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good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> i'm meredith vieira. rod blagojevich may not have much time to celebrate after being found guilty on a single count in his corruption trial. >> the prosecution to try the case again. allegations that he tried to sell president obama's vacant senate seat. what went on inside the jury room? why couldn't the jury reach a decision on the other, more serious counts? we'll ask the jury foreman in a few minutes. also more on the death of the accused craigslist killer. he left behind a message for his ex-fiance. and a disturbance on a flight as a flight attendant took a crying baby away from her parents after she saw the mother slap the baby in the face. we'll have details on the story. >> and a shocking statistic. hearing of teenagers. are ipods to blame? let's begin with rod blagojevich convicted on just one of 24 counts he faced at his trial. john, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. this morning we are learning surprising new details about what went on inside the jury room during those 14 days of deliberations. after the verdict, rod blagojevich talked like a giant-killer. >> the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me on every count except for one, every charge except for one they could not prove that i did anything wrong. >> reporter: the lone guilty verdict -- lying to the fbi back in 2005, a verdict blagojevich plans to appeal on 23 more serious charges including racketeering, extortion and bribery, the jury was deadlocked. >> we have a prosecutor who wants to spend tens of millions of taxpayer money to keep persecuting me, my family, take me away from my little girls and take my home away from us. >> reporter: the result was a blow to prosecutors who claim to have halted a political corruption crime spree when they arrested blagojevich in september 2008. >> the most appalling is the fact that governor blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the senate seat vacated by president-elect obama. the conduct would make lincoln roll over in his grae. >> reporter: jurors were evenly divided on some charges but as close to 11-1 for a guilty verdict on others including the one on the senate seat. >> everyone understood it would be pointless to deliberate any longer. >> reporter: a last-minute switch by an unnamed juror derailed a second charge dr attempted extortion of rah rahm emanuel. >> like i said, i don't feel that way. we did everything in our power. it is what it is. >> reporter: prosecutors pledged to retry blagojevich but defense attorneys mocked the idea. >> we didn't put on any defense, none, zero, zip, nothing. and they still couldn't get a conviction. >> reporter: because both blagojevich and the campaign fund paying his legal fees are both broke, in a retrial, u.s. taxpayers could be paying for both the prosecution and the defense. meredith? >> john yang, thank you very much. the jury foreman is with us. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning to you. >> yesterday after the verdict, rod blagojevich said this was a persecution, they threw everything they could at me, the jury agreed the government did not prove its case. is that how you see it? >> personally, no. i saw it as the prosecution did prove its case. there was a difference of opinion and interpretation of the evidence and several people voted not guilty on several counts. as was mentioned there was the 11-1 for a few of the counts. >> that one holdout we understand was a retired woman. what was her argument against convicting the ex-governor? >> the argument was that he was a politician. he was talking to other politicians. sometimes his fund-raiser, sometimes his chief of staff or deputy governor, and he was just talking. she thought that no crime was being committed. it was just political talk. that was her position. we -- all of us, as a jury, respected her position and her right to have that opinion. >> yeah. >> it differed from ours. >> how would you describe the atmosphere in the jury room? >> there were times, especially later on, where the frustration level went up and there was tension, but it was always a feeling of respect for other people's opinions. so there was no shouting. there was no fighting. it was fairly amicable, our deliberations. there were times where there was anger and frustration, but overall, i would say we did respect each other. >> you know, you say the government did prove its case but only got a conviction on one count. what do you think was the major flaw in its case? >> the major flaw was probably the complexity of the case, the amount of information that we had to digest, the length of the judge's instructions to us that we had to learn legal terms, we had to learn the law and how to apply it to the evidence that was given to us either in witness testimony or in wire-tap conversations. >> would you like to see the prosecutors retry the case and, if so, what advice would you give them? >> personally, i would. if possible, to streamline the case, concentrate on areas where they have more information and not rely so much on witness testimony which was sometimes weak. that's where we split the most. the vote could be something like five guilty to seven not guilty or it would flip. sometimes it would be 9-3. so it was all over. i think it was a testimony to the jurors that they were deliberating on the basis of evidence and not through bias or discrimination or whatever they heard in the media. >> you know, you sound like somebody who is pretty much exhausted and glad this is over. we really appreciate you joining us this morning. >> thank you. you're welcome. >> now let's bring in the former federal prosecutor who succeeded ken starr. good morning. >> good morning. >> you were also a friend of patrick fitzgerald. you heard the jury foreman. would those words encourage you to go for a retrial? >> i think they would be cautionary. if you have on the one hand a one juror holdout, that's encouraging for a ree tritrial think the result might be different. on the other hand, the foreman said it best. there are troubling aspects of the government's case as well and if there is going to be a retrial it needs to be streamlined, the trial needs to be tighter and probably the list of charges needs to be trimmed. >> usually the federal government brings its full resources to bear. particularly in chicago they win. >> there was a conviction -- >> one out of 24. >> but it's a felony, false statements to the fbi. that's serious. so the jury did find that a crime was committed. it just didn't find the core of the case which related to whether he was attempting to sell his office, was, in fact, proven and there is a legitimate argument on the other side of was it just politics or was a crime committed? again, weighing the question about whether or not to retry, prosecutors are encouraged to be zealous and to be strong advocates and to strike hard blows but not foul ones. so i think that's going to be a factor in their consideration about whether or not to retry this case and how to retry it. >> the minute the verdict came out, fitzgerald jumps up and says, we're going to retry this case. that's going to cost millions and millions added to what's already been spent and it's on the backs of the taxpayers. there are people out there probably saying, you tried once and you failed. >> if public sentiment doesn't support a retrial that's difficult. you still have to pick a jury and the community is listening. it couldn't help but listen to what's happened here. if public sentiment through jurors is not prepared to convict in another trial there is no reason to think the result would be any different in a retrial than it was in the first. >> thank you so much for your perspective this morning. >> thank you. thank you for being here. >> here's matt. thank you. aid is slowly trickling into pakistan. can't come fast enough for millions of people forced from tlar homes. to give you an idea, this is a nasa satellite image of pack staj taken a year ago. and now the blue areas are water that's taken over parts of the landscape. ann curry has made her way to the capital of islamabad. ann, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. 21 days since pakistan's catastrophic floods began, the u.n. today said it has finally secured half of what's needed for the emergency response. this as millions of people on the ground are still waiting for any kind of help at all. one of the 20 million affected, this family struggles to survive. without food, electricity, clean water or any outside help. we have nothing, his wife is saying. this baby i held in my arms. i pulled that child through the waters. i thought only about saving my children. she saved all five though nine months pregnant. serbalan was at work and found them days later, stunned the entire family, including the grandparents survived. the nation is turning to anger. with a fifth of the country flooded and thousands on the move, they say the zardari government has done nothing. only pakistan's army which rescued 600,000 people so far, including this boy today, escaped the fury. >> dictatorship is best than this democracy in pakistan. >> reporter: this man and his son lost everything save a few family photos. >> my brother. >> reporter: and some dishes. still, they have offered all nine members of this family a place to sleep and what little food they can find. one family of flood victims helping another in the epic struggle to save pakistan's future. today, i asked a lot of people in the flood zone what they would say to americans who fear that donating to flood victims would end up supporting extremists. they say it is a lie to say they support the taliban, for example. they say the taliban is against everything they believe in. the disaster is great here. the need is great. there are a lot of recognizable charities working here on the ground, matt, including save the children and doctors without borders. back to you. >> thank you very much, ann. that's ann curry in islamabad. to learn more about how you can help flood victims head to our website, todayshow.com. and now a check on top stories. natalie morales is covering for ann at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning, everyone. we begin with president obama on the road again today, trying to help democrats. nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd is in columbus, ohio. chuck, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, natalie. well, it's day three of the president's cross country fund-raising and campaign tour. while he saw some of the friendliest crowds he's seen yet in seattle the question looms, do the stops help or hinder his fellow democrats? >> you remember our slogan during the campaign "yes, we can"? their slogan is "no, we can't". >> reporter: the president was clearly testing new lines of attack against republicans. >> i bring this stuff up not to relitigate the past. i just don't want to relive the past. >> reporter: outside a fund-raiser for embattled democratic senator patty murray a crowd gathered angry about obama administration policy, while inside the president appear to acknowledge that his position on the mosque near ground zero is not popular. >> i have pollsters. [ laughter ] >> i know when things don't poll well. but i wasn't sent to washington -- you did not send me to the oval office to just do what was popular. you sent me there to do what was right. >> reporter: the latest nbc news wall street journal poll shows a growing disconnect between obama and the public and there is debate about how helpful he can be to candidates. dino rossi see it is president as a help to his campaign. and it cuts both ways. sarah palin is being used to raise money for democrats and fire up their base. this week the abortion rights women's group emily's list unveiled a new campaign for candidates she refers to asthma ma grizzlies. >> sarah palin, you don't speak for us. >> reporter: aids tell me, look, the president may not be the biggest asset to woo voters to the polls but he is going to be a huge fund-raising asset. worst case scenario, you will see him raising money constantly between now and november. >> that will be a lot of dollars. chuck todd, thanks so much. today, funeral services being held for ted stevens, killed in a plane crash last week. vice president biden and sarah palin are among those attending. earn burnett is at the new york stock exchange. lots of news about housing. >> we just got the numbers that the average rate on a new mortgage in america is 4.6%. even the year record lows aren't getting americans to buy new homes. at a conference hosted by tim geithner yesterday, one of the biggest investors in the country bill gross said everyone with a mortgage in good standing should be allowed to get a 4% fixed rate mortgage believing house prices in america could go up 10%. housing is all that matters for wall street and main street. >> erin, thank you. famed homerun hitter bobby thompson has died. it was the shot heard round the world that won the pennant for the giants in 1951. many consider it to be the most dramatic play in baseball history. some amazing rescues in china where flood waters swept people away as others tried to save them. they were all eventually pulled from the raging water. in washington state, a 15-year-old girl was rescued tuesday after falling over the side of a cliff. a navy helicopter was able to pull her to safety. and a stunt pilot is safe after a frightening incident in argentina. take a look when one of the plane's wings breaks off mid-air. the plane came down with a parachute about 500 feet away from spectators. later, it burst into flames. fortunately the pilot walked away. he's said to be okay with slight burns on his feet. i tell you, that's unbelievable when you see the footage, that he walked away from it. >> we have another story in the next half hour about a pilot at an air show from canada. incredible stuff. watch what happens to him right as the plane hits the ground. he will join us f good morning. i'm tom kiernan. we have flooding now occurring in fairfax, arlington, the district, as well as montgomery and prince georges county due to very heavy rains falling here over the last couple of hour. we've had a couple of inches of rain just in the last hour and a half. temperatures around the region now are in the 70s. we'll hold steady in the 70s throughout the day, peak near 80 with a chance of heavy downpours into the evening and perhaps flooding. drying out thursday. >> reporter: saturday. and that's your latest weather. meredith? >> al, thank you. now to an incident on a southwest airlines flight. a flight attendant took a 13-month-old girl from her mother after saying the woman slapped the girl in the face. >> reporter: somewhere in the skies between dallas and albuquerque the crying began. but to one southwest flight attendant it wasn't the noise that was troubling. it was what she said the baby's mother was doing to stop it. according to a police report the flight attendant, beverly mccurly saw the mother strike the child with an open hand on the face. that's when police say the flight attendant took the child and walked to the rear of the aircraft. once there the flight attendant said she noticed the little girl, just 13 months old, also had a black eye. troubling enough for southwest to call ahead and have police waiting for the parents on the ground. >> the local paramedics checked the child out, extensive interviews were conducted with flight crew, with the parents, with witnesses from the plane. >> reporter: the mother admitted to police while standing in the jetway that she did strike her child but didn't do anything wrong. "i popped her when she kicked me," she said, "and that was it." the dog bite, she said, was from a dog bite. the family was allowed to board the next flight out. a tough call. >> i wouldn't want any harm to my child. at the same time i wouldn't want someone to necessarily say my discipline style is incorrect. >> it's really hard to criminalize bad parenting. >> reporter: experts say whether charges were filed or not the southwest flight attendant probably did the right thing. >> if you're deciding whether to report or not it's better to err on the side of what could be best for the children. >> reporter: just part of a flight crew's training. southwest said, our flight attendant offered to hold the baby to soothe the child. authorities were called only as a precaution. at 30,000 feet, taking control in the cabin is often priority number one. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. still ahead, chilling new details on the death of alleged craigslist killer. first this is "today" on nbc. still ahead, one in five teenagers now suffering from hearing loss. why their headphones could be to blame. also a pilot ejects seconds before his jet crashes and bursts into a massive fireball. he's lucky to be alive. we'll talk to him, but first these messages, your local news and weather. you talk to these guys. they go through every car and truck we make with a big fat red pencil. because they know a family's going to be inside. a teenager. a guy on the way to the job. the engineers of chevrolet. just another reason why we can offer a 5-year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. and another reason why a chevy's a chevy. mommy. mom, the back to school list is here. looks expensive. graphing calculator, flash drives... that was easy. 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[ female announcer ] wisk is about to change the way you look at stains forever. discover the power of our stain spectrum technology in the new red bottle of wisk. in stores now! good morning. 7:26 on this wednesday, 18th day of august. i'm joe krebs. a flood warning in effect. right to tom kiernan with the latest on this. good morning, tom. >> right, joe. we have flooding occurring now in fairfax county, district of klum, southern montgomery and prince georges county. a pocket of heavy rain in northwest washington now. rain drifting off to the north and east. rock creek itself out of the banks, many locations along beach drive. many area creeks and streams out of the banks due to the heavy rain falling for the last couple of hours and will continue do so throughout the day of we'll have highs reaching near 8 oh drying out after that. mr. thanks very much, tom. a lot of reports of high water on roadways. we'll check traffic after this. stay with us. good morning. poe tejs potentially dangerous with flooding. colorado avenue, for example. the capital beltway. problems at 123 because of flooding. also the dulles toll road exit now closed. we'll keep you updated. >> stay with news4, weather and traffic updates throughout the 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, august 18, 2010. another sunny morning in new york. our crowds better enjoy it because al says we have possibly thunderstorms headed our way. the full forecast in a moment. i'm meredith vieira along with matt lauer. coming up, the words accused craigslist killer philip markoff wrote in his sell before taking his own life. >> and a pilot lost control of his jet and managed to eject just seconds before his plane crashed and burst into flames. wait until you hear what song was playing over the loudspeakers at the air show grounds when the crash occurred. he's going to share his story in an exclusive live interview coming up. plus, are ipods and other mp-3 players to blame for the startling hearing changes in teenagers? first on the accused craigslist killer. jeff, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. this morning we are getting our first look inside markoff's cell. to paint the picture, police say he had photos of his ex-fiancee spread out all over. it appears it was the last thing he was looking