Transcripts For WRC Today 20100220 : vimarsana.com

good morning. red storm rising. the new cold war on ice after russia s biggest hope for gold takes the silver. now an entire country is seeing red. tiger talks. what now after tiger woods reemerges and apologizes to those who he hurt. his prospects on the golf course and beyond. and olympic glory. american skier andrew weibrecht is here to tell us about his medal-winning performance in the super-g today saturday, february 20, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday morning. i m lester holt at the vancouver olympics. i m amy robach in studio 1a. lester, good to see you. it was another good day for team usa. great to see you as well, amy. it s been terrific for team usa here in vancouver. 20 medals and some real shots at more medals here as we go into the weekend. it s exciting. we have a lot to tell about you this morning, including a medal day for american skiers in the super-g. bode miller skied into the history books as he picked up the silver, followed by andrew weibrecht with the bronze. a fraction of a second separating the top three skiers. we ll talk with andrew weibrecht in a few minutes, lester. is it the cold war all over again? on thursday night american evan lysacek beat out plushenko. russians are now saying plushenko was robbed of the gold. we ll get intight from brian. a lot of people are wondering about tiger woods return to golf after his public appearance and apology. did anything change? we ll take a closer look at what he said and abouwhere he goes from here. but we begin here in vancouver with the latest olympic news. nbc s jeff rossen is here with all the action. good morning. lots of action to talk about. good to see you. with the fire and everything. nice, huh? the big news on friday, american bode miller, he won silver in the men s super-g, making him the most decorated u.s. alpine skier in olympic histy. another american took the bronze in that same event, a raise riddlriace riddled with terrifying crashes. reporter: he s been called the bad boy of skiing but bode miller came to play friday. the bode miller ride down to the finish line. reporter: miller won silver for his second medal here in vancouver. bode miller with the silver. reporter: making him the most decorated u.s. alpine skier in olympic history. super exciting. it s fun to on the right side of 0.001 of a second. reporter: it was a good day for team usa. andrew weibrecht won bronze in the super-g posting his best performance ever at a senior-level event. much like the women s downhill wednesday, there were jaw-drping crashes for the men. that s the italian skier. it looks like he s okay. reporter: two canadian hopefuls wiped out, too. he s down and out. reporter: but the worst of the day involved 40-year-old patrick yarbin of sweden. he was taken off in a stretcher with a mild concussion and bruises to his face. in the women s skeleton friday, pace pushed hard for a win. aerodynamic form. reporter: but ended up in fourth place missing a medal by a 0.1 of a second. the fact she competed was a miracle after a freak accident with a bobsled almost killed her four years ago. american hopefuls took to the ice for the ice dancing competition. that s the pair to watch, belbin and agosto, best friends and skating partners for 12 years. win or lose, they say they ll retire after these winter games. the ice dancing finals are coming up on monday. big day today in vancouver. lindsey vonn goes for another medal in the women s super-g. shani davis is back on the ice for speed skating. so is fan favorite, apolo ohno back on the ice as well. big day. u.s. men s ski team won silver and bronze in the super-g. andrew weibrecht is the bronze medalist, joining us from whit l whisler and congratulations. thank you very much. i only want to congratulate you on the medal, but for staying on your feet after watching jeff s report and all the wipeouts on the course. how did that affect you? yeah, i mean, i was one of of the first people down, so there weren t a whole lot of wipe-outs before i went. you know, i was happy to make it down. i knew it was going to be a difficult course. when i got to the bottom, i was happy about that. just because, you know, i kind of figured there was going to be a lot of dnfs. that was certainly an accomplishment for me. you know, just to start with. right. you re a guy who s never been on the medals platform at an elite event. here you are, the bronze medalist. you had some mistakes early in the run, so when you got down to the lower part of the run, was your feeling here, i m just going to hang it all out? yeah. i mean, you know, i started out i started out consistently at the top. and then, you know, skied well but wasn t really charging. and then i had a mistake. really started letting it go. yeah, i mean, like you said, i d never been on the podium before and i knew that i had to give it everything i had to make it, you know, where i wanted to go. you know, it was a great result for me. i was really excited. i feel like this has been building for a long time. i ve been close on the world cup a bunch of times. you know, finally everything sort of worked out and it came through for me. you know, i was pretty excited that this is where it happened. watching this race, and i see it time and time again in the olympics, it s remarkable how close some of these finishes are. you were 0.003 seconds separating you from first praise. when you got to the bottom of the run, looked at your score, what was it like to wch the rest of your skiers to see if you cod hang onto the position? yeah, i mean, i got down early, so i was a bit ahead when i got down there, but then, you know, waiting for all the other guys. there s a lot of close calls. you know, obviously, bode came down ahead of me, so it was fairly nerve-racking 45 minutes while i waited for everything to shake out. but, you know, i was surprised that i hung on. i was really excited that i did. you know, it s a great place to have my first podium finish. i was super excited. and to be on the podium with bode is and aksel is a huge honor. great competitors there. andrew weibrecht, congratulations. we re all proud of you and happy for your success. thanks for being with us. tnk you very much. thank you. now here s amy. thank you. the other big story we re following this morning, tiger woods, who had not talked publicly for just about tee months since driving his su vuchlt into a tree outside his home in florida. on friday, apologized repeatedly for his infidelities. kerry sanders joins us now from florida with more on that. good morning. reporter: good morning, amy. tiger speak for about 14 minutes. he apologized to his friends, he apologized to his fans and to his family. in fact, he mentioned his wife elin nordgren s name ten times. she was not here when he spoke. but tiger s world did begin to unravel after he crashed his car into a tree when his wife discovered text messages from another woman on his phone. the issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. i was unfaithful. i had affairs. i cheated. what i did is not acceptable. and i am the only person to blame. i stopped living by the core values that i was taught to believe in. i knew my actions were wrong, but i convinced myself that normal rules didn t apply. i never thought about who i was hurting. instead, i thought only about myself. reporter: now, after the statement, tiger hugged his mother, who said she whispered in his ear, i m so proud of you. never think you stand alone. mom will always be there for you and i love you. one of the women tiger allegedly had an affair with is corey, after she watched tiger woods statement she told nbc news, the women tiger lied to and exposed to risk deserve an apology. tiger is still in denial about his role in this. this morning tiger woods has returned to the treatment facility where he s been getting attention for sex addiction therapy. he d been there for 45 days and last night made his way back to that facility. thanks so much new . we want to look at how woods may reemerge as a trusted corporate spokesman. we re joined by darren rovell. good morning. reporter: good morning. among the many apologies we heard tiger woods make, most notably he apologized to his business partners saying his behavior had caused them, quote, considerable worry. how is the corporate world reacting to tiger woods remarks yesterday? reporter: obviously, he lost accenture and at&t. i will say the most troubling sign for the sponsors is he didn t give a date as to when he s coming back. that s when they can use him again. at the same time, i m sure nike and some of the other deals that he has, electronic arts, where they don t want him coming back if he s not fully prepared and can t be the tiger woods that they obviously loved and the reason they re paying him to begin with. nike and electronic arts both issued statements supporting him. now that he s spoken publicly, what does he have to do? can he win his other corporate sponsors back? reporter: well, i think it s going to take some time. i think this was just the first step, but he s going to have to do something else before he gets out on the golf course. and then he just does have to win. that s extremely important for, you know, the nikes of the worlds. nike pays him to win. they pay him to sell products. if he can t emerge as the old tiger woods, then they re probably not happy with their investment in him. we heard tiger talking about his wife, elin, saying she has, quote, shown tremendous grace in this ordeal. but she wasn t by his side. how big of a blow was that? reporter: from the marketing standpoint, i don t necessarily think it was a blow. you know, some people say that elin has to be with him for tiger to be the family man. but i don t think people paid tiger to be the perfect man or they use their products because he s the perfect man. they use the products because he s a winner. so whatever it takes. i mean, if they ultimately do get divorced, whatever it is, it has to come back to his golf game and him being a winner. that s the bottom line. what about tiger s decision for refusing to take questions? this was not a press conference. this was just a public statement. and yet he needed the media to get that statement out, without answering any questions. did that hurt him? reporter: i think people think that there has to be another step here. that this is just the first step. that there has to be an in-between, maybe in front of reporters, a day where he s talking to them. maybe the one-on-one. there s got to be something else before he returns to the course. so if you believe this is it, and then he s going to return to the course and he feels like he doesn t have to do anything else, i feel he does. and i think a lot of people feel he has to do more. darren rovell, we appreciate it. thanks so much. and now let s head over to the news desk where mika has the top stories. good morning. good morning, everyone. we begin with a confidential government report recommending the diabetes drug avandia be pulled from the market. the report obtained by the new york times says if every diabetic now takinging avandia were taking a different pill, there would be fewer cases of heart attacks and heart failure every month. the manufacturer glaxosmithkline has not responded to the report but in the past has said the drug is safe. the georgen luger killed on a practice run in olympics is being laid to rest today. nbc is live in his hometown with more on that. good morning, stephanie. reporter: good morning, mika. this is a very small, tight-knit community, only 3500 in population. people here tell us they feel like they didn t just lose an olympic athlete. they feel like they lost a member of their own family. in georgia coffins are hand-carried before burial to honor the dead. today this country honors a young man who was supposed to return with olympic glory. nodar kumaritashvili s death on the luge track shocked the world but his his family and this small country struggling the most with his loss. georgian officls and former athletes poured into this mountain village from around the country, including the president who wore the georgian olympic uniform. today the controversy over who is to blame isn t being openly discussed but georgian officials are waiting for the canadian police to finish their investigation. if the family agrees the minister of sports says their country will pursue legal action. it will take some time. we re talking about months and months. we re talking about maybe weeks, months. reporter: for now, the hometown and the country of georgia mourns. georgian olympic officials say they will make a concerted effort to support luge in this country. they don t want this tragedy to end one of their strongest traditions. thank you. the fbi is investigating a suburban philadelphia school district for activating laptop web cams inside students homes without permission. the school district gives all high school students computers but said it only activated web mes on laptops reported missing but one family is suing. the district, saying it was spying on students. finally, the perfect kicker story. they re usually predictably cute and fuzy. two kittens abandoned by their mother found an unexpected adopted mother. that s matilda, a chihuahua. she s a mother herself. only able to take in the kittens like only a mother can. back to the news. that is adorable. the weather channel stephanie abrams is in vancouver with a check of your weather. good morning, amy. good to see you. did you know the torch is on display? you can actually hold it. we have someone who did. was it heavy? no. it was inside. let s talk about our forecast here in the west. we are going to show you that here throughout the northwest in portions of vancouver it is going to be dry, cold for whisler, also into cypress. throughout the lower 48 it s the center of the country where we ll see the most active weather as we head throughout our day today on saturday. and a good saturday morning, everybody. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. we are off to a very pleast start around here this morning. plenty of sunshine getting through. an otherwise mostly clear sky. temperature, 35 degrees at national airport. 33, prince george s county. our forecast for today is going to be a pleasant one with some sunshine getting through. a little bit of a northwesterly breeze first thing this morning. later on today, high temperatures will fort. otherwise pretty mild into south florida. that s where we have our highs in the 70s. amy, back to you. stephanie, thank you. an olympic veteran is making a comeback on the mountain in vancouver taking part in a new sport that s a cross between a rolleroasteride and a nascar race. oh, and there s skiing involved as well. reporter: barelying down the mountain at a speed of up to 80 miles us per hour. is where darren feels most at home. he is one of the best alpine skiers of all time with 12 world cup titles under his belt. he has competed in three olympic games but has never made it to the medal stand. he retired after the 2006 winter games, only to be lured back into competition at the age of 36 by a sport making its olympic debut this year, ski-cross. we compare it to motocross, nascar and bull riding. reporter: in ski-cross, four skiers battle each other through a downhill-like course with banked corners and jumps similar to freestyle. crashes are notut othe norm. i m feeling more nervous in ski-cross because it s important to get out front. you want to avoid contact and going down. there s a lot on the line. reporter: what s the allure for you? what made you make the transition? in downhill racing you re flying off but it s dropping away from you. here you re hiing stuff right in your face. reporter: rahlves almost didn t make it to vancouver. last year he was injured in a crash at the winter x games. days after i caught up with him in lake mrplacid, new york. i m going to be prepared to go. mentally you have to be strong and willing to take the risk. i m not going to hold anything back. this will be my last chance. it s now or never. reporter: the chances of rahlves medaling is anyone s guess, but one thing for sure, this lake tahoe native likes the push the envelope and it s all downhill from there. as of this morning daron rahlves said he and his teammate, putnam, will both be at the starting gate tomorrow when ski-cross makes its debut. still to come, they re plugged in here in vancouver. what the athletes are listening back inside studio 1a do you see them? the white cords sticking out of lago s helmet? they re a give away that he was lynning to his ipod during his snowboard run. that got us thinging, what do athletes listen to before and after their events? the answers may surprise you. please don t stop the music reporter: skiers, skaters, snowboarders. if there s one thing that everyone seems to have in common, it s a love for music that puts you in the mood to fly. oh, he hits the first of two. so what s in my ipod? i got some rancid in there, no effect. guns n roses, iron maiden. elton john. blue jean baby reporter: for some, the music matches the image. my ipod has lady gaga. pussycat dolls. anything fun and cheesy and wonderful, i love it. reporter: fun, expressive and fearless. i m embarrassed by nothing. i have no shame. so even if i got britney spears or the macarena, so what? it s on my ipod. in general it s christina aguilera. reporter: as a soundtrack, some like louie veto insist on rap. gam, eminem. reporter: some play music to get pushed up. nirvana, anything fast and loud. reporter: while others use it to stay calm and focused. i like more relaxed music. it keeps me calm. john mayer and u2, coldplay, stuff like that. reporter: like bronze medalist kelly clark love me reporter: some just sing along before it s time to fly. huge opening frontside. reporter: even exotic instruments and musicians most people haven t heard of. on my ipod is xavier rudd. you know, it s that music and you re like, i feel good listening to this. reporter: whatever s playing, those little earbuds have become practically standard equipment. some of america s top athletes say good tunes is something they can t win without. thank goodness for the ipod. i don t know what we did before there was music to pump us up. lester, u.s. figure skater evan lysacek said he listened to his ipod to get pumped up before hitting the ice. as you know, he won the gold medal on thursday night. we should find out what he was listening to. yeah, whatever works. we re working in very close quarters here so a lot of us are wearing our ipods here. it s generally things to wake you up, very loud music. sometimes just to able to concentrate, i get it. lester will be back right after this. a cold day on this february, 7:26 right now. very wintry outside. wintry and wonderful because it is not in the teens. chuck bell will talk more about that. good morning. i m kimberly suiters. the investigation into the anthrax attacks more than eight years ago is officially closed. vi inve they say bruce ivan was responsible. they focused on who had access to the strain of anthrax. they were ready to indict ivins but betook his own life. maryland state police now have a suspect in the murder of a teacher on the ground of at youth offender facility in prince george s county. police are questioning a teenage inmate in connection with the murder of 65-year-old hannah wheeling. her body was found outside a building that houses low-risk offenders at the youth facility thursday morning. a good saturday morning. i m chuck bell. we are off to a pleasant start. temperatur milder than average. now in the mid-30s around town. 35 in downtown, itself. 35, capital heights as well as district heights. 33, prince george s county. 34 degrees in sterling and chantilly. 36, manassas. forecast for today, plenty of sunshine, fair weather clouds drifting in. breezy, temperatures in the mid-40s. more sunshine for tomorrow. sbl. coming up on news4 today at 9:00, we are live again in vancouver. a full hour of news, weather and sports. more local news in 25 minutes. we re back on this saturday morning, the 20th day of february, 2010, with a look at the olympic flames burning brightly in downtown vancouver. i m amy robach inside studio 1a. lester holt is in vancouver. coming up, the show that shocked the world, the tiger woods scandal. on friday woods made a very public apology, saying he s the only one to blame for his mistakes saying, quote, i was unfaithful. we ll take a look at his apology, his future in golf and the future of tiger woods. then it s what some have called the vonncouver olympics. now it s time for today s race, the super-g on tap. coming up, we llake a look at the event, thenjury troubling vonn early on and his chances for a repeat on top of the podium. former olympian pwill give us a insight. many of the animals you see on tv, movies and commercials come from the winter games, including this big guy. you ll meet a few of the animals coming up later in the smoep show. rorter: they have their own agents and things like that. first, let s talk about the rival ary between russia and the united states. it s back in full force during these olympic games. evan lysacek won gold, but the american star s triumph sparked an uproar in russia and an angry reacti from plushenko s coach saying the skater was robbed of a second consecutive gold. reporter: a week of frustration spilled onto the ice after russia s biggest hope for gold, figurer skate evgeni plushenko came in behind lysacek. before a quad, the most difficult jump. plushenko took the silver, lysacek at the gold. plushenko stepped first on the gold medal platform and then for lysacek. it seemed light-hearted but this was only the beginning of his and russia s protest. later at a direct swipe at lysacek, plushenko complained on russian tv that you can t be a true olympian without a quad. to me it s not progress it s a regress. then russian prime minister vladimir putin entered, saying your silver is worth gold. you performed the most accomplished program on the vancouver ice. plushenko s ice was in tears and russians back home were seeing red. the russian public is fuming. across the country, people believe he s been robbed. anger also growing in russia over the country s paltry medal count in an international competition that was once a showcase for the soviet union s dominance in winter sport. but those days are over. russia had tremendous amounts of money for their athletes during the soviet period. they ve lost that. they economically fell apart and they lost that. reporter: lysacek took the high ground. i was disappointed that someone that was my role model would take a hit at me. i guess, in probably one of the most special moments of my life. reporter: today russia remains mired in the middle of the medal table. but russians are saying anything under fourth place is a total failure. in 1998 brian botano won gold. brian is here with his take on lysacek versus plushenko. good morning. good to see you. good morning. this isn t good for the sport. this conversation that s going on. no, it s not good for the sport. you know what, the way i look at it, you know, evan s program was about strategy. it s not that he can t do a quad. he chose not to. with the new judging system, it s all about cumulative points. evan was smarter at playing the game. he skated well. he placed the jumps where they were going to get more points. it was a strategy and good coaching. but that s not to say you re not a big advocate of introducing the quad? i definitely believe people should push boundaries. i definitely believe in the athletic side of male figure skating. but at the same time, when you look at it, it s just that evan had a better night. i mean, even so, plushenko did not have a good night. performance, performance, he did a better performance. absolutely. plushenko was shaky all through the performance. if he wouldn t have, he probably would have ended up winning, if he wouldn t have been shaky. let s look ahead, if we can, to the american women. there s not been a lot of buzz about them having medal chances but we keep hearing about u.s. national chances rachael flatt, reliable. i m wondering does that put her in a position if somebody makes a mistake, her reliability could put her on the podium? i think so. she s earned the national title she has. she s performed so well in competition. she s, you know, such a great champion because she is so consistent. she s able to go out there and deliver every single time. so this might open a door for her. if other girls make mistakes ahead of her, she can flip in and get into the intaish into medal contention. nagaso, she s been winning the hearts. she s young, but how does that position her? she s young, her first olympics. she s coming in very green. sometimes that takes all the pressure off your shoulders. she s a great all-around skater. she not only does the flexibility stuff, she does the jumping, she does the spinning, she has everything it takes to be a good champion. what will it take to get either of the on the medal stand? i think they need to focus on skating their best. i mean, honestly, it kills two birds with one stone if you skate your best. and then you wait for people to see what happens ahead of you, to see if the other women slip up and they could slide in. when you talk about the other women, south korean s, it s hers to lose. she s amazing. whef you hear that, whenever someone comes in with that much push, like plushenko did, you wonder if that s just too much. it s just going to be too much pressure for her. she s a big star in her country. that alone is a lot of pressure. but to have this everybody expecting a gold medal for sure from her is even more pressure than, you know, you can imagine. folks are looking at her, looking ajapan asada. they re being compared to the old rivalry you had with brian orser, the battle of the brians. is that a compare comparison? i think so. they ve both been on top of the pack in different years. now it s down to this final meeting place. and i think it s probably compared because ours was in calgary, this is in vancouver. she s coached by brian orser, so i think that makes it more interesting. figure skating is very hard to handicap because you mentioned the judging system. there always seems to be a controversy. it s really kind of hard to predict this, isn t it? it really is. it depends on the night, it depends on the magic in the building, it depends on the energy, so many things. the concentration level, how well someone s trained, if they re feeling great when they step on the ice. it s not it s a snow ball that can get out get speed and get going. a lot of excitement building. it s going to be really, really fun. thank you. don t go far. i m not. i understand you re quite the chef. we re cooking. we re cooki. you re going to give us recipes that we can eat, perhaps, while we re watching the big hockey match on sunday. look forward to that coming up later in the broadcast. first, another check of the weather from the weather channel s stephanie abrams. you have to see this guy s face. how long did this take you? about 35 minutes. that s it? this is your look every day, right? yes, it is. every day, this is how he looks when he walks out the door. let s have a look at our weather and find if rain will wash makeup off your face. it looks like it will in southern california. we have a system pulling through. that means unsettled weather in southern california. also snow as we head into th in rock a good saturday morning, everyone. news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. plenty of sunshine out there. in our early morning sky on your weekend. temperatures are in the mid-30s now around washington. 35 downtown. 34 degrees in fairfax city this morning. 33 degrees in leesburg, virginia. 29, martinsburg, west virginia. a little bit of a breeze blowing. the winds will pick up more for the late morning and spot. mid-70s into miami. otherwise, you can see in arizona, we are talking 60s in phoenix. amy, what do you think, forget about this kind of makeup, we ll go the way vaughn does it from now on? i think so. thanks much. still ahead, tiger woods finally speaks out. did he say what he needed to and did his apology go far enough? we ll find out. up next, the face of vancouver hits the slopes again todayor her third race. lindsey vonn tries for a second gold. i felt this deep lingering pain that was a complete mystery to me. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia muscle pain and then he recommended lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of over-active nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is fda-approved to help relieve the unique pain of fibromyalgia. and with less pain, i can do more during my day. how sweet is that? lyrica is not for everyone. tell you doctor about any serious allergic reaction that causes swelling or affects breathing or skin, or changes eyesight including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. lyrica may cause suicidal thoughts or actions in a very small number of people. some of the most common side effects of lyrica are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands and feet. do not drink alcohol while taking lyrica. you should never drive or operate machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. if you think you might have fibromyalgia, ask your doctor about lyrica. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! 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. honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. she is the face of the vancouver games, alpine skier lindsey vonn. her first two events are completed with one gold medal around her neck. what can we expect today? nbc s peter alexander is live with that answer. good morning. this should be interesting. reporter: yeah, it should be interesting. good morning to you from what is a cool but comfortable whisler this morning. there have been 12 alpine medals handed out during these games, six to americans, including one gold in the downhill to lindsey vonn. her other best event, the super-g is today. to succeed, she s going to have to put her best foot forward and overcome an injury that may still haunt her. reporter: carving up the course and hoping to etch her name in history. she ll need to avoid the same mistake that cost her a return trip to the podium the next day. when she clipped a gate and crasd in the women s super combined. she hooked the tip and she is out of the race. reporter: the 25-year-old already celebrated as the best american female skier ever said she didn t hold anything back during the race. i don t do that very often, unfortunately, so i m disappointed i did that. definitely, gave it all i had. reporter: vonn is sharing the alpine stage with hereammate and long-time rival julia mancuso who has two silver medals already at these games with two more events still ahead of her, including the giant slalom, where she won gold in torino. i really felt it was painful reporter: vonn is nursing the most talked about shin in the world, with a deep bruise that initially had her debating whether she would even compete at these games. at first, weather delays gave the two-time world cup champion a badly needed break. helping her heal before becoming the first american woman ever to win the downhill. vonn told matt lauer she kept her focus on the course, not on the pain. i was more focused on just trying to, you know, have a good run and hang in there. it was a bumpy course. just trying to fight my way down. reporter: while she s still a contender in each of her final three events, this skiing cover girl says her olympic dream has already been fulfilled. from here on out it s just anything else is a bonus. so, i m going to ski with confidence and with no more weight on my shoulders. and hopefully that means more results. lindsey vonn takes the lead. reporter: by the way, if you think they have no time for anything but sport, get this, lindsey vonn received a tweet, a twitter message, saying my cousin bet me $50 lindsey vonn would not tweet me back. laugh out loud. help me out. within the same hour, vonn replied, ha, ha, i hope you get the 50 bucks now. i d call that a pretty good investment. amy? absolutely. nbc s peter alexander, thanks much. now here s lester. all right, amy. thanks. olympic gold medalist picabo street joins with us a look at lindsey and her quest for three more medals. good morning. great to see you. good morning. before we talk about the furl future, receipts go back to the slalom when she clipped the gate. was it a matter of her health or simply bad luck? it wasn t a matter of her health at all. she was skiing aggressively, she was attacking the course. what happened, as soon as she rolled over that knoll, she was looking so far dow the course it made it difficult to put her skis on it. it happens. it s the smallest of margins. a lot of excitement and buildup to the super-g. is dh her race to lose? absolutely. is this the one she does really well in. absolutely. she s the one to beat. she s been dominant in downhill and super-g. the her race to lose today. the course is hard, bumpy, rattly, like she said. the thing about the super-g, it s a fresh look at this piece. they re racing the same hill, but they have a whole new set for the super-g. 30 changes of direction in the super-g, start to finish. more technical she ll have to maneuver which will challenge that right leg. but you don t get a practice run. that s the spectacular thing about super-g. you get one inspection look in the morning and then you have to put your nose in it and go. and watch your life flash in front of you. let s talk about julia mancuso. she s had a great run here. two silvers right now. did anyone expect that? i think she did. i think you can honestly say that she s a fighter inside. she s a big gamer. she knows how to throw the switch and step up to the gate. she s been battling back injuries. she s had a couple of mediocre seasons so she came in under the radar. but she knows that when you come to the liolympics you re racing about half as many people than out on the world cup. she sees that as an opportunity to pounce. i love the excitement. she s a role model for the next generation. she and lindsey have been looking over each other s shoulders for a long time. how would you describe that rivalry? they re rivals. they ve been thrown into the meat grinder for a lot of years together. there s some animosity there, some envy. but, you know, julia has stepped up. so it will be interesting to watch these two. i have to ask you about the safety of this course. there s been a lot of complaints it s bumpy, people taking falls. i think bottom line what you re seeing up there, it s a radical course. you want that excitement but you have the hammer dropped when you re in fifth gear, it s the olympics and people are going for it. you see some of the smart ones tiptoeing their way down but the ones who really want it have the hammer dropped and that stuff happens. it comes with the territory. picabo street, great to have you on. we ll take a break. we ll be back with more after these messages. afoot in this country. a student-led revolution. people like me think it s time higher education was held to a 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(announcer) ask your doctor about pristiq. to treat my depression. when your eyes are smiling. you re smiling. and when they re laughing. you re laughing. be kind to your eyes. with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see your whole day comfortably. and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. today s olympic moment is brought to you by coca-cola. this morning on today s olympic moment, bode miller, just a few gates into the super-g friday, bode miller started to pick up speed, getting down the mountain than anyone in the field until svindal from norway beat him by a fraction. denied his first gold medal, bode wound up with the silver, making him the most u.s. decorated alpine skier in olympic history. what a moment for him after the letdown in torino. it sreat to see him performing the way he is. the top three finers were like that, within a split second. it is remarkable. it shows how great and fantastic all of these olympians are. it remind me of torres loosing the smer race if i had to sit on a bench during the middle of a game due to diabetes it would frustrate me. in a basketball game a couple minutes could mean a big momentum shift. my bayer meter is very important. 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(announcer) for five generations, with a name like smucker s, it has to be good. with two scoops! of raisins harvested at the peak of sweetness, and golden flakes of bran with 28% of their daily fiber, nothing gets your family s day off to a brighter start. than the goodness of kellogg s raisin bran cereal. feed their sunny side. that s why nature s bounty makes. a full line of high-quality vitamins, like fish oil for heart health. go to naturesbounty.com now for a $2.00 coupon. nature s bounty. perfect for every body. it s saturday, february 20th. a live look outside in the nation s capital. we are not in the teens but still cold and windy. good morning. i m kimberly suiters. it s 7:56 right now. a look at news. the investigation into the anthrax attacks that terrorized the nation more than eight years ago is officially closed. they say researcher bruce ivins was the only one responsible for the attacks. they were able to identify the specific strain of anthrax used. maryland state police have a suspect in the murder of a teacher on the grounds of a youth offender facility in prince george s county. police are questioning a teenage inmate in connection to the murder of 65-year-old hannah wheeling. now, to vancouver. americans have won 20 medals, germany in second place with 13 medals. norway in third. canada in fourth place with eight medals, not that anyone is counting. chuck s forecast is coming up next. let s check in with meteorologist, chuck bell. it is a fairly nice saturday. off to a quiet start. temperatures are seasonably cold down into the mid-30s across northern virginia and suburban maryland. 35 in upper northwest washington at the friendly peacock. 29 degrees in the panhandle of west virginia. from martinsburg to charlestown. winchester, 33. front royal, 32. culpepper, 25 degrees. a litt bit of a northwesterly wind out there. it has the windchills in the mid to upper 20s. highs today, mid to upper 40s. tomorrow, another high in the 40s expected for tomorrow. on the whole, though, a pretty decent stretch of weather coming our way. a lot of melting today and tomorrow. rain showers come our way monday afternoon and evening. could have a little bit of light snow in the mountains with that system. should pull out of the day on tuesday. another chance for rain, perhaps a little bit more in the way of a snow chance as we get towards thursday. kimberly, back over to you. rain and 40s, a bunch of melting this week. plenty of melting coming our way for the next couple of days. thank you, chuck. coming up on news4 today at 9:00 a.m., we are live in vancouver for the final weeks of the winter olympics. a full hour of news, weather and sports coming up then. we will see you at 9:00. welcome back, everyone, to today on a saturday morning. it s february 20, 2010. i m lester holt up on grouse mountain at the vancouver olympics. amy robach is in studio 1a in new york. i have some friends here and they want to say good morning to you. hi, amy. hello, everyone, in vancouver. good morning, lester. it s been a pretty impressive start for team usa. for per peculiartive on how well they re doing in vancouver, four years ago in torino, the u.s. won a total of 25 medals. already at these games the americans have won 20 medals. we re talking just the first week alone. that s incredibly impressive. very impressive. especially when you think of some of the medal competitions still to come in which the americans may perform very well. also coming up in half hour, we ll meet a couple of americans who are doing their part to add to that medal count. they are identical twins, skating almost as one on the u.s. women s hockey team, which has made it into the semifinals. we ll hear from them coming up. then the latest on the tiger woods scandal. he broke his silence, apologizing for hurting his family and friends. he acknowledges he s been in therapy trying to deal with his issues. this morning we ll take a closer look at whate said and his prospects for resuming his career. but first, we to want catch you up with what s been happening here at the olympic games in vancouver. and nbc jeff rossen joins us with more on that. you never told me the fire pit, you have to dodge the flying embers. yeah, your scripts could catch fire. americans took the silver and the bronze in the men s super-g yesterday. one of those americans made olympic history. another american fought back from an injury. and, oh, yes, there s ice dancing, too. bode miller, come on! reporter: he s been called the bad boy of ski, but bode miller came to play friday. the bode miller ride. reporter: miller won silver for his second medal here in vancouver, making him the most decorated u.s. alpine skier in olympic history. it was a good day for team usa. american andrew weibrecht won bronze in the super-g, but much like the women s downhill wednesday is he going to make it? reporter: there were jaw-dropping crashes for the men, including this one involving the swedish skier, who suffered a mild concussion. in the women s skeleton, noelle pace pucked hard for a win, but ended up in fourth place, missing a medal by 0.1 of a second. late friday night, american hopefuls took to the ice for the ice dancing competition. that s the pair to watch, tanith belbin and been agosto, best friends and skating partners for 12 years. the ice dancing finals happen in prime time on nbc on monday. a big day today here in vancouver, lindsey vonn appears in the women s super-g, going for another medal. shani davis is back on the ice, lester, and so is the fan favorite, apolo ohno. this get more fun. next time bring marshmallows. i m throwing them in. now the bonfire. jeff rossen, thanks. we to want get a check of the other headlineso let s go back inside studio 1a and say hello to mika. good morning. good morning once again, everyone. the georgian luger who died on a practice run at the vancouver olympics is being laid to rest in his hometown. stephanie live in georgia with more on that story. stephanie? reporter: good morning, mika. you know, this small community has a long history of winter athletes. today they had to say good-bye to one of their youngest. nodar s coffin was carried through the streets by family and friends and laid to rest at a church in his hometown. georgian rulers flew in to partake in the ceremony, including georgian president. he was actually wearing the georgian olympic uniform during the ceremony. there s been little talk today about the controversy over who is to blame for this tragedy. but georgian officials tell us they re waiting for the investigation to conclude. and when they have the result from those investigation and the family support, they say they y pursue legal action. to one we ve spoken to in this country, in general, has told us they think nodar was inexperienced. mika? nbc s stephanie gosk, thank you very much. the wife of a pilot who slammed his plane into an irs building in texas is speaking out. cheryl stack expressed her sincerist sympathy. she and her daughter suffered a fire in their home they believe stack set before he got into the plane. space shuttle endeavour is on it s way home after this ten-day mission. the international space station is now 98% xleelt. the shuttle is expected to land tomorrow night. finally, look out, shaun white, a pint sized snowboarding wonder in iowa named wesley. he s only 3 years old. look at him. he s been doing this for two months. he hits the slopes, apparently, several times a week and has his own version of the halfpipe. i like it. that s cute. that s the news. now back to amy. see, it s that lower center of gravity. that s what helps those 3-year-olds. thank you. the weather channel s stephanie abrams is in vancouver with aheck of your forecast. good morning. amy, i have the inside scoop on where to get these red gloves. you don t have to wait three hours in line. where do you go? brentwood town center. so you get out of downtown, right? out of downtown, go to the mall. they have them right there. there you go. forget about waiting four blocks down in a line in downtown vancouver to get them. let s show you, if you re going shopping and maybe have long lines where you re located, how the weather is going to be if you re standing outside. across much of the east coast it is going to be dry for our day today. the center of the country and the southwest is where the rain will be located. the second half of our weekend?? it d good saturday morning. i m news 4 meteorogist, chuck bell. bright sunshine out there. a bit of a northwesterly breeze is blowing. look at the flags aflapping away out there on the opposite side of the river from the john f. kennedy center for the performing orts. on the whole, we are looking for a chilly day today. temperatures are going to remain in the 40s. 42-48 for a high temperature range todx. our highs will top out into the lower 60s, the 50s throughout the northwest. amy, she s all yours. stephanie, thank you. and now to tiger woods and what the future might hold for the disgraced golfer who apologized on friday for what he called his irresponsible and selfish baseball. we re joined now from florida with kerry sanders. reporter: good morning. this morning tiger woods has returned to the clinic where he s undergoing treatment for sex addiction. here he spoke about his mistakes, he knows there are no excuses and says going forward he knows he will be judged by his actions. tiger woods read a statement in i quiet of a north florida golf course clubhouse. i want to say to each of you simply and directly, i am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior i engaged in. reporter: he orchestrated this highly controlled setting to read his first on-camera comments about infidelities and reportedly more than a dozen women. for all that i have done, i am so sorry. i have a lot to atone for. reporter: the once squeaky clean golf a cicon surrounded himself with a friendly crowd, mother, business associates. the one person not there, his wife, elin nordgren. elin and i have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior. the issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. i was unfaithful. i had affairs. i chted. reporter: during his almost 14-minute long statement, tiger mentioned his wife elin s name ten times. only three wire service reporters were allowed to enter the room where tiger spoke. the point that really struck me was the fact that when he made his apology, he was looking at individuals in the room. he looked at his mother, he looked to the back to his agent, he looked around to executives and his buddies from the pga tour. so, it was an apology that seemed to me to be coming from the heart. reporter: after the event, tyinger and his mother embraced. the associated press reporter in the room says she told her son, i m proud of you. never think you stand alone. mom will always be there for you, and i love you. one of the dozen-plus women tiger woods allegedly had an affair with says after watching tiger woods statement she s told nbc, the women tiger lied to and exposed to risk deserve an apology. tiger is still in denial about his role in this. amy, golf fans had hoped to hear when tiger woods would be returning to the game professionally. but he did not say when that will happen. thanks so much. for more on tiger woods, his troubles and his career prospects, i m joined by steven a. smith, sports columnist for the philadelphia enquirer and in vancouver by darren rovell, cnbc sports business reporter. good morning to both of you. i know you ve been outspoken about what you think tiger need to do to restore his reputation. that said, how do you think he did with his statement yesterday? well-being i m in the minority because i don t think he was impressive at all. i don t think he came across as authentic. i think it was more of an infomercial and i certainly wasn t buying what he was selling. definitely the words he used was apropos. it was all written, based on the papers in front of him, and how he kept turning to read every word. you know, his focus into the camera and all that stuff, those pauses. there was nothing about it that came across as authentic or sincere to me. i think heed what he had to say. i think he was completely annoyed he had to be there. ultimately what it comes down to is he was about resurrecting his image because that s what s most important to him and that s what he was doing. darren, he did speak directly to his business partners, many sponsors dropped him. a few stayed with him. a few offered statements of support following this conference. what do you think he needs to do, though? can he win back his sponsors who have dropped him, darren? reporter: well, i think he s lost some money in terms of he s not the squeaky clean guy. he definitely got a premium in sponsorships because he was that squeaky clean guy. no he has to return to the course. first of all, he has to make amends and people have to trust him again. but he has to return to the course and be the tiger woods that nike, ea tag paid him to be, which is to win. it was interesting during the press conference, we heard the report that he mentioned his wife elin s name ten times, but very notably she was not in the room standing by his side. did that matter? how much does that matter? well, it mattered she wasn t there. if she had been there, it would have been another disaster. number one, you had put her through enough humiliation. for her to be there, i think it would have gotten negative reviews, big time. not only that, he would have come across as incredibly insensitive, even more so, because by having her there, it s not like you had one affair. you admitted to multiple affairs. there are reports that he was with porn stars, having unprotected sex, having women in his home while she on the road, during the time she was pregnant. i don t think it would have been wise at all to have her wife there. i think it was apropos that neither one was wearing a wedding ring. i thought it was authentic and real from that perspective. darren, you said you don t think tiger needs to save his marriage to save his reputation, but wouldn t that help? reporter: i don t know. i think that might be overplayed by marketing people who don t really speak to insiders. the insiders i ve spoken to suggest that it s about tiger woods coming back and winning. it s not about basically putting on a sham. if the marriage isn t there, tiger shouldn t try to go through with it for a couple years and figure it out for marketing purposes. i ve been told by real insiders that that s not what they want. they want tiger to be forgiven in the eyes of the public. and they want tyinger to win again. darren, is absolutely on the money. i ve spoken to several people in the marketing industry and they actually suggested this, tiger would have looked better had he come out without a written scripted, mechanical speech. and he would have said, listen, i ve got some troubles. obviously my marriage is in trouble, through nobody s fault but my own. i m interested in getting back on the course, bng the greatest golfer in the world. i want to win. i want to be the best father i can be. at the same time, i m in the process of getting a divorce because, clearly, i m not up to the you know, to the responsibility and the accountability of being a husband. i m not ready for it. it s clear i m not ready for it. and elin deserves better. a lot of people felt had he sent that message, it would have been absolutely perfect. steven a. smith, darren rovell, we appreciate it. we ll be back after these messages. you take just once a month. it s simponi™, and taken with methotrexate, it helps relieve the pain, stiffness, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi™, your doctor should test you for tb and assess our risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you ve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you re prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start simponi™ if you have an infection. 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(announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop. it can be tough living with copd. but i try not to let it slow me down. i go down to the pool for a swim. get out and dance. even play a little hide-n-seek. i m breathing better. with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open. to help me breathe better all day long. and it s not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, have vision changes or eye pain or have problems passing urine. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate, as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take, even eye drops. side effects include dry mouth, constipation and trouble passing urine. every day could be a good day to breathe better. announcer: ask your doctor if once-daily spiriva is right for you. today s medal count is brought to you by edward jones. join the nearly 7 million investors who know. face time and think time make a difference. with one week of the olympic winter games completed, the.s. is leading the medal count with 20, followed by germany and norway. the u.s. women s hockey team has skated its way into the semifinals here on monday. they ll play sweden, which upset the americans in the semifinal round in torino four years ago. but this year team usa is being helped by a twin threat. reporter: since they were little monique and jocelyne lamoureux have left competitors seeing double. it s not just because they are identical twins, but because they present a double threat on ice. first thing that comes to mind, extremely competitive. reporter: isome ways, olympic training camp where jocelyne and monique began years ago in north dakota, out of the tutelage of their four hockey-playing big brothers. they knew if they could keep up with them,hey could keep up with anyone. we went in the house crying. our mom would be like, that s what you get for playing with the boys, so you better toughen up. you tnk these two don t like each other? take a look at this. that s definitely where our competiteness came from. reporter: the nonverbal connection between twins has been well documented. on the ice that sd that work well when you re playing together? i think so. we ve played together in every sport growing up. there s no exception to hockey. we pretty much know where each other is at. reporter: like most twins, monique and jocelyne are very close. they take the same classes at the university of north dakota. they tried out for the olympic team knowing one or both might not make it. our dream has always been to make it together. especially for our parents. i mean, one of us makes it, our parents would be excited. so it s always been together and always been our goal. reporter: the team spent much of the early winter in the minneapolis area, training on the ice and in the weight room. they even shared a house. as a team, usa women s hockey has given up some ground since its 1998 gold medal victory in nagano. they took silver in 2002 and bronze if torino. they re now led by retired nhl veteran mark johnson, whocored two goals in the 1980 games as part of the legendary gold medal winning team. everybody remembers the two weeks in lake placid but the six weeks training, there were a lot of wonderful memories, great friendships and i want this group to understand when we get to vancouver. it s not a dress rehearsal. you don t get a second chance to win a medal. reporter: monique and jocelyne already know a little something about lasting bonds. symbolized by the family tattoo. five of us have it. reporter: what does it show? it has six hearts for the six of us and then it s a half canadian maple leaf and half star. my dad is canadian. on the bigger version there s wings that says lamoureux. for us to be a part of this team is amazing. the experience of a lifetime i don t think any of us will forget. we want to win a gold medal. reporter: after my interview with them, they whipped out their flip cam and interviewed me for a class assiment. i hope they get an a in that. i hope they get a gold on the ice. prime time coverage of the vancouver olympics begins tonight at 8:00 eastern here on nbc. we ll be back if a moment. still to come on today, we will meet the wolves, the bears and the birds they call grouse mountain home. plus, we re in for a treat this morning. canadian gold, we re talking canadian beer. a delicious taste test coming up. first, these messages. is that little cup really enough? try it!! now that s what i m talking about!! [ female announcer ] sometimes u get so much out of so little, like charmin ultra soft. it s soft and more absorbent, so you can use 7 sheets versus 28. charmin ultra soft. enjoy the go. for a few weeks this winter, mcdonald s is bringing you. a taste of the olympic winter games. with the new sweet chili sauce, the latest sweet and spicy way to dip, dunk. and devour chicken mcnuggets made with white meat chicken. the very same sauce enjoyed at the olympic village. hey. hi. so now, you don t ha to be an olympic athlete. to eat like one. ba da ba ba ba by booking my family trip with expedia. first i find the flight i want. then a great hotel my kids will love. yeah. but wait. here s the really cool part. when i book them at the same time. voila! i can save up to 450 bucks. and we all know that can come in pretty handy. book flight and hotel, and save more. where you book matters, expedia. dot com today is february 20th, 2010. a saturday and a sunny one for you. good morning. i m kimberly suiters. it s 8:26. here is a look at what s making headlines in the news. the investigation into the thrax attacks that tear roorror the washington area. investigators say researcher, bruce ivins was the only person responsible for the attacks. they were able to identify the specific strain of anthrax used. you can t send a text while driving but you are allowed to read one. maryland state lawmakers plan on closing that. they may make it illegal to use hand held cell phones while driving. the district and seven other states have similar laws on the book. this morning at 10:00 a.m., the fairfax city hall and school board hosting a town hall for parents concerned about budget cuts. a spending plan would restore $17 million to maintain current class sizes, sports, and arts programs and staffing positions. we will have a live report coming up at 9:00. baltimore getting hp from canada to get rid of the snow on the ground. a machine known as the snow dragon. they are borrowing it from canadian landscaping company. it takes in truck loeds of snow, ev evaporates it. it can get rid of mounds all over the city. we could use the snow drag on here in the d.c. area. chuck s forecast coming up next. why don t you think we can t get the snow drag on down here? it s a money problem. it s on loan to baltimore. everybody should go outside and huff and puff on the piles of snow they will melt faster. temperatures are above freezing. 37, washington. 35, fairfax and louden. 34, frederick, maryland. 33 degrees in germantown and gaithersburg. high temperatures this afternoon, mid to upper 40s for a brief time with plenty of sunshine. sun going down at 5:51 this afternoon. our extended forecast calls for another day filled with melting tomorrow. liquid rainfall coming our way. a snowflake or two mixed in. mostly, if not all, rain. kimberly? we want to let you know the fairfax county school board meeting for parents is at rshall high school on we are back on this saturday morning, january 20 #, 2010 with an enthusiastic crowd. did you hear me? an enthusiastic crowd outside our plaza. we thank them for coming out on this very cold winter day. i m amy robach out on the plaza. lester holt in vancouver at the site of the xxi olympic games. i know we have a tough job ahead of pus weapon have a taste test on canadian beers. actually, i started that taste test about two weeks ago when i landed in vancouver, but that s just details. in fact, the canadian beer industry contributes about $14 billion to the economy here. today show team has contributed about $7 billion of that. it s something canadians can definitely be proud of. coming up, our own phil has made his way to vancouver bringing us some of canada s best and most delicious beers to taste. yeah, go, phil, go. plus grouse mountain is more than a recreation area. there s skiing in the wintertime, hiking in the summertime. it s also an engagered wildlife refuge and we ll introduce to you the bears, wolves that call grouse mountain home. brian boitano will be back with us, this time in the kitchen cooking up great treats we may want to chow down on watching the big usa/canada hockey match coming up on sunday. first, another check of the weather with stephanie abrams. we have someone with all the gear. you have the hats, the gloves. which was harder to get? the hat was. usa/canada, rooting for both? mostly usa, but how can you avoid the mittens? everyone loves the mittens. you ll need them in the west. we ll see snow if the higher elevations. rain into southern california. and that will continue throughout the day today. otherwise, good morning, everyone. welcome to your weekend. i m news 4 meteorologist, chuck bell. outside of our windows a lot of sunshine getting through. otherwise, partly sunny sky. a little bit on the breezy side as well. winds out of the northwest, 10-20 miles an hour. a little bit of a windchill factor to concern yourself with on the saturday. temperatures in the mid-30s around town. windchills in the upper 20s to near 30. our forecast for your saturday, pltemperatures. otherwise, the rest of the country pretty mild relativelily speaking. legs back inside to you. you when americans think of canadian beer the first brand they probably think of is molson. trust me, that s just the beginning. are we in for a great treat. today s food editor phil is here with a taste of canada s best from lagers to ales. what are you pour meg? canadians take their beer very seriously. only 25% of their barley is actually good enough to use in beer. what is this? this is a berry ale. the canadian beers and sorry to say a lot of these beers are not available in the u.s., have a higher alcohol content. now he tells me. this has a 7%. and with the altitude, i ll be stumbling down the hill. this is a coconut ale from the same company. from this vancouver magazine named this as one of the 100 foods or beverages you ve got to taste before you die. i ve never had a flavored beer. i like the other one better but this is good, too. very big in europe. that s 5.5% alcohol. now, this next one is the highest alcohol, 8.2%. again, just take a little sip of it. you can see the color and the craftsmanship here in canada when it comes to microbreweries is far better than in the u.s. very nice. the beer has been exceptional here. they take much more pride. they use more of the germanic processes to make the beer. and also to be a microbrewery, the numbers are changing, you have to have a maximum of 460,000 gallons a year that you re making. this is the canoe brewery? this is the most aromatic of all of them. it has a little chocolate note to it. i taste a little chocolate. yeah, that s a good description. you can have another sip. well, you know what, i ve got to slow down here. now, this one, what i want you to do is look at the label because this is noticeable. it s good luck. do you have the same beer, amy? i was going to say, don t we usually say it s 5:00 p.m. somewhere? but it s 5:00 a.m. where you are. does that count for drinking beer? we here in new york city actually we re able to get two of them. this is the one you were talking about, phil. this is the blue buck beer. what s in the name? well, the name is that it s good luck. having a blue buck. you know, try it. take a little sip. you both can sip it at the same time to see up to yo amy. exactly. i ll take another one, just for the heck of it. that is nice. that s more for meal. a lot are heavier, while they do go well with some cheeses or appetizers, are much richer. this is the lighter one. this is the closest to belgium beer that they have. one is a wheat beer, the other is the barley. look at the color. that s a wheat beer. you can try that one. a lot of drinking in this segment. that s very light. very light. yeah. again, in that whole belgium style. and our last this is closest, the closest to what we re used to in the u.s. i think amy has this. this is the vancouver island beer. this is known as a craft beer. what does that mean? they were one of the first microbreweries out there. it s also one of the lightest ones on our table here. this is all great stuff. it s light and dark. that s interesting. you know, right after the segment, you and i have to finish all of them. yeah, i do. actually, i m going to lie down. thank you very much. up next, the wildlife that calls grouse mountain home. 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[ male announcer ] nothing works faster. tum ta tum tum tums [ male announcer ] fights heartburn fast. we re back now with a secret few know about our little home away from home on grouse mountain. this is such a beautiful mountain, lester. you ve been here so much. this is why millions of people come here. they go hiking in the summer, ski and snowboard in the winter. but with the price of a lift ticket does come something surprising, access to an amazing animal sanctuary. reporter: this is the grouse mountain skiers know. but in the shadow of the gondola is something quite unexpected. this is what we call a hibernation hotel. this is nice and sturdy and it s made reporter: just the other side of this log den, two tons of grizzly bear, grinder and kula, who were orphaned when they were just 8 months old. this is a safe place to keep them. we monitor them with an infrared camera. reporter: much more than a recreation area, grouse is also an endangered wildlife refuge. it s hope to these sleepy bears and to gray wolves who roam along the base of the mountain. this is where the wolves live? yes, built right into the mountain. the kovlz here to get out of the rain. they renovated it to their liking. reporter: also beta and omega were made for the vancouver movie industry but they didn t make it. here they re stars just the same. the reaction is, wow. that s what it s all about. we re trying to create the wow. wow, i ve never been this close to a wolf before. wow, they re really big, aren t they? reporter: at feeding time the pack can attract a crowd. that s a good tch. that s when their protective instincts kick in. he s afraid of me. are you kidding me? yeah. this is the whole myth of the big bad wolf isn t true. wolves are very shy creatures in the wild. they won t approach people. they would rather stay away than come close. reporter: a chance for a safe, close-encounter with animals given a second chance at life. what do you want people to come away from this with? these things are a thing to be cherished in our environment and to be protected. and that they re worth it. and how about falcons, eagles and hawks? they re all here, too. if you can t come to grouse yourself, you can go to their grizzly cam. if you go to grousemountain.com, you can see what those hiber naturie i hibernating bears are doing. i love that it s a stone s throw from downtown vancouver. thanks very much. dr. ken is veterinarian here at grouse and mark is the owner and trainer of beyond just bears. thank you for being here. doctor, you brought a friend. who is this? this is liberty. she s the bald eagle. she s a captive-born bird that flies on this mountain. you can tell she s an adult because she s got the whitehead. these bald eagles have up to 7 1/2 foot wing span. i can feel that wing span. i saw these in the wild when i was out here in the fall in northern b.c. amazing creatures. the fact that people can come and see these creatures here so close to the city, pple are very proud of. many people have said, have you been to grouse, have you seen the animals? that s right. we re a window to the wilderness right from vancouver, 15 minutes away. people can have some yunique encounters with the wildlife, the grizzlies and wolves, that you couldn t have in the wild because the animals that live here are so used to the presence of people in a natural setting that you can come very close up, get an encounter with them that you couldn t have with a wild animal because wild animals are affected by your presence. thanks for bringing the eagle. just gorgeous. i want to bring in mark. mark, you basically handle hollywood animals, animals that appear in movies. someone a polar bear. tell me about your friend the polar bear. she s 15 years old and we ve raised her since she was a baby. she did the movie alaska originally as evie. you know, it s a captive-bred polar bear. her name is aggie. obviously, can you play with her. you swim with her as well. right. well, i wrestle with her on land and then i play with her in the swimming pool. when she s acting with models and actors, i mean, are they able to get right up close to her? no. i am the only one myself and my wife are the only two people that really get around her. otherwise, we ll either shoot blue screen or a camera lock-off or they re outside the electric fence. i know you ve also got a grizzly koda, a kodiak grizzly. an alaskan brown bear. also appeared in many commercials and movies? we did snow dogs up here with koda. how cooperative is a brown bear in a filming situation? he s incredibly cooperative. he wants to get it done. they all like to work. they hit their marks and do what they re supposed to do. that s amazing. thanks for sharing. how big is that bear? 1600 pound. thank you all very much. up next, brian boitano, boy, that s that really spans the crowd, doesn t this morning on today s olympic kitchen, gold in the making. brian boitano is best known for his gold medal for in the 88 calgary. now he s in the kitchen. what would brian boitano, as a contributor to the foodetwork magazine. welcome back. thank you. congratulations on your new success now as a chef. this has to be a lot of fun for you. i m having a blast. i can t tell you. it s so much fun. did you always cook? i cooked after i couldn t start eating, after my competitive career, i always loved to cook and i got together with friends, who loved cooking. they would always come to my house, and we would exchange recipes. so it s always been a passion of mine. we asked you to come on today to cook up something hearty, winter-like. people will be in watching the usa/canada hockey match-up. i have a special thing for that. this is a short rib stew. so basically i have short you like short ribs? i do. i had some the other night, in fact. basically, i ve taken the short ribs and i ve browned these. i seasoned them with salt and pepper, dusted them in flour, browned them in a little olive oil and set them to the side. now we ll get started on adding you want to add the onions. just drop this in there. all of it? yes. and then t carrots. this is a hearty stew, i can tell already. this is good. carrots, celery and the red pepper. red peppers as well. yep. all right. we have some beer to wash this down. oh, is that would be good. we should have left it out here. i think it s gone now. so you basically cook this down until it gets soft. then what you do is add my smashed garlic. and tomato paste? yeah. about two tablespoons of tomato paste. you ll cook this down. all the sugars in the tomato paste not going to add any more fluid? yes, i am. after this cooks down i ll deglaze it with red wine. then you scrape all those nice bits at the bottom up because that has all the flavor. and then that cooks down. i m going to add crushed tomato, vegetable stock. so far this seems pretty simple. yes, very simple. you can have the vegetables and things prepared in advance. yep. and then you take your short ribs, add that back in. also a bundle of thyme and bay leaf. and then it turns into this magically, lester. how long do you stew this? how long do you this is going to be about two hours. so it s really simple because you just you put it in the oven. you know, a lot of preparation, but then you put it in the oven and it just, you know, braises for two hours. our chefs back in new york used your recipe, prepared the very same dish. amy is our taste tester. this is great. i ve been watching you guys. i m eating. this is how i would like to do the show every saturday, lester, if you don t mind. this is fantastic, broin. lied like to take another mind. did you get the corn bread hockey pucks? that s next. in honor of canada versus usa. yeah, the spicy honey butter. i want to try one of those. yeah. see our hockey game? i got what would brian boitano make as stick, spreaders. these go on the hockey pucks. there you go. try one with it s good without, though. yeah. i added potatoes and mushrooms to this at the end of the cooking process because they cook down, you know, you don t want to add the potatoes too early because they ll fall apart, and the mushrooms cook down pretty quickly. this is it, the beauty of it. and you prepared a nice salad with goat cheese. creamy goat cheese and candy pecans. so you re set for a cold winter meal. we re going to hang out and watch hockey with you this sunday, you re cooking. excellent. let s do it. thanks so much. we appreciate it. we ll take a break. but first these messages. ffer? nasonex is the only prescription that prov to help prevent most seasonal nasal allergy symptoms, including congestion, so you can have more symptom-free days. [ female announcer ] side effects were generally mild d included headache, viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. it does not come in generic form, so ask your doctor about nasonex. [ female announcer ] and sa up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. [ fema[clucking]er ] and sa up to $15 off your refills. look for delicious cadbury s, reese s and hershey s products in the easter candy aisle. cause nounny knows easter better than hershey s. i couldn t believe i was actually having a heart attack. i remember being at the hospital, thinking about my wife. i should have done more to take care of myself. now i m exercising, watching my diet, and i trust my heart to lipitor. 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[ male announcer ] have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. a little encouragement changes everything. molly es muy muy intelligente. and right now, hallmark s got a whole new way to do it. new gifts and cards to cheer on kids of alages. come in and pick up a free card today. nine to choose from. only at your hallmark gold crown store. we re still eat, by the way. that does it for us this saturday morning. our thanks to mika brzezinski in studio 1a. tomorrow on today we ll take a ok back 30 years to lake placid s miracle on the ice. and then i m going to take you on a training run with the usa four-man bobsled team. look at this. we re able to see the space shuttle endeavour. we got a shot, visible with the naked eye. a really good zoom lens as well. take a look. we ll see you tomorrow. take care perform thanks for watching. good morning. i m kimberly suiters. > > > starting on monday, new rules to protect you. why you should watch out for the devil in the details. a bizarre confrontation on a plane involving mitt romney and a rapper. we will tell you which rapper and what apparently set it all off. i m meteorologist, chuck bell, a little sunshine to get your saturday started. how long will it all last before rain showers return? the complete forecast coming up. all those stories and more when news4 today begins in less than two minutes. the government ends their investigation into the anthrax case of 2001. disturbing developments. a woman found dead at a juvenile detention center. now, police are zeroing in on a young suspect. why his age is giving investigators pause. fairfax county schools are in a budget crunch. what this could mean for students. a live report is just ahead. good morning, everyone. welcome to the 9:00 edition of news4 today. i m kimberly suiters. saturday, february 20th, 2010. the news is just ahead. first, let s take a quick look at today s forecast with meteorologist, chuck bell. good morning, chuck. a good morning to you and everyone out there in the news 4 nation. getting their weekend start. everybody optimistic that our week of sunshine can last into the weekend. i, too, am optimistic it will be more sunha