Transcripts For WRC Today 20100509 : vimarsana.com

meet the grandmother making waves across the pond. today s sunday, may 9, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television from nbc news, this is today with lester holt and jenna wolfe, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning, everyone. happy mother s day. welcome to today on a sunday morning. i m lester holt. and i m jenna wolfe. susan boyle was 50. this woman 181. people are great, great for britain s got talent, another internet sensation. we ll hear her story. she looks sweet, though. the aftermath of those deadly floods in nashville. the death toll now stand at 20. at least 2,000 homes have been destroyed or damage. saturday janet napolitano toured the area and the federal government has approved more than $4 million in individual assistance. coming up, we will talk to the mayor of nashville about how his city is coping with this disaster. then back here in new york city, scary moments yesterday aboard the famous staten island ferry. at least 37 people were injured when the boat lost power approaching the terminal and it slammed into the pier. get this, this was the same per they crashed into the dock back in 2003 killing 11 people. we ll have the latest on that accident just ahead. not just for commuters, but tourists love to take that ferry. you think of it as a gentle ride, but twice. it is a bizarre story. this is straight out of hollywood, as a man goes hiking off the california coast and he fell off a cliff when the ground gave way. he ended up stranded and injured on a remote beach without food or clean water for five days. a fishing boat finally spotted him after he d written help in the sand. we ll meet the men who saved his life in his real-life castaway story coming up. but first the massive oil leak in the gulf of mexico. nbc affairs correspondent ann thompson is in venice, louisiana. ann, good morning. reporter: good morning, jenna. people have described the disaster as a slow-moving hurricane. it picked up speed over the weekend. tar balls were found on the sandy beaches of alabama, dauphin island, at the mouth of mobile bay. those tar balls are anywhere in size from the size of a dime to the size of a golf ball. they are going to be tested to make sure they did, indeed, come from the oil slick. while that was happening out at the leak site, huge problems with that containment dome. bp officials say that gas hydrates, think of them as ice crystals got inside the dome and started to make the dome buoyant and lifted up off the sea floor and those crystals also clogged the hole, clearly frustrating bp officials. i wouldn t say it s failed yet. what i would say is what we attempted to do last night didn t work because the hydrates plugged up the top of the dome. what we re currently doing and it will take the next 48 hours or so, is there a way to overcome this problem? reporter: they know how to get rid of the hydrates, just lift the dome up to warmer waters. the problem is how to keep them from forming again once they put the dome on the sea floor. they have lifted it off the leak and moved it some two football fields away. also yesterday, was there a protest against offshore drilling in new orleans. 200 people marched in the streets there, carrying signs. the slogan drill, baby, drill. they turned that into clean, baby, clean. in talking to charter boat fishermen or charter boat captains and fishermen down here, there isn t that anger yet at offshore drilling that some might expect. ongoing frustration, ann thompson. thank you. now here s lester. thanks. now to politics it s been one month since supreme court justice john paul stevens announced he would retire at the end of this term. since then the question is who would replace him? that answer could come as soon as today. david gregory is moderator of meet the press. good morning, lester. an announcement come could at any time, is it safe to say that the president has made his choice and what do we know about timing and the person? it can come at any time, i can tell you based on my reporter that over the weekend aides finished their work providing the president with any materials and final recommendations and there are plenty of recommendations that come internally and it gets down to the final four that you re putting on the screen. diane wood is one that the president has more of a personal relationship with but when it comes to elena kagan. you get arguments about who best in this political atmosphere can you get through? it s thought weth in the white house that that s not going to be a particularly heavy lift to get garland or kagan through the confirmation process where as diane wood would be more difficult politically, but think, democrats have enough power to be able to absorb that right now and all of that is part of the president thinking in addition to the fact that the president has a pretty well-developed mind in terms of the role of a judge so he keeps his own counsel as well. i keep hearing the kagan name a lot. she is not a judge and does it make it difficult because there is not a paper trail like the current judge. dean of harvard law school and solicitor general, do we have a way of understanding her views in way way. as solicitor general she s had to go in and play the role with the president as dr. no. the defensive marriage act where she has to go in and say, look, mr. president, this may be your proposal to change this, but as solicitor general i have to tell you we have to defend it. that s not always a great way to forge a relationship with the president at a time when he s considering you to be on the high court. i want to talk about the first casualty for the whole health care bill. bob bennett had a convention out there yesterday and he was the guy left without a chair when the music stopped and won t be able to run for re-lech. what does this is a about what others may face now as the health care continues to reverberate. a very difficult environment and you do have the effect of the tea party which is starting to influence philosophically other conservatives who are running against the incumbent in this case, a republican. this is a strong conservative who did offer a bill, a compromise bill on health care, but he also voted for t.a.r.p. the bank bail out bill which is a poison pill to many on the right and it says something about the anti-incumbent mood and the anti-government mood, anti-big government mood that s coursing through politics and will have quite an effect in how people think about november. david goingry, thanks. thanks, lester. now here s jenna. it s been a week now since the deadly floods in tennessee and the city of nashville is trying to recover. officials estimate the damage cost will be $1.5 million program joining us now is the mayor of nashville. mayor, thanks for being with us. good morning. thank you for having me. i understand that homeland security secretary janet napolitano visited the area yesterday to survey the devastation. can you give us an idea what her reaction to all of the damage was? i think she saw what others have seen is that we have about 2,000 residents, we completed 80% of the damage. we have 2,000 residents that were damaged heavily and she saw a lot of people with all their items, possessions out on the street, but she also saw an incredible amount of volunteers that are working in our city every day to help the people damaged by this flood. it s a heartening experience for her, i think. she saw a local government and the state government and local government to help the people of nashville and most importantly she saw the people of nashville working to help the people of nashville. we ve had an incredible volunteer effort going on in our city. i understand the city of cumber can you give us an idea of what nashville looks like this morning? nashville looks beautiful this morning. it is a beautiful day. the cumberland river has receded below flood level. the water is essentially gone and we are in the process of recove recovery. our downtown area is up and running. the city is back. the country music hall of fame opened again on friday. the grand ole opry is being held downtown. we re open for business. that s not to underestimate the amount of work we have to do to recover and underestimate the injuries that people have suffered in our community, but we re going to get it done. we ll take care of it and this city is moving forward. what kind of timeframe are you looking at. you mentioned $1.5 billion as the monetary number of damage. i understand that number is expected to ride. can can you tell us how much and how long before you re on that road to recovery again? i would expect the figure to end up somewhere in the area of around $2 billion, but that s just a guess. the assessment we ve done so far is 80% complete is around $1.5 billion. it will take us months to totally recover and obviously we re getting a lot of cooperation from fema and the federal level and from the state and our governor, but it will take a lot of work. ultimately, it comes down to us doing the work and we have in tennessee and we have in nashville a lot of resources. we have the country music business where the artists are stepping up and having telethons and raising money. we have a great business community that is going forward, raising money. we just have to stay focused, take it day by day and get it done. nashville will be fine. it was a great city before this storm and it will be an even greater city afterwards. mayor, thanks for your time. thank you. and it s time to get a check of the morning s other headlines. for that we turn to ron mot at the news desk. good morning, everyone. terrifying moments aboard a popular new york ferry saturday as it slammed into a pier injuring dozens. it seemed deja vu for a per we a terrible past. it was smooth sailing until the very end and then a big jolt as the ferry crashed out of control into the dock on staten island with little warning and it s not the first time. very faintly over the intercom we heard somebody saying something about red. in all, at least 37 passengers were hurt, though none with serious injuries. there were people on the floor, laying down on the floor, hurt. people just everybody was just yelling. this is the same ferryboat involved in a 2003 wreck that killed 11. saturday they ruled out terrorism or operatorieror which was the finding seven years ago. instead, the likely cause was mechanical. the national transportation safety board says alcohol tests on the crew came back negative. they are still awaiting the results of drug testing. more travel headaches in the u.s. and throughout europe because of the erupting volcano in iceland. right now airports in italy and spain are closed due to the moving ash cloud and in france and switzerland major delays are expected. on saturday 40,000 passengers were okay, fekted. another 84 people remain trapped in the mine including rescue workers. on saturday, hundreds turned out for the funeral of yeardley love. friends, family and tuf teammates gathered inside a baltimore church to say good-bye to a lacrosse player. huguely is charged with her murder. a massive wind swept brushfire continues to burn in southern new jersey. so far more than 250 acres have burned. fire fighters are continuing to battle the blaze that shut down a highway for hours on saturday. no word on what sparked that fire. finally, london s most famous department store sold. it now belongs to royalty. muhammad al-fayed sell harrod s for $2.2 billion. the prime minister also joked that the store will do quite well with his wife as such an avid shopper and i m guessing they ll get a nice family discount. nice mother s day gift. not bad. janice huff is here with a check of the weather. good morning. good morning. as you all know the wind has not been our friend in the northeast. lots of wind damage from gusts between 50 and 60 miles per hour. it will be the same case today. very windy weather across the northeast puts a chill in the air and the temperatures in the 50s and 40s and feeling like the 30s with snow in the great lakes. meanwhile, it s sunny on the southeast and rather cool on this west coast on this mother s day. that s what s going on around the nation. now here s your local forecast. temperatures will be on the cool side across much of the northeast today. readings in the 50s generally will feel more like the 40s from boston, to buffalo to new york city. once you get south of new york city where there s less wind it warms up a bit. 72 in washington, d.c., as well as the outer banks. 80 in nashville, north carolina, mid-80s across florida. 62 in st. louis and 52 in chicago. happy mother s day to you all of you moms out there. now here s jenna. thank you, janice. up next on today meet the newest british singing sensation who people are calling susan boyle senior after this. 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[ dog barks ] [ female announcer ] share your goal at walgreens.com and we ll celebrate you in times square. and to help you take the first step, we ve lowered prices on more than 100 helpful everyday products like sunscreen. buy one today and get one half off. walgreens. there s a way to stay well. it s been about a year since susan boyle introduced herself and her voice to the world on britain s got talent. the show is back this year with another hidden gem. jim is in london. good morning. good morning, lester and move over susan boyle, you ve got company now. there is another scottish lady, she as you said, discovered on the same talent show who just might become the next global singing sensation and she s old enough, on this mother s day, to be susan boyle s mother. it was deja vu on the hit tv show britain s got talent where all acts and ages vie for a $150,000 prize and a chance to perform before the queen. there were the same judges and the unlikely contestant, overcome, it seemed by the moment. janey, why have you auditioned for the show? well, i like singing, so my friend says go for it. and she did. belting out the english version of no regrets. bringing the audience to its feet, stunning the judges. where have you been? reporter: like susan boyle, janey kutler is a known talent in her modest hometown of scotland, but unlike her famous compatriot, kutler now widowed at 81 raised a large family. reporter: and no idea she d ever do this. cutler says she s flattered by comparisons to boyle who sold 8 million copies world wide, but laughs at the idea of international fame. how many ways have you waited to do that? i am thankful i am here tonight. reporter: already tens of thousands have watched her youtube clip since the show, but cutler is having fun, and hopes to meet the queen, someone her own age. lester, i know you have a special soft spot for susan boyle, but i have to tell you, at a time when there s an election here and totally inconclusive, no winner, british economy on the brink this granny kutler is what the doctor ordered, but don t take it personally. no, no. i was taking notes for next year. thanks very much. we ll be right back, but first, these messages. 0 to 60? or 60 to 0? [ tires screech ] how a car performs in a quarter-mile? [ engine revs ] or a quarter-century? is performance about the joy of driving? or the importance. of surviving. to us, performance is not about doing one thing well. it is about doing everything well. because in the end. everything matters. performance without compromise. that is what drives us. we were all thinking the same thing a moment ago watching the story about janey cutler on britain s knot talent making waves at 80. she s not the only getting better with age. betty white hosted snl and she s not missing a beat when it comes to the comedy. hello, ma am. i m a with the census bureau. good for you. bye. which of the following describes you. white, asian, hispanic, pacific islander. oh, pacific islander. let s try that and don t skimp on the rum. okay. what is your last name, ma am? blarfengar. can you spell that for me. s smith. this made her nervous. you saw tina fay was on and amy poehler and it was an all-star cast, but betty clearly stole the show. she has her fans. this was a long time in the coming, waiting for her to get on there. it was a whole campaign to get her on and maybe one of the best shows this season. good for her. we ll take a break and when back with an incredible story of survival about a hiker marooned on a beach. we ll be right back. double miles add up quick. and all of those. so we brought the whole gang. one adult, one goat please. 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. what s in your wallet? oh, poor baby. taking a live lookout side. not as windy but much cooler. the time is 8:26 on may 9, 2010. happy mother s day. i m kimberly suters. we re following developing stories in the news today. two people have died in a fiery car crash, this one happened at new hampshire avenue in piney branch road in langley park. no word on how the accident happened. but it did involve two cars. police say one flipped over and caught fire. the victims were pronounced dead on the scene there. this morning, metro police are searching for this man. he s wanted for attacking a 19-year-old woman at gun point back on april 16 along prospect street northwest. he s in his early 20s, about 6 3 , 6 3 with medium build. that s close to the georgetown campus on prospect street. starting tomorrow, classes will end ten minutes earlier for schools in prince william county. school bus dropoff times will change. they re changed so elementary students can make up the snow days. state law excuses middle and high school students from having to make up that time. your weather is next. stay with us. [ 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 colorful 11 premium hanging baskets for just $14.98 each. 8:28 now. a little cool for your mother s day. chuck? a little bit. absolutely right. a gusty northwesterly wind is scouring out the clouds we had in the overnight hours. plenty of blue skies this point in time. but it s breezy and chilly outside. temperatures are only in the mid to upper 40s across much of the area now. 49 in fairfax and loudoun counties, 46 in martinburg. 48 for hagerstown. only 50 in annapolis and 50 in waldorf and la plata. for your forecasts, a couple of sprinkles out there. most gone by now. see increasing amounts of sub schiene. wind yip and cool with temperatures only between 55 and 6 2 degrees for a high this afternoon. a cold night tonight. a lot of chilly spots, a lot of spots in the 30s tomorrow morning. maybe even a little scattered frost out west of the blue ridge. nest chance of rain showers rolls in tuesday afternoon and wednesday. kimberly, happy mother s day. thank you, chuck. happy birthday to you. thanks. stay tuned. a full hour of news at 9:00. send you back to the today show. we re back on a sunday morning, may 9, 2010 and a very happy mother s day to all of the moms watching and to all of the moms outside on our plaza. and i want to say a very, very happy mother s day to my mom at home, sheila, who i know is watching. we won t be late, mom, don t worry. and a happy mother s day to your mom. i want to wish a happy mother s day to my mother. very nice. we have something pretty special did you get anything for your wife today just so i know? i never know how it goes? do you get something for your wife even though it s not your mom. i do. we have special plans i didn t turn the light on at 5:00 when i got up. so amazing. you re such a great guy. very nice, lester. thank you. thank you. thank you. we talked it is very windy here in new york. yesterday we told you about the hiker stranded on the beach without food and water for almost a week. it s an amazing story of survival. he wrote the word help in the sand and was spotted by a passing fishing boat and we ll meet the men who rescued hum. an amazing story of survival. this is an amazing one. and for comedians in-law jokes are a staple. a comedienne who used in-law jokes and they finally said enough and we ll talk to her and hear how it turned out. our continuing series about women working in traditional male-dominated jobs and we spoke to you about a female nba coach. this week we ll head to the butcher shop to meet one woman proving she s got the chops to hang with the boys. you can see i have a lock of distress on my face, but she, tia, is sabsolutely wonderful a what she did, but it s the newest thing. we ll cook up a mother s day brunch. sandra lee is in, and we re looking forward to and a good sunday morning on news 4. meteorologist chuck bell. sun is shining over much of the area right now. a few early morning sprinkles we had are mostly dissipated at this point in time. a live view from the sky watcher camera looking out at north and west. that s tyson s corner on the far left-hand side of your screen. the building clusters around there. the temperatures are in the upper 40s and low 50s right now. a much colder day than yesterday. highs this afternoon up near 62 degrees and a cold night tonight. from texas into the mid-80s. 88 in phoenix, 72 in san francisco. and i d like to say happy mother s day to my god mother in the bronx, new york. happy mother s day, now back inside to jenna. thanks. what s one more happy mother s day. happy mother s day again, sheila. a hiker is recovering after a five-day ordeal stranded on a remote beach without food or water. no one, it appeared, even knew he was there and had it not been for a passing fishing boat rescuers say the man likely would have never been found. we ll talk to the coast guard team that rescued him in a moment, but first here s nbc s lee cowen. reporter: mend sinno, the western most point of the california coast, remote and as it turns out a very unlikely place for the hike tore fall. scrawled on the sand was a plea, help. a message so cliche it looked like it was a movie, but this was not hollywood. he d gone five days without food or water and that s pretty much, you re starting to get into a really dangerous area at that point. sitting left to the left of its h was its desperate writer, 50-year-old phoenix brooks. the shore s rocky cliff his done him in, he told rescuers he fell a week ago this morning and remained on that beach alone with his injuries until this lone crabbing boat happened by. he used an orange buoy to signal the boat wildly and despite the injuries and frigid water, tried to swim out to meet it. there were four or five-foot surf there and the waves being comboed him back to the beach and he didn t try that again. a helicopter eventually lifted brooks from his sundayy prison. in the end, in a world of gpss, it was a boat that led to a happy, almost hollywood ending. for today, lee cowen, nbc news, los angeles. joining us exclusively are lieutenant todd morencamp and christopher hoffman from the coast guard. gentlemen, good morning. good morning. good morning. lieutenant, let me start with you. take us back to friday. you were coming off of a 24-hour shift and you were headed back to base and you get the call that someone had written the word help in the sand. this was not a routine rescue for you. what did you think immediately? our first thought that was it sounded unbelievable, but the coast guard likes to lean forward as we say on these cases and you always assume that somebody s in distress. until you know differently, you proceed down that road. we were on our way back from another case and got returned to the base and got fuel and headed down the coast. the initial report was that a man on a beach had signaled a fishing boat and had written help on the sand which is pretty non-standard case as far as we re concerned, but we headed down there with the intent of saving a life. petty officer chris, let me ask you a question, you were the one lowered down on to the beach. what did you see when you got down there and what was the hiker s condition like? when i first got down it him, he was sitting down and not able to stand up. right away he told me his legs were numb and he couldn t get up and he told me he d been there for three days. i was shocked at that point that he d been down there that long and then he asked me what day is it? and i said it s friday. his eyes got huge and he said i ve been here since sunday. he was in rough shape and hadn t had anything to eat or drink since that sunday and not doing too well, but he was able to talk to me. so for five days he survived this fall and sat there with no food or no water at all? is that what he told you? that s right. he said there was a small creek up the beach just a little ways that he d crawl to on sunday and tried to drink out of it, but the water was bad and made him sick so he didn t try that one again. sure. did he tell you about his fall or where he was coming from because he was alone when it happened, right? he was. he was just out on a hike, he said and he stopped to look out over the ocean and the cliff gave way and he fell down the cliff and he d been there since. lieutenant, let me ask you a question. i know he wrote the word help in the sand which was great news for him because the fishing boat passing by did see him. did he do everything he was suppose ed supposed to in a situation like this? based on what he had, he did everything he could. it was fortunate the fishing boat saw him. definite kudos to the fishing boat for being alert and seeing that on the fish and once they saw the gentleman they stayed on scene until the coast guard got there with the helicopter. that was a huge help. if the fishing boat hadn t seen him chances are it would be a much different story. we invited the hiker on to the show, but he didn t want to speak and we respect that. have you spoken to him. i didn t speak to him at any point of the rescue, but chris talked to him on the beep. i haven t spoken to him since yet. we thank you so much for joining us and it was a good rescue. definitely, definitely movie-script material. thank you very much. thank you. up next, the court battle between the comedienne and the mother-in-law she made fun of on stage. find out who got the last laugh, but first, these messages. five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves. announcer: there s an easier way. create your own small-business site with intuit websites. just choose a style that fits your business and customize, publish and get found in three easy steps. sweet. all from just $4.99 a month, get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. you guys ready? 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[ male announcer ] now with 0% apr for 60 months. it s a whole new volkswagen. and a whole new game. 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. we ve all heard our share of jokes about the in-laws, but one mother-in-law in new jersey had heard enough. last year she sued her daughter-in-law, a professional comedienne for making jokes about her on stage. just this week the case was dismissed and comedienne sunda, good morning. thanks for coming on with us. thanks for having me. you have known your husband and his family for 15 years. you ve made them part of your act and let me show what you said. i met ruthie for the first time and i walked in and i m trying polite and she says asure ifi.nk you very much for elliott, put my pocketbook away. the in-law jokes have been a staple for comedians for a long time. why was it so long before your in-law said anything? that s what we re all trying to figure out. i mean, it s just part of a comedian s life. it s just to talk about their life and it s part of their act, and so i have no idea what would make them wait this long. they could have told me from the very first time they saw the act. that s what i m thinking. why wait until finally things are going well. your act is rooted in the family dynamics. your husband and his family are jewish and you re part african-american and swedish. this is all part of the act, is it not? no. all of those things are true. i am married. i do have kids. yes. yes. it s all part of the act. i converted way before i met my husband and the children are not an act. they re real and exhausting and it s a real it s been a real long year and i m glad it s over. that s all i want to say. have you all been able to talk about this at all? has there been any conversation since the lawsuit was filed? maybe conversation with my husband, but no, i don t speak to my in-laws and i don t plan on speaking with my in-laws and we never had a warm, fuzzy relationship to begin with. had we had that type of relationship i think this would not have come to this point. just to clarify things, it was my sister-in-law who sued me first, and then brought my mother-in-law into the suit which is very sad. and the judge in this case and basically your jokes are protected by the first amendment of the constitution. you are giving an opinion, not fact, in this case. is there a is there a greater message to comedians here? is this landmark in some respects? it was crazy when this happened. so many comedians called me and said you re not going to believe this, my ex-mother-in-law says she doesn t want me in the act. new comedians were telling me that their mother-in-laws were telling them don t use me in the act and where would we be without mother-in-law jokes. rodney dangerfield. it s not that serious. you think that is serious enough to sue your grandchildren s mother? it s than the serious and believe me we reached out to the mother-in-law s lawyer for comment and he did respond. prior to initiating the lawsuit my clients repeatedly asked to refrain from using my name and other personal information from the act and internet blogs. at issue was her failure to use fictionalized names in her fictitious anecdotes and false statements as are a common practice by entertainers. in my clients opinions, her disregard for their concerns is indicative of her desire to advance her career. she continues to seek additional publicity at the expense of their privacy and the detriment of the family which is unfortunate. that ends the statement. how do you respond to all that. this is how you respond. first of all, there would have been no publicity had they not sued me. i didn t sue myself. let s just say this. we met for shab addinner or saw each other for thanksgiving or saw each other s new year s eve, maybe they would have told me something. there has been no relationship. in fact, i ve been asked that of bar mitzvah pictures. i ve not been invited to shabbat dinners and the list goes on. i m not here to talk about the bad things. i m glad it s over. they have never once and picked up the phone and called me. if i could show you my phone records. quickly. will you use my mother-in-law, i love my mother-in-law. she gave me my best recipes. susan bloomquist. thank you. thank you. we re back after this. out of dealing with your bank. bank of america s clarity commitment summaries tell you key terms for what you re getting with your home loan and credit card in plain language. interest rate. .what we pay. that s clear. nice for a change. how about that? it s just what they said. 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[ male announcer ] spread the word subway now has breakfast! get the deliciousness, just the way you want it, like the subway western egg white muffin melt. build your better breakfast at subway. while you build your better breakfast, grab a subway $5 footlong sub to go. for great value, all day, every day. subway. eat fresh. this morning on our continuing series today s changing roles, a female butcher, yes, female butcher. with the success of supermarkets many neighborhood butcher shops have been forced out, until now. oh, hi, mr. brady. hi, sam. remember sam the butcher from the brady bunch? how about some chops? reporter: well, a lot has changed since then. now those chops are being chopped by tia, the butch every are. tia harrison owns avedano s meats with partner, eisen and angela wilson. one guy walked through and he said it looks really good in here even though there are women in it. it s a reaction that they ve gotten used to especially tia. do people walk into your store wondering how you know about butchery? they want to know how it was treated and where it was butchered. we were there when the meat arrived. can you pick it? ? totally. is it hard to be a butcher? it s labor intensive and physically hard, and i think that s why a lot of women don t do it. this lamb weighs 60 pounds, but parts of other animals can weigh much more like porksides at 100 pounds and hind quarters of beef up to 250 pounds. i won t pretend like i can lift that, but we luckily have a railing system. the railing system allows tia to hang the meat and roll it into a wonning-in refrigerator where it s kept until it s ready to be cut. when it was time for me to go into the walk in i felt like i d seen it before. do i kind of look like rocky? yeah. you look good. you weren t even looking. reporter: avedano s model is local food, local people,y flekts the commitment to local farmers. how important is it that you don t get your meat from factories. that s not what we re doing here. we are sourcing and working with small farms who do responsible business and is have a really top notch product. here we go. after a few minutes of just watching. okay. i decided to help. sort of. i ll be honest with you, this is an educational experience for me. i ve never come this close to a hanging lamb before. why would i? you don t normally see them at the today show. in many ways, tia s technique is a throwback to the past where butchers cut by hand. it s not that cost effective and we feel good about doing it and people feel good about buying it. it reminds me of the little stores i m used to. it s got the am biance. they identify the farms and acres appreciate that and i m willing to pay for it. you won t find many butcher shops run by women, but if these ladies are any indication, that may be changing. more and more people that i talk to want to cowhat we re doing. we re on the upstart for it. as for tia the butcher? i feel inspired by it. i feel strongly about it. i think it is important, what you eat. i believe in what we re doing. nice people. good women. and now here s lester. on this day we honor moms so why not show your appreciation in the kitchen by putting together a delicious mother s day brunch? here to help us prepare a tasty meal is sandra lee of sandra lee s semi-homemade. hope mother s day. happy mother s day. we put you to work in the kitchen and it isn t right. i m happy to do it. just know that this will be good. this is bacon with good stuff. that is light brown sugar and you ll use pecans and pepper which you already have in your pantry. so kids if you re watching. put it in a pan, mix all three together and sprinkle it just on to the bacon very lightly and it will caramelize and it will look good. sprinkle, put it on the sheet at 400 degrees. 400 degrees. 25 minutes? i ve got to try this. i ve got to try this. also, i like to cook it just a little bit more well done because it cooks out the fat so we want to be a little thoughtful and healthy. let s talk about i can t even say it. i get so nervous when i m with you. apricot cream cheese-stuffed french toast. you ll do a couple of things. let s talk about egg beaters. we re trying to be healthy here. the natural flavoring. the whole carton? about half that and skim milk. the inside will be fat-free cream cheese with some dry apricots and a little bit of sugar. okay. and then this is just italian bread that i ve cut two inches here and cut it in the middle and not all of way through. this is where you will make a pocket and i ll give you a little bit of vanilla just to give it some sweetness. now you take your mixture of your apricots apricot. why can t i i m vague blond moment here. we have so many great moms out there, but we have kids that need to learn how to cook healthy. so i ve changed the semi-homemade a little bit. some of the segments of the show by the way, this goes on to the grill right here. just soak it in here. this is your mixur and put it on your grill here. if you go behind you, those are finished up back there. i m going to help myself if you don t mind, while you talk. i m teaching kids how to be thoughtful about what they consume and i m the spokesperson for operation front line, which teaches kids how to be healthy. sugar-free syrup. now pick that up and try it. i ll have to pick it up with my hands. there s a bib. knock yourself out. don t do this at home. please, not that way. that s really good. that s really good. it s the best mother s day ever. thank you for this moment. that s wonderful. okay. so we also have a beautiful, white chocolate cream scone. white chocolate chips. taste that. and that s going to be. let s see. and then a beautiful melon salad with raspberry vinaigrette. fresh raspberries. you have outdone yourself today. a mock tail. on my show i talk about mock tails for the whole family and mocktails for the mom and dad. this is peach puree, and you will add prosecco and sparkle wine. we need to have a little bit of that. kids, if you re at home and you have sparkle apple juice or sparkle grape juice, you can use that, too. you can use any juice at all that you want. happy mother s day. happy mother s day. cheers. have happy mother s day. wonderful. sandra lee, always a pleasure. take care. and we re back after these messages. this morning, developing stories at home and abroad at prince george s county. a fiery crash left two people dead. and in russia, a coal mine rocked by a deadly blast, at least 11 were killed overnight. dozens were injured, more are still trapped underground. good morning. welcome to news 4 today. i m aaron gilchrest. it s sunday, may 9, 2010. it s mother s day. the news is ahead. first a check on our forecast. chuck and aaron, you won t be surprised. moms inundated my e-mail box saying jewelry is appropriate on mother s day.