Transcripts For WRC Today 20110824 : vimarsana.com

the 90-year-old was quickly helped up and is said to be doing fine today, wednesday, helped up and is said to be doing fine today, wednesday, august 24th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this wednesday morning. i m ann curry. i m carl quintanilla in for matt once again. it s question everyone is asking here on the east coast, and that is did you feel snilt. not a bit. i m from the west coast. i m used to major earthquakes. also i was on the ground floor having lunch with friends. my husband was on the 18th floor here in new york city. he said he felt the swing. how about you? we had just put our toddlers down for a nap and i thought, man, they are making a racket. as usual. but not as much as a lot of people around the country. 5.8 magnitude quake. it hit at 1:51 tuesday afternoon causing minor damage in around the washington, d.c. area. the washington monument has been closed indefinitely after engineers found a crack near the top of it. much more on a quake in a live report straight ahead. .c also, dominique strauss-kn is a free man. is he angry that cameras were all around him when he was first arrested? we ll talk to his defense attorneys. they re live in our studio. also ahead, could you imagine living in a home with 29 cats and 9 dogs? well, a mother of five who struggles with animal hoarding will be joining us to talk about her compulsive need more animals. startling for years to control her weight. she s going to reveal her slim new figure right here this morning. that s exciting. good for her. let s begin, however, with nature s wrath on full display here in the east. we re going to go to the late nest just a moment but we begin with this earthquake felt from atlanta to montreal and epicenter near mineral, virginia. tom costello is there. tom, good morning. reporter: good morning. they re blaming this on carl s kids. we ve had significant aftershocks here in mineral. we were all awaken at about 1:00 in the morning with this real strong rattling. probably going to continue, they say, for a couple of days or weeks or months. finally, look at the masonry on the back of town hall. it s come down. they re concerned about the structural integrity of town hall. throughout this area we ve got some homes that came down, but those were old abandoned homes. chimneys down. and now to the washington monument where they found cracks at the top of the monument. they have building engineers who are going to be looking at the monument very, very closely today. keep in mind, of course, the washington monument was built about 150 years ago. so they re concerned about how structurally strong that will be and the monument, of course, is closed today. 12 million people up and down the east coast felt this quake. the strongest on the east coast since 1944. got really scary because as the building started shaking, stuff started falling down. the earthquake hit in the middle of the day. there s another tremor. reporter: 1:51 p.m. eastern time interrupting a cooking show on tv in washington. these are ready. reporter: those who felt the powerful quake could hardly believe it. my first impression was, is the building coming down on me? i didn t know. i didn t want to panic, but everything in me told me to get out of that building. reporter: people not used to earthquakes in this region ran from buildings. some dove under their desks. david harmon was making a commercial for his car service company in virginia. what was that? my god, i think that was an earth quake. reporter: the 5.8 magnitude quake was centered here in the small town of mineral, virginia, 40 miles northwest of richmond where surveillance cameras captured the moment it hit. gas station, small shop, even sheering the bricks off the back of town hall. here at the epicenter this may be the most damaged spot. this is millers market. four years ago b.j. and his wife opened this small grocery store. and everything came off the shelves. they ve also lost their coolers and their freezers. that means they re going to lose their dairy products, they re going to lose their meat, and also the roof is in trouble. they think the damage here may go to $150,000. i was shocked. feel like crying because this is the only livelihood we have. reporter: a large area of the u.s. and even canada felt the shaking. from montreal in the north to atlanta in the south and chicago in the west. experts say the quake was exceptionally shallow, amplifying its power. we had about 25 states feel it, the shaking. that s rather unique in that regard. reporter: more than 80 miles from the epicenter they felt the tremors at the white house which evacuated for a time. the president briefed on the quake while on vacation in martha s vineyard where they felt the shaking, too. back in washington the capitol and congressional offices were closed for nearly three hours as inspectors checked for damage. the capitol rotunda was littered with paint and plaster from chips falling from the dome of the ceiling. we re working with the architect of the capitol. reporter: and tours were evacuated from washington s major monuments. all closed for the rest of the day. the national cathedral sustained some of the worst damage in d.c. three of the four stones fell off. the tower itself seems now to be leaning. at first i thought it might be a subway car or something. i realized there s not a subway around here. but the floors were actually rolling. reporter: so close to the tenth anniversary of 9/11 a special kind of fear in new york where workers near ground zero spilled on to the streets. and in washington where nervous workers were evacuated from the pentagon. as a product of 9/11 i immediately assumed the worst. and i also never thought i never thought of an earthquake in washington, d.c. reporter: a couple of late updates for you. there s a nearby nuclear plant her. the north anna plant. both reactors were shut down automatically when the earthquake hit. they are going to do a very close inspection before they power up the reactors to make sure everything is okay. there s no danger there of a radioactive leak. also, d.c. area schools closed today as they inspect the schools. and airports up and down the east coast that shut down for a time yesterday to inspect the towers, inspect the runways, they came back online late yesterday. they should be normally operating today, as well as amtrak. that s a mouthful. you re doing a great job telling it. thanks a lot. we ve got lucy jones, she s a seismologist with the u.s. geological survey now joining us. lucy, good morning to you. good morning, ann. it s not every day that we see an earthquake, even though this was not a major quake, a 5.8 in the northeastern part of the united states. can you add any more perspective on just how rare this event was? well, you have to go back 114 years to the last time we had an earthquake this large in the eastern u.s. that was actually also in virginia, 5.9 out near blacksburg. the size of earthquake that california has every couple of years. you have about once a century. and the reasons why it was so wide spread as we saw was interesting. it has something to do, as i understand, with the crust on the eastern part of the country. can you explain that? right. i mean, the good news for you is that you don t have very many faults. but that means all those rocks some people like to say that. very intact. so when you do have an earthquake and it s set ways off, like an intact bell, the crust keeps on ringing for a much farther distance than we see here in california for the same size earthquake. good news though is that you don t have as many faults. some might dispute that for me personally, but in terms of the country that s good news. does that mean it s harder to predict an event here on the east coast, if you don t have clear faults to point to? well, right. we have a big question about when we have an earthquake on the east coast why are we having them? it s not the big tectonic motions. so we really think that we could have an earthquake of this size potentially anywhere in the united states. it s very rare, but there s nowhere we re willing to say we couldn t have this size earthquake. i want to pick up with a couple of questions that people are asking. could what happened on tuesday be a precursor for a larger event? it s always possible, but every moment we pass since the earthquake makes it less likely. it s just that every earthquake makes others more likely. mostly they re smaller and we call them aftershocks. but about 5% of the time an aftershock will get bigger than the first one and then we change the name. but each day you go greatly reduces the risk. okay. we ve already had a small aftershock or two already on tuesday night. so how many more might we expect, how long might they be extended to, and how intense, as you just talked about, could they get? well, probably, given what we ve seen already, we ve already had a 4.2 and a 3 something early this morning. we might see another 4 over the next couple of days. probably we re going to see another magnitude 3 or so. mostly they will be within the next few days. but the there s a long tail where the probability s low but you sometimes see it actually as several months out. all right. lucy jones, thank you so much for giving us a little bit of perspective on all this. appreciate you joining us. i m glad to be here. it is now 7:10. here s carl. ann, thanks. you can t really prepare for an earthquake but that s not the case for a hurricane. this morning residents from florida to new england are stocking up ahead a possible hit from hurricane irene. al roker is up stairs with the laters. good morning. good morning. it s a category 2 storm and it is intensifying. right now 370 miles southeast of nassau, bahamas. category 2. 110 mile per hour winds. west northwest at nine miles per hour. right now we have hurricane warnings and watches throughout the bahamas. all the bahamas, turks and caicos are in tornado warnings right now. we look at a number of different models that we use to track this storm. and as you can see, we use the computer model projections. most of them bring it right across the carolinas and eventually on up into new england. here s the time line that we re looking at as far as the national hurricane center is concerned. hurricane irene, a category 2, starts its way up the coast. we get on into thursday and friday afternoon, it parallels the florida coast. saturday morning it s off the north carolina coast. continues up over cape hatteras sunday morning and by late sunday on into monday, it s in the new england as a category 1 storm. so we re going to continue to track this. but up and down the eastern seaboard, everybody has to be prepared and we ll have more on this a little bit later. carl? mother nature pulling out all the stops this week, al. thanks. people on a small island off the coast of north carolina are already being told to evacuate as irene heads for the eastern seaboard. nbc s kerry sanders is in jacksonville, north carolina. reporter: i m on emerald isle right now which is a beautiful morning which makes it that much more difficult for emergency management officials to tell people start to plan to leave because they see such beautiful weather. already, as you said, there are some mandatory evacuations under way. that s off the coast here of north carolina where this morning at 5:00 the ferry brought over about a dozen cars. the idea is to get the tourists off first and then about the 800 residents that live there off and begin so that they have everybody moving off the coast within the next 48 hours. with irene just days away with a possible landing in the carolinas, flags are already warning each goers to stay out of the rough surf. in myrtle beach tourists are trying to enjoy the beautiful weather before irene brings big changes. just trying to get in a little bit of beach time before some rougher stuff comes in. reporter: just up the road in north carolina the governor is warning residents to get ready for irene s possible arrival. residents and tourists are already being told to evacuate. prepare. plan for the worst. and pray for the best. reporter: irene is now headed for the bahamas where island residents are preparing for the worst and cruise ships are rerouting for safety. i was a little disappointed but i would rather be safe than sorry. reporter: forecasters expect irene to turn into a major category 3 or higher hurricane after it pushes through the bahamas. the exact path of the storm is still unknown. the computer models say florida, georgia, and the carolinas could be impacted. the impact of the major hurricane as we well know in the carolinas down through florida can be really devastating. reporter: in south florida i m nervous. terrifies me. reporter: many long-time residents who have been through more of their share of hurricanes are stocking up on supplies. we ve been through hurricanes in the past year and it s better to be safe than sorry. reporter: the words of hurricanes that hit south florida, 19 years ago today. we re underneath metro rail. the winds are gusting outside our car up to 165 miles per hour. reporter: i was a young reporter in miami when andrew became the worst natural disaster to hit the u.s. in al august 1992. residents along the eastern seaboard are hoping to avoid a repeat of that storm as they prepare for irene. a lot of lessons were learned after andrew. the government s response, how to help people that are victims. fema actually delivering aid. and a lot of lessons learned by individuals. yours truly included. carl? you haven t aged a bit, kerry. thank you for that. kerry sanders in north carolina. 7:15. once again, ann. carl, thanks. now we turn from libya where we re hearing from moammar gadhafi for the first time since rebels took control of tripoli, hours after hundreds of libyans stormed his compound. nbc s chief correspondent richard engel is in tripoli again this morning. richard, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. there are still celebrations going on here in green square. lots of celebratory gunfire and there has been that new statement from gadhafi calling on his supporters to take up arms. as gadhafi s compound was attacked, stormed, and looted this is a pistol taken from the armory. reporter: the libyan leader may have been inside. and he is now calling on his supporters to fight back and retake tripoli. the radio address also broadcast on arabic language television gadhafi called on youth, men, and women of tripoli to rise up and what he said they should to sounded. go cleanse all of tripoli, he said. go out and clear the wrath. in his call for civil war, for libyans to cleanse each other. the broadcast also suggested gadhafi was inside his compound when it was overwhelmed by rebels. the reports that gadhafi left the compound for, quote, tactical reasons. but he didn t specifically say when he left. but gadhafi may have stayed in tripoli long enough to see libyans celebrating what they are calling the liberation of the capital. the media reports said gadhafi has been touring tripoli. his whereabouts now are unclear. but gadhafi is still trying to form resistance, reportedly rooming a city he apparently still considers his capital. but there is still one area in this city that remains under the control of gadhafi loyalists. that is the hotel. there are currently about 30 foreign journalists inside the hotel, kept against their will. there was gunfire heard in the area this morning. but we haven t heard any reports of violence inside the hotel itself. richard engel, once again. great reporting. we can hear gunfire in the background there. please be safe, richard. thank you. i want to get a check of the other top stories of the morning. natalie morales is at the news desk. good morning, everyone. residents of nearly 5,000 homes were ordered to evacuate overnight after a railroad car filled with liquid propane caught fire in california. the red cross set up shelters while firefighters worked to keep the railcar from exploding. officials in southern california are also serving minor damage from an earthquake there that cracked walls and toppled chimneys near the new mexico border tuesday. the magnitude 5.2 quake was the strongest to hit colorado in four decades. casey anthony s a step closer today to be being forced to serve probation for check fraud in florida. the court on tuesday denied her request to have her sentence blocked. her attorneys claim she already served the probation while awaiting trial for the murder of her daughter. for the first time in nearly a decade north korea s reclusive leader is taking part in high-level talks today in russia. kim jong-il and medvedev was meeting today, calls for concern among the u.s. and asian and european allies. kim said today that his country is now willing to return to stalled six-nation talks on north korea s nuclear program. japan s battered economy is reeling from another setback today. moody s downgraded the country s credit rating citing japan s weak prospects for growth, political uncertainty, and massive government debt. and that downgrade had a strong impact on world markets despite tuesday s power house rally for the dow. melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange. japanese stocks are down 1% on the back of that news. european investors seem to be shrugging off the news. the focus now among global investors, whether chairman ben bernanke of the federal reserve will talk about further additional stimulus in his speech on friday. meantime, the latest data on the housing market is grim. sales of new homes hit a five-month low in july. a high jobless rate above 9% as well as backlog of existing homes certainly not helping sales at this point. melissa lee at the new york stock exchange. thank you. and a scary moment for former first lady nancy reagan who tripped over a post used for crowd control during an events last night at the ronald reagan library. as you see there, as she was escorted to her seat. 90-year-old mrs. reagan was not hurt. she was fortunate though because each year a half million older americans are hospitalized after falling. it is 7:20 right now. let s turn it back over to ann, carl, and al. thank you, natalie. good they were there to make sure she was caught. meantime, you re going to catch us up in terms of what s happening with the weather today. we had some nice sunny weather. here along the eastern rd, it s spectacular. we have severe weather to talk about back to the midwest. risk of traverse city, western new york, buffalo, louisville, st. louis, could see isolated tornadoes. activity near memphis, up to cleveland, and into alpena, michigan. rainfall amounts from 1 to 3 inches of rain stretching from upstate new york back to memphis. rest of the country beautiful here along the east coast. out west decent weather. slight risk of strong storms along the western coast of oregon. the hit or miss showers and thunderstorms in the gulf. the heat continues in texas. that s what s going on around country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. it is cool, calm, and quiet on this wednesday morning. we re down into the 50s throughout most of the region. reagan national is at 67. 60s near the waters. and today, low humidity, quite a bit of sunshine, clouds coming in. highs reaching mid 80s midafternoon. more humid tomorrow. we could get afternoon and evening storms. friday, cloudy, mid 80s. over t and that s your latest weather. just ahead, what is child abuse or parenting? a jury reaches the verdict in a case of a mother who forced her own son to drink hot sauce. but first, this is today on nbc. coming up, inside look at the life of an animal hoarder. we re going to talk to a woman who lives with nearly 40 dogs and cats in her home. she will open up about her struggle and the impact on her family, including five children. comments about the west coast about the east coast s reaction about the earthquake? we re going to show you the funny photos mocking those of us on the east coast. i know. day to show the world a better burger. 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 ve combined conditioner with a weightless nutri-oil treatment. to give 3x the internal nourishing power of our regular conditioner. new dove daily treatment conditioner. make friends with your hair. not a mammal in this household is willing to lay claim to its origin. but now is not the time for blame. now is the time for action. call 1-800-steemer. hershey s drops. a lot of hershey s happiness in a little drop of chocolate. pure hershey s. jif to go goes anywhere jif to go goes here, goes there jif to go goes everywhere goes here, goes there jif to go, wherever you go good morning. 7:26 on this wednesday, 24th of august. i m joe krebs. here s the latest on the east coast quake. the federal government is open but some government buildings are closed. those scrolling on your screen. the washington monument closed. also no school in prince georges county, spotsylvania, culpepper or fauquier counties. marc delays stacking up. brunswick 872 delayed 1:20 minutes. we ll check weather and traffic next. w: good morning. meteorologist tom kierein. off to a fresh and cool start this morning, all around the region lots of sunshine, temperatures climbing into the low to mid 80s by midafternoon. low humidity in place. tonight, looks like a wonderful evening coming up. increasing heat and humidity. and highs later tomorrow with more humidity upper 80s. danella, how s traffic? police investigating the fatal accident occurred outer loop of the beltway at eisenhower connecter. stick to local lanes to get by. delays 95 north at ponick road 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, august 24th, 2011. it is another stellar start to the day in the northeast, bright and sunny, as well as our crowd that is happy soaking it in here on the rockefeller plaza. hi to all of them. inside studio 1-a i m ann curry along with carl quintanilla. thank you so much for having you here. we re going to talk about this serious story coming up. it s about the tragic details, new details about the death of amy winehouse. her family says the toxicology test shows no illegal drugs were found in the singer s system when she died. so what killed the talented and troubled artist? we re going to be live in london with the latest on this story. she was so talented. also, where does dominique strauss-kahn go from here now that his sexual assault has been dismissed? does he feel like he was treated fairly? will he now sue his accuser? his defense attorneys are going to speak out coming up. right there in our studio. also this morning, disturbing and strange condition of animal hoarding. we re going to talk to a mother of five who brought nearly 40 cats and dogs into her home and nearly lost her family in the process. let s begin this half hour with the verdict in the case of a mother who forced her son to drink hot sauce and take cold showers. on tuesday, a jury found that woman guilty of child abuse. aditi roy has the latest on that. aditi, good morning. it took the three men and three women on the jury one day to convict jessica beagley. at the center of the trial beagley made and sent to the producer ofs of the dr. phil show, shows her pouring hot sauce down her son s mouth and then making her take a cold shower. in the case of jessica k. beagley we the jury find the defendant jessica beagley guilty of child abuse. reporter: the decision came swiftly. after hearing four days of testimony and watching this eight-minute video. what happens when you lie to me? hot sauce. reporter: jurors convicted jessica beagley of misdemeanor child abuse. beagley first drew international attention with this video. close your mouth. did you swallow it? reporter: showing her pouring hot sauce down her 7-year-old son s mouth and putting him in a cold shower to punish him for behaving badly. you are in the shower because you made bad choices. do you hear me? yes. reporter: beagley sent the video to producers of the dr. phil show and appeared on national television four days later, sparking tears among audience members and uproar among viewers. the act of videotaping yourself punishing your child in order to try to convince a show to let you on is the abuse. reporter: prosecutors say beagley reached out to the dr. phil show after seeing an episode on angry moms in 2009, telling producers that she was having trouble with one of the twins she had adopted from russia with her husband. a year and a half later the show s producers contacted beagley and asked her to send video for an episode called mommy confessions quts . id not think the punishment would is not have occurred if the dr. phil show had not done that. during the trial officials from alaska children services and the russia s consulate office visited beagley s home after the show aired and found in evidence of abuse or neglect, leaving the child an his five other siblings in her care. this is a very good loving family. reporter: beagley s defense attorney says her punishment of her son was strict but not cruel, according to the letter of the law. it s a more difficult case the way the law is written in alaska that makes it really tough as a parent to discipline your kids. reporter: nbc news has reached out to the producers of the dr. fiphil show for comme. beagley did not speak to reporters after the verdict. her sentencing is scheduled for next week. she faces one year in jail and up to a $10,000 fine. carl? aditi roy in los angeles. thanks. now, here s ann. all right, carl, thanks. now to the latest on the untimely death of singer amy winehouse. according to her family toxicology reports show the 27-year-old had no illegal drugs in her system when she died last month. nbc s michelle kosinski is in london with details on this. michelle, good morning. reporter: hi, ann, good morning. fans have been coming here and buying her music. her album went back to number one after her death at 27. everything the world knew about her addictions, now we know what did not kill her, but what did remains a mystery. amy winehouse did go to rehab, several times in her short life. now the mystery deepens into her tragic death. toxicology reports showing no illegal drugs in her system. the media may have been rather technical, this almost a very sad story, rather more positive end because perhaps amy really was in the right path to, you know, clean house, as it were. but maybe her body just gave out in the end. reporter: the results, which are preliminary, do show some alcohol. amy s family said in a statement, results indicate that alcohol was present, but it cannot be determined as yet if it played a role in her death. however, no mention whether there were any legal prescription drugs in amy s system which can kill when taken incorrectly. amy was found unresponsive if her bed by her bodyguards at her london home last month. in one of her last appearances just a month earlier, fresh out of alcohol rehab, supposed to be a comeback concert, it is difficult to watch, disaster. her family says she immediately canceled her tour, cleaned up her personal life, and those who saw her the day before she died, including her doctor, felt she was healthy. what did end amy winehouse s exceptional life? still an unanswered question. amy s family said they think her death might have been caused by her suddenly quitting alcohol. though doctors advised her to cut back gradually. now we know there was alcohol in her system, and more testing needs to be done. ann? a lot of people want answers. all right, thank you so much. and now let s get a check of the weather from al. narrator: today s weather . announcer: today s weather brought to you by chevy. every model back by 100,000 mile, 5-year power train limit itted warranty. friends from roswell, new mexico. you caused the quake? we did. we crash landing, wearing the sunglasses. now we know. now we know. thank you very much. let s check your weather, see what s going on. that meet continues from phoenix, new mexico into, texas. houston, another day over 100. ft. worth as well. 98 degrees in denver, colorado. the same in salt lake. cool in the northeast, 70 and 80s. 70s through the upper mississippi river valley. along the west coast, mild as well. we do have a risk of strong storms from the eastern great lakes back into the central mississippi river valley, slight risk also on into parts of oregon. heat continues through southwest. gulf coast, seeing hit or miss showers and thunderstorms up and down the eastern seaboard. you cannot ask for a better day. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. low humidity still with us and it s another cool morning. down into the 50s in much of maryland, virginia, west virginia. closer to washington and by the bay we re in the mid and upper 60s. today, mid 80s, low humidity, sunshine, and clouds coming through. tomorrow more humidity, highs upper 80s. possibility of afternoon and evening storms. partly cloudy try, over the weekend, depending how close irene comes to the coast we could or the latest on hurricane irene you can always check the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. ann? all right, al, thank you so much. and coming up, carrie fisher is here to reveal her new figure after a dramatic new weight loss. and now, will dominique strauss-kahn take legal action against a hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault? we ll ask his defense attorneys him of sexual assault? we ll ask his defense attorneys in our studio right after this. we good year at chevy. they gave us a consumers digest best buy award. then they gave us an iihs top safety pick and you. well, you gave us your approval. so we thought, why not give a little back. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. and now, very-well qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a chevy cruze ls for around $169 a month. our greatest model year yet is wrapping up. 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. listen to this. three out of four americans don t get enough vegetables. so here s five bucks to help you buy v8 juice. five bucks. that s a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. five bucks. that s a lot of green. what is that? it burns! it s singeing me! woman: i can t see! it s the sun. get out of the office more often with chili s $6 lunch break combos, featuring texas toast half sandwiches. chili s lunch break combos [ 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. back at 7:41. where does dominique strauss-kahn go from here now that the sexual assault case against him has been dismissed? we ll talk to his defense team in a moment, but first nbc s ron allen has the latest. ron, good morning. good morning, carl. you might be surprised that he s still here in new york at this luxury townhouse where he s been staying. he says he has a few things to do before he heads home to france where he says he hopes to resume one of a normal life. he won t face criminal charges but his reputation has taken a hit and he s lost quite a bit along the way. some 2 1/2 months after his shocking arrest the man known worldwide as dsk left court a free man, but no longer head of the imf, nor likely french presidential candidate. in his first public statement after criminal charges were dropped, strauss-kahn spoke only in french and says he was glad what he called the nightmare was over. i m relieved for my wife, for my children, and for everyone who supported me during the time, he said. prosecutors have taken the unusual step of asking the judge to throw out the case, saying they believe strauss-kahn did have a sexual encounter with diallo, a house keeper in this luxury new york hotel but prosecutors say diallo made so many false and conflicting statements during her investigation they couldn t determine whether the sex was forced or consensual, adding there was no physical evidence of a violent attack. diallo s attorney still insists she is the victim of a crime. women who are raped or sexual assaulted should not have to go through some type of path to show they lived a perfect life. reporter: in a last-ditch appeal diallo s attorney asked for a special prosecutor to take over. as request denied by two judges. diallo stills a a civil lawsuit pend for an unspecified amount of money and other damages. and so ends the criminal case, the house arrest in this luxury townhouse, to the accuser publicly coming forward to demand justice after her credibility was publicly challenged, and finally, to strauss-kahn walking away. but still facing dozens of protesters shouting at him. and now the fallout and the unanswered questions. the prosecution is being criticized for bringing such serious charges and for dropping them. the accuser could face perjury charges and her name and reputation have been dragged through the mud. dsk has yet to fully explain why he apparently got involved in a sexual encounter with a hotel maid in the first place. benjamin brafman and don are here, his attorneys. good morning. good morning. we heard him call it a nightmare. what has he told you about what he makes of the situation? i think at various times we ve had some conversations, some were difficult than others. i think now he is relieved. i think unless you have yourself been falsely accused of a very serious crime that you did not commit, i think it s impossible to understand the full measure of the relief that dominique strauss-kahn feels today. greatly relieved. the charges were dropped though, but clearly something happened in room 2806. forensic evidence of a sexual encounter. was he honest in the beginning that, yes, something happened but not the way she put it? as ben said yesterday, there s a great deal of difference between a sexual encounter and an attack. and the issue in this case was whether or not he attacked her. the story was improbable on its face that this man would emerge from his bathroom in the nude and jump without further ceremony on the chamber maid. so when we told the prosecutors that there was more to this story than perhaps met their eye and urged them to go slow, unfortunately they moved to indict within three days. as they said yesterday, the post-indictment investigation, the post-indictment investigation, which they did, is what resulted inreeing strauss-kahn. makes you wonder, ben, what would have happened if it hadn t been for that flight, maybe they wouldn t have had to make such a quick decision on an indictment. i think it s tough today to go back and figure what could have happened, what would have happened happened. we re dealing with the reality of what did happen. what did happen is he paid a heavy price for a momentary lapse of judgment that was not criminal. at the end of the day, now that the charges are dismissed, i think it s a statement to the world that in these cases, including the media, i might add, that rushing to judgment is not a good idea and let the system play itself out. the presumption of innocence is an important concept in our country. what happens to him next? public life in france, going back to global economic work in some way? i think he has a lot of options. i think he is probably best suited to talk about public life in france. but i think his options are wonderfully wide. he s a brilliant man and a brilliant economic mind when we need that most. yeah, i think until yesterday we have not been able to tell him that he was free to make decisions of any sort. today he is. and i think he and his family will take some time and just relax. they will make whatever arrangements they want to make about where they want to live and when they want to move. and then i suspect he will gather friends about him and make some decisions. there s always going to be, i think, a school of thought, here was a man who had a sexual encounter with a hotel maid, lunch with his daughter, and went to get on an airplane. have you made a moral judgment about the man? i think we shouldn t make moral judgments about people. in this country, if you do something inappropriate, you don t get prosecuted. the moral judgment i ve made about this man is on balance he s quite a remarkable individual. i m very impressed by him on balance and the momentary lapse of judgment does not make the man. i think he is a brilliant mind and i think he has a lot to offer the world, and i hope the offers are wide and interesting. thank you for coming in. thank you. coming up, what s it like to suffer from animal hoarding? we ll talk to a mother of five who kept nearly 40 cats and dogs in her home. plus, did we over react how the west coast is mocking the east coast online over tuesday s earthquake. right after this. [ male announcer ] summer is here. 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. a living, breathing intelligence that s helping people rethink how they live. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we ll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites. for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it s a network of connections and ideas. open and collaborative. extending far beyond the mobile phone. connecting you to a world of intelligent new devices and technologies. from today s best innovators. and tomorrow s. it s the at&t network. a network of possibilities. and what s possible in here is almost impossible to say. and what s possible in here is almost impossible to say. 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. 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. as we mentioned, tuesday s 5.8 magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the east coast since world war ii but the way they reacted received an instant mocking from from seasoned quake veteran tons west coast. mocking is a polite word. dissing us big time. twitter we crazy with it. the west coasters say we eat 5.8 for breakfast out here. right. a lot of people posted pictures. some of them were actually the east coast showing, you know, this is stunning photos of damage caused by east coast quake. there s another one i like. oh, there you go. very nice. very important. the aftershock right there. i very quickly retweeted an image i saw of a lawn chair. not that one but another one, tipped over, exactly making the point. one of our producers was in rhode island and sent this incredible quake damage picture. yes. what did she say to it? what did she write? we will rebuild! what s amazing to me is how people did things running out of buildings that you re really not supposed to do during an earthquake. good point. natalie s good point said she felt like she was drunk. she was. i had a lunch earlier today. i said, wait, i didn t have anything to drink. i know. but, no, that s a good point you re making because you re not supposed to run out of baluildi. when you get under furniture, get into a doorjamb, wait. don t run out. that s when actually most people get hurt. that s when actually most people get hurt. ah! i, mom how was school today? that s when actually most people get hurt. ah! [ girls ] good. thank you! phew! [ ernie ] we make our cookies the way only keebler elves can: with a little something extra. so every bite can be uncommonly good. with a little something extra. a mouthwatering combination of ingredients.e for you! i know you re gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it s new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. jif to go goes anywhere jif to go goes here, goes there jif to go goes everywhere goes here, goes there jif to go, wherever you go it s the perfect time to save big and get the toyota you ve been waiting for. take advantage of the summer s best selection and the year s biggest deals on our most popular models. and toyota has the lowest ownership cost of any full-line car brand, which means you ll not only save now, but down the road as well. plus, every new toyota comes with toyotacare, a complimentary maintenance plan with roadside assistance. oon. hurry in today before time runs out! good morning. time is 7:56. i m joe krebs on wednesday morning. a number of traffic problems out there right now. let s go to danella sealock to find out what s going on. good morning. a couple issues for you. police are investigating the fatal crash that occurred outer loop of the beltway. so as you are making your way towards the eisenhower connecter, take the local lanes, main lanes are blocked, while police are investigating. traveling 66 east, an accident right here on your left shoulder lane at suddenly road. 270, shady grove, earlier accident cleared but seeing significant delays traveling 270 south from shady grove to the spur. we ll get a look at forecast after this. good morning. another delightful summer monthing under way. near 60. later today mid 80s. not much humidity. quite a bit of sunshine. more humid tomorrow, upper 80s. perhaps afternoon or evening thunderstorm. friday partly cloudy, mid 80s. irene may be close enough to give us passing showers and storms saturday, maybe sunday. joe? thanks, tom. expect aftershocks from the 5.8 quake for days and weeks to come. the u.s. geological survey confirms the latest aftershock hit at 12:45, a mag 8:00 now on this wednesday morning. 24th day of august, 2011. we have a happy crowd here on rockefeller plaza. and you can see they want their families back home to see them waving at them so i m going to keep talking for as long as i can so everybody gets to say hi. we re always happy when people stop by. meantime, also out here on the plaza, i m ann curry and al roker and carl quintanilla. you have news about irene. irene is category 3 storm, 115-mile-per-hour. it is intensifying. it could get up to a 4 within the next 48 hours. keeping aen eye on that. again, a dangerous storm up and down the east coast from florida to new england. we re going to keep an eye on it. it s gone from a 2 to 3. also just ahead, we ll be talking about something that is really misunderstood. it s a condition known as animal hoarding. we re going to meet a wife and a mother who filled her home with nearly 40 dogs and cats. and her own son actually had to use colon to mask the snell of the animals on his clothes. that woman will open up in a live interview about her struggle. maybe that will help other people. also other people brave, carrie fisher is in the house. she has been battling her weight for years. this morning she s here to talk about how she didn t even want to leave her house at one point because he how she felt. now she s shedding her pounds and this morning she is going to be revealing her dramatic new figure to the world and hopefully that also will inspire and help other people. all right. of course, if you re thinking, okay, summer is just about over. we want one more trip. well, we are going to show you some great money-saving labor day travel deals. okay. that sounds great. but before we get to all of that, let s get a check of the top stories from natalie who is at the news desk. hey, natalie. good morning, ann, carl, and al. as al mentioned, hurricane irene is upgraded to a category 3 storm as it heads toward the east coast. forecasters say irene is likely to hit north carolina this week. then crawl up the coast toward the northeast. some vac wags have been ordered and people florida to maine has been warned to get ready for rough, possibly dangerous, weather. tuesday s earthquake is found to have caused cracks in the washington monument. the 5.8 magnitude is the strongest to hit the east coast since world war ii. it was felt from georgia to cana canada. firefighters are trying to keep a burning railcar loaded with liquid propane from exploding and leveling homes and businesses in northern california. the railcar caught fire tuesday, forcing the evacuation of about 4800 homes north of sacramento. moammar gadhafi is out of sight but not silent. from an unknown location he s calling on the residents of the libyan capital to free libya from the, quote, devils who have overrun it. the speech was broadcast today on local radio a day after rebels stormed his tripoli compound. nearly ten years later new york city forensic technicians are still identifying remains of september 11th victims. the medical examiner said tuesday that one set of remains has now been identified as a 40-year-old new york man ernest james who was assumed dead in the twin towers collapse. and a florida woman has made medical history twice. she was florida s first liver transplant recipient as 2-year-old in 1984 and now her son is the first child born to parents who both have had liver transplants. anderson weighed a healthy 7 pounds 8 ounces. and now for a look at what s trending today, our quick round-up of what has you talking online. little smith and jada pinkett smith are top search items on yahoo!. a spokesperson says the couple s 13-year marriage is intact and that there is no truth to a report that they re separating. the blogosphere is talking about a canadian schoolboy who used what he learned from tv medical shows to deliver his own baby brother in his mother s bedroom. 12-year-old s mother woke up in labor and he jumped into action. now they are doing very well and our friends have a new video that is going viral. it s a reinterpretation of the muppet show theme song. well, the tune appears on the green album and a collection of muppet songs that goes on sale today. i ll have to check it out. it s 8:04 right now. let s get another check of the weather from al. narrator: today s weather is brought to you by pfizer. brought to you by fizer. we have a lot of green shirts here. so where are you from? minneapolis. and what s that mean? okay. i guess it s a stumper! okay. well, good to see you all from minneapolis. they ll try to get back to you on that. let s see what s happening. we ll show you. latest on irene, now category 3, 1 115-mile-per-hour winds. moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour, 335 miles southeast of nass nassau. comes across the bahamas today, probably cause big problems as it does. then parallels the florida coast up to the carolinas by saturday morning. sometime saturday into sunday, crosses the outer banks and hugs the coast, making its way into new england early monday morning. that s the current path. everybody along the east coast has to be very, very aware of this and make sure you take precautions, have an evacuation plan and have emergency supplies. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. here a beautiful summer morning under way. temperatures around 60. this afternoon mid 80s, lots of sun, high clouds and not humid. get morgting more humid tonight. upper 80s tomorrow, maybe afternoon or evening storm. friday, partly cloudy, mid 80s. irene may be close enough to the coastline beginning late saturday into sunday to give us wind and rain. latest trends, it may drift farther east and may spare us any from? new york. new york. do you know anybody here? no. not really. we do. wait a minute. you know. cowboy jimmy, our camera guy. go ahead, get next to your family. yeah. there you go. that s a good look. all right. hey, we want to show a picture of you, al. i think that violates all kinds wait a minute, you got the camera back. no harm, no foul. so not to get in trouble with the union. all right. thanks a lot, al. coming up next, we re going to talk about something kind offer is use. we re going to take you into the inside world of animal hoarders. we re going to meet a woman who filled her house. [ male announcer ] it s simple physics. a body at rest tends to stay at rest. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you ve had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. 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. your kids will each take care of our class hamsters, lewis & clark. then i ll tell them the story of pluto, the sad little planet that was. i ll introduce them to some new friends, the fractions, and some cold blooded ones, the dinosaurs. [sfx: dinosaur growl] clark! anyway, here s what they ll need: markers, scissors, crayons, pencils, folders, juice boxes, pretzel sticks, glue sticks, tape that sticks, and glitter. so much glitter. school takes a lot. target has it all. back now at 8:10. with an inside look at the life of an animal hoarder. the hit animal plan tet series confessions animal hoarding returns tonight with brand new episodes. you land da who shared her home with nine dogs and 29 kats is featured in the new season. we re going to talk to her in a moment. but first, a look at her story. i would go crazy without my animals. literally go crazy. i can t stay at my mom s house. it smells awful in here. i m sorry. we just can t keep up with that many animals. especially the cats. i have told my dad i wish they were all gone. to make things better the cats need to disappear. yolanda, do something to help. i m not going to take back what i choose to do for my own sanity. yolanda who is not using her last name to protect her privacy is here this morning. also is a psychologist with the anxiety disorder center at the institute of living in hartford, connecticut. good morning. good morning. help us understand where this comes from and what you re afraid of happening if you are unable to have these animals? loneliness. you re afraid that you re going to be alone and nobody there for you. you re used to excuse me. you got emotional just looking at that videotape. yeah. yeah. because i love these animals. i love them. and i love my children more, and hearing my children i haven t seen this hearing my children say those things. it s devastating. everything i did, i did for their lives, to try to make it better. you said you have the most beautiful kids in the world. i do. and yet without the animals you ve also said you felt alone. how can those two things happen at once? i think part of it was when my oldest daughter, she graduated and moved on. i had family start passing away. and the animals were there to fill the void. when you don t have a comfort level, the animals fill those voids. why does this happen, samantha? there are numerous reasons why people develop this condition. in yoland a s case it s the fear of losing things. so the overattachment to the animals, a source of comfort. also by acquiring so many animals, a protective way of keeping other people out to prevent further loss. so there s just numerous reasons why people can develop, you know, hoarding and especially hoarding of animals. even though your children said that even though your children were upset by this, it didn t the wake-up call didn t happen until later, did it? what was the wake-up call? it was just all of a sudden it was, this is where i m at. this is where i m at. my daughter, my mom, they were so sick. my house was such a mess. what am i doing? did you know it was a mess? did you know this was a problem at the time or is this more about denial? oh, it was so denial. it was so denial through the whole process. all of a sudden i had the laaa, and it was, what have i done, what have i done, what have i done. i have these animals. i can t take care of them. my kids are suffering. my husband is working to, what, feed animals? everything just went to them. and then one day i when they called me and i looked at everything around me, had it not been for them pointing out, so how is that and how is that? they were probably 99.9% of everything that i opened up and i looked at. but it was so denial before that. would you call this an addiction? it can look like an addiction. there s so much that goes into it. you know, there are mood concerns, depression, anxiety that s often associated with this type of hoarding. impulse control, you know, there s just so many things that we know can look like obsessive compulsive disorder. so to say just a type of addiction would be to be missing the larger picture how much goes into this. it comes in different forms. another case of a woman named lisa whose house is immaculate but when her cats died she kept them in the freezer. what s going on in that case? inability of letting things gone. overwhelming attachment. and in lisa s case, she had lost her mom. and so, again, continuous loss, continuous loss. and her inability to let go of the animals, feeling like she let them down, like she failed them in some way and she was just stunted and unable to let them go. so she was just keeping them the way she knew how. you ve had a difficult past with drugs. you said getting over drug addiction was actually easier. so much easier. it was so much easier than this. how is that possible? it s very possible. it is very possible. i m telling you that when you let go of an animal, when you it s do no different than letting go of a child or a loved one because an animal loves unconditi unconditionally. and as far as i m concerned, it was just the most devastating loss next to my human family members that i ve ever taken. that s an important issue to be understood. thank you for coming in. and, samantha, thank you for your time. episode of confessions of animal hoarding appears tonight on animal planet. up next, carrie fisher reveals her new look right here after her dramatic weight loss. but first, these messages. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that s the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. hey parents, it s going to be a see, i m not just teaching woodwinds and strings. 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. 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. no, it s just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i m new, too. umm. he s new. er. than you. even kids know it s wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it s just the right thing to do. carrie fisher is best known for her iconic role as prince cess leia in the star wars franchise. she s also a best-selling author. her book postcards from the edge is made into a blockbuster movie starring sheryl mcclain and meryl streep, which is also publicly addressing her personal demons with honesty and humor and one of them has been her weight. but now she has lost 50 pounds in the past nine months. take a look at carrie before and now, that s right, drum roll, because here she is today, carrie fisher! come on out! holy cow! where did the rest of you go? i don t want to know. if i knew, i don t want to know because then i would have to take care of it. you look beautiful. i need to get out of the shot so people can see you right there. let me tell you, this is a big deal for you to come out here and be on national television talking about this. yes. at one point you didn t even want to leave the house. no, no. well, i couldn t leave it to go shopping because they didn t have sizes. i exhausted the alphabet on bra sizes, moved into like sa sanscript. and i did not know they had them. it must have been like an end table. so this is kind of emotional a little bit. wouldn t you say that s true? yes. i went and got to buy clothes that i would never i feel like not probably going to wear a lot of sleeveless things, but i think after 50, you know, there s a law. but, no, yeah, i mean, i lost 50 pounds. you know, the jenny craig food is good. yeah, yeah. i m not the type to say it if it wasn t. i m addicted to the cereal. it s like contraband, it tastes like you re cheating, which i like. that s good. yeah. it enabled, you re a paid spokesperson for jenny craig. it worked for you. here s the question i want to ask. how does the woman who is known for the line instant gratification takes too long find it within herself to stick to somhing and lose 50 pounds in nine months? well, i had a consultant who i could complain to and, you know, stamp my fat foot and say i didn t want to do it. her name is kathie. if there s someone it s sort of like the same principle, if you have somebody that is, you know, that you have to report to, in a way. it s like having somebody over your shoulder. if it was just me, i mean, i take things i start things just to give them up. i think i ve given up anything i ve ever started. what happened here? first of all, there had to be a spark. the spark was that i weighed 3 million pounds. it was more than a spark. there was a moments. you look in the mirror. i couldn t look in the mirror. i saw pictures of myself where i didn t look like i never thought i thought that was getting old. it turns out it s mostly getting fat. so you felt really bummed out. the spark happened. it implies something. i just wish i knew what it was. but it s not a good thing. are you done? 50 pounds enough? well, i think maybe so. i mean, i probably you know, it s the sisters that are, you know, if the sisters get i don t even know my daughter i said to my daughter which i wish my mother had said to me. what do i do that embarrasses you. she said, wear a bra. there you go. be proud of those sisters. some of us will a little bit less endowed. or a lot. but, listen, oftentimes i m sure you ve been annoyed when television programs like this one start rolling that videotape of you as princess leah in that, what, metal bikini? it s like being minnie mouse now. you know there s a marijuana called princess leia. not that i know. but someone told me that. not that i ve ever seen it. oh, my goodness. look at you there. yeah. that s got to i want to get back in the metal bikini and walk around the house like an idiot, you know. answer the doorbell, what, what is it? oh. this old thing? i m just wearing my my home style metal bikini. i ll come out with a line of metal bikinis for women over 40. very nice. okay. i might be interested in one of those. for dignity. if you want dignity you wear metal bikinis over 40. that s all i m saying. go on jenny craig and wear a metal bikini, and you, too, can wear metal bikinis over 40. in addition to being a spokesperson here for jenny craig, you re on tour with your show called wishful drinking. also your hbo special has been nominated for two emmys. and now you have a new boom coming out. it s hectic. it s hectic. congratulations. thank you. we re so, so proud of you. thank you. thanks for inspiring all of us, metal bikinis. coming up, last-minute travel deals after your local news. 8:267 on wednesday, august 24th. i m aaron gilchrist. a number of traffic problems. let s see if things are looking better. danella sealock has an update on the roads. good news right now. outer loop of the beltway, eisenhower avenue keshconnecter lanes open. no delays for you. here s a live view right now at van dorn street. looking good on the beltway in virginia. and right now, we have a situation, harry s. truman parkway, medevac situation. all lanes blocked at reeve va road. back to you. weather next. stay with us. another delightful summer morning. right now 60s, low humidity, sunshine. high in the mid 80s. not humid today but getting more humid tomorrow. afternoon highs upper 80s. could get afternoon or evening storms. aaron? here s the latest this morning on the east coast quake. the federal government opened with unscheduled leave and work today. some government buildings closed. go to nbcwashington.com for a full l 8:30 now on this wednesday morning, 24th day of august, 2011. hello, everybody. these folks are making the most of their summer vacation with a stop here in rockefeller plaza. they re saying hello to everybody. take a quick look if you have a family member out here. come back on friday, they re going to be treated to a live concert from grammy winning group called train. how cool is that? very cool. and actually if you can t be here, you can still pick one of their songs. the choices are marry me, drops of jupiter, and calling all an gejangels. text 1, 2, or 3 to 622639. do you have a pick? i guess i would say marry me. marry me. probably a couple of proposals here on the plaza. that would be nice. very good choice. meantime, what else is coming up in this hour? coming up, a look at those looking to squeeze an alaskan summer get away and great travel deals for you coming up. also, it is a peak season for delicious vine ripe tomatoes. our favorite will be here with some fresh ideas on what we can do with them. he s trying to use some of the heirloom tomatoes. so many of us grew up with those yucky tomatoes. this is the good stuff. all right. before we get to all of that, let s get a check of all rig. chilly. it is brisk. all in all, not bad. refreshing here in the northeast. that will be changing. we ve got a risk of strong storms, ohio river valley, mid-mississippi river valley, portland, looking at plenty of sunshine up and down the east coast, hit or miss thunderstorms through the gulf. sizzling conditions. irene approaches the florida coast tomorrow with rain starting to move in late tonight. look for more rain in the northeast tomorrow. into the mid-atlantic states, hot weather from the west earn two-thirds of the country. sizzling conditions through texas. houston going for its 24 25th day in a row of 100-plus readings. that s what s go on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. the midwestern front sweeping through the region giving us rain, thunder. between now and then, today will be another day with low humidity and pleasant temperatures. right now in the 60s to near 70. later today mid 80s. still quite a bit of sunshine. partly sunny, more humid thursday. afternoon and evening storms possible. we may be impacted by irene saturday into sunday. close enough maybe to give us where are you guys from? connecticut. the smilo family. smiler? smilo. i m from your favorite culinary school, institute of culinary education. ry like that. almost sounds like robots. smilos, very nice. they re not robots, al. thank you for being here. have a good time. thanks a lot. we ll be talking about coming up about the final summer getaways that are actually still a good deal you can get. but first, this is today on nbc. back now at 8:35. this morning on today s travel, labor day bu, if you thought you missed the boat on finding your last hoorah this summer, think again. she scoured the web to find terrific last-minute getaways. good morning to you. one question i had off the top is, if you have a vacation planned for the caribbean, given that this hurricane irene is on its way, are you out of luck? i mean, it really varies from resort to resort and from island to island in terms of insurance. i mean, june to november it is hurricane season. it s always going to be a risk. this year lots of airlines have waived their change fee, this includes virgin america, jetblue, continental, america. that means you can book at no charge. you can change your trip. that s good to know. if you re in the process of booking a last-minute getaway, isn t it a little bit late to get a good deal? no, there are some good deals. you found one in park city, utah. yeah. sounds amazing. it does. it is the top sport at the moment and mountain resort is the place to try. they started to open their lift and their slopes in summer. and park city, utah, this summer opened a mountain biking park. it s good for novices and for experienced mountain bikers. have fun out there. the place to stay is the waldorf astoria. it s a five-star hotel. three-star prices at this time of year. $179 a night. and they have a fantastic spa, it s one of only six in the world. great place to rest those limbs. biking by day and in the afternoon, food and wine. exactly. exactly. the second one going a little bit west, cabo san lucas, yes. always nice. the favorite of hollywood a-list, generjennifer aniston g there all the time. if you re going in a group, book a villa. gorgeous place with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a jacuzzi. it s got to cost a fortune. if you split the price between eight people, it works out at $124 per room, per night. you have a kitchen. obviously you can do your own kitchen this saves money or a chef. for $495 a night in cabo. stow, vermont. clam bakes, lobster rolls, great for the kids. they have just launched labor day. off 40%. includes the trapp family lodge, you can t get better than that. it has that sound track in my head. 2500 mountain acres. loads of activity for the kids. starts at $165 a night. and the best attraction up there is the there s a ben and jerry s ice cream. don t forget that if if you like your cookie dough ice cream, try it there. finally, if you re in the gulf, last-minute deal in san diego. san diego, absolutely. and they have an all play no pay offer at the moment. rancho bernardo. fantastic organic restaurant. your meals are included in the price. plus, unlimited golf for two or spa treatments. really great spa. if you re a spa fan put this on your list. they offer massages. not too far from la hoya. 90 minutes south of los angeles, as well. are all these deals happening because the economy is sort of not doing that hot? what s the incentive? that s definitely a factor, yes. but often last minute, it s a great time of year to travel. certainly some amazing deals. if you think the game has been written already, it hasn t. ten days and still time. thank you so much. thanks. up next, from soups to salads, the season s best tomatoes. but first, this is today on nbc. back now at 8:41. this morning on how to cook everything today delicious and ripe, heirloom tomatoes. now is the season to enjoy them. the author of how to cook everything cookbook is here with some great recipes. new york times magazine column. mark, good morning. you look particularly handsome. boy, it s a great time for these fantastic, yummy tomatoes. not like a olden day tomatoes. this is time of year to buy tomatoes that look like something and taste like something. i remember when this was the only time of year to get good tomatoes. we re going to treat them right. four recipes here. one cooks them. the other three are raw. you seem to be cooking one right here. some might say to cook an heirloom tomato might be a bit of a crime. i would say for the most part you want to eat them raw but cooking them is good, too. i m going to peel a couple. i normally don t peel tomatoes but sometimes people do. make an x in there and throw it in boiling water. how long do you keep it in there? 30 seconds. that s why we ve had these in here for three minutes. a bowl of ice water. the thing i love about this recipe is it s tomatoes and peaches, which is my new favorite combo. you scored the bottom of this, too. same thing. is it going to work? look at that. nothing to it. look at that. nothing to it. 30 seconds and that s it. look at the peach, too. it s peeling. we re happy about that. that s working out. i happy. 30 seconds and that happened. boy, up obsessed. now come on over here. you ve got onions. onions cooking here. olive oil. ai little bit of olive oil. these are the ones you peeled? yes. like i said, i don t care if they are peeled or not. some people do. and the peaches. we cook those. it only talks a couple of minutes. salt in here, pepper? yeah. a little? yeah. a little. then what? then we cool them and put them in a blender. add a little cream, if you like, not essential. not essential but it makes it ice. yeah. yeah, okay. and then just a tad. and then blend. blend, right. and if it works, and it does we need to plug this one in. once we plug it in we re going to grind it. anyway. so you you ve seen this before. it turns into this. yeah. let s not worry about it. okay. we got hung up on that. we go nowhere. you have a little bit of basil. terragon, actually. toma mate to peach. what s great is tomato with cut up peaches. it s raw except for the peeling you really taste the flavor. it s so good. i m going to take this with me. you tell me about this. now we re moving into the realm of no cook. this is a stuffed tomato. i want to show you how you do this. cut off the top. scoop out the insides. you don t want to throw that away. no. scoop that away. stand back. stand back. yesterday i got food all over my yellow dress. that must have been so, yeah, all of these beautiful juices. you don t scoop it all completely out. just most of the top. chop that up. that s tomato insides from this odd brownish red tomato, with some cubed potatoes. yep. and some chopped olives. looks like some olive there s. yeah. and some tuna because we re doing sort of a salad with stuffed tomato salad. maybe a canned tuna? yeah. mush that up. make it into chunky bits. fill it up like that. just like that. because of the shapes and sizes, what a pretty display with all the different possibilities there. okay. i m going to take some of that, too. okay. this is a classic sis sillian dish. not really one of my favorites. chopped tomatoes. lots of basil. a couple of cloves of garlic but you leave them whole because you re going to take them out. hang on. okay. all right. a ton of olive oil. and you mush all of this together with some salt and pepper. you really let it sit for 20 minutes, half an hour. you fish the garlic back out. it s a raw sauce. that s it. pasta. throw maybe a little cheese if you want on top? that s not really done, but you could. usually it s not done. the italians don t put the cheese? more basil, more olive oil. this is really, to me, the best juice of raw tomatoes in late summer. right. you have this raw sauce. it s so wonderful. it has that freshness. you think that will go in there in 30 minutes, the flavor? you don t want to chew it. of course you don t. but the bottom line is that this is probably one of the easiest pasta salads i ve ever seen. no cook pasta salad. now, finally, fresh sliced tomatoes. a little olive oil. salt and pepper. if you want to grab that, that s fine. and some fresh ricotta or use cream fresh or cottage cheese is great. and a mint, which is a little unusual. what s the story with that? gives it a little bit of a fresh very fresh, really light. beautiful use of a fresh heirlooms. we expect you to create a beautiful use of everything you touch. mark bittman, thank you so much. i cannot wait to attack all of this. still ahead, talking about the best fashion tips of all time, but first, this is today on nbc. this morning on leonard s look, a remarkable man who not only came back to life but sees a limitless future. the times are tough and the water s troubled. but 63-year-old steers the boat with confidence and ease, still seeing something on the horizon to smile about, still seeing a future worth sailing for. not bad for a blind guy, huh? reporter: a blind visionary and a purposeful mission, shared by others who might see on a daily basis moving with energetic swiftness. you go at a pretty good clip. reporter: to my hometown of illinois, they are headed to their jobs in a building i have seen but never visited, until now. we are the hope profession. people come to us with hopes and dreeps of a better life. reporter: chuck young is the president of the happy school for the blind. a 91-year-old institution dedicated to improving the lives of blind and visually impaired people all over the world through a variety of distance learning programs, from braille reading to the latest advancements in computer and voice recognition software. there s quite a few reporter: commuting from san diego home, a married father of one, works with hadley on a program promoting entrepreneurship, a subject he knows quite well having gained national recognition for owning nearly two dozen businesses while also encouraging other disabled people to test the waters and themselves in sports and business. but then isn t this a horrible time to be venturing into anything? i ve been there when it s worse. i mean, theoretically, i ve been there. reporter: or at least thought to be dead. while serving as a platoon sergeant in vietnam. they put me in a body bag where i stayed for two days. reporter: when the bag was opened to process his body for shipment back to the u.s., they found he was still alive. he had gone into a diabetic coma in battle, it took his sight but not his will to stay in the game, a game he could easily avoid. i couldn t stay home a disailed vet and not do nothing but tell war stories and all. that s not me. reporter: and it s not a lot of other people, either. people who realize, like urban, that human history is filled with episode after episode of daunting challenges. he comes one day or the other, it doesn t work overnight. they attempt for understanding. it s all together. reporter: some people have every excuse in the world to pack it in, to give up, but they don t ppt watching urban, a champion sailor and skier, moving around unfamiliar boat in unfamiliar lake michigan waters make me think about the limitations we impose on ourselves and those around us. seeing him trying to do something, my instinct is to give him a hand, do it for him. reporter: it s a sight to behold and an attitude to emula emulate. this is great. reporter: for today, mike leonard, nbc news, illinois. showing us all how to see something. great story. amazing. if you give people a chance to show us what they re made of, what they can do. the whole country is made more of what i think we realize. turn now to cookie collections. a few weeks ago we asked you to send us your pictures of things that you collect. well, here s a quick look at some of the best things you sent us. there s a lot of stuff. wow. jean from grand haven, michigan, sent us pictures of her husband s vintage tennis racks rackets. he has so many they fill an entire airplane hangar. wow. that s a lot. another major trend, pez dispensers. the candy dispenser that makes you look like you re throwing up candy. look at this collection. for 17 years he s got 600 pez dispensers and counting. i wonder he s got the kate and will pez dispenser. i haven t seen it but i read about it. also another popular item, magnets. people travel all over the world and get a magnet. the witmyers of georgia, each family member has a designated section of the refrigerator. what do you collect? animation films. anything? postcards and print. shoes. admit it. you also collect great videos, too. we talk about the earthquake here on the east coast. on the west coast, this goes back to 1987, the quake, nbc affiliate. under the desk. under the desk. christopher, the weather guy. right. they were worried about the swaying lights overhead. the camera guy didn t seem to worried. hey, where did everybody go? anyway. keith morrison was an anchor there. or was he? hmmm. ah. anyway, we ve got much more coming up, including the latest on hurricane irene. but first, your local news. good morning. 8:56 on this wednesday august 24th. i m aaron gilchrist. the latest on the east coast earthquake. the federal government is open today but some government buildings are closed. washington monument and the national cathedral are both closed today. also, no school in d.c., prince georges county, spotsylvania county, culpepper and fauquier counties, either. weather and traffic update weather and traffic update comi good morning. beautiful summer day under way. 60s now to near 70. later today mid 80s. sun, not much humidity. and tomorrow, getting more humidity. increasing clouds, highs into upper 80s. could get afternoon and evening storm. partly cloudy friday. irene may give us passing rain bands maybe saturday night and off and on on sunday. trend is it s pulling farther east. danella? traveling in maryland, trank ly franklin avenue is closed due to water main break. also you can see we re on the red outer loop of the beltway in maryland. this is a live look at colesville road. delays start at new hampshire and continue to georgia. thank you. another news update coming your way in 25 minutes. back to new york and more of today show. back with more of today on this wednesday morning, 24th day of august, 2011. crisp morning here in manhattan. should be a nice warm day. great crowd starting today with us. mine ti meantime, i m ann curry. al roker and savannah guthrie and car quintanilla. we are talking about this 5. 8, by most standards, not a huge quake but seemingly rare here on the east koesz. millions of people felt the ground shake. products came off of store shelves. washington monument. a crack at the top which they re looking into. here in new york, people came out of their offices during the workday. news conferences were canceled. a lot of nerves were rattled. how many of you felt it? i didn t feel it. i felt a little disappointed because we never get earthqua s earthquakes. my husband was on the 18th floor and felt it. i was on the ground floor and i didn t. i think that s more because he s 6 7 . he s actually built on rollers. the fact, another story we re watching, hurricane irene now a category three storm is battling through. got the bahamas in its sight and next the coast of the united states, the east coast. evacuations under way coastal parts of north carolina poop we re going to have more on where it s headed and when. a little bit later on we have help with your financial emergency. today s money 911, our crew will tackle everything on the safest places to invest these days and protecting credit cards from fraud and where your kids should be saving their money. all right. also a bit later on, it was the royal wedding of reality television. kim kardashian and nbc star kris humphries tied the knot this weekend. people magazine got exclues i ve behind the scenes access to the wedding and to the press. we will show you exclusive photos. it was a well documented affair. put it that way. kathie lee was right there. i know. excellent. they made $20 million off of this? they made money on it. really? we ll get into all that. okay. anyway, let s get, first of all, into the news. we ve got natalie at the news desk standing by. natalie. good morning, everyone. evacuations are under way this morning along part of the north carolina coast in advance of hurricane irene. tourists have begn leaving ocracoke island. today a major category 3 storm will be leaving the bahamas. winds at 115 miles an hour. the hurricane could get even stronger. irene is expected to move up the east coast of the u.s. over the next few days. keep a watchful eye there. engineers in washington, d.c. are trying to figure out how to repair damage at the national cathedral and cracks at the washington monument. this after tuesday s magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled nerves from georgia to canada. nbc s tom costello is at the quake s epicenter in mineral, virginia. tom, good morning. good morning, natalie. building engineers have already been out here in mineral picking up pieces, surveying the damage. behind me is town hall. they already picked up the bricks but you can see the masonry along the top and back. that s the same story throughout the entire region here and central virginia. from north to south, east to west, 12 million people felt this quake, the biggest since 1944. got really scary because as the building started shaking stuff started falling down. reporter: the earthquake hit in the middle of the day. there s another tremor were 1:51 p.m. eastern time interrupting a cooking show on tv in washington. the fish are nearly ready. earthquake. reporter: those who felt the powerful quake could hardly believe it. my first impression was is the building coming down on me? i didn t know. i didn t want to panic, but everything in me told me to get out of that building. reporter: people not used to earthquakes in this building, some dove under their desks. david harmon was making a commercial for his car service company in virginia. what was that? my god. i think that was an earthquake. reporter: 5.8 magnitude quake was centered here in the small town of mineral, virginia. about 40 miles northwest of richmond where surveillance cameras captured the moment the quake hit, rattling a gas station, small shops, even shearing the bricks off the back of town hall. here at the epicenter this may be the most damaged spot. this is miller s market. four years ago b.j. and his wife opened this small grocery store and everything came off the shelves. they also lost their coolers and freezers. they re going to lose their dairy products and their meat and also the roof is in trouble. they think the damage here may go to $150,000. i was shocked. feel like crying because this is the only livelihood we have. reporter: a large area of the u.s. and even canada felt the shaking. from montreal in the north to atlanta in the south, and chicago in the west. experts say the quake was exceptionally shallow, amplifying its power. more than 80 miles from the epicenter they felt the tremors at the white house which evacuated for a time. the president briefed on the quake while on vacation at martha s vineyard where they felt the shaking, too. back in washington, capitol and washington offices closeford three hours as inspectors checked for damage. the capitol rotunda was littered with paint and plaster from chips falling from the dome  center and tourists were evacuated from the monument, all closed for the day. national cathedral sustained some of the worst damage in d.c. three of the four pin knackles fell off. the tower itself seems now to be leaning. with the quake coming so close to the tenth anniversary of 9/11, a special kind of fear in new york where workers near ground zero stipilled out on to the streets. and near washington where nervous workers were evacuated from the pentagon. as a product of 9/11, i immediately assumed the worse and i also never thought i never thought of an earthquake in washington, d.c. reporter: all right. before my blackberry and my twitter account starts going off, this was the biggest earthquake on the east coast since 1944. i would hasten to add. d.c. schools and vicinity closed today as they survey the damage. a nearby nuclear plant here they believe is sound structurally. the reactors are still shut down but that s a precaution. natalie, back to you. thank you, tom. some anxious moment nsz northern california where a railcar full of liquid propane caught fire tuesday outside of sacramento. it burned through the night, forcing the evacuation of thousands of families nearby. at least one person was injured. it is now seven minutes past the hour. le another check of the weather from al. thanks a lot. in the last hour, irene is a category 3 storm. 1 115-mile-per-hour winds, 335 miles southeast of nassau. winds 115 miles per hour moving west-northwest at 9. hurricane warnings are up for all of the turks and caicos and bahamas. we most likely will see tropical storm watches up along the florida coast in the next 24 hours. you can see the path of the storm. right now these are the computer models we look at, and you can see most are in fair agreement. they come up along the coast of florida, carolinas, cross right across the outer banks and into new england. now here what happens we re looking at, as far as the national hurricane center model is concerned. category 3 storm right now, makes its way across the bahamas for today and parallels the coast, cuts across the outer banks of the carolinas, sometime saturday on into sunday. and makes its way continually up the coast and into new england by early monday morning. so, everybody from florida to new england will have to keep an eye on this throughout the weekend. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods.. well, the good news for us is that track is trending farther east, so the impacts may be less than we were thinking yesterday. right now gorgeous summer morning under way. temperatures in the 60s to near 70, low humidity, lots of sun. highs into the mid 80s. more humid tonight and steamy day likely thursday with highs reaching the upper 80s during afternoon. could get afternoon or evening storms tomorrow. friday partly cloudy. if irene does continue on this far easterly track a few passing time for today s money 911 where we help you with your financial emergency. first off, jean chatzky, today s financial editor and author of money 911. and sharon epperson, finance expert, and new to our panel, dave ramsey, the author of total money makeover and the host of the dave ramsey show. welcome. thank you. great joining you and having all of you joining our lovely ladies for money 911. first to start off, we ve got martha on the line from california. good morning, martha. good morning. what s your question for the panel? well, last week jean chatzky urged parents to encourage their children to save 10% of whatever they earned. i agree with the concept. i began saving my baby sitting money in an account that paid, you know, some little interest years ago and it was a real incentive to keep saving. over the years we built a balance portfolio of investments. we invested in some real estate and contributed to iras and 401(k)s. but in the past years we ve seen a year of savings nearly destroyed. if i m going to encourage our children and now our grandchildren to save 10%, where would you suggest that they put these savings? is there anything better or as safe than just a tin can buried in the backyard? jean? you ve got to put the money in the bank. and here s why. if you can go in search of a great interest rate, you can find an internet bank that s going to pay you 1%, which is more than you re going to get from the local bank, but you want that kid to have the experience of going to the bank and depositing the money and seeing the money grow. interest rates will eventually come back. but that is an experience we all had. it meant something. and your kids and your grandchildren need the same thing. go for convenience and open a bank account. go to skype. we have a viewer joining us, susan in kentucky. good morning, susan. good morning. hi. what s your question? well, about a week ago i got a phone call from my credit card agency saying that there was unusual activity on my credit card. and it turns out that somebody obtained by credit card information and somehow got $600 cash advance. and they asked if it was authorized and, of course, it wasn t. so they put it on fraud and said we weren t going to be responsible for it. and they sent us to the fraud department, and we re now on fraud alert with all three credit reporting agencies. i want to know what should my next step be? is that enough to protect me? did they obtain any personal information when they got my credit card account? okay, susan. that s a tough situation here. what she needs to do, what you need to do, susan, right now is to make sure that you have closed that account and you get a new card with a different account. not just a new card with that same account. you want to close that account out. cancel that card. get a new card. that s the first thing you want to do. another thing you want to do, it s great that you put a fraud alert on all credit reporting agencies. they re going to send you a letter and tell you how to get a free credit report. you want to look at that report and see if there s been any frud le fraudulent activity. you want to use that report to document it. and make sure you go to annualcreditreport.com every three months and get a copy of your credit report from each of the three bureaus and continue to monitor that situation. the other place i would urge you you to go to is the identity theft resource center. they have victim consultants there that can help you go through this process. but you really want to check your credit report to milwaukee sure there s been no fraudulent activity and file a police report. good advice to follow. thanks, susan. now we ve got an e-mail question. this one came in from california. it reads, i want to invest but i have no idea where to start. i m a full-time student with four kids and we live on my husband s income. that being said, every penny counts. i want to make sure i make the right decision for my family. dave, what does renee do to get started? congratulations, first off, on bothering to invest. a lot of people don t even bother. so the fact that you re thinking about it and talking about it is a huge first step. three or four things you need to remember. number one, be on the same page with your spouse on your financial decisions. so you and your husband need to work together on these goals. your most powerful wealth building tool is your income. and so a big part of investing is clearing out the consumer debt. so my first step for you would be to get rid of the credit cards, get rid of the student lobe that s been around so long you think it s a fat, get rid of the car, everything, get all that stuff paid off and then get your emergency fund built. first rule of savings, three to six months of expenses. then begin your investing. because then you re not every little emergency doesn t stop your 401(k) plan and every little debt doesn t drain your ability to do it well. so get out of debt, build that foundation to start your investing and be on the same page with your spouse. dave, thank you so much. jean, sharon, thank you, as well. and still to come, from the classic album to jackie o. to vintage chic. tips that never go out of style. next, kim kardashian, exclusive wedding photos. [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller. you ve been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it s the brand allergists recommend most. lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. can help your kids school get extra stuff. they re the only cereals with box tops for education. you can raise money for your kids school. look for this logo. only on big g cereals. you can make a difference. every cereal box counts. that s what people could say if you re still using a liquid foundation that can settle into your lines and wrinkles and make you look older. covergirl and olay floats above lines and makes you look younger. can your anti-aging makeup do that? simply ageless from olay and easy, breezy beautiful, covergirl. but also a caring touch. you learn to get a feel for the trouble spots. to know its wants. its needs.its dreams. call 1-800-steemer. 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. newlyweds kim kardashian and kris humphries jetted off for a short honeymoon but titit s the lavish wedding that people can t quit talking about. assistant managing editor is here with some of the exclusive wedding photos. people really had some behind the scenes access to this wedding. what are some of the things we ll see in this issue? we certainly did. and what you will see is about the most lavish wedding you can imagine. if you or i were to have this wedding, it would cost about $6 million. if you re a kardashian, diskourn, beautiful, lavish black and white wedding, old hollywood theme, lots of celebrity friends. just a really, really memorable event. so people was sort of the official wedding photographer. did you getting a cess to the whole day? what kind of pictures will we see? you will see pictures of kim getting ready, three dresses by vera wang, full length pictures of that, celebrating with her fam family, guests, ryan seacrest, the whole thing. it s a wedding album. it would be as if you were looking at your own wedding album and a lot of celebrities went to your wedding. do they go the traditional wedding photos? yes. kids running around. the pictures we all have cropped over our wedding guests, hi, here we are. those kinds of things, yes. other than the jaw-dropping price tag you just mentioned what do you think would surprise readers most about this wedding? what s interesting about this wedding is of course it is lavish. it is a royal wedding in a sense she is the queen of reality tv and all of us would dream of having a wedding this extravaga extravagant. on the other hand, on the part of it it s a family s wedding. you will see her nephew mason with his custom cut tuxedo and a diaper and her and her family interacting like any family would. it has a homey quality. she did have three dresses. why? was it just a matter she couldn t choose so, what the heck, i ll just wear all of them? i thought maybe she couldn t make up her mind. actually she s a real planner and planned each dress for each moment. she has a very old hollywood, very beautiful dress that she walked down the aisle in and then a more simple elegant kind of gown and dethen another gown. she had three different moments. like you do. like you do. i think a lot 078 of people are wondering how this works. you get some comped. did she get some stuff for free? i think the biggest surprise or the biggest kind of interesting thing for me was she wore about $15 million worth of diamonds from los angeles. she walked down the aisle with a head piece alone which was 65 karats. i don t know how you hold your head up with 65 karats. he had a 20.5 karat engagement ring. she keeps that. she has a wedding band that has 15 karats worth of diamonds in it. some of that stuff goes back to the people who lent it to her. it s a good promotion for them and people like her. and, you know, that s the statement. and she had the whole wedding was for everyone to see. the honeymoon seems a bit more private. the honeymoon is not for the cameras. they are going off to a very private honeymoon in europe. she will come back in new york city, he will go back to the nets. they will want to start a family so i assume more parties. thank you. we ll look for the issue. coming up, we re going to head to the kitchen to satisfy our sweet tooth with some gourmet desserts. but first, these messages. [ female announcer ] sweet honey taste. 80 calories per serving. 40% daily value of fiber. i m here in the downtown area where the crowd is growing. [ female announcer ] watching calories at breakfast never tasted this sweet. i ll go get my bowl. [ female announcer ] .or this huge. new fiber one 80 calories. yes, you can actually love breakfast. i m home! toilet s fixed. [ male announcer ] of all the things that happen on your wooden surfaces, disinfecting has to be one of them. clorox disinfecting wipes. gentle on wood. hard on germs. you kids almost ready? i ve got breakfast waiting for you. whoo! uh-oh. what? mom s doing her exercise video again. when mom s on a health kick, all of us are. and now she s made us breakfast. uh-oh. [ male announcer ] eggo nutri-grain waffles. you know it s made with 8 grams of whole grain and is a good source of fiber. all they know is it tastes great. eggo nutri-grain waffles. simply delicious. [ male announcer ] it can open doors, it can erase boundaries and hold its ground. it can even the score and start a movement. -it can. -[ beatboxing ] [ male announcer ] it can buy time and tell time. shhh. [ baby giggles ] [ male announcer ] we use our mouths in so many ways to open up to the world. after all, life opens up when you do. crest and oral-b. tell us your story at lifeopensupproject.com. still to come, a book club for kids. hidden clues. plus, dessert in today s kitchen. making fruit pies and tarts. and then fashions that will last generations. never ending.least the pasts 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. good morning. 9:26 on this wednesday, august 24th. i m aaron gilchrist. headline, we can expect aftershocks from that 5.8 earthquake for days and even weeks to come. u.s. geological survey confirms the latest aftershock hit at 12:45 this morning. it was a magnitude 3.4 aftershock. we are tracking hurricane irene. tom kierein for a look at the forecast. good news is that irene s track is trending farther to the east so impacts will be weaker than it appeared in the last couple of days. for today, bright, sunny, mid 80s. lower humidity. tomorrow 80s, humidity, afternoon or evening storms. into the weekend irene may be close enough to us to give us passing rain bands saturday night and maybe sunday. but the trend is pulling farther east. impact may be weaker than it looks. take a look at traffic next. good morning. if you re traveling outer loop of the beltway i have an accident just past i-66. i m seeing delays on the outer loop of the beltway, congestion here at the merge legion bridge. that will continue towards the dulles toll road. i-66 east, jammed at nutley, delays continue inside of the beltway. aaron, back to you. thank you, danella. news update in 25 minutes or so. back to the today show after the break. flying, tumbling and twisting, cheerleading, much more than the crowd you re seeing on the sidelines as we all know them. intense gymnastics in the competition these days. should it be considered a sport? we re going get into that debate later on this week on today. they certainly have stepped it up. used to be, ready, okay. at lot more interesting. pretty athletic. me, too. meantime, coming up this half hour, timeless styles. remember yak i cjackie onassis dresses. it s now more popular than ever. i m really excited about today s kitchen, nothing like pie in the center summertime, especially fresh, in-season fruit. the host of top chef, i m a super fan of gayle simmons she s here with fruity treats. she says they re easy to make, which is important. ice cream in a pie shell, right? i like pie. we like gayle. we like pie. what s not to like? perfect. we re happy. absolutely. a mysterious session of our book club for kids this morning. a book about a secret with a secret author. our young readers get to uncover clues in just a few minutes. they look intrigued. that s right. from money 911 segment we want to mention if you re on the east coast you need financial advice, advice, sharon epperson is hosting a web chat on today.com. she s going on it now. she ll try to answer question. ann, everything okay? ann curry s walking around. she seems concerned. everything okay? everything all right? everything s okay. she s making a cameo appearance. i didn t have a microphone on. sorry. bye ann. get ready for updates. before we get to everything we ll talk about, another check of the weather. let s see what s happening for today. we have a risk of strong storms. looking for your blackberry, ann? it s here. strong storms in the upper mid west, sunshine in the gulf coast tomorrow irene off the florida coastline. plenty of sunshine western two-thirds of the country. more rain moves into the northeast. and into the mid ohio river valley. that s what s go on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. another terrific summer day under way. right now near 70, not much humidity around. temperatures will climb to the mid 80s later this afternoon with a lot of sun, not much humidity, more humid tomorrow. hotter and maybe afternoon or evening storms. friday, cloudy, mid 80s. over the weekend, irene may be close enough to give us passing rain bands with gusts of wind, perhaps on saturday evening and on sunday, the trend, however, is that the track for irene is pulling farther east which would be greater news for us, perhaps weather. coming up next, ten timeless fashion tips that will keep you stylish for years to come, right after this. 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. [ male announcer ] that onion after taste after you again? new crest complete with scope dual blast technology blasts away bad breath germs and food after tastes. new crest complete with scope dual blast. blast your way to fresh breath. new crest complete with scope dual blast. 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. this morning on today s style, fashion advice that will pass the test of time. clothing trends come and go but great style is timeless. we have the editor of in style magazine with ten of the best fashion tips for you to help you out. good morning. good morning, thank you. first tip is inspired actually by jackie o., one of our fashion icons of the century. and that really was to have a full closet of sheath dresses. when buying clothing the tip is to think in multiples. right. if you find a silhouette in a shape that works for you stick with it. you don t have to do your whole wardrobe in that silhouette but buy a few pieces that you like in that silhouette. we ve got a bunch of different sheath dresses. as you can see they come in different lengths, different kinds of materials, accents. so you buy three of these in a year and this will see you through multiple seasons. sheath dresses do tend to work on a lot of different body types. universally flattering body cut. that s a good one. jeans are also a staple in every woman s closet, and men, too. choosing the right fit is obviously the most important thing and it s important to look for a little bit of stretch. a little bit of stretch. you try jeans on in the department store, you like the way it fits and then you need to make sure it has some stretch. usually around 2% lycra. you can have more but if you want to preserve that shape, that s what you need to use. to bounce right back. exactly. when it comes to a fancy night out you say rather than use just a clutch, use a chain-linked bag. what we like about this at in style is it provides an amount of versatility. the versatility of a chain so that your hands are free but also this is a purse you can take to weddings, brunch et cete cetera. a little more day to night. adds a little bit more edge to your life. a nude pump is something every woman should have in their closet because it goes with just about everything these days. you can t go wrong with a nude pump. whether it s a little black dress or suit or day dress. what s nice, too, is if you get it to match your skin tone it totally elongates your leg and frame and elegant statement. when you re looking for a shoe to match, it s the one that can go with just about anything. anything. suede, patent leathers. all different designers making them for a lot less these days, too. if you do have a limited budget, speaking of going for looks for a lot less, you say accessories are really a great way to get a lot of bang for your buck. we have a great example of that. we have an in style staffer in a basic black dress. you might not spend a lot of money on. amp it up. accessories are transformative. we ve got a great statement necklace, gold cuff. and great colored bag. exactly. this is your moment to have fun with shapes and structures and colors. okay. and then next, you say recast your jewelry. say, for example, if this is typically a necklace you would wear, wear it as a bracelet. we all have drawers full of jewelry we might not be wearing. this is a classic necklace just in its general structure and design. beautiful but the minute you put it on as a bracelet you can see it adds a little bit of top-edge elegance to your look. cool. i like that. think of different ways, i know a lot of us have clip earrings that we ll never wear. you can put them on your flats, a broach on a chain. there s a lot of versatility there. okay. now, here s another important tip, ladies. it s what you wear underneath that really makes a difference. you say it s important to invest in a really good t-shirt bra. absolutely. you know when you wear a t-shirt that can be thin these days. if you don t want to wear a bra that s embellished or have texture look for something like these calvin klein bras that are seamless. a little bit of lining, contouring so the shirt lays flat. cleanest look possible. okay. and then if you re going to invest in a look that is timeless, leopard print is? leopard print is always in. it s one of those rare elements that is racy a little bit and timeless and adds a bit of glam and you don t need a lot. a little goes a lot. a little belt. a little belt from j. crew, wallet from kohl s, scarf, pair of shoes. then, vintage. you found some vintage looks from the past. remember those jumpers? yes, they are back. they are back. they don t look like this anymore. right. take somebody with a bold sense of style to carry this off. you would. but if you like the idea of a jumper wear something with a softer silhouette that has a more modern interpretation for today. add an element of surprise as a tip to any outfit. the idea is contrast. you ve got a masculine style motorcycle jacket with a dainty feminine day dress. the contrast is what makes that look chic. that looks great. thanks so much. thank you. great tips for all of us to put to use. coming up next, al s book club for kids is back in season, but the book and the author are secrets. the mystery revealed right after this. [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller. you ve been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it s the brand allergists recommend most. lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. 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. kraft singles. we re rich in calcium to help build em up strong. ooh, watch out, bad guys. kraft singles. the american cheese. and we dream up all the best stuff and we can make it up cause we were made for each other. for always, oh oh, for always. . . . this morning on al s book club for kids, the name of this book is a secret. hidden clues, it s the story that two young outcasts who must use their witts to solve the mystery of dead magician and a classmate. the author of the name of this book is we secret. and our book club kids, min, go you guys. you have a good summer? yes. we ve also got a special guest live from skype, price nelson from maryland. good to see you, everybody. and let s get started. hi. hi, how are you, price? immigra m great. first, we want to talk to our author, synonymous bosh. is that your real name? am i among friends here? yes. no hidden cameras? no. bosh of course is a made up name. synonymous is a family name. real name. family portraits, we re the ones with our hands like this. kind of like that. okay. very good. now, this was actually the first of your five-part secret series. why did you write this? there s a secret story behind the name of this book, can we all keep this between ourselves? yes. i wrote it originally as part of a volunteer program at an elementary school. and i had a writing partner named may who was a fourth grader. and i wrote the book in installments through the mail for her. and we were not supposed to divulge our names, hence, synonymous bosh. let s get to our book club kids. first of all, michael, what was your question for mr. bosh. while riding why did you decide to see the code instead of just giving information? ah, well, i loved secret codes when i was a kid. i was obsessed with morris code. i used to send messages all the time for no reason at all. and as a writer, i think codes and puzzles are sort of just a wonderful device for keeping readers engaged. if you think about it, a mystery look like this in a way is kind of a big puzzle. so i just kind of stuck with that theme on all levels and had a good time with it. all right. what s your question? hi. my question is, who are some of your favorite authors and how have they influenced your writing career? when i was a kid i read all the time, almost a book a day. i just read when i was supposed to be doing my homework or eating dinner or anything else. all kinds of books, fantasiesfa mysteries. my all-time favorite was lol doll. if you knew how much i like chocolate you might be able to guess why it s my favorite. bridget, what s your question for mr. bosh? in the novel kat thie deals with being prepared for disasters. do you see yourself as a survivalist? cass, who carries a backpack full of survival supplies who wants to be prepared for anything, that character really came out of my seeing all the disasters that had been in the news over the last several years. i was thinking about what would it be like to be a kid growing up with all these disasters around them. and wouldn t you want to feel prepared and like a survivalist? that s where the character came from. our last question is from 9-year-old price. he s from phoenix, maryland. price, what s your question? well, i d like to ask, do you know someone who does? if not, how did you learn about it and decide to put it in the book? the confusion of the senses, and it s a condition, not a bad condition, but a real condition that a lot of people have is a big theme in the book, as are the senses. five books in my series. one for each sense, which the fifth book is about touch coming out soon. and, yes, i know several people with it although i don t have it. they see numbers and letters in color, which is one of the most common forms. good question, price. let s see how our kids rated the book on a scale of one to five. the name of the book called secrets is five stars. terrific. terrific. thank you, guys. thank you, price, as well. if you re between the ages of 9 and 12 and would like a chance to be selected as our next guest kid, go to today.com. time to reveal the next book. it is wonder struck by brian zelznick. he wrote the first book on al s book club for kids. this is going to be on book shelves september 13th. mr. bosh, thank you so much. guys, thank you. thank you. coming up next in today s kitchen, pie in the skye dream some krewe true. but fir but first, this is today on nbc. this morning in today s kitchen, desserts that are as easy as one, two, three. summertime calls for a little bit of pie and who better to share some delicious recipes than the host of top chef just desserts, gayle simmons and project director of food and wine magazine. i love you. very exciting to be here. the season starts tonight for just desserts. i love top chef but the pastry chefs are more interesting. it s a whole other ball game. especially this season tonight you will see on bravo the pastry chefs go all out. it s not about putting it on the plate, it s about structures and sugar and architecture and magic. it s like art. what are we going to make? that looks good, too. these are my favorites from a pies are pies from food and wine magazine and they re easy and almost require no baking. they all have a little twist. the first one is a ice cream pie. i m going to put them in sugar snaps ginger snaps, candied ginger, give it a great little chew. and then some butter. i m going to put that all in the food processor and pulse it up. how long? you watch it, you ll see. mix it together. okay. just like that. put it in like a spring form pan. how would i know that? you said you didn t bake. well, i know a couple of things. okay. that s about it. you pat it all down. you can pat it in together. it should come together really nicely. and then when it does you want to do about an inch up the side. lit kind of work it ses way easily. we re going to put it in the freezer for just a second to firm it up p. we ve got one ready to rock inside there. we do. it s the magic of television. this one has ice cream in it. a pint of vanilla ice cream and made it soft and fold it in chocolate and shredded coconut and smoothed that over the pie. how did you melt it? yes. and then feel free to get in here if you want your scoop. going to take scoops of morva any la ice cream and put them around in perfect little circles. is there a scooping technique? using a really smooall scoop and a lever. one minute left. scoop it all in. passion fruit and i m going to drizzle this on my pie and toss with pistachios and more grated coconut. and then we ve got to get to this. peach tart. how do we make this. peach pie. smoked almonds, vanilla wafers, butter and sugar. same thing. in the food processor, pressed into your pan. cream crease, sour cream, egg, and sugar. it becomes like a cheesecake. bake this for ten minutes. pour the custard in. bake that or ten minutes and cool it. sets like this. sugar and peaches. how do you get the peaches to look so good on the top? lay them like a big circle and then you just place them on 9:56 is the time. good morning, wednesday august 24th, 2011. the latest on the east coast earthquake, the federal government is open but some government buildings are closed. washington monument and national cathedral closed new york school in d.c., spotsylvania, culpepper, fauquier county either. let s collect on the weather. tom. well, i have improving news for the weekend. the trend for irene s track is farther to the east, so the impact may be less than it appeared yesterday. right now beautiful summer day under way. we ll be in the 80s this afternoon. tomorrow humid, afternoon or evening storms. friday, partly cloudy, highs mid 80s. over the weekend humid on saturday. but the first effects of irene depending how close she is coming along the coast may be felt saturday night. maybe passing rain bands. and that if it does continue to track, near the coast, could give us, well, some rain and wind on sunday but trend is pulling farther east. impacts may be less than that. danella? i had an earlier accident outer loop of the beltway at i-66. that s clear. american legion bridge slow toward i-66 showing you the 14th street bridge. clear as well. did have congestion here. from the beltway on 395 to the 14th street bridge clear. and final look at key bridge. no delays here either. back to you. we have aful hour of news coming up on news4 midday at 11:00. 11:00. another update in 25 minutes. captions paid for by nbc-universal television from nbc news, this is a special numbers edition of today with 46-year-old hoda kotb and 36, 24, 36 kathie lee gifford. from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. i just want to say that s why we call it fun day, september 20th. somebody got the short end of that stick. she gave 36, 24, 36. if only that were true. and i get 46. well, i m about to make it up to you, because yes, we re going tell you special numbers today. it s a special edition of the today show. and we went without makeup, and today we re going reveal what most of you already know our ages. we are what we are and we re proud, for the most part. the idea of the show is you re not your number. you are the one thing is you can say when you were born. you can lie about it, but the truth i am 57 and a month already. you just turned 46 early in august. turned 46. we talked to so many people how do you feel wearing the button? some people missed it. what do you think about wearing it continuing i don t know. i m so over this kind of stuff, you know? my point is just grateful to be alive. yeah. and healthy. healthy. i do think, though, it s funny because i put this on facebook and twitter just to let people know we were going do it and most people said i have no problem revealing my age and they were very, very, very sensitive about revealing their actual weight. we just asked joy bower and she probably weighs 90 pounds and she doesn t want to reveal her weight either. you can snap her on your knee. and i would. we re asking our guests on the show to say their weight or their age or both. some people are uncomfortable. i get it. who would want to blab it on tv. it lives forever on cyberspace. this is established in time. you are your age, but your weight is something that fluctuates. here s been my great frustration, okay? i was 104 when i got married. that was 24 years ago next month, right? we were out in the hamptons with the friend over the weekend and i have realized i have gained one pound every year since i got married. i weigh more now than i did nine months pregnant with cody. no, you don t. yes, do i. you weighed 104? yes. remember distinctly being in sixth grade and everyone was in the 80s and 90s. do we have a picture of that? no! i distinctly remember when they weighed you for the presidential thing, i was 101 and when you re over 100 in sixth grade that s when you re in trouble because everyone goes you re a hundred? nobody cares about your height. you re over 100. that s big. so when i think of you being 104, and i remember 100 from sixth grade and i don t remember ever seeing it. a lot of it is bone structure. my mother used to say all of the time as she got old, well, you know as we get older we lose so much weight in our face, and i said ma, let s forget about the face and talk about the for a while, okay? because you have to take care of both, if you know what i m saying. my i was my heaviest, i think. and we are going reveal our weight, just not right now. we want you to hang in here with us today. we promise that we will. we ll do it, but i remember weighing on eye think it was my second job maybe. i think i weighed close to or more than about 180 170. you re 5 9 , hoda. it s a little bloated, but nothing and at the time i didn t realize i guess i don t know. maybe i wasn t as self-conscious. here s what i ve done in the last year is it s been almost one year because after you turn 50 nothing is the same. okay. so last year i gave up all bread and once in a while a cracker, but all breads, almost a year now, all sweets. you never eat me eat the sweets. you don t do the sweets. and five months ago i gave up dairy and my beloved wine, i drink spritzers now. what the heck is left and yet i ve gained four pounds since yeah. you know what s fun bethat? nothing. nothing. nothing is funny about that. what i m noticing, too, you can eat a bunch of crackers and eat almost nothing or eat a little and the next day you gained weight. i mean, i m watching and thinking how is that possible? today i ate almost nothing. i stood on the scale and i gained weight. i don t know about you, because you are 46, but after 50 it s all about hormones and you can t control them very much. we want to do a little math with our ages. it is just a number and when frank turned 80, and he doesn t like to hear about this, but if i look 80, he looks unbelievable. i could trade him in for two 40-year-olds, right? why would i want to do that when i could trade him in for four 20-year-olds. really? yes. beyond that it gets gross and probable illegal, but i don t know, i just thought that would be an interesting thing to think about. do you want to do me first? so what is 46? this is 46 years old. what does 46 look like? here they come. come on in, everybody. this is what 46 looks like. oh, look how cute! two 21-year-olds and a 4. you re an adult twice over, hoda. what s her name? this is lilly. hi, lilly. it s nice to see it all like that. a little more depressing. shall we do me? thank you, ladies. what adds up to 57? oh, no! a 23-year-old and a 24-year-old. hello there. i m excellent. and you? he s de sean and i m care err. i m just going play with them, i m not taking them home. look at what you can have. you what? say hello to frank who is probably watching and can kick your butts. we are making frank an honorary chippendale today. are you guys from chippendales? we came from las vegas at the rio hotel and casino to say hello. aren t we glad. what is your bust size? because that s where all my weight is now and it seems that you have the same problem, right? a little bit maybe sometimes. you guys work out how many hours a day. actually, not that long. you guy, thank you. thank you so much to come. thanks for having us. we definitely appreciate it. this isn t such a bad day at all. no. so far, 36, 24, 36 i win. and i get two kids. everybody feels sorry for me because i m the oldest person at the today show except willard scott and we re both going to be on smuckers, you know what i m saying? we aren t scared and we have our buttons and smuckers because we re going weigh ourselves in the morning so we had the right weight and we didn t want to give it to them on friday. i went to the wedding. i went to my friend lauren s wedding she s been together with her partner josh and they have a beautiful little girl. so you see more and more those kinds of weddings. we have to talk about favorite things, my darling. if you were going buy one pair of workout pants and these are a little pricey, but you put them in the washer and they will look like new. lululemon have the great yoga pants. they re great for traveling and great for the plane. they re $98 and they fit the body in a great way. well, they fit you because your rear end is near your waist. it s $98 at lululemon.com. i ve heard so many different things about sweeteners that scare you and there are a lot of chemicals and all that sort of thing. i trafrjed to truvia. almost every grocery store and yet much, much healthier for you. yeah. yeah, yeah, yeah. i ve given up everything in life, but you, hoda. there s nothing lfrt for me. what joy is there in life except for friendships. i have dear friends visiting from holland, michigan. wow! you know my dear, dear friend. they re in the dark over there with all of her friends. they wouldn t get on the scale, by the way. no, they would refuse to say their age or their weight and who knows? maybe by the end of the show. hi, guys. first of all, lululemon pants, my brother calls them my uniform. this is a clear complexion concealer that mary uses on me every day. so if you have breakouts around your chin, it covers everything it up and it s on me every day and it s about $8 at your drugstore or whatever. and you re probably wearing 33, huh? yes. so were my shoes, 33. i think i got someone else s button. they didn t have any more 25s. we ll talk to the women who are proudly wearing their buttons. we re going to talk food, menopause and weight gain with the experts. but first, here s what one woman had to say about her weight. we ll be right back after this. get on there. 152. went up. i fluctuate five pounds. we ll just say that. nothing could stop the vigorous warriors. victory was theirs. cleaning clogs shouldn t be a battle. get new drano snake plus. it comes with a tool and a gel. first, the flexible tool reaches and loosens the clog. then our most powerful drano gel penetrates and dissolves it. loosen. pour. done. the first time. guaranteed! victory! get drano snake plus and get flowin . [ female announcer ] s.c. johnson, a family company. i use the dove beauty bar. i use this bar. [ female announcer ] would you switch right now? please don t make me get in the shower. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] did you notice a difference? it feels a bit tight. i couldn t rinse enough. [ female announcer ] soap leaves behind soap residue that can cause a tight draggy feeling. dove cleansers rinse cleaner than soap. with its 1/4 moisturizing cream, dove leaves skin feeling softer and smoother. this is my gift to you. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] yoplait s perfect blend of real fruit and the goodness of dairy is just a peel away. explore all the delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good. [ chanting ] do it! [ all cheering ] [ female announcer ] it s fun to get dirty when it s this easy to get clean. that s because clorox 2 stain fighter & color booster works better than detergent alone at removing the toughest stains. works better than detergent alone you feel it working, so you know it s working. and that means you re good to go, for whatever the day brings. new crest complete. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a deeper clean. it s a signal that tells you your whole mouth is clean. you re also protected. because most of life happens outside the bathroom. feel it working, know you re covered. with new crest complete, life opens up when you do. i hate my weight, but do i it to myself because i love to eat. oh, no! 193. that s less than 200! first of all, everything s relative. and she did it with her shoes on. it could have been 190. we re back with the special numbers show and while you may feel there are many numbers that define you the ones that seem to bother women the most are their age and their weight. which is why most women lie about it on their driver s licenses. how can you do that? they don t check that. here to talk about that is plus size supermodel emmy who we adore. our own joy bower is with us. good for you! and dr. lauren striker, an obgyn. this is my mother s age. my mother used to say i m an 18-year-old woman trapped in a 52-year-old woman s body. do you feel that way as well? why does emmy have her age on? it s everyone s choice. you don t have to do anything in the show. i m definitely in my 40s, but mom, god rest her soul said you never talk about your age and it s just one of those things and it s not a big deal. the whole show is i m not a number. not defined by it, right. and just like you said you feel like you re so much younger. what do you feel like inside? emotionally, i feel like i m 100 emotionally, but really in thor have the verb of life i feel like i m in my 20s. one thing we talk about a lot how frustrating it is the older you get how difficult it is to take off each a single pound. it drives us insane. as we get older, i d like to think this, that the numbers matter a little bit less. i think that we feel more secure in our bodies and it s less about the scale and it s more about how we look and about how we feel. it s the most important thing. i have a little problem with that because a lot of women don t want to get on the scale when they come to see me, and they say it doesn t matter and it sneaks away from you. you know, a lot of times i ll have someone who s been my patient for 20 years and they gained a pound or two and they re not aware of it and suddenly they come in and they re 20, 30 pounds heavier. when you start working out you get more muscle tone. not 30 pounds and that s the problem. they ll be 30 pounds up and they ll say i m working out and the truth is they re kidding themselves because they are uncreau increasing their risk for cancer and the numbers are going straight up and the risk factor is obesity. do you find, doctor, that a lot of women go into your office completely unaware of what an eating disorder might be or playing with their food or not eating enough or eating too much and they sit there and ask you, because there aren t too many females throughout that are knowledgeable about these issues. we have this discussion all of the time and what i ve learned over the years is i have to be specific. it s not enough to say are you eating healthy. what go d you have breakfast? i didn t eat breakfast because ooechl on a diet and lunch comes around and you re inhaling everything. the one thing from women that are overweight, earlier in the day they skip breakfast. and it s a bad cycle because you don t eat breakfast in the morning to save calories and then you are starving by the afternoon and then you eat all into the evening and you wake up and you feel bloated and heavy and stuck. the high protein and the calories. i m the only one probably you re little over 50, but did you have that trouble when you were 502 that nothing was te same? the biggest thing that i get and women come in and say i m gaining weight because i m menopausal. the whole idea that when the estrogen goes down the weight goes up. that s not why women gain weight. what estrogen goes down, weight doesn t change and it gets redistributed. it s not like you can decide where it can go. it goes to the midsection and your weight will stay the same and your body will change. what happens in mid life, your metabolism changes and the lifestyle changes. instead of making healthy food for the kids you re going out and having bread and wine. you re not with the aerobics instructor. you say it s a redistribution? i hear this over and over again. if i ate like this when i was in my 20s i would be this size. you are this big. you can change your routine. work at it and you know that. we ll get some questions from people across the street who are brave enough to wear their buttons. yeah, but they could be lying, you what i m saying? can i have some ice cream, please ? no, it s just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i m new, too. umm. he s new. er. than you. even kids know it s wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it s just the right thing to do. sfx: bed crashes to floor kids seem to get bigger overnight. good morning. whoa! whoa! and when they do, they re ready for goodnites. the nightime underwear specially designed for kids 4 and up. maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. whose non-stop day starts with back pain. and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. way to go, coach. dinner with the girls tonight. ti really want dessert. i better skip breakfast. yep, this is all i need. [ stomach growls ] [ female announcer ] why skip breakfast when you can start your morning with special k multigrain oats and honey, a wholesome blend of rolled oats and honey-kissed multigrain flakes. it s a delicious way to get your whole grains and make your breakfast beautiful. and we are back with our special show dedicated to numbers and we are not revealing our weight just yet, but we will, we promise, later in the show, but listen to this number. 65. that s the united states health department s estimate for how many grams of fat a healthy adult should consume every day. 65. okay. here with the skinny on fat is today s diet and nutrition expert. you mentioned earlier, you stopped being in the sun how many years ago? about 20 years. were you reluctant to put the button on because my birthday is in two weeks. so i ll be 57. timing is everything! it is very liberating. tell me about this. what we ll talk about is hidden fat and globs of it and hanging around in food, but here are some surprises. hoda, i m going to start with you. take a look here. we know olive oil will be heart healthy, but how does it stack up gram to gram with a saturated artery-clogging fat like lard. we have a tablespoon of each. does this olive oil have more, the same or fewer grams of fat per tablespoon than the lard? i ll say the same. you re correct. it s the same. it s 12 grams of fat. 120, and you have to watch the amount because good or bad, they re stay away from lard. that s artery clogging. kathie this is for you. we know that they ll be heart healthy and unsaturated. that means they re not going to clog your arteries and here are five different vegetable oils and one of them is an exception. one of them is artery-clogging and saturated. is it going to be the safflower oil, the coconut oil, the corn oil, the soybean oil or the walnut oil? it s only one that s artery clogging. coconut? i don t know. i love coconuts. it s always something i love, you know? it s never, you know you ll do well today. hoda, this one is for you. we know peanut butter is a heart healthy fat, and portions can be really hard to determine. i know. this is a little snack. four full tea spoons of peanut butter. does a full serving of peanut butter does that contain 20%, 30% or 50% of the total estimated fat intake for a whole day. you what it s going to be? i m going with 50 because it s ridiculous. you re right! i ll eat that in one sitting for nothing. each cracker has a tablespoon and that s eight grams of fat. jelly or honey on it. that s not enough. uh-oh, cheesecake! kathie, look at this. who doesn t love a rich dessert? i don t remember. that gives you a hint. we hear about low-carb cheesecake or sugar-free cheesecake. how does that stack up with the fat? this is six ounces of cheesecake and it s a low-carb cheesecake, does it have more or less than 35 grams of fat in this serving? and it s low carb? it s low carb. more. just think about what you say and go with the opposite. even though it s low carb it still has a lot. this is 36 grams of fat, two-thirds of the estimate for the day. we have 30 seconds. let s turn to sushi. sushy will be good, right? sushy and fat? does this have 10 or 20 grams of fat? there s mayonnaise here. we ll start revealing our weight, madeleine. oh, yeah. we ve got to do that. we ll reveal part of it. so here is okay. this is the first of the beginning. ready? first digit. first dijity and we re coming back with the other two digits. on a recent trip to greece we discovered the inspiration for activia selects greek yogurt. irresistibly dense and creamy yogurt that spoons out thick, rich and satisfying. it was a grueling trip! try new activia selects greek yogurt. a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can stitch together a better deal. that s a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won t let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. d.c. leaders holding a press conference updating damage reports from the earthquake. coming up on news4 midday, will city schools be able to reopen tomorrow morning? the status of closed federal building. good morning, i m barbara harryson. tom kierein is tracking hurricane irene. we ll have the latest efforts to we ll have the latest efforts to get tourists out of harm s all right, i am. i don t want isn t that a nice little tune? that s from the musical hats. i wrote a song called i don t want when a lady named maryanne turns 50. we are back with a special numbers edition of today and that was kathie lee singing i don t want. didn t i just say that? i like repeating things. can we move it along here? we re coming to terms with our weight and we started off earlier revealing one of the digits. now we reveal the second the third digit, not the second. bring it. bring it. so there s a blank in between okay. ready? flip it. flip it. we don t have all day. what is yours? mine s six. liar. you know it s not. you know $1.99. you know it s a little more than that. we ll reveal the middle digit. here, thank you. all righty. thank you very much. how much do you weigh and how old are you? 53. i don t think so. that s good. now that we got that over with it s time to talk about age. we took to the streets to find out how people react when they re asked to fess up to their age. how old am i? for what? you ll ask that? plus what s next, weight? what do you think? you don t tell that. 35. it s over 40. yeah. i know it s surprising. if i could turn back time get lost. i have to tell the truth? uh, 62. you re laughing. 59. i am 36. how old am i? 60. 27. i forgot. i d rather be 60 with a 45-year-old body. i would never tell you my age. ever. it s my secret. like emmy. some people can choose to keep that secret and that is their right. we are joined by terrific panel of women each representing a different decade from 20 to 60 and here we have moore with a mere 25. i don t know why she s here and a coordinator for essence magazine and next is 34-year-old ann sax an online director at glamour magazine. and she s the author of the very funny book my formally hot life. she s the author of you re grounded forever, but first let s go shopping and last, but not least is mary jane foster, age 60 and the vice president of university relations at the university of bridgeport in connecticut. welcome, brave women! were you intimidated when we asked you to wear the button. when you thought i don t really want to do that. okay. why not? i think you cringe when you think of your age and that s the problem. i mean, i came on because i think we re bold to do this. it s the right thing to do. there s still a stigma in spite of everything and feminism and everything else there still is an ageism stigma. oh, absolutely. i feel fine about the button and my age. everybody knows i m 60 until i got to thinking about what other people might it limit my opportunities going forward? everybody saw and they said i had no idea i was 60. she said i make my living as a model and i don t want my age to be my image. i changed careers so many times and i may again. i don t want someone to say sorry, you can t do that. you re too old. when you re 25 like michelle i remember that 25 was momentous, but i remember thinking i felt like i was getting older at that point. how does 25 sit on you. i am very aware of 25. i am aware that i m embarking on my sort of half of 20s and i m going on 30, in a sense. you re a quarter of a century old, do you know that? i know. so old. but i m aware, and i know i m young, but i m aware of every year that i get older. and are you thinking about 40 when you re 34? is that going through you or no? i m about to move to the other side. careful, sweetheart. the the other side? the dark side. i m closer i m going to be closer to 40. do you feel like you ve achieved what you want to achieve at the age of 34? i think i would be really sad if i achieved what i wanted to achieve by 34. i think i want to sit on the sofa. no, they plenty more to achieve. at 43 i know you re not going to tell the truth. your former hot life. actually, it s funny that you used the word the other side. because the other side of young is actually an amazing place to be in my experience and in the experience of the women that write on my blog. i am thrilled to be here. i feel like it s a privilege to get older. i feel more confident. i m happier. i feel more secure and i have more power when i looked objectively closer to hot. it s a different kind of hot that women from this side on, than the you re not hot. no. menopausal hot cl is another thing. it s a privilege, i think. i do think it s interesting because i do think the confidence is a big thing that you get when you re on this side of the room, you know? and yet, if you ve been through divorce at that point, and if you ve been with children that have a addictions where yo have a lack of confidence. when you say i had my shot and i blew it. how about that? you are a model for your children and you have so many interests. my daughter told me i needed to be photoshoped because they re 23 and 30 years old. did you do it? i did and they re not photoshoped in the picture, just me. and now you look like sisters, so nice. we have people across the street who want to ask you about age and all of that stuff. all of that is coming up and we ll continue that conversation and give you that last digit. i m still thinking about it. first, listen to what these ladies have to say about the subject. i hate my age. i hate being 41. i wish i was 28. i hate getting older and i hate getting fatter. i ve been through some things in my life, but i have a lot of love in my life and so i m young at heart. of ingredients.ination i know you re gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it s new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. [ chanting ] do it! [ all cheering ] [ female announcer ] it s fun to get dirty when it s this easy to get clean. that s because clorox 2 stain fighter & color booster works better than detergent alone at removing the toughest stains. that s me with the blow dryer and the flat iron until i see smoke. so pantene said, breakage and split ends? no problem. they gave me this pantene called breakage to strength. [ female announcer ] the keratin protection pro-v system helps prevent then repair split ends. zero fear of breakage, 100% more strength. no regrets, just health. i m not giving up the heat. [ female announcer ] the breakage to strength system from pantene. [ female announcer ] the breakage to strength system sfx: bed crashes to floor kids seem to get bigger overnight. good morning. whoa! whoa! and when they do, they re ready for goodnites. the nightime underwear specially designed for kids 4 and up. you kids almost ready? i ve got breakfast waiting for you. whoo! uh-oh. what? mom s doing her exercise video again. when mom s on a health kick, all of us are. and now she s made us breakfast. uh-oh. [ male announcer ] eggo nutri-grain waffles. you know it s made with 8 grams of whole grain and is a good source of fiber. all they know is it tastes great. eggo nutri-grain waffles. simply delicious. we re back with our fantastic panel of women, michelle moore and stephanie dalgof, and mary jane foster ranging in ages from 25 to 06. and we re going make them proud of it, but first let s head across the street to our own sarah haynes with a panel of women ready to ask questions. it s a bold group, buttons everywhere. i have kathy from chicago and she has a question about women and keeping up, or upkeep. my question is why is it that expectations of women are higher than men when we age. less maintenance for men with color, skin creams, appearance, weight. the whole nine yards. who wants to take that? go on. yes? i think it s what the culture yields. the culture asks us, you know, and insists that we lie about our age and that we try to look younger and we get botox and facelift. men are doing it more and more, though. i would also suggest to you that we could all today decide simply to not respond to that. you go ahead. i m not going to. i have white over here. i have white all over here. the only thing about that is that it moves the bar. it used to be letting yourself go meant a haircut and now to look like your 20s you are letting yourself go and that s hard for anybody. do you feel that way at 25? no, i do not. let s go back across the street to sarah. hi, i m shehere with julie a she has a question about weight loss. i lost 40 pounds since january. thanks. i m feeling great. i feel like the scale is slowing down and i m plateauing and even though i m losing inches and pant sizes i can t get the scale to keep moving. can i get some help? she s 39 and she s not yet in that zone we re talking about. i would say eat when you re hungry and stop when you re full and keep exercising and you ll be the weight that you re meant to be. you may not be the number that you want it to be, but it will be what your body wants and following your body and following your emotions is what makes you healthy at any weight, any time. plus she dropped 40 pounds. time for a couple more. go ahead, sarah. am here with jean from columbus, and she s got a question about fashion. it seems like it s harder to keep up with the trends as we age, and how do i face that as i m getting older. what s her button say? 6-0. isn t it about being classic at this point? you look very fashionable. are aren t you nice, but recently i took a look in the mirror and said oh, no, that s not for you anymore. but eventually you develop a style and it s what s right for me and what i know is right for me is not cute. you don t want to be adorable anymore. no. have you changed since your teens? basically since the way you dress now, 25? sure. the older you get the more you know what works for you. i don t think it has anything to do with age and it s what looks good to you. as a woman you what you feel good in. do you agree? think if you re trying a trend, you can do it on a lesser scale. you don t have to do leopard printed this toe. and then they ask you do i look ridiculous? really quick, sarah. mary from tennessee and she has a question about healthy living. i was wondering what the most important thing we can do as women to increase our longevity and quality of life. one most important thing. what do you think? i would say get off your fanny and exercise. that s the one. keep moving and try to eat more healthy than not. and keep that heart pumping. and a big applause for the people across the street who wore the age button. good for you guys. thank you, sarah. so we re about to do our reveal. we have a weight reveal. did you guys not want to wear weight buttons? so these are. this one is mine with the blank and the six and this one like $1.99 is kathie s and we ll put the last digit in. whether we want to or not. yo? that s me with the blow dryer and the flat iron until i see smoke. so pantene said, breakage and split ends? no problem. they gave me this pantene called breakage to strength. [ female announcer ] the keratin protection pro-v system helps prevent then repair split ends. zero fear of breakage, 100% more strength. no regrets, just health. i m not giving up the heat. [ female announcer ] the breakage to strength system from pantene. that s why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel. warm flaky pastry with delicious sweet filling my kids will love. plus i get two boxtops for their school. toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. plus i get two boxtops for their school. on a recent trip to france we discovered the inspiration for a totally new yogurt. activia selects french yogurt. so silky and smooth with lots of juicy fruit. it was a grueling trip! try new activia selects french yogurt. we re back with a special edition of today talking about the numbers that define us or not and for the last hour we ve been getting up to the courage to tell you what we weigh. and you go first, hoda woman. i ll do it. we ll do it together. we had two digits and remember, we ll write in the middle. that s too bad. it s life. are you ready? why did i have to go to a wedding? one, two, three. do it. okay. what are you? 146 and you re 46 years old. i m 146 and i m 146 years old and i thought when i got on the scale i was jiggling it. oh, my gosh. you had a pizza last night. i hadn t weighed myself in a year and i weighed last week and was a pound or two more than i yeah. i was 130 last week. did you cheat a little? mine is the same whether you jiggle it or not. i move to another room and it s the same. i hope this makes you feel better about yourself at home. it s not so bad. i don t care, sort of. now we are going go for the jugular. we re talking money and the numbers in your bank account and your paycheck, the numbers nobody wants to talk about. take a listen. it s a very personal, private thing even though i feel proud of where i m at. i shouldn t really be judged on my salary because that really has nothing to do with who i am and, you know, it doesn t define me. i don t make any money. i m a housewife. i do spend money. and she works darn hard to make no money, too. and fran is a life coach who helps people find what s really important in their liefrs. hi, fran. with money and things like that, it gives you confidence, i think, too in a way that you sort of feel safe. like you feel you ve in a good place. it s about taking care of your family. when you ask people, they say i want to put my kids through college. i want to know what it feels like to not have to pay my mortgage. absolutely. absolutely. it s just one of your numbers. it s not the thing that defines you. the trouble is our world treats people differently depending on the perception of how much you make. remember the movie wall street the new one. when he gets out of prison, gordon gecko and it was the very same people. persona nongrata. we know how in the country you treat people who are rich and you get limos and front of the line service and how it treats people who are poor. you have a list of what makes up the internal number. money is on the list. what other things are on the list? it s your health. different numbers in your cholesterol is a similar experience. your internal numbers and your health numbers have to be important. if i make a million dollars and my satisfaction is so low. and i ve had friends and ultimately, if you have a lot of wealthy people who are unhealthy. you see contributions. and giving back. this past summer i coached the girls a 13 and under basketball team and i took the entire summer off and my level of saefrgz and we didn t pay for any of that, but i felt great about making a deposit back into the world. think we re screwed up about the whole concept. the way we define success is completely warped. you re a lot of fun and you re smart. do you have a book out? we love your hair. because you should. you don t have a book. write one, come back. good to see you, guys. anyway, we ll be back with more of today on nbc. we need more buttons. [ female announcer ] every box of general mills big g cereals can help your kids school get extra stuff. like musical instruments. and new art supplies. because they re the only cereals with box tops for education. last year, schools earned over ten million dollars from big g cereals. you can raise money for your kids school. look for this logo. only on big g cereals. you can make a difference. every cereal box counts. i don t think sarah has revealed her weight, has she? was i supposed to? 146, sweet pea, over here. give it up. 143. and you re like 100 inches taller than me. we re all healthy and we re all employed. you feel all right about giving it up? i don t have any secrets at this point. it s all out there. tomorrow a new member of the joy fit club pays us a visit. there s a lot going on. captions by vitac www.vitac.com