. reporter: matt, good morning. you know, they re bracing for the second wave out here. the streets are already sheets of ice. and now they re about to be buried in snow, as much as a foot of it in some places. all of this is making driving very hazardous. and while they didn t close the airport yesterday, they might as well have, because virtually hundreds of flights were canceled and they re starting to cancel flights again this morning. yesterday at onepoint, 50 miles of interstate 44, which is a major artery here in oklahoma, was closed because power lines were down on that interstate. and some 100,000 people are without power this morning. the utility says it will be next week until power is restored for some of them. all the schools are closed here. most businesses didn t even bother to open yesterday. you could walk downtown oklahoma city and not see anyone. it was literally a ghost town. and this is all going to continue today. we re expecting winter storm warnings to stay throughout the day here at oklahoma, but finally some relief for the sooner state tonight. the storm is going to slowly move into tennessee and then, matt, it is going to push into the carolinas just in time for the weekend. a bad situation here. matt, back to you. all right. janet shamlian, thank you very much. janet, we appreciate it. and al roker s upstairs with more on this storm. hey, al, good morning. meredith, matt, thanks a lot. take a look at this. at least 20 states have winter weather advisories, warnings or watches. on the radar, there is a potent storm getting together right now. still in texas. the eas of pink is mixed precipitation. the areas of white, snow, obviously. and from yellow to green, heavier rain. here s the storm, starting at 7:00 a.m., works its way into the south. as we move on through the day, you can see the area of pink, mixed precipitation and snow, spreading by saturday morning into the mid-atlantic states, as far north as southern new jersey. snowfall amounts are going to equal anywhere from a half a foot to almost a foot of snow stretching from the mid-atlantic states. icy conditions. we re talking about anywhere from a half an inch to an inch of ice throughout much of tennessee. and we re expecting, again, another one to two inches of snow as far west as oklahoma and texas. but generally speaking, as we get from tennessee, kentucky on into the carolinas and virginia, we re talking about half a foot to, some places, as much as a foot of snow. this is going to really cripple the mid-atlantic states right on into the weekend. matt? all right, al. we ll check with you for your local forecast in a couple of minutes. let s turn now, though, to politics. in his state of the union address, president obama said he wants to change the tone between democrats and republicans in washington. today he ll extend an olive branch by attending a house republican retreat in baltimore. david gregory, of course, is moderator of meet the press. david, good morning to you. good morning, matt. what s going to be colder, the weather here in new york or that temperature in that room in baltimore? i think it s going to be close. it s going to be close. you know, a lot of republicans were not that impressed with the president s speech. they felt that it was partisan, that it was really sharp-edged, and there were a lot of sharp edges in that speech, but the president will show up. he s talked about monthly meetings with republican as well as democratic leadership. and he s going to have some tax cut ideas that republicans will actually like. we ll see where it goes from there, though. you talk about that speech. i thought it was interesting to listen to the pundits weighing in after the speech. some said it was either the most conservative speech the president s ever given, others said it was incredibly partisan. does that tell us more about the speech or the room that it was delivered in? oh, i think it s both, but i think, without a doubt, the president had different messages for different groups. he was trying to speak to his own democratic base. he was trying to speak to even moderate democrats, independent voters who are frustrated with government. but he did want to do two things to the right. on one hand, he said look, i want to look for pragmatic ways to work together. i m not going to try to shove health care down your throat, but i am going to blame you if you stand on the sidelines and require that it takes 60 votes in the senate to get nippianyth. you re going to have to be accountable for what goes on or doesn t get down in washington. he s playing the outsider. he says he wants a jobs bill sooner rather than later. how tough a battle, how tough will the fight be over the content of that bill? well, i don t think it will have to be that big. the house has passed the bill, they have to work on elements of that. the senate can take it up as well. there seems to be bipartisan support for the tax credits for businesses, particularly small businesses to start hiring again. that s what they want. they re looking for tangible benefit, something washington can do to try to tackle a 10% unemployment rate. couple quick things, david. a story that s important to people here in new york, the terror trials that are upcoming, supposedly in lower manhattan, for people like khalid shaikh mohammed. there s been a lot of outcry from local politicians and local residents saying it s going to cost too much, it s going to damage business, and it s going to make this area a terror target again. the local newspapers now say that bam blinks! both of them say that. so, where s this going? well, remember, this is the decision of the attorney general, eric holder, who decided to have the ksm trial in lower manhattan. our own pete williams has reported that there is so consternation now, some rethinking of that within the justice department. i can tell you from my reporting, westbouithin the administration more broadly, this is an issue that has created a bit of a wedge. the president, i know, is committed to a civilian trial for khalid shaikh mohammed, but there appears to be back-tracking from the idea of having it in new york from a security perspective and also resource perspective in terms of how many fbi agents, for instance, would have to be dedicated to that effort. finay, secretary of state hillary clinton gave an interview to tavis smiley and was asked if he could picture herself sticking around in that position for eight possible years. here s what she said, david. that would be very chlenging, but you know, i don t want to make any predictions sitting here. i m honored to serve. i serve at the pleasure of the president, but it s a 24/7 job, and i think at some point, i will be very happy to pass it on to someone else. eight years. that s an understatement. it would be very challenging. what s the future of secretary of state hillary clinton, thou, david? you know, it s difficult to see a secretary of state staying that long, but there s a lot on her plate right now. i remember asking a similar question to defense secretary gates, who said, well, it would be difficult to see staying much longer, and of course, he s staying on. so, i think as long as there is such pressing challenges, she ll be there for the president, but eight years is a long time. david gregory, who do you have sunday? among our guests, john boehner, the minority leader of the house, who will talk about that presidential reception at that retreat today. david, thanks very much. thanks, matt. appreciate it. now let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories. ann curry at the news desk. happy friday to all of you this morning. we begin with the increasing debate over whether the upcoming 9/11 terrorism trial should be held in new york city, near ground zero, as the white house has been suggesting. mayor bloomberg opposes the idea, and that has the justice department looking at contingency plans. nbc correspondent pete williams is in washington with more. describe the pressure to move this trial. reporter: well, in fact, i think the plan to put these highest profile 9/11 defendants on trial in manhattan is all but dead this morning. this development comes after a growing number of city officials and members of congress called for holding the trial somewhere else for khalid shaikh mohammed, accused of being the 9/11 attack mastermind, and four others said to have helped him. mayor bloomberg of new york, who at first approved holding the trials there, reversed course this week, citing huge security costs and urging attorney general holder in a phone call thursday to start looking for other possible trial venues. and justice officials say, in fact, they have already started doing that. one possibility is somewhere else outside the city in new york s southern judicial district, where a grand jury has been meeting for months to prepare the charges, ann. all right, pete williams. pete, thanks. revealing comments today from formerritish prime minister tony blair, as he was being grilled by an inquiry board looking into his decision to support the u.s.-led invasion of iraq. blair told the panel the calculus of risk posed by saddam hussein changed dramatically after the 9/11 attacks. he said that after 9/11, the world could no longer afford to risk that saddam could reconstitute illegal weapons programs. congress now plans to hold hearings next month on the safety recalls by toyota and just how quickly the carmaker responded to its gas pedal problems. toyota has recalled about 8 million vehicles over faulty gas pedals and millions more because of problems with floor mats. well, japanese officials are demanding the company restore consumer confidence. shares, meantime, of toyota s stock are down sharply this week. president obama is welcoming the senate vote on thursday that gave ben bernanke a second term as fed chairman. he won confirmation on a vote of 70-30. perhaps, however, it should be noted that that is the most no votes any fed cirman has ever received. it is now 7:11. let s now go back to matt, meredith and al. all right, ann. thank you very much. bad, bad, bad weather. i thought you were talking about me. bad weatherman! bad, bad, bad weatherman! well, it could refer to you, but today it doesn t. unless you have something to do with this. ye, okay. let s see what s happening. you look at these temperatures, these are air temperatures. 21 below international falls, 5 chicago, detroit 9. factor in the windchill, it feels worse, as if you need to know that. 8 below in buffalo, 8 below in des moines. temperatures today will only get up into the single digits in parts of minnesota. detroit 16, 18 in boston. and those afternoon temperatures, youan see that cold air funnels all the way down into oklahoma and parts of northern texas. it s only really moderate in southern florida rightnow, and in fact, temperatures are 25 to 30 degrees below normal from overnight we dove into the deep freeze. temperatures now into the teens, windchills in the single digits. highs today only near freezing and the winds will diminishhis afternoon under a partly cloudy sky. highs only in the mid 20s, sun back on sunday and monday. snow amounts between 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., two that s your latest weather. matt. all right, al, thank you very much. it has been a controversy for years is there a link between autism and a common childhood vaccine? now one medical gup has declared that dr. andrew wakefield, the doctor who first raised that possibility, carried out his research in an unethical and irresponsible manner, a finding he flatly denies. dr. andrew kefield s 1998 study suggesting the possibility of a link between autism and the mmr vaccine gave many parents around the world a reason to stop vaccinatg, and parents of children with autism a possible answer to the devastating question of why. they took their children to be vaccinated, and then something happened. their children fell apart. reporter: but in the years following his publication in the lancet, no large-scale study could reproduce exactly what dr. wakefield s small study found, and to investigative reporter brian deird, that raised more questions than answers. he was not an independent researcher. reporter: he learned that wakefield was working as a paid man in a lawsuit brought by parents who fear their children were infected by the vaccine. he was working for them two years before publishing this report. reporter: no disputing that? no disputing that. reporter: deer says it was a conflict of interest that should have been disclosed in the story but never was. in an exclusive interview this summer, dr. wakefield admitted he was paid to conduct research on behalf of the plaintiffs, but said it was for a later study, one that never got published. you ll look at me in the eye and say that at the time you were doing your research, you were guilty of no conflict of interest whatsoever in either the research or the dealing with those children you studied? no, not at all, and had i been, it would have been disclosed. reporter: because of deer s reports, the general medical council, which licenses physicians in the uk, began investigating dr. wakefield, including looking at the unusual way he got children s blood samples for his research. we needed some controlled blood from children who are entirely normal, so i asked my children and my wife said we have a birthday coming up, we have some medical friends, why don t we ask if they d let their children do it, too. so seven or eight children did . i don t know why that sounds funny, but it does. a birthday party were they paid for the samples? they were rewared. how? at the end of the party, necessary were given five pounds, at the time i guess about eight why isn t that paying them? well, it s not saying up front by coercing them, you do this, we re going to give you money. it s saying at the end of it, here s a reward for helping. it s a different thing in ethical terms. reporter: the british medical council disagreed. now, 2 1/2 years after they began their inquiry, found that wakefield s actions were unethical and that he had acted dishonestly and irresponsibly. still, wakefield s supporters are standing firm. and dr. wakefield vows to press on. the allegations against me and against my colleagues are both unfounded and unjust. the science will continue in earnest. the general medical council will decide over the summer if they will strip dr. wakefield of his license to practice. in the meantime, he continues his work here in the united states as the director of research for an autism treatment center in texas. it s 16 after the hour. once again, here s meredith. matt, thank you. we have seen so many heartbreaking images out of quake-ravaged haiti, the destruction, the deaths, the desperation, but now a different image, the incredible resilience of the nation s children in the face of disaster. nbc s michelle kosinski is in port-au-prince for us. michelle, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith. i want to show you something behind the scenes, something you don t usually see. every morning, these children come out here to help us with our work, and you know, a lot of times, we hear the word hopelessness about this place, but we tend to see just the opposite. they re the ones who tell us a cheerful good morning every day. people here have this graceful, polite ingenuity and spirit, even in the worst imaginable situations and even among the youngest. for hours in the afternoon, it didn t matter that 6-year-old rishele now lives in a sprawling tent city. a scrap of cardboard, two pens and he has batman. a bottle, a stick, some bits of wood, a plastic bag and imagination is what soars above disaster-weary streets. where there is music, they are the ones who dance. smiles here shine brighter than all the bandages and big takes care of little. mom can t help but join in. she says we have pain in our hearts, but they just play. like alexaun, who lost his mother in the earthquake, or this mischief-ready 4-year-old who can turn empty milk bottles into toy trucks. 10-year-old gaelle says it s not hard to be happy because she is smart. haiti, a country of misery, but has lots of hopes. i m always impressed by children and their capacity to create happiness for themselves in the most dire situations. reporter: just outside jonelle s tent town, he made a good friend. he says they think about what happened a lot, but they re kids and have to play. you know, by looking at the kids. reporter: just look at 5-year-old manly, who spent five days buried beneath his home and was the ly survivor. two days ago, he smiled for the first time since. a new toy brings it back. yes, things can be heavy right now, but this is a place where a spontaneous soccer game can break out between piles of rubble, where an old hanger and a piece of ventilation duct quickly transformed into motion. 10-year-old delverson tells us he is sad, but the expert kite-maker spends his time running towa any chance for fun. because, he explains, it s important. the kids here are the ones who tend to cheer us up and cheer everybody up. and we talked to the child psychiatrist who s working with some of them here, and she says, you know, a kid doesn t care if his kite is made out of a black trash bag he found somewhere, they re the ones who want things to return to normal, and they start to do that by playing and cheering one another up. meredith? some of the kids are kids no matter what. that s a beautiful story, michelle kosinski. thank you so much. and coming up tonight on nbc nightly news with brian williams, an in-depth look at the adoption issue in post-earthquake haiti, including what american families can do. and now to the death of reclusive author j.d. salinger, one of the most influential american writers of all time. he died at his new hampshire home on wednesday, leaving behind a horde of unpublished works. if you really want to hear about j.d. salinger, the first thing you ll probably need to know is he was an intensely private man who died at his home in new hampshire at the age of 91. his full name was jerome david salinger. and while he wrote a few collections of short stories, he was best known for his only novel, the catcher in the rye. released in 1951, salinger s book still resonates with readers today. i think i read it in sixth grade and then reread it every year until i was 20. it s jus the first thing i ever read that felt honest. sometimes i feel like the catcher in the rye reporter: the catcher in the rye is a symbol of youth, rebellion and the societal contradictions of american life. i took it in a bag to a coffee mat in the middle of the night and printed up 110 copies. even the cover looked like the catcher in the rye. what you reading? the catcher in the rye. i m named after it. whose the catcher in the rye is this? let s see now. if it has my name on it, then i guess it s mine. at times controversial, the colt of catcher turned murderous in 1980 when chapman kled john lennon and blamed the book. salinger was married three times and is survived by two children. he said he always knew he wanted to be a writer. reporter: a notable chapter in his life was an affair with joyce maynard, who after exchanging letters and phone calls with the author dropped out of college at the age of 18 to live with the then 53-year-old. i had felt alienated and outside of normal life in many ways for all of my 18 years, and here was this person who said me too, come with me, we re alike. always a top seller, in his memory, the catcher in the rye is moving up sales charts today. i think it appeals to everyone. readers taking comfort in the novel s antihero, holden caufield, whose take on death is classic salinger. boy, when you re dead, they really fix you up. i hope the hell when i do die, somebody has the sense enough to dump me in a river or something, anything except sticking me in a cemetery. people coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on sunday and all that crap. who wants flowers when you re dead? nobody. we were just saying how we all have our original copies for when we read it. at home. i read a lot of books as a kid, but mostly sports books, and when i read that book, i felt proud that i had read a real book. a real book. a real one. you haven t done that since, have you? no. i ve read that same book over and over again. now it s on tape. and it weird to see your children, yours will be reading it soon. mine have read it. yeah. it s a real los still ahead, the search for a likely killer after college student morgan harrington was und dead more than three months after her disappearance. we ll talk to her parents. 7:26 is and your time now is january 29, 2010. in the news for today, for the first time the fairf search and rescue team are waking up in their very own homes. family and friends greeted the team last night. they feel they are happy to be back but they feel sadness having to leaf those people who no longer have homes. good morning, a frigid start to this friday. temperatures in the teens to near 20. winds will diminish later on today as highs reach just near freezing and partly cloudy. snow likely tomorrow with highs in the mid 20s. snow returns sumpbtd into monday. and now, jerry, how s the traffic. topside of the beltdway, a brief delay between university boulard and georgia avenue. travel lanes are open. let s head over to virginia, los angeles 95 northbound, notice the space between the vehicles, not much to worry about. travel lanes from fredericksberg all the way to the belt way are open. tonight on news4 at 5:00 p.m., blind dates 7:30 now on this friday morning, january 29th, 2010. you re looking at the gorgeous view from the top of the rock on a bitter cold day here in new york. al says we ll only reach the 20s today. we re going to send him outside to warm up everyone on the plaza in just a bit. i like the way you said that, we ll send him outside. good. i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer. and just ahead, jay leno opens up to oprah about the late-night situation here at nbc. whether he s talked to conan o brien and why he says he s not the bad guy that some are portraying him to be. we re going to hear what he had to say. also ahead, would you ever consider abandoning your home? more homeowners now are under water when it comes to their mortgages. they re simply walking away. coming up, what you need to consider before you take that dramatic action. plus, we have heard how difficult medical training is, the eight-hour workweek, no sleep, high stress. well, this morning, an inside look at what it is really like. but we begin with the latest in the search for clues into the death of college student morgan harrington, whose body was found this week, three months after her mysterious disappearance. her parents speak out in an exclusive live interview in just a moment, but first, nbc s ron mott has the latest. reporter: virginia tech student morgan harrington, young, brimming with hope and enthusiasm, was last spotted alive on this bridge, a bridge her parents dan and jill say helps connect them to the painful reality of losing their daughter. we were hoping we would find morgan alive, but at least we now have some peace and we re able to have some closure today. reporter: morgan harrington s final journey started october 17th, on the university of virginia campus at a rock concert for one of her favorite bands, metallica. for unexplained reasons, she wound up outside the arena during the show without her ticket stub or car keys and couldn t get back in. she called friends inside, said she d find her own way home. later, someone matching morgan s description was spotted on the bridge possibly hitch-hiking, police suspect. months of anxious vigils passed with morgan s parents confident she would never run away. morgan s last words to me were two, four, one, mama. i love you too much, forever, one more time. reporter: tuesday, fading hope gave way to tears of grief after morgan s skeletal remains were found by a farmer seven miles away from that bridge in this remote hay field with no public access. so, i was checking the fences, and i thought i saw a dead deer, and i stopped, and it was a human skull, and that s when i called 911. and i will tell you, having seen that girl even had some lovely bones. reporter: police say morgan was probably murdered. whatever we discover from this time forward, we must be very careful, because we have perpetrator or perpetrators at large that we certainly intend to catch and to prosecute. reporter: harrington s disappearance and death unnerved friends and fellow college students, many of whom have gone online to her facebook page, which has attracted more than 33,000 followers, as police now follow new leads in search of a likely killer on the loose. for today, ron mott, nbc news. morgan harrington s parents, dan and jill harrington, are with us now. good morning to you both. good morning. good morning, meredith. first may i say how sorry i am for your loss. people were praying, obviously, for a very different outcome, bu both of you have said that, at least in finding your daughter, there is some sense of closure now and some sense of peace. yes. how are you holding up, dan? i think this has been a horrific three months, and as i said on tuesday, this is not the end that we wanted, but closure s really important. there is some peace, which i think we have at this point. we re ver sad, and obviously, you know, we would like our daughter to be alive, but closure s important. it has been like a wound, a huge wound, but until this point, it has been a festering wound that could not heal. you know, we still have healing to do, but it s possible, because having recovered our daughter s body gives us peace. i know no one is hurting her now, that she is beyond pain. you know, at the press conference, jill, you said something that was almost haunting to me. you referred to your daughter s lovely bones. those are the words that you used. were you thinking at that moment of the book, the film, or were you using that term in some other context? meredith, i have reviewed images of my daughter from her prenatal ultrasounds to looking at her empty eye sockets of her cranium. yes, i have seen. lovely bones. lovely bones. lovely bones. lovely girl. i know that you are waiting to find out the official cause of death, but the police have said, dan, that they believe this is a homicide. and given the fact that your daughter s remains were found in this remote field that is not easily accessible, you believe it was probably somebody local who did this, don t you? well, i ve said all along that someone local did this. and typically in a situation like this, the body is usually found within five to six miles of where the person is taken, and someone has to be comfortable with knowing the area, knowing, you know, where to go, and particurly in this situation. where morgan was found, there is absolutely no way that a stranger to the area would know this. it is someone who lives in the charlottesville area. so, is it frightening to both of you to think that whoever that person is, they re still out there? i think it s to me, it s frightening in that the community needs to be, i think, aware that there is a perpetrator out there who needs to be caught. and i think that people needo be aware that, you know, this may not happen tomorrow, but a murder did occur. our daughter was taken and a murder h occurred. and you can t ignore that. i think that s important for the people in any community where this occurs. you know, jill, your daughter go ahead, i m sorry. dan wants justice and punishment of this man. i really cared little about either one of those things. i know he will receive the punishment that he is due at some point, but i do i m concerned and determined that he be caught for safety reasons because this was not the first bad thing that this man did. the abduction and murder is not your entry level into a life of crime. he s done bad things before. he s upped his game and he s likely to do something bad again unless we catch him. and i know you also care very deeply about your daughter s legacy. you have been to visit members of congress in washington, d.c.. yes. what do you hope to accomplish? well, i think it s important to point out, our trip to washington just last week was to meet with senators around the country, particularly the senators from virginia for the center for missing adults. this is a center that has absolutely no federal funding versus the funding that occurs for children. and we are a prime example of the pain and the difficulty that families have after someone goes missing. there is no template. law enforcement, communities, parents don t know what to do. and the national center for missing adults has been the only center to help people nationally. and so, we were there to advocate for federal funding for the center, of which federal funding ran out in 2007. so, in that sense, we no longer have a missing daughter, but we want morgan s life to be honored and we want her death to not be just another person dying. we want something to happen good for morgan s life. dan and jillharrington, we would want the same as well. our thoughts and prayers, again, are with you both. thank you. thank you so much. thank you, meredith. we appreciate it. and if you have any information in the case, please contact the virginia state police at 434-352-3467. now let s get a check of the weather from al. meredith, thank you. and as we look to the northwest, where they have gotten pounded over the last week or so, there s another storm moving in, this one not nearly as bad as what they ve gotten. rainfall amounts generally about half an inch to an inch of rain, especially as you get along coastal oregon. the rest of the country, we have a monstrous storm coming out of texas, causing ice through the midplains, and snow into the good morning, a frigid friday morning underway, temperatures only in the teens to near 20 degrees now, winds are a bit blustery out of the west, windchills are in the single digits. it s going to be partly cloudy. snow likely tomorrow. highs in the mid 20s, sun returns sunday and monday. a two to four inch band across northern virginia. and in the district of columbia, the eastern suburbs and the eastern shore. less farther north, more farther south. got a busy weather day out there, so you might want to check on the weather channel on cable or weather.com online 24/7. meredith? al, thank you very much. and still ahead, your complete guide to surviving the rest of winter and yet another hard storm barrels across the country. but up next, the pros and cons of walking away from your mortgage. what you need to consider before making the tough call, right after this. our house in the middle of our street this morning on today s real estate, walking away from your mortgage. millions of homeowners are in financial trouble these days, and many owe more on their home than it s worth, and some are now turning to a drastic solution. barbara corcoran, today s real estate contributor, is here to explain that. barba barbara, good morning to you. good morning, matt. analyze these numbers, if you will. december, 16.7% fewer home deals, but home prices were up 1.5% and home inventory fell 3.29 million units. that sounds like a mixed bag to me. it s exactly a mixed bag. the bad news is there are far fewer homes being sold in december. it was a weak finish to the year. but the good news is, the homes that were sold were sold for a little bit more, and the inventory we ve been carrying around for a year on our back has been being absorbed. i want to say this next statistic slowly, because this is a dark cloud on the horizon. one in four homeowners in this country right now is under water on the mortgage. explain what that means. under water simply means you owe more to the bank than your home is actually worth. and one in four is a staggering statistic right now. and so, a million, estimated 1 million people last year simply got up and walked away from their mortgages. they left the home behind, and on the surface, it s this i don t want to make these payments anymore, my mortgage is more than my house is worth, let s move down the street to a less expensive home and take some of the pressure off my shoulders. is that basically it? that s exactly it. it s the sentiment that too many people are feeling today, because they re thinking, why am i killing myself meeting this mortgage when my house isn t worth it and i can get the same place down the block for a lot cheaper? all right, but there is a moral dilemma here. there is. take us through that. the moral dilemma is you have, first of all, legal obligation to the bank. you certainly do, and there s no quiv indicating on that. but the moral dilemma is, is it right? large banks are defaulting on their loans everyday. the big guys, the rich guys are doing it. so, the sentiment now is changing. people are thinking, hey, what am i, a sucker paying this mortgage every month? why don t i just walk away? it goes to core values, and i m not trying to be negative to anyone who s found themselves in a position where they have to do this, but you have to decide i made a commitment, do i stick with that commitcommitment? and beyond that, you have an obligation to your neighborhood. if you increase the foreclosures, you re hurting the value of the guy next door. it s complicated. so, when you give advice to people in this situation, do you give that advice based on the financial input or the moral input? you can t tell people about morals. that s their business. but what i can say is there are real down sides to walking away from your house. what are they? you ruin your credit rating for five to seven years. you keep your credit cards and people think that s great, but the credit companies also increase your interest rate and lower your limits on your credit card. there are tremendous down sides, and if the bank catches up with you and gets a judgment, they have the legal right to garnish your wages. people don t think that through. you don t think that happens all that often not that i m telling people to do this. i m not giving advice here, but the bank often times will not do that. rarely does, but they have that legal right and they ve been getting tougher lately because they re seeing so much of this. we ll see more of this in the coming months. afraid so. barbara corcoran, thank you so much. coming up, does jay leno have any regrets about the late-night shuffle here at nbc? back now at 7:50 with jay leno s first in-depth interview about the late-night shake-up here at nbc. on thursday, he opened up to oprah about his brief run in primetime, conan s departure, and his upcoming return to the tonight show. nbc s lee cowan is in los angeles with more. lee, good morning to you. reporter: well, good morning, meredith. yeah, this was really jay leno s first chance to set aside all the jokes and tell his side of what turned out to be a pretty nasty story. what he does say is that he doesn t necessarily feel guilty about taking the tonight show back from conan o brien, but what does seem to trouble him is that so many people see him as the bad guy. this whole thing was a huge, a huge mess, yeah. reporter: it was jay s set, but it was oprah who had the stage. and a lot of people are not on your side. yeah, i understand that. reporter: jay had to represent team jay all by himself while oprah peppered him with questions that team conan might have asked. did you feel bad for conan at any point? i did. i felt really bad for conan. i think it s unfair, but tv is not fair. i thought it was unfair for me you felt that for conan, but you didn t think you caused, you were the reason that he no, i wasn t the reason. the reason was the ratings. reporter: for a man about to assume the mantle of the crown jewel of late night, for a second time, no less, he seemed less than completely enthused. and no wonder. you can do anything you want in life, yeah, yeah, unless jay leno wants to do it, too. reporter: the process was ugly by any measure, and leno was candid about some people s perception that he became the villain while conan emerged the hero. i m just not sure what i could have done differently. lots of people say you could have walked away. again, but by walking away, that is an ego decision. that is me going, no. good-bye, everybody. you know something, i m fed u with this. you all fend for yourselves. good luck finding jobs. i m out of here. reporter: he wanted to keep his staff working, but, he says, that didn t include demanding his old job back. i never expected this to happen. you know, people think you re behind the scenes pulling strings. there s no strings to pull. i have a show that s been canceled. so, why would i have any power to go, oh, i want that? reporter: but that doesn t mean there aren t regrets. it is very agonizing. i would spend a lot of time just thinking about it going, i think i m a good guy. am i not a good guy? reporter: for now, he says he and conan haven t talked, not yet, anyway. i m not sure what i d say right now. let some time pass and i would hope we can talk again. reporter: his focus now, it seems, is getting the tonight show s old audience back. the question, of course, meredith, is whether or not those audiences will give him the second chance to see if he can recapture what he did for 17 years on the tonight show, and that s be number one. meredith? all right, jay leno, jay, thank you jay leno! thank you very much. 7:55 is your time now, 20 degrees, bitter cold out there. windy and the possibility of snow. tom will have your forecast after the news. in the news this morning, crime is on the rise on the metro. 200 more crimes than a year earlier. there was also one homicide and one rape on the system last year. there were no homicide or rapes in the previous year. and you are invited to a panda party at the national zoo. it s a farewell party for tai shan who will be moving to china next week. the party will run from 11:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. there will be a special cake for tai shan good morning, you ll need your warmest winter gear as you head out this morning. teens in the suburbs and rural areas. tomorrow snow is likely, sun returns sunday and monday. two to four inches of snow across northern virginia including the district tabd eastern suburbs. 395 northbound it appears a broken down vehicle from the 14th street bridge finally has been cleared. no late accidents, earlier accident reported at georgia avenue has been we re back now at 8:00 on a friday morning. it s the 29th day of january 2010. it is a beautiful day here in the northeast if you like frigid temperatures. 16 degrees out on our plaza. extra credit being handed out to these nice people, some of whom have been here for several hours now. it s cold out here. it s cold, but it s beautiful. it really is. lenny s all dressed for it. looking good. you look good, len. out on the plaza, matt lauer along with meredith vieira and al roker. coming up, since we re in the heart of winter right now, we re going to give you great tips on how to survive it. we re talking about something for everyone here, everything from learning how to keep your car in shape during the winter months, get the drafts out of your home, how to stay healthy and even some great meals to cook when the temperatures dip below zero. and how to tie a scarf, actually, effectively, to keep you warm and look good. are we doing okay here? well, you guys are very good with that. i m terrible. i really don t know how to tie a scarf. how about your shoe? do you know how to tie your shoe? [ laughter ] if you laugh, you re encouraging him. anyway i use velcro. anyway, also ahead, what it takes to be a doctor, what it really, really takes. coming up, dr. nancy snyderman heads back to the hospital where she became the first female surgeon on staff. she ll take us behind the scenes for an up-close look at the challenges that today s young residents face and how they deal with all of that stress. plus, how you can make big money posting videos on youtube. people can use making big money right now. let s go inside right now. ann has a look at the headlines. thanks, matt. good morning once again, everybody. winter storm warnings are in effect today from new mexico to north carolina. the storm has already left several inches of snow in parts of texas and freezing rain in oklahoma, where 140,000 utility customers have lost electricity. former british prime minister tony blair has told a vernnt inquiry today that he supported the u.s. invasion of iraq because 9/11 changed what he called the calculus of risk posed by saddam hussein. but blair denied the claim by a former british ambassador that he gave president bush his backing for an invasion nearly a year before the british parliament actually voted to send troops. a stunning announcement today. microsoft co-founder bill gates and his wife at the world s economic forum in switzerland, they said that their foundation will donate $10 billion over the next ten years to research new vaccines and to get them to the world s poorest nations. overseas markets are mostly down this morning. cnbc s melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange with more. melissa, the markets have a lot to focus on today. they do, ann. good morning to you. with the confirmatn of fed chief ben bernanke, we ll see if any of the political uncertainty that s been weighing on the markets actually alleviates today. just last tuesday, the markets were at 15-month highs, and since they ve been down by just about 6%. meantime, out of the tech sector, amazon and microsoft both posting better-than-expected quarterly results, both companies positive for their outlooks for 2010. ann. melissa lee, thank you for getting up early with us. now here s brian williams with what s coming up tonight on nbc nightly news. hey, brian. thanks, ann. coming up tonight, making a difference in haiti. the special bond between an orphan boy and the nurse who cares for him. he lost his parents. how will he say good-bye again? we ll have that for you on nightly news. ann, back to you. thanks, brian. it s now 8:03. let s go back outside for a check of the weather with al. thanks, ann. it s cold, back to you. no. i like your hat! what s your name? my name s grayson. where are you from, grayson some. houston, texas. houston, texas. yes. ever been this cold before, grayson? never. no, never! let s check your weather for you. and again, we are talking colder weather. we ve got winter weather advisories, storm watches or warnings from new mexico all the way to the carolinas and virginia. you can see that storm firing up, getting itself together, bringing sno into oklahoma and parts of tennessee. nashville going to be looking a big change from yesterday, temperatures have plummeted into the deep freeze this morning, just in the teens to near 20 degrees now. the winds are a bit blustery, it feels like the single digits and the winds will diminish this afternoon with highs just near freezing and snow likely tomorrow, highs in the mid 20s. a bit milder on monday with sunshine. but for saturday s snow, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., two to four inch total amounts around washington, northern virginia prince george s county and points east. where are you guys from? virginia. you re getting snow, too! when are you going home? we re going home sunday. oh, it will be over by then. oh. oh, but it will still be on the ground. don t worry. matt? allright, al, thanks very much. when we come back, a winter survival guide. from your home to your car to your health. veggies in your house? with ragu, you can give your kids vgies they ll actually eat. ragu has more than a full serving of veggies in every half-cup. so give them a good start with all natural ragu. feed our kids well. so good inside oh, and when i dole up on my lovin you re gonna be satisfied now you can double your extracare rewards. for a limited time, you can earn double bucks on prescriptions and on cvs/pharmacy brand items. gonna double your lovin , double your fun you get two for the price of one double bucks means double savings! sign up for double bucks today, only at cvs/pharmacy. - 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. at world record speed. i m luke myers. if you want to be incredible, eat incredible. announcer: eggs. incredible energy for body and mind. 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absolutely. it turns out, the flu actually comes in waves, so it s possible that another wave could still come, so it s important to get your flu shot. purely is grepurell is great, b obably doesn t work as good as we think. are you a believer in vitamins? i wish i could be. i wish it was that simple, but vitamins probably don t help to stop the flu. i hear people say vitamin d is the new vitamin c. do you like vitamin d? i do. it s great for other reasons, bone health, it reduces cancer and it turns out four to five people are deficient in it. so vitamin d is great. if you do get sick, a cold or flu at this time of year, a lot of people swear by these humidifiers or vaporizers. do you like them? humidifiers are great if you re feeling aittle dry. it won t help your cold, it won t help you get better more quickly, and sometimes it can have fungus that grow inside, so i generally don t recommend it. for all the parents out there, how many times have you said to your children, dress warmly, otherwise, you ll catch a cold. is there any relation between the two? i think that my wife would not be happy if said there was no relation, but i am going to have to be honest and say that the science suggests it probably doesn t make a big difference. it s probably smart to bundle up, but it s not going to be the way you catch a cold. i agree with that. doctor, thank you very much. let s go upstairs to meredith. matt, thank you. you can t make it through winter without a scarf, so here with creative ways to tie one on is today and us weekly contributor jill martin. good morning. i never know how to tie the thing. basic lesson. most people don t. this is the basic. you take the scarf like this, put it around your neck and you let the ends hang, which is also a great look, and then just knot it. so, that s the basic wrap in most people don t know, because you say you do the loop. which we ll get to in the end. we ll goat in a bit. let s get to melanie. this is the basic, but you can make it into a turtleneck. you just wrap it and tuck the ends in. so, that serves as a turtleneck and you have a whole different look. you can also take the ends out when you get inside for a different and what kind of scarf are you using here? does that matter? it doesn t. that s cable knit, but if you have a heavy scarf, i suggest letting it hang so it doesn t look too bulky. but it keeps you warm. next, we re moving on to silk, which surprises me, because i don t think of silk necessarily and warmth in the same sentence. people don t realize, and you ll probably learn this at the olympics, that long underwear is made with silk, a lot of them. it s an insolating fabric that attracts heat. already in a triangle, this is a square scarf, you tie it around your neck and a knot in front and that not only covers your chest, but also your neck for warmth. finally, you mentioned the loop. men and women like this. any guy can pull this off. nine out of ten women will wear it like this. mark will show us how. you take the ends matt and al were wearing it like this. i think she insulted you a bit. to matt and al also. and then you pull it through and that s the loop and men and women can wear it. it s the simplest way to tie a scarf. look good and you stay warm. jill martin, thank you so much. thank you. now outside to al. once again, you ve got to deice your home, your car. you re here from open house to the rescue, george oliphant. first of all, keeping the walkway and driveway clear is a challenge. first thing you want to do is stay on it. obviously, it s easier said than done. but get an ergonomic shovel so you reot hurting your back. how do you know? it s got a bend like this one, ergonomic shovel. also make sure you have a rubber tip on it to prevent you from scratching your walk and driveway. what about melting things down? well, deicers are great to use, but make sure they have a magnesium or calcium chloride in them. those are better for pets, plants, the environment as a whole. they ll leave less stains on your walkway or drive. and salt for traction. don t use table sat, right? no, it s not good for plants or pets. so stay away from the table salt. deicer for the car. this is great. this is for the key lock. everybody has automatic key locks, you probably don t need this as much. best thing for getting the ice off your car, start it up 15 minutes before you re going to use it and get your brush and scraper in one and a lot of elbow grease. keeping the drafts out of your home. keeping the drafts out. i just got an old house. this is perfect. all you need is a hair dryer, some scissors, double-sided tape. put it up, shrink wrap it does an amazing job. george oliphant, let s get out of the cold. ann, let s go! al, thank you. a hardy meal is a great way to stay warm and one of our favorites, ed has a restaurant charter one. ed, good morning. good morning. you like the idea of one pot, because it s easy and we all think about it for winter, but you have a new twist on it, spices. spices. spices also help keep you warm. so here into the crock pot, i m putting all the ingredients. this is the dish everyone loves to cook. chicken, tomatoes chicken, tomatoes apricot. onions, chick peas. mm, good healthy things. garlic. lots of garlic. and ginger. then the special ingredient. a then some harisa, sort of a moroccan chili paste. and you can get that out of a jar? oh, yeah. just buy it at a store. some chicken stock. and you cook this for how long? put the cover on. we re going to cook it slow and that will be ready in about four hours, and we have this look how it turns out, you guys. beautiful. we have this beautiful dish. okay, w, you can freeze this and use this the next day. you could. but every time you reheat it, in my mind, it gets better and better. and you can serve it with nice, healthy stuff on the side. garnish and there you go. you talk about spices. you like it easy, leave it and let it cook. it s hot, it s easy, nutritious. spice warms you up a little bit. talk about the spices, because you say you keep the spices in the oven i keep the spices around and heat them up in the oven to get that smell. it makes me feel warm. it s a nice thing. quily talk about the seafood stew. what do you have in it? this is a shrimp and scallop pan roast, something we make at ed s chowder house. it s very new orleans style, shallots, garlic, half and half, shrimp and scallops. we ll finish it with betttarrag. you can make this in a few hours most, where you needle more tim cooking. i feel better already. me as well. coming up next, much more on a friday morning. each day. 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[ feme announcer ] people who spent $100 a week at the leading national supermarkets on frequently purchased groceries could have saved $55 in just one month by shopping at walmart. [ mom ] game time costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart. and then a hercomes along we are back at 8:19. this morning on today s health, a journey back to the place where nbc s chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman got her first job, the place she says turned her into a doctor. i m looking forward to seeing it. yeah, it s very interesting. i was the first staff surgeon at the university of arkansas and it s great to go back to the children s hospital, a real jewel. i got to work with award-winning filmmakers as they followed a class of residents for an entire year, and together, we watched these young doctors grow and learn, sometimes the hard way, about medicine, heartbreak and even miracles. [ sirens ] the constant roll of helicopters and ambulances coming to arkansas children s hospital keeps amanda bruener on edge. i do not feel a pulse. reporter: as a pediatric resident, she is considered a rookie, a doctor in training. but she is also one of the few who thrives on the drama, the rush, and the unpredictable chaos of the emergency room, where you never know what or who is coming next. one, two, three. listen to his lungs. this is about a 2-year-old. parents thought he was in bed and actually kind of made his way outside and got into a small pool that they had in the back of their house. they went outside and found him face down in the little pool. reporter: it is not clear how long daniel was under water, and the longer he is unconscious, e greater the chance he could suffer permanent brain damage. here s our chest x-ray. it s going to get worse before it gets better. you just think about what do i need to do to help this kid. reporter: with his condition deteriorating, the doctors work through the night to stabilize daniel. so, we re going to get him hooked up to the bed. reporter: it has all come down to one anxious moment. will he wake up? hey, daniel? can you wake up, buddy? daniel, can you open your eyes? hey! hi, buddy. hey. good morning. hi, sweetie pie. mommy s right here. today s a good day. you know, kids like that, that just kind of makes your day and kind of reminds me of why i m doing it and things like that. like, whenever you do a procedure really well, have your little dance, like got it, got it, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, you know? reporter: but daniel is just one of the everyday miracles that happens here at arkansas children s hospital, and he will make a complete recovery. that s the good news. yes. that s really good. that must have brought back memories for you, nancy? it brought back a lot of memories. i went there as a young ear nose and throat doctor having already done a pediatric residency. so, seeing these guys as pediatricians and everything they go through it was an amazing turning back for me. we re joined by dr. amanda and her resident, dr. ryan i was going to make you finish with the dance there. there are people, i would imagine, who thrive under the pressure and the adrenaline of the emergency room and people who don t. amanda, you seem to thrive there. has it always been that way for you? i do, i love the action, i love the intensity of it. in the emergency room, you never know what s going to come in next, and i like that element of surprise. i ve always wondered, though, how someone who deals with children in particular manages to not just get so personally impacted by what they see. we saw a happy ending there. they aren t all happy endings. right. how do you find how do you detach yourself? you know, sometimes it can be difficult, but you have to remain objective as a physician to care for the child. and you know, it doesn t always have a happy ending, but i think you really have to focus on the better outcomes so that you don t get, you know, so that those harder moments don t really bring you down and really try to be positive and optimistic and hopeful. ryan, what drew you to pediatrics? i think the best example is that clip that just got played. i think in pediatrics, not every day, but every once in a while, you get a chance to take care of a kid that comes in who was totally healthy before and had something happen to him or her that made them really sick, and if you do everything right and you use all the resources that you have, then you have a chance for that kid to one day walk out of that hospital, go on and have a totally normal life. and that time when they were in the hospital was just is just a faint memory in their life. it s like a little blip on the radar. that s it. matt, these guys are everything that s great about our training hospitals in this country, and i think it s hard for parents to know, you come out of medical school, you re a mister one day and a doctor the next. so, a residency really is learning on the job, but with really wonderful, attending doctors around, and giving them a longer and longer cord so they can learn, but always with phenomenal supervision. there s a lot of pressure and there is phenomenal pressure. let s face it. there is phenomenal pressure, and we watched these guys through some very tough times. it s amazing, this hospital gave us a year to embed ourselves with this group. and it s somewhat famous now, the schedules you guys keep. there are times when you re on for 24 hours at a time and longer. i mean, is it possible to get usedo that? absolutely. i think so, yeah. it doesn t end up being as hard to stay awake for that duration of time as it sounds, because when you re up, you re actually taking care of sick kids, like you saw in that video. so, it s just the and your adrenaline is pumping and you re focused on what needs to be done, and you re not looking down at your watch thinking i need some sleep or i m tired. it takes care of itself. and what sleep deprivation can do to you, though, it can make you dance funny. ever notice that? it can really do that. hey, folks, thanks very much for joining us. we appreciate it. 89:26 on this friday, january 29, 2010. good morning, i m joe correction, and in the news for toy, a d.c. institution, signing off for today. donnie simpson has spent the last to years at the pwc airwaves. since his contract doesn t actually expire until march of next year, but he s leaving because of ratings problems because of disagreements with managements. we ll take a bleak now and come back with weather and traffic. back with weather and traffic. st which is fantaic. we ll have them over for a friday night pizza. it s just our way of entertaining without going out. this is where all the magic happens. this is where i knead the dough, make the pizza. by using my card, i get the specials, the real deals, and it saves me money. the win-win is that we get to visit with our friends, the kids get to visit with their friends, and it s great food. more savings, more rewards. every time you shop. only with your giant card. we save money, and that works for me. good morning, an abblupt change from yesterday. windchills are in the single digits now, breezy, today, partly cloudy, a little sun should return later on. highs reaching near freezing, snow likely tomoow. sun returns sunday and monday. a swathe of two to four inches across northern virginia, including the district of columbia. as well as charles county. how s the traffic, jerry? just a little bit of a backup about the last mile or so along interstate 66. one more stop over in prince george s county, outer loop between the wilson bridge and college park, moving along nicely. bli dates in the nation s capital, can couples found love in the high powered world of washington? we ll find out in tonight s 8:30 now on this friday morning, january 29th, 2010. freezing cold start to the day here in t big apple, but it is not bothering these people who are getting a jump start on the weekend with a visit to rockefeller plaza. nice to see them. look how happy they are. it is friday, but it s cold. all right, guys the men wimped out. we put on silly hats. you did. heavy artillery here. you re smart, because the first place you lose your body heat is your head. 80% of your body heat out of the head. right there. does that come down, that top flap? no, that doesn t come down. oh, sorry! i m sorry i asked. all right, when i say youtube, what do you think? uh, dancing baby. all right, that s okay. dancers at the wedding. okay. i think of that guy who does what s that weird song where he was dancing in front for the tube, that guy oh, he was on the show. the history of dance. i loved him! all good answers, but all wrong. what if i told you you could make thousands possible thousands of dollars just by posting things on youtube? really? yes. there s a whole cottage industry advertisements? well, through the ads. they put the ads on youtube and you get the money, but you have to have a big audience that comes to see whatever you put on youtube. you re going to meet a lady who did just that. you re going to learn from her what it takes to be on youtube and also how to apply makeup. okay. all right, also we look ridiculous, by the way. but we feel good. the hat. like ping pong? yes. table tennis? yes. well, at 15, michael landers became the youngest national champion ever, and wait until you hear why he got involved in this sport. wow. he is good. he is. national champ. speaking of national champs, two-time and reining u.s. figure skater champ jeremy abbott is over at the rink. we re going to talk to him about his chances in vancouver, and he s going to perform for us live. man, that must be cold there. once again, the hat had nothing to do with the odd behavior of the man. not at all. also, we ll be answering your diet questions. okay. but first, the weather? thank you. i can t hear you. what? the weather. oh, thank you very much. let s check it out. show you for our weekend, wet weather along the pacific northwest coast. frigid but sunny in the plains, snow showers around the great lakes, a mess in the southeast and mid-atlantic states. sunday, sunday! frigid conditions in new england, sunny up and down the good morning, temperatures have plummeted eed from 30 to the afternoon. it s near 20 degrees in washington. winds gusting 20 to 25 miles an hour. makes it feel like the single digits, blustery winds throughout the day with highs only near freezing. snow likely tomorrow with highs in the mid 20s and the snowstorm tomorrow beginning very early in the morning and then tapering off and en and that s your latest weather. any time you want your weather day or night what do you do? go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. okay, mr. roker. up next, a ping pongprodigy. you ll immediate mooet the as you know, around here we re gearing up for the olympic games in vancouver, but today national correspondent tik barber recently caught up with a young athlete who has his sights set on london 2012. tell us about it, tiki. hi. well, good morning, matt. i ve got to tell you, i was exhausted after spending a day with this young man, and he s right back in training after a shocking win at the men s national title match. reporter: a typical setting played out in many american homes, a show for the parents. but there is a little something different about this performer. relax, relax. put it toward your chest. there we go. relax. quicker, come on. four more. reporter: you may have heard of this kid, but his name is michael landers, and at 15, he is t youngest player ever to win the national singles title in ping pong. my whole body is just like tingling. i was just so happy. it was just the greatest feeling i ve ever had. reporter: a young phenom on the rise. and after a stunning victory, he has catapulted from 70th to number 24 in the nation in the u.s. table tennis rankings, remarkable for someone so young, inexperienced and a little bit accident-prone. so, tell me how you fell in love with table tennis. i thought it would be an ingenious place to hide in the garbage can, and i didn t know that it had two wheels on the bottom, so i got in, and basically, it came out from under me, and my left arm touched the ground first, and then these two bones over here like shattered. so, i needed major surgery and i couldn t play any sports that summ summer. reporter: michael was forced to put down the hockey stick for a ping pong paddle. what do your friends say? some thing ping pong, that s a dumb sport. others say, that could help you get into college one day. reporter: while some rank it up there with horse shoes, it is anything but. first appearing at the seoul summer games, table tennis requires foot speed, agility and stami stamina. go, go. this is the trainer to the stars. he takes potential olympians under his wing and mol them into champions. under his watchful gaze, he has michael on a fitness regimen that rivals other athletes. cardiovascular, reaction time, strength. what kind of advantage does that give him? look, he won the championship. especially he had endorse. reporter: gordon works hand in hand with a member of the national philippines table tennis team. you re getting the ball so low already. i want it right here, okay? reporter: who carefully studies the intricacies of michael s motions and moans. oh, my god. it s going to be a long day. reporter: michael practices two hours a day, six days a week, and it s all choreographed by his mom, joan, who understands the pressures of competition and knows how to keep this young project s feet on the ground. school comes first, and he knows that, and he knows if his grades go down, table tennis going down with it. rorter: with a plate full of tournaments and his eyes set on qualifying for the olympics in london in 20, it s a balancing act for michael, conditioning, practicing, studying his opponents and preparing for exams. i try to balance everything equally. sometimes i put off my friends for school work and table tennis. that s a little bit tough, but when i get the time, i try to hang out with them. reporter: but in the end, a project, maybe. a 15-year-old for sure. michael is headed to el salvador to qualify for the first ever youth olympics in singapore this year. and he s got a great support system with his family and his school. and hopefully, in 2012, he ll be in london. so, at 15, how long can he play this sport? in the 30s, what? it s interesting, because he doesn t know what the future holds for him in this sport. it may be a great way for him to get into college and win games with his friends in the basement, but he doesn t know if it s going to be a career. we ll see. cool. tiki, thanks very much. you re welcome. we appreciate it. up next, how you can make thousands of dollars a month by just posting videos on youtube. i m gonna be a beauty back at 8:42. this morning on today s beauty, youtube sensations. when you think of the popular website, silly and strange videos might come to mind, but a growing number of users are now earning real cash by posting their videos online. reporter: from the wacky to the wild ow! reporter: to the downright odd. harry, harry potter. reporter: videos posted on youtube can attract an audience in the millions, creating online stars who are now cashing in on their popularity. get right und here. reporter: stars such as lauren luke, who quit her job as a taxi dispatcher in england to pursue her passion for makeup. i didn t fit in at school. i had no friends. all the other girls were pretty. i was told i was ugly. so, you d think makeup s going to make you feel good and look good. and go over the middle of the green like that. i wasn t a professional, but i enjoyed playing with makeup and making my face look different. either a green look or a plum look. reporter: sitting in her bedroom with only a mirror, a web cam and her makeup, lauren rerded and then posted her first youtube video, the smokey eye look. i posted the video, and within a few hours, there was lots of viewers, went up to a hundred, then a thousand and then up to a million and that s when it went just completely out of control. reporter: she began posting regular tutorials on the site and a year later was approached by youtube to jn their partnership program, which pairs advertisers with would-be entrepreneurs. we invited about 15 or 20 people who had amassed an audience of a million people, really tv-size audiences, and invited them to start making money off their content. reporter: how much money? if your video has about a million views, you should be making a few thousand dollars a month on that and that could go on f as many videos as you create. so as you create videos, you keep making money. i saw it as a chance and that brought news and media coverage, which led to a lot of other things. reporter: today, they have thousands of users making money off of the site, from fred, who posted weekly comedy skits to professional videos with cooking tips to guitar lessons, to my makeup artist of 12 years, eve pearl, who became a youtube partner to gain worldwide exposure for her product line. youtube helped define my business, create it, sustain it and help it grow really beyond my imagination. it s unbelievable. reporter: as for lauren luke, one of youtube s greest success stories, she now has her own makeup line at sephora in the u.s. it didn t feel real, to be honest. i know it s there and i developed it, but it doesn t feel like mine. i went from having no friends at all to having absolutely loads of online friends who enjoyed what i did. i feel like i m in the best job that i d like to be in. and laurenuke is with us this morning. she s now written a book that comes out in march. it s called lauren luke looks: 25 celebrity and everyday makeup tutorials. lauren, good morning to you. good morning. thanks for having us. what a great story. you re a 27-year-old single mom from england. you have a 12-year-old son. but you say 60% of your youtube audien is actually americans. yeah. so, what is it, do you think, about you and your story that brings people to your site? and who, in particular, is coming? well, everybody. everybody. man, woman, anybody who wants to do makeup, is sck in a rut with makeup and wants some excitement, and most of the stories are about i ve inspired people across the world who changed jobs and just went for it, and then have sent a wonderful thank-you later, thank you for getting me off my bum that day. so, it s not just the makeup. it s everyone feeling like they have a friend outhere to help them with whatever s going on in their life and makeup and what not. and your life has changed dramatically in 2 1/2 years. you now is your own makeup line, as we said, in one of the department stores, or makeup stores. you ve got the book coming out. you re going to play an avatar, i think, in a video game? it s already out in the uk. it s a little nintendo ds game. did you ever think when you started this that you d end up in this position? not at all. it wasn t planned. this is an absolute shock. every day, i really do literally nip myself, this isn t happening to me. it s like living someone else s life. what do you say to others who are interested in tryi ining th themselves? i say set up a youtube account and if you have something, definitely share it and see how you go. you ll be surprised. if people want to come back, they ll come back and you ll have viewers in no time. michelle is here. you re going to show us some makeup techniques. i know you do the lady gaga eyes, but you also do a wedding look. but the most popular look for you is? the smokey eye. smokey eye. demonstrate on michelle. why is it people love that look? well, because it can be very sexy, evening. you can wear it for the office, toned down and then go all out for nighttime. i m going to stick a little primer on there. why do you put primer on? it makes the eye shadow stick and you get that metallic sheen. so, we re going to put that on. so that s the trick is putting the primer on first? yes. it really does help. it popped a little. so, i m going to put a little bit of the white. 30 seconds here. quick, quick, quick. putting the pressure on you. you re not kidding! what colors do you like best with this? dark. dark. glittery, smokey. get this all over the eye lid there. do you like go heavy with the heavy hand on this or do you think less is more? less is more. build it up, because once you put a lot on, it s hard to remove it, but it s easier to build it up. okay. especially with a smokey eye. you could go like you have a knock to the eye. exactly, which is the way i feel by friday, actually. do you always do this in your youtube videos on yourself or do you use a model, too? well, unfortunately, i didn t have any friends when i started, so i was the model, but i ve just carried on like that. is that really true, you didn t have any friends? no. oh, my god, aww, that s so sad! now you have so many friends. i do, yes. you have to beat them away with a stick now, or a makeup brush. literally. so, that s how the story goes. it was little old me, but it worked. it sure did work. i want to congratulate you. what an amazing story. would you come back and do lady gaga on me? i would love to. i m not too old for it? not at all. there quou go! lauren luke, thank you. michelle, you look gorgeous. do you like the look? yes, i love it. very sexy. very nighttime. thank you. up next, we ll get ready for the olympics with a live performance from u.s. reining men s figure ska announcer: today s countdown to vancouver is brought to you by walmart. save money. live better. walmart. and this morning on today s countdown to vancouver, we are exactly two weeks away from the opening ceremony. and 24-year-old jeremy abbott recently won his second consecutive men s national figure skating championship, and in vancouver, he hopes to add an olympic medal to his mantle piece. jeremy, good morning. congratulations. good morning. thank you. so, you are two weeks away from the opening ceremony of the games. physically, you re obviously in good shape, coming off the national championship. mentally, what s the process? you know, it s after coming off such a high from nationals, it s rebuilding and peaking and improving at the right time and just making sure that everything s really solid for vancouver. when you look at your performance at the nationals, how did it compare to your expectatio? it far exceeded my expectations. i ve been skating solidly and i knew that i could do it, but i ve never skated that well before. so, it was really, really a pleasure. what occurred to me is before the national championship, some of the other skaters were the ones grabbing the headlines, and i m wondering if maybe that doesn t work to your advantage, and even going into the olympics, maybe staying just a little bit below the radar? yeah, you know, i ve kind of always been a bit of an underdog, but you know, i m starting to kind of build into more higher levels and there s no avoiding the attention now. yeah, there s no avoiding it, so it s just dealing with all the expectations and putting it aside and doing what i know how to do every day in practice. and what s great is just about eight months or so ago, you kind of had a major shake-up for an athlete. you moved from one training facility to another, changed coaches. and that clearly is working out. yeah, it s been a great move and i m really happy with the situation. my new coaches have been fantastic and i m really happy with how everything s going. we re so looking forward to seeing you skate in vancouver, and we re going to get a sneak preview right now. do you want to hand me the jacket? i hate to even say it because it s so cold out here. all right? you give me that and you head out and i ll tell people, we are going to see a performance from jeremy abbott, the now national men s figure skating champion. what did you think i would do at this moment when you re standing before me with tears in your eyes try to tell me that you have found you another and you just don t love me no more oh, no more and what did you think i would say at this moment when i m faced with the knowledge that you just don t love me, did you think i would curse you or say things to hurt you cause you just don t love me no more did you think i could hate you or raise my hands to you, oh, come on, you know me too well and how could i hurt you, when darling, i love you and i would never hurt you, no, no, no what did you think i would give at this moment if you just thought i would just subtract 20 years from my life i fall down on my knees, i kiss the ground that you walk on if i could just hold you again i would fall down, down on my knees, oh, god, please let me hold you, let me hold you again [ cheers and applause ] jeremy abbott. thank you very much. a reminder, the 21st olympic winter games getes get under wa the opening ceremony it s 20 degrees here in the face s capital, some clouds above as well at 8:56 on this friday the 29 th of january. rescue teams from haiti are returning home. family and friends greeted the 114-member team last night. members say they re happy to be back but feel saddened because they had to leave behind so many people who no longer have homes. we ll take a break now and come back and look at our weather and our traffic. stay with us boss: so word s gettin out that geico customers could save even more on their car insurance by signing up for other things - like homeowner s or renter s insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it s easy for him. he s a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, actually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i d ha more folks paying attention to me too. i mean - (faux english accent) save money! pip pip cheerio! exec 2: british? i thought you were australian. gecko: well, it s funny you should ask. cause actually, i m from - anncr: geico. save even more with our new multi-policy discount. good morning, it is frej jid this friday morning, temperatures till only near 20 degrees, extended exposure could lead to hypothermia so you definitely need to layer up if you re going to be spending time out. it will stay below freezing throughout most of the region today and through the weekend into mid morning monday. tomorrow snow is likely, highs in the mid 20s, a swathe of two to four inches is possible from the shenandoah valley to the district of columbia and the eastern shore. and now, jerry, how s the traffic? it s still backed up along 395 northbound. a couple of problems throughout the morning have all been cleared so now all travel the lanes finally are open. wilson bridge is doing fine thinning out very nicely around 270. jerry, thanks very much. tonight on news4 at 5:00, blind date sxd in the we are back now with more of today on a friday morning. it s the 29th day of january 2010. it is a bone-chilling morning here in the northeast. they ve stuck with us throughout the morning. we re going to go outside and say hi to them, but natalie decided hey! she wanted to stay inside where it s warm and cozy. no, no, no, no. other way around, you two. on this friday morning. we spent a lot of time out there. have you ever wondered with the ice skating rink? how does jeremy abbott skate in just the shirt? it s nasty out there. really is, geez. i m matt lauer with al roker and natalie, you re talking about questions about dining. a lot of people throw up the red flag because they re not sure what works anymore. we ll answers your questions with our diet s.o.d., from carb to low-carb diets to when is the best time to eat to whether you really need to drink all that water. we ll help you get on track. and the housing industry is still unsteady these days. if you want to know what you should be getting for your money, real estate expert barbara corcoran has deals homes across the country from $200,000 to $500,000. plus, teaching a new generation old classics. in our book club for kids, can you believe nancy drew has been around for 80 years now? and the hardy boys series has been inspiring generations. this morning, we ll introduce the beloved classics to kids who grew up on nintendo dss and youtube. love nancy drew. ann, too. every one, sometimes twice. same. anyway, i interjected there, didn t i? but you basical introduced yourself, which is good. we ll toss it right to you. thanks, guys. good morning once again, everybody. in the news, the plan to hold the upcoming 9/11 terrorism trial in new york city near ground zero appears all but dead much the justice department is looking at contingency plans to hold the trial of khalid shaikh mohammed and his four alleged accomplices elsewhere. mayor bloomberg publicly withdrew his support for the idea, which was backed by the white house, citing huge security costs. in haiti, officials say basic medical supplies are sti running low at some earthquake-devastated hospitals and clinics. thursday, hundreds of survivors struggled to get food at a distribution center. today, close arguments in kansas in the trial of a man who admits he shot a doctor who was performing abortions. on thursday, scott roeder, charged with murdering the doctor last year, testified he did what he thought needed to be done to protect him, adding, in his words, i shot him. congress plans to hold hearings next month about safety recalls by toyota and how quickly the carmaker responded to the gas pedal problems. the automaker recalled over 8 million vehicles over faulty gas pedals and millions more because of problems with floor mats. president obama s taking ideas about how to revitalize the economy, including his proposal for a jobs tax cut to baltimore today. he will also meet with house republicans about the subject. and a stormy and potentially dangerous weekend ahead to tell you about, from new mexico to the carolinas. winter storm warnings are in effect for more than a dozen states this morning. freezing rain in oklahoma on thursday left at least 160,000 homes and businesses without any electricity. those are some of the top stories at three minutes past the hour. les now go back to matt and al, who s got more on the storm. absolutely. where it s been and where it s going. that s right. right now, 20 states have either winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings or winter storm watches from new mexico all the way to maryland. and as we take a look at radar, you ll see heavy rain, thunderstorms moving from texas on into louisiana. icy conditions move into memphis, into tennessee. and as you look at the path of this storm, coming across into the southeast and mid-atlantic states right on into saturday morning, we re looking for potentially a lot of snow, especially from raleigh on into norfolk. they may be looking at 8 to 12 inches of snow. ice conditions through the carolinas of about half an inch of ice, and again, that i ice a dramatic drop in temperatures since yesterday, now still just near 20 degrees to the upper teens around the region. temperatures have hardly budged all morning long. we have had considerablining cloudiness as well. a little bit of sun coming up but we ll stay below freezing throughout the day, sunday that s your latest weather. natalie? i ll send an s.o.s. to the world al, thank you. this morning on joy s diet s.o.s., your questions about diet and nutrition. from whether or not breakfast is really the most important meal of the day to whether nursing moms should diet. we have tips from nutrition editor joy bauer. we have a lot of questions. that s great. first up, a caller from league city, texas. melanie s on the phone. good morning, melanie. hi, melanie! caller: hi, how are you? great, andyou? what s your question? caller: okay, when should one cut out carbs during the day? one person told me to stop eating them at about 12:00 in the afternoon and other people told me you can eat them at every meal, as long as you have a protein included with it. also, are starches like bread not good at all, or is it just better to avoid them altogether? great question. carbsre so confusing, so i m really glad she asked this question. so many low-carb diets, no-carb diets out there. oh, my gosh, so much misinformation out there. by no means do people need to cut out carbs completely from their diet. carbohydrates help to provide energy, they fuel our body, our brains, and they should definitely be incorporated into an overall healthy diet. in terms of the protein piece, you re actually right, you should couple carbohydrates together with protein, and that s because protein helps to prevent a spike in blood sugar. right. which then zaps your energy, zaps your mood, whether or not you re a diabetic. but having the right ratio of carbs to protein, right? that s exactly right. so, how much carb should you be eating? right. that s going to depend on what your goal is. but let s say you re a woman trying to lose weight. my rule of thumb is one to two servings of starchy carb with each and every meal. and not all carbs are created equal. so, you want to encourage the high-quality carbohydrates, for example, thevegetables, fruits the whole grains. beans, whole grains. and one serving equals about one slice of bread, half a cup of cooked rice or pasta, one cup of healthy cereal, one piece of fruit. and you want to discourage, of course, the low-quality carbohydrates right. which are going to be the usual suspects, soda, candy. and quickly, what about the timing of the day? does that make aifference at all? you know, you want to be eating every four to five hours, ultimately, just, again, to keep the blood sugars steady and to just fuel your dy. so this thing about not eating after 12:00 in the afternoon is ridiculous. not at all. you can plump the carbohydrates in throughout the day. good. you just want to moderate your overall intake. next, an e-mail from beth in great barrington, massachusetts. e writes, we ve all heard that we should drink our water, but does it have to be plain water or do fluids from tea, coffee, protein shakes, juices, et cera, count as well? everything counts when it comes to your daily fluid quota, and that s great news. even the milk that you pour on top of your cereal. according to the institutes of medicine this is just an approximate amount men need about 12 cups of fluid a day and women need about 9 cups of fluid a day. and i say approximate because it s really going to depend on the climate that you re in. if it s a super hot climate, you re going to need more. more, right. if you exercise a lot, you re going to need more. and people are always surprised to hear that coffee, with all that caffeine, counts towards your daily quiota as well, because they think it s this tremendous dehydrator, but we have thoroughly studied this, and we know that moderate amounts of coffee that s considered one to four cups still counts towards your daily fluid quota, because it hardly dehydrates you. so, coffee or tea, whatever it is, except for alcohol, you know, it s all good to go. that doesn t count. no, no, no. darn! okay. next is a skype question from karen in stamford, connecticut. good morning, karen. hi, karen! good morning, hi. go ahead with your question to joy. i ve been trying to pay closer attention to my [ inaudible ] very hungry at dinner. should i eat earlier in the d day [ inaudible ] okay, caryn s asking it broke up a little bit there, the signal, but she says that she s been trying to pay attention to her hunger signals and watching when she eats and what the best timing is for her. she s not a breakfast eater. okay. so, i m all about intuitive eating, and i think that people should definitely pay attention to their hunger signals and not force themselves to eat when they re not hungry. at the same time, you hear health experts, myself and your mother, probably, say that brkfast is so important because it gets you jump-started in the morning, it keeps you attentive during the a.m., whether you re in school or whether you re running around with your kids or you re at work. and it certainly helps to regulate your appetite throughout the rest of the day. that being said, i don t think anybody should force themselves to eat breakfast in the morning if they re just not hungry. so, in answering her question, as long as her eating schedule without breakfast keeps her feeling energized and she s not compulsively nibbling later after dinner, this is certainly fine. right. and she could take those breakfast calories and she can insert it as a mid-morning snack or another afternoon snack. but if she does find that she s overeating in the late evening, then i would say cut yourself off after dinner. right. you make wake up hungry and start becoming a breakfast eater. next is a caller, ashley, from olive branch, mississippi. good morning, ashley. hi, ashley! caller: good morning. my question is that i read online if you rinse brown beans crumbles that are cooked in hot water, it would have the same fat content as lean ground beef. is that true? it is true! oh, yeah? this is amazing. you can save yourself some money then, right? pouring a lot of hot water over ground, high-fat chuck, you can reduce the fat conte up to 50%. it s a little cumbersome, but this is what you would do. again, in a skillet, you would brown your higher fat meat. you would then pour it into a colander, which you re going to set into a big pot i do this, yeah. then you dump the water three or four cups of super hot water. you probably want to stick it in the microwave, almost boiling. then you re going to get a lot of the fat dripping into the pot. the only thought is what are you going to do with that water mixed with fat? you ll have plumbing problems if you re continuously dumping it down the drain. so just be careful with that. ew, okay. but it works. and you save yourself a lot of money. and keeps you from having to buy the lean it s more expensive. thanks, joy. thanks, natalie. keep your questions coming because joy will be here to answer them. still to come, a countdown to vancouver. a candid, rarely seen inside look at how u.s. skiers get ready to compete at the games. but next, a real estate reality check, how far your money can go with great homes for sale across the country. come with blueprint. s ws free and only for chase customers. with finish it, you can take your balance and decide your monthly payment. or how many months you wanto take to p it off. the faster you pay it off, the more you ll save. and the more progress you ll see every month on your plan. chase what matters i have my blueprint. do you? 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[ male announcer ] old el paso refried beans. the tasty way to keep toppings in your taco. feed your fiesta. let s go to last night s highlights. there s mom and dad cleaning up. and there s the meatloaf. yuck. look what sometimes happens with the ordinary bag. it slips, oh, bingo, it falls in. mom was mad. mom should have used glad forceflex with the new stretchable drawstring that grips the can and stays in place. plus, it has the stretchable strength of forceflex. that s all today for glad tv. both: don t get mad get glad! it can go from a scratchy throat in the morning. to a cough. to a full body ache. at night. new tylenol cold rapid release gels day and night work fast too. they release medicine fast to relieve painful coughs, congestion and sore throats. so you can rest, day and night. feel better, tylenol cold. love to see kids spirits shine. day and night. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunnyd shine on sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. ow, she s a brick house this morning on today s real estate, how far could your money go? from new york to oregon, we re looking at some on houses across the country for the best deals from $200,000 to $500,000. today s real estate contributor barbara corcoran is here. good houses today, al. starting off with one of my favorite places, university heights, ohio, priced at $219,500. and just 15 minutes from downtown cleveland, if you want to know where that is. and this particular house has a really pretty front entrance, a real slate roof. it s like a mini mansion. it has hardwood floors throughout. once you get inside, you ll see some of those beautiful features. it s been tally renovated. that is a gas fireplace there, an old brick gas fireplace. it s got lots of sunshine throughout, a sunny kitchen with a breakfast nook that s been totally renovated. the living room has crown mouldings. on the lower level, which you can t see here, below the dining room area, they have a finished third floor with its own full bath. wow. so you can put somebody downstairs if you want. there s the master bedroom with a double window. lots of light and a good value at $219,000. and university heights not too far from the cleveland symphony, all the museums. no. it s got a little cultural spot all for itself. next, let s head to the pacific northwest, salem, oregon, priced at $339,000. a three-bedroom home, originally a barn. originally a barn, and when you see this wacky house inside, you ll say, okay, i get it, i could live there, maybe. let s see what you think about it, al. this is the barn. that was the original main part of the barn. it s now the living room. they ve left all those high beams intact. they haven t even been tempted to paint that back wall white. they keep it looking like a barn. there s a loft for a kid up there. i think this is the kind of house kids would love ramping around in. there s the kitchen, it s open, the big, open feeling with the living room. that kitchen s been renovated. and if you look in the backyard, it has private woods, a private deck back there. that s the second bedroom right there. that s kind of a wacky window there. they didn t want to upset the outside of the barn. so, all those hardwood floors have been refinished. that s totally private there. nice. big old trees outside, a nice barbecue pit for yourself there. this is a great house if you have a little bit of a wacky kind of taste. and our moms always used to say to us, what, do you live in a barn? close the door! yes, there. you could say i live in a barn with that. that s a good selling feature. good thing you re not in real estate sales. georgetown, kentucky, $374,000. we ve got a four-bedroom. this is smack in the middle, right in the heart of kentky. it s a style of home called oh, i always mispronounce it. italianette. there you go. it was built in 1867. this is an unusual style of home, built in the 1860s. very few of them, they re expensive to maintain because of the ornate wood-working on the outside. the home has been totally preserved. most of the ceilings, with the exception of that kitchen, is 12 foot high. they have front and back stairwells for kids to romp up and down, whichever they want. it would be a very easy house when the old-fashioned furnishings to update, but all the heavy lifting has been done. air conditioning and heating have been replaced. just modernize the furniture and you d have a cream puff of a house. nice yard. nice yard. they ovvery rare. they only built a few of these at the turn of the century. this home we were going to show a few weeks ago and ran out of time. greenwood, indiana, three bedrooms. located in a golf course community at $442,000 and you say it s a really unique house. it s unique, chock-full of bells and whistles. it was built by a developer, so in a real way, it was overbuilt, but look at some of the things they guy put in. look at that tower! that s 40 feet tall. you can see all of downtown, the fireworks. it s a broad view. there s the living room. one down side to this house is i think it desperately needs new lighting. everything looks darker than it really should because it s got great window space, but it just reads dark. there s an exercise room. look at those gleaming floors. i bet you that thing s never been used. probably not. just has that look. what s that? this is a wacky home theater, and it has the sun, the moon and the stars on this paied wall. it also has its own concession stand and separate entrance. so you could charge people if they come in. bring your friends over, whatever. i don t think that s probably used so much. but beautiful landscaping outside. there s the golf course. you don t have to look very far. and that s that great view from the tower. this is a great house. barbara, thanks a lot. my pleasure. this has been a wacky segment! i like it. and coming up ontoday, the boys are back and they re hangin tough. we re going to catch up with the new kids on the block and get the scoop on a new documentary. first, these messages. step by step mmmmmm. mmmmmm. wow! you have got to be kidding me. 80 calories? light & fit has 80 calories versus 100 in the other leading brand. light & fit. irresistible taste. fewer calories. i love light & fit. and if you think all batteries are the same. consider this: at iowa lakes community college, the students learn to keep america s wind turbines going and to keep them safe, the only battery they trust in their high voltage meters are duracell rechargeables. so whether you re responsible for tomorrow. or enjoying today. it just has to work. duracell smart power. duracell trusted everywhere time to deploy the chex mix boring potato chip decoy bag. now no one will want to steal the deliciousness. with a variety of tastes and textures, only chex mix is a bag of interesting. ( sneezing ) i didn t take zicam cold remedy. but i did. can you do it by 3:00 ? yes, i can how about 2:00 ? hmm. get over your cold faster. it s a calling light years away from earth. the sci-fi thriller caprica is the sequel to battle star galactica. i said it wrong. you messed me up, al roker! oh, my fault? you re the one 58 years before the events of battle star galactica, and it premiered with rave views! and it s good to finally meet you. you say it in the spanish the caprican prudenceation would be esai it s like caprica. that is the prequel to battle star galactica, and you weren t a fan, right? well, not that i wasn t a fan, but i just wasn t aware how great it was, and people let me know. oh, it s a huge following. very avid, very loyal fan base, and i think it s one of the reasons why everyone on our show doesn t take this for granted, even though the expectation is higher and we wanted to deliver. and you don t have to have se battlestar galactica to appreciate it. you kind of call this more like a syfy godfather. well, i compare it to the godfather in the sense that it s not good the gangster, our story line. we came from the neighboring planet, you know, the other side the galaxy, or the system. but you know, the godfather s more about a family, a family trying to stay together, ftryin to survive with the changing world around them. like marlon brando didn t want to get into the drug trade, but the situation overtakes you. like battlestar galactica, it s gotten more than we anticipated and out of control. the l.a. times is calling it fantastic. the magic s in the mix. 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. after all the rich holiday food. and activity you were.? a little irregular. sluggish. my daughter needed activia! so i took the activia challenge. wow. it works. now she has a spring in her step. i m loving it. every morning. help get your system back on track. activia with bifidus regularis helps regulate your digestive system in two weeks. would you recommend activia? i already have. it works or it s free. get back on track now with the activia challenge. activia and this is what it looks like outside the national cathedral. very cold right now. 9:26 is our time. we re going to get a forecast from tom. in the news4 today, investigators are still trying to put out a major fire that tore through a home in potomac, maryland. it took 70 firefighters about 45 minutes to put out the flames. they believe it started in the garage and then spread to the rest of the house. the family who lives there did get out safely. and this morning is the end of an era in washington radio. donnie simpson is signing off after 32 years in the d.c. airwaves. simpson s contract doesn t expire until march of next year and he says he s leaving because of ratings problems and disagreements with management. good morning, breezy and cold, temperatures just near 20 now. highs today only near freezing a little sun back, winds will diminish today, snow likely tomorrow, two to four inches around the metro area. i-95 northbound no lane issues as you make your trip up toward the capitol belt way. the regular lanes and the hov lanes looking good. on news4 at 5:00, blind dates in the nation s capital, can what have we got? ooh. down 70 two liters, wide open. central line kit. that s what it looks like on tv, but next week here on today, we ll take you inside the operating room live from the miracle of birth to heart surgery to brain mapping. we re going to go inside the o.r. for some real-life drama starting monday morning here on today. meanwhile, coming up in this half hour, we re going to be talking about our countdown to vancouver. we ve got a full house this morning. the olympic opening ceremony is just two weeks from today. get that, you guys, just two weeks. wow. and one of the most popular sports is, of course, skiing. and this morning, a rare, inside look at the intense training of the u.s. ski team as it gets ready to take on the world. and it s going to be time for us to convene another meeting of al s book club for kids. this morning, we re going back to basics with two favorite series for young readers, the hardy boys and nancy drew. good to introduce them to, you know, the old classics. plus, a special treat this morning. latin soul singer-songwriter jenna gemazano is here with a performance. very sultry. first, lester holt and jenna wolfe are here for what s coming up this weekend. in the state of the union address, the president vowed to get americans back to work. we re going to show you where the jobs are and how to get them. plus, it s been a month since baby gabriel vanished. now his father is in texas trying to retrace his last steps. that s all this weekend on today. all right. we ll look forward to it. you people look very nice today, may i say, as opposed as opposed to usual. extra layer. it s cold out there. can i give a compliment? can i give a compliment? thank you, ann. yes, you can, and we can take it away. get a check of the weather. let s see what s happening for today, the weekend, starting off with saturday. we have a mess working its way through the southeast, sunshine in the north, but it s going to be chilly and frigid conditions throughout new england into the great lakes. then on sunday, rain i didn t say sunday, sunday, i m sorry. rain in the pacific northwest, showers in southern florida. then on sunday, sunday! we ve got s sunny good morning, the temperatures have not budged since dawn, we have been hovering in the upper teens to near 20 degrees all morning long. the winds are still blustery giving us windchills right down into the low single digits this morning. the winds will diminish this afternoon. we should get some sunshine back, highs just reaching near the freezing mark and tomorrow, cloudy, snow likely, sun back sunday and monday. two to four inches of snow for northern virginia, the district and that s your latest weather. thanks, al. all right, thank you. coming up next, we ll go behind the scenes with the u.s. ski team and its difficult journey to get to the vancouver olympics. chest came back- ghtness in my i knew i had to see my doctor. he told me i had choices in controller medicines. we chose symbicort. symbicort starts to improve my lung function within 15 minutes. that s important to me because i know the two medicines in symbicort are beginning to treat my symptoms and helping me take control of my asthma. and that makes symbicort a good choice for me. symbicort will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. and should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol may increase the chance of asthma-related death. so, it is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on other asthma medicines. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. i know symbicort won t replace a rescue inhaler. within 15 minutes symbicort starts to improve my lung function and begins to treat my symptoms. that makes symbicort a good choice for me. you have choices. ask your doctor if symbicort is right for you. 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(chuckle) no. i can t taste the fiber. just chocolate. they have 35% of your daily value. hmm. oh samples. hmm. autobahn. wackenschdol. fiber one chewy bars. cardboard no. delicious yes. to vancouver is brought to you by walmart. save money. live better. walmart. this morning in today s countdown to vancouver, behind the scenes of the u.s. ski team. the opening ceremony of the olympic games is just two weeks from today, and a new primetime special airing tomorrow night on nbc reveals the u.s. ski team s difficult journey to vancouver. it s called truth in motion, and sarah schleper is an olympic skier featured in the documentary. sarah, good morning to you. good morning. when the makers of this documentary came to you and said we want to pretty much follow you around and get right inside your training, did you have any second thoughts about that? did you think, what is this going to be about? well, when they had first asked me to do it, i didn t realize that they were going to be in my hotel room at 6:00 in the morning when i was waking up, and you know, i had to kind of balance having my son there and these cameras following us around everywhere. but after the third day, we were very used to having cameras following us everywhere we go, putting the mikes on in the morning. and the cameras well, let s get to your son, since you brought up your son, your son lassa. yes. and he is just 2 years old, and you take him with you as you re in all this training. so, really, this really sort of reveals to some degree your balance of trying to balance being a mother and being an olympic skier. yes. what would you say is your salvation there? my husband, for sure. he does all of the work and he s an amazing father. so, he allows me to have that freedom and time to do all my training. but it s hard, too, because i like being with my family and i like being with lasse, so, it s a give-and-take thing, but i try to get all my training in and balance the family. give and take, because the training is intense. yeah. i mean, winning or losing a gold medal can depend on 0.01 of a second. what will we see in terms of how much you have to go through, how much focus you have to have? skiing is so much there s no there s so many elements in our sport that you can t really expect results. you just have to prepare yourself to the st you can, and that s why we put in countless hours of training. then you ll have a race where the results won t come out and you have to train again. sometimes it s hard to think, oh, i m doing all this training and then i have a bad race, but you have to keep putting it in, because the results will eventually follow through. it sounds like it s a mind game. oh, yeah, it s a big mind game. what do you say to yourself when you re dealing with that? well, it s a hard thing because you re in the start and there s a lot of pressure, but i just try to stay really relaxed and focused and justry and not think of anything else but going as fast as i can from start to finish. there are a lot of other skiers who are in this documentary. people who are watching the olympics, they re going to recognize you because you roar when you come out of the gate. you actually make this kind of cheetah-like roar. yeah, i call it my lioness roar because it gives me lioness attacking capabilities. but it s just part of my start routine. i use it to really attack the course and kind of let out all those extra nerves and butterflies, and it s helped me a lot. and it really focuses you. yes. what do you want to say about your skimates, your olympic teammates? oh, well, julia mancuso is on our team and lindsey vonn, and julia is the gold medalist from torino and we have the world champion from the last two years, so, we have a strong team going into vancouver, and it s an exciting it s going to be a very exciting olympics for our team. well, you re remarkable. thank you. and congratulations on getting on the team again. thank you. and gooduck to you. thank you. at the winter games. thank you very much. all right. and again, the primetime special is called truth in motion. it airs tomorrow night on nbc at 8:00 eastern. and coming up next, inspiring a new generation of budding detectives with the harry boys and nancy drew. love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat heavy greasy food that s hard on my diet. and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. it helps me feel good and look good too! activia! 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(announcer) for five generations, with a name like smucker s, it has to be good. to grow on your dentures? you are if you use toothpaste instead of soaking them in polident toothpaste is abrasive on dentures look, scratches where bacteria can collect and grow and bacteria can cause bad breath that s why i recommend replacing toothpaste with polident only polident is proven to clean without scratching and kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria don t scratch your dentures clean use polident every day [ female announcer ] yoplait s perfect blend of real fruit and the goodness of dairy is just a peel away. explore all the delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. this morning on al s book club for kids, nancy drew by carolyn keene and the hardy boys by franklin w. dixon. for more than four generations, these two classic mystery series have captured the imaginations of budding detectives all around the world. jennifer fisher is an expert on both books. she s here along with our al s book club for kids kids, ian goldstein, delroy brockett, danielle azzolina, spencer wong, treasure melvin and tatiana perry. good to see you guys, and jennifer, thanks for being here. yes, thanks for having me. nancy drew, celebrating her 80th anniversary. the hardy boys have been entertaining boys and girls alike for generations. why are these books still so popular? i think they re so popular because these characters were so fun, they were adventurous, they were bold. nancy drew, she was so independent and spunky and adventurous especially when girls weren t generally thought to be doing that. oh, yes. definitely ahead of her time, especially back in the 30s. and good role models. she was always willing to help others, sort of right wrongs. and i think that message resonates. okay, and the hardy boys, same thing for a lot of guys. yes. the idea of being able to dre a coup oh, yeah, motorcycles, run out in the night, chase villains and save the day. it s just great fun for kids and inspiring. and the authors, carolyn keene and franklin w. dixon, those are basically pseudonyms for all these authors that would write the books. yes, they were. they were different authors over the years. they kept the same pen names just to keep a continuity over the years, yes. and what s the difference between the two? or is there a big difference, other than one has two boys at the lead and the other has a girl? well, the main difference between nancy and the hardys was she wasn t in school and she was motherless. she didn t have hermother. so, she had to rely on her own self and her father. and the hardy boys, they had their mother, their aunt. a right. let s get some questions from our kids. ian, what would you like to know? how do you think both books have changed over time since they were first written? well, they modernized over the years, you know. they updated clothing, technology. i mean, currently, they use cell phones, and of course, they didn t back then, but they still have the same values and the same great classic foundation that s carried with all the different stories over the years. dellroy, did you like reading them? yep. yeah? what s your question? well, my question for the tower treasure by the hardy boys, why was the car named queen in the first chapter of the book? i think that chet just liked to name his car queen. it was just his favorite car, so that s what he chose for it. danielle, did you enjoy reading it? yes, it was which did you like better, hardy boys or nancy drew? i can t say. they re both really good. i was wondering, since the nancy drew series was really good, i was wondering, which book sold the most copies? which book sold the most copies? i know that old clock and hidden staircase, those are first two books, they ve always been good sellers and popular with kids over the years. in fact, they even made a nancy drew video game from her base on the clock book, which is so popular. i love that game. it s lot of fun. spencer, how did you like it? i really liked both. would you read more? yeah, i would. that s good. what s your question? i was wondering, in the series, do they ever meet each other? do hardy boys and nancy drew? they eventually do. back in the 80s, they had a crossover where they sold mysteries together and they were on tv together in the 70s, too. tatiana? treasure. treasure, i m sorry. i m looking at tatiana, i m thinking treasure. treasure? my question is for the secret in old clock. what does nancy symbolize with what does she symbolize? yep. well, i think she symbolizes independence and using your wits to get yourself out of situations and relying on yourself. good, strong reliance on yourself. and tatiana, what s your question? why do you think it was called the secret of the old clock instead of like a bookcase or something? well, because of the clock. it was like the central clue in theystery that nancing was searching for. she had to find the clue, so the clock was like the big clue for her. in fact, the nancy drew movie was pretty popular recently. do you think you ll see more of those? i would love to see more of them. i got to consult on that movie, and so it was a lot of fun to visit the set and see it all come to life. now we need a hardy boys movie. you know, reportedly, tom cruz and ben stiller are thinking of putting together a, kind of where they re older, get together and follow an old mystery. cool. so, it could happen. jennifer fisher and our al s book club for kids, thank you so much. the books, again, nancy drew and the hardy boys. time to reveal next month s book, 100 cupboards by n.d. wilson. this fantasy adventure takes us on a wild ride into other worlds. so, we ll see you next month on our book club. but up next, sultry latin soul singer jenna you can take me away she s been called the latin sade, and with her totalry voice and lyrics, singer-songwriter gemma genazzano is defining a new style of music. her new cd which came out this month month. gemma, good to see you. nice to meet you. the latin sade? that s a great compliment. something to live up to. it s an amazing compliment. sade s one of my favorite singers, an amazing artist and she s coming out with a new cd. how would you say your style is similar to hers? how would you describe your kind of jazz? i think of my music as sultry music. i love blending jazzy melodies with soulful grooves a rhythm, funky and hypnotic rhythms, and i love singing in spanish and in english. so, i can create a new sound? so, your cd is really a combination of the two passions it s a combination. the two languages, right? right, exactly. and you have an event in march at the blue note, i hear? i do, i do, march 26th. you re going to be singing there. i ll be singing there. and you re going to be singing. if you love me off your album. take it away. thank you. [ singing in spanish ] you can take me away, you can take me away take me away, way [ singing in spanish ] you can take me away, you can take me away, take me away, away you can take me away, you can take me away, take me away, away oh, you can take me away, you can take me away, take me away, way way, way, way, way, away gemma genazzano and the great band. thank you. with her album si me quieres. great performance. still to come in the fourth hour, kathie lee and her partner in crime this morning, donny deutsch. 9:56 is our time right now, 20 degrees out there, some clouds over the nation s capital. for the first time inwo weeks, members of the fairfax search and rescue team are waking up in their own homes.xd they went to haiti right after the earthquake hit and they made the very first rescues there. the team members say they re happy to be back but feel a lot of sadness because they had to leave behind so many people who no longer have homes. let s check in on our forecast. snow coming, tom? it could be tomorrow, and there s been a dramatic drop in temperatures since yesterday afternoon. now this morning they dropped into the teens and it s only recovered back briefly in the last hour to the low 20s. and it will only climb back to low 30s or so. the winds will diminish, and then we ll have some snow likely tomorrow. highs just in the mid 20s. sun back, still cold monday, two to four inches will be likely around northern virginia and our eastern suburbs tomorrow 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. traffic moving along nicely, we ll keep eye out for any midday road work. quick check elsewhere. travel lanes are open from montgomery village all the way down to the split. tonight on news4 at 5:00, blind dates in the nation s capital. can couples find captions paid for by nbc-universal television thank god it s friday. it is january 29th. so glad you re here with us today. sitting in for hoda, who is flying back home today is our good pal, donnie deutsch. great to see you, buddy. so, we ll be talking a little bit later about mid-life crisis and that sort of thing. you and i are relatively from the same generation. i don t mean to embarrass you, but in your dressing room you have a calendar and today there was a red x with hearts. i have no idea. no, you put it on your calendar. you and i are at a point in life where if you don t know what you are or what you re going to be by the time we don t care anymore. we all have fantasies. guess what you can get now. miss america paant is on tomorrow night. you can get you knew my fantasy. yeah. you can have your own crown, be miss america. you know that? if my little girls weren t in school, they would tell you that daddy likes to wear a tiara. what? when we re playing. what? not for social reasons. in my house, when we play pretty, pretty princess and if london wasn t in school, she would tell you that daddy likes to do this, but that s for another show. we would like to talk about that as we discuss our mid-life crisis a little bit later. meantime our president has a lile bit of a dilemma on his hands. the minute this was announced, that they were going to bring the trial here to manhattan to try the people they say are responsible, allegedly responsible for responsible. exactly. the excuse me that did it. okay. in the news you have to say allegedly. single worst decision i think i ve ever heard for all kinds of different reasons and so now i guess because of bipartisan support for this, for moving it he s going to have to really i guess make a decision to move it elsewhere. it s interesting. mea culpa, i said bring him to new york. but we don t need it in this city. we can t afford it. and obama, to his credit, will right the decision. tabloids usually say something different. it s bam blinks both times so there s true bipartisan support for that idea. all righty. what? little controversy coming up about the super bowl. okay. every year there s a certai amount of ad that is they can sell. you are the advertising guru. you made your name and fortune in the advertising world. fame. yes, i did. you no longer run your i m chairman. what s it like to be chairman of deutsch? deutsch bank. it s not quite, but it s great. we have a great firm. it kind of takes care of itself. you re there a couple hours each day? once in a while, you know. put on your advertising hat. yes. cbs has the super bowl this year and there is an ad that has been made by mancrunch.com, an all-male dating site. they wanted to run an ad during super bowl. cbs initially said all space was sold out. apparently there is some time available, but the site spokesperson says it s clearly a form of discrimination that we re getting the run-around, that we re not being told the truth. cbs has also accepted i don t think it s an anti-abortion spot. i think they see it as a pro-life spot that features tim tebow. there s two different ads. am i making that clear? there s a difference between advocacy and the commercial with the man crush. when i first saw the tebow ad, his mom comes on, i was in the philippines, the doctors told me i shouldn t have a child for medical reason, i had him and look at this son, he s an amazing person. when i first saw that, i said that doesn t belong in the super bowl. i m a pro-choice person. i said no, there s a conversation. but do all parents want to have that conversation with their kid during the super bowl? i don t know. now you get into the thing with two guys kissing. on one hand you go, i don t want to have to deal with that with my kids but maybe some people do. who is decide either we are free speech or not. you have to listen to commercial a for erection and the kid goes, huh, what s that? we put 100 people in this room and fcc tries to have certain standards but those are always questioned and people want to push the envelope. for the tim tebow thing, you said i m a pro-choice guy. aren t you proher choice too? yes, so i celebrate that position. it s not my position. maybe somebody who doesn t believe it s okay for two guys to be kissing, that s not your choice in life, but that s somebody else s choice. who is to say that doesn t belong on the super bowl? the other point of view. we get into a very dangerous thing if somebody says yes, you can put an anti-abortion are you we all have lines in different places. you have to have some sort of a standard. you re not going to make everybody happy. who makes that standard? i don t. i m not cbs. that s why we re having this discussion. they re going to lose either way. i know what personally offends me. i don t know what personally offends other people, especially when you re running a netrk and it s public airwaves. cbs doesn t own the airwaves. but if you re a little child of a same-sex marriage, what s wrong with seeing it? it s not like they haven t seen it before. that s our dilemma. we would love to know what you think, okay? please call. we re taking all calls, 1-800-kathie lee. we re here. yeah, for a really good time, 1-800 call kathie lee. or if you really want a good time, call donnie, and he ll wear his miss america tiara for you. extra charge for that. what about the mid-life crisis? you are how old? i started mine at 16 and still going through it at 52. 52? i think that honestly, we talked about this before. i feel better at 52 than i did at 30. i don t get that. we live in this world where men and women at 40 go what happened to my life and you get the sports car? that s from a different time when people s choices were a little more boxed in. you ve had the opportunity to have all your dreams come true. most people don t, men and women. most people s dreams, let s face it, don t come true. so, do you think it s different? you feel contented because maybe. you ve reached your xanadu, baby. but you re in a relationship right now. when you said xanadu, i don t know why that you are in a relationship. although you are technically single, you are taken. last time i was on, i said i was single, which means i m not married and my girlfriend check the box on every yeah, i m single. i am. i m in a committed relationship with you but i m still single. so, for the record, demographically, i would be sted as single but i m in a committed relationship. is that okay? you have a paradigm. i can t believe you re doing this to me. new kids on the block are coming up next. don t shoot me for this. you re going to come on and verify this. we got into a very heated i can t believe you re doing this. sara, okay. tiki barber was not in when i said this. it would have to be 60/20. i m going to put on my tiara. all right. we were talking about infidelities and whatnot, that kind of thing. once again, don t shoot the messenger. that you can do a bell curve with men. 20%, 60%, 20%. 20% of the men i believe are 1,000% faithful, have never strayed in their life. 20% on the other side what are you guys looking at? 20% on the other side, i ve seen this, are bad guys and cheat every day. they re dogs, just dogs. 60% of the men need to be spayed. here is the news. 60% of men love their families, are love their lives and maybe a few times during their life on a business trip stray because somehow they need that, come home and feel good. don t shoot the messenger. that s the statistic. it s a bell curve. 60% in the middle, which is the majority, and statistics show that, i ve never seen this room so quiet. it s probably statistically true. it s the truth. that s not what we want to hear. no, but it s the truth. we all want to believe in that true love that lasts forever. yes. you have that with your family, your mom and dad. my parents have been together 56 years. i had that with my mom and dad. that was another generation. i made mistakes in the past. i will be faithful this time. we all make decisions. but you might break up and go with another girl, too. people break up in that life. that s right. but while you re in a committed relationship. i will not do that again. you heard hit here. more importantly, your girlfriend did. we re going to go to everyone has a story. let s pause for a moment and listen to that voice, shall we? you write in every week, tell us your story. this is about ron huber. his wife, christy, wrote in to tell us his story, which is in a nutshell in 1996, ron was involved in a horrible, horrible, terrible accident when an 18-year-old boy ran a red light and hit ron s car. ron is a policeman. as a result of the accident, he suffered brain injuries, diabetes, post traumatic all kinds of things. but at the time it happened, he put his cop hat on, even in the midst of this horrible tragedy and injury and he went over and got the kid out of the car and held him until he died and rocked him and gave him solace. his wife wrote in about her husband. we have her on the phone. christy, are you there? i m there and i m crying. oh, christy, we wanted to do this story last month but because of the christmas holidays, we put it off. so, tell us about your beautiful husband. oh, he is the love of my life. and he has been through a lot but he just keeps trying and he cares about people and i am just proud to be his wife. i m humbled to be his wife. they got married when they were 17 and 18. talk about true love. have a wonderful trip to new york. we re so looking forward to seeing you. david and i have written a song for you that i hope you re going to love. oh, i can t wait. you and your husband are what it s all about. you talk about strength and we aspire to that kind of thing. you guys are heroes. god bless. we ll see you next week. okay. thank you. what are the people saying? are they all mad at donnie deutsch? no, but we re holding out that the new kids fall in that 20% amazing men. as a personal fan, i m psyched. giveaway, their deluxe set documentary, following them around the last two years. it will come in this awesome jewelry box, one fan, all signed and everything. was watching in the dressing room, too, and the today show features very prominently in this. they did make their comeback after 15 years right here on the today show. coming home, go to facebook wall and write come to my home and we ll pick one random fan. at the end? we can announce tomorrow. tomorrow, all right. thank you, sweetie. they are here, the new kids on the block, and they ll take us behind the scenes after this. in 2008, the very popular boy band, new kids on the block, reunited after a 15-year hiatus, playing to 140 sold-out arenas around the globe. wow, okay. all documented in a new dvd called coming home, which comes out next week. but the guys are all here today. they are jonathan knight that seems weird to introduce you to them. danny wood, donnie wahlberg, jordan knight. welcome back. did you think i can tell from watching the dvd that you guys were hesitant to come back, like scared after 15 years that maybe five people would show up on the plaza, right? how many people did show up? do you remember what the final count was? i think they said 20,000 or something like that. bruce springsteen must have been so upset, you know. he held the record before that, right? we actually talk about that whole thing, us getting ready to do this show on the dvd. yeah. so i have to tell you, stephanie jones, who i work with, who has seen every celebrity in the world, was so out of your mind that you guys were here today, she was with jay-z last week. she was like, no, punk. it s amazing your fan base has stayed with you. it has. you heard from them during your ensuing years, gone off and done solo type stuff, had families and you ve been busy b boys. yes. you had some sort of acceptance on a personal level, solo. but the group again, did you think there s just not an audience out there anymore? i think we sort of held on to the idea of respecting the group. we didn t do things that sort of sold it short throughout the years, we didn t take shortcuts and reuniting the band on some tv network. but people change and trends change and the music business changes every day. you had to think, gee, will our music still be relevant? i don t think we worried about the music being relevant as much as we thought there would be a time it might feel right for us again and hopefully it would be right for the fans again and it just so happened that it was right for them. 80 million records. on a personal note, was it hard all this fame as young people. it s on you and then it goes away. right. you guys have had to live this is a message for a lot of reality people out there and young stars right now. you re back with it, but i ve got to believe each one of your stories, that s a tough gig when the lights stop shining. how did you do it? i think, really, we want ed o kind of get away from it. you do get burnt out a little, don t you? it was so intense for four, five years when we were young kids that it was just natural to go away and kind of say, all right. what do i want to do with my life? yeah, there were ups and downs and tryi to figure out, you know, what life is really all about. but we had families and did the right thing. do you think you re a better group now, better group because you re matured? yes. all of you? yeah. you all think the same? definitely more seasoned. we re more seasoned, have more wisdom. i m a branded guy. the new concept, the new kids on the block, we might have to work on the new word now, just saying. we re going with the concept, 20, 60, 20. it s all in their late 30s, early 40s, any comments on that? the jewelry box, that s for 20% of our fans. we ve learned about our fans and maturity. 20% of them are super hard core and they want something like the jewelry box and 60% are regular fans, they walk through walmart or target, see the dvd and want to get it and the other 20% are medium. they re like the one whose kind of do it once and go home to the wife, you know what i mean? they want the deluxe in this movie. radio city, when is that? june 18th but tickets for radio city go on sale this saturday, tomorrow. great. thanks for always coming back. thank you. we feel like we re very much a part of all the success. send money, okay? how to get good customer service when we come back. we re back with today s consumer and how to get good customer service. believe it or not, it does exist. but where? we called in the experts, janice liebman is a consumer editor with readers s digest. ladies, whole lots of complaining going on, isn t there? absolutely. the toughest place is over the phone. yes. when you just feel like you re invisible to people. what can we do, janice? it is so frustrating out there, especially when they say it s a five-minute wait. if you have the option of pressing spanish, press that. because they all speak english anyway and they re all more available. oh. and when you get that person on the phone, i do i say use your radio voice, be real smooth and charming to kind of woo the person into getting what you want. don t start complain iing about how long it took to hang on the phone and what button you had to push. don t be nasty right off? no, they ll cut you off. you re in a restaurant. they bring the food. it s not right. the service isn t good. you don t want to be a jerk but you want to get what you want and you don t want them spitting on your food when they bring it back. my duck, it s not right. what do i say? be discreet when you re telling the person about what you don t like about it. if they can t help you, talk to the manager. don t make a big deal of it. don t make a scene? exactly. you need to be reasonable. are you asking for a new entree, a refund? do you want free dessert? you need to state your case and not scream like a crazy person. most people are not going to do that, though, are they? they ll quietly complain and never come back to the restaurant. that doesn t help anybody. okay. what about hair salons? the worst thing is when somebody is doing something to you and you re going you want to say, that s not what i want. what do you do? say it! but sa it nicely. again, the thing about etiquette is just making sure you put the other person at ease. you don t want to embarrass somebody. you just want to let them know i m not really about this. is there something else we can do? communicate well at the beginning. do you want a free haircut, do you want a correction from a different operator? i spoke to jim in hair downstairs. he said you have three days to complain about your color, no longer. you can t wait until the gray comes back and say it wasn t a good job. oh, okay. make sure you say something before you leave the store, don t give them a tip and walk out the door, then complain. are consumers feeling entitled to be jerks, in effect, i want it and i want it now? is there a different ethos between seller and sellee? starting to feel their power, but don t abuse that power. you have to treat people with decency and respect. what about not leaving a tip if you feel like you haven t had the kind of service you want is this. you don t have to. i asked jim also about the hair. he said, no, don t tip but tell the manager why you re not tipping so they don t think you re a jerk or you re cheap. i can t do it because exactly. in a restaurant, we have to think about the service in the restaurant. they re working for their tips. they re not making an hourly wage. you definitely want the tip to reflect the service. they also share the tip. exactly. it might be hurting the person who is doing a good job at the next table. absolutely. thank you, ladies. still to come, ambush makeovers, after your local news. coming up today at midday. what a difference a day makes, cold has moved in and snow is in the forecast. we have the latest on when it might hit us. also coming up on news4 midday, it s the end of an era, a popular radio personality signs off today. news4 midday begins in just a few minutes at 11:00 a.m. we re back on this friday with more of today and the results of our ambush makeovers. below-freezing temperatures could not keep the ladies away today, making it easy for our crack makeover team to find their marks. luis licari and us weekly contributor and author jill martin. there s a lot of work that goes into this. a lot of work. a lot of new kids on the block fans out there. lot of people to choose from. it was so cold, we had a lot of people. it was really great. we met people quickly and easily. the first lady we picked is heather duelly, 31 from pittsburgh. past ten years she s been working in the hotel business and spent the last three years as a hotel controller. she s busy devoting 110% of her to her 3-yearld son when she s not working. she usually color hers own hair, using a box from the drugstore rather than going to a salon. listen to her story. we re on a girl s trip here. before we do anything, we have to ditch that hat. what s up with that hat? my 3-year-old son packed this hat for me. you re a single mother and i know you want this makeover. tell us why. because i m a single mother of a 3-year-old son and i m 31 and just never had a makeover before. looking for a man. ooh, we love that. ditch this hat. that s our first step. i can t wait to get my hands on you, you re so pretty. are you ready to go? yes. we re going to help her find a man. her posse is over there, marcie, carla, kelly, katie, bunny and tina. one last look at heather. and let s bring the new heather out right now. wow! ladies, take off those blinds. oh, my god! wow! you are so chic. turn around and look at yourself, sweetie. smokin . oh, my god. you look amazing. oh, my gosh. wow! all right, luis. it s really, really stunning. the most obviously, physical change is the haircut. this great bob, which frames her face. you look so much more beautiful and younger and all of those wonderful things. chic. i gave you this hair color that s a little brighter and reer. have fun with your hair color. you can do it at home in less than an hour. it s easy as can be. wow, jill, that outfit, i m crazy about. any guys who want to date her, i m going to do donnie deutsch.com. if i haven t made the procla proclamation i made in the last segment look at this body on her. from macy s, it really highlights her figure. absolutely. the jewelry is great. jewelry is from macy s as well. great, heather. thank you so much. go, girl. who is our second lady, d donnie? our next lady is carla vickers. she is age 37 there she is, paula in the house. from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. mar married to husband ron for 15 years, two kids. when she s not working as a medical assistant, she s playing chauffeur to her two kids and her daily beauty utine consists of absolutely no makeup and throwing her hair in a ponytail. she is finally here with a new look. marcie, heather, katie, connie, bunny and tina. wait a minute. they re all from the same group. i m finally understanding this. let s hear her story. all right. now it s carla s turn. i think everyone needs to pipe in here why she needs a makeover. because she doesn t even know how to put makeup on. what is her uniform? she wears jeans and a sweatshirt to bed. and all the time. and i think your husband, rob, would like to change that a little bit. what do you think? oh, definitely. are you ready for a whole new look? heck, yeah. all righty. all right, darling. come on out. there she is before and here she is. here s carla. come on out, baby! wow! don t look. don t look. ladies, take off your blind folds. oh, my gosh! all right. take a look. i can take a look? oh, my god. that is a transformation, luis. you look gorgeous. first thing, she was born with blond hair, added highlights her whole life. it s ready for a change. 15 years of not doing a thing. so, we made a change. i made her this wonderful, soft, warm brown hair. highlights around the face. definite bangs and to accent her hazel eyes enid gave her greens and golds around the eyes to make everything pop. you look beautiful. thank you. love the outfit. we ditched the sweatshirt, got her a little leather. where is your whip, baby? and she s wearing heels. she doesn t usually do it, but from nine west. we re going to learn after the show. they have comfortable heels, really comfortable. they re padded at the btom. good job. you look beautiful. congratulations. come on over. heather, come on over. our reminder, next friday, ambush makeovers on our national wear red day. if you or someone you love has overcome heart disease we re offer ing a fresh new start. dressed in red on friday, wear red, and our ambush team might just choose you for a total head to toe makeover. we ll be back right after this. time for today s health and the surprising medical issues you re up against when you re overweight. this is very surprising. health magazine reveals obese women, some as little as 20 pounds overweight are not receiving the same medical treatment as those who aren t overweight. it s amazing. dr. roshini raj, the magazine s medical editor. lovely to see you. this was i guess when i first read it, i said this is stunning, shocking. but then i thought that s the way they re treated in our culture in general. yeah. so, what did your findings find? women were being discriminated because they re overweight, 70 million women are overweight and doctors aren t treating them the same. not being treated fairly or not getting appropriate treatment? that word is a different n getting appropriate treatment because doctors don t want to treat them as much as they do their normal weight patients. is theran attitude, dr. raj of, you ve got this problem because look at you? they re already guilted walking in when they re overweight. unfortunately doctors are not immune from bias like other people. and some doctors feel like you re obviously not motivated to take care of yourself when they see someone with this problem but doctors themselves aren t helping women with losing weight a lot of the time. i m confused, though. the discrimination, findings said, is because certain things don t show up in tests and there are more medical issues related to them going overweight versus a doctor going i m not going to treat you properly because you re overweight. there s a distinction there. there is. before we damn doctors and no, not all doctors. they re not getting the proper medical treatment because they re overweight and that s getting in their way? you re absolutely right, two things are going on. there are some doctors that are just biassed or having negative attitudes but certainly, donnie, you re right. the testing we do on an average-weight person isn t as good in an overweight person, cat scans, ultrasounds, we re not going to see as much. even when i examine a person, if they re very overweight, i may miss a heart murmur that i wouldn t normally do. they won t be diagnosed as well and treatments, as you said, are also not as effective. if they re not able to lose weight or not compelled to lose weight, what can a patient do, besides find a doctor that does not have a weight bias? first of all, you have to find a doctor who is not fat phobic. that s what i mean. how do you do that? you have to have a friend, maybe, who is heavy, who has a doctor that they love and then you go with that doctor. what if a doctor doesn t take this is insane. doctors, what they do for a living they took a hypocratic oath, i thought. doctors are under a lot of pressure. they have insurance companies they re not under pressure to treat people who are overweight. coming in, they re not as healthy so as a doctor, particularly who is seeing dollar signs you go i don t mean to be who has more needs. there s an irony here. it s not as clear cut. doct doctors are biassed. part of it is, you see a patient complaining of acid reflux. as a doctor, you re thinking it s because they re overweight. that s the problem. exactly and may not be paying attention to the symptoms, which is another thing that we need to talk about. yes. what happen sincere, doctors have a problem with seeing past the overweight. they want to ascribe everything to the patient the easy out? yeah. in a case like diabetes, though, it often is, isn t it? diabetes is the byproduct of diabetes in many cases. yes, it is. it certainly can. we found doctors are too quick to go for that reason. they want to find that it has something to do with the patient being overweight but in many cases it really isn t. why is it more difficult to detect cancer in overweight people? the test we usually use like mris, cat scans, are not possible on someone who is overweight, they literally can t fit in the machine or they can t show up as well. wow, one more thing that makes their life more difficult. one more reason to get in better shape. it s unfortunate. it is. people are, unfortunately, not treated the same in our society. it s unfortunate. it s not fair. dr. raj and melon, thank you very much. one more sad thing in our culture. up next, what? fun wa to get rid this is a good segue extra weight. to get treated better by a doctor. trends in fitness, after this. january is almost over, but your workout routine better not be. sara haines is here to give us the skinny on new york trends and hot spots that are guaranteed to make you is sweat. i m going to sweat. that s right. if you ve given up that resolution to exercise in 2010, i ve got three things that will pump you up again. you have soul cycle and then soul cycle with bands. uh-huh. what exactly is that? a soul cycle class is a full body workout. soul cycle bands is our exclusive revolutionary new class that will work your entire body, your back, your obliques, biceps, triceps, abdominals, the whole time maintaining fat burn ing cardio. you re telling me i m going to have a nice bootie after this? oh, hell, yeah. down and up. i love bikram but for those people who have not had a chance to try it, what exactly is it and what are the benefits? it s 26 postures and two breathing exercises and it s designed to work your entire body. from the inside out. how hot is it in there? i would like to say between 103, 105 maximum. the heat warms you up so quickly so that you can spend the majority of the class getting deeper into your postures. so these people are sopping wet. about how much water are you sweating out during class? when you complete this class, you could ring out all of your clothes. lean back, way back, lift your body up and grab your elbows over your knees. you re concentrating. massaging your internal organs. look up and fly. lift your entire body up off the floor. this one is for you, hoda. namaste. everything about this class is even if you re not in the new york area, you can do it because you have dvds. let s get started. start by bringing your knees up to your chest. z-57 is a series of exercises that strengthens and lengthens all your muscles. we ll do something called interval overlay. you start to shake, that s the overload, where you should be. the only thing i know about physique 57 is kelly rippa does it. she has a smoking hot bod. what are you going to do with this? no saddle bags. you want abs of stee i would take abs of metal. push up. ow. down and up. and up and you re out. all righty. so, what i like about that one is it changes all the time, from one thing to the next thing so you don t get board. right when you get relief, you go back in to pick your heart rate up and they take you back to the isometric. what was the hardest of the three? physique 57, which is the one i m going to show you. i can handle heat and cardio, but when it starts to hurt and you feel your muscles shaking i was a real baby. and the soul psycycle peoplee into crazy. what happened to weights? real stuff? this is a ladies show, okay? can i have my tiara for this? i m going to show you a couple of physique moves. wide second with the lasso. taking a natural turnout like a ballet dancer. donnie, watch kathie. we re going to go down a little bit and you re going to lasso. oh, yeah. right. donnie, what are your knees doing? you need to turn out wait, wait. turn your legs turn this out a little bit. oh, my god! turn your leg out, donnie. look at my legs. see this? oh, god, okay. now this. right. and then you re lasso ing. this is very telling that he can t do this. my body just doesn t it will just not do that. all right. we re out of time anyway. we ll be back with more of today on n four, five, six, seven. this is kind of fun. donn, want to thank you. the hip, keep going. have a wonderful week. hoda will be back on monday. thank the lord. i don t know how much more i could take of this. jennii garth and melissa gilbert could take of this. jennii garth and melissa gilbert next week. captions by vitac www.vitac.com r look look at t us today. therr there p mr. barry manilow. t i r i m your mini m this segment is taking a turn for the queaziy. i know. you know you made me give it up for mrs. ozzie osbourne, everybody. good morning! welcome to the happy hour of the today show. danny wood, donnie wahlber, joey mcintyre and jordan knight. that s for another show. hey, ricky, i don t know if you know this, but there are creatures from outer space right here in aruba, and they look just like real people. oh, really, i didn t know this. they re always smiling, relaxed, unnaturally friendly. and they ll do anything to lull you into feeling at home. it s inhuman, it s a trick, ricky. don t fall for it, i ve seen it in the movies. let me get you a drink. oh my god, they got him too.