Transcripts For WRC Today 20100815 : vimarsana.com

from nbc news, this is today with lester holt and jenna wolfe. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and welcome to today on this sunday morning. i m jenna wolfe. i m mika brzezinski. filling in for lester who has taken the weekend off. this is like sleeping in for you. morning joe starts like yesterday, right? absolutely. this is good. you look rested, sound rested. i was on vacation, so it will catch up to me very soon. i m glad she doesn t pick up on my sarcasm. i get it. we got a busy morning. let s get to it. the president, first lady michele and their daughter sasha spent much of saturday enjoying the short vacation in panama city, florida, but on a day of symbolism he also attempted to qualify statements he made on friday about muslims rights to build a mosque near new york s ground zero. the president reiterated the stand he took on friday, but emphasized it was not an endorsement. the question is what he backtracking? we re going to have more on the president s vacation and fallout from those remarks in just a moment. then, we re going to head to california where a crash at an off-road car race turned deadly. eight people dead, many others injured after a truck sailed off a jump and crashed into a crowd of spectators. we will have the latest in just a few minutes. all right. and on a much lighter note, it s a story that might turn into a romantic comedy, but it s a very real one for an iowa couple. we re going to introduce you to mike wilson and karen wilcox. they reunited after 50 years apart and got married in the very place where they met and that is their seventh grade home room class. cute story. very cute story. then take a look at this. another cute story, a baby giraffe with leg warmers. no. actually defying the odds. this is a ground-breaking medical procedure this giraffe went through. adorable. she s lucky to be alive. we ll explain why she has hope in our next half hour. sort of your specialty. yeah. i did the bionic cat a couple weeks ago, i did the zedonk last week and now we re doing the giraffe with the prosthetic legs. can i take a wild guess? go for it? her name is hope. oh, yeah, mika, right on. terrific. lester wouldn t have guessed that. i know! that is great. but first we re going to get more on the president s vacation in the latest controversy that has followed him to the florida pan handle. mike viqueira joins us from panama city beach, florida. mike, good morning. good morning, jenna. the obamas are out and about on the gulf coast this weekend, in events designed to show americans that it s safe to come back here to the beach and it s safe to get back in the water. but in between outings, both the president and his aides have had to deal with the aftermath of those controversial comments about that mosque near ground zero. even as the first couple and daughter sasha arrived on the gulf coast for a weekend getaway, it was mr. obama s support for the construction of a mosque close to new york s ground zero that has proven controversial. i believe that muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. that includes the right to build a place of worship in a community center on private property in lower manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. reporter: his remarks at a white house dinner honoring the start of the mugs limb holy month ramadan came after aides repeatedly declined to take sides calling it a local matter. conservatives as well as some victims families condemn the president s support. it s irresponsible and morally wrong and incentive to do it. reporter: in florida the president spoke out again, appearing to backtrack on his support of the mosque saying i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a moving mosque there. p. i was commenting on the right people have that dates back to our founding. the obama visit along the gulf coast comes as a message. oil is no longer flowing into the gulf. it has not been flowing for a month. i m here to tell you that our job is not finished and we are not going anywhere until it is. reporter: the visit here is as much about pictures as it is about policy. the obamas want to set an example for a reluctant tourists by visiting gulf restaurants, even playing mini golf where 9-year-old sasha got a hole in one. did you guys see that one? reporter: what about a dip in the gulf. i m going to go swimming but we re not going to let the press pool come because you guys all take a picture of me without my shirt on. reporter: problem solved. the white house released this picture of a mostly submerged mr. obama and daughter sasha. about jenna, one irony here is that swim took place on the other side, the bayside of this barrier island and though the beaches here are pristine and the water is clear, the surf is rough this weekend life guards are keeping people out of the water. jenna? mike viqueira, thanks so much. thanks. for more on the president s trip to the gulf and controversy surrounding the proposed mosque near new york s ground zero we re joined by john harwood, cnbc s chief washington correspondent. good morning. good morning, mika. tart is with the mosque controversy. the president seemed to clarify his statements at the best we could say that. i want to put them on the screen and read them to you. he says this, i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. i was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. that s what our country is about. i don t disagree with anything he s saying here. was it a political backtrack? well, look, they needed to clarify because they felt the distinction the president was trying to make got lost in the news coverage. as you know, mika, this is a president who has made reaching out and repairing relations with the muslim world a priority and you had the collision of two moments, the holy month of ramadan and this controversy over the mosque they felt they couldn t avoid saying something at that iftar dinner held at white house. i talked to a senior white house official, he said he had a responsibility to do it but there s some times when following your principles like that, is not easy and making nuance distincts aren t easy and one is in the middle of a mid-term election. not to be behind the story which brings us to the gulf, the president and his family now finally have spent time together in the gulf. it was something a lot of analysts were saying should have been done from the get-go. the white house reluctant to bring the whole family down there and kind of play that game, political theater, if you will. they re doing it now. look at these pictures. was it enough or too little too late? oh, i think it was fine. look, the american people are not focusing too much on where the president vacations and i think the accomplishment of that photo that mike viqueira just showed a moment ago of the president in the water with his daughter, but, you know, covered by water up to his neck, that was one of the things that the president wanted to accomplish just to send a message to the country. that is a minor thing compared to the other issues on the president s plate and most importantly the economy. and image like that, by the way, certainly does send a message and some might be saying in the gulf that it would have helped had they done that sooner. sure. and, you know, but the president has got to figure out his schedule with his family and they have been working on trying to stop that oil leak and it s finally done and he has checked the box that many people wanted him to check. all right. john harwood, thank you very much. i appreciate it. we ll talk to you soon. here s jenna. thank you. more on that deadly crash at an off road race in california that s left eight people dead. nbc s marcia skay va campo joins us live from apple valley, california. good morning. good morning, jenna. the victims injuries range from minor to critical and they were airlifted to area hospitals including this one here. now the accident took place last night shortly before 8:00 p.m. and it took place at a race known as the california 200. that consists of a 50-mile loop course set up in a dry lake bed in the mo halmojave desert. there are obstacles and witnesses say one of those obstacles contributed to this tragic accident that one of the trucks was about two miles into the race, it went over a jump and that s when it lost control, soared through the air and landed in the crowd. witnesses say what followed was an absolutely horrifying scene with bodies scattered everywhere, people lying in pools of their own blood and at least one person crushed underneath that truck. now, officials say that all of those who were killed were in their 20s and 30s with many of them pronounced dead on the scene, though some of the injured could include minors. the truck itself was overturned complete. despite that the driver was not injured. officials say he is not in custody because it s not clear at this point if he s done anything wrong. jenna? were there barriers there or anything separating the crowd from the actual track itself? no. there was nothing physically separating spectators from the track. now this is a big event. it attracts tens of thousands of people and spectators get really close because they want a good look at the action, as close as ten feet to the vehicles. so despite the fact that this was a legal, well-organized, sanctioned event there was nothing physically protecting the crowd of spectators from those fast-moving vehicles. frightening story. mara, thank you very much. all right. let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top headlines from chris jansing from the news desk this morning. good morning, everyone. we begin in the gulf where the goflts has ordered bp engineers to conduct more pressure tests on that blown out well. admiral thad allen says it could be late monday or tuesday before the results are back. based on the findings, he could give the final order for bp to proceed with the relief well which would plug the blownout well for good. in baghdad a drive-by you can see them all across the mampt still warming up into the 80s this morning. nowhere close to the normal high temperature. i m also watching showers off to the west. we ll probably see a coup of these. on the digital doppler we have a few out there. as for the weather forecast, off to the west is where we will keep the showers. mostly cloudy here and 84. and that s your weather. mika. thank you. the survivors of the alaskan plane crash that killed former senator ted stevens and four other people are telling their stories giving federal investigators new clues about what may have caused the plane to crash into a mountainside. nbc s my gel alma gare joins us from anchorage. good morning. good morning. investigators are vn bibl tooibl speak to two of the have been able to speak to two of the four survivors that s happening the ntsb focus in on what went wrong. as the heavy lift helicopter retrieved the wreckage, investigators were learning what the moment of crisis was like from people on the plane. among the four survivors 13-year-old willy phillips who lost his father bill and is recovering in an anchorage hospital. one survivor told investigators he noticed nothing unusual before the impact. he stated as they were flying along, that he detected no changes in pitch or engine noise and that they were flying along and then they just stopped flying. reporter: new photos of the wreckage show the body of the plane snapped after impact. investigators say they ve learned that when pilot terry smith took off, he had three mile visibility in clouds at 2,000 feet. the first survivor that was interviewed stated that the weather was poor at the lodge in the morning, but due to weather they postponed their trip until the afternoon. he recalled the pilot giving a briefing before departure and that he was wearing his seat belt. reporter: investigators were told smith did not request a weather briefing from air traffic officials, but may have researched the weather on his own. it s possible that the pilot was getting his weather information over the internet. reporter: officials want to know if the cockpit warning system which can detect mountains was working and why a beacon failed to send a signal that the plane crashed and where. the ntsb is also looking into the background of the pilot. although he flew commercial planes for nearly 30 years and logged thousands of hours in smaller aircraft, investigators say he had only 45 hours of experience in the type of plane he was flying that day. pilots say weather here in alaska can change on a dime. the ntsb is trying to pinpoint the exact forecast during the time of the crash and they now say the cloud level, the ceiling was roughly 600 feet, much lower than what was previously thought. mika. thank you. up next on today, junior high sweethearts. one couple reunites nearly 50 years thanks in part to their seat assignment in home room. we ll explain right after this. [ female announcer ] now get baby-smooth perfection with new dream smooth mousse from maybelline new york. some makeups leave skin rough, dry. ours is cream whipped, so it hydrates. skin looks flawless, baby-smooth. new dream smooth only from maybelline. the year 1962, junior high in iowa city. mike wilson and karen will cox met in home room and eventually became sweethearts. but just before high school they broke up and went on to live their own lives. okay. fast forward to 2010 when after nearly 50 years apart, the two reconnected and reunited and on monday they got married at the very school that brought them together. joining us now from southeast junior high in iowa city, iowa, where it all happened, i say with a tear in my eye the happy couple mike wilson and karen wilcox. good morning and congratulations both of you. thanks. good morning. thank you very much. mike, let me start with you, it s been nearly 50 years since you and karen met and started this whole thing up. how does it feel to be back together with her after all these years? it s terrific. it really is. it s been a lot of fun and i m really glad that everybody else is enjoying it too. so, mike, take me back. you re in seventh grade. you sit next to each other in home room because your last names are alphabetical, you re similar. did you ever think back them i m going to marry this girl? how much did you remember about her back then? well, i remember more about her than i remember whether i was thinking of marrying her. but you know how you are when you re kids. we were attracted to each other because we were both good students and both kind of had a good sense of humor and were kind of smart alecs and that attracted us to each other. hey, karen, so you date all in seventh grade and eighth grade comes and right before high school, you dump the guy. what gives? why did you dump him? why did you break up with him? well, actually, it was eighth grade when we went together and kind of started knowing each other in seventh grade, but eighth grade we went together. sorry. and i dumped him because my parents were going to move to make us live in a different house over the summer and i just didn t think i could handle the having a long distance relationship. sure. at age 13. oh, sure. it can be complicated at any age. let me ask you this, you break up, go your separate ways, get married twice, you get divorced twice, after all these years, mike, you decide that you re just going to reach out to karen out of the blue. why did you decide to do that? well, we ve been in contact for really almost all of this time. karen has a large family of six kids. shes a s one of six kids. three or four of the other kids were friends of mine. right. we were never really out of contact. we kind of had this pack that we would e-mail or contact each other on our birthdays. we really had yearly contact twice a year. very nice. we should say you got married last monday on august 9th, 8/9/10 at 11:12 a.m. in your home room where it started. we wish you nothing but the best. mike wilson and karen will cox, thank you. and we re back after these messages. [ sneezin] day after day, allergy season drags on. oh, how many days are you going to suffer? nasonex is the only prescription that prov to help prevent most seasonal nasal allergy symptoms, including congestion, so you can have more symptom-free days. [ female announcer ] side effects were generally mild d included headache, viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. it does not come in generic form, so ask your doctor about nasonex. [ female announcer ] and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. and still to come on today hope the giraffe. we re going to introduce you to the 1-month-old beating the odds and living up to her name. i got that right, it s hope. you did. rob thomas unplugged. the lead singer opens up about life on the road. first these messages. when i was seventeen i was not good to my skin. long summer days, and not enough sleep. what i wouldn t do for a do-over. [ female announcer ] new neutrogena® clinical skincare. exclusive ion2 complex combined with activating cream helps restore collagen depleted skin. neutrogena clinical skincare is clinically tested to undo the look of a year s worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. do-overs do exist. [ female announcer ] new clinical skincare. neutrogena. #1 dermatologist recommended brand. good morning. it s 76 degrees outside. 8:26 right now on this sunday, august 15th, 2010. i m kimberly suiters. in the news 4 today, a full investigation into whether there are major transformers in downtown washington. stand by. we apologize for the technical difficulties. checking our top stories right now. in the last 48 hours, d.c. police made two arrests for separate murders in nest e washington. marcus mcclain was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 34-year-old did he londo king. he was stand to death in the 1100 block of 10th street. the second happened wednesday in the 2500 block of mozart place. police took 17-year-old robert givens into custody. he is charged as an adult for the first-degree murder of 19-year-old shawn robinson. delays on metro. crews are finishing work on the orange, yellow and green today. metro suggests adding 30 minutes to your trip on all three lines. . and if you re driving around leesburg, power crews will be pulling wires for a new power line. traffic stopped every 15 minutes on king street near the route 7 bypass. 8:28. let s check in with kim martucci for a look at the weather. i m watching showers creeping from the west. expect a couple of those in our western suburbs. added humidity is also on the way up. we ll be looking for an unsettled workweek. we re 75 here in la plata. 77 already in annapolis. a couple showers coming into loudon county and prince william county at this hour. looks like we ll have showers to our west. to the east, 85 and mostly cloudy. st. mary s city, a little cooler for march pinburg, winchester and laray. get used to these showers because they ll be with us the first few days of the workweek. thanks, kim. a full hour of local, news, weather and sports at 9:00. now we accepted you back to the today show. we are back on this sunday morning. it s august 15th, 2010. a beautiful summer morning. thanks to everybody that s come out to spend a good part of their morning with us. we have a nice crowd out here today. out on the plaza i m jenna wolfe with mika brzezinski filling in for lester this morning. great to be here. happy birthday, pop. i was looking for baby. able to hold a baby. so am i, but you don t hear me talking about it on tv. sorry. coming up in this half hour we will meet, you named her correctly, hope the giraffe. hope. she s only a month old but this is our cute story of the day. we re going to introduce you to her. she has an amazing story that has to do with the purple and pink bandages you see around her hoovs. we ll talk about that and also coming up, left at the altar, we re going to find out why some brides and grooms are saying i don t instead of i do. real-life accounts of jilted brides and grooms, the psychology behind it and what you can do to move on. life-altering. were you left at the i get it. life altering. stay with me here. we re also going to talk about the best way to spend $100 from groceries to electronics, even clothes. smart rules to follow so that you why get more bang for your buck. today goes on tour, the anchors have been hitting the roads with a couple different musicians. it was my turn and i hung out with matchbox 20 s lead singer rob thomas, sold 80 million albums and pretty accomplished solo career as well. that s me fake lip syncing in the background. i got a nice chance to play with him. i have to tell you, i fell in love in about 30 seconds. i he was so wonderful and so fun and i m watching. it will be great. the show is only an hour. can you play? yeah. i play. i play. that was me playing. okay. all right. it was good. i think she was faking. no? she was really playing. all right. but first, you probably know him as dr. sheldon hawks on csi new york. do you watch? i do. too late for me. don t have time to watch. he s here. he s like a this month msnbc and ebony magazine partnered up to produce a series of educational programs. yes. the series making the grade airs today on our sister network msnbc. today at noon we re going to really delve in two hours on msnbc and talk about what s going on in public education system. you know, there s so many things that are going wrong, but also things going right. we want to talk about solutions. why to you personally is education so important? you have so much else going on. you really sort of grabbed on to this issue. for me i m the product of america s public school system. you know, i was fortunate enough to go to public schools and then i went to brown university and went to harvard for grad school and so i believe that america s public school system, set a foundation for me for success and i believe that if we look at the data, right now, we have about 2,000 schools that aren t performing that are called dropout factories that we re losing kids. overall this country is looking at downward mobility, in part because of the problem with our education system. you have places like detroit, one in four dropouts a year. that number is probably going up right now. are you going to address the friction between, for example, charter schools and the union and some of the problems that challenge trying to get things better? yeah. we re going to talk about, you have teachers, teachers unions and then reform. that s right. you have charter schools, private schools. we re going to talk about all these issues and what the parents can do and what is the parents responsibility in this case. if you look at all the data when there s two parents in the home, when parents are responsible for what their kids are doing in class their performance goes up. it s about the teachers, it s about the school district, the parents, what s going on. i want to watch that. very nice to meet you. didn t expect you here. i learn how these things work. making the grade airs at noon on msnbc and now we re going to get another check of your forecast. is he out here? over here. scott, over to you. good morning, everyone. certainly we have great weather here in new york city and as we take a look at the weather across the country, you can see fairly quiet here still for good morning. we ve got cloudy skies. digital doppler has showers across our western suburbs. we ll zoom in and show them to you. on and off mostly to the west coming to sterling right now up through damascus. as for the weather forecast, we ll have temperatures still crack the 80s despite clouds. optimistic for st. mary city, 85. now let s head back to new york city. all right. this is the wedding corner over here. a one-year anniversary, the trotters, they just got engaged and are celebrating their 40th anniversary. for more weather you can always log on 24 hours a day to weather.com. jenna. scott, thank you so much. so there s this giraffe at the topeka zoo that is shall we say living up to her name. she was born a month ago with rear leg deformties. baby hope is beating the odds after ground-breaking medical procedure with the help of the zoo staff who have made a special prosthetic shoe for her calf, hope appropriately named is walking. topeka zoo director brendan wiley joins us alongside baby hope. brendan, good morning. thanks for being with us. how are you? i m doing. how is hope doing this morning? you know, hope is doing so well and just being such a beautiful little giraffe. she decided maybe she would rather watch this on tv instead of being in the shot. that s okay. i do the same thing sometimes. it s all good. so wait. tell me a little bit about the condition that hope was born with. there s no real name for it but it s more common than we know, right? that s right. about a month ago, hope was born, she did have a deformty in her hooves and basically relates around tendons that won t let that hoof be in a good, normal position allowing the giraffe to walk. how do the prosthetics work? were they placed right over her? you know, dr. joseph camer has been an amazing job working with this giraffe. went from hard calf to prosthetic shoes. these shoes have an external tendon system to really keep the hooves in the proper alignment and allowing her to walk and behave like a normal giraffe at this point. it s really an unbelievable story. we think only about prosthetics for humans but how does a giraffe react? was she able to walk and did the mother react in a specific way? you know, we have been working with this giraffe since the day she was born. been working with her routinely. what these prosthetic shoes have allowed her to do is to actually walk normally. they ve really helped her, moving all her joints to move, giving her the opportunity to be a normal giraffe and really do exceptionally well. you want her to be a normal giraffe and put pink and purple calf prosthetics on her legs. she s totally going to stand out. it s so obvious she s not blending in. look at her. you know, we are in kansas. we re in topeka, capital city. she has to figure out if she s going to support the jaylauks or wildcats. is she going to make it? will these come off and she will grow into her regular legs? what s the next step? you know, the final prognosis a little too early to tell. we are giving her every opportunity we can. she s doing wonderful. the community is here supporting her. this is topeka, this is the community where hope lives and we are going to give her every opportunity we can. topeka zoo director brendan wiley, thank you so much for joining us from the giraffe enclosure alongside baby hope. coming up next we re going to stretch your dollar. smart ways to spend your 100 bucks right after this. thanks to the venture card from capital one, we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned an l.a. getaway twice as fast. we get double miles every time we use our card. no matter what we re buying. and since double miles add up quick. romans! get em! [ garth ] .we can bring the whole gang. [ sheep bleats ] it s hard to beat double miles. whoa he s on the list. but we re with him. [ male announcer ] introducing the venture card from capital one with double miles on every purchase every day. go to capitalone.com. [ indistinct shouting ] what s in your wallet? rheumatoid arthritis going? they re discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine you take just once a month. it s simponi™, and taken with methotrexate, it helps relieve the pain, stiffness, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi™, your doctor should test you for tb and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you ve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you re prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start simponi™ if you have an infection. [ female announcer ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi™. just one dose, once a month. it s so luxurious, it may inspire you to make all the things you touch ultra plush. quilted northern ultra plush ®. luxury you can see and feel. gotta get that bacon! dog: yummy. crunchy. bacon. bacon. bacon. there, in that bag! mom: who wants a beggin strip? dog: me! i d get it myself but i don t have thumbs! yum, yum, yum. it s beggin ! hm. i love you! beggin strips! there s no time like beggin time! but this is warm, fresh-baked strawberry toaster strudel. [ music ] see the difference? pillsbury toaster strudel, the one kids want to eat. rich fudge over a warm, chocolate brownie like nothing you ve ever had before ready made sweet moments in the refrigerated section [ laughs ] this is it! [ all ] 10.9.8. a new school year has so much potential! any resolutions? my resolution is the same as always; keep her full and focused with my fiber. [ all ] 3.2.1. happy school year! [ female announcer ] this school year, make a resolution to give your kid kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal. an excellent source of fiber from 100% whole grain. that helps keep them full so they can focus on the day ahead. keeps em full. keeps em focused. this morning on today s relationships, left at the altar, it s not just in the movies but real brides and grooms-to-be are saying i don t rather than i do, too. tlc s special, guess what it s called? left at the altar recounts real-life stories of heartbreak like waiting 30 minutes at the church only to have the best man drop the bomb. and then about 15 minutes later, my friend looked over to the right, there s the best man. my heart started to pound. i got very, very nervous and just panic stricken. and then the best man actually told me, nicole, i m sorry, the wedding is not going to take place. the wedding is not going to take place. reporter: joining us with more insight michele callahan, contributor for women s health magazine. good morning. good morning. this could be one s worst moment. very life altering if i can use the pun but truly so. people have different ways of coping, do they not? they do. some people are completely overwhelmed by it. it s devastating soming that catches you off guard. it s important to get some people when something like this happens. people usually when something like this dramatic happens, people go off and be alone. you need to take advantage of being with your friends and family, let them help you, don t blame yourself because, obviously, this person kept this secret from you, they didn t necessarily let on this is where, you know, they were going with things. why it makes for good reality television or drama television, is because it is so public, which adds, perhaps, the psychological damage? absolutely. how do you feel when all this is being played out in front of everyone. it s one thing to be so, you know, disappointed by your partner, but another thing for everyone to witness it. and for you to not be able to sort of sweep it under the rug, deal with it privately, but have to have everyone you know asking you indefinitely what s going on. in terms of your expertise, is there a way to prevent this? i mean are there certain clues and signs and conversations you need to have in a relationship to at least try and ward off the potential? you hit on. it s about having those conversations. and being very aware, you don t want to obviously tip toe around your partner and knit pick and ask him a million things how are they feeling but you need to ask. are you having a problem? you need to ask, how are things going? pay attention to whether they seem to become more distant over time, if they seem to be reluctant to make dates, put down deposits. anything that gives you a sense they may be backtracking asking about that. what about blunt conversations about what you want out of life and what you expect out of life? if you haven t had those you shouldn t be about to walk down the aisles at all. you might get left at the altar at that point. this one-hour special is next friday and it features the real-life accounts. what do you think the fascination is with this? i mean i think i know what it is. it s almost like car wreck tv. in a way. but maybe in a way you don t feel so alone, too, because there are other moments in life that can be similar to this. people get different things out of it. some people like to watch other people s misery and they re sort of intrigued by that. other people like to see a story of redemption. if there are people who have been through this but come out ahead and doing well bride on top of the table saying you know what i m taking my honeymoon anyway. i don t get it, but my gosh, i ll be watching. michele callahan, thank you so much. now to jenna. you get all you get for your money so what s the best way to spend $100. no matter what you re buying, groceries, clothes, electronics you can get the most bang for your 100 buckings following a few simple shopping tips. here to help us is the associate editor of rereal simple.com. buying groceries can ed up quickly if there s more than one person in your family. there are ways to nave gait up and down the aisleses to save us some money. start by shopping the top and bottom shelves. you will find products bigger and have a lower cost per unit. the smaller items that have a higher cost per unit will be in the eye-level shelves. skip the name brands. most of the store brands are the same quality as the regular and actually made by the same manufacturer a lot of times. you also mention warehouse clubs and say that s where you re going to find some good deals. what kind of things should we be buying? the best thing to buy at warehouse clubs, condiments, coffee, bottled water and canned vegetables are going to be your best buy. big, bulky items. things that won t expire quickly. next stop your wardrobe. i found this interesting when most think they want to upgrade their wardrobe it s so expensive but for wardrobes to be more cost effective, shop by the season and specific months. definitely. for example, jeans, you want to shop those in october. the back-to-school rush is over and retailers are really looking to clear out the inventory and denim is often included. you can find anywhere from 30% off to 60% off and get half off or two for one deal. what about if you re not doing jeans, like athletic apparel shoes? that s best to buy in may. retailers are realizing people are going back outside, doing outdoor activities and want to move that inventory before the end of summer. if you can wait, wait until december to buy your winter coat. yes. why is that? retailers are really looking to not carry over fall inventory into the new year. they re going to have big deals before the holidays and so if you can wait it s the best idea to. here s a question a lot of people have. electronics which can get very expensive and pricey. what are your tips here? the basic thing to be an informed consumer. to your on-line researcher first and go to cnet.com or other review sites. people like pointing out. try out the store and make use of the sales people. they will be the ones that tell you what things do and walk you through each thing. one of the popular electronic items people are looking to get deals on are televisions. is that a seasonal purchase as well? the best time to buy those is in march. the consumer electronic shows in january so all the new models start shipping in march and retailers want to get the old models off the floor. the day after thanksgiving there are great sales that day. buy jeans and then a tv and seasonally you will have saved a lot of money. yep. thank you so much. really appreciate your insight. just ahead, to today goes on store. rob thomas gave me a back stage pass to his summer concert tour. first these messages. activia is better than ever! hey, you guys. want to try activia s great new taste? today is your tasty lucky day! sure, why not? isn t this the yogurt that, you know. helps regulate your digestive system. ooh, i think i ll pass. no, no, no! trust me. it is beyond tasty. okay! mmm! wow! i can t believe it, i love it! mmm, this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it s free! activia i m back on the road again how did i get stuck playing the drums in that animation there in to our series today goes on tour it s getting harder to blaze a trail in the music industry these days. everyone does just about everything. which is why when someone like rob thomas comes along who sings, writes, and basically performs his own comedy, it s rather refreshing. so i hit the road with rob while on tour in california. sometimes i don t know whether people that are as talented as you realize how talented you are. i m very aware of it. baby you and me reporter: he s a musician. a songwriter. a funny man and an all-out rock star. however you label rob thomas, the one word that sums him up best, though, he s smooth. got the kind of loving reporter: over 15 years, thomas has three grammys and between matchbox 20 and his solo work he s sold 80 million albums worldwide. for his countless hits rob says it s the road that keeps those hits feeling new. when you re singing it like it s new every night, certain songs you would think i nef wearent to play that again, when you get out and play it it feels new again. reporter: he s on his solo side walk angel tour, benefiting the clarity of the same name he and his wife started. for this tour he s traded in his hard rock edge for a more intimate acoustic vibe. crazy i m just a little reporter: we caught up with rob in southern california to chat about life on the road. from the crazy schedule. do you ever get on stage and go hello detroit, and cleveland goes what the heck? i have gone on stage and not known exactly where i was. i ve gone, hey, you guys. reporter: to those crucial backstage comforts. why are musicians so picky about the exact foods they have to have in their rooms or did you commission this specific foods here? touch my fritos. i opened the bag and wanted one frito and got yelled at. smells like jenna. reporter: i don t smell like fritos. moving on, the day starts a full ten hours before the show. as the crew preps the stage, lights, sound, and most importantly, rob s piano and i go tars. that new car smell. reporter: five hours later rob gives them a go at the all-important soundcheck where we got our own private performance. i don t want to be lonely no more i don t want to reporter: amazed as i was at his musical talent on stage, i was equally impressed by the quick whited guy people see off stage. i almost feel bad because we keep throwing in the inside jokes. we go so far back. can you feel it? classic us. i want be afraid no, i won t be afraid reporter: it didn t take long for our chitchat to turn musical. she says baby gdc. be lonely. reporter: nerves might have gotten the best of me, but for rob, a brief moment to breathe as the show begins, he is right at home. it s always been about doing it live. i love making a record and writing a song, but when you finally put that altogether and come out and sit in front of a room full of people and watch their reaction and have this moment with you and the crowd when you re doing it. make it real he s great. you are so in love. rob, you re so great. okay. oh, my god i can t stop loving you. you know what, you know what, you re right. i can t even play guitar. i m woman enough to admit it. you are awful. he s great. adorable. their owe on the road now. i think they re watching. if they are, thanks rob and all. we really appreciate it. you. we have to talk. we re back after this. [ female announcer ] introducing, new townhouse flatbread crisps. they re oven-baked flatbread crisps. with the tastes of sea salt and olive oil. or sprinkled with italian herbs. townhouse flatbread crisps. they re perfect for snack time, party time, any time. new townhouse flatbread crisps. the everyday cracker with the specially-crafted taste. fancy feast created a wayhat newto celebrate any moment.sps. fancy feast appetizers. simple high quality ingredients like wild alaskan salmon, white meat chicken, or seabass and shrimp in a delicate broth, prepared without by-products or fillers. fancy feast appetizers. celebrate the moment. time for a check of what s coming up on meet the press this morning. for that we re joined by david gregory. hey, david. good morning, jenna. coming up, a special edition of meet the press from afghanistan. my exclusive conversation with general david petraeus. the new commander of u.s. and allied forces here in afghanistan speaking out for the first time since assuming his command about the overall war effort, the strategy, the strength of the enemy and the future of the u.s. commitment here. it s all coming up on meet the press. all right. david, thanks so much. that will do it for us on a sunday morning, scott williams, chris jansing and mika brzezinski thank you so much. did you have fun? i love rob. i can t even play my guitar. coming up next week on today we ll meet 8-year-old painter, min know monet they re calling them. we had fun today. enjoy your sunday, everybody. hundreds of people are force odd evacuate after this fiery explosion near the white house. we ll show you exactly what happened. good morning. welcome to news 4 today. i m kimberly suiters. aaron gilchrist has the night off. you ll see him tonight. it s sunday, august 15th, 2010. news is just ahead. first, to check on the forecast, kim martucci is in for chuck bell. good morning, kim. rain drops are falling to our west. okay. so we might have a few encroach on us a little bit later today. that will set the pace for the rest of the workweek, everybody. good morning. hope you have been enjoying the somewhat cooler weather pattern keeping us company. southwest wind at 9. here s our digital doppler. i