Transcripts For WRC Today 20110524 : vimarsana.com

welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m matt lauer. what are we, 36 hours away from when the tornado struck? it s still stunning to see images like these left in the wake of the deadly tornado. just this morning president obama announced his plans. he will be touring that devastation this weekend. this is the deadliest single tornado in the united states since 1953. emergency officials expect to recover more bodies in the coming days. at its peak the twister had winds up to 198 miles per hour and was three-quarters of a mile wide. at least 17 survivors were found in spite of rain that hampered the search effortses. a new round of storms could complicate things more. al roker is in joplin. good morning. reporter: yesterday a record rainfall for the day. almost two inches of rain. talk about pouring salt on an open wind. a lot of the midwest including joplin, missouri, is under the gun for more severe storms including tornadoes. this is a town of joplin starts to get back on its feet. it may get knocked down once again. no matter where you look from above or from the ground, joplin is a city in ruins. it just goes on for miles. it s a massive tornado. massive destruction. reporter: the tornado that touched down here sunday was three-quarters of a mile wide tracking a seven-mile-long path with winds up to 198 miles per hour. mother nature came in with a fury. we thought we were taking our last breath every second. reporter: in less than ten minutes, countless lives were forever changed. more than 116 people lost with hundreds more injured. one of joplin s main hospitals heavily damaged. it was the scariest thing i have ever seen. reporter: dr. ron smalling was on call as the tornado hit, blowing out windows and destroying their medical chop r chopper. looked like we were hit with a bomb. reporter: the staff evacuated people from the ruined hospital. we went into combat mode. there were huge pieces of things obstructing us from getting patients out of rooms. reporter: rescue teams are searching for survivors under the constant threat of more severe weather. despite the rain, at least 17 people were found alive. john degraaf hopes his friend will be one of the lucky ones rescued. larry, my neighbor. he s 73. i don t know where hes s at. he was home. reporter: firefighters searched for larry but couldn t find him. kelly weaver returned from a family vacation to find her grandmother had been killed by the tornado. seemingly in shock weaver talked with brian williams. how old was she? 86. she s vibrant, a great, phenomenal woman. how are you able to talk about it? it s surreal. i don t know what s going on in my mind. i m out of my wits. reporter: joplin is a shell of itself, but the city s heart remains intact. our citizens are strong. joplin is a city of neighbors helping neighbors. with this spirit we will overcome this hardship. reporter: back with john degra degraaf, a lifelong resident, one of joplin s many survivors wondering if his life and beloved city will ever be the same. i don t know what i m going to do. just take it one day at a time. that s all i can do. reporter: you re still alive. yes. sadly, we are looking at a really strong risk, a high risk of strong storms firing up again just west and south of here. as you take a look you can see joplin is on the edge of that but oklahoma city, tulsa, wichita all under the risk of strong storms today that may generate tornadoeses. we are not looking at long track tornadoes, but tornadoes nonetheless and joplin is on the edge of that. meredith? you wonder how much more people can take. al, thank you very much. we ll check in with you in a little bit. let s bring in the mayor of joplin along with craig fugate. good morning to you both. good morning. mayor, over the past couple of dayses your town was described as a war zone. the pictures bear that out. it s terrible destruction. do you feel, are you confident you have the resources you need to handle this disaster? i think we do, meredith. we have had overwhelming support from agencies at the local, state and federal level. mr. fugate said he s visited with the white house. we have had pledges from virtually every level that we ll have resources and support we need. you have spoken to the white house. what have they pledged to do for joplin? i spoke to the president this morning. yesterday the president declared this a disaster area, adding it to the ongoing response in missouri to other tornadoeses whi which meanses people can apply to fema. we re here for the long haul, not just for the response, as the mayor said. local and state officials have that. we are here to support them as we think about what it will take to recover and rebuild. there s been good news though. 17 people pulled out alive on monday. that s heartening, obviously for folks there in joplin. where do you stand in terms of rescue and recovery? do you have any idea how many people are still unaccounted for? we don t have any idea. i stopped at the emergency on raceses se operations centerer this morning. most have gone home for rest after a long day yesterday. we ll get organized to search again. virtually every grid has been searched at least one time. several have been searched as many as three times. we ll continue the effort to find the folks we can and search and rescue throughout the majority of the day. at the end of today we ll look and at some point we ll enter recovery mode. you still believe there could be people buried alive under the rubble. there could be. we are searching areas of high concentrations of folks where we think we could have the best luck of finding people. we ll do that throughout the day. you could be facing more bad weather today. two responders were struck by lightning on monday. you have had heavy rain. how do you prepare for that? take it as it comes. this is not the first storm we have been through. we have been here before. you just take one day at a time. we ll recover and we will rebuild. mayor, the people of joplin, they are neighbors who love their neighbors. everyone hases been affected. what do you say to help them cope with the loss they have faced? i guess just take one day at a time. i was fortunate. i didn t have any family memberses or damage to my property. our hearts go out to the folks who have lost family members. the support of the community, not only our city proper but the surrounding communitieses that have come to help and the folks here to help. we have people who will take in complete strangers and help shelter them. that s the type of community this is. we re glad people do and we ll do anything we can to help them. finally, for those folks around the country looking at joplin, wanting to help, what can they do? well, the best thing to do is support your volunteer agencies. here in missouri the governor s emergency management office has a place for people to support the volunteer agencies. give generously. again, there will be a lot of needs here. financial assistance is the best way through the organizationses. i know how business su you are busy you are this morning. thanks for joining us. thank you. it s 7:09. here s matt. thank you. as we mentioned remarkable stories of survival are starting to emerge. kevin tibbles is also in joplin with details on that side of the story. kevin, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. the people of joplin were enjoying an afternoon. somer were even celebrating their high school graduation when the skies closed in and many were caught just fighting to stay alive. the tornado that slammed into joplin, missouri, was massive, destructive and deadly. from out of the rubble come taleseses of survival. it was the most frightening 15 seconds of our life. it was hell. it was hell. reporter: in this youtube video you can t see the 20 people who crammed inside a convenience store cooler to escape the twisterer. [ screaming ] reporter: but you can hear their overwhelming sense of fear as it strikes. luckily everyone survived. with much of joplin wiped away, some say it s a miracle anyone survived. the windowse were blowing in. my surround on the bathroom shower was just waving. i thought we were going to be gone. reporter: now people comb throughs what s left of their homeses, trying to salvage anything. a little bit would help us. reporter: the joplin high school took a direct hit. he and the other seniorses graduated and were on the way home when the sky turned black. i told them to pull the car into the dry. we were engulfed in it. glass was busting. our car got demolished. reporter: a group of graduates gatherer around the kitchen table to share survival stories stories. a celebration poster hangs from the window. we were huddled together. ran to the basement. probably ten seconds later we opened the cellar door. there were huge trees down everywhere. reporter: a massive tree helped them, anchoring them. a tree fell on the hood. we re lucky to be alive. reporter: the survivors share one simple but profound sentiment. at least we have each other. that s all that matters, isn t it? yeah. reporter: before this town can begin to come together to grieve and share stories, they must continue to bear the wrath of the weather and there is more expected here. matt? kevin tibbles in joplin, thank you very much. now a check of the rest of the top stories from ann curry. good morning. also in the news, hundredse of flights are cancelled. more flight cancellationses are expected from scandinavia to britain where president obama is visiting. the ash forced the president to leave ireland early for london. the operator of the fukushima nuclear power plant has confirmed suspicions that there were melt downs at three of the t reactors. most tooks place after the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. one reactor melted downs as early as last week. nato war planes pounded libya s capital city in what may be the heaviest air strike yet. the half hour barrage struck the area around moammar gadhafi s compound. dna found on the clothes of the hotel maid who accused dominique strauss-kahn of assault matches that of the former imf chief. he s now charged with attempted rape and his lawyers say they will argue it was consensual. mildred baena, widely reported as the mother of arnold schwarzenegger s child has hired a legal team. there is already a letter challenging a news group s unflattering report about her. melissa lees has more. what s up at the new york stock exchange? oil prices are bouncing. that could lift energy stocks and give supports to the markets which were down 1% across the board yesterday. meantime, amazon.com has a promotion of lady gaga born this way. it was so popular it caused delayses on the website. the same album can be downloaded from itunes for $15. perhaps it was worth the wait. thank you. the texas rangerseses hardball with former president george push. when a foul ball got too close for comfort. the white sox catcher tried to protect him from the ball. we may have to talk to jenna about. he did not make much of an effort to go after that ball. i think he should have gone up where is his glove, first of all? don t you always go for a glove. i think he s good at dodging. remember in the past, there was a shoe, he dodged that and now this. let s go back out to al. he s in joplin and has a check of the weather. al? thank you so much. we re talking about a high risk of strong storms. we will start and show you that basically we re talking about a very concentrated area from oklahoma city, tulsa, wichita, and possibly strong storms from south central kansas into northern texas, but a slight risk of strong storms extends from texas out to new england, including new york city, boston, washington, d.c., memphis, st. louis and all the way up into new england for the strong storms. in the rest of the country, we re expecting to see clouds in the northwest. and it s beautiful weather along the gulf coast today. warm weather also getting its way into the mid at lan tinge states. central plains, we have nice weather to talk about as well. that s what s going on around the country, and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. we have a slight risk of strong storms here this afternoon. we are getting light rain. shenandoah valley right now, and drifting off into the east-northeast. and we will climb into the 80s with increasing sunshine. midafternoon we could get thunderstorms. tomorrow, partly cloudy and mid-80s. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. it s been a mystery for nearly two years. what caused air flight 447 to plunge into the atlantic en route from rio to paris killing all 228 on board? michelle kosinski is in london with new details fors us. good morning. reporter: hi, meredith. investigators want to know what happened to this plane. one of the safest aircraft out there. it just seemed to disappear from the sky over the atlantic in june of 2009. for a long time it s been thought the problem started when the speed sensorses iced over in bad weather. now from black box data it looks like the recorders are confirming that. after two years of searching, two and a half miles beneath the atlantic surface they are there in the grim, otherworldly field of debris. the black boxes of 447 pulled into the light of day by the same institution which found the titanic with deep water sonar. we have been waiting for a long time. more than 33 months. reporter: now according to sources familiar with the data, the captain of the airbus 330 wasn t in the cockpit when the trouble started about four hours into the flight between rio and paris, entering a monster storm. he can be heard rushing in to help the copilots save the plane. it s common for a captain to get rest. s that s a normal condition on a long flight. reporter: the newses paper says electronic sensorses caused the auto pilot to disengage. the plane went into a sharp climb, stalled and fell from the sky hitting the ocean intact on its belly and shattering. an explanation that s been awaited by families of the 228 people on board from 33 countries including an american geologist and his wife. we have the recorders that they are intact, that we have the data. that will let us unlock the mystery to put pieces together to understand it to make sure it doesn t happen again. reporter: it is still a question to what extent the pilots may have reacted incorrectly. first was the computer making the situation worse? we expect more information this friday. airbus has started using sensorssensors that resist freezing. thank you very much. its s 7:19. here s matt. the president and first lady made it to london on day two of the european visit. they are receiving a royal welcome from the royal family including prince william and princess catherine. nbc s stephanie gosk is at buckingham palace. good morning to you. reporter: good morning matt. this is only the third state visit from a president in a century. we are about to wait it shall moments from now the president will come out. this is the official welcome. the scottish guard is here. there will be the u.s. national anthem played. the president will have the opportunity to inspect the guard and then later on tonight the president and first lady will be here for more pomp and circumstance in a banquet dinner. they are inside the pas has where they are palace now where they are meeting william and kate who will not be outside for the official welcome. tonight they will stay in the same suites william and kate stayed in the night after the wedding. i understand you are in a portion of the palace that probablile viy viewers aren ts to seeing. describe your location. reporter: we are in the back of the palace and this is a rare opportunity to see this portion of the pas has. the ceremony being conducted here, as wells as quite rare. this is really the pomp and circumstance, the warmest welcome this country can show a visiting head of state. the last state visit was in 2003. george w. bush. it s a state visit before that was 1918 with woodrow wilson. matt? after a lunch with the queen, a private lunch, you mentioned the state dinner tonight. there is business to attend to during the visit. i understand president obama will meet with the prime minister of the uk david cameron. what s on their agenda, do you know? reporter: later this afternoon there will be work being done. they will be talking about libya. there s been criticism of the united states by the european leaders that they have not been more involved to unseat gadhafi. they will be talking about afghanistan and pakistan. the united states is hoping the british government will keep troops on the ground in afghanistan. they will be negotiating all ofs those things. some of them tense issues between the prime minister and the president. you get a schedule from buckingham palace on events like this. the queen is running a minute or two late in this visit. you mentioned this isn t the first time president obama has been to london. we remember the last time the obamas were there. michelle obama embraced the queen and some people weren t sure whether it was proper to touch the queen of eng flaland it didn t seem to cause any international furor. reporter: it didn t. it isn t actually proper to embrace the queen, to put your arm around the queen. we don t expect we ll see the same kind of embrace. the queen handled it well. michelle obama is a warm and friendly person. it was probably instinct to embrace the queen. wasn t like she high-fived her. it was a nice pat on the back. stephanie, thank you very much. we ll check out images of that later on. we are back with much more on a tuesday morning. first, this is today on nbc. coming up, nearly three yearses after her daughter s murder the trial of casey anthony begins today. we ll have the latest in a live report. also, do you need a medevac helicopter for a slip in the shower? why some patients are being needlessly air lifted after your local news. 7:26 is our time right now. 72 degrees out there. good morning, i am joe krebs. a woman is dead and her husband in critical condition. a driver hit them as they crossed the street after getting off a bus. the driver did not stop and abandoned his car some distance away. they have located him but not charged him. charged him. we will take a b i m drinkin dunkin . dunkin iced latte. iced dunkin decaf. estoy tomando café helado. large caramel iced with skim. one shot of hazelnut, iced, cream and sugar. i wouldn t want it any other way. get your iced coffee your way. america runs on dunkin coffee. good morning. mild and muggy around the region. later today we ll climb into the 80s and maybe a light shower passing. later today, some thunderstorms possible this afternoon into the evening. and then there is a slight risk the isolated storm could produce wind damage. and then an accident at 123 at tyson s. the lanes are open, and we will show you the delays well before the american legion bridge. avoid hitting the workout wall. 7:30 on a tuesday morning, may 24, 2011. kind of a comfortable start to the day here in new york city. 58 degrees right now headed into the 80s this afternoon. muggy out there, i have to admit. you know, we ll take it. we have had a lot of rain over the last couple of days. inside studio 1a i m matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. just ahead the long awaited opening statements from the casey anthony murder trial begin today, nearly three years after her daughter caylee s disappearance was first reported. we ll have a live report from the courthouse. and medevac flights can mean the difference between life or death. but there are medevac cases for a woman who spilled hot water on her case and a child who slipped in the shower. and teens and plastic surgery. what if your kid wanted to fix a cosmetic flaw so that he or she would stop getting picked on or bullied at school? ahead, a girl and her mother speak out about a controversial choice they are considering. let s begin with more on the long road to recovery in joplin, missouri, following sunday s deadly and devastating tornado. al, good morning once again. good morning. at least it s a sunny day this morning. rescue workers, volunteers get a break before the next round of storms come in. it s been a tough month for missouri. first you had the flooding along the mississippi. then you had the tornado in st. louis. now this. joining me, the governor of missouri jay nixon. thanks for joining us. how have the folks of joplin, missouri, been coping? this is the deadliest action like this we have seen. we are trying to find more survivors. 17 people were saved yesterday. reporter: on the other hand, you had two police officers struck by lightning. this is a dangerous operation. what are the concerns now? completing the two sectors and finding folks. if not we ll be recovery mode. we ll make sure the community rebuilds. the number of death and devastation is significant. reporter: do you see the death toll may be going up some more? clearly it s on the way up. we added some through the night that will come through this morning. the number will move up. reporter: going forward it s a huge task. how do you start? today, hopefully if it stays sunny we ll get through searches by 2:00. hopefully rescues there. then if there are folks we have lost we want to make sure we get them out. then we befwgin the process of getting back basic services. cell towers were knocked down. we heard the president is come sunday. what will you say? he was shaken by the breadth of this. he expressed his complete support and confidence. we ll look forward to seeing him. director craig fugate of fema is here. he was here earlier this week doing earthquake. ironically, i gave a graduation speech where the shelter is for the red cross is 36 hours ago. it s a tremendous tragedy. governor nixon, thanks for joining us. torm hit and a treme tragedy. here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. here we have the possibility of some showers and maybe thundershowers later. right now we have some showers showing up on radar in the highlights and west virginia. all of this associated with a storm system coming our way later today. might get an isolated thunderstorm this afternoon into early this evening, and before then we will climb into the 80s. af that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. after almost three years casey anthony finally goeses on trial today. she stands accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter caylee. kerry sanders was there when the story first broke. he s at the courthouse this morning. good morning. reporter: good morning. over the last three years there has been anxiety, sadness, tieas and now today the real lives courthouse drama moved into the final phase the trial. if casey anthony is convicted of murdering 2-year-old caylee, prosecutors say they will ask for the at the time penalty. she was 22 years old, a single motherer whose adorable daughter caylee disappeared june 2008. it would take 31 days before casey told anyone caylee was missing. casey told her mother a story that a nanny had taken the little girl and not returned. when cindy tracked down the car casey was driving she was overcome by an odor. it smellses like there was a dead body in the damn car. reporter: that s a critical piece of evidence. an irresponsible young mother more interested in partying than accepting the duties of motherhood. as casey s story unravelled she said nothing publically. but her attorney jose baez says there ises an untold story. the truth will come out at trial should we get to that point. reporter: that point has come. legal experts say based on what they heard during jury selection it s likely baez will say that caylee died accidentally and the story of the nanny was a cover-up because casey feared how her father, a former deputy, and her mother would react. caylee s remains were found in the woods a five-minute walk from her house. across her jaw-bone, a piece of duct tape as if to suffocate the victim. in an interview george and cindy said they don t know how it leads back to their daughter. reporter: on the one hand you have lost your grand daughter. on the other hand, your daughter is accused of that murder. there is no fibers. there is no hair. there is no dna. there is no fingerprints of casey s or anyone in our family. reporter: prosecutors plan to rely on circumstantial evidence and science. some of the science has never before been admitted in any american courtroom. sealed cans with swatcheses of carpet from the trunk. cans that prosecutors want to open so jurors can smell the stench of death for themselves. if these jurors follow the oath the evidence has to convince them beyond a reasonable doubt. in a circumstantial case that s not an easy standard to meet. reporter: the jurorses, seven women and five men were chosen about a hundred miles from here and moved to orlando where the trial gets under way and is expected to last for the next eight weekses. matt? kerry sanders, thank you very much. savannah guthrie will use her background as a lawyers as co-host of our 9:00 hour. let s talk about the case. they will battle it out. forensic experts over the forensic evidence or lack thereof in this case. what do you think will have the big impact on the jury? no question casey s car is at the center of the case. in the trunk they showed a hair that showed signs of decomposition. they say there is a stain that some say has an outline of a child. there is the so-called smell of death evidence. this is potentially powerful for the jury. is there a chance it could backfire? even though they talked to the jurors or potential jurors about the possibilitile of asking them to smell something unpleasant how do you think it will go over? it s a gamble. you wonder if it s necessary to go that far. they are talking about opening a tin can and letting the jurors smell this foul odor that was inside the car. the judge hasn t made it clear he ll let the evidence in. he said he doesn t want to turn jurors into witnesses, but why do the prosecutorses want to do it? they have cindy anthony saying the car smelled like death. in a recorded phone call. since it is so novel in terms of law you wonder if prosecutors get it in and it becomes an issue on appeal later for defense. the idea that the defense may say, wait, this was accidental death and casey was panicked over how her parents and everyone would react so she kept it a secret. in some ways you are admitting guilt that she had some involvement in the death. how do you explain the duct tape in an accidental death? risky strategy for the defense. the normal course would be to pick apart the prosecutor s evidence and say it s the prosecutors with the burden of proof here. to have her say it was an accident, number one, you re rite. it admits some level of culpability. maybe it s a strategy to avoid the death penalty, but it almost cries out for casey anthony to take the stand. who else can tell the story of this alleged accident and putting her on the stand ises risky for the defense. you can almost hear the prosecutor saying 31 days went by. here are pictures of this motherer partying, knowing her daughter was missing. it will be a tough hurdle for the defense to overcome. you wonderer if there is any explanation consistent with innocence that the jurors would buy. it s a gamble. thank you very much. we appreciate it. up next, why are patients being stuck with huge bills for medevac flights they don t even need? 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we asked the fire chief. we don t have anyone looking other our shoulder and telling us what s right or wrong. we have to make a gut reaction decision. reporter: air medical refused to comment but said it relies on the judgment of the partners in the field. yet the story isn t unique. outside of boston, oscar s 12-year-old daughter natalie slipped in the shower at summer camp. firefighters on scene called in a private chopperer but when natalie arrived at the hospital she was released and returned to camp within 24 hours. the bill, $16,335. it s a lot of money to us. it won t bankrupt us, but a lot of people it would. reporter: nationwide the number of medevac choppers has skyrocketed since 2002 when new medicare reimbursements made it a more profitable business, $2.5 billion annually. with 900 today compared to 377 in 2000. 85% are private providers. two years ago the ntsb held hearings into the high crash and fatality rates. among the concerns the number of unnecessary flights. a 2005 study found two-thirds of air lifted patients had injuries that were nonlife threatening and a 2009 arizona study found 43% of patients were discharged from the hospital within 24 hours. tom judge is the director of life flight main and a highly regarded medevac veteran. we make tough choices for patients every hour of every day. the patients we serve have to be able to trust we are making decisions strictly based on the best possible outcome for them, not based on finance. not based on corporate interest. reporter: the air ambulance association points to a university of rochester study that found medevac choppers are used appropriately making trauma care more accessible to patients in remote areas and discharging them more quickly. and it insists profit incentives don t dictate flightses. emts call for the chopper. we don t call. these folks call us. it is our responsibility to provide care and service to the patient. reporter: deciding when to air lift and how much to charge can vary from state to state, city to city. the medevac association says choppers are in higher demand because there are fewer and more distant e.r.s and hospitals across the country. meredith? tom costello, thank you very much. up next, the man who predicted the end of the world speaks out about why he got the date wrong after this. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but. 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[ dogs] bacon.bacon. bacon.bacon. back at 7:50 with the fallout from the failed rapture. a california preacherer has spoken for the first time since his predicted judgment day came and went. he said he was not wrong, just off by five months. nbc s george lewis is in los angeles with details. george, here we go again. good morning. reporter: good morning. pastor harold camping spent millions on bill boards and newspaper ads telling people around the world that the end was coming this past saturday at 6:00 p.m. now he s the butt of jokes and his followers, many of whom cashed in their life savings and took children out of school are demoralized and angry. i can tell you very candidly that when may 21 came and went it was a very difficult time for me. reporter: monday night pastor harold camping went on the radio to talk about his failed doomsday forecast. his explanation, saturday marked an invisible judgment. the real end comes in five months. god brought judgment day and it will continue right up until october 21, 2011. at that time the whole world will be destroyed. we have not been wrong about that at all. reporter: in maryland, gary balmer who prepared for the end to come saturday is angry. he never really did say anything about being wrong or what havoc he caused. reporter: for late night tv comics it s manna from heaven. when asked what happened, and this guy doesn t miss a beat. why didn t the world end? he said, it s a miracle! number three, at 89 i can t remember how to operate the toaster. number two, didn t everybody s world end when oprah was cancelled and number one, harold camping says, i m [ bleep ] crazy. that s why. reporter: some say buy this paper if it s the last thing you do. on twitter there were comments like, this is my first rp temperature. i m trying to figure out what to wear. people posted facebook pictures of empty clothing as though the occupants were swept up to heaven. given recent events tornados in joplin, missouri, and elsewhere, flooding along the mississippi, the tsunami in japan, it s easy to see why some might believe the end is near. there are a few people in camping s followers that gave up their retirement funds. they stood on street corners, alienated family. they have lost a lot. reporter: now they have been told to just wait five months. judgment day is coming. for many of them it may require a huge leap of faith. matt? george, thank you very much. up next, should teenses get plastic surgery to avoid bullying? i didn t understand it. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means, i can feel better and do more of what matters. 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[ female announcer ] nutri-grain one good decision. can lead to another. with real fruit, more of the whole grains your body needs, and a good source of fiber. nutri-grain can help you eat better all day. good morning. the time is 7:56. in just a few moments beginning at 8:00, some fairfax county teenagers will find out firsthand how dangerous driving and texting could be. there is a special road coast that will test the teen s ability to text behind the wheel. we ll take a break and come good morning. radar now showing a few scattered areas of light rain across loudoun county, and those are passing west to east. later today sun coming out. temperatures climbing into the upper 80s and a chance of afternoon storms. and had an accident i-95 and just cleared it out of the road and on and off delays. tonight on news4 at 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, the 24th of may 2011. if we can get the camera over to jack black who is joining us this morning. there he goes. jack s starring in the new kung fu panda 2 movie. po is the character he plays. just saw him in cannes. the movie premieres in new york city. he s going over to see it but not before he talks to us. this guy knowses how to have fun with an audience. he s fantastic. also ahead we re discussing the subject of teens and plastic surgery. say your son or daughter had a larger nose than normal or ears that stuck out and they were getting teased at school. would you allow the teen to have plastic surgery to stop the teasinging? why more parents seem to be saying yes. so many people said no. but it s more complicated when you look at issues kids can be dealing with emotionally and psychologically. right. let s check in with ann on headlines. in the news pushing past darkness and fatigue rescue teams pulled ten more survivors from the debris in joplin, missouri, overnight bringing the number of rescued to 17 people. there was a new risk of severe weather today in joplin where sunday s tornado claimed at least 116 lives and injured at least 600 others. for more on how to help head to today.com. the white house says president obama will travel to missouri on sunday to assess the tornado damage there. the president and mrs. obama arrived overnight in london. they will spend the night in buckingham palace after lunch with the queen and a royal banquet. earlier the obamas met with prince william and his new bride. the coast guard has re-opened a nine-mile stretch of the mississippi river as baton rouge. it was closed on friday after three barges sank in high water and fast currents. port officials say closing it cost the economy millions a day. meantime down river residents were ordered to e vk wait by this afternoon as high waters have yet to recede. reporter: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will explain his own vision for peace. he rejected president obama s call for israel to give up territory and return to pre1967 borders. the wall street journal is reporting that recordings from an air france jet lost speed and stalled while copilots were distracted by malfunctioning air speed sensorses. it is reported the pilot wasn t there at the time the emergency began to unfold. all 277 people on board died in the crash two years ago. yahoo is about to roll out the long promised e-mail overhaul. the system promises to double the speed and compete with facebook and twitter. yahoo s 277 free e-mail users will be switches over in the coming weeks. and for the first time ever a space shuttle was photographed up close while still docked with the space station. the stories were taken as the osoyoos shuttle left to head for earth. now to al in joplin, missouri, with a check of the weather. hey, al. ann, thanks so much. this time yesterday we were watching impending dangerous weather moving in. it will move in again, but not until much later this afternoon. let s show you what s happening. we ve got a strong risk of very strong storms. in fact, we now have a high risk of strong storms stretching from oklahoma city, wichita, tulsa. then surrounding that we ve got a strong risk. joplin, part of the area and the slight risk stretches from texas all the way to new england. boston, from dallas, texas, to boston we have a risk of strong storms today. the rest of the country, we are looking at sunshine through the gulf coast. midatlantic states, temperatures will be toasty, up near mid-atlantic states, getting up near 90 degrees. and clouds in the pacific north west. and cooler than usual. plenty of sunshine in the western great lakes into the northern plains. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. temperatures around 70 degrees now, and we have high humidity. and then those are drifting off to the east. later today an increased chance of afternoon or early evening storms. and then partly cloudy tomorrow. tomorrow evening into thursday, we hav and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. up next, teens and plastic surgery. to save them from being bullied, is it a good idea? right after this. cash back with my credit card? love the idea. no hoops to jump through to get it? even better. not a big fan of hoops. that s why i have the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. we get 1% cash back on every purchase. there s no limit to the amount of cash back i can earn. and the rewards yes. won t expire. bankamericard cash rewards. 1% cash back. no hoops to jump through. nice and simple. just the way i like it. 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[ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. back now with a controversial way some teens and their parents are dealing with teasing and bullying plastic surgery. natalie morales has details on this. good morning. good morning. plastic surgery can be a way to stand out in a crowd, but to a kid being teased at school a nose job, liposuction or breast augmentation can be a way to blend in. they said i had a big nose. so what? i do, too. buck teeth. i had them fixed. i got thrown in a trash can. reporter: monday, lady gaga told the hosts of the view she was bullied because of her appearance. are you suggesting i get a nose job? reporter: on a recent episode of glee, rachel considered plastic surgery to get in. in the real world 13-year-old aubrey is considering plastic surgery. i m self-conscious about what i wear, how my hair looks. when you add in my ears, something i have no control over it makes me feel really bad. reporter: she says her protruding ear made her a target at school. this tip, instead of going back a little it sticks out. reporter: with their parents blessing aubrey and brooke met with plastic surgeon robert anderson to consider having their ears pinned back. parents are realizing the emotional and psychological problems the children have. reporter: for teens, ear surgeries are the most common followed by nose reshaping and breast reduction. london woodward, the girl s mother had work done on her right ear when she was 20. she supports her girls decision to consider plastic surgery now. she knows she can wait. she doesn t ever have to do it. reporter: how young is too young? according to the american society for aesthetic plastic surgery, ear surgeries are recommended for some kids as young as five or six. correction of the ears prior to the child entering school helps eliminate potential psychological trauma from the teasing of classmates. we want to make sure if something like this is done on a child it makes sense and really there are more positives than negatives. reporter: as for aubrey, she said she wants more time to decide whether to go through with plastic surgery. i think i can hold off a little longer because the teasing hasn t gotten too bad yet. but if it gets a little worse then i may have to go sooner than planned. ear surgery can be performed on patients as young as 5. many surgeons recommend kids wait until they reach physical maturity before undergoing surgeries involving the nose and breasts. thank you very much. janet taylor is a psychologist in private practice. first of all, i like aubrey s attitude. she s saying, i will take a wait and see approach to this. i won t rush into it. is that the way most teens deal with this situation or do they rush in more? here s the thing, matt. yes, she has a choice and should make sure she makes the right decision but bullying is intentional and doesn t just stop because you have had a plastic surgery procedure. self-acceptance is all about having the right perspective. as parents we have a critical role in helping kids develop that. as a doctor, sam, when a teen comes to you when they talk about the fact, i m getting teased or bullied, your job is to deal with the physical side. how do you deal with it? what do you say to teens about the emotional side of it? it s an important question. the first thing is whether they are being pushed to do it by somebody, whether they are doing it for themselves or whether it is external or internal factors. the most common is the rhinoplasty procedure i see. at age 14 they want it. i want to make sure the parents aren t pushing them to do it. that they want to do it. that it will improve their appearance. it s not a small deformity. it has to be a major deformity that s affected them. often times we look at children and we see imperfections. i love my children for their imperfections. do you think the parent starts to communicate their own fears and that s what the child is reacting to? that s a faker toctfactor. no one is perfect. it gets back to the parents are the key link for bullying which is not, in my opinion, as related to plastic surgery procedures but parental love, acceptance and warmth can teach your kids to accept themselves which is a key factor of parenting. you mentioned rhinoplasty, female breast augmentation, male breast reduction, female breast reduction, liposuction. do you have a standard age in your office where you will say, okay, no. you are too young for that procedure? yes. for breast work, that should be done much older. for me, if something is in the middle of your face and it is a big, large deformity, that can be addressed for girls at age 14. for boys, as early as 15. they take a little longer to mature. breast work and things that are less obvious, i think that should wait. does surgery being performed on a teenager make that teenager more likely to come in for more surgeries later in life? not necessarily. they are in a vulnerable period in their life. a lot of external factors are affecting them. if you have a major deformity it adds stress to the situation. they are less able to focus on school. sometimes it s a combination of trauma to the nose where they can t breathe and also the aesthetic component. sam draws the right line there. if there is a major deformity, one thing. if you re looking for perfection that s a bad idea. plastic surgery isn t the be all and end all for a cure for self-esteem. it s the inside out. that s a good point. parents have to be involved with this. it s not just the surgery. it doesn t end with the surgery. bullying continues with other things if they don t address the factors involved in the good self-esteem. good information. thanks to you both. appreciate it. up next, kung fu pan da himself. we catch up with jack black who s in a rather unusual position. right after this. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that s fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. 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[ male announcer ] savings and value is what toyota does best. after all, toyota s the most fuel-efficient full-line auto manufacturer in the industry. and we have the lowest ownership cost of any full-line car brand. and now take advantage of a great selection of new toyotas from the full-line auto manufacturer that has the longest lasting vehicles in america. plus, every new toyota comes with toyotacare, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. we re #1 for a reason. come see for yourself. hurry in for the best selection. we are back with the return of po the panda. he s back for the second installment of kung fu panda. po is living his dream as the dragon warrior, but this time he and the furious 5 must face a vi lane threatening china. good morning, jack. they are fabulous, too. and furious, both. just saw you in cannes. we were hobnobbing. we partied in cannes. we did. what was your favorite part of the trip? my interview with you. other than that. just walking around cannes is spectacular. it s gorgeous beaches and cool film makers everywhere. generally just a fun place to be. i don t have any specific crazy tales. i have my favorite part was the cabana boys. did you see them? no. what did they do? they ll do almost anything. what s happening? they fan you. they re lovely. oh, those guys. i was stressed out there. there you go. i should have stopped for that treatment. exactly. you missed it. but your movie is finally coming out this week which is exciting. you said one of the proudest moments of your career was finishing this film. you have done so many things. what is it about the film? it s just a great movie. it s a proud moment when you re part of something that feels like a classic. it has the feeling that it will outlive me. it will continue to entertain kids and families for years to come. there is something special about that, i m sure. your dad, po s father, mr. ping is a goose. in this film po realizes he s adopted and wantses to find his biological parents. why now? it s one of the first unanswered questions. wait a minute, that goose can t be his dad. where are the pandas? this tells the back story. it gets pretty heavy, you know? very heavy actually. that was one of the things that attracted me to the script. it had a new dimension. it asked real questions about parents, families and what that s about. we were talking to angelina in cannes. she talked about the fact that dealing with adoption meant a lot to her because of her family dynamics. exactly. and what their kids have gone through as well. it s really funny and action packed. it has an emotional level the fist one didn t which blew me away when i saw it. you were in the plaza with po. you re not letting him indoors. i don t understand what that s about. well, me and po this is wrong. he s cool. we re cool. we have to have some separation though. he s a bear. he may look cuddly, but don t let him get too close. he takes all the attention, too. who s in the suit? do you have any idea? what do you mean? what suit? that s po. it s scary. you re po. you did martial arts for us in cannes. so we know you know that. a little bit. more of your personality in the bear? more of mine? how much of your personality is in po. 90%. i saved a little bit for other roles that i may play in the future. yeah. he s very much me. me when i was younger and looking up on my comedic idols, rock and roll idols. po is all about the kung fu idols. we are similar in that way. this may be typical in the booth. you start ad libbing lines, changing things. i understand angelina had to redo stuff because you changed lines. yeah, sorry. is that okay? i think she was okay with it, yeah. that s part of the fun of making these animated features. you get to go back, work on each joke, each thing over and over again. is it tedious? no. i love it. it s in some ways more fun than doing live action. when you re just focused on the voice you can get, you know, even more shiny and perfect than you would with a regular film. you have two little boys. sam is 4 and tom he turned 3 yesterday. yeah. tell us about the party. great party for a 3-year-old. you had a magician. we had a great party. the magician was a little bit too intense. he was doing magic tricks where stuff came out of his mouth and then he would give the thing to the kids and i was like, dude, what are you doing? did you brush your teeth at least? let me smell your breath. he was funny, but we crossed the line, i think. did the boys see the movie? yes. they had a special screening? we had a special screening. all the kids from sam s school came. thumbs up? they loved it. i m not surprised. jack black, thanks. kung fu panda 2 opens in theaters this week. back after your local news. overcast outside right now. mild temperatures, in the 70s. we ll check the weather coming up shortly. good morning, everybody. i am barbara harrison. in the news, a deadly hit-and-run. a woman is dead and her husband in critical condition. the couple had just got off a bus and a driver hit them as they crossed the street and kept going. investigators say th radar showing a small area of light rain northwest of washington and heading off to the east. later today a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. sunshine breaking out and in the 80s. the beltway in northern virginia, the inner loop very slow. it s a sharp zigzag pattern. and it s backed up to springfield. and to the american legion 8:30 now on a tuesday morning. it s the 24th of may, 2011. you re looking at some of the happy folks gathered in rockefeller plaza. happy, in part, because the rain seems to have blown out of here. we have a breezy sunny morning here in the heart of the city. i m matt lauer alongside ann curry. coming up, we re going to talk about how every parent wants the best for their kids. does that mean you should continue to support your children well into their adult years? this is becoming a necessity for families. does it actually help them or hurt them down the road? we ll talk about it. it s an important issue, especially with the economy. you want, as a parent, to do the best, but it s a struggle. also this morning we ll talk about that and and also, can you smell that? we re grilling. we are grilling for the memorial day get-together. a delicious recipe for surf and turf which is something for everybody off the grill. and speaking of the holiday weekend we ll kick it off in style. on friday we have the first summer concert of the series. rihanna will be here. the pop superstar will be entertaining the crowd friday morning. if you re a fan, come down and bring your best rihanna sign because judges will determine which the best signs are. the top ten win on-stage tickets to rihanna s loud concert courtesy of livenation. that s friday morning, rihanna on the plaza. that will be some concert. also, another big event here on nbc. the live two-hour season finale of the biggest loser. it will be anybody s guess who will be crowned the winner, irene, jay, olivia or hannah. we have al son sweeney, the host joining us this morning. great to see you this morning. good morning. good morning, ann. give us a handicap on the contestants. first of all, olivia and hannah. how do you think they will do? first of all, it s awesome. they are sisters, the first set to make toyota the finalses. they are both amazing women. i love hannah and olivia. olivia is the older sister. she s won more challenges. she won a lot of weigh-ins. hannah won the final weigh-in. so she s got it in her. she can do it. the girls are set up to have a chance of winning this. i know america will pick either jay or irene. how do you see it turning out? that s a tough one. jay is the comeback kid. he was eliminated in the middle of the season and made it back on campus. he s a good guy and a hard worker. he has the weight to lose. he has the numbers. irene, we could have an all-girl final. that would be awesome for irene. she was the highest potential weight loss on campus. she beat everybody. she s a rock star. our silent ninja, everyone calls her on campus. she has it going for her, too. this season, it is anyone s game. there is so much inspiration we can take from this. thank you so much for giving us this. by the way, allison and i flew across country together. did you know she snores? matt! you weren t supposed to tell. al and i flew across country as well. the whole cabin. you made her go to sleep. that s the deal. ann and i had a party. we were living it up. allison, good luck. it was fun. people can catch the live season finale tonight at 8:00/7:00 central time on nbc. the winner will be here on today. we want to mention meredith had to leave early today. we ll see her tomorrow as well. let s get a check of the weather now from mr. roker in let s get a check of the weather now from mr. roker down in joplin, missouri. reporter: the latest numbers. the death count, 116. we expect the numbers to change. 17 people yesterday pulled from the rubble alive, and we re hoping for more repeat stories like that later today. and let s show what you is going on weather-wise today. we have a strong risk, a high risk of strong storms today. we have a slight risk of storms. sunshine through the south. and then for tomorrow, we have the strong risk moving to the east. we have a slight risk into the ohio river valley. sunshine and hot weather from texas into southern california. showers into the pacific northwest. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. clouds are producing light rain. you see it on radar in montgomery county and howard county. as it moves away we will have increasing sunshine later today and a risk of afternoon thunderstorms. highs into the upper 80s and warm and humid today. and then late afternoon and early evening we could get a passing storm. and then a chance for some more thunderstorms wednesday evening don t forget. you can get your weather any time you need it on weather channel on cable or weather.com online. any time you need willard scott we ve got him for you, like right now. it won t be long. summertime vegetables from the garden. how sweet it is. happy birthday from smuckers. take a look, if you will, at gl glenna gett of keene, new hampshire. we have marshall reynolds of clinton, iowa. 102 years old. enjoys eating out, playing bridge. that s good for the mind, they tell me. never goes to see a doctor unlessle she has to. and dorothy musson of west windsor, new jersey. still walks to the dining room with her friends and beats them there usually. she loves the senior citizen center where she lives. howard buffington of towson, maryland. prides himself on outpacing his friends. he can walk and beat them every time. here is anna katz from livingston, new jersey. 100 years old today. loveses desserts and can t lea them alone. eat dessert first and you don t need as much food. joseph dewees from nashville, indiana. 100 years old today. loves square dancing and working on his farm. the secret to longevity, a daily dose of apple cider vinegar. i have heard it about a lot of people. that s all. back to new york. willard, thank you so much. coming up, why the baby boomer parents are having to support their adult children. that s coming up after this. first, this is today on nbc. we are back at 8:39 with today s money. according to a new forbes.com survey 60% of parents are providing some financial support to adult children and many adults say their children are worse off than they were a generation ago. sharon epperson, good morning to you. good morning. we know the economy has been tough. we have been covering it for a long time, but that startled me. 60% of baby boomers? we are in the throes of it now. we are looking at an employment rate for many adults far higher than for the average population. add to that the college debt burden many of the young people have. 24,000 on average. then on top of that, all the homes in foreclosure, if they were fortunate enough to get into a home they can t afford to keep it. now they may be living under the same roof as their baby boomer parents. we have a graphic of some ways parents are helping children with housing, living expenses, transportation costs, insurance coverage so important spending money, medical bills. we are talking about making ends meet. these are basic necessities they cannot provide for themselves. some of them may have a part-time job. they can t afford to pay rent or mortgage on a place. they can t afford to cover the health care expenses that are continuing to escalate. so many baby boomer parents found the time in their lives where they had to struggle. the last thing they had to do was watch their kids struggle as well. they raised their children a certain way. some believe this is how i should be living, but they don t realize how much their parents had to struggle. there is a good lesson to be learned that some children. we are not talking about parents paying all the freight. in some cases they are contributing to life under one roof. some are contributing to groceries, utilities, gas for the family car. some contribute nonfinancial help. 42%. cooking, cleaning, child care. what do the numbers say? they are setting up guidelines. set up the guidelines, boundaries, what expectations are for yourself and your child. if they are contributing groceries or rent, great. do what else they can to help around the house if they have no money. it s important to stick to guidelines so there aren t feelings of an months if i down the road. you can t say, well, they have a major expense. they bought a plane ticket they couldn t afford so i will help. if you have guidelines about the spending money, the amount they have to contribute, stick to your guns. and parents are making sacrifices. take a look at this. 30% have given up their privacy because they have kids living at home. 26% have taken on additional debt. 13% gave up taking a vacation. 7% delayed retirement to accommodate their adult children. the debt burden and the retirement are the ones that scare me. you want to help their child. who wouldn t want to. you don t want to put yourself in a situation where you have to move in with them eventually because you have no money for retirement and you have debt. sharon, thanks very much. appreciate it. my pleasure. still ahead, the apps that can help you save money on gas. we ll tell you about those. first, this is today on nbc. announcer: today s be well, be healthy is brought to you by benefiber. a better you from the inside out. that s the beauty of benefiber. back now at 8:46. this morning on be well, be healthy, battling the childhood obesity epidemic. kristen welker visited a town where a dedicated teacher is putting in overtime to help kids slim down. reporter: a small town in rural washington state struggling with a big problem, obesity. as many as 31% of adults in this down are obese. that s just about as high as the national average. it s an issue doris door witnesses first hand. a fitness instructor at the local high school she realized something had to change after a painful conversation with one of her students four years ago. all of her friends were involved in activities and she wasn t because she was fat. reporter: after the discussion doris started an after-school exercise program, just for girls. make sure your palms are this way. reporter: the 56-year-old now volunteers her afternoons and students like jerilyn stevens, bike, jump and push themselves to the limits. what have you lost so far? 20 pounds. reporter: jerilyn s goal is to get healthy. most of my dad s family is diabetic. i don t want to be next. reporter: it s an uphill battle for the students. doris says poverty plays a big role. the kids eat what is put before them by their families. a lot of families get food from food banks. unfortunately in our society unhealthy foods are cheaper. reporter: all of this hard work is paying off. girls in the program have lost an average of 70 pounds each. that s making a big difference on the outside and inside. it feels really good. reporter: desiree used to be a size 13. now she s a 5. jerilyn was kpietd to wear her new prom dress after dropping a size. i can do it. i can lose the weight. i can eat the right foods, be healthy and also be more confident. reporter: the program has given 40 girls newfound confidence. it s so successful doris earned national recognition. i m not the hero here. i was the facilitator. those girls have had to overcome so much. reporter: her students would disagree. they say they owe everything to the woman they call their second mom. if it wasn t for her we wouldn t be healthier now. reporter: one woman helping girls getle healthy and get excited about their future. for today, kristen welker, nbc news, washington. we cheer them on. coming up next, we re going to fire up the grill with matt s help. first, this is today on nbc. we make the time to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. but what we should also be celebrating, are the moments. the ones that could have been just another day, but became extraordinary memories. moments when we learn about the world that came before us, and a little more about ourselves. let s celebrate together. colonial williamsburg. come be part of the story. and now is the perfect time to celebrate with the summer bounce package. plan your stay at colonialwilliamsburg.com when your eyes are smiling. you re smiling. and when they re laughing. you re laughing. be kind to your eyes. with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see your whole day comfortably. and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. sculpted by an unyielding passion for design. and tempered by 125 years of legendary performance. introducing the all-new 2012 cls from mercedes-benz. where the world s greatest automobiles take shape. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. this morning on today s kitchen we get back to the basics of grilling. how about saying no to burgers for a change and saying yes to surf and turf. chef robli is from gastro lounge and has his own catering company. happy almost memorial day. you bet. you like frank stelank steak i love it. you slice it first. why? it gives more space for marinades to soak in giving you something more flavorful. and cooking time is quick? yes. you re winning all around with that. you talk about marinating it. how thick are you cutting the slices? three-quarters of an inch and cut across the grain to make it more tender. starting with mustard? yes, a little bit of dijon. worceshershire sauce, soy sauce, nice and easy. fresh cracked black pepper, minced garlic. give it a whisk. and you will throw it in a ziploc bag after oil goes in. right. how long do you marinate? at least two hours but ideally overnight. put it in the refrigerator overnight? yes. you have the marinade like that. take your sliced steak. go right into the bag like that. then just pour it right in. super easy. anybody can do that. overnight it looks like this. since we are doing surf and turf let s talk about the prawns. different marinade. yes. we have lemon juice and zest. right into the bag. you like it tangy. yes. the lemon zest has more flavor than the juice does. little bit of olive oil. chopped garlic, sea salt and hot hungari hungarian p hungarian paprika. and you can go lighter. it s not that spicy. you keep the shells on the prawns? yes. split the back of the shell, pull out the vein. why is it important to get the air out? the more air you get out allows the marinade to actually touch the prawns. give it a shake. let them go for up to an hour. no more than an hour. here you like the steak to go overnight with as much marinade as possible. why less time with the prawns? the acid will cook the prawns. break it down. yeah. so after you have marinated it for an hour. take one. skewer them up. here are your skewers. soak them in water so they don t burn up on the grill. that s a good trick and people forget it. yes. go through the tail. super easy. right up to the head. there you go. pop those on the grill. yes. do these cook at the same temperature from the steak or you want it on a hot part of the grill. they cook very quickly. these are almost done. right there on the grill. when you say very quickly how many minutes? two mints on ea minutes o side for the prawns. and we ll put on the steak as well. let s get into the age old debate. charcoal or gas? i m a little of each. i like the gas to start my charcoal and then shut it off and go with charcoal. once the charcoal ignites you let it go on its own. yes. a couple minutes on each side. while those cook if you want to serve greens with that what do you suggest? this is a spring salad. you have asparagus, radishes which are in season now. we have arugala. lemon. simple salad in season. everything works. everyone s drooling. you take the meat off the grill and let it cool? let it rest for about five minutes or so. and you re ready to go. this is good. the crew is circling. thank you very much. thanks for having me. nice to have you here. we ll be right back with much more in just a couple of minutes on a tuesday morning right after these messages. cloudy skies out there this morning. good morning to you. our time, 8:56, tuesday, may 24th. in the news at this hour a woman has died and her husband in critical condition after getting hit by a car. police say the couple was trying to cross the street after getting off a bus in wheaton, maryland. the investigators found the the investigators found the vehicle [ horns honking ] [ whistle blows ] [ male announcer ] can the network you live on handle the computers, tvs and technology you can t live without? verizon fios can. get the power and speed of america s largest 100% fiber optic network. verizon fios. a network ahead. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. good morning. radar showing light rain in prince william and into howard counties. highs reaching the upper 80s. a chance of early evening or afternoon thunderstorms. a slight risk of a storm producing wind damage or hail. and then thursday we could get  few more storms and humid through the end of the week. and then slow again on the wet pavement. please be careful. roads are slick at this juncture on the beltway. 270, same story there. delays, germantown all the way down. be careful heading out the door this morning. avoid hitting the workout wall. the most commo we are back now with more of today on a tuesday morning, the 24th of may 2011. humid, soupy, not a bad day here in new york city. but there are a lot of people who have been out here for a long time. we want to take the time to wave to people back home. appreciate them stopping by. inside studio 1a i m matt lauer along with ann curry and natalie morales. al roker is in joplin, missouri, as they struggle out from under one of the deadliest tornadoes to hit the united states. at its peak the twister had winds up to 198 miles per hour. it ripped about a six-mile-long path through that air. the death toll is well over 100. emergency officials expect to recover more bodies in the coming days as the search will continue, but there is some good news. there have been miraculous stories of survivors pulled from the rubble. in fact, the search teams worked despite the darkness, despite the fatigue and pulled ten more people out just overnight. they didn t have to keep going but they did. thank goodness they did. that brought 17 people to be recovered. we ll go to joplin soon for the latest on this. and if you have been filling up you know the average price at the gas pump is $3.88 a gallon. if that s putting your dream of a summer road trip in doubt we ll telle you how to save money while filling your tank. and we have answers to your diet and nutrition questions from the best way to start on a plan to dress up your boring salad. first to al in joplin as he has been for 36 hours or so. al, good morning again. good morning, matt. the good news is the joplin, as the last 36 hours. reporter: the good news is, the weather is clear for the searchers, the rescuers and the volunteers. yesterday we had record-setting rainfall. almost two inches of rain in 24 hours. constant lightning. two police officers yesterday were struck by lightning as they were performing rescues. in fact, we have a risk of severe weather happening again. there is a possibility of tornados here in joplin again today and into tomorrow. that would knock this city down just as its trying to get back up on to its feet. no matter where you look from above or from the ground, joplin is a city in ruins. it goes on for miles. doesn t look anything like it did. massive tornado, and massive destruction. reporter: the tornado that touched down sunday was three quarters of a mile wide tracking a seven-mile long path. and mother nature came in with a fury. in less than ten minutes, countless lives were forever changed. more than 116 people lost with hundreds more injured. one of joplin s main hospitals heavily damaged. it was the scariest, most horrific thing i have ever seen. the cardiologist was on call at the medical center as the tornado hit blowing out windows and destroying their medical chopper. looked like we had been hit with a bomb. reporter: the staff evacuated 183 patients. we went into combat mode. there were huge things obstructing us from getting patients out of the rooms. reporter: they were searching for survivors under the constant threat of more severe weather. 17 people were found alive. john is hoping his friend will be one of the lucky ones rescued. larry. my neighbor. he is 73. i don t know where he was at. i know he was home. reporter: volunteers searched for larry but could not find him. and this woman returned from vacation to find her grandmother had been killed by the tornado. seemingly in shock how old was she? 84. reporter: how is it you are able to talk about this? it s surreal. i don t know what s going on in my mind. i am just out of my wits. our citizens are strong. joplin is a city of neighbors helping neighbors, and with this spirit we will overcome this hardship. a lifelong resident who is now one of the survivors, wondering if his life and the beloved city will ever be the same. i don t know what i will do. take it one day at a time. that s all i can do. reporter: you re still alive. yes. and we have a high risk of strong storms today just to the west here of joplin, parts in oklahoma and texas and on into kansas. and then there is a strong risk around that as well. so really not a lot of great news for this area. joining me right now is marcia o conn o connor. you were going through your car with a help of your friend. you are a nurse here and you were here when the tornado struck. yes. reporter: what was it like? pretty horrible. loud. it happened really fast. it seemed to last a few minutes, or forever, and you think it s going to stop, it s going to stop, and it kept rumbling on. reporter: where was your car originally parked? 60 feet that way. reporter: have you found anything sal jawable out of it? i did dig my purse out, and then there was no time to try and get anything out. so i think we re getting some stuff out of there. reporter: thank you, and the best of luck. thank you. that s the latest from joplin, missouri. we ll have an update coming up in the next half hour. back to you. thank you very much, and we appreciate it. ann has the rest of the top stories of the day. i do. also in the news, hundreds of flights are cancelled across europe today because of the erupting volcano in iceland. and as the ash spreads across the continent, more cancellations are expected. the ash already forced the president to leave early for london. and dna found on the clothes of the maid matches that of the former imf chief. strauss-kahn is accused of attempted rape. flight recorders from an air france jet that crashed off brazil indicate the plane stalled. all 228 people onboard died in the accident two years ago. little monsters went goo goo for gaga on monday when amazon offered the album for 99 cents online to woo customers away from apple itunes. that possibly put a snag on the ability to compete with itunes. and let 100-year-old ray clark inspire you, proving it s never too late to get in shape. his grandson used the gym. not bad for a man that only weighs 144 pounds himself. looking very good there. good for him. that s great. nice story. we re up-to-date, and let s go back out to joplin, missouri. al? thank you so much. we want to show you that this risk area is pretty wide, actually. we check it out. we ll show you the strong risk area, as you can see. we have the strong risk and the slight risk extends from texas into new england. it s a wide swath that will bring thunderstorms, and the possibility of isolated tornadoes, hail, and damaging winds and torrential rain. and we have sunshine in the pacific northwest, and showers i should say in the pacific northwest, and then gorgeous along the gulf coast. and the heat is back on in the mid-atlantic states all the way up into parts of the northeast. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. it s warm and muggy. right now temperatures in the low to mid-70s. radar showing light rain in fairfax county and howard county. it s drifting off to the east. and behind that, we should get sunshine breaking out here shortly and later today, temperatures climb into the 80s. and there s also a possibility of some afternoon and early evening thunderstorms. that s your latest weather. ann? al, thank you so much. this morning on today s consumer money saving gas tips. high gas prices may have you wondering if you can afford to hit the road this summer. the national average is $3.82 per gallon, a dollar more than a year ago. vera gibbons has advice on saving money at the pump. good morning. good morning, ann. in my town, $4.49 a gallon. are people looking at prices and saying, i m staying home? is there evidence of that? they are not actually. prices have been coming down from the peak on may 11 when they were really close to $4. it is causing hardship. people are rethinking the budget. but we will be traveling. six of ten americans plan to take a summer vacation. 86% to hit the road, going to the parks, lake, beach. it kicks off with 35 million americans traveling 50 miles or more. a lot of people are trying to save money in this economy with gas prices. one way they are saving is not getting cars tuned up. that s a bad idea. get the car tuned up regularly to give you greater fuel efficiency. check the fluids, spark plugs, get your oil changed every few thousand miles. make sure the tires are properly inflated. that will boost fuel economy by about 3%. replacing clogged air filters, dirty air filters can improve fuel economy by 10%. doing something major to improve the maintenance of the car can improve it by 40%. don t skip the tune-up. and you want drivers to get app happy. what do you mean? there are a lot of apps to help you find which gas stations have the best prices on the route. that s what you want to do. prices vary by 10, 20, 30 cents, more than that just within a couple of blocks. gas buddy has a popular app available for all different phones. aaa has trip-tik, the mobile version of the travel planner. go ahead and download either one. we ll put the information on the website. good advice. you suggest that as drivers we can lose the amount of weight we are carrying. lose the weight. that makes a big difference? a huge difference. clean out the trunk, the cargo area. get rid of the excess weight. the excess 100 pounds reduces your fuel economy by 2%. loading on your roof, too, decreases fuel economy. avoid the roof rack. that decreases fuel economy by 5%. also, idling. is it better for the use of gas to stay in idle or turn on the car and start again. depends on how long. experts say don t idle for more than ten seconds. if you are at a fast food chain, looks like a long line. you are better off to park, turn the engine off and restart it again. same with the toll booth. in a long line, you re better off getting a pass to drive-thru. idling is expensive. in many cases turning the engine off and restarting. ten minutes of idling uses as much fuel as driving for five miles. think about the air and the environment. that, too. your last tip this morning is reshuffling our credit cards. what do you mean? there are gas cards on the market that give you a rebate for gas purchases. if ever there was a time to consider getting one is to look into these. discover has the open road card with 2% back on the first $250 on purchases on combined gas and restaurant purchases. that s good. you can do it per billing period. capital one has the no hassle card. 2% back on gas and groceries. go to cardrating.com or lowcard.com. it s nice to get something back because you re spending on gas anyway. why not get a rebate? good information. coming up next, what are the best heart healthy snacks? we re going to answer that and your other diet and nutrition questions. later, jill s here again with her fun finds. personal gifts for dads and grads. that s coming up after these messages. 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[ female announcer ] new from neutrogena naturals. this morning on be well, be healthy, joy s diet s.o.s., answers to your daily diet dilemmas. joy bauer has answers on everything from lean and tasty snacks to salad ideas. we have so many people who need your help. aisha from rochester, new york, joins us via skype. what s your question for joy? hi, joy. it was great meeting you at the american heart association the other week. oh. aisha is a heart transplant recipient. what an inspiration. hey. my question was as you know i m a heart transplant recipient and an inspirational speaker so i m always on the go. i m trying to find heart healthy snacks that i can travel with. okay. great question. a lot of people have the same question. the first thing i will tell you is don t discredit fresh fruit. it s loaded with potassium and fiber, two key ingredients for party health. unsalted nuts are terrific. specifically, almonds, pistachio and walnuts have heart science behind them. sunflower seeds, edamame whether it s boiled or roasted. with an insulated bag you can have nonfat yogurt. the kals wrcalcium is great for and blood pressure. hummus and for something sweet go for dark chocolate. keep the portion about the size of a credit card. that s about an ounce. stick with brands that are at least 70% cacao. you re doing great. you look very healthy. keep in touch! all right. good old friends. yeah. we have a viewer e-mail coming to us from joan in fancy farm, kentucky. i m a 55-year-old woman who is 100 pounds over weight. i want to eat healthier and i need to exercise but i have been a couch potato for a while. how do you suggest i get started? you get people all the time looking for inspiration and motivation. she s already taken the first step toward getting healthy. she wants to make a change. i will offer a few manageable, not too drastic changes that will give her effective results. the first is to stop eating fried foods from fried chicken to french fries. next, give up sugary beverages, specifically soda and sweetened tea and fruit juice. instead drink water and zero calorie seltzer. and incorporate produce with every meal. joan has to eat a fruit or vegetable with breakfast, lunch and dinner. if she does those three things and just walks five to ten minutes every day she ll see a significant drop on the scale and she ll feel a hundred times better. that will motivate her to keep going. you lose and want to see how much more you can lose. good luck, joan. good luck! you will join the joy fit club soon. i would love it. finally the last question is from janet on the phone in rock hills, south carolina. good morning. what s your question for joy? hi, joy. my husband and i have been doing well losing weight, getting our cholesterol down. we enjoy eating salad for dinner but are getting bored with grilled chicken. do you have any ideas? there are lots of delicious ideas. have fun because anything workses on a salad. vary the protein from pork tender loin to black beans to seafood, even lean steak. work in chopped apples, mandarin oranges, grapefruit, toasted nuts and seeds. anything goes. visit a local farmer s market to see what s available in terms of seasonal produce. there are a lot of things you would probably not think of adding in. have fun. and stay light on dressing as well. and search online for great ideas. joy bauer. janet sh thanks for the question. joy, thank you as always. coming up, the best beauty products. some cosmetic awards winners. first, these messages. ouncer ] have you met your skin twin? covergirl trublend has skin twin technology. other makeup can sit on the surface of your skin, so it looks like.makeup. but trublend has skin twin technology to actually merge with your skin. you get skin twin coverage that s perfectly true. and you re more perfectly you. 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(narrator) from unforgettable adventures, to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. julie: . i don t feel there s something out there better than what i ve got now. vo: so to show her what she s missing, we built a pc store in her house. julie: (gasp) employee: thanks for dropping in! julie: you ve got to be kidding me! this isn t my house anymore! employee: have a little look around! julie: very nice! employee: this one is touchscreen. julie: i like that. so there is no tower anymore? wow! i admit i m wrong on this account that there is a computer better than mine. vo: new pc in the house julie(to camera): i m a pc and i m gonna kill him. but when i take four pork chops and sprinkle on a packet of hidden valley ranch, i get something that s anything but traditional. ranch pork chops. [ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. 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[ female announcer ] visit aveeno.com for a free sample of new living color. a singer from austin, texas, is the latest stand out on the voice and he took a big chance. he sang one of the coach s own songs. he took on cee lo green s hit forget you and it clearly paid off. good morning! good morning. great to have you here. i was just showing you on my ipod here this morning, i have i downloaded last week when you and ty competed in the duet. i went on itunes and downloaded you. it was so good together. what possessed you to sing the song knowing it s cee lo s song? it was risky, but i felt i needed to connect with the audience and the room and connect with the audience at home. this was my shot. i needed a really recognizable, popular song. that song is a mazing. you have a distinguishable quality. i think rolling stone magazine said you sang the d uet song like a bear? a bear who sings. you re cuddly though. i am. you were written about in rolling stone magazine. i know! it blew my mind. exactly. you re going to see how he does as it continues. the voice airs at 10:00/9:00 central time on nbc. we ll be right back after your local news and weather. 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[ male announcer ] get up to $6 in savings on zyrtec® products at zyrtectv.com. overcast skies out there this morning. we ll check the forecast for you coming up. right now 75 degrees. good morning. at 9:26, it s tuesday, may 23rd. i am barbara harrison. today fairfax county teens will find out firsthand out dangerous driving while texting can be. the police are setting up a special road course where they will test the teen s ability to text behind the wheel. and there is a crackdown on distracted driving, and it will include results how common texting while at 190 miles per hour, the wind will literally lift ordinary windshield wipers off the glass. so, did we build a slower car? or design wipers that could handle anything? what do you think? the cadillac cts-v, the world s fastest production sedan. we don t just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs traffic next. radar showing a small area of light rain in washington, and northern prince georges county as well as southern montgomery county. it s heading off to the east. later today, sun breaking out and highs reaching the 80s and a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms, some of which could be severe. how is traffic? heavy and slow out there on the wet pavement from lorraine. and the accident from the outer loop to tyson s corner is cleared, but still slow. and then delays occur from german down and beginning from sections of downtown. avoid hitting the workout wall. the that s the pop hit called what s my name. her name is rihanna and she s a superstar by any measure. this is a happy song. she ll be bringing her voice to our plaza to kick off our summer concert season. it s already that time of year. come on by and see rihanna live friday this coming friday here on today. it s going to be a huge crowd. hopefully the weather will be good by then. meanwhile in this half hour we ll talk about award winning beauty products from sunscreen to anti-aging creams, the cosmetic industry insiders are picking the best products on the market. they chose winners at both the mass market and luxury price points. i always get great ideas from carlotta. innovative products, too. and the former executive producer at morning joe. at age 38 he suffered a brain aneurysm that could have killed him. he ll tell us about the experience and how it gave him a new perspective on life. he said if a person couldle learn the whole he said if he could go through this, and the person could learn the whole lesson, learn from the experience without having to go through this, wouldn t that be great. and then rerealized he needed to write the book. it s a small book, so you can read it quickly. also ahead, it s giving season. and we have fabulous fun finds, and personalized gifts for grads and dads, and seems like we re celebrating a lot in the month of june, and especially with graduation. may and june, and weddings. yeah, a busy calendar. meantime, another guy that has been busy is al, and he s in joplin, missouri. he will give us a check of the weather. what is the latest on the predictions, more tornados, at least in the region? well, we just got an update. joplin is now in the high risk area today and into tomorrow. it s the risk area is actually just expanded eastward, and it s not so much for winds and that sort of thing, but so much that there s just a better chance of tornados unfortunately. a lot of people concerned about that. we will continue to obviously monitor that. as we look at the rest of the country s weather for today we have a slight risk of bad weather stretching from texas all the way into new england. we re keeping an eye on that. clouds in the pacific northwest. and 93 in miami. sunny and warm through the southwest. chillier than usual for los angeles only 69 degrees today. tomorrow we look for the risk to make its way east further. and then rain in the pacific northwest tomorrow. sunny and mild in the northeast. going to be a nice one. sunny and hot through the gulf coast. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. right now here in washington getting a little bit of light rain. in blue and green in prince georges county and montgomery county. it s drifting to the east. we will get sun breaking out later today climb into the upper 80s. and then we could get thunderstorms. there is a slight risk that we could get strong storms that might produce wind damage or hail. and that s your latest weather. ann, natalie, back to you. thank you very much for your reporting this morning. coming up next from jeans to jewelry, some great personalized gift ideas. oh, no. that s just wrong. right after this. i m sorry i mentioned it. after this. and i ve learned a lot from patients who use levemir flexpen. flexpen comes pre-filled with my long-acting insulin, and i dial the exact dose of insulin i need. my flexpen is discreet and doesn t need to be refrigerated. and flexpen goes wherever i go. levemir is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes. do not take if your blood sugar is too low. 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 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, such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat or sweating. ask your healthcare provider about levemir flexpen today. learn more about the different insulins available in flexpen at myflexpen.com. flexpen, insulin delivery that goes with you. even though i m a great driver, and he s. not so much. well, for a driver like you, i would recommend our new snapshot discount. this little baby keeps track of your great driving habits, so you can save money. 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[ male announcer ] savings and value is what toyota does best. after all, toyota s the most fuel-efficient full-line auto manufacturer in the industry. and we have the lowest ownership cost of any full-line car brand. and now take advantage of a great selection of new toyotas from the full-line auto manufacturer that has the longest lasting vehicles in america. plus, every new toyota comes with toyotacare, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. we re #1 for a reason. come see for yourself. hurry in for the best selection. this morning on jill s fun finds something special for everyone. this is a season of gifts galore. if you re hoping to put an extra special touch on a gift for dad, grad or a bride, jill martin has cool personal items. the trend of going personal is expa expanding. now you have jeanses practically made for you. every woman should have a great pair of jeans but it s hard to find the perfect fit. levi s scanned 60,000 women s bodies for five different types that fit almost every body type. they are under $100. you can go online and look at what works best for you. there are bars around the country where they will custom fit your jeans for under $100. amazing. that will fit just right. next for those of you going into running or you want to walk around you can get your sneakers personalized. you can get them personalized with your name. great for adults and kids if you are messing up shoes, especially if luke and josh have different shoes running around. they are on new balance.com and you can pick laces to colors to what s on the back. a great gift. nike is doing it as well. that s a great trend. these are great tote bags for the beach. they can lug up to 500 pounds? right. starting at $24 from l.l. bean. they come with personalization. you have different names, initials. they are great to lug everything over the summer. great. now you can customize jewelry as well. you like it the way you like it and now you can get it. go on kendrascott.com. 20 stones, 20 silhouettes. this is just a shell of it. you can pick anything that goes in it. pick it online and they ship it to you. pick your favorite colors and if you are giving a gift it s nice to pick what somebody likes. i like turquoise. or birthstones. personalized cards. nice to have the right card for the occasion. i m a big fan of carders, not e-mails. go to cardsfortoday.com and you can sign your name online and put in everything by date. they stuff it, stamp it and send it. you personalize it. you never touch anything but the computer. the person gets an actual card but it s as easy as e-mail. candles seems like an odd thing to personalize but you can. great gift and great scents. it s not smell-o-vision, but you have smelled it before. you put on the person s name. just a beautiful gift. small writing. really a dainty candle. tell us about the wall. these are wall words starting at $10. you put them on the wall and they will not ruin the paint. it s great. your kids can have fun and feel like they are decorating their own room and being creative. artistic. wallwords.com. for the babies. look how cute they are for the babies. little pacifiers. great gift. also for a baby shower. this is great. mute button. cute. the wine carafe here. you have to have the glasses as well. you have to have the initial. patry barn, $29. great gift for the table and a center piece as well. a set of six from williams-sonoma comes in clear or different colors. does it come with sangria? cheers, memorial day. then if you are looking to cover chairs these are great slip covers. if you have kids these are from pottery barns with spills. these are great and marichine washable. great ideas. find out more in this week s us weekly magazine and on today.com. up next, how a hard driving television news producer survived a brain aneurysm and got a new perspective on life. we ll talk with him after these messages. 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[ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. we know chris licht as the producer of morning joe but many don t know he suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm. he chronicled it in his book what i learned when i almost died. first book. i like that. i m bummed that you are the former producer now of morning joe. but let s talk about you first and who you were before what you call the event happened. hard driving, maniac producer which is what everyone loves. but the big difference was i got that feeling in the pit of my  stomach with everything that happened on the show, outside the show, i took everything home with me, internalized it and had a lot of clutter in my brain. didn t realize it at the time. you were a blackberry guy big time. absolutely. even when i was there i wasn t there. i was on the blackberry. i was obsessed. just very much never in the moment of anything but work. i think in hearing the description a lot of us recognize people we know, maybe ourselves. in the book you write at one moment on one day my brain went audible emitting a pop from deep within. not a loud one. more like a balloon pediatricpr the distance. worst feeling i have ever felt. i was 38. you know when you are 38 and you have never felt something that something is wrong. to say it was the worst headache of my life doesn t do it justice. it was a horrific feel like someone was squeezing my head as hard as they could. you re in the hospital, going through the testse. it s surprising how people you know react when they know you are sick. people you don t expect to care suddenly do. people you don t even know maybe like a vice president. joe and mika were in washington. they rushed to the hospital and took control. started calling and one of the people, joe told me, called vice president biden because he went through something similar. he picked up the phone, called a doctor and said, get over and see my friend. i had never met him. i would have gotten the same level of care whether that happened or not but without having family there they became my family during this really, really emotional, scary time. you write it would be nice if everyone could get the education i had gotten without having to really die. okay. so what s the education? you raise the bar as to what matters. your family. that s your extended family. your family, friends, the people who just dropped everything and came to be with me was so important. it made me realize, you know, yeah, i love my wife. i had never seen her in a situation like this just absolutely taking care of me. joe, mika, everybody rising to the occasion. everything else declutters your brain because it doesn t matter. you say we are more loved than we realize. absolutely. i got notes from people that i have had rough battles with. you realize at the end of the day this was not about anything other than human beings. a lot of things we fight about at work really don t matter. you have a smile in your eyes. you re talking about a near death experience with a smile in your eyes. you say a few of us can pivot on a dime. it s still a work in progress and you put down the blackberry all the time. it s a metaphor. as a producer you have to have the blackberry, but it doesn t have to consume you. you can take note of something and fix it quickly if there is a problem, but it doesn t have to consume your soul. that s the learning experience. this little position you now have, this little tiny job over at cbs news. i made them read the book first. you did? absolutely. david rhoads was one of the first person to read it. anyway, congratulations. you will be the vice president of programming at cbs news. i hope they know they are getting a treasure. thank you so much. well written, chris. thank you. more to come this morning including the best beauty products from eye treatments to hair care. this year s award-winning cosmetics. first, this is today on nbc. i ll take these. 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. this morning on today s beauty the awards for 2011. over 4,000 women in the beauty industry vote on products to find the most innovative beauty aids on the market and award them with the stamp of approval. carlotta jacobson is the president of the group. you have been doing it for over six years, so let s get started. we want to talk anti-aging products. first we have the mass winner here. it s available at drug or grocery stores. right. this is the aveeno product. it s a recharger for the skin. what s unusual and interesting technology is it has bio minerals in it. it firms the skin. whole new technology. and it s a reasonable price at drugstores. good for that. next we have the prestige winner. also anti-aging targeted toward not just wrinkles but also if you have dark age spots. which are just as aging as wrinkles. it s as effective as a prescription product. yet it s gentle, nonirritating and every nine seconds. clinique is the prestige winner. correct. next we have eye treatments. you can see all the products on today.com. the eye treatments here, we have the winning cream. you say it stands out from the rest. why? it really has two effects. a long-term firming effect and just putting it on, it has a luminous powder in it so the lines are minimized. so instantly. we like that. moving to hair products, what seems to be the innovative trend is all about mousse. there are two products with mousse. one is fat foam, the first foam hair color. it s easy to use, colors every strand. permanent hair color? yes. oh, okay. so you brush it in. mix it up yourself. do it in minutes. excellent. the other is i will show you. if i can get it. there you go. it s a mouse that comes out of the brush. a giant brush. so you can put it on easily and it doesn t make your hair sticky or thick. it s a great product. i love it. wonderful. over to makeup. taking the prize for long lasting lipsticks, loreal paris infallible la rouge. finally a long lasting lipstick that doesn t dry your lips. look at the colors. it lasts ten hours. can t say more about that. amazing. over here with the eyes we have liquid liners. well, regular liners. but this does the same effect as a liquid liner. it really goes on deeply and intensely. it s easy to use. carlotta, we love when you come in. we see all the new and great things in the beauty world. look at you. thing[ male announcer ]rld. there s a new ride coming to busch gardens williamsburg mach tower. dude, it s like two hundred and. .forty feet high. .right in the middle of oktoberfest. .the seats go, whoooa. .up to the top, then. .the music just stops. and the seats totally start shaking. it s insane. but then all of a sudden. 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[ male announcer ] mach tower. heart racing. jaw dropping. coming soon to busch gardens williamsburg. kind of cloudy out there this morning. we ll find about the weather for the afternoon coming up shortly. it s 9:26, tuesday, may 24th, 2011. in the news at this hour a woman died and her husband in critical condition after being hit by a car. the couple was trying to cross the street after getting off a bus. investigators found the vehicle abandoned and located the driver but have not filed charges. let s check on the forecast. here s tom. good morning. 9:57. our temperatures hitting the mid-and upper 70s and getting a few breaks in the clouds off to the west, and sunshine breaking out. radar showing a few showers exiting maryland and heading off toward the eastern shore. and we could get a thunderstorm in the evening, and a slight chance the storm would produce damaging winds and hail. might getting a passing thunderstorm wednesday night, and on thursday, remaining hot and humid as we get into the weekend. how is traffic? slick roadways. the rain moved through a short time ago as evidenced by an accident. happened here and you can see the debris in the roadway. be careful at stop lights and signs, because the roads are slick still. and then the beltway, heavy and [ female announcer ] keurig brews more than just hot coffee. now you can brew over ice for delicious iced coffee or tea. hot or cold, keurig is the way to brew everyone s favorite cup in under a minute. choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hey, everybody. thanks for joining us on this booze day tuesday. a miracle happened here in new york city. the sun has come out. it s shocking. no. it s gone again. i just turned around, it s gone. i m starting to get that thing you have. what s it called? seasonal disorder affected. i didn t have s.a.d. until today. when we woke this up morning, i stayed in the city last night, you could not see outside your window. the fog was so low. we hear there is a sunny day coming up and rain again. we are not going to complain about the weather because of what other people are going through all over our country. it s unbelievable. our prayers are with everyone. i ve never seen weather like this. it s incredible. it s really sad. the death toll is rising there. it s heartbreaking to watch. it really is. we want to make you smile today. this has been going on since yesterday s show. we introduced kathie lee s favorite thing. our facebook page exploded. they were all over a pair of white pants. i know. what makes these pants unique, they look and seem like leggings, but they are structured like pants. so they are not too clingy and they are stretchy. there is not a zipper, no buttons. easy on, easy off, baby. everyone is asking where you can get these pants because they are not easy to find. it s a canadian country. i bought them down at a store called the sandpiper in key largo. they also have stores in naples and marco island, florida. we are just going to they think they ve got a lot of supply. sa sandpiper clothier.com. the capris are $114. they come in different styles. good luck, everybody. yesterday we had jimmy fallon. he gave each of us a present. we weren t allowed to open these books because he signed each of these to us. he wants more promotion today without having to be here. and we are going to give it to him. kathie lee he did it, you are my favorite, don t tell hoda, jimmy. we fall for it every single time. hoda, you re my favorite, don t tell kathie lee. love, jimmy. first time shame on us, second time shame on you, jimmy. he sent us flowers. i didn t get flowers. he sent you flowers? all is forgiven. he sent you flowers. nice ones, pink. did he? today is a big premiere did he really send you flowers? yes. i thought you got them, too. now i know the truth about the book. today is a big premiere. it s the premiere of kung fu panda 2. we saw it yesterday. we went a screening. i hadn t seen the first one. cassidy said you re going to love it. jack black is too hysterical. he plays po, a panda bear. the premieres usually are at night, but in this case it s at 11:00. let s ask him why. hi, jack. hey! how you doing? good. is it rocking out there? no. i m a little early. premiere starts in like an hour. i m hoping some people show up. it s going to be lonely if i m the only one at the premiere. i ve got some fans over there. we are looking forward to speaking with you a little later in our hour. we wanted to let you know we loved the movie. thank you. we were somebobbing like bab. did jimmy fallon send you flowers? you know what? i m upset. a couple of times. jack, will you send me flowers. i feel like i fumbled the ball. you sent something better, you sent po. po is here. we ll talk to new a few minutes. wow, that is a big boy. careful of the lights. po is a full-figured boy. can you come closer? don t trip. we are going to lose po. don t you love that is so cute. is that cuddly or what? your moves are so much better. okay. all right. do that thing do you with that left foot you trace this circle thing. can do you that? yeah, baby. oh, yes. i love it when a panda does that. do you have flat stanley there with you? i need flat stanley. everybody gets these flat stanley things. po, do you mind? this is for my dear little friend in massachusetts named kylee. thank you, po. have a good opening, okay? i hear you brought presents for us. later. don t give it away. thank you. nice talking to you. he s cute. just hogs the conversation though. he won t shut up. here, if you live in new york, you re not going to like this story. we are going to tell you. bed bugs are apparently running rampant. in new york city, it s going to be the worst spot for bed bugs of anywhere in the country. in the world, right? i don t know about the world. i know about our own country. bad enough in our country. philadelphia is number five in bed bug department. chicago s number four. detroit number three. cincinnati, number two. and the number one city where bed bugs are prevalent is new york city. good time to move to hawaii. it s because a lot of people pass through. they say bed bugs get in your wheelie bags sometimes. you bring them in and out of hotels. they are in some of the movie theaters. they breed like rabbits. just takes two bed bugs to make a bunch of babies. they re doing that in your bed. i start getting paranoids about stuffer like that. do you? most of the time i live in the country and not that they can t walk these could get there. my suitcase could certainly take them in, but i don t think about it that much. unlike our sweet tamsville who is paranoid about them. tammy is worried about germs and bugs and who touched it, who licked it. who did that to what. that s ironic considering tamsville s past. you know what i m saying? maybe that s why she is so concerned. she s got good reason. whoa, now it makes sense. you re right. you re right. now i m getting it. if you guys love you, tammy. if you guys were already for saturday night and the world ending, harold camping who said it was over, he hadn t spoken since the day he was wrong. he did speak out. what he said was actually the day the world was ending is postponed until october 21st. keep in mind a lot of people listen to him. they sold things, they pulled their kids out of school, did all that sort of stuff because this guy said it was the end of the world. the one thing they should have done that they didn t do? they should have read the bible. if the man is quoting the bible, the bible specifically says in matthew, jesus said, no man knows the hour or the day except the father, not even me. if jesus doesn t know how does harold camping? he said he knew. he doesn t know. shame on him for frightening so many people and using scripture to do it. that s not right. he s saying it s still five months away. we could have the same people don t be stupid this time. false prophets in the world. that was wrong to do that to people. people were scared. most people laughed about it. a lot of people s faith has been damaged. don t put your faith in people. i think most people took it as a laughable joke, don t you think. some people took it seriously. i feel badly for them. they should have done their homework. now, again, we are starting our voice competition tomorrow. we have work. how many today, guys? three. okay. we re ready. over the rainbow blue birds fly birds fly over the rainbow why oh why can t i . i don t need to want you but i do he ought to know that by now is that it? that s it. okay. tomorrow we are going to start. again, the voice quality is different on tape. we ll bring three people in, listen, choose teams. i m so excited about it. i am really excited. it s fun. you were busy last night. i stayed in the city last night. i don t often do it. it has to be a cause i truly believe in or an honor for someone i dearly love. my friend anna strasburg said our friend al pacino and bebe newworth would be honored last night at the actor s fund. it s been around over 100 years. it takes care of actors. actors who have fallen on hard times, actors who can no longer get work, singers, dancers, anybody in the entertainment world. they do great, great work. i sat with alec baldwin and sat an al s table. there i am. i wore a little orange frock. al was fashionably late looking like keith richards from pirate of the caribbean. i stalled a little bit. so i told a couple of my al pacino stories. they went over well. there is this other cute story about me and al and oliver stone and two hookers, but darn, we re out of time. and we re out of time now, too. we are going back to the ziegfield theater where blackjack is on the carpet. how can expedia save me even more on my hotel? by giving me huge discounts on rooms hotels can t always fill. with unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less. where you book matters. expedia. hello. hello. how are you? how are you? are you mocking me? are you mocking me? [ both ] well it sounded like you were. now that you re repeating. everything.that i say. ok. ok. [ both ] we made some progress yesterday. [ pen clicks ] click. check. [ pen clicks ] click. [ male announcer ] we take the time for our cheese to mature before we bake it into every delicious cracker because at cheez-it, real cheese matters. before we bake it into every delicious cracker smoky eyes look amazing, but creating them? that s a whole different story. introducing new almay intense i-color smoky-i kit. first, sweep the smoky eye color across your lid. then add the crease- accentuating shade, and a highlight under your brow. only from almay. only for me. some people will do anything to make friends. funnyman jack black was on our plaza passing out pandas for his new film kung fu panda 2. jack provides the voice for panda po. the furious five return to protect all of china from a new villain. it s a fun, terrific movie. jack is out at the red carpet at the zeigfield theater. see what you ve done to these small children, they are skipping school to be there for this. are you talking to me? i say stay in school, kids, but isn t it summer break yet? can you hear him? you better do the interview. it s all over. it isn t all over. jack, tell us about your character. he sort of evolves from the first kung fu panda to this one. tell us about him. well now he is the dragon warrior. he is no longer fung few master in training. he s arrived and is working with the furious five to protect all of china from a new evil villain named shen, a peacock, which may not sound dangerous, but trust me, who is playing the peacock? i like that peacock. gary oldman. when it s gary oldman playing the peacock, you ll be scared, believe me. i think it s better than the first one, honestly. what is cool angelina jolie is in this. lucy liu is in this. lucy will be with you at the premiere? yes. she is coming to the premiere later. we are going to be going all over the world to promote. that has to be tough work going to cannes with dustin hoffman and angelina jolie. yeah. it s really hard. can you show us some of the moves? you actually practiced some of this. you have it down. want a little taste. i do have some kung fu. it looks like, you know, a grateful dance, but then hi! you re very nimble. wow! wait a second. that was serious kung fu. ah. excellent. we are in awe. hello? can you hear us? maybe i unplugged. of course you did. i can t hear you. i m sure you re impressed. yes, we are. we are. we wish you the very best with the movie, bye, jack. love you. hopefully lucy will be with us in the studio tomorrow. the movie is a lot of fun. little boys are going to love it. i think it s a little violent for little, little kids. up next, sara finds out what it takes to be a starbucks barista. [train whistle blowing] we re here because we wanted to come as much as they did. (girl) it s really hogwarts! because i can fly with harry! because i love seeing him like this! (screaming) ahhhhh! (narrator) from unforgettable adventures to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. [ chanting ] do it! [ all cheering ] [ female announcer ] it s fun to get dirty when it s this easy to get clean. that s because clorox 2 stain fighter & color booster works better than detergent alone at removing the toughest stains. works better than detergent alone man: and all the pens are put down. woman: and everything there is to learn is learned. man: till the heroes retire and the monsters return to their dens. woman: and all the plots are wrapped up. man: till that day. boy: by hook or by crook. girl: by book or by nook. woman: i will read. we send our own sara to the city for odds job. i had a fantastic time with this one. did you know there are 182 starbucks on the island of manhattan alone and nearly 300 in all of new york city? well, i had the privilege of working at one in soho to see if i have what it takes to be a barista for the day. espressos, cappuccinos, grande, venti, tall, we live in a java nation. i was offered a crash course in coffee at starbucks. very nice to meet you. i got to dress the part. meet the staff and learn frapuccinos 101. this will be a special creation for hoda. first, the pump. hoda, i put a little extra in for you. then the blender. this is a hoda-ccino. the final step was my favorite whipped cream. i m going to do an h. if that is for hoda you shouldn t drink it. i m not drinking, i m cleaning it. i only lick the ones i know. i wouldn t lick a stranger s. after this the bar heated up. hit the two buttons. one, two. hurry. five. where does it go? three, four, five. we ll give you a discount. i m never ordering that drink. that s punishment to you guys. how many are you ordering? nonx what? this one looks crazy. who is drinking that? that s my boss s. don t insult him but that s like day s worth of calories. greeting customers to meeting them. i was quickly moved to the register. welcome to starbucks, can i help you? i m sorry, was it something i said? hi, welcome to starbucks. what s your name? you see, i had a slight problem with names. remember the name for the order. what was your name, ma am? erin. that s what i was going to say. what was your name? andrew. i can do that part. andrew. your drink will come out at the end of the bar. andrew doesn t like me very much. what was your name? rudy with an i or a y. do you know who kathie lee and hoda are? they like wine. they do. i like her. i even got although my trainer melissa, the sweet woman who told me not to lick the cup, gave me a b minus for sanitation reasons. i whipped up a drink for each of you. bring them on out. that s the hodaccino. this one is for kathie lee. i love a man on his knees. mine looks like it s been around for a couple of days. i have to ask you, were those customers angry? when you want your coffee, no one wants you to fool with them. they didn t want you to play. to remember what they ordered and their name and start to make it and send it down the line. people were like, yeah, it s a decaf coffee. i feel what s taking so long for the coffee? this is delicious. a friend of mine, my manicurist s daughter just started working as a barista. she had to study for a couple of weeks. you got the cram course. i only learned the hodaccino. that was only two drinks. i m a good student. you were stressed, i could tell. it got really stressful. down the line, they were like, come on. thank you, honey. can t wait to see what you do next. what can we expect? pole dancing? we ll get fun ones in there. if if i go pole dancing, you re coming with. we have julie scardino and her furry friends. we have a pretty big family, and olive garden s one of the few places we can take them where everyone s happy. try our new four cheese pastachettis. with grilled chicken breasts in a garlic cream sauce. or with grilled sausage. starting at just $9.95. only at olive garden. to see what tommy left on her cloth hand towel. she found.7.2 dogs. [ barking ] 43 squirts of dad s shaving cream, 32 classmates, 347 newspapers, half a math book, and.12 frogs. [ ribbits ] after all, your hands are only as clean as the towel used to dry them. upgrade to kleenex hand towels for a clean, fresh towel every time. go to kleenex.com and see what could be on your hand towel. a man whose wife was killed by a hit-and-run driver remains hospitalized this morning. coming up, how police caught up with the suspected driver and why the driver was then released. also coming up, they were not invited to the royal wedding, but the so, at our company, we pay about the same, even though i m a great driver, and he s. not so much. well, for a driver like you, i would recommend our new snapshot discount. this little baby keeps track of your great driving habits, so you can save money. [sighs] amazing. it s like an extra bonus savings. [ cackling ] he s my ride home. how much can the snapshot discount save you? call or click today. we are back on this booze day tuesday. we ve got furry little friends from seaworld and busch gardens. why don t we start with this guy? we have an endangered species here who is a big eater. how cute is he? he s from southeast asia. very endangered, not just because of habitat lost. he lost 90% of habitat lost. i like what i ve got, but she is offering me something else. due to the illegal pet trade and hunting, believe it or not. poachers. yes. education is a big part of what seaworld tries to do. so cute. we support programs that try to help the locals and indigenous people to understand how valuable and adorable they are. he looks like one movie cousins. the cutest little thing you ve ever seen. he really is. i d love to hold him but you said he might pee. at any age he ll go anywhere. he ll get bigger? about 13 pounds full grown. very lean. these guys are the ones that actually actually swing from branch to branch. he s a swinger. that s his natural habitat. if that is destroyed he can t is he choking? what is that? that s a good sound. that s like, oh, yeah. okay. olive garden. all you can eat. does he have to leave? he has to go. he probably does. look at him. anything nearby. how about the card? how cute is he? do you need this for that? yeah. rescue rehab is also a big part of what we do. this is a great horned owl that was rescued about 30 years ago, believe it or not. of course our largest north american owl. it s the great horn. why are they called great horns? look at his neck. why are they called the great horn? it s like linda boyer in the exorcist. 270 degrees. they are very soft. he is a very gentle owl. can i? okay. we do educational programs with him all the time. look how soft he is. he is soft. i guess that s when i saw the movie the birds. they ll peck you to death. in the eye. let s get over that because they are great animals. he helps us educate the kids about the local wildlife. very sweet. we bring in the puffin. they were exterminated off the eastern coast. looks like a disney character. he ll go to you. there you go. puffin. he is named off an island. what is going on? go to aunt hoda. you can scoop him in the front here. it s like a blow dry. we have a great program for these guys. we also send keepers to the islands to help with the restoration work that is going on there. the puffinhas been restored to many islands thanks to projects like project puffin. he is misting on your hands. i don t think that s all he s doing. oh, my gosh! naughty, naughty, puffin. we will take him off. you can hand him to t.j. there. t.j. is one of our experts. we ll bring out another rescued animal. a little fox? it s so hard for people to understand all the messages that need to go along with conservation. he s like, i found a bird. that would be one of their natural prey. they also do eat fruit. i wonder if he would be interested in that. people don t realize that. this guy was also rescued about seven years ago. he, as well as all our ambassador animals, help get those messages of what people can do to help protect wildlife in their own backyard as well as supporting organizations in places which do this work. one great thing is people don t realize when they come to seaworld and busch gardens, part of their admission fee goes to the work we do. he s looking for beef. thanks so much. up next, competition. medical myth versus fact. [ sniffs ] bye! bye! hi. hey! hey! [ laughter ] [ female announcer ] walk into a burst of fresh fragrance when you pass by. get motion activated glade sense and spray and release the magic. sc johnson, a family company. but i learned that i don t have to use a vial and syringe as part of my daily routine anymore. my doctor showed me the novolog mix 70/30 flexpen. flexpen is discreet and comes pre-filled with my insulin. flexpen goes with me and doesn t need refrigeration. and it s covered by most insurance. if you re still using a vial and syringe, ask your healthcare provider about the benefits of flexpen. flexpen is a discreet, pre-filled, dial-a-dose insulin pen. you can dial the exact dose of insulin you need. and inject insulin by pressing a button. novolog mix 70/30 is an insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. do not inject if you do not plan to eat within 15 minutes 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. most common side effects include reactions at the injection site, weight gain, swelling of your hands and feet, and vision changes. other serious side effects include low blood sugar and low potassium in your blood. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions including body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, sweating, or if you feel faint. flexpen is made by novo nordisk, a healthcare company committed to diabetes care for nearly 90 years. i ve made flexpen part of my routine just like spending time with my family. ask your healthcare provider about novolog mix 70/30 flexpen today. learn more about the different insulins available in flexpen at myflexpen.com. flexpen. insulin delivery that goes with you. can sex make you look younger? works for you, hoda woman. does yoga before a hot date give you bad breath? how do i know? you know who does know robby caplowe. from prevention. magazine. hi. how are you? we ve got three minutes. let s do it. myth or fact. avoid eating yogurt before heading out for a hot date. it s known for causing bad breath. myth. it s a myth. in fact, the live bacteria in yogurt freshens your beth. it s a good thing to do. try greek. drinking eight glasses of water a day is essential for good health. that is a myth. we heard this for so many years. the truth of it is, we can get a lot of the water that we need from fresh fruits and vegetables and soups and coffee and tea. iced tea has tons of water. exactly. but you get the caffeine which could dehydrate you. having sex three or more times per week can help you look younger. yes. this is a fact. perfect timing, hoda. there was a study done in scotland with couples in their mid 40s. in fact, those who had sex three or more times a week actually felt better, they looked less wrinkled and lined than those nonsex people that they were talking to. nonsexed people. eating off larger plates can help you lose weight. i m going to go with true because this sounds ridiculous. this is a myth. oh, shoot. it s all about the size of your dinner plate. smart thing is to switch it out. those high caloric foods, start having them on the diner-sized plate. the dirtiest room in your home is most likely your kitchen. yeah. that is a fact. oh. we always think the bathroom. it s all the stuff that happens on the counters of your kitchen. just throw your kitchen responding into the microwave or into the dishwasher. last one. i have to tie hoda. carrying a pen in your purse can prevent you from getting sick. that makes no sense. that makes no sense so i ll say fact. it is a fact. you always think, door knobs, toilet seats. no. it s all those communal pens in the restaurants and doctor s office and banks. carry your own and use it. so you don t carry the germs. hoda won. is there a prize? no. there should be. you came with no gifts? next time. it s not our day. tomorrow is not looking good either. a picture is worth a thousand words. how to take the best vacation photos. call on me, brother when you need a hand we all need. brawny now comes with a money back guarantee. when you want a paper towel that can do it all, lean on me. when you need something strong brawny never lets you down. smoky eyes look amazing, but creating them? that s a whole different story. introducing new almay intense i-color smoky-i kit. first, sweep the smoky eye color across your lid. then add the crease- accentuating shade, and a highlight under your brow. only from almay. only for me. so i took my heartburn pill and some antacids. we re having mexican tonight, so another pill then? unless we eat later, then pill later? if i get a snack now, pill now? skip the snack, pill later. late dinner, pill now? aghh i ve got heartburn in my head. [ male announcer ] stop the madness. take prilosec otc for frequent heartburn. one pill a day. twenty-four hours. zero heartburn. no heartburn in the first place. great. [ male announcer ] use as directed for 14 days. 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. but hurry. this offer ends soon. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers superior picture quality, more hd, plus the fastest internet in the u.s., with no term contract required. why keep paying for cable? get fios tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a year. plus $100 back. don t wait. this incredible offer ends soon. call 1.888.884.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.888.884.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. get the network that delivers more. get fios. a network ahead. it s time for today s travel and putting the focus on taking great family and vacation photos. memory cards give us more room for making mistakes. who wants to spend valuable time erasing photos when you should be taking them. travel photographer andy biggs has all the advice you need. welcome. thank you. what beautiful pictures you take. they are all behind us, but a lot of these are taken in africa, right? most of them, yeah. tell us about these photos. i travel around the world, primarily in africa. i m seeking out fun, remote places to introduce my photography to the world. is this the masai tribe? yes. my friend eva goes there so often when she shows up in their town they go, mrs. moore. do you catch these at the exact moment? can a lay person do what you re doing? you have to know your subject and be patient. the best photography doesn t happen with drive-by shooting. sit and be patient. you re also, you ve been there so often, you re not afraid of this environment. a lot of people for the first time are i better get that elephant and are too quick about it. you need to know your subjects though. let s talk about mistakes some people make. we have two examples of pictures the nichols and dean family took from lego land in california. what did they do wrong? try to figure out a way to get the light on both their faces and eyes. eyes are the connection to the viewer in the photograph. use a fill flash. what about this one? use a fill flash. it s all about light. the subject isn t the background, all that blownout sky. it s the three. you should never have the sun in back of you. you can. you need to use a reflector or flash to get the face illuminated. people think it s the camera. you don t. they have so many ones you just push the button. tell us about that. i ve got three cameras here. the blue is a panasonic ts-10. this is a great camera for the beginner to throw in your purse or pocket. it s shock-proof and waterproof. flash goes off when it needs it? exactly. it s a dummy, for idiots camera. this is my camera, by the way. oh, sure. here is a sony. this is the smallest slr which means you can change the lens on it. you can put it in a small purse or small pouch. who should have that type of camera? do you have to be a little bit of a pro? you want to be into photography more. investment is more, around $700 including a lens. look at the guy on the end. that s almost a paparazzi. that is the nikon, go for broke, shoot for the holy grail. that s what i use. is that the ones you took these pictures with? most of them. how much is that nikon? about $8,000. this is around $ 00. sony is around $700. okay. little variance here. sometimes with family photos, people take scenery pictures. on on family trips they take so many scenery pictures and leave the people out. everybody is standing there like the same group of dumb, you know. the same no matter what is in the background, eiffel tower, leaning tower of pisa. put them in the photographs. everybody knows what the eiffel tower looks like. most people who look at the photographs are your friends and family. i hate posed picture. i like the candid shots. act goofy. you take beautiful pictures. thanks so much. up next, if you want to lose your weight for your next photo op, we ll tell you about the healthy foods stopping you from getting to your goal. [ male announcer ] there s a new ride coming to busch gardens williamsburg mach tower. dude, it s like two hundred and. .forty feet high. .right in the middle of oktoberfest. .the seats go, whoooa. .up to the top, then. .the music just stops. and the seats totally start shaking. it s insane. but then all of a sudden. [ group ] aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! [ male announcer ] mach tower. heart racing. jaw dropping. coming soon to busch gardens williamsburg. did you know so many foods that seem healthy actually are fat traps in disguise? registered dietatiician kerrs with us. pretzels you say are the equivalent of eating jelly beans. pretty much so. that s what i tell my clients. they are filled with calories with no nutritional value. you re not getting health benefits and you re not getting protein, healthy fat and fiber. plus added salt which might be bloating you. exactly. about 1/4 of the day s sodium. popcorn? popcorn. unsalted. you can add pepper in there. even a tiny parmesan cheese, but you get four grams of fiver in three cups, 100 calories and you re getting b vitamins in there. it s a whole grain. great thing about popcorn, you do have to chew it so you get that satisfaction. exactly. these look harmless and almost good when trying to cut down calories. the problem with artificial sweeteners, they are 100 to 700 times sweeter than sugar. you taste all this sweetness. your body expects calories to follow. when the calories don t follow, you go looking for it elsewhere. that s why people who load up on these packets are often the people that crave sweets after dinner. it s counterintuitive, isn t it? what about the truvia though? i say the lesser of the evils. the best option would be to go for either a little bit of the real thing, just a little bit, but there is 60 calories in one tablespoon. be careful there. the other option is flavoring with cinnamon or vanilla extract, no calories and natural. people go for the cereals to get fiber. you get a lot of sugar packed in there. this is one big old oxymoron. like taking broccoli and dunking it in sugar. you want to go for fiber cereals with more than eight grams of fiber and less than eight grams of sugar. look in the ingredient list and see no sugar. you see shredded wheats or the kashi. i love kashi stuff. i do, too. diet sodas. you say nay. you save calories in the moment. long term you re more likely to be overweight. people that drink diet soda are 41% more likely to be overweight than nonsoda drinkers. a friend of mine was quite a bit overweight. did nothing but the diet stuff. stopped and lost weight. ice cream versus frozen yogurt. frozen yogurt is not a better calories. there is more sugar. they are almost the same calories. go for the real thing once in a while when you need to satisfy that. chips. potatoes are a vegetable. the main ingredient is potatoes. they can be good for you. these aren t going to be worse than potato chips. we love this. homemade veggie chips, kale chips, sweet potato chips, the best. before we head, we are going to see jack black. he s been on the red carpet for the premiere of kung fu panda 2. what are you doing? i was just chilling, listening to you guys talk about food. we have snacks for you. you re saying drink real soda, not diet soda and eat ice cream not frozen yogurt. got it! your premiere starts in five minutes. have a great time, jack. lucy lui will be with us tomorrow. today s voice competition starts tomorrow. show us your moves. show us. captions by vitac www.vitac.com [ whistle blows ] [ male announcer ] can the network you live on handle the computers, tvs and technology you can t live without? verizon fios can. get the power and speed of america s largest 100% fiber optic network. verizon fios. a network ahead. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v.