Transcripts For WRC Today 20100831 : vimarsana.com

and good morning. welcome to today on a tuesday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m ann can curry in for meredith. good morning, everybody. and right now hurricane earl is packing winds in excess of 135 miles per hour. it s heading, as matt mentioned, into the open atlantic ocean after moving through parts of the caribbean. for those of us who live here along the east coast of the united states, this could turn out to be a pretty rough week, maybe even a tough labor day weekend. take a look at the trajectory. earl is expected to either hit or skirt nearly the entire east coast. and forecasters are warning coastal residents from north carolina all the way up to maine to keep a very close eye on this storm. we re going to get to al s forecast in a moment. let s begin with the weather channel s stephanie abrams who is in cape hatteras, north carolina, where it appears to be the calm before the storm. stephanie, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, matt. here in the outer banks we have two full days to prepare for hurricane earl. unfortunately, the storm developed quickly in the caribbean acquiring the lowest pressure since hurricane ike back in 2008. remember, the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm. the first signs of hurricane earl came crashing into puerto rico monday. with winds of more than 120 miles per hour and rain that wouldn t let up. people rushed to board up homes and businesses preparing for the worst. it was too late for the owner of this building nearly pushed into the surf. many tried to escape the storm but the governor of puerto rico is asking people to stay home. in the u.s. virgin islands powerful winds threw debris on roadways and tossed boats around in high surf. now residents are bracing for earl off the coast of the carolinas. the storm could affect people all the way up to new england as it makes its way towards the east coast. now, matt, airports are still closed in puerto rico, st. croix, st. thomas, also st. martin and cruise ships are having to change their courses as well. all right. stephanie abrams down in cape hatteras for us this morning. stephanie, thanks very much. let s head upstairs where al is tracking the storm for us. good morning, al. this is a powerful storm, a category 4. 150 miles north-northeast of san juan. 135-mile-per-hour winds. it s still moving at a pretty good clip west-northwest at 13 miles per hour. the watches and warnings of this system, we have tropical storm watches for the bahamas. tropical storm warnings for the caicos and turks as earl moves aw away. the path of the storm comes up along the coast and sometime early thursday on into friday morning it comes along the carolina coast. could actually make landfall along there. we re watching this. and may even affect all the way from the carolinas on up into new england. if that s not enough, we have fiona to talk about, a much weaker storm, a tropical storm, 590 miles east of the leeward islands. the path of this system a little bit slower, but it is moving pretty quickly, 23 miles an hour. sometime early saturday it is somewhere between the u.s., southeastern coast, and bermuda. so we ll have to watch this one as well. but we ve got at least another week of storms to deal with with and another system right behind that. matt? just trying to keep you busy. we ll get the rest of your forecast in a couple of minutes. let s turn to iraq now. tonight president obama will speak to the nation from the oval office to announce the end of combat operations there. but there are two words you will not be hearing, mission accomplished. nbc s savannah guthrie is at the white house with a preview. savannah, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. not mission accomplished but this is a white house anxious to emphasize what it considers a campaign promise fulfilled in iraq but there are still 50,000 u.s. troops there today and the country s political future is far from clear. the vice president in iraq to mark the official end of america s combat mission there. while the president prepares to address the nation. good evening. reporter: in an oval office address tonight, a book end to a war that began more than seven years ago. on my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets. reporter: aides say he will not declare mission accomplished, a moment former president bush never lived down. you won t hear those words coming from us. it marks a milestone that we have achieved in moving our combat troops out. that is not to say violence is going to end tomorrow. reporter: in fact, violence has surged in iraq in the weeks before the formal end of combat missions and the iraqis have yet to form a permanent government. until we have a stable political system to which the security forces can report, then iraq is on the edge of a precipice. reporter: the president will call former president bush personally today. but the white house sidestepped the question of whether he will mention bush by name in the oval office address or acknowledge the success of bush s iraq surge. preemptively on the attack, sarah palin tweeted tuesday obama iraq speech, poor leadership. if this fierce opponent of the surge can t give credit where credit s due. credit due g.w., mccain, troops. monday the president was using battle terms to describe another ongoing struggle, the economy. with more grim unemployment news expected this week, the president slammed republicans for holding up his $30 billion plan to help small businesses. simply put, holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth. reporter: aides acknowledge that modest bill alone can t turn the economy around and the white house is not suggesting a second stimulus. i think his options are few and fewer. reporter: well, senior aides say the most recent draft of the president s speech tonight did mention former president george w. bush by name. this is a speech that will not only deal with iraq, thank troops for their sacrifice, but also talk about the future in afghanistan and the need for this country to nation build at home. matt? savannah guthrie, thank you very much. robert gibbs is the white house press secretary. robert, good to see you. good morning. good morning, matt. how are you? i m fine. thanks very much. you said at the white house monday the president will not use those infamous words mission accomplished when he talks to the american people tonight. how specifically will he describe the current mission in iraq with the troops remaining there? how will he describe it to the american people? well, look, i think the president will talk about three different themes. that is ending our combat mission in iraq, strengthening our security internationally, and outlining some steps that we have to take to rebuild our nation here at home. what you ll hear the president discuss is that today marks the beginning of a transformation. our combat mission ends and our role in iraq is to assist and help the iraqis make the decisions they re going to make. they re in charge of their future. they will write their history from this point on. that is iraqi responsibility with the help of an ally in the united states of america. we have seen an increase in insurgent attacks in iraq over the last several weeks and some of those attacks are targeting the very forces we needed to grow before we could come to this, what you call a transition, the iraqi police. how comfortable or how worried is the president about the level of violence in iraq today? well, look, i think there s no doubt, matt, that those that are in iraq to foment violence will continue to do so that will not change today. what is important to understand is what general odierno told the president in the situation room a few weeks ago, and that is the level of violence is among the lowest that we ve seen throughout our 7 1/2 years in iraq. the iraqi security forces for some time have been in the lead of providing security and the future of iraq will now be written by the iraqis. i know you don t like hypothetical questions, robert. nobody does. but if the level of violence increases to the point where it threatens the population of iraq on a daily basis and threatens the functioning of its government, would the president consider sending combat troops back into iraq? well, look, we have some forces there to continue to assist in counterterrorism but understand, matt, that hypothetical, as i said, was actually gone over with the president in the situation room and general ray odierno, our commander there, did not foresee or believe that would be necessary in iraq, that iraqi security forces were capable of dealing with the violence and providing security for the iraqis. you also mentioned at the white house the president would call president bush in advance of his speech. has the call taken place? i believe the call will take place a little bit late they are morning, likely when the president is on air force one flying to thank our troops at ft. bliss right outside of el paso, texas. i think probably both commanders in chief share certainly one thing in common and that is thanking the men and women in uniform for the tremendous sacrifice they made over the past 7 1/2 years, the thousands that aren t coming back from iraq, the tens of thousands that have been wounded but those that keep us safe and secure. let me read you something. in january of 2007 when president bush announced the surge in iraq, then senator barack obama had this to say. quote, i am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in iraq are going to solve the sectarian violence there. in fact, i think it will do the reverse. so when president obama speaks to former president bush today, will he change his mind on that? will he give president bush credit for making that decision on the surge and admit that it contributed to the situation of more stability on the ground today? matt, what is certainly not up for question is that president obama, then candidate obama, said that adding those 20,000 troops into iraq would, indeed, improve the security situation, and it did. what was necessary for this moment to happen was a diplomatic surge, a change in the sunni awakening. rather than fighting with al qaeda they fought against al qaeda. i think a number of things, most importantly our men and women in uniform, brought us to this point. right. i think there s no doubt the surge improved the security situation. but as this president said many times, the war in iraq was not going to be fought or won primarily or just militarily, that we had to see some political accommodation and we had to see sectarian violence reduced because sunni, shia and kurds decided to live together and chart iraq s future together, not fighting each other. robert gibbs at the white house. robert, thank you so much. i appreciate it. matt, thanks for having me. robert gibbs, thank you very much. and you can watch special coverage of the president s oval office address tonight at 8:00 eastern right here on nbc. and now here s ann. matt, thanks. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel has covered this war in iraq since it began and also as it ended. richard, good morning. good morning. keying off what mr. gibbs just said, what kind of iraq are we leaving its people to write their future with? well, right now i think iraq is in a very, very dangerous place. it s very possible they will have another round of civil war. in the end of his comments right there, he was talking about the political accord between sunni, shiites and kurds that helped to bring some security gains. that accord is calling apart right now. so how fragile on a scale of one to ten, ten being worst? nine. i think it s very fragile. if they don t get a government in the next couple of months, all of the gains from the surge could be wiped out. anything positive come from this war? come from this war? saddam hussein is gone and any iraqi will tell you that. saddam really was that bad. and every iraqi suffered in that. if you ask what happened since then and they will complain that the political structure that was created in their country by the united states has failed to deliver on the promises to the people. had the u.s. not invaded iraq, where would iraq be today? where would the geopolitical situation be today? if there had been no invasion saddam would still be in power. he was probably getting more moderate. he was being welcomed into the by a lot of european countries, welcomed in eastern europe in particular. he was heading in a direction of accommodation, the sanctions regime that was holding in place was starting to fail. so i think it would be somewhat of a basket case but it would be iran would be a lot more contained. it would be a dictatorship that was trying to break out of its box but iran would not be as dangerous. and had the united states not invaded iraq, would we be done in afghanistan? probably. that was a giant distraction of resources, of intelligence assets. that would probably be over. richard engel with perspective that s very valuable on this war and many other stories. thank you so much this morning. it is now 7:14. once again here s matt. ann, thank you very much. if you re sitting down for breakfast this morning, you might want to hear a little more about that massive egg recall. two reports from the fda reveal some very disturbing new information about the farms at the center of the investigation in this recall. nbc s kelly o donnell has the latest from washington. kelly, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. that new information gives us a picture of farm conditions that led to the recall of more than 500 million eggs. now because it s breakfast time, it s tough to talk about and i won t give you all the detail which is, frankly, gross. one consumer group calls this stomach churning. investigators went inside two giant iowa egg producers visiting several hen houses this month. the farms, no longer shipping eggs to stores, are connected to an outbreak of illness. nearly 1,500 reported cases of salmonella. the new fda reports list filth and dilapidated conditions. some examples of many violations seen rodents, frogs, insects, and wild birds were observed inside facilities. escaped, uncaged chickens were near the egg laying operation. employees did not wear or change protective clothing. structural damage to buildings. holes that allowed access to insects and rodents. especially unpleasant, manure pits as high as eight feet tall. and tests showed that water used to wash eggs tested positive for salmonella. bottom line, company executives were told you failed to follow your plan for disease prevention. if we can put in place the kinds of preventive standards and approaches that we have been developing and are committed to, then we can reduce the burden of food safety across the nation. reporter: what s the fda doing? tougher new rules went into effect in july, and the agency is about to begin a 15-month inspection of the big farms responsible for about 80% of the country s eggs. now because these are initial reports, the companies do get a chance to make a specific response during this recall, wright county farms and hillandale said they are taking steps to fix things and to try to restore consumer trust. now congress, which is, of course, still back home, is getting involved, already calling for a hearing, a house investigative panel wants to look at food safety and the conditions at these farms. ann? i ll take it, kelly, thank you very much. kelly o donnell in washington with more on this egg recall. and now a check of the rest of the morning s stories with lester holt over at the news desk. we hope your news is much more palatable than we heard. good morning, everyone. we have a developing story this morning. dutch police are questioning two men who flew to amsterdam from chicago after authorities found what they re calling suspicious items in one of their suitcases. nbc s justice correspondent pete williams has the latest from washington. pete, good morning. reporter: u.s. officials are trying to figure out whether the odd contents of a suitcase were part of an attempt to test airline security or just a strange way of pack iing for an overseas flight. what airport screeners found inside were watches and cell phones taped together, one phone was taped to a bottle of pepto-bismol. officials say none of it was harmful. no explosives were found. authorities say it was in the suitcase of a detroit man, ahmed mohamed nasser al soofi, and was discovered when he began his journey in birmingham, alabama. he was allowed to go on but his suitcase was taken off the plane when it was found to have been routed on a different flight. u.s. security officials notified the dutch of the incident and police there decided on their own to take the men into custody for questioning. u.s. officials say the second man may simply have been sitting next to al soofi on the plane. investigators say they found nothing suspicious in al soofi s background and they re trying to figure out what this was all about, lester. pete williams, thank you. the u.s. military says four more american soldiers were killed today by a roadside bomb in afghanistan. that brings the total number of u.s. military deaths to 18 in four days. former star pitcher roger clemens is set to stand trial in april after pleading not guilty to lying to congress about using steroids. gas prices are down about 6 cents from a month ago to an average of $2.68 for a gallon of regular according to aaa. world markets sank with japan s nikkei tumbling more than 300 points. trish regan is at the new york stock exchange. what are you watching today? lots of economic data. this entire week we have tons of economic data. it s making investors a little bit jittery, i can tell you. on the one hand they know that corporate earnings have come in pretty strong but on the other hand they have this harsh reality of this data that keeps coming in worse than people are expecting. the biggie is friday with the all-important jobs report. we re expecting to see a slight uptick in the unemployment rate and additional jobs lost. trish regan, thank you. at the u.s. open monday, take a look at this incredible between the legs shot from roger federer with his back to the net at the baseline. believe it or not he made that same amazing shot last year. his opponent, what s he do? he shrugs and he says only he can do that. federer, by the way, went on to win. it is now 7:19. those are your headlines. back to matt and ann. they gave him a one-minute standing ovation after that shot. that s cool. all across america. don t do that. don t practice that shot. oh, no. oh, no, no, no. hi, mom, i just got back from playing tennis. a soft summer morning under way here. i m tom kierein. temperatures around the region are pleasant. 60s in the suburbs and rural areas. near 70 in washington and near the bay and atlantic beaches. 90s throughout the region. stagnant air with unhealthy air quality. more of the same wednesday. thursday may be a bit cooler. we could get some clouds from hurricane earl as it tracks east of the atlantic seaboard friday with highs near 90. should be cooler with sunshine on the weekend. and that s your latest weather. ann? al, thanks. nearly 100 years after an iceberg sent it to the bottom of the north atlantic, the titanic remains the topic of fascination all around the world. nbc s kerry sanders has been traveling with a scientific team giving us new images like we ve never seen before. reporter: more than two miles down, the images are extraordinary. the titanic like she s never been seen before in 3-d hd. the captain s state room, his bathtub s porcelain still polished. windows on the promenade b deck, some still with unbroken glass 98 years later. because of hurricane danielle the ex pe dags had to come to safe harbor in newfoundland, a delay that keeps the debate going why did this unsinkable ship with 16 watertight compartments sink on april 15th, 1912, after it struck an iceberg? in the movie titanic the iceberg cuts a gash in the hull. experts say that s just a theory. they are yet to find that gash. when the scientists returned to the site in a week they now know where to look for answers thanks to newly created maps. those new maps of the ocean floor here reveal at least three areas of titanic debris that no one even knew existed. i m really excited by this because what this represents here are new opportunities, possibly new clues, to answer those questions about how titanic broke apart and sapg. reporter: now for the first time since the wreckage was discovered, archaeologists believe they re close to new answers and new never-before-seen artifacts. for today, kerry sanders, nbc news, st. johns, newfoundland. and coming up, the too longer on the loose at a zoo in miami comes face-to-face with a little toddler. we re going to meet the little girl and the mom who saved her. coming up, we ll hear from sandra bullock on her newly adopted son and her love for new orleans. plus, new details on the arrest of paris hilton for cocaine possession. in 2008 i quit venture capital to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it s already in my email. new revlon just bitten. it s the first two-in-one lipstain and balm. the lipstain gives me a light flush of color while the moisturizing balm softens my lips. have you ever been bitten? new revlon just bitten lipstain and balm. good morning. it s 7:26 on this tuesday, the 31st of august. i m joe krebs. if you live in virginia, you ll have to wait at least until tomorrow to renew your driver s license or get an i.d. card at the dmv office, because of a computer glitch that should be fixed. calling for an independent investigation into what happened, 5,000 licenses expired since the outage began. those people will have to provide a birth certificate or passport to get their licenses renewed. we ll take [ male announcer ] new inventory. new equipment. new trucks. new hires. new space. new markets. achievement seizes new opportunity. go to pnc.com/businessloans to see how we can help your cash flow situation. pnc. for the achiever in us all. good morning. your four-day forecast, sunny and hot today, same tomorrow. cooler thursday. could get clouds from earl friday. how is the traffic, jerry? prince george s county, jammed up. an accident outer loop of the beltway in central avenue. police are dealing with that and tending to an incident inner loop at 214. the outer loop jams all the way back at route 4. inner loop is crawling. standard volume springfield to 66. ahead on news 4 mid day, how do drugstore beauty products compare with high-priced beaut 7:30 now on a tuesday morning, the last day of august, 2010. hard to believe labor day just around the corner. luckily we have a late summer crowd out on our plaza. these people enjoying a beautiful if not hot morning here in new york. they have to get ready. if they stick around the ebbed of the week, things could change dramatically. that s hurricane earl and i believe that s fiona or danielle off to the right. we re in for a busy week around here. meanwhile, i m matt lauer alongside ann curry sitting in for meredith. and coming up in a moment, some new information about the arrest of paris hilton who is charged with felony cocaine possession after getting stopped on the las vegas strip. also ahead, a scam alert. if you re hurting during these tough economic times there are people who could be trying to take advantage of you, everything from your health care to your job search to your fear of foreclosure. we re going to show you what these scams are and give you some advice on how to protect yourself. later on, sandra bullock, the oscar winner, has had some big highs and painful lows this year. i caught up with her in her beloved new orleans over the weekend. she was all smiles. she s been working to rebuild a very special school there. we talked about that and about the adoption of her little boy, l louie, who hails from the big easy. i was saying to a girlfriend of mine, no one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life, that you are responsible for, until you have a child in your life. it naturally shifts. he showed up and now louie has the stage. we re going to have much more with sandra bullock about her son and why she s doing so much to help the children of new orleans coming up in our next half hour. all right. but let s begin with an incredible story from miami where a brave mom faced down an escaped tiger to save her little girl. we ll talk to the hero mom in just a moment. first, nbc s michelle kosinski has more from jungle island in miami. michelle, good morning. reporter: good morning. so the question remains here, how does a tiger just jump over a more than 12-foot-hyphens? and what s weirder still here is this seems to be a sort of chain reaction escape. the zoo thinks it was one of these guys, a mischievous monkey that got out of his cage first and incited the tiger, enraged it to clear the fence. a moment of terror and confusion. with a 500-pound tiger walking loose around their zoo, patrons jammed into any safe space. this cell phone video was shot by a reporter visiting the zoo with her 5-year-old son sapt yag owe. the bengal tiger had somehow leaped over his nearly 14-foot fence and soon came face-to-face with 2-year-old dianita barratt walking just ahead of her mother. i rounded the corner and she is standing there staring at this tiger. about 10 to 15 feet away from her standing there, not moving, neither one of them are moving. reporter: 2-year-old versus tiger, just staring. mom in disbelief somehow knew what to do. well, the tiger was very calm and i just didn t want to make it anxious at all, so i took a few steps toward her, picked her up and walked in the other direction. reporter: while some panicked, the tiger roamed freely for 20 minutes before zoo keepers coaxed him back into a cage. didn t try to attack another patron. it didn t do anything other than look around and say, what am i doing here? reporter: zoo officials think it was actual ly this character watson the white handed gibbon who had escaped from his cage first, possibly when the door opened for feeding time. he then jumped into the tiger s cage making that tiger mad. the monkey was mocking the tiger, causing the tiger to chase the monkey up the fence and ultimately landing on the other side. reporter: furious 500-pound tiger, tiny unsuspecting children, amazing it all ended peacefully. at no point did the tiger ever think that human was a threat or was going to be an issue. they re used to humans. they re used to human interaction. reporter: perhaps. but three years ago another bengal tiger at a zoo jumped his more than 12-foot fence and attacked three people killing one. here in miami they are lucky mahesh practiced serious anger management once he was free. now soon to be living behind an even higher fence. everybody seems to be behaving today but while this is all under investigation the big cats and chief suspect watson the gibbon are being kept away from the public. fish and wildlife officials say they want the tiger s cage, that fence raised. it s already 12 feet high with with a two had been foot overhang. that s two feet higher than required by law. they want it to be 14 feet with four extra feet on top of that and the zoo says it s more than willing to comply if that s what s necessary. matt? that s an amazing story. michelle kosinski, thank you very much. diana barratt is here with dianita. how are you doing and more importantly how is she doing? she s doing fine. did you hear any commotion? did you see anything happen before you turned around and basically ran after her and found her face-to-face with this tiger? no, nothing. how far away did she or how close, i should say, did she actually get to the tiger when you finally walked over to her? she was probably between 10 and 15 feet in front of the tiger. it s incredibly close to a 500-pound tiger of the one of the things that surprised me and, i don t know, every account i ve read, diana, says that you acted incredibly calmly, that you slowly walked over and picked dianita up and turned and got her out of there. was this a situation where it was calm on the outside, screaming on the inside? i don t know how i maintained the calm. i just thought i shouldn t make any sudden moves, that i shouldn t do anything to excite the tiger. when you turned and picked dianita up, did you run away? were there other people running away? was there some sort of panic among other people at the zoo? hi, dianita. careful. hi. there was nobody there at that pick moment, just the two of us facing the tiger and there was nobody running. there was nobody screaming so i just turned around quietly and walked away. the people at jungle island say this tiger has been raised by humans so there wouldn t have been much in terms of an aggressive reaction although it is still a wild animal. did the tiger do anything in your opinion that appeared as if it was threatening? no. no, it was just standing there staring at her and she was staring right back at it. did you have some help from some of the zoo keepers there at island jungle? did they help you get out of there at all? no, not at the moment. there was nobody there but the two of us. you ve had a little time and distance now to put this into perspective. when you hear the explanation of what may have happened that this monkey may have riled this tiger up to the point where the tiger jumped over the 14-foot wall that separates it from the visitors, what do you think about that? i think that the exhibit has never been safe if the tiger could just jump out when he became excited. and your feelings about going back to this place until they make changes here? no. we re not going to be renewing our annual pass. do you think dianita had any idea she was in such a perilous situation or was it just a day at the zoo for her. no, she was just standing there looking at the tiger. well, listen, we re happy everything worked out the way it did and the fact you were so calm is extraordinary. i thought so, too. a lot of people think that probably is one this final morning of august is starting off very pleasant now. sunshine and temperatures are in the 60s, generally. it s near 70 in washington near the bay. at the atlantic beaches as well. it will be hot again later this afternoon. we get into the mid 90s with stagnant air in place, likely unhealthy air developing by mid afternoon. tomorrow, it looks like we ll repeat today and a bit cooler thursday. we may get some clouds from earl as it tracks east of the atlantic seaboard friday with a high near 90. and that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. still ahead, flu season fears. what you need to know about this season s flu shot, whether your kids should get them. up next recession scams, a warning about all the ways crooks can try to rip you off in these especially difficult financial times. 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[ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it takes you farther. and brings you closer. this morning on today s consumer a scam alert. with the economy struggling, perhaps it s no surprise that con artists are out in force and now the government is cracking down on one of their schemes. today s financial editor jean chatzky tells us what we should be watching out for. good morning. this is maddening. it s not only rough out there, it looks like it s going to be getting worse in terms of the economy and there are people preying on people who have lost their homes or are looking for jobs, who need health care. it s maddening. it s maddening and the more desperate people are, the more likely they are to look for an easy fix. that s what s happening here. let s take a look at these four common scams that are out there. one is called the health care hustle. and just last week the federal trade commission announced it s going to be doing a crackdown on one on many, actually. we have an advertisement to show you what this looks like. essentially it is a case of companies trying to sell you what looks like health insurance but what is actually a medical discount card. and what people are finding is as they go to their doctors, their hospitals, their pharmacies to fill prescriptions, it s not accepted so they re paying hundreds of dollars and they re losing that money as well as some addition al fees. we should point out as far as this particular ad is concerned, the company has been charged by the ftc and taken into receivership but there s been no liability found as of yet. okay. so from the idea of targeting the uninsured, there are also scams targeting the people who don t have jobs and you call this the job hunting hijinks scam. here we have a scam where people are told you can pay some money up front, pay us a fee, and we ll get you a job. we ll give you a list of places where they have jobs. you ll get access to a website where you can find real opportunities. in fact, that just proves not to be the case. often what people find are websites where they get some lead but perhaps not in their area and they re charged additional fees to it even apply for these jobs. people who have lost their jobs really are struggling to pay their housing payments and so some of these people who are now moving towards foreclosure are also getting scammed. you ll see headlines like, we can stop foreclosure. we can save your house. in many of these cases, again, there are up front fees, you always have to be wary of that and they re asking you to sign over the title to your home and then perhaps rent your home back from them when they tell you you can buy it back at a later date, never happens. let s talk about how we can help people avoid these scams. what are some of your tips to avoid? you have to be very, very careful of upfront fees. you should not have to pay somebody to get you a job. secondly, i want people to pause. if it sounds like you re under pressure, if it sounds like somebody wants you to sign on the dotted line or the deal is going to go away immediately, this is something that you should absolutely run away from because it s not a good idea. and whatever the company is, check them out with the better business bureau. that s a very easy thing to do on the internet. go to the bbb.org website and they ll tell you whether it s rael or it s not. and, finally, if anybody is asking you to give you the ability to let them fill out paperwork for you, absolutely not. all right. jean chatzky trying to save people from these things. thank you so much for this good advice this morning. and coming up next, new details about the arrest of paris hilton on a felony cocaine charge and what she claims really happened. 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[ female announcer ] this is not a prescription. this is diane. diane, who has diabetes and a daughter who could use a little perspective. diane, who worked with her walgreens pharmacist to keep her blood-sugar numbers in check with a few changes to her diet. diane, who s showing her daughter the world s a bit bigger than 8th grade. expertise find it everywhere there s a walgreens. it s laughs over a coastal soup and grilled shrimp salad. catching up over wood-grilled shrimp and chicken. and with lunches starting at just $6.99. it s an hour you wouldn t trade for anything. and with lunches starting at just $6.99. i don i heard thatd nearly 4 out 5 women aren t getting enough vitamin d. so i take one a day women s, a complete multivitamin with more vitamin d to support bone and breast health. [ female announcer ] one a day women s. moh-ohm. -do you have your lunch? -yes. and you know where your classroom is? uh huh. mom, i can walk from here. what about your. mom, i got it. [ female announcer ] they re never too big for a little something sweet. kellogg s rice krispies treats. ro this morning new details are emerging about the arrest of socialite paris hilton for felony cocaine possession in las vegas. a criminal complaint filed against her. nbc s kristen welker has the latest from los angeles. kristen, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, matt. according to the complaint police pound 0.8 grams of cocaine in a purse hilton was carrying but the hotel heiress continues to stand by her story the drugs were not hers. vegas is one of my favorite places on earth. reporter: those words spoken to nbc s las vegas affiliate just hours before paris hilton was arrested for allegedly having too much fun in sin city. the reality tv star was charged with cocaine possession, a felony. it happened just before midnight on friday when hilton s boyfriend cy waits was cited for driving under the influence on the vegas strip. but hilton maintains she didn t do anything wrong. it s a very confusing story that she s telling police. reporter: now the newly released criminal complaint is shedding light on what actually happened. according to the complaint a las vegas officer pulled over hilton and her boyfriend because there was a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and as 100 onlookers gathered hilton asked to use the restroom and an officer accompanied her into the nearby hotel. according to the officer in the complaint, hilton reached into her purse for lip balm and as she began to open it i saw a small bindle of what i believed to be cocaine in a clear baggy begin to fall from the purse into my hand. the complaint goes on to read after i read hilton her miranda rights, she told me the purse was not hers and she had borrowed it from a friend. i asked hilton whose cocaine it was. she said she had not seen it but now thought it was gum. hilton did admit that several other items in the purse were hers, according to the report. legal analyst royal oakes says prosecutors could have a hard time proving the cocaine is hers. still, the reality tv star could be in serious trouble. she s looking at a felony in nevada, one to four years in prison. probably she ll get probation but if anything goes wrong, if she falls off the wagon, she s looking at prison time. reporter: hilton is no stranger to legal trouble. she was arrested twice before and even spent 23 days in jail in 2007 for a probation violation that dated back to a drunk driving arrest the year before. hollywood insiders say even if hilton is let off the legal hook this time, her fans may not be as forgiving. people are getting bored. they re fed up with seeing these celebrities and socialites getting into trouble with the law. reporter: hilton s family, sources say, is trying to remain optimistic during this period. we reached out to hilton s attorney but did not hear back from him. matt? kristen welker, thank you very much. and coming up, what every parent needs to know about the flu. shot season has started. that s right. we ll catch up with our good friend sandra bullock about the twin passions in her life, her son and a very special school in new orleans. ok, everything ok? under control. i ll try to be back early! 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honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s delicious. nobody does it quite like us. thais.peggy. whatng usa pris problem, please? peggy? sure.well.suddenly it looks like i m being charged a $35 annual fee. yes? tell me it s a mistake. yes? are you saying yes or are you asking yes? yes? peggy? peggy? anncr: want better customer service? switch to discover. ranked #1 in customer loyalty. it pays to discover. 7:56 is our time right now. beautiful picture of the united states capitol dome. fountain in the foreground. 76 degrees out there this morning. it will be a warm day. we have problems piling up on the roadways. we ll go straight to jerry edwards with details. good morning, jerry. joe, good morning. capital beltway at central avenue, authorities are dealing with what appeared to be two separate incident, outer loop of the beltway everything has moved to the shoulder but jammed from at least route 4 all the way up, inner loop is crawling as well. all the activity there is over to the shoulder. elsewhere, into downtown, not easy. accident inbound pennsylvania avenue, isuza bridge and barney circle, folks are scrambling for alternate routes. inner loop jammed as you leave springfield, passing robinson freight terminal to i-66. this is just volume right now. all travel lanes are open. haven t had anything out of the ordinary to report. very busy morning. good morning. i m tom kierein. we have sunshine, temperatures in the 60s. we ll hit the mid 90s again today, like yesterday. stagnant air, unhealthy air quality this afternoon. more of the same tomorrow. joe? thanks, tom. ahead on news 4 mid day, how do drugstore beauty products compare 8:00 now on a tuesday morning, the last day of august, 2010. we have a nice summertime crowd here on rockefeller. it feels beautiful out here. nice and cool. a couple hours from now it s going to heat up substantially. mid to upper 90s. humid? not horribly. however, by friday we could be looking back at this as a great day as we have those storms lining up in the atlantic. i m matt lauer along with ann curry who is here while meredith is taking a little time off and mr. roker joining us as well. and coming up in this half hour, one of our favorite people, sandra bullock. the highest paid actress in hollywood. these days she s investing more than her money, her time in a very special school down in new orleans. she has really made a difference in that city in the years after hurricane katrina. she has another joy and passion in her life, that little boy louie that she just adopted. we re going to talk to her about all that stuff coming up in a few minutes. we look forward to hearing from her. right now a lot of us are getting ready to send our kids back to school. some have already done that. last year about this time we were all talking about the swine flu and how many shots we needed. what are the recommendations this year? they ve been revised. we ll talk about that. and lindsay lohan, we ve been talking about this. take a look at some of these pictures. some fabulous photo shoots, a revealing interview as well with vanity fair magazine just before she headed to jail and rehab. so pretty interesting. very glamorous, very grace kelly. very old school. lots to get to. before we do that, though, let s head inside. lester is standing by filling in for ann. lester, good morning, again. good morning to all of you. the headlines this morning the east coast is preparing for a brush with hurricane earl as the powerful storm churns its way through the caribbean leaving flooding and damage in its wake. the weather channel s stephanie abrams is in cape hatteras, north carolina. stephanie, what can we expect over the next few days? reporter: well, you know, it s going to be a tricky forecast here because of the path that it s taking. it could skirt right along the coast or it could make landfall here. regardless, it looks like we have feel the effects of hurricane earl as tropical storm force winds extend 200 miles from the center of the system. they didn t have a lot of times to prepare in the caribbean. we have two full days to prepare as hurricane ike continues to strengthen. so how are they preparing? lester, i spoke with bob healey with the hatteras island rescue squad. he said the county is set to meet today and they expect them to start with evacuations because highway 12 is a very small two-lane highway here along the outer banks. stephanie, thank you. after more than seven years and more than 4,400 u.s. military deaths, president obama will tell the nation tonight that the u.s. combat mission in iraq is over. with some 50,000 troops remaining in iraq, white house spokesman robert gibbs says the president will outline the way forward in iraq by strengthening security and helping the iraqi government to shape its future. you can watch the president s address tonight at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific, here on nbc. meantime, vice president joe biden is in iraq where he ll take part in a change of command ceremony wednesday in baghdad. biden will also encourage political leaders to end the stalemate after elections were held back in march. let s go back out to matt and ann. lester, thanks a lot. we ll get a check of the weather right now. why not? why not? by the way, you notice a lot of justin bieber fans. he s at madison square garden but he s sick. he can t perform? that s too good morning here. we ll keep you posted on earl. it does appear it will stay east of our atlantic beaches and maybe we ll get clouds from it friday. this tuesday morning, clear. temperatures are still pleasant in the 60s, low to mid 70s. 76 in washington. climbing another 20 degrees into the mid 90s by mid afternoon. unhealthy air quality developing. tomorrow more of the same. a bit cooler thursday. we could get clouds from earl friday depending how it tracks. if it moves farther west, we may get some and maggie jean is sweet 16. where are you from? canada. niagara falls. niagara falls! i m not doing it again. ann? thank you so much. up next, we re going to hear from sandra bullock. we ll be talking about her two great passions of her life which include the children of new orleans and her own little boy. it s laughs over a coastal soup and grilled shrimp salad. catching up over wood-grilled shrimp and chicken. and with lunches starting at just $6.99. it s an hour you wouldn t trade for anything. [ 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! 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[ male announcer ] have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. it s doing season. when we grab a little spare time.and get after it. the home depot has all the right prices. and all the know how.to start making things happen. less with our wallets. and more with our own two hands. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we re lowering the cost of updating your bathroom. with vanities starting at just 49 bucks. we re back now at 8:09. for new mom sandra bullock this has been the best of times and the worst of times this year. now she has a new sense of purpose, the school in new orleans. a school that has close to 100% graduation rate, a school that has its very own health clinic. oh, my god, i m talking like a politician. no offense, but i need to be doing this. no pointing, only thumbs. i know. that is sandra bullock speaking at the warren easton charter school which suffered more than $4 million in damages during hurricane katrina. thanks to the generosity of sandra and other people that school and its students are now thriving. and that s where i met up with her and school board member arthur hardy. i started by asking arthur how sandra and the school got connected. she found us and through due diligence but called me on a sunday afternoon. she called you personally? yes, this is sandra bullock. i like to cold call people. how you doing? what s happening? i m in the mardi gras business and i deal with crazy people every day, so when she said, this is sandra bullock, yeah, i m clark gable. i was about to hang up. who knows? no, it really is. and it really was. pretty cool. and tell me how the conversation went. she knew what we were all about and i think had done enough work to know we were the real deal. and once she came and met the kids, it was all over. i didn t have to sell. something arthur has said in an interview in the past, it s one thing for sandra bullock to come in here and give us some of her money or help us raise money but you said something else about her. you said she also arrived at a time where we needed a cheerleader. and i was a cheerleader. not a very good one in high school but i did my best. i m speaking in more than the general sense. i know, matt. that s exactly right. and i believe she thinks as we do that public school education is the answer to crime, poverty, prejudice. i mean, a good school system. we want the whole city system, not just us, we want to be the best among many good schools and i think we re an example it can be done. it takes a lot of work but, yes, you can do it. one of the things the floodwaters exposed here in this city was this i don t have a better term, abject poverty and the fear here and i think in a lot of people s minds in new orleans, those same people most victimized by that hurricane have been left out of the recovery, that they aren t the ones who are enjoying the recovery. how do you feel about that? there are a lot of things that fell through the cracks during this storm, and it was embarrassing. those cracks exist throughout the united states, throughout the world, and it just sort of opened up something that i don t think people knew about or maybe didn t want to see. but right here under this roof there are souls and spirits and young people who don t come from any money but carry this extraordinary spirit to, like, override that, suck in every ounce of education the school provides and get out of here and create a life for them that is beautiful and fulfilling and filled with all those things they might not have had. people who shouldn t be left behind are let behind but let the school be an example how we don t need to leave anyone behind. we ve known each other for a pretty long time. i don t admit to that. i will. i m proud of it. really? i ve never heard the level of passion. where did this passion come from for this particular city? i spent so many summers and new years and fun times in new orleans. it was always a place i felt i could go and actually let go and enjoy the spirit of something. your connection to this city just got deeper officially. you finalized your adoption. i did, i did. and louie is from new orleans. he s from new orleans. a little cajun cookie. you are forever hitched. i am. how lucky am i? what was it like? when you finalized that, a long process a long process. as sterile as the room seemed, it felt so rich. it felt like it was time. and the process is the way that the process is for very, very good reasons and i did not circumvent. i wanted to do everything exactly the same way everyone else did. it was nice to have someone say, i think you re a fit parent, which is what i heard, which is like the water works again. but you can t celebrate too long. you have to go home and change diapers and feed. kids don t care about celebrations. no, he does. he likes to celebrate. he likes to celebrate. he likes to dance and celebrate. you know what, i got blessed, i got lucky, and he s extraordinary. the nicest thing i read that you said recently, you said even throughout the whole process, i didn t care what he would look like or whether it would be a he or she what color i just had faith that they were going to put me together with the right child. where did that faith come from? it doesn t always happen that way. i don t know. everything works out the way the universe wants it to work out. and we always said that it didn t matter where the child came from, the child that needed us in the home is the child that s going to be placed. looking forward to your future with louie, you said recently, i want to feel the sun on our face when we go for a walk, not having to hide anymore, not having my friends and family lie anymore, telling everyone i meet about the most beautiful man i know including his poop schedule. pretty regular. how close are you to that day? well, the poop schedule is pretty regular. not what i meant. you brought it up. i d like to share it with america. he has a healthy poop schedule. mom! thanks so much. i was saying to a girlfriend of mine, no one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life that you are responsible for until you have a child in your life. it naturally shifts. it just shifted the first day i met him and he d been there the whole time yet everything was different so now louie s got the stage. one thing i want to compliment you on, you managed to do something this year that is almost impossible. you have, a, kept a secret concerning your adoption, and you found a way to retain privacy at a time where it wasn t all that private. it takes friends. it takes good people with integrity. i read something like how did someone keep a secret? human beings exist that have integrity that know how to keep their mouth shut, that nope the bigger picture, that don t sell out their friends. they are all over the place. we don t like to talk about it because it doesn t sell a magazi magazine. i was blessed with the same friends i ve had before things got really special for me and blessed in life and when things get bad, they re still the same friends. everything passes. it all passes but they just, you know, they know if they screw up, they re not coming on the next vacation. i m not going to babysit their kids, i will cut them. i will take them out. no premiere tickets? they don t really want to go, which is nice. i have friends and family that are filled with maximum amounts of integrity. it shouldn t be an oddity. all in two words, no comment. i was speaking to a local journalist here the other day as part of the anniversary of katrina and at the end of him asking me questions, he said, do me a favor, be nice to sandra. because she to us here is a hero. wow. making me teary. it s true. it s true. it s random acts of kindness. this whole city has fallen in love with her. she belongs to us. don t mess with sandra. i like that. i m serious. you heard her, you herpd us, you d better be ready for a fight. they really do love her down there. she is delicious. she is doing great work with that school. more on the warren easton charter school at todayshow.com. all right. we have up next, changing subjects, some important new guidelines about flu season and your children. we have dr. nancy snyderman telling us all about it. express yourself express yourself oh, do it oh, do it express yourself [ female announcer ] coffee is like life. it s better when you add your flavor. now try new honey vanilla creme. coffee-mate. from nestle. now try new honey vanilla creme. revlon colorstay makeup gives me flawless perfection without fading, flaking or wearing off. for up to 16 hours. revlon colorstay makeup. that s what i call staying power. and for the perfect lasting look, from natural to smoky, try revlon colorstay 12 hour eye shadow. here, take the card. you go to the shops. i ll meet you at the gate. thanks. please remove all metal objects out of your pockets. with chase freedom you can get a total of 5% cash back. fun money from freedom. that s 5% cash back in quarterly categories and an unlimited 1% cash back everywhere else. and this too. does your card do this? 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(announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. i love you mom. i love you too. choosey moms, choose jif. this morning on today s heal health flu season fast approaching. the flu can t be far behind. the american academy of pediatrics released its updated guidelines for flu vaccination. dr. nancy snyderman, good morning to you. it seems a little early to be thinking about the flu but you say not so. not so because when you get your flu shot then your body has a chance to build the antibodies, the antibodies are, in fact, what protect you against the viruses that come later so we need to talk about shots and vaccinations earlier is better. according to the new guidelines just who gets vaccinated? children 6 months of age and over and there are some nuances whether some should get one shot or two shots. check with your pediatrician for that. it s not recommended for kids below 6 months or age or those over 6 months of age, kids of healthy, pregnant moms, anyone who takes care of children in the household y.? because flu can still kill and secondarily if you get influenza you and i who are otherwise healthy, you could be out of work or out of school for a week to ten days and then secondary pneumonia is what can really hurt people. even if you re not in the high risk category, if you get the flu shot you can protect someone else from getting sick? is that what you re saying? brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. exactly right. not only can you get sick, but these viruses spread so quickly especially in winter months when we close up our houses and schools. it s very easy to spread a virus. and this is also a reminder this isn t just back-to-school stuff. talk to your doctor about what other vaccinations your child might not be up to date on. a reminder for kids going off to college, please ask about the meningitis vaccine, one that can save lives. it wasn t part of yesterday s recommendations but it s really important. last year there was multiple shots because of the swine flu. what about this year? it was confusing because of swine flu. it crept up on us in the summer, stayed through the fall and frankly threw us all a whammy and sort of fizzled out. so this year that swine flu is a component in the regular seasonal flu shot. smart people, the world health organization tried to figure out every year what might be out there and they predict what vaccine should be used. so for this year they re predicting swine flu will be a component and that s why they re starting early. will something weird pop up later on in the year? perhaps. at least now that we know it s safe and gettable and the supplies will be just fine. meantime, you know you ve already weighed in on this egg recall, because vaccines are grown in eggs, is there some reason to worry about whether there will be a shortage? great news. one, they don t use these eggs. they use their own eggs because it s a very sterile, purified process, so the recall has nothing to do with the vaccine. the vaccine production. so, one, it s safe. two, it s plentiful and the egg recall is going to affect what you eat on your plate. it is not going to affect the vaccines that will be available for you through your doctor so no correlation there. people should be very reassured about safety. just talking to you is reassuring, dr. nancy snyderman. thank you. and coming up next, lindsay lohan s new photographs. 8:26 is your time now. 79 degrees. nice morning outside. things are heating up. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. glenn ivy is expected to endorse baker. he is hoping to succeed current county executive. good morning, i m tom kierein. bright sunshine, climbing into the 70s. we ll hit the mid 90s by mid afternoon. stagnant air, unhealthy air quality. it looks like we ll repeat this tomorrow. thursday may be a bit cooler. clouds from earl, east of the atlantic beaches friday. tough one out there, tom. capital beltway, prince george s county, jammed from route 5 up to central avenue. earlier accident on the shoulder. an incident on the inner loop is also on the shoulder backed up out of greenville. drive in on 66, couple of accidents along the way have cleared. we re loaded up all the way on in. eu. n? jerry, thank you. how do drugstore beauty products compare to the higher priced cockledoodledooooo! i do 22 more inspections than the government requires. and my fresh, all-natural chickens are never given any hormones or steroids. .and no candy, gladys. [ clucks ] [ male announcer ] perdue. extra inspections. extraordinary chicken. 8:30 now on a tuesday morning, the 31st day of august, 2010. it s warming up to be a hot one in the northeast. we have some nice people out on our plaza. a lot of people got here bright and early to hang out. out on the plaza i m matt lauer along with ann curry filling in while meredith is taking time off. mr. roker is here as well. we re always happy to have lester holt joining us as well. do you guys have good hearing? pretty good hearing, why? what? come on, you asked for it. i did. not only is hearing loss something that affects older americans, one in five teenagers exhibits some kind of hearing loss and when this impacts a person and their family, it s not only a physical disturbance it can be an emotional one as well. we ll have some advice on dealing with it. also coming up this morning, we re going to see a side of lindsay lohan people have not been able to see. take a look at these beautiful photographs that are just now coming out, really showing her in a graceful, almost grace kelly way. it also comes along with a new interview about her and so we re going to get the lowdown on that. and we re coming up on labor day, that big, last, unofficial cookout of the summer. if you re stumped about what to make, we ll show you some interesting ideas and move over charcoal and gas. we have some other ideas. once you polish off the cookout and the barbecue, some advice on your diet. nutritionist joy bauer is here with some advice on how to stick to your diet plan coming up. it s always a nice day when this next young lady joins us, the lovely and talented drew barrymore is here. she has a new movie called going the distance and is here to talk about it. some love. that s a double-l. it s a pleasure to be here. it s a high pressure locked in place over us. highs today in the mid 90s. with stagnant air in place, unhealthy air quality mid afternoon. it looks like we ll repeat this wednesday. thursday, a few high clouds and in the low 90s. just near 90 friday. cloudiness around from hurricane earl as it tracks east of the atlantic beaches friday. stay tuned. we ll keep you informed. and that s your latest weather. can we do something here, a little personal business. we want to say good-bye to an incredibly valuable member of the today show team, one of our audio engineers. alex is retiring today. retiring. that is ridiculous. it must be early retirement. surprise. promoting his next gig. he looks great despite the hours we force him to keep and the places we have sent him to all around the world but he did a great job. thank you, matt, ann, lester, al. thank you. people may not know this, he started with nbc in 1975. he worked for our radio network and we re really proud of him. 29 for the today show alone. you need to say that again. he departmeidn t have your mike. i m sure at times he s wanted to cut her mike. good luck. we love you. thanks for everything. enjoy sleeping in. bye-bye. we love you. all right. we have much more coming up. lindsay lohan and all of her legal troubles, well, she took some beautiful pictures in an interview with vanity fair. see you guys. now that she s served her time in jail and in rehab, people are wondering if lindsay lohan can turn her life around. in the latest issue of vanity fair the actress reflects on her legal troubles and plots her new career move. nancy sales is contributing editor for vanity fair and interviewed lindsay before she went to jail. good morning. good morning. how were you able to get lindsay lohan, a woman surrounded by paparazzi and people who wanted to interview her, how were you able to get her to speak to you? our interview was set for the day she was sentenced and i don t think she thought that was going to happen so it took a while after that to get her to sit down. but she finally did sit down and trusted you, it appears from this article because she reveals a lot to you. i think we had a good interview. she opened up in a way i don t think she has in a long time. and what did you discover? had you met her before? i had seen lindsay out and about when i was doing another piece in l.a. on a nightclub story and i d seen her out dancing and so forth. what we see in these photographs and in this video is a very different side of her. there s an elegance and she is why taken before she served time in rehab. that is the idea here? what is it you discovered? you write and talk about this great talent and this potential and the difficulties she still sort of carries around with her. a lot of it, it seems, from her upbringing. yes, i think that what was interesting we got into why why are we sitting here talking about you getting into trouble? and what did you learn? i think we went back into when she first came to l.a. she was only 17. she was living with a man, wilmer, an actor. she said, you know, i had no one to guide me. no one to give me any structure and things just started to go haywire right from the beginning really. and yet at the same time she really defends her parenting. she depends her mom calling her amazing and some people might say for a 17-year-old girl not to have structure, not to have guidan guidance, living with a man in los angeles, maybe that actually maybe required a bit more intervention than she was able to get. she also had this huge explosion of celebrity around 2004. she was everywhere, making a lot of money and i think, you know, her mother was in long island and i don t think had a lot of contact with her at that point. i don t think there was a lot of guidance. she has a big movie she is now working on, playing the part of lyinda lovelace. she wants to get her career back, that s what she told you. do you have a sebs that she has an idea about how she can do that? i think she knows it s a kind of now or never moment for her. that she s reached a real crossroads and she s taking it very seriously. she knows people won t have a lot of patience for this going into the future and that she really has to get it together. while you are a reporter, may i ask just your gut reaction? she s just a beautiful girl and very sweet and, you know, lost, damaged. she s had a lot of dysfunctionality in her family. but the one thing about lindsay that everyone says is that she s talented. no one in hollywood will argue with that. this is a very talented young woman. i don t think we d be sitting exactly.n t.about it or caring and, you know, the truth is whether she can get it together, s quite possible we ve not seen her potential as an actress even though she s done some pretty amazing things. people compare her to jodie foster to one producer compared her to elizabeth taylor. i mean, she has a future if she can really deal with her issues. nancy, thank you for your perspective this morning. and the new issue of vanity fair with lindsay lohan is on the cover hits newsstands on thursday and the rest of the nation next week. and coming up next, the challenge of dealing with hearing loss in your family. chevy chase bank is becoming capital one bank. with the most locations in the dc area, we figured they could use our help. down a bit. too much. [ crowd cheering ] [ grunts ] [ garth ] capital one bank. now with the most branches and atms in the dc area. what s in your wallet? this morning on forever young living with someone who is losing their hearing. 36 million adults report some degree of hearing loss making it a challenge for loved ones of all generations. when it comes to sound the problem of hearing loss often falls on deaf ears. individuals of all ages experience hearing loss. for adults, it s probably the most prominent cause is environmental noise exposure or the genetic hearing loss of age. though hearing impairment is more common in older people, one in five teens and young adults exhibit some hearing loss. that incidence is going up as young people are more and more exposed to loud sounds. either through their ipods or whatever their technology is is often too loud. concerts are extremely loud. the subject hits home for the dimicos who have one child born with a hearing impairment. we ve learned to cope with the hearing loss by speaking directly to her, making sure i m at eye level with her, making sure that i have her full attention before i tell her something really important because i can t take for granted that she actually heard me. it really affects the family dynamic when you have a member of your family who can t hear. for miriam and howard quinn dealing with howard s diminished hearing was a challenge for years. i d say, let s go to dinner, for example, he d say, what do you mean i m not a good swimmer? i hated to keep on saying, what, what, what? sometimes he d walk right by me as if he didn t even hear what i was saying, and he didn t hear what i was saying, but i would get insulted thinking he s ignoring me. a lot of anxiety but you really can t communicate. upon the urging of his wife, howard started using a hearing aid, something many people with hearing loss resist. most patients who don t want hearing aids don t want them because they think they re visible. and what i try to explain to those patients is that what s visible is the hearing loss not the hearing aid. the small device made a big difference. now i have to hear everything. every word i say. what was the secret of success of your marriage? we didn t lear you. some tips objen how to deal h hearing loss. i don t think we spend enough time talking about the individual impact on an individual and a family. it s a tremendous impact on everyone because people feel diminished actually because they don t communicate that well. they feel frustrated. they don t understand a lot of what s going on and people start filling in the gaps for them and then they feel like they re not important in a conversation. and i think what people may notice first if you live with someone going through this is denial. a lot of times they don t want to admit it. people don t admit it for a number of reasons. sociated with a sign of aging ople want to resist and a of weakness and that they re just confused and people attribute to people who have hearing loss that they re just not a part of the party anymore and, also, hearing loss is usually a diminishing experience so that it progresses over time and you may hear certain things in some situations but not other things in other situations so you can believe that you don t have a hearing loss. and it s perceived as a weakness. if a person has a problem with eyesight, they go out and get contact lenses or glasses. there is a stigma attached to it. also, glasses, you know, you put your glasses on, you hear perfectly you see perfectly. hopefully you see perfectly, too. it doesn t always make things clearer and you still depend on the other person which is why the relationship is so important. you don t depend on another person when you have glasses. you have to have the other person s cooperation when you re trying to have a conversation. you have tips people should do to deal with hearing loss in their family. one physical space. it s so important, matt. pay attention to the lighting. candle lights are deadly. if you are looking at someone that the person you are trying to watch their face to understand what they re saying that the light isn t behind them, that you don t have a noisy environment. in a restaurant don t sit near the kitchen because the s hard to pick out what the ul person you need to listen to is saying. and you usually get just a piece of the conversation. so a lot of people who have hearing loss if they don t move back from the conversation and become withdrawn they jump in and try to take over. the other thing that s really important is we have to be patient with people who have hearing loss and we also have to be patient ourselves and try and be helpful. don t finish sentences for them and really keep them involved and try and encourage them to do things that will be helpful to the family, people lose their tempers a lot when they have a hearing loss because they get angry and don t shout at lk clearly and slowly. try and be calm. gail, thanks so much. of course. it s 8:49. up next, some grilling recipes for your labor day barbecue. know the species, know the stain. lanolin-free coat, i know it s an alpaca. walks in here, looks says hey look, it s a llama! cleaning the stain like he would a llama stain. time he s wasting. call 1-800-steemer allergies put me in a fog. now i m claritin clear. claritin works hard to relieve my worst symptoms without drowsiness. .so i stay as alert and focused as someone without allergies. for me, claritin is the perfect allergy medicine. i only live claritin clear this morning on today s kitchen we re going back to basics with great ideas for your labor day barbecue. our barbecue expert is the designer and creator of the pellet cooker grill. that s right. we ve also got chris lilly, the pit master of bib bob gibson s barbecue in decatur, alabama. good morning to both of you. nice to have you here. thank you for the opportunity to come. let me spin off to fast eddie. you talk about these grills and these things smoke, barbecue, they grill, they do everything. the star is the wood pellets, though, isn t it? they re pressed saw dust is what they are and they re eco-friendly, considered carbon neutral. 500 btus and come in apple, hickory, cherry, maple. you like to say gas only comes in one flavor and that s no flavor. exactly. there you go. that s what you re cooking with here. you like to use indirect heat a lot. we have direct and indirect. you can cook over the char broiler or indirect like the slow cook of your ribs. let s talk about some ribs here. you do this the night before you re going to cook them you rub them with brown sugar. i use a light brown sugar, rub them overnight. that sugar will melt down and then it will be a nice, sweet undertone flavor to your ribs. right before you cook them, 30 minutes, you put the rub on. the ingredients of your rub we re going to put on our website because there are a lot of them. it s a pretty complex rub. put it on 30 minutes before and then you cook them and then when do you put the glaze on? we ll put the ingredients of the glaze on as well. the last 15 minutes so you don t burn it. and all you re doing is just packing it up so it sticks to the ribs really nice. when i direct people to our website, check it out. this is a recipe that got you a perfect score in a competition, right? the 2000 world barbecue championships here in lebanon, tennessee, a 180. thank you. there you go. i have chris lilly over here with something that s ceramic. what s the advantage of working with this? it s a ceramic grill and runs off charcoal. charcoal means flavor. the charcoal adds another dimension to your barbecue. and what better way to capture it than on a ceramic grill? it has several advantages. it has insulation, multiwalled insulation right here so it s huggable. you can actually get down there and it s hot on the outside but it s cool inside. also, it s the most efficient cooker on the market. it burns very little charcoal which means less airflow which means the moisture stays in your cooker which means moist, juicy ribs and chicken. and talk about ribs and chicken, what i ve got here is a slab of ribs that s been cooking for about two hours with a nice dry rub on it. we re going to bump it up a notch, though, mix apple sider, honey, apple jelly and brown sugar. we re going to pour it over the top. pour it right over the top of that rib. plus a little extra added love. this is the dry rub and seasoning that we initially put on the rib. we re going to wrap it up. put it back in for how long? it s going to go on for about another hour until it gets tender. next we ve got our chicken. oh, look at this. this is an airline chicken breast with basil butter. why do you call it airline chicken? it has the one drummette bone here. they say that back in the 50s and 60s this fit nicely in the little airline compartment and it made the chicken look bigger. but basically you can do it with a skin-on chicken breast, salt, pepper, you baste it with basil butter over the top and look at this. look at this right here. look how it tastes. look at the juice coming right off of that. that s fantastic. it looks amazing. lesser? fast eddie, thank you very much. guys on the crew, jump in because jim bell s hovering here. uh-oh. you will not get any. 8:56 is your time now. 80 degrees. the weather is heating up. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. if you live in virginia, you ll have to wait until tomorrow at least to renew your driver s license or get an i.d. card at the dmv. that s when a computer glitch at the state database center in richmond should be fixed. mccdonnel is calling for an investigation into what happened. those whose licenses have expired will have to pro good morning. blue sky, bright sunshine. temperatures approaching 80 degrees. it will hit the mid 90s. with stagnant air in place, unhealthy air developing. more of the same tomorrow. jerry, how is the traffic? it s been a challenge on the beltway. inner loop at braddock road, still jammed leaving springfield. top side of the beltway, inner loop of the beltway at colesville road, that s at the shoulder. rockville pike begins the backup. ahead on news 4 mid day, how do drugstore beauty products do drugstore beauty products compare to the higher priced do drugstore beauty products compare to the higher priced navigating today s real estate market is complicated. you ve seen the signs. that s why having the right real estate agent is more important than ever. at remax.com, you can find experts in short sales or bank-owned properties or commercial real estate, agents who can help speed up the process, no matter how intricate. and that s good news, whether you re trying to sell or hoping to buy. because the only sign you really want to see is sold. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. back now with more of today on a tuesday morning. it is the last day of august 2010. our stage manager here, trying to get barbecue off my lips. it happens. it s a contact sport. out on the plaza matt lauer along with ann curry, tamron hall and al roker. that was good barbecue. oh, man. you have to go over there. you have to go fast. it s like a piranha feeding frenzy. it was really good. anyway, a lot of people talking about these storms lining up out in the atlantic, what s the deal? we re looking at earl. earl is our main concern right now. it s a category 4 storm. it s hit puerto rico, parts of the caribbean, causing some problems there. it will come up the coast and right now we re watching a trough of low pressure. that may have a big effect on it. this one could be a major problem and even doesn t have to come onshore. tropical force winds extend out 200 miles. when? friday? we re looking at thursday down and around the carolinas. okay. later on friday into saturday possibly affecting the northeast and new england. we ll get more information. take the rest of the morning off. thank you very much. we re going to be talking about how to lose weight. we have joy bauer answering our questions on things like how not to get bored. how to eat if you have a thyroid problem. addressing that presently. also talking to sandra bullock, the actress is spending a lot of time down in new orleans these days. she loves that city. her adopted hometown. also, speaking of adoption, she finalized the adoption of her son louie who is adorable. she talks about some of the passions in her life in an interview coming up. good to see her talking. also, we re talking about headaches, asthma, skin conditions, all things that are worsened because of stress. there are healthy alternatives, healthy ways to dealing with stress. so many other medical problems are just compounded when you think about the stress of daily life. take a look at cool ways or interesting ways to relieve the stress in your life. how do you relieve stress? eat iing the barbecue. watch your smoker go and you feel better. you watch someone else barbecue for you. golfing with you. we had a good time. a big group of us. lester holt is standing by with all the headlines. lester? here s what s happening in the news this morning. new developments in the arrest of two men in amsterdam. new amateur video from inside that flight from chicago shows the two men being met by dutch police. they re being questioned right now after airport screeners found watches and cell phones taped together in one of their suitcases. no explosives were found. investigators want to know whether the contents were part of an attempt to test airline security or some bizarre misunderstanding. any westward movement by hurricane earl could take it ashore along the u.s. east coast within days, as al has been reporting. on monday earl battered puerto rico in the northeast craribbea with heavy rain, high winds, damaging homes, causing some flooding, and knocking out power to thousands of people. president obama is thanking troops who served in iraq during a visit to ft. bliss, texas, today. ahead of a major oval office address, in a prime time speech he will announce the end of combat operations in iraq, seven years after the war began. the president is expected to say violence will continue in iraq and the role of the remaining 50,000 troops is to strengthen security. you can watch the president s address tonight at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific on nbc. the fda is describing filthy conditions at the iowa egg farms at the center of a national egg recall. in a report monday inspectors describe finding rodents, seeping manure and maggots at the farm. more than half a billion eggs have been recalled because of salmonella contamination. in his most revealing comments yet, fidel castro said he was at death s door when he was forced to give up power four years ago. in an interview monday the former cuban leader said he was weak, dangerously thin, and thought he couldn t go on living following emergency intestinal surgery. a large emerald found on a north carolina farm is the largest cut emerald ever found in north america. it was 310 karats discovered in the rough. it is now 64 karats. those are your headlines. let s go back out good morning. temperatures around 80 degrees with bright sun, blue sky. high pressure over us again today tonight, tomorrow into thursday, bringing us hot afternoons and cool mornings. and we also have stagnant air in place, so unhealthy air quality developing by mid afternoon. if you have a heart or respiratory illness, stay inside. thursday, cooler. we could get clouds from earl on friday. highs near 90 then. should be cooler with sun back on the weekend. seen such carnage? matt? i have some of it right in here, al. thanks very much. for oscar winner and new mom sandra bullock this has been the best and worst of times this year. now she s got reasons to smile. sandra bullock doing what she does best. close to 100% graduation rate, a school that has its very own health clinic. oh, my god, i m talking like a politician. no offense, but i need to be doing this. no pointing. only thumbs. i know. i ve learned that. that s sandra bullock addressing the crowd at the warren easton charter high school in new orleans which suffered more than $4 million in damages during hurricane katrina. thanks to the generosity of sandra and others the school and its students are now thriving and that s where i met up with her. and school board member arthur hardy. i started by asking arthur how sandra and the school got connected. she found us and through due diligence but called me on a sunday afternoon. she called you personally? yes, this is sandra bullock. i like to cold call people. people outstanding in the community. how you doing? what s happening? i m in the mardi gras business and i deal with crazy people every day, so when she said, this is sandra bullock, yeah, i m clark gable. i was about to hang up. who knows? no, it really is and it really was. pretty cool. and tell me how the conversation went. she knew what we were all about and i think had done enough work to know we were the real deal and then once she came and met the kids it was all over. i didn t have to sell anybody. money is one thing and something arthur has said in an interview in the past, okay, it s one thing for sandra bullock to come in here and give us some of her money or help us raise money but you said something else about her. you said she also arrived at a time where we need add cheerleader. and i was a cheerlead er. not a very good one in high school but i did my best. well you ve done well. i m speaking more in the general sense. i know, matt. that s exactly right. and the fear here i think in a lot of people s minds in new orleans is those same people who were most victimized by that hurricane have been left out of the recovery, that they aren t the ones who are enjoying the recovery. how do you feel about that? there are a lot of things that fell through the cracks during this storm and it was embarrassing. those cracks exist throughout the united states, throughout the world, and it just sort of opened up something i don t think people knew about or maybe didn t want to see. but right here under this roof there are souls and spirits and young people who don t come from any money but carry this extraordinary spirit to like override that, suck in every ounce of education the school provides and get out of here and create a life for them that is beautiful and fulfilling and filled with all those things that they might not have had. it s always going to be the way that people that shouldn t be left behind are left behind but let the school be an example how we don t need to let anyone be left behind. we ve known each other for a very long time. i don t admit to that. i will, i m proud of it. really? i don t think i ve ever heard the level of passion. where did the passion come from for this particular city? i spent so many summers and new years and fun times in new orleans. it was always a place where i felt like i could go and actually let go and enjoy the spirit of something. your connection to this city just got deeper. you finalized your adoption. i did, i did. and louie is from new orleans. he s from new orleans. he s a little cajun cookie. you are forever now hitched to this place. i am. how lucky am i? what was it like? when you finalized that, it s a long process. long process. as sterile as the room seemed, it felt so rich. it felt like it was time, you know, and the process is the way that the process is for very good reasons, and i did not circumvent. i wanted to do everything exactly the same way everyone else did. it was nice to have someone say, i think you re a fit parent, which is what i heard. which is like the water works began. the nicest thing i read that you said recently, you said even throughout the whole process i didn t care what he would look like or whether it would be a he or she. what color i just had faith that they were going to put me together with the right child. where did that faith come from? it doesn t always happen that way. i don t know. i don t know. everything works out the way the universe wants it to work out. and we always said that it didn t matter where the child came from. the child that needed us in the home is the child that s going to be placed. looking forward to your future with louie you said recently i want to feel the sun on our face when we go for a walk, not having to hide anymore, not having my friends and family lie anymore, telling everyone i meet about the most beautiful man i know including his poop schedule. pretty regular. hoe how close are you to that day? well, the poop schedule is pretty regular. i d like to share it with america. he s going to hate me. mom! we ll keep the tape. thanks so much. i was saying to a girlfriend like mine, no one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life that you are responsible for until you have a child in your life. it naturally shifts. it just shifted the first day i met him and it was like he d been there the whole time yet everything was different. so now louie has the stage. one thing i want to compliment you on, you managed to do something this year that is almost impossible. you have, a, kept a secret, concerning your adoption, and you found a way to retain privacy at a time where it wasn t all that private. it takes friends. it takes good people with integrity. i read something like how did someone keep a secret human beings exist that have integrity, that know how to keep their mouth shut, that know the bigger picture, that don t sell out their friend. those people are all over the place. again, we don t like to talk about it because it doesn t sell a magazine. i was blessed with the same friends i ve had since before things got really special for me and blessed in life and when things get bad, they re still the same friends. everything passes. it all passes but they just, you know, they know if they screw up, they re not coming on the next vacation. i m not going to babysit their kids. i will cut them. i will take them down. no premiere tickets. they don t really want to go to premieres which is kind of nice. i have friends and family that are filled with massive amounts of integrity. it shouldn t be an oddity. all in two words. what? no comment. i was speaking to a local journalist as part of the anniversary of katrina and at the end of him asking me questions he said, do me a favor, be nis to sandra. because she, to us here, is a hero. wow. making me teary. it s true. it s true. random acts of kindness. this whole city has fallen in love with her. she belongs to us. don t mess with sandra. i like that. i m serious. you heard her. you heard us. you d better be ready for a fight. sandra bullock and arthur hardy in new orleans. there s much more about the warren easton charter school at todayshow.com. and coming up next is almond butter better for you than peanut butter? what s a good way to stick to your diet? joy bauer has answers to your urgent diet questions. and still ahead on today s style great handbags that won t break your wallet. mmmmm. ( crash ) mmmmm. ( crash ) mmmmm. ( crash ) when you add velveeta to spicy rotel tomatoes and green chiles, you ve got a queso so good, it ll blow em away. mmmmm. ( crash ) - ha ha ha! - woo! - dang! velveeta & rotel. man, that s good! why does it say box tops for education on your soup? oh, it s a program that raises money for schools. that s great, but this is a can. yes it is. you can t have a box top on a can. yes we can. but a can isn t a box. we know. i don t think you do. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. 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. like 100% whole grain, the way triscuit does, you always end up with something delicious. triscuit. weave some goodness. leaves residue behind? finish jet dry rinse agent removes residue and dries dishes better than detergent alone two times better. for a brilliant shine every time. finish jet dry rinse agent. finish. the diamond standard. 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 this morning on joy s diet s.o.s. answers to your questions and concerns about how to keep your diet fresh to the right foods to eat if you re on thyroid medication. joy bauer who is a registered dietician is here with your bottom line. good morning. we re going to go to skype right off the bat. liz from maine, good morning, liz. what s your question? i have a problem every time i start a diet, after about two weeks i get really tired of the food and the process and it just seems like it doesn t get me anywhere. what can i do to help that? that s a good question. it is. liz, variety is going to be key for you and you re going to have to go out of your way to keep things fresh and interesting. here are a few suggestions. invest in a healthy, solid cookbook or borrow from a library or peruse online. and twice a week, you have to prepare something new. vary the ethnic cuisine, the seasoning, the flavor. the idea here is not to get in the rut of eating the same rabbit food day after day. the second thing i want you to do each and every week is try a new healthy food that you ve never tried before. maybe it s a whole grain, maybe it s korean pears or anything fennel, but something new. and the third thing, which is really important, is go out of your way to not repeat the same meals two days in a row. so in the morning for breakfast if you re having a healthy bowl of cereal with skim milk and sliced bananas. that s brilliant. it s a great breakfast but you can t eat it two days in a row. eat it every other day but something else on the alternate days. again, interesting and fresh. and you re going to be able to stick with the plan. good luck with it. i m positive. okay, thanks. bye-bye. next to the phone, maureen of woodstock, new york, and, maureen, good morning. what s your question? caller: good morning. how are you? i have been on synthroid and i was searching the internet for diet and thyroid and discovered there are certain foods that should be avoided when taking it like walnuts and soy products. now i like both of them and do i have to avoid them now? this is a great question. it s true that some foods do slightly i want to emphasize slightly decrease the absorption of thyroid medications when they re ingested simultaneously, walnuts, your soy foods and high-fiber foods like beans and high fiber cereals and dark green vegetables. the effect is minimal. wait at least two hours after you take your thyroid medication to enjoy these foods. you absolutely don t have to give these foods up. just wait about two hours after taking your medication and you will be fine. caller: thank you. you re welcome. and you re kind of almost like our diet fairy because you re tinkling very nice. i like it. our viewer e-mail now, ashley from manchester, vermont, writes i recently started eating almond butter in place of peanut butter. is it nutritionally better for you than peanut butter? this is a good question. i ve switched over. the answer is no. because they re very, very similar when you look at the nutrition profiles. they re both excellent choices. they provide healthy fats, a little bit of protein, and a whole lot of vitamins and minerals. the bottom line is choose the nut butter whether it s peanut butter or almond butter that you like most. should you look at the label because there could be sugar and salt. keep it clean. ultimately buy natural brands. it should really only say that particular nut and possibly salt and also keep in mind that all nut butters and seed butters are ca calorically dense. one tablespoon, a level tablespoon, is about 100 calories. so don t dig in. right. otherwise you have to double up what the serving size says. al roker. all right. tinkle. we like it. coming up the detrimental effects stress can have on your body and what you can do to handle it better. if you fight to sleep in the middle of the night, why go one more round ? you don t need a rematch, but a rethink. with lunesta. lunesta is thought to interact with gaba receptors associated with sleep. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. lunesta has some risk of dependency. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness, and morning drowsiness. stop fighting with your sleep. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. get lunesta for a co-pay as low as zero dollars at lunesta.com discover a restful lunesta night. [ female announcer ] yoplait s real fruit and the goodness of dairy gives you a little slice of happy. and happiness comes in 25 delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. to create a technologically advanced clog-buster and pipe-wall cleaner. liquid plumr foaming pipe snake. unleash the power of the plumr. i couldn t sleep right. next day it took forever to get going. night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower. or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. i felt.better. thank you, breathe right! [ male announcer ] breathe better, sleep better, feel better. now try breathe right for free. at breatheright.com. [ woman ] it s my right to breathe right. isn t it your right, too? no menu needed. have you heard about our never ending pasta bowl? wait a minute. announcer: the never ending pasta bowl! with new sauces like our creamy parmesan portobello. choose all the sauce and pasta combinations you want for just $8.95. at olive garden. [ female announcer ] the best way to tell how great you look is in your jeans. drop a jean size in two weeks with the special k challenge and enjoy a good source of fiber in many of your favorite special k products. jeans don t lie. go to specialk.com to design your plan. pay close attention. handbags for fall that won t break the bank. for dessert lovers. often, the best part of a meal is the dessert. but sometimes after a busy day and a heavy greasy dinner. my system needs some tlc. now there is something new. introducing activia dessert. rich, silky, smooth yogurt with desserty flavors like strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, and peach cobbler. and because it s activia, it helps regulate my digestive system. mmm. works for me. activia new activia dessert. now with nutriummoisture. adding nourishment to freshness. so you can revitalize your mind and nourish your skin. dove go fresh with nutriummoisture. fresh at its best. ya. uhhuh. mhhmm. oh i know. that was cute. right. honey eat. 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(lab girl) trust resolve. forget stains. 9:26 is your time now. 85 degrees. tom will have your forecast after the news. i m eun yang. it s tuesday, august 31, 2010. you ll have to wait until tomorrow to renew your driver s license or get an i.d. card at a dmv office if you live in virginia. that s when a computer glitch should be fixed. the problems started last thursday and affects all dmv offices across the commonwealth. they can do no work that involves pictures. now governor bob mcdonnell is calling for an independent investigation into what happened. that won t help virginians who have to wait fo get their new i.d.s. good morning. temperatures now near 80. climbing into the 90s mid afternoon. looks like we ll repeat this tomorrow. maybe a bit cooler thursday. could get some clouds from earl friday. how is traffic? minimal delays along 270. travel lanes are open through rockville down the split. and one more stop. we ll head on over, heavy on 395, beginning just above the pentagon at the 134th street bridge. eun? hello, jerry. how do drugstore beauty products compare to the higher priced alternatives? i think there s millions of people out there that wake up in a life that they didn t choose for themselves, and that s what i found in my life. i never chose tennis. i didn t choose it until i was 27 years old. that s tennis legend andre agassi on his complicated relationship with tennis. he s back in town for the u.s. open and opening up once again about his emotional exit from the stage, his family, and his blockbuster book. he will be here to share it all tomorrow on today. speaking of tennis, check out this incredible between the legs shot from roger federer. back to the net at the baseline. it happened at the u.s. open on monday. believe it or not, made the same amazing shot last year. his opponent shrugs and says, he can do that, i m not doing that and then federer of course, went on to win. spectacular. he practices that when no one is looking? you have to be careful when you practice that. that s true. his voice is not that high so i think he s successful at it. a different part in the choir. that was fun. also, by the way, coming up this morning we ll be talking about what experts are estimating up to 90% of all doctors visits are rela related to stress and stress related problems. 90%. well, we have some tips this morning on how to avoid stress. you may not be able to avoid it but how to deal with it. some deal with stress by shopping. never a good idea but especially if you re me or on a budget. however, today we have the hottest happened bandbags for f bucks or less. just in time for my birthday. some ideas. i ll take them all. you tell us which ones you want. 50 bucks or less. if you re trying to lose extra pounds, you hear about carbs, cutting them out, good carbs, bad carbs, today the carbs lover diet and why creators say you can eat bread and still lose weight. it kind of goes against conventional wisdom. i have a feeling it will only be a little crust. the right kind of carbs. a check of the another blue sky day for us. we ll have our temperatures climbing into the mid 90s by mid afternoon. pleasant now, upper 70s to around 80 or so. humidity won t be too bad. with stagnant air in place by mid afternoon, unhealthy air developing. that will probably happen gn tomorrow. thursday a bit cooler. we could see clouds friday from hurricane earl as it tracks east of the atlantic beaches during the day friday. there could be tropical showers at the beaches. and that s your latest weather. al, thanks very much. up next, healthy ways to handle your stress. you know what, this looks just like the tree house i built with my dad. (girl) really? yeah. there you go. okay, i m gonna work on the roof. dad, i ll be right back! (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. you made that for me? well you re making this for me. (announcer) choosey moms, and dads, choose jif. hey, little dude. dinner s my middle name. how bout some hamburger helper? oh, my, but your mouth is gonna love it. and your wallet s gonna be pretty happy, too. now this is the deal of the day. hamburger helper.one pound, one pan, one tasty meal. fortunately, there s senokot-s tablets. senokot-s for occasional constipation associated with certain medications. find the relief that s right for you and get a $10 rebate at getconstipationrelief.com. announcer: healthier living today is brought to you by kashi. seven whole grains on a mission. this morning on our special series healthier living today: the effects of stress on your body. how you manage stress can have a big impact on your health. a contributor for women s health magazine, good morning to you. good morning, ann. i was stressed out read that go intro just now. stress is actually caused when we have an emotional or physical we feel under threat emotionally or physically. we all sort of know that, but what happens actually to our bodies that could actually be damaging for us? what happens when you re stressed, your body releases two sets of chemicals. it releases adrenaline and that causes the classic fight or flight response, causes your blood pressure to go up, gets your muscles primed for action and causes the relet of cortisol and gives us fuel for energy and these are effective for the short term because they increase productivity but over time it can be harmful for us. harmful for the country because according to research stress has cost the industry more than $300 billion a year. some 75% to 90% of all doctors visits are for stress related ailments and complaints. this is a big, big deal and how we handle stress is affected by a number of factors. yes, it certainly is. well, first off, when you want to tolerate stress, you have to really take care of yourself and that is going to allow you to tolerate stress better. so eating well, getting enough sleep, taking care of your house establishes a foundation for you to be able to take it on more easily. and maybe also the quality of our relationships with people. sure. there s lots of other factors. what are the expectations of us? what sort of demands do we put on ourselves? are we overwhelmed at work? do we have a good support system? do we have good relationships with people in our lives? all of those play a role into how well we can can tolerate stress. i also notice that children actually suffer stress and they have also symptoms of stress. sometimes you were talking earlier before this interview that if your child is suffering from a queasy stomach, that could be stress related. it certainly can and children will have different symptoms than adults do. they may not say my heart is racing or i m feeling anxious, mommy, my stomach hurts, or i m having some loose stool. okay. so now that we ve established that stress is a big problem and we all sort of knew that already, what can we actually do about it? how can we manage our stress better? there are two approaches. first, the most direct and most effective way is to exercise and to meditate. exercise is going to reduce the stress hormones that we just talked about so it s going to lower your blood pressure, lower your heart rate, decrease all the damage stress does and also meditation will do the same thing, lowers your heart rate, and is effective for stress management. those are two proactive things you can do. just a walk would be a good idea, for example, rather than having the coffee break, go out for a walk? there are so many things you can do, little things, like set limits. don t overschedule yourself. learn to say no if your schedule is too overwhelming especially on the weekend. weekends are for relaxing. during the workweek, during your coffee break, take a walk, get fresh air. on your lunch break, don t talk work with your colleagues. clear your head. avoid things that are going to make you more sensitive like drugs, alcohol and smoking. they will impact your stress and establish a good social support system. we re so busy it s hard to maintain friendships. it s good to have friends you can talk to about your problems because then you re able to handle stress better. if you don t know how to meditate, that s something you want to think about, breathe deeply. that s usually the best first step. that is a great first step, ann. thank you so much this morning. and coming up next, the latest and greatest bags for 50 bucks or less coming up. [ female announcer ] kids who don t eat breakfast may not be getting the nutrition they need to keep their bodies strong. a nutritious start to the day is essential. that s why carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast. so kids get the protein and calcium they need to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. should we order panda blossom, panda moon. how about chinese at home with wanchai ferry? you can make it in just 14 minutes. mmmh, orange chicken. great. i didn t feel like going out anyway. [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry. restaurant quality chinese in your grocer s freezer. where? it s really good. do you see it? it s called hope. hope? yeah. hope. i don t see any hope. i don t see any hope in here. you can t see it there, but you can see it here. cause every time you get a happy meal or a mighty kids meal some of the money goes to ronald mcdonald house charities. to help lots of kids and families. hope s good! happy meals. the simple joy of helping. happy meals. the simple joy of helping. activia has delicious news for dessert lovers. often, the best part of a meal is the dessert. but sometimes after a busy day and a heavy greasy dinner. my system needs some tlc. now there s something new. introducing activia dessert. rich, silky, smooth yogurt with desserty flavors like strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, and peach cobbler. and because it s activia, it helps regulate my digestive system. mmm, works for me. new activia dessert. activia quick.what color are my eyes? almay intense i-color brings out your natural color so there s no guessing. it s the number one eye intensifying collection in america. and it s my number one too. more women use almay intense i-color than any other eye intensifying brand. the mascara, liner and shadow come in four shade collections. one for every eye color. now that s intense. intense i-color. the number one eye intensifying collection in america. only from almay. only for me. this morning on today s style fall handbags. the new season is the perfect excuse to update your favorite accessory. but if you re looking for style without splurging, we have the trendiest all for under $50. contributing style editor for glamour, tracy, good morning. under $50. i love it. does this mean it s the end of the it bags that are several hundred dollars? yes. the it bag. most of us never had $1,000 to spend on a bag. we re getting much more practical. we re not compromising style. they will be chic and fabulous. bags that go over your body. the cross body bag. this is a big trend we re seeing. it s an alternative to the clutch. this is practical. you can still stowe all your stuff for evening but wear it across and it s comfortable. and these are beautiful selections. this one is only $40. it looks much more ex pepsive. and this great one which is $50. very nice. and i love this color. it makes you feel good looking at it. it goes with everything. and the other trend, studded bags. those are a big trend. they started off kind of punk rock so you think of the black with the silver but now they ve evolved. this is a much more feminine take. and one is $13? this little one from target. this is only $13. it has little spots for your card and money and you can put your phone and lip gloss and you re good to go for the night. you get a little funk without going too far. very nice. now the next category you have work bags under $50. yep. you have to drag all your stuff to work. you need your laptop, your file so you need room. there s no reason you can t look cute while doing it. you can go straight from work to cocktails with. this one is from payless. a lot of people might remember the winner of project runway. he s now making big, fabulous, expensive dresses. also doing a line for payless. this is $45. it has such a chic, expensive look. it has an expensive look with the gold hardware. that looks very nice. this one from newport news which is gray, a neutral that goes with everything in your wardrobe. great alternative and only $39. i love the texture. it looks so nice. and lady like frame bags. this is a big, big trend for fall. a lot of the clothes we see are elegant, sophisticated, tailored. the perfect bag to compliment. you have the retro thing going on. a bag with structure and shape. this is from endless,.com. it s only $47. and the color is offwit. you can wear white after labor day. you can incorporate this without somebody saying you re out of season? cam sl a big color and this is perfect. i like this one, the layered colors. that s quite stylish. this is only $29. it also has the strap on the back so you can wear it long or just carry it up on top with this little handle. it does look mad men, classy. and the last category, totes. we have color. bright, bold. neutrals are big, big for fall. camel, gray, this is a great way to add a pop of color. some women might see this bold color and think, i can t wear orange in the fall or that s overwhelming. you re like, no way. i think it s the ex mra nation point of a stylish sentence. if you want to wear all black and do a subtle look, this is your one pop of color. it won t overwhelm you. you don t have to worry about how to pull it off. and the red is really rocking, too. this is from emotion, $50. this is from shopforsparkles.com. we ll take them all. i have to stay on a budget. thank you very much, tracy. up next the carb lovers diet that lets you have pizza and still lose weight. is that possible? this morning on eat smart today adding carbohydrates back into your meals, pasta, bread, potato chips and pizza. there s a new diet created by health magazine who say the carbs in these foods are an essential part of your diet and will make you happier, healthier, and thinner. frances and ellen are the authors of the carb lovers diet. good morning. good to have you both here. good morning. this goes against everything conventional wisdom tells us about good health and losing weight. i know. i know. what s the science we re talking about here? the carb lovers diet is built around resistant starch, a type of carbohydrate that helps you burn fat and feel fuller on fewer calories. so things like this, we re looking at the grain everything has a brown look here. is that the theme? i know, i know. that is the theme. but bananas, these slightly green bananas have 12.5 grams of resistant starch in just one banana and experts who study resistant starch say we should be getting between 10 and 15 grams a day. one of those bananas gets you for the day. and you talk about good and bad carbs. we have potato chips. yeah, we do. isn t that great? i think that s the greatest thing about the carb lovers diet. you can eat the things you love and still lose weight. potato chips he have resistant starch in them. if you have a small snack size resistant starch meaning it is a type of starch that resists digestion. okay. all right. it has that in there. baked in there and if you eat fat, it s only in 24 potato chips, it s only 150 calories, one gram of saturated fat, and it s incredibly satisfying. so that s perfect. we re talking about a one-ounce bag not this giant bag. there s also a portion control component. absolutely. yes. you have to eat the foods in the portions that we describe in the book, which you ll see here in our delicious recipes, but you feel more satisfied. so there are different ways to slice 1,200 calories or 1,600 calories and our dieters tell us they feel energetic and they feel totally satisfied on the carb lovers. and they re losing a lot of weight. whereas when you try to cut carbs you end up in the yo-yo thing. absolutely. it s very important to know these low carb diets everyone has been on, there s new research and it shows that people who are the slimmest actually eat the most carbs and the heaviest people eat the fewest carbs. let s look at the things, the recipes you include in the book. pancakes but not just any pancake. blueberry oat with maple syrup. we make the pancakes with oats and cottage cheese. delicious. 4.6 grams of resistant starch. imagine you get to eat pancakes for breakfast. that s what makes it so satisfying and something people can stick with for life. i cut out pancakes recently and it s killing me. bring these back. they taste delicious. pasta is another thing people think, ah, i love pasta but it s not doing it for me. it s just too heavy. this is our mediterranean pasta salad. artichokes are superhigh in fiber. again, this is a fiber packed diet. we know we need more fiber in our diet and when pasta cools, it doubles the resistant starch. so you shouldn t serve it hot? you should let it cool. it s best at room temperature this particular dish. and then you can have a burger with the bun. how about that? and you can have steak with potato. what s better than that? not to sneak up on you but we saw burger. reese s peanut butter? you can have that on the side. or a glass of wine. one. all right. there s no down side. feeling full and losing weight. they are able to lose weight and keep it off. good to have you both here. thank you. thank you so much. coming up, ann and nancy wilson from heart. 9:56 is your time now. 84 degrees. lovely morning in the nation s capital. blue skies and sunshine. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning. i m eun yang. in the news today, frederick county lawmakers are expected to discuss an immigration law similar to the one passed in arizona. it would require police to question people about their immigration status if officers have reason to believe they re in the country illegally. prince george s county is set to endorse baker for county executive, hoping to succeed current county executive jack justice. turning now to the forecast, tom, so far, so good. we know things will get hot out there. quickly, too. near noontime, near 90. right now it s beginning to climb into the 80s and will hit mid 90s by mid afternoon. with stagnant air, we ll have unhealthy air quality by mid afternoon. we will repeat this wednesday, a bit cooler thursday. and then earl coming within 50 to 100 miles of the atlantic beaches out in the atlantic may give us clouds friday with highs near 90. over the weekend we ought to get sunshine back saturday, sunday into monday. how is the traffic, jerry? live look this hour, 395 northbound, looks like the delays have eased to and across the bridge. 270, call it pretty much cleared out for the morning from montgomery village all the way on down. eun? on news 4 midday, how do from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. it s tuesday, known around here as booze day. it s august 31st. hoda has the day off. look who is sitting in her chair today, jill martin. hello. good to see you sweetheart. you already have me laughing and drinking. we re going to talk about your sex life, but i don t think too many we better leave time for that. or not so much time. or a lot of time. we know you from the fashion segments and she s the hot author of this, just delivered your second book yesterday to you re mutual agent. i have nothing to wear. it will be out in the spring. so let s walk down memory lane a little bit with our jill martin. i first met you when? you don t remember. when i started working here, we met 15 years ago. i was at university of michigan, my first internship was at regis and kathie lee. when i came back to see you and i said it s nice to see you again, i said i interned for you back in the day. you said you did? did you look like this then? and i said, what do you mean? she said, because i would have remembered. that s what i looked like. i still don t remember you. isn t that something? my gosh, you ve had a m metamorphis. my mother said that s not such a great picture of you. did you get a lot of work done? and then zoom in on this one. you ll love this. this is regis and i, and i cut bangs myself. that was my big idea. you could relate. i cut bangs. jill, this is truly disturbing. now you know why it s regis too not having a good day either there. i can t believe this is you. whether they pull up how did you become this swan? when did that happen? that s nice. i shed a few pounds, worked outle a little bit and grew up. that was 15 years ago, that picture. and then you got your first on-air work in the sports world, right? yes. i was a sportscaster in miami. i worked for the miami heat. but this is the best story, because you when i walked in, you said did you look like? i said i would have remembered you. that s very shallow of me. i would have remembered that. i won t take offense. anyway, you were very nice to me. i would hope so. you re here three months and barely see them and they re gone. you were very good to me. oh, i m glad. i m better to you now, baby. yes. so tell us about your never been married? never been married, never been engaged, never been close. why not? well, you think it s because i date the wrong men. i personally do think that. some of them are very nice guys. some are. i think it s because i think a lot of women can relate to this. i like the excitement, and i know this sounds sort of cliche, but i love first kisses and first dates, i love the excitement of that. not that i m not ready to give that up, but i have not been swept off my feet. i ve had three long relationship that is haven t led to marriage. vant dating anyone seriously in years. you still have that with frank. we came back from nantucket, and you say it like that. we came back from nantucket and he was standing there, and you re laughing. not so much. he was standing there, and look, he s so handsome. you still have that energy. he is. i m teasing. he s a doll. i m waiting for that. have any guys been your best friend? i know you had that too with him. we were friends for four years before we fell in love. there was a trust thing. it can be tested in a long marriage obviously, but that was the basis of it. you date bad boys. let s be honest. i know. you know how excited all the prisoners are right now. hey, guys, jill likes you guys. you take it in darcht way. people set me up light and i date along but it s first dates and dinners. no one has knocked my socks off. we ll have an interview today with a woman you can relate to. she wrote a booked called 51 50. 51 dates in 50 weeks. she had quite a roller coaster ride with these guys. i actually saw her outside and said, we have a lot to talk about here. she talks about whether you grow in a relationship wlor whether u grow out of a relationship and meet someone. i thought it was interesting. she said she was looshgiking the perfect man. i could have told her right off the bat he doesn t exist. what else do you want to talk about? you watched last night the big housewives reunion, right. i don t watch the show but i watched the reunion. i guess it will get huge ratings. if i picked you up and shoved like they did with andy cohen, they would too. i hear they were at each other s throats. do we have a clip. do you acknowledge your nephew? you do? yes, of course i did. yes. that s funny, because don t get in my face. don t break on my family you [ bleep ]. get out of my face. do not break on my family you [ bleep ]. that s such an unfortunate dress to be leaning over in. this is where andy loves to be pushed around. he then comes back and says pleeps don t cross me and he sits them down. i mean, all right. even though you don t watch the show the jersey shore gives new jersey a bad name. they got it. i watch jersey shore. it s entertaining. this upsets me. i think they re coming on later this week. that s a totally made-up situation sitting there. how many people have andy cohen sitting around in their living room. i do. those women are not friends and why would they be in the same room. when you put artificial situations together if we lived in a house for a month and had nothing, we d be at each other s throats, too. i don t think so. we road to nantucket for a weekend, so we had a lot of this. there s always that. caroline, like the one that s sane, we had her sons the other day on the man s panel. they were a lot of fun. she talks about shaving her face. tell me about that. you know, i thought this was interesting last night, because i think that everyone went, women shave their face? a lot of people don t talk about. it s called dermaplaning in dermatology. women with scruff on their face i ve got peach fuzz. i hate it. we hate hair naanywhere. you hate it so much and you did it? there gu. i lasered. her entire body. the woman is like a hairless chihuahua. in case you were wondering but the laser takes two years, but it actually works. i don t like hair either, but i mean, you, this is some sort of psychosis. i go on vacation and i go away and you never need to shave. everyone agrees, right? it s very expensive? probably the whole process is $25 hundred over two years, but if you add up waxings in between them. she was talking about the dermaplaning where you take a razor to your face and sthahave. doesn t it come back worse? women do it. she says she used it as an exfoliator. i think nobody talks about it and everybody how did women get dates in the 1800s? they didn t even have tweezers then? no tweezer and cell phones or pics. it was much easier. do you have a perfect man? is there like a george clooney type guy? no. a chubby man with a belly that is really bright. if you look at my sorry. if you look at my track record. there s anthony. antho anthony is your kind of guy. he could be single. he s not presently. i don t. this is the real answer to that. i really like an honest man. an honest man. i know the bad boy honest man doesn t really go together, but he s out there. we ll meet this gorgeous guy and he says right off the bat i m going to break your heart. he could. we ll have a lot of e-mails from moms saying that s what i usually get. i have a son who is 37. we got a lot of those. sarah, hello my darling. hi. they announced last nights the dancing with the stars. we haven t got into it because we re talking about her sex life. why don t we ask everybody at home to send us in who they wish dancing with the stars had picked. we ve had a ton of votes for you and hoda. crystal wants to see frank giffo gifford. would he do it? you know what? no, no, no. the one thing frank can do is whistle. he s extremely good at it. he has no rhythm at all. maybe america s got talent. he s done enough really well. you said you would have done dancing with the stars. after the operations on my feet and everything else, and it s a huge commitment. do you know how hard it is you d be good. you can sing and dance. there s no singing involved. what s happening? we re getting a ton of write-ins. suzanne would love to see lenny from the plaza. amelia wrote in paula deen. she would be fabulous. cory wrote in neil patrick harris which would be a shoo-in. andrea wrote in lindsay lohan. she s available. it s money. a lot of things we didn t talk about today because of your sex life. up next, speaking of heart, they are back with their first new album in six years. rocking sisters ann and nancy wilson right after this. [ mom ] i can t start the first grade with her. i can t hold her hand on the bus. or be there to show everyone how great she is. but what i can do is give her everything she needs to be excited for school, while staying in my budget. that s why i go to walmart. she has everything she needs. and then some. [ female announcer ] walmart has low prices on not just a few things, but everything on their back-to-school list. guaranteed. save money. live better. walmart. and you have that moment of. oh, yeah! well. this. is mine. sprinkled with cinnamon, sparkling with taste. cinnamon toast crunch. enjoy the cinnsation. [ female announcer ] maybelline redefines plum. [ woman ] the color of elegance. [ female announcer ] color sensational from maybelline new york. pure pigments for richer, crisper color. honey nectar for our most luscious feel. color sensational. [ woman ] maybe it s maybelline. [ man ] today the world looks mighty fine [ women ] pop-tarts happy sunshine time! [ man ] grab a pop-tart and you might just start to sing songs like a meadow lark stretch and yawn blow a kiss to mom cause pop-tarts mornings are the bomb so, rise and shiiiiine [ female announcer ] yoplait s real fruit and the goodness of dairy gives you a little slice of happy. and happiness comes in 25 delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. if you grew up in the 80s xhanxhan chances are you made out to one of their songs, and if you didn t you were too busy teasing your hair to get it as high as theirs. heart sold over 30 million albums and still have lots of heart left. the new cd red velvet car comes out today. we re thrilled to have you ladies. it drops today. it drops today right out of the sky. the first one in six years. how come? we were touring and i made a solo album, we re both mothers. i released another instrumental album called baby guitars for helps babies fall asleep, and it works. it absolutely works. do you enjoy those times separate from one another and it s more fun to come back together again, or did you just need a break? we don t hear about you guys fighting at all. you would be a lousy show on television, right? we actually miss each other when we re not together working, which is odd for sisters. that s the first question. do you guys fight? we kind of think maybe now we should like stage a fight or, you know yeah. like you did on the cover of people magazine. like the slip you shclip you somebody goes nuts on the other person on television. it s not worthwhile unless it s on tv, right? exactly. you each have two kids. what is it look for them to see your hair in those days and the videos and reinvented on american idol must have been something for nem? that must be really surreal for my daughter. i have a 19-year-old daughter, and for her to see these videos that were made just before she was born, you know, where the hair was out to hear and the clothes were so crazy. surely she knows that. she has a cool mom. well, you know, if you ve grown up with somebody you re no lady gaga. you were mine. who do you you look at now and say wow? lady gaga. my kids love lady gaga. lady gaga is talented and pink and taylor swift. really great, strong role models out there. a lot of gralam, too. are your kids talented? they re very tal lenentedtal. we don t push them in that direction. it s a lifestyle that must be a calling. you have to want it. you guys have toured all these years. you leave your families behind. we take the families with. once they get into school, isn t it hard? then we don t tour when they re in school. so unrock starrish. we were just talking about your husband cameron crowe. jerry maguire keeping running. on frank gifford film. he stole that. this is interesting grooming. thanks. i got the idea from general mills big g cereals. they put a white check on the top of every box to let people know that their cereals have healthy whole grain, and they re the right choice. (announcer) general mills makes getting whole grain an easy choice. just look for the white check. can your moisturizer do that? [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that s healthy skin for life. only from aveeno. hey, you guys. want to try soactivia s great new taste?. isn t this the yogurt that, you know. helps regulate your digestive system. trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm. this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it s free! what do you call a cheese that isn t yours? i don t know. nacho cheese! [ laughs ] see, cuz it s not your cheese but i said nacho . [ clears throat ] la, la, la, la, la, can t hear you. la, la, la, la, can t hear you. okay. la, la, la, la, can t hear you!! .that s when i decided to fully invest in my 401k. 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[ male announcer ] fiber one chewy bars. on the field he s the all-star catcher for the yankees but off the field jorge posada and his wife are activists. in 1999 they are son was born with a birth detect that led him to endure eight surgeries. they write about it in their new book called the beauty of love. we re so glad you re with us today. thank you for having us. he s had eight surgeries, and you had a perfect pregnancy, right? you weren t expecting anything. when did you notice something wasn t quite right? i would say after ten days. we went back to the doctor, and you know, his head didn t look normal. so, you know, in puerto rico we were really upset the way he was looking. so we went to the doctor, and we did some tests and x rays and sure enough he had cranial stenosis. i m sure you hadn t heard the word before. what was your first thought when you were told in? we did some research, but that word meant like chaos. for us it was really tough at beginning, and you know, knowing that your son was going to get operated on and hoping he ll be okay from one ear to the other ear. we had to wait eight months because the bones weren t strong enough to do the operation. that first eight months was really tough. that s when i read what you wrote. you were paralyzed you went from being this lawyer and fabulous woman to in your pajamas lying in bed not know what to do, helpless. it was the worfirst ninthing life couldn t control or make better. i filter guilty and ashamed and embarrassed and angry, all these emotions that were all new to me. i didn t know what to do. it was really, really frustrating to have my son there, and then he wouldn t stop crying. so i didn t really know when one day i didn t really know when one day started and when one day ended. after this fairy tale life all of a sudden something like this happens, and you realize i know. we need some kleenex please. your whole world goes topsy-turvy, what happened to you as a couple during that? did it make you stronger? i think so. i think so. i think that we really didn t discuss the operations or, you know, what s going to happen. we really didn t talk about it. we made a pact. we said we don t want to talk about it. the more we talk about it, the more we will suffer. he needed to play baseball. that was his job. at a certain level. our son was there, and we played with him. we kept him pretty busy. you kept it quiet. nobody knew. jill said she covered you many times and had no idea this was going on. it s amazing in the 99 world series you said you were in the parade and going down and life was perfect, and you just kept it because you didn t want the world to know at that point and expose him like that. we didn t want people to feel sorry for us. jorge had to perform. he didn t want people to worry that he couldn t, you know, do his job on the field. well, you did your job on the field beautifully. the book is so special. i m sorry. we re totally out of time, but it hits stores today. you will love this love story on so many levels. we ll be back. yes! look, they fit! oh my gosh, are those the jeans from last year? how d you do it? eating right.whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have healthier body weights. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories. more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios. more grains. less you! at pso, we set out tot your dog to discover the science inle. some of nature s best ingredients. we created purina one with smartblend. new, delicious shredded morsels and crunchy bites, with real meat, wholesome grains and antioxidants, for strong muscles, vital energy, a healthy immune system, and a real difference in your dog. purina one improved with smartblend. discover what one can do. hey, you guys. want to try activia s great new taste? isn t this the yogurt that, you know. helps regulate your digestive system. trust me. it is beyond tasty. mmm. this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it s free! first timers, old pros, heated rivals, you can t do the wave by yourself. and just like we mix and mingle, so do the delicious tastes and textures in every handful of chex mix. we re made to mix. aaa is out with its travel forecast for the labor day weekend. coming up on news 4 midday, what to expect on the roads and if hurricane earl could cause havoc on the beaches. drugstore makeup and beauty products, we ask the we re back with today s beauty and those too common hair faux pas. whether it s the wrong color or cut, we have help. today show contributor and stylist to the stars louis vacarri has fabulous hair makeovers. always great to see you. my partner in crime. i know. i m a little heartbroken, but we re still together. you ll be back on friday. we have three ladies, right? the first lady s name is taylor, and she s 22 years old, just moved to new york city. we caught her roaming around the plaza, and she told us why she needed a makeover. i just moved here to new york city, and i need a hair makeover. my mare heir is curly and dry and every day i throw it up in a ponytail. i need to improve my hair, both the texture and color. louis, you thought she had beautiful hair but didn t think it was the right color. obviously, she was a great-looking blonde but i thought i could make it prettier. i picked my favorite color. it s going to be red. let s bring taylor out now and see the new you. wow. look at that. that s awesome. have a seat, darling. you look beautiful. doesn t she look beautiful. this is a soft golden red. all the reds should have a copper or golden base to look totally natural. look how it looks with her skin color. she should have been born a redhead. jennifer lawrence gave her a great layered bob and left the front a little longer, which gives her a sexy look. she s 23. she does have a boyfriend, fe a fell fellas, so she s off the market. but jill s still available. she looks beautiful. do you love it? it s light and fresh. it s great. it s so young and flirty. it brings out your eyes. eye color, skin color. that s what hair color is all about. our next victim is 24-year-old dorothy who just started a new job on monday. she s looking for a mother put-together and professional hairstyle. let s hear what she had to say about why she needed a makeover. i need your help. i need a hair makeover. i have never colored my hair in my life, and i don t know what to do with it. it s straight, it s curly, it s thick and i m at a loss. i need your help. a lot of people with dark hair think it s dark and not gray. do i need dlcolor it? she doesn t need to. why not have change? the old-fashioned view was you colored hair only when it s gray. you color your hair to have fun with your hair color. you use hair color like cosmetics. to get what nature didn t give you. let s take a look at the new dorothy. wow. she is so pretty. that s so pretty. again, the whole trend in this season s color is hair color should look like it belongs to you, not me. in other words, it should look like your hair. this does. this is where we warmed up the hair color. it s a small difference but a significant difference. the great thing about when you have do do a small change with hair color, you wear less makeup. a a little color in the hair means you don t have to wear as much makeup on the face. gorgeous. it frames your face. lastly we have 39-year-old stephanie married with twin 5-year-old girls. let s hear what stephanie has to say about why she wants soort of a mommy makeover. the same boring haircut for as long as i can remember. it s super thick and takes me forever to dry, but i need something easy to maintain. i m a working mom here in new york city. could you give me some help, please? okay. so mom hair. what are we talking about? she feels boring. she wanted something a little bit more glamorous and she had the gift of very thick hair. she s got nice hair. it s beautiful hair. but it was too much of a good thing. so we wanted to cut into the bub bulk. let s look at her today. let s see the new stephanie. come on out, hon. oh, yeah. stephanie wanted to not look so much like a mom. i gave her a more glamorous look bi by making her blonder. it s done with highlights. the big before and afters, she had it light and dark. now it s more creamy, softer. just much more glamorous. she doesn t look like a mom anymore. jennifer again cut into the bob and made it tight around the sides and left the length to keep it sexy in the front. she looks like she looks beautiful. i love that cut. i like that. it s just gorgeous. what is the big thing this fall would you say for is it the bob? long hair? what s going on? i think it s definitely the bob to long hair. if you can wear short hair and it has a lot of style, too. the biggest thing is wlaefr looloo whatever looks good on you. up next, bringing the beach into your backyard for a labor day barbecue. that s right after this. 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[ female announcer ] introducing granola thins. new from nature valley. delicious granola squares lightly toasted for a delicate crispy crunch. layered with creamy peanut butter or rich dark chocolate flavor. an irresistible, melt-in-your-mouth taste. and nature approves. new nature valley granola thins. nature at its most delicious. well, i can t believe we re here, but labor day marks the unofficial end of summer. if you can t make it to the beach for this weekend, why not bring the beach to your own backyard? here with fun ideas for labor-free party decorations is preston bailey, legendary event designer and author of the book very we celebrations. i hope earl doesn t spoil the labor day. things might go flying, honey. what do you have here first? people are so intimidated by design. sometimes it s just a matter of choosing a very simple theme. and then running with it. here are the kites. the entire table is made out of different kinds of kites. how cute. they have an amazing selection of kites out there. we chose the butterflies. this is the cooler. we have different selections of kites. what do you use the frisbees for? for fun? just four fun. they could be plates, preston. come on. they re a little dirty. that s true. again, it s playful. at the end of the party, everybody gets to take something home. kids would go crazy for that. you only need a kite and a kid. and you re happy. that s it. again, here is bringing the beach it looks like a big walmart commercial. it s a matter of bringing the beach to your backyard, and the subject here is the beach ball, just choosing different beach balls. if you notice here, the glasses and again it gives it away. they re not very expensive at a little dime store, right? everything here is very reasonable. the umbrella you probably have in your backyard and a beach towel. the kids can do this. these can be party favors at the end, right? you don t want fresh flowers in the summer. it s too hot. usually you can very easily start with a sculpture. look at this by creating just putting them in a very symmetrical way. little kids would love it and have a ball. a sugar high for the rest of the year. you don t have to spend a lot of money to make a great centerpiece. you use everything. exactly. even here for look at this. this stuff is so inexpensive. of course. that s why you re the great designer with the book and the rest of us just don t think this way. i think people are intimidated by designing, and you know, i ve always tried to make it very accessible to teach anyone once you have a concept, you can definitely go crazy. and then pray? and then pray, exactly. have the actual barbecue. have a great holiday. thank you so much. up next, 5150 one woman s quest to find true love by going on 51 dates in 50 weeks. even jill hasn t done that. right after this. did you know go-gurt is specially made to freeze and thaw by lunch time? so kids can have their favorite yogurt in their lunch box go-gurt. freeze it. thaw it. eat it up. field trips to the zoo! more basketballs. soccer balls. and a museum! [ growls ] more basketballs. soccer balls! more books. yeah. like just a ton of books. [ girl ] and books about soft things. soft and slimy. [ female announcer ] now clip double box tops for education. from totino s pizza rolls and party pizzas. and make their school a better place. we all know how difficult dating can be. i don t, but she does. what about when your single life coincides with your newly sober life? one brave woman took her drug and alcohol-free love life into her own hands and wrote about going on 51 dates in 50 weeks. i ve never done that. no you haven t. christa mcginnis is the author of 5150. it s so nice to see you. it is a brave back, because you re very honest about your own failings and your own your self-loathing in a sense because of your failings. tell us, first of all, about your young life leading into in. i think for me particularly with romance, i was so scared. i mean, i was terrified of falling in love, i was terrified of being in love and i was terrified of living. drugs and alcohol helped me to live. for most alcoholics you hit a point where instead of helping you live it makes you feel like you re going to die. when i got sober, i was sane and healthy and i was ready to find romance, and romance wasn t showing up. so i was like where is he? i thought because i m a messy can t find a man? yes. now that i m not, where is he? where s mine? so much goes back to the fact that your father was was a disappointing upbringing in life, and yet it s clear how much you love your dad in this book. tell us about your dad. my father was an incarcerated drug smuggler for most of my life and he went in when i was 4 and wasn t released until i was 25 and passed away in 2009. during the course of the book it was interesting, it was the one year he was out of prison, and tefs my only year to have him as my active father and to try to heal from that relationship. to stop dating him. for a lot of women that have troubled issues with their fathers, that s what we do, we look for our dad. if your dad isn t a good guy, you won t date good guys. don t even look at that. your father is adorable. i have a fabulous father. you went on the 50th date with your father, and that closure was huge for you? the book influenced my life as much as my life influenced the book, because it made me get out there and live. before i wrote it, i was sitting at home watching tv and eating by myself. ice cream sandwiches. low fat. it wasn t even the good stuff. this wasn t supposed to be my life, but by making myself go out on these dates i really started living. the dates are with more than just guys i haven t met before, they re with my family and a spiritual healer i work with. ultimately they end up being with my dad. because of that date and my book i got to see my dad outside of prison for the first time in 25 years. it was the only time i saw him before i passed away. it was really huge. the book gave me that. i asked you do these guys know you wrote about them? i talked with the producer and said, is that oliver stone? the gentleman who is behind oliver will be very impressed he was thought of as oliver stone. i changed details and names so no one was too embarrassed. as the people in the book probably know i only vaguely hid their identities. it s been a wonderful journey for you, right? even though it s been painful? absolutely. now you found happiness. i can t believe after all this nothing. i think what i found was who i was and what i was looking for. that s the key part of dating. for so many friends i m like go out and date, date, date. that s how you discover what you want in a man, and i think going into this book i had one preconceived notion of what he was supposed to look like. by meeting all these different men 36 of them in the book. i learned what i was looking for, and riecently re-read the book and this was a prayer for the man i wanted. i ultimately got him. it s like a new version of the bridget jones diary. congratulations. the book is out today. we wish you all the best with it. up next, guess what we do, jill? we re going to go in with summer vegetables in the kitchen and do pickling things. good. i ll be cooking. first, this is today on nbc. know the species, know the stain. lanolin-free coat, i know it s an alpaca. walks in here, looks says hey look, it s a llama! cleaning the stain like he would a llama stain. time he s wasting. call 1-800-steemer now on today s kitchen pickling your own vij tables. now is the time to pickle them. it s so easy. matthew benson is contributing editor to organic gardening magazine. please. how are we doing? this is the time of year to do this? everything is in abundance right now. farmers market, vegetable stands, home gardens are busting out with all kinds of they know their days are numbered. we love fresh refrej rarity pickling. this is the way of pickling that has the texture of cucumber. it has a crunch that goes down the block. prove it. first thing we do is really simple and something you can do with your kids. we take a pickle like this. and you quarter them, put them into a quart jar right here. very simple. add a few more here. then we re adding all these spices. the spices make it really, really taste good. we add some bay leaf, we add some mustard seed, some whole peppercorns, dillweed, which is wonderful, just put that in and garlic. a couple of cloves? a couple of cloves. you can improvize here, if you like it tangier or spicer, you can add red pepper flakes or whatever you like. no liquid? let s pour in the white wine vinegar and the white vinegar. i smell that. then we do the water and stir that together. make sure that sugar is nice and mixed in. what s the difference between doing this and you have a jar of pickles and take cucumbers and put that into the jar? i know friends that do that? what s the difference? this is much fresher. the idea with refrigerator pickles they re the freshest you can make. how long do they ferment to to speak. they ferment for 24 hours. can i pour it in there? you can pour it. they last up to three months, they re last a week because there s so delicious. they will last up to a few months. they need to go in the fridge, unlike the pickles in the produce aisle that are canned, heez are fresher and different. let s try them right here. here s a sample. i love pickles. me, too. let s see. these are good. different crunch and a lighter flavor. not too briny. excuse me. move on. here s another fun thing. i guess i didn t know watermelon. watermelon season this summer, abundance of big melons everywhere. thank you. most of the times the rinds go in the garbage or compost heap. here s a way to make it. kind of a southern thing. it has a little more tang than the pickle cubes. we have apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, sugar and spice. it s a little sweeter. we have peppers, clove, allspice, and ginger. that s a lot of stuff. that s going with the april pell cider vinegar. here s the pickling sauce. do you boil it? you boil it. these are blanched already. what you basically do is take the watermelon rind and cut it into small pieces like this. okay. i know. waste not want not. this is all in here. then you pour it in. come on in, sarah, because we only have a few seconds. keep going. we re going to pour this into here. we re pouring it right on top of those delicious little watermelon rinds and soak it overnight or eight hours. in the morning you go to your fridge, all of your watermelon is there. we have to run matthew. i trust you and believe you. jill, you were terrific. god bless you. jill, you were terrific. god bless you. hoda will be back tomorrow a. captions by vitac www.vitac.com