Transcripts For WRC Today 20100311 : vimarsana.com

good morning. trail of debris. several tornadoes in arkansas, including this one, caught on tape. at least four people injured, more than a dozen homes damaged. this morning, the threat of more tornadoes in other parts of the south. pattern of abuse? former congressman eric massa facing more allegations of sexual harassment that date back to his days as a commanding officer in the u.s. navy. this morning, nbc news has one man s account of what he says massa did to him aboard a navy ship 20 years ago. and what happened? an autopsy planned for today on former child star corey haim. investigators initially called it an apparent accidental overdose, but haim s mother is telling us no one should jump to conclusions today, thursday, march 11th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this thursday morning. i m meredith vieira. and i m matt lauer. people in the southeast are bracing for severe weather today following those tornadoes in arkansas on wednesday. that s right. this tornado was recorded in benton, arkansas. that is just south of little rock. another twister was spotted 60 miles north of the arkansas capital. at least four people were injured, including three whose injuries are described as major. more on that and al roker s forecast asell in just a moment. also ahead, embattled automaker toyota now says it has placed a team of technical specialists on standby to investigate claims of vehicles that are accelerating out of control on their own. it follows two high-profile cases just this week involving the toyota prius. this morning, new questions over whether toyota has misdiagnosed the problem. is it really an accelerator issue as they claim or could it be a problem with the car s onboard computer system? we re going to talk about that more in just a couple of minutes. and on wednesday, we played you the 911 call placed by a 7-year-old whose home was being oken into by armed gunmen. this morning we re going to introduce you to that brave little boy, show you his emotional reunion with the emergency dispatcher who was on the other end of that call. what a kid. yeah. but first, let s get a check of the top stories. ann is off today, so natalie morales is at the news desk. good morning, nat. good morning, meredith and matt. good morning, everyone. forecasters say there is a risk of more violent weather today from tennessee to florida. on wednesday there were five reports of tornadoes in arkansas and louisiana. several homes were destroyed. at least four people were hurt. there were reports of baseball-sized hail in some places. today, congressional democrats are said to be getting closer to working out differences on health care reform. president obama says the time for talk is over. he says it s time to vote. nbc s chief white house correspondent chuck todd joins us. so, chuck, where do things stand now? reporter: well, look, the white house is continuing this inside-outside game. so, you have the president pitching voters on the outside. he was in missouri yesterday. he s going to go to cleveland, ohio, monday. he may have said the time for talk is over, but he s still not done. so, cleveland it is on monday to do another type of rally for health care. meanwhile, last night, rahm emanuel, the chief of staff, was in the speaker s office on capitol hill, and i was told that they got a lot done, but one issue that they haven t gotten through when it comes to this health care debate is the issue of funding for abortion coverage. and until they get that issue resolved, they re not going to find those 216 votes that they need to get that bill passed, natalie. chuck todd live for us at the white house. thanks, chuck. the president says the u.s. remains committed to the recovery and rebuilding of earthquake-devastated haiti. meantime, the u.s. military is scaling back its relief mission in haiti. more than 470 soldiers from the 82nd airborne left port-au-prince on wednesday. there s a new richest person in the world. mexico s carlos slim has passed bill gates to become the world s richest person with a fortune of $53.5 billion, according to forbes magazine. gates is second and warren buffett is third. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning. cnbc s melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange again for us this morning. melissa, there s news this morning about foreclosures. reporter: that s right. according to realtytrac, foreclosures are up versus last year. it is the lowest increase in four years, down 10% from january, so still rising, but some light at the end of the tunnel there. citigroup s ceo speaking later today, vikram pandit, about the future of the company. we ll be listening to that. and also, weekly jobless numbers out as well. natalie, back to you. melissa francis at the new york stock exchange, thank you. and it was a case of dog s best friend in ohio, where a dog got trapped in the middle of a partially frozen lake. rescue crews themselves kept falling through the ice. finally, they used a boat to reach the dog and they were able to pull the pup on board. that is a case of true heroics there. 7:05 right now. back over to meredith, matt and al. very happy puppy. man s best friend. so cute. you ve got to save him. absolutely. natalie, thanks. mr. roker s here with a check of the weather. wow, wild weather down south. that s right, and it s going to continue today as we take a look. good news is tornado watches have been canceled this morning, but looking near benton, arkansas, big storms, up to five, maybe six tornadoes yesterday. at least three to four serious injuries. over 30 homes damaged, some of them seriously. so, this activity is going to continue. as we said, we ve got the greatest threat for tornadoes, supercells, florida today, that spreads up into central indiana, parts of illinois and just a small portion of ohio. the rainfall amounts out of this system, you can see on the radar, very, very active. heavy thunderstorms right now in the panhandle of florida, heavy activity working its way through tennessee on up into ohio. rainfall in the northern parts of florida, five to eight inches of rain. we could be looking at some flooding there. we re also, though, expecting the heaviest activity for severe thunderstorms and the possibility of tornadoes to fire and it will be dry here today, but that same weather system will be progressing slowly to the east, we ll get some heavy rain friday night through saturday. 48 degrees, the temperature, we re under some partly sunny skies wright now. we ll see mostly sunny skies later this afternoon. we ll see a high today of 65 degrees. that s it after today, we stay under the 60-degree and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. more trouble this morning for former new york congressman eric massa, who resigned earlier this week amid a sexual harassment investigation. a man who served with him in the navy 20 years ago now claims that he was harassed. nbc s kelly o donnell is on capitol hill with the very latest. kelly, good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. things have not gone as eric massa had planned. he had said he would just go away now, but the controversy left behind is still swirling, and we have these new allegations that date back to his navy days. eric massa opened this new door himself. ask the 10,000 sailors i served with in the navy. reporter: during interviews on fox news and cnn tuesday. it looks like an orgy in kahlig la. reporter: massa used that provocative description of a navy ceremony to somehow explain the behavior that led to allegations he harassed male staffers on capitol hill. i never translated from my days in the navy to being a congressman. reporter: but now similar allegations are coming from former sailors. first reported by joshua green of the atlantic. this pattern of abusive behavior towards subordinates predated massa s time in congress, and in fact, was going on as long as 20 years ago when he was a commanding officer in the navy. reporter: one accuser also provided this statement to nbc news. in 1990, aboard the uss jouett, i was awakened when senior officer, lieutenant commander massa, seemed to be grouping at me. i shouted at him and he left. i mentioned the incident to several other officers. i did not officially report it. this is a sad case. reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi taped an appearance on the charlie rose show before these latest allegations. this is a very sick person. he has been diagnosed with cancer, perhaps his judgment is impaired because of this, the ethical issues that have arisen. reporter: republican leaders called for more investigation. there are an awful lot of questions surrounding the eric massa case. reporter: and the republican party rushed out a new campaign ad. eric massa resigned after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. pelosi? called it rumor. reporter: long before this notoriety, massa sought out cameras, appearing in two documentaries. in the 2006 campaign film taking the hill, massa already had trouble getting along with rahm emanuel. you ve got to raise $200,000 per month for the next four months. i know. okay? there s no otherwise, it ain t gonna happen. i agree. reporter: and this footage was filmed for a documentary called the freshman about new congressmen elected in 2008. massa described adjusting to washington. the short term, i have a couple staffers who are renting a townhouse, and i ll crash there. reporter: the massa scandal boiled over on the house floor when an agitated patrick kennedy said real issues are being ignored. if anybody wants to know where cynicism is, cynicism is that there s one, two press people in this gallery! we re talking about eric massa 24/7 on the tv, we re talking about war and peace, $3 billion, 1,000 lives and no press! no press! reporter: there has been a lot of frustration about the case of eric massa. we were unable to reach him to get a comment about these new allegations, but he did say on television this week that he had done nothing that was sexual toward any of his campaign staffers. meredith? kelly, can you tell us a little bit more about patrick kennedy s rant and what set it off? reporter: that was sort of an unusual moment. the house floor can be a volatile place and there was a debate going on about trying to end the war in afghanistan from some of the more progressive members of the democratic party. people sometimes get very riled up, and certainly, patrick kennedy, who s not seeking re-election, was very upset at the focus on eric massa without as much attention to what he considered to be a very serious debate about the u.s. role in afghanistan. it was quite something to watch. meredith? absolutely. okay, kelly o donnell. thank you very much. it is 7:10, and once again, here s matt. meredith, thank you. more trouble for toyota, as well. more drivers are now coming forward across the country, claiming their cars have sped up uncontrollably and without warning. cnbc s phil lebeau is at a toyota dealership just outside of chicago. phil, good morning. reporter: good morning, matt. federal investigators are now looking at two incidents where a toyota prius suddenly accelerated. scary situations that have drivers from coast to coast looking for answers. drivers from all over the country are reporting problems with toyotas. in connecticut, a woman says the gas pedal of her 2007 toyota camry got stuck while she was heading to church, sending the car across the grass, into a railing, down the stairs and into an embankment. the fact that she s alive is a miracle. reporter: in suburban philadelphia, a woman says her 2008 toyota rav4 suddenly sped up while she was parking. i m putting my foot on the brake to stop us, and we re just heading towards the wall. reporter: near boston, a toyota rav4 crashed into an office complex. federal investigators say they ll look into what happened. harrison police, 911 emergency. reporter: and for the second time this week, a 911 call involving a toyota prius, this time from a new york city suburb. i m calling to report a toyota prius just smashed into a wall across from the purchase estate. reporter: on tuesday, a 56-year-old woman was driving her 2005 prius down this winding driveway when the car lurched forward, crossed the street and smashed into a stone wall. on monday, jim sikes says his 2008 prius accelerated to more than 90 miles per hour on the highway in southern california. he called 911. my car can t slow down. you can t slow it down? no. reporter: and after almost a half an hour, police were able to guide him to safety. investigators from the national highway traffic safety administration are now investigating both prius incidents. for toita, the hits keep on coming. i can t tell you how nice a day it was. coming to work this is a true story i saw an out-of-control toyota with the top down. that tells you how nice it is outside. it s kind of like they re damned if they do, damned if they don t. it doesn t almost matter at this point what s causing the problem. it s the focus on toyota s products that s going to be there no matter what happens. reporter: late wednesday, toyota issued this statement we ve launched a top-to-bottom review of all our operations to ensure we not only meet but exceed the high safety standards that have defined our company. the company says it will have technical teams at the ready to investigate verifiable claims. still, it could be a long road back for some toyota customers. i think toyota s going to have a lot of problems when they re trying to sell cars now, a lot of lost faith in the company. reporter: the massive toyota recalls have congress looking at potentially new reforms for the auto industry. in fact, later today, a house panel will be looking into how exactly the federal government oversees auto companies when they are grappling with situations and massive recalls like this. matt? phil lebeau, thank you very much. john lincove is consumer reports managing automobile editor. to figure out the problem, toyota s got to kind of reverse engineer this thing. they ve got to go and recreate these situations. and the one in california happened after a car had been driven thousands and thousands of miles. the one in harrison, new york, also, it was a car that was many years old. how do they go about recreating these conditions? it s going to be very difficult. it s going to be lab tests, on-the-road tests. and it may be like the professor who jury-rigged t car to show acceleration and faults. they ll have to go into their computer system and do the same thing. if these incidents were happening in an airplane, we would have investigators going into the black boxes that we hear so much about. is there anything similar in a car like a toyota prius or any of the other models? some manufacturers, maybe 64% or so, according to nhtsa, back in 2005, have black box technology, and it will be mandatory for manufacturers in 2012, if they ve already got it, to record some data, but some of the information is only activated when the airbag goes off or only 12 seconds before impact. and to read the data, i understand they have to use a laptop, but it s alarming to understand how many of those laptops are available in this country. yeah. toyota claims that they have one laptop and it s a beta, so it s not even official. wait, one laptop. this is a company that sold 1.7 million cars in the u.s. last year. how can they say we only have one laptop to read these devices? it s, you know, it s a big thing for them to say that. they re claiming they re going to have 150 more coming as soon as possible. they re going to open it up more to more available for nhtsa. at the moment, toyota has offered a mechanical fix for what they say is the problem, either the floor mat fix. right. or this part for the brake system that apparently eliminates some of the wear-and-tear issues. but the washington post did something interesting on its website. they invited engineers from around the country to kind of logon and give their ideas as to what might be happening. i read some of these comments. a lot of them dealt not with mechanical fixes but electronics. for example, a bad connector, a bad sensor, a bounce condition on an input, which is usually the result of corrosion or dirt on the contacts. is it possible toyota s going to have to go in and start from square one with their electronics system? yeah. the ghosts in the machine, if you will, is really out there as a question. at consumer reports right now, we re saying, look, they re talking about a mechanical fix, we re listening to what they say, but we re not ruling out the possibility, because toyota s not ruling out the possibility, and really, it is a possibility that there is an electronic problem in addition to the mechanics. toyota isn t the only company that uses a computer to communicate between the accelerator and the engine. why aren t we seeing this with other car companies then? you are seeing this with other companies. there are some complaints within the manufacturers, but what we re seeing is unprecedented in the number of toyota complaints initially, and then after all this in the media and after these ha happened, you re seeing more and more complaints surface and just get flooded into nhtsa s database. jon linkov, thank you for the information. i appreciate it. thank you. 17 aftethe hour. here s meredith. matt, thank you. good news for consumers. bank of america, the nation s largest bank, say it s doing away with the overdraft fees on debit card purchases. the bad news, your card will be denied if you don t have enough money in your account. nbc s lisa myers has details. lisa, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredi meredith. this is clearly an effort by bank of america to repair its ttered image, but it s also a meaningful step that will save consumers money and keep families from spending more than they have. if you ve ever swiped your debit card for a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee only to learn later that it cost you $40 $5 for the purchase and $35 for the overdraft fee well, those days may be over. beginning this summer, bank of america will no longer honor debit card transactions if you don t have enough money in your account, thus eliminating the possibility of those surprise overdraft fees. consumers say it s about time. definitely a step in the right direction. if it s consumer-friendly, i m for it. we bailed them out, so for them to just take our money and then take it again and again and again was just, you know, unethical. reporter: consumer groups applauded the move. we highly commend bank of america for getting rid of this abusive practice. reporter: it s big money, potentially billions of dollars. 60% of the overdraft fees collected by bank of america come from debit car transactions. but the bank has taken a beating over these fees, over credit card abuses and over bailouts and is now trying to repair its image. as its newspaper ad put it we listened. bank of america s ceo acknowledged that many customers are having a tough time. we re seeing people who are living paycheck to paycheck, they re hanging on, and that s why the overdrafts and stuff are critical, to ease up on them. reporter: the bank also is getting ahead of new federal rules. beginning this summer, banks can offer overdraft coverage on debit card transactions only if you opt in, only if you actually sign up for it. consumer groups urge you not to sign up for overdraft protection on debit cards. that way, you ll know immediately if you don t have enough money for a purchase. they also urge other banks to follow the lead of bank of america here, which is the first time in a long time, meredith, that a consumer advocate has cited this bank as a good example. that s nice to hear for a change. lisa myers, thank you very much. it is 7:19 and once again, here s matt. meredith, thank you. more now on the 7-year-old california boy heard on that dramatic 911 call on tuesday as armed gunmen broke into his family s home. nbc s george lewis has the latest on the little hero. reporter: he was introduced only as carlos. sheriff s deputies in norwalk, california, don t want to give out his last name because the bad guys who invaded his family s home are still at large. when they stormed in, carlos grabbed his little sister, ran to a bathroom, locked the door and called 911. 911, state your emergency. um, there s some, um, guys that are going to kill my mom and dad. can you come, please? i knew something was wrong. i knew it wasn t a prank call. i went with my instinct. i already had deputies going right the first two seconds of the call. were you scared last night? just a little bit. can you come really fast? bring some cops, um okay, i have them coming. a lot of them! take a deep breath. i already have the police coming. and bring soldiers, too! reporter: then, on the call, the dispatcher could hear the sound of the men breaking into the bathroom. the guys, they have [ screaming ] [ bleep ] just hearing them screaming and crying for help, i just felt the fear through the phone. reporter: but when carlos told the gunmen he was talking to 911, they panicked and left. as carlos is being hailed as a hero, sheriff s deputies hope this will lead to tips from the public resulting in the arrest of the three gunmen. thank you. reporter: an emotional reunion between carlos and monique patino, the 911 dispatcher. she s a mom, has two kids, 7 and 8. who taught you to use 911? my mo what d she tell you? practice it or what? we practice it every day. let s give carlos a big round of applause. reporter: and a point of clarification carlos wanted everyone to know that wasn t him screaming on the 911 tape. no, it was my sister. reporter: macho heroes don t scream. for today, george lewis, nbc news, norwalk, california. that was my sister! he s got to make that point because he s got to go back to school tomorrow, something like that. wants everybody to know that. absolutely. but the other point about the mom every day going through the 911 and what to do. boy, did that pay off in a big way. it did. just ahead, new details in the sudden and tragic death of 80s child star corey haim. what his mother and close friend still ahead, an 11-year-old girl determined to walk again following a soccer injury that left her partially paralyzed. we will meet her and her mom and dad. also ahead, the always outspoken mr. donald trump will stop by. we re going to catch up with him, find out what s on his plate. 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[ computer beeps ] new almay intense i-color collection now with light interplay technology. light catching minerals create a natural brilliance with 5 times the intensity. intensify your eye color with four expertly coordinated shade collections. intense i-color. only from almay. it s 7:26, we have 46 degrees outside on this 11th day of march 2010. police are still looking for a suspect after a man was shot and killed in northeast washington. this happened last night on hawaii avenue, that s near north capitol street. police say it appears that the suspect and the victim didn t know each other. a woman was also injured. police say the gunman pistol whipped her. she s expected to be okay. we ll take a break and come back the radar is without rain, the sky, though, with a lot of clouds and not a lot of sunshine. the temperatures are in the mid 40s around d.c. right now. we ll see a high of 65 degrees, mild and dry, and then breezy and wet tomorrow and windy and very wet for a saturday. jerry? we ll head out and take a live look, had an accident at 95 northbound and 71200 newington. looks like we re doing pretty well points north of the belt way. police are on the scene of an accident at university boulevard and piney branch road. be careful of a clog if you re headed in that area. we ll have another update in 25 7:30 now on a thursday morning. it s the 11th of march 2010. if you like nice weather, you re not going to like it in the east or the southeast today. we ve got after a beautiful string of nice weather some bad weather rolling in. people down in the southeast dealing with that as well. we want to thank these people for stopping by. we ll get out to say hi to them in just a little while. inside the studio, i m matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. and just ahead, the latest on the death of former child star corey haim. an autopsy should answer some of the questions surrounding his death. just ahead, what his mom and close friend corey feldman have to say this morning. also ahead, we re going to talk to donald trump about the group he has assembled for the brand new season of the celebrity apprentice, a group that includes ex-illinois governor rod blagojevich, darryl strawberry, cyndi lauper, sharon osbourne, just to name a few. we ll find out more about that. by the wham, next week, we have a fun series, at least we hope it s fun, in store. we ask the questions we re asked just about every day, starting monday, with what time we get up in the morning. a lot of people always ask, what time do you get up? and i say, you don t even want to know. al will let us in on his morning routine and we ll all weigh in on that big question what time does the alarm clock ring? yeah. some of the other burning questions next week do we ever hang out together outside of work? what does ann do to maintain balance in her life? and of course, one that i ask myself every single day, what would meredith do if she were not doing this job? i d be so happy. that s ask away today next week right here ontoday. it does look like fun. but we are going to begin this half hour on a much more serious note. actor corey haim s untimely death at the age of just 38. nbc s lee cowan is in los angeles with the latest. lee, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith. yeah, the l.a. county coroner s office here expects to continue its autopsy of corey haim today. so far, circumstaes around his death appear to be accidental, at least according to the lapd, but the toxicology report, which could take a couple weeks, could answer the one question on everyone s mind. i ain t got a man, i ain t got a song reporter: long before there were the vampires of twilight, there were the lost boys and corey haim. you re a creature of the night, michael, just like out of a comic book. you re a vampire, michael! reporter: the film was a cult classic, and haim became a teen heartthrob. a tangled-haired 80s pin-up, along with his co-star, the other corey, corey feldman. is it ever going to get that good for me? anderson, the only difference between you and that grease ball is that he has a license and you don t. reporter: the coreys were inseparable, forging a friendship that would last more than 20 years, but it was tumultuous at times, and that was the perfect fodder for their own reality show, the two coreys on a&e. i m singing and haven t had a girlfriend in a long time and haven t done anything since the lost boys. it s a pretty bad [ bleep ] day. but you re still on live. reporter: it chronicled the trainwreck that had become co corr correy s life. [ bleep ] you! reporter: his steep slide from so much promise to so much despair was often the subplot. the villain was haim s drug abuse. go ahead and kill yourself. see if i [ bleep ] care. reporter: his addictions to valium and other prescription drugs were well known in hollywood, and they had taken him from the wonder boy of the screen to bankruptcy and rehab several times over. this is a tough town, and unfortunately, he ran afoul of the worst elements in it. reporter: so, when at only 38, haim collapsed at the home he was sharing with his mother, who s suffering from cancer, speculation immediately turned once again to drugs. we found no elicit drugs in the residence and did recover some prescription meds that were four bottles of his normal prescription meds. reporter: tmz caught up with haim just a few weeks ago and he hinted that he was finally winning the battle over his addictions. did you go to rehab? are you sober now? are you i ve been good, no, no, for a while now, actually. reporter: but haim s agent told access hollywood that the canadian-born actor had been under the weather lately with flu-like symptoms. he was taking medication, but an overdose, he says, seems unlikely. corey pretty much didn t take anything the day that he passed away. i mean, there was everything was still left in the bottles. he was his own enemy. i mean, look, a lot of people that are artists tend to be their own worst enemy because we re passionate people. reporter: although haim ended his life essentially broke and destitute, his best friend both on screen and off told cnn s larry king last night that for the first time in a long while it seemed the lost boy wasn t so lost anymore. most recently, he s been honestly in the best frame of mind that he s ever been in in the past year. reporter: now, haim appeared to be involved, meredith, in a series of comebacks. he was working on a lot of projects. he either had shot or was shooting several fms. one of them, american sunset was scheduled to be released later this year. meredith? lee cowan, thank you. we are joined by today west coast contributor maria menounos who was with corey haim s mother on tuesday. author of weekends at bellevue and danny bonaduce, who has battled with drugs and now hosts his own radio show in philadelphia. good morning to you all. good morning. maria, if i could start with you, you spent time with corey s mom yesterday. what did she say about the hours leading up to corey death? she was with him. reporter: she said he was feeling little bit under the weather, nothing that alarmed her. he was having some difficulty breathing and he had asked her to lay with him in bed because he wasn t feeling well, and then, of course, you know, things just progressed from there, and at one point, he got up and collapsed and she called 911. i know that she is upset that people are immediately jumping to the conclusion that he overdosed on drugs. what did she say to you specifically about that, maria? reporter: well, it s interesting, because i met with her and corey about two months agdoing some research on a story that i was pursuing, and when i spoke with her yesterday, she was very upset about the fact that people were making assumptions about the cause of his death. so, she called me over to the house. i spent a few hours with her and his closest friends, and she kept saying, you know, don t make assumptions before you get results. she s like, i don t even know what happened to him. and it just pained her to hear all of these things. did she say that he was, though, on prescription drugs at the time of his death? reporter: no, she did not. she did not. i want to bring, danny, if i could, bring you in. corey was an acquaintance of yours, not a best friend, and i don t mean to imply in any way that he was, but you knew he had a long history with drugs and you said he was particularly vulnerable to drug abuse. why do you feel that, danny? i think he was particularly vulnerable because, different from my childhood celebrity, his celebrity was heartthrob, he had at one point real money, and he was old enough to understand what he was losing, what was being taken away from him, and that, you know, you re lucky if it strikes once, you know, if you get to be in the lost boys once, but to make a comeback when you re older, if you get to watch all those wonderful things you had slip away, and it is, in fact, heartbreaking, and i can see very easily trying to drown that pain in legal painkillers. and if you don t mind, can i clear something up about prescription drugs? sure. if prescription drugs, say vicodin, which seems to be the most popular these days, if it says take one every six hours and you take six of them, five of them were recreational. it doesn t matter who prescribed them. if you take more than prescribed or take one prescribed to somebody else, that is now a recreational drug. there is no difference. the only good difference between street drugs and pharmaceutical drugs is quality control. there is no difference. that makes everybody you know what you re talking about because you ve had your own battles with prescription drugs. how easy were they for you to get? not only are they easy to get, one of the reasons i believe that they have become so popular is once you get a connection, somebody who either works in the chemical or pharmaceutical plant and is in charge of keeping stock, and then can move whole crates of say vicodin or oxycontin out, or you know a bad pharmacist or you ve gone doctor shopping, what the thing is there is your supply never dries up. say it was street drugs like cocaine, you could be in real need of your cocaine and make a million phone calls and hear the worst thing you ever want to hear, danny, the whole town s dry. i don t know what happened. maybe give me a call on wednesday. with pharmaceuticals, that never happens. once you have your connection, you re supplied forever. thank you, danny. julie, you re shaking your head yes. the cdc has mad it clear this is not just a problem with celebrities. it is a national problem, this issue of prescription drug abuse and overdose you call it an epidemic. i have called it an epidemic. it is a huge public health problem, definitely. prescription drugs are readily available. people are being overprescribed. you can buy them on the street, on the interfelt, and the problem is there is no real oversight. there is no doctor involved half of the time or more of the time, and there s no pharmacist making sure you re not having dangerous drug interactions. the problems with a lot of celebrity overdos and some of them were sick. some of them had lung problems. heath ledger had pneumonia. sounds like he was having trouble breathing, corey. when you take painkillers and sleeping pills and valium, these all depress your respiratory drive and there is less of a drive to breathe and you basically suffocate. so, it s actually relatively easy to accidentally overdose on these drugs? it is. it is the number two killer after motor vehicle accidents of accidental deaths and most of them are from prescription drugs, not illegal drugs. corey feldman said on larry king that corey haim had been recently seeing a treatment specialist who put him on a new line of meds and he wondered whether those did not correspond well to the medine he was already taking. the problem is, when people don t when there is no medical oversight, when you don t tell the doctor all the different things you re taking, you re not getting any good advice. when there is a lot of do-it-yourself psychopharm right now, especially knorr the internet, people are prescribing for hemselves. they re not getting medical advice and there is no oversight with a doctor or pharmacist. corey said he was a chronic relapser, something he had been dealing with over the course of his life. again, he seemed to be doing well the last few months of his life. but is it more difficult to overcome a addiction to prescription drugs than other drugs? i think every drug addiction is difficult to overcome and there are always relapses over and over. it s a chronic illness and it s very hard to stay sober for very long and prescription drugs are easy to get. and i think when you re a celebrity, people offer you all sorts of things and dtors are happy to prescribe them for you because they re star-struck. maria, corey s mom is suffering from cancer and now lost her son. how is she holding up at this point? i know she spoke to you about funeral plans for her son. reporter: she is obviously in shock and is devastated. her son took care of her and she also wanted to make very clear that she was living with him. that was his apartment, that he was allowing her to stay with him while she was taking her radiation and her chemotherapy and he was taking care of her. so, that was another thing she wanted to clear up, but she is going to take his body back to toronto and bury him there and funeral services will take place in toronto. she is going to be moving back there. his sister and her daughter live there, and she wants him close by with her. that s a very, very sad story and we ll wait for the autopsy report to come in. maria menounos, thank you very much. danny bonaduce and dr. julie holland as well, thank you. and we should mention that maria will have more on corey haim tonight on access hollywood and maria will be back tomorrow on today with her interview with ryan and tatum o neil, the first with the father and daughter together since they reconciled after a long and rocky relationship. now let s get a check of the weather from al. thanks a lot, meredith. and as we take a look at what s going to be happening here in the northeast, well, we ve got a lot of snow on the ground already. we ve got just some scattered showers coming into the northeast, but as we get heavier rain in and milder temperatures and melting snow, we re looking for some extensive flooding. look at these rainfall amounts. we re talking anywhere from three to eight inches of rain from new york city, long island, connecticut, parts of the northeast and on into new england, and that s going to cause some major problems with the possibility of flooding, and right here, we can see more than two inches of rain, but as far as today goes, we should be dry. we should have a little bitf sunshine in the early part of the day. meanwhile on radar, that s the green off to the west. washington county, eastern maryland and west virginia. temperature now at 48 degrees. a h that s your latest weather. if you want to keep track of your weather all day long, especially in the southeast or northeast, you can turn to the weather channel on cable or click on weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you. up next, we ll catch up with donald trump as he gears up for a new season of the celebrity apprentice. luci: i m luci romberg. i m a free runner. .national champion gymnast. .martial artist. and a stuntwoman. if you want to be incredible, eat incredible. announcer: eggs. incredible energy for body and mind. (guitar music) food myth number 22. nothing s better after a long day than a giant plate of lettuce. c mon. who s satisfied with that? with lean cuisine you can enjoy dishes that are nutritious and. are you sitting down?. delicious, too! take eir new spa apple cranberry chicken. they put in grilled chicken, whole wheat pilaf. sweet cranberries. farm-picked veggies. and an apple reduction sauce. plus 6 grams of fiber. cranberries got you thinking red? turn to page 57 for the red that suits you. lean cuisine. keep life delicious. 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. you need listerine® whitening® vibrant white™ rinse. the mouthwash that gets teeth four times whiter than the leading toothpaste. and kills bad breath germs. listerine® whitening vibrant white™. we are back at 7:46 with donald trump. he s back in the boardroom for another season of the celebrity apprentice. he s mixing it up with a group that includes rock stars, athletes and a former politician, and there will be a few surprises along the way. it will be men versus women. you re going to go back to trump tower and you re going to choose a name for your team. i want the women to pick the project manager of the men. i want the men to pick the project manager of the women. oh, no! okay? no! hey, donald, good morning. good morning. so, logic would tell me the women are going to choose the weakest possible person for the men and vice versa. they always do. they choose the weak. isn t that true in life? you choose the weak. and what do you think this group? can i mention a couple of names here? sure, go ahead. all right. we ve got darryl strawberry, cyndi lauper, bret michaels, sharon osbourne, holly robinson pete, sin bad, rod blagojevich. i m going to stop there. why do you think he wanted to be part of this show? well, it s been very controversial. in fact, the federal government tried to stop him from being on the show, but i think ultimately the judge felt he was a free man. why did you want him on the show? controversy. absolutely. he s the guy who stirs it up. stirs it up? and he does quite well and he continues to go on. but you know one thing about him, he has a lot of guts. i ve known people over the years, they get indicted, they have problems, it s jail for 25 years, they crawl into a corner. this guy s out there. i read somewhere that he calls you a role model, and i m wondering how you feel about that. well, i ve never heard that, but i think it s an honor. yeah? i think it s an honor, sure. holly robinson peete says you and rod blagojevich have had some discussions about hair. well, i don t think that s necessarily true, but it certainly is controversial. she made it up? talk abo the women side of things, sharon osbourne, cyndi lauper. who stands out in your mind? any meltdowns coming up? about three who were major. and three people i thought were strong, tough, forget it, you know, total meltdowns. cindi was great, i ll tell you, cyndi was great. although she had one problem, she had some bad friends. you understand that some. absolutely. you know what i m talking about? i heard about that. but cyndi lauper s been on the show a lot of times and i mean this in the best possible way she s crazy enough to win this thing. she s very smart. people don t understand. she comes on with the accent and the whole thing. she s really cunning, she s really smart and she does very well. i can say that. by this time, having done the show as often as you have, can you look at the group right off the bat and say that person doesn t stand a chance, that person has a chance? i can, but it never works. really? i always go in and say, boy, this one s great, this one s going to be a star, and it s a stiff. and i mean, i can tell you in this group, but i can t go too far, but in this group, there are a couple of people i didn t think they would do well and they ve done unbelievably well. going back to blagojevich a second politics help him, you think, the fact that he has that on his resume? i think it s very obvious to him during this entire show that he s going to trial during or after the show airs, and it s going to be very interesting. kind of hanging over his head. donald trump, thank you. thank you, matt. good to see you. thank you. you can catch the season premiere of the celebrity apprentice sunday night at 9:00/8:00 central time here on nbc. still ahead, remember the girl who could not stop sneezing? is she still doing it? she ll be here to give us an update. but first, these messages. 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[ male announcer ] chevy traverse. a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it seats eight comfortably not that it always has to. just ahead, a devastating soccer injury that left an 11-year-old girl partially paralyzed and determined to walk again. we re going to meet her and her parents, find out how she s doing. but first, a look at your local news and weather. anything else? when y re trying to be good, tempting treats can be wicked. no thanks, i m good. new special k fruit crisps. with two crispy bars for 100 fruity calories. it s the delicious, new way to stay on track. now, being good s a cinch. with new special k fruit crisps. wore only what i was wild about. always knew what i loved, and insisted on wearing it. chicka boom boom boom i guess some women are destined to wear chico s. [ male announcer ] gym membership for february: $68 paid automatically. gym membership for march: $68. oh, my. 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[ male announcer ] v-scan from ge healthcare. a pocket sized imaging device that will help change the way doctors see patients. that s better health for more people. good morning, our time right now is 7:56, 48 degrees outside, a lot of sunshine overhead. some clouds, though, we ll see whether the rain may move in. if you re planning to take the chain bridge over the weekend, you had better find a detour. the chain bridge will be closed completely in the next two weekends so that ddot can give it a makeover. the work was supposed to occur in december, but those blizzards forced crews to change their plands. a man was shot and killed last night on hawaii avenue near north capitol street. the police say the victim and the gunman did know each other. the woman said that theed her bt welcome back, a slow moving storm and we ll make it back through with another dry day. we re almost 50 degrees, 48 right now, close to 50 at quantico. your high 65. we ll take a live look on the beltway, inner loop at college park an accident. only one travel lane on the inner loop leaving college park toward greenville. outer loop, there will be rubber necking delays getting past the scene. sunshine and plenty of it this morning, 66 eastbound but no accidents to report all the way on in. we ll have more news, weather and traffic coming your way in 25 8:00 now on this thursday morning, the 11th of march 2010. our rollin spring break is rolling along. we have another packed plaza filled with people waving to loved ones back home. outside on the plaza, i m meredith vieira alongside matt lauer and al roker. and just ahead, you re going to meet a very brave young girl, 11-year-old mackenzie saunders, who was playing soccer in december when she took a very rough hit and became partially paralyzed. for the past three months, she s dedicated her life to proving the doctors who told her she might never walk again wrong. so, can she walk again? she will be here along with her parents to share her story. i just talked to mackenzie. she s a terrific young girl. she is, yeah. if anybody s going to do it, she is. we re going to have a terrific time with her. also ahead, aging with grace, something, hopefully, we know about. it can be really hard, though, they say, for women. so, we re going to talk about how to deal with the gray hair and the wnkles that naturally come with aging. yes, they do. and we re going to be taking a look at some great travel getaways for boomers. okay. but first, let s get a check of the top stories. ann is off today. natalie morales is standing by at the news desk. hey, nat. hey, guys. good morning quuns again, and good morning, everyone. toyota s troubles put a top u.s. official on the hot seat today in washington. lawmakers are asking the head of the national highway traffic safety administration why his agency did not move more quickly to investigate complaints about sudden acceleration and braking problems. the hearing comes during a week of highly publicized incidents involving runaway toyotas. toyota has placed a team of specialists on standby to look into claims of vehicles accelerating out of control. some encouraging news, though, from the nation s highways. the department of transportation says traffic deaths dropped a dramatic 9% last year to the lost level since 1954. possible reasons include fewer people driving to work because of unemployment and enforcement of drunk driving and distracted driving laws. severe weather is possible in the southeast today again from tennessee to florida. tornadoes struck wednesday in northern arkansas, injuring at least four people and damaging dozens of houses. president obama s meeting today with members of the congressional black and hispanic caucuses to make sure he has their votes on health care legislation. the president travels to ohio monday for a rally in the home of an uninsured cancer patient whose case has become a symbol of health care shortcomings. and vice president joe biden headed to jordan after telling an audience in tel aviv the u.s. has no better friend than israel, but on wednesday, biden criticized israel for approving new housing in disputed east jerusalem, saying it undermined the trust needed for peace negotiations with the palestinians. zookeepers in australia are keeping close watch on a newborn elephant that has already given them one big surprise. zoo officials had feared that the calf had not survived its mother s difficult labor, so they were thrilled on wednesday when the baby suddenly started moving its head and eventually took its first steps. aww. cute little thing. it s 8:03 right now. let s go back outside to matt and meredith. keep our fingers crossed it does well. speaking of cute little things, mr. roker is standing by with the weather. well, thank you very much! and we ve got these kids from fordham law, and where are you guys going? we re going to haiti on friday. we re leaving with a volunteer group tomorrow. that s awfully good. we ll be working with the children affected by the earthquake, so please donate online now. great. thank you so much. and this young lady is 16 years old today. happy birthday. let s check your weather, see what s going on. pick city of the day, albany, gegia, walb nbc 10. showers, storms, temperature of about 70 degrees. and for the weekend, as we look ahead, northeast going to be really wet, some flooding possible, rain in the pacific northwest, nice and mild southwest down through the gulf coast. then sunday, sunday, look for more heavy rain in new england, sunny skies in the pacific northwest all the way to california. some snow showers around the great i should y- i forgot where i was talking about oh, rockies, the rockies. my director joe michaels helped me out with somewhere. we ll get a chance to take it easy today because the rain is going to hold off for one more day. well on the radar right now, we don t have anything showing up as of yet, but after midnight, we re going the start getting some light rain in here. a few clouds in here this morning. we ll see mostly cloudy skies for the afternoon and it s mild already, near 50 degrees, we ll see a high of 65 today, then some showers come and we ve got members of the floyd central orchestra. where is floyd central at? floyd county, indiana. ah, there you go. and it s probably in the central part of the state. so, they re doing better than i am in geography! matt? all right, al, thank you very much. it s world kidney day. these people tell me love your kidneys. good advice. when we come back, we ll meet an 11-year-old soccer player partially paralyzed after an onfield collision. we re going to talk about her quest to walk again. luke: moving my mind and my hands 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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( marker squeaking ) when business travel leaves you drained, re-charge with comfort suites. spacious rooms, free hi-speed internet, and free hot breakfast. comfort suites. power up. now stay two separate times with comfort suites. or any choice hotel and earn a free night. book at choicehotels.com. make that first step easier, with the nicoderm cq patch. nicoderm steps you down from nicotine gradually. doubling your chance for success. nicoderm cq. three steps, ten weeks and you re free. announcer: today s health is brought to you by nicoderm cq ygt thr . three steps, ten wks and you re free. this morning on today s health, a young soccer player s frightening injury. 11-year-old mackenzie saunders was the star of her team, but shortly after an onfield collision in december, she lost all feeling in her legs. nbc s chief medical editor . nancy snyderman has her story. reporter: it was a hard hit, seemingly like any other. the ref called a foul, but mackenzie hopped right back up, continued the rest of the half, and it was at halftime she started complaining about pain in onef her legs. came out of the game, went to the sideline and collapsed, went down. i really didn t think that it was going to be that serious. i just thought, like muscle cramp. but it just was, like i was hurting really bad and i never really felt anything like it. [ sirens ] reporter: mackenzie was rushed to the hospital, underwent an mri and was admitted to the intensive care unit. that first night in the hospital, it was like midnight when she couldn t move her toes anymore. so, that, you know, that s when we knew. reporter: a vertebra in mackenzie s ler back was fractured and a blood clot was cutting the blood supply to her lower spinal cord. she was losing feeling in her legs andaralysis was suddenly a reality. this was all really scary and i didn t i didn t know what was going to happen to me and i didn t know what was going to happen after all this was done, like how i m going to get around, how i m going to go to school. reporter: most soccer injuries involve the knees and ankles. a spinal injury is very rare in this sport. i couldn t find other reported injuries of kids or adults who had low back injuries from soccer. it s really bad luck, a very freak accident. reporter: a freak accident, but for mackenzie, very real. she needed to start therapy immediately if she ever hoped to walk again. mackenzie is going through inpatient rehabilitation. she is doing physical therapy to work on walking, moving from her bed to her wheelchair, using her wheelchair comfortably. reporter: but mackenzie dreams of a life outside of a wheelchair. she still has never asked will i be able to walk? she has said, don t worry, i will walk again, mother. and many times, you can quit crying. it s not if i will walk, it is when. reporter: and when that day comes first thing i want to do is probably just hang out with my friends or play a game of soccer. that be pretty cool. and dr. nancy snyderman is here with us and the saunders family, mackenzie and her parents, gary and liz, are here as well, so let s bring them out. come on out, guys. and this is the best sight of all, mackenzie walking. look at you! hi, mackenzie. hi. mackenzie, you look fantastic! how are you feeling? i m feeling great. you are. what i love best about your story is first when you got hurt and couldn t move your legs at all, you told the doctors, i am going to walk again. what made you so sure? i just knew that i was going to work hard for it and i was always going to be positive. and that s the right attitude, absolutely, to be positive. but liz, it has been a long time. i watched you watching that tape and the tears came to your eyes. what has been and even now when i bring it up. what haseen the hardest part for you? i don t even know what to say. the hardest part was when she was in the hospital. but now it s all good and it s getting easier. i m just really sensitive. i don t blame you. it s your little girl and what a frightening experience. i know. and gary, the fact that she has exceeded expectations, does that surprise even you? well, we always knew we had a special little girl in mackenzie, and it s her attitude about this that s really the story here. you know, devastating injury, but her attitude of thinking positive and not feeling sorry for herself, along with the expert help we re having at barrows neurological institute. we re very happy with the way things are going. and dr. nancy, it took a while to figure out what exactly was wrong with mackenzie. you know, you don t expect this injury in soccer. right. you really expect knee injuries. and you have to really look with an mri. i mean, i ve seen, you know, pictures of mackenzie s films, and you can see that little fracture, but increasingly what happened was there was a little bit of hemorrhage, and that hemorrhage put pressure on the cord and that s what started to cause all the neurologic problems. is this something that can completely reverse itself? well, i m not really the person to say that. i m sure everyone s very, very hopeful, with the fact she can a.m. belate now. i m sure you went to a very dark place where you re suddenly looking at your child s life in a wheelchair and how everything will change around the house, but the fact that she can get around as well as she can, and she s young. remember,ervous systems repair themselves much better in a kid than an adult, so it s really quite hopeful. yesterday there were new guidelines released on how to ensure a safe environment for athletes. can you walk me through those? sure. first one is, and all of us as parents have to figure out, are our kids okay to play a certain sport? and as a parent, i know i ve fudged this in the past and always get that doctor s note. talk to the coach, talk to the staff, make sure they know if there are any medical problems or any medications you re on, and frankly, figure out if your school has some kind of emergency plan and where the nearest hospital would be. in some cases, especially neurologic problems, time is of the essence. and i know that i talked to you, mackenzie, about how many feet you have been walking, and i thought it was 200 and something, but you say well beyond that now? yeah. what are you up to? you figured it out, if i can get to jamba juice and back? eah. that would be about 2,000 feet. but i haven t walked that yet, but i ve walked about 620 feet. which is even more than the last time, right? so, you re going to surprise your physical therapist when you go back. are you on a regular schedule now? do you see them once a week or how does that work? i see them twice a week, every wednesday and thursday. so, whais the goal? do you hope or maybe even assume that you will be playing soccer again? you re going to be a goalie again for sure? yeah. i really want to play soccer again. can you not do that to your mom too soon? thank you. [ laughter ] i don t really know if they want me to, but again, dr. nancy, i want to point out to people at home, this is not a common injur in this particular sport. no. look, this is a rare injury, and it s what the doctor in the piece said, it s bad luck. but it s a reminder to all of us that life is tenuous and these injuries can happen, and when they happen, you have to think in a systemic way and as parents, intercede immediately. people on site have to make smart decisions, and then doctors at the hospital, even if ey don t see these injuries very often, sometimes they have to think outside of the box, and then you get great results like this. mackenzie, can you stand up once again for us and walk again? tell me, do you experience pain when you walk or is it well, at first i did, but now i ve done it so much that it s not really hurting anymore. and how about she had a brace any feeling in your toes, numbness or tingling at all? actually, i can feel my entire left foot, but actually, on this foot, i have a brace. for extra support? can i see your brace? it s multicolored. that s very cool. it has a soccer ball on it. and that helps the back of your leg? yeah. that s cool. so that s why you walk a little stiff with that leg because you don t bend it quite as much. but the brace helps a lot. good for you. and eventually, that will come off as you gain strength in your leg. so, next time i see you, maybe the olympics? oh, yeah. oh, yeah. i have no doubts, mackenzie. thank you so much. liz and gary saunders, as well. i know you ve been through a lot, but boy, have you seen the courage of your daughter a the determination. quite a special young lady. and dr. nancy, thank you for bringing her story to us. you re welcome, meredith. we ll be back right after this. she s going to the olympics, i m sure. anything else? when you re trying to be good, tempting treats can be wicked. no thanks, i m good. new special k fruit crisps. with two crispy bars for 100 fruity calories. it s the delicious, new way to stay on track. now, being good s a cinch. with new special k fruit crisps. 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. i am buying a new toyota camry. brand-new 2010 toyota camry. 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neutrogena cosmetics. announcer: today s travel getaways is brought to you by royal caribbean international, the nation of why not. we re back now at 8:21. this morning on today s travel getaways for boomers. who says the younger set gets to have all the fun? more boomers are now entering retirement, and that means more time to get away. kate maxwell, senior editor at conde nest traveler is here with the boomer crowd. nice to be here. let s talk about the boomers as a group. these are not hard, fast rules, but generally speaking, according to studies, boomers thk travel is a necessity, not a luxury. well, they ve been traveling for years, they re very experienced and now really is their chance. kids have flown the nest. they want to do more exploring. because they re more experienced, are they harder to please? not necessarily. we ve got a great selection here of some very active vacations and short breaks, because sometimes they re pushed for time. and a lot of other tricks. they are short on time. they think they re special they are. because they are the boomer generation and they re not passive, and that kind of all fits into the choices you ve got here. we just spent time in vancouver for the winter olympics. a lot of focus on canada as a result of that. you like montreal. yes. well, perhaps you might remember the 1976 olympics, if you were there, and montreal is a great place to go at moment because they have a fantastic deal on hotels. 50% off the second night at just about every hotel in the city. and great stuff, about $115 a night. montreal, very wonderful, european feel. it s got the second largest french speaking population in the world. great architecture, great food. and for parts of our country, especially the eastern part of our country, you get to go to a foreign country, it s exotic and it s close. it s an hour s flight from new york. so, if you re short on time, that fits the bill. great weekend. we know that boomers like amenities. they do. they like to be pampered a bit and because of that, you like the sonoma wine country. yes. the farm house inn and restaurant has a great two-night, three-star package, a cottage with a fireplace, really, really beautiful and two restaurants. boomers might remember in the 70s california really overtook france as the best wine-producing region in the world, and sonoma, you might not know as well as napa, is right next door. it s a half-hour drive. it s a beautiful place, really pretty scenery. you have one that took me by surprise, for empty nesters who may be particularly cse to their pets, you re talking about a trip to nantucket. why is this. i think we all know people whose dog has become the child substitute and you certainly don t want to leave him behind when you go on vacation. if you go to nantucket, you don t need to. you think maybe of nantucket being a millionaires enclave, but we found a place called woof cottages with $175-a-night deal. that s for you and your pet, and your pet isn t just shoved in a kennel. he gets his own canine therapy bed which soothes his muscles. all right, you re losing me here. that s okay. i know people take this very seriously. they do. we already mentioned that boomers tend to have traveled more than the generation before them. so, we ve got this experience, and so, exotic sounds really good. you like costa rica. yeah. if you didn t get there the first time around in the 60s or 70s, if you didn t get to backpack, the good news is it s very unchanged. the costa rican government has done such a good job of looking after the environment. speaking of the environment, a little social consciousness and you can find that in new orleans. this is a good pick. five years after katrina, they still need our help. the ritz carlton has a bring back the big easy package, $239 a night and that includes a donation to operation southern impact. they re planting trees in public spaces. i like when people do that. quickly, our last one, this is one you want to cross off the bucket list, a big one, a trip to africa. a trip to africa. everyone i think once in a lifetime should go on an african safari. they have an all-inclusive package. you always have great ideas. kate, nice to see you again. you, too. thanks very much. 8 clnl 26 is your time now, cloudy skies in the nation s capital. but the rain is holding off. good morning, everyone. it s thursday, march 11, 2010. and in the news this morning. today the department of veteran s affairs is holding a job fair. it will be at the washington, d.c. metro medical center. the event will feature dozens of government agencies looking to hire. it s almost 8:30, temperatures are around 50 degrees in most locations, some sunshine to start the day. 46 in chantilly and 47 in mt. vernon and 49 in most other nablds. we ll see a high today of 65 degrees. the rain starts after midnight. we ll get some heavier rain in here the first part of the weekend. jerry? we ll take a live look on the topside of the ltway. right side of the outer loop. typically slow in silver spring. that s the outer loop jammed silver spring all the way to greenville. we ll do the trip to virginia, 395, plenty of room on the belt way. we re back now, 8:30 on a thursday morning. it s the 11th day of march 2010. please say hi to a very attractive crowd this morning. of the morning absolutely. we mean of the month so far. we re out here on a pretty morning. it s actually a little overcast, but not too cold here in the northeast. it s going to be moderate, but we re going to get some nasty weather. we ve got heavy rain coming into the mid-atlantic, northeast, into new england over the weekend, possibly some flooding. wow. be careful about that. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira, al roker and natalie morales. and coming up, a delicate subject, especially for some women, aging. looking rightt me. i was looking at you because it s your turn. you are the epitome of someone who is just aging gracefully. aging gracefully. well, thank you. you are. thank you very much. oh, man. every woman deals with it in their own way, but is it the physical part that is the hardest thing to handle or maybe the anxiety and the confusion? you re told when you re growing up that looks don t matter, it s who you are as a person, and yet, we live in a society that values beauty and youth, so, where does that leave you? coming up, we have two former models what are you it s a serious issue! i had a potato chip stuck in my mouth i know, it s on my cheek. coming up, what two former models turned therapists have learned from their patients that may redefine the aging process and make it a pleasant thing to go through. okay. plus, an update on a story. remember the young girl we had on the show who couldn t stop sneezing she was sneezing up to 1200 times a day. is she still sneezing? she ll be here to give us an update, coming up. and who are you going to call when you have a squabble with your spouse? why the marriage ref, of course! that s right, an all new episode of the jerry seinfeld new show is tonight on nbc. host tom papa welcomes a new celebrity panel, ricky gervais, larry david and madonna. this week s topic includes a man who says his wife treats their pet iguana better than him. that could be a problem. yeah, and a wife who insists on displaying her ex-husband s ashes. ooh. wow, they ve got some ashes there. is that spelled correctly? ashes. ashes. that s the marriage ref tonight at 10:00/9:00 central. you know what my favorite part of the show is? what s that? just the facts, ma am. who is that woman? i love her! natalie morales! i knew it was natalie! thank you! that s my favorite part of the show. my best plug. the glue that holds the show together. that s it. aww. all right, mr. roker, you have a check of the weather. that s right. i m going to saye over here as i ask you remember the old joke how do you get to carnegie hall? how do you get to carnegie hall? practice! you practice! that s right! well, these kids know that better than most. they re members of the bishop s singers school from la jolla, california, and they also happen to bsingers as well, and you ve got a concert? you re at carnegie hall tonight? yeah. and what are you pardon? saturday. saturday. saturday. well, you just said yes to be nice. well, you know, they ve got nothing going on there tonight. show up tonight! and you re going to be performing, right, having a good time? yes. have you got a little song for us right now? yes. okay, let s hear it. they re warming up now. one, two, three, four! my good lord bless my soul all right! there you go! bishop singers from the bishop s singers the bishop s school. you re going to do a longer song at carnegie hall, right? yeah. okay, i just wanted to make sure. that s part of a national youth choir festival. let s check your weather and see what s going on. as we look today, heavy rain and storms possible down through florida up into the ohio river valley, wet weather in the pacific northwest with windy conditions, high surfdvisories along the southern california coast. more heavy rain in northern california tomorrow. east coast is going to be a mess tomorrow. if you re traveling, air travel, forget it, from chicago to new york, atlanta, down into florida, going to be a mess, but and right here, we do have some partly sunny skies, temperatures mild, we re up to 50 degrees already, in fredericksberg, that is. in fairfax you re at 49 degrees as well as in the district. we are going to see some rain moving in, but probably not until after midnight, nen we ll have a better chance after 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. we ll stay at the 60-degree mark and don t forget, you can check your weather any time of the day or night. go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. now, let s head on to florida? is willard in florida? yeah, he s down in ft. myers, florida, after a triumphant celebration of his 30th anniversary here on the today show yesterday. it was good to see you, uncle willie. you re so sweet, and i thank the two people that showed up for lunch. i thought that was very impressive. and al, beauty and youth, you are a personification of that, so you don t have to we are about a thing. you re eternal. hey, happy birthday from smucker s. take a look at our birthday bunch today. handsome devil, beautiful ladies, incredible. first of all, there is nyleptha roberts, sparta, tennessee. i ve got 1,000 relatives down there near sparta. she s only 112, young thing. secret to longevity is her faith in the good lord. loves everybody. known for being the cutest lady in tennessee. i wan be in tennessee, my dixie paradise. here s betty jane gery from bonita springs, florida, our neighbors down the road. 100 years old. claims that she takes no medication except for a gin giblet. that s turkey giblets. enjoys eating crabs with family and friends. me, too, even if they don t show up. i don t really care. dr. oscar haber of lexington, kentucky, near paris, where they have some of the best country ham you ve ever ate. 100, holocaust survivor who tells his story to schoolkids throughout the great commonwealth of kentucky. he speaks nine languages. how about that? and maria trevino of falfurrias in the great state of texas. still drives to church every week. one of the first women who was a bailiff and is a high-profile lady in the town. take a look at lucy. i love lucy! lucy minnick, washington, d.c., my hometown. 100 years old. lives independently and loves discussing politics. grea town for it. never loses a debate. considers herself the biggest obama fan in the world. bless your heart. he ll like that. bernice sadus of orlando, florida. we know where that is. 102 and learned sign language at 65. enjoys crocheting afghans. and that s about it. that s all. thank you, all of you, for a wonderful time up in new york. matt? we had a great time having you here, willard. thank you very much. when we come back, how women really feel about the aging process. but first, this is today 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 have more folks pang 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. announcer: today s woman is brought to you by annuineutroge cosmetics, recommended most by dermatologists. this morning in today s woman, surviving the aging process. if beauty is only skin deep, why do women unravel at the first sign of a wrinkle or gray hair? vivian diller explores aging in face it. good morning. good morning. it really is a journey, this process of aging. as i said, i m 56 now and i so relate to this book, and also the dilemma you face. because on the one hand, growing up, you re told you can do anything, don t worry about your looks. that s not what matters. it s who you are inside. and yet, we are bombarded by images of youth and beauty as a culture. so, you reach this point and you don t quite know how to deal with the aging process. you, in fact, call it a beauty paradox. right. you know, we re living longer lives than ever before. we were brought up to believe we d be admired for our accomplishments and empowered by our years of experience, but yet, in fact, so many women tell us they feel the opposite. they re uneasy and anxious as they anticipate becoming invisible in this youth and beauty-obsessed culture. and jill and i wanted to get underneath the surface of that dilemma that so many women really didn t anticipate they d be feeling. and you actually experienced it earlier than most women because you were models and dancers. yeah. so, you went through a process that i m going through now, basically, at a much younger age. we often talk about our, you know, experiences when we were modeling, and i was about 15 or 16 and doing one of my first jobs, and i was with beverly johnson, who was the first african-american, black model, really, blaput black models on map. and she turned to me and she said i was at the ripe old age of 15 from your first job, you re thinking about your last. and i thought, oh, my gosh, old. i m like only 15 and i m getting old! so, and that moment, you know, i think we understand that we had an early experience of aging, a very accelerated experience of aging. and you know, the thing is, that uh-oh moment may start on the surface, but in fact, it resonates much more deeply into the core of who we are as women and sets off these complicated feelings that most psychologists don t talk about and most women are really not prepared to deal th. so, you deal in this book with six steps that women need to approach their life with, essentially. i mean, these are the six steps that you followed in order to accept this process and deal with this process, beginning with the uh-oh moment. yes. right. and that is, as we pointed out, the first time you realize, wow, there s kind of no turning back. right, but it s what that means to you. i think where our book is different from other books is that it s not simply a surface book but a book that looks at what it means to you when you recognize that you re aging and how you start to question how much of my worth, how much of my esteem, how much of my sense of value is attached to how i look? and you know, it s all a matter of degree, but for some women, it may be too much, and then aging for them is a very devastating, you know, experience, moment, many moments. you say in terms of your stages that you need to identify the mask and interpret your internal dialogue. what does that mean? well, we find that some women don t recognize that they re even having this experience, and in part, it s that incompatible message that looks are not supposed to matter, but they do. and so, they mask that experience. we ask women to really take a little time to think about what is the dialogue they re having? are they being very critical of themselves? we want that uh-oh moment to turn io ah hah, i am aging, but there s a way to redefine my looks as i age. and that means shifting that internal dialogue. you also suggest examining how the significant people in your personal history contribute to the development of your self image. who are you talking about? oh, i think there, first and foremost, that most important person when we come into the world is our mother. your mom, yeah. and as you develop, something happens called internalization, and you internalize those voices and those messages, sometimes even distort them, but nonetheless, they become part of how you speak to yourself, how you see yourself, and then even more importantly how you think others are seeing you, and that can really have a big impact on how you feel. and we don t have a lot of role models, as you know. right. you obviously are one for all of us, but we owe it to our next generation, to ourselves as well, to provide better role models so that women anticipate these next decades of our lives with optimism. instead of fear, right? right. we only have 30 seconds left. are you opposed to plastic surgery? do you feel that s wrong or no. no, we pretty clearly take the stance that it s being thoughtful about the choices you make. and in order to be thoughtful, you really have to understand both the cultural dilemma and your own personal experience of what it means to be attractive at any age. and i think on that note, what we often say to women is make sure you can distinguish between whether or not you re doing something out of fear, which then will compel you to act, as opposed to choice. okay. vivian diller, thank you so much, jill muir-sukenic, thank you very much. the book is called face it. still to come, spring cleaning 101, the best way to this morning on today s family, when a teenager comes out. as a parent, it s never easy to talk to your kids about sex, and that conversation can become even harder when a son or a daughter says he or she is gay, even before they re old enough to drive. here s wnbc s darlene rodriguez. chillicothe is a small, rural area. we have one major highway and there s a church on every corner. reporter: it s a place where some might be surprised to find a young man like richard walsh. at the age of 13, i knew that i was different, for sure, and i had finally put a name to it. i was gay. i started to realize that when i was about 11. i m not the same as everybody else is. i don t like, you know, t girls like guys i hang out with do. reporter: richard s father and step mother were supportive. i had an idea, maybe not something a dad wants to face right off the bat, but not something i would ever shove him away for. you know, he s my son. i love him for whoever he is. and he was very firm when he said, no, i m gay. it doesn t matter how old i am, i ve decided and this is me. reporter: but sharing the news with others proved more difficult. what hurt the mos was when i told my biological mother that i was s y. she looked at me and she said, i would rather you have told me that you got some girl pregnant. it really affected our relationship. reporter: and as word got out at school, not everyone approved. they would call me faggot or queer or what not, and it really hurt. reporter: 91% of middle school students who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered experience verbal harassment. 59% have been harassed physically. but despite those statistics, it appears more and more younger teens these days are interested out their sexual identity. in 2001, only 11 middle schools had gay-straight alliances. today that number is up to 129 middle schools. something that i m thinking that we should do is a history week. reporter: now, richard is president of the gay-straight alliance in his high school in chillicothe, ohio. we need three more committee members. the best thing about coming out is you get to show the world who you truly are, and if they don t like that, that s their problem, it s not yours. reporter: for today, darlene rodriguez. dr. charles sophy is a psychiatrist who works with children and adolescentsadolesc. thanks for coming on. thank you. when a conversation comes up and a teen says mom, dad, i m gay, most parents have an inkling by that time, don t they? yes, they do, whether they want to admit it in themselves or not, absolutely. so it doesn t come completely out of the blue. no. they ve seen their child not progressing or developing like they typically would. but that first conversation, i would imagine, and the way the parents handle it is so crucially important. it s absolutelycrucial, and it s important for parents to be able to disconnect, listen to your child, give them some safe emotional space. they have to talk about it. i m not asking you to give me a script. right. but as close as you can, your teenage son or daughter walks up to you and says, mom, dad, i m gay. what are the words you should come up and what are the words you shouldn t come up with? the words you probably should come up with is something like, i m listening, i love you, i m here for you. the things you don t want to say are, oh, my gosh, i m embarrassed, what are we going to say, what are people going to think? those are the type of things that will make your child pull back and retreat. i think it s only natural, doctor, that some parents upon hearing this might immediately go into this mode where they think they can fix it. right. almost like the child has come to you and said i m biting my nails. right. and how do you tell parents to deal with that emotion? what i tell parents to do is know that they have this emotion and be aware that sexual identity is part of experimenting for children and exploring, and where they end up, who knows. give them space and allow them to be able to explore. well, that s interesting what you re saying. you re saying that even though some teens may come to their parents and say i m homosexual or i m lesbian, they may not be certain themselves. absolutely. they may still be experimenting. absolutely. it s a process of development. and allow your child to go through that process. but then the temptation is does the parent try and steer them in one direction or another? there is no steering. they ll want to y, but i think the best thing for parents to do is see how they feel and get education, support for themselves so they can provide support for their children. remember, sexuality is just a small pce of that child. they are the same child as anybody else. they have needs and wants just like anybody else. away from the child or the teen, some parents may find themselves maybe mourning is too strong a word, but mourning the loss of the child they thought they had. right. my child who was going to get married and have three children, blah, blah blah. right. but the issue is that your child still can have all of those things, and to be able to know that that is your child. if you are the parent if one parent has a more difficult time than the other parent in this, for example, if one parent outright rejects a child right. the other parent overcompsates? how do you compensate for something like that? well, it becomes an issue where you have to talk, but there are places to send parents who are in those situations for support from other parents who have gone through similar situations. it s all about support and education for parents and allowing your child a safe emotional space to be themselves. dr. charles sophy. doctor, thanks. thank you. app now to a chance for your kid s class to win an exciting trip to the wizarding world of harry potter universal resort opens this spring and your wizard or witch could be there. we just need to know what makes his or her class extraordinary. for details, head to todayshow.com. looks like fun. just ahead, we ll catch up with the girl who could not stop sneezing. after your local news. 8:55 is your time now, you see sunshine rays coming through the cloudshis morning. it is thursday march 11, 2010. in the news this morning, police are searching for a suspect after a man was shot and killed in northeast washington. it happened on hawaii avenue near northeast capitol street. police say the gunman pistol whipped the woman. but she ll be okay. the chain bridge will be closed for the next two weekends so that ddot can give it a facelift. the work was supposed to happen in december, but the blizzard forced the crew to change their welcome back, let s get you updated on the weather, yes, outside there is sunshine, the rain is holding off a little t long. we re getting 50 degrees in a lot of locations, we ll see a high today of 65. the rain comes in after midnight. heavier rain for friday night through saturday. jerry? we ll head out and take a live look, notice the right side of your screen, the inner loop still slow from georgia avenue on to college park because of an earlier beltway crash. heavy and slow across 395, about to thin again before the 14th street bridge. we ll have more news, weather and sports for you in 25 back to the right? no, back here. how about over here? n let s go back to the left. waffling is back at dunkin donuts. for a short time only, enjoy the return of the delicious oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich. america runs on dunkin . back now with more of today on a thursday morning, the 11th day of march 2010. a little breezy here in the northeast, but just say thank you to all these nice people who gathered here on this chilly morning. i m matt lauer along wit al roker. ann is taking some tim off. she ll be back with us, i think, on monday. on monday, yep. coming up this half hour, just a little bit more on what is a really sad story, the death of 38-year-old former child actor corey haim. he collapsed on wednesday. his mom apparently with him. there were reports that it was an accidental drug overdose. the mother says, though, don t jump to any conclusions. we re going to find out what she has to say in a couple of minutes. then switching gears, remember the young lady, the teenager who just couldn t stop sneezing? well, when we first met lauren johnson last fall, she was sneezing up to 12,000 times, 12,000 times a day! all started after a cold and never stopped. after she visited us here on today, she got hundreds of suggestions of what to do, visited a bunch of doctors. toda she s back for an exclusive interview and we will check out how she s doing. also ahead, now a lot of people can relate to this, especially in new york, where you ve got a small, a lot of small apartments. right. closet space. it is always at a premium. if your closets are a mess and you don t even know what you ve got anymore, well, we ve got advice for getting things organized and how you can create that feeling of at least having a little more space. also, we talk about the warm weather all the time. it s great, we love the warm weather,ut then you start to think, well, it means i m going to be in shorts, in a bathing suit, i ve got to get in shape. we re going to give you some fun exercises so it won t be a painful process. really fun? well, maybe not that fun. first, let s go inside. ann is off today. natalie s at the news desk with a look at the headlines. hi, natalie. good morning to you. forecasters say there is a risk of violent weather again today from tennessee to florida. on wednesday, there were five reports of tornadoes in arkansas and louisiana. several homes were destroyed. at least one person was killed. there were reports of baseball-sized hail in some places. the latest now on the death of former child star corey haim, who collapsed wednesday at his california home. nbc s lee cowan is in los angeles. good morning to you, lee. reporter: good morning, natalie. yeah, the l.a. county coroner s office says it will continue the autopsy on corey haim today. so far, however, the circumstances surrounding his death appear to be accidental, at least according to the lapd, but the toxicology reports may answer the one question that seems to be on everyons mind. i ain t got a man, i ain t got a song reporter: long before there were the vampires of twilight, there were the lost boys and corey haim. you re a creature of the night, michael, just like out of a comic book. you re a vampire, michael! reporter: the film was a cult classic, and haim became a teen heartthrob. a tangled-haired, 80s pin-up, along with his co-star, the other corey, corey feldman. is it ever going to get that good for me? anderson, the only difference between you and that grease ball is that he has a license and you don t. reporter: the coreys were inseparable, forging a friendship that would last more than 20 years. haim s addictions to valium and other prescription drugs were well known in hollywood, and they had taken him from the wonder boy of the screen to bankruptcy and to rehab several times over. this is a tough town, and unfortunately, he ran afoul of the worst elements in it. reporter: so, when at only 38 haim collapsed at the home he was sharing with his mother, who s suffering from cancer, speculation immediately turned once again to drugs. she kept saying, you know, don t make assumptions before you get results. she s like, i don t even know what happened to him, and it just pained her to hear all of these things. we found no elicit drugs in the residence and did recover some prescription meds. there were four bottles of his normal prescription meds. reporter: tmz caught up with haim just a few weeks ago and he hinted that he was finally winning the battle over his addictions. did you go to rehab, though? are you completely sober now? no, no, i ve been clean for a while now, actually. reporter: but haim s agent told access hollywood that the canadian-born actor had been under the weather lately with flu-like symptoms. he was taking medication, but an overdose, he says, seems unlikely. corey pretty much didn t take anything the day that he passed away. i mean, there was everything was still left in the bottles. reporter: although haim ended his life essentially broke and destitute, his best friend, both on screen and off, told cnn s larry king last night that for the first time in a long while, it seemed the lost boy wasn t so lost anymore. most recently, he d been honestly in the best frame of mind that he s ever been in in the past year. reporter: and natalie, haim, it seems, it begun yet another comeback. he either was shooting or had finished shooting several movies. in fact, one of them, american sunset, was actually scheduled to be released later this year. natalie. all right, lee cowan in los angeles. thanks so much, lee. today, president obama is meeting with members of a banking conference. he wants help from the group in his goal to double u.s. exports over five years to support 2 million jobs. on wednesday, the president pushed for health reform once again in a speech in missouri. he holds more meetings on health care at the white house today. the president says the u.s. remains committed to the recovery and rebuilding of earthquake-devastated hai. meantime, the u.s. military is scaling back its relief mission in haiti. more than 470 soldiers from the 82nd airborne left haiti on wednesday. there is a new richest person in the world, mexico s carlos slim has passed bill gates to become the world s richest person with a fortune of $53.5 billion, according to forbes magazine. gates is second and warren buffett is third. it is now six minutes past the hour. you re up to date right now and let s go back out once again to matt and al. so it s slim? not slim? carlos slim. i like slim better. carlos slick! call him he can get you to call him anything he wants with that kind of money. mr. roker, got some weather. we ve got some nice friends over here celebrating their 20th anniversary. my golly. when this gentleman asked to take a picture with his wife, he said she s celebrating heir 2 her 20th anniversary, so you re denying things? no, it s all good. what s your name? mary beth and harold stewart. let s check your weather and see what s happening. we ve got severe storms from virginia i should say from new orleans all the way to tupelo, mississippi. much of florida, southern georg georgia. we ve got the threat for tornadoes later today on into tonight, some severe storms. look at the radar. it is really firing up throughout parts of florida, especially northern florida on into georgia. atlanta probably going to be affected as well. rainfall amounts, we are talking anywhere from three to five inches of rain, some areas maybe even picking up eight inches of rain in northern florida and southern georgia, a real mess. and again, late this afternoon on into and right here, spring is in the air, but no spring showers yet. that s going to change. here s the radar, nice and quiet and dry. the rain will start this evening the average high is 54, so we re going to be well into the mid 60s by later this afternoon. mid 60s, it will feel like april, mid-april, and then that rain moves in and that s your latest weather. natalie? al, thank you. this morning on today s update, imagine if you started to sneeze and simply couldn t stop. well, that s exactly what happened to 12-year-old lauren johnson. she was sneezing up to 12 times a minute. in november, lauren shared her medical mystery with us and she s back with an update. we re going to hear from her in just a moment, but first, nbc s chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman has her story. reporter: it all began with a common cold at the end of october. [ sneezing ] lauren johnson was sneezing constantly. it s been two weeks now, and this hasn t stopped. reporter: it was happening all day every day, up to 12,000 times a day. the 12-year-old girl only stopped when she was able to sleep. nobody really knows how to treat it, what s going to work. reporter: her family consulted all kinds of physicians. they tried everything from therapy to hypnosis to allergy testing. the johnsons shared their story here on today. it became a rith mattic, nonstop, chronic sneeze. that s really when we became alarmed, a few weeks ago. reporter: after her appearance, people fm around the world contacted the johnsons, hoping to help. spasms of coughing. reporter: including top child development experts who treat disorders like tourette s syndrome and other neurological diseases. i had an eeg, mri, ct, went to the ear, nose and throat doctor. reporter: after an exhausting and sometimes confusing six weeks, they came back on today in december to share with us the diagnosis. pandis. well, pandis is an acronym. it s a bunch of letters that stand for a bigger thing, pediatric autoimmune disorders associated with streptococcus. in this condition, what typically happens is following a strep infection, a child will develop a sudden onset of either ticks or ocd-type behavior. reporter: because pandas is a newly recognized disease, treatment can be controversial, but lauren johnson and her family are finally on their way to having some answers. and dr. nancy snyderman is here along with lauren johnson, her mom, lynn, and her doctor, dennis. good morning to all of you. good morning. and notice the silence. lauren, you re not sneezing anymore. that is great news! thank you. how long ago did this stop? about two weeks ago. how are you feeling now? a lot better. a lot better. lynn, two weeks ago, just, just stopped? well, it gradually stopped, but over a two-day period, but yeah, she stopped. and it stopped at the treatment dr. bobulis. yes. we mentioned she was diagnosed with pandas. yes. first of all, explain how this sort of kicked the sneezing how all of that started happening? what we did was treated her with intravenous immuneglobulin. ivig. ivig it s commonly called. what you do is you infuse antibodies which serve to complex with the auto antibodies being generated by the immune system that go into the brain and cause the movement disorder. in lauren s case, the sneezing tick. now, explain what pandas really is and how it really started this whole tick to begin with. well, pandas is a condition that develops initially after an infection with group a strep. uh huh. and the immune system responds by making antibodies, creating cytokines, immune complexes generated from exotoxins from the strep that cross the blood-brain barrier. the blood-brain barrier is breached and it attacks a certain part of the brain called the basal ganglia. right. and there are shifts in hormones in that part of the brain. dopamine, for example, goes up or down, depending on which receptor is triggered, and that usually results in movement disorder, that results in obsessive-compulsive behavior. right. and nancy, this is a rarely new diagnosis. it s new enough that when i was a pediatric resident, i didn t know anything about it. right. as cases have hit the literature over the last couple years, i ve learned a lot. i think the underlying theme you hear here is a bacterial infection that trig yeagers alma hyper reaction in the body. exactly. and the body sort of turns on itself. when your immune sort of sees itself as foreign, things like ticks, you know, go ahead and click in. yeah. what actually happens is, there s molecular mimicry. there are proteins on the strep. right. that generate an immune response, and these antibodies now mistakenly think that certain brain tissue is actually strep. right. and so, lynn, i mean, the great news is, your daughter now is cured of this. she s not cured. she s not cured? no. like i said, these children that s the biggest problem with this disease. you know, parents live in fear because they can be reexposed to a bacteria, including strep, and remanifest again. some children go years, some children go months. some children it never remanifests again. we need to learn more about it. we need more research. so you want the awareness to be out there. that s why it s so important you re back on with us. and doctor, the chance she will have to undergo some reoccurring treatment, is that likely in this case? it s a possibility. we re watching her very closely right now. all right. i think in the meantime, you say, wow, the ivig was a great success. great success. look how great she is. then you have to get back to a new normal. yeah. and reembrace that and say, okay, whatever i had, you assume that s going to be a resolution and you get ready for the fact that there might be needed therapy. and quickly, lauren, how does it feel to not have to worry about that for now and just be back to school and back to your routine? it feels a lot better. i m not back to school yet, but soon, hopefully. not back to school? okay, well, we wish you all the best. good luck with everything. thank you. we ll continue to follow your story. thank you. and thanks to all of you, as well. coming up next here, switching gears, spring cleaning for your closet. we re going to help you create more space. and later, how 20 minutes in the kitchen could help you shed some weight. we ve got some delicious low-cal recipes. first, though, these messages. anything else? when you re trying to be good, tempting treats can be wicked. no thanks, i m good. new special k fruit crisps. with two crispy bars for 100 fruity calories. it s the delicious, new way to stay on track. now, being good s a cinch. with new special k fruit crisps. now, being good s a cinch. eating healthy is important, but only vegetables can give you vegetable nutrition. one of these will get you more than half way to your five daily servings. v8. what s your number? of finish t dry nse ent. the glass behind it wasn t. for sparkling dishes, try finish jet dry. we think you ll see the difference. most consumers do. finish. the diamond standard. rheumatoid arthritis going? they re discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine 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 your 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. [ female announcer ]sk your rheumatologist about simponi™. just one dose, once a month. this morning on today s home, time to clean out your closet. if your shoes are piled in a corner and you veot sweaters from the 80s, we ve got help. george oliphant of lxtv s open house came to the rescue of one couple. hey. my name is carl jones. everybody calls me c.j. and my problem is my fiancee s closet. my fiancee has too many shoes. she knows nothing about this, so i can truly tell you, when she walks through this door, she s going to be really surprised. so, the closet s in here? right in here. come on in. all right. shoes! whoa! shoes! shoes! could you help me out? c.j., you asked the right guy. of course i can help you out! hey! hey, george! so glad you re here and i m definitely going to need the help of easyclosets.com for this rescue because we re dealing with a closet. i can t wait to start getting to work. oh, yeah! okay. yes. yes. ooh! what s really great about this closet renovation is that they ve gone from less than ten feet of hanging, george, to over fifteen feet of hanging space in here with the drawers and the laundry baskets and the whole top shelf for additional storage. and we didn t knock down any walls. job is done. now we ve just got to sit here and wait. ooh, there she is! welcome home! oh, my god, it s george! oh, my god! oh, my god! yeah! might be a little bit easier for you. oh, my god! i would never even imagined! oh, my god, this is unreal! are you surprised? thank you. i am so surprised. thank you so much! thank you, george! thank you. i do what i can. and george oliphant is here to show us how to get organized. george, wow, what a reaction! oh, yeah. that was the best reaction i think we ve ever had on open house to the rescue. she had no idea that c.j. and i had been working behind the scenes to fix her closet. now, that closet there, about how much did it cost to do? that cost about $700. easycloset.com, they can send you all the materials or you can have them come and they can install it for you. okay. let s say i ve got a closet like that. what s my first step to getting organized? first step is really clear everything out of the closet. do not leave a single stitch in the closet. clear it out. and if you want to do something like what we did, you may want to actually like redo the entire closet, put in new bars, new shelves, because most closets just have the bar and one shelf. and there s so much dead space that s not being utilized. now, there was obviously a lot of stuff in those closets. you don t want to put all that stuff back. no, no. you want to make three piles. basically, you want the stuff you re going to be using, whether summer stuff or winter stuff, dependi on the season. right. the stuff you do want, but it s not in season, and then the stuff you ve had in there for two, three years, who knows how long? it s an old jacket, you re never going to wear it again. get it out of the your house. now, how do you figure out what you need? so, basically, you want to figure out what do you have a lot of, shirts, pants, long dresses, and then you want to set up your space so that, you know, if one hanging bar across, that doesn t utilize the space. if you have something for dresses, something for pants this is really nice because it pulls out, something for shirts, you can double, even triple your space of your closet with bars. if you re going to go this route, can you install this fairly easily yourself? you can install this yourself if you re not even aggressive, just a do-it-yourselfer. you need five tools a hack saw, a measuring tape, a level, a drill and a phillips head screwdriver. wow, that sounds like a party at jill michaels house. now, if you want to do something maybe not quite as ambitious, what are some things you can do? you can put in another bar to double your space. it allows you to hang up maybe your long garments or separate your shirts from your pants, and really, it s three pieces. it s a bar. just make sure you measure it right for your closet. then you need one little spot where the bar goes in and this part where it s permanently fixed and away you go. also, there s other kinds of storage you can do. there are so many options for storage out there. you ve got stuff for your shoes, hang those up, because shoes take up so much space. right. you want to make sure there s some way you can see them. and then clear plastic, because if you don t see it you re not going to use it. george oliphant, lxtv, thank you so much. we have more information for you at todayshow.com. coming up on today, she punched her time card at the office. now amy ryan is in a very different role, co-starring with matt damon in green zone. a unique program that gives me. the support i need, free. free access to a certified diabetes educator. so i can ask about diet and the insulin i use. i got a free meter. and test strip discounts. so i can spend more on what i really want. i count on the freestyle promise® program. make it count for you! only the freestyle program gives you discounts, support, and more. enroll today. gives you discounts, support, and more. why do women like you love activia light? 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[ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong. enjoy the go. also, try charmin freshmates for a cleaner clean. we re looking for today s top dog of 2010. so, if you think your pup s got talent or that special something, we want to hear from you. send us a one-minute video showing us why he or she deserves the top dog title. to find out how to submit your video, just head to our website at todayshow.com. we ll accept submissions through the end of april. if your dog can howl like that, he s got to win. meanwhile, coming up, how to cook an indulgent dinner you won t regret when you step on the scale. that s coming up. before adulthood. it s so important that they get enough calcium every day. that s why there s new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is. yummy! so they can start building strong bones today. for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. 9:26 is your time now. we have been holding off the rain, when will it finally arrive? veronica will have some answers after the news. in the news this morning, the department of veteran s affairs is hosting a job fair. the event runs from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. the event will feature dozens of government agencies looking to hire. move over new york and miami, the p.o.v. scored high marks for the cocktail as well as the impressive views of the wa welcome back, it may not be all that bright this morning, there s some mid and high level clouds, but it s mild. we ll see a high today of 65, then tomorrow we ll start with fog, a little bit of light rain, a half to three-quartersf an inch. a little bit of rain and wind for saturday. unexpected and abrupt delays, tinner loop from silver spring all the way over to college park. the inner loop has been carelea for quite some time. 395, lanes are open, but just volume at the moment. we ll have more news, weather and affic for you in just 125 if you watched the oscars just for the red carpet fashions but you don t have the money to dress like a movie star, we re going to show you how you can get those same celebrity dresses at discount prices. that s tomorrow on today. doesn t involve breaking and entering? no, they re already out. you know, all of these designers, how quickly they copy the designers, get them out sort of knock-offs? well, not knock-offs. they re real designers who have made the reprose of the dresses. knock-offs. they won t call it that. coming up, the weather s heating up, so that means, uh-oh, bathing suits. don t fret if you have pounds to lose. plus, after you put in all that hard work, you want to indulge a little, but without the guilt. the former chef of the biggest loser shows us some decadent meals that are low-calorie and healthy and only take 20 minutes or less. that can t be low calorie, the stuff she s drizzling all over that. it is, it is. looking forward to that. you have a check of the weather first, though. absolutely. we ll look toward the weekend. heavy rain in the northeast and upper ohio river valley, probably some flooding. showers and mountain snows, wet weather in the pacific northwest, mild through the southern tier states. and then sunday, sunday! we ll have more heavy rain in the northeast and new england. beautiful weather out west from new england all the way from the northwest all the way down into southern california. mild, warm conditions through and some heavy rn will be involved in our future, though, not today, today we ll just keep clouds around, maybe a little bit of sunshine here and there throughout the day, mild temperatures, as a matter of fact, we re already up to 54 degrees in d.c. the high today, 65, mostly cloudy today, the rain develops after midnight and showers, better chance after 9:00 a.m. tomorr, and then we re really wet through friday night through and that s your latest weather. all right. she is the brazilian beauty and new host of shear genius that has hairstylists duking it out for best do. you will be judged on how well your finished hairstyle incorporates your chosen shape and the overall style of your finished look. the winner of this challenge will receive first choice of model in tomorrow s elimination challenge. you have 90 minutes to complete your challenge and your time begins now. go, go, go! camilla, good morning! good morning. so, this is your first time hosting. yes, it is. what did you expect from it and what s it been like? well, it s been a lot of hard work and it s more than i expected, actually. and the challenging thing on this show is that i m a host and a judge. ah. so, as a host, you get to know so much of the contestants and you become close to them, but when you go to the judge s chair, you have to step back and really forget all of that and really judge the work that they re doing, you know? and this time around, season three, it s really an international competition, right? it is, it is. what is really neat to see, you know, what works in europe, in australia, and then what works here in america. what are the personalities of these stylists like? oh, man, they are they have some really strong personalities. yeah. they really do. as most hairstylists do. you re kidding me! i try to just step back and let them do their job. you keep them under control a little bit. as much as i can. what are you looking for? who do you think wins this kind of competition? as a judge, too. well, as a judge, i think i can teally say much don t tell me who s going to win, but what are you looking for? well, i think that, you know, the biggest chance to win is that hairstylist that has the better qualities on every single aspect of hair styling. so, it would be coloring, styling, cutting. because a lot of times, hairstylists get really good in coloring and that s it or styling, and that s it. so, we re looking for someone that can do all of it. and you ve just given birth to your second child, avita. yes. avita, 2 months. i need to get that exercise that you guys if you want to hang around and do that workout, you can stick around. you look great. and how is matthew mcconaughey? to be married to that to be married to that, is that what you just said? can you believe yeah. if i had said that if we had reversed it, i would be in so much trouble. did you say that when i first got here? i did not say that. well, i m sure he says the same thing to be married to that when he tks about her, right? i don t know if you day that, lovely lady. it s great. we ve got a good thing going, healthy. two beautiful children. yes. camila alves, thank you. thank you for everything. and you can catch shear genius wednesday at 10:00/9:00 central on bravo. coming up next, all the right moves to get in shape for the season. the smell of home made chili whatever scents fill your household, purina tidy cats scoop helps neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. keeping your house smelling like it should. purina tidy cats scoop. keep your home smelling like home. christopher columbus sailed the ocean blue. in 14 hundred and 92. nice! follow me, the missouri river is this way! lewis and clark expedition of 1804. oh, he ll never get this. magellan, 1520. awww, my 8 layers must ve given it away. help keep your kid full and focused with 8 filling layers. of whole grain fiber found in kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal. this is one giant leap for mini-kind. keeps em full. keeps em focused. hoo hooo! go-gurt is specially made to freeze and thaw by lunch time? so kids can have their favorite yogurt in their lunch box go-gurt. freeze it. thaw it. eat it up. announcer: get fit today is brought to you by quaker. love life. this morning on get fit today, a presummer shape-up. the warm weather is fast approaching, and if your body isn t bikini-ready yet, fitness expert jackie warner has five moves she says will get you in shape. she s the host of personal training with jackie. jackie, good morning. good morning! we have enough time, because we know memorial day is right around the corner. yes, you do have enough time, and i ve brought some compound mul multijoint movements. these use several muscle groups, but one exercise. this is very key because it takes you into the cardiovascular fat-burning mode quicker, and you re toning multiple muscle joints. okay. here s the cheeks. we have kim here, first she s doing legs and arms at the same time, as you ve said, right? she is. she s going and working her hamstrings, doing a dead lift, and she s coming up and actually working her front delts, so the front shoulders. you want to work that for the bikini body because you want the nice shape to give you the cheat on the waistline. and form is important here. yes. she s keeping a flat back, right? flat back. her knees are slightly bet and she s dipping keeping her arms shoulder width apart. and dipping just underneath the knee and never go above the shoulder line. these ladies are all working with five-pound weights, which is quite a bit, but these are women in good shape already. yes. for a beginner, what would you start with? i suggest three to five pounds for a beginner and if you re more advanced, eight or ten pounds. so just work it. or do less reps, do 10 to 15 instead of the 30 these ladies are doing. 30 reps. okay, this kind of training is a circuit? do they do this a couple times a week then? you want to combine each exercise that you see here today, combine this. do three total sets of about 30 repetitions with these five to six-pound weights. you re feeling it, kim, right? you re starting to feel it? just a little bit. let s move on to tty so kim can take a break. ooh, don t hit me, girl. what s the focus for patty? i ll stay over here. okay. this is a plie squad. she s working her inner and outer thighs as well as her glut, getting the booty work in and she s working the arms. absolutely, but now she s working the medial delt. again, we want the v-taper so we have the nice waistline. you re feeling this? yes. definitely the plie is a killer. plie is a dancing squat and it s so great for the inner and outer thighs. women get concerned when they re working with weights that they re going to get bulky, big muscles. they re not going to get bulky. do higher repetitions with lighter weight, but you need to feel t burn. you can t change your body type. if you re thicker and smaller, you re going to build more, but what would you rather have, fat or muscle? tone. you want tone. exactly, thank you. now let s go to jill and jill is demoing squats, which i absolutely hate squats, but they re so good for you, right? i know. she is doing a traditional squat. right. again, she s putting all the pressure on her heels. that booty is coming out, and she is lifting and doing reps and when she comes up, she brings the arms up. and again, working the shoulder, working the entire arm and working the gluts and hamstrings as well. what are some common mistakes? because with squats, the form, again, so important, and i know it s really where about the kneehe tdo you feel the differe? your toes should be kind of coming up like th, this and your back should be mor so really arch it and come up and squeeze and thrust little forward at the top. looks beautiful. looks good. over to latany i think latanya s getting tired of her move here. crunchless es. abs? weight, but you don t need it because this is really working the abdominals, the core and the low back. shdore that s what this, it s the total band around the back and the abs. right. so you don t have back problems later on as well. no, no, no. a lot of women get the muffin top henhis area, this is a great way to do it. don t ignore the core. okay. let s get over to lardina. you look so cute in your workout clothes, by the way. i know. they look adorable. they all do. she s working her arms and her legs at the same time. yes. i can tell she s getting a little tired because don t worry, we won t be playing this tape over and over again. these looked better in the beginning of this segment. here we go. bring your elbows up a little higher. see, they re feeling it, ladies. i can tell. 30 reps is a lot. absolutely. what she s doing is a bridge, ich is a traditional move. the yoga lift, yeah. and she s working the glut and hamstring, which is the back of the leg, and getting a good tricep workout. come on, girl! i can feel it, let s go, let s go! drill sergeant here. so, this area everybody else gets to stop. ten more from you, young lady! i think i see a little tear. she s really working this little flap flabby area here, the back of the arm that s so hard to reach. she s got no flab. they all look beautiful, but you don t want to be in your bikini and have the flabby area. that s why we re working the arms and lower body. jackie warner and to all our models, thank you so much for playing along with us. you can all stop now and take a break. all right, up next, if you worked up an appetite from all this exercise i m exhausted we re going to show you some decadent meals without any guilt, right after this. we re on it. onstar, we may have that tahoe. ok, i ll flash the lights. we got it. it s in the clear. i m sending a signal to cut the power. we got him. mr. ross, the police have recovered your tahoe. the nutrition they need to keep their bodies strong. carnatio instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. carnation instant breakfast essentials. for a value that goes a long way only campbell s chicken noodle soup is made with fresh egg noodles. 32 feet in every can. so many, many reasons it s so m m! m m! good of finish t dry nse ent. the glass behind it wasn t. for sparkling dishes, try finish jet dry. we think you ll see the difference. most consumers do. finish. the diamond standard. - uh-huh. - ( rope creaking ) - ( rope snaps ) - ( piano clangs ) - ( crashes ) - glad forceflex trash bags are so strong, one bag is all you need to pick up the pieces from even your biggest disasters. - ( doorbell rings ) - where do you want the piano? for stretchable strength get glad forceflex. for stretchable strength mmmmmm. mmmmmm. mmmmmm. mmmmmm. wow! you have got to be kidding me. 80 calories? 80 calories! light & fit is so creamy and irresistibly delicious, it s hard to believe it has 80 calories versus 100 in the other leading brand. do you always eat like that? i love light & fit. ligh& t. fewer calories. now save money with our new super saver four packs. four cups at a great low price. could open a world of wonder ? so sensory so satisfying the discovery never seems to stop it s the magic friskies makes happen every day in so many ways friskies feed the senses this morning in today s kitchen, healthy and delicious niels from hot chef devin alexander. after struggling with weight as a child, devon has created a career out of creating low-calorie meals. her newest book is i can t believe it s not fattening! over 150 ridiculously easy recipes for the super-busy. dech, good to see you. you, too! you struggled with weight for years and finally got it under control. what was the light bulb that went off for you? i heard if you cut just 100 calories from your diet on day, on average you ll lose ten pounds in a year. i thought, 100 calories, that s nothing. and i started concentrating on my cravings and taking out the stuff i don t want, like things you don t taste anyway, and focusing on the flavors we love. we re looking at you as a teenager. uh-you hauh-oh. you ve obviously worked hard and have been very successful. we re making goat cheese and chicken broth. yes. we re making chicken with fire-roasted tomatoes and goat cheese. could you use another cheese? absolutely, feta, anything you want. we re going to season it with a little salt and pepper. okay. and then mist the pan with olive oil spray. i notice you re doing a mister thing. right. you just don t need a lot of oil. the important part is that your pan is nice and hot. you want to hear the sizzle. do you have to use a nonstick pan? i would, otherwise you have to use too much oil. you don t want to crowd the pan with too many chicken breasts, do you? exactly. you want to make sure you get this nice brown on there, because if you don t, the chicken s just not going to taste restaurant quality. right. then we re going to top it with a little fire-roasted tomatoes. now you ve background both sides of it? yes. brown both sides, get a good sear on both sides. throw these on here. andhe fire-roasted tomatoes, how do you fire-roast tomatoes? these come in a can, believe it or not. ah, a can! this book, a lot of people know i ve written t the biggest loser cookbooks and this is the answer for people who say i don t have time to cook, because these recipes are way quicker than any of my other books. you re saving time with a couple short-cuts. right. basically, you finishutting the goat cheese on here. that s sticking a little bit today. so you get the nonstick goat cheese. you get the nonstick goat cheese andou don t put it under hot light. and it comes right off the spoon. and you top it with a little bit of basil and then you literally pop this so you do that while it s in the pan. while it s in the pan and then you pop the pan directly in your oven. and how hot is the oven? the oven is about 350 degrees. and how long do you leave it in there? five to nine minutes. oh, that s pretty good, and it comes out looking like this? it comes out like this and you re ready to eat. that s fantastic. what else do you have for us? okay, this is a raviosanya. it s a lasagna made with ravioli noodles. this way you take some sauce and you pour it are these frozen? they are frozen, and you want to go for the low-fat kind and i suggest people use whole wheat. and you can even go all natural. over 70% of the recipes in this book can be made with organic or natural ingredients. very nice. and i explain all that, too. now dessert. i understand you eat chocolate every day? i do. every day? every single day in some form. i should also mention what d you call this again? raviosanya. that s 145 calories per serving? that s 301 for a sixth of this dish. this one is 145 calories. what is this? ? this is a no-pudge brownie. you make the brownie from the no-pudge mix, yogurt, so it s fat-free and you add fat-free whipped topping and crushed almonds show us how you topped it getting to that point. you literally pop this on here and this takes less than ten minutes in your hands. you have to bake it, which takes a little longer, but you literally you smear it on. smear it around. and put some crushed peppermint on there. crushed peppermint and drizzle some chocolate syrup. and you come out with something that actually looks a little better. oh, that s a mess, but anyway, there you go. but it s a great i call it a chocolate peppermint pizza. then if you have a pizza party, plus it cooks quicker in a pizza pan than it does. so, all about the time on this one. unbelievable. devin alexander, thank you so much. thank you! i love it! we ll be back in a moment, but first,his is today on nbc. ravios compliments to the chef. yes. this is really, really great. meanwhile, coming up, former member of the office, amy ryan talks to kathie lee and hoda about her new role opposite matt damon inthe green zone. 9:56 is your time now, cloudy skies overhead, are we going to get rain today? we ll have the weather after the news. good news for bicyclists in d.c. new bicycle lanes will be added on pennsylvania avenue, i street, 15th street and 9th street. we have not heard exactly when those lanes will be built. now let s see if it s going to be the kind of day where bikers can get outside. you can bike through or skate through with another dry day. the rain will be moving in after midnight. we will have some high clouds and filtered sunshine with a few breaks in the canopy of high clouds. additional cloud cover will be moving in, but again, staying drive. there s a flood watch that starts tonight and runs through saturday evening. already into the 50s, 59 degrees, we ll see a high today of 65 degrees. rain after midnight and pretty heavy for saturday. tinner loop of the belt way is looking a bit better. unform now an accident on the beltway and virginia inner loop. but that backup will begin leaving springfield and leading to points north. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hey, everybody. it s thirst day, march 11th, 2010. can you believe we re continuing with the thirst day and the wines day? i can t believe nobody has complained yet. anyway nobody has complained. there s a lot of controversies in thworld but none so large and so urgent as is hoda continuing the cheating thing? no, no, no. let me explain what happened. someone says to me, hoda, go on the klgandhoda website. there s something interest iingn it. i never go on our website. but anyway, i was like, i wonder what s on it. i click, click, click. what do i see? that. can hoda stop her cheating? can tiger? can hoda? who knows? look at the fiendish picture that was stolen. now, first of all, i was wondering, who would have done such a thing on our website? you found the culprit. we discovered who it was. it is jen brown, senior produce of todayshow.com. she s here to explain herself. jen, how are you? first of all, jen is miserable, hates being on camera. this is your punishment. do you hate just explain what how that ended up on our website. it was a quote from kathie lee. i did not wait. put it back again. quotes. can hoda stop where does it say kathie lee is asking the question? okay. i am tired of being tagged this this way. in reality there s only one true judge of whether or not i cheated and our esteemed producer, tammy filler. we need to know from the judge herself if, in fact, i cheated during the game show thing. there is a first time for everything and you, indeed, did not cheat. thank you. what do you mean, first time for everything? that was just rude. get out while you can. wait. hold on a second. first of all, did you hear how she phrased that? fir time for everything. i heard it. i m over it. go on. no, no, here is the thing. what? we had cal ripken with us and we had to get five of our little baseballs into the net. hoda, at the threw one. we didn t see it on the air, the last one, to get her five and then made that face that jen brown put on and then turned and continued. you re not supposed to continue on until you ve got five balls in there. there s hoda hooda. who-dat. or hod-alone i like to call her now. so over it. see right there? see that one? that was called a sidearm. it went in my net. no, it didn t. roll it. roll it. two. that s what tammy told me. three. they re miscounting. four. we re one down. thank you. an extra. no. see, it went in mine. no, it did not. rewind that. i had six in mine and four in hoda s. correct. i m sorry. i m sorry. you be the judge. five in hoda s. no, that s one. watch the last one. yeah, but that means i already had five. i had an extra. four. watch. five. and six. i gave you an extra. all right. that s the first time i ve seen the videotape. thank you. truth is in the tape good job. but i gave you the cal ripken baseball because you shamed me into thinking i didn t win. i didn t keep it. i immediately sent it off to my friend, gwenn s husband, whose a huge, huge, huge baseball fan. let s move past the cheating. speaking of cheating actually, there was no cheat in. well, we re not sure. that s the genius of this play. great play. second time seeing god of carnage. it won the tony and so deserved to. a brand new cast this time. last time, james gandolfini played the husbands, he is so brilliant. what is so funny, it s one act, two sets of parents. they re upset because their kids got into a fight. an altercation. that s the premise. who would have thought all that hilarity and anxiety could ensue from that one little premise. we don t want to give anything away. no. we put on the veneer of civilization until certain buttons get pushed. then you have to take off your costume and it s time to be real. you have to take off the veneer. lucy liu is in it now and janet mctear and the other guy you go ahead. dillon i m so sorry. she s going to find it. yeah. dillon baker. i thought i ve seen him in so many different things. he has been in everything. so good. go see god of carnage. if you were watching nightly news last night, there was some amazing stats that came out of on education. they were talking about where the united states falls in the pecking order. do we have the stats up here? let s see. it s not good news. i don t see the stats up there. yeah. but it just showed how far we have fallen. and quickly. and quickly. and quickly, yeah. now, the average teacher s salary, we found out, for high school is 49. 46. $49,600. that s not a high-paying job. america had the best high school graduation rate in the world. when was that, hoda? four years ago. four decades ago. four decades ago. by 2006 we slipped to 18 out of 24 of the industrialized nations. 18th out of 24. our 15-year-olds are in the bottom third of the developed world in math and science. and the kid whose do make it to college, almost half have to take remedial courses. right. it s frustrating when you think about the educational system. i went back in the 1800s and went all public schools. me too. but i felt like i got an excellent education. i really did. so did i. the world has just changed because that was, at least 40 years ago, wasn t it? let me do the math. a long time ago. and i don t know what the reason is. now they re talkin about having it standardized so you re not getting a good education in one part of the country and lousy in another. math, things that you can judge quickly to have it more standard for schools. i went into the show business world, hoda. i didn t need math. now here is where it gets complicated and people get all crazy with this. i was born in europe. my mom and dad used to tell me when you re 14 infrance, at least, where i was born, by the time you re 14, it s clear who has an academic road ahead of them. the people that are truly good at that and should go on to university. other kids that aren t are given the option and they go into a trade school and they there was nothing wrong with becoming a great electrician, great hairdresser, great chef. my daddy used to say find something you love to do and figure out a way to get paid for it. we had sonya from sonya s brow bar to retouch our brows. we were talking about it. she has made a great living out of tweezing people s brows. she loves it. she lives for it. i think it also kind of depends on where you are. these inner city school, these kids don t know yet because they don t know what they re good at. they don t have opportunities. they know what they like to do, at least. if they don t have the opportunity to go to college, i think we put so much stigma on people that don t go to college. yeah. i think it s a wonderful thing for people that want to and need it. but i don t think we should put down other people that right. and it s a huge burden financlly to their family. that is tough. that s only going up. i don t know. they re talking about in some places getting rid of senior year because it s senior-itis. kids are talking about cutting cutting teachers, cutting down to four days a week. that s a huge thing to discuss. we don t have time here. no, but we re fascinated and would love to know what you all think. real quick, lindsay lohan. we ve been talking about this baby thing. it s all fair. there was the e-trade commercial. lindsay was upset because she said it depicted her in we said it wasn t about her, there are lots of lindsays, we thought. then we get the there is a paper that was linked through the national enquirer and ended up in the new york post and it talked about how the name for the baby originally was deborah, not lindsay. different tramp. and there were some other things stop it. other things written on the page including gutter hound, fish face, rug burn and skanky cake. that could be anybody. it could. and you know who you are. stop! and they were trying to depict the deborah character as having a leaky diaper. i don t know what that means. it was crossed out. maybe there was a little something there. there might be. maybe it didn t start out to be and sort of moved into that. at the same time, i don t think it s actionable. i m not a lawyer but s is a public figure. she s a public person. once you re a public figure, they can say anything about you. you know. yeah, hello. do you know how many lawsuits i could have won? we re in okay magazine. is it okay to bring your dog to work? and hoda said, how large is the dog? if you can keep your pooch in your pouch, your pocketbook, great but if it s an oversized great dane or constant barker, you may end up on the doghouse. so clever. okay. here is what kathie lee says. it depends on your job. as a talk show host i love bringing my dogs to the show but if i were a brain surgeon, i doubt my patients would appreciate it. and you re not a brain surgeon. okay. let s go to sara. what do you think? what? what? one thing i say. i m exhausted. with all that we do for you, hoda. i know. thank you for the snl skit. go on. we asked if people thought she cheated and we needed to have an intervention. margie wrote i love hoda and kathie lee, but she does cheat. i have faith she can sto but we need to duct tape her feet to the floor. i think it s fat discrimination that she had to fit in a purse. she s a little large. let s see her. she s a chihuahua. trixie. she s not a dog. she s trixie. depends how big your purse is. get a bigger bag. ah, see? they re your babies. that is cute. how long have you had trixie? i ve had her five years. she doesn t do tricks. trixie. what do you expect from me? i work a job. i don t have time to train her. i m kind of over sara now, too. facing off with matt damon in the green zone. h as we nee. try del monte fruit naturals. h as we nee. these portable cups of pre-cut, chilled fruit are ready-to-eat, so the only thing you need to peel is the lid. you ll never be disappointed with fruit that s unripe or spoiled every mouthful is just right, and bursting with flavor. enjoying a delicious fruit snack can be this easy. look for del monte fruit naturals chilling in your produce section now. brand power. helping you buy better. 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(announcer) pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. to finish at you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there s new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. fearless performance. that s what you get with secret clinical sport. proud sponsor of tanith belbin. and all of the fearless athletes of the u.s. olympic team. sure, but let me get a little infortion first. for broccoli, say on for toys, say two. ys ! the system can t process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 ceral standard time. he s in control. gobye. even kids ow it s wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. yocan talk to a real person 24/7. it s just the right thing to do. so, what are you and marty talking about? you know i can t talk to you about that. oh, come on. you come in fresh off the field to have a lemonade with martin brown? something s got to be going on. you could ask him. i m asking you. does it make sense to you that we re still coming up empty? aha. reporter instincts. that s amy ryan in the new movie green zone where she stars alongside matt damon. she plays lori dane, who soon finds those stories called into question. nice to have you here. welcome. thank you. good morning. you look good. you do. thank you. that s not the most glamorous role you ve ever played, is it? no, no, not in the middle of the war zone. had to forego the lip gloss. did you have to meet a journ journalist to frame your role? we did. we had some on set that were with us throughout. as well as i spoke to ann garo ls, who was in iraq at the time and talked me through her experience. we originally heard it was based on judith miller. and you said no. she s certainly the most familiar. yes. her articles in the new york times. sure. this character represents a bunch of journalists who got it wrong. to protect the innocent and the guilty. exactly. obviously there were so many actors in the movie and so many of them were real-life soldiers. yes. such a smart idea, right? well, it was invaluable. yeah. their experience and knowledge. some of them have literally come back from iraq and some, unfortunately after our filming, were going back again. it was quite sobering. what did you film? we shot in mo rocco, spain and london. it really looked authentic. yes. the movie takes a definite political stand which is there were no weapons of mass destruction, but it also asks other interesting questions as well. the character of freddy is the one man who ends up being the translator. i was reading you found him as fascinating as we did, too. we loved him. i loved that character. he also it s easy to forget that there is another component. component and people who love their country as well and freddy is fighting forhis country, iraq, as well. yeah. yeah. it s a fascinating movie. it s going to be very controversial because of the stand it takes. but it s also a great thrill of a ride. a nail biter. it is. you re on the edge of your seat the whole time. i remember you from a bunch of things, but the office, too. we loved your role in the office. are you planning on revisiting? i have no plans but i know better to never say never. it s so much fun. you re open to it, right? yeah. why not? that s so smart. an actress wants to play people different than herself. exactly. we wish you great luck. so happy to meet you. thank you for coming by. we appreciate it. thank you. glad you survived the green zone and this interview. it will hit theaters tomorrow. dial f for flirt. finding love at your fingertips. is it possible? right after this. mmm. hot fudge sundae. ooh! frosted blueberry?!? over 25 flavors of kellogg s pop-tarts®. and they re all for fun and fun for all. pop-tarts®. made for fun. you may be missing some of the protection you need. crest pro-health is the only leading toothpaste to protect against sensitivity and all these areas in a single all-in-one toothpaste. crest pro-health. but there s one that makes your skin look better even after you take it off. 98% of women who tried neutrogena healthy skin makeup thought so. does your makeup do that? neutrogena cosmetics. you d savor exquisite specials and a fine chianti. but rome is like 4,200 miles away. that s why there s bertolli chicken florentine for two in a luscious white-wine sauce. bertolli. italy is served. wellbeing. we re all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nuture it in your cat. with a full family of excellent nutrion. and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. if i say f2f or lol? face to face and laugh out lo. they told you. all part of a new vocabulary called flirt texting. unsuspected tourists are there any other kind as they practice this language of love. what is flirt texting? you know, that s a good question. a way of writing someone and you don t have to it s not person to person thing. it s more like the preview to sex thing maybe. koufr flirt via text? 30 years ago i might have, be if they had texting then. how do you flirtext? how you re flirting and talking. hey, sexy, what are you doing today? i always put love you and i ll do maybe more exclamation point. use the same lines in flirtexting? no, it depends on the kind of person. if it s someone you want to have a relationship with or is it i don t know. it s you flirtexting. i m going to ask you a couple of words and you tell me what they mean in flirtexting language. okay. loml. laughing out i don t know that one. love of my life. noyb. none of your business. wwwklg what would hathy lee and hoda do? how do text your way into his heart, welcome, ladies. so young and adorable. so thin, so thrilled you re here. oh, stop. so, there really is a language here to lure guys in, is that part of it? it definitely is. flirtexting is flirting over text message and becomes the first step in dating. is there a danger fo it, like sexting? they tend to overabuse flirtexting where they hide behind that technology. it s important to know it s a supplement to dating today. sometimes it s hard. you can t set tone and texting. you think you re being flirty and funny and they think you re being sleazy and trampy. you re not 100% sure how that s going to come across. don t look at me. texting and flirtexting is supposed to be flirty. never engage in emotions. keep it light. why not pick up the phone? your generation is all about texting. don t you like a guy to ask you out and call you as opposed to text iing you? definitely. we say this is traditional dating in digital times. it s important to know that, again, this is all part of one big dating scene. you re going to use the phone conversations, but, you know what? we lead faspaced lives now. what should you assume about a guy that always texts and never calls? yes. red flag. that s a red flag definitely. be aware of if a guy is always texting you and not calling and there are fun, flirty ways to get him to call you. tell us how. a cute way to do that in a nonconfrontational way is to send a text that says something like unlike at&t, i don t offer unlimited text messaging. give me a call. show some personality. that s cute. right. what if a guy e-mails you a single word like hey that does happen. no, that does happen. what do you do? just hey back? hey what is what i would say. exactly. you want to be straight to the point with him and just have him tell you what he s asking you. hey, you, what s going on? and let him like tell you what it is that he wants. what if he doesn t spell very well, is that a problem? that s a buzz kill. really, isn t it? yeah. it s attractive for both men and women that you re articulate over your text messages. don t feel like you need to abbreviate. spell everything out. you don t like we were asking you about the lom whatever. you don t like that stuff, all those abbreviations? we re not big fans. you have 160 characters to put out a message that get you what you want. if the space allows it, don t abbreviate if you don t have to. comes off a little valley girlish. it really does. don t go on and on. some people write such long e-mails and texts, don t they? it s unnecesry. nobody wants all those word. seems like you don t have a life. an electronic post-it note, get your message across. therwise pick up the phone. exactly. congratulations on your first book, ladies. good for you. good luck with it. it s in book stores now, right? yes. coming up, we take one woman from a fashion don t to a fashion do. it s suze yalof schwartz. 80 calories? 80 calories! light & fit is so creamy and irresistibly delicious, it s hard to believe it has 80 calories versus 100 in the other leading brand. do you always eat like that? i love light & fit. light & fit. irresistible taste. fewer calories. now save money with our new super saver four packs. four cups at a great low price. progresso. oh yes hi. can you please put my grandma on the phone please? thanks. excuse me a sec. another person calling for her grandmother. she thinks it s her soup huh? i m told she s in the garden picking herbs. she is so cute. okay i ll hold. she s holding. wha? (announcer) progresso. you gotta taste this soup. coming up today at midday. time is running out to take advantage of some summer travel deals. the airfare is on sale. we ll tell you how to take advantage of the savings. also coming up on news4 at midday, we re going to get you ready for the weekend. in today s kid scene, a kid friendly and ecofrien back on this thirst day with today s don ts to do s, first impressions make all the difference when you re looking for a job. we called in an expert to hit a career fair here in new york city and found one fashion victim that stood out in the crowd for all the wrong reasons. we re here at the east coast career fair where they re giving over hundreds of jobs and we re looking for people who are dressed for success. if they re not, we re here to help them. let s go take a look. christina has a body underneath here somewhere. i would like to see it, you know. she lost some weight. she has no money to get a new suit but just go to the tailor. these pants are too tight. there too tight? you see the definition of the pocket, by the way, that s how you know it s too tight, too. everybody is kind of wear iing e same outfit. pants are too tight, but usually slacks and some of the shoe choices aren t that great. can i show your outfit? you look great. i love the fact that she s wearing a leopard scarf mixed with houndstooth because it s brown and brown, it really works well. flashing and dashing. here is a tip. choose the bra that s the same color as your skin. then it s invisible under all of your clothes. one bag, okay. two bags? i understand but three bags? i mean, that s a lot of it s almost like you should be carrying a roller bag. this works. looks like you re taking it seriously. i m actually interested in the today show. she wants hoda s job. what s underneath the shirt? another shirt. it s too cold outside. but look at this. it s a little kind of kooky. i like this girl. i m going to need a makeover because i don t look the way i m supposed to in a job fair and i have a lot of different colors and i would like to look sophisticated. jennifer, we re here at club monaco, the destination for the fashion savvy urban professional, something you need for the next career fair. ooh, how great is that? this is great. love. so, we re going to try on all these fabulous clothes, but you have to guess which one will work. all right. and suze yalof schwartz is the editor at large for glamour magazine. nice to see you. welcome back. thank you, kathie lee. all these people desperately want a job and i know that you were i love that they don t want to be on assistance. they want to work. there were amazing opportunities. one company called petsmart was giving away 100 jobs. there are opportunities at these job fairs. the truth, you have to dress for the job that you want. you can t dress like a slob because it looks like you re not going to take your job seriously. what if you don t have any money to buy something to look good? it s called monochromatic. wear the same color head to toe. throw on bear of black pants and you ll look fine. wearing plaid and stripe and jeans that were tight with white sox with ballet flats. she s a mom. it s easy to throw on a dress, go to career fair and spend $10 on a dress. the impression you make is important. let s take another gander at the before picture. let s see what suze did. oh, okay. all right. hello! hello, gorgeous. hi. you look great. thank you. tell us about this outfit. we were so lucky to go to club monaco, one of my favorite places to go shopping for career clothes, chic urban career clothes. yes. this is a great bright pink dress. nobody will forget jennifer if she s wearing that. goes great with coloring and her hair. this one is by club monaco and robert page used to design for luxury designers, is now doing accessories with club monaco. how much is the dress, suze? 175. today she s a princess. we got to take her, put her in the most incredible clothe s and black tights, black shoes. she looks simple. classy. what do you think? do you like? i like everything. you ok good. are you ready for your job? what do you do for a living? right now i m trying to look for a job now. in what field? clerical maybe. clerical. who doesn t want to hire jennifer? where do you live, sweetie? in the bronx. and her sister is here, her twin sister. what do you think? she looks amazing. she does, right? and she has an interview next week. she s actually going to wear this outfit. perfect. let us know, would you please, how it goes? i had to buy an out fit for myself there, too. of course you did. you re suze yalof schwartz, that s what you do. it looks darling. best of luck. suze, thank you, too. up next, we answer all your questions about how do deal with awkward situations. kind of like this one. right after this. - ( rope snaps ) - ( piano clangs ) - ( crashes ) - glad forceflex trash bags are so strong, one bag is all you need to pick up the pieces from even your biggest disasters. - ( doorbell rings ) - where do you want the piano? 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[ bella ] i love you. [ roars ] [ female announcer ] only walmart has the two-disc new moon ultimate fan edition with exclusive footage from the twilight saga: eclipse. save money. live better. walmart. son: hey mom! wife: what is this? guy: it s a special paste i invented to replace socks. wife: y? guy: because we can t find socks that shape to our feet. we re sick of it! announcer: hanes makes better-fitting socks. guaranteed or your money back. until i had my coffee, okay? oh, hey, tim. sorry, i haven t had my coffee yet. - ( barks ) - ( grunts ) morning! welcome to mcdonald s. can i interest you in. not before i have my coffee. premium roast coffee for just a dollar? talk to me. introducing mcdonald s new dollar menu at breakfast. try a cup of freshly brewed premium roast coffee. for just a dollar each every day. and you ll see why nobody makes breakfast like mcdonald s. ba da ba ba ba love your scarf. it s beautiful out, huh? we ve all been there. your friend is dating someone you hate or maybe you put your foot in your mouth at office. imagine that. now you want to save face. how do you deal with awkward situations? psychiatrist robi ludwig is with us and philip galano s. we love when you two come. question one, on my first date with a guy i met recently, i wore a wig. my real hair is thin and unattractive. the date went great and he wants to see me again but i don t want to wear my wig every single time i see him. it s heavy and uncomfortable. is it too soon to take it off? what should i do the last guy i dated stopped calling after i took off the wig. we don t know if that s because she wore the wig and took it off. do you want to take it first? listen, we ve all got something that we re really self conscious about. or we re hiding. exactly, our boobs are too small, tush is too big. speak for yourself. and that s just the men. the thing here to tell this gal is that she s got to realize that everyone has their thing, including this new guy she s going out with. so, honesty is important in a relationship but i don t think you have to put all your faults on display right from the beginning. so, wait until she s comfortable. i think, too, if you feel comfortable wearing a wig, you re going out on a date you can say i wear hairpieces, i like to reinvent myself. what can scare a guy is if he thinks there s something medically wrong or if you have female baldness. but in certain communities like the black community where hairpieces are commonplace, men know about it and it s not an issue. didn t chris rock do that whole movie about it? yeah. if a woman is wearing a wig and feels uncomfortable wearing a wig on a date you have to wonder if there s an intimacy issue going on. or self love. she obviously kind of same thing. incident mtimacy is how comfort you with yourself and your flaws and sharing that with someone else. we all have one thing, you re right. one thing. so self conscious. especially hoda. hair is linked with sexuality. is it. you could see how how a woman would feel men are going with the girls with the big hair and stuff. one of the things about getting close with people, learning to get close with them, maybe she should wait until he starts sharing things about himself that he s you uncomfortable with. wear it a little bit after the first date, she shouldn t show up so completely different. surprise like hi, it s me. unless he shows up without his man spanx. question two, i finally landed a job in my field, which will let me quit the waitresses job i ve been working. i told everyone at the restaurant i would be leing for a higher-paying job, using my degree. then the human resources guy at the new place called and said that they had hired me by mistake and had to take the offer back. i m so zpiented and even more embarrass embarrassed to tell my co-workers and boss. what should i do? how can i save face? this is the perfect opportunity to engage in self depricating humor. to say i was hired and they called me and said they made a mistake so guess what, i m still available. but if you don t have that ability to have a sense of humor about yourself because it s too painful, you can simply say, you know, the job didn t work out as i had hoped and i m still in the job market. telling the truth there seems like the thing to do. totally. to this day and age this is not uncommon. it s commonplace for young kid. this is a really good listen for this kid i m assuming it s a younger person to learn because there s nothing that people like better than when big, braggy pants get taken down a notch or two. so, if she was swanning around the workplace. like eat my dust? like i m better than you. i m on to better things. especially in a restaurant where maybe some of those people are in that restaurant for life and it s not a way station. you never want to burn your bridge. that s true. you have to think about how you phrase things. my 83-year-old grandmother moved in with my family so she wouldn t be alone anymore. i have noticed sha she has several unhealthy habits, often goes weeks without showering and even fakes bathing. i have two young kids whose health i m concern ed for. she doesn t wash her hands after using the bathroom. please. then she feeds my 3-year-old from her plate with her hands. please help. oh, oh, granny s got to go. i think this is something where you say what do you do? we don t know if granny has a dementia problem or is losing it but simply say i m the only person feeding my ildren. i am and the babysitter, whoever else. and i really don t want you to have to worry about feeding my kids. and i ve instructed them that they re not to be fed by what about bathing? it s a 3-year-old. you bring a doctor or caregiver in. i don t think people people don t want to be smelly. maybe she either doesn t know or most people don t want to be smelly. that s 83. maybe she needs a handrail in the shower. i was teasing, by the way, about granny s got to go. kind of. i was. i was teasing. and faking bathing. my husband is going to be 80 this year. i m not kicking him out. not yet. you do have to protect the health of your kids. of course you do. the thing, too, when we switch roles with our parents remember how it used to feel when your dad would say not as long as you re living under my roof. you don t want to be that person with your mother or grandmother. so, respectful but there does come a time when people are not able to control their bodily functions as well. and they need help. that s what sounds like is going on here. nice you re not fighting like the last time. we worked on it in counseling. marage counseling. get that shaker ready. we re making cocktails because it s thirst day. sexy drinks for the over 40 crowd. that s us, hoda! it s another cold one out there. better cover up those hands, or they ll be in for a dry spell. 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[ male announcer ] if you cannot afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. all right who knew the fountain of youth would be found in a cocktail glass? we are mixing it up form tur set. that s right. watch it. so, forget the cosmos and apple-tinis. julie riner works at is it clover? it is, clover club. at the clover club and her drinks have been featured in more magazine. hello, julie. hi, ladies. we re so happy julie is here. cosmos are yesterday? do noto it, ladies. do not order the cosmo. that s the drink regis orders. rege, you got to stop. stop, rege. it s a delicious drink. however, there are new things to drink. what do we have? classic cocktails are coming back. this is our house cocktail at the clover club. let me start you out by what is it? giving you this. what s in there? before you tell us what it is? clover club cocktail. we ll make it for you here. plymouth gin. why plymouth? it s a really nice english gin, light on the botanicals. just two ounces. it will do you good. half an ounce of my liver is very grateful. half ounce lemon juice, half ounce of raspberry syrup. if you don t have fresh raspberry syrup like we make, use muttled raspberries or raspberry jam. this is the questionable ingredient. we use egg whites. why? it gives the cocktail texture. thickens it. you don t have to be worried about the salmonella? no, kathie lee, i promise. anything that s in there, the booze is going to kill. including you. it s safe. we only have three minutes. let s move on. wow, look how she shakes it. i m sorry. is that how you do it? you have to shake it like you mean it. shake it, baby. that is your clover club cocktail. it s not too sweet. not as sweet as i thought it would be. very well balanced. that s good. we re seeing a lot of punch lately. this is a very classic punch. it s old world punch. we re not talking about punch with sherbet and 7-up like your mom used to make. this is a cognac aged rum punch with fresh lemon juice and earl grey tea in it. almost takes like a hot toddy taste. exactly. if you heated this up. you could see people in 1892 drinking this. that is our punch. all right. now, this is something that s really kind of recent, coming back. modern tropical cocktails. okay. so, you know, we re reinventing these polynesian flavors. i grew up in honolulu, hawaii. this is something that s dear to my heart. my next project i m doing will be focusing a lot on this sort of thing. that s rum you put in there. that was aged rum. we re going to put pineapple juice, lime juice and it has all-spice syrup in it. like a pina colada so far. well, not really. tell her she s wrong. you re wrong. i can accept it when i m wrong. i m totally fine with that. this is called the gold coast, named after a very nice area of honolulu. what was that? let s let you taste it she s not telling us. lime juice and simple syrup. what s all-spice, by the way? champagne. let s top you off with a little champagne. i taste the all-spice, use it a lot in thanksgiving cooking. all right. okay. okay. all righty, then. what s the next one? moving right along. yes. savory cocktails, something we see a lot of. i like this. in this cocktail, this is a drink i created for our brunch menu because the afternoon, people like to have, you know, something like a bloody mary but not a bloody mary. you re putting real tomatoes in there? cherry tomatoes and basil in here and tequila. that s going to be good. with sherry. i m into this one already. and fresh lemon juice. sherry is a fortified wine, adds a nutiness to the cktail. not crazy about that. i like that. no. sorry. i love it. i love it, julie. i m a wino. you know that. do we have time? this is the southside phiz. i like that. whenever i put this drink on my menu, it flies out the door. gin, fresh lime juice. mojito. it is a gin mojito, basically. you are very talented. this julie is talented. unbelievably proud. we ll be back with more. first, this is today on nbc. vacation but hoda has a week full of hot, hot men to keep her company. monday, 90210 hotty jason priestley, trouble maker kirk cameron. he s not a trouble maker. wednesday, alan thicke is with me and the original karate kid, ralph macchio, friday, andrew hsu, amy robach s husband. come on down to the plaza next week, dress up, bring a sign. let them know you are here. we need a lot of support. we have like two people now. stop it. sara, are they excited? heather wrote all the 80s hotties. rachel felt like i was 20 years old all over again.