Transcripts For WRC Today 20110823 : vimarsana.com

branson and kate winslet springs to the action, rescuing the billionaire s 90-year-old mom. dramatic story in branson s own words today, tuesday, august dramatic story in branson s own words today, tuesday, august 23rd, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m ann curry. i m carl quintanilla in for matt this morning. hurricane irene is rapidly gaining strength. some 60 million americans from florida to massachusetts could be impacted by the storm. but this morning the immediate concerns are for the islands of turks and caicos and the bahamas. you can see irene s incredible size and intensity in this video taken from international space station. we re going get the latest from al straight ahead. also ahead, a police officer in california is recovering after being shot in the neck as he responded to a call just north of san diego. dramatic scene caught on camera. we re going to tell you what sparked that shooting. plus, we re going to talk about this very controversial case. should a mom be sent to prison for forcing her son to take cold showers and drink hot sauce? she claims they were forms of punishment. prosecutors are calling it child abuse. now her fate is in the hands of a jury. we ll get the latest on this story coming up. let s begin with the latest on hurricane irene. a live report from the bahamas in a moment. but first, al is upstairs monitoring the situation. good morning. good morning, carl. this is a big storm and getting bigger as we go along. right now irene is a category 2 storm. it is 105 miles southeast of grand turk island. as we said, category 2 with 100-mile-per-hour winds. moving west northwest at 12 miles per hour. as we look at the warnings and watches, we have hurricane warnings up for much of the bahamas. santa domingo, watch is up as this system makes its way to the north. we are probably going to see watches go up along the florida coastline. here s the path. here s what we expect. it will parallel the florida coast, sometime starting thursday morning during the day friday, make landfall sometime early saturday into later saturday as a category 3 storm. 120-mile-per-hour winds. but again, the cone of uncertainty on either side of this is about 250-mile radius. you could still see a lot of hurricane effects along the coast of florida. the tropical force wind spread out about 200 miles. so this is going to be a powerful storm as it continues to intensify. we expect it to be a category 3 storm, ann, sometime later this afternoon. great information. thank you. as you mentioned, hurricane irene is now bearing down on the bahamas. nbc s lilia luciano is there in nassau. good morning. reporter: good morning to you, ann. the bahamas have not seen a storm like this in six years. now they re gearing up for what a category 3 hurricane means by the time it heads here tonight and tomorrow morning. irene is raking through the caribbean. in poruerto rico it dropped ten inches of rain, knocking out power to more than a million people. bigger than your average size hurricane. reporter: the storm is now picking up strength in the warm atlantic waters. under hurricane warnings, the dominican republic and neighboring haiti where heavy rain can be devastated for the 600,000 still homeless since last year s earthquake. weather experts say the hurricane is headed straight for the bahamas and on to the u.s., potentially targeting florida, georgia, and the carolinas. hurricane irene is forecast to become at least a category 3 hurricane and maintain that status as even higher than that somewhere in the southeast u.s. reporter: along the eastern coast many are already stocking up to stay safe. a lot of everything basically. water, nonperishable food, batteries. i need to get every last little thing i can think or. reporter: a list former new yorker picked up on google hoping it will get him through his first hurricane season in florida. this one really does look like it s coming. reporter: preparing to secure his grandmother s roof, dennis martin says you can never be too cautious. a lesson florida floridians learned 19 years ago this week when hurricane andrew changed lives and attitudes. i wasn t prepared in andrew. it was tough. but now i don t wait, i go and grab what i need. reporter: sr. voourviving a hurricane means thinking ahead and not taking chances. what to do if you re in irene s path, don t wait until the last minute. make an emergency kit with another water, food, and supplies for at least three days. if you re told to evacuate, listen. ann? all right. thank you so much. do take precautions yourself. it is now 7:0005. here s carl. now to libya and the intense battle for control of tripoli. one of moammar gadhafi s sons thought to be in kucustody is urging loyals. richard engel is in tripoli once again. richard, good morning. reporter: good morning, carl. we are about a mile and a half away from gadhafi s compound. it is more like a military base than any kind of presidential compound, the viewers might understand. and we can tell you that right now there are heavy battles going under way. we have seen and heard rocket fire both incoming and outgoing towards the compound. rebels have brought in re-enforcements to this area. it seems that the rebels, as we speak, are trying to storm inside gadhafi s complex. mortar fire and explosions across tripoli this morning. this war that almost seemed over may still have more to go. gadhafi loyalists are fighting to defend about 10% of tripoli. they still control gadhafi s fortified compound. another surprise, rebels claim to have captured gadhafi s son, zerks if. but he made an appearance last night at the hotel which is also controlled by the government and where western journalists remain under state supervision. this is our country, this is our people, and you are here and we are going to win. reporter: but aside from gadhafi s remaining enclave, nearly all signs of state control here are gone. libyan government tv is off the air. there are many snipers. we killed many snipers. reporter: rebel gunmen keep watch on streets that show clear signs of running battles. what does city mean to you? today the victor is not clear, you know. we have to secure our city. we have to secure everything in city. reporter: rebels are preparing to take gadhafi s compound and have it surrounded. loyalists inside have been firing tanks and mortars to defend it, making a final stand. but these rebels are now realizing they still have fighting to go. one of gadhafi s other sons, mohammed, may have been taken at one stage by the rebels and put under house arrest. but we have heard from numerous sources that he has either escaped or been freed by his support supporters. richard, that confusion over gadhafi s sons, surprise. experience by seif gadhafi, what does that say about their control? reporter: i believe the rebels thought they had the situation much more under control than they did. we had heard reports that the rebels were already discussing with the international criminal court where they were going to try seif al-islam, whether that would be in libya or overseas. seems like a done deal. and then the surprise appearance. and that could be an indication that many of the rebel s claims are not as solid as they were victory, but a victory they had not yet secured. richard engel once again for news tripoli this morning. richard, thanks. back here in the u.s., a formal dismissal of the sexual assault case against dominique strauss-kahn is expected today. nbc s ron allen is in low enmanhattan this morning with details on this. hey, ron, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, ann. prosecutors were so sure about their case against strauss-kahn in may he was pulled off an airplane, arrested and put in jail. now they said they believe there was a sexual encounteder between him and the hotel maid but she has changed her story so many times they don t know the truth of exactly what happened and what s more they say she has lied to them about many other aspects of her life. it all began with this dramatic, dominique strauss-kahn would then quit as the head of the powerful imf. his chances of becoming president of france apparently gone. but while he kept a low profile, free on bail, and paying tens of thousands of dollars to live in this luxurytownhouse, the case against him began to unravel. his accuser, diallo, 33, stood silently by her attorney, moments after prosecutors told them they would drop the case against strauss-kahn. manhattan district attorney cyrus vance has denied the rights of a woman to get justice in a rape case. reporter: in court papers prosecutors sadial lo has provided shifting and inconsistent versions of the erts surrounding the alleged sexual assault. that in virtually every interview she has not been truthful on matters great and small. and that it is impossible to resolve the question of what exactly happened in straus-kahn s sweet. legal experts say prosecutors have little choice. the reality is the district attorney has to rely on the credibility of his witnesses or else he should not be putting those witnesses forward in court. reporter: prosecutors say diallo s falsehood includes an emotional story, being gang raped in her native country that never happened. they say she s given three different versions of what she did in the minutes right after the alleged attack in strauss-kahn s suite. they told me i want you to know that reporter: biographer and nbc news consultant has been in touch with strauss-kahn since the arrest. i think his mind is shared between hope and anxiety. reporter: that end may come later today, during what is expected to be a very brief, final appearance before a judge. diallo is not living this day without a fight. her attorney is demanding a special prosecutor be appointed to take over the case. and she still has a civil lawsuit pending against strauss-kahn. he may make his first public statement about this in person or on paper after the trial, after the hearing if the charges are, in fact, dismissed. ann? ron allen, thank you so much. savannah guthrie is our legal correspondent. good morning. what are the chances that she be appointed a special prosecutor be a game changer in this case? it is a game changer. the prosecutors will more than likely take this case. the new york times puts it s this way. this is, quote, intricate and devastating in the anatomy of a case. this is almost an indictment of the accuser here. the prosecutor lays out in great detail why it is that they lost faith and decided that she was not credible. what s interesting here is sometimes prosecutors take cases and they may still believe in the case but they make a practical judgment they cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. this case is different. these prosecutors said they personally did not believe this accuser beyond a reasonable doubt and couldn t ask jury to do so either. but they re saying that in part because they said most troubling was that she had lied in the past. so is this to say that a real victim of a crime cannot be defended by the court if he or she has lied in the past? it s a really good question. you know, there is no perfect victim. but this alleged victim was far from it. the prosecutors said, look, we understand, people lie on the government application, they may have changes in their story that aren t really material. that was not this case, according to prosecutors. they say she lied repeatedly to them. she acknowledged according to prosecutors, lying to the grand jury about the fact that the case here. and most significantly in my view, this alleged victim allegedly lied to prosecutors about a prior gang rape against her. they said not only did she lie to them about it, she did so so convincingly. she cried. she persuaded them. they believed her. and then she later admitted it was all a lie. and for that reason, i think prosecutors thought, we just can t thrust alleged victim. because she was such a good liar in their view in their argument. what about the other idea that there was another woman in france who has accused strauss-kahn of unwanted sexual advances. should the prosecutors have weighed that in? it s very, very unusual, although sometimes it can happen that prior allegations of sexual assault could come into a trial? but this more than likely would not he still faces those charges in france. but the sum total in the prosecutor s motion to dismiss an accuser who utterly and totally lost credibility. should she have any recourse? she does have recourse, civil suit. the standard of proof is much lower. all the credible she has in a criminal case she continues to have in a civil case. i know her lawyer has asked for a special prosecutor to look into the case. number one, it s unlikely she will get this special prosecutor. number two, this prosecutor will probably run into the very same credibility problems that the manhattan prosecutors found. savannah guthrie, thank you for your perspective this morning. now let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories from natalie morales at the news desk. good morning, everyone. the strongest earthquake to hit colorado in almost four decades jarred people awake overnight and triggered hundreds of calls to bell lease. the mag any nude 5.2 quake struck near the new mexico border. at least 45 people arrested in san francisco last night charged with disrupting rapid transit train service during the evening rush. it was the latest in the string of demonstrations that started last month after a transit police officer fatally shot a man who was allegedly about to throw a knife at him. a dramatic shootout caught on tape leaves a wounded police officer recovering in a san diego hospital. nbc s miguel almaguer has the latest. miguel, good morning. reporter: natalie, good morning. when police arrived at the crime scene they said they were met with a hail of gunfire. within seconds one of their officers was shot in the head. it was a dramatic shooting all caught on tape. we should warn you, the video you re about to see is not only graphic but also disturbing. a volley of gunfire. an officer down, 28-year-old jared shot in the head, seen here clutching his neck. though seriously injured, slocum returned fire, unloading two rounds before backing away and stumbling to the ground. his partner and two neighbors rushed to his aid. slocum carried to safety. i could smell the gunfire. it was so rapid. reporter: daniel castro watched it all. they were just shooting coming around the corner. pop pop pop, shotguns. i mean, just oh it was just like a movie. reporter: a four-year veteran of the police department slocum and his rookie partner were responding to a domestic violence call. investigators say the suspect, kevin collier, killed his 1-year-old daughter and mother-in-law before burning her home to the ground. when police arrived on scene, they say collier suddenly opened fire. his charred remains investigators believe later found inside the home. i m confirm that the suspect had sent messages to friends and family that he had killed his mother-in-law and infant child. reporter: critically injured, officer slocum is expected to recover. a young father and husband lucky to be alive, determined to survive. this morning officer slocum is in critical but stable condition. the bullet fractured his skull but never sberentered his brain. doctors say had that shot been seven meters over the wound would have been life threatening. natalie? wow, miguel almaguer, thank you. a new york bride-groom had home field advantage on sunday when his bride treated him to a wedding ceremony at yankee stadium. they exchanged vows right at home plate. nick says his new wife is a good sport and that s why he loves her. it s a good thing he loves the yankees, as well. 7:18. back over to ann, carl, and al. match made in heaven. very sweet. already proven herself to be a loving wife. he figureses, i ve already got to first base. whoa! very nice job. okay. yes. and al roker here is going to give us a forecast after a long weekend. hey, we re talking some severe weather for our friends in the midwest. not only do the east coast have to worry about irene, strong storms stretching from minneapolis to did bubing hail, damaging winds, tornadoes. you can see activity from duluth water lieu, iowa. rain from one to three, some locals may pick up to four. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. fraesh aesh and cool, good m. a partly cloudy sky, 50s to near 60 degrees most areas. 65 at reagan national. milder near the bay. later today into the low 80s, with lots of sun, low humidity, not much wind. not very humid tomorrow. delightful summer day. storms thursday afternoon into thursday evening, more humid. we could be affected by and that s your latest weather. carl? now to a dramatic rescue tied to hurricane irene, lightning from the storm is being blamed for a massive fire that ripped through the luxury caribbean home of sir richard branson. natalie has details. good morning. good morning again, carl. richard branson said what happened to his home is straight out of a movie but the flames were real. this morning he s praising an oscar-winning actress who was there to perform a daring rescue. the raging flames tore through the luxurious compound early monday as richard branson and 20 guests were sleeping. it took hold incredibly quickly. we woke up just to see gigantic 100-foot flames in the sky. it ripped through the house unbelievably quickly. reporter: branson s 25-year-old son sam heard explosions in the main house, sounded the alarm and ran over to help. it was terrifying to me because my daughter and nephews, nieces, friends were all staying in the house. i just ran naked towards the house to try to see if i could make sure i could get people out. reporter: inside the burning home branson s 90-year-old mother eve, oscar winning actress kate winslet who sprang into action for a daring rescue. she was staying there with her children. she had staying at the house with my mother. she said it was like being in the film waiting for the words cut but they just don t come. reporter: everyone made it out okay but the largest home on the private and exclusive island known as the great house was destroyed. monday afternoon branson tweeted, thank you all for your kind messages. currently just huddled up with family and friends in the continuing tropical storm realizing what really matters in life. branson is the chairman of the virgin group which includes virgin atlantic airways and virgin mega stores. he s owned the island paradise in the caribbean for more than 30 years. this is a place where the rich and the famous come to enjoy themselves. reporter: matt got his own private tour of the island in 2004 from richard branson himself. these 74-acre island retreat costs $10 million to build, six homes make up the estate which can be rented for $54,000 a night. it s been a vacation getaway for celebrities like oprah winfrey, johnny depp, robert de niro, and jimmy fallon. nick lachey and vanessa got married on the island last month. sir branson and his family, it s their own private paradise. but now it s damaged beyond repair. richard branson says he s going to rebuild. and branson says his office was based in the house, so he lost thousands of photographs and notebooks. his daughter holly was planning to get married there later this year. and, carl, as for kate winslet, apparently, like being on a film set waiting for the director to yell the words cut and that never came. safe to say they were very, very lucky. very lucky. no one injured. coming up, casey anthony back in florida. but has she talked to her parents? we ll hear from her lead attorney. but first, this is today on nbc. 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[ female announcer ] new quaker chewy smashbar. kid-loved ingredients, smashed together. with 33% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. good morning. it s 7:26 on this tuesday, 23rd day of august. i m joe krebs. in the news4 today, overnight police arrested a man not far from montgomery mall. the suspect is glenn neff, a 27-year-old from florida. police say he had a car filled with fireworks and told officers he planned to set them off in the national mall to draw attention to the banking industry. we ll take a break now. we ll take a break now. we ll man: we need a good night s sleep. woman: which means a little heat to keep us warm. and a good dose of support for my back. some over-the-top comfort couldn t hurt. and our perfect dream factory s been built. you re feeling sleepy already? nighty-night. [giggling] sun s up. it s fresh and cool. temperatures in the 50s throughout much of the region. later today into the low 80s, low humidity and lots of sunshine. more of the same tomorrow. a little bit warmer. thursday, more humid, hotter, afternoon storms. a lot of congestion in our area. outer loop of the beltway, very slow, new hampshire avenue to georgia avenue. also 395, jammed as you head north from the beltway to the 14th street bridge. and also i-66 at suddenly, seeing delays here as well. back to you. thanks very much. another update in 25 minutes. back to the tod 7:30 now on this tuesday morning, august 23rd, 2011. picture perfect weather this morning. mild temperatures and not a cloud in the sky, as we check out the view from, yes, the top of the rock. down below you see the crowd that s been gathering in our plaza, and inside studio 1-a i m ann curry alongside carl quintanilla. the search for robyn gardner is now in its fourth week. police are searching caves and open wells and a rugged part of the island for any sign of her. we re doing to get some details on that in a live report. also this morning, did a mother abuse her own child for a chance to be on television or was she just using extreme measures to punish her son? that s the question now facing the jury. the child of a woman who forced her own son to drink hot sauce. we ll get the latest on that from court coming up. also, is your teenager missing the messages of the dangers of texting and driving? a new app that makes that extra impossible to letterman poking at a threat against him on a jihadist website. let s begin this half hour with casey anthony s return to dpl. the young mother acquitted of killing her own daughter preparing to report to probation on check fraud charges be an appeal fails. nbc s janet shamlian has the latest this morning. good morning. good morning to you this is in cloak like stealth secrecy, casey anthony was somehow able to whisk her out of this estate unnoticed. this morning she s back in florida. she s back here in the orlando area. and she could be back in the department of corrections system within just a few days. after much speculation as to where case say anthony is hiding, her attorney jose baez reveals that she is right back in her home state. yes, he is back in florida. reporter: in an interview with fox news baez she s she s here to deal with yet another irshoo-in court. it s just a mess right now. reporter: that mess dates back no 2010. as she was saithing in jail awaiting for her murder trial, she stole checks from her beth friend. i m sorry for what i did. reporter: in court judge strickland sent her to one-year probation for the bad checks. when casey walked out of prison in july, cleared of charges she murdered her daughter, she was told she had already completed her probation because of her time spent in jail. a parting note from the department of corrections offered her best wishes for a very successful future. it s quite evident that this is a legal morass. reporter: early this month judge belvin perry who provided in the murdered case said despite the paperwork error she would still have to go. if a judge is sentencing someone two probation, it is not the intent to the court that they serve probation while in jail. reporter: casey s attorney to appeal, meanwhile she s expected to show up at a probation office in the state sometime before noon on friday. happy birthday to you reporter: casey s lawyers say she was not in florida earlier this month when cindy and george anthony appeared in public to mark what would have been caylee s 6th birthday. spoken to your daughter at all? have not. reporter: since her return to florida baez says casey has had limited contact with her parents. this is someone who has a lot of figuring out to do for the as to what is left of her life. reporter: and as she contemplates her future, casey must also deal with the florida department of corrections. now, if she is on probation, although she s on the street, she is hardly free. the conditions of probation, and any violation ever slight, could send her back to jail again. reporter: and her attorneys acknowledge it s been a difficult five weeks of freedom for casey that she has virtually no friends, except for her defense attorneys and some of their friends. they say they still have great concerns for her security which is why they are fighting probation here in florida. but they add they will comply with whatever the appellate court decides. ann? janet shamlian, thank you so much. it is now 7:34. now here s carl. ann, thanks. there are new gop developments in the case of a an american tourist missing in aruba for three weeks. nbc s jeff rossen is on the island with the latest. jeff, good morning. reporter: hey, carl, good morning to you. look, when you think aruba you think about this, right? beautiful palm trees, popular hotels right above me here, and a nice strip of restaurants behind the camera position. but there s a whole other side to this island. just a few miles away, no one really lives there, rugged, desolate terrain, desert like with tactile all around and people say a per fith place to commit a crime and hide that crime, perhaps hide a body. that s where police are searching for robyn gardner. in the sweltering heat, dozens of investigators fanned out monday, combing the shoreline on aruba s desolate south side. they used machetes to cut the brush. searched the beach, even climbed into caves and open wells. looking for any sign of robyn gardner, the american tourist who vanished three weeks ago today. there s all types of dry riverbeds, there s caves. formations where you could hide a body and it would be very, very difficult to find. reporter: the search area sits in the shadow of aruba s prison where gary giordano is locked up, suspected in her disappearance. investigators are looking for physical evidence that might tie him to murder. hard job for us to find the body. not only for the body because it s very important for them but also for the investigation. reporter: investigators say gary and robyn came here together as a couple after meeting on match.com. he says they 70 snorkeling, robyn disappeared and that s it. he said he did nothing wrong. but police say his story doesn t add up. not to mention the $1.5 million insurance policy he took out on her life. investigators are looking into that, too. part of the investigative strategy is to keep mr. giordano talking. anything he says, even if it s an outrageous lie, it gives investigators a reason to keep their case going and to ask for more time. reporter: law enforcement sources tell nbc news giordano is still talking, questioned nearly every day behind bars. chris is a prominent defense attorney in aruba. what would you advise him to do, talk to police or be quiet? i would advise him right now to be quiet and wait and see what the investigation comes up with. a body? cross your fingers and hope they find nothing. reporter: robyn s friends just want answers. how this young woman from maryland could vanish without a trace in a tropical paradise. you never know how much you re loved until you re missing, right? a lot of people love robyn. only gary knows where robyn is. that s the unfortunate situation about this right now. reporter: police spent hours searching on monday and in the end, they found nothing. it s at the point now, carl, they don t even know where to look next. we re told investigators will regroup today to try to figure out their plan. jeff rossen in aruba. jeff, thanks for thanchts let s get a check of the weather from al. carl, thank you so much. and we ve been talking about hurricane irene. i want toi want to give you a b view literally from space. this is from astronaut ron guerin, on the international space station. he just tweeted this photo and warning the folks along the east coast to please take care because this is a monster storm. now, we go closer to home. commerce city, colorado, we ve got video of a dust devil kicking up a lot of problems there. luckily no injuries. but a lot of folks weary there in commerce city, colorado. we ve got a lot of heat to talk about. houston s at 33 days of 100 degrees or higher. 22 of the days 103 readings. oklahoma city, 103, garden city. mild in the northeast. 60s and 70s. risk of strong storms in upper mississippi river valley, showers and sunshine in the mid west. big area of high pressure dominating. spectacular from ohio into the mid-atlantic states and into the northeast. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. a cool tuesday morning. we re in the 50s still throughout much of the region. and across virginia, west virginia, maryland, closer to the waters on the potomac. washington at national airport 65, mid and upper 60s near the bay. later into the low 80s this afternoon. sun with low humidity and light wind. not much humidity around wednesday, warmer. more humid and a bit warmer thursday. could get afternoon and evening storms. into the weekend could be affected by hurrica and that s your latest weather. carl? al, thanks. up next, should a mom be convicted of child abuse for making her son drink hot sauce as punishment? the latest on her controversial case, right after this. clearance event is on. now s a great time to save big on a toyota the most fuel-efficient full-line automaker. take advantage of the summer s best selection and the year s biggest deals on our most popular models. don t miss the perfect opportunity to get the toyota you ve always wanted. plus, every new toyota comes with toyotacare, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. toyota s nationwide clearance event ends soon. hurry in today before time runs out! that sounded like the chocobeast. he likes to sink his fangs into people who steal chocolate temptations. aaah! 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[ tony ] serving those who serve us all. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. back now at 7:43. with the jury in alaska deliberating the fate of a mom accuse of child abuse using hot sauce and a cold shower to punish her son. he attorney claims it was just a case of strict parenting. but prosecutor says it amounted to torture. nbc s lee cowen has details this morning. what got this case is so much attention is not only the fact is that the mother uses hot sauce and cold showers for a means of discipline but she videotaped it and sent it in to the dr. phil show which then aired on national television. what happen when you lie to me? hot sauce. reporter: there isn t a part of this that is easy to watch. a mother pouring straight hot sauce into her own child s mouth. do you lie to me? no. don t spit it. are lies supposed to come out of your mouth? reporter: the hot sauce was an alternative to soap. jessica beagley said she tried that as punishment before but it didn t work. and hot sauce was only round one. get undressed right now. reporter: round two was a cold shower. ah! you are to do what you are told! reporter: these scenes played out in front of a national audience last year on the dr. phil show as part of a segment called mommy confessions. show producers wouldn t comment on the tape to nbc news but the studio audience that day seemed stunned, so were alaska prosecutors who filed misdemeanor child abuse charges. not was the punishment cruel and torturous, but the anchorage mother as six made the tape as shocking as possible, they contend, so she could get dr. phil s attention. this wasn t about getting help. this was about being on tv. reporter: defense team though shot back that her 7-year-old son, adopted from russia, suffered from a behavioral disorder and that his mother was desperate for help. traditional discipline wasn t enough. even had an expert testify to that. normal things don t work for these little guys. reporter: but the case comes down to, says beagley s attorneys, is that while videotaping the scene may not have been good judgment, neither the tape for the punishment itself was actually criminal. not charged with an sending the video into dr. phil. should she have done that reporter: for the three men and the three women on the jury, the question is whether hot saucing a child is abuse, whether it s nothing more serious than a spanking. and jury deliberations will continue today. if she is convicted she could face a fine of up to $10,000 and a year of imprisonment. ann? lee cowen, thank you so much this morning. coming up next, david letterman, death threats made against him on a jihadist website. that s right after this. 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[ male announcer ] get pasta for two for just six dollars, or family-size pasta for just ten bucks both complete with breadsticks. only on tuesdays. only at your pizza hut. david letterman returned to the airs waves last night for the first show since being a target on a death threat on a jihadist website. that s right. and the classic dave style, he shrugged it off with a few jokes. take a look. tonight you people are more, to me, honestly, more than an audience tonight. really. more than an audience. you re more like a human shield. i tell you, that bin laden, when they killed him, you know, they i mean, he had been locked in a house with three wives for six years. so when the fields broke in, he said, hey, just shoot me. you know, and he went on and on. he has a great jokes about, by the way, he took his time off not because of that was the schedule. but he also talked about this in his top ten list. top ten things that went through my mind after hearing about the threat. number went, somebody wants to silence me, get in line. number 9, nothing says summer fun like a death threat. number eight, such a good movie. number seven, sooif ave me, opr. number six, should i wear my kevlar hair piece. number five, and i thought nobody watched the show. number four, how can somebody be so angry at a time when kim kardashian is so happy. number three, some people get emmy nominations, some people get death threats. number two, this seems like leno s handiwork. and the number one thing that went through his mind, oh, my god, they canceled george lopez. good night, everybody. i know. i know. writers had a field day with that. but he s always able to make it honest, and to make it real to no matter the situation. because of a joke he had made about bin laden, right? he made a physical gesture to be funny and it was not taken well. so he s not slowing down. no. there is extra security around him, though. they canceled george lopez ? who knew. anyway, we have more to talk about here. 75-year-old woman decided to get breast implants. yeeaah, i noticed that, man. inappropriate. naked toilet paper? i don t know what you re. your cottonelle roll just sittin out? seriously. it s primitive, man. yeah, you re taking it for granted. just cover it up. huh. a roll cover.fancy. that stuff will make your day. toilet paper that nice? deserves respect. respect the roll. [ female announcer ] new cottonelle clean care toilet paper. get your roll cover at respecttheroll.com. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. [ woman ] we didn t know where to go next with eric s adhd. his stimulant medicine was helping, but some symptoms were still in his way. so the doctor kept eric on his current medicine and added nonstimulant intuniv to his treatment plan. [ male announcer ] for some children like eric, adding once-daily nonstimulant intuniv to their stimulant has been shown to provide additional adhd symptom improvement. don t take if allergic to intuniv, its ingredients, or taking other medicines with guanfacine, like tenex. intuniv may cause serious side effects, such as low blood pressure, low heart rate, fainting, and sleepiness. intuniv may affect the ability to drive or use machinery. other side effects include nausea, tiredness, trouble sleeping, stomach pain, and dizziness. tell the doctor about your child s medicines and medical conditions, including heart, liver, or kidney problems. [ woman ] adding intuniv helped eric. [ male announcer ] ask the doctor about once-daily nonstimulant intuniv. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but. [ man ] there s never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn t it? but that won t happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn t traveling hard enough? ow. [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? uh, it s okay. i ve played a pilot before. morning starts with arthritis pain. that s two pills before the first bell. [ bell rings ] it s time for recess. and more pills. afternoon art starts and so does her knee pain, that s two more pills. almost done, but hang on. her doctor recommended aleve because it can relieve pain all day with just two pills. this is lisa. who switched to aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. good morning. i m joe krebs. it s 7:56 on this tuesday, 23rd day of august. beautiful day out there. let s get the forecast from tom kierein. feels look a morning in late september than late august. right now around the region we re still generally in the 50s and most of the rural areas. closer to washington 60s, upper 60 in washington and by the bay. later today into the low 80s, sun, low humidity. more of the same tomorrow. thursday, upper 80s, afternoon and evening storms possible. friday partly sunny, mid 80s. thanks very much. today seems a great date to check out the martin luther king memorial. today dubbed d.c. day. the mayor and city leaders will spend the day greeting visitovi. spend the day greeting visitovi. the great opened at 9 man: my employer had been putting together a program for executive education, grooming the leadership abilities of their top 5%. a requirement to be accepted in the program was an undergraduate degree, which i did not have. that was the wake-up call i needed. don t want to miss a thing strayer university has afforded me the opportunity to progress to the level that i am now, which is chief information officer at the largest teaching hospital in southern new jersey. i m michael sinno, and i earned my bachelor of science degree from strayer university. look, it s still a great time to refinance. listen up, buster! we re not gonna pay any closing fees. i d do what she says, friend. i can t control her. well, it s the no closing fee refinance, so we pick up the closing fees. oh, you re gonna pick up the closing fees? yes. on average, that s $3,300 at closing. [ both ] thirty-three hundred?! that s a lot of donuts. [ male announcer ] visit capital one bank today to refinance your mortgage, and we ll pick up, on average, $3,300 at closing. what s in your wallet? i m good. good morning. if you re taking the rails, i have a slight delay. this is on the east train, 874, delay is 7 minute. train 502, delay is eight minutes. taking south capital street at suitland parkway, jammed, bumper to bumper. i ve been watching the road moving slowly. exercise patience. back to you. thanks very much. another news update in 25 [ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] join us at the walter e. washington convention center on august 26th for a live roundtable discussion inspired by the legacy of dr. martin luther king jr. 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, august 23rd, 2011. these fine people are up and out early this morning, taking advantage of a gorgeous morning here in new york city. looks like it s 61 degrees at the moment. a lot of things to do. outside on the plaza, i m ann curry, along with carl quintanilla and al roker. also coming up, we talked about it on monday, a woman in her 70s getting tattoos but this morning we re talking about women, about age, getting plastic surgeries. tens of thousands of people are doing it 65 years an older. coming up, we re going to talk about the trend and hear from one woman who decided to get implants at 75. wow. okay. also, remember the 1980 punky brewster? sure. that little girl, this morning she s in our studio. and guess what, she s all grown up. look at her. and still as beautiful. we ll be catching up with her and her new book coming up. and then our good buddy jill martin will be along with her latest edition of steals and deals. she s got everything from exclusive bargains on clothing, comforters, to ultrasuede handbags. not just suede, ultrasuede. all right. okay. meantime, let s get a check of the news this morning. we ve got natalie at the news desk. hey, natalie. good morning, ann, carl, and al. hurricane irene is gathering strength this morning, stletenning millions of live along the coast in florida, georgia, and a carolinas. right now the storm is packing winds of 100 miles per hour as it lashes the dominican republic. forecasters say irene could turn into a category 4 storm but they re not sure exactly where it will hit here in the u.s. confusion reins in libya this morning while anti-government rebels say they control most of the city. heavy fighting continues near moammar gadhafi s compound this morning and one of moammar s sons thought to be under arrest made a surprise. experience at a tripoli hotel earlier today. the fighting in libya has traders keeping a close eye on the price of oil. cnbc s melissa lee is watching it all for us. good morning. good morning. oil prices are trading high there morning after the pullback yet with that continued fighting in libya, traders are saying it may take longer than expected to bring that oil production back online out of libya. management shake-up at the ratings agency that downgraded a t. united states, the president of standard & poor s is stepping down at the end of the year. remember, that downgrade led to the biggest sell-off in global stocks in three years. natalie? interesting development there. melissa lee at the new york stock exchange. thank you. the music world is mourning the death of legendary motown figure nick ashford today as half of the duo ashford and simpson, he co-wrote hits. he and his wife sang the classic solid as a rock. nick ashford had been battling thrown cancer at 70 years old. a look at what s trending today. a quick round-up of what has you talking online. kate winslet being hailed as a hero today and of search on yahoo!. she jumped into action when a fire broke out at richard branson s where she was staying. she saved branson s 90-year-oly house. he is breaking up a crazy, stupid street fight right here in new york city. he s not just a hero in the movie. he does it in real life, too. and a social media entrepreneur flying from tampa to newark jokingly mentioned on twitter he would love to have a porter house steak from morton s steakhouse here in new york waiting for him when he landed. and guess what, apparently morton s came through. the man swears it was not a set-up or a pr stunt. yeah, sure. it s 8:04 right now. let s go back outside to ann, carl, and al. i want a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. i m going to tweet about that. all right, natalie. thank you. i hope you get that. meantime, let s get a check of the weather. guess who is standing outside alongsmr. al roker. got nice friends here. all sorts of iron man, inspiring people. we ve got a fear unfortunately, hurricane irene. this could be a really dangerous storm. right now 70 miles south-southeast of grand turk island category 2 storm. 100 mile per hour winds west-northwest. cutting cross the bahamas todayo tomorrow. thursday into friday it will parallel the florida coast, make landfall early saturday around the carolinas. could be a category 3 storm when it comes on shore. closer to home, looking for strong storms up in the upper mississippi river valley, beautiful weather here in the northeast into new england. the heat continues through the southwest into texas. and we ve got a gorgeous day along the west coast as well. 86 in l.a. beautiful weather in the pacific northwest. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. what a delightful morning. feels like late september. right now we re still most locations in the 50s except closer to washington, low to mid-60s there. reagan national s at 69. it s in the upper 60s by the bay. later today low 80s, sun, low humidity. still not humid tomorrow. warmer. more humid on thursday, highs upper 80s. could get afternoon and evening storms. irene close enough to us. along the atlantic seaboard, bring us storms late saturday and that s your latest weather. ann? al, thank you so much. from faceli-lifts to implants, y more older women are having plastic surgery. and, also, we have soleil moon plastic surgery. and, also, we have soleil moon frey, all coming up after this. now, millions of turkey burgers later, we re still out to win over burger lovers. woman: it s really good! man: the taste is great. ancr: just in time for the grilling season. n delicious burger. maman, i m on my third one right now. it s awesome. woman: i would definitely have a turkey burger again. man: this is fantastic. ancr: grilling season is here. so come on. make the switch. look for jennie-o at a store near you. and join us at switchtoturkey.com. we take it on ours. this summer put your family in an exceptionally engineered mercedes-benz now for an exceptional price during the summer event. but hurry, this offer ends august 31st. she took mommy s temptations. .now she s polishing coal. temptations, it s the first jell-o that s just for adults. so we made ocean spray cranberry juice cocktail with a splash of lime. it s so refreshing, your taste buds will thank you. mm. oh, you re welcome. what? my taste buds they re thanking me. uh-huh. hello parents, it s going to be your kids are going to climb rope. they re going to have a year long tug war with the ceiling. and by the time they get out of 8th grade, they re going to do it with sweat on their brow and achievement in their hearts. so, this is what they re gonna need: running shoes, t-shirts, tube socks, fruit cups, cheese sticks, energy bars, rope climbing gloves, rope burn ointment, and a jump drive. not sure what that is, but they re gonna be jumpin . school takes a lot. target has it all. i m a speck of dust alone in the wire jungle. some dust rags say i m unreachable, [ grunting ] but that s how i like it. unattached, free, indep. i ve changed my mind. i believe in miracles [ female announcer ] swiffer attracts dust. new and improved swiffer dusters with dust lock adhesive picks up two times more dust than a dry dust rag and locks it away. you re very adventurous! [ female announcer ] swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. and so too is the summer event. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c300 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity.disappears. the mercedes-benz summer event ends august 31st. many people go under the knife to get that perfect swimsuit body but you may be surprised by the latest generation choosing to enhance their body. here s nbc s aditi roy. are you ready? i guess. reporter: sherry cook is getting a breast lift, breast implants, and a moral boost. i always tell my husband, i think older women all end up looking like oatmeal boxes or match sticks. and i don t want to look like either one of those. reporter: at 75 years old, sherry wants to stop the progression towards the oatmeal box, so she s spending two hours in the operating room, all to have lighter and perkier breast. why implants? because, they re not going to look good without them. that s you know, the whole thing about looking as good as you can, as long as you can. reporter: sherry is not alone. according to the american society of aesthetic plastic surgery last year 85,000 people, 65 or older, went under the knife. doctors say the reasons aren t all that different from those of younger patients. they ll come in and say, you know, i take off my clothes and, i mean, that s not me. i mean, it s not me anymore. and so can you help me? dr. michael mccoolly is sherry s plastic surgeon. he said in the last five years more seniors, more thanner before, is coming into his clinic. now they re moving more towards the body contouring, breast lifts, tum any tucks. reporter: aly ellin recently reported on seniors and plastic surgery. all over the country, i found this in california, i found this in florida, i found this in new york. reporter: do new orleans mno they are geographically, seniors these day, according to some, are emotionally in a different place. our seniors are getting divorced, they re dating, they re competing in sports. why not have the plastic surgery to go along with how young they feel inside. reporter: patients must get medical clearance before surgery. but according to dr. mccooler, that doesn t mean greater health risks. recovery time is the same. why are you doing an 80 yaerlgd? my response is why not. my gosh, i m not a kid. you know, i m not going to look like i did then. i want to still have a shape. reporter: sherry embraces her 75 years, but in the sunset of her life she just wants to look as good on the outside as she feels on the inside. for today, aditi roy, nbc news, los angeles. dr. michael is a miami-based board certified plastic surgery and lillian is a psychologist on aging and beauty. is this a broad trend or anecdotal anecdotal, here and there? absolutely. because of advances in health care americans are living healthier, longer, more he think lives. they want to look as good as they feel. when they come into you, what do they say? what s their motivation? their motivation is that when they look in the mirror, as the doctor said, they don t see the person that they feel they are inside. they feel they re looking older. their bodies are heading south, so to speak, and, you know, they re asking for help. is it because they want to date and look good or they want to look good at the office and look younger? there are a variety of reasons that seniors choose to have plastic surgery. and it s very important as a surgeon i delve into those aspects and find out exactly why. they can vary from a widow, a person who is divorced, out there trying to date an attractive spouse or mate, or an aging salesman, senior who wants to compete with younger salesmen and stay in the workforce longer. there are a variety of reasons why people have plastic surgery after the ainlg 65. flies in the thought of aging gracefully. this is very important issue. the positive side of this is that people are living longer, they want to live that life passionately, robustly, they want to feel as good as they look. you know, that saying that 60 years is the new 30. i don t know if that is so true, but they do have to ask some important questions. is it in the best interest of this patient? you don t know yet. the jury is out. the data is not in yet for what it really means to somebody in their 70s and 80s to get the surgery. will it actually give them what they re hoping to achieve? we should point out, we re talking some major surgery here right? sure. sure. it s important to remember the difference between chronological age and physiological age. someone in their 70 whoz has lived a healthy life and is still very active can have no greater risk for surgery than someone in their 40s under similar circumstances. on the other hand, someone who has poor health habit, et cetera, might not ever be a candidate for plastic surgery. is there an ainlg limit in which you say, i m not doing this procedure for you? i think you have you to consider, the type of recovery time is longer, how will this impact their life for how long? is the risk worth it? sometimes one surgery results in another desire for more surgery. you get your breasts enhanced and then your neck doesn t look so good. how old is how old? age is just a number. it depends on the procedure you re going to have. i have operated on 90-year-old people who active and healthy under conscious sedation, doing an eye lift, for example, or a neck lift or facelift. on the other hand, a tummy tuck or breast lift operation is much more invasive and therefore they have to be in better shape for that. recovery time is a little longer. a little longer. like i said before, every patient should be considered individually, both psychologically and physiological. good debate. thank you. up next, from punky brewster to parenting. we ll catch up with soleil moon frye. 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i am punky brewster. and who are you? soleil moon frye was just 7 years old when she played punky brewster, funny, adorable little girl abandoned by her parents and later adopted by a grouch turned loving dad. why shouldn t i wear two different shoes? i don t really know where punky ended and i began because we were so intertwined and she was so spunky and full of life. today at 35 moon frey is a wife and mother of two, host of a online blog and is planned to share her post-punky life in a book called happy chaos. to me growing up and playing punky was like playing on a playground. i wanted to share shoed those wonderful adventures and i loved the idea of exploring the kids that we are and the parents we become. oh, my god, do you need a wipe? here. happy chaos is for anyone who is living in the chaos but takes that moment to realize, you know what? it may be chaotic, it may be crazy, it may be insane, but there s happiness and joy. soleil moon frye is joining us again. her book is called happy chaos, from punky to parenting and my perfectly imperfect adventures. i m excited to be here. i love you. on behalf of all the people who grew up watching, how adorable you were as punky brewst brewster. how much were you actually like that little girl? punky was so spunky and full of heart. i really talk about in the book just how much we were the same person in so many ways. i mean, we both had such a desperate life and such a big heart, and i think i grew up a lot like punky would have grown up, you know what i mean? it was so much of me. and it s hard 25 years ago. i know! it s crazy. we did research and we actually dug up a little interview that you did. oh, my goodness. you did it with bryant gumbel on this very show. wow. a little actress. thank you. is that what you want to do when you grow up, be an actress? actress, singer, and astronaut. astronaut. yeah. not necessarily in that order? all of them. all of them. pretty self assured there? i was very self assured. that jacket is the sequin jacket that andy gave me on the show. in the book i talk about him being one of my first crushes. andy gibb. hwrapped his jacket on me. in the book you talk about all the places in between. and you also talk about not only andy gibb but michael jackson. at one point you write, so there i was sitting with michael jackson, alone in his jacuzzi talking about life, love, and secrets of the world. i was 8 years old. i mean, my gosh. what an experience. what do you remember about it? such a crazy experience. it was so funny because my friend s dad worked with him. so i was over there and my mom was doing an event. she was an amazing food artist. and so i wound up staying late. i think she thought i was with the whole family. the next thing i knew, i was there with michael watching willie wonka and the chocolate facto factory. it was such a fun, crazy experience. i didn t realize how strange it was then. years later, i thought, that was a bit of a unique experience. unique. but really it all culminates in where you landed. you landed as a person with a twitter following of, what, 1.4 million followers. you ve got a blog that is enormously popular talking about parenting. thank you. you now developed a clothing line. i mean, you re just going on and on. so what is the number one message? what do you think is causing so many people to want to hear what you have to say? what are you trying to give them? when i discovered twitter and facebook, i was a new mom. i had so many questions. i looked around and everyone seemed to have the parenting thin down except for me. i don t know about you but my house hold is full of sprinkles on the floor, markers on the wall. it was chaos but it was happy chaos. it was truly happy chaos. so i started sharing through social media. and i realized there was millions of other parents that were feeling the same way. that were just need that authentic voice. it would make it okay to know that it s chaotic. i did. in other words, keep having those messages being pushed, things have to be perfect. yes. it s not perfect. no, it s not perfect. i don t know any perfect parent. so i think for me, it was so important to embrace the craziness, so embrace the chaos because for so long i felt like the parenting books that i saw, the blogs that i looked at, everything seemed so put to the and i was like, my life is just not like that. like i don t know about you and your house, but it s insanity. you know what i mean? like it s crazy at all hours. and i think we need to give ourselves a little freedom and cut ourselves a little slack and just be the best we can do. boy, do women need to hear that message, especially. yes. and when we have a hard day, get up the next morning and try better. you know what i mean? when i have a hard parenting moment, i look at myself and i look inside and i say, you know what? i m going to make myself better and i m learning more from my kids than i ever thought i could. what you re saying in some part is when things go wrong, there s an opportunity there to actually make it when things get crazy, there was a beautiful moment the other day when my girls said, mommy, lay down on the floor with us because we want to measure how big we re getting. for a moment i went, no. i realized, wait a second, i ve got to get on their level. there i was lying on the floor in my amazing husband walked in, my kids and i are laying there. that s the chaos but that s the beauty. and when we can embrace the imperfections, we can really live our best. that s what happy chaos is for me, family operating at the best in the insanity of it all. finding happy in the chaos. absolutely. i m so grateful i get to be part of moms and share with moms through social media. i get to connect through my blog. i get to connect with twitter and facebook. i love my mommy group. my mommy book, too happy chaos. and for all of those who have logged on to read what you have written, now they have happy chaos . you are just as spunky as punky. i adore you. may i please come back? yes, every time. good morning. it s 8:26 on tuesday, august 23rd. we re getting a big break in the weather. it s chilly out there, tom kierein. yeah. beginning to warm up, though, with the strong august sun. temperatures are now climbing back into the 60s in most locations after we bottomed out in low and mid-50s this morning. right now it s pleasant. we ve got the sunshine with low humidity in place for the rest of date. highs reaching low 80s. tomorrow, lots of sun. more humid thursday, afternoon and evening storms. into the weekend, could be affected by irene with heavy rain and wind sunday. we ll have traffic for you in just a minute. good morning. 395, a crash right here on your left, just as you pass duke street. i m seeing delays 395 north. here s look now 14th street bridge clear as you cross it. and 495, getting a bit of relief on the outer loop of the beltway. thanks, danella. we ll have another update in 25 minutes. back to the today show. 8:30 nowon this tuesday morning on this 23rd, 2011, great day in the city. we ve got a huge crowd in this beautiful morning here on the plaza. about 63 degrees now. low humidity, blue skies. that s right. just ahead, we ll be talking about how to keep your kids safe behind the wheel because actually a new app that prevents your teen from texting while driving? very important. amazing. i think it s the motion of the car. that s how that s a very dangerous thing to do. caused a lot of people to be hurt. what else is coming up? do you cook the same boring thing every night? yes. we have one dish chicken recipe that is sure to please. can t wait to try that. good ideas fromler. also, can t get your kids to eat those meals? jenna bush hager caught up with actor jake gyllenhaal who is trying to do something all about that. all right. and don t forget the grammy winning band train is going to be here to rock our summer concert stage this friday. you can pick one of those songs. the choices again for you are marry me, drops of jupiter and calling all angels qu. text your vote to 622639. voting ends tomorrow. message and data rates may apply. let s talk about the weathe and data e rates apply. beautiful weather in the northeast. out west gorgeous. risk of strong storms through the upper great lakes. heat continues in texas. tomorrow, we ve got more wet weather making its way further east. ohio river valley, sunny and hot through the gulf coast. showers and thunderstorms. sizzling conditions from texas into the southwest. clouds in the pacific northwest. gorgeous weather along the west coast. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. still low humidity in place. we have our temperatures now beginning to climb into the 60s. later today into the low 80s. sun, low humidity, not much wind. cool tonight, near 60 tomorrow morning. during the day wednesday, mid 80s, sun. not humid tomorrow. getting more humid thursday. highs reaching upper 80s. might get afternoon or evening storm. and hurricane irene may be close enough to our atlantic seaboard to give us rain and wind beginning saturday evening do you want to keep track of hurricane irene, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. now the potential answer if you or your teenager can t resist that urge to check incoming text messages while driving. nbc s kerry sanders is in orlando with the florida highway patrol. kerry, good morning. good morning, carl. 34 states have laws about texting and driving. florida is not one of them. trooper jason brooks says he sees it all the time. he s going down the road and he sees a driver who is sort of drifting in and out of the lane. it s all as a result of what they re doing behind the wheel. that s not both hands on the wheel. rather, it s the reason upwards of 6,000 people a year are killed, because they re using their cell phones while they re driving. on any roadway in america you will see someone driving and texting. and if you are honest, admit, you re guilty, too. federal officials say driving and texting has now become an epidemic. akin to drinking and driving. the unblinking eye of camera reveals over and over and over again texting and driving just do not mix. look at the startled faces of drivers just moments before impact or that near miss. if you re texting and driving, you are six times more likely to be involved in a wreck than a drunk driver. reporter: jenny brown learned that the most painful of all ways. in 2,0009 my daughter decided to text and drive on her way to school, and she never made it were 17-year-old alex brown was on this lonely stretch of road in texas, texting with a friend, when she ran off the road, rolled her truck, and was thrown under its crushing weight. alex held on just long enough for her desperate mother to find her in the underbrush, gasping for life. this cost her her life. after a wreck, she was in enough consciousness just trying to hang on and survive. the phone still worked. reporter: that s the warning the brown family is now sharing. in gatherings like this one with cisco employees in houston and nationwide. with the help of superstar justin bieber. i get it. it s tempting to text and drive. reporter: one possible solution? lock up the phone when it s moving. phone guard is the best app to help you not text and drive. it will save life. reporter: one of various free apps for smart phones. i will send you a typical text message which is usually meaningless, where are you? developer scott showed me when a phone with the app is traveling more than ten miles an hour. right now it s pulling on the gps to see how fast we re going. reporter: you can still tok talk but it automatically locks up text, e-mail, facebook, twitter. i just got back a message that says i am driving and will contact you when i reach my destination. reporter: but at a red light. now we re stopped. the phone guard has stopped. as my text messages arrived? yes, right here. what s going on, where are you? reporter: message delayed, but delivered. alex brown s family criss-crossing the nation with her wrecked truck hopes there is a text that is delivered. dnt txt n drv, the one message their daughter alex brown did ignore. there are various apps for the phones. some work on the android, some work on the iphone or the black ber pr berry. you put it on your son or daughter s phone and their friends hack it or take it off, it can be set up in a way that if they hack the app on their phone it sends your phone a text telling you that they just turned it off. carl? kerry, great information. such an important message for everyone to listen to. kerry sanders there in orlando. up next, the one pan chicken dish your whole family will love. but first, this is today on nbc. this morning on today s kitchen, step by step, every night chicken. this dish is simple to make, and there s not a lot of clean-up because you can only do it all in one pan. who better to show us how it s done than chef, great to have you! bonjour. this is called it s one pan. you know, you can cook the chicken, any kind of meat and vegetables, seasoned. here i have zucchini. zucchini are plentiful now. they re economical. this way they become very tasty. in the same pan you first fry the chicken because it takes longer. after putting in a little bit of butter. do you have to put any kind of liquid in the chicken before you put it in the flour? no, salt, flour, a little butter and a little bit of oil and we re all set with that. all right. when it s really nice then, this is how it is, right here. so you take the fried chicken. you put a leaf of this is mint? yes. a leaf on each piece. all right. i ll put the zucchini on top. it is fun to cook with you in your kitchen. you think? yeah. it s still in one pan. you can put the butter in there. go ahead. and the butter goes on top. right in the pan. so we have the chicken and the zucchini. so it s a complete meal. it s all together. put on the peporchino. shake it up a little bit. a little bit of vino. vino. nice dry wine. a little more. lydia, there you go. beautiful dress. that s all right. that s okay. a little splatter. and then a little bit of tomato sauce. can you get that out of a can? you can get out of the can. that s fine. that s what i always say, make a little extra and freeze it for this kind of situation. i will put a little bit in the sauce itself just like that. look at that. all that flavor. you ve got cheese here. do you put that on top? sprinkle it on top. like this? yeah. on top of this. generous. because we want it to look like this. fantastic. you see? this all kind of happens in, total time, 15, 20 minutes. absolutely. you re all finished with that. i ll turn that off. okay. we re done. this is all done. and then eventually coming over. thank you. so you can see that you have here your cheese, your the cheese that s melted, the sauce, the chicken. everything is all set. we plate it up and there you go. and right here fantastic. that one is too hot. so in the budget, i notice these chicken breasts are very thin. do you have to pound them before you started? you pound them a little bit. if you get the extra large you cut it in half so you get two pieces. but you figure that you want one of these to be a portion. you don t want a big portion but you want it. you might do this with a pork chop, veal, even with fish. you have to be careful, if you do it with fish, the vegetables take longer than the fish. the timing is very important. you can serve that just like that or maybe with a salad and dessert. tell us about this dessert. in simple style here we have the seasonal fruits. see here? a little lemon juice, oranges, blueberries, peaches, powdered sugar. mix it, mint leaf. let it marinade for 15 minutes. leave it at room temperature and you have your dessert ready as well. i know you like your stuff. i like this chicken. isn t it good? uh-huh. and then, of course, i have the amaretto cookies. i love you. thank you so much. such a pleasure, ann. up next, life on the road. and what it s really like to be a flight attendant. first, this is today on nbc. that s amazing. you know what else is amazing? how easy it is to save money on motorcycle, boate with geico. geico, saving people money, on more than just car insurance. back at 8:45 this morning on today s travel, the life of a flight attend can t. what s it really like to work at 30,000 feet? feature director of travel and leisure magazine got an inside look. reporter: anyone who has taken to the skies lately has probably thought they re not quite as friendly as they used to be. add these from everything from inflight food to checking bags, even for extra space to stretch your legs make travelers long for the good old days. although there s plenty to be nostalgic about, you may be surprised to learn there s also a lot to celebrate. today s flight attendants do far more than take your drink orders. here at virgin america s headquarters in san francisco, flight attendants are required to receive extensive training before they greet a single passenger. we have to go through a two-day event, equipment, evacuations, procedures. a great we ay to refresh you. reporter: and test themselves, they do, in cpr, self-defense, taught by elite members of the san francisco police department, food prep, and something they call happy management. despite their very skill set, many passengers still reduce the role of flight attendant to that of a glorified waitress. what do you think of when you think about flight attendants? i think of service. i think of class. i think of flexibility. i think of beauty, someone bringing you refreshments, sweet. reporter: misconceptions that don t go unnoticed. i think whenever we do have a medical emergency onboard people are always surprised to see how well we handle things. but people don t see that on a day-to-day basis. reporter: something else they don t see, a thorough briefing with the pilot about the day s itinerary. 82 degrees when we get there. reporter: flights at 30,000 feet can also bring turbulence of an unexpected kind. how difficult is your job? it is difficult. we re lifting bags, we re helping guests, techniques and training. you use your legs, and your backs, pulling the carts. reporter: carts that can way 180 pounds fully loaded, not to mention the 44,000 steps, that s roughly 22 miles flight attendants log each week. but adding to the physical strain is the toll that living on the road in as many as ten citys a week can bring. you feel like you don t know where you are, so you have a little sheet and set it next to my bed, where i was, what time and what time i needed to wake up. reporter: despite their on-the-job challenges, their basic love of flying is what keeps them on board. it never gets old. the miracle of flying. waking up in one city and going to another part of the country that afternoon. it s not for everyone, but we love it. so you embrace it. and here onset, i guess i should have known but the physical nature of the job blows me away. these young women are out there doing incredible physical labor. this is exhausting work. they workout. i was impressed. they all have their own system by which they take their food on. the entire trip can sometimes be two or three days, just so that i can stay fit and healthy and focused. they don t get paid until they actually board the plane? they don t get paid until you board the plane and that door is closed. so they are literally not getting paid until you re in your seat and that cabin door is closed. could you do this, do you think? tough. it s really a lot of, a lot of training, a lot of hard work. it s really incredible what they do. great piece. good to see you again. thank you. up next, jennifer bush hager catches up with jake gyllenhaal, gardening. but first, this is today on nbc. getting your kids to eat right can be a real challenge, not to mention expensive. but today correspondent jenna bush hager found one program that makes good eating habits part of a child s edible education. reporter: in this neighborhood there s no grocery store, and the only food choices are from fast food chains and convenience stores. fast food, chips. soda. kfc, mcdonald s, burger king. it s amazing how many kids we see now with adult health problems. high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even with type ii diabetes. reporter: but in this neighborhood, an edible garden grows, which can help children grow and save lives. one, two, three! there we go. reporter: this bounty of freshness is the vision of famed chef alice waters of berkeley restaurant who believes teaching children to grow and cook their own food should be part of what they learn in school every day. delicious. reporter: her recipe? she calls it an edible education. how have you seen these kids change? they really feel kind of empowered. when kids grow it and cook it, they all want to eat it. reporter: waters team up with actor jake gyllenhaal who knows and loves gardening. i grew up around gardens and growing mimy own food and my family did that a lot. that was a real source of community growing up. more than anything, i got to know my mother and father and my sister, and they got to know me at the dinner table. to share food is a beautiful way to educate children. reporter: gyllenhaal hopes the idea will spread to all public schools, like martin luther king school in berkeley and the boys and girls club at hunters point. the essence of the idea of these gardens is the kids can come to them and experience what it s like to see something grow. and then once they do see it grow they have a different relationship to what they eat. reporter: here kids who have never even heard of some foods are now fans. kale, i never heard about it before. goat cheese, it was kind of weird. whoever doesn t like carrots, i think there s probably something wrong with them. reporter: and it opens a new world. i learned how to cook crepes. reporter: but the kids don t just get a full stomach. they say tending a garden can give so much more. you can teach any subject in the garden or in the kitchen. like math, measuring portions, geography, where the food came from, and science, understanding the growth process. this edible school yard program has been incorporated into a dozen schools around the country. you are actually connected to the earth and the world. so many kids don t get to go outside. you have a difference relationship with your school in the end. yours is basically perfect. the fact that this place is here really built their sense of self worth. but at the same time, it shows them that eating healthy food is not something that other people do. what can an average mom do to make sure their kids are being properly nourished? go into the cafeteria and ask those questions. what are the children eating? it s really important to speak up. check out that pizza. reporter: to one day have an edible garden in every school so that all children can enjoy carrots, crepes, and even kale. that was jenna bush hager. you would think something like that would be in great conjunction with the first lady. yeah. i like that pizza. yeah. coming up, jill martin s steals and deals, everything from jewelry to bedding. good morning. 8:56 on tuesday, august 23. a beautiful day out there. tom kierein? it is gorgeous. right now, low humidity in place. temperatures as we approach midmorning are approaching upper 60s to near 70 in washington and near the bay. elsewhere, rural areas in the low and mid-60s. later today into the low 80s. lots of sun, low humidity. terrific summer day. more of the same tomorrow. but warmer. more humid on thursday. highs upper 80s. afternoon and evening storms possible. into the weekend, we could be affected by hurricane irene as it will be tracking along the atlantic seaboard. wenty? thanks, tom. [ male announcer ] looking for a complete picture of your money? meet pnc virtual wallet. it comes with a calendar that shows you all your finances at once. it lets you know when your money s going out. and when it s coming in. it even tells you when you re running low. we call that danger days. it s built to help you see your money in a whole new light. experience everything virtual wallet has to offer at pncvirtualwallet.com. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. good morning. if you re traveling outer loop of the beltway in maryland, i am seeing delays. right now this is a look at university boulevard. in fact, traveling from i-95 to i of 270 on the outer loop, it s going to take 22 minutes to get there. and still have an accident 395 north. this is the duke street. it s in your left shoulder lane. police are on the scene there now. i am seeing people crowd to the right as they try to pass this accident right here. and on the rails, right now, metro, looking good. i delay on the mark br back now with more of today on this tuesday morning, 23rd day of august, 2011. it is really a spectacular morning here in the heart of midtown manhattan. really gorgeous summer day. not too hot. later on, get up to about 80 degrees. just perfect to catch all the sights around. matt is off this morning. this morning we re talking about how the bahamas battening down the hatchet. that s right. hurricane irene right now, category 2 storm, already battered puerto rico and the dominican republic. it is now setting its sites on the bahamas. southeastern united states may be next. we expect it to become a category 3 storm later today. it s been three years since a hurricane has made landfall in the u.s. that was ike back in 2008, in southeastern texas. we re keeping an eye on this one. precautions to take. lightning strike, it is believed, from irene who sparked this huge fire at the home of richard branson in the caribbean. they say it was like a hollywood movie. kate winslet, the actor, who was staying there with her family, actually saved branson s 90-year-old mother from the flames. we ll have a lot more on what happened. amazing. and then in today s money, going paperless. if you re nervous about getting all of your bank statements e-mailed to you or paying your bills online, we ll tell you why it s not only good for the environment, but it also could actually save you some money. and then speaking of money, guess who is here? jill martin. steals and deals today, from bedding as you see there, and skin care and jewelry. jill has all the deals. she ll tell us all about it coming up in a few minutes. too many pillows. right there. really? all around. that will be after we hear from the news and natalie morales at the news desk. hey, natalie. good morning once again. good morning, everyone. for the first time in nearly three years a hurricane is threatening to make landfall here in the u.s. and hurricane irene is gaining strength today as it turns to the caribbean. nb nbcl s lilia luciano is in the path. good morning. reporter: good morning to you, natalie. the ba ma hamas has not seen a strong like this in six years and gearing up for what could be a category 3 hurricane to hit us some point this morning or tomorrow. irene is raking through the caribbean, in puerto rico it dropped ten inches of rain, flooding streets, tearing up trees and knocking out power to more than a million people. bigger than your average size hurricane. reporter: the storm is picking up strength in the warm atlantic water. under hurricane warnings the dominican republic and neighboring haiti where heavy rain could be devastated for the 600,000 still homeless since last year s earthquake. weather experts say the hurricane is now headed straight for the bahamas and on to the u.s., potentially targeting florida, georgia, and the carolinas. hurricane irene is forecast to become at least a category 3 hurricane and maintain that status and could be even higher than that as it makes an approach to a potential landfall somewhere in the southeast u.s. along the eastern coast many are already stocking up to stay safe. a lot of everything basically. watt water, nonperishable food, flashlig flashlight, batteries. reporter: he picked up a list on google, hoping it will get him through his first hurricane season in florida. this one really looks like it s coming. reporter: preparing to secure his grnandmother s roof, he say you can never be too cautious. hurricane andrew changed lives and attitudes. i was not prepared in andrew. it was tough. now i don t even wait. i go and grab what i need. reporter: expert or rookie, surviving a hurricane means thinking ahead and not taking chances. so what to do if you are in irene s path, make sure to plan ahead of time. keep an emergency kit with enough water, food, and medicine for at least three days. keep your gas tank full. if you re in an area that is told to evacuate, make sure that you listen. natalie? good advice. thank you, lilia. forces loyal to home garr da daffy aren t giving up today. they are in tripoli again this morning, especially around gadhafi s compound and his son made a surprise appearance today telling reporters that loyalists loyia his father. he was thought to be under arrest. meantime, they have no idea where moammar gadhafi is hiding. a top navy captain is fighting to save his career today. can tan owen honors was yanked from command earlier this year after raunchy videos surfaced that was shot onboard. he helped to produce and star in them and said they were made to improve moral. they begin to hear arguments today on whether he should stay in the navy. important health news. number of americans complaining about failed hip replacements is skyrocketing, according to the new york times. the fda received thousands of complaints of all metal hips failing after years of use. it s the most common procedure in the u.s. and baseball players come out of game for a lot of reasons but here is one you probably never heard of before. st. louis cardinals outfielder matt holiday had to leave a game on monday night when a moth flew into his ear and he couldn t get it out. trainers actually had to use tweezers eventually to remove it. pretty unbelievable. six minutes past the hour. let s get another check of the weather from al. there s one you haven t heard of, al, right? you can t make it up. let s see the latest on hurricane irene. right now, 70 miles south-southeast of grand turk. probably become a 3 today. 1 100-mile-per-hour winds. you you can see hurricane warnings and watches up from santo domingo to the bahamas. hurricane watches in effect. the system makes its way and parallels the florida coast as a category 3 storm, maybe a 4, some time thursday into friday. makes landfall sometime late saturday into early sunday. and it could be devastating. again, coming on shore as category 3 storm. you can see the tropical storm force winds extend out quite a distance from the center of the storms. as it makes its way along the florida coastline, they will be feeling its effects. that s what s going on around the country, here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. a delightful 7 temperatures . thursday, getting hot somewhere more humid afternoon and evening thunderstorms are possible. friday partly sunny, mid 80s. irene may be affecting us over the weekend. maybe storms late on saturday. heavy rain and possible strong winds time now for today s money, saving some green by going green. going paperless, coupons and credit card offers not only cuts down on clutter but, believe it or not, can actually help you save some cash. carmen is the personal finance expert and the author of the real cost of living. good to see you. good morning, al. i understand saving paper. how does it save you cash? here s the thing, when you automate things and have things living on the cloud, your e-mail, for example, it really can save you money because it can help you do things like make sure you pay your bills on time, have things for tax time. it adds up. you say, first of all, you want to stop getting paper receipts. are we talking about receipts at stores? when you go to a store and you get this receipt, what if you need to exchange or return something, what if you lose it? ask for an e-receipt. apple is one of the first retailers to do this. send you an e-mail receipt. now gap, anthropology, nordstrom, old navy, they all do this. you can always find that receipt and come tax time, 40% of americans make money on their own outside their employer, tax reductions. you have all of your receipts in one place. what if you don t want to give out your personal e-mail? here s the thing. do what i do. create another e-mail. so you give them another e-mail so you don t get slogged with a lot of junk mail from retailers and have it all in one place. is there software that will help you aggregate this stuff and keep track of it? especially i m hs if you have it in one spot in terms of that new e-mail. you can go in there and see all of your receipts, put them all together. there is some tracking that s coming soon, but just have them online. don t lose them. you also say say no to paper coupons. yes. the number one reason they don t use coupons anymore, i don t have them with me, i forget them. here s the thing. coupon has an app now on the iphone coming soon for the blackberry android where you can have them all with you in realtime. you can be shopping around and put in an item, coupons will just pop up. you go to the register and hand them your phone. it s either a scannable coupon or a code that they enter. wow. also, you want to say no to catalogs and credit card offers. i know this one wrangles you. right? i m getting catalogs anyway. any time we buy anything online, et cetera, there s always this trail. someone buys the list. catalogchoice.org is where you can go to opt out of the catalogs and you get all of these offers for a new credit cards or balance transfers and all those things, go to optoutprescreen.com and it will stop other solicitations, as well. you have to go every year but it s helpful. it s a temptation. you can get an offer and use it on the spot instead of shopping around like you should, or catalog shopping instead of shopping around, i love that let me do that. it will save you from doing that. by all means, avoid the credit card offers. listen, you want to shop around. you don t want to just see it, let me sign up. shop around online first. what about paper bills and statements? okay. i know some of us already do this with your banking. we bank online. get our monthly statements online. i can t tell you how helpful it is to have all of this online. utility, cell phone, landline, internet, cable, all of these folks offer paperless statements and paperless bills. sign up. you can sign up for automated bill pay. you save if you are late on a bill and, like you said, you can sort and search at the end of the year come tax time, huge safings. everything is there for you. right there on the cloud. on the cloud. thanks so much. thanks. still to come, setting back the clock. we re going to check out the best foods to make you look and feel younger. but up next steals and deals. the stealer and dealer jill martin is back. r wanted it to end. well, hey, at least the pasta s never ending. really? yeah, you choose your pasta, choose your sauce, as many times as you want! a dish i create and it s never ending. i m in! i m in! the never ending pasta bowl is back. for just $8.95 try new sauces like roasted mushroom parmesan and hearty pizzaiola meat. enjoy any sauce and pasta combination, then try others. have all you want along with our unlimited fresh salad and warm breadsticks all for just $8.95. try it tonight at your olive garden. when you re here, you re family. i usually work alone. don t mind him. chocolate s just got a chip on his shoulder. [ female announcer ] new quaker chewy smashbar. kid-loved ingredients, smashed together. with 33% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. for his dentist, the choice is clear. fact is, more dental professionals brush with an oral-b toothbrush than any other brush. trust the brush more dentists and hygienists use, oral-b. i like dat, all right [ male announcer ] mio. a revolutionary water enhancer. add a little.or a lot. for a drink that s just the way you like it. make it yours. make it mio. for a drink that s just the way you like it. hey. hey mom! what is this? it s a special paste i invented to replace socks. why? because we can t find socks that shape to our feet. we re sick of it! try hanes socks with the smooth comfort toe seam. a better fit your whole family will love. if you have painful, swollen joints, i ve been in your shoes. one day i m on p of the world. the next i m saying. i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i m surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you ve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don t start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you re prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. good job girls. 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. this morning on jill s steals and deals, high style products and very low prices. discounted exclusively for you, our today show viewers. today and us weekly author is here. some 85% off. good morning. good morning. again, how does this work? i feel like everyone has been involved because i m getting tons of tweets, please offer this, please offer this. if you haven t done this, here s how it works. go on to today.com right now and all of these retailers have brought us these deals that you can have up to 85% off. and we ll link you to the retailer s website. but we only have a certain amount of each item so you have to act quickly. and be patient as well because sometimes it takes a while getting through. exactly. the first couple of items. this is great if you re looking to give your bedroom a new makeover. you can check out these queen and king comforter sets by sl home fashions. as you see, they re offering five different designs in a variety of colors from serenity embroidered collection. what exactly comes with the whole set here? we love this for fall. it always makes us start fresh. the retail of these, $299 to $439. it comes in queen or king. available in five desipsgndesig. eight-piece set, comforter, three shams, three decorative pillows and one bed skirt. the bed is made up here. sold at macy s. retail, $299 to $349. the deal is $60. that s up to 83% off. that is great. fantastic. looks beautiful. hi quality as well. now, we also have another comforter set to offer today, as well, again, by sl home fashions. this one is for kids. going off to college, perfect. the dorm room. and back to school. why love about these, they re reversible. if you spill something on one side you flip it to the other side. $125, available in twin or queen. all dimensions stated clearly on the website. comes in four different styles. again, reversible. the comforter and sham combo, same for this. i want to point out the shipping on these, really large items. test the shipping. may be a little higher for this. it s because the other is so low. make sure you ship it before you bite it check the retail. retail, 125. deal, $25. 80% off. great. look good in a dorm. give it lots of color. let s move on to jewelry. best-sellers for us. you have these beautiful bracelets. very trendy right now. i know a lot of celebrities really love these and layering them up is better, right? right. huge with celebrities. these, retail for $200. offering nine styles made with semi precious and natural stones, including jade, amethyst, turquoise, and onyx. these are great for men and women. you will see some men with on two or three. i put them on stacked to show you what they looked like. $200. deal is 29$29. great gift. they come in these cute little pouches. i was thinking how great that is for a gift right now. perfect. thank you. over here, let s do some skin care. this is new for us. one of our favorites around here. products from philosophy. these are going to fly. you can always judge from the studio and our producers saying i can t believe we have this. right. if you want hope in a jar, we have that for you. we re going to do it. retail, $127. this includes five full-size products. hope in a jar, as you said, best-selling moisturizer. one-step facial cleanser, exfoliating wash, retina eye treatment and pink tinted lip treatment. katherine heigl, miley cyrus. the retail, again, $127 for the bundle. the deal, $31.75. that s 75% off. again. best-sellers. these are, yeah, full-size products. awesome deal. great deal. all right. fantastic. let s go over here, handbags. look at these. how gorgeous they are. made of rich, ultrasuede. right. i think everyone is shopping now for a fall bag. well, here you go. retail, $245. comes in two styles. the fringe bag which is hanging right here, and then the studded bag in camel or charcoal. rich suede. look at the we detail and the hardware. several fans are the kardashians, selma blair. the retail is $245. the deal, $58. that s 76% off. $58. pockets inside for everything. love it. beautiful. okay. guys, we have something for you, too, today. right. we love this. we love this. okay. speaker system for your iphone, ipad by i home, actually charges it as well. retail, $199.99. has the latest in sound technology. charges and plays device while docked. the av jack, the video from ipad or iphone to tv. you can play the videos that s on your ipad or iphone and put it on your tv. great if you have a movie for your kids. retail, $199.99. the deal, $75. that s 62% off. fantastic. this will go quickly as well. as always, jill martin, you brought us real best-sellers here. thank you. all right. five products for you, comforter by sl home fashions, the bracelets by mon ami, beauty products by philosophy, handbag and speaker system by i home. just head to our website today.com. if you do have any questions about the products or want to know more, jill will be answering on twitter at the today show. mean why, coming up, secrets to looking younger. but first, these messages. also get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but. [ man ] there s never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn t it? but that won t happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn t traveling hard enough? ow. [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? uh, it s okay. i ve played a pilot before. what s in your wallet? i brought champagne. wow! the best in the world. .some chocolates swiss! ah.the best in the world. oikos greek yogurt from dannon. really? wait until you try it. so creamy thick dannon oikos berry flavors beat chobani 2:1 in a national taste test. mmmm. this may be the best in the world. oikos greek yogurt possibly the best yogurt in the world. like us on facebook and get a free cup of dannon oikos. it s pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse, who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a 5-dollar coupon. i m home. [ kids ] hi mom. [ male announcer ] of all the things that happen on your shiny surfaces, disinfecting has to be one of them. clorox disinfecting wipes. kills germs. dries clear. vine-ripened tomatoes and real italian seasoned meat. the food got famous. and soon, so did the chef. hello, i am chef boyardee. quality ingredients no preservatives still in every bowl. you re working out while watching us right now, this guy might make you want to work a little bit harder. that s right. extra motivation because he s a two-time iron man world champion and the author of a new book i m here to win, world champion advice from chris mccormack. good to see you. how are you? you don t have to be an iron man to really get involved in this triathlon. al is starting to train for one. i have been doing them for a couple of years now. i ve been sitting on the koump a lot. waiting for her to get into it, as well. chris, what is the advice to mentally prepare for something like this and why do them? it s a lot of fun. it s the fastest growing sport in the world. inspired by a challenge. i just get out there and do it and enjoy it and embrace that moment, embrace the challenge. how do you get started? what do tip for somebody thinking about it? get off the couch and do it. get off the couch and do it. is this intervention? the hardest thing is that initial moment to get into a routine and rhythm. once you get over that bridge, it s fun. you can start small with the sprint. work your way to bigger things. sprint is a way to start. all of the way up to what i m doing now. i know you re the winningest iron man champ. 13 times? yes. twice world iron man competition. and i hear you are looking to go to the olympics in 2012. yeah. my wife is telling me it s my mid-life crisis. it s definitely the objective now. the book is i m here to win. chris mccormack. good to see you. good to see you. thank you. still to come this morning, ith after your local news and weather. hershey s chocolate syrup. stir up a smile. good morning. 9:26 on this tuesday, august 23. and it is delightful outside. let s get the latest from tom kierein. feels like september 23rd. temperatures are still mainly in the 60s to near 70 degrees. and later today, we ll continue to climb into the low 80s, low humidity and lots of sunshine. tomorrow warmer into the mid 80s, after a cool start, lots of sun. more humid and warm on thursday. could get afternoon and evening storms. friday, partly sunny, humid, mid 80s. over the weekend, hurricane irene may be affecting our region with maybe storms beginning late saturday into saturday evening. and sunday, heavy rain and wind is possible, as irene track as long our atlantic seaboard. thank you, tom. we ll check traffic after this. good morning. tra traching traveling prince georges county, an accident, south at acton lane, three lanes and blocked. a look at i-66, sully road, volume east on 66. in fact, if you re traveling from the fairfax county parkway to the capital beltway, going 44 mile an hour. it s going to take you 13 minutes to go there. the beltway in maryland, slow here in new hampshire avenue. okay. another news update in 25 minutes. back to the today did you know this song drives savannah crazy because it gets into her head and then she can t get it out? i sing it all day long. all day. they are going to be jamming on the plaza, the san francisco rockers will come into our plaza on the summer concert stage. next week, lenny kravitz rocking us into labor day weekend. wow. i don t believe we ve had lenny on before. our first. family reunion for al. my cuz. cousin, really? yeah. train, you can help pick the set list. you have three hit songs to choose from. they re they are. they are going to play them on the show. text of the song of your choice, text 1 for maryry me. i guarantee if they play that song, lots of proposals on the plaza. text 2 for drops of jupiter. text 3 for calling all angels. voting ends tomorrow. make sure to cast your votes. all hits. maybe they will play all of them. if you text enough maybe they will play all of them. come on. you beat us into subm such a nice guy. he ll do it for us. we really nag. we all want to look and feel younger, of course. we ll show you the best anti-aging remedies from fresh fruits and veggies to creams and serums and potions. we ll have all secrets to help you add life and years to your hair and skin. out of a hollywood action thriller, you heard about this, the caribbean home of billionaire sir richard branson went up in flames after a lightning strike and academy-award winner kate winslet, who was staying there, hailed a hero for saving branson s elderly mother. you ll be hearing from richard branson. they think it was a lightning strike from hurricane irene. which we are watching closely. does your mom make casseroles? all the time. love them. who doesn t? pot pies. okay. making a comeback. this morning, we ve got the casserole queens. look at their cute outfits. showing us one savory, one sweet dish that will help you get out of bed in the morning. we are watching irene. a check of the weather. we ll show you what s happening. for today, no problems from irene. rick of strong storms in the upper mississippi river valley. showers in the pacific northwest. heat into texas into southwest. spectacular in the east. tomorrow, that risk moves into the upper ohio river valley. clouds in coastal pacific northwest. sizzling in the southwest into texas. sunny, warm, up and down the eastern seaboard. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your nebl neck of the woods. we re into the 60s to near 70, low humidity, sunshine. later today, into the low 80s. low humidity in play. still not humid wednesday. warmer, though. more humid, hotter on thursday, maybe afternoon and evening storms. friday partly sunny, mid 80s. over the weekend, irene tracking along our atlantic seaboard close enough to give us storms saturday afternoon and evening. that s your latest weather. coming up next, how to look and feel younger from the inside out. right after this. [ sniffs ] [ female announcer ] with glade sense and spray you get a burst of fragrance when you walk by. get motion activated glade sense and spray and release the magic. sc johnson, a family company. and release the magic. i brought champagne. wow! the best in the world. .some chocolates swiss! ah.the best in the world. oikos greek yogurt from dannon. really? wait until you try it. so creamy thick dannon oikos berry flavors beat chobani 2:1 in a national taste test. mmmm. this may be the best in the world. oikos greek yogurt possibly the best yogurt in the world. like us on facebook and get a free cup of dannon oikos. covergirl trublend has skin twin technology. other makeup can sit on your skin, so it looks like.makeup. but trublend has skin twin technology to actually merge with your skin. how easy breezy beautiful is that? trublend.from covergirl. and, just like toddlers, puppies need food made for them. that s why there s purina puppy chow. with all the essential nutrients your growing puppy needs. purina puppy chow. [ male announcer ] but with pizza hut s tuscani tuesday, we have you covered! dinner made easy? check. [ male announcer ] get pasta for two for just six dollars, or family-size pasta for just ten bucks both complete with breadsticks. only on tuesdays. only at your pizza hut. only on tuesdays. why settle for a one-note cereal? get more with honey bunches of oats. four nutritious grains come together for more taste, more texture, more healthy satisfaction. have a bowl of happy. yep! (mom) i m so proud of you. the bus is here, gotta go mom. okay hunny, have a great day. look in your bag, made you something. (announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. now s a great time to save big on a toyota the most fuel-efficient full-line automaker. take advantage of the summer s best selection and the year s biggest deals on our most popular models. don t miss the perfect opportunity to get the toyota you ve always wanted. plus, every new toyota comes with toyotacare, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. toyota s nationwide clearance event ends soon. hurry in today before time runs out! this morning on today s beauty, turning back the clock from everything from beauty boosing foods to skin and hair products. we have the editor and chief of good housekeeping magazine. good to see you. great to be here. i know good housekeeping did a lot of testing. how did you figure out which ones were the best? second annual anti-aging award. this year we did all haircare products because more and more of these are making claims and some of them are outrageous claims. you find them in drugstores, beauty salons and department stores. we tested more than 70 products on more than 500 women. we had 2,500 lab tests that we did. our good housekeeping research institute and we have the winners. here is your chance. the first category in hair, this is at revlon hair color. i think to cover up gray. permanent hair color. we looked at things that totally covered gray that lasted the full four weeks they re supposed to and left your hair sign ahin manageable and not dry and performed well. very good price value. the root touch-up, you liked two products. there were only two touch-up products on the market. they both deliver. they are great for in between colorings. specifically because they have the cool little tools that will put the coloring where you want it. application is the key. that is the key. put it along your part and your hairline. if you don t have a tool, it s going to go everywhere you don t want it to go. who knew you needed conditioners that had anti-abling. when we did our skin care awards last year a lot of drugstore brands vastly out performed the super expensive brands. that s nice. in haircare, not so much. the goldwyner is purology. it s $53 a bottle. oh, my goodness. shampoo and conditioner. however, in both the lab testest tests tests o and consumers, clear winner. very rich formula. if you shampoo twice a week, ten months. what about these? biolage was the runner-up. less than half the price, also works well. this is a serum. this is something you put in both to protect your hair and to increase shine. is this a leave-in conditioner? exactly. it s a leave-in serum. compared to untreated hair, increased shine 3 1/2 times. huge difference. let s look at skin care. as skin gets older we start getting the dark spots. it s called a hyper pigmentation. there are a couple of things you want to do. first of all, you want to use a product all over that s brightens your skin and sloughs off skin cells. this is a great product for that. then you want a specific spot treatment. this product has acid in it. it works well. then use something more intense if you have a lot of age spots, a serum like this will work. it has acids and licorice, which oddly enough is great to do. would eating it have the same effect? oddly not. so a serum like that, would you put it all over your face? it is an all-over treatment. and then finally, no matter what you re using if you want to use a product with retinol, don t forget to use it on your neck and chest as well as face. retinol speeds up the skin cell turnover. it also fights hyper pigmentation. retinol can be really expensive but this product here is not. this is not. this is sold at walmart. it s not expensive. more and more products do have retinol in them. you can get a higher concentration from our dermatologists but these work well for most women. foods. why are berries good anti-aging foods? in the september issue you will find an entire diet to help you lose ten pounds in a month but nourish your skin from inside out. you want high vitamin c foods like blackberries, raspberries, broccoli has a lot, cranberry, pomegranate. you only need 75 milligrams a day. a cup of rapgs bspberries in yo cereal in the morning and a cup of broccoli at night, you re done. women have fewer wrinkles and moisture skin. one common denominator with all these foods, they re orange. beta carotene, right? this is very protective for your skin and you find it in sweet potatoes, apricots, squaush and cantaloupe. cooked tomatoes. okay. lastly, whole grains. whole grains. flour, rice, cake, triggers your insulin which triggers an inflammatory effect which ages your skin, whole grain does the opposite which fights the sun damage. thank you. we got to all of it. thank you. coming up next, a fire through the island home of sir richard branson while an oscar winner was inside. the dramatic story, right after winner was inside. the dramatic story, right after this. and st i m teaching attitude! if your kids want to sound cool, they have to look cool! so, here s what they ll need: denim, graphic tees, leggings and tunics, more denim, backpacks, headphones, hair gel, denim, converse one star shoes, denim, shaun white hoodies and denim. school takes a lot. target has it all. discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. vine-ripened tomatoes and real italian seasoned meat. the food got famous. and soon, so did the chef. hello, i am chef boyardee. quality ingredients no preservatives still in every bowl. now?! [ female announcer ] crest whitestrips two hour express. in just two hours you can have a noticeably whiter smile that lasts for months. hi. hi. [ female announcer ] two hour whitestrips from crest. life opens up when you do. new newtons fruit thins. real cranberries and cranberry citrus oat. crispy whole grain. newtons fruit thins, one unique cookie. newtons fruit thins, hey. hey mom! what is this? it s a special paste i invented to replace socks. why? because we can t find socks that shape to our feet. we re sick of it! try hanes socks with the smooth comfort toe seam. a better fit your whole family will love. and off we go! seeking inspiration from the world s best yogurts for activia selects. in paris we discovered the inspiration for a totally new yogurt. activia selects french. so silky and smooth with lots of juicy fruit. then our search took us to beautiful greece and this thick and creamy greek yogurt, so rich and full of flavor. it was a grueling trip! get your free cup of activia selects at freeactivia.com crispy granola layered with creamy peanut butter or rich dark chocolate flavor. 90 calories. 100% natural. and nature.approves. granola thins. from nature valley. nature at its most delicious. now to the dramatic rescue at the island loam of sir richard branson that was straight out of the hollywood movie. sure was. with complete special effects. lightning from hurricane irene which sparked a massive fire. this morning praising one oscar winning actress who performed a daring rescue. reporter: the raging flames tore through the luxurious compound early monday as richard branson and 20 guests were sleeping. it took hold incredibly quickly. twerp we were staying nearby and we woke up just to see gigantic 100-foot flames in the sky. it ripped through the house unbelievably quickly. reporter: branson s 25-year-old son sam heard explosions in the main house, sounded the alarm and ran over to help. it was terrifying to me because my daughter and nephews, nieces, friends were all staying in the house. i just ran naked towards the house to try to see if i could make sure i could get people out. reporter: inside the burning home branson s 90-year-old mother eve and oscar winning actress kate winslet who sprang into action for a daring rescue. she was staying there with her children. she had staying at the house with my mother. she said it was like being in the film waiting for the words cut but they just don t come. reporter: everyone made it out okay but the largest home on the private and exclusive island known as the great house was destroyed. monday afternoon branson tweeted, thank you all for your kind messages. currently just huddled up with family and friends in the continuing tropical storm, realizing what really matters in life. branson is the chairman of the virgin group which includes virgin atlantic airways and virgin mega stores. he s owned the island paradise in the caribbean for more than 30 years. this is a place where the rich and the famous come to enjoy themselves. reporter: matt got his own private tour of the island in 2004 from richard branson himself. these 74-acre island retreat costs $10 million to build. six homes make up the estate which can be rented for $54,000 a night. it s been a vacation getaway for celebrities like oprah winfrey, johnny depp, robert de niro, and jimmy fallon. nick lachey and vanessa minnillo got married on the island last month. for branson and his family, it s their own private paradise, but now it s damaged beyond repair. richard branson says he s going to rebuild. and branson says his office was based in the house, so he lost thousands of photographs and notebooks. his daughter holly was planning to get married there later this year. unfortunate loss but fortunately the good news here, everybody got out okay. so isolated. it could have been a disaster. absolutely. amaze that kate winslet was able to save his mom. we ve had happy ending in that. she s a hero, too. who knew. coming up next, easy casseroles. you may want to cook these up for breakfast this morning. but first, this is today on nbc. this morning on today s kitchen, casseroles that ares a easy as one, two, three. really popular in the 1950s but casseroles are still a fast and easy way to get a hearty meal on the table. crystal cook and sandy are out with the casserole queens cookbook, featuring these recipes. good to see you. how did you guys get back into casseroles? never leave for you? you know, i think they did a little bit, but i went home for christmas one year and my mom it had been a long time since we had any. when i had them they were just so good and i noticed every person in our family ate it from the littlest to the biggest. and we got back and started brainstorming thinking this is great. what s not to like? frenchy toast casserole? yes. do you want to help me make it? absolutely. take the melted butter and light brown sugar. okay. a little bit of cinnamon in there. make a nice paste. when that gets done you can put it in the bottom of this casserole dish. i noticed you cut up bread, day old bread? day old bread works well. it soaks up the juices. really good. i m just going to take six eggs, some milk, and a little more cinnamon because you can t have enough. definitely. agreed. you need okay. that s good. these make a little bit more of a paste but that it s going to be just fine. perfect. there you go. we ve got four minutes here. that s right. you make your base. your make your base. lay the bread on top. you can help me so we can get through it. okay. looks much lovelier when you do it at home. and then you pour that? pour that over the top. you bake it and it comes out beautiful. how do you get this nice brown? save the sugar stuff and pour it on top. and now savory. savory. just kind of a switch on this. still doing the bread at the bottom. still doing the cream. spicy sausage in here. you can use a less spicy sausage for that. we have brie that we have frozen a little bit to keep it hard to easier to cut in chunks. little brie balls. yes, little brie balls. if you would put that on top of that, that s great. i m going to sprinkle on the brie. come on, brie, how the that going to be bad? i love brie. could you use a different cheese? yes. any kind of a soft cheese. you can also put parmesan on the top of that would be great. we re going to pop that because it is a ball. and then here we ve got eggs and seasoned salt, mustard, sage, cream, and milk. mix all that together. that s the garnish. back aaway from the garnish. this goes over the top like over there. it s going to set up to be a lovely custard. that s what it ends up being. that s amazing. how far in advance can you make these? you can make this up to three months in advance and freeze it. three months? yeah. if you want to make it the next day, make it the nooigs night before, in the fridge, perfect to stick in the oven. just get it all set up? the beautiful thing about breakfast casseroles, they both can be made ahead of time. whe you do these, the breakfast one, do you start off early and then just get it ready and into the oven? yes. here comes some breakfast tycoons. hi! here is some breakfast. good. this is going to be the savory. oh, my goodness. a little spicy. i like these dresses. cute outfits. i got this at a vintage store in d.c. very nice. we do have a story about our apro aprons. a woman sent us all of her mother s aprons from back in the 50s. they are from her. very special. yes. this is delicious. thank you. thank you so much. thank you. it s been an honor. coming up, kathie lee and hoda are going to be working up a sweat, exercising through the whole hour. man: we need a good night s sleep. woman: which means a little heat to keep us warm. and a good dose of support for my back. some over-the-top comfort couldn t hurt. and our perfect dream factory s been built. you re feeling sleepy already? nighty-night. [giggling] yeah. 24 bucks later. that hurts. it s not like i really had a choice. snack on this. progressive s name your price tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that s dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that s progressive. good morning. it s 9:56 on tuesday, august 23. let s get a check on our gornous forecast. a beautiful morning. as we look at temperatures around the region now, climbing into the 70s. 76 at reagan national. we have low humidity in place. and lots of sunshine as well. later today, we should be making it into the low 80s, lots of sun and low humidity. and then more of the same wednesday. though it may be warmer but still not humid. thursday, getting more humid, hotter, and some afternoon and evening storms are possible. as we get into friday, we ll be hitting mid 80s and partly sunny. still rather steamy. but over the weekend, we may be affected by hurricane irene. it may be close enough to our seaboard to give rain to us right around the metro area on saturday afternoon and evening in the form of showers and storms. maybe heavy rain and wind sunday. now, how s traffic? a couple of issues on the beltway. first, outer loop of the beltway in maryland slow at georgia avenue and outer loop of the beltway in virginia an accident at route 123. two right lanes blocked there. you have significant delays. in fact, delays go back to maryland. here s live look at american legion bridge. very slow all the way to route 123. i-66 is still slow. in fact, eastbound right now, still heavy awestbound is normal. back to you. thanks, danella. coming up on news4 midday, from nbc news, this is a special edition of today, it s time to lose it with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. as they burn the calories. from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. hey, everybody, we re already doing it. it s try-day, friday, and definitely a dry day. well, maybe not. we thought there are so many of you out there that seem to watch us in the gym or from your treadmill or while you re lifting a few little weights. that we re in solidarity with you. here s the deal, throughout the entire hour we re going to be on bicycles or on treadmill or on the elliptical machines. and we re going to keep a calorie count. we re both wearing it s like we re on the biggest loser. oh, my god, we need shot number two. we want to see our crew, they re in it to win it. tommy, thank you, baby. here s the thing, we re wearing these calorie counter things and we re going to keep track of the calories we re burning throughout the show. yes. because it s there you go. get a, there you go, back there. anyway, so we re going to keep track. so all throughout, we know that you re working out and we know it s hard and it s not easy. but why don t we put a little music to it. this is flo rida and akon. listen to this crazy song. she ain t a waitress, but she made movies and when she struts her thing around it s like who dat girl, who dat girl louder she s a model but camera flashing and when she struts her thing around everybody be breaking their neck like who dat girl who dat girl who dat girl dat bobbie thomas. you know what, i m tired. this is the reason most people quit by february. the failure rate is hulk, 45% of us give up by the end of january. we re here to tell you that if you re like the average woman, you have gained eight pounds since thanksgiving. you re jeans know it, but you don t. it s hard to talk and be on the bicycle. not for me. i m a lot older than you. the average woman is 5 4 and weighs 164. the average woman of that height should weigh 145. at the most. that s something we can all shoot for. but it s not easy. dieting is not easy, staying on these machines isn t easy. but we re here to help you. you got to take the first step. every time we talk to joy bauer and edo our joy fit, there s always a moment where somebody says, that is it, this is my moment. i want my life back. hopefully, this is for you. and if you really don t exercise that much, we re going to have a lot of segments, joy is going to talk about your diet personality. some people can t miss desserts. and we make excuses as a result. or some people are too busy, they say they re too busy to diet. they have to go to mcdonald s and things like that. and a lot of women say, my kids need me too much. i m thirsty. we have our own sal. aka, richard simmons. hello, ladies! how are you! thank you. i don t know what it is, but it s going to be great. so excited to be on the show. that s chardonnay, 2002. who put that in there. wait, thank you, sal. look at sal, he s crazy. sal works here. okay. we re going to party off the pounds. sal, we ll hand this back to you. go ahead, sal, thank you. if you want to lose ten pounds and you don t have a lot of time, charla krup is with us, she ll show you how you can slim down your body to appear thinner. it s called slimmer by dinner. apparently jimmy fallon had quite the show last night. yes, jim carey is on our bandwagon. he must have heard what we were going to do. you re not going to come sit down? i actually can t. i actually can t. i just got to i got so much going on right now, i just got to get back in shape after christmas. all of the holiday things, this is really important. that i stay my very best for the fans, i m hoping to get down to about, i don t know, 150, 155. how much do you weigh right now? 190. hey, hey, careful. you want to lose 40 pounds, by when? a couple weeks. no, wait, saturday, probably. good luck with that. so also on jimmy fallon, you guys have heard the ted williams story. we heard him, we saw him with his mom and everything. but i think he may have been his funniest with jimmy again last night. jimmy was hot last night. let s listen to ted. maybe not. the today show, man, that s a hot show in the morning. and matt lauer, he brings you, he brings the female out in me, because that matt lauer matt lauer is hot. me, too, me, too. brings the female out in all of us. unless he s lying. i don t think he is. but basically people lie three times a day. we lie about everything. we lie about our weight, we lie about our age. we don t. i don t care about my weight or age. how much do you weigh? i m down. three pounds, 126. how about you? i m still 146. but you look fabulous. they say people lie about everything. i think i lie more than three times a day. you would lie more than three times during our show. how are you doing, hoda? fine. i m not fine sometimes, my leg hurts, i had an argument with someone. but you re still doing fine, you re still upright. you re better off than most people, you re fine. that s not a lie to me. most people really don t want to know how you are. hey, what is this? what do you mean, 44 calories? how is this even possible? i am pedalling faster than her. no, you re not. no you re not. yes, i am! this is sick. your machine is not even on. i am getting the short end of the stick again. we have to tell you guys about a show we saw the other day. we didn t know quite what to expect. i should have known because charles bush stars in it. and he, i have actually done a little movie that he wrote called personal assistant for showtime. he plays a mother superior, he s a drag queen nun. lots of people are. and don t be the judge. that s the show to see. if you are a devout catholic, we suggest that you don t see it. because it can be rough. yeah. but julie hoffman is in it. allison frazier, some brilliant, brilliant, broadway stars, it s an open-ended run. it s very irreverent, very funny and i m not take mig mother to it. but i ll take a lot of my friends to it because it s very funny. i have to tell you one quick thing. i m going to try to fly in the snow to new orleans. you have a book signing tonight. a big event tonight at 7:30, i hope i get out. it s at the windsor court. a gorgeous hotel, i love that place. what time, hoda? it s at 7:00 tonight. it s friday funnies! show the calories again! this is ridiculous. show the calories. this is called that s when the fight started. i took my wife to a restaurant. the waiter for some reason took my order first. i ll have the rump steak, rare, please, he said, aren t you worried about mad cow? no, she can order for herself. and that s when the fight started. my wife was thinking about what she wanted to our upcoming anniversary. she said, i want something shiny that goes from 0-150 in about three seconds. i bought her a bathroom scale. then the fight started. bada-boom. it s time for our favorite try-day fridays, bobbie s buzz. bobbie s got on her workout gear. i didn t even own sneakers, i had to buy some. this is not bobby s forty. if i don t get to them my great things, go to klg&hoda.com. these are measure up dinner ware. these bangles are wristweights that are fashionable that you can wear on the bike for extra resistance. this is called super dry. i don t know where it came from. for all kinds of moisture. also i m really loving count me healthy bracelets. these are beads that move from one side to the other, so you can keep track of how much water in a day you drink. how many times per week you work out. anything you want. they re actually cute. they re stylish ways of keeping track or staying on your goal. and this diet calc is a purse, organizer, nutritional planner to count your calories and carbs throughout the day and more. and this is the weight scale that can give you how much food, how much it weighs and the nutritional value. but my favorite thing is miss sara, this is on the escali-go. i said it wrong. somebody help me. the elliptical. it s the newest craze, if you like the elliptical machine it s awesome. i ve been practicing. i ve seen those in central park. people actually ride those around the park. and it works upper body and lower at the same time? it engages your core, because you don t have a seat. i would like to stop everything and look at the calorie count. this can t be right. how can that be right? wait a second, every time i go faster, my numbers go slower. somebody s messing with me. i don t like it. coming up next, the very, very funny, seth roggin. will he get on one of these bikes? he ll show us if he s athletic as well as talented. and we ll talk to the folks at msnbc.com cafe. they re working out there. that s right, baby. work it out. you guys keep pumping away. we ll see you in a few minutes! i dance around in the shower a lot. i do a canadian special forces workout every morning. i m not a canadian. we re back with our real calorie counts. take a look at this. where are our calorie counts? i don t know. mine isn t working. it s all about let s see, let s see. here it comes. come on, it s never good. just keep your eye on it, something is going to come up in a minute. it s like the lotto. in meantime, comic star seth roggin had people laughing in movies like knocked up and superbad. and now he s in the new super hero feature the green hornet. i want you to take my hand and come with me on my adventure. i d come with you, but i don t want to touch you. you don t have to touch my hand, but will you go with me on this adventure? i have to hand it to you, seth, you re on the bike. i m on the bike, you did it. how do you feel? it seems a little i m worried about your feet. i m going with it i m going with it. you had to become an action star in your own right to play this role. did you have to get into training and all that stuff? i did exactly what you see right now for 14 hours a day. for six years. how do you like your new buff self? is there a six-pack under here? there s no six-pack under here. it would take me quite a while. how are you guys doing? you guys are really going for it. i can t believe i m losing at this game. so seth, you play a superhero. i do. does that role fit? it does. as you can see, i m very physically fit and graceful and coordinated. i love the little fist thing you ve got going. it replicates running. i think people in the gym should try it this way. people pay a lot of money for this. tell us about the young man who plays cato. a guy named jay cho, a taiwanese superstar. he says he s a taiwanese usher. i think he s a taiwanese justin timberlake. he s amazing, he sings, dances, acts, does martial arts. and he s a heartthrob. incredibly handsome. ea very handsome man. you guys are in good shape, because i m seriously getting out of breath right now. we like you like that. you got some personal news. you got engaged. i did get engaged, thank you very much. i appreciate it. what was there about this lady that said this is the one i want to spend my life with. she s just so nice to me and i like how he laughs. you found someone who really loved you, huh? exactly, we ve been together six years. how did you propose to her, seth? i proposed to her in our closet while she was changing. in her pajamas. and then we had buffalo wings. that s about the most romantic thing i ve ever heard. only seven calories, guys. mine s not showing. i just want to say one thing, can you put our calorie counts. on this machine, my mine says 103. on that it says 122. all right! i think i got 121. i got nothing. you re 121. i guess this is the bug brush, seth, but we appreciate you coming. we wish you all the best with the movie. it opens tonight, right? no, it opens january 14th. and it s in 3-d? it s the third dimension. all the best. take care, seth. you re just exhausted, aren t you? i m really tired. up next, questions from the crowd. and we re going to help you move it. we re going to mix it up today, you never know who s going to show up with us today. we have the wonderful brian williams that s mean. that s just mean. how is that jelly doughnut? it s really good. you re in such great shape, brian. i m just stopping by to applaud your efforts. you walk in the studio and you smell this combination of alcohol and sweat. careful, careful! that s right, baby, that s the way we roll. a little love s baby soft. it s nice, a little wind song. you saw the teases, bri, what did you think when you saw the teases? fantastic. i applaud the whole effort? all this thing you re doing. it s great. don t you think it s a great example? absolutely. we need to send the message, especially to young people you ve got to do this kind of thing. every day. get these machines and do this, because really important. obesity problem in our country. i know, people are porking up, eating stuff like this and this is really you re scaring me. joy bauer is having a freak. we burn 15 calories, so even a tiny nibble of that, brian, we haven t burned off yet. i got to walk across 49th street, and that s rigorous, in this snow you re often dodging, well, now with mayor bloomberg, you re dodging trash, there are snowbanks. it s unbelievable. so you got to stay why don t you walk backwards, the way you do best. then you won t see what you re walking into. those are good. good doughnuts. bye. we love you, brian. we love you very much. oh, love you both. brian, thank you. and by the way, i applaud your efforts. we love you, brian. we ll be right back. no, we ve got more to do. we re going over to miss sara, sara, what do people want to know? we re jamming over here, i ve got tim from florida with a question about cravings, keep pumping. for all of you guys, what s the best thing to do when you have a bad food craving? thanks, craving. what kind of craving? burger king and all? well you have to go through a fast food restaurant, drive through, i would say get the grilled chicken, no mayo and a side salad with light vinaigrette. you still get your fast food fix, but without all the calories and fat. doable? thank you. what s next? a question from matt from oklahoma, he s got a question about scheduling. my question is for hoda. i m a law student and very busy. how do you fit in working out in a busy schedule. i like what you re doing now. i get up a little after 4:00. i work out early because i figure get it out of the way. i pad around the gym and sit in the steam room and that s pretty much it. okay, we got a question from katie, alabama. favorite workout? my question is for kathie lee. oh, no. kathie lee, would you rather run for an hour or do an aerobics class for an hour? run for an hour, i like to choose the people i sweat with. dolly parton once said that. they asked her, if you go to the gym and she said honey, i like to choose the people i sweat with. look how good joy looks on her elliptical. you ve been on it way longer than me. again, this is impossible. the numbers are lying! the best foods to eat if you re trying to lose weight. how do i do it year after year. learning more about the man police say planned to ignite fireworks at national mall. coming up, what place say motivated the man from florida and how he was discovered. good morning, i m barbara harrison. coming up, how to make sure your teen average is not texting and driving. the app that will prevent that. news4 midday begins in a few minutes at 11:00 a state farm. this is jessica. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i m so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it s funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it s taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying? no, i just, i bit my tongue. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. text save to 7-8836. i have a starbucks diet, you don t eat all day and you just drink starbucks. the whole summer, i just ate spinach. nothing but spinach and water. i do not try any crazy diets, i m pretty basic with eating healthy and a balanced diet. we re back with what i call the die day with more of today, the special showe re calling lose it, with kathie lee and hoda to help you stick with your new year s resolution. or to help you kick off your fitness and health regimen. i don t believe these numbers, because someone s lying. but what does it say? 190 to 254. that s right. i don t even know how that s possible. my legs are half the length of yours and i have to pedal like crazy do get anywhere. we have madelyn here, how are you? hi. let s play. the healthy new year. we re going to try to have a breakfast on the run. take a look at this tall skim milk latte, 16 ounces with skim milk, does this have more or less than 200 calories? hoda? more. no. less. right. it has less. a question about this latte, part two, it has the same amount of protein as either one egg, two eggs or three eggs. the latte? one egg. no. i get to guess. two eggs. you re right, hoda. good protein source, just like having two eggs. now on to the treats, pedal faster for this one. all of these have 100 calories which has one that has less. which one is less, the three dark chocolate kisses, the orange cream pop, the three cups of air-popped popcorn or the two sandwich cookies. the orange pop? wrong, the chocolate kisses, only 67 calories in the three kisses. you re lying. the calorie counter is going to your brain. let s look at fresh fruit and dried fruit. here we have fresh grapes and typical dried raisins, a small box. how much fresh grapes can you eat for the same calories as the little box of raisins. 25 grapes, 35 grapes or 45 grapes. 45. you re right. so for the same calories, you can have 45 grapes or that little tiny box of raisins. so stick with the fresh fruit. my daughter must eat 5,000 calories a day. 5,000 grapes. grapes are fabulous. unbelievable. fiber is good, keeps you full and good for digestive health. what has the most fiber per serving? black brings, oatmeal or a cup of brown rice, which has the most fiber in each of these servings? i m going to go with the blackberries. you re right. it s got eight grams, twice as much as these things. we re tied? yes. three excellent sources of protein, chicken, tofu and fish. which has the highest amount of protein in these four-ounce size servings. fish. no. tofu. no, it s the chicken. this is the tiebreaker. i m so excited. small french fries and a small baked potato. how many calories will you save if you have the plain baked potato over the french fries? is it 130, 230 or 330 calories? i say it is, this is for the win and the big prize 230 calories! no. you have a chance to pick up what was the other? 130 or 330. 130. you re correct. because it was a trick question and i m lucky. that was a tough one. anyway too bad, hoda. the winner is what s the prize. the winner is, bring the prize in. come on, come on. the doggone fruit thing again? you get the oreos, you love the cookies. is from the edibles? is from edibles. i m at 200. madelyn, here s my question. if i eat this oreo off this stick right now, how much of that 200 am i putting back on? you re just going to put 50 calories on. i have 220, when it gets to 250 no, hoda! sal, come here and give us some love. thank you, thank you, madelyn. water or wine, hmmm! i need the water. coming up next, no time to lose the weight. how to look trimmer by dinner with just the way you dress. is charla krup going to get on the machine? who cares! .wait for it. wait for it. and now it s also hawaiian breeze. two glade fragrances meet in the middle, for one incredible combination. get glade 2 in 1 candles, and release the magic. also available in glade scented oil candles. sc johnson, a family company. in glade scented oil candles. 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. since right after the turn of the century. my grandfather, also a dairyman. and then my father, duane. i started out with my dad and my brother. [ scott ] when you have a family situation, it s just a progression. my position is at the bottom of the totem pole. since the boys came in, i ve worked my way all the way down. [ laughs ] he s teasing you when he says he s moving down the totem pole. he s just as important as he ever was. [ female announcer ] meet the families behind real california dairy at realcaliforniamilk.com. [ male announcer ] we ve got all you need for back to school with low prices every day on everything. backed by our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. 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. what keeps me motivated to work out is fit into my skinny jeans. i was motivated to lose weight by looking in the mirror and taking off 220 pounds. as we ve been discussing on this special hour, there s no substitute for healthy weight loss through diet and exercise. but if you need a quick fix and want to look thinner by dinner, charla krup can show you how to do it with your wardrobe. the author of the new york times bestseller, how to never look fat again. hello. we all have trouble with certain body parts. we want to figure out how to make them are you running? we all need instant gratification. that is the best thing. and i believe let your clothes do the work. you don t have to sweat it out. charla it s okay. let s start if your problem or your problem area is upstairs if you re big-breasted if you re boobalicious. five things to make you look thinner by dinner. one, a great bra, everyone is wearing the wrong-sized bra. they always tell you to up the cup. second, a great pair of shapewear that goes right under the bra band all the way to the leg. and also, i wear tights every single day in the winter. they give you control, they ll make your legs loon leaner and longer. a dress, everybody needs to wear a dress, it covers up all your issues. from your hips to your thighs to your booty. and heels. let s bring out our first model. nay dean. hi, nadine. that s her before picture. that s nadine before. now nadine has an ample chest. she s very proud of her body. but when she fits her chest, the rest of her looks big and boxy. we don t like that. we want to show she s got a great figure. so we put her in this fantastic dress by nanedte lapore. she doesn t look too busty. and by putting this eileen fisher little jacket over it. she halves her bust size and also this necklace is a miracle worker, it covers up all her cleavage. so she s a working mom. she could go to a sales associate meeting and not feel like she s sticking her chest out. before you move on, we re still breathing up here and we re running. speak for yourself. we have kim. now we have kim and kim s problem was sha thee xi felt she was very hippy. she was always wearing pant and especially in a colored pant, you re going to accentuate your hips. what you want to do is wear a dress. this is a wonderful dress from dkny, the ballerina look, which is very trendy and the built-in waistband. we re giving her this waist and it s cheating her waist and putting it up where she s the thinnest. who knew that she could wear pleets. she looks amazing. we re still running! we want people in the gym to know we are running. all right. your bottom. here we have la toya. la toya just lost 50 pounds. let s hear it for la toya! [ applause ] she was always wearing jeans. she wanted a new look to celebrate her new body. we put her in this fantastic rachel roy dress. all the dresses are from bloomingdale s. it really holds her in in the stop stomach. that s the focal point. when she turns around, you see this great diamond shape and in back, it cuts her in shape. la toya, you look so great. coming up next, if diets don t work for you, joy bauer has got your diet personality. after this. we re back and we re counting, i seem to have burned, oh, 369 calories so far. my precious friend, hoda, curious, 288. i want to see it for sure. i have a question, joy, before we get to your segment. what is going on here? i think that she s pedalling faster. she has shorter legs. you have longer legs. so i m a fellow short person. i ll stop right here. i have to work out twice as long as kathie lee does to burn the not necessarily, it s just the way the machines are work, calibrating the calories very smart. some people get stuck on diets, they try things and they don t work. but you ve carved it into various personalities. it s a personal thing, all about staying power. you want to figure out what your obstacles are and your challenges and come up with solutions so you stick with it and lose weight. if you re busy you don t have time to cook or prep. what are you going to do? you re going to take some time the night before or the morning of and you re going to preplan what you re going to eat. and you re going to have a few convenience go-to light foods in the house. for example things like ladies and gentlemen woo! we have all sorts oh, yeah. no need for that. you like that. eye candy. what you got there, big boy. we ve got all sorts of smart ones and lean cuisine and frozen entrees and campbells, and progresso have low-sodium soups and chilies to have in your house. what s your name, sweetie? frank. i should have known. there s more? you also want to be able to, we ve got another stud. look at your tattoo over here. we have want to have the grab foods when you run out the door. for example you can take on the train or in the car, a toasted english muffin with peanut butter and bananas. granola, a yogurt and a piece of fruit. for the multitasker. what s your name, honey? paul. the next one is the commitment-phobe, they can t stick to it. they do well for three days and the fourth day, they lose it, they jump ship. so what do you do? first you have a date with tariq. you plan to have nonfood rewards waiting for you every fourth day. like hoda s book. you get some bubble bath. by the way, tariq if he shows up, the people will stick with the plan. you show people the treats and more treats, lose more weight. he s a sweets-a-who wiaholic. you need a 90/10 food strategy. if you eat healthy 90% of the time there s wiggle room for 10% sweet treats. that will translate to 150 calorie as day sweet treats. the pretzel-covered m&ms, two snick snickers. and i want to point out, there are some really healthy foods that are sweet as well. look at the grapes, pears, mangoes. yeah, they look great. delicious, cath wait. i meant them, they look great. up next, have we got the workout for you! don t move, we ll be back with first this is today on nbc. are you still griping? yes! if you dread the treadmill or a gym is not your thing, don t sweat it. we re about to show you a gym-free workout, designed to use the body you have to build the body you want. what is going on? okay. i knew something weird was happening. and it is. hello, kathie lee. what s going on? just having a little fun backstage, what s the problem. a girl s got to have a little fun in life. boys, carry her back. thank you, i m fine. jennifer cohen is a top fitness expert and the author of no weights requigym required. i love this segment the most because we re just standing here. you can have a gym workout while you re in your own house? all you need is a stack of books and a couple of dish towels and you re ready to go. this routine is four exercises, you guys do it four or five times at home with a 40-second break in between. you jump over the books and for a more advanced version, you take both feet together and go like that. i can do that twice. and 24 times. and then your go into your push-ups. sara, can you do push-ups? yes. i can do the plank pose and hold it. you should be practicing with these. and with the books, it increases the intensity and engages the core more. she s unbelievable. sara, good girl. and if you re a beginner, go to your knees and do that. then you re off to the dish towels. we re going to do a mountain climber with the dish towel. each foot goes on each dish towel. i see. you use a sliding motion. you can use a paper plate, a furniture slider. there s 25. after that, she s going to flip over and do a reverse mountain climber. so hips high and then one foot out like that. what is that working? your hamstrings. how often and how many reps do you have to do to try to get, work your body? what i like to tell people, do 24, so it s even, right? 24 of each exercise four or five times. i wouldn t trust her and then try to do that with a 35 or 40-second break in between. then down here. what are you going to show us. this is going to be a quick 20-minute body weight workout. that doesn t require any equipment. just your body. three exercises back to back before resting. this is a good exercise for cardiovascular endurance, building muscle, strength and boosting metabolism. the first exercise is staggered-hand push-ups. very similar to regular push-ups, except the hands are offset. one minute to go in the whole show. you want to make sure you re perfectly straight from head to heels, great for stabilizing the core and the spine. the next exercise is the hip raiser. great for glutes and hamstrings, look up to the ceiling. pause for one to three seconds, you can make this variation by putting one leg in the air. we want to thank richard simmons, our final calorie count is ? 352, to 423. next week monday from the gin mill, not the treadmill. snooki will be with us! at least she s going to want a cocktail. have a