Transcripts For WRC Today 20110224 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to today on a thursday morning. i m ann curry, in for meredith. and i m willie geist in for matt. the president has taken criticism for his handling of the crisis in libya, but the administration now says all options on the table when it comes to handling that violent uprising. that s true. there are fears that gadhafi s loyalists have already killed hundreds of resisters who want the ruler removed from power. that number is only expected to rise as protesters, many now armed, take over cities more cities in libya. and the unrest in the middle east has caused the price of crude oil to soar now to $100 a barrel for the first time in more than two years. we re already feeling the impact at the pumps. coming up, how high experts expect prices to rise just in time for the busy summer season. let s befwin with the latest on the situation in libya. we ve got richard engel in the eastern part of the country. hey, richard. good morning. good morning, ann. there is still heavy fighting in t tripoli. president gadhafi, not exactly president, but the leader of this country or the parts of libya he still controls, plans to give a national address to try and dispel rumors that he has fled the country. his daughter has also appeared on television to say that she is still in the country. but there are parts more and more of this country that are no longer under gadhafi s control. there are really two libyas now. one where we are now in rebel-held territory. the other where there is heavy fighting, where gadhafi loyalists remain. gadhafi loyalists were reportedly firing at random in the libyan capital, now a war zone. thousands of foreigners are struggling to leave tripoli. the airport is crowded. flights are few. it s unclear how many have been killed in the fighting in libya so far, but mass graves are already being dug. moammar gadhafi is still believed to be in tripoli, but he hasn t been seen since his rambling, angry speech tuesday. but gadhafi s world is shrinking. there s now another libya, firmly in rebel hands. we drove 300 miles into libya, a journey through rebel territory. we have now left on the highway heading west. most of the cars we ve seen have been going in the opposite direction toward the egyptian border. clearly people leaving and taking everything with them. the terrain is harsh. mostly scrub and desert. but the highway is new. we were able to move fast. we quickly reached a city on the mediterranean coast. suddenly, we drove into a protest. children were up front. they shouted free libya as men behind them cheered, the people want to topple the regime. the demonstrators are all shouting the same thing, that gadhafi must go. the demonstrators covered our car with a libyan flag, the old one, flown before gadhafi took over power. there were a few hard stares in this city a reputation for islamic militants. we left the city at dusk, still heading west. in the next town, we were surprised again by demonstrators on top of an armored personnel carrier. a war trophy. protesters say this armored vehicle was being used by gadhafi s forces to shoot on the people. now they have taken control of it and are driving it themselves. the rebels are now armed with heavy weapons to show they re prepared to use them. some fired guns in the air. nearby, we were taken to a house to see a half dozen men, prisoners captured three days ago during a previously unreported major battle. the prisoners, all libyans, surrendered to save their lives. they looked despondent and nervous. they told us they d been fighting along mercenaries who were executed by the rebels. rebel-controlled libya is leaderless, chaotic and harsh, but also determined to advance to capture tripoli. rebels tell us that the oil fields here in eastern libya are now under the control of army units that defected from gadhafi. willie, ann? richard, what are the chances this is ann, richard. what are the chances for relatively peaceful, egypt-style ending to this chaos that s now all over in libya? nobody expects that this will end like tunisia or egypt. in both of those countries, there was an uprising that forced the leaders of the country to leave and then the new government is in the process of formation. in both tunisia and egypt. this is a very different situation. this is an armed revolution to try and topple gadhafi. gadhafi says he won t go. the rebels firmly believe that. they think they have to take over tripoli, fphysically kill him. they worry gadhafi will try to crush this rebellion by ordering an attack on civilians. that was their biggest fear, that there will be a massacre or mass attack against a rebel-held city. ann? richard engel, thanks so much. it s 7:06. here s willie. president obama did not hold back during his first public comments on the situation in libya, calling the violence against protesters, quote, outrageous and unacceptable. savannah guthrie is here with more. good morning, savannah. good morning, willie. this was the first public comment from president obama, other than a written statement. aides say they held the president back all this time out of worry, frankly, for the 500 or so americans who are still in libya waiting to be evacuated. as you said, the president condemned gadhafi s actions, but never mentioned him by name. like all governments, the libyan government has a responsibility to refrain from violence. to allow humanitarian assistance to reach those in need and to respect the rights of its people. it must be held accountable for its failure to meet those responsibilities and face the cost of continued violations of human rights. so why didn t the president come right out and call for gadhafi to step down? aides say they don t want to further inflame gadhafi, make it personal, give him a reason, for example, to hold americans hostage there. they don t want to play into his strategy of making this about the u.s. versus libya, which might have some leverage with anti-american sentiment in that region. savannah, we heard the president speak yesterday about a full range of options. i guess the question this morning is what are those options? is it sanctions? is it no-fly zone? these are things that are very difficult to carry out. indeed. i think all of those things are on the table. certainly the u.s. could impose sanctions. but the u.s. doesn t have as much leverage with libya has it does, for example, with egypt or other partners in the region. there s not a long-standing good relationship there. so i think what the u.s. is trying to do is work with other countries who do have more significant relationships with libya, who could impose sanctions that would really for example, going after the gadhafi fortune, hitting him with where it really hurts. there is talk of a no-fly zone, but that s a military option that s farther down the road. they re not there yet. a difficult situation for the white house. savannah guthrie, thanks so much. it is 7:08. here s ann. oil production in libya has almost completely shut down, and as worries over the unrest in the middle east is spreading, gas prices are going up here in the united states. eight cents in the last week ago. nbc s tom costello has more. good morning, tom. good morning. the fear is that this is going to spread to those oil producers that we really rely on, saudi arabia in particular. we really saw gas prices pop overnight. look at the national average now. $3.23 a gallon for regular unledded. folks in alaska and hawaii paying $3.66 right now. as we surveyed the national landscape, as we look across the heartland, it seems to be abo b $3.29 in the nation s midsection. in the lower 48, drivers in california are complaining the loudest. at $3.57 a gallon on average, they have a right to. if you re just going to work alone, you re getting hammered with gas prices. it s killing people. paying for democracy in the middle east and north africa. reporter: while yesterday s national average for regular unleaded was $3.19 a gallon, it s well above that in many big cities. washington, d.c. is averaging $3.29. new york, $3.39. chicago, $3.38. seattle, $3.48. san francisco and los angeles, close to $3.60 and likely to move higher. oil prices are just 40 cents shy of $100 a barrel. reporter: sharon epperson says the libyan unrest has created a fear premium in the oil markets. what really thrust oil prices to $100 a barrel, the highest price we ve sieen in 2 1/2 year, is the concern that the protests will go to saudi arabia. reporter: and that fear premium is pushing pump prices higher. in boulder, colorado, the eco-baby diaper cleaning service drives 300 miles each day. fill-up used to be $55. and now it s 60, maybe over that. reporter: now, they may have to raise their prices. we absorb it as long as we can. there is a point where if it continues to go up, we will have a problem and we will have to ask to raise we will have to raise our prices. reporter: already prices for food, clothing, anything that has to be flown or trucked is going up. arizona trucker david bolton we pay more at the pumps. we have to charge our customers more. they have to charge their customers more. and prices go up for everybody. reporter: now $4 a gallon is predicted by summer. just what a fragile economy doesn t need. it also creates a kind of nervousness and an ease that causes people to pull back just at the time when you need people to step forward and be confident and spend. $4 a gallon, some even say $5 a gallon. here s a stat for you. listen to this. for every ten cents a gallon we pay more at the pump, that translates into $60 more a year in fuel prices for an average american. so if fuel prices stay where they are right now, we ll be paying $300 more than a year ago. of course, they keep going up. ann, back to you. tom costello, thank you. it is now 7:12. now, again, here s willy. ann, thank you. new zealand s prime minister is expressing grave fears that no more survivors will be found in the rubble of tuesday s powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake. sarah james is in christchurch with the very latest. sarah, good morning. good morning, willie. as you said, there are grave fears. 226 people still missing in the rubble and 98 people confirmed dead. all too soon, a valiant rescue effort is turning into a recovery operation. in christchurch, the international search and rescue effort is now more than 600 strong as desperate families endure an agonizing wait. we have 226 people who are reported missing. reporter: officials say as many as 22 people lie in the ruins of the iconic christchurch cathedral. at least 60 more in the rubble of the ctv building, home to an english language school for japanese students. my friends, they didn t come out. reporter: this remains a city on the drink and on edge. residents forced to line up for basics like safe drinking water, power still out in many areas. new zealand prime minister john key told nbc news the u.s. has offered much-needed help. the president wanted me to pass on his deepest sympathy and condolences. he also offered his absolute support in any way, shape, or form that new zealand required. reporter: more ominous aftershocks thursday threaten already-damaged buildings. this is the entrance to tv3. the tower closed to all but essential personnel. evidence everywhere of the faultlines fissures which lie below. hundreds of rescue workers hope for more miracles like naomi mcgee. and like this thrilling moment wednesday. can you hear us? reporter: ann bodkin, trapped in the rubble for 25 years. she was protected by a desk. she just got under the desk. all the concrete was on top of the desk. that saved her life. reporter: i spoke to ann s husband, graham richardson, by phone today, who told me about the most terrifying moment. well, there was an aftershock just as they were trying to get her out. and that was scary. it didn t move an inch when she actually came out. reporter: as richardson stood with families of other missing loved ones, his elation was tempered by sorrow. you get excited for your own and congratulating you. that must be devastating to them. officials are working to identify those who have perished as quickly as possible. as we mentioned, there are these violent aftershocks that they re having to brave. there have been 36 since the big quake. four of them have been above five on the richter scale. willie? wow. still hoping for miracles there in christchurch. sarah james, thank you so much. let s get a check of the morning s other top stories for natalie morales. good morning, everyone. we begin with a report that the army legally deployed a special team of psychological operatives to manipulate american politicians into increasing funding and support for u.s. troops in afghanistan. this story comes from that same reporter whose article brought down general stanley mcchrystal last year. this morning, a british judge has ruled julian assange can be extradited to sweden where he faces allegations of rape and sexual molestation. assange is expected to appeal the decision within the week. a major policy shift for president obama who is now calling the 1996 defensive marriage act unconstitutional. the justice department will no longer defend the federal legislation which bans recognition of same-sex marriages. hawaii has become the seventh state to recognize same-sex civil unions. and yet another massive gas explosion in pennsylvania overnight. a blast injured three workers at a gas well. this is the third serious gas explosion in that state this year. earlier this month, a blast in allentown killed five people and in january, a 50-foot fireball killed one person in philadelphia. now to wall street. the crisis in libya is having an impact on the markets. melissa francis is at the new york stock exchange. melissa, good morning. good morning. yes, we re already watching oil surge above 100 bucks a barrel this morning. that s weighing heavily on stocks around the globe. it is responsible for triple-digit losses in the dow two days in a row. the major indices would be even lower if it weren t for energy stocks. chevron and exxon both moving to multiyear highs. that s propping up the indexes. but it could be another wild day on wall street. melissa francis, thank you. after four months of delays, it s all systems go now for the shutter discovery s final voyage today. it is set for lift-off at 4:50 p.m. eastern time to take a crew of six people and one life-like robot to the international space station. discovery is nasa s oldest surviving shuttle. it s logged 143 million miles since its first lift-off in 1984. it is now 7:17. back over to ann and willie. about 50,000 people expected to be there for the lift-off. we ll have video of it. we ll show you what looks like. think you, natalie. we ve got al roker. he s not here, but he s in atlanta. he s giving us the first check of the weather. hey, al. good morning. hey, ann and willie. we re here at the weather channel. it s very appropriate because we ve got a lot of active weather today. first of all, we have good morning. it s sunny and cold on this thursday morning. big changes on the way here as a result of that system coming in out of the midwest. we ll get some rain this afternoon, and then the moisture first arrives in the mountains. it may turn to some freezing rain allegheny county, highlands of west virginia. there may be a little iciness there over the next couple hours, but a lot of rain in kentucky and tennessee. that will be arriving here this afternoon and later tonight through midday on friday. and that s your latest weather. willie? al, thanks. well, it s not the big day, but britain s prince william and kate middleton are taking an important step this morning. their first official public appearance as an engaged couple. nbc s keith miller is there. keith, good morning. good morning, williwillie. people are still arriving in the blustery weather, hoping to catch a glimpse of the golden couple. for kate middleton, this is just the start of many public appearances representing the royal family. and this morning all eyes will be on her to see if she can shine. this is the sort of event that kate middleton will be expected to attend as a princess, representing the royal family. this morning is her first opportunity to shine. launching a sea rescue life boat may not sit high on the list of glamorous royal outings, but it is symbolic. this remote corner of wales will be home to the newlyweds. the locals at least are excited by their new neighbors. it s nice for them to come and be here, especially as he will be the prince of wales eventually. it s brilliant. fantastic. love it. fantastic. reporter: this is their first official function since announcing their engagement and the palace sent an advanced team to make sure there were no surprises. i think what s most impressive about how kate has come across so far is that it s very easy to see her as a princess. she hasn t had to do very much. she hasn t had to say very much. but that, in a way, is actually a good qualification. reporter: back in london, prince william s younger brother, harry, is organizing a bachelor party. once known as the royal wild child, prince harry is known to like a good time. we understand it s going to be a water sports weekend down in the south coast of england. they ll be out there enjoying themselves at the sea and then going to all the pubs around that area. reporter: kate middleton s younger sister, pipa, will be organizing the hen party, what we call a bachelorette party for the bride-to-be. sarah ferguson was seen dropping off her two daughters for a night out. some are calling it a preview of the bachelorette. tomorrow, there s another event. kate middleton and prince william will be traveling to st. andrew s university in scotland where they met as undergraduate students. it s the 600th anniversary of that institution, but it will also bring back very fond memories for them. willie? keith miller, thanks so much. that s going to be a bachelor party for the ages. just ahead, a stern warning from a judge to lindsay lohan. if you settle your grand theft case, you re going to jail. we ll have the latest twist in her legal still ahead, are some hotels and resorts using sneaky tricks to win your business? the today investigation you need to see before booking a vacation online. that s after your local news. 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[ laughs ] oh, max. long live your dog. purina dog chow. double dog dare you to try better-tasting than ever purina dog chow. we know your dog will love it. good morning. it s 7:26 on this thursday, the 24th of february. i m joe krebs. in the news for today, maryland state senators expected to pass a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. it would then be up to the house of delegates to decide whether to send the bill to governor o malley. he s said he would sign the legislation if it reaches his desk. we ll take a break and come back with weather and traffic. cold start on this thursday morning. good morning. right now we re below freezing most of the area, except reagan national and southern maryland, in the low to mid-30s there, but 20s elsewhere. we have some rain getting into the mountains. maybe a little iciness in allegheny county, some of the highlands of west virginia s eastern panhandle. and that will just be the next couple hours. then rain this afternoon, tonight and into midday friday. jerry, how s traffic? tom, pretty routine, no major accidents along the 270 corridor. stop-and-go, off-and-on from below frederick headed down to the split. virginia, 395 from the beltway to the 14th street bridge, heavy but lanes open. joe? thank you, jerry. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, big screens that won t drain your wallet or boost your electric bill. 7:30 now on a thursday morning. not a bad start to the day. these folks better get some bad weather is coming. inside studio 1a, i m ann curry alongside willie geist. meredith is an assignment. she s on jay leno tonight. and matt is off. just ahead, the difficult decision lindsay lohan now faces following her latest court appearance. the judge gave the actress a choice. fight the charges or take a plea deal. and either decision could send her back behind bars. we ll have details coming up. also, a today investigation that anyone booking a vacation online should see. coming up, we ll expose sneaky tricks used by hotels and resorts to lure you in from photos to online reviews. you will not believe how they do it. plus, remember this unpleasant sound made be the latest sun chips bag? that s right. it was so loud that the manufacturers pulled it actually from the stores. well, now a replacement is about to make its debut. will it be any quieter? we ll find out. that s all about trying to make the bag more eco-friendly. we ll get out the decibel meter that peter alexander was using there, too. we have too much time on our hands. let s begin with lindsay lohan. there s a very real possibility of more jailtime in her near future. kristen welker has details. kristen, good morning. good morning, to you, willie. legalanti analysts say the d.a. could ask for six months jail time. if lohan decides to fight the charges, it could be very risky because a felony left condition carries a possible three-year prison sentence. lindsay lohan in the hot seat once again with stern words from another angry judge. one of the things about me is i treat everybody the same. i don t care that you re lindsay lohan versus john doe. reporter: so far, lohan has pled not guilty to stealing a $2,500 necklace, but prosecutors have offered the actress a plea deal. the judge made it clear that if lohan accepts the deal, she ll face jail time. if you plead in front of me, this case is resolved in front of me, you are going to jail period. reporter: the judge gave lohan until next month to decide whether to accept the deal. if she rejects the plea bargain, legal analysts say prosecutors will be forced to lay out their case in a preliminary hearing. it will be an opportunity for the prosecution and the defense to preview the kacase, get a see of how strong it is and how credible the witnesses are. reporter: if the case goes to trial, it could be a tough battle. did you steal the necklace, lindsay? reporter: a source close to the investigation tells nbc news surveillance video shows lohan carrying the necklace out of the store the day it disappeared. a few days later she was photographed wearing the necklace. the actress made headlines during her last court appearance when she arrived wearing a tight white dress. this time she wore pants and a low-cut top, walking briskly past a throng of reporters into court. inside, the judge seemed focused on only one thing. lohan s recovery, calling for more therapy for her. i want you to get on with your life. i want you to reach whatever potential you have and move on and quit causing yourself, your family, and anyone else around you additional stress, which is unnecessary. yeah, definitely. reporter: the mean girls star has been in and out of jail and rehab for violating her probation on a 2007 dui arrest and authorities in riverside, california, are investigating her for allegedly shoving an employee at the betty ford clinic where she was a patient. lohan has denied the claim. rehab experts say therapy could be exactly what she needs. she needs to be trapped both emotionally and physically to face herself and deal with issues from family to divorce, any of the kinds of things that stir up inside of her. now, lohan s next court date is set for march 10 thchbth. she could be facing more jail good morning. here we ve got increasing clouds coming in from the west and we have our temperatures that are cold starting off this thursday morning, just in the 20s throughout much of the area. right now, reagan national s at 34. clouds are rolling in from the west now and we ll have a cloudy middle part of the day in the afternoon. we ll likely have temperatures near 50 by early to midafternoon, and then we ll have some rain moving in, probably by mid to late afternoon into the metro area, but earlier than that farther west. occasional showers tonight and some moderate to heavy downpours perhaps friday morning through midday and maybe even some thunder. then some very strong winds on friday afternoon. it will turn colder for the weekend but dry. all right. still ahead, fox news anchor allison cammarota opens up about her personal struggles with infertility. how she s using her story to inspire other women up next, a today investigation. we travel around the world to expose the sneaky tricks used by some hotels and resorts to get your business. who says credit card rewards can t be simple? 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but don t always believe what you see. this caribbean resort shows a peaceful, serene beach on its website, but when you show up, here s what it really looks like. try getting a chair here. and this pool with a view in l.a., here s what the hotel website doesn t show. it s actually in the shadow of a huge department store. it was just unbelievable. reporter: patty is still seething. she booked her luxury hawaiian vacation online and paid hundreds for this gorgeous hotel room view, promised on the website. it was beautiful. overlooked the lagoon. reporter: picture-esque? in the picture is the beautiful. reporter: when patty arrived, she got a stunning view, all right. what was it? a sea of solar panels. literally a sea of solar panels. reporter: only when she complained did the hotel offer to switch her room. these photo fake-outs are getting so common. some hotels outright deceive you. reporter: the travel website oyster.com sends investigators to hotels around the world to expose it. our oyster investigator goes to the hotel, takes the same photo from the same location that you see in the brochure and then we show you the difference. we re seeing that because the economy is bad, hotels have to resort to more aggressive measures. part of that is unfortunately manipulation and exaggeration of what you re going to get. reporter: this photo from a hotel in d.c. makes it seem like you re just steps from the capitol. here s how it really looks without that special lenz. much farther away. and look at this room at a luxury resort in costa rica, promising sweeping views of the ocean. so we went to costa rica, one of the most popular vacation spots in the world, to check it out for ourselves. remember, here s the official resort photo. and this is an actual ocean-view room. what happened to that beautiful wall of windows? so much for that panoramic view they promised. we confronted the resort manager. you do not have my permission to film me, first of all. reporter: i just wanted to show you a picture. you say this a full ocean-view room, but there s no panoramic view. what part of you re not allowed to film me do you not get? turn the camera off. reporter: we were told to leave. here it is. it s so widespread, we found another example just up the street. this calls itself a romantic waterfront hideaway and shows what looks like a luxurious lagoon pool. so what does that beautiful pool really look like? here it is. see for yourself. a lot smaller. so we went to the manager. do you think it s misleading? because the pool is rather small. well, to me, it s not misleading because it s an actual photo. reporter: okay. and if you think that s ridiculous, this resort insider says it gets much worse. he s ready to expose an even more outrageous trick. you get them in any way you can. reporter: even if it s deceitful? right. reporter: billy is coming clean, admitting popular hotels and restaurants post bogus customer reviews on sites like tripadvisor, used by millions to decide where to go and where to spend billions of dollars. if it takes a fake review on tripadvisor to get more people in your door, i don t see why that s wrong. reporter: billy admits he s been doing it for years, setting up fake e-mail addresses and user names. the outstanding food they serve at dinner is now reporter: then writing fake customer reviews like this one to boost his business. they always serve great, fresh seafood and the atmosphere and service were awesome. reporter: in one of these reviews you wrote my wife and i ate at this restaurant . correct. reporter: do you have a wife? i m not even married. reporter: billy also trashed his competition. the food was unedible and the whole place was filthy. reporter: did you ever eat at this restaurant? no. reporter: when you were writing these fake reviews and your rating is going up and up and up and your competitors are going down, what are you thinking? awesome. it s working. reporter: faking reviews is so mainstream, hotels can hire ad agencies to do the dirty work for them. travel writer edward hasbrook says he s seen it firsthand. i was at a travel conference not long ago where one of the largest advertising agencies pulled this audience. they had an entire division in a third-world country where labor is cheap who were already prepared and available to post favorable reviews and say good things about whatever their client paid them to do. reporter: posting fake reviews is illegal. the federal trade commission says it s doing the best it can to police the web, but to this day, hasn t busted anyone. billy was never caught. why are you coming forward now with this? i think it s gotten out of control. it s gone it s gone way bigger. i really think the consumer deserves to know what s truthful and what s not truthful. it s just gotten way out of hand. so we wondered what s the hotel industry doing about this? the hotels we showed say their photos are accurate. in statements, tripedadvisor to us they have a zero tolerance policy against fake photos and reviews. they even check for them and post red flags next to hotels they catch. only a small percentage of those reviews are fake, but as we found, many of them are very difficult to catch. you just never know. how do we protect ourselves? the key is take the amazing ones with the over the top language. this was the best time i ever had, the most fantastic meal i ever had and the worst, right? this is the worst time i ever had, it was skanky and filthy, as billy said. throw those out. take the ones in the middle. as far as the photos go, go to customer sites where customers take their own photos. there are plenty of them like oyster.com. they don t depend on the hotels themselves. good reporting. if you re smart, you ll make this part of a continuing series. brazil, paris. just so i can go around the world. exactly. jeff rossen, thank you. coming up next, is it still too loud? we ll put the new sun chips bag to the test with the decibel meter right after this. are like family, my emplos and i want people that work for me to feel that they re sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. how can the gold card help serve your business? 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[ female announcer ] what makes a moment last? what makes even the lightest touch linger? new smooth sensation from nivea. the light lotion with the breakthrough skin care technology. 24-hour-plus hydra iq. it works with your skin s hydration system to keep skin smooth. all day, all night. smooth sensation and the essentials collection. now with hydra iq. only from nivea. touch and be touched. remember those unbelievably noisy sun chip bags? there was such a public outcry that frito lay recalled the bag sf . now they re releasing a new bag that s easier on the ears. we have a few here. we ll put them to the test. we have a decibel meeting. those are the old versions. see how loud that is? okay. that s loud. loud. now, here are the new bags. here we go. it s a little bit lauer. it s a little bit lower. maybe this one will be better. maybe it s because of how loud that s better. here s the thing. that s how that will be. that is loud. here we are eating the chips. they re a little better. same water. only difference? this. miracle-gro potting mix. rich organic ingredients with miracle-gro plant food mixed right in. it even feeds plants for six straight months. want this result? gotta start with this soil. miracle-gro potting mix. success starts with the soil. and i wondered what it was. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia, thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means i can do more with the ones i love. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior or any swelling or affected breathing, or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don t drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don t drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. then i found lyrica. i m sam chernin, owner of sammy s fish box. i opened the first sammy s back in 1966. my employees are like family, and i want people that work for me to feel that they re sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. how can the gold card help serve your business? booming is taking care of your business by taking care of your employees. work, work all week long punching that clock from dusk till dawn countin the days till friday night that s when all the conditions are right for a good time [ male announcer ] advanced technology that helps provide cleaner air, cleaner water, and helps make all of us more energy efficient is something the whole world can get in step with. [ static ] i need a good time [ male announcer ] ecomagination from ge. it s technology that makes the world work. that s why there s lubriderm® daily moisture. it contains the same nutrients naturally found in healthy skin. skin absorbs it better and it lasts for 24 hours. later gator. lubriderm. your moisture matched. our temperature right now is 35 degrees, warming up just a little bit. we have some sunshine out there this morning at 7:56. good morning to you. i m joe krebs. in the news for today, commuters looking for a place to park in prince william county will finally be getting some relief. today, virginia s transportation secretary s expected to announce that the state will add more spaces in the woodbridge area. earlier this month, potomac mills reduced its commuter parking from 1,000 spaces to just 275. that s to make room for more commercial development there. we ll take a break now and come back with our weather and traffic. first, here s what we re working on for later today. tonight at 5:00, big screens that won t drain your wallet or electric bill. what to look for on the box to get the biggest savings. plus, the number one food proven to help fight high cholesterol in a new liz quiz. and will kanya henderson be the next chancellor of d.c. public good morning. it s cold now, right near the freezing mark. later today near 50. we ll likely have rain this afternoon, tonight through midday friday and strong winds friday afternoon, may cause power outages. cooler and dry for saturday and sunday. how s traffic, jerry? this morning, tom in from the west on i-66, a little cloud cover keeping traffic at bay, which is helping things. heavy fair oaks through vienna and at the capital beltway. over the american legion bridge, good news to report. inner loop, outer loop, no incidents to report right now between tysons corner and rockville pike. good news. joe? jerry, thanks very much. we ll have another update in 25 minutes. now back to the today show. 8:00 now on a thursday morning, february 24th, 2011. we ve got good and bad news. it s warmer in the temperatures. but al is saying rain is on the way, which we re not excited about. hi, guys! love the crowd outside here. i m ann curry along with willie geist, who is in for matt this morning. it s really always fun to have you here. we ll be talking about matt is off this week. meredith is going to be on leno tonight. she s got a busy schedule. just ahead, we ll take on a very serious subject about the pain, the personal pain that couples struggling with infertility go through. allis alisyn camerota is joining us to tell us about her story and what she is doing to help other cup whoolz are having difficulty in this issue. we re also going to get into grim numbers from the housing market. the price is falling to their lowest levels in nine years. mortgage rates back on the rise. what should you do if you want to sell or buy right now? we ll get into that question. also, jenna bush-haeger is here this morning. she s taking us to the schools in memphis where soul music is giving teens a new lease on life. she s here with details and will show off some dance moves she s learned there. i understand she may be trying to teach you and me something. we re going to get sucked into this. i better start stretching. this could get ugly. first, let s get a check of the morning s top stories. good morning. a controversial bill that would take away collective bargaining rights in wisconsin may be one step closer to a vote. we re there. i understand there s a deal in the assembly this morning, mara. good morning, natalie. there are reports of a deal between democrats and republicans in the assembly to limit debate on the bill that would take away collective bargaining rights from public employees. keeping democrats to 38 amendments with a time limit of ten minutes each. that means no more filibusters and could lead to a vote around noon today. now, this would mean it refers only to the assembly. it does not affect the staleimate in the senate. wisconsin s senate democrats are still outside of the state in hiding to prevent a vote on that controversial bill. natalie? mara, thank you. tens of thousands of foreigners including hundreds of americans are still stranded in the capital of tripoli in libya as they try to flee the bloodshed and unrest there. those who have made it out report that forces loyal to moammar gadhafi are firing on protesters in an attempt to hold on to the capital. there are reports that gadhafi may be preparing a mass attack on civilians. it has been more than a day since the last survivor was found in the collapsed towers of downtown christchurch in new zealand. hopes of finding any more still alive are fading fast. the prime minister says the confirmed death toll is nearly 100. more than 220 people are still missing. a planned kidney transplant that won two mississippi sisters their freedom from prison cannot happen until one stops smoking and they lose a combined 160 pounds. that s according to their doctor. governor haley barbour hasn t said if he ll send the sisters back to prison if the transplant doesn t happen. each sister had served 16 years for a 1996 armed robbery. a congressional aide shot in the attack on congresswoman gabrielle giffords is now back at work. pam simon was one of the 13 people wounded. six others were killed. giffords is in rehabilitation at a hospital in houston. now to the latest in that tug of war brewing over the miss san antonio crown. ron mott has more. reporter: 21-year-old ashley dixon emerged wednesday from a texas courtroom, trademark wave on hand, having just been crowned in court as queen of her hometown moments before. i m extremely excited to be representing san antonio. reporter: dixon assumed the crown after dominique ramirez was dethroned. until we go to trial in march, i will be representing san antonio to the best of my ability. reporter: ramirez was stripped of her sash in january. a size 2, she told lester hold on today the pageant s president prodded her about her weight. she s like, get off the tacos, get off the chips. you have to lose this weight. we are very, very excited. reporter: the pageant denies weight was a factor in the decision to replace ramirez, saying she violated her contract by being late and missing engagements, something ramirez admits. and with more courtroom drama looming, local san antonio pageant officials say their focus is preparing ashley dixon, not dominique ramirez, to compete to become miss texas in september. she is going to continue to her vocal lessons and we re working with her meeting with the trainer and working on her interview skills as well. so we ve got a lot to work on. reporter: a lot of legal work ahead over a crown with a few thorns. ron mott, nbc news, atlanta. good morning. early morning sun now giving way to cloudiness that s moving in from the west. live view from the skywatcher camera looking west from upper west washington. it s rather cold, below freezing most areas. 35 at reagan national. later today, up in the upper 40s to near 50, cloudy and we could get rain mid to late afternoon. likelihood rain tonight into midday friday. might get over an inch of rain. then strong winds friday afternoon and early evening, gusting to 60 miles per hour that may cause power outages. dry and cooler for the weekend. and that s your latest weather. willie? al, thanks. coming unnext, fox news anchor alisyn camerota on her struggle with infertility and a message of hope to other couples. it got my attention, telling me that i wasn t paying attention. i had no idea the guy in front of me had stopped short. but my car did. -my car did. -thankfully, my mercedes did. 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[ female announcer ] kellogg s fiber plus cereal. the difference between hiding my skin and showing it off? jergens ultra healing moisturizer. even my driest skin looks healthier, instantly. jergens is the difference between i m here, and here i am. jergens®. the beautiful difference. back now at 8:10. this morning on today s health , infertility. it affects 1 in 8 couples. and now fox news anchor alisyn camerota is sharing her experience to help other people. we re going to speak to her in just a moment. but first, her story. it was a bad, bad weekend. you know, it s just it s a huge disappointment. reporter: it s been a tough week for the members of this infertility support group. five women who pray that this would be the month they would get pregnant. i know the drill. i know i m going to be sad, i know i m going to be angry and then sad and then angry. i m just exhausted. i don t want this life anymore. i can t picture giving up. i just can t picture not trying anymore. i m really glad that you re here and that you came and that you re sharing this. we ve all been there. reporter: the woman who has been leading these emotional meetings for the past two years feels their pain because at one time, not long ago, their pain was hers. it affected every single level of my life. next up, i get a boxing lesson. reporter: on the outside, alisyn camerota had everything going for her. a career as a high-profile correspondent and anchor at the fox news channel. at home, a supportive and loving husband. but alisyn had a secret, infertility. it s hard to talk about with people and i didn t want to talk about it. i didn t share it with my mother, my best friends, my co-workers. i really kept it secret. so many women do. reporter: countless couples suffer in silence. when women open up about their infertility and find a support group, their chances of getting pregnant improve dramatically. the only time when i felt good when i was going through all of the infertility treatments was the nights that i spent at my support group. next time around i m doing it my way. reporter: her way worked. after 2 1/2 years of treatments, the result, twin girls. then two years later a surprise baby boy conceived naturally. now alisyn helps others sharing her pain and her embarrassment and also showing them what helped her. that s why i like this group so much. miracles do happen. i m living proof of it. maybe i can go and share my story with women who are at rock bottom and just give them a little more hope. alisyn camerota is with us now. along with her is dr. linda applegarth, the director of psychological services at the new york presbyterian hospital. good morning to both of you. good morning. you struggled with this for 2 1/2 years. can you describe the the quiet, the pain of that of being quiet? yeah. i mean, it was a tough time. it was actually three years because there were six months where i tried on my own and nothing was working before i sought infertility treatments. so it was really painful. it was isolating. i felt lonely. there s this cruel phenomenon that happens when you re going through infertility. everybody around you becomes pregnant. pregnant women start popping out of the woodwork. suddenly you re invited to baby showers of co-workers and relatives and women who smoke and drink are getting pregnant and yet you can t. and that is really frustrating. and you benefited from being involved in a support group in boston. you came to new york and you started your own support group because you understood something about the value of speaking to other women about this. that s right. when i found a support group when i was going through it, it was the only moment i felt solace. i felt like i could let my guard down and talk to these 15 other women who were in exactly the spot that i was. so i made a vow, if i m ever on the other side of infertility, god willing, i will do whatever i can to help women, so i started that support group. here s something that s just mind-boggling. women have more than a 50% higher chance of conceiving if they are part of an infertility support group. doctor, can you explain that? well, you know, it s still this information is incredibly encouraging in terms of the importance of emotional support. and i, of course, all of my patients i encourage to get emotional support, to join support groups, to join resolve, the national infertility association. and i just want to interrupt for a second. that study that you re talking about was done by harvard medical school. that showed that women in support groups can enhance their chances of conceiving from 20% to 54%. so there is some power to speaking out. there s a lot of power to that. i think the other benefit of being in a support group is that you re not only getting emotional support. you re also getting appropriate information about where to go to get good treatment. those things are important, too. so the crime is being silent. if you don t know where there s a support group, really, think about connecting to other women. saying even if it s just one woman you know or two women you know, getting together for coffee, talking about this. what specifically do you think is unleashed in a person when you re able to really stop the pain of feeling the you know, you should not feel shame, but there is this kind of shame. oh, there is shame, absolutely. absolutely. because it s such a taboo subject, and it a delicate subject. i know it s hard to talk about ovulation over your breakfast cereal in the morning. but when you can start to bond with other people, it s a relief. i must also say that when you can break the silence, it helps because it makes it not so easy for doctors to dismiss infertility, for researchers to do more to find a cure for it, for dollars from private and federal funds to come to infertility. it s a disease. and it requires that sort of awareness. you know what? you re helping break the silence this morning. thank you. thank you so much, both of you for all the women you ve helped today. coming up next, with housing prices falling to a new low and mortgage rates on the rise, is now a good time to buy? we ll find out. [ female announcer ] new special k cracker chips. 27 crispy chips. 110 delicious calories. mmmmmmm.good meeting. same time tomorrow? [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. i see a bag and think. i could have a chip. yeah right. that s why they re called chips? [ female announcer ] new special k cracker chips. 27 crispy chips. 110 delicious calories. another cracker chip? don t mind if i do! [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. don t mind if i do! a plant is only as good as the soil you put it in. look, both these potted plants got the same sun. same water. only difference? this. miracle-gro potting mix. rich organic ingredients with miracle-gro plant food mixed right in. it even feeds plants for six straight months. want this result? gotta start with this soil. miracle-gro potting mix. success starts with the soil. with chili s new $6 lunch break combos. choose from a house salad or hot, tasty soup. then pair it with a massive texas toast half sandwich, like our delicious classic turkey or our gigantic new southwestern blt, smothered in cilantro lime mayo and jam-packed with three glorious slices of applewood smoked bacon. served with fries, that s big flavor for just 6 bucks! the $6 break for bold, weekdays at chili s. we re back at 8:19. this morning on today s real estate, how low can the market go? here to talk about that and whether this spring is the time to buy, barbara corcoran and carmen wang-ulrich. good morning to you both. it s good to see you. barbara, housing prices, nine-year low. is this the time to jump in? i totally believe it s the time to jump in. there s very little upside to waiting around and doing something later. you ve got cheap money, cheap prices, lots of homes to choose from. why wait? it doesn t make any sense. is there any way to know where the bottom is? is it smart to wait it out longer? let me tell you, it s very hard to jump into the market when you think you can get it cheaper tomorrow. there s no way to tell when that bottom is. i ve always done best in this kind of market. buy within the low and we re rumbling around that low right now. carmen, we know two months ago, mortgage rates hit historic lows. kind of a tough time to get a loan, isn t it? yes, but if you think about mortgage rates, don t go chasing the mortgage rates and bemoaning the fact that they re going up .15%. anything at or below 6% is a real inexpensive mortgage. don t chase after that mortgage rate. what are some of the things a buyer should be thinking about right now? what are the ducks they need to get in a row here? mortgage applications at 15-year lows because it s really tight. remember the day when you could get a mortgage without proving that you make any money? definitely not today. it s the opposite end. you ve got to have great credit. they want to see that great credit. solid down payment. mortgage lenders don t want to absorb all the risk. if you put down less than 10% and the market moves and drops 5%, 10%, they don t want you to be underwater. you have to have ample cash savings. this is the thing, outside of that down payment, you need at least six months worth of mortgage payments in the bank and saved up. of course, a great work history that you are employed, that really helps. if you re self-employed, you ve got to keep fantastic records. barbara, the housing market is a weak point right now, but the spring is usually a time when home buying goes up, the weather gets warmer. are we there this year? should be expect an uptick? you ll see more houses coming on the market. what you won t see coming into the market are lower prices. you certainly aren t going to see cheaper money, especially with what s going on with fannie mae. everything is going to change in the financing game. you ll see a tougher spring to buy in. now, again, is the better time to buy. let s look at the cities. it s an incredible list of 11 that are seeing all-time lows at this point. detroit, las vegas, new york. what s going on across the country here? all of these cities have in common, too many foreclosure and too many homeowners under water. in las vegas, last year 3 of 4 homes that were sold were vacant homes. just picture that for a moment. homes owned by banks, homes just surrendered to the banks by the homeowners. you have rock-bottom prices because they have the biggest unemployment and they also have the most foreclosures. carmen toelld us what to thi about if we re buying. what should i think about if you re thinking about selling the house? if you must be selling now if you don t have to sell now, i d wait. but if you must be selling, you should think about your neighbor as your competitive and pricing your apartment or apartment or home just slightly below your competitor. beyond that, you should realize that the buyer today has the muscles. they re going to work you over in the negotiation. so if there s someone else that can do the negotiation, let them do it. carmen, time to jump in. would you jump in right now? i really say yes. if you re in the position to buy so many people are asking me if you can do that. don t wait for the interest rates to go lower again. if you re in the position to get that mortgage, get it now. barbara and carmen, thank you. here s ann now let s go to ft. myers, florida, and say hello to our good friend, willard scott. good morning, willard. wish you were here. sun s out, we re here. now sweet it is to be in florida. happy birthday prom smuckers. when it comes to birthdays, there s nobody like smuckers. we have two of them. can you believe it? another set of twins, 100 years old. helen and louise, knoxville, tennessee. both work for the local library for years. attribute longevity to being best of friends. talmadge nelson is 105. proud ww2 vet. lives on his own and does not take any medicine. pfizer wouldn t like that, but he does. that s what makes everybody happy. dorothy lamb, canton, ohio. 103. joined the nurse corps during world world war. she teaches classes at the senior center. that s great. keep your mind sharp. like me? that s right. david winston, west bloomfield, michigan. get this. he is 100. his secret to longevity? drinking cheap whiskey and hanging around beautiful women. hallelujah. god have mercy. george koller from reading, pennsylvania, is 102. third time he s tried to get on the show. huge eagles fan who never misses a game. how about that? can t beat that either. and take a look if you will, alfred crudele. 100 years old. and he was a friend of president kennedy during world war ii and enjoys hunting and fishing. that s all from beautiful ft. myers, florida. you ve got to come see us. all right. willard, thank you so much. and just ahead, we re live at prince william and kate s first official function since announcing their royal engagement. i understand there s some champagne 8:26 is your time now, 36 degrees. cold now but warmer later. tom will have the latest on the forecast in a moment. good morning. i m eun yang. it s february 24th, 2011. in the news for today, maryland s state senate is expected to pass a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. it would then be up to the house of delegates to decide whether to send the bill to governor o malley. he says he will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk. we ll take a quick break now. we ll take a quick break now. we ll 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 retirement solutions for our military, 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. good morning. cloudy and chilly now, temperatures getting above freezing most locations. later today, upper 40s to near 50 with rain likely this afternoon, overnight tonight through midday friday. gusty winds tomorrow afternoon may cause some scattered power outages. then dry and cooler for the weekend. how s traffic now, jerry? tom, along the i-270 corridor, an accident reportedly southbound near shady grove. i do see flashing lights up here. look for delays out of gaithersburg. virginia, inbound along interstate 66, north on 95 and 395, heavy but relatively steady. eun? thanks, jerry. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, big screens that won t drain your wallet or boost your electric 8:30 now on a thursday morning. the 24th of february, 2011. you re looking at wales where prince william and kate middleton are making their first official joint engagement since announcing since announcing their own engagement. we ll take you there this morning. i understand there s a lot of champagne involved. maybe a life boat and some flowers. pouring champagne over a life boat. something like that. we ll see what happens there. we ll give you details on the plaza, i m ann curry along with willie geist. we ve also got natalie morales. al is in atlanta and he ll have your forecast coming up. jenna bush hager, coming up. she s going to introduce us this part is okay. introducing us to the next generation of soulful superstars being groomed at two very special schools in memphis. here s the part i m not sure about. jenna is going to try to school us in dancing like them. it s not some easy dance move. no. i watched her just a moment ago. she s going to put us to the test. i think that look on your face, jenna, said everything. there are rumors of michael jackson steps, which does not bode well for us. i think you can pull it off. i see a moon walk in your future. it s got to be better than brian williams moon walk also coming up, does your spouse have a little bit of a technology problem? always has their face buried in the blackberry or they can t go a day without c good morning. clouds are rolling in from the west after some sunshine this morning and temperatures are generally getting above freezing in many locations. 37 now at reagan national. later today, upper 40s, near 50, and rain likely moving in from west to east earlier to the west of washington, and around the metro area mid to late afternoon. overnight tonight, more rain. more rain likely friday morning through midday. might be over an inch by the time it ends, maybe even with thunder midday friday, then strong, gusty winds friday afternoon. co and that s your latest weather. don t forget, check your weather anytime of the day or night. go to the weather channel on cable or here in this room or weather.com. ann? all right, al. thank you. coming up next, jenna bush hager. she went to soulsville and she s hager. so what s the language and she s here in aruba ? papiamento. papiamento. yeah. so how would i say, uh, one happy island ? un isla feliz. un isla feliz. yeah. what about work related stress ? pssssh. there must be a word for it. i don t know that one. memphis, tennessee, has become one of the best music scenes in the country. and now a public school program is inspiring a new generation of talented teens. today contributing correspondent jenna bush hager has the details. jenna, good morning. hey, good morning. i watched these young high school students call on the memory of the great musicians who recorded so many hits we all know and love. even though these kids live in a community that has struggled economically, they showed me that they have real soul. some say soul was born at the intersection of mclemore avenue and college street. greats like booker t. and the mgs, isaac hayes and otis redding all got their start here at stax records. today, the legendary site is home to soulsville charter school and the stax music academy, a music-based after-school program. they continue to grow the next generation of soulful superstars. and amidst a neighborhood filled with poverty, a heavenly sound arises. when i m playing my instrument, it gives me something it gives me like an escape from all the bad things that s happening. it s like my home. in a way, this is really exciting. reporter: the recipe for success? a combination of tough academics with high expectations, extended hours and a focus on personal behavior. and it s working. all of their seniors are accepted to college. self-discipline, responsibility. reporter: you re here at this school from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night? yes, ma am. sometimes six days a week. reporter: and they are inspired by the legacy they carry. they latch on to these artists that they can relate to and that their voice can actually emulate. that sense of pride is going to carry them into their collegiate years. reporter: i like the dance moves. did you want to join? reporter: after all the school work was done, i got a lesson from these future stars. take a deep breath. reporter: i was more than a little apprehensive because these kids are good. you re not going to judge me? i mean, you ve got to help me so i don t sound terrible. the kick, right? and then the ankle and then all the way around? make sure you hit it hard. t reporter: it was a worket and my throat was sore, but the kids kept on rehearsing into the night, calling on the memory of the voices whose influence will still remains vital today. they really are tomorrow. they are the hope and vision of tomorrow. and stax records isn t just for these lucky students. there s also a museum so you, too, can experience all the inspiration of these memphis music greats. you looked pretty good there, jenna. i m a soulful dancer. are you ready? for soulful dancing? we ve got to have some m.j. all right. pump up the jams. all right. how do we do this? you be in front. we ll follow you. okay. here we go. i got that. try it one more time. that was it? what? do the spank. how do we do the spank? five, six, seven. oh! one more time. sure. one more time. ready? i ll get up here. one, two, three, four. kick, turn, up. i m going to injure myself now. you know what? all i can tell you is this music is great. i think the whole idea of the music of this great music from stax records, which actually led to what we re hearing now, michael jackson, that was these kids were saying i don t know how that i don t know if anybody wants to see us dance anymore. i hurt myself. the point is but the point is that this music that is living out of these kids is so terrific. they re so good. thank you so much. you re welcome. well-done, jenny bush hager. great story. mom and dad, i m so glad i didn t disappoint you. we disappointed them. the spank. i came really close to you, willie. there was a spanking in there. [ female announcer ] shopping with nutrition in mind shouldn t be hard work or cost more money. now there s simple nutrition, only at safeway. green tags throughout the store call out what matters most to you. there are 22 different nutritional benefits highlighted. and with our low prices, now safeway makes bringing home the right choices easier than ever. that s simple nutrition. that s ingredients for life. safeway. back now at 8:43 with one woman s answer to a question on a dating show that sparked controversy in china. should you marry for love or money? nbc has the story. reporter: love in shanghai. not quite. for some, this, in fact, is what love in china looks and sounds like today. when asked on a popular reality tv dating show whether she d like to take a ride with this poor young man on his bicycle, this contestant replied that she d rather cry inside a bmw. a materialistic putdown that seems to be a mantra for today s young, single chinese women. translator: my ideal boyfriend is a mature man with a stable career. reporter: she s looking for a wealthy guy. li recently took part in a match-making luncheon where pretty 20-somethings vie for the attention of older millionaires. love is very idealized here. but what i see is love is very, very tightly intertwined with pragmatism. reporter: pragmatic, perhaps, for some, but many commentators think that gold digger is a better way tro describe this approach. if you looked at pop culture in china, you might agree. tv dating shows where pop-up bubbles on screens show whether the male contestants own a house or a car. translator: everyone wants to marry up. they want a partner who is better than them at something. reporter: says this chief executive of an online dating site. at this weekly marriage market where parents gather to find a good match for their sons or daughters, the most commonly advertised trait is property. but with every trend, there are exceptions. 23-year-old katherine chu in beijing says financial success is important in a relationship. but translator: if a guy is responsible, kind, truthful and shares my interests, even if he doesn t have a lot of money, i d still marry him. reporter: even that dating contestant who brushed off the biker said she hadn t really meant what she said on the show. translator: i hope to find a man who is both reliable and mature. i care more about the personality. reporter: perhaps, but even better if that personality comes with a bit of bling. for today, adrian mong, nbc news, shanghai. thanks so much. coming up next, dogs go from bow to wow. we ll reveal their amazing bow to wow. we ll reveal their amazing transformations. 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 retirement solutions for our military, 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. back now with our special series from bow to wow where we clean up shelter dogs and find them loves homes. our record remains perfect. jill is back with another great batch of dogs. jill, good morning. they re getting very excited back there. they re all happy. i liked those moves before. we re going to erase that from the archives. unfortunately not. on the heels of last week s w t westminster winners, we decided to give you our own group of shelter champions, definitely worthy of the title best on this show. sadly, the cages are full with wonderful dogs, all true stars in our eyes. may we have the hound group in the ring, please? got a very special star. a beagle, of course. this little boy s name is bagel. he was abandoned by his owners. he s a year and a half old. he started picking up the scents. he s a true beagle in every sense. they are very curious dogs. they can get into a little bit of trouble. yeah, yeah. may we have the toy group in the ring, please. we have this very special pekingese, darling little girl named holly. she s a 3-year-old. she was found as a stay. i m a star. yes. may we have the terrier group in the ring, please. oh! he s a year old. he was found as a stray up in the bronx. he s got a mix in there because of the coloring. are you a mix? what are you? he s a real yes, hard to hold on to him. the sporting group, coming out. his name is j.r. j.r. is a 5-year-old labrador retriever mix. his owners are moving and they couldn t take him with them, so it s a sad story. he was given up middle age. yes. they had him his whole life. now he s in a big change now. now this is what we re calling our own special group, the potpourri group. this is one fabulous dog. this is ginger. she s red bone hound, probably a little german shepherd, maybe a little doberman. mix, mix, mix, mix. she s in very good condition. five fabulous winners, all hoping for blue-ribbon homes. and we will get to these fabulous makeovers in just a moment. first, we want to go to wales where prince william and kate middleton are attending a life boat naming ceremony. this is their first official public appearance together since their engagement. keith miller is there. keith, good morning. good morning, willie. this doesn t bode well for the wedding. they re late. probably about ten minutes behind schedule. we re told their arrival is imminent. lots and lots of people have arrived here. in fact, the entire village here has turned out. now that william and kate will be married, they ll be living on this island off the coast of wales. and everybody here says they re very happy that they ve got them as neighbors. they re now pullliing up in the car. we have a little look. we have touchdown. there s william being greeted by the local dignitaries. kate just off to his side there. both pressed against a blustery, cold wind coming off the irish sea. at some point during the ceremony, willie, she will be pouring some champagne on the life boat. since it s made of rubber, they won t be trying to break a bottle of champagne over it. these are really his kind of guys. he did the sea/air rescue. you can hear the crowd there, very excited to have them arriving here. keith, tell us about the security. we know there was an advanced team sent in. big preparations anywhere these two go. it all begins here today. well, you ll be quite surprised. the security, very low-key. people, as you can see, very close contact with prince william and with kate. people are, you know, are very excited. but no heavy security. as you said, there was an advanced team from buckingham palace. they do not want this, the first occasion since the engagement, to hold any sprilzurprises. all of this has been c coriographed. we don t expect to hear from kate middleton at this ceremony. we ll hear a few words from william. she s here really just to support her man and perhaps lend a little glamour to what is otherwise a pretty mundane life boat launch. and, keith, what s the significance of this location and this boat? i understand that prince william was stationed in the royal air force nearby in north wales. absolutely. i mean, his primary objective is is sea rescue. he s the pilot of one of these large rescue helicopters. so he has a lot in common with these men who man these life boats. they re quite active along the welsh coast. very rough seas. it s the irish sea. these are his meatates, if you will. this is also their new home. william and kate will set up home here. this is where he s based as a member of the air force. they ll live here right after their honeymoon. they ll come back here. they seem to be very comfortable here. i can assure you from talking to the locals that they re thrilled to have this young couple as neighbors. all right. keith miller, keeping a close eye on the first public event since the engagement of kate middleton and prince william. thanks so much. we ll check back in with you later on. but now to the dog show. quickly. thank you for your patience. let s bring them all out. okay. ann with the hounds. ann curry modeling the hound. where is his blue ribbon? tell us about bagel the beagle. he s adorable. he s very well-trained. he s 3 years old. he s very high-energy. typical beagle. then we have the pekingese. that s the toy group. he s great with older kids. and the terrier group. needs a haircut every once in a while. and hoda in the sporting group. she loves to play ball. so if you have a back yard, she s the perfect dog for you. and j.r. would love to have a home where somebody is there a lot. maybe a retired person. will stick by your side. wants to be around people 24/7. joe, this is critical that these dogs find homes. yes. we have 100% success record. look at them. look what you can find in your local shelter. amazing champions in every way, shape and form. donate, volunteer if you can. beautiful group of dogs. jill, thank you so much. learn how to adopt the dogs. it s now 8:55, 37 degrees, some clouds out there. we could get a little rain. tom has the latest, coming up. good morning. i m eun yang. in the news for today, commuters looking for a place to park in prince william county will be finally getting some relief. today, virginia s transportation secretary is expected to announce it will add more spaces in the woodbridge area. we ll take a break northwest. weather and traffic are next. chilly right now, but we are going to be warming up. and get your umbrella handy, because you re going to need it later today and definitely tomorrow. temperatures out there right now ranging from 37 degrees trinidad and georgetown, and 30 and 33 up in montgomery county in gaithersburg and suitland 34. today s high 50. look for rain showers to develop around 4:00 p.m. today. so, during the evening rush. we ll have high winds overnight and heavy rain tomorrow morning. jerry? an accident inbound along interstate 66 near the exit to nutley street. activity is to the shoulder, but from fair oaks in, quite slow. montgomery county, an accident river road at falls parkway. we are told traffic is jammed up both directions. wilson bridge looking pretty good. eun? thanks, jerry. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, big screens that won t drain the wallet or boost your electric bill. how to find the biggest savings, back now on a thursday morning. the 24th day of february, 2011. you re looking at prince william and the future princess kate middleton, making their first official public appearance as a couple since announcing their engagement. they re in north wales. we re going to get a live report in just a moment. it s a picturesque day there. they re there to honor the queen. they re going to make a i guess they re going to pour some champagne and celebrate. they re christening a rescue boat, but not in the traditional way because you can t break a bottle over the bow of a rubber boat it turns out. but there will be champagne and flowers. this is seen as a coming-out party, the first public event for kate and william since they became engaged. that s right. i m ann curry along with willie geist. coming up, we ll talk about lindsay lohan, another day in court for her. she faced a tough judge on wednesday and now faces a tough choice in two weeks. take a plea or go to jail or possibly stand trial for stealing a $2,500 necklace. we ll have the latest on her case coming up. also ahead, do you ever see those people who sit at the dinner table texting or on the phone with the blackberry? are they you? well, if that is an issue for you or somebody you know, what can we do about our addiction? we ll talk about that and get advice coming up. and also, we ll also talk about now to prince william and kate middleton and they re taking an important step, making their first official public appearance. keith miller is in north wales for all the excitement. keith, my goodness. tell us what s happening now. well, ann, you know, it is exciting. but a little bit of a worry. they were about ten minutes late. we hope that doesn t happen when they go to the abbey. the local villagers are here in force. everybody came out to see kate middleton and prince william in their first official function since the announcement of their engagement. they re launching and commemorating a brand new life boat which will be launched. they re now on the podium. they arrived by car. kate middleton looking very demurer, a bit wind-blown like the rest of us. william will make a few statements. they look like they re having a very good time. kate is smiling a lot. looks as if she s dropped into her role as a future princess rather easily. then they will launch the life boat. as willie says, no cracking of champagne bottles over a rubber boat. so we re expecting indicate to pour champagne to chisristen it and send it safely on its way. they will be going on to st. andrew s university in scotland, which is where they met as undergraduate students. they ll visit that tomorrow for the 600th anniversary of that institution. willie is a great fan of history. benjamin franklin is an honorary student of st. andrew s. but back here to wales, really very, very good show on their part. the palace was out here making a recognizance of everything, making sure that everything went smoothly. so far, no hitches. i don t think kate will be required to say anything. we just want to have a good look at her. that s what britain and america is doing at this moment. that s right. just two months from their wedding. that s right. kate middleton getting used to her life on display. keith, thanks so much. let s get a check of the top stories now. good morning, everyone. army units loyal to moammar gadhafi fired on pockets of remaining protesters in tripoli today. rebels have taken cities across the country and the u.s. and the european union are threatening to sanction libya for gadhafi s brutal use of force against protesters. meanwhile, a chaotic exodus continues for the tens of thousands of libyans and foreign nationals struggling to flee the country. it s been more than a day since the last survivor was found in the collapsed towers of downtown christchurch, new zealand. any hopes of finding any more still alive are fading fast. new zealand s prime minister says the confirmed death toll from tuesday s devastating earthquake is near lly 100. 220 people are still reported missing. wisconsin democrats say a recording of a prank call to governor scott walker is proof that he plans to crush public worker unions. the call was made by an editor of a liberal online newspaper who posed as billionaire conservative david coch. democrats and republicans in the assembly have made a deal to limit debate and filibusters. however, senate democrats are avoiding a vote on the budget bill. in washington, d.c., house republicans are pushing a temporary government funding bill that proposes $4 billion in spending cuts. the bill would keep the government running for two weeks after a deadline expires next friday. and a major policy shift for president obama who is now calling the 1996 defense of marriage act unkuconstitutional. the justice department will no longer defend the federal legislation which bans recognition of same-sex marriages. meantime, hawaii has become the seventh state to recognize same-sex civil unions. another gas explosion in pennsylvania. a blast injured three workers. this is the third serious gas explosion in that state this year. earlier this month the blast in allentown killed five people. and in january, a 50-foot fireball killed one person in philadelphia. the justice department wants to require the tobacco industry to admit that smoking causes a multitude of medical problems, killing 1,200 americans every day. the government proposed wednesday that a federal judge order the companies to say in advertisements that they lied about the safety of smoking. philip morris says it will fight back. and a sticky situation for a little boy whose family sells he is simply magnetic. literally magnetic. his family claims that everything from spoons to remote controls, even dinner plates, stick to the boor 7-year-old. hard to get through this story. oddly enough, though, they say it s not all fun and games. they claim that they actually have to keep him away from the computer or it will stop working. the poor kid. that s a hard thing to live with. oh, my gosh. you guys have to we have to save you. i m worried about the boy now. it s a party trick. he wins in this whole thing. wow. we should get him on the today show. what do you think? come on. you re invited. you are invited. it might be tough getting him on an airplane. look at that. do you know how heavy that is? you re talking about a frying pan. poor kid. oh, my gosh. he seems to be taking it fairly and while we have some sunshine right now, that same system traveling through the tennessee valley will give us some showers by the time we get to the evening rush, and then thunderstorms and high winds tomorrow. out there right now, we ve got temperatures that range from 34 degrees mt. airy, maryland, to 42 to the south and east in leonardtown, maryland. in between, most neighborhoods are in the upper 30s. so, rain today, the high 50. the high 60 tomorrow, but with gusts to near 60 miles per hour and over an inch of rain. the latest meteorology briefing going on right now behind me. we ll get the latest on what s going on in the next half hour. ann? all right, al. thanks. this morning on today s relationships is your spouse addicted to technology? many of us are plugged in more than we should be, but could it be pulling attention away from your partner or harming your relationship? dr. gail saltz is here with us today, and jeff gardare is also with us. good morning, guys. good morning. i use the word addiction to describe how much i shake when i m not around technology. is it actually, though can it be defined as an addiction as others are? some people do. i would call it a compulsive behavior that gets positively rewarded by the fact that you go, oh, you know, i got something out of that. so it keeps you going. it keeps you being compulsive about it. and some groups really some medical groups are saying that if you have this compulsion for three months or longer or you re doing a non-essential computer work six hours a day, then you may have some sort of an addiction. sometimes i have to go away. i go offline just because i i start to feel better when i m not constantly plugged in. there s a reason to not do it. also the bigger reason is actually in your relationships with your loved ones and your children. this is the biggest fallout. if you re constantly looking at the top of your partner s head, you know, it s hard to relate to them. you re not having a relationship with them. you have to think about how the other person feels. it s like it doesn t matter. it creates distance. it does teach your children that this is how to operate within a relationship. that it s all you can have one eye on them and one eye over here. and have this sort of distant non-intimate relationship. don t feel so guilty about your kids. chances are they have some sort of internet addiction, a new study is saying that but you want to model something else for them. it s interfering in their learning. you re right. you don t want to bodd amodel t kind of behavior, but they re having bigger issues. we re finding that we in marriages and relationships are having those same issues. if the people you love are rolling your eyes and telling you to put it down, then that s right. let s talk about what you can do about it. you say stay positive. that s nice. i don t just mean if you come after your partner and you go, hey, you re being a jerk. i can t stand this. don t do this. you ve got an addiction, people just automatically get on the defense. that s normal. they shut you out, right. if you at another time sit down and say, look, i really love you. this is not working for me. it makes me feel this way. could we talk about how to make a different plan? you re much more likely to get a positive response. define device-free zones. right. so you want to say don t do it here, don t do it in the bedroom. mealtime, don t take them into the bedroom as people often do, and that will take you away from what you re supposed to be doing. sleeping are you talking about? yeah, right. nothing could be worse than feeling like we re heading into a romantic moment and somebody goes, let me look over here what s going on, right? that s just the killer right there. okay. also, understand there are times to be plugged in. you need to understand. especially because so much of our work now is being done on these devices. it s being done on the weekends, at nights. give people that need to read you emergeantly your phone number so you don t feel like you have to keep checking for that e-mail. if there s really something urgent, someone will call you. tell them to call you. that will keep you less plugged in. it s nice to say that i doubt if that would actually happen. we re just moving too fast for that now. one thing you can do is set intervals. in other words, when you re at home, check your e-mail in the morning, check it when you get home in the evening, maybe once before you go to bed, but keep it five, ten minutes in those three intervals. you should be okay. you ve got yourself on a schedule and it works. and then you also say, doctor, give positive feedback. correct. if you re having a meal and your partner is not looking at their device, say i really appreciate that you re not doing that because i really feel connected to you. then he ll grab the blackberry as soon as you say that. are you kidding me? i had a technology addiction. i knew it was a problem when i got up to go to the bathroom, i came back and my ipad was smoking a cigarette next to my wife. now, you know that s a big, big problem. we had to get that in. i d like to say that everybody out there who is thinking it might be them, it probably is them. so think about addressing it. all right. thank you so much this morning. coming up next, the importance of friendship as we follow the class of 2020 in our special series. later, lindsay lohan faces a tough judge. what s next for her? 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[ male announcer ] build your better breakfast with all the flavors you choose. try an irresistible steak, egg & cheese, with toasty tomato or chipotle southwest sauce on tasty flatbread. only at subway! we ve been following a group of stuns from their first day of kindergarten to their high school graduation. we ve watched this group of kids grow up before our very eyes. this morning we re focusing on a very special 8-year-old boy. reporter: the theme from the golden girls is the opening number of the friendship assembly. the culmination of a two-month course on friendship. friendship is more than just a new word they re learning. it s a concept teachers hope they ll embrace in and out of the classroom. what are you learning about? in the four years we ve spent with the class of 2020, noah has always been friendly, but also very quiet and shy. this year he is starting to express himself in his writing. i was really sad. i was crying. reporter: oh. you write really well. in one of his essays, noah talked about how he befriended a boy that needed help in math. the essay was so good, noah was asked to read it at the friendship assembly. we are great friends. noah is a very special kid. in terms of, you know, he doesn t judge, you know? he doesn t say, well, i m only going to be friends with a certain type of person. reporter: noah knows all about being judged. as the adopted child of not one but two dads. noah s no stranger to bias. okay. our kids have already got three crosses to bear. they re black, we re white, they re adopted and we re two dads. he sees people look at the we get the first look, oh, look at the little kids. oh, there s little kids oh, they re a family. reporter: they also adopted noah s biological brother, joshua. i m poppy. i m daddy. reporter: i love that. that s great. their family is just like anybody else s, but even at 8 years old, noah knows other people might not see it that way. and he sees it. one time he goes, that s my papi. i m with him. he s been very aware that we re a different type of family. and he s asked very intuitive questions about it, about his skin color and our skin color. while it was hard to deal with these issues, he s so honest about what he s feeling that it does help us to guide him. reporter: noah has never had a problem expressing himself in public, but that hasn t always translated into confidence in the classroom until this year. what do you think has been sort of what brought him out more? skateboarding. reporter: really? yeah. he s found a real confidence in himself. reporter: noah is taking up the challenge of skateboarding like every other obstacle he faces. good try. great. reporter: with determination and grace. yes! i have a citizenship award going here to mr. noah shields. he s a thoughtful and generous student who truly knows how to support his classmates. good job, noah. reporter: what does that tell you, what you read in his essay and what he was able to do about the kind of kid that noah is? he s very open. he s open in the way he relates to everybody. that s what makes so many kids connect to him. such a great kid. such a great family. you can follow noah and our class of 2020 kids by going to our website, todayshow.com and clicking on parenting. coming up, switching gears here. lindsay lohan was back in court on charges of grand theft. so is the actress going back to jail? we ll have the very latest. aches and pains, fatigue. when it becomes hard to ignore that you need help. that s the day you do something. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. is today your day? talk to your doctor. and go to cymbalta.com for a free 30-capsule trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. with relief from dry, uncomfortable skin. only aveeno skin relief has an active naturals oat formula. to improve all five symptoms. of winter skin in just one day. discover the beauty and comfort of skin relief. only from aveeno. creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze. my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. that was earlier this morning when the royal couple, prince william and his bride-to-be, kate middleton, made their first official bpublc appearance together in north wales since they got engaged. their wedding is just two months away. we want to remind you about our contest, today s royal treatment. we re sending one lucky viewer and a guest, all expenses paid to english during the royal wedding. here s a look at another one of our latest entries. and one and two, and sip and one and two, and sip. oh, hello, america. i see you caught me in the middle of my pinky-building exercises. i am stephanie kelly. i am so pumped for this royal wedding. literally pumped. this pinky could topple stonehenge. the winner is going to get two first-class tickets to london during the wedding of kate middleton and prince william. be sure to get out you cameras, create a video that s no more than two minutes long telling us why london is calling you. for details, head to todayshow.com still to come this morning, we ll find out what s ahead for lindsay lohan and go to today s kitchen. it doesn t just give you beautiful color now, it gives you more beautiful lips in 7 days. in a single stroke, rich color rocks your lips. in a single week, silk therapy moisturizers help smooth and soften them. how perfect! 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[ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. it s the lenscrafters semi-annual lens event. for a short time only, get 50% off lenses including bifocals, no-lines and sunglasses made with your prescription. so see clearly and save today at lenscrafters. 9:26 is the time, 36 degrees. veronica has the forecast after the news. good morning. i m eun yang. it is thursday, february 24th, 2011. in the news today, maryland s state senate is expected to pass a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. it would then be up to the house of delegates to decide whether to send the bill to governor o malley, who said he will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk. heading out for the day, take along your umbrella. you re going to need it by the time we get to the evening rush. we ve got temperatures out there now with sunshine, at least. 37 springfield, 36 la plata, 38 degrees in shaw and georgetown. your high today, 50. showers by 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. overnight, we ll see moderate rain and some heavy rain and storms, gusting winds tomorrow, the high 60. jerry? veronica, take a look along 95 and 395. had a broken-down car earlier at the 14th street bridge, so delays are beginning close to the pentagon all the way into downtown. southbound moving along nicely. over the american legion bridge, heavy both directions, just volume, no accidents reported. eun? jerry, thank you. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, big screens that won t drain your wallet or boost your electric bill. find the big savings tonight on who was that? i don t know. who cares? can you just no. okay. now we re in the 3rd grade. this is great. that is matt damon and emathy blunt, starring in the in the adjustment bureau about a love affair between a politician and a ballerina and the mysterious forces keeping them apart. tomorrow on today, matt and emily will be here to tell us beabout their new film. it looks really good. i love both of them. the idea of fate or whether you have free will. it s an interesting theory. coming up, meantime, another day in court. another controversial outfit for lindsay lohan. she was wearing, i guess, a plunging neckline. she s facing very serious charges for allegedly stealing a $2,500 necklace. we ll have the latest in a live report. also ahead, we ll switch gears and talk about something that all women want, okay? we re talking about if you ve got this grand handbag and the pumps but they don t work together and you want to change one little thing, bobbie thomas has an idea about how to design your own fashion. it s online. you go and you can send some pictures and things and then you come get what you want. so i m so excited about that. i mean, i know i shouldn t be, but i am. and also, today s kitchen. we turn to the slow cooker. a lot of people don t use them because they think the vegetables are going to get overdone. the old slow cooker didn t do as good of a job. today, chris kimball is going to tell us how to slow cook and get something totally yummy. they re slow cooker appro and right now with sunshine, we are getting close to 40 degrees in a lot of neighborhoods. in fact, 42 already down in leonard town. 39 in annapolis, 38 at foggy bottom and shaw and 36 degrees in waldorf right now. we ll see a high temperature today of 50 degrees. we ll have increasing clouds and rain showers by about 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. overnight we ll get some heavy rain. tomorrow morning, windy, gusty by the afternoon. we could get over an inch of rain out of this system and 60-degree high for friday. and that s your latest weather. ladies? thanks, al. coming up next, will lindsay lohan take a plea? we ll have that right after this. that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia, thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means i can do more with the ones i love. 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(announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. lindsay lohan is facing a difficult decision this morning. should see accept a plea deal or roll the dice and fight felony grand theft charges are allegedly stealing a $2,500 necklace? kristen welker has the details this morning. kristen, good morning. good morning, ann. legal analysts say the da could ask for six months jail time as a term of that plea deal. if lohan rejects the deal and decides to fight the charges, it could be risky because the felony grand theft condition carries a possible three of year prison sentence. lindsay lohan in the hot seat once again with stern words from another angry judge. one of the things about me is i treat everybody the same. i don t care that you re lindsay lohan versus vjohn doe. that doesn t effect me. reporter: lohan has plead not guilty to stealing a $2,500 necklace, but prosecutors have offered the actress a plea deal. the judge made it clear that if lohan accepts the deal, she ll face jail time. if you plead in front of me, this case is resolved in front of me, you are going to jail. period. reporter: the judge gave lohan until next month to decide whether to accept the deal. if she rejects the plea bargain, legal analysts say prosecutors will be forced to lay out their case in a preliminary hearing. it will be an opportunity for the prosecution and the difference to preview the case, get a sense of how strong it is, how well the witnesses will testify, and how credible the witnesses are. reporter: if the case goes to trial, it could be a tough battle. did you steal the necklace, lindsay. reporter: a source close to the investigation tells nbc news surveillance video shows lohan carrying the necklace out of the store the day it disappeared. a few days later, she was photographed wearing the necklace. the actress made headlines during her last court appearance when she arrived wearing a tight white dress. this time, she wore pants and a low-cut top, walking briskly past a throng of reporters into court. inside, the judge seemed focused on only one thing. lohan s recovery. calling for more therapy for her. i want you to get on with your life. i want you to reach whatever potential you have and move on and quit causing yourself, your family, and anyone else around you additional stress, which is unnecessary. yeah, definitely. reporter: the mean girls star has been in and out of jail and rehab for violating her probation on a 2007 dui arrest. and authorities in riverside, california, are investigating her for allegedly shoving an employee at the betty ford clinic where she was a patient. lohan has denied the claim. rehab experts say therapy could be exactly what she needs. she needs to be trapped both emotionally and physically to face herself and deal with issues from family to divorce. any of the kinds of things that stir up inside of her. now, lohan s next court date is set for march 10th. this left case aside, she can still face jail time if a judge finds her in violation of her probation. we did reach out to lohan s attorney, but we didn t get a response. ann? thank you, kristen. coming up next, from diy to dyo, we ll show you how to design your own fashions to get the look you want. and we need to catch up. i love when they come visit, and so do my roommates. introducing olive garden s new artisanal raviolis starting at just $10.95. try our creamy asiago cheese ravioli topped with pan-seared chicken. or try our artisanal ravioli topped with shrimp. starting at just $10.95. with unlimited salad and breadsticks. i just like to know my little girl is okay. daddy. 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[ female announcer ] visit aveeno.com to save on nourish plus. this morning on bobbie s stale buzz, be your own designer. how many times have you found the perfect pair of shoes but you wanted a different pair of heels? today bobbie thomas is here to share her favorite design your own sites that giving the power to the people. yes. which we love. do you remember watching judy jettison when we grew up and you would see her just push a button and her favorite fashion would just pop to life. don t we wish that could really exist? we re not quite there yet, but almost. a bunch of these websites are coming close to help us design anything we can imagine. it s becoming a real trend. the consumer now, you want it the way you want it. and brands really want to talk to you directly. they want to figure out what you want and i have a lot of websites to show you. let s talk about designing your own jewelry. tell me about jewelry site that you found. this is a site that allows you to design everything. you can design the base, the metals if you want. there s something for everyone. it goes from $4 to $5,000. you could make something sentimental and personal, and jewelry is that. this is a great idea. there s over 3,000 designs already to inspire you. from 500 people just like us that made something and you can decide to do that and tweak it. i have a girlfriend that would love that. she was looking for a necklace that had all of the birth stones of her children and they couldn t find it. perfect. now, designing your own shoes and your handbags. ladies, i know how you feel when you have the perfect pair of shoes but the heel is too high or you wish it could be higher perhaps. this is an obsession. shoes and handbags, you can t get any more obsessed. jeffsilverman.com, he used to be involve would steve madden. he has a ton of contacts in the manufacturing industry. what he can do now, which is unbelievable, he s not only a website but a widget. i ll explain that in a minute. someone sent in this picture and said, i want to have this boot in a nude color but i want that heel. and that s really unbelievable. and within three weeks, the price range is from $100 to $200. you can get the shoe of your dreams. they ll work with you, send you photos in advance. so you can send examples of the photos. and these aren t returnable. right. they have shoes online that you can pick and change the different colors. you know, fashion bloggers love this. a fashion blogger was the one that requested this. another fashion blogger loved this. and handbags. i decided what about a bag that had black and brown and a pop of color. within days we were able to get this to new york. that is amazing. if somebody buys your design, you get $20. so if somebody likes something you did and they buy it, you actually a little incentive. launch your own design line down the road. exactly. okay. let s move on over to designing your own clothing, speaking of. yes. i m going to be hiding over here. you have great fashions here for the ladies. the dress next to you is an example of modcloth. that s the most popular idea. they want to know what you like. you don t have to spend any money. they want you to come online and vote on samples they re considering. it gives you the opportunity to talk to the boutique. you get to say what you might be purchasing, you know, come spring or fall, which is a really great way. it s really cute. i love it. tell me about these jackets. i am obsessed with garms.com right now. this is a platform. anybody with a sketch and an idea can literally upload your design or vision worldwide where people will vote on those sketches. these two jackets are examples of people who have been voted on and garms will help that designer produce the pieces and profit in that and then work with the designers. innovative things like a basic jacket that looks very classic, this faux fur piece will detach to leave you it s a two in one. i really loved this jacket. this piece comes off as well. i can t wait to see if the things i voted on will be made next. let s move over to designing your own home. this is for all of those aspiring interior designers as well. this is so great. this is a leading eco-friendly home place online. what they have, you can customize egg pods and everything else. these chairs. but they have this really popular design your own duvas and pillows. you can pick everything. there are so many designs. each piece of this embroidery can be your own color. you can start with whether it s cotton or silk. for a nursery or anyone else it takes a little time, but for those who really do have an eye for exactly what they want, this is perfect. don t be afraid. this is about giving you the issue. go online and play around with the templates. the programs are really easy to navigate. bobbie thomas, i love this segment. this is great. thank you so much. coming up next, delicious resaechs you can mak this week, make pasta night more exciting for your family with a little help from the italian sausage experts: try. since 1945, this delicious italian sausage has been made with only the most premium cuts of pork and unique blends of quality herbs and spices you can actually see. and the taste? why not let the empty plates speak for themselves. make pasta night a weekly dinner your family looks forward to. choose johnsonville, america s favorite italian sausage. brand power. helping you buy better. this morning on today s kitchen step by step, delicious slow cooker meals. there is no better way to develop flavor than with slow cooking. it s a perfect option if you re pressed for time. we ve got chris kimball, the host of america s test kitchen. our revolutionary chris now joins us. i m revolutionary? apparently you are. revolution. i ve got to no, you re doing the revolution here, baby. that s what we re doing. a lot of us don t do this. i love the idea of a slow cooker. we don t have time to cook. but a lot of us have had experience with bad things like overcooked vegetables, things being not really yummy. you have come up with recipes that really work. we bought 24 of these things about two years ago and put this big wall in our test kitchen. it takes a long time to test slow cooker recipes. so it was a long process. eight hours, six hours. they have tops on them, which means there s no evaporation, there s no browning because they re low temperatures. we ll get to that. also, things don t cook evenly. if you put everything in and walk away, the vegetables will be overcooks. now let s talk about what does work. you ve got a pork loin. you want to saute it on the steve. that seals in the flavor, get a little caramelization there. and then you want something that i ll do this part. that was quick. you were. cranberry sauce, a little orange. we re just dumping here, which is nice. a little cinnamon and orange juice. interesting. a lot of liquid is going to come out of that meat. you want really big flavor. i would have probably messed that up. you cover it up. it goes on low for four hours. it comes out, you take the sauce that s made in here, we defat it. we take some of the fat off the top, cook it down about ten minutes. that s another thing with the slow cooker. you have to reduce the sauces. look at that. it looks moist. it s very moist. it s great for doing roast. it s about 140 degrees. wait a minute. do you stick a thermometer in there? yeah. okay. and you put it in the meat and check it. that s not all. you say it s a great device to use for ribs. that s interesting. people always say they have to barbecue the ribs. this is a grill. this is so a lot of rib recipes you can put it in a slow cooker. you actually boil or steam ribs to start to get rid of the fat. we have a nice little spice rub chi an pepper. but that down. look at that. put a little rub on tom. this is exactly what you do if you did it over a grill. we re going to put it meat-side out. welcome. and then you re just going to put sauce in there. barbecue sauce. how easy is this? we ll dump that on top. this cooks about six to eight hours. how do you get this caramelization on top? take it out and you braille broil it. and put that on a on a broiler pan under the broiler for about three minutes on one side, flip it over, meat side up. another 10 or 12 minutes. i don t want i want to get to this dessert. you lined this with foil so it s easy to take it out of the pan. bread in here like this. and and we put a little bit of that in there, too. cloudy skies here in the nation s capital right now at 9:56, and the temperature getting up to about 40 degrees right now. good morning. i m barbara harrison. it s february 24th, 2011. in the news at this hour, commuters looking for a place to park in prince william county will finally be getting some relief. today, virginia s transportation secretary is expected to announce they will add more spaces in the woodbridge area. earlier this month, potomac mills reduced its commuter parking from 1,000 spaces to just 275 spaces to make room for commercial development. let s tack a little about the weather now. we have veronica with us this morning. well, whatever sunshine we had this morning, fading fast out there. temperatures well above freezing. in fact, close to 40 degrees right now, foggy bottom at 38, 42 already in spots south and east around leonardtown. we will see a high today of 50 degrees, but don t leave the house without your dwell if you re going to be out late, because rain showers by 4:00 or 5:00. rain tomorrow, we could have over an inch, gusty winds near 60 miles per hour with a 60-degree high. jerry? all right, outer loop of the beltway, on-again/off-again delays beginning about river road to and across the american legion bridge headed to tysons corner around the work zone there. extra time would be a good idea. 95 northbound looking good. southbound 95 from newington down to lorton, construction set up in the right lane. barbara? thanks, jerry. we have a full hour of local news and weather coming your way at 11:00 a.m. news 4 midday, that is. with fios, when you re watching the picture, it just jumps out at you. -it was like, wow! -bam! 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[ male announcer ] get fios tv, internet and phone for this great price, plus $100 back. call 1.866.699.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.866.699.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network ahead. today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. i m afraid to do it! hey! we want to say we heard you. we did that let s do it again. hey. you guys hey-ted it, so we re never doing it again. it s thursday, february 24. we re delighted that you re with us and thank you for responding so quickly. they just said it was old and over and tired and it jumped the shark it s not totally tobe anymore? no, it s out. they didn t just dislike it, they hated it. they were annoyed and ticked off, so i promised we would not do it again. you know what i m annoyed and ticked off about? what? every single day we have the lindsay lohan update. come on, let s get this girl in rehab or prison, one or the other. okay. so, anyway, here s the story. last time she made news not because of her court appearance but because of what she wore. so everybody was saying, what s she going to wear? well, here s what she wore. did she have to walk that briskly? she wore a very low-cut blouse. i have to say she looked fantastic. she thanked all her designers afterwards and her jewelry maker. they did loan it to her. but she s a beautiful girl who seems to desperately needing attention. the judge was harsh on her. he said, here s your choice. you are going to prison if you plead. your other choice is go to trial and you could face i think it s maybe more than three years in prison. if she pleads, she ll get maybe six months. they ll make her do it no matter how crowded the prison is? i don t know. he sounded tough. let s listen. i want you to get on with your life. i want you to reach whatever potential you have and move on and quit causing yourself, your family and anyone else around you additional stress which is unnecessary. okay. i don t think he s tough enough. honestly. yeah. my father would have been tougher on me than the judge was on her. six months, though, it s realtime, don t you think? yeah. your hair. can you imagine if you were in prison? i don t want to go. they don t let me take in tweezers, i m telling you. you don t want me without my tweezers. roots and crazy frizz. let s see what hoda might look like if she were in prison for just a short time. let me explain something to you. okay. okay. let me just tell you something. jim gaines, mark straub, i have your number. these are the directors down there being hilarious. a lot of people showed if you could kick your husband out for anybody, who would it be, and george clooney was on top of a lot of people s list. he said i didn t live my life the right way for politics. i [ bleep ] too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that s the truth. he thinks you should say, i did it, i drank the bong water, and now let s talk about the issues. he said his campaign would be, i drank the bong water. you ve got to love him. i love his sense of humor. he s a great-looking guy and a wonderful actor, but to me his greatest appeal is his intelligence and his sense of humor. i think the funny thing is if more politicians said, i want to tell you from the jump, here s all the things i did. i did a, b, c, d and e and that s it. then you re past it. i think if we had a politician who is honest, we would elect the guy. if george clooney ran for office, i believe he would win in a landslide. i like what he does. he does take his celebrity and he takes it to sudan. he puts his money where his mouth is, he cares about issues and he s passionate. matt damon was so cute in the adjustment bureau. i had a little time with him downstairs before i came up. he s looking forward to seeing you, hoda woman. i m sure he is. this movie is going to be huge, i think. i hope it is. it was such a great movie. it s called the adjustment bureau, and there was an element of what would you call it? it s supernatural. it s supernatural, but it s also a love story. you don t see it coming at all. it s adorable. matt damon is so great, and anthony blunt. we re going to talk to anthony blunt in a few minutes. we need to get back to miss san antonio. what are we going to do about that? this is ridiculous to me. ms. san antonio was supposed to be decrowned, okay, because of a couple of things. nobody really came out and said what the truth was, but they said, one, that the people from the pageant told her to, quote, get off the tacos, so she apparently put on some weight, and that she was late to events and didn t show up at events, either. these are critical points to your story. they are. but then it had to go to a courtroom for some reason where the new miss san antonio got the crown and you see her she came out of the courtroom. there she is. ashley dixon. congrats to her. you and i feel differently about this subject. here s what i think. if she gained weight after getting the crown, which happens to all of us when you get nervous or whaetever, you re fie up, five down. you pig out when you re nervous. i think if you gain weight because you ate some tacos, that s okay. you know i m not a huge fan of all these things. but i did host a miss america pageant many, many times and i was in an american junior miss pageant when i was a high school senior. what i do know about it, there is something you find that basically tells you the rules you re getting into. none of them say you can t gain five pounds. they re all different, so i don t know what this says, but they do say you will comport yourself in a certain way, you will represent your title in a certain way which is being presentable, you will compete to the best of your ability to go on to the next thing. but i think curvy girls should be represented. i m curvy. i m all for it. i think if you show up late, you re out. i get that part. people that know the rules when they go in and then want to break the rules and say and whine about it. quit whining. just do what you said you re going to do or don t go into it. nobody makes you go into these things. right. right. do you hear what i m saying? i understand that part. here s something for people who have sidewalk rage, i guess you d call it. there are actually people out there, there is an ivillage article that talked about people who get so frustrated when you re walking behind someone and you walk around them, they re on the cell phone, they don t real eyes you re around. there is a facebook page called i so want to punch the walking people in the back of the head. i do have to say i get nuts when someone is walking really slowly in front of me, and i pass them and i cut in front of them tight like i m a car. you know, because i want to get in. it s the same rage you had when you were a basketball player. this is what i don t understand. you know the sidewalks in the airport that move? how about the people who go on those and just stand there? what if it s an elderly person? that i understand. i m talking about the people who stand and wait for the sidewalk to move them down the hall. that s what the sidewalk is there for. i don t mind when people stand on it, i mind when they put their big old bag next to them so the people who walk can t get around it. what about when you re at the theater and you want to go to the exit in an orderly fashion. people get out of their seat and stand there. and then they start putting on their coats, calling their driver. they re standing in the exit. sometimes i do think about pushing people. i have aisle rage in the theater. i thought in my head about pushing them in the middle of the back like that. because i get so frustrated. but i don t do it. i just think about how good it would feel because it would feel good to do it. you know what would make me feel good, hoda? to hear your playlist. you re going to have a part in this, i hope you don t mind. you re the backup singer. this is if you re in a sexy mood. it s a little isaac hayes. your line that will come repeatedly is don t let go. of what? i don t know. let s do it. this is you. it s a little you have to feel it. anthony, do you feel it? here you go. don t let go, don t let go come on, baby, it s time to rock don t let go, don t let go. here we go. i m so glad i got you here, don t let go. see me grinning from ear to ear. here we go, this is the good part. close your eyes. ooey. this feeling is killing me. i wouldn t stop for a million bucks. okay, i think we ve heard enough of it. it put anthony in the mood. you know what i remember about anthony gaines? there s a southpark coming out that s a little bit controversial, but isaac hayes used to play the chef on southpark. they wrote me in. i had an affair with the chef. cody and cassidy were watching me on southpark in bed with the chef. there should be a law against that. is it okay to work with your spouse? kathie lee says whatever works for the couple. frank and i work together. you said, sure, as long as you both get to take vacation at the same time. very clever. i don t think it s the big controversy it once was. coming up next, we re excited about this guy. he s on the adjustment bureau with matt damon. why anthony mackey believes in faith. sara really never knows when to quit, does she? that s right after this. and if you wake up often in the middle of the night. rest is here, on the wings of lunesta. lunesta helps you fall asleep and stay asleep, so you can wake up feeling rested. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. get lunesta for a $0 co-pay at lunesta.com. sleep well, on the wings of lunesta. by giving me huge discounts on rooms hotels can t always fill. with unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less. where you book matters. expedia. takes care of 33 loads. tide stain release only handles 11. and clorox 2 gets rid of tough stains right before your eyes. clorox 2. find it next to the clorox bleach. is a fun way to hydrate. that s a choice you can respect. other choices.not so much. [ pbht! ] capri sun roarin waters. it s the question many people wonder about. is your life determined by fate or free will? it s the question posed by the new film the adjustment bureau. matt damon goes up against fate. by his side is his representative or guardian angel played by anthony mackey. take a look. because she s not, david. if you have her, you won t need to fill that void inside of you with boats and dreams of one day making it to the white house. that s important, but it s not the only thing that matters. as if we didn t love him before, hoda. well, you loved him especially. can we just really get to the movie if we can get to the movie, you guys had a little thing i was you for a day. and you treated me as if i was we had a good time. that looks so wrong in so many different ways. that looks so wrong. that s really disturbing. i was holding her like this. is that when her head was falling? i don t remember it. that looks so bad. we saw this movie yesterday, anthony, and we really loved it. we didn t know anything about it, which i love just going in with a clean slate, no pre conceptico preconceptions. you say when you read this, you had to do it. i was blown away by it. when i read it, i was so impressed by the story because it reads like a play. i had never done or seen anything like it. we do wonder if it is fate or is it left up to me kind of thing, and that s the source of this movie, is if you control your own destiny. we don t want to give it away, but boy, some wonderful performances. matt and emily have the love story, and it s so believable between the two. it was a great cast, and we got to shoot in new york, and it was really like a love story to new york. you re right. it was a love story to new york. was it last summer you shot? that s a pretty fast turnaround for a motion picture. it was a huge undertaking. and george nofy put it together and did a great job. i had never heard of him. he wrote it, directed it, p produced it. did this change your whole life? yeah, it really did. i waited my turn and i was able to say yes. but it really put me in a position where i m able to do interesting and different types of stuff. when i looked at vanity fair, i was like, look at the cover. what a great group you re standing with. that tuxedo cost more than my house. what are you thinking when you re standing there having this kind of iconic picture taken? what s going through your mind, like i wonder what they re thinking. i just wanted to rub the lion cub. i m like, take the picture so i can get to the cub. i had never seen a lion cub before. it was a great group of people. when you go home to new orleans, like i know you re going to do for mardi gras, do they treat you like they always treated you, anthony, or is it a little different? now they treat me worse. i don t get in places, you know. now they expect you to pick up everything, you smart aleck movie star, you re making the big bucks. now it s like i have to wait, i have to call ahead. i m like, just give me a sandwich. you know? what about the bar you opened? opening in april. it s called no bar. no bar? i m from new orleans, so no is short for new orleans. you ve been building it yourself and all that? i started building it. i bought a saw, i bought a hammer, i bought a drill. we want to come when it opens. call me a carpenter. if it s good enough for jesus, it s good enough for you. you can just call me brother jesus. if you need something fixed, let me know. anything? anything. anthony, we wish you good luck with this movie, by the way. thank you so much. we re so proud of you in this movie. up next, what college kids do on a snow day. we ve got the video to prove it. there s no snow in california, thank goodness. fashion fixes when time is not on your side. but first, we have these messages. you could spend as much as $200. for a whole lot less. new olay pro x advanced cleaning system. we are back with our webtastic series. what happens when college kids get snowed in? did i mention they re all guys? in this case, fireworks happened. take a look at this short video that s exploding on the internet. oh, wow. what school are these kids at? university of arkansas, and by the way, we already asked. only one of them is single because with a sense of humor like this, they re amazing. arkansas doesn t often get this kind of snow. it had more than 480,000 hits on line, and katy perry even commented, keep letting your fireworks burst, guys. they re adorable. it s amazing they didn t train harder, but they have some good body shots. they re cute. what guys have that kind of sense of humor and creativity on a snow day to say, let s make a music video? it took four hours to shoot, one hour to edit. do they get paid to look that cute? no. is that funny? he might be playing hooky, who knows. all right. help for parents who lay awake at night worrying about all sorts of things. sounds like somebody paid too much. excuse me? i use progressive s name your price tool. they showed me a range of coverages, and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds when switching. hundreds? who are you? just a man that loves savings. and pie. out there with a better way. now, that s progressive. so i ve got to take care of my heart. for me cheerios is a good place to start. [ male announcer ] to keep doing what you love, take care of your heart with cheerios. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. love your heart so you can do what you love. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. at purinso we set out toour dog to be discover the sciencele. in some of nature s best ingredients. we created purina one with smartblend. delicious shredded morsels and crunchy bites with real meat, wholesome grains and antioxidants for strong muscles, vital energy, a healthy immune system, and a real difference in your dog. purina one with smartblend. discover what one can do. toyota releases information on another recall just about an hour ago. coming up on news 4 midday, what vehicles are related to the recall of another 2 million vehicles in the united states. good morning. i m barbara harrison. also coming up, michael jackson s sister rebbie jackson had talked openly about her family s strategy. today she joins us in the studio to talk about that and what we re back on this thirsty thursday with fashion solutions and prevention. if you hardly had time to think ahead today, phil martin has you covered from your lashes to your little ones. first, obviously, cheers. happy birthday. cheers. these are pads. there is a fashion one, and here is one about wine. so this is a pad that does that, but it s for everything. there is fashion citations, there is paper for you! you don t have to tweet, you just write it down on paper. and hand it to hoda. they start at $8. if you want to bring wine to your friend s house, put a personalized label on it, or your kids soccer bottles or water bottles or anything that needs labels, these labels are made and it s kiddy cals. they re waterproof, you can put them in the dishwasher. it s great for kids going to camp. anything that needs labels. you can put them in the washing machine, the dishwasher and it works. this is something i tried out before showing it on the air, and i think i should look into this. it s lashtip.com. i m not wearing any eye makeup right now. those are fake. no, they re not. it s a possessiotion and i wrot the ingredients. it takes an hour and a half. does it make them grow? it doesn t make them grow, they can put a few extensions in. we have some before and afters, too. it s semi-permanent mascara and it s just a semi-permanent mascara you can put on, so i wake up looking like i m going to the oscars. it s lashtip.com. it starts at $150, and it s all over the country. hanger shaperes. you can buy these from the container store and just add them to any hanger you have. ten for $8. this i love if you re entertaining. it looks almost like i knew i would say toilet paper paper towels. it s disposable, though you can use them again if you want. it s napkins and paper how cute! they have everything and it s disposable. and it feels like material. $25 a roll. how great is that? that s a great idea. and you can reuse them, jill? yes. reusable and recycleable. you re batting a thousand, baby. i ll put my head on this one. these are custom made that one looks good on you. these are custom made bathing suits, so you go on line, and you tell them i have little b boobs, i have a little waist, and they customize it to your body. you can pick what design you like. it s a little pricey starting at 180, but i think if you re investing in a bathing suit, i think we re all self-conscious enough especially if you re not the same everywhere. i have a friend who mixes and matches smalls and mediums at the store. that s illegal. i know. i m busting her out. these are headbands with ornaments. you just switch out the front. dindn t you always give me those, jill? i think bobbie did. these are chewbies. these are for moms. you know how babies are always chewing on your neck? these are just like a pacifier and they can chew on that and it also is a fashion statement. this is random at the end, but you guys love toca. and they just came out with a travel laundry detergent that you like, and the perfume, and the cream and the candles. so this is all things for traveling and it comes in this pouch. $118. thanks, jill. love you! up next, advice for parents to keep your head from spinning when you should be sleeping. her first home loan, and this is her sister tina, who i also helped do her first home loan. it was unbelievable how well it all fell together. kathy said, well, let me give you rachel s number. easy. easy. easy. the whole loan process was simple and convenient! that s why i love quicken loans! [ male announcer ] and you ll be glad to know j.d. power and associates ranks quicken loans highest in customer satisfaction. to learn more call 800-quicken or visit us online at quickenloans.com. if you re a parent, you know there are endless things to worry about when it comes to your kids. those things that keep you up at night can be fixed or maybe even avoided. welcome. thank you. there are certain things that stick in the heads of parents. what do you find are the top ones? when we polled reedeaders, w definitely learned there are things keeping them up at night. staying awake is not a good way to deal with them, so there are things you can do. here are one of the biggest fears. i m afraid my baby will stop breathing when he or she is sleeping. that s for new parents. sudden death infant syndrome can be terrifying. and although they know more about it, it s not that a baby will automatically stop breathing, but he can get suffocated by having his face pressed up against something and not have enough air. the most important thing you can do is put your baby on his back. not his stomach or his side. and keep things like pillows and fluffy blankets and bumpers and even stuffed animals. they look so cute when you see them in the nurseries, but it s not safe. and you don t want babies to sleep in bed with you. there are a lot of moms who are nursing who want to have their baby close by, but they can really get wedged in an unsafe position. the next one, i m afraid we ll never have enough money for college, which is a common fear. for a child who is going to go to college in 2030, it s going to cost about $245,000 in a public university. you want to not be freaked out by the numbers. the reality is the average middle class family only pays about a third of the cost and the rest comes from financial aid. but you have to pay it back afterwards, so it s complicated. true, but it s a good thing to start saving now. if you open a 529 that earns money tax free we don t do that as a culture. we re not good about paying things up front. we don t like the layaway plan, you know? the next thing we hear about is obesity with children. many people are concerned that their child will be overweight. a third of children are overweight, and they don t want them to have to deal with things they dealt with. the key thing is to eat right as a family. eat the right foods and focus on healthier snacks, small portion size. don t drink a lot of juice with empty calories. it s all common sense, actually. this one is when there is a working mom in the house, the mom sometimes gets worried that the toddler, the child, loves the babysitter more. and that s a common one because they get more time with your child than you do. my child came to me and wanted more time with me, and it broke my heart. it s good for your child to be with others, so even though it can tug at your heartstrings. everybody would rather be with christine than me. when you get home at the end of the day, he s tired but they don t ask you, how was your day? they don t even care how your day went. that s the truth. thank you. up next, corbin paxton, reptile guy, is here. same time tomorrow? [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. i see a bag and think. i could have a chip. yeah right. that s why they re called chips? [ female announcer ] new special k cracker chips. 27 crispy chips. 110 delicious calories. another cracker chip? don t mind if i do! [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. [ baby crying, teapot whistling ] everything s fine. [ male announcer ] of all the things that happen on your wooden surfaces, disinfecting has to be one of them. clorox disinfecting wipes. safe on wood. hard on germs. [ female announcer ] start your morning. hey. what are you doing up? i thought i d take a drive before work. want to come? [ female announcer ] or make his day. yeah. [ female announcer ] maxwell house gives you a rich, full-flavored cup of coffee, so you can be good to the last drop. [ carl ] honey, where s the top shelf! life can get a bit. routine. that s why i decided to switch things up with cottonelle ultra toilet paper. [ carl ] oh yeeaaah! you see? it s 35% thicker than the northern brand. [ carl ] love it! you might say this one little switch has made all the difference. peanut, get dressed. we re goin dancing. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] little switches can make all the difference. find cottonelle ultra codes. then see how you could win ultra prizes to make little switches in your life. . we re back with today s call of the wild, and corbin maxie with his reptiles. we have scooter, who just happens to be hanging out on the table. hoda, you have something very special for scooter. this is an animal from central and south america. make sure he doesn t bite your hand. take a look at this tongue that s going to come out. look at that. that s attractive. these animals are complete vegetarians, and this is a treat for scooter. take a look and watch your fingers. isn t that great? these animals get pretty big. they ll get up to six and a half feet. this is a cautionary tale. you got to use moisturizer. tell us about this guy. of all the animals we work with are rescues. and believe it or not, scooter was given away as a prize at a local carnival and they were happy with him? they fed him things like pizza and spaghetti and ice cream but he shouldn t be eating it. give him another bite. take a look. scooter, there you go. isn t that cool? this is perfect. check out this right here. they use that to impress the girls. isn t that impressive? and they ll extend it they ll bob their heads up and down, make themselves look bigger. i m going to put scooter right here at the very end. okay, look at this. this is cool. take a look at this. don t worry, this is water, girls. you never know around here. this is a snapping turtle. watch out, they do bite. i know! why are you holding it up to our faces? i m kidding. i m joking. i really was just kidding. is he really a snapper? he is. then get him away from me, for god s sake. look at the nose. isn t that incredible? it is incredible. can t they take out a finger? they can. they were selling him as a little baby to children at a pet store. that s not right. let s get to the gator. okay. i ll be right back. take a look at this, girls. this right here is a baby alligator? is a baby american alligator. how big will that get? she ll get up to 15 feet long and weigh several hundred pounds. this was an anniversary present. some guy bought this and thought this would be the perfect anniversary present. they ve got to be divorced. they re no longer together. you can hold him. have you just loved reptiles since the day you were born? ever since i was born. you must have driven your mother crazy. i have very understanding parents. i started rescuing at age 12 and i m 21 now. i m glad you found your calling in life. i wish my son would. okay. this next animal is huge. it s very, very dangerous. here we go here. oh, my gosh. oh, my no one wants that around. take a look. this right here is a reparticulreticulated python from south america. they ll get over 30 feet long how fascinating. isn t she beautiful? what does she eat, corbin? she eats rabbits. and people. they don t do it often, but they have been documented eating humans because they get so big. they re gorgeous to look at. and they sell these as pets. can you believe that? we hear about these being found in toilets and things like that. it is amazing what you ll find in a toilet. corbin, nice job. she s coming towards ariana. a woman whose dream took her from the corporate world to the kitchen. but first, this is today on nbc. time for today s kitchen, and we re getting saucy with an award-winning cook. sara did what many would like to do, put aside her profession for her passion. she s the 2010 cooking star, and good for you! how are you? great. how are you? how did you get to that point? i ve been cooking all my life, and a magazine sponsored a contest, and i thought, i m going to try that. what did you enter? a recipe or something else? no, it was about what i ve done over time, not one single recipe. sometimes if you re at home and it s just you, you don t know what to whip up, you don t want to order in. you don t want to work real hard, right? if you don t work that hard for yourself, who is going to work hard for you? what are we making? we re making some braised short ribs. i seared them off, and now we re going to add the other ingredients. so we need the add the wine. the whole bottle? nor, not the whole bottle. brown these a little bit and add about two cups. make it three, what the heck. the beauty of using wine is you can drink the rest of it and you re not drinking alone. you re just making sure you re not wasting ingredients. but people will start to talk if you re home alone and cooking for yourself. people will start to talk. we re going to turn this up and bring it to a boil. what else goes in there since we can t wait for it to boil? we add vinegar, and this is a chipotle pepper. i can never pronounce that, chipotle. one teaspoon of cocoa. sdp that s weird. it s not weird, it s great. it s weird, sara! those are carrots, hoda. celery, hoda, and a couple cloefs cloe cloves of garlic. finally, sara! and we re going to put these guys back in. we re going to put a lid on this and put it in the oven at 350 for a couple hours. when it s all done, we re going to pull it out and this is what the short ribs look like. they just fall off the bone, don t they? fall right off. we re going to combine them with vegetables and some beef stock. in? yep. that s great. hoda is cooking. then you have so many options for eating this. corn over paus tachstpasta. this is the braising liquid leftover. you can put it in smaller storage containers and put it in the with fios, when you re watching the picture, it just jumps out at you. -it was like, wow! -bam! [ male announcer ] decisions don t get any easier than this. now you can move up to fios tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a year with no term contract required. [ mr. donovan ] we have more choices. so many more hi-def channels. with fios, i really feel like we re getting a great deal. [ male announcer ] call now and you ll get a special bonus: $100 back. but this is a limited time offer so don t wait. suddenly, hi-definition tv was really high-definition. the colors. the clarity. i didn t have that before. [ male announcer ] fios is a 100% fiber-optic network, with hd picture quality rated #1 by changewave research, plus the fastest internet in the u.s. switching to fios was the best thing we ve done in a long time. and my wife reminds me of that often. [ male announcer ] get fios tv, internet and phone for this great price, plus $100 back. call 1.866.699.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.866.699.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network ahead.