Transcripts For WRC Today 20110903 : vimarsana.com

she can barely see the road. but this toddler is driving down the highway, and becoming an internet sensation along the way. today, saturday, september way. today, saturday, september 3rd, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a saturday, i m lester holt. and i m amy robach. it s hard to believe labor day weekend s already here. it s the unofficial end of summer. but alone the gulf coast, it is not going to be a relaxing couple of days. no picnics or barbecues certainly in that region. bracing for tropical storm lee. a powerful weathermaker already bringing heavy rains and the threat of coastal flooding from texas all the way to the florida panhandle. louisiana, and the city of new orleans, have declared states of emergency. some residents are being asked to evacuate low-lying areas. we re going to get a live report from new orleans in just a minute and see how they re preparing there. also the latest setback for our economy. august saw zero jobs growth for the country and on friday wall street was hammered again, with the dow plunging more than 250 points. the president will unveil his jobs plan next week. what are the details, and can it increase hiring? we re going to take a closer look. plus, casey anthony returns. a jury, of course, acquitted her of murdering her daughter caylee. but she was convicted of lying to police and now authorities want casey to pay for the investigation into caylee s death. should she be responsible for the costs? we re going to find out and talk more about that coming up. then a last be tribute to the victims of 9/11. next sunday will mark the tenth anniversary of the terror attack. as a remembrance the smithsonian is exhibiting items from those who perished, including a flight manual, a fire truck door, uniforms and many other artifacts collected from that dark day. i had the chance to view the collection. it s remarkable, and it s extremely powerful. ordinary items that become extraordinary given the events of that day. it s amazing what was pulled from there. looking forward to that. we begin with tropical storm lee taking aim at the gulf coast. coming on the heels of hurricane irene, it s a massive system. one that could lead to flooding across the region. the weather channel s mike seidel joins us now from new orleans with the latest on preparations there. mike, what s it look like? well, as you can see it s wind plus rain. we ve had this all night long. it comes in waves, and at times winds gusting over 40 miles an hour. that has knocked out power to about 9,000 customers. meanwhile the rain fall rates have not been too bad. the pumps can handle this. yesterday about two inches. so far we ve had about an inch a rain. no more than half an inch an hour. that may change. but with this kind of rainfall rate, the pumps here can handle this kind of rainfall. we ve also had some tornado warnings. no sightings at this point. these are doppler indicated and there s a tornado watch until 9:00 here in new orleans and across the coast. that will likely be extended. so it s a heavy rain event. this is a slow-moving tropical storm, only moving 7 miles an hour. and some of the totals could add up to as much as 15 to 20 inches before this wraps up, hopefully by later on labor day. and mike, we can t think of new orleans and tropical storms without, of course, katrina. have things changed? how are the levees now? and will wind be an issue? yeah, that s the big question. they have spent $14 billion showing up for flood protection system, taking care of the levees, flood gates, including the pumping system. in fact the london avenue canal also reached the threshold the corps of engineers decided to pump the water from there into lake pontchartrain. they re not going to be facing this 100-year storm. this is just a rainmaker. we will have some wind, but unlike katrina, we will not have a huge push of water up the mississippi into lake pontchartrain and pushing up against those levees. at this point i would say this is not going to be a repeat of katrina. there will be flooding. there will be a lot of rain. there will be street flooding. but katrina, you can forget about that. it s just the fact that it s going to rain for three or four days and cause flooding across a wide area. by the way, lester, it s not causing any problems on bourbon street. coming over to work about an hour ago the revelers are still out and partying. back to you. it will take a little bit more than a tropical storm to end that party. mike seidel, thanks very much. as lee slams into the gulf coast, millions are still suffering from the effects of irene. at the same time there are wildfires and drought conditions spreading into southwest. a lot to talk about, bill karins joins us now with more on all that. good morning, lester. lee is one of those storms that we re actually hoping would head to texas, to help with all the drought conditions there. it was so close but all of the rain is on the east side of this storm. you can see texas here dry as could be in houston. all the way to beaumont. you notice louisiana all the way back into areas of mississippi, coastal alabama, and also the panhandle of florida. that s who s going to get the rain. so texas, so close. but so far away. and the projected path of the storm does take it to the north and then up towards areas like mississippi and alabama. away from texas. texas gets no relief from this storm. be prepared at the tail end of your weekend for a lot of heavy rain. northern alabama and mississippi and all the way into wednesday, the southern appalachians could deal with some flash flooding. let s get to the rain fall totals. possibly of 10, maybe 15 inches of rain. that s what you get with a slow-moving tropical storm. the south has been pretty dry recently so we re not too worried about extreme flooding. now let s get to the hurricane out there. katia. i m a little more concerned about this storm than i am about lee. notice that in about five days from now, this is a very painfully slow-moving storm, it s still between the east coast, bermuda and the bahamas. a lot of those large waves are going to start heading to the east coast. we re also going to have rip skurnt threats. as far as a direc most of the g showing it to be close to the east coast then heading out to sea. i haven t ruled out the carolinas or new england yet. but right now, it s still a week away. plenty of time to watch this storm. we ll get you back here in a few minutes. but for now here s amy. thank you the weather isn t the only big story this morning. so is the economy. and the latest jobs report is bringing more bleak news. for the first time, since world war ii, there was no employment growth in august. the unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.1%, and that means the official number of unemployed stands at 14 million. nbc s lisa myers reports. reporter: almost every day, somewhere in america, you can find long lines of the unemployed. looking for work. 5,000 turned out in atlanta this week for 400 jobs. it s been emotionally draining. been looking for over a year now. we re about to start the jobs fair. reporter: and in a chicago suburb hundreds showed up. we talked to many who ve been jobless a very long time. their pain was obvious. so right now, i m just living with no money. reporter: more than 6 million americans have now been without work for more than six months. considered the long-term unemployed. for that group, that subset of americans, this feels like a depression. reporter: mark eisenberg lost his job eight months ago. what s the toughest thing about this for you? self-esteem. reporter: he can t support his family the way he d like. and they re just getting by on his wife s teaching salary. he says his daughter doesn t understand why he can t get a job, why they can t buy things. what does that feel like to you? a failure. i feel like i failed. reporter: the unemployment picture is grim. these lines track overall job losses during recent recessions. then gains during recoveries. this red line shows the current recession, deeper losses, and few jobs recovered. those looking for work also face another painful reality. a recent study found that most of the jobs generated in this recovery are low-paying jobs. most of the better-paying jobs lost in recessions simply have not come back. mark says he started at the bottom and worked his way up to management before, and he ll do it again. he just needs a job. it really hurts. it really does. to go that long. to have to put up that wall, and a face, and keep going. reporter: for all the anguish, mark is not hopeless or defeated. he says he will find a job. for today, lisa myers, nbc news, wisconsin. well, the numbers are certainly grim, but is there any silver lining? let s bring in cnbc s steve liesman. good morning, steve. good morning. you said you come in here on saturdays and you re oh, great, here s the bearer of bad news. the studio guys it s a collective sigh. liesman s here, it must be bad. i actually started out asking you if there was a silver lining. i ll let you start off with some good news. well, i stretch maybe the idea that the number is zero suggests that we re not seeing a lot of fire in the economy. it s promise but ress the idea that what we saw was this lack of confidence that happened because of the whole debt ceiling debate. i m stretching here. but i m looking to answer your question. the other thing we see is that we see an increase in people working part-time for economic reasons, maybe employers are not ready to get rid of their workers, they just try to hold onto them. and obviously they re not hiring. is this a lack of confidence? is it that simple? i think that s part of it. i don t think that s all of it. what we increasingly see is that there are deeper problems in the economy. we thought in the spring that all of the things that happened between the earthquake in japan, and the tsunami that followed, and higher gas prices, that there were temporary factors undermining job growth. as we get further and further away from those events, it looks like there are more problems out there. there are real problems in europe, in the housing industry in the united states. again, i think that confidence issue remains key. when you look at who is unemployed there are specific groups that have hit harder than others. and that said, will there need to be some sort of economic policies tailored to specific groups who have been most affected? the one place you would think they would start would be those who are unemployed for longer than 27 weeks. we ve been very serious long-term unemployment problem in this country. the other issue that s really interesting here is to watch state and local governments lay off workers. they revised the data for the month of july. 71,000 state and local workers were unemployed in that month. you counted up 340,000 government state and local jobs have been lost in the past year. i was just kind of lifting it up, well the city of cleveland has like 400,000 people there. so think about something that s a little bit smaller than the city of cleveland. that s the total number of state and local workers who have lost their jobs in the last year. that might continue and even get worse if it hits the federal level as we get into austerity. there are some industries adding jobs like in health care. added 30,000 jobs. you would expect it would also see education coming up, business professional services. mining has been a stalwart of the economy. that s going to help pretty much. we ll see if this, what we saw in washington, maybe what is it that somebody said, we built from extreme dysfunction to the normal dysfunction of washington. maybe in that environment employers might feel confident enough. you began and you ended on a positive note. it s hard, but i tried. steve liesman, as always, thank you. now here s lester. amy, thanks. next week president obama will present his plan for creating a job for the country, and it comes just a day after the republican white house candidates debate one another. presidential campaign is heating up, no surprise the economy is issue number one. john harris is the editor in chief of politico. he ll be co-moderating the gop debate on september 7th on msnbc. john, good morning, good to see you. good morning, lester. so the president takes to the air thursday to outline his jobs plan. i don t really care what your political stripes are, i think as americans we need him to get this right and a lot of people suggest that s going to take a bold plan. how bold will he go? and how bold will congress allow in an election environment? he s got to go at least atmospherically bold, i ve got this under control, trust me, there s a plan. substantively i do think it s a question of how bold he can be. the bigger he goes in ways that make democrats happy, the less likely it is that a plan can actually pass. so there s some notion that he should go more modest and look for places where there is overlap with republicans. who can actually do something. so, he clearly wants to own this moment. and republicans on the stage out in california also want to own this moment. they want to look like people who are plausible presidents. exactly. i think there s still some questions that are being worked out. gop candidates have certainly, especially based on yesterday s numbers, have taken their shots at him. but we are in this election cycle right now. i mean, as we know,ou the debate. how much does that limit what can get done, and what s acceptable? well, that s one of the things that brian williams and i are going to be pressing the candidates on out at the reagan library in simi valley on wednesday night. i think this is a big occasion for the republicans. at one time it looked like the speech and the debate were going to be on the same night. the white house backed off. so it s side by side. in some ways this is still the first general election debate of the 2012 election. i think viewers are going to be looking at the republican candidates saying who among you has a plan? who can make a difference? and there s going to be a very clear side by side comparison between that message and the president s message the next night. as you know the president moved his speech, that was based on speaker boehner s suggestion that he move it to the different night. it s kind of behind us now but was it political or logistical? oh, i think it was a combination of both. i think the white house felt that they were being rather clever putting this on wednesday night. my own view is i would have welcomed this. it would have made that contrast that you describe much more vivid. it would have been a great night of theater and also substance for people. i would have been happy if it had gone through that way. i think once speaker boehner made it clear that that was not acceptable to him, the white house had no choice but to step back. john harris, good to talk to you. thank you. time for a check of the morning s other news stories. thomas roberts is at the news desk with more on that. good morning. good morning, everybody. we begin in aruba where american robyn gardner remains missing. prosecutors are now looking for possible new witness caught on security video. nbc s lily aluciano is live in miami with more. good morning to you, thomas. as you said, aruban authorities are now looking in another search for more clues. not this time for robyn s body, but actually for witnesses. last night prosecutors released a video, a surveillance tape taken along the exact same road and at the same time where gary giordano says he and gardner went snorkeling before he claims she was drifted away by a heavy current and was never seen again. authorities are now urging the driver and passengers of a white hyundai seen on the video driving north between rumly s restaurant at 6:00 p.m. tuesday august 2nd. they re urging them to come forward and provide more information. gardner has been held for nearly a month, pending the investigation, and now his attorney is planning to appeal an order by a judge made this week in which he asks that giordano spend another two months in jail. he has not been charged, however. authorities fear that he may be a flight risk and they just don t want to take any chances. thomas? thbs s lilia luciano. now to vermont where some communities are still reeling from hurricane irene. craig melvin is live with more. craig, good morning. good morning, thomas. what a difference six days has made here in ludlow. six days ago the streets here, flooded. now as you can see behind me businesses starting to slowly return to normal. 250 roads were washed out. scores of bridges, as well, throughout vermont, over the past week. workers have spent the better part of the week rebuilding the infrastructure. here and around vermont. last night there was a charity concert to help folks sort of take their mind off all of the destruction, all of the damage of tropical storm irene left behind. what is top of mind here, though, and what will be top of mind for the next few weeks, fall foliage season here. that s when tens of thousands of the so-called leaf peepers descend on vermont to look at the leaves change colors. it generates about $300 million in revenue. there s some concern that because so many hotels and restaurants are still closed that fall foliage season may be in danger. thom, back to you. big impact there. nbc s craig melvin for us in vermont. baseball great roger clemens striking out on friday after a judge refused to throw out the perjury case against him. the former major league pitcher will be retried next april on charges that he lied to congress about using steroids. his first trial ended in a mistrial after prosecutors presented inadmissible evidence to the jury wp. three florida youth football coaches and a 14-year-old player have been charged with assaulting a referee in a brawl that was captured on tape. the referee, 41-year-old jamie spoke out friday saying the people involved just let their emotions get the best of them. the felony charges could get the coaches four years in prison if convicted. meanwhile the team has now been kicked out of the league. all right, we re going to send it back over to lester, amy and bill. that was quite a sack there. all right, bill karins sbak with a check of your weekend forecast. i m a little more well-behaved than that. well, good morning, everyone. of course, we still recovered from irene. we just showed you the pictures up in vermont. upstate new york, still places without power. lee to the south is going to knock out power to a few people. we won t want to forget our friends around northern good saturday morning to you. i m meteorologist chuck bell. we re off to a partly to mostly cloudy start early on a saturday more than and there will be a chance for rain each and every day of your weekend, but not going to be a washout. so that s welcome news. right now temperatures in the upper 60s to right around 70. you can see on doppler a couple showers far northern maryland, so there will be an opportunity for a few quick rain showers today, but nothing major. partly sunny, warm and humid, mid to upper 80s, hot tomorrow forecast. amy? bill, thank you. this morning we want to introduce you to the newest internet sensation. a 4-year-old girl who may be too young for school, but apparently has no problem behind the wheel of a car. nbc s michelle kosinski is live from london with more on this story. michelle, good morning. hey, amy. this video was posted to the internet in china, sparking all kinds of angry reaction there. now this driver looks like she could be one of the best on the road in, say, miami. the thing is, she also looks to be no more than about 4 years old. along that mind-numbing morning commute, imagine this little character pulling up alongside. that s little xia along the highway in china. she is very intent on the road ahead. that she can barely see. above the steering wheel. passes other cars. be careful, dad coaches. not to be slowed down, she even skillfully steers into a better lane. finally, you hear, let daddy drive. you see him get out of the back. she puts what looks like a pacifier in her mouth. and then dad pulls something up from the pedal, possibly an extension, so she could reach. sure enough, youtube is littered with clips of parents letting their kids have a go at all kinds of things. cheering them on. off-roading in australia. two 8-year-olds. here s a kid with an ak-47. and a big hug. a 3-year-old learning. and you know, way too many toddlers who can barely walk are smoking these days. here s one having a beer. in a bar. kids are not action figures, they re not toys wp yet adults are putting them in these situations as though it s simply for the fun of it. reporter: but what some parents find hilarious can land them in big trouble. the mom who videotaped her 2-year-old daughter smoking pot ended up charged with felonies. the father of this guy, quite the lead-foot at age 7, apologized for letting him drive. after police launched an investigation. as stellar a motorist as a 4-year-old can be. maybe not the best idea to proudly share with the rest of the planet. now some people say these videos look fake, maybe the child is actually sitting on mom or dad s lap. in most cases the parent does seem to be right there. other cases, not so much. but what we are seeing online are little kids, toddlers, using guns, drugs, and motor vehicles. maybe the real question is, what is this world coming to, amy? i think that s a very good question, indeed, michelle. michelle kosinski, thanks so much. still to come here on today, casey anthony cleared of murder. but will she pay for the cost of the case? first, this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] washington, d.c. a landmark of liberty and opportunity. at bank of america, we live and work here, with thousands of employees and hundreds of branches and atms. every day, we re working to help set opportunity in motion. from supporting the arts and howard university to helping revitalize anacostia and downtown d.c. because when you re giving, lending, and investing in more communities across the country, more opportunities happen. still to come here on today, was it murder or suicide? the mysterious death of a millionaire s girlfriend. what authorities and her family are saying. plus, caught red-handed from a bird s-eye view. we ll talk to the man who was in a plane and watched thieves rip off his house. good more than. it s 7:26 on this saturday, september 3rd. topping your news today, police are looking for a possible serial bank robber after his 13th bank hit. police say he held up a bt and t shortly after noon yesterday. he then ran out toward blue ridge avenue. investigators believe the same man is responsible for eight other armed bank robberies in montgomery county and four more in northern virginia. the blue and orange lines will see delays on metro this labor day weekend. orange line trains will not be running between east falls churn and west falls church for work on the dulles rail project. shuttle buses will take you between the stations. on the blue line, van door are not doren trains will be closed. oh, won t you be good to yourself? and don t you feel like coming home? it ll be like coming home [ male announcer ] some rooms feel like a fish bowl. but in our roomy suites, you can spread out and live a little. with breakfast, dinner, and drinks included, you ll feel right at home. la la-la-la-la la la la a mixed bag in the weather department. did you just call me a mixed b bag? i knew you were going to say that. yes, indeed, a lot of cloud cover. we will be dodging the showers for much of the weekend. here is your current temperature map. 71 you now in washington. 69 in hagerstown. 70 in fredericksburg. 61 eastern shore. a couple showers nofrp most carol county and a few more southern pennsylvania drifting southbound, so a little chance of a shower, but otherwise warm and humid. tomorrow upper 80s and low 90s. our better chances for rain move in late tomorrow and then on into t we re back on this saturday morning, september 3rd, 2011. it s labor day weekend. and while we re enjoying beautiful weather here in the northeast, others aren t quite so fortunate. back inside studio 1a, i m amy robach along with lester holt. coming up in this half hour, high-flying caper. this is a pretty incredible story. steven lynn was with a couple of his buddies in a small plane, taking some aerial photo ofs his house. as they re flying about 1,000 feet in the air they notice what appear to be burglars stealing from steven s home. they have a phone, they call 911 from the air and follow the robbers from the plane. steve and and his buddy are here. they ll share the remarkable story. also casey anthony returns to the spotlight. she was acquitted of murdering her daughter caylee but she was convicted of providing false information to police. authorities are now suing to reimburse the costs of the investigation, and they re seening hundreds of thousands of dollars. will casey have to pay it? we re going to tell you coming up. then it remains a tv classic. we re talking about the 70s and 80s series little house on the prairie. millions grew up watching michael landon and melissa gilbert. now the farm where laura ingalls wilder called home is now a tourist attraction. giving folks a chance to experience a much simpler way of life. we re going to take you to walnut grove coming up. we begin with new developments in a mysterious death at a millionaire s historic california mansion. the body of the owner s girlfriend was found hanging from a second-floor balcony. her family says she was murdered. but now police are telling a much different story. nbc s lee cowan has the latest. reporter: it all happened in this beautiful seaside mansion. one that now seems almost perfect. first came the death of the  owner s 6-year-old son, matt. found at the bottom of this staircase along with that chandelier. investigators theorize he was playing along the second-floor railing when he then tripped and fell over that railing, grabbing the chandelier, went down to his knees and then to his head. reporter: it was a tragic accident, investigators say. nothing more. but just two days later, his father s girlfriend, rebecca, who was carrying for max the day he fell, was also found dead. her body was naked, hanging from a balcony, a rope around her neck. red rope was found secured to the footboard of the bed. the red rope went out the double doors leading to the balcony and over the railing. reporter: it looked at first like suicide. but her hands were tied behind her back. how could that be? we had to see if this was possible. reporter: so investigators had a test subject tie a rope around both her wrists, copying the knots found at the crime scene. she slid one hand out, put it behind her back and put it back in the knot. to investigators, suicide seemed plausible. the thinking is that they bind themselves so that they won t change their mind midway through. reporter: investigators say the fingerprints at the scene were all hers. but no evidence of a struggle or sexual assault, either. and then, the note they found. scrawled in black paint across the bedroom door. it s not a clear suicide note. it s a message, i guess. reporter: investigators won t say what that message was. but just a few hours before she died they say she received a grim voicemail notifying her that matt did not survive the injuries from his fall. and i think she probably felt responsible, like any one of us would, if we were if a child in our custody had an accident like this. reporter: her family was shocked. the investigation should be beginning, not ending, they said in a statement. they don t believe the suicide theory. the writing on the door, they say, wasn t even zahau s handwriting. but for now, the case is closed. tragic as it is, there were no crimes, investigators say, in this mansion. for today, lee cowan, nbc news. it is now 34 minutes after the hour. and once again here s lester. all right, amy, thanks. it s been nearly two months to the day that casey anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter caylee. while she s free, casey s legal troubles are far from over. she s facing a civil suit in florida, at the same time authorities want her to pay for the lengthy criminal investigation. nbc s lilia luciano reports. reporter: acquitted of murder, casey anthony may be a free woman, but she can t seem to walk away from her lies. the lies of casey marie anthony infected this entire case, as they do to this day. reporter: from the fake kidnapping of her daughter by an imaginary nanny. i still have that feeling, i know that she s alive. reporter: to phone conversations that never happened. casey anthony may have to pay for every hopeless search investigators put on to find missing caylee. while she already knew her child was dead. in a hearing friday, four government agencies tallied up the costs of investigation and prosecution. as a result of her telling those lies, that she should bear the responsibility that the taxpayers now have to bear. reporter: just how many taxpayer dollars? more than half a million. that prosecutors say was spent following misleading leads. what s so extraordinary here is the amount being sought from casey anthony. reporter: anthony s defense attorneys agree, they say, she s getting billed for way more than her lying convictions. none of the state of florida s charges are legitimate other than the statutory entitlement of $50 for each of the four counts. reporter: casey anthony was unable to pay for her own defense. still on probation and unemployed, if she has to reimburse investigators, the question is, how? casey has nothing. she s indigent. period. if she gets book deals or movie deals the state s going to come looking to collect that from casey anthony. reporter: george and cindy anthony were rumored to have received $500,000 for an exclusive interview with dr. phil, set to air september 12th. america s never heard this explanation before. why has it been repelled? reporter: the case should be closed but many in the story are just starting to see the light. for today, nbc news, miami. it is time now for us to get another check of the weather. bill karins is outside on the plaza. good morning again, bill. good morning, lester. a lot of important people on the plaza. this little girl here is going to be the president of the fifth grade at red mill elementary school. what are you hoping to accomplish? making everyone happy. i think maybe longer recess or something. that s even better than that. and you are the baby-sitter, right? who s this behind you? sometimes. introduce your little sister. this is lily. she is 8 months old tomorrow. very cute. oh. very cute. well let s go talk about this forecast for your labor day weekend, as she pulls his hair. we are going to continue to watch the storm down in the south. we re also going to watch beautiful weather conditions throughout the middle of the country all the way to the west. actually a pretty hot labor day week friend texas through areas like salt lake city. mild in the pacific northwest. on labor day itself, monday, all of that wet weather begins to head along the eastern seaboard along with a gold front. could be soggy, unfort a good saturday morning. outside our windows we see cloud cover for now. there will be an opportunity for always rain on each of your tlooe da three days of your holiday weekend. temperatures upper zin60s, low . a few passing showers for the front half of your afternoon. temperatures mid to upper 80s. if you want your hour by hour forecast over the holiday weekend you can always great that at weather.com. amy, lester? thanks, bill. where is lauren spierer? it s been three months since the indiana university student disappeared. we re going to find out what her parents are saying? and up next, up in the air. a man in a plane gets a bird s-eye view of his house being burglarized. we ll talk live with him and his friend who watched the crime unfold. i m phil mickelson, pro golfer. if you have painful, swollen joints, i ve been in your shoes. one day i m on p of the world. the next i m saying. i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i m surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. 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[ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one, and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? so, you re a democrat right? now to a high-flying crime caper. steven lynn was on his first trip aboard a small plane, with his two buddies as they looked at sites for an upcoming fishing trip. but it wasn t a body of water they found, it was a couple of guys breaking into steven s house from way up in the sky. they called 911. 911, what s your emergency? i m in an airplane, flew over my house and seeing people stealing stuff out of the yard. and then began the chase to track down those robbers. with us now are steven lynn and his friend who was in the plane with him, daniel dillinger. good morning to both of you. good morning. steven, take me back to last friday. you were scouting out a fishing area, you decided it would be fun to fly over your house. tell me what happened next. we looked down, and there was just people down there stealing stuff. you said, i think daniel pointed out, hey, wait, i think there s some men in your yard, and i think they re carrying things out of your house. right. what were they taking out of your house? actually, they was air conditioners around the yard, and they were loading them on the trailer, just then it wasn t till we got home that we realized they got stuff out of the house. they had taken a lot of stuff out of the house. you re looking down at your house, thinking i can see my house from the air, won t this be great. you actually have a phone out tabing video of it, saying i ll get some great shots of my house. what is your reaction when you see people taking things out of your house. just mad, really. yeah. you know. and couldn t believe it. and who thought to call 911? me. you? in fact, you called them, and then you also called your uncle, correct? correct. to try to get them. what happened when he got there. they just kind of freaked out, said that they had permission to get the stuff and he said no you don t, that s the man that owns the place in the airplane up there. then you saw them talk off and you called 911 back again. we have some of that. let s take a listen. they re going westbound? they re westbound in a in a avalanche, four door, tailgate s down, pulling a trailer. okay. what color is the avalanche? can you tell? it s white. okay. looks like they re slowing down. they re taking a northbound turn on county road 625. they re going north on 625? uh-huh. we have the audio, we have the video, and you were giving them detailed was like an episode of cops ? i think all three of us. denny, what were you thinking when you were up there? it was crazy. i was wild. these guys are stealing stuff from his yard and that s just wild. i couldn t believe it. midday just loading it up. they had no chance of you guys getting away with you guys on board. no way. what was the experience like for you? i mean you re watching your friend here, i m sure he s quite angry, as anybody would be. what was it like for you? it was crazy. like we were literally like wanting to fly into steven s backyard and land a plane and get out and hey, guys, this is not your stuff. i mean we wanted to get down there. we knew we couldn t. we would do what we could and steven did a great job with 911 and we just stayed on the phone and chased them down. i love it. the two suspects joseph tooel and roosevelt smith have pleaded not guilty to the charges. you have some pretty condemning evidence with the video and the phone calls and what you saw with your own two eyes. are you planning to follow this through to the court system. all the way. all the way. i don t see nothing but a complete not guilty being caught red-handed. you guys certainly did your part. thank you both. we appreciate you coming in and joining us this morning. thanks for having us. up next, labor day travel deals. amazing bargains for your next believe honor is not exclusive to the military. and commitment is not limited to one s military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation s military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. from free checking to credit cards to loans, our commitment to the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. usaa. we know what it means to serve. hey. hey mom! what are you doing? what is that? what is this? it s a special paste i invented to replace socks. we re dipping our feet in it. why? because we can t find socks that shape to our feet. we re sick of it! sick of it! that s really stupid. that s the future. try hanes socks with the smooth comfort toe seam. a better fit your whole family will love. so we made ocean spray cranberry juice cocktail with a splash of lime. it s so refreshing, your taste buds will thank you. mm. oh, you re welcome. what? my taste buds they re thanking me. uh-huh. this morning on today s travel. labor day travel. for many this weekend offers the last chance for a great summer getaway. for those searching for deals now may be the time to find one. the senior editor of orbitz.com is with us. good morning. good morning. traditionally we think after labor day everything drops, airfares, and hotel prices. is that primarily for leisure destinations? that s exactly right. it s the tourist destinations that places like the east coast beach towns, the mountain destinations, the caribbean, these are the places where people took their summer vacations, kids are back in school, this is where we start to see demand drop a bit in the fall. one of the main factors to consider here as you decide where to go and where the bargains might be? absolutely. the main factors to consider, you know, are is it a leisure destination? here in places like new york and chicago and san francisco, you re still going to see a lot of business travelers. so look for those destinations. where the temperatures might start to fall, places like south carolina, all the way up to martha s vineyard on the east coast, the caribbean. these are the places we re going to start to see the bargains. there s still a few nice weather three-day holidays coming up. columbus day and veterans day. will the prices tend to inch up around those times? labor day weekend is probably the last big weekend until thanksgiving when we see a lot of travel volume. if you want to travel over columbus weekend, veterans weekend, you re not going to see the price hike over labor day. it s still a good time to travel. you know better than i, timing is everything. in booking travel. i think the conventional wisdom, the farther out you do, the cheaper. is that always the case? how do you team these things? not always the case. the fact is that travel is so unpredictable when it comes to pricing, especially with fluctuating gas prices. for hotels it depends on if there s big events going on in that city. the rule of thumb is always to look early and book when you re comfortable with a price. you know, sites like orbitz instituted programs like price assurance for just that reason. because people want to book early but feel comfortable later, you can get a refund if someone books later at a lower price. so, the rule of thumb, book early, book when you re comfortable. some of the biggest savings we re going to find is in hotel rates. you crunched numbers and you found some of the best post-labor day prices. a lot of them were in the caribbean. this is a great time of year to go to the caribbean. as long as you re willing to take the flight risk that a storm might hit your island. the risk, sometimes the prices are worth it. where i found some of the best prices in the caribbean were in the bahamas where the summer average rates were $234 a night. keep in mind that summer is low season for the caribbean. the fact that prices are even lower in the fall is really great news. in september they were down by 12%. that s $207 on average a night. in october, around $225 a night on average. so if you want to pop in the car you also checked out some pretty good deals on the east coast coastal places. sure. these coastal destinations, it s a beautiful time of year to go. the temperatures have dropped a bit. that s why you don t see a lot of beach vacationers there. but the prices are right. i looked at hilton health, south carolina, where in the summer avera aftverage rates were $141 a nig. in october, $99 a night. that s a 30% decrease from the summer prices. janine, thanks so much for being here. now all we need is the time to get away. we re back in a moment. still to come on today, storm front. is new orleans ready for this latest round of extreme weather? we re going to head live to the big easy and find out how things are going. and three months after she disappeared, lauren spierer s parents retrace their missing daughter s steps. what did they find? that s all ahead. possibilities are everywhere. multiply them with the premier rewards gold card from american express. with triple membership rewards points on airfare, double on gas, double on groceries, and a single point on everthing else, it s a fast way to earn more every day. plus, you can earn 10,000 bonus points. and the annual fee the first year is on us. call 800.axp.gold to apply. i m not looking forward to my flight. try this. bayer aspirin? i m not having a heart attack. it s my back. no, this is new bayer advanced aspirin. clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i m eric first, lead scientist at bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? 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(announcer) learn more about careers with today s va at vacareers.va.gov. that s 50% off lenses. including bifocals, no lines, even sunglasses made with your prescription. sale ends september 12th, so hurry in. lenscrafters. good morning. it s 7:56 on this saturday, september 3rd. in our headlines, dominion virginia power says two nuclear power stations will remain off line until it s convinced the plant is safe. officials say it suffered cosmetic damage in last month s quake. the power company still inspecting the plant and should make its decision by the end of next week. the inspections will determine if any safety improvements are needed to ensure that plant can withstand another natural disaster. leesburg virginia police trying to find the person who broke in to an arts store owned by chris cooley. the burglary happened sometime early friday morning. the thief stole a computer and a cash register and did not touch the pottery and artwork inside. police recovered the stolen items near the leesburg courthouse. cooley says when the store reopen, he plans to install security cameras. we ll get a look at your which i can bell is in storm center4 with a look at our forecast. good morning. a holiday weekend finally here after a blazing hot summer here in washington. cloudy skies, not it too terribly warm out there first thing this morning. temperatures are in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees right now. we re looking for highs later on this even a afternoon in the mi upper 80s. a few showers drifting down to the south, so can t rule out a few chances for passing shower, but not a washout. up to about 90 tomorrow with a 30% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. and then look out, it will being so gi all next week. another update in 25 minutes or so. good morning again. welcome back to today. it s saturday, september 3rd, 2011. hope you re enjoyin the labor day holiday weekend. we are fortunate to have some nice weather in this part of the country. along the gulf of mexico that storm is coming ashore. our thanks to all the folks enjoying us on the plaza. i am lester holt along with amy robach. coming up we re going to talk about paying tribute to the victims of september 11th. that s right. we re just days away from the tenth anniversary of 9/11. in details small and large, items gathered from that tragic day have been preserved by the smithsonian institute. the objects are now on display, and are a part of our nation s remembrance of 9/11. i had the chance to see some of those artifacts, and we re going to take you inside this incredible exhibit comes up. they re incredibly powerful to see these very ordinary items displayed, and yet the stories they tell are so far unbelievable. i just fund myself getting choked up as that type was running. looking at these pieces. we re going to be following up a story we ve been covering here. the disappearance of an indiana university student lauren spierers. today her parents are raising questions about what her friends told police and what perhaps they have not told police. lauren s mother and dade doubt some of these statements. why? we ll give you an update. and lester, you mentioned earlier on that the weather is getting redy bad in new orleans. in fact we had the weather channel s mike seidel there live. you can see how much the conditions have deteriorated there. mike, tell me what you re feeling, what you re seeing? good morning, amy and lester. yeah, these squalls are really hammering us right now. that last squall about a half an hour ago blew over the police pair cades behind me. that was over lake pontchartrain at 56 miles an hour. the national hurricane center has increased the winds on lee out over the gulf of mexico to 60-mile-per-hour winds. it s not out of the question that this will become a minimal hurricane before it s a slow-moving system. it s only moving seven miles an hour before it makes landfall and even longer before it gets out of the state of louisiana. we re going to have heavy rain right on through labor day and some of those but they ve got all 24 pumps up and running. the backup generators. they re ready for whatever the atmosphere a big, huge pile of water coming up the mississippi major mike obviously having a little problem. trouble getting those satellite signals through the heavy clouds in the storm. and with those strong winds now pounding him along with the heavy rains. let s check in with bill karins to get a sense of how much rain, how much water these gulf states could be getting. good morning, everyone. it s just amazing what they re dealing with now in louisiana is what was coming up at this time last week in the mid-atlantic. we know the pain they re going to go through with the storm. even though it s a strong tropical storm. you can see the winds are strong enough to knock out power to at least a couple hundred thousand by the time this storm is all said and done. it is going to be moving onshore. not far away now. only 45 miles off the coast. the heavy rain will be the story of about 15 to 10 inches. now the path of this storm, this is a slow-moving tropical storm. it was a slow-moving storm, worried about flooding. notice monday to tuesday still over mississippi and alabama. then by wednesday into thursday, head into the southern appalachians. that s what we ll be dealing with, the big rainmaker. we also deal with katia as we go throughout the next week. that storm is going to be over the ocean safely. but maybe the eastern seaboard, possibly up in nova scotia we ll have to worry about that next weekend. guys we could go three weekends in a row dealing with tropical storms or hurricanes. all right, bill, thanks very much. let s get a check of the other headlines in the morning. thomas roberts is at the news desk. hi, much. we begin in aruba once again in the case of a missing american robyn gardner. authorities are now looking for a new possible witness caught on surveillance video. nbc s lilia luciano is live with more. good morning to you, thomas. in a very different search is under way in aruba this morning. this time for potential eyewitnesses. prosecutors there released a surveillance video that shows a white hyundai driving along the same road and at the exact same time on august 2nd when gary giordano says his rental car was parked while he went snorkeling with robyn gardner before he claims she was pulled away by a heavy current and disappeared. authorities are now urging the driver and passenger of the car seen on the surveillance video to come forward hoping they may have some information, maybe they saw giordano, gardner, their toyota, or even what happened that day. gary giordano has been held as a suspect for nearly a month and he s you do to stay for another 60 days behind bars pending further investigation. he has not been charged with a crime. but authorities there fear given the possibility of releasing him from jail, he may flee. thank you, lilia. for the first time in five decades the government added no new jobs last month. the august report shows the unemployment rate remains unchanged. at 9.1%. president obama will be delivering a major jobs speech coming up on thursday. all right take a look. finally, is it a great white or not? the picture was one that has gone viralhaten of a shark caught in a wave. the beach was filled with surfers at the time. some think it may be a surfer doing a duck dive. a local news station sent the picture to a shark expert who said it definitely is a 10 to 12-foot great white. i mean, that looks like a shark to me. i m going to go with the expert. back to the plaza now and check in with amy who has more. all right, thomas, thanks so much. we re going to get another check of the forecast with bill karins out on the plaza with us once again. amy, this squall goes through new orleans, continues just to batter mike seidel, you can take a look at the pictures there. you notice the power is still on, at least in those taller buildings. those hotels. we re getting some wind gusts in new orleans up to 40 to 50 miles per hour. and it s raining really hard. this is kind of one of those saturdays just stay indoors all of southern louisiana, including the new orleans area. just wait until sunday. it should be a little bit better tomorrow. also today, late today, strong thunderstorms up there in northern illinois, into the southern great lakes. the west is looking just fine. most areas on the east coast will be dry today. isolated storms later on this evening. i think the worst weather for good morning, everybody. welcome to your labor day weekend. we ll have a little bits of sunshine from time to time today and tomorrow, monday looking a little bit on the cloudy and wet side, though. to get your weekend started, we just have a partly cloudy sky here in downtown washington. temperatures are in the upper 60s to near 70. 72 in town right now. 68 in gaithersburg, 70 in frederick. a few showers southern pennsylvania drifting southbound, so a passing shower possible today. and an afternoon i think i learned two things today. that lucy s hometown was jamestown, new york. and two, you make a pretty good redhead. thanks for dressing up. bill, thanks. as students return to class at indiana university, one of them remains missing. lauren spierer disappeared and was last seen three months ago today. and with each passing day, her family is holding out hope she will be found. nbc s john yang reports. reporter: indiana university s new school year begins with an old question. what happened to lauren spierer? the 20-year-old fashion student was last seen walking back to her off-campus apartment at about 4:30 in the morning after a night of partying with friends. that was june 3rd. three months ago today. this summer her parents retraced lauren s steps at about the same time of night. rob spierer says what they saw disturbed them. we saw people walking, many of them were inebriated, some were walking by themselves. and our message had not registered with people. reporter: as the school year begins, lauren s apartment complex held safety seminars. we were extremely, extremely disappointed by the lack of turnout. they re either invincible, or they are just completely oblivious to their surroundings. reporter: weeks of searching, including last month s search of thousands of tons of trash at a landfill, haven t turned up any trace of lauren. rob and charlene spierer have become in bloomington all summer printing new posters and flyers and putting full-page ads in the student newspaper. we re hoping that by getting the message out, that lauren s still still missing, that someone will come forward, give us a piece of information, something they ve heard. we desperately need it. reporter: with students back on campus, university officials are focusing on a practical lesson. personal safety. the more that we can educate students about what they need to do to take care of themselves, looking after each other and so on, i think the safer the environment will be in the future. reporter: in hopes that no other parents will have to experience what the spierers have gone through for the past three months, with no end in sight. for today, john yang, nbc news, chicago. clint van zandt is an nbc analyst and a former fbi profiler. clint, good morning. good to see you. hi, lester. thank you. what are your thoughts about refocusing, re-energizing the investigation based on the beginning of the school year. is it a good strategy? i think so. number one, the parents are tenacious. they have to relive this nightmare every morning when they wake up again. but you ve got students out there who either may know something, or who may hear something. i think what the parents want to do is say, anyone who has any information, whether you re a person of interest at the time she disappeared, or whether you heard a rumor, anything at all, bring it to law enforcement, let them try to solve this mystery. the parents are not really happy with the accounts the friends have told. they don t necessarily believe them. several of them have hired lawyers, that s they re right. and certainly they are not considered suspects. but do you think that everyone is saying everything they know? number one, of course, everybody has a right to have a lawyer. you know, we understand that. but, i think, lester, for you and i as parents, me as a grandparent, the reality is, if somebody knows something about a missing child, especially if it s yours, you want them to step up. now there are three to five people whose names have come up with this, perhaps persons of interest, only one of whom, to my knowledge, has volunteered to take a polygraph. you would hope that each of these college students would step up and say, i will do anything that i have to to help find this woman. first of all, clear me with a polygraph. secondly, ask me any questions that you want to. let s find lauren. as far as the parents are concerned, that s not being done. so, there appears to be somewhat of this conspiracy of silence, and the parents want to see that conspiracy broken. clint, admittedly i m about to take you down the path of speculation here. but we have been looking at this as a crime. is it possible we re looking at an accident that was followed by a crime in the form of a cover-up? absolutely. absolutely. many people have speculated, lester, that on this one night that lauren was seen that she had been drinking. we know she has a heart condition. there has been rumors that perhaps she had taken some type of drug, perhaps someone had given her cocaine. now she may well have done that willingly. we know college students drink. we know college students sometimes do drugs. that s a terrible combination. but, if she did that, it could well have been an accident. she could have fallen, been injured, she could have just simply overdosed. then, then many people believe comes the challenge, lester, that whoever was with her, instead of dialing 911, may have panicked, and gotten rid of her body because they didn t want to be held responsible for being with her, perhaps giving her too much alcohol, or even drugs. well, again, it s speculation at this point. hopefully we ll get some answers here, and find out more. clint van zandt, always appreciate your insight. thank you. thanks, lester. we re going to take a break. we ll be back with more after these messages. living with the pain help stop the damage before it stops you. .with humira. for many adults with moderate to severe ra,. .humira s proven to help relieve pain and stop joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, blood, liver, and nervous system problems,. .serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your rheumatologist how you can defend against. .and help stop further joint damage with humira. lose those lines for up to a year! juvéderm® xc is the gel filler your doctor uses to instantly smooth out lines right here. temporary side effects include redness, pain, firmness, swelling, bumps, or risk of infection. ask your doctor about juvéderm® xc. look better and feel softer. how bout we start with the guaranteed low price on the carpet. the pad, and installation. let s get peace of mind for a lifetime. it all adds up to better carpet at a better price and a great-looking room transformed. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. get 10% off or 24 months special financing on your first purchase of $599 or more when you open a new home depot credit card account. it s been more than a quarter of a century since little house on the prairie aired on tv but the series and the fascination with lara ingalls wilder continues to live on and now the homestead where the ingalls family actually lived is giving people a chance to experience what life was like in the 1800s. the theme, the smiles, the stumble down the hill. it s easy to see why little house on the prairie became a tv classic. we re home? we re home. reporter: a generation grew up watching the ingalls, starring michael landon and melissa gilbert. don t forget now, you made a promise. you won t do it again. oh, no, pa, i won t. i won t have to. reporter: it offered timeless lessons on faith and family. i love you, ma. reporter: the show, and the popular series of children s books, were based on laura ingalls wilders early years on the frontier. while little house was filmed in hollywood, here is the ingalls real homestead, south dakota, where today the pioneer spirit is thriving and plain to see. from driving horses. and dressing up. i m supposed to look like a prairie girl. reporter: to daily chores. it s a lot of energy. there you go. that will work. reporter: folks from around the country are stepping into the past, savoring a simpler time. when i had the story read to me as a boy in school, and you come on out here and see actually how they lived, you get the connection of what it was like. reporter: during the day, lessons about laura. i would definitely like to meet her. at my age. reporter: and at night it s going to be fun sleeping in that. reporter: covered wagon camping. the inside is really cool. reporter: back in town, visitors to the laura ingalls memorial society can tour the family s first home in dakota territory. the surveyor s house. we come to town to be with the city girls, and that was kind of a scary thing for laura. what did i tell you? country girls. don t know what a blackboard is. reporter: but it didn t take long for the ingalls to settle in. pa built this bigger house. it s a peek inside the family s later years. pieces of laura s story saved for a new generation of fans. as part of a little house industry that s bringing more visitors to this small town than ever before. awesome. a very modern way to describe an old-fashioned way of life on the prairie. home is the nicest word there is. one of the nicest, that s for sure. i loved that show. just watching it made me smile and remember. i mean i watched that show religiously and i also read all the books. now that camp, there s more than one camp, right? four of them apparently. they lived in four different places so they have four different camps in all the places that the ingalls actually lived. kids can still read the books. i see that show all the time. it s good old-fashioned fun. family fun. still ahead, made in the usa. home grown products for the final summer days. still to come on today, looking okay ban 9/11. as the tenth anniversary approaches, the smithsonian gives us a glimpse off the objects recovered from the tragedy. 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live look outside to start off on this saturday morning. it s 8:26. pretty cool start to the day. we ll take a look at your forecast in a moment. first, good morning, it is saturday, september 3rd. in our headlines, a northern virginia man is in jail accused of supporting a terrorist organization. the wood bridge apartment was raided and he had connections to the group responsible for the 2008 terrorist attacks in mumbai. ahmad will remain in jill until a court hearing on wednesday. buses will rin instead of trains on the orange line between west and westphals church stations. the blue line franconia springfield and van doren street stations will be closed for track work. and today 40 of the world s best skate boarders will compete in d.c. for the grand opening of a new skate park in southeast washington. the 15,000 square foot maloof cup park is on the festival grounds and will host the skate competition. gates open at 10:00. we ll get a check on your a good bit of sunshine awaits you. chuck bell has a look at our forecast. a little bit of cloud cover first thing, but we ll get at least a little sunshine from time to time later on this afternoon. tomorrow looking very good, as well, but monday looks iffy at best. so if it you have outdoor plans on labor day itself, have a backup ready to go. for now under a mostly cloudy sky. temperatures 72 degrees here in washington and near re everybody is in the upper 60s to near 70. showers are drifting southbound, a little frederick county. so expect a passing shower. highs today in the mid to upper 80s. near 90 tomorrow and then the rainy strefweather relateses in lasting through most if not all of next week. a full hour of local news, weather and sports coming we re back on a beautiful saturday morning, september 3rd, 2011. the first full weekend of september. summer has unofficially ended. it s almost starting to feel a little bit like fall. that hasn t stopped the great crowd from spending their holiday weekend with us. i m amy robach along with lester holt. coming up, it s kind of hard to believe that next weekend will be the tenth anniversary of september 11th. well, you think how life has changed so dramatically in those ten years. we re going to be looking back at the smithsonian institution, for the first time displaying items collected from ground zero, the pentagon, and shanksville, pennsylvania. by themselves they may not mean much. when you see them in this context they mean an awful lot. very emotional. they ll be on display all week. i know you had a chance to look at them firsthand. if you can t get down to washington we re bringing those items to you. we tell their stories one by one as we see these, as you say, ordinary items speak volumes in what they went through and what they represent. we ll have that coming up. then on a much lighter note, what this local day weekend means. getting the best sales at the stores. we re going to show you some great products from clothing and entertainment, to some gear that you can buy. and most importantly, that are made right here in the usa. and you can feel good about your purchase. a lot to get to this morning, including a lot of weather news. let s go right to bill karins for the latest on all that. good morning, everyone. as far as lee goes, continue to watch the new orleans area. gusts down there about 56 miles per hour. we know there are some people losing power. the worst will be on the louisiana coast then it will move onshore throughout the day. a lot of rain in mississippi and alabama. this is a look at sunday s map. lee still in southern louisiana. then it will start to move a little bit as we go into labor day. should dry it out in much of louisiana. watch out mississippi, alabama, north georgia, tennessee. monday some of that moisture gets caught up in a cold front. some of that rain could head to areas like northern new england and new jersey, pennsylvania. that s where we re still trying to recover from what happened with irene. we don t need any more rainfall. that s a look at your national weather. now here s a look at the weather outside your window. good saturday morning. outside of our window, still a mostly cloudy sky in place. temperature at 71 he degrees here at the station. 72 downtown. 70 manassas, 70 in leesburg and martinsburg. a couple showers rolling southbound out of southern pennsylvania into northern maryland, so as passing shower here even in washington metro between 10:00 and 2:00, but then the sunshine should get back. highs today and you caught my attention this morning. your sign says it took me 70 years to look this good and to get to new york. absolutely. what s the secret to looking good? oh, the secret is just to love life and just enjoy. and i think you have, too. oh, i have. you probably have some stories to tell. they are secrets. congratulations. we ll send it back to amy. bill, thank you. this morning in washington, the smithsonian museum of american history will begin a special display of artifacts from the september 11th tragedies. the exhibit will run for one week, through the tenth anniversary of the attacks, and it s not your typical presentation. there will be no glass cases, no plaques describing the items, just the objects that were witness to history. a passenger seat belt and call button from flight 93. a new york firefighter s ash-covered jacket. a stairwell sign from the 102nd floor of the world trade center. items once part of people s daily lives, now hall marks of that tragic day ten years ago. two planes have crashed into the towers. the smithsonian has collected more than 300 artifacts, from the iconic, like this mangled fire truck door from squad 1 in brooklyn. it talks not just about the destruction that day, but also of the heroism and the sacrifice of the fire department. reporter: to these wrenching with indim s. this purse belongs to lorraine leak and she did not survive. these are her car keys? her car keys and her business card which clearly says she worked at the trade towers. metro card she might have used to get to work that day. curator peter liebold worked to collect what was left of flight 93 after its heroic crew and passengers successfully wrested control from those hijackers. there s an emotional impact when you see this. this is a small piece of the fuselage. every united plain over the rear exit door has a small flag. and torn and ripped but still intact. reporter: flight attendant lorraine bates husband donated her flight manual, found wrong the wreckage. flight attendants are extremely trained personnel. reporter: you can see her handwritten notes on this chilling page. this is the instructions on what to do in case of reporter: at the pentagon, training took over when jerry henson was rescued by two navy officers. where he was, incredible smoke. i could barely breathe. it was amazing that he had the fight and the drive to stay alive as long as he did. reporter: he said the men s i.d.s are a testament to all who survived against the odds. these objects are connected to people, those people connected to stories. reporter: the museum is also collecting photographs like these by seem more levy who captured the raw emotion of the day. the anxiety is really heightened when you look at these photographs to go back to that moment in time. reporter: the documentarian was with chief pfeiffer as he checked gas lines in lower manhattan when they heard this. he took the camera, panned up, and successfully captured the only known footage of the plane, first plane, hitting the north tower. reporter: the chief rushed to the scene. his turnout coat. reporter: he donated his bunker coat in memory of the 343 firefighters who died that day, including the one who held this pry bar in his final moments. it s the tool that my brother carried as he went into the burning budings. reporter: the chief s brother, lieutenant kevin pfeifer died when tower one collapsed. he d been directing evacuees to a clear stairwell. but you could see that tool, and pointing with the tool, move to these stairs. this is the way out. reporter: the chief hopes these artifacts will serve as a legacy for the future. i think what i d like the next generation to do is to think about the stories. personal stories of bravery and courage, of really caring for the fellow human being. reporter: stories told by ordinary objects connecting us all to the extraordinary moments of september 11th. and the smithsonian has set up a special section on their website where you can look at many of these artifacts that they ve collected. and read the stories that go along with them. you can find that link on today.com. and they continue to collect objects and stories from that day. and they talked about when the tragedy happened the next day, they had to start thinking like curators. even though the entire nation was mourning, they had to think about what can we get? what should we try to collect to preserve what happened for future generations. just watching that i m realizing the pain is so fresh. we say ten years. i walked out of my door a couple of weeks ago, and it was a beautiful clear day and i was like oh, what a great day. immediately i thought, it was just like 9/11. i remember what a gorgeous day. this is going to be a tough week. it is going to be tough on so many people remember that. then we have a job, too, for the future generations. there are people now, children in school who were not alive when september 11th happened. yeah, this is the only world they ve known. we know the world changed over the last ten years. there s certainly more to come throughout the week and next weekend, as well. 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[ female announcer ] new quaker chewy smashbar. kid-loved ingredients, smashed together. with 33% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. this morning on today s what s made in the usa, from classic styles to new summer gear, some of the best products of the season happen to be made right here in the states. and we ve got everything covered from flip-flops for your feet to refreshing drinks to serve in your next backyard barbecue. and first up, made in the usa style. here to help us look good this summer is elizabeth mayhue, editor in chief of woman s day magazine. good morning. and we have some great products, all made in the united states. we re going to start with something i have an eye on. these bracelets. these are the iconic, what you think of as nantucket sailor bracelet. they were called sailor bracelets because sailors used to wear them to mop their breaux as they were cleaning decks. or friendship bracelets because sailors would bring them home to their sweethearts. susan peterson is from utah. the thing about susan she s an artisan who, without the internet, would really not have a business. flip-flops. flip-flops. these flp flops are made in georgia, just outside atlanta. it s a company that has a very strong social conscience. everything is recyclable. they also are reflexologist. and skin care products. smith s rose bud salve has been around since 1892. originally was an ointment for diaper rash and burns. it was picked up several years ago by makeup artists as the in thing. tom s of maine. they came up with a whole line you can get at drugstores anywhere. since the 1970s. i love nail polish, american made. a great entrepreneur story. a woman who saw a shortage of colors on the drugstore shelves and she started her own line. as you said from queens. and lastly burt s bees. a cup, burt started making honey. he had leftover bees wax. he made candles, turned into a skin care line and they just released their first ever tinted lip moisturizer. elizabeth, thanks so much. now here s lester. amy, thanks. up next, made in the usa gear. here with everything you need for a fun day at the poolside or the beach, clint carter from men s health magazine. clint, good morning. thanks for having me. first product made in virginia beach it s good because it s for the beach. yes, absolutely. great beach product or poolside product. this is the amphibious shape. the sides are filled with air. you can be sitting poolside or the beach. get hot, push the thing in the water. and a water bottle. i love the back story to this company. liberty bottle works out of washington. if you re talking about usa it s a great one. right now they re only hiring unemployed people and they give preference to returning military. plus they give a commission of all of their proceeds go to the. very worker friendly. these ones in particular are painted with public transportation maps for various u.s. cities. if you re doing any traveling this summer you get lost, you ll find it. explain to me. this is a beach lighted type of device. when the sun goes down this summer, summer fun tends to go down with it. the simple solution, put a light in the back of it. i ve played with this in the dark. awesome to have with you. a bicycle. made right in new york city, workman cycles. $299. this bike is i great deal for a bike. you get on their website, tell them what color frame you want, fenders. and the pedals are l.e.d. they light up as you ride to keep you safe. i love these classic looking bikes are back. i know. not only a mountain bike. it s a great one. here s some really cool outdoor stuff. a messenger bag with i like the message. this is timbuktu. limited edition bag. looks like a lot of the bags they make. what s great about this one is that it s waterproof and it s insulated. so it s effectively a cooler that you wear on your back. even got a bottle opener on the side. perfect. quick release there. and take-out barbecue. the weber go anywhere, as the name implies. it does go anywhere. easy to stow in your trunk or the back of an suv. and these legs fold up, and they secure the lid really well so you can actually carry it around with you. great stuff. thanks for being here. once again here s amy. lester thank you. now to made in the usa entertainment. everything you need to know to throw a fantastic summer party. and here with that information is kimberly whitman from southern living magazine. thank you. so we ve got a beautiful table here. anyone can do this, you say? anyone can do this. you just cut the top off of a watermelon. place the gerber daisies inside and they ll stay fresh for a long time because there s so much sugar in the watermelon. another way to prepare fantastic food in the summer for entertaining is with papers, you can wrap for grilling. you wrap vegetables, meat, fish, grill it for five minutes or so and it infuses that smoky flavor. all right. and then, of course, we want to move on to another great summer activity that is picnicking. this is a picnic box that you can purchase. what s in here? that s right. this is sort of the modern take on a fresh and fun picnic. color by number. it s a color by number. isn t that fun? so there are also suggestions for topics for conversation on the side, as well. which is really great. oh, great. to pack in the picnic box, simple black burr reskewers with mozzarella. i thought they were marshmallows. that would be great, too. you can put them in the mason jar and pack them in your picnic box and you re all set. these cute little bucket. sweet tea is a real summer staple. you want to try some? this is naturally caffeine free. and if you want to entertain in the south you have to serve sweet tea. and popsicles are wonderful to serve when you re entertaining but they melt and get sticky. this is my favorite little summer party trick. you stick the little muffin container on the bottom. nothing says summer like sweet tea and popsicles. kimberly, thank you so much. we appreciate all these great tips. we re back. [ agent ] so your policy looks good, is there anything else? why did you buy my husband a falcon? thanks for the falcon. i didn t buy anyone a falcon. sure, you did. you saved us a lot of money on auto insurance. i used that money to buy a falcon. ergo, you bought me a falcon. i should ve got a falcon. most people who switch to state farm save on average about $480. what they do with it, well, that s their business. oh, that explains a lot, actually. [ chuckles ] [ male announcer ] another reason people switch to state farm. aw, i could ve gotten a falcon. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. [ falcon screeches ] say it ain t so. it s labor day weekend, the unofficial end of summer. but there are still lots of late-season vegetables and fruits that you can enjoy, food journalist annie b. cox is here with some of the season s best picks. and some unusual ones, too. exactly. it s the end of the summer. tomato tomatoes, corn, zucchini should be in great supply. the first thing we re going to do is make tomato water. i never heard of it. it was sort of in vague in the 90s. you take tomatoes and puree them with a little bit of salt. i have a colander lined with cheesecloth and i m going to pour that right in there, without splashing it all over you, me and the table. and then what i do like a hobo sack, i m going to put the spoon in the middle. how long do you keep it like that? we re going to tie it up and keep it overnight in the refrigerator. you get all this fantastic tomato essence. i would hang it like this and it drips right in there. leave that overnight. then what do you do with it? wow, we re going to drink it. a little bit of basil on top because basil and tomato go so nicely together. you have them in martini glasses, i m guessing you could add alcohol? a little bit of vodka and you ve got yourself a grown-up martini to beat the band. hmm, it s salty. i like it. it s really good. like tomato turbo charged. i can t believe how much i like that. good. we ve got plenty for you. speaking of healthy. you have a garden, you probably grow zucchini and probably more than you know what to do with. zucchini bread, zucchini muffins. i have a friend that dehydrates everything. this is a mandolin. very thinly slice the zucchini. this is going to save you a lot of time. lay it out salt, pop it in an oven for six to eight hours on 150 degrees. taste that. this is the health ye alternative to a potato chip you ll ever have. hmm, good. i love it. isn t that fantastic? pop it in a jar it will keep all winter. put it in your kids lunches. put it on a salad. dehydrate onions, garlics, sweet potatoes, beats. corn our other favorite. a lot of people have trouble getting corn off the cob. i have a bowl. inside a bowl. exactly. that s always a problem. they fly all over your floor. with the back side of your knife you get that corn milk which has plots of flavor and will help thicken up the corn cake. this is just a batter with egg whites, the corn, a little bit of milk and we re going to make these corn cakes by simply which look like pancakes. and if you ve got company coming this weekend, all right, how about this for breakfast, or like a nice brunch. let me pick one up for you. you re going to love this. i m excited. with goat cheese. whip it with a little bit of cream. hmm. and then, tomatoes and arugula. right on top. and just simply topped with lemons? use them up. and it s beautiful, too. mother nature. this looks like a fantastic piece. our final piece the zucchini, the tomatoes, and the corn in here. hi, lester. how are you? are these easy to make the corn cakes? if i can do it, you can do it. and again, this is labor day weekend you re probably going to be having company or going some place. bring one of these tarts. all the recipes are up on the today show website. you do the goat cheese yourself? well, the ultimate kitchen did it. but i m capable. what do you put with it? just a little bit of cream and loosen it up a little bit. a little bit of heavy cream. you know what it was a teaspoon or a table smoon, hardly any. and that is summer on a splat. annie b. cox, thank you so much. with my mouth full. be right back. have a better day [ male announcer ] only subway has a deal this flat-out delicious the new $3 flatbread breakfast combo. a toasty 6-inch flatbread breakfast sandwich and a 16-ounce cup of freshly brewed seattle s best coffee. all for just $3. build your better breakfast today. i didn t understand it. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica can provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means, i can feel better and do more of what matters. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior, or any swelling or affected breathing or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision, or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don t drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don t drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. that s going to do it for us on this saturday morning. our thanks to thomas roberts and bill karen. he s auditioning for the fourth hour. tomorrow on today, amanda knox returns to court. . good morning. straight ahead on news 4 today, the gulf coast gears up for what could be it worse storm since katrina. a look at how new orleans and other cities are preparing for tropical storm lee. republicans and democrats exchange blame for one of the worst job reports in recent years. the solutions they re propose to go jump-start the economy. and a sporting event unlike any rfk has ever hosted. we ll take you live to the first event ever to be held at the new skate park. all that and much more when you join us in less than bracing for the worst. tropical storm lee creeps closer to the gulf coast and could prove to be the most destructive storm there since katrina. welcome back to news 4 today. tropical storm lee is about 75 miles away from the louisiana coast right now and it s set to make landfall later today. after hitting louisiana, it s expected to turn east and head toward new orleans. now weather experts don t think that lee will turn into a full-fledged hurricane, but it will dump up to 20 imps nches o rain on the area. the governors of louisiana and mississippi have already declared states of emergency and up tos near the coast