Transcripts For WRC Today 20101206 : vimarsana.com

over oncoming cars and more than 10 million people were watching live when something we very wrong. now that man is hospitalized and the show is facing tough questions today, monday, the show is facing tough questions today, monday, december 6, 2010 captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, welcome to today on a monday morning morning. this morning it looks like a compromise is in the works to extend those bueschsh era tax c. what s changed? what does president obama have to say about this? we ll get the latest and what it could mean for your bottom line. susan powell disappeared a year ago and her husband was the only person of interest in the case. he says he thinks she ran off with another man. we ll have a live interview with susan powell s parents coming up. we re going to show you the calorie count of your holiday coffee. have you tried those eggnog laes? we ll tell you how many calories are in that. wait until you see what we found when we had a scientist put one viewer s bathrooms to the test. ann is on assignment thisweek, we have got tamron hall over at the news desk. the st of theountry is breaking up to the coldest morning of the season so far. the weather channel s mike seidel is in erie pennsylvania. mike, good morning, what a sight. reporter: good morning, tamr tamron, not only cold, but it s lake-effect snow. we re getting wind gusts over 30 miles an hour. you remember last week near buffalo, 3.5 feet of snow shut down that new york highway this prolonged lake-effect got underway. syracuse ended their longest streak without an inch of snow in 280 days. they have had seven inches of snow. here in erie we re expecting three feet by late tomorrow. not only the cold air going acrosshe lakes for the lake-effect, but take look at the jet stream, a big dip all the way down to the florida keys. it will be even colder tomorrow morning, look at those temperature departures in miami. 43 is three off the record. manner while a lot of us through cold and windchills, we could see a record tomorrow in orlando, tamron of 29 degrees. meanwhile snowing and blowing today and tomorrow off the lake. and president obama called the chinese president overnight asking him to take a stronger stance against north korean aggression. iran is declaring that it can make it s own yellow cake to make its own nuclear fuel. > at least 200 people are missing after a massive landslide in columbia buried nearly a dozen three-story residences. rescuers are still searching for any survivors. columbia has been battered by torrential rains in recent weeks. it has killed 176 people and left 1.5 million people nationwide homeless. invests are keeping an eye on scks this morning. we are awaiting the outcome of the meeting of the europeanness ministers. we re also watching what s happening right here at home. on the corporate front, the ceo of the drugmaker surprisingly steps down. and aol is exploring breaking up and merging with yahoo. it is now 7:05, bac to matt, natalie and al. you re talking about a big snow event in the lakes. all of the five lakes have lake-effect snow coming off of them. alof our friends along the great lakes, our all right over 6 inches of snow fallen in western maryland, parts of west virginia since yesterday fternoon. perhaps another 6, 7, 8 inches on top of that. here around the metro area and east of the mountains it will be windy and cold. winds gusting to 40 miles an ho, highs reaching upper 30s withlouds ring through. even a bit colder on tuesday. winds will diminish wednesday and thursday with highs in the mid-30s and morning lo near 20. and that s your latest weather. now to washingtonnd the battle over the bush era tax cuts, a compromise appears to be on the horizon. nbc s white house correspondent savannah guthrie has more on this. reporter: a deal could come as early as this morning. but some democrats are not happy about the compromise. tax cuts should go to the middle class, we should not increase taxes on anybody. reporter: after weeks of partisan wrangling over how to extend the expiring bush era tax cuts. i m timistic, we ll be able to come gether. reporter: senator mitch mcconnell appearing on meet the press, suggests a compromise is near. tax are not going up on anybody during this recession. reporter: the deal is set by two democrats over the past weekend. the motion is not agreed to reporter: the vote failed without the support of republicans. back from his trip to afghanistan, president obama weighed in after the senate vote saying now is the time for a deal. we need to redouble our efforts to resolve this impasse in the next few days to give the american people the peace of mind that their taxes will not go up on january 1. it will require some compromise. but i m confident that we can get it done. reporter: behind the scenes senior administration officials tell nbcews that the president has drawn a new linen the sand saying he will propose even a temporary extension of the tax cuts unless unemployment benefits and other tax cuts are also extended. the present s bigst challenge remains jobs following an unemployment report that caught the west wing and wall street by surprise, as the jobless rate jumping to 9.8%. despite 11 contest months of private sector job growth, despite creating more than 1 million private sector jobs this year, it s not enough. we have to do more to accelerate the economic recovery and create jobs for the millions of americans who arstill looking for work. reporter: the president is on the road today in north carolina at a community college, once again expected to call for the extension of unemployment benefits and other middle class tax cuts to be part of any compromise this week. thank you very much. it s nine minutes after the hour, here s natalie. there s a new warning from the fouer of wikileaks, julian assange says he s created a cache of documents. it s been just over a month since julian assange last appeared publicly. his latest release of sensitive documents reveals of secret list of u.s. infrastructure sites around the world views as key to national security and now assange is threatening a whole lot more. it s a secret cache of sensitive files th s been described as a poison pill. julian assange is threatening to release this archives of documents if he s shutown or if he s arrested. more than 100,000 people worldwide have already downloaded the heavily encryed files. if something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically, he wrote. the huge array of files is believed to include documentsn bp, bank of america and guantanamo bay with one reportedly called insurance, 25 only assange knows. it s a ticking time bomb with a remote fuse, so this can go off the second they release the key. e key will spread around the internet in a matter of seconds. they need to protect themselves and this is, i think what they believe to be a seminuclear device effectively in the electronic age. reporter: one republin today calling assan a high-tech terrorist. he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if that becomes a problem, we need to cnge the law. reporter: the computer hacker is wanted by swedish authorities after allegations that he raped and sexually molested two women in augus even if he s arrested, it could be some time before assange is returned to sweden. we anticipate a final result in extradition process within six months. reporter: assange s attorney says only 261 out of a quarter million files have been exposed. now even u.s. government officials and future diplomats, that includes college students that have been warned not to look at those classified documents. it is 7:12, once again here s matt. there are new twists and turns in the investigation of hollywood publicist ronni chasen s murder. in a moment we ll talk to one of ronni chasen s long-time friends. but first nbc s george lewis has the latest on the case. george, good morning to you. reporter: police aren t saying much about where the three-week old investigation stands but after following what seems to be a huge false lead, it now appears that tha investigation is back to square one this morning. a few days after ronni chasen was murdered in this beverly hills neighborhood. she was rushed to the hospital but died an hour later. reporter: a tipster called the tv show america s most wanted called the tf show to say that he did it. after the show s produceders alerted the police and they confronted him, he killed himself. in a friday press release, the beverly hills police department says, quote, at this time it s unknown if the individual was involved in the chasen homicide. it s now been widely reported that ballistics tests that he used to kill himself was not the gun used in the chasen murder. the chasen investigation has gone back to its roots now, it s a myster the digging, the ground pounding, the researching of her past, all has to come up again and they have to go back to square one. reporter: chasen s brother, writer/director larry cohen offeredis own theory about the killing, he told the new york times, i still think this was most likely a case of road rage. but friends say she was a careful driver and not likely to be a road rage target. this could easily have been a flukish type of crime. noting? that was preplanned. i don t think we should rush to the judgment either way in a case like this. reporter: because of the high profile nature of this case n a community that averages one homicide a year, the pressure is on the beverly hills police to solve the chasen murder. some of the experienced investigators we have been talking to say it s entirely possible the chasen murder may never be solved especially if it was a random act. this was a personal friend of ronni chasen and the co-executi of her willing. our condolences to you. i could imagine you must have asked yourself 100 times in the last few weeks who would wand to kill ronni chasen, have you come up with any types of answers for that question? no, and it s very difficult because ronni was really beloved. hundreds of people showed up at her funeral. she helped many women. she was very good at what she did, she worked with the press an in showbiz, and many people that are in support groups, she de a terrific living, she was a great investor, our relationship involved stocks and we talked busines all the time, along with, you know, men, and all the usual things women talk about. but she didn t have she never mentioned any extreme enemies, even any i never saw her lose hertemper, ever. i never saw her lose her temper. you described her as a throw back, someone who may have been from another era. were there two sides to her? was the person that perhaps hollywood saw in politic, at parties and events, not the sam person that you knew away from the limelight? yes, in that he was more when you re in hollywood, she understood appearances and the whole thing ofooking good, getting her clients out there, dealing with the press and the television et cetera. but she actually had a quiet side, she was more intellectual than anybody would ever believe. she wanted to honest to god go into archaeology and do a dig in turkey and i laughed at her and i said i can t see y sifting through sand. she was 64, she wanted to start changing her life a bit. and she was very interested in money. and i mean on the megascale. wshe invested wisely, she ha very good investors and advisors in los angeles, but i also have to say that she followed it. and i m a day trader and whatnot in later years and i found that she was remarkable. she didn t read all theress that i read and she knew the copperarket was going to be corner. she made you a co-executor of her will back in 1994, and in the last year or so, she was talking about revising her will. did she give you any reasons for that? i september. no, but every four years or so, she started talking about a will. and in september, she started talking about, i m going to make you the executor again, i said, w why? why don t you just give me your car or yr hair brushes or something. and that wa kind of a joke. she was talking about dolling it or adding to it or whatever so this was kind of an ongoing i didn t feel there was any premonitn here of her death because she was talking about her will. it was just a thing to do. it seems that so many people martha are now looking for some kind of hollywood plot in all of this and yet in your mind do you think perhaps, do you agree with her brother that there could be no plot at all, that this could be a terrible and tragic case of road rage? when we were walking in the park, this summer we did some walking, she parked her beautiful new merce does next to my old honda, i told her her car was a target with her blo hair, because i have been through a lot a i say, you know, a car like this at night, even in beverly hills, it s dangerous, the hair, t car. she was a good driver. she was not reckless. this was a person who was totally risk averse, she was concerned about her body, her hair, her clothes. she in no way would take a chance, but the car was very flashy in my mind, and i think believe itr not, there are nut cases man of them, and they re out there driving around at night, they have guns. it very well could be that. and t rumors are flying because it s the movie business and i hear russian mob, i hear gambng debts. first she did not gambling, forget that. everybody was above board in the business. but there are rurs, ronni could be tough about money, but again, she really virtually had no enemies. martha, i thank you for your perspectivthis morning. we appreciate you joining us. it s 19 after the hour, here nalie. are you looking for a holiday get away? how does iran sound? aaron, good morning. it was mysterious and kind of a strange place to be, and it took just a short harrowing flight. we got to the island just 30 minutes away from the glitzy skyscrapers of dubai and there we found a whole different world. reporter: blue water, white sand beaches, romantic sun sets. this island i as popular as a caribbean get away. only 36 miles in size, half the size of aruba. the island was a playground for the rich and famous in the 0s. reporter: the island just ten miles off the iranian coast is called kish. there s separate beaches for men who must cover their hair in the hot sun. 1 million iranian visit each year. but kish isn t all about tourism. for nearly 1,000 years, kish has been a center of trade for iran. now it has a special pretrade status. while americans are rare, american products are everywhere. sanctions prohibit most companies from doing buness in iran, including kish. but we saw well known american brands in fully stocked malls, many without authorization, like tommy hilfiger and iranian gap. we saw everything including flat screen tvs. but it isn t all smooth sailing for kish. yes, the island s only five-sr hotel, the palace was humming, but the island s biggest project, a 5,000 room resort is on ho, a victim of iran s growing isolati from the world. and this island isn t just a vacation destination, about 15% of iran s exports come throug ugh. bob levin actually disappeared there when he was looking into that. a good place to disappear. nbc s erin burnett, thanks so much. just ahead, a stunt during a live reality television show goes horribly wrong. we re going to show you what happened, but first, this is today on n. with so many to choos, it s hard to see the difference. but this is the way most dentists choose a toothbrush. fact is, more dentists brush with an oral-b toothbrush than any other brush. if you could see whatour dentist sees, you reach for an oral-b toothbrush, too. trust the brush more dentists and hygienists use. oral-b. just ahead, the a lot of fat and calories in your favorite coffee drinks and what you should be drinking instead. good moing. it is 7:26 on this monday, the 6th of december. i m joe krebs. in the newsor today, rashern baker will take the oath of office at that. leslie johnson is expected to be sworn in as a councmember. she s part of an ongoing sandal involving her husband, jack johnson. we ll take a break and come back and look at th can you tell me what f-stop you had the aperture set to? uh, pretty big. and the shutter speed? really.[snaps].quick. how did you compensate for the diminished light very well, thank you. with features like compact lon, leica lenses, anintelligent auto, lumix cameras make amazing photos easy. good morning. partly cloudy, windy and cold on this monday morning. it s only near 30 degrees now. highs only near 40 with the wind gusting to 40 miles an hour later this morning into this afternoon. a few clouds racing though. still blustery and cold tonight and tomorrow. winds will diminish but remaining cold on wedsday and thursday with morning lows near 20, afternoon highs near 30. how s the traffic? 95 north out of virginia is heavy and then 395, you re on the brakes from the beltway for the better portion of your trip solid over towards the 14th street bridge. as you travel on 66, the pace is veryslow. as you travel in the eastbound direction, both in and outside of the capital beltway. join us tomorrow morning for news 4 today. we begin every weekday mornin at 4:30. see you then. have a gre d 7:30 now on a monday morning. it s the sixth day of december, 2010. people are bundled up because it s cold outside. it s 30 degrees, but the windchil are probably in the 20s. inside studio 1a, i m mt lauer alongside natalie morales. a man is hoital sed after stu something goes wrong in a live television show. susan powell s sband, a person of the interest in the case has a new theory. the startling a lot of fat and calories in your holiday cup of coffee. those themed coffees with the eggnog and things like that, including one large coffee drink that has the equivalent of a beef tender loin dinner. let s begin with a shocking cident during a live reality tv show. nbc s peter alexander is back with more on that. peter good morning again. reporter: this morning running show is hugely popular inermany. there the fans describe as a national institution. it s a show of daredev feets. critics over the years have complained that those stunts have become increasingly dangerous. one ended in disaster. it was intended as a prime time show-stopper. daniel kaufman wearing spring loaded stills intended to flip head fest into an oncoming car, on saturday night, with a live german audience watching, he successfully jumped over two cars. the show is one of the most popular programs in all of europe for nearly 30 years. the studio audience held their both as cox prepared for his fourth attempt. this time with his father get hind the wheel, he began to jump er the car, but something went terribly wrong. nbc news is not showing the accident, but it was witnessed live by more than 10 million viewers across germany. cox landed facedown on the studio floo motionless as paramecs rushed on to the set. the 23-year-old was immediately taken to a nearby hospital with what one doctor described as signs of paralysis. back in the studio, the show was pulled off the air, the audience stunned. translator: it couldn t go on like that, this woman says, we re all shocked. the show s host spoke publicly later that night. i talked to the young man at a dinner, he reassured me he was looking forward to this, i m so sorry it ended this way. among the celebrity guests schedud to appear on the show, cameron deion and justin bieber who was scheduled to perform. a heart wrenching finish to what was supposed to be a night of entertainment. that young man is listed in critical condition this morning, the good news is he s said to be conscious and speaking. he did suffer seriousnjuries both his neck and spine. the show s producers say they re reamining their psafety procedures. it s now 7:34, here s natalie. now to the baffling disappearance of susan powell, a utah mother who vanished one year ago. we ll lk to her parents in a moment. but miguel is there with the latest on the case. reporter: tomorrow susan s fami will mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance here in utah and also in washington state where she grew up. this has her husband boasts his own theory about what happened to his wife. memories, all susan powell s family has left. in utah, a december night, susan vanished. josh pow well, susan s husband says he took his sons camping at 12:30 in the morning in a snowstorm on december 7. detectives named josh powell a person of interest. arch warrants were served at their home, boxes of evidence hauled away. but josh s father steve powell now tells nbc news susan left on her own, purposely choosing that night to disappe. oh, yeah, i think it was definitely orchestrated. this whole ia for example that josh went out on an inclement tight night to take the boys fishing, he s done that before and he was very much aware that he would do it again. and when he did it again, it was probably the perfect time to make theslip. susan left behind journals that described a troubled past, an unstable state of mind. a journalowell says not yet seen by police. when you read susan s journals she had this total b bifurcation beeen her life. that somebody may be this man, steven kosher, he lived in utah and went missing within days of susa josh powell offered no details on how the two may have known each other, but suggests they could be in brazil. kosher s family denies the theory. i think it s quite ludicrous. even josh s sister doesn t buy her story. she says susan would never leave r children. i believe that josh was responsible for her disappearance. reporter: now with no arrests in the case a year has passed, all susan s family can go is hope and pray. a loving mom who vanished, a year later, still no sign of susan powell. in the weeks following susan s disappearance, josh has mov he will not be at any of this week s tributes. judy and chuck cox are susan powell s parents. good morning to you both. thanks for being with us. i know this has been a devastatingly long year without any sign of your daughter. judy and chuck, how are you both holding up? we take one day at a time. and what do you make go ahead, sir. i just said it s been a long year and we are still waiting for some word and we still exct to have some word to where she may be. what is your response to this latest allegation made by your son-in-law josh powell who says she may have run off to brazil with a man named stephen kosher who disappeared around the same time. this is ridiculous. the police are aware of this obviously, and we know this has been looked into. it just does not fit. my daughter loved her chu e ed and she didn t leave of her own accord. the police say they cannot find a lk between t two. so your thoughts on that? i think they have checked out and i think they dismissed it. i know that they re working hard. have you been in touch at all with the kosher family, have you talked with them about this? no, actually what i did a little research last night and evidently they knew mor about what the policeere looking at than we have. but, no, we haven t been in contact with the kosher family. meanwhile susan father-in-law steve powell as you heard alla he said. he indicated that susan kept a journal and she talked and wrote about ving issues, emotional mental illness and troubled childhood. what can you tell us about that? judy, did you know, did your daughter sufr with emotional problems? did she have a troubled childhood? i don t believe she suffered in her childhood. she was a happy child. she was very friendly, she made lots of friends and she was what you would quote, i guess a people person. and she made friends quickly, she was not afraid to talk to people, introduce herself and i think she enjoyed meeting people. so, no, she was not a troubled child. she had lots of fun. did a lot of things like other kids and she made set goals and worked on those goals. meanwhile, chuck, josh powell told nbc news that he had nothing to do with susan s disappearance. what do you think happened to your daughter now a year later? well, if i can go to the journals for a second. those journals were personal property and encouraged for our children to write so that their children could read what tir mother felt when she was their age. and they were back, i believe, starting when she was like 12 years old and we are very upset that we do not have the property of our daughter, that the powells have kept those. and those are the writings of a 12-year-old girl and i don t know what s in them, have never seen them. i wouldn t loo at them because that was her diary almost if you will, some of that stuff. we believe o i know that that did not happen that sheid not take off with anybody, she s dedicated to her family and she s missing. d the story that josh powell s come up with is just not believable. judy and chuck cox, again, our thoughts are with you and we re hoping and praying for some good news. now switching blustery and cold on this monday morning. good morning. i m meteorologist tom kiern. right now a few clouds are cing through. the sun is up and it s only near 30 degrees with that wind gusting 25 to 30 miles an hour. it only meals like it s in the upper teens. that wind picking up moisture off the great lakes, spreading snow into west virginia where they could pick up to a foot of snow. here highs near 40. tomorrow a bit colder and still blustery and winds diminish wednesday, thursday. a lot of wild weather all acrosshe country today, make sure you check in with the weather channel on cable or ather.com online at least three or four times a day. you are what you drink, the holiday beverage that has the calorie equivalent of two slices of pie. what you should be drinking instead. we re back now at 7:46, this morning on drink this, not that. the hidden perils of holiday beverages. americans drink about 35% of their daily calories. david is the authorf the eat this, not that, 2011. we re talking about coffee, coffee itself i not the culprit,t s only got about five calories in it. the problem is the 35 calorie pick me up has become a 700 calorie plug me up. these drinks are giving you 40% of your calorie for the entire day. we re going t start with starbucks and we re not picking on starbucks, but this is their pepperment white chocolate cha. this makes a banana split look like whole wheat. you have got the whipped cream, it s mad with whole milk. 2,700 calories. 27 grams of fat. it ends up being like a christmas can dinner, an entire beef tenderloin dinner, is what s in a cup that in se cases you down in four minus. there you can have the cafe mocha with skim and you go way down to 220 calories. dunkin donuts, this is the large cafe. it s 440 calories. this is the least ill dull negligent. itnds up being the sugar equivalent of these 4 1/2 dunkin donuts, sprinkled and cheered doughnuts. so you then want to get your you can just go ahead and have a ginger bread coffee. it s only 170 calories and, again, you ve wiped out 300 calories. on to the pepperment hot chocolate. two kinds of candy in one cup, your among java just became java the hud. . go with the classic drink and nohipped cream and lose 400 calories. and mcdonald s, this is the appe caramel. two of the four ingredients is sugar. so it s sweeter than a sandra bull lock movie. it s the equivalent of these 31 caramel chocolate candies. so 31 of them. or that. instead, all you got to do is have the nonfat caramel cappuccino, cappuccino is always the best because there s very little milk. 195 calories and zero fat. back to starbucks, and this is the egg not latte with whole milk in a vente size. this is almost a day s worth of saturated fat. you re going to feel great for about an hour and then you re going to have that sugar crash. this ends up being about 16 candy canes. this is a holiday miracle, this is a grande that actually earned the name skinny. david, thanks very much. still ahead, just how clean is your bathroom? the eye opening results when we put one viewer s home to the test. this is not going to be good. just ahead, could a kindergarten teacher accused of this is in a live interview right after your local news. with 32 degrees at 7:56 on this monday, the 6th day of december, 2010, i m joe krebs. protesters and added security are expected at the opening of a late-term artion clinic today in germantown. dr. leroy carhart recently moved his practice from marynd to nebraska where a law limiting late-term abortions was recently passed. rushern baker will take the oath of office today replacing jack johnson. johnson and his wife, leslie, were recently arrested in a corruption probe. despite that, leslie johnson is expected to be sworn in to her (greenery hey cheese log. (cheese log) hello centerpiece. (greenery) fruit cake. how are ya? [fruit cake] dry. (greenery) who s the new guy? edible arrangements bouquets, beautiful like flowers, but unforgettably delicious, visit, call, or go to ediblearrangements.m good morning. windy and cold today and tomorrow. the winds will settle down wednesday and thursdayut remaining cold. how s the traffic? we are jammed outer loop of the beltway past new hampshire on toward university. thpace improves into bethesda. jn us tomorrow morning for news. we start at 4:30. have a one minute you feel fine. the nextyou start feeling bit off. the moment you feel run down or achy, nip flu-like symptoms in the bud, with oscillococcinum. get oscillo and feel like yourself again. oscillococcinum, nip itn the bud. we re back now, it s 8:00 on a monday morning. it s the sixth day of december, 2010. it is one of those moments where it s a little bit better to maybe stay inside because we have a cold morning in new york city, 31 degrees and some snow flurries in the air. i m matt lauer along with natalie morales, meredith viera is off this morning and al roker. coming up in this the half hour, we have a mother who didn t see her daughter for nearly two years. she was being accused of xually molesting other children, actually including her own daughter. that woman was acquitted on all counts earlier this year. she has fought to win back custody of her children. all right, also ahead on a much, much difrent note. want to try sothing new for your company holiday party? here s an idea for you, this is pot luck. we have some new and festive twists onome classic stand byes for you. and, we re going to put your bathroom to the test, how clean do you think your bathroom is? you would be shocked to see what one family found out when we tested things out. and maybe your bathroom is kind of in the same situation. you know your bathroom is going to be germy. but you would be surprised, how germy is it? we have got ms. tamron hall over at the news desk. good morning, everyone. after weeks of standing their ground, it now appears that republicans and the white house are clos to a deal on extending bush era tax cuts for the wealthy. on sunday, president obama and other democrats signaled they would drop their opposition if republicans go along with tax ts for the middle class and an extension of unemployment benefits. the world s largest drugmaker pfizer, ian reed has been named to succeed jfrey kinsler. hsbc is the latest bank become sued to recover money from bernie madoff s ponzi scheme. claiming hsbc profited ignoring signs that he was a fraud. the top republican on the senate foreign relations committee richar luger says he thinks there s now enough develop reports to ratify the nuclear arms treaty. south korea s military is conducting live fire meuvers today two weeks after north korea launched a deadly artillery barrage. iran is taking parts today with the u.s. and five other nations overts nuclear program. an has repeatedly denied sanctions. today the food and drug administration will hold a blic discussion on the practice of sharing breast milk. initials are concerned that it coulpose hazards to babies. reporter: while many mothers want to breast feed their babies, not all are able to. but an increasing number of women are turning to the internet for breast milk. they re connecting with other moms who are milk to sparend are deciding to sell it or in some cases give it away for free. megan quickly realized her body was making enough milk to feed her own child and then some. we started freezing it and pretty soon wran out of freezer space. reporter: not wanting to waste the milk, megan turned to the internet. organizations that screen, pasteurize and market the breast milk. i was a little bit saddened by that because i thought maybe there were babies out there who need it but couldn t afford to buy it. reporter: many worry unregulated sharing could pass bacteria or even drugs from the donor mom t a baby. you wouldn t choose to give your child blood that you agreed to get from some person online without going through the proper screening process and the proper assessment of the blood. why would you do that for breast milk? but moms argues these arrangements are not only safe they re best for the baby. it s a very natural thing, women have been doing it for thousands of years. the fda does not regulate breast milk banks or sharing. and a day he will never forget, a 20-year-old chinese man became the world memy champ on sunday by memorizing a deck of 52 cards in only 24 seconds. not bad at all, it is 8:05, good morning. here we ve got the blustery wis that continue to blow out of thenorthwest tapping some of that cold, canadian air all the way down to our region. it s only near 30 degrees. winds gusting to around 25 to 30 miles an hour, picki up pois tour off the great lakes and spreading snow into parts of maryland and west virginia. here clouds racing throu with a blustery wind a highsnear 40 degrees. more wind tonight and tomorrow. cold, but diminished wind on wednesday and thursday. sunny, coming up next, the kindergarten teacher who lost custody of her children after being accused and ultimately acquitted of child abuse charges. with the capital one venture card we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it s hard to beat double miles! i want a maze, a sword, a. oww! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase,very day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it could be?! what s in your wallet? it s that chocole it s that whipped cream it s that caramel, and espresso you mix in i must be, i must be, must be, i must be i must be dreamin [ male announcer ] for the first time at mcdonald s your two favorite flavors together. new mccafé caramel mocha. well? what do you guys think? perfect. [ male announcer ] the simple joy of sweet harmony. i feel like i have to wind myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the lack of energy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about pristiq®, a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and haviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your mications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. prtiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. tell your doctor if you have heart disease or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizzine and sweating. for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. ask your doctor about pristiq. we re back now at 8:11 with a case tt split apart a small town. she lost custody of her kids two years ago. she was acquitted in may. now she s worked out a custody deal with her ex-husband. we ll talk to them in a moment. but first, here s nbc s michelle kosins kosinski. reporter: just over six months ago, tanya craft faced a geora courtroom. i did not and have not sexually abused any child. reporr: the rest of the her life in the balance, her words against those of little children. i m here because i have been falsely accused. reporr: there were hundreds who supported the popular and exhuberent kirnder garten teacher. r own daughter was taken away from tanya for two years because of all this. i said are you 100% sure that this happened? and i ll never forget the look on her face or in her eyes. she stopped everything she did and looked me dead in the eye and said i know it did, daddy. reporter: accusations that some had axes to grind and wer coached by adults. it was such a confusing, indefinite mess, but for tanya, the reality, the questions hanging in the air, was she the innocent victim or a predator who ould spend the rest of heifer life behind bars? the jury delivered vindation. count number one, not guilty. count number 22, not guilty. not guilty on anythin we knew it! reporter: that is what tanya hoped for on that day in may. i was not going to let them railroad me. this could happen to anybody anywhere at any time like that and your entire life is gone. reporter: and today has gained back what she most treasured. she will now share custody of her son and daughter we knew that we could work this out and we could do this. reporter: in a case tt could have gone either way, tonya craft survived. tanya craft and her husband joe hanke are here. at the end there you said we knew we could do this. a lot of outsiders would say how could they do this? there s been a lot of tension between you two, incding the fact that joel, you were one of the people who testified against tanya in tourt. howid you work this out? we worked it outecause like we talked about on there, it was for the children. we were actually in a room by ourselves and we shed some tears, we talked about some things and we said a lot of things that just needed to be out in the open. is this just let bygones be by gones? i would have to ask you, do you now believe that nothing s was accused of was true matt, basically, you know, i thought about that a lot and tanya and i had a lot of great conversation about it and discussion and she saas she sai a lot of tears. i had a history tcher who said if we don t learn from history we re condemned to repeat it. that kept resonating inside of me. we had to determine that we re going to move forward in the best interests of our children. talk about the relationship with your children now tanya, aiden is 8, co cole is 11. what was your relationship with your daughter like now and your son? actually with both the children and especially my daughter because she was the one that was focused on due to the allegatis. it s been described by people who have observed that nothing has happened. did it take a great deal of therapy to get to that point? to be quite honest, i will say that the best thing they are not, they are learning to be healthy children now without being in a therapist s office every week. what impact has it had on the kids, because they lived with you for 2 1/2 years? right. and we haveonderf children so that s a base that a lot of people unfortunately may not be able to claim. but again, i think it was o determination to make sure that they were healthy. i want peoe to know that on commercial breaks you are laughing and joking and it seems as if this has completely been put behind you? it really h and i m going to explain in one way that i believe i do have a very strong faith and it was very unusual that day, it was almost like in that room, it s almost like there was a physicaleart transplant without having one. i do feel like there was an amount of forgiveness and there was an amount of healing that cannot be explained. you have filed for compensatory damages against various parties, including the lead detective in the case, the sheriff and the way, a civil suit against joel. what s the status of that lawsuit? the status actually this week, because there s different motions and things that need to be filed, we will be filing something this week. as far as i m concerned, they will be dismissed. dismissing the civil suit against joel? it is being dismissed and it s actually being dismissed and my attorneys are going to get me if i get this wrong, i believe with prejudice which means it cannot be refiled. that indicates a very strong trust level that not only is it being dismissed, but it can t be refiled. we sat down in a room together and one of the first things that was put out on the table was let s not focus on all the stuff that s going on around us, let s focus on what we re here to do which is care for our children and that s just the way we did it. and everything else works out and takes care of itself. for the sake of aiden an cole, i hope it works out and i appreciate you sharing your story. nd and i really hope that peoe going through divorc, no matter what you ve been through, you can do what s best for your children. 8:18, we re back right after is. you can t read. [ grandma ] twas theight before christmas, and all through the house. whoa, that s grandma. [ grandma ] .nothing was stirring, not kara, not maya. how does she do that? magic. [ grandma ] .grandma loves you. [ both ] goodnight, grandma. [ female announcer ] be there to read them a story every night. read it to me again. [ female announcer ] hallmark recordable storybooks. this christmas, make it wonderful at your hallmark gold crown store. this christmas, make it wonderful shake it up, shake up the happiness. (ho ho ho) wake it up, ke up the happiness. (ho ho ho) c mon ya ll.. it s christmas time ho ho hooooooo. today s holiday kitchen is brought to you by hersheys kisses, delightfully delicious, one of a kind kisses. a hot and spicy holiday meal. good morning. how s the show going? it s great, i can t wait for everyone to watch it. i had so much fun doing it. and we re making a really easy, easy dish? we are. it s a classic italian pasta dish. it s oil, garlic and crushed red chili s. but i m adding red and green vegetables. i always want to get more vegetables into the diet. it s five ingredients, it s oil, olive oil, you heat it up. you want to add your garlic after it sautes a little bit. because you don t want the garlic tbe brown, that will make it bitter. so you should saute this for three or fourinutes. there s a lot of red chili. you just saute, saute, saute. when that s finished. you want it to be soft, you want to be really cooked down. and basically, that s it really. the spaghetti is al dente. i made this earlier while matt was here. and then you just kind of coat the pasta like that, and you just toss it all in there. so easy. that s like no time. literally no time. and this is also vegan, bell pe peppers have a ton of vitamins, fresh di, fresh rsley, you could add fresh basil if you wanted to. and you ve got a dessert that goes perfectly with it? this is a hot berry. you want to heat that. i m going to get you a fork. she s such a host, look at that, so sweet. i don t know where your forks are. a cup of strawberries. oh, my gosh, so good. a cup of raspberries and a cup of blueberries. blueberries are great. you know, they re one of the superfoods and city of hope has done all this great research for cancer, and it s the best line of defense they believe. we re running out of time. add sugar, four cloves. and you say that s the holt berry sauc which is great over ice cream. thank you so much. 8:26 is your time now. it is 33 degrees, cold out there. tom will have your forecast right after the news. good morning, i m euyang. in the news today we are following breaking news out of d.c. whe firefighters are responding to a fire in a row house along the 1200 block of n street northwest. one person is badly burned according to investigators. there may also be a street closure in that area. we ll bring you the latest as it becomes available. we ll take a quk have you tried honey bunches of oats with real stwberries? wow. it s seriously strawberry. they re everywhere. it s in the bunches, on the flakes, even real strawberries in the mix. can i have some more? honey bunches of oats with reastrawberries. it s delicious. honey bunches of oats with reastrawberries. nobody does it quite like us. good morning. we still have blustery winds out of the northwest producing snow in the mountains here, a few clouds racing through. highs only near 40. winds gusting to nearly 40 miles an hour this afternoon. how s the traffic? due to that fire, 12th is going to be shut down in both directions between massachusetts and n. also 13th is shut down as well. these are the delays off silver spring because of an accident northbound. join us tomorrow morning for news 8:30 now on a monday morning, it s a sixth day of december. singer and reality tv show host for our annual today show holiday toy drive and you can donate until december 22 by stopping by the plaza. if you cannot get here, you can still donate by going to our website todayshow.com or to amazon.com/today. now on the plaza, i m matt lauer, along with natalie more or less, tamro western maryland and the highlands of west virginia could get a foot or more of snow. already they have had up to 8 inches out there since yesterday afternoon and temperatures east of there are just near 30. inhe mountains only near 20. no snow here locally. as the day progresses we ll only climb to the upper 30s. we ll have that persistent northwest wind bringing clouds in and out throughout the day and more of the same tomorrow. the winds diminish wednesday and thursday, but it s going to stay cold. and don t forget, you can check your weather any time of the day or night on the weather channel. or go on to weather.com online. natalie? thank you, al, coming up next, we re talking about the new [ beeping ] my country tis of thee sweet land of liberty of thee i sing [ laughs ] oh, land where my fathers died land of the pilgrims pride from every mountainside let freedom ring in the new comedy, how do you know she s set up on a blind date with george madison, played by paul brud. let s just say the two don t get off to a very good start. i think one drink can give you a little better perspective. not for me, but it just depends on the person. look, if you want to have a drink, you should just have a drink. but talking about it if i want a drink, i ll order a drink. do you know i don t know you? i m sorry, i m not good today. this is going places, i can tell. reece witherspoon and paul rudd. you get cut and you fd out on the same day that you re under federal investigation for alleged stock fraud. most people would cancel th date. not i. i think that was actually the first idea that jim brooks had for this movie, which was, what if two people meet on the wor day of their life. what draws them together after they get over this initial awkwardness, what do they find in each other that makes them realize this could be something good? lots of drinking. and then we just hang out a bunch and become really close friends. i think that reece has a great idea in this scene which iset s not put pressure on ourselves, we re just going to eat and not say anything. so we actually have a date and not talk to each other. i fall immediately in love with you. you with me, not so much. it deals with the question that the movie deals th, and that is how do you know if someone or something is right for you. when it comes to pairing up with another actor, reece in the movie, how do you know that you can have chemistry with someone like paul? this is like this is our third movie we have done together. so we did a movie together a really long time ago and we had a really great time. and we did monsters versus aliens. and that was cool. and then when jim suggested we do this movie together, i was very excited. you auditioned twice for this? so the first time you weren t happy with the way it was, so you asked for a redo? i had a fever, so i actually went over to mr. brooks apartment and read for it. and i couldn t spell my name. so when it was over, i asked if i could try it again. so the second time went better? and i got to read with reece that time. i thought it would be a double edgeded sword, on the one hand it s flattering, but on the other hand it puts more pressure on you as an actor. equal parts thrillingnd totally terrifying because i wanted to perform at the level. and he asked me, are you athletic? i said i m sort of athletic. t i will learn to be athletic. but how do you convince someone, a viewer of a movie that you re actually a professional stball player. if you don t sell that, the rest of the movie at leas i can look good doing it. even if i couldn t really play softball. we do have a today show softball team. and anybody who s good,e re always looking for ringers. so we will have your cell phone number this spring. you mentioned terrifying and thrilling at t same time. you re hosting saturday night live this week. that s kind of terrifying and thrilling, isn t it? if i think about it too much, i start to get sweaty and nervous. you ve done it before? i have done it before, paul mccartney is the musical guest this week, that just makes it even more- by the way i want to congratulate you, you got a star on the walk of fame. it was great, it was a big honor for me to be accepted into the hollywood walk of fame. i m right there by hollywood vine so if you re there, come visit me. it opens friday, december 17. is your bathroom really as clean as you think? we re goingo put one viewer to the test, but first this is today on nbc. the moment you feel run down or achy nip flu-like symptoms in the bud, with oscillococcinum. get oscillo and feel like yourself agn. oscillococcim, nip it in the bud. back now at 8:44. this morning on today s healthy home, is your bahama th as clean as you think? some people say they avoid using the bathroom in othepeople s homes. germs, they re everywhere and impossible to avoid. and while you might do more to prott yourself from them in public places, what about the germs lurking in your own homes? working mother dana vessey has nicknamed her home as chaos man manor. when you have a family, the bathroom, the toilet, the sink, anything can turn up there. her cleaning routine? i clean my own bathroom once a week and i keep it up once a day, a little bit. i try not to think about the germ factor. reporter: but like it or not, germs do exist. so we looked at microbiologist joe ravine know to take a look. he inspected the item that gets the most use. one thing about toilets, the flushing of the bowl, it generates aerosols so those droplets can become airborne. they can land on the toilet seat, they can land on a sink area. so you re telling me that fecal matter in the toilet can jump out on to the sink? i would move those toothbrushes a little further away. what we know from the bathtub is that the bteria that s on our body will stick on the tub and stay there. a bacteria soup. your bath mat, you should pull that out over the side of the bathtub just sot dries so the bacteria underneath there don t thrive in a nice, warm, wet environment. reporter: and next the cleaning products. when you wash your hands, sometimes the bacteria will stick to them. you might think about towing it out every couplof weeks or if it starts to look dirty. what do the tests reveal? we ll take it back to theab and we ll find out how manyack tiera we found. we can never sterilize our bathom, like we can never sterilize our house. but it s important to keep those bacteria at a minimum. good morning to you. soyou re ready to hear your resu results? as we mentioned, joe tested your bathroom and your son s bathroom. we expect to find germs in our bathroom, but when is it harmful? the gheerms that are in our bathroom are our own germs. when someone has a stomach problem, those germs that are making them sick can be transmitted or someone else can pick them up. i have been doing the faucets and cleaning and all of that. let s get to the results. you found high amounts of bacteria in the bathtub area as you mentioned. can you give us the exact results? we found high numbers of bacteria that love water. so it not unusual to find it in the bathtub. we found it on the bath mat. under that bath mat that we saw. and she s been putting it over the side as you instructed her to do. and you found that s making a difference? i don t know. i don t have relationship with the germs. let s hope it stays that way. it will make a difference because it will dry out. and once it s dry, the germs will not grow, and will in fact begin to die. and another thing joe told you to do as well is place the tohbrushes and all of that further away from the toilet. and so the reality is, it s really hard to keep these water the aerosoled water from being spread throughout. i mean it s gng to happen, right? well, it is. there s a couple of things that can be done. first keep the lid down when you flush, because that will capture most of the air flow and mist back in the bowl. the other thing that can be done those bacteria are going to stick to the top of the bowl. take a spray or wipe, do that before you flush, because when they hit the top, they re going to come in contact with the disinfectant. how often should you clean and disinfect your bathroom. once a week you should do a thorough cleaning, but on a daily basis, you should wipe down surfaces, things that become contaminated with germs, with a wipe or a spray. and let s move on to dina s son s bathroom. the testing there found widespread contamination around the toilet as you would expect as well as on the sink faucette handle. keep the lid down on the toilet when it s flushed. what we did find was some of these type of bacteria on the door handle which is right next to the toilet. this is a small bathroom. and again, this is coming from the toilet. the aerosolization o the bowl water. and also washing the hands, right, if you re using t doorknob too? we knew that hand washing was going on regularly there because we found these kind of bacteria on the faucet hale. we saw plenty of soap so we know that the hygiene in the home is practiced very well. ou re doing a good job, a your sons are doing a good job as well. but the bottom line is you can t get rid of all the germs in your bathroom as you might expect. coming up next, we re going to catch up with international forty years ago, he wasn t worried about retirement. he d yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn t focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retireme solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments. to life insurance. to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retement guide. call 877-242-usaa. we re bark now at 8:52. he talked about in that book. the lost symbol went on to become the best selling book of 2009 and now it s out in paper back and there s also a new illustrated specl edition. are u known to numbers by this point? i mean when i say things like 20 million copies for the lost symbol, does it just kind of do you get blase about it. i don t think you get blase. but writers write to tell stories and for me, the thrill of writing a good book is really what turns me on, not the numbers. you don t just write a book and let it sit, you go out and promote it. i was reading the notes last night and it fascinated me that as you travel around the world, journalists in different parts of the world and different cultures focus on different things to talk to you about. i don t know how many countries, but i met with 31 of them. south america, they re very fixated on religion, they all want toalk to me about religion. right. in japan and china. absolutely fixated on fame. why do youhinkhat is? i haveo idea. the europeans were interested in obama. the last word in your book is hope, so clearly this is all about obama. it s a great education. so watching your every move has become almost sport for your fans and for people who love to know about the publishing world and so when you turned up in milan, the famed opera house, they said ah-ha. he s no longer a symbol gist, he s going to be an opera singer in the next novel. everybody knows it s an unbelievable piece o architecture. and you love buildings like that? architecture is great. that s why i wrote about d.c. d.c. is classical architecture on a grand scale. i mean you talk about ancient mysteries and secrets. d.c. is just this unbelievable city. and i just couldn t wait t write about it. we jokeded with you las time we were up at your house and you said it took you five years to write the lost symbol. that s a long time. i m aware of that. are you going to pick up the pace a little bit with this one. i have been informed that if this new novel tak as long as the lost symbol, my next media appearan will be on the bachelor. you must love it when the real world catches up with your stories. in angels and demons, the now a group out of europe has captured a certain kind of anti-matter, coincidence? i m fascinated with science and science expo n i was awar of anti-matter search and i decided to use it and i was told, this is crazy, nobody will ever do this. and i said you just wait. and i read with great pleasure that it had finally been done. i m glad you didn t put the big i told you so sign in your front yard. the lost symbol is in stores. coming up, affordable fashions from head to toe. but first yo 8:55 is your time now, 33 degrees. a very cold start to your workweek. tom will have the forecast right after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. we are following breaking news out of the district. that s where three people have been taken to the hospital after a row house fire. we have been told that two law enforcement agents are included in the injured and one civilian and one of the victims is badly burned. the fire broke out along the 1200 block of n street in northwest washington. there is no word on how extensive the fire is or how many people may have be in the home at the time. we do have a reporter on the way to the scene and will bring you more good morning. a cold wind blowing out of the northwest. temperatures in the low and mid-30s climbing to just near 40 by mid-ternoon. winds may be gusting to 40 miles an hour. ashley, how s the traffic? eastbound 50 at route 7, single file to the left to get by the water main work. capital beltway looking a little better but still below speed. back to you. thank you. join us tomorrow morning for news today. we begin every morning at 4:30. hope you ll join us then. we re back now with more of today on a monday morning, sixth day of december, 2010. although it s not on the calendar. winter is making its presence felt with chilly temperatures in the low 30s and a little wind and snow flurries in the air. it s kind of nice. f you like christmas. that lake-effect snow is falling in the great lakes. i ve been doing this over 30 yea years and i don t remember all five of the great lakes ving lake-effect snow. we sta some places have three feet of snow. winter is almost here, that ans tax season is almost here as well. and coming up, we re going to have some great ideas on how y can save some major money in these last couple of months before you have to sign on the dotted line. that s right. also tis the season to celebrate so whether you are going to a work party or perhaps planning a romantic new year s e eve. we re going to check out some outfits you can pick up. also ahd, the real estate market sending out med signals these days. so the question is now should you lower the price for your home. barbara corcoran will give you so advice and we ll answer some oth viewer questis. a lot to get to. tamron hall has a check of the news. there is a serious cold snap in much of the country and the weather channel s mike seidel i in erie, pennsylvania. mike rpgs good morning. reporter: all the lakes, this morning, the heavier bands this morning near buffalo, clear cleveland and if you remember last week, trying to get across buffalo and i-90, i-90 was shut following 3 1/2 feet of snow. it s open this morning, but the snow continues to come down. let me take you back to yesterday in buflo where they have had a couple of inches. as we well know, in these snowbelts, you go five or six miles, the accumations can double or triple or increase by a factor of four. meanwhile, it s the cold air at s going to get us, we have got windchills here in the teens, but by tomorrow morning, the coldest air of the season, the jet stream dips down right out of canada, look at those morning low temperatures. tamron tomorrow morning in miami, 43 degrees. 20 degrees below average. the bodies believed to be two missing american balloonists have been found off the coast of the italy. according to the local coast guard, two men dippeared in late september during a balloon race in rough weather. their families are expected to identify them late toda julian assange is threatening the release of a so-called poison pill if he is arrested or killed. a mexican judge says a 14-year-old boy arrested overnight and accused of being a drug cartel hitman will be tried as a juvile. she admitted decapitating four victims. muslims in irvine, california are outrad after reporting to authorities a man in their congregation appeared to be an extremist. they believe he was trying recruit others for a violent jihad. it turned out the man was an undercover fbi agent. the fbi defends the use of such tactic tactics. a 15-year-old wisconsin boy held two dozen boys hostage last week. none of the hostages were hurt. at least 200 people are missing after a massive landslide in columbia bied nearly a dozen three story residences. colombia has been battered by rain in recent weeks. the devastating forest fires that ravaged israel for days killing 42 people has finally been extinguished. police are questioning several teens who may have accidentally started that fire. it was a harry weekend at box office where tangled brought in 21.5 million, harry potter was second and unstoppable was their. doctors told them they could not have children of their own so they decided to adopt from a woman who was pregnant with twins. but just three days after picking up little kiler and anna at the hospal. julia found out she was pregnant. and then just months after giving bih, the adopted twins biological mother asked if they could also take her 13-month-old daughter. the happy mom and dad say four kids in one year is like hting the jackpot. congratulations to them. it is 5 past the hour. m good morning. windy and cold throught our region. we ve had these winds gusting to around 30 miles an hour this morning. they may increase a bit as we get into the late morning and early afternoon hour right now temperatures just in the low to mid-30s. these winds continuing out of the northwest tapping moisture off the le, spreading snow into western maryland and west virginia today. here a few clouds racing through, highs only near 40. winds gusting throughonight and tomorrow. remaining cold into the end of the week. al, thankyou. this morning on today s year end tax tips. there are important steps that you can take right now that can save you money. sharon epperson is cnbc s personal finance expert. the wrangling still continues in washingtonnd over the weekend the house rejected two proposals that could extend the tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a yr as well as one that would say we re going to extend the tax cuts and not have those over 1 million benefit. a lot of americans need to start planning now so they can save money on their taxes. the bottom line there s imrtant steps they can do. let s run through. first you say to consider the l alternative minimum tax. a lot of people may find out what the amt is and they may be very surprised. as many as 21 million americans perhaps. and the issue is this is another tax that s kind of on top of the other taxes you pay. you have to do your taxes two ways and pay the higher amount. this means thathe avera person may get $3,900 in taxes. you really want to talk to a tax professional. it may mean you want to accelerate your income or you may not want to take some of the deductions that you normally take to make sure that you don t get into that amt trap. what income brackets will get hit for this? right now it could be on people making $45,000 a year. you also say check your withholding status. this is important whether or not you expecting a refund come april or whether you re going to be paying taxes. a lot of people think it s going to be great to get a big refund. why not take that money now. sothat s something where you may want to decrease your withholding, you may want to increase your withholding if you think you re going to have a penalty, if you re going to owe taxes. this is something you can do wi the last couple of paychecks of the year. at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we talk about m maxizing your 401k). there may only be a couple re pay periods this year, but this is the time you could say i want to do the maximum contribution, the maximum percentage that can be taken out of my paycheck. this year you can contribute up to $16,500 or if you re over 50, you cado $22,000, so there s a lot of money you can put into this 401(k) and that s going to reduce your taxable income. and you also like the roth iras, and there s a special perk. it s a one-time perk that if you re going to transfer money from a regular ira to a roth ira, so you can take that money out tax free in retirement. you re going to have to p taxes on that money that you put into the roth ira, anding the good thing if you do it before december 31st, you have the opportunity toake that tax and apply it to the 2011 and the 2012 returns. that s a way to extend that tax hit so you don t take it all at once if you are someone who has had a couple of investments losses, you may want to use those losses to if you think taxes are going to go up next year, it may not be a good thing. it s usually a good idea to take a look at you stocks, you may have had some losses there, and offset the gains that you have seen, you canoffset $3,000 against your ordinary income. another good tip is to help pay for college. this is the time of year where grandparents are parents are giving to your child s 529 plan. giving the gift of college is a great college savings tool and a great way to give for the holidays and you can gift up to $13,000 per child and per person who s gifting. you n gift it online directly. 529.com is a good place to do that and it s really a good way to save. and really quickly,f you re giving to charity, this is a good time to do that too. it is a great time to do that. but you need to make sure you keep a of those receipts. because you re going to need those for tax purposes. but you need to make those contributions by the end of the year. all of those things can b done by the end of the year and it can save you a lot of money in the long run. and coming up, answers to your local ®. for adults, stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks. and 6 out of 10 patients had their plaque psoriasis rated as 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[ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. ranch spinach dip. have you tried honey bunches of oats with real strawberries? wow. it s seriously strawberry. they re everywhere. it s in the bunches, on the flakes, even real strawberries in the mix. can i have some more? honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s delicious. nobody does it quite likes. start with cookie dough. add frosting. [ giggles ] [ female announcer ] then sprinkles. [ both giggle ] [ female announcer ] fun. easy. [ child ] wow. [ female announr ] at pillsbury.com. for everyone in the family starti at just $12.99! from bootcuts to cropped flares to skinnies in every wash and finish sears has the perfect fit for everyo on your list! go to sears.com/apparel to download your coupon for an instant $10 off a $50 purchase. this christmasbe the santa you want to be, at sea. this morning on today s real estate, answers to your most pressing questions. we want to get right to it. we have got lori from vail, arizona. she is on skype with her question. what s your question? my brother and i inherited our parents house on eastern long island. we rented it for one year in hopes the market would improve. my broer lives in california and i m in arizona and disabled so maintaining it is difficult. we keep lowering the price but have not been getting any bites, we have potential renters who want a long lease, two to three yes at least. they say we llpaint, we have never asked the land lord for anything at all. my inclination is to take the home off the market. and then relist perhaps at a higher market value. is the market impving on eastern long island? is this a good strategy. our other option is to take the house off the market. i think we got what you re asking. barbara, what should they do? first of all, if you re going to wait until the spring, forget about it. the spring is not going to be any different except that there may more activity. why would you and your brother want to manage this house from 3,000 mile away. out here right now you have a giant beautyontest going on let s have a look if you don t mind being really honest about this house. this is should be edged and very clean. it s a nice, neat house which is lovely. i don t know if this is a car port. the front door isn t dominant enough. it s a very lateral house so you need to add some dominance and really nice hardwa. the trim should be beefed up on both of the windows. shutters? there s not really enough room for shutters. but at let make the trim even with both windows. and lastly you should have a bush here and a little walkway. easy improvements, probably maybe $2,000. i know it s hard to spend money, of course when you re trying to take money out. but let s look at the inside of the house. thanks a lot, lori. okay, you re the boss here. marsha from miami, florida on the phone. marsha, good morning. i want to get marsha in here. what sour question? caller: good morning, guys, thank you for taking my calls. i m freezing in miami, would you believe it? my husband and i are about the retire and are looking to move om south florida actually. looking for a one-story country style three bedroom fireplace, enough land to feel like you re in the middle of the country without being far away from civilization. we re planning to invest around $200,000 to $250,000. the biggest problem is going to be selling your house in miami. it doesn t sound like you re in a rush to sell. but let s he that market improves between now and then. if you re going to limit yourself to a one story farmhouse and you want to have lot of land that s easy to get with it, but it s not going t be anywhere near civilization. here in vermont, it s three hours from new york, three hours from boston. a one-story little cottage in the backgrou. it comes with lots of acres, in fact it sits plop in the middle of a beautiful flower field. that s the house that you re asking for. let me look at this next house, this one is in pennsylvania, it s 30 minutes from dotown philly. it s two story. open yourself up to the two story, it has three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, it has a full lake i the backyard and let me tell you, if you live on a lake, it s better than having 100 miles of your own acreage. you ll have to open up your horizons and you ll increase your selection by ten fold. and try to get scott in from austin, texas. he s joining us via skype. good morning, al, good morning, barbara. what are some signs that our real estate market is bottoming? doesn t everybody want to know that? and you have to actually catch it before it starts going up. you should look to see if housing are selling faster o slower than they were six months ago. that give you a trend point and that s easy to find out online or you ask your local real estate broker. you also keep your eye on the cheapest houses in the neighborhood. look at the houses that are selling f $200,000, $225,000. once those sma . barbara corcoran. actress melissa mel llano hey, you made your own lunch. yep! (mom) i m so proud of you. the bus is here, gotta go mom. okay hunny, have a great day. look in your bag, made you somethi. (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choo jif. [ gasps ] this is for you. thanks. cool. [ chuckles ] whoa! [ chuckles ] i love this part. yeah. me, too. [ lucy gasps ] [ female announcer ] this year, hallmark has all new ways to say it. [ female announcer ] this year, in a more delicious world, there would be more smoothness, morereaminess, more rich just-for-me-ness, more hershey s bliss-fulness. hershey s bliss. it s not just chocolate. it s bliss. i worry about my son playing football. which is why i m really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries inn accident and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. we always make time for just us cousins. like the other night at olive garden. hey susan, you gotta tell the aunt jessie story again. -yes, you do! -ok, ok. joe: love that story. try olive garden s two new scaloppiniishes. pan-seared chicken breasts in a lemon-herb glaze. or sauteed pork in a creamy white wine sauce. both served with asiago filled tortelloni. with our unlimited salad and breadsticks. this is like being back at the kids table. [ laughter ] olive garden. when you re here, you re family. our holiday gift drive is underway and some of the biggest donors over the years have been kohl s. what makes the holidays so special is that you can share something. we are so excited to be here on behalf of kohl s. we are going to be contributing $800,000 of booksnd such for the today show drive. this is our sixth year. it s important to give all year round. kohl s is passionate about supporting kids year round but to be involved with you every year is great. you know what, tell me, what makes peter, peter ? well, i m an avid catamaran sailor i can my own homemade jam, apricot. and i really love my bank s raise your rate cd. i m sorry, did you say you d love a pay raise asap ? uh, actually, i said i love my bank s raise your rate cd. you spent 8 days lost at sea ? no, uh. you love watching your neighbors watch tv ? at ally, you ll love our raise your rate cd that offers a one-time rate increase if our current rates go up. ally. doou love your bank ? but we try to be perfect. we pretend that high-heels are comfortable and that waxing just takes getting use to. we pretend we can manage anything that s thrown at us and sometimes we can. and other times we just have to cut ourselves some slack and take a moment. because although we re only human, that s more than enough. your moment. your dove™. 9:26 is your time now on this monday, the 6th of december, 2010. goodorning, i m eun yang. we are following breaking news out of the district. police say a man threw gasoline and set itn fire. two u.s. marshals were serving a warrant at a rowhome in the 1200 block of n street in northwest. the man who threw the gas and both marshals were injured in the fire. we ll give you more updates as they becom [ female announcer ] safeway tas the main course. mmm. you smell that? yeah, wait. what is that? love. smells like ham. [ female announcer ] serve a main coue brimming with comfort and joy. safeway. ingredients for life. when you don t have to cook, you have time for other things. yeah, like what? i don t know. fishing. [ clears throat ] oh. ha. ha. [ female announcer ] when we do the cooking, you do the enjoying. safeway. ingredients for life. good morning. at this hour we still have that blustery wind out of the northwest and temperatures are only in the low to mid-30s. 34 at national airport. that wind coming in out of the northwest is spreading snow into the mountains and we ll have highs near 40 wit a blustery wi. still a bit windy tonight and tomorrow and remaining cold all the way into thursday and friday. highs only in the 30s wednesday and thsday, perhaps near 40 on friday. over the weekend, warming up. now how s the traffic? we re looking at the american legion bridge where there was an emergency pothole crew that came through. the pace is coming back up. downtown closures at 12th and 13th street and ntreet in that general area because of the police incide we were talking about earlier. eun, back to you. join us tomorrow morning for news 4 today. we begin every morning at 4:30. we hope you ll join us then. i m fine. that s a terrible name. it s the only one i ve got. maybe we can find you another. too bad they re so unattractive. she is the quintessential movie star, angelina jolie has a new romantic thriller coming out. it s set in italy and called the tourist . and she s going to be here to tell us all about it tomorrow on today. meanwhile, adding a little something to your holiday style. this year it s all about the sizzle. the sizzle? yes, the sizzle. we re going to show you five party looks all for under $100. if you ve g a kid applying to college this year, you know it s crunch time, so what can you do to be supportive without being a pain? we re goingo give you some al life essay examples of what unusually cold. your average high this time of year is upper 40s to aund 50 and we re not going to be near that today. highs only near 40 degrees. right now it s in the low to mid-30s throughout the region. we ve got theind making it feel a lot colder. wind out of the northwest picking up moisture out of the great lakes spreading snow into the mountains. clouds racing through with a blustery wind. highs near 40. a bit colder tomorrow and still windy. wind diminish wnesday and thursday but remaining cold. a that s your latest weather. coming up next, holiday styles for under $100 right after this. why spend all your me in the kitchen, when you can actually party at your pty? with homemade chex party mix. five great recipes that wow the crowd. and you can make them in only 15 minutes. get out of the kitchen, get into the party. homemade chex party mix. get out of the kitchen, get into the party. have you tried honey bunches of oats with real strawberries? wow. it s seriously stwberry. they re everywhere. it s in the bunches, on the flakes, even real strawberries in the mix. can i have some more? honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s delicious. nobody does it quite like us. and 2 minutes to christmas? wow! 19 days, 8 hours. [ mumbling ] .ennyays, 8 hours, 9 minutes. 18 days, 17 hours. [ mom ] let s go, young lady. 12 days, 18 hours. 10 hours, 12 minutes and 7 seconds. come on. it s no days! 5 hours and 59 minutes and 42.41. [ female announcer ] the hallmark countdown to christmas ornament. .7.6. this christmas, ma it joyful, at your hallmark gold crown store. we pretend high-heels don t hurt and that we can handle anything life throws at us. but there are times that we need a moment to remember. we re only human. that s more than enough. your moment. your dove™. the morn on today s style, holiday fashions that glitter. the ason is brimming with glamour. the contributor for life and style magazine, good morning, rachel. good morning. it s so much fun, so many parties and it s exciting. your first look, you re recommending cocktail parties. there s nhing more classic for a cocktail party than a little black dress. if you re going to go and buy one black dress, this one has a little more fun. this has been a big trend with wearing a dress like this. $99 from macy s. you can al find a dress in your own closet and really dress it up forhe holidays just a few accessories. and for under $100, little things can add bling. and those shoes are spectacular. a you can just dress up anything you have for the holidays. i love the block, a little black dress, awfully sexy there. and we have house party which is interesting, because you want to be casual, but you want to stand out. you re with your family and your friends, you want to feel cozy. but you also want to look good. this makes a sweater and makes it fun. this is the new fudora, it s a closed style hat. it s just opening. now she got the leggings on which i love because you can eat and your pants expand. it s perfect for all those meals you re going to be having. and the knee high over the knee boots. over the knee boots can be intimidati intimidating, but it s the style. you might want to wear those with the mini, minidress. you put them over the leggings and it s casual but it gives it a little added edge. fro the house party to the dinner party. yes, this is glamorous. it want to look a little bit more polished when you go to a nner party. this is a little more up town girl. that s very flattering. and the red is so christmas time. we love that. you want to throw in the little cape. this really jazzes up any outfit. but make a littl downtown vibe with the uptown look. you want to look nice and glamorous, but you don t want to get fired. when you go to your work party, you want to be a little bit more conservative. the trousers and the bow tie blouse. you want the vest that s really popular this season. the little beret, the sequinned clutches, a great way to transition your look from the office to something a little bit moreestive. and then the party of all parties t new year s eve affair. this is the one time in theear that you can really just shine and sparkle and really have a good time. $100. you might not feel comfortable going bare legged with a dress like that. put some cool patterned tights with it. have some fun, and a have a little bit of a bling on the shoes as well. and those earrings from spectacular. you want to wear a sequinned you want to keep the accessories. all the same metals. the models look amazing. rael you hooked us up, some great ideas. thank you, ladies. coming up next, for the parents of high school seniors, the secret of the college essay. parents of high school seniors, the secret of the college essay. but first these messages. yeah. ok, we ll split it. 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[ fem le announcer ] choose. brew. enjoy. you can find your feet and you can find your way you c find yourselfn bed at the end of the day you can find some fun on a tropical isthmus but you ll never find my. you can find it in your heart to be patient with me you can find a new star for the top of the tree i don t mean to be coy and i don t mean to be vicious but you ll never find my christmas so i mix together a packet of hidden valley ranch, 1 box of spinach, and 16 ounces of sour cream, and tonight everyone gets a taste of something special. ranch spinach dip. [ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. ranch spinach dip. lose those lines for up to a year! juvéderm® xc is the gel filler your doctor uses to instantly smooth out lines right here temporary side effects include redness, pain, firmness, swelling, bumps, or risk of infection. ask your doctor about juvéderm® xc. we get double miles on ery purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it s hard to beat double miles! i want a maze, a sword, a. oww! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.c. i wonder what it could be?! what s in your wallet? this morning on today s fashion, the final stretch. most college applications are due on january 1. the next few weeks will be extremely difficult for parents. jock, good morning. this is it,he last chance to polish up those college essays. there s so many things that come into the mix, your grades, yourest scores and your outside activities. and the essay is just one thing in that mix. you want to communicate directly to that admissions office to tell them who you are and what makes you tick. we have some feedback from some admissions officers from very prestigious colleges. compare john leon s imagine to the one performed inglee. so let s take a look at what the applicant wrote that he or she said, i heard it before when john lennon sang it. unfortunately, i did not care much for it. when i watched this episode why the deaf adolescents were singing it, it surprisingly affected me. what was their take on this? there s no formula to these essays, and no one can know for sure because it s so personal reading this. that applicant kind of misjudged the age and sensibilities of the admissions committee. you re dis ing john lennon over glee and there was some good chance that people appreciated the john lennon version. you ve got to be able to support your argument, but also you don t want to offend. you can t know for sure, but in general, there was a sense that that audience probably wouldn t have appreciateded that. the next one is about music. i strode in front of 400 frenzied eighth graders with my arms flung over my fender stratocastered guitar. my hair dangled so low over my face that i couldn t see the crowd in front v of me a i shoulded yeah, yeah in my squeaky teenaged voice. in this one, i think you really get a sense of the person, as opposed to the piece about glee and john lennon, you feel like you re there on that stage with this kid with the hair dangling over his face and how felt in the sense of the history channel and how he transformed right there. and i also think that nirvana is a little bit older than glee. now another example, this one an applicant to wesleyan trying to convey some family pride. the indescribable aspect is the history that resates through that house. for stance the stories of how my uncle mike cut off his index finger with a bit saw and had to have my grandfath drive him to the hospital. this episode landed about the time of the sopranos he talked about how the sauce on the table was never out of a jar, he talked about if you were wise to your grandmother, there was a slap up se the head. and i think the humor just sailed over the heads of the admissions committee. you have to be careful being funny in print. and real quickly, the humor worked here, my head throbbed as i closed my eyes and tried to convince myself to get up. blankets flying, earning had fallen into place. i had just won another skirmish in my on going battle with the crossword puzzle. that one worked. it was funny and it also drew you in, it was the mystery, what was he writing about? and it was her love of words. it was a gat metaphor for your college application. what should parents roles be? do you get involved in the writing? definitely don t get involved in the writing. somebody should proofread that s say if nothing else for typos and for grammar. and i you know your relationship with your child, maybe it s a little bit contentious at this time of year, ask a neighbor or a teacher, but whatever that person does, they should not change that person s voice. you say the end game processes rrow the list in terms of your essays? at this point at as a parent, they re narrowing the list of the college. you re sort of there riding herd if they can t apply to college, they probably can t hack it in college. exercise restraint if you can. head to today show come and read some more. coming up next, gourmet pasta recipes. this morning on today s holiday kitchen, easy recipes. and of course gotha here in new york city to show off two easy and delicious pass a recipes. you ve got a steakhouse, but you love pasta there. we serve a lot of pasta in miami and in new york. this is one of our big stars, it s a wild mushroom pasta. it s got a little biof chicken stock. and white wine. it s fettuccine, not alfredo. don t do that. i wouldn t do that to you. we re going to let this reduce. here we go, catch some pasta over here. it takes just a couple of minutes to cook. sure. even kicker. there we go. so you put it in the pan with the reduced. give that a stir. so it very simple. just put fettuccine and we re going to finh this, al, with toasted pine nut and just a little bit of peerino cheese. there s some fresh basilnd some parsley. oh, yeah. perfect. good. let s go back here. all right, next pasta. and if we have time, a little white truffles. the nextasta is we make it with first we cream a little butter, garlic, thyme, rosery and pepper. make a nice herb butter. and this has already been cooked, right. we re going to emulsify everything tother. so you add some of that hot sauce. okay. perfect. tomatoes, go ahead throw it in. and we re going to add the cheese slowly. let me sprinkle that in. really all you re doing isust stirring it around with the garlic butter and the cheese, until it s lsified into a rich, creamy broth. you know it s snowing outside? it is. look at this. it smells fantastic. i m going to play a little of that. this is beautiful, in the summertime, i like to use peas. unbelievable. there we go. perfect. and on a cold day. cold evening. and i wasn t sure either ack truffle or white truffle. both. there you go. this is how they do it in miami. very nice. oh, my. how much is that going to cost us? we re serving white truffles, it s the seasoning in w york and in miami. oh, my gosh. and still good morning, everyone. it s 9:56 on this monday, the 6th of december, 2010. i m barbara harrison. we re following breaking news out of the district at this hour. that s where police say a man threw gasoline and set that gasoline on fire. two u.s. marshals were serving a warrant at a rowhome at the 1200 block of n street. the man and t marshalse all injured in this fire. we ll bring you more updates as we get more information on this story. meanwhile, let s talk about the weather. chilly out there. it is definitely winter. it a cold, biting wind that s coming in out of the northwest. we ve had gusts over 35 miles an hour just in the last few minutes. temperatures right now just in the low to mid-30s but it feels like upper teens to near 20 when you factor in the wind which is picking up moisture off the grealakes and spreading snow into the wnts mountains. the wind is gusting to 40 miles an hour. highs reaching near 40. the clouds will rac through tonight and tomorrow and the wi will still be blustery on tuesday. highs only the mid-30s tomorrow. sunny and cold wednesday and thursday. jim, how s traffic? still heavy traffic on the beltway outer loop. on the inner loop near the interchange at van dorn street we have a work zone that s blocking a lane. also there s a problem over on 12th and 13th street, still closed in the vicinity of mass avenue and n street because of that police investigation. back to you guys. we ll have a few hourf news captions paid for by nbc-universal television well, it s official, everybody. it s fun-day monday and it s snong here in new york city. i can t believe it! stop now. well, trust us. hoda is back from her great weekend. had a terrific weekend with a bunch of girlfriends. . a dozen women went to the caribbean and hilarity ensued. it was so relax is. sometimes when you put 12 women together you never know what s going to happen. that s jen on the beach. you guys look like you re having a good time. we were! that s jill there. that s kim and me and that s on some boat on the way back. that s the whole group. wow. you didn t know a lot of these ladies at first. that can be dangerous. this is what i learned on the weekend making adult friendships later in life can be fun. you feel like you re like you got all the friends you canossibly manage. i get a kick out of that. you learn about people s lives it was easy, breezy, a run on the beach, then breakfast. got some su you got a lot of sun, hoda. i know. i like it. friday night i went to a place called dexter, michigan. you kw how i have a love affair with michigan now. but i, along with some friends, was asked to contribute to the musical version of it s a wonderful life that a comic filmed with jimmy stewart and donna reed. it was the world premier of it. my friend john mcdani wrote the music and i wrote the lyrics and my friend dan cooney contributed. i hen t seen john mcdaniel in almost a year. we re getting on the plane to go to michigan to watch this musical that irote the lyrics, sent them off to him and he wrote the musical down in florida, set up a little cassette something for me. we d never met the director. never been involved in casting. i went with very low expectations because first of all,t is like a workshop, it is the first time and it is a regional theater and you don t know what you re going to get. let me tell you something, the s fantastic. you re kidding. no. i was real thrilled. 35 people from this town only two professional actors init. how cool. it reminded me why i got into theater, hoda. it is so much fun to see. there s clarence, the tall guy on the left played george bailey. john huffman, a writer, adapted the script and we had like 12 songs in it and they worked. i love it. it s got work to do but that s the joy of theater. i have no idea what i m saying to them there. so i want to thank everybody and especially thank my friend, dan, for the opportunity. you never think in your lifetime you ll get a chance to be a part of something so exciting. this goeshrough december 23rd. got a little encore theater there. the rest of the weekend was surviving. yeah. but you had a big week. you re in gossip magazine, darling. are you so big hoda, i can t stand it anymore. you re crazy. you are. gossip magazine, a new york-based editor. something about dating. it is about the best thing about your book tour is that you re meeting lots of potential dates. i do have to say, who would have thought that that would have been the benefit from writing a book. who would have ever thoht that. and that s going well. yeah, that is going well. i can something that annoyed me? i was just in a public restroom and it got on my nerves and i don t know why people do this. okay. okay. they go in the restroom and they line the toilet seat with toilet paper. i get it. then they leave and they leave it there. so you walk in and well, in the spirit of sharing. they re thinking of the next person, too. then you re afraid to kick it all in the toilet. i know! still. it happened twice,odly, over the weekend so i just want to let people know, put it in yourself. over the ekend, robert de niro was busy on saturd saturdat liv live . he dressed indrag. let s take a look. who was that? yo, that s my mom s. what s up, bitches? indeed a pleasure to meet you. okay. he didn t have to say one word. just stand there. just stand there. here s something that s interesting. queen elizabeth s knickers are on the auction block. first of all, weant to know how we authentically know those are her knickers. that is not cute. a guy in florida says he s had them for 40 years. he found them on a private plane, so he says. we can t ask him the truth, but these are the knickers allegedly. when the queen visited chile in 1968. they re going to go for big bucks. they hope to get $9,000 for them. here s the thing. when you are giving christmas tips to people, how much do you give? talking about your newspaper guy, the guy who delivers the mail, everybody. i used to deliver the newspaper as a kid. i remember delivering the paper, 365 days in the rain, sticking it in a plastic bag, putting it in a storm door. then christmas comes and the person s like, here s $5, thank you. or here s a dollar. every day i was out at 5:00 a.m.! i think it iss to forget the people you never see. i think those kinds of people a lot of money. give them whatever you can because they really do look for they need it. they re not getting paid a whole lot. but if it is like your manicurist or hair dresser and you tip them well all year long, i don t see any need. st be generous every time you re with them. don t give them a little measly thing, then make upfor it at the end of the year. be generous year-round. this guy says that you should tip your hair stylist the amount of a haircut. do you know what aaircut costs in new york city? yes. crazy. yeah. sometimes $400 to $600. that s a big tip. they say tha you should give your kids teachers never mrn but a nice gift note. no money. my daughter has about ten teachers. think after a while that s ridiculous. i think when they re little kids and they have one teacher, yeah. okay. trash people, recycling people, they say $10 to $30. i think be generous to them because you don t see em a lot. cleaning people, twice what you normally pay. so if you pay your cleaning lady i don t know, 100 bucks or 60 bucks, whatever it is, they say double it. your dog walker, one week s pay, they say. your newspaper delivery person, $10 to $30. i think $30. that s a lot of days. when youdvertise that, that s not a whole lot over the whole year. iike the word amortize, a lot. i knowhat it means. favorite things, everybody. i ve been wanting to this brcelet that i ve got right here can we get a close-up of it? looks like it is just a beautiful cuff that s been hammered, right? aviller is we guess what? it is the 23rd psalm. if you look at it, the whole thing, the lord is my shepherd, all the way down to i should dwell in the house of the lord forever. prices start at $150 on this rock nyc.com. i get mor compliments on it. we ve been out at lunch or broadway, people ask you about that be think more than anything. yeah. they also have one with the lord s pyer as well but this one is obviously bigger and i love it. what about you? when weere on this little vaation, chris, the one who organized the deal, gave everybody a little bit of this oil to you know sometimes a scent remind you of a trip? i thought it was cool. it is called invigorate. it is a blend of essential oil. you. put a little bit on your wrist. youay think it s too much. hold on. because i like . i know you, you ll be like, oh, god. don t look at the nails! hoda, more people are commenting! i don t care. i didn t have time. i got in late. so now it is time for us to talk to a wonderful guy named evan lisocek. tell me about is dress. well first of all, these are for you, a box of my favorite holiday chocolates. sweet! they are the most delicious things in the world. they actually inspired this dress. i heard about teaming up about habitat for humanity. theholidays we feel like we re going to the prom. the box of course is a corsage. the holidays are being spending time with your family and having a sense for home. habitat for humanity gives everyone the opportunity to feel warmth and love of their home and family. we re donating $100,000 to habitat for humanity. i said how can i help? they said you can design a beautiful dres for u inspired by i wanted to use obviously their signature chocolate as the spiration and the layers of zelnut and chocolate and kind of the luscious texture of this. this is going to be auctioned off for habitat for humity. it will go to the highest bidder which is ferrarochocolatesusa.com. after this we ll be at the nbc experience store. you an sara? i told you, we re going to dance. you might design men s fashions down the road, you re saying. zbh that s a new goal of mine. i ve been working on a men s wear line and trying to get it kicked off but you re a stylish guy. thank you. thanks, evan. sara, you look great in that. gorgeous, gorgeous. on the plaza, you guys, a little double-dutch bus action going on. these are the people who won the 1th annual double-dutch classic for speed. oh, my gosh! over the weekend, they won it. hoda s going to do it a little later in the show. hey, i can t even do it with one re. we have a big show today. actress melissa milano. alyssa milano has been working since she was 7 years old. now the actress who starred in scoms like who s the boss and charmed has a ne movie debuting tonight. james patterson fans are going to love this, the lifetime tv s sunday at tiffany s. welcome! hello. thank you for having me. not to be confused with brkfast at tiffany s. it is an homage to everything that s wonderful about this time of year and everything that s wonderful about love and everything that s wolf about tiffany s. everything. so in the beginning you have this kind of imaginary friend. yeah. it starts out when i m a little girl and i have an imaginary friend becausey mom is kind of a type a whosorkahol. she s delicious and she s everything that i wanted her to be. she s so lovely. and i grow up and i m engaged to this guy named hu who is a big famous actor. ivan survey plays hugh. my imaginary friend from childhood comes back into my life all grown up just to stir the pot a little bit. i bet he s darn cute, too. he s kind of handsome. eric winter plays that character. the cast is great. it s modern day fairy tale. it is so romantic. i loved that this character strts out someplace kind of flawed and you see, you go on this journey with her and she ends up okay in the end. of course. it is lifetime. hallma and lifetime. now we said in the intro you ve been working since you were 7. first job was on broadway stage. annie. it was the second national touring company. i was 7 years old. yeah. so that was 30 years ago. hat show holds up like crazy still. that s right. you got married this past year. i did. goofor you! thank you. it took you a while. it did! you sound just like my mother. it took her a while, yeah, but he was worth the wait. what does he do? he s actually an agent, believe it or not. there he is. look. is he your agent? no, no, god. that would be a little weird. that s like having a stage parent. no, he s not my agent but he s with my agency and that s where we met. we met in the lobby. he s just a wonderful guy and i feel so blessed that in the midst of the craziness of hollywood, i was able to find this rock and this lovely, nice, good person. how did you since you ve been working for 30 years, a lot of people work for a while and they just it sort of dries up. bu you kept a consistent career. how have you done both of these things? i mean, i don t know why i m still working. i feel really blessed and lucky that am. but i think as far as, you know, being able to grow up in this business and be somewhat normal, i have to give my parents all the cred in the world for that. all about parenting. when i say to people these kids that you see struggle in the business? i think the would have struggled no matter what they did in life. it s just we re aware of their struggles because they re in the public eye. but it usually stems back to some sortf hardship in their family and i think if you have hardship in your family, it doesn t matter if you live a totally normal life, you re going to have trouble. you miss your childhood, you spend the rest of your lif yeah. but horses keep you sane. i have ten horses and five dogs and a vegetable garden. i actually well merry christmas, happy holidays. it s on tonight. lifetime, 9:00, sundays at tiffany s. thank you so much. sara hainsinds our newest trends of the week. and celebrity gossip. hoda s not on the list because she s a good girl. but first, these messages. now it is time to give a shout out to one of our biggest fans, fan of the week. you changed, sara! what happened? what s going on, hon? who is the winr? well sorry. that was a quick change. royce kennedy is our winner. stop it! what he likes most about you guys is the relationship between each other. he says you re both really funn he started watching about two years ago and now he watches from his computer every day in silence. his friends know when he s watching thathey cannot talk. we re not mud, right? no, you guys can talk. no one else can. i like that. he watches reruns on the weekends and when he s bored he has them stored up. which is a really big fans. his favorite parts of the show are chat and who knew. he especially likes kathie lee s everyone has a sty. it says you make him feel happy and excited about life. well we love royce! thank you so much. coming up next, we have all the hollywood news that you can handle. not all of it is good. also, now should you include a lint roller when you re shopping for your tree? think about that. i guess julia s going to tell us, right? i think so. we ll be right back after this. it s a big day in prince george county where the s a change of power taking place. the new county executive and councilmembers being sworn in in the next hour. coming up on midday, we ll have the coverage of the ceremony coming up live. good morning, i m barbara harrison. also coming up, we re following breaking news from the district where two u.s. marshals were injurein a fire while trying to serve an arrest announcer: today s buzz is brought toou by dure rig. choose, brew. enjoy. we re back on this fun-day with today s buzz. bonnie fuller is the editor in chief of hollywoodlife.com and andrea is from gossip gram. a big smackdown. what happened? they friends. margaret cho started it by blogging and saying the only reason crystal was on dancing with the stars was her mother insisted she blamed her for losing the election and told her she owed it to her. bristol responded. took to her facebook page and friday and said no way, nobody forced me, not my mom, not my ad, i made the decision. you re wrong, margaret, i love you, but you re wrong. call me. i m the source you should probably come to. so far that s the end of it but there is a lot of speculation abo whether or not bristol actually wrote the facebook quote because it is so well written and she also fired back at keith olbermann last week, too, on her facebook page. bristol is a very, very bright girl. may have some hidden literary talent. chelsea hammer is in a little bit of hot water with angelina jolie. angelina s not saying anything. chelsea went to do a stand-up routine in newark and called her a home wrecker. worse things. we can t repeat it. chelsea handler is bff with jennifer aniston. jen took chelsea along with a number of other friends for a thanksgiving weekend in mexico. they parti together for several days. don t you think jennifer aniston s upset? who wants that all over again? that s the moral of the lesson beware what you tell friends on vacation. and drinking margaritas wi. can t wait to see who comes out of the turks and caicos last week with you. billy ray cyrus and his wife were getting adivorce. now maybe not? we ve been following this at hollywoodlife.com. we found out the divorce papers once they are filed in tennessee they must be served within 30 days. if they are n served, then the filing is off and you have to refile. did she file or he file? he filed. it been well now it is over 40days. it was 38 days on friday so the clerks were all a buzzing down in tennessee that the divorce must be off. yes yet he s saying that the filing is going to go through. they didn t actually say that he that nothing changed. what they said is the filing hasn t changed. the filing hasn t change that s the problem. it was very tric language. do we know yet the reason for the divorce? is it just speculation? the speculation was that tish had it a relationship with brett michaels. m now bret has been extremely forceful in denying it. remember miley said for her 18th birthday, the one thing e wanted was for her parents to get back together. mel gibson is bac in the news. there s a youtube video of mel wh this hand puppet and he is in tis new movie that is yet to be released. jodi foster directed. and it is getting tons of views. hundreds of thousands of people are watching it. 200,000 people have looked at this youtube video. it becomes h alter ego and there is a line in which he says he needs the beaver to create somedistance between himself and his angry self. i can t even imagine the amount of jokes that are going to be said about this. here w go. get a good night s sleep. those movies coming out in the spring. but the question is, do people want to see mel in this or do they just think that beaver is so adorable? the funny thing is, it might actually and genius comeback because he plays a guy who s very depressed and disturb and not behaving like himself. could actually work in his favor. i think everybody deserves a second chance, even you, hoda woman, after turks and caos. god only knows what you were up to. stop it. coming up, eggnog, holidays are going to effect your waistline. it s already begun, the holidays are still a couple of weeks away and already your jeans feel like they re busting at the seams sglp it is all because of those irresistible holiday tats that seem to surface everywhere. madelyn is here with the calorie count to save us from ourselves. save us, madelyn! i will but we ll have some fun withthis. fun for you. we re taking some of our really favorite foods just to show what calories are in and where you can save a little bit. two of our favoriteoliday drinks. one is eggnog and one is mimosa. we know eggnog isot low-calorie but what s the difference calories between these two holiday drinks? 150, 250, or 350 calories? the last one. 350? you re wrong. 250. it is 250. eggnog is 350 and mimosa is just 100 calories. just drink mimosas. got it. who doe t love a pig in the blanket. everybody s favorite thing. how. these canou eat for 250 calories? is it two, four or six? four. that is correct. is that a surprise? yeah. surprised i got it right. now cheese are everywhere, cheese and crackers, cheese on everything. what s how much is this to eat? one been ounce of cheese, a serving what kind of cheese? hard cheese. not cheese whiz. size of two, four or six dice. the question is, what s a serving? this plate has got two dice, four or six? one serving of cheese is two dice. you re wrong. three. that s not an answer. is it two, four or six? then i ll take four. that s wrong. six! thought so. its 2 s2-0. hanukah is the festival of lights an always oil is involved here. we have these two potato pancakes. do they have more or less than 250 calories? more. no! what? i was going to guess and say less. i don t like this game. you have time t cut back. you have to get every single one right. these are identical servings. which has less fat? roast beef. no. ham. the ham has less fat. 14 gms to the 36. everybody s got favorite. hoda, we know you re a baklava lover and our producer likes tiramisu. if you had to walk this off, one would take you four miles, one would take you six. which one would take you six miles to walk off? i going to go with the tiramisu. you would be right. that s going to take you six miles, 600 calories. let s finish strong, hoda. you can do this. one of these has less than 200 calories. is it the fruitcake, a big cookie less than 200? less hand 200. one of these has less than 200. i want to eat the bark so i m going to say the cookie. no! it s the bark. it s the fruitcake! nobody likes fruitcake. it doesn t matter. that s too bad. we have something for the whole family. we have gingerbread house the moon mountain organic vodka. i m going to share it with you so you can give this to hanna because she would have a ball doing this. that s the way i roll. and ill a s keep this. coe ining up, julie etleman all the tricks to removing holiday stains. i m excited about the mascara on the pillowcase. úñúúç with help around the house after you deck the halls and tinseled up that tree. who has better advice than account the accidental housewife. star of a new tlc show called suffocating. it is a messy process, the holidays. it is merry messes but we ll get right to them. things on the caet like tinsel are hard to get up. the vacuum can also suck up if you have a handy-dandy paintbrush with a roller, put duct tape on there. this is also a great thing for your kiddies to do. a lot of people have glass ornaments on their tree, they fall off and crack. i know you have dresses on, but thereou go. i told them i d get u on your niece. you just take these broken ornaments, press it down, you wear gloves and it picks it right up. thenan you do this for a while. hanukah. the proble is not the candles dripping because they make dripless ones now. the problem is the wax that gets ones in. while you re coifing your hair in the morning, 20 seconds with your hair dryer on the opening there, take a q-tip, it comes right up. it will lft out like a voila! you put them in. yes, darling, befe. here u are, you drink and the drool. you re drinking too much if put it in hot water cause it will fry the egg. would you just soak it in cold water for a while. little pre-treater is always little paste of ammonia and laundry tergent, put it on there and launders usual. it right on there. why is the lipstick on the collar? they ve been drinking too much of the spiked eggnog. two do this. directly on this handsome little body here. hoda! i want to get to your mascara. you take this, it is like a lip wax. you put it right on the lipstick. you mush it down. with the gloves on it is a of mushing. as you can see. muhing, julia! and tal come powder. this happe to me, when you sleep on a pillow, your mascara ow long you spend taking it off. all right. good old-fashioned makeup remover. jus put some on there and dab it right on to the mascara. now just leave it on there. that didn t work! be generous. put a little elbow grease into it, hoda woman! you just put that dish washing liquid on, let that sit and it will comeut right and launder as usual. and away it will go. always a great stand-by, baby on anything. what s this? do you think i would give you something that didn t work? eggnog. of course we need a little eggnog and a little spike. as you are drinking gb none of the stains come out, just cover them with pins. we re gog to head out the but first, this is today [ female announcer ] safeway talks holiday baking. that smells scrumptious. yummy! smells delightful. awesome! i m not smelling anything. [ female announcer ] everything for holiday baking. just add love. safeway. ingredients for life. so what s everyone s favorite holiday food? eggnog. gingerbread. and you, nutcracker? i like nuts. [ female announcer ] if it tastes like the lidays, we ve got it. safeway. ingredients for life. we told you a little earlier over the weekend about this great, great bunch of double-dutch jumpers. you guys run believable. it was the 19th annual double-dutch classic at the apollo theater competi with people from france, germany, italy, the u.s. probably ukraine. yes, but look who are the winners! and they are lathe sand pper steppers. how did you guys arn dhou this? i ve been jumping since i was 3, competing since i was 3. i ve been competing since i was 3. how much practice does it take? it takes a lot of practice but because we are older we don t have that much time to practice but we find time. can anyone do it or what s the story? can anyone do it? anyone could do it. any age, any time, any. all you need is a pair of sneakers, some ropes and two turners and a jumper. oh, gee! i don t have any sneakers today, but look who does? i m going to preface this even when i was in elementary school and it was a single rope, i couldn t get in. i couldn t get in. show us right, then we ll try to figure it out. go, go, go! you got it! woo! woo! he keeps going, good for him! woo! you can do that, hoda! unbelievable. okay. i m going to try to get in. keep the music on. all rig. i think we ve proven that you guys are the best. hoda? i m going. come on here, get in! here! getin! okay, go! go i want to go from this end! i ll go in with you. how did you do it? not as easy as it looks. go! what do you do? tomrow, taylor swift tomorrow. have a great day, everybody! the next, you start one feeling bit off.fine. the moment you feel run down or achy, nip flu-like symptoms in othe bud, with oscillococcinum. get oscillo and feel like yourself again. oscillococcinum, nip it in the bud.