Transcripts For WRC Today 20101211 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday morning. i m lester holt. and i m amy robach. take a look at this. live in minneapolis, minnesota where the snow has been falling. it may bring some 20 ihes to the city. we ll have the latest on all the winter weather coming up. reminder to a lot of us winter is coming in the weeks ahead. also the theater of elizabeth edwards. here s the church in raleigh, north carolina, where later today the service will take place. hundreds wl gather to remember her life. coming up we areoing to speak to one of her friends and find out how she will remember mrs. edwards. and then we re going to head to italy, where amanda knox is back in court today and actually just moments ag amanda spoke out telling the judge she was innocent. we ll have much more on her emotional statement. ll also speak to her parents about the appeal, coming up. plus, the fallout continues from this royal attack. student protesters felted the limo carrying prince charles and his wife camilla. whatoes it say about the royal security and what impact will it have on the wedding of prince william and kate middleton? we re going to take a closer look at that coming up. let s start again with the big blast of winter from the great lakes down to florida. many are enduring cold, snow, ice and rain. weather channel s scott williams ins us from minneapolis. scott, good morning. well, good morning, lester. you know, it s not even winter yet, and minneapolis is already digging out from its latest winter storm. this time it s a triple threat. it s bringing the snow. it s bringing the wind, it s bringing the bitter cold. it s alrdy dumped upwards of about six inches of snow, and overnight you can see it is falling here. it s a light snow. but really, it continues to fall. ande re not done yet here. you can see folks are already out this morning, and crews have been busy, as well. but take a look at some of the sidewalks here. you can see we are finding a lot of snow early this morning. and also, we are also watching the temperatures. they are dropping rapidly. and before all is said and done, we could hav feels-like temperatures here well below zero. take a look at the crews over here. they are working trying to clear thsidewalks this morning. so they are usedo the snow here. and i spoke with a lot of residents yesterday, and they are taking this latest round in stride re. used to the snow, used to the co. but really, it is coming really early this year, and we are not done with all of thective arctic weather so far this year. lester? all right, weather channel s scotwilliams thank you. on that point, where is the storm headed? meteorologist bill karins joins us with that part of the story. good morning, lester. there s two sides to this storm. we showed you the snowy side. if you re in minnesota, northern ilnois, portionsf iowa, all of business konlz and michigan you re going to have to deal with snow to get through. some areas up to a foot, foot and a half, especially in central wisconsin. my biggest concern is what s coming behind it. that is the cold air. monday morning when everyone s going bac to work and back to school temperatures are going to plunge. this arctic outbreak is going to be worse than the one we just finished with. temperatures down to the teens all the way around the gulf. what s worse is going to be the windchill values. we re expecting minus 30st up here around minnesota, and we could have negative windchills monday morning as far sou as tennessee. everyone east of the rockies will be hit by this latest arctic blast. we ll see you with more in just a few moments. right now here s amy. lester, thank you. washington the big story this morning is the extraordinary white house meeting between president obama and bill clinton, who was called to the oval office to offer candid advice to the curre commander in chief. for more we re joined by mark halperin, senior political analyst for msnbc, and also time magazine. mark, good morning. good morning, amy. in fact, did you happen to turn on the tv around 4:30, you might have thought, whoa is this a time warp? there s bill clinton at the white house briefing room talking to reporters. he obviously had a meeting, a private meeting with president obama. they then had a press conference. obama excuses himself, and prident clinton talks and takes questions for about 30 minute let s take a listen to part of what he had to say. i think the president mad a good decision, and perhaps i want my country to do well, the agreement takens a whole is, i believe, the best bipartisan agreement we can reach to help the largest number of americans. so the you have former president clinton defending obama s decision to support the republicans, and to the anger of a lot of democrats, exnding those bu tax cuts. how important was this endorsement? will it have an impact? well, great lit cal theater. to see bill intontanding at the podium. as you referred to, president oba after a couple questions said he needs to go and president clinton said, sure go ahead. the first lady needs you. he was there alone at the podium and it was like a time warp. bill clinton is a great spokesperson for the president, for this president. for the democratic party. and his endorsement of the deal, i do think, will make a difference for some democrats. even though his relations with the liberals i the party haven t always bn great, no democrat doubts his conviction, and his political judgment, and he, the most important thing i think he said, for the obama administration and for those who want this passed is, this is the best we can do. this is good for the economy. it must be done. but he di it not in an angry way but an optimiic way. and that s, i think, a good reminder for president obama. now clinton would not give us the specifics about any advice he may have griffin president obambehind closed doors. but here you have two presidents who during their first terms have dealt with a divided congress, and having for their second terms, and what lesson cos president obama learn from president clinton? one is to be timistic. these tough times for the united states. the very lookingor leadership. you can t be soured, though, you ve got to be optimistic. but also with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose. one of the thingsresident obama has done to confuse some democrats is to say we need to pass this plan, even though there s a lot of stuff in here i don t like. compromise is going to be essential if the country is going to move forward. washington is gointo move forward. bill clinton figured out how to compromise but still show people he was true to his principles, and fighting hard for the middle class. all of those are things president obama can learn from. want to get in the question about sarah palin. she was in haiti this week to suey earthquake relief efforts there. everything she s ne, everyone has looked at through a prism of whether or not she s going to run in 2012 from her reality show to her speeches, her books. is this trip a serious indication of her intentions? who knows. it keeps her options open. e thing sarah palin needs to do if she wants to run for president is show people she s serious and concerned about the wider world, rather than just about herself and all these ways she s making money. a trip to haiti, anybodyho goes there spotlights the possible lem. maybe it s not political, but if it is political at least in part it does keep her options open. she needs that broader portfolio, that broader image. mark halperin, thanks so much. we appreciate it. now here s lester. thanks. now to the funeral for elizabeth edwards, who lost her battle with cancer earlier this week. the service, which is open to the public, will be held this afternoon in raleigh, north carolina. that s where nbc s michelle kosinski joins us live. michelle, good morning. good morning, lester. this is really the heart of elizabeth edwards community. in fact, it was this church where she turned for comfort when her teenage son wade died in a car accident years ago. and you truly feel the deep sense of sadness among those who knew her. to lose her so young, and someone who embraced life the way she did. they say, in life, she was the one who was always comforting them when they felsorry for her. it s a struggle today. how to memorialize a life so complex, punctuated b heartwrenching tragedy, and good public works. at elizabeth edwards funeral her 28-year-old daughter cate, an attorney like her mother, will speak to the congregation that could number more than 1,000. is this a hardship for us? yes, it s yet anoth hurdle. reporter: elizabeth s story has always been tough to te. you almost had to mention all shefaced. the tragic death of her 16-year-old son wade. her battle with cancer and her husband s affair. reporter: b didn t want to define her by that. she forged her own path. and the public embraced elizabeth. who didn t try to be perfect. but helped where she could. an advocate for health care reform and others fighting cancer. this is an issue that doesn t know political boundaries. it knows moral boundaries. reporter: where questions might have been difficult to ask her, in fact, she was the one who openly described her feelings. two months ago. part of what i want to do, my story belongs to me and my children and i wanted them to not think of me as ctim. i don t want to be a victim. reporter: one of her closest friends is also trying to come up with the right words for her eulogy. glen bergenfield knew elizabeth since law school. i owe her this. and i feel that i owe her to do it with courage. and i hope i can i hope i succeed. because she would. reporter: here they are back then, with john edwards, who is not one of the speakers today, but was with elizabeth when she died at home with her children. they have been separated a year. john is having a very difficult time for all of the things that have happened. john john loved her. john s loved her a long time. and he s lost her, too. reporter: elizabeth once said of john on the campaign trail that she married him because he was the single most optimistic person that she knew. but in the difficult years that followed it seemed th she was the one who possessed this boundless hope, and her words are quoted in defining the successful life. that s part of what her friends will try to convey today. lester? michelle kosinski, thank you. as you just heard, john edwards will not be speaking at the funeral but elizabeth edwards daughter cate will deliver a eulogy. karen finney was a friend and also served as her director of communications. karen, gd morning. thanks so much for being with us. good morning, lester. it s good to be with you. what can you tell me about cate s relationship with her mother and how that will likely be reflected in her eulogy? well, cate and her mother obviously were very close, and elizabeth actually wrote in her first book, saving graces about hocate was really kind of the strong one, after wade passed. and how she really helped both john and elizabeth carry on and get through such a dark time. so i can t think of anybody better than cate to talk about her mother. there was one thing ianted to point out, lester, i heard you mention that elizabeth had lost her battle with cancer. and i just want people to know, that s not how elizabeth saw it. to her, the battle was she knew she was going to die of cancer. the battle was, what do you do inpite of that? how do you make sure that you have a meaningful life, and give back what you can, and draw sort of love and hope and joy from the people around u? and she feels like, in the end, i can tell you that she was very peaceful, and felt like she won, actually. your point is well taken. she certainly defined this last chapter in your life, and we just heard a moment ago, in michelle s story, glen bergenfield one of the friends who will be delivering a eulogy. what can you tell me about the relationship of these friends? and the difficult line they re going to walk today trying to honor her? you know, today is really about honoring elizabeth, and you know, sharing her stories, about the woman that we knew. glen was a friend from college. so maybe we ll get to hear a little bit about elizabeth in those years. hargrave, actually, is also a dear friend of mine. she traveled with us in the 2004 campaign. she and elizabeth were pregnant with their first children together. they ve been friends a very lg time. so, you know, i don t know if she ll share some stories from the campaign trail, because there are many. we had many adventures, little side trips to dairy que now and then. or, you know, also just from their lives together. and i think, you know, so much of today is also about sharing our love for elizabeth, and also making sure the children know that there are people here who good saturday morning, everyone. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck be. off to a cold start across reon with clouds moving in as well. temperatures are in the mid-0z now across much of fairfax county, low 20s, 21 degrees w in manassas, 21 in frederick and hagerstown. 30 in annapolis right now. here s your forecast for today. increase clouds. mild with highs in the mid-40s. cold rain tomorrow and colder even than that early next week. that s your weekend forecast. lester? all right, bill, thank you. britain, the questions continue following the attack on prince charles and camilla, with many demaing answers about an apparent lack of security. nbc s stephanie gosk has the latest. reporter: just moments before the attacks,-ish. how are you doing? reporter: the royal couple were doing what ty normally do. waving and smiling, windows open. until a violent group of protesters, who moments bore smashed shop windows, surrounded the vintage rolls-royce. when the crowd turned, photographer matt dunham was there. dunham captured whatas now become the definitive photo of the attack. they were basically trapped because they had to step around th vehicle and couldn t see me drive away. the rst thing i could see was camilla was clearly terrified. reporter: a day later charles was pinning medals on royal navy pilots as scheled. camilla, the future king says, is fine. and so is he. but the london police are under fire. some are calling the failure in security an embarrassment. the unpredictability and how theyoved about the couple yesterday meant that the protection officers were in a very difficult position. reporter: it was not an isolated act of violence. government buildings were damaged. a statue of winston churchill vandalized. some students swung from the tomb of the unknow soldier. there is not aight to go on the streets of london, wanting to pursue violence. reporter: there is some concern that these scenes are signs of what s to come. that the government enacts some of the most painful budget cuts in this country s history. the anger is growing. i actually feel there s such no a disconnect between politics and young people that it will take a generation to heal this ri. reporter: the fear is that it could turn into this. the poll tax riots in the early 90s. there is a feeling that the squeezed middle, as it s now called, are paying a far too heavy price for what were economic and political mistakes made by governments. reporter: more student riots are already scheduled for monday. for today, stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. now 19 minutes after the hour. here s amy. lester, tha you. with the holiday season comes another tradition many of us are very familiar with. tipping. and from your hair stylist to your baby-sitter, it s not easy knowing just how much to give. msnbc financial analyst vera gibbons has some tips for holiday tipping. tiz the season. yes, it is. and everyo has their hand out, right? we know that there are certain areas where, it s very typical to tip durin the holiday. how do we consider or determine who we should give to? you should be tipping everyone who s provided you with personal services over the course of the year. just a nice thing to do to show them you appreciate their hard work. how much gets a little bit tricky. it s going to depend on their level of service, how long you ve worked with em, whether or not you tipped throughout the course of the ye, and most importantly your budget. so there s no right number for everybody? but we do have some guidelines for you. and i think the first one is the most obvious one, the people who ke care of our children. you want to give them an extra thank you this time of year. teachers, nannies, baby-sitters. how do we pay them back the right way? the right way would be to include a small gift from your child for the personal touch. but in terms of numbers, your baby-sittethat you use on weekends, you one to give them e night s pay. if it s a full-time sitter/nanny, you want to give them one week s pay. day care provider, just toive you a ball park fire, $25 to $70. your teacher by the way, no cash gift because it s seen as a bre. you have a favorite teacher, a gift card or something for the classroom is perfectly acceptable. i have some collections taken up so there is going to be a gift card, so there was money but it s not from any specific one person. that s a nice way to do it. also, how much do we give people who provide services around the house? trash collectors, your house cleaner, perhaps, mail delivery? that s tough. we ll start with the postal workers because they re into the allowed to accept cash. so that easy one. if you do give them a gift it has to be valued at under $20. so a $20 gift card would be perfectly appropriate or some small gift a little intrinsic value. hand warmer, coffee mug, something like that. newspaper delivery people, $20 to $30 depending on how often you re gting the paper delivered. you can get by with $10 if you just having it on the weekends. house keepers up to one week s pay. you mention tax collectors. they get gypped every year. 89% of people said the don t gi them anything. $10 to $20 would be perfectly fine. that s certainly nice. what about the people who you typically pick anyway for the little luxuries in your life. manicures, hair stylists. i mean we re usually tipping them each time. should you tip more? if you re tippi them 20% plus every time you cld get by with a little bit less. depends on how much you ve been using the services. manicurists, pedicurists, personal trainer, baer, hair stylists, generally speaking get the cost of the treatment. okay. and what about if you just don t ve enough money for all of these tips. a lot of people are cash strapped, out of jobs, out of work. what are some of the alternatives? you certainly don t want to break the bank here. it s all about your budget. what you can afford to give. if you can t give cash, you can give a heartfelt note. you could give baked goods. if you re tipping regularly over the course o the year, you don t have to go overboard. it s just the thought that counts. and cash is the most appreciated gift. they d t like it when you necessarily get creative. but do what you can do. thanks as always. do appreciate it. still to come, the jimmy stewart museum in need of a christmas miracle. but first, this istoday on nbc. electronic santa song electronic santa song still to come on today, amanda knox. she s appealing her murder conviction and smoke out in court just a few momentsago. what did she say? we re going to tell you. plus cutting back. a reality show for the great recession. we ll meet one family who downsized. good morning. 7:26 right now on this saturday, december 11, 2010. i m aaron gilchrist. we begin with a developing story, a deadly ending to a house party in southeast washington. police say someone fired shots on 14th and s streets killing one man and injuring four others. detectives say that shooting is connected to a party about a block away on ridge place. we have a crew on the scene. look for a live report coming up in our 9:00 hour. police in prince george s county are investigating aother deadly shooting that happened about 20 minutes later in laurel. officers there say they found a man shot to death inside a car on hawthorne lane. police are lookingnto a motive. special holiday wreaths will be placed on the grave sites at arngton national cemetery. 20,000 balsam firs were donated by maine to lay on the markers. the program called wreaths across america is organizing volunteers to help place the wreaths. if you re heading out this morning a look at your foreca o a goodaturday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. we re off to a bit of a cloudy start first thing this morning. maybe a little bit offiltered sunshine on the front half of today but the clouds will lower and thicken and rain chances go up. teeratures on your saturday morning with0 deges here in down. 23 in operation county. 23 in fairfax. 21 in manassas. no rain on the radar just yet. that will not be the case for tomorrow as rain shers are headed our way. today s high with clouds increasing close to 45 degrees. freezing rain in the shenandoah valley tomorrow morning and again tomorrow night. details on that as we get closer to it. aaron? thank y we are back on this saturday morning, december 11th, 2010. how about this? just 13 shopping days left until christmas. uh-oh. we want to thank everyone for coming out onto the plaza this morning before heading to the mall to shop back inside studio 1a i m amy robach along with lester holt. still to come, in the headlines, and for all the wrong reasons. we re talking about pop star miley cyrus. there s a new video out that appears to show her smoking from a bong. it was apparently taken five days after her 1818th birthday. reports say it is not marijuana but it was another substance apparently that is legal in california. we re going to tell you more about that coming up. and then hard times for a family of nine. one time they earned over $1 million a year. but now they re strapped for cash, strgling to get by, and they had to downsize. they re part of a new reality show that looks at our country s economic downfall and they re all joining us live. and then where is george bailey when you want him? a hometown museum that pays tribute to the hollywood legend jimmy stewart may soon be forced to ose. those who love the actor and the museum a now hoping it is a saturday morning here in the nation s capital. cold outside. temperatur in the low 20s now across much of northern virginia and up into upper parts of montgomery county. frederick, maryland 21 degrees. 23 degrees in bowie, m. 23 degrees in arlington, falls church and fairfax. 23 in martinsburg and charles town up in the panhandle of west virginia. no rain to worry about for now. next chance for showe rolls in after dark tonight. today s high 45. tomorrow chilly and wet. and you are from defeated creek, tennessee. across the river is difficult, tennessee. so difficult to go across the creek? sometimes. well, if you want your forecast or anyone else wants their forecast you can always get that at weather.com. lester, amy, back to you. all right, bill, thank you. coming up designer death. new details on a fashion star s killing at posh new york city hotel. plus, the family behind the recession-base reality show. but first, these messages. i found a new love a natural true love that comes from a little green leaf zero-calorie, guilt-free no artificiality my skinny jeans zipped in relief [ announcer ] truvia. honestly sweet. but the nicoderm cq patch gradually steps you down off of nicotine in justhree steps, doubling your chances for success. nicoderm cq. 3 steps, 10 weeks and you re free. nicoderm cq. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. strol edge. it s more than just oil. it s liquid engineering. well, some might think of it as a modern-day brady bunch but unlike the 70s sitcom the bruces are a real-life family and they are in a financial free-fall. how did they get in so deep? and what are they doing about it? it s the subject of we-tvs new reality series dowized. we re a blended family. i have five kids and todd has two. that makes seven kids. when we first got together w used money to make the transition a lot sother for the families. i had a booming general contracting business. we bought an investment condo. and we had an extremely bright future. whatever we decide to do i m going to keep it about $350. we didn t worry about cutting out coupons. we didn t worry aut looking for sales. at the height of whate were doing, we were spending $15,000 to $18,000 a month. wwere? we foreclosed on our home. our investment property has been foreclosed on. we ve used up our savings. i used up my 401(k) we are broke. and for the first time in our lives, we re struggling. todd and laura bruce are here with their seven children heather, bailey, levi, whitney, dylan, rex and danielle. good morning to all of you. if you told me four years ago there would be a reaty show about a family going through hard times i wouldn t have believed you. right. it s really reflective of where we are today. it is. tell me, the show, you finished taping this show what, five months ago? s your situati changed for the better since then, todd? well, i think we re both we re both working two or three jobs. so we re working. but things are starting to improve. i mean,ust to say that you re working today says a lot. and laura, you were shocked when you heard the amount of money you d been spending in the good times. tell me, was there a moment, a family meeting moment where you all sat down and said, guys, things have changed and they ve changed in a big way? yeah, i think we tried to prolong that and stay in the house and not foreclose and we talked about the fact that we might but obviously we got that option became real to us very quickly. and you had to meet with a financial planner. and you know, sometimes truth hurts. what was that like? hearing the words? t was surprising. i think all of uselt like we were being alarmed. we changed our lifestyle dramatically and we obviously had a lot more improvement to make. and you know, it was hard to hear. you clearly have de what you ve had to do under some extraordinary circumstances. but it hasn t aected them. small things and large things as well. heather and bailey let me ask you about christmas. what s the deal with christmas spending and t kind of gifts you re going to get. not very many this year. i think the biggest thing is that we re really celebrating what christmas is all about this year. because we re getting one thing and a small thing and we ve been told what our budget is. and you re okay with that? yeah, we re grateful for even getting anything, you know. and our, like w already have what we need. is that kind of the, i guess, the silver lining in this? that you ve, aa family focused on what s really important? oh, definitely. you re either going to get closer together or you re going to kind of implode. but i think hats off to all of the families that we ve stuck tother, and you know, they comment in those kind of ways. let me ask rex and levi, this is a time when a lot of your friends have been getting a lot of things. how are you guys handling the basic adjustments in life of downsizing? well, we have to realize that we don t have we have more money than we do, we don t have as much money, so we just kind of get what we can get. and you know, we re appreciative of it. have you guys gotten in the spirit of this thing, of helping the family to try to figu this out? yeah. just all of just sort of doing everything together. like we go to the store and we all go together. just everything that we do is tother. so, everyone is always happy. and dylan, i m sorr i m working off my chart here forgive me. you wanted a baseball bat. yeah. and it cost 100 bucks and mom and dad said we could afford 50. so what happens then? well, we have jobs now. so, i just have to pay the rest. but i m fine with that. just as long as because it s my christmas present. so i mean, helping out, that s what it s all about. whitney, who s it been like kind of having your life played t on national television, at a very difficult time in your family s life? i think it s pretty cool that we get to get the message out for everybody. and i think that s what we really want out of this, so everybody knows that it s okay not to be the richest person in the world. you know. and danielle, how did you react when your parents kind of laid out the fact that dad s job is going south? well, i just realized that i should appreciate the things that i have, and to not focus on the things that i don t, and know that my family is he and that s really all that matters. you guys have a great bunch of kids. you know that, right? are you hearing from a lot of other families who are gng through the same thing, and feel like they re watching a mirror in this show? or even older than we are. you know, we got a phone call from a 71-year-old gentlemanut of wyomi that said, i ve been there. i had to leave my children and drive over the road for six months, and thank you for sharing, and hang in there. so it s been awesome to get those kind of messages. that s what it s about. that dialogue. there was a lot of shame involved when this happens, and the pressure, and we just want to kind of have peoplealk about it. let me say thank you for sharing. it s an incredible story. thanks for being here. i know you re going to have a happy holiday. you ve got each other. thank you. we ll be right back after this. e, we ve taken all we know about reading and put it here. introducing nook color. experience millions of books like never before. relax with the magazines you love. anytime, anywhere share your favorite books with your favorite people. and watch in amazement as your children s stories come to life. books, magazines, newspapers, and ildren s books, all at your fingertips nookcolor by barnes and noble. with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it s the only listerine® that gets teeth two sdes whiter. and makes tooth enamel twtimes stronger. get dual action listerine® whitening® rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. crayons and play-doh the latest dvd s lip gloss, gift cards, candy, shampoo anything for me? 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[ emale announcer ] so with keurig, every cup tastes like it s brewed just for you. because it i choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. a museum dedicated to the life and legacy of jimmy stewart is now struggling to stay open, d hoping for a similar ending the actor made famous in it s a wonderful life. here s nbc s john yang. repter: this holiday season timothy harley will see four miracles. just like jimmy stewart s character in the frank capra classic it s a wonderful life. i m at the end of my rope. reporter: he owns a humble museum to the humble star in stewars hometown of indiana, pennsylvania. when he gave permission to the museum, i think his words were that he didn t want a taj mahal. reporter: the town s a lot like bedford falls, the fictional hometown in it s a wonderful life. hello bedford falls! . reporter: the museum opened in 1995. when stewart was 87. officials say the first five years were the busiest. most visitors have been senior citizens who grew up watching stewart on the silver screen. but attendance has dropped dramatically, and like george bailey in the movie, the museum needs money, fast. please hel me, mr. potter. help me, won t you, please? reporter: is there a villain in this story? the villain would be time, john. the progression of those generations that are no longer with us that supported the museum. reporter: and so, like stewart s character in the movie, the museum is loong for help. maybe even a little help from above. so who are you? as-2. what s that as-2. angel second class. we are welcoming any and all clarences, john. reporter: harley s hoping for a hollywood happy ending. we would be gratified to mr. stewartnd his family that many people contributed what they could. to my big brother george, the richest man in town. reporter: for today, john yang, nbc news, indiana, pennsylvania. all right. you can go to todayshow.com to see how you can help the jimmy stewart museum. a programming note, it s a wonderful life is on nbc tonight at 8:00 eastern. and we ll be right back, but first, this is today onbc. [ dog barking ] mom! breakfast? in this house? in the morning i can useall. that s why i love nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread and even whole-wheat wfles. it s a quick and easy way to give my family a breakfast they ll want to eat. and nutella made with simple, quality ingredients, like hazelnuts, skim mk and a hint of cocoa. they love the taste and i feel good that they re ready to tackle the day. nutella. breakfast never tasted this good. forty years ago, he wasn t worried about retirement. he d yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. bacthen, he had something more important to do. he wasn t focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for oumilitary, veterans and their families. from investments. to life insurance. to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. still to come on today, up in smoke. the new video showing miley cyrus inhaling from a bong. plus, the mysterious death of a star swimsuit designer. but first these messages. cabbage appetizer spectacular? [ man thinking ] i m so stuffed with gas. ohh, noo, not that! not, not here! [ male announcer ] pvent uncomfortable gas moments with gas-x prevention. just one before meals helps prevent gas before it starts. from gas-x, thgas-xperts. took some foolish risks as a teenager. but i was still taking a foolish risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren t enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i ve beeeating healthier, exercising more. and now i m also taking lipitor. if you ve been kidding yourself about high cholesterol.stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to low bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, incding people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you nd simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell youdoctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. thimay be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let s go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don t kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. it was up to me to supportur family. [ male announcer ] karri danner went back to school, to become a nurse. my education made all the difference. [ male announcer ] but now some in washington want regulations restricting access to career colleges and unersities, denying opportunity to millions of people like karri, letting government decide who can go to college. it s my education, and my job, it should be my choice. [ ma announcer ] don t let washington get in the way. 7:56 on this saturday morning. a live look outside, a few clds out there and still bitter cold. uck will detail the forecast for your in a minute. first, good morning, i m aaron gilchrist. topping your news, n 4 s community shred is slated to start in a few minutes. it s aimed to protect your identity and finances. bring your documents to lot b on the nova annandale campus. bring financial papers. paper with staples or paper clips and envelopes with plastic windows. you can bring up to five cardboard boxes. make sure you boxes n t contain combustibles, batteries or electronics. plastic bags, binders will not be accepted. ten thousand watts of xmas cheer ten tusand watts glow brightly clear the colored lights will shine sincere, ho, ho, ho ho, ho, ho, ho, ho chuck has it gotte any warmer? not just yet. the sun has been up 20 or 30 minutes. fairly cloudy start to our weekend. here s our view looki off to the west. some high cirrus clouds out there. clouds will lower and thicken during the course of the day. filtered sunshine during the day. temperatures down in the low to mid-20s. near 30 in town. upper 20s next tohe chesapeake bay. no rain on the radar. that won t be the case for too mu longer. by this time tomorrow rain should be in place. highs in the low to mi40s. it will rain tomorrow. cold rain. ice in the shenandoah valley. we ll keep you posted on all of that. no advisories of any kind just yet. more news and weather coming up in 25 minutes. until then back to new york and 8:00 on a saturday morning. okay, probably 8:01 now. december 11th, 2010. what an excited holiday crowd we have with us. thank everyone who s come out to spend part of their day with us. we ve had some huge, huge saturday crowds. some fun havin everybody outside on the plaza. lester holt along with amy robach. we ve got a lot coming up. that s right. coming up this morning, winter begins ten days from now. hard to believe if you take a look out at the scenen theed in west. a lot of people feeling the full effect of the season already. it s cold here but you see that sn coming down in minneapolis. and it s just the tip of the iceberg for many families tis morning. we re going to have the latest on all the weather. we haven t seen snow here but it has been unseasonably cold in a lot of the country . it has. also we re going to talk about an arrest that s been made in the arrest of a top swimwear designer here in new york city. the victim was found in a bathtub at a trendy hotel in soho. her boyfriend, who is the son of an academy award winning composer has now been taken into custody. we re also going to talk to the victim s brother coming up. also we re also going to be talking about this val video that everyone s been talking about. miley cyrus, reportedly showing her smoking a bong. the disney star not talking about it. but a lot of people are, cluding her dad, billy ray cyrus. we re gog to have much more on this story and take a closer look at the pressures and the troubles for so many young starlets who aren hollywood and find themselves wrapped up a bunch of stuff that their parents probably wish they weren t. we want to start this half hour with that big winter blast in themidwest. forecasters say this could be the biggest one of what s a very early winter season. weather channel s scott williams is live in minneapolis to tell us more. scott, good mornin well, good morning, lester. thlatest winter blast has moved in to the midwest with a vengeance. we are looking at a triple threat here in the mneapolis area. not only will we contend with the snow. we ll contend with the wind and also the bitter cold. the snow started falling late lastnight. already about six inches has cumulated. it s a light, fluffy snow and really the shovels are going to come in handy a little later on today. you llant to have your emergency kit if you are traveling. before a is said and done, this storm could rival the great halloween storm and blizzard of 1991. so we are looking for another arctic blast. back to you, amy and lester. all right, scott, thanks very much. to get a check of where this storm is headed, how long it will last, bill karins is out here on the plaza with us. this is a little break for the east coast. this is just a nasty storm we re looking at all through the northern plains. we re talking wisconsin. southern minnesota and iowa. we have blizzard conditions this morning from omaha northward. if you travel in this region, if you get the risk of getting stranded on the roads. and once these winds start blowing, it doesn t matter if you shovel or not it s going to be blowing right back on top. these windchills are going to be brutal and it will al spread to the east coast as we head towards monday morning. back to you guys. oh, joy, oh, joy. good saturday morning to you. i m ws 4 meteorologist chuck bell off to a fairly cloudy start here in the washington area. we ll get a little bit of sunshine here in the front half of the day. that s about it for weekend sunshine. temperatures are in the mid-20s now across fairfax and loudoun counties. 24r0z around prince william and fauquier county. 23 degrees in montgomery county this morning. few lonely snowflakes southern side of virginia. watch out for a little frozen stuff early tomorrow a first thing monday. from? well some very cold and nasty forecast out there. back to you, lester. bill, thanks very much. in new york new developments in the death of a swimsu designer. this morning the son of an academy award winner is under arrest. we ll talk to the brother of the victim in a moment. but nbc s michelle franzen joins us with more on the sto. michelle, good morning. good morning, lester. the soho house behind me is known as a play ground for celebrities, and its members-only clientele. now is it at the center of a homicide investigation after a talented fashion designer with a promising future was found dead in a hotel bathtub. her boyfriend arrested as the lone suspect. sylvie cache was a talented crime wear designer who friends and colleagues say enjoyed the spotlight on and off the runway. i think she really had a zest folife. she was really fun. reporter: but her life came to a violent end early thursday morning inside the new york city members only soho house and hotel. a worker discovered the 33-year-old partially clothed body face up and emerged in an overflowing bathtub after guests below her room reported a leak in the ceiling. investigators on scene say her neck had red marks, along with a bite mark on her hand. they also found prescription pills in the room. friday night police arrested cachay s boyfriend nicolas brooks on charges of aempted murder and strangulation,fter obtaining a search warrant to take swabs and samples from her fingernails. her death ruled a homicide has devastated family and friends who say she dated brooks for six months and recently tried to end the relationship. wdon t know much about this guy. he wasn t in her life for very long. and shouldn t have been in there to begin with. shock. just complete shock. reporter: brooks is the son of joseph brooks, the oscar award winning songwriter of you light up my life. he fac his own legal battles, accused of sexually assaulting 11 actresses. the 24-year-old reportedly checked into the posh hel with cachay and investigators say before her body was discovered cameras show brooks leaving the hotel and returning several times. she had membership to his club-like hotel once featured in the hbo series sex and the city. i wanted a man who would commit, not a man who was committed. apparently we have to be more specific. rorter: in the past year, the fashion designer s swimwear line fizzled after investors pulled out due to the recession. but colleagues considered it only a temporary setback for this power housedesigner. we are all waiting for her to have her comeback. reporter: a comeback and life cut short. and the medical examiner s office deemed this a homicide case but the police say that they are still waiting for the toxicology test results to come back, and that could take several more days, to determine the exact cause of death. lester? michelle franzen, thank you. we are joined now by sylvie cachay s brother fat rick orlando cachay. thank you so much for being here. want to express our condolences and our thanks to you for takin time to be on. i know you just got in from peru less than 24 hours ago. correct. thank you very much. how is your family doing? well, obviously this has been an incredible tragedy. for the most part we re destroyed by the news d the loss of my sister. my father is taking it very rough. and everyone really in the family is quite affected by this. did you know nicolas brooks, the man she was seeing and now stands accused? no. i had never met him. did your sister talk much about her relationships? no. not with me. as an older brother, i really focused more on our family issues, and her professional career. and our plansreally trying to get together, and these type of topics. in fact i know the whole family was schedul to get together for the holidays. yes. sylvie was supposed to come home well come down to lima, peru, to be with myself and my mother and my ther, my wife, and our baby, which is on the way. so it was supposed to be a very happy holiday with everybody together and instead y find yourself here in new york. i know you met with police. have they been able to give you any insight into the circumstances? no. i met with police, and the they told me just that they were very interested in the case and they were going to do their best to do their job. we ve been able to read a lot about it in the last two days, and the incredible accompshments she s made as a young woman, as a designer. where was she going with this? what was her future? well, as you probably know, she was really a superstar with regards to fashion from a very young age. even when she was an adolescent, she used to have her vogue magazines and all these fashion magazines that she really loved. she went to school for fashion, and excelled. she was at the top of her class, and then when she came to new york she worked for many of the top designers, including marc jacobs and mmy hilfiger and then she was working at victoria s secret as their head swimsuit designer. and then she took the bold step, especially for a young woman in the city, and started her own line. well, patrick we do appreciate you coming on and sharing your memories of your sister and telling us what you know about the case. thank you very much. please send our best to the rest of your family. thank you. we ll take a break. we ll be back after these messages. -i can t always get to the nk. -but can still bank. i have the bank of america mobile banking app. i can take care of things on my break. i can check my balance. while i m on a bus. waiting at the barber shop. at 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[ sneezes ] go to kleenex.com for more fun ways to share. kleenex tissues. softness worth sharing. i went to the dentist. he was poking around, he found the spots, and he said, are those spots sensitive? he recommended that i use sensodyne. i noticed it wasorking when i was drinng cold things and i wasn t even inking about it. i never thought a toothpaste could fix that problem. cyrus and the troubling new video at has shocked a lot of people, including her famous father. the tape apparently shows her smoking from a bong just days after turning 18. the video, posted on tmz, shows miley cyrus at a party deeply inhaling smoke from a bong. really? the website s source says the video was taken by a friend days after the teen idol turned 18. and that miley wasn t smoking marijuana b the psychedelicer salvia, legal in california for adults. the drug has a cult following on college campuses and there was a contingent of use abusers who post videos of their trip. the image of cyrus using the drug are at odds with the whesome character she plays in the hit show hannah montana, now in its final season. miley cyrus has drawn criticism in the pasthen she posed for involves hull photographs for the magazine vanity fair back in 2008. and some csidered her performance at the teen music awards in 2009 inappropriate for including a pole dance. but as she officially ents adulthood, miley cyrus also faces the sobering news that her parents, tisch and billy ray cyrus, are divorcing. her fath wrote about the video on twitter, saying, sorry, guys, i had no idea. just saw this stuff for the first time myself. i m so sad. there imuch beyond my control right now. miley cyrus, and her representative, have not released a statement in response to the videotape. joining us now with more insight is bowlly solar, editor in chief of hollywood life.com and psychiatrist dr. janet taylor. good morning to both of you. bonnie, i ll begin with you. what does that videotape do to miley cyru image? does it impact her? oh, ablutely. i hate to say her image goes up in smoke but it s been seriously damaged. i mean parents support their children wching hannah montana and buying her albums. they are not going to want their children going out to research how to get salvia and how to smoke it with a bong. dr. taylor? hopefully most kids won t do that. but i think the bottom line, she s an adolescent and growing up in the spotlight is difficult. there are a lot of pressures and is points to the fact that she needs parenting and needs monitoring and obviously better friends. we just mentioned obviously she s been through a lot. she s got the scrutiny that we all realize is on her. her parents are divorcing. do you all think that this might just be her acting out, or could this be something more serious potentially? well, i ve absolutely believe that she is acting out. she is crying out for attention. and that is very serious. but this isn t the first incident. i mean, for the past year she s done she s been shown walng around without a bra, she s allowed her breasts to be seen from the side, she s been trying to she s been very suggestive in her new videos. i think she wants her parents to step in, and say, they re going to be parents. and there are times when there s famy discord and parents get divorced or kids do act out. so on the one hand, this is normalcy. but on the other hand, because we expect something different, i think there is a lot of pressure. but the father s statement about there areany things beyond my control means he s trying to take care of himself and maybe they re not maying as much attention which they need to, which they will now, with miley. it s always hard to be a child star. we ve seen all the people. but you know, there s the other pele like cory feldman, drew barrymore, danny bonaduce. is this just a symptom, perhaps, of being a child star? despite fame and despite what seems so greatn the outside, these are still kids who are developing and there s a lot of psychological pressure that we have no idea about. and i think danny lovado illustrates that. the good thing is he got help. but there are child stars who are actually doing very well. neil patrick harris. jodie foster, kristen stewart who stars in twilight there were lots of examples of child stars who with support and boundaries are able to make the trsition to adulthood. good point. but the real ssageor parents is because your child has a paycheck doesn t mean that you stop parenting. you have to keep parenting your children. bonnie fuer, dr. janet taylor. great advice. great words of wisdom. thanks very much. we re back. [ female announcer ] joe here likes saving money. that s why joe likes aetna payment estimator. he gets to compare out-of-pocket health care costs before they come out of his pocket. that s awesome. [ female announcer ] now let s say every joe in america uses it. looks like everyone likes saving money. ah, the potential of putting people first. thanks joe. know more. get better. get a smarter health plan. tna.com. still to come on today, speaking out. a juror in the elizabeth smart kidnapping trial will join u live. plus a gift guide for guys. and rules that will make them actually want to go shopping? really but firstthese messages. [children screaming] [growl] i met my husband here. i got to know my grandkidsere. we ve discovered so much here together. but my doctor told me that durg that time my high olesterol s contributing to plaque buildup in my arteries. that s why i m fighting my cholesterol. with crestor. along th die crestor does more than help manage cholesterol, when diet and exercise alone aren t enough. crestor is also proven to slow plaque buildup in arties. crestor is not right for everyone, like people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. tell your door about other medicines you are taking, or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of serious side effects. ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. i love it when we re here together. if you can t afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big applewice as fast! dinner! 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[ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it could be?! what s in your wallet? good moing, everyone. it s 8:26 on this saturday, december 11, 2010. i m kimberly suiters. we re following breaking news out of the district this morning. onman has died, four others are injured after being shot after a house party. police say someone oped fire near the intersection of 14th and s streets around 2:30 in the morning. the shooting is connected to a party a block away on ridge place. news 4 derrk ward is at that scene and we ll have a live report coming up at 9:00. police in prince george s county are investigating another deadly shooting that happened about 20 minutes later in laurel. officers say they found a man shot to death inside a car on hawthorne lane. police are lookin into a motive behind that shooting. metro rail riders have delays this weekend. on the red line crews will be replacing tracks, switches and platform on the blue and orange metro welding new lines on tracks. on the blue line there will be delaysetween braddock road and van dorn street stations. all of the construction should be done before the monday morning comute. your chill weather forecast is next. stay with us. [ mom ] my son only wanted one toy this year. i want a robosan 4000. [ mom ] the one no one could get. toy stores are reporting long lines and empty shelves. a robosan 4000. [ mom ] and i mean no one. so i did most of my hoday shopping on citi specials. with the money i saved, i bid online -and got exactly whate wanted. -a robosan 4000! [ television ] introducing the new robosan 5000. [ mom ] at least for now. [ male announcer ] make your happy holiday stories come true with citi specials. what s your story? citi can help you write it. meteorologist chuck bell joining us now. chuck, everybody likes a little bit of snowflakesot a lot of freezing rain. you got that right. we ll have chance for both of those things as well as plain old rain before our weekend is done. outside on a saturday morning get your weekend started. everything is dry and clear. clouds are becoming fairly thick. sunshine left for today. temperatures have been stuck in the 20s to near 30 degrees for much othe morning and it will be a slow climb into the throw perhaps teen mid-40s by later on this afternoon, eventually a south breeze will start to warm things up a little bit. late tonight into the daybreak time frame of tomorrow we may have sleet or freezing rain to worry about in the shenandoah valley. much of torrow afternoon will be rain. late sunday night into early monday morning whatever is raining should be changing to snow as it comes to an end and turn much cder early next week. youdid say the s word. we re holding you to it. help protect your identity by taking personal documents t and we re back on this saturday morning, december 11th, 2010. christmas just 14 days away. i think you can tell everyone here has the holiday spirit. at least it sounds like it. thanks to our great crowd joining us out on the plaza. i m amy robach alongith lester holt. coming up in this half hour, justice for elizabeth smart. it s taken a long time, this is the you girl who was kidnapped, held for nine months and now the man who abducted her has learned his fate. we ll talk to the u.s. attorney for utah and a member of the jury in just a few ments. all right. and then we re going to switch gearand we re going to give you a guy s guide to gift giving. because we all know that you need help. we do need help. can i say a good saturday morning. outside of our windows here in upper northwest washington it s a mostly cloudy sky. temperatures are chilly, indeed. 20s in most of the suburbs to right around the freezing mark in town and alongside the bay. 25 in clinton, maryland. 23 in frederick, maryland. radar shows not much in the way of precipitation around re just yet. winter weather advisories are out for parts of west virginia. there s a chance for sleet or freezing rain in the shenandoah valley first thing tomorrow morning. and you wanted to say hello to ryan, right? because ryan s her friend. all right, let s go talk about is football forecast. los like we re not too bad. the cold air is going to be arriving, as we go to your sunday game michael vick and the eagles competing with the giants for first place in the division. dallas cowboys have played well. temperature won t be a problem. mostly clear. the recast not too bad. that s a look at your sunda night football. back to you. bill, thanks. it was a dramatic end friday to a story that captured the nation s attention since 2002. 14-year-old elizabeth smart was mysteriously taken from her home, and now eight years later, 12 jurors found brian david mitchell guilty of kidnapping and raping her. nbc s kristen welker joins us from salt like city. good morning, kristen. good morning, amy. elizabeth smart smiled in cou when that guilty verdict was read. she has been waiting for this moment for a very long time. i m so thrilled to be here i m so thrilled with the verdict. reporter: victory for elizabeth smart. i hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in america, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened. reporter: after deliberatin for only 5 hours, jurors found brian david mitchell, the man who kidnapped smart and stole her innocence, guilty. this san exceptionally victorious day for us all. as mothers, as women, as daughters, that we can go forward, and these things don t have to happen to us. reporter: prosecutors say the verdict is a tribute to smart herself. the now 23-year-old took the stand and testified about her terrifying nine months in captivity, when she was just 14 years old. she described a living hell, what it was like to be abducted at nightpoint, raped almost every day. he is a liar. he is a predator. and he is a sex offender. reporter: at issue for the jurors, whether mitchell was mentally stable enough to understand the difference between right and wrong. the prosecution called him a master manipulator. the defense argued mitchell was delusional. but jurors didn t buy the insanity defense. when you sit for hours at a time, and listen to incredibly believable things that happened to a young lady like elizabeth smart, you got to be pretty calluso be able to walk away without having something tug at your heart. reporter: while the verdict was read, mitchell was singing hymns, a ritual he has done every day since the trial began. after court,itchell was led back to jail. elizabeth smart, now finally free. and smart will be celebrating christmas at her family s this weekend, because in just a few days she ll travel to france to finish her relious mission. but she will be back in time for mitchell s may sentencing he could spend the rest of his life in prison. amy? kristen welker, thank you. it took eight years for elizabeth to hear friday s verdict. joining us now is u.s. attorney carly christianson, and the man who would like to be known this morning as juror number 7. thank you both f joining us. thank you. thank you. and carly, let me start with you. i mean, this has been quite a day for you and the prosecution team. so tell me how you re feeling this morning. well, obviously we feel very pleased and very satisfied with the outcome. i had a trial team that expended an extraordinary amount of effort and worked very hard to reach this result, so we re very pleased and satisfied by the jury s veict. and carlie, jurors yesterday mentioned that elizabeth s testimony, particularly her atteion to detail, obviously help them render this verdict. how important was that testimony in your view? i don t think you can overstate the importance of elizabets testimony. she is a young woman of extraordinary courage and determination, and she had an amazing ability to recall the horrific details of that nine-month captivity, and was able to recount that for the jury in a very clear and candid way. so her testimony was critical to the success of this case. and juror number 7, let me ask you, the impact of her testimony on you personally as you heard her words. personally, as a father, i felt ver deeply touched at the misery that she had to endure. it was a it was a compelling part of everything that we watched during tse last few weeks. and let me follow up and ask you, after having heard that testimony, what was the mood of the jurors once the deliberations began? in the court sessions, we would break. during her testimony we would go back to the jury room and very little was said, if anything. juror number 7, was there ever any doubt in your mind as to the guilt of this man? i wouldn t say that there was doubt. because of the instructions that we received from the judg we had to kind of apply some some rules, and to take a look at what it was that we were supposed to find for. and so, making sure that we covered those in great detail was very important. and that kind of guided what did. and carlie, i want to ask you this, how important is this ruling for other kidnap victims like elizabeth who are out there? people who have gone through similar circumances, to see what she did, what she was able to do in court, and of course the outcome? i think it s a very important result for victims. because i think it can assure them that the criminal justice system works. i think the result todays a real testament to the effectiveness of our judicial system, and it s the result of a combined effort of lots of people. law enforcement, investigators, trial teams, witnesses, all of these people came together to recover elizabh, and to achieve the result which we saw delivered by the jury yesterday. carlie christiansen and juror number 7, thank you both. we appreciate your time this morning. and we re back, but first these messages. wasn t my daughter s cabbagappetizer spectacular? 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[laughing] yeeah. that s why there s castrol gtx. with our most powerful deposit fighng ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don t let deposits ld your car back. get castrol gtx. it s more than just oil. it s liquid engineering. this mning on today s holiday gift guide, tips for the guys. knowing what women wouldn t isn t easy. and for some men shopping isn t exactly a top priority. let s face it, we don t like malls, you know. we d rather be sitting around drinking beer and, you know, watching hockey. following my wife around isn t my favore part of shopping. i feel quite stressed. no, because it s quite difficult to buy for elyn because she is quite particular. when i ve bought her things like soap, before, given it to her and she s looked at it and said, oh, that s for old ladies. they re so vague sometimes as to what they want. fundamental differences between men and women, sometimesomen can be vague. i want this or i want that. they ll drop subtle hints and then you have to try to figure out the great puzzle box. you know, i feel frustrated sometimes. i know anything that i have given she s going to love because she loves me. if you don t like shopping, come at it with an open mind. theore you enjoy shopping, the more tha she ll let you watch football. oh, my gosh. we are hopeless, aren t we? sarah is editor of thenet.com. she has fou simple rules every man should know before shopping. good morning. we need help. first of all, the advice you re going to give is not limited to christmas. no. it sefinitely good for birthdays, anniversaries, any special occasion. you can follow these rules and you ll always hit a home r with your gift. all right. the first rule, keep in mind who you re shopping for. that s good, very often we think we re shopping for ourselves. exactly. and you might love football and she might love going to t game with you, but that doesn t mean she wants a bears jersey. this is something that you want to look at her, you want to think about what she wants. her style, what she likes to do. maybe she wears vintage julie. you might want to get her something that s vintage inspired. if you really think about your giftee, you c do a better j getting her something. we heard the one man in the setup story talk about, it s kind of vague, and they hint. you say go ahea and ask. exactly. we did a poll on thenest.com of all of our readers and the women said 80% of them would like the guy to ask. just what do you want? just ask us. and this doesn t mean to get exactly what we say. maybe, get inspired from it. but it is ok. it s a great feeling when you know you ve bought the perfect gift. another piece of advice we had, dare to repeat your successes. dip in the well agn if it works. if you re feeling really stressed about what to get this year, it s not a time that you have to reinvent the wheel. if you got a really great piece of jewelry a couple yearsgo or a weekend away, it s okay to repeat that. maybe do a little twist on it. but if she loved it once, she s probably going to love it again. i mentioned to amy that the first year of marriage i bought a microwave oven which for some reason i thought was every girl s dream. it was not. adce, never give the gifts. there are a few things we definitely don t want anything useful. this isn t the time to surprise usith new tires onur car. come on. you need something with remote control, right? all right, maybe not. definitely nothing that has to do with weight loss. we may talk about wanting to get in shape and maybe being healthier, but we don t need a gift certificate to weight watchers. exercise vidors? that s not the time. maybe another time would be perfect for that. and self-benefiting gifts. yes. this isn t the time, lingerie is wonderful but maybe not for christmas. if it s going to benefit the guy, we want something that s fun and perfect for us. we don t want something that s prepackaged that you just picked up at the store and brought home with no thought. we really want somethi that you thought about. most important is to ask. yeah, it s okay to ask. sarah newell, nice having you on. merry christmas. in the holiday kitchen with sandra lee coming up next. first, this is today on nbc. this morning on tod s kitche kitchen , cocktail party food. if you don t know how to wow your guests this holiday season, don t fret. sandra lee, author of the new book semihome made comfort food is here. good morning. we re going to pair cocktails with some holiday appetizers. the holidays are all about enjoying yourselfnd enjoying your friends and family. so i m going to do appetizer and cocktail pairings for you. they re easy, everyone will love, and can you do in minutes. we re going to start with some bruschetta. we are. first thing in here is just a whole bunch of herbs. this is a nice, fresh herb mixture we re making. so you ve got parsley. you ve got thyme, you ve got rosemary, you ve got sage. you ve got some chives in there. olive tap made? a premade olive tap made. and then we ve got some almond slivers that have been toasted and really chopped finely. a little bitf lemon juice to brighten this up and jalapenos to give it some flavor. throw that all together. in my magazine semihomemade i always do great appetizer and cocktail parties. everybody loves them. and it s much les stressful than throwing a b sitdown dinner. do you do anything special with the bread? or just toast it? the bread you just toast up some toast paints, or some baguettes, whatever you like, put this on the top. and that ishat you are going to serve with. with a martini. expressive martinis. what do i start with that? this is the beginning of the night. we ll keep you awake. but look at this on the plates, too. before we get to the cocktail. beautiful cranberry topping. a gre presentation. in my glass or my shaker all i have is some ice. some instant espresso and some cream. now this is the newest thing on the market. that is my j to tell you what s hot and new. this came out, this week. it was godiva s chocolate infused vodka. smell this. hello, good mning. you know it s good when you even like it. this is a gift in a gift. and that s three ounces in there. and then some bay leailey s. everybody loves irish cream. so we ll just put this on here, on top, otherwise you might wear it. be careful. gift it a shake. i should be making you do this. and then it s going to look just like that. pour i in a glass. put some chocolate shavings. or you can also put pumpkin pie spice would be nice. one of the things you always have to do is he comfort food cheese dish. u re even drinking come on, let s welcome okay. i ve got wow! good, right? since i love the chocolate infused vodka so much, i put it into my cranberry martini. wasn t on the original recipe. this is cranberry infused vodka, cranberry juice, a little bit of grenadine, not for the color but for the sweetness, and a little bit of my chocolate infused vodka served with a goat cheese roll which has been rolled. the goat cheese came from the store. vodka and goat cheese. i m here. hi, nice to s you. on here is parsley. cranberries for sweetness, and of course some more toast points. that goes well with either of these. sure, why not? this is a merry christmas in a glass. wow. at 8:51 in a morning. we re going to have another two hours of the show here after that. this is all about comfort food and great cocktails and appetizers. this is my merry christmas in a grass. this is tonic and two limes but i switched up the limes. this ishat i m serving with my steak skewers. these are marinated in a cocktail of juices. pineapple juice, orange juice. i ve put some soy sauce in there. some pepper goes in there. what about the sauce? the sauce is going to be an orange marmalade with some chili sauce for some heat and this is worcestershire to give it a beautiful can i grab one? yes. yum. finally, these are super fabulous, right out of the magazine. they re the final sweetness on the last page of my magazine. i just take cream cookies into a food processor. i also put a stened brick of cream cheese. those cookies? yes. you roll it, tn you melt chocolate chips or chocolate. yoroll it in the chocolate, roll it in some coconut. i want you to taste one of these. you don t he to twist my arm. they are beyond fabulous. look inside of that. that s gorgeous. oh, that s really good. this is a merry christmas. easy party you c put together in minutes. everybody willove it. it s affordable. it s doable. and you won t get stressed out. i like it. thank you so much. sandra lee, always nice to have you here. happy holidays. we ll be rht back, but first, these messages. 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[ male announcer ] relax. pam helps u pull it off. and that does it for us on this saturday morning. richard lui, bill karins and of course we appreciate everyone here. we love our espresso martinis. tomorrow on today, jenna shows us why michael j. fox was her first teen idol. great to have you here. join me tonight for nbc nightly news. have a great day, everybody. good morning, everyone. i m kimberly suiters. i m aaron gilchrist. straight ahead on news4 today , we re following break news overnight in washington. on man is dead four others injured in ashooting. we re live with the details. arlington national cemetery begins a holiday tradition. news 4 is helping you to keep your identity safe and secure. we re live from the community shred in annandale. i m news meteorologist chuck bell. cloudy skies and cold weather on tap for much of your weekend and a chance for some precipitati as well. details coming up. all that and more when you join us for news4 today in less than two minutes. [ female announcer ] safeway talks gift ideas. music makes a great gift. i like rock, hip-hop, country. and you are telling me this, why? i.uh.thought you might be my secret santa? no. i m giving for skunk. h, i can hear you. no. not you. the other skunk. [ female announcer ] safeway is the place to stock up on itunes gift cards. rit now, save $6 on a $40 4-pack. keep em on hand. only at safeway. ingredients for life. following breaking news right now in the district. one man is dead, four others are injured after a shooting overnight. we re live in southeast. good morning i m kimberly suiters. welcome to news4 today . i m aaron gilchrist. it s saturday, december 11, 2010. first our weather headlines. chuck bell is here with us this morning and we re still dealing like it will change any time soon, dealing with cold temperatures. months and months from now. very chilly week. today will make ten days in a row colder than average. relatively cold by december s standards. that s the real measure about whether or not you can kblan it. you can complain about it for a