Transcripts For WRC Today 20110414 : vimarsana.com

and jurassic prank. a dinosaur walks into a school. the screams of terror and delight triggered by that life-like t-rex. today thursday, april 14th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this thursday morning. i m meredith vieira. and i m matt lauer. federal officials say a second controller will be added to midnight shifts at 27 airports taurnld country in the wake of three new cases where controllers were apparently sleeping on the job. the latest incident happened on wednesday in reno, nevada, where a medevac could not get an answer. we re also talking about the bitter showdown. president obama laid out his plan on wednesday, but republicans say what they heard sounded more like the start of the president s re-election campaign. we re going to talk about that with congresswoman debbie wassermann schultz, her first since being nominated at the new head of the democratic national committee. plus new details why actress catherine zeta-jones recently checked herself into a mental health facility. but let us begin with the new changes by the faa. nbc tom cauostello covered aviation for us. tom, good morning to you. reporter: meredith, good morning. we thought that this would maybe be the last one. it s not. this most recent case involves the medevac plane trying to go from california to reno, nevada, early wednesday morning. the pilot was forced to circle while the controller slept. 2:00 a.m. in the skies over reno. reno tower, cheyenne. reporter: and the pilot with this medevac plane and a seriously ill patient needed to land. no answer from the tower. but radar controllers in northern california were listening. okay. we re going to call them on the phone lines. all right. we ll circle some o more . reporter: despite phone calls they still wouldn t answer. he said they couldn t wait any longer. land at your own risk and last reported. reporter: the faa now says the controller two years on the job admits he d fallen asleep. this is outrageous, tom, and we will not tolerate this kind of activity in control towers in america. reporter: the problem for the faa. this is hardly the first case of controllers sleeping on the job. on march 23rd two commercial flights had to land on their own at washington s rags an national airport. the controller was suspended for sleeping. february 19th. the faa says a knoxville controller slept while several planes landed over a five-hour period without his help and now we learn of another two cases. march 29, two were suspended for failure to answer radio calls from others about air traffic. and april 11, a controller at boeing field in washington state suspended for sleeping on the job. the system is built on a number of layers of redundancy. when one falls off, we have to see exactly why this is reporter: controllers have long argued the faa should never staff towers with lone controllers over night. now the faa has acted. as of last night, every faa tower in america that s open overnight must be staffed by at least two controllers. some of the towers were going with solo include zang. also the union will be going to every facility in the country, they say, reinforcing the notion of professionalism. and finally, meredith, the reno patient who s on the medevac plane, we re told, is okay. back to you. that s good news. thank you very much. it is 7:05. here s matt. thank you. now to the budget battling washington. this is what much of the debate is over. take a look at the national debt clock that now stands at more than $14 trillion. president obama has now unveiled his plan to reduce the deficit. chuck todd is nbc s chief white house correspondent. chuck, good morning. good morning, matt. well, it s on. the president didn t just unveil a debt plan. he ratcheted up the debate on this issue on what to do with the nation s entitlement programs and he declared it s going to be very contentious and front and center in the 20012 campaign. reporter: the house is planning to pass the compromised plan to keep the government running for the rest of this year and now the president has his own vision for 2012 and beyond. we don t have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit or debt and our people and our country. reporter: the president laid out his plan in four parts. he wants to simplify the tax code and raise taxes on wealthy americans, streamline agencies, reform medicare and medicaid in way that doesn t take away a guaranteed benefit and cut defense spending. but he spent almost as much time criticizing house chairman s paul ryan s plan as he did his own. the way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different america than the one we ve known. reporter: not surprisingly ryan and his house colleagues who sat in the audience did not like the criticism. what we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our commander in chief. what we heard today was a political broad side from our campaigner in chief. i believe it paints a vision of our future that is deeply pessimistic. it s a vision that says america can t keep the promise it made to care for our american seniors. reporter: republicans saw the speech as nothing more than the president s opening shot in the 2012 campaign. this fwhouts a speech designed for america to win the future. this was a speech designed for the president to attempt to win re-election. reporter: obama s own supporters acknowledge it was as much about the 2012 campaign as it was about the debt problem. it really will begin that definition that is so critical to give the american people a real choice in 2012. reporter: now, on social security just like in paul ryan s plan, the president said nothing more than the two parties need to get together. now the president laid out a path forward. he wants biden to lead a group in congress, essentially another commission, matt, to come up with a plan and a path forward by june. chuck todd at the white house this morning. florida congresswoman debbie wassermann schultz has been selected by the president to be the next chairwoman of the democrat national committee. congresswoman, good morning to you and congratulations on that. thank you very much. one of your jobs is going to be to set tone for the democrats over the next several years. when you listen to the speech that the president gave on wednesday with the republican leaders who came up with their own budget proposal sitting right in front of him, did he seem like a guy who was looking for cooperation to solve this nation s debt problems or a guy looking for confrontation? well, i think that he approached it as a grown-up would, and that s what we all are. we all have to approach the serious problems that our country is facing as grown-ups. we have to recognize we have a dramatic contrast between the way the president envisions trying to address our budget deficit and turn our economy around and focus on job creation and not short-circuit our economic recovery and the direction that the republicans propose which to balance all the sacrifice on the backs of our senior os, our elderly, an people who are struggling in america. the specifics, when we talk about medicare, for example, the president flatly rejected the republican plan to privatize it and turn it into a voucher system for people under the age of 55. he says he wants to lower the cost of medicare by lowing the cost of prescription drugs and eliminating waste. now, i haven t heard a politician in the last two decades say anything but we want to eliminate waste. is it a wish or a concrete plan? the president said much more than those two things. he talked about making sure we can get a handle on the overall cost of health spending, which was not included in the republican plan at all. he wants to make sure that we can reduce medicare spending, make sure that we use the independent payment advisory board that is existing in law from the affordable care act to really get a handle on the overall cost of medicare and slow its growth rate, make sure we can look at medicaid and get rid of the different match rates. there s 50 different match rates for every state in the country. have one simplified rate. that will bring down the admit stravist cost and also engage in revenue cuts so that we can make sure that we bring down the growth of discretionary spending and even included a debt fail-safe trigger so if we don t reduce the overall rate of growth according to our gdp, that we would have automatic across the board spending cuts. you mentioned revenues a second ago. on the subject of taxes the president drew a line in the sand. he said about the republicans plan, there s nothing serious about the plan by claiming to reduce the deficit by spending. he said he would not renew the bush-era tax cuts. the republicans already said the tax hike is a nonstarter. here s the president saying cutting those taxes, keeping those taxes on the wealthiest americans low is a nonstarter. where do you go on this? well, matt, i look at the president s proposal as a mom with three young kids who really is concerned about our looming budget deficit and i understand like most americans understand, that in order to make the long-term future of our country secure, shared sacrifice is going to be necessary. it s wrong as the republicans have proposed to ask 33 seniors each to pay an additional $6,400 in medicare and give $200,000 more in tax breaks to most americans. are you ready for compromise? we are ready for compromise. the president has asked them to bring the democrats and republicans around the table with the vice president in may when we come back and sit down and hammer this out. we were able to compromise in the continuing resolution on friday for 2011. everybody including folks on this show thought we were at the brink of government shutdown and the president helped negotiate a rational reasonable compromise. i m confident. before we let you go, the campaign for the president kicks off tonight, the 2012 race. there are some reports, congresswoman, that the president could raise a billion that s with a b a billion-dollars. given what we re talking about here, cutting spending, everybody cutting back, how do you think the american people are going to feel about a campaign that possibly costs a billion-dollars? president obama in his 2008 campaign raised the most amount of money from small donors than any presidential candidate in history. he s been focused grassroots outreach and that s the kind of campaign we re going to run again in 2012. this is going to be the most robust participatory campaign that we ve ever seen in america. all right. again, congratulations on your new position. thank you very much. thank you. it s now 13 after the hour. it s meredith. matt, thank you. we are learning more this morning about the mother who drove her family minivan into the hudson river killing herself and three of her children. the woman s family spoke exclusively to nbc news. we have the latest. maria, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, meredith. we now know that the 10-year-old boy was not let out as preefrsly thought. he escaped. they say they never imagined she would do the unthinkable. after losing so much, the family of lashanda armstrong is trying to make sense of the senseless and figure out why the 25-year-old mother would kill herself and three of her young children. and i m like, mom, what happened, calm down, calm down. and she that s when she told me, she said she drove the van into the water, they re gone, they re gone. reporter: though armstrong, a student and working single mother of four, was overwhelmed at times, they say she was generally happy and cheerful. but in the last few weeks she seemed clearly upset about something, even afraid. she was talking to me about how she felt like somebody was watching her. she felt like there was pages of her diary missing, the lights in her house were flickering on and off. reporter: most disturbing of all, armstrong began repeatedly apologizing to her friends and family, which they now see as a cry for help. i apologize if i ve ever done anything to you or hurt you. i said, lashandra, why ro youar apologizing. she was calling family saying i m sorry. nobody knew why. reporter: on tuesday she loaded all four children into her minivan before driving down a boat ramp and into the hudson river. their bodies discovered in the van under eight feet of water. but the oldest child, 10-year-old lashaun armstrong survived, climbing out of a window, swimming to shore in 40 degree water and flagging down motorist meave ryan. he was frantically waving his hands, face full of fear. he was saying please help me, please help me, please help me. his frozen face of fear on his face, i ll never forget it for the rest of my life. reporter: he recounted the chilling story of what she had done. she went to the back seat, held them all together and said if i m going to die, i m going to take you all with me. i m so proud of my nephew lag shaun to have the strength and the courage to get out. reporter: officials say the murder/suicide may have happened after a domestic dispute. earlier that evening police got a call from armstrong s family concerned that she was, quote, us theling with the father of her three youngest kids. they say the couple has a history of domestic problems but when officers arrived, no one was home. they still can t make sense of what made this young mother snap. something got under her and clicked her where she felt that there was nothing left. . reporter: that 10-year-old boy is now staying with relatives. he reportedly told officials that his mother changed her mind as the van was sinking saying, quote, i made a mistake, a last-minute change of heart that came too late. meredith? so sad. thank you very much. we now turn over to the news desk where tamron hall is filling in for ann this morning. a government watchdog issues a report today alleging the treasury department may have overpaid law firms managing the financial bailouts. the report says the treasury did not keep adequate records of $27 million in payments and so put the american taxpayer at risk. the treasury says it s working to implement the report s recommendations. new signs of japan s troubled fud fukushima plant. tepco officials say current high temperatures and elevated levels of radiation are signs that it may be time to completely remove the rods. north korea has confirmed that it is holding a u.s. shut citizen and plans to charge him with an as yet unspecified crime. he s believed to be from california. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum is testing the waters. he announced wednesday he s opened a presidential fund razing committee and that s a move that will allow him to explore the bid for a republican nomination. processing delays for the temporary lull in the number of foreclosures earlier this year. but according to foreclosure listing firm realty track, those numbers may be rising once again citing an uptick in recent possessions in february and march. erin burnett is at the new york stock exchange. it s the talk of wall street this morning. the committee in charge of investigating it coming out with the toughest indictment of goldman sachs we receive so far saying they mislead its customers as the mortgage market was plunging. chairman of the senate committee as well as tom coburn presented the bipartisan report. this will get a lot of talk. one other story, though, tamron, on another light note, pun intended, we re going to get a whole new iphone. apparently they have resolved it and by the end of the month you may get one. that means another long line at the apple store. thank you very much. it was a real life prehistory lesson for some australian preschoolers. the fun was all part of an australian tv show and it ended in this, a race, a kid versus dinosaur race but the t-rex not happy that he was losing this one letting off that angry roar. don t the kids by now it s not real, but they keep screaming. i love that. it s 7:19. back to meredith, matt, and natalie. how about that? that explains a lot of things. it s incredibly realistic. is that what they look like in real life? oh, please. all right. al is off today. we have stephanie abrams with the weather forecast. stephanie with the forecast. let s talk about what is happening on the radar right now. not very active, but this is going to change as we head into the afternoon hours. we will see explosive thunderstorms, and there is a threat for severe weather tonight into tomorrow as well. anywhere you see the orange and yellow shading on the map. otherwise we have sunshine on the east coast and west coast. beautiful outside our door. the sun is out and we will have sunshine throughout the day. we are at 53 degrees right now, with a light wind. we will have a high temperature today of 70 degrees. our winds will be out of the north generally for the afternoon, but 70 degrees today, and a weak cold front comes through the area and takes it to a 70 degrees. looks like scattered rain showers starting meredith over to you. stephanie. thank you. just ahead a popular teacher in florida gunned down in his home in cold blood and no one knows who did it or why. the victim s wife and daughter speak out in an exclusive live the victim s wife and daughter speak out in an exclusive live interview. 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 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(narrator) from unforgettable adventures to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. good morning. it s 7:26 on this thursday, the 14th of april. i am joe krebs. you saw it on news4 today, an arrest in yesterday s deadly shooting inside a local barbershop. the police have charged this man with murder. they say he turned himself in late last night. we will a near perfect spring day, not too warm and not too chilly later this afternoon. 53 is the current temperature. and trinidad will have a high of 70 degrees, and that puts us a few degrees above the average high for this time of year. 60 for tomorrow. we step it down as a cold front comes through and a stronger front on saturday with showers and storms. big trouble on 270 southbound. an accident in the middle of the roadway, and that s just after route 28 in rockville. all through lanes are blocked and we will keep you updated. a quick check over in virginia, volume only. tonight on news4 at 5:00, he is oprah wintry s interior designer and friend. a look 7:30 now on a thursday morning, 14th of april, 2011. a little warmer today, a little dryer as we check out the view from the top of the rock just above us here at rockefeller center. pretty moment. statue of liberty in the background there, and it should be a nice day for sight-seeing for all our people gathered out on the plaza this morning. we ll get out there and say hi to them in just a little while. somebody is giving away free pork. matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. if you ve ever been busted by one, you know how aggravating it can be. we re talking about the red light camera being used all across the country. you may not like where the money for the ticket you re paying actually goes. surprising information from actress catherine zeta-jones. you can only imagine the kind of stress she s been under the past year including dealing with her husband s michael douglas s cancer. there s been a lot of stressors for sure. also ahead why british critics are already slamming a made for tv movie about prince william and kate s romance. we re going to begin with serious news. a beloved teacher gunned down in florida. in a moment the victim s wife and daughter will speak out in an exclusive nbc video. first we have the scene from the crime and the details. reporter: good morning, meredith. this peaceful community was shaken to its core two weeks ago when a very popular teacher was tragically murdered in his own home. now his friends and family search for answers to his very shocking death. kenneth ellis was living a full life, a father of six and grandfather to 17, the 61-year-old high school history teacher was also a trained martial arts instructor. he changed so many lives, people, students, others. just two years ago he married his soulmate ella, but their marriage came to an end when they heard a knock on their door in their florida home at 10:00 at night. we opened the door, looked around. he was in front of me. and he closed the door and we stepped back. reporter: that s when ell ellis ella said two men pushed the door back and shot ken ikt in execution style. in his final words ellis yelled call 911. that s when ella bolted to the nearest phone. i still have this picture of him lying on the floor and grasping for air. and me calling the dispatcher, please come. please come here as fast as possible. please come ba to us. i hoped he would, but he didn t. reporter: kenneth was rushed to the hospital bus was pronounced dead on arrival. neighbors saw two men flee in a sedan. police have no suspects but are investigating 80 leads. we don t know if he was targeted, if this was a random act or a case of mistaken identity. reporter: according to published reports, police took into evidence more than 50 items from the home including receipt books, empty prescription bottles and a laptop searching for clues in kenneth s rich life that made have led to his untimely death. he was a teacher, but he was like a father. reporter: at manatee school for the arts where kenneth taught for the past 13 years, students and colleagues mourned the man they knew as master ellis, someone they remember as a gentle soul and great teacher. we said the kids have to know that you love him and he made sure that they did. and they did love him very much. . reporter: at this point police are still conducting interviews, and they say that everyone from his family to students to friends is a potential suspect, meredith. and as you can imagine, that makes the healing process for his loved ones so much harder. back to you. lilja luciano. thank you very much. his wife and daughter are with us. good morning to both of you and please accept our condolences. ella, what are the police telling you about the state of the investigation at this point. at the moment, it s nothing is resolved. it s still a mystery. and we are really worrying. this is not safe. we want closure. we want to know what s behind this insanity, why such a wonderful loving man could be killed in such a horrific situation. it s just uncomprehensible for me. your husband was shot and killed on march 29th. the two of you were home watching television, ordinary night. he started nodding off. you went off to the computer room to do some work. yes. the doorbell rang. yes. you both twoent the door? yes. first he went himself and said this is weird, nobody s there when he opened the door. then i joined him and said let s check it out. we opened the door again and closed door. there was a split seconds and then we watched at each other what s going on, is it a neighbor? and at this moment the door got open and i saw these two masked men wearing black and in split seconds they extended their hand and shot my husband. did they both have guns? i didn t see that. no words. just execution style. at no point pointed a gun at you. you re witnessing all of this. yes. i didn t notice. i was so scared i screamed that a neighbor neighbors heard that, but i don t remember. and i found myself jumping to the computer room backward which is close to tentriway and seeing my husband collapse and him saying call the police. the police say it s possible that this was a random act but more likely they think he was targeted. had he had any issues with any of his students, maybe a business associate, anybody, a family member? had he talked about anybody with whom he was having problems? i m trying to think and figure out what was behind this because he didn t have enemies. he was loved by everybody. he was walking peace. he was actually hanging efcs helping them with their lives. for me, i cannot understand this at all. maybe some connection with his website, which is supposed to be launch soon was launched partially, but the biggest part which was the business part was going to be launched in the end of april. maybe he was the disciplinarian, but he was a loving person also, so i don t think that any student can target his life. i have to ask you. you took a polygraph you told our producer and the police cleared you but yet in that piece we just heard they saider is a suspect here so it seems there s still a cloud of suspicion over you. i know. and it s so hard because, you know, i lost my beloved husband, and i was in this horrific incident. i felt and i m a victim in this situation and grieving process is so much harder for me than i, you know, still on the list of suspects even though i did the polygraph test and my computer was checked throughout, all my records were taken from the house which makes my house complica complicated and difficult. i m suspended, on hold with my life on top of the fact that i lost my husband. debbie, your dad has six children. you re one of them. i can only imagine the pain that you re going through right now. his students apparently loved him very much, students of the school. they put up a wall of letters to him saying just that. i want to read one that was written by a young girl named blossom to your dad who was called master ellis by the kids. i loved being in your class. i never knew how much your wisdom meant to me. the principles you taught us have enriched my life. you will be dearly missed. what do those words mean to you and your siblings? when we went and saw the wall we were so touched by the impact he had made. he was a father figure to many of those students as well a father figure to them and he was passionate and happy about that, and so we re grateful as his children that we had a direct relationship with him and that we were able to have that love, but also that he was able to share that with other children who needed that in their lives. can you make any sense out of any of this? no. you know, sometimes it feels just completely unrealistic, and other times it s just so horribly real. and, of course, sometimes you just think over it and you try to make sense and you try to figure it out, and you come back to the same square over and over again. again, we re so sorry for your life. we appreciate you being here. ella, thank you for being here as well. if you have any information about this kasz please call crime stoppers of sarasota county at 941-366-tips. they ve set up a ken school also set up a website you can go to. we have to talk about snow throughout portions of the upper midwest. it could be heavy at times. and there are advisories posted in montana. we could see 12 inches locally in some locations, otherwise we will see the sunshine along the 95 corridor. here is a look at what is happening outside your door. it s rain and sunshine around here. temperatures throughout the low 50s in the area. right now 53 to 55 degrees is the range, actually. the high today, 70 degrees. maybe a few high clouds and maybe a few additional clouds tomorrow. and then from 70 to 60 degrees, your high for friday. showers early on saturday and then thunderstorms for the late afternoon and through the overnight. meredith, back to you. stephanie, thank you. up next, a new reason to hate those red light cameras that can land you with a hefty ticket. we ll explain right after this,. 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[ male announcer ] ask your veterinarian wanna try some sfx: breakfast on the go!? negative. that is not a bar. sfx: gzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzhhhh. humanize your morning. emerald breakfast on the go! so let s plant some perennials that ll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us depth. and fill it out with flowers placed in just the perfect place. let s spend less, but plant more. what do you say we plant a weekend, water it, and watch a summer spring up? more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we re lowering the cost of no more weeds. with roundup weed and grass killer pump n go for just $15. we re back at 7:43 with growing frustration over the rhett lied cameras who automatically ticket drivers who fail to stop. nationwide governments who are squeezed by the financial downturn are turning to them. there s more to this story. he s in boston to explain. cary, good morn dwroug. reporter: they do not have a state law authorizing the red light cameras so municipalities take it on their own to put them in. it seems like a great source of financial revenue but critics ask, is it really? reporter: run a red light, and smile. you re on camera. used to be officers patrolled intersections, but these days, so-called robocops are standing sentinel with a picture and a computer match and a license tag out goes a $700 ticket. drivers hate it. it s not a police officer. so it s like i m being called out from a machine or robot. it s a camera. reporter: nationwide local officials thought the red light would be a hum new source of municipal revenue discovered just the opposite. it revealed red light cameras at unter sections cost more than $83,000 but the cameras have slightly earned more than $76,000 and it only gets worse when you factor in the contractor who installs the system gets a cut from every ticket. the entire program is suspect. it s not working. it s not working on the safety level, and it s not working on a revenue level. reporter: and then there s the legal cost. dismissing your case. dismissing your case. reporter: in broward county, everyone who has challenged their ticket has won. they didn t anticipate people like myself would be coming into court and fighting my case and winning and now they realize the budget is going to be potentially a big shortfall. reporter: in victorville, tea party activists say it s what they call an overreach of the government. get rid of it, period. get rid of all the cameras. reporter: even with the protests, police say the cameras improve driving habits. the proof, this intersection. it s reduced or traffic accidents by 60%, and therefore it has also reduced fatalities. reporter: why do judges taus so many of the tickets? that s because the red light camera takes a picture of the license plate, not always the driver and they send it to the owner of the car and said, i wasn t driving, maybe somebody else in my family was an then the judge tosses the ticket. kerry sanders. thank you very much. up next, the worst royal film ever made. why the british critics are blasting the new prince william and kate movie. i m suzanne with a sweet tip sponsored by mars, the makers of brands like m&ms and dove chocolate. to celebrate springtime make a kmokt garden using m&ms and dove chocolate. it s an an arrangement for the eyes. to learn how to create a sweet memory with chocolate this hold season please celebrate with us at celebrates. today .com. 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[ female announcer ] fight the forces of gravity. stay! new roc® multi correxion™ lift with protient® plus. skin looks lifted overnight. roc® multi correxion™. correct what ages you. what gravity? back now at 7:49 as the countdown for the royal wedding hits 15 days. a new movie premieres in the u.s. on monday and critics in brittain already have a few choice words to say about it. nbc s michelle kosinski is in london. good morning to you, michelle. reporter: hi, meredith. this has caused kind of an you up roar here with the scathing reviews of just the trailer. come on, americans love the royals more than some brits do, so isn t it only fitting that we come up with the movie to capture this timeless young love? no, according to the british press. all right, the trailer pretty much speaks for itself. keep your legs firmly together. you do realize this is the 21st century. perhaps in your world. reporter: no, no. the brits just aren t going to let this one off easy. there s no way like hollywood for cashing in on a royal wedding. it s a film so cheesy who s your favorite artist? reporter: awful, woeful, painful in the press, and this is just after two minutes of it. . you re not going to try to kiss me again, are you? i wouldn t dream of it. right. because we re just friends. right. just friends. reporter: nothing like a cold british downpour to spark romance. abysmal. is this just because it s an american production? come on now. this is insufficienterably idiotic. what are you doing? just kissing you. reporter: someone somewhere thought it was a good idea to portray him as a wet lovesick puppy was one s review, but doesn t it stir deep feelings? i love you. i love you. reporter: according to one viewer, yes, the urge to vomit overcame me. it s part of what irritates critics so much is that the lifetime drama shows precious little moments that may or may not have happened. the etiquette coach perhaps imagine nair. here s kate nursing a break-up in the bathtub. and then there s this. she dives off the boat into the river and swims to william. they have a kiss, a lovely moment, and in real life, i don t think so. i don t care what other people think. i do. it s best shown silent on a blank screen. reporter: hey, they re probably just jealous. and who doesn t love a mind candy romance every now and then. it actually sounds sweet. i tell you, wouldn t that dvd make a great wedding gift for the wedding couple? i saw the movie. what do they expect? it s a little cheesy but i thought it was a lot of fun too. it s sweet. it s sweet. meanwhile let s get to the preparations for the real couple s big day. the royal horse guards will have a big role to play. ben has more on that. good morning. explain the role that the guards will have. reporter: good morning. good morning, meredith. well, yes, london is turning into full wedding preparations, and earlier today the household cavalry had a practice in high park not very far from here. on the day, there ll be 200 horses out. that s a lot of boots to polish and breastplates to get ready. they were actually under the command today of silver stick-in-waiting. beats me as well. he was in charge of everything today. of course, the household cavalry is made of the blues and royals and queen s lifeguards. and they ve got quite impressive alumnae including the singer and of course princes william and harry. they ve have their own facebook page where you can follow all of their preparations. and on the day they ll be responsible for making sure that prince william gets to the church on time. he d better, ben fogele. thank you very much. 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[ female announcer ] visit aveeno.com for a free sample of new living color. good morning. our time right now is 7:56. we have 52 sunshiny degrees here in the nation s capital. beautiful picture out there right now. the 14th of april today. and metro says it will begin ticketing employees in response to workers parking without paying the meters. some employees left metro vests in the window and others left expired parking placards. and then an over time thriller against the new york rangers. and then the caps now have a 1-0 series lead. we ll take a break and come back and look at the a whole lot of nice weather today with widespread sunshine. we re in the low 50s and the high is 70 degrees today and then a cold front comes through and 60 tomorrow. 270 southbound has been cleared, however we are jammed germantown all the way down to the capital beltway, but again, the lanes are re-opened. and tonight at 5:00, oprah wintry s interior d 8:00 now morning, april 14th, 2011. and you are looking at the happy crowd that has lined rockefeller plaza. it s a good day for finally some dry weather for a change here in new york. i m meredith vieira along with matt lauer. just ahead one of hollywood s biggest stars. it s a troubling store. a representative for catherine zeta-jones said the actress spent some time not long ago in a mental health facility being treated for what s being called bipolar disorder type 2. it s been a very stressful time in their lives with health issues and family issues, although we don t know any of the specifics concerning catherine zeta-jones. we want to talk more about the disorder. u i have never heard of bipolar 2. also a scary statistic. 81% of teenage girls feel overwhelmed by life. coming up, teens overcome the pressure of feeling the need to be perfect. what every parent needs to know coming up. acd actually, that need to feel perfect increases with age. so it s important to get it while they are young. and then we ll check in with some of the most affordable places on one list. first we will head inside to tamron hall. good morning, everybody. the faa says it s adding air traffic controllers to 27 airports so workers will not be on duty alone during overnight shifts. the latest incident happened in nevada where a medevac plane had to land without assistance because the controller was saw leap. president obama unveiled his long-term plan to reduce the nation s debt with spending cuts and higher taxes and tighter control of medicare and medicaid. the president did not adequately address the nation s physical challenges what the republicans said. and then the u.s. is committed to supporting the civilians. rebels said a rocket barrage killed at least 23 people in the western city. baseball s all-time home run king was convicted wednesday on one count of obstructing justice. and some electric trau fiing new video of the empire state building, and they say lightning never strikes twice, but here lightning strikes three times. al s pick city of the day is brought to you by capital one venture card. what s in your wallet? i found all the birthdays. you are a chilly girl out here? it s really cold. we will take you to another great city, and that s san francisco, al s pick city for the day today and show you the weather out there. usually san francisco, a little camp and on the cool side. let s look at the forecast as we head through the day today. we are going to see the weather pretty nice there. san francisco s cable cars are america s only movg national historical landmark. that s cool. what about the rest of the country? how is it shaping up? we are showing the satellite and radar bringing weather into the northwest and into the northeast, and then we have sunshine throughout a big chunk throughout the southeast. we have nice sunshine. oh, the sun will be shining on us all through the day today. temperatures in the low 50s right now. we will hit a temperature of 60 degrees by noontime today, and 70 later this afternoon. a weak cold front will produce some clouds around the area tomorrow and take the temperature down. the high for friday, 60, and 64 to 65 expected on saturday, and showers in the early part of the day and thunderstorms during the later part o now back over to matt and meredith. steph, thank you very much. coming up next, why actress catherine zeta-jones checked herself into a mental health facility. that s right after this. nd. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but. 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it s a form of a mood disorder where you have episodes of major depression, true depression, alternating potentially with what s called hypomania or a low form of a high, and in bipolar 2 unlike bipolar 1, that high could be intense irritability, sleeplessness, or it could be kind of an elation, grand asti. that s why it can be difficult to spot. it can look like a functional person who s super up. is this a predispowe something s for getting. is this something that can come out of the blue or both. you know, a lot of people will have a family predisposition to it and stress can be a trigger for this. a lot of times we see true they used to call this manic depressive disorder. we can see bipolar disease in really creative people. i think about your really manic comedians who have really high highs and really low lows. we re not talking about those kinds of extremes here but certainly the stress, if you look at katharicatherine zeta-j a husband with cancer, an ongoing litigation, small children, turning 41. she s had plenty this year. this has been a power packed year for that kind of stress. stress makes bipolar disorder potentially worse. but i want to be clear. stress doesn t give you bipolar disorder. you re usicly genetically pre disposed or already have the illness. checked into a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar 2 disorder. i think what catches people is a brief stay. is it an episode? you can have this, go somewhere and in a couple of days what is it? there are two possibilities. you kick start treatment. one is the illness has gotten worse and there s an episode going on and it needs intins treatment in order to control it. usually with education and psycho therapy. however, you can go in the hospital even if you re not to tune up medications because it s not a simple matter. it s a mood-stabilizing drug, sometimes two drugs. sometimes you have to add an  antidepressant if you re in a depressive period. people can sometimes become toxic. there s a stigma attached any time you start to describe a mental illness but the indication is this is someone, whether it s contactet rinne zeta-jones or anyone else with this who can live productive very normal lives. there s a ridiculous stigma in this country about this. i would say there s less of a stigma about her husband s cancer than her getting bipolar disease and we have to sort of get over it. people get sick. our job as doctors is to get them well. that s a problem in the brain. like you had a problem with your stomach. and i d like to say that i think it s tremendously brave of her to come forward and i m delighted that she s doing that because there are many people who do lead productive lives or have a new diagnosis and we want them to know that they have every hope if they get treatment of having wonderfully productive lives. and that would be the expectation here. i would like to say i like them both very much. they ve been great friends of this program. thank you very much. we appreciate it. up next, the pressure on today s teens to be perfect and the toll that could be taking right after this. good morning good morning [ male announcer ] there are sixteen fresh-picked oranges squeezed into each carton of tropicana pure premium and absolutely no space for added sugar, water or preservatives. tropicana we put the good in morning. hershey s bliss. one square inch of indulgence. joy. pleasure. one square inch of extra smooth, rich chocolate. hershey s bliss. chances are your soil is like this: compacted, drained of nutrients. it ll hold your plants but it ll also hold em back. the solution: miracle-gro garden soil. the perfect mix of rich, organic ingredients, and miracle-gro plant food. just mix it in. and turn bad soil into great soil. helps plants grow twice as big. instead of holding em back, they ll leap ahead. miracle-gro garden soil. and moisture control garden soil. 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[ male announcer ] build your better breakfast with all the flavors you choose. try an irresistible steak, egg & cheese, with toasty tomato or chipotle southwest sauce on tasty flatbread. only at subway! how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can t fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less. my brain didn t even break a sweat. where you book matters. expedia. . this morning on parenting today, teens and the pressure to be perfect. we all know high school can be a prime time for kids, and girls in particular are feeling the heat. here s today s national correspondent amy robach. . reporter: 18-year-old demi lovato is a rising yom music and tv star. but recently the pressure in the spotlight took its toll and lovato who has admitted to cutting herself checked into rehab last year after struggling for years with an eating disorder. there s a ton of pressure to meet impossible standards. if you re going throw a dark period, remember you re not alone. you can get help and you can feel better. reporter: lovato is not alone. millions of teens suffer in private with feeling they can never measure up. who are you pleasing? are you pleasing yourself? are you pleasing your parents? everyone. you want everyone to love you, and it s going to be impossible. but you want to try your best. i feel like when you please everyone, you please yourself. you know, when other people give you their approval, you go, oh, i ve done it. these fourteens like 84% of young women feel overwhelmed by everyday life with school being the biggest stressor. college applications, i thinking about applying to college. it s like i don t want to go to school anymore. i will stay up until 4:00, 5:00 in the morning doing homework sometimes, and then i have to get up at 6:30 for school. reporter: 67% of young adults stress about their weight. gosh, my hips are huge. oh, please. i hate my calves. reporter: leading to unhealthy relationships with food. a few years ago i actually suffered from anorexia. while i got skinnier, at the same time i kind of o got approval. but it didn t make me very happy because i would go home. i would feel hungry. i would feel tired. reporter: striving to be cover girl perfect doesn t end there. it s important for you to feel pretty. i feel like i shouldn t need reassurance. it feels good. it s nice because maybe you can convince yourself about it. reporter: a new seven teen magazine poll shows 15% physically hurt themselves on purpose. for those who don t understand the reason why women cut themselves, why was that empowering to you? it would give you control when nothing else could be controlled. you can t control how you look, and you can t control like other people, but that was one thing that i could control. reporter: and a constant struggle to find balance. it s like even if you re relaxing, you re relaxing with things on your mind. i want me time. reporter: to hear that you all at the ages you re at, you re struggling for me time, that seems kind of crazy. i remember when i was 3 i wanted to be 16 already. i want to go, can i go back? i don t want to be here anymore. reporter: for today, amy robach, nbc, new york. good morning on to you both. good morning. you surveyed more than a thousand girls asking them about this pressure to be perfect. what did you hear from them? you know, stress is nothing new. teenagers are stressed out. but what is new and what s really scary are the self-destructive behaviors, cutting, eating disorder, pills. and sex. sex is part of that too. it s worse than ever. why do you think that is? it s not the usual suspects. you would think it s parents or coaches or teachers that are ramping up these expectations, but it all comes from internal. these girls are doing it to themselves. and every single time that they set impossible goals for themselves, they push the goal further and further away so they can never achieve this ideal of perfection. this notion of the girls, the majority of those polls by the magazine feel overwhelmed by life and the pressure that s coming from within, does that surprise you? it focuses on outside appearance. on the other hand life is stressful. and so what is happening is our young people are not learn thoug deal with life in the sense of having healthy coping mechanisms and that s where the responsibility is for adults and parents to normalize what they re feeling, let them know they re not alone but teach them to cope with what will be more and more stressful and that s the demands of life. what i found in the study is when they feel pressure, they ll go to their friends first and then they go to their mom. a mom is in a position to help their daughter who is struggling. moms are the key to solving this problem. the girls say this is the one relationship they feel most confident in. you know, it really comes down to have a conversation with your daughter not about her apierns or her achievements or what s happening in school but her feelings and her friends and her life and her goals and her dreams and her aspirations rather than sort of ramping up the expectations. i have four daughters, and certainly there s that push-pull in add less ends but moms, we need to realize our power and the roles we play for being a sounding board for whatever they want to talk about to help them deal appropriately with what they re feeling and to give them confidence. every now an then there s so much conflict, but give them some praise. i like when you do that. it s wonderful how you clean the house or whatever they ve done. what are the proper coping mechanisms we should be teaching them that they can utilize? number one is to really have perspective. if they have a negative thought about how they look, teach them how to say what s another way to look at that? teach them about regular exercise and nutrition, getting enough sleep, but also realizing in life you have ups and downs and sometimes you learn the most when you re disappointed, but so often with technology and the fact that our kids aren t speaking as much to each ore and we don t have enough huddle or family time, they really don t learn how to use the tools and get the right feedback to know that everything they re feeling is normal and we can teach them how to successfully manage their teenage years. i found it interesting that in terms of stressors school was number one, schools, achievements, and down the list, boys. it needs what these girls are fixated on. that s not their focus. they are interested in their weight and their appearance and we really need to help them. we need to teach them the value of themselves. thank you both so much. really appreciate it. just ahead, the risky business of cheating on your tax return. that s after your local news. 8:26 is your time now. 51 degrees. look at that blue skies once again and a nice day ahead. veronica will have your forecast after the news. good morning. in the news4 today, police arrested a man for the deadly shooting inside a barbershop. he turned himself in late last night. police have not yet released a motive. sunshine galore today. let s take a look around the area and see how warm we are. it s still chilly out there. 50 degrees right now over in sterling. and german down at 52. and great falls is at 50 degrees right now. we will see a high today of 70 degrees. is that very nice. 60 tomorrow and showers on saturday. chopper 4 was over the scene of an accident with the pictures a short time ago below route 198. and one lane does remain closed off. and then an earlier accident on route 28 has been cleared. tonight at 5:00, he morning. it s the 14th day of april, 2011. a couple of days of rain here in new york city have given way to beautiful sunshine as you can see from that shot from the top. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira and tamron hall who s here while ann is taking some time off. you know that s not flat stanley. who is that? it s a woman. flat stacy. coming up, tax deadline. monday, right? have you done yours? yes. if you re watching from home and considering fudging the facts, i think again. we re going to meet won women who lost nearly everything after falling for a tax scheme. we re going to give you words of advice. let s feel you have to pay a lot of taxes and you can t take a vacation? wrong, you can take a vacation. we have a new list of the world s most affordable hotels. plus, if you re thinking about remodeling, we re going to go through some key questions. everything you need to know before you hire a contractor. i think everyone understands. we have great tips so you end up with the project you want. let us say good morning and walk this way to tracy morgan. tracy, of course, a star of 30 rock, and now lending his voice to the new animated movie rio. nice to see you. good morning. bulldog. tell me about it. this is my friend. this is the character i play in rio. he s funny and helpful and you ve got to check it out. what do you thing of the concept of a bulldog that slobbers and has a bowl of fruit on his head and they think of tracy morgan immediately. i love it. sometimes i slobber. it s accurate, you know. i love what the character is. when you film it, you do it as if you re animated. they have a camera in the booth when i watch in the movie, his face moves just like mine. it is incredible. you say sometimes you slobber, i see a little bit there. that s doughnut. we have so much in common. there s pastries upstairs. they show me. i love you as tracy jordan. i think it s my alter ego. i get to fly over the cuckoo s northwest every fly ov nest every week. and yeah, you are going on tour? yeah, we look forward to starting that maybe in july. so what is your motivation for the tour? my motivation? just being funny, and being on stage, and spreading my love across the country, and doing funny. you know. we need that right now. and you are doing well, and you had a kidney transplant and everybody was rooting for you, and you look great. feeling good? thank you. i was given a chance to live life to the fullest again, and the kidney is good and i feel like i have a new lease on life. thank you very much. congratulations on your role. great seeing you, and having you here. let s get a check of the weather now. stephanie? we went from sleepless in seattle to a city that never sleeps. you have what looks like a rain coat on, and you know the rain is gone? it rained a lot here. you brought it from seattle. we will blame it on her. the rain will be today in the northwest today, and then throughout portions of the center of the country, and we could have that severe weather. that shifts eastbound as we head into tomorrow. now here is a look at what is happening outside your door. forget about the rain today and concentrate on what you are going to do out in all that sunshine. beautiful day expected today, as we see the temperatures climb from out of the low 50s, and the high today, around 70 degrees. a few high clouds expected late today, and then some more cloud cover tomorrow. that will come from a cold front that will be moving through. weak cold front without any rain. the high 60 degrees on friday. thank you very much. up next, the risky business of cheating on your tax returns, a warning from one couple who learned about it the hard way. but first this is today on nbc. i m a curious seeker. i am a chemistry aficionado. diphenhydramine. magnesium hydroxide. atheletes foot. yes. i m a people pleaser. if elected, i promise flu shots for all. i am a walking medical dictionary. congratulations virginia. inflamed uvula. i m virginia. i m a target pharmacist and i m here to answer your questions. with this year s tax deadline falling on april 18th instead of tomorrow, a lot of americans are going to spend the next couple of days scrambling to finish their returns. according to surveys, 15% of you admit to cheating on your taxes. cnbc s becky quick takes a look at america s tax cheat in a new documentary airing tonight and how the irs is stepping up its efforts to collect. reporter: with more than 140 million tax returns filed every year, the odds of a fraudulent return slipping through the cracks are high. only about .003% of all filers actually face criminal investigations because according to the irs, barely 1% of all returns are audited. but playing the odds is a risky game. just ask shirley cornett and her husband of taylor, arizona. in 2008 their long-time tax preparer talked about a new method normally preserved for the privileged few. got a refund 20 times what they had gotten in years past. the tax preparer accurate consulting took a tax cut. their refund for the year was $83,000 and it was astronomical compared to what we d ever received before. that s right. she and her husband earned $200,000 and got an $83,000 return from the irs. it seemed too good to be true. i was like are you sure that s right? she said, believe me, everything we ve done is right. and i said is it legal and she said everything we ve done is legal. reporter: the cornetts cashed their $83 thousand irs check and soon remod oled their home but soon the town started buzzing with rumors. the company was accused of embezzling the government and filing more returns. the clients can t escape the long arm of the irs. their fate was decided by their own hands. if you sign the return, you re swearing to the accuracy of the return. if you don t look at it and if you don t ask questions, you re responsible, you re liable. reporter: the cornetts filed an amended return and avoided criminal charges but shirley and her husband still owe the irs $110,000 in taxes, penalties, and fees. their wages have been dar nish and they struggle to make ends meet. it s scary. it s frustrating. the irs has put a tax lien on our home. we haven t quit our jobs even though we re not getting a paycheck. we still go to work every day. you have to keep going. what i want to get out there is taxpay taxpayer beware. be careful who you pick to do your taxes. cnbc did make several attempts to reach accurate consulting. they were unavailable for comment and becky quick joins us. good morning. good morning, matt. how can you figure out or assure that the company you re using is on the level. it s a difficult task. it s complicated. the irs is starting to help you out a little bit. they re starting a program where they re registering tax preparers and you can look at this kind of as a good housekeeping seal of approval. about 600,000 tax preparers signed up with them but there are over 900,000 in the united states and there are a lot of people who claim to be things they aren t. this couple tried to do it right and got caught up in this mess. the tint rim are going to try to get away with somebody. who is the average american tax cheat. it probably wouldn t surprise you. the average tax cheat is a man who s single. probably wouldn t surprise me. they re under age 45 because they re the guys who like to take risks. as you saw, it can fall on anybody. the irs knows if you re a w-2 wage earnier, it s a little harder to cheat. if you re a contractor, waitress or claiming your own salary, you re more of a red flag and are more likely to look at you. the irs is using high tech. they ve got gone to technology to figure out who s cheating. you ve got to be careful. if you think you re going to get away with something, there s a chance you won t and the consequences could be huge. it premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. even and pacific time. that d ahead on cnbc. still ahead, the royal watching party. first this is today on nbc. a great looking lawn like this, but trying to grow grass from seed in tough areas like deep shade, along the driveway, and where the kids play can be a little intimidating. until now. with scotts ez seed. it s scotts best grass seed, starter fertilizer and a growing material that absorbs water and expands to surround and protect the seeds, you ll get a thick, green scotts lawn even if you ve never been successful with other seed before. the revolutionary scotts ez seed. grow grass anywhere. . back now at 8:44. with a community that s united to fix a troubling problem. today s contributor giada de laurentiis is in rockville, south carolina, using an interesting way to feed kids in need. whenever my tummy s growling, it growls like a little bit loud and i can t understand what the teacher is saying. reporter: this is the face of hunger. have you gone to school hungry? yeah. reporter: what s that like? your tummy is like going to blow up because it s growling so much. reporter: they are just two of the nearly 600 students in the rock hill, south carolina, district who received subsidized school meals during the week but go with little to no food on the weeken weekends. you re lying there sleeping and your baby is lying next to you and their belly will growl and it makes you think about why didn t i get more to eat or how is it i can feed them. reporter: their mother struggles to make ends meet. if you have to have money for gas or for your electric or your rent or whatever reporter: you d rather go for that. you have to do that. you have to do that. you have to pay for those other things before you can buy food. reporter: feed your kids. yeah. reporter: wow. the struggles of this family are shared be many in the community. one out of 17 kids at rock hill are hungry. there were children actually wrapping up part of their lunch of friday to take home and get them through the weekend. when you hear those stories, you can t ignore that. you just have to do something about it. reporter: so at the start of the 2008 school year, back the pack was formed providing bags filled with snacks for children in need. it was a real eye opener that was happened right here in my community, in my own backyard. reporter: with the help of students and community volunteers more than 500 bags per week are packed with nonperishable food items. does anybody ever cheat and put a little extra something something since i saw you grab a few extra things? sometimes. reporter: and discreetly distributed to students on fridays. each bag costs $3 to make, so back the pack, a nonprofit organization relies on grants and donations, including charitable giving from members of the community. we have a bus driver who sees these children every day on his bus route, and when he found out that we had a program where he could actually do payroll deduction, he was one of the first people to sign up. reporter: but the problem is not isolated in rock hill. in 2007 there were more than 12 million children living in households with limited access to adequate food and the impact this has had on the classroom is detrimental. a recent study shows that hungry children are more likely to receive special education services, engage in aggressive behavior, and have chronic health conditions. educators in rock hill witnessed this first hand until back the pack helped turn some of these kids lives around. these children are vibrant, they have lots more energy, eager to learn, not getting into as many arguments. 80% of these students had improved academically. were seeing 40% less visits to the school nurse. so the statistics have been amazing in a short period of time. reporter: but the proof is in the pudding. it gives me a piece of mind thinking that if nothing else, i know that we ve got that, you know, to tie them over. it s a good thing that we ve got those bags. giada, it is really unbelievable. it s heartbreaking. it really is. the statistics are so disturbing. besides seeing the kids hoarding the food on friday, what other thing is happening? i think what happens is the kids leave the school on friday and between friday and monday morning there s 66 hours where they go with very little food or no food at all, and so the school bus you know, the school bus driver, they would ask them for food, their friends for food. they would fall asleep in class or start acting really weird in class. they can t concentrate because they re so hungry. so that s really why the school district and the teachers started asking the kids questions. because they were little it was easy to tell what was going on. have you seen this transferred to other communities. do you know if other districts are doing this? i know there is a lot of interest in north and south carolina. i got interested because i thought i could do this for my area where i live in los angeles. so i definitely think it s a program where you can donate if you want to or take a look in your own neighborhoods and see if you can help. if it s happening there, it s happening all over. for sure. thank you so much. up next, the world s hottest new hotels at the world s most affordable prices. first this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] diane was already the chief operating officer at a national tissue bank when she decided to get her masters in healthcare administration. by choosing a university that connects working students to faculty who are also leaders in their fields. she was able to apply her studies to the real world. and help more people, much quicker. my name is diane wilson, i deliver the best gifts on earth, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] learn more about the college of nursing at phoenix.edu. [ male announcer ] learn more about the college of nursing i never wear the same thing twice. not together, anyway. i m in t.j.maxx every week. i used to think it was old school, but it s not. i get this season s designer clothes that i absolutely need. and i still get to eat. fashion direct from designers. savings direct to you. that s right. i m a maxxinista. t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you. this morning on today s travel the hottest hotels that have opened their doors when the past year. conde nast is out with their latest list. we have the more affordable options on that list. kate, good morning. good morning. readers chime in on this or is this just about the editors? the editors and correspondents, yes. what are the criteria? all sorts of criteria. we bounce on the beds, make unreasonable demands of the staff, eat the food, drink the cocktails, but what all these hotels have in common whether it s a treehouse in spain or a 3,000-room in spain is a sense of place and real style. i want to make sure i m right about this. was reading last night. there are 324 hotels on the list. did you person le stay at 42 of these that didn t make the list? i would have to say there are a few that didn t make the list. there are wanted posters of you up in the lob byes. these are more affordable. that s what we re concentrating on. the tropical oasis of domica, a country making the list for the first time. it s between guadalupe and martiniq martinique. dominica is considered the nature island. this is on a tidal turtle nesting beach. they include kayaking on the river. you can t swim in the sea because it s a bit rough. hiking, waterfalls. $180 a night, that s a pretty good price. let ee move across the globe. asia has 24 hotels on the list. a third of those are in china. you have a small called boutique hotel, not a hole. this one is apparently in shanghai. it is in shanghai. what do you like about it? this is in a former army compound. it has just 19 rooms. it s an industrial chic. it had mid-century furniture. it plays on the communal living lifestyle of shanghai. and i look the fact you can rent vinnage scooters with side cars. and a really good restaurant. in greece, popular european getaway. talk about this place. is it the consterna? it is. it s in southern greece, a tiny peninsula. it s in a mansion. it s ancient, this mansion. so it s a got a rustic chic look. they grow their own ol uives and press their own olive oil and vegetables around there s a really great spa that draws on the ancient system there. they ve had a turbulent time. is it a good opportunity for americans? yeah. let s move over to another hot spot in europe. we re talking about spain. this is an affordable hotel not to be confused with the hotel vieira, this is hotel vioraa. this is a real female sis on wine, a really good sommelier there. barrels on the ceiling. even though it s nestled in this old village, it s right next to a 17th century church, it really works, i think, the deco really works. you like this for couples. you say it s a very romantic place. yes, yes. let s go south to buenos aries. the hotel is in a great area at a great price. yes. i was there a couple of years ago. great for shopping, really good for restaurants, cute little speak easy restaurants around there and it has great high-tech amenities. if you book a suite, you get your own ipad. not to keep. you use it tr the week. you have to give it back. newspapers, hotel check-in folders. finally let s get a little closer to home. you have a hotel you really like in chicago. $75 a night? such a bargain, yeah. okay. this is the longman and eagle. it s been nation lal renowned. fair, venn sin, wild boar, sloppy joes. the rooms are sort of hipster. exposed brick, tape decks, blast-in showers and you can walk upstairs and slump into bed after you have dinner. you had them when you said located above a pub. we re back after your local news. fter your local news. 8:55 is your time now. good morning. metro says it will begin ticketing employees in station lots in response to reports of workers parking without paying the meters. some employees left vests or invalid parking placards in the windows. the capitals kicked off their stanley cup push with an overtime thriller against the new york rangers. the caps have a 1-0 series lead. go, caps. weathe we made it through yesterday, so today what do we get? the sunshine trophy. we are in the 50s now, and nice and warm later, and cooler tomorrow. an accident still tying up the right side of the roadway. and so delays at the beltway. the bridge, heavy but steady, and both lanes are open in both directions. no we re back now with more of today on a thursday morning. this is the 14th day of april, 2011. the sun s streaming down in the background there. boy, we are happy to see that after a couple of days of rain. lenny and his friends enjoying the nicer weather. a lot of these people here because we re joined by norah o donnell this morning filling in while natalie is on assignment and al is taking the day off. you did say something about the sun coming out, didn t you? mostly. it s good to have you. it s great to be here. i m so glad it s getting warm. spring is finally here. coming up, we re going to talk about some new changes that are coming for airports all across the country. this in the wake of some reports that airport traffic controllers have been falling asleep in the tower. one plane, i think it was that one right there, carrying a seriously ill patient forced to land without assistance. the faa stepping in, putting changes into effect. we re going to talk about that. also talking about what is difficult news for catherine zeta-jones. she admits she s spent a little time at a mental health facility being treated for what s being called a bipolar type ii disorder. we ll find out what it is. we wish her family well. she can be an inspiration to a lot of people who suffer from that. also on another note, if you re in the market for a new bathroom or kitchen, a lot of people want to do renovations certainly in the spring, spruce up their house, you may be able to negotiate a good price if you do it now. we ve got really good tips for people, how you do it, how to get a good contractor, you don t want to get scammed. most people have some disaster stories. no doubt, no doubt. of course, did you know there s a royal wedding coming up? i heard it. do tell. 15 days. the countdown is coming. we re going to show everybody how to throw a viewing party, which is fun. if you want to have a party the night before, i know of some parties in washington. we re going to have lots of tips and fun ideas. i heard one of the hotels in new york having a big to-do starting at 5:30 in the morning. it should be great. they ll be airing nbc, i hope. let s go inside. tamron is standing by at the news desk. ann is on assignment. good morning, everyone. the federal aviation administration is but putting an end to one person inside the control towers overnight. nbc s tom costello with the latest. reporter: this comes after several controllers were found to be sleeping on the job including here at reagan national airport and as recently as knoxville at 2:00 in the morning when a medevac plane tried to land in reno, nevada, unable to land because the controller had been asleep and was asleep for better part of 15 minutes. the pilot decided to put the plane down on his own. the patient is oak. we re learning of more sleeping on the job. so effective last night the faa ordered immediately that every control towener america that s operating overnight must have at least two people on staff. air traffic controllers have been calling for that for years. they say it simply isn t safe to have a single controller working the tower overnight. and now that is, in fact, the rule of the land. back to you. all right, tom. thank you. today the house and senate are prepared to vote on the budget con promice to keep the government running for the rest of the year. president obama laid out his plan for long-term debt reduction. it involves spending cuts and higher taxes. a massive search is under way for a tennessee woman apparently kidnapped from her own home. nbc s reporter is in parsons, tennessee, with the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning, to you. 20-year-old holy was seen wednesday morning dragged away by a man wearing camouflage. dozens of investigators are preparing to search for her again this morning. this as her relatives and friends pray for her safe return. in the small community of darden, tennessee, wednesday night, prayers for the safe return of 20-year-old holly bo bo. holy was leaving her family s house for class when neighbors heard a scream and called police. her brothers told investigators he saw a man dressed in camouflage dragging holly across the carport and toward the woods. police set up search teams in the air and on the ground. they say they re unsure if the suspect is a stranger or someone who knows holly. we ve had tracking dogs, we ve had helicopters, everything we could get we ve had looking for the young lady there. reporter: holly was wearing a pink shirt and light blue jeans when she was last seen. she s the cousin of up-and-coming country singer whitney duncan. on wednesday night duncan twittered please say a prayer for my family tonight. people in this community are in shock. in this small rural area we live in, we never dreamed anything like this would happen. we pray for the family, the young lady. it s our hopes and prayers that we find her alive. reporter: and despite the presence of multiple agencies including fbi there are no leads and very little information on the suspect other than he s a white man wearing camouflage. thank you. the white house is up for sale. no, of course not that white house but an exact replica in mclean, virginia. $4.5 million. the children have grown up and they now have empty northwest syndrome. yours for the price. it is five minutes past the it s five minutes past the hour. there you go, a new home if you are up for it. i like that. absolutely. chip in? absolutely. let s get a check of the weather. we have students here, high school students who are here for a guitar festival. what is your favorite song? africa by toto. not great weather across the center of the country. there is a threat for severe weather throughout portions of the plains and on into the south and that shifts eastbound as we head into friday and into our friday night we could see strong tornadoes. the forecast looks like this. ample sunshine, so don t forget the sunglasses. here is what is happening outside your door. the weather today much improved. we replaced the gray droopy skies of yesterday with nice sunshine throughout the area. 70 degrees for the high temperature today. we will warm up quickly by lunchtime today, and by noon we will be at 60 degreesdegrees. a cold front will be moving through, weak and dry, but will take our temperatures down. 60 for the tamron, back to you. all right, stephanie. thank you. on today s home, hiring and working with the right building contractor. the industry is seeing signs of life again but before you take on that remodeling project, we re here to tell you what you need to know before you sign on the dotted line. vera, good to see you. good morning, tamron. matt was saying so many people have a disaster story as opposed to people who say it worked out great the first time. why is that? this is an center that tops the list in terms of complaints or is in the top five. but it is nice to see signs of life happening now. you re seeing it for a variety of reasons in this industry. first of all there s penalty-up demand. people who are putting off this project are feeling more confident about the economy. they re getting in there and doing small projects. you also have people who are reluctant to trade up. they re not going to sell the home so they re making improvements and we have 5 million properties that need fixing up. if all goes according to plan, the job market continues to stabilize, then remodeling, spending could be up. another reason, aging population. so you have a lot of people who have homes now that are available because of that. they have different needs. so you re seeing growth in the smaller projects, not in the massive huge expensive projects. but that s where you re seeing the primary growth. people sprucing things up a bit. doing a new kitchen and bathroom. let s look at the tips. don t hire the first person that comes along, rule number one. what else should you look for? that s the thing. you want someone with experience, who s been around for a while, they re registered, licensed. they ve got insurance, a good reputation. also this is really important too. that they ve got a good clean bill of health from the federal business bureau and from your local consumer protection agency. as i say, this is an industry that s rife with complaints. as matt says, you know somebody who has a complaint with a contractor. you don t want ongoing disputes. you want somebody who has that clean bill of health both from the better business bu roar and the consumer protection agency. you want to make sure the person has the experience to renovate the type of project you re looking at. right. go take a look at some of the work that they re doing, see them in progress here, go to a couple of different sites. also get a bunch of references, three different references. call them. did they show up on time, were there any unexpected costs. overall were you happy with the result, would you use them again? now is the time to get the bids. traditionally you take the three lowest bids but you take three bids overall. i was going to go for cheap. no. three bids total. in those bids, you ve got all the costs, the cost of supplies. i would say toss out the low ball bid because they re probably cutting corners. you re probably going to be inviting trouble that. ire going to use cheap materials or start out with a great quote and say there s complications. too good to be true. you want to ferret them out. you want somebody you can trust, good price, good value. pernlt is important. good communication skills. do you get along with this person? you have to spend a lot of time so you have to make sure it works both ways. i don t want to be stereotypical, but if you re a woman or living alone or taking over the project, you could have someone burly, not listening to y you. what about the contract, putting everything in writing? is. you need a contract putting everything in writing regardless of the size. right down the payment schedule. and even if it s a small project, the start date, completion date, payment schedule and everything in between. i would also suggest you in that contract a time frame for fixing defects so that if a dispute does arrive, you re not dealing with this problem endlessly. and with this housing market a lot of people want to upgrade but is it a better idea to just try to renovate? a lot of people try to do it as an investment. i wouldn t do it as an investment. if you ve been putting off the projects and you have the cash, if it will make you happy, tamron, go for it. what would make me happy is the lowest tip but i m not going with that. good advice. up next, nearly 10% of early school age children may have a tic disorder. dr. nancy snyderman has an update on that and tore rhett s syndrome. we have fun ideas for how you can celebrate the big event with a royal wedding-themed party after these messages. oh. oh! oh! red! red! red! yes! yes! come on! oh. no! oh. bummer. [children shouting] hoops? yeah. sure. sure. announcer: moms everywhere are finding ways to keep kids active and healthy. works every time. announcer: get ideas. get involved. get going at letsmove.gov. [ laughs ] not funny. act my age? -why? -why? -why? i love the sun. past sun goddess. every line has a story. [ female announcer ] we all age differently. now there s roc multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. a lifetime of stress lines, sun damage, and worry wrinkles will fade in just 4 weeks. -crows feet. -belong on birds. [ female announcer ] roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. -aging. -bring it on. correct what ages you. here s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. a loaf of bread, some butter, a packet of hidden valley ranch, and i get what might be the best thing since sliced bread. ranch bread. [ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. today s daily dose is brought to you by miss bury toaster strudel, the one kids want to eat. this morning on today s daily dose understanding tics and tourette syndrome. good morning, nancy, good to see you. tell us about tics. expla what they are. they re pretty common from facial blinking to kids coughing, clearing their throat. you see it oftentimes in preadolescence, especially when kids are under stress, and they usually manifest themselves during a brief time. they don t last long. sometimes weeks to months, and they go away. that can be up to 10% of the population. and then some kids have more. about 1% of the kids will have them. is there a difference between a tic disorder and tourette syndrome. tourette can have a tic disorder in it. tourette we think of children screaming profanities. that s the rarest of the rarest of the rare. most kids with tourette syndrome will be diagnosed preadd lesseps, they do have tics, and a lot of times you ll see things like obsessive compulsive did order or adhd. and these kids are usually very smart and very creative and a lot of times have such ocd and if you stop a movie because you have to go some place, they re an nal about it that they have to rewind it to the beginning and have to overcompensate and change interruption of normal activities is not something they adapt well to. is it genetic? it is genetic. it s more common in boys. it s a dominant gene. the a father has it, there s a # 50% chance the son will have it. in my family we have to talk about the de-stigma tieization of depression, tourette, what we talked earlier about what s happening with katharicatherine zeta-jon zeta-jones. all this plan opy, you look at this. they re also variations they re a gradation of your genetic profile. i m so glad you said about destigmatizing it. on american idol, james durbin, everybody loves him. a lot of kids can look at him and say he s doing so well, this is normal, i can deal with this. that s important. what kind of medications can people use? how can they treat it? let me go back to durbin. one of the things is music. a lot of people it s bam, bam, bam, bam, rhythm and rock n roll or bouncing or finding music to help take care of those tics. you ll watch adults like him. they ll take those tiks that during adolescence was really a problem and he ll work them into adult gestures so you might not even know. for most kids with tore rhetts, though, it s not a treatment of tore rhetts, it s the adhd. does it affect brain function? it can affect brain function and sometimes learning if a teacher isn t cognizant of the fact that these kids can t sit still and they may learn better by walking around the classroom and not sitting down. but for a lot of parents who are struggling with the tics, you watch them. in fact, usually as a patient you re sort of late to figure it out. it s someone else who points it out do you. you figure it out, you watch them get pretty they escalate and get a little worse toward adolescen adolescence. kids learn how to manage them and then they disappear. i always warn kids around the ages of 13 to 15 you re going to start ticking more and whether that s eye blinking or coughing or having to tap their finger, there s something they do to compensate for that extra energy, and the best thing you can do as a parent is allow them to do it and give them the coping mechanisms that really help. for us in our family it was a trampoline. it was head phones. it was adaptation to any kind of music that was fun and it was the recognition that if you start look at father, aunts, uncles, and everyone else, grow, oh, i got a little bit of that person and a little bit of that person, a little bit of that person, and it s really interesting. but, you know, it also leads to these creative avenues that then as you step back as a parent really make you proud. absolutely. well, dr. nancy snyderman, it s always great to see you. thank you. you re so smart in sharing all that stuff. we appreciate it. coming up, we ve got new details on the shocking revelations of actress catherine zeta-jones. why she checked herself into a mental health facility. we ve got more right after these messages. yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat than listening to our favorite songs. there s nothing we love more than listening to our favorite songs. but our favorite thing is eating totino s pizza rolls. but our favorite thing is eating totino s pizza rolls. we re the kids in america oh, oh, oh love those jeans. $175. ch-ching! excuse me? ever consider showing your customers what other stores charge for jeans? um.no. when it comes to car insurance, progressive direct does. i saved hundreds when switching. that s a lot. the jeans are skinny. the savings. are fat. out there with a better way. now, that s progressive. 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[ female announcer ] make your kids big days, mini-wheats days. packed with 100% whole grain fiber, kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal has what it takes to help keep your kids full so they can stay focused on the days that matter most. keeps em full. keeps em focused. well, it s been a very difficult year for catherine zeta-jones and michael douglas. yeah, they ve really had a lot of ups and downs this year. you can only imagine the stress, michael douglas s public battle with stage iv throat cancer. and after a report that katharicatherine zeta-jones che for a brief stay for bipolar type ii. obviously fans are thinking about them and their beautiful children. but it s raised a lot of questions about what is bipolar type ii and how is it treated. and obviously this family has bun under an incredible alt of stress. dr. nancy snyderman was saying in many cases it may be her ed tear. we don t know her circumstances but any time you see this as a parent especially you think about kids. stress can trigger all these things. her husband had throat cancer, she has two young children. she s an amazing actress, and there s a lot of really creative people who have bipolar disorder. and i like what dr. nancy said about destigmatizing these things. we have a lot of people in our families who have mental health issues and she s getting help. she s one of the classiest people. she s one of my favorite actresses of all time. we wish her well. still to come on today from that only interesting conversation. no invitation, no worries. how to throw a royal wedding am theme party at your own home after your local news and weather. almost 300 horsepower, infinity surround sound, seating for seven. wait. this is a minivan? makes you almost want to have kids. [ child screams ] almost. the new 2011 dodge grand caravan. get the new 2011 grand caravan starting at $24,830. plus, current owners get an additional $1,000 bonus cash. 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. 9:26 is your time right now. it s 56 degrees. look at the lovely picture of the capital. good morning. in the news for today, a man has been arrested in the deadly shooting inside a fairfax county barbersh barbershop. he is charged with murder. he turned himself in last night. he shot two people at the barbershop in alexandria. one of the victims died and the it s been a beautiful morning with sunshine and our upcoming afternoon is going to be just as nice. we are in the low 50s throughout much of the area, from sterling to d.c. and going up to a high temperature today between 67 and 70 degrees. plenty of warmth for us today. and then we are down to 60 for a high tomorrow. looking like it s going to be partly sunny tomorrow. we are still looking at sizeable delays along 66 headed for the roosevelt bridge. looks like it s all volume and maybe everybody is going downtown to hangout at the mall, looks like volume. and then the outer loop of the beltway, no worse than george avenue. it s a nice day to hangout at the mall, isn t it, jerry? and tonight at 5:00, in 15 days prince william and kate middleton will tie the knot with all the pomp. we ll be there live start sagt 4:00 a.m. set your clocks and be with today to witness the historic event on april 29th. i cannot wait. i ll be watching with the rest of you. meanwhile coming up in the next half hour if you re not on the guest list and you want to get in on the fun, nora has great ideas. if you re not on the list, throw your own party. from photos to hats to giving your guests the royal treatment, we re going to have some fun and inexpensive and party ideas for your own royal wedding bash. i love this. these are tea bags that has little kates and wills on top. also ahead, a navy seal who served in afghanistan and iraq. he started up leadership programs in his community. ite e one of the most inspiring books i read and his story is incredible. we love our vets. and, of course, on a much lighter note, salads are the new entree. no way. we re texans. we like to eat. patricia wells is here to show you light and delicious salads. other things, we need to check in on the weather with stephanie abrams. hey, there, weather up and down the east coast. unfortunately, a threat for severe weather. our next system moving in along the pacific northwest. now here is a look at what is happening outside your door. right now we have got temperatures in the low and mid-50s throughout the area. a high today, around 70. that puts us a few degrees above our average high for this time of year. sunshine we will have, and a few high clouds later today and then cooler tomorrow as a weak cold front moves through. the high is 60 for friday. and then showers earlier in the day, and then thunderstorms in the afternoon all right. so i finally actually have that idea, but i m going to give it away. i think you should be able to put your own family members on the tea bags so they can hang. or for like a kid s birthday party. i love the way you do that though. that s pretty awesome. . we ll take your picture and put it on one just don t do it again. thank you very much. up next the royal wedding viewing party planning guide even with, you know, tea, of course. we were talking about the brits. right after these messages. 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[ male announcer ] get zyrtec® s proven allergy relief go to hotwire.com. when four-star hotels have unsold rooms they use hotwire hot rates to fill them, so you get ridiculously low prices, backed by our low price guarantee. h-o-t-w-i-r-e hotwire.com this morning on royal countdown to the wedding, 15 days to go. if you re not winging your way to london to attend the wedding you may put together your own royal themed party and watch prince william and kate say their i do s on tv. good morning, elizabeth. this is so incredibly awesome. i love all of this. let s start first with what you ve done with these adorable invitations. it s not too late. you ve got two weeks. we ve designed the formal invitation for you. we ve done all the work. you fill in the name, date, and time. we say it s an event steeped in tradition. we take tea bags. we created a label you tape on your tea bag. cut it out. it s so fun. i love that you can get it online. you can encourage people to do things at the event like wearing hats. you want to wear hats. you can make your own or you can have crowns and things that people can wear. you want to get in the spirit. there you go. you look like kate. you have the blue dress. i ll have to bring this home for my daut sneghter. you want to do the photo ops. you have people hold them in front of their faces and take a picture with the boy la road. it s super cute. you can do it in front of this wall decal which is from this company called design a to z. it will not do anything to your wall so you can hang it up and take it arch. i love this. if you don t have a garden bench, and if you do, bring it inside. we decorate it with all kinds of pillows. make your own with a white pillowcase like we did or order it from bliss and living. this is traditional pims. served courtside at wimbledon. it s pims with lemonade and a little soda water and garnish it with a cucumber slice. how is it? refreshing. on amazon daim you can get all kinds of fun, classic english treats like walker s crisps which are potato chips. have beer on hand. what could be more fun, especially at 4:00 in the morning. then you want to go to the reception. there s been a lot of talks about the groom s cake. our food director came up with a recipe. that s absolutely delicious. what does that mean, a groom s cake? the traditional wedding cake is a fruitcake. we know how we feel about that. the groom s cake has chocolate in there. it s another dessert. it s a dense chocolate with tea biscuits in there. it s incredible. you can get the recipe at womansday.com. the tablecloth, you can take a sheet or white tablecloth and all you do is use painter s tape and fabric tachlt get your union jack pattern. the tea bags, they re kate tea and william. this is what stephanie want sthoos they just hang out on your tea bag. they re just the good thing about this wedding like all of these royal weddings, they re so much on the market. so many novelties. there s so many websites. plum.com, tuesdaymorning.com. we can get all this stuff because we have time to do it. what about tea sandwiches of course. everybody knows tea and tea sandwiches are a great combination. cucumber sandwiches, curry and chicken, they re niece to have. scones and cookies and things like that. as a parting gift to go go away, union jack. some of these cooks aren t as good as they look but they re from debbiebakery.com. i encourage you to take that home to your daughter with the crown as well so she can partake in the wedding too. this is a great way to celebrate. you showed how you can make a party with all these great themes, things you can print out on line and serve great food and get people into the great mood. this is even if you re not watching it live and you re taping it later, you can turn the whole tea into a cocktail party as we said with the middle table. you re so creative. i m so glad you wore that. my blue. it s kate s. exactly. where s my crown. where s my crown? still to come on today, turning chicken salad into a scrumptious meal. but first these messages. hi. i m suzanne with sponsors for the sweet makers. for to celebrate springtime use m&ms and dove chocolate. it s an ray planchment that will please the eye and the taste buds. this makes easter taste best. to learn how to create a sweet memory this holiday season please visit us at celebrates.today.com. here s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. a loaf of bread, some butter, a packet of hidden valley ranch, and i get what might be the best thing since sliced bread. ranch bread. [ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. today is saturday salad on saturday fruit on friday throw a ball thursday water, water wednesday touch your toes tuesday let s move monday swap a snack sunday announcer: 60 minutes of physical activity a day and eating well can help get your child healthy. so keep them active and eating well every day. get ideas. get involved. get going at letsmove.gov. that s letsmove.gov. eric agree tense is a road scholar. his work took him across the globe photographing those who gat caught up in war and genocide and he survived deployments to both afghanistan and iraq. his truck was hit by a suicide bomb. he s escaped with minor injuries and has a new mission. the heart and the fist is his book. good morning. good morning. it is so great to see you and meet you and thank you for your service to this country. you are very welcome. fantastic. i m so interested in the heart and the fist concept. you re referring to compassion. how did you eleven to put those together in your life? the heart and the fist is about service on the front lines. combat deployments abroad and now work in our communities here at home and what i ve learned in all of that work is that everybody has a front line in their life and the front line is a place where your hope s for your life and your hopes for the people that you love come up right against the reality that the world presents to you. i love that you put it that way. everyone has a front line. it s not obviously at war but it is in your community, it s in your family every day. every person has a front line in their life. and in order to be successful on those front lines what i learned is that people need both the heart and the fist. they need strength and compassion in order to be successful on those front lines. and a lot of this you learned before your deployments in afghanistan and iraq. you learned from earl. you were a boxer. yes. let me move back a little bit. you were a boxer and he taught you the discipline of power and mind and compassion. yes. earl was an incredibly demanding boxing trainer, but he always taught us to use our strength to protect other people. and that s something you say is relatable to women in that a lot of women have responded to your book saying this is really how they view men in a sense, not to be stereotypical, but it s resonated. absolutely. one of the things that s been really nice is so many women have told us this is a book they want to share with their brothers and their husbands and their sons because they want them to see that strength can be used to good purpose. but they ve also said in their own lives that they find meaning in using their strength to care. you know, you were a navy s.e.a.l. as i mentioned and you wrote s.e.a.l.s are frequently misunder. it s true they re capable of great violence but that s not what makes s.e.a.l.s special. we can be thoughtful and disciplined in our use of force. you use this concept in the heart and fist. how did you incorporate there into your life? there was one operation. we were on a raid and we blew through a door. there was a target and at the same time you have to be able to protect those who really need protection. all right. it takes my breath away, that story. and you ve used also your heart to help wounded warriors who are back and oftentimes, too often, file so alone. yes. and we take a heart and a fist approach to working with wounded disabled veterans. as the mission continues we say it s not charity, it s a challenge. what we challenge them to do is find new ways to serve in their communities here at home. this is work that started when i was hit by the suicide truck bob in fallujah and i saw that my friends were struggling to rebuild purpose in their lives and we helped them by continuing serve in their communities. you have many fans including tom brokaw on the front of your book. he was. the book is the heart and the fist. eric, again, thank you. up next, we ll show you how to make salad work as your main course. pretty cool. first this is today on nbc. this morning in today s kitch kitchen, salad as a meal, as easy as 1-2-3. who doesn t enjoy that. culinary legend patricia wells with her recipes and tips for beautiful salads. her new book called adequate salad as a meal. patricia, good morning. thank you. good to see you. the salad is not the side dish, anymore, right? it s the whole meal. we re talking about meals with lean protein. what they all have in common is a very light dressing, nothing heavy. and the basic idea you think of the dressing as the glue that holds the stuff together, but it should be lightly coated and not drowning in dressing. you have the crab salad. i ll help you out on this one. you can shake the dressing. shake the dressing. i heard that. that s because you can t cook. you can shake the dressing. this is light cream and lemmon juice and a little bit of chives. so what we want to do, we want to coat each of these separately. not too much. so you can toss that. toss the crab here. and then we have cilantro and a little bit of celery and orange pepper. the whole idea of this is so that we don t have to the dressing is evenly distributed. you don t want too much dressing. no. you add the crab to this. add the crab. home made salts are very hot today. this is called red-hot salt. we re going to use this as a garnish. is this spicy? it s a spice. do not move. i m frozen in fear. now we re going to we re going to dress this. okay. on the plate. this is the way you serve it. and the avocado. which is very healthy. and beautiful. the idea here is we ve got a lot of crunch. we ve got a lot of color. we re going to add this red-hot salt. i never throw away the zest of the lemmon. we re going to throw that on. i ll go ahead and try this. save one for me. i can t make any promises. there s plenty for the whole crew. you ve got chicken salad, which is one of my favorites. this is tahini, which is sesame paste. we have light yogurt in here. to make this, you need to put the tahini in here or sesame paste. you can buy it just about anywhere. is it easy to find? absolutely. lemon juice and wonderful chopped garlic. and you mix that up. and voila, we have some made. again, you want to add some of this to the dressing, and we lls to this all together. it s like a thicker paste consistency? right, right. nora, your husband s a chef. this is embarrassing. i can do this. i m the noncook. come on. i can do it. i can do it. i once told the french i made you chicken salad. i said i thought you don t cook. she said. i do, but i don t heat. this are all no heat. you can make it easy on yourself by making a roast chicken and cutting it up. and the spice you ve got in here? the dressing and a little bit of salt. and the herb you have in here? again, cilantro. if you didn t like cilantro, you could use chives or any green. nice. we ve dressed it up here. very pretty. this is a classic cobb salad invented in the 1930s. and it s as good as it was in 1930. coming up, decadent desserts from gianna. oh, gorgeous it is here in the nation s capital today. beautiful weather. the sun is shining and we will find out if it s going to last. good morning, i am barbara harrison. the time is 9:56. we have obtained new information about the murder at a barbershop. and in some letters read to us by the roommate, the shooting stemmed from an incident from his lunch being thrown away. the shopping center is belleview shopping center in alexandria. this happened yesterday. we will have more on the exclusive information coming up. a really nice day today. this is our reward from yesterday, because yesterday was so lousy. it stayed gray throughout much of the day. 53 is the temperature right now. barbara, we are going up to a high today out of the low 50s to 70 degrees, and then 60 tomorrow with cloud cover. pass on down torts 123, the right lane is blocked. one more stop headed for downtown, lanes are open but a bit of a slow roll across the 14th street bridge. no accidents to impede the flow. two things you need to hello sunshine, sweet as you can be [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. that s ever happened to cinnamon. introducing cinnamon burst cheerios. 20% daily value of fiber bursting with the delicious taste of cinnamon. new cinnamon burst cheerios. prepare your taste buds. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hey, everybody. so glad you re with us for this thirsty thursday, april 14th. a big day for me. i don t know but. it s a big day for you. it s a big day for me. thank you, baby. i ve been in rehearsals for the past month for a musical i ve been writing a long time called saving amy. today is our first presentation. ten minutes before i came up, christy told me the man who is supposed to play the father has no voice at all. completely lost his voice. michael, send my love to you. i was literally on the phone one minute ago to one of our other actors and say, hey, guys, you re in for dr. samuels and you re in for james kennedy. guys, hopefully you re not watching me, you re looking at your scripts. that s the craziness of show business. hoda is going to come to it. i m excited to see this. we are going to see it acted out with most of the performers. who is this woman you spent ten years of your life writing about. should we sing the song? . hooray to hollywood from shirley temple to amy semple that s the one. we are going to change that. you re going to hear about her. that s what s going on in my world. there is a survey that says if you drink alcohol, it remembers you remember. okay. this is finally not me. university of texas or something said that. this is the one i like. you hate all of them except this one. it does something to part of your brain that makes you remember and learn better. don t ask why. ethanol exposure. when we drink our alcohol subconscious is stimulated and you learn to be creative. there are benefits, but you should not abuse it. we have an announcement on this plam. there was an apology. about time. tori spelling came on our show. when asked a direct, straight-forward question. hard-hitting news question i asked. which was? are you pregnant? and she said this. everybody would be very delighted, very thrilled if you re expecting another mcdermott. we hope currently, but we are not expecting. you wanted me to ask. i never brought it up. that was clearly an untruth. we are thrilled for her and the baby, but it s kind of about us. they re fun. yesterday it was so funny. we got a flower delivery from tori and dean. it s in the shape of a dog. she said they were in the doe. here is the card. she is a very sweet girl. dear kathie lee. spelled my name wrong. i m i know i m in the doghouse. please understand when i was on your show i was not yet three months and had not had my first trimeser screaming. don t be made. i ll make sure you re in the know for the fourth. love you both, tori. very sweet. we wish them all the best. tori was one of those people, it s easy if you just believe what you read about somebody that you would, you know, you would form an opinion just based on that. your opinion would end up being completely wrong. she is an absolute doll. i like her so much. and she is real. yeah. she is not in the dog house. that looks a lot like bambino. if i take it home bambiono will growl at it and try to hump it. there he is. you re right. don t he look like him? that almost needs a split screen. of course there is one. i don t know if this ever happened to you, have you ever been at some important moment, efrnt, whatever in your life and you re sitting there and you can t keep your eyes open? your head bobs? you fight it and can t help it. that happens if you re a regular person, but if you re joe biden, the vice president, it s not great. especially if the president is giving a speech. 25 seconds he was like that. the lady behind him was nodding off, too. looks like a real not one of president obama s most rousing speech. and the woman on the left. they re dropping like flies. it s 25 seconds. maybe he is praying. maybe he is praying for our economy. that has happened to the best of us. that s happened to me at matinees. me, too. you know when i did it? the frank sinatra one. come fly away. i was out. i felt like i missed a lot of it. come snooze with me. it felt good to get a little nap in. please do not snooze this afternoon. this is a hot ticket this. one is a hot ticket. it s today and tomorrow. i think we only have a certain amount of seats. they are completely filled up. the last seat has been taken by the fire marshall. he will not allow another person in. i was going to give a reception today and afterwards. they won t let me serve wine. should we have it somewhere else? they won t let me serve wine. i know, i know. the worst thing, this is a fabulous facility where we are doing it. there is one bathroom for 116 people. one stall. for boys and girls? yes. do not drink anything at lunch before you come to this. in fact, get rid of that. take hoda s drink away. why are restaurants getting kids drunk? this happened twice we know of. one, we heard about before there was a young toddler. this is the toddler drinking out of a sippy cup at applebee s. in the cup was margarita. the parents were like what s up with our little boy? he s waving at everybody. they came to find out this child was served a margarita. fast forward to another child march 31st, i think it happened. this child was served sangria in a sippy cup. at olive garden. this kids eyes were dilated. he had to go to the hospital to get an iv fluid thing put in. olive garden said they take the situation seriously. they are no longer going to prepare containers of sangria in advance. that s smart. you can t put our kids at risk. you can t. all right. this is a fun debatable question. we want to know what people at home think about this. some of you guys keep journals or save old love letters. should you hang on to that stuff? you don t know who is going to find them. in one particular case a woman passed away and in the journal they read she thought her kids were spoiled, a pain. go ahead, cody, write it. go ahead. i keep journals so i have them. i often wondered. i write when i m in a funk. my journal reads like someone is a crazy depressed person and i m not. it s only when i wrichlt i think it s not a good slice of my life. it s a slice of my depressed life. thank goodness it s the only thing you keep track of. you know where that is at all times. if it was in your purse, forget about it. i lose everything. those i am like crazy. you do it to get rid of all that stuff that s in you. your anxious. it s like a colonic for you. it s a detox thing, right? it s good to read back to see where you ve been and where you are now. suicidal at times. i always write a grateful, like a grateful note and then a lesson. lessons learned. then you remember, oh, yeah, that guy did say that to me on the street that day. sometimes it s good. i don t do that. as a little girl i kept a diary, but love letters, that is a whole other thing. if you found your spouse or your lover s old love letters, would you read them? do you think it s right to read somebody else s private correspondence. you would. you would read frank s letters from old girlfriends? while he s living? i would feel bad about that. would you? yeah. i think it would make me feel sick to my stomach to read the intimacy of somebody else and him. we like to think somebody had no life at all until we came onto their lives and made everything write. yesterday was our six month. i didn t know. he brought a card that said happy six months. i go, today is six months. been six months since i first met him. he knows i don t remember. he s good. he likes me for just me. forgetful. speaking of jay, is it okay to propose in public? kathie lee says you better be sure of the answer. hoda said sure it s okay if the answer is yes. for once you and i agree on this. yes, we do agree. you have to know. frank didn t propose publically at all. we were public people already. you don t want that. i guess some people well known do that for extra publicity. we didn t sell any pictures. you ready? good way to make a bunch of dough now. anybody wants to pay me for pictures of my kids, i m open to it now. they re almost 20. i know. here is the fun part of the show. i thought we talked our way through it. this is a song that again will take you back a little bit. if you want to rock out in the gym, it s an oldie but goody, from 1984 called freak show. uh-oh. freak show baby baby on the dance floor do the freak show freak show baby baby on the dance floor here we go people they come from miles around wearing mini skirts tight leather pants or nothing at all you ll be dancing face to face or cheek to cheek on the floor freak show baby baby on the dance floor there s a freak show that s a freak show, baby. now, here is a little something you might have come across in the new york times. kathie lee mentioned it in various newspapers and she was mentioned in the new york times. here s why. you all right? yeah. the book of mormon came out with an ad. they decided it was good to use a quote kathie lee made on this show. this is not a family show. yes. dear god, how do i get tickets. i did say none of the reviews are saying what is the truth which is it is not a family show. tee were very clever to do it. coming up next as we countdown to the wedding, vacations that will make you feel like a dween. [ female announcer ] love the look of freshly colored hair? now you don t have to wait 6 weeks to get it. introducing natural instincts with our first color refresher. get healthy looking, ammonia-free color, then let the new refresher boost your healthy look 2 weeks in. it helps restore color pigments, so you can get a freshly colored look once again. natural instincts. it s all good. now get all the healthy looking color of natural instincts in our new vibrant shades. now get all the healthy looking color of natural instincts how are you getting to a happier place? running there? dancing there? how about eating soup to get there? campbell s soups fill you with good nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell s. it s amazing what soup can do. when you can have pillsbury grands! flaky layers biscuits? the warm, light delicate layers are like nothing else. add a layer of excitement to your next meal. [ younger brother ] oh, do you want it? yeah. ok, we ll split it. [ female announcer ] made fresh, so light. .buttery and flaky. this is half. that is not half. guys i have more. [ female announcer ] do you have enough crescents? how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can t fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less. my brain didn t even break a sweat. where you book matters. expedia. time for today s travel and give-aways. you don t have to be prince william or kate middleton to enjoy the finer things in life. we love when you come to see us. you re always so well prepared. to be clear, this is not about people physically going to the wedding. this can be about if you want to feel like you re enjoying that kind of life. if you want to feel like the next king and queen, i have so many get-aways. the first is in central london, 51 buckingham gate, 2 1/2 minutes walk from the church of england and buckingham palace. you can stay there in one of 86 residential style rooms. they are done in beautiful muted colors and royal purple accent. it s a taj hotel. this is where the royal visiting dignitaries, ambassadors are going to stay. is it expensive? it is. it s a splurge. it s $7:11 per night for four nights. they are doing a royal package where they will take new a horse and carriage along the royal route, complimentary breakfast and cocktails so you feel like a king and queen. if you want to do less expensive, what is the option there? travel and leisure covered our favorite affordable picks. this was in our april issue. hotel indigo london tower. it s the second hotel in london by intercontinental sexy boutique brand. here rates start at $243 in late april. you ll see vibrant colors. aveda skin care products. you ll be in tower hill off from the central london part of town, but only about three miles from buckingham palace. are people going to london just to be in the area. people want to watch the cavalcade go by. if you want to be treated like royalty, what are the plans? if if you want to stay in a castle, ambeley castle in west essex. 12 acres next to 60-foot medieval walls. four poster beds, arched doorways and windows. special deal for wedding weekend, three nights for the price of four. $375 a night. afternoon tea, hot air balloon rides, clay pigeon shooting. continental breakfast of scrambled eggs and strawberries, they have it all. there you go. you ll stay in a castle like a queen. what about a tighter budget? you don t have to cross the pond. castle on the hudson in hudson new york, 40 minutes north of manhattan. stay in a grand family residence in the style of fortification in wales, scotland. you ll have use of manhattan, the hudson river. it s beautiful up there. rates are $225 a night. wow. what if you want romance, heat it up, girl? where can hoda and jay go? fairmont st. andrews is where kate winslet and prince william met. rooms are in late gray and green reminiscent of the two golf courses on the grounds. you can dine in the squire restaurant. that is where prince william is said to have dined. 60 minute complimentary spa treatment. you can golf, tour the charming town of st. andrews. it is so beautiful there. so much fun. you can have perhaps a royal romance. i was there the weekend he and kate graduated from school. it was craziness it. was there for my friend sam s 50th birthday party. you have the same type of feeling. you can say in scotland at the kiro tree house. it is an undiscovered charming, quiet historic town. you can stay in springtime with blooming tulips and primroses. a couple of choices in the u.s. splurge is trump international hotel in tower new york, $1,000. 5:00 a.m. breakfast, screen set up so you can watch the royal wedding. we re going to be there. or go to the drake in chicago and they throw in finger sandwiches and scones and watch the wedding there. thank you so much. up next. a video you cannot pass over. my name is mike, and i quit smoking. i knew for years before i quit that i needed to quit, and i went online to find a way. 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. [ mike ] 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. don t take chantix if you ve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. 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. 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 ] talk to your doctor to find out if chantix is right for you. learn about the chantix challenge. chantix may not work for everyone. if you aren t quit after 12 weeks, we ll refund your cost of trying it. learn more at chantix.com. we ll refund your cost of trying it. these ladies have been exercising, watching their diets and enjoying activia light. well? i m managing my weight really well, and i ve never felt so light. at 70 calories, delicious activia light helps you be light and feel light too. activia we ve combined conditioner with a weightless nutri-oil treatment. to give 3x the internal nourishing power of our regular conditioner. new dove daily treatment conditioner. make friends with your hair. where everyone feels at home. where the company, the conversation, and the food make all who enter feel welcome. a place that feels as warm with a crowd. as it does with just a friend. it s a place you ll find town house crackers. because they re part of what makes your place the place. welcome to town house. where good times reside. we are back with webtasktic. passover begins monday evening. jewish people will sit down to a meal called a seder. ch video you want to share. this is a parody of party in the usa titled best seder in the usa. i m going to a seder for the first time i m hosting my first seder please don t be a hater so hard with comments around me it s not an easter party my tummy is turning so much pressure i m schfitzing and the hagadia song was on i m got my yarmulke on they are playing my song butterflies flying away sfe sfend the main singer was brian gollick but created by the jewish outreach program. saying it doesn t have to be your grandfather s passover seder. it doesn t have to be f efgefil fish and herring. thank you, sara. packing for your next vacation may be easy. if you want to feed them right, wear them out, or clean them up, you can save big on thousands of items during the petsmart everything spring sale. save 20% on all toyshoppe® dog and cat toys with hundreds to choose from. exclusively at petsmart. news4 has just obtained exclusive new information involving the murder at a fairfax county barbershop. the roommate of the suspect shares letters left behind from the accused. coming up, our expert tells no shoes no shirt coming up in this half hour, the amazing allison krause are going to be singing for us. right before then, if you re flying off and got to pack something we ve got answers for you. by the time you stuff everything in your bag, it could cost you more than your ticket. shape magazine jackie stafford here with style tips. it is a pain when you re getting ready to pack and trying to make it all fit, it s not an easy thing. it s not easy. we have great solutions. we have questions to answer. this question is, i m invited on a weekend away and i need to look slim. who doesn t want this. are there any special tricks that don t involve a diet or the gym? slim in your swimsuit. that s a problem every woman wants to look ten pounds thinner tomorrow. what you do, if you choose swim wear that creates the look for you. great example how you want to whittle away from your tummy. look at the diagonal stripes and the rousching. you wouldn t think stripes would work but it does. look how tiny your tummy looks. you don t have to spend a lot of money though. we have another option by spanx. spanx makes a bathing suit? of course they do. see the lines going down the front. this is from jcpenney. here is the next question. packing it. i m going away for a week, but i can only bring one carry-on. what are fashion solutions that can take me from day to night. you just want one carry-on. this is a great carry-on. luggage when you pack, you want to pack for things that do double duty. this top, walmart $12. you can wear 1,000 different ways, top, scarf. we are talking about the black here. the skirt is a veefrzible skirt. it looks like a dress. this is a top. we made it like a dress. this is a skirt. yummy tummy. you want a bag that has double duty. a tote with an attachable purse you can use as a wallet for evening. what is the next question? next one is, if i wear a size 11 shoe and i want a pair of sexy sandals, are there styles that can minimize? there are so many different styles of summer sandals out right now. we have them on the table over here. all different styles. endless.com is a great resource. so many websites that do a larger size shoe. people feel they need to minimize the size of the shoe. you can wear a heel. embrace the size you are. don t wear gladiator. absolutely not. our model has a beautiful floral print. do they go for everybody? women say if i m full figured can i wear a floral dress? you absolutely can. we found this dress at torid. keep the floral pattern in proportion to your size. you don t want to look like you re wearing a table cloth. about the same size as the palm of your hand. that works if you re petite. if you re full figured, make sure the print will not overwhelm you. shoes don t cut you off. elongate. what is the biggest mistake? pack way too much. pack it and take things out. if you don t know what the weather is like? you wear wraps. you can take them off. ra small layer than big, chunky knits. giada with biscotti pie. we re all out of toilet paper. can you toss me a roll? too rough. we re out of toilet paper. can you toss me a roll? too soft. can you toss me a roll? that s better. angel soft. an ideal balance of softness and strength. we are in the kitchen cooking with giada. we are not cooking, she s cooking. oh, no, you re cooking. she is about to show us a couple of refreshing spring desserts and show us a decadent one. moving from angel to the devil. angel food cake, lemon-flaired made from scratch. egg whites, flour, lemon juice. we ll make a topping to go with it. if you wanted to buy this, you could do something special for easter. yogurt. you want me to do it? sure. plain yogurt. this is honey? a little bit of honey, a little bit of lemon juice. mix it all together until it becomes sort of creamy. then dollop it with berries. if you like to garnish, do mint. you serve it alongside of this so it moistens the cake. makes it extra special. it s light and pretty. this looks delicious to me. this is a citrus crostada. orange segments and juice and cook it down. you make a homemade crust but you can buy any pie crust. put in a baking sheet, fold over the sides and top with mascarpone. you can top it and make a jeweled look. that s it. that looks good. let me put jam on it. not with the jam. bite that. that s amazing. you re missing the jam. you can t eat it half done. give her the jam. see how pretty? moving on to the devil part. you re right. it s better with the jam. no, it s not. it s good. now the little devil dessert. this is a brownie pie made with biscotti crust. it s like a graham cracker crust. you can take out your aggression with biscotti. her aggression days are over. i like to use plain ones. you grind it up. we ll pretend we did it. okay. fine. whir. put it in the baking dish and press it down. bake it at 350 for 15 minutes. then make the filling. unsweetened chocolate and butter. dump 1 1/4 cups of brown sugar, walnuts, flour. those are for garnish. salt? give me my eggs. you put salt in something so sweet, why is that? you ve got to balance out the sugar. that doesn t make sense to me. i believe you, but i don t understand. people love mcdonald s fries because of the perfect balance of sugar and salt. sugar? they didn t tell me. they do. we have to taste it because we have to go. bake 30 minutes. here you go. you waited and you get rewarded. thank you. nobody is better. the best party in the usa. part of my job is teaching my patients how to take insulin. but i ve learned a lot from patients who use flexpen. flexpen comes pre-filled with the insulin i take and i can dial the exact dose of insulin i need. i live my life on the go and need an on-the-go insulin. i don t need to carry a cooler with flexpen. novolog is a fast-acting, man-made insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes. do not inject novolog if you do not plan to eat within 5 to 10 minutes after injection to avoid low blood sugar. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. the most common side effect of novolog is low blood sugar. other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat or sweating. ask your healthcare provider about novolog flexpen today. learn more about the different insulins available in flexpen at myflexpen.com. flexpen, insulin delivery that goes with you. can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. these ladies have been exercising, watching their diets and enjoying activia light. well? i m managing my weight really well, and i ve never felt so light. at 70 calories, delicious activia light helps you be light and feel light too. activia how are you getting to a happier place? running there? dancing there? how about eating soup to get there? campbell s soups fill you with good nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell s. it s amazing what soup can do. no question entertaining at home can be intimidating. once you get it down, it becomes second nature and a ton of fun. here to take you to your comfort level is event designer and entertainment expert tara wilson. thanks for having me back. i like that you lay out the a, b, cs. you say it s important to keep your pantry stocked. want to think about stocking your party pantry. it s not about having food but other essential items. decorative appetizer plates, great napkin rings, trays, cocktail napkins. so it s not last minute. right. i bet hoda is not good at planning ahead. i don t have a pantry. you can use a checklist and mark it off as you use it. that is not going to happen to her, but thank you. planning a menu you wonder, should i do it the week before? start thinking about it three weeks out. pull your recipes so you know what you re preparing. that s one of the biggest mistakes first-time entertainers make. they don t allow enough time to prepare. they worry about running out of food at the party. do a soup or salad. if you do meat or fish, think about having six ounces of that. and your sides and dessert. should you have extra? it s okay to prepare extra and you can send your guests home with leftovers. isn t it good to start out with a small party? right. start with about 12 people. that many? i would have a couple first. on to the bar. about time now. i know. let s get you guys going. no medication today. all righty. two weeks out prior to the event, start thinking about stocking your bar. first-time entertainers think they have to have something for everyone. create a sheet that says this is what i ve got to offer. do a special cocktail like the champagne cocktail. a week before you want to think about the wow factor, that unexpected element. this is a pocket fold. start with the top. fold down to the center. crease it. i don t have room. we ll scoop over here. flip over. take your top one and in your case hoda, flip it and fold it down. bring the right and left edgers to center to meet in the middle. you re so good at this, kathie lee. close it like a book. tuck your flower inside. that is very sweet. i m going to test you. look at hoda s. i like it. just do that. i love it. when you re looking at your table, you want to think about things that will wow your guests. i love placecards. bring that napkin over here. come on, hoda. we ve got to roll. placecards to keep the conversation going. thank you very much. thank you for putting up with us. next, key to the best parties around, music. allison krause. cringe when we say this, but she is the most decorated female recording artist selling over 12 million albums receiving an astounding 26 grammy awards in her 26-year career. that s one a year and makes me crazy. you deserved every one of them. her collaboration with union station contributed heavily to that success. her new album is fantastic paper airplane. welcome, everybody. i love this acoustic sound you have. it takes you right where you want to go. these are all great songs. how was it getting back together with each other? it was great. we haven t been apart for seven years. it s just been seven years since we recorded a whole new album. it was great to get back together. i know if i m remembered at all it will be with these guys. you collaborated with so many other people, as well. just the minute we hear alison s voice, it s closure eyes music. to appreciate your gift. it s extraordinary. what are you going to perform? a song called paper airplane. the title song of the cd. we are excited. thank you. i put it all behind me nothing left to do or doubt some may say but every silver lining always seems to have a cloud that comes my way anticipated pleasure or unexpected pain no choice i fear and love is hard to measure hidden in the rain that s why you ll find me here all alone and still wondering why waiting inside for the cold to get colder and here where it s clear that i ve wasting my time hoping to fly cause it s almost over no people come together people go their own way love conquers few and i ll do whatever i ll say what i need to say just not for you how many days should i smile with a frown cause you re not around with the sun on your shoulders and how many nights must i wake up alone and know in my soul that it s almost over now our love is like a paper airplane flying in the folded wind riding high dipping low innocence is fair game i m hoping i can hold it in our love will die i know that s a song, hoda. that is awesome, you guys. i m so glad. the whole cd is like that, full of every great show after another. another grammy right here. bye. captions by vitac www.vitac.com here s what you should be watching: your cable bill. because you could be paying way too much. stop spending more for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a year. call now and get this special bonus: $100 back. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers superior picture quality, the best channel lineup, more hd, plus the fastest internet in the u.s. there s no term contract required. why keep paying for cable? 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