Transcripts For WRC Today 20110531 : vimarsana.com

into a police car in italy. she s been questioned by authorities but some are asking if it was a big publicity stunt. authorities but some are asking if it was a big publicity stunt. today, tuesday, may 31, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m matt lauer. who would question whether that was a publicity stunt involving snooki? you. was that me? yes. you said, put that in. i knew it sounded familiar. did you have a nice holiday? i did. yours? very nice. busy for politicians. sarah palin included. she used the weekend to launch her bus tour, but she insists it is not the start of a presidential campaign. when asked if she would run she said she has not decided. mitt romney is expected to make it official thursday. we ll have an exclusive interview with him and he does not hold back when it comes to feelings about president obama, what needs to be fixed and why he wants to be president. and according to a report on the front page of the new york times this morning home prices dropped to a new low. what does that mean if you are looking to buy or sell? we ll tell you what some realtors are doing to blur the lines between fact and fiction for sellers and buyers. plus, every woman wants to have their father walk them down the aisle on their wedding day. one new bride went above and beyond to make her dream come true after she was paralyzed in an accident. she ll share her remarkable story. but first and they are off. the gop race to unseat the president is finally heating up. kristen welker is live at the white house with more this morning. good morning. reporter: good morning, matt. they say memorial day marks the unofficial start of summer. it seems this year it marks the unofficial start of the gop race. right now, all eyes are on sarah palin who today begins day three of the bus tour. first stop, the battlefields of gettysburg, pennsylvania. on monday, palin was in washington, stopping at some of the nation s most iconic landmarks including the national archives and george washington s home in mount vernon, sparking speculation she may enter the gop race. are you going to run? you know, we re still kind of contemplating that. reporter: palin hasn t launched a fund raising effort or suggested party leaders suggesting to some she may not run. running for president isn t like opening a lemonade stand on the corner. it s difficult, takes a lot of manpower. so far what we see from sarah palin doesn t look like she s doing that. reporter: in an interview monday palin balked at those who think they know. i don t think i owe anything to the main stream media. i think it would be a mistake for me to become a conventional politician. reporter: a more conventional politician and current front-runner mitt romney was out of sight monday. he s expected to announce on thursday. he and palin are virtually neck and neck, according to the latest gallup poll. meanwhile, tim pawlenty has announced he s in. he toured iowa monday touting the tea party platform. government has a role but a limited role. that role needs to be defined precisely and kept within the limited nature. reporter: another tea party favorite, minnesota congresswoman michelle bachmann was also barn storming in new hampshire saying she ll announce next month. if i throw my hat in the ring i think i will do favorably against barack obama. reporter: on monday the president observed memorial day at arlington national cemetery. even gop insiders admit mr. obama will be a formidable opponent. he s a great candidate and a prolific fund-raiser. just because republican voters don t like the president doesn t mean we can take it for granted. reporter: this race will heat up in june. former pennsylvania senator rick san to rum announces on the 6th. then the candidates debate in new hampshire a week later. meredith? thank you very much. as kristin mentioned mitt romney will launch his campaign on thursday. over the weekend he sat down for an interview with today national correspondent jamie gangel in new hampshire. i understand you are getting over a case of laryngitis. good morning. as quickly as i can, good morning. meredith, this will be romney s second race for the white house. he s considered the front runner leading in the polls and fund raising. just a few weeks ago he raised more than $10 million in one day. we talked to him and his wife ann about the race, whether he s kentucky enough for republican primaries and we got a rare glimpse behind the scenes at a more relaxed mitt romney, what music he listens to, what books are on his nightstand there s something about vampires. but we start by asking why he thinks he can beat barack obama. he s been one of the most ineffective presidents at the job at hand i have e seen. the number one issue he had was an economy in decline. he didn t cause it but he made things worse. reporter: give me a grade on the presidency. it s failed. reporter: f? absolutely. reporter: it s the preview of what you can expect from romney as he campaigns for the republican nomination. attacking president obama as if it s already the general election. on the president s leadership this president felt it appropriate to go around the world and apologize for america. i don t apologize for america. i m proud of america. reporter: on mr. obama s foreign policy. he doesn t have a foreign policy. the president embarrassed himself there and around the world by convincing our friends that in some respects it s better to be our foe than our friend. reporter: on national security. he doesn t have a cogent assessment of what he s going to do regardless of the circumstances. is iran closer to a woman? yes. is north korea more turbulent and assertive? yes. does israel feel greater peace? no. the arab spring came, one of the greatest opportunities we have seen in decades and we have been flat-footed. reporter: most of all, the 64-year-old multimillionaire says he will focus on the economy, his career as a successful businessman, hoping that will help him win the gop nod this time around. so if this is mitt 2.0, how is this time going to be different? well, i hope i win. i start off there. i want to make sure people know precisely why i m running for president. the answer is simple. i believe i can get our economy going again. reporter: you will see a lot of his photogenic family. married to his high school sweet heart ann, the couple has five grown sons and 16 andchildren, a political ad man s dream. despite his front-runner status, romney appears to have an enthusiasm gap in the republican party. starting with romneycare, the health care program he sign eeds governor of massachusetts. i understand there are a lot of people who would like me to get up and say it was a terrible, boneheaded idea, it was a terrible mistake and we are all entitled to mistakes. the only problem is it wouldn t be honest. we solved a serious need that existed in our state. reporter: president obama can t wrap his arms around you tightly enough. he said romneycare inspired obamacare. if i become president i will repale obamacare. my bill was 70 pages. his is over 2,000. he s doing a lot of stuff that s devastating to the health care system in this country. he s wrong. reporter: romney has to answer critics who say he s not a true conservative, that he won t energize the base including christian evangelicals concerned because he s a mormon. i don t have a question about whether conservatives, republicans and christians will go to the polls. the great propensity of faith say we are not electing a pastor-in-chief. reporter: the creators of south park have a hit show on broadway called book of mormon. when you first heard of it, what was your reaction? i laughed. south park is funny. i haven t seen it. i probably will at some point. reporter: really? sure. you know your faith has made it big time when people poke fun at you on broadway. reporter: that said, critics say romney is so buttoned up, he doesn t connect with voters. so this time around the campaign is trying to show a more relaxed candidate. making fun of himself on late night. oprah is my half sister. reporter: more tie off than on. a friend of mine said, i want to know what he s like. does mitt romney have an ipod? do you have an ipod? i have an ipad and an iphone. i don t use my ipod anymore. i use the ipad for music. what s on your play list. 60s, 70s, the beatles. we also watch american idol. you don t watch the voice ? this is nbc. i m sorry. i haven t yet. but american idol i watched. this year with scotty winning, that was terrific. that guy s got talent. reporter: what s the last book you read? a novel called the rule of nines which was just fun. more serious book, i finished president bush s book decisions. enjoyed that very much. i like silly stuff, too. i like the twilight series. that was fun. you like vampires? i don t like them personally. my granddaughter was reading it. i thought, this looks like fun so i read it. reporter: vampires and science fiction. i don t think anybody would have guessed it. his wife says despite the last campaign, people just don t really know her husband. the public perception of him is so different from what i know. he s really very funny. i love being around him because he makes me laugh. we laugh a lot. he s a family guy. reporter: why do you think people don t get that? is he a formal, reserved person? no. again, i think the little glimpses you get, they are not really accurate. i think a lot of people may have only seen him in the debate setting or something else. they don t see him as the casual guy that he is. most of the time his hair really is messed up. reporter: is a hair ever out of place? of course. all the time. reporter: doesn t smoke, doesn t drink, doesn t swear. not often. reporter: i hear gosh, golly. those don t qualify as swear words. reporter: when you re really going to swear there s been a damn or a hell from time to time. reporter: don t hold your breath. romney is disciplined about staying on message. what are the chances you re going to win? very good actually. there is no sure thing in politics. but this is a time when the american people are really concerned about the scale of government. they want someone to cut it back and they are concerned about the economy long term and short term. that s in my wheelhouse. reporter: you re 50/50 in the polls. do you give yourself better odds? i do give myself better than 50/50 odds, but it s up to the american people. i ll tell them what i believe. if that works, great. reporter: he does have an uphill primary fight, meredith. polls show a large number of republicans are still undecided. as we see, there is a push for other candidates to jump into the race. we are hearing about rudy giuliani, texas governor rick perry, sarah palin is on her bus tour. and today, a group of iowa leaders are coming to have dinner with chris christie. so still just the beginning. jamie, thank you very much. you take care. it s 7:13. here s matt. former presidential candidate john edwards is expected to face a critical decision in the coming days over his alleged use of campaign money to cover up an affair. nbc senior investigative correspondent lisa myers joins us from raleigh, north carolina, where a grand jury is meeting today. good morning. reporter: good morning. sources close to the case say a federal grand jury meeting here in raleigh today could indict john edwards any day now. edwards legal team is divided over whether he should fight the charges or cop a plea. john edwards is a lonely figure these days, rarely seen in public except at his son s baseball games. isolated from all but his family and lawyers. part of his legal team is telling edwards to fight the government s case. the issue, more than $1 million provided by two wealthy donors, some delivered in a candy box. the money was used to hide edwards then pregnant mistress rielle hunter in lavish homes and private jets while he was running for president. the government is expected to argue that even though the funds didn t go through edwards campaign, they amounted to illegal campaign contributions because they were meant to further his candidacy. some legal experts call that unprecedented and a stretch. based on what i think the department has traditionally brought in this area, this sounds like a hare-brained theory to me. reporter: another prosecutor disagrees. there is no way they would present this case for indictment unless they were confident they could get a guilty verdict. reporter: one of edwards lawyers said he should strike a plea deal, that he needs to get on with life and that going to trial would be costly and dangerous. if he loses, he could land in prison. then there are edwards children. the death of their mother is so recent there is no permanent marker yet on her grave. a trial would take two years of their father s life and mean still more embarrassing headlines. in north carolina, many just want it over. gary pierce is a democratic political consultant who helped elect edwards to the senate. i think he should make a deal. please make a deal. please put us out of our misery. reporter: could edwards get a fair trial in north carolina? he denied his own flesh and blood that the child was his? why would he not lie about something dealing with money? he deserves what s coming. reporter: some are for forgiving. i have sympathy for him because he s a human being like the rest of us are. reporter: sources close to the case say there are no active plea negotiations under way now. a plea deal appears unlikely. prosecutors are insisting that edwards plead to a felony and his friends say he s not willing to do that. matt? lisa, thank you very much. now a check of the top stories from ann curry at the news desk. good morning. good morning. we begin with the anger at u.s.-led nato forces in afghanistan. afghanistan s president hamid karzai said he will no longer allow air strikes on houses which has been a key tactic in nato s fight against taliban militants. this a day after u.s. commanders apologize for an air strike that killed at least nine civilians, many of them children. according to a u.n. official, more than 50 protesters have been killed in yemen since sunday. yemen has been a u.s. ally in the fight against al qaeda. meantime, eight top army officers deflected in libya from gadhafi s military to take refuge in italy. they appealed for their fellow officers to join their revolt. reporter: nasa says endeavour is ready to come home tomorrow after a test of the landing gear this morning. that would allow mark kelly to be reunited with his wife, wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords. on monday from space he thanked the public for supporting her. you know, the fact that people really care how she s doing. that s really important to me, important to the kids. reporter: meantime, the shuttle atlantis was rolled out overnight to prepare for the final flight of the shuttle program which happens in july. traders are back on wall street after the holiday break. mandy, hopefully they had a good weekend. what s moving the markets today? good morning, ann. it looks like the u.s. stork market may be able to rebound today. we had four weeks of decline so far. there are hopes that greece will get more aid from the european union. we are watching for that one. back at home it looks like the american dream of owning your own home may be tarnished. the new york times is reporting due to the housing market woes the percentage of homeowners dropped from 69% in 2004 to now just over 66%. back to you, ann. all right. thank you so much. finally now a jellyfish invasion hit cocoa beach florida, florida, over the weekend and more than 400 beach-goers were stung. strong winds are blamed for moving the jellyfish closer to shore. now back to matt, meredith and al. i have read that vinegar is a common remedy for stings. fyi. that s one thing. don t say it. i m not. i said that s one remedy. peanut butter is the other. let s stick with those two. mr. roker, how are we doing? okay. to talk ve more heat to talk about. it was brutally warm over the weekend. first of all, we have this big area of high pressure upper level high, and it s strong and intensive, and pumping up the winds out of the south. we re looking at temperatures for 97 in charlotte, and d.c. will see a high of 95. it s going to be hotter in cleveland than in miami today, that s how hot it s going to be. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. around here, another siz lure for us. temperatures in the upper 70s right inside the beltway. cleveland park, 77 degrees. great falls, you re currently at 73. and pullsville up in montgomery county as well. and feeling like we re well over 100. we ll get some relief tomorrow as a cold front moves through. the front will move through late in the day. for the end and that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. just ahead, snooki questioned by authorities in italy after crashing into a police car. we re live in florence with the latest on that. but first, this is today on nbc. just ahead, casey anthony s mother back on the stand today. could her testimony help the prosecution? plus, pop star sean kingston recovering from a serious jet skiing accident. the latest after your local news. vo: meet erika. she hasn t shopped for a new pc because. erika: . my computer is the same as a new computer. vo: so to show her what she s missing, we built a pc store in her house. erika: (gasp) employee: come on in. make yourself at home! erika: this is my home! employee: let s take a look! erika: (lifting laptop) it s really light. honey, help me shop! employee: you can get up to seven hours on this battery. jesse: the color really pops out. employee: everything s wireless. wireless keyboard. jesse: that s impressive. i like this one better. erika: and i like this one. vo: new pc. what s it gonna be? 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[ female announcer ] fight the forces of gravity. stay! new roc® multi correxion™ lift with protient® plus. skin looks lifted overnight. roc® multi correxion™. correct what ages you. what gravity? tastes so luscious, i enjoy it with lobster. mmmm. shrimp. oh. and mussels. [ male announcer ] fresh butter taste with 70% less saturated fat than butter. [ kim ] you can have it all. good morning. i m joe krebs. this is tuesday, the 31st and final day of may. we have breaking news from i-95 northbound where there has been a terrible accident involving a tour bus. let s go live to some pictures from chopper 4. we have video of the tour bus that ran off the road and overturned. there were initial reports of 20 people trapped and we have now received reports that four people have died in the bus accident, all northbound lanes of i-95 are closed. it s down near king s dominion. we will follow the story all through the morning. [ male announcer ] it s 2011 and everything is different. different jobs. .different challenges. different opportunities. so why would universities stay the same? university of phoenix, because an educated world is a better world. back to work and back to school, it will be a day of excessive heat. temperatures are currently in the mid-and upper 70s, and will rise to a high of 94 degrees and 92 tomorrow. and then 395 loaded this is like an iceberg volcano. it s like lightning in a snowball. it s like frozen hot chocolate. ah! ah! you got it! yeah, i was just reading what was on the cup. try our new dunkin donuts frozen hot chocolate. it s like frozen hot chocolate. america runs on dunkin . not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose from and down-to-earth prices the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. 7:30 now on tuesday morning, may 31, 2011. sunny, beautiful day here in new york city. members of the military applauding us into the 7:30 half hour. we re always happy to have them here. fleet week is wrapping up. we ll head outside to say hi to those people in a few minutes. meantime i m matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. ahead, details on the condition of sean kingston who suffered injure is are a jet skiing accident sunday night. the latest on the story is ahead. and home prices have dipped to a new low. we ll have details and news you can use when it comes to buying a home. the listing agent may be hiding key pieces of information that could cost you thousands of dollars. an insider tells you what to look for coming up. and we have a special show for you on thursday morning on today. al and i will be live from st. peter s square in the heart of vatican city. we ll have the rare honor of having an audience with pope benedict xvi. that comes to you thursday morning, live from the vatican right here on today. does he know you re coming? the pope? yes. probably not directly. that s exciting. that s great. it should be great. we begin this half hour in italy with a different public figure. jersey shore is filming in florence and snooki is making a big bang a after crashing into a police car. michelle kosinski has the details from florence. good morning. reporter: hi, meredith. it seems the novelties of guidos and guidettes which you don t normally find in italy has worn off. they have a name for them which roughly translates to super idiots. they have had traffic tickets, got into a fistfight amongst themselves, angereded a college and now snooki s unfortunate brush yes, literally with the law. in what appears to be the move to end all, here in photo evidence from tmz, none other than snooki under stricture orders in italy to be good citizens somehow ended up smashing into the back of oh, no. [ screeching ] reporter: a police car. they re funny, but it s embarrassing. reporter: the two cops inside the squad car which may, according to reports, have been kindly escorting snooki and pal dina had cuts and bruises, were taken to hospital but were okay. so was even in the snooki car that ended up pinned between the cops and a wall. but they had some splainin to do downtown. they were not arrested. well, no one expected anyone from jersey shore to be on their best behavior in italy. thank goodness no drugs or alcohol were involved in this particular incident. reporter: how does this happen? was it because dina was her wing man? or was snooki just looking for the beach again. where s the beach? right there. reporter: that was back in sweet home new jersey when snooki was arrested after a drunken outburst at the shore. italy has been a clean slate. we are not like this. we don t always get drunk. reporter: politicians tried to have them banned. the mayor finally just banned them from certain places as well as being filmed while drinking. snooki? snooki, she s a woman. reporter: he did seem big on one thing. it s very important to respect every law in italy and in florence. reporter: so far so good, other than three traffic tickets, a fistfight between ronny and the situation, a college issuing a warning to students to stay aafrom the gang and a cop car collision. they haven t knocked over priceless art works or sent the renaissance into reverse yet. the jersey super cafognes still holding their own in the mother land. reporter: mtv didn t respond, but the creator of the show says this is a simple spender bender. it turns out the gang has only a week so or left of filming in italy. how quickly they disappear. we can say many of their neighbors are counting the days, meredith. i m sure. thank you, michelle kosinski. 7:34 and here s matt. here at home casey anthony s murder trial resumes after a break for the memorial day weekend. today could be critical for the prosecution. nbc s kerry sanders is in orlando with the latest on the story. good morning. reporter: good morning, matt. casey s mother cindy is expected to be back on the stand today. it is an awkward position for her. she s testifying for the prosecution. her narrative may help the prosecution get a conviction and a sentence of death. among the expected evidence today from cindy, a 911 call. casey s mother cindy was long protective of her daughter casey s innocence, but now in court what do you recognize it to be? caylee s bed. reporter: cindy s words are harshly contradicting her daughter s story, like the early claim that caylee was kidnapped by a nanny named zanny. she said zanny s mother was ill, but that was a phantom. she didn t exist. now in court they are describing stories of where caylee was as lies. i didn t know what to think. i realized that she had lied to me for the last couple of days. reporter: one story casey allegedly told was that she and caylee were at universal studios but when cindy showed up the story changed. she was not at universal studios. where was she? she told me she was actually in jacksonville, florida, which came as a complete shock to me. reporter: as for the defense claim that young caylee accidentally drowned in the pool how high is the top edge of the pool off of the ground? somewhere it s a little bit over four feet. reporter: for 2-year-old caylee to get in the pool cindy said she would have had to put the removable ladder back on the edge to climb up and in. it s heavy. heavy enough that a small child couldn t pick up. but it s not something that i had difficulty putting off and on. reporter: today it s likely prosecutors will play one of their most powerful pieces of evidence a 911 call cindy made after she and her husband george found casey s car. and it smells like there s been a dead body in the damn car. reporter: that call is all part of a timeline prosecutors are starting to lay out. pictures of casey at nightclubs, on shopping sprees and revealing in text messages with her then boyfriend she didn t know where caylee was. i m so sorry for not telling you what happened. we obviously need to talk. i need you and i love you more than you know. is this the first question you asked her? yes, sir. where is caylee? yes, sir. her response said i honestly don t know. what did you respond? i don t know pause are you serious, question mark. reporter: this trial could last another seven weeks. we don t know much about the jury, but we can guess they might be impatient because they asked the judge to hold testimony on memorial day. he looked into it and said it was too expensive. kerry sanders, thank you very much. now a check of the weather from al weather now from al roker. today s weather is brought to you by bush s grilling beans. good morning. we have got members of the coast guard, the marines, and the navy all represented on the plaza, and we re proud and honored to have them. thank you for your service, memorandum and women. we appreciate it. let s check your weather and show you what is going on. for today, we have got a severe weather set up. high pressure bringing the heat to the east, it will bring storms along the frontal system. we have a risk of strong storms from green bay and chicago and detroit, and a strong risk from grand rapids and the west of detroit. you can see the thunderstorms pushing their way in through the mississippi river valley, and oklahoma city, joplin on up into chicago. wet weather in the pacific northwest, and sunny and hot through the gulf coast. east coast, dangerous ly high temperatures. that s what s going on around the country, and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. right here the thought of the day should be another hot one for us today. 77 and it s before 8:00. a light wind currently out of the north at 3 miles per hour. and then temperatures from the beltway down towards quantico, 69 there. and then we are going up to a high today of 94 degrees. it will feel like we re over 100. 92 tomorrow with cooling showers and storms. awareness to lyme d. yes. be aware of the symptoms. especially in this warm weather. check your weather any time day or night on weather channel on cable or weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you very much. there are new details this morning on the tragic jet ski accident involving pop star sean kingston. lilia, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, meredith. like so many of us this holiday weekend sean kingston was just enjoying himself on the water right behind us when a good day, a fun day on his jet ski went horribly wrong. beautiful girls reporter: with a string of hits and a recent collaboration with justin bieber, hip-hop star sean kingston was riding high. no woman no cry reporter: while at a pool party in miami beach this weekend he tweeted, miami is ours! but around 6:00 p.m. sunday kingston took to the waves on his jet ski with a female companion. that s when tragedy struck. the 21-year-old crashed into a bridge severely injuring himself and his passenger. both mr. kingston and the passenger ended up in the water. reporter: rushing to kingston s rescue off duty coast guard officer jonathan rivera who was on a boat nearby. looked like he was under water for a minute or two when we got there. reporter: rivera jumped in the water to keep the star from driving. came up behind kingston, put my arms under his, grabbed the jet ski and held his head above water. reporter: rivera held on for 15 minutes. i was telling him, don t worry, you ll be all right. reporter: kingston and his companion were rushed to miami s jackson memorial ryder trauma center. another minute or two, i don t think he would have made it. reporter: monday, kingston s publicist released a statement. sean kingston is now stabilized and has moved from the trauma unit to icu. sean s family thanks everyone for their prayers and support during this time. since the crash, fans and stars have tweeted their support. justin bieber calling kingston his big bro while rihanna added, we praying for you baby. all this at a time when more people are on the water. we see a spike in numbers during the summer as far as boating accidents and fatalities. reporter: according to the u.s. coast guard 700 americans die every year in boating accidents. fatalities can be avoided by riding responsibly. investigators are trying to determine what went wrong. it is the responsibility of the operator of the vessel to maintain a proper lookout, to stay within the speed limit or operate the vessel in safe conditions. reporter: authorities confirm that alcohol did not play a role in the accident. both kingston and his passenger were wearing life vests. however, questions remain as to the speed at which they were traveling. meredith? thank you very much. up next, how to avoid the tricks of realtors that could cost you thousands of dollars on your next home. that s after this. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! 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[ male announcer ] that s why they re recommended most for people who sleep in their lenses. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial offer. for people who sleep in their lenses. we search, browse, and shop from anywhere. we live in a social world. isn t time we had a social currency to match? membership reward points from american express. use them to gethe things you love on amazom.com. you ve been there. you pick out a makeup thinking it s your shade. until you actually try it out. now, i have a makeup that always gets it right. smart shade makeup instantly adjusts to match perfectly to your skin. almay smart shade makeup. only from almay. only for me. .but my symptoms kept coming back. .kept coming back. then i found out advair helps prevent symptoms from happening in the first place. advair is for asthma that s not well controlled on a long-term asthma medicine, such as an inhaled corticosteroid. advair will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. advair contains salmeterol which increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. advair is not for people whose asthma is well controlled with a long-term asthma control medicine like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled your doctor will decide if you can stop advair without loss of control and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, such as an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take advair more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. is advair right for you? ask your doctor. get your first prescription free. advair helps prevent symptoms. we re back now at 7:45. this morning on today s real estate a blow to the housing market. according to a report in the new york times this morning home prices have dropped to a new low. here to talk about that and the tricks real estate agents play is barbara corcoran. good morning. good morning, matt. this report talks about how low prices are, the percentage of americans owning a home dropping to levels we haven t seen in years. what happened to the recovery here? i think the recovery, believe it or not, is still well in progress. there are a couple of facts not in the article you should be aware of. home prices have been reduced a third. there is cheap money and rents are going through the roof. it s not a rosy option to rent. the great majority of americans still want to own. let s talk about things that realtors now, because of the difficult market, are doing to entice people and maybe blur the lines between fact and fiction. first of all, what protections are there for consumers? there really aren t set standards as to the way numbers are kept and distributed to the public because the individual mlss are in charge of the numbers and they have rules and regulations on how they factor things in based on their membership. there is no gold standard out there. first issue is sometimes realtors list a sale based on the most recent asking price. in other words here s what the house fetched, as compared to the recent asking price they will not say as compared to what was the original asking price. why is that a problem? there is a world of difference. if you knew the original asking price was 30% more on the last house sold you would make your bid lower. but using the numbers of what the last ask price was, it s misleading and makes you bid entirely different on the home. you have to ask the realtor a direct question. is this the original price or the asking price and you put the realtor in a position of telling you the truth or not. i must say realtors almost always tell the truth. there are very few bad apples out there. but by saying, is this the original asking price, you will get a direct answer. what about relisting a home, making it look new on the market? the intention there again is to freshen up the listing. the problem is you think a home has been on the market for two weeks when in essence it was on the market two years ago. again, you have to ask the important questions to use the house sale as a stat to make your bid. what about square footage? always round up. that s right. they do. never down. it s not necessarily living space. no. a great example would be a 3,000 square foot home that has 500 square feet of a furnished basement. people can list it at 3,000 square feet and you have to look for the footnote. visit your town assessor. they know the real numbers because people never overstate for tax purposes. you look at pictures of a room on the web. they always look bigger. people use wide angle lens. you say it s not a problem but it can be. it s often a problem. when a person arrives they are shocked at how small the room is. nothing is gained by that. is it okay to photo shop an image online about a house? it s okay. to take out a garbage can but it s overused. you can photo shop out power lines or the house next door. it can be overdone. realtors are creative with language and words used in advertisements to describe a house. i will give you the term we often see. you tell me what it means. original condition. too old. the appliances are at least 50 years old. conveniently located. noisy. efficient kitchen. two adults can t fit in there. useable land. no trees. and my favorite just available. that means the owner just dieded and i hope you don t mind. in the house probably. in the house. barbara corcoran, thank you very much. my pleasure. still ahead, the fun we had blending our own wines, but were they drinkable? we ll find out after these messages. [ waves crashing ] [ male announcer ] and just like that, it s here. a new day. a new chance for all of us: people, companies, communities to face the challenges yesterday left behind and the ones tomorrow will bring. prudential. bring your challenges. prudential. bring your challenges. what makes hershey s s mores special? hershey s chocolate goodness, that brings people together. hershey s makes it a s more. you make it special. pure hershey s. meredith was on the ellen degeneres show on monday and we hear ellen gave her a useful going away gift. take a look. i got you something. you did? yeah. so it will help you get up. i don t want to get up. you may oversleep. you need an alarm clock. just accept the gift. all right. so you push the button. and good morning, welcome to today, i m matt lauer. good morning, good morning, everybody. in the news this morning, good morning. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. i love it. shouldn t you have gotten that five years ago? yeah. you won t need an alarm clock now. and they gave me masks with your eyes on them. like if i put yours on it looks like you, you or you. that s disturbing. scary. this might be your last time being a guest on the show. soon you will just be watching it in the pajamas with a remote control. i m not dying. when you ve lost interest in everything. when you ve had one too many days feeling sad or anxious. aches and pains, fatigue. when it becomes hard to ignore that you need help. that s the day you do something. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. is today your day? talk to your doctor. and go to cymbalta.com for a free 30-capsule trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. now use the best suncare recommended most by dermatologists. neutrogena®, with technologies like helioplex. it provides the highest average spf and unsurpassed uva protection. get the best. neutrogena®. [ female announcer ] lenscrafters has the styles you love at the lenscrafters style event! save up to 50% on eyeglasses and sunglasses made with your prescription. hurry in! lenscrafters. good morning. the time is 7:56. 84 degrees outside. i am joe krebs. chopper 4 is live over breaking news on i-95 in virginia. state police are on the scene of this deadly crash in north and carolina county. it s near kings dominion. four people have been killed in this accident, and an unknown number of people have been injured. we re told a total of 57 people were onboard the bus at the time. state police tell us and you can see the commercial tour bus drove off the highway flipped over and landed on its roof. we do not know where the bus was coming from or going. the southbound lanes of i-95 are open, and all northbound lanes in the area on i-95 will be closed for several hours while they investigate this accident and clean it up. once again, a tour bus on its roof, and four people killed. unknown number of people injured. 57 people total on the bus. we don t know where it [ 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. temperatures are warming fast. we re already up to 77 degrees. we ll top at 94. and with humidity, it will feel like we re over 100 again. 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, may 31, 2011. if the crowd comes back on friday they will be treated to two big concerts rolled into one. new kids on the block will be joined by another wildly popular boy band, backstreet boyz. they are traveling together. i m matt lauer meredith vieira along with matt lauer and al roker. and the new american idol will be here along with the runner-up lauren alayna. that s big. a lot of people watched him win the title. 50 million people watched. also, a walk down the aisle is a huge moment for a bride. we ll meet a young lady. it almost didn t happen for her after an accident left her paralyzed from the waist down. she was determined to walk down the aisle. we ll find out how she made it happen. such a lovely couple. very inspirational. it s a hard turn to make, but then we ll show you our visit to a wine bar. we learned how to blend our own wines. we ll show you how that turned out and bring in experts to tell us how they taste. fist, let s go to ann curry with the headlines. good morning, everybody. new warnings of an unfolding humanitarian crisis in libya. the u.n. says food and medicine are running critically short in libya, controlled by moammar gadhafi. on monday gadhafi told mediators from south africa he s not willing to step down. relief in texas where two wildfires destroyed 12 homes near amarillo are finally under control. still more fires are burning across the state. the environmental protection agency is looking for chemical hazards in the wake of the tornado in joplin, missouri. ron allen reports. reporter: without a miracle, joplin officials plan to end the search for survivors after a sixth and final sweep through the path of destruction. funerals happen almost daily. those lost range from a 19-month-old boy and his 5-year-old sister to a 92-year-old woman. the final toll settling close to 140 with less than 30 still missing. we will not give up until all people are accounted for. reporter: one big concern now housing. some 8,000 buildings were destroyed. so many homes lost that fema is now talking about the possibility of bringing in some of the temporary trailers. as many as 5,000 families signed up for all kinds of help. this is undescribable what s happening to the neighborhoods. this one brought tears to my eyes. reporter: red cross volunteer joe sorrento, a retired air force master sergeant now leads a squad providing 4,000 free meals every day to the homeless and those helping. it s unbelievable. this monster hit the ground and stayed on the ground, chewed up everything in its path. reporter: joplin hopes the world doesn t move on too quickly and forget its heartbreak and pain. ron allen, nbc news, joplin. and the food and drug administration is recalling cucumbers sold in northeast ohio saying they may be contaminated with salmonella. an e. coli breakout has claimeded at least 14 lives in europe. a hungarian climber who lost his leg last year has scaled the world s fourth highest peak in the himalayas. the 43-year-old says it makes no difference that he climbs with a prosthetic foot. his name means strong in hungarian. so it is now 8:04. back to al for theet s go back check of the weather. hey, al. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by straight talk. you can cut your cell phone bill in half and feel richer. hey, ann. how are you? it s the phil specter wall of sound. where are you from? what are you doing in town? we re on the upward bound program. that s fantastic. nicely done. let s check your weather, shall we? we ll show you rip currents, very dangerous this time of year. of course the ocean brings the waves in, and then the waves have to go out. if you get caught in the rip current, it s very powerful. you cannot fight it, just swim parallel to the shoreline and as soon as you are out of the rip current you can swim to shore. and then a risk of storms up through ohio and mississippi river revalleys, and great lakes, and then a lot of wet weather in the pacific northwest. mid-atlantic states and gulf coast, temperatures way above normal. los angeles, cool with temperatures in the low 70s. here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. right here the mercury is rising fast. we have just gone up five degrees in the last hour. temperatures are in the low 80s right now. a lot of locations are still in the 70s, and we ll have a very light wind today. the high, 94. impressive with a heat index well over 100 degrees. the cool-down comes thursda of the gods. yes, bobby flay has big meat here grilling. look at that. last time you saw a steak that big fred flintstone had it. that looks great. looking forward to that. up next, the paralyzed bride who defied the odds by walking down the aisle at her wedding, right after this. well, are you going to pick it or not? it s not ready yet. 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[ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior, or any swelling or affected breathing or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision, or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don t drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don t drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. [ 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. hurry in for the best selection. 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. this morning on our special series defying the odds, a dream come true. most girls can t wait to walk down the aisle on their wedding day. for one that almost didn t happen. dr. nancy snyderman has her story. we were on our way to grand bend which is a local beach. we were probably about halfway there. it was around noon that day, bright sunny day. we were coming around a bend and a dark-colored car oncoming, hit us head on. everyone else got out of the van except for me. reporter: jennifer darmon s boyfriend mike who is a paramedic carefully removed jen from the car. when he saw her injuries. i felt down her back and i felt the big lump. i put two and two together and realized what happened. so at that time my heart kind of sank. i looked down at my feet, saw my legs in front of me and that was the first time i realized that i couldn t feel or move my legs anymore. i think from that point i went into complete his tysterics. reporter: she was paralyzed from the waist down. it took me a couple months where it really sank in. i started kind of thinking about all of the things i wasn t going to be able to do and really putting two and two together that the wheelchair and the injury was going to be part of the rest of my life. reporter: through the following months there was one constant in jen s life mike. he never left her side. i know that jen was the person i wanted to spend the rest of my life with, no matter what. reporter: mike asked jen to marry him and that proposal gave jen a new goal. she was determined to walk down the aisle on her wedding day. it wasn t a question of if or if i maybe might do it. it was definitely something that i was bound and determined to do. she never pictured her wedding day, her having to roll down the aisle. because she had that picture in her head she was going to do whatever it took to reach that goal. she was more focused than anyone i have seen. reporter: using special leg braces that lock at the knee, therapists at the rehab institute of michigan worked with jen for months to help make her wish come true. and with her father and brother by her side, it did. it was a great feeling. it was a little emotional. you know, i was proud of what jen had been able to accomplish. you may now kiss the bride. [ applause ] reporter: but the newlyweds didn t stop there. the bride got out of her wheelchair and danced. reporter: i guess i defied the odds by taking what life gave me and working with it. it didn t stop me from walking down the aisle. it didn t stop me from dancing at our wedding. it won t stop me from, you know, living my life as full as i can possibly live it. thanks, honey. the newlyweds are back from their mhoneymoon. jennifer and mike, thanks for joining us. note to self, never tell jennifer she can t do something. that seems the lesson to take away. absolutely. describe the moment. the door to the church opens, there is the aisle. every bride dreams of that. here you are surprising your guests by walking own the aisle. what was it like? it was amazing for everyone to be in the room at once to see what i have been working for, for so many years since the accident. walking down the aisle and seeing everybody s face. everybody was crying, so i was making faces at them, trying to get them to smile. i focused on mike at the end of the aisle and made my way to him. what struck me i was reading about this last night and i thought, you do it for yourself, you do it for mike. you wanted to do it in part for your dad. i did. why? when i was hurt i don t remember much, but he told me i looked up at him and said, i won t be able to walk down the aisle with you. i m sorry. i know that was important for him. i m his only daughter, his first child. not just for me and mike, but for him to be able to walk beside me and walk me down the aisle would be huge for him as well. nancy, let me bring you in here. sure. is this an extraordinary case? is jennifer unusual? was her injury different from a lot of spinal cord injuries? it was similar that there was a disruption of the neurological pathways so she was bound to be paralyzed. but increasingly we are seeing more breakthroughs with the spinal cord. the technology allowed her to put on the braces to walk. these seemed low tech to me. you have done stories in the past with wild technology. they look low tech, but they are just streamed down high tech. they look simple, but they are lighter, easier for her to manage. i think what she s done, which is so extraordinary, is she hasn t said it s either/or. it s and/and. she s used the wheelchair any time she wants to. she went all over manhattan yesterday in her chair while mike was sweating, walking around. then she has this option when she wants to. increasingly we ll find people want quality of life and you define it how you want to. mike, you said you knew jennifer was the person you wanted to spend your life with. then you asked her to marry you. what have you learned about her though since the accident? since the accident i realized what a determined woman she is and really how amazing and inspiring she is. while she seems a bit of a super woman, i would imagine there have been tough days as well. has she had days where she didn t want to get up, do the therapy and work on this? oh, yeah. especially when the accident first started. there were more bad days than good. as time went on, she kept, you know, getting better. the more she could accomplish through physio, the more it reflected a positive attitude. matt, i have seen this injury is often more of a dealbreaker than something that brings people together. says a lot about mike. it s an extraordinary tale. be careful. she has another goal. i understand you re building a home and you want to help in the kitchen. can she cook? do you want her in the kitchen? i don t know. that s the goal? yeah, that is the goal. i want to be able to stand up and cut things up, stir soup and see into it, above it. mike is the cook between the two of us. he ll do most of the work either way. but just to be able to help out would be amazing for me. first of all, thank you for sharing your story with the viewers. congratulations on being a newlywed. thank you. how did you enjoy matt s wedding present? great. where are you registered? we re on it today. thank you so much. up next, something our newlyweds may want to take notes on. the new book on modern marriages. first, these messages. these are our ocean spray sparkling juice drinks in cranberry and pomegranate blueberry. they have bubbles and come in these really cool cans. it s real fruit juice, crisp sparkling water, and no added sugar. comes in diet, too. it s refreshing, tasty the whole family will love it. you want one? i ll wait a bit. all right. mmm. refreshing. real juice. real bubbly. find it in the juice aisle. 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[ male announcer ] discover why it s the brand eye doctors trust most for comfort. acuvue® oasys brand. so let s plant some perennials that ll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us depth. and fill it out with flowers placed in just the perfect place. let s start at the place with the best plants, people, and prices. what do you say we plant a weekend, water it, and watch a summer spring up? more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, roundup weed & grass killer or ortho weed-b-gon max is just $8.88. creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. introducing honey bunches of oats, raisin medley. there s nothing like it! the only cereal with 1, 2, 3 kinds of raisins and crunchy multigrain flakes. you gotta try new honey bunches of oats raisin medley. new newtons fruit thins. real cranberries and cranberry citrus oat. crispy whole grain. newtons fruit thins, one unique cookie. love and marriage this morning on today s relationships, the changing face of modern marriage. one woman has come up with a new vocabulary to describe today s unions. take a look. i m pamela hague, the author of marriage confidential. i came up with the field guide to organize the different ways that marriage is changing today. marital screensaver is the half awake, half asleep look of the long married spouse who has had the same conversation with their spouse so many times that they could do it in their sleep. when their spouse is talking to them, they screen save them. ed mcmahon syndrome is when a spouse uses the you are correct, sir approach to marriage agreeing with almost anything their spouse says just to remain a comfortable if not entirely happy stability. avatar affair is all smoke and no fire. it happens entirely in online or virtual worlds and the two lovers may never even see each other or touch. so actual bodily contact is now an optional characteristic of cheating. workhorse wife is the exhausted bread winner for her dream chasing husband. while her husband goes off and tries to be a poet, a sculptor, pro golfer or other financially stressed being the workhorse wife bankrolls the dream with a career she doesn t like that much. the oreo marriage is traditional on the outside and untraditional on the inside. might go to little league games, pta, they recycle and pay their bills but also go on swinging holidays. really? pamela s book is marriage confidential: the post romantic age of workhorse wives, and couples rewriting the rules. good morning to you. the main thesis of the book seems to be that most marriages are semi-happy. what do you mean? a semi-happy marriage lives in a shade of gray. it s not miserable, nor is it all that successful. you re in a semi-happy marriage if you wake up worried about divorce or if one minute you can t imagine staying in the marriage and the next you can t imagine leaving. it s the low conflict, listless marriages that contribute the lion s share to the divorce rate. you worried about your own semi happy marriage and you say i have a nice marriage, a lovely husband, but in other moments i think this could be the last year of our marriage. how did your husband respond and where are you now in your marriage? still married. my husband is very brave to let me write about this at all. even though the feelings are common it feels like an act of outing, even to think about mixed feelings in marriage. all these people watching at home say, you know, that s my marriage. are they doomed? they are not doomed. they are right where they should be. marriage has always been semi-happy. but every generation discovers this shock anew. my grandmother did, my mother did, i did. in every marriage we trade passion, sex and excitement for security. for many people that means you get up in the night and go, is this all sfls my best friend? am i never going to have that again? that s a semi-happy marriage. that s what we are wrestling with what they are not prepared for. the census bureau released data saying married couples now represent just 48% of households. is marriage on its way out? marriage is not on its way out. but many people who wrestle with the decision decide to get a little on the side. get some excitement. that pleleads to the crisis in semi-happy marriage where you act it out, bring in the fantasy life, the pornography or the avatar relationship. that creates a crisis that leads to divorce. marriage is still the best scaffolding for family life. well, talking about family, you say parenting is a reason people get into marriage but it can be a downfall as well. children are very much the center, the remaining imperative. too often today, being a parent overwhelmed is marriage. we have run out of at 8:26, breaking news. at least four people are dead in a tour bus crash on i-95 in northbound caroline county, virginia. there are multiple injuries, and state police are not putting a number on that now. 57 people were onboard the tour bus. it was a commercial tour bus that drove off the highway and flipped over on its roof. we don t know where the bus was coming from or going at this point. the northbound lanes of i-95 are closed right now for the next few hours. you are looking live at the backup, and once again, hot air will take over the area. humidity will feel like 94. and we are back now. it s the 31st day of may, 2011. we are back out with our friends on the plaza on just a stunning, stunning tuesday morning. it really is pretty in new york city. thanks to these people for stopping by. i m matt lauer along with meredith vieira, ann curry and al roker. [ cheers and applause ] it s time to do a little drinking. i sound like kathie lee and hoda. we went to wine blending school. we did. or was it a bar? it was a bar, but we did some wine blending. now the test will it be drinkable? right. we all created our own blends. the question will be who won? it s not a competition. but we do have inside the studio top secret wine tasters waiting to tell us what they think. sitting in the chairs right now. oh. it s almost like home improvement of wine. like the voice . it is. you know what goes great with wine? cheese. steak. mm. yeah. we ve got bobby flay with monster steaks on the grill. that s a ribeye. oh! love those. me, too. by the way, you know what goes great with wine? what s that? music. we have two concerts this week. on thursday, american idol winner scott mcreery and lauren allayna will be here. and two of the most popular boy bands ever on one stage. new kids on the block and backstreet boyz. that s almost three well, four concerts. take each individually and many, many. mr. roker, you have a check of the weather. absolutely. let s see what s happening for the week ahead. above normal temperatures here in the east. below normal out west with wet weather there. midweek, temperatures stay toasty from the eastern two-thirds of th west, and then temperatures stay toasty in the eastern two thirds of the country. latter part of the week, not much changes. we ll get more showers in the northwest and more hot stuff in the mid-atlantic, the east, and going all the way out into texas. speaking of hot stuff, right over there. that s what s going on around the country, and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. hot stuff already. temperatures are running just about a degree or so above our average high already here before noontime. fredericksburg to the south, 79 degrees. 80 in sterling, virginia. and going up to a high today of 94 degrees, sticky stuff, feeling like we re over 100. showers and storms could have severe weather coming and that s your latest weather. thank you. i find some winos over here. so up next our lesson in wine blending. you will taste our creations, but first this is today on nbc. [ cheers and applause ] [ male announcer ] with amazing innovation, driven by relentless competition, wireless puts the world at your command. how does the wine taste you know, when it comes to drinking, kathie lee and hoda get all of the attention around here. right, but when it comes to sophistication and wine, how good are we? we recently learned all about the art of wine blending. take a look. from the vineyards on long island to the wineries in california, americans are developing a thirst for fine wine. at crushpad winery in sonoma wine lovers are taking classes in wine blending, allowing them to create unique blends according to individual taste. we have seen a renaissance in food. it s just peeling away the layers to learn more about it. we have all raised a few glasses but how sophisticated are we? i know white or red. beyond that i m bad. comes in a bottle. sometimes a box. i like to drink a little glass now and again. more now than again. it s hard to imagine a better pallet than matt. the best nose? matt is a wine snob. it s a game for second place on that one. al is sophisticated. i think his pallet will be good. it s too oaky, too woody. just pour it and let me drink it. it was time to stop whining. i have issues about this. and start drinking. wine maker roman roth from long island gets us going. blending is where everything comes together. you create a new wine that s your expression, what you like. in order to make a great blend you have to know the base wines. let s start with the merlot. close your eyes and smell. the bigger your nose the better you are at doing this? oh, oh. what did i do? i know where it s going. stop right now. i don t think that was a pointed remark. we were off to the races as we got a taste for the base wines. it s more floral. smoother. now try to locate what you like? the malbec is so nice. next is the cab sauvignon. sour. metal. aluminum. maybe that explains your sour face. need a lot of that to enjoy it. now it s time to make our own blends. we measured, mixed, swirled and sipped. i have no idea what i m trying to do. beyond awful. it was a calculated effort. you have to do averages now, right? yeah. this could be a while. divide it by three by four. i have three. three. 15. so it s 50%. so easy a 5-year-old can do it. somebody get a 5-year-old. two this is going great. ann finished up with a strong blend. it s quiet, deep. doesn t hit you too hard but has long flavor. you know, interesting. not flaccid. flaccid? flaccid? in the end, let s face it, the nose knows. i think i stumbled on beginner s luck here. this is the first blend i made and it reminds me of meredith. it s open, generous, slightly past its prime but with a hint of mischief. ooh. ow! and very satisfying. oh! cheers, everybody. oh, you can see the different colors. i know. cheers. my nose just got longer. oh, because of the past your prime no, no. lying. yeah. now the idea is to figure out if a couple of weeks since we did it, is this stuff any good. it normally would have to age more. a couple years. we did little samples and roman created larger samples of what we blended and put them in these bottles and corked them. yes. we have three judges. our celebrity wine judges. they have tried the wines. let us introduce them. first up, the host of daily grape.com, gary banerchuck. joining gary, america s favorite winos excuse me, wine enthusiasts, kathie lee and hoda. nice to see you. who would have thought? they are not big red drinkers. never too early. gary, do you want to do this? sure. first of all, let s start with natalie s wine. she chose 50% merlot, 30 cap franc. it was very aggressive. like the woman herself. dark fruit. a little hint of chocolate. not bad. are we supposed to taste it? absolutely. aren t your taste buds numb after all these years? yeah. nice, nat. very nice, natalie. wait until the last one. hard to tell them apart. who s next? al. who really only likes rose. al has a hint of tobacco and the best nose of the bunch. what does that mean? gary, he had 50% merlot, 40% cap franc and malbec. with the cabernet by being the most you have the green and aromatics. wait a minute. we have to try it. drink it. love it. ann s next. try ann eechl s. this is the not flaccid blend. 25% cab and 25% malbec. ann s was the creamiest with a hint of celery and broccoli. eat your veggies! who wants celery and broccoli in wine? i do. meredith is still trying to figure it out. meredith s was interesting. check it out. it finishes with sour, sour cherry, but a lot of elegance. kathie lee and hoda? i like meredith s the best so far. it s a little bit acidic for me. a zinger. who wins in your book? we have matt s still. yours was like a bourdeaux. yours and meredith s was similar. would you buy any of these wines? no. don t hold back, gary. what about you? i would buy al s and ann s. i liked meredith s and matt s. they tasted similar to me, too. this was fun. poor natalie out in the rain. that s all right. i ll buy my own. thank you, kathie lee and hoda and gary. any time you need us, we re here for you. we re back in a moment. this is today on nbc. my contacts are so annoying. they re itchy, dry and uncomfortable. i can t wait to take em out, throw em away and never see them again. [ male announcer ] know the feeling? get the contacts you ve got to see to believe. acuvue® oasys brand contact lenses. feel how hydraclear® plus keeps your eyes exceptionally comfortable all day long. it feels like it disappeared on my eye. [ male announcer ] discover why it s the brand eye doctors trust most for comfort. and if you re not 100 percent satisfied, you get your money back. guaranteed. are they on? cause they don t feel like they are. [ male announcer ] acuvue® oasys brand. see what could be. kathie lee gifford is a woman of many talents. as you saw she can judge a wine contest, she hosts the fourth hour, she s a best selling author. her latest is a children s book. good morning to you. good morning. are you bombed? no, are you kidding? please. you people are amateurs. i m fine. i m fine. all right. second children s book you have written. the premise of this one? the kid s a slob. all of these came from a cd i did ten years ago with my friend david friedman. my book agent said, let s write some children s books. he said, it s a natural. i have these songs that nobody ever heard because i didn t market it. so party animals was last year. this year it s the legend of messy mecchini. it s based on cassidy. i thought it would be cody. oh, he couldn t stand being dirty. cassidy was like a pig in mud. why was the main character a guy? cassidy insisted on it. she said, you have to make it a boy or everyone will know it s me. i walked through her room, her bathroom and nothing changed. now she doesn t care anymore. in this story, messy has the world to himself until his sister missy comes along and affects him a lot. yeah. now messy thought he was king of the world until he discovered his world got girled. this pink perfect clean thing shows up. missy! she s just adorable and does everything right. they have a showdown in the middle of town. you know, who s going to be left standing around. is that typical? did your kids have that sibling rivalry growing up? no. thank god they have always adored each other. they have moments, but they are classic in the older brother taking care of the younger sister. now he s trying to parent her, too, which doesn t work out well. he s about to graduate from college. i know. our sons worked together on television. they did a few years ago. you know what it s like. you get your art from life. these songs came from what i saw with my kids. there is a little bonus track called here s the deal, banana peel. i said this has to happen, so that can happen. here s the deal i knew it was a matter of time before the singing begins. i know. it s fun. what is it about writing kids books? they are for me. musical theater is hard. i have taken years to do that properly. these songs are goofy and silly and they come out of me instinctively. if it make as kid laughed i have accomplished my job. this little boy, messy, likes to toot like a turkey and pick his nose. he goes, look, mom, gold. that s disgusting. i know. kids love that body humor stuff. nobody likes it better than you, meredith vieira. i like to toot every once in a while. love you. such a pleasure to see you this hour. what are you working on? big musical coming out. in seattle? this fall, yes. we re going to miss you. we love you very much. you don t make great wine but you are a great woman. my wine was called elegant or something. yeah. and sour. the book is called the legend of messy mcheany. up next, bobby flay shares secrets for the perfect summer steak. first, this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] want to achieve more with your money? pnc virtual wallet gathers your spending and saving in one place. credit and debit purchases, checks, bills, and other financial information. it lets you see the details as well as the big financial picture. so you can do more with your money. see what a complete view of your money can do for you at pncvirtualwallet.com. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. this morning on today s kitchen we are doing summer grilling with mr. bobby flay, the host and judge of the next food network star and his show premiers sunday on the food network. good to see you. we have people salivating because you are cooking ribeye with goat cheese. you have honey mustard dressing and sauce for a watercress salad. i love ribeye because there is fat in it. fat is flavor. i like a ribeye nice and thick. this is one and a half to two inches thick. you go to the butcher and you don t want the fat trimmed. no, i can trim it later if i want to but cook with the fat on to get the moisture. let me get this out of your way. i was watching what you did. just salt and pepper. it s a thick steak so we want a lot of salt and pepper. probably more than people think you will put on but it s a dense steak. some people may have seen how seared that is but it keeps the juice in. and texture. we want it crusty on the outside, tender on the inside. what cooking time? high heat. four minutes on the first side, turn it for four minutes and let it rest. also, bring it out of the rerefrigerator to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. never a cold steak on the grill. it won t cook evenly. over here you have done grill marks. you have oranges and lemons. why? i love grilling citrus. it brings out a nice roasted flavor. i will squeeze it on the steak later. okay. let s make sauce. here s the deal. these are wine country flavors. on barbecue addiction, every show, we go to a place. it could be some place globally, internationally. we re talking about northern california. you put in juice. meyer lemon juice or just lemon juice with a touch of orange juice. mustard. and salt and pepper. this is the glaze for the top of the steak. salt and pepper. if you want to use the zest from the citrus, why not? the zest is nice when you have the honey in there. it s a nice yin and yang. absolutely. maximize the flavor. now i like to take my steak and plate it. let it rest for a little while. it does do some cooking after you take it off the grill. also, you want the juices to cool down. if you cut the steak when it s really hot it runs onto the cutting board and you lose the moisture. so take the sauce and slather a thin layer on there. i have goat cheese here as well. it s a northern california thing. good domestic, fresh goat cheese. right on top? right on top of the steak like that. fresh herbs as well. maybe fresh thyme, parsley, whatever you like. because we want to make it a healthy steak we are going to put on watercress. that will do it. right back into the realm of health food. exactly. and a squeeze of orange. also healthy. al has been standing around my station for two and a half hours. i want to make sure you get a little bit. you re my man. mm. what is that? a honey mustard and meyer lemon sauce. oh. what s the bread? staying with the theme of northern wine country, blue cheese and figs. and sangria? just to cool things off. that s the key to everything. bobby, you should come every day. i ll be here. cheers. get me a cot. cheers, guys. we re back in a moment with much more after these messages. at 8:56. breaking news. i-95 north closed as there is a tour bus accident that killed four people. state police tell us the tour bus drove off the highway and flipped and landed on its roof. we have new video of albert haynesworth meeting with his lawyer this morning. the defensive lineman scheduled to be in court this morning with charges related to a road rage incident. and then we ll check your and then we ll check your forecast and traffic ok. what if i just had a small slice? i was good today, i deserve it! or, i could have a medium slice and some celery sticks and they would cancel each other out, right? or.ok. i could have one large slice and jog in place as i eat it or.ok. how about one large slice while jogging in place followed by eight celery. mmm raspberry cheesecake. i have been thinking about this all day. wow, and you ve lost weight! oh yeah, you re welcome. thank you! [ female announcer ] yoplait light. withlicious flavors all around 100 calories each. yoplait. it is so good. unhealthy air today as temperatures rise into the low 90s. lots of humidity. code orange is the look for today. 92 for tomorrow. the inner loop of the beltway, on and off delays in both directions between i-95 and 375. three things you could be we re back with more of today on a tuesday morning, the 31st day of may, 2011. picture perfect day here in new york city after a nice memorial day weekend. just a chance to say hi to the nice people who stopped by rockefeller plaza on this tuesday. we thank them for coming by. i m matt lauer along with natalie morales and al roker on the plaza. coming up, important information about diet and nutrition. we all like to work out. what do you eat before you work out and what should you eat right after you work out? another question people ask. what is a normal fluctuation for weight on a day-to-day basis? we ll have the answer to those questions and more coming up. also coming up is another time once again for our steals & deals segment. jill martin has exclusive offers for today show viewers on everything from diamond jewelry to monogrammed robes and more with discounts this time of up to 90%. and i know as parents you have this problem. sometimes the rating is pg or pg-13. you never know if it s appropriate for your kids. you can be horrifieded sometimes. we ll sort it out with a parenting expert here to talk about what to look for in the movies this summer and what may be appropriate to kids. i took my 4-year-old to the hangover 2 this weekend you did not. that s appropriate for us. speaking of inappropriate italian authorities probably can t wait to say ciao to the stars of jersey shore. snooki has been questioned by the police after crashing into a police car. some asked if it was a publicity stunt. we ll go live to florence for the latest. if we are lucky, they ll keep them in protective custody for the next two years. that s not going to happen. before we go any further let s go inside to ann at the news desk with a look at the headlines. ann? thanks, matt. good morning, everybody. we begin with a new low for the housing market. government figures coming out today show prices for existing homes have plunged to their lowest level since the housing crisis began. the percentage of americans who own their homes is approaching a low not seen in a generation. every house republican and many democrats are poised to reject a deal to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion. republicans insisted on having the vote to support their argument that the bill is a nonstarter because it doesn t cut any spending. the march earthquake and tsunami are still hitting japan s auto industry hard. auto production plunged more than 60% in april from the previous year. the disaster destroyed key suppliers in northeastern japan. crews from the environmental protection agency are inspecting joplin, missouri, a week after the devastating tornado. experts are now worrying there could be chemical hazards in the air, water and debris. two wildfires destroyed 12 homes near amarillo, texas, are finally under control. other fires are burning across the drought-stricken state. the food and drug administration is recalling cucumbers in northeast ohio saying they may be contaminated with salmonella. an e. coli outbreak in europe also attached to cucumbers. officials say most of the victims live in germany or had recently traveled there. a drug suspect was arrested after flying from peru to thailand on monday. x-rays found 123 plastic capsules inside his stomach. inside those capsules was a total of more than two pounds of cocaine. a federal appeals court will hear arguments today on whether some schools discriminate against girls by scheduling their basketball games for weeknights and saturday afternoons while the boys games are played on more desirable friday and saturday nights. the suit claims it makes it harder for players to do their homework. and a beautiful, moving memorial day tradition was observed monday off the coast of honolulu. thousands of candle lanterns were placed upon the water to honor lost loveded ones. organizers say the candle represents the light in the heart that is never extinguished. beautiful. it is now four min extinguished. beautiful. it s now four minutes past the hour. let s go upstairs to al for a check of the weather. thank you for showing that, ann. that was gorgeous. let s look at what is happening for today we have big high pressure in the upper level atmospheres, and that s pumping up the hot air. all up and down the eastern seaboard. cleveland, 91. hotter than miami today. 89 in chicago. and then on the other side of this system, we have cold air pushing into warmer moisture air. we have the slight risk of green bay, chicago, detroit, and grand rabids, and a strong risk of storms. you can see them already firing up and making their way into the mississippi river valley. here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. right here our heat index will push easily into the triple digits by the afternoon. code orange air quality, and that means unhealthy for children or anybody with heart or breathing problems. and 92 tomorrow, and getting thunderstorms in here late tomorrow, between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m., and it will take the humidity out of the air. time for joy s diet sos. answers to your daily diet dilemmas. joy bauer is here to discuss everything from weight fluctuations to the truth about soy. the truth about soy. you can t handle the truth! let s get started. first question from brandy in wakefield, massachusetts. joining us live via skype. good morning, brandy. what s your question? good morning, joy. i m trying to lose my last ten pounds but the scale seems to go up and down. how much day to day fluctuation in body weight is considered normal? so, first it s important to know that you are not overshooting on your food and calories and that the upticks on the scale are random fluctuations. if your food is in check know that on a morning to morning weigh-in it s quite typical on occasion to fluctuate anywhere between one and three pounds. mainly because of water retention. salty meals and carb rich meals like a pasta dinner will draw in water and you will register artificial pounds on the scale the next morning. also, bowel irregularities and hormone changes do the same thing. if the daily weigh ins are driving you crazy, just weigh in one time each week. this way, you will be able to see the overall downward trend and hopefully wash out some of the minor short-lived luck, bra. so you shouldn t do it hour by hour? definitely not. some people like daily and some like once a week. fluctuations are normal. our next question on the phone is from amy calling from leesburg, virginia. good morning. hi, joy. i have been so confused about soy and estrogen-positive breast cancer tumors. my doctors don t know what to tell me about whether it s safe to eat these foods. what s your feeling? we get this question all the time. soy contains weak estrogen-like compounds n. the past, lab and rodent studies showed in high doses the compounds activated tumors and breast tissue. recently we have large scale studies that show there is absolutely no link when humans eat soy foods. there is no increase for breast cancer or breast cancer occurrence. in fact, the total opposite occurred in one study that showed when women who had breast cancer ate whole soy foods they had a reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence. i mean tofu, tempeh, soybeans and soy nuts. not the soy concentrates you find in processed foods. those don t contain all the health benefits. the cancer society now says for breast cancer survivors it s safe to eat up to three servings of whole soy foods each day. that said, if you don t eat soy now there is no reason to start including them. but if you like them it s okay to enjoy them in moderation. like always, check with your oncologist to get his or her take before you incorporate them. great question. it is. and we have a viewer e-mail from heather in texas. i m trying to lose some weight and i m having an issue with what to eat before and after my workouts. before my work out i don t want to eat anything heavy but afterwards i m starving. i will assume she s having a work out that lasts less than an hour. beforehand have a piece of fruit or a handful of whole grain serial or some nonfat yogurt. you want to fuel the body. afterwards she s ravenous. save a real meal for after she s done exercising. if she works out in the morning, grab an orange first and then have an egg white omelet with a slice of whole wheat toast. continue exercising, keeps her exercise in check and she could lose weight. she just has to rejiger her meals a little bit. it s all good. coming up, steals & deals from jewelry to hair care products. we have big bargains. deep discounts as much as 90% exclusively for today viewers. and later on, culture and jersey shore collide yeah, literally. the latest on snooki s run-in with the police in italy after these messages. [ male announcer ] capri sun 100% juice, with a full serving of fruit in every pouch, is a choice you can respect. [ creaking ] other choices. launch me fellas. [ male announcer ] nope. capri sun 100% juice. [ male announcer ] nope. you gotta try honey bunches of oats with almonds! it s got real, sliced california almonds with a third less sugar per serving than honey nut cheerios. wow! delicious! try honey bunches of oats with almonds! they re itchy, dry and uncomfortable. i can t wait to take em out, throw em away and never see them again. [ male announcer ] know the feeling? get the contacts you ve got to see to believe. acuvue® oasys brand contact lenses. feel how hydraclear® plus keeps your eyes exceptionally comfortable all day long. it feels like it disappeared on my eye. [ male announcer ] discover why it s the brand eye doctors trust most for comfort. and if you re not 100 percent satisfied, you get your money back. guaranteed. are they on? cause they don t feel like they are. [ male announcer ] acuvue® oasys brand. see what could be. are they on? cause they don t feel like they are. sfx: bed crashes to floor kids seem to get bigger overnight. good morning. whoa! whoa! and when they do, they re ready for goodnites. the nightime underwear specially designed for kids 4 and up. lights, camera, activia it s the best job in the world. to be there for them, you ve gotta feel your best. that s why i love eating activia every day. activia help me feel good inside. which helps me be on top of things help regulate your digestive system. love how you feel or your money back. time now for another edition of jill s steals & deals, great bargains at deeply discounted prices exclusively for our today viewers. this week we have everything from monogrammed robes to museum art prints. jill, give me a quick explanation for people new to this. people are stopping me on the streets now saying what do you have this week? log onto today.com right now. you will see the items and they link to codes to the retailer s website. we don t benefit. these are exclusive deals retailer bring us to bring you. be patient. it takes time to get through. but you will get through. don t be frustrated. let s start with comfy robes by number lab. you can get them monogrammed, too. retail $150. nice colors. 100% micro fiber to wick away moisture. josh duhamel is a huge fan. the retail price is $150. the deal price, $39. that s 74% off. you see the five colors here. you can get any initial. gray, light blue, white, pink. and they are unisex. let s move over to this hair product. it s a product by oliver ataglier. we have a dry shampoo and the day at the beach spray. this i love for summer. i waited to bring it for summer so every woman should have this. retail $50. i will start with the dry shampoo. for days that you don t want to wash your hair, spray it in your hair. freshens the roots. it takes the grease away. this is great to spray on in summer especially at the beach. the day at the beach spray, and my hair never looks good if it dries out of the shower but coming out of the ocean you have great curl. great wave. this is salt-infused spray to take away the frizz. retail price is $50. the deal price is $15. 70% off. amazing. a new thing we are showing you this morning is artwork for the home. we re excited about this. this is a photo series by douglas bush. you have two limited edition prints for us. first is the tides in time and the italian garden series. this will spruce up any room in your house. this is beautiful. retail $750 a print. limited edition, permanent collections in the getty museum of contemporary art and smithsonian. they wouldn t give me names but a lot of huge fans. the first series, black and white images, tides in time they are called. 7 x 10 in a 12 x 15 frame. they are all signed. all in a black wood frame. and you know what edition you are getting. this next section on this wall is the five-color italian garden series. 8 x 10 print in a 13 x 15 frame. all matted in blackwood frame. each piece is signed. retail is $750 a print. the deal is $75. that s 90% off. so each print is $75. they are great by themselves or you can spruce up a whole room. great. finally, a viewer favorite as always, jewelry. we love when you bring us jewelry. this is by sophie bell and they are diamonds. something danty for summer. you can wear it all the time. $445 retail. real diamonds in sterling silver that doesn t tar nimpblt the horseshoe, buddha, evil eye, initials a to z. 18 inch chains. each item has 12 to 18 diamonds. retail is $445. the kedeal is $69, 84% off. and they are gorgeous. great quality. beautiful. jill, you bring us incredible deals. thank you. once again to remind you of the products, the monogrammed robe, products by oliver atagliey, art and jewelry by sophie bush. head to today.com. thank you, jill. coming up, the blockbusters are here. which one is right for your little one? what every parent should know about summer movies. first, these messages. 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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. creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. with aveeno nourish plus moisturize. active naturals wheat formulas target and help repair damage in just 3 washes. for softer, stronger. . hair with life. [ female announcer ] nourish plus. only from aveeno. for softer, stronger. . hair with life. lights, camera, activia it s the best job in the world. to be there for them, you ve gotta feel your best. that s why i love eating activia every day. activia help me feel good inside. which helps me be on top of things help regulate your digestive system. love how you feel or your money back. we are now joined by devon who has gone from med school to schooling the competition on the voice. so both your parents are in the medical field. yes. and you were in premed getting ready to be a doctor and all of the sudden here you are. are you struggling with the choice between music and medicine? the choice, yes. but given my options, no. this has been great, really amazing. you have done well in the battle round last week you came out well. you started off at a little bit of a disadvantage because you didn t know the song you were singing by radiohead. how did you get the confidence to belt it out like you did? it was a tough song for me. it was 90s grunge. i was maybe 2 when the song was out. my battle partner, rebecca, knew the song like the back of her hand. it was hard for me to get in touch with the song and convey it to the audience. took more homework but i pulled it out in the end. cee lo green wanted you, but you went with adam levine of maroon 5. i grew up listening to adam. he was developing his sound when i was growing up and developing mine. the fact that we have similar tones sold me on it. he said we d work well together. how could i pass that up? you have a distinct voice? my voice is kind of versatile. i would consider it a poppy sort of soul. having fun? so much fun. it s great to be here. will you go back to med school or keep up as long as you can with the competition? as long as i m county of ingham we doing well, what do you think? what do your parents want you to do? what do you think? they have a talented son. whichever way you go. the voice airs tonight on nbc at 10:00/9:00 central time. coming up, age appropriate movies for your kids. first your local news and weather. i feel like a totally new person. weight watchers new pointsplus it s 9:26 on this tuesday, may 31st. we re following breaking news this morning on i-95. all northbound lanes in caroline county, virginia, are closed. state police are investigating a tour bus accident that killed at least four people north of kings dominion. 57 people were on the bus. state police tell us the bus drove off the highway and flipped and landed on its roof. we re working to learn where the bus originated and where it s going. chess peek middle and fold jury will close at 11:00 a.m., because of air-conditioning issues, and then another closing at warming quickly out there. high humidity today. the heat index already above 90 degrees. the heat index already over 90 degrees. for air quality, going up to a high of 94. and then police are dealing with an accident at exit 4. they may have just moved it, but traffic delays begin back in e vienna for that. the three things you could be doing to sabotage your diet without knowing it. [ 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. doesn t seem like that voice should be i know. amazing. 17-year-old scott s life changed forever last week when he was voted american idol 2011. along with runner-up lauren alayna performing live on the plaza this thursday on today. going a little bit country here. that will be crowded. i love their voices. we have lots more coming up this half hour. like smoke-alina and the bandit snooki what? like smoky. oh, got you. she smashed into a police car in florence, italy. we ll find out what the i tall i can t bes are calling our friends from the jersey shore. it s not good. also ahead the summer movie season is wooing kids to the theaters. should you let them see the green lantern, winnie the pooh i think that s safe. or the story about a wizard. movie ratings don t tell you everything. we tell you what s best for your children for every age. tigger, this time it s personal. definitely not the hangover 2. maybe not right for your child. also, changing subjects to talk about a living legend. we ll introduce you to a photographer named william eggleston. he took everyday objects and infused them with light and color. he said he wants to captureligh. he wants you to capture. i got an opportunity to see him with his work. so that was very exciting. yeah, and you re such a great photographer. i love it. don t we all love photography now. but anyway, let s get a check of the weather from you, mr. roker? all right. thank you. let s take a look at the week ahead. warm weather in the eastern half of the country. chillier out west with showers in the pacific north west. the heat expands westward a bit including the showers, and still chilly in northern california and more of the same in the latter part of the week with above normal temperatures in the east. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. hot and steamy today. the heat index already over 90 degrees. and along with this heat advisory, we have code orange air quality. unhealthy for children, with anybody with heart conditions or breathing problems. tomorrow, 92. tomorrow late there will be a cold front moving through, and storms during the afternoon, and 5:00 to 8:00, and it will take the h and that s your latest weather. al, thank you so much. coming up, if you haven t heard, we ll tell you all about snooki s latest misadventure coming up after these messages. yeah. all boys. i call them our starting five. yeah. boom! so when we go out, like the other night, we have to make sure they get enough to eat. pass these down to your brothers and make sure they get some, okay? try olive garden s new four cheese pastachettis. starting at just $9.95. folded pasta ribbons filled with italian cheeses. try them with grilled chicken breasts in a garlic cream sauce, or with grilled italian sausage starting at $9.95. plus enjoy our unlimited fresh salad and warm breadsticks. olive garden s one of the few places we can take our family where everyone s happy. olive garden. when you re here, you re family. we can take our family where everyone s happy. introducing honey bunches of oats, raisin medley. there s nothing like it! the only cereal with 1, 2, 3 kinds of raisins and crunchy multigrain flakes. you gotta try new honey bunches of oats raisin medley. sfx: bed crashes to floor kids seem to get bigger overnight. good morning. whoa! whoa! and when they do, they re ready for goodnites. the nightime underwear specially designed for kids 4 and up. 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. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior, or any swelling or affected breathing or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision, or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don t drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don t drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. then i found lyrica. lights, camera, activia it s the best job in the world. to be there for them, you ve gotta feel your best. that s why i love eating activia every day. activia help me feel good inside. which helps me be on top of things help regulate your digestive system. love how you feel or your money back. mama mia, the jersey shore s smoonooki crashed into police car in italy. how did that go over with the authorities? michelle kosinski is in florence. good morning. are people maybe increasing their automobile insurance there? reporter: could be. yeah. it seems the novelty of guidos and guidettes which you don t normally find in italy has worn off. the newspapers have a name for the cast now, too, super cafognes, which means super idiot. they have wracked up traffic tickets, got into a fistfight, angered a college and now snooki s brush yes, literally with the law. in what appears to be the move to end all, here in photo evidence from tmz, none other than snooki under stricture orders in italy to be good citizens somehow ended up smashing into the back of oh, no. [ screeching ] reporter: a police car. they re funny, but it s embarrassing. reporter: the two cops inside the squad car which may, according to reports, have been kindly escorting snooki and pal dina had cuts and bruises, were taken to hospital but were okay. so was everyone in the snooki car that ended up pinned between the cops and a wall. but they had some splainin to do downtown. questioned by authorities, but avoiding their show morphing into an episode of locked up abroad, they were not arrested. well, no one expected anyone from jersey shore to be on their best behavior in italy. thank goodness no drugs or alcohol were involved in this particular incident. reporter: how does this happen? was it because dina was her wing man? or was snooki just looking for the beach again? where s the beach? right there. reporter: that was back in sweet home new jersey when snooki was arrested after a drunken outburst at the shore. italy has been a clean slate. we are not like this. we don t always get drunk. reporter: politicians tried to have them banned. the mayor finally just banned them from certain places as well as from being filmed while drinking. snooki? snooki, she s a woman. reporter: he did seem big on one thing. it s very important to respect every law in italy and in florence. reporter: so far so good, other than three traffic tickets, a fistfight between ronny and the situation, a college issuing a warning to students to stay away from the jersey gang and a little cop car collision action. they haven t knocked over priceless art works or sent the renaissance into reverse yet. the jersey super cafogne still holding their own in the mother land. reporter: mtv didn t get back to us for comment but the show s creator said this is a simple fender-bender, no big deal. it turns out the gang has only a week so or left of filming in italy. how quickly they disappear. we can say many of their neighbors are counting the days, al. i think that s a safe one. thanks, michelle. coming up next, what movies are best for your kid this is summer? first, these messages. meet beth, nursery school teacher. lights, camera, activia it s the best job in the world. my students are amazing. but to be there for them, you ve gotta feel your best. kids can tell. that s why i love eating activia every day. so delicious activia help me feel good inside which helps me be my best. positive, cheerful and on top of things. help regulate your digestive system. love how you feel or your money back. activia [ dad ] no. pudding face! i m sorry. you don t look sorry. you re right i m not. 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[ female announcer ] do you know scott? scott extra soft is softness, done right. just love me oh oh oh just hold me oh oh oh just kiss me oh oh oh just want me l-o-v-e love, love, love this morning on parenting today, picking the right summer movies for your kids. if your kids want to see all the films their friends are talking about you may want to make sure it s appropriate safe. good morning. thanks for being here. you are our movie critic as well. i m wearing a different hat. we have young kids. it s hard. you see the ratings and sometimes pg or pg-13 isn t what you expect. how do you tell? it s confusing for parents. at fandango there was a survey and 75% of parents thought pg-13 was okay for kids but they are showing more adult content. do your homework. look online. look on sites like ivillage or commonsensemedia. they give an age appropriate rating for almost every film out there. and what the content is, too. let s go through the summer s family films. for kids under 5, safe to say kwoez w winnie the pooh is fine. one of the only films out there that s a definite sure bet for the 3 to 5-year-old. tigger, winn irk ie, christophe robin. over 1 million hits on the youtube trailer. is it a remake? it appears to be a remake of the disney cartoon. bringing it to our kids age now, too. out when i was a kid. yeah. you have two suggestions for kids 6 to 12. both are pg. the first is judy moody and the not bummer summer. i have heard a lot about it. yeah. looks funny. does it work for kids in the elementary school age? it does. a lot of kids will be fans of the judy moody book series. she s getting ready for summer. her parents are going away. she s stuck with her aunt opal and her brother. she comes up with a not bummer summer dare game and there are things including throwing up on a roller coaster. you have to decide if it s okay for kids but it seems to be fun, whimsical, appropriate humor. next jim carey s mr. popper s penguins. looks funny. jim carrey, hello. very funny. he s a house painter who all of the sudden has a household of penguins. so he creates a traveling show. this really should be fun for moms and dads and kids. some potty humor possibly. some language. other than that it seems okay. what about kids in the tween to teen age? first is green lantern . this is ryan reynolds, last year s people magazine s sexiest man alive. you will have fans of ryan reynolds, fans of the comic book series. this one you will have superhero action. a little violence but it doesn t have overly sexual content. it s good for the 13 to 16-year-olds. transformers: dark of the moon . this is a big challenge for parents. you will have tweens who have seen the other movies, then the tv show. they will want to see it. but there is a lot of violence. superhero action and you will probably have more sexual content because you have the hero who has a hot new girlfriend. this one you have to gauge if it s right for your kids. and harry potter and the deathly hallows coming out. my son is of the age where the fist one was a big battle in our house. i didn t want him to see it but my husband let him. blame the husband. right. this is a hard one for parents. you re your 7-year-old and 8-year-old want to see it. beloved locations are destroyed, harry is dealing with adult situations, people die. definitely for older teens. for the 7-year-old, 8-year-old you have to decide if it s right for them. you may want to go and talk with them about it. kelly wallace, great to have you. you can be our movie expert any time. up next, a man who changed the way we look at the world through his photography. first this is today on nbc. this morning on our continuing series today s living legends, william eggleston, a name you probably don t know but should. considered a creative genius he s never owned a pair of jeans or voted but he s changed the way we look at photographs, one click at a time. william eggleston, now 71, is considered a master. the man who first made color photography a legitimate art form. revered around the world, his saturated images have been exhibited in art museums and major galleries in the u.s., europe, south america and asia, selling for as much as $300,000 for a single print. there is a photo of you, very young, playing with a camera. mm-hmm. reporter: born in memphis, he grew up loving art and music. it wasn t until college when luck would have it a friend suggested he give photography a try. photography forced me to buy a camera. i just loved it at once. reporter: at the time, only black and white photographs by big names like robert frank were in vogue. why did you choose to do exactly the opposite of what they were doing and work in color? i always wanted to see things printed in color. reporter: did you set out to be an artist to change photography? not a bit. it was just very attractive to me. reporter: because he said he wanted the results to be accurate. it looked like when i was standing there looking at the scene. reporter: his vibrant images focus on everyday american life, many in small towns. a tricycle, the grocery store clerk, showing us the world that once was. are you looking for meaning? i don t think so. reporter: are you looking for line, color, composition? all at the same time. becoming a photographer takes a lot of time and attention. reporter: attention that gets these shots. though he allows himself just one click. and this, using a film camera. no one i know only clicks once. no one else that i know does. reporter: the museum of modern art exhibited your work for the first time in 1976. and the initial reviews were not good. i read them. they were pretty hostile. reporter: the new york times called his work perfectly banal. you didn t feel wounded at all? oh, no. reporter: oh, come on. it was your work. i didn t look at it that way. i was interested in photography, not in what people thought of it. reporter: you re saying, i knew i was doing the right thing. truly, i didn t know any other way to go about it. reporter: that s a good lesson for anyone who feels criticized. don t listen to the critics. i would say that over and over again. yes, i agree. reporter: staying true to himself, he s had literally a colorful life, photographing graceland, dining with stars and artists, shooting movie sets. today his images even oh appear on album covers of a new generation. what i m interested in has been all this time just fooling around. reporter: after all these years fooling around with photography, what do you want people to say about your work? chiefly, i d like for them to look at it. seriously. soon more people may get the chance to look at it seriously. there is a move afoot to build a museum in memphis just dedicated to william eggleston s photographs. for more on that go to our website at today.com. we hope the movement picks up steam. he didn t have a real perspective when taking the pictures, just took a picture. one shot. using color and composition. very, very talented man. he s changed the way all of us look at pictures. good for you, mr. eggleston. thank you. still to come, kathie lee and hoda catch up with one of the new kids on the block, jordan knight. before they hit our concert here on friday. on friday with the backstreet boyz. that will be a big one. first your local news and weather. [ male announcer ] the inspiration for its shape was an archer drawing his bow. could that have also inspired its 556 horsepower supercharged engine? the all-new cadillac cts-v coupe. we don t just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs. good morning, everyone. 9:56 is the time, tuesday may 31st, 2011. i am barbara harrison. we re following breaking news on i-95 in virginia right now. all northbound lanes in caroline county are closed as state police investigate a tour bus accident that killed at least four people. 57 people were on the bus. police say the bus drove off the highway and flipped and landed on the roof. chesapeake bay middle and o foger will be closed due to air-conditioning issues. and a lot of neighbors up to 92 degrees, and manassas, 95 degrees. that s the heat index temperature. and 97 is what it feels like in fredericksburg, virginia. these locations have slighter higher humidity. we ll max out at 94 for air temperatures, but heat index, triple digits today. 395, and sluggish to the 14th street bridge. a fine rush hour. and american legion bridge, outer loop moving nicely, and no midday construction set [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying 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 you ll get this special bonus: $100 back. but hurry. this offer ends soon. fios is a 100% fiber optic network that delivers the best channel lineup, superior picture quality, and 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 1.877.827.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.877.827.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. get the network that delivers more. get fios. a network ahead. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, everybody. it s booze day tuesday. it s the last day of may already. i know. those winter months drag on and on. we just don t think spring and summer is ever going to be here. we jumped from dead of winter to cold of summer. i don t care. i m happy. miss egyptian sun worshipper, i bet. you went to rehoboth over the weekend. it was the time jashgs the guy i m dating was meeting my family. that s awkward, usually. there is my mom and hanna. let me show you when i knew he was a trouper even though i know he is. we have a two-bedroom place in rehoboth. i was trying to figure out how the sleeping arrangements would work to make sense. he so graciously agreed to sleep on the blow-up bed in the room with me and my mom. my mom and i were in bed and he was on the blow-up. it was sweet. she s like, good night, jay. he s like good night. did he say good night, mom. hanna came tip-toeing in and said, hi, uncle jachlt jay. i knew they would like him. he s a really nice person. he is a good person. how do you introduce your boyfriend to your family? they say there are ways to do it. first of all, jay s a man. to call him a boyfriend seems strange. it is weird. it s still the first time they re meeting. you were worried about him liking them or them liking him? them liking him. i knew he would like everybody right away, too. everybody got along great. according to ivillage did you do everything wrong? yes. you re not to keep him from wacky family traditions. don t protect him? yes. what he s getting into, he showed know eyes open. don t wing it. tell your mom what stories not to reveal. i didn t do that. i don t care. let people be people, too. i disagree, too. tell him the topics he might want to avoid around your family. i guess if it s something really weird. i didn t do that. be prepared to sleep in separate rooms. we slept in the same room. see how nicely it worked out. he s in. good. i m excited. one of these days we ll get to see jay. we had a fun weekend with you, too. you came back in time to join us at our house. this is the hard part for me. we have a house that s built to be outside in the summertime. i love to invite everybody, but i can t have 300 people. if you invite spouses and all their children, so i invited a few people. a small group. i have to say the guest of honor because there were lots of people there is there a guy we ve spoken about one of our crew members. he had a bad accident. horrendous accident. he s a neighbor of mine up in the area we live in connecticut. seeing him and his wife, he has the best joking attitude. the guys on the crew here don t forget him for one second. there s a sign on the side of the camera that says, hurry back, rope. we love him and he was having a wonderful time. frank gifford, grilled his brains out. that guy can grill some burgers, right? it was like the perfect day. all the kids were in the pool. it was just a lot of fun. so thanks. you re welcome. i went to bed early last night because i was exhausted from it all. we have dani and dan. ashley. she was the hit of the day. here is a picture. ashlynn in the pool. how about this picture coming up now? let it be jim gates with two drinks. oh, they put your hair on him? yes. and bambino. we should save that forever. i was tired so i went to bed at 9:00. 11:30 woke up. i knew a car was coming for me at 4:00. my new little children s book comes out today. at 11:30 i m going bing. then frank had sleeping issues. so i m still awake. at 2:30, the guy drives up my driveway, lights blazing, which sets my dogs off barking like crazy. sat there for two hours? i put my robe on. i come downstairs, go outside. the guy is looking at me, i go, why are you here so early? he said, i didn t want to be late. that s the sweetest thing. stop, pause. thank you for being early. go on. i said now my whole household is awake. i ve literally been up since 11:30 last night and i m happy to be here. this is the book. it s called the legend of messy mccheany. i m going to perform the title song. hanna got her hands on this one. we flew through it. it s easy to read. the gross parts she loves. kids love gross. they love buggers and toots. the illustrations are great. it s the same fellow. i never met him. we ve done two books and i ve never met him. marriage is in a brain storming phase. we ll talk with pamela hague. she has written a book called marriage confidential. it says 65% of wives and more than 85% of husbands would cheat if their spouse never found out about it. 1/3 say they would not have married their spouse. 1/3 of all the people married say they picked the wrong person. and wouldn t marry them again. wouldn t. 40% say marriage is becoming obsolete. in the book she talks about almost this complacency. it s almost like you re not having a bad marriage, you re not having a good marriage, you re just there. first of all, it starts with the books little girls especially read. we read them fairy tales. at the very end they say, and they lived happily ever after. they should say, and they lived happily ever after until the honeymoon was over, then they had a problem, then they worked it out and they lived happily ever after until the mother-in-law came to stay, then they lived happily ever after until one of them got sick, the babies came and they started sharing mortgages and everything else. it sets up a false expectations. years ago i wrote on another children s book i did, some christmas book. a little book called a feminist fairy tale about princess cassidy. she waited and waited in her tower. this prince was coming to her he slayed dragons and freed the people and did absolutely everything right. he finally gets to her and climbs up to her and says, princess cassidy, i m your prince charming and she goes, i m sorry you re not my type. he doesn t exist. right. there are great guys out there, but no one is perfect. especially you. not you, hoda. when you look in the mirror. the people that keep expecting the next relationship to be the better one, they are taking the same problems they have themselves along with them. the funny thing, do you think and some people live that way. they have the first couple of years of bliss. they get out of it, get to another one, a couple of years before problems start happening and live that way. you better know darn well what you re marrying, who you re marrying and meet the family. jay met the family. i m so glad that s over. i m going to be in ridgewood, new jersey, tonight, signing books. i d love everybody to see me. book ends from 7:00 to 9:00. tomorrow is our voice competition. last week we heard three viewers. i chose one, you didn t choose any. tomorrow we ll have three new auditions. i have two slots. you have three. we turn our chairs around. we listen to the singer, turn around and pick somebody. here is one of our hopefuls. closure eyes. not this. he s famous. remind me of us they keep me thinking that we almost had it all the skies above i like her. i can t help feeling like we could have had it all i like her. she is who i picked. trouble is you don t know what s coming up. i don t know if celine deion and you already picked your three. all right. now everyone has a story is coming up. there it is again. paula jewel is from north carolina. she is 68 years old. get this, another 11-year pancreatic cancer survivor. just this january had 95% of her stomach removed. she calls her family her cancer-fighting arsenal of hope. she wrote a beautiful, beautiful letter. she is in new york already. we had to get her up here. she is the first one that actually knows she s been chosen. we have her on the phone. are you there, honey? i m here. we are so excited you re already here. are you enjoying new york? i m loving it. we are having a good time so far. good, good. after this, your daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer, right? yes, she was, in 2006. then you had to turn around and be care taker for her, as well. it s an amazing story how they just fought this together. and are winning it. it s a wonderful story. the terrific linda hart will be with us singing. oh, good. paula, we ll see you soon. we ll see you on thursday. we ve got to rock and roll. this is age-defying drinks. is this liquor in it? it s called age-defying cocktail. honey, melon and it s supposed to diminish your skin s dryness while enjoying a cocktail with rum, pureed honey. the scoop on the record-breaking hangover ii. we all went to see friday night. sara will take a spin as a pedicab driver. depression is a serious medical condition. i feel like i have to wind myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the lack of energy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about pristiq®, a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your medications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. pristiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. tell your doctor if you have heart disease or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizziness and sweating. for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. ask your doctor about pristiq. for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. i bet it could last through some artsy foreign film. good idea. let s go. did i just say that out loud? [ female announcer ] feel fresh up to 5 times longer with scope outlast. still feeling fresh? oh, yeah. [ female announcer ] what will you outlast? creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. dinner with the girls tonight. i really want dessert. i better skip breakfast. yep, this is all i need. [ stomach growls ] [ female announcer ] why skip breakfast when you can start your morning with new special k multigrain oats and honey, a whole new blend of rolled oats and honey kissed multigrain flakes. it s a delicious way to get your whole grains and make your breakfast beautiful. from a record-breaking box office hit to justin bieber s steamy s photos. here bonnie fuller and rosian colletti. let s start at the movies. hangover killed. it was the biggest box office weekend in years. it was huge. hangover led the way. i hear you saw it. yes. cody was home. cody, cass, frank and i went. frank was laughing his rear end off. it s not for kids, i m telling you. this is very raunchy. you wonder how much farther they can go. not much further than this. what else? kung fu panda. for families. and pirate of the caribbean was huge again. and bridesmaids. i saw this weekend. kung fu panda most of the people went to see it and did not look in 3-d. only 45% of the audience saw it in 3-d, which is very interesting. you have a choice? yes. what this says perhaps to the producers is people will see it anyway and it s much more expensive to do 3-d. we know snooki had a little accident in florence. she really did it good this time. i think it s totally, totally planned. they need something. it was a wreck with a neck brace. that s the thing. we were talking about this before the show. she had cop escorts. she drove into her cop escort. this has to be a stunt. could she really be that out of it? we were thinking these maybe were offduty officers. they were actually not on duty at the time. it was a very slow-moving accident. the car was pinned between the police officers and the wall. what i love is the people in italy are saying we don t drink that much. italy must be wondering how they draw the short spaghetti in this one. they sell us isabella rosalini. next up, these photos are steamy. justin timberlake no, justin bieber. that s sweet. let s move on. she is so darling. she jumps on him. they kiss and then there is the butt grab photo. he actually grabbed her butt. i can tell you, i think they are very natural. they are doing what comes naturally. they are both known as devout christian kids. you re going to get you are, but there is the jealousy factor. all of justin s fans are calling her a pedophile because she is 18 and he is 17. they are calling her a four-letter word. this is bad. we wrote a post telling fans. it s not just his fans that are upset. her fans don t think he s worthy of her. oh, gosh. this is going to go on and on. ladies, thanks. our girl sara finds out what it takes to shuttle people through the city on a bicycle. hey, honey, we re all out of toilet paper. can you toss me a roll? your toilet paper shouldn t be too rough. we re out of toilet paper. can you toss me a roll? your toilet paper shouldn t be too soft. we re out of toilet paper again. fortunately, angel soft is an ideal balance of softness and strength. unlike other toilet paper that has just one ply, angel soft has two. and it s strong, yet gentle on your skin. angel soft an ideal balance of softness and strength how cool is that? bang boom! ha ha. let s do this! we got milk! awesomeeeee! [ male announcer ] new digiorno pizza and nestlé tollhouse cookies. it s not delivery, it s digiorno pizza and cookies. angus steak burgers, johnsonville brat patties, and oven mitts. honey.don t you think you are a little close to that? cheryl. i ve been grilling for like 20 years. i think i know what i m doing.too close. [ girl ] my house! oh! it s fine, i ll get it. mom, dad melted my playhouse. no shhhhhhh. mommy, daddy melted my playhouse. we love you! we love you! [ mom ] daddy did what? [ male announcer ] only walmart has low prices every day on everything you need for grilling. backed by our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. we are back with our new series sara in the city. with this one she tried her feet, as well. what were you up to? you probably didn t know there are more than 1,700 licensed pedicab licensed drivers. i had a ton of fun picking up passengers from all over the city. when you think of new york city, you re probably thinking more about this, but today, i m going to learn how to be a pedicab driver. so get on! you re going to be the one who train me. you re going to ride a pedicab today. you ll do great. your training involves teaching how to turn the bike. try to do a figure eight. there is a curb here. be the boss of that front wheel. i m the boss. i m going to put you through a small course. pedicab through the gates. do not crush an orange. i crushed an orange. keep it going. sorry. very good use of bell. it s about time to award you your pedicab driver permit. i passed? you re official. i m ready. want a ride in my pedicab? sure. have you done this before? on the left. don t worry, i have bumpers. i m glad i m in the middle. stay in the middle because it balances everything when i turn. i ll learn forward. that helps. why don t they all rock like that? look at this. ten years living in new york, this was my first pedicab ride. it was actually a lot of fun. yeah. come on in. have you ever been in a pedicab before? no. good. you have nothing to compare it to. think how good your legs will look after this. you re right. bathing suit season. nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. hi, mom. she beat us here, are you kidding me? she was walking. free pedicab ride? oh, we got takers. you know what s fun, if you honk and people and wave the other way. okay. put your hands up, guys. all of us together. actually, can you not do that? my bad. thanks. they are not from here. they don t know it s not times square. she didn t know what she was doing. we are further away from where we wanted to go. oh, god. this guy can t take us. it s embarrassing. slow down, dude. wait, wait. the runner s beating us. pedal faster, man. come back. dude, you want to help me? can you push us a little? thank you. a champion. as fast as you ve got, rocky. let s do it. now we re all on vacation. josh, can you go faster? i want to feel the breeze in my hair. i think sara did pretty good. she didn t hit anything. how long have you been doing this for? hours. do you have to stop at red lights? i guess i m supposed to. no cop looked up. we re allergic to right turns. not bad. she was a good singer. so here in your my pedicab it s going to be free so there is no tab. stick to your day job. pedicabs began in 1994 with just 15 bicycle environmentalists. now there are more than 1,700. i ve got to say, it s hard work. it looked it. is that a serious license? i could do this in my spare time. i can t believe they gave it to you after an hour of practicing. i knocked a couple of oranges out. you re better at than the barista thing. if you love new kids on the block, stick around. jordan knight is with us. my students are amazing. but to be there for them, you ve gotta feel your best. kids can tell. that s why i love eating activia every day. so delicious activia help me feel good inside which helps me be my best. positive, cheerful and on top of things. help regulate your digestive system. love how you feel or your money back. activia the best in nutrition. just got better. now with even more of the vitamins your body needs. like vitamin d. plus omega 3 s. there s one important ingredient that hasn t changed: better taste. [ female announcer ] eggland s best. better taste. better nutrition. the better egg. we re following a deadly bus crash in virginia. coming up, we will have live team coverage on the tour bus crash that killed at least four people in caroline county. good morning, i am barbara harrison. also coming up, how you can look years younger. we will show you the latest skin oh baby you re always on my mind we are back with more of today on this booze day tuesday. let s look at the reunion of new kids on the block. that was a few years ago. they are getting ready for another summer concert tour. they will make our plaza their stop this friday. jordan knight released his first solo cd in five years. it s called unfinished. welcome to the party. great to see you. is it a strangnge time to have new solo album to come out when you re about to launch this new tour with not only your own band? it s strange and hectic, but a great time because there is so much exposure and i m riding the wave of the whole tour and everything else. we have a day off today. so you re with us. today i came here to put out a cd and joe flew back to l.a. to put out a new baby. he s having a baby girl today. congratulations. you have two children, right? i have two, 4 and 11. when you guys go on tour, do the kids come along for the ride? they do come. joe s son, going back to joe, my kids do come and love it. joe s son, he s like 4 years old, almost 4 years old. i m his favorite now because i m mr. step by step. that s his favorite song. he had his son come on stage and i was showing him, on that line you point out to the crowd. when you go when i get to you girl wave your hand across. he s got it. it s in the dna. tell us about your cd unfinished. did you write a lot of the songs? i started it as an experiment. i figured out my three songs and put it out on twitter. a lot of fans were like, we want new songs. it grew to six songs then eight songs. i got a distribution deal. now it s now in best buy. good for you. amazon is picking it up. why did you title it unfinished? it means as long as you stay positive, stay patient and stay open, your life will always be unfinished. i like that song. what is this one? a work in progress, huh? a work in progress. thank you. whose idea was it for you guys and the backstreet boys to get together and have these concerts? it kind of happened. they came to one of our shows at radio city. we invited them to sing a song on stage. we didn t tell the crowd they were going to be there. we are singing the song i want it that way. it gets to a lull in the song. then the curtain comes up and boom, they show up. back street boys. they went crazy. they went crazy. it took people a minute to get used to it. one minute, exactly. people thought we might be rivals or something like that, but to see us on stage singing a song, they went crazy. we had fans outside in line early already. our security guys said here, we ll give you a wrist band and come back later. the idea they are waiting in advance? it s a beautiful thing. when we came out, we touched a lot of people at a tender age. they just don t forget it. we touched them, they touched us, vice versa. we are excited for you this friday. joey s got a new baby girl. i m sure he ll be here for friday. friday. good luck. all the best. thank you. six tips to make your summer vacation better. living with diabetes is a reality for me, 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. dove s new range with weightless nutri-oils. smooth away up to 100% of dry hair s roughness and frizz. new dove nourishing oil care. make friends with your hair. months early or years late. every baby deserves to be swaddled in the comfort of our softest diaper ever. pampers swaddlers. our softest protection for every little miracle. hershey s bliss. one square inch of indulgence. joy. pleasure. one square inch of extra smooth, rich chocolate. hershey s bliss. [ man ]are inch of extra trouble ch chocolate. trouble, trouble trouble, trouble trouble been doggin my soul since the day i was born worry oh, worry, worry worry, worry [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life. it s time for today s travel and tips to make your summer vacation more enjoyable. travel expert mark murphy. good to see you again. i m glad we have questions people ask. one is when you buy tickets that are nonrefundable, can you ever get your money back? you want the less expensive ticket. of course. they are discounted but they whack you with fees if you change it. you pay $150 change fee with major carriers if you change a nonrefundable ticket. if you change it, you have 1 months to rebook it from your booking date and travel. then you have to pay on top a difference in fare. can you just go stand-by? no. if if you don t call them in advance ahead of your canceled flight, the flight you re not taking, you re going to miss out. guess you got your answer. what s the next one? beaches? if you re looking for a good beach destination? some travel agents tell us mexico is hot. you can travel to mexico, stay in an all-inclusive resort. about $130 per couple per night. 3 1/2 to four star property talking about $350. check out the cancun, riviera-maya region. they are all-inclusive. people want to go to the caribbean and don t want to fly? no. why don t they swim. i was going to say, how do they work that out? cruising is great. you have access to the boston port, new york port, baltimore. you can get on a cruise ship and sale to the caribbean. five nights you have to go further south. out of the southeast, miami ports, ft. lauderdale and do that. about $450 per person, four, five night cruise. it s a great value. out of the new york area nine, eight nights run about $1,000 to $1,100. that covers everything? not necessarily. doesn t cover drinks or excursions but all your food is covered. and there is no end to the food. so if you don t want a lot of people think about driving places, but are worried about gas prices. an alternative you say is the train. amtrak has trains going all over the country. zephyr will take you from chicago to sacramento. for $300 you can see the beauty this country has to offer. you can go across canada to vancouver and take the rocky mountainier a two-day train sightseeing tour. you end up in bamph. i love it. sometimes trains are expensive. the train from new york to d.c. are back. sometimes you pay $300. that s targeting the business traveler. for the lease your traveler, it s much more flexible. what about family spot? a lot of travelers will recommend condo hotel. you can put a bigger family unit in there. you ll have money with your own kitchen. breakfast and lunch, do it at your property in the kitchen. save your money for fine dining or put in your pocket. thank you very much good. to see you. coming up next, you want to stick around for this. kids are going to join kathie lee for her latest children s book. [ male announcer ] there s a place where everyone feels at home. where the company, the conversation, and the food make all who enter feel welcome. a place that feels as warm with a crowd. as it does with just a friend. it s a place you ll find town house crackers. because they re part of what makes your place the place. welcome to town house. where good times reside. from body and bath shops? with olay get what you love at half the price with new olay body collections, tantalizing fragrances and olay moisturizing ingredients that transform lathering into lavishing. olay body collections. oh yeah, great wings. so.why did you call? just want to give you your menus back, fridge magnet, and two unused coupons. okay! [ male announcer ] new digiorno pizza and boneless wings. it s not delivery, it s digiorno pizza and wings. it s not delivery, a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can stitch together a better deal. that s a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won t let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. busy woman. besides being my partner in crime she is releasing her second book today party animals made the new york times bestseller look. this one is called the legend of messy m cheanie. when cass was 7 i wrote this song. she said, mom, make it about a boy because everybody is going to know it s me. now she is 17, she doesn t care what anybody thinks. there she was then. she was the messiest little thing. i know it. cody was very factidious. this book has really funny bits in it. it s got a few toots and buggers. if you read the first one, this is completely different. but all based on real life. they ve got the messies over here and messy m cheanies over here. these are our producers children. girls are on one side and boys are on the other side. they did that on their own. i m going to sing it for you now i hope you guys like it. okay. messy m cheanie the messiest kid in town come on children gather round and i ll tell you the tale of the worst kid in town now i ve seen some bad ones from the east to the west but when it came to messes this kid was the best messy m cheanie the messiest kid in town even back when he was a baby so teeny there never was a kid like messy m cheanie his mother would bathe him then put him to bed and somehow he d wake up with dirt on his head yeah they called him messy m cheanie by name when he came through the door things were never the same in seconds he could ruin a clean kitchen floor spill his spaghetti and for kicks spill some more knock over the fishbowl he didn t care and worse he refused to wear clean underwear disgusting messy m cheanie the messiest kid in town if he threw a frisbee it would land in your soup if he ate ice cream he would drip every scoop if he wrote his scooter he s run over your toes he d toot like a turkey then he d pick his nose with messy m cheanie things only got worse his parents began to think he had a curse for wherever he went he would leave a disaster his mother would chase him but messy was faster messy m cheanie the messiest kid in town now messy thought he was king of the world till one day he discovered his world had been girled all pink and fluffy and powdered and clean she was the strangest thing he d ever seen missy m cheanie, the neatest girl in town messy tried to teach 34isy how to be dirty but as the sun was going down messy faced missy in the middle of town they were facing a real showdown which one would be left still standing around messy kicked the dirt at his feet missy responded by smiling real sweet messy growled and refused to be nice missy showed mercy and courtesies twice good girl messy burped and wouldn t say sorry messy said excuse me see you tommy pleasy said never missy said please that please brought messy to his knees i know but missy you taught me what i could become messy grew up to be neat as can be and missy m cheanie grew up to be me ta-da thanks, kids. yes, indeed. you are going to be signing. book ends in ridgewood, new jersey. where i was last year. a bunch of people came out. book ends from 7:00 to 9:00. and see you again in the morning. how much fun is that? yeah! we ll be back with more of today on nbc. messy m cheanie [ 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. in case you didn t hear, a new book says 65% of wives and more than 85% of husbands would have affairs if they could get away with it. that s scary. that book is called marriage confidential. the post romantic age of work horse wives, royal children, undersexed spouses and rebel couples who are rewriting the rules. it s written by pamela haag who is clear with clinical psychologist judith sills. you talk about the semi happy marriage. i think a lot of women go, mine is semi happy. is a blissful marriage possible long term? blissful? blissful, i think, is setting too high a mark. semi happy is really in that gray zone. it s not at all miserable. it s usually a high-functioning marriage, like a good friendship. is that ultimately what you want to end up with? i don t think blissful is setting too high a mark. i think falling in love, happily ever after is where you start. love from your heart is where you end up. semi happy is part of the path. it s what you go through to get to that spiritual, emotional place where you could love someone. you just don t want to quit at semi happy. it s a stage. all marriages have their ups and downs. there is such a thing as too high an expectation. i m going to get married and all my needs will be fulfilled. i ll never work on anything. and i m going to go to poughkeepsie four times a day. there is such a thing as too low an expectation. in an age when a lot of people think marriage is becoming obsolete i m not one of them, but a lot of americans think it is, why shouldn t we be ambitious for marriage? did you see recently, angelina and brad pitt are talking about getting married. they had no interest in it before. now they say their kids want them to. marriage is the best scaffolding for children. it is terrific for a relationship except it kills your sex life. so you have that tricky little problem. 18, 20 years, but if you stick past that, around year 30, 35, people blossom into love. it s a marathon. it s not a sprint. what about that stat at the top that said most people would cheat if they knew they wouldn t get caught. is that surprising? it s not surprising to me. i thought it might be higher. yeah. actually. come on, what would you do if you wouldn t get caught. that s why you need a moral compass. god knows even if your spouse doesn t know. it will affect relationship whether that person knows it or not, i think. the technology is exacerbating that problem. it s easy now to stray. it s easier to stumble, temptations. easier to get busted. yeah. both ways. you could be tracked down through your cell phone, but you can find people easily. we have to run. your book is fun, interesting to read. thank you very much. tomorrow, heather graham will be with us. captions by vitac www.vitac.com see you tonight at ridgewood.