Transcripts For WRC Today 20110302 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. this morning the problems facing actor charlie sheen just got more serious and more personal. a lot of people have been following the story. well, the los angeles police department sent officers to his los angeles home last night and they took his twin boys. this after their mother, sheen s estranged wife brooke mueller filed a temporary restraining order. what does charlie sheen have to say about it? is he concerned his comments about his life could cost him his children? we ll ask him in a live interview coming up? also at fashion week in paris, christian dior fired john galliano after videotape shows him making antisemitic remarks. and in libya, an escalation in forces loyal to moammar gadhafi. jim maceda is in tripoli. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. there are fresh reports today of intense fighting in the east with an oil installation changing hands by the hour. it could be the sign of a long protracted conflict. the uprising in tripoli has gone to ground. there have been no protests here for days, not since security forces dispersed a crowd of several hundred with live fire. increasingly, security experts say, it will be on the battlefield where any break in the standoff will come. in the rebel camps, spirits remain high in zawiya after opposition forces who had taken the town over the weekend managed to hold it despite a pro gadhafi counter attack. we feel we are in a good situation. we are ready to attack gadhafi in tripoli. reporter: but tripoli is ringed by tanks and artillery and a dozen checkpoints. there were signs today gadhafi was mounting an offensive with reports of gains in the rebel-held east. at least one oil installation was recaptured and libn bombs were attacking an air base just days ago. gadhafi s son said brushed off comments that his father was collusional made by susan rice, ambassador to the u.n. we have many city leaders, statesmen, every day. we have no time for them. reporter: as the fighting spreads, so does the anxiety. more than 100,000 have fled the country and thousands more can t get out, like these migrant workers, mostly africans who are living outside tripoli airport. many have waited for days but flights never come. this laborer says conditions are desperate. there is toole little food or even water and his family is getting sick. we need your aid. reporter: they fear another african war. with either the libyan army nor the rebels capable of striking a knockout blow this humanitarian crisis we are seeing could get much worse. meredith? thank you very much. former members of moammar gadhafi s inner circle have come forward with new claims of the libyan leader s direct involvement in the deadly bombing of flight 103. 189 americans died among others. andrea mitchell has more on the obama administration s response. good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. the u.s. and its allies are escalating pressure on moammar gadhafi. the justice department is being asked to open a new investigation into whether the libyan leader personally ordered one of the worst terror attacks in u.s. history. for than two decades after more than 200 people including 189 americans died in the lockerbie bombing reports that moammar gadhafi may have ordered the attack, sparking calls for a new investigation. there have been statements made by what are now former members of the libyan government fingering gadhafi, making it clear that the order came from the very top. i think we need to move expeditiously. reporter: this after two administrations bush and obama dealt with gadhafi. some of the families of the victims have written to president obama and say they are furious, sickened. receive any bernstein s husband was on the flight. we have chosen to look the other way because of business interests, because for some reason we thought we could bring gadhafi into the family of civilized nations. we now know how wrong it was. reporter: now the u.s. is trying to marshal the world against gadhafi and sending 400 marines to enter the mediterranean for possible rescue and humanitarian missions. the president is resisting talks of military options especially as it already fights two wars. if we move assets what are the consequences of that for afghanistan, for the persian gulf? what other ale lies are prepared to work with us in some of these things? reporter: military experts say a nato no-fly zone would be hard to implement and wouldn t stop the killing on the ground. it would require an enormous air effort to do so and could easily get the u.s. sucked into a situation where if we have trying to stop them from the air and realize we can t, because it s just too hard, we have to put in ground troops instead. reporter: the u.n. general assembly stripped gadhafi s regime of membership. this unprecedented action sends another clear warning to mr. gadhafi and those who still stand by him. they must stop the killing. reporter: to many, that raises more questions about why libya was in the human rights council in the first place and in fact once chaired the human rights commission. matt? andrea mitchell, thank you. kathleen and jack flynn s son j.p. was killed in the pan-am bombing. good morning. thanks for coming back. good morning. give me your reaction to the developments here. well, it s about time that the united states stood up and realized that this is a serious thing against gadhafi. we should have done this a long time ago. it did not take long for this former justice minister to defect, leave the country and immediately finger moammar gadhafi for directly ordering the terror attack on pan-am flight 103. what level of proof do you need to see? what would be sufficient in your mind, jack, to prove to you that he ordered this bombing? kathleen and i went to the trial every day. for al magrahi. yes. we saw the evidence. it was clear he was down the hall from gadhafi. he took orders from gadhafi and the bomb and everything was made by him and gadhafi s right here. so it was obvious that he was the right-hand man who did this for mr. gadhafi. clearly these people are now speaking freely and moammar gadhafi has his hands full in other areas. he s not paying attention to pan-am 103 now. are you worried there is a small window of opportunity that the people with this information might be silenced by people who are loyal to moammar gadhafi? i don t think so. i think it s moved beyond that. i think the world has awakened to the fact that moammar gadhafi is a murderer and killed 270 innocent people as well as people in libya. he has to step down. it took ten years, jack, to bring al magrahi to trial. he was released on compassionate grounds because it was said he had cancer but from what we understand he s doing well. do you anticipate seeing moammar gadhafi in a courtroom? yes. i hope that does happen. i hope that the justice system, because if these people give the evidence against mr. gadhafi that you can bring him into a courtroom. i don t know what courtroom or where, but all the evidence will come out and hopefully we can take legal action against them. could you go through another trial, kathleen? yes, i could. to get moammar gadhafi i could go through hoops and do anything to get the man who murdered my son and 270 other innocent people. absolutely. the rollercoaster over the past few decades never ends. yes. we have been fighting for justice for 22 years and we will continue to fight for justice. that s what we do for our son. and for other people so that people in america can fly free and don t have to worry about being blown up by some crazy person named moammar gadhafi or the libyan regime. it s got someone s got to stand up and take this bull by the horns. kathleen and jack flynn, nice to see you again. thanks for coming by. thank you. now we head to ann curry at the news desk with the headlines of the morning. ann? thanks, matt. good morning. we begin in yemen where the president turned on the united states tuesday, blaming his closest ally for encouraging growing protests against him. the move didn t quell protesters who packed the streets by the hundreds of thousands on tuesday night. pakistan s minority affairs minister was killed this morning in islamabad. he s a member of the christian minority and had recently called for the national law to be changed. the u.s. government will likely stay open for business after the senate votes today on $4 billion in spending cuts. nbc s capitol hill correspondent kelly o donnell joins us now with more on the story. hey, kelly. good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. congress did buy itself more time. another two weeks to keep the government s operations going and bills paid. the gop-led house passed the extension with the $4 billion in cuts because they came from a list of presidents that he could go along with. so more than a hundred house democrats were on board and that put pressure on the senate. today they say they will pass it quickly and senate democrats say they have to get on board, too. the problem is this is a short-term fix and congress has to figure out a way to come up with a longer-term set of deep cuts. that means a sequel to this budget showdown in a couple of weeks. ann? kelly, thank you. wisconsin governor scott walker is forging ahead with the two-year budget proposal to cut more than $1.25 billion in aid to schools and governments. it would strip workers of collective bargaining rights and is at a stalemate amiddays of protest. in ohio there is another protest over a bill that heads to a vote today. thousands protested tuesday and vowed more demonstrations this morning. retail sales were up despite stormy weather and a jump in gas prices. americans increased buying on clothing, furniture and luxury goods. gas prices are up 20 cents in the last week alone. we have more from wall street from cnbc s trish regan joins us. good morning, ann. because of what we are seeing unfold now in the middle east, the concern is you mentioned retail sales. the concern is the higher gas prices will catch up with consumer spending. they haven t done it so far. we have only seen gas prices start to spike over the last couple of weeks. let s face it. if you re paying $4 at the pump it means less money to spend on everything else. economists say, you know, this is coming at a bad time for the economy because it looks like we were starting to get firmly into growth territory. thisle could derail it all. trish regan, we leave that topic and move to another story. it took a hundred members of the mexican navy to rescue a humpback whale calf that beached itself. the whale was discovered in good condition on mexico s pacific coast where he was treated for cuts and scrapes. rescuers attached a cable to his tail and towed him back to sea. just a year old. they are hoping he can get back to his mother. now 7:14. back to meredith, matt and al. just before he left, he coughed up a little wooden boy. it was a heartwarming story until that. hey, al. life s good. we re talking about more rain we going to be looking at snow as well. another powerful storm bringing plenty of heavy rain along the coast and inland. we re going to be looking at snow from portland down to san francisco, even los angeles. we will see anywhere from a tenth of an inch to an inch of rain, and then we re also looking at one to two feet of snow in the central sierra, the mt. shasta and the siskiyou mountains. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. a clear blue sky on this wednesday morning. good morning. i m meteorologist tom kierein. live view from the skywatcher camera. we have the sun up now and temperatures around the region are cold. we re right near the freezing mark. we have some winds gusting to around 25 to around 20 to 25 miles an hour, bringing our windchills down into the 20s. but later today, the temperature should spike into the upper 50s. by early afternoon, lots of sun, just a few clouds in the middle of the day, and then colder tonight into thursday. then gradually warming into the weekend. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. a north carolina jury convicted a popular former doctor for the drunk driving death of a beautiful young ballerina. ron mott has followed the case and is in raleigh this morning for us. ron, good morning. reporter: meredith, good morning to you. the ballerina s family didn t get as harsh a verdict or sentence as they were hoping for but are relieved to see the ex-doctor going to prison finally. on day three of deliberations, the jury made up its mind. guilty of involuntary manslaughter. guilty of felony death by a vehicle and guilty of driving while impaired. reporter: former surgeon raymond cook, guilty. charged in the drunk driving death of 20-year-old ballerina elena shapiro whose car was brought to the courthouse for jurors to see. the jury fell two votes shy of convicting cook of murder. i believe he should receive the maximum sentence for second degree murder. we don t feel it was a fair sentence at all. reporter: instead he got a minimum of three years in prison with a maximum of four and a half years. it was a deliberate act by dr. cook who knew better but chose to get in the lethal weapon and kill our elena. to me that s no different than shooting her with a gun. reporter: a video tribute to elena was played before cook was sentenced. we don t get elena back. we don t get any kind of better rest at night because of somebody going to jail for a longer or shorter period of time. because of him. reporter: prosecutors arguing cook, once the face of a thriving practice, father of two girls, got behind the wheel drunk and rocketed his mercedes into elena s car. he breathed in my face. it was strong. reporter: after a day of heavy drinking, first at a golf club and then at a local bar. what was the defendant s blood alcohol reading? objection. overruled. you may answer. .24. reporter: .24, three times the legal limit in north carolina. a reading eventually lowered to .20. it shows you the extent of damage to the engine compartment. reporter: cook s mercedes was unrecognizable. he was on his way to meet his wife for dinner but never made it. i m sorry. i talked to the babysitter. i told her what had been going on. that raymond was in a bad accident. reporter: an accident that claimed the life of a promising young woman. this is an egregious case of death by vehicle. reporter: after the accident cook voluntarily surrendered his license to practice in north carolina and went into rehab. when asked yesterday if he had anything to say before being taken into custody, he declined. meredith? ron mott, thank you very much. it s 7:18. here s meredith. christian dior says the firing of john galliano after an online video supporting claims that he made antisemitic remarks sent shock waves through fashion week in paris. anne thompson is there. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. it s all anyone is talking about here in paris. john galliano has dressed some of the most glamorous women in the world and his work has been honored by the french president and britain s queen elizabeth. this morning he s out of christian dior, the victim of his own appalling behavior. reporter: john galliano s designs are staples on the carpet. nicole kidman and sharon stone both in dior on the market. his style made him a bold-faced name in fashion. but it s his outrageous words caught on tape and posted by a british newspaper that were too much for the house of dior. i love hitler. people like you would be dead. reporter: on tuesday christian dior started firing procedures against its chief designer calling the remarks deeply offensive and in contradiction to the core values of the fashion house. the taped remarks made last december mirror an incident last week that led to the arrest in paris, accused of making antisemitic remarks to a couple in a cafe. this woman was an eyewitness. john galliano kept insulting this man s girlfriend. and so this man got annoyed and decided to be threatening towards galliano. reporter: galliano denies wrongdoing, but this tape of as previous event appears to do serious damage to his credibility. your mothers, your forefathers would be [ bleep ] gassed and [ bleep ] dead. reporter: in the world of fashion, galliano is a legend. his client list, a plus. from the late princess diana to actress charlize thereon but one fan turned on him natalie portman, sunday s best actress winner and the public face of dior. after the video appeared this week, portman, who is jewish, said she was shocked and disgusted and will not be associated with galliano in any way. in a business where image is everything, fashionistas wonder if he can survive it. it will be difficult for him to get back into the industry unless he goes into rehab and the video is completely forgotten. reporter: interestingly, none of the women to whom galliano made the remarks is jewish. still, making antisemitic remarks is a crime in france. if he s charged and convicted, he could get six months in prison. anne, thank you very much. just ahead, why did police remove charlie sheen s twin sons from his home overnight? the actor speaks out in a live interview. first, this is today on nbc. just ahead, how you can live in the lap of luxury for just a few hundred dollars a month. we ll tell you why that is happening all across the country. plus, charlie sheen speaks out live after your local news. úúú good morning. i m joe krebs at 7:26 on this wednesday, the 2nd of march. in the news for today, this morning a teenager is recovering after being stabbed in the stomach while on a metro bus in the district. this happened on the w-6 route on pom roe road in southeast late last night. no word whether police have any suspects. we ll take a break now kmrks back with weather and traf i m jim adley. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, caffeinated kids. doctors reveal the dangers with young kids drinking those sweet coffee drinks. plus, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets. and why experts say price isn t the main factor. all the day s news right here on news 4 at 5:00 tonight. good morning. this morning sunshine, a blustery southwest wind, temperatures low 30s, windchills in the 20s, but warming into the upper 50s by later this afternoon. a northwest wind will bring in some colder weather for thursday. and then a bit milder on friday and saturday. could get rain saturday night into sunday and monday. jerry, how s traffic? tom-a problem along interstate 66 earlier with a broken down truck. it s now cleared, but the damage is done. loaded up solidly from centreville all the way in. that combined with the sunshine. accident bw parkway southbound approaching route 197 in laurel. authorities had been dealing with that. we re jammed coming down from at least route 32. route 50 a better bet. joe? jerry, thanks much. we ll have anoth 7:30 on wednesday morning, march 2, 2011. say hello to our happy crowd gathered outside the window on the world in rockefeller plaza. happy to give them face time. i m meredith vieira along with matt lauer. just ahead, an exclusive live interview with charlie sheen hours after police removed his twin boys from his home. what happened and how does he feel about it? we get his side of the story straight ahead. also ahead, if you have dreamed of living in a mansion but thought you could never afford it, think again. coming up, a new real estate trend that could land you in a huge home for just a few hundred dollars a month. we ll explain. and donald trump is gearing up for a new season of celebrity apprentice. is he also gearing up for a presidential run? we begin with charlie sheen speaking live about the removal of his twin boys from his home. first, jeff rossen has the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning to you. charlie sheen called us and said police came to his house in the darkness of night with representatives from brooke mueller s camp, his estranged wife and took his children, max and bob, who turn 2 in a couple of weeks out of the house, removed them. they had been staying with charlie sheen. the lapd confirms for nbc news that did happen without incident. the kids were removed pursuant to a court order that brooke mueller had gotten in an l.a. county courtroom just yesterday claiming that the kids should not be raised in that kind of environment with charlie s goddesses and what else is going on inside the house. as you mentioned, meredith, charlie sheen is here for a live interview. we ll get his reaction. but first a look behind closed doors. for charlie sheen, this was the perfect place to raise his twin boys, inside his los angeles mansion with the two women he calls his goddesses. we run errands, eat, play with the kids. we think up fun plans. we watch movies. i watch a lot of two and a half men. reporter: do you love his kids? are you kidding? i was just up there. bob was like i didn t want to put them down. they re like, they re calling you. he s like, bye, saying bye to the the you say dad s busy he says, okay, dada s busy. he knows. he s fine with it. reporter: is this normal, pictures of the kids on the fridge? aside from the days we have the gold palm fronds and fan him. they ll run with that. i m joking. reporter: do the goddesses raise your kids? yeah. if i can t be there, everybody helps out. i don t know. there s nothing broken here. reporter: but late tuesday night officers arrived at his home and removed his boys, max and bob, reportedly after sheen s estranged wife brooke mueller, the boys mother who s also battled drug abuse, filed for a restraining order in court concerned about her children s well-being. reporter: you said you want to rededicate yourself to your kids. sure. reporter: are you embarrassed that your kid wills read about this? god, no. talk about an education. this guy s our dad and we can get the answers and the truth? wow, winning. reporter: charlie sheen joins us for a live interview with his lawyer mark gross. thank you. reporter: what happened at the house last night? you were home. the boys were awake or asleep? they were just being put to bed. my secretary informed me the police were on their way down to issue a restraining order. i thought, okay, we can deal with that. i got my lawyer on the phone and it was revealed once i opened the door that they were there to remove bob and max. so, you know, i professed in the last few days to not deal and come from a place of panic, ego, emotion, so i stayed calm and focused. somebody badges you, they win in that moment. it seemed odd. there were others that didn t seem qualified to carry out such an operation. reporter: like who? a couple of gentlemen who wouldn t show i.d., wouldn t identify themselves. looked like they were from the rehab facility more than law enforcement. i didn t push it. i m not into resisting the law. just had to surrender to it knowing that this is now the challenge i claim to be looking for. i m more than willing to take on this task. if anybody thought my focus was directed in a radical capacity, that s going to seem like child s play. reporter: so they went upstairs? who got the children? i did and emma and laura, the nannies. we videotaped the whole thing so there was no nobody could claim otherwise. you have seen the video. they didn t have car seats so i provided them. i said, i love you, and i said, don t say good-bye. say see you later. later is, as we believe, to be very soon. reporter: sitting here hours after it happened do you know where your children are? i do not. that s a good question. that s a good point. isn t there some legal protection or some law that should inform the father of where his children are being removed and delivered to? you or any other father has the right to know where your children are. the silence by brooke s attorneys is conspicuous. yeah. reporter: did you say to the police officers, a, where are you from and, b, where are you taking my children before i hand them over to you? stupidly, i assumed they were going back to the house they have been living in with brooke when they are not with me. i think we got reports last night they were at a hotel in santa monica. at this moment on live television i don t know where my children are, but i am not panicking. this is not about emotion or o ego. this is about focus and getting in touch with what i have to do to complete the task of bringing these two beautiful young men back to the home that they deserve to be raised in. there is more love, compassion, support, child care and everything else you could possibly want for a child in this lovely home. it s not a house. it s a home right down that hill. reporter: according to tmz brooke went to court yesterday and told the judge you threatened her recently and that s why she filed the court order. she said you told her, i will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom. colorful. reporter: did you say it? no. but you can formulate things and make them sound like it came from my mouth. reporter: a lot of people watched the video from today yesterday. when we were in the house with the goddesses and said, you know, maybe two young boys shouldn t be raised in this environment. you know, with women who they are just meeting. how do you respond to that, respond to the critics and your estranged wife? i invite anybody to come in and observe. if it s a court-appointed monitor, somebody from the legal team, her, you with a camera. there is nothing to hide. as i said, there is nothing but love and compassion and absolute support for these amazing children. i m going to go ahead and say that regardless of what people offer in the form of judgment or opinion, based on preconceived whatever, it s 100,000 times better than what will be offered in her house. reporter: will you sit here today and say you will go to the negotiating table with brooke mueller? i m sure your anger is through the roof now. i m calm. had i received a phone call, i would have been willing to play ball and say absolutely, this is fine. in fact, i was going to call her because she s been requesting a two-hour visit asking lourdes to bring them somewhere. i had rejected it, because i knew that unlike myself that a drug test would not be clean. in fact, when we were aware brooke had gone to the police and the police took no action we were concerned because it was charlie s court-ordered time with the children. i attempted to contact brooke s attorneys but no one returned a phone call. reporter: is this normal, in your experience? it s atypical? reporter: police coming to the house at night. the issuing of a court of an order, but it is atypical to issue an order with no notice to the other side. often courts will do it in abundance of caution and we have to figure out what to do next. reporter: what s next? as charlie s lawyer how will you try to get the children back? i don t want to show my hand, but we ll look at the allegations, figure out not just to get charlie s word against brooke s, but independent witnesses to verify the accuracy or inaccuracy of statements. it rehashes a lot of old stuff. it s unfortunate they chose to go this route instead of communicating. but we are willing to sit down and try to work it out. absolutely. reporter: is there anything you want to say to brooke? may be your only chance to talk to her considering there is a restraining order. i understand. is that violating it? those things get creative these days. there is no order preventing you from contacting her. but you never want anything twisted. brooke, i m sorry you felt this had to be done in this way. this does not display any responsible parenting in anything i m familiar with. i think cooler and smarter, leveler heads can prevail. i urge you to reach out to me immediately if not sooner and tell me where our sons are. reporter: we ll leave it there with the children. i want to move on to your legal battle with cbs. oh, that. reporter: that other thing happening in your life. you have been out of work a couple of weeks now. yeah. reporter: obviously the future of the show is in jeopardy at this point. sure. reporter: cbs and warner brothers haven t said much, only that you lost your job this season because of your conduct, statements and behavior. sure. reporter: first of all, your lawyer sent a letter demanding that you get paid for all eight episodes cancelled this season. sure. reporter: and for the first time since this happened, les moonves, the president spoke out. there was audio rolling. let s listen. good. doing eight less originals saves us money. i m not saying long term i want this to go on or it s great, but the repeat last night actually was the fourth highest rated show of the night. he s on the air quite a bit these days. i wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an emmy. i hope it s back. we ll see. reporter: so less moonves is saying cbs is fine without charlie sheen now. i don t know if i would paraphrase it like that. it was an intelligent spin. he s a brilliant businessman. look where he is. look who he got. you have to be nominated first to go out and launch a campaign. that s a little detail, but it was a good joke in good spirits. nothing has changed on this end. i thought getting the crew paid for four was a good direction. reporter: warner brothers agreed to pay for four. you want them paid for all eight. well, yeah. that s the way it will be completed. the rest of my cast and myself in that order. until that happens there is nothing to talk about. then we can open up a dialogue for the future of season 9 and the rest of it, you know. reporter: are you ready to go back to work? it will be obviously a tense set. you have chuck lorre. can you work with him again? it s up to him. i can t even get a phone call returned. i can t get a phone call in a live, open forum. reporter: you want chuck to call you? well, yeah. something, anything. even if he calls, hears my voice and hangs up quick. reporter: why don t you call him? i deleted the number from my phone. reporter: why? out of anger? it was a recommendation from this guy. i don t know. i issued my questions through you. i was even and direct and i have requested some interaction in other live forums. rhymes with cnn. i made it clear where i stand and why i stand here. it s feeling like they are hiding based on nothing. i m not trying to insult everybody. i m as confused as everybody here and all of my beautiful and perfect fans. reporter: charlie sheen, mark gross, thanks for joining us. charlie, meredith vieira in new york has a question for you. go for it. thank you very much. is this the million dollar question? maybe, if you give me the final answer i m looking for. charlie, i want to go back to your kids. obviously you are upset about the boys. any message you want to deliver to them? bob, max, it s dada. i will see you very soon. you re right hear. thank you very much for joining us. thank you, sweetie. mark, do you plan to go to court today to get this undone, this restraining order? we will not be in court today. reporter: why not go to court today? unlike brooke s attorney, anything we do will be with notice and so the earliest we could be in court would be tomorrow. we ll weigh our options whether it s tomorrow or friday. reporter: what would be your message to the judge about why the children should be returned to charlie and how long were you supposed to have them? until thursday what time? until 10:00. his custody time ended today at 10:00. the message essentially would be there isn t even an allegation that charlie is a danger to the children, harmed or threatened the children, which is why i m surprised by the issuance of the order. reporter: thank you very much. meredith, back to you. thank you. our thanks to charlie sheen and mark gross at well. now athe weather from al. thank you very much, meredith. hanging out. who s this? she s beautiful. thank you so much. that s a cutie. let s check your weather. we re going to actually warm up today. it s going to get up to 51 degrees in new york, 45 in boston, 56 philadelphia. washington 60 degrees. then the front moves through, and tomorrow the roller coaster dips down. look at these temperatures, drop 20 to 25 degrees. d.c. will be 42. only 30 in new york, 21 in boston. and tomorrow around much of the country, it is going to be awfully chilly from the great lakes into the northeast and new england. 80s and 90s, though, down through the southwest. 60s in southern california. look for 70s in florida. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. you ll need a winter coat now as you step off to work and school on this wednesday morning. sunshine, but it s down near freezing throughout most of the region, and we have a blustery southwest wind, so it feels even colder, but enjoy a brief warm-up today, making it into the mid-to-upper 50s this afternoon, lots of sun, just a few clouds early afternoon. then a front comes through, bringing in cold air for thursday. then a gradual warm-up into the weekend. looks like rain is likely saturday night into sunday and part of monday. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. still ahead, how would you like to live here for $600 a month? look good? the rent a room mansion trend. but first, these messages. @@@d@@@d@dz n , , n n l lúiúñú!9 úú ú@@÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ we are back with reaction to what charlie sheen had to say in our exclusive live interview. steve adabado is the author of what were they thinking. good morning. good morning. you deal with people in crisis, give them advice. charlie sheen is going through a crisis. how did he do? it s amazing. i was prepared to say out of control, ridiculous, get him off the air, it s embarrassing. i wonder about us when we put him on the air but i saw a father in pain, someone who for the first time through this insanity seemed focused, clear and speaking from a genuine human place that i could follow. he seemed clear that the boys are his priority. from a public opinion, perception point of view a lot of people who were thinking the guy is nuts are now saying, but he s a dad and i can understand what he s saying. a lot happened right there. i m trying to process it, not just from a media point of view but from a human point of view. can you separate his response as a dad from the other things he s said in prior interviews that people may see as bizarre, crazy or inappropriate. you can t pass that stuff off or the domestic violence situations. his brand is teetering on destruction. i cannot see how he can go back and function or work. he looks like this today, but tomorrow he could be off the wall saying ridiculous, crazy, dangerous things which isn t just bad for his career. it s terrible for his family and his children. right now what i saw was a very powerful, genuine, focused human communication. i have to tell you, i was stunned that he was able to do that given what i have seen in the past week. maybe that event had a sobering effect on him. i hope so for his children. thank you. we ll be right back after this. just ahead, is donald trump closer to making a decision about a possible presidential run? we ll ask about that and the new season of celebrity apprenti apprentice . after your local news and weather. 9 9ohohohoh 9 zpapc good morning. our time right now is 7:56 on this wednesday, the 2nd of march. i m joe krebs. and in the news for today, the loudoun county sheriff s department will hold a news conference today to talk about the case of a missing mother who is five months pregnant. bethany decker has been missing since january, about the same time her soldier husband redeployed to afghanistan. for the first time in 15 years, you will have to pay to attend the festival at the cherry blossom festival. it will cost $5. we ll take a break and come back with weather and traffic. stay with us. i m jim adley. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, caffeinated kids. doctors reveal the dangers with young kids drinking those sweet coffee drinks. plus, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets. and why experts say price isn t the main factor. all the day s news right here on news 4 at 5:00 tonight. [ male announcer ] unrestrained. unexpected. and unlike any hybrid you have ever known. introducing the most fuel-efficient luxury car available. the radically new. 42 mile per gallon ct hybrid from lexus. welcome to the darker side of green. good morning. it is sunny, blustery and cold now but should be warmer later, into the upper 50s this afternoon, then much colder tonight into thursday. we ll have some sunshine, though. then friday and saturday, quite a bit of cloudiness and a bit warmer. could get rain saturday night into sunday and again on monday. jerry, how s traffic? tough going this morning, tom, along 395, headed in from the beltway passing duke street. some activity reported to be an accident over to the shoulder, so the flashing lights are causing a bit of a delay, but the lanes are open. and one more stop, headed for downtown. each of the anacostia bridges now really loaded up. earlier accident on 295 has been cleared from the roadway, but through southeast, a little extra travel time might be a good idea. joe? jerry, thanks very much. now back to the today show after this break. have a wonderful day. hey, what are you drinkin ? i m drinkin dunkin . coffee black, straight up. extra cream, three sugars. iced coffee french vanilla. for me. iced coffee with a turbo shot. i m drinkin dunkin . i m drinkin dunkin . i m drinkin dunkin . drinkin dunkin . america runs on dunkin coffee. we are back now. 8:00 on a wednesday morning, the 2nd day of march 2011. it s a beautiful morning here in new york city. temperature about 36 degrees. [ cheers ] nice people here out on the plaza. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira and al roker. coming up, a remarkable man, remarkable family. absolutely. we ran into him in the hallway. john walsh s son adam was abducted and murdered in 1981. the case went unsolved for 27 years. john and his wife are here with a man who re-examined the case, finally naming adam s killer, 27 years after his body was found. we ll talk to them coming up. on a lighter note we are joined by the one and only donald trump. he will be talking about the new season of celebrity apprentice which debuts sunday on nbc. if you have been following the headlines a little bit you know donald is also making waves. possible talk of a presidential run. we ll ask mr. trump about that as well. and he can finance his own campaign. and skating icon scott hamilton opens up about his latest health scare. the brain tumor that resurfaced. he ll tell us how he s doing and how he keeps his amazing positive attitude. it s infectious. it is. ann has a look at the headlines. hi, guys. a defiant moammar gadhafi appeared on libyan state television this morning and declared again that he will not step down despite mounting international pressure. he said he ll fight to the last man and woman and blamed the foreign media and al qaeda for the uprising against him. forces launched a counter offensive for control of a key oil installation and today britain said it is starting an operation to air lift refugees stranded on libya s border with tunisia. two u.s. warships moved closer to libya this morning. defense secretary gates says the ship wills help with humanitarian relief. south korean activists will go ahead with plans to send information about the uprising into north korea by balloon next week. north korea has threatened to retaliate by firing at border towns. dozens of homes are teetering on a mountainside in bolivia after a massive mudslide that sle still active. more than 400 homes crashed to the ground completely wiping out seven neighborhoods. the bank hsbc suspended home foreclosures in the united states after a government review found there were problems with the paperwork on some of the earlier foreclosures. the girl scouts will be able to continue selling cookies outside the savannah, georgia, home of the organizer s founder. a complaint was filed this year because the scouts were violating an ordinance against street sales. now that time has turned flower children into grandparents, the hippy favorite the volkswagen minibus has been given a makeover. it features an electric motor and uses an ipad to control the entertainment system. does it have big flowers though? it s 8:03. now outside for a check of the weather with al. didn t you love that minibus, al? i always wanted one. now i can get one. thanks, ann. we have nice friends jumping up and down, having a good time. where are you guys from? oregon. oregon, all right! ann curry s home state. very nice. well, nice to see you. let s check your weather, see what s happening. we ll show you for today, our pick city of the day, right near oregon, boise, idaho. idaho s newschannel 7. periods of rain today, 49 degrees. then as we take a look along the west, we ve got rain from washington, oregon, all the way down into california, mountain snows in the inland areas. look for snow showers from new england into the eastern great lakes. plenty of sunshine behind that cold front. only 28 degrees in chicago, 51 in new york. beautiful down along the gulf coast with some showers along the southeastern coast of florida. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning now at 8:04. just now getting above freezing throughout much of the area. it s in the mid and upper 30s. 37 at reagan national, but we have that blustery southwest wind making it feel colder than that. the wind will, though, continue to pump in some milder air and we ought to make it into the upper 50s by early afternoon. just a few clouds around this afternoon. then winds will shift into the north and west, bring in some cold air for late tonight into thursday and friday morning. then friday afternoon, near 50. upper 50s on saturday. could get rain saturday night and sunday. and that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. when we come back, the abduction that changed america. john walsh talks about the nearly 30-year-old murder of his son adam and how finally that case has been solved. he s joined by his wife. we ll talk to them. first, these messages. but then.someone lit the flame. plain rode away on lion s mane. where plain met fruits with strangely names. such wonderful things they did contain. a shot of life to a hungry vein. the captive beast who broke the chain. and there upon that fruited plain is where plain became what plain became so much more than more than plain. plain will never be the same. a real clean isn t just something you see. it s something you smell. new lysol no mess automatic toilet bowl cleaner not only cleans your toilet with every flush, but also freshens your entire bathroom. so even in between deep cleans, it s as fresh as any room in your home. for tips on a healthy home, visit lysol.com/ missionforhealth. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? 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[ gigi ] the one and only root touch-up by nice n easy. your right color. hey, aren t you. supposed to be following that fidelity green line? well, yeah, but it keeps leading me back to my old office. i think it might be broken. or maybe it s trying to tell you something. yeah, but what could it be trying. oh, i left my 401(k) at my old job. and i left a jacket on the back of my door. but i think the line is talking about my 401(k). leave a 401(k) behind? roll it over with the company that s helping more people reach retirement than anyone else. when it comes to investing, never settle. fidelity investments. back now at 8:08 with the unforgettable murder case of 6-year-old adam walsh. a new book reveals a surprising piece of evidence that helped solve the case. in fact, many pieces of evidence. we ll talk to john and revé walsh, but first how the tragedy unfolded. it was a parent s worst nightmare. these people are keeping reée and i going. everyone knows adam s alive and it s just a matter of finding him. reporter: 6-year-oldle adam walsh disappeared from a sears department store in 1981 and the case took a horrific turn. two weeks after he was kidnapped, the little boy s head was discovered in a nearby florida canal. i don t know who would do this to a 6-year-old child. i can t conceive of it. reporter: ottis toole, a serial killer, was the prime suspect. he even confessed to the crime but was never charged with the murder. adam s parents, john and revé walsh became advocates for children and violent crime victims. john s long-running tv series helped to solve many cases, but adam s case remained wide open. in 2006, the walshs asked joe matthews, a retired homicide detective and family friend, to conduct an independent investigation. evidence was pieced together and police officially closed the case in 2008. ottis toole, who had died in prison years earlier, was named adam walsh s killer. in three decades, ottis toole has been the suspect from confession to sightings to witness interviews. it s all there. reporter: it was a moment john and revé walsh had long awaited. there are no words to tell you how i feel. it s about justice. for all the other victims who haven t gotten justice, don t give up hope. don t give up hope. john and revé are with us along with joe matthews, the detective who helped solve the case. co-author of the book bringing adam home. i remember sitting with you a couple years ago when the case was declared closed. police confirmed that toole killed your son. you said you finally had justice. how have your lives changed since that moment, since 2008? well, obviously we can t do anything to bring adam back. but in response to his death and everything that we have been through and everything we learned during that time, we were able to start the national center for missing and exploited children. john, of course, was able to lobby for a lot of laws and have the show, catch a lot of bad people. but there was always that part that was missing closure of the case. it was frustrating to watch john solve so many other cases and not ours. so in 2006 you brought joe into this. how did that happen? joe was the guy who polygraphed revé and i back in 1981 when adam went missing. he was a well known homicide detective with the miami beach police force. he was critical of the way the hollywood police handled the case over the years. in 1990 he brought me a case of a little boy who was brutally abused and murdered and found unidentified. the case was called baby lollipop. i put it on america s most wanted. joe said we have to get justice for this boy. it was his mother. joe and i became friends. revé said, john, you have solved so many crimes, caught over a thousand fugitives. we need to give one big last push. do it again on america s most wanted. i said, revé, i know the guy that can help us. he s a good detective. maybe we can get hollywood to open the case again and take an outside look. you had 10,000 pieces of evidence to look through or i guess paperwork. how did you know where to start, joe? i was involved, like john said, in 1981. it was a roller coaster over the years. different administrations bringing me back after i had worked for a period of time they changed their mind. i m one of the few people who have read all 10,000 people and put it in some kind of order. i started from the beginning, just like any other cold case. you found evidence that was overlooked essentially by police at the time. what was this undeveloped film that had pictures taken inside ottis toole s car? what were on the pictures? that s law enforcement took photos processing the vehicle. the vehicle was lost and the carpeting was lost, but the film was there. when i was first told the film didn t exist, i made a request. they said there were 98 photos. what was surprising to the florida department of law enforcement is they were never developed. i was the first person to see the photos. that was the most compelling evidence. whatle exactly did they show that was compelling? what they do is they illuminate blood. it gives you a blue color. you see a blood transfer from adam s face to the carpet. it shows his imle madge. and that had never been developed until you demanded it? they never knew it existed until i found it. it was so compelling. that wasn t the only evidence. right. but that was the most compelling evidence. they also didn t question certain people like you did like the security guard at the sears store that day. it was a mistake from the beginning. they took statements and there is a big difference from taking statements and interviewing. i reinterviewed everyone that was still alive and they led me to other people. eventually i talked to relatives that he admitted killing adam within two months after the homicide. when joe came to you and said, it s ottis toole, were you surprised? i always believed it was ottis toole. it convinced revé that it was ottis toole. but i ve got to say chad wagner, the chief of police in hollywood, florida, of all the mistakes made rs he was the guy that had the guts to work with joe and said to me face to face, we owe it to you. the way you have changed things in this country, we owe it to you to open this case. i will throw out all the precon sooe cved notions, mistakes that were made. he stood up and said, mistakes were made by this police department. if ottis toole was alive, weal would indict him. it ended the chapter for us and gave hope to so many victims. if police made mistakes or your case is cold, don t slam the door. take a look at the old cases. let someone come in like this guy and kelly hancock who helped as the former d.a. these men worked for years to help solve adam s case and chad wagner said, we have taken a hard look, we apologize on national television. that has ended a terrible chapter of our lives. john and revé walsh, thank you very much for joining us. joe as well. thank you very much. thank you. we re back rit after this. k. my daily meeting with a salty snack and then a 3:15, with my guilt. [ 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. what was i thinking? but i was still skating on thin ice with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren t enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i ve been eating healthier, exercising more and now i m also taking lipitor. if you ve been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering medication, fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. lipitor is backed by over 18 years of research. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let s go! [ laughs ] if you have high cholesterol you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don t kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] drivers have told us they like a crossover that can go the distance. but do passengers appreciate all of the comfort features we put in the chevy equinox? we ll take that as a yes. hey. want me to drive? 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[ male announcer ] there s just something about werther s caramel that makes a chocolate so smooth and creamy, you don t just taste it, you feel it. magic [ male announcer ] werther s original caramel chocolate. what comfort tastes like. we re back now at 8:19 with donald trump. he s back with a new season of the celebrity apprentice and has some familiar faces. latoya what s your name? asap. is that as soon as possible? no, no. it means actors, singers, authors and performers with a purpose. say it one more time? artists. so one more artists professionals singers actors. what do you think of the name? i think they are already confused and it shows. fame over. we ve won. donald, good morning. nice to see you. i like the cast. you have dionne warwick, star jones, meatloaf, richard hatch, latoya jackson. gary busey, this brilliant guy who s nuts but wonderful. we have wonderful people, jose canseco. meatloaf turns out really to be a star. he s a wildman. he cries a lot. he s a 260-pound guy crying and crying. but he s got emotion. in the end there is a lot of fighting. you were quoted saying they make amaroso look like milquetoast. a sweet, mild-mannered woman. i have never seen anything like this on reality television. these guys have had a lot of opportunities to see how it works. they have watched groups before them. are you finding the contestants are tougher and get the game more? they are tougher, smarter and well prepared. they are so well prepared it s unbelievable. they have read every book i have written, watched every show. it s tough. the hardest thing for me to do, they are so well prepared and good, in the first session, firing somebody. nobody wants to be the first off. it s a very hard thing to do. probably the saddest thing i have done in terms of reality television. the first firing this time is really sad. all right, man. you can milk it. exactly. can i switch gears for a second? yes. friday i interviewed blair griffith who won miss colorado usa and a few weeks later she and her mom were evicted from their home because mom is ill and they lost health insurance. blair is going to compete in june in miss usa in las vegas. that is your contest. you own it along with nbc. yes. what s your feeling? i hear she s lovely. everybody tells me what a nice person, everything else. i think we are going to try to do something about it. i heard about it yesterday though it s been out there for a while. i told my people, really look at it strongly, see if we can help out. that s great. i want to switch gears again. there are rumblings out there and you re making them about running for president again. i remember sitting down in your office several years ago when you were going through this the last time. you were talking about running for president. there are some who said, you know what you are doing? you re tweaking people because with the speculation you re promoting what you promote best which is donald trump. last time i had no interest. a lot of people wanted me to do it. this time i have an interest. i see the country. we are a laughingstock, not a respected country. we are in debt up to our knees. i want to use a different word. we are in trouble. china is taking advantage of us like crazy. they re taking our jobs, making our products. you look at other places. look at opec with the oil. you will be paying $5 or $6 a gallon for gas soon and we have nobody to call up and say, listen, fellows, the oil price is going down to $40. they wouldn t be there accept f except for us. you re a good businessman. what about wisconsin with state employees bargaining rights. are you for that? each state is different. he s a tough guy. he wants a balanced budget and wants it quickly. i understand what he s doing. new york would be a different situation which is heavily unionized. what he s doing is right for his state. how would you handle the situation in libya? you re a good businessman, but i m not clear. it s the weakness of the country. we have soldiers and ships there and you have a madman shooting people down in the streets. they are protesting rather violently, but he has f-18s shooting bullets into the crowds and killing, i think probably tens of thousands of people. they say 2,000, 3,000. i think it has to be more. would you support a no-fly zone? i certainly would, at a minimum. even at a risk of committing our military forces on the air or on the ground? you can t allow something like this to happen. it s like a holocaust. you don t have a long time. it should have been done already. he could have saved a lot of lives if this were done. he could have been surgically taken out. he knocked out the pan-am plane. this is not a good, sane man. something should have happened. when will you decide if you will run for president? right after celebrity apprentice . you will announce it on our air? i may do that. make a commitment. sometime prior to air. on our air. you heard it here. sunday night, 9:00/8:00 central time. we ll be right back after your local news. good morning. it s 8:26, 40 degrees. good morning. i m eun yang. in the next half hour, students at lake braddock secondary school in virginia are expected to walk out of class, protesting the recent cuts in education funding. it s part of a nationwide day of action called by the coalition to defend education. we ll take a quick break now and have your weather and traffic when we come back. good morning. it d cold now but warmer later. we ll have a blustery wind and then much colder tonight. 20s tomorrow morning, highs near 40 on thursday. friday up near 50 quite a bit of cloudiness. mostly cloudy saturday, highs upper 50s. could get some rain late saturday night and into sunday. sunday night and part of monday. jerry, how s traffic? a couple problems on the beltway, tom. on the inner loop of the beltway at central avenue, an accident just moved to the shoulder, but the inner loop is jammed as is the outer loop because of rubbernecking. on the virginia side, inner loop is crawling from springfield jammed up to i-66. couple of problems along the way out of traffic. eun? jerry, thank you. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets and why experts say price isn t the main factor. that s tonight at 5:00. paul ? oh, hey, charlene. what are you doing ? this is to help me with my online investing. i m so overwhelmed by jargon and trading tools and data that i need to get as much blood to my brain as possible, just to make sense of it all. touch the ball. whoa ! get sharebuilder from ing direct. hey, my headache s gone. 8:30 on this wednesday morning, march 2, 2011. a great morning in new york. clear skies, not too cold. we are here on the plaza and, matt, coming up, you will be catching up with our good friend. a great friend. this guy is the voice of figure skating on nbc, the man behind stars on ice and also a survivor. i mean it in the best possible way. so many health issues over the years. yet look at the smile. it has always been there. he has such an incredible attitude. he does. he ll bring us up to date on what he s been dealing with. also this morning, you know how oatmeal is a very healthy option. yes. for a lot of us it s boring. guess what? mark bittman is here. not boring. he s got five ways to make oatmeal more interesting. in addition to justition to hot boiling water into a pan. creating cookies. putting blueberries on it. and talk about a steal of a deal, we re going to show you how you could live in a mansion for just a few hundred dollars a month. that sounds good. yes. really? that s right. that s crazy! first, a look of the weather, please? let s do that. we ll show you for today, we are looking at a beautiful day here in the east, a little on the windy side. 51 in new york, only 13, though, in minnesota. some of the cold air working its way east. we ve got rain in the pacific northwest both today and tomorrow. sharply colder in the northeast, mild through the gulf coast. some snow showers in the western great lakes. and look for some snow in the northern rockies. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. chilly. we we re in the 30s now with a blustery southwest wind making it feel colder, but we should warm into the mid and upper 50s by early afternoon, lots of sun. then winds shift into the north and west overnight tonight, bringing in cold weather for thursday into friday morning. friday afternoon, high near 50, quite a bit of cloudiness around. clouds around on saturday, highs upper 50s. rain likely saturday night and on sunday into sunday night, ending midday monday. dry after that. and we ve got somebody from newfoundland. yeah! you can check your weather any time day or n for newfoundland or all around the country on the weather channel on cable, weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you very much. one in four houses in the u.s. is foreclosure. kerry sanders is in florida where millionaires are getting creative to keep the banks at bay. kerry, good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. in lifestyles of the rich & famous, it just isn t what it used to be. champagne wishes and caviar dreams are more peanut butter & jelly. the owner of this mansion is turning his castle into a rooming house to hold off foreclosure. reporter: at 16,000 square feet brian tuttle s mansion was his dream home. onyx from bolivia, hand-painted frescos and an intimate dining room for 16 of his friends. when his fortune evaporated in the housing crisis he said he had to get inventive. he now rents out six of the eight bedrooms. i had to make a decision. either admit weakness, rent out the rooms and recover or give up. i don t give up. so i made the tough decisions you have to make to survive in today s economy. reporter: the rooms now belong to six tenants who pay $600 to $800 a month. utilities, swimming pools, everything included. a secretary pays $600 for all of this. an unbelievable deal. her co-workers are jealous. they re like, you live there? really? reporter: you saw it on craigslist? i had four friends read it. iaid what does this sound like? they said, i don t know, sounds like a playboy house. i brought my mom. we checked it out and i got lucky. reporter: this month s smart money magazine spotlights the quiet trend. from florida to new york to seattle, millionaires turning rooms in the houses into money makers. i think the trend is going on a lot more than people realize. it s not out there prominently because wealthy homeowners don t want people to know they have fallen on hard times. these are men and women whose only desire was to get the work that didn t exist. reporter: it was the same thing during the great depression. every american city and town had boarding houses. no, it s not. reporter: in redman, washington, this family manor includes a trout pond, basketball court and a museum. the family of four has been renting out a room in the home for four years. with our tenants we never even had a lease. it s always been, if you want to move out, move out whenever you want to. reporter: in florida you may have noticed brian tuttle, a divorced father, only rents to women. i only rent to girls because i have a 16-year-old daughter. she comes over a lot to spend the night. reporter: it makes it easier to choose a movie in the in-home theater. here, chick flicks rule. who s the winner here? we are. cheers! reporter: brian tuttle s take is about $4,200 a month. when he advertises that he has a room on craigs list he establishes rules, one of which is no dating between the landlord and the tenant. you re probably wondering what about homeowners associations? many have rules about renting out houses, but few have rules about renting out rooms in houses. meredith? that s a great idea. kerry sanders, thank you very much. up next, gold medal winner scott hamilton opens up about his health scare and his amazing spirit. [ male announcer ] new inventory. new equipment. new trucks. new hires. new space. new markets. achievement seizes new opportunity. go to pnc.com/cfo to see how we can help your cashflow situation. pnc. for the achiever in us all. we re back now with our good friend scoot hamilton, the voice of figure skating on nbc. he was out on the rockefeller ice rink in november of 2009 but recent health concerns slowed him down a bit. good morning. nice to see you. nice to see you. we ll get into specifics in a second. we talk so much about your positive spirit and attitude. boy, you have needed it. and in a way i m very frustrated. you know, i have worked hard and had some cool moments in my life, you know. right. all we end up talking about is my health. you re right. it shouldn t be that way. we should spend time talking about what you have done for charities and things like that. i know. but i remember sitting, having breakfast next to you and your family in vancouver for the olympics. you looked fine, great. it was a short time after that, just a couple months that after a battle with testicular cancer and a brain tumor several years ago you realized you weren t feeling well again. i went back to skating last year. i was enjoying being in shape and slimming down, feeling good every day. about two weeks after that back flip you just saw, i took a stumble and tore everything in my shoulder. i didn t really realize i had injured myself that badly. so i went to the olympics waiting for the surgery. i had the surgery in april, repaired the shoulder. i was in rehab for that and i realized in may that my peripheral vision was going again. it was one of those oh, here we go again. you knew immediately it was a tumor? i knew immediately. i was on my way to chicago for an appearance. i called my wife and said, tracy, do you mind if i stop in cleveland to get checked out? i was due for scheduled scans anyway. she said, no, please do. she s always like, please, be vigilant. so i went in and got confirmation. dr. barnett, the chairman of the brain tumors said this time it s presenting itself as craniotomyh the side or up through the nose. i consulted and we came up with a strategy. the irony was the date for the surgery was the exact date that i had my testicular cancer surgery 13 years before. they performed the surgery but there were complications. they go up through the nose, create a flap and they were able to get to the tumor that way. there is a small percentage chance that there are all sorts of blood vessels in there. it s an unpredictable complication, just the way my body is. they slightly nicked an artery. so if i would have been anywhere else the brain tumor wouldn t have come out. but they stayed with the program and got the tumor out. but then they had to figure out what to do with this artery. it was a summer of trying to figure it out. eyesight limited now? do you still have complications? i have about 50% in my right eye. i lost it after all this was said and done. it s come back. again, the surgeons and doctors say we ve going to work hard to keep your eye. for all the talk and as long as i have known you and how much i talk about your positive spirit, are there times you want to just let go a string of profanities and say, why me? yeah. not so much the profanity, but you want to have time to mourn things. you know, there are times like i will never be able or possibly not able to do that. you give yourself a chance to like [ sighs ] but with every situation it s not so much the situation but how you deal with the situation that gives you the quality of life. i have chosen to focus on the blessings. i have two gorgeous children. i have an amazing wife, friends, friends and more friends. tons of support. i just keep my eye on that and try to be selfish and make that continue. yeah. i have had set-backs. but i m really trying to keep my eye on the prize. the prize is what god has given me. it s extraordinary. before i let you go i want to say congratulations. smuckers stars on ice. 25 years! 25 years. come back on today to talk about the 50th anniversary. wouldn t that be great? you ll be doing the interview? we ll see. scott, good luck. great to see you. scott will be back in the fourth hour to talk to hoda and kathie lee. still ahead, affordable spring break vacation ideas for the family. first this is today on nbc. henson, once you get through that big n toasty, we re going to go over sales figures, complete this merger, present to the board and do a number of other seemingly impossible tasks today. it s going to be a big one. sink your teeth into some egg, bacon and cheese and nod if you understand. good. you ve got spunk. a big day calls for the new big n toasty, with fried eggs, cherrywood-smoked bacon, and cheese, stacked high on thick texas toast. wrap your hands around one at dunkin . america runs on dunkin . grab a big breakfast with the new big n toasty sandwich from dunkin donuts. we are back at 8:45. this morning, wounded warriors. with america fighting two wars in iraq and afghanistan there are a lot of vets coming home with visible and invisible scars. many are women. norah o donnell has details. good morning. good morning, meredith. our women warriors are true heroes. we traveled to texas to join 20 of them at a retreat that s giving our soldiers a chance to relax and to heal. in the hills of west texas, sunrise means a new beginning for these wounded warriors. i feel more relaxed, comfortable. reporter: jonee mcnabb spent a year in iraq. before i was down. felt out of place. reporter: now she feels home on the range. this is my first time. reporter: learning a new lesson in life from horseback riding. i was scared. but kind of let me overcome my fears, being able to bond with a horse, learning to saddle the horse and groom the horse. reporter: there is a reason they come here to the peaceful and serene setting of the wild cattle ranch but for the past four years they have taken care of wounded warriors. this is the first time they have done it exclusively for women. even the words combat veteran, i m sure had you thinking male. you re thinking a big guy with a uniform on. then you see a girl. she s a combat veteran. reporter: lance corp. rag nancy shapiro, a marine was wounded in iraq. she lost her right eye. coming home as a 25-year-old female, i felt i had some sort of deformity on my face. it was hard going through. how was it going to meet a man? it was hard putting makeup on. reporter: physically she healed quickly. emotionally she was a wreck. i stayed in my bedroom almost three years by myself. reporter: then nancy attended a retreat and works for the wounded warrior project as a counselor. she knows how to treat the invisible wouldn nds of war. post traumatic stress disorder affects nearly 20% of the female veterans. i can t tell you how hard it is to get these girls to crack a smile. reporter: these women warriors go through activities like canoeing and skeet shooting, help rebuild their self-esteem. it was just kind of a confidence-booster to say, hey, i can do that. reporter: an extraordinary opportunity to not just forget about the stress of war but also to learn to laugh again. with other women who know what it s like to sacrifice for their country. when you come together with a group of women who have gone through the same thing or are going through the same thing you realize you re not alone. reporter: it was great to see how many of the women within hours of just arriving at the ranch felt better. they were so grateful to be part of the wounded warrior project. a group called project odyssey. it s helped hundreds of male and female warriors. our veterans need some of that help. meredith? they sure do. norah o donnell, thank you. up next, mark bittman with five ways to jazz up oatmeal. first this is today on nbc. there you go. we re ready for that. this morning, oatmeal five ways. oats are nourishing, inexpensive and easy to cook. mark bittman, new york times columnist and author of how to cook everything is here with new ways to make the old favorite. nice to see you. good morning, matt. i love oatmeal but only when jammed with brown sugar and syrup. we can do that. the only thing that bothers me is people who say it s hard to make or you don t have time. don t you have to stir it all the time? get water boiling. you can use all water or water with milk. use a pinch of salt, the right amount of oatmeal. the recipe is on your website, we hope. okay. stir that, turn it down. how long does it simmer? five or ten minutes. you re looking for consistency. once the liquid is absorbed it s done. this has been about five minutes. once the boiling subsides, this one maybe needs a little bit longer. couple of minutes. probably not the best thing in the world to load it with syrup or brown sugar. you have other things that are healthier? to me a tablespoon of syrup goes a long way. i m talking a lot. like half a cup? bananas, peanut butter, maybe honey. that s how we do this one. if it were done. but i will show you some interesting things you can do. i just think it s important that the basic thing is not frightening. it s so easy you can do what you want. here is what you may call oatmeal pilaf. we take oil or butter, heated in a pan. these are steel cuts? there are rolled, too. steel cuts are just chopped oats. you can t eat whole oats. they take forever to cook. but steel cuts are chopped and crunchier. we put them in oil. a little bit of ginger in this case. we re going for a kind of savory sweet flavor profile. toast it for, say, a minute. then water and in this case is that cream? coconut milk which is really delicious. for flavor or it s really delicious. just cook this open for 10, 15 minutes. that will soften up and you get this. you can cook it with raisins or wait. what was that? more coconut. i m not a fan. i ruined it for you. not bad except for coconut. no, it s good. we actually take the oats and soak them in the reridfrigerato overnight. this is the european way called muesli. no cooking at all. you get this admittedly thick but very, very rich, mixed with nuts, raisins, dates, seeds, whatever. and greek yogurt in there: and finally no, two more. rolled oats in milk or water for ten, 15 minutes, maple syrup and you re done. with these, leftover oats made into patties dipped into soy sauce. some of the members of the crew said you sold them on these. that s saple syrup. but the soy sauce how do you make them stick together? they re oats. it s glue. just make a patty? and fry them up. it s just oatmeal. the coconut thing sounds good to me. they re good. i wouldn t want to eat six of them, but they re okay. they taste like popcorn. right. it s weird. all right. oatmeal five ways. just ahead, where to start to set up a college fund for your kids. first your local news and weather. 8:56 is your time now. good morning. i m eun yang. in the news for today, a teenager is recovering after being stabbed on a metro bus. it happened on the w-6 route on pomeroy road in southeast d.c. no word on any suspects. students in manassas are on high alert after two teens were robbed at gunpoint. neither teen was hurt. police are looking for the suspect. your weather and traffic are next, but first, here s a look at what we re working on for later tonight. i m jim adley. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, caffeinated kids. doctors reveal the dangers with young kids drinking those sweet coffee drinks. plus, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets. and why experts say price isn t the main factor. all the day s news right here on news 4 at 5:00 tonight. [ male announcer ] yiayia may not approve of michelle s wardrobe. you dress like a prostitute. [ male announcer ] but yiayia approves of her serving athenos hummus. mmmmmm! because only athenos is made the greek way, with 100% olive oil. athenos. maybe the only thing approved by yiayia. -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. good morning. it s sunny and chilly now, but it will be warming up later into the upper 50s and a blustery wind and some colder air moves in tonight into thursday, into friday morning, then friday into saturday warming up a bit with clouds around. could get rain saturday night, rain likely sunday, sunday night into midday monday. how s traffic, jerry? tom, it s been a tough morning on the virginia beltway and still very tough with yet another accident just cleared from the roadway. inner loop of the beltway near route 236. so, from springfield up to annandale, expect late clearing out. one more stop to the american legion bridge. just a little volume on the outer loop, but the lanes are open both ways. eun? jerry, thank you. now back to the today show after this short break. we ll see you in 25 minutes for another update. we re back with more of today on a wednesday morning, the 2nd day of march, 2011. breezy morning here in new york city. it s in the 30s now. we re talking about getting up near 50 by the end of today which is good news for the people here in the plaza. it gets knocked back into the 30s tomorrow. that s not good. what can i tell you? out on the plaza, matt lauer along with natalie morales and al roker. coming up, more on the whole situation involving charlie sheen. here s the latest development. his twin sons, max and bob, were taken from his home last night by los angeles police following a court order that was inspired, i guess you could say, by his estranged wife brooke. where are the boys now, how does charlie feel about that? we ll hear from charlie in an exclusive interview coming up. and a little bit later on in today s money 911 it s all about the savings. that s right. whether you are looking for the best investment for your kid s college or you want to build up cash for a good down payment on a house, our panel of experts has advice for your money emergency. if you have saved up for a family getaway and you are looking at a national park, the beach or hiking trails, travel & leisure magazine has five great trips perfect for spring vacation with the kids. check them out. before we go further let s go to ann curry with the headlines. ann? thanks so much. good morning, everybody. in the news, libyan leader moammar gadhafi warned today that thousands of libyans will die in the u.s. or nato intervene in his country. overnight his forces launched a counter offensive against forces who control a key oil installation. today, britain said it has started an operation to airlift refugees stranded on the border with tunisia. meantime the u.s. navy has sent two ships through the suez canal on the way to libya s mediterranean coast to offer humanitarian relief. the u.s. government will likely stay open for business as the house has approved $4 billion in spending cuts to keep the government from shutting down when current funding expires. the bill advances to the senate for a vote today. california s attorney general has asked a federal appeals court on tuesday to let same-sex marriages resume immediately in her state while the courts decide if california s proposition 8 which bans gay marriages is unconstitutional. six months ago a federal district judge ordered a halt to the marriages while the case is on ale peel. a new study is raising concerns about the use of heart devices in women, pointing out that many are approved without enough research on how they will affect women and women have different levels of risk for certain heart treatments than men and have unique responses to surgery and im implantation. finally, some tiny pups are headed to the big apple for homes. about a dozen are being thrown no san francisco to new york city. they are expected to find new, loving homes. how can you say no? it s three minutes past the hour. now back outside to matt. all right, ann. thank you very much. i m going to walk this way past the other matt to mr. roker. check of the weather. i was just seeing if jimmy was awake. and he is! jim corgan, ladies and gentlemen. and he was in focus, too. unbelievable! let s check your weather, see what s going on. we ve got another big storm making its way on to the west coast. seattle, portland, san francisco, down to l.a., we re looking at rain and we re also talking about mountain snows. first of all, the rainfall stretching all the way from oregon down into santa maria, california. we re talking anywhere from a tenth to an inch to an inch of rain. snowfall, the central sierra may see up to two feet of snow. mt. shasta and the siskiyou mountains also looking at pretty heavy snowfall as well. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. still chilly and the winds are still a bit blustery out of the southwest. the temperatures are now up around 40 degrees. 41 now at reagan national. later today climbing into the 50s with a blustery wind that will shift into the northwest later this afternoon and overnight tonight. that will bring in some colder weather. we ll be down into the mid-20s by dawn tomorrow. highs on thursday, lots of sun, a lighter wind, near 40. then on friday, a bit warmer and even warmer than that on saturday. a lot of cloudiness around both days. looks like saturday night into sunday, sunday night and monday could get rain. and that s your latest weather. natalie? al, thank you. new drama for charlie sheen as you have heard this morning. his two boys bob and max were taken away by the lapd. how did it all play out and how is charlie reacting? nbc s jeff rossen has details. good morning. reporter: good morning to you. let me explain what happened last night just as charlie sheen was putting his twin boys to bed. police officers showed up at his door to remove the children from his home. acting on a court order from brooke mueller who says sheen threatened her and that her children shouldn t be raised in his home where charlie lives with his new girlfriends, his goddesses. i sat down with charlie and his attorney for an exclusive live interview here on today. i began by asking what happens when police took the boys from his home. they were just being put to bed. my secretary informed me the police were on their way down to issue a restraining order. i thought, okay, we can deal with that. i got my lawyer on the phone and it was revealed once i opened the door that they were there to remove bob and max. so, you know, i professed in the last few days to not deal and come from a place of panic, ego, emotion, so i stayed calm and focused. somebody badges you, they win in that moment. reporter: who went and got the children? i did and emma and laura, the nannies. we videotaped the whole thing so there was no nobody could claim otherwise. you have seen the video. they didn t have car seats so i provided them. i said, i love you, and i said, don t say good-bye. say see you later. later is, as we believe, to be very soon. reporter: sitting here hours after it happened do you know where your children are? i do not. that s a good question. that s a good point. isn t there some legal protection or some law that should inform the father of where his children are being removed and delivered to? you or any other father has the right to know where your children are. the silence by brooke s attorneys is conspicuous. yeah. reporter: did you say to the police officers, a, where are you from and, b, where are you taking my children before i hand them over to you? stupidly, i assumed they were going back to the house they have been living in with brooke when they are not with me. i think we got reports last night they were at a hotel in santa monica. at this moment on live television i don t know where my children are, but i am not panicking. this is not about emotion or ego. this is about focus and getting in touch with what i have to do to complete the task of bringing these two beautiful young men back to the home that they deserve to be raised in. there is more love, compassion, support, child care and everything else you could possibly want for a child in this lovely home. it s not a house. it s a home right down that hill. reporter: according to tmz and they posted this overnight, brooke went to court yesterday and told the judge you threatened her recently and that s why she filed the court order. she said you told her, i will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom. colorful. reporter: did you say it? no. but that s a good one, i guess. i guess if you spend enough time around me you can formulate things and then you can make them sound like it came from my mouth. but you can do that watching reruns. reporter: a lot of people watched the video from today yesterday. when we were in the house with the goddesses and said, you know, maybe two young boys shouldn t be raised in this environment. you know, with women who they are just meeting. how do you respond to that, respond to the critics and your estranged wife? i invite anybody to come in and observe. if it s a court-appointed monitor, somebody from the legal team, her, you with a camera. there is nothing to hide. as i said, there is nothing but love and compassion and absolute support for these amazing children. i m going to go ahead and say that regardless of what people offer in the form of judgment or opinion, based on preconceived whatever, it s 100,000 times better than what will be offered in her house. reporter: will you sit here today and say you will go to the negotiating table with brooke mueller? i m sure your anger is through the roof now. i m calm. would you sit down and do this for the children? absolutely. had i received a phone call, i would have been willing to play ball and say absolutely, this is fine. in fact, i was going to call her because she s been requesting a two-hour visit asking lourdes to bring them somewhere. i had rejected it, because i knew that unlike myself that a drug test would not be clean. reporter: is there anything you want to say to brooke? may be your only chance to talk to her. brooke, i m sorry you felt this had to be done in this way. this does not display any responsible parenting in anything i m familiar with. i think cooler and smarter, leveler heads can prevail. want to move on to your legal battle with cbs. oh, that. uh reporter: that other thing happening in your life. you have been out of work a couple of weeks now. yeah. reporter: obviously the future of the show is in jeopardy at this point. sure. reporter: cbs and warner brothers haven t said much, only that you lost your job this season because of your conduct, statements and behavior. sure. reporter: first of all, your lawyer sent a letter demanding that you get paid for all eight episodes cancelled this season. sure. reporter: and for the first time since this happened, les moonves, the president and ceo of cbs spoke out. there was audio rolling. let s listen. good. doing eight less originals saves us quite a bit of money. i m not saying long term i want this to go on or it s great, but the repeat last night actually was the fourth highest rated show of the night. he s on the air quite a bit these days. i wish he would have worked this hard to promote himself for an emmy. i hope it s back. we ll see. reporter: so les moonves is basically saying that cbs is fine without charlie sheen right now, in the short term at least. i don t know if i would paraphrase it like that. it was an intelligent spin. he s a brilliant businessman. look where he is. look who he got. you have to be nominated first to go out and launch a campaign. that s a little detail, but it was a good joke in good spirits. reporter: meredith vieira in new york has a question for you. go for it. thank you very much. is this the million dollar question? maybe, if you give me the final answer i m looking for. charlie, i want to go back to your kids. obviously you are upset about the boys. u re right hear.y soon. deliver reporter: sheen says they are working to get the kids back and will appear as court as early as tomorrow. charlie said he s more driven than ever to win on all fronts. both the legal battle and to get his children back, natalie. when i saw him this morning and he came out he had this new calm about him we had not seen in previous interviews. jeff, i didn t notice a lot of the tiger blood that he ranted and raved about in your earlier interviews with him. does he seem more focused now on legal battles? is he going to tone it down a little bit? he indicated yesterday he s now addicted to all the attention. g he a he s replaced the drug addiction with the new addiction to fame and the attention. reporter: it s an interesting point. i think it was sobering for him last night. the kids have been in the house for a while. every time we have been there since sunday we saw the children. they spend a lot of time with the nannies. he has a weekend nanny and a weekday nanny. i think the children being taken refocused him. he said this is a new challenge for me and he wants to put his full weight behind that. he understands that to show he s a good dad, to understand the house isn t what everybody beliefs it is he needs to back off on that kind of language. when you speak with him off camera, that s more of the charlie sheen, the one we saw today, that i normally see in the many hours i spent with him. perhaps he has to stop going on howard stern and talking about how he has two beds that they exchange beds every night. so things like that which people will say, well, it is deserved that his kids were taken away. reporter: he think it is house he s raising the children in is great. he says one of the goddesses, one a former model and one a former porn star, he says they love the children, take care of the children with professional nannies and he sees nothing wrong with it. a lot of people find it hard to take. jeff, thanks so much. up next, from saving for college to saving if or new home we have advice in our money 911. then a little bit later on, spring break travel for the whole family from a sunny beach to a city getaway. we ll check out great deals for you and the family after these messages. happy birthday to you. happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you. happy birthday. and then a 3:15, with my guilt. [ 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! heaven comes to earth. rich, creamy, thick dannon greek, the most delicious yogurt imaginable. heaven on earth! discover dannon greek time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze. but with zyrtec® liquid gels, i get fast, 24-hour allergy relief. so i feel better by the time we tee off. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. time for today s money 911 where a panel of expert is here to answer your questions. the author of the real cost of living, david bach and farnush, the author of psych yourself rich. we start with gary in new jersey. i became a first time uncle and i want to start a college fund more for my niece. what an awesome uncle. the 529 is for you. especially if you re a grandparent or uncle or aunt, a 529 lets you grow the money for college tax-free. you have to shop around. go to savingforcollege.com. because there are a lot of ways to invest. but uncle gary, keep it out of her name. it will work against her when it comes to applying for financial aid. should she not go to college you can gift it to another family member. all right. very nice. again, congratulations. now to our phone lines. we have jennifer on the line from maryland. good morning. what s your question? caller: good morning. my question is that my fiance and i have $64,000 in savings. we have a student loan debt of $49,000 and we are paying minimum payments. the other debt we have is a car loan of $11,000 and a rental property which is currently being leased out. we are thinking of buying a home for ourselves in the next year and would like to put down a good down payment. we have a single income of $83,000 and good credit of about 725 plus. what should we do with the savings? pay off debt, use it for the home down payment or both? what do you think? it s great news, al. you ever in good financial shape. you have savings. you re on top of the student loans and saving to buy a home. you re doing everything right and you have a great credit score. some people would say, pay down the loans right now. what i recommend you do is pay down the loan faster. go to finaid.org/calculator. the best website that i have seen to calculate your student loans. i looked at your loans before the show and you have one large loan. the largest student loan is with sal may. i think it was $25,000. i ran a calculation. if you double your minimum payment on the student loan you will pay that one student loan off eight years faster and save $10,000 in interest payments. i only ran one calculation. go run the calculations on all three loans. double down on one loan. i recommend on the largest loan. just doing that, you will shrink down the student loan debt and be in great shape to buy your first home. what a great wedding gift. now on skype we have mariette from new york, new york. good morning. good morning. after reading smart women finish rich by the amazing david bach, i have since paid off almostle all my debt resulting in great credit scores but it doesn t look like they have reviewed the scores in a while because they haven t moved. how often do they assign a score or do i need to call them and ask them to review to get it updated? first of all, bravo. your credit score above 776 is excellent. thanks to david for helping her. to answer your question, the way credit scoring typically works is the lend, creditors inform the credit reporting agencies once every billing cycle. that could take up to 45 days. any updates made in your credit accounts. once the changes are made to your credit reports, your score should change automatically. a question for you, what debt have you been paying down? credit card debt? yeah. i have paid off almost all my credit cards and i just have a school loan left. pull your credit reports and make sure the information on there is up to date. go to annualcreditreport.com. it s free once a year. you can get one from each of the credit reporting agencies. see that the information is up to date. if there is anything missing call the lenders and say, wake up, put the information on my credit report so my score can boost. but 776, girlfriend, you re fine. you are worried for nothing. great shape. okay. thanks so much. thank you. for those of you on the east coast, we ll have a live web chat on todayshow.com. coming up, whether you want to play or pamper, jill martin has fun finds for a lazy day at home. operation! first, these messages. calling dr. martin. they re smart. they can outsmart their humans. and their canines. that s why they deserve the smartest choice in litter. so we make fresh step scoopable litter with carbon, which is more effective at absorbing odors than baking soda. fresh step. your cat deserves the best. ooh! ow. [ male announcer ] at ragu, our mission is to pack two servings of vegetables into every half-cup of healthy, delicious sauce. new ragu has the taste your family will love, so, it s even easier to make every bite count. ragu. feed our kids well. 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. what was i thinking? but i was still skating on thin ice with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren t enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i ve been eating healthier, exercising more and now i m also taking lipitor. if you ve been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering medication, fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. lipitor is backed by over 18 years of research. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let s go! [ laughs ] if you have high cholesterol you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don t kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. still to come, some amazing italian recipes. and affordable getaways throughout the u.s. after your local news and weather. i want someone to bring the make-up counter to me. i want to be the first to discover the latest. and get a little advice from my avon representative whenever i ask. this is beauty that delivers from avon. see how avon can deliver extra income for you. go to avon.com or call 800 for avon to become a representative. oh! [ both slurping ] [ female announcer ] the irresistible taste of cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares. if you want to feed them right, wear them out, or clean them up, you can save up to 25% on thousands of items during the petsmart everything spring sale. like $5 off select nutro natural choice dog food with 10% more free! 9:26 is your time now, 49 degrees. good morning. i m eun yang. the loudoun county sheriff s department will hold a news conference today to discuss the case of a missing mother who s five months pregnant. bethany decker has been missing since january around the same time her soldier husband redeployed to afghanistan. and for the first time in 15 years, you ll have to pay to attend the sakura matsuri festival at this year s cherry blossom festival. the japanese street fair on april 9th will now cost $5. we ll take a quick break. weather and traffic are next. good morning. it s chilly now. we re right around 40 degrees, but later today it will warm up rapidly to the upper 50s by early afternoon. we ll have winds shifting from the southwest to the northwest late afternoon and overnight tonight. that will bring in some colder weather, but then warmer into the weekend. jerry, how s traffic? tom, can t catch a break. the beltway is jammed from springfield up to i-96. looks like crews are setting up road work. outer loop, college park to silver spring, lanes are open. eun? thanks, jerry. tonight at 5:00, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets and why experts say price isn t the mai in case you have lost count shall we remind you once again only 58 days left until the much anticipated wedding of kate middleton and prince william. are they fans of this music? it s the fergie the other fergie set for friday, april 29, the day that s already been declared a holiday in great britain. if you would like to receive the royal treatment we want to send you there. one lucky viewer and a guest will be headed to england, all expenses paid during the week of the nuptials. the trip includes two first class tickets to london. get out your camera, create a video no more than two minutes long telling us why london is calling you. details head to todayshow.com. meantime, coming up on spring break and a lot of us want to get out of dodge and travel somewhere. if you want to go some place a little closer to home we ve got some affordable ideas, getaways from san antonio to san diego to chicago. trips that are good for kids, for families. also if your idea of a vacation is to sit back and spend lazy days at home with a staycation, jill martin has finds that will make it fun. the world s largest crossword puzzle. and other ideas. that s really pretty in the wide shot. it becomes a mosaic. and a legendary aitalian restaurant in new york is run by the two franks, get some of their secret recipes. one in particular i hear is major comfort food. we ll check that out. sounds amazing. first, though, you ve got a check of the weather for us. i do, indeed. let s see what s going on first of all for today. a lot of rain moving into the pacific northwest with mountain snows. we are also looking at bitterly cold weather where high pressure builds in in the plain states. temperatures teens and 20s. we ve got beautiful weather through the gulf coast, windy here in the northeast. tomorrow, those temperatures turn sharply colder here in the northeast with some snow in the upper great lakes, wet weather from central california into the pacific northwest, sunny and mild through the southwest, nice and warm down in texas. mild with just a few clouds from the gulf coast on into florida. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. it s chilly now but we ll have a rapid warm-up by early to mid-afternoon. should make it into the upper 50s. but right now it s just near 40 degrees, but we ll have quite a bit of sun today but a bit of a blustery northwest wind that will shift later this evening into tomorrow morning and bring in some colder weather. in fact, tomorrow morning, mid-20s afternoon highs tomorrow only around 40 with lots of sun but a lighter wind. then high near 50 on friday and quite a bit of cloudiness. mostly cloudy saturday into the upper 50s. rain likely saturday night into sunday and monday. that s your latest weather. coming up next, good deals on spring break getaways for the family. that s right after this. discover relief from dry, uncomfortable skin with skin relief moisturizing lotion. only aveeno has an active naturals triple oat and shea butter formula that soothes, nourishes and restores moisture. women saw improvement in all five symptoms of winter skin in just one day. beauty you can see and feel. that s being comfortable in your own skin. aveeno skin relief. and now get dermatologist recommended relief from severely dry skin with eczema therapy. new from aveeno. discover the power of active naturals [ whispering female announcer ] there are other companies that have mini vans with similar safety features as the chrysler town and country. the difference between theirs and ours, is that all our safety tech features come standard and most of theirs are optional. we don t think safety or technology should be optional. his family knows what to expect. but what mike rowe doesn t know is that his parents have armed themselves with unquilted viva® towels. wow, for me? 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[ static ] i need a good time [ male announcer ] ecomagination from ge. it s technology that makes the world work. this morning, family getaways for sebripring break. time for kids to get off school and there is enough time to book a fun affordable vacation. we have the features director for travel & leisure magazine. good morning. good morning, ann. i thought it would be too late. it s the perfect time to think about where to go with your brood and not having a headache, just easy peasy. you say away from snow and you will go for things in this country so e eel save money. save money, easy access. fly in and out, have some fun. number one, resort getaway. you found one in san antonio. we love the marriott in san antonio in hill country about 20 minutes outside san antonio. it s a new property, a year old. it has everything you would want on property especially with tons of activities specifically for the spring break period for children. if you want your kids booked from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. you can do that. there are fun things with your kids like family yoga and fun activity including smoers at the fire pit and a water park on property. that sounds good. there is a drop-off as well if you want to go to dinner. that s important when planning a family getaway. you need time for mom and dad, too. okay. national park get away. of course yosemite. it s gorgeous any time of year. spring is the perfect time to go and if you re feeling adventurous, curry village is a tented camp. curry, hmm. i like that. maybe your ancestors. i don t think so. they re asian. in 1899 was the first tented camp right on the valley floor. for only $100 a night you can be so close to nature and march through may is great. you can see the waterfalls which go away for summer. that s valuable information and that s why you re here. a dude ranch option in tucson. we lo the dude ranch idea. this is a great one. in fact, today launches the first ever ipad family act. this is something free on the ipad. download it. tons of hassle-free ideas. the reason it s great is because it s all inclusive. your activities and your room are all included as well as food. if the kids say i don t want to do horseback riding. they can, but there are tons of activities. if they want to hike, go fishing, hiking. tons of stuff. there is no shortage of activity. and there is dinner with dinner bell included. if you re going the opposite direction to a city you re talking chicago. why? the windham chicago has a cute program for i think little girls and moms. if your little girl is into american girl this is an american girl hooray for hair package. you get the american girl doll s bed of its own with turn down service. oh, my gosh. it s cute. a little girl who s into this and you re three blocks from the american girl shop where you can spend the day, have lunch and the package is reasonably priced around $200 a night. supports the fantasy. now to the beach in san diego. who doesn t love san diego? there is a great property there. the sheraton is on the bay. request a high floor. you will get great views of the city and the bay. also, there is so much to be done in san diego proper. i m crazy about the zoo. kids love the pandas and i m a kid at heart. i m crazy about them, too. we have known you to be a great kid at heart. that makes it fun. you help us see the world. thank you. coming up next, if you would rather stay put than get away, we ll give you a plan for the lazy weekend in jill s fun finds after this. rthday to you. happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you. heaven comes to earth. rich, creamy, thick dannon greek, the most delicious yogurt imaginable. heaven on earth! discover dannon greek to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there s motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. motrin pm. is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. from air wick, a choice of elegant spring fragrances like white lily and orchid, to brighten up your world. add a touch of pure sophistication to your home, with the new limited edition white collection from air wick. you don t decide when vegetables reach the peak of perfection. the vegetables do. at green giant, we pick vegetables only when they re perfect. then freeze them fast so they re are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. green giant i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i ve always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you re more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience. [ charlie ] try super poligrip free. made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience. introducing honey bunches of oats, raisin medley. there s nothing like it! the only cereal with 1, 2, 3 kinds of raisins and crunchy multigrain flakes. you gotta try new honey bunches of oats raisin medley. this morning on jill s fun finds, great ways to spend lazy days at home to playing and pampering and relaxing. jill martin is here with top picks. good morning. good morning. lots of great things but nothing would be sunday without a nice lazy sunday brunch. right. you have that planned for us. your kids can help prepare it. this is always to prepare. we don t have that many lazy sundays. let s start with stuffed pancakes. sounds great. you pour in the batter. these are s mores pancakes. williams sonoma? right. i don t cook, but there is an insert to make perfect poached eggs. great idea. st. patrick s day is coming up. kids love snoopy. right. green hot chocolate. if you want to be more productive you suggest spending the day converting old pictures or negatives you may have into slides or into a digital picture. so many of us have boxing of slides. negatives, yeah. we have nothing to do with them. this will transfer them onto a usb so you have them. great. this is a great way to spend a sunday. we love our memories but it s hard to see on a slide. $125, an investment but for memories. hammacher.com. my parents have lots. if you want to organize your jewelry you call it the berken bag of jewelry. so many of us have jewelry in a clump. this is great because you can travel with it as well. it s $50 and waterproof. you can buy the inserts? it comes with three pages but you can buy additional ones. it s a book for your jewelry. and i love this. a towel warm, pajama warmer. we should all have this. especiallile with the weather like it s been. this is $59.95 from brookstone. you can put in towels, pajamas and you feel it now. we put it on five minutes ago. okay. of course you want to laze around in pajamas all day so we have great pajamas for kids. little miss mismatch. it s fun because nothing matches and the kids look adorable. for adults, this is his and hers. i love men s shirts on women. we have one here on the mannequin. and then if you re pampering with your daughter and you want to have a little bit of fun, these silk satin robe and look at the fun eye masks. while you do that you can paint each other s nails because you have to have a mani-pedi as well. paintednails.com. huge celebrity favorite. let s talk about playing. we want game day, fun on the weekends. we have the old classic operation but this is the updated version. they have new ones. look! [ buzzer ] i love this game. this is an upgraded version, fun for the whole family. you can really learn to concentrate. takes work. [ buzzer ] oh, yeah! he s dead. take mess a week to do the new york times crossword puzzle. this is the world s largest puzzle. 91,000 squares. it fits on a 7 by 7-foot wall. they say it takes up to a year to do. it s pretty wallpaper. if you don t have the wall space you can put it on the floor. fun for the whole family. over here for the pets you want them pampered on the weekend. this is hysterical. lazy bones.com. it s pricey, but especially if you have two little pets that want to relax together. they will fight over the top bunk. you know it. it s a bunk bed. then the wii has a new game coming out. okay. michael jackson fans will be excited. this is the nintendo wii. do we have the music? you have to follow the glove? follow the glove. natalie was telling me that. so just follow the glove and shake the controller. show everyone the moonwalk. you were bragging during the break. i can t. i have heels on. this is out now $49.99. just a fun game to play on a sunday. as you said, your lazy days. and you get a little workout. oh, gosh. the moonwalk. jill, thanks. you have an app, by the way. now on itunes. there is an app for that. it s interactive. you can find all the fun finds. it s exciting. great and free. it s great. jill martin, thank you. there s an app for jill. up next, great cooking, frankly speaking. a father-son team is sharing fabulous italian recipes. first this is today on nbc. this morning, step by step inside the legendary italian restaurant in new york run by frank pellegrino senior and junior. these recipes will be focused on may 5 at caesar s palace in las vegas at the food & wine festival. we have frank, frank and my partner ron. he s not here though. i have to tell you, your recipes are legendary. very secret. nobody s allowed in the kitchen. are these the exact recipes you serve exact. no changes? no changes. if you buy the book you will see they re exact. all right. the first one is jim bell s favorite, our executive producer. i browned pieces of chicken, sausage in garlic and oil. when the chicken is cooked through we add some bell peppers, some onion, hot and sweet cherry peppers. and then we add a little bit of the brian tne the peppers are pd in which gives it a nice kick. a little vinegar which is great. then we go a little white wine. we do a little chicken stock. yep. we do a little salt, a little pepper. thank you, son. welcome, father. this is how i work. my son in my nose. at least you got top billing. exactly. he s the boss. then you let it all cook together. you let the liquids reduce and then you wind up with something like this. very nice. all right. ultimately, voila. what are you making, frank jr.? something simple. zucchini with spaghetti, oil and garlic. put the olive oil in a pan. four cloves of garlic. place the zucchini in here. let it cook. we ll boost up the flame a little bit. add some salt. little bit of pepper. then some red pepper. let it simmer until the zucchini becomes transparent. take your pasta which is already cooked and strained. place it in there. you want the pasta coated with olive oil. let it cook and the pasta will absorb the flavors. once it s coated evenly, take it out, plate it in the dish and put the sauce on top. voila. that looks so good, so yum any and simple. great all year long. great in the summer with squash. thank you. thank you so much. thank you, al. coming up, hoda and kathie lee. good morning, everyone. welcome. 9:56 is the time. i m barbara harrison. a teenager is recovering after being stabbed on a metrobus. it happened on the w-6 route on pomeroy road in southeast d.c. no word on any suspects yet. and we could have some trouble driving through northeast washington this afternoon. ddot crews are closing lanes of kenilworth avenue to inspect the pedestrian bridge near lane place. closures will last until 3:00 this afternoon. we re going to check the weather now. it s chilly out there, but sunshine. yeah, and warming up. so, patience, hang on. looks like we ll hit the upper 50s this afternoon, but right now, still a chill in the air. temperatures are climbing into the 40s, upper 50s. early afternoon we ll have a blustery southwest wind that will shift into the northwest late this afternoon. that will tap some cold air and give us some much colder weather by dawn tomorrow, the mid-20s. afternoon highs on thursday near 40. then a gradual warming trend into the weekend. could get rain sunday. jerry, how s traffic? tom, top side of the beltway, had a report of a medical emergency outer loop of the boulevard. if anything, it s off to the shoulder, not causing much of a delay. 395 still heavy to the 14th street bridge, but right now looks like lanes are maintained. barbara? thank you, jerry. join us for news 4 midday at 11:00 a.m. here s a look at what s coming up later today. i m jim adley. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, caffeinated kids. doctors reveal the dangers with young kids drinking those sweet coffee drinks. plus, thread count confusion. what to look for when buying new bed sheets. and why experts say price isn t the main factor. all the day s news right here on news 4 at 5:00 tonight. from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a inn rockefeller ppaza. hey, everybody. so glad you re here. mid-week with us, it s winesday, wednesday, march 2nd. yes, it is. regis sends his love to you. i was with reg and joy last night. their 41st anniversary. o cf1 o how is he doing as the end comes near. he s good. he wants everybody to realize he s not retiring. he s just starting a new chapter. by the way, he said to say hello to koda. he s never going to get it right! happy birthday to karen. it s her birthday today. your friend karen. she s down in new orleans now. just in time for mardi gras. whooping it up. happy birthdayyto karen. she s a sweetheart. i sent her flowers. she loved them. &- they were? they weren t supposed to be. people took those flowers to an oscar party they were so big to decorate. did you send your friend some flowers? of course i did. how do you get to be a part of this party? how do you get to be on this she s changed her name. back to her real name, i guess. rachel. the story today is that charlie sheen s kids were taken from him in the wee hours of the morning. why did they do it then? apparently, his well, his ex-wife, brooke, called the police because she says that charlie sheen threatened her byy saying something like he was going to put her head in a box and send it to her mother. so she said that was a threat. so she called the police. the police came to the house and took the two young kids. i think that was the question a lot of people had. those two kids are living in that house. apparently it was his time for custody, though, according to his attorney. i think what was surprising was seeing that the girls, the two women that are his girlfriends goddesses, hoda. porn stars were babysitting the children, too. a lot of people have that question. is that appropriate. are ttey capable of taking care of children. they probably are capable, but are they? jeff rosen had another interview with charlie. he was talking about the kids. let s listen to this. they were just being put to bed. and they informed me the police were on their way down to issue a restraining order. i thought, okay. i can deal with that. i got you on the phone, got my lawyer on the phone. it waa revealed once i opened the door that they were there to remove bob and max. so, you know, i ve professed in these last few weeks to last few days, rather, to not deal and come from a place of panic, ego, emotion, any of that. so i stayed very calm and focused. if somebody badgers you, they win in that mooent. this happened do you know where your chiidren are? i do not.ot. really good question. really good point. stupidly, this is on me, i assumed they were going back to the house they ve been living in with brooke when they re not with me. i think we got reports last night they were at a hotel in santa monica somewhere. at this moment on live television i do not know where my children are. but i m not panicking. this issnot about emotion. it s not about ego. it s about getting very focused and getting very much in touch with what i have to do to complete the task of bringing these two beautiful young men back to the ome that they deserve to be raised inn there s nothing there s moreo love, compassion, support, child care and everything else you oo could possibly want for child in this lovely home. not a house, it s a home right down that hill. so brooke actually has primary custody of the kids. and he pays i think it s $55,000 er month in child support for the children. so that s kind of the arrangement they have worked out. she gets primary custody, he sees the children, i guess, periodically. who knows what s going to happen now. and she had her own issues. she had her oww addiction issues. she was in rehab as well. her mom called it she didn t call it rehab. she said she was in a wellness center. semantics. in the meannime, rachel s mother. if you care which one, the one with the the one that looks so young, doesn t she? she does. when she s not all glammed up for those porn kind of shots, she looks like she s a teenager. she s fresh faced, looks like anybody s kid. she isssomebody s kid. her mom said she had no idea she was living with sheen. she s 24. she said she had the tv on and heard this thing about the goddesses, she went and she was stunned that it was her daughter. i guess she calls every week and says everything s fine, momm there s quite a big article in today s new york post about their iving arrangements. you wonder if that s a healthy thing for these two children. i don t wonder. i think it isn t. i think adults really do have their righttto live their lives the way they want to. i think when you bring children into the equation you got to give up some of your rights. when you re 2, i just know from my niece, she ll run into her parents bedroom. that s just what happens. if you go bounding into your parents bedroom, god knows what s happening in there. according to the goddesses, a lot. all right. lindsay lohan, she, too, was in public. kwl as on extra. she does say she wants to get backkinto movies. she wants to focus on her great work and doesn t want all the attention to be paid to her hair and face like that. well, i m sure she does. the trouble is she s got a lot of work to do to make herself marketable. more than that. -ppalatable to a producer who s willing to pay for the insurance it s going to take on her. i think a lot of people are still pulling like we did for britney spears. we all remember her from that sweet kid that was in parent trap. i remember meeting her when she was, like, 12 when she did that movie. just the cutest, freckled face little and a great actor. teerific actress. she s 43 days now i think sober and clean. one day at a time. it s interesting. seems like we ve been watching this congo line of celebs who are falling. hearts gone wild. christinaing agulaira. john galliano. i think the thing is, the question is, have people always behaved badly and now we have more ways to peek into it with watching and seeing everything, twitter and facebook? everybody s got a phone. everybody s phone has that ability to take pictures and take video. apparently he was having these outbursts when he was drunk. just the way mel gibson basically did. that begs the qqestion, is that what you really think when all of the restrictions are basically taken away from you? all of the things that restrain you in real life, in sober life. i think if you were to chug a bottle of wine right now, and or if i were to, i don t think any of the i can t imagine any of that stuff coming no matter how blown away i was, i would never say the kind of stuff you re reading here. so you wonder what s inside you, anyway. i think you have to have it in you in order i think it s in you. what is it drew pinsky called it, dr. drew? hypomania. hypomania. do we have a description of that? hypomania is what he says he has. some kinn of a grandiose yyu have all these feelings of being better than everyone. sounds like narcississ to me. narcissism plus, yeah. if you want to live a long life, we have a prescription for you. that s what chuck lorre was saying. if he doesn t llve longer than yeah. he s going to be very, very upset. need to do if you want to live longer according to studies. two things only. you need to not retire and you need to be active. and eat broccoli. but those two things are the most important. they say if you have a sunny disposition and you re happy, that doesn t neccssarily mean a -plonger life. thee say neurotics live longer than people who are happy. that s what this thing says. i don t agree with that. i don t either. i think it s nice in the morning to wake up and have a purpose. that s important. yeah. but if your purpose is to have a great round of golf with your friends and you ve worked all your life to get to that point, i think you need joy in o your life. unfortunately, our culture defines success in erms that are, i think, false. i look at a charlie sheen. people think he s so successful. yes, he has a lot of money and lives in a big mansion. i see success as an inner thing where you live your life with integrity and you have love for people, not this violent hatred he s talking about. that s success. when you can have joy in your life, walk humbly with god and that s success. mm-hmm. o cf1 o sorry, hoda, but that s what it is. all right. let s drink to that. cheers. i love it when she has a good ideaa only doing this because it s winesday. hoda, there s another way to get your wine now. how? right here! oh, god. you do not need another way to get it. this is the thing n red wine that s so good for you. antioxidant resveratrol. we practiced. you look good in this color. you re not putting it in? apparently each lipstick delivers antioxidants of five glasses of wine. if you re putting it on all day long the way we do looks nice. you like it? five glasses of wine. and not all the other stuff that comes with it. available at sephora and sephora.com. pretty cool. if you are about to make a big, big decision in your life and you want to make the rightt decision, according to this study, you should have a lot of liquids. so that your bladder is completely fuul. they say we make better choices and decisions in life when your bladder is full and we don t have time to think. you just go with your gut instinct because you have to go. that s what they say. christine who everybody knows here she ll die. the smartest human being on the planet. she s genius! best decisions ever. i ve nevvr een a person s leg shake ss much in my life. she waits forever! the otter thing, too, is they were saying one of the smartest human beings you ll ever meet in your life. ever. ever. we have harry conic jr. coming up. this is not what it sounds like. this is the no poo movement. people deciiing not to shampoo their hair as often because they think it ll look better, number one, if you just time. they say it takes four weeks, if you shampoo regularly, it takes four weeks of not shampooing your hair to get it -pback to its healthiest state d shiniest. come on! who s going to want to be in a room with you, you know? who s in he control room? somebody you love. okay. thank you. steve, i like steve. steve needs to be in there more. okay? i m voting or steve lucas to be our permanent director. hey! you guys know that jim has been mean to me every day. i love jim daves. jim daves has wrestled me to the ground and won. again. all right. oh, hoda, give it up, baby. coming up next, we have harry conick jr. in the house. look at him. he s got big moves on he broadway front, too. later, scottie hamilton stops by for a special celebration. first hese messages. won t you please arrange it, ccuse i love you, just the way you look tonight that s the unmistakable sound of the all-around talented grammy and emmy winning harry connick jr. he recently took his big band sound to broadway for a two-week sold out run. lucky for us the concert will be live on both what is if you could see this. harry connick jr. in concert on broadway. hi, harry! what a cool project, by the way. so fun. a lot of people can t make it to those kind of venues. how great to be able to pop it feel. it s pretty cool. just being on broadway, you know, is pretty there s nothing like it.. there s really nothing like it. even though i wasn t doing a broadway show, it s just a concert that we filmed. it s the real estate, baby. you wereeon broadway. it was the last two nights of the run. you were real comfortable there by then. it was great, you know. he looks comfortable anyway. you have a smooth thing happening. i ve never really been the nervous type. i always thought of it like, you know, i feel so lucky to be up there. even though i may not be better or worse than other people, it s me. i feel like i feel very comfortable in my skin. that s what comes through. you can tell. was it difficult to select the songs that were going to make it on this cd? not really. i think had the cameras been there any other night, you know, we kind of mix songs up. i don t like to get too stuck in one thing. because it kind of feels constricting to me. the joy goes out the window if you can t play a little bit. i think so. it wasn t hard. i know people have responded to when i sang standard. they seemed to like that. there s some new orleans stuff on there, original, a little bit of everything. who is this lucian? he s wonderful. lucian barber. very hard to find somebody who -pmaintains a lifetime of stayi true to exactly what they do. he s a brilliant performer. you re going to be on broadway again soon. we are. on a clear day it s a very new take on this. i m very excited about it. in the original show and in the movie that barbra streisand did, the character that i play is a psychiatrist that s very interested in hypnosis back in o the 60s. there s a girl played by barbra streisand who s kind of a little bit of a boring character. not boring, but she just kind of goes through life kind of humdrum. the psychiatrist starts to o co hypnotize her. and she channels another person. psychiatrist falls in love with. but this is a different twist. this is about a man. in this case it s a young man as opposed to a young woman. and he channels a woman from 20 yearssago that i fall in love with. so the only way to get to her is to hypnotize him. it s a switch. ssme music, though? same music, yes. it s the same great songs and there s some other songs that they took from the trunk. i m really excited. it s a great when can we expect that? in the fall. we love you, harry. come back and talk to us about that. i d love to. up next, if you need a laugh, have we got something for you. what the what? that s after this. the what? miss sara is here with a few of the photos that stopped us in our tracks and made you say, what? from indianapolis, indiana, it s called baby deli. clearly this was a take your baby to work. if you look closely the gentleman has a baby bjorn with a bybeuy baby in it. the next one entitled drive-through grandma was sent it from west palm beach. the weather is nice. why not just go straight through the drive-through. beep, beep. that is adorable! withha hoveround. if you re hungry. the next one was sent from paul frommtempleton, california. it s entitled free espresso and don t leave children unintended unless you want them to take home a free espresso and a puppy. this was a sign in a deli in like youure going to jack that child up with espresso and give them a free puppy. it s every parent s dream. yeah. up next, from dublin, ohio. called boy toys. we are currently out of boy toys. sorry for the convenience. that s the only reason i ordered the happy meal. what? do we have time for one more. from elgin, texas, it s entitled. double shot. who needs a doubll shot of espresso when you can go to this drive-through and get liquor and guns. all right. the two do not go together. all right. be right back. a 16-year-old is stabbed on a metrobus. coming up on news 4 midday, why metro riders say they re worried about the crime but not surprised by it. good morning. i m barbara harrison. also coming up, antidepressants can be life-changing for people suffering from depression, but are they prescribed too much? we ll sit down with dr. joshua weiner with more on concerns about overuse. we re back on this winesdayo with more of today. we re ready to play who knew? since today is dr. seuss s birthday, fun facts about his books. kathie lee is across the street at the nbc.com digital cafe. she s ready to hand out 100 bucks to those who get it right, to those who don t they get her beautiful music. here with me, chip gibson. i didn t realize e was that old. 100 years. a lovely group of teachers and students from alabama. all right. which of the following was dr. seuss s first children s book? green eggs and ham, the cat ii the hat, and to think that i saw it on mulberry street, or the lorax. to think that i saw it on mulberry street. wow. no hesitation. that s a smart kid. that was a first one. tell us about it. actually, it was the first dr. seuss book and nearly the last. 30 publishers rejected this thing. dr. seuss told the story he was walking back after his last rejection heading home to burn the manuscript and start his new career as a dry cleaner. he ran into an old pal that had just tarted his new career as a publisher. jackpot. what is dr. seuss s real name? george ggisel or none of the & above. theodore geisel. how do they know all this stuff? i bet that that clever person didn t know that the original name was dr. theofastus seuss, hard to say even though i ve been practicing since 7:00 in the morning. doctor is completely made up. but it beats mr. seuss. back across to kath. this family is from atlanta. so far this guy has known everything. a real know it all. how many different words did dr. seuss use to write green eggg 50. what s goong on? kathie lee, i need to ask kathie lee, what s going on out there? how is it that everyone s getting every one right. she doesn t ccre. you know what tell us the story. 50 words. seuss s original publisher, bennett surf, a gambler, bet dr. seuss he cculdn t write a book using only 50 words. you try it this afternoon. it is nearly impossible. he did it brilliantly. he sold 13 million copies of the book. great story. back across to kath. this is a strange combination. wisconsin and switserland. we re not going to even ask questions. finish this rhyme from the cat in the hat. i know it is wet, and the sun is fun it s only an hour show. all right. i don t know. they ddn t know it! they re going to get a great cd. the correct answer there is lots of good fun that is funny. another challenge. back in the early 50s there was a crisis in reading in america. there were all these dreadful you re too young. i grew up with readers like run, jane, run. see dick run. nobody looked them. phey weren t interesting. literacy was going down. seuss was challenggd to write a book that was fun. cat in the hat came out. he revolutionized everything. what color was the original grinch in how the grinch stole christmas? yellow? what do you think? red and green. everyone has a story she loves giving those cdss. the correct answer, black and white with pink eyes. i thought green. morning. down the book this black and white with pink eyes. it wasn t until the classic 1966 tv special with chuck jones that he became green. he s been pretty much green in my eyes ever since. back across to kath. one quick one. the following quote is from which dr. seuss s book. con frajlations! today is your day. you re off to great places! you reeoff and away! the places you ll see? thht s close. he eeds the money. oh, the places you ll go! he needs my cd more, hoda. all right. he s going tooget both of them! i like it. i think it s the single greatest graduation and life gift you can ever give. 1991, it was published. editor s office, delivered thii she knew she had a hit when a few months later at her daughter nicole s college graduation, the valedictorian got up, read the book, closed it to a tanding ovation. it s been a huge hit ever since. coming up next, olympic champion scott hamilton lands on his feet with a special celebration. we love our scott. we re going to talk to him right after this. after scott hamilton won the gold medal in figures stating at the 1984 winter olympics he decided to start a small ice show whhch debuted in front of 300 people. & 25 years later stars on ice is a great success with some of the world s best figure staters performing in front of sold out crowds all over the country. congratulations and happy anniversary! these kids just don t know what they ve got. did you ever think it would blossom into that? no! it s insane. i thought if we can kind of force maybe six years, maybe get, you know, thhough the next olympic cycle, oh, wouldn t that be great? off of a sudden kristy yam aguci wants to come to us. whatever i did in 84, whenever it got to 92, i was skating way better in 92 than 84. what did you guys do? it was a real true company. it was a lot of skaters thaa had a lot in common. it was purely put on them. it wasn t a big production show. we had fun. laughed at ourselves. did a lot of crazy, silly things. loved each other and support each other like family. when it came to all these shows and all the champions thht have come through it, it just was so exciting that the next group comes in, the ext group comes in. i was really happy to be doing a lot of this. look at you now! nobody s better at that than you. everybody loves scottie hamilton. you are lit from inside. you ve been going through some health issues. the great thing about you is that, right there. ps that kind of how you deal with what you re going through? you know, each one, you ve got to focus. each one. i had childhood illness. i got through that. i had cancer n 97. chemotherapy ann all that stuff. then i was like, this is really inconvenient. i don t want to have cancer and chemotherapy. i want to get back on the ice. phen there was that one. then in 2004 i d just gotten married and started a family. and brain tumor. completely unrelated. i was like, really? come on! radiation. then in may i noticed that things were a little ffzzy again. oh, i guess my brain tumor s baak. so surgery and a few other surgeries. i got through summer. so it was like this 2010, we re done with that. 2010. now we re in 2011 and how you feeling now? you look great. is your eyesight okay now? it s getting better. they didn t anticipate it getting better, but it s getting better. i m jjst so blessed. i ve got an incredible wife, tracy, our two boys, aiden and max. it s a wild ride. nashville is a great place to raiie a family, isn t it? it is. i love that community. we ve made dear friends. i just pinch myself every day. i m going to have chhllenges, but it s kind of how you deal with those challenges that and, man, it s been t s een incredible. what about skating again, scott? is that something you ll be able good question! might be on your mind a bit. a man who i look up to like no other, sam miller in cleveland, ohio, you know, he s approaching he s in his 80s. he looks at me and goes, you going to skate again? i said, i don t know, sam, never say never. he goes, are you going to do all those umps and spins? i said, i don t know, sam, never say never. he said, let me tell you something. don t tug on god s beard. i think aaout that all the time. i got to get off one of the medications first. that happens next week. then hopefully get back on the ice. get my you look amazing. i went to hug him and he s like a rock. here s the thing. pe were alking earlier about success. -p i work out. it s so great to finally get on the show with you guys! now the coffee thanks, scottie. coming up next, the kitchen toys that actually make you look forward to making dinner. i don t believe it. after this. no matter how old we get, our appreciation for toys never goes away. it changes a little bit. now we like the toys hat make life easier. so we ask chris kimable, founder and editor of cooks illustrated to bring six aff d affordable and fun kitchen gadgets. who says old? this is about 17 bucks. three in one. put it around your neck, which is niie. use it in the test kitchen all the time. counts up, counts down. has a clock. works. that s good. it works. the est part is, it works. i like it. move to the coffee department. this is like a combination of french press and malita. clever coffee maker. you pour the water in but it sits in here like a french press and steams. how long? about six minutes or so. you put it on top. look at that. see? little action. i like that. you can actually time it. sii minutes is the right time. that s a long time to wait for a cup of coffee. ix minutes? now you have the one when you ask someone to bring you a cup and you wait six minutes. he s on to you, hodd. did you say how much that costs? this one costs about 15 bucks. how about this thing? this is called this thing, this green thing hoda hasn been here for, like, the last two months. this is 20 bucks. it pops down like this. so e actually tested it making bacon and et cetera, right by the stove. didn t get any grease inside. pops up. we re going to get stuck on this. this is called the steamer. 18 bucks. you put this right on rice, for example, when you re heating ii up. excess sttam comes out. out of the nose! you can put this on your bathroom mirror in the morring. what does that mean? you see a pig. sizes? it comes in that size. but you can put it right on the food, too. okay. this is the pro. that s oil, right? mixer. we tested a bunch of them. this one actually worked. it s about 15 bucks. it works. most of the stuff doesn t work. you know that. come on! you know that. you think it s going to work, and it doesn t. yeah. this is a swing away. put it like that. put it down. turn it like that. oh, that s a great idea! let me try. because i don t know. here you go. how do you do it? hand on top. slide it in. these are such great pickles. hold on. there s trainingg there you go. you got it. it actually works! it actually works. i like it! thank you. thank you so much. up next, the race car driver too young to drive in some states wants to steer your kids to success. today on nbc. úxúó the youngest licensed auto sport race car driver in the country. he just won a race that is a steppingstone o the indy 500 and nominated for sports illustrated sports kid yyar of the year. he s just 16. he can also add author to his pame with his first ook 99 phings teens wish they knew before turning 16. too late for my kids. maybe just in time for yours. your guide to stays on track to success. first of all, congratulations. thank you. means a lot. you re 16 and you re driving. right? right. hhw is that allowed? i actually have a special license. basicallyy it s a driver s license for race cars. we go through certain tests and it s basically like getting your real license. your dad is here today. he obviously got you behind the wheel when it was completely illegal. i m out innthe ccuntry. yeah. ever since you were little, this was what you knew you o co wanted to do. ever since i can remember i was playing with my hot wheels, pretending i was in the indy 500. at the time my dad was a national champion with truck and tractor pulling. it came in your dna. the neat thing about this, it actually helped you with your book. activity wasn t a cool thing in school, i imagine. you ere probably pushed around a little bit. i think the racing has made other 16-year-olds.faster than there s a couple issues that i learned from. the bullying thing. right. that s what helped us out with the book the most. your book, you re actually talking to young kids and you re trying to just give them some advice and help them out, right? three things i always try to say, always follow your dreams, always work hard and always learn from your mistakes. you put these kids in schools, then we tell them to learn all this stuff. we don t tell them the most important thing which is follow your passioo. right. you know? that s what you re doing. what do you think is the single biggest mistake kids are making by the time they re 16? a lot of the bullies, they try to get kids to be something they re not and try to fit in. i don t agree with that. that s why i was bullied, i wanted to stand out. bullies? that s a hard thing for really just doept take it personally. don t tryyto get evenge. that s never the answer. like i said, always keep working hard and following your dream. don t let anybody stop you. i was asking before about his parents. he was saying his dad, of course, loves all this. but your mom s a nurse. right. so she would have some huge concerns as i would for my son. she s always worrying.& what do you tell her? how do you ease that? i tell her the cars are really safe. which they are. and everything s going to be all right. look at you. do helmets come in your size? yes. this indy 500 thing could -phappen? that s the goal. that s always been my dream. you d be the youngest ver, obviously. we wish you all the best. you re a lovely, lovely young man. thank you. thanks, hon. cody would have killed me if i called him a lovely young man. macho, is what she means. tomorrow, meredith baxter is going to be with us. plus, we re going to have wine pairings. everything you could ever want p> what? have an awesome winesday, everybody.