Transcripts For WRC Today 20100430 : vimarsana.com

she ll join us to explain why, today, friday, april 30th, she ll join us to explain why, today, friday, april 30th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this very busy friday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m ann curry in for matt this morning. as you know, this morning long thin lines of oil leaking into the gulf now lapping up on the shore of louisiana s ecologically sensitive shorelines. much thicker oil is now just a few miles from shore. on thursday homeland security secretary janet that pa that know says it is now a spill of national significance. she ll head to the region today. an official at the oceanic and atmospheric association calls the situation a very, very big thing. did the obama administration wait too long to respond? we ll ask the woman overseeing the government s response to the disaster in a moment. first, we ve got nbc s anne thompson in venice, louisiana where the spill has now reached land. anne, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. the oil came ashower during the night. this morning there are reports the oil hit an area at the mouth of the mississippi in louisiana. here in venice, bp and local officials have put together a team of some 150 people who are poised to go out and search for that oil in an effort to fend off what could be a potentially catastrophic invasion. on louisiana s fragile coastline, these plastic barriers called booms are the last line of defense. the well 40 miles out to sea is pouring five times more oil into the gulf than first thought. now some 5,000 barrels a day. despite efforts with underwater robots like this ten days after the explosion, bp is no closer to plugging the leak. absolutely nobody wants to get this oil flow stopped more than i do. and we have people working 24 hours a day in four different locations to both stop the flow to actually fight this thing offshore an protect the shorelines. reporter: thursday s weather did not allow any more controlled burns. those fires can consume as many as 1,000 barrels of oil at a time. but bp is getting help from the highest level. president obama mobilized a team of cabinet secretaries to monitor the investigation and the cleanup. my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the department of defense to address the incident. reporter: louisiana s governor bobby jindal declared a state of emergency and asked the homeland security department to respond to the slick. u.s. security officials tell nbc news a list of options are being put together that could include sending additional planes, boats, skimmers and booms. state officials opened the shrimp season early to try and beat the oil. in the small fishing town, 69-year-old walter has an uneasy feeling of deja vu. it s going to do the same thing katrina did. reporter: the spill could do serious damage to louisiana s wetlands. at this time of year, the marshes are breeding grounds for hundreds of different kinds of wildlife. an ecological marvel threatened by a slow-motion invasion. these floodwaters behind me are home to one-third of the nation s seafood production. now all of this clean-up comes with a very high price tag estimated at $6 million a day. since bp owns the well and the oil, it is responsible for paying that bill. something federal officials have been quick to point out in recent days as frustration has grown with bp s inability to stop the leak. anne thompson, thank you so much. rear admiral sally o hara is with the u.s. coast guard and is helping oversee the government s response to the spill. admiral, good morning. good morning, ann. louisiana s governor has said at least ten wildlife areas, not to mention important fisheries of oysters and also shrimp, are now lying in the path of this oil. with oil now lapping ashore, with all that you have done, is the question now not weather louisiana will be damaged, but only how much? well, i want to assure you that the federal response has been sustained. it was immediate. and we know that we have a situation that has got to have every resource put towards it. there is 180,000 feet of boom that the responsible party, bp, has put into place to protect those wetlands and fragile ecosystems. admiral, but as the new york times is putting it this morning, the response as intensified abruptly on thursday with the federal government now intervening more aggressively. given that this now threatens to become the worst oil spill in u.s. history, do you believe do you think that you did enough early enough? with the announcement yesterday of this being a spill of national significance, we have improved our abilities to bring every aspect to bear. we have good coordination. we are flowing assets to meet the requirements. the responsible party, bp, has a number of skimmers, aircraft dropping dispersements, boats deploying persons, booms, workers and other assets in place. admiral, let me interrupt you for a second. as we just heard from anne thompson, bp s no closer to plugging this leak than it was from the very beginning. some might really ask why this response is driven by british petroleum which has had to admit the amount of oil leaking is actually five times what it originally said, admiral. do you trust the company to continue to direct this, or is it time for the federal government to step in? the federal government has been actively managing but should it now take the lead is what i m asking? the coast guard is the federal on-scene coordinator. we are providing direct oversight, close oversight of all of the actions of bp. everything that they undertake is approved and we are filling in any gaps that we see with federal assets. we look across the whole of government and use all federal assets, as well as supplemented by state and local and private industry. what are your orders from the president, from president obama, given, as the washington post notes, he won election in part on the belief that he would do a better job than the previous administration did on hurricane katrina? it s clear from the president s comments and mandates that this is high priority. we are going to bring every resource to bear. we have skimming operations. dispersements that are being deployed. booming operations. we are taking every step necessary to ensure that we bring every resource in that s appropriate to the extent of this spill and to the type of oil that we re dealing with. given how hard this job is, admiral, i d like to get your response to a quote from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration official who said, i am frightened. this is a very, very big thing and the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just boggling. admiral, let me ask you, you know the depth of this. you know that it could be three months before that leak is plugged. are you frightened? this is a very serious situation. british petroleum is working aggressively to find alternatives. we hope within the next week that they ll be able to put a cap at the leak site so that we can take that oil up to the surface through a hose and have it put on to a barge so that we don t have the release into the water. meanwhile, they re working today on drilling an alternative well so that they can close down this source. so there are a number of technologies that bp is pursuing to stop this leak. we wish you luck. rear admiral sally brice-o hara, thank you so much for talking with us this morning. let s bring in david gregory, mo moderator of meet the press. you heard the rear admiral say dealing with this spill is the highest priority for the administration. you heard president obama said his administration would do a better job handling crises than president bush s did. has he done a good enough job handling this spill? you heard in the interview the discussion of bp being the responsible party. the reality is that the federal government, the obama administration is now the responsible party. they own this disaster in terms of response because only the federal government can bring the kind of resources to bear to actually deal with the clean-up of this magnitude. that s the real question here. the order of magnitude of this slow-motion invasion, as anne thompson called it. should there have been an assessment earlier, was this beyond the control of bp and the coast guard requiring more federal resources. i think that question will build as you get into the response. it s been eight days since the explosion. i think the perception of people is did they wait too long, did they drag their feet. certainly the administration has made it very clear as it became clearer that this was getting out of control in terms of plugging up the leak, that they mobilized, that the president ordered a full-scale response. you ve got cabinet members who will be deployed on scene to set up mobilization points, and now you ve got the federal government fully engaged. but they have to work with a company like bp that has both the resources and the technology to try to deal with their own equipment. last month the president announced plans to expand offshore oil drilling. you think he s going to have to back off on that now? i think there s no question administration officials are saying that a lot has to be studied. now this has to be factored in. all the safety issues. the political piece of that that s so interesting is that that offer for offshore drilling was really a way to entice republicans to come into the tent and support broader climate change legislation. before i let you go, david, this sunday you are going to introduce a new set for meet the press, a new high-definition set. tell us what we can expect to see. thanks, meredith. i m standing on it today. we ll pull out a little bit and show you what it looks like. it is a lot of versatility on this set, a more modern look for us. we ll have secretary of state clinton sitting here on sunday for our first program with the new look. we have a separate interviews location for our roundtables. a lot of technology around what was a pretty large studio here used to illustrate what it is we re talking about. this is also going to be a permanent fixture of our washington bureau. i see it as kind of a living tribute to the show that now spans over 62 years. we have a library section here with authors who are just on the program and their books. and also guests and important figures in the history of the program, president kennedy on meet the press. down here on one shelf. of course, a tribute throughout as well to tim russert. we re very excited about it. the program doesn t change but our look is going to be updated. a big set for a big man, david. i understand when you fill in here you found our set rather puny. i don t look freakishly big you ll never look a freak, but never freakishly big. thank you, david. that s exciting. we re going to have to make a call. i m so looking forward to seeing him on sunday. let s get a look at news. hoda kotb is filling in for ann at the news desk. hello, everybody. security is being stepped up in china after yet another brutal attack today on kids in kindergarten. nbc s adrienne wong is in beijing. adrienne, what happened and more importantly, why are these children being attacked? reporter: good morning, hoda. it s not clear why, but today, today s attack, again early in the morning when a farmer on a motorcycle broke into a primary school in eastern china. he struck five children in a kindergarten class with a hammer, poured gasoline over himself, set himself on fire and burned his desk. teachers were able to save the two children. this was the third school attack in three days that took place in china. on thursday a 47-year-old unidentified, unemployed man walked into another primary school, stabbed 31 people, most of them 4 year-olds and another kindergarten. it is not clear what most of these motives are driven by, but experts here warn that more copycat attacks could follow, and yet officials across china are trying to step up security outside schools. boy, that s very frightening. thank you so much for that report. two kentucky miners were found dead on thursday after a roof collapsed in a coal mine. the mine had been cited at least six times this year for not using enough support bolts in the roof. a first of its kind vaccine has been approved for prostate cancer. on thursday, the fda gave its okay to provenge, a treatment that uses the body s immune system to fight the disease. george clooney s home in italy had to be sealed off thursday when the navy was called in to recover an arsenal of world war ii era unexploded bombs. a cheerleader for the washington redskins had plenty to cheer last night when her marine husband surprised her returning home three months early from his tour of duty in iraq and afghanistan. she said when she saw him, her legs turned to jell-o. you cannot see enough of those stories. beautiful. it is now 15 minutes past the hour. back over to meredith and ann. al roker is down in louisville this morning ahead of here we have the virginia gold cup races on saturday. should be good weather for that here. we are starting off cool and fresh with sunshine and near 50 in washington. 40s in the suburbs and rural areas. highs should be near 80 and partly cloudy into the mid 80s and warm and humid on sunday. we could get thunderstorms and a slight risk that could be severe sunday late afternoon and evening. lingering showers drying out suddenly the favorite is looking like devil may care. how fitting. i can now throw to meredith. al, thank you very much. now to florida and the bombshell dropped by governor charlie crist. on thursday the life-long republican announced he s leaving the gop to run independently for the u.s. senate. his decision comes just months after being ripped by fellow conservatives over an embrace with president obama and effectively makes former florida house speaker marco rubio the republican nominee. first we are joined exclusively by governor crist. governor, good morning to you. good morning, meredith. great to be with you. explain this to me. a few weeks ago you put out a statement headlined, i am running as a republican, period. very definitive statement. so why the sudden change of heart, literally days later? because it s time to listen to the people and that s exactly what i ve done. i said that after we did a debate on fox. what i did right after that is i went with my wife, carol, away. it was easter weekend. i listened to people over the past month. consistently they ve said to me, be your own person, be your own man, we need a voice and we need somebody to speak for us and rise above partisan politics. just go to the people. abraham lincoln said it best, we need to have a government that s of the people, by the people and for the people. that s what i m doing. governor, are you listening to the people or looking at the polls? you ve gone from 30 points ahead of your republican opponent, marco rubio, to 20 points behind him. critics said you know you can t win a republican primary so you are bolting from the party. former florida governor jeb bush tweeted last night this decision is not about policy or principles, it is about what he believes is in his political self-interest. what do you say to that? that s exactly what s wrong with the political system. all this arguing and bickering, people can t rise above that anymore. it frustrates the people more than anybody. you re not leaving the party at all because you feel you could not possibly win a primary at ts point? no. what i m doing is going to the people. you realize if you stay in a primary, only certain segment of the people have the opportunity to make this decision and this choice. frankly, in a primary, it is sort of a club within that club. i don t think that s right. i think that all the people of florida but do you worry about losing credibility with the voters who might feel that ef s you ve des them? already we re hearing of republican donors who are asking for their money back. not one has asked me for any money back. this is going right to the people. this is making sure that all the people have the opportunity in my state to make this decision about who their next u.s. senator is. nobody should be afraid of that. nobody should be fearful of that. governor, one final question. did you dessert the party or is this a case where the party s become so intolerant it no longer has room for a moderate voice? there s no desertion by anybody. this is an embracing of all the people. as i said before, this is supposed to be about the people. this is supposed to be their choice. i want to give them that opportunity, their choice and let their voices be heard. that s why i m going straight to november, let all the people make this decision. it is too important. we have almost 20 million people living in this state. each and every one of them should have the opportunity to choose their next united states senator. i just want to give them that opportunity and that s what it is about. governor charlie crist, thanks so much. marco rubio, florida house speaker is running as a republican for senate. you listened to the governor s announcement yesterday, i am sure. is this a case where he has deserted the party or once again has your party become so intolerant that it doesn t have room for moderate voices? the republican party is not an intal raolerant party. it is about free enterprise and individual liberty and things that we believe in. there is room for everyone. there s room for a debate within that party. that s what i was hoping the republican primary would become. interesting to hear the governor said what he just said. he just spent $1 million of negative advertising attacking me for months. only when that did not work did he abandon the republican party and decide to run as an independent which is his right. i m looking for an idea and issue-based campaign and at the end of that the voters will have voices. i look forward to that. when you looked at the poll, it was just you and him, you were ahead of him by about 20 points. when it is a three-man race, numbers are much closer. do you worry that crist will become a spoiler, siphon off the moderate votes and republican votes that you need? i don t worry about that at all. we have a republic. we ll have an election. i ll tell people what i believe in. if they agree with me, they ll roet for vote for me. voters are tired of being manipulated. i won t re-invent myself to manipulate somebody s votes. i ll tell people what i believe in on the issues. they can either support me or not support me. that s the way our republic was designed. i hope that s what this campaign can be about. do you feel you re being manipulated at all by the tea party? they re the ones that have sort of helped boost your numbers. you ve become their darling. a take party is just a collect of every day americans, most of whom have never participated in poll six before. this is not a professional political movement. it is only a year old but i think it s been a good thing for american politics to see people get involved and have their voices heard. i m proud of the support they ve given me. one final question. you show that image of the president and the governor repeatedly basically to hammer home the point that you believe they are two peas in a pod. that s during the meeting when the president came down to florida to push the stimulus package. what would you not have done if you were the governor? not accept the money? your state s in big trouble. it s not about accepting the money or not accepting the money. there were better ideas. there were other things that would have cost a lot less money and created a lot more jobs. i m reminding people that the stimulus failed and there were better ideas we should have done instead. marco rubio, thank you so much and good luck. marco rubio, thank you so much and good luck. just ahead, so i told the guy i wanted yeah. a convertible. and this is what he had in my budget. aw! well, the top is down. the top is gone! lots of head room. tons of head room! careful! that s sharp. jeez! yeah.sorry. narrator: settling for less is not smart. what is smart is getting more car for your money at carmax. guaranteed-quality used cars can cost a lot less than new cars. so you can get more car for less money by shopping at carmax. now more than ever, the smart choice is carmax. the way car buying should be. just ahead, why oprah is challenging you to put down your cell phone today. she ll join us to explain why. . 7:26 is the time the 30th day of april, 2010. the d.c. consul will hear testimony from the chancellor and the district s chief financial officer. the two are at odds over how to pay for teacher raises as part of the city s proposed contract with the teacher s union. they want to fund from private foundations, but the agreement has too many strings attached. they both go before the council at 10:00 this morning. we am take a break and look at the weather and the traffic. sunny and cool and temperatures climbing into the 5 said. we will hit 80 by mid-afternoon. tomorrow 80s and warm and humid on sunday. could get thunderstorms that lippinger into monday morning. how is the traffic. a serious crash with an overturned vehicle at beach drive. authorities have been on the scene for a couple of minutes. the back up begins close to saul road. still activity, but look for delays. coming up tonight, how can you take a world tour without packing a single bag? the opportunity 7:30 now on this friday morning, april 30th. last day of april, 2010. tomorrow at churchill downs is the 136th kentucky derby. al is there and we ll check in with him in just a bit. it is a sunny morning here in new york as well. we ll have time to say hello to all of our friends on the plaza in the next half-hour. meanwhile, inside studio 1a, i m meredith vieira, alongside ann curry who is in for matt this morning. just ahead, oprah winfrey. that s right. she ll join us to explain why she wants all of us to make sure our cell phones stay in our pockets, glove boxes, anywhere but in our hands while we re driving. it is something she calls no phone zone day. she ll talk with us to fill us in on this. a mom and dad s emotional fight for justice for their daughter. 18-year-old college student michelle o keefe was shot and killed in a parking lot in california and for ten years ten years her parents have tried to find and put her murderer behind bars. we ll talk to them coming up. let s begin this half-hour with reial hunter who spoke out to oprah about her affair with former democratic presidential candidate john edwards. norah o donnell has details. reporter: reial hunter went on oprah to call what she called john edwards life of integrity. john and elizabeth edwards are separated but reial hunter strongly denies that she broke up their marriage. a lot of people bought into the myth of the marriage, the edwards marriage as being a storybook story. and it was so perfect and so wonderful. and i destroyed it. reporter: reial hunter says it was not her fault that the edwardses marriage fell apart. people aren t property. you can t steal someone else s husband. reporter: but last year in an interview with oprah, elizabeth edwards said hunter seduced her husband. i blame john but i also women need to have more respect for other women. reporter: hunter claims she and john edwards were drawn together like a magnetic force at a chance meeting in new york. he was just so excited. i mean just lit up like a christmas tree. white lights, just like bright as can be. and i just turned to him and said you re so hot. reporter: edwards later invited hunter to his hotel room. did you stay the night? i think that that reporter: more than a year later, the affair was still going on. were you using birth control? no, we never used birth control. reporter: by july of 2007, hunter was pregnant. in july. um-hmm. so when john edwards is renewing his vows to elizabeth edwards, he knows that you are pregnant? yeah. did you think, now s my time to get out? no. i was pregnant. now he s turned into the father of my child. reporter: but john edwards would deny he was the father. i know that it is not possible that this child could be mine. reporter: admitting only now that he lied on national television. why the public denial? elizabeth really wanted him to do that interview. she wanted him to say, you ve got to get out in front, you ve got to say the truth and speak the truth. and she didn t know the truth. reporter: hunter, who now lives in north carolina with 2-year-old frances quinn, raised eyebrows when she posed half-naked in gq magazine. what i was thinking was, i would like to have one sexy shot where the world can see me as a beautiful woman as opposed to all those photos that are out there of me looking like some wicked witch of the west. what did johnny think about those photos? where are your pants? reporter: now, four years after their affair first began, hunter does not deny they are still together. do you still love him? very much. does he still love you? i believe he does. reporter: now as for that infamous sex tape, hunter now says she wishes that she had destroyed it. she is suing former edwards aide andrew young worried that he still has some copies. now john edwards has to give his side of the story in a deposition on may 13th. ann? norah o donnell this morning, thanks. a reminder, we ll talk to oprah live in just a few moments. now let s get, however, a check of the weather from al who s at churchill downs, home here we have the big virginia gold cup under way on saturday in the plains, virginia. should be good weather for that and today highs in the 80s and not humid. not humid trchl either. rather humid on sunday and warm, into the mid 80s again and a chance for afternoon and evening thunderstorms on sunday. a slight risk that an afternoon storm could be severe. lingering showers through midday monday. that s your latest weather. ann, back to you. who knows what is going to happen in the next half-hour? i m glad you re wearing a seatbelt. by the way, tell donna that i ve done worse. i ve fallen off my platform shoes. okay? so she doesn t have to be very there you go. by the way, no texting while you re riding a horse. that s right! in fact, we re going to be talking about that coming up next because oprah winfrey will be talking to us live about that, telling us what she wants all of us to do today. right after this. 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[ male announcer ] what are you gonna miss when you have an allergy attack? benadryl® is more effective than claritin® at relieving your worst symptoms and works when you need it most. benadryl®. you can t pause life. sweet n sour filled twizzlers. the twist you can t resist. we are back at 7:41. more than a quarter of all accidents are now believed to be the result of talking or texting while driving. that s why oprah winfrey has joined forces with top safety groups to declare today national no-phone zone day. we ll talk to oprah about the campaign in just a moment. first, nbc s tom costello has more. good morning, tom. reporter: good morning. safety experts and advocates say this is like the mothers against drunk driving campaign or the seatbelt movement of 30 years ago. it is about keeping all of these gadgets in your purse, in your briefcase, in the glove compartment and avoiding the temptation to look at them while you re driving. for the past 18 months, alicia has barely been able to talk about her daughter. she was on her way to school when a truck driver distracted by a cell phone slammed into her school bus causing it to catch fire. she rushed to the scene to find all of the kids on-board had managed to escape. that s what they told me. that marge was the child on the bus that had been killed. reporter: safety advocates say distracted driving is now a national epidemic. the national safety council estimates 28% of all accidents are the result of cell phone conversations or texting. 6,000 deaths, half a million injuries. and texting drivers like this san antonio bus driver are 23 times more likely to have an accident or a near miss. the reason it s an epidemic is because everybody has a cell phone and everybody s used their cell phone while driving. reporter: 23 states and d.c. now ban texting while driving. six states and d.c. outlaw hand-held cell phones while driving. but no states completely ban all cell phone use while driving. meanwhile, new public service campaigns are meant to scare drivers into changing their ways. this british campaign went viral on the internet with parents and schools requiring kids to watch. back in florida, alicia keeps marge s student i.d. card in her wallet, its edges scorched by the fire. i don t understand how this little plastic card came off of that bus, but marge did not. reporter: here s a statistic for you. listen to this. researchers at the university of utah believe that the crash risk from using either a cell phone or texting while driving can actually double the risk of driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 and that is the legal definition of drunk driving. meredith? that s very scary, tom costello, thank you very much. the woman behind no-phone zone day oprah winfrey joins us now on the phone. oprah, good morning to you. good morning! good morning. i know for a fact you are not driving as you talk to us this morning. you can believe that. you can believe that. i made it a policy even in my company when we do the show in january, and that just came by accident because all the guests would come on the show, said, well, oprah, you know that the limousine drivers were on their phones, too. i went, no, i did not know that. and immediately called the limousine company and said we won t be using you again unless you make it a policy in your own company and i made it a policy in my own company and it caused a bit of a disturbance because people are so accustomed to talking about work on the way to work, talking about work on the way home. i said, there will be no more discussions about anything in this company while driving. oprah, you mentioned january. you launched this campaign actually in january. why is this so important to you? there are so many causes you get involved with, why is this one so important? well, i was struck, meredith, by the fact that when i was a young reporter in nashville and baltimore, i covered many drunk driving stories, like tomorrow skos tell low was talking about. i was reminded about mothers against drunk driving, when this movement started it really changed the way i think we ve lost our phone signal. hopefully she ll redial here. the driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of rain activity associated with driving by 37%. in other words, you re so distracted that you are 37% diminished. tom said it is like driving drunk. it is really interesting to hear what she s talking about. the question i think we still want to ask her is what s the goal of this campaign, just to have people do it for one day. hopefully, oprah, you re dialing back. people get distracted in many ways, they drop a cd, some things in the car can cause a quick accident. i read even if you have a hands-free phone conversation which you assume would be okay you re still somewhat distracted because you aren t focusing as much on the road. she s getting a lot of people to sign pledges saying they won t use their phone. including us, actually. when you look at the stats, the question is sort of how can you not agree to it? because it is not about only your own safety, it is about whether you re going to be a lethal weapon to somebody else. she also points out that it took years for people to understand how bad driving and drinking and driving was. at first it was just one person and people didn t pay that much attention. then you started seeing it over and over an over. finally, really mothers against drunk driving i think were the ones who took the leadership role there. there s been a dramatic drop in the number of deaths because of drunken driving. apparently she s now taken the while because she s not called us back. we ll be coming back actually oprah? are you back? now she s sing. phone music. we ll talk to her in just a few moments. still ahead, we ll have a vivid demonstration how dangerous texting and driving can be. i m getting behind the wheel. watch out! first these messages. we re never gonna catch anything. patience, son. ah! 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[ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft. enjoy the go. soak our yards in color. get our hands a little busier. our dollars a little stronger. and our thinking a little greener. let s grab all the bags and all the plants and all the latest tools out there. so we can turn all these savings into more colorful shades of doing. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we ve made a special buy on perennials. 5 for just $10. we re told that oprah is back on the phone with us. oprah, was it you or good morning america that hung up on us just now? it was certainly not i. i have to say, i was not driving! good! that s really good. i think while you were not on the phone we wanted to mention that we did actually already all three of us sign the pledge. it makes a lot of sense. what is the goal of your campaign? what do you want with this one day to do? well, the fact that you tom costello was doing this story and we re doing five different cities today with friends of the show, having rallies in all of those different cities. i m trying to put as much focus as much attention on the issue to start getting people to think about it and to obviously go to oprah.com and sign the pledge just as you and meredith and hoda have just done. i hope that more people will think about this in a different kind of light, will see that it s senseless, will think about erica being 15 bike pedals from her front door and think about your own child. i ve talked to people who have been involved in committing these accidents because they were distracted, and it s something you never get over. you never get over the fact that you could have not been on your phone and somebody is dead or in serious is seriously injured because you had to make a phone call or use a text. oprah, it is hoda. a lot of people multi-task while they re in cars. they eat, play with the radio, they drop things. what do you want those folks to keep in mind as well? i m against distracted driving of any kind. i think distracted driving is really probably more prevalent than we recognize. if you re in an accident because you re eating, you re not going to say i was eating, that s why i ran into that pole. but for this focus, it s about people making their cars a no-phone zone because i really i don t think that today, hoda, i m going to get people to stop eating in their cars. but i can get them to put their phones down. very quickly, oprah, what do you have planned for today s show? you have 20 seconds here. 20 seconds. thanks for telling me. 20 seconds. we are broadcasting from five different cities, atlanta, boston, detroit, los angeles and washington, d.c. just really having a great american rally to draw attention to this issue. all right, oprah winfrey. thanks so much. good luck, oprah! thanks for signing. back after your local news. bye momma. i love you. i love you. bye-bye. you be careful on your way home. -happy mother s day. -okay. bye-bye. [ female announcer ] this mother s day, give her something she can hold on to. a card. it s the biggest little thing you can do. in this. one day, i ll park this in a spot reserved for me. it s got 26,000 miles on it now, but i m gonna take it to a thousand million. [ male announcer ] when you own a certified pre-owned mercedes-benz, chances are they ll own it one day, too. which is why it undergoes such a rigorous inspection to meet our uncompromising standards. one day, i m gonna drive this to vegas. [ male announcer ] hurry in to your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for 1.99% financing during our certified pre-owned sales event through april 30th. ar good morning on this 30th day of april. the news 4 today, the chain bridge will be closed the entire weekend. d dot is doing work and that includes cyclists and pedestrians because the sidewalk will be closed. the bridge will reopen at 5:00 on monday morning. metro is moving forward with the largest fare increase in history. at lot of a 15% increase in rail fares and 20% in bus fares. one of the plans includes a $4 flat fee for late night weekend rail service. the board will vote on the plan in may. we will take a break and look at the weather and traffic. stay with good morning. sun we highs near 80. warm and humid on suspected and could get vong storms. chopper 4 was over the scene of a serious crash earlier, beach drive and connecticut avenue. one vehicle flipped on top of another. the scene improved and the delays are starting to ease. these are live pictures. a quick check in virginia. there had been an accident at 95 southbound. that is over to the shoulder and the travel lanes reopened. coming up tonight, taking a wo 8:00 now on this friday morning, the 30th of april, 2010. tgif! the weekend promises to be gorgeous. we have an awful lot of folks getting here starting their weekend in rockefeller plaza, looking great. i m meredith vieira, along with ann curry. feels so nice to have warm weather finally. it is going to be a wonderful weekend. matt is off today. we ll check in with al at the kentucky derby in just a bit. ahead, the search for justice for a murdered college student, shot and killed in los angeles in a parking lot ten years ago. her parents have spent that time sitting through three trials trying to bring their daughter s killer to justice. we ll talk to them and find out what finally happened. a few moments ago we talked to oprah winfrey about the problems with distracted traffic. calling it a no-phone zone today. coincidentally, we re actually having a demonstration this morning called distractology 101. it is a mobile classroom and a high-tech driving simulator to basically show you how being distracted can affect your driving. i understand you re going to batten down the hatches because you re going behind the wheel? i m going behind the wheel. get out of the way! something we can all use, simple ways to boost our happiness. but first, let s head inside to hoda kotb for the headlines. good morning. the white house said this morning there will be no new offshore drilling authorized until the current massive spill in the gulf of mexico is reviewed. oil is still gushing from the side of a collapsed drilling rig. it is now washing ashore in louisiana. crews spread floating barriers to protect sensitive marsh lands and farmers hurry to harvest the lucrative shrimp crops. officials said both coal miners missing after a mine field collapse tuesday were found dead. the mine was cited at least six times this year for failing to use enough kreel suppoceiling s holes. trish regan is at the new york stock exchange. what s the latest there? investors are really encouraged. investors around the world, you mentioned overseas markets are higher. there is an expectation that greece, which has really been struggling with its economy and its ability to access debt in the debt market, the expectation is that europe is going to come through with a big $120 billion forgive me euro bailout. that s about $150 billion u.s. this would be a massive bailout and hopefully help all of the european countries in their efforts to access debt going forward. keep an eye on that one. thanks so much, trish. now here is brian williams with a look at what s coming up tonight on nbc nightly news. good morning. coming up tonight on nbc nightly news, our popular making a difference series takes us to the derby. for all the women that work at churchill downs making sure everyone else is okay, a breast cancer awareness program for them devoted to their health. that story and more when we see you tonight on nightly news. back to you. thank you. it is now three minutes past 8:00. time to head to the weather and to mr. al roker at churchill downs. hi, hoda. we re joined here by donna brothers who has tossed got tossed by her h good morning. we have a summer-like day under way. temperatures climbing rapidly after a cool start. we will hit the 60s and the 70s by noon and near 80 by mid-afternoon. clear tonight and near 60 by dawn. saturday partly cloudy and highs in the mid 80s and warm and humid and a possibility of late afternoon and evening thunderstorms. a slight risque thunderstorm could be severe. lingering showers monday morning. for those of you who missed it, take a look. this is again what we were talking about. donna really, has years of experience. okay. wow. come on over, donna. well! that was nice action for the cameras! that wasn t supposed to go that way. i ll tell you more about how it really goes. ann and meredith were horrified. but you barry hit the ground. were you up on your feet like that. well, my mother was a jockey. the thing that she used to always say, if you re going to ride horses, you re going to fall. you get used to it after a while. guys, how amazing were her reflexes? she s amazing. but i don t think she wants it run that tape anymore, al. you know, we better stop doing that. oh, yeah. right. yeah, forgot. next, we ll be talking about hot spring fashions. but coming up actually in a few moments, we ll talk about a very serious story, about a mother and a father whose decade-long journey to put their beautiful young daughter s killer behind bars. they ll share their story right after this. - i.i can t tell. - oh, honey. - oh, yeah. he went to jared. - he totally went to jared. female announcer: this mother s day, celebrate life s unforgettable moments with pandora charms and bracelets, now at jared, where you ll find a fabulous pandora selection. all: awwww. - they are so cute at that age. announcer: jared. the galleria of jewelry. advil liqui-gels, you re taking the pain reliever that works faster on tough pain than tylenol rapid release gels. and not only faster. stronger too. relief doesn t get any better than this. advil. we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a ski trip twice as fast. we get double miles every time we use our card. 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[ male announcer ] trugreen. go greener. back now at 8:10 with a brutal murder of promising young college student michelle o keefe an her family s ten-year quest for justice. her parents will speak out in a moment. but first, dateline nbc s keith morrison has their story. reporter: michelle o keefe was just 18, a college freshman, when, in february 2000, she was murdered in a remote parking lot outside los angeles. shot four times. her parents, pat and michael o keefe, have suffered ever since. when i heard those words, it just really took all the feeling out of you basically. that was just really horrible. reporter: a security guard at the lot that night, raymond lee jennings, says he heard the shots but didn t see the killer. when he talked to police, he told them something he couldn t possibly know unless, was he the killer? when i first seen her, the gunshot in her chest, that to me looked like the very first shot that was fired. it was at very close range. reporter: but without any solid evidence, police could not make an arrest. the case went cold. months passed. jennings remained free. a living hell. as long as there s breath in my lungs, we aren t going to give up until this thing is resolved. reporter: but how? the o keefes decided to try to dip up new evidence by filing a civil case. and again, in his deposition, the talkative jennings revealed a lot more than a man who never saw the killer could possibly have known. what i seen out there that night, her pulse and her finger twichg. in order to see that, he had to have been there when the shot was fired. reporter: and finally, years after michele was killed charges were laid. first degree murder. swit was like god or jesus reached out to me. reporter: one trial ended in a hung jury, then a second. then just four months ago, a third trial. and facing the o keefes in the courtroom, jennings swore before god he was innocent. i sit here as an innocent man and i heard you speak on god. as christ as my lore and savior, i will stand before god and this is one sin that i will not be judged for. reporter: but was he an innocent man? or were the o keefes right all along about the man who knew too much? justice needed to be served. reporter: for today, keith morrison, nbc news, los angeles. pat and mike o keefe are michele s parents. good morning to you both. good morning. mike, you went through three trials, the first two ended in hung juries. third jury deliberated for three weeks, what was the final outcome? final outcome was conviction of second degree murder and discharge of a firearm. in february, jennings was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of your daughter. now that it is finally over after ten years, is there some sense of relief? pat? yeah. i feel a little bit more less stressed out knowing that he s behind bars, knowing that he won t be able to kill anybody else, knowing that justice was served after all this time. but i sense the hesitation. you feel a little bit better about you? well, i mean, michele s gone. you can t bring back your daughter. but at least justice was served. you ll always have an open wound in your heart for your daughter that was killed, but justice was served, yes. justice was served, pat and mike, because of your own tenacity. you were determined to get justice for your daughter. early on jennings was a suspect, mike, but the case wasn t going anywhere so you worked with independent investigators to come up with this power point presentation to convince the d.a. that this man should be put on trial. briefly, what were some of the things that he said or did that jennings said or did that convinced you he was the one who killed your daughter? it was a variety of comments. as we went back through the videotapes that we got from depositions, as well as various interviews, he made comments where he understood the order of the shots, the angle of the shots, he knew how basically was able to describe how her body shut down. these were things that world renowned experts, people like one of the world s top profilers and dr. downs who is a world renowned forensic doctor, it took them weeks to figure that out. he was absolutely consistent with their analysis, but this is just something that $6 an hour security guard doesn t know unless of course he was there. pat, at the sentencing both you and mike and michelle s younger brother, jason, were allowed to speak directly to jennings. what did you want to convey to him and also to the judge? that he should be accountable for what he did, that he should be put to jail for the rest of his life and not be able to get out, and all what he put us through. me, mike, jason, for ten years, that no family should ever have to go through. finally, we don t want to lose sight of michelle. can you tell me just a little bit about her, your strongest memories? well, she had a beautiful smile. she had a beautiful heart. she was friends with everybody she came in contact with. her smile was infectious, is what everybody said. she is truly missed by everybody. now she s at peace and has justice. pat and mike o keefe, thank you very much. thank you. thank you. you can see more of their story tonight on dateline at 9:00, 8:00 central time right here on nbc. up next, just how dangerous is distracted driving? we ll get behind the wheel of that high-tech simulator to show you right after this. it s rainy out there. what do you guys want to do? both: make rice krispie® treats! how many cups is it? six. oh, that s not six yet. whoa. where s the pan? both: over there. ( laughter ) push it down. push it down. thank you for helping. it s amazing what you can make out of a rainy day. childhood is calling. look in the glove box. [ children laughing ] suitcase? huh? where do gummy bears hide? under the seat. look! yeah! [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] the all new chevy equinox. [ man ] guess who? dad! [ man ] enjoy the trip! okay, daddy! [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it takes you farther. and brings you closer. as we ve been mentioning, today is the first ever no-phone zone day to draw attention to the problems of distracted driving. right now meredith is behind the wheel of distractology 101, a mobile classroom and driving simulator commissioned by the arabela insurance group charitable foundation and john donahue is the group s chairman and president. good morning. you came up with this mobile classroom idea because of a serious trend. about two years ago our claims department noticed a rise in accidents from young drivers from distracted driving, using a cell phone, sending text or eating hamburgers and french fries drying 65 miles an hour. we discovered that the university of massachusetts developed a wonderful program to teach them through simulated driving. but they didn t have the funds to bring it to the public. using our charitable foundation we ve built this classroom, we ll start on monday taking it around new england. but our first student is already in the chair. looking at meredith vieira. i hear you re a little nervous. i am actually. i m a little nervous i m going to hit something. we ll take you through a scenario involving you reading a text message. start this off, you need to use the gas pedal and get up to the speed limit. you ll see here the speed limit is posted at 55. use the gas. get it up to that. just maintain that, maintain your distance from the car. i m already having problems! it takes a little while to get used to. keep your speed up. that s good. stay on the road. don t turn too sharp. you re making me nervous! i m going too fast. now your phone has just rung and you you ve got a text message. pick up your phone and read the message outloud. meredith wait a minute! meredith, you shouldn t be reading this text while driving. i m so sorry! meredith, you were really trying to stay in the lines. you weren t i wasn t but this is not normal driving. it s supposed to simulate what happens if you re not paying attention. how quickly taking your eyes off the road can cause a very serious accident. we have an educational component following each one of these that explains what you did wrong and what you should do right to make sure it doesn t happen. what you should do right is not to look at her text message while driving. exactly. is it also about using your cell phone, not just texting? in any form. even hands-free. study shows you re still four times more likely to get in an accident. why is that if you re not using your hands. because your brain is listening to the words, thinking about what you ll rely, taking your attention off the road. can i do it again while you guys talk? ann, you want to try? no, i want to see you do it. unless you don t want to do it. we ll do a different scenario. same one. give you another try. this is the second. let me just memorize this. a 17-year-old, driving for just five months, he crashed twice. here we go. get your speed up. you don t have to turn the wheel too hard to get reaction. it is a very sensitive wheel. much like the wheel on your car. you re doing great. once you get it up a ways, we ll have you now assume that your text has just rung, you are reaching over to pick it up and read the text message outloud. meredith oh, geez you shouldn t be oh, how do you stop? that was very realistic. you created a real re-enactment. oh, sugar! that s very realistic, meredith. john, thank you so much. i should be wearing a diaper. to learn more, go to our website at todayshow.com. that s incredible. 8:26 is the time and a rapid warm up in the capital. it will feel lick summer this weekend. in the news, the council will hear testimony from the district cfo. the two are at odds over how to pay for teacher raises as part of the proposed contract with the teacher s union. they want to fund with money from foundations and that they go before the council at 10:00 this morning. we will have the [ bird calls ] oh, look! [ click ] hey, man, that s a keeper. [ bird calling ] oh, it s flying away. got it on video. what! i did it again. i love this thing. nature and me. the new zs series from lumix. with 16 times intelligent zoom and hd video, it s a keeper. not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose from and down-to-earth prices the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. sunny and cool in the 50s, but afternoon highs in the 80s. mid 80s tomorrow and warm and humid. period of timely sunny on sunday. how is the traffic? another beltway crash on the inner loop at the interchange for connecticut avenue. two out of the lanes were close and just moved to the shoulder. combined with the sunshine that begins at georgetown road. just volume leaving springfield towards i-66. coming up tonight, how can you take a world tour without packing a single 8:30 now on this friday morning, april 30th, 2010. last day of april and it is a beautiful one out here in rockefeller plaza. great hand on hand here. in exactly two weeks from today, mark your calendars. sting will be right here on the plaza to kick off our summer concert series. we cannot wait. i m meredith vieira, along with ann curry and hoda kotb. matt is off. al s gearing up for the kentucky derby. we ll check in with him. i want to clarify something in that last thing when i was behind the wheel. i started to say shift in front of me. i wanted to shift. that is some of the finest driving i ve done in months. you were very great. it was a bit nerve-racking but i think we drove home the point. speaking of someone who makes you laugh, what makes you guys happiest? have you thought of that, what really makes you happy? coffee makes me happy. haagen-dazs ice cream. just ahead oh, and hoda. we re talking about the science of happiness, asking questions about whether some of us are actually born happy. even those of you who may not be born happy, what is it that can happen in our environment that actually can make us happier? there s an actual science about this. also, if you love fashion, we have the fashion maven, stacey london with us, to talk about the newest spring fashions. always fun to haveer around. i m a little afraid of stacey because she tells you what s what. and what s not what sometimes. it will be very helpful. first, as we mentioned, al is down in kentucky preparing for the kentucky derby. i love your checkered shirt, by the way. real lly handsome! well, thank you. i got this shirt off of a picnic tab table. joining me right now is a guy who s had a 27-year career as a jockey. three-time kentucky derby winner, two preakness stakes, two belmont stakes. gary stevens is with nbc sports, a race analyst.starting tomorro. gary, you re saying that this is one of the most wide-open kentucky der bees you habies yo seen. the favorite came out of the race last week with an injury. it opens the field up. 20 horses in the field. i could make a case for 16 of them. i ve never seen a kentucky derby so wide open in probably 25 years. the weather, i m sure everybody s really concerned about the weather. if it is as bad as we think it is, what are the jockeys going to do to try to compensate? well, donna went through the deal with you earlier with all the goggles. vision becomes a big problem not only for the horses but the jockeys and position is going to be a big deal. the favorite, looking at post position number one right now, comes from off the pace, stits just off of the lead horses. lookin at lucky. garrett gomez is the jockey. if you were running this race, how would you run it? the horse that sits just behind the leaders, he doesn t have to collect all that much that most of them are going to get. i d wait until the last quarter of a mile and try a move like mine that bird did last year. he s not going to be 50-1 but i wouldn t be surprised if another 50-1 shot wins it tomorrow. here we have the virginia gold cup tomorrow at the great meadow. a live view there with sugar loaf in the distance. temperatures around the region in the 50s. 55 in washington and it will sore to near 80 with lots of sun. mid 80s tomorrow and warm and humid and partly cloudy on sunday. afternoon and evening thunderstorms. an isolated storm could be severe. and that s your latest weather. coming up next, we ll look at the hottest take on this season s hottest looks from day to night. but firs back at 8:37. this morning on today s style, how to master the season s hottest trends. most glamorous looks you see in magazines aren t always easy to pull off. stacey, good morning. we re going to look at three trends this morning. cutouts, mixed prints and lingerie. what makes them so tough? i just call them the tricky trends. basically because these are things that some women feel so intimidated by simply because the way they were shown on the runway is very revealing or it looks age inappropriate. there are ways to do things for day and for night. some are more obvious than others. we ll show you how to do them so anybody can wear them. i just bought a dress that has cutouts right here on the shoulder. i m a little intimidated already. shut up! i am thrilled to hear you bought a dress with cutouts. this is a cook tate dress for evening, when you think about cutouts it is obviously an evening trend. really mostly. simply because what we are talking about is cutouts. we are cutting something out here on her side. she has got a big hole cut out. do that. there you go. it is very revealing. you have to like the body part that you are going to show. that s a tough part. most women say i can only do that for nighttime. if you don t love your hips, do your back. but there is a way to interpret this for daytime that s a lot less intimidating. take a look. you can do a cutout for work if you do a sleeve like a lattice sleeve like this. this is something where easily you can wear with a jacket, take it off, it is not so revealing. it is revealing but it is modest. exactly. it is daytime appropriate. also it is age appropriate. if you like your arms, this is a great way to show them off for daytime. a trousers, something very simple. neutral, neutral accessories. look at the shoe. this is a cutout. cutout shoes are very, very big this season. can you do cutout, cutout? absolutely. if you do the top and the foot, it is far enough away that you re balancing it. next, mixing prints. here s the thing about mixing prints. essentially it is easier to do for daytime because you can look a little bit messier. this is how you do it. always do one neutral print in the basically a neotribal print. then on top, kind of an abstract floral with the ruffle and the blouse. why does that work? because this is a neutral. we re doing two prints that are similar scale, right? we re not doing anything that looks like it s really crazy out of focus. but this is a brown. consider it a simple brown. this is really the blue. this is the color. what we re adding here is an almost similar, almost identical blue to the light teal. this print is almost a neutral print. you ve got two prints that balance one another, and another print that is the same color as the print on top. these are the two things. scale and doing the same color in two of the prints. solid bag that adds texture. easy way to to do it for daytime. now these are two very different prints. very big right. now for evening you want to do something where you have a main character print. here we re doing the bold floral with something smaller so that you still have a focus to the outfit. here we re doing a neutral kind of abstract print. the focus is the bust but the focus is also this print. right? what connects them is the black background. even though we re doing very, very different prints, they re connected by a similar background color. then you add pop like the satin clutch, an embellished shoe and you ve got an evening look. you have to be confident to do this look. you have to be confident but look how well this fits. finally, lingerie. i realize people when you talk about lang ringerie think evening or bedroom. immediately you think this is sexy. this isn t so. we have phyllis here in a gorgeous nude and black bustier, both colors big combination for spring. with the nude lace, great evening look. you can do lingerie for day, too. believe it or not. really? shut up and check it out. okay? we have done a bustier over a white shirt here and a suit. really you almost add like a waistcoat. you can do that for day and get away with it. would you not take this top off and just display that. absolutely you could take the jacket off. if the italians can do it, we can do it. so it is a vest. it adds visual interest to the outfit. i m not saying you should wear this to the office, but in a creative field this is a great way to show off your creativity and be very modern at work. stacy london, thank you very much. up next, the science behind what makes us happy. oh, shut up! as she would say. how to find more happiness in your life. but first, this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] let s take the garden into our own hands. soak our yards in color. get our hands a little busier. our dollars a little stronger. and our thinking a little greener. let s grab all the bags and all the plants and all the latest tools out there. so we can turn all these savings into more colorful shades of doing. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, get spectracide bug stop for the new lower price of just $4.98. back now at 8:45. what does it truly mean to be happy? we asked a few people here to explain where they find happiness in their lives. i think i feel the happiest when the sun s shining and people around me are happy. what makes me happy is being on a golf course with family and friends. achieving goals. great food, great conversation. i think happiness is something that you have to work towards. i think everyone s happy. most people if you look at them they re very happy. i m happiest when i m around the people i love. what makes me happy is this little boy here. this is matt. when i m on vacation i m happy. when i m not working. positive people. very energetic people make me happy. dr. ian smith explores the science behind happiness in his new book appropriately called happy, simple steps to get the most out of life. gretchen reuben is the author of the happiness project. we are well suited. good morning to you both. ian, dr. ian, you ve written a lot of books about dieting but i guess the question for you is, why do you decide to think about happiness? i just realize the country is in such a blue mood. you look at the economy, foreclosures, credit card problems, the war, people on their third and fourth tours in war, i said what can you really do about happiness? is there a real science behind happiness? what can you do to lift people s moods? i m happy to report thousands of research papers show happen to be happier even during difficult times. let s talk about the science here. that s the nut we all want to crack. you have found in doing all this research, dr. ian, that some of us are actually born more likely to be happier than others. absolutely. it s about the science shows 50% of your happiness is genetics. there s 40% you can t control. i focus on what can you control, how can you boost your happiness. you may be born at a happiness level of two but the other 40% you may be boosted up to 2 1/2, 3 or 4. i want to empower people to do simple things, simple steps to get the most out of life. you can do it actually. we ll get to the tips in a few moments. gretchen, you re sort of the person who implementing this science. you ve been in your blogging going out and with your happiness project trying to find what works. how do you augment this for people listening now in terms of how they can make themselves happy? there are two things. absolutely there are simple things that you can do every day, little by little you can make a big change. things like getting enough sleep so you have enough energy. or having some fun. like i started a book group because i love to read. the other thing is you really have to think about what s true for yourself. you can t think about what makes your family or friends happy. you can only have a happy life on the foundation of your own nature. you have to think about what s true for you. that s a very interesting point. you may feel a lot of pressure to be happy in a certain way. i know women for example who have real hard times being completely happy only with being a mother. and yet they feel the pressure to be really happy only as a mother. that s kind of a stress for a lot of women. what are you hearing for people who are e-mailing you back? e-mailing you back in terms of your blog? what are they saying about what s making them happy? this is surprising and a little bit silly. but the thing that i hear over and over when people are trying to get started, this one thing that really makes the difference is to make your bed. there s something about outer order for a lot of people that contributes to inner calm. it is small, manageable, it is very tangible. there is something about that little action that gives people the feeling that they re starting off right. i ll have to tell my son that. i don t think that s going to work. the other thing is drawing relationshi relationships. the key to happiness is strong relationships with other people. making an effort to go to a reunion or throwing a party or going to a group. can you actually rewire your brain? when we respond to something that we don t love, some of us respond like, oh, well, the good that can come out of that is this. other people sort of respond with that is really horrible and they get really down about it. i guess the question is can you rewire how you respond? that s interesting, you are already hardwired for your happiness. you can t do the rewiring for the happiness. you can work around it. studies have shown actually that there is a brain neuro chemistry part of happiness. in the book i teach you how there are things, perspective and attitude matters. optimism matters. for example you can learn how to be an optimist. there are simple things that you can look at the bright side of things. studies show optimists are so much happier. they are appreciative of the things they do have and not unappreciative of the things they don t have. important happiness boosters, you say acts of random kindness per week. at least five. five acts of random kindness. something as simple as taking $2, putting it on the vending money with a note, if you need it, take it, if you don t, leave it. keep a gratitude journal. focus on things you re positive about rather than negative keeps you in that positive state. forgive. old-fashioned, your grandmother said it but when you forgive you release yourself of a psychological imprisonment of a grudge. one way to show your gratitude is write someone a thank-you letter. just put pen to paper. the process of thanking someone makes a difference. gretchen, i see you are nodding your head. the last tip is make your bed. back in just a moment. this is today on nbc. one sure bet at the kentucky derby, lots and lots of hats. al and natalie are already decked out in their race day finest. we re ready to go here. christine moore is one of the premier hat designers in horse racing. she s brought along some of her gorgeous designs this morning. she was kind enough to bring one for me and one for al as well. men wear hats. that s right, absolutely. now christine, whether it comes to choosing hats, before we get to our models here, what should be considered? it is all personality i think. especially for the derby. it is all personality for the derby. how you feel comfortable in a hat is really to choose something that you feel comfortable in that s going to show your personality off, then let s look at starting off with the hats. tell us about this hat. this hat s really great. the pop of color of the pink. we ve got this cutout here which allows her to see and has light on her face. it is just a really comfortable hat. you get the broad but you have the little dip so she can see. the trim is really quiet and simple, but then you have to pop of feathers. feathers are really hot this year. also color is hot, too. you can see the pink but also the green right next here. a hat worn by elizabeth. you got the peacock feathers. a lot of embellishments going on here, too. the soft roses are just like perfect for the southern belle, feminine look. teal is really big right now. teal and pink. this is a hat that s not big but has a lot of detail on holly. this is like a cocktail style. this is a big thing in racing as well as fashion. it is just like a really fun, it has the trim up on up near your face. it is the same as the broad rim but it is like it is about statement. speaking of statement, the rolls royce of hats, mallory, miss kentucky, by the way. she is making a statement with this. $1,000 for this hat. 1,000 bucks. a lot of work. just even putting that second edge on takes a lot of time. it s worth every penny. isn t it, mallory? then we ve got the candace on whitney and the careen. this is a mix between the two. gorgeous, girls. thank you! pink is the big color today. i think our ladies back in new york have their they ve got their hats on as well. meredith and ann are wearing yeah. look how gorgeous you are! i can t see anything out of this hat. you ll need a rain hat for tomorrow. these are going to be no good whatsoever. thank you, guys. you all look good. natalie, al, thank you so much. again, nbc sports coverage of the kentucky derby starts tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern time right here on nbc. just ahead, how to deal with adult bullying. this is the the second tazer death p per good morning. a delightful spring day and afternoon highs near 80 with lots of sun and partly cloudy. warm and humid on sunday and afternoon and evening thunderstorms. how is the traffic now? friday morning commute continues as we head out and take a look at things. a tough commute with an earlier accident at connecticut avenue over to the shoulder. the outer loop is jammed from college park. a quick check for downtown. 395 northbound and all travel lanes are open. thank you, jerry. coming up tonight, how you can fake a world tour without packing a bag. the 9:00 on this friday morning, april 30th, 2010. the final day of the month. we have a great group celebrating with us this morning, beautiful weather. sunny in new york, 70s. i understand we ll have a wonderful weekend. very excited. inside studio 1a, i m ann curry. along with hoda kotb. matt is off today. al and natalie are off on a very tough assignment. they re at churchill downs getting psyched for tomorrow s kentucky derby. what s going on, you guys? hey! we ve got perfect weather today. perfect for the running of the oaks today. 85 degrees for a high. not so good tomorrow. no. we re going to enjoy the moment today. right? that s right. but it s very exciting. 136th running of the roses, the kentucky derby. we ll have more, including the sights and sounds and the tastes of the kentucky derby, guys. sounds good. we need some mint juleps here! we re waiting for them here. we ll check in with you in just a moment. we have a lot coming up. reial hunter speaks out. she s the woman who had the affair and the child with former presidential candidate john edwards. reial says she is not to blame for the breakup of his marriage to elizabeth. coming up we ll hear what she has to say about her current relationship with john edwards, how he feels about their daughter and what she really thinks about those gq photos. also, we reported about some serious bullying cases recently, the teenager phoebe prince who took her own life. but it is not just a young-kid thing. many of us run into adult bullies in every day life, either at the grocery store, on an airplane, perhaps in our own family, friendships. so how to deal with this without getting stepped on. that s an interesting topics for grown-ups. we think we can put up with things we don t need to. we don t know how to do it. we ll figure that out. first we have a little check of the news. the white house said today no new offshore oil drilling will be authorized until official learn what caused last week s oil rig explosion in the gulf of mexico. oil has started coming ashore in louisiana threatening an all-out environmental disaster. nbc s chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson is in venice, louisiana. hey, anne, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, hoda. at this hour, bp crews are in the air and on boats looking for oil at the mouth of the mississippi river. there have been reports that oil has been spotted in an area, but those reports have not been confirmed. there is a crew of 150 people here ready to go at a moment s notice to try to stave off what many fear could be an environmental catastrophe. on louisiana s fragile coastline, plastic barriers called booms are the last line of defense. the well 40 miles out to sea is pouring five times more oil into the gulf than first thought. now some 5,000 barrels a day. despite efforts with underwater robots like this, ten days after the explosion, bp is no closer to plugging the leak. absolutely nobody wants to get this oil flow stopped more than i do. we have people working 24 hours a day in four different locations to both stop the flow, to actually fight this thing offshore and protect the shorelines. reporter: president obama mobilized a team of cabinet secretaries to monitor the investigation and the cleanup. my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the department of defense to address the incident. reporter: louisiana s governor bobby jindal declared a state of emergency and asked the defense and homeland security departments to deploy the national guard to respond to the slick. u.s. military officials tell nbc news a list of options are being put together that could include sending additional planes, boats, skimmers and booms. the spill could do serious damage to louisiana s wetlands. at this time of year, the marshes are breeding grounds for hundreds of different kinds of wildlife. an ecological marvel threatened by a slow-motion invasion. and the floodwaters behind me are home to one-third of the nation s seafood production. now the big question is, who is going to pay for all of this. well, because the well belongs to bp and the oil belongs to bp, so does the bill. and that bill is running $6 million a day and if it has to drill a relief well, that could cost up to $100 million. hoda? anne, we ll be covering this for a while. thank you. the commerce department said this morning the u.s. economy grew at a pace of 3.2% in the first quarter of the year marking three straight quarters of growth. two kentucky miners were found dead on thursday after a roof collapse in a coal mine. the mine had been cited at least six times this year for using too few support bolts on the roof. an electrical fire at a downtown boston subway tunnel late thursday forces evacuations and sent at least 20 people to the hospital mostly with smoke inhalation. high winds are expected to ease but still cause problems today in new mexico where 60-mile-an-hour gusts bowled over tractor trailers on thursday. dust storms closed highways in arizona and the winds have knocked down trees and power lines in california. and it was the tallest structure in alaska and the tallest tower of its kind in the u.s. but not anymore. the coast guard demolished the 1,350-foot tower this week fearing that without major repairs it would have come down on its own anyway. what a picture. what a picture. you re up to date. five minutes past the hour. lucky that the camera didn t get hit. we have the big virginia gold cup races tomorrow in the plains, virginia. should be good weather for that. today a delightful spring day with a blue sky and virginia off in the distance. a live view with temperatures approaching 60 degrees. hit the low 60s south and east of washington and lower part of the eastern shore. highs should reach upper 70s to near 80. tomorrow mid 80s and could get storms in the aftern and that s your latest weather. hoda? all right, al, thank you so much. it looked like john edwards had it all a loving, long marriage, a successful career as a lawyer and senator, and a shot at the highest office in the land. then came news of a mistress. now reial hunter is speaking out for the first time on television to oprah winfrey and talking about everything from the first time they met to where the relationship stands now. nbc s norah o donnell has all the details. hey, norah, good morning. reporter: hey, good morning, hoda. reial hunter went on oprah to talk about what she called john edwards life of integrity. john and elizabeth edwards are now separated but reial hunter strongly denies that she broke up their marriage. a lot of people bought into the myth of the marriage. the edwards marriage as being a storybook story and it was so perfect and so wonderful and i destroyed it. reporter: reial hunter says it was not her fault that the edwards marriage fell apart. people aren t property. you can t steal someone else s husband. reporter: but last year in an interview with oprah, elizabeth edwards said hunter seduced her husband. i blame john but i also of course, women need to have more respect for other women. reporter: hunter claims she and john edwards were drawn together like a magnetic force at a chance meeting in new york. he was just so excited. i mean just lit up like a christmas tree. white lights, just like bright as can be. and i just turned to him and said, you re so hot. reporter: edwards later invited hunter to his hotel room. did you stay the night? i think that that now as i always like to say, okay now fade to black. reporter: more than a year later the affair was still going on. were you using birth control? no, we never used birth control. reporter: by july of 2007, hunter was pregnant. in july. so when john edwards is renewing his vows to elizabeth edwards, he knows that you are pregnant? yeah. did you think now s my time to get out? no. i was pregnant. now he s turned into the father of my child. reporter: but john edwards would deny he was the father. i know that it s not possible that this child could be mine. reporter: admitting only now that he lied on national television. why the public denial? elizabeth really wanted him to do that interview. she wanted him to say, you ve got to get out in front of this, say the truth and speak the truth. and she didn t know the truth. reporter: hunter, who now lives in north carolina with 2-year-old frances quinn, raised eyebrows when she posed half-naked in gq magazine. what i was thinking was, i would like to have one sexy shot where the world can see me as a beautiful woman as opposed to all those photos that are out there of me looking like some wicked witch of the west. what did johnny think about those photos? where are your pants? reporter: now, four years after their affair first began, hunter does not deny they are still together. do you still love him? oh, very much. does he still love you? i believe he does. reporter: now as for that infamous sex tape, hunter says that she wishes she destroyed it. she s actually suing former edwards aide andrew young worried that he has copies. now john edwards is going to have to give his side of the story in a deposition on may 13th. hoda? this one won t end. norah o donnell, thank you so much. up next, from a tough to deal with neighbor to a pushy co-worker, we ll have advice on how not to get pushed around by grown-up bulliebullies. and later, fun finds to keep the whole family entertained this summer. but first, these messages. 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don t worry, it tastes great. froot loops now with 3 grams of fiber. fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonna love. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg s froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg s makes fiber fun. there have been a lot of stories lately about the tragic consequences of teen bullying and child bullying. what about the adult bullies we meet on a daily basis? you might remember this scene from friends. hey, you re in our seats. sorry, we didn t know. hey, we were sitting there. okay, there is one more way to say it. who knows? it was ridiculous. these guys, they were bullies. actual bullies. you know? we re grown-ups. this kind of stuff isn t supposed to happen anymore. oh, hon. now wait a minute, i have no one. here is some advice on how to deal with adult bullies. psychologist dale atkins, sanity savers, and psychologist and today contributorafter gardere. good morning. that was a funny example, not so funnily in terms of being bullied. when aur he waiting in line for the movie and somebody cuts in front of you or when you re on a plane and somebody insists on taking their bag and pushing yours or pushing you out of the way or verbally assaulting you in a way making you feel less or you re in new york city and you get on a subway and you want to sit down and the person just won t move over just a little bit or they sit practically on top of you. you re talking about people we don t know. there may be people we actually also know. could be in friendships, in our work environment. there is a kind of passive-aggressive bullying as well. absolutely. generally when people do this they re very intimidating and they try to kind of puff themselves up. what happens is, that you feel as if they feel there is kind of an entitlement and that the rules that apply to the rest of us don t apply to them. what happens is you can feel very much less than because you don t stand up to them and there are ways to stand up to people. but generally they re frightened and they feel threatened by you but they don t put that out there. what they put out there is i m going to get my way at your expense. you re kind of giving us a bit of a psychological profile here of what s going on in their mind. that s right. the thing is that if you re the victim of that, then it truly is bullying if you feel you ve been blind-sided. you re like, wait a minute! what just happened here? that s a sign that you have been bullied. you just don t good feel about it. you know the person doesn t feel good about him or herself but you may not have the resilience in the sense of wait a minute, this isn t really my fault and it is not about me. but we have to understand that people have to take responsibility for being respectful to others even if they re not getting it. what s the best solution? you talk about killing them with kindness, jeff. that s what i do. i was online to see avatar many weeks ago. two people just cut right in front of me and i said to them, hey, guys, if you just had asked, you could have stepped right in front of me. it s not a problem. we can all go see the movie, together. and they just said they started laughing and they got off the line, went to the back of the line. so i killed them with kindness and let them know doesn t always work. it doesn t always work. it doesn t. but most people don t think that that would be their first step. they d want to match the aggression with the aggression and you don t do that. that s right. you try and have the presence of mind and sense of yourself and relaxed moment, that is a great example but sometimes it doesn t work. when it doesn t work, you think you do try. step back, watch your body language. oftentimes we re shocked and go like this. stand tall, look at somebody and don t raise your voice because they re raising their voice to you. you only raise the aggression up. these are people who already have issues of self-esteem and are fearful to begin with, then they just become even more fearful and more aggressive. what is there really in your life on a daily bay dis what if you have a friend who in a way is not overt, is sort of bullying you or maybe bullying someone else. some people are not conscious of it. they don t realize because it is the way they ve very often been treated their entire life and they aren t conscious of it. so in a quiet moment, not when they re in the throes of it, because they re not going to hear you. say sometimes you will bully someone, sometimes you act in a way that s really aggressive, not sure if you re aware of it. but it is uncomfortable for me as your friend, it is not getting what you want and it really is difficult. perhaps you can try this. as your friend i want to let you know. but if you are being hurt by this and you can t stop it and the person is not stopping after a conversation like that, what would you advise them to do? you really do need to number one, remove yourself especially if you have children. remanufacture yourself for the moment because you don t want the children to see that this is a model of how we get what we want and you re modeling disrespect. it is very important in a marriage because there s bullying in a marriage. it really is about having that constant communication and somehow getting through and modeling better behaviors for that partner or friend. please don t take this wrong but we ve run out of time. you re bullying us! dale atkins, jeff gardere, good advice this morning. two lucky women get a whole new look. the dramatic results of our instant makeovers. but first, these messages. his coat is incredibly shiny and soft and very thick. everybody thinks he s the most handsome cat they ve ever seen. 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[ rewinding ] at hellmann s, we search for the best sources to make our mayonnaise. we use eggs, vinegar and oil rich in omega 3. for the quality that could only be hellmann s. hellmann s. it s time for real. and, now introducing hellmann s light. it s made with 100% cage free eggs. announcer: today s top dog is brought to you by the makers of zyrtec. love the air. this morning on today s top dog, the results are in. time to announce our last semi-finalist moving on to the final round. earlier this week we introduced to our last round of semi-finalists. let s recap. shall we? first bowty, an 8-year-old peek niece in connecticut. next up, a. you who can bring smiles to everyone s face. emma is a 7-year-old from illinois. she s got a wave about her. there she goes. finally we have 22-month-old fluffy. this doberman pinscher from salt lake, utah likes to belt out a tune. no instrument is necessary. this big guy. drum roll, the winner of the semi-finalist. an overwhelming majority of 77% of the votes this week is fluffy. so fluffy okay. that s so funny. on monday we ll see these four dogs compete live in the studio and see who wins the title of today s top dog. the grand prize winner will receive a photo shoot in the pages of ladies home journal and win a vacation to a hotel in atlanta for pooch, owner and guest. that s very nice. do we have al and natalie out there? yes, al is thrilled fluffy made it! we were rooting for fl inini. love the fluffster. coming up next, swim suits after your local news. [ woman ] dear cat. gentle cat. your hair mixes with pollen and dust in the air. i get congested. my eyes itch. i have to banish you to the garden. but now with zyrtec-d®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. i can breathe freer with zyrtec-d®. so, i ll race you to our favorite chair. i might even let you win. zyrtec-d® lets me breathe easier, so i can love the air™. zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. per it s 9:26. the d.c. council will hear testimony from the chancellor and the cfo. the two disagreehow to pay for teacher raises that is part of the proposed contract with the teacher s union. they want to fund with private foundations, but gandhi said it has too many strings attached. two people, including a police officer are recover for example a crash in prince george s county on old silver hill road. all three people suffered minor my daughter obsessed with fashion. she never met a label she didn t love. then, my best friend took me to t.j.maxx. i thought it was knock offs, but i came home with all the brands we both love. t.j.maxx has buyers that deal directly with designers. so i save big! two diehard fashionistas are now proud maxxinistas! t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you! at this hour we have sunshine and temperatures sbe the 60s. by later we will be near 80 degrees and a delightful day. into the mid 80s and sunday should be sunny, warm, and humid and into the 80s again. late in the afternoon and into the evening, passing thunderstorms and only a slight risk of a storm on sunday afternoon and evening. lingering showers through midday monday and drying out monday afternoon. how is the traffic? we are a little bit sluggish in a couple of spots. unusual for a friday. heavy for about the last mile north from the pentagon to the 14th street bridge. right now is looks like the lanes are available. more stop. jammed on the top side of the beltway due in part to the inner loop gone, but the outer loop into silver spring. thank you. coming up tonight, how you can take a world tour without what s your deal, man? come on, len, you ve been riding me all day. come on, sound like betty white out there. that s what your girlfriend is saying. that launched the betty white craze. she s been a fixture on american tv for decades from the mary tyler moore show to the golden girls. she ll be here monday on today for a preview of her hosting saturday night live. i m ann curry along with hoda kotb and lester holt. robach, we ll get to you, too, in a moment. first, natalie and al are living it up in churchill downs counting down to tomorrow s kentucky derby. you had a very interesting reaction to the top dog finalist, fluffy. we were rolling. we did? fluffy. fluffy. fluffy! woo! well, our dog won. you two just have too much time on your hands. it will never end. guys, thank you so much. we re going on american idol next week. good luck with that! we have a lot coming up. as a kid, did you ever want one of those snow cone, snowball making machines? oh, my god i want my one. that s that little snoopy snow cone machine. that looks like the same one! it might be. they are everything s retro. ping-pong paddles, everything. all for summer fun. that will be fun. memory lane. plus the weather is supposed to be nice in the northeast this weekend. if you re heading to the beach, we ll show you some swimsuits we re told are going to flatter every figure. i think that one flatters you very nicely. meantime, lester and amy, it s all about you two. at least for this 30 seconds. right? make the best of this moment. let me tell you what s coming up this weekend on today. we ll be live from the gulf coast for the very latest on the massive oil spill that s now come ashore and could obviously be devastating to the region. all the latest from there. plus, we ll catch up with basketball hall of famer nancy lieberman. remember she was called lady magic? she was the first woman to play in the pros with the men. now lieberman is breaking new ground. she is the first female coach for the nba. we get to meet her. she is an amazing woman. men s nba? she is coaching all men. of course we ll be live at the kentucky derby all weekend long. we ll preview the race tomorrow and talk to the winner on sunday. that s all this weekend on today. you can get al and natalie no more. let s actually go to them right now. al, what s going on? well, we re doing a little cooking. we know about the horses. we ve already told you about the mint juleps. and hats. a big horse event with the virginia gold cup in the distance. a live view from the sky watcher camera under a blue sky. temperatures around the region are climbing into the 60 spz we hit the 70s by noon and 80 by mid-afternoon with lots of sun. partly cloudy and pleasant and good weather. sunday part low sunny, warm, and humid and could get late afternoon and evening thunderstorms. a small chance it now that s the running of the roses. breakfast of champions. did you smell those, how good they are? i never fall for that one, al. but you should. back to you guys. they re having some fun. next, getting into the summer spirit with fun finds for the family. but coming up right this. go, jill! take our quesadilla explosion salad. i hand-toss it with fresh greens, corn relish, and tortilla strips. add grilled chicken, and finish it with crispy quesadilla wedges. the quesadilla explosion salad is part of our entree plus an appetizer pairings for $9.99. pick one of our 16 entrees, like baby-back ribs or honey chipotle chicken crispers. then choose an appetizer all for just $9.99. for a limited time, only at chili s. can you believe how fast kids grow these days? that s why there s new danonino. new danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. yummy! new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. [ woman ] nine iron, it s almost tee-time. time for new zyrtec® liquid gels. they work fast. so i can get relief from the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that s the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i m ready by the time we get to the first hole. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. begins with a balanced breakfast. country crock has 70% less saturated fat than butter, and 30% fewer calories. add multigrain toast, fresh fruit and low fat milk, and they re off to a good start. country crock. welcome to the modern world, people. woolite isn t just for your delicates! it s for all your clothes! with woolite complete you can wash everything, from jeans to tees, cause it has the right balance of care and cleaning. and say goodbye to fading, shrinking, and stretching. after all, a lady never reveals the true age of her clothes. woolite complete, cleans and cares for all your clothes. welcome to progressive. nice calculator. i m just trying to save money on my car insurance. you know, with progressive, you get the option to name your price. is that even possible? uh, absolutely. trade? and i still get great service? more like super great. oh, you have a message. hello. calculator humor. i ll be here all week. i will that was my schedule. the freedom to name your price. now, that s progressive. call or click today. thanks. i got the idea from general mills big g cereals. they put a white check on the top of every box to let people know that their cereals have healthy whole grain, and they re the right choice. (announcer) general mills makes getting whole grain an easy choice. just look for the white check. this morning on jill s fun finds, a little summer something for everyone, from snow cones to bubble speakers. if it s fun, jill found if t. jill martin is a today and us weekly contributor. i want to start with something i grew up with. everyone when they saw this, oh, my god, it s back. the snoopy snow cone maker. you crank the ice and it comes out, then you make the snow cones. this was so big in the 80s. i don t want to date myself. $25. it s ice. what do you mean? it s delicious. that is cute. only $25. is this the same? this hasn t changed over the years? it s only back for the summer. they sort of brought it back. if you love music which you do. this is your ipod. i stole it from your dressing room. it is a bubble speaker. it looks like a clown nose but this is at delight.com, $44.50. it travels with you. it is a great speaker. this i love. i m a big barbecuer. this is $20. it is a mini picnic set. it is a nice little setting. this is something that all the kids are going nuts over. silly bands. they start at $5. they are in animals, there s numbers. what are they? every crew member and staff member here said please give them to me for my daughter. every age loves them. they re bracelets. kids trade them, you stack them. it is the biggest craze right now. that s adorable. kids are going crazy for them. what age kids? i asked. they said 4 to 14. everybody loves these. these are going to different members of our staff. thee aren t just for girls. boys are wearing them. i m hearing from sources. really. who were your sources? my sources are very smart. boys definitely love this one. mini foosball table. this is adorable. all the old stuff is coming back. i love that. what s this called? you have to turn it on? air hockey. i hate that game. okay. ping-pong is still in style. at my house, in my basement we have an old ping-pong table. this is just a way to update it, fun, ping-pong. just update your old table. these are $39.50 at delight.com. it is a fun way to update an old table. this is if you re paying attention to one thing in this entire segment, this should probably be it. that s it? this is the highlight. $129.95. kodak.com. you e-mail the pictures to the frame and they show up. i e-mailed my address to jillmartin@kodakpulse.com. i just gave my e-mail. you can reject them or they go to spam. look at your mom and dad. how cute. these are all family pictures. i e-mailed them to myself, if i can figure this out, anyone can. if i want to e-mail you pictures i can e-mail from my account to your frame? right. and i can either accept or not accept them. for travelers, these are expensive. about $200. but because of tsa requirements you always have to take your laptop out of the bag. this allows you not to. this opens up. will they know that? you ll say they said this is fine and they ll say, no, take it out. i asked them. they re fine. our producer has one. now he can travel. you re trying to kiss up to don nash. i always kiss up. what do we have here? this is a bluetooth printer. it is $149. available at target. you take the picture, and then as long as it has bluetooth it connects to the printer. it prints the picture. you don t have to hook it up. no wires! i love it! jill, thank you so much. all right. speaking of summer fun, the best bathing suits, they say for every type of body. right after this. thanks to the new venture card from capital one, we get double miles with every purchase. so we earned a tropical vacation in half the time. we earn double miles every time we use our card. ( shouts ) double miles add up fast so we can bring the whole gang. ( grunting ) awesome! it s hard to beat double miles. everyone knows two is better than one. introducing the venture card from capital one. with double miles on every purchase every day. go to capitalone.com. ( gasps ) what s in your wallet? wait up! [ female announcer ] these cookies aren t magic, but they make magic happen. that s because glad has partnered with cookies for kids cancer. it s small bake sales like these that help raise big money for pediatric cancer research. together, we can make a difference. one container at a time. because with glad, the care that goes in is the care that comes out. for all active families. our advanced 2-in-1 power cleans tough stains like grass better than the leading oxi detergent and helps get your family s wash incredibly white and bright. try new all oxi-active. it s all good. wait! that ll give you gas. try new beano meltaways. they prevent gas so you don t have to use a gas reliever later. mmmmm.. [ indistinct conversations ] [ mindy ] take beano before and there ll be no gas. [ indistinct conversations ] can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed 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. this morning on today s style, attractive swimwear for all shapes and sizes. if you plan on hitting the beach this weekend with all this good weather, you may want to have a look at the suits we re about to show you. jackie stafford of shape magazine says they are sure to flatter every figure. a lot of us have trouble when we go looking for suits. what are the trends this year? we have lots of trends. bold florals. great very retro-looking suits. we have some wonderful roouches pieces. it is all about the piece that flatters your figure. let s start with the pear-shaped frame. we have a before picture. our model is named ellen. you don t really like this suit for ellen. not really. the reason why this doesn t work, it draws attention to the heavier bottom half of her. if you have a pear shape, look for eye-catching details to draw the eye upwards which is what we did with our winning suit. hey, ellen. come on out. oh, that is really winning. what makes this work and the other one not? this works particularly well. this is by jcpenney. it creates a classic hour glass silhouette. the deep v draws out the shoulder line to give you more of that classic v-shape. the eye is drawn upwards rather than focusing toward the bottom half of the body. it instantly slims down hips and thighs. you get an a for that one. i hope you can take that home. let s look at another body shape. that s the boy shape but basically it is a shape where there sort of doesn t go in at the waist. our model is carly. that looks pretty comfortable. i don t like that suit for her. it is too boyish for her. she has a slim muscular frame. when you are looking for a boy shape, create the illusion of curves. create the very feminine silhouette. let s see what carly looks like now. wow! isn t that gorgeous? we have the ruffles here, the gold print trend we were talking about, the flirtation with the little skirt. all the flats are by endless.com. we have a matching baby. this is charlotte in the matching swimwear. she looks great in hers. this is matching swimwear. always come with an accessorized baby. the ultimate beach accessory a baby! and a rubber ducky. well, terrific. thank you, ellen. now we ll take a look at what we would call i guess the busty frame. we have a before picture which is happening here. and this is latonya. this look for her doesn t work for her because it is not flattering her fuller bust, it is not supporting the bustline. we do have some specific tricks to look for when you re going to buy if you have a full bust. let s find out what she looks like now. that a beautiful suit. this is by jantzen. it goes up to a double-d cup. it s got the actual bust cup in it. when you look for swimwear, look for pieces that have the bust cup so it doesn t squash the breast. we paired it with a cardigan. that s a classic design. the trick for flattering a fuller bust is make sure you re finding bra pieces that actually work for flattering the bust. that s an interesting point. have them built inside the swimwear. the halter nature also help? that s a great point. can you adjust it as well to fit perfectly. you look great. thank you so much. for those of us who have bellies after babies, that would be a lot of women, you ve got dee dee in a before picture. you don t like this one either. well, no. i think we can all agree that this is probably not deedee s best look. the stripes don t work with her body. now look at this? a yummy mommy. we found this tankini from kohl s, a great animal print. it shows off her wonderful shoulders, it is all about that very nice nextline, great halter nextline. a little flats from endless.com. it is all about the tankini, just a smither of skin. we ll bring out donna now, another example of a great suit when you are dealing with a tummy as well. that s a great option. this is a great option here. we found this at victoria s secret. the reason it works so well, if you are worried about a tummy line, make sure you don t go for too much of a low-rise. thanks to all of our models. thanks specifically to charlotte. you did such a great job this morning. coming up, much more after mornin[ male announcer ] let s take the garden into our own hands. soak our yards in color. get our hands a little busier. our dollars a little stronger. and our thinking a little greener. let s grab all the bags and all the plants and all the latest tools out there. so we can turn all these savings into more colorful shades of doing. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, get spectracide bug stop for the new lower price of just $4.98. right now, get spectracide bug stop 9:56 is the time and 66 degrees already today. the weekend will feel like summer. we will have forecast after the news. in the news, arlington police are investigating a death after police used a taze or a man in the 5500 block of columbia pike. newspaper call for a psychiatric emergency. they found a man without any clothes on and they were forced to tazer him because he was not cooperating to verbal commands. he stopped breathing and paramedics performed cpr and he later died. the name of the victim has not been released. this is the second tazer death involving arlington police. tom joins us with an update on the forecast. warming up and temperatures hit the 60s and near 80 with lots of sun. partly cloudy and mid 80s and it feels like midsummer on sunday with heat and humidity and partly sunny skies and a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. a slight risk and a storm could be severe. how is the traffic? heading over and taking a look. not bad through landmark and shirlington. inner loop after university boulevard, police, fire, and rescue on the scene and only one lane getting by. expect delays there. coming up tonight, how you can take a world tour without packing a single bag. a unique opportunity to experience cultures and from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. hey, everybody. we re so grad you got to the end of the week and you re still with us, god bless you. it s friday, dry around here, but we can t be dry today, because it is the run for the roses tomorrow. we constantly have excuses for not making thinks dry day. both of our moms are here today, because we re going to be doing a mother s segment. my mom is in al s dressing room. i pray to got not with al, but some sort of interview, playboy or hustler. my mom s at the newsdesk. hi, mom. only sami leans into the dark. stay in the light. other way. there you go. look great, mom. they ll be cooking. i don t remember last year. cottage cheese balls are not on the menu today. maybe we re resolving a feud. it was never a feud. one day on rosie s radio show, she accused you of having plastic surgery, said you must have done a lot of things, a lot of cutting. went on and on and on. she s had way too much plastic surgery and botox, and people need to know when to quick. she said, come check me. look for subsidiaries and if you see them, i ll fess up. we don t know exactly the whole thing. let s just listen. is. okay. kathie lee gifford is pad at my. apparently i said i thought she had plastic surgery. i don t even remember what i thought it would be funny if we did a whole hour without makeup. if i offended you, i m sorry. i didn t mean it. i really didn t. i had a chin suck thing ten years ago. now i m getting jowls. rosie and i have been friends forever and ever. i think we should do an hour of the show without makeup. i just make one request, and that s that i have to have lip gloss. i got to have it. it can be clear, but i have to have moisture on the lips. one tiny thing. i did lips, too, because the rest of it can all go away. you need lipstick. something for the lips. so we should do it. now it s in rosie s court. no makeup for the whole hour? she doesn t wear makeup, but she s on the radio. i know. it s hd, too. we ve never done no makeup in hd, did we? we took off our makeup a year ago. i remember. what? you didn t take it all off. i tried to. i can t help if it doesn t all come off, hoda woman. that s in rosie s court. the interview is finally over with rielle hunter and oprah. why did she do the interview? rielle in. um-hmm. she wanted people to see more of her. do you think it helped her cause? i don t know. she spoke in gq and i think that definitely hurt her cause. i think this hurt her, too. i think at the end it probably did, but she spoke a lot to oprah. we cherry-picked some sound bites. let s listen to what she had to say. people bought into the myth of the marriage, you know, the edwards marriage as being a storybook story, and it was so perfect and so wonderful, and i destroyed it. people aren t property. you can t steal someone else s husband. he was just so excited, i mean, just lit up like a christmas tree, white lights, just like bright as can be, and i just turned to him and said, you re so hot. did you stay the night? i think that that is now like, okay, fade to black. were you using birth control? no, we never used birth control. in july. um-hmm. so when john edwards is renewing his vows with elizabeth edwards, he knows you are pregnant? yeah. did you think now is my time to get out? no, i was pregnant. now he s turned into the father of my child. what did johnny think about those photos? where are your pants? she said she posed that way because she was tired of all unattractive pictures out there, and she wanted one in a controlled setting that wasn t taken by somebody as they were walking by. so she would be seen as the beautiful woman she is, she said. does that make you sort of understand her better or like her more? go on her facebook page. i i m interested in if it changed your thought. or if you care. that was interesting, that nobody can steal your husband. i think that s probably i think with enough enticement, most men would probably do something wrong. and what elizabeth edwards said that women should respect other women more. two people may be having a problem in their home, but until a wrecking ball comes and knocks the house down, you still have something to work ought, and you ve got at least a semblance of something there. once that happen, it s a wrecking ball. today on oprah, she s do a hole show on the no phone zone. i want that, too, but nobody cares what i want. nobody does care at all, not even me. everybody has a story almost become knocked off the room. you know, it s dumb, but what people do, they re at a red light, they re just like, i ll take a quick peek, and you try to text back and then the light s green. and people are honking. we have to show some fun video. it s friday and we need some fun. the american troops in afghanistan decided to cut a rug to lady gaga the telephone. show us. cute. are they done? they are going strong. kind of fun. all right. i m wearing something i need to tell everybody about. he is from project runway, it s $25, and a percentage of i proceeds go to share and care india, bering the lives of kids in india. he asked me to wear it today, and i m going to keep it. we do bobbie s buzz. how are you, gorgeous? would you do an hour of television? absolutely. i m in. i ll do a whole segment. sara, are you in? okay, baby. i think it s a great idea. how about naked? no, i m much better with clothing i m stealing the mom love. you have your moms in the studio, and i want to remind everybody out there. mother s day is a week away, so i have some fun ideas. i really fell for these glass vases by jenny gainer, it s a great group gift idea. some of the your photos, and she ll cut tom create these air loops. va heir looms. for only $20, you can get anything with turquoise in it, and it makes your smile brighter, that s the claim. and i love this. you can buy smart boxes that have getaways or spa experiences, they start at $49. really great idea. what lipstick? concealer and paw paw. it s a backstake beauty ointment from stall. thank you. you re committed now. i m committed. i will do it. yes to no makeup, no to no clothes. i think we all agree on that. hoda, you asked the fans about the rielle hunter. if our wall s any indication, they definitely didn t help her. there wasn t anything positive. don t forget, write in with your dad s tell-all for the guys tell-all next wednesday. coming up next, he s got big biceps, and a bigger personality. hey, i ve got my pants on, though. come on. i want to see him lift my mother. we don t want anything. .to slow us down. but even in your 30s. .your bones can begin to change. overtime, you can begin to have bone loss. calcium and vitamin d work together to help keep your bones strong. and yoplait gives you. .20% of your daily calcium. .and is the only leading yogurt with vitamin d in every cup. keep your bones strong every day. .with yoplait. doo doo doo woman: there s only one disinfecting wipe with a low streak formula. clorox disinfecting wipes. va va voom. now do it for your lashes. with maybelline new york s lash stilettos. the #1 lengthening mascaras. our longest lashes ever. choose original stiletto black. for staggering length. sleek and tapered. and now stiletto voluptuous red. for length with volume. lush and full each with that trademark black patent shine. it s hotter than ever. [ female announcer ] lash stiletto original and voluptuous the #1 lengthening mascaras. maybe she s born with it. maybe it s maybelline maybe she s born with it. and you ll dump your old mop. but don t worry. he ll find someone else. who s that lady? who s that lady? sexy lady who s that lady? [ female announcer ] used mops can grow bacteria. swiffer wetjet starts with a clean pad every time. and its antibacterial cleaner kills bacteria mops can spread around. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. lovely lady before the world of pain befalls the great god of babylon. zeus, i do not fear you. your power is equal to mine. no greater, no poorer. let us test your theory. that is hulk hogan, yes, it is, showing off all his power in little hercules. he stars at zeus, and now that film is out on dvd. welcome. and i still have something on my head. i had a wreath there. i ll do an hour without nigh bandanna. what s under there? just a big bald head. calling it keepin it real. i liked that getup. that was cool. it looked like i should by in zz top. you did it a couple years ago? yeah. it was a nice surprise. it s a kids movie. the kid that played hercules. i guess his stepfather is trying to take control and got him back to a more normal situation. i haven t seen him for a couple years, but a nice little gentleman when we did the film. a lot has changed with you. now, mister, you are engaged to a beautiful woman named jennifer mcdaniel, who happens to be here. there she is. tell us about jennifer. she s my light. she kind of like saved me. she got me dialed back in to make sure my priorities were believing in the things i can t sigh instead of all the stuff that people can tough and feel and see. the trust factor. and so, you know what? i m back i m who i really am now. before all the craziness and insanity, fighting, yelling and screaming, all this dysfunctional stuff. it wasn t real, it wasn t me. finally i m back to where i should be, working like it all depends on me and pretty much that it all depends on god. in that sweet spot, we have nothing but joy, happiness, and anything that comes up it s life s situation, not my life. you haven t set a date? no, not yet. have you? not yet. bhas it about hulk that you fell for? he s very genuine and gracious. the real deal. his eyes. we always loved your eyes, too. how is the situation with the family? things are great. brook is back in the studio. recording? that music career. it s the toughest thing you could pick. she s passionate about it. she s getting ready to do another season of her show. nick is back on track, in california, doing some dj things and some acting stuff, working on his charity thing called keep it on the track. how is he after prison? i know you went through a difficult time. it s been a tough adjustment for him, because in that small little town was kind of a fishbowl, and the biggest thing that ever happened there. it was just an accident, and it was a mistake, and we love john to death and pray for him every morning, noon and night, and i would love help him and his family when the smoke cleared, and nick had to really relocate where it wasn t such a so present all the time. yeah, it was just an accident. what does this tattoo say? it is i am that i am. that s what god says to moses. god is everywhere. is that a new one? i ve had it for quite a while. a year maybe. that one, too? this says grateful. that s the highest vibe you can be on when you re walking in the spirit of christ. awareness means you know you have the spirit in you. so i m dialed in. you are dialed in. if i get confused, i just look down. exactly. maybe sarah palin should do that with tattoos. wow. did you really say that? no, it s okay. we ve got or notes. it s great to see you, and so lovely to meet this beautiful woman in your life. wish you much happiness. whether she we have affordable mother s day gift ideas, right after this. [ female announcer ] when is it okay to lose the cover-up? when you can. take the special k challenge. and lose an inch from your waist in two weeks. so lose your cover-up, and show off your confidence. design your plan at specialk.com. against pollutants and damaging environmental factors. new eucerin daily skin balance body lotion with ph buffer strengthens your skin s protective barrier. new daily skin balance only from eucerin. this bar is an excellent source of fiber. there s no fiber in this. it tastes too good. they have 35% of your daily value. oh, samples. mmm. fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. we didn t think dog food. could make that big of a difference, but it really has. we thought, oh, goldie, you re getting older, and she started eating the purina one. and people would say, what did you do to her? [ announcer ] purina one for seniors unlocks the brilliance of nature. [ kristen ] it s a great feeling having a beautiful, happy dog. it makes you feel like you ve done something good for your pet. [ announcer ] it s amazing what one can do. now, reformulated with. enhanced botanical oils. that naturally nourish. to help sustain a bright mind. hi, i m catherine. as a real estate agent, i use febreze to prep my houses for sale. febreze fabric refresher is an essential component of my toolkit. when a house smells good, it gives a very positive impression on homebuyers. i also use it in my house because our couches were smelling more like dog than anything else. (laughing) it removes odours of sports, teenagers, (laughing) or cooking. i would not want to face a week without febreze fabric refresher. this is at corny, but the word mom upside down is wow. robin is creator of gift-ionary.com. how are you? i m doing wonderful. good to see you. we have a big debut here this morning with the vases. this is called uflop.com, where you send a non-copyrighted photograph, and they put it on a vase, and you design the floral arrangement that it goes in it so it s customizing the gift for mom. you can add a message, like for a new baby, their birth information. look at this. it s cody and cass. they could give that to you for mother s day. you can be very creative. this has crispy cakes, only these are to die for, and outstanding. 8 for $35. she put the whole thing in her mouth. you would too if you tried it. dotting on the heaven. these are bagettes. you put your personal shots on a cosmetic bag. it s very functional. she ll be so happy. she s in that picture. and this is zazzle.com, where you customize your greeting card yourself. you can make a mother of the year card. they have thousands of templates, but it looks like an actual card. my gosh. isn t that fantastic? these are so cute. these are fantastic. you re batting 1,000, robin. this is love unconditionally. this says i am enough, blessed, words for inspiration, and the keychains, the photographs, the rings, even a pillbox, because you never give your mom a headache. i love the delicate jewelry. a big hit. this is semiprecious stones, rose gold jewelry. including her famous lop i pop earrings, and they re just beautiful. they look like you spent so much. ann curry has her eyes on those. casey kay has the mini initials, love them. and then digipix.com takes your child s silhouette, and they do that cameo shot frame for $49. that s a nice deal. i love like getting your pint-sized picasso involved. this is a kit for $30, where your child with fingerprints and finger paints will make a design for mom. it comes with the frame. everything is included? these are very reasonable. this one coming up, robin, is your all-time favorite. i think it s so nice. this is lovebookonline. and here s 50 reasons we love grandma phyllis. all the kids chipped in a few words to say about grandma, tell us why we love her, all the different things, and then they publish the book. how long does it take to do that? it took ten minutes. they actually but to get the book. you ll have it by next friday, but you want to order them by monday or tuesday. these are personalized gifts. they take a little time. the elegant settings are $89, great-looking personalized tote bags, and designer gals that do recipe cards with a look align mom that is the cutest thing in the world. there won t be many recipes. i don t need all those cards. mine is a refreshing beverage. we just thought of everything. and then they have the sonogram frame for the new expecting mom. i wish we had had that for tammy. isn t that something? they now have the 3-d son grams, and then you want to shower mom with love and affection. for $32 we have personalized emumbrellas. i think this is the best ever. way to go. from winter to spring with delicate blooms of beautiful flowers. and i just love how my new jaclyn smith patio set was built to last. which is pretty important since we practically live out here. you know it s amazing, that a little addition like these soft and colorful cannon towels can make such a splash. top brands, uncommon style, and surprising details all at a kmart price. [ mr. bluelight ] there s smart, and there s kmart smart. love to see kids spirits shine. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunnyd shine on sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. begins with a balanced breakfast. country crock has 70% less saturated fat than butter, and 30% fewer calories. add multigrain toast, fresh fruit and low fat milk, and they re off to a good start. country crock. it will feel like summer this weekend. coming up on midday, tom will tell you how warm it will get and when the next chance for rain is. good morning, everyone. i m barbara harrison. meet a man who lost 168 pounds with diet and exercise. his goal now is to help others reach their weight loss goals as well. news 4 midda [ sneezes ] music plays [ sneezing ] [ male announcer ] what are you gonna miss when you have an allergy attack? benadryl® is more effective than claritin® at relieving your worst symptoms runny nose, sneezing, and watery eyes and works when you need it most. benadryl®. you can t pause life. i m lucy sykes. i m a fashion stylist. what i do is dress people for magazines and tv. my job is to hunt down the best fashion and stay on budget. my secret? t.j.maxx. their buyers have their finger on the pulse of what s on trend. they buy directly from designers and you see the savings! i dress fashionistas. but i m a maxxinista. t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you! we re back on this dry day. and time for the big reveal on our ambush makeovers, where we surprise two very lucky ladies with a whole new look. always scouring the plaza, our beauty experts, mr. louis lica licari, and jill martin. big crowd. it s warm, full of people. we found two great makeovers, both with the most beautiful set of eyes you have ever seen. le wow. are they going to make you cry? no, no, not today. the first is megan jackson, 54 years old. her birth die is on monday. she s from north carolina. she s been married to her husband bob for 34 years, they have five sons. in fact, when asked about her beauty routine, she said, quote, i brush my hair. let s take a listen. all right. this is a pretty lame sign, but i know you want this for your mother-in-law. tell us why. well, she s up here visiting us for her 55th birthday. she has five sons, no daughters, i want to pamper her and give her this for her birthday. and you want this too, you told me? i want a new glamorous look. my husband is coming up from north carolina tonight, so he ll be totally surprised, i want to look good for him. bob, she s going to look hot, are you ready to go? yes. will he be surprised. megan s daughter-in-law melissa is right there with her blindfold. do not take it off until you give you the green light. here is megan jackson before. let s see the new you isn t she lovely wow. look at that haircut. wow. i love that. are we ready to look? hold on. take off your blindfold. oh, my god. that s extraordinary. hey, one second, she s got to look at herself. are you ready? wow. you look wonderful. i love that haircut. my gosh, that s cute. haircuts work so well with bobby proportion, by raising it to the chin, you see her neck and great jawline. she had enough gray in her hair making it a bit dull, i gave it this warm, my favorite auburn shade. what do you think? awesome. what do you think bob is going to think? melissa, do you love it? she s a because of person inside and out, this is incredible. we wanted to give her the new color for spring, blue is huge, this is evan piccone, available at macy s. congratulations. next up jo newman. for the past 60 years she spent time taking care of others in an operating room. her daily uniform consists of jeans and a sweatshirt. she s here with her daughter jill and their friends. let s listen to her story. we couldn t miss the dance troupe in the red shirts, 50 total here. i know up this for your best friend. tell us why? jo is a single mom of two girls. she does everything for her kids. she s a nurse and she works in an o.r., operating room in sioux city, iowa. she does everything for everybody but herself. so it s important that she gets this opportunity. look at those eyes. we are going to make you look fabulous. all right. you re single, but not for long. i m going to stay single. yeah. yeah! okey-dokey. let s look at the old jo, and a new look at the new jo. keep your blindfolds on. all right. right over here. oh, my gosh. your people are going to freak. are you all ready to look? okay. take a look. jo, you look adorable. oh, my gosh. you like? i like. jill, what do you think, honey? okay. again with the swept-away haircut. her highlights were so blond, they almost looked grayish. they built up her lip, which gave her some color, you look glamorous and gorgeous. i love those earrings. turquoise is big this year. again, blue, but look at this body that was hiding underneath. this is calvin klein, we got it at t.j. maxx. come on out, megan. congratulations to both ladies. louis and jill, thank you. thank you. in case we re not wild enough for you, check out this guy. farm animals, right after this. hi, jay bush and duke here to introduce new bush s black bean fiesta..whoa. you can t tell everyone about new black bean fiesta. but it s perfectly cooked black beans, in a zesty south of the border chipotle sauce with red and green peppers, onion, and crisp corn. a bold new taste. i know. but i want people to think i m a great cook. so hide. delicious! can i have your recipe? your secret is safe with me. hello. new bush s black bean fiesta. and try new texas ranchero, along with our other grillin beans flavors. what do you guys want to do? both: make rice krispie® treats! how many cups is it? six. oh, that s not six yet. whoa. where s the pan? both: over there. ( laughter ) push it down. push it down. thank you for helping. it s amazing what you can make out of a rainy day. childhood is calling. try clearblue easy digital. no pregnancy test is more accurate, with totally clear results in words. we re back with today s call of the wild. it s getting crazy in here. animal expert joan embree is from the long meadow rescue ranch, an adoption center for farm animals that have been abused or neglected. so nice to see you again. this is a great opportunity to support an effort that gives animals a second chance on life. most came from abused situations, neglect or injuries that needed rehabilitation, so they get a second chance. at the same time they become used for education for kids and the kids learn to care for animals, learn respect for animals, and they can be sponsored, and all of them are listed for responsibloring, so for mother s day, if you want to give your mama a llama i love that. this is a miniature horse. they ve been selectively bred down in size. they originated to work in mines underground and kept in royal stables. they weigh about 14 pounds when they re born, 15 pounds, so you can hold them in your arms, but remember when you see a foal, it won t stay that small, but they have to be under 36 inches at the withers, which is measured right here. and this is a miniature donkey, bred down in size. all the donkeys and burros originate from wild asses in african. don t we all. all right. what? what are you looking at? so many things to say. you have fur on you all the time. why do you wear black with all these animals? to showcase the animal. i just disappear, because they re the stars. tiny is also a pygmy goat. waz are what s amazing is to take these animals that have had a rough start, and look how wonderful they become. they re like people, they don t trust again. that s right. this is a facility of 165 acres, outside of constitution louis, and aniindoor arena, classrooms for kids to learn how to respect and work with these animals. there are summer camps, all kinds of things. a kid can sponsor an animal if they can t have one on the city, and they with go on the ranch cam and see the animals every day. this is quackers. what makes this duck unique? this duck was abandoned. aren t they beautiful? we just got through easter, right? so people buy the bunnies and the ducks and chickens. and then they don t take care of them. and then when they re doing, they turn them loose. a domestic duck like this isn t well-equipped to make it in the wild. they find difficulties forages, and there s a pecking order among waterfowl, so if you put them in a pond with other waterfowl, they can be picked on. the best thing if you have an animals that you can t take care of, make sure you get it to a humane facility where they can care for it. i think it s time for the llama for your mama. if your mama needs a llama. this one seriously needs some dental care. it s a special needs animal. he was born with a crooked jaw. so it received veterinary care to provide for his disability. because sometimes they can t eat. its name is mama. i love this llama. he s such a loving creature. do not can i see that. . it uses its tooth to knock on the window to get attention. how much is it to sponsor the sponsorships run from $25 up to $2,500, and depending on their needs. they re very reasonable. you get a certificate, a framed photo, and a fact sheet. you can watch it and see it on the ranch cam. she is sweet. she goes anywhere, and she loves people. so the kids don t care that she s not perfect. you know that that s what party animals quest is just like that. you don t have to be perfect to be special. and thanks for all you do. terrific work. lovely to see you again. i m going to give a party animals book. i love that. i love that idea. it s just perfect. just go to our website. i m going to sponsor you, yes, i am. raise your glass, we are drinking. don t kid on the lips. right after this. oh, so cute. ( guitar plucking ) doo doo doo woman: there s only one disinfecting wipe with a low streak formula. clorox disinfecting wipes. to start losing essential nutrients? not long. in fact, green beans lose half their vitamin c in a week. that s why green giant freezes them within 8 hours to lock in nutrients. ho ho ho green giant mine too. my cut s all better. [ female announcer ] cause sara s mom discovered neosporin® with patented technology that heals cuts two days faster than store brands. neosporin®. heals faster than store brands. cause band-aid® s stuck on me [ female announcer ] moms trust band-aid® brand to heal the hurt better than store brands. [ laughs ] i am stuck on band-aid® brand cause band-aid® helps heal me! in today s kitchen we re getting caused i mean saucy norman king is here to show us how to make the perfect cocktails. hello, norman. hi there. are you there? i am. i love the hats. we re in the spirit, baby. the derby is all about traditions, whether you re in the grandstand, no derby party is complete without the classic cocktails. there s a few things you need to know. first thing you need is good ice. a lot of this is there bad ice? good ice, you want to buy from the store, typically filtered, but make sure you get the smaller cubes. next is a cocktail shaker, and you can t be official without your julep cup. they re nickel-plated and stainless steel line. to keep them cowell. cool. and the little ice makes more room. kathie lee, i m going to need you to pour that in. just about an ounce, sweet and sour mix. i put in two ounces, just for fun. for, no, stop right there. then we re going to add some cranberry juice, and a splash of triple sec. put this on, shake this up. got it? just for a pfew minutes. these are the ones you made? your is not as pink. why is that? because i didn t add as much vodka as you did. that s really good. like limben ade. i like this better than mint julep. it s just personal taste. that s fine. this thing is very heavy. i can t see. some of kentucky s finest bourbon. you can choose the one you like based on taste. this is maker s mark. what if you don t love bourbon. you have to try it. we don t want to be unfriendly. okay. this is straight bourbon? just a small taste. it s maker s mark. it goes along with everybody. recognize it for its red wack cap. next is whistler reserve, the commemorative bottle. this is a big more refined smooth on your palate, very tasty, and one of my grandfather s favorite, pappy van winkle s. i ll bet he slept a lot. primo bourbon. that s 15 year age. you don t want to make a mint julep with that, just sip it. that is so strong, that s all you can do. s perfect mint julep. these are engraved with your initial on it. oh, look at that. thank you. we re going to pour some minute simple syrup on top the crushed ice. crushed. just about a tablespoon. you went over. you can have some of mine. i don t know. then top it with some bourbon. leave some room. notice he s serving he didn t trust me. okay. just hold for a moment and let the glasses frost up. then it shows your initials. look at that. norman, we got to run. thank you so much. he has other stuff, but we ll try it out. don t forget, complete coverage starts tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on nbc. we ll be back [ female announcer ] yoplait s perfect blend of real fruit and the goodness of dairy is just a peel away. explore all the delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. that, on the list of things kids love, our party pizzas have just passed toy robots. awkward. kids love totino s party pizzas. coming up next week, joe mchail has his nerve coming here. and toni braxton will perform. thanks again, norm. we re going to look back at a wonderful week that was. enjoy your weekend. have an awesome weekend. hey, everybody. it is fun day. it is booze day. wines day people. thirst day. our countdown to the derby. they look likes dainty drinks. more lady-like. did you taste it? that s like straight exactly. it s what wow. i told you. that s so funny. our drinking terms are getting mixed up among the fans. all right. we ve got a lot of stuff going on. hey, guys, guys. a little technical problem. oh, wow. you like? beautiful baby.