Transcripts For WRC Today 20110326 : vimarsana.com

today is saturday, march 26th, winter really over? today is saturday, march 26th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to today. i m lester holt. and i m amy robach and i m really sick of putting on gloves and hats and scarves. it s spring. dude, where did you put my spring. we re just a week away from april, but the snow and bitter cold make it more like early january. we know it s going to end. we think it s going to end. but when? we ll get to the weather in a moment and we re certainly hoping for good news. also coming up, the search for a missing honor student. the north carolina student vanished three days after christmas and now police are struggling to turn up any heeds as her family endures the pain. we ll have an update. we ll also head to italy where amanda knox is back in court convicted of killing her british roommate. this morning the prosecution is putting their key witness on the stand. we re live in italy with the latest on that trial. and then we switch gear as we remember the legendary elizabeth taylor. this morning we look at her empire from her jewelry to her art checks, the hollywood star amassed a fortune and there are reports her estate may be worth close to $1 billion. and then it s not 101 dalmati dalmatians, but a dog gave birth do 18 puppies. all the pups and their owners will join live us live. i love the little noises they make. so a lot coming up, but let s start with libya. fresh reports that rebel fighters have retaken a city. this comes as president obama prepares to address the nation on a mission still very much in debate. richard engel reports. reporter: throughout desert, behind the rebel s front line, we follow a secret convoy to bring water and fuel to the the people of ajdabiya, a rebel city still partially held by gadhafi forces. we reach ajdabiya s eastern gate. it s controlled by rebels. and marked by a tattered flag. ajdabiya is mostly deserted, an urban war zone. shops are closed or destroyed. there is to power or running water. just fighting between the revolutionaries and gadhafi s men, says this man. through a broken gate, we enter his home. it was badly damaged by gadhafi s troops. this is shrapnel from the tank round that hit his out and went right in this room. and the fighting isn t over. outside, we hear gunfire. gadhafi s troops are just a few blocks away. we see rebels running, advancing. firing behind a wall. there is street to street fighting here in achblg here. we re taking cover behind a bus. the rebels reload in the middle of the street. it s hard to know where the bullets are coming from. the rebels advance, they reload, they hide behind whatever wall they can find, and then they push forward. the rebels remain poorly armed, but highly motivated. our goal is to free the city and all of libya from tyranny, said one fighter. as we leave ajdabiya, we see hundreds more rebels pouring in. they re confident because now they re getting help from above. this gun camera shows a british warplane launching devastating attacks on gadhafi s attacks near ajdabiya. the combination of air power and reinforce chments prove decisiv. this morning they recaptured ajdabiya, the first significant progress since the military campaign began. richard engel, nbc news. there is unrest in qua men, jordan and syria where huge protests have turned deadly. ron allen is live from jordan with the latest in the region. reporter: good morning. yes, the violence here in jordan was stunning because this country had been so peaceful. but at the end of the day yesterday, at least two people died and there were perhaps more than 100 wounded. the situation was even worse in syria where dozens of people may have died. precise figures are hard to come by. as so many people continue fighting for their rights and freedoms. as thousands of syrians took to the streets again, a crackdown. witnesses say the president s security forces opened fire more than 50 people killed according to human rights activists. video posted on the internet, the only images of the carnage. the only way he can stay in power is by being brutal. he s lost his legitimacy. reporter: a president shap adviser had promised a laundry list of reforms, higher pay, corruption investigations, a possible end to 48 year of emergency law. but clearly many syrians are not buying it. in yemen, the crowds were even larger. hundreds of thousands commanding sala step down. he s lost support in recent days. disgusted by as massacre last friday that killed nearly 50. he was defiant vowing not to hand over power. the u.s. counts on him to keep pressure on al qaeda in yemen and is reportedly trying to broker a deal. by phone, a newspaper editor said the president and the nation are running out of time. i don t think it will take more than a week. i believe he ll step down less than a week if he is asked or we could see a civil war after it the week. reporter: and now supporters and nentss opponents. the violence happening as secretary gates was here. reforms clearly not happening fast enough for the thousands in the streets across the region. we expect to see more protests here in jordan and in syria after funerals to bury the dead. and in yemen, those talks continue, but at this point, everything seems to be at a very intense stalemate. ron allen, thanks. and for more we re joined by mark halperin. good morning. civilians are being targeted in many places. yet it s only libya where the world seems to be reapgting with the no-fly zone and no drive zone. let me start off by playing what president obama said on that very question this morning in his weekly radio address. the united states should not and cannot intervene every time there is a crisis somewhere in the world. but i firmly believe that when innocent people are being brew allized, when someone like gadhafi threaten as blood bath that could destabilize an entire region, then it s in our national al interests nag national interests to act. is he making the case well. a casual observer could be for given for not understanding. how could the united states say we re going to intervene in libya and not in these other places. the president s list is pretty good. one is there was the threat of widespread violence against civilians. a town of 700,000 people was potentially threatened.other two big differences are gadhafi s not very popular. this is a leader who is not popular in northern affair characterization the middle east. so there was the ability for the president to demonize one guy. the other big difference is the international coalition was supporting intervention with american-led forces going in, air attacks going into try to destabilize the gadhafi regime and protect the civilians. that doesn t exist in any of the other places. the united states is not being welcomed in as part of a coalition. americans have been engaged in combat for a week in libya and only monday will we hear the president address the nation. is the message coming too late and what does he need to tell the american people? as a political matter, the president didn t want to give the speech that he s giving on monday until the command and control was handed over. the president didn t want to be out there because he doesn t want to make this about the united states. and he s right about that. this is a coalition. the president doesn t want the notion of the united states versus libya, obama versus gadhafi, to be at the center of things. and i think what he has to do is explain to people the principles in more detail than we talked about this morning. why was this this the right intervention and what is the united states going to do in all these other countries if as most people expect now these protests continue, potential violence continues. harder when it s a he he leader country that s friendly to the united states. you ve seen the public opinion polls. only 47% approve of action in libya. when you look at other conflicts, iraq at the outset, 76% assumed it, afghanistan, 90%. 51% for kosovo. what s going on here? it s surprising because as the numbers show, normally people rally around the president at a time like this. one thing that s a problem is he hasn t explained it well enough. i expect the numbers will go up if he talks about it in detail on monday. the other is we re in politically divisive times and there are some people who won t approve of the president no matter what he does. that putting a ceiling on his support. he s got a floor under him, too, because a lot of people almost support in no matter what he does. mark, thank you very much. turning now to japan, there are renewed worries over radiation contamination once again in sea water near the damaged fukushima plant. authorities are also trying new methods to cool the reactors they think might be working better. nbc s lee cowan is in tokyo with the latest. me, good morning. reporter: yeah, this is actually the second time that they found elevated radiation levels in the ocean water near that plant, but in time it was 1,000 times, more than 1,000 times than it should be. and that s prompting the government to say that they are going to increase the level of monitoring that s already in place. the higher than normal concentration of iodine in the nearby sea water is just the latest worry for those struggling to get the nuclear plant stabilized. the levels are more than 1,000 times the legal limit and came from water tested near the drain outlets for the troubled reactor, only increasing fierce of what that may do to the fishery. the news follows word yesterday that radioactive water inside unit number three had been leaking either from the reactor itself or the pumping systems. a fact discovered after workers inadvertently stepped into that c contaminated pool exposing their skin to more than 10,000 times the normal radiation level. the owners of the plant apologized saying they knew the water in unit number one had spiked but didn t disclose it until the workers had been exposed. the japanese government called on them to be more fort coming with their information. a common refrain these days. i ll worry until these reactors are completely sealed with concrete, this will woman said. i d like to evacuate from here, but that s easier said than done. the human toll two weeks into will crisis continues to mount with at least 27,000 people either dead or missing. mass graves are being dug out of necessity going against the japanese custom of cremation. in tokyo, residents watch the wind as much as the new, but they try carry on as best they can. now, the one bit of good news is that they do say that the switch from salt water to fresh water in order to cool those reactors seems to be working. the salt water had been corrosive, could have been building up along the reactor, r seems to be doing the trick. lee, thank you. president of the institute for energy and environmental research joins us this morning. thank you for joining us. we heard about the new concerns about a possible breach in the containment unit of reactor number three. there are apparently highly radioactive water, pools of water. how serious is this situation? this is after chernobyl undoubtedly the most serious accident there has been in nuclear power history. in my opinion, the level five has been passed a long time ago. the releases of iodine 131, for example, are more than 100,000 times what happened at 3 mile island. and a lot of it has blown over the ocean, that s why you re finding contaminated ocean water, sea waerks ater, and the of it over land, so water, food and vegetables are contaminated. it s a very difficult situation. i know a lot of us are trying to get our head around some of this nuclear jargon and we don t totally understand exactly what s happening at reactor number three. can you explain to us in lay many s terms? sure. this is like a pressure cooker. and with water in it. but the heat source is inside the pressure cooker. so even when you turn the reactor off, there is still radioactive and you have to cool it. if you don t, the fuel rodses react with the steam and then you get melting and releases of radioactivity. and so that s the desperacembes thing, they lost their fresh water, and in order to cool it, the water has to make contact with these metal rods. and now what has happened, the salt from the sea water when the sea water evaporated to cool the reactor, the salt has deposited on the rods and has become more difficult. so it s hopeful that they ve established fresh water, but the fact that there is fuel damage and in reactor three the reactor itself may be breached, so radioactivity is leaking out of the reactor vessel, that s not a good sign. we re not sure the reactor has been breached, but they ve got seven major sources of radioactivity that are leaking off and on there. it s a very bad problem that probably won t be under control for 134 time. and based on he s development, we note japanese officials have expanded the evacuation zone so the people that at one point they had said just to stay indoors, they re now urging to try to leave. is this enough, should the evacuation zone be expanded further? i think normally probably would be. but because there is this other destruction of housing, destruction of roads, destruction of you know, food shortages, gasoline shortages, i think it s much easier for, say, the american or french government to say our people should evacuate and there are a few hundred or few thousand people, but now you ve got hundreds of thousands of people in shelters with vast destruction of homes and probably lots of shelters in the region have been destroyed. so i think i understand the japanese government s hesitation. what i don t understand is the company and the japanese government not really being fort coming about the levels of radiation and what people are facing if they stay and what people are facing if they leave facing if they stay and what people are facing if they leave. i think if people had more information, they could probably make better decisions. but i think that the information flow has not been very good. a difficult situation all around. thanks so much for joining us. thank you very much, amy. now 17 past the hour. time for a check of some of the other morning s headlines. for that we ll say good morning to thomas roberts. we begin in georgia with a tense standoff dramatically ends on prime time tv. jamie hood wanted for allegedly killing an athens police officer four days ago asked for it tv cameras to capture his are your render, surrender, so photographs were rolling. it s one of the biggest settlements in the catholic church s sexual abuse scandals. an order of jesuit priest agreed to pay hundreds of native americans abused at schools. the deal also calls for them to give a written apology to all the victims. the fda has approved the first drug shown to extend the life of patients with late stage skin cancer. it s called yervoy and patients who took it lived an average of four months longer than other, but it can have serious side effects including severe to fatal immune reactions. last year melanoma kaled almost 9,000 people in the u.s. wild weather all over california to talk about. it s snow causing chaos near the sierra, nevada mountains. interstate 08 has been shut down periodically as road crews struggle to keep the highway clear. and further south, mudslides have engineers busy in a san francisco suburb. several homes have lost their back yards to the slides which began thursday after heavy rains will past week. finally for you, the cherry blossom festival kicks off this weekend. right now the blossoms are in the puffy white puffy white st. they predict they will peak in 4 to 6 days. japan gave the u.s. the cherry trees 99 years ago as a sign of friendship. it is supposed to be the first sign of spring coming to the eastern seaboard. who knows. we are going to send it back to lester, amy and bill. thomas, thank you. i just talked to the d.c. folks. they say with the cherry blossoms they are also getting snow today. tonight into tomorrow. i will take complaints but i am not responsible. it looks pretty. when you see the cherry blossoms, there will be photographers all over the place to get the snow on the branches and the blossoms. this area of rain and snow is now located from kansas to memphis. this is wild. it looks like february. we are going to see snow this weekend in st. louis, kansas city, louisville. even richmond virginia is going to get snow. it is unheard of this late in the season. here is a look at the weather outside your window. that snow will not be a big deal. we will probably get a coating south and west of us into the shenandoah valley that gets more. mostly clear skies right now, a few clouds from the south and west will visit us this afternoon. winter weather advisory for the counties in purple. it is 32. we will be worki texas, that s where all the nice weather is. 80s widespread. maybe even record highs today in areas like new orleans. that s your weekend forecast. earlier this week, an air traffic controller at reagan national airport was suspended for reportedly falling asleep in the tower. and as officials investigate the incident, tom costello takes us inside the raining of the new breeze of air traffic controllers. reporter: it s the daily choreography of pilots, planes and passenger. 35,000 flights, 1.7 million passengers. because to get here, you ve got to start here. at the air traffic control cadly in oklahoma city. where the faa is now pushing through a huge class of new controllers. it was the summer of 1981 when president reagan fired more than 11,000 union controllers who went on strike. they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated. reporter: then hired replacement controllers to take over. now 30 years after the strike, those replacement controllers are retiring in large numbers. and a new wave of controllers is taking over in both control towers and at radar screens. today training involves so he physical pi indicated simulators that can layout airport run ways and traffic patterns in perfect gps detail. this run way here is runway 31. reporter: jeffrey basays no longer do they have to wait for real life situations. every problem we think a controller might face, we can set up and run the scenario. reporter: and near disasters, too. she s training to move from a radar room to the huntsville tower. you need to be able to think on the fly and make decisions real quick. reporter: the academy takes up to 18 weeks. then months or years of on the job training. here you have to keep your head on pivot at all times. reporter: the faa is now training 1,000 controllers every year as a new generation takes control of the nation s skies. for today, tom costello, nbc news, oklahoma city. still to come, the search for felicia, the mystery surrounding a missing still to come, amanda knox is back in court. we re live in italy. plus remembering iz beeliza taylor. a look at the fortune she left behind. good morning. it is 7:26 on this saturday, march 26th, 33 degrees outside, a gorgeous sun rise for you. in the news for today, the national cherry blossom festival begins this morning. the annual event celebrates the cherry blossom trees around the tidal basin that japan gave to the u.s. the national park service expects 1.5 million people to attend this year s festival. organizers estimate the 16-day event will pump in more than $100 million to our economy. a fund-raiser will begin to help relief efforts in japan. the japanese christian community center is holding a yard sale. you can purchaser donate items to be sold at 1099 rockville pike in rockville. 50% of proceeds will go to the japan red cross through the japanese embassy. your weather forecast is coming up next. kim martucci has your weekend forecast. good morning, everybody, great to see you. there is talk of snow but it won t be a lot. we are waking up to chilly temperatures, upper 20s in hagerstown, 27, manassas to 32 in southern maryland. partly cloudy and a high of 47 today. our snowstorm will be coming from the tennessee river valley, snowing and raining across tennessee right now. it doesn t come until the overnight and tomorrow morning. around here, we are not going to get much more than maybe a coating. three inches towards stanton. three inches? thanks, kim. we re back on this saturday mornings, march 26th, 2011. the calendar says it s spring, but here in the northeast, the temperatures say differently. we re cold. we want to thank everyone who came out to the plaza and braved all that cold weather. back inside 1250, coming up, we talk about amanda knox. she s back in an italian court today as she continues to appeal her conviction. today the prosecution is putting their star witness on the stand. we ll tell you more about that individual and have a live report from italy coming up. and then the kennedys. the mini series was played with controversial from the beginning. the eight part special was questioned for its historical accuracy and reportedly pulled by pressure from the kennedy family. but it is airing and we have an exclusive look at the series and the controversy surrounding it. plus a comic book? it s true. with just 34 days left until the wedding, william and kate are starring in their own comic book. i had a chance to be part of the making of the royals and we have a look at the comic book coming up. and these are historically accurate comic books. they take it very seriously. if they get soap on a rope, then they re in. that s quite frightening. but we begin with a story we first reported three months ago. the desperate search for a teenaged girl who vanished in baltimore. the disturbing case has mystified police who are determined to find out what happened and why. mike tie s bihas the latest. reporter: if a me sha has been missing three months now, 00 long to be a simple innocent explanation. and long enough for the possibility of foul play seeming more like probability. her friends have turned to social networks including youtube to sustain their hopes that she ll be found. i miss you, miss you so snoefts. reporter: she was on a holiday which is with her half sister. she went out for something to eat and never returned. where is felicia barnes? reporter: three weeks later after searches in baltimore and north carolina came up empty, when the bill poboards had generated no useful tips, a baltimore police spokesman said two scenarios were most likely. someone that somebody did something terrible to felicia in baltimore and the other is that she was abducted, possibly taken out of the region. reporter: there s been criticism along the way that the search for felicia barnif a lee would have been a bigger story if she was white. this is baltimore s natalee holloway case. reporter: but her mother is focusing on what might have happened to her daughter in that baltimore apartment. a list of 20 different guys had been in and out of that apartment since she had been there. reporter: perhaps the most ominous sign, that a good kid with no history as a runaway, with no record except her shining academics and dreams of achievement, doesn t just disappear. for today, mike taibbi, nbc news, new york. and for more insight, we re joined by clint van zandt. good morning. we know the last person to see felicia alive was her half sister s ex-boyfriend who said he saw her sleeping earlier that day and that she went out to get something to eat. is that where the focus has been? it really has. and as we know in this story, he s got an attorney and i m the first to say, you know, should you get the advice of an attorney, but in this case, a missing person, what does he have to hide to hold back? it seems that he s likely the key. we know that her sister was texting her vie at cell phone until about noon. at 1:00, the ex-boyfriend says she was at sleep on the couch, she s going out later. he s the last person to see her, he ses key to the story. but of course we know there was at least a dozen men in and out of this apartment that were friends of the half sister over the time she was there. so a lot of people would have had contact with her, would have known she was there perhaps by herself. it s so frustrated to police because we ve seen her picture on billboards, they ve tried get the story out, but yet there is no useful evidence in this case, no surveillance video, no bank or phone activity and no evidence of foul play right now. where does that leave investigators? this is the challenge. this story begins and ends at the front door of apartment. there is no evidence to indicate an assault. her coat and purse are missing, but her debit card is still in the room. there is nothing. it s like once she went through that door, and we can t even prove that she did, she disappeared. so if there is nothing to support that she s a runaway, it seems like somebody had some type of negative contact with her and was able to get her out of that apartment. we nomar sh know martians didn her. somebody had to ten help her out of there. the question is where did she go from there. and of the dozen different men that were in and out of the stepsister s boyfriend, why aren t they falling all over themselves trying to help police to find this missing woman. and we know that people have gone missing for long periods of time, they ve been held captive for monthses even years. and then returned eventually. what he another likelihood of that scenario? this is a scenario you always want. you always leave the emotional porch light turned on. you always hope she s going to come home. the statistical reality is after somebody s been gone a few day, it s harder to get them back again. but she s a smart woman and we would just hope that somebody has some information that they would contact law enforcement. but as far as police are concerned, they have nothing. she s one of over 750,000 people reported missing every year. most of the time those people come back. so far this young lady has not. clint van santzandt, we appreciate your time. and now for a check of the be igh school band. i am surprised you guys aren t wearing shorts and t-shirts. it is chilly and cold from the northern plains right through which is was, slight chance of severe weather in the south. watch out for strong storms there. the friends on the west coast, one storm after another, you can t get a break in california. now, a look at the weather outside your window. good morning, i m meteorologist, kim martucci, some chilly 20s and 30s outside this saturday morning waking up in our nation s capital to 32. it is 25 in frederick and 28 in winchester where your high today will be 43. look for partly cloudy skies, middle 40s pofor warrington and7 for upper marlboro, kicks in late tonight and throughup. the west coast still very rainy for our friend there is san francisco and a lot of heavy snow up interstate 80. that s a look at your weekend forecast. all right, bill, thank you. still to come on today, the estate of elizabeth taylor. could the hollywood legend be worth a billion dollars? and it was bound to happen. not a magazine, not a book, or movie, but a comic book for the royal wedding. we ll tell you more about it. 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[ female announcer ] wish granted. lean cuisine has a fresh new bag. lean cuisine market creations steam meals. like new chicken poblano with tender white meat chicken, crisp veggies, in a savory cheddar sauce. new from lean cuisine. facebook is now the home to 60% of baby boomers. it s a social network that makes it easy to connect with old friends, but there s also an x factor. more boomers are admit to go logging on and connecting to their old flames. going online can get instant access to an ex. facebook makes it so easy, it facilitates it. it s a click. reporter: ite s a temptation that s lured 42% of married people to admit to looking at their ex s proceed pile too often. patricia reached out to two ex-boyfriends. i sent a message and i got some nice messages back. as you re over 40, to hear some that someone remembers in you a positive way is great. reporter: but it can be a slippery slope to more than just facebook friendship. i quickly realized that if my husband were doing the same, i wouldn t be so happy. reporter: others in the survey admit to going to too far. 50% of people have called, texted, e-mailed or imed an ex. so when should you break up with your ex on line? it s all said and done, you re just connecting with someone as friends, or is it more than friends. if i notice after that they re becoming too friendly on face facebook, then the line gets drawn. so could your online relationships be jeopardizing your real life ones some here is with more is andrea miller and hugh. good morning to both of you. let s start with some of the numbers. 74% of people have looked up an ex on the internet, 59% have remained facebook friends with an ex after a break up. why are people still prone to staying connected? both parties want to maintain some kind of connection and they perceive social media as a safe and passive way of doing so. you re talking in terms of exs who are single, but you also found a lot of married folks are staying on touch with exs. absolutely. and what we found is that a lot of married people are going on innocently enough and yet they end up reconnecting with an old flame and it can be a slippery slope. we talk about married people, we re talking about a lot of boomers, as well. women over 55 are the fastest growing demographic on facebook. why is that age group more susceptible to having these casual relationships? part of it is because people are starting to feel old and they want some validation. they want somebody to tell them that they re still sexy, smart, fun. people have been married for a long time and even if it might be a great relationship, it s fallen kind of routine, so like andrea said, there is something missing. they feel something is missing. let s talk about that line being crossed again. because there was 010 survey of lawyers who said 81% said they re seeing social networking and facebook used more often as evidence in divorce cases. and facebook doesn t cause the divorces, but it s a contributing factor and the thing about it is that online and offline, flirting is a little different. when you flirt online, it s discoverable. so people definitely do need to be careful, but at the same time, you can t blame technology, but it s such an enabler the pact that you can run in to somebody you had a crush on 10, 20, 30 years ago and they re sympathetic and then the frequency is also important. you see somebody sat star buck, maybe you ll never see them again. the problem with facebook, you maintain contact. you re actually connected to these people. and it s easy. it used to be you d have this fantasy and it would stay in your head because it was so much work. the person had changed their name, they moved to a different city. all that stuff. but now you just type in and you can see their whole life in front of you. t even have to pi up. what are the rules? don t play single on line. there are classic examples. the second thing is don t flirt. flirting is different online. doing flirtatious, you know, wall posts and pokes. you want for avoid that. and the third thing is my favorite. don t drink and facebook. because you can quickly fall into an emotional trap. and i want to stay in control. thanks so much for coming. a good conversation. thank you very much. we ll take a break and be back with more right after this. because cravings are everywhere. no matter where crime takes me, nicorette mini s there, ready to take a craving for me like a real partner. would you take a craving for me, cartwright? what? how would i take a exactly. isn t it weird to eat your partner? don t over think the metaphor, cartwright. 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[ female announcer ] wish granted. lean cuisine has a fresh new bag. lean cuisine market creations steam meals. like new chicken poblano with tender white meat chicken, crisp veggies, in a savory cheddar sauce. new from lean cuisine. this morning on today s count down to the royal wedding, just 34 days away, a washington state company is releasing a new biography about prince william and kate milddleton, but this book might look more ligot ham city. reporter: it s been eight years in the making. this is a fairy tale to america. reporter: a courtship that is played out on the world stage yet kept private in many ways. but now a new biography will detail their love story in a never before seen way. william was a little bit easier to draw. reporter: the royals, a biographical comic book by blue water productions promises to take readers inside their romance and the days leading up to the royal wedding. did you detail their love story? of course. and we also detailed their break up. i think people will really learn a lot about kate from it. and so it s fun to illustrate her life. reporter: can you give us any details about what s inside the royal couple cover? we take creative liberty, but we have to stay true to the facts. you ll see him in the navy, you ll see stuff that you ve only heard about, but we re showing the actual images of them in the environments. reporter: the images are drawn by hand and scanned in to the computer. when it s slightly off, you can tell like i got it. is there usually a certain part of the face that you have to get right every time? usually the eyes. if the eyes aren t right, then it s not going to look right. reporter: prince william and kate middleton are not the first royals to be featured in a blue water comic. a princess diana coppic was released two years ago, but it s not just a royal favor at blue water. we ve done four printings on sarah palin. we ve done two on michelle obama. we just released beyonce. but probably the hugest one is justin bieber. reporter: i understand you have another series coming out. this isn t fame, this is do you knowed infamous. correct. reporter: charlie sheen? yes, and it comes out in july. winning. reporter: the men behind these famous bio comics do their home work. we really try to do these as thoughtful and, you know, try to did as many 13wer viinterviews possible. reporter: so you re taking a journalistic approach. we do try to contact the royal family, of course, but we haven t heard anything good or bad. reporter: the royals will hit store shelves this week, along with a special edition extended graphic novel version. both retail for under $10, an affordable souvenir for a wedding that will capture the world s attention. this is not just going to be a comic book that people can read and learn about. this is actually going to be a collectible, this is something that people will keep for a long time. and it s great when you see this is the william and kate, the royal edition, right here. but when you see all of their different comic book, they have meredith vieira on several covers. wouldn t it be odd to see yourself in that way? if this they did the royals meets charlie sheen, i would buy it. somehow i think the charlie sheen one will be flying off the shelves. people can t get enough. winning. winning. just ahead, stand by me 25 years later. the cast of this coming of amove and find out what it is to make still to come, cam made lot on camera. an exclusive look at the kennedy mini series that almost never made air. and we ll meet the mama dog and her 18 puppies. but first these messages. happy birthday to you. and my wish is for a world with less cancer, and more birthdays. happy birthday. 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[ man ] thermacare, more effective for back pain than the maximum dose of acetaminophen, the medicine in tylenol. go to thermacare.com today for a $3 off coupon. thermacare. no pills. no pain. just relief. good morning. i m kimberly suiters on this saturday, march 26th, topping your news, the 2011 national marathon started a few minutes ago sending off thousands of runners around d.c. the run is causing street closures to accommodate all of the runners. they started and will end at rfk stadium cruising alongside the mall, the white house and adams morgan, the hill comes in, a tough one. officials say all roads will be back open at 1:30. for a look at the rolling closures and when they will hit, go to national marathon.com. bobby scott says he is considering a run for the u.s. senate. scott as virginia s only black u.s. house member since the reconstruction era, more than 100 years ago. the congressman will decide whether or not he will run by july, maybe the fourth of july. kim trying to keep warm huffing and puffing. the air is dry, at least we have sunshine, a decent day. the moisture in tennessee will be up here during the overnight. 32, sterling, 31, la plata, 32, quan quantico. 47 for a high. a little more towards stanton, laray and charlottesville. welcome back to today for this saturday, march 26, 2011. final weekend of the month. thrilled to have this great crowd here on the plaza. whenever you re in town, we d love to you drop by and join us here. coming up, we ll talk about amanda knox tipping tcontinuing effort to clear her name. it s been more than three years since her roommate was found to death and knox has always insisted she s innocent. today a key witness is taking the stand. we will have a live report from italy coming up. we re also going to learn more about the movie the kennedy mini series. big budget, star-studded film, history channel had commissioned it, then decided to shelf it. another cable channel has picked it up. we ll talk about the controversy why the movie has become such a hot potato and the motivation behind it. and we have a live look at 18 puppies that miss ella gave birth to last week. they ll join us live in a moment. looks like mama is busy there. i feel sorry for her. she s probably busy 24 hours. they ll have to compete for the prime position there to get fed. i was wondering how you were going to word that. anyway, we ll look at that coming up. but first let s get more of the morning s headlines. thomas roberts standing by for us. good morning. we begin in libya where international air strikes are have helped rebels recapture a key eastern city. jim made say todceda has more. reporter: after a standoff that lasted a week, the fighting has stopped there. rebels are celebrating in the streets. and pro gadhafi forces have been seen retreegt weats westward. the u.s. and its allies had said that they would continue striking troops and tanks until gadhafi pulled them back. which of course gadhafi had refused to do. now this is going to be a huge morale boost for the rebels. for the first time in week, gadhafi s forces are on their back foot. thom thomas, back to you. now to japan where u.s. naval barges are bringing fresh water to try to cool down the damaged nuclear reactors. lee cowan is live in tokyo with more for us there. reporter: good morning. bad news to start out the day. for the second time will it week, they found radiation levels higher than normal at the sea coastline right outside the plant there, some thousand times more than what it s supposed to be. this comes a day after authorities say that there is some kind of leak going on at the reactor, they re just not sure whether it s from the reactor itself or from the pumping systems. a bit of good news is that they say that the switch from salt water that they ve been using to cool the reactors over to fresh water seems to be working a lot better. salt water was corrosive and would stick on the roedon the r. fresh water seems to be working a lot better. that s the latest from here. lee, thank you very much. a billionaire heir of the sc johnson fortune has been arrested accused of sexually assaulting his underage daughter. he s out on bail. police say he assaulted his stepdaughter over a three year period. the wisconsin based maker of household projects says johnson has not worked for the family company in over a decade. johnson faces 40 years in prison if convicted. so just call her behind lindsay. lindsay low mhan is dropping he last nature. she wants to sdars her from her he is stranlged father. lohan s mom and her youngster have also officially changing their last names for sullivan. lindsay is currently awaiting trial on a jewelry theft charge. finally the winning ticket sold here in new york state in albany. this is the sixth highest payout in mega millions hay s history,, 31, 52, 54 with the mega ball of 4. that is the news for now and we ll head back out to the plaza and check back in with lester. i have some news for you. the winner wasn t me. yeah, it wasn t anybody out here. when you were reading the number, i was waiting for you to go yeah! didn t happen. bill karins has another check of the weather for us. my family lives in albany. i need to call them. maybe my brother won. these are all girl scouts behind me from erie, pennsylvania. lovely signs. you win the sign contest. how did you come up with the flashing things? i found them at my mom s store. you had the advantage. guys have done in new york today. say hello to erie. they re shivering here and in erie today, too. west coast friends, not as cold and won t stop raining, san francisco to sacramento. an amazing snow back is building up. the rain is going to continue to spread inland. the only warm air is now in the gulf of florida. for everyone else, a winter chill. here is a look at the weather outside your window. good morning, i m meteorologist, kim martucci facing a chilly but not bad saturday, temperatures cooler than average, highs of 47 when we should have highs around 60. we will take what we can get. that stuff over tennessee wants to swing up the coast slightly. it will bump our southern suburbs mabreyiybe bringing an or two to fredericksburg. not in our neck of the woods. now, back to bad, 32 there. warmer in fairbanks today than in buffalo, new york. so you can tell a lot of contrast. that s a look at your weekend forecast. amy. and now to the appeal of amanda knox. the american is back in an italian courtroom this morning appealing her murder conviction. keith miller is live in italy with the latest. reporter: good morning. in fact amanda knox entered the courtroom today looking very anxious. not very confident, but she did confer with her defense attorneys. on the stand, a key prosecution witness who at the time said that he saw amanda knox and her former boyfriend at the scene of the crime on the night that knox s roommate was murdered and vie hently sexually assaulted. but today the judge asked him what is your address. he said prison. he s will this on drug charges. the judge then questioned him were on you drugs at that time. he said, well, i was a heroin addict. it also turns out that the key prosecution witness has been a key witness in serious crimes for this prosecution before. the defense said they had no questions. clearly his credibility shot. we talked earlier with some of knox s family. they said she s not doing that well. she still is proclaiming her innocence and is having a really love time in prison, although the family is bolstered by today s testimony believing that the prosecution s case is slowly being picked apart. and what s the status of the dna test? what we re hearing from italian stourss it ttal sour sourceian sources is that the dna is inconclusive, that there is not enough dna to link to knox or to the victim. and that knox s boy friend s fingerprint is nonexistent. if this turns out to be the case in court, knox seems to have a very good chance of having her guilty sentence overturned. all right, keith miller, thanks for that update. still to come, the kennedy saga finally comes to life. we have exclusive clips from the controversial new mini series. also we will meet the dog and her 1 new bundles of joy right after these messages. capital one has asked yours truly to talk about the venture card match my miles challenge. they re so confident their miles are better, they ll match the miles you ve earned on your airline credit card up to 100,000 on a new venture card. it s unbelievable. believe it. venture card miles are good on any airline, anytime. it s like an upgrade from this. to this. sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com today and get up to 100,000 miles. what s in your wallet? impressive, right? those of us who know grass doesn t turn green just because the calendar says to. and that a big difference can grow from a small budget. for those of us with grass on our sneakers. dirt on our jeans. and a lawn that s as healthy as our savings. the days are about to get a whole lot greener. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we re lowering the cost of a day in the dirt with a special buy on this mulch, three bags are just ten bucks. now to you new mini series and the kennedys. the film finally has a home. thomas roberts joins us for more. that s right, the series will premiere next sunday on a small cable network, but you don t have to wait until then as we have a first look at scenes from the controversial epic. are you sure smarnlg what you really want some? the resemblance is striking. to my husband. with a stunning holmes as jackie and greg kinnear, the president, you are looking at an exclusive preview of the explosive mini series. it is the controversial new take on the kennedys. the star-studded high priced eight parter that almost never made air. this country is ours for the taking. reporter: the project which took months to shoot was originally slated to appear on the history channel. but the series was plagued from the beginning. by questions over historical accuracy in the script and reportedly pressure by the kennedy clan. unless there is a significant change in the ground condition, i think we stay the hell out. reporter: the caroline kennedy and maria shriver both with ties to companies that own the history channel pushed to kill the mini series. why? hollywood reporter who first broke the story told today that along with a business decision, part of the concern focused on the producer behind the film who created fox s 24. joel definitely believes that this mini series was targeted because of his conservative views. he believes that if tom hanks or steven spielberg made this project, there would be no problem and it would be airing on history channel this week as we speak. reporter: in an interview, joel said i believe the kennedy family did not want this seen, but i have no blame and nothing negative to say about the kennedy family. the blame lies squarely on the people who canceled the show. in a statement, the history channel said while the film is produced and acted with the highest quality, after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the history brand. the kevindyes will now premiere april 3rd onecreelz channel. do you really think everyone can be bought? i haven t met the exception. well, you have now. she looks exactly like her. it s a really good performance by her. but now it s been tainted by all the scandal. the up side is she s getting press for her performance, so it may end up being good for her. reporter: a mini series under a microscope. and with a back story tell erma for the subject, it s clear that all these decades hater, our fascination with camelot endures. we reached out to maria slifrer and caroline kennedy to get their response. maria shriver declined to comment and kirl caroline kennedy was unavailable. thanks very much. we want to move on now, the business editor for tv guide magazine joins us. you ve seen the series. i have. the fact there s such a controversial leads you to believe there is something dark and controversial that we ve never heard before. is there? this really isn t. this is the kind of mini series that the broadcast met works used to make all the time. they don t do it anymore because they don t want to spend that kind of money. they re too hard to promote. and because they tend to bring headaches like the ones that have made history channel drop the film. and the criticism that always works is historical accuracy. if you re going to call yourself the history channel and your programming is fact based, you get in to a tricky area once you put on something that s a dramaitization. so if every moment of what sti n is not true, it takes you off brand. but we have to assume that they commissioned the project, they read the script and liked the idea. they did, and history is owned by these entities, by nbc, disa disney abc, and hearst. there was no shortage of people to complain to and they probably made their issues with it heard. and also joel is a polarizing guy. he is an outspoken conservative. and that probably sent up a red flag. so you do think because he s claiming this got dumped because he s a conservative. do you think it has something to do with it? i think it turned the project into a hot potato. and what happens is that i think history decided, you know what, this is going to fall into the more trouble than it s worth category. what about the notion of the actors, that this ends up being a good vehicle especially because of the controversial. this little channel, the reelz channel, got a hold of it for a song for $7 million. it s a $25 million film. i don t think anybody knew what the reelz channel was until they got this film and they are getting a lot of publicity out of it. they ll make money on it. well, that s not so because they had to sell advertise itting on it and advertisers also do not like anything that s controversial. they re probably staying away from it. i think that they probably have sold about half the commercial inventory in the film and probably at a pretty cheap price. steve, thanks very much. nice to have you on. still ahead, all of the family 18 little bundles of joy. but first this is today on nbc. and they called it puppy love one named ella is making he had lines and for a very good reason. she gave birth last week to 18 puppies. we re happy to report ella and her little ones are all doing well and they re also joining us live from washington state along with ella s owners, lisa and ron. good morning to all of you. good morning. how cute. those are those little noises i was hoping to hear. tell me hows p the puppies are doing. they re all real healthy. the small one needs a little help feeding, but other than that they re extremely healthy and loud. i have on say, i know they re loud. they re active. and poor ella there is just having to sit i m sure hours on end feeding those puppies. how does that all work? she just kind of takes them in shifts and we kind of help shift them around a little bit. we give her lots of food, lots of water to be able to take care of them and feed them all. a two hour check in every day. every two hour, we check in and make sure they re okay. and there they are sleeping. so cute. all right. so we talked about ella having to feed of course those puppies all day long. probably you all also have to bathe and feed them daily. and i understand you all have set up an assembly line in your family. tell me how that works. we have. to get them fed in the morning when they re starting to eat their solid puppy food, we ve sort of set up saying statitap in the backyard. they come running like a little herd and we set them around their feeding bowls and keep them clear. and remember they do love water, so they re always stepping their feet in their water dish, as well. and the bathing process is quite an assembly line. so cute. all right. and i want to go back back to t delivery. how long did it take for her to give birth to all 18 puppies? well, she started at about 5:30 in the morning and we stayed i stayed with her all day and she finished delivering about 2:00 in the afternoon. and i just sat with her, coached her, gave her water, helped her, just encouraged her. and she did a great job. and this is the real shocker. i have to admit when i read this, i had to read it twice. this is nothing new for ella. she had 15 puppies last september. she clearly is maybe going for a record here. what do you think? she is. i would say she s definitely in love with the daddy. touche. all right. well, good luke with ack with a feeding and bathing. are you going to keep them or do they get new homes? actually we donate one or two to gold star, will it helps veterans with injuries and stuff. but for the most part, we ll find real good homes. there s 11 boys and 7 girls. all right, ron and lisa, thanks so much and congratulations. by alzheimer s. this cruel disease is the sixth leading cause of death, and affects more than 5 million americans. the alzheimer s association is taking action, and has been a part of every major advancement. but we won t rest until we have a cure. you have dreams. help the alzheimer s association protect them. act now, go to alz.org. to have their close-ups taken by a fashion photographer. then we asked them to try new dove visible care. a revolutionary new line of body wash with the highest concentration of nutrium moisture. visible care makes skin visibly more beautiful in just 1 week. when they saw how much more beautiful and radiant their skin looked with new dove visible care. there was only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. 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 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[ male announcer ] the simple joy of love at first sight. but you re not sweet you messed with my head all day and all night we d argue and fight you left guilty crumbs in my bed but i found a new love a natural true love that comes from a leaf oh-so-green zero-calorie, guilt-free no artificiality my conscience feels scrubbed new and clean its name is truvia i had no idea now i ve tasted what love truly means [ announcer ] truvia. honestly sweet. don t suffer waiting for your pills to kick in. add alaway. for fast eye itch relief that works in minutes and lasts up to 12 hours. only alaway comes from the eye care experts at bausch & lomb. so when allergies strike, add alaway. because it s not just your allergies, it s your eyes. for fast eye itch relief, add alaway. in the eye care aisle. good morning. i m kimberly suiters, saturday, march 26th. topping your news for today, the suspect in a murder in prince george s county has turned himself in, james allen payne has been charged with the first-degree murder of 32-year-old gregory lawton jr. payne allegedly shot an killed him late thursday night in the 3400 block of temple highway. they believe payne and lawton were in a fight when payne pulled out a gun and shod him. prince george s county woman, leslie johnson is charged with conspiracy to commit witness and evidence tampering. investigators say she flushed a $100,000 check down the toilet when federal agents came to question her last year. the check came from a developer in exchange for prefr engs treatment. the dhargs are part of the investigation of her husband, former county we are coming up on 8 clong 30, how is the snow looking? not today. we have the cherry blossoms in bloom. if you don t mind a couple layers, it is 33, north winds are keeping us company at 38. this chilly weekend will lead to some snow sunday morning. fredericksburg and off to the west have best chances of seeing accumulation. not much in the metro. fredericksburg, an inch at tops. martinsburg, 41. 48, from fredericksburg. thank you, kim. be sure to tune in we re back on this saturday morning march 26th, 2011. a very energetic crowd spending part of their morning with us on this chilly day outside. i m amy robach along with lester holt. and coming up, we ll be talking about the empire of elizabeth taylor. the hollywood legend passed away earlier this week. she defined glamour, but some say she left an estate valued at $1 billion. where did all that wealth come from? we ll take a look. also coming up, it s a classic coming of age film. we re talking about stand by me. it s hard to believe it s been 25 years since the movie was first released. and now rob reiner and the cast sit down to talk about a film that changed their lives and a lot of people s lives who saw the movie, as well. a fun group to hang with. they were a lot of fun. my face hurt because i was laughing so much after talking with all of them. and then we ll show you how to spring clean your life frife finances to health to your relationships. experts are here with tips gin . because spring hasn t sprung here. 25 degrees. all that and more, but first the man who everyone is an i didn t with this morning. i know, i m angry with myself, too. miami, you think anyone wants to complain about being cold. only positforecast, cold out there in many spots, especially the northern half of the nation all the way through the great lakes and into the northeast. we do have severe weather possible today down there in the south. watch out in alabama, mississippi and also areas in georgia. atlanta could get strong storms late today. west coast is also stormy as we take you into your sunday. that storm system in the southeast moves off the southeast coast wp we could have a little area of snow in virginia. even richmond could see some snow and our friends in st. louis as we go throughout the day told. good morning, chilly, 20s on our map and in the 30s in the district, not too far above the freezing mark. the runners in the marathon dealing with cold weather, 28 hagerstown, 47, upper marlboro, the system across tennessee dries to deliver a little bit of snow overnight and tomorrow. not much in the district. out towards rain over the past n are ar areas like sacramento. continues wet for you. where is everyone from here? all over the place. i ll send it to you, lester. elizabeth taylor passed away at the age of 79. she will always be remembered as a larger than life hollywood star. and she left behind a fortune fitting of a legendary icon. kristen welker has more on her grand wealth. reporter: they say diamonds are forever. and no one knew that better than elizabeth taylor. the hollywood legend has passed, but her timeless jewelry collection lives on. for elizabeth taylor, jewelry was magic. she loved her stones. she loved her jewels. she loved the men who gave her these jewels. reporter: gem expert john block worked with taylor. he says some of her most treasured pieces, a diamond deaura given to her by mike todd, richard burton also showered her with gifts. including the famed 33 carat diamond, one of her favorites it seemed. i never saw her without that diamond on her finger. reporter: block says almost all of taylor s jewels were gifts from the men she loved. save a few, including the prince of wales broach. block helped her purchase it and delivered it personally. she comes swishing down the stairs looking absolutely magnificent. and she said, john, now you may present me with my jewel. reporter: taylor was so enam mored with gems, she even named her purchase fume line white diamonds which reportedly earned $70 million last year alone. taylor also had an expansive collection of art work, antiques and rugs. and although an exact amount has not been released, by some estimates, her total fortune is somewhere around $600 million. elizabeth taylor was never one to say she didn t love the finer things in life. reporter: and now that she is gone, many are wondering where all of her worldly possessions will go. a question that has not been answered publicly at least. she leaves behind four children and ten grandchildren, plus a passion for fighting for those with hiv/aids. it will no doubt be what she wants to be remembered for. reporter: a lifetime of riches and a legacy that truly is priceless. for today, kristen welker, nbc news, los angeles. up next, the cast and director of stand by me look back 25 years later. but first these messages. and i m like, oh, promise mommy you ll never ever pick up a cigarette. i had to quit. my doctor gave me a prescription for chantix, a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these symptoms or behaviors, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. if you develop serious allergic or skin reactions, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some of these can be life-threatening. don t take chantix if you ve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. dosing may be different if you have kidney problems. until you know how chantix affects you, use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. my benjamin, he helped me with the countdown. ben, how many days has it been? 5 days, mom. 10 days, mom. i think after 30 days he got tired of counting. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about chantix. and now through march 31st, get a limited-time money saving offer and see terms and conditions at chantix.com. but sometimes i wonder. what s left behind? [ female announcer ] introducing purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. developed with dermatologists. it s clinically proven to remove 99% of dirt and toxins and purify pores. and with natural willowbark it contains no dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. dirt and toxins do a vanishing act and my skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser from the new line of neutrogena naturals. it s been 25 years since four 12-year-old boys remind us how deep the bonds of childhood friendships run in the movie stand by me. and two decades later it still connects. i got to sit down with rob reiner and the cast for a look back at the making of a classic. reporter: set in the summer of 1959, stand by me follows four best friends on an adventure searching for the body of a missing boy. it s not that deep. we can walk across. reporter: it was one of rob reiner s earliest directing jobs and remains a personal favorite. it was also my childhood in 1959 is when i was 12 going on 13. it was also the first film that i made that wasn t anything my father would ever have made. and that was a big hurdle for me to break away. what s it like to be sitting here with these guys again? it s fun to look down this row here and see the kid who was the fat kid is now the handsomest, you know, stud. jerry o connell was the baby of the group. do you think mighty mouse can beat up super man? i was healthy. i don t think i was fat. you were a ton. i recall you improper mizing the line, oh, yeah, go ahead, spit at the fat kid. great, spit at the fat kid. real good. corey feldman played teddy, an angry kid with an abusive father. the reason he chose me is because when i came in and read for it he immediately knew there was no other kid that had that kind of pain in his past. will wheatton was goredy, the sensitive aspiring writer. i think one of the reasons stand by me is such an honest movie is that rob found four young actors who basically were the types we were playing. ronald s old high school friend richard dreyfuss narrated the film after rob tried actors. chopper was my first lesson. i was really nervous doing the voiceovers because i had not gone through all these experiences that you d gone through. and i had to keep the film up. the late river phoenix who died tragically of an overdose in 1993 completed the foursome as chris, the wise leader from the wrong side of the tracks. i d like to go someplace where nobody knows me. reporter: sorely missed, especially on this day. this is the first time being here with you guys that i really feel that he s gone. reporter: at the end of the film in a now chilling scene, we see young river disappear into thin air. it was dramatic way of showing the passing of one of the characters. looking at it subsequently in all those year, it s just so surreal and disturbing to me. reporter: boys say they bonlded off the set because reiner made filming like summer camp. we would play softball every weekend. those are really happy memories. river rafting. that was awesome. rob let us go up in the movie crane. train! reporter: one of the movie s most memorable scenes was the hardest to film. they were never in danger was the train was so far away, we had a 600 millimeter away that made it look leicht train was right on top of them. when we started filming, they would go i said, fellow, i have to imagine that there is a big train that s going to run over you. meanwhile there is guys pushing a camera on a dolly and it s 100 degrees out there and finally i said, listen, you see those guys over there? they re tired. and if you re not scared that the train is going to kill you, be scared that i m going to kill you. and we burst into tears. reporter: the film was a low budget independent that almost wasn t released. my father said, listen, when you go to school, don t it tell anybody you made this movie because i hate to tell you this, but these things never get released. there he is. i see him. reporter: but when audiences saw it, they connected and remembered. they never had any friends later on like the ones when they were 12. we were those kids at 12 years old. those moments just like in the film, we each of us will remember that for the rest of our lives. so i rewatched this right before i went to do the interview and i had my girls with me and i thought this would be a great movie and then i forgot how much cursing there was and i was like maybe it wasn t such a good idea. i d love to see them make another movie. what a great cast. they had such chemistry even 25 years later. it was remarkable for watch. coming up next, spring cleaning your life. we have the tips to get you started, but first this is today on nbc. this morning on take s spring cleaning your life. a fresh start to the season doesn t just mean organizing the garage or washing the windows. now is also the time to take stock of other aspects of your life. first up, here to get our financial life in order, founder of ask the money coach.com and author of perfect credit. great to see you. you want to start off our cleaning with a credit report. two out of three americans haven t checked their credit report in the last year which is something critically important should you do. just go to annualcreditreport.com, you get it free throw of charge. and your credit determines everything these days from your ability to get a job, represent an apartment, your life insurance rates and your car insurance rates are based in part on your credit rating and of course any kind of loans you want to get if you get a good credit score, you ll get the best rates and terms. let s talk about all the things that documents we have to keep, the passwords, so many things that come with being organized financially. how should we get it together? right now of course we re in the thick of tax season, so what you first want to start to do is after you ve filed your taxes, store away those important tax documents. the irs has up to six years to audit you. and then shred shred the other stuff you don t need. don t just throw it away. and then do some other things like set up automatic bill payments. that will keep you organized,s as well. and also store away either electronically or in a safe place things like your financial log in, passwords. and we re at the end of march. a lot of people are still paying off their christmas debt. and before long, i hate to say it, we ll be getting in to more debt. i think you really do have to take a look at what you spent. if you have those outstanding bills, make a plan with yourself. promise yourself that say in three months tops, you re going to wipe out any debt that remains. let s say you have $900 left over from the holidays. break it into three chunks, commit to paying $300 a month so you ll be rid of it. you don t want that to be around next holiday season. and i want to quickly ask you about insurance because we tend to buy insurance based on our needs here and now and our life changes. that s right. not only does life change, but prices change. the market changes. the policy you got a year or two years ago, life insurance, auto insurance, that was yesterday s rates and terms. you really do have to shop around, make sure you re getting a competitive rate today. you can check it out on line, places like insurance.com or insurer.com. maybe even think about raising your deductibles. thanks very much. and now here is amy. and now how to spring clean your relationships. it s the time to renew and refresh the ronce. and maybe clean out some old grudges. ian kerrner is here. you say it s time to start investing in your relationships and about might mean pulling out your wallet. especially during the winter, couples tell to hibernate and a lot cut back on things like date nights, calling the sitters, going out to dinner, maybe going to a movie. but that is some of the best money that you can actually spend because studies show that when you are a connected couple and you re doing fun things together, you re better parents, we are at work, you have less chance of getting divorced. so, yeah, this spring invest in your relationship. you also say while you re spring cleaning you should splus up the bedroom. don t forget the bedroom. we can let it get cluttered with bills and computers. and i m all about turning the pigsty in to a love nest. how about fresh sheets, maybe some art work on the walls. some candles, some music. think about your bedroom as a fun space that should inspire intimacy. i like that. now, this might be a little tough, but you say it s also a good time to start airing some of those grudges that may have built up. absolutely. and especially in women, studies have thoen that women when they argue, they tend to self-silence and bottle up emotions and linger on things. and we never forget. and in forever get. whereas guy, we re totally oblivious, we don t even know it s going on. so the point is don t self-silence, don t bottle up, talking about the the stuff. air it out. go into spring having aired your grudges and grievances. but plant seeds of positive different with that? yes, absolutely. the difference between couples who succeed and fail is that the ones who succeed have a higher ratio of positive to negative interactions. and i actually call it the five to one zone. for every negative interaction, anytime you yell at your spouse or say something mean, you have to balance it with five positive actions. all right, i ll get on that. thanks so much. great advice. and once again, here is lester. finally how to spring clean your health. from diet to exercise, new routines can go a long way. here with tips is senior editor at prevention magazine. good morning. thanks for having me. we have a bunch of green leave if leafy vegetables here. arugula should also try water crest. it s another spicy green, but it s loaded with vitamin k which is a good bone booster and excellent for guy guedigestion, well. and broccoli. it s a nutritional superstar, but it can get wering. we ve been loving it raw which is higher than in iron and calcium. and lastly we have this is your baby spinach. you don t have to ditch it, but next time maybe try some bokchoy instead. it s also loaded with other disease fighting nutrients. let s talk about exercise equipment. one of the things a lot of us fall in to is you get into a rut. you do the same old thing. what do you suggest? we recommend starting with kettle bells. you get strength raining and cardio in one and on prevention.com, we have these great workouts where in 20 minutes you can burn p to 400 calories about. i see these and i m not sure what to do with them. they re small so you can stowe them away. and a lot of us have exercise balls but we don t know what to do with them. which is j we lowhy we love the are balli instructions on the ball. and allergies. we re really surprised by this. your couch and your bed can trap dust mites that trigger symptoms even in us that don t have allergies. so you want to make sure you throw it in your dryer on high and keep your pillows encased in allergy-proof covers. that will keep your allergies at bay. and finally our skin. as the season change, spring comes, we want to look our best. but for allergy sufferer, it can week havoc. we like the serum from philosophy because it helps protect the lipid barrier from your skin. and then again a lot of allergy sufferers are prone to irritation and their skin can get red, so it s important to calm that down every day and prevention recommends cerave. all good important advice. we ll be back in a moment, but first these messages. indoors or out. achoo! oh to have relief. prescription nasonex is clinically proven to help relieve nasal allergy symptoms. including congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. [ female announcer ] side effects may include headache, viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds, and coughing. infections of the nose and throat and eye problems, including glaucoma or cataracts may occur. have regular eye exams. slow wound healing may occur, so do not use nasonex until your nose has healed from any sore, surgery or injury. nasonex can increase your risk of getting infections. avoid contact with infections like chicken pox or measles while using nasonex. it does not come in generic form. ask your doctor if nasonex is right for you. i knew for years before i quit that i needed to quit and i went online to find a way. what really excited me about chantix it s a non-nicotine pill. i didn t want nicotine to give up nicotine. while you re taking the medication, for the first week, you can go ahead and smoke. [ male announcer ] prescription chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. when i was taking the chantix, it reduced the urge to smoke. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these symptoms or behaviors, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. if you develop serious allergic or skin reactions, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some of these can be life-threatening. don t take chantix if you ve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. dosing may be different if you have kidney problems. until you know how chantix affects you, use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it feels wonderful. i don t smoke. i don t smoke. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about chantix. and now through march 31st, get a limited-time money saving offer and see terms and conditions at chantix.com. that will do good morning. i m kim bert suiters. straight ahead on news4 today, the national cherry blossom festival gets underway. the nuclear crisis? japan worsens. the new developments that have authorities so worried. i ll tell you what our potential is for snow around here on our blossoms. all that and more when you join us for news4 today in less than two minutes. looking at this gorgeous live picture this morning. it is one of the sure signs of spring in washington, it certainly feels like winter at the start of this year ace cherry blossom festival. good morning, welcome to news4 today, aaron gilcrest is off this morning but you will see him tonight. it is saturday, march 26th, the weather is the big story. kim martucci is in for chuck bell joining us in the studio. what do you mean, it is 35 now. that feels like winter. it was 33 before. now, we are up to 35. and snowflakes headed on those boss somes. today is a great day. we just showed you our live picture from down at the tidal basin where it is gorgeous. you can see the capital building, nice. a nice day, a little chilly everybody. let s take a look at the number, 35 is it. it is all quiet. this chilly weather, though, will last through the