Transcripts For WRC Today 20110906 : vimarsana.com

and welcome to today on this tuesday morning, i m ann curry. and i m matt lauer. you hear a lot of adjectives being used to describe the situation with the wildfires in texas. one you re hearing over and over again is catastrophic. it s unbelievable. 60 new fires have popped up across the state in the last through days. and one of them is already considered the worst in texas history, destroying at least 476 homes. the flames are being fueled by strong winds, dry conditions created by the state s worst drought in more than 50 years. we re going to get the late nest a live report ahead. we re going to talk to governor perry later in the show. ayman do knox appeared upbeat in court at her appeals court. coming up, a close friend will tell us how knox is holding up as that case winds down. also this morning the real housewives of beverly hills premiered last night with the members of the cast. the suicide of taylor armstrong s estranged husband. we re going to tell you what people are saying as we re joined live by three of the women featured on that show. that s right. but we begin with the devastating wildfires in texas. nbc s jay gray is there with the latest on this story. hey, jay, good morning. good morning to you, ann. as hard as it is to believe, the situation actually took a turn for the worse here overnight. the wildfire in bastrop alone is 40 square miles and is growing much faster than the crews or this community can handle. shadows from the fading sun can t hide the overwhelming evidence that texas is under attack. this entire state, especially central texas, is under a siege right now. reporter: ribbon of flames runs through the state, dozens of wildfires wrapping around the melting away everything in their path. the worst of the fire seems to be in bastrop. it s been two full days and still firefighters are no closer in gaining the upper hand in the blaze. the bastrop fire is not under control. reporter: 450 homes have been reduced to ash. that house is gone. his house is gone. david and heather s is about half gone. reporter: 5,000 families have been forced to leave, many watching as smoke continues to fill the sky and wondering what might be left when the air clears. i have no insurance or nothing. that s everything i ve worked for. it s the chaos of getting through getting assistance and the wait. what do we do in the meantime? reporter: monica turner s place to go is gone. we just lost our house. we just found out that our house has been destroyed. right now i m sitting and pr praying to god because i don t know right now. reporter: there are so many lingering questions from those pushed from their homes. we have no idea what s happened to our kids. we re going to go try now and see if they will let us go and check. if the house didn t burn, we can save the pets. right, right. and we just don t know. and not knowing is awful. reporter: in east texas, though, knowing is even worse. a young woman and her 18-month-old daughter died when they could not escape the wall of fire that swallowed their home. as a wave of fire continues to wash across the state, crews and survivors are being pushed past their limits. oh, my god. total devastation. reporter: concerned for thousands in texas, growing almost as fast as the flames. and as they battle the flames here in bastrop, even more wildfires up overnight, spreading the crews thin. in fact, the texas forestry service issued a public appeal at this point calling for any and all firefighters available to respond immediately and telling them they will be on the job here for quite some time. ann? jay gray, thank you for your report. we want to get more on the situation in texas and also we want to talk about the remnants of tropical depression lee, dumping rain on the east coast. for both those things, let s go upstairs. al roker is joining us now. good morning to you. good morning to matt and arne. stirring in texas, it s not horrible news but not great news. the wind is dying down just a little bit. it s going to be sunny, hot, 89. same thing for tomorrow. but we are not seeing any moisture in this system, anything to help the firefighters there. we could take some of this moisture from lee. we could really use it in the northeast. as you can see, right now we ve got tornado watches in effect from south carolina all of the way into southern virginia. the remnants of lee streaming up along this frontal system and trough as you look and the rainfall amounts we ve got flash flood watches, flood warnings and flood watches stretching from knoxville out aft way up to carabao, maine. rainfall amounts, we re talking anywhere from two to six inches. from raleigh to charlottesville, we could be looking at eight inches of rain between today and thursday. as we novembmove up the coast, to nine inches to maybe ten inches in central pennsylvania, up in new york. where they don t need it in vermont, they re going to pick up another two to three inches of rain as well. hurricane katia, right now it s still a major hurricane. category 3 storm. the good news is, that trough is picking it up, the one that s kind of across the country. that s going to bring it away from the u.s. but we will still see really strong rip currents and dangerous swells from miami all of the way up to portland. ann? all right, thanks for bringing us up to date on. we ll get the rest of your forecast in a few moments. first now, let s turn to politics. the fires in texas led governor rick perry to cancel an appearance at monday s republican presidential forum in south carolina. but the candidates who were there had some tough words for president. . nbc s kelly o donnell is in columbia this morning. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, ann. you re right. the republican presidential candidates hit the president hard over jobs. they talked about their own conservative values and social issues. all that without the first of this campaign showdown between rick perry and mitt romney that so many here expected. abruptly off the campaign trail, a detour back to texas for governor rick perry to confront those wildfires. i m not the paying any attention to politics right now. there s plenty of time to take care of that. people s lives and their possessions are in danger. that s substantially more important. [ applause ] reporter: perry s absence left a south carolina conservative forum with just five republican candidates. instead of journalists, south carolina s senator jim demint led the questioning. what would you change about our foreign policy? a lot. first, i would have one. reporter: today romney is jumping ahead of president obama s thursday s job plan by unveiling his own. previewed in a usa today op-ed. i will introduce a plan consisting of 59 specific proposals, with lower taxes and less regulations. that s what we ve lost in washington, too many people think that business is bad. reporter: congresswoman michele bachmann gave a subtle dig to romney on his massachusetts health care program, but hit the president more directly. current united states government and its framework is acting outside of the bounds of constitution. probably the most obvious i would say, jim, would be this, obama care. reporter: not in the race but in the fight, sarah palin continued her tea party tour in new hampshire. see, candidate obama didn t have a record while in office, but president obama certainly does and that s why we re here today. reporter: controversy kicked off the president s jobs event in detroit monday when teamster s president jimmy hoffa jr. tried to rally democrats with a raw swipe at the tea party. everybody here has got to vote. if we go back, keep the eye on the prize, let s take these son of a bitches out and give mr america back to america where they belong. reporter: president obama was tough but taper in calling out republicans. we re not going to wait for them. we re going to see if we ve got some straight shooters in congress. we re going to see if congressional republicans will put country before party. reporter: and the president said he didn t want to give too much away in that speech in detroit, leading up to his big address on thursday night where he ll unveil his jobs speech. he ll do that before congress. mitt romney today will have sort of a different background to unveil his jobs plan. he will be doing that in las vegas at a trucking dealership. matt? kelly o donnell. kelly, thank you very much. coming to us from south carolina. chuck todd is nbc s political director. he s here with the latest poll. people sending their kids back to school, report cards a couple months away. but the report card is here for the president and members of congress. the oapproval rating is not goo. that s right, matt. record low. 44% approve of the job that the president is doing. record high disapproval number at 51%. there is some silver lining here for the president. over 70% still find him likable. but the problem is among most of his policies, only 38% approve of those, matt. and obviously the economy is issue number one right here. jobs, the slow economy, that debt ceiling debate we all just lived through. 37% of the people approve of the president s handling of the economy. 59% do not. look, another record low when it comes to his approval rating on the economy. but it s a pretty pessimistic public that we polled. 49% think we re headed into another recession. 72% believe we still haven t hit bottom regardless if it s going to be a recession or not, matt. you talk about pessimistic. when we ask people, this is a question we often ask. is the country headed in right or the wrong direction. look at the number of people who say the wrong direction. 7 3%. well, i tell you this, as a theme to this poll, another record low in the obama presidency. pollsters will tell you, our pollsters will tell you this, matt, right track, wrong track tells you more about what s going to happen in the next election than any other mum ber i number in a poll. there s a couple of parties in parts of washington s power. that s right. anybody in congress who may be looking at this saying, wow, the white house has a real problem, they better stop and look at their own house, as well. how about this number? 82% of the people in our poll disapproved of the job congress in general is doing. matt, another record. if congress really wants to grab this one. first time we have ever recorded a disapproval rate for congress over 80%. when you think about over the last 30 years, all of the different ways that congress has made the american public angry, nothing has made it given them worse numbers than that debt ceiling debate. 82%. bipartisan agreement, over 80% of republicans, democrats, independents. let s talk about the gop field for the 2012 race. got some names at the top here. we ve got rick perry who will be speaking to a little later in the program, heading the field. it is. it is the rick perry you would say is the front-runner right now. 38%. romney sitting at 23%. 38% for rick perry is important for a couple notes. number one, highest we ve recorded any republican in the republican primary field to date so far. he s showing consolidation. 45% among those republican call themselves tea party supporters but he also leads romney narrowly among non-tea party supporters. the big loser in our poll you will see is michele bachmann. she went from a high of 16% in the republican party match-up last month. her support cut in half. it all went to rick perry. real quickly in the 30 seconds i will left. the president is speaking to a joint session of congress, obviously to the american people as well, all about creating jobs. how is the white house handling expectations on that speech? well, it suddenly trying to back it down a little bit. the venue itself raises the expectations, but i can tell you this, they re facing a public that is not just skeptical, it s a public on president obama that seems to be almost giving up on him. 54% told us in this poll they believe he s facing a long-term setback. when that number went over 50% for president bush, his presidency was essentially over. that happened just after katrina. chuck todd in washington this morning with the results. the new nbc news/wall street journal poll. thank you. as we said, we re going to talk to governor rick per roif texas a little later this morning. but for now let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories. savannah guthrie is in fortunately. good morning. in the news this morning, several wildfires are blazing in southern california this morning. more than 8600 ache have been scorched. in los angeles county the sfir has spread to 500 acres. rain will keep the postal service from making deliveries but its skyrocketing debt just might. the postmaster general has asked congress today to plea for federal assistance. without that help the postal service said it could default and face shutdown early next year. new video has surfaced of united flight 93 s crash site in rural pennsylvania. nearly a decade after 9/11. a nearby resident shot the video after he felt an explosion that shook his house. after he died earlier this year his wife decided to release that clip. overseas a hostage situation had australians on edge this morning. nbc s sara james has the latest from sydney. good morning. reporter: good morning, savannah. that hostage ordeal which lasted nearly 12 hours has ended peacefully. a 52-year-old man har arrested and his young daughter is described as very distressed but safe and has been reunite with family members. now, the ordeal began this morning local time when the man went into a legal office and his behavior was described as very erratic. he seemed to, in the words of eyewitnesses, simply snap. he then barricaded himself into a room. he had his daughter with him. he claimed to have a bomb. he then paraded about in front of the window wearing a legal wig, smashing the window, dropping notes down to the negotiators below. the negotiators were there on the scene though talking to the man and they also evacuated the building. now, all of this is happening, of course, just one month after sydney teenager madeleine pulver, a young student, was strapped to a fake bomb collar in her own home while she was studying. that had this city very much on edge. there is a sense of relief that this situation has been resolved peacefully. again, the suspect is in custody. and again, the young woman in this case is all right. there is no knowledge yet, savannah, of why he did it. nbc s sar va james in sydney this morning. thank you. now to wall street, cnbc s mandy drury is at the new york stock exchange. good morning. the u.s. stock market has a lot to contend with today and this week. you ve got the sovereign concerns over europe and you also have concerns of growth here in stalling. indeed for the markets the focus on president obama, what he could announce to create jobs will also be something that will be very directional for the markets. and if you own gold, well, it s getting more expensive as is perceived as a lower risk place to park your money. oil prices, on the other hand, are moving lower as, of course, lower growth here and abroad could mean lower demand for nench. the u.s. dollar, on the other hand, is getting stronger. back over to you. thank you. and from austria, amazing video of former laboratory chimpanzees seeing the light of day and going outside for the very first time. they had been used for medical experiments until the american pharmaceutical company baxter bought that lab and ended all testing on chimps. they will now live out their retirement together with plenty of sunlight in an animal sanctuary. 7:17. back to matt, ann, and al. it s kind of bittersweet to see them. it s great to have them out but they look like they ve well they ve been through something. anyway. i m glad they were released. meantime? when are we going to see the sunshine around here? it s going to be a few days before that happens. going to see the sunshine around here? it s going to be a few days before that happens. we ll be deal with the remnants of lee for a little while longer. and we re continually twhachg tropics. another tropical wave about 600 miles southwest of the cape verde islands. this has a 60% chance of becoming a tropical depression. if it becomes a storm it will be maria. a risk of strong storms across the mid-atlantic coast. wet weather into the northeast. western two-thirds of the country, plenty of sunshine. where we don t need it, though is texas. heat continues. hit or miss thunderstorms with monsoonal moisture. pacif terrific weather in the pacific northwest. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. light to moderate rain right around the immediate washington metro area. one band of rain coming up north of richmond coming up toward southern maryland. they re going to see that in the next couple of hours. pockets of light to moderate rain across the district and much of maryland. waves and that s your latest weather. ann? al, thanks. new developments in the appeals trial of amanda knox after the court heard from the police official who conducted the original murder investigation on monday. nbc s lester holt is in italy with the latest on this story. good morning. arne, good morning. trial watchers seem to agree the case against amanda knox has taken some serious body blows from scientific experts who simply shredded their scientific evidence. right now this morning the prosecution is fighting back. we saw much more upbeat amanda knox entering the courtroom this morning who offered a smile to her father curt with the august summer break behind her, the end of the appeal trial is in sight and it s clearer than ever to both sides that the outcome will hinge on the dna evidence that helped send her and her ex-boyfriend to prison for the murder of knox s roommate, key evidence that now has been thoroughly discredited by court-appointed experts. are you all feeling stronger and better based on what you heard in court? i think we re feeling more hopeful. reporter: on monday one of the independent experts held firm on the conviction that the dna evidence used in the original trial was of such a minute amount that it could have come from virtually anyone in the courtroom. carla gave little ground on her intense prosecution questioning. how is it going? you tell me because you re seeing what happens from the outside. i believe i did my job in the way it should be done. reporter: as the weeks started off, the sister of victim meredith kircher sent a letter to the family lawyer saying, it is extremely difficult to understand how the results, which were obtained with great care and presented in the first trial as valid, could now be regarded as irrelevant. kercher s father told nbc news the family has full confidence in the original scientific findings and says it is the independent analysis that is suspect. that analysis cited dozens of mistakes in evidence gathering. the prosecution is not conceding any mistakes. and for a seconds day has put the police expert on the stand who originally analyzed the dna. she is vigorously defending her work and says the international standards in evidence collection protocols have changed since the case began. with the verdict expected by the end of the month, a former university of washington classmate of knox s who now lives in perugia told me the stress is clearly affecting knox. she s definitely feeling sick, sicker lately, and a lot more stress. and then the heat in prison is making all the prisoners feel really sick. so i think it s a combination of the case and then the actual physical conditions. reporter: when we talk about sloppy evidence, one of the things that s being talked about is the scientific expert for the police admits at one point some of the biological evidence collected at the scene that should have been stored at a specific temperature was put in the freezer at the victim s home instead of being taken to the lab. ann? lester holt, so much to talk about here. thank you so much this morning. coming up next, the prime suspect in the disappearance of robyn gardner in abrew ruba ope behind bars for the first time. but first, this is today on nbc. coming up, a mother allegedly assaulted at mcdonald s over her son s service. plus, the real housewives of beverly hills, on the premier and the suicide of russell armstrong, after your local news. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at probiotic. [ female announcer ] phillips colon health. flirks real housewives of beverly hills. good morning. it s 7:26 on this tuesday, the 6th of september, 2011. i m joe krebs. and the rain iscation messy commute all over the washington region. let s get try to danella sealock with the traffic. good morning. tough commute. so 295 north at nasa garden. traveling bw parkway from baltimore toward the beltway, you are still seeing delays. and look at this. 270 at falls road. you are jammed as you head south toward the spur. no accidents for you either direction on 270. and as you are heading towards the douglas bridge, delays the douglas bridge, delays start. man: my employer had been putting together a program for executive education, grooming the leadership abilities of their top 5%. a requirement to be accepted in the program was an undergraduate degree, which i did not have. that was the wake-up call i needed. don t want to miss a thing strayer university has afforded me the opportunity to progress to the level that i am now, which is chief information officer at the largest teaching hospital in southern new jersey. i m michael sinno, and i earned my bachelor of science degree from strayer university. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it s just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. we ll get a check on our forecast after we take this break. cool and wet this morning. in the 60s. we ve got pockets of some light rain around northern virginia, the district and maryland. there s heavier rain that should be arriving from the south in another couple of hours. off and on downpours to [ female announcer ] have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it s all possible in the n. royal caribbean s floating nation. where you are free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at all. royal caribbean international. why not cruise from baltimore? visit royalcaribbean.com today. 7:30 now on a tuesday morning. it s the 6th day of september, 2011. that s some kind of nasty weather lacooking you side our windows here. the rain should linger for a couple of days here in midtown manhattan. nice crowd gathered outside our windows as well. inside studio 1-a, i m matt lauer alongside ann curry. just ahead, a viaolent confrontation at mcdonald s. a woman was attacked by an off duty manager by bringing her autistic son s service dog in the door. talk about the remarkable recovery of a mother who suffered a tragic accident while on vacation in hawaii. she broke her spine and slipped into a coma. some doctors even suggested that it might be able to to take her off life support. her family never gave up hope. now that woman is able to walk and talk three months later. she is joining us in this studio. a picture of resilience this morning. and coming up, three of the members of the real housewives of beverly hills is here to talk about how people are reacting to last night s premier and how the show handled the suicide of russell armstrong who is the husband of one of the women on the show. but we re going to begin at this moment with the prime suspect in the disappearance of a maryland woman in aruba. speaking out for the first time, nbc s jeff rossen has more on this. jeff, good morning. reporter: hey, ann, gary giordano is allowed to make calls from prison. he s not allowed to make calls but he can make them. he picked up the phone and called his father in florida over the weekend and giordano apparently went into great detail about how he s being treated behind bars. apparently telling his father, quoting, the reasons are absolutely miserable. complaining about the heat in the cell, saying it s over 100 degrees. he says they made him sleep on the floor. and he also talks about sleep dp deprivation before interrogations trying to bricea him down. he also talked about the case against him. you believe he s innocent. i believe he s innocent. we met with frank giordano at his home in florida, 80 years old, battling cancer. he just talked to gary from prison. quick to show us these photos, gary the son, always there, gary the enduring father of three who misses his kids. but in aruba, gary giordano is an inmate, the prime suspect in the disappearance of robyn gardn gardner. when gary called you from prison, what did he say? i asked him how things were going. he said he was in pretty good shape. and i asked him if they were treating him well. and he said, the place is miserable. how so? the first couple of days he slept on the floor. he had no mattress. on the concrete? on the concrete floor, yeah. and he said the temperature there at nighttime in the cell was over 100 degrees. so he wasn t getting very much sleep. and then in addition to that, they had parked a police car right outside his cells in the grounds and they blew the horn like every hour and that kept him awake. so he was pretty much exhausted whenever they interrogated him. so, you know, it appeared to me as though they were trying to wear him down. sleep deprivation. yeah, yeah. their version of waterboarding, i guess. did gary say, dad, help me? did he ask you for anything? yeah, the thing he asked for was for me to tell the world, so to speak, that he had been treated badly and that conditions there were miserable, not only for him but for everybody else. reporter: giordano has been locked up for over a month and just last week an aruban judge ruled he could be held for another 60 days without being charged. how did he sound? did he sound scared, remorseful? no, he sounded irritated. you know, under those conditions i would be irritated, too. not remorseful, no, not at all. he felt he was being held without good cause. reporter: when police arrest edgar dan giordano he reported cuts on his neck. frank says he asked his son point blank, what about that? he said he never had a scratch on his neck. there s no indication of one. it just didn t exist. it s a story. did you ask him, what happened? what s the real story? no, i would have asked him that but we got cut off. the phone just died? yeah, click, and it was all over. reporter: gary hasn t called back, but his story hasn t changed. that he and robyn were snorkeling, she disappeared and he did nothing wrong. you believe him? i believe him. why? why not? i ve loved him since the moment he was born. i ll continue to love him. i can t imagine that he would do anything like this. i have no idea what happened to her, and i m sorry if anything bad happened. but i have no indication that he was a part of that happening. frank now spends most of his time just sitting at home waiting by the phone, hoping gary calls back. by the way, we asked aruban authorities about these accusations from gary giordano. aruban authorities first of all say, yes, the cells are hot. there s no air conditioning. nothing they can do about that, nor do they want to. they say gary giordano does have a mattress now. he s not being forced to sleep on the concrete. in fact, he s now not even in isolation anymore. he s sharing a cell with three other inmates. they say also they do not engage in sleep deprivation tack takes. they deny those accusations. gary giordano s lawyer will file an appeal this week to that 60-day extension but many experts hearsay it s unlikely they ll let him go. thank you so much. savannah guthrie is with us once again as a role in today s legal correspondent and star jones is a former prosecutor and legal commentator. he gives the glimpse of a ripple effects of a case like this. this raises the question of just how much recourse an american citizen has in a foreign country. and could savannah, let me start with you. could actually jail conditions be grounds for his appeal? well, it may come up during the appeal. they may try to bring it up before one of the judges there. the bottom line is if you an american detained abroad you are not entitled to any treatment than the average aruban would get in jail. however, the state department does monitor this and make sure that americans aren t being unfairly prejudice, just being treated worse because of the fact they re americans. you know, gary giordano as an american citizen is entitled to contact with the consulate office. i m told consulate officers have visited him in jail a few times. as for the father s allegations it s something approaching torture. the sleep deprivation almost like waterboarding, that s a very serious charge. if u.s. officials thought there was something akin to torture going on they would take it on to the the highest levels. i m a former brooklyn prosecutor. would you like to go to the brooklyn house of detention or see some of the people that are pending in rikers island right now? jail is jail for a reason. it s not vacation. right. but they haven t even charged him, star. how long can they hold him without charging him? well, this period of 60 days we re in, and then the prosecutors can make another application to hold him for another 30 days. they can say they have new information, the investigation is on going. this is one of the key differences between their system and our system. in our system, we have bail. you have to have a higher threshold to continue to detail someone with no charges. and an indictment has to come within a certain amount of time. that s something for american citizens when you re traveling abroad. make yours aware of the laws outside of your country and don t think you re entitled to the same rights and privileges, search and sea sooizure laws ar the same, beyond a reasonable doubt may not be the same. you re going to be subject to their laws. let s talk about the case itself. there s been a new development there where prosecutors have released a new surveillance video where they basically show a white car that s driving on the same road about the same time when gary and robyn were allegedly snorkeling. what could the people who were driving this car potentially offer this case that would have the authorities now send out this basically apb for them to bring them to come forward? if, in fact, they were in and around the area, they might be eyewitnesses to the last time they saw the victim, if you will, and the defendant together. that s really very important. what they saw when they saw it, the lighting conditions, and whether or not you can get them back even into aruba if they are tourists. a little bit like the long shot. if the people saw something very suspicious with all the publicity perhaps they would have already come forward. sounds like they re struggling to build their case. bottom line. it s going to be circumstantial no matter what. you maeheard it here. thank you so much. and now let s get a check of the weather from al. ann, thank you so from al. thank you so much. and we ve got the fun sisters here. you where are you guys from? minnesota and texas. minnesota and texas. well, unfortunately we have more wildfires to talk about in texas. not just outside of austin. this is san antonio. we ve got more brush fires cropping up. and causing big problems. over 60 fires burning this morning in texas. we re going to be talking live with texas governor rick perry very shortly. so you want to stay tuned for that. let s check your weather and see what s happening. afternoon temperatures, cool weather in the northeast. 50s and 60s. 70 sbos the plains. 70s in the pacific northwest. along the coast, warmer. 90s to 100s. texas on into the southwest. as you look at the sky conditions, beautiful weather in the northern plains. wet weather up and down the eastern seaboard. a tornado watch in the mid-atlantic states. and that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. since midnight, we ve had mainly light rain around the metro area. but we ve got an area of heavy rain. you see areas of orange and yellow there just w coming into the western northern neck. that s about to move into southern maryland. that may be moving into washington here in prince george s county over the next hour or so. between now and then, just some light rain. but then some pockets of heavier rain middle of the morning and perhaps later this afternoon. highs only near 70. don t forget you can check the weather channel any time you need updated weather. go to weather channel on cable or weather.com online. coming up next, a mcdonald s manager allegedly attacks a mother for bringing her autistic son s service dog into the restcarant. rds credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. it s 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that s 1% cash back on oscar. .tony. oscar! 2% back on whatever she ll eat. 3% back on filling up this baby. 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[ male announcer ] it s the at&t network. and what s possible in here is almost impossible to say. 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. eggo nutri-grain waffles. anncr: rise and shine oranges. now remember, if anybody ever comes around wanting to concentrate you or freeze you, holler like all get-out, cause you know what you re doing and they don t. and we mean to keep it that way. simply orange. honestly simple. [people caughing] we re back now at 7:44 with an ugly incident caught on tape at a mcdonald s in georgia. a mother says she was assaulted after an argument erupted after her autistic son s service dog. nbc s than truong has this story. reporter: she has 8-year-old boys, the family rarely goes anywhere without their service dog. when they brought that dog to mcdonald s it sparked a confront trace a ended while le eded vio. going to mcdonald s for most families is no big deal, but for her sons, asking for a happy meal is a breakthrough. ben said and ben doesn t talk very much at all, he can t. he said, i want mcdonald s, please. reporter: so on a hot july day she took her boyce and service dog barkley to mcdonald s in marietta, georgia, here they are on the restaurant surveillance video. keep an eye on the woman with a cap holding a little girl. i just went there to have happy meals and play. reporter: after almost an hour, the family was about to go, but then the woman with the ball cap confronted her about the service dog. what s going on there? that s where she rather loudly asked if ben was blind and told me that if he wasn t blind, i couldn t bring a dog in there just because i wanted to. reporter: the woman is tiffany allen, a manager who at the time was off duty. she argued that her service dog is allowed by federal law. tempers are flaring and the situation starts escalating. the last thing that we were going to do is go to the rest room and leave. and she followed you in the rest room? yes. reporter: outside of the bathroom the women continue to go at it. at this point she loses sight of her son sam. in a panic she says she searches for him outside, dropping her drink when she can t track him down. the soda splashes on tiffany allen who suddenly leaves this little girl behind, bolting towards her. out of the view of the cameras, she said allen violently lashed out. she swung her left arm around really hard and hit me in the ear jaw area. reporter: after that she goes back in eventually finding sam playing with a broom. as they leave other employees had to refrain allen. she was later fired, charged with simple battery, and simple assault. do you deserve an apology? i think everyone that has a service dog just deserves to be allowed to live their life. reporter: and although life with special needs children can be chaotic, service dogs offer calm companionship and now make the public aware. i m going to continue to try my best to fit in a society just like everyone else does. hopefully people will be able to learn from this. reporter: and we reached out to tiffany allen, but she never returned our calls. she will be in court next month, but so far she hasn t pled to the charges. mcdonnall s did issue a statement saying in part, that mcdonald s welcomes all customers, including those with special disabilities or special needs who may require the assistance of service animals. they say for now they re boycotting mcdonald s, matt? thanh truong, thank you. still ahead, the real ho e housewives of beverly hills in the wake of a suicide of a fellow cast member s estranged husband. we ll talk about that, but first, these messages. 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. membership rewards points from american express. the social currency. for the big day ahead of you morning. big day, huh? morning, mom! are you excited? the best part of wakin up is folgers in your cup. 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. as we all know, slum dog millionaire won eight oscars, including best picture. it also sparked controversy over child actors who came from the slums of bmumbai. but where are they now? they were only around 8 years old when chosen from among hundreds of kids. if you ever wondered how are they doing today? they are young teenagers, still have big dreams but lives are very different and she still lives in the slum. real life slum children with t e mill dollar smiles. they helped take slum dog millionaire all the way to the oscars. today azar is 13. all of is a sudden your life completely changed. yes. i i m telling you, i think this is my dream one has become true. reporter: it s not luxury, hardly a mansion, but azar now has his own apartment with his family in a very nice quiet mumbai suburb. hard for him to believe just two years ago azar was living in that slum. you realized making the movie that he wanted to make something of himself. so you like big dreams. yes, very big dreams. reporter: azar now wants to be an about actor or scientist. and on a visit back to the slum where kids his age still play in the drainage pipes or fish in puddles, azar is uncomfortable. though he s kept his old friends here. i don t like to go there, i feel sad. reporter: he also worries about rubena, his costar whose family at one point was accuse of trying to sell her and the foundation say her parents kept rejecting new homes offered to them, she is still living in the slum. her home here has been destroyed twice, which claimed her mementos from the movie. but rubena who wants to be a movie star one day, says this. translator: i m very happy. i find nothing difficult because my family is with me. my life is great. i do not need anything. reporter: and azar just a few miles but a world away is determined now to build success for himself and his friends, including rubena whom he calls his sister. i will help them. i will promise i will help them. what the director has done for them is set up a trust that will be theirs when they turn 18. but if they stay in school. ann? michelle, thank you so much. rick perry after this. 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[ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. i was worried about them, you know? i mean, for instance, my mom went to bed tonight before making my dinner, which is fine. i mean, i know how to make dinner. it just starts to make you wonder. is this what happens when you age? my friends used to say i was the lucky one. i had the fun parents. where s the fun now? night, guys. [ male announcer ] venza from toyota. this is a news 4 newsbreak. good morning. time right now 7:56. we have 63 degrees outside on this tuesday morning. i m joe krebs. let s get the forecast from meteorologist tom kierein. good morning. we ve had some light rain around the metro area over the last few hours. there s heavier rain where you see the areas of orange and yellow south of washington, just now into the western part of the northern neck. that s moving into charles county and advancing to the north. that should be moving into prince george s county over the next hour or so as well as saint mary adand anne arundel. and later today, areas of heavy rain are possible. highs only near 70. low to mid-60s now. and maybe some flooding later today, tonight and tomorrow. joe? hey, what are you drinkin ? dunkin iced. the biggest iced coffee i can get. iced coffee helps me keep up. i love iced coffee. drinkin dunkin . i m drinkin dunkin . drinkin dunkin . dunkin . iced coffee. i run on dunkin iced coffee. america runs on dunkin coffee. 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 ] good morning. if you are taking the 14th street bridge, an accident here. it is blocking your right lane as well as your left center lane causing a big headache. your delays are further back at the pentagon. you can see we re jammed as you make your way towards the 14th street bridge. in maryland, outer loop of the beltway still very slow at new hampshire avenue. delays to georgia. joe, back to you. 8:00 now o tuesday morning, september 6th, 2011. it s day after labor day. but take a look. these people managed to sneak in one more day after their long holiday weekend. lucky them. meantime, inside studio 1-a, i m ann curry alongside matt lauer and al roker. incredible story. after a terrible accident, shelly eldridge, wife and mom of two, slipped into a coma. the prognosis was not good at all. her family was actually asked this they wanted to keep her on life support, they said yes. that was three months ago. now not only is shelly out of a coma, she s able to walk some and talk. she s going to share her story. did the real housewives of beverly hills handle the suicide of the cast member s estranged husband handle it the right way? a lot to get to. let s begin this half hour though with the latest on the dozens of wildfiring raes ragin throughout texas. dozens have been evacuated. rick perry have left the presidential campaign trail to deal with the disaster. governor perry, nice to see you. good morning, matt. how are you, sir? i m fine. i know you were talking a couple of days ago saying you had seen video, pictures, eyeness accounts of these fires. it wasn t until you got out there and saw them for yourself until you really had the full impact. describe what you ve seen. yeah, matt, these are massive fires from the standpoint of you know, the heat yesterday, we ve had a weather break as of last night. you saw a really big fires, black smoke billowing up when a house or an automobile or propane tank would go up. it s into those types of residential neighborhoods now in bastrop, texas. unfortunately steiner ranch is where i m standing right now, they weren t as hard hit, but for those families who have lost everything that they had, homes, possessi possession, et cetera, it has been devastating for them. so we re getting our people out of the way of these fires. and that s the most important thing. right. obviously we ll be dealing with the tragedy here for some time to come. yeah, you talk about bastrop county. officials in that county, and according to the texas forest service, no part of the 25,000 acre bastrop fire is contained. another fire is started in the northwest corner of that county. both fires are growing. they are on the move. do you have the resources you need? and what are people telling you in terms of when in the best case scenario they might be able to get some containment going there? we have over 50 fires across the state of texas right now. yesterday it was somewhere in the 30s. we are having fires that are becoming really substantial. and these are fires that the state and the federal government are dealing with. there are numerous fires across the state that the local fire departments have been able to contain. so we got plus 50 fires that are the state forest service, our federal counterparts are having to deal with. so we re a long way from having these under control. the most important message here for people is to when the evacuation order comes, take it seriously. get out of the way of these fires. i know leaving a home and possessions behind is a hard thing to do, don t put lives in danger. this is a question in a lot of sitting politicians run for higher office. you have a full-time job there and these fires are evidence from that. you re also embarking on another full-time job, run for president. sometimes it s hard for people to imagine that you can do both at the same time. what do you say to the people who worry about that? well, unfortunately in texas we have substantial natural disasters, whether it s hurricanes, wildfires, floods, you name it, tornadoes, we ve had to deal with them multi-tasking a lot of times as the governor of texas over the last ten years. got a great team of people, whether it s anymore kemergency management director or lieu t lieutenant governor. we re able to manage multiissues at one time. i m blessed to have great people to work with and texans who understand how to take care of neighbors. you re seeing all that happen in the state of texas at one time. governor rick perry of texas joining us from austin this morning. governor, thanks for your time. i appreciate it. good luck to you and the people of texas. thank you, matt. thank you. he s a busy man. he is. another busy person paying attention to the fires and also the rains is our owns al roker. i wish we could get some of this leftover rain from lee and move it over to texas. not going to happen unfortunately. our pick city happens to be san francisco, california. they got morning clouds, giving way to sunny skies and 70 degrees. you can see that massive area of moisture right now. and you can also see hurricane katia off to the right there. but that is not going to get here. the good news, it s going to get caught up by this system lee and a cold front pushing offshore. that s good news. we have a risk of strong storms and maybe even tornadoes in the mid-atlantic states, wet weather here in the northeast. flash flooding possible. temperatures will be in the 80s in the pacific northwest. plenty of sunshine down into southern california. we do have hit or miss showers through the southwest. unfortuna unfortunately, no real relief for our friends in texas. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. temperatures now in the 60s. we ve had some light rain around the washington metro area for the last several hours. there s heavier rain just coming into charles county out of the northern neck of virginia. that s going to continue in advance to the north and will likely move into prince george s county shortly and eastern suburbs over the next several hours with heavy rain from time to time. and that may cause some flooding. highs today only near 70. some other areas of moderate to heavy rain are possible later today, tonight and and that s your latest weather. up next, we ll get the real housewives of beverly hills reaction to the controversial season premier. that s right after this. at pizza hut, we know your tuesdays are busy. 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[ male announcer ] you do everything so they re at their best. so start their big days with the incredible protein. eggs. when you ve lost interest in everything. when you ve had one too many days feeling sad or anxious. aches and pains, fatigue. when it becomes hard to ignore that you need help. that s the day you do something. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. is today your day? talk to your doctor. and go to cymbalta.com for a free 30-capsule trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. back now at 8:10. last night s much anticipated season premier of the real housewives of beverly hills qult qult that began with a special interview of the suicide of thees traininged husband of taylor. i was so worried for taylor. i m worries she s going to have a breakdown. but nobody we really didn t see russell. i think a lot of us have some guilt about not seeing this coming. adrien maloof, kyle richards, and lisa vanderpump. so far we have not heard from russell armstrong s family in terms of their reaction to last night s broadcast. kyle, you spoke and, in fact, you watched the show, the entire episode last week with taylor. is that right? what was her reaction? she thought that they handled it respectfully and in light of the situation she was please with the outcome. she was supportive of the series being shown. really? yeah. that s interesting. lisa, i know the producers left in a comment that your husband made before it was taped before russell s death. six months before. in which he was saying that he personally if he personally had to go into therapy he would feel weak. do you or your husband feel a little upset with the producer for leaving in that comment in light of russell s death? yes, i think everything changes in light of what s happened. but it was accurate. it was his opinion. i mean, his opinion hasn t changed, but that was regarding himself. that wasn t regarding taylor or russell. do you think it should have been edited out for sense tufity possibly? i understand what you re saying, but i think that was his feeling and that kind of is talked about later on in the series, so it was relevant. but that s his opinion about himself. not about anybody else. and he did apologize to taylor the next day because he suddenly realized how fragile she was. he s entitled to his opinion. i know that one of the reasons why there s a little tension on the set this morning is that you have read the l.a. times review, the scathing review calling the episode in rough words, it s calling it a creepy party game, the episode last night, pointing out that while the show s petty in-fighting as it describes it was going on there was a man who is slowly losing his sense of himself to the to get to the point where he was going to commit suicide. do you now, looking at that, hearing that hearing about that review, reading it this morning, have any doubts about how you behaved? have any sort of second-guessing? we did not see the review. we woke up and came straight here this morning. our hearts go out to taylor, obviously, and her children. i m talking about the show. yeah. i think that honestly, you know, we it s very difficult in a situation like this. yes, we shot this six months ago, and i think bravo has tried to handle this as responsibly and respectfully as possible. it is a very decision. but the show is not just about them. it s, you know, it s about six women and their lives. and, yes, they are a part of it but there s also so much else going on in the show. also, i think there were a lot of problems and we had finished filming. and i don t think even taylor was aware of his mental state. so it was a shock to all of us. very difficult to get to know, always have a wall up, so none of us really could ever predicted this would happen. so one commentator on entertainment weekly website put it this way. while this show did not cause the suicide they did play a major part in it and they chose to they choose to use it to their own advantage. how do you respond to this idea that the show exploited this suicide. i want to let adrienne speak. i believe that actually the network and with us, we agreed to take the higher road and do something positive, which is to get the message out about suicide prevention, mental illness, depression. so what the psas taking a negative and trying to make a positive. and if we can save one life then our message is getting across. what is the message? what is the take-away that you ve learned? from your own experience, what have you come away with that has made you understand something deeper that we can all learn from when it comes to being aware of someone suffering in the way that obviously russell did? i think that it s very hard to even say because we were never able to get to know him. i think we re all still confused and shocked by it. it s only been three weeks. soins that. it hurts. you know, we can t sit here and think what would question do. we have. i think we ve all felt this sort of, oh, my gosh, how come we didn t see this. including taylor. when they say that we had a part in this. we lead and they follow our story, our reality. we just open our lives. but what they re saying that, though. really what they re saying i think in that criticism they re talking about the idea of exploiting it, talking about it, using it for the broadcast, for the show last night. i think that s what they re talking about. if you sweep it under the rug and your don don t talk about i then what good does that do? i can tell you i have an enormous overwhelming amount of support on twitter and facebook of people thanking us for addressing it, people who have lost parents and family members to suicide. thousands of tweets. you re hoping that the show last night may have helped people, you re saying? i actually did research about suicide. and it s the third leading cause amongst young adults and teenagers. of death. third leading cause of death, yes. so those statistics are very scary. so if we can get the word out to look for the warning signs. and somebody needs to start that. and this is the perfect platform for that. i think that s a positive. looking for the positive, i think, whenever there is suffering is a better thing to do and to try to help people through it. that s what you re talking about this morning. thank you so much. thank you. and adrienne maloof, kyle richards and lisa vanderpump. it airs on monday nights at 9:00, 8:00 central, on our cable sister which is called bravo. still ahead, a mother who broke her spine, slipped into a coma, and doctors suggested taking her off life support. well, today she s walki again and sharing her remarkable story with us, right after this. sundays are just for watching football. believe that? [ thinking ] remain calm. answering incorrectly has. but i just [ thinking ] .consequences. but you re smart, right? you ordered off mcdonald s dollar menu at breakfast. got the premium roast coffee, the savory sausage burrito. everything s so good and just a buck each. you made it happen, so. you got this. he s a jerk. [ thinking ] well-played. mcdonald s dollar menu at breakfast. the simple joy of being smart. wow, thanks. this doesn t mean we re. no, no, we re just backpack buddies. .backpack buddies? [ male announcer ] get 50% off all backpacks, only at staples. that was easy. but your cloud of depression is still with you. maybe it s time to ask your doctor about adding seroquel xr to your antidepressant to treat your depression. seroquel xr is a once-daily, extended-release tablet, which means medication is released around the clock. for many, seroquel xr, when added to an antidepressant, was proven more effective than an antidepressant alone at helping people feel less depressed. call your doctor if you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients taking seroquel xr have an increased risk of death. call your doctor if you have fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction or if you have uncontrollable muscle movements, as these could become permanent. high blood sugar has been reported with seroquel xr and medicines like it and in extreme cases can lead to coma or death. your doctor should check for cataracts. other risks include increased cholesterol and weight gain as well as seizures, dizziness on standing, drowsiness, impaired judgment, trouble swallowing, and decreases in white blood cells, which can be fatal. use caution before driving or operating machinery. isn t it time to put more distance between you and your depression? talk to your doctor about seroquel xr. if you can t afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. they re making him triple double. why? this! new triple double oreo. yo stufy, come here! [ shoes squeaking ] looked better on paper. [ strike! ] sun in the sky you know how i feel freedom is mine and i know how i feel and this whole world is a new world and a bold world [ female announcer ] weight watchers, rated #1 best plan for weight loss by u.s. news and world report. join for free. [ female announcer ] and, if you join by september 17th you can get a month free. weight watchers. because it works. we re back now at 8:21 with grooming tips that guys with learn from women. but as mel gibson s character in what a woman wants it s not as smooth as it looks. just yank quickly. not in the direction in fact hair growth. one, two, three. oh, oh, oh! women are insane. who would do that more than once? will welch, senior editor of gq with women s products that more and more men are admitted to using. this makes perfect sense because most products are interchangeable, they just market them in one direction or another. that s right. most grooming products are n ss unisex but they are marketed towards women when it would work just as well for boys and girls. we asked men, do you use ladies products. the result 58% said yes, they do. 42% said no. does surprise you at all? i wouldn t be surprise if it wasn t 75/25. i think a lot of men use women s products in the bathroom. pulling down their girlfriend s stuff. some degree may be that they fail to go shop ppg basically using what their wives or their girlfriends have in the bathroom. meantime, let s start with these products. sure. one of them is a way to wash your hair without watt sdpler this is a secret that women use that guys know nothing about. it s a powdery spray and strips the oils from the your hair so it freshens you up and makes you smell good again without getting in the shower. matt and al i don t think use that product. there was a day maybe. come on. they might use, however, the body balm. this is one you admit to. i swear by this stuff. yeah, this stuff is a moisturizer but i also use it like a cologne. i think it smells so good. it does smell good. it s got a freshness. it is a little bit floral. i don t mind that. men are now getting into jiggy with floral. what about women s colo a lo cologne. this is totally unisex. can you tell the difference? pretty unisex. i think women are trying to move away from floral a little bit as well. meeting in the mid. this is a tonic? a toner. a tonic. i wouldn t drink that, al. i would not drink that. a toner, not a tonic. friday night. this is sort of the easiest of the bunch to use. basically take some of this toner, dab it on a bottom pad, wipe off your face, wipe off your neck. instant way to wash your face. when you wipe off your pad you can see the muck. that s your favorite part? yeah. more guys would use it if it were pink. come on. that s what this green bottle is for, to help you out. masks. masks. this one is a little bit more advanced. you have to be secured in your masculinity. on sunday nights, put on football, go in the bathroom and put on a foaming mask. get the guys together? not with the guys. you have to be alone with this one. the boys might not take well to it. how do you make sure it goes on the outside of your beard? rub it in. it fells it foam up. okay. good. your skin is very nice. i have to say. thank you. thank you. your makeup team helped. eye cream. a lot of women use eye cream. it takes puffiness out, right? most guys won t admit to it but no woman would never not use eye cream. it gets rid of puffiness. helps eliminate the crow s feet. after a night of drinking it s a good thing. takes off the ageing a little bit. especially after that on theic. on our facebook wall we have a lot of people posting about women s products that men are using. number one most popular answer, men are using ladies deodorants. come on, that s because they forgot to go shopping. yes. you ve got to get something. it s got the same ingredients, right? but smells different. some of it s got like as long as you don t smell like your own musk, it probably helps. wow. okay. moving on. okay. and then also ladies razors, again, probably a convenience thing. this i was surprised at this one. i m not sure i would do this myself. but guys are saying when they have acne they would use this to conceal it. what do you mean, you use body balm and face mask during a football game. not sure you do it? you use body balm and face mask during a football game. this is a news 4 newsbreak. good morning. i m wendy rieger. it s 8:26 on this tuesday, september 6th. let s get the latest from tom kierein on our wet forecast. we haven t had much rain since midnight, but here comes some more, though. it s coming into our southern and eastern suburbs. now into charles county. raining pretty hard. that s advancing into prince george s county. elsewhere, pockets of lighter to more moderate rain. later today, we could get some of these waves of moderate to even heavy rain at times. it may cause some flooding and a cool day. only in the low and mid-60s. highs only near 70. warmer but still chance of showers wednesday into friday. thanks, tom. woman: working for cox is not for the faint of heart. i love what i do. i enjoy the work, but it s a very hectic pace. let s go, don t want to miss a thing strayer university met my needs in terms of my family, my work/life balance. the fact that leading companies are hiring strayer graduates is impressive, but it s not surprising. these companies want us so badly. i m felicia blow, and i earned my mba from strayer university. look, it s still a great time to refinance. listen up, buster! we re not gonna pay any closing fees. i d do what she says, friend. i can t control her. well, it s the no closing fee refinance, so we pick up the closing fees. oh, you re gonna pick up the closing fees? yes. on average, that s $3,300 at closing. [ both ] thirty-three hundred?! that s a lot of donuts. [ male announcer ] visit capital one bank today to refinance your mortgage, and we ll pick up, on average, $3,300 at closing. what s in your wallet? i m good. this. good morning. earlier accident on the 14th street bridge now just block we re back now 8:30 on tuesday morning. september 6, 20 11. not the nicest weather we ve had for a long time here but we ve got great people standing outside. we ve been ignoring them a slight bit this morning because we ve been inside a lot and we re happy to get out and say hi to them. i m matt lauer along with ann curry. savannah guthrie and mr. al roker. the ladies holding their umbrellas. i like this. i know. get in here. doyle this. i ll do this one. what a gentlemen you are when the cameras are on. coming up, we have a remarkable story, a young mother of two was on vacation in hawaii. she got involved in a tragic accident. she actually brock her spine. she slipped into a coma. some doctors suggested she wouldn t recover, and her family might consider taking her off life support. they decided not to do that. and, look, three months later she s in our studio. she can walk some, she can talk. she ll tell us her story. they are a remarkable family. it s going to be exciting to introduce them to america. the best of the best. you were going to say something first. no. okay. the best of the best when it comes to fast food. we want to get to the best things. for example, which chains have the tastiest burgers and most mouth-watering wings. the latest results from the new zaggett s fast food food service. happy to do research there. jill martin is here with her steals and deals. glasses, which is the theme of the day. jill looking great. we ll tell you about the bargains she has to offer. okay. savannah wearing her glasses today. there you go. good for you. mr. roker. you are wearing your dplases. since first grade. nothing new. let s check it out for you. show you what s going ince first grade. for today, wet weather as you can see in the northeast, mid-atlantic. the remnants of lee. western two-thirds of the country, pretty sunny. we could use some of that rain in texas. we re not going to get it. we look ahead toward tomorrow. more heavy rain. sizzling conditions continue in the southwest. hot through texas. sunny and mild into the great lakes and upper mississippi river valley. sunny n hot out west into the pacific northwest. interior sections there. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. radar showing an area of moderate to heavy rain. that area of yellow and orange now coming into southeastern prince george s county out of charles and st. mary and the northern neck. it s advancing to the north. brief heavy downpours. watch out for the ponding of water over the next hour there. elsewhere, passing lighter showers for now pulater today, we could get some areas of heavy rain coming through from time to time that may cause some flooding. a don t forget you can check your weather any time of day or night going to the weather channel or weather.com. big giant tennis heads. we need your head that size, al. some say it is. i m not sure. all right. coming up, we re going to introduce you to a remarkable family. specifically, the mother who broke her spine in four places, but defied the odds. and she s going to be along this morning to share her remarkable story. but first, this is today on nbc. [ cherie ] i wanted to make a difference in my community. [ kimberly ] the university gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people s lives. [ carrie ] you re studying how to be an effective leader. [ cherie ] you re dealing with professionals, teaching things that they were doing every day. [ kimberly ] i manage a network of over a thousand nurses. [ carrie ] i helped turn an at-risk school into an award-winning school. [ cherie ] i m responsible for the largest urban renewal project in utah. [ kimberly ] and university of phoenix made it possible. learn more at phoenix.edu. we are back now at 8:30 35 with the utah mother denying the odds after a near death experience. just three months ago she was in a coma with a broken spine and some other very serious injuries. today she s walking and talking again. we ll speak with her exclusively in just a couple of minutes. but first, inbc s aditi roy has her story. reporter: stephen and she llry eldridshe ll r shelly eldridge has done this many times before. but she now needs a wheelchair. slowly but surery, huh? reporter: and her husband s help to enjoy these late summer days by the lake, yet she considers herself lucky. obviously i don t know what i would do without him. i just feel so blessed hr her life-altering moment happened in june. she and her family were on vacation in hawaii. they rented mopeds to see the sites. they were traveling along this road when shelly slammed into a pole. i think that someone probably hit her. my oldest was the one that saw me first. and he took off his shirt because he saw me bleeding everywhere. her legs were severely disfigured. her hips were disfigured. when i saw her, i thought she died. reporter: shelly broke her spine in four places. shattered her pelvis, and fractured her skull and facial bones. the next morning, she slipped into a coma. it became pretty apparent that she wasn t going to wake up. our whole worlds had been turned upside-down. reporter: she was unresponsive for weeks. one doctor recommended to steven, a trained physician himself, to withdraw life support, but steven wouldn t do it. we made the decision that we were going to move forward at all costs. reporter: then a turning point. i walked over to her right side. i saw her. i walked over to her left side and she tracked me. she actually followed my path. reporter: then one day steven told a joke at the hospital and shelly laughed. we looked over and she i said, shelly, did you hear that? she raised her eyebrows. i thought to myself, if i have my wife and that s all i get, that s okay. reporter: within days, shelly spoke, moved, and eventually came home, defying tremendous odds. her family and her doctor described shelly s recovery as remarkable she goes through grueling physical therapy three times a week. her goal, to be able to walk without any help. my kids get so excited when i could stand up and when i could walk. i just feel really bad for the decision they had to make. reporter: a decision that saved her life and spared her family heart break. for today, aditi roy, nbc news, salt lake city. shelly eldridge is with us exclues vly along with her husband and their sons alex and jordan. good morning to all of you. nice to have you here. how are you feeling? good. i m feeling great. much better. i said to you before i said it s good to have you here, and it s really great for you to be anywhere these days, isn t it? right, yeah. do you remember the accident at all? i don t. nothing. no. it s amazing how it works. i remember right up before because we had eaten at mcdonald s and i remember that. we stopped at a lot of placeses before the accident to take pictures. and i ve seen the pictures but i don t remember seeing those things. do you remember anything at your early days of hospitalization at all? i don t remember being in hawaii at all in the hospital. once i got back and woke up from the coma i remembered that. part of the story where the doctor says he walked around the room and noticed your eyes were tracking him. the other part where steven told a joke and says that you laughed and raised your eyebrows when he said can you hear me, yet you don t remember that at all. no. parts of you were coming back even though you weren t completely aware of it. it gradually came back. there s probably quite a bit in the hospital i don t remember that i did, but it slowly is coming back. now that you ve talked to everybody and you ve spoken to the doctors and you know what your condition was like and it was grave, to the point where some doctors suggested that your family might want to consider taking you off life support. yeah. how do you explain the recovery? are there medical reasons, in your opinion, or something more? i think it s more. i do. i mean, my doctors were so great. they were so good. but i mean, everyone, even the doctor said she doesn t have a chance of coming back. i just think we re so blessed and hopefully i can find my mission and help other people. you re a trained doctor. and how do you explain what happened? well, there s not a lot of medical justification. the brain injury and the testing that demonstrated a loss of typical brain architecture was not consistent or compatible with life or return of function. and it was very disheartening to face the possibility or likely possibility of her never being able to wake up or function. at a time when the doctors come to you and basically say, i would imagine to you first, i m not sure whether you shared it with the boys, you might want to consider withdrawing life support. did you choose to talk to them about that? no, no. no? guys, you didn t have any idea it was that grave? no. i didn t. uh-uh. alex, you were the one who actually found your mom first? i was, yeah. what was that like? when i realized that she wasn t behind me i turned around and came around a corner and there i saw her just lying on the ground. wrapped around the pole. and she wasn t moving, but then she started to move and i m just glad she s with us today. she hasn t stopped since then. she s getting better every single day. jordan, what do you learn about your mom after an experience like this? that she s a lot stronger than i thought she was. that she s pulled through a lot of stuff, and just kind of hard watching her go through it but it s easier to see now how much like she s gone through and how good she s doing it. you re a very active person, i should mention. you re a cyclist. you love to be out there active. while you can be more and more active each day, still trust trading for you? it is a little bit frustrating. i know i ll be able to do it and finish it and get back to normal. but, yeah, it s hard seeing everything you used to do and not quite being able to do it yet. i like what you said a second ago, you got to figure out what your mission is now. yeah. because clearly you re meant to be here. yeah. how long do you think it s going to take you to figure it out? i don t know. i keep thinking, what am i m not getting i need to do? well, i m sure you will get it and i m sure you will continue to get better. we re happy you can join us here, shelly. thank you. thank you. steven and alex and jordan, nice to have you here as well. . it is 8:42. still ahead, we ll change subjects a little bit. we ve got jill s steals and deals. some great discounts on everything from jewelry to back to school gear. we ll talk about that. to school gear. we ll talk about that. but fi you said you d get me on the field. i did get you on the field. you are brian orakpo all-pro linebacker, surely you can do better than this. come on sunshine. it s game time. squad s waiting. this is embarrassing brian. they ve got me on the bottom of the pyramid. you know what else is embarrassing? paying too much for car insurance. geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. america s favorite coffee is now available for america s favorite single-serve brewer. try new dunkin k-cup packs and enjoy the freshly brewed signature taste at home. it s a beautiful thing. come in today for all five dunkin k-cup varieties, available only at dunkin donuts stores. america runs on dunkin coffee. america is in trouble and action is needed today. that s the call in the new book that used to be us, how america fell behind in a world that invented and how we can come back. it was written by thomas friedman and jobs hopkins, professor. and tom mass homas is joining u morning. the title of this book comes from really president barack obama who said in 2010 it makes no sense for china to have better rail systems than us and singapore having better airports than us and we just learn that china now has the fastest super computer on earth. that used to be us. what is the biggest reason, tom, that that is no longer us? ann, we had a formula of pessimists in this country. it goes back to hamilton, lincoln, and pursued by every successful president and it s built on five pillars. whether it was the cotton gin or super computers. attracting the world s best in most energetic talent for the best rules in investing and starting things and, lastly e government funded research. that s the formula for success. if you look at all five, all five, the arrow today is pointing down. so all five pillars of what you say is america s really formula for success are now needing shoring up. right. on meet the press on sunday you went so far as to say we ve gone from the greatest generation that saved and invested to the baby boom generation that has become okay with borrowing and spending. so and you re a baby boomer so that says a lot about you saying that. what you re really talking about there it seems is diminishing or forgetting of a true american values. if that s true then what values have we forgotten that has now contributed to our falling behind? sure. the key one, we shifted from what our teachers calls sustainsable values are the greatest generation. you always do and behave in ways that sustain, the country, relationship, environment, to the baby boomer generation of situational values. do whatever the situation allows. the situation allows me to give you a subprooim mortgage for a mm dollars and you re making $10,000, do it even though sustainable values would tell me i shouldn t. so you re basically saying then what we need to do as parents is and ourselves rethink ideas about what? we really think parents need to understand that we re now not just in a connected world, we re in a hyper connected world. when i was on meet the press i pointed out that someone was reading their notes on an iphone behind a robotic camera. society is churning more and more jobs in all the time. each of us has to bring now something extra. we have a chapter in the book dedicated to parents called average is over . everybody s got to find that extra. so we urge parents to get their kids to think in two ways. one likeimmigrant. i m in a new world. second, nothing is old to me. i ve got to work my way to the top. and secondly, this is an idea from larry katz at harvard, everybody has to think like an a artisan. what we re talking about in talking about that is the idea of education. you mentioned earlier as being one of five pillars that s failing. so what s the fix? we all know some of the best and brightest young people in america are not getting access to education and what s the fix, thomas? we have two problems. we need to bring the bottom up to the average but we need to bring average so much higher of the world average. that involves not only more education but better education. education that focused on creativity and starting things. people say we need more jobs. we can t stimulate our way out of the problem or bail our way out of the problem. we can only invent our way out of this problem. we need to go back to being that country that is always starting something, starting something, fixing something, repairing something, inventing something. that s where jobs come from. as an example of that, i mean, the president is unveiling his jobs program coming up on thursday. in the silicon valley they can t even find enough people in america to fill the jobs they ve got. it s a fundamental flaw that we re not educating our people to be smart enough for tomorrow, which is coming. too many people who had talent went to wall street with it. we had a man in the book who says friends don t let friends go into finance. that s good advice to parents. go into engineering, go into science. the last question, i should mention you re rough on president george w. bush in this book. you re also rough on president obama. and essentially you essentially feel that he is spending way too much time talking about the polls. so what do you think he should be doing? what would be your advice to them? again, we supported president obama i think because we thought he would change the polls and not read the polls. the big challenge for president obama now is to go big and go long. come up with a program basically that we are all going to get up out of our seats and go, wow, that s something that can renew, reinvigorate and energize this country and get us back to what used to be. that used to be us, ann. thomas friedman on those last words, thank you so much. that s the title of the book that used to be us. coming up next, talking about your favorites and whether they made the list and reveal zaggotd s guide to america s fast food. that s coming up after this. this is today on nbc. the average american eats fast food about ten times a month, so which restaurant chains are worth your money? the favorite restaurant guide zaggott is out with a new survey. tell is here to reveal the best of the best when it comes to burgers, coffee, and something new this year, wings. good to see you. good to see you. we spend an awful lot of time in fast food restaurants. we re talking mega chains here, right? how many outlet s do they have to have? over 5,000 outlets per chain. over that we call them large. the most popular mega chain. this year your survey said it is what? subway. what did people say they lik liked about subway? everything. chosen among 100 or so chains. the freshness of the ingredients, particularly. now we move on to the category called top overall mega chain. explain the difference between that and the most popular? that s another way of looking at the chains. the average of the ratings for food, facilities and service. all right. and in that category, subway moves to number two and wendy s comes to the top of the list. that s right. that s exactly right. and the interesting thing about all top three categories is wendy s, subway, and mcdonald s win among those top three in every category. all right. now, obviously people are concerned about healthy choices. are you starting to see that reflected in your survey? much more than before. 69% of people who are in favor of government mandated calorie counts, 55% say they re effected by it. it s very clear that the chains themselves are making major moves to accommodate that. let s go to the top healthy options for these chains. subway wins in this one. wendy s number two. mcdonald s, taco bell, and kfc. let s go on to the burgers because i think a lot of people really want to know about this. the fast food chain with the best burger. and the winner is? five guys. it s a very fast growing chain. by the way, it s right across if street from this studio. i think they ll get a lot of business. i see it all the time. we have some of their burger rs right here. a lot of people love those. let s move on to chicken wings. the fast food chain with the best chicken wings is? it s the famous buffalo wild wings. and it s not based in buffalo. it s based in minneapolis. they have a lot of outlets across the country? they have quite a lot. they also have 14 different sauces to go with your wings. which is good. quick refreshment chain with the best smoothies/frozen yogurts. where s red mango? i have not heard of red mango. red mango is a new and relatively small chain but it s wonderful. gives you every kind of thing on top that you can imagine. freshest fruit of all kinds. congratulations to them. followed by pink berry, jumba juice and tcby. and finally, the best coffee at a fast food chain. this is somewhat obvious. almost become definitional, starbucks. followed by dunkein doughnuts. these are the winners in the fast food chain, mega chain, overall chain categories from tim zagat. good to see you. appreciate it. we re going to have much more ahead on a tuesday morning after your local news and weather. this is a news 4 newsbreak. ing. i m wendy rieger. it s 8:56 on this tuesday, the 6th of september. let s get a look at your forecast from tom kierein. we ve had some light rain around the metro area over last several hours. there s heavier rain to the east of washington. also some heavier rain showers now moving into st. mary s county. rainfall totals so far over the last day or so have been generally around 1 to 2 inches around the metio area. higher amounts in parts of virginia and parts of fauquier and prince william county have had almost four inches. and more on the way from time to time today, tonight and tomorrow and all the way into friday. possible flood bug drying out for the weekend, wendy. thanks, tom. what s the weather doing to traffic? traffic? we ll find out after say cheese! are you smiling yet? of course you are. especially since the new let s get cheesy menu starts at just $4.99. only at denny s. america s diner is always open. good morning. good news. right here on 14th street privilege, sx now cleared. but you re still seeing major delays as you make your way from edsel and continue to the 14th street bridge. i-270 very close at father hurley. your delays all the way to the 270 spur. thanks, danella. another update for you in 25 minutes. now back to the today show after this break. we re back now with more of today on a tuesday morning. it s the 6th day of september, 2011. we have too many umbrellas here. we have! that s because we have too much rain. that s right. we have a nasty day here in the northeast. i m matt lauer along with ann c. natalie is off today. we re out here just it s getting worse as the morning goes on. i know. but look, we have a dedicated group back here. we re still grateful. thank you so much. anyway, coming up in the warm dry confines off our studio we re going to gather today s professionals, star jones, nancy snyderman and donny deutsch. that s right. they re debating everything from cher jumping to the defense of her son chaz to whether it might be a good thing if your teenager is sexually active. that will be interesting to pay attention to. i don t know about that. and if that teenager is in high school, they we re doing to give them a year-to-year guide of what they should be doing if they re prepping for college. and that s a good thing, too. the right thing. plus, it is time for jill s steals and deals. great bargains for everyone watching. today we have everything from prescription glasses to jewelry and timely enough, back to school supplies. great steals and deals from jill. that sounds good. before we get to all that, let s head inside. natalie is off, we have savannah guthrie at the news desk. good morning. in the news today, more than 50 wildfires are burning out of control in texas forcing nearly 5,000 people to evacuate. the fires have already consumed some 500 homes and at least 2 people have lost their lives there. firefighters got a break with calmer winds over the night. earlier on today matt asked governor rick perry how he s able to take care of his state and run for president at the same time. we have had to deal with them multi-tasking a lot of times as the governor of texas over the last ten years. got a great team of people, whether it s nim kid, our emergency manager director, lieutenant director who knows his business as well. and we re able to manage multiple issues at one time. the fires were fanned in part by howling winds from tropical storm lee. lee s remnants will be felt for days across the mid atlantic and northeast after spawning tornadoes and record flooding across the south. meantime, hurricane katia is not expected to hit the u.s., but forecasters say large swells could affect the east coast in the coming days. president obama s approval rating is sinking to new lows, according to a new nbc news/ wall street journal poll. his highest disapproval rating to date. lawmakers on capitol hill do not fair much better after the debt debacle, staggering 82% said they disapprove of the job congress is doing. now for a look at what s trending today. quick round-up of what has you talking online. the internet is buzzing over the oak tree that tiger woods famously smashed his suv into back in 2009. neighbors who owned the tree recently tore it down as part of a remodeling project, saying it has never been the same since the crash. there s no shortage of scorn on twitter for the new football uniforms of the university of maryland which were inspired by the state flag. lebron james tweeted, oh, gosh, maryland uniforms, eww. and bloggers are commenting on the controversial season premier of the real housewives of beverly hills just three weeks after the suicide of a cast member s husband, russell armstrong. earlier on today they called this a decision. it s now three past the hour. let s go back to matt, ann, and tamron. savannah, thank you very much. what are you going to do in january if you re shif veveringe in september? get an inside job. tamron hall arrested today for an inside job. let s get a check of the weather weather. she s going to be in the sequel that spike lee made. there you go. i like that. she s the inside anchorwoman. all right. trying to protect my crew here. everyone, come on, huddle up, guys. there we go. two daves. no waiting. trying to do the weather? my stage manager telling me to do the weather. we ve got the remnants of tropical storm lee making its way up the coast. we ve got tornado watches in the carolinas to the southern virginia. and all this moisture streaming up. we ve got flash flood watches. some flash flood warnings as well and flood watches from knoxville up to caribou. rainfall amounts anywhere from 3 to 8 inches. from raleigh up into central new york, including our friends in vermont who do not need any more rain. hurricane katia right now it is a category 3 storm. 125-mile-per-hour winds moving northwest at 10. the good news is at least that frontal system we showed you is going to come off the eastern seaboard and turn katia. but we are going to be feeling the effects up and down the east coast. dangerous rip currents, large swells. one person has already been killed down in southern florida caught in those rip currents. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. we have some pockets of heavier rain now in prince george s and anne arundel, charles, st. mary s. that s moving off to the north-northeast passing just to the east of washington. elsewhere, other areas of light rain. earlier today, waves of more moderate rain. maybe heavy at times. highs near 70. in the 60s right now. could get some flooding. watch out for high water later tonight, tomorrow. off and on showers and maybe thunder and lightning. sun ought to return over the and that s your latest weather. let s head inside to issavannah. wow, new song today. this morning it s time for another install lt of today s professionals, power players dish on the latest headlines. star joans is an attorney, how thor, and donny deutsch and dr. nancy schneider is nbc s chief medical editor. let s get right to it. dancing with the stars announced its cast. and chaz bono, the son of cher and sonny is going to be among the cast. he had gender reassignment last year. this casting has caused controversy. we ll get to that, but first, cher, his mom to took to twiter to defend her son. she calls his critics bigots. what do you think? i never miss a cher concert, liza minelli concert or bette midler concert. yes. look, it s his mommy. very funny. my dad was my best friend in the world, 82 years old. you re oualways going to be my little bend. anyone criticizing her for defending her son, shame on them. she s his mom. people in this country do have a bias against transgender people. it s a shame. it is what it is. star, do you have any problem with the cast income general? no. you know, there s absolutely no problem with being prejudice or having a negative opinion. what you can t do is discriminate based on that. do you really mean that? there s nothing wrong with thinking that? dls a lot wrong with that in my personal opinion. now days in this country you can express any contrary to sort of public policy opinion without people calling you bigot or prejudiced or racist or sexist. you may be those things. but you do have a right to express an opinion. you can t just discriminate based on that information. this is a time where social morays have not caught up with the science. chaz bono is a man. let s get over it and allow him to have a life that he frankly was a lot of bravery has carved out for himself. if fact that he has a female dance partner, so. do you think they cast him to have that? that s tv, train wreck tv. of course. to star s point about discrimination. there is probably not an american when you re sitting on a plane now when a muslim comes on you don t get nervous. it doesn t mean there s one out of trillion muslims doing this but it s a natural thing to feel that. it doesn t make you a bigot. what you can t do is put that person off the plane. that s what the media is trained to do. it s unfortunate for muslims and unfortunate for americans. we don t talk about that. the reason why is because you get too nervous when the topic comes up. everyone s afraid of political correctness. this is a good segue to our next issue. lookism may be a new term in our lexi con. there are some lawsuits out there right now that the plaintiffs are saying i was discriminated against in my profession because i m not as good looking as my colleague or my co-worker. star, you re a lawyer. do you think this legal theory has any weight to it whatsoever? no. you know, you re not cute, it s in the eye of the beholder. pretty people have always gotten over in the world. just deal with that in life. bring what you have to the table. i really don t think that legally you have a leg to stand on. it s not discrimination based on a disability, based on race, based on your religion, based on your sexuality. it s based on, i didn t look pretty that day. did you have a bad hair day, do you think that s going to get over? you make a point it s a slippery slope. it is in the eye of the beholder. it matters. we all know it exists. would i take someone dressed appropriately in the workplace over a better looking person dressed inappropriately? i always take the appropriate person. i always take the person who buszs his or her behind and is at the office before i m there and leaves later. it s productivitproductivity. do looks play a factor? yeah. because we re human beings. it s overall appearance. let s say productivity and let s say in a sales force situation, attractive female or male is better for business. when somebody is really smart and gets hired over someone who is dumb, that s okay. these are all gifts that we re saying. use what the lord gave you. yes. that means a person who is not as smart says i m discriminated against. a few years ago they were smashed for sending out good looking reps in the field. guess what, that s good business. hiring smarter business is good business. do we all believe this concept that lookism is a real thing? yes. i m sick of suing everybody. the defense was a non-defense 20 years ago. now it s a real defense. too much sugar in your diet. there s enough excuses in there. people need to get over it. by the way, do you think either of these two would be where they are without their smoking looks? beautiful and intelligent. this outfit today, party on the bottom, work at top, just saying. let s move on to a slightly less popular topic come on. and the glasses. there s a whole thing going on there. okay. come on. teenage sex, slightly less awkward. new research out of the university of texas at austin that says sexually active teens in committed romantic relationships are less likely to be delinquents than teens who hook up, who aren t in committed relationships. which is also interest that this research showed the teens that were in committed relationships also had better behavior than essentially single teens. duh. a, first of all, feeling loved and they re kind of in a settled situation. i m going to say something that maybe a lot of parents would disagree with because father s tendency is my 16-year-old daughter or 17-year-old daughter shouldn t be having sex. i want my daughter s first experience to be with someone who just loves them and is sweet to them versus waiting until they re 23. it can be a healthy thing all of the way around. the polls are showing it. did you just give your daughter permission to have sex? no, i would rather, instead of my daughter waiting until 22 and first experience be with a jerky guy, i would rather her first be a loving experience at 16 or 17 with someone who cares about them. nancy, you re our doctor. donny says duh. donny is right. our children are becoming sexual creatures earlier. part of it is madison avenue. part of it is because girls are starting their periods at 9 or 10. we re having the big talk when kids are all right sexually experimenting. sex should be part of a normal conversation in the household when kids with 5, 6, 7, 8, that is age appropriate. so that when they start to have feelings, they know the difference between sex and love. the only two things i would say is sex is not worth dying for. std rz a real deal. i have said to my son who is now 17, if you get someone pregnant your mother is a feminist, you will support that child for the rest of your life. so the responsibility aspect has to be part of this. i want to get to go quickly. i want to get on to our next topic. i m the prude in this situation. i rally woueally would like to parents sit down and not just have the sex talk, actually have the abstinence talk. i think teenagers are irresponsible and i don t think they re ready for what sex brings. grown-up behavior.  do condoms in the same conversation. next topic. divorced ring. this is a new one. there s a now available divorce ring for $3200, you can buy it. features a broken heart with a diamond dagger. okay. star? would you wear something like this? well, i actually still wear my engagement ring. i m divorced but i hung it around my neck. yeah. good use. recycling. recycling. recycle the diamond is always good. gives them too much credibility. yeah. i think it s a good idea. when i m filling out a medical form, i tell you what, interesting. single or married, i m neither. i m divorced. on top of that i think if you meet someone who is 40, a man or a woman a heart with a dagger? listen, listen, listen, listen. would you rather go out with somebody who is 45 and never been married or 45 and divorced? i think i don t want to be seen as a single person. i have been married. would you wear the ring? i m not a ring i m not a ring guy, but i think the concept of de designating being divorced versus single or married. i think we missed the focus. tacky jewelry or good jewelry. dagger with a diamond, tack i can. always fun. thank you. and again, if you have a question or idea for next week s crazy panel, drop us a line at today.com or tweet us. up next, jill s steals and deals, exclusive discounts for today viewers, jewelry and clothes for men and women. and what your high school students should be doing to get ready for college year by year. [ male announcer ] ziploc presents ziplogic. four pounds of sirloin. but only wrap half. i ll just throw it out anyway. [ male announcer ] we throw out over $500 in food every year. help save more of it with ziploc freezer bags featuring the smart zip seal. edge to edge protection you can hear. now that s ziplogic. ziploc freezer bags with the smart zip seal. get ziploc. and get more out of it. now get 2 box tops from ziploc. [ female announcer ] s.c. johnson. a family company. new revlon age defying with dna advantage makeup. its powerful skincare ingredients and spf 20 help protect skin s dna and reduce the visible signs of aging. 96% of women saw flawless, younger-looking skin in just 2 weeks. age. defy it! i brought champagne. oh wow! best in the world. oikos greek yogurt from dannon. so creamy thick and fresh tasting 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. kraft singles. we re rich in calcium to help build em up strong. ooh, watch out, bad guys. kraft singles. the american cheese. this morning on jill s steals and deals, we have something for everyone. they brought us these products at deeply discounted prices, exclusively for you watching at home. today and us weekly contributor jill martin has the skinny on all the buys. people are really tuning in for this. reminder for those late to the party late to the party, we had a record week last week. people are really joining in. go on today.com right now. find the items with the codes that will link you to the retailer s website. you will then get the deals. there are only a certain amount of items and only last 24 hours. i am getting a lot of tweets for people missing out. first, the leggings. they re so soft. amazing. these are going to fly. these are the lisse leggings, tummy control. they have built-in tummy control. retail, $68. the shape wear sits right here. eliminating muffin top because it s a higher wasted pant. four-way stretch and spandex. panel under the waistband. the deal? $68. let me just tell you more about the pant. again, the cargo pocket comes in small, medium, large, extra large. retail, $68. the deal, $18. that s 74% off. they come in black and moss. you forgot to tell me about the pocket. i love it. great. moving on to men s corduroy. these are available in 11 different colors. right. these are amazing. these are right up our director joe michael s alley. the retail of these, $98. it s one of the company s top sellers. full range of sizes. 11 colors. look at this fun pattern. can you see this? the lining in each one. amazing. free ground shipping. retail, $98. deal, 39 boy$39.20. colors are big this fall for men and women. moving on to the jewelry? jewelry is always big for us. this is the katie and cloe stackable rings. retail, $195. six sets. different combinations of semi precious stones. four gold, two silver, 22 car rhett or sterling silverplating, three rings per set. i stacked six here to show what it would look like. the retail, $195. the deal, $48. 75% off. these are beautiful. great to stack up. little packets. moving on to the stationary, hugely popular. everybody wants things monogrammed and hooked up with their initials. this is back to school. this let s do do the number one bundle. one personalized stainless steel bottle, one personalized notebook, 200 sheets, laminated bag tag. you get all three things. this is great to put on their knapsacks or go for sports. the deal, $33.67. that s 63% off. these are good for sororities and things like that to monogram and put your sorority on the front. this is great, also, yes, if you re going to college. and then here, this is the second deal. this is to dress up your technology for all the techies. retail, $85.90. packet includes one large and one small skin. same design and same personalization. you can have the kindle and your cell phone, ipad. you get one of each. pick six colorful styles. retail, $85.90. the deal, $30. 65% off. moving right along to the eye wear. this is going to be popular. ready? go. ten styles. retail, $58 to $138. look at all of these names. you get a single prescription. awesome. and in that the glasses includes the frames, single prescription, shipping and handling, and insurance for $10. and these are all these major brands right here. you see in front. ten different kinds. some of the lenses retail in stores up to $370. limit one per customer. so $58 to $138. $10 for a pair of glasses. i tested them because i wanted a pair of glasses. brought it into the glasses store and the prescription matched perfectly. jill, thank you so much. again, the products are the leggings by lisse, men s corduroy by bonobos, rings by katie and chloe, and our mystery web only deal. move over to our new and improved website. go for the promotion codes and websites by these par agains. if you have any questions about these products, jill will be taking your questions on twitter. you re not done yet. coming up in today s kitchen, making your own tostados. but first, these messages. we re gonna have, we re gonna have we re gonna have a good day [ female announcer ] wouldn t it be nice if we focused less on the number and more on how the fit makes us feel? and all my ladies got pride today [ female announcer ] take the special k challenge. drop a jean size in two weeks and slip into size sassy. so many delicious ways to get started at specialk.com. what will you gain when you lose? our noses, or our ears. but they re still our family. and family deserves the best. new petarmor flea and tick protection. it has the same active ingredient as frontline top spot, so it s just as effective against fleas and ticks, but costs about half as much. so, although the family resemblance may not be clear, your bond is unmistakable. new petarmor. same protection as frontline top spot at about half the cost. available at stores near you. if you think occasional irregularity is no big deal, think twice. it may be a sign that your digestive system could be working better. listen to this with occasional irregularity, things your body doesn t use could be lingering in your system, causing discomfort. but activia has been shown in clinical studies to help with slow intestinal transit when consumed 3 times per day. 7 out of 10 doctors recommend activia. and the great taste is recommended by me! coming up, getting your high schooler ready for college. plus, the real life children from the movie slumdog millionaire. think twice. it may be a sign that your digestive system could be working better. listen to this with occasional irregularity, things your body doesn t use could be lingering in your system, causing discomfort. but activia has been shown in clinical studies to help with slow intestinal transit when consumed 3 times per day. 7 out of 10 doctors recommend activia. and the great taste is recommended by me! oh. my. [ hank ] what now? the neighbors. their cottonelle roll is not being respected! [ female announcer ] respect the roll that respects you. looks good to me. [ female announcer ] new cottonelle clean care toilet paper. yep.doh. [ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. dads who get it, get go-gurt. this is a news 4 news break. good morning. i m wendy rieger. 9:26 on this tuesday, september 6th. we ve got some rain ahead for this week. let s check in with tom kierein. this morning we ve had lighter showers around the metro area. just to the east and south, heavier downpours. see those in areas of the orange and yellow moving from the southwest to the northeast. and we ll have period of, from time to time, moderate to heavy rin with highs only near 70 and small chance of additional flooding. maybe small chance of thunder on wednesday, thursday and friday. then by the welcome, we should get some sunshine back. wendy? thanks, tom. we ll check traffic right after this. state farm. this is jessica. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i m so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it s funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it s taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying? no, i just, i bit my tongue. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. state farm. good morning. situation on the outer loop at landover read. there s two wild dogs just running loose on the beltway caution you a delay. very slow from branch avenue as you head up towards route 50. i want to show you as you continue on to the beltway. still slow new hampshire avenue as you make your way towards georgia avenue. this is the view at coatesville road. dogs on the beltway. that s never good. another news update in 25 minutes. elizabeth taylor was known as one of the great romance, legendary film career, and her dazzling jewelry collection. guess what, some of the famous jewels are headed for the auction block. we re going the to have a sneakk tomorrow on today. get out your checkbook. there s not enough money in the account. and then bounce it. nice. meanwhile, just ahead, college prep. no matter what year of high school your student is starting you have to keep one eye on that college admissions process. we re going to take you through the steps year by year. also ahead, remember the adorable children in the movie slumdog millionaire, they actually lived in the slum of mumbai. we re going to catch up with the kids. a lot of people were concerned about their well being after the movie. we ll see where they stand today. in today s kitchen, small spanish tastes a that can make for a great party. we re going to teach you how to make it. it s going to be a competition between tostas and topas. in this corner, topas. tostas. i just set you up. i knew you would like that. yeah, yale. a big rack of ribs it looked like to me. how about the weather? it s wet here in the east. still watching the tropics because behind katia, we ve got a tropical wave about 600 miles southwest of the southern most cape verde islands. 60% chance of forming a tropical depression. would become maria if it becomes a storm. mid-atlantic states, wet weather into the mid-atlantic, into the northeast. sunny out west. more hit or miss showers and thunderstorms through the southwest which will continue tomorrow. sadly, the heat continues with no relief in sight for our friends in texas. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. pockets of rain advancing from the south to the north across virginia, into the district and maryland. this morning. and some of these areas of yellow, coming down harder in charles county and parts of calvert and st. mary s. and we may get some other passing moderate to heavy showers at times later today and a cool day with highs only near 70. right now in the low to mid-60s. warmer with a chance of more rain. maybe thunder on wednesday, thursday and friday. into the weekend, we ll probably get some sunshine back. and that s your latest weather. al, thanks. coming up next, year by year checklist to get your high school student ready for college. that s right after this. never ending. least ts really? 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[ shoes squeaking ] looked better on paper. [ strike! ] this morning on education nation today, it s back to school for millions of high schoolers all across the country. if your kid wants to go to college there s a lot he or she should be doing right now to get prepared for the competitive admissions process. college admissions expert, founder of ivy wise is here to help us. good to see you. good to see you. when should the college process really start? colleges are going to evaluate everything from ninth grade on. really? they look at your transcript courses, grades, activities, even summer experiences. freshman in high school, too early to fill out applications but what should they be doing right now? students are not going to start filling out applications until the summer before senior year. freshmen can create a four-year plan. go in and get to know your high school guidance counselor. ask them, help me map out the next four years of courses i m going to take. based on your abilities take the most challenging courses available. extra curricular plays a part, too? exactly. find ak ctivities that truly mah your interests and go after them. the clubs, the organizations, hopefully you can find a few things that you can get involved in. if you can t, start something yours. i say if you can t find it, found it. very good. if there s a club that doesn t exist, start it up. exactly. so now we move to sophomore. a year of high school under their belt. do they start practice test taking? they should. we actually tell our sophomores to take a practice s.a.t. and a.c.t. see which they score better on and practice slowly piecemeal instead of m kraing right before they take it junior year. you also want to think about grades. think about grades every year. hopefully your grades are on an upward trend. is it too early at this point to start as a sophomore to think about what college you want to go to? you can do no pressure research. go online and look at a lot of colleges and see what they offer and see what you like. if your family is going away on a vacation for a weekend an there s a college nearby, go visit it because you want to see what you want and what you don t want in a college community. now you re a junior. this is the time that you really have to start power meeting with your guidance counselor and your teachers. these relationships are so important. you want to nurture your relationships with your teemachs and high school guidance counselor becauses that are the people that will be writing letter of recommendations on your behalf. how far along should juniors be in their windowing down of their college lists? more research junior year. they re going to be liking at courses, professors, activities, research and internship opportunities at these colleges. also visiting colleges more seriously. it s a great time to go during spring break of junior year because it s while school is in session. if you go in person do the information session and the tour and let the school know you are there. so now you re a senior. it s been four years. what should you be doing? even before senior year, the summer before senior year you can make sure you have your college list together, make sure it s balanced, reach target and likely schools. make sure they re academic, social and financial fits. start working on your applications, writing your essays, getting your resume together. it s time to put the calendar together with all the deadlines and requirements for each of your colleges. students are applying to ten plus colleges a day. i was going to ask you. when i went, my school accepted me. today i hear about these kids, 10, 12 colleges, is that too much? it isn t because it s so competitive to get in today and you really want to make sure you cover your bases. you have to make sure you keep track of everything that happens in the process. also you re going to be apply for scholarships and financial aid senior year. what s the cost of a application today? it. can be from $35 to $75. you can also get a fee waiver depending on your family situation. but also, last tip for seniors. don t let your senior grades fall. good plan. yeah. exactly. don t get senioritis because colleges can rescind those admissions. coming up next, did the movie change their lives? but first, these messages. ealize that depression has left you nowhere to go. when you ve lost interest in everything. when you ve had one too many days feeling sad or anxious. aches and pains, fatigue. when it becomes hard to ignore that you need help. that s the day you do something. depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. is today your day? talk to your doctor. and go to cymbalta.com for a free 30-capsule trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. i brought champagne. oh wow! best in the world. oikos greek yogurt from dannon. so creamy thick and fresh tasting 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. new revlon age defying with dna advantage makeup. its powerful skincare ingredients and spf 20 help protect skin s dna and reduce the visible signs of aging. 96% of women saw flawless, younger-looking skin in just 2 weeks. age. defy it! vo: a breakfast worth waking up for. enjoy the sausage, egg and cheese croissan wich today. only at burger king. we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. it s 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that s 1% cash back on oscar. .tony. oscar! 2% back on whatever she ll eat. 3% back on filling up this baby. [ male announcer ] now get 1-2-3 percent cash back. it s that simple. [ male announcer ] apply online or at a bank of america near you. we re talking 3% back on gas. i don t know if i could say the same for my parents. it s the worst thing that s ever happened to them. i m just pretty much killing it out here. they say they re happy. i mean, what do you think they do every day without me there? are they eating? they must really miss me. i m their only child, except for my sister. [ male announcer ] venza from toyota. [ male announcer ] but with pizza hut s tuscani tuesday, we have you covered! dinner made easy? check. [ male announcer ] get pasta for two for just six dollars, or family-size pasta for just ten bucks both complete with breadsticks. only on tuesdays. only at your pizza hut. only on tuesdays. hershe y s bliss.on tuesdays. one square inch of incredibly smooth rich chocolate. one square inch of joy. fun. indulgence. one square inch of bliss. hershey s bliss. sluk slumdog millionaire won eight oscars including best picture. nbc s michelle kosinksi decided to find out. good morning. they were only around 8 years old when chosen among hundreds of kids in the slum to take starring roles. if you ve ever wondered how they re doing now, today zhar and rubina are there but still very different. rubina still lives in the slum. they were the real life slum children from mumbai with the million dollar smiles. they helped take slumdog millionaire all of the way to the osz kerrs. today azhar is 13. all of is a sudden your life completely changed. yes. i i m telling you, i think this is my dream one has become true. reporter: it s not luxury, hardly a mansion, but azhar now has his own apartment with his family in a very nice quiet mumbai suburb. hard for him to believe just two years ago azhar was living in that slum. he realized making the movie that he wanted to make something of himself. so you like big dreams. yes, very big dreams. reporter: azhar now wants to be an about actor or scientist. and on a visit back to the slum where kids his age still play in the drainage pipes or fish in puddles, azhar is uncomfortable, though he s kept his old friends here. i don t like to go there, i feel sad. reporter: he also worries about rubina, his costar whose family at one point was accused of trying to sell her and the foundation that helps them say her parents kept rejecting new homes offered to them, she is still living in the slum. her home here has been destroyed twice, which claimed her mementos from the movie. but rubina, who wants to be a movie star one day, says this. translator: i m very happy. i find nothing difficult because my family is with me. my life is great. i do not need anything. reporter: and azhar just a few miles but a world away is determined now to build success for himself and his friends, including rubina whom he calls his sister. i will help them. i will promise i will help them. there has been real controversy over how much the children should profit from the film. some people thought greatly. but the director didn t think it was necessarily the best thing to suddenly make them rich and famous after working on the movie for a month. so instead he made a trust for them that will theirs when they turn 18 if they stay in school, tamron. michelle cosince skosinksi. up next, tostas versus todas. but first, this is today on this morning in today s kitchen, tostas versus topas, the small bites of spanish flavor are easy to prepare and fun, too. executive chef here in new york city. good morning to you. congrats on the new restaurant. what does that mean? in spanish it s when a group of friends get together for an informal conversation and they always have food and wine. i thought it was a perfect name for the restaurant. we have tostas and topas. what is the better? they are both tostas is a subcategory of topas. let s jump right in there. the first one means wedding. wedding tostas? yes. you have white and black anchovies. the groom in black and the bride in white. cute. grab one of the fillets on top. anchovies are one of my favorite food. this is olive oil. and these are cheese. we re going to use ricotta on the next. that s it. a drizzle of this guy. just pour it right on there? balsamic vinegar. beautiful. the more the herrier. parsley or basil. this next one is mushrooms. i ve got a whole bunch of wild mushrooms here i m sauteing up. toss this in, sherry vinegar. it s going to be kind of powerful. it will give it a nice smells good. gives a nice little acidic play vor. i just swallowed that. these are going for five or six minutes to give it a nice color. then i reduce the heat, add a little bit of shallot and garlic and vinegar at the end. use this guy. i m going to put the mushrooms on. you can follow up with pickled shallots. just a little bit on top of each one. you smoke it, right? yes. how did you accomplish that? i created a little smoker here in our kitchen at the today show. and i go ahead and add some of that right on top. i ll show you how to do that in a second. throw it right on there. toasted pine nuts on top, as well. perfect. that s lemon zest. put a little pinch of that on. perfect. lumpy the way i do it. that s all right. this is pepper, great stuff. i like some greenery for the scenery. a little bit of parsley. plating is key. this is the smoker. it s easy to smoke. if you can t buy smoked ricotta, make it at home. you ve got it going here. see the smoke coming out. how did you do that? i just took a big dutch oven and put some wood chips in the bottom and took my frischeshryia and put it in cheesecloth. how long would that be? 15 minutes to get a really good smokey flavor on the ricotta. a minute left. let s do the topas. the topas are a little bit larger than the tostas. this is ribs, this is from the pig. this is amazing. it s from spain. i m going to keep glazing these. what is in the glaze? sweet vinegar that s been reduced. it s got a nice little acidic punch. these ribs are not going to be falling off the bone the way an american barbecue rib would be. it s a little bit meatier. i ll finish with sea salt. oops. that was my one job and i messed it up. al, don t say anything. i m not going to say anything. at the end we ve got these are crispy eggplant. teeny beautiful eggplant. put on a little bit of yogurt. lovely. i know al wants this because it looks good. all right. thank you so much. hoda and kathie lee are next. recipes are on today.com. woman: downloading music can be expensive. so to save money, i trained my dog and this cockatoo to play all the hits of the 80 s woman: hit it, mr. butters. take on me. ..take on me take me on. anncr: there s an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. it s a new totino s pizza stuffer. [ male announcer ] give your kids the new totino s pizza stuffers. new, minimum mess, maximum fun! you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat this is a news 4 news break. . good morning. it s 8:26 on this tuesday, september 6th, 2011. going to go straight to meteorologist tom kierein for the forecast. good morning. we ve had some passing heavier downpours just to the east and south of washington this morning. generally around the metro area and points west and north just some periods of light rain from time to time. right now the radar is showing more rain showers coming in from the south and they could pick up a bit in intensity as we get into the afternoon hours. but over the next several hours, just a little light rain from time to time. it s much cooler. we re still in the 60s. highs only near 70 by mid-afternoon. heavier downpours are possible later this afternoon and overnight tonight. and that may cause some flooding. perhaps some morning showers and afternoon thundershowers wednesday, thursday and friday. each day should be a bit warmer. as we get into the weekend, though, finally does look like we ll get some sunshine back on stay, sunday and monday. only a small chance of an isolated shower or thundershower each one of those days. should be good weather for the skins game on sunday. highs in the 80s each day. and now let s check the late morning traffic. danella, how is it looking? caution, outer loop of the beltway. still reports there s two dogs on the loose running in and out of traffic there. now if you are taking some bridges in that area, they look much better. here s the 14th street bridge. it was really jammed earlier today. we see some movement now and that is a good thing. woodrow wilson bridge, all clear here. barbara, back to you. our time 9:58. that s the time right this minute. news 4 midday is coming up. dermologists will be talking about [ 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 ] from nbc news, this is today, with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. it s a booze-day, tuesday, everybody, tuesday, septr 6th and i m sure a lot of you are recovering from your labor day weekend, hope you had a good one. gearing up for back to school. it really does feel like the fall today because of the weather. it s rainy, in the 60s, it went from summer to fall, like that. it s cruel, actually because i ve always thought that september is the most beautiful month of the whole year. pretty much, it s gorgeous everywhere. you can go to the beach, there s no traffic. you get beautiful sunsets and you re not fighting people all the time. so summer s not over. we ve got a couple of storms got in the way. hopefully you had a nice weekend, anyway. we both had very different weekends. people think we re joined at the hip and live together. i did invite you to come to the concert before you left town. we went to the hamptons. we saw crosby stills and nash. was stills there? one of them wasn t there. that s crosby stills, nash and young. two were missing? only one was missing. i cut the one out, i m sorry. i couldn t get a good picture. but he s there. that s his guitar. what s great about them is, when they perform, you re reminded of how great musicians used to be without mixers, any videos and fixing. because they just made music. i ve gone to. love the one you re with our house, is a very very very fine house i ve gone to other bands and i watch their videos and i watch them live and i go, oh my gosh. they have been produced. and these guys are such solid musicians, before they were in that, they were in buffalo springfield. i used to go into my room in rehoboth and blast their music. anyway, it was fun. the rest of the time just spent lounging around and having fun. and jay? we had fun. we went to the beach and nothing. very laid back. i like those kind of weekends. i like that. what did you do? i expected to stay home. i think i said last week, my family is leaving me. i ended up going. i ended up going out to california. cody is back for his senior year, already. so i know, i went out, i didn t see him, i had dinner with him twice. very expensive to go out to california to have dinner, but it was worth it. i can t believe how big he s gotten. big in terms of stature, he is six-something. 6 4 , 205 pounds. he s a big boy. cody. my baby boy. he doesn t like that. do you want to know what the worst songs of the 90s are, according to rolling stone ? number eight, you ll know this one, it is by the baha men who let the dogs out i m sorry, i kind of get into that one. number six by hanson, who i like, because they made a comeback do wop do wop how about this, poor billy ray cyrus made the list at number three. don t tell my heart my achy breaky heart we know the words to all the songs. here s one that you guys all know, the number one worst song, according to rolling stone magazine for the 90s, it is i m a bobby girl in a bobby world that s one of the worst ten shows ever on television, the worst sitcom. which one? hee haw honeys. i played kathie lee honey. they hired three girls to be young charlie s angels, except we weren t. we looked like we were going to having a career going to nashville. the pilot didn t sell. but it kept me and they surrounded me with hee haw people. hey, i loved it. i met all the country music people doing that show. and being a young actress in hollywood and having a sitcom when, it was right after name that tune. right after 1977. was it connected to the show hee haw ? yes, according to people magazine, it was really awful. i flew out to los angeles. i had to go to the ladies room. it was so funny. i m going to be doing an episode of hot in cleveland. with betty white and all of those great ladies, valerie bertinelli. it s one of the funniest scripts. it s hysterical. you re not playing yourself? no. thank god. what i read in the script, it said a kathie lee gifford type. i guess i m right for it. okay. so here s something that came out of france. okay. besides me. exactly. frenchmen are supposed to be so great. apparently this couple has been married for many, many years. too many years, apparently. the woman is complaining because she s not having enough sex in her marriage. the judge decided that the man had to pay the wife damages, because as part of the deal when you get married the marriage contract, hoda you have to engage in that. that s what s so funny about it. once it s legally required, that s when people stop having it. they don t want it. because it s boring. after 21 years i mean, he s 51 and she s 47. that s nothing! but he the husband claimed, he argued, tiredness and health problems. welcome to human life. welcome to our world. he judge gave her $14,000, that s what she got. which, when you do the math, what s that per boink? boink? is not a word we re supposed to be using any more. we thought we made it up. but it s in the dictionary, we looked. i would be interested to see if that s going to hold up in an appellate court. that s good, what are we having? was it a female judge or a male judge? i don t recall. i don t think a male judge would have awarded that. i think you re right. a female judge said, that s right! $14,000! she s got her own issues. unless she s judge judy and she doesn t have any issues at all. here s the deal your birth month could make you more likely to have a certain job. if you were born in january, a high proportion of gps and debt collectors. general practitioners. doctors. february, a high number of artists and traffic wardens? that seems like plausible. march, pilots and musicians. like lady gaga and diana ross were born in march. in april i wonder if sully, the pilot was. this is not great for people, april, a higher chance of health issues, a lower-than-average iq and a fair quotient of dictators like saddam hussein and hitler. good luck to you. in may, strong political traditions, think jfk and tony blair. june, you re most likely to be a chief executive and produced five of the last 22 nobel peace prize winners. july, brick layers, train drivers and august. u.s. presidents. and madonna. september, most likely to do well academically and at sports. october, you re most likely to live the longest. on average, 215 days longer than the people born in march. which is my son. november, this is not good. this is tammy. higher chance of serial killers and schizophrenics. good for you. and in december, above-average numb of dentists and messiahs. there you have it. just in case you were curious. people often write to us on our facebook page and they ask us questions. we try to answer as many as we can. sometimes we ll answer them on tv. here s one, alex jeffreys, she asked this question. i was wondering if an 8-year-old boy is too young for a cell phone. i recently received text messages from some kid that a age and his parents said, that s my son s phone. i replied, i think your son is too young for a cell phone and you should take it away from him. was i wrong to say that? and you say i think she s probably right, but you shouldn t say it you can t parent other people s children unless you re specifically asked for advice. it s just opening such a can of worms. she can think it or call and say listen, you asked me. do i have freedom to speak? because there might be a very good reason for the child to have a cell phone. which is you know, for security sake or whatever. i mean, these days with the media becoming so it s changing so much. i think some of us have to get over our old ways, me. i learned how to text and i was like in the new world. they made fun of my phone every time i pull it out. it s from the flintstones. coming up, what have your favorite celebs been up to over the weekend? the latest in the hollywood buzz. and then sara, live in the city that never sleeps. appiness? on a beach? on a mountain? or wherever you happen to be. the first step on that road may well be. a bowl of soup. delicious campbell s soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. putting you on the road to happiness. bon voyage. campbell s it s amazing what soup can do. she s supporting breast cancer programs for her neighbour s tennis instructor s daughter s 1st grade teacher who s also her mom. help fund breast cancer programs in your community. redeem your lids today help fund breast cancer programs in your community. you feel it working, so you know it s working. and that means you re ready for whatever the day brings. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a deeper clean. you re also protected. with new crest complete, you know you re covered. we re back with today s buzz, everything from the latest on the season premiere of the real housewives of beverly hills. we have the answers to all your buzz-worthy questions. bonnie fuller is editor in chief of hollywood life.com and edie is from gossip chief. the real housewives of beverly hills, we ve been waiting to hear about this after the suicide of one of the husbands. tell us what happened. listen, tough situation. a terrible situation. but tough for the producers to handle. i think they handled it pretty well. this had an introduction where they had all the housewives minus taylor armstrong, whose husband committed suicide. they genuinely were grief-stricken, none of them had any idea he was this suppressed. actually the reaction has been mixed. the los angeles times came out quite heavily against it. they said it was not an appropriate choice. on the other hand, some of the twitters have been quite in favor of this saying thanks for talking about suicide and bringing it to the fore. you remember what the fallout is anybody playing the show for his suicide? i don t think anybody is blaming the show. but there s a lot of people who feel that the whole season should have been pulled. and, or just edited out, like it never happened? well he certainly has been edited out. and you could tell from watching the first episode, that there seemed to be far less emphasis on taylor than. to what degree he will be in if at all. that all remains to be seen. probably looking at the reaction. charlie sheen is with his ex-? both of his ex-s. what he did is he that s right. he celebrated his 46th birthday, one night with ex number one. with denise and with their two daughters. and then the next night, these are the pictures from the next night, with brooke mueller and he s had a very tempestous relationship with brooke mueller. this man is described as an unemployed winner. he has a special debuting the same night that ashton cucher makes his debut. is it true, he may co-host the oscars? what s the story there? the story is he won t be co-hosting the oscars, since he has a relationship with the people who are the producers. brett ratner is producing the oscar show and is producing a new movie starring eddie murphy. so who would be his co-host? they re not talking about a co-host yet. but i bet it s going to be billy crystal. wouldn t that be awesome? he was always my favorite. i don t know about you guys. it s also could be a solo gig. steve martin is good, too. the help i fell in love with that. i balled like a baby. i thought it was terrific. and it doesn t surprise me it s still number one. is hilly holbrook the cruela deville of jackson, mississippi. it s hard to believe that s opie s daughter. and jessica chastain, who plays miss celia, the tramp. doesn t it go to show when you get a quality movie, from a great story, it can work. it doesn t have do loved it. she is so funny. oh, my gosh. thanks, ladies. thanks a lot. up next, is new york really the city that never sleeps? sara finds out. at pizza hut, we know your tuesdays are busy. [ male announcer ] but with pizza hut s tuscani tuesday, we have you covered! dinner made easy? check. [ male announcer ] get pasta for two for just six dollars, or family-size pasta for just ten bucks both complete with breadsticks. only on tuesdays. only at your pizza hut. because it helps get odors out of athletic clothes. i mean, i wear my yogapants for everything. hiking, biking, pilates. brooke. okay. i wear yoga pants because i am too lazy for real pants. that s my tide. what s yours? [ female announcer ] there s a place called hidden valley where kids not only eat their vegetables, they can t get enough. hidden valley ranch, makes vegetables delectable. hidden valley ranch, 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. sara in the city, she answers the question, is new york really the city that never sleeps? our lovely sara burning the midnight oil to take a tour of new york s overnight world. seven hours, seven neighborhoods, two meals and a load of laundry all before the sun came up. possibly my most ambitious feat yet, let s take a look. i m here in new york city, it s almost 11:00 p.m. and as you can see, the place is hopping. what are people doing all night? i m going to find out. it s a ten-piece menu, i don t know where to start. macaroni and cheese? uh-huh. spaghetti on pizza? yes. oatmeal with sauer kraut? we can make it. you probably shouldn t make that. we start with the matzo ball soup. and how about an ostrich burger. think coffee and a beer. that s all, thank you. oh, my, look at the little spicy fry that snuck in there. first stop of the night is definitely a good start. that was delicious. a new yorker s life is crazy. i ve not had a chance to do my laundry and people are noticing, thank god for 24-hour laundromat. let s get this done. i m sara. robert. i ve got some laundry to do. my clothes are pretty dirty. do you recognize any of these faces? are people regulars? of course. they would be worried if you didn t show up. exactly. they know you by name. i actually have a hair appointment right now. at night? yes. wow. 1:00 a.m., time for a little break for some me time. i m heading to the hair salon. gray is my color, thank you. have you ever had an ostrich burger? four people working on me. oh, my gosh, look at the tray? kathie, hoda, i wish you were here. my hair has never looked this good. not at this time of night. club is the next stop. is that what you re wearing? much better. i love it. it s 2:30 a.m. and i m in the meat-packing district and that s cielo, and i m ready to dance the night away. whew, that was awesome. i hope my hair holds up. because i know my nails did. it s 3:00 a.m., i m in midtown manhattan, i ve got a couple of things i need to pick up for a friend. cereal. i m not sure what he likes. okay. hands down. it s 3:45 a.m. and i m in the east village right now in manhattan and i am at veselka. i ve heard it s really good. it s god amazing food. it s 4:45 a.m. and i m at studio 1a, i m waiting for matt, i picked up some things, he likes to start his morning with coffee. i m going to wait here. he should be here any minute. i have your coffee! matt lauer! good morning, everyone, welcome to today on a friday, i m lester holt. and i m savannah guthrie, mat matt was supposed to be back from assignment, but his flight was canceled due to bad weather. waiting for matt. so sad! i still have his under-eye concealer stuff. there s always time to give a gift. yeah! . matt! i feel so bad. two things in life you never do, go out drinking with hoda and kathie lee, and stand up sara haines. when she says i m going to meet you. thank you, baby. thank you, matt. i ate some of the cheerios, i m sorry. that s okay. we ll do it again. oh. cheers. by the way great job. you rock. how to help your kids beat those back-to-school blues. and we ll give you a leg up, i mean it, on must-have jeans for fall. and julie is here with a clean start. er. i ve heard of it, but i haven t seen one up close. what s the word around the sink? that it removes 3 times more soap scum per swipe, and it came from outer space. it is not from outer space! no, man, it s from outer space. they re aliens on an intergalactic cleanliness mission. they re here to clean up the universe. oh, the kitchen scrubbers are aliens, too? yeah, look at that greasy kitchen mess. everybody s in on the cleanspiracy, man. i can t even trust myself. [ male announcer ] mr. clean magic eraser kitchen and bath scrubbers. the clean is out of this world. [ male announcer ] mr. clean magic eraser kitchen and bath scrubbers. hershey s drops. a lot of hershey s happiness in a little drop of chocolate. pure hershey s. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. this is a news 4 news break. we ve got a rocky morning on wall street. the dow is down more than 200 points right now. coming up on news 4 midday, we ll have the latest numbers and find out what s moving stock prices lower. i m barbara harrison. also coming up, we ll talk with a dermatologist about botched botox procedures. and how you can prevent them. news 4 midday begins in just a few minutes at 11:00 a.m. we hope you pla the kids are back to school. parents are breaking out the champagne, sometimes the kids aren t quite so happy about it the editor in chief of parents magazine is here with advice for parens whose kids have the back-to-school blues. one thing is that other kids aren t going to play with me, right? little kids. like early, preschool, early elementary. if your child does come to you and say, look, mom, i have no one to play with today. how do you react? this is where you have to see it through the child s eyes. we adults tend to think everyone is excluding my child. it s not really usually that with young kids. they re not conscious of it. they re just playing. so encourage your child. you might want to get down on the floor with a pile of blocks and role-play with her. you pretend to be one of the other kids who is playing and have her come over and say hi, can i play with you? and repeat that, ten, 15 times. don t make a big deal out of it. let her practice saying it and she ll probably find she can slide right in. a lot of kids are just shy. i think so, too. what if you have a feeling that your kid comes to you and says, you know what, mom, my teacher doesn t like me. that happens a lot. this is a little more typical in an older, elementary headline school-aged child. if it happens during the first week or two of school. just wait it out. don t tell the teacher yet. give it a week, two weeks, if the child is still complaining, take it seriously and try to get concrete examples of what is the child saying that the teacher is doing or it s unlikely the teacher really hates the child. you want to look at the teacher as your ally. there s definitely maybe some chances where the chemistry isn t great. your first stop should be the teacher. go with a concrete example of what the teacher is saying. some teachers are just more strict. and then the teacher later just isn t crazy about that kid because the kid sort of tattled on them. in the first stage, you are intervening directly with the teacher. you re saying look, adult to adult. i know this is happening. i think the more dangerous thing is for you to make an end-run around the teacher and go to the administrator. what if your kid doesn t like his or her backpack or which is a classic problem and hopefully you followed the cardinal rule, which is you shopped with your child. so your child has some involvement, exactly. you want to go back and remind your child why they like that thing in the first place. like, remember you liked that backpack because it was red. or remember you liked the shiny thing hanging off of it. if that doesn t work, say, look, i ll think about it. and then just wait and see, give it a few day, which in the child s mind can be ages and ages and oftentimes, you forget them. you risk them not forgetting it. mom, have you thought about it? and there will be times, i m sure you found this throughout your child s life when they say everyone has this, right? it s not always true. and if you re friendly with the other parents, you can kind of call and say. but even if they do, so what? you need to teach your children, just because everyone has it, you don t have to. and bullying. that s a strong word. and parents on a survey we did this year, we found it was a primary concern with parents. there s been a lot of education about bullying in recent years and i think your child is probably some cases is going to be using that word and not really understanding what it means. the first thing you want to do is figure out, first congratulate the child for even talking about it. so often the kids are afraid. then you want to try to step out. is it really bullying. and bullying would be if the child feels physically or emotionally threatened. if it s a case not of that, but of where the child feels competitive with another child, or, like excluded, that s a whole other matter. is it really bullying. have your child role-play being assertive and say stop, you can t do that to me. teach them to be cool and walk away. dana, thank you. up next, keep your pants on, please. the must-have jeans for fall. hi! 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 and fresh tasting 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. ugh, great. you may be going up, but those roots are bringing you down! try root touch-up by nice n easy. to extend the life of your color. nice n easy has 50% more shades, so you can find your seamless match. with root touch-up by nice n easy. so you can find your seamless match. 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. [ 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. we re back with today s style and the must-have jeans for the fall. labor day weekend is over, which means good-bye summer and hello to fall pants. here with two pairs of her favorite jeans is kate, fashion director for people style watch. some trends this year? we love our jeans at people style watch i have to say. they never go out of style. and they re more versatile than ever. they re write for the workplace, going out at night. right for the weekend. let s start with cindy. she s got the trouser jean look. cindy, come on out. this is one of our favorites, we love a trouser jean because it s so versatile. this is from lee wash, it s $32. this is a great jean for work. if you want to wear jeans for work, you re not sure what style, this is a great choice. it s also good for lots of different body types, too. it s all-around flattering jeans. a little bit of a lower rise. this is a jean where you might want to wear a heel because you want it to be a little bit locker. it s most flattering if it covers the heel of your shoe. you want a longer hem. you don t have a muffin top. it s not a friend to a muffin top. what about colored jeans? i know we ve got lisa coming out in a pair of those. this is a big trend. we saw a lot of this, rachel bilsen. cameron diaz, they were all rocking the colored jean look. this is from almost famous, they re $27. this is a great color. i love this color. it s a little more of a cobalt. going into fall you might want to grab a pair in a deeper hue, like a burgundy or a plum. you get two trends for one. you get the idea of the colored jean and you go for right color. and those are great to pair with boots, easy to tuck. easy to dress up and dress down. this is sort of a work look. but you could easily put this with a flat and a chunky sweater and you re right on. great for football games. thank you. next up we have angela and she s rocking the zippers. yes. we love our zippered jean. this is the update. if you were a big fan of the skinny jean, this is the newest jean for fall, the update on that, the zipper detail. this is more for petite, because you need to show the ankle. it shows up at the detail on the ankle or on the pocket. great in a darker wash. this is a big jean, this is victoria secret for $69.50, a fantastic look. thank you. are they all low-rise, still? when is that going to go out? i am working the higher jean. the high-waisted jean is there, but it s a little harder to wear. it s a tricky trend. here is another trend, printed. we love this trend, printed jeans. is that jean material? it is. you ll see tons of printed jeans this fall. in animal print, snake, lace, floral. a huge trend. can i touch it? may i? these are from material girl, they re $32.50. this is a moment where the jean become as focal point. so you want to try something a little more simple on top in terms of accessories. and you know you re asking for it, you re asking for it with a printed jean. you know, that s why we find such adorable girls to model that. and this is like the girl s night out jean. absolutely. thank you. thank you so much. up next, waiting for him on celebrity blogger, perez hilton has a project. look at him. coming up. guess what, he s nice now. what? you know, julie is cleaning up germs. 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[ male announcer ] of all the things that happen on your shiny surfaces, disinfecting has to be one of them. clorox disinfecting wipes. kills germs. dries clear. with the school year just beginning, now is a great time to give you and your kids a clean start for the semester. we re here with simple trips to help you tackle whatever stains your kids bring home from school. they can bring it. let s start with you got gum, here s easy. you freeze it, then you just use a toothbrush to rub it out. mud, use a spud, it comes right out. on what? on clothes. a potato? a potato. and then vinegar or vodka for grass stains. put it in a spray bottle and douse it. and also, goof-off, stain remover, terrific. you can goof-off. if you want to use the product. who knows better than you. this is more like garbage bags, you want to unzip everything and you probably want to get rid of all of that crud. and then use the vacuum lienor, the upholstery to get into the nooks and crannies. if you can t use machine-wash it use disinfecting wipes. if you can wash it, put it in a pillow case. because the first time it may bleed. all right. white sneakers don t stay white very long. you get rid of it with a damp cloth. and you can put this, i like to create more than this, in the dishwasher, top shelf. look at the instructions or washing machine. then use good old white polish, okay? good old white polish after you ve washed them. another thing for spot-cleaning, use anything nonabrasive. non-gel shaving cream. murphy s oil, bleach pad and you can use on the rubber part, the stuff you use on your tires, which i know you clean all the time that s what i was doing yesterday. frank told me. and for any additional moisture at the end, scrunch up some newspaper put it in there and it will take out the moisture and the smell. and it won t stain? it won t stain. that s just inside for the moisture. okay. now, you know i love to use things around the house. you got ink stains, what you do is you douse that baby with what? hairspray. i knew you were going to ask that question because i didn t answer it. and it will come off. you always want to put this underneath. because look what happens, you will have two stains. it s coming out. pretreat it. pretreat it. that s why it has to be. acrylic. another thing we go to around the house, in our liquor cabinet. just in case, scotch. you would take the acrylic paint off. first with a little knife, take it out like that. and then you douse it, with scotch. that s scotch in the bottle? yes. you know what that s a great way to hide it. so just say, same thing. put something underneath. permanent markers. it does smell, does it. permanent markers, you would use rubbing alcohol. again, put something underneath. they re called permanent for a reason. hoda, other way. i mean you that s why you gals wear dark clothes. and you blot, always blot, never rub. we re blotting, we know. you put i love the way you do that. by the way, add a half a cup of baking powder because that will help we have to same time for perez hilton. all right. they re blogging about you. just adorable, too. but first, this is today on nbc. at only 33 years old, perez hilton has changed the face of celebrity tabloid reporter since 2004. his blog features stories about musicians, actors and reality show celebs. but he s changing a lot of people s minds about him with a brand-new little book. which is adorable and it s called, the boy with pink hair. congratulations, this book is not only adorable. it has a terrific, terrific message. and we re happy to have you here. it s great to be back. how did you come up with the pink hair concept? it just came to my mind one day. i never imagined myself writing a children s book. i m sure a lot of people never imagined me writing one, either. things have changed the last few years. tell us about it. i was at an event, and i said, i should write a children s book, jokingly. and then later, i thought i had to make this happen and i had to harass my publisher to convince him. i m sure he had a lot of hesitations, like a lot of people thinking, oh, perez hilton. i think i m the perfect person to write a children s book. because i m somebody who made mistakes in the past. acknowledged them. and has taken steps to no longer do that. and i think that s a great message for children. it s an incredibly good message and i applaud you so much. tell us what you meant by that. in the past i was definitely meaner. nasty. i would give people unpleasant nicknames, draw some not so nice things on photos. but last year there were all of these gay teenagers committing suicide. i was so moved by that and talking about it on my website. a lot of people were calling me a hypocrite and a bully myself and i thought, that s not who i am in my heart and i need to show the world the real me. good for you. the great thing about this book, the concept is you ve got this little boy who is different and unique and his parents nurture him and tell him how great he is. he gets out in the real world and suddenly realizes it ain t so easy. no, especially when you have pink hair. but there are other kids who have their issues as well. a little kid with a bad attitude and a little girl with pony tails who befriends him and it s amazing when one friend says, don t pay attention to that bully. let s have fun together. and there s a great message about parents, about being accepting of your kids, no matter how they are. i didn t like playing sports when i was young. so thankfully my parents didn t force me to. and hats off to jen hill, who did your illustrations. amazing. and you also made a point in what we read about, this is not a gay book. no. just because the little boy has pink hair. it s not about your sexual orientation. just about being uniquely you. and everybody is different. unless you re like reece witherspoon or taylor swift, who everybody loves. everybody can feel like an outsider at one point in their lives. i m a big one. i congratulate you, it s a huge, huge thing for human beings to realize that they have done something wrong and make steps to change it. we should commend you on your website, 200 million hits per month. i work hard. i mean, you do. he put his mom and sister to work, too. it s a family affair. we wish you good luck with your book, it s called the boy with the pink hair it s a lot of fun. it s an adorable book. coming up tomorrow, perez won t be here, but guess what, who doesn t know it like hoda, you need your friendship relationships. and just underwear for exercise. . just do it naked. . captions by vitac www.vitac.com